H. D. Gordon

This series sadly doesn't keep the promises made by the premise.
The initial impression you get is a strong and smart fmc trying to survive impossible and degrading life circumstances while fighting against hopelessness.
Strong start, interesting initial conditions, and a kick-ass heroine. Sounds great.
Sadly the MC degenerates into a weak caricature of herself because the author wants her to also be a pining damsel at the same time which are two concepts that just don't mix. Sadly this exact flaw is rather common with kickass fmcs. You can't eat the cake and have it too. There is only one possible direction that makes any sense. From less badass to more badass.
A very similar thing happens with her worldview. While we start out with a heroine that already got over the whole scruple bs to a point where she understands that she has to kill or be killed she reverts to this pathetic indecisive thing and starts with all the endlessly frustrating bs like letting your enemies live so they can stab you in the back later on and wasting invaluable time to fret over the ethics of decisions mid-fight and all that annoying shit.
Basically, it starts out as an adult book but gets progressively more YA.

Furthermore, this series has an obsession with scant clothing and nudity that came across as really weird to me. Especially the first book has sections that just consist of various fabricated reasons for the mc to be as naked as possible chained together.

Speaking of which, a much more clichcéed issue is how the MC constantly lusts after men. You can tell how important a male character is going to be just by how much the MC lusts after him. It's so bad that I get the feeling this might be a reverse harem in disguise. There just is this typical kind of interaction you see in basically all PnR that marks the male love interest but with multiple guys (just like in typical RH). I really hope it doesn't end up being a stupid love triangle or something.

If you take a closer look at the world-building you can tell quite quickly that the author didn't.
A lot of the stuff that is apparently the case in this world makes no logical sense but I am sadly used to this at this point. Especially from a societal standpoint, it's incredibly black and white and the power dynamics make absolutely no sense. The entire society is this absurd tyrannical hierarchy in which everyone is oppressed and a tyrant at the same time.… (more)

When I was asked to review an eARC of Santa's Little Helper and being told it was a horror I agreed as I don't read many horror novels and with it being near to Christmas and it featured those Elf on the Shelf dolls that do look a little scary I thought it would be a fantastic read.
I was right it was a fantastic read, the author writes this book in such a way that I was sucked in and also scared to death too. These Santa's Little Helpers are not those cute little elves that we were all led to believe for all these years, they are pure evil and change into more evilness in front of the children when they are away from their parents.
I really enjoyed this terrifying book although I know these dolls are aimed at young children it was a little disturbing that 4 and 5 year olds were the targets of these elves. Having children of around that age I can honestly say since reading this book I will never bring one of those elves into our home.
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I have read most of H D Gordon’s work and The Company Store is another fabulous tale with rich characters and a storyline that will stick with me for a long, long time. The Company Store reads as if it could be a history of the world. The greed that corrupts and taints everything it touches. The destruction of the forest and oceans. The death and extinction of the amazing animals that inhabit it. The people, good and bad. Some will sacrifice everything to have what they believe is theirs (the 1%). Some will sacrifice everything to save the ones they love, the weak and poor. Does any of this sound familiar to you? I thought I knew how this would go…and I did, to a point. The surprise ending put a smile on my face and gave me hope.

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