Tag Archives: challenges

Book Review of A Demon Bound (Imp #1), by Debra Dunbar

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A Demon BoundI downloaded a copy of Debra Dunbar‘s A Demon Bound from Amazon while it was free.

Description from Goodreads:
Samantha Martin is an imp, enjoying an extended vacation from Hel. All she wants to do is drink beer by the pool, play mischievous pranks on the humans, and get her hot neighbor in the sack. It’s a relaxing break from her infernal home, as long as she manages to avoid the angels, who won’t hesitate to execute her on sight.

But when her naughty hellhound lands her in trouble with the local werewolf pack, Sam is blackmailed into helping track and catch a killer. The steps she must take to appease the werewolves will put her right in the crosshairs of the angels. And with angels, there is no second chance. 

Review:
I almost gave up on this book at about 50%. Honestly, the only reason I didn’t had more to do with not wanting to DNF two books in a row than anything to do with the book itself. Because for the first 50% I thought it was just awful. I thought Sam was contrary and dysfunctional impulsive. I disliked her voice and she annoyed me in general. Yeah, I get it, she’s an imp; mischievous and un-serious is the name of the game. But all her antics just read as ineffective slapstick to me. Plus, I found the characters flat and poorly developed.

Past 50% the story balanced out a little. There were more characters to dilute Sam’s all but suicidal tendencies and a plot, beyond I want to f*ck my neighbor, finally developed. I still wouldn’t go so far as to say I liked it, but it did get better. I will grant that the book’s world and angel/demon politics seemed interesting and there is potential. This may just be a case of a rough start.

Perdu

Book Review of Perdu (Redire de Vampyrus, #1) by Raeden Zen

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PerduI’ve had Perdu (by Raeden Zen) for quite some time, having picked it up from the Amazon free list over two years ago.

Description from Goodreads:
Ruth and Eugene Flowers desired the American dream: two kids, a big house, and a dog. But it wasn’t meant to be–at least not initially. When a surprise package literally fell into their laps, however, the Flowers would finally get their wish (sort of). Soon, it all goes awry, as mysterious deaths followed by a disappearance permanently disrupt their lives. Meanwhile, many years later, a grown-up Valerie Green, a nearby neighbor’s daughter and high-school sweetheart of their son, Zan, hits it huge in the Big Apple, first landing at Columbia University, then at the New York Pioneer, the hottest online periodical in the city. When she is forced to cross the path of hotshot FBI special agent, Dr. Devean Rasr, she doesn’t realize she is also wading much deeper into the biggest, most dangerous, and most challenging killing spree in the history of NYC.

Review:
This book is a mess. There’s no identifiable main character. It has no consistent timeline. Characters make absolutely unfollowable leaps of logic. Clues conveniently pop out of nowhere. The villain is a character that literally isn’t in the novel until the reveal and then isn’t in it after, so a nobody. There are several info-drops, most of which is pointless information that is never utilized. There is constant head hopping. Characters appear and disappear as needed. No one have believable emotions. The dialogue is stilted. The love is unfounded and baseless. Pretty sure I have nothing positive to say about any of it….Ok, it was short and I like the cover.

Colorado Wild

Book Review of Colorado Wild (Colorado Heart #1), by Sara York

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Colorado WildI downloaded a copy of Colorado Wild, by Sara York, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
When love sneaks up on you, shoot for the heart.

Billy Bradford has a secret, and it’s bigger than the fact that he’s an assassin. When Tucker Hayes, Billy’s straight best friend, is injured on a mission, Billy acts in haste, kissing Tucker. Shocked by the act, Tucker runs. But desire is stronger than convictions, leading Tucker to hunt down Billy.

The other guys on the ranch are oblivious to Tucker and Billy’s actions as they investigate a new target. Grant Stovall is hung up on his ex, but Roger Burk, their new operative, catches his attention and one small touch isn’t enough.

Meet the cowboys of Wild Bluff Ranch in the first book of the Colorado Heart Series, Colorado Wild.

Review:
Wow, um, wow. That’s about the most coherent thought I can manage on this book. It’s totally illogical, overblown and unfocused. I mean, despite what the blurb suggests, it doesn’t even have a main character. What do you do with a book that doesn’t have a main character or couple? What do you do? (As an aside, that blurb is totally inaccurate anyway.) There’s no plot. The characters do everything from pine for one another to assassinations to buy a horse that randomly gets bitten by a snake. There’s insta-lust and a relationship that goes from 0 to 4,000 in about a page. There is endless agonizing over if the characters are a couple yet and if they’re gay or not, all in artificial and exaggerated ways. There’s pointless past trauma that is too much to be believed.

There is telling, telling, telling about how wonderful and significant and ‘I’ll be with you forever even though we’ve been a couple for 2 days’ the characters feel, all adding up to basically nothing. Nothing that happens is believable. None of the emotions read as believable, not even the lust (though that’s not really an emotion, I suppose). These men are supposed to be super elite soldiers and assassins, but they agonize over everything like teenager, and I don’t just mean the emo stuff (though that’s non-stop from page one) but if a teammate gets injured or is doing his part of a mission out of sight or killing. All the things a highly trained soldier would take in stride (and we’re told they do) they are shown to whinge about. And the technical aspect of these soldiers? “…are you sure this little black box will disrupt them?” Seriously, that’s how they talk about their tech!

Nope, this was a total strike for me; almost nothing to recommend it as far as I’m concerned.