This is the last book in the series. On one hand I was disappointed by this story…the actual story between the two individuals didn’t draw me in, in a believable manner, or enticing manner I guess. On the flip side, the side of the series being brought to a closure…I loved it. there was action and drama and things really worked out well.
I do have one complaint for the series as a whole that is totally a personal choice…and I’m warning you right here, don’t read further as one might consider this a spoiler: the fact that they all lose their abilities makes total sense in the whole picture of how things are set up. But personally, I think that changes who these heros are and I would have liked her(Christina) to have found a way to make it so they kept their abilities without the curse. But that’s just me.
As a whole I totally recommend the series. My favorite was book 2. The first two books I’d actually borrowed from the library but loved this one in particular so much, went out and bought it.
BLURB:
Roaming the Russian steppes a thousand years ago, a brutal warrior struck a terrifying deal. In exchange for being able to transform into a heartless predator, he promised his soul-and the souls of his descendents-to the devil.
Brutally handsome cop Doug Black is determined to find the birth family who left him with nothing but a terrifying inheritance: the ability to change into a savage golden cougar. His search leads him to a woman as dauntless and exotic as her name. Firebird Wilder is bitterly familiar with supernatural gifts, and flees on discovering his secret, leaving Doug alone once more. But no one can escape a wild cougar on the hunt. When he finds her, they both must decide which is more powerful … the love that binds them together … or the secrets that threaten to tear them apart
This is the third book in the series and the one which I’d read the excerpt from which had drawn me in to read the entire set. Once I realized it was part of a series I sought out the other two which in this particular case was a good thing. You want to read these in order. I was a bit surprised by how things started out but totally fell in love with the characters. Shed a few tears by the end for sure. Definitely on my keeper list of book/series.
BLURB:
For the ability to transform into a heartless predator, a brutal warrior promised his soul-and the souls of his descendents-to the devil. Now, one thousand years later, the Wilder brothers battle the darkness inside them.
Blessed-or cursed-with the ability to change into a sleek, cruel panther, and driven by a dark soul he’s accepted as his fate, powerful Adrik Wilder abandons his family and his honor to pursue a life of wickedness. He excels at every vice, kidnapping strong-willed Karen Sonnet and forcing her to welcome the helpless pleasure only he can give her. But Karen’s spirit and passion make him question the force of his family’s curse, for she could be the key to their survival. And when a new evil emerges, Adrik must choose whether to enact revenge on his enemies and redeem his soul or save Karen from a fate worse than death.
Okay, truthfully I know how this happens. I’ve pondered it many a times. Every single time I find myself with a backlog of things to do. But every single time I think that exact same line, “How does this happen?” I like consistency I guess.
Basically what it comes down to is, I like to clean my slate on one thing before moving on to the next. I like things neat and organized and just so. For example, if I do one email, then I feel like I need to do them all. You know, might as well get them all done since I started looking at them, reading them and answering them. Don’t like leaving the project half way done. Or say I know people have commented on my blog, facebook or harlequin space, ect…once I start replying, I figure I might as well do it all across the board at that moment in time so I feel like its ALL done. I like to do that with cleaning the house, with laundry, cooking, knitting…you name it.
Now just so you know, especially for those of you who stop on over to visit, 3 boys and a husband and a dog make it nigh on impossible to actually keep my world all neat and orderly. And then too, this tendency works against that as well. If I’m working on a chapter or say a scene in my book…I want it done before I start the laundry or supper or the paperwork. Or visa-versa.
Of course just because that is how I ‘want’ it, doesn’t mean that is reality. I’m always trying to do 10 things at once. I have to. Its called survival. Which is why I think my mind is even more desperate then to create a sense of order and peace and harmony on things I can control. Like on the emails and net stuff.
This trait of mine isn’t something I really knew about myself. (in denial I’d say ) In fact, not that too awful long ago I laughed when Dee talked about organizing her sock drawers. ‘Why would anyone take the time to do that?‘ I wondered. I couldn’t conceive of caring. I am laid back around the house. I insist on being that way. I want people to be able to walk in and not feel intimidated, to feel at home, comfortable, for my boys to be able to be boys. Yes, things have to be cleaned, but they are lived in. The boys all know how to do a load of laundry, wash the floor, vacuum and so forth. Still working on the sweeping. Can’t tell you how funny that was to realize neither of my older boys had a clue on how to sweep! And they’d just hate me for telling you that. But my point was, I generally don’t let myself get bent out of shape over things getting a bit messy.
Now my husband is someone I could conceivably see organizing the sock drawer. I’ve teased him since the day we met that he was a tad on the anal side of things. He’s had to loosen up a lot to survive living with three boys. But what I’ve come to realize is, we both are particular in wanting things neat and organized, just show it in different ways.
Dee, you’ll probably laugh at this, I actually get a rush out of seeing a drawer of socks all perfectly aligned. The day I realized this, I bust out laughing at myself and thought of you. Not ten seconds later, my youngest came charging in, rummages through that drawer, finds a pair of socks he wants at the ‘bottom’ of that drawer, slams it shut and races out of the room. (they’re going outside, gotta hurry in case all that snow melts before he can get out there) Me? Well, I sigh, shake my head and refuse to open that drawer back up. All his socks are the same. Why’d he need the pair on the bottom? Who knows. I just know I’m not going to let myself care that my neat and tidy world isn’t neat and tidy there anymore.
And that’s when I realized it isn’t that I don’t care about it being neat and tidy, I just know I can’t control it. I can look back and see this tug-a-war even as a kid. And maybe that’s why I’m able to stand having my house turned up side down. In my mind I get one area perfect. It may not last…okay, I KNOW it won’t last. But I know that at least for one nanosecond in time it gave me that wonderful sigh of ‘rightness’.
Of course this corresponds to my question of the day. I want that ‘rightness’ in everything even if it means it will only last for a moment. So when I do my emails or read a series of books or upload some pictures, I try to finish it all right then and there. And because it ALWAYS takes longer than five minutes to do something, I’m ALWAYS getting backed up on something else.
Funny thing is though, I always think that is exactly how it will work. That I can clean up the 50 odd emails in 5 minutes, that I can fix the html problem that has cropped up on my site in fives minutes, that I can write a post in five minutes, that I can upload pictures in five minutes, that I can balance the checkbook in five minutes, that I can start and finish the laundry in five minutes, or even figure out what to eat, get the meat out of the freezer, have all the ingredients on hand and make a five course savory meal in five minutes.
LOL I love to live in a delusional world I guess.
Oh and my point for this long rambling post besides to scare you off? I have to post a bunch of book reviews today. See, my mind simply couldn’t stand the thought of only doing one here and there when I knew I was almost done with the next book I was reading and thus I’d have another to add to the pile and thus the project wouldn’t be all done, so I might as well wait. And then of course I wouldn’t have time to do the reviews as soon as I finished that next book because I’d have something else that HAD to be done that took priority. And then in the meantime I will have started yet another book and wouldn’t you know its part of a series and I want to write up the reviews for all the books in that series at once and…well, do you see a trend here?
Sometime today so that they are done for the 2008 Harlequin book review charity challenge, I will be posting a bunch of book reviews. And if I’m supper organized I’ll even get the kid’s reviews on here too.
You’ve been warned.
Have a good one! Oh and the picture at the top? They’d just come in from playing in the snow and I asked for a smile to show off his rosy cheeks. Goofy kid!
In my emails today I had a newsletter from Christine Feehan–her newest book in her game series released today! I was so excited. I LOVE this series. Haven’t been able to get into any of her others but this one series…I’ve read some of the books over and over and over.
But I had a problem. We don’t live anywhere near a book store and I wanted that book today. Pamida does carry a pretty good selection…probably better than a lot of B&N’s that I’ve been to for romance but still…its a hit and miss. I called and the truck didn’t come until tomorrow and there was no telling what would be on it. So I decided I would get this book in ebook format. (I have been getting more and more books in ebook format but since I had all the rest in paperback I really wanted to keep it that way) Well, I searched and searched and searched. I could not get that book in ebook format. Apparently it is selling somewhere in ebook…I could bring it up on Mobi but then I was kicked out as it wasn’t sold in my country yet. I can’t tell you how I really wanted to write to the publisher and say…“Hey, you’re missing out on a prime group of sales here!” But that’s not who I am. I sulked instead.
Then when I left to go on my run decided to swing by Pamida anyhow. All the way there I couldn’t stop thinking of all the gas I was wasting. So I thought of two other things I needed to get, bleach and laundry softener. Now the trip was justified.
