Tag Archives: new adult

Book Review: The Darkest Vampire, by Juliana Haygert

Juliana Haygert‘s The Darkest Vampire was featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight. And while I didn’t agree to review it for a tour, everyone who participated in any manner received a free ARC.

Supernaturals around Portland are turning up dead. I’m next … if the vampire I just made a powerful bond with doesn’t kill me first.

Magic is in a short supply for a half-witch like me, which makes things very difficult when I’m bound by a blood promise to avenge my parents.

With no leads left to follow, I make a bargain with a demon for help. Bad decision. The quest the demon sends me on binds me to a vampire named Killian, a half-mad, half-naked monster who hates my guts almost as much as he longs to drink my blood.

Killian swore to kill all witches on sight, but we agree to work together to solve the murders ravaging the city. He despises me, and I can’t stand him… but there’s an unexpected connection between us, something I can’t help but be curious about.

No, I can’t let anything distract me. Not even a hot and enraging vampire who presses all of my freaking buttons. I’m determined to find my parents’ killers, and stop the chaos taking over the supernatural world.

If only love didn’t get in the way.

This was a big fat “Meh” for me. I think the author had an interesting idea, but the execution is just SO FLAT. The main characters basically run around reacting to things. The heroine has no agency of her own. (She’s certainly not all bad-ass, like the woman on the cover.) The ‘romance’ barely fizzles. The villains, who have flat out murdered all the other victims, mysteriously choose to tie the heroine and her friends up and talk to them first. And that talk is the cliched mu-wha-ha-ha villain monologue where they tell their whole dastardly plan with basically no prompting. Then, they are vanquished far too easily.

I read an ARC. So, I won’t comment on editing. The mechanically writing seems fine though. It’s just the flatness of everything that lets the book down.

Other Reviews:

Nicki J. Markus: Book Review Darkest Vampire

Book Review: Dragon Mate, by Jen L. Grey

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While Jen L. Grey‘s The Hidden King wasn’t featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight, I did post it on Sadie’s Spotlight’s Instagram page and ended up with a free ecopy of the books. I read book one, Dragon Mate last night.

Sometimes, survival depends on not being seen.

I should know. That’s the only way I’ve survived. Getting accepted into a prestigious university was my chance at freedom; to escape and live without fear and resentment.

And with no emotional attachments–or at least that was the plan.

Until I see Egan.

He’s sexy, mysterious, and has muscles in all the right places. He invokes feelings I don’t want or understand.

The more he shows up, the harder of a time I have remembering why staying away from him was a good idea. But he brings deep, dark secrets that alter my entire world.

Monsters exist. Witches cast spells. And animals may be human after all.

I either embrace fate and enter a strange new world full of risks like never before or walk away.

Maybe, I’m destined for heartache because sometimes, love isn’t worth what it costs to fall.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this bad. Certainly, the mechanical writing is perfectly competent. I don’t remember any big editing foul-ups and I do always appreciate a big ol’ cinnamon roll hero. So, I really liked Egan. (I’m fairly sick of all the alpha a-holes. So, a softer kinder hero is nice to see.) But I would call the book super inelegant. There just isn’t any subtly in the plotting, emotional arc, mystery, or romance. It’s all just splashed harshly and half-haphazardly on the page.

The book would have been vastly improved with the addition of Egan’s POV. Jade’s traumatic past didn’t feel real or pertinent (though maybe it’ll be more relevant in future books). I didn’t believe she’d be such a mouse if she’d also spent years being taught to defend and respect herself. And “I can’t allow myself any friends” seems an illogical response to it. Her diarrhea of the mouth wasn’t cute, it was just annoying. I think I got whiplash with all the emotional yes-no-yes-go away-come back etc. The villain was painfully obvious. And I’m hoping this is a spin-off of another series, otherwise there is just a lot of history referenced but never explained. (Edit: It turns out to be a spin-off of The Wolfborn Trilogy). Then, it ends on a cliffhanger with nothing concluded. So, I didn’t finish it feeling particularly charitable.

I do actually have books two and three. Who knows, maybe I’ll be in the mood to read it some time. But I’m not betting on it.

Other reviews:

Dragon Mate

Book Review: Darkest Mate, by Alexis Calder

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I accepted a copy of Alexis Calder‘s Darkest Mate for review, as part of its tour with Rockstar Book Tours. It was also previously featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight.

Weakness means death. Or worse.

After I was abandoned as a child, I was taken in by the Shadow Pack. A group of
ruthless, lawless, shifters who have only one rule: never let anyone see your
weakness.

In exchange for them keeping me alive, I owe them. The leader of the Shadows is
as handsome as he is ruthless. And he’s offered to wipe my debt in exchange for
marriage. He’d offer protection, but it would cost me my freedom.

Survival in the Shadows depends on back alley deals and shady alliances. It’s
become a way of life that I stopped questioning years ago. When a routine
burglary goes wrong, I find myself captured by the one family I never should
have crossed.

The Umbra family owns this city. They make us Shadow wolves look like the good
guys. They should have killed me for my crimes, but there’s a tiny problem… It
turns out Madoc Umbra is my fated mate.

Instead of killing me, I’m a prisoner. The rest of the family doesn’t know of
our bond and I intend to keep it that way. Madoc’s brothers want to end my
life; he wants to break the bond. I just want to get the heck out.

As long as I don’t let them see any weakness, I might have a chance of making
it out of here alive.

Darkest Mate is a full-length paranormal romance. 17+ for dark content,
steamy scenes, and language. This is book one in a trilogy and is not a
standalone. Mind the cliff.

This was a fairly middle of the road read for me. If I used star ratings on the blog, I’d give it a 3. But I think whether people like the book or not will depend on if they like the tropes used or not. Because there isn’t anything new here. Almost every aspect of this plot and the characters will be familiar to anyone who read the genre. But if you happen to like those elements, they’re done as well as anywhere else. The writing is also quite good.

The thing for me, though, was that I spent the entire book honestly angry that Ivy was being so unbelievably stupid. And I don’t just mean that as she was doing something excessively stupid, but unbelievably stupid in the sense that I absolutely did not believe that the character, as written, would do the stupid thing she did and continued to do. It was 100% unbelievable AND stupid, which pretty much undermined the legitimacy of the story.

The book got moderately more interesting for me at about the 80% mark. But at that point it wasn’t enough to save the book. I’d like to know what happens between Ivy and Madoc. But I don’t think I’ll continue the series. I just don’t think my temper can handle it. But different strokes for different folks and you may not have the same reaction.