Christmas Showdown by Janette Kenny

The night before Christmas, a deadly blizzard traps a lawman and a madam with a price on her head in a deserted town with a sadistic outlaw hell-bent on revenge.

High-class madam, Katherine Winter, caters to wealthy men and vows nobody in her Kansas bordello will suffer the abuse she endured in the horrific marriage she’d escaped. She can choose her lovers, but longs for one who can match her in bed and out. Her senses tell her Daniel Creed is the man she’s longed for—a man with a dark secret like herself, a man who’d do anything to protect what’s his. But he’s a lawman, and dallying with him is playing with fire.

Sheriff Daniel Creed has known Katherine Winter is the husband-killer on the wanted poster since she came to his town. The reward he’d get for turning her in would make him rich, but something about the aloof beauty stirs longing inside him. There’s no future for a half-breed gunslinger hiding behind a badge and a wanted woman except life on the run. So he keeps his mouth shut, figuring the most he can ever hope for is to love the lady from afar—and protect her.

He never banked on the bounty hunter from his past hunting down Katherine, then setting the town ablaze to force Daniel into a fiery showdown.

I grabbed this one on my latest shopping trip at Samhain. Got it along with Steelflower by Lilith Saintcrow and Tethers by Sara Reinke.

Christmas Showdown is quite short, but it packs a fair amount of story into that space. Both Daniel and Katherine have lusted after each other from afar, but the snow storm brings them together. Add in a bad guy and you get a fun, suspenseful short story. And it's a western. *grin*

Colters' Woman by Maya Banks

So Ms. Banks offered to send this one to me, but I declined as I wasn't sure the subject matter was something I could handle well. The whole menage/brothers thing isn't really something I go for. But I've liked her stuff in the past, so I later bought it instead. And I'm rather glad I did. Finally got around to reading it last night.

Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman to share their lives and their beds. They don’t want a casual romp in the hay, they want the woman who will complete them—and they’re losing hope of finding her.

That is until Adam finds Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin. He knows she’s different the minute he holds her in his arms. But before Adam gets his hopes up, he knows he has to gauge his brothers’ reactions. Soon it’s evident that she’s the one.

There are a few problems, however—convincing her she belongs with them and keeping her safe from the man who wants her dead.

I'd bought Colters' Woman awhile ago, probably around when it first came out. Since I'm usually pretty bad about reading things right away, I didn't get to it until last night. And then I zipped through the whole thing. The story takes place in a short period of time, yet the romance did work for me. I'm not quite sure, but I'm gonna guess it's Banks' writing that does it. It just worked. Another thing I liked is that I didn't get much of the squicky incest thing since the three guys are brothers. It's a very hot story and moves along very quickly. Hmm...what didn't I like? Well, we don't get as in depth with the heroes since there are three of them, but I found myself not really caring and just going along with the story.

So, all in all, I liked the story and I will continue to read Maya Banks' stuff.

Understood by Maya Banks

When she breaks free from the bondage of her past, he’ll be waiting.

Jake Turner committed the ultimate mistake of falling in love with his best friend’s wife. The distance he puts between them costs both him and Ellie Matthews dearly. Jake will never forgive himself for not seeing what a bastard his friend was. Now that Ellie is free from her nightmare, Jake waits, needing and wanting. He’ll be there when Ellie is ready to spread her wings.

Title: Understood

Author: Maya Banks

Year published: Dec. 19, 2006

Why I picked up this book: Maya sent it.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I rather do.

Is this part of a series? I don’t think so.

What I enjoyed about the book: I really liked Jake and Ellie. I really wanted them to live happily ever after. And well, it's a rather nice hot book, too. It's quite a nice little sexy contemporary. And for being a novella, it didn't seem rushed or too short. And some may think the ending a bit too pat, I rather enjoyed it and thought it worked.

What I didn’t like about the book? There really wasn't much I didn't like. I breezed through the book last night and really enjoyed it. The only nitpicky thing I'd have would have been some of the language used during the sex scenes, but really, that's a very personal preference. It didn't stop me from enjoying the story at all.

Is this a new-to-me author and would I read something by this author again? Not a new to me author and I'll definitely read more of her books.

Am I keeping it or passing it on? Keeping it since it's an ebook.

With Nine You Get Vanyr by Teri Smith and Jean Marie Ward

How much would you give to live your fantasy? Think fast—your Wishstone is waiting.

At Atlanta’s Dragon-Con, nine fan girls make a wish on the mysterious ancient artifact known as the Wishstone and find themselves transported to the world that inspired their favorite TV series. Only the show couldn’t begin to prepare them for the real thing.

Domain is a world without change, frozen in a time of magic and superstition, where the immortal sons of the goddess Reyah fight a never-ending war—mostly with themselves. Reyah doesn’t seem to care. The way she sees it, her boys will be boys. They’ll settle down once they meet the right girls.

But Earth girls aren’t that easy. They’ve got serious issues with this gig. They like their computers, cell phones, double-ply toilet paper.

And they don’t believe in fate.

Welcome to Domain.

Title: With Nine You Get Vanyr
Author: Teri Smith and Jean Marie Ward
Year/Date published: Nov. 7, 2006
Why I picked up this book: It looked interesting.
Do I like the cover? Yeah, it’s not too bad.
Is this part of a series? I honestly don’t know.
What I enjoyed about the book: I liked the idea behind the story. It’s different and sounded like something that would be interesting. And most of the time it succeeds. It’s an interesting world.
What I didn’t like about the book? At times it seemed to get bogged down with way too much going on. Lots of characters and while they usually weren’t hard to keep track of, it would have been nice for there to be more focus on fewer characters than there was. I mean, there was more focus on two characters, but not much. And the reading was slow going. I’ve had this on my iPaq for awhile and reading a bit at night for what seemed like a long time. So not as fast-paced as it could be.
Is this a new-to-me author and would I read something by this author again? They are new-to-me authors.
Am I keeping it or passing it on? Since it’s an ebook, I’ll be keeping it.