Monthly Archives: May 2014

Book Review of Catch a Ghost (Hell or High Water #1), by S.E. Jakes

Leave a reply

Catch a GhostI received an ARC of S. E. Jakes‘ Catch a Ghost from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Everyone knows that Prophet—former Navy SEAL, former CIA spook, full-time pain in the ass—works alone and thinks only about the trouble he can cause. But his boss, Phil Butler of Extreme Escapes, LTD., has just assigned Proph not only a new partner but also a case haunted by ghosts from Proph’s past. Suddenly, he’s got to confront them both head on.

Tom Boudreaux—failed FBI agent, failed sheriff, full time believer in bad luck—is wondering why the head of a private contracting firm has hunted him down to offer him a job. Still he’s determined to succeed this time, despite being partnered with Prophet, EE, LTD’s most successful, lethal, and annoying operative, and even though the case is also resurrecting his own painful past.

Together, Prophet and Tom must find a way to take down killers in the dangerous world of underground cage matches, while fighting their own dangerous attraction. And when they find themselves caught in the crossfire, these two loners are forced to trust each other and work together to escape their ghosts . . . or pay the price.

Review:

To borrow a word from my GR friend Julio, that would otherwise be foreign to my vocabulary, I found this book full of feelz. (Yeah, I know, I’m actually far too square to get away with that, but you get my point.) I felt these two fucked up, broken men. I felt these two beautifully fragile, dominant creatures. I felt these two violent, sexy males and I loved them, adored them, wanted more and more and more of them. They make a perfect pair.

Sure, the book isn’t flawless. I still have no idea why EE was even involved in Chris’ investigation in the first place, unless it was solely as a personal favour to Prophet? But even then, who conveniently knew to notify Phil in the first place? I still don’t understand why Prophet would let a 10-year-old promise to a man he knew a week dictate his life. I also thought Tom’s investigative process was ridiculously easy. Sure, you can go out in one night and get and invite to an exclusive secret club just like that, *snaps fingers for effect.* Happens to me all the time, yeah?

I’m still a little vague on what Tom’s actual history is. I got a pretty good feel of what messed Prophet’s mind up so badly, but would have liked a clearer picture of what happened to Tom, as well as Tom’s ‘abilities.’ There were a few mystery references. Who’s King, for example? And I thought that using the “I’m too high/tired/alseep/etc to care about consequences” trope to lower the mens’ inhibitions and get them into bed was cliche.

But putting all of that aside, I just plain enjoyed this read and I prioritise that above just about everything else. The writing was fine, though as it was an unedited ARC, I can’t comment on the editing. The cover is gorgeous and I’m really hoping for the chance to read more of Prophet and Tom’s story. Happy reader, right here.

Clutch

Book Review of Clutch (I am Just Junco #1), by J.A. Huss

Leave a reply

Clutch Some time ago, I grabbed J.A. Huss‘ Clutch off of the Amazon free list. I read it here as book eleven of my Taking Care of my Own challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
How long can you lie to yourself before it all comes apart?

In 2152 the avian race is on Earth looking for something stolen from them decades ago – their genetics. At the center of the search lies the Rural Republic; a small backwards farming country with high hopes of military domination and a penchant for illegal bioengineering.

19 year old Junco Coot is the daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. She’s the most foul-mouthed, wildly unpredictable and ruthless sniper the Rural Republic has ever trained. But when her father’s death sparks a trip into forbidden places, she triggers events that will change everything she knows to be true.

As an elite avian military officer, Tier’s mission is to destroy the bioengineering projects, kill Commander Coot’s daughter, and return home immediately. There’s just one problem. Junco isn’t who she claims to be.

With no one to trust, not even herself, Junco must confront the secrets of her past and accept her place in the future, or risk losing herself completely.

Review:

What I liked:

  • The actual story, it was an interesting one.
  • The voices, Junco and Tier are both wonderfully sarcastic. There is a lot of good repartee between them.
  • Junco’s badassness in the last 1/3 of the book. I do love a kickbutt female warrior.
  • The fact that Junco was smart enough not to just take everything at face value.
  • The actual mechanical writing. It was very good, as was the editing.

What I didn’t like:

  • Tier’s ‘Darlin’ habit. It made him sound like an old man. In fact I can’t say I liked his accent at all. The use of ‘ya’ instead of ‘ you’ really ground on my nerves after a while. Plus, I think it undermined his gravitas.
  • The lack of worldbuilding. I have a very vague idea that there was an American succession of some sort, but nothing beyond that and no idea how (or when) avians fit in.
  • The fact that Junco did a personality 180. I liked the badass she became, but after seeing her flail about for the first 2/3 the book it was a bit abrupt and unbelievable.
  • As much as I love a badass warrior woman, Junco’s badass attitude became just too much for me.
  • The events that led to both the revelation of memories that allowed her to revert to her other personality and caused her to start the whole chain of events in the first place is pretty major and completely glossed over.
  • The lack of character depth, none of the characters were well fleshed out.
  • I was confused on some of the tech. How does a construct work, for example? It seemed too sentient, not to mention aware of the outside world and able to pop up in Junco’s mind without her ‘logging in’ or whatever.
  • The subtitle, I understand the Clutch reference, but since this isn’t set online or anything what’s up with the Dot Com?

Overall impression:

I liked it, enjoyed reading it, but A LOT was left unexplained or only vaguely sketched out. I know I’ve seen at least one write up in which the author says there are no answers in this book (or in book 2, 3 or 4 even) but that’s not even what I’m talking about. The cliffhanger wasn’t painfully abrupt. I thought it reached an acceptable breaking point.

I just mean that the whole world, plot, everything just seemed to hang together on gossamer threads. So, while I followed it I didn’t sense that it was solid; if that makes sense. I needed to know more about the whole Charlie situation, the voices in Junco’s head, who/what avians are, what happened to America (and the rest of the world presumably), why Tier would disobey orders for Junco, what was his f*** up that sent him to Earth in the first place, was his apparent affection for Junco  supposed to be love, etc. It felt a little weak.

Despite all that, I did enjoy the book. I looked into buying book two and might have if it was super cheat. But I held off for fear that Junco would turn into one of those heroine’s who can miraculously do everything, survive everything, recover from everything, outsmart everyone, etc and do it all with a sarcastic smirk in the process. (As much as I love a badass woman, I hate those characters.)

I haven’t read the second book, so I’m not saying that’s the case, but I sense that it could be. Hope I’m wrong. All in all, an interesting start to the series. I’m definitely up for more of Ms. Huss’ writing.

Sheep’s Clothing

Book Review of Sheep’s Clothing, by Elizabeth Einspanier

Leave a reply

Sheep's ClothingBook ten of my Taking Care of my Own challenge: Sheep’s Clothing, by  Elizabeth Einspanier. After seeing Ms. E.’s post on ReviewSeekers, I got it free from Amazon and at the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
It is the year 1874.

Doc Meadows, frontier doctor working in the small town of Salvation, has always considered himself a sensible man, and has not believed in monsters for a long time. When injured half-Indian Wolf Cowrie staggers into his practice one night, however, he brings terrifying news–a vampire he hunts plans to settle in Salvation and turn it into his own private larder. Now Doc has to overcome his skepticism and fear in order to face down this new threat to his town, before Salvation becomes just another ghost town in the territories.

Sheep’s Clothing hearkens back to early depictions of vampires as bloodthirsty, charismatic monsters, borrowing more strongly from Dracula than more common modern interpretations.

Review:
I found this an enjoyable old-school vampire book, the kind where vampires are soulless evil beasts, bent on human destruction. The inclusion of a skinwalker, instead of a werewolf was an interesting twist on the age-old vampire/werewolf divide (as well as an ingenious way to position the story in the Wild West) and I liked Doc and Wolf. (I was especially amused by their particularly descriptive names.) All in all, a success in my opinion.

The very description says the book takes a lot from Dracula and it’s not kidding. Little things like the two women traveling with Russeau being referred to as his ‘brides’— not his wives or his women or his companions, but his ‘brides,’ just like Draculas’. I see this as taking language from a previous story instead of just mythological bases, like the need to sleep on home soil, for example. For me it was a little too much. It made it feel much more like fan-fiction than a separate vampire tale using original material. This was a shame but a relatively small matter.

Additionally, while I appreciated seeing a more traditional vampire, the whole ‘brides of Dracula’ thing was my least favourite aspect of Stoker’s book. (Ok, the worship of Mina’s apparent purity and basic flawlessness was my least favourite part, but beyond that, the oversexed, volition-less, singleminded female servants of Dracula were my next least favourite part.) Unfortunately, that carries over here too. The women are ‘his,’ ‘bound to him’ and apparently serving no purpose beyond shadowing him and fulfilling any ‘bride’ duty an immortal might feel the need to keep a couple complacent women about for. Meh. But again, a relatively small matter.

What wasn’t a small matter for me, was that people accepted the existence of vampires with startling ease. I actually liked that in 1874 the uneducated masses didn’t even know what a vampire was. But not a single person (even the man who had just been told he was now nothing more than a reanimated dead, severed head) freaked out at any point. Seriously, these people were calm and collected at every turn. Unrealistic doesn’t begin to cover it. This was a fairly massive detraction for me.

I also thought that it lacked some character development, especially in Wolf. He’s on a pretty drastic mission, for an important and personal reason but we’re just told bla, bla, bla and move on. I didn’t ‘feel’ him or his pain at all and I needed to have. Russeau was also defeated really easily in the end.

The writing is really good, though. The use of regional accents gives it a little flare without going overboard to become annoying and it’s well edited and readable. Well worth picking up.