Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

A Wicked Hunger

Book Review of Kiersten Fay’s A Wicked Hunger (Creatures of Darkness, #1)

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A Wicked Hunger

Author, Kiersten Fay sent me an ecopy of her PNR novel A Wicked Hunger.

Description from Goodreads:
A hundred years after vampires revealed themselves to the masses, the world is still recovering from the hysteria and war that devastated much of the Earth. And though peace has been brokered between the human and vampire nations, it is tumultuous at best.

Orphaned at the age of ten, Coraline Conwell has struggled to survive a turbulent existence growing up alone on the harsh streets. Until a wealthy man provides an escape from her vagrant life by offering his hand in marriage. Out of place in the upper-crust world, Cora has done her best to adapt to her new role as wife, but when her husband is brutally murdered, she is ripped from her secure life at the hands of the Vampire Enforcement Agency.

Now her survival teeters on the whim of a brutally handsome vampire named Mason as she is hunted by those who would see her dead. She must keep unwanted desires for the sexy vampire from leading her down a dangerous path while she discovers there is more to this world, and herself, than she could have ever imagined.

Review:
I generally really enjoyed this book and I’ll get to the reasons why in a moment. But before I do, I have to rant a moment and say I was leaning toward giving this book four stars right up until I reached the end and it didn’t end. Seriously! WTF? I understand that as part of a series some threads have to be left open in order to link the books together, but nothing concluded in this book. NOTHING. In fact, a brand new character was introduced on essentially the last page. THE LAST PAGE! You just can’t do that and expect readers not to get irate. You just can’t. **Deep breath**

What I did like was the writing. It’s smooth and easy to read. I noticed one or two misused words and/or typos, but very few. I also thought that Mason was to die for. I adore seeing a tough guy go all weak at the knees over a female. Cora was an interesting mix of frightened and strong willed. I liked her well enough. I even found Knox to be a curious character and he appealed to me. However, unless he ties in and becomes integral to the plot in later books, the drama around him read very much like a pointless distraction that diluted the storyline. The time would have been far better spent staying on track with the original plot-line (which was essentially dropped, BTW) and actually wrapping something up, IMO.

So my final word on the matter is that A Wicked Hunger was an interesting read that left me incredibly unsatisfied at the end. It’s well written with some engaging characters, but I just really need a conclusion of some sort if I’m going to walk away happy.

Night Angels

Book Review of Night Angels, by Jessie M.

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Night AngelsI grabbed Night Angels, by Jessie M. from the Amazon free list. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a stacked man.

Description from Goodreads:
Kyle, the twin without… 

Until a chance meeting in a wood sets of a chain of events that throw him out of his comfort zone. The easy rhythm of his titled life is lost forever as he discovers a new world and a very new him. An animal version. It shocks and arouses him in equal measure. 

And her… the one who did this to him… he is drawn inexplicably…

He will be tested and pushed to his limits and beyond…

Review:
This was alright, I guess. Nothing stood out and dazzled me, but I didn’t hate it either. It just didn’t feel like it knew what kind of book it wanted to be. Did it want to be a gritty, dark werewolf tale, a light-hearted HEA, baby on the way romance, a pseudo fairytale (complete with Prince Charming and kissed frog references…not to mention the Big Bad Wolf), or a piece of heady erotica? It appears to have tried to be all of the above and fell pretty flat as a result. It would have been much stronger, I think, if it had been a little more selective.

It starts out with a fairly pointless affair and some middling sex. I wouldn’t really mind if it tied into the plot in any way, but it didn’t. So I was left feeling like the actual story didn’t start until about 15% in, and the plot that the reader thought the book was going to be about was dropped almost completely. As was the whole “twin without” aspect, as set up in the blurb and first couple pages. It played almost no part in the book. It was all just a little jarring.

Then, once the reader crosses that divide they’re faced with a hero who was rightly angry about his predicament but able to forgive his assailant in mere moments. Wait, what? I was left behind it moved so fast. The insta-love kinda had the same effect on me. As did the mysteriously experienced virgin who was up for going all night with no discomfort and a shockingly expansive sexual repertoire for a first-timer. Guess she learns fast, right?

Thrown in amongst all of this was a disturbing number of cuddles, I love yous, gentle kisses, stroke the bellies, have your baby, etc. All of the happy domesticity just felt out of place amongst the bloody werewolf battles. Or maybe the bloody battles felt out of place with the domestic bliss. Can’t really be sure which way that should go.

The writing itself wasn’t bad, and I don’t remember many editorial foul ups. So, it’s a perfectly readable book. And the right reader just might love it. I thought it felt a bit disconjointed for my liking. I do have to commend it, however, on being classy enough to mostly avoid the whole sexually abused heroine trope even when provided the opportunity. I only mention this because it’s become so common in recent publications and it was nice to see a heroine not have to play that particular victim role. Again, not a bad book, just didn’t do it for me.

