Monthly Archives: November 2016

Book Review of Hundred Ghost Soup (Bureau for Eternal Prosperity #1), by Robert Chansky

100 Ghost SoupI received a copy of Hundred Ghost Soup, by Robert Chansky, from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
A Beijing orphan is nearly eighteen. He wants a family and a name, if only for a while. He hacks adoption papers to get them. 

He also gets: a long train ride into an empty station in a ghost town. Ghosts. Their leaders, calling themselves Mr. and Mrs. Vulpin, are his new parents. They are illusion-casting fox spirits, glamorous, clever, and trapped. They need him to free themselves of the ghosts. 

Our hero works for them and accepts their flaws so long as they pretend to be a family. But then he discovers their wonderful meals are illusory. Are the Vulpins up to no good? And the People’s Republic of China will never allow spirits to possess a town. To save them all, he must travel back to Beijing, rifle the Politburo’s files, and find a Minister’s secrets. When he kindles the wrath of the People’s Liberation Army and the Minister of Fate himself, he must penetrate layers of illusions, decide whom he can trust, and learn to cook. 

And then there is the matter of the soup’s main ingredient: him.

Review:
It took me forever to read this book. For.Ev.Er. Forever! Because for as prettily as it’s written, it’s sloooooow. And the characters seem to know things without the reader seeing how they learned it. And no one seems to have any kind of emotional reaction to anything. Oh, you plan to EAT ME? Ok. As a reader, I was just kind of like, “Um, no, not ok.”

The writing is pretty. I liked the characters, and by the time I finally dragged myself to the end, I found I’d liked it. But it was a slog to get there. The book felt a lot longer than 278 pages.

Pyromancer

Book Review of Pyromancer, by Amanda Young

PyromancerI downloaded a copy of Amanda Young‘s Pyromancer in March of this year, when it was free.

Description from Goodreads:
Christian Ryder is cursed with pyromancy, a deadly ability he has difficulty controlling. Having hurt lovers in the past, he has sworn off personal attachments. 

Tanner O’Bannon is broke and desperate. The recent loss of his father has thrown Tanner into a tailspin of debt he can’t afford to pay. Working as a rent boy allows him to pay the mortgage and his college tuition, but it’s burning away his soul in the process. 

Through the machinations of an escort agency these men are thrown together. Smoldering embers of desire fan the flames of love, but will it be enough to make Christian overcome his fear of love, or to save Tanner from the fire?

Review:
The writing here is actually pretty good. The language is perfectly readable and though the editing is a little rough, it’s not overly distracting. Plus, the characters are likable. However, the story itself is a bit of a flop. It’s a shame too, because I think it has a lot of potential that just isn’t developed.

To start with, the pyromancy didn’t seem to have anything to do with anything. In the beginning we’re told this is a huge problem in Christian’s life and it keeps him from being able to live normally. Then, for 90% of the book he goes about life just fine, with no ill effects from the pyromancy at all. In fact, it’s not even mentioned for the vast majority of the book.

This pattern of telling the reader that a character is unable or unwilling to do something and then having them blithely turn around and do it is repeated several times in the book. In fact, it was so prevalent that the whole book felt compromised by it. In a very real sense the plot is based on the stated fact that Christian can’t have close ties to anyone and then he falls for the first person he sees, develops deep feelings for them and nothing bad happens. And we’re not led to believe this was a mistaken belief on Christians part, but a departure from past events. I have to ask why.

To complicate this compromised feeling, the world isn’t at all defined. The reader is never told how or why Christian can control fire, or if anyone else can.

Lastly, and completely a personal pet peeve, but the author uses ‘his lover’ to describe the characters during emotional scenes and I thought that distanced them to the point I couldn’t wholly connect. And, even worse, Tanner is referred to as ‘the kid’ for a lot of the book, especially during sex scenes. Sorry, I get a little wigged out by that. I know ‘the kid’ in question is 20 to Christian’s 32, but it still makes me a little twitchy.

All in all, it was an ok read, but not more.

Reconstructed

Book Review of Reconstructed (Building a Hero #1), by Tasha Black

ReconstructedI downloaded a free copy of Reconstructed, by Tasha Black. It is currently free on Amazon. (Or was at the time of posting.)

Description from Goodreads:
Westley Worthington has it all. Piles of money, good looks, a head for business, and a seemingly limitless supply of women who want to please him. And that’s just the way he likes it. Until a brush with death causes him to rethink his priorities, and consider someone besides himself for the first time in his privileged life. 

Cordelia Cross has never had it easy. Her duty to her family has her working as an assistant to a man she hates just to pay her sister’s medical bills. When her arrogant boss alienates his last true friend, she finds herself promoted from schedule-managing coffee grabber, to the newest member of West’s inner circle. 

Tempers, and passions, ignite as the two start spending time together, until a shocking accident puts their newfound attraction on ice. When West is faced with the toughest trial of his life, Cordelia helps him realize that he has all the tools he needs to be a force for justice. 

Together, they must turn West into the hero no one ever thought he could be. 

Review:
Wellllll, it wasn’t baaaaad. It just wasn’t very good either. This is a romance above all else and I’m sorry, but it wasn’t enough to carry the plot. Mostly because it wasn’t at all developed and it was too diluted by the attempt at action/sci-fi. Plain Jane assistance works for jerk-face, womanizing boss and is inexplicably attracted to him. Jerk-face, womanizing boss can’t figure out why his starlets no longer appeal and all he can think of is plain Jane assistant. That’s pretty much it. It makes no sense. What’s more, it’s inferred that plain Jane assistant is smart and witty and capable, while all those other pretty, sexy, available women (read slutty, because that’s the subtext) and by extension all other women are not. This makes me twitchy.

Then there’s the attempt at a sci-fi, action plot. It fails almost completely because it’s just too weak. The characters survival stretches credulity. His recover is almost instantaneous. His accomplishments inhuman, but worst of all we’re not shown anything. I have this specific incident I want to use as an example, but it would be a spoiler. So lets just say someone does something impossible to save someone else. He tells that person to go, sacrificing himself. That’s the plan, anyhow. Cut scene, end chapter. New chapter, he is giving someone a gift, culminating in the pseudo-sex scene symbolizing their forever union. We do not see the action. We do not know how he survived. We don’t know what happened to the person saved. We don’t know the aftermath. We don’t know what happened to the ultimate villain, only the minion. We don’t even know who the second person, who disappeared without mention, had been. What was the point of including any of it, if the author was going to skip all the important stuff? Honestly, the book would have been stronger if she had just written an office romance.

The writing itself is ok, for the most part. But it fails at times. For example, the hero does have some character growth, random as if feels at times. But this is part of how the author let the reader know about it. “West was deepening before her eyes – becoming less a caricature of a playboy and more of a man.” Yep, got it. Thanks for making sure I didn’t miss the fact. Head/desk.

So, again, it’s not all bad, though I guess I made it sound like it was. There is a good side character, Dalton, and some obvious set up for future books. But it’s just not really very good.