Graduate student Cameron
is on the trail of an ancient Chinese artifact, a ruby with a history. When he
meets adventurer Poe in Mexico, he spills the beans on his quest, and Poe sees
dollar signs as well as the hottest professor he’s ever met.
They head off to the salt
flats and mountains of Utah, searching for a lost wagon train from the eighteen
hundreds. What they find is danger beyond normal comprehension and a stone that
drives men to insanity.
Soon Poe’s only concern is
saving Cam, but to do that, he’ll need help from some old friends and a few new
ones. When it becomes too late to turn away from their quest, Poe and Cam put
themselves and their friends in deadly peril. It will take every bit of their
talents and courage to make it through and survive the Dragon’s Eye.
Second Edition
First Edition published
by Torquere Press, June 2008.
Cat gives this one 3 Meows with a 5 Purr
heat index...
I have mixed emotions
about this book. The premise was good, the blurb was intriguing, I liked the idea of the adventure and mystery and I liked the characters.
For me, it was just too
much sex. Don't get me wrong I like some sex in my stories and I love this
author's style of writing it, but I would have like lots more story and the
actual explicit sex toned down a little. A few scenes would have been plenty.
I also recommend you read
Oil and Water or get the set and read that one first, so you know who Poe is
and later in the book, Max and Morgan who become kinda important. There are
also two other characters, Simon and Thom, whom it seems I should have already
known but couldn't place. You do get a little of their backstory as the book
goes on but, I would have liked more of that in place of some of the heavy sex
scenes.
Then we have the bits about the thing they are searching for that seem to be other characters, then later voices and dreams and it got a little confusing to me... now having said all this I did read through because #1 I love this author and her stories and just knew it would be good and I wasn't disappointed. #2 It was unusual with a touch of supernatural twist that intrigued me. #3 I had to know what they were looking for and what happens with Cam.
Then we have the bits about the thing they are searching for that seem to be other characters, then later voices and dreams and it got a little confusing to me... now having said all this I did read through because #1 I love this author and her stories and just knew it would be good and I wasn't disappointed. #2 It was unusual with a touch of supernatural twist that intrigued me. #3 I had to know what they were looking for and what happens with Cam.
If you like a good
romance, adventure, a touch of supernatural, and lots of hot man-sex this is
for you.
Excerpt…
Prologue
Prologue
JANE HEARD something out
there in the swirling snow, something that made her pull the wooden shutters
tighter and kill the single oil lamp she used for a blessed time every day when
the darkness threatened to crash down upon her, squeeze the breath from her old
lungs.
She banked the fire and
grabbed her rifle with fingers that screamed with the broken-glass pain of age,
then sat in the rocking chair and listened. Her eyes might be old, but her
hearing was the same as it had been fifty years ago when her Lizzie had
whispered soft secrets to her, taught her how to be a woman in the best way.
Now her Lizzie was gone,
her body buried near the house, wrapped in their best sheet, and she’d been
living here alone for six endless years. She’d been worried, sleepless, lonely,
but never frightened.
This was—not a scream, but
a deep pain carried by the wind, a broken sound that nothing in God’s nature
made, and it caused her to shudder, her bladder wanting to let go.
The sound dripped with
menace, with a mindless threat, and God help her, it was moving closer, toward
the cabin.
She shook herself. You’re
hearing shadows and haints in the rustling of the trees. You ain’t got your
woman no more, so you’ve given in to vapors. Bears is all sleeping, wolves is
smart enough to know that carcass on the poles is one of theirs, and the…
Pumas.
Oh, them critters screamed
like a woman and were too smart. Bessie and Old Nurse were tucked away in the
barn, but a donkey and an old cow weren’t nothing against those teeth.
Jane’s thoughts froze as
she heard a rattle, then a thud and a thump. She closed her eyes and prayed,
but sure as shit, the bray of that donkey split the air like a hatchet, and she
heard the creak and groan of the barn door. That was her whole life in
there—Old Nurse was the only way down the mountain come spring. The only way to
turn her potions and medicines into oil and coffee.
“I cain’t lose this.”
Her home, her animals—they
were all she had, and she’d fight the devil himself to defend them.
Jane grabbed her hat and
pulled her quilt tight around her, then took the rifle and opened the door,
shocked as all get-out to see the storm had stopped and the moon shone bloodred
on the snow.
“Ain’t no matter, Satan,”
she whispered. “This is all I got. I won’t lose it.”
The door to the barn stood
open, a gaping maw offering to take a bite. She straightened up as well as she
could, cocking the rifle.
“Please, Jesus, have my
hand in this. Help me.”
Because old as she was,
she wasn’t ready to die.
As she reached the door, a
stench of death and agony hit her nose. Then she heard it. Two words.
“Jin Wang.”
Texan to the bone and an
unrepentant Daddy's Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds and
her beloved wife, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she's not
doing that, she's writing. She spends her days off watching the rodeo, knitting, and
surfing Pinterest in the name of research. BA's personal saviors include her
wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee.
Really good coffee.
Having written everything
from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her
damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast
Texas, but has heard the call of the high desert and lives in the
Sandias. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance to fiery menages,
to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by
anyone but the voices in her head. Find her on the web at
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enjoyed the excerpt and review
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review and excerpt!
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