Dreamwalker by Andrea Heltsley

I read the book Dreamwalker with high hopes. As you all know, I am a big UF fan and this seemed like it could be an interesting new direction. Unfortunately, it did not pan out as such. To begin with, there was no world building whatsoever. I generally feel that this can be somewhat glossed over if the story line, characters and action are really terrific. Again, a no go. All of these areas are poorly executed. This book was clearly not edited, or if it was, the author should fire the editor, because there were multiple glaring grammatical errors, like verbs not agreeing in a sentence, as well as god-awful dialogue. The dialogue was actually a detraction from this book, it was so clunky. The chemistry between characters was nonexistent, and don't get me started on the "love triangle". The villain was a caricature and not at all scary. In all, not a good book. I do. It recommend this one. ARC provided by Netgalley

Review of Perfect by Rachel Joyce

The book Perfect is a story of how something that seems small and insignificant can change the lives of not only an entire family, but extend to many others as well. In 1972 when 11 year old Byron learns from his best friend, James, that the government will be adding 2 seconds to the time in order to align the clocks properly with the sun's rotation, he becomes so obsessed with how this possibly could occur that he sets in motion a chain of events that will devastate not only his own family, but James' as well. Rachel Joyce writes a side-by-side tale of past and present, that begins somewhat slowly. It is written with such beautiful language that when the events begin to speed up, it's almost secondary to the flow of words. The past tale tells of the events of 1972, while the story in the present tells of a man named Jim, late of Besley House, a local mental institution that had closed and left its residents to find their own way, many of whom, like Jim, haven't been able to function in society for 40 or more years. These two stories eventually reach their separate crescendoes, while simultaneously bringing the reader to fully understand what has happened to each character and why. Ms. Joyce has quite a talent for writing about mental illness from the inside. Her descriptions of OCD from the sufferer's perspective are illuminating. The redemptive quality to this story is sad but also quite joyous for its characters. In all, an excellent read. I highly recommend it.

Review of Circle of Death (Damask Circle #2)

Circle of Death, the second installment of the Damask Circle series, is a bit of a step up from the first, but with a great deal of similarities. The main characters, Doyle and Kirby, are similar to Maddie and Jon in many ways. Doyle is a bit of a rogue, but more smitten and more committed than Kirby to a budding romance. Very similar to Jon's character. Kirby is afraid of her power as Maddie was and had also killed with it, making her reluctant to use it again. It seems she, like Maddie, used her power to protect herself and other young girls from an abuser. The story seemed a bit smoother than Circle of Fire. The romance angle still far-fetched, but the ending was a lot less ridiculous. We also got to learn a bit more about what the Damask Circle actually is in this book. Still not terribly well crafted, as was my complaint from the first book. Mariel, the bad guy, wasn't very scary. Certainly less so than the abundant evil creatures in this story, eating brains and the like. Better, but not great. ARC provided by Netgalley

Review of Tie Me Down by Tracy Wolff

I love a good sexy book. The more hard-core loving, the better. I am not a fan of the romance genre, per se, but I will read a book that has a romantic story line, especially if there is a hard-edged story to go along with it. Unfortunately, this story did not fit the bill for me. The police procedural story line was weak at best, and almost seemed written as an afterthought. That would have been ok with me if the sex story line had done the job. That part started out fine, although I thought it a bit weird that the first sex scene was only a few pages into the book. There was absolutely no build up between the characters. No sexual tension, except the tension the author told us was there between the characters. That also might have been ok, except that every time these two had sex, whatever they experienced was the "hardest" or "wettest" or "strongest" they had ever experienced sex or their body parts. After a while, when the author wrote this EVERY SINGLE TIME the characters had sex, it got a little ridiculous. This book just didn't do it for me. ARC provided by Netgalley

Circle of Fire (Damask Circle #1)

This is clearly a first book. I am a big fan of Keri Arthur, having burned through the Riley Jensen series and eagerly reading the Risa Jones series as well. This book isn't half as compelling as all of those others. For starters, this is the first in the series of The Damask Circle. Well. Having read this book, I don't have the faintest clue what the Damask Circle is, does or represents. There is exactly one sentence in the story referring to what they are, and we don't actually meet any of their members, other than Jon. So let's talk about Jon. We don't actually learn anything about him either, other than the fact that he's a hawk shifter and hunts evil magic users. And yet Maddie, a weak character herself, takes him back at the end, after an 18 month absence, with no reluctance at all. He's not so bad as a romantic lead, or at least he has potential but it isn't realized in the story. Maybe the comparison isn't fair, but he's no Quinn. As for Maddie, maybe I'm just used to kick-ass women like Riley and Risa, who are both more complicated and more interesting than Maddie. Maddie at least had the backstory that Jon was lacking, but one that didn't add much to the story, except as a vehicle for her constant terror. I also found Eleanor, the "bad guy", to be a cardboard cut-out when compared to characters like Madeline Hunter and quite a few others from Arthur's other stories. I felt almost as though these books were a framework, one that the author could have easily enhanced with some of the complicated plot points or ideas that she has previously. The one thing I did enjoy in this story was the lack of vampires that have become so ubiquitous in UF novels. I liked the fire starter angle, as well as a non-wolf shifter. For those reasons, I think it's possible this series might have some potential. I will try the next book in the series and hope for the best. ARC provided by NetGalley

The Cleansing by Sam Kates

The Cleansing is an interesting tale with a very of-the-moment theme: the Doomsday Virus. Throw in some thousands-of-years old aliens, a few cultural references, and you've got one heck of an action story. I found it fascinating that "the people" believe themselves to be above and better than humans, who they refer to as drones, but that their behavior is as human as you can get. Some, like both Milandra and Peter, are sympathetic to the human cause, even after spending thousands of years watching us commit all manner of violent acts on each other. Others, like Simone and Troy, are cruel, violent and epitomize the very worst of humanity while still feeling superior. I enjoyed how the author made us guess who was going to be a "good guy" (for lack of a better word), and who a "bad guy". There were some interesting surprises along the way, here, which added to the originality and excitement of the story. In all, I throughly enjoyed his book. ARC copy provided by Netgalley

Link for The Story of Beautiful Girl, Kindle edition