Tag Archives: fantasy

The Rogue Hunter

Book Review of The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands

Leave a reply

The Rogue HunterI picked up a used copy of The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands, at Goodwill.

Description from Goodreads:
Samantha Willan is a workaholic lawyer. She’s grateful for some rest and relaxation in cottage country, and after a recent breakup she wants to stay as far away from romance as possible. Then she meets her irresistible new neighbor. There’s something strange and mysterious about his eyes. Is it just her imagination, or are they locked on her neck?

Garrett Mortimer is a rogue hunter. His last assignment united Lucian Argeneau with his lifemate, and Mortimer is hoping this one will be less…adventurous. He’s here to track down a reported rogue, but fun in the sun is every bloodsucker’s nightmare. Worse, he can’t seem to get his mind off Samantha, especially when he spies her skinny-dipping in the lake. After eight hundred years as a bachelor, is he ready to turn a volatile attraction into a lasting love affair?

Review:
What nonsense did I just read? I mean really, what was this supposed to be? What it was was boring and basically a failure as both a PNR and a decent mystery.

Let me start with the fact that all of the characters are paper thin—no significant history, no real emotional depth, no obvious beliefs or thoughts outside of the immediate. In fact, for most of the book the side characters just went off by themselves and left the H & h alone. So, why bother with them?

There was also almost no world-building. What little there was, explaining vampires, came at about page 300! This is probably because the book is labeled as “The Rogue Hunter (Argeneau #10) (Rogue Hunter #1).” Someone tell me what that is supposed to mean. Is it the tenth Argeneau book or the first Rogue Hunter book? Because after reading it, I’m 100% certain it can’t be both.  While I could follow the plot, it was always painfully apparent I was missing something. The world-building, as stated, wasn’t there. Probably because it was in the 9 previous books. People were referenced that the reader didn’t know,  I strongly suspect Mort was a side character form another book, etc. So, as a 10th Argeneau book, it might have been successful (I don’t know as I read it as the first Rogue Hunter book), but as a first in a series, it’s a failure.

Now let me address the mystery around the rogue that Mortimer is supposed to be hunting. This investigation literally takes up about 20 pages of this 373-page book and then it’s solved with anti-climatic aplomb. Let’s be honest, Sands didn’t set out to write about a rogue vampire and the hunters who go after it. It is just the device used to get the two characters in the same place at the same time. Disappointing to the extreme. I’d have preferred the man to have just been on vacation and Sands not to even bothered with the half-assed attempt she made at pretending this book is anything other than a romance (which is pretty sad because the romance is pretty weak too).

The romance? CHEESY! There is the cliché immediate recognition of one’s life mate (that somehow turns the tough, broody Mort into a bumbling social throwback), the fragile female in need of assistance with, you know, walking, stupid antics to get around telling the truth, the convenient ability to change people’s mind if they ask inconvenient questions (thereby negating any possible narrative tension), and true immortal love and loyalty developing in a mere two weeks. What’s more, the whole book is essentially a tease. Over and over Sam and Mort almost have sex, but don’t quite manage it. Redundant…and PREDICTABLE!

This book is little more than a collection of weak PNR tropes, and none of them were executed particularly well. But worse than any of that, is the fact that I was bored for 373 pages. This sort of book is the epitome of why I refused to read romance for 30 years of my life. I’m in no hurry to read another Lynsay Sands book. How the heck does dreck like this get published over some of the great indies I’ve read?

Book Review of Conquered (Kivronian Vampires #1), by Sandy L. Rowland

2 Replies

ConqueredAt some point, quite some time ago, I downloaded Sandy L. Rowland‘s book, Conquered, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Claiming a mate on conquered Earth is driving alien vampire, Rafe, insane…literally.

He’s lost his comrade to madness and has sworn against suffering the same fate. Time is out for the ruler of the western quadrant and any female will do.

Spunky reporter, Pepper Morgan, has lost friends, her mother, and a fiance to the devastating plague that ravished Earth before the vampires subjugated them. Desperate to reunite with her captured father, she throws herself on Rafe’s mercy.

