Author Archives: Sadie

Book Review of Dragon Bound and Storm’s Heart (Elder Races #1 & 2), by Thea Harrison

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I borrowed Dragon Bound and Storm’s Heart, by Thea Harrison, from my local library.

Dragon BoundDescription from Goodreads:
Half-human and half-Wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the Wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their Dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful—and passionate—of the Elder Races.

As the most feared and respected of the Wyrkind, Dragos Cuelebre cannot believe someone had the audacity to steal from him, much less succeed. And when he catches the thief, Dragos spares her life, claiming her as his own to further explore the desire they’ve ignited in each other.

Pia knows she must repay Dragos for her trespass, but refuses to become his slave—although she cannot deny wanting him, body and soul.

Review:
I enjoyed this well enough. I liked Pia’s backbone and thought Dragos was fun. I especially liked the way some of his behaviours came across as dragon-like without it ever being directly described as so. However, there was a lot of head hopping that irritated me, the plot was really only a thin scaffold to hang the romance on and I thought that the writing was really repetitive. Things like the fact that on the first page, which is only really a half page because of the chapter heading, the word ‘so’ is used 7 times (it sucked so bad…, fifteen minutes or so…, she was so freaking dead…, he screwed her over so royally…, etc). Also Dragos is described as ‘aggressive’ about a thousand times and his eyes are raptor-like on every third page. I don’t really understand how or why the book has won so many awards. I wouldn’t call it great, but I did enjoy it in a light, fluffy kind of way.

Storm's HeartDescription from Goodreads:
During the rule of her murderous Dark Fae uncle, Thistle “Tricks” Periwinkle found sanctuary among the Wyr in New York. Her ethereal beauty and sparkling personality won the hearts of the public, but after her uncle’s death, there are those who don’t want to see her ascend to the throne.

Able to wield thunder and lightning, Wyr sentinel Tiago Black Eagle has ruled the skies for centuries. His massive build and thunderous power make him one of the Wyr’s best weapons. And he’s sent to protect Tricks when she’s almost assassinated in Chicago.

Soon, both Tiago and Tricks will fall prey to the stormy hunger that engulfs them—a passion that will shake the very foundation of all the worlds.

Review:
We’ve all read this book a couple dozen (hundred?) times before, regardless of the character names, environments, species, etc. The big, bad, beastly alpha male is blindsided by his sudden passion for some surprising little slip of a thing, who he worships for her sexy body and what he sees as her amazing inner strength. He shows this beguilement by trying to control every aspect of her life. Meanwhile, she squawks a bit at his overbearing manner, but secretly loves letting him overpower her and spends a third of the book fantasising about how else the barely human man might dominate her. Sound familiar? Yeah, I know.

I’m afraid this was a serious case of ‘meh’ for me. I didn’t hate it, but it did little for me either. The issue is that it’s a bon-bon. I can’t even call it cotton candy, which a person will read for the simple ephemeral wisp of momentary enjoyment. No, this is something you go specifically to the store to buy, curl up on the couch with the box and purposefully indulge in. Indulge in what? Vicariously experiencing what it’s like to have some über-male make you the absolute centre of his universe. That’s what Tiago does to Tricks. He worships her with every ounce of his beastly self and it touches on some primal female desire apparently, because I realise a lot of people love this kind of thing. More power to you, but I need a little more. Yes, I think seeing the “holocaust of a male” go weak at the knees for his mate is sexy, but it’s pretty much all he (or anyone else) did in this book. It’s just page after page after page of him growling how sexy she is, or that she’s his, or what he’s going to do to her when they get to a bed, or how he’d do anything to protect her, or how he’d never leave her, etc. Redundant much? In return, Tricks drools over his muscled, dangerous body and scary, antisocial personality again and again and again. Yep, still redundant. None of this is helped by the tendency to use the same descriptives repeatedly. Tiago’s face is described as some version of hatchet hewn or knife bladed about a million times.

