The storyline seemed good, I think.  If I could figure out what the hell was going on.

 

 Something about magic seals, two (or more?) ways to interface with them, and a govt overthrow involving Real (humans), unReal (fairies and the like) and the Undead.  

 

Fairly interesting on the surface, but it feels like at any given time half the story is missing.  

 

And holy cow, the lack of emotion in everything is almost funny in itself.

 

A fight scene that could have been exciting was like reading the instructions for the next move in a game of chess.  He popped the eyeballs of another sorcerer and the info was relayed like he  was being informed that the paint was dry.

 

The MC sleeps with a woman warrior the first night they meet (of course). Thank god the author didn't try to describe the sex scenes, although the way he got past them was some of the weirdest fades to black I've ever encountered.  

 

The next day his crotch is itchy. He finds out the next night that he has caught a VD from her so he confronts her, wants to know why she didn't tell him and how to get rid if it.

She says she's got 'a bit of the plague' and didn't tell him the night before (yes, a 24 hr incubation to manifestation) because he should have looked himself, then she says 'a pox on both of us',  I'm guessing as an attempt at humor.  

Then they have sex again.  Seriously?  Although I suppose if he's got he can't get it worse, so why not.

 

All done with the emotion of a couple of cardboard boxes.

 

This attempt at clearing the TBR backlog may die an early death this time.  

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed parts of this book particularly Minn and Jake’s navigation of their friendship, but the misuse of the word hapa means I cannot and would not recommend it. Wong perpetuates the myth that “Hapa = slang for half Asian, half white.” This is not true. Hapa is a word appropriated from Hawaiian by half Asians, and it is inappropriate for Jake to use it as a descriptor for himself. See “On ‘Hapa’ And Cultural Appropriation” for more information (Light, 2009). 

The Haunting of Dove Cote House has a top shelf creep factor. There are ghosts on almost every page. I am a true fan of the Paranormal genre and Ghosts are my favorite. This book is filled with ghosts. You have the laughing little girl, the mean and nasty old lady, and the very creepy black mass with red eyes. 

 

In the book Cat Fletcher's fathers has passed away and left Dove Cote House to his only daughter. Although Cat grew up in the house a lot of her memories of the house are faded or fogged over. After she grew up and went off to college her parents never let her return to the house. 

 

Now as an adult and owner of Dove Cote she returns to the house. Almost immediately strange things start to occur, she hears laughter and see's shadows. The longer Cat is in the house the more she starts to remember things that went on as she grew up. The old lady would tuck her in at night and lay her clothes out for her in the morning. She has always heard the little girls laughter but never seen her, until now. 

 

She runs into her best friend from childhood Rob. Rob tells her he is now a paranormal investigator. At this point Cat still has no memories of all the happenings in her house. Rob comes to the house and the old lady ghost appears and tells him to get out. After this things really get strange and dangerous. Cat talks to the Father Thomas who is Priest of the local Catholic Church and asks for a house blessing, instead her calls upon a excommunicated Priest and Exorcist, Father James, to lend a hand to Cat and hr ghost problem.

 

It seems that the ghostly activity as well as demonic activity has been going on in Dove Cote for decades. Cat, Rob, Father Thomas, James and Cat's estranged husband Phil are all pulled into solving the mysteries of Dove Cote house, while trying to stay alive. 

 

I rally enjoyed this story. Rachel Jordan has done an amazing job. I loved how she adds her own personal paranormal experiences to this story. This is Rachel's debut novel. I personally cannot wait to see where she will go in her future novels.

 

I was given my copy of this book from the Author and as part of a book tour hosted by RABT book tours. 

 

Here's what works really well about Hurt People:
The child's perspective.
The narrative of Hurt People is told by an eight-year old boy. His view of the world is eye opening and arguably very accurate for a child. At times the author may get away from the voice to make the story clear for the reader, but I believe he does so sparingly and for good reason. For the most part, our narrator is a very average eight-year old:

But in this world, under these trees, I sat down and cried. Softly, as if I might waken the woods. I pulled my knees to my face and sobbed, louder this time, not caring who heard. When my eyes were spent, I lifted my head from my legs. The wet I left behind was a blob on my bony knee. I let my mind play the cloud game and tried to make a shape. Something that would cheer me up, replace my sea story. Something that would tell me to get on my feet, to keep moving. All I could think of, though, was the shape the chalk kid had drawn what seemed long ago. Before I learned the secrets of the Stranger. Before the kid and mom's apartment was robbed. Before Sandy and Rick, my dad, my mom, and everything else.

As I type this passage, I notice and question a couple details. Would this child use an astute phrase such as “waken the woods”? Maybe not, but it could easily be the kind of phrase that only a poet or a child could come up with. The other is “my eyes were spent.” This is a little harder for me to grasp. The overwhelming majority of eight year olds would not use “spent” to illustrate the end of weeping and it is my believe that the narrator of Hurt People would fall into the majority. And it's little things like this that pull me out of the otherwise flawlessly told paragraph.

Still, there's so much in this paragraph alone that I love. “The wet I left behind was a blob on my bony knee.” The wet, a blob... This is such a great sentence and totally believable. Then immediately, from a child who is sobbing uncontrollably, we get “I let my mind play the cloud game and tried to make a shape.” It's not unlike people to quickly let their logical mind take hold of a terrible situation and begin to make shapes out of nothing. It's even more indicative of a child. This detail is perfect and this story is filled with them.

Here's what doesn't work so well with Hurt People:
The adults. Now we're seeing everything through a child's lens, so that may play a role here. Even so, the actions of the adults seem grossly absurd. Honestly, these are the single worst parents I've ever read about who were not on trial or condemned for their poor parenting. These are parents who constantly put their children in danger and do not think twice about it. And they're incredibly dumb to boot. The list of offenses is far too long, but a few that come to mind include good old policeman dad abandoning the boys at night to go to the bar and responding to an emergency call of a prowler, leaving the kids in his cruiser while he investigates. Mom leaves the children completely unattended every day, lets her son run into an apartment building that could collapse at any moment, and is dating a man who verbally and physically abuses the children in front of her.

It's not just the parents who lack believability. Everything about the town seems exaggerated. The promise of a tornado sends this Kansas town into a frenzy. I've lived in Kansas all my life and I promise you, most people treat such storms as either routine or as an event to be viewed with awe, what I call "the double rainbow effect." Leavenworth itself is treated as a Podunk town, but no one ever acknowledges that it is a part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Sure, it's on the very edge and at the time this novel is based there would've been a good fifteen miles separating it from the nearest place of interest, but you'd think these people had never seen a skyscraper or been anywhere with a crowd. I promise you most of Leavenworth probably makes a semi-regular journey to KC. Yet, it's as though the author wanted to convince you they were a thousand miles from civilization.

And this is where I want to go back to the perspective of a child. Overall, Hurt People seems lazy and sloppy. Exaggerations and characterizations are on every other page. Frankly, the story of a prison escapee and the appearance of the new friend, Chris, make no sense. It was enough to annoy and anger me as a reader. Half way through this story all the way through the end I was irritated by the absurdity. I finished the novel and slapped a generous three-star rating on it and wondered how I could approach this review. A little distance has convinced me that maybe—and I'm not entirely sold on this possibility—Smith's debut is better than I initially thought.

I still think there are mistakes in perspective and that the story could've been tighter and more logical while in the mind of an eight-year old narrator, but I have to give Smith the benefit of the doubt: how would an eight year old tell this story? Would his childhood fear during a tornado merge onto the faces of other residents? Would his lack of life experience topped by a prison escape cause him to feel isolated? Would he paint his parents as perfect even though they frankly should have lost custody of him? Did the rest of Leavenworth even know about his parents' poor choices or did they turn a blind eye to everything because the boys' father was a police officer? There's more to this story beneath the telling of this child and it's only by looking through the cracks that one cannot help but notice that a reader may begin to see the true story.

Hurt People is not a perfect book and it was certainly a difficult read in more than one way, but I'm beginning to see that some of the complaints leveled at the novel are probably the result of not getting into the mind of an eight year old narrator. Smith missed the marked himself occasionally, but I think he did much better than most of us could have and that is why most of us are missing the parts of this novel done right. I'm bumping this one up to four stars and am eager to see what perspective the author takes in his next novel.

Frontier Want Ad Bride - Lyn Cote 4.25 stars

Sweet romance featuring a Civil War soldier suffering from PTSD, two abused orphans, and the emotionally supportive woman determined to make them a family. Really enjoyed this one. Full review to follow

Full Review
Since we will soon see the end of Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line, I have been reading them as the library acquires them. There is always a waitlist for them, so I don’t understand why Harlequin is pulling the plug on the line, but it is what it is. I happened to be browsing the catalog when Frontier Want Ad Bride was added, so I was the first to check it out.


I don’t know why I enjoy the mail order bride books so much. It would be extremely stressful to marry a guy you didn’t know, and to put your life and well being in his hands. Thank goodness it always works out for the Harlequin heroines, but I have serious doubts about it working as smoothly in real life. Most of the young brides have no other economic choice but to marry a stranger and hope for the best.

Judith has traveled to Wisconsin to marry Asa Brant. They have been writing letters to each other since the fall, and now that it’s spring and the boats can ply the rivers again, Judith and her sister Emma have made the journey to Pepin to marry their prospective husbands. They have been forced to this drastic measure because their brother’s nasty wife has run them out of the family home.

When they arrive at Pepin, Emma learns that her husband to be, Mason, had urgent business and had to leave town. Judith, meanwhile, is dismayed to learn that she is expected to marry Asa right now. She expected a short period to get to know him better, but the townsfolk have assembled at the school house, and before you know it, they are Mr. and Mrs. Asa Brant.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Asa is struggling with PTSD, and it’s keeping him from forming a relationship with his new bride. He is suffering from survivor’s guilt after half of his men died at Gettysburg. He thinks he isn’t worthy of love, and that he can never atone for the orders that caused the deaths of so many of his men.

Judith was a bit annoying when she wished she were prettier. Constantly. She thought that her looks were holding Asa back. When two abused children end up in their care, Judith has more than herself to worry about. When she set aside her insecurities and understood that the only person she had any control over was herself, I really liked her. She slowly began to understand that Asa’s emotional distance stemmed from the war, and she understood that patience might solve some of their issues. Instead of confronting him, she gave him the space he needed to put his guilt into perspective. Having the children around helped both of them see beyond their own needs. Uniting under a common cause, keeping the kids safe from their abuser, allowed them to grow closer as a couple.

Frontier Want Ad Bride kept me happily turning the pages of my Kindle. Judith matured into an emotionally supportive woman determined to make a new family for herself, while helping to bring comfort to her new husband, her father, and her equally unhappy brother. I look forward to reading more books by this author.