Cowboys & Vampires by Hank Edwards
What is probably the first you notice in Cowboys & Vampires, the first adventure in the Venom Valley series, is the horror: a living dead zombie, a man who is forced to "kill again" the woman he has always considered his mother, the difficult of trying to scind the memories of the good time past and the present horror. Sincerely I'm not a fan of horror stories, so the first instinct should have been to not continue with the reading, but there was something in Josh, an innocence and naivete that was a stark contrast with the horror.And as soon as Dex enters the scene, I was bought. Josh's secret, the hidden force that linked me to him, was now clear, it was Dex. The boys growing old together, both of them having feeling for each other, both of them not having the courage to say it. But the horrific events, instead of tearing them apart, is the reason to finally come true. The sweetness of their love was the right counterbalance for the horror and the main reason why I wanted to go on and see what happened.
A small warning, Cowboys & Vampires more than a first novel in the series, is a first part of the story, to fully enjoy it you have probably to read it together with the second installment, Stakes and Spurs.
Paperback: 318 pages
Publisher: Wilde City Press, LLC; 2 edition (August 21, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1925031462
ISBN-13: 978-1925031461
Amazon: Cowboys & Vampires/Stakes & Spurs
Amazon Kindle: Cowboys & Vampires: Venom Valley Book One
More Reviews by Author at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews
Considering the setting, 1799, quite original just like that, and the plot device, a young man sent as endured servant for 5 years, I was expecting for this story to be very gothic like, dark and brooding, maybe even a little dramatic.
I don’t think it was a chance this novel reminded me of Frankenstein Junior by Mel Brooks, Igor was too much a giveaway, but, considering that was one of my favorite movie when I was younger, it was with a sort of delight I read this book, and this is strange enough to say for a paranormal/horror story.
Jeff Mann isn’t shy in using a rough imaginary to set his stories, whereas they are in XIX century American frontier, or in XVIII century Scotland, but even amidst the blood and sweat, and tears, you can find the tenderness of two men loving each other.
The book is a sequel of Bite Club, but it can be a standalone, the main characters from the previous one, ancient vampire Christopher Driscoll, his new lover Troy, and coroner Becky O’Brien, are again together in an investigation, but now it’s not more about vampires, but werewolves… yes, since, after the discovery that vampires exist in Bite Club, gay population of West Hollywood is now threatened by werewolves. And of course there will be a new couple, werewolf Louis and drag queen Carlos/Shanda, so nice and cute as a couple that is a pity they are introduced more or less only half into the story.
I really enjoyed the third, and for now, last installment in this series, Xavi comes out like this hedonistic, but so cute, top from the bottom character that is able to conquer Andreas’s heart completely and unavoidably.
Only with an English setting and probably only an English author, or at least one that knows very well the customs of that country, can write a story about tea, crumpets and supernatural being. Location is an small, cold, but homey cottage, the central piece of the story is the restoration of two small Elizabethan portraits too many people want and only one has the right to have.
Vampires, Demons, Angels, Fae people, same old same old you would say, and instead nothing was as expected. The author took the usual characters of paranormal/fantasy romance and intertwined it in a story that was a mix of romance and horror, gothic in a modern setting. The strange mix was also aided by the choice of location, a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, that helped the gothic feeling due to the “being trapped” situation but at the same time was big and modern enough to dispel the haunting and dark. BTW I have the feeling the author did know about cruises since the little details she used were quite right, at least according to my experience.
Miami Moon is at the same time original and old fashioned. It's old fashioned for the way it looks on the vampire's lair, a den of debauchery where pain is mixed with pleasure and where the kiss of a vampire is both deadly than arousing. It's original for how it plots this novella, starting from the full light of a sunny day in Miami's South Beach to end in the moon light of a cold Chicago's night. 
