Tag Archives: paranormal

A Wicked Hunger

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

Leave a reply

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.

Leave a reply

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.

Book Review of The Complete Rylie Cruz Series, by Rose Pressey

1 Reply

The Complete Rylie Cruz Series

I grabbed Rose Pressey‘s first Rylie Cruz novel, How to Date a Werewolf, off the free KDP list. When I saw the compilation on sale for $0.99, I went ahead and bought it so I could finish out the series.
__________________

Description from Goodreads:

How to Date a Werewolf
Romance can be a hairy business–especially when you’re a werewolf.

As the owner of Get a Mate Dating Service, Rylie is more than happy to step in and lend a hand to lonely lycanthropic hearts all over town. No matter how hopeless Rylie might be in finding her own soul mate, she has a knack for helping others find theirs.

Convinced that she is stuck with a family curse, Rylie is positive she will never find her true love. But when drool-worthy Jack Chandler shows up at her door, Rylie wonders if maybe the curse is finally broken.

But Rylie’s life is about to become complicated courtesy of the after-dark crowd. When she begins receiving strange notes and harassment from a jilted client, events careen out of control.

Jack knows she’s more hassle than he can handle. What he doesn’t know is whether she’s seriously in trouble . . . or simply delusional.

How to Date a Vampire
Dating a vampire doesn’t have to suck.

Rylie Cruz is the owner of Get a Mate dating service. Her specialty is matching up paranormal folks. Thinking that a curse placed on her is finally broken, Rylie hopes that her love life is headed in the right direction.

Not so fast.

Rylie has finally convinced her hunky psychiatrist boyfriend, Jack Chandler, that
she isn’t crazy and is actually a werewolf. But after a little scuffle with temperamental vampires, Rylie must now convince Jack that he may be a part of the paranormal club.

How to Date a Demon
A Match Made in Hell

Rylie Cruz loves playing matchmaker. She even does it full-time at her matchmaking service, Get a Mate. Since she’s a werewolf, she feels that gives her expertise when dealing with the paranormal crowd.

When Rylie’s best friend, Jennifer Matthews, asks her to set her up on a date, Rylie is hesitant. Jennifer hasn’t had luck in the dating department lately.

But when a good-lucking man shows up looking for a date, Rylie thinks Jennifer might be his perfect match. The date turns to hell though when Jennifer displays outrageous mood swings and a new shocking fashion sense.

When Jennifer disappears, Rylie fears the worst. Things get even stranger when a mysterious demon hunter shows up looking for Jennifer. He claims he wants to help Rylie find her friend. Rylie’s boyfriend, Jack Chandler, is trying to save Rylie from the demon hunter, but she isn’t sure she needs to be saved.

Rylie has to find her friend before it’s too late and Jennifer’s swooped off for a staycation in forever damnation.

Reviews:

How to Date a WerewolfHow to Date a Werewolf
A cute, clean read that’s basically based on one woman’s attempt to find love amidst a series of embarrassing mishaps. I mostly enjoyed it, but I felt cheated by the way none of the things that made Rylie (and by extension me) mad were resolved. She literally went from ‘I’m sprouting fur I’m so angry’ to ‘it’s ok I don’t mind’ in 2.5 seconds flat, again and again. I mean her best friend seriously stabbed her in the back, repeatedly, and she instantly forgave her without so much as an apology for any of it. Now, maybe that makes Rylie saint-like, but it left me feeling like I’d missed a few pages and some important emotional closure.

I also thought that the werewolves’ forms weren’t very consistent. There were more than a few moments when I wondered about the physiology presented. Examples included werewolves in full wolf form able to pull a gun on someone, throw a bottle or carry a plate. Even if he was smarter than most dogs, I’m fairly sure my pooch’s lack of finger dexterity…or fingers would prohibit him from being able to do these things. So how could a wolf? All in all however, a fun little fluffy distraction.

How to Date a VampireHow to Date a Vampire
Another cute, clean read in the Rylie Cruz series. Like the first book, How to Date a Werewolf, this one is almost completely made up of half-truths, misinterpretations, and withheld information. I actually get incredibly frustrated with this type of plot device. I tire of it easily and this one started to feel really quite slap stick after a while. Why can no one just say “come with me, please, because…” Nope, it all has to be veiled threats and attempted intimidations which, of course, Rylie resists. Who wouldn’t? Similarly, Rylie is constantly being stalked or followed and never once does she just stop, turn around, and say, “What the hell do you want?” Of course, if such straightforward tactics were used the story would be 15 pages long, so maybe I do understand it after all.

Though I mostly enjoyed the story, I did feel that it ended abruptly. It wasn’t a cliff-hanger, but there were quite a few open threads and the ending felt clipped. I actually flipped back and forwards to ensure I hadn’t missed a couple pages. Lastly, I notice quite a few more editing mistakes in this one than the first. It was still perfectly readable, but they were noticeable. Despite that, it was a fun little bit of light entertainment.

How to Date a DemonHow to Date a Demon
Like the first two Rylie Cruz books, I’ll give this one three stars. But honestly it’s barely hanging in there with a low three, maybe even a high two. It might be because I read the compilation and therefore all three books back to back, but this one began to feel VERY formulaic. So much so that I’d swear Ms. Pressey cut and pasted passages from one book to another! Despite that, I still found disruptive inconsistencies in the story. For example, Jack is referred to as a half-vampire at the beginning of this book, but at the end of book two Quentin turned him from a half-vamp to a full-vamp to save his life. A big deal was kinda made of it. Then at the end of this book he’s referred to as a vampire. So, um, which is it? Or the way, in this book, Rylie’s curse is said to affect the “first daughter born to each man in the Cruz family,” but in the previous books it was the “youngest daughter.” So again, which is it? This kind of thing yanks me right out of a story. As do the typos.

As for the story itself, it was ok. I’m not calling it horrible or anything. But I was just so tired of it all. It began to remind me of the opening credits of a Benny Hill episode, Rylie randomly running from one place to another, usually with someone following her. (Just like in the first two books.) Meh. Then I reached the end and a cheesy cackling baddie who claimed, “You walked right into my trap.” Really? If that’s the case she should have realistically done that on about page 8 and saved me 240 pages of aimlessness. Plus, he/she was defeated really, REALLY easily. Meh.

This is a cute clean series, with a little romance in the first two (not so much in this one). But this one fell down for me. Again, meh. It’s the best I can say for it.