Review: Cruz by Moira Rogers

Title: Crux (Southern Arcana #1)
Author: Moira Rogers
Source: Self Purchased
Length: Novel
Release Date: March 3, 2009
Reviewer: Jasmyn

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.

This book contains devious schemes, epic battles, forbidden love between a shapeshifter and a spellcaster, nosy secondary characters, furniture-endangering sex and a woman fighting to choose her own destiny.

This book was such a fun book to read!  I loved all the characters - even the bad guys (but in a bad way).  Moira is full of spunk and determination to live her own life away from the crazy man claiming to be her destiny.  Unfortunately, he may just be telling the truth (or at least one version of it).  Her boss and the PI's in New Orleans know that she's not human - she's something else, but she doesn't have a clue herself.

When Mackenzie finds out the paranormal world is all too real, she decides she has to trust Jackson to help her figure out what is going on (she's a very confused lady).  But what the uncover is far from pretty - it's an ugly horrible scheme that rocks the entire paranormal world, and Mackenzie is in the center of it all.

The only thing I disliked about this story was just a little pet peeve of mine that kept coming up, otherwise it would have received 5 stars.  Also, the sexual rating was a little tough on this one.  While there isn't a lot of it or anything really unusual - there is some broken furniture or it would have received a 1 sexual rating.

Blog tour/giveaway with Moira Rogers

THE BACKSTORY

From the time we announced the final Red Rock ebook in 2009, people have been asking us when we'd go back to the Sanctuary world and write more about werewolves and their witch rivals.  In the beginning we didn't want to return--we had our four books and our two prequel novellas, and those were the stories we had to tell.  But people kept asking, and we kept saying, "Well, what if...okay, no, but maybe if..."

ARC Review Haunted Sanctuary by Moira Rogers

Title: Haunted Sanctuary (Green Pines #1)
Author: Moira Rogers
ebook, 260 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Publish date: January 22nd 2013
Reviewed by: Carin

The shadows of her past could destroy their future.

Green Pines, Book 1

Eden Green can’t remember a time she didn’t believe in monsters—her cousin was born one. Her family’s dark past casts a long shadow, making it hard to make friends and harder to commit to a lover. She lives a quiet life in small-town Clover, Tennessee, but she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tired of the city packs’ corruption, yet too alpha to be a subordinate in a sanctuary town, Jay Ancheta satisfies his need to protect by serving as Clover’s Chief of Police. As much as he’s drawn to Eden, he can’t offer forever to a woman who doesn’t know what he is—or trust himself to let her go after one taste.

When Eden’s cousin and his battered pack stagger into town, their tormentors hard on their heels, Eden is bitten in the chaos. Now Jay not only has a traumatized pack to deal with, but a newly turned wolf with enough hungry alpha power to consume them both.

With their combined strength, they can create a new sanctuary—if their passion can survive the ghosts of the Green family’s legacy.

Warning: Contains a newly turned werewolf heroine who enjoys a little rough dominance in bed and a badass alpha wolf hero who’ll fight bad guys, ghosts and even the past to protect what’s his. Be prepared for violence, death and heartbreak on the way to a happily ever after.

Review Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha

Title: Beyond Shame (Beyond, #1)
Author: Kit Rocha
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Dystopia Erotic Romance (BDSM elements)
Length: Novel

All Noelle Cunningham has ever wanted is a life beyond–beyond the walls of Eden, where only the righteous are allowed to remain, and beyond her stiflingly restrictive existence as a councilman’s daughter. But only ruins lie outside the City, remnants of a society destroyed by solar storms decades earlier.

The sectors surrounding Eden house the corrupt, the criminal–men like Jasper McCray, bootlegger and cage fighter. Jas clawed his way up from nothing to stand at the right hand of Sector Four’s ruthless leader, and he’ll defend the O’Kane gang with his life. But no fight ever prepared him for the exiled City girl who falls at his feet.

Her innocence is undeniable, but so is their intense sexual attraction, and soon they’re crossing every boundary Noelle barely knew she had. But if she wants to belong to Jas, first she’ll have to open herself to the gang, to a dangerous world of sex, lust and violence. A world where passion is power, and freedom is found in submission.

Review Impulse (Southern Arcana, #5) by Moira Rogers

Title: Impulse (Southern Arcana, #5)
Author: Moira Rogers
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Shifters, Magic
Length: 226 pages
Reviewer: Twigs

Her submission can heal him. His dominance can free her.

Southern Arcana, Book 5

Sera Sinclaire is a New Orleans rarity: a submissive coyote trapped in a town overrun by dominant shapeshifters. Worse, she lacks the willpower to deny the alphas-in-shining-armor who need her soothing presence, even when their protectiveness threatens to crush her hard-won self-reliance.

The only shifter she doesn’t want to push away is Julio Mendoza, a wolf so dominant he’s earned a place on the Southeast council.

Julio doesn’t have the luxury of indulging in the vacation his psychic shrink insists he needs. He can't turn his back on responsibilities he’s beginning to wish he’d never shouldered. When an obsessive ex endangers Sera, though, instinct drives him to get her out of town. Watching her come to life outside the city makes him feel like he's finally done something right, and her touch ignites desire he doesn’t want to ignore.

But soon, lighthearted flirting becomes a dangerous game of seduction, where every day spent falling into each other is another day avoiding the truth. Sera's ex isn't the only one who’d disapprove of their relationship. There are wolves who would kill to get Sera out of Julio's life—starting with his own blood kin.

Product Warnings
Contains endless summer road trips, family drama, redneck werewolves, sexual power games and a taboo love affair between a submissive coyote who’s among the last of her kind and a dominant wolf who loves his heroine’s ass. Literally.

Guest post Moira Rogers

Please welcome Moira Rogers! 

Hello there!  I’m Bree, one half of the paranormal romance writing duo of Moira Rogers, and I’m on a wild and crazy blog tour talking about dangerous men and the women who love them. And I’m not just talking about their heroines—I mean all the women who love them, including those of us who read & write about them!  That’s why I’m here with an excerpt from Keeping Company With Bloodhounds, a book that gives all the dirty details about those dangerous warriors. (Even if it only exists in the fictional world of the Bloodhounds.)

Keeping Company With Bloodhounds is a fictional book of fictional gossip, and in the Bloodhounds universe, I imagine it would only be the first of its kind. When you have a lot of independent minded genetically modified super soldiers with base instincts and unnatural lusts, you're bound to get a good story or two out of it. Or ten.  Or a hundred.

Review Kisri by Moira Rogers

Title: Kisri (...and the Beast #2)
Author: Moira Rogers
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: eNovella, 77 pgs
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Author Website


His duty...her pleasure.

…and the Beast, Book 2

After three years at war, Ennon bears the burden of seeing the High Lord’s vast armies home. Keeping thousands of fiercely independent lions in line isn’t easy. When his soldiers discover a beautiful, royal female hidden beneath an illusion spell, the lure of her inheritance threatens the order of his camp.

The men of her family protected Kisri, until the war stole them away. Tired of defending herself from greedy suitors, she’s in search of her only remaining male relative. Instead she finds Ennon, her cousin’s most dangerous warrior. Perhaps the only man in the kingdom who has no interest in claiming her birthright. Which makes him unique…and tempting.

Delivering Kisri to his High Lord’s side—while keeping his distance—is Ennon’s one and only duty. Yet Kisri’s untutored advances crack his formidable resistance. And she proves to be a dangerously adept student. Especially when their passion wakes a magic beyond their control…

Warning: This story contains a dangerous shapeshifter warlord, a lioness with a sword, innocent passion, sexual awakenings and a happily-ever-after worthy of any fairy tale.



Rating -

Sexual -

My Review:

This second eNovella in Rogers' ...and the Beast paranormal romance series is a steamy and delightful story which I read in one sitting. The blurb states, "dangerous shapeshifter warlord, a lioness with a sword, innocent passion, sexual awakenings and a happily-ever-after worthy of any fairy tale" to which I will add in a cousin who is royalty.

Kirsi, the female lead, is a shapeshifting lioness and "cousin of the High Lord of the Plains". She is an innocent in the ways of love and sex but not in the ways of the world. Kirsi is a strong willed character who describes herself playfully as a "spoiled royal brat" but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. She thinks Ennon will make a "fitting tutor in the arts of pleasure".

