Viola Grace

Interesting, but shallow

Kind of Mary Sue, in that good things happen to our main character. The one bad incident never really feels perilous. Secondary characters have background but no agency.

But, the world has some depth.

One spelling error grabbed my attention: ‘bass’ not ‘base’ when referring to a musical instrument, please. Grammar was good, otherwise.

I may get the next book. Depends on price.

New animal pairings and a little introduction to Mages and curses. Brief sightings of some series regulars. I thought the fun playful scenes between their Ocelot and Fox forms was a nice touch and picturing an ocelot pouncing on a foxes fluffy tail made me smile. Even with a mage curse there was no extreme drama but there was some good sex. Another winner. :)

Humm. This first in the Shifting Crossroads series was something I was looking forward to. You can tell from the cover, even before you get into the description, that is a PNR, not a UF or what some in the groups on Goodreads that I follow and contribute to are calling "Rural Fantasy" as opposed to Urban Fantasy. Ok, fine, I can do with a bit of PNR, let's check it out.

First, the book is very short, only 74 pages, and priced at $3.99. Clearly not a lot of "bang for your buck." Other, better show more stories are out there in the 70-100 page range that are priced much lower and as good or better than this book. This felt like a $.99 to $1.99 purchase. I absolutely want authors to get paid, that isn't the point - it is value for your dollar. And in this case, it is "story for the dollar." Masters has the opportunity here, with an interesting concept and unusual shifter characters, to do a better job. This feels much like an author simply throwing a couple of darts at a dartboard full of characters, picking who is male and who is female, plopping them down at the Crossroads, doing their thing in a few pages and going home HEA. Poor character development is a problem for me, especially when interesting characters are wasted.

This feels very much like calling-it-in, A-B-C, 1-2-3, done and done and let's move on to the next. Meh. It is a shame too. If you look at Masters' series listings you will see that some of the ideas themselves are very good. Hey, a Mongoose and a Cobra? A Wolf and a Reindeer?? Creative. I just wish that she had utilized the storyline potential and really cared more about her stories than cranking out rote PNR-slash-Erotica short stories. Boring. I wish I could be more positive, but I won't be purchasing any more of Master's stories, and that leaves me a bit sad. show less

I had suspected Dira might be a Dragon and obviously this was now confirmed. The story was great with two different mythical creatures finding mates in each other (dragon and unicorn). I am happy for Dira but if she doesn't return to the Crossroads that will make me sad. Another awesome book.