On Shadow Lords: A Review of Pledged by Gwynneth White

You know, I spent a lot of time with this book. I dragged it to work, read during lunch, on the ride home, on the coach, in bed, late into the night...it felt like I spent ages reading this book. Yet, it's hard to articulate how I feel about it. I can say for sure that it's neither the best, nor the worst book I've read in 2012...But beyond that, what can I say?

I was asked to read this for the purpose of participating in the blog tour, and the synopsis provided really didn't give me an accurate idea of what I was getting into plot wise...I don't know if I can describe it any better, but I'll try. Seth's brother is marrying Erin's sister, and so the two meet in Botswana on the way to the wedding. Seth has agreed to help his brother (Kyle) find an ancient diamond that turns out to be the key to making or breaking an ancient curse. Guardian angels swoop down and grab Seth and Erin and promptly tell them all about soul mates, and how they knew each other before they were born, and how their are many couples just like them, and isn't it wonderful? But in order to be together, they need to break the curse tied to the diamond. To understand the curse, they have to peer into the ancient past and watch how it has kept other couples from their happy endings. The remainder of the book mostly takes place in the 10th century A.D., with Seth and Erin as invisible witnesses to the loves and losses of a would be Shenayan leader.

Positive Comments

I really liked a lot of the concepts that the book presented. I find the idea of a soul mate, someone you met and loved before you were born, to be very intriguing. Suspense is created when the reader is informed that having or meeting your soul mate doesn't necessarily mean a happy ending--you need to work for that yourselves. That's a very balance view of fated romance, and I like it.

Critical Comments

When Seth and Erin travel back in time to watch the events of the past unfold, it brought to mind for me the sixth Harry Potter book, where Harry spends most of the book watching people's memories in order to try to understand Voldemort's seeming immortality, and also his potential weaknesses. I really enjoyed the concept in that book, so...why doesn't it work as well here? Well, I think the difference is that with Harry Potter, we had already had five books to build up stakes, make us care about what's going on in the present day, and curious about what happened in the past. With this book, we are only given the most vague descriptions and accounts of our main characters before they are sent to the past as invisible onlookers. I don't know enough about them, or feel enough toward them, to care about how the colossal pile of info-dump and back story relates to them. Stylistically, it just doesn't flow well, and it failed to keep me invested.

Seth and Erin have no real chemistry...because an inadequate amount of time is spend building that chemistry. So it's not a very romantic book.

Seth, and pretty much every male character in the book, is selfish, short sighted, and stupid. He gets better, but for me it was too little and too late.

It has more pages than the content of the story justifies, taking 100 pages to tell us what could be said in 50. The pacing is snail slow. You feel every page of the book, because you're waiting for the main characters to be able to do something. But they just watch, and you just wait, and not much comes of it.

I couldn't get invested in what went on in the historical portion of the story 1)because the characters are unlikeable 2)because I know the stories end badly, or we wouldn't have the present day story 3)because nothing in the narrative makes it feel like I'm in 900 something AD. I'm not anal about historical accuracy. However, I do find it distracting to have foreign characters in an ancient time using super modern language. Terms like "sleep together" (as a euphemism for sex), or being told that the warlord of this time has a desk...those sort of things feel out of place. There was nothing to really create the proper tone of being in a different time and very different culture.

Recommendation

Obviously, for me personally, cons outweighed the pros for this one. I did not enjoy the experience. What kind of reader would really like it? Well, I'd say if you like stories with dick-ish heroes that eventually see the light, and if you really get into angels and demons and curses, and you don't mind wading through back story, this is a good book for you. For those who like a deeper romance, a faster pace, and a more concise plot, don't bother with this one. 2 stars.

On Science and Sex: A Review of Tempting the Beast by Lora Leigh

Lora Leigh is one of those writers who many people like, and who has produced a ridiculous number of books in her lifetime. For many people her work is like crack. And if that's the case for you, awesome. I've only had one experience with her work, and it was...less than positive. Tempting the Beast was the very first book I ever read on my Kindle, and it has stuck in my mind ever since as a pretty big WTF? Here is my review: Beware the Minor Spoilers.

Science: Saving the world, one genetic abomination at a time.

So obviously this is erotica, and I realize erotica is pretty subjective and hard to grade. But to me, this was just bad.

The premise was actually somewhat promising. Callan is one of several genetically manipulated humans--he has lion DNA in his genome--who are all part of some top secret highly unethical experiment. Merinus is a journalist who is eager to expose what was done to Callan and his fellow "Breeds", and requires his cooperation. They meet, sparks fly in a big way, and we find out that they have some sort of intense biological connection. As in, they are in heat and absolutely must have sex, lots of sex, or they suffer painful consequences.

