Category Archives: Challenges

Ishtar Bound

Book Review of Ishtar Bound, by Natalie Gibson

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Ishtar Bound

I grabbed a copy of Natalie Gibson’s Ishtar Bound (Sinnis #1) from Amazon’s KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Surrounded by magical enemies with an intimate knowledge of her abilities, a matchmaking witch of the highest rank must fulfill both her duty to her coven and her desire for a love of her own, even if the two goals collide. 

Maeve Lovejoy has always been good at her job even though her service comes at such a high cost. Though her matchmaking abilities are stronger than ever, the most potent in any coven’s recorded history, her introduction to Aaron has confused matters. Believing she’s found a partner who can love her and allow her to continue practicing her arts, she shares her secrets with him. Is it a coincidence that soon after, that same information is used to locate and murder Maeve’s matches? When Aaron goes missing, is it because he is a member of a rival black magic sect or because he has fallen victim?

Slightly spoilerish review:
Ishtar Bound was an interesting read. It revolves around a coven of witches who use the energy created during sex as the catalyst for their power. The main character, Maeve, is responsible for creating the matched couples who will produce that power. The problem is that someone seems to be killing off her matches in an attempt to cause something horrible.

There is a pretty good mystery here. Gibson throws out a couple red herring so that the bad guy isn’t completely obvious and the characters are engaging. A lot was left unexplained though. Who are the Guardians (I know what, but who)? What is the role of The One and how does she relate to Samsiel? (I understood the prophecy, but I could have done with a bit more solid info.) How did Natalia and, by extension Maeve, come to the Daughers and how come the boys (JD, Lucas & Aaron) were so willing to accept the women’s powers, was this not otherwise our normal society?

For the record, IMO despite it’s description on Amazon (Paranormal Erotic Romance/Urban Fantasy), I would consider this a paranormal romance at most. The focus is definitely on romance, not sex. There just isn’t enough sex in it to be considered erotica. There is only one real sex scene, a few fondling scenes and a couple almost rapes. (That sounds like a lot, but it’s not in context.) The author has a strange tendency to combine knives and sex which might be considered a little farther out than normal though. This actually bothered me a little. I would expect the bad guy to pull knives, but even the good guy/romantic interest reminded Maeve he had a pocket knife between her legs at one point and then pulled a butcher knife on her at another time to keep her with him against her will, or at least her better judgement. He started to feel just a little crazy himself. I think it was supposed to feel desperate and it did that too, but definitely unstable.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable read. It felt like it wrapped up a little too easily, but I’ve decided that this is because it is the first in the series and there is more to come. More importantly, it did actually end. The last chapter was definitely an opener for the next book, but I didn’t finish feeling like the story didn’t end.

The Weight of Blood

Book Review of The Weight of Blood, by David Dalglish

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Weight of Blood

I chose David Dalglish‘s dark fantasy, The Weight of Blood from the Amazon KDP list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
When half-bloods Harruq and Qurrah Tun pledged their lives to the death prophet Velixar, they sought only escape from their squalid beginnings. Instead, they become his greatest disciples, charged with leading his army of undead.

While they prepare, Harruq trains with an elf named Aurelia, to whom he owes his life. She is a window into a better world, but as war spreads between the races their friendship takes a dire turn.

Velixar orders them to fight alongside the humans, changing Aurelia from friend to foe. To protect her, Harruq must turn against his brother and fight the killing nature of his orcish heritage.

To side with one means to turn on another. No matter Harruq’s decision, someone he loves will die.

Review:
The Weight of Blood is some serious Dark Fantasy. I mean dark with a capital ‘D’, maybe even dark with a capital D.A.R.K.. It isn’t a comfortable read. There isn’t a lot of joy in it and bad things happen to a lot of good people. I generally like dark fiction, but this one was almost too much for me.

