Tag Archives: PNR

Once Bitten

Book Review of Trina M. Lee’s Once Bitten (Huntress, #1) and prequel shorts

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Once Bitten

I grabbed a free copy of Trina M. Lee‘s Once Bitten from the KDP list. It is currently still free on Amazon and at Smashwords.

Description from Goodreads:
Alexa O’Brien has never been like other people. A hunter of supernatural rogues, she is a werewolf with unusual but extraordinary power. Power that draws her to Arys Knight, the mysterious vampire who awakens her dark side. What they create together is dangerous and binding, forcing her to question the source of her abilities. It threatens not only her remaining humanity, but her relationship with fellow werewolf, Shaz Richardson, as well.

When Alexa’s womanizing former lover and the Alpha of her pack is framed for murder, he draws public attention that could earn him a death sentence unless she steps in to help him. Alexa would love to watch karma at work but as the body count rises, long buried secrets are exposed. She’s forced to face the painful truth that not everyone is who she thinks they are.

Review:
I have pretty mixed feelings here. There were some parts of this book I really liked, for example the fact that Lee let her main characters be bad. So often PNR heroines miraculously resist all evil temptation. I really appreciated that Alexa gave in to hers and admitted that she enjoyed watching Arys too. It added an element of edgy realism that I enjoyed. I also loved both Arys and Shaz. Unfortunately I hated the situation they found themselves in. It wasn’t fair to either of them. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be, but I found it painfully uncomfortable. I really wanted her to choose one or for the three of them to become a happy Ménage à trois.

I generally enjoyed the story, but I have two main complaints. One, it felt like there were four main story lines that ran parallel but never really intersected. There was Alexa and Arys’ situation. There was her and Shaz’s budding romance. There was her night job with Veryl and there was the whole mystery with Raoul. Any one of them probably could have been a book on its own. Well, maybe the love triangle would need to be combined, but you know what I’m getting at. The Raoul situation seemed to be the main storyline, so any time Alexa ran off to fight a random demon or psychotic ex-lover I found it distracting. It essentially felt like it had nothing to do with the rest of the plot. Plus the events required the introduction of random characters who then simply disappeared, Lilah for example.

Two, there was a lot of presumed knowledge. Alexas is described as a werewolf with extra, vampireish abilities. But these are never really described. I have no idea which of her powers were the unusual ones or why she had them. Similarly, I never really understood her and Arys’ metaphysical draw. I certainly understood the effect, but not the why, how, or even what of it. I would have really liked a more in-depth description.

I did enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong. There were just a few things that niggled at me. I have the prequels to read and will consider continuing the series.

Huntress

Stunner

I also grabbed the prequels Huntress and Stunner, at least one of which is available free at Amazon & Smashwords. You can follow the links to see my reviews at Goodreads. I thought they were both ok, but not stand-alone stories. They would make little sense to someone who hadn’t read Once Bitten. 

Review of Hanna Peach’s Angelfire

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AngelfireI initially downloaded Hanna Peach‘s Angelfire from the Amazon KDP list, but she later also sent me an updated copy.

Description from Goodreads:
An army of angels walks among us. They have kept us safe and ignorant − so far.

Earthbound for centuries and ruled by the Elders, they have established hidden cities, a society and the Code: obey your Elders, kill all demons, eliminate Rogue-angels, protect the mortals, remain hidden. Their warriors are the ungifted Earthborn angels armed with blades and the “borrowed magics” of distilled angel-blood tattoos.

Alyxandria is a young warrior with a fondness for customized knives and illegal night-races. If only she could overcome the taint of her parents, who abandoned her to become Rogues. When Alyx saves Israel, a gifted mortal with a past, she is forbidden to see him again. But she can’t help herself, drawn to him through their Guardian-bond, an ancient and long-forgotten bond; if he dies, she dies.

Alyx begins to dig into the Elders’ secrets − two thousand years of secrets, which begin with the death of the Archangel Raphael. She is not prepared when she uncovers an Elder’s dark plan. Somewhere on Earth is a key to unlock Hell. Somewhere on Earth are pieces of an amulet that control Lucifer and his army. Somehow Israel is the link and now both sides are after him. Who can Alyx trust when Good and Evil are no longer clear?

The war for Earth begins.

