Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

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Book Review: Vampire Tower #1-3, by Kelly St. Clare

I picked up a free Amazon copy of Kelly St. Clare‘s Blood Trial about this time last year. (Actually, a year ago tomorrow. LOL) Then I purchased Vampire Debt and Death Game in order to finish the series. I read them all back to back. So, I think I’ll just write a single review for the series, instead of for each individual book. But here is the blurb for book one, to give you an idea of what the series is about.

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The dice are rolled at midnight.

As the twenty-one-year-old heiress to the Le Spyre fortune, my life should consist of strawberry mojitos and golf carts.

Right? But I’m determined to forge my own path. Desperate to escape the meaningless games of the rich, I flee my family’s estate.

Secret alias—check.
Place to sleep—uh, kind of?
Job—crap!

I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, but that’s the least of my worries. My city is a giant board game. The players are supernatural— freakin’ vampires—including an overbearing crown prince whose unwanted attention could spell my demise.

Now, I must play their deadly game, or my grandmother and best friend will pay the ultimate price.

my review

As I said, I purchased and read all three books (well, the first was a freebie). So, I can’t claim I didn’t enjoy the series. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have continued. But this is one of those series that I enjoyed on the surface. I liked the characters. There’s some humor. The writing is engaging. The female main character had a backbone of steel and a sharp wit. The male romantic lead was forced to grovel in a satisfying manner, and I liked how he let his heroine lead in so many situations. I was invested in their outcome. I enjoyed it…so long as I didn’t think too deeply about it.

Because there just isn’t any getting around the fact that the hero owned slaves, saw nothing wrong with owning slaves, and had not changed his opinion about owning slaves by the end of the book. It gets awfully hard to keep the ‘romantic’ in the ‘romantic male lead’ in such cases.

Similarly, there just isn’t any way to ignore the fact that (as is so often the case in romance books), by the end, he had gotten everything he wanted without sacrificing anything for it. While she had to go through hell and willing give up almost everything she valued in order to earn her man. Why are women so often expected to suffer for love while men just have to exist?

And lastly, there’s just something a little classist and elitist about the way she was made out to be so exceptional because she grew up wealthy and was, therefore, trained to be more. Sure, she avoided her wealthy friends’ snobbish fate because she had and valued a poor friend. But the whole thing was just icky.

All in all, as I said in the beginning, this is a fun (if slow) series, so long as you don’t think past the surface plot.

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Other Reviews:

https://pastmidnight.home.blog/2020/01/30/mini-reviews-vampire-towers-series-by-kelly-st-clare/

Book Review: The Unseelie Prince, by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

I received a copy of Kathryn Ann Kingsley‘s The Unseelie Prince in last month’s Supernatural Book Crate.the unseelie prince coverThe throne is Valroy’s for the taking…but first, he needs a queen.

As the son of the Morrigan and heir to the vacant Unseelie throne, Valroy itches to shed the mantle of prince and take his place as King. To his great regret one ancient tradition stands in his way, demanding he first take a bride. With all the members of the Unseelie court proving to be insufferable, what is a prince to do?

Steal a human, of course.

Abigail often wonders if the townsfolk aren’t right in calling her cursed. Abandoned by her husband and with no family to call her own, everything in her life hangs by a thread. Never did she except her downfall would come by taking pity on an old hermit. Abducted into the dangerous world of Tir n’Aill, Abigail is thrust into a terrifying maze that defies all logic. There, she finds herself at the mercy of an Unseelie prince with a strange offer—survive his maze and he’ll give her the solution to all her problems…

If she can live that long.my reviewI am 100% torn about how I feel about this book. On one hand, I love old-school fae who don’t conform to mortal norms and morals. They’re basically my favorite kind. And that’s Valroy in a nutshell. However, on the other hand, this is supposed to be a romance. And the romance aspect of this fell really flat for me.

Sure, I get anti-heroes. I understand dark romance. And I saw that Valroy’s attitudes were changing over the course of the book. But the fact remains that he legitimately didn’t care if she lived or died for the majority of the book. And that does not equal any sort of romance in my mind. So, for me, it was a fail on that front.

But there is the undeniable third hand in which I am curious to see where the story goes from here. So, I’m going to call this a middle-of-the-road read and hope that the romance strikes my fancy a little more in book two. the unseelie prince photo


Other Reviews:

The Unseelie Prince Book Review

https://hklovesbooks.co.uk/2022/03/02/february-2022-wrap-up/

 

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Book Review: Fate Awakened, by Jocelyn Montana

I accepted a review copy of Fate Awakened, by Jocelyn Montana as part of its book tour with Rockstar Book Tours. The book was also featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight. So, you can hop over there for author information, an excerpt, tour schedule, and chance to win a copy of the book for yourself.

 

A fierce werewolf consumed by his past. A human used as bait. A connection neither expects.

A MONSTER TO EVERYONE BUT HER …
Hans lives only for vengeance. No more Pack. No friends. Only the dark void inside him tormenting him about his past. Yet when he meets a dark-haired beauty, desire tears through him and changes everything. But werewolves never take mates, and to claim her would doom him and ensure the rising evil wins.

AN ORDINARY HUMAN TO EVERYONE BUT HIM …
One moment Briony’s eating in the tavern, and the next a necromancer has her tied up in a cave as bait for a werewolf. Stuck in the middle of a centuries old battle, she needs to escape. Now. Except when the werewolf arrives and she gets her chance, she doesn’t run. No—she helps him and decides to join him to face a formidable enemy who will do anything to kill her. And with each day that passes, every gentle touch, every silky purr, the werewolf claws his way further into her heart.

BOUND TOGETHER AGAINST AN ANCIENT EVIL …
They have one month to work together to take down a sorceress. One month to decide to remain together forever. Everyone in Briony’s life has left her, and she doesn’t believe in love anymore. Secrets in Hans’s past prevent him from making Briony his. They may save the world, but will they save each other?

my reviewI thought that this book was OK. It didn’t light me on fire. But I strongly suspect that it will some people, depending on what you’re looking for in a monster romance. The writing and editing is mechanically fine. The plot holds together and the characters are likeable enough. So, it all just comes down to personal preference. And this is where I was left to just kind of shrug.

Sure, Hans is a monster who doesn’t take human form. But he feels awfully human-like. This is exacerbated by just how colloquial a lot of the dialogue is. I was often yanked out of the narrative by some particular turn of phrase that just felt a little too normal to be coming out of the mouth of a non-human who presumably wasn’t socialized in modern America.

Similarly, despite being a planet with two suns, two moons, and fantasy creatures, surprisingly recognizable things would pop up—like Baba Yaga. I mean, sure, all the monsters were recognizable ones. Though sometimes called something different, there were elves, shifters, goblins, trolls, etc. But when mythological characters show up by name, I’m left wondering if this is a different world or a far future post-apocalyptic Earth. Either is fine. But the fact that I’ve finished the book and can’t tell you isn’t. In the end, it just felt inconsistent.

fate awakened photoMostly though, I found that I was just bored with a lot of it. There’s an interesting fight to save the world going on. But it feels like set dressing to the romance. And, as sweet as that romance is, it wasn’t enough to keep me interested for 330 pages.

So, all in all, I’ll call this a middle-of-the-road read for me while acknowledging that it’ll float someone’s boat for sure.


Other Reviews:

Beers Books Boos: Fate Awakened