The two main characters, Harruq and Qurrah, can hardly even be called anti-heroes. There wasn’t enough hero in them, Qurrah especially. The only humanity [for lack of a more appropriate term] left in him seemed to be his affection for his brother and even that was contaminated by manipulating Harruq for his own nefarious ends. But still, I could at least relate to Harruq. I could see that in other circumstances he would have been a kind soul, might even have still had one despite his HORRIBLE, CRUEL, VILE actions. He killed children for goodness sake!

Relate to him as I might, I had a really hard time reconciling his personality with his actions. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that this dichotomy between his natural inclinations and the reality of his circumstances was in large part one of the themes of the book. But his willingness to simply do as told by Qurrah was hard to accept.

The book was well written, though I was left with some very basic questions unanswered. I had a lot of trouble deciding what age H & Q were supposed to be, for example. In the beginning I thought they might be children. Their brotherly attachment was so strong that they felt young, since as people age their social circle tends to broaden and those familiar bonds dilute. Their actions and thoughts quickly made it clear that they weren’t children however, but an age was never given. Somewhere between 15-25 maybe. They may even have been twins since their father was only said to have slept with their mother once, but again, this was never clarified.

This isn’t a book I enjoyed, but this isn’t the type of book one reads to enjoy. Enduring the tragedy of it all is part of the experience, part of removing yourself from your comfortable life to remind yourself what another’s life might be like. Having done that, I think I need to go read something light and fluffy, with an unquestionable HEA.

Demon Possession

Book Review of Kiersten Fay’s Demon Possession

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Demon Possession

I nabbed Kiersten Fay‘s sci-fi romance, Demon Possession from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
After being enslaved on the spaceship Extarga for most of her life Analia has no memory of her life before, and has lost all knowledge of her people. Her mysterious gift and pointed ears are the only indication that she is different.

Analia is alone, and for all she knows, she’s the last of her kind. By chance Analia escapes her captors, and hides herself on the merchant ship Marada, planning to get off at the very next stop.

Unfortunately for her, there is no next stop. The crew is planning a delivery that could take months, and according to a stipulation in the newly signed contract, no one is allowed on or off the ship until the package is delivered. 

When Analia is found by a handsome demon, and captain of the Marada, she must adapt to her new role on the ship, and try to control her newly awakened desire for the brutal, and devastatingly erotic demon.

Review:
Demon Possession was an enjoyable read. I liked Sebastian’s tortured self-restraint, the way Anya came out of her shell and the interaction of all of the demons. Calic was a particular joy. There was a pretty little twist at the end and even though it wasn’t all that hard to see coming, it was still fun getting there.

I feel compelled to mention that I thought the way Sonya (and by extension Anya) dressed was cheesy, for two reasons. One, it was a little cliché that a ‘demon’ dressed in short, black, leather skirts, corsets and stiletto heals. Second, how is it that we could be millennia in the future, galaxies away and stripper/hooker outfits are still considered the ultimate in sexy? Really, you couldn’t come up with anything better than that? It also clashed with Anya’s innocent persona.

The ending seemed a little rushed. It felt almost like the author wrote the romance between Anya and Bastian, then wrote the lead-in for the second book and then stitched them together. There was noticeable change in pacing, and a lesser change in tone.

A number of other reviewers have made mention of poor editing. I did notice some errors, more prevalent in the last half. Oh, and if I have to read the word ‘chit’ one more time I might scream! Seriously, it’s not flattering and was used a lot. But the editing wasn’t as bad as I expected from the reviews. I have definitely read worse. Maybe I have a later edition.

I did noticed a few linguistic inconsistencies written into the story though. Anya seemed able to converse with ease, for example, but then wouldn’t know the meaning of some very simple word. (A word that would allow for a the development of a plot progressing event. They felt very much like convenient omissions.) I also wondered how Anaya knew how to read and write? I can’t imagine Darius taking the time to teach her that.

I would have happily continued the series to see how Marik fairs, even looked into buying the sequel, Demon Slave. But it was $7.99! That’s just too much for an ebook in my world. Anyone have a Kindle copy to lend?