Tag Archives: Fae

accidental fae

Book Review: Accidental Fae, by Jessica Wayne

I received a copy of Jessica Wayne‘s Accidental Fae in the September Supernatural Book Crate. It was also featured on Sadie’s Spotlight last year (though with a different cover).
accidental fae cover

A life on the verge of death isn’t living.

When the doctors mention hospice, I know it’s time to take my life—or death—into my own hands. Stumbling through a portal into the fae realm wasn’t part of the plan.

But then I see him—the man who claimed my dreams with glimpses of his piercing golden gaze and sculpted body slick with sweat as he fought bloody battles. Seeing him once gave me strength; now, he gives me hope.

The creatures here claim he’s a rebel. A murderer. A traitor to their crown—a crown they say I’m tied to in irrevocable ways. I say he might be my only path to salvation.

I refuse to waste another life waiting for answers to secrets no one dares speak. It’s time for me to break free of my prison and claim the life that was always meant to be mine. My warrior has been broken by circumstance, though, and if I can’t give him a reason to fight, it could mean the end for both of us.

my review

I feel very middle of the road about this book. I think maybe I just wanted to like it more than I did. I liked the idea of it, even if it didn’t turn out to be what I was expecting from the blurb. But everything also just felt kind of flat and predictable to me. Perhaps it’s a symptom of being a spin-off, and I’d have connected more if I’d read the other series. Maybe not; hard to say.

But I thought Ember decently developed, but also a crybaby who spent most of the book just reacting to circumstances. She didn’t seem to have much of a sense of agency. But I thought Raff was a cardboard cutout hero, Taranus a cardboard cutout villain, and most of the side characters just pop up now and again, but play no significant part in the plot.

Basically, nothing in the book was horridly off-putting. But nothing drew me in to want more either. Not even the steep cliffhanger at the end. So…middle of the road read.

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Other Review:

Book Review: Accidental Fae by Jessica Wayne

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Book Review: The Dark King, by Gina L. Maxwell

I received a copy of Gina L. Maxwell‘s The Dark King through Netgalley.
the dark king cover

I thought a weekend away would be the perfect escape. Until I woke up married and trapped…by the king of the Dark Fae.

For Bryn Meara, a free trip to the exclusive and ultra-luxe Nightfall hotel and casino in Vegas should’ve been the perfect way to escape the debris of her crumbling career. But waking up from a martini-and-lust-fueled night to find herself married to Caiden Verran, the reclusive billionaire who owns the hotel and most of the city, isn’t the jackpot one would think. It seems her dark and sexy new husband is actual royalty—the fae king of the Night Court—and there’s an entire world beneath the veil of Vegas.

Whether light or shadow, the fae are a far cry from fairy tales, and now they’ve made Bryn a pawn in their dark games for power. And Caiden is the most dangerous of all—an intoxicating cocktail of sin and raw, insatiable hunger. She should run. But every night of passion pulls Bryn deeper into his strange and sinister world, until she’s no longer certain she wants to leave…even if she could.

Soooo, I didn’t love this. Granted, I didn’t hate it. But it elicited exactly zero feels from me or endeared itself to me in any way. Now, the writing is fine. It’s easy to read. The editing seems clean. So, this is largely a personal taste sort of ‘meh.’ I can acknowledge that it’s a finely written book while also saying it wasn’t one to light me on fire.

I did actually like the characters. I especially liked that Bryn stands up for herself consistently. And the world seems interesting. My issues were that I just never truly felt Caiden and Bryn’s love. It’s instant and then we’re more told about it than shown it. I didn’t think that the BDSM aspects were well integrated into the plot. So, it always seemed to stand out to me as artificial. the dark king photoAnd it doesn’t live up to its own hype.

Caiden is supposed to be sooo dark and dangerous. He goes on and on about how she could never handle his kinks. Heck, the book is called The Dark King. But it’s actually quite sweet, the kink is on the mild side, and the book isn’t even that spicy, comparatively. So, I felt like it built up a promise it didn’t keep.

All in all, it’s a meh for me. I didn’t hate it. But I probably won’t remember it next week.


other Reviews:

One More Book: Review – The Dark King

 

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Book Review: Edge of Magic, by Jayne Faith

I picked up a freebie e-copy of Jane Faith‘s Edge of Magic on Amazon, way back in 2020.

edge of magic

My name is Tara Knightley, and I’m on the Fae mafia’s hit list. My childhood crush just rode back into town, too, and that may spell even bigger trouble . . .

My talent for sensing magical objects has made me a damn good professional thief for the past decade. But it’s also what got me into a blood oath with notorious Fae mob boss Grant Shaw.

My relationship with Shaw is rapidly souring, and I need to break free before it turns deadly. The solution? I must steal a magic skull from Shaw’s biggest rival and deliver it to him, and then he’ll nullify our blood oath.

Just as I’m set to go after the skull, my childhood best friend and crush, wolf shifter Judah McMahon, shows up asking for help. It’s been ten years since the falling out that ended our friendship, and I know I shouldn’t get involved.

But Judah’s life is threatened. How can I say no? The catch is, helping Judah will cost me the chance at freedom from Shaw . . . and possibly my life.

my review

I have very middle-of-the-road feelings about this book. On one hand, I liked the characters, the world seemed interesting, and—barring a few editing mishaps—the writing is pretty good.

On the other, the plot meanders. There is quite a lot of time dedicated to things that aren’t particularly plot-relevant. (I’m thinking the knife-throwing training session and, honestly, the whole sword side-quest.) It wasn’t until the very end that something resembling an actual single plot appeared.

The love interest is supposed to be super regretful for leaving her a decade ago, and we’re expected to root for a re-ignition of romance. But I didn’t feel it. He had 10 years to come back or just call/text/email. He’d even been in town several times. But he never contacted her until he needed something. I don’t feel any desire to see that romance bloom. How guilt-ridden and sorry could he truly be?

Further, I’ve gotten to an age that I’m just kind of done with plot in which women are in desperate financial straits, and a man swoops in with his money/resources/connections and fixes everything for her. I think Faith needed to decide if she was writing a contemporary, second chance romance, or a fantasy romance because the whole Judah plot-line felt disconcertingly contemp romance and out of place in the fantasy plot. And it sure took up too much page time.

But worst of all, I’m 100% sick of reading books that don’t end. A cliffhanger in which some threads wrap up, and others are left open is one thing. This book literally just abruptly stops. I edge of magic photoflipped the last page back and forth because I hadn’t sensed any sort of drawing to a close and basically felt like I walked into a wall with the sudden, “Look for Echo of Bone, the next book in the Tara Knightley Series by Jayne Faith!” In fact, the plot looked to finally be starting to settle into a single trajectory and ramping up. So, the precipitous ending felt especially unforeseen and jarring.

So, meh. I’d probably read the next book if I found it free, but I feel no need to buy it.


Other Reviews:

Edge of Magic by Jayne Faith – A Book Review