Tag Archives: reverse harem

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Book Review: Rise of the Phoenix, by JL Madore

I picked up a copy of JL. Madore’s Rise of the Phoenix as an Amazon freebie, last year.
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Monsters, Magic, and Mates I never knew existed.

Kia versus power pole isn’t the end I expect—it’s the beginning of… gawd, where do I begin?
Four wildly sexy males. Powers I don’t understand. And the eyes of the fae world on me as the person to unite the severed realms. No pressure.

my review

Amusing enough, but not much more. It’s entertaining but not very deep. The plot is pretty thin, and none of the characters (the males especially) are well-developed. One is such an asshole I don’t know how the author imagines she’ll redeem him, and two are fairly inconsistent in their tone and characterization. It was the book’s general inconsistencies that really threw me though, like someone unbuckling yoga pants.

The book also is guilty of using the cheap attempted rape shtick (and it wasn’t even very well rise of the phoenix photostitched into the plot). I’m not saying a book should never include rape, but I’ve found that far too often, it’s used for cheap tension. More often than not, here included, there are a million better and less over-used and common plot devices to reach for. At this point, I call it the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of plotting. It’s evidence the author took the easiest, least thought about, no-effort path. IT’S LAZY. And is that really how authors want to be seen?

Anyhow, despite how negative this review seems, I’ll read book two (I have 1-5), because I have it and I’m curious to see all the men submit.


Other Reviews:

Rise of the Phoenix by J.L. Madore – A Book Review

 

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Book Review: Raven’s Cry & Raven’s Song, by Charlie Nottingham

In May, when the SCOTUS leak first dropped, before the Supreme Court actually made their appalling ruling on Roe vs Wade, Charlie Nottingham organized a #ReadForOurRights event over on Tiktok. She and several other authors agreed to donate the proceeds from book sales that month to campaigns fighting to reestablish and/or protect women’s rights. I ordered several books from several authors during this event. (Something like 17, if I’m remembering right.) Raven’s Cry was one of them. Then, because I enjoyed Raven’s Cry I ordered Raven’s Song…then I saw the author was looking for ARC readers so I signed up, getting a copy a little early.


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Everyone has skeletons in their closet, but Rain’s are learning to open the door.

Rain’s lost everything in the last decade. Her grandmother, her brother, and her family home might be next. All she has is Graham – a powerful Fae who illegally escaped the Fae Realm and has been her best friend ever since.

Until Ezra – the sexiest Vampire she’s ever seen – commissions her for one hell of a job. Cleansing dozens of vengeful spirits from an abandoned mansion for a life changing amount of money.

All Rain wants is to focus on her budding relationship with Ezra, but the ghosts in the mansion have awoken the ones Rain has spent a decade trying to keep locked up.

But Rain isn’t the only one with secrets. Ezra has a few of his own.

my review

This was my first Charlie Nottingham book, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I liked all of the characters, the world seems interesting, and the writing flows naturally. Focus-wise, I’d consider it much more a sweet building-of-a-polyamorous-relationship than anything else. (Which makes me laugh because it’s labeled a “Dark Paranormal Romance Reverse Harem.”) raven's cry photoI’m not suggesting the fantasy element is unimportant. But it is definitely given less page time than the romantic elements. And I found it far sweeter than I did dark.

It’s also quite slow to build, both the 4-way relationship (with one of the men not even appearing until quite late in the book) and the fantasy/mystery/action element, which only really ramps up toward the end of the book. None of this is said to discourage reading the book. I enjoyed the heck out of it. In fact, I finished it disappointed to discover book two wasn’t out yet. I pre-ordered it, though. So, all in all, I think I’ve found a new author to follow.


Raven's song cover

Everyone has skeletons in their closet, but Rain’s are learning to open the door.

Rain’s lost everything in the last decade. Her grandmother, her brother, and her family home might be next. All she has is Graham – a powerful Fae who illegally escaped the Fae Realm and has been her best friend ever since.

Until Ezra – the sexiest Vampire she’s ever seen – commissions her for one hell of a job. Cleansing dozens of vengeful spirits from an abandoned mansion for a life changing amount of money.

All Rain wants is to focus on her budding relationship with Ezra, but the ghosts in the mansion have awoken the ones Rain has spent a decade trying to keep locked up.

But Rain isn’t the only one with secrets. Ezra has a few of his own.

my review

I enjoyed this a lot, though I’ll admit I didn’t love it quite as much as book one. The reasons are 100% personal preference sort of stuff though. Before I get to that, let me extol the virtues of the book. The writing is clean and easy to read. I adore the characters and that they believably struggle with learning to tolerate/like/love one another over time. I liked the inclusion of shards of real life that often get glossed over during sex scenes, like washing hands after certain activities, etc. I love that we get everyone’s point of view and the mystery has kept me guessing. Overall, I’m 100% looking forward to book three. But I did have complaints, personal ones, but complaints all the same.

One of my biggest annoyances in sexy-time books is what I call ‘instructional sex’ or ‘instructional kink.’ It’s not that I think instruction or clear communication of boundaries and expectations is bad in any way. But you don’t have to have read many of such books before it all gets repetitive. I’ve just read explanations of various kinks or relationships or safe words/signs, etc so many times in so many books that I’m bored with it. It tends to make me skim.

And Raven’s Song has quite a lot. There are four people in the relationship, various kinks, and various interpersonal expectations. So, I felt like over half the book is ‘instructional,’ in the ‘this is how we do things’ or ‘this is how this works’ or ‘this is where my line is’ sort of ways. I thought it bogged the narrative down.

Understanding, of course, that readers were probably meant to go, ‘Aww, look how open and communicative they are all being,’ and readers who enjoy that will love this book. Because I do think Nottingham did a good job with it and the characters are wonderfully communicative with one another. But I just find it boring in the extreme since it’s all just a variation on something read before.

Similarly, the sex here didn’t light me up. I thought for having three men involved, who were all meant to be very different, all the sex felt same-same. I wouldn’t have been able to tell one man from another without names. And the descriptions themselves didn’t appeal to me. I understand that one character has a rough bent, but I found myself pinching my knees together protectively during his sex scenes.

Note, I said knees. It wasn’t the slapping or even the degradation (though that’s not my favorite kink). I could handle that a lot more easily than just how generally indelicate his treatment of her delicate bits is. Everything is described as some sort of motoring in hard, fast, rough ways. But not in a sexy (for me) way. More like you’d push a doorbell or scrape paint—something that takes force to overcome resistance. I’m complaining, I think, more of the language in the raven's song photodescriptions than the use of kink or even the acts themselves. But it all felt very gross-motor and unappealing to me. But again, THAT IS A PERSONAL PREFERENCE sort of complaint, not a quality.

All in all, there were a few not-for-me aspects, but at least one of them I feel like has been done and shouldn’t need to be carried over into the next book and I’m eagerly awaiting further coming together of the four individuals and the mystery. I look forward to the next book.


Other Reviews:

Book Review: Raven’s Cry by Charlie Nottingham

 

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Book Review: Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier

I received an Audible code for a copy of Chaos, by J.B. Trepagnier, narrated by Anneliese Rennie, Portia Kay Winters, Austin Barringer, Carl Mason, Antonio Amato, Aaron Shedlock, Liam Di Cosimo, and Mike Johnson.

audio cover Chaos

The Library of the Profane has everything your black heart desires. But we don’t just allow anyone to get a library card.

Need to summon a demon? Raise the dead? A clan of vampires bothering you? Do you like the really nasty werewolf erotica? The Library of the Profane has all of that, but not everyone can handle the contents (Some people can’t handle their werewolf erotica). I’ve been a librarian here for five years and when I say I killed to get this job, I’m not being facetious.

You can’t check out our books. Some of the books are sentient and don’t like it. We have rooms to perform the spells in or hell, we do have a copy machine (copies are extra). When a witch came in and said they needed to do a little necromancy, I didn’t question it. They wouldn’t have been given a library card if they were going to raise someone really bad. I helped with the necromancy because it’s just my job as a librarian.

Except it wasn’t a normal resurrection. It was the physical embodiment of Chaos and when he woke up, he saw me first and now he’s attached. Chaos personified is a horrible library guest and he won’t leave with the witch who raised him. He’s constantly getting into things he’s not supposed to and he’s really into the werewolf erotica.

It’s not like I can let him out because the Library of the Profane is meant to contain Chaos. The rest of the world isn’t. He’s awful about keeping his identity secret too. A warlock, a Hellhound, and a vampire know he’s here and they are bugging me to let Chaos have a little fun.

I just want a normal day of summoning demons, cursing people, and telling people to be quiet in my library. This is too much.

my review
Sooo, this was a flop for me. I’m not certain which I liked less, the story or the narration. This book has nine narrators, and it is not a feature. I found it super distracting (and hated one of the voiced characters entirely). The narrators did a fine job (even if I disliked one), but there didn’t need to be so many of them. It detracted from the experience. Why would anyone choose to do this?

As for the story, I found it flimsy and unsubstantial. Ripley exists. All the men who are forming her harem exist. That’s about all I can say for them. There is so little character development that they all remain virtual strangers (to the reader and each other).

Lastly, the book barely introduces all the characters and the mystery before it ends on a cliffhanger. As much as I hate starting stories I don’t see the end of, I won’t be continuing this one.

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Other Reviews:

BOOK REVIEW: Chaos (The Library of the Profane) by J.B. Trepagnier #reverseharem #urbanfantasy