Tag Archives: fantasy

The Devil In Her Heart

Book Review of The Devil In Her Heart, by Elle P. Charles

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Devil in her HeartI downloaded a copy of Elle Charles‘ The Devil in her Heart from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
When Cara Hansen receives a psychic prediction during a bachelorette party entailing “a demonic presence approaching her near future,” she is determined not to believe that such supernatural things exist. But when she is visited at work by a strange man with unearthly features it seems only Cara can perceive, she begins questioning everything…including her sanity.

As a string of bad events occur, beginning with the disappearance of a co-worker, she begins to uncover secrets she was never meant to know, including a realm of demons and her unexpected affiliation with them…

Review:   *somewhat spoilerish*
This was not a winner for me, for a number of reasons. To start with the author sets the whole thing up as not adhering to Christian doctrine—characters stress that the evil beings are ‘Shadows’ not ‘Demons,’ for example—but then the book repeatedly falls back into Biblical and Christian mythology. (Look at the title, even.) There are demons, angels, a Garden of Eden, a fall, prayers to God are answered, crosses hold power to save, etc. It felt very much like Charles just couldn’t help it, or maybe (worse) didn’t even notice.

The book dragged on and on, spending lots of time on trivialities like going to work or dinner with family or dating or four thousand ‘woe is me’ complaints about not being the pretty one. Then it rushes through scenes relating to the actual plot, often even falling back on cop outs like ‘that week passed without incident’ and large chunks of unaccounted for time being swept away.

Despite involving demons and such the whole thing felt very flat. Mostly because no one seemed to really ever react to anything. For example, the declaration that Cara is half ‘shadow’ is made as the last sentence in a chapter, with no build-up and is not addressed in the following chapter. So any emotional impact it might have is missed. It might as well have been a statement about it being warm this August. Or the time she woke up on a different plain of existence (maybe even in hell), having just lost her virginity to a demon (now a Demon, not a shadow, BTW) and is being hunted by the demon queen and her horde of followers, you would think she might be a little freaked out. Nope, she’s concerned about missing her shift at work and heads off for breakfast. WTF? Really?

This was pretty much the norm for the book. It doesn’t allow tension to build. As another example, at one point Cara is in the middle of a fight to the death, then, while being strangled, she suddenly wakes up in a car and it’s over. (Which is really jarring, BTW.) It’s not until pages and pages and pages later that we get a second hand, paired down account of what happened. That scene (and plenty like it) could have been really powerful; instead, it just fizzles to flat. It felt like the author didn’t know how to conclude the fight, so she just skipped it.

There are also a lot of things that aren’t really well integrated into the plot. For example, Liz is presented as a work colleague, maybe-friend. She and Cara had never even hung out outside of work. So, Cara’s determination to save her, as if she’s the most important person to her, doesn’t make sense. Also, Caymn is oddly sweet, but there is no explanation for the fact that he is such a good ‘person’ when every other demon is evil. He is still a demon of greed, so why doesn’t he act like one?

The book is basically about the dreaded girl who discovers sudden powers and then, with no real training, manages to fight and defeat a 10,000-year-old, extremely powerful, experienced, skilled enemy, with no real explanation of how. It was ineffective, to say the least.

I could not relate to any of the characters. I did not feel any tension in the plotting. The ‘romance’ was insta-lust and never felt solid. But though the writing is really flat and not particularly engaging, it is structurally sound (minus some editing issues). There may be others who like this a lot more than me, but I’m calling it a fail.

Creature of Dreams

Book Review of Creature of Dreams, by Maya Lassiter

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Creature of DreamsI downloaded a copy of Creature of Dreams, by Maya Lassiter, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Travel photographer, Liv Hannity, forty-one, returns to her Southern hometown on a quest to find her long lost sleep. An insomniac and a lucid dreamer, Liv is used to waking nightmares–but they’re getting worse. Parasites have infested Liv’s dreams and are eating her alive. Seriously. Or, so says Grim, Liv’s childhood dream-character playmate and a self-professed demi-god of dreams. (Or maybe he’s lying. Grim loves a good lie.)

By day, Liv must sort through her difficult past, her overbearing family, her pushy best-friend, and Liv’s new, much-too-young, boyfriend, Milo. By night, Liv battles the Creeps, with Grim’s questionable help, as well as herself–because Liv might be the biggest dream monster of all.

Creature of Dreams is a funny, scary, roller-coaster about love, friendship, getting older, facing the monsters, and waking up. As well as growing up. Finally. (Maybe.)

Review:
Wow, I really liked this…a lot…and I almost didn’t read it. You learn early on that the main character, Liv, was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. I almost put the book down right then. Not because I have any trigger issues (10 years as a Child Abuse & Neglect Investigator, I’m a bit inured on that point), but because I’ve become increasingly frustrated over the last few years about how many female characters are written with a history of sexual victimisation. (I’d almost estimate it to be along the line of 2/3 the female Romance leads I’ve encounter recently.)

