Archangel’s Legion (Guild Hunter #6) by Nalini Singh

Paranormal Romance

What Goodreads Says:

Nalini Singh, the New York Times bestselling “alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist) returns to an immortal world of violent passion and lethal power…on the brink of a deadly archangelic war.
Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force.
Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.
Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels.
Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York…and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…

In the sixth book of the Guild Hunter series we are back with Elena (Guild Hunter and newly made angel) and Raphael (the Archangel who made her).  They are under attack and must work against overwhelming odds.

In Archangel’s Legion we get a closer look at the marriage between Elena and Raphael.  Both are such strong characters and that strength brings some conflict between the two.  Elena has to accept that Raphael does not show others the side he shows her.  She has to make sure he understands her commitment to human’s she has know for years.   Characters from previous books are part of the story but the focus is on Elena and Raphael.

The book is filled with tension.  There is a war coming and they are outnumbered.  They are being weakened by disease and other attacks.  Elena is still coping with problems with her family and the new knowledge that is revealed about other hunters in her past.  All of this combines to make an exciting story.  Look for some surprises when the battle finally starts and for enough loose ends to set up the next book due out in 2014.

Archangel’s Legion keeps the Guild Hunter series as exciting as ever and sets the stage for the next book.

Jove published Archangel’s Legion by Nalini Singh in 2013.

Stacking the Shelves November 16, 2013

Some of the Books Stacked on My Shelves

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books I am adding to my shelves. They may it be physical or virtual. I include books I buy in a physical store or online, books I borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!  Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews.  Follow the link to see what others have on their shelves.

All my book this week are eBooks so no covers.

From Netgalley:

A Darkling Sea  by James Cambias

Turned by Virna DePaul

A Wicked Pursuit  by Isabella Bradford

From Amazon:

Father Found (The Daddy School) by Judith Arnold

Have You Any Rogues?: A Rhymes With Love Novella by Elizabeth Boyle

  

SciFi Romance Quarterly is Now Online

SciFi Romance Quarterly is now online and free.  Follow this link to get your free copy.

http://www.scifiromancequarterly.org/get-the-current-issue/

Book Beginnings, November 15, 2013

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

My Book Beginning this week is from Clean by Alex Hughes.  This is a book I read over a year ago and just looked up on my book shelves.  It is the first in a series really like. The author is going to be a Coastal Magic in February and I hope to go.  I am waiting to hear how long the recovery from surgery on a torn meniscus will be before I sign up.  Here is the beginning.
 
"My first interview of the night was Esperanze Mensalez-Mar, a thirty-something woman dress in a pink-pressed suit I suspected cost more than my last paycheck.  Not that I'd seen the paycheck, but that was the kin of impression she gave off, like she had too much money to copy.  She was here as a suspect in the death of her husband."

Goodreads says this about Clean:

"I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die."

  

A Few Good Men (Darkship #3) by Sarah A. Hoyt

Science Fiction

What Goodreads says:

Original trade paperback, sequel to Darkship Renegades and Darkship Thieves. The son of a ruler on Earth instigates civil war and revolution when he attempts to take the place of his assassinated father and uncovers a terrible secret that has been used to enslave humanity.
The Son Also Rises
On a near future Earth, Good Man does not mean good at all. Instead, the term signifies a member of the ruling class, and what it takes to become a good man and to hold onto power is downright evil. Now a conspiracy hundreds of years in the making is about to be brought to light when the imprisoned son of the Good Man of Olympic Seacity escapes from his solitary confinement cell and returns to find his father assassinated.
But when Luce Keeva attempts to take hold of the reins of power, he finds that not all is as it seems, that a plot for his own imminent murder is afoot and that a worldwide conflagration looms.  It is a war of revolution, and a shadowy group known as the Sons of Liberty may prove to be Luces only ally in a fight to throw off an evil from the past that has enslaved humanity for generations."

While this says it is a sequel to Darkship Renegades and Darkship Thieves the action does not happen after the first two books,   Most of the action is happening at the same time but on Earth instead of in space.  There are several places where the characters and action from both are together but the author assumes you  have read Darkship Thieves and does not repeat what happened in the other book.  As a result you could be very confused.  

Luce Keeva tells A Few Good Men in the first person.  He has been in prison for 14 years and escapes where there is a prison break.  He goes home to find all of his family dead.  When he tries to take his Father’s place some long held secrets are revealed.  As a result he joins in with others to bring about change.  His story is the story of the revolution that follows.  Because it is what one man remembers there are large sections of the book that just present information and there is action only where Luce is present. 

Books where you spend a large amount of time in a characters head are not my favorites.  I prefer getting information through dialog and action and there was just not enough of that in A Few Good Men to satisfy me.   As a result it took me a long time to read the book.  I would read a little and then put it down, as it just was not holding my attention.  I did finish because I had read the first two books and kept going back to see if it wouldn’t get better. 

This would stand along but there are sections where the actions from the other books intersect.  Where that happens some things just would not make sense if you only read this one book.  I am glad I finished the book but it is far from one of my favorites.

Baen published A Few Good Men by Sarah A. Hoyt in 2013.

Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd

Space Opera/Science Fiction

What Goodreads says:

"Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass—and to demonstrate that, they've promoted her to Admiral. Now her mission is to find the home base of the space pirates who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy.
But no mission is ever simple when your name is Longknife. And this time the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself—reluctantly—having to make some command decisions about her future."

This is book #11 in the series and again Kris is facing a lot of danger.  All of the usual characters are back and the adventure is never ending.  The big difference is that there is romance in the air.  Kris is at the other side of the galaxy and her great grandmother takes a hand in getting Kris and Jack some time alone.  It is about time.

The entire book is a lead up to a big battle and I though that Mike Shepherd was going to leave us hanging.  Instead he surprised me.  Just as I though there were not enough pages left to for the two forces to meet he fought a quick and swift space battle that solved one problem but left more to come.

Kris Longknife: Defender is a good addition to the series.  It can be read as a stand-along but read them all.  You will be in for a great adventure if you do.

If you read my Musing Monday post you saw where I found the Dauntless with Jack Campbell as the Captain.  Is this a game authors play?  Maybe putting another Science Fiction author and his book title in the middle of a book is a way to see if anyone notices.

ACE published Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd in 2013.

Teaser Tuesday November 12, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:"
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

My teaser today if from The Misfortune Cookie (Esther Diamond #6)  by Laura Resnick.  This is one of the books I got from Amazon last week and I haven't started it yet so the teaser is for all of us.

"Do you need any ...Oh, right.  Never mind."  The cop grinned again.  "I just love a happy ending."  He was chuckling as he turned and went back the way he had come."

What Goodreads has to say about the book:

Esther Diamond's year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn't call, shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Once she's out of handcuffs, and with no paying work on the frigid horizon, Esther takes a small role in a grad student's film project in Chinatown—where her friend semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez's sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary.

Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as gifts—and before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations for Chinese New Year heat up in the ice-covered neighborhood, when the streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez (with whom Esther is not on speaking terms) from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.
  

Musing Mondays November 11,2013

Musing Mondays is sponsored by Should Be Reading and asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
 • Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
 • What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
 • Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I just finished Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd.  This is a Space Opera series I have followed from the beginning.  Somewhere in the middle of the book there is a list of space ships and their captains.  In a sentence all it's own is Jack Campbell, 
Captain of the Dauntless.  That really caught my attention.  Why?  Because Jack Campbell has his own Space Opera series and the first book is Dauntless.  I don't think that this was just an accident; another author's name and the title of the first book in his series.  I think this is something planned.  It makes me wonder if somewhere in Jack Campbell's books there may be a space ship named for a book in the Kris Longknife's series with a Captain named Mike Shepherd.

If you have seen any of the same let everyone know in the comments section.