Tag Archives: paranormal

dragon fall

Book Review of Dragon Fall, by Katie MacAlister

Dragon FallI borrowed a copy of Katie MacAlister‘s Dragon Fall from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
YOU FLIRT WITH FIRE…

For Aoife Dakar, seeing is believing—and she’s seen some extraordinary things. It’s too bad no one else believes that she witnessed a supernatural murder at an outdoor fair. Returning to the scene for proof, Aoife encounters a wise-cracking demon dog—and a gloriously naked man who can shift into a dragon and kiss like a god. Now thrust into a fantastical world that’s both exhilarating and terrifying, Aoife is about to learn just how hot a dragon’s fire burns.

WHEN YOU DATE A DRAGON

Kostya has no time for a human woman with endless questions, no matter how gorgeous or tempting she is. He must break the curse that has splintered the dragon clans before more of his kind die. But his powerful attraction to Aoife runs much deeper than the physical—and there may be more to her than even his sharp dragon eyes can see. To survive the coming battle for the fate of his race, he needs a mate of true heart and soul . . 

Review:
Well, that was seriously disappointing; I mean basically complete tripe. There where aspects I appreciated, the POC main character that’s in her mid thirties should be a win. But instead she acted and spoke like a twelve-year-old. Seriously, using words/phrases like owie and four million variations of suffering succotash in otherwise terse situations! It was beyond unbearable. The dialogue was atrocious, there was no character development (and I didn’t even like any of them) and it ended without wrapping up.

number 11Additionally, and this is twice in two days I’ve had to have this rant, this book is labeled #1, but it’s actually first in a spin-off of another series, which it is #11 in. I would NEVER have picked up an 11th book in a series I haven’t read the first ten of. This pisses me off completely. Because I have come to the conclusion that authors/publishers do it to draw in readers just like me. ‘Won’t pick up a number 11? How about a first if I hide the fact that it’s actually number 11?’ While this author did a descent job filling in missing information by making the heroine clueless and ask a lot of questions, I very much felt my lack of reading the previous books and didn’t much enjoy it.

Husk

Book Review of Husk (Plague Demon Chronicles #1), by D. P. Prior

Husk

I picked up a copy of D. P. Prior‘s Husk: Hunt or be Hunted when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
They call them ‘husks’, the demons that cross the Farfall Mountains, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. 
No incursion goes unmet; otherwise the cancer would spread until the whole of Aethir was consumed by nightmares. 

That’s why the Maresmen were formed—trackers and warriors charged with holding back the tide. Each of them is different, uniquely suited to the task in hand, but one thing they hold in common: they are half-breeds, part human, part husk; and they are bound by an inviolable rule: 

Hunt the husks, or be hunted themselves. 
Jebediah Skayne has been hunting husks his entire adult life, but there’s something different about the trail leading to the fishing town of Portis on the shores of the Chalice Sea: no spoor, no footprints; nothing save the unmistakable feeling of wrongness. 

Finding a husk in Portis would be near impossible for someone who didn’t have the sixth sense, but the instant Jeb arrives, all trace of the incursion vanishes. Forced to rely on more mundane methods of investigation, he starts to uncover a town rife with corruption, where a man will kill you for looking at a woman the wrong way; a town that’s seen its share of incursions from the land of nightmares before. 

As events start to slip from his control, he realizes the husk he’s come to kill is one step ahead of the game, and it holds a secret that will shake his world to the core.

Review:
Meh, mediocre but not all out bad. There is an interesting world here, the idea is certainly engaging and the writing isn’t bad, but the book drags as the main character spends too much time in his head and too little doing anything of significance. There are several surprise deaths that I thought were there just for the shock value. It was predictable and ultimately I didn’t feel it wrapped up well.

Plus, I had an issue with Jeb’s character.  I don’t know, maybe this is a personal quibble, but it seems to me that if his mother is a sucubus (a seducer of men)—as opposed to having an incubus father, I guess—his staunch heterosexuality seems a little contrived. Similarly, yes, his attitude toward sex and woman is given a context, but in a very real sense it feels a lot much like the author just gave him an excuse for pretty standard disrespect toward woman and women’s sexuality. Jeb uses them for sex and tosses them away like garbage (literally in some cases), often still begging for more of his magic prick. Perhaps this was meant as an exploration into the male sexual psyche, but I’m thinking not.

It’s like the prewritten male fantasy. Maybe because of this. Maybe because of the very male gaze. Maybe because all women are reduced to what they can contribute to the male protagonist—sex or food/drink. One is literally reduced to a walking womb whose only purpose in life is Jeb, her son. Maybe just because of Jeb’s narrative voice, but the book simply feels very male to me. So maybe I’m just not the intended audience, in the end.

Edit: I’ve decided to add links when I get flack for reviews. This one seems to attract people who want to tell me how I should review or speak to other commenters.

Book Review of Trust (Running With Alphas #1), by Viola Rivard

Running With AlphasI picked up a copy of Viola Rivard‘s Trust: Running With Alphas from Amazon when it was free. It is part of my Alpha reading challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
Just when she thinks her life can’t get any worse, Taylor meets alpha wolf Alder – the most caring, gallant, and handsome man on the planet. On the run from the police, there’s no way she could possibly get involved with him. But somehow she does anyway.

Alder seems to be convinced that the two of them are going to live happily ever after in his mountain territory. But between looming pack wars, her dicey past, and his twin brother – the most obnoxious, sadistic, and handsome man on the planet – Taylor has a feeling that her new life among werewolves may be just as complicated as her human one.

Review:

This was surprisingly cute, which was a bit of a shock when I was expecting trashy erotica. But no complaints on that front. I have a soft spot for big alphas who shepherd, tend and fret over their mates, trying to feed them and such. Alder is just such a shifter, so he was a winner for me. I liked Taylor too, but Alder carried the book for me.

I did think the plot was a little shaky. You never find out the details of what Taylor is running from and I don’t get the feeling we ever will. It’s just a frame to hang the romance on. The characters were pretty shallow. The chemistry between the two wasn’t really shown. The mishap with Hale was predictable, there is a cliched female enemy and it’s a cliffhanger. But all in all, I was more pleased than I expected to be.