Tag Archives: paranormal

The Rogue Hunter

Book Review of The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands

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The Rogue HunterI picked up a used copy of The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands, at Goodwill.

Description from Goodreads:
Samantha Willan is a workaholic lawyer. She’s grateful for some rest and relaxation in cottage country, and after a recent breakup she wants to stay as far away from romance as possible. Then she meets her irresistible new neighbor. There’s something strange and mysterious about his eyes. Is it just her imagination, or are they locked on her neck?

Garrett Mortimer is a rogue hunter. His last assignment united Lucian Argeneau with his lifemate, and Mortimer is hoping this one will be less…adventurous. He’s here to track down a reported rogue, but fun in the sun is every bloodsucker’s nightmare. Worse, he can’t seem to get his mind off Samantha, especially when he spies her skinny-dipping in the lake. After eight hundred years as a bachelor, is he ready to turn a volatile attraction into a lasting love affair?

Review:
What nonsense did I just read? I mean really, what was this supposed to be? What it was was boring and basically a failure as both a PNR and a decent mystery.

Let me start with the fact that all of the characters are paper thin—no significant history, no real emotional depth, no obvious beliefs or thoughts outside of the immediate. In fact, for most of the book the side characters just went off by themselves and left the H & h alone. So, why bother with them?

There was also almost no world-building. What little there was, explaining vampires, came at about page 300! This is probably because the book is labeled as “The Rogue Hunter (Argeneau #10) (Rogue Hunter #1).” Someone tell me what that is supposed to mean. Is it the tenth Argeneau book or the first Rogue Hunter book? Because after reading it, I’m 100% certain it can’t be both.  While I could follow the plot, it was always painfully apparent I was missing something. The world-building, as stated, wasn’t there. Probably because it was in the 9 previous books. People were referenced that the reader didn’t know,  I strongly suspect Mort was a side character form another book, etc. So, as a 10th Argeneau book, it might have been successful (I don’t know as I read it as the first Rogue Hunter book), but as a first in a series, it’s a failure.

Now let me address the mystery around the rogue that Mortimer is supposed to be hunting. This investigation literally takes up about 20 pages of this 373-page book and then it’s solved with anti-climatic aplomb. Let’s be honest, Sands didn’t set out to write about a rogue vampire and the hunters who go after it. It is just the device used to get the two characters in the same place at the same time. Disappointing to the extreme. I’d have preferred the man to have just been on vacation and Sands not to even bothered with the half-assed attempt she made at pretending this book is anything other than a romance (which is pretty sad because the romance is pretty weak too).

The romance? CHEESY! There is the cliché immediate recognition of one’s life mate (that somehow turns the tough, broody Mort into a bumbling social throwback), the fragile female in need of assistance with, you know, walking, stupid antics to get around telling the truth, the convenient ability to change people’s mind if they ask inconvenient questions (thereby negating any possible narrative tension), and true immortal love and loyalty developing in a mere two weeks. What’s more, the whole book is essentially a tease. Over and over Sam and Mort almost have sex, but don’t quite manage it. Redundant…and PREDICTABLE!

This book is little more than a collection of weak PNR tropes, and none of them were executed particularly well. But worse than any of that, is the fact that I was bored for 373 pages. This sort of book is the epitome of why I refused to read romance for 30 years of my life. I’m in no hurry to read another Lynsay Sands book. How the heck does dreck like this get published over some of the great indies I’ve read?

Spell Struck

Book Review of Spell Struck (The Witchblood Dossiers, #1), by Nicole J. Fawcett

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Spell StruckIn December of 2012, I downloaded Nicole J. Fawcett‘s Spell Struck from the Amazon free list. I read it as part of me TBR reading challenge (reading books I’ve own 2+ years).

Description from Goodreads:
Rhiannon Grey is a detective in a hectic police headquarters. She’s also a witch, in a society that’s learned not to think too highly of the supernatural, and her boss is a two thousand-year-old vampire. Rian has discovered the hard way that trouble is always just around the corner.

This time, trouble is called Griffin King, a fifteen year old runaway whose strangled corpse is found floating in the river. He’s not the first street-kid to vanish recently, or to turn up later, very dead. When Rian starts to suspect he was a witch, too, and that his magic led to his death, her investigation turns into a personal crusade. 

No one seems terribly concerned about the fate of a few disappeared urchins, though. And when a series of brutal murders starts panicked speculation about a nest of vampires, Rian’s boss has other things on his mind.

But Rian won’t be distracted. Not by bureaucracy, not by murder, and certainly not by her dysfunctional private life. Her family think she’s going to end up dead; her friends think she’s going to end up dead lonely; and her lovers are dead frustrated . . .

