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choices

Book Review of Choices (The Seven Keys Saga, #1) by M.A. Brotherton

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I received an Audible code from the narrator, David Loving, for a copy of Choices, by M. A. Brotherton. Or at least I think I did. In reviewing the email, I see that this is definitely the link I was provided, but the listed title (in the email) was Melt Zone. So, there’s a distinct possibility I’ve just listened to the wrong book.

Description from Goodreads:
Three years have passed since the war between the Six Orders, the ancient societies governing magic and nineteen-year-old Terry Howard, Acolyte of the Midnight Order is just trying to live a life as close to normal as possible. With the support of the few people in the world he hasn’t alienated, that almost seems possible. 

But when his ex, Carrie, asks him to look into a magic related suicide and his mentor, Stanley, announces his retirement, Terry is forced deal with his emotional baggage before everything he’s managed to build gets torn away.

Review:
I have to be honest, this was not a big winner for me. Mostly because I so often didn’t know what was going on. There was a huge cast of characters who were never fully introduced, let alone fleshed out. Terry seemed to develop skills and knowledge as needed in a very hand wavey kind of way. And though there was plenty of action, there was 100% no emotion. This in a character who was supposed to be suffering PTSD and encountering frightening experiences. It all felt very flat.

What’s more, I couldn’t really see Terry as 19 and, while he’s supposed to be super trained or something, how his friends had their power/skill or how they all met was not addressed. This is marked book one, but maybe there is a prequel out there or something? For sure, something is missing in this book, something important.

Lastly, I was not impressed with Loving’s narration. It was too fast. This didn’t bother me at first or when I listened to the sample, but it sure did as the book went on (and it sounded funny if I listened at .75x) and I just don’t think he did a very good job at sounding natural.

I did very much appreciate the diverse cast and mechanically the writing was pretty good. Others may very well love this. I didn’t. I saw how it could have been pretty good, but don’t think it quite managed it.

Book Review of Poison or Protect (Delightfully Deadly, #1), by Gail Carriger

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I received an Audible code through AudioBookBoom for a copy of Poison or Protect, by Gail Carriger.

Description from Goodreads:
Can one gentle Highland soldier woo Victorian London’s most scandalous lady assassin, or will they both be destroyed in the attempt? 

New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger presents a stand-alone romance novella set in her popular steampunk universe full of manners, spies, and dainty sandwiches. 

Lady Preshea Villentia, the Mourning Star, has four dead husbands and a nasty reputation. Fortunately, she looks fabulous in black. What society doesn’t know is that all her husbands were marked for death by Preshea’s employer. And Preshea has one final assignment. 

It was supposed to be easy, a house party with minimal bloodshed. Preshea hadn’t anticipated Captain Gavin Ruthven – massive, Scottish, quietly irresistible, and… working for the enemy. In a battle of wits, Preshea may risk her own heart – a terrifying prospect, as she never knew she had one. 

Buy Poison or Protect today to find out whether it’s heartbreak or haggis at this high tea. 

Review:
The dedication to this book is “For everyone one of my fans who reached out and said, “If Gail Carriger writes it, I will read it….”” Well, I’ve not reached out, but I find I have become one of those fans. Poison or Protect is a novella set in the same world as the Finishing School, Parasol Protectorate, and Custard Protocol series. You see one or two familiar faces, but it stands separate from each; perhaps only tentatively alone, as you still need to know some of the world details—what a drone is, why vampires are so geographically limited, werewolf hierarchies—but it isn’t actually part of any of Carriger’s bigger series.

I adored both Preshea and Gavin. Both were characters I wanted to gather to me. Their dynamic is one that just pushes all my buttons. I won’t include a spoiler, but just say I found them very sexy. And the book is more sexually explicit that I’ve seen in the bigger series. Not overly so at all, but this is not a YA book.

The writing is tight and gloriously proper, as always, and Lavington did an amazing job narrating it. All in all, a winner for me.

The Calling Tree

Book Review of The Calling Tree: A Tale of Immortality, by C.F. Waller

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I received an Audible copy of C. F. Waller‘s The Calling Tree through AudioBookBoom.

Description from Goodreads:
Dominick Dunn is in people acquisition. When the phone rings he shuffles off to the far corners of the globe to retrieve the captured, then turns them over to his employer. He doesn’t actually believe these people are immortal, but the pay is good and he likes to travel. Despite rumors that his quarry meets an unthinkable fate at the hands of his employer, he’s content with his lot in life. 

Aaron Wessker is miserable. His life has not gone according to plan. Trapped in a dead end job bartending in Vegas, he longs for a family he lacks, or at least the possibility of a girlfriend. 

Their lives are about to intersect, causing them both to rethink their place in the world. More importantly they will have to change their opinions of the possibility of immortality. 

Unfortunately for both of them they will have to do this very quickly. Dunn’s quarry is also being pursued by something much more deadly than his employers. 

Dominick Dunn is about to become the hunted and Aaron’s world is about to be turned on its side. 

Review:
A solid three stars. Awesome cover and I enjoyed the story and the characters a lot, but there is a formalness to the writing that never let me wholly sink into it. And as I listened (I had the audio version) I finally figured out what created this terseness. Two things: there is s decided lack of contractions and the speech tags are too often not simply ‘said.’ I’m not one who claims a writer should never use anything other than “”bla, bla, bla,” she said.” But it sure is hard to make “”bla, bla, bla,” she reiterated” as inconspicuous. None of this is helped by Baker‘s narration, which, though smooth, is additionally stiff in places, with a couple oddly pronounced or emphasized words. As an aside on the narration, I greatly disliked the echoing effect used to show internal thoughts.

There were one or two possible consistency issues that I raised my eyebrows at. For example, at one point a waitress walked by after I was sure the characters had left her bar and gone to a different restaurant. Maybe I misunderstood something, but…

Lastly, there were a few aspects of the story that irked me a little, though these are personal pet peeves and might not bother others. Most of them are men relating to women issues that I figure are symptoms of a male author, as there is a decided male gaze.

One, every waitress in the book is hit on by someone. The vast majority of female background characters, in fact, only seem to be there for a man to comment on. Two, the ‘hero’ gets the girl for no apparent reason at the end. I suppose just because that’s what is supposed to happen. There is nothing up to that moment to suggest there is a romance in play or even that she is a woman interested in romance. Three, (sorry to be vague, but I’m trying to avoid a whole spoiler) the very last little twist isn’t possible without the ‘wife’s’ death. And since they all know that would be inevitable in order for that twist to occur, that means they threw her life away in the end. This seems unlikely if he loved her so much, but also and more importantly, makes her feel like a substance-less prop, as female characters so often are.

All in all, not bad at all, but maybe not my favorite of the year.