Tuesday, January 2

A bunch of firsts

It turns out Joyce Ellen Armond's Bond's of Darkness is an important part of several new firsts for me...


  • It's the first book I finished in 2007
  • It's the first book I read on my new ebook device
  • And it's the first book published by Liquid Silver Books that I've read.

It also is Ms. Armond's first book--that's a bunch of firsts--LOL.

And I'm glad I can say the first book I read on my new eBookMan was a Good one. First the book review then the device.


Everything's going wrong for victim's advocate Kate Scott.

Her job's a mess, her hair's a mess, and her love life is stuck in perpetual flirt with the mysterious Paul.

Whether she admits it or not, Paul's her Mr. Right. His jokes make her laugh. His touch makes her shiver.

He's perfect-except for his curse. And the sorcerer who cursed him. And the demon.

Kate Scott is a victim's advocate having a rough time with one particular victim. For the past year she's been having breakfast every day with "Breakfast Paul" and her best friends have decided it's time for her and Paul to move their relationship forward.

Paul's been cursed and has lived 100 years with a deep dark secret.

Sander Wald is the sorcerer who has controlled Paul for all this time and he's decided it's time to take even greater control, torture Paul a little bit more.

In the past Paul has reached out to a local coven of witches for help in breaking the curse. This ended in disaster and he's very leery to risk anyone elses life.

Because this is a paranormal it's hard to go into too much detail without giving away parts of the story.

What worked...

  1. Kate and Paul have an existing relationship slowly built on friendship and desire.
  2. Paul's and Sander Wald's backstories aren't dumped in the beginning of the book each unfold as the story is told.
  3. It's a paranormal that doesn't include vampires or werewolves but rather good witches, an evil sorcerer and a demon who is both frightening and itself frightened--nice touch.
  4. The character development is good and pretty consistent.
  5. The pacing good, writing voice and style fairly smooth.
  6. There's a nice balance between the paranormal and romance!

What didn't work...

  1. There are a few editing issues, little inconsistencies, not horrible, but I did notice them.
  2. Kate sometimes annoyed me, which isn't unusual with heroines--LOL
  3. Paul is at times a little to resigned to his situation, but of course he's had 100 years of dealing with it.
  4. The demon's identiy is easily figured out and sometime over the last 100 years Paul probably should have realized what was going on.
  5. I'd have liked more backstory on Paul and the two witches, Laurie and Vern, relationship.


The Device--eBookMan EBM-900...

  • It's easy to use.
  • It isn't backlite, so there's a lot of reflection when reading in light.
  • It's a little small--a 170+ page book turns into 1400+ pages on this little unit.
  • It's never going to replace real books, but it is very portable and a bit of a space saver.

So there you have it, my first eBook was a success. Congratulations Ms. Armond on a good first book.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Go you. No backlight though? That's too bad. Love the backlight.

Tara Marie said...

Jane, all I requested for Christmas was an ebook reader I wasn't real specific--next time I'll know better--LOL.

Paige, Ms. Armond knows I'm a fan of the scarier paranormals and was nice enough to send me an ARC to download

Anonymous said...

alert ! this a ramble posting . blame it on coffee. and too much sleeping on this awful cold brr windy day which was suppose to be 5 above . maybe tomorrow?

so this mean u gonna buy more and review more? how did your eyes take it? it not the same as compute i suppose. frankly i would just get the cheap laptop if there were one and then read in bed. my friend does that and loves it . laptop what we all really need i think.

alert julianne maclean chat at witchy mmm. have u ever read her ? i havent yet.

another ramble - new regency gay ebook coming . t a chase. it sound like hankie read to me. mmm. it posted on line in chapters but it been put together and readied for publication as ebook - that mean it been edited right?



i like to read that book too i think ,sound like a good story in all.

my peeve with online books is there to many are really to umm how do i say it , been erotized to death. im no prude but it too much for my taste. i love the story more i guess.
there are other peeves of course but i cant remember them right now.

mm you got a good one to read then, that pretty good. mmm i think online books are not looked after as well as books as on paper it seems . you said gramatical error or something? too bad you cant offer your services to correct the boo boos. i hear that lots of online do need them . ah well. i have a treo palm book and i can do jsut about it all on it , even read a book.only read about 4 book online ever. mmm. like paper better i guess.


i did buy 3 online books and thought wow some parts were hot , some parts lamo and in general all sucked mmm. now i really like paranormal period. i like regency romance period. and fantasy and scifi. but i will read most anything. mmm. oh and i love good autobiograhy.

Anonymous said...

oh that book i mentiones that a gay regency online book is called
Angel's Evolution
it published at liquidsilverbooks

it just became available today i think . i bought it online , it was very easy to do . ah well . maybe u can find something else to read there beside the one i got. happy new years and happy reading to you . mamx

CindyS said...

*sniff* I'm getting left behind by technology and my reader friends!

I should really look into an ebook reader but I tend to get overwhelmed and I would rather have an mp3 player first. Still, the advantage of not having to juggle my book, purse, keys and drink while walking to and from my car might be worth the investment.

Backlight. Got it.

CindyS

Tara Marie said...

mamx--I'd love to see some cold, we've had nothing but a continuation of fall today's temps are going to be in the 50's, that's just not right for January--LOL.

I have read Julianne Maclean, not a huge fan, very typical of regency authors right now.

I'm not sure I can curl up with a laptop.

You'll have to let me know about Angels Evolution. I did see a LSB a few months ago that I was interested in, I may take a look and see if it's still available.

Cindy--definitely a backlight!!

nath said...

hey Tara Marie :D

This sounds really good :D too bad it's an e-book (I still haven't taken this step yet ^^;)

Nikki said...

I just joined the ebook-iverse too! I got the reader from ebookwise and really like it. I am reading Giving Chase and I really like it. It's sweet. I'm almost done and there hasn't been one sex scene yet! I still like it though. Next on my agenda is to buy a mainstream romance that is put in this format.

My only problem is I get a headache if I read for too long with this reader. A can read a real book for hours and hours and never have a problem.

Tara Marie said...

Nath, you can always download it to your computer, I don't particularly like reading that way, but some people don't mind.

Nikki, I'm coming to realize I should have asked for an ebookwise, live and learn. Glad your first experience is a good one too.

Joyce Ellen Armond said...

Thanks so much, Tara. Just to keep the theme alive, you're my first review. :)

And good luck with the reader. I'm afraid to try one.

Anonymous said...

YAY

You go with your badself! LSB is a good choice me think. And I like Samhain and quite a few EC.

Looks like I might be getting some trisk to review... so we shall see.

I must add you to my ebook reviews on my side bar now!