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Showing posts with label The Elementals Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Elementals Series. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Review: A Taste of Ice by Hanna Martine
A Taste of Ice
Author: Hanna Martine
Release Date: Dec. 31, 2012
Publisher: Berkley
The Elementals #2
ISBN: # 978-0425257258
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format(s): Paperback (368 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book:
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There is an untapped world of magic that any man would covet...
Five years ago, Xavier escaped from the Ofarian Plant. Today he calls a Colorado mountain town home. It’s there he buries himself in his work, swearing off magic and relationships—until a woman threatens every promise he’s made to himself.
Cat has always known she is different. Water speaks to her on an uncanny level, and she channels this gift into beautiful painted waterscapes. Now, a gallery is debuting her work in Colorado—and it’ll reveal far more about her than she imagined.
The spark between Cat and Xavier is enough to throw both of them off balance. Every tantalizing moment sends them dangerously close to a rising flood of desire. Dangerous because Xavier comes to suspect that Cat is an Ofarian—his people’s enemy. But they’re both about to discover a far greater, more malicious power at play...
What G & U are talking about:
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A Taste of Ice is the second novel in the fascinating Elementals series by Hannah Martine. As exciting as the first book in the series, Liquid Lies, was, this second edition is just as mesmerizing.
Due to the fact that A Taste of Ice begins shortly after the end of Liquid Lies, we recommend starting with the first book. The main character, Xavier has suffered greatly, and much of his story is told in Liquid Lies. Therefore, A Taste of Ice is a much richer and fuller story if you have that previous background.
Gikany and Una were captivated by Xavier’s story in A Taste of Ice, although it is difficult to read. He is the last one of his kind left behind on Earth due to his selfless sacrifice to save his people, the Tedrans. Xavier is a person who suffered greatly at the hands of the Ofarians, who desires nothing but a normal new life. He finds what he believes to be that normal existence only to have that peace obliterated by an instant connection to a woman.
Cat, however, is not a normal woman. She is a talented new artist who displays her obsession with water through her paintings. Cat sees Xavier in a chance encounter and is compelled to follow him. What transpires between them is passionate, heart wrenching and sensual. Xavier is flawed, haunted by the torments of his past, and yet Cat’s compassion and desire allow her to keep within the harsh boundaries Xavier sets. Just as they seem to start moving together and Xavier begins to heal, they are cruelly torn apart by obstacle after obstacle and challenge after challenge.
It is Xavier’s “facing of his fears” that is so emotionally wrenching. Due to the shear emotional turmoil we experienced while reading A Taste of Ice, we had a hard time rating the story. However, we feel this is truly a compliment to Ms. Martine in how well she communicated Xavier’s inner struggle.
A Taste of Ice is a roller coaster ride of emotions, action and surprisingly, politics. We are introduced to other elementals, which allows for so many new possibilities in this world. Luckily the story alludes to whom the next book will feature; Gikany and Una are anxious to read it. If you haven’t picked up The Elementals series yet, please do. This is a fascinating new world that Ms. Martine has shared with us.
Their Rating:
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Liked it - recommend (B+)
Purchase Info:
Reviews in the Series:
Labels:
Author Guest Post: Hanna Martine
Hello Readers! Today I bring you paranormal romance / urban fantasy author Hanna Martine. Hanna left a decade of office work in order to show her daughter what it meant to go after one's dream. She loves bar stools, books, travel and her friends. Though she and her family live outside Chicago, her heart resides in Australia.
Hanna is here today to talk a little bit about paranormal romances and urban fantasies. She’s also here to share a bit about her new release A Taste of Ice (The Elementals #2, December 31, 2012, Berkley). Please help me welcome Hanna to That’s What I’m Talking About.
The label on the spine of my newest book, A Taste of Ice, calls it a "paranormal romance." Some readers seem to think it's more urban fantasy than paranormal due to its world-building and magic system. Truthfully, when I was dreaming up Liquid Lies, the first book in series--and the rest of the Elementals world--I just wanted to write a couple of novels about people with really cool powers who have hot sex and find the kind of passionate love that makes you shiver.
