Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister Book 4 of the Aisling Grey series

Book Blurb:  I’m Aisling Grey—but you can call me “frustrated.”

The man of my dreams—uber-sexy Drake Vireo, wyvern of the green dragons—has finally decided to make an honest woman of me. That is, if we ever make it to the wedding at the same time! Being left at the altar may have cooled my jets, but not my passion…a good thing when Drake disappears and it’s up to me to find him.

Most brides just have in-laws to worry about. Me? I have warring dragons, ticked-off demon lords, eternal damnation, and a mage who wants to challenge me for an otherworldly position I don’t even want. Good thing I have Jim, my doggie-demon at my side. He’s never let me down—yet…

My Thoughts:

This was an interesting ending to the Aisling Grey books.  I have to say, the books got better as the series went on.  This last book in the series was the best in my opinion.  Aisling matured more and more, became less flakey and seemed to get herself out of trouble a little easier.  I was glad to see the relationship of her and Drake finally evolve into something with a little more substance.  I never really understood his fascination with someone so completely different than himself.  In the end the two seemed more compatible and I was pleased about that.  All in all the series was pretty good and set the background for all her post-published and upcoming dragon novels.    

The Corset Diaries by Katie MacAlister

Book Blub:  
No woman in her right mind would consent to wearing a corset for a month. Especially a "skinny-challenged" woman like Tessa. But dreams of being debt-free dance in her head at the offer of appearing in a reality TV show. "A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke" is about real people pretending to live on an English estate, circa 1879. And Tessa's leading man-a real-life Duke-is so handsome she can barely breathe, with or without the corset..






My Thoughts:
Katie MacAlister is normally a paranormal romance writer, but I enjoyed reading this book.  I laughed through out most of it and even got teary eyed at one point.  I found Tessa a bit too talkative sometimes though.  For the most part the book was refreshing to say the least.  

Sweet Release by Carrie Pulkinen

Book Blurb:

Sweet Release: The day Miranda Billings dies isn't the worst day of her life—but it's close. Then again, if she'd lived, she never would've made love to Andre.

The day Miranda Billings dies isn't the worst day of her life—but it's close. Miranda dreams of adventure and escaping her boring existence, but death might be too much of an escape. With the help of Andre the demon slayer, she discovers the excitement she craves. If only he’d let her share his quest as well as his bed.

When Andre, the half-demon EMT, finds the woman he loves crushed by a bus, he reawakens her soul with his magic and his blood. Now, Andre must decide if he’s willing to let her join him in his perilous quest to slay demons and save humans. He almost lost her once. Is he willing to risk losing her forever?

My thoughts:

Miranda Billings was having one hell of a day.  Loses her job, gets dumped and then to top it all off....she gets flattened by a bus.  That might seem like the end of it for her, but sexy EMT Andre, whom had been crushing on her for some time now, brings her back to life with his handy dandy half-demon powers.  Now with nothing to lose, Miranda has to make a decision.  Stay on the run fighting demons with a man she barely knows whom isn't even human himself, or figure something else out.  The choice seems almost too easy.  

I enjoyed this story immensely.  Reading this book was like being able to eat a whole box of chocolate covered cherries but only having the guilt of just one piece.  It was short, but felt like I read a whole story.  The passion between the two characters was amazing, leaving me a little breathless and my heart beating a bit harder.  I enjoyed her descriptiveness but was a little confused sometimes as to which characters mind I was in.  All in all I enjoyed what I read.   

Previous Book Reviews

Before I started my own blog, I used to help out a friend with her reviews when she couldn't read all of them.  Here are the links to her blog where she posted them.


Lady of Seduction by Laurel McKee
http://becksbookpicks.blogspot.com/2011/07/lady-of-seduction-by-laurel-mckee.html

Red Hot Lightning by Stormy Knight

http://becksbookpicks.blogspot.com/2011/06/red-hot-lightening-by-stormy-knight.html  

Trapped by Justine Elyot

http://becksbookpicks.blogspot.com/2011/05/honeytrapped-by-justine-elyot.html 

Heartsblood by Carolyn McCray

http://becksbookpicks.blogspot.com/2011/04/heartsblood-by-carolyn-mccray.html

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Playing With Fire, Fire Me Up and Light My Fire by Katie MacAlistar

Book 1  Playing with Fire....Good intro into the Asling Grey world.  She comes off as a little immature and green, but hey, what can you expect for a mere mortal?  She hasn't a clue what she is doing, accidentally summoning up the doggie demon Jim, who turns out to be her best friend and learning things about the Otherworld that she once thought was mere fiction.  I wasn't really sure what to expect with this being book one from a 4 book series.  All I can say is that I am glad she continues to mature throughout the series.

Book 2  Fire me Up....We are brought into Drake and Asling's relationship more with this book as the two (more so Asling) seem to accept the whole mate thing.  Drake wants fealty and Asling him, but she also wants to be independent and to explore what it means to be a Guardian.  An idea Drake isn't too keen on.  Asling's life is one twist and turn after another, and Jim her trusty smart mouthed demon sidekick  keeps the humor going throughout.               

Book 3  Light My Fire.....The third installment in the series definately keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the book.  I truely enjoyed seeing Asling grow into the duties that are seeming thrust into her life with as much grace (and debaucle) as she can muster.  She seems to get into more and more trouble with each turn of the page.  With Guardianship training and a new start in life looking bright, things take a turn for the disasterous when Drake shows back up in Asling's life 4 weeks after leaving him in Paris.  She can't get enough of his presence, but would rather keep him far away to stave away her desire for him since he just can't seem to understand how importiant her Guardianship means to her.  I'm looking forward to reading the fourth and final installment of the series.

Note Worthy Authors....Gena Showalter and Sherrilyn Kennyon

Two of my favorite paranormal romance authors is Gena Showalter and Sherrilyn Kennyon.  

I absolutely love Gena's LOTU (Lords of The Underworld) series.  "Long ago, twelve immortal warriors – each more dangerously seductive than the last -- stole and opened Pandora’s box, unleashing the evil from within. Now they carry that evil within themselves. Violence, Pain, Death, Disease, Disaster, Misery, Doubt, Promiscuity, Defeat, Lies, Secrets, and Wrath. When a powerful enemy returns, they will travel the world in search of a sacred relic of the gods – one that threatens to destroy them all."  These men are sexy, commanding, in a take charge type of way and the women in the stories are strong enough to put them in their places.  I haven't had a chance to read them all but I think they are all out now and you better bet I will be looking for the last few!

Now on to Sherrilyn Kennyon.  I love her style of writing because she seems to weave a lot of laughs into her stories as well as suspense, drama, and lot of the paranormal.  My favorite series, (I'm a series girl if you haven't noticed, and I like to read one after the other until I'm done with the whole series), is the Dark Hunter collection....

"We are Darkness. We are Shadow. 

We are the Rulers of the Night. 
We, alone, stand between mankind and those who would see mankind destroyed. We are the Guardians. 
The Soulless Keepers. 
Our souls were cast out so that we would not forewarn the Daimons we pursue. By the time they see us coming, it's too late. 
The Daimons and Apollites know us. They fear us. We are death to all those who prey upon the humans. 
Neither Human, nor Apollite, we exist beyond the realm of the Living, beyond the realm of the Dead. 
We are the Dark-Hunters. 
And we are eternal. 
Yeah, yeah. Enough of the doom and gloom because, baby, that ain't us. You want to know what a Dark-Hunter is? We are what the intro says. We're Mad, Bad and Immortal. We're ancient warriors with attitudes who fight rough, and play hard. 
We are the scary things that go bump in the night. And we love every minute of it. So when you think you're being watched. You just might be. The question is...is it something evil or is it one of us?"

If paranormal is your thing, your should definately look these two up.  They have many other books, series and genres.   

My First Post!

Well, I thought I would follow along in the trend of blogging and do my own book blog.  Yay me!  I have been reviewing books now and then for a friend of mine that she puts on her book blog, Beck's Book Picks, under Crystal's Thoughts, and thought it was time to branch out on my own with a little, (ok, a lot) of prodding from her.  :)  I read all of the time for pleasure and would love to do some reviews for authors for my blog.  I have been wanting to do this for some time now, but it never seemed to be the right time.  With my daughter about to go into PreK, I thought, why not now?
You will mostly see romance, paranormal and erotica on here since that is what interests me the most. I can't wait to get started!