Tag Archives: paranormal

Book Review – Wolfish: Moonborne, by G.K. DeRosa

I believe I purchased a copy of G.K. DeRosa‘s Wolfish: Moonborne during a Facebook author signing event. wolfish cover

FATE HAS A WICKED SENSE OF HUMOR

When I was sixteen, I met the love of my life in magic school. He’d appear exactly once a year at the annual masquerade ball, then vanish…

Fast forward to the present: to the night I’m attacked and my hidden wolf emerges. As it turns out, I’m a freakin’ hairy, tail-wagging, shape-shifting werewolf so instead of returning to the human world after graduating, I’m dragged to Moon Valley to control my inner beast. Only problem is, I’m not just a wolf.

And someone wants me dead because of it.

When I meet the alpha heir, sparks fly, And bombshell– he’s my supposedly wolfy fated mate, but he’s nothing like the boy I loved. He’s cold, sullen, a total jerk but impossibly gorgeous. Of course. And he’s got secrets too. Despite hating him most days, I can’t deny the irresistible attraction… and neither can he. Even after he rejects me.

Little does he known, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself– maybe even capable of taking his claim as alpha.

my review

This is labeled YA/NA, but the character won’t even curse: “Chill the eff out,” for example. So, I’ll let you figure out where it falls between YA and NA. No, I won’t. It’s YA. Now you know.

It’s an OK story. I liked Sierra well enough. She’s a strong protagonist outside of being a mate-bound doormat when it comes to Hunter. But that’s the problem. You see almost no pleasant interludes between them, but she is still slavishly dedicated to him. In the end, I couldn’t root for the romance and didn’t even particularly like him. The side characters are fairly stock, but the world is interesting.

If I had the next one in the series, I would probably read it. But I don’t think I’ll bother buying it.

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Other Reviews:

Wolfish Series by G.K. DeRosa

 

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Book Review: Freak Show, by Crystal Ash

I purchased a copy of Crystal Ash‘s Freak Show. I think it was during an online author-signing event.
freak show cover

Who knew cages and freaks would set me free?

Growing up in trailer trash hell, the carnival was my only happy memory as a child. I held onto the magic of that memory until I could finally escape. And like Alice down the rabbit hole, I entered a world beyond my wildest dreams. A world with a shiny, colorful exterior, but filled with rot and corruption underneath.

But no matter what these people put me through, I can’t go back to my life before.

The man with the biggest secret is the only one I can trust. He’s dangerous, but he’s safety to me. He’s broken, but he put me back together. I’ll keep his secret. My heart hopes he’ll keep me. But in a hall of mirrors, how do you know what’s real or an illusion?

Every grueling night onstage is building up to a final show: The Wolf Man. Is he real or a hoax? Why do I feel such a pull to find out his truth?

Care to join me on this ride? Step right up.

my review

Meh, this was OK, I guess; not horrid, but it does not stand out either. Mel is sweet but basically a Mary Sue. Conner is noble and kind but also kinda a cliched grump. The villains are hamfisted, as are the side characters, almost all of which are stereotypical bitchy women resource-guarding men in stereotyped ways. Plus, the book wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test. (I’m so tired of female authors who villainize other women and write books that can’t pass the low bar of the Bechdel test.)

Here’s the main problem for me, though: I picked up a paranormal why choose and then was given a single romantic partner and almost no paranormal. There is a werewolf in the first chapter who does not reappear (and only briefly and passively, almost in passing) in the last chapters. Yes, I realize more mates will show up in future books, but I’m not talking about future books. I’m talking about this one. I probably wouldn’t mentioned it if it wasn’t that BOTH elements I picked the book up expecting were absent. This is basically an Insta-love, Wounded Soldier romance, not a why choose paranormal romance.

I didn’t love it, but I’d likely continue the series if I had it on hand. But I don’t, and I’m not invested enough to bother buying the rest of the series, which seems to be broken into 7 200 (or less) page books. I feel like that is more books than need be, judging by this one.
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Other Reviews:

 

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Book Review: Who Ordered a Medium, by Jennifer Laslie

Who Ordered a Medium (by Jennifer Laslie) has been on my shelf for a while, and I’m not 100% sure how it got there. I think I ordered it on Etsy.

who ordered a medium cover
How can she move on when her dead fiancé won’t?

Josie’s world is turned upside down after the death of her fiancé. Her picture-perfect world no longer exists. But when a ghost starts haunting her house, she’s not sure who to turn to.

Sebastian isn’t just a hot stripper Josie met at her bachelorette party, he’s also the medium that shows up at her door to help her with her ghost problem.

Together, they must figure out who is haunting her house and how to get rid of them. Can they survive the supernatural while figuring out the chemistry brewing between them?

my review

who ordered a medium photoMeh, passable.
This is a novella, so I wasn’t expecting much depth. But up until the artificially rushed ending, it managed to pace itself well enough, though the villain remains vague (and the romantic lead felt a little skeevy). Then Laslie pulled the most cop-out authorial move known to man: the main character passed out, and everything was solved off-page without her (and thus without the reader). I hate when authors do this. But it was especially grievous here. I have the next book in the series. I expect I’ll read it. But I’m not in any hurry about it.


Other Reviews:

#WOTR22 #SeriesStarter #Novella – Who Ordered a Medium by Jennifer Laslie