CBR2 Book 34: "Succubi Like It Hot" by Jill Myles

Publisher: Pocket Star
Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 14th, 2010
Date finished: March 15th, 2010

Jackie Brighton has a promising new job as an archeologist, and has come to terms with the Itch (the desperate need all succubi get to have sex every other day or so) because she has two gorgeous men with which to soothe said sex cravings. Then things start getting messy. Noah refuses to share her with Zane, and claims he wants them to not see each other until she makes up her mind. Someone has put a curse on her, meaning that the Itch comes every day instead of every other, and she can put a human in a coma by just touching them. She needs to get to New Orleans to talk to Delilah, a succubus who is also a voodoo priestess.

Remy has a new porn movie to promote, so suggests they take a road trip. Jackie is upset that Noah won't speak to her, but persuades Zane to come along, as she still refuses to have sex with anyone she doesn't have feelings for (unlike Remy, who will grab any guy who is conveniently nearby). Then Zane discovers that she's cursed and leaves her stranded at a rest stop. Remy keeps being intermittently possessed and craving blood (due to events at the end of the last book) and then people start turning up dead around them.

Jackie is a lot less annoying in this book, possibly because she isn't quite as painfully gullible this time around. Towards the end of the book, she even gets of of a fairly nasty situation all by herself, showing quick thinking and ingenuity. There is more development of the secondary characters, especially Noah, who becomes a lot more interested in helping Jackie once Zane has vanished. Of course, Zane is not as callous and selfish as it first seems (as he'd make a rubbish third in a love triangle if he was). I generally liked Succubi Like It Hot a lot more than the first book, and am now looking forward to checking out the third book in the series.

CBR2 Book 33: "Gentlemen Prefer Succubi" by Jill Myles

Publisher: Pocket Star
Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 12th, 2010
Date finished: March 13th, 2010

I was seriously debating whether to put the cover of this one up on my blog, as it is one of the most blatant examples of mantitty (TM Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) in my entire book collection. But it is only the second book I have won ever, and the first that I've won online, and I did actually promise the author (who arranged the contest) that I would review it here. And since I'm really quite OCD when it comes to sticking to the pattern I've established for the blog, I couldn't post about the book without the cover, so here you go. Mantitty in all its glory.

Jacqueline Brighton wakes up in a dumpster, and a tramp stole her handbag, claiming she was clearly dead, so it wasn't like she was going to be needing it. She appears to have lost an entire 24 hours, and has only very hazy memories of the night before her blackout. There is blood on her neck and spaghetti in her hair. Then she runs into a drop dead gorgeous guy, who seems to know her, and offers to buy her breakfast even though she is covered in dumpster debris. In flashes of memory, Jackie then remembers that she and Noah, who the hunky guy introduces himself as, had a very steamy date just before she blacked out. She accuses him of drugging her and dumping her after their date, but he explains that her life as she knows it (as a chubby, ever-dieting museum guide) will never be the same. The tramp was right. Jackie was dead. Now she is a succubus.

Noah explains that he is a fallen angel, and that Jackie probably ran into a vampire who drained her close to death before they hooked up. Apparently succubi are created if a vampire nearly kills a woman, and she then has sex with an angel. Jackie thinks Noah is crazy, but is persuaded to take his business card just in case. Within 24 hours of waking in the dumpster, she has lost 10 dress sizes, gained 2 cup sizes, her formerly mousy hair is a long, luxurious mane of red right out of a shampoo advert, and she desperately craves sex. She nearly assaults her doorman, before calling Noah for help.

He brings the only other succubus in town (who works as a porn star) to help her, and Jackie, who previously led a quiet and lonely life, is shocked to discover that she has to have sex every 2 days or she'll wither away and die. Apart from that, she's practically immortal. Soon Jackie has pissed off her boss who thinks she took time off to have breast implants, promised a non-fallen angel a small favour, which leads to Noah being taken hostage by the queen of the vampires. To save him, Jackie has to go on a quest for a legendary halo, accompanied by her new succubus friend Remy and the charmingly roguish Zane, who she is starting to suspect is the vampire who bit her in the first place. Being a succubus is much more complicated than Jackie was first led to believe.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't have read Jill Myles' book if I hadn't won it, as she shares a blog with several authors whose books I greatly enjoy, and sooner or later I probably would have been curious enough to order it. I enjoyed it, but was a bit exasperated by just how naive and gullible Jackie is for most of the books. She really does cause a lot of her own problems, and I kept wanting to slap some sense into her. She's not quite TSTL (too stupid to live), but fell for the most obvious ploys I could see coming a mile away, and kept being surprised when they were traps. In a first-person narrative, the protagonist's stupidity is a flaw.

Still, the supporting cast are very enjoyable. Noah and Zane are both very gorgeous in each of their vastly contrasting of each other ways. Remy is a lot of fun, and can't understand why Jackie doesn't just embrace a life of vicarious promiscuity like she has. And while Jackie annoyed me, I did like the book enough to go out and get the sequel.