Tag Archives: paranormal

Book Review: Threads of Fate, by Lexi Esme

I picked up a copy of Lexi Esme‘s Threads of Fate as an Amazon freebie.

A woman hunted. A monster broken. A desire that may just consume them both.

RHIANNE

With my car dead, and no way home, an inconvenient night quickly takes a turn for the worse.

I’m pursued deep into the woods, my heart pounding with unbridled fear, and I’m certain this is it. I’m going to die out here, in the cold and dark. Just when I think all hope is lost I’m saved by the most unexpected rescuer.

My savior is a monster.

I don’t know whether I should be terrified or enchanted. Hidden in the shadows, his bright red eyes lure me, drawing me in until I can no longer resist him.

SEPHTIS

Until that fateful night, I’d fought my desires for so long. I would have stayed away from her if that were possible, but I needed her…

Dark and smooth, captivating and delectable, she is gorgeous, a feast for my senses. My desire for her burns in every fiber of my being, my lust undeniable. She is my every fantasy made real, temptation embodied… The very thought of being her lover is devastating torture.

I’m a monster. She is a human.
I’m dangerous. She is untainted.
But I want her.
My feelings for her are consuming me.

I should stay away from her but the temptation is too great, the need too deep. Rhianne has captured my heart, and now the threads of our fates are tied, she is bound to me as I am to her.

Despite the gorgeous cover, I’m afraid this just wasn’t very good. I think that the author had an interesting idea, but it was not well executed. While I liked the characters, they were not well-developed. It’s more tell than show. The plotting is inconsistent and herky-jerky; scenes and plot progressions do not flow well from one to the next, etc. It’s plenty spicy, especially if you are into light bondage kind of scenes, and I liked the ending. But, all in all, this was a flop for me.

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Threads of Fate by Lexi Esme

Book Review: Magical Bureau of Investigation series, by Albany Walker

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I picked up a copy of Albany Walker’s Homecoming Homicide as an Amazon freebie and then bought Creeping it Real and Perfectly Wicked.

“Hey Frankie, we need ya.”

One phone call, five words, and I’m back in the town I swore I’d never return to.

Hill Crest Library smelled bad, and it wasn’t just the corpse in front of me causing it. The once beautiful building had fallen into disrepair over the past few years.

Belinda the new librarian was doing her best to clean it up, but a dead body wasn’t helping matters.

Dad needs help to solve the murder, so that’s what I’m here to do, then get out of town before anyone even knows I’m back

The case should be easy for an MBI agent, even a newly minted one like me, but before I can check into the hotel my three reasons for leaving, corner in the lobby.

My life just got a lot more complicated.

This review covers all three books.

Honestly, I liked this series. But I wanted to like it a lot more than I did; I could have liked it a lot more than I did. It is mostly a series of magical investigation bureau mysteries (almost bordering on cozy mysteries) with a poly second-chance romance subplot. I liked the mysteries. I liked the romantic subplot. I really liked the way the men had an important relationship between themselves. The problem is that the subplot is too much plot for a subplot, and as a subplot, doesn’t get the attention it needs. This means that the reader is left feeling unsatisfied by it. There were a lot of conversations that needed to happen that just didn’t, a lot of groveling and forgiveness that needed to be on-page and just wasn’t, etc. It left the books feeling lopsided and ill-weighted.

The reason I didn’t rate it higher than I did, though, is for a single big reason (and this is a spoiler, be warned). The basic premise is that Frankie and her guys had an “oops” misunderstanding while casting a spell as teens and then, despite being inseparable since they were children (and one being a freaking empath, another reading magical intent), and as a result, she ran away. But she only went 45 minutes away, they knew where she was (secretly checked on her once a month), and she knew where they were (in her hometown with everything and everyone she loved). And I’m supposed to believe, as a reader, that, despite missing one another, they all went somewhere between 5 and 10 years (the exact time is not stated, but long enough to start and finish university, go through bureau training, and get ensconced in careers) none of them ever even tried to make contact. She never had reason to visit home? None of that is even remotely believable, especially with the way the men structure their lives around the assumption that she’d be back at some point. That’s the foundation of the book, and it is shaky at best. I tried to suspend disbelief, but it was a struggle. It’s simply that unbelievable and undermined the entire plot.

Despite all of that, I liked the characters and world a lot. I’d be willing to read more of Walker’s work.

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Book Review: Chosen by Villains, by Eva Chase

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I believe I purchased my copy of Eva Chase‘s Chosen by Villains during a signed book author event.

Three brutal monsters came to my rescue. Now who’s going to save me from them?

Every beat of my heart is the tick of a time bomb, reminding me to squeeze as many thrills out of life as I can. Still, the last thing I expect is a horde of nightmarish monsters descending on me in the night, eager to tear me apart.

So when three more demonic figures leap out of the shadows to defend me, my choices are trust my unexpected champions… or die. Not exactly a tough decision.

The beastly men wrench me away from my home, claiming they’ll keep me safe. They say there’s something special about me—something the others want to devour and they mean to protect.

My monstrous saviors are just as brutal as the creatures they fought off, damaged in ways I’ll never understand. I can tell they’re hiding things from me. But the more we dig into the mysteries surrounding my existence, the more I catch glimpses of tenderness beneath their vicious exteriors.

And the touch of their fangs and tentacles makes me feel so shockingly alive, it’s hard to remember why I ever feared them…

Until I discover the real reason they’re protecting me.

Meh. This was a pretty bland read for me. To start with, I didn’t know beforehand that it is set in the same world as the Flirting With Monsters series. Maybe it’s a spinoff (the characters from that series make an appearance). I don’t know the specifics. I do know that there is so little worldbuilding in this book that if I hadn’t read the Flirting With Monsters series in the past, I would have been lost.

I do not feel that I got to know the characters. (Not that I really needed to. The men are clones of the men from Flirting With Monsters.) I did not feel any chemistry between the lovers. I don’t honestly think there was enough time for any to develop. The plot is simple and predictable. Mostly, it all simply coasted along at just good enough. Never did the book get good and grab my attention. But never did it ever get quite so bad that I decided to DNF. I was mostly just kind of bored with it. Meh, bland.

The writing and editing are fine. The cover is pretty (though I don’t think it matches the tone of the book at all), and I did appreciate all of the disability rep. Honestly, this is probably a case of just not the book for me. I’ve liked other Chase books a lot more.