BEA'S BOOK NOOK "I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." C. S. Lewis “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Showing posts with label Dean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dean. Show all posts

Monday, July 4, 2011

Review of The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters by Sierra Dean

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Release Date: July 19, 2011

Series: #0.5 in the Secret McQueen series


More Info:   Amazon   Samhain Publishing

Book Blurb:

Are blind dates supposed to be this bloody?

A Secret McQueen
story

They say it's impossible to find a man in New York City. Secret McQueen needs to find two in one night. Of course, it’ll mean pulling off the impossible—find and kill a displaced rogue vampire without disrupting the first promising date she’s had in ages. As a werewolf hybrid used to walking a fine line of survival in the vampire world, though, Secret eats impossible for breakfast.


Somewhere between hello and the first round of drinks, Secret makes her move. Her target, Hollywood’s biggest star, shouldn’t be hard to spot. Just look for swarms of fans. Except every time her vampire liaison, Holden, helps keep her mission on track, her date runs further off the rails.


Either Holden has a hidden agenda, or he knows more than he’s letting on about her quarry. One way or another, Secret is determined to get her man, and meet Mr. Right. Or die trying. 

Product Warnings:


This book contains a sword-wielding assassin whose barbs are sharper than her blade, a vampire with serious brooding issues but a skilled tongue, and an A-lister with a bad habit of eating his fans.   This novella takes place approximately one year prior to the events of Something Secret This Way Comes.


My Thoughts:

In this prequel, we get to see what a day is like for Secret: what she goes through as an employee for the Vampire Council and just getting through a day. We also get a little more background on both Secret and Holden. The story has action, humor, a very hot kissing scene, and an awesome sword. If you have already read the novella, "Something Secret This Way Comes", the infamous subway scene is detailed in here.


Her friend, detective Mercedes, bullies her into going on a blind date with another detective. Naturally, complications immediately set in. Her liaison with the council, Holden, shows up with a job that needs to be completed immediately. He seems disgruntled about her date and throughout the story, delights in sabotaging it, all in the name of of work of course. Secret is actually quite interested in her date, once they meet, and watching her juggle her date and her work, was entertaining, if frustrating for poor Secret.



I enjoyed this story quite a lot, more so even than than the first book. I am looking forward to the next book, "A Bloody Good Secret", coming out in September.

I received an eARC for review from the author.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Sex Winner!



hee, ok, really the winner of the Sierra Dean giveaway but hey, her guest post was about sex. :P

Anyway, there were only 2 entries so random,.org had an easy time picking the winner, which is jackie b central texas! Congrats!

Send me an email at bewasbook AT gmail DOT com and let me know what format you want the book in.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Sex...More Sex....Most Sexks, Sierra Dean's Guide to Romances (And A Giveaway)

Now that I have your attention... :D



Sierra Dean, whose debut UF novel, "Something Secret This Way Comes" was released Tuesday, the 10th, very kindly agreed to come and stop by for a bit today. We were chatting on Twitter and I threw some ideas her way for guest posts for different blogs. One of my ideas was about classifying romances and eroticas and where to draw the line. Her book has some romance and sex though it's not primarily a romance. We chose this as the topic for her visit here and I promised, heck I threatened, to use her joking description as the title.  As you can see, I did. :P

The Author - Sierra Dean is a reformed historian. She was born and raised in the Canadian prairies and is allowed annual exit visas in order to continue her quest of steadily conquering the world one city at a time. Making the best of the cold Canadian winters, Sierra indulges in her less global interests: drinking too much tea and writing urban fantasy.  Ever since she was a young girl she has loved the idea of the supernatural coexisting with the mundane. As an adult, however, the idea evolved from the notion of fairies in flower beds, to imagining that the rugged-looking guy at the garage might secretly be a werewolf. She has used her overactive imagination to create her own version of the world, where vampire, werewolves, fairies, gods and monsters all walk among us, and she’ll continue to travel as much as possible until she finds it for real. She’s also a book lover (of course!), obsessive collector of OPI nailpolish and the owner of way too many pairs of shoes.


The book ~          
Some secrets are dangerous. This Secret is deadly.

Secret McQueen, Book 1

For Secret McQueen, her life feels like the punch line for a terrible joke. Abandoned at birth by her werewolf mother, hired as a teen by the vampire council of New York City to kill rogues, Secret is a part of both worlds, but belongs to neither. At twenty-two, she has carved out as close to a normal life as a bounty hunter can.

When an enemy from her past returns with her death on his mind, she is forced to call on every ounce of her mixed heritage to save herself—and everyone else in the city she calls home. As if the fate of the world wasn’t enough to deal with, there’s Lucas Rain, King of the East Coast werewolves, who seems to believe he and Secret are fated to be together. Too bad Secret also feels a connection with Desmond, Lucas’s second-in-command…

 Product Warnings

This book contains a sarcastic, kick-ass bounty hunter; a metaphysical love triangle with two sexy werewolves; a demanding vampire council; and a spicy seasoning of sex and violence.

