CBR18 Book 43: "Prince of Storms" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for this ARC. This book is on sale now.

Naia, Einar and Aleksi return to the ice queen's island to figure out who tried to kidnap them and are soon joined by all the other deities of the High Court of the Sheltered Lands, concerned about them and wondering exactly who is behind this most recent plot. As Naia's powers keep growing and she needs to use them to protect the innocent residents of the island from dangers, it becomes clear that she is, in fact, the ancient goddess of Rahvekya reborn. She can remember an entirely different lifetime, as well as her relationship with the first Kraken.

However, Einar doesn't seem to remember his former life, and Aleksi sees the closeness between the other two and grows concerned about a future where he must let his lovers go, for their own good. Because of dangers from old foes arriving on the island, bent on revenge, Aleksi may not have long to worry about the future of himself or his lovers. The Betrayer wants the power of Rahvekya for himself and to kill Aleksi and now he may have the chance to achieve both. 

I tried to read this so I could finish and review it before the release date, but since NetGalley would only allow me to read the ARC in their own app, which doesn't save your progress, as well as forces me to read on my phone (something I only do in utmost emergencies, if I am stuck without one of my two e-readers or a physical book. It doesn't happen often). So in the end, I waited to start it until after release day, when my pre-ordered digital copy was available to download on my Kindle. Based on how uncomfortable it was to read in the NetGalley app, I may reject any future ARCs that are only available to read in that format. 

I read for pleasure, and for escapism, and I don't like when books feel like homework. Unfortunately, since I really do try to read all the ARCs I am granted and leave honest reviews for them, I had to get through this, but it took me far longer than it should have for a book this length. While I pretty much devoured books in the Bound to Fire and Steel duology in no time at all, this felt like a slog for the first two thirds of the book, and I for a lot of it, I was pretty much reading it out of obligation, not because I was particularly enjoying it.

The action does pick up in the last third, because that's when it basically becomes one very long action sequence, with SOO many different battles and near death-experiences for our heroes. Before that, the plot is very slow, and can't seem to move away from Aleksi worrying that the other two are better off without him, while they keep trying to reassure him that no, they aren't and they don't want him to nobly slink off somewhere to nurse his heartbreak for centuries. There's also the whole Naia and Einar are the reincarnated versions of Rahveyka's goddess and her lover, the god of Storms. I found it very hard to care about any of it. Things did get cooler when both Naia and Einar were fully able to embrace their new powers and truly kick the asses of their supernatural enemies. But with the first two thirds of the book being so boring, I cannot in good conscience rate this higher than 3.5 stars. 

Under the circumstances, though, considering the dystopian hellscape the authors who make up Kit Rocha live under, and the strides they've made to fundraise for democracy and help Americans offer resistance, it's laudable that they were able to finish this novel at all. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 3: "Dance with the Devil" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

After his father died, Rafael "Rafe" Morales basically sold himself to TechCorps and agreed to become a technologically enhanced supersoldier, so he could make enough money to keep his widowed mother and younger siblings safe. He didn't really know what signing away his life would entail, and given the choice again, he probably would have chosen differently. He hasn't been able to see them for years, certainly not since he and his team, the Silver Devils, had to fake their own deaths to get away from their cruel superiors.

Unlike Rafe, Danijela "Dani" Volkova didn't really have external pressures that made her sign up with TechCorps. She was just curious and driven, and once their scientists had experimented sufficiently on her, she became super fast, agile, and graceful and lost the ability to feel pain, at all. This made her the perfect elite bodyguard for the rich and powerful, until she just couldn't handle the cruelty and corruption she was witness to and broke away. She joined Nina and Maya to become one of the mercenary librarians of Atlanta. Dani feels like TechCorps turned her into a monster. She appreciates the love that her chosen sisters and the former supersoldiers who share their lives offer her, but deep down she knows she doesn't deserve it. 

Since their very first meeting, when Dani may have "accidentally" stabbed Rafe a little bit, the chemistry between them has been off the charts. But Rafael doesn't want a quick fling, Dani doesn't do long-term commitment, and neither is willing to risk screwing up their new big, unusual family unit with relationship drama. Keeping everything casual and platonic becomes a lot more difficult when the two have to go undercover among the rich and deplorable of Atlanta. After the death of Tobias Richter, the VP of Security for TechCorps, and the one who sat with most of the power, the organisation is desperately scrambling to maintain control, and our enhanced heroes and heroines have decided that it's time to start fighting back. 

Having come into unexpected wealth at the end of the previous book, Maya is using all of her considerable resources and brains, her wealth of sensitive information burned into her brain after growing up in the loving arms of TechCorps and learning a lot of its dirty secrets, as well as calling in all the favours from her vast network of informants and allies. It's one such ally, a head researcher at TechCorps, whom Rafe and Dani are trying to contact when they go undercover, as a married couple. Once on the mission, they not only discover that Rafe's little sister is in terrible danger, but it also becomes impossible for them to keep their hands off each other. 

This is the third and probably final (there is a suggestion at the end of the epilogue in this one that there may be new dangers facing our intrepid band of heroes, but it seems like the author duo has moved on to new projects now) novel in the Mercenary Librarians series. As such, it's not the best place to start. This might very well not be an almost five-star read to someone else but as the end chapter of all that has been established in the previous two books, with all the seeds sown and the principal cast, as well as the various supporting characters, joining together to launch a full-scale revolution, I loved this book. The romance between Dani and Rafe has been teased from the beginning and didn't disappoint. 

Both Dani and Rafe got turned into lethal weapons by TechCorps, but Rafael grew up in a loving family and always knew that the sacrifices he made were for them. Dani was rejected by her parents once they realised the choices she had made, and was honed into a ruthless killing machine by the scientists. She is fiercely loyal and has vast capacities for love and emotion, all of which she is worthy of, but takes her quite some time to come to terms with. 

I loved this book, and its action-packed and thrilling finale, where the downtrodden of Atlanta join with our protagonists to kick ass and take names, in order to secure a better future, free of the dominance of TechCorps and their controlling ways. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover for this one at least has slightly more of a sci-fi feel than the last one, but it's still a pretty generic image and I certainly would never have picked up this book from the cover alone. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Books 2: "The Devil You Know" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Maya used to be Marjorie Chevalier, but had to change her identity after she escaped the evil super scientists at TechCorps, where she was trained as a data courier (basically a human hard drive), with her senses specially enhanced to remember flawlessly everything she hears, reads, sees, hears and experiences. She used to work for one of the Vice Presidents of TechCorps who was secretly orchestrating a rebellion, However, her boss (also the only maternal figure Maya ever knew) was caught and executed, and Maya had to be smuggled to safety. 

She found that safety with Nina, now one of the sisters she never had. Along with the lethal Dani, they have been working to help the residents of post-apocalyptic Atlanta by passing on free information (books, videos, music) and technical know-how. They also occasionally go off on adventures to recover more books and resources. After the events of the previous books, their little found family has expanded a lot, with the former supersoldiers from the Silver Devils squad having settled down in a warehouse next to the librarians' headquarters. The group is hired to retrieve what turns out to be a genetically modified child, and it turns out that Rainbow (which is the name the child chooses for herself) is not the only one. Since Maya doesn't have super speed or strength, she stays back home holding the fort, accompanied by Grey, the former sniper of the Silver Devils, who can't be trusted on a tense mission since his body might betray him.

All the Silver Devils have technical implants that have enhanced their senses. Supersoldiers like them don't normally have a very long lifespan, but in rare cases, their bodies might start rejecting the implant after decades of being used to them. This is what is happening to Grey now. He can suddenly be struck with seizures and an operation to replace the implant has a less than 5% chance of survival, even if they could find a surgeon skilled enough to perform the operation. So Grey is accepting that he doesn't have long to live. One of the things he wants to do with his final days is make sure Maya has the skills and confidence to defend herself and keep herself safe. She's always been told that she needs to be careful not to overload her brain, or she can pretty much short-circuit, but Grey suspects that she's limiting herself out of fears told to her to control her and keep her from reaching her full potential. He shows her that not only is she an absolute wizard with all things technical, but her perfect recall is a superpower in itself, if not as physically intimidating as those of her chosen sisters.

There is a very strong attraction between Maya and Grey, however, the only man Maya ever loved before was literally tortured to death in front of her in an attempt to get her to reveal the secrets buried in her brain after her boss was executed. She's also prone to sensory overload and doesn't really know how she'd react in a physically overwhelming situation, like having sex. Letting herself fall for a man who's dying is bound to lead to heartbreak, but not acting on the attraction before it's too late might be a bigger mistake than keeping her distance.

While Maya and the Silver Devils all had very skillful people hiding their tracks and faking their deaths (complete with falsified bodies with their DNA planted), Tobias Richter, the VP of Security at TechCorps is a ruthless and deeply driven man, convinced (rightly so) that he can find them if he searches hard enough. When a video from a farmer's market surfaces, proving to him that his quarries are still alive, Maya and Grey's days together might be numbered sooner than they think. 

I enjoyed Deal with the Devil, which introduced the world and all these characters to each other. Now the super soldiers and the high-tech murder ladies all live together as a big, ruthlessly efficient, and deadly family, doing their best to right wrongs and improve their local community. Maya has always felt like the weakest of the group, and the lies to her by her former boss to keep her from showing too much of her excellence to Tech Corps means she hasn't been able to reach her true potential until Grey comes along and makes her see how truly remarkable she is, even in a dangerous situation. She's not just brains and perfect recall. Their romance develops slowly since Grey is likely to die soon, and Maya has some understandable emotional scars from her first and only romantic relationship so far.

The villain in this book is a complete psycho, and once he discovers that Maya and the Silver Devils are alive, he lures them into a trap to get his clutches on Maya. Of course, Maya is no longer a delicate flower raised in a sheltered environment and beats Tobias Richter at his own game. Things look dicey for Grey for a while (who to be fair already thought he was dying, so wanted to save Maya with the grandest of gestures), but this is a romance, and our brave, self-sacrificing hero doesn't actually end the book dead. 

By the end of this book, our altruistic heroes and heroines have some difficult choices to make. Their attempts to stay hidden from TechCorps have clearly failed, and a confrontation is inevitable. Are they ready to go to war?

Judging a book by its cover: This is about as generic as covers go. Nothing about this says post-apocalyptic action adventure with kick-ass murder ladies and supersoldier dudes. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Books 92-95: A bunch of romantic books I read this summer and didn't get round to reviewing

Fangirl, the Manga: Volume 3 - Rainbow Rowell and Gabi Nam

Page count: 224 pages

Rating: 4 stars

This August saw the release of the third installment of Rainbow Rowell's manga version of Fangirl, my absolute favourite of her books (did I just buy a fancy tenth-anniversary edition, even though I own it in three other formats, NOT counting the mangas? You betcha). Cath is still struggling at college. Her writing partner Nick steals the story they've been working on together and makes her seem unreasonable for being upset about it. Her father has a mental breakdown and has to be hospitalised, and she has no choice but to ask Levi for a ride to visit him, even though she'd rather avoid him now, considering what she saw in his kitchen during the party. Now she's considering dropping out, so she can go back home and take care of her father. She's also feels betrayed by Wren, who wants to reconnect with their estranged mother.

This is a much more emotional issue to read, because Cath isn't exactly having a great time of it, and there are a lot of emotional stakes for her, what with this coming three-quarters through the story of the novel. She manages to talk things through with Levi, however, and her Dad forbids her from giving up and quitting college to take care of him. Her professor also refuses to let her quit the course and extends her deadline to make sure she can submit something wholly original to her fiction writing class, not just her fan fiction. So things are looking better by the end of the issue - and at least now she knows that Nick is a manipulative, lazy weasel. The interludes with Baz and Simon from this fictional universe's versions of Baz and Simon (not to be confused with Rainbow Rowell's OTHER versions of Baz and Simon) also feel less frustrating than they do in the novel, as they are very cute in the manga illustrations.

Deal with the Devil - Kit Rocha

Page count: 336 pages

Rating: 4 stars

In a post-apocalyptic version of America, Knox, the leader of a group of genetically enhanced supersoldiers has a difficult choice to make. He and his elite strike force went AWOL because they were sick of being used to terrorise and murder innocent civilians, but that also means that the implants they have that give them their enhanced powers can't be adjusted without help from a very talented hacker. If the implants aren't adjusted regularly, the soldiers with eventually die, painfully. Their hacker friend has been kidnapped, and to get her ransomed, Knox needs to deliver Nina, the leader of a group of high-tech librarians.

Nina is a clone who escaped from a secret research facility. As is Nina. All of their clones are dead, due to the experiments carried out on them. Maya is their third partner and a technical wiz with perfect recall of everything she's ever read or heard. The three women act as high-tech librarians, offering free information (music, books, videos) to the population of post-apocalyptic Atlanta, but to pay the bills, they also basically act as archeologists for other groups who want to find hidden vaults, like the lost Library of Congress servers.

This book is a lot of fun and has two groups of really enjoyable characters. The tagline claims it's "Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers" and for once, that's actually a fairly good description. We have two groups of tight-knit found families who start out nominally working towards different objectives, but who then have to join forces and cooperate. The series is a trilogy, and the authors are not really very subtle about hinting about which characters will be paired up in future novels. 

I liked the world-building, and the chemistry between the various characters and the main couple have understandable obstacles to work through since one is luring the other one into a trap to save his teammates. That several of his teammates think this is a dumb idea and they should just let the clever and resourceful women they've met work out a better plan speaks in their favour. 

I own all three novels in the series and look forward to reading more of them in the next year. 

How the Wallflower Was Won - Eva Leigh

Page count: 380 pages

Rating: 2.5 stars

This is another of those historical romances where the hero has to get married in a certain amount of time to not get disinherited/inherit a bunch of money, and from what I can gather, this entire series is about three different men in the same pickle. Finn Ransome has been told he's stupid his entire life (he has dyslexia), but has no problem calculating the odds at the gambling tables, where he makes enough to allow him to live comfortably. He starts the novel planning to set his friend (who also has to get married to inherit money) up with a prim bluestocking, but of course, ends up falling for her himself. 

Tabitha Seaton wants to join the Stirling Society, a snooty group full of influential thinkers (all men, naturally). She needs to be married for them to even consider allowing her into the group, and she much prefers Finn to his brooding friend Dom. They get married, and obviously, it's supposed to be a marriage of convenience only, with them never likely to ever catch warmer feelings for one another. 

I barely remembered this book two months after I read it. Now, nearly six months after I finished it, I could only make a summary after looking at reviews on Goodreads. I have downgraded my rating of it accordingly, because I can't really give 3 stars to a book I have this much trouble remembering the plot of. I seem to recall that the hero kept bringing the heroine to libraries, and making sure their new house had a really nice library - which is an excellent quality in a man. Tabitha kept trying to impress the idiotic white men of the Stirling Society, who were never going to accept her in a million years. In the end, she and Finn create their own, much more inclusive society and live happily ever after. I think. I don't care enough to look up further details. Eva Leigh has written some romances I really enjoyed in the past (I seem to recall there are cameos from some of her previous couples in this one), but this was a very forgettable one.

Knockout - Sarah Maclean

Page count: 404 pages

Rating: 4 stars

We have finally reached Lady Imogen's book, and what a delight it was. In her current series, Sarah Maclean writes about four clever young women who have worked to create vast network of women all over London, to help their sisters in need. They save young noblewomen from disastrous marriages, they take down corrupt individuals and they make sure there is justice when the poor and helpless are taken advantage of. The press has dubbed them Hell's Belles. In the previous two books in the series, Lady Sesily Talbot finally persuaded Caleb Calhoun to be her husband, and puzzle-solving Adelaide Frampton, daughter of one of London's most notorious crime bosses, ended up marrying a duke. 

Lady Imogen Loveless is the daughter of an eccentric earl who didn't mind his only daughter learning about science and chemistry. As a result, Imogen is really good with explosives and uses her knowledge to help the Belles. When her father died, her much older brother inherited the title, and he never really knew how to relate to his brainy sister. He wants her to keep out of trouble, and possibly find a husband, and hires detective Thomas Peck to act as her bodyguard and keeper. Of course, Thomas Peck is the last person who should be guarding Imogen's virtue, and he certainly doesn't relish the thought of her finding herself a husband who isn't him. But Thomas is a commoner and could never be good enough for Imogen, could he?

I've enjoyed the majority of Maclean's historical romances, and even consider some of them essential reading for anyone interested in this subgenre, but she's also written some real duds. Thankfully, this series has been very enjoyable, and I think Knockout is my favourite one so far. Maclean is also great at teasing the final book in a series with a heck of a cliffhanger, which she also does here. Thanks to the final lines of this book, I'm now impatiently awaiting the release of Duchess' book, hopefully out in August 2024. 

Speaking of releases - I was lucky enough to find a paperback copy of this in a US bookstore more than two weeks before its actual release date, to much rejoicing. I was visiting my BFF Lydia in Vermont at the time and had time to read half before I sadly forgot the book in the stress of packing and returning home, so had to wait until she had a chance to ship it back to me (which was some time actual the release date). It was probably hubris for being too smug about getting it early. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 81: "Consort of Fire" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 398 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer! This was an ARC from Netgalley (but I have also paid to buy the book myself, after reading it). My opinions are my own.

Every one hundred years, the king of the Sheltered Lands has to send one heir to serve as consort to the ancient dragon god who acts as its protector and guardian. The previous consort went mad with fear not long after bonding with the Dragon, and Ash, the Dragon, worries that history will repeat itself. Ash has lived for over three thousand years, and even with successful unions, his consorts, being mere mortals, grow old and die. Yet the tradition must continue or the protective spells on the land can't be renewed.

The consort is obviously supposed to be of royal blood, but this time, the king has sent an impostor. Sachielle and her handmaiden Zenya were orphans, adopted, and trained to be the perfect weapons. Sachi has been trained to seduce and beguile, Zenya to be a ruthless and highly efficient assassin. Both young women have faced a very harsh and torturous upbringing, with the safety of the other used to keep them under control during training. Their secret mission is to murder the Dragon when he is most vulnerable, and they have only five weeks to complete their task. If they fail, the king's high priest has placed a curse on Sachi. She will die painfully and her soul will be consumed. Zenya has never known love in her life, except from Sachi, and will do anything and everything to keep her safe - even something as impossible as murdering a living god.

Of course, Ash turns out to be nothing like what the young women have been led to expect, nor are the other living gods of the pantheon, all of whom do their best to make the young women feel welcome. The Dragon is not the ruthless tyrant that they feared, he is beloved of his followers and treats both of them with kindness and solicitude. Nor is he even vaguely threatened when he discovers that his bonded bride and her handmaiden are lovers - he just becomes determined to seduce both of them. The more time they spend together, the more willing Sachi is to just give up on the assassination plot, but Zenya isn't going to let her beloved be consumed by the curse, no matter how charming and hot the Dragon is.

I've only read one previous book by Kit Rocha, and while it was entertaining, it was nothing like this. The Mercenary Librarians is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, this is pure fantasy. I found the world-building intriguing and loved pretty much all the characters (except the dastardly high priest - but he was clearly supposed to be pond scum). All the living gods were once mortals who did something great and self-sacrificing to protect the land and/or their people, and now they're like a big, vaguely incestuous family who tease each other and hang out at each other's palaces. The other gods are all aware of Ash's melancholy and worries about his new union. Sachi and Zenya are not the first to try to assassinate him either, so none of them are too worried until it becomes clear that if she gets her hands on the right weapon, Zenya could actually present a real threat.

If you are a fan of clean romance, this is not the book for you. This book is so steamy that it should possibly be kept in the freezer when you're not reading it. So many sex scenes, including an actual orgy at one point. Yet as is the case with good writers, every sex scene also furthers the plot in some way.

I wasn't expecting to be so completely engrossed by this. The second I finished the book, I went online to order the sequel, which sadly isn't out until August. I think the series was originally going to be a trilogy, now it looks like it may just be a duology. I'm not complaining, as long as I get more smexy fantasy in this world. I would love sequels featuring others in the pantheon as well. 

Judging a book by its cover: As covers go, there is little here to suggest how steamy (and fun) the contents are. The hourglass with the red sand is very central to the plot, however. Each moment of Sachi's remaining life until the curse takes her is shown in a magical hourglass that Sachi and Zenya carry with them. Sachi prefers not to look at it too often, Zenya is almost obsessed with it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read