Kissing Sin (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 2) Reviews

• Late to the Party but Darn Glad to be There...

  
  By A2OIX4KBD3FVC5 on 2007-03-05
  Although many reviews have already been written on this novel, I'm not sure we are giving the book as much credit as it deserves. Yes, it's another sexy paranormal, but the adventure component really leaves me breathless. The fights are well-staged and assaults led on enemy compounds with small groups of--er--good werewolves, vampires, shape shifters, etc are NOT predictable. There is an element of surprise/danger to the leads that is not always present in the more typical books. Also going beyond the sensuality part of this genre is always a welcome change. Yeah, everybody is as busy as little bunnies--including the bunnies--but the relationship between bunny-business, adventure and character is more balanced. My only "complaint" is the name of the Australian towns take a little getting used to--I keep thinking the characters are on another planet!.
  
  

• Could have been so much better....Not too impressed.

  
  By A3FHD9P87PEVKZ on 2007-02-21
  I loved the first book in this series. This second book started out inviting, but then quickly became redundant and old. This series is starting to suffer the curse of the Anita Hill books but much quicker. This story could have been so much better if there was more focus on the story and less focus on tallying up the number of bed partners Riley has. I'm not a prude by any means and I don't even mind a couple of sex partners; but this scenario of everyone wanting the main female character, and all she has to do is look smolderingly at any and every new male character and then they are both so swept up in desire they have to have sex that instant, right where they stand-has all been done before. I'm all for great sex in the story, but I also like a little bonding between the characters to go along with the sex. This book felt like Mrs. Arthur was trying to create a mystery, but was force to add a quota of sex scenes and new sex partners every few paragraphs, and had to try to tie up the story around the sex. The book was tiresome for me and I really had to force myself to finish reading it. I'm not sure if I will bother reading the next installment if my library happens to get it in, but I definitely won't be buying it.
  
  

• Earned guardian wings (review written 4/23 not march)

  
  By A3AFCZTWL5VNNR on 2007-03-21
  I saw the possibility of the Riley Jensen series in Book 1, where we are introduced to this half-vampire/half-werewolf who works for the Australian Directorate of Other Races, Riley Jensen and her twin brother, their workers/lovers. The sex is fast and furious and action is nonstop. But in this second (and subsequent sequels that have apparently already been cranked out) before us, bring some questions. Do we care about the characters? Do we see the predicaments placed before the characters that a super-race is being gleaned from breeding farms some have escaped from?
  Do we care what happens now that Riley has become a guardian? Her reluctance to become a killer of the degree a guardian is was part of Riley's humanity in the first book. Now she sees it's not so hard to kill like the big boys. Will I read book 3? Only to see what happens when Riley's vampire half's influence brings forward, and to see if she is truly drawn into fight. Did I like Kissing Sin? No not particularly. I still think Riley may have potential, but...
  
  
  

• Aargh! Frustrating!

  
  By A17BHBN30TV316 on 2007-03-02
  I liked Full Moon Rising (the first book in the series) quite a bit and snatched this one up as soon as it came out. I cruised happily along until about the last 1/4, I guess, when I just skidded to an abrupt halt. Quinn annoys me. His whining and angsting annoys me. (Is he really Richard Zeeman in disguise? I have to wonder.....) Riley annoys me for putting up with it. And as with some of the other reviewers, Riley's rampant sexuality is a bit of a turn-off for me. I'm all for a hot book, and I understand that because she's a wolf, she's sexual. I get it. And I also get that because her character is a wolf (and therefore NOT human), she's not constrained by a human code of sexual morals. But there's a bit of a squick factor for me when I read about her casual sex in the clubs, and her sex with her mates, and her sex with Quinn, and her sex with the new horse-shifter in town, and her sex with the enemy so that she can get information.... Enough already. The cloning plotline is intriguing and I'm definitely curious about the identity of the mole, but I'm bored with Riley's nymphomania. Thank goodness the sex scenes are short enough to allow a larger story to develop. I just wish I weren't so put off by Riley's sexcapades, because I find myself really struggling to stay interested in the series.
  
  2.5 stars from me, but I'll round it up based on my affection for Full Moon Rising, the first book in this series.
  
