Anya Bast's Witch Series

[Pamela, Moderatrix]

Has anyone else read Witch Fire by Anya Bast? I finished it this morning, and holy smokes, that was hot. It's been a while since I've read a paranormal romance with love scenes that smoking hot. The plot is also engaging, and I really liked the main characters.

[Shannon (Giraffe Days)]

No, I hadn't even heard of it, but I just read your review and have added it to my list of books to buy this week!

[Jennifer]

No, but based on our common reads, you and I have similar tastes. Guess I'll have to add it to my to-read list. :)

[Elizabeth]

i haven't read it but i added it on my list a while ago. but now i am even more excited!

[calicheri]

I liked this book. I thought it was her first book, but she has other books out by Ellora's Cave. I think the second book is coming out next month.

[Mitabird]

I thought it was just OK. I remember thinking it was a bit boring and I know I didn't want to read the next in the series.

[Shannon (Giraffe Days)]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was quite refreshing, actually. It was a quick, straight-forward read, often steamy and - best of all - didn't use corny, dreamy language, which I get quite sick of. I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Pamela, Moderatrix]

I'm with you, Shannon. There's only so much purple prose I can take (usually less than a page's worth, haha), and it's so nice to find romances that aren't padded out with silly euphemisms and uber-romantic stuff.

[Shannon (Giraffe Days)]

Christine Feehan is the worst at that. I feel like I'm wading knee-deep in sticky sweet corniness.

I finished Fangs for the Memories by Kathy Love last night and it's similar to Witch Fire in that the prose is tight, fresh and not at all wishy-washy. It's a quick read (and really enjoyable!) and doesn't have any superfluous descriptions. I suppose it could be comparable to Lynsay Sands.

[Laura]

Shannon, I just started reading Christine Feehan (almost finished with the first novel "Dark Prince"), and it is intense (grin). Reminds me of trad gothic romance with paranormal window dressing. But the world of the Carpathians is intriguing, so I will read a few more books in the series because of that. However IMO Kathy Love and Sherrilyn Kenyon write the best sex scenes I have read so far, even though DP is full of sex.

How many of the Feehan books did you read? Not the entire series, right?

[Shannon (Giraffe Days)]

I've read the first five.

I loved the Carpathians, kind of like children of the earth itself, and I quite like the whole soulmates/lifemates thing. It really is just her writing that gets to me. It's bad. It's very repetitive, and heavy with cliches. She makes her own cliches! Her sex scenes wear thin, but I do love the intensity - it just gets a bit same-y.

I think Adrian's story is my favourite, of what I've read so far - Dark Gold it's called. His brother's story wasn't bad either. Generally, though, most of her characters are all the same, and the stories are pretty much all the same, at the end of the day.

[Laura]

Oh, good! "Dark Gold" is one I bought the other day. Yeah, I agree. She could use an editor to trim down her prose paragraphs. I find I start skipping if they get to "flowery." I have been thinking about 80-100 pages of excess words could have been cut from "Dark Prince." Can you tell I like tight writing (grin)!

[Lilmargarita]

I have read all of Feehan's Dark series so far, and yeah, all of the books seem to have the same plot but I still want to see how things turn out. My current fave is Dark Guardian, but I am re-reading Dark Legend which is the book before that one.

[Pamela, Moderatrix]

I picked up Anya Bast's next book in this series, Witch Blood, today. Has anyone read it yet?

[Stella]

I have it... Reading it now... Not too bad. I like Anya's work a lot, and shes one of the only authors I read from EC...

[Jennifer]

I went ahead and bought Witch Fire and Witch Blood, but I haven't read either yet...

[calicheri]

I'm reading Witch Blood now. I like it, I liked the first one too.
I like the Carpathian books. I like the intensity, they give me the emotions I want from a romance. I like her other series too, but I don't "feel" them the same way. Something about that "Have to have you or I'll die" I guess. Well, that makes me sound 16!!

[Terra]

I haven't read it yet but it is on my wishlist. Don't dare buy it until mt. tbr goes down a wee bit.

[Pamela, Moderatrix]

Well, I finished up Witch Blood a couple of weeks ago and... I was underwhelmed. :( The characters were interesting enough, but the plot felt jumpy and stilted, and the sex felt like it was just stuck in there at random intervals to satisfy a quota or something. I really liked the first book; it makes me sad that this one didn't live up to my expectations.

Anyone else read it yet?

[Jennifer]

I am a little over halfway through it, so I'll get back to you once I have finished it...

[Emily]

Wow I just finished this book like last week or so. I liked it but haven't read the first book. So, I can't comment on the series. I would like to see how the third book comes out. She does have nice sex scenes and tight writing style.

[Jennifer]

Okay, now that i've finished it.... I liked it, but didn't love it. Loved the characters, and the story up until the last few chapters. The ending was a bit over the top and convoluted.