Tag Archives: PNR

Review of Witchy Business, by Eve Paludan & Stuart Sharp

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Witchy BusinessI grabbed Witchy Business from the Amazon KDP list. It’s written by Eve Paludan and Stuart Sharp and apparently presented by J.R. Rain. I’m not sure what to make of this ‘J.R. Rain presents…’ It reminds me of the old Masterpiece Theatre, “presented by PBS.” I don’t mean to make fun of it or anything. I mention it because I don’t know how to, or even if I need to, incorporate it into my review in any way. I don’t really know what it means. I’m guessing ‘edited by’ or ‘mentored by,’ but that’s just a guess.

Description from Goodreads:
What would you do with unspeakable power?

Elle Chambers is Edinburgh’s hardest working insurance investigator, and one who solves cases using unconventional means. Supernatural means. Elle is a witch–and a damn good one, too.

Assigned back-to-back cases, Elle must first find a missing bad boy who might or might not be a werewolf. Next, a simple missing artwork case turns out to be not so simple. What Elle is about to discover will change her life forever…and open her heart to the possibility of love.

Review:
I thought this was an alright read, though it didn’t really do it for me. I don’t even really know why, but I finished with a bit of a ‘meh.’ I did enjoy the way the book played with the normal hero/romantic partner character. Often in PNR (I’m thinking Ward, Frost, etc. here), the hero is muscle-bound, leather-clad, beefcake, and the antagonist is the smooth-talking, well-dressed, and sophisticated. Both character types are present in this book, but the heroine’s choice of mates is unexpected. The effect of this was that I spent the whole book waiting for the reversal, the point when the good guy suddenly reveals his betrayal and the heroine runs into the arms of the unexpectedly compassionate, stoic man on the side. This never happened. It was a fun little twist and proof that sometimes it’s not a matter of what’s written but what isn’t that can add the most spice to a story.

But I also felt that the whole thing rolled along a little too smoothly. N. goes to great lengths to meet Elle, but we never discover how he even knew about her to begin with. We never learn when, why, or how exactly he fell so deeply in love with her unless it’s just a matter of ‘we’re the only two like us, so we should be together.’ That seems pretty weak to me. There is definitely some insta-love on Elle’s part, however. Then there is Rebecca and Everett, who can blithely acknowledge Elle’s burgeoning feelings and tell her to arrange to kill that person in the same conversation. Seems a little unrealistic to me. Could they really expect compliance? Elle solves the missing art case, seemingly without any clues, and in the end, manages to resume her life despite the coven’s long-standing policy of eradication against her kind. Yep, everything is resolved just a little too easily.

On a side note, I also didn’t find the book to match the description very well. The bad-boy werewolf is already found when the book starts and he’s an overwhelmed lawyer with mother issues, not a bad boy at all. For most of the book, Elle is a decidedly weak enchantress, not the damn good witch described. (In this particular story, there is a divide between witches and enchantresses, so it’s not the same thing.) And she isn’t assigned back-to-back cases. She is an insurance agent who solves cases with a little magical assistance, though, and she is on the case of a missing piece of art. Maybe these are small details, but still…

Despite the above points, it was an entertaining enough read for an evening. The writing seemed fairly smooth and I didn’t notice many, if any, editorial mishaps.

Book Review of Meredith Allen Conner’s Dead Vampires Don’t Date

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Dead Vampires Don't DateI grabbed Meredith Allen Conner’s PNR, Dead Vampires Don’t Date, off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Kate Storm is your typical everyday mortal witch. She owns her own matchmaking business, hangs out with her vampire best friend, Morgan and enjoys the company of Big Al, her hit man channeling Chihuahua. Plus there’s a certain demon that she has her eye on. Life is pretty good until her first important non-human client winds up dead and his body is dumped at her back door. Turns out, disposing of the body is the last thing she needs to worry about. Kate will have to find the true killer if she wants to save her business and her life. And her new found witchy detective skills may not be enough to save her, especially if the demon is involved.

Review:

This was an entertaining, quick read. Though fairly useless in any sort of combat and therefore unable to do much in terms of defending herself, Kate is a fairly strong character in other respects. She’s quick witted, sarcastic, and relatively self assured. I particularly liked that she isn’t a stick figure. She’s described as a size 10 on a good day. I always appreciate seeing alternative body types (ie, not the anorexic ideal of the modern west) described as equally appealing.

There was a lot of good humour here and, though no actual sex, a few steamy almost-sex scenes. This does lead me to my one significant complaint about the book though. I don’t know if this is the first of a series, but there are quite a few things that are hinted at throughout the entire book, but it ends without any sort of reveal. One of these is why Ash is so interested in Kate to begin with. He purposefully seeks her out, is unusually aggressive in his pursuit of and affection for her, essentially admits to having an ulterior motive (Kate is certain there is one), and he is constantly running off and appearing again, but the reader never discovers why. In fact other than being a distraction from the mystery and adding a little spice he plays almost no role in the book. This only heightens the sense that something important has been left out. Why else is he there?

I also thought some of the jokes when a little overboard. For example, the Bewitchedconnection was just ludicrous. For the most part however, I enjoyed Kate’s narrative style. The mystery was fun, though I don’t think too many people will be overly surprised by the identity of the culprit. Still, it’s an all-in-all good summer read.

Wickedest Witch

Book Review of Eve Langlais’ Wickedest Witch

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Wickedest WitchI snagged a copy of Eve Langlais‘ erotic novel(la), Wickedest Witch from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Thank you for engaging the services of Wicked Incorporated where the insults are given for free. 

Evangaline is not a very nice witch, but ask her if she cares. She does however have a healthy sexual appetite, and when an uncouth shifter starts appearing in her fantasies, it’s not long before she makes her erotic mind play a reality. But everyone knows a wicked witch can’t fall in love, or can she?

Ryker, a hot and muscled shifter, knows his size and domineering presence intimidates women, all except for one curvy witch he just can’t get out of his mind. Set to a task only the two of them can accomplish, he discovers wickedness has its uses, especially in the bedroom.

Dealing with vamps, a wedding from hell and a cackling gnome named Rumpelstiltskin, will these two wicked beings survive and, even more disturbing, decide to stay together?

Review:
This is not a book to be taken seriously, not even as serious erotica (though it is plenty erotic). It is utterly ridiculous, in a good way. I laughed out loud quite a few times. Evangaline and Ryker egg each-other on nonstop. Their constant insults are a lot of fun.

Now, there isn’t a lot of plot. So little in fact that you don’t even find out who’s behind the kidnapping scheme they’re ostensibly trying to solve. The book essentially consists of one sexual fantasy/masturbation session after another until they finally have real sex and then it’s just sex. What little plot there is essentially only serves to move them about so that they can have sex in different places. I never expect plot in erotica to start with, so I didn’t find this particularly disappointing. It was more than made up for with humour.

This is the second of Langlais’ books I’ve read and I really appreciate that she writes heroines that look like real, curvy women but are still sexy and confident in themselves. This almost makes her a heroine in her own right as far as I’m concerned.

I do have to say it did seem short. Amazon lists it at 207 pages. I have a hard time believing it’s actually that long unless the paperback version is double spaced and sized 16 font. Still a fun read.