Tag Archives: PNR

Dark Protector

Book Review of Dark Protector (Paladins of Darkness #1), by Alexis Morgan

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Last year, I found several autographed Alexis Morgan books at a second-hand store. They were signed “To Mom and Dad.” I was totally taken with the mystery of how these books came to be at a charity shop, so I bought them and made them my own.

This is not one of those books. It turns out that they were the second, third and fifth in the Paladins of Darkness series. (I bet there had been a copy of this one too, but either someone had already bought it or it was just lost in the thousands of books available.) I bought this one, Dark Protector off Amazon so that I could read the three signed ones I’d already bought.

Generally, regardless of what I might or might not think of the books, I love the mystery around them.

Description from Goodreads:
Devlin Bane: Born a Paladin, he is a member of an ancient band of warriors locked in a centuries-old war against evil.

His destiny: To die over and over again to protect mankind from the Others, only to be revived each time by his mortal Handler.

But his fierce strength and courage cannot save him from gradually becoming one of the monsters he was born to destroy.

Dr. Laurel Young, who has spent years training to become a Handler, must remain detached from her patients. But each time she revives the darkly compelling Devlin Bane, he claims a little more of her soul and incites in her desires that grow wilder and wilder — even as he inches closer to losing his humanity.

As the war against the Others grows more desperate, Laurel and Devlin can’t help but give in to the fierce hunger that’s sizzled between them for so long. Now they’ll face the ultimate battle together — to save a dark, passionate love that goes against every rule as they join forces to fight an enemy who is closer than they ever imagined….

Review:
Soooo, this was not good. But not good in a the-genre-has-grown-up sort of way. This book is from 2006 and just like bodice rippers are out of style in the romance genre, I think the sort of plotting in this book has gone out of style in the paranormal romance genre. We readers just expect so much more now than a thinly defined Other enemy of paranormal origin, a characterless alpha hero and a sweet little thing heroine. Maybe this would have been enough when there weren’t a lot of other PNR books around, but not anymore.

The enemies from across the ill-defined border are literally just called Others and the reader learn almost nothing about them except that they’re evil in some way that effects the environment. But even this little bit of information is compromised at the end and maybe wrong. (A “twist” I saw coming from the beginning.) The hero has no history or character beyond alpha-asshole warrior man. The heroine has a little more, but not much. The romance is instant, except that they’ve known one another for three years. So, I still have no idea why they suddenly had this sudden, irresistible attraction to one another. And the book has a bad case of sex=love. They have sex and suddenly they’re in love. The villain? Totally obvious (as is the bigger villain that is carrying over to the series). [Spoiler] If you are told the bad guy is a guard and only one guard in the whole book shows up more than once and is given a name, that’s the bad guy.

All in all, the mechanical writing and editing is fine. This was apparently Morgan’s first book and there are tons now, so I’m willing to give her another chance, maybe with something a little more recent. Plus, I do have three more Paladin of Darkness books to read.

Monster Hunting 101

Book Review of Monster Hunting 101 (The Hunters #1), by Richard A. Bamberg

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I won an Audible copy of Monster Hunting 101, by Richard A. Bamberg through LibraryThing.

Description from Goodreads:
When Jesse’s old girlfriend calls him requesting an immediate meeting late at night, he thinks of a lot of reasons she might have called. None of them are anywhere near the truth. Instead of a late night booty call, Gail brings him into a world he didn’t know existed, ghouls, werewolves, and ghosts and they all seem to be after Jesse’s blood. Gail wants Jesse to put a silver bullet in her heart to keep her from becoming the monster she hunts, but there’s no way Jesse is going to kill the girl he once loved. He convinces her to let him restrain her for the full moon. Luckily, a local Adult Intimacies store has all the bondage gear he needs. 

Now he just has to fight off a pack of werewolves single-handedly while keeping her from ripping his own throat out. 

Sex, guns, and werewolves, what could go wrong?

