Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan

Having read only the first book in this series, Magic in the Wind, this was the book I was looking forward to reading the most. Seeing how antagonistic Jonas and Hannah were to each other made me think that their book would be especially feisty. Not so much. I obviously forgot about Hannah's anxieties that make her a bit of a mess. And Jonas, well, he seemed to be descended directly from a caveman. The way he bullies and demands of Hannah got a bit old and it didn't really mesh for me that they took this long to finally admit their feelings to one another. I anticipated this to be cut more from the pages of an installment of one of Nora Roberts's trilogies. I haven't decided whether or not to pursue the other books in this series; Feehan's Game series is much more interesting. And I've only read the first one in her Dark series but I'm leaning toward regretting purchasing the first three books of it. So, this wasn't a bad read, not hard to follow since I didn't have a lot of the backstory that was made in between this one and the first but I'm not so excited about the following installments.

The Devil Inside by Jenna Black

Demons with a twist. Gay S&M. Exorcisms. This book was like a car crash - I just couldn't look away even though I wanted to. Morgan is an exorcist in a world where demons are legal. Humans can allow themselves to be possessed; they take a backseat to their lives while the demon they let in takes control. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily: demons have to behave or they get exorcised. To that end, many of them are productive members of society. They are cops, firefighters, etc. Morgan's brother is one of the possessed and she can't understand why anyone would willingly allow such a thing. What she doesn't know is that there is much more going on in her life that has to do with possession than she realizes and ends up working with Adam, a possessed gay man/demon; a demon cop who has a taste for torture. Much of this book turned me off but like I said before, I couldn't stop looking. And I'm looking forward to reading the next two books the first of which is out already.

Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles

Freaking awesome. What more is there to say? Lots, actually. Steve Niles is a horror writer best known for 30 Days of Night. Comics mostly but he took several of his graphic novels and turned them into a book of short stories about a private investigator named Cal McDonald. Cal is a mess. A former cop who was kicked off the force because he failed a drug test, he works cases that involve the supernatural. Oh, and he a drug addict. He hangs out with a ghoul named Mo'Lock who, for reasons unknown to Cal, keeps tabs on Cal and helps him out. These stories start out in D.C. but end up in L.A. Cal is a true anti-hero; he protects the people of the world from beings that, well, aren't very nice. The big head is one, a baby alien creature that eats everything and everyone is another along with teenagers who make deals with demons. Niles's writing is frank but funny. In fact, I found this stuff to be more amusing than scary (which was probably his intention). After I read this I found out my husband has been reading his comics for a while now so I have other material of his available in my own home. Yay me! Thanks to Lori from the library; she's the one who introduced us. Chick has great taste.

Stray by Rachel Vincent

I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this one. I already had a copy of her second book, Rogue, courtesy of WalMart but I didn't want to read them out of order. Stray reminded me of Kelley Armstrong's Bitten on so many levels. The main character, a female were-something-or-other, is estranged from her pack by her choosing but gets sucked back in by a crisis. There's an ex-boyfriend left at home with a new one in her new life. She is a rarity in her were-life; Faythe (Stray) is one of only 8 females able to reproduce while Elena (Bitten) is the only female werewolf on the planet. Both Faythe and Elena are independent and headstrong. They'd have to be; leaving their families and familiarity behind is not something everybody could do. Especially since both of their families are depending on them for something that the males in their packs can't provide. The endings are similar as well. I liked this book and plan to read the next one I have and any others that come after.

Almost too much to keep track

Last night as I was describing the plot of a book by yet another new author I have recently picked up, my husband sighed and said, "I'm going to have to learn a whole new bunch of names aren't I?" My husband, dear man that he is, tries to keep up with whomever(?) I like to read. I guess it's not fair to him that I keep changing the names and all but oh well.