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Book 1 & 2 of Lori Brighton’s The Hunter Series

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I grabbed Lori Brighton‘s PNR The Ghost Hunter from the Amazon KDP list and to my complete surprise remembered that I owned it. Usually if an ebook isn’t lendable I don’t add it to my Kindle list and end up forgetting about it…out of sight, out of mind after all. I don’t particularly care for the cover, but I guess it must have stuck in my mind.

Description from Goodreads:
When Ashley Hunter inherits the Inn where her father mysteriously vanished years ago, she jumps at the chance to finally uncover the truth about his disappearance. But soon after taking ownership of the decrepit building, Ashley realizes she’s in for far more than she bargained. Not only has she inherited answers to many sought-after questions, she’s also inherited spirits, demons and even fallen angels! Then Cristian arrives, a gorgeous man who insists he merely needs a room to rent. She believes him, until one by one her ghosts start disappearing…

As a fallen angel destined for a life of servitude, Cristian Lucius is relegated to protecting earth from unwanted spirits. But he can’t accomplish this daunting task alone. He requires assistance from the very woman who frustrates him as much as she intrigues him. Cristian is determined to ignore his intense attraction for Ashley, and focus on his mission. If they don’t work together, they won’t have a chance in hell of defeating the demon threatening their lives. The problem is getting Ashley to trust him. No easy task, considering Cristian is the very man responsible for her father’s disappearance.

The Ghost Hunter started off well. Crumpled and jet lagged Ashley arrived in England to inherit a decrepit inn from he aunt and find some answers about her father’s disappearance. Life gets complicated after that.

I generally liked Ashley. She had had a hard life and was finally trying to accept herself as is. I can appreciate that. She had an irritating habit of chatting even when endangered though. I wanted to scream at her,”Come on shut up and hide already, or run, or fight, or something, just shut up!” Not that what she often said wasn’t of relevance, but who stands around and chats when a demon is breathing down their neck? She was witty though. She pulled some amusing one liners that I couldn’t help enjoying. 

Christian and his Scottish burr were sexy as they were supposed to be and I liked him too. You have to appreciate a man who tries so hard to do the right thing. But while I get that he was surprised to find himself attracted to Ashley, I honestly think he made the discovery that he loved her 15 times. Blimey! There were a lot of ‘oh how he loved her,’ ‘did she want him as much as he wanted her,’ why couldn’t he get her off his mind,’ etc (or lines of the sort). It did get a little repetitive and a lot of the book was dedicated to it.

Blimey, describes the language in this book perfectly. There were a lot of them, ‘bloody hells,’ shite/arse and other such classic Englishisms. (I know that isn’t really a word, but you know what I mean.) There was also phonetic speech. While this did give the characters character it was really distracting. I mean I had to read the line ‘Yer da’ numerous times before I figured out it meant your dad. It took me a while to remember that ‘ken’ could mean know, so that the line ‘ye ken’ meant you know. Then again “Jaysus, Mary and Joseph” left no question of whether John spoke with an Irish brogue or not. It just sounds right. I guess it is just a think line between some and too much.

All-in-all I liked the book well enough to get the second one. It made me laugh and I liked Devon, so I wanted to know what happens to him.

Description from Goodreads:
Ellie has always been different, from playing with fairies as a child to fighting demons as an adult. She grew up wondering why no one else seemed to notice the oddities of the world that she came into contact with on a daily basis. When she is the only witness of a demon attack and the police suspect her, Ellie skips the country heading to England where she plans to keep a low profile. Everything is going fine, until Devon appears, stumbling around her garden like a drunken fool, and completely naked no less.

Six months ago Devon sacrificed himself to bind the soul of a demon and save the world from certain destruction. Thanks to a spell gone awry, Devon is back. But Devon hasn’t come alone. The very demon he tried to destroy has returned and is wreaking havoc on earth. When Devon meets Ellie, he instantly recognizes another supernatural being. Ellie may just be the only person who is strong enough to destroy the demon, if the demon doesn’t destroy her first.

In one sense I liked Demon Hunter better than Ghost Hunter. I think the writing was better. Not that it was bad in the first one, but I liked it more here. I also liked the juxtaposition of Devon’s Victorian upbringing with his strong warrior nature. But it was his broken, puppy dog moments that made me love him. Ellie’s amazing backbone was a joy. I much prefer a strong heroine to a wimpy one. Plus, the occasion in which she took on more traditionally male romance characteristics (like thinking of Devon as hers) made me smile. I like it when authors play with genre tropes. 

What I didn’t like was the constant and often misplaced descriptions of Devon’s amorousness. Well-nigh half the book was dedicated to explaining how enamoured he was with Ellie. We get it already. It detracted from the rest of the plot and often slowed the action down. I had hoped that if there is to be a third book it would be based on Kipps….I really liked him.

Anyhow, I don’t feel like my time was waisted, but I’m  little relieved that there isn’t another one yet. I liked them enough to read it if there was, but am also not disappointed to be moving on. 

Book Review of Arlene Blakely’s Illegal Magic

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I’ve been on a fae kick lately so I grabbed Illegal Magic from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
What do you get when you mix magic & lawyers?

More than you bargained for.

Lani’s family has magic. Her friends have magic. Even the plants in her community are magical. But Lani’s powers never manifest, and she’s tired of feeling like the odd one out. So she goes to law school and does her best to fit in with the non-magical world.

Too bad her first client is a geeky vampire. And her second client is an evil sorcerer. And her smoking hot one night stand doesn’t remember her name.

If Lani survives her first week of work, she’s gonna seriously consider a career change.

Illegal Magic starts with a magical bash. Lani’s family pulls out the works for a no-holds-bared party to celebrate her success at becoming a lawyer. Spells, mythical creatures and lost inhibitions abound. It was like Harry Potter on crack. There was a serious moment in which I paused and thought, “oh, this is gonna be BAD.” Lucky, after the first chapter or so it settled down, though it still reminded me of a grown up Happy Potter. Lani’s parents could easily have been Molly and Arthur Weasly. Ron was a baker named Kalvin. Hermine was actually some odd amalgamation of  Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom (a pretty, spacey gardener named Dana), and good ‘ol Harry was still brave in the face of danger, even if he did have breasts and no magic.

This is not a book that takes itself seriously, nor should it be taken too seriously by any reader. Look too deeply and you start to wonder how exactly the magic users could live practically among the rest of humanity and not know what a car is or that grocery stores exist. Plus, a number of the plots elements are bare substructures with no substance. Why exactly is Fellion following Lani around incessantly, for example? I spent 95% of the book thinking that he didn’t even remember her. But if you are willing to suspend your critical thinking for the duration of the story it is extremely funny. Poor Lani’s perpetual frustration, sharp tongue, and insane surrounding are pure joy.

I also really appreciated that Blakely didn’t suddenly allow Lani to develop magic out of the blue. That is such a common occurrence in fantasy novels. The main character is lacking in some fashion only to then suddenly become the strongest of them all. It reeks of over-simplicity. Lani hadn’t had magic from birth and unless someone or something gives it to her I don’t see why it should suddenly appear, even if that allows a problem to wrap up nicely. Blakely maintains Lani’s non-magic status, thereby refusing to give her an easy out and forcing her to develop as a character. It was far more satisfying that way.

This is obviously the first of a series. A number of threads were left open for further development. I’m looking forward to the continuation. 

Book Review of Rhamin, by Bryce Thomas

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I grabbed this book off of the free KDP list on a whim.

Rhamin is the leader of a pack. His rival, who cannot depose him, resorts to doing bad things to try, which results in a young boy, his sister and their parents entering the story. At a time when some wolves are in need of help to survive, one of the pack discovers that it can communicate with the boy and it is the relationship that builds between the wolves and the family that leads to a dangerous and exciting adventure for them all.

With a good element of the paranormal and a couple of humourous characters as well, the story is told from the wolves’ perspective, taking readers inside the pack so that they see everything through a wolf’s eyes. Rhamin is a bestselling light, fantasy adventure with lots of danger, drama and suspense. It has an unusual twist and a knife edge climax that keeps you turning the pages to the very last page.

Review:

I don’t think the description does Bryce Thomas or the writing in this book credit. Rhamin is refreshing. The Paranormal genre is flooded with hot-blooded males, and while I like that too, I greatly appreciated the change Rhamin presents. The alpha male here is just that, an alpha in a wolf pack. Not a werewolf pack, but honest to goodness timber wolves. (Well, it never clarifies that they are timber wolves, but as large wolves residing in North America, they probably are supposed to be.) Granted they are heavily anthropomorphized, possessing intellect, speech, the concept of numerics, etc, but they’re still just wolves.

There were quite a few wolf-related info-drops that slowed things down a little, and some of the speech, especially between Rasci and Ben, seemed a little stilted and unnatural. Though, to be fair, so is their whole situation, so it might not be inappropriate for their communication to be awkward. But on the whole, I really enjoyed the book.

Because I recently had a conversation with someone about the messages that books present to readers, young readers in particular, I stopped to appraise Rhamin‘s messages. The wolves of Rhamin’s pack are fabulous role models and we could all learn a little bit from them about extended familial love and loyalty, accepting ourselves and our own skills and limitations, accepting others despite their differences, forgiving your enemies, and the importance of dedication to a task.

If you are expecting a heavy-hitting PNR, go elsewhere, but if you’d like a sweet paranormal adventure, this is the book for you. You’ll also learn a little bit of history if you read it afterward, which I always like.