Look, this isn't a perfect book. Let's be honest, but the one thing that Armstrong did in this series (and sadly it still stands out today) is she actually has the women interact with each other. The bad guys are men and women, and the good guys are men and women. The evil women work together and the good women work together. The women are not in competition with each other and are actually friends. Even today, this is somewhat rare in UF and it is so refreshing to see this.

Additionally, in this book Armstrong shows how being a good person who has had a stable life does not necessary equal boring. I like that.

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.

Square 15 - Newtonmas

Book: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (5 stars - HIGHLY RECOMMEND)

Task: I am appreciating the alchemy that Arizona Diet Green Tea, apple liqueur from a local vineyard, and Jack Daniels' Honey whiskey has on my spirit while I peruse my dashboard while the holiday dinner is prepped and cooking. No reason for the diet version of the tea other than I like it a little more than the original formula. Next glass I am going to substitute mead for the whiskey.

Square 12 - Festivus

Book: I Know What I Am, But What Are You? by Samatha Bee (3 stars)

Task: Perform the Airing of Grievances

The books chosen for this task all have something in common - hype for the series or author that elevated my expectations, and that in reading these books my expectations were not only met, but plummeted to their death in the most gruesome way. And yet I read these books all the way to the end in desperate hope that they would end better than the 90% of the story. I was wrong to hope.

1. Dime Store Magic by Kelly Armstrong

     Weak-ass witches, dumbass villains, and a plot centered on a 13 year old girl's first menses. I should have taken the DNF and just not read for that Halloween bingo square. I don't understand how this author is so popular in the paranormal romance sub-genre - the writing was as weak as the witches.

2. Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin

     Aka A Walking Tour of Tang Dynasty China. Horrible first book except that readers get a small taste of the MCs in the second book (which was great! seriously, skip the first book and just start with the second). The only thing the dumbass heroine knew how to do well was runaway. So. Much. Walking.

3. A Rose for Major Flint by Louise Allen

    The first two books, written by other authors, were wonderful so I got my hopes up that the final book in the trilogy would send the series out on a high note. It failed miserably. This was basically a Harlequin Presents dressed up in early 19th century clothing. I was very much looking forward to Major Flint's story, but by the end I wished I didn't bother starting the book. I was so bored for most of this book that I would put it down to do household chores. A shallow, self-absorbed, manipulative brat of a heroine that is a dime a dozen in Regency romance. But it's too late as she and Adam have intimate relations and now Adam feels he has to marry the twit. Adam should have left her on the battlefield, honestly. 

4. Echoes in Death by JD Robb

    It's at this point in the series (book #44) that I am ready for the series to be done. Just give Eve her captain bars and let her ride the desk until retirement. The ghost writing is so strong in this novel and nobody wants three books worth of damn house renovations. The side characters were out of character (*side-eyes Peabody*). I am also tired of the crimes in the series - seems like the plot lines are ripped from Law & Order: SVU, just raping and brutalizing women and children. Of course the killer is a serial rapist and murder with Mommy issues (well, technically, Auntie issues). 

5. Emma and the Outlaw by Linda Lael Miller

    Old skool romance that is just too crazy to make it a "so bad it's good". Originally published in 1991, I read a 2014 reprint that wasn't updated at all. Once the sex starts between Steven and Emma it doesn't stop. EVERY CHAPTER after Steven takes Emma's v-card in a field of daisies has at least one sex scene. Steven really likes Emma's breasts;  so much nipple sucking and licking. Seriously after a while, the sex scenes were just repetitive nonsense. And there is endless threats of rape and one attempted rape of the heroine. But it is the not so subtle racism in this book that made me want to throw my NOOK at the wall. Memo to publishers/authors: before reprinting old romances, revise/update/edit the fuck out some shit that you got away with earlier, for modern readers are going to red flag that shit. Between the racism and the constant verbal rape threats/real sexual assaults by Macon and Fulton on Emma, I started to become sick and couldn't wait for the book to end (I was curious about the killer's identity).

In this book Michael Denning studies the working class of 19th and early 20th century America through an unusual medium – the books they read. He views young factory workers of both genders as the main audience of the mass-produced “dime novels” of the era, the action-adventure and rags-to-riches tales in which appealed to readers not as escapism but for the allegories they offered for their own often difficult lives. In this respect, he sees the consumption of the novels not as an act of escapism but as a way of mitigating the capitalist injustice which pervaded their readers’ lives. Though his own writing can be dense, Denning’s explanation of the production process of dime novels and his insights into their audience make this a valuable book for anyone interested in learning about the development of mass culture in Gilded Age and Progressive-era America.

Yeah, I am giving this book zero stars. I couldn't find more ineptitude in both writing and the story/characters if I tried. This is my first and last book from Kelly Armstrong.

Paige is the MC and she is an utterly crapastic moron. She is only the leader of the North American Coven because she inherited the title from her mom. She was also given custody of one of the Coven's Elders' niece after the kid's mom dies. Kid's mom was once a member of the Coven, then left to pursue stronger/dark magic, then returned to the Coven when she got knocked up. Kid's dad is a sorcerer and heir to the Nast Cabal; daddy dearest would love to own...I mean develop a loving bond with his half-dark magic witch/half sorcerer daughter, if only he can find her now that is crazy ex is dead. Kid is Savannah, a thirteen year old on the cusp of her witch abilities and puberty (which is important - her first menses is the supposedly highlight event of the book).

There is A LOT of info-dumping about what Cabals are, the differences between witches and sorcerers, the history of persecution witches faced, and lots of world building aspects that are just thrown in when Paige decides to monologue. Paige is clueless about so much of the supernatural world and really doesn't even have a handle on the witches' part of that world, so why would I as a reader want to be lectured by her? I don't.

Anyway, Paige is 23 and suffers from long-term TSTL, with the added bonus of being impulsive and a "loner". She is the typical New Adult heroine just with witch ability....and not that much of a witch's ability. She is a really crappy witch - and has the balls to snark at Wiccans. Savannah was an obnoxious brat and pretty clueless, something she has in common with Paige. Luckily, the two are constantly rescued by Lucas Cortez, heir to the Cortez Cabal and sorcerer. Paige was the nastiest bitch to him for so long in the book, I wondered about Lucas' sanity in helping the two moron witches every time they got into trouble of their own making. But a heroine needs a romantic interest, and Paige ultimately stops being a bitch to Lucas and jumps his bones in the most shoe-horned sex scene in the book.

The Nast Cabal are the villains and are just as inept as the good guys, so its all a wash. At certain points I was actively rooting for the Nasts to win, just to prove to everyone how much Paige sucks. Unfortunately, these were card board villains taken out by a thirteen year old who was on her period.

But it wasn't just the Cabal or Paige and Savannah that were inept; the entire Coven was a laughingstock. I wanted to read about bad-ass witches, not 93 year olds with dementia (yep, one of the witches mentioned at the one Coven meeting was described exactly like this) or 23 year old entitled brats like Paige. The fact that the Elders worked with the Nast Cabal to protect themselves and undermined their supposed leader was just one example of how much witches are weak in Armstrong's supernatural world. I already DNF'd one book for this square for the same reason - weak witches stumbling around and making piss poor decisions due to their hysterical panics. It doesn't help that in this world, witches are all women (and only have daughters) and weak while sorcerers are all men (and only have male children). It is such bullshit. This is just bad writing. Another point in the bad writing column is that the book is 50 chapters long and so choppy that at the end of one chapter tried to raise the suspense just for the next chapter to dissipate the suspense in the first sentence.

What a waste of time, but I was out of luck with this square.