Rita Herron

Forbidden Passion

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:59:00 +0000

Forbidden Passion is a paranormal romance centered around the relationship of Dr. Marlena Bender and Sheriff Dante Valtrez. Set in the small Southern town of Mysteria, the book begins with Marlena returning home to confront her troubled past. Twenty years before, Marlena witnessed the gruesome deaths of her mother and sister at the hands of two men in the woods. She was saved by Dante, then a local teenager.

Haunted by the events of that day, Marlena has pursued a career as a scientist, studying the genetic reasons for violent behavior. Dante, too, is haunted by that day, but for different reasons. He knows the truth about the attack on Marlena’s family: they weren’t attacked by men at all, but by a pack of demons; a pack that Dante himself used to be a part of. Ashamed of his dark past, Dante has devoted his life to protecting the citizens of Mysteria from the demonic forces that prey on them. Despite Dante’s resolve to stay away from Marlena, the two are thrown back into each other’s lives when a serial killer begins stalking Marlena, leaving her tokens from his victims.

This is the third, and I would presume final, book in Rita Herron’s Demonborn series. It’s your typical paranormal romance: the two main characters fight their mutual attraction to each other for half the book before finally succumbing to temptation. There are a lot of demon-related killings, as well as a prophecy and a high-stakes “good versus evil” showdown. Herron keeps the action coming at a pretty fast pace, so even though Forbidden Passion isn’t revolutionary, it isn’t boring either.

The book revolves mainly around the mystery/thriller aspect of the plot, throwing in bits of sexual tension here and there. This makes it a good read for those who prefer their romance novels to be driven by story instead of sex. In the end, Forbidden Passion was able to hold my interest for the duration of the book, but it wasn’t good enough for me to want to read the other books in the series.

Written by: Victoria Kroeger, May 19th 2010

Dark Hunger

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:05:00 +0000

By Rita Herron

Forever

Where do I begin? I guess I should start with an admission. I’m a horror geek. I love horror movies, both the good and the bad; horror novels, ghost stories, midnight walks, supernatural based TV shows, and even a good Scooby Doo episode. I also love romance. Give me a good love story, and I’m hooked in spite of myself. So when I saw Dark Hunger, the second book in Rita Herron’s Demonborn series, I was looking forward to it. I learned my mistake quickly. I should have known—the title is Dark Hunger.

To summarize, Annabelle Anderson, a beautiful CNN reporter, follows a lead to Quinton Valtrez (the Demonborn of the series name), who is an assassin for a covert army group. He is fighting his demonic birthright, and doesn’t want anyone to worry. She is determined to get to the bottom of her story, and is drawn to the strong, handsome, sexy Quinton. Issues occur, as does sex. Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

This book is terrible. The plot makes little sense, the characters are poorly conceived, badly written and trite, and there is nothing original in the entire book. Quinton’s demonic side manifests itself as a desire to kill and an addiction to sex. This trait he shares with his newly found brother, Vincent. Luckily, Vincent figured out the answer to his habit in the first book of the series, and is now happily married. There are bombings and a creepy evangelical preacher, a whiny editor demanding an update every five pages and an overly sinister army General.

As for the “horror” side of things, there are crows, an angel of death, a demon named Zion (guess who he is), and some mind control. That’s pretty much it. Nothing scary, original, interesting or even clearly ripped off of someone else. The sex scenes, the real reason anyone reads romance novels, are numerous, and well written.

If you see this book in a bookstore and are tempted to pick it up, go get a Clive Barker book instead. It’ll be a lot better in every category, including the sex scenes. However, if you do get it, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Sometimes we accidentally duplicate a review. What can we say? Perfection is an illusion. Click here for another Feminist Review writer's vantage point this book.

Written by: Taylor Rhodes, November 15th 2009

Dark Hunger

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:16:00 +0000

By Rita Herron

Forever Publishing

Although this “paranormal romance” is the first of Rita Herron’s books that I’ve read, it’s the second in the Demonborn series. I expected something that was fresh, original, and erotic—boy, was I disappointed. The story line was, however, easy to follow. There were too many elements of this story that turned me off.

The lack of research that went into this story is appalling. Yes, we have demonic people like vampires and shape shifters; however, the backdrop for these characters is the real world. The author takes the lazy approach and as a result, creates many glaring guffaws that irritated the crap out of me. St. Louis, New Orleans’ oldest cemetery is mistakenly presented as only one of the oldest.

The most grating unchecked mistake is her constant referral to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as PTS (Post Traumatic Stress). The bad guy, a cartoon character named Zion, who reminded me of the bad guy “The Master” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, utilizes war veterans who have PTS in his bid to take over the world one American city at a time.

PTS is temporary and only lasts from weeks to a number of months—such a minor error wouldn’t matter, if she didn’t repeat it over and over, like her use of “innocent” to describe anybody who isn’t a demon. The author also references a fictional online PTSD group to tie the veterans’ legal names to the ring leader—yet the most popular PTSD online support group is anonymous—as are most—to protect sufferers’ identities.

Then there’s the premise of reporter Annabelle Armstrong hunting down Quinton Valtrez, the quintessential 'bad boy'. She easily tells police officials she’s a reporter and hey, they tell her anything she wants. By the way, our innocent heroine is pale skinned, blonde, and blue-eyed, like an angel. Bad boy Quinton, like his evil daddy Zion, has a dark complexion—no surprise there.

Another absurdity is the vulture element. An endangered species, these vultures—demons in disguise—start flying over each place that’s going to be bombed. Their numbers increase exponentially after killing innocents. Nobody seems to mind except for our innocent damsel and her brooding Dark Lord heartthrob. It creates a problem because the paranormal is purposely set within contemporary reality. I kept wondering why the army or the National Guard didn’t come in and shoot them all down—or why animal conservationists didn’t try to rescue the hungry birds.

I know—who cares about the plot and accuracy and believability, because it’s all about the sex scenes. The erotica is terrible—words like “pebbles” describe nipples and yes, in a ‘heated’ moment, the dreaded ‘penis’ appears. We also get lots of the hero jerking off, but oddly enough, no real descriptions of our heroine, unless you count “inside” her; it’s almost as if the author is uncomfortable describing the female body. Even with a threesome (two girls and the hero), it’s all about his dick. The sexual encounters are minimal and bland, yet the author continually refers to “wicked” longing and “wicked” dreaming and “wicked” lusting.

There is decent erotica out there, but you won’t find it in this book of clichés and boring sex. Inaccuracies and bland writing can be excused in this genre, but not the lackluster attempts at sex scenes.

Written by: Nicolette Westfall, July 4th 2009