Tag Archives: book review

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Book Review: The Prisoner’s Gambit, by Kira Quinn

A couple of years back, I won a book giveaway that included the first three books in Kira Quinn‘s Mark of the Infala Series. Last Year, I read book one, The Alien’s Bond, as the Q book in my yearly Author-Alphabet Challenge. (You can see my review here.) I’m doing the same with book two, The Prisoner’s Gambit, this year.

The Prisoner's gambit cover

Being taken prisoner by ravenous green-skinned aliens was not cool, but when the Raxxian ship fell under attack, breaking apart and crashing on a planet in a galaxy far from home, Maureen realized that was only the beginning.

There was one bright side though. She had made a friend. A thickly muscled, blue-skinned hunk of a friend at that.

Stranded and alone, the pair’s attraction was obvious from the start, but much as they wanted to see where things might go between them, a new ordeal was spoon thrust upon them. One that threatened to separate them just as things were getting interesting.

It would be a struggle, but with their attraction growing by the minute it was a fight worth having. It would be hard, but if they managed to succeed, perhaps life as a survivor on an alien world wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. Judging by the chemistry between the human woman and rugged alien male, it looked like it could be quite enjoyable indeed.

my review

OK, look. I did not expect to like this book. I gave the first book in the series a 2-star rating last year and did not expect this one to be any better. But I challenged myself to clear some physical books off of my shelves this year, and needed a Q for my yearly Author-Alphabet-Challenge. What I also did not expect, however, was for this one to be worse than the first. I didn’t like the character in the first book and was just sort of bored with the whole thing. This one is just plain bad.

I think the author does not know what she wants to write. There is not enough sex for me to call it erotica and therefore accept that the sex is the point, not a plot or character development. (And what sex there is is abrupt, uninteresting, and 100% not sexy. Forplay, what’s that?) But the prisoners gambit photothere also isn’t enough of a plot, and absolutely no character development. So I can’t call it a romance or a character-driven story.

Add to that, many events rely on world-building that is so unidimensional it makes little sense. The villain was only slightly removed from being the clichéd woman scorned trope (*yawn*), and I was quite simply bored the whole time. But hey, I can mark Q off my challenge list. So it’s not a total waste!


Other Reviews:

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Book Review: Touched by Magic, by Celine Jeanjean

I’ve had a copy of Celine Jeanjean‘s Touched by Magic for a few years now. I almost certainly picked it up as a freebie, possibly during a “Stuff Your Kindle” event.

touched by magic cover

I’m Apiya. No, I’m not a badass magical assassin. I’m a barber to the supernatural.

My magic is very weak and very niche—it works best with keeping things clean.
I know. I can sense your awe at my power already. And I’m sure you can see why barbering suits me well.

Although now that I’ve mastered the art of trimming a weretiger’s regrowth, my biggest challenge is fielding the insults of the shop’s cat. Sometimes I wish I had enough magic to go deeper into the city’s magical underbelly.

You know what they say—be careful what you wish for.

Everything changes when a pair of forest fae come into the shop one night, asking for help to protect their youngling. Something’s got them properly spooked, but they won’t say what.

If it’s big and bad enough to scare the fae, it’s most definitely powerful enough to make a mouthful of me—probably a small mouthful, at that. And now that the fae have come to me, whatever’s after them is also after me.

My weak magic and a sarcastic cat for backup are unlikely to be enough to keep me alive and save the fae youngling.

There is someone who’s willing to help me—Sarroch. Arrogant, unpleasant, wealthy, and I don’t even know what kind of magical creature he is beneath his human form. Or what his motives are in offering to help.

I have no idea if I can trust him, but I’m so short on allies, I might not have a choice. I just hope I’m not making a huge mistake…

my review

I enjoyed this. The main character and her BFF banter pleasantly, and being a weak magic user among stronger mythical creatures feels relatable (as much as fantasy can). However, at 188 pages, it is shorter than the genre’s norm, and I thought that it was underdeveloped. (Two things that feel related.) It could have used those extra pages to thinken the plot, further develop the characters (and their relationship to and among one another), and sketch out the wider world the events are set in. As it reads now, I liked the main character, and the setting seems interesting. But I was never particularly invested. Plus, the mystery is solved very easily, by accident basically. This makes it the sort of series I’d pick up as freebies, but I probably wouldn’t buy it. So, a pretty middle-of-the-road read. Absolutely better than some, but not stellar either.
touched by magic photo


Other Reviews:

#SPFBO X: Review: Touched by Magic (Razor’s Edge Chronicles #1) by Celine Jeanjean

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Book Review: The Twisted Ones, by T. Kingfisher

I purchased a copy of T. Kingfisher‘s The Twisted Ones.

the twisted ones cover

When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods.

When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?

Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.

Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.

my review

Honestly, horror isn’t a genre I gravitate toward. But I’ve loved everything I’ve read by T. Kingfisher. So, I thought, why not try her horror books? I enjoyed it well enough. It has the creepy factor, if not the terror. I liked Mouse and the side characters; there’s some tongue-in-cheek humor, and the story kept me interested. There’s not a lot more that I require from a book.

If I had to critique, it would be that Mouse’s willingness to sacrifice for her dog is excessive. I love my dogs about as much as anyone, but a bit too much of the plot of The Twisted Ones depends on Mouse’s easy willingness to endanger herself for her pet. The ending also seems to abandon the creepy, folk horror atmosphere in favor of a more direct fear. But I would have preferred the book to carry through with the creepy plotting.

All in all, however, I enjoyed this about as much as I could expect to enjoy a horror book.

the twisted ones photo


Other Reviews:

Book Review | The Twisted Ones