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Book Review of Hereafter, by Marian Snowe

I received a copy of Marian Snowe‘s Hereafter through AudioBookBoom.

Description from Goodreads:
Detective Samantha Easton has always thought of herself as an adaptable person. But when she nearly dies after being shot on the job, Sam discovers something totally at odds with her rational, analytical personality: she can now see the spirits of people who have died, and she’s not finding it easy to adapt.

As if the sudden appearance of ghosts on the streets of Boston and her dead great-grandmother’s curious questions about her love life aren’t enough, Sam is being haunted by a mystery woman. This beautiful ghost, Mae, has no memories and is unable to move on from this life to whatever comes next—and she wants Sam to solve the mystery of her death.

Sam readily accepts the case, happy to get back to doing what she does best. There’s only one problem: falling in love with Mae wasn’t part of Sam’s plan.

As the two women unravel Mae’s secrets, they fall deeper in love with one another… But how can a ghost and a living person live happily ever after?

Review:
This was a pretty good f/f, ghost romance. It had a bit of a secondary mystery plot-line. I don’t feel it was solved adequately, so I’m not calling it a romantic mystery. I liked both Mae and Sam, and they were sweet together, even if the romance was a bit insta-love. I adored Sam’s investigative partner Patrick though.

The writing was pretty good, clean and easy to understand. Though the narrator, Lori Prince had a couple stylistic quirks that, over the course of the book, started to really irritate me. But they might not annoy other people. They really were about style, not quality.

[Mild spoiler] My biggest complaint here is that you never learn how or why any of it happened. There’s a connection to something from the past, but you never learn if there’s a reason for it. That whole aspect of the plot is never addressed and the book felt weaker for it. Without solving that particular mystery, the book was only left with the romance, which was fine, but why set up a mystery if you’re not going to solve it?

Review of In His Majesty’s Service, by Elizabeth Silver & Jenny Urban

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I received a copy of In His Majesty’s Service, by Elizabeth Silver & Jenny Urban through Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Everyone in the Drion Collective knows that finding your match—the one person in existence with the same soul mark as yours—is the best thing that could ever happen. But the last thing Lord Anders Hawthorne is thinking about when he boards a ship to Drion for the king’s funeral is finding his soul mate.

Captain Zachary O’Connell has the perfect life—his ship, the stars, and no emotional entanglements. When heat sparks between him and Lord Hawthorne, Zach gleefully dives into a no-strings arrangement. He doesn’t expect it to last beyond arrival at Drion, any more than he expects trouble along the way.

Trouble quickly finds them, however, and it soon becomes clear that Lord Hawthorne is not only not who he says he is, but also that he’s the target of a deadly plot. With danger all around them, Zach and Anders must work together to save the Collective. Meanwhile, Zach must come to grips with losing everything he always thought he wanted, to have the one thing he never dreamed he needed.

Review:
Sooooo, this was not very good. There was WAY too much sex, given the length and amount of plot. It seriously suffered from lack of subtlety or buildup. As an example, the first time the two men met was over a dinner at the captain’s table. The only conversation was about the steak, and it’s barely a conversation. There was no indication that these two men had any interest in each other. Then on the next page, they were jumping into bed and the pet names and ‘this is special’ starts. The whole book was like that. The authors don’t give anything time to develop, just lobbing stuff at the reader out of no where.

Mechanically, the writing is fine, except for some repetition. They seemed to do nothing but rub noses and fall into bed. But the book is just too long. Half of the petty squabbles could have been cut and we’d still understand they were struggling to get to know one another. As could half the sex scenes. They were fairly repetitive anyway, always doing the same things. I just didn’t enjoy it and have no interest in continuing the series.