I didn’t hate this novel, but I also can’t give it more then one star. It’s badly written and badly in need of an editor. The writing was so frustratingly bad that I would just shake my kindle in annoyance (I’m not throwing it across the room, I like my kindle). There were some redeeming factors: it was free, there were werewolves, and there were more then a few female characters.
The plot is a fairly standard plot for the first novel in an urban fantasy series. In this case Jade, who runs a cupcake bakery, is aware of the existence of supernaturals but thinks herself low on that totem pole so far as power goes. There is a murder, or several murders, Jade finds herself somehow entangled in it. There are deeply mysterious and dangerous males involved, who may or may not be helping. And of course there are brief hints about the longer plot and Jade herself.
There is absolutely nothing revolutionary in this novel. But I don’t really read Urban Fantasy for the novelty, it’s a place to go when I want something to get lost in with minimal fuss. What draws me back to a series is my connection with the characters and the world building, and on that the novel completely fails. Jade is one of the most stupidly oblivious characters I’ve come across in a long time. This is particularly annoying because the novel is told in the first person (one of my least favorite narrative types, because it’s so rarely done well). I feel as though the author wasn’t ready for the reader to quite figure out the plot just yet so she had to make Jade deliberately disregard rather important information in order to throw the reader (red herrings of a sort). But because Jade was being so obtuse, the other characters kept bringing it up. It was annoying to be bashed over the head with this information and to see the main character completely ignore it. A horrible double edged sword, one that could have been avoided if the author had let her character be just a little bit smarter. And I’m not talking about the ‘twist’. While I saw that particular plot point coming a mile away, because I read books, I can very much believe that Jade didn’t.
And then the writing. Oh god. It was, at a word, atrocious. There were sentences put next to each other that either had nothing to do with the each other or directly contradicted each other. It all was horribly amateurish. And while that’s fine if you’re taking your book to a writing group, not so much for a published novel. And I just checked, of course it’s a self published novel. Guys, I don’t want to sound like a book snob but I’ve yet to read a self published book that’s halfway decent and so I sound like a book snob.
Also, the narration. As I mentioned briefly above, I am not a fan of first person narrators. They’re difficult to do well, and one of the favorites for Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance. I’ve gotten to the point where I wince whenever I see it in one of those novels because it’s so rarely well done. Well, this author takes it to a new annoying level and has the character ‘talk’ to the reader so you get asides like, “yes, I do that still” or “I know, I know….”. It’s not pleasant.
As a smaller complaint, I’m pretty sure the author is a huge fan of HBO’s True Blood. Some of the character descriptions are a little too on point for Eric, Sookie, and Alcide as played by Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, and Joe Manganiello so not so much the books as the show. Not that those aren’t some very attractive people, because they really are, but to put them all together in a novel as a vampire, witch, and werewolf respectively is a bit too much.
There were things I enjoyed about the novel. There are several other female characters. Both ones with speaking roles and ones just casually mentioned off screen. It’s very nice to read a book where I don’t have to wonder what world this female lives in because there are no other females there. One of my main complaints about Urban Fantasy novels is that so often you have one single lead female who is surrounded by men, and men only. And what few females do appear are quickly sidelined into either the slut/competition category (thanks casual misogyny) or damsel in distress category (which is also pretty misogynistic). So this book neatly side-stepped that trap.
Also, there were werewolves. I am easy, I know, but I love them in my books. I can get picky about them, as so often they’re reduced to alpha posturing and meh, no thanks. But either they weren’t in this book long enough to start displaying those traits or Doidge will also sidestep the alpha asshole problem so common in werewolf based paranormal romance.
And lastly it was free. This is February’s Vaginal Fantasy pick, and I am very glad that I didn’t pay money for it. I am still side-eyeing whoever is picking these books though.
I think I can safely say, skip this one.
I too am curious if there are any great free novels. Occasionally a great book will go on sale for free but as a general theme free = terrible.
As somebody who is on the cusp of self-publishing a non-fiction book, I HATE it when people self-publish crap! The challenge is that hiring a good editor costs $$$ and nobody wants to spend the money. Everybody’s trying to get their book out on the cheap (at least this author invested in a decent cover design) and as a result perpetuates the idea that self-published = crap.
I spent 3 years building a readership and then 4 months preparing a Kickstarter campaign so I would have the funds required to hire people who will help me put out a resource that isn’t garbage. No not everybody can do this, nor should they. But if you’re going to spend ~2 years writing and publishing a book, create a savings account and funnel away $100/month so you can hire a decent editor. Because you aren’t doing yourself or any of the other self-published authors any favors by cheaping out and putting out crap.