  

• Good plot, too much cheap sex

  
  By A2PUV4163W4B7S on 2007-03-06
  I'm a little confused by the marketing of Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series. The inside of the cover clearly says "Read all of the steamy, action-packed Riley Jenson romances..." and yet these books are so clearly NOT a good fit in the romance genre. I'm 2/3 of the way through the second installment and in this book alone, Riley has had impromptu sex with 5 different guys. Two of whom she had just met, literally. Not quite the girl meets boy, falls in love and lives monogamously ever after plot of most books categorized as a Romance. I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with her promiscuous ways if the series was marketed as the Urban Fantasy it really is. Why are they trying market it as a Romance? That's my first problem with the series.
  
  The author repeatedly beats it into the reader's head that werewolves celebrate life through sex and it's only us prude-ish humans who try to put our morals on their culture. And I know I can be a prude about some things (for an erotica reader). That's my second problem with this series. The idea of just walking into a club and having sex with a random stranger totally skeeves me out. I know that fantasy is a big turn on for some people so maybe that's just my hang up. I know this is fiction and I know Riley (being a werewolf) is immune to disease, but I'm having a hard time getting over the over-sexing of the series.
  
  I'm interested in seeing where the overall story arc takes us, but I wish Dell would stop marketing this as a romance and that Ms. Arthur would calm her hormones. Less sex, for sex's sake. More sex with a true purpose to the plot.
  
  
• fast paced action packed romantic fantasy
  By AFVQZQ8PW0L on 2007-02-07
  On an earth where supernatural species like vampires and werewolves exist, the Directorate of Other Races polices the paranormal and the guardians are the ones who act as judges, jury, and executioner. Rhoan and Riley are fraternal half-vampire-half werewolf twins who work for the Directorate, he as a guardian and she is a liaison. Her boss wants her to be a guardian but she doesn't want to be an assassin who kills whenthe situation calls for it.
  
  Riley wakes up on what she later learns is a breeding ground where gene manipulation, cloning and creating cross-species is practiced even though it is against the law. They want Riley because she is one of the few cross species that survived. She escapes with the help of a horse shifter and finds herself plunged into the heart of the Directorate investigation to find and stop the people who are conducting such research. She barely escapes with her life after attacks by various species thanks to the vampire, who wants to sire children on her and in exchange gives her information about the people she seeks. Riley is determined to stop them so the attacks on her life will end and she can go back to the normal.
  
  Keri Arthur is one of the best authors of paranormal romances writing today and fans of her works will compare her to Laurel K. Hamilton, and Kelly Armstrong. The heroine is a strong willed woman who accepts her nature and tells men who can't accept her for what she is to take a hike. KISSING SIN is a fast paced action packed romantic fantasy that takes place on an earth so descriptive readers will feel they must have visited it.
  
  Harriet Klausner
  
  
  
  
• I really didn't care for it at all but I gave stars for effort
  By A11M23R1EFGVH9 on 2007-02-21
  Maybe it's because I started with this one instead of the first book. You see I didn't realize this was number 2 in a series till I got it home. But then again that has never stopped me before. I am an AVID reader. And not to toot my own horn, I am pretty good at catching up to the back story when it's given in a series book. This one... gave a back story at times, but really left things hanging in a lot of areas. And the ending left things more than just a little open ended for another book, I felt like it was incomplete.
  
  Then of course the reason I love these books The Sex.
  But even that in this book became tedious. It was frequent, which I don't mind at all, but mechanically written about. It started off awesome with the main character having a steamy scene with Kade the Shape Shifter, and then just petered out afterwards. There was no real substance to the characters other than her being adament to tell the Vampire character OVER & OVER about her being a wolf and prone to having multiple partners and that wasn't going to change. Yet time after time he would come back to whine about it somemore. Midway through the book I was hoping she would just go ahead and kill him to add some spice to the thing. I just felt that the writer took a lot of liberty with the idea that you would just KNOW what they were talking about or going through. Again maybe it's because I didn't start with the first book. But after reading this one. I really don't have that feeling that I want to go out and find the other one.
  
  
• A little disappointed.....
  By A1FD4PAL49JMCX on 2007-03-24
  I have read every Keri Arthur book, and was a little disappointed in this one. It could have been so much better. I like sex, but there is too much casual sex w/ too many partners for my taste. The chemistry w/ Quinn should have been further explored. Just b/c Riley is a wolf doesn't mean she has to sleep w/ every person she comes across. I am not too excited about the next book. I wouldn't waste my hard earn money on this book - get it from the library b/c it is not that good.
  
