It’s the last day of the month which means it’s time to check out what we’re going to be reading next month in:

Want to know what titles came out in previous months? View all the previous Hot Off The Press posts

Hi Guys, Abigail here. There is not conversation snippet with my TBR Pile today. Instead I have a few updates for you. First, you may notice things look a little different today that’s because I’ve finally updated the layout for the Hot Off The Press posts.  This new layout is much easier and quicker for us to put together, eliminates unnecessary info (ISBNs etc) while keeping the description etc., and allows us to include a larger cover image.  Hopefully you guys will like the slightly streamlined layout, but as always, sound off in the comments or on twitter @Abigail_ATUF if you aren’t happy (or if you are happy).  I’m including the Amazon storefront again since I know it can be nice to see prices (plus, if you want to support ATUF and plan on buying through Amazon, it’s one stop shopping).  However, we ARE NOT ditching our traditional Hot Off The Press posts, we are just including the Amazon store as an extra :)

*This title will be released on March 6, 2012*

Title: Assassins in Love Author:  Kris DeLake Series: Assasins Guild #1 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Sci-Fi Romance Excerpt: Yes Source: NetGalley Reviewed by: Abigail Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (March 6, 2012) ISBN-10: 1402262825 ISBN-13: 978-1402262821   Sexual Content: Several graphic sex scenes Rating: Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.

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RT Booklovers Convention start on April 6th and if you’re going to be in Los Angeles, you won’t want to miss it.  We paranormal fans are getting some series RT love with several dedicated panels including URBAN FANTASY: Keeping Romance Hot in an Urban Fantasy Series which features Jeanne C. Stein, author of the Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles series.  If you haven’t read her books, the snippet below more than qualifies Jeanne to speak about hot UF romance. Click HERE to see where else Jeanne will be at this years convention.

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ATUF: How do you keep the romance hot in your Anna Strong  Vampire Chronicles series?

JS: Anna has not had very good luck with boyfriends to this point—she either pisses them off, scares them away or kills them. But she does like sex, so there’s always an opportunity to write one or two good love scenes in each book.

ATUF: What scene in your series best epitomizes how you keep your series hot?

JS: My friend Mario Acevedo always picks this one: The Becoming, pages 115-116.

He steps out of slacks and boxers and stands naked, looking down on me.

I reach out, smiling, and caress a muscular thigh.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" he says at last.

But I don't answer, my mouth is otherwise engaged.

ATUF: How important is romance in the Urban Fantasy genre?

JS: Frankly, not so at the moment. I know readers often ask when I’m going to give Anna a break and find a suitable partner for her. I’m working on it. And getting closer.

ATUF: Do you see romance growing in the genre overall or diminishing?

JS: Definitely growing. My editor just had me writer a novella for an anthology called Hexed and the main theme was romance. It’s an Anna story and while I was writing it, I actually thought the hero in this piece might be the love match I (and my editor) have been looking for. Time will tell.

ATUF: How do you distinguish between urban fantasy and paranormal romance? How important is that distinction?

JS: I think the distinction is very important. In paranormal romance the romance is the motivating force, the central story question. A happy ending (either for now or forever) is required. In Urban Fantasy, if you remove the romance elements, you still have a story. No happy ending implied or even necessary. I like the differentiation because it takes the guess work out of a book for a reader. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve picked up a romance and finding out it isn’t.

ATUF: What do you think about the love triangle?  It seems to be more and more common in urban fantasy.

JS: Haven’t developed a story around that one yet, although the book I’m working on now, the eighth in the series, could turn out to be just that.

ATUF: In Urban Fantasy, readers often wait for several books before the couple finally gets together.  How do you pull off this type of delayed gratification without frustrating your readers?

JS: I think the main answer to that question can be found in number five above. My readers know I write Urban Fantasy and the ones who follow the series know Anna’s track record with boyfriends. The other element is that all my books take place in a very short time span. From the first to the sixth book, for instance, just one year has elapsed. It’s a way to avoid having to rush things.

ATUF: Romantic tension is an art.  How do you create that tension with your characters?

JS: I agree, romantic tension is an art. I’m not sure I’ve mastered it. Anna is a vampire who often gives in to her sexual urges. As a human, she was never a shrinking violet. She chose bounty hunting as a profession, after all. So sexual aggression was a part of her make-up then and it didn’t change when she became a vampire.

ATUF: Is it important to have HEAs in Urban Fantasy?

JS: No. In fact, I think it would detract from the development of a series to have a happily-ever-after occur too early.

