Tag Archives: PNR

Book Review of A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1), by Deborah Harkness

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A Discovery of WitchesI picked up a secondhand copy of Deborah Harkness‘ A Discovery of Witches somewhere. It’s been hanging out on my bookshelf for a while now and finally got a little attention from me.

Description from Goodreads:
Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Review:
Um…I can’t say I’m sorry to have read it, but I also can’t say I enjoyed it all that much either. I know this one was really popular, so I was probably just a poor match for the book. But I didn’t care for it.

There were a lot of things included that did nothing to move the story along. For example, the main characters rowed, ran, did yoga, rode horses, played chess, billiards and scrabble, ate elaborate dinners, had tea/coffee and tasted expensive wines. On their own none of these would be problematic. But each was described in minute detail, often more than once. So all together it really slowed the plot down.

There was a lot of talking about things, but very little doing. Seriously, the characters discussed everything, told each-other every little secret of their species and confided their secrets with ease. But they actually did very little…unless you count the jaunty horse rides and agonisingly well thought out dinners. Then in the end they established some elaborate plan that never materialised. Nope, it’s apparently the next book. Um, yeah, how unsatisfying is that? Other than the bad guys, no one seemed to actually have any volition of their own. They responded to immediate threats and then settled right back into the humdrum again.

I also wasn’t particularly fond of Diana or Matthew. Diana was supposed to be this strong-willed, self-aware, successful woman. But she just flailed around hopelessly, fainted regularly, took orders and, starting about halfway through the book, seemed to be put to bed about a hundred times. Sometimes it felt like she never even made it out of bed before being manhandled back into it ‘for her own good’. This left her feeling very child-like to me.

Similarly, Matthew was supposed to be the big alpha dog vampire but he just seemed shy and awkward around Diane, got beat up more when he attempted to protect her and did yoga. There’s nothing wrong with yoga of course, but it does kind of run counter to the big bad vampire persona he was supposed to have. All-in-all did didn’t come across as the man he was described as being.

Lastly, the romance seemed to come out of nowhere. It wasn’t quite insta-love, but it wasn’t far off. Even worse, once it settled in Diane and Matthew were saccharine sweet. Their dedication to one another was admirable, but I can only take so many heartfelt declarations of adoration and I generally like to know what such passion is based on. The whole latter 1/3 of the book just seemed to be one impassioned ‘I love you’ after another. The words might change for varieties sake, but the intent never did.

I did enjoy the underlying themes of acceptance and self-actualisation. I thought the writing itself was fine and some of the side characters (Marcus and Hamish especially) were fun. I’m not claiming it isn’t a good book. I just didn’t enjoy it personally.

Book Review: Dark Lover & Lover Unleashed, by J.R. Ward

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This is a bit of an awkward catch-up post. I reviewed J.R. Ward’s  Dark Lover over on Goodreads but never posted it here. I, then, didn’t bother reviewing the rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series until I reached a later book where I felt I had something in particular to say. That was Lover Unleashed. So, I’m gathering the two posts here after the fact.

black dagger brotherhood covers

About Dark Lover:

The only purebred vampire left on the planet and the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who killed his parents centuries ago.

But when his most trusted fighter is killed — orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate — Wrath must put down his dagger and usher the beautiful female into another world.

Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn’t there before, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes to her at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of the Brotherhood and blood frighten her. Yet his touch ignites a dawning new hunger one that threatens to consume them both…

Review:

Dark Lover is PNR, as it should be. The romance smolders, but the sex doesn’t cross into pornographic or blot out the plot with its frequency. There is enough to keep you titillated but not enough to make you lose interest if you are the type who likes a little more story.

I have to admit hulking, leather-clad alpha males aren’t my ideal idea of sexy, but they work here. These men are rough around the edges but have just enough vulnerabilities (not that they would acknowledge them) to make the reader feel for them, along with the female lead, Beth. The book does have some of the more annoying PNR qualities, instant unexplained attraction, the leader who has been so respected that he falls in love with the first woman to speak bluntly to him, etc. But these are genre norms, not true complaints about the book.

I have the second in the series sitting on my bedside table and can’t wait to start it. Ward is a definite go-to for PNR fans everywhere.

About Lover Unleashed:

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, seductive cloth as her brother. Imprisoned for eons by their mother, the Scribe Virgin, she finally frees herself – only to face a devastating injury.

