I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Master of Smoke
by
Angela Knight
in Paperback edition that was published by Berkley on January 4, 2011 and has 280 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Beyond the Dark, Bite, Master of Shadows, Master of Wolves, Hot Blooded, Hot for the Holidays, Master of the Night, Master of the Moon
Seventh in the erotic Mageverse paranormal series. The focus is on Eva Roman and Smoke.
My Take
I sure wish Knight had taken more time to write Miranda as a more intelligent character; she was so wishy-washy, I wanted to choke her. And Knight is setting us up for Master of Shadows with Belle Coeur and Tristan as the romance focus.
When Eva rescues Smoke, he is all over her. He believes that she is the One for whom he has been waiting. He is so emphatic about this…and then Knight mentions it once, maybe twice more. What? No explanation. Smoke is so carried away about Eva and what she means to him and that’s it?
Then there’s Miranda. She knows how awful her stepfather is. She knows that if she is no longer available that there’s no point in punishing her mother. So. What does she do? She folds.
Sadly, Warlock isn’t giving up so we get the full course of attacks and love scenes…yawn… There’s a small subplot to reinforce our opinion as to how awful Warlock and his Chosen are involving Warlock’s daughter, Miranda, and his evil plans for her…bwah-hah-hah…yawn…
Knight must have been in a hurry on this one. Yes, she has a plot…and subplots. She simply hasn’t bothered to develop them up to her usual standards. I found the writing juvenile and lame. Don’t bother.
It’s eminently missable.
The Story
Initially created by Merlin to police the Mages, Warlock has gone round the bend and is paranoid with power and the gathering of more.
At the moment, Warlock is focused on taking Smoke down, a god-cat-elf creature. Luckily for Smoke, Eva Roman, a bitten Dire Wolf, just happens to be in the woods where Warlock is torturing him and is able to help him get away but not before he falls all over her with his excitement at having found the woman for whom he has been waiting all these centuries.
The Cover and Title
The cover is appropriate. Cute guy with lots of smoke. I liked the blue-green background as it felt very elfin.
The title is all about Smoke, the god-cat-elf, for he’s the Master of Smoke. Gawd, I sure hope so…
