REVIEW: Grime and Punishment by Z.A. Maxfield

Grime and Punishment by Z.A. Maxfield
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Beyond the premise of crime scene cleaners nothing appealed to me, including the smut. I couldn’t connect with the couple. I wished both men did more to work out their personal issues instead of wallowing in guilt, pity, and all that woe-is-me crap.

Both men never really recognized that their friends with benefits did them more harm than good, that they were trying to replace true intimacy with meaningless sex. When the growing relationship between Jack and Ryan took a turn for the physical, I thought they were rushing it and repeating the same mistakes they made with their friends with benefits. (Speaking on a tangent, I did not fail to notice how gracefully the story sidestepped cheating, my biggest pet peeve, by establishing Dave and Kevin as Jack and Ryan’s respective friends with benefits instead of boyfriends as I was initially led to believe quickly after Jack and Ryan kissed in chapter 10. Noticed and was amused.)

I understood Jack’s tragic past with Nick was his private business, but when Jack got involved with Ryan, Nick’s cousin, who looked similar to Nick, he should have told Ryan as early as possible. Awfully predictable that the revelation was made the climax and against Jack’s consent. The plot strained itself to construct the revelation as that big obstacle that the couple must overcome to achieve their HEA.

On the bright side, the issue resolved itself quickly and Dave, a secondary character, was redeemed if only by a few inches. I didn’t like Dave because dude was a repressed detective and had his own issues, and I didn’t care for those issues to mix with the bucketful of others that were the couple’s. I was thankful that at the end Dave gave Jack the long-needed bitch slap of reality (figuratively of course although I would’ve been more thankful it was literally).

The only things I liked about the book was the pushy friends who were justifiably pushy and the cat that was forced upon Jack. Gabe seemed to be the only one in the bunch who was well-adjusted and Kim... well, not sure about the well-adjusted because she “referred to herself as ‘Token Chick’ and talked in the third person” (chapter 7), but I thought it was quirky and I liked it. I wished the two secondary characters had more page time. They would have livened up the wearisome somber mood the book had going.

In Conclusion

I rate Grime and Punishment 2-stars for it was okay. It was a nice read, but it was not to my taste. Had the line of communication been open and the characters not dancing with velleity, the book could have been reduced to half as a novella and better off for it.

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REVIEW: Incarnation by Emma Cornwall

Incarnation by Emma Cornwall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Nice read but lacked oomph.

+ the goods

The reasons the book was a good read was because of the elegant mixing of elements, the diverse characters, and the strong heroine. The incorporation of the King Arthur legend surprised me. This was the first time I read a Dracula fanfiction where Dracula and Mordred were the same character and one of the good guys. I liked how that the good guys also included Bram Stoker and Queen Victoria. They unexpectedly played a significant role, along with the Prime Minister, towards the end in a simulacrum of an all-stars cast much to my delight.

Lucy impressed me the most (as she rightfully should have being that she was the heroine). She could have easily been typecasted as a Delicate Lady (swooning optional) because she woke up with amnesia and as a vampire against her wishes. I liked that despite her perplexed state of mind her wits remained intact and that she was capable of defending herself.

In regard to the villains, I liked how they encompassed both bad vampires and bad humans. On one extreme, you had vampires who believed in the superiority of their existence and that it was time for humans to know their place. On the other extreme, you had humans who believed vampires had been a necessary evil as a national defense which was no longer necessary and should erode away with the past. The extremes brought a strong sense of realism to the historical Urban Fantasy.

+ the bads

Where the book fell short was the writing, Lucy’s mystique, the Dr. Frankenstein-inspired villain, and the unnecessary loose ends. The writing was verbose and often tested my patience. I didn’t care for the heavy somber mood the book affected throughout the story. I get that the book was based on Dracula which required a certain mood but the book took the mood too far for my liking. The heavy somber mood rubbed raw against the action scenes.

The book regularly mentioned that Lucy could end the vampire race but never specified as to how, much to my annoyance. The characters took the prophecy more seriously than it merited. The things the book did bother to specific were Lucy’s vampiric abilities but never to the depth that I desired. While she had advantages that most vampires didn’t, she was no more indestructible as the rest of the undead rank. The book tried rather too hard and clumsily to portray Lucy as the Chosen One.

One of the characters who opposed Lucy was typecasted as the mad scientist with no other intellect of a character to compensate. Though the book didn’t make pursuit of science a bad thing, it certainly didn’t make it as a good thing either.

The loose ends slightly irritated me. One of the villains escaped when there were many opportunities to eliminate him. I wished Lucy showed some bloodthirst and kicked his ass to hell. I didn’t understand why at the very least no one thought to imprison him once they discovered his evil; the oversight amounted to a plot hole. Another loose end was the romance between Lucy and Marco. An optimistic part of me believed they would eventually work out their issues but things could easily fall on the breakup side, and I prefer certainty. I was displeased with the fact that the ending was intentionally left ajar for a potential sequel when everything could have neatly resolved with a HEA and have the book be a stand-alone.

In Conclusion

I rate Incarnation 2-stars for it was okay. It was an interesting read and devoid of big annoyances if nothing else.

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REVIEW: Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Amy Fecteau

Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Amy Fecteau
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book bored me silly. I thought with a satire title the book would be funny. It wasn’t. Oh, there was one joke at Twilight’s expense but it was more of a nod to the title than of a true attempt at humor. Other than that, the book had nothing that could be deemed funny whatsoever. The book was 90% filler, 10% plot, and I’m being lenient.

+ the characters

Matheus was whiny and reckless. He never persisted in seeking answers as he should have. Many questions should have been answered on the spot for the sake of the plot. Those answers would have educated him, and more importantly, the reader. They would have explained what the fuck that was going on and why was with the danger Quin repeatedly seemed to voluntarily put himself in with Matheus rashly chasing after him as if both had a death wish. I hated how despite his attraction to Quin he kept insisting that he was not gay and that being gay is all right but he’s not gay. The dude protested too much. Nobody was fooled.

Quin humored Matheus too much. He acted too mellow and patient with Matheus’s crap to be convincing as an antediluvian master vampire. I wished he took more care to discipline Matheus because the dude needed it, if not for Matheus than for me and my patience. However, what I truly took issue was his reticence. Quin was not a silent person but rarely did he ever say things that mattered, things that revealed his motives for all the seemingly random actions that he did. I never learned why he turned Matheus and claimed him as his soul mate.

+ the plot

There were a lot of things that I never learned that the book should have told me. Dialogues were rarely meaningful. In the rare occasions that they were and gave long-desired answers, they didn’t have the impact on the characters that they should have. “Oh, my ex-girlfriend/childhood friend was a werewolf all along? Okey dokey. Let’s return to chatting about meaningless shit.” Virtually everything, from the dialogue to the action, was delivered in a deadpan way.

The plot lacked that pull that keeps a reader reading. The reasons I finished the book at all were because of my unreasonable distaste to leave a book unfinished and my obligation to review the book. Not until the last third of the book did the plot finally seemed like it was going in a direction instead of wandering around like a bored kid. On the rising action part of the plot, readers learn a war was being waged between vampires and vampires-hating humans, something so incredibly important it should have been declared immediately in the beginning.

What was worse was that it was not until the last minute did the relationship between Matheus and Quin made an inch of progress. I knew this book was not a mm-romance, but FFS. I couldn’t believe it took so long for Matheus to even consider accepting his feelings for Quin. I couldn’t believe Quin never made a move and communicated his feelings towards Matheus. It was cliché how it took something seriously dangerous, with both men on the edge of life and true death, for them to open up to one another.

Equally bad was the fact that the ending was left open. The villains weren’t defeated, just eluded. Nothing was resolved. Nothing.

In Conclusion

I rate Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle 2-stars for it was okay but only because I was bored and not actively annoyed. Though the writing was competent, the storytelling was crap. The book was a pointless time-suck. Do not recommend.

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REVIEW: Hunted by Kevin Hearne

Hunted by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 6 of the series was one big chase scene, extravagant and exhilarating! The book immediately picked up from book 5’s cliffhanger (book 5's review) and with a twist of events mercilessly hurled a major death. Literally running for their lives, the heroes couldn’t afford the luxury of grief. They couldn’t even afford a long moment to rest because life-threatening obstacles arose with each passing chapter.

+ the plot, the chase

In addition to Diana and Artemis, goddesses of the hunt, hunting them, the heroes had to contend with the various opportunistic villains that wanted in on the “Kill Atticus” action. Before the heroes knew it, the chase became like a modern gladiator event where Europe was the amphitheatre and gods of various pantheons were the audience. And just to make sure no room was left for the suspense to falter, the heroes still had to figure who in the Celtic pantheon, Atticus’s pantheon, was the traitor doing the evil masterminding, trying to kill Atticus and company. Figuring out the traitor’s identity was not something that could be saved for later because the traitor was helping the villains gain an upper hand. Last but not certainly not the least was the rare appearance made by Loki, a crazy god, as he tried to herald Ragnarok, a.k.a. the end of the world.

In sum, shit hit the fan BIG TIME. The book couldn’t stress enough the fact that the heroes were running and fighting for their lives, where one mistake or a surprise in the form of a trap or an ambush could cost them their lives... and it did because the book mercilessly hurled another major death! Despite the deaths and the countless life-threatening obstacles, the characters rose to the challenge much to my joy.

+ the characters

Atticus was at his cunning best. How he recovered from setbacks thrilled me! His dog, Oberon, was funny half of the time which was more than I could hope because he bugged me in previous books. One of my favorite scenes included Oberon when he tried to sniff a ghost’s dog butt. A ghost dog’s butt! Hahaha! Granuaile, well, I still sneered at the romance between Atticus and her but not as much as before in book 5. I liked that she managed to keep up with Atticus and grew some more as a character.

As for the secondary characters, Morrigan’s confession confirmed my hunch that there was a thing between her and Atticus. I was sad but happy how things ended with her even though I still thought she made a better match for Atticus than Granuaile. Odin surprised me when I learned he was Atticus’ ally, helping Atticus and company survive the chase. I appreciated the bonus novella, Two Ravens and One Crow, that took place between book 4 and 5 and explained how the alliance with Odin arose.

+ the plot, the conspiracy

Once the climax ended and things, for the most part, were resolved with the petty deities, I was happy with how Atticus didn’t take the time to rest but continued with his investigation of the traitor’s identity and the conspiracy. Unfortunately, the revelation turned not to be much of a revelation, and more questions were raised to my impatience and annoyance. I was disappointed in Atticus when he forwent the opportunity to ask a friendly Celtic god for confirmation that the person he ferried to the afterlife was actually the person who Atticus saw dead in the evil lair. This inaction turned what was supposed to be a revelation into a full blown red herring. Whether the traitor was dead or alive, or even real or not, I didn’t know. The only thing that book 6 confirmed for me was that the conspiracy had multiple participants, not just one, and that the agenda went beyond the scope of just killing Atticus and company.

Though the plot made great progress on the unraveling of the conspiracy, the progress was not enough for my satisfaction. On the silver lining side, substantial progress was made on the small plot line to eliminate the evil vampires.

In Conclusion

I rate Hunted 3-stars for I liked it. My blood rushed, my heart pounded, my brain was numbed. Needless to say book 6 was epic and one of the best in the series. Though the ending had no cliffhanger, the impulse to read the sequel was as equally strong as if there was one. At the very end, the book introduced new allies, one of which was a game changer.

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REVIEW: Mist by Susan Krinard

Mist by Susan Krinard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book started off strong but then slid downhill towards the middle and never climbed back up. By the end, things were a mess.

+ the characters

Mist was a strong heroine. She didn’t blindly follow the gods, her superiors, and thought for herself. She moved on with her life, finding new reasons to live in a world that didn’t require her service as a Valkyrie anymore and a belief in magic would institutionalize a person. When confronted with dangers that should have been dead with the past she quickly accepted her new reality, which was actually old since the peace turned out to be nothing but a long interlude and the end of the world has yet to happen. Best of all, she asked questions that should have been asked and took nothing at face value.

Unfortunately, what ruined my liking for the heroine was the many bad decisions she made and how she took issue with things she didn’t have the luxury to take. For someone who moved on and left her warrior ways behind, to be specific didn’t improve herself as a warrior and her magic anymore, she was too bold to the point of foolishness in her confrontation of the bad guys. Only by luck and the strained help of other paranormals and the fact that the villains were equally ill-prepared and partaking hubris did Mist prevail in her battles. I wished her quick acceptance of new things extended to her hidden divine heritage and abilities because in lieu of her rusty warrior skills and the dearth of comrades, her super magic was virtually the only advantage she had.

Dainn, Mist’s love interest, was worse than Mist. I didn’t care for his POV. While the things said in his introspection confirmed my hunches and provided elucidation, they didn’t compensate for melodrama that peppered his thinking. Dude was such an emo. The romance between Dainn and Mist was ham-fisted and unpersuasive.

If Dainn’s POV was bad and unnecessary, Loki’s POV was the worst and definitely unnecessary. Loki was a big reason why I didn’t like the book. He fell short — way short — of my expectation as the main villain, his characterization an amateur attempt of an evil mastermind. The scenes told in his POV were nothing more than evil-doing masturbation (figuratively of course, although...). I understood that he use sex as a weapon, but I hated how he tried to seduce Freya, Mist, and Dainn to point that he became a one-trick pony. Not to mention the fucked up love web. Honestly, was there anyone who he hadn’t try to seduce? Dude wasn’t an evil mastermind, he was an outright douchebag whose dick did most of the thinking.

Last but not least were Ryan and Gabi, magically talented homeless kids who Mist saved and incidentally became their guardian. I didn’t like the kids because they were so pitiful, serving little purpose beyond being cannon fodder.

+ the plot

Some of the scenes were a tad too lengthy. The biggest offenders were the smack talking scenes between Loki and the heroes, which were too long and too awkward to believe. I didn’t need to a single brain cell to realize that those dreadful scenes were nothing more than a clumsy “showing, not telling” approach to avoid info-dumping.

The climax was where the plot hit rock bottom as Dainn confronted Loki by himself and relied on the pure chance that his inner beast of a curse would be powerful enough to defeat Loki. *facepalm* Of course, Mist wouldn’t accept that so she tried to crash the event only and predictably to be taken hostage because girl was worse prepared than Dainn and barely a competent warrior. She too relied on on the pure chance that her super magic would be powerful enough to defeat Loki. *double facepalm*

Just when it seemed things couldn’t be worse, it got worse when the story mentioned, this time with a little more depth, Ragnarok and how the war was a game between Freya and Loki. A game? This was a game the gods were playing? Really? Why the fuck was this important shit of information heavily glossed over the in the near beginning when it was first mentioned? Bad enough there was a plot hole immediately in the beginning, in the prologue, when no reasons were given for why the Valkyries and their fellow Norse never stayed in contact with each other whatsoever when common sense dictated that they should have.

In Conclusion

I rated Mist 2-stars for it was okay. Everything from the characters to the plot to the world building were poorly developed. To readers who plan to pick up the series, I strongly recommend borrowing over buying it. If you want to read something like Mist, an exclusively Norse-mythology based Urban Fantasy, but as a better book, I recommend Norse Code.

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REVIEW: The Ability by M.M. Vaughan

The Ability by M.M. Vaughan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book was a mildly enjoyable read despite the sadness that rained throughout the first quarter of the book.

+ the characters

As a denizen of La La Land, I didn’t like the sad beginning. Chris was forced to shoulder adult responsibilities because his father was dead and his mother was in perpetual depression because of it. My heart bled as I watched him steal money for food. Even the primary villains, Dulcia and her twin sons, were sympathetic, with Dulcia’s childhood ruined, betrayed by her incompetent allies who failed to rescue her, and her twin sons adopted for the sole purpose of carrying out her vengeance against her ex-allies, though maybe not Mortimer, one of the twins, who delighted in cruelty. Anyway, Dulcia was so sympathetic that I actually wanted her to succeed.

I didn’t sympathize with the other villains but I still took issue. Even though they were only disposable villains I didn’t like how they were portrayed as a caricature because it made the characters silly and the writing juvenile. Mean adults were mean.

The nice adults were no better. While they were not caricatures, their characterization fell flat. The book practically grouped all the adult characters as naughty or nice. It didn’t help that some of them were incompetent and should have done better. For example, Dulcia acted too recklessly at the end carrying out the final stage of her vengeance for someone who prided herself on patience and meticulousness, who wanted success at any cost. Ron and John, as guards, acted more like people fresh out of military training than people who had twelves years in special forces and who served as personal bodyguards to the Queen of England.

As for Sir Bentley, he was nice and competent but even he managed to disappoint me in a scene near the end (chapter 17) and quite severely. I took exception with how clueless he was regarding the severity of Chris’ home problems and his harsher-than-necessary reprimand of Chris’ AWOL. I couldn’t believe the old dude specifically reprimand Chris for using his Ability to avoid paying for his taxi rides when he knew Chris didn’t have the money. First, it was hugely insensitive in regard to Chris’ home problems. Second, Chris only did it because he was desperate to keep his promise to a good person and be honorable, which deserved some admiration. Took integrity too far, what the fuck does that even mean? Third, in comparison to the other issues at hand such as selected people being killed and how Chris could have been killed it was trivial. Fourth, Sir Bentley was a leader of a spy agency, one that recruited and used kids to do secret government things that put them in danger and ordered them to do not particularly ethical things in pursuit of the greater good. He was not in a firm position to judge, especially so harshly. It was awfully hypocritical. I felt so bad for Chris that I wanted to hug him for an hour and so mad at Sir Bentley that I wanted to bitchslap the old dude so hard that he would feel the pain for at least 24 hours. That scene completely turned me off from Sir Bentley for the rest of the book and spoiled any affection the character might have earned from me.

The adolescent characters, on the other hand, were convincing in their roles and my favorite characters. My only gripe with the kids, the students of Myers Holt, barring Chris, was that I wish they were more mature. I wished they showed the seriousness their circumstance greatly deserved and approached their missions with more care. I realized it a Middle Grade book, that of course the kids would act like kids, but I have read many books with mature adolescents that I am too comfortable with a certain level of maturity to make big concessions for the characters’ age.

It’s not a gripe but I also wished there was more focus on the students, which showed how much I loved these kids. I got to know Chris well but only because he was the protagonist. I wanted to know more about Daisy, Philip, Lexi, Rex, and Sebastian. I appreciated that the bunch, including Chris, at least showed some character growth, especially Rex who thankfully was not typecast as the class bully. I really liked that Chris discovered courage and self-esteem and how he strived to keep his promises.

+ the plot

The pace was brisk, partly because the story was told in alternating multiple third person POV with Chris’ POV as the predominant POV. When events with Chris started to wind down, the story switched POV to keep the pace brisk. I really liked the date that prefaced each chapter because it kept order and prevented confusion in the plot.

The ending, I didn’t care for its bittersweet tone, with Chris briefly returning home to his pitiable mother and its sudden melodrama with Ernest ridiculously swearing vengeance against Chris. How did Ernest even manage to carry a dead body and escape an area full of guards and Ability-using kids? Melodramatic and contrived. The book overextended itself to leave a loose end for a sequel.

In Conclusion

I rate The Ability 3-stars for I liked it. The book had issues but it was a good, solid read. I really liked the eponymous magic and its mind map where thoughts and memories and the likes assumed the construction of a city. I thought it was creative and reminded me a bit of a more straightforward, less confusing version of the movie Inception.

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REVIEW: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu

The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

That awkward moment when you enjoyed the book but hated the hero and wished he would drop dead, preferably within the first chapter he was introduced. OMFG, the whiny dipshit was insufferable. I understand characters need to have flaws or else they’re not believable, but at some point there is such a thing as too many flaws to the point that it is UNBELIEVABLE that the character is still ALIVE. Roen was the classic definition of TSTL. TSTL, I say!

“OMG. Gun shoots and kills people. OMG. This alien war is for serious. OMG. I don’t know my reasons for fighting because I’m too slow to realize that I’m fighting to save humanity from eternal enslavement under the bad aliens. I need to take a break and go discover myself while my comrades are risking their lives everyday to keep another day safe for humanity.” *facedesk* Roen never attained the large amount of character growth I expected from him. At the end, he still needed his alien-in-his-head buddy Tao to play cheerleader for him in the confrontation against the big bad guy. *glares*

Equally ridiculous was how the weak ass went from being incapable of talking to girls to attracting the romantic interest of two gorgeous, competent ladies. The love triangle between Sonya and and Jill made me want to flip a table. I’m all for wish-fulfillment in books but not for a pathetic excuse of a hero who doesn’t deserve it. While I understood their reasons for liking Roen, these ladies could have done sooooo much better, someone who wouldn’t predictably put their life in danger because the dipshit wasn’t thinking. Speaking of Jill, it was very odd that for such an important character she rarely made a physical appearance in the story. Anyway, I was grateful that at least the story was told in multiple POV and not exclusively from Roen’s.

The only reason I was still invested in the book was because of the aliens. The world building went like this: aliens crashed-landed on Earth, stranded and without resources to return home; aliens used humans as hosts because apparently their technology isn’t advanced enough to live without one (but somehow faster than lightspeed travel and immortality is); aliens split into two factions because one prefer to watch over humans like divine guardians and one prefer to rule over them like the inferior creatures they are à la global domination, Prophus vs. Genjix respectively. While the world building explained a lot about the aliens’ origin and motives, it didn’t develop the alien culture. It practically swept the alien culture under the rug as, “well the aliens have been here a long time, so it is reasonable that would they take on human characteristics,” which is plausible but a couple steps short of convincing. As far the world building was concerned, the bad guys were essentially an evil corporation, one that just happened to have evil aliens as the overlords who didn’t really act much like aliens.

The thing that I liked about the bad aliens was how ruthlessly they acted. I wished Tao emulated that ruthlessness, at the very least in regard to make Roen a hero because if there was ever a person who needed tough love Roen was it. The only reason I liked Tao because most of his scenes that were told in his POV were flashbacks to ancient times when he traveled around in East Asia and possessed historical figures. The history lessons with an alien twist were interesting.

In Conclusion

I rate The Lives of Tao 2-stars for it was okay. The low-rating is all Roen’s fault.

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REVIEW: Charming by Elliott James

Charming by Elliott James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I almost rated the book a 2-stars had the positives not outweighed the negatives.

+ the world building

Info-dumping thrived like weeds, and my patience neared bottom level after a couple chapters. Yet, because the info-dumping was relevant and interesting and didn’t interfere with the action scenes, it didn’t become as big an issue for me as it could have easily been. Astoundingly, the plot kept to a brisk pace.

I really liked how the book didn’t stick to a particular Western mythology for its world building, that it went beyond to include Eastern elements. The deft mixing of diverse elements in its world building, from a naga to being one of the characters to the villains using Vietnamese guerrilla warfare à la Viet Cong, reminded me of the great world building in the Kate Daniel series, one of my favorite Urban Fantasies.

+ the characters

I also liked how diverse the characters were, considering the fact that they were sketched from cliches. For example, Parth was the token geek character. What made him beyond a cliche was the fact that he was a naga, one of the most dangerous paranormal creatures, and thus powerful in his own right. I always hate it when geek characters are made stereotypically weak. Molly was the token priest character suffering a crisis of faith. What made her beyond a cliche was how she was a woman Christian priest who despite the crisis her faith remained strong and an effective weapon against vampires as she tried to work through her issues by kicking paranormal evils’ ass. I loved how she pretty much defied the stereotype of an intolerant, chauvinistic, kill-all-the-nonhumans-(and humans sympathizing with nonhumans) priest.

Molly’s character compensated for the fact that among the villains were the knights who were these fanatic bigots who hate and wish to kill all paranormals no matter the cost, the “who gives a shit if a great number of innocent humans die in the process, it’s for the greater good, let God sort them out” kind of cost. Though the sides were black and white, which usually tugs on my suspension of disbelief, the development of the bad guys made them believable. In other words, it took no effort for me to believe in the bad guys.

One thing that did tug my suspension of disbelief and tugged hard was the character development of the hero, John Charming. Because of his very tragic, frequently detailed past, the guy was supposed to have major trust issues and major aversion to forming social ties. Yet the way he acted throughout the story was completely to the contrary. He didn’t leave town the moment other paranormals were aware of him, he didn’t leave town the moment Sig and her friends found out about his true identity because practically everyone who found out tried to kill him. He fell for Sig despite the last time that he was in love the romance ended on a tragic note with his fiancé dead. He made friends with some of Sig’s comrades despite the multitude of past betrayals he suffered and how anyone that ever got close to him lived an unexpectedly short life, and the list goes on.

Fortunately, what saved the character for me was his foresight, his strong abilities and success in battles, the fact that he thought things through and thought cleverly, and most importantly, the fact that he confronted his issues head on. I really liked how he openly communicated his thoughts and feelings, especially when they were in regard to Sig, his love interest. I was amused by how some of Sig’s comrades recognized their coupling was inevitable and not-so-subtly matchmade the two, never mind the obstacle that was her ex-boyfriend (It’s Complicated) who wanted her back. The fourth wall was pierced to send a message: lookee here, strong male lead *points to John*, strong female lead *points to Sig*, now get together and kiss *shove the two heads face-to-face*. The self-deprecating romance mixed in well with the save-the-town-from-evil-vampires plot and was far from being angsty as I feared.

The evil vampires were admirably cunning. I loved that vampire queen wanna-be was so cunning, using modern day technology to recruit and avoid detection and putting in the infrastructure for an empire, that the good guys had to think quick and well and do a lot of planning to take down the mad girl. I was delighted that both the villains and heroes were competent, especially with the heroes and their planning because it is rare in Urban Fantasy that heroes plan things out. Irritatingly, way more often than not, Urban Fantasy heroes react to shit as it hits the fan and have to run a good long distance before they catch up with the villains.

In regard to the villains, the thing that anchored the book into “like” territory was its theme of “Monsters versus Humans, oh wait, turns out the Humans are Monsters too,” that it was not what the characters were that mattered but the fact that the evils they did were evils of human provenance. I love it when books dissect the idea of what it means to be human and point out the fact that human and good can be mutually exclusive aspects.

In Conclusion

I rate Charming 3-stars for I liked it. I had issues with the world building and the hero but they had enough good things to win me over.

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REVIEW: Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The heroine’s character development was superb, but the world building was subpar.

+ the world building

The world building failed to respect the book’s central theme of history and ultimately its setting as an alternative reality. No explanation was offered for how all nations united as one civilization. Neither was an explanation offered for how people suddenly stopped being religious despite the brief but incredibly jarring sentence about how physicists found proof for creationism simply just to explain the single OMG a secondary character uttered in chapter 5.

As far the world building was concerned, events that led up to the present time, world peace magically happened, and then a third world war leading to the rise and fall of a “Second Roman Empire” which completely ignored the Third Rome controversy and suggested poor research, assuming any, in the writing process. The sad thing is that the book could have simply avoided all the aforementioned issues if it took place in a completely fictional world, albeit inspired by real world settings, instead of an alternate reality.

I also took issue with the idolization of the Military and their ambiguous position in a non-existent political structure. The world building failed to develop the idea of a government. It also failed to convince me that when people left Earth for better planets, ones that didn’t suffer increasing solar storms, they didn’t make backups of humanity’s knowledge and assumed the Earth’s Internet and other various networks were infallible, an assumption that made no sense due to Earth’s increasing solar storms. How convenient it was that during Earth’s exodus, the emigrants left time capsules, a.k.a. stasis boxes, behind because it was trendy, time capsules that would later be excavated for humanity’s lost knowledge.

Finally, I didn’t like the prudish angle the world building worked sometimes. I didn’t care for the equating of polyamory to promiscuity in the form of Jarra’s two Betan classmates. It was bizarre how the slang for ass was “legs” and worse that for a while, due to the lack of proper context clues, I thought a leg fetish was the fashion. Equally bizarre was the “Twoing.” I still don’t know whether Twoing is an engagement or some sort odd official declaration to the government that a couple is dating.

+ the heroine

Thankfully, the prudish angle tapered off when reasons for Jarra’s two Betan classmates’ matriculation were revealed and Jarra, the heroine, realized the errors, among many, of her judgement.

I loved Jarra. She was supposed to be this flawed character, I think, intended for the reader to warm up to but I liked her from the get-go. I thought her anger was justified, and I fully supported her plan to show the norms up. What started out as a plan of vengeance quickly became a case of character growth as Jarra slowly dismantled her prejudice and came to like and trust the people she previously resented. I loved how she finally summoned the necessary courage to face her abandonment issues, the source of her anger.

The only time I didn’t like to read about Jarra was when she suffered a breakdown in the last third of the book and didn’t snap out of it for a couple chapters, a good chunk of the book. It was also the time I wished the story didn’t stick to an exclusive 1st person POV, Jarra’s POV. Jarra’s breakdown was completely understandable but it was hard to read, so much so that I skimmed. It was the only time I skimmed in the book.

