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.

Close Liasons // Anna Zaires

Close Liaisons (★★☆☆☆)
By: Anna Zaires
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Erotica, Paranormal
Pages: 258
Format: Paperback
Features: aliens, sex
** spoiler alert **

Mia is a college student living in New York. When we meet her, the only concern she has is a Sociology paper she’s supposed to be writing. That all changes quickly, however, when she catches the eye of a Krinar – a member of an alien race that appeared a number of years ago to “co-exist” with humans on earth.

Enter sexual tension. The Krinar (Korum) is domineering, and seems to take an almost unhealthy interest in the younger (read: a few thousand years younger), human woman. As far as he is concerned, she puts up a token amount of resistance before it turns into a matter of “I really have no choice.”

Move on to the subplot… where she also, apparently, “has no choice.” With her roommate being afraid of what’s happening to Mia’s life, she manages to get Mia involved the “resistance” against the aliens. They want to use her as a spy, as she is intimately involved with Korum (though to hear her rail against it in her head it is completely out of her control and she hates him but oh my god what an orgasm).

So now Mia has both her body supposedly working against her, as well as feeling a need to do something to protect her race against the invading alien race dead set on harvesting women as sex slaves and taking over completely.

I swear, I feel like I’m summarizing the plot to a D-rated 80’s porno sci-fi flick.

A number of events repeat themselves in annoying frequency.

1. The number of times Mia gives in and has sex with Korum no matter how mad, disgusted, pissed off, or otherwise absolutely SURE she won’t ever sleep with him again she is. Give him five seconds in her presence and she’s a goner.

2. While there are a number of sexual encounters insinuated but not detailed, the ones that are inevitably end with Mia berating herself, her self-control, willpower, etc. and reminding herself she’s only doing this because she has no control, has to pretend everything’s okay, yada, yada, yada.

3. How often can Mia puzzle over how completely up-side-down her life has turned? Granted, she’s a naïve junior at a university in New York. Yet we discover she’s got an internship lined up for the summer prior to her senior year, she’s going for a degree in Psychology and knows exactly what she wants to do with it. This is a woman of conviction and strength, yet you barely get to see it. You’d think, with a focus like that, she’d have better things to think about than sit around wondering how everything got so out of control. She’s a walking contradiction.

And then we get to the end. Korum knew all along Mia was betraying him, and did nothing about it. The whole time, Mia was afraid of Korum, afraid that he would kill her once he found out what she had been doing. Yet, for all of that fear, when everything hits the fan… he simply takes her hand, offers to take her to see her parents, and whisks her away to one of the Krinar compounds, steady as you please.

As a whole, the book left me completely unsatisfied. The intimate scenes were lacking, the emotion between Korum and Mia was barely thought out (at best), and every time there was a discussion with or about the resistance, I found myself rolling my eyes, skipping it, and realizing in the end – I didn’t miss a darn thing. I got this book off of Amazon for free, but I can’t convince myself spending the money on the next book to see if it gets any better will be worth it.

Rated two stars purely for the potential of the story, if the author just puts a smidge more thought into the story rather than the sex.

Witchy, Witchy // Penelope King

Witchy, Witchy (★★★☆☆)
By: Penelope King
Series: Spellbound (1)
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pages: 329
Format: eBook
Features: Witches

I’ve heard a lot of fuss about these books, and I have to wonder why. Then again, I also have to wonder if I read too much or watch too many fantasy-type series on TV, because most of what I read these days reminds me of some other book or show or author. This one… just more of the same.

I had a number of moments where I flashed back to The Craft and The Secret Circle. Only difference is here (so far at least) there’s only 3 witches, but they’re still all teenage girls.

One thing I do like about Witchy, Witchy (though at the same time makes it too YA for my tastes) is these girls deal with normal, every day, teenage girl problems. Not all of their problems are magical, and they don’t try to use their magic to solve those problems, either. What a relief!

I think Penelope King has taken a much more realistic approach to the world of witchcraft in fiction than I’ve seen to date. Real people mean real problems, whereas magic has its own set of problems, and, occasionally, the two will overlap and, well, that’s when crap hits the fan.

I may continue to read on just because there are obviously a number of years ahead of these girls and I hope to see the books grow with them

Micah // Laurel K. Hamilton

Micah (★☆☆☆☆)
By: Laurell K. Hamilton
Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (13)
Genres: Fantasy ~ Urban, Romance ~ Paranormal
Pages: 285
Format: eBook
Features: vampires, shifters

On one hand, I don’t remember what happens through most of the book. On the other hand, that says something about how utterly pointless this book was, given the way my imagination has been running away with the Anita Blake series so far. It was written almost as if Hamilton needed to put out SOMETHING, rather than a book actually relevant to the series.

I had considered every book by Hamilton I’d read up until this one (Merry Gentry included) to be, if not up to my usual “epic fantasy” standards, at least intriguing enough to get me to the end of the book.

The only thing that got me to the end of this book? It was short. Absolutely NOTHING about this book stood out to me. Not the interactions between Blake and Micah, none of the action, none of the metaphysical brouhaha did it for me. It was one of the dullest reads I’ve muddled through in a long while.