I stopped reading het romance more or less in 2006, but Sherrilyn Kenyon and J.R. Ward were among the last authors I read in that genre, and I remember I liked them. I especially liked the paranormal genre (while oddly I now prefer the contemporary ones) probably for their alpha male hero, always so strong, always so protective, always so bound to being honorable and right. That is not how Qhuinn and Blay are, or at least not totally; they are not really Alpha males, they are more enoforcerers, and till now they gravitated on the edge of the series, favorites to many readers but never having their own story. On the forums there was speculation they were gays, but the author never really gave them the definitive push, not until the book before this one: from what I gathered (since I haven’t read that one), Blay finally came out, but not to be with Qhuinn, but instead with Qhuinn’s cousin, Saxton; and to make things even more complicated, Qhuinn decides to have a child with a female, even if he didn’t mate with her.
I picked this title since I wanted to try something by this author, but truth be told I wasn’t expecting much; so it was a more than pleasant surprise to read a thoroughly enjoyable funny romance, sweet but also sexy.
I think the main reason of this novel was to prove how stupid the war is and how rigid the military structure can be, above all if they try to see the world in Black and White.
I’m not sure I completely understood this two “gay for you” approach of the plot, but for sure it was something I have never read before. When Marcus is turned into a vampire, he is straight and with a girlfriend he loves, he has never once desired men and he was completely satisfied with his love and sex life. But a newly made vampire is dangerous, and it’s custom to have them interact only with same-sex supernatural creatures, so that they can be as forceful as they want without causing damages. So Marcus had his first same-sex sexual experiences and truth be told, he didn’t mind it. Sure, Marcus still preferred women if he had to pick or at least that was true until Phillip.
A nice novella playing on the old theme of the Master/slave bond in a fantasy setting; the village where Daniel lives is bound by an ancient pact with the Kin lords to offer, or better sacrifice, one youth every year. When the chosen is Daniel’s sister, he cannot let it happen: while his sister is loved by everyone, and engaged, Daniel knows he has no better future ahead of him, he prefers the company of men and that is the worst sin according to the priest. So Daniel volunteers to be the sacrificial lamb to the Kin lords, and he is not expecting anything better than becoming like an animal: the Kin lords drink human blood and the offerings are to become their life substance providers.
I liked this book very much since it made a paranormal romance almost “normal”; Bastian is a newly made vampire, but he is so new and unprepared to the event that he is almost trying to convince himself it didn’t happen. Sure, growing an allergy to sun and long fangs don’t help him. And the drinking blood issue neither. But Bastian is still hoping it will go away, especially now that he is falling in love with Riley, and he wants to enjoy this new love like any other college kid.
“When Lucifer looked upon God's works, he vowed to destroy it all. He followed Adam and Eve from the Garden and stole Abel's soul before his drew his final breath, thus creating the first vampire. Since then all vampires have been damned creatures, their souls lost without hope.”
I have to admit, this was not an easy book for me to read, mostly since the writing style is very rich and I often had the feeling I was losing myself in that, but you have to weight this feeling with me being Italian. If you add to this the fact the story is told in first point of view by Black, and first POV is always more difficult to understand, you have a good idea on how challenging it was for me this novel.
The second in the Fool’s Odyssey trilogy if for me the better for now; I liked the previous book, but if I remember well the romance was not as much developed as it’s in this one. Andreas and Xavi are now a couple, Xavi went under the transition that made him a vampire, but he has not yet learned the boundaries of this new situation, and of course, as soon as Andreas has to leave him for a few days, he got himself into trouble.
Blacque/Blue is a fantasy paranormal urban novel. It basically imagines that in our current time there is a small town in US, Acarda, where paranormal creatures are living together in a sheltered environment. And humans as well. I actually hadn’t understood if humans are aware they are living among paranormal creatures, unless they are not in a relationship with them, mostly since paranormal creatures are not behaving any different from humans. That is the main point of this novel and what I found the most interesting as well.
The first book I read by Megan Derr but for sure not the last, Midnight impressed me for the originality and quality of the story, both characteristics seldom found in independent small presses. Or at least when such presses are targeting a reader in search of “fun”. And please take this as the right compliment I’m paying to this author and this press. It’s not easy to write a story that is able to both involve than amuse you, at the end of Midnight I’m an happy reader, since I spend some pleasant hours with these characters and I would be willing to spend even more time with them, like if I made new friends and I was still eager to know them even better.