Reviewing Dance Only For Me by Megan Derr

Dance Only For Me (Dance With tHe Devil #6) by Megan Derr 4*
BLURB: Jackie Black is a cowboy and sorcerer and proud of both. He spends his days breaking curses and locating items of interest for other abnormals. His pride and joy are the alchemy-enhanced pistols at his hips. The love of his life is Roman, a businessman and witch. Tired of living several states apart, Jackie decides to surprise Roman by moving closer.
But instead of being a happy surprise, Jackie finds himself the victim of an unpleasant one. Alone in a strange city, with nowhere to go and his world in pieces, Jackie is taken in by an old man who says he is a paranormal detective and could use someone of Jackie’s power and abilities to catch a killer.
My Review: I have a thing about cowboys and when they are magical sorcerers too then I am obviously going to be predisposed to enjoy the story. However Ms Derr has, as usual, produced a book that had me riveted to the last page and kept me entertained the whole way. Apart from the magical cowboy, she introduced me to an alchemist, who was also a bratty trouble magnet, a demon who was covered in runes and an evil that had me biting my nails hoping the first three could stop it in time.

Sword Of The King by Megan Derr

Sword of the King (Dance with the Devil #5)by Megan Derr 4*
BLURB: Dragons are amongst the most feared creatures in the paranormal world, nigh unbeatable and barely controllable. Every year, countless men and women who bear dragon potential are stolen away and turned into beasts, their former lives lost forever. They are drugged to compliance and trained to fight in the notorious Pits for the profit of the crime lords who breed them.
Blaze has been a pit fighter all his life, and it is a life he hates. The only thing that keeps him going is that if he stops, he risks losing the only thing that matters to him: his dragon, Erie. Though pit rules say it's a bad idea to get too close to the dragons, Blaze has never been able to help it. He'll do anything to protect Erie.
Ken and his dragon Nevada were once victims of the pits, stolen from their normal lives and made to fight. Now, they work to bring down the pits they despise, though the battle seems futile. Everyone who has ever tried has wound up dead. Stopping the pit fights once and for all would take a miracle—or a legend.
My Review:I love Dragons, so any book I find with Dragons has me a little biased from the outset. However, that said, this book really was very good. It had action, Heroes and Dragons enough for any reader to drool over. Also, as I am finding is usual with Megan Derr's books, it also had lots of interesting relationship interaction to give the story plenty of depth.

Yet again the reader is kaput!

Darn Levro reader broke again - this time the on/off switch fell off and now I can't get at my books :(

Luckily before it broke I managed to read Ruffskin by Megan Derr and since then I have reread an old favourite Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. So on to a couple of reviews:



Ruffskin (Dance With The Devil #4)by Megan Derr 3*
BLURB: An ordinary rainy day at the Bremen is interrupted when a strange courier shows up with a package for Peyton Blue, the Bremen's much-loved owner and bartender. When the package turns out to be a piece of Peyton's past and brings that past violently into the present, it is up to Johnnie to resolve a years old problem and put the past where it belongs once and for all.
My Review: I gave this only 3* because it seemed rushed and didn't really give me a feeling of a full story. There was a cameo appearance of Johnnie and Grim but the main romance of Peyton seemed like it had something missing. Not that what was there wasn't good because actually it was very good, it just wanted as much as the story deserved.



Magic's Pawn (Valdemar: The Last Herald-Mage #1)by Mercedes Lackey 5*
BLURB: Vanyel Ashkevron is beautiful. He's a talented musician. He's his mother's pride and joy. Too bad his father and siblings don't feel the same way about him. For that matter, too bad Vanyel doesn't feel the same way about himself. He can't seem to do anything right as far as anyone else is concerned. It seems like the only person who really loves him is his sister, Lissa. And she's just a woman, she doesn't have enough influence to protect him. So he lives, enduring the hatred of everyone, never able to do anything right, to please anyone. Then his father finally gets fed up with him and makes a decision that will change the course of his whole life. Vanyel is to be sent to the capital, Haven, and his Aunt Savil, one of the famous Herald-Mages of Valdemar. Anyone else would be thrilled, but Vanyel has met his Aunt once before, and he knows that she hates him just as much as everyone else. He has no choice but to go to Haven though, and maybe, just maybe, he'll find what he's been looking for, and the life he was destined to lead.
My Review: Even though I have read this book so many times the thing is falling apart (again) I am still moved to tears at the tragic tale of Vanyel. Mercedes Lackey has a knack of putting so much emotion on the page that your feel every word. In the case of this, the first one in a trilogy, it is more obvious than ever. Vanyel seems to have the ability to attract bad luck no matter what he tries to do to avoid it. The story is full of magic, action, romance and tragedy. The magic is believable, the action is bloody and the romance and tragedy go hand in hand and will bring most people to tears.

