Review: Widdershins

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As soon as an ancient Egyptian scroll, essential for the main antagonist for some reason, appeared on the pages, I couldn't stop thinking about an Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils. Really, authors at this point should do better with the plot. Evil overlords on a quest to destroy the world for no apparent reason are long out of fashion. As are awkward and socially inept, but secretly brave and brilliant scholars. I know a lot of scientists, there are a lot of introverts in the profession, but very few are complete disasters socially. Where did writers get this cliche?

So minus one star for the plot, but still four stars are left, because the writing is good (even if it hasn't been proofread all that well), the romance is engaging, and the erotic scenes are good. I'm even inclined to read the next book, though it seems the series was written for financial reasons mainly. The ending is good and solid and doesn't require a sequel, while even more "unspeakable ancient evils" in one small town would be almost absurd.

View all my reviews

Review: Close Enough to Touch

Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh my, the average rating of Close Enough to Touch is above 4. Now I feel even worse, because I most definitely didn't like the book. For starters, it was very, very hard to relate to Jubilee, the main character. Just imagine anything close in the real life. The setup: A teen girl, who just finished high school, thinks herself very intelligent (granted, most people think that at this age, but it wears off fast enough), and is in dire need of psychological help. She stays home alone for nine years. When money become tight, she goes outside, as beautiful as could be, and finds a job on her first day. The rest of the story is just a compilation of romantic cliches. There is absolutely nothing new except for this strange setup about an allergy to people. And think how you would look, if you spent nine years never leaving the house, literally, not even to sit on your own porch. Surely, you'd look nice and trim, your old clothes would fit, and you'd have a good smooth skin with nice coloring. Everyone's dream.

View all my reviews

Review: Misty Circus Volume 1

Misty Circus Volume 1 by Victoria Francés
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been years since this first two volumes have been published. I wish there was the next adventure to look forward to in this series...

View all my reviews

Review: Angel's Feather

Angel's Feather by Alina Popescu
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Reading Angel's Feather was like listening to grumblings of a teenager on an essay topic. The setting is interesting, but the world building is completely absent, like the said teenager expects the reader to read her mind and imagine exactly what she meant. The characters development is likewise lacking, they are all crude and grotesque. It all feels rushed, with none of the parts - characters, plot, setting - important. The whole thing seems to exist to shout out moralistic sentences. Just like an essay of a teenage maximalist. And the moralistic message is way too straight forward, there is absolutely no subtleness involved. The book also fails to be a real book in the sense that this first volume of the series-to-be ends with cliff hunger, leaving all of the characters at a sort of a dead end, with no logical way out of their situation. Expect more magic in the second installment...
And on top of all this, the idea of an entire species of "angels" equipped with fully functioning human male reproductive organs, which they have no inclination to use (don't even know how), made me laugh for a very long time, thus negating any erotic component of the book.

View all my reviews

Review: Duck On A Bike

Duck On A Bike by David Shannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So neat and interactive!

View all my reviews

Review: The Dragon Round

The Dragon Round by Stephen S. Power
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The eyes of the dragon go round and round, round and round, round and round. The eyes of the dragon go round and round all through the town... That was the first reaction from my budding reader, when he finally discerned the words on the cover of the book we got in the mail. And that was about the most funny thing about this book too.

The beginning gave me a feeling of something like His Majesty's Dragon, with its very proper and likable captain. Only it's styled as play more than a novel. We get to see the action from many different "perspectives" at once (one scene we read four times through the eyes of four different characters), but it's hard to shake off the feeling those not perspectives really, but remarks in a play: this person says this, while doing that surrounded by this setting and needs to make sure the audience knows that he feels that. Still. it was interesting and enjoyable right till the moment the action moves to a city.

In the city the author switches to a different kind of writing. All we get are snippets and pieces through the eyes of way too many actors, with an exceptions of the ones readers are used to. Now it's more like a movie script rather than a play. I wonder if the author wants a Dragon Round movie all that much. What's disconcerting is that it's not at all like The Count of Monte Cristo with a dragon, all the revenge wasn't carefully planned, it all just sort of happened. Almost everything in this book is just sort of happens, except for a few things we are not properly shown (meaning a character did a lot to make something happen, we are shown the results and hinted that he did it, without any details on how).

The setting is quite interesting though. It's a very grotesque and exaggerated parody on a society. It's not shown very well how it all came to be, but I guess there will be a sequel, so there is a chance of developing those interesting ideas. What surprised me most in the setting is the number of impossibly naive characters. Actually, all the characters in this book are either naive or mentally unstable. which is an interesting view of the world of course.

Now to a disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway and, for once, managed to read and review it before the publication date.

View all my reviews

Review: The Low-Sugar Cookbook: Delicious and Nutritious Recipes to Lose Weight, Boost Energy, and Fight Fatigue

The Low-Sugar Cookbook: Delicious and Nutritious Recipes to Lose Weight, Boost Energy, and Fight Fatigue by Nicola Graimes
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I really really really wanted to try this cookbook. Most of the times I try a new recipe, I have to cut sugar, usually in half. Like when a recipe asks to mix 2 sticks of butter, 2 cups of flour, and 2 cups of sugar to make dough? No, no, no, no way. A low-sugar cookbook? Yes, please! So I was cautiously optimistic when I won this book in November 2014. The giveaway details now state that the book was shipped in May 2015 (!), but it's 2017 and I still don't have a copy. I also didn't see it in my local book store, and I'm not sure I want it so much to buy it online. Overall, feeling slightly offended by not receiving a copy I won, I move the book to the could-not-read shelf after all this year's.

View all my reviews

Review: Hidden Warrior

Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm speechless. That's my shortest review ever.

View all my reviews

Review: Lady Antheia’s Guide to Horticultural Warfare

Lady Antheia’s Guide to Horticultural Warfare by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice little story, which left a vague impression that all that I already read somewhere before... Still, it was entertaining enough to get four stars from me, which means it's funny and well written, which is more than can be said about most short SciFi stories.

View all my reviews