the witchslayer banner

Book Review: The Witchslayer, by Opal Reyne

I received a copy of Opal Reyne‘s The WitchSlayer as part of a Renegade Romance book box.

witchslayer_cover

When Amalia’s cat brought home a strange flying lizard during a terrible storm, she had no idea that it was a Dragon. Or that he would save her from burning at the stake, only to imprison her in his lair when she saw his human face. Now she is stuck in this cave with a moody, hot-tempered, and arrogant warrior – one who has killed her kind by the dozens.

She expected to feel trapped, but he somehow makes her feel unbelievably… safe.

Rurik’s only goal is to kill the Dark Witch, Strolguil the Vast. He never expected to find himself in a White Witch’s home in need of healing, or that she would be completely oblivious about his kind, or her own. He intends to abandon her, a lowly Witch, to her fiery fate, but he can’t ignore his blood-debt after she saves him.

Nor can he ignore the fierce desire that she grows in him when she roams free inside his lair.

However, there are Dark Witches afoot, and Rurik isn’t sure if he can shed years of hatred to trust the enchanting woman he has in his keeping.

my review

Meh. Honestly, I didn’t love this. I didn’t hate it either. I was just kind of bored by it. I liked the FMC, but the MMC didn’t have quite enough growth for me to ever truly like him. I merely found him tolerable. The plot was okay, but the book is far longer than it needs to be, and some of the dialogue clunks. (Too many characters asking things like “bla, bla, bla, is it not?”) I’ve read other Reyne books that I enjoyed more. But this one was a letdown.

the_witchslayer_photo


Other Reviews:

fallen for the twoheaded dragon banner

Book Review: Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon, by Delilah Dare

I picked up a copy of Delilah Dare’s Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon as an Amazon freebie. You can find a review of book one in the series (Married to the Mahr) here.fallen for the two headed dragon cover
A hiking trip with her boyfriend turns into a tragic late-night news episode when Dana is pushed off a cliff, only to land in the lair of a two-headed dragon.

Taken by surprise, Rathym watches her scramble away – but by dragon code, he knows she now belongs to him. He will not allow his property to stray very far.

When Dana is inevitably dragged back to his lair, tensions rise, and Dana begins to wonder if he was right – she does belong to him.

my review

I’m going to be honest. I didn’t plan to read this book. I was not impressed with the 1st book in the series, mostly due to the author’s style. So, I was gonna skip the rest. But I made a fundamental mistake. I grabbed my Kindle for a trip I knew would leave me waiting in the car for an hour, forgetting that it was a new one and I’d downloaded almost nothing. Literally, the only thing downloaded from the cloud that hadn’t already been read was this book. (I imagine I downloaded it and Married to the Mahr at the same time.) So, there I sat with very few options but to read Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon, and let me tell you, I was no more impressed with it than the previous book.

Never have I seen an author set up an interesting element in a book that was as poorly utilized as Rathym’s two-headedness. I mean, sure, the two peens get plenty of play. But the two heads…none. Past the midpoint in the book, I started to wonder if he only had two heads when in large dragon form but not the bipedal human-ish form. But I didn’t know. I DID NOT KNOW. Halfway through the book, I did not know if the character had two heads all the time or only some of the time! I never knew. Having two heads is of so little importance that I didn’t even Fallen for the two headed dragon photoknow how to visualize the character. The heads don’t speak individually. He doesn’t seem to use them separately. There is nothing to indicate his two heads have a point.

I’ll be further honest: I skimmed the book’s last third, especially the sex scenes. There was so little plot, and I was so bored. I didn’t want to DNF because I dislike DNFing books, but I wanted to be done. This author seems to have conceptualized ideas that look like they should interest me, but the way she writes is a no-go for me.


Other Reviews:

bound to the dark banner

Book review: Bound to the Dark, by Sadie Moss

I picked up an Amazon copy of the compilation of Claimed by Monsters by Sadie Moss. Here I read book one, Bound to the Dark.

bound to the dark cover

Monstrous. Dangerous. Broken. And completely devoted to me.

In a world where fae are hunted by vampires, disguising my true nature is a matter of survival. That’s why I’ve spent the past several years pretending to be human, even dating a human guy.

But after finding out that Mr. Jerkwad is cheating on me, I do the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I go to a bar and leave with three stunning, mysterious men.

We spend one wild night together, and the chemistry between us is like an electric storm.

Maybe that’s because to them, this isn’t just a one-night stand.

All of these men are part fae, and they claim I’m their fated mate.

That should terrify me, especially since I can tell they’re each harboring dark secrets behind their gorgeous features. They’re part fae, but they’re part something else, too. Something wild, feral, and untamed.

But when a vampire mobster sets his sights on me, it may be that the only ones who can protect me…

Are my three monstrous mates.

my review

Honestly, just not very good. I technically read this as part of the compilation, so I have all the books. But, despite it ending on a cliffhanger, I am not going to bother with the rest of the series. The characters are cardboard. The plot is uninteresting. There is almost no worldbuilding. The fated mates’ romance is instant and unappealing. It’s all show and little tell. It’s incredibly linear. This happens, and then that happens, and then this thing. Problems arise and are instantly quashed, and the next one pops up.

Plus, it’s repetitive. Chapter 13 begins with a paragraph that recaps everything that has happened in the book up until that point. It can comfortably be covered in a single paragraph! I don’t think covering what happens in 14-25 would take a whole paragraph. All in all, this was a failure for me.
bound to the dark photo


Other Reviews: