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Book Reviews: I Don’t Kneel for Monsters & Wolf’s Bite, by Atlas Rose

I received this edition of a compilation of two Atlas Rose books in my September Supernatural Book Crate. It contains two first in series, I don’t Kneel for Monsters and Wolf’s Bite. Though some older editions of the latter have Kim Faulks on the cover too. So, I’m assuming she is (or was) a co-writer.

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I don’t Kneel for Monsters:

 I might be chained, but I’m no prisoner.
They won’t let me leave this pack of demonic beasts with their red glowing eyes and their pawing touch. They keep me locked up during the day and surrounded by their heat at night.

They keep me…
Confined.
Controlled.
Consumed.

Men who are monsters and monsters who look like men. Trading my fear for their sick, demented games. I hate them. Hate it when they make me run. Hate it when they call it a ‘hunt’. But the capture.

The capture is something I can’t stop thinking about.
Fangs and claws. Their hunger is insatiable.
Until the night I saw him.
A man standing in the middle of a labyrinth where we hid.

A man dressed in white.

He’s here to save me. Here to get me away from these monsters. I just know it. I’ll run to him, the first chance I get. I’ll get away from those demonic creatures…I’ll save myself anyway I can.

Or I’ll die trying.

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my review

I have to say that I’m just confused by this book. There are so may glaring inconsistencies (both in the plot and in the writing itself) and then the whole thing ends on a cliffhanger without providing the reader any sort of payoff for sticking with the book through all the confusion.

Here are some of the types of inconsistencies I mean. In the beginning, 5 wolves break into Arden’s house and kidnap her. However, for the rest of the book, there are only 4—Moody, Broody, Cheeky, and Alpha. (She gave them the stupid names to annoy them.) We lost a Hellhound somewhere. Where? No idea. I can’t even be sure when, because most of the time I was uncertain which hellhound was doing what.

I’m pretty sure her heart stopped about six time before she actually ‘died.’ I was never sure if it was creative license and hyperbole or if it was actually stopping. The button on her jeans was popped off twice. She was later wearing panties that had already been ripped off, same with a shirt. Do her clothes heal? So, the kind of stuff a half way attentive beta reader or editor would have caught.

Mostly I won’t be continuing the series though, because (unless its a duology) the next book will I don't kneel for monsters photoprobably provide as little pay off as this one; same for the one after that, etc. I realize indie authors are being told this whole half-a-book to hook readers is what they should be writing. I know it’s a whole thing in the industry. But I cannot express how much I hate it. In fact, the physical copy I have also contains Wolf Bite, as I said. And I’m strongly considering not bothering to read it, even if that leaves the ‘book’ unfinished and I can’t move it from the unread to the read shelf. Simply because I don’t really want to set my self up for another disappointment of a half-written book. Can this trend die yet?


Wolf’s Bite:

I carry his bite mark on my shoulder…and the memory of what I’d done in his bed.

Phantom, the Alpha of Crown City Wolves might think he has a handle on me…
He might think this is more than what it was…

He’s about to find out he’s wrong.

I don’t belong to the Wolves of Crown City. I belong to the FBI.
My sole purpose has been hunting scum who sit in their ivory tower and shatter people’s lives.
I’ve hunted the Costello for years now.
They’re lower than low…they are liars…they’re mobsters.

They’re Mafia.

This is more than a case for me.

This was personal.

The last bullet in my father’s policing career. Ruined because of them.

Only a war erupted. A war which I’m now part of…a war between the beasts that roam my city and the powerful Immortals they answer to.

I replayed that night in slow motion. Fangs. Blood…and Phantom. The Alpha of the Wolves. The one I saved from a rogue Vampire.

And the one who saved me.

my review

I will grant that this book was significantly better than the first in the compilation. But that’s a long way from saying it’s good. It could be a heck of a lot closer though, if Rose hired an editor…or even just enlisted a friend to beta read and keep track of the inconsistencies.

About halfway through this book, I posted a whole Tiktok suggesting some authors need a beta service geared solely toward keeping track of a character’s clothes so that they don’t take bras off twice, etc. I didn’t name her, but Rose was who I was talking about.

@seesadieread how does something like this get consistently missed is my other thought. #authortalk #authortok #books #smexscene #booktalk #booktok #authorserivice #reader #seesadieread #books #editing #youalreadydidthat #monsterromance ♬ original sound – SadieF

I’m generally pretty patient about editing. But Rose’s editing is so consistently shoddy in this department that I started to lose my will to continue, after a while. Oddly, it’s not even typos and the normal sloppy editing. Rose just can’t seem to keep track of the elements of her plot. A wolf approaching someone who is already leaning on him, for example. Clothes that get taken off or ripped up more than once, etc.

Outside of the editing issue, I’m torn. I did like the characters. I especially liked how desperate Phantom and his pack were and how we got to see his POV, even if he showed an alpha a-hole face to the world. I’m interested to know what happens next (if I can tolerate more of the inconsistencies).

wolf's bite photoI wasn’t aware that this is a spin-off series. And there were definitely some elements that made no sense to me. Characters were named that were not in the book, a whole war raged for reasons I didn’t know about, etc. So, I would not recommend reading this without reading Rose’s other series (despite being labeled book one). And it ends on a cliffhanger. I am SO tired of books that don’t end!

All in all, I think I’d continue the series if I came across a free copy. But I don’t think I’d buy another book so poorly edited.


Other Reviews:

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Book Reviews: Draekon Warrior & Draekon Conqueror, by Lili Zander & Lee Savino

In December of last year, I picked up a free copy of Draekon Conqueror (by Lee Savino and Lili Zander), only to later discover it’s book two in a series. (Yeah, I don’t always pay enough attention. I know.) In March of this year, book one, Draekon Warrior, popped up in my feed as a freebie, so I grabbed it, too.

I chose to read them now as a little bit of a cheat. You see, I need a Z for my yearly alphabet challenge—where I read at least one book by an author with a last name for each letter of the alphabet. I’m swapping the order of Savino and Zander and calling this my Z…or at least a Z.

draekon Warrior cover

About the Book:

Captured in space. Imprisoned. Sold to the highest bidder.
But my biggest problem is the bossy, aggravating, impossible, alien who’s supposed to rescue me.

The bossy alien I kissed.

That might have been a mistake.

Kadir is dangerous. I’ve seen him fight and his body is littered with scars. He’s a soldier. A warrior. And when he loses control, he turns into a big scary dragon and breathes fire.

Everyone’s terrified of him. I’m not. No, call me the biggest fool in the galaxy, because I’m attracted to the big jerk.

When I first met the small human I was sent to rescue, she punched me in the jaw.

And broke her wrist in the process. Irrational woman.

Then she insists that the two of us set out immediately to find her missing friend.

No, what I have to do is get Alice Hernandez to safety.

She’s soft, yet she’s strong.

Fragile, yet so brave.

She’s everything I’ve never known I wanted.

Everything I can’t let myself have.

When the scientists tortured me, they broke me. And when Alice finds out the truth about the fearsome, raging dragon inside me, I will lose her.

You know, I’ve seen quite a lot of discourse lately on why people enjoy monster romance/smut. And a lot of it comes down to how monsters in such books are often bigger, scarier, and more powerful than the female main character. But they are also almost always very obviously conscious of this fact and go to great lengths and courtesies to reduce themselves as perceived threats…to mitigate any risk they pose. They’re often super conscientious about consent and big ol’ cinnamon rolls underneath the scary exterior. (And how many parallels are there to real world men and their perceived threats in that paragraph, hmmm?)

Kadir is honestly too humanoid to qualify as a ‘monster,’ but he shares many of those same qualities. Not least of which is seeing himself and feeling himself perceived as a monster. And he is every bit as careful and considerate of Alice as any monster, even before he sees her as mate material and the real romance starts. It’s sweet.

