#129 – Haven, by Rebekah Weatherspoon
- Mount TBR: 101/100
- Rating: 1/5 stars
I had issues with this. Like, lots of them. The entire premise is a pretty strong case of Magic Healing Dick, because what the heroine apparently needs to move past her trauma is a lot of kinky sex.
As far as that goes, I found myself uncomfortable at times not during the actual sex scenes, but in the run-up to some of them. Claudia gives Shep carte blanche as far as her submission goes, and that leads to (what felt to me like) a lot of tits-out exhibitionism that didn’t sit right. Their rules discussion was so vague it didn’t specify much of anything, much less prohibit public play, so it’s not a case of a Dom ignoring the rules. But it always felt like that was something for him, something that didn’t turn her on at all; also there’s a line between fun, thrill-seeking, low-risk exhibitionism, and actually involving someone else (non-consensually) in that play by having them catch you. The situation didn’t seem particularly safe to me, and not a little bit because I’ve waited tables before and you better believe I never want to catch a customer partially nude, for everyone’s sake.
I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between the leads, and I definitely didn’t feel like their relationship moved from Magic Healing Dick to love. For a relationship based on shared trauma, I felt like it could have been explored more–the fact that Shep killed Claudia’s attacker barely registered past the opening chapters, and though more time is spent dealing with Claudia’s issues, their treatment still felt shallow, because, again, Magic Healing Dick.
#130 – Heartland, by Sarina Bowen
- Rating: 2/5 stars
The best parts of this book were about Dylan, the youngest Shipley who’s been quietly hanging out in the background through the rest of the series while his older siblings and most of the other people associated with their farm get romances; he fights with his oldest brother about his (and the farm’s) future, then figures himself out and decides what to do with himself.
Notice that I didn’t mention anything about our heroine or the romance? Yeah, that was on purpose.
Listen, I’m a solid Sarina Bowen fan. She’s usually knocking these out of the park, or at least entertaining me with something fun even if it’s not the Best Romance Ever. But this? This is a really standard take on “virgin girl wants to get with her best friend but is mostly too chicken to actually do anything about it.” Not my favorite trope to begin with, but we’re doubling down on the worst aspects of it by making the hero a dude who mostly thinks with his dick, and throwing in a comically shrewish and awful college roommate who was sleeping with him for the beginning of the book. Also, I think it might be time for this author to stop going back to the “escaped from a cult” well, because I’ve praised her for that several times before, for making those characters much more interesting that similar ones I’ve seen from other authors, but here, Chastity is honestly lame and uninteresting.
In terms of keeping up with the series, I flipped numbers in my head and read this without reading #6, but I don’t seem to have missed anything important that would prevent the continuity from making sense, at least. I’ll probably go back for it at some point, through I think the mix up happened because my library doesn’t have #6 at the moment so I thought this one was next.
#131 – The Magpie Lord, by K.J. Charles
- Mount TBR: 102/100
- Rating: 5/5 stars
I love nearly everything about this unreservedly, from the characters and their banter to the magic system to the power dynamics to the fast-paced action. I’ve had this book sitting around unread for a little more than two years, and boy, do I regret that now; on top of that, I’ve been hearing great things about this author for even longer, and it’s a personal shame that I let it go so long before I gave her a try.
The only thing I didn’t love about this book was the revelation of who the enemy was at the climax. I felt like a lot of names were being thrown around very quickly, most of whom we hadn’t met yet, and Stephen was solving a mystery based on his knowledge that I simply never had a chance to figure out. (Not that I necessarily would have, I’m generally bad at mysteries and often don’t enjoy them.) As this isn’t, strictly speaking, a mystery novel in the classic sense, I’ll forgive it this minor hiccup on the strength of loving everything else about it.
I also love that there’s more! I didn’t realize there was a bonus short story included until I was at 89% of the book file and hit the end of the story, but that was excellent as well and I’ll be writing that review momentarily. But also, I do love a good series romance and I’m pleased to see that this isn’t the end for Stephen and Crane, because yes, this is a romance, but it’s not the HEA kind, it’s the “we’re just getting started on all sorts of adventures” kind. So I’m hooked.
#132 – Interlude with Tattoos, by K.J. Charles
- Mount TBR: 103/100
- Rating: 5/5 stars
Short and decidedly not sweet in some ways, while being absolutely charming in others. This does an admirable job of making me eager to continue with the second novel in the series; of making me more curious about Merrick as a supporting character; of making me worry about where Stephen and Crane’s relationship is headed without introducing an unsatisfying cliffhanger; of giving me just a taste of the wonderfully dirty things these two will get up to in the future.
Also, magical tattoos. I didn’t know I needed that in my life, so I’ve learned something about myself. Shelving that somewhere in my brain as “how can I put a spin on that for my own writing?” someday.
elena johansen 