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Served Hot

Book Review of Served Hot (Portland Heat #1), by Annabeth Albert

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Served HotI received a copy of Served Hot, by Annabeth Albert from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
In Portland, Oregon, the only thing hotter than the coffee shops, restaurants, and bakeries are the hard-working men who serve it up—hot, fresh, and ready to go—with no reservations…

Robby is a self-employed barista with a busy coffee cart, a warm smile, and a major crush on one of his customers. David is a handsome finance director who works nearby, eats lunch by himself, and expects nothing but “the usual”—small vanilla latte—from the cute guy in the cart. But when David shows up for his first Portland Pride festival, Robby works up the nerve to take their slow-brewing relationship to the next level.

David, however, is newly out and single, still grieving the loss of his longtime lover, and unsure if he’s ready to date again. Yet with every fresh latte, sweet exchange—and near hook-up—David and Robby go from simmering to steaming to piping hot. The question is: Will someone get burned?

Review:
While the writing here was fine, the story was only OK for me. I thought the romance was very sweet, but the book is basically just Robby over-analysing and agonising over every little detail of his budding relationship with David. Large chunks of time were skipped over, making all that agonising seem rushed and pointless. He always seemed to be wanting more than David was ready to give and it felt needy and selfish.

I did appreciate that Robbie was half-Korean. It’s nice to find a POC as a main character. I was disappointed to see him fulfilling most of the trite ‘gay Asian ‘ stereotypes though, even as the author acknowledged them.

All in all, not a bad book and an easy read. But it’s not particularly deep or moving in any manner.

Servant of Steel

Book Review of Servant of Steel (Chaos Awakens #1), by Heath Pfaff

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Servant of SteelI snagged a copy of Heath Pfaff‘s Servan of Steel from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Having two of his fingers cut off at an early age hadn’t done much to make Xandrith an agreeable fellow. Besides marking him as a pariah and having him shunned by even his own family, it had also hurt. A lot. Being stripped of a few of his fingers and cast out of the Order of Mages had left him bitter and angry, but if there was any consolation to be had it was that he was doing rather well in his new line of work. While perforating people for money might not have been the most noble of callings, it was quite lucrative. Well, it had been quite lucrative.

In a conspiracy of fate seemingly beyond his control, Xan soon finds himself facing a dilemma of conscience, and that isn’t something he’s familiar with. One dilemma leads to another, and before long the mage-turned-assassin finds himself performing more and more honorable deeds. Worse yet, without even attempting to do so he manages to acquire friends and to develop a sense of compassion.

As Xan struggles with his burgeoning humanity, a terrible darkness begins to wake in the world. The Order of Mages, once an overbearing power of control, seems to be losing its grip as a terrifying doom of their own creation rises in the north. As if that wasn’t enough, the horror brought upon the world by the folly of the mages may only be the precursor to something far more sinister.

Review:
This is one of those books that is difficult to review, because I ended it thinking, ‘what a great book,’ but then thought way back to the beginning and realised how much terrane had been traversed between the beginning and the end. Suddenly the book felt gangly and somewhat unfocused.

It has some great characters. Xan has a dry, fatalistic (though he doesn’t believe in fate) sense of humour that I really appreciated. In fact, it carried the book for me. The world-building is fairly rich and other than editing (which is honestly in need of a little more attention) the writing is pretty good. But the whole book is a series of tasks, set one on top of the other and, in the end, any attempted climax just felt like one more hill on a long journey. It tends to sap the tension out of a story.

Also, there are a couple questionable coincidences that, unless later explained to have been arranged, are beyond believable. So much, in fact, that even the book comments on how lucky one in particular is.

My final say is that the book is worth reading, though, and I’ll be looking for the sequels.

The Silver Cage

Book Review of The Silver Cage (The Numinous Chronicles, #1), by Kandis Hebert

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The Silver CageI snagged a copy of Kandis Hebert‘s The Silver Cage from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Amelia grew up in a world where monsters existed, but she’d never thought of them as such. As a teenager she’d left that world behind to create a normal life. When that normal life starts to unravel, she heads to the cabin she inherited from her parents to get away from it all. She soon finds herself being pulled back into a world of supernatural creatures when she discovers a werewolf in the woods outside her cabin.

Ethan isn’t just any werewolf–he’s the werewolf that broke Amelia’s teenage heart. He also needs her help. Werewolves have been disappearing and Ethan was one of them. Unsure of whether or not to trust Ethan and his team, Amelia finds herself caught in the middle of the investigation.

Despite her reservations, Amelia can’t resist the pull towards the man from her past. Seeing Ethan again ignites feelings long-forgotten and she knows it’s only a matter of time before she succumbs to temptation and gives in to him.

Review:
Blergggg! Even worse, boring. Seriously, the main character watered her plants, fed her cat, washed dishes and went to bed (alone) about a billion times and very little of consequence happened until the last 15% or so. And even then, I had to wonder how they pulled it off so easily.

There was very little world building. The characters were extremely shallow. The whole premise made no sense at all. If they were so in love, I don’t believe for a moment that for ten years neither of them would reach out to the other, once they reached adulthood (him especially). There are some painful clichés. The villain/ending is hella obvious! And the whole thing ends on a mother F%$&ing cliffhanger. There is no happily-ever-after, not even a happy-for- now ending. (Not that I don’t already know how it will eventually end. There is so little new territory here that I could probably give you bullet points on the next book without even knowing the title.)

Nope, this one was not a winner for me. The writing and editing was fine (though there seemed to be some formatting issues). It was the story that failed for me.