  
• Somewhat boring
  By A205MVZWDI7JM0 on 2007-04-01
  Riley Jenson, werewolf-vampire hybrid, continues on her quest to find out why certain powers are so interested in her. I liked the first book because even though her werewolf heritage is presented as an explanation (or an excuse?) Riley is portrayed as a strong, intelligent, sexually uncompromising non-monogamous female. However, even though I like the character and even though the story isn't bad I was a little bored and didn't have a problem with putting the book down when real life needed my attention. If you like vampire/werewolf romances it's not a bad read but do start with book 1: Full Moon Rising. I'm giving Kissing Sin 3 stars because I liked the first book so much.
  
  
• Better than the first
  By APG0YRFOB5O31 on 2007-02-02
  "Kissing Sin," the second in the "Riley Jenson Guardian" series, is to me the perfect sequel. The original had action, intrigue and sex. The sequel has more of the same, in that approximate order. The sex that threatened to overwhelm the plot the first time around is still in place, but toned down so that I found it more acceptable (though stll rather over-the-top in most instances). The action has basically doubled. And the intrigue is fantastic.
  
  For me, the book works in part because it's constantly posing questions and answering them with new ones. Every time there's a new question, the plot grows that much more fascinating and you're hooked even deeper. Reading the book, I felt like a fish caught on a hook. I had to find out what would happen next. Then it happened and I loved it and wanted more. That's the "Kissing Sin" experience from start to finish.
  
  As the book opens, Riley Jenson is waking to the realization that she has no idea where she is, how she got there, or why she's so far from any source of help. It appears that she's killed someone, but she has no recollection of the action. It's a strange beginning to the novel, but not surprising given the sort of adventures she had in the first book. It's also the start of a stream of action that almost never stops. The only interruptions are for action of a different sort--between the sheets, against a wall, in the shower or somewhere else altogether--or for dialogue that develops the characters even further.
  
  I can't really describe the plot any further without running the risk of spoiling things, and there's so much to spoil. The last 80 pages or so are some of the very best fiction I've read in years (and kept me all but breathless), yet taken by themselves they mean very little. It's the way the reader becomes invested in these characters that gives the stream of action its impact. I found myself caring for characters I didn't particularly like, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
  
  Riley Jenson was interesting in "Full Moon Rising," but with "Kissing Sin" she's just stepped over the line and become irresistable. Thank goodness the publisher decided to release the first four books in paperback only one month apart. I can't wait to see what happens next!
  
  
• Fascinating
  By A1IRV5S2ABCMPH on 2007-02-14
  After a long year of waiting Keri Arthur finally picks up her series starring Riley Jenson. Good news is that there will be a new installment every month for her next three novels, at least that is what I have heard.
  
  Kissing Sin picks up almost right after Full Moon Rising. Although a few months have gone by after Quinn left and worse of all Riley wakes up in a strange place with no memory. She was being held capative by another breeding/cloning institute. She escapes with the help of Kade, a horse-shifter. What's even more of a surpise is when she goes to report to Jack and fill him in, not only is he and Rhoan waiting but so is Quinn, who had been avoiding her for the past few months.
  
  Apparently Quinn wants to go exclusive with her and be with her and her only, but Riley hs a problem with that. There are still a lot of issues she has to work out with Quinn so she can't promise him much. Especially with oh-so-delicious Kade and new aplha werewolf Kellen(he was in Full Moon Rising towards the end, when Riley was going to meet Misha)
  
  The book has quite a bit of sex for a sci-fi/fanstasy novel, but it is not so bad. There is a lot of investigating like in the first one, this time Riley is trying to figure out who is behind her kidnapping and the whole research lab thing. Overall a very good book with a surprise ending, not one that I want to give away. So read it for yourself if you're curious and then wait eagerly until the end of the month like the rest of us for the next installment.
  
  
• Misleading
  By A20MCOIOHTD1E7 on 2007-02-25
  I wasn't feeling this at all. I wasn't aware that this was the second book in the series but like a reviewer stated before me that usually doesn't bother me I can catch up. I think it's marketing is misleading the description on the back makes it seem like that the heroine is Riley and the hero is Kade. But after one or two sex scenes he completely disappears from her radar and all the focus is on the boring old fashioned Quinn who is always whining about her being a whore for her job. I think it's all well and fine to like sex but every male within the vicinity is attracted to her and they all want to impregnate her as well.
  
