Spaceships and Love

FINALLY. A book that delivers..for me at least. 4.5 stars. I never do whole numbers yo!

I've read a lot of Killough-Walden's books (isn't that a mouthful? from here on out she's going to be KW k?) and I've always appreciated her imagination and relatively sparse writing style and her reinvention of certain elements (for example her Neverland series..made me love the Peter Pan universe like I never had before, truly, it isn't for kids!).

I think the KW is obsessed with motorcycles. She has them in almost every single book. I love motorcycles myself and if I weren't such a clutz I would have one but my husband guilt trips me every time I try to bring it up...but yeah lots of motorcycles in this book. In fact she mentions the Dodge Tomahawk and Siobhan is a bit wrong about that one..the Dodge T hasn't reached speeds of up to 350 mph. No one has ever tried to even do that only 100 mph so far..thanks Wikipedia!

Anyway-

This book is the second installment of the King series and it covers Siobhan, a lovely gentle spirited warlock who refuses to use her dark powers against another. Thanatos, the Phantom King, in his ultra phantomness is tending to his lonely and eternal job of accepting anguished souls in Purgatory when one arrives and then inconceivably decides -nevermind I'm out of here, I'm going back to the mortal realm see you! And then the chase is on as Thane pursues the escaped soul and meets Siobhan in the process.

I liked how KW interspersed some scenes of the other groups of supernaturals and one of my most favorite things ever- which is GODS- a God shows up and that set my interest on fire. I won't name names in an effort to avoid spoilers. I have a penchant for Gods visiting the mortal realm and if anything "Gods" are interwoven into a plot it is a great pleasure for me to read.

This universe is packed with supernaturals, a council of Kings that oversee their populations, and laws. If you're looking for something a little more interesting or refreshing for PNR I highly suggest this series. I enjoyed the first book (Vampire King) and this as well and I am going to continue to read the entire series in the next couple of days (I think there are only two more published so far and there are 13 Kings total).

This series also visits a few interesting realms such as the Astral Plane, Purgatory, and of course the normal mortal realm. I imagine more realms will be coming up in the series given the different Kings in the line up.

Why I really enjoyed this:

- Fun story
- God cameo, yay!
- Multiple Realms, hell yes!
- Normally not into this but Thanatos is covered in perpetually changing beautiful tattoos...nice.
- Thanatos is a brunette. LOL I love brunettes!


Yes I know I'm a dork and this series is fun for me. And KW writes EXCELLENT ENDINGS in my opinion. When I finished this..it felt finished and I felt ready for the next one not edgy and irritated that the author left things unfinished and unsatisfactory.

So Once Burned and Twice Tempted eh? That would describe me pretty well regarding this series.

I still love you Vlad! But not the real you, but the one I made up built off of the series you originated from. I have at least that in common with Leila. This change in Vlad's character- I can only describe it in one way: Anders from Dragon Age Orgins DLC ---> Dragon Age II. Yeah if you play Bioware games you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Night and day difference of character.

After I finished the last 10% of this book after I woke this morning (after reading this literally all night) it dawned on me that I really shouldn't be surprised that Frost writes WTF endings. I just never noticed before because I read the Night Huntress series back to back and after it had been mostly all published (which is my preference for series- it helps not to have a year or more gap between books and I hate rereading to remember). I loved the Night Huntress series because it was packed with a lot of cheesy good humor- I remember laughing a lot reading through it. These two books? Not so much. Another thing the Night Huntress series was awesome at was pure camp factor. This book takes itself too seriously.

My humble observations, or otherwise known as my dismay of how this turned out:

-Virtually everything Vlad does in this book for Leila makes no sense to me. From offering her his ring and vampirism- to a toilet in his private inner sanctum. It rang false. I wondered about why it rang false and you'd think after Leila has suffered so much in the name of love she deserves all of that right? Then I realized ok this is why it seems so fake. Leila didn't really suffer so much as she did because she was running around being classically TSTL with Mr. Red Herring.

-Red Herring-ish aka Maximus. I didn't read the blurb on this book- but if it hinted at a love triangle then Frost doesn't truly know what a love triangle is. This is more of a feint. And honestly it isn't as if a good hefty love triangle was really going to improve the book at all but if you're doing to do it DO IT. Maximus also made no sense to me. I knew he had the hots for Leila since book one..but really? This "but really" is full blown Saturday Night Live BUT REALLY? He sure is risking a lot for a woman that is like "meh" and has given him a few tepid kisses and then dumped him for his uber powerful master and liege and boss man. I wasn't buying it. Also- Maximus had the inkling of maybe what I'd like to have read in another book. Tall blonde and Viking looking? I would have been interested if Frost hadn't destroyed what could have been a good side character. But then again look what happens to her creme da la creme side characters like beloved Vlad. What can I expect...


