Tag Archives: Tantor Audio

Book Review: A Drop of Magic (The Magicsmith, #1), by L.R. Braden

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I won an audio copy of A Drop of Magic, by L.R. Braden.

Description from Goodreads:

The war isn’t over . . .

With the world clinging to a fragile peace forced on the Fae by humanity after the Faerie Wars, metalsmith Alex Blackwood is plunged into the world of the half-fae who traffick in illegal magical artifacts. Her best friend’s murder and his cryptic last message place her in the crosshairs of a scheme to reignite the decade-old war between humans and fae.

Worse, violent attacks against her and the arrival of a fae knight on a mission force Alex to face a devastating revelation of who and what she is. To catch a killer, retrieve a dangerous artifact, and stop a war, Alex will have to accept that she’s an unregistered fae “halfer” with a unique magical talent—a talent that would change everything she believes about her past, her art, and her future.

Her world is crumbling around her, and Alex will have to decide who to trust if she and the world are going to survive.

Review:

I thought this was ok, not great, but not bad either. I liked the main character, but I had issues with most of the side characters. The book passes the Bechdel test (it does feature at least two women who do talk to each other about something other than a man), but not by much and honestly, it didn’t feel like it should. It felt very much like all the important side characters were male. In fact, it started to feel like a reverse harem, though there is no sex and the only whisper of romance comes in the last pages. (It could have been one of several male characters and worked just as well, so I can say it wasn’t impactful to the story.) Actually, very little in the book is impactful. I think that’s why I’ve finished it with a mental shrug more than anything else. I won’t remember it next week.

The writing was fine, though I think there were a few editing mistakes. It’s hard to tell with an audiobook (narrated by Heather Costa), but I’m fairly sure it said ‘we’ll find out who killed your father,’ at one point when they were investigating the death of her friend. All in all, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to continue the series, but I didn’t hate it either.

Book Review of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by, Michele Young-Stone

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I was short a Y-author for my yearly alphabet challenge (where I read a book by an author with a last name starting with every letter of the alphabet). So, I borrowed The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (by Michele Young-Stone) from the library.

Description from Goodreads:

BECCA

On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, eight-year-old Becca Burke was struck by lightning. No one believed her—not her philandering father or her drunk, love-sick mother—not even when her watch kept losing time and a spooky halo of light appeared overhead in photographs. Becca was struck again when she was sixteen. She survived, but over time she would learn that outsmarting lightning was the least of her concerns.

BUCKLEY

In rural Arkansas, Buckley R. Pitank’s world seemed plagued by disaster. Ashamed but protective of his obese mother, fearful of his scathing grandmother, and always running from bullies (including his pseudo-evangelical stepfather), he needed a miracle to set him free. At thirteen years old, Buckley witnessed a lightning strike that would change everything.

Now an art student in New York City, Becca Burke is a gifted but tortured painter who strives to recapture the intensity of her lightning-strike memories on canvas. On the night of her first gallery opening, a stranger appears and is captivated by her art. Who is this odd young man with whom she shares a mysterious connection? When Buckley and Becca finally meet, neither is prepared for the charge of emotions—or for the perilous event that will bring them even closer to one another and to the families they’ve been running from for as long as they can remember.

Review:

I really loved the ending of this book, which tends to make me forget that I didn’t actually love the rest of it. I liked the characters and the mechanical writing is fine, but I hate all the jumping around in time. I couldn’t temporally keep up, never knew anyone’s approximate age at any one point (and this book starts in childhood), and never knew how those ages related to one another.

Further, the main characters don’t meet until like 80% into the book and then immediately separate until the end. (It’s not a romance, by the way, I’d expected it to be.) And until the end, everyone is miserable.

All in all, I didn’t hate it and I can recognize it’s well written. But it wasn’t a huge winner for me (other than the ending). I did think the narrator (Coleen Marlo) did a good job though.

Seduce Me in Dreams

Book Review of Seduce Me in Dreams (Three Worlds #1), by Jacquelyn Frank

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cover of Seduce me in Dreams

I borrowed an audio copy of Seduce Me in Dreams, by Jacquelyn Frank through my local library. It’s narrated by Coleen Marlo.

Description from Goodreads:

Dark. Mysterious. Sensual. When Bronse Chapel, the commander of a specialized unit of the Interplanetary Militia, begins to dream about a beautiful and exotic brunette, he wants to dismiss it as being induced by lack of sleep . . . or perhaps lack of sex. But his instincts tell him it’s something different, something far more dangerous.

Ravenna is the leader of the Chosen Ones, a small group of people from her village born with extraordinary powers. She doesn’t know that draws her to Bronse’s dreams night after night, but she senses that he and his team are in jeopardy. Ravenna can help him, but first Bronse must save the Chosen Ones from those who plan to use their powers for evil. Together, Bronse and Ravenna will be unstoppable. But Ravenna is hiding something that could endanger them all.

Review:

I only have myself to blame. I borrowed this from the library. I’ve passed it up several times, expecting it to be horrible. Experience has taught that older PNR (this is from 2011) and I don’t usually get along. Gender tropes are often too strongly reinforced for me. Women are always small and delicate and men are large and dangerous. Women are victims, men are victors, etc. But I’ve listened to pretty much all the PNR that my library has available via OverDrive/Libby, so I gave in and rented this. 

It tricked me. I thought it started out well and I began to think maybe I’d been wrong….then it all went to shite. Or to be more precise, it all went exactly as I’d previously anticipated. I lost track of how many times phrases like “her sexy little lips,” “her pert little bottom,” “her sweet little hands,” “her bright little eyes,” etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Ravenna’s character development seemed entirely based on her ability to withstand misery and Bronse’s in his ability to berate himself for his attraction and kill things. Of course, if Ravenna considered killing someone it had to be avoided at all costs, because it would be sooooo harmful to hermental state. Why is this only ever true for women?

I did think the universe this was set in looked interesting. But I didn’t feel like it was well developed. Nor were any of the side characters. Lastly (and importantly), there is a pretty big mystery that moves the plot along. It isn’t solved. The book ends with a, “I guess we’ll never know why.” Ummmmm, no. That’s 100% not acceptable to me. 

All in all, not AS bad as I expected. But not great either.