Tag Archives: shifters

Omega

Book Review of Omega (Demon Chaser #1), by Charlene Hartnady

OmegaOmega (by Charlene Hartnady) is book number two of my Omega Weekend Challenge. I got the book from Amazon, almost a year ago, and I believe it was free at the time.

Description from Goodreads:
Demon Chasers… Protectors of humanity. Sworn to uphold the peace. Oath bound to keep the existence of demons a secret.

Katy is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life…or at least, that’s what she thinks right up until she’s abducted and for no apparent reason.

Demon Chaser Cole rescues Katy from the claws of the Alpha of a resident demon wolf pack. Hunted by Bain and his pack he must try and find out why the wolves are willing to risk a two hundred year long standing agreement with the Demon Chasers in order to have her.

The Chaser suspects that Katy is not as innocent as what she seems. Cole had better move fast though because the longer he’s with the raven haired beauty the more impossible he finds it to resist her.

Review:
OMG, that was just one long series of cliché tropes, one after another after another. The whole thing is basically the old stand-by ‘woman is the mysterious Chosen One, but doesn’t know it. She is hunted by the baddy that wants to claim her and rescued by the hero who actually does claim her. In the mean time, she passes out a lot and does stupid things like insist on trying on clothing prior to purchase while being actively hunted, giving the baddies time to find her again. Because obviously a good, sexy fit is more important than anything else, in the moment.’

It starts out with a bad case of the ‘for some reasons.’ For some reason he wanted to protect her. For some reason he was unaccountably attracted to her. For some reason he trusted her. For some reason he told her things he’d never told anyone else. For some reason he HAD TO HAVE HER. For some reason she felt safe with him. For some reason she was attracted to him, even though they’d just met. For some reason she was wet for him. For some reason she HAD TO HAVE HIM. Just to be clear, from a readers perspective, ‘for some reason’ is never enough of a motivating factor.

After the ‘for some reasons,’ we moved on to the fact that the plot basically boils down to who gets to have sex with the girl. Honestly, haven’t we moved past heroines being reduced to their sexual availability and heroes being the man who wins the big P in the end?

Then, of course, we had sex by the numbers. 1. kiss. 2. sucking nipples. 3. fingering clit. 4. slip a finger in and be shocked at the wetness. 4. mutterings about being beautiful and ‘so tight.’ 5. oral sex and instant orgasm number one. 6. PnV penetration, instant orgasm number two. 7. Roaring male climax and instant female orgasm number three. All in about a paragraph, so no room for any emotional build-up or anything and all this after thinking about ‘pounding her without foreplay.’ (Oh, yeah, so sexy. Argh. No.) Tell me fellow readers, how many times have YOU read this EXACT SAME sex scene? I know I’ve probably read it a hundred times.

But there are still more cliché tropes to be had, because we move right into the ‘I love him, but I have to give him up’ and ‘I love her, but I she’ll be better off without me.’ No one discusses this. No one admits their feelings; all those feelings that developed in about two days out of freakin’ no where. There is no chemistry between these two. And of course, we end with her going to him and demanding he accept her. Cliché! Overused! Horrible!

And all of this is decorated with writing like this: “Probably from the fact that he could smell her from here, like a summer breeze and candle lit dinners but also of red lace and leather.” Someone want to tell me what that actually smells like and does red lace really smell differently than, say, blue or white? I noticed a distinct lack of commas too.

I mean, I know these kinds of stories keep selling, so they keep getting written and if they’re your cup of tea, by all means have at it. But for me, I don’t know if I can run in the other direction fast enough. If this hadn’t been read as part of a challenge I almost certainly wouldn’t have finished it.

Book Review of Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville #1), by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty and the Midnight Hour I borrowed Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Carrie Vaughn, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station – and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it’s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?

Review:
I picked this up as a random audiobook from the library. While nothing about it amazed me, I was amused throughout the entirety of it. Kitty’s ‘I’ve always been weak’ bothered me, but it was also always in context of ‘I’m not anymore,’ so I dealt with it. I did feel like the book didn’t really accomplish anything significant. The smaller mystery was solved, but the primary conflict wasn’t and the book felt a little like a randomly selected period of time. But as a basic fluff read, the book did the job admirably. My library has the next two. I imagine I’ll listen to them at some point.

Review of Wolf, WY (Wolf #1), by A.F. Henley

Wolf, WYI received a copy of Wolf, WY (by A. F. Henley) from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
There’s nothing like a fresh start, and for Randy, still nursing wounds left by a cheating ex and harboring a deep mistrust for all things corporate, Wolf, Wyoming seems like the perfect place to start over. Secluded, quiet, and self-sufficient, Wolf is bound to not only inspire, but to bring Randy the peace he needs. The view’s not bad, either.

Vaughn O’Connell and his family are Randy’s only neighbors for miles, and while Randy knows it’s somewhat unlikely that a man with three kids is gay, it doesn’t hurt to look. When a misunderstanding brings Randy face to face with both Vaughn and his eighteen year old son, Lyle, Randy’s not sure what to feel about either of them.

But things are not what they appear in Wolf, and the closer Randy gets, the stranger the O’Connell family seems…

Review:

This is a hard book to review, because there were some aspect of it I really liked, some that got on my nerves and then there was the ending which I thought fell apart. But on which of these do I base a review?

What I liked, I quite liked. I liked that Randy wasn’t a pushover, even if he was out of his element. I liked that Vaughn put his family first. I liked seeing Lyle’s situation. The scene in which Vaughn obliquely tells Randy about it is one of my favorite in the book. I thought the sex was sexy.

What I didn’t like was the cliche, status-greedy mother (How many times can we read the same character?) and everything after Randy leaves Wolf. I had two main issues with the last bit of the book. The first was that if felt like it was simply trying to deliberately open the universe to allow for sequels. Two, it just got too saccharine and sweet for my tastes.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book and Henley’s writing style. I’ll be up for more.