Book Review: Murder at Blackwater Bend (A Stella and Lyndy Mystery #2)

Murder at Blackwater Bend

Clara McKenna

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

After the intrigues of their original meeting, Stella and Lyndy are expecting that the announcement of their betrothal and their subsequent marriage will be smooth sailing. But when they discover the body of a family friend floating in the river on an early morning fishing expedition, they can't help but be dragged into the mystery of it. 

I think that this and the first installment have been interesting enough, I love a good murder mystery. But I'm having trouble seeing how it can continue as a mystery series in the same sense as other detective novels of similar periods. We have no infrastructure for actual crime solving, they're really just both in the right place (or wrong depending on how you see it) at the right time. They're not making names for themselves as investigators and they're not really gaining any skills aside from the ability to look at bodies without throwing up. 

So while I didn't mind the mystery itself, I also spent the whole book wondering if we were going to see any real growth in the characters positions as actual detectives. It was a little disappointing for this to be another mystery based purely on their proximity rather than seeking it out or being sought out.

Book Review: Wolf Cursed (Lone Wolf #1)

 

Wolf Cursed

Heather Hildenbrand

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

After watching her dad be murdered in front of her and being introduced to a town where everyone wishes she would leave, it's safe to say Ash isn't having a great week. If the last few years hadn't been hard enough, she finds out her dad had been lying to her about a lot more than an estranged brother. 

It was okay at the start, setting things up to be mildly interesting with that enemies-to-lovers plot line and everything. But it fell apart real fast when we threw in insta-love. I hate it when books just pretend that because the characters both have some fabricated trauma they can just be in love. It annoyed me and it also annoyed me that I was just invested enough to read through to the end. 

So it started out okay but it ended up just making me mad, mostly because of the romance but also because of general pacing issues. I'm not all that invested in the "cliffhanger" it left on either.

Book Review: Mortal Secrets (Realm Unleased: Red Angel #1)

 

Mortal Secrets

Isa Medina

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

She was found as an orphan, taken into a hunter society where she quickly rose to the top hunting demons. Until she quit. The organization that raised her was understandably upset and disappointed, but Ana had bigger issues. She had discovered she was the Red Angel, a reincarnated version of a weapon designed to suck the souls of basically anything- angel, human, or demon. Now, that closely guarded secret could be out in the open putting more than just her at risk. If Ana has any hope of shutting Pandora's Box she has to team up with an angel who once reviled her. And it's not exactly easy, basically everyone is after the same secrets as her and everyone is willing to step on her to do so. 

I didn't mind the plot that much. I thought that the whole idea of it was cool, albeit kind of confusing to imagine with the multiple pairs of wings and the souls carved into the wings and everything. I also wasn't much on board for the forced chemistry between Zel and Ana, he felt a bit outside of the normal conventions of these types of relationships because he was just so tuned out. I think he has potential but he needs to get on board with the humans. 

So yeah, it was pretty decent and I would read the next. Aside from a few hiccups in the plot progression I think it all felt pretty natural.

 

Book Review: Midnight Moon (Rebel Wolf #1)

 

Midnight Moon

Linsey Hall

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

When her father sold her out, Lyra had to figure out a way to live off the grid. When they find her, she'll do anything to protect herself. Even if it means stealing information and spying. But it's not all as it seems and she's soon thrust into a supernatural world she had no idea could have possibly existed. 

This book is boring. The author tells you what is happening while it's happening. I didn't feel emotionally connected to the characters in anyway and the whole plot was predictable. You expect a certain degree of predictability going in, but I was pretty disappointed even on that metric. 

Not much to say, it kept me interested enough to finish it out but only just barely. I wouldn't read the next book in the series cause nothing really got me invested.

 

Book Review: Love & Curse Making (Magical Dating Agency #1)

 

Love & Curse Making

Kelly St. Clare

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

Love & Curse Making is the first book in a new series by Kelly St. Clare where the supernaturals are descended from the gods. There's a whole supernatural society based on what generation you are, with certain lines being eliminated as others coveted their strengths or abilities. Cerys's line is one of those, the heart elementals being all but gone leaving only the less-powerful Cupids in their place. But Cerys is more powerful than a simple Cupid, and if anyone were to know she might end up just as drained and dead as her predecessors. 

I was close to DNFing at the start cause it felt kind of over-explained and weird. But I'm pretty glad that I kept reading cause it actually shaped up to be a pretty unique narrative. I love it when authors take something direct like gods and meld it into a world with unique powers, trials and tribulations. I think Cerys is a pretty decent protagonist with a great curse, not great for her but great in its irony. It also felt somehow nostalgic, I don't know why, but reminiscint of maybe Sabrina the Teenage Witch or older supernatural stuff. 

Overall, I enjoyed it and I'm satisfied with where things left off. It's leading nicely into the next book and I'll be eagerly waiting for it's release.

Book Review: United (Pack of Dawn and Destiny #2)

 

United

K.M. Shea

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

United is the second book in the Pack of Dawn and Destiny following Pip and Greyson. Pip is a hunter, but a hunter who was raised by adopted shifter parents. She has a unique outlook on life for it, and it puts her in danger with other supernaturals. Especially once her special abilities to boost others powers becomes known, an eventuality that the whole pack is trying to avoid. But when an outsider starts hurting the human residents of the area, Pip is pushed to the edges of her abilities trying to figure it all out. Meanwhile, Greyson is trying to get her to like him outside of their supernatural obligations, which she is still very much unaware of. 

I love the characters in this book. They're all so awkward, and I think that we're really figuring it all out right alongside them. I think that their romance is sweet and awkward, a great combination especially considering they're supposed to be these all powerful supernatural figures. I think that the mystery was a little obvious, I figured it out pretty early on, but I still think it was a good boss battle at the end. 

Definitely looking forward to the next book in this series and it can't come soon enough. I love the characters, the romance, and the world, and despite the small flaws and issues with the storytelling I think it's a great read.

 

Book Review: Bad Kitty (A Cat McKenzie Book #5)

 

Bad Kitty

Lauren Dawes

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

This is the fifth book in the Cat McKenzie series, we're well into her universe and her arcs and we're just going from mystery to mystery at this point. Cat and Sawyer are closer to ever and trying to figure out the extent and limitations of their bond. We have the added confusion of a random interloper who has somehow bound himself to Cat's service and a crazy serial killer taking out billionaires. 

I think this is the last one I'll be finishing in this series. I've just kind of been overloaded at this point with the way that the author depicts Cat, I don't know if it's a complication of balancing a hard detective with a softer feminine personality or that the author actually wants us to see the protagonist as babyish. Either way, it was hard to read and combined with a kind of lackluster mystery I feel like the book has run its course. 

I've enjoyed the books to this point pretty well, but I think I'm going to need something more exciting to keep it going. There was no cliffhanger or anything that would motivate me to keep it going and I've kind of lost motivation.

 

Book Review: Deadly Knight (Midnight Empire: The Tower #3)

 

Deadly Knight

Annabel Chase

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

London is a Knight of Boudica, she settles supernatural disputes and deals with crazy stuff like dragons on the daily. But she's actually not quite as upstanding of a citizen as an outsider might believe, she's half vampire. In a society ruled by vampires that might seem like a good thing, but this society has also been trained to identify anything dhampir as a threat that must be eliminated. So she has been carefully hiding her powers her whole life. As the third book in the series, Deadly Knight has a tough job of keeping us interested but still satisfying our now two book long investment for answers. I don't know if it did that well-enough to keep me looking out for the next one.

It's problematic because we had all this energy and build up between the protagonists in the last book but it's all fallen through the cracks at the start of this one. The main characters aren't speaking and we're kind of forced to assume this connection between them when we're not really seeing it on the pages. I liked them a lot better in the previous books and though this one tried to take that energy, it just wasn't the same. 

I'll probably finish it out because we end on a cliffhanger and I'd like to see how it resolves itself. But I hope that we get a little more of the energy that we were seeing in the first two.

Book Review: Pathfinder's Way (The Broken Lands #1)

 

Pathfinder's Way

T.A. White

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Pathfinder's Way starts with introducing us to Shea, a pathfinder who is one of the few individuals with the knowledge in how to navigate the treacherous post-apocalypse environment they reside in as highlanders. When attempting to rescue some of her charges from a trade deal gone wrong, she meets Fallon. He's the leader of the Trateri and he quickly decides that she's going to be a part of their efforts to conquer the lowlands. 

So immediate pros, Shea is really good at what she does and she's well-respected by the Trateri for this ability. We've got a lot of gaps in her backstory and how she came to be the way she is, but I respected her talents and thought she was pretty well-rounded. The cons are thus especially glaring. I didn't know that this was this kind of book, a kind of Warprize-ish conquering dude thing, but it was balanced with Shea's skills. Honestly the book was a lot better until they got to the point where they're actually together. Then, the pacing was all off and I got the ick from it. 

I don't know if I'll be continuing on to the next book in the series, if only because there are a lot of factors that just don't feel right here. But again, Shea's character and abilities were well categorized at the start and really got me respecting her as a protagonist.

 

Book Review: Bounty Claimed (Solstice Huntress #2)

 

Bounty Claimed

Lindsey Devin

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

As the second book in the Solstice Huntress series, Bounty Claimed did an excellent job of answering questions from the first book while also creating enough suspense to guarantee that I'll be reading the next one. Tempie spent the last few months on vacation, recovering from the near-death of her previous mission with Corbin. She hasn't seen him since, and she's not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. 

We're getting a nice blend of powers, intrigue, and romance that make for a balanced read. On the one hand, both Corbin and Tempie are escalating in the mutations of their powers from their complicated parentage, with the cliffhanger at the end really closing that deal, but on the other we have the almost stilted progression of their personal relationship. I love books that don't rush into it while still making the chemistry super obvious. 

So it was a great read and I'll be looking forward to getting the next one once it comes out. Corbin and Tempie are definitely a dynamic duo and the suspense has only gone up.

 

Book Review: Bounty Collected (Solstice Huntress #1)

 

Bounty Collected

Lindsey Devin

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

Bounty Collected is the first book in the Solstice Huntress series by Lindsey Devin following a bounty hunter with a dangerous secret. She's half-fae, a kind of fae that is extinct aside from her existence for the powerful qualities which their blood provides to their killers. She's done a decent job staying under the radar, until a fae-related death gets her assigned to working with an Unseelie Enforcer who could easily uncover her secrets. 

I liked the banter in this book and the romance, though I think Tempie is a strong protagonist who reads well even aside from her romance. I'm just generally a big fan of this sort of plot line, and this one is designed in a very addictive way. So addictive that I've already finished the second and don't really have a lot to say about this one.  

Book Review: The Masked Fae (The Royal Fae of Rose Briar Woods #1)

 

The Masked Fae

Shari L. Tapscott

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

The Masked Fae starts with a girl attempting to win her brother back from debtors prison after he gambled their whole fortune away. She's willing to brave the terrors of the fae world in order to restore some aspect of her family. When she meets the man who is his supposed captor, she can't really understand how someone so nice could have such a horrible reputation.

It's boring and lengthy really. Every time I thought it was over I looked down at the percentage and had huge portions of the book to go. I don't know why the progression of it all was so hard to get behind, but it really dragged. I think it's because we got resolution to what felt like the main plot line like 40 percent in, then the boss battle at the end just totally lacked the suspense which was necessary. The I love yous came way too soon and I wasn't all that supportive of the main relationship, it just felt like they were both super lonely and immediately fell in love. 

It wasn't all that entertaining for me, though I did manage to finish it so it definitely could have been worse. I don't think it speaks anything about the author cause the writing was alright, it just dragged so much. 

Book Review: Hunted (Pack of Dawn and Destiny #1)

 

Hunted

K.M. Shea

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

Hunted is the first book in the Pack of Dawn and Destiny following, Pip, a hunter who lives among werewolves. She was adopted at a relatively young age, and though the other hunters are supposed to respect the civilized packs, she's the only one of them who truly gets it. 

I don't have much to say on this book cause it's been a couple of weeks since I read it, but I enjoyed it pretty well. There are some parts that felt way too convenient but it also had kind of a steady consistent flow that I appreciated. If there had been a couple less of the "oh I have white hair that's normal if it's not whatever" type of line drops I probably would have rated it higher. 

I'm excited to get into the second, which came out today, because I think that the world has a lot of promise. Along with the whole Greyson-Pip thing that we've got going on. I'll literally always be on board with this kind of enemies-ish to lovers slowburn.