read most of Ms, McKenna's books and this seemed a little too boilerplate/formulaic to enjoy, The standard formula seems to be: girl is in trouble, girl meets boy who's having his own set of problems, and both wind up running from bad guys that seem to have more toys available than James Bond.
There's an intense sexual attraction that seems to lead to "love" by the end of the book after dealing with all of the drama caused by said bad guys.
It's not that this was a bad book per se, but I simply couldn't get into it and/or enjoy it, I have been waiting to read Blood and Fire, theth book in the McCloud series for a while and it didn't dissappoint! Actually, I think it's one of the best and I love allprevious books.
Shannon McKenna just has a way of writing that pulls you in, tenses and twists you all up and promptly spits you out again to only pull you in once more.
This story not only revolved around the main characters who are Bruno Ranieri, Kevin's "brother" and Lily Parr, it also resolved issues regarding the McCloud Brothers and Bruno and by this I mean "jealousy" for each other.
For me to elaborate on this, I would have to write a really long review so you will need to read the series if it interests you enough and all will be clear.
Both Bruno's mom, Magda and Lily's dad, Howard are murdered and their lives are somehow intertwined, I wont divulge how suffice it to say it involves a wicked and evil man named King, There were also a few shockers for me and I love that I can't always guess who the evil one turns out to be or what's going to happen! Bruno and Lily's lives are in danger, enter the McCloud brothers and all hell breaks loose.
As always with a series, it makes me happy when an author continuously brings back previous characters, I always want to know what's happened to them and how life is treating them,
Blood and Fire was suspenseful, nail biting and dark at times with romance added in for good measure, A book that can shock me, make me tense, make me laugh and even cry, is a very good book! Wonder when theth will be available! Story Ratingstars
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This story was AMAZING right from the start and kept me in aw of Shannon McKenna's talent as I writer.
As I've said before in my reviews for SM Blood and Fire's, the woman sure does have a fantastic imagination to come up with the stuff she writes.
LOVED Bruno and Lily, they were fabulous character's and I would not have changed a thing about them,
You want action in your reads, well Shannon sure knows how to make her readers sit at the edge
of their seats and hold on, totally exhilarating.
You want heat, Shannon adds that too making you wish it was you under her hero's, LOL,
Let's not forget how she writes the most evil of villain's, That is where her imagination really comes front and center, As with all of her Blood and Fire's the villain here was a real piece of work,
If that's not enough, she has thrown all the McCloud clan into full force to help Bruno and Lily through this terrible situation.
Things are never dull with those hunky McClouds on the scene, Let's not forget Tam and the McCloud woman either, I just love that we got to see what has been going on in all their lives along with this new and exciting story.
Just when you think Shannon can't make things any better, she add's a happy ending that really satisfied me, I guess the only thing I have to say is that I LOVED every moment of this book and now I just have to wait another year for the next book.
Mad scientist out to create the perfect controllable human and two people come together to solve the mystery behind this mad man who keeps trying to kill them.
Due outWhat to say about this book Anyone who's ever read a book by Shannon McKenna will know that she writes overthetop romantic suspense plots with uberalpha heroes who zero in on their heroine almost immediately and stay locked on better than any guided missile developed by the US military.
Like this: When the chick with the black pageboy sashayed into Tonys Diner, no matter how blitzed from lack of sleep he was, his glands promptly pumped a substance into his body that made him want to break into an oldtime movie dance number.
An incredible rush. A tingling sense of infinite possibility combined with a megaboner, A huge, awestruck “wow” from the depths of his being,
When Bruno Ranieri first spies Lily Parr, he's hooked, I am a sucker for that concept of a hero being so blinded by love, lust and passion for his woman that he just about doesn't even see any other lady.
Once Bruno and Lily joined up on pof the book, I mentally rubbed my hands together with glee, The first portion definitely satisfied, with lots of hot sex and over the top action but, even for a McKenna, the suspense portion of the book was on the eyebrow raising side of OTT.
