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Book Review: The Alpha’s Warlock, by Eliot Grayson

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I saw The Alpha’s Warlock, by Eliot Grayson, recommended on Instagram. So, I borrowed an audio copy through Hoopla. It was narrated by Chris Chambers.
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Cursed, mated, and in for the fight of their lives….

Warlock Nate Hawthorne just wants a cup of coffee. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Because instead of precious caffeine, all he gets is cursed by a pack of werewolves who want to use him for his magic. Now the only way to fix the damage is a mate bond to a grumpy and oh-so-sexy alpha in the rival pack, who happens to hate him. This is so not how he wanted to start his day.

Ian Armitage never intended to take Nate as his mate. The Hawthorne family can’t be trusted. Ian knows that better than anyone. The fact that he’s lusted after the way-too-gorgeous man for years? Totally irrelevant. Ian’s just doing what is necessary to protect his pack. This whole mating arrangement has nothing to do with love and never will. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

Nate and Ian will have to work together if they have any hope of staving off the pack’s enemies and averting disaster. That’s assuming they can stop arguing (and keep their hands off each other) long enough to save the day….

my review

This wasn’t very good.The idea underpinning it was fine and the writing seemed readable (though I had an audio copy, so that’s hard to judge), and the narrator did a good job. But the execution was simply lacking. The book felt like a second book, though I don’t think it is. The plot is far too focused and centered in a small room with two people and far too little on what is happening in general, such that whole swaths of the plot fell flat and there wasn’t any resulting tension (even in scenes where there should have been). The bickering between Nate and Ian didn’t feel like appreciable banter, but like two adolescents sniping at one another and I didn’t feel the love at all. I gathered that the author was trying to infer the two had had crushes on one another for a while, but you don’t feel it. All in all, this one was a flop for me.

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Other Reviews:

Review: The Alpha’s Warlock (Mismatched Mates #1) by Eliot Grayson

Review: The Alpha’s Warlock by Eliot Grayson

Book Review: The Alpha’s Warlock (Mismatched Mates Book 1) by Eliot Grayson [Audiobook]

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Book Review: Paladin’s Grace, by T. Kingfisher

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I borrowed an audio copy of T. Kingfisher‘s Paladin’s Grace through Hoopla. It was narrated by Joel Richards.

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Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

my review

I was initially befuddled when I started listening to this book. Not because of anything the book did or didn’t do, but because I had confused which recommendation list I got the title from. I thought it was martial women defending not-fighter men. But that’s very clearly not the case since Stephen is a paladin and Grace a perfumer. Eventually I realized it was fantasy with older hero/heroines, and after that, the book and I got on like a house on fire.

I adored Stephen (38) and Grace (32, I think). They are both emotional basket cases trying to do their best in a world not ready for them. I liked that world a lot and the unvarnished, but sarcastic kindness of The Rats, and the side characters were all a joy in and of themselves.

The writing is marvelous and flatly funny in an often dry way. I have to compliment the narrator, Joel Richards, for bringing it to life in the audio version too. All in all, I went right back to Hoopla and rented another Kingfisher book because I’m a new fan.

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Other Reviews:

https://mousaibooks.com/2021/08/11/review-paladins-grace-by-t-kingfisher/

Review: Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher

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Book Review: Love Bites, by Cynthia St. Aubin

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I picked up a copy of Cynthia St. Aubin‘s Love Bites when it was an Amazon freebie recently.

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A girl’s gotta eat—and so do her three cats. Recently divorced art history grad student Hanna Harvey has just fibbed her way into a job as the assistant to dangerously drool-worthy art gallery owner Mark Abernathy. For Hanna, working in the field she desperately loves provides the perfect opportunity to begin putting her life back together. Soon her cheese budget is in the black and her feline life partners are no longer eyeing her like a six-foot can of Fancy Feast.

But when her boss’s lady friends start turning up dead, Hanna finds herself in the cross hairs of a murder investigation. Even worse, hunky homicide detective James Morrison fears hers might be the next body he discovers.

With the “help” of the gallery’s quirky cast of resident artists, Hanna will have to hunt down the truth about Abernathy’s dark secret—before it hunts her.

my review

I’m going to start with a complaint. The title has no relevance to the story. Sure, it’s pithy and sharp, but there is no love or romance in the book. The main character hooks up with one guy and there’s a another that she’d like to, but there is no romance or even thoughts of love. Nor is there anyone who is love-averse such that the term Love Bites might be inferred to be in the pejorative. I understand the author has a naming convention going on with the series (Love BLANKs), but a title of Love Bites has no relevance to the story in this actual book.

Ok, moving past my admittedly pedantic complaint…I enjoyed this. I thought it was a lot of fun. I appreciated Hanna’s sense of humor and the banter between her and most everyone. Sure, there was a lot of “no one would actually say that in that situation,” but I’m not reading an urban fantasy book for the realism of it. Hanna and crew made me smile.

And while I might comment that there’s no love in the story yet, I did very much liked that Hanna was allowed to have a hook up (even sans love interest), enjoy it, and I didn’t have to sit through any passages of shame (be it from her or anyone else). She was just allowed to be a sexual adult and I appreciated the simplicity of it.

The book does end just about the time the plot looks like it might be moving past set-up. But I’d be happy to leap into the next book.

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Other Reviews:

https://storytellersbymarlou.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/love-bites-by-cynthia-st-aubin-book-review/

https://www.dreamcomereview.com/arc-review-once-upon-a-werewolf-by-cynthia-st-aubin/