Review: The Duchess Deal

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Duchess Deal is sort-of a spin on the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, once handsome guy is now physically less handsome with accompanying ego and self-esteem issues, needs a wife. Hardworking, clever girl is in need of something, in this case the fee owed to her for work she did on the wedding dress of the Duke's bride-to-be who has jilted him.
Witty banter ensues.
I text my friend three pages in 'dude, you need to read this book, they just described a dress as looking like a unicorn vomited on it.'
She agreed that she must read this book.

One of the great things about this book is that the Duke isn't really in need of redemption, he's a good guy, just a cranky jackass dealt a hard hand who needs someone to challenge him and point out that a monster is what you make of yourself if you let other people tell you who you are. That being said, Emma is so out of his league, she's awesome and DOESN'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT. She finds nice, interesting friends, a clever way of keeping up with her dressmaking skills, and isn't even put-off by the fact that all of her employees are way too invested in her love life.

I read this book in 2 days and did the classic past-one's-bedtime-but-must-finish-this maneuver. There are sexytimes, the first few are highly amusing, then I started to find them a bit boring as the witty banter was more interesting, but they were easy to skim.

Sweet book, great banter, I want to hang out and have tea with Emma's friends.

View all my reviews

Review: Heart of the Steal

Heart of the Steal by Avon Gale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I adore Roan Parrish's first book in the 'In the Middle' series, it is so full of angst and cinnamon bun goodness, so I was hoping for more of that in this book. Failing that, perhaps some kind of cat and mouse heist courtship between the main characters, but no.

The start of the book sets-up a good framework for the courtship-through-heist via art theft, but sadly doesn't really follow through on that line. The theft acts as more of a example of how differently the two characters view the world.
And maybe that's the part that just didn't click with me, they do have to do a lot of work to figure out how to fit together, but I never got the dire feeling that it wasn't going to work out in the end. Heart of the Steal just doesn't have the same heart-ripping depth as Parrish's In The Middle. Now that's not to say that it wasn't a fun read, it was a fast, cute story with quite a bit of sexytimes thrown in with a goodly dash of pining, but I don't think I will be finding myself thinking about the characters any further than wondering if Amory cleans the cat's litter box or pays someone to do that.

I'm giving it three starts as it was an enjoyable read, but in the same way that watching House Hunters International is, you know at the end they are going to end up some place nice that you'll never be able to afford but it was still nice to see that rich people have bad taste in bathrooms too.

View all my reviews

Review: Murder on the Last Frontier

Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set in a small frontier town in Alaska after the first Word War, Murder on the Last Frontier has a lot of really interesting aspects to it, but it just didn't make it over as few nit-picky things to land itself into 'really good' for me.

The writing was just a touch clunky for me, a lot of repetition of things, and a bit too much telling instead of showing from the main character Charlotte. At the start of the book there is quite a bit of her alluding to a traumatic incident in her past that as a reader you figure out pretty quickly. However, it takes forever for Charlotte to clearly say what it was which also happens at the same time as a rather graphic autopsy. The description of the autopsy caught me off guard, a cozy mystery this book isn't.

Charlotte's detective powers lag a bit behind the reader's which can be either a good or bad thing depending on how you prefer your mysteries to play out. she is an interesting character, and the town is an interesting setting, Pegau has a good start at building both up for future books in this one. But if you are looking for romance there is only a fleeting wink to it for the future.

Good first book, interesting setting and character, I might pick up the next book to see if Pegau is able to work out some of the weaknesses as well as flesh out the town.

SPOILERS BELOW***

I did like how Pegau wrote and treated the sex workers (the ones who survived), although I found the murder of one to be a overdone plot. Having that as the main mystery made it fairly easy to solve from the reader's perspective even with the waving of red herrings.


View all my reviews

Review: Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read the first book of this series, but I found that I didn't need to in order to be able to enjoy this one. Jane Jameson ex-librarian, current vampire, is a refreshing change from other urban fantasy vampires. Optimistic, snarky but not too snarky, still trying to get used to her new state of undead without delving too much into the realm of morose wistful sighs. The setting of small-ish town in the south where everyone is just slightly related and always ready for some kind of family fight/gossip is a great change too.

