Astrid AmaraRezensionen
Autor von Irregulars: A Shared-World Anthology
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The Devil Lancer: A Novel of the Crimean War… von Astrid Amara
I found it hard to put this one down. It's an intriguing story with some unexpected twists--and two main characters that are easy to empathize with...
Only grumble, the reason for them being thrown together to run the B & B felt contrived. I guessed it early on, and hence never felt Seth's sense of worry. Also, in the circumstances, the chances of the Aunt or Uncle not getting in touch at some point during the week (at the very least with their own child in a "hey have you seen your Dad" type conversation) seems unlikely.
Kicking myself for not buying the sequel at the same time now!
No Life But This, by A. Amara. A much longer story than the previous two. Loved the couple (although the romance most definitely played second fiddle to the plot) and the plot kept me interested and invested. 4.5*
Things Unseen and Deadly, by G. Hale. This took me an age to get into and I honestly thought about putting it down several times in the first chapter or so. I'm glad I carried on reading. The leads were engaging once you worked out what their story was, not true, Jason was engaging from the get-go but Henry took some warming to. and we got an extra helping of Gunther. I ended up really liking this one. 4*
It's certainly pertinent in the current climate of sex scandals and powerful men abusing the vulnerable and people whose lives they can control.
I adored Felix and I thought he was far too forgiving of Cal's anger at the start.
Cal, however, annoyed me somewhat. I thought he lacked something as a wannabe investigative journalist. He failed to ask obvious questions or join some pretty easy dots, even if only in assumptions. And since we were only in his pov and therefore things were reveal to us at the same time as him the fact that I put things together about half a book in front of him was disappointing.
I also had an issue with the Aunt's response to events. If that had been me I'd have been raging and out for blood in the reveal scene, not gently scolding Cal for innuendo.
Dark Waters by Nicole Kimberling - 3.5*
Such Heights by Ginn Hale - 4*
I absolutely loved this anthology! My favorite story is probably the first one (written by Astrid Amara), but I loved them all. In all three stories the focus is more on mystery/crime solving than on the romantic aspect, which suited me just fine. I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series!
This is a first Kimberling for me and I'm satisfied.
Definitely checking out more of her books.
Green Glass Beads by Josh Lanyon - ★★★★
It bothered me that we didn't find out why Rake was so sure Archer was still involved in criminal activities when we were told he wasn't :/
No Life But This by Astrid Amara - ★★★★
Also a first by this author.
Things Unseen and Deadly by Ginn Hale - ★★★★★
Oh this one was delightful. It reminded me that I need to read more Ginn Hale!
There were some good stories, but mostly I struggled with them.
Reaper’s Ride by Astrid Amara - ★★★½
Wild, Wild Heart by Shira Anthony - ★★
Dr. Ezekiel Crumb’s Heavenly Soul Purifying Elixir by Lex Chase - ★★
Corpse Powder by Jana Denardo - ★★★½
The Sheriff of Para Siempre by Jamie Fessenden - DNF
The Tale of August Hayling by Kim Fielding - ★★★½
Time Zone by Andrew Q. Gordon - ★★½
Get Lucky by Ginn Hale - ★★★★
From Ancient Grudge to New Mutiny by Langley Hyde - DNF
POMH by Venona Keyes - ★★★
Oh, Give Me a Home by Nicole Kimberling - ★★★½
Gunner the Deadly by C.S. Poe - ★★★
After the Wind by Tali Spencer - ★★★½
Next of Kin by Astrid Amara, narrated by Tristan James
I loved the story, but the narrator sounded kind of like he was bored, or like a talking head. Really made me enjoy the story less.
Narration rating - 3 stars
Red Sands by Nicole Kimberling , narrated by John Solo
Again, love the story, the narrator is kind of irritating. Has the unfortunate habit of chopping up sentences like there's.a.full.stop.after.every.word, kind of like Jeff Bridges does lately in his movies. And he also sometimes does what I named "the rolercoaster" where he starts a sentence low, gets higher and higher until it seems like he ran out of air, and then just drops his voice for the final part. In one sentence. Jesus.
Narration rating - 2.5 stars
Touching Sparks by Ginn Hale , narrated by Kirt Graves
This was my both my favorite story in this anthology and my favorite narration. Kirt Graves was perfect for it. I loved his narration of the Wolfsong series, but I've listened to that series so many times I was afraid his voice would be spoiled for me narrating anything else. I was wrong.
Narration rating - 5 stars
3.75 stars
3.75, rounding up to 4 :)
Green Glass Beads (Josh Lanyon) ~ 4 stars
No Life But This (A. Amara) ~ 3.5 stars
Things Unseen and Deadly (G.Hale) ~ 4.5
Only grumble, the reason for them being thrown together to run the B & B felt contrived. I guessed it early on, and hence never felt Seth's sense of worry. Also, in the circumstances, the chances of the Aunt or Uncle not getting in touch at some point during the week (at the very least with their own child in a "hey have you seen your Dad" type conversation) seems unlikely.
Kicking myself for not buying the sequel at the same time now!
No Life But This, by A. Amara. A much longer story than the previous two. Loved the couple (although the romance most definitely played second fiddle to the plot) and the plot kept me interested and invested. 4.5*
Things Unseen and Deadly, by G. Hale. This took me an age to get into and I honestly thought about putting it down several times in the first chapter or so. I'm glad I carried on reading. The leads were engaging once you worked out what their story was, not true, Jason was engaging from the get-go but Henry took some warming to. and we got an extra helping of Gunther. I ended up really liking this one. 4*
It's certainly pertinent in the current climate of sex scandals and powerful men abusing the vulnerable and people whose lives they can control.
