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The Nothingness of Ben

Book Review of The Nothingness of Ben, by Brad Boney

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Before I begin, let me apologize for not updating recently. As I noted here, I've had houseguests and haven't gotten much reading done.

The Nothingness of BenI bought a copy of The Nothingness of Ben, by Brad Boney.

Description from Goodreads:
Ben Walsh is well on his way to becoming one of Manhattan’s top litigators, with a gorgeous boyfriend and friends on the A-list. His life is perfect until he gets a phone call that brings it all crashing down: a car accident takes his parents, and now he must return to Austin to raise three teenage brothers he barely knows. 

During the funeral, Ben meets Travis Atwood, the redneck neighbor with a huge heart. Their relationship initially runs hot and cold, from contentious to flirtatious, but when the weight of responsibility starts wearing on Ben, he turns to Travis, and the pressure shapes their friendship into something that feels a lot like love. Ben thinks he’s found a way to have his old life, his new life, and Travis too, but love isn’t always easy. Will he learn to recognize that sometimes the worst thing imaginable can lead him to the place he was meant to be?

Review:
There probably won’t be much to this review, but that very lack of detail is as strong a sign of my opinion of this book as a 500 word essay would be. While there was nothing particularly wrong with it, structurally or literarily, there was also nothing in it that particularly appealed to me. I read it to finish it, but that’s about it. At one point, I set it aside because I had houseguests and didn’t get to pick it up for several days. I had already all but forgotten it and it was an effort to make myself start it again.

Mostly, I strongly disliked the main character, Ben. I know he grew throughout the narrative, but I still never came to like him. There were also a number of personal pet peeves that cropped up. There were a lot of television references, for example. I HATE this. You see, I don’t own a television. I haven’t sat down and watched a single television show in years. So, all those witty TV quotes and comparisons to series characters, I don’t get them. My abhorrence of this isn’t just not being in on the joke though. What I hate is the assumption that everyone will be.

People also tended to have really idealized conversations that rubbed me the wrong way and struck me as incredibly unrealistic. The same could be said about the way Ben drew people into his family and then paraded them to all the rich and famous people’s homes. Everyone was just so bloody accepting and accommodating—a bunch of Pollyannas, one and all. In the end it just started feeling cheesy.

The dialogue also used names far, far, far too frequently for my tastes. And I thought the language in the sex scenes uncomfortable. Though, I will admit I thought the amount of play in the sex was appreciable.

So, all in all, this book was a fail for me. I basically just found it clumsy in a lot of general, ill-defined ways. But I’m sure it would work for others.

Book Review of Beneath the Veil #1 & 2, by Aimee Roseland

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I downloaded the first and second novella of Aimee Roseland‘s Beneath the Veil series (A Taste for Moonlight and A Kiss Beneath the Veil) from the Amazon free list.

A Kiss Beneath the Veil Description from Goodreads:
Daphne is working as a medium in a world altered by the lifting of the Veil, when the monsters drew back the curtain and revealed their true nature.

The worst part hadn’t been finding out that her gorgeous new boyfriend was a vampire, it was finding out that Daphne herself was one of the monsters.

Now she’s a ghost whisperer, trying to track down a serial killer while hiding from her ex and his proclamations of everlasting love. Because when a thousand year old vampire says “everlasting”, he really means it. And Daphne is afraid that true love is a myth. Of course, the newlywed bogeymen next door would beg to differ.

Review:  **spoiler alert**
The writing here was fine and I didn’t notice any problematic editing. For those seeking a guaranteed HEA, this is probably a great book to pick up. Unfortunately, it was a little too squinky for me.

The whole premise is that a woman finds out that the guy she’s been dating for two weeks is a vampire, so she bolts. He then stalks her as she moves several times, such that she is afraid to leave her home after dark, for 5 years. Yes, that’s two weeks dating and five years stalking. And apparently she was smart to stay indoors all that time, because the first time she finds herself accidentally out at night he kidnaps her and whisks her away. Creeeeepyyy.

It must be true love though, because within roughly half an hour (if that long) they’re falling into bed and she’s thinking this:

“Yes! I dreamed of you every night.” She admitted softly. “Please, please, I need you,” she said, realizing then how much she’d missed him. How much she’d regretted leaving him, and how glad she was that the choice to return to him had been taken out of her stubborn hands.

Bergh! Then within 24 hours she’s in love and within 48 they’re getting married and converting her to vampirism so they can be together forever. Whiplash!

And her fear makes no sense anyway. Within three weeks of leaving him, all the supernaturals came out and she discovered she was a medium. So, if she’s a monster herself, why was it such a big deal that he was too?

Anyhow, Isaac was sweet (if you ignore the fact that he stood outside her home every night for five years–not particularly believable to boot) and I didn’t hate Daphne. The mystery was paper thin, all the ‘I love you, bla bla, bla’ got too saccharine for me and (being a novella) it was all too rushed for my preferences. But for those who are into this sort of read, I imagine it’s a pretty good one. It also really is a stand-alone novella, which is noteworthy in its rarity these days.

A Taste For Moonlight

Description from Goodreads:
Anne knew she wasn’t the kind of girl a hot werewolf would go for. After all, she wasn’t a fresh-faced twenty-year old. (How long ago was that birthday, again?)  She wasn’t a virgin. (Yep, those two gorgeous boys were definitely hers.) And she wasn’t shopping in the junior’s section at good ol’ Tar-jay. (Real women have curves though, right? Um…right?)

