GENRE:  PNR; Steampunk

LENGTH:  432 (MMP pgs)

HEAT LEVEL (content):  sexy-hot (m/f vanilla; frank but not overly explicit/extended)

PUBLISHER/pub date:  Forever (GCP/Hachette); August 2014

SERIES INFO (timeline):  Darkest London #5 (@ 1yr after end of #4)

FORMAT (source):  MMP (own); Audio (borrow)

BLURB:

Still captivated by the narrating skills of Moira Quirk, I barely touched my DTB copy & continued with this series via audio.  Thus, 4-star rating is influenced by my listening experience.  If I were to rate the story on its own, it would be more 3-3.5 stars.

Overall, I did enjoy this installment of the Darkest London series but it fell a bit flat, especially after a 5-star reading (listening) of the previous book, Shadowdance.  Unlike in earlier books, I found some diversions from the main storyline to be more disruptive than necessary.  And plot-wise, there were more than a few weak and/or unaddressed points (some due to minor instances of deus ex machina).  This resulted in a vague feeling of dissatisfaction with the dénouement of both the action/mystery and the romance. And the final (tiny) nail in coffin was a personal pet peeve: even with certain open items, the epilogue dealt with the next book/couple, as opposed to wrapping up things re: Will and Holly. :/

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book (and entire series) to PNR/steampunk fans.  And despite loss of some momentum re: series, I already got & listened to the next book, Soulbound, which was released on 24-Feb-2015.

Oh man, why can't I listen faster?!  LOL/*smh*

This series continues to progress in strong fashion, with this book #5 picking up @ 1yr after book #4, ‘Shadowdance’.  I’ve been too busy reading this series to pause for anything other than quick posts on GR or verbal chit-chat IRL, so may post an abbreviated ‘series in review’ soon.  Unless *cough* waylaid due to reading ‘Soulbound’, #6 which is due out today :)

In meantime, here’s a tidbit from ‘Evernight’... Be well, everyone!

“I’m going to…” She cleared her throat. “I shall rub you down, thoroughly concentrating on each area. Hopefully, it will slow the progress of the metal more effectively than simply putting my hand upon your chest.”

A slow, wide grin pulled at his lips. “Let me see if I have this correctly,” he said, struggling not to crow, “you are going to rub your hands all over my body…”—she narrowed her eyes in distaste, which only made his grin reach epic proportions—“slowly and thoroughly—”

“Really, Mr. Thorne.”

“While my part in it is to lie here and take it?” His cheeks ached from smiling. “Is that the plan?”

...

By the time she’d finished with him, with a little encouraging pat and a request that he rest quiet like a good lad, there was no point in denying it: Holly Evernight would be the death of him.

GENRE:   PNR/HR/steampunk

LENGTH:   427 (MMP pgs)

HEAT LEVEL (content):  sexy-hot (m/f vanilla; frank but not overly explicit/graphic)

PUBLISHER (pub date):  Forever/GCP/Hachette (Dec 2013)

SERIES INFO (timeline):  Darkest London #4 (almost 2yrs after #3)

BLURB:

Best in series thus far!

Very quick thoughts b/c I’ve got several books to read before I can return to this series and read “Evernight” (book #5) prior to the Feb 24th release of “Soulbound” (book #6).

In a nutshell, I’m thoroughly loving this series.  So *really* fortunate that I managed to get over hump re: “Firelight” (book #1), due to fantastic narration (IMHO, ‘voice acting’ truly applies here) by Moira Quirk.  [More specifics re: that to be in forthcoming recap of books #1-3, probably by this weekend.]  I’m so impressed by Ms. Quirk that I’ve stayed w/ audio for all books―which is *very* unusual for me b/c ABs usually take me 3-4x longer.

The MCs in “Shadowdance” were introduced in the previous books

3.5 stars

There has been a lot of hype for this story so I was expecting a bit more out of it. It's certainly good and I understand why people have been liking it so much, but I kept hoping for it to captivate me only to be left wanting.

4.25 stars

The main character's name is a different variation of my favorite male name (Jason) and that alone gets it 5stars from me, because sometimes I'm easy like that.

On a more serious note: I enjoyed the fuck out of this story! And there isn't even any sex! I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did (I couldn't even put it down to go to bed), but this just made its way to my 'a thousand hearts' shelf of love. There were just so many things about it that I adored! The writing is great (very minor errors), the characters are all marvelous, I even smiled over the children and that is a very rare thing indeed, so points to Sera Trevor for that as well. There's some depth to the characters and the start of what seems to be some excellent world building, although if the story were longer there could be more development to both characters and their world. I even liked

My only complaint is that

Overall, this was cute and sweet, with moments that had me smiling (at children, of all things) and left me wanting more (and not just for the above spoiler). I would love to read something else by this author in the future.