The romance element isn't that strong in this book, I'm guessing that most of the heavy emotional lifting for Jane was in the first book, and looks to be set-up for the third book. As such, it's a fast, amusing read. You will quickly figure out most of the plot points before they happen, but there's enough humor that I didn't mind sitting back and waiting for them to show up.


View all my reviews

Review: Choose the Sky

Choose the Sky by Elizabeth Cole
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was the first book by Cole that I have read, I liked the fact that it was set in 1141, a completely different time than we are used to seeing in 'historical' romances.

I found the beginning a bit hard to get through, it felt like the first two chapters were just a bit too much in the way of an info dump that could have been handled later in the story. I would have liked it to have started at chapter 2 to give a bit more suspense to Lady Domina's character. the pacing picks up once we get back to her castle.

The only main problem I had with the story was how the issue of consent was handled. Although probably accurate for the times, I had issues with how that part of the relationship started and how Sir Luc kept saying that he would respect her wishes and then still soft pushing them. Maybe I'm just overtly sensitive, but it made me start skimming those parts of the book as I didn't find the interactions enjoyable.

The mystery about who the trader is would have been solved much faster if everyone had stopped being so self-centered and just thought about it logically, so I actually found myself slightly sympathizing with the villain at the end.

Fast read, slightly irritating relationship, interesting setting that I wish had been expanded on a bit more.

View all my reviews

Review: How To Marry A Werewolf

How To Marry A Werewolf by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Carriger's introduction of novellas that give a little bit more backstory on some of the side characters found in her main novels has been a really interesting approach at giving the reader more of the characters. Sadly, the length of the novellas inherently limit that 'more' quite a bit. We don't get the full build-up and nuance of rumor and romance that is common in her longer novels.
I always find myself wishing for a little more, which I guess is both a good thing and a bad thing.

'How to Marry' gives us the backstory of Major Channing, but not until almost the very end of the story. His love interest Faith turns out to be a much more interesting character. An American geology fancier with a questionable reputation and thoroughly terrible parents. I would have really liked a longer novel about her, something that explains how is has been able to stay a kind, thoughtful person with her background. She has hints of a cunning nature that with a little bit more cynicism would make her a very formidable force. I am hoping that we'll see that part of her bloom in later books.

Biffy and Lyall do show up at one point and are awesome (I don't think that they could be anything else) and we get a few more hints of the personalities of the other pack members and possible characters that might show up in future books, but the story is mainly about Faith hunting Channing and Channing not quite getting it and FEELINGS. I was a little surprised how dim he was honesty when it sounded like he has spent the last 100 years meditating on his own emotional being in the hopes of suppressing it.

Faith's cousin is a darling character who I hopes shows up again, but we only get a few lines about the pack's babies. Basically, they are fine.

Fast read, a nice little snack for the Carriger fan who wants a bit of romance and high emotions.

View all my reviews

Review: Brightly Burning

Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from a friend, which is the only reason that I read it to be honest.

I'm not very into YA and have many, MANY, issues with Jane Eyre so I would not have picked up this book on my own. I'm glad that I did read it though. The world building is engaging and the Jane character, Stella, shows a lot more self agency than Eyre did, which was one of the things I didn't care for in that book.

Shortening the life expectancy of the society helped bolster the believably of the romance, as well as dropping the Rochester character, Hugo, age to 19. Having the main characters 17 and 19 gives a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to accepting some of the stupid behaviors and choices that they make. There is also less brooding and angst than in Eyre even though Hugo does his hardest to bring the drinking and mood swings. And perhaps that's the weakest part of this book, when Donne doubles down on the incorporation of scenes and plot points from Eyre. The party/parlor parts especially had me raising my eyebrow pointedly. Although Donne uses Hugo's rank as captain and employer as a way for him to get Stella to do what he wants, the fact that she does after showing so much backbone in other things made me irritated.

The secondary plots helped to take some of the edge off my annoyance, I felt like the science fiction and mystery parts would have gotten along nicely without the Eyre aspects if they needed to.

However, it still comes down to the same problem that Jane Eyre had, the heroine is more interesting than the hero and you just want her to go out and be her awesome self without him. Although the feeling I was left with at the end of this book was just mild eye-rolling at her as opposed to full-on book throwing that happened at the end of Eyre.

Engaging, fast read. Bogged down a little by the source material but the setting and tweaks to the plot were good.

View all my reviews

Review: Unfit to Print

Unfit to Print by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

'Unfit to Print' is written in the same tone and with some of the same themes as Charles's Sins of the City series. If you like those books you will like this one.

Both main characters are from minority backgrounds, Gil Lawless is a half-black illegitimate child from a well-off family who was thrown to the streets when his father died. Vikram Pandey is his childhood friend who spent the last 13 years believing his friend to be dead only to find him while searching for a lost teenager. They both having been missing each other deeply wither or not they admit it.

Charles once again shows us a part of English history and society rarely addressed, that of the Indian community in London. I would have really liked to have learned more about it, but the length of the novella means that we don't get much more than a few brief bits thrown at us. Hopefully in future works Charles might go more in-depth on the subject.

We get a bit more when it comes to the Victorian pornography and sex worker scene of the time. I was a bit worried that the subjects would be treated with the sort of heavy moralizing that tends to happen when they show up in other historical romance and was pleasantly surprised at Charles's handling of them. The characters talk through their different opinions as well as their reasoning behind them without attacking each other or the workers themselves. I'm honestly still processing some of the discussions and representations so I don't really have a completely clear handle on how I feel about them yet. Maybe once I can discuss it with other readers I'll be able to express myself better on the subject.

The two men are thrown into the position of trying to figure out where they stand with each other after having been extremely close in school, seeing if they still fit together in the ways that matter, and how the new parts of themselves will work while at the same time trying to find a missing teen.

I really enjoyed reading this, finished it in about 4 hours and its given me a number of things to think about. The romance isn't as heart-twisting and dreamy sigh-inducing as the one in 'Unseen Attraction,' but I really liked all the discussion that happened to get them to their happy ending.

View all my reviews

Review: The Sum of All Kisses

The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first Juila Quinn book that I've read, thus I can say that coming into the middle of a series without any idea of what's going on did not detract from the story. You would probably get more out of it if you read the first two, but I didn't have a problem just jumping right in.

The first 75% of the story is quite lighthearted and amusing with only a few hints at some darker aspects (besides the dual that set the whole story off that is). However, once you hit the full explanation of those darker bits...it's almost whiplash from the lighter tone of the rest of the book *SEE END OF REVIEW FOR TRIGGER WARNINGS*.
Admittedly it does take the story even further away from a fast, candy-fluff romance, but I did have to put the book down for a few hours to deal with the metaphorical push out of the carriage.

Lady Sarah dances along the edge of being too irritating to like at the start of the book, but Quinn reigns her in and off-sets her with her younger sisters who are all delightful side characters. I found myself feeling more for Hugh even though he's the one who started all the dreadful business off, it's apparent that none of his friends have made an effort to BE his friends after except as a way to quell rumors and put the duel behind them.
It's surprising that he isn't even more sour than he is.

Fast read, and amusing except for the last 30% which is still fast but made me twitchy as I was not mentally prepared for it.





TRIGGER WARNINGS AND POSSIBLE SPOILERS:


Talk of past child abuse of grown characters, talk of past spousal abuse, reference of past sexual assault. Nothing overly explicit, but I still found it all highly unnerving.

View all my reviews

Review: Hex Hall

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't too sure about Hex Hall when I first started it, the whole 'Chosen One' YA story is over done these days and so I was a bit wary.

Although there are quite a few expected plot points and characters in the book, Sophie Mercer's voice is a very fun and interesting one. (even if her waxing about the cute guy gets a little much at times).

The idea of having a Juvie version of Hogwarts is very interesting and amusing. However, it does run into the same sort of problems, no one seems to be learning math, there is apparently no adult oversight except that which would end in lawsuits in the real world, and at no point does anyone sit down with Sophie and give her a comprehensive rundown of the new society that she is expected to live in.

