Tag Archives: PNR

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Book Review: The Wren in the Holly Library, by K.A. Linde

I purchased a copy of K.A.Linde‘s The Wren in the Holly Library. the wren in the holly library

Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.

In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.

But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be no escape…

my review

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I felt that it was so formulaic that nothing stood out and grabbed my attention, particularly the romance aspect. So, I was honestly bored for a lot of it. However, I acknowledge that Linde did break from the mold by writing a comfortably diverse cast and avoiding some of the common PNR pitfalls that I hate, such as women who have to give up their power to be worth of love or give up something they’ve worked hard for to stay with a man who doesn’t sacrifice even a sliver as much. I’d be willing to read the sequel on the strength of this alone. But I’m in no hurry about it since the story itself didn’t captivate me.the wren in the holly library photo


Serena’s Review: “The Wren in the Holly Library”

 

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Audio Book Review: Pretty When She Dies, by Rhiannon Frater

I have had a copy of Rhiannon Frater’s Pretty When She Dies for a while. So, the memory of where I got it is vague. I believe I was probably given an Audible code for a free copy.

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Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry…in a new, horrific, unimaginable way… Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what’s worse is that he’s a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding.

Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation… or her death?

my review

The narrator, Kristin Allison, did a good job, and I enjoyed this book beyond the 25% mark. I spent the first quarter of the book thinking I was going to end up DNFing it because I wasn’t having a good time. The beginning of this book just feels like female victim porn. Every person the FMC meets victimizes her somehow (most, even her family, with a sexual edge). I disliked it intensely, and it’s suuuuper cliched. I just don’t enjoy reading rapey stories. I’m not talking about trigger warnings or anything like that; I just mean I do not enjoy it and generally try to avoid it in stories I read for entertainment.

However, once the FMC meets the MMC, the story changes (pacing, tone, and the expected plot arc all shift), and the rapey victimization subsides; I then enjoyed the rest of the book. Now, because I know it’ll be a ‘no’ for many readers, I’ll state up front that cheating is involved. The FMC steps into someone else’s established relationship as ‘the other woman.’ That’s a dynamic you don’t often see because many people wouldn’t forgive an FMC for that. So, fair warning. I noted it with a bit of a raised eyebrow, but let it go easily enough.

All in all, despite the rough beginning, I finished this happy. I loved the side characters (almost pretty when she does photomore than the main characters), and the FMC showed a surprising backbone. Admittedly, the MMC is somewhat of a cardboard cutout, the relationship is quite shallow, and the FMC’s sudden mastery of her power feels a bit deus ex machina. Plus, the story and language are a little dated. (I think it was first published in 2008.) Describing women of color as “exotic” is generally understood as a microaggression now, for example. But, all in all, I’ll likely read the second book at some point.


Other Reviews:

Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

Review – Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

 

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Book Review: Eternal Rider, by Larissa Ione

I purchased a copy of Larissa Ione‘s Eternal Rider second-hand from Savers.

eternal rider cover They are here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him.

Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can’t-or won’t-understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman’s safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara’s life.

my review

I generally have a rule when it comes to PNR. I try not to read anything more than a decade old. I just can’t seem to stomach where the genre was back then, especially the language. There is a reason I went most of my life swearing I hated romance novels, only to grow up and realize that what I hated wasn’t romance but the gendered and hierarchical way relationships and sex were being represented. The genre has come a long way, and now romance (mostly fantasy and paranormal romance) accounts for 90% of what I read.

When I picked up a copy of this book at Savers, I glanced at the publication date and saw 2022. If I had looked a little more carefully, I’d have noticed the ‘originally published in 2011’ and likely would have put the book back. This book has many of the gender tropes that I try to avoid. But it’s far from the worst I’ve read.

So, with the above caveats, I otherwise thought it was OK. Not great, but tolerable. It’s clearly a spin-off from another series, or at least an interconnecting one. There’s a clear sense that the reader should be familiar with many of the other couples that appear. I liked the eternal rider photoFMC. She had a backbone and stood up for herself. I found the MMC to be something of a cardboard cutout; the side characters were quite bland, and the villain was a caricature. Although I did think the idea of going evil against their will was an interesting twist to the Four Horsemen trope.

All in all, I’m gonna eloquently say “meh.”


Other Reviews:

Book Review: Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione

Review: Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione