Tag Archives: self published

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Book Review: The Power of Three, by Kate Pearce

Last winter, I laid out a huge winter-vibes reading challenge for myself. Then, I basically fucked off and forgot about it. So, instead of doing a new one this year, I have gone back and started trying to work on last year’s. Hey, it’s my own blog. I’m accountable to no one but myself. I can do that. LOL.

I picked up Kate Pearce‘s The Power of Three as an Amazon freebie in December of 2021. So, look at me, going back to work on an old reading challenge by reading an even older book. (Yeah, I’m easily amused.)

The Power of Three cover

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Soreya Lang has never met a male telepath before, let alone one who is willing to die for her on an interplanetary mission gone wrong. Risking everything, she acts on her instant telepathic and physical connection with Esca and encounters a level of psychic power she never knew existed.

Esca can’t believe he’s finally met the female who will complete his sexual and telepathic triad. He promises himself that if they survive, he’ll take her back home, introduce her to his enigmatic First Male, Ash and pray that biology will do the rest.

But nothing is ever that simple, and Soreya, Esca and Ash will have to find their own way through the ties of family and traditions to experience the full telepathic wonder of the power of three…

my review

I wanted to like this; I really did. It had an interesting premise, which could develop into an interesting world and characters that were likable enough. But it is just SO clumsily done that I couldn’t particularly enjoy it. There isn’t enough nuance; the plot isn’t developed enough (and it ends precipitously at an awkward point). The writing was pedestrian but functional, except for some clunky dialogue and any time the author had to discuss anything military. Then, it was shockingly amateurish. There were also some inconsistencies, and it needed another editing pass (which would also likely have caught some of the inconsistencies.) Mostly, the story it was trying to tell needed (and deserved) a defter hand.

Oh, and see how I said ‘fuck’ about. Yeah, I wish authors would just do that. This book did the annoying thing of using Frek instead of fuck and then littered it everywhere. Just curse, for god’s sake. It’s a polyamorous erotic novel. Anyone choosing to read such a thing should be able to handle a few dozen fucks in dialogue. (I hate when authors do this so much. So much.)

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Book Review: Tentacles and Teeth, by Rowan Merrick

I picked up a freebie copy of Rowan Merrick’s Tentacles and Teeth on Amazon.

tentacles and teeth cover

Katarina was only looking for one night.

An evening of no-strings fun with someone who knew what they were doing and wasn’t afraid of getting a little wild. One look at the gorgeous bartender with the midnight skin and waving tentacles, and she knew she needed to feel all those…appendages wrapped around her before the night was out. Lucky for her, the bartender was a woman who went after what she wanted, and oh, did she want.

More wasn’t on the table.

But when Katarina wakes up the next morning not only still desperate to touch her, but also talk to her, she’s forced to reevaluate. Maybe a relationship wouldn’t be so bad?

Especially a naked werewolf before coffee.

Running into her maybe-more-than-a-one-night-stand’s roommate in the hall was yet another thing she wasn’t prepared for. It might have helped if she wasn’t still reeling from the night before. Or if he hadn’t been completely nude. Or so…sexy. She wasn’t in the market for one relationship, much less two. But they were both so tempting…

Can she finish her plate? Or did she bite off more than she can chew?

my review

This was porn with—
No, it’s not porn with plot. It’s just porn. I went in expecting porn with plot, but there’s no real plot to speak of. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining; just want us all to be clear on what we’re dealing with. Porn. Tentacle and monster porn.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I appreciated the confident, business-savvy, successful, size 16 heroine. I’ve read far too few porny books with a lesbian in the poly group. That was a pleasant surprise. The writing is quite body and sex-positive, as well as careful about consent…for the most part. I honestly think Fenn’s behavior once he entered the mix undermined a lot of work the book did in this department. (Plus, it didn’t really match his character outside of sexy times.) But they did discuss consent, so it’s more a quibble than a criticism. Similarly, Fenn and Sid were respectful of Katarina throughout the book, only for Merrick to reduce her to the status of toy as soon as the trio interacted with even the first supernatural. Which, again, undermined a lot of the work Merrick had already put into establishing equality in the relationship.

Regardless, it’s spicey fun, and I don’t regret reading it. Plus, I love the cover.

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Wondra’s World: Book Review Tentacles and Teeth

 

 

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Book Review: Stolen Queen, by Jesi Donovan

I picked up a copy of Jesi Donovan‘s Stolen Queen as an Amazon freebie.
Stolen Queen cover

They are handsome.
They are monsters.
They are my husbands.

My grandfather stole from the Mad Kings; now they’ve taken me prisoner to pay his debts.

They know that I’m innocent. They know I don’t deserve to be caged like an animal. But they don’t care. They will break me and make me their Queen. They will mate me and make me the mother of their children. No matter what it takes, the Mad Kings will have what’s theirs.

my review

Yeah…I hated this. To each their own, but this was not for me. I have so many complaints, but I’ll state up front that the mechanical writing is fine. It’s perfectly readable. That’ll be my only compliment.

This might be a little spoiler-ish, but it doesn’t give much more away than is in the blurb. The kings kidnap her, throw her in the dungeon, and are consistently horrible to her. However, their goal is for her to become their queen, bear their children, and eventually (hopefully) love them. Nothing about that plotting makes sense. If you, by chance, think, “Well, maybe in context…” No, not even in context does it make sense. It simply does not make any sense.

None of the characters are even tolerable, let alone likable. We are given all four character’s POVs. One might hope that even as the men are being horrible to her, their internal monologue shows them to have some affection for her. But no, they are all about getting a return for their investment, deserving to get their dick wet, entitled to her, etc. They want her because she is the rightful queen (we’ll just overlook the fact that her grandmother is apparently still alive, so….) and will therefore legitimize their rule. She literally might as well be a physical crown for how much concern they have for her as a person, even in their own thoughts. There is nothing romantic or erotic about any of it.

Then, on page 142, I came across this quote and decided I was done. “…[B]ehind closed doors, whatever happens, happens. If we take the Queen by force and it happens to work in our favor, so be it. She will come around, boys, because we’ll make her.” Yeah, that’s them deciding amongst themselves to rape their queen. Ho-hum. They then gang up and coerce her into sex. It’s the only sex in the book, minus one totally out-of-place touching scene. I skimmed the rest stolen queen photoof the book to finish it. But there was no redeeming the story for me. Again, there is nothing romantic, despite being called a Dark Captive Romance. Not even the dark can bring this in line with romance.

I recently commented in another book review that enemies-lovers tropes (which captive romance basically is) need push and pull to work. These men consistently push, but there is no pull for the reader to get invested in. I hated this and just want to go wash my brain out now.


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