Book Review: Revving Her Wild Engines by Cassandre Dayne

Review: Revving Her Wild Engines
Author: Cassandre Dayne
No of Pages: 66
Release Date: 20 February 2011

Stephanie Simon was more than ready to have her most secret and sinful fantasies fulfilled. And the thought of having a torrid affair with David Tyler took her breath away. Unfortunately however, Stephanie and David have never met. Introduced by a friend, they've only conversed via the Internet, where they tell each other their every hidden fantasy. Stephanie's is a wicked tryst on the back of David's motorcycle and a ménage. And as luck would have it, David has the perfect third in mind.

Fuelled by Stephanie's hunger to explore, David sweeps Stephanie off her feet with a wild ride across a pool table in front of his friends and a ménage that leaves her engine revved for more. But both David and Stephanie hold a terrible secret. As they learn about their tragic pasts, neither knows if they can cling to the other for support and find the love and forgiveness they need.

My Thoughts:

There’s good erotic fiction, and then there’s not. Unfortunately Revving Her Wild Engines fell into the pretty horrible section.

Stephanie is traumatised, after battling something terrible that happened in her past for years now, she has decided to take that final step in letting go, no longer being held back by her fears she meets up with a man she has been chatting to for months on the internet. When her and David meet though it is more than just a weekend of wild passion, they connect with each other. The connection running deeper than anything Stephanie has ever felt.

Revving Her Wild Engines sounded like a nice quick, hot read. Something good for curling up with late one night to pass the time before bed. Unfortunately what I got was basically, really horrible book porn. The plot was terrible, the emotion was overly dramatized and the wording was flowery.

Erotic couplings such as this should result in some hot sex and maybe a call back, what I got was declarations of love within the first two days of them meeting. Their first hug was a “tender, loving embrace”. I’m sorry; I don’t care how good the sex was, but no.

The main thing that kept throwing me out of the mood that Dayne was struggling to create was the wording, “moistened her scarlet panties and she resisted the urge to wipe at herself.” I’m sorry, but yuck, she wanted to wipe at herself?! When I think “wipe” I think toilet paper.

Then there were the ridiculous situations they were put in, like oh I don’t know, giving head jobs on a balcony while people were watching. Or giving head jobs in the middle of a pub rec room in front of your four closest friends who have just met this woman.

His friends didn’t believe David when he told them he had a woman, if I saw that I’d think he’d hired a prostitute for the weekend. That isn’t hot, it’s dirty. Dayne could have made it hotter, with a different setting or better dialogue, but it read like a really bad porn movie.

The dialogue matched the rest of this train wreck as well. “Mm baby, are you hot for me?” “Oh yes, honey, I am so hot for you, I have been hot for you all day.” Really?

That was as good as it got. Well of course, apart from the over emotional speeches about how Stephanie couldn’t really be loved by David because she was so ugly, and such bad person.

This entire novella read like a bad soapie mixed with even worse porn. Overemotional, bad dialogue, horrible writing and stupid settings. Culminating in an ending that was not only clichéd and boring, but completely far-fetched.

If Dayne had left the emotional crap out of this story and used her material for a hot, wild coupling of two strangers, it might have worked, what we’re given though isn’t worth reading.

Book Review: Secrets and Shadows by Shannon Delany

Review: Secrets and Shadows
Series: 13 to Life – Book 2
Author: Shannon Delany
No of Pages: 304
Release Date: 15 February 2011

Nothing’s simple when you run with werewolves. Jessie Gillmansen thinks she’s seen it all, but her eyes are about to be opened to even more danger and a reality far more paranormal than she’s ever suspected. Thanks to Jessie’s startling revelation about the Rusakova’s mother, the group’s choices become harder – and trust is more important than ever. But the dramatic change Pietr’s going through may shake the trust he’s built with Jessie to its very foundation. As the broken Rusakova family struggles to come together to face what may be their greatest challenge, the people Jessie believed were normal show themselves to be much, much more…

My Thoughts:

Ms Delany seems to have a serious Twilight complex and it doesn’t bode well with this book.

Jessie is still struggling to come to terms with how her life has been flipped on its head in the past year. Now she also has to deal with the increasing distance Pietr is putting between them whilst still agreeing to help the werewolves release their captured mother.

Jessie seems to have had a complete character change from how I remember her in the first book. She went from being a likeable, seemingly intelligent character to this clingy, whiny schoolgirl who is having a breakdown every other day and unable to handle her life at all. She went from being well-adjusted considering her situation to a total mental wreck in the space of the couple of weeks between books. She became Bella, basically.

Shamelessly throwing herself at a guy who doesn’t want her then going and making out with his arch enemy to get back at him. Then wondering why he still doesn’t want her and not listening to him after he tells her something is too dangerous, she stubbornly tags along anyway. What is wrong with these humans who seem to think they can match a supernatural's healing abilities?!

Pietr went from an arrogant semi-likable character because of his hotness appeal, to well, Edward. Tortured teen who thinks the world will never understand his predicament, wanting to ”protect” those he loves by distancing himself from them but still keeping an emotional hold over them so they can never move on.

Secrets and Shadows was a train wreck in every sense of the word. The story is a bad copy of Twilight even going so far as to say that the male lead doesn’t think he has a soul anymore because of what he’s become and what he has done and then to say that maybe the family should leave town and everyone they know behind to keep them safe from themselves.

The romance between Jessie and Pietr is becoming laughable now. Jessie pushed Pietr into the arms of another girl and expects him to treat the other girl, Sarah the former Queen Bee, like dirt because Jessie can’t stand the thought of them being together.

I will admit up front that I could barely remember anything from 13 to Life, and Delany’s lack of any form of backstory until three quarters of the way through the book had me scratching my head at times. It goes to show that either I’m losing my memory or that no matter how much I liked 13 to Life, it just wasn’t memorable.

The writing in Secrets and Shadows is engaging once again but the plot is all over the place. There’s trimming down unnecessary detail and then there’s butchering your story. A werewolf got turned back into a human, end of chapter; do we see how said werewolf is faring? How said werewolf feels or is coping with this massive change in their life? Of course not. Vital details were missing; Jessie was at her house one minute then in the car the next. She was possibly borderline date-raped (hmm, I’m seeing more Twilight here) but that doesn’t get explored at all.

I said in the first book that there was a severe lack of information, that pattern continued in the second book. It was a complete mind-boggling circle of the mess Jessie has made of her non-existent love-life and any interesting parts of the story were overlooked because Jessie was too busy panting after Pietr – and quite literally sexually harassing him, I’m sorry but shoving your tongue down someone’s throat who has expressly asked you not to do so is harassment in my book - to notice anything else that may have been going on around her.

Secrets and Shadows was a big disappointment for me. It was a bad copy of the Twilight Saga and the writing was so jumpy it literally gave me headaches to read. I kind of want to know what happens in relation to the Rusakova’s mother but I am wary.

Others in this series:
13 to Life
Bargains and Betrayals

Book Review: Talon, come fly with me by Gigi Sedlmayer

Review: Talon, come fly with me
Series: Talon – Book 1
Author: Gigi Sedlmayer
No of Pages: 220
Release Date: 14 January 2010


Nine-year-old blond Matica lives in a remote little village on a dry plateau in the Andes of Peru. She moved here with her Australian missionary and schoolteacher parents when she was five years old. Ever since she could remember she faced cruel rejection because of her growth handicap. She is trapped in a body the size of a two year old. Because of that the local Indians wouldn’t accept her into their community or allow her to play with their children. Under the watchful eyes of her parents who understand her, lonely Matica explores the plateau for entertainment.

With patience and a sense of adventure she befriended a pair of condors and named them Tamo and Tima. A strong bond and love developed between them.

