Book Review: Of Visions & Secrets, by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

The darkness took Emma’s brother. Now it yearns to claim her.

When Emma Mather’s twin brother, Elliot, goes missing from Arnsmouth University, she is determined to stop at nothing to find him. Yet as she follows the clues left behind, she learns that there are far more sinister monstrosities lurking in the shadows of her city than she could have ever imagined.

Elliot’s former teacher, Professor Raphael Saltonstall, may be Emma’s only hope in finding her brother. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for Emma to realize Rafe is hiding secrets of his own. Despite the sizzling attraction between them, Emma isn’t entirely sure if Rafe is a friend or foe.

As two opposing cults hunt her down for their own twisted agendas, Emma finds tendrils of darkness closing in from all around. Pulsating Things live in the darkness…wriggling in eager anticipation to take her.

If they have their way, they’ll consume her mind, soul…and body.

This was a surprise winner for me. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I loved how upfront and ready Emma was. She put her authentic self right out there for the world to see, and I appreciated it. I thought the world interesting and the characters engaging. They’re all so marvelously morally grey. The writing is clean and easy to read, and I’m invested in what happens next.

I did wish for a little more certainty on the fate of the brother…and admittedly more tentacle action than we were given. The story really is a little slow to get going, and I thought Emma lost a little of her assertive spark as soon as the romance started to build. But I will certainly be continuing the series.

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I have big news on the personal front.

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I talked about this over on Sadie’s Spotlight already. But I should post here, too. I have exciting personal news that will affect the running of See Sadie Read. I am going back to university to get a Ph.D. I’ve been saying I was going to do it for a while now. The bio on my About Sadie page has said, “I still plan to pursue a Ph.D. at some point, if life would just get out of the way…” for about 7 years. It’s long been the plan. But kind of a formless, “one-day” sort of plan. Now it’s a starting August 25 and finishing by 2029 kind of plan!

This is of note here on See Sadie Read for obvious reasons. For the last several years, I’ve had an abundance of free time and have read accordingly. Thus, we’ve seen 200-300 reviews a year for the last few years. That number is going to drop significantly.

Reading fiction is still my favorite hobby. So, I expect to still read and review fantasy. But I’ll be squeezing it in in a way I haven’t had to in a while. What’s more, I’ll be reading a whole heck of a lot of non-fiction. Already I have Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Media Surveys and The Public Policy Theory Primer sitting on my coffee table. I don’t plan to regularly review any of the texts I read for class. But if something strikes me as review-worthy, I might drop one here and there.

For the most part, what you need to know is that I will be reviewing less fiction for a while. But See Sadie Read will remain, if in a diminished capacity…at least for a little while.

But in the end, I’ll be a doctor and have finally completed a life-time goal I set many, many moons ago. I’m nervous-excited. So, wish me luck.

Book Review: Monster Inside, by River Starr

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River Starr‘s Monster Inside was featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight and I was lucky enough to win an e-copy of it.

Sometimes the most enchanting monsters are the ones you can’t see, only feel…

I am a survivor. For the past ten years, I’ve been forced to give every part of me to sinister vampires in a feeding community. But when I touched an ancient book and recited a spell out of sheer desperation and zero arcane knowledge, a dark entity came to me. Rescued me. Mrak helped me escape.

I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. But Mrak has been at my side for the last year—well, inside me, anchored to my existence and lovingly tender with his ethereal touches. It’s not quite possession, not quite a haunting. But it’s real, it’s sexy as hell, and he’s mine. Or I’m his. Either way, we’re now in this life together.

Mrak is distracting, seductive, and powerful, but he’s also keeping a secret. One that’s now put me in immense danger despite his claims he’ll do anything to protect me. Because the cops have come calling. Bodies have turned up. And despite his reassurances, I’m starting to wonder if Mrak has a hidden agenda that he’s somehow kept secret from the inside.

My life might be in my monster’s debt. My body might be his for pleasure. But my future is mine no matter how much he wants and uses my body. I’m no longer the weak woman he saved from a vampire lord, and it’s time to take my body—and my life—back.

Soooo, this was readable and had an interesting idea but honestly wasn’t very well executed. The beginning is hella repetitive. Like the author couldn’t figure out how to show us things so they just kept telling us. The heroine ran around and did things. However, it never felt anything but random, because the author didn’t really take the time to anchor the plot. The entirety of the relationship building was skipped in a full year jump in time. (And come on, learning to live with a demon INSIDE YOU should have been pivotal to the story!) So, I held absolutely no investment in it. There wasn’t any world-building to speak of. So, I didn’t really know what the limits of possibilities were, etc. All in all, I was initially interested but not impressed enough to bother continuing the series.

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Blog Tour — Review: Monster Inside by River Starr