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Midnight's Daughter

Book Review of Midnight’s Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1), by Karen Chance

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I borrowed an audio copy of Karen Chance‘s MIdnight’s Daughter through Hoopla and my local library.

Description from Goodreads:

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir-half human, half vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.

Now Dory’s vampire father has come back into her life. Her Uncle Dracula (yes, the Dracula), infamous even among vampires for his cruelty and murderous ways, has escaped his prison. And her father wants Dory to work with gorgeous master vampire Louis-Cesare to put him back there.

Vampires and dhampirs are mortal enemies, and Dory prefers to work alone. But Dracula is the only thing on Earth that truly scares her, so when Dory has to go up against him, she’ll take all the help she can get… 

Review:

I’ve got to be honest and say I didn’t love this. It felt all over the place, Dory randomly running from one fight to the next and meeting characters who play no further role in the book. Ironically, I also felt like there were fights we should have seen (because they were more relevant to the plot) and we were only told she blacked out and woke up having killed everyone. In the end, she didn’t even fight Dracula, as the blurb suggests, but some other random villain, while someone else took Drac. (Actually that’s a perfect example of the book, the focus slipping off somewhere else with the important stuff happening in the background.)

Further, the way the book set up the evil family and then tried to redeem them didn’t work for me and I was bitter that the whole thing basically came down to an “Oops sorry.” 

I did appreciate that men were sexualized and victimized. I know that seems an odd thing to praise, but usually it’s ONLY WOMEN who get this treatment and it was nice to see a little parity. And I can also imagine some of the problems of this book being because it’s the first in a series and had to set everything else up. Despite not liking it much, I might be willing to give book two a chance to see if the things that annoyed me so much don’t carry over.

I did think Joyce Bean did a fine job with the narration.

Book Review of Wicked Never Sleeps (Mysteries from the Sixth Borough #1), by Gina LaManna

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I borrowed an audio copy of Gina Lamanna‘s The Hex File: Wicked Never Sleeps through Hoopla.

Description from Goodreads:

Wicked—the paranormal sixth borough of New York—is home to witches and goblins, werewolves and necromancers, elves and vampires…and former Detective Dani DeMarco. Dani’s busy with the grand opening of her family’s pizza parlor, when a knock on the door leaves her face to face with the stunning, yet lethal vampire in charge of the NYPD’s supernatural branch—Captain Matthew King. 

There’s been a high profile double homicide in the Sixth Borough, and Dani’s peculiar talent is the only hope to untangle the web of lies and magic connecting the dead victims. As the case spirals into a pulse-pounding chase, Dani’s not sure what’s worse: the fact that a ruthless killer has his sights set on her, or that her feelings for New York’s most infamous vampire have returned… 

Review:

This was…well, sorry, but this was just not very good. It read problematically like the second book in a series and the lack of a first book was VERY felt. The plot was all over the place. There were inconsistencies. The dialogue was too formal and often awkward. It swerved into the ridiculous on occasion. There is no romance (when you sense there’s meant to be). Danni was supposed to be all tough and capable, but instead she seemed like a kid playing detective and you definitely felt that she was being coddled by the men. And in the end she didn’t even solve the case. The villain just randomly showed up and spewed the plan all over her. The “Hex Files,” important enough to name the series after, play no role and the reader finishes the book not knowing what they are. And there are hints of a possible future love triangle. All in all, I didn’t much enjoy this. I also didn’t care for the narration. But I don’t know if this is a failure on Ryan’s part or if she did the best with the material provided her.

 

Review of Cold Shadows (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #2), by J.L. Bryan

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I borrowed an audio copy of J.L Bryan‘s Cold Shadows through Hoopla and my local library.

Description from Goodreads:

Paranormal investigator Ellie Jordan faces a difficult new case. Her new clients are a family haunted by multiple ghosts and a poltergeist that wrecks their home at night. Their seven-year-old son’s invisible friends may not be imaginary at all but the restless spirits of dead children. To clear her clients’ house of the dangerous entities, Ellie must unravel the mysterious deaths of another family who lived in the old mansion more than a hundred and sixty years ago, and she must do it before the ghosts can carry out their malevolent designs on her clients and their children.

Review:

Enjoyable enough. It’d been quite a long time since I read book one in this series. I honestly didn’t remember much beyond the bare bones. But I was able to pick this one up without trouble. It suffers from a bit of the “we did this” and then “we did this” writing, Ellie seems to take beating after beating without effect, and honestly I couldn’t figure out how the homeowner kept sleeping through all the racket she and the ghosts must have been making. But it was a fun little ghost mystery. 

I 100% approve of seeing a paraplegic, wheelchair using business owner. He may not play a big part in the book, page-wise, but he is an important character. (I’m sure he was in book one too, but as I’d forgotten, it got to be a new surprise again.) Similarly, there are characters who are “plump,” but no issue is made of it. 

All in all, Ellie Jordon is just as advertised, a ghost-hunter. And the book is thus exactly as you would expect, a story of hunting ghosts. There isn’t yet a lot more depth to the plotting (though there seem to be some hints of a deeper mystery in the future). I’d be willing to read it…or listen. Carla Mercer-Meyer did a fine job with the narration of this one.