The vampire population may have created an economic boom in Alaska, but their altered energy field fries most technology. They rely on hard-living—and short-lived—couriers to get business done…couriers like Sydney Kildare.

Sydney has survived to the ripe old age of twenty-six by being careful. She’s careful when navigating her tempestuous clients, outrunning hijackers and avoiding anyone who might distract her from her plan of retiring young to a tropical, vampire-free island.

Her attitude—and immunity to vampires’ allure—have made her the target of a faction of vampires trying to reclaim their territory. Her only ally is Malcolm Kelly, a secretive charmer with the uncanny habit of showing up whenever she’s in trouble. Caught in the middle of a vampire turf war, Sydney has to count on Malcolm to help her survive, or the only place she’ll retire is her grave…

Dont’ bite the Messenger was amazing. Like completely different from anything I’ve ever read when it comes to the vampire world. First she is a courier, in a world where couriers don’t live long mainly because they are bought and sold and buy nd sell their loyalties like one would acquire property. Sydney has managed to stay alive mainly because she runs faster, and delivers her packages safely and doesn’t get involved in vampire politics. Oh and she has this ability to not be influenced in a vampiric way which makes her incorruptible.

As a result of her inability to be corrupted the most powerful vampires in Alaska use her services because they know she won’t give up her secrets for money or because she can’t help it. But when she gets caught in the middle of a vampire turf war she becomes collateral against the vampires she has come to somewhat respect and who have conversely sort of quietly protected her as a resource because she is honest, can’t be corrupted and does her job so well.

When a turf war erupts between two vampire factions, Sydney because she is so well known as a courier who is liked by one particular faction she becomes a symbol for those vampires, and she becomes a target.

This is a fantastic vampire novel. I LOVED it, it was so unique so exciting, so dark. Sydney is on her way out, she has an exit strategy she is not at all enamored or enraptured with the vampiric lifestyle, in fact she kind of hates it, yet thats what makes her good at her job, she doesn’t like them as a whole but respects what they are capable of so she knows how to walk the thin line keeping her life separate from theirs, but when this turf war starts its the vampires, and one in particular who comes to her rescue.

If you can’t tell by now I loved this book. it was such a breath of fresh air in a crowded paranormal field. I will be buying ALL of Regan Summers Books.

Overall Rating: A

High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.
Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat, handle first.
Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice.
Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom. 
And then ditched her.
Now, as the sun rises over her small town, and with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven, Justina must piece together — stain by stain on her thrift-store dress — exactly how she ended up dateless. A three-legged Chihuahua was involved. Along with a demolition derby-ready Cadillac. And there was that incident at the tattoo parlor. Plus the flying leap from Brian Sontag’s moving car…
But to get the whole story, Justina will have to face the boy who ditched her. And discover if losing out at prom can ultimately lead to true love.

Have you ever read a book that was preachy without banging you over the head with it? Thats Ditched. Its a good book for a 13 year old whom you are trying to scare before they enter high school with what not to do because they’ll “Get a reputation” and what to do in order to stay sane and safe. Its great for that. Justina is kind of an idiot who kissed as many boys as she could when she was younger and now has a reputation for being fast and a ho. Not the greatest premise in the world but a good message. There are also some great messages about responsibility while drinking, and how idiotic stoners actually look, seem and act.

Its one of those really quick novellas I’d share with my teenage daughter (if I had one) and then have conversations about how you present yourself leads to how people think about you, misconceptions and other things that they need to be aware of.

Its cute, its fun, its educational, its not for adults.

Overall Rating: C+

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn’t prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

I LOVED how this started directly after Unearthly ended. I loved how it was literally Immediate. It throws you right back into the novel, right back into Clara and her set of problems and issues that lead her to the fire, to trying to find out who she is supposed to save and who she is supposed to end up being with. Clara obviously as we know from Unearthly saves Tucker and a s a result of her revealing she is an Angel Blood Christian develops a slightly unhealthy obsession with her, convinced she is his purpose on this world and that she is the reason he is supposed to be on Earth.

