Review: Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty

Caine's Reckoning

Author: Sarah McCarty
Publisher: HQN Book
Series: Hell's Eight, #1
Pages: Kindle Edition, 477 pages
Genre: Historical Romance, Western
Release Date: January 1st 2011

Summary:

The Hell's Eight is the only family he's ever needed, until he meets the only woman he's ever wanted...

Caine Allen is a hardened Texas Ranger, definitely not the marrying kind. But when he rescues a kidnapped woman and returns her to town, the preacher calls in a favor. One Caine's honor won't let him refuse.

From the moment he beds Desi, Caine knows turmoil will follow. Desi might have the face of a temptress, but she also has a will of iron and while she needs his protection, she's determined that no man will control her again. They establish an uneasy bond, but it isn't enough for Caine. He wants all Desi has to offer. He wants her screams, her moans, her demands...everything. Yet there's still a bounty on Desi's head, and keeping her sexually satisfied is proving easier than keeping her alive.

Review:

Not quite sure how this ended up on my kindle... It's been there for a while. For some reason I thought one of my GR friends liked the series?... but I wouldn't be able to tell you who..
Anyway.
I liked reading a western for a change. Loved the crew. All the bit's of the ranch life was awesome.
Desi and Caine were interesting MC. Their romance is different and very sweet. The character building is done well. The villains are mean- but in an multifaceted way. The Hell's Eight, interesting...I want more of The Hell's Eight!
McCarty did a good job of depicting the hard life of the west, though there were moments where I wondered if anyone would have spoken like that..
It's a good western romance- how authentic? I wouldn't know to be perfectly honest. I actually got most of my western education through movies. And from my POV this is a good one. A rangy, well written, romantic western.


I liked how their relationship grew and how they slowly got to know each other and all that.
The storyline is interesting. But there are a gazillion questions unanswered. And the end was let's throw in another sex scene and solve all their problems and we all set...
The epilogue is rather sweet. And it gave me hopes that we get the answers in the next book. Except how did the Hell's Eight find out who the perpetrators were? Again- too sudden results- especially considering the length of the book.

My absolutely biggest issue?
The smut. First too much of it - well for me at least - and then also most of Caine's and Desi's transactions were set around it- while I loved their banter outside the smut-scenes there was way to little of it for my taste.

I am intrigued enough to read the next book. (I might skim the smut next time around lol)

So if you enjoy smut more than I, this is definitely something to put on your TBR.

Rating: 

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She Returns From War

Cora Oglesby #2

by Lee Collins

Release Date: February 7, 2013

Summary:
Four years after the horrific events in Leadville, a young woman from England, Victoria Dawes, sets into motion a series of events that will lead Cora and herself out into the New Mexico desert in pursuit of Anaba, a Navajo witch bent on taking revenge for the atrocities committed against her people.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Review:
The Sequel of The Dead of Winter, could just as well be read as a stand-alone. While it is a continuation of the first installment to a degree, it is written mostly from Victoria's point of view. The new main character. We get to meet some of the old cast like G. Townsend and Father Baez and naturally Cora again. There are vampire and other critters , Saloon and Gunfights like in the first book. But actually this one is better.

Not as many twist as in the first book and I was never caught by surprise at all. But this book is more rounded, the writing is even better and the characters are good.

Collins managed to mesh the western and paranormal genre in such a way, that it feels totally real. As if during Victorian times there were paranormal creatures roaming the American frontiers. I was impressed with Collins's ability to convey that time and space in his first book, this time he did and even better job. He nailed the Victorian English characters! The contrast in their speech and behavior to the people in the wild west is done well but not too excessively. Just enough slang but not so much to leave one bewildered.



The main character is totally new to the series, and I really enjoyed her point of view. A young woman, who on her search of vengeance, travels across the ocean to find help to get it.

Victoria is probably the best written character of the series. I was surprised that Collins chose to mainly go with her POV. Especially since I really liked Cora. But retrospective I think it is also a clever move, it disconnected the book to a degree from the other one, and also give one a totally new perspective. This isn't Cora's story after all. It really is Victoria's.

As I said in my opinion Victoria is the best written character so far. Collins created a round and believable young Victorian lady, her inner dialogues are interesting and it is actually amazing to watch her change and grow. Even though it's written from her POV, the recount of the story is actually in many ways quite neutral and matter of fact, which allows one to see how much Vicky grows, without much frill around it.

Saying all that I have to say, I missed Cora's POV. She is definitely my favorite character. And despite of the fact that this can be read as a stand alone, I think it would be a total shame if one would choose to do so. Because one would only get one side of Cora. Her character development in this book is much more subtle. One gets to see her from another perspective. And especially in the beginning its not very much in a good light.

Just as in the first book there were some stereotypical characters, the Saloon brawl - straight out of classic western 101. But it was much less pronounced than last time, more of a detail and for some reason this time around it didn't bother me in the least.



Its been a few months since I read The Dead of Winter, but I do remember that the descriptions were really good. I liked the way Collins wrote- and the feel they gave me still clings with me when I think about it. She comes from War is written in the same wonderful language, but most of the things I found lacking in the first were eliminated in this book.



