Christine Feehan - Water Bound

The first book in the Sisters of the Heart series.




The last thing Lev Prakenskii remembered was being lost in the swirling currents of the ocean and getting sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven. Just as quickly, just a miraculously, he was saved—pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger. But Lev has no memory of who he is—or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and for the life of his unexpected savior.Her name is Rikki, a sea~urchin diver in Sea Haven. She has always felt an affinity for the ocean, and for the seductive pull of the tides. And now she feels drawn in the same way to the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger, and their tantalizing secrets will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.

After reading this book, I was in awe. What an amazing book! I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This book continues where Hidden Currents ended, kind of. Rikki is alone at sea, every one else in town is at the weddings of the Drake Sisters. This gives her the perfect opportunity to harvest her secret found of sea-urchins in a dangerous place, near the underseas abyss. The place has always given her the creeps, but the harvest is very good.
She has already filled a few nets and is eating lunch when a huge wave rolls upon her, and throws her overboard again. Luckily, she had just put on her breather again, so she won’t drown. Then she sees someone else being tossed around by the turbulence, and being thrown against the reef. She rescues the man, sharing her oxygen with him, and some how getting the both of them safe on board. She brings him back to life with CPR, and he repays her by putting a knife to her throat! But Rikki is different from other women, other people, she isn’t the least bit afraid. She is furious! She just saved him, she is the captain of this boat, and she is in charge!
Lev doesn’t know what happened to him. Why is that woman not afraid of him? She cannot fight him and win! He has an arsenal strapped to his body. But his concussion has made him lose his memory, he doesn’t know who he is, or what he is. Which of the 10 names he knows is his own? And then he tells her more than he should.
Rikki doesn’t like being touched, but somehow, this stranger doesn’t bother her much. He doesn’t want to go to a hospital, he knows he is in danger but now why of by whom. With some strange logic Rikki takes him home. She, who doesn’t even like having her sisters in her house, brings a stranger home, in her bed! Her sanctuary. She is not the nurturing kind, she is a loner.

She is also a water elemental, she can command water to aid her, the rain to fall, the waves to play with her. She is also autistic, and sensory dysfunctional. She cannot stand fluorescent lights and loud sounds. She has her own routines to do everything, and when they are interrupted, or when she is distracted by a drop of water of a pattern of something, she will sink in her own world. She only eats peanut butter, although her sisters try to make her eat healthier things, like broccoli. She has a lovely dinner service, but never uses it.
And now this man, this stranger, will want to eat normal food, he will use her dishes, her bathroom. He will disrupt her life! But somehow she just cannot throw him out of her house.

Lev turns out to be Ilja’s brother (of course), and he is tired of killing, of being an assassin. He is strangely drawn to Rikki, to her eyes, they kind of ground him. He doesn’t know why. He himself is also highly paranormally gifted. So he wants to start a new life, and for that, he has to make his former bosses and his enemies believe he died in the boating accident.

The strange wave that sank the yacht he was on, attracted a lot of attention. From scientist, but also from the media. And unfortunately, some tv channel caught Rikki on film. Ever since she was 13, and her parents died in a house fire, she has been haunted by fires. Two foster homes burned down, her fiancée died a few years ago. And she is almost sure she some how started those fires. But Lev doesn’t believe it for a second. She is a water elemental, she cannot cope with fire, is afraid of it, doesn’t even use it. It turns out, Rikki has a stalker, a fire elemental, determined to kill her with fire.

And to protect her, Lev agrees to bring in the local sheriff, to help catch this killer. The sheriff who also happens to be a brother in law to his own brother, so they are kind of family. As one of Rikki’s sisters-of-the-heart is an aunt to the Drake Sisters.

I loved this book, and I cannot wait for the other books in this series, as all of Rikki’s adopted sisters-of-the-heart are intriguing. I want to know what happened to all of them, and have them find their own man. Perhaps all brothers to Lev and Ilja?



After reading this book, I was also extremely curious, what is a sea-urchin? So I googled, and found this page with pictures. And found them beautiful and strange.
http://www.google.nl/images?hl=nl&q=sea+urchin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=RB5bTJ2lCsyMOPfv0LQP&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CEcQsAQwAw

But I still didn’t know what they are. Plant or animal. So, I googled some more and found out this on the all-knowing Wikipedia:

Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 centimetres (1.2 to 3.9 in) across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, and red. They move slowly, feeding mostly on algae. Sea otters, wolf eels, and other predators feed on them. Humans harvest them and serve their gonads as a delicacy.

