Tag Archives: fantasy

shifting dreams

Book Review of Shifting Dreams (Cambio Springs #1), by Elizabeth Hunter

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I downloaded a copy of Shifting Dreams (by Elizabet Hunter) from Amazon, when it was free. It was still free at the time of posting.

Description from Gooreads:
Somedays, Jena Crowe just can’t get a break. Work at her diner never ends, her two boys are bundles of energy, and she’s pretty sure her oldest is about to shift into something furry or feathery. Added to that, changes seem to be coming to the tiny town of Cambio Springs—big changes that not everyone in the isolated town of shapeshifters is thrilled about.

Caleb Gilbert was looking for change, and the quiet desert town seemed just the ticket for a more peaceful life. He never counted on violence finding him, nor could he have predicted just how crazy his new life would become.

When murder rocks their small community, Caleb and Jena will have to work together. And when the new Chief of Police isn’t put off by any of her usual defenses, Jena may be faced with the most frightening change of all: lowering the defenses around her carefully guarded heart.

Review:
Surprisingly good

I found that I appreciated an Urban Fantasy comprised of characters with families, children. It was a change from the almost always early twenties UF heroine we’re so often handed. I liked Jena and Caleb, Caleb especially, and both of her children were adorable. And the mythos of Cambio Springs was interesting.

I did get lost in all the names. There were a lot of side characters and they were hard to keep track of. I also thought Jena’s freakout about sex (or moving forward with a relationship, signaled by sex) was cliched for a 30+ year old, widowed, mother or two. I wanted her to be more in control of that aspect of herself, but I also feel that such a reaction has become sadly expected in this sort of book and I hate that Hunter fell in line so easily.

All in all, however, I’d be happy to read more of this series.

Book Review of The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1), by Deborah Wilde

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I downloaded a copy of Deborah Wilde‘s The Unlikeable Deomn Hunter from Instafreebies.

Description from Goodreads:
The age-old story of what happens when a foul-mouthed, romance impaired heroine with no edit button and a predilection for hot sex is faced with her worst nightmare–a purpose.

Ari Katz is intelligent, driven, and will make an excellent demon hunter once initiated into the Brotherhood of David. However, this book is about his twin Nava: a smart-ass, self-cultivated hot mess, who is thrilled her brother is stuck with all the chosen one crap.

When Nava half-drunkenly interrupts Ari’s induction ceremony, she expects to be chastised. What she doesn’t expect is to take her brother’s place among the–until now–all-male demon hunters. Even worse? Her infuriating leader is former rock star Rohan Mitra.

Too bad Rohan’s exactly what Nava’s always wanted: the perfect bad boy fling with no strings attached, because he may also be the one to bring down her carefully erected emotional shields. That’s as dangerous as all the evil fiends vying for the bragging rights of killing the only female ever chosen for Demon Club.

Odds of survival: eh.

Odds of having a very good time with Rohan before she bites it: much better.

Review:
You guys, this book has a 20yo, sexually liberated, Canadian, Jewish demon hunter with a gay brother (and neighbor couple), bi best friends and fellow hunters that are racially diverse. I should have loved it. I really, really should have. But I did not.

I’ll start with the sexually liberated bit, because it’s important. I loved that Nava is 20 years old and shamelessly slutty. She likes sex and has a lot of it, mostly in the form of one night stands. And I’m cool with that. I like it even. Why shouldn’t girls have as much sex as men, with as few repercussions? I’m even ok with her taking her happy-screwup-slut and draping it around herself as part of her personality. Hell, I’m thrilled to get something other than a ‘good girl’ Mary Sue for a change. What I am not ok with is the fact that this appeared to be the only personality she has. I love a witty innuendo as much as the next person. I like seeing women claim their sexuality. I was even moderately ok with her sharky attitude. But by about a quarter into this book I was tired of Nava and her one track mind. Even a good thing is horrible when you’re beat over the head with it. Nava and the book never let up on the sexs—think of sex, crave sex, pursue sex, have sexs—long enough to let the rest of the plot develop.

Plus, she was supposed to have some sexual hangups (like not kissing her partner), intended to keep it firmly in lust not love territory. But the reason for this was never explored. It served no apparent purpose in the plot.

As for the rest of the plot, what little there is under the flood of sex, sex, sex, it is thin to say the least. I found that it jumped around, with challenges popping up willy-nilly and being defeated just as randomly.

All in all, it wasn’t horrible. I was just hoping for something better.

Book Review of Certain Dark Things, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I borrowed Silvia Moreno-Garcia‘s Certain Dark Things from the library.

Description from Goodreads:
Welcome to Mexico City… An Oasis In A Sea Of Vampires…

Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is busy eking out a living when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.

Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America, far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten.

Her plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm.

And then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries.

Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?

Review:
I’m going to be honest. I picked this book up at the library based on the cover alone. It is gorgeous and caught my eye. The word vampire was there took and that’s all she wrote. I too this sucker home.

This is a technique for picking out books that has often led me astray, but in this case it worked out just fine. I quite enjoyed Certain Dark Things. I mean, Mexican vampires, or more accurately vampires in Mexico City! The main character is from an ancient Aztec clan, but there are African, Canadian, European, Russian, Chinese and vampires from other places too. Ain’t immigration grand? Not all of them represented in the book, but there are at least 10 subspecies of vampires.

One of the main character is a bisexual Latinx vampire, and the other is about the cutest 17yo boy you’ll ever meet. Honestly, with his tendency to be uncertain in social settings and open, naiveté despite living on the streets, I wondered if he wasn’t meant to be on the autism spectrum somewhere. But I think that might just be me, nothing in the book other than how I interpreted his behavior suggests this. Either way, I adored Domingo. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Atl, but Domingo stole the show for me.

I wouldn’t call this a romance, though I think it has romantic elements and a HEA of a sort. But I like it better for how it ended.

The writing is lovely and I really liked the voice a lot. My biggest complaint is that it is cliche to have a villain obsess over hunting a woman down to rape and torture because his advances were rejected. Yes, there’s more to it than that, but that’s a lot of what it boils down to and that’s just motivation that’s been used and used and used and used.

All in all, Moreno-Garcia is on my radar now and I’ll be checking out more of her work.