Skin Game by Ava Gray
A review by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Release Date: November 3, 2009
4.75 of 5 stars

Confession: I’ve been experiencing the longest reading slump in probably 15 years. It’s been excruciating. Over and over I’ve opened books and tried to engage, only to find my attention wandering. That is, until I picked up Skin Game by Ava Gray. Ava Gray is the alter ego of Ann Aguirre, one of the most talented romantic sci-fi authors writing in the genre. I’ve read and enjoyed Ann’s Sirantha Jax series, and quite enjoyed the slow building romance between those two main characters, and knew that if Ann decided to, she could write a heck of a romance. Turns out, I was right. Ava Gray has written a very hot romance between two…

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh
A review by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: November 3, 2009
4.25 stars of 5

Regular readers of Nalini Singh’s marvelous Psy-Changeling series might remember Dev Santos. He was an ancillary character in Singh’s fifth book, Hostage to Pleasure. So, when Nalini announced that Blaze of Memory would be about Dev finding his love, I was stymied. Why on earth would she write about Dev when there are so many Psy (Kaleb, anyone?) or Changeling (Hawke, Hawke, Hawke, Hawke) stories that I so desperate for. What I should have done, is had more confidence in Nalini as an author. Once again, she delivers an emotionally charged, gripping and well imagined love story that enhances the mythology of the world she has created and propels ongoing story lines ahead.

Dev Santos comes…

It really took me not even a moment to decide which romance heroine I’d chose for heroine’s week here at RNTV. When I think of romance heroines who I’d like to be friends with, or hang out with, one author comes to mind: Julie James. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I consider Julie to be a friend, but I read her books before I got to know her, so I can say honestly and without bias that her books are wonderful contemporaries — ones that I recommend over and over again.

So when it came time to choose a heroine, I chose Payton Kendall from Julie’s Practice Makes Perfect. From the first moment we meet Payton, we understand what makes her tick – competition and…

Generally speaking, when you gather a group of romance readers together, the talk turns to heroes. And believe me when I say, we here at RTNV have absolutely no problem with that. We’ve talked bad boys , we’ve talked virgin heroes , we love, love, love talking about heroes. But the fact of the matter is, sometimes it’s not the hero that makes the book, it’s the heroine. A woman savvy enough, lovely enough, wily enough, strong enough to take on that alpha (or beta) male. She who complements the He of the story.

A strong woman is a heady thing, and romance offers us a variety of them. Sure, there are plenty who get a rise from we readers, “too weak, “ we’ll say. Or the heroines we think are…

A review by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Penguin
4.25 stars out of 5

Holly Hutchins is a reporter, a darn good one. She’s got a very successful blog that is often picked up by major papers and television. Her specialty is uncovering secrets. And she’s won awards for it. When her boss informs her that her new assignment will be doing a three month series of blogs about the Pacific Heat, a baseball team that is rising in the chase for the Pennant and specifically to see what she can uncover about the team’s secrets. When she meets Pace Martin, the star pitcher of the Heath, she knows immediately that he’s hiding something – an injury. Pace, being no dummy, wants nothing to do with a reporter, certainly not one as nosey, interfering and…

A review by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
4.5 stars out of 5 stars

The Marked series by SJ Day is destined to be one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series on the market today. In Eve of Darkness, we meet Evangeline Hollis, an interior designer who has just been invited to submit a proposal to Gadara Industries, one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. What Eve doesn’t realize is that Gadara Industries is a front for the archangel, Raguel. You see, the world is at war — a war that is unseen by most mortals. There are a group of seven archangels protecting the world from Sammael (or Satan), who is doing his best to bring about the downfall of man. To assist the archangels, there are seraphim,…