Hmm, new question. What are gonads? So I googled again, and found the answer I really didn’t want to know. I don’t think I will try those any day soon, however much I love trying out unknown foods …

A new book for my collection

I got this one as an early birthday present from my friend Freya.
Nalini Singh - Bonds of Justice.

One of the perks of reading ebooks, is that the paperback version remains in pristine condition on my shelves. Yes, I know, I am weird. And addicted to books. So I could also name this post: an addition to my addiction.

Melissa Mayhue - A highlander's homecoming

The 6th book in the Daughters of the Glen series. A lovely series about Fae, and Scottish Warriors, and Magic, and Timetravelling, and Soulmates finding each other through the boundaries of time.



Scotland, Present day. When Faerie Magic swept Robert MacQuarrie forward in time, modern medicine saved him from a fatal wound. But he also left behind an unfulfilled vow, to protect his friend’s young daughter, Isabelle. Haunted by guilt for more than a decade, he leaps at the chance to go back and keep that vow. The magic of the Fae works in its own mysterious ways, however. Not only does his homecoming turn out to be twenty years after he left, but there’s also that tricky matter of the fate he escaped before.

Scotland, 1292. Isabella MacGahan has reluctantly chosen a lonely existence, scorned for her Faery blood and uncontrollable power. When she’s caught in a conflict between clans, a pawn in the struggle for power and land, her only option is to trust a handsome stranger. One who swears he was charged with her safety a full twenty years before … although the deluded man seems little older than her.

No one is safe when Mortal schemes and Faerie magic push Robbie and Isabella to confront their worst fears. Will the magic demand the ultimate price from them both – or will they find their true homecoming in each other’s arms?


I do so love those covers! Very romantic, and those glitters make you see the magic happening. But of course, never judge a book by its cover. I have found great books with ugly covers, and vice versa. But in this series, the cover fits the books. I love them.

It has a lot of the things I love in my books: magic, history, romance, a strong hero, but not so macho he has to have his own way all the time, and a strong heroine who knows what she wants and gets it, and does what has to be done.

I am very glad there will be two more books coming out next year, I for one will certainly buy them. I put them on my calendar right away.


In the previous book, the young Leah was abused horridly by the bad Fae. She wants nothing to do with any kind of Fae at all, and Robert agrees to escort her back in time, to his parents Keep. Protecting Leah, and finding Isabella as he promised all those years ago, will mean for him to honor his vow at last.
What he did not expect, was that the Magic delivered them 20 years after he has left. So the little Isabella is a grown woman, and worst of all, a redhead! With the temper to fit. When Isabella refuses to go with him to his parents Keep, he vows to stay with her in her little cottage. But politics in her grandfathers Keep place her in the midst of danger. Her cousin wants her dead, a man who wants to take control of the MacGahan lands wants her for his wife, but Isabella just wants to be left alone. Where she can hurt no one with her uncontrollable powers. So why doesn’t this gorgeous warrior leave her alone as she wishes? Why does he keep tempting her?

Robbie doesn’t know why he is so attracted to Isabella, but finally he recognises her as his Soulmate, and it doesn’t take him long to convince her of this truth. But then danger sneaks up on them, and they are brought back to MacGahan Keep. Where Robert is thrown in the dungeon, and Isabella is forced to wed the MacDowylt to keep him alive.

Coming back in time has not been good to Robbie. The fatal wound he got in the past but survived in the future, is regressing back to its original state, and it will kill him if he doesn’t go back to the future. So when they do escape and make it back home, they have just enough time to do just that.

An important secondary character is the boy Jamie. Who just might be Isabella’s uncle … and heir to her grandfathers clan and property. They save his life as well, and take him with them to the future. I wonder if he will go back one day to take his rightful place …

Joanne Pence - Cook's Night Out

The fifth book in the Angie Amalfi series.



Chef Angie Amalfi’s never-ending quest for culinary fame and fortune has led her to create … angelinas, a perfect chocolate confection that no one will be able to resist! Actually the treat is not quite perfected yet and Angie’s donating her scrumptious rejects to San Francisco’s Random Acts of Kindness Mission – and donating her time as a volunteer as well, despite her police detective beau Paavo Smith’s warnings to stay away from the place. Paavo believes there’s something less than saintly going on at the mission – and when he finds himself facing charges of being on the take and a murderer, it’s up to Angie to unearth the unholy doings at Random Acts from the inside. Because suddenly, not only is her boyfriend’s reputation at stake, but his life is as well.



I enjoyed this story, I am growing to like both Angie and Paavo. Angie is looking for more of a commitment from Paavo, but Paavo is having problems with his job, and is not in the mood for talks about their future. So Angie decides to help him. When Paavo warns her to stay away from the mission, as something is very fishy there, she thinks there is no better way to find things out than from the inside. But then they discover Paavo’s old enemy Axel Claw (the man who murdered his sister 20 years ago) is involved. And the stakes are up.
Is the Reverend, the man who motives so many rich people to donate their goods and their time to the auction the mission is holding for money, a fraud? Why can’t Paavo find him in the system? Did he even exist before coming to Los Angeles?
People are murdered all over the city, all connected to an illegal gambling game called numbers, and Paavo’s name keeps popping up. His collegues and Internal Affairs begin to think he really is dirty, and a murdered too. So how can he prove his innocence?

A good story, with a very fitting end. I am curious about the next book which I will start shortly. But first some more historical romances, I think.

Lisa Kleypas - Love in the afternoon

The fifth book in the Hathaway series.



As a lover of animals and nature, Beatrix Hathaway has always been more comfortable outdoors than in the ballroom. Even though she participated in the London season in the past, the classic beauty and free-spirited Beatrix has never been swept away or seriously courted. And she has resigned herself to the fate of never finding love. Has the time come for the most unconventional of the Hathaway sisters to settle for an ordinary man - just to avoid spinsterhood? Captain Christopher Phelan is a handsome, daring soldier who plans to marry Beatrix's friend, the vivacious flirt Prudence Mercer, when he returns from fighting abroad. But, as he explains in his letters to Pru, life on the battlefield has darkened his soul - and it's becoming clear that Christopher won't come back as the same man. When Beatrix learns of Pru's disappointment, she decides to help by concocting Pru's letters to Christopher for her. Soon the correspondence between Beatrix and Christopher develops into something fulfilling and deep, and when Christopher comes home, he's determined to claim the woman he loves. What began as Beatrix's innocent deception has resulted in the agony of unfulfilled love - and a passion that can't be denied.


I have been wondering what kind of man Lisa Kleypas would find for Beatrix. A man who would tame her, put up with all of her animals, and her zest for live. Her need of freedom, and her compassion. Never would I have thought of a soldier. I would have thought of a man loving animals like she did, kind and soft. So that is why I am the reader, and she is the author. The story is much told from the point of view of Christopher. The hardness of life on the battle field, and the effects of on his soul, his life when the war is finally over. How he suffers from nightmares, bouts of anger, how unsuspected sounds make him go for his not-there-anymore-gun.

But Beatrix understands him. She has tamed numerous wild beasts, and she understands Christophers pain, how difficult it is for him to be in polite society once more. He has been trained to react to danger for years, of course it is difficult to become untrained again. To safety. They are good for each other, and the difficulties aren’t just gone like that, because they are in love with each other. It takes time, and patience, and understanding.

A really great story, I loved it very much. It starts out really different than I am used to. The letters they write to each other (without Christopher knowing it is Beatrix), in which he tells the stories of the battlefield, the hard decisions the has to made, the wounds he suffers, and the falling in love they do when they come to know each other through their words, their thoughts. Of course Christopher thinks it is Prudence writing to him, but when he meets her again, he finds nothing in her, of the traits he fell in love with. So he has to find out who wrote those letters! And then he will marry her. At first he is very angry for the betrayal, thinking he has been played with. Played for a fool.

But after rescuing and taming his dog Alfred, who went to war with them, and cannot conform to civil life and behave like a proper dog, Beatrix manages to tame Christopher just as well. Christopher also has to accept he is a war hero, and people want to talk to him about it, when all he wants, is to forget the horrors. His brother died, and how he is the heir to his grandfather’s estates and riches, and he will have to learn estate management, take care of his tenants and all that. But with the help of his (future) brothers in law, he will learn.

I do recommend this book, with all my heart. I just know you will love it. So please let me know.

Yasmine Galenorn - Night Myst

The first in the Indigo Court series.



