K.F. Breene

I'm flabbergasted.

I loved - five star for three books love - the first books in her Fire and Ice Saga. The writing changed a bit and the story focus lost storyline with her follow-up to that series and went more to Paranormal Romance land versus Urban Fantasy and mystery, but the books were still good. The last two in that same series weakened further into PNR with little plot and some YA feel, but passable.

This though? This isn't paranormal romance. It is complete, rushed, unrealistic, show more enraging Erotica. I think that either the author writes books I love with only one character only and those three books were a fluke, or it's just her PNR I don't enjoy.

But this?

Destiny, longing, sex come right away, and not just with the eventual 'hero'. I say hero lightly here.

The cheesiness with the insta-lust is awful enough, not to mention no plot since it's erotica, but the real kicker is the huge theme of rape throughout the book.

It may not be called rape and the author may not consider it so, but it's incredibly rapey. This race walks up to people and makes them have sex with them by magically drugging them and laughing about it. Her sweet boyfriend has this happen to him several times - as a straight man he's magically drugged into sex with men.

An actual written point when going to get this poor guy from an apartment again:

"Charles ushered him in, hitting him with a good dose of pheromones to loosen him up. Human males had the propensity to scream with their first experience with other men. They really needed to relax and just let the good times happen. Which was exactly what Charles was helping him do with the Dose."

Seriously, what the hell? How is this okay in a PNR or any book where these are NOT considered to be the villains of the story??

Not only is this poor guy and his roommate sexually assaulted, she finds Jared later by hearing his screams through a door while a woman is raping him this time. The reason he's screaming? They are letting his fear and pain be released to turn them on further instead of just happily "Dosing" him this time in a large group that is watching.

And yes, Dosing is always written as a capital D. Like a drug. A Date rape drug but it's magic so it's supposed to be okay?

It wouldn't be as bad if this was a small group of corrupt souls in this group Sasha is getting involved with - but no, everyone is okay with this happening. It's all said because humans are so weak and easy to influence. Our weakness to their magical seduction powers make it okay to do this kind of thing. Yeah, this isn't like the power balance of rape at all...

Even the hero doesn't really care about what happens to Jared. He mentions how superior their race is often, of course. All they do is walk around having sex with each other. When Sasha mentions this he brings up that the human race is just as obsessed with sex - yeah, we are not like this group - maybe some rotten apples, but not every one in the gene pool (thankfully!)

And finally when Sasha has sex with the guy she wakes up feeling sore and having no idea they had sex because he did it when she only half conscious.

I can't even....

To end this review and my outrage, when she's talking to Charles about how they get their money, he casually says they get humans attached to them and have them leave their money to them in their wills when they die. Basically, they deprive the human of leaving the money to their families, children, charities, spouses --- because we're so easy to con out of our money as well as our body, and that's fine in this book.

I will continue her Regan series because it's nothing at ALL like this, but needless to say, I won't be continuing this series. It will be hard to forget only because of my disgust at it. show less

I really don't think it's QuarantineBrain™, but if you try and say it's Peri-menopause Brain, I will come over and beat you with an old shoe. This is the most satisfying CandyRead I've had in days, perhaps weeks. Almost as if I've been trapped in my house, unable to hit the vending machine at work for a Twix bar (I'm exaggerating; the hospital would never put chocolate bars in the vending machines. I have to get them from the Leukemia Fundraiser bucket).

The premise is simple: our heroine, show more Jacinta, has recently, somewhat relievedly, become divorced after sending her only son off to college. Casting about for what to do next, she temporarily moves into her parent's place, only to discover they've become even more eccentric. When a job offer at a mysterious mansion comes through her bestie, she leaps at it, even though it's in rural, wine-tasting country where she doesn't know anyone. She finds herself feeling connected to the mansion, although the three geriatric weirdo caretakers that come with it can be a bit much. Although little does our heroine know just how weird their history is:

"They’d crush skulls and blast… See, that was the thing. It had been so long, she couldn’t even remember all the violence she used to enact. What exactly would she blast once she’d dealt with the skulls? They’d be dead, case closed. Anything more would be overkill. Might as well pop a beer and have a victory chat instead."

