Tagged: masquerade tours
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.
Book Blast: The Bird of Prey by Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba
It all started with a simple case… or was it?
Publication Date: September 25, 2015
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Harbinger by Lee French and Erik Kort
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Adjusting to her new life as a soul-bound agent of the Fallen has Chavali pushing herself harder than ever before. Between learning to fight, dealing with idiots, and climbing stairs – lots of stairs – she has little time to waste on thoughts of the future. Or the past.
When another agent fails to report in, Chavali is sent on the mission to discover her fate. Ready or not, she saddles up for a new adventure with new dangers.
The search takes her to Ket, a coastal city slathered in mystery. There, she faces ghosts from her past and demons of her future as she seeks answers. All she seems to find are more questions.
Plague, murder, lies, espionage…this city harbors much more than meets the eye, and maybe too much to handle.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the only real things that disappointed me in the last book was that we never explored the origins of the Fallen. I was expecting French and Kort to go into their mysterious origins a little bit but that never really happened, unfortunately. Their world-building was just as good as it was when they wrote the first book, but in some ways Harbinger brings up more questions than it answers. Still, I could really appreciate the time and effort they both put into fleshing out the city of Ket, where all of the main action takes place.
In the first book Chavali went through huge changes as a character. She does that here in book two but not to the same degree, really. What’s interesting is that with Harris she learns mercy and with Colby she learns that not everything is black and white and seeing the world that way can be a significant hindrance. And what was far more interesting to me personally was the way she interacted with people, helping them with their problems in an honest sort of way and caring about someone besides herself. That’s definitely a marked difference from The Fallen. She’s no saint, but I did love the way her character developed so naturally throughout the book.
The best and sometimes worst part of Harbinger is the plot. It’s the best thing because it’s much more complex and fast-paced than that of the previous book. It’s also the ‘worst’ thing because sometimes it’s too complex and there are far too many new names brought up without sufficient backstory. That’s not necessarily a major thing because it doesn’t detract from the overarching goal (find Elise and find out why she died) but it does make things more than a little confusing at some points, especially when you get everyone’s spies involved in the group’s business. I would have liked for either a little more fleshing out of each character or just fewer minor characters just to keep the plot straight.
Still, I did enjoy Harbinger on the whole. I loved Erik Kort and Lee French’s world and their world-building. Their major characters were much more fleshed out this time around and Chavali really is turning into a different person as one of the Fallen. My only real complaints were the lack of new backstory discovered and the introduction of too many minor characters without really fleshing them out. But the question is: will I be reading the third book? Of course because I want to see what happens to Chavali and the gang; I’ve come to care for them as characters.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Fallen by Lee French and Erik Kort
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
For hundreds of years, the Blaukenev clan has wandered across Tilzam, from one end to the other and back. Each wagon carries history, love, laughter, pain, sorrow, and secrets. Their greatest secret of all may be Chavali, the clan Seer.
Spirits claim/use/save/damn her.
With her gift/curse, nothing surprises her anymore, no one keeps secrets from her. She, on the other hand, has more than enough secrets to keep. Secrets of her own, secrets of her clan, secrets of the world, secrets she even keeps from herself.
There are always people who want secrets.
Some will do anything to get what they want.The Fallen is the foundation of the story of The Greatest Sin, of a world adrift from its God that desperately wants Her back. Chavali’s comfortable, predictable life will be ripped apart and burnt to ashes as she’s forced into the middle of that struggle. Change, she hates it passionately. It hates her right back.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things that surprised me the most about French and Kort’s world is how vivid it is. Even though we only see a limited bit of it through Chavali, the rich lore of The Greatest Sin as well as the obviously well thought out traditions of Chavali’s people all combine to make it a wonderful fantasy world. I personally would have liked to learn way more about the other countries and the Fallen themselves, but I think that’s for another book entirely. Still, both authors reveal enough about the world that you feel curious about it, but not lost. And that way there’s no huge info-dump right at the beginning; instead there’s a natural learning curve as the book goes on.
The characters were nothing stellar, but they were fairly good. Chavali can be temperamental and rude but I can sort of understand why when people keep touching her and passing on their thoughts without her permission. Especially when those people are particularly repugnant or are like Keino and want things that she can’t and won’t give. Still, Chavali was a very sympathetic character and when you consider just how much she changes from pampered seer to member of the Fallen, you realize she is fairly easy to relate to. Haven’t we all lost some arrogance at one point in our lives?
I can’t reveal too much about the plot without giving away some pretty important spoilers, but let me just say that while it’s not predictable, it’s not completely unpredictable. There are familiar tropes that will allow you to predict what happens next but at the same time, French and Kort mixed things up a bit by introducing the Fallen and revealing more about Chavali’s tribe. So while it’s not an on the edge of your seat plot, it is interesting enough that I wanted to read it in one session. All in all? I’d have to say that The Fallen was pretty good and I can’t wait to start on Harbinger tonight.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Flirting With Fire by Tara Quan
(Cover picture courtesy of Tara Quan’s site.)
Apprentice witch Catalina Gato is prohibited from assuming her human form in front of her new employer without his express permission. Since he doesn’t know he’s a warlock, he can’t give it, leaving her in a familiar’s limbo. To make matters worse, she’s barred from leaving his house, and her attempts to enlighten him of his true nature results in burnt notes, charred walls, and exploding laptops.
On All Hallows’ Eve, she gets one night of freedom. Deciding some no-strings-attached sex might take the edge off the intense attraction she feels for her clueless boss, she signs up for Madame Eve’s service. When she meets her masked mystery date at the Castillo Capital, she realizes she might have gotten much more than she bargained for.
After being gifted a one-night stand from his annoying best friend, attorney Leo Difuoco reluctantly ventures to the Castillo Capital to celebrate Halloween. When he meets his oddly familiar green-eyed date in a Cat Woman costume, flames literally ignite, sparks magically fly, and life as he knows it changes forever.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
Having read Tara Quan’s Operation Owl, I expected Flirting with Fire to be a semi-serious romantic novel. That’s pretty much just what I got with this second book of hers that I’ve read but for some reason I just liked it much more than Operation Owl.
Maybe it was the fact that both characters are much better fleshed out, even though the book seems shorter. Leonardo is a kind of sloppy bachelor who can’t see things under his own nose, but you get the feeling that his heart’s in the right place. Why else would he care for the cat his crazy grandmother left him? Cat, on the other hand, is a much more vivid character in my mind. She’s stuck in the form of (you guessed it) a cat because she was a familiar to Leonardo’s grandmother and now Leonardo, who doesn’t believe in magic, is in control of her contract without knowing it. So she’s stuck as a cat when she goes out of the house on every night but one: Halloween.
Since this is kind of a romance, you can pretty much guess how the story goes from there when both Leonardo and Cat go out on the same night. Still, Tara Quan does a good job of building up a reasonable amount of suspense by ratcheting up the tension within both characters as well as creating some tension between the two when they meet. And of course, when the romance part finally seems to happen, there’s still the question of Cat’s contract and whether Leonardo is willing to open up his mind and believe her.
The best thing about this book is that it’s emotionally satisfying. There’s no Insta-Love, but rather an instant connection of some sort that in some situations obviously can lead to a one-night stand. So that’s more than believable given the circumstances both characters are in at the time. And by the end, you get the feeling that not only has the main conflict been resolved satisfactorily but that you can guess at what happens next to some degree. It makes for a much better ending than the usual drive off into the sunset with these sorts of things.
So if you’re looking for a good book that’s also fairly light reading with plenty of romance, Flirting With Fire would be a great place to start.
I give this book 4/5 stars.