Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

Review of Covet, by J.R. Ward

Leave a reply

Covet

I picked up J.R. Ward‘s Covet (Fallen Angels, #1) from my local library. If I’m honest I more than picked it up, I was on a waiting list for it. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to this one. 

Description from Goodreads:

Seven deadly sins. Seven souls to save. This is the first battle between a savior who doesn’t believe and a demon with nothing to lose!

Redemption isn’t a word Jim Heron knows much about-his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. 

Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he’s good with that-until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. And then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart-and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.

Review:

Oh, I just can’t tell you how disappointed I am right now. I was so very, very excited about reading this. I adore the Black Dagger Brotherhood books (most of them anyway), and Lassiter really piqued my interest, so a whole series based on the Fallen Angels…how could it go wrong? Well, I found out, didn’t I? It could go wrong in any number of ways, and Mrs. Ward seems to have found most of them. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still love her rather unique writing style–all full of la-di-das and unique grammar structures that sound so very right for the characters. But the story…the story was a serious letdown. Let’s start with the fact that Lassiter, the fallen angel who shows up in the latter BDB books to introduce this spin-off series, isn’t even in the book. That’s right, the very character who introduced readers to fallen angels was left out completely. How is that possible?

Next, the use of the noble whore falling in love with the flawed but redeemable billionaire businessman (and visa-versa) is about as cliché and trite as they come. Overused doesn’t even begin to cover it. Plus, I got really tired of all of the prostitute bashing disguised as Marie-Terese’s pangs of conscious. Yes, I concede that it is generally a mirror of society’s unfortunate opinion on the matter, but it was harangued on endlessly. 

Then there is the insta-love. Now, Ward is known for insta-love scenarios, so this isn’t really all that surprising. But here, it felt more extreme than normal since both characters had to break character to actually fall instantly in love. Marie-Terese had to abandon years of careful caution and Vin had to develop a heart he previously lacked suddenly. Even if I was willing to accept this cosmic shift in both of their mentalities I then had also to accept their sudden effusive natures. The ‘I love you,’ ‘I trust you,’ and ‘thank you for believing in me’ were flying off the shelf left and right, despite the fact that these people had known each other for collective hours. I couldn’t see for all the sappy hearts and flowers they were giving off. Gag.

I was also left wondering if Vin and Marie-Terese’s drama or Jim’s situation was the primary plot of the book. I honestly couldn’t tell. There is a serious problem when I finish a book and can’t tell who the main character was. Now, I liked Jim a lot. I liked his anti-hero personality and rather grey goodness. I liked his wingmen, Eddie and Adrian. I liked their mission, etc. But they felt incidental to Vin and Marie-Terese falling instantly in love, and I don’t think that was supposed to be the case. 

Lastly, I’m totally lost on the pantheon of these books. Since Black Dagger Brothers showed up in the background on occasion (Butch’s Red Sox hat in the last pew of the church service, running into Phury outside his NA meeting, her working for Trez, etc) I’m assuming this is the same general universe. So, how exactly do the BDB’s goddess and the Angel’s God fit together? I’m stumped. 

Since I generally love Mrs. Ward’s actual writing, I’d be willing to give the second book in this series a try to see if, given a different plot, I might like it better. But this particular book left me cold. Left me less than cold, it left me feeling like I had wasted time on. And all of it was only exacerbated by the fact that I had such high hopes going in. I really expected to love it. Such a letdown.

Book Review: Moonlight, by Tim O’Rourke

Leave a reply

I picked up a copy of Tim O’Rourke’s Moonlight as an Amazon freebie.
moonlight cover

When eighteen-year-old Winter McCall is offered a chance to leave her life of poverty behind on the streets of London, she moves to a remote part of the South West of England. Here she takes up the job as housekeeper to the young and handsome, yet mysterious, Thaddeus Blake.

Warned that he has some curious habits, Winter soon realises that not all is as it firsts appears at the remote mansion where she now lives and works.

Blind to the real danger that she is in, Winter finds herself becoming attracted to Thaddeus, and with nowhere and no one to run to, she slowly succumbs to his strange requests. But none of them are as strange as asking Winter to stand each night in the moonlight.

My Review:

I passed a pleasant evening with Moonlight, but anyone who has ever read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure Of The Copper Beeches will find this plot immanently familiar and predictable (just with a paranormal twist). As I have read Doyle’s works it took a little of the fun out of it for me. I pretty much knew where the book was going from very early on. Despite that, I enjoyed O’Rourke’s writing style and Thaddeus’ personality (even if Winter didn’t do too much for me) and Michelle, Claude, and Nate are fearsome foes. For a quick read, Moonlight is well worth picking up.

Craved

Book Review of Stephanie Nelson’s Craved (Gwen Sparks #1)

Leave a reply

CravedI downloaded a copy of Craved, by Stephanie Nelson, from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Gwen Sparks just wants to live a peaceful life in the supernatural town of Flora, but from the moment she read about the first murdered witch, all hope of peace was abandoned. Possessing the rare ability to read the memories of dead, she volunteers to help catch the culprit behind the string of drained witches. Gwen has to team up with the one man who broke her heart, deal with a ghost who pulls her into the deathly realm at will, and a fight off the advances of sexy but frustrating vampire who not only craves what runs through her veins—he wants her heart.

Review:
I think the most I can say for this one is ‘Meh.’ I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t really all that impressed either. I was expecting to like it too, since it has so many great reviews. But I found myself irritated and confused more often than not.

To begin with, Gwen got on my nerves from the very first page. Her whole ‘he broke my heart’ spiel was like a broken record. Then when it came out that this relationship that ended, broke her heart and left her so bereft she was unable/unwilling to open herself and love again had only lasted 8 months, I just pretty much said a mental ‘pishaw.’ Overreaction anyone?

Then there was the fact that Nelson set up magical rules, but didn’t seem to follow them. Why don’t Gwen and Aiden have a blood bond if Gwen’s same interactions with Ian resulted in one? How did removing Gwen’s magic from Aiden break his addiction if he was addicted before he encountered her magic to begin with? If Gwen had certain magical abilities, how come she occasionally managed to do things she shouldn’t have been able to do? I realise some of this was the development of a new talent, but why was it suddenly popping up?

Then there was the whole premise of witches’ blood being addictive. I have a really, really hard time figuring out how this small fact has remained unknown for all eternity. Seems to me that at some point some vampire would have gotten his/her hand on a witch and gone ‘oh yeah, that’s some good stuff right there.’ So the whole plot of this ‘new drug’ seemed implausible at best.

Then there were the pitiful sex scenes. They were all really, really rushed–some no more than two or three paragraphs and there was very little detail…or for-play. Which was apparently OK because Gwen can, enviably, orgasm at the drop of a hat. (Not to mention the characters odd tendency to hop to it while in otherwise dangerous situations.)

I noticed a few editorial errors and the book was in first person, which I generally dislike. But I admit that the writing was pretty good. And though Aiden often appeared weak, I did really like how much he loved Gwen. Many of the issues I’ve highlighted as annoyances for me might not irk other readers. So, this might just be a case of the right reader for the book.