Monthly Archives: June 2016

Dragons Treasure

Book Review of Dragon’s Treasure, by C.J. Starkey

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Dragon's TreasureI picked up a copy of Dragon’s Treasure (by C. J. Starkey) when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Sean has a type, he’s not ashamed to admit, and Jack fits the bill to a tee.  

Sean 
My life was a blur of work, sleep and the occasional night out. Despite my friends’ best efforts to get me laid on a regular basis I just couldn’t make anything stick. 
It didn’t seem like Jack was going to be any different. I made a complete and utter fool of myself more than once and then our first intimate encounter was a threesome with a werewolf shifter. Finding out he was a dragon shifter should have been more surprising than it was but after that first time, I think I knew I wanted him for keeps. 
I should have known our relationship would happen on it’s own timeline, completely out of our control. 

Jack 
Sean was fascinating from the very beginning. He was a contradiction in every sense of the word – I never knew whether to be blown away by his surprising intelligence or by how deep he could stick his foot in his mouth. 
I’d had too many flings go sour to be willing to risk it, even in spite of the animal attraction I felt towards him. An old friend not-so-gently encouraged me into it and well, I always did tend to plunge headfirst into things. 
Why should this be any different? 

A Dragon’s Treasure is a standalone MM story, with steamy love scenes, Mpreg and a HEA ending! 

Review:
#DNF at 19%, which is the end of A Dragon’s Treasure. The rest being “bonus stories.” Um, No. I’m pretty sure this is just a collection of short stories, despite what the cover and title say. What’s more, I’m pretty sure this is one of those authors you hear about who is cranking out misleading books for the buck they might make, not for the art or love of writing. Starkey just made my Do Not Buy List. I don’t usually review books I don’t finish, but when I think readers are being scammed an author I feel obligated to highlight it.

To discuss the one short story I read, that was sold as a 200+ page book, it was BAD. It read like a court report. I could almost imagine someone standing there saying, “Just the facts, Ma’am.” There was one rushed sex scene and then a whole rushed romance/pregnancy. No development. No world-building. No indentations or hard returns between paragraphs. No consistency in tense. Reading this was in no way an enjoyable experience, even without factoring in the feeling of being manipulated and tricked by it’s inaccurate presentation.

I’m starting to feel like you have to swim with sharks to trust a book purchase these days.

Book Review of The Omega Prince (The Kingdom of Pacchia #1), by Lia Cooper

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The Omega Prince

I picked up a copy of The Omega Prince (by Lia Cooper) when it was free on Amazon. It was still free at the time of posting.

Description from Goodreads:
The Tri-fete, an opportunity for the alphas in Pacchia to show off their strength, stamina, and martial prowess, comes once every three years. This is the first time the competition has been held since the Crown Prince Aubrey of Lyle and Wescott presented as an omega and there is much speculation he may take a mate from one of the alphas competing. 

But there is more than friendly competition underway as the mysterious Lord Riven returns to court for the first time in nearly a decade and assassins plot against the King. 

Prince Aubrey must find a way to balance expectation and personal desire in THE OMEGA PRINCE, the first story set in Pacchia, a mythical kingdom based on the a/b/o gender structure. 

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this, though I’m annoyed at it (the series that should be the book, IMO) being broken into so many small pieces and ending on a cliffhanger. Why do authors insist on breaking books into serials? I hate this with a burning passion.

Outside of that issue, I enjoyed the authors voice. I liked Aubrey and Riven as characters. I liked the plotline. I liked that the alpha/beta/omega universe is explained, or at least addressed. So often it’s just presented and not explored and I’m left wondering why pairing have to work the way they do. I also liked that alpha (as well as betas and omegas) could be both male and female.

There was a lot to enjoy here. Granted, the editing is a disaster and, again, it’s pointlessly incomplete. At just over 100 page, it could easily have been expanded into a COMPLETE work. But I’d read the next installment if it crossed my path.

Mercenary Instinct

Book Review of Mercenary Instinct (Mandrake Company, #1), by Ruby Lionsdrake

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Mercenary InstinctI picked up a copy of Ruby Lionsdrake‘s Mercenary Instinct when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Skulking around in the ruins on a planet swarming with treasure hunters, slavers, and bounty hunters isn’t good for one’s health. But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.

Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.

But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.

Review:
An amusing bit of Sci-Fi/Space Opera romance fluff. Nothing too serious here, but no big grievances on my part either. The characters were likable enough and the plot easy to follow. There were no big surprises and everything seems to happen with questionable ease, but it’s an entertaining ride.

I might have liked a little more world-building and character development and the whole thing could do with another editing pass, but for easy reading it passes.