Review Of Midnight by Megan Derr

Midnight (Dance with the Devil #3)by Megan Derr 4*
BLURB: From the world of Dance with the Devil...comes the tale of Devlin White, Duke of Winterbourne, the last in a long line of powerful witches who assist the Demon Lord of London in keeping control of the nightwalkers living amongst normal men. All but one of his siblings gone to the new American colonies, his proud family line all but ended, Devlin is kept from gloom and despair only by his unusual ward, a young man who is neither alive nor dead, but somewhere in between thanks to powerful magic. Powerful magic that someone seeks, someone who will stop at nothing to obtain the secrets that Devlin would die to protect.
My Review: I think this is one of the few Zombie stories I have read that I truly enjoyed. Mind you Midnight is not your typical brain-eating, rotting corpse type zombie. In fact it is this total uniqueness of Midnight that drives most of the story. The action is richly described and there is a little romance and plenty of odd characters to be entranced by. Would love to read more about them in other books.

Review Of Dance in the Dark by Megan Derr

Dance in the Dark (Dance with the Devil #2)by Megan Derr 4*
BLURB: At the age of nine, Johnnie lost everything. A quiet, normal child, his life forever changed when his family was attacked by a blood-crazed vampire, leaving his parents dead and Johnnie an orphan.
Now grown, he is the cold, proud, beautiful—but very human—son of the Dracula Desrosiers, who took him in after the tragedy that befell Johnnie's parents. Constantly kept apart for being human, Johnnie chooses to bury himself in the two things he most loves—books and mysteries.
Then he is summoned by a friend to solve a simple mystery involving a pair of Cinderella slippers, and in putting one mystery to rest Johnnie only succeeds in waking several more.
My Review: The main character of this book is mentioned in passing in Dance With The Devil and even that little mention made me interested in knowing more about him. This book told me lots and he was a most interesting person to read about. One of my favourite things about him is his tendency to use quotes from poems, fairy tales and the like. Like Dance With the Devil the book was split into 'Cases' but at least these were in chronological order and were really just a way of splitting the story about Johnnie and his hunt for the truth. I really would advise reading Dance With the Devil first, as it makes more sense of some of the secondary characters in this book, but it can be read as a stand alone if so desired.

Reviewing Dance With the Devil by Megan Derr

I am experimenting with adding the book covers to my reviews. Please let me know if this is what you like to see or if I am wasting my time.



Dance with the Devil (Dance with the Devil #1)by Megan Derr 4*
BLURB:In a world of demons, goblins, witches, sirens, werewolves, vampires, and so much more, it can be difficult to determine who is guilty of what and why. Chris White is a detective who fearlessly investigates this supernatural world, himself a unique product of it. He will take any case brought to him, but has a particular affinity for helping those who inhabit the poor districts of his city. From strange rituals and runaway vampires, to fighting sorcerers and confronting a demon lord, this paranormal detective will face any challenge—even a dance with the devil.
My Review: I liked this as it was a lot of short stories about the paranormal detective and his cases. What I wasn't so keen on was the way it was all jumbled up as far as timeline is concerned, with only the case number to tell you in advance where you were in the characters timeline. I must admit that each case had me both intrigued and fascinated, as the author has a wonderful way of making each case seem fresh and interesting, even though most of them are just normal detection stuff with the added element of paranormal creatures committing crimes or needing help. If you like m/m, paranormal, detectives and short easy to read stories teh this is one for you.