Tag Archives: self published

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Book Review: Awakening, by G. Clatworthy

I picked up a copy of G. Clatworthy‘s Awakening during one of it’s freebie day on Amazon. I did it unthinkingly, just because it looked interesting and I liked the cover. It was later that I realized that the book is another Awakening. You see, earlier in the year, I did an Awakening Challenge where I read 12 books titled Awakening. My husband joked I should read this one and call it my Second Awakening. (He and I might be the only one who finds that joke funny.) Either way, I’ve done just that.
Awakeing Clatworthy

She wants a quiet life. Then they kidnap her friend. Can she survive an encounter with a cult and a dragon or will it end in fire and blood?

Amethyst is a half-dwarf jeweler and weaponsmith who just wants to improve sales in her shop in a popular Cardiff arcade. When her best friend gets kidnapped, she’s dragged into a world of cults and dragons. Not to mention hate at first sight with an arrogant elf. Who wants a quiet life!

Gemma loves creating worlds and writes both urban fantasy and children’s books. This is her debut urban fantasy series set in Cardiff.

my reviewI liked the idea of this book. You don’t see a lot of female half-dwarves. Fae, faeries, witches, vampires—pretty willowy things, sure—but not often dwarves. And that appealed to me. I like the idea of trying to stop a crazy cult from bringing dangerous dragons back into the world. I like that the book was set in Cardiff. I like it.

But the whole thing is disastrously let down by the execution. Nothing is developed, there is no tension. The writing is perfectly readable (and fairly well edited), but such that the whole book just feels like a recitation of events with no emotions. I felt no attachment to anyone or investment in the drama. Things just happened. Meh.

I will compliment the cover though. I often complain that the characters on covers don’t match the character in the book. I can’t say that here. The cover feels very much like Amethyst. The narrative makes a big deal of her big boobs in the beginning of the book, and I wouldn’t say that cover character is busty (a detail I’m happy to skip, but I mention because it was made such a point of in the book). But other than that, it feels pretty dead on.

All in all, I’m calling this a failure for me. But I think I might be willing to give Clatworthy another chance in the future. There is potential here.

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Book Review: Bloody Kingdom, by Kayleigh King

I received a signed paperback copy of Kayleigh King’s Bloody Kingdom in a Supernatural Book Crate book box I purchased. I think it was maybe the August one.
bloody kingdom kayleigh king

This isn’t a fairytale.
I dethroned Prince Charming long ago.
They call me the King of darkness and death.
Ruler of the underworld.
My reign is ruthless, my word is the law.
If I want it, I take it, regardless of the bloodshed.
But then she walks into my life.
I don’t want her, I need her.
She can fight, she can beg, but her fate is sealed.
Until her debt is paid, she’s mine.
She ran from her old life, but she can’t outrun me.

Welcome to my Bloody Kingdom, Quincey Page

my review

This is a fine Beauty and the Beast retelling. Though I don’t know why authors insist on trying to tie every damned story into a retelling. Why can’t a story just be a story? I digress. This is a fine Beauty and the Beast retelling. But it does not live up to the blurb at all. I expected this to be dark vampire romance, maybe even erotica. Instead it really isn’t particularly dark and there isn’t even a sex scene until around page 225. It’s a fine sex scene, but it’s not especially impressive or dark. And there’s not even very much sexual tension up until that point. So, that blurb makes promises the book does not deliver on. Hell, the story isn’t even particularly bloody. So, even the title is misleading in that regard.

Having said all of that, once I let go of the expectations the title and blurb set up, I enjoyed it well enough. It was entertaining. The love was basically insta-lust that morphs mysteriously into insta-love and the whole thing ended on a cliffhanger. So, admittedly, it’s not super satisfying. But I did enjoy the time I spent reading it. I’d be winning to read book two, if I could get it at the library or as a freebie. But I don’t think I’d be willing to pay for it. (That’s kind of my go-to system of deciding how much I like or dislike a series; would I pay for more of it?)

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Other Reviews:

The Phantom Paragrapher – Review: Bloody Kingdom

https://wickedlyromance.com/bloody-kingdom-by-kayleigh-king-book-review/

 

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Book Review: Eastside Hedge Witch, by T.J. Deschamps

I received a copy of T.J. Deschamps’ Eastside Hedge Witch through Netgalley. And in a completely unrelated turn of events, it was on Sadie’s Spotlight very shortly there after.
eastside hedge witch TJ Deschamps

Miriam Diaz has lived as a suburban mom on Seattle’s Eastside for the past seventeen years. She serves on the parent teacher association, bakes for her daughter’s cheer squad, and is an all-around champion stay-at-home mom. Pretty average and totally boring, and Miriam likes it that way. All the better to hide her sordid past.

When a hellhound shows up in her neighbor’s begonias, and Miriam banishes the stinky mutt back to where it came from, she let her evil ex know she’s still alive and kicking…and likely in possession of something she stole from him.

Miriam doesn’t only have trouble brewing from below. The banishment also alerts the supernatural cops. When a gorgeous alpha of the shifter pack starts sniffing around her hedges, Miriam fears the news might go all the way to the archangel that she isn’t a latent but a full-blown witch. Miriam isn’t a registered supernatural and for a good reason, she’s hiding something big from the authorities above and below.

All of the commotion threatens the veil hiding the separating the mundanes and the supes. Miriam might just have to come out of the supernatural closet to save the world. Again.

my review

I enjoyed this, even if I wasn’t totally wowed by it. I really liked Miriam, Jada, Roxy, Rhiannon, and Phry. I was OK on everyone else, including Gabriel. And since he’s the most likely romantic pairing for most of the book, that left me a little cold. But the writing rolls along at a good clip, there’s some humor, an interesting world, and the characters have moral codes I appreciate.

I did think Miriam was just a little too central, too powerful, too wanted by all the powerful men around her. And while I liked the ending, I did have to wonder if anyone (other than Lucifer) bothered to consider how it would effect the whole rest of the world.

All in all, I’ll happily read the next book in the series, when it comes out. But I’m not gnashing my teeth that I can’t have it now.

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