And perhaps that's my biggest problem with this book, the adults are idiots.
I have a hard time believing some of the interaction between Sophie and her mother, if her mother has been so protective of Sophie her whole life then I can't believe that she would have hid anything from her once they knew she would be going to Hex Hall.

Other then a few nit-picky things like that, this book was quite fun. Fast easy read, perhaps just a touch too heavy on the romance angle, but hey, I guess everyone's High School experience differs. I would have liked to have seen a bit more interaction with other students to get a better feeling for the world though. The book also ends on a cliffhanger, so head's up on that.

But all in all, Hex Hall works as a breezy engaging follow-up for the older Potter/fantasy fan.

View all my reviews

Review: An Unsuitable Heir

An Unsuitable Heir by K.J. Charles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't stopped thinking about this book for days now.
I'm not sure how I can give it even close to the review it deserves, its filled me with an excess of emotion that I just don't know how to type out.

Unsuitable Heir concludes the mystery started in Unseen Attraction, and I admittedly had my heart in my throat until the last few chapters about how it was going to pan out.

I don't want to goo too much into the plot as I personally really liked not knowing too much about it and enjoyed having it unfold for me.

What I will say is that the relationship between Mark and Pen is one of the most beautifully written things I've ever read recently. The love and romance between two characters that have gone their whole lives without being truly seen for themselves finding someone who not only does, but loves them for themselves and unconditionally. Charles makes you fall for both of the characters as they fall for each other, Pen is just such a wonderful individual that I wish had a whole series just about them.
From a historical view, I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to be gender fluid during this time period. Pen talks about how they don't feel comfortable with either s/he pronoun but goes with 'he' as it's less trouble. Giving 'himself' their own name seems to be one of the only way they can take agency over their identity, the threat of having that taken from them as well as forcing them into one gender identity is terrifying for both Pen and the reader.
I found myself trying to figure out if the twins could make a run for the Continent or something, screw the rest of the characters.
The clueless nature that all the other characters treat the threat of loss of self is painful to witness and the betrayal that happens...its really hard to swallow.

Pen deserves every happiness and its hard that that happiness is limited by the society not just of that time but our current one. The story ends on a hopeful note though.

View all my reviews

Review: An Unnatural Vice

An Unnatural Vice by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

K.J. Charles' Sins of the Cities series is flat out phenomenal.
I was a bit worried about how this book might be as a follow up on Unseen Attraction as that book is just lovely (Clem is too good for this world and just thinking about him and Rowly makes my heart hurt a bit). I hadn't read any reviews of this story beyond just knowing that the basic plot would be picking up on where Attraction left off with the mystery in that book and that the pairing in the one would be essentially 'Good cop/Bad boy,' and I'm glad that I didn't go in without any more knowledge than that.

In an interesting twist I found myself having a harder time liking Nathaniel Roy, the good cop, so upstanding he must have a stick up his back end, ex-lawyer journalist. I couldn't help feeling that his reaction to Justin Lazarus' Spiritualist shtick was a bit overblown, especially as the guy seemed mostly interested in fleecing those who could afford it. Perhaps if there had been a bit more showing him twisting people's guilt and sorrow to his own enrichment (Someone other than Roy) I would have found him a bit harder to like. Roy comes off at the start of the story as someone who is used to getting his own way and is always looking for some kind of intellectual fight steadfast in the belief that he's always right.
Charles does a great job of showing not only Roy's transition from blind loathing of Lazarus but of Lazarus himself learning his own worth.

The history and overall atmosphere are all wonderfully done. Charles' knowledge of time and place really shine, actually naming all the streets as the characters run through them is just the tip of the well-researched and presented iceberg.

As this is the second of three books the mystery isn't solved at the end of the story, but we are left was the foundation of a lovely relationship between Roy and Lazarus. I can only hope that Charles will some day write up follow-up on what happens to Lazarus' familiars as I adore them.