Now, Rafe and Pepper find themselves bound by more than desperation and blood, but also by secrets that have the power to enslave humanity and threaten vampire survival. Can they overcome their inner demons and learn to trust each other, before it’s too late?

Review:     **spoiler warning**
We are not amused.

While the mechanical writing and editing in this book were fine, I found almost all aspects of the story, plot, characters and world disappointing. First, we had a Mary Sue who is chosen to mate the über sexy vampire because she was different, a special little snowflake unlike all the other vapid, beautiful women. Arghh, so cliché.

Next, we had a woman who in two weeks goes from not liking the vampire who is consistently an ass to her, to being in love. Then we had her developing a special power out of nowhere and somehow learning to use it in almost no time at all. We had baddies who conveniently leave doors unlocked and chains removed to allow for escape and miraculous recoveries. Not to mention, most of the events in the book came down to avoidable miscommunication or lack of communication. None of this is good, as far as I’m concerned.

But worst of all, the whole premise of the book made no sense to me. Somehow her love was going to keep him from going insane, because at a thousand years old vampires go crazy if he’s not mated. But first they had to be betrothed for exactly a month and if they had sex before that they’d both go crazy. Um, exactly what biological mechanism was keeping track of time and how exactly did his body know she loved him? I mean, what was causing this change. I get the theme, but it made no sense.

Speaking of biology, how exactly does an alien race evolve to need human blood to survive? I mean, what did they do before they came to earth? Seems like that would be an important piece of world-building, but it’s not addressed.

I probably could have just suspended my disbelief and rolled with it if I hadn’t found the style so infuriating. It’s repetitive, the reader is told the same things over and over, and it’s almost all exposition, internal thoughts and mental planning. This means that very, very little actually happened in the book, because the action is CONSTANTLY being stopped for the narrator to explain what the characters are thinking or feeling or planning to do. It really felt like one small step forward, stop and explain, one small step forward, stop and explain, one small step forward, <i>ad infinitum</i>. If you break it all down almost nothing actually happening in this book and what action there is is all in the last 10%.

That last 10% also introduced a new character and the idea that vampires could be made as well as born, which hadn’t been mentioned once the whole book. I mean, if you can make vampire, why is there the chronic lack of females? Why not just make some? This is an unaddressed issue or inconsistency. As is, for example, the fact that somehow the baddie never faced insanity if he didn’t wait the required 30 days before raping his bride.

All in all, it’s an interesting idea, but poorly executed. The author spent far too much time telling us things we should have been shown. There are also a lot of threads left open, I assume for a sequel.

The Shadow Revolution

Book Review of The Shadow Revolution (Crown & Key #1), by Clay & Susan Griffith

1 Reply

The Shadow RevolutionI received a copy of The Shadow Revolution, by Susan and Clay Griffith from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver.
 
As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.
 
After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.

Review:
Really quite enjoyable. There was a lot of action here and two subtle romantic subplots…ok, one subtle romantic subplot and one hint at a future subtle romantic subplot. Either way, I liked knowing it was there but having it never come to the fore. I liked that the women were strong, ingenuitive, action-takers and I liked that the men let them be agents of their own destiny, never insisting they stay behind where they’d be safe and protected.

I suppose I could argue that this same acceptance and admiration for Kate and Penny’s outspoken, take charge attitudes (not to mention the women’s behaviours itself) was completely anachronistic to the Victorian setting, But since I enjoyed it, I’m willing to roll with the inference that since they’re all outsiders of one sort or another that explains it. It doesn’t really, but I’ll take it.

The book did get bogged down in endless fighting at times. I’ve no problem with violence or even gore, but at times it went on so long it began to feel redundant. Along the same line, there seemed to be an endless supply of mindlessly violent werewolves to fight through, despite being told they were rare. Which also led me to wonder why it was only little Charlotte who wasn’t in a beserker rage and therefore available and willing to side with and assist the ‘good guys.’

All-in-all, a fun start to a new series that I’ll be more than happy to continue.