Book Review of Tied Together (Tied Together #1), by Z. B. Heller

I have two copies of Z. B. Heller‘s Tied Together apparently. I requested and received a copy of the audiobook from Audiobook Boom and I picked a copy up from Amazon when it was free.

Description from Goodreads:
Ryan Keller had it all when he came out in high school; accepting parents, friends and his own credit line for J. Crew. His cocky attitude and good looks got him what he wanted, including samples off the man meat buffet. Then he found his favorite dessert, Brandon. But Brandon wasn’t sending out a rainbow vibe so Ryan was sent to the land that crushes dread, the friend zone.

Brandon Ford was buried so deep down in the closet that clothes from the seventies had a better chance of coming out. His anxieties of acting on his desires could keep a therapist entertained for hours. Even though he did his best to build his emotions out of bricks, it was no use against Ryan’s charms.

Follow Ryan and Brandon’s relationship from high school, to college and beyond to find out if they will be Tied Together.

Review:
I started this book in the Audible format, which I received through AudioBoom. The narration by Derrick McClain was fine, but I basically hated the story. I stepped away from it for a while and then finished it in ebook format. I can read faster than listen and I just wanted it done.

Mechanically, the writing is fine. But Ryan is a total douche bag and he never redeemed himself. I was further infuriated that he was so horrible, but it was Brandon put in place to apologize before they got their happily ever after. Sure, Ryan, had a minor apology too, but it was too little too late for me. He was horrible, start to finish and I hated him so much it ruined the book for me.

Then there is the pacing. OMG, the pacing. The book starts out pretty well. It’s funny and Ryan had an interesting voice. But it quickly devolved into forced humor and actions that MADE NO SENSE. Then 12 years pass. 12 years people! Two characters who have known each-other and been best friends for years, who are in love with each-other have one fight (because of one does something that I couldn’t believe he would actually do) and they walk away without ever speaking again. WTF? They still go to the same university, you’d think they might pass on campus. And who gives up love that easily? No one, that’s who. (Not that Ryan deserved any better.)

But 12 years pass. From a literary point of view, that’s a lot of important time to lose. Then when the two get back together, the reader isn’t given the getting to reknow each-other scenes either. They go from 0-bed instantly, then 3 weeks pass. What? More important lost time? They have another ridiculous fight, make up and 3 years pass. MORE TIME GONE, time that I as a reader needed to see.

At 65% new characters were introduced, characters who became important but the reader is not invested in because they are new at 65%. Apparently they are characters from other books, but that doesn’t help much in the grand scheme of things. There is slut shaming, the characters are vile towards women in general and the representation of the nice, accepting, middle class family versus the poor, homophobic trailer trash family was cliched and predictable.

This was an all around fail for me.

Book Review of Pound of Flesh (Half Demon Warlock #1), by J. A. Cipriano & Conner Kressley

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I received an Audible copy of Pound of Flesh, by J. A. Cipriano and Conner Kressley, from the one of the authors.

Description from Goodreads:
My name is Roy Morgan, and I’m not your average Atlanta cop. For one, most of them don’t have to kill people to stay alive. I do. It’s a half-demon thing. Yep, that’s right, half-demon. It’s awesome, especially since I’m half-warlock too, and those two sides don’t much get along.

Still, that and a buck will get you a candy bar. So it’s all good.

Or at least it was.

See, I had this dumb idea to stop a robbery in progress and have myself a snack. Turns out these weren’t your run of the mill robbers. No, these were demonic slavers, there to capture the district attorney and sell her off to the highest bidding demon in Hell.

Now if I want to stop them, I’m going to have to fight my way through a city full of hellfire-flinging, gun-toting, spell-weaving demons.

My name is Roy Morgan, and I think I’ll have seconds.

Review:
This is fairly standard male urban fantasy. There’s a first person, self-deprecating hero who likes to make snarky comments and act like an anti-hero, a damsel in distress that he falls in love with, a female BFF who is characterless beyond being vapid and slutty (and condemned for it), a cute sidekick and prevailing against all odds. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t call it anything special. It is funny and the writing flows quite well. I also liked the narration of the audible version, done by James Foster. I’d read more in the series, even if I’m not racing out to get the next one.

#ReadDiverse2017 Update

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One of my challenges this year is #ReadDiverse2017, which is hosted by the Read Diverse Book blog. It’s fairly self explanatory, as far as challenges go. The idea is to read and review diverse books.

Eligibility being (and I’m quoting the RDB blog, here):

Books written by people of color or Native/Indigenous Peoples
Books about people with disabilities (physical, neurodiversity, etc.)
Books with LGBTQIA protagonists or about LGBTQIA issues
Books with practicing Muslim, Jewish, Hindu (i.e. non-Christian) MCs
- Please prioritize #ownvoices for this category

Marginalized authors take priority for #ReadDiverse2017. At all times, please consider reading books written by POC, Indigenous, LGBTQIA, and Disabled authors, #ownvoices whenever possible.These will always qualify, whether they are #ownvioces or not. If a straight, white, able-bodied author writes a book with a straight, able-bodied POC protagonist, the book will not qualify. UNLESS that book is intersectional. For example, if the protagonist is a POC and Queer or disabled, then the book will qualify. I make this distinction because books with Queer/disability representation are more rare than books with POC/Indigenous rep and there are some great books out there with Queer/disability rep by non-mariginalized authors. I also encourage you to seek out books with plus-sized/fat protagonists, especially if they have other marginalizations, such as plus-sized+POC/Queer/Disabiled.

Today’s little update is to say that I earned my 5 point badge. (See that shiny badge above?) Meaning I’ve submitted five eligible reviews of diverse books. I could maybe have submitted more, I read enough M/M romance after all. But I personally have a little trouble seeing ‘white boys kissing’ (that’s quoting someone, I just don’t know who) as qualifying. So many such books are written for a cis-gendered, white, straight female audience. So, in the spirit of the challenge, if not the explicit rules I haven’t submitted them.

These are the ones I did: