Review: Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Author: Kevin Hearne

Title: Hounded

Series: Iron Druid Chronicles #1

About the Book: The first novel in the original, six-book Iron Druid Chronicles--introducing a cool, new, funny urban fantasy hero

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil

 

My Thoughts:

This would have been an excellent read but for a couple of things that dampened my enjoyment drastically.

Before I start on those, hands down the best thing about this book was Oberon, the dog. Mad props to Mr. Hearne for creating such a wonderful animal with his own unique personality.

The first thing that bothered me greatly was the women, every single one of them. The moment they opened their mouths, it wasn't right. I was very hard pressed to believe any goddesses worth their salt spoke as insipidly as the ones in this book did, or any women really. They were not believable at all for me. Two: our druid is flawless. Eh.

But the biggest thing, I think, was all the potshots Mr. Hearne takes at Christianity in the book. Now to be fair, it was a line or two here and there, nothing blatant or whatever, but for some reason, they really, really, really rubbed me wrong. It was annoying and mostly untrue (stereotypes of any group are not cool).  Not cool, not funny. Because of this, I am not too sure I will continue with the series.

But I do think it's worth reading.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

 

Not for Me #2: A Series Fail

Some books are not good reading experiences for me. Sometimes these are books everyone loves that I just don't enjoy. There are books I steer clear off because I know I won't like them. So here's my diary page for the books and series that are just not up my alley.

The Elder Races Series by Thea Harrison

My experience with this series has been really weird

Where they stand so far:

The Awesome	The Busts

Coming Soon: Potentially Awesome?

Praise for the first book in series, Dragon Bound, reverberated though the book-o-sphere late last year. I bought the book on the strength of that praise alone. And once you got past the first half, the effusive praise was right. The book was fresh and excellent. Well, then, bring on book 2.

And what a fall from grace that was. The hero of that book should have received a few slaps of sense to set him straight, and the heroine was a complete ninny. In book three, you had a hero who had been strong and wonderful in the previous books, but was a letdown in his own book. In book 4...nothing happens. And while there was more praise for this one than the intervening two books, the characters did zilch for me.

So truly, only the first book, which is absolutely delightful, is really worth writing home about in my opinion. I have all but given up on this series. The only reason I will be acquiring book 5 is because it features the couple from Book 1, Dragos and Pia, and there's the hope that with them Ms. Harrison can recreate the magic. The only other exception I'll make for this series is if there is a future book about Graydon, a supporting character I adore.

For me, this series has been one massive bust after an electrifying start. It seems Dragon Bound was a flash in the pan. Major letdown. This is one series that is (mostly) not for me.

Reviews:
1. Dragon Bound - 5/5
2. Storm's Heart - 2.5/5
3. Serpent's Kiss - 3/5
4. Oracle's Moon - 3/5

Review: Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

Author: Carrie Vaughn

Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour

Series: Kitty Norville #1

About the Book: Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?

My Thoughts:

The last 25% of the book is a massive improvement over the first 75% of the book, in my opinion, and major reason I've rated this book as 'good' (3 stars) instead of 'didn't like it' (2 stars). I also think that my feelings about this book have to do in large part with my own expectations gone wrong.

What I Expected:

Before starting this book I'd heard it was about submissive werewolf. That had me majorly excited because in all the werewolf fiction I've come across, dominant, not submissive wolves are the subject. You come across an outlier once awhile, like Anna in Patricia Briggs' Alpha and Omega series, but they ae usually dominant wolves in some weird/different incarnation (like Anna is) or dominant wolves whoa re dormant and waiting for the right time to strike. I wanted to read this book because I thought it would be fun to see an imagined werewolf society through a submissive wolf's perspective. I was also excited because not every strong person is 'kickass', or 'take-charge', or dominant. That paradigm shows us only one side of strength and forces our expectations of what strength should be inside a box (okay soapbox over...I think).


Well, anyway, that is what I expected, not what I got.

What I got:

1. A HELLA whiny heroine. And by that I mean HELLA whiny! Whining in both wolf and human forms, cowering all the time, all over the place. If I had to desrcibe her in one word, it would be whiny, with 'HELLA' in brackets and capitals attached before.

2. NOT a healthy description of a person or a wolf pack. In Kitty's pack instead of being protectors, the dominant wolves seem to be walking abusers, preying on anything weaker than themselves, ans walking man-whores too (no wonder most werewolf mythologies have them as immune to almost everything. They'd all have died from STD's by now if that wasn't the case!) Most of them were asshats. They were more like sadists than a pack of werewolves.

3. A HELLA whiny heroine. She was not a healthy person. As I was reading, I couldn't help thinking over and over again that 'this is NOT what a healthy depiction of a submissive person/werewolf should be!', and 'this is NOT what a healthy werewolf packs should be!

*As the story went on, I liked Kitty less and less, most of that being the way she acted on her talk show. I don't know if she was meant to be a shock jock or something, but I thought the way she spoke to most people was quite rude and uncalled for. I don't like that.

By the end, the writing had gotten really better, but through some unbelievably fake machinations (to me at least), our heroine sorta comes into her own, and discovers that mebbe she isn't really submissive after all. She is growing up; she has more spine; she is probably more dominant than she thought she was. I felt that was a cop-out. She's basically your generic 'kickass, talk-smack' UF heroine, only quite watered down, and slightly gentler. Eh whatever.

Thus I was disappointed in this here story. It was a good case of wrong expectation, but I also think it was a good case of wrong execution too. Even though I enjoyed the last parts of the story much more than I expected, I don't think I will come along for the ride.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

 

ARC Review: Shadow Bound, by Rachel Vincent

 *Official release date for this title is June 1, but copies were available from May 22nd*

Author: Rachel Vincent

Title: Shadow Bound

Series: Unbound #2

Source: NetGalley

About the Book: If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own.

Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.
Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty…

 

My Thoughts: 

After Bood Bound left me on tenterhooks, I couldn't wait to read Shadow Bound. It's probably my biggest disappointment of 2012 so far. Here's the thing: Ms. Vincent creates world-building masterpieces. They are unique and grossing and just...fabulous. However, her characters usually incite a desire to do violence in me. Reading Shadow Bound made me angry in degrees. I started off angry about the mess the dead girl's selfishness had gotten all of them into. By the time I finished, I was seething at the foolishness of Kori and Ian. Enjoying this book to any degree depends heavily on being sympathetic to the characters, which I could not find it in me to do because they were all TSTL. Cast of Characters

1. The Daniels Family: This is a world where any display of some power will attract attention from mobsters who are looking to add the skilled - willingly or unwillingly, to their numbers of minions. This hinges on Binders, the people whose specific skill it is to bind people's wills to their contracts (and so to the mobsters). You discover by painful experience that your sister is a very powerful binder, which guarantees the mobsters will be after her her entire life if they get wind of it. What do you do? Well, if you are Kori Daniels and her family, you "shelter" her. You don't research into how binding works; you don't teach her what she needs to protect herself from being discovered; you don't impress upon her the danger of her gift (esp. as a disaster has happened before); you don't teach her to be wary of people who ask for her blood and their motivations, and not to hand out her blood to her friends for friendship's sake.... knowing well that if she is caught, her skill will be spent binding lots of people to a life of horror and that her life will be spent in servitude to horrible people. No. You "shelter" her so she grows up to be a nincompoop. How is that any sort of intelligent decision? Exactly! It isn't. suffice it to say, Kenley is easily snared by Jake Towers and Kori goes with her to protect her. No intelligent life in this family. They knowingly laid the groundwork for this to happen. When people were telling Kori it wasn't her fault, I wanted to smack them. Yes it was! If they'd just exercised some common sense, they'd have nipped this in the bud before it begun, so that this story wouldn't be taking place.
2. Kori Daniels: We already know she isn't intelligent. If to save your life and your sister's life you are asked to cozy up to some dude, will your modus operandus be to be rude and crass to him? But apparently, she doesn't know that you don't catch flies with vinegar. But rest assured that she catches Ian, who's a prize fool himself. Much was made of how strong and indomitable Kori's character was. I didn't see it. I saw instead a TSTL person who talked crassly. That's all. No substance, no depth, no integrity, no nothing. All those fights she won were sooooo unbelievable to me. I couldn't understand how one couldn't just shoot her in the head.
3. Ian Holt: If you are on a mission to kill a stranger's sister to save your brother, a mission on which you can't afford to fail, do you spend your time agonizing over that stranger and whether they like you? Or about the urgency of your mission to save your brother's life?
4. A closer look at Kenley Daniels reveals a girl as selfish as she is stupid. And she is that way because her family made her so.

Nope. I couldn't support these people and their lack of common sense, self-preservation and intelligence. If nothing else, the fear of having Kenley bind people to such horrors should have spurred the Daniels family into raising her to be sensible. So much blood is on their hands. Unfortunately the final book in this trilogy is to center on Kris, Kori and Kenley's brother. Owing to what we know about the lack of intelligence and common sense in this family, I'll be frank and admit that my hopes aren't very high. 0 butterflies for the characters; 2 butterflies for such a unique and wonderful world, and the promise it is denied by the nincompoops inhabiting it. If you do read this series, read it for the amazing world-building, not for the fool inhabitants.
 

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

1. Blood Bound - Excellent

Review: Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison

Author: Thea Harrison

Title: Oracle's Moon

Series: Elder Races #4

He will watch over her...

In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, an untested young woman must claim her place as the Oracle—and contend with a powerful Djinn who has decided to become a part of her life...

As a second daughter, Grace Andreas never had to worry about the intrigues of the Elder Races. But when her sister, Petra, and Petra's husband are both killed, Grace inherits the Power and responsibilities of the Oracle of Louisville, as well as her sister's two young children—neither of which she is prepared for.

Yet, she is not alone. Khalil, Demonkind and Djinn prince of House Marid—driven by his genuine caring for the children—has decided to make himself a part of the household both as their guardian and as an exasperating counterpoint to Grace's impudence toward the Elder Races.

But when an attempt is made on Grace's life, she realizes that Khalil is the only one who can protect her—and offer her more than a mortal man...

My Thoughts:

Hmph.

I debated whether or not to write review for this one, considering that I was ready to write off the series after Book 3, but here I am, so what the heck.

I rated this one 3 butterflies keeping the other books in series very much in mind and not on its own merit. I am not sure the rating would be higher if considered on it's own merit.

The strongest and probably only reaction I had to this book after finishing was supreme indifference. Nothing happens in the book. Really. Nothing happens. Grace and Khalil were thrown together at the beginning and there they remained till the end (well, it's not exactly true that nothing happens - there is some drama in the final 40 pages of the book, but by then we've been through 302 pages of nothing, so those pages don't count).

There is no sense of rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, no real conflict..... nada. Zilch. That in itself isn't a bad thing. Sometimes the journey a story takes you through is the destination. This was not one of those books or stories for me.

I guess it was a good story. But it was like a beautiful mannequin as opposed to a living, breathing human being, or like a nice painting that evokes no emotion whatsoever. There was no life to it.

Khalil had some moments where he came to life, I think. But Grace remained stiff and lifeless throughout. This might just be a quirk of mine, but I also found some of the interactions of Khalil and Grace with other people rude instead of cool. I've been having that problem with several books and characters lately, so it might just be me and not them.

It has been this way for every single book.

1. I struggled to find life in book 1, Dragon Bound: I found it after 50% and it was a gushing fountain that spilled forth and colored the whole book and the characters. I ended up loving it and do reread it often.

2. The struggle began again with book 2, Storm's Heart: I guess I found some life because it evoked strong feelings of wanting to bludgeon the male lead. But there was something there.

3. The struggle was there again in book 3, Serpent's Kiss: And yet, there must have been residual traces, because I had some sort of reaction: surprised liking for Carling and huge disappointment in Rune

4. Book 4 - Dead in the water.

I read this one against my better judgment, and...my better judgment was right.

I'll read the next book in series because I hope Ms. Harrison will be able to recreate her combination of great writing with vibrancy and life in Dragos and Pia.

And after that, probably only a book that has Graydon in it, because I like him.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:
1. Dragon Bound - Mind-Blowing
2. Storm's Heart - Meh
3. Serpent's Kiss - Good 

Review: River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Author: Patricia Briggs
Title: River Marked
Series: Mercedes Thompson #6
Published: March 1, 2011

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She's never known any others of her kind. Until now.
An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father's people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help...

It feels really blasphemous to be rating a Patty Briggs book so low, and to be fair, I liked it a lot more than many books I've rated three stars. However I rated Bone Crossed for stars and I liked that one much better than this one. So I am rating in comparison to the other books in this series as opposed to the book on its own merit, if you get what I mean. That's said......

I liked the story. It was a good something. But for me it lacked the draw that other books in the series have had. I didn't care much for the first book in the series, but every one after that has held me spellbound until I finished it. This one I found hard to get into from the beginning and had to put it down for awhile. When I came back into it, it hit its stride and I rolled with the story until the end, but it was still lacking in Patty's usual subtle oomph for me. 

I think a part of that could be attributed to the new setting. The story takes place away from the pack, and the usual supporting cast, and has a slew of new characters. They were interesting to read about, and I really liked to see Mercy 'explore' her Native American heritage; it was also moving in parts - especially the scene where she saw her father's ghost dancing and the scene where Coyote explains that dance to her. But it still lacked the magic of previous books, the cohesiveness the Columbia Basin support cast brings. 

And this one is my fault. You know how people read to see their favorite characters - like how most people will read to see Mercy and Adam again? Well, my favorite character is Samuel, and I sorely missed the glimpses of him I usually get. I mean, it's not Patty's fault that I had the bad taste (well. it's good taste IMO, LOL!!!!) to fall hardest for a side character, but it is what it is.

And this part is a little ranty. You can skip it entirely, as I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only one who feels this way :)

For the first time, Mercy and Adam really got on my nerves. Adam with his posturing and yellow eyes....yes sah! We get it. She's your wife, your mate, she belongs to you, no one can hurt her, blah blah blah. Enough already. Adam used to be both possessive and sensible; in this books he was not sensible, and I wanted to smack him on the nose. I felt more than a share of malicious glee when Wolf got his own back on Adam. In that scene especially I felt his behavior was uncalled for, so I was glad he was 'put in his place', so to speak.

And Mercy going on and on and on and on ad nauseum about not being a fragile flower, and not needing to be protected and how Adam was her mate.....we get. We really do! We've been rooting for you guys all along. Now we don't need to be reminded every two pages. The Lady and the Gentleman doth protest waaaaaaaaay too much. Okay, rant over. 


It was a good book, a solid book, an enjoyable book and I have no doubt many, many people will love it. It just didn't pack the punch for me Patty's books usually does, and so I was disappointed. The whole was less than the sum of its parts, for me.

★★★

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

1. Moon Called - 3/5
2. Blood Bound  -5/5
3. Iron Kissed - 5/5
4. Bone Crossed - 4/5
5. Silver Borne - 5/5

 

Demon Hunts by C.E. Murphy

Author: C.E. Murphy
Title: Demon Hunts
Series: Walker Paper #5
Pages: 361
Source: Library

Seattle police detective Joanne Walker started the year mostly dead, and she's ending it trying not to be consumed by evil. Literally.
She's proven she can handle the gods and the walking dead. But a cannibalistic serial killer? That's more than even she bargained for. What's worse, the brutal demon can only be tracked one way. If Joanne is to stop its campaign of terror, she'll have to hunt it where it lives: the Lower World, a shamanistic plane of magic and spirits.
Trouble is, Joanne's skills are no match for the dangers she's about to face--and her on-the-job training could prove fatal to the people she's sworn to protect

For the most part, this series leads me to think of what it might have been, instead of what it now is. It could easily have been a great series, but it isn't. Not by a long shot. I had thought the series was starting to look up when the author began to portray a different side of Joanne - a more likeable side. But alas, it seems like that was only a flash in the pan.

Dimwit Joanne seems to be making a comeback in full force: rude, obnoxious, and with very little to recommend her. In this book, this was not just Joanne, but every other female character. It made reading such a chore.

Unfortunately the plot was also uninteresting - the search for a cannibalistic serial killer...sounds interesting, but the execution was a failure.

Not recommended.

★★

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

1. Urban Shaman
2. Thunderbird Falls
3. Coyote Dreams
4. Walking Dead

 

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Author: Jim Butcher
Title: Fool Moon
Series: Dresden Files #2
Pages: 347
Source: Library

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work—magical or mundane.
But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.
A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses—and the first two don't count...

I'm sad to give this one a measly three stars because I was excited for this book. I was disappointed.

A lot of the plot was advanced by people who should know better being unforgivably obtuse. Take Murphy, for example, with her knee jerk reactions, arresting Harry every chance she got, when a little bit of maturity would have accomplished drastically different results. All she'd needed was a few minutes - no seconds, of clear thinking to allow Harry to talk, and a lot of misconceptions would have been cleared up. But no. She's too old to be that immature. And her job alone should preclude her from being that way, but no.

Harry himself was not much better. He acted rather immature and needlessly cruel for a good part of the novel, even if for no other reason than to show bravado to people who were on your side. He's too old for that. His mini God-complex was also rather annoying. And you would think anyone who saw himself as the only hope mere mortals had against all the dark forces would conduct himself with a modicum of common sense, but no. He's gone down in my estimation with this novel.

I so wanted to like this one. Like my friends Sans would say, Sad Panda.

★★★

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

#1. Storm Front

 

Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

Jane Yellowrock #2
Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

★★½

The first book in this series surprised me into enjoying it and checking out the rest of the books. Unfortunately, this book is a disappointing follow up to the first book.

Jane Yellowrock is still in Louisiana, even after completing her job for the Vampire Council. It seems she has been hired on to do some more work for them: a rogue is making new vampires and must be stopped.

For a long while the story just seemed to be going nowhere, so I went back and checked the synopsis, and it was vague, much like the story itself: there was not much of a sense of the plot moving forward to some sort of culmination. It remained flat until the final few chapters, where it picked up a bit, but by then I couldn't care less about any tensions or happenings that had to be resolved, I just wanted the book to end.

I also found myself returning to my initial assessment of Jane (you know, before the turn of magic that had me change my mind about the first book) as a rather uninteresting character to get to know. The one thing that perked me up was her relationship with "Bruiser", which alas, seems to be fated to either go nowhere or be part of a love triangle/quadrangle.

I was really disappointed in this installment. I think I will go on to read the next book in series to gauge whether the first book was a fluke or if it's truly worth coming along for the ride.

And...the cover is horrible. Womp.

View all my reviews

In Bed With a Highlander by Maya Banks

McCabe Trilogy #1
In Bed with a Highlander by Maya Banks
★★★

I hope this doesn't come across as too ranty, but I am a slightly more than a a bit disgruntled.

See, the highlander historical romance genre is over-saturated. The landscape is choking with stories and heroes and heroines, some trite, some cliche, most of them entirely TSTL, and very few truly original and enjoyable treasures hidden among the dross.

Um... I did feel that this book ended up being part of the dross, even though so many loved it. It was not a bad book, but like I said, in an over-saturated field, an 'ok' book really isn't what you want. I also had so many problems with the characterization.

Mairin, the heroine of the story, comes in when the soon of Ewan, the hero, gets lost for being stupid. Now...this is the Scottish highlands at a time when clans were warring, and it was dangerous to be caught out. I would expect that people guarded their children close, especially clans that didn't have the money to pay for a ransom, if a person was caught. And I fail to understand how I'm expected to believe children can be so stupid. Children are smart, especially in dangerous times. They know what is going too far. So I failed to understand how any not-dimwitted child would have done what Crispen did, and consequently, brought our hero and heroine together. Strike one.

Mairin was also a dimwit, IMO. I mean, it was a common occurrence in those days to hang up bloodstained sheets to prove a bedding, no? And when a group of warriors intent upon kidnapping you and forcing you to marry another man is bearing down on the wedding, it is beyond obvious to me that the damn bedding had better be done in haste. No? But it seems Mairin thought that people bearing down notwithstanding, she deserved hours and hours of lovemaking. Go figure. Strike two. Another strike against her was that stupid habit of blurting any and everything and not realizing it. You would think one would notice the first two times you said something awkward and realized everyone heard you.

The final strike against this book were scenes that were very, very, reminiscent of some scenes in a Julie Garwood book I'd read - I think it was The Bride. I don't mind derivative works, but like others have said, it seemed like a blatant rip-off, :(. Strike three.


The book was a not-badly-written book, but I am pretty sure I won't continue with the remaining two. But dammit, I have had those books for so long in the waiting queue at my library!

View all my reviews

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

Study #3
Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
★★★

This has been a disappointing end to what had the potential to be an awesome series. Perhaps Poison Study should have wrapped up neatly and been a stand-alone novel. After reading Magic Study and Fire Study, I feel as if they were superfluous, and actually don't add much to Yelena's character.

I was a bit tired of this long-distance 'love' between Yelena and Valek, since they almost never saw each other.

I was also not enamored of the plot, especially of this book. It felt fillerish and caused Yelena and other characters to do very stupid things you wouldn't see anyone with a modicum of intelligence doing, just so the story could be moved along.

I mean, for those who have read the books - how stupid does one have to be, to not kill Cahil after his constant foolishness which ends up putting people in mortal danger? How stupid does Cahil himself have to be, to go about every single time,hanging out with fools and murderers and doing horrible things (beating Yelena) and then realize the error of his ways and come asking for forgiveness? How stupid do you have to be not to know that the people you are hanging with are not good when they're capturing people and killing them for blood rituals, when even children are included among their captives? Just petty stupidities like that - from Yelena, Lord Marrok...just about everyone except Valek.

I felt this diluted the quality of the characters, after all, they can't be so great if they're so stupid, can they? And I do think somewhat less of Yelena now. Valek, and perhaps, Ari and Janco, are the only characters whom I felt maintained their integrity.

If Maria Snyder had stopped at book one, or come up with completely different plots for books two and three, she might have had a proper winner on her hand.

I read somewhere that someone read somewhere that Ms. Snyder had originally intended Poison study to be a stand-alone novel, and wrote it accordingly. But the publisher had wanted more than one book (prolly to make more money) and so she'd changed the ending to an open-ended one and come up with this trilogy. If that is the case (and I can certainly see how that could have been the case), then it's a major fail on Ms. Snyder's part and the part of her publishers.

View all my reviews

Touch the Dark by Karen Chance

Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
My rating: ★★

I read this book. And stuff happens in it, but I truly couldn't tell you what because I haven't the foggiest idea what it was about. This book is like that horror movie that has all the elements of a good, frightful time, but goes so over-the-top that it ruins the show.

It started out auspiciously enough, with Cassandra Palmer in hiding from some sleazy vampires. They had given chase, finally found her, and now she had to be on the run again. Intriguing. Then the dumping begins. So much information was being dumped, it was like an avalanche. The first one keeled me over and I remained buried under it even as more was dumped on top.

Stuff happens. I can't tell you what happened because my brain was hazed over from the info-dump avalanches.

It finally breaks through my brain haze that Cassie is about 17 years old. That just feels...off. This whole world and the character set-up doesn't feel like it's for/about someone who is an adolescent. Anyway, more stuff happens, but...you know the drill.

Then this happened: Cassandra gets into a sexual situation with a vampire who used to visit when she was younger. EEEEWW!! I mean, think about it. This man used to visit and let her play in his hair when she was five years old! - you know, like your favorite uncle used to do when he visited. Now she's seventeen and he's going you've always been mine, blah blah blah, and they're naked and things are happening. That is just wrong - and nasty. I don't care if he's an ageless vampire. He used to visit and let her play with him when she was five years old, for crying out loud! Ew!

Anyway, even more things happen, more info is dumped, and I can't tell you a single thing that happened.

All in all, this book started out okay, but didn't interest me the series or the character because, well, I have no idea what is happening. However, this series is rather popular, and I've heard that the books become markedly better as you continue. So continue on I will. If nothing else, I hope I can figure out what happens from/in the next book because, dammit, I wanna know what happened!

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Gift of Magic by Lynn Kurland

Gift of Magic by Lynn Kurland
My rating:★★★

In one word, this book was a disappointing finish to the story of Ruithneadh and Sarah in particular and the tale of the Nine Kingdoms is general.

It's not that the story wasn't well told. It was. The writing was truly beautiful, and the world sprawled out like only epic fantasy can, and the names were right. It is a pet peeve of mine to read fantasy with names that sound fake - it spoils the whole story. Well, the names of people and places in this series, although unpronounceable, fit perfectly. So it was good book. It could easily have been a four or five star book, but it ended up a three because...it was just an anticlimax. Really, it was. The whole epic culmination of the novel was just blah.

In addition, the book had way too much repetition. Since book four Ruith had been whining about his magic. "Oh look at me, poor boy, I am a powerful magician, but my dad was evil. Never mind that everyone else in my family tree is a wonderful noble incorruptible person and I aspire to be like them, my dad was really evil, so I'll be evil too. Woe is me, woe is me." That was Ruith from book #4, when he was introduced, to the final 10% of this book when he realizes that he's nothing like his dad. Duh! And every 15 seconds, we were being reminded that he spent time running around with Miach of Neroche being troublesome and stealing spells when they were 10 years old. Every fifteen seconds. It happened over 20 years ago, and was repeated <i>ad nauseum</i> through the series, even from Miach's section - so that makes 6 books through which we've been hearing this. It became annoying after the 3rd mention in the first book. And we also heard way too much about Miach. This wasn't his book, and he didn't have any substantial part to play. i just didn't see the need to be reminded of him every few pages. Sarah also just spent half the book whining about not having any magic, even though she could dreamweave, and going on and on about not being princess enough for Ruith, even though her mom and dd came from distinguished royal families: every fifteen seconds too. Argh!

I think this might be the end of the <u>Nine Kingdoms</u> series, in which case I'm sad to part with a great cast of characters and a good epic story; but this ending didn't do it's characters or the series much justice at all.

ETA: No it's not the end of the series I hear tell Ms. Kurland  is working on a set of books for Runach! So we'll see them again.
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The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

Strangely Beautiful  #2
The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
My rating: ★★★

This tale was in a sense, Darkly Luminous, I guess. For me, it just didn't have the magic that made its predecessor a strangely beautiful tale. The stuff I found endearing in the first was tedious in this one.

Alexi and Percy, though lovable in the first installment, were rather annoying in this one. "Oh. Percy belongs to ME! I won't allow her to go into ANY danger, even though if she doesn't we all die and the whole world with it and Percy spends eternity being tortured by the dark." Yes, that was pretty much Alexi throughout. Annoying.

Percy wasn't much better. "Oh no my Alexi, please believe me. I love. I won't have any opinions of my own, because without your constant professions of undying love, my life is over. Oh please, please profess your undying love once again. And don't doubt mine. I will NEVER disobey you." Yeah. NO.

The rest of the cast were just there. As usual. Rebecca, who's as unserious a human being if I've ever read about one; Elijah, who's not very likable at all; Josephine who's just there; the vicar, who's bland and forgettable and whose name I just forgot; Jane, who's marginally interesting.

A new cast of characters - Beatrice, Ibrahim, and Aodhan joined in.

All in all, it was a good tale, but nowhere near as good as the first tale. It was all very melodramatic and theatrical (it makes so much sense when you find that Ms. Hieber has a background in theater :D)

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Serpent's Kiss by Thea Harrison

Elder Races #3
Serpent's Kiss by Thea Harrison
My rating: ★★★

This is the third novel in the Elder Races series and Rune's story, with the Vampyre Queen Carling as his love interest.

I do think this is a much better book than the travesty that was Storm's Heart, but it is nowhere near as good as Dragon Bound. It was okay.

Hands down the best thing about the book was the heroine, Carling. I liked exploring her backstory and her motivations for her actions. She was also a strong, likable character. I did not like Carling from the previous books, but I am surprised to find myself in love with her in this novel. She rocks!

The person that didn't rock, much to my surprise, was Rune. I have loved him through Dragon Bound and Storm's Heart, but that love stopped in Serpent's Kiss. He did not seem funny to me, and all his "cool-talk/witty repartees" missed the mark for me: I found them hollow, unfunny, and sometimes quite disrespectful. Simply put, I didn't like the person Rune was in this book, and I found myself liking him less and less as the book progressed; I did not like the person he became in the end at all.

I was also very disappointed that he did not share the fact of his changing the past with Dragos and the Gryphons, or the fact that he'd mated with Carling (until he couldn't hide it later). His excuse was that he didn't trust them. That doesn't wash with me. You would think you could trust people who had been your friends and comrades in arms for centuries. Especially as they could feel the effects of his changing the past. But apparently Rune's definition of friendship and mine are different.

Another thing that bothered me was the Rift between Dragos and Rune at the end. It just didn't make sense in the grand scheme of things, and I'd have expected Rune to be less of an ass. You don't hide essential info from your closest friends and yet expect them to act as if they knew the entire picture. Needless to say I didn't think he deserved the friendship of the other wyr, much less Dragos' friendship. Dragos did not do anything wrong and acted very fairly, given what little he knew and given that he had the interests of the entire wyr race to consider. Sigh. Rune was so much less than he appeared to be in the other books. Womp.

One final thing that didn't work for me was the love. I loved Carling, and I could see her relationship blossom with Rune. It just did nothing for me - I could see the love but could not feel it. I went into this book worried that Rune would be stuck with Carling, but now I am kinda sad that Carling is stuck with Rune.

Needless to say, I am not too keen on continuing the series after this one. I'll just read Dragon Bound to regain my happy memories and quit while I'm ahead. But I am glad I read this book. If nothing at all, it wiped the bad taste of Storm's Heart from my mouth.

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