Author Archives: sadie

King's Killer

Book Review of King’s Killer, by Ki Brightly & M.D. Gregory

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I received an Audible Code for King’s Killer, by Ki Brightly and M.d. Gregory.

Description from Goodreads:

Walking the Line Between Good and Evil
Physician’s assistant by day, doctor to the Kings of Men MC by night. Grant Arthur’s life is tough to balance, but he does what he can to help his brother, Aaron “King” Arthur, the president of the motorcycle club. Trapped as an outsider to the club by his brother for safety, Grant prefers the quiet life, until the Kings visit him in the middle of the night with an injured member. With them is Kai Woodrow, rugged and dangerous, who Grant can’t tear his gaze from. 

A Killer Who Gave Away His Heart
Reaper kills for a living. He’s the man King calls when he needs to send a gruesome message. Unfortunately, Reaper’s also human, and has all the needs of a man. He’s been in love with Grant since they shared a foster home as teens, but he knows how protective King is. Reaper could never betray his president and friend, even if Grant’s the only one who sees him as Kai. He settles with quietly stalking Grant, until one night they bring him an injured club member. 

One Wild Night
When Grant is nearly hurt, Kai can’t resist living in the moment, even if it’s bound to get him killed by King—or someone worse. The world doesn’t stop turning because he finally kissed Grant, but with any illegal motorcycle club, trouble comes along for the ride. When Grant is kidnapped, Kai would move heaven and hell to find him, and destroy the people who took him. 

Review:

Soooooo…..no.

The writing in this book is fine. However, despite a strong start it was a total flop for me. The reason being the sex. At one point while listening to this book I strolled by a mirror and noticed that I actually had my lip physically curled into a sneer. I was that displeased with it. 

Here’s the thing. I have no problem with the Master/pet, Sir/boy, D/s (whatever you want to call it) relationship as a kink. HOWEVER, in a book it really has to be tied in somehow. In King’s Killer, not only did nothing in the narrative suggest either man was into this sort of sex (and at no point had either felt the other out to see if the feeling was mutual), prior to the first sex scene the reader is given the distinct impression at least one of them is against it and the other has only ever really had one night stands. There is a scene in which Grant is speaking to another King, who is into whips, chains and such, and Kai thinks to himself that Grant is too good to get involved with such things. So, when Kai later literally pulls out a chain during sex it felt HORRIBLY incongruous.

Further, part of what Kai is supposed to love about Grant is that he can be his more gentle self. Kai is supposed to be the only man he doesn’t want to see him as a monster. So, the first thing he does once he gets him in bed is slap him and start calling him Boy in a distancing manner? No, it doesn’t fit the narrative AT ALL! I sneered every time he said it. 

I cannot stress enough how out of place this dynamic felt to the story. In fact, I strongly suspect it was only included because the whole Sir/Boy thing was a fad for a little while. I just started skipping through the sex scenes. 

Similarly, Kai and Grant were supposed to have known each other since they were children. Exact time frames aren’t given. But it’s more than 10 years, at least. Since Kai is older, he’s fantasized about Grant since he was 16, and Kai is 27 in the book. But the two seem like practical strangers. In the beginning Kai insists on keeping his distance from Kai because he’s loyal to Aaron and Grant is afraid of Kai. Then out of nowhere, with no instigating event, the two suddenly threw themselves at one another. What changed? NO idea. 

Lastly, I need to address the narrator. He did a fine job. Mechanically I have no complaints. But I think he was the wrong choice for this book. He sounds about 12. I looked him up. He seems to be mid-twenties (or there about), but he sounds young. This made the already unappealing sex scenes super awkward and uncomfortable for me. 

All in all, I felt like this book tried to accomplish something it wasn’t able to. It didn’t have the foundation to carry the dynamic the authors set out to develop (or fell into developing). 

I also have a few odd little notes. I’m a little befuddled by one author naming a character after themselves. It may be spelled differently, but I listened to the audio (narrated by Kaeomakana Tiwanak). So, that made no never mind to me. And I think there was a point late in the book where Grant was referred to as Arthur more than once. I was confused, maybe I was misunderstanding something.

Spell Caster

Book Review of Spell Caster, by Laura Greenwood

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cover of Spell Caster

I received an Audible code for a copy fo Laura Greenwood‘s Spell Caster. It’s narrated by Ruth Bailes.

Description from Goodreads:

Can magic and science come together to catch a murderer?  

Cassie’s world is turned upside down when she’s given an unusual blood sample to test. And when a mysterious man shows up at her lab telling her he has the answers she’s looking for, she’s pulled into a world of murder, investigations, and intrigue.  

Finally able to explore the connection between her powers as a witch and her expertise as a scientist to uncover why paranormals keep turning up dead. 
–  
Spell Caster is a reverse harem paranormal mystery set in the Paranormal Council Universe.

Review:

Sigh. This wasn’t bad. It was just sort of a mess. For one, it’s called a reverse harem, which infers (though admittedly doesn’t say) it’s erotic. Most reverse harem books you encounter are, so tying itself into a known erotic trope suggests it is too. It isn’t. The steamiest this gets is that Cassie kisses each of her mates once (and they’re not even descriptive passionate kisses) and then each man kisses her forehead or the top of her head once. There is no passion or eroticism in this at all. If she was interested, I’d let me 9yo read it. 

Similarly there isn’t any passion (erotic or otherwise) about the mating. Cassie has a calm conversation with each man and then moves on. It literally could have been a work meeting over coffee. (Once even is over coffee.) 

But most importantly, how this four-way mating might work isn’t addressed at all. It’s clarified that each man is her mate and they aren’t each others mates (no menage). But I have a hard time believing that will work with no jealousy. Why would these guys share a mate?

The book would have simply been IMMENSELY improved if the author had left the mate element out and let the book be about Cassie getting a new job and earning her spot on the Paranormal Crimes Investigation team. And I honestly think the author would only have had to cut about 2% of the text to make this true. I cannot emphasize enough how underdeveloped the mate aspect is. It’s so underdeveloped that it’s just a distraction and detraction in the plot. I think I’d have really liked the book if it was just a paranormal mystery. As it is, I was just disappointed.

Edit: On a side note, the title is Spell Caster, but Cassie doesn’t cast a single spell in the book. She uses magic, but never an actual spell. Just saying.

Venom and Vanilla

Book Review of Venom & Vanilla (The Venom Trilogy #1), by Shannon Mayer

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I borrowed and audio copy of Shannon Mayer‘s Venom & Vanilla (narrated by Saskia Maarleveld) through Amazon Prime. (I’ve just realized I can do this for audio books!)

Description from Goodreads:

Successful Seattle baker Alena Budrene doesn’t want to die. But when she’s infected with a lethal virus spread by supernatural beings, her only chance for recovery is to make a deal with the devil—or in this case, a warlock.

Though he saves her life, it looks nothing like the life she once knew—and neither does she. Alena is a new breed of “Supe” no one has ever seen before. Even the supernatural police don’t know what she is. Now exiled to the northern side of the Wall, which marks the divide between humans and Supes, Alena is thrust into a dark and magical new world.

But just as she begins to adjust to all things supernatural, she realizes that her transformation is the least of her worries—and it was no accident. She was chosen…to be killed by a Greek hero trying to make a name for himself once more.

Alena was brought up to be subservient, preferring creating to fighting, and vanilla and honey to blood. But that was then. Now, to survive, she must stand up for herself—and this time she’s got fangs. But will she be ready to use them?

Review:

I was not impressed. Another reviewer, who is on Mayer’s street team, says the author calls this an urban fantasy parody. That makes the whole ridiculous thing a little easier to swallow. But it still just isn’t very good. Maybe it needed to be more or less of what it is. More parody, if a parody or less parody-like if a serious novel. I don’t know. Maybe an author who writes in the urban fantasy genre shouldn’t be writing parodies of it unless they highlight what it is in big neon letters. Either way, almost everything about the book irritated me. 

First and foremost the stupid non-cursing grated like sandpaper. Hearing an adult woman, who is supposed to be kicking ass and taking names call someone a donkey’s butthole instead of a jackass was not cute. It was super irritating. Similarly, wanna RUIN any sexual tension you have going on? Throw in a “He grabbed my bumm.”

Mostly though Alena was just too perfect. She wakes up with the perfect body. She’s loyal and sacrificing. She makes allies out of enemies with nothing but her sass. She defeats her foes with aplomb. She saves the day and gets the guy (if she wants him). And while all of that sounds fine, to have it all in one character is over-reaching and moves right into underdeveloped and unbelievable. 

All in all, this was a big old bust for me. No thank you.