Review:
This unintentionally turned into a bit of a feminist critique of the book. I guess I can’t help but see things through that lens.

Listening to this was an interesting experience. Paranormal Romance is generally considered a genre geared toward women. It does after all have the word romance in it. But Monster Hunting 101 is most definitely a PNR for men. As such, I suspect many would avoid calling it PNR at all, insisting instead on Urban Fantasy or Military Fantasy (the hero is a veteran). But let’s not quibble, it has werewolves and a strong romantic subplot. It is Paranormal Romance, plain and simple. It’s just written such that the male character is the focus, instead of the female one, as would normally be the case.

That’s not to say that, as a woman, I didn’t enjoy it. I did. But books written by and for different audiences have a different focus, different centre of attention, different tone sometimes. And MH101 has the male gaze of its protagonist, not to mention his brand of humor, and he is the moving force of the plot, while the female fades into the background. This makes it stand apart from a lot of PNR books. I enjoyed it, but it was a different experience than many will be used to and it has different strengths and weaknesses.

I liked Jesse very much. He was an admirable hero and he was funny in the face of danger, as was Gail. But I very much felt she was just there to give him someone to bounce banter off of. The world of Hunters looks to be an interesting one and I can see this series going on for a while. It has lots of potential.

On the other hand, I thought the ridiculous amount of time dedicated to the choosing and applying of bondage gear was there for little more than titillation, especially since Gail so often had to be near naked in these scenes.

Plus, I got seriously sick of him subtly propositioning her for sex. I totally understand this was how the two of them flirted and she was not feeling offended or pressured at all. The (male) author made sure to write it that way. But as a female reader, I was annoyed by it. It was ceaseless and slapped of coercion. This joking, lighthearted, nothing wrong with any individual comment (most compliments), when taken together is constant pressure. In real life, it’s one of the ways “nice guys” coerce reluctant women to sleep with them. For the target of such a man’s attention, it’s sometimes easier to just give in and get it over with, even if you don’t really want it, than put up with the continued onslaught, especially if it’s a situation in which you are stuck. So, seeing Jesse do this eventually became nails on a chalkboard for me and I suspect it’s one of the many real world ways some men’s view of their own behavior and some women’s view of the same actions differ. Maybe others won’t read it this way, certainly the author didn’t intend it to be, but that’s where I was at the end of it.

I was also slightly annoyed that the strong, capable Gail called Jesse with a problem and then handed all control and decision-making power over to him. I mean, the D/s bondage gear as a solution was a fairly literal example of this. But ideally, who leaves the least knowledgable and experienced member of a crew in charge? But then, it too often seems natural for it to be the man, regardless of how skilled the women involved are. Don’t we see that everyday? Don’t get me wrong, Gail was never a push over and I loved that about her and Jesse respected and appreciated her strong personality. I very much liked that about him. But the book still made Jesse the most frequent decision-maker. He was the leader. In fact, I suspect the ending left him able to physically control certain aspects of Gail’s werewolf nature. Making him literally in control of her body.

Lastly, while the writing is pretty good, outside of a few examples of the same word being used several times in close succession and sounding repetitive, the plotting has far too many coincidences in it to be believed. I could not suspend my disbelief far enough to roll with some of the happenstance in this book. Ryan Jeanmaire also did an admirable job with the narration, but I did find it a bit flat.

All in all, I had some issues with the book, but I mostly enjoyed it and would be willing to read a second one.

Thunder Hunter

Book Review of Thunder Hunter (Viking Soul #1), by Rachel Medhurst

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I won a copy of Rachel Medhurst‘s Thunder Hunter from Audiobook Access. Oddly enough, I already had a kindle copy of it and it’s included in the Bad Magic compilation, which I also happen to have. So, I have three copies of the book somehow.

Description from Goodreads:
A thousand years, that’s how long I’ve been hunting the Fallen Ones that escaped Freya’s field. One hundred and ninety five down, five to go. Just five disgusting evil spirits until I die and Thor’s thunder will be returned to him. Nothing will stand in the way of me completing my mission, not even the woman who claims to be a descendant of Freya. I will kill the next Fallen One, no matter what.

Review:
Well, I did not like that AT ALL. I have rarely come across a ‘hero’ that I liked less than Trigger Thunder Hunter. There was 100% no character development to him except that of horn-dog, sexist misogynist His constant internal dialogue about every woman he saw irritated me beyond bearability. Every waitress, female villain, club-goer and passer-by on the street had to be remarked upon. Even the ones he was actively battling to the death. I swear every single one had a pert bottom or lush lips or a pinched waist and EVERY SINGE ONE threw themselves at him. (Talk about a male gaze, geez!) He was beyond nsufferable. I hated him.

AND Here’s the thing, Trigger is said to have had sex with several of the female descendants of Loci. (You might notice him having sex to be a theme of this review. It sure was of the book.) I know the author meant this like him being so irresistible, having such machismo that any woman would want him, even his enemies. But this makes no sense to me. I could not fathom how women who had been raised since birth to believe a man evil and it their moral duty to kill him could turn around and let their guard down enough to have sex with him. So, the only way I could make the idea of him having sex with the women he turned around and killed make sense was through coercion and/or rape. And once that idea set in, I couldn’t lose it. At one point he had a little black dress from a past lover/victim in his home to lend out. But it had also been made abundantly clear that he didn’t ever bring anyone home. So, did he have sex with her, kill her and then bring the dress home as some sort of macob trophy?

Honestly, even if he isn’t a rapist (which in my mind he must be), what sort of man repeatedly, even regularly has sex with women he plans to kill when he’s finished? Not a good one, which might be fine, as the Thunder Hunter is meant to be an antihero, but he sure isn’t one I’m interested in reading about. And I was so sick of his constant commentary on women that I wanted to slap him and the author for writing him. Plus, there was just too little story around his apparent sexual irresistibility.

And just in case anyone has made the mistake of thinking this a romance, give that idea up now. It is not. The only people he was shown actually having sex with were randos in the club while he treated the female main character abominably over and over and over again.

There is just SO much sexism in this book. The whole thing is just steeped in it, and since it’s written by a woman it felt a lot like internalized misogyny to me. Should we expect to be looked at as objects that men can give out as gifts? As I hinted above with Trigger’s very male gaze, ever single women was present solely in sexual context. Even random ones like a waitresses and secretaries. What’s more Trigger, written as THE MAN is shown as so full of himself and arrogant that even goddesses kneel at his feet. What chance have mere mortal women, who must be less than him, have? I absolutely had to force myself to finish this book.

Then there is the 220-year-old virgin girl. 220-years-old and the most important things about her are that she’s small, cute, naive and innocent. Sorry, what? 220-years-old and you expect me to believe she basically hasn’t lived. What’s she supposed to have been doing for 220 years to stay so innocent and ignorant?

Then there is the uncomfortable treatment of queerness. A man who was clearly and openly bi sexual is repeatedly referred to in ways such as having a “confused sexuality.” There is more than one such comment. Trigger seems ok being hit on by men, but it’s always with a sense of making fun of the person attracted to him. There is lesbian sex directed by a man solely for the benefit of a male viewer. It all very very uncomfortable, but it’s supposed to be titillating and dark.

Less egregious than all that were the annoying flashbacks and the way information just happened to fall in Trigger’s lap just when he needed it.

Lastly, the narrator was completely wrong, or at least his portrayal of Trigger was. Trigger was Scandinavian, but Ian Fisher played him a very English. True, Trigger lived in London, but he’s not a Londoner. The very same thing could be said for Chloe, the female side character, she’s Scandinavian but played as English (even when she’s teased for sounding American). This I think is more a reflection of the author choosing the wrong narrator, than him doing a poor job. Because honestly he did a fine job with the actual narration. 

All in all, I very much disliked this book and have no desire to continue the series. The writing itself is mechanically fine, but I’m not interested in subjecting myself to more.