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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Shiver of Light_ Mini Review_ by Laurel K Hamilton



I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. Legal name Meredith Gentry, because “Princess” looks so pretentious on a driver’s license. I was the first faerie princess born on American soil, but I wouldn't be the only one for much longer...
Merry Gentry, ex–private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of both courts of faerie are coming to court Merry and her men, at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own.
Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry and, failing that, raped her. He’s using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the babies is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can’t prove it.




Ugh, okay here goes. This was not a good final book to this series.

1) LKH spends like twenty pages or more describing every character and what they are wearing more than once.

2) Two sex scenes, not horrible, though I don't mind it in this series because I think of it as "erotica." I mean it is about a fairy princess trying to get knocked up.

3) A character dies. Sorry if that spoils anything but it's an important character, the death is random, half "off scene" takes up about a page and I found it pointless.

4) The plot doesn't start until there is less than 100 pages left in the book. The biggest event takes place "off scene" and everything is rushed, where as we could have skipped 300 pages of clothing, drivel type conversation, my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours power struggles and Merry going on and on about her daughter's name is Cornish for Rose. (Seriously this gets mentioned like  5 times)

5) Every other page the Goddess is dropping Rose petals all over Merry in a sign of pleasure, contentment or approval. At no time does it mention these are magic and disappear or if some poor shmuck just follows Merry around sweeping up after her, or if everyone is constantly annoyed with wading through piles and piles or rotting rose petals.

6)Of course Merry's babies are SUPER SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES, already WAY powerful, even as newborns and perfectly beautiful with all their coloring (except eyes)One is spotted...like a dog. And Merry gets her figure back within a week and has no trouble doing everything she always has, as well as nurse triplets. But it's Magic so that explains everything, right? LKH has a kid I think but I also think it's been a few decades since she was pregnant cause wow....The labor was a paragraph long and she vaginally births triplets with no complications. Yikes.

7) This  needed a huge edit and could have easily been a novella, like one you get in an ebook or in a anthology.  I liked the idea of a wrap up to this series....but this was too much.







Goddess Interrupted - Aimee Carter




Kate Winters has won immortality. But if she wants a life with Henry in the Underworld, she'll have to fight for it.
Becoming immortal wasn't supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she's as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he's becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate's coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.
Henry's first wife, Persephone.


I read Goddess Test back when it first came out and decided, once I figured out it was going to be a series, that I just wasn’t that interested. I love the tale of Persephone and Hades so a good retelling really butters my bread, so to speak….

This was not a good retelling.
I picked up Goddess Interrupted at the library because I was bored and I usually grab a couple of the YA books I wanted to read over the past year, but didn’t want to buy.
First off this was the easiest read ever! I was in the hospital and finished it within about three hours, so not sure what agent or publisher decided this was a good sale, the characters had no depth and the plot line was ridiculous.

Second problem; the name changes. I mean I had to keep looking at the back of the book to remember which god was which. Especially since she used the name Diana as Demeter and anyone who knows anything about mythology knows that is what the Romans called Artermis. It was way more confusing than it needed to be. I know she changed the names to throw everyone off during the first book, but couldn’t she have picked names that were variations of the Greek names?

Third issue;  What woman worth her salt decides it is ok, EVER to be with a man who chose you not only second, but last in a long line of woman he has just been  testing to be his new bride, all because the old one cheated and ditched him? Sorry but you do like to know about the exes and if the guy you like it still majorly hung up on one, you are what is called a rebound. This is not romantic or sexy.

Fourth issues: I found the MC kind of weak. In the first book I liked Kate, but in this one I find her annoying. She lets everyone boss her around and while she pushes back with how Henry/Hades treats her she also allows everyone to convince her she just has to deal with his bad behavior.  The love interest is way too brooding and mopey. He is the fucking GOD OF DEATH and this author turned him in to something I didn’t even like. Not that I enjoyed the almost love triangle aspect of James/Hermes either.

Fifth Issue: She is 19 and married already, huge problem with how marrying some man she barely knows will reflect on teenagers who read this crap.  Not only married, but begging him for attention, plus remember that he’s like hundreds if not thousands of years older than she is. Which I don’t normally have a problem which, accept when the author writes him as a grumpy old man. 

Sixth Issue At the end of the book you find out she is PREGNANT, a knocked up 19 year old. OMG horrible.  And not surprising I totally saw where that was going.  Calliope/Hera the Goddess of marriage basically puts a whammy on her and then Kate and Henry get their freak on. OBVIOUS PLOT TWIST.

Ok so what did I like about this book?
I liked the addition of Cronus, most forget about the Titans when they write about Greek Mythology, though him coming across all into Kate was a mystery.  Though in the ten pages he actually appears I found his character WAY more interesting than the rest of the book.
The author’s description of the underworld wasn’t half bad, the puppy was cute and while I had huge issues with a lot of it the story was an easy, fun, simple read.