Tag Archives: romance

Light of Kaska

Book Review of Light of Kaska, by Michelle O’Leary

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Light of KaskaDespite its horrible cover, I downloaded a copy of Michelle O’Leary‘s Light of Kaska from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Escaped convict Chase Stryker is on the run from the Collectors, an agency that tracks down criminals and brings them to justice. Hiding on a drowsy farming planet seems ideal, but murder and mayhem follow him wherever he goes—in an ironic twist of fate, he’s blamed for a murder he didn’t commit and sentenced to death by flame without a trial. Rescue comes in the form of Sukeza bet Marish, an unlikely champion whose unassuming, fearful exterior inspires his contempt. But there’s more to his little rescuer than meets the eye, starting with the fact that she’s not part of the farming community and the secret they’d kill to protect. His reluctant fascination begins when he discovers that she smells like sunshine, tastes like nectar, and can offer him everything he never knew he needed.

Review:
Very middle of the road read, for me. It has good points and bad. On the good side are some interesting side characters, a sexy alpha hero, a HEA, older main characters (40ish maybe), and some really cute scenes when Chase basically freaks out over finding himself the recipient of kindness. The writing was also fine and the editing wasn’t too mistake laden.

On the bad side was some major repetition. Apparently, Sukeza is small and Chase is big. This fact is reiterated about a bagazillion times. Apparently, little bitty Sukeza can’t imagine a big, dangerous, predator-type man would be interested in her and big, dangerous Chase can’t imagine a skittish slip of a woman would look twice at him. Again, we’re told this about a million times.

The romantic plot line is stretched far beyond reasonable limits based on nothing more than misunderstandings, jumped to conclusions and refusal to communicate. This is frustrating and unpleasant. Plus, all the sex scenes were about as effective as a snapped rubber-band, as Chase pulled away, away, away and then gave in and pounced back, again and again.

Sukeza’s character is inconsistent. Roughly halfway through the book she has a personality 180. The author tries to explain it away by saying it’s because she’s come home, but it doesn’t work. The her at the end is irreconcilable with her at the beginning.

The book is too long. The first half of the book feels very disconnected from the storyline of the second half of the book and there is a large lagging bit in the middle, where Chase and Sukeza aren’t even together. It’s essentially useless to the rest of the book. Though, to be fair, Harle and Chase’s bromance is BY FAR my favorite part of the book.

So, in the end I’m calling this ok, but not great, with the caveat that the beginning is better than the end.

Best scene in the book: when a chained up, intimidating Chase is forced to ask Suzeka, with complete incredulity, “Are you petting me?”

Ashkewheteasu

Book Review of Ashkewheteasu (The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo #1), by Rose Anderson

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Ashkewheteasu (The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo #1) by Rose AndersonI downloaded a copy of Rose Anderson‘s Ashkewheteasu from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
What does an immortal Native American shaman do when the grave he’s sworn to watch over for all eternity disappears under urban development?

His purpose of guarding his wife’s burial mound is gone, Ashkewheteasu seeks to end his immortal existence. In his despair, Ash assumes the form of a wolf and steps in front of a moving car and into the life of Dr. Olivia “Livie” Rosalini. The veterinarian saves the animal’s life, and in the process saves the man within. Livie has no idea the wolfish dog she’s taken into her home and grows to love is a magical being seeking to win her heart as a man.

While Ash is learning a new world filled with new love, friendship, and happiness, an old menace makes plans to steal it all away; just as he had 3000 years before.

Review:
This book and I just generally didn’t get along. There is, I’ve found, a certain subset of romances, especially common in the SP/Indie realm in which all characters except for the villain are Mary Sues and Gary Stues, every single one of them. They tend to speak in full, contractionless sentences and use each other’s names/titles too often to feel natural. It reads as if they should all be talking in gentle falsettos, as if to a child. They have intense and often anchorless emotions that they or the narrator openly declare and they tend to hug a lot.

I’m serious here. Think about how often you’ve encountered this same combination in books. The thing is, I hate this subset of romances. I’m not sure if this is something authors purposefully do or if it’s a failure to produce something more believable. It’s gotten to the point that I evaluate all hugs in a book to see if they are part of this pattern. Not all are, obviously, but they sure are in this book.

Everyone except for Eli is gentle and caring and accepting of one another. The dialogue is stiff, though to be fair the author explains some of this away with Ash’s age. Ash and Livie’s emotions are instant and intense. Ash proclaims his love immediately and, despite knowing each-other only a collection of hours, Livie accepts and returns it…and everyone hugs a lot. So, based on this alone, I probably wasn’t going to like this book much.

But there is also just weirdness. I am in no way turned on, titillated or attracted to scarlet dog or wolf cock. I’m just saying. But this phrase was used at least four times, which infers that there were at least four incidences in which a wolf (thought to be a large dog) got his (always scarlet for some reason) cock out, in this book. At least one of which was while actually engaged in pre-coitus with a woman. I’m just gonna have to go with EWWWW on that one. Not fun!

But there is also the problem of encountering a “cock” at all. The whole book is a Mary Sue, so encountering crude language like, ‘cock’ or ’empty his ball’ feels out of place in context. It’s as if the author sat down with an eight year old and told him/her about a man getting his cock out to stroke off. It’s just all around wrong. It doesn’t fit the tone of the rest of the book.

I also had a hard time accepting that Ash had lived 3,000 years and never encountered humanity beyond brief observations. Yes, seeing him discover instant fire (a lighter), learn how to button a shirt, what a phone or TV is and such was cute, but ultimately unrealistic (and repetitive). What exactly was he supposed to have been doing for 3,000 years in the midst of an urban setting if he never ventured far enough from his cave to meet people?

I wasn’t a fan of this book. I should have known better than to read a book I can’t even pronounce the title of, but I couldn’t pass up that first line in the synopsis. It really is great.

If I were going to star-rate it I would have given it a full 3/5 stars up until the end. I appreciated the Native American knowledge that went into writing it. I didn’t even dislike the characters, just how they were presented. But the fact that it ended without the big, climactic showdown that it had been building toward from the beginning sank it for me. It’s not quite a cliffhanger, though there is obviously meant to be another book, it just doesn’t feel wrapped up and well-ended.

Noble Ark

Book Review of Noble Ark, by Colette Black

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Noble ArkI downloaded a copy of Colette Black‘s book, Noble Ark, from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting, it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
Mwalgi pirates, parasitic aliens who consume human spinal fluid, are boarding the Noble Ark. When Larkin Trovgar, a half-human member of the attacking alien ship, turns on his own people, saving Aline Taylor’s life, she feels duty-bound to watch over the impossible monstrosity. Despite his easy-going charms and virile physique, she’s determined to see him as she would any Mwalgi—nothing better than an animal. As Larkin’s presence brings out the best and worst in the human crew, and the Noble Ark is harassed by more Mwalgi ships, will Aline look past Larkin’s alien heritage to find love, or will mistrust cost her everything?

Review:
I think I probably enjoyed this more than it deserved, because when I started mentally tallying all the points I wanted to make in this review the criticisms outnumbered the compliments. But I still enjoyed it. Sometimes that just happens with a book. In such cases, I tend to go with my emotional response, even if not all together logical. So, the final takeaway is that I had fun reading Noble Ark.

The simple fact is that a lot of this plot is…*shakes head*…well, I couldn’t believe half of it. The amount of freedom of movement Larkin, an enemy hostage, is given is unprecedented.

But before I even get to that though, there is the fact that almost everyone on board the ship hates the Mwalgi, except for a few convenient people in Aline’s life who suddenly and inexplicably turn out to be Mwalgi sympathisers. Most notable of these are the family of her best friend and her therapist. Isn’t that convenient to the plot? The people most likely to bring her around to not hating Larkin are the only ones who don’t hate his kind to start with.

The necessity of putting Larkin in Aline’s room, instead of the brig is utterly ridiculous. Even if your father is the captain, especially if your father is the captain, there’s no way he’s risking your life like that just be cause you ask. NO WAY! There had yet to be any indication to anyone but Aline that he was anything but the blood-thirty monster all other Mwalgi are seen as.

Then he’s allowed to walk around with her mostly because, and I shit you not, her psychiatrist tells her to spent more time getting to know him. Sure, “Bring your enemy, alien hostage to your therapy sessions, where we’ll talk about all your personal trauma in front of him.” seems like a perfectly normal AND BELIEVABLE thing for a therapist to insist on. At the very least, that has to be a HIPPA violation.

What’s more, dehumanising the enemy during war times is the norm, not something her counsellor would be having kittens over in the first place. So, why does he want her to get to know him and see him as more human? No one, NO ONE, else is concerned with seeing the enemy as human. (For that matter no other Mwalgi in the book are presented as human, they’re all shown to be the evil monsters people believe them to be.)

Plus, when the few important characters who don’t see them as monstrous all give Aline the  ‘but we’re all human, really, it’s just our governments that are at war’ it felt forced and was unpleasantly sappy. It was the most juvenile part of the book and despite the books’ general lack of believability, one of the few time I found myself truly disappointed by it.

Another one was the games. I found it unlikely that Larkin would have been allowed to participate, convenient archaic rule or not and I find it even more unlikely that other participants would play with him. Realistically, most should have been traumatised by the sight of him.  Plus, they just lasted for flippin’ ever! I thought they might never end, detailing every single stage and points scored as the section did.

I also found the onboard baddie, David, shallow, uni-dimensional and too insanely focused to be as smart as he was said to be. This is very much a YA sci-fi romance. A lot, A LOT, more time is spent on board with Larkin, Aline and David that with enemy engagements. So, for most of the book this angsty teenage attempt at romance is the main focus.

Given that so much attention was paid to the onboard drama, a lot less attention was paid to the galaxy and general world-building. I was often confused on what the treaties and conventions that were obviously being ignored were meant to actually establish, who/what species were, how many types, was there a multi-world alliance of some sort, etc. This was a very real weakness.

Now, I did really appreciate that the author allowed bad things to happen. I don’t mean I like bad things, but in circumstances in which there can be no happy ending, the reader needs to know tragedy can strike. But many authors aren’t willing to go there and I’m glad Black did.

The book is well written and I didn’t notice any glaring editorial errors. Plus, like I said at the beginning, I really enjoyed the book. Larkin is a wonderful hero and, with exception of her extreme and annoying naivety concerning David, Aline was a strong fun heroine. There were some interesting tech and species described as well.  So, though I had a lot of complaints, I’d still recommend readers pick it up. You kinda gotta give up on reasonable believability and just go with the flow, but if you can do it, it makes for a pleasant read.