At the time, I had just come from writing straight fantasy (the elves/dwarves kind, not the urban kind) so my brain wasn't wired for vampires or shifters, angels or demons. When I tell people I write paranormal romance, I'm almost always asked, "So is it vampires, or shifters, or what?" Just a few years ago, I had no idea that there were such specific sub-genres within paranormal romance! (Now I'm a BDB addict, but that's another story.)
I'm ecstatic that the borders of paranormal romance (and urban fantasy) are expanding to encompass aspects that are "different." I love that readers can find stories all over the place now, and that authors have more freedom to stretch their words. It's a really exciting time to be a writer with a brain as crazy as mine. I get to write about a world of elemental magic existing within our own, and the mysterious men and women who play political games, tempt danger, and fall desperately, madly in love.
A Taste of Ice is near and dear to my heart because Xavier--the last of his race left on Earth--is the type of quiet, damaged hero I love most. And Cat--a water elemental unaware of her powers--is his perfect complement ... and his most powerful adversary. It's a wholly different story, and one I sincerely hope you love as much as I do.
How about you, readers? What changes have you noticed in the PNR and UF genres in recent years, and do you like them?
Here's a spicy, angsty little excerpt (my favorite kind) from A Taste of Ice:
Xavier walked several steps below Cat. He’d almost reached the very bottom, where the sidewalk that led to the square curved around the Margaret Hotel, when she stopped. The brick wall of a Mexican restaurant, painted with a giant green margarita, rose to her right. A cinder block wall for the Margaret’s parking garage on her left. They were closed in, a canyon in shadow. She couldn’t help but feel that if she let him walk away from her now, she’d never see him again.
“Xavier.”
He stopped, his back to her, the hang of his head heavy.
“Am I imagining this?” she asked.
He looked over his shoulder, giving her his hard, beautiful profile framed by the surfer hair that absorbed the sunlight. “Imagining what?”
“You and I.”
He briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re not imagining it.”
“So is it the fact that I’m only here for a short time?”
“No.” The word came out strangled and bare.
“Do I remind you of another girl? Of her?”
He hissed. Closed his eyes. Slowly shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
She came down another step. No place to go but forward. She had nothing to lose, and the not knowing gnawed at her.
“Then why are you scared of me?”
He sighed. “I’m not scared of you.” Slowly he shuffled around to face her, and with her a step above, they stood eye to eye. “What you do to me . . .” He put a hand to his chest, curled it into a fist.
Such honesty. It was the first time he hadn’t weighed every one of his words before releasing them. The admission came from his heart. The hard lines that divided his golden eyebrows revealed the depth of his desire: it was severe, all encompassing, and it stoked her own.
“What do I do to you?” In the cold, away from the madness of the festival streets, her whisper carried.
He inhaled slowly, as though sucking her words deep inside him. His silver stare shot shivering arrows through her body. “You excite me.”
He was melting her in the middle of winter. “Isn’t . . . isn’t that a good thing?”
“No. Yes. Ah!” He stumbled back, fingers stabbing into his hair, eyes angled to the salted concrete.
Any other woman might have seen him as damaged goods, high maintenance. But Cat was not most women, and walking away would never satisfy.
“Xavier, I know that I don’t know you—”
“No,” he laughed shortly. “You don’t.”
“But I want to. And I think you want to know me, too. You and me, we’re alike. I can feel it, though I can’t explain it. I think we can help each other.”
“A pity fuck?” he snarled. “Is that what you want?”
“No!” She gasped, but the way he said fuck, all gritty and forceful . . . it ratcheted up her lust. Made her thong rub achingly against the damp part of her that screamed for him.
But where had that come from? A pity fuck? Who did he think she was? Dear God, what had happened to him to make him think that’s what she wanted?
“I don’t pity you,” she said. “I don’t want you to pity me. That’s not why I told you about my parents. I like you. I . . . I’m very attracted to you.”
