Blood Blossom by Daryl Hajek

Blood Blossom by Daryl Hajek(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

After having been separated for twenty-two years, Vivian wants to reestablish ties with her younger sister, Christine. Instead, she is met with hostility and resistance. Christine wants one thing and one thing only—revenge. Fueled by rage and having a sadistic sense of humor, Christine will stop at nothing to go after their mysterious mother, Rose. No one better stand in Christine’s way—or else!

Julia Windom, a wealthy woman with selfish motives, concocts plot after plot to ensure her personal goal is achieved.

They all become embroiled in a battle of wits to stay one step ahead of the other. Lives are further complicated in a whirlpool of diverse events as they occur at breakneck speed. Overwhelming crises develop, strengths and weaknesses are tested, truths overcome lies, and shocking secrets are revealed that could push some to the brink of insanity.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up in exchange for an honest review.]

Only one word can really adequately describe Blood Blossom: predictable.

The plot was so ridiculously predictable, especially in the beginning.  Spoiler alert, Julia Windom is Vivian and Christine’s long-lost mother who abandoned them twenty two years ago!  I had already guessed that by the blurb but even after you get past the beginning the plot is so predictable that it’s actually boring.  It shouldn’t be boring because the premise of the book is actually quite interesting.  However, that does not help the fact that Daryl Hajek always seems to go for plot ‘twists’ that you’ll find in pretty much every thriller novel.  So if you’ve ever read a thriller novel or even watched a movie in the genre you’re pretty much guaranteed to guess the ending.

While the characters were not absolutely terrible, they were severely under-developed.  Vivian could have been interesting because she’s a widow living alone coping with the loss of her husband and the fact that her mother was an absolutely terrible human being.  The problem is that she doesn’t seem to own a personality; all she does is react to events in ways that are the most convenient to the plot.  Christine absolutely should have been an interesting character if not a likeable one but she was just as boring as her drab sister.  She goes from the Queen’s English to cutesy four-year-old in just a couple of sentences of dialogue and acts like a total jerk only to make up with Vivian, who stupidly continues to forgive this high-strung, clearly unstable stranger just because she’s her sister.  And Rose herself?  Well, she’s just a cartoonish villain with no real motivations other than a vague ‘get everything I want’.  Even though we get to see many scenes from her point of view, we never actually feel like we get to know her at all.

The most painful aspect of Blood Blossom was the dialogue.  As I mentioned, some characters like Christine go from proper upper-class English to cutesy four-year-old in just a few sentences or pages.  But all of the characters have hugely unrealistic dialogue that exists solely to forward the plot.  That in itself would not be a bad thing if it wasn’t done in such an obvious way, stiff way in great big long speeches: “I admit that I am selfish and I will say that I had been robbed of the finer things in life, thanks to you-know-who.  I refer to you-know-who the way I do because I absolutely refuse to utter that ol’ dame’s name.”  I could understand if one character spoke that way as part of their characterization but every character does the same thing.  They will say something and state their reasons for saying it which is completely unrealistic.

Essentially, while the concept for Blood Blossom showed a lot of promise it certainly failed on its delivery.  It was incredibly predictable even though I don’t read many novels from that genre and the characters were under-developed.  Not only that, the dialogue was stiff to the point of being unreadable and the points of view were all so similar that I had to check the names several times to make sure I was thinking about the right characters.   Like I said, although it certainly showed potential I can’t in all honesty recommend it to anyone.

I give this book 1/5 stars.

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The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M. J. Rose

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M. J. Rose(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]

A while back in May 2014 I was on the blog tour for M. J. Rose’s book The Collector of Dying Breaths and I absolutely loved it.  The characters were fantastic, the writing was so beautiful it was hard to describe and the plot twisted and turned so much that I just had to keep reading.  Needless to say I had high expectations for this stand-alone novel The Witch of Painted Sorrows.

