Trick or Treat! - Tricks of the Trade Review
The pieces are all there for Laura Anne Gilman’s Tricks of the Trade. Your enjoyment will simply depend on your tastes as a reader. If you want mystery, there is tons of it. If you want mythical creatures, you get that too with a little comedy along the way. Basically, it delivers what it promises. Our protagonists are detectives of the PUPI (Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigations) organization. It’s supposed to be pronounced as “puppy”, but my Kindle’s text-to-speech doesn’t seem to understand that. I’ll let you guess what it sounds like instead, but I can say that I got in a few immature chuckles at first. Anyway, these detectives have magical powers which allow them to solve paranormal cases. Interestingly enough, electronics interfere with their magic use, so they can’t use them. There are two cases: one is a murder mystery surrounding a murder/break-in, while the other looks to be an even bigger issue with an ancient creature targeting them.
To get to the bottom of everything they of course hit snags along the way, both professionally and personally. The POV switches between the main character, Bonnie, and her boss and reluctant love-interest, Venec. I usually don’t read a lot of books that switch between POVs and I found it a little confusing at times. It may have been because the ARC I received was not formatted. The only way I could signal the change was the switch from first person (for Bonnie) to third person (for Venec).
This series is supposedly standalone. They are all from Bonnie’s POV, though you get references to the cases in previous books. So on one hand you don’t necessarily have to start with the first book, but on the other hand that means you may not be able to rely on a lot of development for supporting chracters (aside from the slow going romantic development with Venec of course). Instead you will have to rely on the author’s good story-telling abilities to make the cases interesting.
All in all, it’s a solid read. I think I was personally in the mood for more of the world-building fantasy elements, which is why it wasn’t that enjoyable for me. But as I said before, it just depends on your tastes. It’s definitely worth giving it a try to see if it’s your cup of tea.
A Family Affair - Okay, Pritkin’s Irresistable
Only a couple of blog posts ago I was sort of ranting about this series and whether or not I would be able to keep going. As much as its quirks get on my nerves, I can’t really see myself actually stopping and not seeing Pritkin’s story unfold. While I do think Mircea has potential to be interesting, so far I don’t think the series is living up to it. Pritkin on the other hand remains shrouded in mystery and intrigue even as a lot of his background comes to light. After reading his short story, I think I would love this series if it were primarily from his point of view.
The story itself is just okay for me, but it’s rare that novella’s are as compelling as a full novel. What I really liked the most was the potential and getting a little taste of John’s world from his perspective and seeing how he juggles several responsibilties from his dedication to Cassie, his heritage, and his mission. I would probably be a Cassie/Pritkin shipper more easily if it were from his point of view. If you like the ship, I really don’t think you’re going to want to miss this one. It’s just too bad Karen Chance has to follow the trend and keep her urban fantasy series from the female’s point of view.
Blood Rights - In this instance, you *can* judge a book by its cover
It is always touch and go when you decide to dive into a new series. I approached the first book of the Comarre trilogy with a little trepidation thinking that it could just be eye candy and little else. I’ve been burned before on that one. Thankfully, this is worth a read.
It primarily follows Chrysabelle, a member of a special breed of humans known as the Comarre. Their blood is especially potent, making them ideal companions to vampires. Once their “blood rights” are claimed, a Comarre or Comar (for males) can only be released from their bond by their vampire patron’s will or if their patron dies. Crysabelle’s patron…dies, but it turns out he was murdered and it is looking like she is the culprit. That is certainly a no-no in their society, so Crysabelle goes on the run until she can figure out his murderer and clear her name. She runs into Malkom, a vampire who has remained far removed from their society. He has his own demons to fight and as they work together, they have to stop an even greater evil from gaining power that could destroy mankind and the vampire society alike.
I read this book coming off the heels of a super fast-paced series. I can say that the slower pace was welcome. It’s not too slow, but it’s just right to keep you from becoming bored. I can be easily annoyed by the female leads when it comes to urban fantasy series, but thankfully Crysabelle is a likable heroine and the Comarre society is interesting. I enjoyed the build up of tension between Crysabelle and Malkom and I expect that to continue through the other two books in the series. The supporting cast could be improved. There was one character I rather liked, but everyone else seemed more generic and disposable.
The biggest plus to this series is that each new installment is only one month apart, so there will be no significant waiting to see what happens next and no long-term commitment. It only gets 4 stars because it wasn’t super intense to the point of where it was hard to put the book down. The story is still pretty good though and because of that, I certainly plan to keep up with this one.
Spider’s Revenge - Elemental Assassin #5 - A novella of a story at a novel’s page length and price
The fifth Elemental Assassin entry aims to wrap up the long standing arc since Book 1. It’s Mab Monroe vs. Gin Blanco aka The Spider aka Genevieve Snow. It’s the final show down to prove once and for all who is the strongest. Mab is pulling out all stops to finish what she started 17 years ago while Gin’s not backing down to exact revenge that she’s been working towards since then herself. Who will win?
This series has so much potential, but I’m disappointed that things really didn’t get going until the half way point. Estep spends the first third of the book practically summarizing what’s happened in the previous books which annoys me to no end. It drastically affects my enjoyment of the book; this was the same pitfall for the previous installment. A pattern is now obvious.
Once you get over that, there are some moments and parallels that I saw coming from a mile away, but I still enjoyed them regardless. We learn back story about a couple of supporting characters and we get to see others characters finally in action and kicking some ass, which I liked as well.
I’m typically drawn to series that are primarily character-driven, so a lot of the time I will gloss over the action, but Elemental Assassin is one of the few where I really get into it. I read this series for the action moreso than the characters if I really think about it. The pace is just right, the intensity is there, and it’s not very confusing. I think it really helps that we’re in the mind of a stone cold killer. She’s not some innocent girl still finding herself and trying to react to the bad guy. Gin is genuinely a badass, so I do give the series props for that.
While the action is at an all time high, due to the continuous repitition, the predicability, and the over-explaining (Estep literally makes a page out of something that could be one sentence), I can’t ever give this series more than 3 stars until the author gets over those glaringly lazy attempts to fill pages. It needs more substance. Period. The first couple of books are exceptions for obvious reasons. But at this point, each new installment is essentially a novella of a story at the price of a novel.
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