Tag: book reviews

The Water Princess Claiming of Earth is the first book in the Elemental Chronicles by Gina Manis and it was my first ever reverse harem book. Oh My!

So where to begin…

Firstly, Gina Manis weaves an engaging story. There are strong folklore and fantasy components to her world-building; beautiful princess cursed to appear as a hag to others, ogres, magic, and so much more.  In many ways, this book is an adventure first and a romance second. It’s also a story told in first-person. I should pause here and say that I’m not a huge fan of the first-person perspective. I find that choosing that method of storytelling sometimes results in a choppy and abrupt feel to the sentences. But, that is a purely subjective reaction on my part and Manis’s prose and ability as a writer manages to rise above my personal objections.  

Because this is a no-spoiler review, let me say that Celine’s character was likable, capable, and more than just a little naive in her expectations of bonding with her three male rescuers. Managing one man’s ego is difficult enough, but three? Tate turns out to be an old love and is an earth element. Lindon is charming and seductive, a wind element. Brier is the seasoned warrior whose water element is broken. Then there’s Brown. Fairly soon I realized that Brown wasn’t what he appeared and by the end of the book I was rewarded in my suspicions. After all, in the world of magic there are four elements not just three.

I easily read this book in a day. By the end I was ready to download the second in the series, The Stolen Princess Taken by Fire. However, according to Amazon it is still on pre-order until January 21^st so I guess I’m stuck having to wait to find out what happens to Celine next.

If you like fantasy romance, you will enjoy The Water Princess.

Song of Smoke: A Dragon Shifter Romance is book 1 in Jillian James’s King’s Series.  It was independently published in August of 2018 both in paperback and Kindle formats and is a quick read for all you romance lovers out there. Honestly, I devoured this book. The characters were compelling, the writing was good, and I love dragon-shifter books. As for world-building, Jillian James does an excellent job of creating a universe that can sustain many more books.

This book’s beginning was dark and a little disturbing. Seda is living in an extremely abusive patriarchal society where women are property. Humans live most of their lives underground because of the war between humans and dragons but women find themselves thrown into the dungeon for the smallest offenses. Despite her circumstances, Seda comes across as a spunky, strong-willed heroine that I could immediately embrace.

Dederic is the insanely handsome and dangerous hero every dragon-shifter book should provide, and the chemistry between the two main characters was tangible in this slow-burn romance. There was one secondary character, Odin, that caught and held my attention. I hope James will return to him in a later book to give him a mate of his own.

There were the occasional spelling and typo errors but I’m beginning to accept this new reality in all published books whether self-published or traditionally published. Either way, the mistakes weren’t enough to slow down my reading or dampen my enjoyment.

All and all, I would highly recommend this series to any fantasy romance fan. Book 2 in this series, Whisper of Water, will be available January 19^th according to her website and I am looking forward to reading it.

Kulti

Kulti by Mariana Zapata wouldn’t have been a book I’d automatically pick up. Though it’s a contemporary romance, it’s also set in the world of women’s soccer which is something I don’t follow or have ever played as a kid. It’s a doorstop of a book. My copy was 560 pages long. I like long books, but in the romance genre it’s at least a hundred pages too long. The main character’s love interest is a retired legend of the sport, and he’s German. I’m sure there are plenty of friendly Germans in the world but I rode dressage for years. I’ve had several German coaches. They’re typically difficult as hell and demanding beyond words.

Mariana Zapata is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. This book has 1, 193 reviews on Amazon. The majority of readers like this book. So despite my very personal issues, I dug in and tackled my book club’s choice.

It wasn’t awful. As a matter of fact, mostly…it was quite nice. The writing was good; the internal dialogue funny.

The pacing of the romance was slow to the point of painful, which is a problem that I can’t ignore since this is supposed to be a romance first and a sports novel second. Two hundred pages in I couldn’t help but think, what the hell? Why didn’t her editor bother to rein in this author? I sighed, rolled my eyes, and then reminded myself that this is a bestselling author. That should mean something. Yes? There must be a big payoff coming. Hopefully. And then, I’d start reading again.

Sal, the main soccer-playing character, is in her late twenties. Despite being a leader, focused and driven to excel in her sport, and arguably the best player on her team, her reaction to Reiner Kulti is extraordinarily adolescent. I’m sure this might be endearing to some readers but not to me. I’ve been a tomboy all my life; horses, basketball, golf, cycling. I understand being competitive, giving your all, and hating to lose. Teenage crush or no crush, being a female athlete doesn’t automatically make you socially awkward.

What was far more endearing was her panic attacks around cameras. That sort of character flaw was palatable because it doesn’t play to stereotypes. Who doesn’t get nervous when a microphone is shoved in their face?

The very German Kulti, a David Beckham styled character, is not likable at the beginning of the book. As a matter of fact, he’s not all that likable for most of the book. That’s mainly because Zapata only sticks to Sal’s immature point of view. At the very end of this book, there’s a payoff of sorts. It’s not a huge payoff, but I can now understand why the single point of view was done.

Here are my final thoughts… If you like feel-good books or movies about sports, then Kulti is for you. If you are looking for your next steamy read-in-a-day romance, this book is a hard pass.

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I plan to leave this review on Goodreads.com. For other book reviews scroll down the Chalkboard.

Broken Promises

Broken Promises by Quell T. Fox is a paranormal romance and the first in a trilogy. It is written in first person, which is something that I don’t usually enjoy but after reading the book I realized that this story couldn’t have been told any other way. There are flashback/memory vignettes that are more impactful with the first-person point of view. The writing flows easily and once I’d started the book, I didn’t want to put it down until I’d finished it. It took me a day to read. With that said, I did stumble across several mistakes that could have been caught with another pass by a proofreader or by having Microsoft Word read the book aloud, but the mistakes weren’t jarring or frequent enough to set the book aside.

Broken Promises deals with love and time, favorite themes of mine. Asha’s character is introduced as a serial leaver. She leaves relationships and people as easily as she abandons places. She has always felt like she’s searching for something—but she doesn’t know what, where, or who that may be. This is a classic the heroine doesn’t know who or what she is book. Andrew is Asha’s drool-worthy boyfriend at the beginning of the book. She knows she’ll eventually leave despite moving to Rhode Island with him, the hot sex, and his sweet nature. She just isn’t normal and she knows it.

After arriving at Andrew’s family home, unusual things immediately start to occur. Eventually, the reader is clued in that much of the phenomenon is Jacob trying to find her. This book would have fallen into the love triangle troupe except that both Asha and the reader are already aware that she’s going to leave Andrew regardless of the unusual future Jacob is offering.

Be prepared to dwell over Quell’s explanation of what immortalites are and how they come to be. It can get a bit confusing but if you absorb that bit of information then you’ll probably want to read the rest of the series once book two and three are released. Also keep in mind that this a trilogy. Being a romance, the reader is going to get a happy-ish ending, choices will be made but Asha’s story-arc will not be wrapped-up in a tight bow and that might leave some readers unsatisfied.

To learn more about Quell T. Fox and her other books, check out her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/632201927243401/

Reluctant Guardian

Elisha Bugg’s Reluctant Guardian (The Otherworld Guardians) is the first book in what will be an interesting paranormal romance series. For those readers who love to find themselves immersed in a world of shifters, demons, witches, and vampires this book’s cover and blurb promises everything you would ever want. Thane Marrok, a wolf shifter, is deliciously dark and brooding. The heroine, Anya Shaw, doesn’t understand her past or why she’s drawn to Thane. And the universe the author builds for the reader is a world in which Guardians like Thane must protect themselves and others like them from a society of human hunters.

I eagerly jumped into this book and was hooked by the end of the first chapter. The dialogue between characters is well written and the description of each character was intriguing enough to keep me reading. However, as an indie author myself, I began to notice issues that had nothing to do with the quality of the story—the formatting of the ebook was one issue. Perhaps this isn’t a problem with the paperback, so I kept reading. (And it’s an easy fix if the author uses the kindle formatter provided by Amazon’s publishing company.)

Because this is a no-spoiler review, I can tell you that the author kept the pacing of the book brisk, giving the reader just enough world-building information to set each scene. She also treated the introduction of new characters in the same manner. As a reader, I appreciated that. But because Elisha Bugg is clearly not an American author, she thinks nothing of using British slang in her writing. And I’m usually okay with that! The only time the slang jarred me from the story was when she used the word floor for ground—when the characters were clearly outside.  

So, with the formatting issues and slang aside, Reluctant Guardian was a fair introductory book. It can be easily read in a weekend. The slowly developing romance between Anya and Thane was maddening enough to make me want to finish the book. And the plot and character’s histories were tight, so by the end of the book, everyone got a happy ending, reader included.

This review was posted on Amazon and Goodreads.com. If you would like to learn more about Elisha Bugg, check out her website.

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