Review: No Proper Lady (Englefield, #1) by Isabel Cooper

I am disappointed. I generally love the combination of Historical Romance and Urban Fantasy, so I was excited to read No Proper Lady. I also love time travel, so that just added to my excitement. Unfortunately, the paranormal and sci-fi elements are lacking and as a Romance, it's simply boring.

Joan is from a Post-Apocalyptic future where demons have taken over and destroyed much of civilization. She's been sent back in time to stop the wizard responsible for unleashing the demons to save her world at her own expense. There she immediately meets Simon who is acquainted to this evil mastermind and wants his own revenge. This all sounds fun and exciting, but it wasn't.

There's a six week time jump, which I assume is just Joan's "training" in etiquette and the like. But after that...still nothing. It's boring. Joan is attempting to seduce this wizard, which seemed to take no effort at all. In the meantime, we're constantly told how aroused Simon is by Joan. Their first sexual encounter was brought on by an aphrodisiac that the evil wizard slipped into Joan's drink for no apparent reason (he didn't even make a move on her, just sent her home). It just wasn't good.

No Proper Lady's only interesting character was Simon's younger sister, Ellie. She's the reason for Simon's revenge. This evil wizard had summoned a demon who then possessed Ellie's body! That is screwed up. She's now dealing with the aftermath of that, and I wanted to know more about her.

No Proper Lady had all the makings of an excellent hybrid novel, but it fell short on all elements. The lovers are boring. The relationship took too long to get going and then wasn't believable. The bad guy was also boring and defeated easily. The ending was beyond cheesy.

Review: Fire & Heist by Sarah Beth Durst

Dragons, fire, and heists! Oh my! Fire & Heist is a fun, quick adventure starring Sky, a wyvern (or were-dragon). Her family has been recently ostracized after her mother disappeared, and something just doesn't seem right about it. So Sky takes it upon to herself to finish what her mom started, hopefully finding her, and restoring her family's status at the same time. However, it's hard to pull off the ultimate dragon heist when you can't turn into a dragon or breathe fire.

The plot of Fire & Heist is super straight forward. There's no surprise twists or out of left field challenges. Sky discovers what heist her mom was trying to pull off, attempts herself, also fails, but ultimately overcomes and sets things right. I had a lot of fun reading it, because it's just light and adventurous. Nothing too serious or heavy. The idea of gold loving dragons trapped in human bodies was pretty silly and cute (gold toilet handles!).

However, the world-building was a bit confusing and felt incomplete. Sky's family is suppose to be super rich and in the public eye. They're in tabloids, and are I guess kind of celebrities. Does this mean that humans know about wyverns? I didn't get that impression, since Sky's friend Gabriela wasn't suppose to know about her. But it's also mentioned that wyverns donate money to many causes, so perhaps they're like an open secret? I don't know. It wasn't clear how "out" they are.

The other thing that confused me was the heists, which is the main point of the story. Wyverns are suppose to steal gold to grow their hoards, but they don't steal from humans. Just from each other. How does that work? Do they all just take turns breaking into their neighbors' vault? What's the reason for them stealing from each other? Other than just loving gold. It was really weird how normal this was with no explanation.

Other than the questionable dragon lore, I enjoyed Fire & Heist. I would have liked to have known more about the wyvern's social structure, but Sky's heist was exciting and kept my interest.

Review: Odd One Out by Nic Stone

I love love triangles, so I was definitely looking forward to Odd One Out's bisexual love triangle! Jupiter and Courtney have been friends forever. Courtney wants more, but Jupiter is a lesbian. Then Rae moves to town and Jupiter is immediately smitten, but Rae starts falling for Courtney. Clearly, this is going to be a big mess.

Messy is the best way I can describe Odd One Out, and mostly not in a good way. I was certainly intrigued, but everything felt so disjointed. It's almost as if there were three totally separate stories happening here and they got throw into a blender. There's the actual love triangle, which wound up rubbing me the wrong way. Then there's Courtney and Rae's quest which was super weird, but I was oddly into it. That didn't get enough attention though. Finally, there's Jupiter's struggle with her sexuality.

I did not like how Courtney was basically just waiting for Jupiter to reciprocate his feelings. I definitely believed he had feelings for her, but it was kind of gross how he just could not get the fact that she was a lesbian through his head. Of course, this comes into question when Jupiter starts questioning her sexuality. The ending basically felt like straight boy wish fulfillment.

As for Courtney and Rae's relationship, it started out rocky, but then they bond over their childhood hero, Carnival Carl who mysteriously disappeared one day. A day that is etched in both of their memories forever, since that's the same day Courtney lost his father and Rae's mom left. They want to find out what happened to him to find some kind of closure. This could have been its own book with a fun mystery and possibly some high emotions. Instead, it felt kind of thrown in to get these two close to each other and isolate Jupiter.

The last third of the book is focused on Jupiter and her coming to terms with her feelings for Rae and Courtney, and her sexuality in general. This was interesting, but a lot of it felt forced. There is this problem with people assuming lesbians just haven't found the right guy yet, and this is brought up, but it felt like it was mentioned so that it wouldn't look like that's what's happening with Jupiter and Courtney. He didn't "turn" her. It was just very jumbled and like the author was trying really hard to make sure that the reader doesn't think this. That could have been accomplished by spending more time with Jupiter's emotions and confusion over what she was doing with her best friend.

In the end, Odd One Out just didn't work for me. The themes and premise are excellent, but it wasn't pulled together.

Review: Blended by Sharon M. Draper

I was super excited to discover Blended, because I knew I was going to be able to relate to Isabella. We both have a Black father and white mother, so what does that make us? Isabella has never really thought about her race or what she identifies as until her parents divorce. She notices that she gets odd looks when she's with just her mom, but not with her dad. Then the subject of racial discrimination comes up at school and she wonders if the world sees her as Black or white.

Blended deals with some seriously heavy topics, which surprised me. It's not that I didn't think kids know about this stuff, but I don't know. It just surprised me. After a class discussion, a student puts a noose in Isabella's best friend's locker. A situation which scared everyone and raised a ton of questions. Then something happens to Isabella and her stepbrother toward the end of the book.

I am torn on the ending though. Something super traumatic happens which I never saw coming. But then, everyone goes home and life goes on. That's all well and good, because I do love a happy ending. However, this was huge! There needed to be some kind of after math, discussions, something! There was more time given to the incident which happened with Imani at school.

If the ending had been a bit more fleshed out, this would have easily been a 5-star read for me. It's relatable, eye opening, and relevant in today's world. I'd highly recommend it to everyone.

Review: Parts & Wreck (Parts Department, #1) by Mark Henry

Parts & Wreck is another book where I didn't remember anything that I just read after putting it down. It's a good thing I take some notes for my reviews, because this book is utterly forgettable. Wade is a self-proclaimed playboy; women just can't resist him! I can't see why though, except he's super hot or something. Anyway, he hires Luce as his new assistant, and of course she's another one of those women who can't resist him, except that she does.

There's one very annoying thing about Parts & Wreck: the jokes. I struggle with humor to begin with, but I can normally tell when something is meant to be funny. The jokes here are all sex based, mostly about prostitutes, because apparently sex work is hilarious. Also roofies.They weren't funny and seemed more there for shock value? I don't know. It just wasn't funny at all and it bothered me.

The plot of Parts & Wreck is also pretty darn slow, which is unusually for the Paranormal genre. We don't even know exactly what Wade's job is until about a quarter of the way in, and then nothing plot related happened until...well, ever, honestly. I couldn't even tell you what the plot was suppose to be outside of the budding romance between Wade and Luce. Something about demons and surgery and prostitutes, probably.

Parts & Wreck was simply not my jam. Maybe dudes with raunchy humor, who remove organs from possessed people, is your jam. But don't forget the roofie jokes. Those shouldn't appeal to anyone.

Review: Touch of the Wolf by Vella Munn

Touch of the Wolf had me a bit nervous in the beginning because I wasn't sure if what I was reading was stereotypes or realities. So I did some research. The author is, in fact, a white woman who has a passion for Native American history due to her love of nature. Okay then. That caused me to lean more toward the uncomfortable end of the spectrum, even though it sounds like she probably had done some research. I don't know though. I just know that Jay's brother is an alcoholic and his uncle wears feathers in his hair and communes with eagles. And there's this overarching theme of the "uncooperative Native" since none of the Hoh people wanted anthropologists stomping all over their land. I'm not Native American, so I can't actually speak on any of this, but it all seemed questionable.

