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Omega

Book Review of Omega (Demon Chaser #1), by Charlene Hartnady

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OmegaOmega (by Charlene Hartnady) is book number two of my Omega Weekend Challenge. I got the book from Amazon, almost a year ago, and I believe it was free at the time.

Description from Goodreads:
Demon Chasers… Protectors of humanity. Sworn to uphold the peace. Oath bound to keep the existence of demons a secret.

Katy is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life…or at least, that’s what she thinks right up until she’s abducted and for no apparent reason.

Demon Chaser Cole rescues Katy from the claws of the Alpha of a resident demon wolf pack. Hunted by Bain and his pack he must try and find out why the wolves are willing to risk a two hundred year long standing agreement with the Demon Chasers in order to have her.

The Chaser suspects that Katy is not as innocent as what she seems. Cole had better move fast though because the longer he’s with the raven haired beauty the more impossible he finds it to resist her.

Review:
OMG, that was just one long series of cliché tropes, one after another after another. The whole thing is basically the old stand-by ‘woman is the mysterious Chosen One, but doesn’t know it. She is hunted by the baddy that wants to claim her and rescued by the hero who actually does claim her. In the mean time, she passes out a lot and does stupid things like insist on trying on clothing prior to purchase while being actively hunted, giving the baddies time to find her again. Because obviously a good, sexy fit is more important than anything else, in the moment.’

It starts out with a bad case of the ‘for some reasons.’ For some reason he wanted to protect her. For some reason he was unaccountably attracted to her. For some reason he trusted her. For some reason he told her things he’d never told anyone else. For some reason he HAD TO HAVE HER. For some reason she felt safe with him. For some reason she was attracted to him, even though they’d just met. For some reason she was wet for him. For some reason she HAD TO HAVE HIM. Just to be clear, from a readers perspective, ‘for some reason’ is never enough of a motivating factor.

After the ‘for some reasons,’ we moved on to the fact that the plot basically boils down to who gets to have sex with the girl. Honestly, haven’t we moved past heroines being reduced to their sexual availability and heroes being the man who wins the big P in the end?

Then, of course, we had sex by the numbers. 1. kiss. 2. sucking nipples. 3. fingering clit. 4. slip a finger in and be shocked at the wetness. 4. mutterings about being beautiful and ‘so tight.’ 5. oral sex and instant orgasm number one. 6. PnV penetration, instant orgasm number two. 7. Roaring male climax and instant female orgasm number three. All in about a paragraph, so no room for any emotional build-up or anything and all this after thinking about ‘pounding her without foreplay.’ (Oh, yeah, so sexy. Argh. No.) Tell me fellow readers, how many times have YOU read this EXACT SAME sex scene? I know I’ve probably read it a hundred times.

But there are still more cliché tropes to be had, because we move right into the ‘I love him, but I have to give him up’ and ‘I love her, but I she’ll be better off without me.’ No one discusses this. No one admits their feelings; all those feelings that developed in about two days out of freakin’ no where. There is no chemistry between these two. And of course, we end with her going to him and demanding he accept her. Cliché! Overused! Horrible!

And all of this is decorated with writing like this: “Probably from the fact that he could smell her from here, like a summer breeze and candle lit dinners but also of red lace and leather.” Someone want to tell me what that actually smells like and does red lace really smell differently than, say, blue or white? I noticed a distinct lack of commas too.

I mean, I know these kinds of stories keep selling, so they keep getting written and if they’re your cup of tea, by all means have at it. But for me, I don’t know if I can run in the other direction fast enough. If this hadn’t been read as part of a challenge I almost certainly wouldn’t have finished it.

Omega Rising

Book Review of Omega Rising (Omega Force #1), by Joshua Dalzelle

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Omega RisingI’ve had Omega Rising, by Joshua Dalzelle in my cloud for almost 3 years. I originally picked it up at Amazon.  I’ve opted to finally read it as the first in my Omega Weekend Challenge. It is the first of six books containing the word Omega in the title and I believe the only one that doesn’t involve werewolves.

Description from Goodreads:
Jason Burke was a man hiding from himself in a small cabin high in the American Rocky Mountains when his simple, quiet life was shattered one night by what he first assumed was an aviation mishap. But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.

He suddenly finds himself trapped on a damaged alien spacecraft and plunged into a universe of interstellar crime lords and government conspiracies, along the way meeting strange new friends… and enemies. As he struggles to find his way back home he is inexorably drawn deeper into a world where one misstep could mean his death. Or worse. He desperately wants to get back to Earth, but it may be the end for him. 

… or is it just the beginning?

Review:
This was fun. It reminded me a lot of Farscape, which was always a cheesy, guilty pleasure of mine. So, I liked the premise and that really was enough for me to enjoy it. And the plot does roll along at a good clip. But the book has some fairly serious drawbacks, in my opinion.

For one, Jason has no real history or depth to his character. Nor does anyone else. Second, the book suffers from allowing its main character too many successes too quickly. For example, Jason finds himself in space, with no knowledge of anything, and within a ridiculously short amount of time he’s giving technical advice on how to save the ship to a trained pilot. He easily, one might say accidentally, becomes captain of a ship with an exceedingly skilled and loyal crew. He never stresses or gets flustered, even when faced with the impossible. It’s too much. There is literally no challenge that he doesn’t overcome almost effortlessly.

Third, the book needs a bit of editing. It’s readable, but if you pay attention to that kind of thing, you notice. Lastly, since it’s something I’ve decided to start pointing out when I see it, in an attempt to highlight how disturbingly common it is, even today, there are no female characters. Seriously, none, not even a side character or service provider. None.

So, in the end, as a just-for-the-fun-of-it, not-gonna-delve-too-deeply-into-it kind of read it is fun. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but worth reading.

Between Ghosts

Book Review of Between Ghosts, by Garrett Leigh

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Between GhostsI received a copy of Garrett Leigh‘s Between Ghosts from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
In 2003, journalist Connor Regan marched through London to add his voice to a million others, decrying the imminent invasion of Iraq. Eight months later, his brother, James, was killed in action in Mosul.

Three years on, Connor finds himself bound for Iraq to embed with an elite SAS team. He sets his boots on the ground looking for closure and solace—anything to ease the pain of his brother’s death. Instead he finds Sergeant Nathan Thompson.

Nat Thompson is a veteran commander, hardened by years of combat and haunted by the loss of his best friend. Being lumbered with a civilian is a hassle Nat doesn’t need, and he vows to do nothing more than keep the hapless hack from harm’s way.

But Connor proves far from hapless, and too compelling to ignore for long. He walks straight through the steel wall Nat’s built around his heart, and when their mission puts him in mortal danger, Nat must lay old ghosts to rest and fight to the death for the only man he’s ever truly loved. 

Review:
I was disappointed with this one. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it but it never really grabbed me. My primary issue was that I never felt the chemistry between Conner and Nat. The romance was basically just insta-lust and while the reader was told many times how meaningful their encounters were, it all felt hollow since it was built on nothing.

My secondary issues was that the war was little more than a setting, not truly part of the plot, as far as I was concerned. Sure, Leigh had some interesting things to say against the violence of war and the meaninglessness of the West’s war in the Middle East (all of which I actually agree with) and the setting was vivid and well drafted, but the vast majority of the book was the two men mooning over each-other in a war torn Iraqi setting, rather than anything really incorporating that environment. Which meant, in the end, when something happened that actually did throw Conner against the people of Iraq, it felt as if the book had taken a departure from the previous 80% or so of the book. This is a romance story before a war story, for sure.

I don’t want to sound negative, because I did like the book even if it’s not making a favorites list. I thought the characters were well drawn. I especially appreciated the easy way that Nat’s bi-sexuality is handled and simply Leigh’s willingness to have a bi character. As I said, the setting was well described. I agreed with it’s politics. There was some humor in it. All good things.

It’s just that books that are predominantly based on ‘this person fills some mysterious missing void in another for no observable reason, therefore every little interaction is described as sooooo important, sooooo meaningful, soooo earth shatteringly better than anything else’ always annoy me a little. And there is a certain writing style that goes along with this that is like sandpaper on my skin.