REVIEW: The Storm That is Sterling by Lisa Renee Jones

Title: Storm That Is Sterling
Series: Zoduis, #2
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: November 1, 2011 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Award-winning, bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is breaking out of series romance success into single title with her fast-paced, paranormal romantic suspense series full of dark danger and sizzling hot passion.

Sterling Jeter, Renegade Super Soldier, is fearless, powerful, and wildly unpredictable. His life-threatening mission is to save the beautiful, brilliant astrobiologist Rebecca Burns from ruthless villain Adam Rain. But their immutable mutual attraction threatens to put them in the path of death... or worse...

Why I Read this Book: After reading the first book in this series, The Legend of Michael (my review), I was interested to see what would happen next in the world of Renegades v. Zodius.

What I Liked: I like me a romance where the hero and heroine knew each other in the past (usually high school crushes or sweethearts) then reconnect some odd years later and get together. Me likes those kinds of romances.

Before reading this series, I avoided anything remotely science fiction. But having read The Legend of Michael, and now The Storm That is Sterling, I’m open to the genre. The sci-fi element is there in this book, and it is heavy, but it was okay and I liked it. There wasn’t anything sci-fi that was confusing or daunting. Lisa Renee Jones has opened the door to science fiction for me.

Speaking of sci-fi elements, the authors keeps the storyline fresh with new details. There’s an interesting talent that Tad’s character possesses. And there’s a new drug, ICE, brought into the mix.

We find out what happened to General Powell! When I finished reading The Legend of Michael, one of the things I wanted to find out most about was what happened to Powell. I have to say, I was looking out for this while reading The Storm That is Sterling and yes, I got my answer. A very interesting answer indeed.

There was an interesting revelation regarding Iceman’s character that I totally did not see coming. When I was reading about him, I kept thinking why is he getting this much page time? and in the end, it all made perfect sense.

And here’s a little teaser, involving our boy Sterling, for you to ponder over:

He couldn’t get rid of the tension charging through his body; he dropped and did a hundred push-ups. Cock still throbbed. Shit. Damn thing was as stubborn as a woman. He did another hundred.

What I Didn’t Like: There were a couple of scenes that fell short: (1) the confrontation between Sterling and Tad at the apartment building and (2) the confrontation between Caleb and Adam at the casino. In both cases, I felt the scenes ended abruptly and confusingly.

Case 1: There’s a confrontation between Sterling and Tad at an apartment complex. One minute Tad’s there; the next he’s out of the picture. Next thing I know, the book shifts to a completely different scene. Where did Tad go? What happened to him at the end of that scene? The book’s told from third person narrative from quite a few characters’ prospective, so why didn’t we get anything from Tad’s prospective during or after that scene? I read and re-read that part and still found myself scratching my head.

Case 2: Caleb and Adam are “toe to toe”, with Michael by Caleb’s side and Tad by Adam’s. I was expecting a scuffle of some sort, at least an exchange of words, to take place (especially with what just happened only a moment before) but it didn’t. The next few paragraphs are focused on Sterling and Becca. Then Caleb says to his guys, “It’s over, Adam’s not foolish enough to bring down the wrath of the army, or the Renegades, while he’s not in a position to win.”. What happened with the “toe to toe” show down that was starting to happen just a few paragraphs ago? Where’d Adam and Tad go?

Seems like Tad is making a habit out of disappearing prematurely…

Overall Impression: Head scratching moments aside, The Storm That is Sterling was an enjoyable read. You’ll definitely need to read the first book in this series before reading this book. And if it’s been a while since you’ve read The Legend of Michael then I highly recommend reading through the glossary in the beginning of this book. It definitely helped refresh my memory. I’m still waiting for Caleb’s book; hopefully the next one will be his.

The Book Vixen’s Rating: