Tag Archives: paranormal women’s fiction

Book Review: The Dragon’s Midlife Mate, by Haley Weir

I picked up a copy of Haley Weir‘s The Dragon’s Midlife Mate on one of it’s Amazon free days.

Welcome to Cress, a mystical small town with magic, mystery, and golden-eyed men…

Ariah

Who says you can’t restart your life in your 40s?

I’m trapped in a loveless marriage. When my husband discovered that I’m a dragon shifter, he twisted my secret to keep me bound to him. He treats me like a circus animal. His prized possession.

It’s time for me to dust off my wings and fly.

I packed my bag and ran. I didn’t know where I was going, just that I had to get out of there. I left the big city and stumbled into a small town lost in time.

The last thing I expected was to run into one of my own kind. Zachary is a sexy-as-sin bartender with shimmering golden eyes.

But can I trust him the way my heart desperately wants to?

Zachary

I came to Cress as an orphan. The people of this small town took me in. They accepted me for what I am–a dragon shifter. They protected me.

And now I protect them.

I never thought I’d want anything more…until she shows up on my doorstep. She’s scared and tired, but far from helpless. When her gaze meets mine, it hits me.

I’m staring into the eyes of my mate. And I’d do anything to keep her safe.

This simply wasn’t very good. It’s not sloppy bad, it’s just all tell (no show), which creates a distance between the reader and the characters, and it has a really simple, shallow plot. Everything happens in a linear manner. This happens, which leads to this, which leads to that, and then this happens and then that happens. There are no red herrings, no mysteries, no need for characters to consider or figure anything out. Everything is presented on the surface and proceeds in an orderly (and there fore boring manner). There are also loads of inconsistencies, especially around time and distance. And the plot just makes no sense. Why Marko was allowed to do ANY of what he did when they had the power to prevent it? It felt artificial. No way I believe Zachary let that happen one chapter after we were shown him go all alpha male on Cornelius.

I’ll be honest, I read the first half and skimmed a lot of the second half. And I’m not often a skimmer. I consider it cheating myself out of a book. But I just wanted to be done with this without having to give it much more of my time.

Book Review: Hex After Forty, by M.J. Caan

Leave a reply

I picked up a copy of M.J. Caan‘s Hex After Forty on Amazon…Well, technically my husband did. Whenever he gets digital credits he lets the add up and then gives them to me to buy ebooks with, since we share libraries.

Torie Bliss thought that being over forty and having your husband dump you over your favorite meal would be rock bottom. Then she learned that the perfect life he had created for them was built on a foundation of lies.

A very public fall from grace leaves her penniless and homeless. Thinking she had nothing else to lose, she decides to move in with her estranged mother in a picturesque town in the mountains of North Carolina. Only to discover that her mother is quite the witch. Literally.

And so is Torie. They are from a line of witches who develop their magic after the age of forty. As if hot flashes and night sweats weren’t enough, she now has to contend with wild magic that she has no idea how to control.

But she must learn to tap into her strange new powers to help her new friends solve a terrifying mystery.

Someone is killing off shifters in the sleepy town of Singing Falls, and if Torie can’t get her act together, she just may be next on the supernatural serial killer’s list.

Can Torie let go of her past in order to embrace her new future?

I wouldn’t call this all out bad, just shallow and scattered. I liked Torie and all the friends she made in her new town. But I could barely tell all the ladies apart. Plus, the plot and mystery doesn’t really develop so much as just kind of stutter along until the villain decides to reveal themselves.

The writing is perfectly readable, though the editing has a few (though not an overwhelming number) hiccups. I raised a particular eyebrow at this one, “They knew her mother in this life, new her in a way that Torie did not.” <.<

But I do have to make a half-joking objection to calling a book Hex After Forty, which is obviously a play on Sex After Forty, which Torie even says at one point, and then not having any sex in the book, barely even the beginning of a maybe future romance. That’s just mean.

All in all, I wouldn’t warn anyone off the book but I’m not in any hurry to continue the series either.