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Book Review: A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife, by Kel Carpenter & Aurelia Jane

I picked up Dark Horse, the first book in Kel Carpenter and Aurelia Jane‘s A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife series, as an Amazon freebie. I then bought the compilation so that I could read White Raven and Black Swan.

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Don’t get me wrong, waking up to discover my ex-husband finally killed me wasn’t fun. Finding out I had to get a job and pay Afterlife taxes about ten minutes later?
Let’s just say, this wasn’t exactly the eternal reward I was hoping for. But beggars can’t be choosers, and being a demon sure as hell beats my last occupation.
I’m well on my way to retirement behind the pearly gates when the impossible happens. The Risk Witches have a vision.

A savage shifter that can’t control his wolf.
An ancient fae lord that’s forgotten what it means to feel.
A playboy vampire king with a secret.

Three alpha’s will inherit unspeakable power. Each of them scarred. Too broken to be tamed . . .
Upper Management sent their best to ‘fix’ them. Angels. Poltergeists. Nothing worked.

So now it’s my turn, whether I like it or not.
But unfortunately for me, failure is not an option with these guys.

Combined, they have enough power to end the world—and they will.
Unless I find a way to stop them first.

Breaking people is my job. But this time…my job might break me.

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Review:

Meh, this was OK. I picked the first one up as an Amazon freebie and, on finishing it, bought the compilation in order to finish the series. The thing is, I bought the series because book one had potential, not necessarily because it was especially good. Unfortunately, the potential never developed.

The series isn’t bad; I never wanted to DNF it. But it never got good, either. I was never excited to pick it back up or missing it if I was away. It just coasts along at mediocre, always just barely good enough to keep you reading. But no better.

I liked that Fury had a backbone and a sense of justice. I liked a lot of the characters. However, from very early on, it was evident that Fury had a serious case of being too powerful and, demons_guide_to_the_afterlife_phototherefore, too arrogant, and nothing provided a believable challenge for her. That only got worse as the series progressed, and she got progressively more powerful.

I also felt like all of the men were just caricatures. I never felt that I got to know them beyond the surface and the villain even less. The whole thing was also just unbelievably predictable.

All in all, as I said, this was an OK read. I don’t regret it. But I’m glad to be finished, too.


Other Reviews:

Tracy’s Book Reviews: A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife

Review of Dark Horse by Kel Carpenter and Aurelia Jane

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Book Review: Stolen Queen, by Jesi Donovan

I picked up a copy of Jesi Donovan‘s Stolen Queen as an Amazon freebie.
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They are handsome.
They are monsters.
They are my husbands.

My grandfather stole from the Mad Kings; now they’ve taken me prisoner to pay his debts.

They know that I’m innocent. They know I don’t deserve to be caged like an animal. But they don’t care. They will break me and make me their Queen. They will mate me and make me the mother of their children. No matter what it takes, the Mad Kings will have what’s theirs.

my review

Yeah…I hated this. To each their own, but this was not for me. I have so many complaints, but I’ll state up front that the mechanical writing is fine. It’s perfectly readable. That’ll be my only compliment.

This might be a little spoiler-ish, but it doesn’t give much more away than is in the blurb. The kings kidnap her, throw her in the dungeon, and are consistently horrible to her. However, their goal is for her to become their queen, bear their children, and eventually (hopefully) love them. Nothing about that plotting makes sense. If you, by chance, think, “Well, maybe in context…” No, not even in context does it make sense. It simply does not make any sense.

None of the characters are even tolerable, let alone likable. We are given all four character’s POVs. One might hope that even as the men are being horrible to her, their internal monologue shows them to have some affection for her. But no, they are all about getting a return for their investment, deserving to get their dick wet, entitled to her, etc. They want her because she is the rightful queen (we’ll just overlook the fact that her grandmother is apparently still alive, so….) and will therefore legitimize their rule. She literally might as well be a physical crown for how much concern they have for her as a person, even in their own thoughts. There is nothing romantic or erotic about any of it.

Then, on page 142, I came across this quote and decided I was done. “…[B]ehind closed doors, whatever happens, happens. If we take the Queen by force and it happens to work in our favor, so be it. She will come around, boys, because we’ll make her.” Yeah, that’s them deciding amongst themselves to rape their queen. Ho-hum. They then gang up and coerce her into sex. It’s the only sex in the book, minus one totally out-of-place touching scene. I skimmed the rest stolen queen photoof the book to finish it. But there was no redeeming the story for me. Again, there is nothing romantic, despite being called a Dark Captive Romance. Not even the dark can bring this in line with romance.

I recently commented in another book review that enemies-lovers tropes (which captive romance basically is) need push and pull to work. These men consistently push, but there is no pull for the reader to get invested in. I hated this and just want to go wash my brain out now.


Other Reviews:

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Book Review: Soul Eater, by Lily Mayne

I received a copy of Lily Mayne‘s Soul Eater a Renegade Romance box.
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Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization.

One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own.

Including Wyn the Soul Eater.

He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.

I’ve only been in the military for six months, but now I’m part of a unit tasked with trying to stop and capture him. And when I’m the only soldier out of hundreds that the Soul Eater leaves alive, I realise that… something about me has intrigued him.

But what is it? What could a twenty-three year old guy from the south, with no one and nothing in the world, have possibly done to capture the attention of a death monster with horns, blackened fingertips and a face hidden in the dark depths of his hood?

my review

This was really sweet, and I enjoyed it. I liked all of the characters, even the side one. But there really isn’t anything to it except the romance, and that left me a tad bored. There is no particular mystery or challenge to the plot (other than survival). There isn’t a lot of world-building. There are no significant characters outside of the main heroes and a side character who stars in the next book in the series. So, ultimately, though I liked the book, I wasn’t lit on fire by it. I have the next one, and I plan to read it though.

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Other Review:

Niblioholic: Review Soul Eater