I adored Felix and I thought he was far too forgiving of Cal's anger at the start.
Cal, however, annoyed me somewhat. I thought he lacked something as a wannabe investigative journalist. He failed to ask obvious questions or join some pretty easy dots, even if only in assumptions. And since we were only in his pov and therefore things were reveal to us at the same time as him the fact that I put things together about half a book in front of him was disappointing.
I also had an issue with the Aunt's response to events. If that had been me I'd have been raging and out for blood in the reveal scene, not gently scolding Cal for innuendo.
On the one hand, I loved it. The world building, the strength of the characters and the way the action unfolds is brilliantly written. Especially little details that just "finish" the whole thing, without getting bogged down.
On the other hand, Levi's virtual blindness to things going on around him is baffling. For someone to have survived what he did to remain so clueless, so naive, is hard to swallow. And that did pull me out of the story at times.
But, even though it wasn't perfect, it was still a great read.
Pros: brown people in a non-western based culture, decent writing
Cons: Jandu tbh (but he's a HUGE one), sex scenes I wanted to skip over
I wanted to give this book a two because it upset me, but the writing and storytelling were pretty good for the most part so it goes one star up.
Why did this book upset me. Well, I have a chronic issue with the main couples of books and this is kind of at the top of my list right now. I literally hated Jandu and I hated his romance with Keshan. Like, I loved Keshan and I wish more of the book had been in his point of view, to be honest.
The construction of a caste system was kind of interesting. Not necessarily innovative, but it was nice to see brown people which always fills me with happiness. It was nice to have the point of view of Tarek sometimes because I actually love him and I would totally be into reading Tarek/Keshan fanfiction. I'm assuming Jandu with magically come to care for all classes after living in exile or something but I'm not sure I'm into it enough to find out. I feel like I'll still hate him. Which is weird because I'm often into self-centred assholes. *shrug*
Honestly the book wasn't too bad but Jandu ruined the book for me and so did the sex, which probably isn't too much for some people but it was annoying for me. Go ahead and read it, if you'd like.
BOOK 2:
Better than the first, I guess. Jandu's changing from a complete asshile to less of an asshole, but this doesn't need to be called a book by itself though.
I can see why this was released as 1-3 in one book because nothing happens in book two that is really significant. We get character growth from Jandu but that really just makes it a ton of filler. It could be attached to book 3 with no problem probably.
I'm not exactly glad I read this one after the 1st was awful because I'm terrified 3 with be as bad as 1 and I will have waste a few hours of my life.
I still want more of Tarek though and Keshan as well. I still don't really like Jandu but I'm glad he's a better person now?
BOOK 3:
I actually ended up not completely hating Jandu. He grew so much as a person and learned so much about not being a sexist idiot that I actually kinda liked him at the end???
This book was thus infinitely better than the first two. I understand that we had to watch his growth in order to get it but I disliked him so much throughout the series that I can't even go back and let go of the fact that he caused me so much pain through his horridness.
The writing of these stories is good though and the plot is interesting enough that I continued reading even through I wanted to burn Jandu. I would recommend them only read all three together and only with a heads up that Jandu actually literally does grow in a good way even if you have to wait until almost the end.
This book was thus infinitely better than the first two. I understand that we had to watch his growth in order to get it but I disliked him so much throughout the series that I can't even go back and let go of the fact that he caused me so much pain through his horridness.
The writing of these stories is good though and the plot is interesting enough that I continued reading even through I wanted to burn Jandu. I would recommend them only read all three together and only with a heads up that Jandu actually literally does grow in a good way even if you have to wait until almost the end.
I can see why this was released as 1-3 in one book because nothing happens in book two that is really significant. We get character growth from Jandu but that really just makes it a ton of filler. It could be attached to book 3 with no problem probably.
I'm not exactly glad I read this one after the 1st was awful because I'm terrified 3 with be as bad as 1 and I will have waste a few hours of my life.
I still want more of Tarek though and Keshan as well. I still don't really like Jandu but I'm glad he's a better person now?
Cons: Jandu tbh (but he's a HUGE one), sex scenes I wanted to skip over
I wanted to give this book a two because it upset me, but the writing and storytelling were pretty good for the most part so it goes one star up.
Why did this book upset me. Well, I have a chronic issue with the main couples of books and this is kind of at the top of my list right now. I literally hated Jandu and I hated his romance with Keshan. Like, I loved Keshan and I wish more of the book had been in his point of view, to be honest.
The construction of a caste system was kind of interesting. Not necessarily innovative, but it was nice to see brown people which always fills me with happiness. It was nice to have the point of view of Tarek sometimes because I actually love him and I would totally be into reading Tarek/Keshan fanfiction. I'm assuming Jandu with magically come to care for all classes after living in exile or something but I'm not sure I'm into it enough to find out. I feel like I'll still hate him. Which is weird because I'm often into self-centred assholes. *shrug*
Honestly the book wasn't too bad but Jandu ruined the book for me and so did the sex, which probably isn't too much for some people but it was annoying for me. Go ahead and read it, if you'd like.
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