New Review and New Cover

Siren Book Reviews has given Lassoing Lara 5 Siren Stones! Here's a snippet of what the reviewer had to say:

"This is a delightfully funny and sexy story, that was such a great read. As a NJ Walters fan, she doesn't let us down in this sexy romance. You will really want to read this one over and over again."

~Yvette Lowe, Siren Book Reviews

You can read the entire review at Siren Book Reviews.

Check out the new cover for A Touch Of Magick, which will be releasing from Samhain Publishing on October 26th.

BLURB:

If you go casting love spells, be careful what you wish for.

Spells, Secrets and Seductions, Book 1

Rhiannon Sparks admits she’s not a very good witch—she can’t even light a candle without a match—but she keeps trying. At least her talent for business has made her magick shop a huge success. Now if only there was even the faintest flicker in her nonexistent love life.

During a night of eating and drinking, she and her girlfriends cast a candle-magick spell for hot sex. All in good fun, of course. Except Rhiannon accidentally mixes up the words. Instead of a lover, she asks for true love.

Deputy Ryland Stone’s past keeps him firmly rooted in reality. Then he meets Rhiannon and sparks literally fly. One date leads to another, and then they’re practically setting the bedroom on fire…until she reveals the deal breaker.

Though love and magick have found Rhiannon at last, getting a handle on her newly unleashed power is the least of her problems. Unless Ryland accepts that magick exists, he will never accept her for who and what she is.

Warning: This book contains a simple candle-magick spell, which you use at your own risk, a disastrous date, phone sex, and enough sizzle to practically set the sheets on fire.

5 Book Review for Past Promises

My latest Samhain Publishing release, Past Promises, just received a 5 Book Review from Long and Short Reviews.

Here's a snippet of what reviewer, Holly, had to say:

"N. J. Walters writes her Jamesville stories with heart and passion. Reading this book, you feel the pain Linda feels when her family will not accept her as she is. You feel the desire and passion she feels when she finds that Levi wants her, and the indecision of whether to get involved with a man who may move on at any time... This is the first of the Jamesville books I have read, but I am going to get the rest soon, because I want to visit this place and meet the people there."

Thank you Holly and Long and Short Reviews!

REVIEW: Lord of the Fading Lands by CL Wilson

I received an ARC of CL Wilson's Lord of the Fading Lands because I promised to post a review of it. Normally, I'm not that much of a book-whore, but Dear Author and Smart Bitches raved about this book, so I thought it would be a safe bet I wouldn't hate it.

The back blurb:

Once he had scorched the world. Once he had driven back overwhelming darkness. Once he had loved with such passion, his name was legend...Tairen Soul.

Now a thousand years later, a new threat calls him from the Fading Lands back into the world that had cost him so dearly. Now an ancient, familiar evil is regaining its strength, and a new voice beckons to him--more compelling, more seductive, more maddening than any before.

As the power of his most bitter enemy grows and ancient alliances crumble, the wildness in his blood will not be denied. The tairen must claim his truemate and embrace the destiny woven for him in the mists of time.

Dramatic much?

Anyway...

The first book in CL Wilson's series (yes, it's a series and, no, this book cannot stand alone) introduces a very familiar world that blends fairy tale and fantasy. The world building is rich with details that reminded me very strongly of Tolkien. (I also found touches of Star Wars, but let's not discuss that further.) The plot is familiar epic fantasy: good versus evil on a grand scale--and, of course, the humans Celierians complicate matters because they're too blind and greedy and easily manipulated to see the evil that is apparent to the frustrated Fey hero.

Rainier vel'En Daris Feyreisen, Rain Tairen Soul, King of the Fey (phew! give me a second to catch my breath) and a were-tairen (or large winged cat that breathes fire), realizes his people are dying and seeks answers from a crystal ball that has a sadistic streak and likes to play power games: the Eye of Truth. The Eye leads him to his truemate, a shei’tani, who is the key to saving the Fey.

Ellysetta Baristani is an orphan, which is romancespeak for has special powers because her parents are special people, but was taken in by a kind couple (well, the father's kind, but the mother wanted her to marry an over-the-top evil porker). She's tall, red-haired, green-eyed, and curvy, but, since this is a romance, everyone thinks she's a troll except for the magical Fey who can see into her soul. And her soul, just like everything else about her, is beautiful and perfect. She's kind, gracious, and even feels sorry for her enemies--which is why Rain and his men have to do the dirty work for her:

Fey women cannot kill, not even to defend their own lives. Their natural empathy prevents it. The shock of slaying another living being would kill them. (379)

Rain knows Mary Sue Ellie is a Fey--and the most powerful Fey female, at that--because with a single touch, she can cleanse a hardened warrior's soul:

[Belliard] had so much death on his soul that all but the strongest women among the Fey had avoided touching him centuries ago, unable to bear the pain of his sorrow, the ruthlessly self-enforced emotionlessness, and the dark burden of the lives he'd taken to protect the Fey. Even the shei'dalins only touched him when they needed to heal wounds he gained in battle. Yet this child, this incredible child whose soul called a tairen's, had reached out to touch him and sent a flood of healing warmth and love so strong that it burned straight through the block of black ice that encased what remained of his gentle Fey emotions. (92-93)

Despite her magic touch, Ellie denies her special powers again and again and again and made me want to reach into the book and shake her. And while I like alpha heroes, Rain is an overbearing jerk too often. He's a king not because he has the diplomatic and strategic skills, but because he can shape-shift and burn down a village with his breath.

So, why did I finish book besides it being a condition of getting the ARC? Well...

• The world building, as I mentioned at the beginning, is well thought out.

• The secondary characters are fleshed out and serve purpose.

• The plot, predictable as it might be, is intricate and moves quickly.

• The villains, other than the cartoony spurned former suitor, are unapologetically evil and power hungry and, most importantly, have the smarts to potentially pull off their maniacal plot.

• The prose is tight and quite lovely in places.

• And, even though I'm not a fan of soul mates, truemates, bondmates, bloodmates, breedmates, or any other kind of mates because it seems like an excuse for characters to instantly fall in love and jump each other's bones because it's destiny, it's meant to be--and the sex will be magical and somehow save the world, it works for me in this book because Ellie and Rain have to work to form the truemate bond. It's not instantaneous. They have to learn to accept each other on different levels for the bond to be formed, and it's a nice change from the paranormal/fantasy romance norm.

Overall, this book is a B- for me. The good outweighed the bad and made me want to read the next book in the series, where "an epic battle [is] fast approaching and only united could [Ellie and Rain] hope to turn back the armies of darkness."

"Armies of darkness"? Really? Should Bruce Campbell and his chainsaw be called for help?

And other unintentional humor: umagi, a term Wilson uses for someone who is mind-controlled by the evil Mages from Eld, made me giggle, especially during the villian sex scene, because if you change the m to an n, you have the Japanese word for eel.

Geek Out of Disguise

Be warned! This is a long post. And it has nothing to do with romance novels. Just me letting out my inner geek. (Actually, the geek’s right on the surface.)

Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Me. My significant other. A packed theatre. And on the giant screen in front of us, Transformers.

I waited a long time for this film—and it was so worth it.

Yes, I know there’s no plot. Yes, I know it’s long and loud and overblown and, as one pithy reviewer put it, “less than meets the eye.” Yes, I know it’s the most expensive toy commercial ever made.

But it’s so much fun! Explosions, laughs, eye candy, cool-looking robots from outer space…what more can I ask for?

Before I go anything further, I need to make three things clear:

1. I love Transformers. As a child, I thought Transformers were the coolest things evah! Over twenty years later, I still do. I spent hundreds of dollars on eBay buying the entire series and Transformers: The Movie (1986) on VHS. When Hasbro and Rhino decided they needed an influx of cash and released the series on DVD, I went out and bought all 4 volumes. When they released Transformers: The Movie (1986) on DVD in 2006 to take advantage of the live-action movie hype, I placed my pre-order for three copies on Amazon six months before the release date. I love Transformers.


2. I love Michael Bay’s action flicks. The Rock. Bad Boys I and II. Armageddon. The Island. (Not so much Pearl Harbor.) The man knows how to shoot an action sequence. I pop The Rock into my PS2 about once a month and that car chase through San Francisco never fails to get my heart pumping a little faster. Hey, I never claimed to have highbrow tastes—and I think I enjoy life a lot more because of it.


3. And I’m 27 going on 13. But that’s pretty obvious. Right?

The Bad
Now, let’s get the bad out of the way before I gush like an wide-eyed fangirl about my favorite movie of all time.

TOO MUCH PRODUCT PLACEMENT! I hated it in Shrek 2 and 3 and I hate it here. Enough said.

The plot, or lack thereof. Good versus evil. Good wins. Really, that’s it. Okay, the Autobots and the Decepticons are racing to get to the Energon Cube Matrix of Leadership Vector Sigma Allspark, currently lost on Earth, because it can do really cool things. As an added bonus, the US defense secretary (Jon Voight) actually decides to gather intelligence BEFORE declaring war on these powerful, unknown threats. Wow.

Oh, the cheesy music. I alternated between laughs and groans at the song choices Bumblebee, the Transformer who disguises himself as a yellow Chevrolet Camaro, made when he was in matchmaking mode for the boy he was secretly protecting, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf). “Drive” by the Cars. “Baby, Come Back” by Player. “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye. Subtle is not in Bay’s vocabulary. None of those songs, thankfully, are on the soundtrack. On the other hand, Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done” is on the soundtrack and it rocks.

Megan Fox, the not-very-interesting love interest. She lives up to her name and is definitely hot enough to grace the cover of Maxim. Too bad she studied acting in the School of Tara Reid. (Okay, Tara Reid and Megan Fox fans can flame me now. I can take it.) I don’t think it helped that her character was TSTL several times throughout the movie. If this film is supposed to be a boys’ only kind of flick, do what Ocean’s Thirteen did and leave the women at home.

Not enough time with the Transformers themselves. At one point, the girl sitting next to me in the movie theatre said, “I don’t remember their names anymore.” I know this is not a character-driven movie, but the first generation cartoons and comics gave each Transformer a distinct personality (and worthy storylines). Megatron is so maniacally, unapologetically evil that sometimes you want to root for him. Bumblebee is the wise-cracking little brother who wants to prove he’s capable of playing with the big boys. Starscream is the second-in-command whose ambitions are greater than his intelligence. Ironhide is the Southern boy who’s still a little rough around the edges. Sadly, however, you don’t get any sense of that in the movie.

There are other things I took issue with, but I won’t bore this audience with the petty details (e.g. Bumblebee transforming into a Camaro instead of a Bug, removing Optimus Prime’s half-mask every time he spoke, Devastator being only one Transformer instead of the five Constructicons merged together, etc., etc.) that drove some die-hard Transformers fans to send death threats to Bay. (No, I wasn’t one of them. My buddies and I just went out for drinks and vented among ourselves because none of us look good in Day-Glo orange.)


The Good
After all that, you’d think I’d abhor the movie and would be demanding Bay’s head on a platter. But not so. And why? Because of the good. And, oh, where do I start?

The visual effects. In a year of spectacular CGI from Hollywood (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Spider-Man 3, 300, etc.), Transformers blasted them away. Over a year ago, when I heard the rumors of a live-action Transformers movie were indeed true, I was worried that Hollywood would make the animation obvious (e.g. The Hulk) and something inside me would wither and die. However, I needn’t have worried. The Transformers’ transformations were seamless with the live action and they themselves were visually stunning, if a little too exoskeletony. But still bloody good, especially Megatron, who’s so ugly it’s awesome.

Shia LaBeouf. He can act. He can do drama. And can he ever do funny. I don’t know if he was playing himself or channeling Tom Hanks and Ray Romano, but this Mickey Mouse actor thoroughly impressed me with his skill and flawless timing. The audience wouldn’t have been drawn into this movie nearly as much without him.

Oh God, the humor. Anthony Anderson, John Turturro, Shia LaBeouf, and the Transformers. The laughs were constant—and not because of Rob Schneider-like-slapstick. For instance:

Captain Lennox: I need a credit card! Epps, where's your wallet?

USAF Master Sgt. Epps: Pocket!

Captain Lennox: Which pocket?

USAF Master Sgt. Epps: MY BACK POCKET!

Captain Lennox: You got ten back pockets!

USAF Master Sgt. Epps: LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK!

Michael Bay’s movies. Drama-challenged, but great tension-relieving humor.

And, ooh, the eye candy. For those women whose pulses don’t race when they see amazing CGIs of sentient alien robots, there are Josh Duhamel (Captain Lennox) looking all scruffy and enticing and making me want to run me fingers over his stubble and through his hair and Tyrese Gibson (USAF Master Sgt. Epps) making me imagine what it would feel like to drape myself all over that well-toned body.

*sigh*

Now, see the lines of dialogue above. See Josh and Tyrese shouting them at each other. See Josh groping Tyrese’s left-cheek pocket. Oh, yeah. That scene alone is worth the price of admission.


The Grade
A-


The Teaser
Wait! I’m not finished!

And neither is Bay. Transformers 2 will be out in 2009 (I’m already counting the days). If Bay decides to bring in Galvatron to replace Megatron, I hope he can talk Leonard Nimoy into providing the voice once more for old times’ sake.

And if Grimlock can be written into the script, I’ll never ask for anything ever again. Well, Grimlock and the other four Dinobots.

And maybe more Starscream.

But no Rodimus Prime, please. I can’t watch Optimus die a second time. It’s been twenty-one years and I still cry when I watch the 1986 animated movie. Yes, I know I’m sad.


The Contest
I love Transformers.

Did I mention that?

And since I love them so much, I'll send a prize package (print copy of my current release, bookmarks, and Ellora's Cave RT Cowboy card deck) to a name drawn from the people who can answer the following trivia question:

Transformers: The Movie (1986) was this Academy Award-winning American citizen's final movie. Who is he?

You can either post the answer in the comments or send it to me directly.

Start Googling, ladies. Or get those geeks you know to help you out. Trust me, we're everywhere.

Forgot to mention that I'll be announcing the winner Thursday, July 12, 2007.