Category Archives: books/book review

Drawing Dead

Book Review of Drawing Dead (Dana McIntyre Must Die #1), by S.M. Reine

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I picked up a freebie copy of Drawing Dead, by SM Reine from Amazon.

Description:

The vampire slayer is turning into a vampire? Over her dead body. 

Dana McIntyre has been bitten by a master vampire. She’s infected with the venom. And after killing hundreds of vampires to keep Las Vegas safe, she’d rather die than turn. 

There might be a cure. But the only way to get it is through Nissa Royal, a vampire with close ties to the masters of Las Vegas. Nissa is dangerous — too dangerous to be allowed to live, much less work alongside. 

But if Dana dies, vampires win Vegas. If she doesn’t die, she becomes one of the bloodless. The cure’s her only chance. In this deadly game of hold ’em, Dana’s drawing dead, and whatever happens next, there’s no changing her losing hand. Dana only knows one thing: If she’s going down, she’s taking as many vampires as possible on her way out… 

Review:

I was pretty disappointed in this book. But largely because I went in with really high hopes. I bought it because the heroine is a fat, butch lesbian and how often do they get to be the heroes in a story…an action hero no less? It wasn’t the diversity aspect of the story that let me down though. Dana is just as the cover suggests (and YES she even got to be fat and butch on the cover!). She’s married to a butch-ish woman. So, Reine didn’t even play into the ‘one of them has to be femme’ trap. I love that. The police chief is a ball-busting trans woman, and it’s engaged in the book, not just dropped in as a token. And not all the other characters are straight, white, cis, etc. So, I’m not disappointed to have bought a book that includes a lot of things I wish more books incorporated (Positively represented fat women on book covers? Hell yes, more!).

Unfortunately, what let me down was that Dana is so darned unlikeable. She’s rude and vile and dismissive of people who care for her. I don’t mean that as any sort of ‘proper women don’t act that way.’ Heck yes, give me more cursing, belching, sarcastic women. I mean it in the sense that she’s almost cruel to a wife that loves her, prioritizing her own wishes over heartfelt pleas. She snarks off to people who are actively trying to help her, as if they are being unreasonable, etc. 

What’s more, Dana is basically suicidal for a large part of this book, which means she runs head-long into battles with so little regard for her own life that it felt too much like a miracle that she continued to survive. Heroes/heroines that are so perfect in battle that they never even consider fear is are flat and uninteresting, IMO. 

All in all, Reine’s writing is fine. And despite there being 40 books in this universe (as of the publication of Drawing Dead, the book is readable as a standalone. But I wouldn’t go so far as to claim you don’t feel the lack of those other books. There were several decisions important in this book that are made based on the events of other books, and you notice.

dying for a living

Book Review of Dying for a Living, by Kory M. Shrum

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I picked up an ebook copy of Kory M. Shrum‘s Dying for a Living as an Amazon Freebie in 2015. Then, I purchased the Audible version in my recent audiobook buying spree

Description from Goodreads:

On the morning before her 67th death, it is business as usual for Jesse Sullivan: meet with the mortician, counsel soon-to-be-dead clients, and have coffee while reading the latest regeneration theory. Jesse dies for a living, literally. As a Necronite, she is one of the population’s rare 2% who can serve as a death replacement agent, dying so others don’t have to. Although each death is different, the result is the same: a life is saved, and Jesse resurrects days later with sore muscles, new scars, and another hole in her memory.

But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself—or die trying.

Review:

This was OK. That’s the best I can say for it. It wasn’t bad, but nothing in it lit me up either. It’s and interesting world Shrum created and I appreciated the bi-sexual lead, but I also found Jesse’s constant sarcasm annoying and I often found her responses to things stupid. Here’s an example, someone is trying to kill you, you know this. They’ve almost succeeded once already, in fact. A friend calls and frantically tells you that people are coming for you and you have to get out of the house fast. Do you drop everything and run or do you whine about how you just made a sandwich and could leaving wait? Hmmmm, this is apparently a hard decision because Jesse did the latter. There were several similar instances. There were also a couple ‘well, isn’t that convenient’ moments. The final one with Lane, especially. So, while the book is competently written, it wasn’t a winner for me.

Now, a word of the narration by Hollie Jackson. She did a fine job in the narrative parts of the story and I thought she did a fine job with Jesse and the male characters, as well. However, each and every other female in the book is voiced with such saccharine, borderline teasing tones that I wanted to slap them all. None felt natural. Never have a met a woman who actually speaks like all of these women do.

Review of Chaos Station, by Jenn Burke & Kelly Jensen

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I purchased a copy of Chaos Station, by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen.

Description from Goodreads:

The war with the alien stin is over, but Felix Ingesson has given up on seeing his lover, Zander Anatolius, ever again. Zander’s military file is sealed tighter than an airlock. A former prisoner of war, Felix is attempting a much quieter life keeping his ship, the Chaos, aloft. He almost succeeds, until Zander walks on board and insists that Felix isn’t real.

A retired, broken super soldier, Zander is reeling from the aftereffects of his experimental training and wants nothing more than to disappear and wait for insanity to claim him. Then he sees footage of a friend and ally—a super soldier like him—murdering an entire security squad with her bare hands and a cold, dead look in her eyes. He never expected to find Felix, the man he’d thought dead for years, on the ship he hired to track her down.

Working with Felix to rescue his teammate is a dream come true…and a nightmare. Zander has no exit strategy that will leave Felix unscathed—or his own heart unbroken.

Review:

I enjoyed this. It walks the line between romantic sci-fi and romance in space, and honestly I’m not sure which side it falls on. Either way however, I liked it. 

It’s only about 200 pages long, so it’s not super deep and characters aren’t as well-developed as they might be if the book had another 100 pages. But for a as short as it is, Burke and Jensen create a likable cast and enough of a world to give them life. I rooted for Felix and Zed. My heart broke for Emma. And the rest of the Chaos crew were fun too. 

I did think it dragged a bit in the middle, not progressing in plot as much as you might expect. And the rescue was a tad anti-climactic and border-line repetitive. But overall, I can’t wait to read book two.