Clara and Angel meanwhile along with Clara’s brother and some others, decide to create an angel born group, which starts deciphering Clara’s latest vision dream. We get a lot of the blackwings, in Hallowed, far more than we saw them in Unearthly which adds some tension to what would otherwise be a proto-typical teen angsty love triangle romance, with no soul.

But Hallowed is different and its only due to one thing, Hands amazing ability to write complete characters. Complete and soulful characters who jumped off the page fully formed with their liveliness and their humanity. Flaws, Nothing defines a great character more than their flaws and their complete inability to comprehend and comment on everything. There is nothing i hate more than a character who seems to know everything even as they are supposedly investigating and finding it out. Its weird. I love how clueless Clara was, and how she was snarky, sarcastic, even nasty especially to her mother who concealed her bloodlines form her for years and caused a significant percentage of Clara’s problems simply by not explaining who she was.

Hallowed is full of answers for the many many questions we had at the end of Unearthly, we get some clarity on Clara’s mother and her brothers situation, how Clara came about how she was able  to Glory and fight the Darkwings. We also get some clarity on who Christian is  and why he believes Clara is his savior, or rather his saving grace, but there is this overwhelming presence of sorrow and this cloud hanging over this story. Clara simply doesn’t get a break, everytime she turns around there is something else and she doesn’t handle it particularly well which is one of the reasons I love this story because Clara is fautly, she has many many flaws and problems and doesn’t always handle them in the best possible ways. Even as she is angelic and unearthly, she is human and that is what makes this such a great story.

Overall Rating: A-

Elite 8th Wing pilot Celene Jur was taken captive after a mysterious device temporarily disabled her ship’s controls. Three solar months later, when Celene receives intel on the man who built the device, she’s ready to get the bastard. Only problem is, the higher-ups think her mission partner should be Nils Calder, a tech-head who can understand the disabling device. The attraction between them is electric, but Celene needs a soldier who can watch her back as she exacts her revenge.

Nils knows his department is nicknamed NerdWorks. Pilots like Celene think the closest tech geeks come to combat is all-night Nifalian chess tournaments. But behind the NerdWorks insignia on his sleeve Nils is an able fighter, ready to prove himself and gain Celene’s trust.

The desire between them is unexpected, but with the fate of thousands hanging in the balance, the hotshot pilot and the tech genius must succeed in their mission—no matter the cost.

When Celene was taken hostage, with her ship and rescued by her friends fellow 8th Wing Squadron people, she was spared many of the indignities that could have come as a result of her being taken hostage. So of course to recover her confidence and get justice for herself, when they are going out looking for the man that took her hostage, she was going to be in on the mission to capture the people responsible for her kidnapping.

Nils is a genius, who knows the man that made the machine that enabled Celene’s machine to be taken and later to be sold. She doesn’t want Nils along, thinking he’s just dead weight that is only going to make her job more difficult. However she quickly realizes that Nils is going to be an asset, both because of his formerly close relationship with the man responsible for her capture and with the physical fighting aspects of the recognizance and recovery mission.

Celene is a caricature. She’s initially anime version of herself. She could have been portrayed merely as the ice queen amazing flyer of the 8th Wing Patrols, but Ms. Archer has the great ability to take what we think about the characters, what others would have been happy with and simply making us see the person behind the character. Not only is Celene vividly aware of her reputation she realizes the benefits and the drawbacks of being a figure head, a symbol, an ideal. She even says she isn’t sure if people want to be with her or with her reputation.

Nils is so secure with who he is, and is so simply okay with being the Nerd that he’s not put off by any of Celene’s hostility or her bristly nature. He is so self aware that he knows exactly what he is capable of and he is able to easily adapt to Celenes style and of her needs as they are fighting and they are finding their perpetrator.

Chain Reaction is action packed. Its full of kickass heroines, and kickass heros who also have brains, emotional intelligence and IQ to match.

LOVED it.

Overall Rating: B+

Grace has taken care of her widowed father her entire adult life and the ornery old goat has finally died. She has no job, no skills and very little money, and has heard her father’s prediction that no decent man would ever want her so often she accepts it as fact.

But she does have a big old house on Lawyers Row in Peacock, Tennessee. She opens a rooming house and quickly gathers a motley crew of tenants: Promise, Grace’s best friend since kindergarten, who’s fighting cancer; Maxie, an aging soap opera actress who hasn’t lost her flair for the dramatic; Jonah, a sweet, gullible old man with a crush on Maxie.

And Dillon, Grace’s brother’s best friend, who stood her up on the night of her senior prom and has regretted it ever since. Dillon rents Grace’s guest house for the summer and hopes to make up for lost time and past hurts—but first, he’ll have to convince Grace that she’s worth loving…

Nine years ago, Lauren Matthews prosecuted the case of a lifetime. But her error in judgment sent an innocent man to prison for a long time. Now Arlen Fieldstone has finally been released, and Lauren has only one thing on her mind: asking forgiveness. How can she make up for nine years of his life?

To get to Arlen, Lauren must first get through Arlen’s best friend, Will Farris. Will hasn’t forgotten Lauren from those days, and he hasn’t forgiven her for destroying his best friend’s life. He is Arlen’s keeper, protecting him from suspicious neighbors as well as from Lauren.

In the steaming summer streets of Richmond, Virginia, three people’s lives collide. Lauren needs forgiveness. Arlen needs hope. And Will? He needs something too, something that no one can know-especially not Lauren…

What happens when felons who were not previously violent, go behind bars, then are released? No one ever really discusses what happens not only to the felons but to their families, friends, and the people that were involved in their trials, how do they change especially when it is found out that he was wrongly convicted. How does it change a hotshot lawyer’s career, when the case she built her professonal reputation on turns out to be a dud. How does it change the woman who was married to a guy who they thought could be guilty of such a heinous crime, how does her perspective on life change? Does she become withdrawn, does she question everything she has ever done?

What happens to the guy who worked so hard to get his friends case reopened. When his friend gets back from prison a completely different man, how is he able to help him, how is he able to rationalize getting him out when he is obviously a changed man. If he wasn’t able to do that kind of violence when he went in, but he is able and capable when he came out, how does that make him feel.

And finally the man who was falsely accused but spend his formative adult years in prison. 9 years in prison, has completely changed him.

I didn’t expect A Promise of Safekeeping to be so sweeping. It was this onion, this layer cake of characters, whose motivations are so complex, they’re so human. And we meet them that way. We meet the surface, then over time, through the book we peel back those layers until their true nature, their underpinnings, the things that really matter to them, their driving forces are revealed. Its a stunning way to learn characters and its a stunningly heartbreakingly surprising and beautiful novel about guilt.

The whole book is a study in guilt, how it plays us, causes us to do things that are irrational, unexpected, stupid, merely to placate it. Its one of those books that just takes you completely by surprise and moves you to a place that is just so out of your comfort zone that it forces you to recognize parts of yourself you didn’t like.

Its just amazing.

Overall Rating: B+

Linguist Elios Campbell is thrilled to be granted flight time in a Colonial Guard fighter jet, until he catches sight of his pilot. Spending time with Sender Kinnison holds even more appeal than the flight itself.

Sender’s desire for other men is forbidden by his faith and his family. He tries to resist his attraction to Elios, who is unlike anyone he’s ever known. When he fails, the incredible sex quickly leads to something deeper, forcing Sender to question his long-held beliefs.

Then, duty calls Sender home to the repressed colony of Themis. Will he be forced to give up a future with Elios to honor the ghosts of his past?

