Forgotten Book Reviews ~ Menagerie by Rachel Vincent

Whilst going through my archives I found a few book reviews that seem to have been overlooked and left unpublished... so here's the first from my 'forgotten book reviews' file!

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Title: Menagerie (Menagerie #1)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Publisher: MIRA
Release Date: September 29th 2015
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley

When Delilah Marlow visits a famous traveling carnival, Metzger's Menagerie, she is an ordinary woman in a not-quite-ordinary world. But under the macabre circus black-top, she discovers a fierce, sharp-clawed creature lurking just beneath her human veneer. Captured and put on exhibition, Delilah in her black swan burlesque costume is stripped of her worldly possessions, including her own name, as she's forced to "perform" in town after town.

But there is breathtaking beauty behind the seamy and grotesque reality of the carnival. Gallagher, her handler, is as kind as he is cryptic and strong. The other "attractions"—mermaids, minotaurs, gryphons and kelpies—are strange, yes, but they share a bond forged by the brutal realities of captivity. And as Delilah struggles for her freedom, and for her fellow menagerie, she'll discover a strength and a purpose she never knew existed.

The general meaning of Menagerie is a collection of wild animals kept and trained in captivity for exhibition, so I was interested in the concept of keeping animals/beings/mythical creatures in a fair-ground, much like the oddities in freak shows back in the day - or most recently as seen on television on the show American Horror Story (Season 4, 2014). And I've always been a sucker for myths and legends, so I was intrigued as to how this story would bring all the elements of story together.

I liked the beginning - it had a definite changeling (Irish/Scottish) folklore feel to it and I was immediately sucked in, such a promising start. The flash forward to her 12 year old self was okay - but it didn't really follow on the anticipation of the introduction. And then another time jump to 'present' day. *note: I'm not a fan of the multiple time jumping thing unless it completely affects future narrative and/or is actually at time travel novel (in hindsight - not so much).

TBH - Dililah is boring. Boring life. Boring job. Boring boyfriend. Just boring. And I guess that's the point - she needs to grow as a person once she 'reveals' herself, it's a plot point - only it doesn't really work because she stays consistently boring! There are no high points or light points of story line to really get you motivated to root for her character and the possible romance factor is on such a slow burn it may in fact fizzle out - and for all their abilities/talents/weirdness - nothing of any importance ever really happens. It's all too even keeled which really is a shame. The potential for this story to blow your mind is right there - and yet its totally overlooked in favor of a 'nice' read.

I also was not a fan of the news 'snippets' interspersed amongst the chapters in an attempt to clarify 'the reaping' that had occurred - it just tended to add mud to an already murky story line.

So while I was not impressed at all by this book, I am curious to see if the author can improve on the story next time around, so I may give book #2 a look.

I so wanted this to be an epic story... but with very little light and shade, it was just mediocre at best - 2 stars

Book Review ~ The Lover's Game by J.C. Reed

Title: The Lover's Game (No Exceptions #2)

Author: J.C. Reed
Release Date: September 9th 2014
Source: Received from the author in exchange for an honest review

When love is a game...

After having her heart broken, Brooke tries to rebuild her life and closes herself off from the one man she loved deeply.
When she meets Grayson, a photographer, she has no idea that her new boss will offer her more than she bargained for. The pay is great, her new friends more than welcoming and everything seems to be running well…until everyone insists she find herself a new suitor during a night out.

Jett knows how to play games. He is used to getting attention from everyone except the beautiful dark haired woman who doesn’t like to be fooled with and doesn’t trust him as far as she can spit. He wants Brooke but, more than that, he wants to own her, and the only way to get her is to make her owe him…against her will.

And what Jett owns, Jett keeps forever.

This book is all over the place – it has no real direction. I didn’t like the partying, drinking, and drugs especially considering she is pregnant!! It put me right off.

The main character also seems to be a bit mentally troubled, skanking about, feeling attraction to just about every male she has contact with... I hate overly slutty behavior, even in a book.
Sorry but it's not to my tastes, just 2 stars.

Quickie Book Review ~ All Messed Up by Kelly Jamieson

Title: All Messed Up (Windy City Kink #2)
Author: Kelly Jamieson
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Source: Received an e-copy for the purpose of an honest review.

 

If he’s a mistake, she’s ready to make him her favorite mistake.

Mallory Hurst has tried to live a life that makes up for past mistakes. But now she faces a huge ethical dilemma. Her pharmaceutical company’s unapproved, off-label use of a medication puts lives at risk, and her protests have fallen on deaf ears.

Hoping a trip home will clear her head, she boards a plane for California. And strikes up a conversation with a handsome stranger.

Joe Mason recently learned that the man he’s called father all his life… isn’t. At least that explains why he never measured up to his older brothers. Flying to meet his biological father for the first time, he meets a sleek, sexy woman who makes him want to mess up her perfect hair.

Shared conversation leads to a shared drink between flights, then when their flight is canceled, a shared bed overnight—where their rush of attraction explodes into a night of much-needed kinky fun.

Yet a night of hot, messy sex won’t fix anything—in fact, blowing off steam could have blown their lives all to hell…

Warning: Contains a hot cop, a neat and tidy executive, dirty talk, kink in an airport, mile-high shenanigans, a little foot fetish fun. And love, of course.

This book started great - a chance meeting, a sizzling attraction, and some naughty but harmless fun. Sounds great right... meh!

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book. A bit flirty and cheeky and some hot risky sex thrown in, I lived vicariously through this couple. But then things start to get messy, complications set in and I got bored. The story slowed down rather than speeding up and the added elements of best friends, crappy boyfriend, and job and father drama just made the story complicated and too much trouble to even be bothered about, meaning I had to drag my way through the last 20%. 

Sometimes less is more... just 2 stars.

Quickie Book Review: Shattered Promises by Jessica Sorensen

Title: Shattered Promises (Shattered Promises #1)
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Publisher: Indie author
Release Date: February 26th 2013
Source: Amazon *freebie*

For twenty-one year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. She knows nothing about her past and has been haunted by the same monsters in her nightmares for the last few months. Unemotional and numb to life, she feels disconnected from everyone. Until the very first day she cries. After that, nothing in her life is the same.
Her emotions slowly surface and she starts experiencing love, happiness, and anger, feelings she never knew existed. But they leave her confused and she doesn’t know whether to embrace them or run away from them.
Her life only gets more complicated when she meets Alex. Sexy, arrogant, and secretive, Alex can get under Gemma’s skin like no one can. Yet she’s drawn to him by an invisible connection she has no control over. She’s also seen him before. In her nightmares.
Every part of Gemma’s mind is screaming at her to stay away from Alex, but every other part of her is begging to get close to him. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes Alex knows more about her than he originally let on.
As secrets about her past unravel, Gemma’s life becomes threatened. She needs to figure out what’s going on, before she winds up dead. But the only person she can turn to for answers is the one person she isn’t sure she can trust.
 
**Mature Content Warning** 17+ for language and sexual content.
(A re-imagining of my young adult book, The Fallen Star, told as a New Adult Paranormal)

My Thoughts

Shattered Promises had a lot going for it and I was initially intrigued and enchanted by the prologue, but the constantly changing story parameters and never ending added elements of the supernatural just frustrated and annoyed me. Just when I thought there were answers to be had, there wouldn't be and another element would be added and I just floundered around a so-so story with only so-so interest.

I was actually looking for and hoping for much more growth and connection, something of substance from this couple, but I was left unsatisfied by everything in this story and my perseverance to make it to the end had no payoff.

An underwhelming 2 star read.

Book Review: Branded by Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki

Title: Branded (A Sinners Series)
Author: Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki
Publisher: Abi and Missy Books
Release Date: June 28th 2013
Source: Received from the publisher via Netgalley (originally received as part of a blog tour)

Twenty years ago the Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society. He created the Hole where sinners are branded according to their sins and might survive a few years. At best.
Now LUST wraps around my neck like blue fingers strangling me. I’ve been accused of a crime I didn’t commit and now the Hole is my new home.

Darkness. Death. Violence. Pain.

Now every day is a fight for survival. But I won’t die. I won’t let them win.
The Hole can’t keep me. The Hole can’t break me.
I am more than my brand. I’m a fighter.
My name is Lexi Hamilton, and this is my story.

My Thoughts

*I have to start by saying that I received this book in exchange for an honest review as part of a blog tour. One of the conditions of that blog tour was to not post my review for Branded during the tour if it did not rate above a 3 star review. In keeping with that request, I did not post my review at that time*

I’m not sure that I fully understand what the authors were trying to do with Branded because for me, what sounded great in the blurb failed to be great in the book. 

Lexi is a very hard person to like; I just couldn’t get past her wanting to top herself one moment and fighting for survival the next.  Her actions did nothing to endear her to me; I only ended up disliking her and her flip-flop attitude all the more.

I found the world building weak; I didn’t get a sense of what was really going on or how the system worked. In fact, I felt Branded as a whole was very underdeveloped and everything from the characters to the story, the relationships, the circumstances, it all just lacked depth.  Everything is flat and one dimensional; and don’t get me started on the makes-no-sense, insta-love, so-called-relationship with Cole.

There are just too many questions that don’t really get any proper answers, and then while trying to tie up loose ends, what is offered up can only be described as boring, nonsensical, contradictory and just plain meh.

Overall, nothing really made a hell of a lot of sense, the dialogue was flat, the characters bland and boring, and the whole book was just a struggle to get through.

Too much wrong, not enough right.
2 stars at best.

LINKS
Amazon US
Goodreads
Book Trailer

Book Review: Lover at Last by J.R. Ward

Title: Lover At Last (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11)
Author: J.R. Ward
Release Date: March 26th 2013
Publisher: Penguin (NAL)
Source: Purchased by me
 
Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another....

Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it’s about time: The male has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young—just as Qhuinn has always wanted for himself. It’s hard to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. As he’s learned firsthand.

Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions... but as the battle over the race’s throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage, and two hearts who are meant to be together... finally become one

My Thoughts

I've been putting off writing this review.
I was so frustrated by the book, that its taken me over a month to finally have anything to say about it!
So I'm not going to even bother with a 'proper' review for this BDB installment except to say finally...

Finally Qhuinn and Blay get their HEA!

However, it was constantly being interrupted by couple after couple, villain after hero - it has POV's up the wazoo and that pissed me off!

I'd just being getting into a really great Qhuay moment and then it would meander off to someone else, which tbh, I mostly skimmed over!

Yes, I know there are so many characters now and we all want to keep up with who's doing what and setting the scene for the next big 'reveal' but ffs, this could have been epic!! - the constant interruptions made it... frustratingly long-winded with lots of annoyed eye-rolling!!

Qhuinn and Blay 5 stars, the rest 2 stars, overall read 3 stars :]

Book Review: Vexed by S.K.Whiteside

Title: Vexed

Author: S.K.Whiteside
Release Date: November 6th 2012 

Publishing Publisher: Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly
Source: Received from the author for an honest review

Everyone has heard the story but not everyone knows the truth. Isis was ready to give up. Her mate, Osiris, we murdered by the very person he trusted most, his brother Set. Envious of his brothers growing power and his father’s affection, Set killed Osiris and scattered his remains across the lands of Egypt. With the love of her life out of the picture Set imprisoned Isis in attempt to claim her as his own. When she spurns his advances, Set locks Isis in a tower where she is raped, beaten, and left for dead…only she is immortal and death never comes.
With the help of some unexpected allies, Isis escapes and sets forth on a path of revenge. Vengeance will be hers and she makes it clear to her enemies that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

My Thoughts

Vexed by S.K. Whiteside is an interesting story. 
It's a new take on an old tale. 
It is a refreshing and intriguing read... but it really could do with some work. 

Sadly there were more than a few bumps with this story - it lacked reading flow, there was a lack of punctuation, sentences didn't make sense, and the font and font size changed so often it gave me a migraine.

Vexed has plenty of story potential, but it needs some help with the telling, a decent edit and perhaps even some restructuring because it really is all over the place; and for such a short read (193 pages) it took me forever to get through due to the poor formatting alone.
 
I don't care what I'm reading, bad grammar and messy sentence structuring is going to diminish my reading pleasure and sadly, for me Vexed was riddled with problems making it a dissatisfying read. 
2 stars :[

Book Review: Cardwell Ranch Trespasser by B.J. Daniels

Title: Cardwell Ranch Trespasser
Author: B.J. Daniels
Release Date: March 19th 2013
Publisher: Harlequin
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley

CARDWELL BEWARE!The Cardwell clan has a new, mysterious member. Dana Cardwell warmly welcomed her Justice cousin into the family fold and to the ranch for a reunion. But this cunning kin has other plans for Dana...and designs on her husband, Hud.

Hilde Jacobson has known Dana too long to let her best friend get conned-or worse, killed. Unfortunately Hilde is no match for a skilled impostor who's duped everyone in the canyon. Only Deputy Marshal Colt Dawson believes Hilde's claims about the phony relation; only his strong arms have saved her from "accidents" intended to get her out of the way. Together can they convince the Cardwells that a predator lurks in their happy home?

My Thoughts

Cardwell Ranch Trespasser is an okay story, if a little over-the-top with its storyline. The writing flows easily but is made a little disjointed by its multiple points-of-view.

Colt and Hilde were far from a believable couple, they really didn't have anything to base a friendship on let alone a relationship. It was all too easy and convenient for them to be together - they should have been made to work harder for their relationship in order to bring more realism to the story.
I found all the characters to be a bit shallow and lacking in personality, so I wasn't really invested all that much in the mystery/story - and Dana was an out-and-out cow; my least favourite person in the world is the friend that drops you like a hot stone when they think you've done them wrong.

Overall, Cardwell Ranch Trespasser had some good moments but it was lacking in realism, story, and character likability too much for it to be anything more than meh.
2 stars :|

Book Review: The Crimson Thread by Suzanne Weyn

Title: The Crimson Thread
Author: Suzanne Weyn
Release Date: July 5th 2012 (originally self-published June 17th 2008)
Publisher: Scholastic 
Source: Received from KIWIreviews for an honest review

The year is 1880, and Bertie, having just arrived in New York with her family, is grateful to be given work as a seamstress in the home of textile tycoon J.P. Wellington. When the Wellington family fortune is threatened, Bertie's father boasts that Bertie will save the business, that she is so skillful she can "practically spin straw into gold."

Amazingly, in the course of one night, Bertie creates exquisite evening gowns—with the help of Ray Stalls, a man from her tenement who uses an old spinning wheel to create dresses that are woven with crimson thread and look as though they are spun with real gold. Indebted to Ray, Bertie asks how she can repay him. When Ray asks for her firstborn child, Bertie agrees, never dreaming that he is serious…

My Thoughts

In this non magical retelling of the classic Rumpelstiltskin, author Suzanne Weyn has instead given the reader a story set around an immigrant Irish family, freshly arrived to the slums of 1880 New York.

While a clever idea, it is sadly mediocre in its execution.
The characters are all rather shallow and underdeveloped, making it difficult to follow the story that is mostly a narrative telling, rather than a descriptive showing.
 
The men in the family are all selfish and self serving, and basically abandon Bridget to work and support the two smaller O’Malley children.
Bridget or Bertie as she is come to be known, is extremely naive in her behavior, making her an unbelievable and unlikeable character.
Ray Stalls, though supposedly a critical character for the story, only makes brief appearances and is for the most part forgotten, again distorting the original role of the character until he is a mere shadow of his dastardly namesake.

Full of historical inaccuracies, (the inaccurate and exorbitant price charged for yarn - to name but one) the story is very slow to start, made all the more frustrating by the juvenile phrasing, dragging the reader along, until its abrupt and unfulfilling end.

From start to finish, The Crimson Thread is a rather flat, under whelming read that I wouldn’t recommend for anyone over the age of 13.

2 stars :|

Book Review: Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

Title: Mystic City (Mystic City #1)
Author: Theo Lawrence
Release Date: October 9th 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Imprint: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley

A magical city divided.
A political rebellion ignited.
A love that was meant to last forever.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City’s two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents’ sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths.

But Aria doesn’t remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can’t conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place.

Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.


My Thoughts

Mystic City by Theo Lawrence is one of those books that after reading, I'm perplexed by it, frustrated even. I'm torn between liking it and all out hating it.
The blurb is great and whet my appetite for what I hoped would be a really entertaining read, but by the time I was a third of the way through I got bored, and that's a shame because I thought the book started off well, but for me it was a very up and down read.

While I liked the characters, I didn't really connect with them at all - I didn't care enough about them as people to be bothered either way what happened, they lacked any real depth, and I just found them shallow and boring. 

And that's it really, I was bored. I just lost interest, and I didn't enjoy it.
Sadly it was just a 2 Star read for me :|