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Book Review of Full Blooded (Jessica McClain, #1), by Amanda Carlson

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Full BloodedI bought an ecopy of Full Blooded, by Amanda Carlson.

Description from Goodreads:
Born the only female in an all male race, Jessica McClain isn’t just different—she’s feared.

After living under the radar for the last twenty-six years, Jessica is thrust unexpectedly into her first change, a full ten years late. She wakes up and finds she’s in the middle of a storm. Now that she’s become the only female full-blooded werewolf in town, the supernatural world is already clamoring to take a bite out of her and her new Pack must rise up and protect her.

But not everyone is on board. The werewolf Rights of Laws is missing text and the superstitious werewolves think that Jessica means an end to their race. It doesn’t help when Jessica begins to realize she’s more. She can change partway and hold her form, and speak directly to her wolf. But the biggest complication by far is that her alpha father can’t control her like he can the rest of his wolves.

When a mercenary who’s been hired by the vampires shows up to extract information about the newly turned werewolf only days after her change, they find themselves smack in the middle of a war and there’s no choice but to run together. When it’s up to Jessica to negotiate her release against her father’s direct orders, she chooses to take an offer for help instead. In exchange, Jessica must now swear an oath she may end up repaying with her life.

Review:
I thought this was ok. There were things I liked, like Jessica’s insistence on independence and the way Rourke went all desperate and weak-kneed at toward the end, not to mention needing rescue. But while I found the latter half of this amusing and would read more of the series, I wasn’t overly impressed.

One of my number one dialogue pet peeves is when characters say each-other’s name all the time. Think on it; if you’re having a conversation with someone, especially if it’s just the two of you alone, how often do you say their name? Maybe once, in the beginning to get their attention, if even then. In this book these characters used a direct address or name in almost every interaction, sometimes multiple times in the same brief conversation. It drove me absolutely crazy. It just feels so very unnatural.

There is non-stop action in this book and, while action is good, it prevents boredom, there is no downtime in this book and I think it needed some. The characters needed a breather here or there, so that the reader could take a moment to digest. You’re never given any time for big reveals to settle before the book whizzes off to something else, denying the moment any gravitas.

It’s also a cliffhanger. True, it’s not a precipitous as some of them I’ve encountered and I don’t mind some open threads to carry over into a next book, but nothing really wraps up in the story, which annoys me in general, but is especially annoying when the ebook is $8.99 (a new paperback is only $5.20). Seems a little expensive for just part of a story, and that’s honestly all this is.

Light a Candle

Book Review: Light a Candle (Club Velvet Ice #4), by V. J. Summers

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Light a CandleI received a copy of Light a candle, by V. J. Summers from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Will broke Dusty’s heart their senior year. One unexpected moment of passion between them, and Will freaked out. Not only wasn’t he gay, but he wasn’t kinky either—or so he insisted to Dusty. Their long friendship ended, and Dusty was left with only bittersweet memories of their last movie night together.

Ten years later, out as gay and a Dom, Will auditions for membership at Club Deviant, only to find that he’s been assigned an all-too-familiar submissive. His scene with Dustin feels like fate, and he’s determined to get back what they once had—and more.

Dustin had buried the pain of rejection deep, but playing with Will conjures all his memories of that one electric moment they shared and the friendship it destroyed. He’s built walls around his heart high enough to keep out the Trojan Army, but together, he and Will may find the courage to move beyond their past and face their future together.

Review:
OK, to start with, until I sat down to write this review I didn’t realize this was a fourth book in a series. I would never have picked it up if I had. I generally avoid latter books in a series, even if they are stand alone. But it’s read now and, who knows, maybe I would have liked it better if I’d read the previous three books. Maybe not, because I don’t know that my complaints resulted from anything related to the series itself.

Now, I don’t want to infer that I didn’t like the book, just that I had complaints. First, the characters are paper thin. Seriously, with the exception of the flashbacks, over the several weeks of the book, we don’t get a single scene outside the club. So, the book is wholly focused on Will’s pursuit of Dusty and Dusty’s avoidance of giving in. Meh.

Second, I didn’t think what happened between the two as teenagers deserved all that much angst. It just wasn’t that big a deal. They certainly never had a relationship, so claiming Dusty’s heart was broken seems a little extreme. We’re told they’d been friends for years, but we’re given one scene in which Dusty awkwardly invites WIll over to his house, as if they’re just becoming friends. I didn’t buy it.

Third, I get that wax play was supposed to be a big part of this, thus the title. But almost every single sex scene was a wax play scene. For an elite BDSM club they seem to have a very limited repertoire. The thing is, even if I found it super sexy, I’d have been bored with it. But really I thought it was pretty bland, especially Will and Dusty’s big climax scene. Meh.

I hated the Dom-talk. Why do all Doms in these sorts of books have to talk in stiff, complete sentence, call every one ‘boy’ (which just squinks me out, like something that should be uttered only in Deliverance) and never use contractions. Meh.

So, in conclusion, while this was an ok book and some people might be thrilled with it, I remained only mildly interested throughout.

crash

Book Review of Crash (Westside Wolf Pack #1), by Zoe Perdita

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CrashI picked up a copy of Crash, by Zoe Perdita, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Ben Singer, an omega werewolf, has been in love with his former best friend and the alpha scion of their wolf pack, Axel, from the time they were teenagers. Ben thought they were mates, but the rules of their pack kept them apart.

Axel Cross is a fuck-up. The sexy tattooed wolf threw away his chances of ever becoming pack alpha at seventeen, and Ben has no idea why.

When Axel’s uncle kicks Ben out of their Pittsburgh pack, it’s the chance the omega has been waiting for. Then Axel demands to accompany the smaller wolf. The only problem is Ben wants to run away for good – away from the pack Axel’s uncle decided the omega should join and away from Axel. 

But Axel doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He’s determined to go with Ben, even if the omega doesn’t want him around. 

While desire stirs between Axel and Ben, years of heartache haunt them. Can the alpha and omega let go of their past and the old pack in order to find a bright new future together?

Review: 
I basically enjoyed this book. I thought Axel was an interesting character and liked Ben well enough. I was disappointed to find such a strong representation of the common hetero romance “Damsel In Distress” trope. I can’t even begin to estimate how many of those het romances feature a tough hero who hurts the woman he loves by forcing distance between them for her own good, without giving her a reason. Only to then protect her secretly from a distance and then return and claim her when he’s ready, expecting all past slights to be instantly forgiven. This is a very common trope in het romance and I wasn’t thrilled to find in it my MM, because one of the primary reasons I read MM (other than it’s just sexy) is to get away from these same heavily gendered versions of male-female relationships. (And there is no question here of which man represents the ‘woman’ and which the ‘man.’) Despite that, I did enjoy seeing how Axel struggled with the reality of his decisions.

While I quite liked Axel, asshole alpha as he was sometimes, Ben didn’t light my fire. I found him to be an overly stereotypical queer kid and his constant mouth got on my nerves. Yes, I got that was part of his personality, but he mouths off relentlessly to people he was otherwise terrified of. (Really, that’s not how terror usually works.) And he does so knowing it’s Axel who will be punished. He loves the guy, you’d think he’d be invested in not getting him punished. Similarly, as adults I found his constant sexual innuendo exhausting. Again, I get it, he does it as a means of deflection and self-protection, but I got so tired of reading it.

I found the writing fine, with the exception of the constant ‘taller wolf, ‘smaller wolf,’ ‘Omega,’ ‘Alpha/Alpha Scion’ (the author wasn’t consistent in which was used, which was problematic as I believe, per world-set up, he was an Alpha Scion but with no pack to lead, not yet and Alpha). I really did need an explanation on pack hierarchy and politics though. I understand alpha/top dog, omega/bottom dog. But there is no explanation of what makes an omega an omega. I assumed Axel was an alpha scion by virtue of being the Alpha’s son. But Ben’s parent’s were mid-level pack members, not omegas and Ben was labelled as such even as a small child. So it can’t be family position and isn’t necessarily just his smaller size or personality (as it wouldn’t have developed yet). In the same vein, Axel’s need to prove himself worthy before taking over the pack (and thus throwing that chance away) doesn’t make a lot of sense considering the two previous alphas. Neither of them would qualify as worthy.

Anyhow, I had complaints, yes. But if I came across the sequel I’d be more than happy to read it. I enjoyed more than I didn’t.