Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

dragon fall

Book Review of Dragon Fall, by Katie MacAlister

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Dragon FallI borrowed a copy of Katie MacAlister‘s Dragon Fall from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
YOU FLIRT WITH FIRE…

For Aoife Dakar, seeing is believing—and she’s seen some extraordinary things. It’s too bad no one else believes that she witnessed a supernatural murder at an outdoor fair. Returning to the scene for proof, Aoife encounters a wise-cracking demon dog—and a gloriously naked man who can shift into a dragon and kiss like a god. Now thrust into a fantastical world that’s both exhilarating and terrifying, Aoife is about to learn just how hot a dragon’s fire burns.

WHEN YOU DATE A DRAGON

Kostya has no time for a human woman with endless questions, no matter how gorgeous or tempting she is. He must break the curse that has splintered the dragon clans before more of his kind die. But his powerful attraction to Aoife runs much deeper than the physical—and there may be more to her than even his sharp dragon eyes can see. To survive the coming battle for the fate of his race, he needs a mate of true heart and soul . . 

Review:
Well, that was seriously disappointing; I mean basically complete tripe. There where aspects I appreciated, the POC main character that’s in her mid thirties should be a win. But instead she acted and spoke like a twelve-year-old. Seriously, using words/phrases like owie and four million variations of suffering succotash in otherwise terse situations! It was beyond unbearable. The dialogue was atrocious, there was no character development (and I didn’t even like any of them) and it ended without wrapping up.

number 11Additionally, and this is twice in two days I’ve had to have this rant, this book is labeled #1, but it’s actually first in a spin-off of another series, which it is #11 in. I would NEVER have picked up an 11th book in a series I haven’t read the first ten of. This pisses me off completely. Because I have come to the conclusion that authors/publishers do it to draw in readers just like me. ‘Won’t pick up a number 11? How about a first if I hide the fact that it’s actually number 11?’ While this author did a descent job filling in missing information by making the heroine clueless and ask a lot of questions, I very much felt my lack of reading the previous books and didn’t much enjoy it.

Book Review of On the Accidental Wings of Dragons (The Dragons of Eternity #1), by Julie Wetzel

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On the Accidental Wings of Dragons I picked up a copy of On the Accidental Wings of Dragons, by Julie Wetzel, when it was free on Amazon. (It was still/again free at the time of posting.)

Description from Goodreads:
When Michael Duncan is sent to investigate the disappearance of several dragon subjects, he finds himself in a bind. Locked in a dungeon, his only hope lies wrapped in a bundle of cloth tossed at his feet. One kiss and his life is changed forever. Hunted by his own people for crimes he didn’t commit, Michael has to learn a whole new life at the hands of a beautiful woman. Can she help him clear his name, or will just being in her presence get him sentenced to death?

Carissa Markel doesn’t know who this man chained to the wall is, but he’s her only chance for escape. She has power, but, born without a voice, she lacks the means to wield it. One choice, made in desperation, sends them running for his life. Does she have the strength to help him clear his name? And what will her brother, the King of Dragons, do if he finds out what she’s done? That’s immaterial, the real question is… can she keep her hands off him long enough to find out?

Review:
I went into this pretty much just thinking, “DRAGONS!” I love dragons, but that wasn’t enough to carry it through. The book is fluffy and  I can’t say I hated it, but it is pretty flimsy in the plot, development, character and world departments. A lot of questions are left unanswered. Characters are introduced and then disappear when they’re not needed anymore. Most of the events are little more than a sketched out structure to hang the ‘romance’ on. The villain is a shadow, you never really even meet him. None of the side characters have any depth and the main ones have very, very little. It had a few cute bits, but that’s just not enough to make a book worth reading.

Blood of the Beast

Book Review of Blood of the Beast, by Tamela Quijas

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Blood of the BeastI grabbed a copy Blood of the Beast, by Tamela Quijas from the Amazon freebie list.

Description from Goodreads:
There is a scent that fills the night, far more delicate than the beat of the heart, more fragile than the whisper of breath escaping human lungs.

The echo that fills the darkness is the scent of blood pulsating through the mortal body.

Commonly overlooked by those among the living, it is a sound fervently sought by those residing on the fringes of the world existing between the living and the undead.

Blood is what the beast craves.

Detective Valentina Kureyev had been assigned to one of the worst murder cases of the century. A serial killer haunted the streets of her city, depositing bloodless corpses throughout the section of town known as Little Europe.

She hadn’t a clue to the identity of the culprit.

The case was hopeless.

The terror was real.

As real as Demetri Daskova.

The Professor of Russian Antiquities had been targeted with the murderer’s special form of a calling card. Val couldn’t turn away from his offer of aide in the bizarre case, even though he whispered tales of ‘those that walked on the dark side of the moon’ and the beast that hungrily fed on human blood.

He was the primary suspect.

Review:
Good lord that was just horrible. I almost didn’t even make it through the prologue. But it’s the end of the year and I’d set myself an alphabet soup challenge (read a book by an author for every letter of the alphabet) and I only have Q, X,Y & Z left and I DNFed my Y yesterday. So, I wasn’t going to do the same with my Q. So I was trapped with it.

Eventually I just started reading passages aloud to my husband, because sharing the shocking horridness and strange, STRANGE over-use of the word quiver/quivering was the only way I could keep going. (Seriously, the word is used a lot, often in questionable ways.) The whole book is painfully wordy. No one has gold eyes, they’re golden hued eyes, etc. It contradicts itself. It is painfully dependent on tropes. There is no palpable chemistry between the characters. The female MC is pathologically angry and extremely unlikable (but all the men lust after her). The male MC was a jerk in the beginning and we’re never shown that he changed. It’s just supposed to be assumed. In addition to too many words, there are also misused words, missing words and anachronistic language. The villain is a cliche scorned woman (who spent one purchased night with the man she goes bad over) and the whole thing was just jumpy and clunky. But hey, the author’s name is Quijas, so it’s all good.