Available: Amazon/B&N
Type: Paranormal Romance – Steampunk
Publisher: Zebra
My Copy: Bought
Colt Jackson has gotten his name on many a wanted poster with success in the family business: hunting supernaturals across the frontier. Lately, though, there’s a sulphur stink in the wind and the Darkin population is exploding. A rift in the worlds is appearing. To close it, Colt will have to do the unthinkable and work with a demon to pass arcane boundaries no human alone can cross. Except when he summons his demon, he doesn’t get some horned monstrosity: he gets a curvy redheaded succubus named Lilly, who’s willing to make a bargain to become human again. He also gets Lilly’s secret expertise on the machinations on the dark side of the rift. And her charm and cleverness help to get them out of what his silver-loaded pistol and mechanical horse can’t. Of course, when all hell breaks loose, he might have to sacrifice his soul. But what’s adventure without a little risk?
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If you follow my blog at all you know that when it comes to steampunk I usually just don’t “get it”. There isn’t many that I enjoy. I mean I understand the concept and all that, but in the grand scheme of things I just don’t have time to read them. So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t fully understand everything about this book and base this review solely on what I liked. I did a bit of research into other people’s reviews and found that some people had a hard time calling this a steampunk….so again, I’m not really going to talk about all that. I enjoyed this book for the romance it was. It was an excellent start to a trilogy by giving me an interesting story line and enjoyable characters I could get behind.
Colt is a hard-headed, wild west loving, gun slinging outlaw from a family of demon hunters. He and his two brothers, Remington and Winchester, had been taught from an early age how to take out the evil in this world. Meaning he had very little childhood and as a result had become obsessed with carrying on the tradition his dad had taught them regardless of his other brothers actually having a life outside of their birthright.
Colt has been on a mission to find three parts of an ancient book that can shut down the opening of the gates to hell. He calls upon a demon to help him in his search out of necessity and finds himself face to face with a succubus with her own agenda. Lily wants out of the lifestyle she doomed herself to years before in order to save her sister. Working with Colt will ensure that he helps her in her escape from their common foe, the demon Rathe. Colt has an awesome horse named Tempus. I use horse lightly because Tempus is completely steam-powered and 100% machine. Tempus and the airship had to be my favorite steampunk aspects in The Hunter by far. There are other gadgets, and the secondary character of the quirky inventor Marley that add to the steampunk genre quite well.
The book reads like Indiana Jones meets the wild west. It’s one adventure after another laced with an underlying sensuality that left me breathless. I loved Colt and Lily together. They completed each other. His rough and her silk, when woven together, created the perfect love…against all odds. I love the “from two worlds” aspect. I always have. I love when characters who know they shouldn’t be together triumph. It works in damn near every romance. It definitely works in The Hunter. I wish we would have been given a bit more closure to Lily’s search for her sister. I have hopes that it will be addressed before the end of the trilogy.
I give The Hunter by Theresa Meyers 4 stars!
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Available: Now Amazon/B&N
Type: Paranormal Romance- Steampunk
Publisher: Zebra
My Copy: Sent
Brothers Winchester, Remington, and Colt know the legends—they were trained from childhood to destroy demon predators, wielding the latest steam-powered gadgetry. It’s a devil of a job. But sometimes your fate chooses you…
Chasing Trouble
Winn Jackson isn’t interested in hunting nightmares across the Wild West—even if it’s the family business. Unlike his rakehell brothers, Winn believes in rules. As sheriff of Bodie, California, he only shoots actual law breakers. That’s what he’s doing when he rescues the Contessa Drossenburg, Alexandra Porter, a lady with all the elegance of the Old World—grace, beauty and class. And then he sees her fangs.
Alexandra isn’t just some bloodsucking damsel in distress, though. She’s on a mission to save her people—and she’s dead certain that Winn’s family legacy is the only way. Luckily, aside from grace and class, she also has a stubborn streak a mile wide. So like it or not, Winn is going to come back with her to the mountains of Transylvania, and while he’s at it, change his opinions about vampires, demon-hunting, and who exactly deserves shooting. And if she has her way, he’s going to do his darnedest to save the world…
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After reading The Hunter I started this one right away not wanting to let the steampunky feel vanish from my memory. I knew right off the bat that this one wasn’t going to be anything like the last. First, I had issues with Winn. Completely not the fault of the author but I am not a mustache girl…at all. After seeing Winn on the cover and then reading about his fantastical stache that he twirls around his finger when he is anxious, I kept picturing Burt Reynolds. I am not a child of the 70′s and so Burt just ain’t my thang. I know, I know, staches in the wild west were popular. Whatever. There is a scene where he goes to shave and I really hoped he’d shave the thing off lol. No luck. So not finding the hero enticing was strike number one.
I wasn’t fond of Tessa at all. Not sure why. Possibly because she starts out the book being a total snob and then by the end talked and acted like any other character in the novel. If she was a snob I wanted her to retain that regality at least in part. I just wasn’t intrigued enough with her character to care about her reactions to Winn or her growing feelings for him. Strike two.
While The Slayer does continue the story arc of The Hunter I found Tessa and Winn to drag a lot. I wasn’t interested in their budding romance at all like I was with Colt and Lily. I found I wanted to skip ahead to find out when they finally got around to expressing their emotions and not hiding behind everything. Winn spends a lot of time feeling guilt for accidentally killing his mother when he was a boy. I get that, I do. However, you can’t let guilt get in the way of protecting the world. There were times I thought he wouldn’t be able to move past it for the greater good. There didn’t seem to be as much action either, though there was some. I found those action scenes to be what grabbed me the most. Theresa Meyers excels at the pulse pounding action by far.
The best part about The Slayer is that the story line is running parallel to The Hunter. So as everything is happening with Colt and Lily, at the same time it is happening with Winn and Tessa. So some of the scenes when everyone is together repeat themselves and we get it from another point of view. I liked that fresh take on things. I assume since Remington had also departed with the prickly shape-shifter China to parts unknown that their book will be on the same timeline. It’s a unique way of viewing things and even though I didn’t get into Tessa and Winn as much, I appreciated their views. I also enjoy that it seems to be a recurring thing that in order to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, each brother will have to become a bit of a supernatural themselves, something they had sworn to hate until meeting the women.
I didn’t enjoy The Slayer nearly as much as The Hunter but I am really looking forward to Remington’s story. He seems more at ease then Colt and Winn and seeing him with the sarcastic China should be an adventure worth waiting for!
I give The Slayer by Theresa Meyers 3 stars!
No fear though, Ms Dawson has a world inspired novella out this fall to help cushion the blow between books.
