"I'm... fine.
"You don't sound fine.
Because my d!ck is hard enough to hammer nails. All I want to do is sink to the floor and bury myself deep in you."

And that is pretty much what you get with the fourth book in the series. Lots of restraining himself from the male lead and lots of not running away but actually goading him from the female lead.

The main couple consists of:

Wilson, the resident joker of the I-Ops and a wererat. He is the reason I am giving this book half a star more than the third book. Wilson is much more fleshed out as a character and I felt extremely bad for him in the previous books because honestly no one deserves constant bashing like he got. He got captured and was imprisoned in some facility where he is being tortured and experimented on. The I-Ops practically gave up on him (I bet they wouldn't have given up that quickly if any of the other guys went missing but okay, whatever) and if not for the three hormonal ladies that insisted on still searching they might not have found him in the end, which might also have been for the best when I think about it because they were much safer before they were discovered (but I do not wish to get into spoilers, just saying poor Kim).

One more thing that really annoyed me was what has been done with Wilson's character or rather hasn't been done is the shifting itself. All other male leads have shifted or partially shifted in front of their mates. For heaven's sake, even Lance who had minimal time in the first book shifted while banging Melanie. But Wilson doesn't shift in this book, nope, because Wilson is a rat so it might not be a pleasant thought for the readers or something. I, on the other hand, think that is discriminatory and wish it would have been done. Wilson is just as much of a shifter and a good guy as the rest but the author keeps putting him down. It is really aggravating.

And Kimberly or Kim, some sort of Fae. She is a grad student apparently researching some indigenous plants in the rainforest and gets captured by her professor and gets locked up in the same facility as Wilson. She is as well being experimented on and ends up in Wilson's cell. He protects her, she protects him and that's how the story plays out. Her character isn't really that fleshed out as Wilson's but it also isn't all that confusing like Melinda's from the previous book. I do have a thing I am not fully clear on and that is her powers. Kim is at least part Fae and she knows she has strong powers but in several instances she is afraid of using them not to hurt Wilson which didn't sit well with me. It wasn't really explained on why that would happen and if she ever had any previous bad experiences. It was just a plot device to keep them imprisoned for a longer period of time.

Wilson and Kim as a couple work better than I would have thought. Kim actually questions this instant love mate thing and wonders how can she marry someone she only knows for a number of days. Which is definitely a valid point with all of them. They have a good enough chemistry and I wasn't as annoyed this book around because Wilson was the main character.

The problems I have with this book and consequently with the entire series is just the basic premise it seems. In the first and second book it was okay because it was when I encountered it first so it didn't bother me but now it is starting to get on my nerves.

Formula goes:

Female in trouble, male come rescue this woman that we pretend is strong but is nothing without your sexy abs and now we are immediately married because mate means it is fated and you cannot choose whom you love and yeah, bam, instant pregnancy as well.

All heroines are now pregnant, they have all moved in with their well, husbands as it stands, despite knowing them for a couple of days before doing the rest. Like I said, it was fine in book 1 and book 2 but the exact same thing has been repeated now in 4 books in a row without any deviation and I feel like I have read one book four times over.

I will not continue with this series because it seems it has no variety to offer. Female in danger, male saves, insta love, boom baby here, move on to the next couple. Do all female leads have to immediately get pregnant? If the sperm is that potent from all the shifters, how many kids will they have until they die of exhaustion of having too many kids? It's just... a bit too much for my taste.

If you like reading the exact same thing over and over knowing exactly what will happen next, be my guest, there are plenty left but I know when to start something different.

Death in Focus is the first book in a new series by Anne Perry. It features Elena Standish, a seemingly ordinary girl who is trying to develop a career in photography (see what I did there?) in the years between WWI and WWII. 

I'm having a hard time understanding how Anne Perry is going to make a series out of the adventures of Elena Standish. Mainly because Elena should have been dead a thousand times over by the end of the first book. 

This book was pretty awful. I've been working on putting down books that I know are going to be one star reads for me. There are too many books waiting for me. Why waste time on books that aren't going to be any good? This book was an exception to that rule. Be warned there are a lot of potential spoilers ahead.

Elena was the biggest problem with this book. She was flat out stupid. At several points during the novel, the reader is reminded that Elena has more poor choices regarding men before. We aren't told exactly what her previous flame does. All we know is he betrayed England during WWI. He made her look like a fool. The reader is told this several time. Elena tells herself this several times. One might think a person would learn her lesson. If you can't trust a man you knew for years and found yourself to be in love with, why in the world are you trusting a man you met on the street in a foreign country? I have no idea what the answer to that is. Elena does though. Or at least she must have a good reason because that's exactly what she does. More than once. 

Elena decided to abandon her sister in Italy and go fleeting to Paris with a man she just met. The trip to Paris is interrupted when her new love interest is given a secret mission that requires him to immediately go to Berlin. "I'll just go to Paris and wait for you." That's what you might think Elena would say. You'd be wrong. Elena decides she should go to Berlin (a current powder keg where Hitler is doing everything he can to throw a match) with this man she knows nothing about.

Long story short, the man ends up murdered. Elena ends up on the run. She spills her guts to every stranger she meets but then can't figure out why the German police are after her. Meanwhile in England, her grandfather who use to be the head of MI-6 can't seem to come up with a plan to keep tabs on Elena and get her out of trouble. 

This was one of the most absurd, unbelievable novels I have read in a long time. I really only finished it thinking that the publisher was pulling a fast one on readers. Elena ends up dead at the end of the novel and there's actually going to be an entirely different series. Hopefully a series featuring Elena's Luger wielding grandma, Josephine. There's your series folks. If it weren't for the anachronistic political discussions sprinkled in, I would have forgot I was reading an Anne Perry novel. This had none of the trademarks of her Pitt, Monk, or even Christmas novels. 

I'm sorry, but this went on my "hell no!" shelf faster than you could say 'Mike'. Because honestly? It doesn't even matter to me of it is a good thriller per se, or not.

This book is everything Stieg Larsson's life partner has been fighting against ever since he left this world way before his time. Stieg Larsson was a brilliant writer and was, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most authentic and GOOD men this world and profession has seen in a long time.

What made his works so terrific was his extraordinary eye for detail, his talent to draw you in with even the most mundane descriptions of people's actions or thoughts. And he kept you absolutely hooked with his carefully drawn, wonderfully complex and unconventional (anti-)heroes.

Now, under normal circumstances, it is almost impossible to reach the standards he set for his series and genre. And even though I was saddened beyond belief that the other 7 books of his Millenium Saga weren't finished before his untimely death, I also believe in the right of every author to decide what to publish or not. Fact of the matter is, Larsson didn't publish more books in the series because they weren't done. Because he didn't want to! And his partner is still fighting for his scripts and drafts to remain unpublished and not being used by somebody else.

So this book right here? Has NOTHING to do with Stieg Larsson. Absolutely nothing. I find it insulting and more than a little disrespectful to use his name for something that 1. is not even really inspired by his own vision for the series - because his scripts are still being guarded by his life partner and 2. is a result of somebody along the line thinking: "What the hell? So he's dead. Let's just do it ourselves, it can't be that hard." Because f* you very much. It is THAT hard. Least of all because it's not your freaking story to continue!

So I'm not going to touch this one. Like I said, maybe it's not even a bad book. But I absolutely don't care. Right here, the wishes and ideas of an author are hurt post mortem, with no regard to his personal ideals, visions or feelings while he was still alive.

IMHO, there are few ways to completely disrespect one of the most authentic and brilliant writers of our time and his legacy more than this thing does. It's shameful, wrong and I hate it. 

That's all. 

Description (Goodreads):

Lost, without his memory, in an unfamiliar world, Erik Farrell must piece together a new life for himself. Can he survive as the only living boy left in the world?

My Thoughts:

This story follows a young boy who has ran away and can't remember why. He hides under a rock and falls asleep with a teddy bear he found. When he awakens he finds himself in a strange world unlike our human one. He is captured and taken to a place where many other creatures are being held also. Then he is forced into an arena to fight for his life against a nonhuman woman warrior who he was with when he was caught.

I havent read too many comics and really think this is amazing. I love the graphics.  The story was easy to understand and had enough action to keep my attention. I am anxious to see this world grow, and will definitely read the next issue. This is a the first installment of a series of stories featuring these characters, it is a cliffhanger. 

Recommandations:

This is I  the young adult category and is rightfully placed there. People older may enjoy this also, I am 32. If you like fantasy and enjoy comics, I don't think you will regret giving this a try.