Gypsy's Readings & Musings

Book Review: Wilde Magic (Ashcroft Academy - Book 1)

timelady — Fri, 19 May 2023 04:36:41 GMT

Wilde Magic (Ashcroft Academy – Book 1) by K.M. Charron

3 stars
Category: Teen

Summary: When Ainsley’s father commits suicide in a trance, Ainsley refuses to let it rest and tries to figure out what caused his suicide, tracing it back to Ashcroft Academy, which he had been investigating. The school is populated solely by mean girls, who spend the entire book dwelling on petty dramas and trying to bully and hurt each other.

Comments: I loved the first chapter! Absolutely adored it! I kept thinking about it long after I read the sample. But then I sort of lost it on my Kindle because the description didn’t really match the first chapter. The description though does fit the rest of the book. While the first chapter had me wrapped up in the mystery of what was her father doing to get himself cursed that way, what mystery had he uncovered, and I felt for Ainsley to watch the impending doom as her favorite parent did the unthinkable while she tried to stop it but couldn’t reach him. The rest of the book focuses on mean girls bullying other girls and the girls getting bullied. As a person who got bullied in school, I hated every minute of it. Rather than focusing on Ainsley, the book switched perspective and setting to Sydney, the main queen bully of the school. I hated her, even with her controlling, demanding mother and father hooked to life-support. She was vile, repugnant, and I hated that we had to spend the larger portion of the book from her perspective as she bullied and belittled other characters, including targeting Ainsley. There are actually a handful of guys in this, but I honestly can’t tell one from the other since they are barely one-line mentions. Same with Sydney’s cronies. They were just names that oddly tried to add some diversity to, but they are switchable and nothing makes them standout and nothing actually makes them diverse except the mention of their nationalities. The school is an average private school and hardly any time is spent on the classes. There is a hidden place within the school called The Nest where a handful of students learn magic. And Sydney and her cronies basically use their magic to keep the average students in line. Like if someone shows an interest in one of the guys, they use magic on them. If they take a dislike to a student, magic is used on them. It felt really petty compared to the beginning. I was really looking forward to a book starring Ainsley as she infiltrates a Harry Potter type magic school to uncover evil sorcerers while discovering her own magic, entirely from her viewpoint, while dealing with the death of her father. That was the book I wanted to read. But instead this book focuses on Sydney, who I couldn’t stand, and she really didn’t improve any (except in the last two chapters where her attitude does an unexplained 180 for no good reason). Some of the reviewers said it picked up at the halfway mark (that was when Ainsley finally got past being a new student and started to actively poke around). I personally didn’t think it picked up any and still remained irritated at the book.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that I won’t be picking up future books in this series. I’m actually surprised I bothered to finish this. I was very tempted to delete it after Sydney’s first chapter and I’m now regretting that I didn’t.

Book Review: Darkblood Academy (Book 1: Half-Blood)

timelady — Sat, 13 May 2023 18:59:42 GMT

Darkblood Academy (Book 1: Half-Blood) by G.K. DeRosa

5 stars
Category: Teen/YA
Note: I obtained a free copy via Prolific Works. This is also set in the world of her Hitched series and is a continuation of a bunch of the characters from that series.

Summary: Orphan Luna Hallows is approached by Kimmie-Jayne the star of the Bachelorette-style reality TV show Hitched (from G.K. DeRosa’s Hitched series) in which all of the bachelors trying to win the bachelorette’s hand were all different types of supernatural creatures). Kimmie-Jayne tells Luna that not only are they half-sisters, but their father is an incredibly powerful warlock and they want to take Luna to the supernatural realm and train her in a private academy in case she inherits any of their father’s numerous powers. She will be the first mostly human student at their academy. But being mostly human, the demons decide that she is an easy target and start sending assassins after her before she becomes a threat.

Comments: This is a spin-off of the Hitched series by G.K. DeRosa, featuring cameos by Kimmie-Jayne and a bunch of the bachelors. Ryder, her demon bachelor practically co-stars in this. I haven’t read any of the Hitched series, nor do I intend to. (You don't need to have read the Hitched series to follow this.) I hate reality TV competitions, they always seem trashy, forced, overly-orchestrated, and superficial, and this didn’t convince me otherwise. However, I am a fan of Harry Potter magical academies. The school itself wasn’t anything special and we don’t even get to see Luna in any of her magic classes which really detracted from the magical-ness of the school. It just spent the time on two classes: magical creatures – like Hagrid’s class in the Harry Potter movies. It even has a scene just like the Hippogriff scene in Prisoner of Azkaban. And Combat. Her Combat class (which most of the book time was spent on) felt like it was inspired by Rose’s Combat classes in The Vampire Academy series by Rachelle Mead. So, while the classes weren’t that magical and felt borrowed from other book series, and her bubbly roommate Cinder felt close to Enid from the Wednesday series (which I know is coincidental since I’ve had this sitting on my Kindle long before the Wednesday series was released). There is a forbidden romance in this where Luna is attracted to Ryder, her half-sister’s demon bachelor, now her Combat class instructor and it’s expressly forbidden for relationships between instructors and students, which she complains about constantly and itches to disregard the order (you’d think it was torturously impossible for her to just wait the three years for graduation. -Which makes her come across as whiney, spoiled, and immature). The other students are interesting, specifically the seven, and after a while I did itch to get to know them better. (On the bright side, this doesn’t seem to be going down reverse harem territory, which I had worried it would do since the blurb made it sound like she would become involved with the seven and a large percentage of these supernatural academy stories are reverse harem style these days. But half the team are girls, and the guys don’t seem particularly interested in her).

In all, I thought it kept a nice pace. I was intrigued by the characters and though the school and the including of every type of supernatural creature and the normal girl having to navigate the supernatural world and be a chosen one with unknown powers was rather stereotypical, the interactions of the characters and adventure did make it feel fresh and the author did try to make it feel different from the usual supernatural academy books.

Book Review: The Vanishing: A Wonderland Adventure

timelady — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 05:10:16 GMT

The Vanishing: A Wonderland Adventure by Rebekah Lewis

5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length

Summary: During a bar night with her friends, Cadence was talked into doing a snipe hunt. During her drunken wandering through the nearby woods, she finds a cat with an oddly large grin. He deposits her at the feet of a handsome man dressed in odd, outdated buckled boots. He claims she’s in Wonderland and that he is Gareth, the slayer of the Jabberwocky and she has two days to decide if she wants to stay. Of course not, but Gareth really shouldn’t have to be tied to a lady of the red queen’s court and be forced to give up adventuring. And Cadence would quite like to have more adventure in her life.

Comments: Oh ugh. That was a horrible cliffhanger to leave us on. Thankfully I already have the next book in the series. I picked it up originally because I like the author and I can’t resist anything set in Wonderland. And I did love that the author tried to add as many names and creatures from Lewis Carrol’s Wonderland as possible without feeling the need to update into modern realism. She just let Wonderland be as crazy and exotic as the original Lewis Carrol story. So I thrilled at every mention of Jubjub birds and mome raths and bandersnatchs and, of course, the infamous Hatter and ever-present tea time. Though Cadence is Mary-Sue everyday person bland and author insert, I still loved the romance with Gareth. I also loved all of the crazy touches, like Hatter’s measuring. I am quite looking forward to the next book, since it’ll be a much longer foray int the author’s envisioning of Wonderland.

Book Review: The Winding Road Between

timelady — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 20:34:36 GMT

The Winding Road Between by Melody Taylor

4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Spin-off to A Dark and Twisting Road

Summary: After being raised by his fae father in the realm of Faerie, this is Malthiar’s coming-of-age story as he goes to the human realm to meet the mother who rejected him as a child. But he chickens out and wanders from place to place hooking up with various girls and trying to get his questions about human life answered.

Comments: I loved Malthiar in the earlier book with his awkward oddness. Honestly, I had been expecting more of a Harold and Kumar road trip, seeing the world, taking in the sights, and having hilarious awkward encounters while coming-of-age. And he does go to some far-flung places where he tries to figure out what makes humans human and how the faeries differ from them and how he overlaps the two. Where I adored the first book with Alexa having to go to the faerie realm to rescue her friend and the other encounters she had in her past which was thrilling with the dangers and new fantastical things around every corner. This one, however, felt very light on the fantasy with Malthiar spending the bulk of the time in the human world, drifting lazily through life as if he had all the time in the world (which as a mostly immortal being he did have). I was honestly hoping for more of him meeting Alexa, to really explain their history since it sounded like she had seen him on numerous occasions, but she’s only in for a single brief cameo scene (which feels like it contradicts the earlier book). Honestly, I tired quickly of his focus on hooking up with girls and sleeping with women (which felt like it contradicted the earlier book since from his awkwardness, he seemed like he was virgin in his hesitant-ness), especially since he never seemed all that attached. I was also irritated with his constantly putting off meeting his mother for years and years, passing by her on the street numerous times, etc. So, as he learns to blend in with human society, it made him like any other human character living in the human world, and I just overall prefer more actual connection and fantasy with the books I read. And I had really been hoping for an explanation on his outdated white poet shirts he wore constantly in the first book.

Book Review: Heart's Mission (Hearts Below 0.5)

timelady — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 22:26:20 GMT

Heart’s Magic (Hearts Below 0.5) by Meredith Hart

4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free Advance Review Copy from the author.

Summary: Princess Elanerill has in stereotypical fashion decided that she doesn’t want to be treated as a pawn forced to be quiet, meek and marry for political advantage. She knows her land is dying and the only hope for it is to break the barrier separating her world from the portion of the land that fell into the underworld. But, rather than bringing down the barrier, she falls into the underworld. She is immediately taken prisoner by Oren, captain of the King’s guard, who happens to be in the outer fringes wasteland trying to recruit a sorcerer for the king’s cause. Oren must do his duty and bring the princess before his king.

Comments: This is a novella to entice us to read this series. And there is action, adventure, romance, people who should be enemies warming to each other, and adorable humor. I loved Oren’s awkwardness. But for a novella, it took me forever to read through this. It felt like skin and bones. The world didn’t feel fleshed out around them. It felt like a hasty sketch. A tavern, woods, even the castle felt very devoid of description and very generic that didn’t make it stand out from any other medieval fantasy book. I like to feel like I am in the world and see new sights and have adventures with the books I read. The setting just wasn’t there and the plot was just basically travel together through the woods *yawn*. Usually on epic journey books we’re treated to wonderous sights and experiences along the way. There was nothing in this. The most interesting thing they did along the way was to face a shadowy wolf-creature (definitely the highlight of the book). The characters felt like caricatures/stereotypes. The princess was the usual generic privileged, beautiful, overly sheltered who didn’t want to be used as a pawn. And Oren was the typical stoic, honorable guard captain. (Though I did love his initial interaction with Rowan). Even the twist of Oren’s station was something I predicted from the start, because he wouldn’t have been a suitable match for the princess without it. Once we got to the magic at the end, it was muddied and ambiguous, which doesn’t bode well for the magic in the other books.

Book Review: Zero Hour (Order of the Dragon - Book 0.5)

timelady — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 06:29:17 GMT

Zero Hour (Order of the Dragon – Book 0.5) by Tina Glasneck

4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length

Summary: After the death of her estranged father, Leslie attempts to resurrect him using the ancient tome passed down through her family to gain some closure after his death. But the resurrection spell calls all of the supernatural monsters in the world to her like a magnet. And they are intent on killing everyone around her to get to her and the tome. As part of a clandestine supernatural law enforcement, Killian is assigned to find what has all of the monsters so agitated.

Comments: The first chapter was epic! Totally made me an instant fan! I loved how gutsy and irreverent Leslie was, marching into the funeral, surrounded by family all resentful of her, and attempted to wake her father from his casket. And I loved all of the dirty details of her family and her father’s life. And then the body in the casket moved.
And then we switched to Chapter 2. A standard run-of-the-mill clandestine supernatural law enforcement headed by wolf-shifters, dragon-shifters, and vampires *yawn*. It’s always those three. If I had a dime for every clandestine supernatural law enforcement I’ve run across in indie fiction, I’d be rich. And Killian is the stereotypical handsome, aloof, toughest of the toughest, best of the best, with a royal pedigree *yawn*. All the history and names and supernatural politics suddenly get dumped on the reader and I just started skimming chapters *double yawn*. Leslie, sadly, after her epically gutsy beginning turns into a damsel-in-distress, just standing there stupidly as creatures attack. Zero Hour doesn’t entice me to continue the series that this is a prequel for. I think I really lost respect for Leslie when it got pointed out that her objective for raising her dad from the dead was closure. Seriously Lady? You tried to change the laws of nature just so that you’d feel better about his death? Of all the Karen things.

Book Review: Hidden in Darkness (Darkness - Book 2)

timelady — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:41:21 GMT

Hidden in Darkness (Darkness – Book 2) by Nora Ash

5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Serial/Novella-size

Summary: Our intrepid blogger reporter Katherine decides to take matters into her own hands and do some actual investigating. Which takes her across town to do some interviewing and uncover a larger conspiracy involving a special project attached to the mayor. The mayor just happens to have a fancy dress party coming up and she arranges a press pass to it to cover fashion while snooping. And to her amazement, she finds both of her friendly costumed supers in attendance.

Comments: I liked this section more than the first section since it followed Katherine in being typical Lois Lane pro-active and not being a mere damsel in distress. While I’m still not a fan of how the story focuses on her weight and calling her chubby all the time (seriously, what does the writer have against being chubby?) This one had less interaction with her two costume-clad crimefighters, but I liked that it got her out of her apartment (which she seems to spend and inordinate amount of time in), and shows us that there are other sections to the city beyond just her crime-riddled neighborhood. And we briefly get to see her Batman lover actually out in the world, outside of his Batman costume.

Book Review: Hawthorn Witches Omnibus - Book 1

timelady — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 07:38:29 GMT

Hawthorn Witches: Demons and Dracaena, Sorcerers & Sumac, Werewolves & Wisteria (Hawthorn Witches Omnibus Book 1) by A.L. Tyler

5 stars
Category: YA
Note: This is a collection of 3 short novellas.

Book 1 – After being targeted by a bully at school Anise’s friend Bianca suggests she use her deceased aunt’s spell book to summon a demon. Charlie shows up, ready and willing to do all in his power to help them with their problem. But when the bully winds up in the hospital and he turns Bianca into a cat since he needed a corporeal form to exist in their world, Anise makes a bargain with him.

Book 2 – Anise finds she’s being stalked by a powerful warlock turned demon who, like Charlie, is a former lover of her aunt Kendra. And the warlock isn’t above using the classmate Anise has a crush on, turning him into a werewolf and sending him to Anise’s apartment where everyone was holed up under protective spells.

Book 3 – Kendra is finally back and treating Anise like she’s a child and has Charlie wrapped around her little finger.

Comments: I loved Charlie! He was absolutely hilarious! I loved all of his odd habits and willingness to do things, just to prank Anise, like having to get dew drops from a flower at first light, so he pulls her out of bed at two in the morning to teleport her into a field (did we forget to let her put on shoes?) when he could really teleport her anywhere and didn’t really need it done in the dead of the night. I loved the relationship they had. Kendra, However, I hated on first impression. I hated her dismissive attitude of Anise and how Ani’s sister worshipped her. And I hated how Kendra was completely okay with Ani and Lyssa having to take care of her mess with the warlock. And I really hated how she had Charlie wrapped around her little finger like a lap dog, using sex to control him, which lessened my opinion of him. What a repugnant character and I didn’t get why the others worshipped her. I’m dying to continue this series, though I’m not looking forward to more of Kendra.

Book Review: Shades of Darkness (Darkness Series - Book 3)

timelady — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 06:58:50 GMT

Shades of Darkness (Darkness series - Book 3) by Nora Ash

4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella/Serial length

Summary: Blog reporter Katherine faces yet another superpowered person in her apartment threatening her after uncovering that the mayor has plans for a superpowered weapon created by the company her Batman-like lover heads. She knows she definitely can’t trust him now, though she had been leaning toward his scary persona being just a façade since he seemed to genuinely care about her. But the Superman-like superhero with a tie to her has proven to be a fickle jerk as he spends a night with her and then treats her like a meaningless one-night stand.

Comments: While I love anything superpowered with the colorful costumes, and I do love romance, I’m still feeling a bit let down by this series. I don’t mind that everyone is the basic stereotype of Batman, Superman, and Lois Lane, but in a modern world with cell phones and blogging, and with a twist of PNR with the cliched mates and feral marking like this is cliched werewolf fiction. Where I feel let down is that Katherine isn’t bothering to get to know the guys at all beyond sex. She knows their costumed personas and that’s it. It’s a very superficial relationship and pretty much treats the guys as if they aren’t anything more than their costumes and powers.

Book Review: Prisim (The Color Alchemist - Book 1)

timelady — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 20:01:59 GMT

Prisim (The Color Alchemist – Book 1) by Nina Walker

3 stars
Category: YA

Summary: This is a dystopian world where color can be manipulated by magic to do certain things depending on which color is used. All Jessa ever wanted to be was a loving daughter, devoted older sister, and a professional ballerina. But when she accidentally manipulates color during a performance, she is immediately apprehended and sent to work in the color guard because the king suspects she can manipulate red, which is extremely rare and has all sorts of applications against enemies. The rebellion, charges Prince Lucas to befriend Jessa and bring her onto their side. And so the tug of war over Jessa’s abilities begins, when all she wants to do is return home and continue being a ballerina.

Comments: I obtained the trilogy collection, but I won’t be going any further than this first book. The magic system in this book is a fascinating/original one with plenty of imagination put into deciding what each color could be used for. And the intrigue was fascinating, like what was going on with Lucas’s mother, what the government was lying to them about their world’s history, what the world was like beyond the city, etc. But the magic itself is rather muddied and generic since it’s basically just described as using ones will and intentions to draw the color off of the current object and guide it to where it’s needed. The book felt long and very little happened during it. The book was set almost exclusively within the palace. Her training session scenes were a joke. I mean, it was like they would discuss color for a bit then break for a meal or take the rest of the day off. Or she would manipulate one thing, and then take the rest of the day off. Is that how training went for other guards, do you think? Though I liked Lucas for the most part, being caught between a rock and a hard place, and I liked Sasha, what colored my opinion against the book the most was I took a dislike to Jessa the heroine. She was frivolous, selfish, self-centered, rather dumb, convinced things could go back to normal if she could get out of there (like they wouldn’t arrest her up if she got out), convinced that the whole idea of people having to either be in the guard or jail didn’t apply to her, convinced she ought to be able to talk to her family daily even though no one at the guard had any contact with their families. I kept reading in the hopes she would mature and understand basic concepts, but she kept whining throughout the book. For her age of 17, she came off really childish.

Book Review: To Cure a Curse

timelady — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 20:10:10 GMT

To Cure a Curse by Sky Sommers

3 stars
Category: Adult
Note: $0.99 cents on Kindle

Summary: Beauty and the Beast retelling. But this time, our cursed prince is human when he meets Belle. His curse has him turn into a beast from Midnight to mid-day, but the rest of the hours, he’s a handsome young man, who Belle meets naked wandering in the woods. The book mostly focuses on their friendship and the prince hedging around his curse. When she does come face to face with his curse, she runs far away, in search of a cure, leaving him on his own as the curse takes over.

Comments: The best things about this book are the cover and the blurb and how short it is. I love Beauty and the Beast tales, for how gothic and atmospheric they are. This one, however, didn’t bother to describe the scene. It focused almost exclusively on the dialogue, which felt rather clinical and jaded. It doesn’t flesh out the prince or Belle as being anything more than the characters that we already know in the old fairy tale. I really would have liked to have known more about Caroline who was undead and falling apart. I think the mechanics of the curse confused me. Like it seemed too convenient how many rules it had and how it did this at this time and behaved this way at this time and I lost all respect for Belle when she seemed very eager to put the curse on the next generation, though I did like that she was pro-active. The part about the being forgotten, mentioned in the blurb really only takes one chapter nearly at the end of the book where they just plain decide to re-get to know each other. And then the story just skips to a year later. And it actually talks about sex. When it says fade to black, I was expecting it to be a relatively innocent story, but during the last couple of chapters it mentions intercourse (yes, actually referring to it as such) frequently and how they were worried about it with him being a beast etc, which really takes the romance out of it. The second half of the story feels rushed with how much gets time jumped forward. In all, it’s a short read and a different twist on the story while still having the usual elements.

Book Review: Sands of Reckoning (Sands of Eppla - Book 3)

timelady — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 06:21:24 GMT

Sands of Reckoning (Sands of Eppla – Book 3) by Janeal Falor

4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: I obtained a free ARC from the author.

Summary: Blind Cassandra finds out that the High Priest has been planning to remove love completely from the country of Eppla by poisoning the water and has to devise a way to stop him with the help of former elite warrior Nikon and her friends, while being hunted by the high priest’s minions, without the ability to fall in love at first sight herself because of being blind.

Comments: What shines in this series are the foreign location (we’re talking a series of cities spread apart by a lengthy desert, with the flavor of ancient Egypt with the pyramids and even a Sphynx lurking around), and how utterly in the dark Cassandra is, with us having to just fill in the blanks since she isn’t able to describe really anything around her. She has a multitude of friends, which I had trouble keeping apart after a while, since she kept adding to the group. Tewy, her monkey, is a definite bright spot in the book, always showing who he prefers (Nikon), and pulling Cassandra’s hair and getting her into trouble, and helping at times. With this being the last book in the series, it did tie things together nicely in the end, finally revealing motives of characters and hidden relations of characters, though it did feel like certain threads got dropped (like being a part of the rebels, and even the magic of the sand, even the sphynx felt like an afterthought with an explanation on it that didn’t make a whole lot of sense). Cassandra herself did wear on me a bit more this time around since she felt like she was fussing over every single detail down to the smallest minutiae and it felt like her blindness had been a bit glossed over and forgotten since she didn’t seem to be feeling her way around in the darkness and discovering her surroundings as much, but more of waiting around for other people, letting others guide her, and worrying while she waited in the darkness, but the draw for me was definitely the relationship between her and Nikon which was in a bit of jeopardy at the end of the last book with him finding his fated partner.

Book Review: Beauty

timelady — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 19:06:15 GMT

Beauty by Stacy Claflin

4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length

Summary: Chase, formerly one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, met Penelope a few years earlier when she was hunting down the people who killed her parents. She claimed she was a time traveler and was trying to hunt down the murderers before they could kill her parents, so she could go back to her proper time and they would still be alive. Penelope made a lasting impression on him and he was convinced he was in love, though she still left to do her missions in the future. Since she traveled by a specific mirror, he hunted the country trying to find her mirror, and he finally found and bought it and waited for her to reappear, but when she does, she is younger than the version that he had met and doesn’t know him. So, he helps her on her mission to find her parents’ killers, and unravel problems about the time travel organization, while trying to romance her and make her fall in love with him.

Comments: I liked the idea for this book. I love plots like Back to the Future where the hero goes back in time to try to fix things. But the writing focuses on the relationship between Chase and Penelope to the point that it doesn’t give reasons for key things, like why were Penelope’s parents killed? Who killed them? As far as I could tell the killers were just some faceless goons with tattoos. What did those tattoos signify? No idea. Why did Chase have to search for the mirror? Wouldn’t he have known where it was the first time he met Penelope? What was the point of the Agency that Penelope worked for? It sends her on missions, and she said the Agency didn’t like her changing things in the past (like the past/future her getting to know Chase), but her main objective was to kill her parents’ killers, which would definitely change things in the past. When were her parents killed?

I didn’t really care for Chase. He was determined to make Penelope love him. Yes, I know Alpha. But it made him pushy and he just wasn’t going to take no for an answer and wasn’t inclined to listen to her or really get to know her. He had his mind made up from what he remembered of the future version of her. It made the relationship between them feel forced and one-sided. I never really felt any connection to him on Penelope’s part. Sure, she thought he was cute at times, but that doesn’t make a relationship.
I hated all of the sound effects. Each time I ran across reading one, it felt like suddenly I was thrust into a comic book or one of the old Batman episodes. I kept running across Thud! Wham! Clunk! Knock! Thunk! Whack!

And the ending, I know I’m being spoilery, but it felt like the author just ran out of energy on taking the story through the motions and just decided to end it without any actual explanation. The only explanation we got was a note from herself in the future that just appears at an opportune time in her pocket saying that future her tied up all of the loose ends with the Agency and Chase’s sister and took care of the group hunting their parents and that there were apparently two of them now since the future her was going to stay with the parents. The future her even, somehow unexplained, switched out the cellphone that was currently sitting in Penelope’s jacket that she was currently wearing with a note.

I love time travel stories, but they really need to explain things and be consistent for the plot to hold water. All the important key events can’t just all happen off camera. Why is this called Beauty? There are a few Beauty and the Beast references, I suppose. Chase has let his appearance go, so he’s got a large beard and scruffy hair and dresses a bit like a lumberjack and he lives in a castle complete with a hidden wing where he hides her mirror and won’t let her venture.

Book Review: Heart of the Forest (The Darkwood Trilogy - prequel novella)

timelady — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 20:32:14 GMT

Heart of the Forest (The Darkwood Trilogy – prequel novella) by Anthea Sharp

4 stars
Category: Young Adult/New Adult
Note: Free on Amazon! Novella-length

Summary: When Prince Kentry’s girlfriend is betrothed to his older brother, the heir to the kingdom, he’s convinced he loves her more than his brother, and that she loves him more, and that he needs to capture the fabled White Heart to earn himself a wish to make her his once again. So, he ventures into the Darkwood forest to capture the White Heart. But while chasing the White Heart and crossing into the Elven Realm, an elf lady crosses his path and he assumes she’s the White Heart. Lady Fanyaleth knows the human prince is trapped in the Elven world, with its odd two moons and no sun, and is wounded, and needs her to survive and get home.

Comments: I do love the Darkwood world and all of the faery realms written about by Anthea Sharp. She has such lyrical descriptions, bringing to life the fantastic imagery of the imaginative faery world. And I love the mythology and folktales brought in, like the White Hart. Though the focus in this, really isn’t the White Hart, which only crosses paths with our characters for a brief moment. I was a little disappointed that the story is predictable and there’s not much to it. There’s companionship between the two and his determination to make his wish. But it’s really not a romance. The two main characters were rather cardboard without much depth to them, so I didn’t really take to them, though I did love their journey through the world with its eternal night and two moons as they encountered fantasy creatures, and wove magic, and the faery courts.

Book Review: Survivors of the Rising Sea

timelady — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 19:24:28 GMT

Survivors of the Rising Sea by Nicole Adrienne

4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: $0.99 cents on Amazon. Novella-length

Summary: In a world that has been completely submerged under rising seas, Margot is a Collector for the Viking Empire. She sails to small islands with her boyfriend Aro to collect algae, while he chops down trees. During one mission, a storm arises, and Margot is swept overboard, and is rescued by the enemy, an Avaa ship, manned by friendly, red-headed Avaa pirate captain Kiona who shows Margot everything that the anti-technological Vikings had been keeping from her.

Comments: This is definitely a pro-women piece as Margot realizes she doesn’t need Aro and finds herself attracted to Kiona and everything that she promises, and all of the main pirates in this story are women. It is wonderful seeing the women take charge in the fighting scenes and there was plenty of action and exploration of this submerged world. Where I wasn’t really buying it was Aro and Margot’s relationship. They barely talked to each other, they certainly didn’t touch each other, I thought there might be something tentative between them in the beginning, so it threw me for a loop when somewhere near halfway, Margo mentions Aro is her boyfriend. There certainly wasn’t anything to suggest a deep tie between them earlier in the book, so I wasn’t really feeling the issues when problems arise with their relationship further into the book since they didn’t seem to really care for each other. The technology in this world really isn’t Victorian steampunk, nor is it Viking technology (I actually wasn’t seeing much sign of Viking culture in it aside from mentioning the Norse gods every so often). It’s modern technology, complete with elevators and all of the people in this report to corporate bosses, even the pirates have bosses in a larger organization.

Book Review: Freshman Sidekick (High School Sidekick - Book 1)

timelady — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 06:34:39 GMT

Freshman Sidekick (High School Sidekick – Book 1) by Ron Tucker

4 stars
Category: YA/Teen
Note: Free on Amazon!

Summary: In a world where people sometimes develop superpowers in their teenage years, Robbie has come into his powers over his summer break. He discovered he had the power of teleportation and immediately applied to join the local superhero group. He now has to split his time between high school and his new job as a superhero sidekick named Worm. He has to balance his friendship with his best friend Pete which has suffered lately because of being constantly on-call for missions and his new girlfriend and classes and his home life, and getting to know the other sidekicks, and learn on the job as he's sent into death defying missions while still trying to fine tune his power.

Comments: This story has it all! Heroics, first love, coming-of-age, action, and plenty of costumed superheroes. I loved that Worm had a superpower that isn’t usually focused on making it wonderfully different from all of the standard Superman/Batman/Green Arrow types that seem to star in most of the indie superhero books these days (with Doctor Strange/Scarlet Witch/Black Widow types starring in most of the superpowered paranormal indie books). Though all of the superheroes around Worm felt like clones of the DC heroes (Majestic = Wonder Woman, Supron = Superman, The Shadow = Batman, Mighty Miss = Wonder Girl). The story, while action-filled, felt like it meandered and didn’t really have a focus as it just followed Robbie day to day as he tried to balance his personal life with his hero life over the school year. His personal life felt superficial and not really developed with most of the characters being a bit cardboard cliched, like the girlfriend and the girlfriend’s best friend, and the bully/foe was really one-note, and his parents were barely more than just mentioned. Pete at least felt a bit rounded out as a character. My largest complaint was that in the last couple of chapters Robbie started making dumb decision after dumb decision, refusing to take backup with him, ignoring rules, not telling people in charge, determined that he knew better than anyone else. It really annoyed me that he nearly kills another character, and no one mentioned it (aside from Miss) or punished him for it. He didn’t learn that he shouldn’t do that, which really didn’t sell me on continuing with this series (though I already have the second book since I picked it up on sale a while back). I do love the idea of a teenage superhero and all the problems it entails and having to sneak out of classes to do heroics. It’s just a lot of his story was stereotypical and out of all of the people in his school he only interacted with his friend Pete, and the girl Jasmin, and the bully Craig.

Book Review: Born of Air (Elemental Origins series - Book 5)

timelady — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 22:34:18 GMT

Born of Air (Elemental Origins series - Book 5) by A.L. Knorr

5 stars
Category: New Adult

Summary: A woman, wearing plenty of jewelry, with no ID, speaking only a foreign language is found at a hospital, dying and about to give birth. She lives long enough to name the baby, Petra Kara. Petra has known a hard life, being bounced around in the foster system, and struggling through her life with odd powers with no explanation as to how to use them or where they came from. She can read people’s minds and move objects. But over the years she has gotten good at hiding, and her real love is archaeology, especially of the Middle-East where her mother was from. When an opening for a position with a dig team going to Libya opens up, she jumps on it.

Note: Plenty of questions didn’t get answered in this book, like who was her father, who was her mother, what was her mother doing in Saltford, and Jesse, her romance interest she loses track of at the end. When she leaves, and he supposedly returns to Australia, he doesn’t pick up her calls, or call her back. Theory is that he might actually have been the rich billionaire backing the company financing the dig, Devin. I’m hoping all of this gets tied up in the next book in the series The Elementals, or if those answers aren’t there, then hopefully Petra will get her own spin-off series. (This ends on the note that the company that hired the dig, hires Petra to recruit the girls from the other books in a sort of a supernatural clandestine taskforce).

Comments: Even though this was book 5 in a series, this is a standalone story. You don’t have to have read any of the others in the series to follow this one. Like the other books in the series, this focuses on a young woman coming into supernatural powers. Yes, it has a lot of the cliched elements of the young woman being a loner, being in the foster system, having a special background unknown to her that she discovers. But rather than being the run-of-the-mill urban fantasy average girl discovers powers story, the bulk of the story follows Petra as she journeys to Libya on an excavation. I found the setting endlessly fascinating, even if it was mostly just rocks and desert. As a fan of Indiana Jones, this has sifting through sand, working in trenches, and discovering ancient relics, one which triggers the depths of Petra’s powers and unlocks her mythic history. There’s a dash of romance in this, and friends that she makes on the dig team, including Ibby who has her own spin-off trilogy Born of Metal. There were questions raised in this though, that were never answered, which I hope get answered in Book 6 of this series The Elementals, where all of the girls in these books come together (I was dragging my heels on reading it since it’s just so cliched that they’re recruited into a generic supernatural taskforce. I hate those books having an agency/organization in them with a passion). If they don’t get answered, I hope that there will be a spin-off series for Petra written eventually, since I did love her Indiana Jones style adventuring and hope it gets continued. (There is a weird jump at the end where it goes from Petra walking into the lab about to test for her powers at the end of Chapter 18 to her standing on a street at the beginning of Chapter 19. I have the kindle version and I didn’t notice any missing chapters).

Book Review: Never Trust a Vampire (Strange Allies - Book 1)

timelady — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 18:00:09 GMT

Never Trust a Vampire (Strange Allies – Book 1) by Vivian Lane

4 stars (probably closer to 3)
Category: Adult
Note: I read this as included in the Magick and Monsters anthology.

Summary: Agent Seven (aka Della) is a paladin (monster slayer) who works for The Agency. She gets hired by a vampire named Adam to help him take out his evil master Juliet. Though Adam is handsome and charming and capable, Seven has trouble trusting him and the whole idea of being friends with him is laughable considering she’s been trained to never trust a vampire, even if he claims that he never takes human lives and works to help her take down monsters.

Comments: Think the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, but with less. There’s no comedic, every day man Scooby crew backing her up. She does have a tech researcher with her named Amelia who we barely see. The personalities in this are bland, Seven doesn’t have the fun personality quirks that Buffy had, nor much of a backstory either. She is tough as nails, and bad ass, but nothing that really stands out from all the other tough slay-first, ask questions later female Buffy-wannabes out there in indie fiction. Adam is, yes, our Angel stand in, the hot vampire with a heart of gold, drawn to our tough slayer, mainly because he likes teasing and messing with her. Her trying to keep Adam at arms' length and sniping at him just because he's a vampire, does get tiresome over the course of the book. The villains were the usual standard cardboard villains (and Juliet is more than a little like Darla from the Buffy series), though I did like her life after Juliet where she went on mission after mission slaying monsters other than vampires. And I did like his Renfield (Darius). There was also this odd secondary story that the book opened on with this immortal friend of Adam’s who was convinced he’s found his destined mate reincarnated in one of Della’s friends and was determined to follow her around the country until she would accept him (which felt creepy and stalker), and then that plotline immediately got dropped after the first chapter and didn’t get mentioned, not once during the course of the book. I started wondering if I’d just dreamed that I had read that scene, or if I had read a sample from a different book and only thought it belonged with this one. And then it came back in the very last chapter of this story.

Book Review: Scapegoat

timelady — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 07:28:11 GMT

Scapegoat by Aimee Easterling

5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Short Story. I read this as included in the Street Spells collection free on Amazon.

Summary: Sienna, a stripper in a nightclub (and college student by day) is attacked after a show and rescued by a werewolf who turns out to be a young fan of hers, saying he would be moving and to keep in touch. Sixteen years later, Sienna now works watching over a state preserve that abuts a farm with a man who raises goats. He suddenly claims that a wolf has been massacring his goats, but when she investigates it, she’s almost convinced a human probably caused the damage, but there are enough things to suggest it was done by a wolf. She knows it’s within a mile of a family of wolves that she loves watching over and is convinced that if the farmer gets the permit to hunt wolves, he will harm the family of wolves. So, out of options and forced to issue the permit to the farmer, she calls upon her former werewolf rescuer, Chase. He brings Wolf Young along with him to root out the guilty party.

Comments: Aimee Easterling never ceases to amaze me. Though I love fantasy, I reached my limit of shifters and werewolves, especially long ago when they first started to flood the indie market. But yet, I am always surprised by how good Aimee Easterling’s stories are and how much they make me toss that rule of not reading werewolf books out the window. She always finds some new twist to reel me in. This time around, I read through the beginning going, “I don’t do books starring strippers.” I gritted my teeth through that beginning, telling myself I would dump it at the end of the chapter. But then it reached the point where the young awkward younger than her teenage patron turned out to be a werewolf and put his email in the heroine’s hand saying he would be moving and he wanted her to keep in touch. And it just won me over to keep reading. While we got to know Sienna well with her passion for animals, we really don’t get to know Chase much. After 16 years, you’d expect she’d have a ton of questions for him (and visa versa), but she was really just focused on the mystery and problem at hand. I would have liked to have seen him fleshed out a lot more. I loved seeing Wolfie in this (from the Wolf Rampant trilogy and The Complete Bloodling Serial), though this time around, without his mate, we’re seeing a different side of him. Where he’s usually irreverent and a bit goofy even, this time he’s rather uncouth and out of touch with his human side. And, honestly, I don’t remember Chase from the other books since Wolfie has so many members in his pack. But Wolfie still is the same alpha man with a plan, who isn’t the greatest on communication and solves things rather creatively. It is a fun mystery (though you can see the guilty party and know the motives without even trying) with tension and even a bit of action.

Admittedly, I’m not certain why it was in a collection called “Street Spells” since there were no actual magic spells used during this story.

Book Review: The Mistletoe Trap

timelady — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 07:39:33 GMT

The Mistletoe Trap by Eve Pendle

4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length

Summary: After her best friend chose to marry another woman, Amelia had resigned herself to life as a spinster. She had an embroidery profession, donated to a charity, and lived as a companion to her aunt in London. But a family Christmas party drags her home and finds Robert, her childhood best friend, now recently widowed, and his family on the guest list. Amelia has her opportunity to befriend his adorable daughter and confront him about why he chose someone else.

Comments: There were really two separate acts to this story. In the first half of the book, the hero and heroine spend most of the time resenting each other. Robert was mad at Amelia for rebuffing him when they were younger, for turning away when he wanted a kiss under the mistletoe. And she was mad at him for marrying someone else. I loved the mention of Pride & Prejudice and likens herself to sweet, painfully shy Jane who has trouble outwardly showing affection. And then because of complications (being caught together, though nothing actually happened), their relationship felt forced. I did love the second chance trope and finding romance later in life (though this isn’t too much later to really qualify as later in life).

The second half of the book reminded me of Bridgerton where the hero attempted to use the heroine’s naivety to avoid sex (in this case to avoid losing another wife in childbirth), though Amelia wasn’t innocent (which felt too modern for the time period and gets mentioned frequently), so she knew better, and she wasn’t weak-willed and knew what she wanted, which led to a fascinating battle of wills. And, yes, I loved the embroidery piece she made for Robert. (There is a bit of graphic sex in this).

Book Review: Princess of Thorns (Curse of the Dark Kingdom)

timelady — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 16:36:32 GMT

Princess of Thorns (Curse of the Dark Kingdom) by Amberlyn Holland

4 stars
Category: YA
Note: Novella-length

Summary: Princess Islyne is asleep under a curse in the remote winter palace, hidden in the middle of an impenetrable forest of vines and thorns. But her astral self is free to wander the palace grounds, which is far more freedom than she’s ever had in the past. Duke Conall of Lakentre, Islyne’s betrothed, who only met her once and didn’t bother to make eye contact with her, who only ever saw her as a weak, shy, awkward girl raised by a monster of a dictator king, has come to wake her with a kiss and claim the throne and usurp her brothers also trapped under curses.

Comments: This is, of course, a short re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story with predictably all the royal siblings under the usual fairytale curses. It does feel like a retread of the Dragon Ever After series, also by this author, but without any dragon shifting. It has the same idea of royal siblings being caught under curses and the same overly complicated struggles for power around them orchestrated by some unknown force that’s staying hidden and doing it remotely, just like Aunt Velia did. The beginning of this story focuses on some very heavy-handed author orchestrating as Islyne travels through a series of magic circle portals to listen in on her brothers as they info-dump key background information of the crazy complicated political situation, led there by a cat, which also feels like a heavy-handed plot device used to push the characters into a direction the author wants them going in, instead of letting the characters naturally and organically find their own way. The portals didn’t serve any other function during the course of the book and were only used in the opening scenes, also to introduce us to her brothers as future starring characters.

Beyond those two heavy-handed plot devices to force characters into certain directions and hear key information, this is a fun romantic story. I did love the journey Conall took to the palace, stubbornly determined to do what he wanted and determined that what he wanted was the best for everyone. And I loved Islyne’s yearning to retain her freedom and horrified at the idea of being back under the thumb of someone who wanted to marginalize her and keep her trapped as just a pawn and a means to an end. He saw her as a means to legitimize his claim on the throne. So I loved when she decided to just lead him in circles and then lead him back out of the forest. It took a lot of character growth on Conall’s part to help him see things from Islyne’s point of view, when he had the outlook that he knew he was good looking and could charm women into doing what he wanted and realize that charm wasn’t really working on Islyne and for him to admire his courage and actually feel for her being trapped. I really would have loved this section following Islyne and Conall to have been longer.

Book Review: Crimson Son (Crimson Son Universe - Book 1)

timelady — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 07:03:14 GMT

Crimson Son (Crimson Son Universe – Book 1) by Russ Linton

5 stars
Category: YA

Summary: Spencer is the powerless son of the world’s strongest augment (genetically modified human through a secret government science program) Crimson Mask. When the apartment that Spencer shares with his mother is attacked by The Black Beetle (Crimson Mask’s nemesis) and his mom is kidnapped, Crimson Mask rescues Spencer, taking him to a bunker in the Arctic, where Spencer suffers in isolation for two years while his superhero father is off saving the world. Government secrets come to light, and superheroes aren’t the paragons of virtue we want them to be, and superheroes don’t make the best parents.

Comments: Yes, I’m a sucker for superhero fiction. Especially books with a Superman-type figure in it, and especially if there are colorful costumes involved. This book stars the powerless son of said Superman-type character (though the superheroes in this are government-funded genetically altered human weapons of power). I loved how the hero wasn’t idolized in his son’s eyes. I loved how Spencer saw him as fallible and a horrible role model for parenting. From Spencer’s point of view, the hero was an absent parent always off saving other people and because of his father having so many enemies Spencer had to keep moving with his mom, adopting fake names, and constantly changing schools. I loved the section in the Arctic bunker in the middle of nowhere (can we say Fortress of Solitude?) when his father realized he had forgotten to stock the fridge and the kid was trying to live off crackers. I totally felt for the teenager stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no food, no TV, no internet, and no means of escape outside of freezing to death. Though the technobabble in the beginning nearly made me dump the book, I slogged through it and the book vastly improved. I loved how Spencer probably had a power of his own in being a genius with electronics, enough to take care of himself tackling with the drones after him, hot wiring cars, etc. I loved Spencer meeting up with his best friend, how he had been envying him being able to live a life free while Spencer was imprisoned in the bunker, but then to see what his abrupt disappearance after his apartment had been turned to rubble had done to his friend. The Black Beetle suit reminded me of Ironman, especially with the electronic voice on the inside of the suit. I loved all of the side characters (especially the WW2 vets at Whispering Pines – though I have no interest in reading a book set during a war, so I have no interest in revisiting them in Empty Quiver, and I loved Dr. Martin like when he was beaten up, needed to know if Spencer was okay). The confrontation with The Black Beetle seemed a bit anti-climactic (so I was glad that the book didn’t stop there and had an even bigger confrontation). I loved the ironic humor and Spencer being a typical teenager with all the patience and selfishness of a teenager and the teenage angst. I am very much looking forward to continuing the series, and seeing Spencer finally confront his dad with everything he’s pent up (specifically the adultery, which he didn’t bother to confront him about when all was said and done). I’m dying to see the two of them actually together in the same room in more than just passing and actually get everything out there, I’d love to see them try to understand each other and maybe even do some parent-child bonding or save the world together.

Book Review: Amnesia Bites (Shady Arcade - Book 1)

timelady — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 16:38:50 GMT

Amnesia Bites (Shady Arcade – Book 1) by Sharon Stevenson

4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Only $0.99 cents on Amazon.

Summary: Zack is a private detective (who seems to spend next to no time actually working). Because of a vampire attack, he lost his memories and now has a vampire bodyguard posing as his secretary. But now he has to understand and navigate the paranormal world around him with all of its politics and factions compromising the small town.

Comments: This is really a paranormal cozy, kind of like the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries. It’s got a quaint, small town and different types of paranormal beings (vampires, necromancers who control the vampires since they’re technically dead, and Zack with his psychic touch power), with a larger population than the basic humans. Zack has no memory, so we really don’t know much about his history. He is a psychic schizophrenic with multiple personalities talking to him. One problem I had with this was that the side characters all have very generic names and personalities, so I kept getting them all confused (specifically I got Kenny and Rick and mixed up frequently and I mixed up Cassandra, Amira, and Mary several times as well). The other problem I had with it was that in tradition of cozies, it doesn’t delve into emotions and keeps everything at a superficial, surface level. Sex is treated as a cheap thing here and characters think nothing about sleeping around. Zack is in his office rather constantly but he does next to no work. How does he pay his bills? During the course of this book, he had one client (a kid who couldn’t pay him) and that subplot got tied up by halfway into the book. One thing I never got was that Zack was a victim of a vampire attack, but for some reason the council assigned him a vampire bodyguard. I did like the character of Larry who was teenage and suddenly found himself in the middle of the paranormal world and had to get used to a whole new set of rules while he had the control and patience of a teenager.

This is written by a British author, who’s definition of arcade is apparently totally different from mine, which I had to remind myself rather constantly. With the series title Shady Arcade, I expected a darkened gaming room with a young adult cast, but it actually refers to a cluster of businesses and shops which is what us Americans would call a plaza or a mall. I was also expecting the mystery of the missing girl to be the central focus, but it was barely a foot note with the focus being on mostly the struggle for power between the vampires and necromancers.

In all, the story doesn’t really encourage me to read more, but I do want to know what happened to Zack’s parents and what will happen to Larry.

Book Review: Immersed (The Clockwork Siren Series - Book 1)

timelady — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 08:40:21 GMT

Immersed (The Clockwork Siren Series – Book 1) By Katie Hayoz

5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length

Summary: Melusine Dore has been making her way through life on her own, supporting herself as a monster hunter. When famed monster hunter Levi Cannon hits town, Melusine knows she has to make herself scarce. Not only does she not want to get in his way and hates competition, and she can’t stand the idea that he does the monster hunting as a hobby while she does it to earn a living, but because she is trying to avoid her reaction to him. So when she finds Levi waiting for her on her last job before she can properly hide from him, she lashes out at him only to have him insist that they’ve both been hired by Lord Edwin to hunt a sea creature that has been wrecking his merchant vessels.

Comments: I’m already itching to read more of this fun adventure series. It has it all: a strong leading lady, the flair, freedom, and inventiveness of Steampunk, fantasy monsters to be hunted, a romance, plenty of humorous moments and banter, and mermaids. I loved all of the imagination that went into the monsters. I loved the trolls that infested the mud outside of Melusine’s boarding house that she treated as an annoyance instead of something to be eradicated. And I loved that Levi was this larger-than-life famous rich boy monster hunter who Melusine had so many pre-conceived notions about and he was actually adorably hurt that she ascribed those things to him and he was determined to show her the truth of himself and change his reputation in her eyes. And I loved the messes she kept getting into and the perverse pleasure she got out of dirtying up Lord Edwin’s upholstery. And I loved Melusine’s character history which made her a dimensional person with a lot of questions still to be answered. Though I did keep wondering why she didn’t just tell him as soon as she noticed any sort of pull between them. To not tell him felt idiotic. And I loved the quirky side characters bringing to life the Steampunk world from the robot butler to Edwin who was part cybernetic, to the inventor of gadgets, to the land lady who didn’t approve of Melusine. And I loved the adventure and thrill of trying to tackle a giant, ravenous sea creature who could eat them like a snack.

Even though this is book 1 in a series, it is a full story (albeit novella-size) with a satisfying ending. Though I can’t wait to see further into the lives of Melusine and Levi and what their next adventure will be.

Book Review: Hook's Pan (Kingdom Series - Book 5)

timelady — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 20:27:12 GMT

Hook’s Pan (Kingdom Series - Book 5) by Marie Hall

4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.

Summary: Fairy godmother Danika is determined to find fated mates for all of her fairy tale villain charges before they cease to exist. Trishelle is the best friend of Betty who recently married Gerard (Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast tale). When Betty tries to tell Trishelle that Danika is convinced that she’s Captain Hook’s mate, Trisha refuses to believe it even though she’s currently starring as Peter Pan in a local theater production. But she starts believing in fairy tales rather swiftly as Danika suddenly drops her on the deck of the Jolly Roger. But their insta-lust for each other isn’t enough to convince her she’s in love with the famed pirate, not even telling her that she’s the re-incarnation of his mermaid girlfriend. Because Trisha saw her older sister die from spouse abuse to a man she loved, she has refused to be tied down and suffer the same fate as her sister.

Comments: I’m always a sucker for adventures with pirates in them! It might be the thrilling adventure, the danger of treading on the side of villainy, the exotic locations, all of which is in this book and so much more. Not only does this bring to life the dangerous, reckless pirates, but it also spends time with the Neverland mermaids and visits their underwater kingdom. The scenes of the underwater kingdom and traveling to there, were incredibly imaginative. And there were so many interesting things to discover aboard the Jolly Roger. But Trisha, I never warmed to. The whole point was that she was this tough, cynical woman who pretty much just used sex to scratch an itch. So, the sex scenes were frequent and they all felt cheap so I found myself skimming them. Also, with being cynical, she had a potty mouth which spewed 4-letter words rather constantly. She seemed rather Mary-Sue generic average modern woman to me. With the title of Hook’s Pan, I expected her to have a Peter Pan personality where Hook would practically have to tame her rather than the tedious having to convince her that they were in love, that he did love her, etc. Hook and Smee were both re-invented for this book, turning them both into handsome, dangerous pirates, so they weren’t the buffoons from the Disney cartoon, it did make them more real as men rather than cartoons. The twist of Hook being a rogue pirate with a heart of gold and Peter being the villain is rather popular in indie books these days after the idea was introduced in the TV series Once Upon a Time, so it isn’t like I haven’t seen that twist before. In fact, books of Peter being the good guy are actually getting rather rare. I did love the brief glimpse of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and there feels like there should be a book about him being brought to justice since he really shouldn’t be allowed to get away with what he did to Talia and that he can just kill and get away with it if he considers it a game. I loved the book about Hatter and Alice and I loved the story about Betty and Gerard, but I’m getting a bit tired of ramming the idea home that Danika has to find “fated mates” (such an indie cliched term/idea which feels really stale) for everyone and most of them have to be modern generic author-insert women. (Though I did like this tale more than Red and Wolf and Paz and Genie). I am dying to see more of Sirroco (and it looks like I’ll get that wish in Pirate’s Dream).
My copy also came bundled together with a copy of The Sea Queen. I ended up passing on it. I just didn’t care for all the sex talk going on in it, modernly updating all of the Greek gods as cheap lust-filled characters.