Back to beasts! It's been a while since I have read a book that focuses more on "beasts" and the first time I have reviewed something about gargoyles. This is a paranormal romance (heavy on the romance), featuring two cops who turn out to be more than they seem, and are teamed up with each other to find a serial killer. You can find out more about the author by checking out my interview with her on the previous post!
The first half of the book was pretty good, moved quickly, had a lot of action (both in plot and in the romance category), but then I got to the second half. The second half felt like I was reading the first half of the book all over again with some minor changes. There is a reason in the plot why this happens, which I understand, but for me it was entirely to repetitive. I think maybe the book would have done better as a novella, or finding a way to continue to story line without reusing so much of the first half. I will say in the second half it was kind of fun to see Valentine act like Payne.
Valentine is a straight laced cop who has been investigating a serial killer but has been getting no where, and Payne a cop who has a reputation for getting things done and catching the bad guy (although it seems the bad guy is seldom in one piece when caught). The two of them are matched to find the killer, and they realize quickly that it looks like Valentine is the killer, someone is trying to frame Valentine. But along the way, they don't really get along at first, and then come together rather passionately. It is revealed that Payne is King of the Beasts, and while Valentine didn't know it she too is also a chimera.
The sex scenes were well written (not cheesy), although there were points where they moved so quickly that I found myself having to re-read to figure out what was going on. While I understand this is a paranormal romance, there were some sex scenes that didn't seem to propel the plot and were just included to make the book steamier (which it did).
The first half of the book moved really quickly, which made it easy to read, but didn't have a lot of development within it, I think if more time had been spent on developing the characters and the world maybe the last half wouldn't have felt as so repetitive. But at the same time the action is good, and keeps you involved. You really want to find out who is behind everything, and who is setting up Valentine.
If I was rating just the first half of the book I would give it a "good" rating, but with the second half feeling so much like the first, I'm going to give it a "so-so" rating. I think if you are looking for a steamy paranormal romance you will probably enjoy this book. It's not a terribly long book, so it would make for a good read while everyone is on Thanksgiving vacation, you can even get it in the Kindle store for .99!
Thank you for the review. I loved being at your UF site. I discovered from Goodreads...That we live in the same town, I was shocked! I hope people will still try the book even though you did not care for it.
ReplyDeleteThank you and I wish you well.
I think there is most definitely an audience for this book, and I wish you the best of luck.
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