Tag Archives: M/M

Restless Spirits

Book Review of Restless Spirits (Spirits #1), by Jordan L. Hawk

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It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally I find a book on my kindle or computer and have no memory of where I got it. Did I buy it and delete the receipt? Did I get it as an Amazon freebie or from Instafreebie? No idea. And Jordan L. Hawk‘s Restless Spirits was one of those books, right up until I went to add the link to her blog to this post and saw that you can get a copy of the book when you sign up for her newsletter. Mystery solved. That is where I got this book! You could do the same.

Description from Goodreads:
After losing the family fortune to a fraudulent psychic, inventor Henry Strauss is determined to bring the otherworld under control through the application of science. All he needs is a genuine haunting to prove his Electro-Séance will work. A letter from wealthy industrialist Dominic Gladfield seems the answer to his prayers. Gladfield’s proposition: a contest pitting science against spiritualism, with a hefty prize for the winner. 

The contest takes Henry to Reyhome Castle, the site of a series of brutal murders decades earlier. There he meets his rival for the prize, the dangerously appealing Vincent Night. Vincent is handsome, charming…and determined to get Henry into bed. 

Henry can’t afford to fall for a spirit medium, let alone the competition. But nothing in the haunted mansion is quite as it seems, and soon winning the contest is the least of Henry’s concerns. 

For the evil stalking the halls of Reyhome Castle wants to claim not just Henry and Vincent’s lives, but their very souls. 

Review:
Another complete success from Jordan L. Hawk. I don’t even know when I bought this book (or maybe picked it up free), no idea. I was just scrolling through my Kindle, saw it and was like, “Oh, a Hawk book. Gotta read that right now.” So, I did and I was happy.

The ghost story is scary, maybe not overly original, but scary. The characters are engaging and I loved the diversity of the cast. Did it feel a little forced? Maybe a bit, I guessed Lizzie’s secret long before it was revealed, for example. But I was still too thrilled to find it to really care. There were not a lot of characters in general and it’s a historical, so the book is a little limited, but one of the main characters is Native American, another Black, a third with secret I won’t spoil, of course two are gay and notably, the book does not gloss over the importance and difficulties of these aspects of their character in the time period.

I did think the final battle felt a little abrupt and the villain obvious. But those are small quibbles with a book that I generally really enjoyed. The writing and editing are marvelous and I can’t wait to pick up the next one in the series.

Review of Mage of Legend, by Jennifer Amriss

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I received a copy of Jennifer Amriss‘ Mage of Legend for review.

Description from Goodreads:
Dimensional Rifters Were Nothing But Legends.
Until now…

Ages ago, one of the old gods threw Minuvel, the last Ivari, into a dimensional prison. She was too powerful to kill, and too dangerous to let roam free. But her vault was lost.

A Spoiled King and A Skilled Hunter.

After a beautiful stranger saves his life, Xastrian, the new Dragon King, owes Velithor a life-debt. But as the two join forces to battle the crazed Ivari who shares their prison, he discovers he wants so much more. Soul-bonding with the shy, resourceful hunter would be worth anything. Even facing death a second time.

Trapped and Hunted.

Xastrian must rely on Velithor’s knowledge of the forest. Velithor must help Xastrian regain his power. And one of them must tap into the magic of legend to become a dimensional rifter before the Ivari drives Xastrian mad and ruins their chances of ever finding their way home.

Review:
Spoiler warning for the first couple pages of the book

Oh man, I hate giving a book a poor review when it doesn’t have very many others to balance it out, but this book and I had some serious difference. It starts out well. We meet Xastrian, the new king. He shows himself to be a strong-willed guy you can respect. You meet his fiancé of a thousand or so years. There’s an assassination attempt. It’s all very exciting. I was hooked, wanted to see how this all played out.

Cut to the next day, Xastrian decides to go off on his own, as one does just after an assassination attempt. Who needs guards, right? Then the WHOLE rest of the book is Xastrian playing house in the woods with Velithor. THE. WHOLE. BOOK. The reader never gets back to court, never finds out what happened to the fiancé (after an extended courtship I think that deserved a little closure), never finds out who attempted the assassination. Xastrian and Velithor never even tell the rest of court (or Xastrian’s family) the king is still alive once they make it back. In fact, they never bother going back to the palace at all. That whole very important part of the story is just glossed over and ignored COMPLETELY.

Then there is the deus ex machina magic. I won’t add a spoiler, but it pops up out of nowhere and the person can use it instinctively, doing on without thought or knowhow what others have to train hundreds of years to do. Sure, that’s believable and satisfying….no.

And what of Minuvel you ask. Oh well, she pops up being vaguely threatening on occasion, is evil for no reason except that she is crazy and evil and is vanquished with such ease I barely considered her a subplot. Seriously, the pets get more play than she does.

The romance is basically two men being repeatedly awed at each other. It got repetitive early on, so 300+ pages of it was painful. The two men take turns devolving in to children. (We never again see that strong confident king after the first scene.) The dialogue is stilted and there are a few writing quirks that drove me nuts. Like the constant use of ‘he perked an eyebrow.’ It was overused in general, but as far as I know people tend to quirk an eyebrow. Might not actually be wrong, but it sure grated on my nerves.

The book isn’t a total failure. It is sweet, after all, and outside of a few rough editing patches, the dialogue, and some anachronistic language the writing isn’t bad. But that exciting sounding blurb…no, that must be some other book. It just isn’t this one.

Coexistence

Book Review of Coexistence (Human Hybrids #1), by Clare Solomon

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Clare Solomon sent me a copy of her novel Coexistence for review. There is also a prequel available on her website and a second book available if you sign up for her newsletter.

Description from Goodreads:
Scientists have genetically engineered five human hybrid races known as werewolves, vampires, dragons, sensers and wendigoes. The first four races coexist with humans in relative peace. The fifth one wants to butcher the others and they are getting stronger.

Jaspal ‘Pal’ Khatri is nearly killed and forced to leave his home with a werewolf pack in Oxford, England when the local HyCO group leads a mob of anti-hybrid rioters against them. He travels to the Highlands of Scotland for a fresh start and meets Brand, a werewolf still grieving after the murder of his lover, Kye, a year ago. He and Brand find a dead vampire and Pal is suddenly in the nightmare situation of being accused of the murder. There is a link between this death and that of Kye and Brand works for another branch of HyCO so, to prove his innocence, Pal must join the organisation he loathes and try to ignore his growing feelings for Brand as they work to uncover the real killer. Can they solve the case in time or will they become the murderer’s next victims?

Review:
Umm, no, this did not work for me. It’s too long, provides the same information over and over again, is far too heavy on the tell vs. show, has a ‘love’ that is rejected for ridiculous reasons and then has a sudden and unbelievable turnaround, a mystery that is solved with far too much ease and a second that drags on eternally, a doctor that never doctors and a world with five types of humans that isn’t really explored beyond wendigos bad everyone else good.

Solomon has a good idea here and I liked the characters. The book even starts out really well. But in the end the writing, editing, pacing and plotting wore me down and I was just glad to finally finish it.