Tag Archives: romance

misleading a duke

Book Review: Misleading a Duke, by A. S. Fenichel

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Through Goodreads, I won an early e-copy of Misleading a Duke, by A. S. Fenichel.

Description:

Betrothed to a man she has barely met, Lady Faith Landon calls upon her three best friends—the self-proclaimed Wallflowers of West Lane—to help uncover the secrets of her mysterious fiancé. Her suspicions are aroused when she learns that he has recently returned from France. Is he a traitor to his country? The truth is quite the opposite. Nicholas Ellsworth, Duke of Breckenridge, is a secret agent for the English Crown who has just completed a risky mission to infiltrate Napoleon’s spy network.

After his adventures, Nicholas craves the peace and quiet of the country and settling into domestic bliss with his bride. Until he discovers Faith’s deceptive investigation. How can he wed a woman who doesn’t trust him? But a powerful spark has ignited between Nicholas and Faith that could bring about a change of heart. Faith seizes her second chance to prove to Nicholas that they are a true love match but his past catches up with them when three French spies come to exact revenge. Surviving rather than wooing has become the order of the day.

Review:

First off, I should not have read this book without reading book one. I don’t think it stood well on its own. But what’s done is done and that’s not the book’s fault.

Outside of that issue, I simply didn’t care for the book. I think I liked what the author was attempting to do (create a group of sassy, self-reliant women going after control of their lives) but not what she actually wrote. I found the whole thing repetitive, contradictory, and overly sappy. I’ll break that down a little more.

I lost track of how many times the characters’ internal thoughts ran the same rail. Nicholas was especially bad about this, but certainly, Faith thought the same things over and over too. Tying into this was what Nicholas actually thought. I hated the way every other paragraph was interrupted for either thoughts of how badly he wanted Faith (how attracted he was to her, etc) or how much he disliked her (or both). I get that the author was trying to show that he was conflicted. But instead, it just felt like waffling. But it also made the first half of the book REALLY choppy. Similarly, as the book and relationship progressed the characters went from obviously wanting each other to thinking about how the other was about to leave them or not want them, etc. Over and over and back and forwards.

The sappiness is on an objective scale, but this tipped over into too sappy for me. There were just too many passages about how amazing one or the other was, how much they loved the other, too many declarations of adoration, etc. In my experience, this is a symptom of a particular sort of blunt romance that I just don’t enjoy very much.

I do love that cover though!

deal with the devil

Review of Deal with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians #1), by Kit Rocha

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I pre-ordered a copy of Kit Rocha‘s Deal with the Devil.

Description from Goodreads:

Nina is an information broker with a mission–she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he’s fighting to survive.

They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process…

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

This is the first book in a near-future science fiction series with elements of romance.

Review:

I really quite enjoyed this. I liked the characters, the diversity, the world, the humor, and the plot (though the twists at the end were easily guessable). I liked that you get a little of everyone’s POV, without head-hopping and that, while there is one main couple, there are also hints of side couples to come. My only real complaint is that, for a series called Mercenary Librarians, books/libraries/librarians play essentially no role. Maybe they will in future books, but they don’t here and I was super disappointed by that. All in all, however, I can’t wait for more.

Sever the Crown Complete Vampire Romance Series

Review of the Sever the Crown series, by Mysti Parker & Lindsey R. Loucks

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I received an Audible code for a copy of Emergence (book one) and then since I enjoyed it, I borrowed the compilation through Amazon Prime.

Description from Amazon:

◆ Start with Book One: Emergence

One woman. Five men. Together, they’ll sever the crown – or maybe the head that wears it.

Wren has a dark obsession—to find her mother’s murderers before they find her. Every new singing gig brings her closer to crossing their names from her list.

When a detective shows up with a new lead, she jumps at the chance with fangs bared. But to get the information they need, they’ll have to bust someone out of jail.

Sure. No problem. 

Ashe has just been framed for high crimes against the Southern Vampire Clan—but he’s not exactly innocent either.

