Tag: Jeanne-Stein • BookLikes

review 2017-12-05 00:00

Hexed - Ilona Andrews,Jeanne C. Stein,Yasmine Galenorn,Allyson James

I picked up this Anthology to listen to the novella Magic Dreams (Kate Daniels #4.5) only. I LOVE the Kate Daniels series and have been listening to the books and loving them all over again. Instead of just listening to Magic Dreams I went ahead and listened to all four novellas; Magic Dreams, Ice Shards, Double Hexed, and Blood Debt. This Anthology was interesting and each novella was different and enjoyable to listen too.

Magic Dreams - 5 Stars

Here we get Jim & Dali, two shapeshiftes in the Cat Clan. If you are familiar with the Kate Daniels series then you have an idea of who these two are. Jim shows up in the first book and Dali shows up in the third book, but here we get to see more into them, their insecurities, and mating dance. Lots of fun to listen too and learn more about these two.

The Narrator: Renée Raudman did a superb job with the narration. The audiobook brings out the emotions, characters, mystery, and adventure.

Ice Shards - 4 Stars

Ice Shards takes place in the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon #9.5 series. I haven’t tried this series yet, but do have book one on my TBR. This novella has made me want to bump up trying out Yasmine Galenorn. Iris has to face her past. I like how her past is weaved into the now. I found this novella interesting and entertaining.

The Narrator: Cassandra Campbell did a wonderful job. I really enjoyed the Irish accent given to Iris and all the other different voices for the other characters.

Double Hexed - 3 Stars

Double Hexed is part of the Stormwalker #2.5 series. This one I felt lost and like I was missing something. The familiar connections between the characters just wasn’t their for me. All the people introduced are friends, acquaintances, or a lover. This novella focused on Janet the main character in the Stormwalker series. We also get Coyote the God, Mike a dragon, Cassandra a witch, Ansel a Nightwalker, and a few others. Theirs a cute/hex on the inn that Janet runs. Their more dark primal instances are coming out. This novella wan’t working so well for me. It didn’t make me want to go out and pick up the Stormwalker series.

The Narrator: She did a good job. The voices where unique and you could distinguish between the different characters.

Blood Debt - 4 Stars

Blood Debt is Anna Strong Chronicles #6.5 series. We meet Anna a bounty hunter/vampire. Something in her past is coming back to bit her in the butt. We learn about her, her past, and how she was turned. She’s got to defend her actions in an otherworld court. Not just her life, but another’s is on the line. It’s interesting. Anna is determined to protect those who can’t defend themselves. I’m curious to try the Anna Strong Chronicles series. It sounds like it has adventure, mystery, and fun characters.

The Narrator: She did a wonderful job. All the voices where alive and unique. The story came alive.

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review 2016-07-01 00:00

The Becoming

Lyndi

The covers for this entire series are beautiful and I love the premise. But I hate love triangles. Especially love triangles that turn into love hexagons and dodecahedrons. So... I'm not going there.

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review 2016-03-01 22:23

Anna and the Vampire Prince (Anna Strong Chronicles #9.5) by Jeanne C. Stein

Fangs for the Fantasy

Anna And The Vampire Prince (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles Book 10) - Jeanne C. Stein

Anna has finally found happiness and love in her romantic life with her shifter husband Frey. Unfortunately life often delivers the good with the bad and for Anna this means mourning the death of her mother. When Frey and her step son John-John return to the America, Anna decides to stay behind and help her father and niece adjust to their loss.

Someone has been kidnapping young girls and even after the parents pay the ransom the girls are still murdered. This new story goes from something awful to something close to home when Trish's best friend is abducted one day. Deciding that poor Trish has suffered enough loss for someone so young, Anna decides that no matter she is going to find Cecily but to do that she has to enlist the aid of one the world oldest vampires - Vlad. With time quickly running out Anna learns that there's much more to this rash of kidnappings than what the human authorities think.

Anyone new to the Anna Strong Chronicles will really not have a hard time following this story though it is 9.5 in the series. Stein does a good job of telling her story without requiring readers to have a lot of knowledge about her world; however, this means that for longtime readers, there's really not much on offer except the fact that Anna has settled into married life which we knew at the end of Blood Bond. That's not really a lot to offer readers after a three year hiatus, particularly when we were lead to believe that Blood Bond would be the last in the series. I understand that a short story is meant to be a vignette but this just felt shallow particularly given that Anna got her HEA at the end of the last book.

It really is not helped that at least a good portion of the plot is recycled. Once again we were given the specter of vampires seeking to take over the earth and use humans as blood bags and servants. This issue was already settled so the only reason to go over this territory again is perhaps a shortage of ideas on the part of Stein. Fortunately, because this is a short story, it didn't last long enough for me to be completely bored but it reading it was about as exciting as watching we paint beige paint dry bland...bland...bland.

Where Stein did go right was the discussion of France's xenophobia and it's treatment of migrant workers. Given recent world events like the murders at Charlie Hebdo, the Paris attacks, and the UN calling out France for its failure "to curtail the soaring trend of violence, hate and xenophobic speech against foreign communities", the plot line of Anna and the Vampire is at least on point when it comes to current events. The problem is that something this series cannot even remotely begin to be discussed in one book, let alone a short story. It's reductive at best and fails to give the subject matter the seriousness that it deserves. I don't object that Stein went there, I object to the fact it felt like she barely committed to the point she was trying to make, particularly when the last part of the book is filled with Vlad's abdication of power and his declaration of love for Anna.