Book of the Week: Nora’s Soul

I recently had the opportunity to read Nora’s Soul by Margay Leah Justice. The story is a sweet romance about Nora Kendall, a lonely woman who’s all but given up on life. When her brother died at a young age, Nora thought that God had forsaken her, and she’d given up her belief in angels. Throwing out everything she owned that depicted the heavenly creatures, they somehow managed to turn up everywhere.

When her boyfriend dumps her for another woman, Nora is surprised and confused. She’d expected something completely different. Her job also proves to be a constant source of tension in her life. Finally, deciding she can’t take any more, she quits her job. With the loss of her job and relationship, she agrees to help out her best friend by becoming the nanny for her friend’s brother, Kyle.

Kyle Cameron is fighting his own demons. After an unplanned pregnancy ruined his plans for the future, he took up responsibility and married the woman he really couldn’t stand. He’d still be stuck in an unhappy marriage, if his wife hadn’t passed away, leaving him with two adorable twins to care for.

Kyle really needs Nora’s help, but the two of them share a past. He’s not looking for a replacement wife, even though Nora might be just the woman he’s looking for. Tension rides high as the two try to live together with differing opinions on how to care for his kids. Can Kyle keep Nora at a distance, or will he realize that sometimes the chance for happiness can be staring you in the face?

Nora has loved Kyle her entire life, even though she doesn’t feel worthy of him. She’s not trying to become his new wife, although it would be a dream come true for her. She’s just trying to get through life as happy as she can be, considering she feels like she shouldn’t be alive. Why didn’t God take her instead of her brother? He was the good one, as far as she is concerned.

When two very different, but appealing men show up in her life unexpectedly, she has no idea that one is after her very soul, and the other is trying to save it. Unaware, that her own life hangs in the balance, she must realize that life is too important to give up or risk losing her soul.

Nora’s Soul was a very interesting read for me, nothing like I’ve ever read before. It had all the elements for a good story. Good vs. Bad, the struggle to find out who you really are. Nora has many challenges to overcome, as does Kyle. Tension fills the story from page one.

Ms. Justice does an excellent job creating the scene. I felt myself getting angry and aggravated right along with the characters. She brought me into the story and kept me there until the end. Good job, Margay!

Book of the Week: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself... and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

I really enjoyed this book, since it's not a typical vampire and werewolf book. It shows another side of the paranormal community with the heroine being a skinwalker aka shifter that becomes a coyote. Her personality is dry and entertaining, which I really liked. The whole cast of characters were likeable, and I rooted for the good guys and actually felt sorry for the bad guys. The plot was intriguing, too.

The story took me a little bit to really get into, but once I did, I was hooked. Also, there are a few times when I think the word the author uses doesn't necessarily vibe with what I'd expect the character to really say, but those are such small points that I'm looking forward to purchasing the next Mercedes Thompson book.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1)

Patricia Briggs's website

Saturday's Contest Winner

Congratulations to our winner from Saturday's contest...the review of the published book or partial critique of the unpublished book.

The names were entered into Randomizer.org, and it picked our winner: Nora's Soul, by Margay Leah Justice! Congratulations, Margay!!!! To claim your prize, please email us at thedeadlyvixens@yahoo.com. Thanks for participating in our contest everyone! Don't forget to check back each Saturday for a new contest!

Please note: New winners will be chosen from the remaining entries if prizes are not claimed within one (1) week from today's drawing. No exceptions are made.

The Deadly Vixens

WEEKLY CONTEST

Welcome to our weekly contest on The Deadly Vixens' blog! This week we are trying something new and different. We are offering a review and/or critique to one lucky winner. The review of your book will be posted directly here for all to read. Hopefully this will help increase your sales. The critique (consisting of no more than two chapters) can be done privately through e-mails to help the author determine the strength and weaknesses of their published (this includes e-books and traditional publishing) or non-published book. It's the winner's pick whether you receive a review or critique.

So, for all of you interested, please post here with the title of the book you want reviewed and/or critiqued and one lucky winner will be drawn on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008! Be sure to check back and see if you have won.

If your name is drawn as the winner, the e-book will need to be e-mailed to us at thedeadlyvixens@yahoo.com. For a traditional book, please contact us at thedeadlyvixens@yahoo.com for further instructions.

Please note: The content of the winner's book (erotica, traditional romance, etc.) will depend upon which Deadly Vixen reads your book. For instance, Sierra and Sarah write more traditional romances, whereas, Gracen and Tierney write more erotica type books. If the winner has a particular Deadly Vixen they want to revivew their novel, please note that in the winning e-mail.

This contest is open to published and non-published authors and to e-book and traditional books.

Best of luck!

Great Review from One of Our Winners!!

One of our contest winners sent us this great feedback and I had to share it with you all! Thanks so much for giving us your comments Alessandra! We appreciate it. I emailed Cynthia to let her know about the review too and she was thrilled. You really made her day.

Here's what Alessandra had to say...

I recently won the e-book Bewitching the Faerie by Cynthia Rayne. I couldn’t wait to read it but when I opened it and say the cover thought it best to wait until I was home and not start it at work (haha). My past experiences with the Romance Novel genre have been some Harlequin novels of the ‘70s and ‘80s; you know the ones “...pressed against her heaving bosoms...” yeah real risqué!

Life got in the way so it wasn’t until very late that night I had a chance to start reading the story. A small aside here, the way I tend to read any novel is to fantasize the hero as being my favourite actor of the moment (never my husband otherwise it wouldn’t be fantasy) and myself as the heroine; providing there is one.

So, I was happily tucked into bed with my laptop promising myself to only read 1 chapter as it was already past midnight. Chapter 2 came and went and I told myself I had to stop. Not only because I needed to be up in 4 hours to get ready for work but because the strangest thing happened towards the end of chapter 1 and I thought it would be best I stop before it happened again. I was completely absorbed by the story (so easy to do with Cynthia’s smooth writing style) and whilst reading a particular tense and erotic passage, and remember in the back of my mind the characters were myself and current fantasy man, I experienced what could only be described, I am embarrassed to say, an orgasm. Suffice to say this took me completely by surprise! This being my first modern erotic novel I wondered if this reaction was the intent of the author. Well if it was, then Cynthia succeeded resoundingly!

It wasn’t until a few days later that I had the time to devote myself to reading the rest of the novel in one sitting. What an enjoyable afternoon that was with the time just flying by. I laughed; I was frustrated and yelled at the characters to just smarten up already; as you can see I really get into a book! The story was well thought out, smoothly written, dialogue believable and at the end I just went awww and had a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

I will definitely read more of Cynthia Rayne and also delve into other authors’ novels of this newly and happily discovered genre.

Happy reading and writing everyone!

Alessandra (Scorpio1311)