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Book Review of The Queen’s Wings (The Emerging Queens #1), by Jamie K. Schmidt

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The Queen's Wings

I was granted a copy of Jamie K. Schmidt‘s The Queen’s Wings by the good folks of Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Long ago, the Cult of Humanity sacrificed the Dragon Queen, crippling the breeding process. But now Carolyn hears the voice of that long dead queen telling her that she holds the key to breaking the spell that will free all the female dragons.

FBI dragon Reed’s disdain for humans can’t mask the magnetic attraction he has for Carolyn, but when she tells him she’s going to shift into a dragon he thinks she’s crazy. A female hasn’t been hatched, or shape shifted, in over a thousand years.

He’s proven wrong after Carolyn shifts and is named the new Queen on the block. A never-ending line of suitors forms, but she only wants Reed. Too bad he doesn’t want in on the competition. But when the Cult kidnaps Carolyn to sacrifice her in an effort to make the curse against the female dragons permanent, Reed must face his fears—and feelings, racing to save the woman he realizes he can’t live without.

Review: **slightly spoilerish**
In some moments I think I really liked The Queen’s Wings, then I remember that what I liked was what The Queen’s Wings was trying to be…and largely failing. It was trying to be a snarky paranormal romance WITH DRAGONS and Dragon shifters are my absolute favourite type of shifter. I also love witty heroines with a penchant for sarcastic side commentary and self-mockery (within limits, of course). By all accounts I should have loved this book. But I just didn’t. 

Don’t get me wrong; I liked some aspects of it. I did like Carolyn’s witty comments and willingness to stand up to all the alpha dragons around her. I loved that she occasionally channelled Kaname Chidori and rolled the metaphorical (and literal) newspaper. I liked her obsession with books. Now, there is a hoard I can relate to! I liked the humor. I liked the actual world created here, where dragons and humans have come to some social accord and live together. I liked the way it played with the concept of power, since the female dragons were both revered and victimized. I liked Reed in the last half of the book and I liked Jack and Niall. So, the book wasn’t a total bust. 

However, it also never clicked for me. It didn’t flow smoothly. The writing did. That’s not what I mean. The writing was fine. It was the plot. It just stuttered along, occasionally making leaps and stops. As an example, for 45% of the book Reed was standoffish and even hostile toward Carolyn. Then, in a matter of a paragraph or so, he suddenly got all affectionate. There was nothing to instigate a change in behaviour. It was a TOTAL attitude 180, with no cause. Even worse it was inferred that this might have been some Machiavellian attempt to curry favour and control and that seemed a lot more likely than that he just suddenly decided he liked her. And even though the reader is told it’s not, they even get their happy ending, it didn’t feel natural. Not at all!

I also hated that almost all the other women in the book were villainized. (The few who weren’t were victimized.) It’s like watching any of a 100 Disney movies and finding that anytime you have an older woman in any position of power (the queen, the witch, the sorceress, the step mother, etc) she’s evil. It’s the same old subtle sexist, ‘see, woman can’t be allowed power’ crap we’re fed all the time. Why couldn’t even one of the dragon queens be working toward the good of the species instead of her own comfort? 

I’ll grant that they had a pretty crap deal, but in the end, the ‘evil queens’ felt like a cheap and easy plot device. Especially considering the fact that Carolyn, who was set up as a saviour by being the first female to shift in millennia, actually wasn’t the first and none of her subsequent actions did anything to save the species. Crazy xxx’s did that. Yep, one of the baddies, who is also villainized and supposed to be reviled by the reader, actually brought the females back. (But we’re still left with the impression that she was evil for doing so.)

So in the end, I’ll give this a middling rating. I liked what the book was aiming for, I just ended up not much liking what the book was. On a side note, I find the description wildly inaccurate. 

Book Review of The Protectors Series Bundle (Protectors 0.5-2), by Nana Malone

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ProtectorsI originally downloaded Nana Malone‘s Protectors series from the Amazon free list. I’m reviewing them here as number 14 & 15 of my Taking Care of my Own challenge. (I’m not counting the prequel, too short.)

Description from Amazon:

Betrayed – Book #0.05
Cassie Reeser is a bona fide superhero. But what did she have to give up to get that way? Her brother, Peter’s experiments might have saved her life, but now she’s little more than a weapon in his eyes and he’ll use her how he wishes. Before she was a Protector, Cassie was her brother’s personal lab rat. Can she break from his tyrannical rule or will she sacrifice herself to save her friends? 

Reluctant Protector – Book #1 
For five years, Cassie Reeser has been her brother’s personal lab rat. Peter’s experiments have made her a stronger, faster, better human. And she’s not the only one. To rescue her friends, she’ll have to depend on former war correspondent, Seth Adams. Cassie might not think she needs his protection, but he’ll die before he lets Peter have her back. 

Forsaken Protector – Book #2 
The enemy of her enemy is her friend. Almost one year after escaping Gentech Facilities, Symone Jackson lives in the shadows with her nightmares. Garrett Hunter thought he was one of the good guys, but on routine surveillance of a suspected terrorist, he discovers the awful truth…he’s not the only super human around. Can Symone overcome her mistrust of Garrett and stop living in the shadows?

***

Betrayed

After reading this prequel I almost gave up the series, thinking it was YA. Cassie is in high school at the time of the events, agonises over a boy and has her first kiss, etc. I couldn’t be bothered. But I stuck it out and for the record, though of no real consequence to the review of THIS story, the rest of the series is PNR and heavy on the sex, so not YA.

I basically just thought this was an OK start to the series, but it felt a little like it was the middle of something. Overbearing and for some reason in charge brother, random crush, kiss, decision to escape, escape attempt, etc. Then it ends on a cliffhanger, before it even gets started. Only really worth reading if you’re reading Reluctant Protector too.

***

Reluctant Protector

Again, I thought this was an OK read. (I’m seeing a trend.) Cassie has been held captive and experimented on for 5 years, she’s attempted escape before, somehow she’s established a contact to help her give it another go, and here the book starts. This is all basically explained, but like the prequel, it feels very much like we started in the middle of something. A lot happens off set, so to speak.

I liked the story, I really did. I liked Cassie and Seth, I really did. But believable emotions were relatively scarce in this book. I mean, it pretty much boiled down to, “Oh, you accidentally made me a superhuman…OK, moving on.” There was no fear, freakout, anger, really no emotional response at all.

Then there was the ‘romance;’ if I can call it that. The two of them seemed to have an inexplicable pull towards one another. It felt very much like a standard PNR, ‘you’re my destined mate’ kind of affair, but that’s never addressed. Worse yet, it employed the whole ‘Oh, I’m having a really erotic dream that I’m somehow mysteriously aware of’ trope. When of course, he’s awake; of course he’s really having real sex, not dream sex. As if that kind of thing EVER happens. It just felt like a cheap plot device to get them past the awkward ‘I won’t sleep with someone I just met” hurtle.

The sex…it too was OK, though there was a lot of it. There was also a weak attempt to add kink to the sexy bits by “fingering her puckered hole” and blindfolding her, etc. I’ll give it props for not being wholly vanilla, but this is supposed to have been a virgin having sex with a man for the first time or two. You’d think one of them would have been a little hesitant and none of that was really necessary in the first place. Honestly, it just didn’t feel at all natural. There were too many heavy ‘do you trust me?’ pauses followed by pretty light stuff. Meh.

I also had some basic questions. For example, I was curious about Seth’s age, for two reasons. One, Cassie is apparently supposed to be 22. (She’s 17 at the time of the prequel, and book one is set 5 years later.) So, I would expect Seth to be comparably aged, but he can’t be. He’s a war correspondent, so one would expect he graduated HS (18ish), got a journalism degree (22ish), got a job and worked his way up the ranks, since being sent to Afghanistan, Serbia and Rwanda (all of which are mentioned) aren’t newbie assignments, plus the time spent there (5 years minimum, probably significantly more, so at least 27). Two, he acts and speaks like a teenager. Bottom line is that he’s either significantly older than Cassie, but acts younger than his age or is supposed to be young like her, but then can’t hold the professional position he’s supposed to. *scratching head*

I’ll also throw one personal irritant into the mix. I get tired of seeing men teach female characters things they should already know. (It happens all the time in fiction. Men, after all, supposedly have all the answers for us little helpless lasses. grrr) Here, Cassie had had at least some of her powers since she was a teenager and had been training with them and the scientists who created them for YEARS, but within 2 days Seth learned how to use his AND taught Cassie how to improve her own skills in ways she and/or all those well-educated, experienced professionals couldn’t? Realistic or just the normal ‘the man always has the answer’ BS? He was then unquestionably in charge, coming up with the plans and giving orders. Again, Meh.

The book has a sappy ending that I think it could have done without. But I know a lot of readers really like that kind of thing, so OK. It could have done with a little more editing, but the writing is actually pretty good.

All in all, I liked the premise and liked the characters, but the execution was rushed and weak. Not so much that I wouldn’t recommend the book, but enough that it felt like I was just reading the surface of something.

