Book Review: Hell's Revenge by Eve Langlais

Review: Hell’s Revenge
Series: Princess of Hell – Book 3
Author: Eve Langlais
No of Pages: 80
Release Date: 3 October 2011

I am literally going to kill my mother.

To say I have mommy issues is putting it mildly. The woman who abandoned me has a lot of nerve to just saunter back into my life without warning and drop a bombshell of atomic proportions. I tried to kill her as way of resolving my inner Freudian issues, but my damned boyfriends stopped me. Spoilsports.

As if wanting to strangle my birth mother isn’t enough, once again, someone is messing with my life and a new player steps in to save me. Did I mention my dark knight is tall, gorgeous and fanged? Just don’t tell my lovers because apparently they’re not willing to share me with the undead.

The final showdown with the mysterious figure—also known as the major pain in my ass—fast approaches. I don’t care how powerful they are. They screwed up big time when they took something precious of mine. It’s never a good idea to piss off this Princess of Hell because revenge is my middle name.

My Thoughts:

Hell’s Revenge was a compelling finale to this fantastic trilogy.

Muriel is pregnant, and the child has two fathers…literally. But when her mum shows up to try and claim the child for herself, Muriel, who has never thought about ever having children up until now, refuses to relinquish her baby. Then the being who has been messing with Muriel for the last two books shows up to also stake a claim on the child, because if given the right upbringing it will have the power to destroy the world.

Muriel was once again an amazing character, she is strong but also has a way of seeming completely vulnerable about certain issues, and her character doesn’t ever mould to fit the scenario which is what I love about Langlais’ writing. Muriel is confronted with her mother, someone who she hasn’t known since she was five years old, and whom she has no memory of. Simultaneously she hates her mother for abandoning her and wants her love without ever showing it.

Langlais’ writing was masterful yet again. Her way of weaving the story, the relationship dynamic of a threesome and later foursome plus all of the comedy brought in by the hellish characters had me finishing this story way too quickly, her comedy writing rivals her smut with its laugh out loud quality. People like Muriel’s sister, Bambii, had only the single purpose of comic relief but it didn’t take away from their character at all, although Bambii only appeared for about a page, her story still has a way of sticking with you and making you want to read more into her life. For such a short appearance she had a very well-rounded character.

I will say once again as I have said before, that the whole idea of a permanent threesome relationship doesn’t really work for me, as addressed in the story numerous times Muriel’s soul mate is Auric, which leaves me feeling a little bad for the other two. That imbalance grates on me a little and I’m not completely sold on the concept, but the sex that Langlais wrote including the other two men was completely hot. If it was just that and no relationship part I’d love it.

For a novella I felt that this story had all the elements balanced perfectly, we weren’t bombarded with smut yet the story maintained a quick and action packed pace without missing out on any key fights or information.

Hell’s Revenge was an amazing read and a beautiful end to this whirlwind of a trilogy. Langlais has earned a spot on my watch list and I am making an effort to read everything she comes out with now because of this series.

Also in this Series:
Lucifer's Daughter
Snowballs in Hell

Book Review: Hunter Green by Brianna Stoddard

Review: Hunter Green
Author: Brianna Stoddard
No of Pages: 161
Release Date: 4 November 2010

HUNTER GREEN will blow you away! It is an amazing story that will show you the world in a whole new light! It is focused on an incredible teenage girl, named Emily, who sadly loses her mother from a menacing, evil werewolf. Emily vows revenge and begins hunting the creatures down. She gets help from Isabella, a kind Psychic Gypsy that knows how to help her become the ultimate hunter. Emily realizes her destiny and becomes a killing machine. She starts her journey across the world and leaves no werewolf's blood un-spilled in this wonderfully dark and bloody story.

Warning: This review will contain spoilers because the absurdity of it cannot be fully appreciated without them.

My Thoughts:

This has to be the most self-serving, poorly researched story I have ever read.

Emily has lost both of her parents, her father left when she was young and her mother was murdered by a werewolf.

Emily is probably the most annoying, yet voiceless character I have ever read. The writing was so poor that Emily doesn’t even register to me as the voice of this novel, we attempt to view the story through her eyes, through her selfish, childish ways but she’s nothing but a fluff character.

What I hated most about this book, and it was definitely hate not just extreme dislike, was the complete lack of research and the obvious laziness when it came to actually writing the story. It reads like it was written by a twelve year old and I actually did check that out half way through to make sure that it was actually written by an adult.

First off we have the completely believable scenario of Emily, a fifteen year old girl who has just lost the last of her family to a werewolf swearing vengeance on all who turn furry at the full moon. Okay.

So off she goes into the wild, with nothing in her pockets but her mother’s credit cards, a little bit of cash and her supplies. May I just add in here that she decided to wear high heeled boots for this journey – yep, that’s practical. Oh and it seems that credit card security no longer matters, because that wouldn’t suit the authors purposes, so Emily was able to use all of her mother’s credit cards, and draw down on the cash without having to show ID.

