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Book Review: Whispers of the Deep & Song of the Abyss, by Emma Hamm

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Emma Hamm was having a scratch-and-dent sale on her TikTok shop and Whispers of the Deep and Song of Abyss had been on my TBR for a while. So, I grabbed copies.

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 About the book:
One of the many engineers that keeps Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it’s her dream to help it flourish.

But then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend. An undine. A dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

Arges has fought his entire life for his people. With deadly creatures under his control, he plans to eradicate Beta once and for all to protect his kind and their peaceful way of life. But when a human woman saves him, she unknowingly creates a bond between them, one he can’t ignore. Even though her flaming red hair haunts his dreams, he needs her for information on the undine’s enemies.

So he steals her. Keeps her. Feeds her. Only to realize their bond is far deeper than captor and captive. He cannot let her go—but he cannot keep her under the sea. In a battle to determine if love can survive a war beneath the waves, it will be their decision that changes the tides.

Review:

I found this a little sloppy. Plotholes abound. Story trajectory is wobbly. There was a noticeable tendency to not capitalize the T in ‘the’ if it fell at the beginning of a sentence. (Odd, I know, but it happened SO OFTEN.) It’s not particularly spicy, with only 2 sex scenes, and leaping from 0 to DP between the two was a choice. There was some unneeded repetition, and the shift in social attitude that made the HFN/HEA possible had no real explanation.

All the same, I enjoyed the heck out of this. I liked the characters a lot and enjoyed watching them come to trust one another. Plus, the mermen species was interesting. I like a monstrous love interest. I’m happily leaping into book two.

song of the abyss About the book:
Like a songbird in a cage, Anya has spent her entire life as the General’s perfect daughter. He snaps his fingers, she jumps. He tells her to smile, she beams like she is made of the sun itself. But underneath all those games and glitter, she’s working to destroy her father and save the city she loves.

When an undine sneaks his way into her city, intent on kidnapping her, she lets him take her.

Daios is plagued by the decisions of his past. Souls haunt him, memories follow his every move, and all he knows is that perhaps stealing this woman will absolve him of his sins. If he can bring her back to his people, then they can destroy the city where his hatred was born. He’s certain this will be easy. But then he sees the General’s daughter, and he knows nothing will ever be the same again.

Broken and damaged, he’s certain no woman will ever love him. He shouldn’t even try to encourage the mating instincts that ride him hard the moment he sees her.

But when he realizes that she’s the same as he is, different from her people and on the outskirts of what others deem “normal”, he knows he’s a goner. Even if it means he has to risk everything to keep her.

Review:

I enjoyed this, maybe not quite as much as I did book one (it felt derivative and less creative the second time around), but I still thought it was a fun read. My one big complaint was that Daios had a very drastic and abrupt change of attitude toward humans that wasn’t really supported by the events of the book. In fact, it felt like it happened before he even met Anya. I liked him a lot despite that, and Anya, too. I appreciated the disability rep, the lack of magic fixes, and that despite being all alpha-like Anya was allowed agency and to make and enact her own decisions, even when he didn’t like it.

I am kind of starting to wonder if Hamm isn’t falling into the age-old fantasy trap of writing creative, imaginative worlds that somehow do not contain women, though. The 1st book had one or two minor female characters. This one has none besides the heroines that are not being set up for future love interests. So, basically, there appear to be no women in the sea. I’ll grant that there are not a lot of side characters in general, but still, it’s becoming noticeable.

All in all, I’m still looking forward to book three in November.

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Book Review: Captured by the Dark Commander, by Ellie Pond

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I picked up a freebie copy of Ellie Pond‘s Captured by the Dark Commander. It was pretty hyped on Tiktok. So, I gave it a chance.
captured by the dark commander cover

As a merman commander, my responsibilities are protect my people and follow the council’s orders. Despite my rank, I’ve never been good at following orders. When we discover Annabelle Portsmouth has the gene we’re looking for, I know we need her. It’s a rare trait that gives her the potential to become a mermaid. But after one look at her, I’d want her even without it. And I’m willing to take down my own men who touch her without permission.

I do what I have to do – I take her from her apartment and bring her under the sea to the domed Veiled City. A world of magic and secrets, where the females have the freedom to choose as many mates as they wish.

I understood my actions would have consequences. My government, like me, doesn’t give second chances. I did it for my nation, and for Annabelle, to let her become her true self.

But now she’s mine.

And I’ll do anything to keep this human. Anything. And I’m keeping this human.

my review

I’m afraid I just didn’t like this very much. It was basically ok, quality-wise. There were some inconsistency issues that annoyed me, and maybe some instances of wrong character names being used. (I’m not 100% sure about this one, but there were a couple of moments in scenes where I was like, did Pond mean for one of the male characters to be doing that when the other would make a lot more sense?) And several instances (especially in sex scenes) when I just didn’t know what was actually happening. But mostly, the issue is that I did not like it.

I understand that it is a dark romance. I understand that the “dark commander” is supposed to be dark. But dark romance is also…you know…a romance. But I neverever feel the spark between Nico and Annabelle. There is one sex scene that is so incredibly unpleasant I honestly thought it was rape. (I mean, the other male stepped in to remind the main male hero that he is supposed to be pleasuring his mate, and he is not.) And none of the other sex scenes felt authentic in any fashion. So, I never liked Nico. In the beginning, I gave him grace, room for character growth, etc. But he had not grown by the end. He remained unchained and captured by the dark commander photounpleasant, and everyone just let him.

I did like Holter and Caster, but they are not the focus here. This book was very much about Nico at the exclusion of the other two men, and it felt wonky and off-kilter because of it. And I liked Annabelle well enough. Her character is inconsistent, but mostly I liked her, and the world seems interesting.

All in all, however, I do not feel the need to continue the series.

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Book Review: Sanctuary, by Ilona Andrews

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I borrowed a copy of Ilona Andrews‘ Sanctuary through Hoopla.

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It’s not easy serving the Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death…especially during the holidays; and especially when you’re out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.

Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it’s a fight to the death, but for him, it’s just another day in the neighborhood.

my review

The Kate Daniels series is one of those that I wish I could come to new and read for the first time. I enjoyed it a lot, and Roman has always been a favorite side character. So, I was thrilled to discover that he was getting a book of his own book.

It’s only a novella. So, the plot isn’t deep or convoluted. But Sanctuary is full of all Roman’s customary piss and vinegar. He is his characteristic sarcastic self, brooding and bemoaning his god’s love. There’s a whole menagerie of cute critters and a bit of holiday cheer (or lack thereof). All in all, I hope there is more to this spinoff series.

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Review: Sanctuary by Ilona Andrews