Ember’s Curse

Book Review of Gena D. Lutz’s Ember’s Curse (Prime Wolf, #1)

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Ember's CurseI grabbed Gena D. Lutz‘s Ember’s Curse (Prime Wolf, #1) from the Amazon KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
For Prime-Werewolf Ember Stilwell, life has been far from normal. Decades ago, a vengeful Witch cursed her Pack, leaving the women of her line incapable of feeling love. When an organized group of immortal killers begin to stalk and capture wolves from her pack, she sets out on a path fraught with danger. Just when it seems the world as she knows it will be changed forever, she meets Collin, an Alpha Werewolf with a body built for sin. As her heart begins to heal, she comes to find that the demons of her past are not nearly as dangerous as the nightmares she will be forced to face in her future. Can finding her true love conquer all? Or will the ability to feel for the first time be overshadowed by losing everything else she holds dear?

Review: ** Mild Spoilers**
This book had an interesting story behind it. Unfortunately, it seemed to start in the middle somewhere, with the main character, Ember, being mentally molested by a pervy vampire who never reappeared or played any role in the book. (WTF was that about? I’m still wondering.) It didn’t get any better after that. There was absolutely no world building, no character development, and no time between events to allow tension to build.

At one point a character was using a semi-automatic gun to shoot out the tires of a passing motorcycle and I thought to myself, “that’s what this book it like.” It’s literary automatic fire, with action as ammunition. There was no time between occurrences to rest or figure things out or get to know anyone. Further, there didn’t seem to be any real aim. Not to stretch the analogy too far, but like bullets shot in such quantity, there was no need for accuracy. The idea seeming to be if the author sprayed enough ammo at the reader something would hit eventually.

It would be one thing if I could have fobbed this off as erotica, where I wouldn’t expect much plot or character development. But there wasn’t even that much sex and what there was was pretty bland. So I can’t even give it that excuse. 

Now, there was quite a lot of humour in the book. Especially in the way the main group of characters ragged at each other. For example, the bitchy vampire regularly referred to her werewolf counterpart as “mongrel” and he quipped back by calling her “Vampire Barbie.” I liked that. Humour can go a long way toward redeeming a weak plot for me, but in this case, it wasn’t enough. Nor was the fact that the strongest character was a gothtastic female side character. She saved everyones butt on numerous occasions and pretty much rocked my world. I really liked her, but my complaints still continued to pile up the longer I read. I probably would have been better off to DNF this one. But I hate doing that. 

First (or second if you count the Indie-500 pace of the plotting), Insta-love doesn’t accurately depict the speed at which these two main characters fell into ‘true love.’ Seriously, they hadn’t even seen each other’s faces. They shook hands and fell to it. Seriously, 15 seconds, tops! They then instantly exchanged a lifetime of memories. While this neatly negated the pesky need to spend time letting the characters get to know one another, it also denied the reader this same opportunity. I rather like knowing the characters I’m dedicating my time to.

Further, you end up with passages like this, “You’ve been in my head. You know how important my mother is to me.” Really? Maybe he’s been in her head, but I haven’t. It was the first time her mother had been mentioned. I had no idea how she felt about her. So, all that importance she claimed, held absolutely no emotional resonance for me, except maybe a vague resentment for the presumption that I knew something I’d not been entitled to. I simply couldn’t care less as a result.

Next, time didn’t seem to mean anything. People were said to have been off doing things that took numerous hours when they only had one or two available to them. Collin had time to go buy an engagement ring to surprise Ember with, when they had spent the last several days held hostage and or fighting their way to freedom. When did this stuff happen? I’m all for a little suspension of reality for the enjoyment of fantasy, but I still need the bounds of logic to apply. 

Lastly, someone tell me why EVERY single PNR baddie seems to have to be a sexual sadist too. When he started taunting Ember with rape and using Donna, I just groaned. Really, was there no other way to show how bad he was? It’s not that I have any general problem with the use of sexual subjugation in a story, but I feel like I’ve read this same scene in hundreds of books this year and made this same comment over and over again. Do women really enjoy this? I sure don’t. I didn’t used to notice it, but it’s becoming so common it’s now hard to ignore.

The writing itself seemed to be ok and, like I said, it’s an interesting idea. Plus, a large chunk of the middle was dedicated to setting up what will obviously be a sequel (since the arranged event will be three months from this book’s happenings and it wasn’t concluded here) so there is room to grow. And there weren’t too many editorial mistakes. So, if the book had been given another 100 pages or so, spaced out among the action, to bulk up the world and character building it could have been pretty good. As it stands I won’t be looking for book two.