Reading:
This is a perfectly passable, but basically uninspiring PNR. Rian wavered between being strong and smart and being the child-like joker of the detective team (certainly never quite as slick, together and leader-like as any of the men who were ostensibly her equals).

She went back and forward between kicking butt in a fight and tripping over her own feet, especially when scantily dressed such that the UST was artificially amped up. (Because she forgot to put a robe over her panties and crop top pyjamas while self-consciously sharing a hotel suite with a man she’s attracted to. Sure, that kind of thing happens all the time, right?)

She also oddly needed a two thousand-year-old vampire to teach her how to use magic, despite coming from and being raised in a long-standing, powerful family of witches with Fae connections, had a tendency to run off and do TSL stuff when she was unhappy, suffered a minor mental break-down out of nowhere and instigated what will obviously be a love-triangle in future books. So, there were definitely parts of this book I distinctly disliked but for the most part, I enjoyed it. I was especially fond of Cato, Safi and Marco.

The writing and editing was fine. Though there was a habit of putting a space between the beginning quotation mark and the first word of a quote (like this, ” bla, bla, bla”). I’ve seen people do that before, so maybe it’s a standard somewhere but it drove me crazy. Otherwise, I have no real complaints about the writing/editing. (Oh, except that the title makes no sense when, not once in the whole book, did ANYONE sling, craft, chant, speak or even get struck by a spell. In fact, we’re kind of told magic doesn’t work like that. Maybe I missed something.)

I enjoyed the book enough to pick up a sequel if I saw it on sale, but not enough to buy it at full price. (That’s a legitimate way to rank a book right?)

Tortured Skin

Book Review of Tortured Skin (Paul Isaac – Vampire #1), by James C. Gillen

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Tortured SkinIn January of 2013 I downloaded a copy of Tortured Skin, by James C. Gillen, from the Amazon free list. I read it now as part of a TBR reading challenge in which I’m making an effort to read books I’ve owed more than two years.

Description from Goodreads:
When Paul Isaac, vampire executioner, is confronted by the master vampire of the city and poisoned with a virus that will not only kill him, but cause him to rise as one of the undead, he must decide whether to do the bidding of the powerful vampire to save his own life, or stop the sadistic killer that threatens to leave the city with more unfortunate victims. Packed with crucifixes, stakes, and a Magnum filled with ultra-violet bullets, Paul uncovers a sinister club that caters to the dark side of pleasure and pain that might not only be the key to his survival, but also push him closer to the killer’s identity. In order to stay alive, he must learn to face his inner darkness and trust in things that just might be less monstrous than himself.

Review:
While reading this book I went back and forwards about whether I was enjoying it or not. The writing was fine, as was the editing. My problem was that I chose it because another reviewer said, “Interesting series – fans of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series and Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series will find similar elements and should like this one.”

But over and over I thought, “What the hell, this is nothing like Laurell K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison. They both write Urban Fantasy that borders on and sometimes overlaps with PNR. This is Urban Fantasy that borders on and sometimes overlaps with Horror. Not the same AT ALL!”

But then it hit me. Tortured Skin is LKH and KH-like fiction for men! What it lacks in any romantic subplot it makes up for in violent bravado. I think a third of the book is just Paul making threats at people or people threatening him and AT LEAST half the book is him enacting those threats or surviving other’s violence toward his person.

Did I like it? Not particularly, but then I’m not a man. I went in expecting a male version of Anita Blake or Rachel Morgan and got a vampire hunting Dirty Harry instead.

The thing is that a lot of the trash talk, violence and cold-heartedness that I appreciate in female characters, as a twisting of gender norms, just comes across as asshole-like on a man. Paul is not a likeable guy. He doesn’t even pretend to try to be and I disliked him as a result.

I also discovered a whole new pet peeve in reading this book, books that don’t give you a description of a character and then drop things in willy-nilly. This book never gave a single, solid description of Paul (though I know what every outfit and woman’s figure looks like) but at ~10% tattoos were mentions. At ~20% a goatee was mentioned. Then, at ~45% his bald head was mentioned, by which point it was far too late to try and alter the image I had created in my head for the character and I found myself jerked out of the story.

The same could be said for the world building. It’s pretty sketchy. Religious icons worked against vampires, but they didn’t have to ask permission to enter homes. I never came to terms with which myths were being used and which discarded. For example, after the werewolves and vampires being enemies for the whole book, the author introduced a vampire’s ability to call on and control werewolves at the 90% mark. What?

Lastly, I never quite understood the point of the coverup that led to the events of the book. Vampires killed people left and right, so why the individual deaths in question were so important was a mystery to me. It left me skeptical of everything.

All in all, while this wasn’t a winner for me, I think guys (who are more prone to appreciate an overly macho, emotionless hero) will probably quite enjoy the book.