Touch Me - The Doors

White Tiger
Dark Heavens, Book 1

Author: Kylie Chan
Pages: 386 (for the story alone); 414 (with extras)
ARC Acquired from: HarperCollins via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Emma is an Australian living in Hong Kong, where she teaches English to the children of wealthy families. Sick of her annoying boss, Kitty, Emma quits and gets hired on to work full time for the sexy and mysterious Mr. Chen as nanny to the sweetest little girl ever, Simone. From the get go, Emma has had a huuuge crush on her employer, but he's obviously got secrets and no one will tell her what they are. Even more frustrating, he keeps acting like he might like her too, but not following through. What's a nosy girl to do?

Review:
Well, I haven't read an adult fantasy romance in a while. This one was pretty interesting and, by and large, I enjoyed it, but I do feel compelled to mention that this is more about the fantasy and less about the romance (in the harlequin, sexy fabio on the cover sense). If you are in this for sexy scenes, you will be woefully disappointed. They have to happen sometime, but not yet.

The plot of this novel was largely setup, with little actually resolved, although there is a definite narrative arc to it. The characters were interesting, but didn't quite resolve into entirely real people for me, particularly Mr. Chen and, to a lesser degree Emma. Possibly the disconnect is because of the parts of themselves they do not yet know? Whatever the case, I do like pretty much everyone and hope that their story turns out well.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that this story has a lot of Chinese mythology in it, about which I know a grand total of nothing. Reading a story set in a different mythological base was really refreshing, not that I don't dig my Greek myths. I also loved reading about wholly different cultures (Hong Kong and Australia).

While this one did not blow me away, I am seriously curious to check out the next book/s in the series, because I so want to find out what's going to happen. What's the deal with Emma? Does she have some sort of power or is she just awesome? Will she and John ever be able to be together for real?

Today's song choice is a little mean considering, but I could not resist. The weather stuff and all seemed so appropriate. Plus, this is what Emma's thinking through pretty much the whole thing. :-)

"Yeah! Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, baby
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

Now, I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I"