Recommendations from Karin for June 2014.

In order to bring some more variety to my blog, I have asked some of my bookish friends to tell about the books they have in the past month, and to give us a recommendation. Today’s post is made by Karin from Austria.

Karin:

I have read 16 books this month and I wasn’t really that lucky. Most of the books I just skimmed and decided I wouldn’t buy any more books by the same authors. But there were some outstanding books as well.

Nalini Singh: Shield of Winter



Tonya Burrows: Honor Reclaimed



Alexandra Ivy: Hunt the Darkness



Of course my number one book this month was “Shield of Winter”.



Assassin. Soldier. Arrow. That is who Vasic is, who he will always be. His soul drenched in blood, his conscience heavy with the weight of all he's done, he exists in the shadows, far from the hope his people can almost touch - if only they do not first drown in the murderous insanity of a lethal contagion. To stop the wave of death, Vasic must complete the simplest and most difficult mission of his life.
For if the Psy race is to survive, the empaths must wake...
Having rebuilt her life after medical 'treatment' that violated her mind and sought to stifle her abilities, Ivy should have run from the black-clad Arrow with eyes of winter frost. But Ivy Jane has never done what she should. Now, she'll fight for her people, and for this Arrow who stands as her living shield, yet believes he is beyond redemption.
But as the world turns to screaming crimson, even Ivy's fierce will may not be enough to save Vasic from the cold darkness...


I have a hard time understanding how Nalini Singh does it but even with this 13th installment in her Psy/Changeling series she managed to convince me that the development of our hero Vasic - who had seemed to be heading towards a cold and harsh death – was not only logical but that there could be no other way for the couple to end happily ever after.

I have to admit to a strong weakness for the Arrows ever since I read Judd’s and Brenna’s book “Caressed by Ice” (which remains one of my favourite books in this whole series to this day!).

That being said I don’t want to spoil anything further for you but I want to talk about how fascinated I am by this series. It is not very often that an author catches my attention and keeps it throughout a series that long. I guess I simply like her writing style.

I did not really like all the books in the series – in fact I only “liked” Visions of Heat. That means I read it and thought, “Okay. I read this book. Now I know more. Did I really want to know more? Well, I sort of did. That’s it, then.”

I also did not really like “Blaze of Memory”, I just skimmed through the whole thing; the hero simply had not caught my attention and I was not fond of the heroine.

But as for all the other books I had a hard time waiting for the next installment. Even when Nalini Singh decided to write about a couple who did not have the mating bond that is so essential for the changelings I bought the whole thing hook, line and sinker. Many readers were not so happy about the ending of “Tangle of Need” but I regard it as a hopeful beginning. (By the way: can you imagine a mature adult reading a book of paranormal romance who hopes that the couple will have the mating bond one day – I mean: really? But yes, that would be me then.)

I think it’s a little strange for me to keep on reading a series even when some of the books are not really that captivating. That doesn’t mean I give up easily, I don’t decide to stop reading just because I didn’t like one of the books. But there are some series out there that held me captive until the books deteriorated further to a point where I thought it was no longer worth the money. That happened for example with a writer who insisted on inventing a language, providing readers with chants and songs and even kind of a dictionary that took up a large part of the books. Also this series took turns I was no longer interested in and so I stopped reading.

I really hope that Nalini Singh will keep writing the Psy/Changeling books until she is 95 – as she is fond of saying. I have a feeling that as long as she publishes (also her second series – the “Guild Hunter”) she will have at least one faithful fan – but I have a strong feeling that I’m not alone. There is more out there, don’t you agree?


Aurian: Thanks for the recommendation Karin! I have to admit I haven’t read the book yet, but I sure will read it soon. I love Nalini Singh’s paranormal worlds, and I also don’t think I will ever get enough of them. And I am so curious about her contemporary new project she was hinting at in Berlin.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian