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Shadow Love Stalkers

Book Review of Claudy Conn’s Shadow Love: Stalkers (Shadow Vampires, #1)

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Shadow LoveQuite some time ago, I grabbed a copy of Claudy Conn‘s Shadow Love: Stalkers (Shadow Vampires, #1) from the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
What do you do when your father wants to turn you into a vampire and the man who offers you protection has his own, dark agenda?

Shawna Rawley has no choice but to run. Pentim Rawley, one of the most evil vampires who has ever lived, has just discovered that she is his daughter. Now he’s obsessed with finding and turning her. She doesn’t want Pentim to find the people she loves and use them to get to her. She doesn’t want him to find and turn her. She has only one ace up her sleeve. The human in her may be at risk, but in addition to being half vamp, Shawna is also a white witch!

Chad MacFare has an offer for Shawna he thinks she can’t afford to refuse: he’ll protect her from Pentim and his minions. But Shawna doesn’t trust the sexy immortal. She knows he has his own agenda-he wants to kill her father, and he wants to set her up as bait…

Review:
This book was OK. I thought it started off quite rough, but did eventually smooth itself out. I enjoyed the H & h (though I did want to slap Shawna on more than one occasion). Oddly, my favourite character was Dammon. He was just a side character (and apparently the H of the next book in the series), but I quite enjoyed his calm demeanour.

Though I generally enjoyed the book, I am not without complaints. I hate making this criticism, because I think it is horribly over used, but a lot of the book is told instead of shown. I think a full 10% goes by in the beginning before the reader gets a single sentence of dialogue that isn’t in someone’s memory. The reader is also told repeatedly how skilled Shawna is, but we don’t really see her fight or defend herself at all. We’re also treated to quite a lot of internal dialogue as both Shawna and Chad tell themselves how sexy the other is.

Though I imagine it comes into play in future books I also didn’t see the importance of the Dracula connection. It is set up in the prologue and he shows up once in the book, but doesn’t seem to have an active role in the plot. I was left wondering, ‘what’s that all about?’

I also felt that the two dangers to Shawna didn’t seem to line up. She’s supposed to be running for her father and that’s the basic framework of the story, but a good 75% of the book goes by before there is any real threat present to her by him. Most of the action centres around a demon she randomly encounters when she moves to Scotland (and amazingly and coincidentally moves in next door to Chad). This demon has nothing to do with the whole father situation and really felt very out of left field to me.

I also never understood Chad’s attitude toward Shawna. If you were meeting a woman for the first time (and all subsequent encounters with her) and needed to convince her to trust you to protect her while she endangered herself for the greater good, would you’re chosen method be antagonism and smug arrogance? He keeps trying to get her agree to his dangerous plan, but never gives her a straight answer to anything and purposefully goads her at every turn. Yes, it made for some amusing verbal sparing, but compromised his own goal repeatedly.

I will happily say this isn’t a case of insta-love. At least not on Shawna’s part. It is however a stunning example of sex = love. Shawna doesn’t trust Chad and he only admits to lusting after her. Then they have sex and voila, sudden boundless, eternal love exists. I got a little whiplash I think.

Then, after 250+ pages of supposedly running from her sociopath father (that we almost never see) the whole book wraps up in about a page and a half. The climax was a little underwhelming I have to admit. Despite all of the above, I did enjoy most of the book. It took a little while for me to settle into the story. But once I did it rolled along well enough and it presented an interesting new birth of vampires myth.

Craved

Book Review of Stephanie Nelson’s Craved (Gwen Sparks #1)

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CravedI downloaded a copy of Craved, by Stephanie Nelson, from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Gwen Sparks just wants to live a peaceful life in the supernatural town of Flora, but from the moment she read about the first murdered witch, all hope of peace was abandoned. Possessing the rare ability to read the memories of dead, she volunteers to help catch the culprit behind the string of drained witches. Gwen has to team up with the one man who broke her heart, deal with a ghost who pulls her into the deathly realm at will, and a fight off the advances of sexy but frustrating vampire who not only craves what runs through her veins—he wants her heart.

Review:
I think the most I can say for this one is ‘Meh.’ I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t really all that impressed either. I was expecting to like it too, since it has so many great reviews. But I found myself irritated and confused more often than not.

