Tag Archives: PNR

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Book Review: An Inheritance of Monsters, by Cate Corvin

I received a copy of Cate Corvin‘s An Inheritance of Monsters in my monthly Bookish Buys box.
an inheritance of monsters bookish buys cover

Here there be monsters.

It was an offer too good to refuse: spend one month in the most haunted house in the world. When the reclusive owner of Duskwood Manor opens the door to five teams of paranormal investigators, there’s no way my team can say no.

But there are no ghosts here.

There are monsters.

They live under my bed, in my closet, and watch me from the shadows, whispering filthy visions in my ear at night.

Begging me to come with them to their world—the Void, where the monsters roam free… where they teach me what it really means to want.

Every night I disappear from the mortal world to play in theirs, swallowed by their insatiable, terrifying shadows.

Consumed by their claws and fangs.

Caressed by slick tentacles and endless, delicious hunger.

But the longer I stay in the Void, the harder it is to ignore its call.

There is a price to pay for stepping foot in this manor…

And the monsters have demanded me.

my review
I had a lot of fun with this one. It’s silly fun mind you…I mean sexy silly, but still silly. Don’t take anything in these pages too seriously. But I enjoyed my time with Juno and her crew.

I did think that some of the sex scenes got a little out there and some of the dialogue during such scenes crept up on cheesy. Actually, a lot of the dialogue during sex scenes just didn’t fit the characters. One of the monsters, for example, feels very child-like in his understanding of many human things for most of the book—he’s NOT a child, just also not a human who’s lived in the human world and it shows in his character—but suddenly bust out the Porn Hub language during sex scenes. It felt jarringly out of place. And the plot’s pretty predictable.

But all in all, I enjoyed this. I’d read another in the series and/or another Cate Corvin book.

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Other Reviews:

Maybe Tentacle Porn isn’t all that bad…

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Book Review: Between Bloode and Stone, by Marie Harte

I picked up a freebie copy of Marie Harte‘s Between Bloode and Stone in December of last year. It randomly bubbled up to the top of my TBR recently, and I gave it a read.
between bloode and stone

There is nothing so dangerous as a predator who loves…

Cursed long ago to check their growing power, vampires can only coexist in small groups. Yet despite their many conflicts, those Of the Bloode possess similar traits. All vampires, no matter where they came from, are male. They can go unnoticed by humans unless they wish otherwise, and they can’t survive sunlight.

Mormo, servant of the goddess Hecate, has created a small, new bloode clan at her behest. The six vampires he commands are rough, ill-disciplined, and mean, and they fail to follow orders on a daily basis. But they’re needed. Something big and bad is coming. Hecate, goddess of death, magic, and gateways, has a duty to guard the borders of the mortal world. She knows that without a strong force to contain the threat, chaos will come, destroying everything in its wake.

Hecate’s secret weapons are those Of the Bloode—vampires. Though they refuse to worship anything but themselves, she loves their wild ways. In order to battle gods and monsters and survive, they’ll need ferocity, inner strength, and something to fight for. Because there is nothing so dangerous as a predator who loves, and those Of the Bloode protect what’s theirs at all costs, in undeath and beyond.

And Varujan of the Night Bloode has just found the one female he can’t do without…

my review
This is one of those books that just isn’t quite bad enough to totally pan, but also isn’t anywhere near good enough to praise. The writing is readable but not particularly impressive. The plot is thin but manages to stay stitched together. The characters are colorful but not particularly well fleshed out. The romance ends in a HEA, but you don’t particularly feel it develop. The world exists, but only in so much as is actually necessary for each scene (no sense of a bigger world), etc. It’s not bad. It’s just not good either.

I liked Fara and her determination to save herself and her brother. I liked the brother a lot, actually, and the other side characters were a hoot. However, Varujan was just a jerk for far too long for me to come around and like him by the end. I also thought the villain was cartoonish and defeated far too easily in a rush at the end.

All in all, I might read the next book if I found it free. But I probably wouldn’t buy it.

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Other Reviews:

La Crimson Femme: Book Review: Between Bloode and Stone

Between Bloode and Stone by Marie Harte-a review

 

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Book Review: Monster Inside, by River Starr

River Starr‘s Monster Inside was featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight and I was lucky enough to win an e-copy of it.
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Sometimes the most enchanting monsters are the ones you can’t see, only feel…

I am a survivor. For the past ten years, I’ve been forced to give every part of me to sinister vampires in a feeding community. But when I touched an ancient book and recited a spell out of sheer desperation and zero arcane knowledge, a dark entity came to me. Rescued me. Mrak helped me escape.

I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. But Mrak has been at my side for the last year—well, inside me, anchored to my existence and lovingly tender with his ethereal touches. It’s not quite possession, not quite a haunting. But it’s real, it’s sexy as hell, and he’s mine. Or I’m his. Either way, we’re now in this life together.

Mrak is distracting, seductive, and powerful, but he’s also keeping a secret. One that’s now put me in immense danger despite his claims he’ll do anything to protect me. Because the cops have come calling. Bodies have turned up. And despite his reassurances, I’m starting to wonder if Mrak has a hidden agenda that he’s somehow kept secret from the inside.

My life might be in my monster’s debt. My body might be his for pleasure. But my future is mine no matter how much he wants and uses my body. I’m no longer the weak woman he saved from a vampire lord, and it’s time to take my body—and my life—back.

my review

Soooo, this was readable and had an interesting idea but honestly wasn’t very well executed. The beginning is hella repetitive. Like the author couldn’t figure out how to show us things so they just kept telling us. The heroine ran around and did things. However, it never felt anything but random, because the author didn’t really take the time to anchor the plot. The entirety of the relationship building was skipped in a full year jump in time. (And come on, learning to live with a demon INSIDE YOU should have been pivotal to the story!) So, I held absolutely no investment in it. There wasn’t any world-building to speak of. So, I didn’t really know what the limits of possibilities were, etc. All in all, I was initially interested but not impressed enough to bother continuing the series.monster inside photo


Other Reviews:

Blog Tour — Review: Monster Inside by River Starr