I really liked how her love interest stuck by her, that when Jarra pushed back in fear of rejection, he didn’t let her. Though bland in the personality department, Fian was a nice guy through and through, and it was refreshing and delightful to read about a love interest who didn’t act rudely to gain the heroine’s attention. Jarra may have made a poor decision in selecting her first boyfriend, but with Fian as her second boyfriend she certainly learned her from mistakes. Also, no love triangle — hell yes!

The extent of her character growth amazed me, caught me off guard quite frankly, because that amount usually demands a couple of books in a series. Jarra amazed me so much that she (and a very satisfactory ending) more than compensated for all the issues I had against the book for its splotchy world building which at the very least was conveyed elegantly, i.e. no info-dumping.

In Conclusion

I rate Earth Girl 4-stars for I really liked it. The fact that it’s book 1 in a series surprises me because the book tightly wrapped up all the loose ends. I am excited to return to the world, but with trepidation that the sequels might tarnish book 1 (which given my experience is not as uncommon an occurrence as I’d like it to be). Earth Girl set the expectation very high.

I definitely recommend the book for readers looking for a focused YA science fiction with a flawed but strong heroine with a reservation: ignore the fact that the setting is an alternative reality.

Buddy read and discussion with Georgina.

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REVIEW: Data Runner Data Runner by Sam A. Patel

Data Runner by Sam A. Patel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hipsters versus evil corporations and their hired thugs. The book read like an action movie but without the plot holes and indigestible contrivances.

+ the characters

The good guys were a bit full of themselves. Parkour was cool. Community was cool. Staying in school and going to college, cool. Hacking and beating the man, guess what? Cool, too. (They never used the word “cool” but the sentiment was apparent.) While I liked that the characters had passion and goals, they went a bit overboard with the enthusiasm. It was a step short of indoctrination. Yes, I get it. Y’all are hipsters. Fortunately, enthusiasm eased up after a few chapters once the plot got going and the characters had no time to extol their interests.

I liked Jack. He was smart, earnest, and decisive, completely worthy of his role as the protagonist. However, I wish Jack was smarter in carrying a gun or some other weapon after he accepted a job that he fully knew was dangerous. Case in point, the news frequently reported that there was a guy was chasing after data runners and chopping off their arms. Hell, I didn’t understand why practically none of the data runners were armed. At least carry some smoke bombs or something. I knew their raison d'être was to run, run, run but they had to have realized that running would not always be an option. What started as an oversight on the protagonist’s part soon became an oversight of the world building. The concept of data runners could have been more developed.

Red Tail was another data runner and Jack’s love interest. I really liked that the romance appeared late at the end and was a minor, almost trivial plot line because it would have distracted the plot and interfered with the characters’ priorities. I also liked how Red Tail never played the role of a damsel in distress for a second, and in fact she played the role of Jack’s rescuer and reluctant mentor. Red Tail was such a kickass heroine that the book could have easily been told in her POV.

Martin was a secondary character and Jack’s father. At first I didn’t like that Jack called his dad by his first name, but I quickly understood why even though the book, which was told in Jack’s 1st person POV, never pointed it out. Martin did not act like a proper father to say the least. What kind of a father gambles away the family’s savings and then silently accepts that his kid has to work a dangerous job to pay off his debts and pretty much shoulder all adult responsibilities? Martin should have known the game was rigged and was a trap given the fact that the gang accepted his admission to the game so easily knowing he was a card counter. The revelations made towards the end explained Martin’s fatherly incompetence, but instead of making his fatherly incompetence understandable they made me think worse of Martin.

The only character that were worse than Martin were the bad guys who were complete stereotypes. They came into two groups: thugs and evil corporate suits.

+ the world building

I didn’t take issue with how black and white the world building was, but I was disappointed by it because the book could have done better, a lot better. For example, practically making all corporations evil, greedy, and bent on world domination, I kid you not the book actually said it, was shallow and gratuitous. Sorting people as good or bad, making it into “either with us or with them” matter, as if each person, especially the “bad guys,” don’t have their own values, simplified the social issues too much to be taken seriously. While I got the points the book made, e.g. fraking is bad, I believe those points would have been sharper if the world building showed some care for the complexity of the issues it raised.

In Conclusion

I rate Data Runner 3-stars for I liked it. As a book that raise social issues, it failed to present complexity, but as a book that entertains, it succeeded. I was also thrilled by the greater than average amount of science fiction elements.

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