Tag Archives: book review

bleeding hearts banner

Book Review: Bleeding Hearts, by Emma Hamm

I bought a copy of Emma Hamm‘s Bleeding Hearts, way back in late 2021.

bleeding_hearts_cover

Find the Duke. Prove he’s a vampire. And kill him.

Maeve Winchester is out of the vampire hunting game. She’s killed enough of them, and risked her life for long enough. Working for the Holy Brotherhood didn’t make that easy, however. Especially when she has witch blood. Regardless of her past, the Inquisition agrees to release her and her magical sisters, under one circumstance.

She has to complete one more job.

Through the moors and mire, she travels to the illusive Castra Nocte. Home of the Carmine Duke. His gothic castle has stood for centuries with a single rule. If you enter, you will never leave. It is here Maeve makes her last stand. She must prove the Duke is a vampire and then kill him as she has so many others.

When she enters the castle, not all is as it seems. The Duke is charming. The castle grounds clean. His words tantalizing. She will have to keep her wits about her if she is to save her sisters… and her heart.

my review

This was entertaining enough. I generally enjoyed it. I didn’t quite feel Maeve’s transition from enemy to lover, though. It was too abrupt and required she show a level of trust and naivete that everything up to that point suggested she would not do. I also felt that she was seduced as much (if not more) by the glitz, glamour, and wealth that the Duke could provide her as by the man himself, and that didn’t feel very romantic. I did appreciate that he fell first in a truly obsessive way. It felt a little like love-bombing. But I also thought the banter between him and his butler provided the levity the plot needed.

I liked the world Hamm created, though it’s only lightly sketched out and doesn’t stray far from ‘the church’ as we are all familiar with it as the villain. However, the side characters that are in the future books look fun. I’ll probably read their books.

bleeding_hearts_photo


Other Reviews:

Myth and Magic Bookclub: Bleeding Hearts, by Emma Hamm

 

taken by the dragon king banner

Book Review: Taken by the Dragon King, by Amelia Shaw

I picked up an audiobook copy of Amelia Shaw‘s Taken by the Dragon King on Google Play Books. (As it happens, I also have an e-copy. But when it came down to it, I went with the audio.)

taken by the dragon king cover

Stavrok won’t let anything stand between him and his mate.

There’s a beast inside of me, and there will be a time when I can’t control him.

That’s what my father told me happens when my dragon finds his mate. He will claim them. He will not be gentle. He will not be sweet.

My dragon will do whatever it takes to ensure his mate doesn’t leave, no matter the cost.

Lucy thinks soulmates are only for her dreams.

When a stranger breaks into my home and comes after me, I recognize his face. He’s the man from my dreams—the one I’m destined to fall in love with.

But I don’t believe in soulmates. That’s why I try to flee.

Stavrok takes Lucy to the snowy mountains, hellbent on proving she’s his mate.

But then his kingdom is attacked, and Lucy is stolen away from the Dragon King.

Now her only hope lies in knowing Stavrok will turn the world to ash and brimstone looking for her…and his dragon babies.

my review

Meh, this was fine, if a little bland and predictable. I don’t have a lot to say on this one. It is exactly what the title describes—no more, no less. I liked that he falls first and that she has a backbone. The writing is readable, and the plot holds together. But it is simply made up of a series of tropes we’ve all read before, and nothing feels original or even combined in a new way. So, honestly, I was bored by it. But if you happen to particularly like the tropes used, I imagine you’ll be more invested than I was.

Lastly, I listened to the audio version. Catherine Bilson did a fine job with the narration. But I rather feel she wasn’t a good fit styalistically. She was a little too prim and polite, as if she should have been reading a cozy Ms. Marple-style mysteries or sweet historical romances instead of mildly spicy PNR.taken by the dragon king photo


Other Reviews:

Taken by the Dragon King, by Amelia Shaw | Book Review

murder at the ufo festival banner

Book Review: Murder at the UFO Festival, by Kaja Fivecrows

I picked up a copy of Murder at the UFO Festival by Kaja Fivecrows as an Amazon freebie.

murder at the ufo festival cover

“Having only one husband? In this economy?”

34-year-old Alexandria Bellecourt runs her small-town Oregon bed & breakfast like a well-oiled machine, with her severe, harsh husband Grayson in charge of finances and her warm, friendly husband Greg in charge of promotions.

But all this organization goes down the toilet during the annual UFO Festival. Alexandria doesn’t realize that hidden among the psychics, aura readers, and alien abductees, one of her guests is an abrasive skeptic with a lot of enemies. After he threatens to expose her other guests as frauds, he gets stabbed in the back, seriously disrupting brunch.

Her bed & breakfast is suddenly plunged headlong into a murder investigation, and Alexandria has a lot on her plate already, like why isn’t the guillotine working for her husband Greg’s amateur play and why does her husband Grayson have a suspicious amount of combat skills for an accountant?

When the rest of her guests start getting targeted one by one, Alexandria is going to have to go undercover at the UFO Festival to find out who the culprit is. Can she and her husbands discover who the murderer is before getting targeted themselves or, even worse, getting a bad guest review?

my review

This was OK. I enjoyed it well enough. I did, however, find the characterization shallow. The reader is not given anywhere near enough background on the characters or their situation to feel satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them, Grayson especially. But they are cardboard cutouts more than fleshed-out characters.

While the mystery was entertaining, I rather suspect the story of how Grey, Grayson, and Alexandria met and evolved into the throuple we meet here would be a more interesting story than what the reader is offered in this book, which would be fine if that book existed. But as far as I can see, it doesn’t, which means the reader feels its lack. Further, I quibble that this doesn’t qualify as Why Choose as there is no choosing involved. The throuple is established and comfortably married before the book even starts. Maybe that’s just me, though.

Lastly, the merging of cozy mystery and an attempt at spice didn’t really work. The sex scenes felt shoehorned in and often out of place. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this was written as a cozy mystery, and the author later added the sex scenes to try and catch a broader audience. All in all, I’d read another, but it isn’t topping a favorites list.
murder at the ufo festival photo


Other Reviews: