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Her Perfect Mate

Book Review: Her Perfect Mate, by Paige Tyler

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Her Perfect Mate

I received a copy of Her Perfect Mate, by Paige Tyler, from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Their attraction is more dangerous than any weapon of mass destruction.

When Special Forces Captain Landon Donovan is chosen for an assignment with the Department of Covert Operations, he’s stunned to find his new partner is a beautiful woman who looks like she couldn’t hurt a fly, much less take down a terrorist.

Ivy Halliwell isn’t your average covert op. Her feline DNA means she can literally bring out the claws when things get dicey. She isn’t thrilled to be paired with yet another military grunt, but Landon is different. He doesn’t think she’s a freak-and he’s smokin’ hot. Soon they’re facing a threat even greater than anyone imagines… and an animal magnetism impossible to ignore.

Review:

Reading is subjective and what one person likes another won’t. Thank goodness we all know this, because I have to admit that, despite generally good reviews, I pretty much hated this book. More accurately, I hated the character portrayals, Ivy especially.

The short version is that weak, teary, insecure heroines who are supposed to be top agents but spend all their time jumping to ridiculous, self-effacing conclusions and whinging, make me want to scratch my own eyes out with a dulled lemon zester.

Pair them with a man, described as practically god-like and allowed to makes all the decisions for himself and, said, pretend strong female lead and I’m ready to throw my head in an electric mixer instead. I’m just totally baffled how anyone could think this is the type of pairing self-assured women would want to relate to.

I considered casting the book on the DNF pile at ~35%. At this point Ivy had made what she perceived to be a mistake on a mission. When her partner appears angry she got teary, emotional and evasive. The reader was then subjected to pages of her weepy self-recriminations and ridiculously jumping to conclusions. All this followed by giving in to her passion for Landon.

Said another way, the author took a supposedly strong female character, broke her down and proved her to in fact be extremely fragile (as all women apparently should be) then threw her in the arms of a man. All this as if to suggest that given a stressful situation Ivy couldn’t be expected to control her emotions too and that the man’s sexual appreciation would prove her self-worth and, as Landon seemed to find it all so darned attractive, it must really be OK in the end anyway. Gag, I say. GAG!

When I pick up a book with a purported strong, skilled heroine, that’s what I want, not some weepy pseudo-damsel in distress whose only evidence of inner strength comes from the compliments of the hero.

Speaking of our hero, Landon, he can apparently do no wrong. Perfect hardly scratches his surface. He is utterly and unbelievably unflappable. Come on, finding out that your new partner is a shifter, when you didn’t even know they existed, requires at least one expletive. It just does! But he never even cocked an eyebrow. Plus, he’s gorgeous, ripped, polite, loyal, trustworthy, good in bed, tough, dangerous, sexy, etc. He needs a flaw…at least one.

But the thing that pushed me over the top, that made me go from grumbling discontent to flat out hostile dislike was seeing the two of them interact. Landon joined the DOC in the beginning of the book. Ivy however had worked for them for a number of years. So, even though he’s plenty experienced in the military, he’s the newbie to the DOC and what they do. HOWEVER, not once (pay attention, NOT ONCE) does she make a plan, give an instruction or take the decision-making role in one of their missions.

They are supposed to be partners, but behaviourally she’s his subordinate…DESPITE HER SENIORITY. I guess that vagina negates it, because he’s definitely in charge and she’s just barely hanging on as a sidekick. Plus, in addition to all her internal insecurities (that she really shouldn’t have if she’s a valued, experienced field agent and has been a shifter since birth) she’s shown to be inept repeatedly while Landon makes no such mistakes. There is a definite sense that the woman in this situation really needs a man to take care of her and her job because she obviously can’t cut it on her own. What kind of Bologna is that? The kind that’s been dogging women for generations. Dare I say it again…GAG!

And it only got worse. Not only was Ivy inept, insecure, prone to jumping to conclusions and endlessly second guessing herself, she also wasn’t even competent enough to control HERSELF. It was amazing how many times the phrase “she couldn’t help herself,” or something similar was used in reference to her. (But almost never for Landon, I might add.)

Then there was the sorry excuse for sexual control. The whole idea of being ‘in heat'(which was never established to be a sure thing, just an excuse really) felt a whole lot like the recurring ‘women can’t control their urges’ BS that backdoors permission for a whole hell of a lot of problematic behaviour.

So, she can’t control her animal side, she can’t control her self-emulating thoughts, she can’t control her own sexual urges, she doesn’t control their mission…what can she control? **That’s the sound of silence, yeah?**

Moving past the painful gender disparities of this book, the fact that she is a natural-born shifter is also problematic, since there is no world building. There’s no indication that shifters are kept super secret in general, Ivy’s sister is living a normal life and other shifters have normal jobs, for example. But it is inferred that no one knows about them.  The DOC doesn’t want her blood work (DNA) seen by the CDC, for example. Certainly, Landon didn’t seem to have known shifters exist. Um, how does that work then? I needed a lot more to situate shifters into the contemporary world.

Lastly, there is the romance. *shakes head* It’s pretty much a case of insta-lust. I could live with that. We’re dealing with shifters and finding and pairing with ‘mates’ is a fairly common trope in the genre. But honestly, within less than a month he’s offering to give up his career to make her happy and asking her to marry him. Really? Is that believable?

Plus, the book is contradictory, as an example (thought I suppose the not hidden secret shifters is already an example) Ivy goes on and on about how freeing it is to finally find and be with a man who knows what she is so she can let it loose in bed. But she has a shifter-friend who’s been fairly aggressive in pursuing her romantically. So, even if she chooses not to accept his affections it’s obvious that she hasn’t been without opportunities to let her shifter free in the sexual sense. How can the book simultaneously say some opportunity doesn’t exist and use the same as a side challenge for one of the characters? Am I supposed to not notice?

So, final thoughts? Mechanically, structurally and editorially this book is fine. Ms. Tyler can write…it’s just too darned bad I hated what she wrote so much. I’d be willing to selectively give her work another shot to see if it’s just this book that rubbed me wrong. Certainly, her prose are perfectly readable. But if I had a physical copy of this book I would be tempted to burn it. As it is, I’ll have to satisfy myself with the delete button.

April montage

Recap: the “Taking Care of my Own” challenge

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challengeOne month ago, I set myself the 30-day challenge of only reading books written by people I ‘know’ on Goodreads. This was an attempt to actively engage and give meaning to those oh-so-important social media connections we all spend so much time cultivating, but then generally ignore. (Surely, I’m not the only one guilty of this!) It was also a way to give a little back to the less-than-anonymous authors I share digital space with, many of whom I’ve also enjoyed thought-provoking, intelligent discourse with in various forums, tweet exchanges, blog comments, etc.

Honestly, I didn’t put a lot of thought into the logistics of this when I started and part of the purpose of this post is to work through those aspects of it that I found, well, challenging. This is so that I don’t compromise myself in the future when I, for example, decide to finally do something about my overflowing physical bookshelf. A paperbacks only challenge would be one way to go about that.

The absolute first hurdle I faced was choosing what to read. This actually posed a different problem at the beginning than the end of the challenge. Before starting, I collected a list of almost 100 books written by people I ‘know.’ But I gave almost no consideration to the standard I would use to choose amongst those books. I opted to begin by flushing the shortest, most easily read ones and spent the first few days reading all of the novellas. After that, however, I was left deciding what struck my fancy.

For me, choosing a book is often a lengthy process. This is largely because, despite having sooooo many books, I regularly look at them and find nothing appeals at just that moment. Having limited myself keep-calm-its-just-one-month-1to 90ish books (after the novellas were read) only exasperated the problem. Toward the end I found myself cheating, reading books not included in my challenge with the intention of extending the deadline to allow myself to make up the time spent on non-challenge books. I never did it. At the end of the month, I was spent. I was done with it. I wanted no more. So, lesson one, 30 days is too long for a challenge that limits me to only reading certain books. In the future I’ll either choose time irrelevant genre, subject, author, etc challenges or only set myself a two week time frames.

The next challenge I faced was the review. My idea of ‘giving a little back’ was to provide a review to those authors I ‘know’. Indie authors are always hustling to find more reviews. Lacking the backing and legitimizing  effect of an agent or publishing contract, a slew of positive reviews is the most effective way to show readers their work is worth giving a chance. However, never was it my intention to promise good reviews, just honest reviews (same as always).

Now, I’ve always been of the opinion that any review, even a negative one, is beneficial to authors. I even wrote a whole post about it once. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad about having to be the bearer of bad news when writing a bad review. I always cringe a little when I do it. And here I found myself realizing that I was about to crosspost reviews, some of them less than flattering, that would pass the authors feed.

I could vividly imagine someone blithely logging into Goodreads andKeep-Calm-moving-company-review being smacked in the face with a negative review right in their own activity feed. I was really uncomfortable with this. I did it, but I liked it even less than normal. So, lesson two, just like in real life, there is more of an emotional backlash from giving negative feedback to people you know than people you don’t. 

Lastly, just like trying to write a concluding chapter of a book, I needed to decide how to wrap the whole thing up. I knew going in I wasn’t going to get to read 90+ books in a month and, therefore, not all of my ‘friends’ would benefit from this challenge. But on the last day, when I looked at the list of books that hadn’t been chosen, I felt bad. This isn’t gym class dodge ball. I didn’t leave the poor player to be chosen last. If I’d run the challenge in another month I would have chosen different books. But where I’ve been in the past month, with real-wofrozen_let_it_gorld events, discussions, moods, weather, ANYTHING effecting what I felt like reading at any given time I chose the books I chose. This was not a value assessment of any sort. It’s just the confluence of life. So, lesson three, you have to accept your limitations, give what you can give, and let the rest ride. (You have no idea how hard I tried to find a not-Frozen-related “let it go” image.)

Three fairly important (to me) lessons learned. But there was a fourth one too. I really enjoyed a lot of things about doing this. Yes, I got bored with my limited selections. Yes, I hated having to give keep-calm-because-its-worth-it-2negative feedback to my ‘friends.’ It made me feel disloyal, even if I know it’s all for the best. But, I also got a small extra thrill out of every review I posted. Since I ‘know’ the authors behind the books and they know me I received a lot more ‘hey, thanks’ emails than normal. I always appreciate that. So, lesson four, despite the occasional difficulties inherent in such a challenge it was 100% worth it. 

Although I didn’t like all of them (we all have different tastes, of course), I read a lot of great books in the course of this month long challenge and they were (in no order):

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Dancing with Gravity
Whisper Cape
The Protector’s series
The Celtic Legacy series
Voodoo Love
Clutch
The 4 Gs
Shades of Grey
Dark Legacy
The Guests of Honor
Necropolis
Wheel & Deal, Dead Doughboy Walking, The Rock Star in the Mirror, When You Were Pixels, Kiss & Spell, The Phoenix Cycle

Book Review of The Queen’s Wings (The Emerging Queens #1), by Jamie K. Schmidt

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The Queen's Wings

I was granted a copy of Jamie K. Schmidt‘s The Queen’s Wings by the good folks of Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Long ago, the Cult of Humanity sacrificed the Dragon Queen, crippling the breeding process. But now Carolyn hears the voice of that long dead queen telling her that she holds the key to breaking the spell that will free all the female dragons.

FBI dragon Reed’s disdain for humans can’t mask the magnetic attraction he has for Carolyn, but when she tells him she’s going to shift into a dragon he thinks she’s crazy. A female hasn’t been hatched, or shape shifted, in over a thousand years.

He’s proven wrong after Carolyn shifts and is named the new Queen on the block. A never-ending line of suitors forms, but she only wants Reed. Too bad he doesn’t want in on the competition. But when the Cult kidnaps Carolyn to sacrifice her in an effort to make the curse against the female dragons permanent, Reed must face his fears—and feelings, racing to save the woman he realizes he can’t live without.

Review: **slightly spoilerish**
In some moments I think I really liked The Queen’s Wings, then I remember that what I liked was what The Queen’s Wings was trying to be…and largely failing. It was trying to be a snarky paranormal romance WITH DRAGONS and Dragon shifters are my absolute favourite type of shifter. I also love witty heroines with a penchant for sarcastic side commentary and self-mockery (within limits, of course). By all accounts I should have loved this book. But I just didn’t. 

Don’t get me wrong; I liked some aspects of it. I did like Carolyn’s witty comments and willingness to stand up to all the alpha dragons around her. I loved that she occasionally channelled Kaname Chidori and rolled the metaphorical (and literal) newspaper. I liked her obsession with books. Now, there is a hoard I can relate to! I liked the humor. I liked the actual world created here, where dragons and humans have come to some social accord and live together. I liked the way it played with the concept of power, since the female dragons were both revered and victimized. I liked Reed in the last half of the book and I liked Jack and Niall. So, the book wasn’t a total bust. 

However, it also never clicked for me. It didn’t flow smoothly. The writing did. That’s not what I mean. The writing was fine. It was the plot. It just stuttered along, occasionally making leaps and stops. As an example, for 45% of the book Reed was standoffish and even hostile toward Carolyn. Then, in a matter of a paragraph or so, he suddenly got all affectionate. There was nothing to instigate a change in behaviour. It was a TOTAL attitude 180, with no cause. Even worse it was inferred that this might have been some Machiavellian attempt to curry favour and control and that seemed a lot more likely than that he just suddenly decided he liked her. And even though the reader is told it’s not, they even get their happy ending, it didn’t feel natural. Not at all!

I also hated that almost all the other women in the book were villainized. (The few who weren’t were victimized.) It’s like watching any of a 100 Disney movies and finding that anytime you have an older woman in any position of power (the queen, the witch, the sorceress, the step mother, etc) she’s evil. It’s the same old subtle sexist, ‘see, woman can’t be allowed power’ crap we’re fed all the time. Why couldn’t even one of the dragon queens be working toward the good of the species instead of her own comfort? 

I’ll grant that they had a pretty crap deal, but in the end, the ‘evil queens’ felt like a cheap and easy plot device. Especially considering the fact that Carolyn, who was set up as a saviour by being the first female to shift in millennia, actually wasn’t the first and none of her subsequent actions did anything to save the species. Crazy xxx’s did that. Yep, one of the baddies, who is also villainized and supposed to be reviled by the reader, actually brought the females back. (But we’re still left with the impression that she was evil for doing so.)

So in the end, I’ll give this a middling rating. I liked what the book was aiming for, I just ended up not much liking what the book was. On a side note, I find the description wildly inaccurate.