Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review of The Wilde Crew: Rhett (The Shifters of Wilde Ranch #1), by Kim Fox

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I downloaded a copy of Kim Fox‘s The Wilde Crew: Rhett when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Skin Shifter, Rhett Jones, is the new shifter cop in Colwood, Montana. His first day on the job has him going toe to paw with a truly dominant grizzly bear shifter and the beautiful girl who is desperately trying to keep the fierce animal under control. He thought the bear was tough but she was nothing compared to the feisty girl hiding inside.

Bear shifter, Joan Heller, is just trying to find a new home but her out of control grizzly bear is ruining everything once again. She’s one phase away from being kicked out of town until she meets up with the sexy cop with the entourage of ravens who offers his help and his home to her.

Things get wild when the Wilde Crew get thrown into the mix and threaten to make the unstable situation explode. Will the new boys in town be the new family that Rhett and Joan need? Or will they be the detonator that blows everything to pieces?

Review:
Well, this book has good reviews and it started well, with the main character and his friends being lovable screw-ups. And it was funny. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to carry the book when the rest of it fell apart.

There is no conflict in this book, not really. The author threw a half-baked love triangle in for no conceivable reason that substitutes for one for a little while. Let me think, hmm, no that was it and it wasn’t even solved by the end of the book. There was no other conflict, so the book was dull.

It’s basically insta-love, but fails even at that since the pitiful triangle meant the main female was admiring two men when the plot should have been solidifying the love between the two main characters. The sex is abrupt, out of no where and includes role play, which would be fine if the characters had known each-other more than 2 days and either of them had a personality that lead the reader to believe they’d be into that kind of thing. Or done anything to suggest to the other that they’d be open to it. I literally rolled my eyes at the sex scenes.

I appreciated the female alpha. (Though it should be noted she still needed a man to become Alpha.) The writing isn’t horrible, like I said it’s funny, but there is too much tell, not enough show, almost no development of characters, world or plot and it doesn’t really accomplish anything. I finished the book wondering what the point had been.

The Mermans Kiss

Book Review of The Merman’s Kiss (Mates for Monsters #1), by Tamsin Ley

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I received a copy of Tamsin Ley‘s The Merman’s Kiss from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Even Monsters Need a Mate

After the death of her child, Brianna seeks to end her life within the ocean’s final embrace. Instead, she falls into the arms of a sexy, sleek-tailed monster. He’s wild, seductive, and sets her blood on fire every time he touches her, and soon she begins to need him for more than his magic to breathe underwater. He might just give her a new reason to live.

Zantu has evaded the mate-bond for thirty-five years, dodging promiscuous mermaids with vile intents. Unlike mermaids, mermen bond for life, and Zantu refuses to accept the heartbreak most mermen die of. That is, until the glint of gold catches his eye, and a simple salvage mission turns to passion. Now he’s bonded to a human, and begins to wonder if bonding to the right mate might not be so bad. The problem? A finless female won’t live long among the dangers of the sea.

Now Zantu must choose between keeping her at his side, and keeping her safe. Either way, he’s sure he’ll end up with a broken heart.

Review:
Wow, that was…um, um, um…not good. By the end of chapter one I had highlighted half a dozen passages and written ragey notes in my Kindle; most centering on the fact that the female main character was literally passing out from drowning, a merman came up and grabbed her arm, she bloomed into instant lust (while still drowning), and turned around to jumped on his cock. Which she could do because she was of course naked. Women always seem to end up naked before meeting their mate in this sort of book. I’m talking like literally five seconds start to finish, without even looking at him, while dying! Um, um, um…no! That’s a big fat NOPE for me.

And while the rest of the book wasn’t as bad as the start, it wasn’t great either. The two basically just wandered around in a pseudo plot that allowed them to have abbreviated sex in different places and left more questions than answers. Ok fine, it’s erotica. I shouldn’t expect much more. But I couldn’t stand the representation of the female mermaids. So, I had a hard time even tolerating the rest of the plot and world-building.

I admit I liked the idea as males as caretakers and how they nested and desired children. I thought Zantu really cute. But the characterization of all females except the main character as noting but aggressive sex maniacs just smacks of the good old patriarchal ‘women are nothing more than slave to their lust and have no use or character beyond their sex and their ability to bear children.’ Here they’re even stripped of any maternity, making them failures even in the minimal worthiness western society allows women. Maybe, MAYBE the author was trying to flip that script and engage the stereotype, but I rather think not. It just made me angry.

The mechanical writing is fine. The editing is fine. The book will probably appeal to some, but I was not one of them. On Goodreads, where I use star ratings, I gave this 2 stars (1.5 rounded up), that based on the fact that it is structurally adequate, and I feel I’m being generous.

Book Review of The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson

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I borrowed The Sorcerer of Wildeeps, by Kai Wilson, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors’ artifacts in hand, the Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight.

The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive.

The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive. 

Review:
Oh wow, I did not expect to not like this book. I loved A Taste of Honey and expected to love this too. It just wasn’t to be!

First off, the writing is beautiful. It’s very poetic. But, BUT all that poetry is at the cost of clarity. So many times I read passages and didn’t know what they meant or what was actually happening. I was constantly confused about the timeline, unsure if what I was reading was a flashback or something happening in the future or where I might be in between.

Second, there are the dialects the characters use. Now, I read an article by Wilson in which he talked about how important it is to him to include certain speech patters in his writing. He talked about cultural and linguistic hierarchies and such. And in general I don’t have a problem with this, applaud it even. But some of what was used in this book worked and some just felt painfully anachronistic, worse it’s a fantasy setting that might not even be on Earth. So some of the language just didn’t fit at all, even if I saw what the author was trying to do.

And then there was the ending; the did he or didn’t he, obscure, unsatisfying, probably tragic ending. Nope. That was the last straw for me. I appreciated the diverse characterization, the lovely cover and am open to more of Wilson’s writing, but this book was not a winner.