Kiss at Your Own Risk: Soulfire, #1 by Stephanie Rowe

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Published: 1/04/2011

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Rating: Entrée












Blaine Underhill III and his three comrades, Christian, Jarvis and Nigel had all been kidnapped or sold by their parents to the evil black witch, Angelica. Try to envision if Pam Anderson and Hannibal Lecter had a daughter who had spliced in DNA of a psychotic Martha Stewart. That would be Angelica. After hundreds of years of humiliation and torture in the Den of Womanly Pursuits, they finally escape, only to have Christian dragged back by his traitorous girlfriend and protégé of Angelica, Mari. The only way to get Christian back is to kill Angelica, something they have never been able to do, but they know who can……the Black Widow. Trinity had been cursed as a child to kill any male she fell in love with. So far her total was four, and luckily they were no big losses, she always fell for the psychos. If she can stay pat until she turns 25, the curse is nullified, so simple right. Stay away from good looking, sweet, generous men. Fortunately Blaine is not sweet or kind and intends to kill her, so no problem right.




  This book was so off the wall smart, sassy and funny that it completely had me fooled into thinking it was a pretty erotic read. There is some sexual content, but not nearly as much as you think there is while you're reading. Ms. Rowe does such a brilliant job with the illusion of sex, you never notice until you're done. I mean the guys are walking sacks of testosterone. They just ooze sex. Seventy five percent of the dialogue has sexual content. Angelica even teaches the arts of pleasure to her captives. Her grandson Death has a horde of Honey Pots on call for scheduled hand jobs. You would think that the story would just connect the sexual escapades, but that is indeed not the case. The fascinating characters are the case. Blaine is an expert at cross stitch and can dissect a perfume to the most minute of essences. He also has a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest that catches fire and sets off explosions. Trinity's BFF, Reina is an apprentice to Death. The whole crew is beyond bizarre and endlessly entertaining. It's simply amazing at how all the characters wind up strangely connected, and the seemingly random twists that the story takes lead to a vastly enjoyable book. The only problem I had was the only true deaths in the book happened on the good guys side. I need a balanced score sheet, and heinous crimes call for equal or greater punishment and suffering. I would love to see a little more justice in the next book.