  And what's the deal with the whole werewolf soul mate thing? How do they know that when they have met their soulmate? She keeps saying that she is looking for her soul mate but she is a half-breed, how does she know she will even have a werewolf soul mate?
  
  I couldn't even finish this one and I skipped to the ending in hopes that she had picked one guy to be with but the ending was pretty open. I wont be buying the next installment.
  
  If you like steamy love scenes with little to no emotion involved then this is the book for you if not I recommend you read Sherrilyn Kenyon for a good werewolf romance.
  
  
• Not bad, but could have been better
  By A1735NQ1XQNJJM on 2007-02-02
  Overall, Kissing Sin was entertaining and I didn't want to put it down. On the other hand, Riley spent a lot of time on her back, against the wall, on a desk...essentially anyplace but a bed. I'm not a prude in anyway shape or form and Arthur wasn't explicit but it almost seemed as if the sex was mentioned just cause. Kissing Sin is a total set-up for the next book, so a lot of stuff is left hanging...though you already know Riley becoming exactly what she said she didn't want to become in the beginning. A lot of interesting stuff is revealed along with a couple of new characters. We also say hello to one we thought was gone and a final goodbye to another.
  
  
• Great series
  By A3EH34LC0GZUQY on 2007-03-08
  Already half way through the book and just started reading yesterday, hard to put down! Will buy the whole series and look forward to reading every book. Very interesting and provacative.
  
  
• A Murder and Mayhem Bookclub review
  By ADHDJGOX9CVHI on 2007-05-17
  It's always hard for a werewolf to back away from a fight. Riley Jenson isn't just your garden variety werewolf either; the vampire part of her is asserting itself more as she ages. It is already too late for her twin brother Rhoan to reproduce. Rhoan's vampire characteristics have always been more evident than her own, and he is now as infertile as those in the ranks of the undead. Hoping it is not too late for herself, Riley has been making some discreet inquiries into fulfilling her own private fantasy, that of having a child.
  
  Working for the Directorate of Other Races, Riley fears for her twin Rhoan every time he is called out to run interference between the "beasts" and humans. Rhoan is a Guardian, able to walk the streets in the daylight hours, doing his part to keep the uneasy peace of beings that are only loosely governed by the same rules as the rest of the citizens of Melbourne. When one night Riley wakes up to a scene of horror in a dark alley, she isn't sure whether she was running away for her life or trying to get back into the compound behind her. With scant memory of the last few weeks Riley is afraid, and for more reasons other than the fact that she is naked and covered in someone else's blood. Her strength and unusual qualities have not gone unnoticed by those who have previously wanted to mess with her genetically. Escaping the compound with the assistance of a gorgeous male shape-shifter named Kade, Riley runs back into the arms of those know her best: her brother, her boss and her ex-lover, the gorgeous and enigmatic vampire Quinn. They all agree; whoever is trying to create a super-race of paranormal beings is not doing it for any higher purpose. The clones that have attacked them in the past were not perfect, and they all had deadly intent.
  
  Australian author Keri Arthur has written an atmospheric book of the night world, populated with wraiths, shape-shifters and bloodsuckers, all at war with each other and with their own unnatural agendas. As with the first book in the series (FULL MOON RISING (2006), the "rules" of this fantasy world are largely her own, whilst observing inviolate agreements about vampires frying in the sun and such like. It's refreshing that Arthur has created a character that isn't constantly beating herself up over what she is and moralizing about the depravities of her kind; Riley Jenson gets on with her life and does not apologize for whatever means and methods have been required. Tagging these novels as "paranormal romances" puts too rosy a light on them as there isn't a scrap of romance to be seen to detract from the seething sense of hidden menace. Good attention to detail with the hand to paw (or claw, or fangs) fight scenes rackets up the action component in the read.
  
  As with all novels in this booming genre of urban fantasy, KISSING SIN is another of those guilty little pleasures. A bit of sauce is good, sauce is all part of the fictional vampire and werewolf scene, but the amount of gratuitous sex indulged in by Riley Jenson here is very off-putting. Not for its content, graphic or otherwise but more for its frequency and irrelevance. Another trap; too many hot and willing male characters popping up all over the place with whom Riley supposedly has a true connection. Less is going to more here, as with the reader's attention being dragged about all over the place (too many future plot threads perhaps); the emphasis is taken away from the developing storyline. All the ingredients for success are here and were laid out well with the first novel of the series, but the freer hand given with KISSING SIN detracts greatly from the read.
  