I may have actually been able to ignore the very contrived nature of the plot and all the hokey science fiction, had the characters been likeable. But they are not. Merinus is the worst--she is absolutely too stupid to live. She's understandably upset at being forced into a sexual relationship with Callan. But she uses it as an excuse for the stupidest decisions possible. She gets mad and blames him, though it's not his fault. She lashes out at those trying to help her. She runs away. She gets angry at Callan for killing rapists who would have killed him. She insists that she's tough and un-girly, but her toughest action in her moment of desperation is to call her big brother for help. And Callan isn't much better. He instantly falls into the overly possessive caveman routine so common to this sub-genre of romance. He's arrogant and sexist. While he says he admires Merinus' tough act, he continuously says things along the lines of "her brothers should have trained her better" and other things that demonstrate an utter lack of respect. This is all justified by saying that it's his nature, he can't help it, this is how all men would be were it not for that pesky feminism keeping them in check.

As stated above the plot is contrived entirely to get the main couple to boink a lot. In erotica, that's to be expected. I know a lot of women like the whole fated mate concept--you see it in Christine Feehan, J.R Ward, Kresley Cole, and Eileen Wilks. I don't have a problem with it if it's handled well. By that I mean, if it isn't used as a substitute for real emotional relationship building and depth of feeling that is only gained with time. Well, this book doesn't have much relationship building outside of the sex, so that was a problem for me.

Also, the plot is kind of...gross. There's a doctor and several assistants helping to figure out what's going on with Callan and Merinus. And the research process involves a lot of swabbing and sample taking before and after they have sex. And the doctor comes up with some kind of  birth control, but just as soon figures out that it probably won't work long term. This medical/science drama really took me out of the sexy moments and were just plain creepy.

I was told by people who have gone ahead and read this entire series that this isn't the best book to judge by. I may attempt book two at some point to see if it improves, but probably not soon. I'm giving this book 1.5 stars.

On Wyrs: A Review of Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

Iggy makes a dragon friend.

I've seen practically nothing but rave reviews for Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison, so I'm sorry to say that I was a little underwhelmed. I didn't hate it, and certain parts of it were fantastic, but I have enough complaints that I'm going to have to label it as average.

The book opens with Pia, our heroine, escaping after stealing an item from Dragos' lair. This feat was supposed to have been impossible, but Pia has some hidden talents--and furthermore, she was threatened and blackmailed into the act. Dragos is beyond pissed at the insult of being robbed, and pursues Pia as she flees into the territory of his enemies. To say more would give too much away, so I'll just say that with Dragos being the leader of the Wyrs (shapeshifters, I guess), he has some pretty nasty enemies.

I'm going to start with the world building, because the concept of a book containing dragons, elves, and fairies as main characters is what drew me to this book in the first place. Books with such a variety of supernatural creatures and concepts often suffer from info dump and exposition overload. Thankfully, this one wasn't too bad--the author keeps it simple. I actually wished for a little more information at certain times--some clarification on the distinctions between fae and elf and so on, for example. But overall, the world building is pretty solid.

That said, there isn't anything spectacularly innovative going on in this book. It follows a lot of the traditional patterns you'll see in paranormal romance, and uses many familiar tropes. If you swapped out the dragon and other mythological creatures for vampires and werewolves, every reviewer would be calling this a boring cliched flop. And the thing is, you really could make that swap without damaging the plot too much.

Let's take Dragos as an example. Initially I was impressed by the fact that he acted so much like the mythological dragon I hoped for. He's acquisitive and possessive, violent and uncivilized, a leader but a loner, and of course ancient and immortal. But other than the actual turning into a dragon, the above traits are ones I'm used to seeing in the vamps and werewolf alphas of other books. He just isn't unique in my mind. He's a nifty concept, but his personality is underdeveloped and unoriginal. As a result, I never fully connected with him.

Then there's Pia. I liked Pia, because she seemed to act, and react to events, much the way I would expect a rational person to. She isn't too perfect, she has plenty of  moments where she freaks out. She makes some bad decisions, but still demonstrates competence. Throughout most of the book, it's a mystery as to what Pia actually is. The payoff is not disappointing.

The timeline of the book spans a little over a week. That's a pretty short time for two people to fall in love and commit to one another. That leads me into my biggest issue with this book. I'm just going to say it, SPOILER though it is...this is a fated mate book. The relationship is destined to be, no point fighting it, don't know if they could live without one another, etc. The mate bond (in this book) is pretty much entirely used as a substitute for a real emotional connection, a contrived way of putting two people together who would probably not commit to one another otherwise. The sex scenes were sensual and intense, so I believed that Pia and Dragos have the hots for one another. And yes, I guess I believe they're bonded as mates because the book tells me so. But I'm not satisfied that they feel real, absolute love. I'm not even satisfied that they know each other very well. This book felt like the prelude to a real love story, not the love story itself.

Overall, I'm not hugely disappointed in this book. I would probably read the next book in the series if I came across it. I just feel pretty neutral toward this one. 2.5 stars.

As a P.S. I want to mention the end, but it's a big spoiler so I'm putting it down here. For the love of God, don't click this if you actually intend to read the book.

Christine Feehan's Carpathians: The Good, The Bad, and The Fanged

The early books in Christine Feehan's Carpathian series are a particular guilty pleasure of mine. Why guilty? Well, because the truth is that there is a lot wrong with them thematically and stylistically. They are formulaic and repetitive, kind of anti-feminist, and in some case make no sense at all. Yet they're deserve a certain amount of mention and discussion because of their influence on the paranormal romance genre. Christine Feehan is one of the first authors that I know of to use the fated mate trope in such an unapologetic fashion, and to make it work so well. I suspect that she is responsible for the mass popularity of fated mates in the last decade, so we have her to thank for that (or blame, depending on your feelings).

Lest anyone think that I'm presenting myself as an expert on the Carpathian books, I have in fact not read every single book word for word. I read up to Dark Melody (book 12) with great dedication, and after that point I started to skim and skip, or listen to the audio version. I have yet to even open  Dark Peril, the most recent release. So my comments may or may not be relevant to the recent additions to the series.



Please keep in mind also that when I first read these I was approximately fourteen years old and chalk full of angst. I've since reread most of them at least once, but that first impression sticks in my mind the best. Onward! 


In the Beginning: The overarching premise of each book is that Carpathians (an immortal, bloodsucking, shapeshifting, and generally very powerful species) are in danger of extinction because they have very few women and children. The men must find a lifemate. If they don't, they go colorblind and lose their emotions, a condition that can only be remedied by--you guessed it--finding one's lifemate. If they don't find said female they may ultimately turn evil, or choose to commit suicide. Sound cheerful? Right off the bat we have this odd gender divide that makes no sense--only the men are subject to the harsh side effects of going solo for centuries. I really would have preferred this colorblindness curse to go both ways, or at least I would have found it equally interesting. But instead the women are set up to be the "light to a man's darkness" and the men are the pursuers. 

The women in question are most often humans with psychic abilities. These low level supernatural powers are what allow them to later be turned into Carpathians (you can't just pick up any hooker off the street, although in my opinion that would make a funny book). The men therefore have a massive advantage of power and knowledge over their women. If your a girl, and you become a Carpathian male's lifemate, you sit at home and make quilts, or if your really lucky you can be a healer. I did warn you that these books are pretty sexist. In some of the later ones (Dark Destiny, if I'm not mistaken) a few women fight the evil vamps alongside their mates, but even in those cases the man is presented as more competent.


I Just Can't Stop Reading: Again, keep in mind that when I started reading these books the fated mate thing was a new concept in my reading world. It sucked me in (pun kind of intended). Plus, Feehan has a talent for imagery. The opening scenes of Dark Prince, in which our hero visits the heroine (Raven) on her balcony in the form of a large black bird, remains one of my favorite romantic scenes of all time. 

The other thing that these books do well is this: the lifemate bond doesn't equal instant true love. It means a lot of things. The ability to share sensation, thought, and emotion, combined with intense physical need. But trust and affection still have to be built the old fashioned way: by getting to know one another and sharing lots of blood. For the most part, Feehan takes some time to actually develop the relationship. Some books are more satisfying in this regard than others, but at least the mate bond is not used as a stand in for relationship building.


The Men: I'm going to be bluntly honest about this...They all kind of blend together in my mind. Oh sure, they each have a few unique personality traits and there are a couple different professions. But the most prominent character traits are always dominant, protective, and lethal. 


My most remembered hero of the series is Jacques from Dark Desire. I have a fondness for crazy characters and Jacques is all kinds of messed up. He was tortured and buried alive, and his human mate finds him. She's a doctor, and she tries to help him. In the meantime he latches on to her mentally in order to hold onto his last scrap of sanity. The whole romance is kind of disturbing, and honestly I feel bad for the poor woman who basically go trapped into a life I would never want. But still, it has a certain beauty to it and it's certainly memorable.


The Women: I apologize for this rant, because the heroines are where Feehan really loses me. Most of the women have no prior sexual experiences, and those that do were negative. They rarely have friends or relatives to miss them, so they are basically kidnap bait. They are always less powerful than the men, no matter what unique powers they're given. They mostly end up as singers or healers. If they do want to fight, it's a BIG FREAKING DEAL. She basically needs her mate to permit her, because if he isn't cool with it he will absolutely lock her up. Fortunately some of the men aren't complete sexist asshats. Anyways...


The women are the victims of very flowery names and over the top physical descriptions. Savannah, Raven, Desari, Natalya...And they all have impossibly colored eyes, tiny waists, and flowing shampoo commercial hair.


Among our leading ladies, I've always liked Francesca the best. In  Dark Legend she is basically portrayed as an ancient Carpathian trying to live outside of their society in secret. She's artistic, has healing abilities, is clearly pretty powerful, and she has a soft heart. She rescues an abused human child, Skyler, and I found the entire story very touching.


Plot Oddities: Oh God, are these things formulaic. Read three in a row, I guarantee you'll see the pattern. Carpathian guy finds psychic woman, he gets his colors and emotions back, struggles to control himself, fights off a few bad guys, turns the lady into a Carpathian, the end. But along the way some odd stuff happens that I just have to mention.

First of all, the human to Carpathian conversion? Very painful unpleasant process with huge life altering effects. In some cases the process isn't something the women volunteer for, but something the men choose for them. Because forced seduction bordering on rape wasn't edgy enough. 


While I'm on the subject of stealing a woman's options and will: Dark Magic is easily the most disturbing romance in the series. When the heroine, Savannah, was an unborn child Gregori feeds her his blood when her mother is hurt. He does so to ensure that she will be his lifemate. Remember in Breaking Dawn when Jacob imprints on the baby, and all of the readers declared it creepy and disturbing? FYI, Christine Feehan did it first, and did it even more disturbingly if you ask me. Gregori also stalks Savannah as a wolf while she's growing up, pretending to be her pet. Eww?


I also wanted to say that Christine Feehan can't write fight scenes that hold my attention. She's great at building atmospheric settings and beautiful characters. But the fight scenes are uninspired, predictable, and go on forever


In the End: So yeah, these books are pretty bad but also strangely addictive. They have an undeniable place in the genre of vampire romance because they are the first and best examples of so many of the tropes and themes we've come to know and love. I'm not going to give them a glowing recommendation. But I will say that there's no shame in trying them, if you are at all curious. There is much to love and much to hate. Happy Reading!

 

Vampire. Warrior. Legend. Loser.

The best way that I can explain Ascension by Caris Roane is this: Imagine that J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books and Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter books had a baby, and that baby grew up into a troubled teenager. That's this book. But troubled teens aren't irredeemable, right? Sure, it's going to take some discipline on the part of the editor and a lot of patience on the part of the reader, but it could still turn out alright. At least, that's what I told myself as I powered through the first two thirds of this book. In the end though, it's just a bad seed, and not really one I cared to stick with.

Here is my list of issues with this book:

1. This is a fated mates book. Hero and heroine are destined to be together because the author says so. Their sexual chemistry is instantaneous and irrationally overblown. The initial stages of getting to know one another involve smelling each other, gazing longingly into each others eyes, and dreaming of each other. I'm not against fated mates as a rule, but there is a right and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is taking away all of your character's choices and forcing them on one another, and using the mate bond as a stand in (or even total replacement) for growing affection. For the most part this book does it the wrong way.

2. The groups of hulk-like warrior men battling evil? It's been done before. Many times. And done better than this. This book is just generally unoriginal, kind of like fan fiction where all the names have been changed.

3. Roane's writing style is horrible. Typos, awkward wording, abrupt and frequent shifts in POV, one and two word sentences, needless repetition. The dialogue is the worst, with lots of phony sounding tough talk. One glaring example was when in detailing a character's thoughts Roane used "helluvan" instead of "hell of an". Now, I was willing to chalk up a lot of these issues to Roane being a new author, but upon flipping to her bio I saw that she has published many books under the name Valerie King. I couldn't believe that an experienced author would write like this.


4. Silly half baked world building. For one thing, the heroine is given an incomprehensible number of super powers. And the hero and his band of brothers are vampires...with wings. I started calling them wampires. There are good wampires and bad wampires, and the bad ones are blue for some reason. There are multiple dimensions including Mortal Earth and Earth Two. So there are all kinds of rules about where the wampires can fight and how they can fight. And there's vocabulary to learn as well. My favorite was the power of making objects disappear and appear, which is called "folding". Whenever it set "folding his sword into his hand" I could not stop picturing him folding a sword in half. Bottom line, all of the concepts are B-movie quality at best.

5. And finally, the sequel baiting. You want to buy the next book, right? That's going to be Marcus' story. He sounds cool right? Buy his book. Buy it! Ugh. I just want to enjoy the novel I'm reading and get a complete story without having to spend another $8 to complete the tale.

What can I say that's positive? When the heroine, Alison, is first introduced I thought she might be interesting. She has a lot of emotional issues and identity issues that I wanted to see her work through. But when it became clear that her powers and her relationship with Kerrick were going to be her new identity I lost interest in her. Kerrick bored me with his angst, self pity, and stubbornness. He did sound physically attractive though. Many of the secondary characters, like Endelle the military leader, were intriguing. This was ruined the second they spoke a word of dialogue.

So if you really like fated mates, haven't had your fill of vampire gang wars, and don't mind sloppy writing, go ahead and try this book. 1 star.