Tami

Work sucked so hard.

And I found a job offering that sounded like my dream job. Went through three rounds of interviewing. Got turned down. Thought ok, you weren't at your best, they could smell your desparation.

Found another job offering that sounded even better. Went through three rounds of interviewing, even took an early flight to London. Thought life is great, and this is the reason why dream job number 1 didn't work out.

Got turned down.

On my birthday.

So, yeah, I have been doing some re-reading of my favourite books.

But I am over it now. (I am not).

Work still sucks. But it pays the bills.

And the sun shines.

Still with the best husband ever. So, I will get over it eventually.

Only tried it because it was free on kindle unlimited. I expected a cheesy almighty warrior falls for beautiful girl story. 

Boy, was I wrong!

This was gritty! It started with a really grisly scene where the heroine, a tough firefighter sets the male protag on fire. Literally. And painfully. And awfully.

Most of the story is truly spent on Pestilence slowly being showns that humans, humanity are not as awful as they seem (and they seem pretty awful).

I loved that it wasn't a quick insta-anything.

A really gripping story and some development not only in the characters, but also their relationship.

Can't wait for the second installment!

It was well enough written, that I could consume it in one go, the protags were not annoying and it had solid world-building.

It was a bit too sappy and heroic for my taste, especially given that the male protag was supposed to be this big baddie. And turned out to be a big softie.

It was a good read, but I don't think I will follow the series.

Ich bin eigentlich ein großer Fan von Remarques Schreibstil und seinen wohl bekanntesten Büchern.

Dieses hier kann ich leider nicht empfehlen.

Die weibliche Hauptperson kam mir nicht echt vor, sie wirkte nur wie ein Kunstgriff, die faszinierend schöne junge Frau, die so losgelöst und kühl bleibt, weil sie weiß, dass sie stirbt.

Und darum verliebt sich der Rennfahrer in sie. Denn als Person bleibt sie schablonenhaft und uninteressant.

Das Ende kam völlig erwartet und so wenig überraschend, dass es wiederum überraschend war, dass dieser völlig vorhersehbare Kniff gezogen wurde.

Und das Buch hat mich sehr deprimiert. Also auch kein schönes Leseerlebnis.

The breaker of chains - Jordan Hawk: nice installment in an ongoing series, feels a bit drawn out, story stretched thin over time

The world walker - Ian Sainsbury: Great writing, cool story, innovative world-building

The unmakind enginge - Ian Sainsbury: Part two of the story

The seventeenth year - Ian Sainsbury: Part three of the story

It was better than an ok read. 

I did enjoy parts of it.

I liked Cynthia, and the whole setting.

The vampire thing was pretty run of the mill.

I think the female lead would have deserved a better series, a better, more interesting world building than the "normal" mighty vampire lord stuff.

Still, it was a good read.

And it kind of works.

Mostly.

The banter, the interaction between the protags, the ghost stories - all good.

But overall it left me a bit sad.

Still a good read.

This had a promising start, although the "superpower" of being totally attractive didn't really flash me.

It was too much a "girl power" - even with the compulsion thrown in.

The first half was a decent read mostly - I found the token bad ass BFF to remain unfortuantely quite pale, more a plot tool than character.

The too beautiful male protag was too good, too torn, too powerful, too everything.

The second half was soulmatey lovey dovey and the whole mystery part was not really interesting. I assume it was more a stage setting for the sequel, but I lost all interest already, so no fairy land for me.

So.

We were searching for a new series to binge-watch.

Tried some fantasy (Grimm), some humor (Mrs. Mazel) and some crime stuff.

And then I tried this one. Just for shit and giggles.

And I loved it. My husband as well (he likes strong women, what can I say :)).

I so so want to work for the editor in chief, Jacqueline. She is the greatest boss imaginable.

Wise, strong, full of integrity and confidence.

The stories resonate with me, although I am 10 to 15 years older than the protags, not really into women's magazines, make-up and so on.

I still enjoy this immensely.

I didn't really like Paige in the second installments of the Otherworld series (arrogance meet stupid and her colleague weakness), but I thought that might have been due to Elena being such a cool heroine, so I decided to give Paige a chance.

But nope.

I got really impatient with her - not a good situation if you have to roll your eyes at the protag every second page.

She is naive, bordering on stupid. She doesn't handle any situation well. She comes across as a quite weak idiot. The story evolves around her mistakes in judgement.

And I am not interested in this.

That is not why I read Urban Fantasy. So I did myself a favour and quit.

SPOILERS IN REVIEW!

So.

Merit has become the ultimate Mary Sue. Smarter, stronger, more alluring, well connected, ex-Debutante, but rebellious, intellectual, loyal, sassy - she is everything with legs for miles.

And she is boring.

Incredibly boring and predictable. Totally crushing on Ethan, because he is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

And the rest: the story has so many plotholes, it is not even a real story anymore.

First the whole "Celina has been set lose" line - her whole incarceration doesn't make sense. If humans are so hung up on security and wary of vampires, she would have been executed immediately and not expediated to the UK for some prison time for killing two humans. That just does not fly with the "Ethan is so worried Humans will kill the vampires off or at least ground them in their mansions" stupidity.

She was kept alive to be re-used as baddy. A bad choice as she was uninteresting the first time around.

Then Ethan himself. He is supposed to be this great master and so on, but his only plan so far is to use Merit's social clout. Wow, how conniving!

Then the blackmail story. The threat was to expose the vampire rave parties and thus sway the Humans against the vampires. This threat was voiced by a shifter - a supernatural group that has not been outed yet.

See any problem with that? A super secret group threatens another group with some minor secret?

Yeah.

Major major pet peeve: boy. Ethan gets called "boy" a lot. Morgan the sad clown gets called "boy". Merit talks about herself as "girl". She is 28, for g*d's sake. Ethan is over 400 and was 30 years when he was turned.

This intensifies the feeling of a very immature and at the same time unhealthily horny Young Adult story.

UGGGHHHH.

I liked the set up with the bookworm turned vampire.

I liked how present her BFF was.

I was ok with the super hyper sexyness of all things vampire.

I wasn't a huge fan of the villain - very standard, not impressive at all.

What I didn't like: the inconsistencies in the story. The over the top attraction between Merit and Ethan. That was more than ridiculous.

Great crime plot - something I truly appreciate about this.

A lot of m/m books focus on gay relationships, but this feels like a well-written crime novel with a PI who just happens to be gay.

It has a lot of atmosphere and the side characters are giving it color and depth.

I very much enjoyed it!

It was too easy - the insta-attraction with the tgtbt superhero was too much.

A pity, the beginning was very promising, especially the world-building.

I am a big Trevor Noah fan, so reading this was a no-brainer.

It was a very interesting and also touching insight into his childhood and youth in South Africa.

I actually didn't really find it very funny. I admire him now even more, I love how positive he is.

So, it was a good read, though not really what I expected.

I re-read a lot of my favourite UF books to calm myself down, relax or just try to cope.

Live is really one of the hardest.

And January sucks especially.

A few months ago I started dreading the Monday on Sunday afternoon. I am now starting to dread the Monday on Saturday morning...

There is not enough Star Trek, LotR, Star Wars, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs e.a. in this world.