While waiting for his fate, a five-pointed star tattoo appears on his wrist, similar to the tattoo of a stunning platinum-haired vampire. The sudden attraction between them is undeniable. Better yet, she’s just offered to free him. 

Sounds like a great deal. So what’s the catch?

Turns out, as their enemies close in, the catch could very well be their lives.

◆ Book Two: Defiance – Everyone knows it’s not a true vampire cult party until someone gets staked.

◆ Book Three: Obsession – Wren’s world has caught fire. But she’ll be damned if she lets it burn.

◆ Book Four: Relentless – Wren’s fourth mate just might be the death of her…that is if the world doesn’t end first.

◆ Book Five: Ascension – 3…2…1…It’s a race against time in an epic war for the throne. Queen versus queen.

Reviews:

I wrote reviews of these books as I went. I had more opinions at the finish of some than others. But overall, I liked the series but found myself growing bored by the end. I feel like the authors kept themselves constrained in the beginning, but by the last book, things were getting sloppy.

Emergence (Sever the Crown, #1)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It’s not particularly deep and I was expecting the heroine to meet all of her mates here, but it looks like it will be one per book. Despite that, I laughed several times, thought the writing sharp, and I liked the characters. Plus, the narrator did an excellent job, which always contributes. I’ve borrowed the rest of the series through Amazon Prime now. We’ll see if I like them as much when reading them, instead of listening.

Defiance (Sever the Crown, #2)

I didn’t dislike this, but I didn’t like it as much as the first. With two mates located, the Wren worship is just getting to be a little too much for me. I’m pleased to say that, despite being a reverse harem story, the book isn’t bogged down in too much sex, and the sex scenes aren’t overly long. I’m moving on to book three. We’ll see how things go from there.

Obsession (Sever the Crown #3)

I gotta admit I’m getting a bit bored with this series now. Contradictorily, it starting to feel like too much of the same (basically how amazing Wren is) and like the authors got bored with the confines of their own world and blew it open. In the previous books, we only had humans and vampires. Suddenly, here in this book, we have vampires, and witches, and celestials (aka angels and demons), lion, wolf and boar shifters, banshees, and portals through time. This felt like a huge departure from what previous books had lead readers to believe were the limits of the world.

Additionally, Wren now has three male mates, which I have no problem with. But I find it really unimaginative that there is no overlap. She gives one mate at time attention, there is no jealousy but there also isn’t any crossover. Not in the sense of having more than one in bed at a time or with any of the males feeling affection for one another. Somehow it gives a sense of monogamy, even in the Polyandrous relationship. Which might work if they weren’t all together all the time.

Also worth noting is that these books do not stand alone and this one ends on a particularly precipitous cliffhanger.

Despite saying all of that, I’m still moving on to book four. Honestly, I’ll read the whole series just to see if Zac finally gets turned and to be a mate. (I’m pretty sure he will and even think I know how that will come about, but I want to see it.)

Relentless (Sever the Crown #4)

Book four of five in a series in which the books do not stand on their own. So, it starts in the middle of the story and ends on a cliffhanger. It’s OK, but the whole series has grown stale, each book just seems to be more of the same. It’s not bad, it’s just not adding anything particularly fresh with each new installment.

Ascension (Sever the Crown #5)

I was really glad to see the fifth mate came about as I thought he would (and was who I thought). But I was so ready for this series to be finished by the time I reached the end. I felt like it just went on for too long. All five mates were sweet, but having 5 men to satisfy got repetitive. Especially since this is medium-burn (that’s a quote from one of the blurbs), so most of the sex was somewhat abortive and didn’t vary far from the most basic.

Then there was the final showdown with the villains. They’re literally caricatures. I mean every time the evil mates entered a scene they came in quoting ridiculous lines, even. There is no feeling of the rest of the vampire clan(s) (or humanity, for that matter). It all felt very surface level.

I know I’ve just been complaining. That’s my frustration coming through. But I did read five books without DNFing any of them, so I obviously didn’t hate it. The writing is still perfectly readable and I did like the characters, etc.