 ********************************************************************************

The following is from my internal dialogue right after getting a contract offer on my first novel:

            “Oh my GOD, this is the most exciting thing EVER. I have to text every human I’ve ever met! I have to call my mom! OH MY GOD THERE’S SEX IN THIS BOOK AND MY MOM IS GOING TO READ IT!”

Yes, my inner soliloquist is prone to dramatics. I probably wouldn’t be a novelist otherwise. Point being, one of the key aspects of any romance novel is the sex factor. Be it sweet, subtle and understated; naughty and R-rated; or “Holy crap, did she just say what I think she just said?”, sex is a part of romance in fiction just as it is in life.

So when it comes to sex in fiction, what’s the difference between sexy and smutty? (I loves me some good smut, so please don’t think I’m using the phrase as an insult) When does a book go from being “wow” to being “do I need the morning after pill with that chapter?”

I wish I could say I remember my first sex scene in a novel, but I genuinely can’t. For some people it probably sticks out in their minds, but sadly, I’m such a romance fiction whore I’ve read too many sex scenes at this point to remember them all. I’ve read everything from the tameness of a Patricia Briggs love scene all the way up to the recent Alisha Rai novella Never Have I Ever which left me needing a cold shower and a cigarette (and I don’t even smoke). I love it all.

Let’s break it down into three categories, shall we? (I like lists!)
  1. Sex – aka “Romance 1.0” we’ll call this the base level. Boy meets girl, boy lusts for girl, boy and girl share a tryst that lasts roughly a paragraph, and if you’re too fast a reader you might miss it. Or sometimes the author is so subtle about what’s happening, you’re not entirely sure if they had sex or just fooled around a little. This is typical of YA fiction, where you have to be careful just how much you show and tell.
  2. More Sex – aka “erotic Romance” this time you get the fun descriptions, the heat level is amped up considerably, and you’re never left doubting what just happened between the couple. “More Sex” is where most romance novels available for mass market would be categorized according to my insane system.
  3. MOST SEXKS – aka “smut” more commonly, and appropriately, known as erotica. This is the carnal category, where descriptions of the acts can eclipse all other plot points. The sex, typically, is the plot. Which is not to say these books are without plot, because that’s not my intended message. But with categories 1 and 2, the sex is a stepping stone along the way. With category 3, the story wouldn’t function the same way without the sex. Characters in erotica are just as developed, interesting and well-written as any of those in the first two categories, they just get to have crazier sex than their counterparts.
With those categories in mind, we can begin to see where our choice romances fit into the list. I’m not really picky, I’ll take a good book in any of those categories, as long as the love feels genuine. Give me a hot couple and I want them to want each other. But fictional couples are like real couples. Sometimes it would be disingenuous for a beloved fictional couple to rip each other’s clothes off and go at it doggy style in the kitchen. And similarly, not every reader is going to want a primal free for all in EVERY book.

I remember reading Jeaniene Frost’s One Foot in the Grave on a public transit bus and I think I turned a hundred shades of red when someone sat next to me. Similarly, I won’t let myself read certain authors when I’m at work because the content gets me a little too flustered to function properly, and I look a little weird when I abruptly cover up my Kindle.

So here’s my general rule of thumb:
If the descriptions are so graphic a Catholic priest would suggest you spend a month in confession to absolve yourself of the impure thoughts… don’t read it on the bus.

By and large I guess my favorite books are the ones where the love scenes are hot, but don’t feel unnatural, and where the sex seems realistic and not overly corny. I can’t handle love scenes where the men wax poetic and say the most cheesy things to their heroine. It takes me out of the moment.

What about everyone else? Do you prefer your love scenes safe and PG, or do you want them so hot you’re afraid to touch your Kindle? (oh my, yes! :D  ~ Bea) Or, like in life, does it depend on the mood and the characters involved?

And for a chance to win a copy of my debut novel Something Secret This Way Comes, give me your recommendations for the most memorable love scenes you’ve ever read, be they G or NC-17 (R rated for US readers).

********************************************************************************
Sierra has generously offered up an ebook copy of "Something Secret This Way Comes"  to one lucky commenter. 
 To enter, leave a comment telling us your recommendations for the most memorable love scene that you've ever read, in any book. The scene can be G-rated, completely safe for work and kids or all the way up to just short of X-rated (I reserve the right to edit comments).
Don't forget to leave a way to contact you (see the giveaway policy here)
The giveaway runs through midnight EST of Thursday May 19th, 2011.  Because of Blogger's maintenance issues Wednesday evening through Friday afternoon, this post had a delayed publication. As a result, I'm extending the giveaway through midnight EST Friday May 20,2011.

