Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

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Book Review: Dreaming Of a White Wolf Christmas, by Terry Spear

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I picked up a copy of Terry Spear‘s Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas as an Amazon freebie, in order to read it as part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.
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Tangling with a White Wolf—Best Christmas Ever, or Real Trouble?

Romance writer Candice Mayfair never missed a deadline in her life—until an accidental bite from a werewolf puppy turns her into an Arctic wolf shifter. She’s forced to isolate herself in the wilderness to cope with her unpredictable shifting while she works on her deadlines. After all, for Candice, Christmas is just another day.

Enter private investigator Owen Nottingham, a wolf shifter hired to find Candice so she can collect her inheritance. They have a real problem: she must arrive home in human form, and that’s not happening during the full moon. Besides, Owen has a new mission: to convince the pretty she-wolf her best move is to join his pack in time for Christmas…and to prove he’s the only wolf for her.

my review

Good lord, this was just horrid. I don’t understand it either. Terry Spear is well known. Lots of people enjoy her books. Hell, this series is 30 books long. Obviously, someone somewhere enjoys this sort of thing. But I was bored to tears.

The dialogue is stiff. The writing is dry as dust. It’s SO tell heavy and everything is repeated, as characters do things and then tell people about doing things, or tell people they’re going to do something and then do it, or think about doing something and then do it, etc. The love is instant and the romance is non-existent and basically comes down to her being the only available arctic wolf. Random things happen randomly. There are a ton of characters who pop up and then disappear just as suddenly. I assume they are only mentioned because they’re cameos from other books (but they just felt disruptive here). And the book just went on and on and on.

Honestly, I would have DNFed this, for sure, had I not been reading it for a challenge and wanted to be able to count it. I think I need not ever read another Spear book.

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Other Reviews:

Mainlining Christmas: Book review – Dreaming of a white Wolf Christmas

Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas (White Wolf #1 / Heart of the Wolf #23) by Terry Spear-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing Solstice Surrender, by Tracy Cooper-Posey and Charley’s Christmas Wolf, by C.D. Gorri. Yeah, I’ve had to start doubling up to try and fit all the reviews in by Christmas.

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Book Review – Eternal: Micah’s Mate, by Tianna Xander

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You guys, I promised myself that this year I wouldn’t find myself in mid-December scrambling to find the last few books for my yearly Author Alphabet Challenge. I was gonna have read a book by an author for every letter of the alphabet early this year. And I was on target to do it too. I had read everything except X and maybe U by about August. But man that X-author just kept right out of reach and here it is December 16th and I’ve just now made a desperate grab for an X-authored book, just like every year. Thus I read Eternal: Micah’s Mate, by Tianna Xander. I’m happy to be able to say it completes my challenge, but disappointed that I let it get this far into the year again. Maybe next year will be the year I get it complete early.
eternal micah's mate
It feels like the whole world is against her – but that doesn’t mean there’s no time for love.

I was sure I’d end up alone forever. But as soon as I bumped into six-foot-six of tall, dark, and handsome male vampire perfection, my plans were thrown on their head. Being wanted for murder sucks – but after meeting Micah, things suddenly don’t seem so bad after all…

Micah swore to protect my father’s interests… even if that means babysitting his sassy and snarky daughter. He knows I have an attitude – but he’s still drawn to me. And between his skills and my interdimensional magic, we might just be able to make it out of this in one piece…

my review

This simply isn’t very good. The mechanical writing and editing seems fine, but the plotting and story are a mess. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this isn’t a story. It’s a series of random events connected only in that the main character is there for all of them. There is no story to become invested in because there is no story to follow. It’s just what random thing will happen next with no foreshadowing, buildup, or explanation before falling instantly into irrelevance. New characters are being introduced all the way until the end, which means the reader has no connection of care for them. Nothing has any emotional impact, because nothing is given any time to develop. There is very little world-building and a ton of inconsistencies even in what there is. Honestly, if I hadn’t needed an X-author for my yearly Author Alphabet Challenge I’d have DNFed this pretty early on.

eternal micah's mate

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Book Review: Holiday Haunts, by Imogen Markwell-Tweed & Wendy Dalrymple

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Author, Imogen Markwell-Tweed is a local-to-me author and on behalf of herself and co-author, Wendy Dalrymple, she sent me a review copy of Holiday Haunts last year. But it was past the holidays (if I remember correctly)…or maybe I just didn’t get to it before the holidays. Regardless, that means I’m lucky enough to have it on hand for this year’s Christmas reading challenge.
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Christmas is the perfect time of year to fall in love; especially if you’re a specter or a retail employee, that is. At Holiday Falls Mall, love blooms in sweet and spooky ways for four shop employees during the holiday season. This collection features two stories from queer romance writer Imogen Markwell-Tweed, and two stories from sweet romance writer Wendy Dalrymple for a unique, intertwined anthology of paranormal romance novelettes.

my review

Of the four stories, I found that I enjoyed the Markwell-Tweed stories more than the Dalrymple ones. I thought Dalrymple’s writing a little more pedestrian. But I also thought the two authors paired well together and none of the stories were bad. Some just worked more for me than others. Here are my brief thoughts on each individual stories, as I finished them.

Up to Snow Good

I thought this was super sweet. There was definitely some insider WLW humor. But being able to good-naturedly poke fun at yourself to an expected audience that can share the humor is a super relatable way to make something feel like a comfort read. It’s only a short story, so nothing is deeply defined or elaborately developed. But there is just enough to make you like both characters and root for their happy ending.

Heavenly Reads

I also thought this a super cute story. Jesse’s inner monologue had a lot of character and Angel fit his name. It was fairly obvious where the story was going, but it was fun seeing it get there.

Magic Mistletoe

I thought Nick’s absentminded pleasant demeanor super cute and Paige’s vegan, new age-ness suitably witchy. I like that the eventual age difference was of no concern. All in all a fine Christmas story.

The Assistant Manager and the Beast

Meh, I thought this the weakest of the bunch. I’m not saying it was bad; one of the four stories had to be bottom of the pile and this was the one for me. I really liked the idea of Krampus as a character, but nothing about Heidi stood out as notable for me. But it was a sweet story overall.

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Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop, by Jenny Colgan.