Reviewed by Gannon Carr
Publisher: Penguin
4.5 stars

In the fifth book of her Broken Heart vampire series, Michele Bardsley ups the ante by adding a much darker element to this book.  While humor is still a major aspect, there is more menace in this tale.  Over My Dead Body begins with a bang and keeps the action going until the last page.  And keeps the reader guessing–like me– when I read the first paragraph:

“Killing Braddock Hayes changed my life—such as it was—forever.  Committing murder should change a person, at least a person who still has a conscience, and I sure as hell had mine.”

Whoa!  Even if I weren’t already a fan of this series, I would be sucked into this story with that line.  The vampire heroine killing her love interest in the…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Penguin
4.5 stars out of 5

One of my favorite reads of last year was Erin McCarthy’s Flat Out Sexy. The book is set in the entertaining world of NASCAR, where the women are hot, but the drivers are hotter. McCarthy keeps the fun going with the next in the series, Hard and Fast.

Imogen Wilson has moved to Charlotte, NC to gain a little independence and to continue her graduate studies in sociology. With her entrée into the world of NASCAR through her friend, Tammy, who is married to a driver, Imogen settles on a thesis that tests whether a book about how to capture and marry a driver really works. She decides that bad boy driver Ty McCordle is the perfect candidate to help her test her…

Reviewed by: Kate Garrabrant
Avon
4.75 Stars

Every woman in Texas has a dirty little secret that could destroy her reputation and ruin her name forever. Kathleen Connor King’s major secret is that she is dirt poor even though she was born a King, as in “the Kings” from Houston. Her family owned most of the oil in the surrounding counties. Kathleen is also considered eccentric, but in a good way from the clothes she wears to the charity events she is in charge of. She is known as a trendsetter even though she can barely rub two pennies together.

Kathleen lives with her long term boyfriend Dylan Grant who is the love of her life. Dylan is the only one who knows her dirty little secret and still loves her desperately. Kathleen is…

Reviewed by Marisa O’Neill
Publisher: Penguin
5 Stars

A few years back, when I read Dark Lover (the first book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series), I thought, “this is a great book, I hope there will be more books about these characters”. I couldn’t begin to imagine or even hope that this series would be as epic in its scope as it has become. With Lover Avenged, J.R. Ward continues to prove why she has legions of fans that not only spend a great deal of time debating the fate and fortune of each of her characters, but clamor and wait with bated breath for each new installment in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

As I’ve said before, the world Ms. Ward has created is rich, layered, inventive and complex. It is filled with…

I’m a heathen. I freely admit that. So when I say I murdered Seamus, my muse, and chucked his body behind the dumpster of my local Kroger grocery store, you’ll understand that I never felt any remorse.

Yeah, the cops were surprised too.

But let me tell you, killing that sucker was liberating.

I’m always amused at how some writers stroke their muses, build altars to them, cherishing them as if that magical muse-alicious essence controlled the fate of the next great RITA winner.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your muse is better behaved than mine was. Sure, Seamus was useful when he wanted to help me. The guy was gorgeous, taunting me with that swishing kilt, whispering sweet promises of inspiration. And when he didn’t deliver, he’d…

There has been lots of talk around the net lately on how reviewers review books.  I’m at turns fascinated and horrified.  In the past two weeks I’ve heard of authors and publisher being upset by bad reviews. I’ve also heard of reviewers who are upset when their reviews are criticized for being too harsh.  I say to those reviewers – what up with that? “You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

Enough with reviewers who use public forums to slash and burn a book AND then use that same forum to complain about an author who says they were hurt by the review. Don’t they get it? Criticism is not a one way street. When you write a review be prepared to listen to someone who doesn’t like your…