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Book Review: Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier

I received an Audible code for a copy of Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier, narrated by Anneliese Rennie, Portia Kay Winters, Austin Barringer, Carl Mason, Antonio Amato, Aaron Shedlock, Liam Di Cosimo, and Mike Johnson.

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The Library of the Profane has everything your black heart desires. But we don’t just allow anyone to get a library card.

Need to summon a demon? Raise the dead? A clan of vampires bothering you? Do you like the really nasty werewolf erotica? The Library of the Profane has all of that, but not everyone can handle the contents (Some people can’t handle their werewolf erotica). I’ve been a librarian here for five years and when I say I killed to get this job, I’m not being facetious.

You can’t check out our books. Some of the books are sentient and don’t like it. We have rooms to perform the spells in or hell, we do have a copy machine (copies are extra). When a witch came in and said they needed to do a little necromancy, I didn’t question it. They wouldn’t have been given a library card if they were going to raise someone really bad. I helped with the necromancy because it’s just my job as a librarian.

Except it wasn’t a normal resurrection. It was the physical embodiment of Chaos and when he woke up, he saw me first and now he’s attached. Chaos personified is a horrible library guest and he won’t leave with the witch who raised him. He’s constantly getting into things he’s not supposed to and he’s really into the werewolf erotica.

It’s not like I can let him out because the Library of the Profane is meant to contain Chaos. The rest of the world isn’t. He’s awful about keeping his identity secret too. A warlock, a Hellhound, and a vampire know he’s here and they are bugging me to let Chaos have a little fun.

I just want a normal day of summoning demons, cursing people, and telling people to be quiet in my library. This is too much.

my review
Sooo, this was a flop for me. I’m not certain which I liked less, the story or the narration. This book has nine narrators, and it is not a feature. I found it super distracting (and hated one of the voiced characters entirely). The narrators did a fine job (even if I disliked one), but there didn’t need to be so many of them. It detracted from the experience. Why would anyone choose to do this?

As for the story, I found it flimsy and unsubstantial. Ripley exists. All the men who are forming her harem exist. That’s about all I can say for them. There is so little character development that they all remain virtual strangers (to the reader and each other).

Lastly, the book barely introduces all the characters and the mystery before it ends on a cliffhanger. As much as I hate starting stories I don’t see the end of, I won’t be continuing this one.

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BOOK REVIEW: Chaos (The Library of the Profane) by J.B. Trepagnier #reverseharem #urbanfantasy

 

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Book Review: Alien Abduction for Beginners, by Skye MacKinnon

I had a couple of hours worth of mindless, repetitive tasks ahead of me. So, I sought out a short audiobook to get me through. Which is how I ended up borrowing Alien Abduction for Beginners, by Skye MacKinnon through Hoopla.
alien abduction for beginners

Not all aliens are good at abducting humans.

Havel, Matar and Xil have failed too many times to count. Luckily, there’s help available for failed kidnappers: a diploma offered by the Intergalactic University. To complete their course, these three sexy aliens need to abduct a human female – and they’re graded on it.

The problem is, the human female has no intentions of being abducted, not even to help them get the universe’s most recognised abduction qualification.

my review

I picked this up knowing it was going to be a silly, sexy space romp and I was cool with that idea. I wasn’t looking for anything more.

But it pretty much fails. It has too much plot to be erotica and, frankly, not enough sex. But there isn’t enough plot to be called a romance, even an erotic romance. The comedy aspect is almost entirely of the cultural misunderstanding sort and falls much closer to stupid than endearing. And while I liked the males, I couldn’t really tell them apart most of the time.

Plus, I disliked Jake Bordeaux’s narration. It was stiff and gave me a vague sense that he was making fun of the story even as he narrated it. Bridget Bordeaux did a better job with the female characters. But much less of the book is from a female perspective. All in all, it got me through my chores, but that’s about it.

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Book Review: Stolen by her Wolves, by Kaylin Peyerk

I received an Audible code for a free copy of Kaylin Peyerk‘s Stolen by her Wolves.
stolen by her wolves audio cover

As one of the final surviving members of a brutal shifter clan, I’ve been chained and imprisoned for my entire life by my human uncle for the sole purpose of keeping other humans safe from me.

At least that’s his excuse.

Solitude and pain are all I’ve known, so when four men show up claiming to be my saviors I’m not exactly receptive to the idea. Sure, I’m grateful that they’ve busted me out of my own personal brand of hell, but that’s about as far as the gratitude goes. Now I have no money, no pack, and nowhere to go unless I take them up on their offer to transport me safely to Newhaven, a sanctuary for omega wolves deep in the woodlands of Alaska.

With no other choice left, I take it while vowing to keep my distance for the week-long trip. But as time passes my guard falls, leaving me conflicted and suddenly vulnerable to the charismatically handsome group of men. Will I make it to Wolfhaven without falling for them, and do I really want to?

This is a reverse harem wolf shifter romance with themes of abuse trauma, overcoming it, and learning to trust the ones you love.

my review

*Sigh*

I suppose this was ok. The writing is fine. The idea of the found family pack bond is fun. That two of the mates are also involved is nice. The inclusion of the fae connection is interesting. Alyssa Rogge did a fine job with the narration (even if everyone sounded a bit on the young side). And I very much appreciate that Peyerk didn’t include rape in the torture Talia endured. It wasn’t needed for the story, and I appreciate that it wasn’t there just for shock.

Unfortunately, the book just didn’t light me up in any way. I feel like we don’t really get to know the MCs very well, the beta and sub-alpha especially. They all just kind of merged into a mate-group blob. There’s one fairly bland sex scene with one mate that kind of springs out of nowhere. So, the romantic aspect is a bit of a dud.

There are several inconsistencies, contradictions, and instances of people suddenly knowing things they hadn’t been told and had no way of discovering. But mostly, even though this book is almost 300 pages (5+ hours of audio), it feels like an extended prologue or introduction to a series rather than a book of its own. Basically, nothing happens.

And here I’m going to have a little rant, not so much about this particular book but about the state of the genre or industry in general. I cannot truly express how tired I am of reading books that don’t end—not cliffhangers, but books that are just part of a story with no wrap-up or conclusion—that just are basically the first 3rd, or 5th, or 15th of a story.

I think this started with Amazon and the free book craze. Authors now write a teaser first book to give away as a freebie, and it often has an open ending to tempt the reader to buy the next one. But as a reader, I am so sick of these books. I would 100% rather just pay for a complete story and skip the teaser bit. The problem is that you never know what book is one until you’re already finishing it. I’m tired, so very tired, of giving my time to books that have no ending. So tired in fact, that I usually don’t bother finding the rest of the series (for fear the next book will be the same). So, I’ve started just considering these books wastes of my time. Can the industry move on from this now? I’m ready.

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