Review: Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick

Title: Burning Up
Series: Arcane Society / Dreamlight Trilogy
Author: Amanda Quick
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: March 29, 2011
Publisher: Jove
ISBN: 051514925X
ISBN-13: 9780515149258

The Arcane Society was born in turmoil when the friendship of its two founders evolved into a fierce rivalry. Sylvester Jones and Nicholas Winters each sought to enhance their individual psychic talents. Winters’ efforts led to the creation of a device of unknown powers called the Burning Lamp. Each generation the Winters man who inherits it is destined to develop multiple talents—and the curse of madness.

Plagued by hallucinations and nightmares, notorious crime lord Griffin Winters is convinced he has been struck with the Winters Curse. And the instincts that have helped him survive the streets and rise to power are now drawing him toward Adelaide Pyne, the bothersome social reformer. But even as he arranges a meeting with the mysterious woman, he has no idea how closely their fates are bound, for Adelaide holds the Burning Lamp in her possession.

A dreamlight reader, Adelaide should be able to manipulate the Lamp’s light to save both Griffin’s sanity and his life. But their dangerous psychical experiment makes them the target of forces both inside and outside of the Arcane Society. And though desire strengthens their power their different lives will keep them apart—if death doesn’t take them together.

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Review: Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz

Title: Fired Up
Series: Arcane Society / Dreamlight Trilogy
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: January 4, 2010
Publisher: Jove
ISBN: 0515148784
ISBN-13: 9780515148787

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsession-fueled competition with alchemist and Arcane Society founder Sylvester Jones. Both men are driven to control their psychic abilities, and their decisions have reverberated throughout the family line, rewarding some with powers beyond their wildest dreams, and cursing others to a life filled with madness and hallucinations.

Jack Winters, descendant of Nicholas, has been experiencing nightmares and blackouts—just the beginning, he believes, of the manifestation of the Winters family curse. The legend says that he must find the Burning Lamp or risk turning into a monster. But he can’t do it alone; he needs the help of a woman with the talent to read the lamp’s dreamlight.

Jack is convinced that private investigator Chloe Harper is that woman. Her talent for finding objects and accessing dream energy are what will save him, but a sudden and powerful sexual pull threatens to overwhelm them both. Danger surrounds them, and it doesn’t take long for Chloe to pick up the trail of the missing lamp. And as she and Jack draw closer to it, the raw power that dwells within it threatens to sweep them into a hurricane of psychic power.

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Review: A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen

Title: A Wicked Snow
Author: Gregg Olsen

Read copy: eBook
Published: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 0786019123
ISBN-13: 9780786019120

Hannah Griffin was a girl when tragedy struck on her family s farm. She still remembers the flames reflected against the newly fallen snow and the bodies the police dug up - one of them her mother s. It was the nation s worst murder scene in decades and the killer was never found.Twenty years later Hannah is a talented CSI investigating a case of child abuse when the past comes hurtling back. Years of buried questions are brought to life. A killer with unfinished business is on the hunt. And an anonymous message turns Hannah s blood cold: Your Mom called...

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Review: Crux by Moira Rogers

Title: Crux
Series: Southern Arcana
Author: Moira Rogers
Read copy: eBook
Published: March 3, 2009
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1605044598
ISBN-13: 9781605044590

To find her destiny, she must trust him with her life...and her heart.

Jackson Holt makes a decent living as a private investigator in New Orleans, home of one of the largest underground supernatural populations in the United States. He and his partners have never met a case they couldn't crack...until a local bar owner asks him to do a little digging on her newest hire.

New Orleans is the fourth destination in as many months for Mackenzie Brooks, a woman on the run from a deranged stalker. After all, any man who shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her destined lover has more than a few screws loose. But crazy doesn't explain why he always finds her no matter how far she runs.

When her well-meaning boss puts a PI on her case, Mackenzie comes face to face with the incredible truth: magic is real, and whatever spell has kept her hidden and separate from the paranormal world is rapidly deteriorating.

With time running out, she has no choice but to trust Jackson as he struggles to uncover the truth of her past-and her destiny.

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Review: A Lot Like Love by Julie James

Title: A Lot Like Love
Series: FBI / US Attorney
Author: Julie James
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: March 1, 2011
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 0425240169
ISBN-13: 9780425240168

The FBI wants her cooperation.

As the daughter of a billionaire and the owner of the city’s top wine store, Jordan Rhodes is invited to the most exclusive parties in Chicago. But there’s only one party the FBI wants to crash: the charity fundraiser of a famous restaurateur, who also happens to launder money for the mob. In exchange for her brother’s release from prison, Jordan is going to be there—with a date supplied by the Bureau.

Agent McCall just wants her.

As the top undercover agent in Chicago, Nick McCall has one rule: never get personal. This “date” with Jordan Rhodes is merely an assignment—one they’re both determined to pull off even if they can’t be together for five minutes before the sarcasm and sparks begin to fly. But when Nick’s investigation is compromised, he and Jordan have no choice but to pretend they’re a couple, and what starts out as a simple assignment begins to feel a lot like something more. . .

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Review: I Do (But I Don't) by Cara Lockwood

Title: I Do (But I Don't)
Author: Cara Lockwood

Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: January 26, 2010
Publisher: Pocket Star
ISBN: 143917542X
ISBN-13: 9781439175422

She creates perfect days.

In spite of her incorrigible curly hair, Lauren Crandell is a neat-freak and organizational guru, qualities that make her the perfect wedding planner. But when two weddings in one day go haywire, and hunky firefighter Nick Corona comes to the rescue—twice—Lauren realizes there are a few important details in her own life she hasn't been tending to since her divorce. Namely, her sex life.

She lives lonely nights.

Sweet and sexy Nick seems hell-bent on fanning the flames between them, and Lauren definitely feels sparks flying. But she's scrambling to plan nuptials for her most challenging client yet -- a beautiful, cunning, and certifiable Psycho Bride. With the big day rapidly approaching, a series of misunderstandings, mishaps, and mistaken identities threatens to ruin not one, but two happily ever afters. But with her career and her love life on the line, the wedding planner just might learn that you can't plan everything, least of all true love.

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Review: Regency Christmas Proposals (anthology) by Gayle Wilson, Amanda McCabe, Carole Mortimer

Title:Regency Christmas Proposals
Author: Gayle Wilson, Amanda McCabe, Carole Mortimer

Read copy: eBook
Published: November 1, 2010
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1426874952
ISBN-13: 9781426874956

The Soldier's Christmas Miracle by Gayle Wilson

Wounded soldier Guy Wakefield has finally found the woman who saved his life. Isabella Stowe accepts his gratitude, but it will take more than a kiss under the mistletoe to convince this world-weary widow to accept his proposal….

Snowbound and Seduced by Amanda McCabe

Mary Bassington, Lady Derrington, longs to be the carefree woman she once was. But she gets more than she bargained for this Christmas when she's snowbound with old flame Dominick, Viscount Amesby, who reignites her passion for life—and love!

Christmas at Mulberry Hall by Carole Mortimer

Spending Christmas alone with his unconventional ward pushes the boundaries of propriety—and self-control—too far for Lord Gideon Grayson. So he takes delectably pure Amelia Ashford to Mulberry Hall—but that pesky mistletoe is still all around….

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