Tag Archives: PNR

Woe for a Faerie

Book Review of Woe for a Faerie: Keepers of New York, by B. Brumley

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I picked up Woe For a Faerie, by B. Brumley, from Amazon. I believe it is a perma-freebie.

Description from Goodreads:

Woe for a Faerie 

I never had a choice…
Until I made one and woke up naked in the middle of Central Park.
Wingless.
The cost of retribution gouged between my shoulder blades.
Now I’ve got to choose between Jason, the priest who’s hiding something, and Arún, the off-world Fae that believes I’m his prophesied queen.
Mortality was supposed to be easy.

 Wings Over New York 

I’ve lived in this city for almost a year now, and I’ve happily settled into my wing-free reality.
Lately, my biggest worry is meeting my new in-laws.
When a cop dies and an old foe returns, Jason and Arún join forces to hunt the feathered shifter that’s killing people in Central Park, and I’m sucked into another supernatural tug-of-war.
Only, this time, I’m terrified that I’m going to lose the one I love.

Review:

Slightly spoilerish, but doesn’t give anything away you won’t guess immediately on reading the book.

What the hell did I just read? Part one was all dark and gothic and over-wrought, but in part two the same character turned into a bubbly, happy, pretty-pretty princess who wears bright dresses and worries about her makeup. Seriously, what the hell, is consistency not a thing anymore?

Part two starts with her being in love and married to a ‘man’ that she didn’t even wholly trust at the end of part one. How did that happen? Don’t know, it was off page in an 8 month gap between part one and two. Characters are introduced to die pointlessly. (And I personally believe you shouldn’t kill a title character, so I’m outraged at that too.) At 70%, the side characters finally show up and the team of keepers comes up for the first time. 70% people, that’s far far too late.

I’ve finished the book but still have no idea about the world. Paranormals exist and I think maybe people know about then, but I’m not at all sure. I don’t know a time frame, I don’t know the limits of the world, I don’t know much of anything, really. I don’t know the big players or minor factions. I don’t know the technology level. Despite the existence of angels, I don’t know the religious connection. I don’t know how or why Woe is different to other angels. I don’t know anything.

Then there was the fact that within the first 4% of the book we’re told of 3 females raped. I say females, instead of women, because two of them were children. And they’re 50 years apart, so they aren’t even related events. Is rape really the only thing the author could come up with to show us readers that the world sucks and that the main character is frustrated with it? Really?

In the beginning, despite all the horribly purple writing, Woe (who’s name is never explained) looks like she might turn into something strong and independent. But she happily gives all that up to be a wifey. And you know what? That distinct personality change happens off-page. No idea why or how it happens. It’s in that 8 month gap I mentioned. But it’s a huge change. She does not read as the same character from part one to two. Not at all!

And do you know what all this culminates into? After being an angel, giving it up to be mortal, the book hinting that Woe will be a warrior of some sort, do you know what the big climax is? A freakin’ baby. So, we’re safely back in cliched, established gender expectations. She’s preggers, so she’s a real woman now. Disgustingly disappointing. These gender tropes are littered in the book, everything from the woman (though angels are androgynous, read genderless, she’s apparently still female) longing for a baby she can’t have, to the woman fighting for the right to make her won decisions, to her constant sexuality, to rape, to attempted prostitution, to falling in love with literally the first man she meets, to giving it all up for marriage, to accepting colors in her wardrobe because her husband likes them, to being concerned with her appearance, to finally getting her baby. It’s all too cliched for words.

Mechanically, the writing is pretty good and it’s even fairly well edited. But man, I’m dropping this like it’s hot and running in the other direction.

Book Review of The Wilde Crew: Rhett (The Shifters of Wilde Ranch #1), by Kim Fox

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I downloaded a copy of Kim Fox‘s The Wilde Crew: Rhett when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Skin Shifter, Rhett Jones, is the new shifter cop in Colwood, Montana. His first day on the job has him going toe to paw with a truly dominant grizzly bear shifter and the beautiful girl who is desperately trying to keep the fierce animal under control. He thought the bear was tough but she was nothing compared to the feisty girl hiding inside.

Bear shifter, Joan Heller, is just trying to find a new home but her out of control grizzly bear is ruining everything once again. She’s one phase away from being kicked out of town until she meets up with the sexy cop with the entourage of ravens who offers his help and his home to her.

Things get wild when the Wilde Crew get thrown into the mix and threaten to make the unstable situation explode. Will the new boys in town be the new family that Rhett and Joan need? Or will they be the detonator that blows everything to pieces?

Review:
Well, this book has good reviews and it started well, with the main character and his friends being lovable screw-ups. And it was funny. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to carry the book when the rest of it fell apart.

There is no conflict in this book, not really. The author threw a half-baked love triangle in for no conceivable reason that substitutes for one for a little while. Let me think, hmm, no that was it and it wasn’t even solved by the end of the book. There was no other conflict, so the book was dull.

It’s basically insta-love, but fails even at that since the pitiful triangle meant the main female was admiring two men when the plot should have been solidifying the love between the two main characters. The sex is abrupt, out of no where and includes role play, which would be fine if the characters had known each-other more than 2 days and either of them had a personality that lead the reader to believe they’d be into that kind of thing. Or done anything to suggest to the other that they’d be open to it. I literally rolled my eyes at the sex scenes.

I appreciated the female alpha. (Though it should be noted she still needed a man to become Alpha.) The writing isn’t horrible, like I said it’s funny, but there is too much tell, not enough show, almost no development of characters, world or plot and it doesn’t really accomplish anything. I finished the book wondering what the point had been.

Amaranth

Book Review of Amaranth (The Resistance Trilogy #1), by Rachael Wade

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I apparently downloaded Rachel Wade’s Amaranth in 2013. It was a freebie and, as it’s still free, I can only assume it’s a perma-freebie.

Description from Goodreds:
Hoodoo-influenced Southern Louisiana seems like the perfect place for Camille to escape her abusive past and dysfunctional family. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with the handsome Gavin Devereaux and plummet into the world of Amaranth, a place of exile for reformed vampires.

Wrestling to escape a deadly ex-boyfriend while giving Gavin a chance, Camille is confronted with decisions that threaten not only her life, but the lives of her inhuman friends she has come to love. Entangled in her friends’ quest for freedom, she dives into their realm and faces the threats of Amaranth’s ruler—the mother of all vampires—and her own inner demons.

Now Camille must decide whether she will derail her life and make the ultimate sacrifice for the monsters that interrupted her bumpy path back to sanity—what she still wants so desperately—or escape with Gavin before it’s too late for both of them.

Review:
This might have had a good idea in it somewhere but it’s not written well enough for me to tell. Several times I was simply lost and didn’t know what was happening. For example, the book starts in Paris, with Camille talking about leaving her abusive boyfriend in Seattle. Next chapter, she’s in Louisiana talking about leaving her abusive boyfriend, but not the same abusive boyfriend. No idea what happened to the first one or how she ended up with this second one or when she moved to Louisiana. But more to the point, it took quite a while to figure out what was going on. It was jarring.

I marked several passages in which I literally couldn’t figure out what was actually supposed to be happening. Sometimes the writing was just unclear. The pacing is odd and I was often uncertain about time frames. There are several inconsistencies and also a lot of presumed knowledge. I felt like, as a reader, I’d been left out of some essential planning meeting and everyone around me was just going on as if I knew something I didn’t. The characters were one-dimensional and the writing flat.

Gavin and Camille’s relationship is practically insta-love and we’re told how amazing it is, but never shown anything. I never felt any chemistry between them. Then there is Gabe and Audrey. They fall in love off-page and apparently she’s turned into a vampire and let in on all the vampire knowledge that Camille isn’t. Camille introduced her to the vampires and somehow she’s allowed in on all the secrets but the main character isn’t? Yeah, that’s how this book rolled and you sure to feel it.

Worst of all Camille was spineless for most of the book, despite readers being told she’s strong and then she runs off and does something amazingly too stupid to live. Seriously, unbelievably stupid!

Honestly, I just think this needed a lot more work.