I grabbed K.T. Swartz‘s first Juliet Harrison novel, These Chains That Bind, off of the KDP free list. (It’s still free, BTW.) I then bought the second two, Debtors Remorse and Carry Me Home.
Description from Goodreads:
Juliet Harrison can whip up one mean protection spell; Ezra Jacobs can snipe a man from a mile away. They might just be Columbus’ best detective duo… if only they’d stop arguing.
What do FBI agents, a bad-ass ex-marine, and a Mob Errand Boy have in common?
They’re all after one very annoyed Juliet Harrison.
Add to that a friend with an unrelenting ghost problem and a dangerous necromancer on the loose, and Juliet may not survive long enough to help the one person she can’t live without.
Review
I’m gonna start with a little OCD rant that I’ve made before. But it bothers me every single time, so I’m just gonna get it off of my chest. That cover is the wrong damned shape. There I said it. This is a book, not a CD. It needs a vertical rectangular cover so that it fits the standard and looks right when stacked with the rest of my digital books. Doesn’t it bother anyone else? It looks completely unprofessional to me, or at least very homemade (and not in a good way.) OK, moving on to the book.
I spent almost all of this book convinced that I wasn’t actually reading the first of the series. All my googling couldn’t come up with any prequel, so I suppose it must be number one. But there are a lot of rather important events referenced more than once that felt very much like the subject matter of a previous book. Carol’s death, for example, or whatever happened with Eli and his ex-wife, which is apparently how he and Juliet met.
These are not small matters. Carol was apparently Juliet’s long-term girlfriend, who was shot, possibly protecting Juliet. That’s a big deal. That’s important. That was still greatly affecting Juliet in this book, but never fully explored. Then Juliet spent roughly a third of this book helping Eli overcome the aftereffects of whatever transpired in the mysterious past event. That’s a lot of time to spend wondering what exactly it was that transpired.
I was really, really bothered by this. Either fully explore it or leave it out, but to just throw it out with no background and no follow-up is painful to read. Honestly, about 15% through the book, when I was so completely confused by these previous events and just realising they were never going to be explained, I almost gave up. I almost thought that if the author was such a poor storyteller that she didn’t recognise this as a GIANT plot hole, I shouldn’t hold out much hope for the book. I persevered, though, and I’m glad I did, because eventually the book moved away from its own history and developed a story of its own. It’s a darned good story too.
It’s the characters that make it I think. Juliet and Ezra have a wonderfully strained relationship. (Again, wish I knew the history of it. There is apparently 6 years worth.) He doesn’t speak much, but he’s a man of action. Juliet’s normal life would give most of us grey hair and it was a lot of fun to watch her navigate a world full of ghosts and poltergeists. I rather enjoyed the FBI agents as well. There was a lot of humour in Charlie and Juliet’s exchanges.
The plot itself seemed to be split into thirds: helping Ray and his friends, helping Eli, and trying to avoid GW. The whole Ray situation wraps up nicely. The Eli situation kind of wrapped up but really had no beginning, and I suspect it will crop up again in future books, and the GW situation had no end since it’s carrying over into book two. You can maybe see why I was never wholly convinced I really was reading book one.
On the whole, however, I found the writing quite refreshing, and there was a good amount of humour in it. I especially liked Juliet and Ezra’s constant jibes and insults. It was a bit of a running gag. I did notice a couple of repeat phrases, though. I think about a hundred people must have had the corner of their lip twitch, for example. I liked it enough to buy books two and three, so that should tell you something.
Description:
Moyer Bennett, the sole practitioner crime lord of Columbus. With ties to human and drug trafficking, and organized crime, he has reigned unopposed for twenty years. And he’s not in a hurry to lose his empire.
Dr. Gregory Mason, bona fide necromancer and lead surgeon at St. Mary’s in Seattle. He’s come to collect a debt owed to him, with or without consent.
Eva Harrison, matriarchal leader of the Harrison clan. Celebrating her one hundred forty-fourth birthday, she has a very special request, and she won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
Three people whose words bind Juliet to them, who demand more from her than she is capable of. And if she can’t even protect herself, how can she help those innocent, when they need it most?
Review:
In some ways, I liked this book more than the first. It didn’t start off with a huge, gaping chunk of missing plot, for one. The characters had become familiar and remained true to their previously established routines. Always a good thing. And I adored Seamus and Jimmy. But in other ways, I thought it lacked a little something.
Mostly it just felt like a middle book. There was almost nothing new here that hadn’t been started in book one and almost nothing wrapped up before the end. Juliet is still rushing to Eli’s aid but still hasn’t found a solution to their problem. GW is still alternatively hunting and being hunted by Juliet and Ezra, but we still have no idea why (or why Juliet insists on refusing to let Ezra kill him and get it over with). Dr. Mason shows back up to claim his due from book one, but the whole thing never concludes and will apparently carry on to book three. Great-Aunt Eva is still stalking Juliet with no intention of stopping, and Juliet still has no way to avoid her. The whole Moyer dilemma was new, but even it didn’t completely conclude at the end of the book.
I’m beginning to suspect that this is going to be a very long series of interlaced books, as opposed to a series of relatively freestanding stories. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that if it’s your thing. But I tend to get very frustrated if I go too long with any sort of resolution. I lose my will to continue.
The writing is still very good, and, with the exception of the ridiculous double tabs at the beginning of each paragraph that creates way too much empty space (all the books have this), it’s relatively well-edited. I noticed a few typos, but nothing major. There is also still a lot of good humour and while not strictly romantic, I really like Juliet and Ezra’s relationship. I also really appreciate the way Swartz tied Ezra’s well-being into needing something to protect, even if he doesn’t necessarily like it. It’s a subtle but telling character trait. The book’s pretty good, but you might as well buy all three as the first two, at least, don’t stand on their own very well.
Description:
Some choices in life are harder than others. But all have consequences.
There are few people in the world Juliet Harrison will do anything for, and Ezra Jacobs is one. But his personal vendetta is tearing apart her desperately sought-after peace. When it threatens her boyfriend’s life, as well as her own, Juliet’s response has even her wondering how far is too far… and if Ezra himself is worth the cost
Review:
I am pleased to say that some of the threads from books one and two are finally laid to rest here in book three. We finally find out why G.W. was after Ezra, and Ezra finally decides to man-up about Juliet. Granted, Great Aunt Eva is still after her, Moyer still has to be dealt with, Dr. Mason and his experiment still hasn’t shown back up yet, and the whole Eli thing is still hangin’ out there. Exacerbated even by something Juliet discovers about his son. Frustratingly, this particular discovery is laid out and never explored at all. I suspect it had no purpose in the novel except as a setup for some future book.
As I said in my reviews of the previous books, I’m not a big fan of open endings, and there are a couple of them here. For example, Ezra manages to come up with a name that cows Great Aunt Eva (the author really has a thing for ‘E’ names, BTW—Eli, Ezra, Eva, Emmanuel), and then GAE says something that shocks Ezra. But the reader never learns what they are. I have a suspicion since GAE is Prescient and all, but not KNOWING bothers me. Bothers me a lot.
That’s my biggest and only real complaint with these novels. I quite enjoyed them otherwise. Well, that and maybe the complete lack of sex. For those of you looking for a clean PNR, these are for you. While the reader knows when Juliet and her partner go to bed together, they get none of the details. Stingy!
I did, however, really appreciate the author’s easy use of same-sex partners. I hesitate to even bring this up because one of the things that makes its use in the book so wonderful is that it is treated as no different than hetero relationships. True acceptance of something has come when it is so normalised as to be unworthy of special interest or mention. Mentioning it here kind of compromises that, but I think Swartz deserves praise for including more than one lesbian relationship without the need to make them special or comment-worthy in any way. They just are, and that’s ok. I liked that a lot.
As with the previous two novels, I really liked the characters here. Even the dog has a recognisable personality. I did feel really sorry for Seamus by the end, and I have to admit I got tired of his sex jokes. At first, they were cute, but eventually, they started to feel just a little desperate. Ezra makes a marvelous damaged hero, and Edson’s polite Southern manner appealed to me.
All-in-all I enjoyed the book and would be more than willing to read the next. There isn’t a next one yet, but I have no doubt that there will be. This doesn’t appear to be a series with a single plot and perceivable closing. (You know, a planned trilogy or some such.) It could go on forever. All Juliet would need is one more job/mission/adventure to start the whole thing rolling again.