It starts out as an interesting premise, but you can see this is a first time novel by the heavy-handed way in which the author feeds us the information about the duties of a deathmaiden and their supposed organization and philosophy. Add to that all the background on the Maya cannabilistic practices, and we lose sight of the characters, who are not really intriguing enough to sustain this book. A worthy first effort which could have used a great deal more editing.

Darci is supposedly on the look out for famous actor Linc's son, and has been in mourning ever since her husband Adam and sister in law Bodiccea have gone missing.

The book is a total sham as both a mystery and as any sort of a love story.

The hero Linc is African American, and there are so many racist remarks in the book even while the author is trying to be earnest about the terrible treatment of slaves in the past, that I found it totally offensive. And I am not Af-Am.

Add to that the sex play between the two and her voyeurism as he has sex with the woman who supposedly murdered his friend, and we have a really revolting book.

Even worse is again the premise in Forever of evil people kidnapping children to use for their own sick purpose, with no thought as to how offensive this is. This author should definitely spend some time working for a Missing person's/children's hotline if she thinks to make money from this as something 'etnertaining.'

The end of the book is so rushed it does not tie up all the loose ends, only goes on to try to show how she can get the power to get Adam back-by becoming more evil herself. We never see Adam in the book at all, the supposedly happy marriage etc that we were left with at the end of the last novel, so the whole thing is just pointless drivel with a heroine with and an almost anti-hero in the constantly horny Linc even trying to have sex with various ghosts (including 4 at one time!!) who have all of the characterization of cardboard cut outs.

This and forever were the first two books I tried by Deveraux; I will never read one of this author's novels again.

The three linked novels in one book are based around the premise of the holidays, three long lost sisters, and the three women finding love all at the same time, all in Texas. It is a pretty tall order to carry out in only about 150 pages for each novella, and I am afraid that not a single one of the authors carrries it off.

The first novella by Jasmine Cresswell was easily one of the worst Harlequin books I have ever read, and this from an author who is supposed to be superb. It was the first time I read anything by her, and it will definitely be the last. The dialogue was so poor and stilted that it just made me laugh. The one saving grace was the hero and heroine hardly ever spoke to each other-they were both off in their own little worlds wondering how it was possible to have fallen in love with the boy/girl next door.

The sensual content was nil. I could get more steam cooking some broccoli. Gabrielle is also totally self-indulgent-it is all about her searching for her birth parents, and the marriage proposal is a total let down. As is her meeting her father, finally-it is all glossed over and has the emotional depth of a marshmallow. Josh is a nice guy, but that is all-he has no personality- and in fact he is so unmemorable that the blurb on the bck of the book lists his last name as Hunter, when throughout the book it is Taylor. Shows you just what impression he made even on the Harlequin editor.

Having set up the whole premise which such a risibly poor novella, there is little to redeem this book with the other two and we find Beth in the second one another self-indulgent and really very uninteresting one dimensional character. I valiantly read on looking for some real romance for any of the three women, but sadly found none. He is supposed to be a private pilot-there was a private pilot in the first one, but the author misses the opportunity to expand on the world supposedly created in the book.

The holiday material was all a sort of gratuitous afterthought, and the Trueblood Texas aspect also was not followed through at all, but was just the editors trying to capitalize on the name from the popular series. Save your money and time.

The author piles up the problems one after the other for the heroine, the villain is as transparent as glass, and the whole premise of his motives and the way he acts is just unbelievable. Add to it some really wooden sex scenes with awful dialogue and the whole thing was a chore to read from start to finish. This was my first Anderson book ever, and I have to say that as a fan of Lavyrle Spencer, I was sadly disappointed and would never waste my time with another of these books.

When you have read one Dark book, you have read them all.

And in this case, we get a rehash of tons of other characters from the previous books, as well as info on this couple, which is so dull we don't really care about them.

The trouble with writing fantasy is that if you have to explain so much about what it means to be Carpathian, the author is breaking the basic rule of show, not tell. Intrusive authorial voices went out with the Victorians! As for the erotic component, well, blood is not that thrilling. Nor indeed any other bodily fluid, really! We are what we are, human of vampire. And like in Emma holly's recent books, or Sherrilyn Kenyon's there really has to be something suspect about casting a spell on someone just to have sex with them, or to have sex with them just because you are meant to be together-there is no suspense or build up at all, just wind up toys having male/female 'physical activity' as this website calls it.

If you also add on the fact that the editing in this book is so shoddy and careless that I laughed through most of it, (I loved the 'garnished attention' too, I think the Carpathians have really had their day.

Emma Holly writes very good male/female scenes from the very opening of the book, but that is all they are.

There is very little romance, and a lot of what is described on this website euphemistically as 'physical activity' is the so called hero doing 'it' because of his rampant nature, with no sign of commitment in sight. and he only every charms them into it anyway.

There is little sensuality, it is mostly violent and predatory and there is no real tension in the bok because she makes up her mind the first night they sleep together (another good euphemism!!) that she wants to be one of them-she figures out what he is straightaway, and them hunting for a wolf after the last woman he fooled around with in the streets also spoils it all.

Pages and pages of 'physical activity' ensue, with pages more of the background of what it means to be an upyr which can be really tedious.

The requisite vocabulary for the 'physical activity' is quite choice in places, as are certain of his habits. If you like erotica this is the book for you. If you like sensuality, and characters who speak to one another occasionally and show true love and esteem, try another author.

Wooden characters, a carbon copy of dozens of other books with the hero afraid to trust, the sexy scenes read like failed and weak attempts at erotica. Hundreds of typos or missing words, and badlyconstructed sentences. This is an insult to intelligence romance readers and the editing at Harlequin was not good.

What a dull book, with a dull premise. The ladylike heroine and the rakish man has been done to death at this stage. There is no spark between the characters apart from the kiss, no sensuality, and dozens of characters mentioned never to be seen again. I find that the other couples in the book are all more interesting than the central one, which is not saying much since even Anne the heroine finds them dull. And crippled heroines have been done to death at this stage as well, as has the innocent and niave girl who asks a rake for tutelage in love.
I also saw so many grammatical errors in this book that the whole thing struck me as slipshod and yet another book churned out to try to continue a successful series at the expense of commonsense and quality.

It was well-researched and fast-paced. I hope to see more like this, with real depth and emotional engagement with three dimensional characters.

I liked David Delacourt most of the time, but he could be overbearing and pompus, and the love scenes were so repetitive it was like the author cut and paste them from one section of the book to the next. I noticed this because of the rather gross and callous detail, which was not really sensual at all, more reminscient of an electrician who gets the shock of his life if you take my meaning.
De Rohan also threatens to overshadow David at times, and he is so lividly jealous of Betham Rutledge that I am amazed he does not go wild over Max being with his beloved.
The mystery element was ok, but anyone could have guessed who it would be from the clues she gave. The whole lurid melodramatic scene in the brothel was also a bit of a let down.
People who had not read the previous books might have had some trouble figuring out who all these people were, and why we should care. Cole Amherst as cheating vicar is probably my least favorite character after having read A Woman Scorned and this book. He too threatens to overshadow David and the family secret is overplayed. Still I liked both characters. A good way to wile away the time, and better than all the other books in the series, thoguh Max's is pretty good too.(No True Gentleman)