Spotlight Review: POSSESS ME AT MIDNIGHT by Shayla Black

POSSESS ME AT MIDNIGHT - Shayla Black The Doomsday Brethren, Book 3
Pocket Books
ISBN: 978-1-416-57846-8
November 2009
Paranormal Romance


Great Britain - Present Day


While magickind does not actually have royalty, if it did, Sabelle Rion would be its princess. A powerful witch who is also the granddaughter of Merlin and a member of the Privileged class, Sabelle is also a kind, giving person who draws the admiration of many, including Isdernus (Ice) Rykard. Ice has wanted the sexy witch since the first moment he met her, but he knows that a union between them is impossible. First, because he is Deprived, the lower class of the magical Social Order, and mixing the two classes does not happen. Second, the enmity between Ice and Bram Rion, Sabelle’s brother, would be enough to prevent any relationship, even without the fact that Bram plans a mating for his sister that will strengthen his political position. That doesn’t stop Ice from wanting Sabelle, or sway him from his growing conviction that Sabelle is his mate.


With her brother laid low by a mysterious spell and Sabelle taking over his Council duties, Sabelle knows that it’s more important than ever to do her duty to both her brother and her bloodline. She’s aware that Bram would like her to mate with one of the two men who will inherit a Council seat in the future and had always planned to follow his wishes. But meeting Ice has changed things for her. She’s intrigued by the supposedly mad wizard and is more attracted to him than she has been to any other man she’s met in her eighty-five years. When the evil wizard Matthias sends his Anarki troops to her home, Ice is the one to help her and her comatose brother escape. As the magical war escalates around them, Sabelle also has to fight the attraction she feels towards the very desirable, but inappropriate Ice.


The Doomsday Brethren face a new challenge in POSSESS ME AT MIDNIGHT, as Matthias comes up with another devious plan. In the months since Ice joined Bram’s army, he has struggled with his hopeless desire for Sabelle, but when they are stranded virtually alone together, the temptation to Call to her becomes impossible to resist. In spite of the fact that she is an adult witch, Sabelle’s loyalty to her brother --- the only family who matters to her --- urges her to wait until he is well enough to resume his duties before making any decisions, especially one she knows he won’t like. The romance between Sabelle and Ice, and the complications due to the conflict between Ice and Bram, overshadow the fight between the Doomsday Brethren and Matthias for much of the book, but there is still plenty of action.


As the battle between good and evil is a continuing thread throughout the series, and there are a lot of things that carry through from one tale to the next, it’s helpful to read the stories in order. The latest novel in The Doomsday Brethren is as captivating as its predecessors, and the intriguing characters, caught in an impossible relationship, make POSSESS ME AT MIDNIGHT a book you won’t want to miss.


Jennifer Bishop

Book Giveaway: NAUGHTY BITS - a Spice anthology

Naughty Bits is the first-ever compilation of breath-hitching, leg-crossing, pulse-quickening short erotic fiction from the editors of SPICE Briefs. Penned by some of the genre's best authors, including Megan Hart, Delilah Devlin, Jodi Lynn Copeland, Kimberly Kaye Terry and Sarah McCarty, these fifteen provocative, flirty, haunting—but always arousing—erotic encounters may be brief, but each one is guaranteed to be the naughtiest part of your day!

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Want this book? Then tell me what is going on your Thanksgiving table ie. FOOD. This is open to US and Canadian residents only, so I know you already had yours in Canada, so tell us what was on plate last month?

***Winner will be announced Sunday night***

Winner is............

The winner of A DUKE OF HER OWN is Cheryl C!!!!

Congrats and email me at pattifischer@yahoo.com with your snail mail.

Stay tuned on Thursday for another fabulous giveaway!!!!!!!!!

Spotlight Review: HOT ON HER HEELS by Susan Mallery

HOT ON HER HEELS – Susan Mallery
Lone Star Sisters Series, Book 4
HQN
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-77384-8
November 2009
Contemporary Romance

Dallas, Texas – Present Day

Deputy Dana Birch has finally done what she set out to do, found evidence to bring Garth Duncan in for questioning for messing with her three friends, Lexie, Izzy, and Skye Titan. Dana is determined to get Garth for blowing up the oilrig Izzy was working on and almost leaving her blind, but then the sisters spoil her plan and come up with a different scheme. They are determined to save Garth from himself and love him into their family; after all, he is their half-brother. While all this sibling love is starting to work its magic, Dana makes it her full time job to follow Garth and make sure nothing else happens to her friends. If only he didn’t challenge her at every step and make her want to believe in his innocence.

