Showing posts with label Jeaniene Frost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeaniene Frost. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

A Sweet Return Trip to One of My Favorite Worlds…

July 25, 2017 0 Comments








First Drop of Crimson tells the story of Denise MacGregor and Spade two characters introduced in the Night Huntress series. Both are close with Cat and Bones, the couple at the heart of the series.  In this story, Denise is recovering from events that cost her a husband and has sworn to stay away from the vampire world. This is impossible as she is targeted by a demon and Spade, a vampire is called in to assist. Both have decided not to tell Cat or Bones about Denise’s peril and are forced to work together to save her life.



The Good:



Denise and Spade have some heat. Denise is rightfully terrified by her situation and still able to evade Spade for most of the book. This scenario offers a fun cat (no pun intended) and mouse game between them.  And when they come together, the pages sizzle.



Spade is charming and enjoyable even though his plan for how he will spend his life with Denise is a bit short sighted.  I listened to this audiobook using OverDrive from my local library and enjoyed the voice actor tremendously. She also read the Night Huntress series and provided enough distinction that I could identify Spade without confusing him for Bones. This is a rare talent as they are both British born vampires.



The Not So Good



Spade’s back story is tragic, but it takes too long to find out the whole story about his previous human lover. I had to wait for almost to end of the book for all the details.  Also, at times the pacing felt a bit too slow and the antagonist in the story wasn’t convincing enough for me. He kept giving Denise chance after chance to find who he was looking for instead of following through on his threats against her family. I like a good villain with real consequences for the main characters. The slow pace forced me to try harder to pay attention to the details of the story.



The Verdict






I really loved the Night Huntress series and am a fan of the author. It was a treat to visit a world that fascinated me for months. While it wasn’t as incredible as Cat and Bones’ story, it was a solid novel.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Disappointed in June

June 23, 2017 0 Comments


Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost Review

Let me start by saying that, I love Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress Series which is the reason I chose to read her YA venture The Beautiful Ashes.

The Night Huntress Series was my favorite new series a couple of years ago and I was incredibly impressed by the author’s ability to create two incredibly strong characters who fit together despite their differences. The cast of characters she brought into their world was so strong that the series was able to live on through several spin off books even after retiring the two characters I loved: Cat and Bones.



Summary (Minus as many spoilers as possible)

The Beautiful Ashes protagonists are Ivy and Adrian, two characters who are complete strangers at the beginning of the book. They along with their supernatural acquaintance Zach and a small team, band together to rescue Ivy’s sister Jasmine who has gone missing. The adventure takes them through several demon realms and there’s a biblical twist that provides an obstacle to both characters while pushing them together to complete the rescue.



The Good

The setting of the books and its background were a great basis for the story. I enjoyed and applauded the author’s use of biblical details to ground the characters and their adventures. I liked that both characters are descendants from two of the most well-known people in the bible pitting them as historical enemies even as they have to work together to accomplish a greater goal. All the ingredients are there for this to be an amazing book.

The Not So Good

My biggest issues what that readers have to wait until the end of the book to find out what Ivy’s role in this novel really is. I had to read almost 400 pages to get to the part that really matters. Second, the characters were not well conceived. Ivy often behaved like a child instead of the young adult college student that she is. She is whiny and even when she showed some strength there is a tinge of weakness that didn’t feel authentic. She was not likeable and halfway through the book I couldn’t stand her. Third, I have a real issue with unnecessary violence between the characters we are supposed to be routing for. Adrian practically choked Ivy out to get her to accomplish a task and the author tried to justify his reaction by using his childhood as an excuse. Not cool. Fourth, I think you get the point. This book should have been good but it wasn’t.

The Verdict.



I’m not happy. I didn’t like the book and wouldn’t bother reading the others in the series. I wanted to like it so much but as I’ve been told you can’t always get what you want.

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