Book Review: Over the Faery Hill, by Jennifer L. Hart

I first came across Over the Faery Hill when it was promoed on Sadie’s Spotlight. So, when I later came across the author, Jennifer L. Hart, giving away Audible codes I snagged one for my own.

A mountain of regrets. A bargain with a mischievous faery. Could tinkering with her past create a better future?

Joey Whitmore longs to escape her dead-end world. Facing a midlife crisis at age forty-two and still living with her mother, getting fired from yet another job is the proverbial last straw. So when a fae trickster in human guise offers a chance at changing her history, she figures there’s nothing left to lose.

Though skeptical of his magic, Joey accepts the sly prince’s enchanted hourglass and begins a reckless journey back in time. But as she tries to act as her own fairy godmother and reverse her mistakes, her blundering interference causes a chain of catastrophic consequences.

Will Joey’s attempts to alter her deadbeat destiny end up erasing her entire existence?

I’ve only recently discovered the Paranormal Women’s Fiction genre, and as a 43yo woman, I’m really enjoying heroines my own age going on paranormal adventures. However, I am discovering that the tropes run strong in the genre as a whole. The books seem to be more similar than different, regardless of the author. Of those I’ve read, they all seem to start with a dissolved marriage and broke, despondent, sexually dissatisfied heroines, who all seem to be fairly similar in personality. Hell, I’ve just read two in a row where she drove a VW Bug.

I don’t think it’s so much that anyone is copying anyone else, but rather that those entering into the new genre step into an arena in which they feel there are very strong expectations from readers. No one yet seems to be brave enough to venture farther from the established and accepted characteristics. (I’m hoping this phase passes soon.)

I could have said all that on any of the reviews I’ve written for PWF books so far. But, as a reader, I had to get far enough into the genre to recognize the repetitions. And I can’t disparage any one book for it and not the others. But I also can’t ignore that these book are starting to feel very formulaic, including Over the Faery Hill (though I do think Hart tried to be a little different by including a trans ex instead of an evil or cheating ex.)

Having said all that, I have found that some authors do better with the middle-aged heroine than others. Hart’s wasn’t the best. I liked Joey, but she didn’t feel 40+ at all. This is also the second PWF book in a row that I’ve read where the heroine being middle-aged felt like window dressing slapped on so that the book could fit in the PWF genre.

Joey spent the whole book trying to correct a mistake made her freshman year of high school. I’m sorry, but I don’t care if she’s over-weight, 40+ years old, and complains about saggy boobs. If an author gives me a heroine whose most important life events happened at 15 and reads as if she hasn’t had a further 25 years of life, I’m going to say she doesn’t actually feel middle-aged. Especially if she also doesn’t have any of the markers of middle life—no children, no career, no established hobbies, no favorite isle in the grocery store, whatever. If she still (or again) lives with her parents, in a life centered around her mom, dad, and grandma, and is more concerned with what happened at 15 years-old than 35, she can’t possibly really feel middle-aged. She feels mid-twenties, maybe. And thus, while the book might be a fine paranormal adventure, it’s not much of a Paranormal Women’s Fiction book.

But, as I said, I did like Joey. I enjoyed her snark and her love for her family. I liked Robin too, thought I can’t say I felt the romance develop in any true fashion. All in all, I’d be happy to read more of Hart’s book.

Book Review: A Glow of Stars & Dusk, by Eve L. Mitchell

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I received an e-copy of Eve L. Mitchell‘s A Glow of Stars & Dusk through Netgalley.

One psychic. Six demons. And a whole lot of trouble.

I am a typical, though admittedly anti-social, woman who lives alone in the rural Highlands of Scotland. I also happen to be a clairvoyant who can summon the dead. It’s a pity the souls I see didn’t give me a heads-up, nor did I glimpse my own future on the night six demons came hunting for me.

Their leader believes I am a witch and refuses to let me go until I have performed a spell to lift a blood curse. A spell I do not understand and one that I cannot read. But does he listen? No. Is he infuriating? Yes. Is he hotter than hell? Well…obviously.

Being thrust into the world of demons is terrifying. I mean, they travel with hellhounds, and they’re not the only demons hunting me either. Can I trust any of them? My once boring life is in their hands, and I’m in over my head.

Fighting my ever-growing attraction to the arrogant demon leader is hard enough let alone learning to use powers I never knew I had. But I am Star Elizabeth Archer, and all I know is that I need to learn, because a whole lot of trouble is coming my way. Fast.

Sometimes you read a book and enjoy it, even though logic tells you the accumulation of the elements making it up should result in a whole you’d dislike. That’s how I fell about A Glow of Stars & Dusk. A woman is taken hostage, denied the information needed to make sense of her circumstance, alone with several men with expectations of her, who speak insultingly to her and disparagingly about women in general, a real alpha-asshole romantic lead, a relationship with abusive red flags flying every which way, ect. Most of these things I generally dislike on principal.

But being fantasy and the main male romantic lead being a demon (you have to expect some evilness, right?), I was able to set aside a lot of my qualms and enjoy the book for the snarky sarcasm and what-will-happen-next quality of the plot. I will warn that it has quite a dramatic end. It would stand alone (though I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t be too happy with it). But, as there is supposed to be a book two, I’ll call it a precipitous cliffhanger.

I did think the author went a little too far with the demons’ origins and age. It felt over-blown. Like, what interest would a 24yo women be to someone with that breadth of experience? But beyond that I have few complaints. I’ll be looking to read book 2 when it’s released.