Book 25 of 2009: Wolf Tales II by Kate Douglas

Rookie cop Lucien, Luc for short, was trying to protect a group of kids in the park from what he thought was a wild wolf chasing after them. After shooting the wolf, he approached, and instead found a beautiful naked woman, dead. After Luc explains all of this to the woman’s husband, Ulrich Mason, Ulrich fills Luc in on some information of his own... the secrets of the Chanku. Ulrich has realized that Luc is also one of the Chanku, like Ulrich, his late wife, and his daughter Tia. What will happen now, as Luc has killed this man's wife and the mother of his child?


The world of the Chanku is further revealed in this second release of the Wolf Tales series. There are numerous characters added to the series within this book. Also introduced is a detective agency called "Pack Dynamics" which helps at a lot of "meat" to the storyline. Whereas book one leaned rather heavily on sex scenes, this book balanced out a bit better due to a kidnapping that took place in the second half of the book. I feel that Douglas is building up for an even stronger balance as she gets more characters established, but she already has a really good standing right now. The characters are very strong, the writing style is fast-paced and fun, and the love scenes are smokin' hot!


Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 24 of 2009: Don of the Dead by Nick Cato

Nick Cato's first full-length novel, Don of the Dead, introduces us to several of the main characters in the Barrlucio Crime Family, most notably Antonio Barrlucio (the newly assigned don) and Henry Capuzzio (nephew of the recently deceased don). Soon, it is made quite clear that Capuzzio has turned against his family and has joined forces with the other mob in town, the Piranzza family. With their assistance, he abducts Barrlucio, drags him to a construction site, and turns him into the latest part of the landscape by pouring cement over his still living body, causing him to lose oxygen quickly. Who could survive that, right? Later that day Barrlucio's corpse starts slowly digging his way out of his rock solid grave. That can't be be possible, can it? This is the point in the book where things really take off and also the start of the zombie outbreak.

Don of the Dead is a quirky read from a hot new author. Nick Cato takes a refreshing new look at zombies and knocks 'em dead... Italian-style! Cato mixes humor in throughout the book in order to give his readers more than they might expect from a typical zombie novel. In particular, he uses some very catchy nicknames for some of his characters in the book. I probably missed some of the jokes within as there are a lot of Italian references within the book, but you could tell that Cato knows his stuff. The approach he took on zombies was very unique from what I've seen from other authors as well and I love how he also was able to connect it to the whole Italian theme. This is a great first novel from Cato. I am definitely looking forward to checking out more by this author in the future. Highly Recommended!

Contains: Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted on MonsterLibrarian.com

Also, please read the review I did with Nick Cato. It is also available at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 23 of 2009: Wolf Tales I by Kate Douglas

Wolf Tales is Kate Douglas' introductory book into the world of the "Chanku", a group of people who have the ability to shapeshift between human and wolf. In the beginning of this first book, Alexandria, better known as Xandi, drives off the road in a bad snowstorm. Near death from freezing, she falls unconscious in the snow. She awakens in a warm bed, wrapped in the arms of a naked man who makes love to her throughout the night. Come morning, she finds herself once again alone on the side of the road. Unable to abandon her, her rescuer returns and takes her back to his home. She later finds that this man, Stefan, has been cursed by a powerful wizard, Anton, and therefore has become part man, part beast. She decides to go home with him and then together they decide to seek out Anton in order to have him undo his curse on Stefan. Little do they know that it isn't truly a curse, but rather something that is truly a part of Stefan that hasn't been fully brought out yet. And what about Xandi? Was Stefan's meeting of her by accident or could they have been meant to meet?


Kate Douglas does a wonderful job introducing readers to the Chanku world and establishing the backgrounds of several key characters in this book. The book is divided into parts. The first several books focus one at a time on each of the main characters in the book, and the last is kind of a conclusion where it brings all four people together as one, in a sense. The book is highly erotic and explores many variations of erotica such as lesbian, gay, group sex, etc... So readers looking for a "vanilla" book should probably look elsewhere, but anyone that is up for a bit of spice should definitely give this book a try because Douglas takes things above and beyond. In addition to the erotica aspect, there is also a mystery involved when a tabloid reporter is trying to track down one of the wolves. I highly encourage fans of erotica and paranormal to give this book a read because Douglas does a great job blending the storyline and erotica together.


Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 22 of 2009: Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson

MaryJanice Davidson's 8th installment of the Undead series (also known as the Betsy the Vampire series) is written from two different perspectives throughout the book. Half of the book is written directly from Betsy's point of view and the other half is written from the view of Dr. Mark Spangler, who is one of Betsy's roommates. Betsy, her boyfriend Sinclair, their adopted son BabyJon, and her best friend Jessica fly off to Cape Cod at the start of the book to visit the Wyndham Werewolves. They are on a mission to return the deceased body of their fellow werewolf, Antonia, to them. The Wyndham Werewolves are more accusing than welcoming, as they can't comprehend how one of their own could have died protecting a vampire! Adding to the stress between the werewolves and the vampires is BabyJon. The werewolves seem to be uneasy around him, but Betsy can't fathom why they would be uncomfortable around a baby. It seems there might be a bit more to BabyJon than meets the eye.

While Betsy is away, sister Laura, the Antichrist, has a bit of her own "party" going on. She has sent their friend Tina away, brought in a group of Satan Worshipers, and has even started killing vampires. Mark is doing everything he can to get in touch with Betsy, but unfortunately every time he sends her an e-mail he types it in text messaging shorthand and Betsy can't seem to translate it. Sinclair tries to call Tina to check in after not having heard from Tina in a few days and finds out that their phone service had been cancelled. It looks like the only way to find out what is going on is to head home, but they can't do that until they resolve the whole "war" with the werewolves on how it is Antonia died. Just your average Betsy week, right?

Once again, MaryJanice Davidson has written a light, fun read that the reader will fly right through and that leaves you wanting more. The quirky dialogue is always what I most look forward to in a Davidson book and this one is no different. In this particular book, I think some of the funniest lines were in the emails sent from Mark to Betsy where he was using the text messaging shorthand. Betsy was having a lot of trouble figuring them out, but it was fun sorting them out. I mean, come on... who wouldn't know that "TSIATHTF" stands for "The Shit Is About To Hit The Fan"? I am definitely ready to see what happens next with BabyJon and Laura so would like to have had a longer book in that sense, but it'll be well worth the wait for number nine! MaryJanice Davidson's books are always a joy to read and are usually a one or two sitting read. I just can't put them down! Highly Recommended!

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 21 of 2009: Kutter by Jeff Strand

Not much I can say here since this one isn't even available for pre-order yet, but wanted to post it in my book count for the year. Special thanks for Jeff in allowing me to have a sneak peek at this one in advance. I'll be sure to post up a review just as soon as it's available for order to help spread the word! I will say this for Kutter... it's a very fun read, though I expect nothing less of Jeff.

Book 20 of 2009: Feminine Wiles by John Grover

Feminine Wiles is a collection of sixteen short stories by John Grover. Instead of stereotypical male protagonists, Grover casts a woman as the villain of each story. The various villains range from witches and crones to dolls and even Medusa herself, so the reader gets a bit of variety. Highlights of the book were "Eden Revisited", a story about the Garden of Eden with a bit of a spin, "Blood IS Thicker Than Water", where a woman believes that blood is the latest in skin care products, and "The Bride Wore Red", where the wedding doesn't end up going quite as the groom expects. I was a bit disappointed at the end of several stories, which ended up going a different direction than expected. A few of the stories also felt clichéd. Also troublesome is the editing of the book. I struggled throughout with numerous grammatical errors that could have easily been corrected. It's a great concept for a collection, however, and a little editing would make it a much more enjoyable read. Grover shows promise, and I'd be willing to try reading something else by him down the road.

(Review also posted on MonsterLibrarian.Com)

Book 19 of 2009: Succulent Prey by Wrath James White

Succulent Prey is the story of Joseph Miles, who was victimized by a child murderer at a young age. He was the only survivor, but feels that he was given a disease by his tormentor that has caused him to have cannibalistic urges that are over time getting increasingly worse. Miles goes on a journey throughout this book in search of a cure for this disease in order to absolve himself of being a killer. Along the way he falls in love with a girl, and the tension increases as he searches for the cure in hopes that he will be able to cure himself before he is incapable of resisting the urge to kill her.

This is a powerful and intense book! White has done an amazing job with depicting scenes graphically to where the reader can visualize exactly what is going on. To some, this might be too much, as it is heavy on the gore scale, but for the heavy-hitter horror fans, this is a must read! The character of Joseph Miles is one of the strongest characters I've encountered in my reading in a long time. I found myself cheering for him throughout the book in hopes that he would find the cure for the disease. Granted, there were also times where I found myself hating Miles and wanting to chuck the book across the room. When an author can make me feel for the character that strongly, that's when I know I'm reading a great book and I know I will read more by the author. Highly Recommended.

Contains: Cannibalism, Gore, Sex, Violence, Profanity

(Review also posted on MonsterLibrarian.Com)