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Book Review: Tall, Dark & Dead – by Tate Hallaway

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I picked up a used copy of Tate Hallaway’s Tall, Dark & Dead at Savers some time back.

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The line between magic and sanity is very thin.
That’s part of why I, Garnet Lacey, quit cold turkey.
Never touch the stuff. No exceptions.
But magic is so addictive…and my inner Goddess Lilith is hard to resist. Besides, restraint isn’t easy when you manage Wisconsin’s premiere occult bookstore, and get customers like Sebastian Von Traum—piercing brown eyes, a sexy accent, and a killer body in denim and black leather. The only thing missing is an aura. Which means he’s dead… And that means trouble. I guess I’m a sucker for it. The Vatican witch hunters are on to us. My long-lost vampire ex has crawled out of the woodwork looking for action. And Sebastian’s frustrated ex is stirring in her grave. So what’s a girl to do if she’s hot for a dead man walking? Run like hell—and take full advantage of the nights…

my review

I was mostly just confused by this book. I think it was aiming for paranormal romance, but I finished it not at all convinced of the romance. I wasn’t even sure it was a happy-for-now, beyond ‘yay, we survived together.’ But it didn’t feel like urban fantasy or even magical realism, either. In the end, I came to the last page with a bewildered shrug. That’s a thing I’ve read now.

I liked Garnet well enough. But no one else particularly stood out to me, not even the theoretical male romantic lead(s). I appreciate that Hallaway eschewed some of the genre’s usual tropes, whichever genre she was aiming for. (Or maybe, being that the book is a bit older, when it was written, the genre tropes were not yet as cemented as they are now.) But I also think that doing it less than successfully is part of my confusion about how to feel about the book.

All in all, I don’t think I’ll continue the series.

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Other Reviews:

Book Review: Tall, Dark and Dead, by Tate Hallaway

 

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Audiobook Review: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, by Megan Bannen

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I borrowed a copy of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, by Megan Bannen, from Libby for a solo road trip.

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Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.

Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.

If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?

my review

If anyone is ever out there looking for books with softly broken, non-toxic men, I would offer up Hart. He’s lonely, gruff, and problematically hung up on past traumas. But he’s also kind, introspective, and full of emotion. I liked Mercy well enough. But I also found her to be a bit more of a generic romance heroine: snarky, loyal to family, and quirky in all the expected ways. Then there was Penn and Mercy’s family, who were the comedic relief. But Penn stole the show for me.

The world was interesting, but it’s small. We get a feel for it and its magic, but see very little of it, and much of it is just sketched out. There’s an appreciatively varied cast, and a thread was left open for book two without a cliffhanger. Michael Gallagher and Rachanee Lumayno did a good job with the dual POVs. Though some of Lumayno’s reading annoyed me for completely personal, not quality-related reasons.

Other Reviews:

🎧 The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

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Audioboo Review: The Knight and the Moth, by Rachel Gillig

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I borrowed a copy of Rachel Gillig‘s The Knight and the Moth through Libby for a road trip.

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Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

my review

I really enjoyed this. The heroine was kind, strong, and determined to save herself and everyone else. There were some serious elder daughter vibes going on there. But I did find that she triumphed in ways and moments that she really shouldn’t have. The MMC was wonderful, loyal, and interesting. A little less so after he and the FMC pair up, though. He morphed into a generic perfect boyfriend. Maude and the bat-winged gargoyle were marvelous side characters, the gargoyle especially. He added the humor and comic relief that the story needed. And the world was intriguing, with a subtle kind of magic.

There is a lot to appreciate, but I did find almost everything, even the twist at the end, pretty predictable, and it ends on a cliffhanger. But the narrator,  Samantha Hydeson, did a marvelous job with the narration. It was a pleasure to listen to. 

Other Reviews:

🎧 The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig