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Snowmancer

Book Review of Snowmancer, by Olivia Helling

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SnowmancerI downloaded a copy of Snowmancer, by Olivia Helling, from Amazon. It was still free at the time of posting.

Description from Goodreads:
A partner he could trust. That’s what Prince Heir Ilyas wanted most in the world. Instead, he spent his days alone defending his future throne from his younger brothers and reaping the rewards of their estates. But when he receives his latest conquest, a slave named Jem, he’s abducted to the far reaches of a frozen wasteland to be sacrificed to Jem’s backwater god.

Someone who would see him. The one thing Jem knows he can never have. Instead, Jem walks the world searching for the sacrifice that will save the people who fear and shun him — the beautiful and proud Ilyas. Capturing Ilyas might have been simple, but keeping him safe for his god is another matter.

Trapped in their struggle and tight quarters, they’re both haunted by the whisper in each other of the warmth they dared not dream for. But nothing can stop the Dark God from coming. Nothing short of death. Can one kill the other? Or will they both be destroyed?A partner he could trust. That’s what Prince Heir Ilyas wanted most in the world. Instead, he spent his days alone defending his future throne from his younger brothers and reaping the rewards of their estates. But when he receives his latest conquest, a slave named Jem, he’s abducted to the far reaches of a frozen wasteland to be sacrificed to Jem’s backwater god.

Review:
Let me give you the perfect illustration of the type of impression this book makes. I read it yesterday, finished it about 11 and then went to bed. Until I sat down this afternoon and picked up my Kindle to find something to read, I’d wholly forgotten I read a book the day before. Nothing about Snowmancer stood out enough to be remembered without prompting, less than 12 hours later!

Now, it’s not a bad book. It was entertaining enough in a shallow sort of way. It has good atmosphere. You do feel the helplessness of the situation and Jem is a wonderful character. But I never could follow the progression from captive to captivated. Ilyas just seemed perfectly content to float along with Jem, despite threat of imminent death. His continued haughty attitude didn’t fit his situation at all and felt forced. There was basically no history to the characters and the climax/HEA was of the hand-waving variety. And I mean that as in it seemed to come exceedingly easy and without the need of further explanation and as in there was actual hand waving involved.

If you have an hour or two to pass this isn’t a waste of time, but it’s also not worth carving time out for.

Book Review of Sunset Park (Five Boroughs #2), by Santino Hassell

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Sunset ParkI bought a copy of Santino Hassell‘s Sunset Park. It’s the sequel to Sutphin Boulevard, which I reviewed last year.

Description from Goodreads:
Raymond Rodriguez’s days of shoving responsibility to the wayside are over. His older brother wants to live with his boyfriend so Raymond has to get his act together and find a place of his own. But when out-and-proud David Butler offers to be his roommate, Raymond agrees for reasons other than needing a place to crash.

David is Raymond’s opposite in almost every way—he’s Connecticut prim and proper while Raymond is a sarcastic longshoreman from Queens—but their friendship is solid. Their closeness surprises everyone as does their not-so-playful flirtation since Raymond has always kept his bicurious side a secret.

Once they’re under the same roof, flirting turns physical, and soon their easy camaraderie is in danger of being lost to frustrating sexual tension and the stark cultural differences that set them apart. Now Raymond not only has to commit to his new independence—he has to commit to his feelings for David or risk losing him for good.

Review:
Oh man, another winner from Hassell. I’ve said it before, but I just love his voice. There is a certain realistic grittiness to it that I just swoon over. He writes real people and you can’t help but relate to them.

For me, Raymond was the undisputed star of this show. I just loved the way he could be so easy going but still 100% willing to go for what he wants (in some areas of his life). It was incredibly endearing.

I liked David too and completely understood his hesitancies and struggles to risk his heart on what he perceived as a maybe. Though it’s never said, it boiled down to a basic distrust of Raymond’s bisexuality and this is something real and hurtful that bisexuals deal with that rarely gets discussed. Trust Hassell, who never seems to flinch away from difficult themes, to slip that one in there successfully.

The sex is hot but not so frequent as to overpower the plot. The characters are appreciably blue collar (when almost everywhere else I look I’m finding billionaires and rock stars). The writing is tight. The dialogue is sharp. The drama did seem to drag on a bit and some of the blow ups seemed a little overblown, but for the most part, I’m almost wholly without complaints.

Book Review of Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, by Ginn Hale

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Champion of the Scarlet Wold, 1Well, I am just gobbling up all the Ginn Hale books I can get my grubby little hands on. This time it was Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (book 1 & 2). I borrowed them from the library.

Description of book one:
Five years after abandoning the Sagrada Acedemy (Lord of the White Hell universe), Elezar Grunito has become infamous in the sanctified circles of noble dueling rings for his brutal temper and lethal blade. Men and women of all ranks gather to cheer and jeer, none of them knowing Elezar’s true purpose. But a violent death outside the ring marks Elezar as a wanted man and sends him into hiding in the far northern wilds of Labara.

There, creatures of myth and witchcraft—long since driven from Cadeleon—lurk in dark woods and prowl the winding streets. Soldiers and priests alike fear the return of witch-queens and even demons. Elezar soon learns that magic takes many forms, some too alluring to resist, others too terrible to endure. But just as he begins to find his place in this strange new country, the past he left behind along with his school days returns to challenge him once again.

Review:
A really quite marvelous read. Yes, there were some copy edit issues that really surprised me and yes, I cringed at the cliché use of the scorned woman going bad (seriously authors, women do have other motivations in life than men), but mostly I really quite enjoyed this.

I found Elezar’s tarnished honor and torn desires created a complex hero and I thought that Skellan, as a wholly under-estimated badass, was endearing. Their slow burn relationship was a pleasure and the Grimma/witches was an interesting culture.

However, though it was fun to see Javier and Kiram again, I admit they didn’t seem to add much to the plot and I thought Elezar and Skellan deserved the stage to themselves. But maybe J & K will become more important in book 2. Lastly, I thought that the villain was defeated too easily. Not in the sense that it was an easy thing to do or without sacrifice, but that the understanding of what to do and actually doing it seemed to come out of nowhere and be accomplished in a very short, almost anti-climatic amount of time.

So, I had complaints, but mostly I enjoyed then and can’t wait to jump into book two.

Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, 2Description of book two:
Skellan meant to save his city and avenge the woman who raised him. Instead he’s plunged his country into war and shaken their delicate alliance with the great nation of Cadeleon. 

Now only he and his crumbling city stand between an army of old gods and the world of mortal folk. But even as Skellan raises the city’s wards he struggles to unify the disparate defenders of Milmuraille. 

Though he promises his friends that neither political machinations nor magical power will ever undermine his ideals, the merciless reality of battling gods soon threatens to claim all he hopes to save.

Review:
I am so happy to have discovered Ginn Hale. Wow. This wrapped the series up nicely (though I could see some of the other Hellions maybe getting a book or two). I have very few complaints. I adored Skellen and Elezar as much, if not more, than I did in book one. I liked the world, the side characters, the writing, pretty much all of it.

I did think it felt overly long, like the middle dragged a bit. As with the other three books by Hale that I’ve read, the editing is surprisingly problematic. There aren’t a ton, but everything is so well done that I just don’t expect to stumble across copy edit mistakes. And I thought the ending a bit abrupt. Both in the sense that the final danger was quickly overcome and in the sense that after the climactic battle we’re given very little winding down of the story. But despite my grumbles I’ll be looking for more of Hale’s writing for sure.