Category Archives: books/book review

Review of Roxanne Rhoads’ Hex and the Single Witch

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I grabbed Roxanne Rhoads‘ novel Hex and the Single Witch off of the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:

Anwyn Rose is descended from a long line of powerful witches yet she can barely cast spells young witchlings have mastered. She has one functioning witch gift, the power of knowing, which she puts to good use as a Detective on Flint’s Preternatural Investigation Team (aka the P.I.T. Crew).

It’s a new era in Vehicle City, supernaturals are running the town. The P.I.T has their hands full with paranormal crimes. Top priority is a serial killer, who appears to be a vampire, draining young women in the city.

Anwyn is on the case with her sexy partner Detective Mike Malone. 
Complicating things is her relationship Galen, a vampire who looks more guilty than innocent, although Anwyn trusts her instincts even if her power is on the fritz.

Mysterious spells, compromising situations, and a possible demon on the loose make it hard to focus on the case, but Anwyn has to make things right before the human police execute the wrong vampire.

Review:

Anwyn Rose is a witch and a member of the Preternatural Investigation Team of Flint, Michigan. She is partnered with a steamy hunk of a man whose smarmy harassment seems to hide a delicious, Carmel-soft core and is tentatively sticking her toes into the supernatural dating realm with an emotionally damaged, possible dangerous, sex-on-a-stick vampire. Things regularly heat up. This is PNR, bordering on erotica. Yum

What I like about Anwyn and her situation is that she is an adult. While she worries about the course of her relationships and how it might affect her work, she never has to bother with the juvenile, ‘What is this strange feeling I have,’ does he like me back,’ ‘How could he love someone like me?’ She understands her own lust, knows what she wants, and is willing and able to recognise the same in her partner. It is refreshing to not have to wade through all that angst. She is also really funny.

Though not HE, I appreciate that the author is willing to acknowledge that immortal beings or morally corrupt demons aren’t really going to care much about traditional mores against same-gender encounters. There aren’t a lot of them in the book and they are brief sighting really, but they occur as easily and unobtrusively as any other…and are damn hot. By the same token, demons are involved, so reasonably so is a little bit of sexual deviance that can be a little on the uncomfortable side.

Poor Flint, Michigan is in trouble. Some sort of ‘big bad’ is coming and Anwyn and her team are trying to figure it out. She manages to solve a few hiccup-type problems in this book and make a little headway into the hex issue, but definitely doesn’t solve THE problem. I guess I’ll have to wait for the sequel for that. It also felt like the immediate Devlin/Galen/Roarke issue resolved itself far too easily. All-in-all it was an enjoyable evening’s read.

Book Review of Zoe Forward’s Dawn of a Dark Knight

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I grabbed Forward‘s PNR Dawn of a Dark Knight off of the Amazon free list. 

Description from Goodreads:

In the shadows of our world, a secret band of warriors fights to protect us. They are the last line of defense against an evil no human can stop.

An ancient nemesis has resurfaced. Duty demands that Ashor Vlahos, Scimitar Magi commander, recruit a magical healer to fortify the remaining eight magi. The gods’ choice is the woman who helped him escape torture a decade ago. Ashor couldn’t have imagined a better punishment for his vow-breaker homicidal incidents than for the gods to bind him irrevocably to the only woman in the universe he cannot have. The soul-searing desire she ignites in him is strictly forbidden.

Kira Hardy, M.D. is a brilliant, hardworking internal med resident with big secrets. But when Ashor asks for aid after a brutal daemon attack, she is sucked into his dangerous, secret world. Enslavement to the magi, no matter how hot they are, may be an unattractive life plan, but being targeted for death by their enemies is less tolerable.

She must trust the sexy, tormented Ashor to keep her safe while he must deny his ultimate desire and keep Kira at arm’s length lest he bring destruction down on them both. As a centuries-old evil catches up to them, they face a crucial decision–follow the gods’ rules or follow their hearts.

Review:

My first thought on reading Dawn of a Dark Knight is that the cover doesn’t match it. IMO it needs one a little more like those of J.R. Ward‘s or Elisabeth Naughton‘s, something that screams PNR because that is what this is. Like the Black Dagger Brotherhood or the Eternal Guardians the men of Dawn of a Dark Knight, the Magi, are a bonded group of hard as nails, hot as fire, destined for one woman defenders of the innocent. And like other such books in the genre the sexual tensions run high and the sex smolders, but my favourite part is the males’ interactions with one another. They fight to the death for one another, but also rag each other constantly. They laugh at each other’s pain and wheedle anyone with a perceptible weakness, all in good fun of course. This made for plenty of funny moments.

Though side characters I also loved Kane and Markus, especially Kane. Next to the two main characters I think he was my favourite in the book. I expect he will play prominent role in future books in the series, but of courses that is only my speculation…or hope. 

It did feel a little bit like after fighting her destiny the whole book, Kira suddenly and for no apparent reason (other than that she should have already) finally gave in to it. I couldn’t identify a single causal event or moment. Maybe there didn’t need to be, but I found myself thinking, ‘Hey, when did she change her mind?’ There were also a few noticeable editing mistakes, but nothing that irritated me enough to put me off reading further. 

Since Wild Rose Press  only just released this one I don’t know when a second is expected, but I’d be happy to read it when it is out. 

Book Review of Ryan Attard’s First Born

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Author, Ryan Attard, sent me an ARC of First Born for review.

Description from Goodreads:
Meet Erik Ashendale, wizard. He solves all kinds of problems of a magical and freaky nature. Especially when it comes to hunting down the supernatural. So when he and his talking cat are asked to protect a girl who’s being chased by a big-time demon, they can hardly refuse, especially when the rent’s due.

Once the fight takes shape, Erik and the rest of his unlikely companions have to pit themselves against the elemental forces of good and evil: angels, demons, a Japanese monster, 1/7 of the Deadly Sins, talking pets . . . and even a morally ambiguous twin sister gets thrown into the mix. In order to stay alive, Erik must deal with his terrible past and the secrets of his family. And he must never forget the most important rule of his twisted world: Nothing is ever what it seems.

Review:

I was caught off guard by the beginning of First Born. It is told in past tense first person and recounts quite a lot of action right off the bat. It honestly felt a little bit like someone’s role-playing narration. There was just too much and this led to a bit of a WTF moment. But as I read on the voice became really distinctive. It reminded me a lot of the Guy Noir segments of A Prairie Home Companion on NPR. Do you know those?

In the skits Guy Noir is a private detective who recounts the events of his cases, some of them quite eyebrow raising, in an often placid tone. I sensed that here too. Erik blithely relates feats of his own death defying skill,  strength and bravery as if they are little more than humdrum. It led to bit of a Lake Wobegone Effect. (This is the impression that everything about a person or place is superior to the average, even if it isn’t really.) 

It all seemed a little unreal, and not just because it was magic and all.  It felt like that kid we all knew in high school. The one who exaggerated everything. If he saw the lead cheerleader adjusting her pantyhose he would brag to his friends that he saw her naked. He knew that his friends knew that he was full of shit, but he also knew that they would let him get away with it because they were in on the joke, him. 

Here is an example from page 22.

“Hey, ugly,” I said. My voice was calm but every word oozed ethereal power as if I were possessed by the spirit of an arcane deity.

Taken on its own this just feels horridly over written. I mean who says this about themselves? Such descriptions are generally reserved for third person narrators because they can avoid sounding too smug. This leave Erik feeling like a puffed up egoist. That’s before we even consider that in the midst of a life and death battle the character was unlikely to really have been paying attention to the tone of his own voice in order to know what it sounded like and make the future comparison. This only further undermines the credibility of the statement.

But as I read the book more as a magical noir narrative like Guy Noir’s, with the genre’s known tendency to exaggerate events and flounce language, it put the narrative in context and made me laugh. I could see the humour in it, and there is plenty of humour. If you read the above passage with the assumption that the character might be purposely over-exaggerating it takes on a whole new feel. Suddenly you have to wonder if some of the effect isn’t intended to divert the reader from looking too closely at him as a person by distracting you with superfluous language. Which is something only a first person narrator, aware of himself, the grçavity of his actions, and the light it might paint him in would seek to do. 

As the book progressed Erik also had a self-deprecating habit, such as referring to himself as the ‘only wizard stupid enough to…” or readily referring to himself as brawn and not brains. This went a long way toward humanising him and countering the praise me I just saved the world effect that the first person narrations of heroic events created. It also helped that as the plot established itself the lengthy and largely unintended descriptions of his own awesomeness became less frequent. 

The story is really interesting and after the first couple of chapters Erik and his familiar are really likeable characters. They are witty and sarcastic, often throwing scathing one-liners at each other to dissipate tension. There are any number of laugh out loud moments. Erik is also dedicated to helping those unable to help themselves. You have to appreciate that. 

I suspect that there are going to be a lot of books in this series, probably seven if I had my guess. So there is plenty of time for the plot to progress and characters to carve their own niche. This one took a couple of chapters to settle, but rolled along nicely after that.