Tag Archives: PNR

Amaranth

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

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.

Thrill of the Chase

Book Review of Thrill of the Chase, by Layla Nash

I downloaded a copy of Layla Nash‘s Thrill of the Chase when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Up-and-coming chef Natalia Spencer has enough on her plate dealing with a struggling restaurant and a corrupt manager selling her out of pantry and kitchen. She doesn’t have time for arrogant customers, even a gorgeous corporate raider in a bespoke suit with muscles that just don’t stop. Until, of course, he buys her restaurant and saves her life. 

Logan Chase, alpha of his lion shifter pride, is intrigued when the feisty chef kicks him out of her restaurant. He’s enraged when someone attacks her. And he’s intoxicated when he finally gets close enough to kiss her. But when he shifts in front of her and his lion comes out to play, he risks losing Natalia forever. 

Natalia just wants to cook and snuggle with a nice guy. Shacking up with a man who’s also a lion means inviting a new level of crazy into her life, along with his unruly brothers, and even her werewolf best friends warn her away. Can she and Logan create a steamy relationship from scratch, or are they a recipe for disaster?

Review:
So, the mechanical writing is fine and I thought the outline of an interesting story was too, but…BUT at one point, in the beginning, I flipped back and forwards between pages and even came to the internet to ensure I had an up to date copy, because I was sure I was missing a chapter or two (or five).

Let me lay it out this way, despite being 130 pages long, there is nothing in the book beyond what is in the blurb, almost literally. Natalia throws Logan out of her restaurant, or at least tells him he can’t eat. He then hires her to cook him a meal, her not knowing it’s him until she arrives. When she arrives he’s already decided to treat her like a mate, she is his mate. There are no interactions between the two of them between the two events and no internal thoughts given to the reader. So, as a reader, I was just like, what? When did that happen? How did that happen?

Then within two days they’re declaring love, making plans to move in with each other, etc. There is no development of a relationship AT ALL.

The closest thing to a plot development is her getting attacked. Because of course all women are victims all the time. And the closest thing to character development is the fact that she’s been some sort of undisclosed victim in the past.

Lastly, as a major point of contention for me, big cats like lions don’t purr. They can’t. They don’t have the connection of small bones that are vibrated to make the sound. They are literally unable to purr, which made Logan’s constant purring a grating inconsistency everytime it happened. I know this is fantasy, so it probably doesn’t matter. But I’m pretty sure this is an oversight on the part of the author and an annoying one.

I did like the characters, even the side ones. I thought Logan’s confused desperation was cute and his brother gave some very sage advice on more than one occasion. And again, the writing is ok. The book isn’t even unfun to read. But it’s no where near developed or fleshed out enough to feel real and substantial.

Dark Muse

Book Review of Dark Muse, by Philip Mann

I won a signed copy of Dark Muse from the author, Philip Mann through Goodreads.

Description:
You can’t quite reach it. That goal, that project. You’re just out of reach of making that spectacular story, or that painting that will carry your name for years to come. You need a muse. Vi Gold or Lee Marvin will be glad to help. Either of these two ladies will give you that ride on the rocket, that trip to the well that gives you what you need. 

But be careful. Too many rides on that rocket, or too many trips to the well, and you could wind up insane. Or dead. 

Vi has just seen another friend kill himself, and she has helped him do it. She’s at the end of the rope herself when she meets Cal Simon, a normal, helpful man who tries to console her. Putting aside her fears and caution, Vi lets him get close. At last, she has a normal, sane boyfriend. But she won’t tell him about what she really is. He wouldn’t believe her anyway. And if he did, he would run away. Better to let it be, and deal with that problem later. That problem being that Cal might go insane if she slips up. 

Lee Marvin is similar to Vi, but her abilities are far stronger. When they meet one night, they form a bond, as comrades in arms. With Lee. Vi can be who she truly is, and not worry about being judged or doing harm. But Lee’s casual way with violence, and the way she talks about normal people are both very disturbing to Vi. 

Things are difficult enough, and then Lee kills somebody.

Review:
This is a Jewish paranormal romance! How often to you see that? The only other one I can really think of is Shira Glassman and she leans much more toward YA. So, I was super excited to read this. Sadly, that excitement didn’t last long.

I’m generally a literary monogamist, reading only one book at a time. But occasionally, when I’m not enjoying something but really want to finish it, I’ll let myself read a second book too. In these cases, I tend to read a chapter or two of the book I’m struggling with, a whole other book, another couple chapter or two, then a whole other book, etc. How many books I read before finishing the first one can serve as a barometer of how much I’m not enjoying the primary book.

In this case, I read five other books and listened to one audio short story. I found I could barely struggle through a single chapter before I wanted to run off and read something else. And the problem wasn’t so much the story, it was the writing.

The writing style is stiff and the dialogue especially so. Characters use names and “my dear,” “my darling,” “sweetie,” that sort of endearment far, far, far too often. And they all talk like they’re 80, despite being in their late twenties.

Editing is also a bit of a mess. I mean, there are errors in the synopsis, so you can easily imagine how many are in the book itself. Plenty, even if you don’t count how often a space is included before the final punctuation in a sentence. (Why?) It’s still easily readable, but it’s a distraction in a book that was already barely holding my interest.

There are a number of inconsistencies in the narrative and I dislike how anyone who isn’t supposed to be from Canada (there’s a character from Serbia and one from Jamaica) speaks in choppy, child-like, non-sentences, even if they were supposed to have lived in Montreal for decades.

Lastly, the book just feels scattered. You have a woman with a mysterious curse/gift. She’s had it for 15 years, her whole family has it, but she suddenly decides, right now, to find out what it’s about. Why now? Why not any time in the past? The main character Vi just kind of coasts along asking random questions of random people and getting random answers. No one expresses surprise, or any real notable emotion at all at her oddity (people needed to be shocked and they weren’t, none of them were). Characters pop up and are given fairly significant page time that don’t seem to contribute much to the narrative and then there is a sudden, unearned, reprieve from a minor side character. I never felt the book had any sort of peak and I was basically bored.

The glossary was a nice touch, but it was hardly necessary for four words. I did like the idea behind the book and that Vi had a lesbian experience (even if it or the fact that her character didn’t seem the sort for sex outside her monogamous relationship was explored), but I’m afraid it wasn’t done well enough to pull off the meaningful story it set out to tell. Which is a shame; characters who happen to live normal Jewish lives are so rare I really hoped to see them well represented.

*Edited to correct a typo after the author snakily commented on the Amazon review to point it out, comparing editing a book review to editing a published book and working hard to discredit the review in general. I don’t know about other people, but from this readers perspective that just looks bad. I disliked the book, sure, had some criticisms that were mine to make, but was still willing to give the author credit for creating a story that others might enjoy. I had no issue with the author himself. But he’s just shown himself to be thin skinned and petty, never a good look on a professional author.

*Edit Sept 2019: I’ve just discovered that this author has recently been badmouthing me in an author group and wrote a fairly gross passage about me in his latest book. I’m not going to engage it beyond this note (and maybe a mocking tweet). But if you happen to be a reviewer thinking of reviewing this author’s work, you might want to go in knowing he does not take criticism well (holding 3 year grudges, for example).