My high expectations were absolutely exceeded and this book is one of the rare cases where the cover is just as good as the actual content.  It gives away the atmosphere of the novel just wonderfully: beautiful but haunting.  It’s so rare that an author can keep that atmosphere up throughout the novel even if it’s only in the background during some scenes but M. J. Rose certainly managed to do that.  Throughout Sandrine’s journey we experience her hopes, her joys and her sorrows as her life in Paris goes from fairly regular to extraordinary.  I’m not generally a fan of Gothic novels in part because few authors can keep up the haunted atmosphere but Rose definitely did.  Through her beautifully descriptive writing I experienced everything from the bustling streets of Paris to the hidden corners of an ancient and seemingly cursed house.  I know I keep using the word beautiful to describe her writing, but there really is no other word that does it justice.  She’s able to evoke complex emotions in the simplest of phrases, to appeal to all your senses at once, particularly smell.  I can honestly say that I’ve never had an author describe things so vividly before.

Sandrine is a wonderful main character.  At first she’s a lonely woman escaping a loveless marriage and the knowledge that her father’s death was the fault of her hated husband.  She’s lived a life of immense privilege but has never really known happiness until she comes to Paris to reconnect with her grandmother, a famous courtesan.  When she meets her grandmother’s architect Julien and discovers that her grandmother intends to turn the Maison de la Lune into a mere tourist attraction, things start to get weird.  First she discovers that she’s actually attracted to Julien and possibly even loves him, something she’s never experienced before in her entire life.  Second, her grandmother starts acting weird when she learns that Sandrine is spending her time at La Lune’s house and tries to nip her growing attraction to Julien in the bud.  Then, when Sandrine discovers the secret room in the maison, the tension starts to ratchet up in ever increasing notches.  Throughout the novel Sandrine really grows as a character but when she discovers the secret of La Lune she really comes into her own, bucking society’s expectations of her spectacularly and asserting her independence.  But there’s of course a more sinister reason behind Sandrine’s personality change that starts to spiral out of control as Sandrine spends more and more time in the secret room with La Lune’s paintings.

Simply put, The Witch of Painted Sorrows is a book you’ll never really be able to put down until you finish it.  Not only does M. J. Rose know how to keep up the Gothic novel atmosphere, she also knows how to slowly introduce tension and gradually increase it until you’re unable to put the book down.  You’ll think to yourself: “one more chapter, just one more” and then it’ll be three in the morning and you’re just finishing the book twenty chapters later.  It’s incredibly hard to put down not only because her pacing is good and the suspense is constant but because the plot twists and turns quite spectacularly.  Just when you think you know what’s going to happen in the end, Rose puts another twist in the plot.  By the last few chapters I was fairly certain what the ending was going to be but the rest of the book was fairly unpredictable and I have to give her credit for that.

Basically, this novel will suck you in and not let you go until you’ve finished.  You’ll be drawn in by the suspense and the beautiful writing but it’s the fantastic and dynamic characters that will keep you reading on into the early morning hours.  It’s hard not to fall in love with a novel like this, that’s for sure.  And that’s also why I can’t recommend this book highly enough: if the blurb has in any way intrigued you, go and buy the book on March 17 of this year.  You won’t regret it.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Lazy Sundays: Revolutions Podcast

After Mike Duncan’s amazing podcast The History of Rome I was pretty disappointed.  It had been a great podcast that got me through a lot of boring days at work and on the weekends and I was sad to see it go.  At the same time, I was pretty eager to see what Mike Duncan was going to do next.  Enter Revolutions.

Revolutions is a podcast chronicling several different revolutions throughout world history.  It starts with the English Revolution and once that was done we moved on to the American Revolution.  Currently we’re on the insanely complicated French Revolution and I couldn’t be happier.  Mike Duncan makes history so accessible to the average person and although he gaffes sometimes, his research is very thorough and is usually spot-on.  He combines both humour and fact to make what I thought were boring events absolutely fascinating.  So every Sunday like today I eagerly await the newest episode of Revolutions.

If you like podcasts in general or you love history, I can’t recommend it enough.  It’s free on iTunes and he runs a sort of voluntary donation service where you can do a one time donation or a monthly donation in appreciation for his efforts.  It’s pretty cool and you can check it out on his official site.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be refreshing the Revolutions feed on iTunes every hour or so until the new episode comes out.

Discussion: Does Anyone Actually Watch Book Trailers?

I’m not trying to be my usual snarky self about this topic but I’m genuinely interested: do people actually watch the trailers for books?  It seems that every author and/or publisher releases them for their books but I really fail to see the point.  The ones I’ve seen had really poor production value and were essentially just readings of the book blurb (which I could have done myself much more quickly and without the cheesy graphics).  No doubt there are probably some ‘good’ book trailers out there but I really just don’t see the point.

I asked this question last year in a discussion and most people said they don’t watch book trailers but now that my audience is significantly bigger I want to pose the question to a wider audience.  It’s possible that I’m just missing the point.

So do you watch book trailers?  If so, could you link to an example of a good one?  If not, why?  If you’re an author, have you had a book trailer done and why or why not?  Did it help with marketing your book?

Curing Doctor Vincent by Renea Mason

Curing Doctor Vincent by Renea Mason(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

One kinky doctor + one indecent proposal = one life-changing week in Paris

Elaine Watkins, Public Relations Advisor, is surprised when she receives a summons from the very attractive and enigmatic Dr. Xavier Vincent. She worships the talented physician and company icon responsible for developing the cure that saved her sister’s life and isn’t immune to his charm. Even though puzzled by his request, she is excited and eager to get started on his latest project.

But Dr. Vincent has other ideas. Instead of discussing cures, drugs and marketing strategies, he asks Elaine to join him in Paris to indulge his unique sexual appetites.

Torn between gratitude for saving her sister, her attraction for the powerful man and compromising her pre-conceived notions of sexuality, she must decide if it’s easier to feed his desires or walk away. Until she devises a plan of her own.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up in exchange for an honest review.]

When I read erotica, I generally don’t review it because most of it isn’t really worth reviewing.  When I read Dr. Vincent I knew I’d have to do a review but my expectations were still very low.  I certainly didn’t expect to find anything resembling a story, let alone an interesting story with a decent plot, plot twists and realistic characters.

Elaine Watkins is a complicated woman.  She hasn’t had an easy life what with her sister nearly dying of cancer and her love life not exactly being great.  Elaine feels that she owes a great deal to Dr. Xavier for developing the cure that actually saved her sister’s life but that’s not really why she accepts his ethically questionable proposal.  (You do have to ignore the ethical dilemma of a client asking for an employee from the company he’s dealing with.)  She does it in part because of her attraction to the man but also out of curiosity because of her previously boring love life.  What she doesn’t expect is that throughout the week in Paris she actually begins to fall in love with the enigmatic yet damaged man.

This is where I was kind of surprised because Curing Doctor Vincent has a plot.  As Elaine begins to fall in love with Dr. Xavier she realizes that he has reasons for being very secretive about his childhood and his first marriage and that maybe he isn’t all that he appears to be.  No one is perfect and even an insanely rich and powerful man has his own insecurities.  I don’t want to give anything away but let’s just say that the good doctor’s first wife was far from the angel he makes her out to be.  Some of the plot twists surrounding his mysterious past and personality I saw coming but a lot of them were fairly unpredictable.

What impressed me the most was Renea Mason’s writing.  Some erotica just makes you laugh out loud with how cheesy it is even before you get to the sex scenes.  But Curing Doctor Vincent was surprisingly well-written.  I thought some of the secondary characters were just a little too perfect to believe but on the whole I never really had an “Are you kidding me?” moment.  The sex scenes were quite steamy and they were balanced out with the regular scenes where Elaine and Xavier’s attraction to each other grows as they spend time together touring Paris or just talking.  It was a perfect balance, really.

So while this wasn’t the greatest, most believable book I’ve ever read it was surprisingly good and I think Renea Mason definitely deserves credit for that.  If the blurb has intrigued you, go ahead and buy it!

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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*Not available.