2 cute futuristic flyboys who happen to be kick ass astronauts, who fall in love with each other, both struggling with their own demons as they try to find love and figure out just how much they mean to each other, in a society where its still taboo but accepted to love one of the same gender but who both have massive amounts of famililal guilt, shame and pressure to get through before being able to accept being together.

While this was not the seminal work about homosexual relationships in space (never thought I’d write that sentence), its a very cute, short, enjoyable novel that gets you just relaxed enough to enjoy the ride, and has just enough tension with the fact that Sender’s culture will not permit a homosexual relationship, and with the problems that result from their liaison to keep you interested in the outcome.

If you’re looking for a quick hit of excitement, some amazing M/m romance, and a little sci-fi thrown in for good measure, this is your book.

Overall Rating: C

Arriving home on leave from his tour of duty, Army Captain Alex Mendoza knows there’s a beautiful woman waiting for him—his best friend’s sister. She’s always been off limits…until now. He fully intends to move them out of being “just friends” and encourage her to release the sexual needs he senses she’s buried deep.

Tianna McIntyre is starting over after her marriage ended. Her ex-husband weakened her self-esteem and caused her to deny her true sexual desires. But being around Alex brings all her dormant fantasies to the surface, and now Tianna feels the stirrings of her secret, submissive wishes.

Determined to help repair the damage Tianna’s ex did to her self-worth, Alex will use whatever means necessary to convince her they’re meant for each other, including tying her down to make sure he has her full attention while he takes her to the heights of pleasure she’s always dreamed of…

Stories about damaged women, their self esteem battered, their confidence gone, it always gets you right there in the gut.When its a story about a woman who is overcoming her own inhibitions and her own insecurities, its always an inspiring tale. I loved reading how Tianna was beginning to find her feet when Alex came home. After a devastating marriage, one in which her own insecuritites were used against her, she was finally able to step outside of her own skin and find herself the strength to begin to move on, when Alex comes home and shows her that she is worth more than just this sad shack and shell of a person that didn’t think she was worth the time of day or the effort.

Its a short little novella but its a great little one when you get a fantastic view of what coming back to life and coming back into your  own looks like. Its a cute little novel that makes you smile a little as you read it, and realize that life can begin again if you let it.

Overall Rating: B-

Private investigator Grace tracks a kidnapped child to middle-of-nowhere Iowa. Encountering a strange creature she knows can’t be a local animal, she doesn’t need her psychic abilities to figure out the sleepy town is not what it seems. When she meets the intriguing Aiden, she’s plunged into a world of Norse gods and fire demons where the Wild Hunt still rides the night.

Aiden needs Grace’s help to cross the portal between worlds and rescue his daughter. Grace is unlike any woman he’s ever met. He’s drawn to her courage, distressed by her vulnerability and doubtful of her motives. But he knows that her visions are the key to defeating the enemy and bringing everyone home alive.

Grace wants a future with Aiden, even if it means she’ll never have a normal life. When a test run to the portal takes a terrifying turn, they must learn to finally trust each other or Aiden’s daughter, and their chance at love, will be lost forever…

So I don’t think I’ve ever started a novel before where the main character was abandoned at a mental institute as a child for hearing voices. Thats a new one for me. Whats also new, is the essential premise which combines Norse Gods, Fae legends, and demonic demons. At times the mix of so many mythologies became overwhelming, particularly when you are familiar with the legends themselves and you’re a little thrown by how they’ve been changed to suit the authors purposes but then it does make some sense. And in the end its the last thing you’re worried about.

The hotness of the romance between Grace and Aiden is so distracting that it literally makes all of the problems with the plot, mixing of mythologies, the action becoming a bit predictable and stale, but the romance is intense, and emotional, and it supersedes everything else that is going on. They are such great characters, detailed complex, intense, romantic, and I simply loved seeing them end up together, fighting for Aiden’s daughter, fighting to make their lives come together, and fighting for love.

Even as the book became somewhat mundane and predictable you are so entranced by passion between Grace and Aiden that it doesn’t seem to matter overly much.

Overall Rating: C+