The problem is that it’s often only there as basic titillation, to give a male character something to heal or as a past traumatic enough to harden the character and strengthen her (often through anger). And this just pisses me off, especially that last point. As if a woman can’t just be naturally resilient. Male characters don’t have to survive some horrible trauma to become emotionally tough, why do all female characters? Gah, pisses me off. So, as a hot point issue for me, I almost just didn’t bother with the book. I’m so glad I did.

The history of childhood rape is pretty much the fulcrum on which the plot pivots. So, there is no escaping it. To be honest, I did begin to feel that, considering this is a 29-year-old trauma, Liv was a little overly focused on it. But she has come to a point in her life that she’s made a conscious decision to face her past, so dealing with it is kind of the point.

I basically tolerated that aspect of the plot, while falling in love with the characters…all of them. I cannot express how much I appreciated seeing a 41-year-old woman presented as single, without children, confident (with the exception of the issues being addressed), sexy and sexual. She was none of the things Western Culture says women ‘past their prime’ should be and I wanted to hoop and holler for her.

Then there was Pippa. Pippa, who cheerfully said all of my secret shameful thoughts on motherhood as if they were common and normal. As if the blessed ‘Myth of Motherhood’ really could be eked around without diminishing a woman. I need a Pippa in my life.

Milo…sweet, gentle, broken Milo. I don’t think it would be possible to not love Milo. And I could easily relate to his guilt and secondary trauma from witnessing atrocities. (I’m going to call it PTSD and Survivor Guilt.) Similarly, if Milo is a balm to the senses, Grim is the quintessential bad boy (even if there is nothing boy-like about him.) I enjoyed them both very much.

Books involving dreams can easily slip into too-weird-to-read territory and I’m always a little wary of picking one up, but after a rocky start, this was a complete success for me.

Wyn Dead Walk

Book Review of Wyn Dead Walk (Terrwyn Harvey, #1), by A. Rosemary Mauller

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Wyn Dead WalkTwo years ago today, I apparently downloaded a free copy of Wyn Dead Walk, by A. Rosemary Mauller, from Amazon. So, I suppose it qualifies for my TBR challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
As a practicing necromancer Terrwyn Harvey has seen things that most people only thought existed in nightmares…

and as Keeper of the Dead, supernatural sheriff of the underworld, it’s her job to keep them from discovering the truth.

A task that’s easier said than done when eight hundred year old vampire, Alexander Norris, approaches Wyn with a job offer she can’t refuse.

An illegal spell used to raise the dead has resurfaced and Wyn must find the necromancer responsible before she loses her job or worse… her life.

Review:
This book was ok, amusing in its own way, but it was not a winner for me. I thought a lot of it just barely hung together, I found the main characters annoying and I figured out the bad guys before the 50% mark. Meh.

My biggest complaint comes down to the difference between what we’re told Wyn was and what we’re shown she was. We’re told that she’s the Keeper of the Dead, essentially the über necromancer, but we’re shown that she is utterly inept.

We’re told that she’s been training in necromancy since she was born and is a child genius (thus her high position at a mere 23-years-old), but in the book I remember her using magic twice. Once she needed help with something we’re told she’s an expert at and once as more of a relaxation technique than as a skill. Not once did she use it to defend herself when attacked.

We’re told she’s taken down vampires, demons, witches, warlocks, etc. But we’re also told that her training did not include combat teachings. A fact that makes no sense since her father was also fighting the supernatural, so it seems an odd thing to leave out. Especially since when she became Keeper of the Dead, she inherited a sword held by eight generations of Keepers, inferring that fighting is an expected skill set. What’s more, each and every-time she’s attacked she almost dies and has to be rescued, at one point by a 12-year-old boy. (Because apparently even he’s better than she is.) She swings her sword twice in the whole book, despite lugging it around all the time. She’s useless.

This all made the argument that she was special, stronger and/or skilled enough to be given the highest necromancer position available and be responsible policing all activities between the living and the dead and for training all future necromancers in the St. Louis area completely unbelievable.

The vast majority of the book is dedicated to her love life; or rather to the men she lusts after and who, of course, lust after her. First, there is her long-term, on again off again, live in boyfriend who despite seeming like a nice guy gets screwed in the book. Then there is the sexy vampire. Then there is the hunky werewolf, who she randomly invites out for a drink and kisses. I have no idea why. He played no role in the rest of the book. My guess is he’s a set up for another triangle in a future book. Meh.

The writing itself was fine. It flowed well enough and other than Wyn and Alex’s constant and annoying bickering the dialogue flowed well. The book needed a serious re-edit though.

All in all, the book was entertaining enough as long as you don’t look too deeply at the logic of it.