Think clones. There were a few plot holes as well Lily is holed up at Tam Steele's impegnable fortress at one stage, In order for the bad guys to get her, she has to leave, So I get that the plot needed that, but the reason Val gave for insisting that everyone leave was thin to say the least.
The thing which least satisifed is that Bruno and Lily were apart for a fairly large portion of the book IMO that's not my thing generally and it meant that for me, the tension didn't ratchett quite so well as in other McKenna books.
Still, it was a fun ride and I'm looking forward to reading Alex Aaro's story it's going to be hilarious to watch his nowomenexceptforsex policy go up in flames.
He also has the best line in this book: “It comes from hanging out with the McClouds,” Aaro said, “When I took up with them, my cars started blowing up, My house. These days, I sleep with a girl I meet at a bar, and pow, she explodes in front of me, " :D
sitelink blogspot. com. a I originally won this from the publisher but before I could read it, my brother gave it away he was "helping" me clean eye roll but I still wanted to read it.
It took me a while to get around to it but I finally got it from the library,
Once I started reading it, I enjoyed it although it was definitely overthetop and the author has some odd word choices and an unfortunate tendency to indulge in purple prose.
There were two word choices that pulled me right out of the story early on the hero, Bruno, refers to his penis as a prong.
WTF That was an uncomfortable and disturbing image, I shared on facebook and someone commented that she thought it might be an old British term but still, eewwww, The other odd word choice was 'bimbo' used in reference to a toddler, The character speaking is originally from Italy, speaking the Calabrese dialect, and I thought child was bambino but an Italian acquaintance, when I asked for her input, replied
As for the word "bimbo", that's italian sic, not a particular dialect, and it's short for "bambino", which is "child".
"Bimbo" is male, singular, "bimba" is female, singular, "bimbi" is male or if there are both males and females, plural, "bimbe" is female, plural.
I have no idea if in Calabrese they often use "bimbo", but I think the Calabrese term for it would be something along the way of "picciddo" or "picciriddo": these are Sicilian terms, and Sicily is very close to Calabria, but as I said every region has its own dialect, so the Calabrese equivalent could be very similar or completely different.
Still, while it may be linguistically correct, it's a skeezy word choice and hearing a grandmother refer to a toddler as a bimbo took me right out of the story.
I did pick it back up again several hours later and continued reading, Things happen quickly and it's action packed the book never feels padded despite beingpages long,
Lily has had a hard life her mother died giving birth and she's spend most of life, starting in her teens, parenting her father who is suicidal.
Bruno's mother was killed when he was young and twenty years later he still has nightmares, He's made a successful life for himself and he is close to his aunt, Zia Rose, and his adopted brother Kev, Kev has recently found and reconnected with his biological family, the McClouds, and now Bruno feels left out, Lily and Bruno meet when Lily's father dies after babbling nonsense about people named Magda and Bruno, Bruno of course is our hero Lily hares off to find him and things heat up quickly between them, Although the sex is great, Lily's tale sounds crazy to Bruno and he thinks she needs psychological help, Then they are attacked and the pace really picks up,
I haven't read any of the previous books in this series and at times, I was a little confused, There are a lot of McCloud brothers, most of whom have apparently had a book already, The book works as a stand alone but I think it might be best to read in order, The villain in this book is overthetop and judging by references to other characters and their stories, overthetop would seem to be McKenna's norm.
However I enjoyed the storyline and would have liked to see it continued in future books but that seems unlikely now given the ending, which also overthetop.
The story has instalove, a big misunderstanding though it occurs late in the story, a diabolical villain who needed more fleshing out but was interesting, a hot hero, a gutsy heroine, lots of purple prose, sexy love scenes, occasionally gory action, humor, interesting and fun secondary characters, a slightly implausible sci fi plot and it's all lots of fun.
I was a bit disappointed in the ending, even though it was telegraphed early on, but overall I enjoyed the book and will probably pick up more in the series.
I borrowed this from the library,
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