Review: DEAD TO ME

Dead To Me by Anton Strout
Book 1 of the Simon Canderous series
Read by David DeVries
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Dead To Me:

A new urban fantasy featuring a man working on the right side of law-with talents that come from left field.

Psychometry-the power to touch an object and divine information about its history-has meant a life of petty crime for Simon Canderous, but now he's gone over to the good side. At New York's underfunded and (mostly) secret Department of Extraordinary Affairs, he's learning about red tape, office politics, and the basics of paranormal investigation. But it's not the paperwork that has him breathless.

After Simon spills his coffee on (okay, through) the ghost of a beautiful woman- who doesn't know she's dead-he and his mentor plan to find her killers. But Simon's not prepared for the nefarious plot that unfolds before him, involving politically correct cultists, a large wooden fish, a homicidal bookcase, and the forces of Darkness, which kind of have a crush on him.

Source: Info in the About Dead To Me was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1823237.Dead_To_Me?ac=1 on 16/04/2013.

Review:

I've had this book in my TBR (to be read) shelf for like forever. I keep picking it up and putting it down. It just can't keep my attention. My mind keeps wandering while I'm reading this book. Safe to say that the story telling quality was not compelling.

What I didn't expect was for Simon to suddenly go all-out stupid in Chapter 12. It seems like he lost all sense of self-preservation all of a sudden. No, that was not it. It seems like he was determined to get killed and everybody else around him. WTF!?! I mean, his life sucks and all, but to get too stupid to live (TSTL)? I didn't see that one coming. He was okey for the first ten chapters. I don't know what happened but it looked like he had a lobotomy in Chapter 12. I had to have frequent breaks from the stupidities. So you couldn't call this book in any shape or form "fast paced" at all. So much so that when I finished this book it was with a sense of relief rather than looking forward to the next book in the series. I was relieved to finally get done with the stupids. Then the plot... what plot? The entire book is just a retelling of about two weeks of Simon Canderous' life with no thought for plot nor story structure, and that's it! So we read about how Simon ran around from danger to danger and being stupid and got saved by sheer dumb luck. While the bad guys stupidly stumbled themsleves into captivity... Yeah, not much of a plot. The world building was sound though. No apparent cracks that I could see. I could totally believe that a hidden world like the one of Simon Canderous could exist side-by-side ours. I also like the premise of an investigative supernatural. But then again that is my favourite genre, just as the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and the Grimm TV show are my favourites! It's just Simon's stupidity after stupidity after stupidiy which ruined it for me.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 1.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 2
Ending = 2
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 0.5
Plot = 1
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Simon Canderous Series:


A huge THANK YOU to The Qwillery for hosting a contest which made it possible for me to win paperback copies of Dead To Me, Deader Still, and Dead Matter by Anton Strout!

FTC Disclosure:
No money received for this review.

In The Mail: LOCKDOWN & TROUBLE IN THE TAROT

Lookie! Lookie! What Mr. Mailman brought me!

Thank you to Natalie of Book Lover's Life for hosting a contest which made it possible for me to win Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith!

Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
Book 1 of the Escape From Furnace series
Genre: urban fantasy

About Lockdown:

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.

Source: Info in the About Lockdown was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8131485-lockdown on 08/09/2013.

Thank you to Sally of The Qwillery for hosting a contest which made it possible for me to win Trouble In The Tarot by Kari Lee Townsend!

Trouble In The Tarot by Kari Lee Townsend
Book 3 of the A Fortune Teller Mystery series
Genre: urban fantasy

About Trouble In The Tarot:

For psychic Sunshine Meadows, sometimes fortunes can be deceiving . . .

Lately Sunny has been experiencing a period of big opportunity: her business in Divinity, New York, is thriving, and Detective Mitch Stone has finally agreed to take Sunny on a date. But thanks to her clairvoyant abilities, Sunny knows better than anyone that life deals out bad cards along with the good.

When Sunny agrees to read tarot cards at the annual Summer Solstice Carnival, she meets her Granny Gert‘s “arch nemesis” Fiona Atwater, and is overcome by a vision of Fiona in a violent argument. Sunny knows trouble is brewing when Granny and Fiona start having squabbles all over town. But the fighting comes to a head when a local baker gets run over by a big white Cadillac—and Granny and Fiona are found at the crime scene.

Sunny knows she should step aside and let Mitch handle the investigating, but she’s not about to ignore her visions and leave her granny’s life in fate’s hands . . .

Source: Info in the About Trouble In The Tarot was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15808701-trouble-in-the-tarot on 08/09/2013.

In The Mail: CLOAKED IN MALICE

This is what Mr. Mailman brought me this week!

Cloaked In Malice by Annette Blair
Book 5 of A Vintage Magic Mystery series
Genre: urban fantasy

About Cloaked In Malice:

There's nothing Maddie loves more than fabulous vintage clothes, but the visions she gets while touching them are starting to wear her down. Even so, when a beautifully dressed girl comes to Vintage Magic in search of her past, Maddie isn't about to turn her away, especially since she bears a striking resemblance to her good friend Dolly Sweet.

When Maddie touches Paisley Skye's exquisitely crafted child's cloak, the vision she receives is of the ugliest sort: a decades-old case of kidnapping and murder. To give herself more time to investigate, Maddie enlists the help of her FBI Agent boyfriend Nick and takes Paisley into her home. But when Dolly suddenly skips town, Maddie realizes that uncovering the folds of Paisley's past will reveal more than one vintage crime...

Source: Info in the About Cloaked In Malice was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13099763-cloaked-in-malice on 30/08/2012.

THANK YOU to the Qwillery for hosting a giveaway which made it possible for me to win a copy of Cloaked In Malice by Annette Blair received!!

MR. MAILMAN: THE RAINE BENARES SERIES

Yikes!! I won The Raine Benares Series by Lisa Shearin from The Qwillery's Interview with Lisa Shearin and Contest!!! Couldn't wait to find it in my mail!! *jumping up and down* This wait is worth a Mr. Mailman feature! A kind of "blog meme" started by Juju over at Tales Of Whimsy.

...So sometime soon I am hoping to find The Raine Benares Series by Lisa Shearin in the mailbox!! (fingers crossed)

About Mr. Mailman:

Mr. Mailman is a feature Juju decided to try. Periodically when there is a book in route which she is anxiously hoping to find when she gets home to her mailbox - Juju would feature Mr. Mailman.

Mr. Mailman is a hybrid of Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine and In My Mailbox by the Story Siren. Please feel free to grab the logo and feature your Mr. Mailman request on your site. Please leave a link to your Mr. Mailman request in the comments at Tales Of Whimsy.

Source: Info in the About Mr. Mailman was pinched from Juju's blog, Tales Of Whimsy, on 04/12/09.

The Raine Benares series:

Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Book 1)

My name is Raine Benares. I’m a seeker. The people who hire me are usually happy when I find things. But some things are better left unfound…

Raine is a sorceress of moderate powers, from an extended family of smugglers and thieves. With a mix of street smarts and magic spells, she can usually take care of herself. But when her friend Quentin, a not-quite-reformed thief, steals an amulet from the home of a powerful necromancer, Raine finds herself wrapped up in more trouble than she cares for. She likes attention as much as the next girl, but having an army of militant goblins hunting her down is not her idea of a good time. The amulet they’re after holds limitless power, derived from an ancient, soul-stealing stone. And when Raine takes possession of the item, it takes possession of her.

Now her moderate powers are increasing beyond anything she could imagine—but is the resumé enhancement worth her soul?

Armed And Magical (Book 2)

My name is Raine Benares. Until last week I was a seeker—a finder of things lost and people missing. Now I’m psychic roommates with the Saghred, an ancient stone with cataclysmic powers. Just me, the stone, and all the souls it’s ingested over the centuries. Crowded doesn’t even begin to describe it…

All Raine wants is her life back—which means getting rid of the stone and the power it possesses. To sort things out, she heads for the Isle of Mid, home to the most prestigious sorcery school, as well as the Conclave, the governing body for all magic users. It’s also home to power-grubbing mages who want Raine dead and goblins who see her as a thief. As if that’s not enough, Mid’s best student spellsingers are disappearing left and right, and Raine’s expected to find them.

Lives are at stake, goblins are threatening to sue, mages are getting greedier, and the stone’s power is getting stronger by the hour. This could get ugly.

The Trouble With Demons (Book 3)

My name is Raine Benares. I’m a seeker. People hire me when they need something found. I’m not usually the one being sought. But that all changed when I found the Saghred, a soul-stealing stone of unlimited power — and the bane of my existence. Now mages and madmen have me in their sights, not to mention demons…

An opened Hellgate leads to a demon infestation on the Isle of Mid, and while there’s never an ideal time to face down demon hordes, it’s hard to imagine a worse one. Already fighting the influence of the Saghred, Raine discovers she is also magically bonded to a dark mage and a white knight, two dangerous and powerful men on opposing sides — and Raine’s stuck in the middle.

But with demons pouring through the Hellgate, Raine can’t afford to be distracted. Turns out, the demons want the key to unlock the Saghred. As a seeker, Raine should be able to find it first. As the axis of light and dark powers, she’s a magical cataclysm waiting to happen…

Bewitched And Betrayed (Book 4)

My name is Raine Benares. I’m a seeker. I find lost things and missing people — usually alive. Finding the specters of six evil mages who escaped the Saghred, a soul-eating stone of unlimited power, was easy. Stopping them before they unleash Hell on earth just may be the death of me.

Being bonded to the Saghred wasn’t my idea — neither is hunting down its escapees. Especially not when one of them is also hunting me. He’s regenerating his body by taking the lives of powerful victims, along with their memories, knowledge, and most important of all, their magic. The dark mage wants control of the Saghred, and if he gets it, he’ll become an evil demigod whom no one can stop. The only thing in his way is me.

One of us doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance.

Source: Info in The Raine Benares series was taken from The Qwillery at http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-lisa-shearin-and-contest.html on 15/05/2010.