Burning Up

By: Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra, & Meljean Brook

4 Stars for the book, but 5 for Meljean's Here There Be Monsters.

In order:

Nalini's Whisper of Sin. Eh... fair to middling. Trying to do too much in too little space. And one of my least favorite schticks made an appearance. The family door mat. While our heroine wasn't overwhelmingly door matty; she was too close to the line for me. Close families don't try to run each other as a sign of affection. Let me repeat this: love does not equal control. Stop it, stop it now. But it's the Psy-Changeling world and therefore a must read. 2 Stars

Knight's Blood & Roses. Angela's Jane's Warlord has a permanent spot on my keeper shelf. I've bought this book 3 times. Mass market, trade (it appeared there with 2 other stories) and once more for my Kindle. She can be brilliant. Unfortunately I haven't seen much of that at all from her lately. Same old same old, but with no soul. No spark! Just words on a page and nothing compelling. I'd venture to say she's also got some Daddy Issues. Which is fine, I know exactly where the bodies are buried in my psyche too. But I'm worried she's drained her creativity well dry. I really really hope I'm wrong and can post a glowing "she's back!" review for whatever she writes next. Two stars.

Kantra's Shifting Sea. Now Kantra's been on my radar for a while, but this is the first of her work that I've read. I will be reading more. Solid, and a very satisfying short. And me likely very much soldiers home from the Napoleonic Wars. 3-1/2 Stars

Meljean is a freaking genius. I was cool to her first 3 full length Guardian books but I've always really enjoyed her short stories. And Here There Be Monsters... I'd pay the cover price for Burning Up if this was the only story in there. She had to do a fair bit of world building, but she handled it so very well. I was torn between reading faster to find out happens next and reading slower and re-reading to savor every word. One tiny little complaint (and that's because I always find something to bitch about) I wish we could've been a little bit more in Eben's head to find out why he fell so hard and so fast for Ivy. I'll re-read, maybe it's there and I'll find it the second time around. I'm absolutely drooling in anticipation for The Iron Duke. READ THIS STORY. READ IT NOW. Ok, maybe wait until the week before Iron Duke releases so you won't be as impatient as I am for it. Oh and screw the Duke, I'm waiting for more Lady Corsair.