What I can comment on is that Jay's brother's alcoholism did wind up being used a plot devise. Winter's professor who was murdered while studying the land admits to hoping to find a Native with a weakness he could exploit. Well, that was Floyd, who he bribed with alcohol to get information and ancient relics. That is disgusting. It's certainly portrayed as being an awful thing to do, but I could have done without that part entirely.

Also, Touch of the Wolf is not the Paranormal Romance that it's marketed to me. There was a brief moment that was reminiscent of The Mask. Winter receives the illegal, ancient artifact, which is a wolf mask. She promptly puts it on, and whoa. Visions and she hears a wolf cry (to the blue corn moon), and then Jay tells her about Wolf. Wolf is totally real and a spirit in the forest. That is not paranormal. Kissing in the forest where a spirit wolf lives does not equal Paranormal Romance. It's just a poorly done Contemporary Romance that attempts to use Native American culture.

Clearly, I did not enjoy Touch of the Wolf at all. Even the big reveal at the end irritated me. The villain spent three chapters monologuing a non-explanation for the murders, which gave the rescue party plenty of time to arrive. On top of what I already discussed, the romance was boring and the sex was cringe-worthy. I don't think "her sex juices bathed his penis" is sexy in the slightest. It sounds messy. Like the rest of this book.

Review: Reforming the Cowboy by Marisa Cleveland

Reforming the Cowboy is another "reforming" Romance where there is no reforming. Billy is a washed-up Country singer who's been out of the spotlight for a decade. He's trying to make a comeback, and his first bit of exposure is a weekend gig for the grand opening of Lacey's Cafe. The owner, Lacey, had a crush on Billy when he was still touring, so needless to say, she's quite happy to meet him. Of course, the two start up a whirlwind romance, but when Billy starts getting more opportunities, can they make it work?

One of my least favorite Romance endings is when someone gives up their dream in order to be in the relationship. Reforming the Cowboy almost has this moment, but I was still annoyed because Lacey was more than willing to do it! She spends nearly 200 pages saying how her cafe is her dream and her life and she's going to make it work. But after a week she's ready to move out of state to be with Billy when he says that they don't have to be long-distance? I don't think so! Luckily, the man had a plan that did not involve her closing up her week-old business.

I knew Reforming the Cowboy wasn't going to be my jam, but for different reasons. I actually enjoyed most of it, but toward the end, Lacey just drove me bananas. I had actually been pleasantly surprised at how normal their relationship was going, and then it all went down hill when Lacey purposely misinterpreted Billy's lyrics, didn't even listen to the entire song, and chose to listen to his clearly jealously unhinged ex-girlfriend. All before being too willing to give up her dream for him. Sorry, but no.

Review: Operation Saving Daniel (Melville Sisters, #1) by Nina Croft

For being a Paranormal Romance, Operation Saving Daniel was pretty light on the "paranormal." I mean, Daniel is a werewolf and the ultimate showdown was between him and his pack leader. But most of the build up was Lissa trying to seduce him away from his awful fiancee, and Daniel pretending to be this emotionless robot.

Ten years ago, Lissa and Daniel had one special night together before she ran off. Now, she's back and hopes to get him out of her system for good. I'm not sure how seeing him again after so long is suppose to accomplish that, but okay. The man she finds is certainly not the same one she left a decade ago, but she can tell that something about him isn't right. Meanwhile, Daniel is caught in an engagement of convenience (or so he says) with an awful woman, but he really has no say in the matter if he wants his sisters to live. Of course, all of this is backed by the fact that Daniel and his fake fiancee are werewolves, but the plot could have been exactly the same if they were human.

Once the paranormal elements of Operation Saving Daniel kicked in, it was nearly over. All of the excitement in crammed into the last quarter-or-so, and one of the big bad wolves is killed off the page! That was majorly unsatisfying. At least Lissa and Daniel got their happily ever after...

Review: The Cinderella Seduction (Suddenly Cinderella, #3) by Hope C. Tarr

 The Cinderella Seduction is the best of the three, but it still wasn't totally my thing. I'm not big on the devoted single dad and loving wannabe stepmom type Romance. Stefanie is the "ugly duckling" of her family, so she gives herself a makeover in hopes of seducing Nikolaos. He's coming from Greece to possible take over their family business if Stefani's father can't pay his debts. When he arrives, Stefani turns on the charm, but she winds up being the one seduced.