Manuel Manello, M.D., is drafted by the Brotherhood to save her as only he can – but when the human surgeon and the vampire warrior meet, their two worlds collide in the face of their undeniable passion. With so much working against them, can love prove stronger than the birthright and the biology that separates them?

Review:

I told myself that I wasn’t going to write a review of every single Black Dagger Brother novel. ‘Cause, honestly, that would basically boil down to I liked this one more or less than the previous ones. The writing is essentially the same, as are the plots or each, just focusing on another Brother. But I feel compelled to post a small rant about this one. It was such a prime opportunity….completely lost.

Here, in Payne, we had the possibility of a female with the strength, character, and pedigree to join the Brotherhood. Sure, Xhex fights alongside the men, but she is primarily the Shellran of a Brother. That’s her role. Payne was painted as a true warrior, and I was really hoping for a little bit of strong-willed female ass-kicking. What did we get? She may be on the cover, but Manny is the main character. The book is about him, and Payne’s involvement is only in relation to him. She is incidental.

While I always enjoy Ward’s writing (I have made it to the 9th book, after all), I’ve liked some of the BDB books more than others. This one disappointed me in general and more because I had such high hopes for a good female character.

Review of Covet, by J.R. Ward

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Covet

I picked up J.R. Ward‘s Covet (Fallen Angels, #1) from my local library. If I’m honest I more than picked it up, I was on a waiting list for it. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to this one. 

Description from Goodreads:

Seven deadly sins. Seven souls to save. This is the first battle between a savior who doesn’t believe and a demon with nothing to lose!

Redemption isn’t a word Jim Heron knows much about-his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. 

Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he’s good with that-until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. And then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart-and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.

Review:

Oh, I just can’t tell you how disappointed I am right now. I was so very, very excited about reading this. I adore the Black Dagger Brotherhood books (most of them anyway), and Lassiter really piqued my interest, so a whole series based on the Fallen Angels…how could it go wrong? Well, I found out, didn’t I? It could go wrong in any number of ways, and Mrs. Ward seems to have found most of them. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still love her rather unique writing style–all full of la-di-das and unique grammar structures that sound so very right for the characters. But the story…the story was a serious letdown. Let’s start with the fact that Lassiter, the fallen angel who shows up in the latter BDB books to introduce this spin-off series, isn’t even in the book. That’s right, the very character who introduced readers to fallen angels was left out completely. How is that possible?

Next, the use of the noble whore falling in love with the flawed but redeemable billionaire businessman (and visa-versa) is about as cliché and trite as they come. Overused doesn’t even begin to cover it. Plus, I got really tired of all of the prostitute bashing disguised as Marie-Terese’s pangs of conscious. Yes, I concede that it is generally a mirror of society’s unfortunate opinion on the matter, but it was harangued on endlessly. 

Then there is the insta-love. Now, Ward is known for insta-love scenarios, so this isn’t really all that surprising. But here, it felt more extreme than normal since both characters had to break character to actually fall instantly in love. Marie-Terese had to abandon years of careful caution and Vin had to develop a heart he previously lacked suddenly. Even if I was willing to accept this cosmic shift in both of their mentalities I then had also to accept their sudden effusive natures. The ‘I love you,’ ‘I trust you,’ and ‘thank you for believing in me’ were flying off the shelf left and right, despite the fact that these people had known each other for collective hours. I couldn’t see for all the sappy hearts and flowers they were giving off. Gag.

I was also left wondering if Vin and Marie-Terese’s drama or Jim’s situation was the primary plot of the book. I honestly couldn’t tell. There is a serious problem when I finish a book and can’t tell who the main character was. Now, I liked Jim a lot. I liked his anti-hero personality and rather grey goodness. I liked his wingmen, Eddie and Adrian. I liked their mission, etc. But they felt incidental to Vin and Marie-Terese falling instantly in love, and I don’t think that was supposed to be the case. 

Lastly, I’m totally lost on the pantheon of these books. Since Black Dagger Brothers showed up in the background on occasion (Butch’s Red Sox hat in the last pew of the church service, running into Phury outside his NA meeting, her working for Trez, etc) I’m assuming this is the same general universe. So, how exactly do the BDB’s goddess and the Angel’s God fit together? I’m stumped. 

Since I generally love Mrs. Ward’s actual writing, I’d be willing to give the second book in this series a try to see if, given a different plot, I might like it better. But this particular book left me cold. Left me less than cold, it left me feeling like I had wasted time on. And all of it was only exacerbated by the fact that I had such high hopes going in. I really expected to love it. Such a letdown.