Review: Marrow

Marrow by Tarryn Fisher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I have to stop fucking killing people.


I ended up pulling an all nighter in my desperation to finish this book, and sadly I am still barely functioning right now. I'm too old for that shit. But every time I tried to find an acceptable stopping point, something else happened that forced me to keep trucking along with Margo until the end.

I always find it incredibly hard to actually review one of Tarryn's books. I don't know that I feel eloquent enough to do her books justice. When I say eloquence, it isn't in the language of her books alone, but it's the feelings that emanate from her characters and her words. With Marrow it is the sense of utter frustration. Margo is fed up with her lot in life and in the Bone in general. After witnessing so many horrors, she just snaps and becomes a kind of vigilante serial killer seeking justice for the people who can't get it for themselves. It's a bit of a heartbreaking journey to watch, seeing a girl become so beaten down from her life that she breaks in such a way. It does, however, speak volumes for the ability of an author that you still root for such a character. You go along with her wholeheartedly as she stalks her prey. Those recesses of your mind that people don't like to believe are there celebrate what she is doing, seeking justice for those who are killed, raped or abused. Margo is her own justice system and a small part of you actually respects her for that. That is the ability that Tarryn has in her writing with her anti-heroines. It's an amazing thing and one of the reasons that I toss 5 star reviews on her books like freaking confetti. I may not like the subject matter, some of the characters or even the incredibly depressing ending, you feel it every step of the way.

I also want to mention all of the call backs to her previous books. Marrow obviously ties into Mud Vein in an incredibly strong way, but it isn't only that. It's the bright blue Docs, the blue nail polish, the carousel that goes round and round, the trip to Florida, the pink Zippo. It's like a love letter to the readers who have been with her every step of the way. For someone who has such a black soul, it's pretty freaking amazing to see how much she loves her characters and the readers who love them along with her.

(And she's pretty too, because really that is all that matters.)



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Review: The Raven

The Raven by Sylvain Reynard

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I've seen the word soporific tossed around in a few reviews already and I'll just go ahead and add that one in this one too. Because seriously. It's my own fault though, I really should have known better. I was absolutely not a fan of Gabriel's Inferno, but I have been on a PNR kick so I decided to give this a shot just in case. Lesson learned.

The worst part of me is that even if this wasn't one of the most pretentiously boring books I have read in a long time, it honestly seemed like a giant cop out of a book. It just seemed like all of the vampire stuff he took out to make Gabriel's Inferno an "acceptable" fan fic and tossed it into this book and called it a day. Outside of the amazing level of detail that he added in with Botticelli's work, there was really nothing that worked for me.

Anyway, I'm opting to go with 2 stars on this. Honestly, I considered one but one of my biggest pet peeves with any book is when an author just skips over fully researching their subject matter, and it is obvious that this wasn't the case here. I respect that, even if I disliked the book itself.



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Review: The Unleashing

The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Color me somewhat surprised but I really, really enjoyed this.

This is my first foray into Norse mythology..well other than Thor but let's face it, as pretty as Tom Hiddleston & Idris Elba are is, there isn't much to the movie past the pretty. I loved all of the mythology, even though there wasn't much in the way of detail other than the basics, but it gives me an excuse to wikipedia binge later on tonight so complaints from me. The star of this book, however, were the Crows. All of the women were strong, funny and relatable. That just isn't something that is horribly common in PNR books and it really makes me want to sit down and read everything this author has written to see if they continue on with that trend. And to add even more yay to this, I even liked all of the Ravens. So much win.

The only thing that keeps me from just 5 starring this and calling it a day was the fact that the point of views were really jumpy. It wasn't something that bothered me, per se, but if I got even a little sidetracked I could lose track of who was talking and need to skip back a bit. Anyone with those pesky little creatures who insist on interrupting your reading time for things like food or referring the potential start of an all out war over the Xbox know that being sidetracked is pretty much guaranteed. It obviously didn't hinder my process too terribly much though, so like I said, no major complaints about it.

Anyhoo. Great read, great mythology, great characters. It's really a win win kind of situation here.



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Review: Love, in Spanish

Love, in Spanish by Karina Halle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I love how real this series is. Adultery isn't pretty, it's an incredibly painful situation for everyone involved and Karina doesn't sugar coat it. However, even despite how tough it is, she is able to write it in a way where, even if you don't agree with their actions, you can empathize with them. You may not agree with anything about how their relationship started, but you can understand why it happened and want them to achieve their happiness together, despite how it started. I think that really says something about the characters that Karina has created with Vera and Mateo. As for LIS specifically, I really appreciated seeing more from Mateo's perspective. And that this was a true follow-up and not a recreation of LIE. I loved being able to further delve into their relationship as they continue to struggle to piece everything together. Neither of them are perfect, but together they are something perfect in their imperfections, so it makes for a great read.



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Review: The Dangers of Dating a Rebound Vampire

The Dangers of Dating a Rebound Vampire by Molly Harper

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This wasn't my favorite book, but Gigi is still one of my favorite female character in this and the Jane Jameson series. I love how incredibly sarcastic she is and the relationship that she has with Iris. I wasn't a fan of Gigi and Nik's relationship though. Unlike the rest of Molly's books, their relationship just didn't really seem as fleshed out. I could blame it on the fact that they only had one book, but I had a better understanding of Miranda and Collin's relationship and they only had a novella. The connection was just missing between the two of them.

It may not have been as good as her other books, but it was still incredibly entertaining. Especially when you need something that is easy to read and won't fail to make you laugh.



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Review: Murder of Crows

Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I did Written in Red, but it was still a great read. My issues lie with the fact that it occasionally had the feel of a filler. As we moved closer to the end of the book, however, that eased up quite a bit.

The most interesting aspect of these books for me has been Meg and Simon. It isn't only their relationship,but the growth they are both going through while experiencing everything that is going on in their world. But as for their relationship, the fact that this author already has me so invested in their non-relationship speaks volumes for her talent. I am very impatiently waiting to see how it continues.

The other part of this book that really hit home for me was the level of the horrors that the humans are reaching in their war against the Terra Indigene. I probably shouldn't feel such a strong connection for a group of characters who would easily kill those who break their laws, but at the same time I have to respect how open they are about it. They aren't humans, they don't follow human laws but they don't beat around the bush about that. Should I be happy when they destroy entire towns in retaliation? Is it okay to wish death on the person who orchestrated the cassandra sangue to go into the meat grinders It just opens up so many questions about how you would handle this if you were in the position of the human police in the books and also makes you think about the situations in the real world. It's just fascinating and I love that despite how entertaining it is, it also makes me sit back and think about more than just the entertainment factor.

Anyway.

It's only book 2 of 5, but I am already dying to see where else this author is going to take us with this series. If it continues on this path, I can only see amazing things.



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Review: Thoughtful

Thoughtful by S.C. Stephens

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This pains to me to say, literally pains me, but I was not a fan. It's Kellan, so I should automatically love it, especially since I have a slightly irrational love of Thoughtless. Thoughtful, however, just did not work for me.

I think the biggest thing when alternate point of view books come into play, is that they need to really accentuate the previous book. I don't want to read the EXACT same book, just in the other party's view. It needs to bring something more to the series. The only more that Thoughtful brought was hatred. I hated Keira in Thoughtless. She was an selfish idiot who played with the hearts of two people. But seeing it from Kellan's view only made it so much worse. Not only that, it really made me wonder why he was even bothering. There was nothing in this book that gave me that aha moment. Kellan just came across as vapid and wanting something he couldn't have. He idolized a relationship so much that he took it for himself. I'm assuming that we were supposed to understand that there was just that spark that neither of them could control, but I was never in a position where I could do that. And Keira. Well, she was the same, but knowing exactly how messed up Kellan actually was over the entire situation just made her so much worse.

There were good moments though. I did like seeing the few extra scenes that we did get, but there just wasn't enough to do anything for the series as a whole. I also did enjoy being in Kellan's head for a while before everything went to shit. But there is just an overall sense of disappointment in both this book in general and the fact that even though I already knew that I shouldn't love Thoughtless as much as I do, this book hammers home even more why I shouldn't. And that sucks.

1.5 Stars.



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