He's a Magic Man // Susan Squires

He’s a Magic Man (★★★☆☆)
By: Suzan Squires
Series: Children of Merlin (2)
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 258
Format: Paperback
Features: mythology, magic

I got this as a Goodreads Firstreads win, so I’m going to summarize a few points here while the book is still fresh in my mind since I don’t have time for a fully involved review:

1. Felt like it took too long to read.
Why? I’m a fast reader. I can get through the early books of the Wheel of Time in 3-5 days. This one, at (less than) half that, took me to the far end of that scale. The first half of the book kept my interest nice and fast, but the more I read, the less I caried about what happened to the people, or in general.

2. Been there, done that.
The descendants of Merlin, and people who get their power from Morgan La Fey. Athurian-era artifacts. Anybody remember Stargate SG-1/Atlantis?

3. The raging alcoholic.
Okay, score for throwing this in as a twist, and giving Drew the balls to do what she did. However… we’re talking, what, a week? Alcoholism doesn’t just go away in a week, no matter how thoroughly detoxed. Sure, throw the magic in and everything’s hunky-dory, but there is such a thing as relying TOO MUCH on the magic.

4. Drew’s got a pair.
This is one ballsy woman. After what we see her face early on in the book, she seems to have this bottomless pit of determination, while still maintaining a healthy dose of “what if”? (Not like she lets that stop her. Like I said, she’s got a pair.) I was cheering her on through the entire detox. That gave a REAL nice balance to the whiny high schooler she became any time her gift/power was involved (No, I’m not putting that bit down – considering her familial status and everything else, it almost makes more sense than just about anything else in the book).

All in all, it felt like the first half of the book is where Squires really took her time and thought out what she was writing. Maybe even first 2/3 – then its almost as if a reminder popped up on the calender and it became, “Oh, crap! Deadline!”

I do plan on reading other books in this series, so I can get a better feel for Squires as an author.

Hexed // Kevin Hearne

Hexed (☆☆☆☆☆)
By: Kevin Hearne
Series: The Iron Druid Chronicles (2)
Genres: Fantasy ~ Urban
Pages: 258
Format: eBook
Features: mythology

I tried. I really did. I was willing to give the series a chance after I was on the fence after reading the first book. However, my views on what fiction writing should and shouldn’t be prevented me from finishing the book.

I had personal issue with the first book due to the picture Hearne painted witches in, but I let that go as a product of creative license. However, I couldn’t continue to do that with this one. I like to think I have a pretty open mind when it comes to gods and goddesses, especially in regards to how they’re depicted in fiction, but again, I have certain views on what fiction writing should be, and having the writer’s personal bias shoved in your face is not something I consider acceptable.

I don’t think I was even a quarter of the way through the book when I had enough, and returned it to Amazon for a refund. A person can only see so much “the entire world hates Thor” or other such comments about other people or groups before one starts to wonder if the boundary of creative license has been crossed – and it was, for me. I will not be reading any more of these books, and likely nothing else from Mr. Hearne.