Just because his father, Jed Titan, turned his back on his bastard son when Garth's mother Kathy had brain cancer years ago, Garth has made it is goal in life to put Jed, his business empire, and his entire family under his shoes and grind them down while making their lives miserable. But Garth knows if Dana had real evidence on him he’d be arrested, so he treats her threats like a pesky ant and concentrates on Dana’s prickly personality and obvious devotion to his half-sisters. Jed will pay for refusing to give money for his mother’s operation, leaving her living in her own world like a child. Kathy needs live-in help and enjoys the pet shop Garth bought her and considers him a very nice man, but after she finally had the operation she lost the part of her that made her Mom. Garth scraped and saved and built a company that affords him the money and contacts to do whatever his mind can think up to crush Jed in every area of his financial life.

Dana and Garth give us an interesting and enjoyable story that shows us the results of fathers who don’t take care of their own and have a sort of psychotic personality that prevents them from having love for anyone. Garth is still making plans to buy enough stock in his father’s company to start a panic in the stockholders, and is helping Dana find out who tried to blow up Izzy and get himself out from under suspicion. Dana and Garth are astounded that the sparks fly between them, and each one is trying to be careful so it doesn’t get too serious. They are both lone wolves, guarding their hearts against anyone. But can love break down the barriers?

Once again, Susan Mallery has written a gem of a story featuring her expertise in writing a series about families and highlighting the Titan sisters here. Dana isn’t a Titan, but they have accepted her into their fold. A child whose mother died early and whose father regularly beat her for no reason, the Titan house and family was her refuge. To keep herself from falling in love or giving up control of her life, Dana usually chooses men who are weaker than she is, and she hardly misses them when they break up. Lovingly created, Dana is a proud, fiercely loyal, no-nonsense woman who enjoys being able to rely on herself and doesn’t use her feminine wiles, if she even has them----she’s not sure she does. Written from her point of view and Garth’s, we come to learn Dana’s personality very well. Garth is not so simple to read; he’s had a hard and yet a sad life. But the main thing that spurs him on every day is keeping his mother Kathy happy.

Who else can we expect to shine in this story but the three irrepressible Titan sisters, their men, and Jed Titan, the father from hell? I said before that I can conceive of no worse father figure, and he does not redeem himself here. What lengths he will go to in relation to his family will astound everyone.

HOT ON HER HEELS brings the Lone Star Sisters series to a fulfilling and action packed end. Following UNDER HER SKIN (May 2009), LIP SERVICE (June 2009), and STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP (July 2009), you need not to have read the others to thoroughly enjoy HOT ON HER HEELS, but Susan Mallery’s series book are her specialty, and not to be missed. Do yourself a favor and grab up HOT ON HER HEELS and appreciate the strength and love the Titan sisters and Dana give to those they care about.

Carolyn Crisher

Book Giveaway: A DUKE OF HER OWN by Eloisa James

A DUKE OF HER OWN by Eloisa James
Out now!

Blurb:

A Duke of Her Own


Leopold Dautry, the notorious Duke of Villiers, must wed quickly and nobly—and his choices, alas, are few. The Duke of Montague’s daughter, Eleanor, is exquisitely beautiful and fiercely intelligent. Villiers betroths himself to her without further ado.



After all, no other woman really qualifies.



Lisette, the outspoken daughter of the Duke of Gilner, cares nothing for clothing or decorum. She’s engaged to another man, and doesn’t give a fig for status or title. Half the ton believes Lisette mad—and Villiers is inclined to agree.



Torn between logic and passion, between intelligence and the imagination, Villiers finds himself drawn to the very edge of impropriety. But it is not until he’s in a duel to the death, fighting for the reputation of the woman he loves, that Villiers finally realizes that the greatest risk may not be in the dueling field…



But in the bedroom. And the heart.



To enter this contest, just post away and I'll announce a winner later in the week.

The Sunny winner is....

Congrats to CATHY M who wins a copy of LUCINDA, DANGEROUSLY by Sunny

Cathy, please email be at pattifischer@yahoo.com with your snail mail.

Stay tuned for more contests and more book information!

Book Giveaway: LUCINDA, DANGEROUSLY by Sunny

Lucinda, Dangerously is out now and available at most bookstores.

Check out more information on this book by clicking here for blurb, reviews and excerpts.

Question for readers:

Wednesday November 11th was Veteran's Day. Did you do something to honor a Vet, or have you done something recently?  (come on, be honest. No one is judging you)

Contest is only open to US and Canada readers


Post away and a winner will be drawn/announced Sunday night (November 15th)