Although the relationship doesn't make my heart grow three sizes every time I think about it like Clem and Rowly, Roy and Lazarus do make me smile. It's nice when two jerks find each other and mush together like melting M&M's in your hand. Broken hard shells, sweet inside, even as they make a mess everyone else has to clean up.

View all my reviews

Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pretty excited to read this, the tone sounded like a fun rollicking adventure. I was not quite prepared for the depth of feelings that Monty and Percy express. But at the same time, oh good lord but did I wan't to give Monty a good shaking!
The almost willful blindness to other people by Monty gets a bit much, at a few points I would not have blamed his sister and Percy if they just left him.

Perhaps all 18 year old rich boys can be that irritating, but it did get a bit wearing to where I wasn't really excited to read further. Thank goodness for Monty's sister Felicity.

I'm glad to see that the follow-up book seems to be about her as the whole second half of this one I just found myself wanting to hang out with her.

All in all, it had an interesting take on some very serious subjects so the narrative got a bit intense but it was a good read. Not quite as fun as I had hoped, but at least it gave us Felicity.

View all my reviews

Review: First Grave on the Right

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Have you ever watched an old Rodney Dangerfield stand-up routine? At first you really enjoy the snark and one-liners, but about five minutes in you start checking your watch, then at about ten minutes you start thinking that the two drink minimum is not going to be able to cover however long this routine is going to take. Fifteen minutes in you sort of chuckle because the joke about the ghost and his corpse is sort of amusing, but at twenty minute in you really wish you hadn't sat so close to the front because otherwise you could sneak out and maybe just ask the bartender about what the punchline is with the guy in the black cloak? God knows you've been tipping the guy well enough and he owes you at this point.

Yeah.
That's this book.

The overall story is a sort-of uneven mystery, there are mentions of abuse of many kinds throughout the book which makes the overall feeling odd with how Jones has the main character Charley just dig into the one-liners the whole time.

It was nice to have a story happen in Albuquerque, it's not usually a city one gets to hang out in while reading a urban fantasy. Although I would have liked a bit more description besides just driving up Central.

The 'romance'...ugh, I don't know. The end result of who he turned out to be was neat but everything else...I found myself skimming the sexy bits, at the point they showed up I just didn't care and just wanted to get to the next plot point. Your mileage might vary.

However, if you enjoy an endless barrage of jokes along the lines of 'Yeah, I know I'm ugly... I said to a bartender, 'Make me a zombie.' He said 'God beat me to it,' as well as middling PI action then maybe this book will work for you.

View all my reviews

Review: Lady of Devices

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first in a YA Steampunk series, Lady of Devices suffers from both uneven world building and character development. It's hard to take a character seriously as an accomplished chemist when we are introduced to her by having her blow something up due to 'wanting to see what would happen' when she added somethings together against the instruction of her professor. I'm not sure if the unevenness of Lady Clair's character was the author's attempt to show us that she is a sheltered teen or just shaky writing of a first book.

Both Lady Clair and the author seem to get a grip as the story progresses, and by the time she takes her new charges in hand has a clearer idea of the character and story. However, one can't get around the fact that this book is mostly a set-up for the rest of the series so most of it is introductions.
Sadly most of the characters that you know will show up in later books have the same shaky sketch of their characters that Lady Clair has at the end of the book. The idea that Lord James, someone the reader can only suppose is in his mid-twenties and well-versed in society at this point would take such offence at a school girl's inability to pick-up on his interest in her that he holds it against her to such an extent makes one wonder.

The world building is fairly minimal, leaning heavily on basic steampunk tropes, but it does help to keep the plot moving, not getting weighted down by explanation. The overall pacing, once I got into it, goes quite fast. I was easily able to read the book in one day and is a perfectly fine YA book.

After a bit of a bumpy start I only hope that the series smooths out as I enjoyed the concept.

View all my reviews

Review: A Natural History of Dragons

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A Natural History of Dragons has all the hallmarks of a book that I should love, an interesting main character, an interesting world, dragons, however, I just couldn't seem to get into it.