[/endrant]
Rant away. I have a good friend who has is an independent editor and a lot of her work is for self-published books. This is also her major complaint. If you want to put out a good product, and you should, then it’s going to cost money. And a lot of self-published authors don’t want to pay that. Which means their work ends up just being awful. I am sure there are good self-published novels out there, I’m sure of it. But as the ones I’ve read have been so bad I tend to avoid the self-published realm like the plague, unless it’s a bookclub novel or a recommended novel.
Good luck with your novel though.
Thanks for taking this one on so we don’t have to. The cupcake on the cover looks nice (but it could also be that I’m ready for lunch).
The cupcakes were often described and let me tell you, I had a serious hankering for cupcakes when I finished the book.
Why are there so many cupcake bakery owners in fiction these days? I live in a city of just over a million people and there is not a single cupcake bakery here. Cupcake bakery owners are way overrepresented population. If they are monitoring our transmissions, the aliens will think we are a nation made up of superheroes, cops and murderers, and cupcake bakers.
Hilariously, I live in a city that has a LOT of cupcake bakeries (relatively speaking-what bakeries I’ve found have been mostly of the cupcake variety) so it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary to me. But I think it has to do with cupcakes being cute and feminine so it’s a shortcut. Or something like that. Also, they watched DC Cupcakes and thought it sounded neat.
“While I saw that particular plot point coming a mile away, because I read books”
Yes. Just, yes. That just summarized all of the things.
Yea, it’s not that I mind when a novel uses a trope. Tropes exist for a reason, but sometimes they should be hidden a little better. Or deployed a little better.
Have you read the Anne Bishop Others series? There are some cool werewolves in there. I hardly read Urban Fantasy so I might be teaching my granny to suck eggs by recommending them, but I liked them…?
The first one is on the TBR mountain. I might move it up the list though. Thanks
If think it’s good. My expert in this genre is my voraciously reading Mom and she recommended highly.
I have too much to read in February to bother with a VF pick that I wasn’t previously interested in, and that you say is this bad. Thanks for taking one for the team, so I can skip it.
I second the recommendation of Anne Bishop’s The Others series. I was absolutely blown away by the first book because it turns a lot of the tropes of most paranormal fantasy on its head. I know some people found the heroine incredibly passive and the story far too slow, but I absolutely love the series and eagerly await every new release. You should absolutely give it a try. Patricia Brigg’s Alpha and Omega books are also decent reads featuring werewolves.
Yea, the book was a hard pass for me. And I’m so, SO glad it was free. I’d have been pissed if I’d paid money for it.
And thanks for the second of the rec. I think I’d put The Others on the back burner because Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books were awkward, enjoyable but um… tropey and more then a little rapey. But I shall check it out.
I’m more iffy on the Alpha and Omega books. I like them, but Patricia Briggs’ books often suffer from Lone Female Protagonist Syndrome. And Alpha and Omega doesn’t really break that mold. In general though, I like how she depicts her werewolves (Adam from The Mercy Thompson books can get a little alpha asshole, but not too badly).
The world-building in The Others is incredibly interesting. It’s basically an alternate history Earth where humans are the minority and can end up as prey to the various supernatural creatures if they go off the beaten path or don’t obey the established rules. It’s completely different from the Black Jewels books and really quite unlike any other urban fantasy out there at the moment.
Well, it’s been moved way up. As the first book was only 1.99 Kindle price, it has been purchased and will be read sometime this year (probably sometime this month, I hope. I think. I have books I want to get to first. Maybe. I don’t know this might jump the que as it’s gotten some high praise)
Based on this convo, I’ve just started re-reading the first Others book, so I’ll review it in the next little while, maybe that will help you decide!
Malin directed me to your review, as I reviewed this today. Totally agree with all your points. What a snooze this was (except for the cupcake descriptions, of course)!
My personal rating system is that one star=DNF, so I had to begrudgingly give a two, but who am I to argue my own arbitrary system!
I feel like my personal rating system is so arbitrary and depends a lot on which way the wind blows when I finish the book. I try to stay pretty close to the Goodreads definition, but it’s not set in stone. I admire you for being so dedicated to your system. I’ll look at books sometimes and wonder exactly what the hell I was thinking to give them three stars when I can’t even remember the book at all.