Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Before I get to "Devil in Winter" I have to say I am terribly biased. I LOVE Lisa Kleypas and will read anything by her, and I mean anything. Traditionally I prefer paranormal and historical romances, versus contemporary, but Kleypas has proven time and time again that no matter what genre she writes under it will have a really good chance at being my next favorite. I found "Devil in Winter" about two years ago and have probably read it about 150 times.

"Devil in Winter" is the 2nd installment of the "Wallflowers" series, but it is a great stand-alone and you don't have to read the previous ones to enjoy the book. The story is about Evangeline Jenner, a shy red-headed heiress and Viscount Sebastian St. Vincent, a jaded rake. In an attempt to save herself from her abusive guardians, Evangeline purposes marriage to the equally desperate Sebastian, who agrees. I love how shy Evie blooms into a strong-minded woman who has the womanizer wrapped around her finger. Sebastian is a narcissistic jerk for most of the book. Which of course makes his inevitable fall into monogamy all the sweeter.

This is an amazing book and one you have to finish in one sitting. Simply because you can't put it down.

Using Tragedy as a Crutch

This post won't be a review of a single book but instead a trend I notice in some authors or books. One thing some authors (the ones who aren't as good) that pump out a lot of books very quickly like to do is give a character a tragic back story. Because with throw in an imprisonment or, as awful as this is, a rape they think this makes a character different from all their others. Christine Feehan is a good example of using this crutch. She uses almost the exact same personalities for her male and female characters. She seemed to have run out of tragedy and slipped straight into horror with her characters. Yet none of them are really flushed out, because it's just a recycled character with a different history. Of course with her Carpathian series (and if you aren't familiar with Feehan it's just a fancy name for a vampire that can also do about a million other things, think Superman compared to Flash) she really does have the same history but with a couple new things to 'spice' things up. And I have read up to book number 19 so I know what I'm talking about with her series.

Feehan isn't the only author to do this, Gena Showalter also sometimes slips into this (but don't get me wrong, I do love Showalter). But as a reader/writer I find character development one of the most important things to story telling. If a character is weak, then the plot is weak. And giving them a tragic back story doesn't automatically flush them out. Small things matter like if their parents were married or if they divorced, if they moved around a lot, did they have a lot of friends? The reader doesn't need to know this but the author sure does, and if they don't then how can a reader feel connected to such a flat character. If they aren't flushed out they don't feel like a real person and instead stay on the pages instead of coming to life in our heads.

Hungry Like a Wolf By Christine Warren

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This was not my favorite book of Christine Warren's. She's either a hit or a miss for me, Big Bad Wolf, One Bite with a Stranger, and Walk on the Wild Side were all great, the rest were either okay or just a pain to read. Hungry Like a Wolf was leaning more towards the painful side. So much so that I only got to page 200 and I gave up in total frustration. So yes, I have not finished the book, but it's already very clear how it's going to end.

What really annoyed me was the total lack of depth behind the two main characters and the very basic plot. Honor becomes a female alpha when she doesn't want to be an alpha, while Logan is fighting his need to challenge his own alpha becomes he wants to be one. That is the entire plot in a nutshell. Throw in some one-dimensional secondary characters who want to challenge/gang rape Honor to be alpha and you've got yourself 200 pages of the same argument over and over again.

Normally I don't look at what page I'm on, unless it's in fear that I might run out of pages too fast, but this one I kept waiting for it to be over. I really couldn't understand why Honor and Logan couldn't see the answer right in front of their faces, that Logan could take over as alpha, which he wants, and Honor could be beta and/or Luna, which seems to be what she wants. Instead Honor is damned and determined to martyr herself at being alpha, which is something she, again, she hates. She fights Logan in almost every chapter, telling him to leave her alone, even when she recognizes him as her mate. And that is just plain stupid. She'd fight to be a martyr but she wouldn't fight for her mate or the chance at love? And that is why I couldn't finish the book.

Normally I enjoy Christine Warren's books but this was a total flop for me.

MacRieve by Kresley Cole

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First off Kresley Cole is one of my absolute favorite authors, so much so that I bought this book the day it came out. I really didn't like the beginning of the series, besides the books a Hunger Like No Other and Dark Needs at a Nights Edge, the interim few I wasn't too sold on. But once she got to Pleasure of a Dark Prince I was absolutely hooked.

MacRieve is about the Lykae Uilleam MacRieve and finding his fated mate. Of course nothing is that simple. What I really appreciated was that Cole developed a serious and tragic back story that wasn't simply in place of actual character development. I really hate when authors create a sad or horrific back story without flushing out the character. Cole creates vastly different characters in each of her books, while still keeping that core strength that most romance readers crave.

MacRieve was basically an asshole for most of the book, but while I understood why he did take it over the top when he found out what exactly his mate, Chloe, was. And I won't spoil that (fairly obvious) surprise. Chloe was a fairly awesome female main character. She is extremely brave, takes no shit from anyone, including MacRieve. But she is also forgiving, which I really like in woman in romance books. I hate when they hold a grudge for an entire book. Cole gives you a glimpse of the happiness they can have, snatches it away, then gives back ten-fold. And I loved it.