The story isn’t complicated. There’s no more to it than any number of other alien romances. But it’s well done and sweet enough that I’m happy to have book two on my Kindle.

drakon warrior photoI did, at some point, realize that this must be a spin-off series, as characters started showing up that were obviously pairings from another book. Turns out it’s a spin-off of the Dragons In Exile series. However, as much as this normally annoys me, I have to say this one stood alone well enough that I noticed but wasn’t too bothered. I didn’t feel like I was missing too much information, having not read the previous series. There were also a couple of minor consistency mishaps. But all in all, I enjoyed this.


Draekon Conqueror cover

About the book:

I’ve lived an eternity. I’ve killed thousands. Destroyed worlds. I thought I’d seen everything. I didn’t think there was anything left in the galaxy that could surprise me.

Then I met her. Lani Dennison. A human woman. My mate.

My mission was simple. Find Lani Dennison.

Zorahan scientists tortured her. I killed them, of course.
Okaki pirates abducted her. I tracked them down and infiltrated their ship. Routine stuff. Nothing that presented a problem to a trained soldier that could shift into a fire-breathing dragon.

I expected her to be smart. You’d have to be, to survive the Okaki pirates.

I didn’t expect her to be lovely.
I didn’t expect her to make me laugh.
And I definitely didn’t expect her to be the one woman I was destined to be with, the missing piece of my soul. My mate.

Now what?


I enjoyed this for many of the same reasons I enjoyed the first book. The Draekon is marvelously solicitous to the human mate. Everyone is careful about consent. There aren’t any needless misunderstandings or mind games. Everyone is delightedly straightforward.

But I admit that I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as book one. I didn’t find Ruhan quite as charismatic a lead male. Sure, he’s cocky and cock-sure to cover his brokenness, which hits you in the feels. But I just didn’t like draekon conqueror photohim as much as I did Kadir from the previous book. That’s not to say I didn’t like him, just not as much. Similarly, I didn’t find Lani as multifaceted as Alice. I liked her. But I didn’t think she had quite the depth.

But the real question is whether I would read another book in the series, and I would. In fact, book three, which involves pirates, looks especially tempting. I don’t have it on my Kindle yet, but I look forward to reading it in the future.


Other Reviews:

In Between the Pages: Draekon Series Reviews

Scary Mary Hamster Lady: Book Review: Draekon Conqueror

 

 

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Book Review: Rise of the Phoenix, by JL Madore

I picked up a copy of JL. Madore’s Rise of the Phoenix as an Amazon freebie, last year.
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Monsters, Magic, and Mates I never knew existed.

Kia versus power pole isn’t the end I expect—it’s the beginning of… gawd, where do I begin?
Four wildly sexy males. Powers I don’t understand. And the eyes of the fae world on me as the person to unite the severed realms. No pressure.

my review

Amusing enough, but not much more. It’s entertaining but not very deep. The plot is pretty thin, and none of the characters (the males especially) are well-developed. One is such an asshole I don’t know how the author imagines she’ll redeem him, and two are fairly inconsistent in their tone and characterization. It was the book’s general inconsistencies that really threw me though, like someone unbuckling yoga pants.

The book also is guilty of using the cheap attempted rape shtick (and it wasn’t even very well rise of the phoenix photostitched into the plot). I’m not saying a book should never include rape, but I’ve found that far too often, it’s used for cheap tension. More often than not, here included, there are a million better and less over-used and common plot devices to reach for. At this point, I call it the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of plotting. It’s evidence the author took the easiest, least thought about, no-effort path. IT’S LAZY. And is that really how authors want to be seen?

Anyhow, despite how negative this review seems, I’ll read book two (I have 1-5), because I have it and I’m curious to see all the men submit.


Other Reviews:

Rise of the Phoenix by J.L. Madore – A Book Review