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Ilona Andrews – Kate Daniels Series Reading Order:

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This series comes highly recommended! As per fellow reader, Rose:

“… I might suggest the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. It’s artful mixing of magic and technology and realistic characterizations makes all the books a wonderful read. I stayed up four days straight finishing them.”

and Tanya says:

“Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series is another very well written true urban fantasy. There’s romantic tension, but no action until later books.”

Tessa: I love the whole series, and can’t get enough of Curran.  🙂

As per the author’s website:

The world has suffered a magic apocalypse. We pushed the technological progress too far, and now magic returned with a vengeance. It comes in waves, without warning, and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. When magic is up, planes drop out of the sky, cars stall, electricity dies. When magic is down, guns work and spells fail.

It’s a volatile, screwed-up world. Magic feeds on technology, gnawing down on skyscrappers until most of them topple and fall, leaving only skeletal husks behind. Monsters prowl the ruined streets, werebears and werehyenas stalk their prey; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.

In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight.  But sometimes even trained killers make friends and fall in love, and when the universe tries to kick them in the face, they kick back.

          

Book Review – The Immortal Hunter by Lynsay Sands

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The Immortal Hunter: A Rogue Hunter Novel (Argeneau Vampires)
The latest installment in the series is an almost seamless continuation of The Rogue Hunter. We continue to follow the council enforcers on their latest investigation, however the focus is on Decker Argeneau (the son of Martine, and nephew of Marguerite).

Since Mortimer is caught up with Sam, their two week old relationship (and is somewhat useless for rogue hunting), the couple are left to take care of the new headquarters house, and Decker and Bricker are sent to capture Nicholas Argeneau (Decker’s rogue cousin, who is the brother of Thomas).

During their attempted take down of Nicholas, he exclaims that two mortal women have been kidnapped by a group of rogues and he is hunting them down himself. The enforcers hear the women screaming, and all three men head after them.

A battle ensues, four rogues are taken down, two escape (with one of the girls), and Danielle McGill is taken into protection by Decker and Bricker while Nicholas goes in pursuit of the other kidnapped girl (Danielle’s teenage sister). While protecting Danielle, Decker soon realizes that he cannot read her.

Danielle suspects that Bricker and Decker are hiding something, and whatever they work for, it could not be a law enforcement agency that Decker originally hinted at. She begins to suspect that they might be bad guys of a different sort, and after eavesdropping on a conversation between the two men, also begins to suspect they are crazy.

When the crew meet up with Lucian to hand over the rogue bodies, Lucian reads Decker, and says:

“CSIS?” Lucian asked with disbelief, bringing curious glances from everyone but Justin. Decker squirmed inwardly as his uncle continued to sift through his thoughts, and then Lucian shook his head with disgust. “And you haven’t explained to her about us? First Mortimer, and now you…Am I the only one who made it through this life mate business with my brains still intact?”

From what Decker had heard, Lucian has been a bit befuddled too, but he kept that thought to himself and merely said, “I was waiting for the right moment.”

“Right. Well that’s now,” Lucian announced, and glanced in Dani’s direction to bark, “Girl!”

Danielle suddenly finds herself in front of Lucian, confused as to how she got there…

“Your mind isn’t fault and you’re not losing time,” Lucian said, apparently reading that concern in her mind. “The reason you don’t remember walking over here is because I took control of your mind to bring you here…And I can do that because I’m an immortal…or as you people seem to insist on calling us, a vampire,” he said with disdain. “Everyone standing here is one…including Decker, who is the only one here who can’t read or control your thoughts. That makes you a possible life mate for him, but you’ll be the one to decide.”

In Dani’s panic over what she has just learned, a cute moment occurs that is a  good example of how human these immortals really are:

“Vampires aren’t supposed to be real. And how come you had to be a cute vampire? You should be a dog. All evil, vile people should look as ugly as they are inside.”

“We aren’t ev-” Decker halted in his denial, and then lifted his lips in a very rare-and in her opinion, totally inappropriate-grin as he asked, “You think I’m cute?”

While this novel follows the usual theme;

romantic tension

“Don’t run from me, Dani” he whispered, his expression intense. “I’ll just give chase.”

“I’m not running,” she whispered, her eyes on his mouth.

“Yes,” he growled. “You are.” And then he did exactly what she wanted and kissed her.

and love (many touching moments, my favorite being a very sweet scene, where Dani “hides”, chagrined, in the closet from Decker)…

“In here.” Decker tapped his chest when she remained lost in her thoughts. “What do you know about me in here? Do you trust me?”

we are led on a thrill-ride of action packed danger (many times over).

While my only real complaint was Danielle’s ability to become physically involved with Decker, while in pursuit of her kidnapped sister (realistically, I believe she would have been too distraught for anything to happen so quickly), this is explained away as an uncontrollable compulsion due to the nanos, and the life mate attraction. Since this IS a tale of romance, I shrugged off my concerns, and went with it.

Both Danielle and Decker come to acknowledge that differences amongst people are not necessarily a bad thing, and their road to self discovery is heart warming. While there are so many different things that happen in this novel (tons I would love to quote here), to say anymore would be to give it away, so I will let you enjoy this one, yourselves, while we all patiently await the September release of The Renegade Hunter: A Rogue Hunter Novel.

Interested in the series —> Lynsay Sands – Argeneau Vampires Series Reading Order

3.75 stars

Book Review – The Rogue Hunter by Lynsay Sands

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The Rogue Hunter (Argeneau Vampires, Book 10)
In this part of the series, we veer off the immediate Argeneau family for a bit while we learn about those who work with them. Surprisingly enough, they are just as interesting and easily likable as the Argeneau crew, and we are regaled with “cameos” from different Argeneaus throughout these books.

This story probes the blooming relationship between Garrett Mortimer and the still mortal, Samantha Willan (remember Mortimer? He is one of Lucian’s right hand men, and had a large part in Lucian’s book).

Garrett and Justin Bricker are sent to Decker Argeneau’s cottage on the outskirts of Toronto, to investigate a possible rogue who may be feeding off of the humans in a small town. The three Council Enforcers are finding it difficult to concentrate on their investigation. The electricity in town keeps getting knocked out, and their old generator is proving not very reliable, spoiling their blood supplies.

A trio of girls at the neighboring cottage are also having difficulties keeping their food cold, and the whole group of them decide to have an “eating party” to use up as much food before it wastes, along with possibly storing whatever is left in Decker’s fridge which is being tentatively run by his generator.

“A power outage party,” Bricker said with a grin. “Potato salad, hamburgers, sausages, and steak. It could be fun.”

“And their food right alongside our bags of blood in the refrigerator,” Mortimer said dryly, mildly satisfied by the way the reminder wiped the smile off the younger immortal’s face.

The neighbors soon become friends, and Garrett realizes that he can’t read one of the sisters (Samantha “Sam” Willan). He is over 800 years old, and while he has never met his lifemate, he is somewhat discouraged to realize that this potential lifemate looks nothing like the fantasy woman he had envisioned. While he prefers buxom blonds, a la “Jessica Rabbit”, Samantha is a tall, lanky, seemingly plain brunette with a penchant for clumsiness (more of an Olive Oyl).

“So, how old are you, Mortimer? Eight hundred and something, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he agreed warily, knowing it wasn’t just mild interest.

Decker nodded. “And how many women have you met in that time that you can’t read?”

His mouth tightened at the question. Sam was the first. And it had been a long eight hundred years too. Lonely. Was he being a fool?

Understanding that he is extremely blessed to finally be able to share his life with someone, he decides to put his illusions aside and get to know her better. The “nanos” soon kick in (by now, we know the nanos are always right), and he finds himself becoming very protective of her, and deeply attracted.

A funny scene during the “outage party” where Mortimer is following Sam around, leading her so she doesn’t fall, and even loading her plate with food, making her quite uncomfortable, with his attentive, yet obtrusive behavior (despite Garrett knowing she is his lifemate, Sam knows nothing of this, and considers him a complete stranger):

“Which would you like?”

Sam blinked and glanced to the tray of meat Mortimer was now holding. At least he was going to take her wishes into account with this, she thought on a sigh.

“I’d like a cheeseburger,” she said stiffly.

Mortimer nodded, and set a cheeseburger on her plate, then hesitated and picked up the fork on the plate to stab one of the strips of steak as well.

“I don’t want that,” Sam said quickly, raising her hand to block him from putting it on her already overflowing dish.

“You’re too pale; you need more red meat in your diet,” he said firmly.

“But I can’t possibly eat all this,” she protested as the steak landed on her potato salad mountain.

“You’re too skinny. Eat up.”

Shortly thereafter, Samantha finds herself suddenly “on call” with her boss, who requests her assistance to spend part of her vacation looking for his suddenly missing goddaughter. Garrett seizes this opportunity to be with her, and assists in her search, staying with her day and night.

A very sweet moment:

“I find you beautiful,” he whispered, soothing her soul and washing away her discomfort. “Perfect.”

The relationship and steamy moments play out nicely, are well paced, and we are treated to TWO mysteries that need to be solved. That, along with Garrett’s attempt at keeping his “vampire” situation hidden from Samantha, and the incessant teasing from his friends, make this an enjoyable read, and a welcome addition to the series.

Interested in the series? –> Lynsay Sands – Argeneau Vampires Series Reading Order

4 stars

Nalini Singh – GUILD HUNTER SERIES Reading Order:

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This series comes highly recommended!

Branka says:

“Have you read the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh, I loved, loved, loved the first three books…Raphael is just everything you are looking for …alpha, posessive, protective, jealous and yet….. ;))) I would like to hear what you think of the books, I think you would enjoy them as much I did!”

and while Kris loved both of Nalini’s series, this one was her favorite:

“Guild Hunters was best but I enjoyed both. The whole Archangel/Vampire/Hunter Born relationship was very clever. Plus she has a very good sense of humor…some clever one-liners and numerous situations. Cannot wait for the next Psy/Changling novel but would read a Guild Hunter first if one came out.”

About the series:

A dark new world where lethal, beautiful archangels hold sway over immortals and mortals both, with the Guild Hunters caught in between, tasked with retrieving those vampires who break contracts with their angelic masters.

Note by author: “Angels’ Pawn” (e-release, early 2009; this novella is written to stand alone, so it can be read at any stage in the series. (Can be read on Author’s website).

ALSO: All the novellas were written to stand alone, so you can pick them up at any stage in the series.

     

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