Tag Archives: PNR

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Book Review: Soothing Monsters, by M. Sinclair

I received a copy of Soothing Monsters, by M. Sinclair in one of the Supernatural Book Crate boxes I ordered. It’s the “special edition” cover. Annoyingly, they/she also changed the title of the book for this edition. So, elsewhere this is called Soothing Nightmares. That makes reviewing is a bit of a nightmare for me, actually. I’m the sort that gets annoyed if things don’t match. There’s always the underlying anxiety of “the ISBNs line up, but is it actually the same book,” “am I really cross-posting my review in the right place,” etc. It’s a cool cover though.
Soothing Monsters cover
I didn’t fear my nightmares. I loved them… and they loved me.

I had never been afraid of the dark. Abandoned on the front step of ISS, I’d spent my entire life thriving in the realm of darkness that most humans avoided.
I was a woman living among monsters.

Arabella was abandoned at the front steps of INSTITUTUM SEQUUNTUR SOMNIA (ISS) one stormy night, only to be found and brought in by the monsters that lived there. An institute of nightmares that housed the most dangerous creatures that walked the plane of humanity. A place that trained and harnessed those abilities for their own use, while defending against the humans that were constantly attacking them.

But what happens when a young human woman grows up among the nightmares? Feeling no fear but instead taking comfort in her team that she surrounded herself by? By all regards, Arabella shouldn’t have fit in at the institute. Nothing like the warrior-like creatures around her, the 5’1’’ young woman with pink hair and a vision impairment was absolutely fundamental to her team. Not just for her strategic brilliance but her soothing lack of fear that seemed to tame the nightmares around her. Arabella is bound and determined to keep her monstrous men safe while they are on their missions.

What happens when their most recent mission attracts the wrong type of attention? What happens when ISS comes under attack and everything that she values is destroyed?

my review

I think there is definitely going to be a ‘you love it or you hate it’ divide with readers of this book. Because I’ll be honest, it’s totally over the top bonkers. There is no taking this thing seriously.  It’s reverse harem in which the heroine has 7, yes, seven supernatural mates. None of which are just monsters, no, among them are  princes of hell (two even) and Death himself. She’s playing with the big boys apparently (literally and figuratively for a 5′ 1″ woman). There’s surprisingly little sex (or plot for that matter), but a whole lot of in your face sexual tension. But it’s a lot of silly fun. I also appreciate the glasses wearing woman with a significant facial scar as the main lust interest, especially the fact that there’s no angst about it. I’m on the love it side…or at least really liked it side and will hunt up book number two. I always appreciate a sexy laugh.

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Other Reviews:

https://beccainabook.com/soothing-nightmares/

supernatural bounty hunger

Book Review: Magic Bite, by Leia Stone & Lucía Ashta

I purchased a Supernatural Book Crate and a signed copy of Magic Bite, by Leia Stone and Lucía Ashta was one of the books included.

supernatural bounty hunter stone and Ashta

Evie Black and her demon imp partner, Cass, are two of the most fearsome supernatural bounty hunters on the West Coast. But when Evie’s beloved grandmother dies, her world shatters.

After finding the bottom of a bottle of tequila, Evie breaks the one rule she knows better than to ignore: Never hook up with a werewolf.

Especially when he’s the local alpha who, oh by the way, happens to be her gran’s sworn enemy.

Yeah, complicated doesn’t even begin to cover what happens next.

reachinghope - my review

This review will contain spoilers. I want to discuss the difference between what the blurb sets the reader up to expect and what we are actually given and there isn’t a way to do that without revealing what actually happens.

It is unfortunate, but we have to accept that there are still expectations of women and female behavior in America (and the West in general) that are focused on being caring and maternal. The idea of motherhood is still held as the gold standard. While more woman than ever now enter arenas of physical strength, violence, and authority that were previously denied to them (with and without children), they are still considered transgressive to a certain degree.

I say all of this because when I pick up a book about a woman who is one of “the most fearsome supernatural bounty hunters on the West Coast,” I am choosing to read about a woman who is defying cultural expectations of female behavior. That is part of the appeal.

So, when I’m promised a transgressive, kick-ass female character and instead handed a woman who gets herself knocked up in the first chapter, spends most of the book coming to terms with her impending motherhood, and being coddled and protected by a man, I feel very much as if a bait and switch has occurred. As if I have, instead, been handed the shining model of ‘womanhood’ that I sought explicitly to avoid.

Yes, that’s a bit of an exaggeration for the sake of making the point, but the point still stands. A female character can be a mother and still be the transgressive character I refer to. I mean look at Sarah Connor, or just maternal and still defy the cultural dictates of acceptably soft femininity. Look at Ripley (at least in the movies). But that’s not what Magic Bite: Supernatural Bounty Hunter does. It instead gives us the whole ‘fragile woman being protected by a man’ punchline (even as it claims to be giving us something else entirely).

And the thing is that this isn’t a bad book. It isn’t a bad story-line. (The writing and editing isn’t bad either.) But why would the authors choose to set the reader up to expect one sort of story and then give them another? Why not be honest about what is found inside…unless they’re painfully oblivious or actually trying to trick and trap one sort of reader into reading a whole different sort of story? Which is kind of how a lot of us feel about society in general and motherhood, as if society is trying to drag us onto that path no matter the underhanded means. So, having a book do this to us, feels like one more grasping, “but don’t you really want a baby” hand to slap away. It feels like yet another microaggression and impending insult to personal autonomy.

And we just won’t even go into the unlikelihood that a trained supernatural bounty hunter, who has had several supernatural boyfriends and sexual partners (and a supernatural doctor) wouldn’t have been told that human birth control wouldn’t work with werewolves, making the whole idea of an accidental pregnancy ridiculous. We’ll just let that stand.

All in all, Magic Bite is a prosaic but otherwise fine, middle of the road paranormal read (that ends on a cliffhanger just as the action finally starts). You’ll have seen all of these tropes before, but a lot of us read PNR because we enjoy them. So, I’m not put off by tropiness in and of itself. But it is 100% not what it promises on the packaging.

Supernatural Bounty Hunter photo


Other Reviews:

Whiskey & Wit Book reviews: Magic Bite

 

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Book Review: Wolf Kissed, by Heather Renee

I purchased a Supernatural Book Crate and Heather Renee‘s Wolf Kissed was included as one of the books.

Wolf Kissed Heather Renee

Fighting fate isn’t for the weak.

Cait
I am many things, but a supernatural being isn’t one of them. At least until a crescent mark appears on my wrist and everything changes. I’ve been marked by a wolf goddess, yet no one knows what that means, myself included.

On top of that, I find out my best friend is a werewolf and her pack alpha is my mate. Just like that my future is supposed to be decided—unless I find a way out.

Roman
When fate sends a human mate my way, I’m certain it has to be a mistake. An alpha is supposed to have an equal at his side. Cait might be strong in her own ways, but what she is makes her an easy target in my world.

Regardless, Cait is mine to protect and I have every intention of showing her this is where she belongs—in my pack, by my side.

my review

This book is 295 pages long and basically nothing happens until the last 5 pages, when some action finally happens so that the book can end on a cliffhanger. I’m serious. The h & H meet in the first chapter. Then she spends the whole rest of the book whining and denying their bond and he spends the whole time pining and telling her he wants her. Nothing else progresses, develops, or happens. It’s repeat, repeat, repeat. And it’s all just so ridiculous. She’d only even known about shifters for about two weeks, about the mate bond for a single week. That she hadn’t accepted it yet isn’t surprising or anything to base life decisions on. So, it all felt blown out of proportion.

I liked the writing. The editing was clean. The world seems interesting. But I don’t know that I’ll continue the series. I get the feeling every book will cover equally little ground and then end on a cliffhanger. I just can’t be bothered.

wolf kissed photo


Other Reviews:

Wolf Kissed by Heather Renee Review

Book Review: Wolf Kissed by Heather Renee