Tag Archives: urban fantasy

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Book Review: The Umbra King, by Jamie Applegate Hunter

I picked up a copy of Jamie Applegate Hunter‘s The Umbra King as an Amazon freebie. The author is quite active on TikTok. So, she’d passed my feed numerous times, and I was tempted.

The morally grey don’t want redemption. They want retribution.

After the brutal murder of her twin sister, Aurora “Rory” Raven spends years forging herself into a ruthless vigilante killer.

She never gave up her search for the man who killed her sister, but when she is convicted of thirteen murders and sentenced to five-hundred years in Vincula, the prison realm, she knows her sister’s death will never be avenged.

After arriving in Vincula, Aurora discovers her opportunity for retribution is closer than she thought.

Caius is the notorious Umbra King, ruler of Vincula, King of the Monsters, and the thing nightmares are made of. After being locked in his own realm for a crime he didn’t commit, his only focus has been revenge.

But when Aurora drops into his throne room, representing everything he despises, they begin a game of cat and mouse, and before long, their hatred turns into something else.

Circumstances draw them together, but revenge might tear them apart.

my review*Spoiler warning*

I seem to be in the minority, but I did not enjoy this. In fact, I own both books in the duology, but I’m not going to bother reading book two (and I hate leaving things unfinished). I will preface my complaints with the fact that the writing is fine. The book is perfectly readable (if overly long). I just didn’t like it.

I have several issues that all sort of roll up together. For one, despite the spice, this book felt juvenile to me. There are just too many scenes of hanging out with friends like carefree youths to match the intended seriousness of the story. Some of that hanging out is doing things like having a foot race to the treehouse, like kids. So, when I say that the tone of some parts doesn’t match others, I’m serious. The heroine is a serial killer, let me remind you.

Second, Rory shows up in what is essentially a cushy prison and is instantly treated differently than anyone else. She gets away with things no one else can, even before anyone realizes she’s a fated mate to the king. This begs the question, is she able to get away with things because she’s special, or is the fact that she’s special based on the fact that she gets away with things? The order matters because, in one scenario, the reader is left wondering why she is being given allowances no one else is when no reason (besides being the heroine) is provided. It’s a disconnect. The reader is basically being told how special she is and not at all being shown her being special; it’s the circumstances that are special.

Last and most importantly, a two-parter: You know what trope I hate more than any other trope in the whole world? It’s the scorned women as the villain trope. This trope is largely straight-up misogyny. It’s centuries of women being told they can’t trust one another, that sex is a resource that can be used to garner another resource (a man). Thus, that resource can be stolen by other women and must be guarded. Failing that, the loss can be vindicated. I HATE THIS TROPE WITH A BURNING FIERY PASSION. It makes my heart hurt when female authors write it. We—the entire female population—deserve better.

Hunter leans into this hard in this book and doesn’t do it with any subtly. The transactional nature of the scorned lover’s sexual appetite is wholly apparent. She is not only a scorned lover. She is a scorned lover who was only a lover to stand close to power. She then used her sexuality to manipulate other men into trying to remove her obstacle to returning to the king’s bed. Imagine a tree with all the plots imaginable at your fingertips and choosing to reach for the one hanging closest to the ground. She also has absolutely zero depth or character outside of this one-dimensional misogynistic presentation.

But the use of the scorned lover trope is problematic in this book for a second reason too. I’m not 100% sure how to express this. But I’ll do my best.

Hunter sets up what is a pretty complex world. (I could quibble with the stability and consistency of the world, but I’ll set that aside.) The world is geographically small but consists of several sorts of magics, three realms, multiple layers of deities, etc. She provides a serial killer heroine with a fairly intricate backstory and a tragic, dark king as a love interest. It’s a big, complex world that is staged for a big, complex plot. Then, Hunter wrote a small, tight, personally vindictive story that we’ve all read a million times before and utilized none of the complexity available to it.

The world, as written, should be supporting inter-realm intrigue, including assassinations and Machiavellian machinations. Instead, we’re given a jealous ex-girlfriend, innumerable drinks at the bar with bubbly friends, and more staircases than I can count. We still have the murders and attempted assassinations, oddly, but they don’t fit in with a small-scale plot. Sure, the ex the umbra king photomight be a mean girl, but leaping to murder feels super forced and out of place in the context of the plot. Those attempted murders feel like they should be coming from large, political-level players, not the king’s ex-fleshlight with a face. The ex-girlfriend as a villain was simply too mundane and unimportant to fit with the rest of Hunter’s story structure. It felt dwarfed by its surroundings. Why, for example, do I need a multiple-page world guide for a story that might as well be set in a high school?

All in all, this one was a great big ol’ flop for me.


Other Reviews:

I can’t decide which to include. So, here is a whole list of reviews: The Umbra King Reviews

 

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Book Review: Behind the Curtain, by W.R. Gingell

I pre-ordered a copy of W.R. Gingell‘s Behind the Curtain. The drop day snuck up on me, though. So, it felt like a perfect surprise when I noticed it. I read the first three books in the series earlier this year. You can find the reviews here.

behind the curtain cover

The world Between is full of dangers, shadows, and reflections. Athelas knows the dangers, is one with the shadows—and has finally encountered a reflection could be just a bit too much like himself for comfort.

The house master has come back. Nobody will quite say who he is, or why he owns the house. And to Athelas’ growing irritation, no one will talk about the oddly powerful influence the house master seems to have over Camellia.

YeoWoo knows exactly who and what the house master is—and she knows exactly how much danger Camellia is in. The question she can’t quite seem to answer is: How much safer is it to put Camellia into Athelas’ power than it is to leave her in the house master’s power?

There are nightmares skulking in the corners. Pieces of curse lingering beneath the couch. And soon Camellia will have to make a choice between two evils.

To add insult to injury, the teapot has gone missing…

my review

Last year, The City Between took me by storm, and I binged the whole 10-book series. This year, I’ve been inching my way through the follow-up series, one book at a time, as they become available. It’s torture. But I’ve loved watching Athelas, YeoWoo, Camellia, Harrow, and the crew become a family. Gingell has a way with soft, subtle reveals, and I am here for it.

I’ll admit that there have been times that I wasn’t entirely sure what the subtlety of language was hinting at, or a character would say something along the lines of “I see…” but I do not, in fact, see. These are rare moments, though, and hugely overshadowed by how much I love every one of these characters, especially now that Harrow speaks (and, oh, the things he observes).

I cannot wait for March and the next book. But for a binger like myself, this read, wait, repeat is hell.behind the curtain photo


Other reviews:

a demons guide to the afterlife covers

Book Review: A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife, by Kel Carpenter & Aurelia Jane

I picked up Dark Horse, the first book in Kel Carpenter and Aurelia Jane‘s A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife series, as an Amazon freebie. I then bought the compilation so that I could read White Raven and Black Swan.

a demons guide to the afterlife cover

Don’t get me wrong, waking up to discover my ex-husband finally killed me wasn’t fun. Finding out I had to get a job and pay Afterlife taxes about ten minutes later?
Let’s just say, this wasn’t exactly the eternal reward I was hoping for. But beggars can’t be choosers, and being a demon sure as hell beats my last occupation.
I’m well on my way to retirement behind the pearly gates when the impossible happens. The Risk Witches have a vision.

A savage shifter that can’t control his wolf.
An ancient fae lord that’s forgotten what it means to feel.
A playboy vampire king with a secret.

Three alpha’s will inherit unspeakable power. Each of them scarred. Too broken to be tamed . . .
Upper Management sent their best to ‘fix’ them. Angels. Poltergeists. Nothing worked.

So now it’s my turn, whether I like it or not.
But unfortunately for me, failure is not an option with these guys.

Combined, they have enough power to end the world—and they will.
Unless I find a way to stop them first.

Breaking people is my job. But this time…my job might break me.

a demons guide to the afterlife covers

Review:

Meh, this was OK. I picked the first one up as an Amazon freebie and, on finishing it, bought the compilation in order to finish the series. The thing is, I bought the series because book one had potential, not necessarily because it was especially good. Unfortunately, the potential never developed.

The series isn’t bad; I never wanted to DNF it. But it never got good, either. I was never excited to pick it back up or missing it if I was away. It just coasts along at mediocre, always just barely good enough to keep you reading. But no better.

I liked that Fury had a backbone and a sense of justice. I liked a lot of the characters. However, from very early on, it was evident that Fury had a serious case of being too powerful and, demons_guide_to_the_afterlife_phototherefore, too arrogant, and nothing provided a believable challenge for her. That only got worse as the series progressed, and she got progressively more powerful.

I also felt like all of the men were just caricatures. I never felt that I got to know them beyond the surface and the villain even less. The whole thing was also just unbelievably predictable.

All in all, as I said, this was an OK read. I don’t regret it. But I’m glad to be finished, too.


Other Reviews:

Tracy’s Book Reviews: A Demon’s Guide to the Afterlife

Review of Dark Horse by Kel Carpenter and Aurelia Jane