Review:
Angelfire is an interesting addition to the angels versus demons collective. Alyx is a strong-willed heroine who has no problem standing up for herself. Though she does seem to float aimlessly from one chaotic near miss to the next, but maybe that’s actually the hand of destiny at work. Israel is imminently likeable and I adored the pirates.

The writing was admittedly pretty choppy in the beginning, jumping from seemingly random event to random event, giving a lot of detailed technical explanations, and introducing a lot of extraneous characters who played no significant role in the book. As a result it took a long time to figure out what exactly was going on, but it evened out eventually and became a pretty good read. I did find the info-breaks really disruptive though. I would have really preferred a glossary at the end to interruptions in the story.

As much as I enjoyed the story, this is not a stand alone book. It is obviously book one of what is going to be a big series. A lot of ground work is set here, but there is no sense of completion, no satisfying conclusion. I look forward to it’s continuation.

On a possibly irrelevant side note, and I don’t think I’m the first to mention this, the book has a really cool cover with a winged angel on it. But the angels in it don’t actually have wings. The only mention of anyone having wings is attributed to a demon. That irks me. It feels wrong.

Book Review of Eve Langlais’ Delicate Freak’ Flower

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Delicate Freakn' Flower

I grabbed Eve Langlais‘ erotic shifter novel, Delicate Freakn’ Flower from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Dammit , just how many toes was she going to have to stomp on before people realized she was a delicate freakin’ flower?

Naomi doesn’t want to follow tradition and settle down with a violence-loving, chest thumping shapeshifter. She grew up in a household with five, testosterone laden brothers where none of the dishes ever matched, the ugly-as-sin furniture could withstand any catastrophe, and where crazy glue was bought by the case.

When fate—with a snicker—makes her meet not one, but two mates, Naomi digs her heels in and refuses to do what her wolf—and her body—demands. No way is she voluntarily allowing herself to get hitched to a pair of dumbass—totally hot and muscled—lacrosse players.

Can Ethan, the towering Kodiak bear, and Javier, the sexy, tanned jaguar convince this she-wolf that life with them won’t be all chaos? And can this delicate freakn’ flower unbend her prejudices enough to recognize she needs a pair of men who can handle her thorns—and her passion? 

Warning: this is a hot threesome story where all the focus is on her with pleasurable consequences.

Review:
Delicate Freakn’ Flower is just plain pulp. You can even tell from the sarcastic title that it isn’t going to be anything serious. But if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s all good. There isn’t a lot to the plot, but not much is promised in the description either. You get what’s on the cover in this one.

Naomi’s character is a lot of fun. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a total bitch to almost everyone. But I rather enjoyed the fact that all of the men around her let her be that way, even liked her that way. It’s one of my favourite fictional events when strong men allow a female complete control over them, or cower in the face of her fury. Of course they could stop it. Of course they are only allowing her the control, but I still always get a kick out of it. This book has that in spades. In fact, it’s pretty much the crux of the plot.

On a side note, though subtle, I appreciated that Naomi isn’t described as a twig. She has large breasts and a gently rounded tummy. That tummy is still worshiped by two hot guys. I really liked that she was described this way AND Langlais didn’t make any sort of issue about it. Not once did she call herself fat or appear anything but comfortable in her own body. I may be reading more into it that was intended, but I thought it marvellous. 

The beaus, Ethan and Javier were just as sexy as you would expect. I did have to wonder that their relationship wasn’t explored more. The two of them did everything together even before discovering Naomi, including previous threesomes. They didn’t even blink when they discovered they shared a mate and seemed to be in complete accord about everything. It’s hard for me to not see them as a couple with or without Naomi. This wasn’t even hinted at, of course, but I think the book might have had a little more depth if it had been addressed one way or the other.

While the book was generally well written, there was some unfortunate language use (IMO). Prick, pussy, cleft, cleft, cleft…why does it have to sound like cheap porn to be considered erotic? I haven’t figured that out yet. At least Langlais had the grace to not throw cunt around too. On the same theme I found it disconcerting that when the trio finally made it to the bedroom together Ethan, poor shy, awkward Ethan was the one throwin’ down the dirty talk. It didn’t fit his previous character at all.

In the end the book was utterly ridiculous, but a fun/hot way to pass a couple of hours. Plus, it was a freebie. How could I possibly complain.