Isabella the gypsy-psychic - witch (because all gypsies are witches, didn’t you know?) takes her in because she has foreseen Emily saving the world. Not so unbelievable. But then we get to the part that really cheeses me off.

Isabella the gypsy-psychic-witch decides to do a tarot card reading – I am a card reader and like everything else, I don’t mind people using it, I don’t mind people making fun of it, but if you are going to reference it, research it first. The “spread” she did raised my eyebrows as it was, but then, apparently there is now a card called “the baby cradle”, are you kidding me? Do you think we are that stupid? Not to mention Isabella’s “spells” which were conveniently named to suit Emily’s purposes such as “To gain the speed of a cheetah” and “To become immortal”, very creative.

Then there was the solid silver and gold sword, yep, I like science too, so I will also point out that that is impossible, as the sword would be too soft, not to mention because of Emily’s wonderful awesomeness she only had to practice for a few weeks (instead of the decades it takes normal people) to master that and all of her other weapons. And these were only a few of the problems in the first thirty five pages.

Then we (finally) move on to some killing and hunting. There are hundreds of thousands of werewolves all over the world, they keep breeding and biting people to make new ones but of course Emily’s an ambitious girl, and vows to kill them all, she is so wonderfully fantastic that she never gets a scratch on her, or hurt in any way, she manages to kill dozens of werewolves at a time. And even manages to kill eight werewolves in five minutes. This is where the details could have been really juicy - as the synopsis promises - but we didn’t get anything, the writing literally went “After the next full moon I had finished searching the whole country and had killed a total of three hundred werewolves”. That is how the story continued from then on unless, of course, we had to hear in explicit detail exactly what she was wearing that day or how many outfits she bought in various colours during her travels.

I only finished this book out of obligation because it was a review book, and for the small hope that maybe, just maybe Emily died, or turned into a werewolf. But no this book was full of hate for weres who encompassed everything evil. There were no exceptions, it was quite racist actually, female weres were evil, males weres were evil, baby weres were evil, didn’t matter the age, the story, the circumstances, they were all evil.

But of course Emily managed to kill them all, within two years and with only two trips around the world, she becomes a hero because naturally everyone wanted to kill a species that they knew nothing about, everyone loved Emily. She even managed to get a bloke, and it only took a single meeting a poorly written clichéd paragraph at the end of the novel. “We had loved each other from the very first sight of each other. We were destined to be together.”

Not to mention all the other discrepancies, scattered throughout the novel. But honestly if I keep going, this review will be longer than the novel was itself. It was poorly written, poorly executed and based upon a very poor idea. There is a saying in the writing world, if you can pitch a book well, it is usually horrible, this book is pitched nicely enough, I was excited to read it, and then I turned the first page.

Hunter Green was a horrible waste of time. I feel sorry for my eyes, sorry for my PDF reader and sorry for anyone else who has the displeasure of reading it. One is the lowest rating I give, but it doesn't even deserve that.

Book Review: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

Review: Succubus on Top
Series: Georgina Kincaid – Book 2
Author: Richelle Mead
No of Pages: 314
Release Date: 1 January 2008

Georgina Kincaid’s job sucks. Literally.

Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses Seth Mortensen, the shy, sexy, incredibly gifted Seattle writer she’s been dating, she’ll drain his life force. Georgina is a succubus – a demon who draws her power from other men’s pleasure. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks are terrific, and yes, Georgina did choose to join the ranks of hell centuries ago. But it seems completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can’t get hot and heavy with the one mortal who knows and accepts her for who she is…

It’s not just her personal life that’s in chaos. Doug, Georgina’s co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behaviour, and Georgina suspects that something far more demonic than double espressos is at work. She could use help finding out, but Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, is preoccupied with corrupting an ultra-conservative talk radio star – and giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one – and fast because soon, Doug’s life won’t be the only one on the line…

My Thoughts:

Although I am not quite sold on the romantic storyline yet, the mystery, comedy and friendship dynamic in this story are amazing.

Georgina Kincaid is Seattle’s top succubus. In keeping with her promise to her demon boss she has been corrupting good souls left right and centre, so much so that she has even earned an award. Although the succubus part of her life is going well, the rest is a bit more complicated. She can’t touch her boyfriend for fear of sucking out his life force, her work colleague and close friend Doug is acting strangely, not to mention work in general has been all consuming of late. So when her old friend Bastien the incubus arrives in town Georgina rejoices at the prospect of some old time fun, until she finds out he wants her help too, in seducing a religious zealot.

Georgina provides one comical situation after another in this book. She once again infatuated me with her quirky way of thinking, her sense of loyalty – especially when she gets riled up over the thought of someone messing with one of her humans – and her occasional social awkwardness even though she is supposed to be a master in the art of seduction.

What kind of got me with Succubus on Top was the Seth/Georgina relationship. I don’t understand the point. Sure they’re doing it for love and this may just be my cynicism kicking in, but why voluntarily go through the kind of torture they’re putting themselves through? Sitting in a room playing scrabble when all they really want to do is jump one another’s bones. Seth seems to rein himself in quite a bit better than Georgina does, but then it’s Georgina’s head we’re in so we get her personal torture all laid out for us.

I am a firm believer of sex not equalling love, but taking it out of the equation entirely, when both parties want to do it, why do that to yourselves? Georgina spent most of the book wondering if she really loved Seth, and if she could even feel love anymore. If you’re not that far in yet and there is already a problem that you are having huge difficulty living with, on top of that there is no foreseeable cure. GET OUT NOW.

Why stay and put yourself through that? For love? There will be another and another and most likely being immortal, another one after that.

Perhaps this is why I am continuing this series, I want to see what Georgina does to fix this mess, or if she gives up. Perhaps she thinks loving Seth is a good enough reason not to give up, perhaps I am just too jaded to see the point. The relationship doesn’t work for me though; friends would be fine take the sexual component away completely. But I don’t see the point in self-inflicted torture, considering the fact that she has to sleep with other men constantly to get a power fix.

On to other topics brushed in this book, the addition of Bastien however brief was absolutely marvellous. A succubus and an incubus together, two beings who completely understand each other’s nature makes for a great pairing, especially when they have to go to work together. Bastien was like the egotistical male version of Georgina and together on the page they had me in stitches.

Unfortunately many of the other characters kept to the background in this book, but it was Carter’s – the angel that hangs around with a bunch of demons – presence once again that had me sighing every time he appeared, if however briefly. His contrast to the cast of demons is so touching that it makes his angelic goodness seem all the more amplified, yet he is still so cool which can sometimes be lost in stories like these where demons reign supreme.

Mead swept me up in yet another fantastic book; Succubus on Top has left me wanting more. Although I am conflicted on where I stand with Georgina’s relationship, her world has me entranced and I must read Succubus Dreams as soon as possible.

Also in this series:
Succubus Blues
Succubus Dreams
Succubus Heat
Succubus Shadows
Succubus Revealed

TBR Drawer: March 2012

• Just After Sunset by Stephen King
• Night Rising by Chris Marie Green
• Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
• Need by Carrie Jones
• Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance
• Jessicas Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
• Original Sin by Allison Brennan
• No Rest for the Wicca by Toni Lotempio
• Blood Magic by Eileen Wilks
• Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks
• Soulless by Gail Carriger
• The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols
• Shades of Midnight by Lara Adrian
• The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong
• Dark Beginnings by Gena Showalter
• The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
• The Taken by Sarah Pinborough
• Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
• Bloodlines by Lindsay Anne Kendal
• Dead Men's Dust by Matt Hilton
• Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs
• Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Mortal Remains by Kathy Reichs
• Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs
• Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs
• Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs
• Another One Bites The Dust by Jennifer Rardin
• Biting The Bullet by Jennifer Rardin
• Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
• Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb
• Antara by Marilena Mexi RC
• Cinco de Mayo by Michael J. Martineck RC
• Crash Into Me by Albert Borris
• Shadowglass by Erica Hayes
• Betrayed by Morgan Rice RC
• Loved by Morgan Rice RC
• Destined by Morgan Rice RC
• Masqurade by Melissa De La Cruz
• I Am God by Giorgio Faletti
• Taboo by Casey Hill
• Rain by Virginia Andrews
• Lightning Strike by Virginia Andrews
• Eye of the Storm by Virginia Andrews
• The End of the Rainbow by Virginia Andrews
• Melody by Virginia Andrews
• Heart Song by Virginia Andrews
• Unfinished Symphony by Virginia Andrews
• Music in the Night by Virginia Andrews
• Olivia by Virginia Andrews
• Celeste by Virginia Andrews
• The Starkin Crown by Kate Forsyth
• Lover Enshrined by JR Ward
• Love Story by Jennifer Echols
• Sympathy for the Devil by Justin Gustanis RC
• Dark Moon of Avalon by Anna Elliot
• Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
• The Ambassador's Mission by Trudi Canavan
• Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks
• The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2012

Well, blogger is being a pain, but at least I am still reading quite prolifically at the moment. February was yet another rest month for me although some reviews did go up.

I am still trying to get back into the swing of things, just haven't quite go there yet. Hopefully March is THE month.

My Favourite book for the month was: Succubus On Top by Richelle Mead

In February I read 8 books:

• The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
• Succubus On Top by Richelle Mead
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling

I reviewed 3 books:

• Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
• Warrior by Marie Brennan
• Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

My Shelfari TBR Pile stayed the same at 954.

My physical TBR pile went down from 68 to 67. Woo!