-Can someone kill Gretchen already? PLEASE? I didn't understand why none of the vamps just mesmerized her and stuck her in a closet the entire book with the order "stay in there". That would have been fine.

-Leila's father. I get that he's steely ex military. But these are vampires dad. You can talk about how much you dislike them..but yeah. Dad you totally left Leila to her own devices for what? Ten years? And when she's neck deep in paranormal world and danger that's when you decide it's time to opine and pitch cane waving fits?

-Leila is TSTL. Self Explanatory.

-Vlad needs to work on his relationship skills. His idea of good relationships equal this, literally: Hey love I'll make you a vampire, and THEN all those times you wanted to know how I felt about you? YOU'LL KNOW ALL OF THE TIME. Presto.

The ending- here's all I can say for all of the WTF endings I have shelved:



Robert McKee says this to Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation (a film):

Robert McKee: I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine.

3.75 stars and I'd never make it as a professional judge at any contest because I'd beg for halves and thirds on the points....

PARDON MY BAD GRAMMAR, MAN..

Oh VLAD.
I have loved Vlad the entire Night Huntress series and I was on the edge of my seat to see if Frost was going to deliver the goods for the beloved smexy Vlad.


It occurred to me reading this book that while I've been reading PNR like a junkie for a few years now and given my rapid reading speed that means one hell of a lot of vamps- and I've taken a hiatus due to boredom that vampires have one great thing (sometimes). They can read minds in most universes- and when that happens that makes it difficult for writers to fall into the habit of "The Great Misunderstanding that begats other Great Misunderstandings that last until the HEA" move. And that is awesome.

I'm not a fan of first person POV but Leila was tolerable to good. She's a straight forward young woman who has led a difficult life. Her background reminds me of comic book hero. She has a horrible accident and due to that has abilities that separate her permanently from normal society. One thing I admired about her character is that while her abilities led to her leading a fringe life by most standards- she doesn't prance around with a high level of vitriol and bitterness in her head. I rather like this because I've seen enough caustic bad ass heroines with heartbreak stories that took it out on the everyone and everything around them without a second thought because they feel entitled. That attitude disgusts me in real life and disgusts me in books. I like that Leila is softer despite every desperately horrendous thing she's ever been exposed to and she still feels human.

And Vlad. Vlad's character had me thinking all kinds of things. He reminds me of Mircea from the Cassie Palmer series..he's arrogant to a fault and even Leila harps on about it. As the reader I must say I agree with her- and so does Vlad- repeatedly. He's damned sexy no doubt about it. What I started wondering while reading this is- do we women truly want and desire a man that is arrogant beyond the pale and who dominates so completely? For real? Is this our real ideal? I thought about this a lot reading this. Maybe that's well and good in bed but in my opinion for everyday walking around I'll take a good dose of my own mind leading me where it wants without interference. Anyway Vlad- Leila has her doubts about his many faceted personality and that's completely understandable. Oh another good thing about the creepy hundreds of years old vamp getting into some super young woman? At least he has great carnal experience right? He better be expert level. I did think the sex scenes were nice (frankly I usually skim read sex scenes I am all for sexual tension and romantic tension but sex scenes usually fail) and Leila and Vlad have great chemistry.

I am all over the map about this-
I read this in one day it was highly entertaining and I didn't spend a ton of time rolling my eyes nor taking huge breaks because the plot was boring me.

I hesitate to call it the ultimate entertainment because of THE ENDING.

This gets my official WTF ending shelf label. How was that an ending?! Anyone that's read the book feel free to edify me and my measly brain but I flipped past the last page thinking that cannot be it..huh?


Oh and I dedicate Thom Yorke's The Black Swan as Leila and Vlad's love song. The chorus says it all.

Short so the development seemed rather fast. Cute story.

- Too much sex. Sex scenes dragged ON.
- Not enough world building it was pretty shallow.

This is practically required reading for somewhat brainy adults lol. Been on my TBR list foooever.

Ok- this has it all for me. The premise is hilarious- it's Jurassic Park meets Gilligan's Island. A high end realtor on a private jet with her man whore client crashes in the Bermuda triangle on a mysterious island outside of time. The island comes with terrifying beach dwelling Tyrannosaurs Rex, brutal early humans, and just a few stranded European castaways. One of them is Salvador..and well..he's like Tarzan who speaks in a sexy Spanish accent. Yeah I like. The ONLY thing I had an issue with is that the h was in denial far too long and didn't put the facts together about what was happening. If there are dinosaurs on the island you are on as well as cave men- it follows that something is amiss with time- DUH.

I liked this- didn't love it. It was hard to figure out exactly what Quinn was up to. I found myself just almost as confused as Janie which is annoying. Her obvliviousness is far too incredible to be entirely believable. And then her knitting group? I guess I just cannot relate. Maybe contemporary romances are just not for me. Had an alien crashed into her city and forced her knitting group to start a defensive operation....

2..maybe 2.75 stars?

Ok the premise of this book piqued my interest. The first third of the book in a very matter of fact manner gives us insight to Olivia's modern circumstances as a paralegal with an unrequited infatuation with her boss, Anthony. Then- stuff happens. She gets kidnapped and and they force her to travel back in time to prehistoric cave man times. I'm not going to look up the proper names for the epoch she traveled back to because the author didn't bother either. This book is likeable once Olivia arrives in prehistoric times- she struggles with her fear as I'd expect and THEN things take on a Clan of the Cave Bear turn and things go kind of FUBAR plot wise. I cannot even start explaining why without spoiling the last half of the book. Suffice it to say you might like this. You might not. (if I you like reading tons of weirdo time travel books like I do this might be your thing). I liked this book- I did not love it. One of my biggest pet peeves is that there were so many potential plot items introduced and left hanging. Like- Anthony? WTF happened to that? Huh? Yeah- I do not know.

I should probably give this 3 stars but I enjoyed it so much. As other reviewers have mentioned the book is inconsistent with the first half being the truly enjoyable part- but the humor alone of the cyborgs becoming cognizant is worth that extra star from me! I love my cheesy campy science fiction slanted fun and this is it.

2 Stars

The more the merrier? No, nope, not for me. I just guess six is a bit much. Almost all of the men in this book are disgusting. The woman felt like a victim the entire book practically- I hated The Handmaids Tale for the exact kind of reasons and this reads like a different lesser version of the Handmaids Tale to a certain degree. And even though there was a deserved HEA- just too depressing for me.

3 Stars


This started out strong- decently good- interesting. Then by the end it was a cheese train wreck of sorts. You knew it was going to happen and you did want it to tie up a bit- but it was clumsy. The title is fun- I wouldn't ever call this YA since the even though the main character is 16 she goes through some rather harrowing episodes I wouldn't want my own 16 year old or younger reading about. (since you know these days every 12 year old is reading "YA").

4.5 STARS!

This is a great book for Historical Romance lovers. I'm not a huge HR fan- I just read one now and again and try to find the cream of the crop when I do bother. It isn't the bread and butter of my entertainment fluff reading- but this book was FANTASTIC. Made me cry my head off at 92%- and I read this within a day.

The Great: I cared about the characters and I got sucked into the world quickly. The situations while not incredibly original were refreshing enough and the relationships rich enough to make you more invested in what happens. Loved both Alex AND Lily.

The Bad: Not much- can't think of anything much at all. Perhaps you could accuse both main characters of being remarkably Mary Sue underneath their veneer of "whorish gaming woman" and "cold ass bitter aristocrat man". That's about it and you would have to be in an ultra bitchy reading mood to feel that irked by this.

4 stars..or 3.75? I'm indecisive about rating books, kill me

Ok this has all the things I like- aliens, space travel, romance and sex, and yeah Anderson pretty much stole Riddick lock stock and barrel.

I loved the primative planet setting and survival stuff! I did NOT like this phrase: little girl. Teague says this about every third sentence and by the end of it I was hoping Krisa would spit in his face or accidentally call him "father" for saying it OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Otherwise absolutely great B movie space sexy story.

3.5 Stars

Sarah Jane Tremont finds herself sucked into the past and she looks exactly like the horrible sister in law John Beckett never thought he'd see again.

Sarah ends up in Wyoming in the 1800's and finding her place in the past and dealing with massive bigot jerk offs from the small town ensue while Beckett figures out that he's falling in love with the "new" Sarah.

I am a sucker for time travel romances and I am starting to adore the 1800's as a fun place to go back to. I never thought I'd say a man from the 1800's is an ideal romance partner..but apparently so lol.

3.5 Stars (and you know in my head everything has a half star and I insist they exist)

I love Langlais- she writes some funny charming cheesy stuff- which I eat up like a junkie. I read this falling to sleep it requires so little of my poor brain cells and I adore this kind of fluff for that. You have the alien man candy running around on Earth trying to complete a mission and his run in with his destined mate and fun stuff with the omniscient Oracle. I love that the human military have caught onto the "Blue Aliens are snatching our women".

Fun cheesy sexy read.