Cassie, a struggling artist, is evicted from her home when she is unable to pay rent. She finds an ad for a ridiculously cheap apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Her new roommate is decidedly odd and seems to have stepped out of a Regency romance, but the place is too nice to say no. And Frederick sleeps all day and is out all night, so besides leaving each other notes on the kitchen table, they don’t see each other much and it‘s not an issue. Until she is home at an unexpected time and finds blood bags in the fridge. Turns out that Frederick is a vampire and that he has an unusual offer for her.
It was ok. Pretty shallow and simplistic—the perfect beach read. The romance (or rather the falling-in-lust) was nice enough. The inevitable twist towards the end wasn‘t too silly. Maybe a little too easily resolved.
Not a lot of character development. Frederick was amusing. And so was the note-leaving. It added an amusing layer to the story telling.
As a whole this was too much of a fluff piece for me though. I‘m not a fan of unnecessary drama in romance, but a bit more conflict in the story and more tension would have been good. It was all just a bit too inconsequential. I doubt I will pick up something else by the author.
A post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. After „The Glitch“ the city lies in ruins, with charred remains. 30 years later the sky is still covered and there is no sun. Vampires have always been under us and can now roam free. Mutants threaten from outside the city, from a potentially radioactive wasteland. The last remaining humans shelter in „The Zone“, a protected enclave.
Main characters are a pair of siblings that venture into the city to scavenge whatever they can find. And there is Eric and his partner Bombshell. He is an ex-LAPD officer, turned vampire shortly before the Glitch. Bombshell is an ex-bomb squad expert, now cyborg after an almost fatal (bomb-related?) accident.
The siblings find a naked man without memories, naming him Colton, after the street where they found him on one of their scavenging trips. And there is Vincent, a cop working with Eric and Bombshell, who is inhabited by a mysterious entity. Maybe an alien? Or an angel?
So much for the first chapter and the setting of the scene.
I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review. I received this ARC in 2019, so it‘s been on my shelf for almost 5 years. Mea Culpa!
The first chapter was rough. The writing was not great and the grammar full of mistakes. Strange sentence structures, incorrect word order and word choices, tenses changing in the same sentence or paragraph, correct use of adjectives was missing entirely. Maybe my ARC was an unedited first draft? It definitely needed editing by a natural English speaker.
I read chapter two as well, which brought me to 22%. About 60 to 70 pages, depending on edition. I am not terribly interested anymore in UF/horror in a post-apocalyptic setting with goth vampires and (probably) demons. Sorry, combined with the less than stellar writing: DNF.
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…
It‘s been a while since I picked up some typical UF with vampires and werewolves. With a marriage of convenience between two of them, an enemy-to-lovers plot and a conspiracy.
The first half of the story is a lot of set-up, introducing the world and focusing mostly on vampire and werewolf politics (they don’t get along) and less on any romance. But eventually it turns into PNR with a generous helping of graphic sex.
The conspiracy is nicely done. So is the backstory of of the female main character, who goes by the truly silly first name of Misery. These are the least scary werewolves and vampires ever, by the way. Pretty shallow.
I did not guess the bad guy — I am probably the only person on this planet that didn’t, but I wasn’t terribly invested in the story — and the last revelation in the epilogue was nicely done. I guess there will be another book in this world. Not sure I will get it though, this was a little too simple. 🐺🧛♂️🐺½
PS: No, there really isn‘t a lot of agency. I wish.
After sneaking out against her mother’s wishes, Artie Irvin spots a massive wolf in the nearby woods. Then, she sees it shift into her mom. Thrilled to find she comes from a line of werewolves, Artie asks her mom to share everything– Including the story of Artie’s father.
To help Artie figure out her wolflike abilities, her mom recruits some old family friends. Artie thrives in her new community, even if she can’t shift at will yet. But as she learns more about werewolves and her parents’ past. she’ll discover that wolves aren’t the scariest thing in the woods– vampires are.
from the book blurb
Got this spontaneously as part of Libby‘s #biglibraryread. I am glad I decided to join this Libby read, although Middle Grade normally really isn‘t my jam.
Superficially this is a coming of age story of a young werewolf and her transformation. Quite a different take on vampires and how they multiply.
But ultimately this is a story about family, belonging and community… I really liked this. Great emotions, reading this made me happy!
Nice artwork as well. The landscapes and the wolves were not terribly elaborate, but the people were portrayed very well. Especially Artie was a highlight, alone and with her mum and others. There is a lot of heart in this.
Topic forOctober 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)
I need to work to live, so never mind working for free in the real world. Let‘s go for imaginary! Let‘s have a look at my TBR pile—any opportunity to remind myself of what dwells on my shelves…
#5 — Hollow Space: Venture by C.F. Barnes, T.F. Grant — spaceship navigator, always high on the list of cool jobs! Not sure about this book though. It was a freebie on Amazon six years ago…
Kate and Curran don‘t get a lot of rest in their new home after their last outing. Someone is looking for help against an evil, magical presence in the woods and Kate can‘t say no. 200 pages of the usual mayhem, blood and slaughter follow.
Struggling a bit with the alternating POVs from Kate to Curran, but it‘s actually nice to see the same scenes through different eyes.
Fun! It was hard to put down, but I had to sleep eventually. Looking forward to the next one!
Dear Ilona Andrews, I don‘t need books about anybody else in this world, just keep doing Kate… thanks!
Last week I picked three books from my shelf, decided for one of them and put the other two as nah-not-in-the-mood on my coffee table. Executive decision the day after: putting them into my give-away-basket. And guess what… the book I did decide to read was not a winner either. I tossed the anthology during the fourth story. I guess there is a reason why these books spent so much time on my bookshelf—subconsciously I knew that I would not enjoy them.
It has been years since I really, deeply enjoyed reading Urban Fantasy, with some exceptions. So take this review with a grain of salt. I am basically working through my TBR pile.
Based on the quarter of this book that I did read these are short stories set in between full-length novels of longer UF series. This book will be better for fans of these series. I think everybody else will miss context.
Shiny, A Weather Warden Story / by Rachel Caine ✅ Read Ill Wind in 2015, ⭐️⭐️⭐️, never continued the series and do not plan to.
The short story was entertaining.
In vino veritas / by Karen Chance ✅ Dorina Basarab #2.1, Cassandra Palmer #6.5. I read 16 of the books and stories. There is plenty more, but eventually they did not grab me anymore.
Can be read for free here or get a free copy on Smashwords. The story has lots of vampires. The usual high octane craziness. Probably better for people that know this world.
On my TBR pile and seriously considering to delete them after only mildly enjoying this: Masks & Ride the Storm — I did actually look up each ebook and read the first page of each. Meh. I am so done with the usual UF vampires etc.
Hunt / by Rachel Vincent. ❌ Apparently a spin off from Rachel’s Shifters Series. I read the first book, Stray, in 2011. and gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️. Never continued the series or read anything else by the author.
Attempted rape and murder. Why do so many UF stories have rape in them? Not interested, skimmed.
Monsters / by Lilith Saintcrow ❌ I have not read anything by this author. The first two pages of this story made not much sense, you probably really need to know her books for this to work. Nope.
This point in the anthology brought me to page 86 of 366 and made me realize one more time that I do not enjoy this type of UF anymore. DNF at 23%.
Also in this anthology:
Vampires prefer blondes / by P.N. Elrod Read another one of her short stories in Hex Appeal, it was ok.
Nine-tenths of the law / by Jenna Black Read The Devil Inside in 2013, ⭐️⭐️, and found it pretty irritating. Pass.
I have not read anything by these authors, unknown to me: Double dead / by Cheyenne McCray A rose by any other name would still be red / by Elizabeth A. Vaughan Superman / by Jeanne C. Stein Monster mash / by Carole Nelson Douglas Wanted: dead or alive / by L.A. Banks Mist / by Susan Krinard Beyond the pale / by Nancy Holders
I read the first volume of the entire series and it was not bad. This one here was included in my Prime Reading, so I got it. DNF at 50%. The artwork changed and I think it‘s pretty ugly. Plus I am missing too much context in between the first volume and beginning of the series and this.
This volume contains issue #1-3. I read #1 in 2018. At that point I had seen the movie three or four times and wanted to see how it compares. I liked the artwork and the colours and the mix of greys with pastel tones. Nicely drawn bloodshed, almost poetic.
So, re-read and continuation it is, finally. The setting is Barrow in Alaska and the sun has just set for the last time before a stretch of 30 days without sunlight.
Great opportunity for a bunch of vampires to go all out. Some of the visuals reminded me of the TV adaptation of The Strain (never read it).
Back to Barrow… bloodshed, a lot of it. And some panels that were hard to figure out, because there was only night, grey snow and lots of red. Not a lot of plot, we basically wallow in the visuals of the town‘s inhabitants being slaughtered. I think I liked the movie more. It felt like more of a story and there was some character development. I connected more with the living and their catastrophic situation.
Goodness me, I finally finished, with a heavy dose of skimming. I liked the story, but the execution of it was not my thing. Too long, too much introspection, too much mysticism, vampires not scary enough. As a horror novel this fell flat. As a post-apocalyptic story it wasn’t bad, but I would have liked more of the in-between, not only before and after. I think that might actually happen in the next book(s), but I definitely don’t want to skim through another 800 pages and be bored for wide stretches of reading.
The first part of the book had decent world buidling, well-developed characters, I liked the changing POVs and the writing style appealed to me. The plot could have unfolded a bit faster, the build-up was glacially slow.
Almost 200 pages in the fun finally started…
The floor was slick with blood, so much blood that he felt his feet sliding on it, the grease of human remains.
Roughly 30% into the book the plot jumped about 100 years ahead into the post-apocalyptic future with its newly developed society, completely removed from the present day world. It was like reading a different book. I wouldn’t have minded staying in the present some more, to read about the collapse of society and to find out more about the characters of that timeline.
It took me a few pages to come to like this new setting, but it got interesting eventually.
Tonight’s forecast? Darkness, with widespread screaming.
Unfortunately, despite there being some very good bits in this later plot, I was pretty bored at the halfway point. Too slow, not enough tension for me. Even during attacks of the virals and supposedly very tense situations, I was just like “Oh, ok then… next…”
Nonetheless, I skimmed my way through another 100 pages or so and some quite good plot developments. And lots of looooong and boring bits in between. I considered DNFing the book, but then stuck with it, wanting to know what came next.
I think I would have been fine with a couple of hundred pages less in the center of the book. The first 30% of the book and the last 40% of it were good. I didn’t care much for the rest in between. And, as mentioned, I didn’t much like the mysticism and religious undertones.
Sorry, only 2 not very creepy stars…
Reading progress:
March 6, 2017 – 2.0% “Ugh, I can’t believe I picked another book this long… Curse you, TBR pile!”
March 7, 2017 – page 36 – 4.38% “‘Like Smokey Bear says, take only pictures, leave only footprints.’“
March 10, 2017 – page 93 – 11.33% “Sister Claire often went to the 6:00 a.m. before her daily jog, which she referred to as a visit to ‘Our Lady of Endorphins.’ “
March 12, 2017 – page 154 – 18.76% ““They were in danger, terrible danger. Something was coming. She didn’t know what. Some dark force had come loose in the world, and it was sweeping toward them, coming for them all.” I wish it would hurry up a little!”
March 12, 2017 – page 196 – 23.87% “The floor was slick with blood, so much blood that he felt his feet sliding on it, the grease of human remains. Here we are! Glacially slow build-up is done.”
March 15, 2017 – page 276 – 33.62% “I am in chapter 20. Did a massive time jump ahead to the post-apocalyptic future. Odd, it’s like reading a different book.”
March 18, 2017 – page 307 – 37.39% “Tonight’s forecast? Darkness, with widespread screaming.“
March 18, 2017 – page 326 – 39.71% “Grief was a place, Sara understood, where a person went alone. It was like a room without doors, and what happened in that room, all the anger and the pain you felt, was meant to stay there, nobody’s business but yours.“
March 23, 2017 – page 401 – 48.84% “I am bored! The second, later plotline is not bad, parts of it are good. But it’s slow, it doesn’t have enough tension for me. I could happily put this down and not pick it up again.”
March 26, 2017 – page 519 – 63.22% “All those years, waiting for the Army, and it turns out the Army is us. And all those pages, waiting for somethings to happen. I did some hefty skimming over the last 100+ pages and , amazingly enough, have not DNFd this yet. But I am still not sure, if I can be bothered to finish. The current bit feels a bit like The Walking Dead.”
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 