Of course when I got in there the first place I went was the book section. I looked and looked and saw all kinds of books I’d bought lately as ebooks. And low and behold, I found a book by Susan Sizemore in the one series by her that I like that I’d not read. Who knew? But still no Murder Game…and then I saw it!
There were two on the shelf, I grabbed one, looked around to make sure no one was interested in nabbing it from me and then decided to grab Susan’s book as well. What the heck, I was there anyhow. I promptly headed for the checkout line, grinning the whole dang way. I had my book!
It wasn’t until I was at the gym trying to figure out a way to read my book while running(sadly, it doesn’t work for me) that I realized…I’d never picked up the bleach or laundry softener.
Whoops.
Oh and since in Christine’s newsletter she says we can share this stuff about the book, I thought I would.
BLURB:
Games should be fun, but for two expert teams across the country, they’re murder – because the winning team is the one that gets the most kills. The participants in this violent challenge rumored to be GhostWalkers. And Kadan Montague isn’t happy about it.
Kadan is a GhostWalker and he’s determined to clear the GhostWalker name of the rumors. To do it, he’s going to need the help of psychic Tansy Meadows. But as soon as he sees her, he knows his mission will be more complicated than he imagined – and the “murder game” may not be at all what it seems.
Well, originally this was going to be a post with some pictures and maybe later on today I will get to making that post–once I’ve downloaded them that is. But for now, something to jaw on. I didn’t sleep well last night. Not good dreams. One after another. And I know exactly why. Too many homemade spiced rum balls. Or maybe it was the pan of homemade peanutbutter cups I scarfed down?
LOL, okay, that might be partly why. I have had enough sugar in the last week to last me a lifetime but the truth is, I have to kill one of my secondary characters in my story.
This is no news flash. I’ve known from the beginning this guy was pegged to go down. Heck, he was created for that exact purpose! Thing is, I’ve had to get to know him to write him so you could know him and love him and morn him and well, you get the idea. I love him and my dreams all night were about morning the loss. Wanting to deny death. Of wanting to capture those moments we share with our loved ones and recall every single nuicance of them.
Of course dreams are weird and rarely straight forward, so of course it wasn’t that character who reigned in the dreams but ‘real’ loved ones. Gotta love the brain!
Its all good though. It brought back memories of loved ones long gone. The desperate feelings, the heartache, the wild thoughts, the erratic reactions. Exactly what I need for my main characters to be displaying in the book. Now if I could only stop procrastinating and get to it.
Have a good one everyone! Only three more days til Christmas!
3 Kids, a dog, a husband, writing, running, cooking... Life in small town USA!
I thought I'd grow up to be a (single) career woman doing something in the wilds of places like Alaska. I like the middle of nowhere. :-) Oh and making oodles of cash of course. Too funny--how often do those 'ideas' actually pan out? LOL
So here I am, all grown up(maybe) :-) , a stay at home mom of three boys with a dog, a husband, neighbors and a mini-van trying to blend a bit of country life with small town city life. It's camping, gardening, cooking from scratch, fishing, with baseball games, water parks to tv dinners. :-) Add to that a love for running, photos, hunting, knitting, writing and reading--its a hectic life! But one I wouldn't change for the world.
Well, okay, I wouldn't mind if the hubby would let me add a chicken or two to the backyard. Oh and don't forget a couple of sheep--I could spin my own wool then for when I knit! Oh yeah, now that would be cool. :-) What’s that you say? There are ordinance’s against having live stock within city limits? Hmmm, maybe a privacy wall would work…
This is the last book in the series. On one hand I was disappointed by this story…the actual story between the two individuals didn’t draw me in, in a believable manner, or enticing manner I guess. On the flip side, the side of the series being brought to a closure…I loved it. there was action and drama and things really worked out well.
And then too, this tendency works against that as well. If I’m working on a chapter or say a scene in my book…I want it done before I start the laundry or supper or the paperwork. Or visa-versa.
I can’t tell you how I really wanted to write to the publisher and say…“Hey, you’re missing out on a prime group of sales here!” But that’s not who I am. I sulked instead. 
Nicole Reising on Loving it!
Carine on Loving it!
Nicole Reising on Mind Game by Christine Feehan
Nancy' on Mind Game by Christine Feehan
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