Tag Archives: shifters

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Book Review: Forbidden, by Jewels Arthur

I picked up an e-copy of Jewels Arthur‘s Forbidden on Amazon the other day.

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When a little girl, all alone in the big bad woods, lets it slip that she’s on her way to visit her sick gran, I can’t help but take advantage. Don’t judge me. I’m hungry and let’s be real… What tastes better than a meal that doesn’t struggle—much.

Little do I know, my blood-thirsty plot is about to be foiled by a set of five werewolves that have decided to eat gran, take her place, and eat the little girl! I wish I had thought of that last bit myself.

The worst part is that I have been a lone vampire for years now so I have no one to watch my back. I am just easy prey to them and their beastly desires. If I can’t escape, I just may become victim to those desires and they are more than willing to huff and puff and blow my resolve away.

my review

Before I read this, I couldn’t figure out how it had so many good reviews. It’s a little counterintuitive, but I understand now. Put simply, this is objectively bad—but in the absolute best way!

Years ago, before the time constraints of children, my now-husband and I used to do something called Good Wine/Bad Movie Night. One of us would pick up a good bottle of wine (Mind you, we were young and broke. So, our idea of ‘good wine’ was probably suspect.) and the other would pick out a bad movie. The idea was that the more you drank, the better the movie got. We forbidden photowatched a lot of B-grade sci-fi and questionable anime. But, my goodness, did we have fun with it.

If it were a movie, Forbidden would be a prime contender. It is bad. It’s ‘staying up until 2 am covered in Cheetos dust and cheap wine with your best friend’ bad. It’s cringe at the dialogue and sudden, inexplicable changes in character attitudes bad. It’s porn with minimal plot bad. But it’s not trying to be anything else. Which means you can laugh with it, instead of at it, and bask in its badness. I just had a ton of fun with it and will absolutely try the rest of the series.


Other Reviews:

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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

 

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Book Review: Rogue Wolves Prison, by Eva Brandt & Cara Wylde

I grabbed a copy of Rogue Wolves Prison, by Eva Brandt and Cara Wylde, on one of it’s Amazon freebie days…or maybe it’s a perma-freebie. Either way, I picked it up for free on Amazon.
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Once, I knew what my future was going to be like. I was bound to mate an Alpha chosen by my father, to be his Omega and have his pups. But I changed that future when I dared to fight off my would-be mate. When I killed him and became a rogue wolf.

There’s only one place left for me now – Rogue Wolves Prison. The penitentiary built for the most vicious, unrepentant werewolves alive. It’s not a place where I can expect to survive sane, let alone find love and a soulmate.

But all my expectations, hopes and fears are torn apart the moment I meet Killian Wolfsbane.

He’s fierce, destructive, stronger than any werewolf I’ve seen. He’s the leader of The Killers, the gang that holds almost as much power over the prison as the Warden. He looks at me with yearning and protects me, but can’t seem to bear my presence. I can see myself in his grief.

It’s foolish to pursue the attraction between us. It’s foolish to hope. It’s foolish to expect salvation. But maybe it’s not foolish to believe in him. Rogue Wolves Prison might be hellish, but there might be a future for me here.

my review

I’ll admit that I picked this book up thinking it was another with a similar plot. But by the time I realized my mistake I decided to just go with it. But, ya’ll, this book is a mess. It’s underdeveloped, cheesy, and simplistic.

Angela seemed to develop abilities as needed…in fact, whole plot points that made no sense popped up as needed. The villain that showed up at the prison seemed to be evil for no apparent reason and showed up to be maniacally and actively evil for, again, no apparent reason. I almost got whiplash from the ‘I did this, no, my family did that, no, they’re good after all.’ It made the whole thing feel inconsistent.

Worst of all, that same back-and-forwards left Angela feeling utterly without agency. Sure, not every heroine has to be a strong character, but she’s basically a limp rag. Killian had a little more character, but not much.

All in all, I’m just glad to be finished with it.

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Other Reviews:

A review of “Rogue Wolves Prison: An Omegaverse Romance” by Cara Wylde and Eva Brandt