ATUF: What are you most looking forward to at the RT Conference this year?

JS: Meeting with old friends, many of whom I see only at RT. Spending time with Jill Smith, who has been so supportive of my career. Meeting readers who already know Anna and hopefully, winning a few new ones.

ATUF: Which panel other than your own are you most excited about?

JS: I can’t name just one—all the vampire and paranormal panels, the mystery panels...the first thing I do is go through the program and make my wish list. The only problem is that there are too many things going on at the same time! Makes choosing very difficult!

ATUF: Thanks so much for stopping by Jeanne.  Come back anytime!

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About the Author

Jeanne Stein is the bestselling author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Anna Strong Chronicles. She lives in Denver where she is active in the writing community, belonging to Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. In 2008 she was named RMFW's Writer of the Year and last year, her character, Anna Strong, received a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist. The sixth in the Anna Strong series, Chosen, released in August 2010, also received a RT nomination for best Urban Fantasy novel. She has numerous short story credits, as well. Most recently, The Ghost of Leadville, reprinted in the Vampires: The Recent Undead ( Prime Books) and an Anna Strong Novella, Blood Debt, in Hexed (Berkley) . She is also one of the editor’s of RMFW’s award-winning anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives. Her next full length novel, Crossroads, debuts in August 2011.

Visit Jeanne online: Website|Blog

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Interested in being interviewed on All Things Urban Fantasy?  CONTACT ME

Title: Dark Lover Author: J. R. Ward Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #1 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Paranormal Romance Excerpt: Yes Source: Bought Reviewed by: Abigail Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Signet (September 6, 2005) ISBN-10: 0451216954 ISBN-13: 978-0451216953 Sexual Content: Several graphic sex scenes. Attempted rape with semi graphic details.   My Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & pre-order the sequel.

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Description

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war going war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other-six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Yet none of them relishes killing their enemies more than Wrath, the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood...

 

The only purebred vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed - orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate - Wrath must usher the beautiful female into the world of the undead...

 

Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn't there, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of brotherhood and blood frighten her. But his touch ignites a dawning hunger that threatens to consume them both....

Review

I get more recommendations from other bloggers to read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series than all other books combined.   I was promised brutally hot vampires, fascinating mythology, classic romance, and a keep you up all night story.  It was a lot to live up to, and DARK LOVER didn’t disappoint.

 

The Black Dagger Brotherhood are a group of lethal vampires who protect their kind from lessers, humans who have traded their souls to Omega in exchange for immortality.  Humans don’t really enter into the equation usually except as collateral damage, and contrary to popular myth, vampires only feed from each other. 

 

The leader of the BDB is Wrath.  He’s big, bad, and ruthless.  He cares about no one except his brothers, until he meets Beth, a half human about to go through her Transition into a vampire.  She awakens a protective side of himself he never knew.  I honestly was expecting Wrath to be actually a little evil.  Despite all his threats and everyone else’s warnings, I found him to be more bark than bite.  I was a little let down by that (I’m hoping some of the other brothers will prove to be more wicked—at least initially). And I would have preferred a more gradual romance, but as far as instant attraction goes, the futon scene when Wrath and Beth first meet is crazy hot. 

 

For once the hype was right.  The BDB series looks to become a new favorite for me.  We meet all the Black Dagger Brothers in DARK LOVER, some more briefly than others, but underneath all the smoldering sexuality and gruff exterior, they each hold the promise of redemption.  I already know I’m dying to read Zsadist’s story (#3 LOVER AWAKENED).  I plan to be fully caught up by the time the ninth book in this series, LOVER UNLEASHED, comes out on March 29, 2011.

 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	Love Vampires ALL ABOUT ROMANCE Vampire Book Club

Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Maggie Stiefvater

Ballad (A Gathering of Faerie, book 2)

Book Description: Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.

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Review:
Sometimes you fall in love with a book and eagerly seek out the author's other works hoping to find that same feeling. Sadly, disappointment often follows as you discover that those stories fall far short of the book you loved. For me, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater was one of the best books I had ever read. And I tried--I really tried-- not to hold her other books, BALLAD in this case, to an impossible standard. Truth is? I needn't have worried.

