Tag Archives: urban fantasy

Review of Waking Magic: The Revelations of Oriceran (The Leira Chronicles #1) by Martha R. Carr & Michael Anderle

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I won a copy of Waking Magic, by Martha Carr and Michael Anderle through Goodreads.

Description from Goodreads:
There are some on our planet who believe you can’t handle the truth, so the truth has been hidden for millennia. The only problem is the truth is coming back… Early.

Some of the crazy history shows on cable TV might not have the answers, but at least they ask the right questions.

Homicide detective, Leira Berens is in a race against a magical force with a mischievous troll by her side with a penchant for swearing.

The stakes are real. And so is the magical world she just visited.

An elven prince is dead, a timebomb as a necklace is loose in her world, and her mother may not be crazy.

It’s a lot. But with help from unexpected places, Leira is going to accomplish more than she ever thought possible.

Welcome to The Revelations of Oriceran.

Because some believe you can’t handle the truth.

Review:
I was bitterly disappointed by this. Let me start with a little bit of a rant. This is labeled as the first book in a series, book 1. But I picked it up and was completely confused, lost. The story had obviously started somewhere else. How can that be if this is book one, I asked.

Well, apparently there is a book .5. Now, I have no problem with .5 books (or however you want to labeled something that comes before book one). This is the place for a prequel. But if the story is part of book one, if it’s necessary to read and understand the story, then I firmly believe this is not a prequel, it’s not book .5. IT IS BOOK ONE. So, I take some serious issue in how this author has chosen to number the books. I couldn’t pick up book one and find the start of a story. I couldn’t easily catch up or follow it. This is a serious problem for me. Especially since it doesn’t really end either. So, I didn’t get a complete beginning or ending.

Outside of that (for me) one big issue, I also thought the book rushed and unfocused. Tell me, if you have a few short days to find someone and a magical object would you take the time to go bowling? As an author, would you dedicate pages to someone’s trip to CVS?

There was very little in the line of plot progression, character development or world building. (Maybe it’s all in that previous book, which only further supports my assertion that it should be book one.) I’ll grant that the characters were likable and the troll cute. But you never get to know them.

The writing is mechanically fine and I don’t remember too many editing errors. But I have no desire to continue the series.

Edit: Another reviewer, who did read the ‘prequel’ stated that it is the “the first 3 or so chapters of the book, despite being published separately.” I’ll add that it’s not even a freebie. So apparently you have to pay for the first 3 chapters of this book separately. That’s a big FAT “no” from me.

Whispers From Another World

Book Review of Whispers From Another World (Whitney Powers #1), by Jason Paul Rice

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I received a Audible code for a copy of Whispers From Another World (by Jason Paul Rice) from the narrator Tiffany Willams.

Description from Goodreads:
A strong-willed woman. A new cop on the local force. Two lonely souls find each other and embark on a paranormal mystery adventure.

Twelve-year-old Whitney Powers looks at the books on supernatural phenomena in a dark corner of the Granny Larson Library. As she stares, the bookshelf begins to shake and a prism-like flash of light blinds her momentarily.

Whitney goes missing for the next three days. Finally, a local patrolman finds her a few miles from the library. Her explanation of the incident causes her to be ridiculed for the next eighteen years. Despite countless opportunities to leave and end the abuse, she’s stayed in this small town.

Why has she always remained close to the Granny Larson Library, which is supposedly haunted?

What happened during those three days that’s forcing her to stay back and work at the library?

Review:
I really hate doing this. I always feel guilty when I offer to review a book and then have to say bad things about it. I know there are reviewers out there that request a book to do just that. I’m not that person. I go into a book hoping to love it and I’m disappointed when I don’t.

But honestly, this story just does not hang together. The ghosts are extraneous to the plot. Whitney is a random ‘chosen one,’ special for no apparent reason and far, far too perfect. But worst of all is the attempt an being a police procedural. Reasonably, if she didn’t end up dead she’d be in jail for impersonating a police officer and interfering in an active investigation, instead of being given some vague ‘clearance’ and invited to work with the special police. None of it works! At all.

I try not to generalize. But I honestly think some male authors shouldn’t try to write female characters. Whitney is so incredibly unlikable I almost can’t verbalize it. The things she’s supposed to think are important just make her horrible. Her whole life comes down to pettily rubbing ‘her man’ into the face of people who made fun of her. As if having a man makes her complete. I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my eyes, said “gross” out loud or made gagging motions. For real, if I hadn’t accepted this in exchange for a review I wouldn’t have finished it. It’s that bad.

The writing seems mechanically fine, though I had the audio so I can’t be certain. But its the sort that leans heavily on ‘very,’ ‘extremely,’ ‘really’ and far too many adjectives. Tiffany Williams did a fine job with the narration, but the story is an utter flop.

Book Review: Midnight Crossroad, by Charlaine Harris

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midnight crossroad cover

Description from Goodreads:

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth…

My Review:

Honestly, it wasn’t as good as I’d expected. If I didn’t know this woman has dozens of books to her name, if I hadn’t read almost all the Sookie Stackhouse novels and know she can write, I might call the writing in this book amateurish! In the beginning, I thought it was an effect, something she was putting on just for the prologue. But it just didn’t get much better. I liked the characters and all, but the writing just didn’t flow particularly well. Was there maybe not as much editing as in past books? I’m willing to give book 2 a chance, to see if it improves. But unless it gets better, I won’t be continuing the series.