Tag Archives: PNR

Book Review: Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier

I received an Audible code for a copy of Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier, narrated by Anneliese Rennie, Portia Kay Winters, Austin Barringer, Carl Mason, Antonio Amato, Aaron Shedlock, Liam Di Cosimo, and Mike Johnson.

The Library of the Profane has everything your black heart desires. But we don’t just allow anyone to get a library card.

Need to summon a demon? Raise the dead? A clan of vampires bothering you? Do you like the really nasty werewolf erotica? The Library of the Profane has all of that, but not everyone can handle the contents (Some people can’t handle their werewolf erotica). I’ve been a librarian here for five years and when I say I killed to get this job, I’m not being facetious.

You can’t check out our books. Some of the books are sentient and don’t like it. We have rooms to perform the spells in or hell, we do have a copy machine (copies are extra). When a witch came in and said they needed to do a little necromancy, I didn’t question it. They wouldn’t have been given a library card if they were going to raise someone really bad. I helped with the necromancy because it’s just my job as a librarian.

Except it wasn’t a normal resurrection. It was the physical embodiment of Chaos and when he woke up, he saw me first and now he’s attached. Chaos personified is a horrible library guest and he won’t leave with the witch who raised him. He’s constantly getting into things he’s not supposed to and he’s really into the werewolf erotica.

It’s not like I can let him out because the Library of the Profane is meant to contain Chaos. The rest of the world isn’t. He’s awful about keeping his identity secret too. A warlock, a Hellhound, and a vampire know he’s here and they are bugging me to let Chaos have a little fun.

I just want a normal day of summoning demons, cursing people, and telling people to be quiet in my library. This is too much.

Sooo, this was a flop for me. I’m not certain which I liked less, the story or the narration. This book has nine narrators, and it is not a feature. I found it super distracting (and hated one of the voiced characters entirely). The narrators did a fine job (even if I disliked one), but there didn’t need to be so many of them. It detracted from the experience. Why would anyone choose to do this?

As for the story, I found it flimsy and unsubstantial. Ripley exists. All the men who are forming her harem exist. That’s about all I can say for them. There is so little character development that they all remain virtual strangers (to the reader and each other).

Lastly, the book barely introduces all the characters and the mystery before it ends on a cliffhanger. As much as I hate starting stories I don’t see the end of, I won’t be continuing this one.

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BOOK REVIEW: Chaos (The Library of the Profane) by J.B. Trepagnier #reverseharem #urbanfantasy

Book Review: Luna Wolf, by G. Bailey & Regan Rosewood

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I accepted a review copy of G. Bailey and Regan Rosewood’s Luna Wolf through Love Books Tours.

I’ve been rejected by everyone—but an alpha heir wants me to be his pretend mate.

As the only wolf shifter in my pack not to shift, being rejected from my home when I turned eighteen was not unexpected when the shifter war is so close. But being sent to a secret academy full of immortal wolf shifters, demons, and teachers with no morals wasn’t something I planned for.

Luna Alpha Academy is for rejects only.

They choose wolves that no one cares about if they go missing and if I can survive long enough to learn the dark magic they teach, I might even be welcome back home as a wolf-witch.

Only catch?

My tutor is a hot shifter asshole who takes what he wants—this time it’s me.

In exchange for extra training, Atlas wants me to pretend to be his.

Every kiss, every possessive touch, every growl to anyone that comes near me only makes me want him more.

But I can’t have him. Not really.

He’s the alpha heir.

I’m a wolf who can’t even shift.

We don’t belong together, and it’s fake. It can’t ever be real.

Dark magic is my future and my only way back to my pack.

I have very middle-of-the-road feelings about this book. Or rather, I liked the book fine, with the exception of a few critical elements, and I’m afraid that if I innumerate them, this review will come across as far more critical than I intend. So, let’s establish up front that I liked the book fine but have a few critiques that shouldn’t nullify the previous statement.

My biggest issue is the inconsistency in the characters, Atlas especially. He literally acts as if Nyx is a huge imposition on one page, and by the next, he’s hitting on her and has had a complete personality transplant. There is literally no transition between his attitude shifts. It was abrupt, unfollowable, and pulled me out of the narrative harshly. (Worse, it happened more than once.)

My second issue is how cliched and predictable the plot lines are. The primary immediate villain is a scorned woman fighting over a man—sometimes I want to shake authors and scream in their faces that women really can have motivations that don’t involve men—and the big reveal is seen coming from…well, basically, the beginning. Honestly, it all felt a little too focused on these small-scale dramas instead of the larger end-of-the-world level drama that is sketched out at best.

The writing is mechanically fine, if a little rough around the edges. The over-arching world seems interesting and I think I’d read another in the series. But, again, I’d call this a middle-of-the-road read.

On a totally unrelated note, I’m SO GLAD the book got a new cover. I’ve stumbled across the old one (with the pretty girl on the cover). And it made me seethe. A big deal is made in the book about Nyx being ‘curvy’ (and I do love a plus-sized heroine). That girl on the cover was not. So, I’m glad I don’t have to be irritated about that.

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