It’s been a week since I finished the first two books in Shelly Laurenston’s frothy, ridiculous, and addictive series, Call of Crows. I mention the length of time before writing this review because my brain has rather eliminated many of the plot points and details that distinguish the books from each other, so I’ll be grabbing synopses from Goodreads and asking your forgiveness for my laziness. Most relevant points of interest to this review are these: 1) If you like the idea of paranormal romance […]
Unnecessary “I liked this” headline
As a reviewer, I get to a point with authors I love — and as much as I hate to segregate out certain authors, this is especially pronounced with genre authors who proudly inhabit a particular niche — where I can’t really go too deeply into what I love about their books without feeling like I am repeating myself. I talk about how and why they excel at characterization, the themes that they tend to explore really well, their excellent scene-setting, reliable pacing, and effective […]
And the medal for consistency goes to Ilona Andrews
4.5 stars In the UF/PNR realm, I can’t think of a more reliable author team than Ilona Andrews. They consistently tell witty, exciting, and inventive stories that also manage to keep my crabby inner feminist satisfied by their refreshing lack of misogyny and even casual sexism. They manage this with their (seemingly, through it shouldn’t be) astonishing ability to create female protagonists and side characters who are complex, compelling, and above all, distinguishable from each other. Just like real people! I am pretty sure I […]
Being a fan of this series has become a moral dilemma
My relationship with this series had a good run of five books, but it seemingly ended and we went our separate ways. Now, it promises it has changed with a new perspective, so I was curious and checked the new installments out. I’m not really sure I’m feeling it, but I keep giving the new books the benefit of the doubt. There aren’t any red flags and they’re not irredeemable, so there must be no harm in continuing the series, but I still feel a […]