The narrator's voice feels entertaining, if a bit daffy and perhaps a little bit self-involved with the state of the midlife flesh. Not that I have the same thoughts, mind you. But she's quite funny with the commentary, which I totally haven't said either:

"Soon I'd get my diet under control—no more binging cookies right before bed—and then I’d be a rock star. I could do this! Okay, not as many cookies before bed. A lady had to live."

If you don't mind it feeling at times a bit ...over-connected to 'Clean Sweep' with a woman and a magical house, you'll probably love it. There's a ton of humor, the heroine has a delightful sense of herself, and the world-building is acceptable, with just enough difference from the Andrews' series to be palatable (in particular, I like that it avoids the sci-fi angle).

The romantic interest is well done. Our heroine is self-confident and not angling to jump into a relationship, as is the possible romantic partner. Because it's so back-burner, I'd hesitate to call this a paranormal romance, though clearly that's part of the story-line. But it's solidly done, with mature talking-out and sharing instead of stomping off and drama.

"Look, I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’ve given you all the information I have. You seem like a smart lady and this is your life. You’ll do what you need to. I just ask that you remember the town. The people here are good people. They deserve a fair shake, like you do.”

I can't tell you how rare that feels in a book with romance--I think almost all of the ones I've read recently had the classic misunderstanding/run-away situation, so it's all the more refreshing when it doesn't. I also appreciate the moments when Jessie notes that she needs to handle situations herself, not depend on others to get her out. It's a fine balance of individualism and team.

Oh, and remember how I complained about the 'accidentally drunk' trope in another book? It happens here, and it's really well done. It's funny as hell, especially with the rocks.

There are more than a couple of midlife runners here, but not so many that they became annoying. Mostly Jessie likes her middle-aged self, and doesn't want to trade it in for a younger version, even when that might be a possibility, which makes the joking tolerable. Although I had to chuckle at the last one:

"Then ran around them. Then hopped up and down. And tinkled myself a little. “Damn it!” I balled up my fists. “I forgot to ask about not peeing myself in everyday situations! That’s crap. That should’ve been a given.”

Just you wait, ladies. And men, don't snicker. Mother Nature gave you prostates.

*******
2023 Update: Oh yeah, definitely QuarantineBrain™. I mean, the voice feels like a terribly superficial and breezy forty-year old, or like how a twenty-eight year-old imagines a forty year-old might sound. Maybe. Once you ignore the tearless divorce, it's still a lot of fun. show less

5 holy tater tit stars!~

I LOVED THIS! Seriously, Miss Breene herself claims it is not a romance, however happily I would like to disagree! We can agree to disagree! The tension between Reagan and Darius makes me downright smitten!



Reagan is hilarious! Her internal dialogue had me grinning ear to ear throughout the entire book! The fact that she is a bad ass heroin who can pretty much take care of herself (and others in the male variety) has giddy! Bravo! On to book 2~

KF Breene is quickly becoming one of my favorite paranormal writers. This opened with some crazy paranormal training as Lexi works to hone her ghostly defensive skills against Kieren’s men… with scary results! Kieran’s dad, the demigod of San Francisco, is onto them, and has figured out Lexi is more than they’re passing her off to be, and worse, Kieran has received some news about Lexi’s past that puts her in even greater peril. Things are heating up!

But the best scenes of all for show more me continue to be the ones with Lexi and her teenage children/wards Daisy and Mordecai, the human and werewolf boy she adopted off the street. These three are a snark-fest when they are together and soooo funny. Seeing the family dynamic progress and morph, especially with Kieran and his fears added to the mix? I was on the edge of my seat. Mordecai continues to grow more powerful now that he’s been healed of his shifter disease, and the pack now sees him as a threat. Seeing Lexi in mother bear mode fighting alongside Mordecai? Yes, please. Without getting into spoiling the ending, things ramp up into some really juicy conflict and this goes to quite an interesting place, both for this book AND for where the series could go next. Definitely excited!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less