Tag Archives: Dark Urban Fantasy

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Audio Book Review: Pretty When She Dies, by Rhiannon Frater

I have had a copy of Rhiannon Frater’s Pretty When She Dies for a while. So, the memory of where I got it is vague. I believe I was probably given an Audible code for a free copy.

pretty when she dies cover

Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry…in a new, horrific, unimaginable way… Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what’s worse is that he’s a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding.

Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation… or her death?

my review

The narrator, Kristin Allison, did a good job, and I enjoyed this book beyond the 25% mark. I spent the first quarter of the book thinking I was going to end up DNFing it because I wasn’t having a good time. The beginning of this book just feels like female victim porn. Every person the FMC meets victimizes her somehow (most, even her family, with a sexual edge). I disliked it intensely, and it’s suuuuper cliched. I just don’t enjoy reading rapey stories. I’m not talking about trigger warnings or anything like that; I just mean I do not enjoy it and generally try to avoid it in stories I read for entertainment.

However, once the FMC meets the MMC, the story changes (pacing, tone, and the expected plot arc all shift), and the rapey victimization subsides; I then enjoyed the rest of the book. Now, because I know it’ll be a ‘no’ for many readers, I’ll state up front that cheating is involved. The FMC steps into someone else’s established relationship as ‘the other woman.’ That’s a dynamic you don’t often see because many people wouldn’t forgive an FMC for that. So, fair warning. I noted it with a bit of a raised eyebrow, but let it go easily enough.

All in all, despite the rough beginning, I finished this happy. I loved the side characters (almost pretty when she does photomore than the main characters), and the FMC showed a surprising backbone. Admittedly, the MMC is somewhat of a cardboard cutout, the relationship is quite shallow, and the FMC’s sudden mastery of her power feels a bit deus ex machina. Plus, the story and language are a little dated. (I think it was first published in 2008.) Describing women of color as “exotic” is generally understood as a microaggression now, for example. But, all in all, I’ll likely read the second book at some point.


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Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

Review – Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

 

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Book Review: Dark Fate, by Karley Stafford

I accepted a review copy of Karley Stafford‘s Dark Fate as part of it’s book tour with Literary Book Tours. It was also featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight, earlier this year, so you can hop over there for further information.
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I am the alpha’s daughter, the alpha apparent, heir to our pack. A position I never wanted. I wish I could relinquish it to Cole, my shadow and second. But my father would be devastated, and the pack would surely ostracize me.

My world goes to hell when my father makes a deal with the Cavell Wolves, known widely for their cruelty. The deal in which I will marry Jasper, the heir to the savage northern pack. The last thing I need is a male to be by my side to become the Alpha my father raised me to be. What he doesn’t know, I’m already in love with a witch whom I would burn the world down for.

After a night gone wrong, betrayed by someone I trust, I find myself at the mercy of Marrock, my heinous father-in-law-to-be. Learning first hand of the atrocities he’s willing to commit to get what he wants. But I will not let him break my spirit.

my review

I think that the best I can say for Dark Fate is that it was OK. Now, it was OK. I’m not saying it was bad. The writing was clean and easily readable. There’s clear plot progression, and I liked the characters. But it’s all about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head in almost every regard.

The cataclysm was set in motion because the characters just yelled at one another with no actual communication. The main character got angry and stormed around constantly, showing absolutely no capacity for deeper or varied thought. The ‘loves’ were entered into/dismissed all but instantly. The sex scenes with the male characters were blunt affairs that, while not bad, didn’t fit either the places in the book they existed or were the sort of sex to fit the situation or characters (either of them). The betrayal didn’t feel believable, based on the character up to that point or the other coven members after the fact. (And it was a huge missed opportunity to explore several themes that would have added depth and color to the narrative.) The loss that prompted the attitudinal shift in the main character was over the top for what was needed and wasn’t built up to at all. The villain was a generic sexual sadist with no shades of grey. And overcoming him happened so easily that one has to wonder why anyone even hesitated to take him on, leading to the events of the book.

Speaking of events leading up to the conclusion—and this is spoilery, be warned—Stafford at no point acknowledges (or even seems to notice) that for all the tragedy and death, or the importance put on how the main character wouldn’t bend to the will of another, etc. She ended up doing 100%, exactly what was wanted from her to begin with, mating Jasper. One conversation with…damn near anyone, and there could have been a resolution. (And no, that wasn’t the point.)

dark fate photoHaving said all that. I think it’s all just basically the foibles of a first book. Stafford shows a lot of potential here, and I’d read another of their books. The only real, rage-inducing complaint I have that I won’t chalk up to First Book Syndrome is what I deem queer baiting in the first quarter of the book. While I appreciate a bi-sexual/pan-sexual heroine, and there was actually F/F sex, this was ultimately an MFM menage book, and, to me, the F/F start felt like baiting because of how it all worked out by the end. (Though it does very narrowly avoid the Bury Your Gays trope.)

So, all in all, I’m calling this OK. I don’t discourage anyone from picking it up, but I also don’t suggest diving in expecting a well-fleshed-out masterpiece.


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