There is a lot of world building, and its not necessarily all that clear, It would have been good to have some sort of map to refer to in order to get a better sense of things. The idea of a sort-of Victorian world but with dragons is really something I am totally down for, however the society, etc., it's really clearly explained, much less how the main character's country fits into the wider world's society. I got the feeling that the reader is supposed to equate it to Britain during the 1880s, however there isn't any explanation about the government and only little bits about the society structure where is acts as plot motivation.

I'm not sure why I just couldn't seem to connect with the story. I don't know if it was the lack of grounding in the world, the clipped first-person narration, or the pacing. I didn't feel like the story got moving until over 60% in, and that is just too long to have to deal with a main character that one just can't seem to get into.

The overall story is somewhat predictable, although I really liked how some of the concepts that are introduced are deal with. But all together, its not enough to get me to read the next in the series. Which is a bummer as I really wanted to like this book.

View all my reviews

Review: Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a relatively new reader of the genre I found this book helpful in giving me some background on the community (for good or for ill) as well as some starting points for authors to look into.

It was interesting to read the take on the history, although for a more in depth look I highly suggest going on a dive into the posts of Kelly Faircloth who has done some excellently researched work on the subject (https://pictorial.jezebel.com/how-har...).

The main problem that I found with this book was how dated most of it was. Published in 2009, nine years later there has been a lot of change in the genre and I found myself skimming a lot of things that are either common knowledge that I felt the authors spent too much time on, or things that no longer really apply. On the other hand, it is a really easy book to skim or pick up and put down as the mood strikes you. There are all sorts of different approaches the authors take to get their points across, games, cartoons, and a choose your own adventure section where in some cases some of the stories end in surprisingly bleak ways.

If you like the website Smart Bitches you'll probably not have an issue with the snarky tone, although it can get a little wearing in some places. However, the book does a good overview of the genre and jumping off points even if most of the information is presented with tongue firmly in (someone's) cheek. If you are trying your hand at writing in the genre you can use this book as a way to see some of the over-used tropes, etc. to be aware of, but beyond that and giving you other authors to look into, that's about it.

It would be interesting to have an updated version that addressed the increase in the LBGTQ stories and the like, but looking at current posts on the internet might be the way to go for that.

View all my reviews

Review: Bollywood and the Beast

Bollywood and the Beast by Suleikha Snyder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know any think about Bollywood outside of a few clips I've watched, but I have liked what I've seen. On the flip side, I am specious of retellings of fairy tales as there are so many, and so many that have gone horribly wrong. Add to that, Beauty and the Beast has to be one of my least liked stories for many reasons.

All that said, I really liked this book.
It owns the Beauty and Beast connection upfront, the characters referencing it with derision on the part of the 'beauty' Rakhee “Rocky” Varma, an American who is trying to make her way in the Bollywood movie business. The character's outsider status was really nice as it helps introduce concepts, language, and references to those of us who have no knowledge of any of it without it feeling like an info dump.

The one issue I have with the story is the 'insta lust' between Rocky and the 'beast' Taj Ali Khan. Khan was disfigured in an accident and has spent the last ten or so years never leaving his family's mansion. He was a great heroic/romantic actor before the accident, and has continued to be the most dramatic, scene eating alpha into his chosen isolation.
Rocky stands up to him, but the first time they kiss I found myself desperately wishing that she had just cold-cocked him right in the nose. Lady, there is no reason to put up with that crap!

The secondary plot of Khan's younger brother will tear your heart out and stomp on it, and then you will want to stop on Khan a bit for being such an ass to the poor guy. As this book is part of a series I am hoping that one of the other books covers the younger Khan's story and that he gets all the happy ever, a pile of kittens, and the world's most comfortable chair to enjoy them in.

The writing and descriptions are really nice, I have a little issue with the time frame of the romance, but then I don't get the insta love thing or the putting up with alpha-holes. But the book is a fast fun read, you want to hang out with Rocky and her family. I would love a prequel or sequel about her parents as we got to see some of how badass her mom is and I would love to see her parents interact.

The ending was a little shoehorned in and felt too quick even though we all know what's going to happen. However, a pretty good/fast introduction to a series.

View all my reviews

Review: Hell & High Water

Hell & High Water by Charlie Cochet
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this up on a recommendation and then promptly forgot about it until I went back through my ereader to get a sense of my TBR pile (spoiler: I cried both happy and terrified tears at the size of said pile) so by the time I started reading this had had totally forgotten what it was about.

Thus I was highly irritated through the first couple of chapters when they kept talking about how due to military shenanigans some people's genes had awoken/mutated creating an off-shoot of homo sapiens, what the author refers to as 'Therins' I'm not going to bother looking up if I spelled it right as the author didn't think it was necessary to tell me until about 20% in that it was just a fancy word of 'Shiftier.' Yep this book is about a special government unit staffed by shiftiers, character archetypes, and oddly, their extended family. They also apparently have a crazy amount of funding and extra special computer programs.

There is a hell of a lot of world building in the first 30-40% which gets in the way of getting to know the main character Dex, meaning that the feel and pacing of the first half of this work is very uneven and Cochet might as well have just introduced half the side characters with 'and this guy will be having his own book in the series so hope you enjoy his unnecessarily grumpy/nerdy/co-dependent ass.'

Okay, fine, I was willing to let most of this go (lord just say 'shiftier!) because Dex is an interesting character put into a difficult spot as he turned his human police partner in for killing a shiftier and everyone he works with seems to have taken this as a personal insult and takes every opportunity to beat the crap out of him. I liked beginning of the book Dex, what I could see through the world building that is. However, once he is transferred to the THIRDS (fancy well-funded shiftier and friends science SWAT team) he turns into the world's biggest joker. I get it, you like singing music from the 1980s, you have no problem with making dick jokes with your co-workers, being a car owner is something you enjoy.

But this gets me to the part that really bugged the hell out of me, apparently CSI: Shiftier must have the world's worst HR department. I don't know if I've become really sensitive to workplace harassment and power imbalance, but I spent most of the middle of the book think 'where the hell is their supervisor? Every interaction Dex has with one member of the team (the team he is supposed to trust enough to have his back in life and death situations mind you) is a series of sexual jokes and intimidation on the other guy's part. And no one in the team seems to think this is a big deal? Then the first time Dex gets...together I guess? with the romantic lead there were some consent issues that had me giving the whole thing a pointed side-eye. Dex is into it, but honestly I spent most of the book thinking 'leave, you can do better and this is just a lawsuit or something worse waiting to happen.'

The plot is all about trying to solve killings by a shiftier that you as the reader will figure out pretty quickly and then spend the rest of the book wondering why none of the characters do. The reason to why the killings happen...ugh, a bit of a weak cop-out to me.

Anyway, the next books might be an improvement as (in theory) you wouldn't have to get through as much world building. I found the ending to this one irritating as Dex, I know you are irritating and if you were my friend I could only hang out with you once a month as you are literary and introvert's nightmare, but you can do better! The sexytimes are pretty graphic so if that isn't your jam you can probably skip those pages. I had problems with them as each time the characters did the 'oh we shouldn't!' and then did anyway. I need to have at least one conversation where they discuss it as I'm not a fan of the 'I love you so much our sexual relationship will be dictated totally by your needs' trope. Blah.

As it is, I doubt I will be picking up the next book.

View all my reviews

Review: The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, but it turned out that it just wasn't for me.

The descriptions of the circus are wonderful, most of the side characters are very interesting, however, the pacing is almost painfully slow. Add in the fact that not even the characters ever get a good answer as to the point of the 'game,' and it gets hard to feel invested in what's going on.
Right as I would start to get draw into the story of one character the chapter would end and the new one would start with the POV of a totally different character.

Again, the settings and descriptions were lovingly written, very interesting, but I found what was supposed to be the love story a bit underdeveloped. I'm not one for the love at first sight trope, and how the way the 'hero' treated some of the other characters made it hard for me to sympathize with him. Add in the nebulous explanation of the 'competition' and I just found myself more irritated than anything else.
A follow-up book from the POV of Poppy and Co would be interesting, but only if the pacing issues were addressed.

Interesting read, just not my wheelhouse.

View all my reviews