Having and egg, Tamo and Tima try to fight off a couple of poachers but they succeed in stealing their egg from it’s ledge. Eventually Tamo drives them away but the poachers leave the egg between some boulders on the plateau. Being unable to bring it back to the ledge, Tamo and Tima make it clear to Matica to take care of the egg, so she does.

Exactly on Matica’s tenth birthday, the condor fledgling ‘Talon’ hatches. The book then describes in detail how Matica helps Talon grow into the majestic bird he was meant to be.

Two months after confidently flying, the most unbelievably amazing thing happens. What Matica had dreamed of ever since she first befriended the condors, actually unfolds. That changes her life so completely that she can now see a positive side to her handicap. The Indians then fully accept the new Matica into their community.

This is the beginning of a time of incredible adventures with Talon and Matica, which is carried on in subsequent Talon books.

My Thoughts:

Talon, come fly with me had an ok start, but went downhill from there.

Matica is a 10 year old girl with a growth disability, after being shunned by the Indians in the village that she lives in, she finds her own place to play, by herself and away from their harsh comments. In the process she befriends a condor whom she names Tamo. They become so close that Tamo gives her his mate’s egg to raise because of the danger surrounding it with poachers.

When Talon is born Matica becomes his surrogate mother; feeding, caring for and raising him where Tamo and his mate, Tima, cannot. Talon and Matica become if possible closer than Tamo and Matica were and it’s with the help of Talon that Matica’s dreams of finally being accepted start to come true.

Talon, come fly with me has a good premise. When I read the summary, when I read what I just wrote, I wonder how it could be that a bird could give that much hope to a child that she could overcome the stigma of her disability. What I got was a far-fetched and poorly put together fairytale that has very little logic driving it.

Talon, come fly with me raises a lot of questions with me. If a village shuns your daughter to the point that she has no-one¬ to talk to or play with for five years, why don’t you move? If your daughter has a disability that stunts her growth, why are you letting her run around a forest without supervision? If you see your 10 year old daughter befriending a bird that you are scared of and that has the potential to kill her, why don’t you intervene? If you have been living in a village for five of the most formative years of your life, how can you not know the language? And finally, since when do condors have the intelligence to understand and communicate with people?

Now, the first few of my questions stem from the complete lack of parental support or supervision that was shown to me by Matica’s parents. My mother would have never let me run around without supervision when I was 10 years old, especially not if I had a growth disability that left me the size of a two year old, because logically, that kind of problem would cause issues elsewhere, with bones and organs.

She definitely would not and probably still will not let me go and hang around with a dangerous wild animal that is bigger than me and has the potential to claw my face off and eat it. If my mother does not think something is safe for her to do, she would definitely not let any of her children go anywhere near it, especially if it was alive and had a mind of its own.

My second issue is with Matica herself, she came across to me as a wilful, selfish child that has been spoilt in all the wrong ways throughout her life. She has been living in a village since she was five, and she still doesn’t know their language? How does that happen, her brother was born there and he doesn’t seem to know the language either. Matica expected the birds to give her their egg, Matica expected the egg to hatch on her birthday, and Matica expected her parents to be okay with a metre tall, talon footed animal running around their house crapping on their beds, eating from their table and knocking everything down.

My third issue is with the complete lack of logic contained within the pages of Talon, come fly with me. I was so inflamed by the sheer absurdity of this book that I actually did research into condors and their habits. Condors have never seemed to show above average intelligence, and yet both Tamo and Talon answer Matica’s questions with complete understanding, my cat is an intelligent creature, I have lived with her for 13 years and been talking to her for that long as well and no matter what kind of question I ask I have never and will never get a definitive yes or no answer from her, a grunt maybe but not a shaking of the head. Condors also lay two eggs, if the first one doesn’t survive the condors will instinctively lay a second, it’s how we are boosting their numbers in captivity the handlers take the first egg and hand raise it so the condors will lay a second one, was there any mention of that here though? Of course not, because that wouldn’t fit in with the overall plan of Matica saving the day and becoming a hero.

Talon, come fly with me hasn’t got any redeeming qualities for me, it reads like a first draft, jumpy and poorly written. Nothing is detailed and everything within it only serves to meet Matica’s needs and to make her seem a hero. The entire time we are spoken at and not to, we are being told that Matica is happy, but we never actually see it. All of the secondary characters are only there to boost Matica’s own opinion of herself and come of one dimensional and poorly created.

Talon, come fly with me was a complete train wreck, the idea was poorly constructed and the writing was poorly formed. I didn’t come away with anything from this other than mounting frustration and a new found knowledge of condors that I researched separately because of the absurdity surrounding the main character and her completely irrational relationship with a bird.

Book Review: Demonic Persuasion by Mahalia Levey

Review: Demonic Persuasion
Series: Prophecies Implied – Book 1
Author: Mahalia Levey
No of Pages: 75
Release Date: 15 November 2010

Born of a Navajo healer and a high-level prince of Hell, The Dine Gods demanded Fatal be turned over to her mother's tribe to learn their healing arts and kept away from demon hands. But with her tutelage came cruel segregation and disrespect because of her father's heritage. Not knowing why her life has suddenly come under demon attack, Fatal sets out, armed with her knowledge and her fighting skills, to take out any evil that getsin her way.

As prince of a lower level of Hell, Orobus signed a contract in blood that he be betrothed to Fatal, the high prince of Hell’s half-breed daughter. Oracle by birth, he isn’t privy to complete visions with regard to himself. Having forgotten the fateful night he signed the agreement, he’s thrust into the fight of his life—the fight to claim his woman! Come Hell or high water, he will take care of what is rightfully his, even if it means making her face both sides of her heritage and teaching her there is no shame.

My Thoughts:

I was expecting great things from Demonic Persuasion but I was left confused and mildly irritated.

Fatal has been shunned by the community she was raised in because of her half demon heritage. She leaves to strike out on her own and winds up fighting in demonic bars to earn her keep. When Orobus spots her in his bar he is drawn to her presence before he enforces their contract made at her birth and whisks her off to Hell.

Fatal really wasn’t a strong character, she was one contradiction after another. She acted tough was tough but then seemed to fall apart about halfway through. She has the training of the Navajo healers, her birth mothers people, and hates her demonic side. She also hates her parents hates Orobus and hates the life she has been forced to lead. But then all of a sudden, she can’t be without Orobus, loves her brother and runs to her mother’s open arms a day after telling them all she hated them.

That was the entire tone of Demonic Persuasion, that and trying to confuse the reader to the point of violent frustration. Every third page I was re-reading entire paragraphs just to figure out if Fatal was still in Hell or on Earth.

Orobus who apparently has this highly valued contract with Fatal’s father giving him possession of her and the right to mate her against her will didn’t even know who she was even after she stated her true name. Then six chapters later he is telling her how he had been waiting so long for her to come to him.

Not to mention the complete character change when Fatal is forced to go to Hell after being knocked unconscious, and waking up in a strange room, does she try to run? Does she put up any sort of a fight against the being she hates most in this world? Of course not, the next course of action is to so clearly jump into bed with a demon prince of Hell and wake up the next day like this is the life you have been living for the last ten years even though you still hate the person you just woke up next to.

The real killer for me was when Orobus was beaten to within an inch of his life for covering for Fatal, he told her it would take him two weeks or so to recover from the poison infested wounds and yet he’s up the next morning for another exciting round of I-don’t-like-you-and-there-is-no-logical-reason-for-me-to-be-doing-this sex.

Demonic Persuasion was a buffet of absurdity. Levey took a good idea and hacked it to pieces with incoherent writing, jumpy timelines and a very shaky main character that didn’t seem to know who or what she was.

I have been known to have masochistic tendencies, but even I will not be sitting down the next instalment of this trainwreck.