Kiss of Snow, by Nalini Singh

Another small step on my quest to catch up with my reviews on the one series left in my auto-buy list. In fact, this is the only series I still pre-order in hardback. Consider that your warning for reviewer bias.

I plan to review the remaining three books each Monday until the release of Shards of Hope, with a review for that book going up on June 1st.

For readers coming cold to the Psy/Changeling series, please note: this is the tenth full-length installment.

“The Lady Always Wins” by Courtney Milan

I have made no secret that I love Ms Milan’s work.¹ I enjoy her writing voice very much, I love how strong her heroines are, and how even in short stories like this one, she manages the most wonderful twists.

I have, however, been quite remiss in reviewing any of her work until now. I’m hoping to correct the oversight this year.

“The Lady Always Wins,” by Courtney Milan

You can see in the author’s website that this story was originally written for, and published in, a charity anthology a couple of years ago. Later, Ms Milan self published it individually, and it’s also available in her A Novella Collection.

You can read more about the story, and a longish excerpt, here.

And the blurb, from the author’s site:

Skies of Gold, by Zoë Archer

Skies of Gold by Zoë Archer

I am usually very much a stickler when it comes to reading series in order, which means that by the time I got my greedy mitts on Skies of Gold, I should have read at least two, or more likely four, other books.

See, this is actually the fifth book in the Ether Chronicles, a steampunk historical series written by Zoë Archer and her husband, Nicco Rosso. That is, they do not write the books together, they write alternating books in the series.

The thing is, though, that I probably wouldn’t have even known about the series, let alone this novel, were it not for an interview podcast with the authors at SmartBitches.

Still, and even though I’ve liked what I’ve read of Ms Archer’s other work, I don’t think I would have looked Skies of Gold up, except that it went on sale right after I read this very enthusiastic review–also at the SmartBiches.

What’s a reading addict to do then?

Obviously, get the book and inhale it.

Which I did.

Now all you lovelies get to see what I think about it 😀

But first, the blurb (directly from Ms Archer’s site):

Burning Up (Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra, Meljean Brook)

As much as I talk about Meljean Brook’s amazing Iron Seas series, it came as a surprise that I had never reviewed the story that forever hooked me on it. I hereby hasten to correct that egregious oversight.

It will be brief, but it will be done!

Burning Up by Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra and Meljean Brook

Not too long ago, in one of the Smart Bitches podcasts, there was a conversation on how effective are novellas as a way to introduce new series to readers.

My knee-jerk reaction is to say that they don’t work for me, but the truth is that they don’t when:

1. the world building doesn’t hold up in the novella,
2. events that are essential to the longer stories happen in the novellas (I like the shorts as extras, not compulsory reading, myself), and
3. when the novella is actually the first few chapters of a novel (yes, this has happened–ask Nora Roberts about Laurell K Hamilton and the Out Of This World anthology)

Three out of the four stories in Burning Up are part, or the starting point, of series of different lengths and success. I will review them as they appear in my print copy. Please do be aware the there’s explicit sex, and in some quite a bit of it, in all four stories.