Customer Reviews

Eternal Pleasure (Gods of the Night, Book 1) (Leisure Paranormal Romance)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

ETERNAL PLEASURE by Nina Bangs introduces a new paranormal romance series based on a Mayan mythology spanning past and future. A slip in a carefully laid out plan draws a spunky heroine and an uber-alpha male into super-hero roles to fight battles to save humanity from forces invading everyday life. Breathtakingly intricate imagination, hot romance and humor make ETERNAL PLEASURE a top romance choice and downright reading fun!

The Mayan Calendar stops at December 21, 2012. What did the ancient Mayans know that we don't know today? An alliance of predators, the ultimate alpha fighting machines with their primal instincts and their deadly bodies as weapons have joined forces as The Eleven, in a battle to save humanity from the Nine and a force that seeks the destruction of humanity and the Earth. Fin has summoned together forces from 65 million years ago, forces now in human form. Now as the Gods of Night, they must hunt down the Nine and prevent the ultimate cataclysm, the dark force that wipes out dominant species. To make matters even worse, the Nine are not alone. They enlist the otherkin, vampires and werewolves as subordinates and subterfuge in this wicked plot to complicate the battle to kill off humans. The Eleven are an unlikely alliance --- ancient warriors, primal warriors with an instinct for the hunt, raw sex and killing. Although these men might be human now (Or maybe not? What amazing imagery Nina Bangs creates!), 65 million years of hunger for the thrill of the kill and mating is too long. Lock these alpha males together in one room, and what a mix! Primal testosterone in human bodies. Can they work together as humans to save humanity?

Kelly Maloy takes a job as a driver to pick up some extra money. The job offer and the pay were just too good, but when Ty Endeka climbs into her car, her whole world is about to change. Terror and desire mix together when Ty enters her life. Ty has never been a stay-by-your-woman kind of man. For him, it's all about sex, the pure pleasure of sex, at least, until he meets Kelly, that is. With Kelly, he finds himself feeling emotions and thinking things he never thought possible --- human things that go beyond his exterior right down to his soul. When Kelly becomes a pawn in this battle, can he protect her? When Fin tells them the cost of their love, does Ty choose to protect her or expose her to the darkness of his soul? His choice might seem difficult, but Kelly may have the most difficult choice to make.

Wow! This was a fun book! The world-building in ETERNAL PLEASURE is exquisite --- eclectic, mysterious and fun. Nina Bangs gives more and more intricate details, piece by piece, to create unique and breathtaking images while also leaving just enough up to the imagination to make readers very eager to see how she will develop this series. Nina Bangs integrates her world-building perfectly, never once detracting from the romance itself. Nina Bangs adds each detail in the perfect measure to heighten the romance and the mystery of the story.

ETERNAL PLEASURE will delight readers with its steamy romance, humor, and fresh intriguing cosmology. Nina Bangs creates a special flair with a wonderful self-awareness of the genre as well as movies and even comic books that will have readers laughing with her, moving from humor to suspenseful, intriguing encounters between the Eleven and the Nine and back again with a smooth, natural narrative flow. Nina Bangs's characterization of Fin becomes more and more intriguing with each new revelation. In ETERNAL PLEASURE, the first book of a new series, Nina Bangs has the perfect mix of introducing some of the other future primary characters here while also maintaining a satisfying focus on the dynamic romance between Kelly and TV. ETERNAL PLEASURE is a fast-paced fun read. What an ending! (No matter how much you might be tempted, don't jump ahead because a reader won't understand its significance without all the careful world-building that precedes the ending.) ETERNAL PLEASURE is truly a romance reading pleasure!

This is the first in a new series following eleven 'ultimate predators', beings that have been asleep for sixty-five million years and are only now reawakened to prevent destruction prophesied in an ancient Mayan prediction. These beings are far from human and although initially the reader isn't told what they are it's pretty easy to guess, particularly because of their names.

When Ty Endeka is awakened from his sleep in Ireland and taken to Houston to assist the godlike Fin to overcome the evil named Nine he struggles to keep his predatory nature contained. Especially when he meets his designated driver, Kelly Maloy, a music student who's trying to earn some extra money through being a driver. Kelly doesn't realise that she hasn't been picked randomly but that Fin has seen her in the future battle against Nine. As the supernatural world of evil, vampires, werewolves and other nonhumans is unfolded to Kelly she finds Ty is taking more and more of her attention - but is there any future between an ordinary girl such as her and a strange, predatory and ancient beast?

This story was a reasonable read with an interesting background - that of the ancient predators - although it wasn't always easy to be convinced by the story with these creatures. However the characterisation in this story was rather weak - events take place and the characters react to them but the reader is never drawn deeply into their world and their thoughts. The romance aspect was fairly unromantic and perfunctory and it wasn't entirely clear to me why either main character fell in love with the other. The large cast of characters wasn't too unwieldy, however, and there were some interesting people introduced. Whether I can face reading the (presumably) following ten books in this series is another matter - this one was OK but nothing special and the slightly bland writing style would probably get dull fairly quickly.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

After resting for 65 million years, Ty Endeka wakes to find that the world has changed significantly since he last saw it. It takes everything in him to tamp down his beast's desire to hunt, kill, and proclaim its sovereignty to those around him. But Ty realizes that's a mistake because, after all this time, he knows he has been roused for a reason. The date is November 11, 2011, and Ty is one of the eleven Gods of the Night who have been roused from their slumber to take part in an epic battle in the war against good and evil.

Kelly Maloy is a struggling college student who doesn't know much about the man who hired to her to drive a missionary around the city to save lost souls except that his name is Fin and he pays well. Kelly needs the money to pay for school, so she could care less what she has to do to get it. That is until she meets her passenger, Ty, who exudes feelings of sex and danger that make Kelly aroused and terrified in equal measure. She knows that this man is no missionary, but when she finds out his real purpose--to fight evil--and her part in this goal, she has to decide if the money and the man are worth the journey.

Eternal Pleasure is the first book in Nina Bangs's Gods of the Night series. There are eleven gods of the night, each a predator in his own right: all lethal, good looking, and dangerous. They have been roused from their long rest by their boss, Fin, to fight against the Lords of Time, a group of ten evil beings who hope to bring about the end of humanity by December 12, 2012. This story takes elements of paranormal romance and romantic suspense to craft an enticing and exotic future wherein life as we know it is in the hands of eleven men who have to fight their own urges for supremacy to fight for the greater good. Ty is the quintessential alpha hero, all brawny and possessive, which is only compounded by the fact that he feels so out of place in the world. Still he knows his mission and he'll do it, but it's tough on a guy going without sex for 65 million years, which is where Kelly comes in. The attraction between these two is instantaneous. Kelly is a welcome change from the typical TSTL heroine in that she recognizes that the things she sees when she's with Ty and his buddies are outrageous, but she doesn't run headfirst into danger without thinking about her actions (at least not often). She and Ty make sense together, which is more rare than you think in the oversaturated paranormal market. Eternal Pleasure does a great job of setting the stage for what should be an interesting, entertaining series. I look forward to finding out what comes next.

Didn't care for this one, and didn't finish it. The premise just struck me as so poorly concieved. A group of men who posses the souls of dinosaurs (I really wish I was kidding) are given human bodies and set loose in order to defeat a group of beings intent on whiping out the human race in 2012.

I was actually willing to go along with the whole dinosaur thing, even the rediculous names (Ty for Tyrannasauras Rex, get it?) but just couldn't stomach the main characters and their overblown, poorly written personalities. Ty basically acts the alpha male, destroying and killing and thinking of sex. Jealous, emotionally stunted, but oh so gorgeous. Kelly, meanwhile, had great potential--she's a musician, in touch with her emotions, rational, etc. But then the supernatural stuff starts happening and she's...unphased. She just kind of rolls with it, doesn't once try seriously to get away, or have an emotional breakdown, or demand full disclosure on this new supernatural world she previously thought existed only in books. I mean, I know she's supposed to be tough but I find this reaction to be so unrealistic.

The instantly in love thing going on between Kelly and Ty only annoyed me further. His wanting her I can understand--he's a prehistoric beast, of course he'd want sex from a beautiful woman. Her attraction to him, fine. Afterall he is good looking and has some kind of do-me aura. But that they should form a whole emotional attatchment based on no more then that was irritatingly tacky. This is the first Nina Bangs I've attempted. I'm sorry to say it will likely be the last.

I downloaded this as a Kindle freebie. It was just an okay read, with problems that would've made me regret buying it. The pacing was uneven - sometimes the story seemed almost at the verge of being a page-turner, then it would get to the point where I didn't think I'd bother finishing it. The dialogue was weak, and the characterization was too shallow, not going deep enough for the reader to really care about what was happening or to buy into the love between the hero and heroine. The plot idea was good (although some parts were over the top - dinosaurs?) but there wasn't enough back-story, so most of it wasn't believable. At least I, for one, couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to truly enjoy the premise. Although I *did* finish it, I struggled hard at times to get to the end, so I'm giving it a 2.5 stars (rounded up to 3).

Boring, confusing, disjointed, and did I mention boring?

As I kept reading the same thought kept popping into my head "the author is trying too hard."

He is one of the Eleven, ancient predators who have been brought forth by a godlike male after sixty-five million years, awakened to battle a group of immortals who are on the verge of scouring the earth of humans. She is his driver. Ty Endeka has a human body, but his soul is that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Kelly Maloy is human. The attraction between them is primordial but the danger they face is unimaginable. Kelly is drawn deeper and deeper into a world she'd never known existed as she drives Ty around Houston, meeting vampires and otherkin, and battling werewolves. And coming face to face with the most soul-deep terror she could have ever imagined.

Bangs has offered up a unique concept - it's not every day you read about dinosaur warriors fighting immortal evil - and characters that had appeal. While some aspects are familiar in theme to Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series and others, I'm was thrilled to get away from the Greek pantheon which has proliferated into so many other series. I was charmed by the Eleven and amused by their soul nature. Other ancillary characters lacked a little depth, but there was a wide array of them introduced and they fleshed out the scenes nicely.

The problems I had with Eternal Pleasure weren't character-based, nor were they centered on the concept of the book. It wasn't even the plot itself, which I thought had some promise. Where this book broke down for me was the execution and delivery of the plot. There are lots and lots of paranormal romance series that are similarly themed (and I read most of them): a brotherhood of badasses fighting together against a seemingly unbeatable foe. Ward does it, Kenyon does it, Showalter, Adrian...and the list goes on. And on. It's a familiar and well-tread theme. Through them I've realized that the devil is in the details, and there just weren't many here - and those that were didn't make a lot of sense in this book.

I tend to visualize the worlds that authors create, the arc of their series, the plots of each book, and the characters that inhabit them all as deep, wide, dark lakes full of promising story in which I like to swim. In Eternal Pleasure, though, instead of been thrown deep into that story lake with the force and creativity of the exposition, narrative, and dialogue, it felt more like the author took a flat rock and skipped it across that glassy surface, and the book was the sum of the spots the rock touched as it danced across the top. I never felt submerged into the world, the plot, or the characters lives. Too many things went unexplained, or avoided, or danced around. Instead the focus was on the relationship between Ty and Kelly and a lot of repetition about Ty's struggle with his T-rex nature.

We're allowed to know that dino-boys aren't just dino-boys (that's probably a good thing, because...well...ew). Before that they were something else, and it's big and awful and crippling...but their memories have been wiped because of the trauma it would cause them or the distraction it would provide. That's convenient for a couple of reasons - not only to cue the dark, mysterious music and try to add a layer of threat and mystery (unsuccessfully), but also to provide danger for the women who love them, and who will have to enter their beast and join their soul to be their mates (apparently, verbal commitment and a ring just don't cut it with dinosaurs and PNR series with this sort of theme are all about the metaphysical connections). Unfortunately, all the potential for scary threat and "no human love can survive that" angst was ultimately unrealized when the story stone skipped its way across that part of the lake.

It was a problem that recurred throughout the book. Lots of teasers and hints and nudges towards a bigger picture than a bunch of dinosaurs stalking the night...lots of skips of that stone over what could have been a deep, dark, delightful lake of story...and no real moments of sinking in and getting any more than your toes wet. It was impossible for me to connect to the story or the characters more than superficially because of it, and in some places (most notably the scene where Neva disappears and the events that follow), make the characters concern even for each other seem false and unrealistic (hard to believe someone could be SO upset over a person's disappearance when they had only met that person once...in passing...and impossible to sustain belief in the bosom buddy attempt following it).

There's promise in the originality of the concept, there's comfort of familiarity in a favored theme, and there are characters and story I could care about...but if the next book doesn't do more diving than skipping, I think I'll be leaving the Gods of the Night shores.

Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

For 65 million years, Ty's essence has been locked away until it is time; his last body he possessed was a Ty Rex. However, now his chief Fin has summoned him and ten other prehistoric predators to save mankind; a species they are unfamiliar with. The Eleven must battle the evil Nine who plans to destroy humanity on 12-21-12 as the Mayans predicted. Thus Ty and his dinosaur companions are quickly given enough information on humanity to mingle.

On 11/11/11 at 11:11, Ty returns to earth landing in Ireland, but must go on to Texas. Kelly Maloy is hired to chauffeur Ty Endeka around Houston for the next few weeks. She has no earthly idea who her client is or the paranormal war he is engaged in against powerful foes. She knows he is hot with a dangerous predatory look about him as if he wants to eat her. She will soon learn more than she would have wanted to know.

ETERNAL PLEASURES starts off with a bang and never slows down from the moment that innocent Kelly picks up Ty, a man who has seen his first stars in 65 million years. The story line never slows down as the enemy takes the battle to the streets of Houston. Although Ty adjusts rather well perhaps too easily to her world of twenty first century physics turned upside down and in and out, readers will appreciate this powerful urban romantic fantasy as fans will believe these star crossed lovers who team up to try stop the end of the universe from creeping closer to happening will find a way to be together eternally.

Harriet Klausner

A prophecy has foretold the end of the world. Eleven men are all that stands in the way of Earth's complete destruction. They are prepared for the coming battle, but will they be able to win the war?

Kelly Maloy has been hired as a chauffeur for one of the men, Ty Endeka. In all honesty, she took the job for the money. When she meets her client, she feels intensely conflicting emotions - indescribable fear and uncontrollable lust. Little did she know that taking this job would show her that her worst nightmares are real, that there are creatures that go bump in the night. Ty is one of the Eleven, and the time has come for them to battle evil. He has to rely on Kelly to take him around town, and it is his responsibility to protect her from the creature he is hunting. Though he may be in a human body, he still has all the instincts of his former self, and his instincts wish to claim Kelly. Will the Eleven succeed in finding and obliterating their prey? Will Kelly be able to return to her old life once she is finished with this job? Will Ty learn how to behave as a human?

Nina Bangs promises us a great adventure, and she delivers an amazing tale. ETERNAL PLEASURE brings us one surprise after another. There is never a dull moment - vampires, werewolves, alien beings, and an even larger primal force that I did not see coming. Once again, Nina Bangs gives us an exceptional read. I look forward to seeing what comes next out of this fascinating series.

Truly one of the worst books I have ever read.

Implausible, ridiculous, painful - the plot, concepts, and characters. The characters are mere caricatures, their reactions make no sense. Not worth reading - not worth buying, and I say that, having downloaded it while it was free. Had I paid for this, it would have been an egregious waste of money.