***

Forsaken Protector

If I can be forgiven for my repetition here, I thought this too was an OK read. Though I’m sorry to say of a lower quality than the previous episodes. In theory, it’s a full novel, as opposed to the short story/novelette of the prequel and novella of book one. (I say in theory because it’s listed as 306 pages, compared to 29 for Betrayed and 97 for Reluctant Protector. But the bundle of all three is listed at 301 pages. Figure that one out.) Regardless, I honestly don’t think it was ready for publication.

The issue is inconsistencies, most notably the time frame VERY unclear. The blurb says this book happens, “Almost one year after escaping Gentech Facilities.” Later Cassie says it’s been 18 months since she met Seth (which was less than a week before the escape and Peter’s death), then the book claims, “Symone didn’t buy into Seth’s vision that Peter had survived the explosion a couple years ago.” Symone was supposed to have gotten her GED and attended college at an accelerated pace (which would still take more than a year). Then later it’s said, “When Cassie, Seth, and Jansen had rescued them six months ago…” Further on it’s back to, “I’ve lived in fear of this for the last couple years” and THEN a mere page or so later it’s, “You’ve been mother hen to his house of ruffians for nearly two years…” followed by, “Eighteen months ago, Cassie broke us out…” There were more, but you get the point.

At some point, I started highlighting all the time references so that I could look at them side by side and try to figure out how long it had been since the events of the last book. Instead I found that it was utterly indecipherable, as if every time the author needed to  post a time she just made one up.

Honestly, it’s not just the time between books that is inconsistent though. At one point Symone is said to have gotten her GED at 18 (after the escape) then it said that she was a scrawny 19-year-old when Jansen pulled her out of Gentech. She served Garret fried chicken at one point, when Lisa was said to have made roasted chicken. Symone entered a room in fitted cargo pants, but managed to take off her jeans.

Or how about this one:

You’re the first person in three years I’ve been able to touch who seems somewhat unaffected.” He blew out a breath. “So what you’re saying is, what happened on your couch was just you enjoying someone touching you.” She raised a delicate brow. “Four years is a long time to go without human contact.

There were a few copy edit kind of mistakes, but not enough to really discourage reading the book. But the above type of incongruencies pull me out of a story at almost warp speed.

I also again found myself wondering about characters ages. I’m really not overly focused on this normally, but I needed to know some of them. For example, the way Jansen worried over Symore made me think of him as fatherly (so forties, maybe). Then it was revealed he had ‘feeling’ for her and I was left thinking he must be a comparable age to her early 20s. But this clashed with being an experienced combat veteran, so I didn’t know how to picture him.

In the end, this review is a bit like my experience reading the book. I was so distracted by all of that ↑ that I couldn’t concentrate on the story. It’s a shame too. I liked Symone. I like Garrett. I liked that we got to see more of Cassie and Seth. (Though it felt unnatural that they would just hand the final mission over to Symone, Garrett and Jansen, without participating…and it was hella rushed). I liked that I got to see a few of the other escapees. I even liked the set up for future books, but none of that is what will stick with me and be what I remember in the end.

Whisper Cape

Book Review of Whisper Cape, by Susan Griscom

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Whisper CapeI grabbed Susan Griscom‘s Whisper Cape from the Amazon free list. This is review number four of my Taking Care of My Own Challenge.

Ridiculously Long Description from Goodreads:

Escape to a world where the impossible becomes possible. WHISPER CAPE is a town of secrets and Addison MacKenna soon becomes tangled in a web of them. Plagued with nightmares of her father’s sudden and brutal death, Addie struggles with her anguish and refuses to believe his demise was accidental. 

Fighting to shake off one of those devastating early morning nightmares, Addison finds it even harder to escape from the vision of a man lying on the side of the road—a man she may have just killed. When she frantically tries to locate him, he seemingly disappears, just the beginning of strange occurrences in her life. She also cannot ignore the weird sensations in her own body. Suddenly, the impossible seems possible, but is that a blessing or a curse? 

Believing that her continual and worsening nightmares are both the key to her own new abilities and the clue to her father’s death, Addie knows she will not rest until she has the answers she craves. As she strives to cope with her new remarkable talents, someone else learns of her abilities—a disgruntled maniacal psychopath with his own agenda that involves eliminating Addie. The only one who can protect her, instruct her in the use of her powers and teach her how to destroy the murderous monster is the same man who makes Addie’s heart race and her blood heat with passion. The same man she’d left for dead. 

Cael Sheridan may be arrogant and mysterious but he’s also undeniably gorgeous. A member of a secret society, he is sworn to protect the woman he believes to be the daughter of his recently murdered mentor. In the process, he finds it impossible to resist her magnetic sensuality, complicating his efforts to shield and guide her as she learns to manage her newly acquired skills. At the same time, Addison has much to teach him about trust and commitment. Fate has brought them together, but will it make them stronger or destroy them both in end?

Review:
I have to be honest, I hate giving bad reviews but I’m thrilled to be done with this book. I was beginning to think I might never reach the end and it really wasn’t ringing any bells for me. Mostly because I disliked the heroine, Addie, and didn’t particularly care for the hero, Cael, either.

Addie was pitiful in almost every sense of the word. In the first 1/4 of the book she had nightmares, almost ran someone over and drove off a cliff, bumped her head into a metal sign so hard she almost fell onto jagged rocks, fell over a cliff and almost died (Seriously, who falls off a cliff that they know they’re standing on because they don’t pay attention to where they put their feet?), got buzzed off two beers and head spinning, passing out drunk off three. The trend only continued after that, tripping into Cael’s arms, staggering on her big girl high heals, etc.

It all made her feel like she couldn’t take care of herself. And not only because of her ridiculous accident proneness, but in little things like her tendency to forget to eat and the crying (even crying herself to sleep at one point). She’s either very child-like or just basically inept and a failure as an adult. I’m going with the latter, since at 26 she had only just gotten her first apartment on her own.

Then there were passages like this, “…the spell of his kisses rendering her helpless. His hands were so sure and knowledgeable…” Yes, that’s obviously a statement that needs to be considered in context, but that’s also essentially the ongoing dichotomy here. She’s helpless and he’s sure. Everyone knows more than Addie. Everyone is more capable than Addie. Everyone looks out for poor fragile, naive Addie. Gag. Helpless women (especially ones who are contradictorily made out to be strong and capable, despite what is shown) drive me up the wall.

Cael, was just…well, I don’t know how to say this less bluntly, but just too predictable. Almost everything, no matter how ridiculous, was seen a mile in advance or a PNR trope. For example, deciding Addie would be better off without him and trying to push her away by being verbally cruel in order to make her believe he doesn’t care for her (for her own good, of course). A) stupid and makes no sense. How is hurting her protecting her? B) a regular, and no less hated for it, PNR event.

Addie’s limp-ragness was the main reason I disliked the book, but a close second was that I kept asking, ‘where is the antagonist?’ No, seriously, he shows up for about a page at 75% (where we see a quick cliché baddie monologue along the lines of  “oh, they’ll pay…blah, blah, blah”) and then for about 3 pages at 95% (where he is defeated with painful ease) otherwise he’s just a cut-out for Cael to protect Addie from while 98% of the book is dedicated to their lightning-speed romance or sex. What more, he had ample access and opportunity to kill, kidnap, maim, rape, or whatever Addie before the big reveal and climactic fight. So, why didn’t he?

Despite all the sex the book has a very YA feel. The way a big deal is made of Addie and Cael having sex, the ‘parent figures’ being seriously over-protective and everyone’s mental agony over being a ‘boyfriend’ or not. These are supposed to be adults? No, these felt like teenagers, with teenage issues.

I found the writing repetitive, in the sense that the reader is told the same thing over and over again, but also in that things happen and then the characters tell other characters about it or events are relayed from various characters. Like Darcy talking about why she and Jarod broke up and then Jarod telling Addie why he and Darcy broke up. Same story, why do I need to hear it twice? Then again, after hearing the story twice, why do we also need multiple reminders of it? (Like Darcy in the bath remembering it.)

I also found the dialogue often (but not always) stiff, occasionally losing contractions, saying names too frequently, or too often starting a comment with yes or please, for example. Whatever the reason, it didn’t feel natural to me. This lent an oddly formal feel to the book.

Lastly, random odd POVs are thrown in occasionally. Despite being side characters we see Darcy and Jarod’s POV. I didn’t understand why. Their small side-story didn’t contribute enough to the plot to necessitate (or excuse) breaking the set POV pattern for inclusion. So I often found myself wondering why I was watching them do whatever unimportant thing they were doing.

All in all, not a winner for me. Believe it or not I dropped a number of minor complaints because I thought too much more would start to border on cruelty.  The above is just my opinion and I apologise for not having more positives to sandwich in there, but by the time I finally finished I was just too far past objectivity to manage it. I disliked the book, but you’ll notice I’ve never claimed it isn’t a quality book or unworthy of being read. The book has an interesting premise and I know a lot of people enjoy it. Maybe you’ll be one of them, even if I wasn’t.