As mentioned before the story line is much more straight forward than in the first. No shocking twists and way less action scenes. It still has a good pace to it though and does boast plenty of action. The emphasis in this book is more on the relationship between the two woman rather than the unfolding adventure.

I really enjoyed watching Cora's and Vicky's relations evolve and really loved the end. ( way more than in the first one)

I am not sure if Collins is planning on another book. But the way he finished this one, was extremely clever and I wouldn't mind seeing what he has install for Victoria and Co.

I am definitely looking forward to read any new books of him, should that be another addition to this series or a new one all together!





ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

ARC Review: The Dead of Winter

by Lee Collins

Expected Released Date: October 30th 2012

Summary: 
Cora and her husband hunt things - things that shouldn't exist. When the marshal of Leadville, Colorado, comes across a pair of mysterious deaths, he turns to Cora to find the creature responsible, but if Cora is to overcome the unnatural tide threatening to consume the small town, she must first confront her own tragic past as well as her present.

Rating: 3.5 /5 Stars

Review:
Dead of Winter was an interesting read to say the least. It's a blend of several different genres: Western, Paranormal,Dark Fantasy,Historical … It's all in there. And it was done really well, actually.
When I first started I was wondering how Collins is going to blend in any thing Paranormal into the story… since it was so classic western actually.
And honestly to my surprise it actually worked.
I am not sure if it is because the world building is quite solid or because Collins didn't reinvent the wheel and just told a new story. Because none of the aspects were reinvented; your small town mining city is full of quite stereo typical Wild West characters and there are no new inventions in the paranormal side either. So somehow the plot takes center stage. And Collins tells a good story.

Most of the book is written in Cora's POV, so she is the character one gets to know the best. She is the kick-ass heroine of the book. She and her husband Ben are bounty hunters for the paranormal creatures that roam the west. She is kinda reckless, drinks lots of whisky and gambles. As she says herself: 'I ain't no lady'
While she is really good with gun and sword, she doesn't see it as something special. In fact in some ways she is rather humble about her own virtues. She does on the other hand not miss telling people that they are good on the job and thinks she is a good gambler. The book doesn't disclose if she actually is any good at gambling. But what we do come to know is that she is an incredible fighter and that she is fiercely loyal to Ben. Her love for him is actually very moving and her relationship with him beautiful. I think it shows the heart of Cora, a Cora stripped of years of hardship and how she truly were it not for the necessity to be a hunter. And while she does enjoy their lives as hunters she also starts feeling that the hardship of it is starting to take a toll on her so they decided to take one last extremely well paid job.
I really liked her interactions with Townsend, it showed a rather witty side of hers.
Cora is the most developed character as well. I also think if you don't like her, you won't like the book. Because for me the book hinges on her character to a huge part, needles to say I did like her. In fact of all the characters she is the least stereotypical.

Marshal Mart Duggan is your brave, good dude that keeps the town in order and sometimes drowns his despair secretly in whiskey (which he keeps in his desk drawer) . He can stand down an entire mob of miners on his own, and stands for true justice. As I said the book is full of typical western characters. So there is a young gun fighter who wants to be famous, there is your friendly bartender, the beautiful whore, the young goodhearted deputy who is in love with the whore, a kind priest and lastly the English men.
James Townsend is a Oxford Scholar and I had to chuckle so much about his character, because he was SOOOO English. He is a rather great fun, especially when Cora interacts with him. I have to say that only a non- English person could have written him, its rather stereotypical view of the English and I loved every minute of it.
Flava was interesting. I really enjoyed the brief moments of his POV, and while he was the villain I kinda liked him. He was intelligent and calculated
Which brings me to where for me his character disappointed me.. It the end of the book really.

The End of the book was a bit disappointing for me. So there was all this build up and all this planning and woosh it was suddenly all over. I couldn't believe what Wash did. And it left me with many questions actually. I would have personally preferred a bit of a more enigmatic end somehow.

Collins did touch on many issues very briefly, like slavery and racism of that time or the Civil Wars but doesn't go into detail. I didn't mind this, in fact i feel the way its done, its a clever way to solidify the world building. And since those issues are always addressed from Cora's POV, they take on her observation of them.
There is a very big christian theme in the book, since Cora and many other characters are believing Christians, i have seen that other readers didn't like it. But I personally didn't mind, I sort of imagine that people where like that in that particular time and place
In fact I found the world build was great because the characters are a lot like I imagined people in the US to be at that time. But I am not from the States so I might be mistaken about it. Historically it is solid and the fact that there were mines and mining cities at that time, in fact Leadville was one of them (i googled it). Collins descriptions of the area and the seasons are brilliant.

Probably my favorite thing about the book is that its built up slowly, revealing layer after layer of the story. And there were many twists in it, that were slowly hinted at, and if one doesn't pay attention, they suddenly happen. In retrospective though the signs were appearing slowly and subtly.
I think all in all this is a solid debut novel. Certainly a book to enjoy for lovers of westerns and paranormal.




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Thanks to Netgalley and Angry Robots for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC