Category Archives: books/book review

Book Review: Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier

I received an Audible code for a copy of Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier, narrated by Anneliese Rennie, Portia Kay Winters, Austin Barringer, Carl Mason, Antonio Amato, Aaron Shedlock, Liam Di Cosimo, and Mike Johnson.

The Library of the Profane has everything your black heart desires. But we don’t just allow anyone to get a library card.

Need to summon a demon? Raise the dead? A clan of vampires bothering you? Do you like the really nasty werewolf erotica? The Library of the Profane has all of that, but not everyone can handle the contents (Some people can’t handle their werewolf erotica). I’ve been a librarian here for five years and when I say I killed to get this job, I’m not being facetious.

You can’t check out our books. Some of the books are sentient and don’t like it. We have rooms to perform the spells in or hell, we do have a copy machine (copies are extra). When a witch came in and said they needed to do a little necromancy, I didn’t question it. They wouldn’t have been given a library card if they were going to raise someone really bad. I helped with the necromancy because it’s just my job as a librarian.

Except it wasn’t a normal resurrection. It was the physical embodiment of Chaos and when he woke up, he saw me first and now he’s attached. Chaos personified is a horrible library guest and he won’t leave with the witch who raised him. He’s constantly getting into things he’s not supposed to and he’s really into the werewolf erotica.

It’s not like I can let him out because the Library of the Profane is meant to contain Chaos. The rest of the world isn’t. He’s awful about keeping his identity secret too. A warlock, a Hellhound, and a vampire know he’s here and they are bugging me to let Chaos have a little fun.

I just want a normal day of summoning demons, cursing people, and telling people to be quiet in my library. This is too much.

Sooo, this was a flop for me. I’m not certain which I liked less, the story or the narration. This book has nine narrators, and it is not a feature. I found it super distracting (and hated one of the voiced characters entirely). The narrators did a fine job (even if I disliked one), but there didn’t need to be so many of them. It detracted from the experience. Why would anyone choose to do this?

As for the story, I found it flimsy and unsubstantial. Ripley exists. All the men who are forming her harem exist. That’s about all I can say for them. There is so little character development that they all remain virtual strangers (to the reader and each other).

Lastly, the book barely introduces all the characters and the mystery before it ends on a cliffhanger. As much as I hate starting stories I don’t see the end of, I won’t be continuing this one.

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BOOK REVIEW: Chaos (The Library of the Profane) by J.B. Trepagnier #reverseharem #urbanfantasy

Book Review: One Dark and Froggy Night, by Jade Greenberg

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I got myself in a little bit of a pickle. I couldn’t remember if I’d promised a review here on See Sadie Read or a promo over on Sadie’s Spotlight of One Dark and Froggy Night, by Jade Greenberg. So, I opted to do both, just in case. You can find more book and author information over on Sadie’s Spotlight.

Danny made the mistake of crossing the wrong witch. Now he’s a warty amphibian. At least until he learns his lesson.

When my witch ex turned me into a frog, I was pissed. But it didn’t take long for me to realize how good I got it. Life as a magic frog is figata, baby. Close to perfecto. But it has its downfalls. One formerly very big downfall to be exact.

Now the King of Atlantis is granting wishes to anyone who can help him find a lost mermaid fairy princess.

A magic wish is just what I need to live the perfect magic froggy life. All I got to do is find her.

If I was a mermaid and wanted to go missing, I’d go somewhere no one would expect to find me. Like the sky. No one would think to look there for a fish. But I’m a frog. How would I get to the sky?

This one’s a corundum, but I’m going to figure it out.

I thought I had it good before, but now that I know the impossible is possible, I got a plan. A big one. If you know what I mean.

This is a truly odd book to review. Danny is both intensely unlikable and adorably himbo at the same time. He is dumb as a box of rocks, but also not the most off-the-wall aspect of the story. Plus, for all his faults, he is actively becoming a better person before the readers’ eyes.

I think for me, I have to admit, though, that even if being ridiculous is the story’s purpose—it is literally the book’s shtick—it was just too much for me. I appreciate the nods to mysticism, mythology, and machismo. But it wasn’t quite the sort of humor I most appreciate. That, however, is wholly subjective, and the right reader will likely find this uproariously funny.

Other Reviews:

Series Review: The City Between (#1-10), by W.R. Gingell

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I borrowed audio copies of W.R. Gingell‘s the City Between Series through Hoopla—all 10 books (Between Jobs, Between Shifts, Between Floors, Between Frames, Between Homes, Between Cases, Between Walls, Between Decisions, Between Family, and Between Kings.) And I pretty much binged the whole series (including the little short’s on Gingell’s website). So, I opted for a single review, instead of 10 individual ones.

Description of book one, but it works for the whole series too:

When you get up in the morning, the last thing you expect to see is a murdered guy hanging outside your window. Things like that tend to draw the attention of the local police, and when you’re squatting in your parents’ old house until you can afford to buy it, another thing you can’t afford is the attention of the cops.

Oh yeah. Hi. My name is Pet. It’s not my real name, but it’s the only one you’re getting. Things like names are important these days.

And it’s not so much that I’m Pet. I am a pet. A human pet: I belong to the two Behindkind fae and the pouty vampire who just moved into my house. It’s not weird, I promise—well, it is weird, yeah. But it’s not weird weird, you know?

As I said, I binged this series, one book after another; without a breath between. Which means I didn’t pause to review each one individually. So, this review will be for all 10 books collectively.

I quite enjoyed this. I’ve not come across a lot of urban fantasy set in Tasmania and I really appreciated the little splashes of normal culture that are only notable because I’m listening to it as an outsider—like referring to someone looking like they come from the mainland or going to Woolies for groceries, or the regional slang (“You’ve got kangaroos in the top paddock” was a notable favorite). I loved it and the narrator—Zehra Jane Naqvi— did an amazing job bringing this to life (especially when you factor a Korean-speaking character in too).

Pet has such an endearing personality and voice and her three psychos kept me interested. I love the found family aspect of the series. Pet found herself a whole new family…or created it rather. She’s the glue that holds them together.

I will admit that quite a lot is left unexplained in the world in the beginning. So, I just had to force myself to be comfortable with a certain amount of not knowing that I’d have preferred not to. But it was still a lot of fun, with a slow-building reveal over 10 books. (And I felt a lot firmer in my understandings by the end.)

The characters remained consistent throughout, the over-arching plot ties nicely together, and the whole thing ends well. I did regret that some of the bigger characters seemed to have a lot less time on page, even if their importance wasn’t diminished, as the series progressed. (I missed them and the group’s banter.) And while certain aspects of the ending were sad, there was a wonderful sense of forgiveness and acceptance of human foibles.

All in all, for a bit of absurdist, urban fantasy fun, this worked a treat and I’ll be looking for more from this author.

I posted this to Instagram when I was roughly halfway through the series. Even then you could tell I was having a lot of fun with the series.

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Other Reviews:

Cats Luv Coffee: Series Review – City Between, by W.R. Gingell

City Between series by W.R. Gingell

BOOK REVIEW: The City Between series by W.R. Gingell

BOOK REVIEW: Update on The City Between series