Eons ago, vampires tried to turn the Dark Fae in order to harness their magic, only to create a demonic enemy more powerful than they could have imagined. Having quietly amassed their strength for centuries, the Vampiric Fae are determined to enslave the world. Now Myst, the Vampiric Fae Queen of the Indigo Court, is rising again – and a long prophesied war is about to begin.

Cicely Waters, a witch who can control the wind, has returned home to New Forest, Washington, after learning that her family is in danger. The Indigo Court holds the city in fear. People are vanishing, and strange deaths plague the town. And when she is swept into an unexpected and passionate reunion with Grieve, the Fae prince who taught her how to harness the wind, Cicely finds herself with a fierce and territorial lover.

But Grieve has become enslaved by Myst’s court, and now, caught between two evils, the lovers must survive the machinations of the Vampiric Fae queen, even as Cicely untangles the hidden secrets to her own heritage.


It is a compelling story that begins with this first book in a brand new series. Yasmine Galenorn is one of my favourite authors, I totally love her cozy series, and her Otherworld series are good too. Original, sexy and funny.

Yasmine has created a new world in this Urban Fantasy genre. Cicely is a witch, magic-born, with strange tattoo’s and a Wind Elemental helping her to stay alive. Years ago her mother left her heritage of magic behind, and took Cicely with her, living from day to day, till she died, sucked dry by the Vampire who made her his bloodwhore. Cicely vows never to become that. But when, upon returning to New Forest, she finds out her beloved aunt is abducted by the Indigo Court, she has to accept the help from the Crimson Court, the “normal” Vampires in town, and they demand a price …

Her niece, Rhiannon is a fire witch, but due to an accident when she was a teen, her magic is hidden deep within her, and is now threatening to come out, whether she wants it or not. She has to learn to control it.

There are only a few people left to help them. Leo, Rhiannon’s boyfriend, who is working for the Vampires as a day runner, to do their chores for them. And Kaylin, some other kind of supernatural being, a Dream Walker, with a demonic side.

A lot happens in this first story, too much to describe, and it would perhaps spoil your reading fun. There is the attraction between Cicely and her old love, Grieve. But the Vampires also want her for their own goals. And they use attraction and sex too. In kinds I don’t like to read about. It is perhaps a darker story than I am used too, but the overall story line will keep me hooked throughout the series. I just have to know what will happen next.
The things happening to Cicely, the things she finds out about herself, the strange kinds of magic, it is just all very compelling.

If you like to read about all kinds of supernatural beings, and a very good and original story, this is a book for you.

Annette Blair - Death by Diamonds

The third book already in the Vintage Magic Mystery series I love so much



Madeira Cutler loves her Vintage Magic boutique, but the 'visions' she gets from the garments can be hard to handle, especially when she knows the owner. At first she's thrilled to receive a package containing the beautifully bejeweled dress she designed for actress and old friend Dominique Delong while in fashion school. But the dress comes with a disturbing message from Dominique, who it seems took her last bow under very mysterious circumstances.


Another great mystery by Annette Blair. I read this book cover to cover while I should have gone to bed on time. Dominique is killed, and she knows this. She has asked Madeira to use her talents, meaning her psychometric powers to find the killer or killers. Dom’s son Kyle is asking her to come to New York to help him. And as Maddie is also made the executor of Dom’s will, and she is to hold a Vintage Fashion Show of Dom’s collection for charity, she has a lot on her plate.
There are a lot of parasites around, hoping to gain from Dominique’s death, so possible murderers galore. And Maddy has to find the right one, with the help of the visions she gets from the clothes worn by Dom before her death, and by the murderers themselves. But ofcourse her visions won’t stick in court, she has to find evidence.
It helpes a lot that her most times boyfriend is a FBI agent, and her hometown Cop is also backing her up. Trying to protect her, has its price though. Werner gets tasered by Maddy this time, and they end up asleep (or unconscious) in the same bed. And Nick is getting jealous. Which is not something Maddy likes. She is not his possession, even if nothing happened but a very hot kiss before Evie woke them.

Surprises are around every corner in this very good and fastpaced mystery. It reads very easily and I love the writing style and the humor. If you like fashion, this really is a series for you. If you just love a good cozy mystery and don’t give a damn about fashion (like myself), this is a series for you. You just have to love the characters and the great plot.

Bring on the next book please!