But even after all her helpful pointing out of these very obvious reasons why he shouldn’t fall for her…that’s exactly what happened.

Thomas is working at the Red Wolf in the hopes of finding a woman willing to overlook the fact that he’s “other”, and what better place to search than at a werewolf strip-club?

Review:
This was ok in a sweet kind of way. It had some admirable points. I liked that Thomas, despite being a huge werewolf, was unquestionably a nice guy—no alpha assholes here! He wooed her by doing things like taking her kid’s fundraiser packet to work and selling cookies for him. That was super refreshing.

And honestly, the whole book is worth reading for this passage:

Oh well. She actually liked all the other Anne’s she’d become. She was a darn good mom and one hell-of-a baker. Chubby Anne…well, she was nice to hug, as her guileless sons often said. So she was okay too.

I love that Anne accepted herself. I did think that the book compromised this same self-acceptance theme by hinting that it’s ok or Thomas to love Anne for Anne, despite her body, but if he’s attracted to her for being heavy (as in that’s his preferred body type) he’d be a ‘chubby chaser’ and that would be insulting to her. That still makes ‘fat’ shameful, even if it simultaneously says ‘fat people get love too.’ But the sentiment is nice.

So, the story is sweet. The characters are mostly sweet. Unfortunately, the book is so rushed that it’s almost a waste of time. It’s insta-love, insta-relationship, insta-everything really. Even after having her children kidnapped, forced into the horrible position of being a prize in a breeding contest (which ran completely counter to the whole idea of mates and made little sense in the story anyway) and being turning into a werewolf, Anne instantly forgives. Bah! There is no time for anything to progress or develops and it would have been significantly better as a novel than a novella.

As a plus, I didn’t realise that this was a second in a series and read it first. Until I went to review it, I never suspected it wasn’t a stand alone, so it would be fine to read as one.

Book Review of Wilder’s Mate (Bloodhounds #1), by Moira Rogers

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Wilder's MateI grabbed a copy of Wilder’s Mate, by Moira Rogers from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
Wilder Harding is a bloodhound, created by the Guild to hunt down and kill vampires on America’s frontier. His enhanced abilities come with a high price: on the full moon, he becomes capable of savagery beyond telling, while the new moon brings a sexual hunger that borders on madness.

Rescuing a weapons inventor from undead kidnappers is just another assignment, though one with an added complication—keeping his hands off the man’s pretty young apprentice, who insists on tagging along. 

At odds with polite society, Satira’s only constant has been the aging weapons inventor who treats her like a daughter. She isn’t going to trust Wilder with Nathaniel’s life, not when the Guild might decide the old man isn’t worth saving. Besides, if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that brains are more important than brawn. 

As the search stretches far longer than Wilder planned, he finds himself fighting against time. If Satira is still at his side when the new moon comes, nothing will stop him from claiming her. Worse, she seems all too willing. If their passion unlocks the beast inside, no one will be safe. Not even the man they’re fighting to save. 

Review: (spoiler)
This story had an interesting premise and if it had another 100 pages to develop it, it might have been a good book. Everything in it happens at almost Mach speed, leaving no time for world-building, character development, back story, climbing tension, or (most importantly) believable growth of feelings and emotions.

Wilder and Satira meet. Within seconds they’re throwing insults and sexual innuendo at one another. Within half an hour they’re lusting after each-other. By the end of the afternoon they’re already progressing to suggestive touching. By the end of the next day, they’re having sex at every available moment and by the end of a week (probably less, but a few days at least) they’re madly in love and happily mated for life. At no point does the reader feel their relationship progressing. Wilder feels like he’d bed any woman available (and at the new moon, he probably would) and Satira feels like she’s out to bag herself a bloodhound to protect and care for her. But somehow we’re not supposed to see it that way, but as true lurvvve. Meh.

I have no idea how vampires came to inhabit the world, what exactly a bloodhound is, what the point of their mating frenzy at the new moon is (since it’s stated that it isn’t procreation), etc. There is no depth to the world.

I was also disgusted by the cliche use of gender roles. Bloodhounds and vampires were solely male. Vampires apparently only ‘fed’ (implying both blood and sex) on women. They enslaved men as ghouls to work for them. Women couldn’t be educated or hold careers. Thus, apparently the only purpose of females was, to use the exact words of the book, “those whose time was rented, and those who were outright owned.” I presume that included the married. And this is reinforced when the first major act of the book is for Wilder to take Satira—a smart, capable, spit-fire of a woman-to a whore house to be tarted up before they entered the badlands (i.e. the land of the male predators). Meh. No, that’s not strong enough. MEH!

I did appreciate that Satira was sexually aware and more than happy to go after what she wanted and even vocalise it. She was no shrinking, virginal violet. You don’t come across too many of those. It’s just unfortunate that she also came across as so desperate.

Even the rescue was solved with unbelievable ease. They camped out in a hotel for a few days, showing Satira off (to what point, I don’t actually know) got a lead immediately, had a quick break for 3 days of non-stop sex and then marched into town, walked through an unlocked door, for Christ’s sake, and defeated the baddie in about 15 minutes. What? Meh. The writing itself was fine, but I’ll be passing on anymore of this series, thank you very much.