I liked The Cinderella Seduction. I'm always up for an underdog coming out on top, especially when that's a plump woman stepping into her confidence and getting her man. Which is exactly what Stefani does. Nick is a reformed playboy who's just trying to do right by his young daughter, which means no more dating around. He needs a stable relationship. Of course, there has to be a fight because Nick finds out that Stefani was plotting to seduce him. But being the gentleman that he is, he does check in on her rather than disappearing for a length a time before returning.

The Cinderella Seduction was short and sweet. A bit too sweet and family-oriented for my liking, but still an enjoyable read. I just wish there had been more food since Stefani is a chef.

Review: The Cinderella Makeover (Suddenly Cinderella, #2) by Hope C. Tarr

The Cinderella Makeover was giving me The Swan flashbacks. Anyone remember that horrible show? Well, the show in this book wasn't as extreme, but the main them was still there: you're ugly and unlovable without the proper makeover! Greg is known as the "camera-shy CEO" but then he signs up for this reality show where he'll receive a makeover and win a chance at love. One of the coaches is Francesca, who failed to get his photo for a magazine spread, so she's a bit miffed at having to work with him again. But then a bet with a rival coach drives them closer together.

The Cinderella Makeover was definitely better than its predecessor, but still not great. Greg and Francesca are certainly more likeable, and the only part that really got on my nerves was the inevitable fight near the end. It was cute to see Francesca help Greg come out of his shell to help him win the competition (and her wager). He's a classic geek to chic fairy tale! But when he finds out about the bet, he understandable doesn't take it well. However, the bet was that he would WIN. Francesca was helping him WIN. He wanted to WIN. She wanted to WIN. What's the problem. He claims it's because she lied to him, but she didn't. It was just drama for the sake of drama.

In the end, The Cinderella Makeover was quick and cute. Nothing special or particularly memorable.

Review: Operation Cinderella (Suddenly Cinderella, #1) by Hope C. Tarr

Operation Cinderella simply rubbed me the wrong way. It's an opposites attract, nemesis to lovers Romance. Although Ross doesn't know that they're opposites or nemeses, since Macie is undercover to write an expose on him for her magazine after he trashed one of her articles. He's ultra conservative and has some serious issues with teenage sex, and teenage girls in general, so he wants a live-in housekeeper/nanny for his daughter who will uphold his old school values. Macie is anything but old school, but she fakes it to get into his life. Needless to say, her plan fails and they fall in love and live happily every after.

My main issue with Operation Cinderella was Ross himself, and not just because he's a Republican--he actually wins a Republican of the year award, ew. He hires a woman to be a role model for his fifteen year old daughter. As far as I could tell, the only thing the girl did wrong was wear too much makeup, have a few piercings, and wear ripped jeans. Otherwise, she's a normal teenage girl. Later into things, Ross is lamenting about being an awful father because he forgot to pick her up and she wound up in a car accident. Then five minutes later he whisks Macie away to have sex because his daughter probably isn't going to wake up anytime soon. THEN, Macie reveals her issues with sex, and his response is basically that she just hasn't had sex with him (and it works). Gross.

Review: Temptation by Fire by Tiffany Allee

Temptation by Fire is a largely forgettable Paranormal Romantic Suspense novel. It has an exciting premise: physic tries to save a man's life after seeing his gruesome death only to be sucked into a world where demons are real, and the hunters are sexy! Ava has always considered her visions a curse, but it's what brings her to Karson, a demon hunter out for revenge. This is all well and good, but I could not keep my mind on this story for some reason.

Every time I sat Temptation by Fire down and picked it back up, I had forgotten what I had read. Nothing would stick. I just was not interested in these characters. Karson was pretty flat for me. All he wanted to do was exorcise demons and kill the one that murdered his entire family. And have sex with Ava.

Ava was just all over the place. First she sees a man die by fire and warns Karson since he was with the man at the time. Karson explains that what she saw was a demon, but she gets it into her dead that Karson is the demon when she walks in on him trying to expel the demon from the man's body. But then she wants to help, so she goes on an "undercover" date with the demon and then freaks out because something is "off" about him. No duh! He's a demon! I was so frustrated with her!

Of course, in the end, good triumphs over evil. I couldn't begin to explain to you how Ava and Karson beat the demons, because like I said, it's totally forgettable it. I can tell you that Temptation by Fire does have the requisite happy ending though. I just didn't care.