The male lead, Ennon, First Warlord of the Plains, is very drawn to Kirsi but knows that Malrion would be most displeased, maybe even kill him, if anything happened to his cousin while in Ennon's care, much less if he touches her.

There is a priceless line in the story, “Or are you so well-endowed you fear my virgin nerves will shatter and I’ll flee into the woods?” You'll have to read the rest to find out the response.

Even as short as this story is (only about 50 pages), the characters are well developed and the plot catches your attention from the very beginning. And even though it is part of a series, it is very much a stand alone story.

The only thing I did not like about this story is that it was so short - I want more Kirsi and Ennon! (Hint! Hint! )

Paranormal romance and shapeshifter genre fans will adore this story.

At the end of the eNovella, you will find an excerpt from the first in this series, Sabine as well as excerpts from The Seven Year Witch by Jodi Redford and Primal Pleasure by Sydney Somers.

Review Wilder's Mate by Moira Rogers

Title: Wilder's Mate (Bloodhounds #1)
Author: Moira Rogers
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: eNovella, 100 pgs
Release Date: March 8, 2011
Author Website







Wilder Harding is a bloodhound, created by the Guild to hunt down and kill vampires on America’s frontier. His enhanced abilities come with a high price: on the full moon, he becomes capable of savagery beyond telling, while the new moon brings a sexual hunger that borders on madness.

Rescuing a weapons inventor from undead kidnappers is just another assignment, though one with an added complication—keeping his hands off the man’s pretty young apprentice, who insists on tagging along.

At odds with polite society, Satira’s only constant has been the aging weapons inventor who treats her like a daughter. She isn’t going to trust Wilder with Nathaniel’s life, not when the Guild might decide the old man isn’t worth saving. Besides, if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that brains are more important than brawn.

As the search stretches far longer than Wilder planned, he finds himself fighting against time. If Satira is still at his side when the new moon comes, nothing will stop him from claiming her. Worse, she seems all too willing. If their passion unlocks the beast inside, no one will be safe. Not even the man they’re fighting to save.

Warning: This book contains a crude, gun-slinging, vampire-hunting hero who howls at the full moon and a smart, stubborn heroine who invents mad-scientist weapons. Also included: wild frontier adventures, brothels, danger, betrayal and a good dose of wicked loving in an alternate Wild West.




Rating -

Sexual -

My Review:

This is the first in Rogers' Bloodhounds series (which in compliance with FTC guidelines, I need to disclose that I received this eNovella as a free gift from Moira Rogers).

Vampires, bloodhounds, ghouls, a kidnapped mentor, a sexy need and a reluctant romance set in the wild plains of the Deadlands where "vampires steal through the night", this book combines paranormal romance and a little steampunk. Sorta like the original Wild, Wild West TV show staring Robert Conrad & Gunsmoke meet the 1999 Will Smith movie version.

Satira, the heroine, is a no nonsense, tomboy complete with weapons who dresses in men's clothing and is Nathaniel’s apprentice. Spine of steel and fearless when it counts, willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Innocent and naive in many ways but at the same time worldly in others. She reminds me of Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead) without the training. Nathaniel, trusted friend and Guild inventor, "who’d all but raised her, she would risk her very life [for]" is missing, presumed kidnapped by vampires, and she is hell bent on rescuing him.

Wilder, the hero, is a bloodhound who fights vampires, whose "mission from the Guild [has] to be to keep their new technology from falling into vampire hands". He becomes full of "sexual hunger [and] feral need" during full and new moons.

This story is full of delightfully snarky dialogue as well as being nice and hot - seriously hot, "hot and bothered" hot. It is a 3.5 on a sexy scale of 1-4.

Rogers' bloodhounds are a very inventive creation. This story whet my appetite for more - to elaborate on the bloodhounds, the guild and the world the story takes place in (which appears to be a post apocalyptic US) for which there isn't enough room for in a 100 page eNovella.

I think that fans of the paranormal romance, steampunk and urban fantasy genres will enjoy this and look forward, as I do, to the sequel, Hunter's Prey - the eBook is scheduled for release in March 2012. There are plans to combine books one and two as a print option.

This eNovella includes excerpt from Undertow (Building Sanctuary, Book 2)