He stood with his hands clenched tightly, his big body coiled up and ready to spring. Imagining the power behind his restrained passion made her body hum. From him she didn’t want a gentle kiss or a slow caress. She wanted the wildness that blazed behind those metallic eyes. And he was refusing to let it go.
They squared off, at a stalemate. “Xavier,” she whispered. “Kiss me.”
His chin lowered and his stare burned into her from behind the blond waves of his hair.
“You want me to kiss you?” His voice rumbled. The start of an avalanche, dangerous and uncontainable.
“God, yes. Do you want me to beg? Get on my knees?”
He lunged for her. Shouted. “You want me to kiss you?”
Here it came. She braced herself for his hands and his mouth, liquid desire surging in to replace every drop of her blood. But he pulled up at the last second and instead loomed over her, his chest pumping so hard she could see it through his coat.
All she said was, “Please.”
He fisted the front of her coat and pushed her back against the brick wall, enough to knock out her breath. She didn’t need oxygen, just him. He brought his mouth down on hers, hard as brick, hot as fire.
A Taste of Ice
The Elementals #2
December 31, 2012
Five years ago, Xavier escaped from the Ofarian Plant. Today he calls a Colorado mountain town home. It's there he buries himself in his work, swearing off magic and relationships—until a woman threatens every promise he's made to himself.
Cat has always known she is different. Water speaks to her on an uncanny level, and she channels this gift into beautiful painted waterscapes. Now, a gallery is debuting her work in Colorado—and it'll reveal far more about her than she imagined.
The spark between Cat and Xavier is enough to throw both of them off balance. Every tantalizing moment sends them dangerously close to a rising flood of desire. Dangerous because Xavier comes to suspect that Cat is an Ofarian—his people's enemy. But they're both about to discover a far greater, more malicious power at play...
Read the first two chapters HERE.
Buy links:
Thank you so much, Hanna, for stopping by and sharing a little of your new release with us today!
You can find Hanna online ...
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Sunday Snippet #120
Liquid Lies
Author: Hanna Martine The Elementals #1
Publisher: Berkley
Released: July 3, 2012
REVIEW HERE
He leaned in, so close his breath ruffled the hair next to her ear. "What's your name?"
The rest of the bar dropped away like a trapdoor.
She turned her head just enough to make out the details of his tattoo. Leaf- and thorn-covered vines twisted around this neck, the tip of the last leaf resting just below his earlobe. She clenched her fingers, resisting the urge to touch it. To touch him.
Her voice came out in shaky threads. "Gwen."
She felt him smile. "Gwen. I'm Reed."
Reed nudged her hair with his nose, inhaling. "Tell me more about this Ed Ruscha guy."
She chuckled low. "are you serious? Now?"
The hand on the back of her chair dropped to her knee. Palm covering the top of her boot. Thumb on her thigh. Fingertips dancing like snowflakes at the edge of her skirt hem. She stopped breathing.
"Actually, no." Chin stubble scraped just below her ear.
She forced herself to inhale. "Good. Because I can't think."
Reed pulled back enough for her to see his face again. "I really did think out you today. I wondered if what I'd felt this morning was wrong. Misplaced."
"I thought about you, too." For different reasons, but those didn't seem to matter anymore.
"Good. I'm glad to hear that."
"Where are you staying?" It slipped out before she could stop it. She couldn't take it back, and she realized she didn't' want to.
His expression turned heated. "The Four Seasons. Just for tonight."
"I hear that's nice." And expensive. And a quick cab ride away.
"It is." He licked his lips. "Would you like to see it?"
His voice thrummed deep bass chords in her ears, sending quivers straight to her legs. He tightened his grip on her thigh, and she watched him react to her reaction.
She'd never wanted to be naked more in her entire life.
This was it. The one pass granted to her by the Allure. Forgiven only if it was temporary. She knew for a fact that Griffin had slept with a Primary a few months ago, before they'd heard the rumblings in the Board about their match. He didn't know she knew and there was no reason to confront him about it. Had it been just sex to Griffin? Or had he connected with that woman in the way Gwen connected with Reed?
No, she would not go there. It would only be sex for her, too. And by the firm, gentle way Reed touched her now, she knew it would be good sex.
"Yes," she whispered. "I'd like to see your room."
The smile he gave her was positively feral.
Vaguely, she heard the door to the bar opening, followed by the tickle of cool air on her back. Reed's gaze flicked over her shoulder. The lust in his eyes and the promise in the curve of his mouth vanished. Whatever he saw pulled down a cold, hard wall between them.
The speed with which he went from seductive to nonchalant made her gasp. When he removed his hand from her thigh, it was like taking away a blanket in the dead of winter.
"The people I'm supposed to meet are here. Won't take a minute. Will you wait for me?"
She nodded numbly.
He stood. "Told you I wasn't lying."
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Review: Liquid Lies by Hanna Martine
Liquid Lies
Author: Hanna Martine
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Publisher: Berkley
The Elementals #1
ISBN: #978-0425257241
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format(s): Paperback (368 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book:
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Magic is Corporate America's best-kept secret
Gwen possesses the unique ability to pick up any language in an instant—a power that will globally expand the profitable family business. As dutiful future leader of her race of water elementals, she'll do anything to protect her people's secrets and bloodlines—including enter an arranged marriage. Inside, however, she yearns for forbidden human men.
Reed is a mercenary addicted to the money and adrenaline rush of his work. After he inadvertently saves Gwen's life, he ignites her taboo desire for men without magic—and with bodies of gods. Just as things heat up, Reed discovers that Gwen is exactly who he's been hired to kidnap. He resolves to put work before lust, yet her luscious beauty and fiery spirit unravel him...
But there is a terrible truth behind Gwen's family business—and now, caught between the kinsmen she no longer trusts and an enemy bent on vengeance, the only ally she has is her abductor...
What G & U are talking about:
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Liquid Lies is the debut novel not only in the new Elementals series but for Ms. Hanna Martine as well. This new world is fascinating and thoroughly intriguing.
Ms. Martine combines elements of the paranormal with science fiction and weave it seamless into a romance simply titled, Liquid Lies. This is a new and fascinating world. The existence of the Secondaries (those not native to the Earth) among the Primaries (native humans) and their elemental abilities are interesting. The complicated hierarchy of their secret society and how they have blended into the modern world is truly captivating. The history of Gwen’s people is intriguing including the war between her people, the Ofarians, and their sworn enemy, the Tedrans. Don’t get us wrong, there are a lot of layers to this world, but the talent is in how Ms. Martine has been able to weave it together into something so completely fresh and new.
Gikany and Una enjoyed the chemistry between Gwen and Reed. Their attraction was fiery. The give and take in Liquid Lies and the ever-breathing overshadowing of deceit added wonderful elements to enrich the plot. Their situation was unique and we enjoyed the character development that they each undergo. The tension created by Gwen knowing her attraction to a Primary (Reed) is wrong, coupled with the fact that he is her abductor is gripping. We were concerned as the novel was coming to an end that we would not see the “what happened after.” However, Ms. Martine rewards us with just enough of a glimpse of the “ever after” that when it ends we are given a well-rounded novel.
Ms. Martine’s writing style is simplistically rich. Her storytelling is easy to follow and easy to lose yourself in. Gikany and Una had difficulty putting it down because we were so easily sucked in. The pacing was well balanced between the world-building, the romance, the conflict between the Tedrans and the Ofarians, and the need to keep the Primaries in the dark. We especially enjoyed the fact that nothing quite went as we expected it. To be completely surprised by the twists was very refreshing. Considering how Liquid Lies ends, we wonder what the future holds (but not who the next novel will feature).
The new Elementals series shows extreme promise and with the fabulous ride, Liquid Lies took us on, we encourage you to pick it up and join in. Gikany and Una eagerly look forward to the next book in the series, A Taste of Ice. For those who enjoy the torture, there is a snippet from it at the end of Liquid Lies.
Their Rating:
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Loved it - enthusiastically recommend (A)
Purchase Info:
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