Category Archives: Challenges

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. 

Hearing the Ankou's Cart

Book Review of J. Allan Anderson’s Hearing the Ankou’s Cart

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I picked up Hearing the Ankou’s Cart from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Is a second chance to live merely a second chance to die?

Pilot First Class Sybilla Koenraad believes so. During a disastrous rescue operation on Venus, she had been killed by the planet’s brutally hostile atmosphere, but Commander Galatin Forbes refused to let death keep her. Now her life has veered off onto a course she never chose, taking her to places she never thought of going. From her bizarre ‘captivity’ in a Russian dacha, to a frontier star system, and beyond to the farthest reach of Human exploration, she feels fate itself plotting to throw her back into death’s hungry grip. This time, however, she doubts even the resourceful and unconventional Commander Forbes will be able to save her.

For the message rings clear, over and over, within her nightmares turned strange by forces she does not understand: “Turn back from the star. Death awaits”.

Review:

Hearing the Ankou’s Cart is an awesome read if you like futuristic, space-based Sci-Fi. It is full of bright, full-blooded characters, human drama, Machiavellian corporate governments, mysterious enemies with questionable intents, and well thought out tech. I especially enjoyed this last aspect. It was easy to visualise how things worked. 

Galant’s puppy-dog style over protectiveness was only improved by his ceaseless bravery. My heart went out to him more times than I could count. I also share a bit of his fear/respect of Murphy and could readily relate to this facet of his personality. The last thing I want is for my life to get too interesting. This is actually a bit of a mantra in my household. 

Sybilla, on the other hand, often berated herself for cowardice I never saw. While she had almost no people skills she had enough courage and dogged determination to get things done…no matter how many times, or how badly she screwed them up the first time. I completely respect that. Her mangled English gave her a definite character trait, but it also left her feeling a little child-like. 

I did feel like the book wrapped up a little too quickly and left a little too much opening in the end. I could easily see there being a follow-up in some distant future, though it is certainly a stand alone book. I highly recommend it. 

I read it in ebook format and had a lot of trouble with the book itself. Roughly every third page (sometimes more frequently) it jumped to the end of the book or to some random future page. It was a lot like having someone constantly loosing your place for you. It got really frustrating. Unsure if the problem was with the book, Amazon, or my actual device I went to far as to cold boot my kindle and twice delete the book and downloaded it fresh from Amazon in an attempt to fix the problem. I never managed for revolve the issue. I just made a point to always know my page/location. This definitely detracted from the reading experience. But the fact that I persevered despite the challenge of constantly having to relocate my page speaks volumes for the quality of the story. I wanted to know what happened no matter what. I even went to far as to track down a prequel short story (Hellblazer) to garner a little more insight into the characters and story.