To begin with, Gwen got on my nerves from the very first page. Her whole ‘he broke my heart’ spiel was like a broken record. Then when it came out that this relationship that ended, broke her heart and left her so bereft she was unable/unwilling to open herself and love again had only lasted 8 months, I just pretty much said a mental ‘pishaw.’ Overreaction anyone?

Then there was the fact that Nelson set up magical rules, but didn’t seem to follow them. Why don’t Gwen and Aiden have a blood bond if Gwen’s same interactions with Ian resulted in one? How did removing Gwen’s magic from Aiden break his addiction if he was addicted before he encountered her magic to begin with? If Gwen had certain magical abilities, how come she occasionally managed to do things she shouldn’t have been able to do? I realise some of this was the development of a new talent, but why was it suddenly popping up?

Then there was the whole premise of witches’ blood being addictive. I have a really, really hard time figuring out how this small fact has remained unknown for all eternity. Seems to me that at some point some vampire would have gotten his/her hand on a witch and gone ‘oh yeah, that’s some good stuff right there.’ So the whole plot of this ‘new drug’ seemed implausible at best.

Then there were the pitiful sex scenes. They were all really, really rushed–some no more than two or three paragraphs and there was very little detail…or for-play. Which was apparently OK because Gwen can, enviably, orgasm at the drop of a hat. (Not to mention the characters odd tendency to hop to it while in otherwise dangerous situations.)

I noticed a few editorial errors and the book was in first person, which I generally dislike. But I admit that the writing was pretty good. And though Aiden often appeared weak, I did really like how much he loved Gwen. Many of the issues I’ve highlighted as annoyances for me might not irk other readers. So, this might just be a case of the right reader for the book.

Book Review of The Vampire Next Door, by Charity Santiago & Evan Hale

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The Vampire Next DoorI grabbed a copy of The Vampire Next Door by Charity Santiago & Evan Hale from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Since the vampire pandemic jumped the Mexican border eight months ago, twenty-five-year-old Kennedy has been holed up in small-town Arizona, fighting for survival among hungry undead and hostile human survivors. Unsure if her missing husband is still alive, Kennedy has no interest in starting a new relationship- until she meets Reeve, the gorgeous vampire next door who can melt Kennedy into a quivering puddle of lust with a single, smoldering glance.

Between ignoring her growing feelings for Reeve and fending off nightly murder attempts from her husband’s undead ex-wife, Kennedy’s got her hands full. She knows that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: either stay put and wait for rescue that might never happen, or set out on her own in hopes of finding her family.

Review:

I grabbed this when it was free on Amazon and ended up reading it almost immediately. My young daughter caught sight of the cover and said, “Read that one.” Well, who am I to ignore the dictates of a three-year-old?

In some respects, I really enjoyed this story. Kennedy has an interesting personality. She’s a recovering doormat if you will. The vampire apocalypse has really put her life and the people who had been in it in perspective for her. A lot of the book is dedicated to this introspection. And, while I respect the personal growth that resulted from it, she had the same thoughts and mental epiphanies over and over. So, I found much of it repetitive. It also severely cut into the action.

Enter Reeve. Oh, wonderful, wonderful Reeve. He is fabulous. Maybe just a little too fabulous, since the reader never learns what makes him different than other vampires. I also struggled with the fact that Kennedy appreciates his behaviour so very, very much when it is just basic courtesy.

Kennedy had been treated poorly by men. She’d let them control her and treat her as less than an equal. She is subsequently amazed to meet a man who doesn’t treat her this way. That’s great. It really is. But should we really be surprised and praise men for doing nothing more than treating a woman as a mental equal? I got the message being relayed. I did. But that’s kind of a low standard to hold romantic partners to and getting excited over it feels a lot like making it something special (as opposed to the expected norm). Kennedy’s previous behaviour and the demeaning behaviour of both Cole and Eddie are made out to be the norm, what any normal woman should expect from a normal man. But really it’s Reeve’s thoughts and actions that should be the standard by which all other relationships aim to best, as opposed to crow about.

Again, while I appreciate that Kennedy did grow past this juvenile mindset,  a lot of the book takes place before that’s accomplished. I found this really hard to read. I wanted to slap her and then turn to whoever was closest at the time and inform them that she should be expecting more, damn it. She deserves it.

Though not a huge fan of first-person narratives, I thought the book was well written. The dialogue was fresh and flowed well, and the whole situation with The Ex was a fun addition. If there is ever a second book, I’d be thrilled to read it.