BALLAD is the second book in the Gathering of Faerie series (after Lament), but it isn’t a sequel in the traditional sense. Other reviewers have more accurately called it a companion novel. What's the difference? While it helps to have read Lament prior to starting BALLAD , you can absolutely enjoy BALLAD on it's own. Lament was very much Dee's story, whereas BALLAD shifts the focus to Dee's best friend James as the two of them head off to Thornking-Ash Conservatory for musical prodigies. Escaping to a new school, however, doesn't mean that they've escaped from the faeries who had terrorized them. Quite the opposite. Faeries have flocked to Thornking-Ash in unprecedented numbers, including the Horned King of the Dead himself and The Faerie Queen. And James and Dee have both been targeted.

If you've already read Maggie's wonderful Shiver (and you should), then you already know that she excels at capturing the male point of view. James' voice and narration is real enough to be occasionally uncomfortable. I won't be able to adequately express how I felt feel about the character of James. He has a witty and sly humor, and a dryly sarcastic way of observing the world. Maybe this next part is only true of me, but I actually knew James. Of course that wasn't his name, but its like Maggie took my friend and put him in her book. I lost my James a few years ago to cancer, but reading BALLAD was like getting the gift of one more day with him. Bittersweet.

Maggie once again makes use of multiple POV's focusing primarily on James but also including chapters from Nuala's perspective. Nuala is a muse, a leanan sidhe. She is drawn to gifted boys and slowly sucks their lives away while pushing them to creative heights unattainable on their own. When she sees James, she knows she's found her next Human, but as he struggles to resist her offer and charms tailored specifically to him, Nuala enters into a struggle of her own, battling between her ever increasing hunger and a budding reluctance to steal away even a moment of James' life.

If you read my review of Shiver, you already know how I gushed about Maggie's writing ability. There is a lyrical quality to her words and the way she constructs her sentences, and that talent once again sings from every page of BALLAD. She is really on a different plane from anyone else writing within this genre today.

Sexual Content: (YA titles receive a more thorough breakdown) An attempted rape, kissing, a scene of mild sensuality.

My Rating (out of 5):

Click HERE to read an excerpt of Ballad

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Flux; Original edition (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738714844
• ISBN-13: 978-0738714844

Disagree with my review?  Email me your review for this or any other book I reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

Book Description:

Faerie can't lie . . . or can they?

Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.

When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom . . . or tear them apart.

With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in Darklight, the second novel in the trilogy that began with wondrous strange.

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Review:
Can you imagine what it would be like to discover that the characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream were real? That the Faerie realm actually exists and you are a Faerie princess? As the daughter of the Winter King and the Autumn Queen, Kelley Winslow doesn't have to imagine.

Darklight is the second book in the Wondrous Strange trilogy and follows the story of 17-year-old Kelley Winslow. While performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the previous book, Kelley discovered that the actors in her play were more that figments of Shakespeare's imagination but actually had real life counterparts. Not only that, but she herself was Faerie and a princess at that!  With the aid of her new love Sonny, a changeling charged with guarding one of the four gates to Faerie, Kelley was forced to confront her estranged parents and save both worlds from destruction….or so I’ve been told.  See I didn’t get a chance to read Wondrous Strange first. 

I try not read books out of order, but I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Darklight for review, and it looked so inviting that I couldn't stop myself from starting it right away. Of course, I then felt like I was playing catch-up through most of this book. In that sense, my review is a bit hampered since both books are really two parts of one big story. So rather than discuss every part of this book, I’m going to mention the highs and lows as I saw them:

The character who made the biggest impression on me was Fennrys Wolf. Like Sonny, he's a Janus Guard, a human who was raised by and imbued with faerie magic from the time he was a baby. He's kind of a jerk sometimes, but not in a malicious way. He enjoys pushing peoples buttons especially the jealousy prone Sonny. I’m hoping he’ll get even more page time in the next book.

The Faerie world created here is delightfully familiar with famous characters like Puck and Titiana from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but then intriguingly Other with unique additions like the Janus Guard (changelings who guard the four gates to Faerie).  Blending the Faerie and Human worlds is also well done (who knew Central Park was one of the locations of a Faerie Gate?). And I didn’t expect (but quite enjoyed) the high number of action scenes in this book.

For my complaints, the majority of the story takes place in the Faerie realm, so the urban elements are necessarily lite.  I tend to prefer more urban in my urban fantasy.  Also alternating chapters from Kelley and Sonny’s perspective was a little frustrating as it tended to slow down the story progress.  Kelley’s chapter would end with a scene of impending doom and then the next chapter, rather than picking up with Kelley, would jump back to what Sonny had been doing during that time. And since Kelley and Sonny are separated for most of this book, they spend the story pinning for, doubting, and then pinning again for each other again.  I basically had to take it on faith their love had a strong foundation from the first book.

While not a cliffhanger in the traditional sense, the ending of Darklight definitely sets the stage for the last book in the trilogy.  A few plot lines are tied up, but most are left dangling even more tangled than before.  But with any good book, Darklight left me wanting more.

So how did Darklight fare even with my ignorance of the first book?  Pretty well.  Just don't be like me and read Darklight before Wondrous Strange. This book does relies heavily on the events and character development of the first book. Not that Lesley doesn’t do a good job of bringing new readers up to date, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to experience all of that first hand. Me? I’m an impatient idiot.  And even though I now know most of what happened in Wondrous Strange, I'm really looking forward to how it all happened. I want to experience with Kelley what is was like discovering her Faerie heritage, falling in love with and then almost losing Sonny, and embracing her unique position of straddling both worlds.  After that, I’ll get read Darklight again with new eyes and be more than ready for the as yet untitled conclusion to the Wondrous Strange trilogy.

Sexual Content: (YA titles receive a more thorough breakdown) Kissing

Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Media Masters Publicity

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061575402
• ISBN-13: 978-0061575402
• Cover Art: Amber Gray

Disagree with my review?  Email me your review for this or any other book I reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

There’s no place like home for the horrordays – unless you’d prefer a romantic midnight walk through a ghost-infested graveyard . . . or a sexy vampire of your dreams. The (black) magical season is here – and whether it’s a solstice séance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year’s with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!

My story, Run Run Rudolph!, is about Jill, the sister of Kyle from my story in Dates From Hell. It seems the problems with the destabilizer didn’t end with Claire and Kyle. Their old co-worker, John Heathcliffe, won’t let it end. He is still determined to zap a human guinea pig and then experiment on them, but now he’s set his sites on Jill. –Lynsay Sands

Review:
Run, Run, Rudolph by Lynsay Sands - I haven’t read anything by Lynsay Sands before, but I’m a little surprised that her story was included in this anthology because its basically a typical contemporary romance with an added sci-fi element. Jill gets struck with a destabilizing ray by an evil scientist and goes on the run through a parade and Christmas party with her longtime crush Nick.  Jill new superpowers include being able to take on the appearance of anyone or thing (remember the title?) that she sees.  Of course while on the run, Jill and Nick take a few breaks for a steamy make out session, and a near coupling in the parking lot.  For a story that was only 90 pages long, the sexual content felt abruptly introduced and overly emphasized.

Sexual Content:
A scene of heavy petting, a graphic sex scene that isn’t quite consummated.

Click HERE to read an excerpt of "Run, Run, Rudolph".

*Note* Run, Run, Rudolph is part of the Holidays are Hell anthology.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061239097
• ISBN-13: 978-0061239090
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches

Meljean Brook, author of  The Guardian Series and contributor to the recent Must Love Hellhounds has a great offer on her site: FREE BOOKMARKS AND OTHER SWAG

“Contact me using the form below, including your name and address, and how many you’d like to receive, and I’d be happy to send them to you! Due to writing deadlines and my schedule, sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks to get them to the post office, but I promise they will come.

I also have a supply of signed bookplates, rack cards (they are like big bookmarks with more information — see the examples here) and magnets. I usually include these with the bookmarks anyway, but if you want more than one or two (for your reading groups or if you have a friend/family member who is a fan) please let me know, and I’ll send you a package of however many items you require. 

-MeljeanBrook.com

Click here to visit her site and request your free bookmarks today

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Book Blurb:
Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens. Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer. Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention. But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires. Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything. Faerie intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning 21^st century faery tale.


Review:
Similar in feeling to Twilight. I had read some recommendations for this book from Twilight fans, which is why I picked it up. And while it definitely isn't as good as the Twilight books, the comparison is valid. In both book series, a high school girl, with an ability that differentiates her from her peers becomes a part of a supernatural world and is pursued by a devastatingly handsome nonhuman. The tone of the book and the level of writing elevate it from other wannabe Twilight clones, but there are marked differences that keep this book from feeling redundant. For one, faeries are the supernatural creatures not vampires, and for another *SPOILER*the girl does not return the affections of her faery suitor but rather is in love with her equally handsome best friend. *END OF SPOILER* We also get a lot more information about the world of the fey through various POV's.

Sexual Content:
Unlike Twilight, I wouldn't recommend this one for the kiddies as there is some talk and reference to casual sex and a scene that has a vague reference to a sex act.

Any Given Doomsday (The Phoenix Chronicles, Book 1) 
by Lori Handeland

Book Blurb: Phoenix once used her unique skills as a psychic to help in the Milwaukee Police Department’s fight against injustice. But when Liz’s foster mother is found viciously murdered—and Liz is discovered unconscious at the scene—her only memory of the crime comes in the form of terrifying dreams...of creatures more horrific than anything Liz has seen in real life. What do these visions mean? And what in the world do they have to do with her former lover, Jimmy Sanducci? While the police question Jimmy in the murder, Jimmy opens Liz’s eyes to a supernatural war that has raged since the dawn of time in which innocent people are hunted by malevolent beings disguised as humans. Only a chosen few have the ability to fight their evil, and Jimmy believes Liz is among them. Now, with her senses heightened, new feelings are rising within Liz—ones that re-ignite her dangerous attraction to Jimmy. But Jimmy has a secret that will rock Liz to her core…and put the survival of the human race in peril.

Review: Ugh! This book is basically an excuse to string along one sex break after another.
The main character has to have sex (no less than 6 times) with a skinwalker(aka shapeshifter) in order to awaken her supernatural gifts. Then she is told that the only way she can acquire new abilities is to have sex with other supernatural beings.
*SPOILER* The coup de gras of the whole book takes place when the main character is abducted by her ex-boyfriend (who is conveniently evil now) and forced to be his sex/blood slave. Our heroine see this as an opportunity to bring him back to the light with her body. The result: lots and lots and lots of sex. *END OF SPOILER* What really bothers me is how misleading this book was.  The description does not in any indicate the overwhelmingly erotic nature of this book. I'm so glad I didn't spend money on this book (it was an LibraryThing Early Review). I blame the publishers for this one.  There are readers for erotic fiction (I am not one of them), and there are readers who prefer actual plots in their books (Yo!).  It is up to the publisher to ensure that the description/blurb etc. accurately reflects what the author wrote so that the intended audience can find said book.  Otherwise they end up with reviews like mine.

Sexual Content:

Makes Anita Blake look chaste.

Bad Blood (Crimson Moon, Book 1) by L. A. Banks

Book Blurb: Sasha Trudeau knows all about working beneath the shadows, back-alley deals, and things that go bump in the night. She also knows that the world is unaware of the existence of the paranormal—and that the government would like to keep it that way. As a highly trained Special Ops soldier, Sasha and her team are an elite group of individuals who are survivors of werewolf attacks, now trained to be loyal to only to each other and their government. But when she returns from a solo mission, she finds that her team has mysteriously gone missing. Shocking government conspiracies, double-dealing vampires, and a host of stunning revelations about who—and what—she really is are only just the beginning…

Review: This book is categorized as Dark Fantasy, the description on the back cover makes it sound like an Urban Fantasy. After reading it, I'm classifying it has a Romance novel with paranormal elements, emphasis on the romance. I was looking for an urban fantasy with some romantic elements thrown it, not the other way around.

While this book takes a new spin on werewolf mythology that is interesting if a little confusing, it is mostly a romance novel (70% of the book is devoted to romance/sex). The writing was sub par as well, especially in the first few chapters. I got pretty tired of reading about someone's 'sexy eyebrow', or 'sexy smile', or 'sexy grin', or 'sexy glance' etc. Beyond that, the plot could have been more interesting had it been told in a different manner. As it was the story took a number of rather pointless "sex breaks" that detracted from the overall narrative.

Sexual Content:

Lots.  And fairly graphic

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Book Blurb:
Rae, nicknamed Sunshine by her stepfather, is the baker at her family's coffeehouse. She's happy getting up at 4 am to make cinnamon rolls for the breakfast rush, and dealing with people and food all day. But one evening she needed somewhere she could be alone for a little while, and there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years. She never thought of vampires. Until they found her.  They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion-within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight. She knows that it is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, when light breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day...

Review: 
Buffy meets 1984....In Sunshine, McKinley sets up a world that is similar to ours with a twist; the Others.  Demons, Weres, and of course Vampires exist.  Demons and Weres have even mixed (some more successfully than others) with humans producing all varieties of mix bloods.  The Dark Others are the true enemies: The Vampires.

So what happens when Sunshine goes on the run with a Dark Other....?
With a world this well drawn (and an unresolved ending) you'd think it was the start of a series, but no.  Even on the author's website she says she has no plans to write another Sunshine book

Sexual Content:

Some romantic tension, and graphically describes near coupling.