Monthly Archives: October 2019

Broomsticks and Burials

Book Review of Broomsticks and Burials (Magic & Mystery, #1), by Lily Webb

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I received an audio copy fo Lily Webb‘s Broomsticks and Burials.

Description from Goodreads:

Reporter Zoe Clarke’s life has lost its magic. So when she gets a job offer in the middle of nowhere, Zoe jumps at the chance to make a name for herself only to find her new home is teeming with magic and paranormal beings—and those aren’t its only secrets. 

During a heated election for Head Witch, the most powerful position in town, Zoe’s predecessor was buried alive—and accusations are flying faster than broomsticks. Despite her editor’s orders to leave the story alone, Zoe can’t resist. 

From the front-running witch with a secret to the mysterious vampires pulling strings in the shadows, Zoe knows the truth is just under the surface. So after she discovers she has rare telepathic abilities, Zoe realizes she’s the only one who can keep digging. 

Will Zoe’s powers lead her to the murderer and the scoop of a lifetime? Or will they send her to an early grave? 

Review:

*Sigh* “It’s not you. It’s me.” This is one of those books. It’s a fine book….for someone else. As an explanatory example, the love interest is a golden retriever shifter. Can you get anymore pure than that? The whole book is just too cutesy and Mary Sue-like for my taste. There is absolutely no edge to it at all. And yes, I do realize it’s a cozy mystery. But cozy doesn’t really have to mean naive. (The word I want to use here is bland, but that will sound far more derisive than I mean it to.) This could almost pass for middle-grade fiction, it’s that innocent. 

Regardless, the writing is fine and the narrator (Erin Parker) did an excellent job with it. So, if you’re the sort of reader who really likes this sort of book, pick it up. If you like a bit of grit in your fantasy/paranormal/mystery books, you won’t find it here.

Review of Crone’s Moon (A Rowan Gant Investigation #5), by M.R. Sellars

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I purchased a signed copy of M.R. Sellars‘ Crone’s Moon at a local used bookstore.

Description from Goodreads:

My name is Rowan Gant, and it has been far too many days since I have heard the voices inside my head… No, I’m not insane—at least I hope I’m not. Actually, what I am is a Witch with a rare talent, even for Witches. I can hear the voices of the dead—murder victims, to be specific. Personally, I consider it less a talent and more a curse, especially given all the grief it brings me. But the cops think otherwise, which is why I find myself consulting for them on a regular basis. In fact, the running joke is that they should just go ahead and give me a badge. I sometimes fear they might make good on that threat.

However, like I said, it has been a while since any dead people have so much as given me the time of day. I’ll be honest, even though I never really wanted them to talk to me in the first place, now that they have stopped it seems almost like a piece of me is missing—a big piece.

As fate would have it, at the same time I’ve become persona non grata with the dead, it looks as if a serial killer is at work in the St. Louis area. The murders are pretty heinous, too, and that’s just the sort of thing that usually turns the rumbling chatter of the victims into a deafening roar and a blinding migraine for yours truly…but not this time, and I have no Earthly—or even unearthly—idea why.

What I do know is the Major Case Squad could benefit from my help on this, but I’ve got nothing to give them. Nothing at all… Unfortunately, it seems that there is now someone else with my rare affliction instead of me.

I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I want my curse back… 

Review:

First Blade

Book Review of First Blade (Awakening #1), by Jane Hinchey

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I own an copy of Jane Hinchey‘s First Blade. However, I’d forgotten that when I borrowed an audio copy from Hoopla.

Description through Goodreads:

Georgia Pearce possesses remarkable psychic abilities. When she discovers an ancient dagger hidden in her workshop, she knows it can only mean one thing. Trouble.

Trouble arrives in the form of Zak Goodwin, an entity more powerful – and definitely sexier – than any she’s come across before. However, when a horde of dangerous vampires show up and threaten Georgia and her sister, she has no choice but to ask Zak for help.

Along with a shifter cop, a band of vampire warriors, and her own psychic skills, Georgia sets out to stop the awakening of an immortal vampire who has the power to destroy the world — and discovers that staying alive isn’t nearly as dangerous as falling in love. 

Review:

Mechanically this was fine. But there is just literally nothing about it that isn’t super cliched. There is zero originality here and it has several of my least favorite PNR occurrences in it. Most notably, the only female vampire is stereotypically sexy and a villain because she wants the hero and has been spurned. This makes me want to scream, especially when female writers fall into this trap. As if women can only be heroines and villainous sex kittens (or rabbits, as she is literally referred to as Jessica Rabbit at one point), no in between. Plus it constantly perpetuates the myths that other women can’t be trusted, men are all we care about, and sex is only a weapon or a tool. I expect more and am getting increasingly frustrated and decreasingly patient when authors are too lazy to break out of this BS rut.

Add to that big one (big for me anyhow) the fact that the female main character is a psychic who has one vision in the whole book and the male lead is super skeezy for most of the book. All in all, this is a big fat fail for me.

Having said all that Brenda Eddy , the narrator, did a fine job.