Kate Allenton

This is an honest attempt at a nuanced story with shades of grey instead of black and white but it fails on the execution.
This one makes many of the mistakes I consider to be amateur mistakes.
For example, it tries a lot to craft deeply emotional scenes but it rarely actually builds up an emotional connection to most of the characters involved which frequently leads to scenes that come across as melodramatic and over the top.
The tragic thing is that some of the scenes that could have built emotional investment with these characters could have been part of the story but the book deliberately skipped over many of these opportunities via narration.
In regards to the shades of grey, the author couldn't help but make these more like shades of white with a tiny bit of grey sprinkled in. The book tries to portray white knight characters that almost couldn't be more morally uncompromisingly good as ambiguous and questionable which really threw me off.
And in the process, the book has no subtlety whatsoever. The author might as well write out what emotion she intends a scene to invoke, it's so obvious.
The book beats the reader over the head with things that need to be handled with much more subtlety.
This is also the case with moral conflicts. It's just so incredibly prescriptive and it feels judgmental even though this was clearly not the intention.

On top of it all, it very much seems like it will develop into a love triangle. I have a lot of problems with the love triangle trope but so far the book didn't get far enough into any of the relationships between them to reach this problematic territory, but even without the many other problems, seeing that this is just going to become some stupid romantic back and forth with the MC essentially being either an asshole or spineless and passive I have no interest at all in continuing with the story. I am not saying this because she currently is either of those things. But a love triangle by definition doesn't work without the center of the triangle being at least one of those two things and that is why I hate the trope. It compromises even otherwise really good characters by its very nature.

I want to be clear about one thing. Excluding the whole love triangle shenanigans, I would have liked this book a lot if the execution was stronger. The general trope mix and the intentions behind it are right down my alley.
But the actual book just didn't live up to its potential.… (more)

Genius!

I'm a huge fan of time travel books, and this one was a unique take on the genre. I've have loved every single book I've read by this author. She consistently writes exciting, creative, adventure filled books! This one was full of suspense, mystery, time travel, what appears to be spied in our midst, and the proverbial good guys vs bad guys. One lead agent that police's time travel had her entire world implode all in the span of a few days. Her adoptive mother was a scientist before her sudden death in a car crash. It was her work in the time travel business that got her involved. Thinking she was hunting bad outdone, her entire world is rocked when it appears there are leaks in the organization and possibly a number of moles and traitors! Who can she trust? Are her friend really her friends, or are they out to harm her? Be warned it does end with a doozy of a cliffhanger. Enjoy!… (more)

Read from January 03 to 10, 2014

Shifter Paradise Vol 1

Not My Shifter by Jessica Coulter Smith
Sinfully Cursed by Kate Allenton

Given by authors for an honest review.

I have read several books/series by Jessica Coulter Smith and I am hopelessly addicted to them. Not My Shifter is the first story to this new series and I am already just as addicted to this series as I am the others. I love the various characters and the fun way they interact.

This is my first taste of Kate Allenton's writing. I really enjoy her style and the voices she gives to her characters.

I have read other series by multiple authors that mesh well together and comparing Jessica and Kate with them, well, these two mesh well.

I am looking forward to reading much more about the Paranormal Investigations Unit in this story and all the "others". Oh and we can't forget the humans that get pulled into the mix to make this such a good and fun story.

Thank you Jessica and Kate, for a much needed break from reality.… (more)