Review of Something Secret This Way Comes by Sierra Dean

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Release Date: May 10, 2011

Series: #1 in the Secret McQueen books

More Info: Amazon

Book Blurb:
 
Some secrets are dangerous. This Secret is deadly.

Secret McQueen, Book 1


For Secret McQueen, her life feels like the punch line for a terrible joke. Abandoned at birth by her werewolf mother, hired as a teen by the vampire council of New York City to kill rogues, Secret is a part of both worlds, but belongs to neither. At twenty-two, she has carved out as close to a normal life as a bounty hunter can.



When an enemy from her past returns with her death on his mind, she is forced to call on every ounce of her mixed heritage to save herself—and everyone else in the city she calls home. As if the fate of the world wasn’t enough to deal with, there’s Lucas Rain, King of the East Coast werewolves, who seems to believe he and Secret are fated to be together. Too bad Secret also feels a connection with Desmond, Lucas’s second-in-command…

 Product Warnings

This book contains a sarcastic, kick-ass bounty hunter; a metaphysical love triangle with two sexy werewolves; a demanding vampire council; and a spicy seasoning of sex and violence.

My Thoughts:

The writing wasn't anything spectacular and the plot was nothing unusual, but the concepts and characters introduced caught and kept my interest.  Dean has created an interesting mythology and social structure for her supernaturals. This despite using some of my least favorite tropes - 1) the destined mates, 2) the three way triangle, and 3) a hero, or heroine if you prefer, who is ALL THAT, with a destiny she can't imagine. So, you might expect I wouldn't like the book.

You'd be wrong. The cover blurb drew me in, the tropes irritated me, but it's the world and the characters that held me. Sierra Dean's character building is very good. Secret McQueen is 22 years old but has seen so much and had so much turmoil that many others in her position would likely call it quits. With a foot in  the werewolf world and a foot in the vampire world, all she's trying to do is keep her footing. Life is never that simple.

She identifies herself as a vampire and ignores her wolf half, denying that werewolves are even people. She is really quite ignorant concerning werewolves, something that Desmond, Lucas's second, remarks on:
"It's true, then, what Lucas said. You really are ignorant of the ways of your own people."  I bristled. 'Wolves are not people.'

She very quickly gets a crash course in werewolf customs, including soul bonding, otherwise known as destined mates, one of Bea's top 5 least favorite tropes. Soul bonding, to be fair, is more than just destined mates, it isn't even always about sex. The werewolf king Lucas explains it thus:
"...There is a call put out by the beasts inside of us that is meant for a select few to hear. It was how I chose Desmond to be my second. His wolf answered the call of my own when we were still very young, before either of us had even been turned. The call is the reason you felt me on the patio tonight."
When Secret is around either Lucas or Desmond, she "tastes" them, a certain flavor fills her mouth - Lucas tastes like cinnamon and Desmond like lime. This reminded me very much of Tony in the Salzi books C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp who identifies emotions by associating them with other smells - fear smells like burnt coffee, etc.  It's unusual, though not completely unexpected, for there to be a three way soul bonding. Since Lucas and Desmond are soul bonded to each other, Secret's bond is to both men. Both men are accepting of this but the practicalities of making it work are another matter. There was one scene where I wanted to smack Secret for being sleazy:
"Is it ok to sleep with someone and say my metaphysical connection to him made me do it? Ok, that's actually a pretty good excuse." 
Umm, no, it's not. For me, that's a cop out, a failure to take responsibility for your own actions. It also reminded me uncomfortably of Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake and the aurdeur (a metaphysical thing where she constantly hungers for sex and it's ok for her to sleep with any guy she wants. Bugs the crap out of me no end.)

At first I found Secret to be arrogant, cocky and full of herself. And she is, but she is also funny, determined, loyal to her friends (what ones she has), impulsive, and smart. She starts out stereotypical but Dean develops her and fills her out. We see her relationships with Holden, her handler from the vampire council, Mercedes, a local detective, and Keaty, her friend and associate, and her developing relationships with Lucas and Desmond. Secret learns a lot about herself in the story and some of those discoveries are not pleasant (family can be such a pain, lol).

It doesn't take long before Secret's new life with Lucas and the wolves collides with her job as a hunter for the Vampire Council and that's when the action really kicks in. The story has just about everything you could want - spooky vampires, hunky werewolves, humans who, for the most part, are unaware that monsters exist, romance, sex, treachery, intrigue, fight scenes, etc. Dean makes it all work together and I flew through the last 2/3 of the book.

The cliffhanger at the end had me going "What? Wait, no! You can't do that." I am looking forward to the next book, the prequel and the Christmas short story (which Sierra was talking about on twitter and I teased her about since she was writing it in April). While there is a lot that isn't new, Dean makes it fresh and interesting. It's worth your while to pick up this book and read it. If I could enjoy it despite some of my least favorite tropes and the occasional dry writing, chances are good that you will too.

I received the ebook from the author for review.