There is a thin thread of plot-line tying everything together, but it’s not much one. The world was essentially set out in book one and the characters were introduced (though by no means gotten to know) in the previous book. So apparently forgoing the character development was seen as acceptable. (There really isn’t any.) So, without much in the line of plot, world-building or character development what do you fill 300 pages with? Yep, you guessed it, internal emotions, declaration off love and sex. That’s about all you’ll get here. As fantasy fodder, it fits the bill, but if you’re looking for ANYTHING more substantial it’s a fail. There’s no substance to it and there isn’t meant to be. And while I can kind of see what people see it in, if it’s all there is to a book it just feels cheap.

Book Review of Touched and Death Rejoices, by A. J. Aalto

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I grabbed A. J. Aalto‘s novel, Touched (The Marnie Baranuik Files, #1) from the Amazon free list. I then borrowed a copy of book two, Death Rejoices and snatched a copy of the short story Cold Company, which is perma-free.

TouchedDescription from Goodreads:
The media has a nickname for Marnie Baranuik, though she’d rather they didn’t; they call her the Great White Shark, a rare dual-talented forensic psychic. Twice-Touched by the Blue Sense–which gives her the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects–Marnie also has a doctorate in preternatural biology and a working knowledge of the dark arts. She is considered without peer in the psychic community. 

Then her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a queasy heart and a serial killer in the wind, leaving her a public flop and a private wreck. When the FBI’s preternatural crimes unit tracks her down at a remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, her quiet retirement is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Marnie figures the only real mystery is which one will kill her first. 

Too mean to die young, backed up by friends in cold places, and running with a mouth as demure as a cannon’s blast, Marnie Baranuik is about to discover that there’s no such thing as quitting time when you’re Touched.

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this one. Yes, it got completely ridiculous after a while. Yes, Marnie’s use of juvenile word’s like “ginormous” or “poopyhead’ almost drove me to distraction, as did Harry’s nonsensical old-English-speak. Yes, some bits of it were a tad predictable. Yes, I finished up with questions remaining. But yes, I roared with laughter and just basically had a good time with the story and the characters. What more can I really ask for? I know this is a painfully short review, but I’m off to start book two.

Death RejoicesDescription from Goodreads:
Marnie Baranuik is back, and this time, the Great White Shark of psychic investigations has “people skills” and a new assistant who seems to harbor an unhealthy curiosity about Harry, her revenant companion. Together, they’ve got a whole lot of questions that need answering. Is an ancient vampire hunting in Denver? Who is stalking Lord Dreppenstedt? How do you cure a slipper-humping bat, ditch an ogre, or give a demon king the slip? And what the hell was she thinking, swearing off cookies?

Teaming up with her sexual nemesis, Special Agent Mark Batten, and their long-suffering supervisor, Gary Chapel, Marnie discovers that vampire hunters aren’t easy to rescue, secrets don’t stay buried, and zombies sure are a pain in the ass to kill.

Review:
Marnie and her menagerie continued to crack me up in this book. I’ll admit that I found her antics a little over the top here though. Where in book one she was mildly self-depreciating and would concede to mistakes or causing chaos, here she seemed to brag about and revel in it. As a result she eventually started to convince me, the reader, that she really must be as much of a ditzy ‘silly little poppet’ as she claimed to be. I’m not really into stupid heroines. Plus, Diet Dr. Pepper! Really?

Additionally, I wasn’t able to successfully get my head around her ability to simultaneously commit herself to Harry, but also still lust over Mark. I needed some closure, either in the form of choosing one over the other or a ménage à trois. The situation was untenable and by the end its continuation started to forced and unnatural.

Despite a few grumbles on my part (Harry’s ridiculously antiquated English-ese, for example) I just plain enjoyed myself with the book. It’s fluffy and fun. Sometimes that’s all I’m looking for.

Betrayed By Desire

Book Review of Betrayed By Desire (Kyron’s Worlde: Foretold #1), by E.S. Tilton

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Betrayed by Desire: ForetoldI grabbed Betrayed By Desire, by E.S. Tilton from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Llayentia’s outcast psychics foresee destruction at the finish of nearly all time streams. Grim with determination, The Seven plot to protect their world…at all cost.

Kyra Atar is one irresistible assassin. And she knows it. Wielding freni-kyn illusions, she slips into the persona of anyone she wants…with one exception…herself.

Recruited into a life he despises, illegal half-breed Tahrek Mitan shifts from assignment to assignment without hope of relief. His newest job is simple. Betray and execute a fellow assassin…Kyra.

While struggling for survival the two must defeat the deadliest stalker of all: forbidden desire.

Review:
This was an entertaining enough read. It has an interesting world, interesting species, and an interesting plot. After a disjointed and confusing start, I spent the first half of the book really enjoying myself. However, around the 65% mark the book started to drift and I started to lose interest.

The issue is that, while the book started out with assassins doing cool assassin things, it then hit a strange domestic plateau in which very little relevant to the preceding story happened—reconnecting with friends, learning about herbs, setting up trading routes, etc. Not only did this take up a lot of time in an already gangly and too long story, I was left thinking, ‘What happened to the book I was reading? This doesn’t seem to be the same one.’ And it never got back to the first one. The book has a very abrupt ending, leaving all the threads open (that’s right, nothing concludes) and the story at the end feels very different from the one that began.

You see, this book takes the long view of history, which seems to give it permission to diverge from its primary plot-line regularly. I wish it hadn’t, but that’s just me. To elaborate, the book has five prologues. (Don’t ask me why, I don’t know either, but I’d have been lost if I hadn’t read them.) Between prologues four and five, 253 years passed. Then, between the end of prologue 5 and beginning of chapter one, 2,658 years passed!

Considering the length of time covered in the first 10% of the book, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that the remaining story couldn’t be contained within one volume. However, it seemed to me that it could have been condensed a bit. Long, LONG passages were dedicated to comparatively unimportant things, bonding ceremony preparations or dreams, for example, and most of these were contained within the not primary plot portions of the book.

My point is that in a story that already covered thousands of years and looks to take many more years to conclude, such forays into detailed mundanity need to either be curtailed or readers need to understand in advance that this is going to be a very long series, with each book containing only a fragment of the larger story but a lot of detail on the rest of the characters’ lives. Expect no closure here.

As an example, the seven children being bred in prologue one never appear anywhere in the book, or at least nowhere that the reader knows that they are one of the seven. This whole prologue seems to be a set up for something that will happen in some future book. There were a number of small things like this. The bit about a man killing women who remind him of Kyra, is another example. He was never mentioned after his brief 3-4 page blip into existence. (Though reading the blurb of book two, I bet he shows up there.) But scattered through the book were random, anchorless reveals that serve no apparent purpose.
Now, I must admit that I loved Tahrek. He’s broken, but extremely loyal and caring, not to mention badass. I melted a bit every-time he spoke. I liked Kyra, but I didn’t love her. She seemed inconsistent to me. One minute throwing herself at Tahrek sexually, the next accusing him of taking advantage of her. For half the book, she was a standoffish sort, the last half a giggling, hugging sort.

I think something else that contributed to the different feel of the first and second half of the book was that toward the end, once the Kyra and Tahrek were comfortable with one another, they started using names a lot. This often breaks the flow of dialogue and feels unnatural. I didn’t notice this pesky problem in the beginning, but I found myself gritting my teeth with it at the end.

With the exception of the too frequent names, I thought most of the actual writing was perfectly passable. The POVs jumped around a lot, but it wasn’t too disruptive. There were some random mysterious messages in a rough-paper-like graphic that felt really gimmicky and out of place. Plus, whomever the communications are between is never directly addressed, leaving the reader to wonder what they’re all about. (One more reveal for some future book maybe.)

So, in the end, I imagine this will be a really interesting SERIES, but as an individual book, I was disappointed. There is just so much set up for a really long and detailed story that I feel like someone handed me the first 300 pages of a 4,000 page epic. But if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to a lengthy series of reads, this one might be worth picking up.