Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review of Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville #1), by Carrie Vaughn

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Kitty and the Midnight Hour I borrowed Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Carrie Vaughn, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station – and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it’s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?

Review:
I picked this up as a random audiobook from the library. While nothing about it amazed me, I was amused throughout the entirety of it. Kitty’s ‘I’ve always been weak’ bothered me, but it was also always in context of ‘I’m not anymore,’ so I dealt with it. I did feel like the book didn’t really accomplish anything significant. The smaller mystery was solved, but the primary conflict wasn’t and the book felt a little like a randomly selected period of time. But as a basic fluff read, the book did the job admirably. My library has the next two. I imagine I’ll listen to them at some point.

Book Review of Wicked as They Come (Blud #1), by Delilah S. Dawson

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Wicked as the ComeI bought a copy of Wicked as the Come, by Delilah S. Dawson.

Description from Goodreads:
When nurse Tish Everett forced open the pesky but lovely locket she found at an estate sale, she had no idea she was answering the call of Criminy Stain, from the far off land of Sang. He’d cast a spell for her, but when she’s transported right to him, she’s not so sure she’s ready to be under the spell of another man. (It didn’t go so well last time with controlling, abusive, domineering Jeff.) If only Criminy wasn’t so deliciously rakish….

Half the inhabitants of Sang are Pinkies—human—and the other half are Bludmen, who in Tish’s world would be called vampires. But they don’t mess with any of the bat/coffin/no sunlight nonsense. They’re rather like you and me, just more fabulous, long living, and mostly indestructible. (They’re also very good kissers.) But when the evil Mayor of Manchester (formerly Bludchester) redoubles his efforts to rid Sang of the Bludmen once and for all, stealing Tish’s locket in hopes of traveling back to her world himself for reinforcements, Criminy and Tish must battle ghosts, sea monsters, wayward submarines, a secret cabal, and thundering Bludmares to get the locket back and allow Tish to return home…but has she found love with Criminy? Could she stay in Sang forever?

Review:
Meh, I found it unimpressive. It wasn’t bad. The world-building was pretty good and there was some humor. But it just was nothing new or exciting either.

I think the author was going for a strong determined heroine, but she just came across as selfish and stubborn to me. She also did a lot of crying and sleeping. There was a POINTLESS and BASELESS love triangle for a little while. I didn’t understand Criminy’s obsessive love for woman he just met. I thought the bad guy was cheesy and she defeated him too easily. But most of all I thought the whole thing felt random. They ran here and did this. Then, they ran there and did that. Then, they ran into this creature or interesting contraption. I was not overly impressed. If my library carries the books, I’d probably read another but I’m not buying any more.

Review of A Darkness Forged in Fire (Iron Elves #1) by Chris Evans

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A Darkness Forged in FireI got a copy of A Darkness Forged in Fire, by Chris Evans, from the library.

Description from Goodreads:
We do not fear the flame, though it burns us,
We do not fear the fire, though it consumes us,
And we do not fear its light,
Though it reveals the darkness of our souls,
For therein lies our power.
— Blood Oath of the Iron Elves

First in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon…bow and arrow…magic, diplomacy, and oaths — each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.

In this world, Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire’s elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He’s murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most — the forest.

Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery…but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty’s Imperial Army, effective immediately.

For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance for Konowa to redeem himself — even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission…

and that the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch — a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine….

Review:
This was a middle of the road read for me. Some aspects of it I quite enjoyed, like the dwarf and the spectacled kid, as well as a few of the other low ranking soldiers. And I thought it had a quite dramatic ending.

But there were other aspects that didn’t work for me. There is NO chemistry in the romance, none. I thought no one reacted realistically to the odd things happening around them and I thought the battles went on and on and on.

I think I’ll probably read the next one in the series, since it’s in my library and I can do so for free, but I’m not really racing out to get it as soon as possible.