  
  
• great read
  By A2MZ3UCANYVHNT on 2007-03-13
  Even though the third part of a series this book stands alone in its ability to captivate,astonish,and motivate the reader to complete it in one night. A great read. I can barely wait for the next book.
  
  
• Hopeful.
  By A1I74V66T3LYOP on 2007-05-10
  I really enjoyed her first book better, Rising Moon. This book was kind of slow for me. It was really action based and not enough love for me. I'm hoping the next book will be better. The sex scenes were alot better in the first book too.
  
  
• Action Packed -- Sexy -- Not Overdone
  By A26DWS7P1UO9YN on 2007-05-29
  I've read the Anita Blake series and love the books -- except the fact that sex scenes will go on for pages and pages. I think that is unnecessary. This heroine has a lot of sex, but the sex scenes don't make up the whole entire book -- like the LKH's Princess Meredith books. I do like the story line -- that the heroine is half vampire and half werewolf and that she was given drugs that seem to have enhanced her abilities. I am curious which man is going to be her mate -- is it going to be the vampire (since she is going to be converting more to her vampire side) or the new alpha werewolf, Kellen? I do like the fact that these books touch on a female's sexuality and that it isn't necessary for them to conform to the double standard in society.
  
  
• Exciting, action packed!
  By A2G9YYQM8XHFKE on 2007-08-19
  I loved this book, i brought book 1 and 2 on a whim and wasn't expecting much out of them but boy did i get my money's worth! Heaps of action, fast paced with a bit of romance (ok, more than a bit), did i say it has heaps of action? What can i say about the main character Rielly? She is a really loveable character with a strong head, i can't get enough of her or her world, i can't put these books down! A really good read, i highly recommend this series.
  
  
• Keep them coming! ;-)
  By A3GYYXVV4IXEA1 on 2007-10-26
  The book is good, because it goes on with the plot developed on the first book, but having had some time in between. As a result, we learn that Quinn has put some distance between himself and Riley, even when Riley herself has been willing to explore what they had.
  
  I got attracted to the book and to the people who was in it as I got atracted to them in the first book. The only character I couldn0t get around was Kade, because I think he was a chracter that really didn0t add up much to the story. But maybe there will be some plot Kade's related on the way in the next books...
  
  I was glad when Quinn made his come back, because he's a character I really like, going hand-to-hand with sexy Kellen.
  
  The book was a nice development of the story, and I hope the other two continue to prove as good a read as the first two!
  
  
• Kissing Sin Book
  By A23XWEXT8K42PY on 2007-12-23
  The delivery was a bit slow to South Africa (3 weeks) - but the books were in a great condition and the price were very good.
  
  
• kissing sin
  By A2MDHEU58984DX on 2008-03-09
  This was one of the best book i've read and wow is all I can say
  
  
• Kissing Sin
  By A2YKK3QZDQBT0E on 2008-04-26
  This book inspired me to buy all of her books. I'm thinking to reread again for the thrid time!
  
  
• Kissing Sin
  By A2XZNQNK66HV0O on 2008-05-26
  Nothing like a very "gifted" stallion to take Riley where she needs to go :-) No sense sticking to the original werewolf/vampire love story. And a big surprise is involved in book 2.
  
  
• Selling Sin
  By A1VFOCYMC77Q8H on 2007-04-26
  Let's be honest, if you are an avid reader of anything with some weight and meat, this is NOT for you. This is nothing more than a tawdry sex-filled silly tale of vampires and werewolves plus some other creatures I'm not quite sure of that is just plain ridiculous.
  
  If you like Anne Rice, you will NOT like this. It doesn't even compare.
  
  If you like Harlequin romance and cheap sex, you will LOVE this.
  
  I love vampire films and I loved Anne Rice's writings, but this just didn't cut it for me. It was just plain all wrong and too farfetched. Plus, what's with all the tawdry sex? It distracted from the story, in my opinion and most definitely did not add to it.
  
  

• Tempting Evil (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 3)
• Dangerous Games (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 4)
• Full Moon Rising (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 1)
• Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 5)
• The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 6)