Review: Reforming the Playboy (Passion Creek, #1) by Inara Scott

Reforming the Playboy is a second-chance romance between Kira and Max, who fell in love during college, but then she left him one night with just a note. Five years later, Max is an internationally known artist, and Kira is back in her hometown where she had been taking care of her sick aunt. Now, Aunt Polly is dead, and her will has some questionable yet specific terms which require Max and Kira to come face to face for the first time in years. Neither are happy about it, and the reunion certainly doesn't go as either of them planned.

I enjoyed Reforming the Playboy. It has a bit of my favorite trope--stranded together! Of course, it's been snowing, so Max is forced to stay in town longer than he anticipates. He also "has" to stay with Kira for a bit, because of course he does. It's all part of his plan for revenge though! But we all know how that goes. This man is far too emotional to seduce and dump his true love. As soon as he's inside her, it's over. He's gone. Not to say that they don't have some drama, because they do. It's more like all of the words they left unsaid in college come exploding out, and they have to figure out how to put the past behind them.

Reforming the Playboy is less about reforming a playboy and more of comforting the tortured artist. Max was heartbroken, has an estranged family, and was in a car accident that left him completely uninspired. Being back with his teenage love sparks something inside him, which gets his career back on track. He also helps Kira with her own artistic fears. In the end, it's a pretty standard small town, second-chance romance with a side of angst.

Review: Ill Wind (Weather Warden, #1) by Rachel Caine.

Ill Wind is another book that's been sitting on my TBR for nearly a decade, and I probably would have enjoyed it more back then. I still enjoyed it, especially at the end, but it feels dated and I've certainly read better Urban Fantasy. This one is unique though in that it does lean heavily on meteorology. And I am a sucker for combining Science with the Paranormal.

Joanne is a weather warden. She controls air and water, which essentially means that she controls the weather. Other wardens can control earth or fire. When we meet Joanne she's being chased by a storm and we have no idea why. She's looking for some guy named Lewis and again, we don't know why. In fact, we don't find out anything in regards to the plot until about 2/3 in. Which is only three chapters, since they're all 70+ pages each.

The majority of this book is flashbacks and most of them aren't even relevant to what's happening now. We get Joanne's dating history from her first kiss to losing her virginity. We're told all about her parents' divorce, her mom's new man, and a trip to Disney World. Yet, we still don't know why Joanne is running, why she killed a man, and why she thinks this other man can save her.

The plot does deal with an interesting twist on demon possession. I liked that a lot, once it was actually discussed. There's also Djinn which are pretty interesting, and they're actually the only reason I'm interested in reading the next book. I think now that all of the world set up is out of the way, and we know Jo, the sequel should actually focus on plot. At least, I hope so.

Review: Dearly Departed (Gone With the Respiration, #1) by Lia Habel

This has been on my to-read for way too long, and I'm so glad that I finally read it. It felt oddly timely, since the world has been mostly destroyed by a virus and other natural catastrophe. Civilization has rebuilt in South America, and has fallen back to Victorian times. But with zombies and technology.

There are five narrators here, which always makes me suspicious. It usually means that someone is going to die or that they're a mole. I'm not saying that this is what happens, but, lots of perspectives. Captain Wolfe only has two short chapters, and they're nonessential. Nora's not really dead father has a handful of chapters as well, but those easily could have been a recap saved for when he was rescued near the end. It also would have allowed for a good plot twist of revealing he's alive 300 pages in rather than 30 pages.

Our main characters are Nora and Bram. Bram kidnaps Nora to save her from being kidnapped by someone even worse. And he is one of the undead who retained their personality and brain functions. She's the daughter of the scientist who has been working on a vaccine for the Lazarus virus. Our secondary character, Pamela, is Nora's best friend who's stuck at home during a zombie invasion and allows us to see what's going on in the real world while Nora is being held with the zombie army.

This book is 470 pages, which is quite long for a YA novel, but I was never bored. Oddly, it took be nearly 2/3 of the book to even realize that nothing important had been happening. I was just enjoying it so much! The relationship between Nora and Bram and the other "good" zombies reminded me of that Disney Channel movie, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S. It was just fun, despite all of the violence and gore. A very strange combination, but it worked.

Ultimately, I just really enjoyed Dearly Departed. I normally don't like Steampunk, and zombies tend to be hit or miss, but this one was 100% hit! While this could work as a standalone with a bit of an opening ending, I'm eager to find out what happens next.