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bookadventurer's review
1.0
Unfinished // Free copy from Netgalley
I've read one of Katie MacAlister's before, and selected this one because I almost liked the last one, and I was hankering for an urban fantasy. The story is pretty standard urban fantasy fare, with mysterious supernatural creatures, a heroine who takes a crash course in the supernatural world, and spiky banter between the hero and the heroine.
The heroine, Veronica, opens her narrative explaining that she has OCD that she goes to a therapist for, but instead of feeling like a realistic exploration of the condition, it sort of flits in and out of her story, becoming more and less important as the plot needs. As a device to drive the plot and to explain part of the heroine's Specialness, it works. As a convincing character aspect, it ... well, it isn't.
The plot begins when Veronica discovers her sister is really a dragon hunter. Her sister asks Veronica to take up the mantle of dragon hunter, and Veronica gets thrust into a shadowy universe of multiple worlds, demons, and dragon hunting. For the same reason (although he doesn't know it), a dragon hunter, Ian, enslaved to a demon, arrives in Veronica's town to hunt down the same woman that Veronica is supposed to protect. Comedic and silly encounters ensue.
The tone is comedic, but it's so heavy-handed that it's more distracting than funny. I prefer a more subtle humor, personally. This will be the last Katie MacAlister I read, because it seems very similar to the last one I read, and I'd rather read about Kate Daniels or anything else by Ilona Andrews.
I've read one of Katie MacAlister's before, and selected this one because I almost liked the last one, and I was hankering for an urban fantasy. The story is pretty standard urban fantasy fare, with mysterious supernatural creatures, a heroine who takes a crash course in the supernatural world, and spiky banter between the hero and the heroine.
The heroine, Veronica, opens her narrative explaining that she has OCD that she goes to a therapist for, but instead of feeling like a realistic exploration of the condition, it sort of flits in and out of her story, becoming more and less important as the plot needs. As a device to drive the plot and to explain part of the heroine's Specialness, it works. As a convincing character aspect, it ... well, it isn't.
The plot begins when Veronica discovers her sister is really a dragon hunter. Her sister asks Veronica to take up the mantle of dragon hunter, and Veronica gets thrust into a shadowy universe of multiple worlds, demons, and dragon hunting. For the same reason (although he doesn't know it), a dragon hunter, Ian, enslaved to a demon, arrives in Veronica's town to hunt down the same woman that Veronica is supposed to protect. Comedic and silly encounters ensue.
The tone is comedic, but it's so heavy-handed that it's more distracting than funny. I prefer a more subtle humor, personally. This will be the last Katie MacAlister I read, because it seems very similar to the last one I read, and I'd rather read about Kate Daniels or anything else by Ilona Andrews.
llamareads's review
2.0
I’d read several books from Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones series quite a while back and thought they were hilarious, and since I was in the mood for a quirky paranormal, I figured I’d pick up the first book in a new series by her. Either my memory is faulty or my sense of humor has changed drastically, because there wasn’t much about this book that I liked.
Much of the plot was a confusing mess. One item, for example – dragon hunters don’t actually hunt dragons, but demons, and they’re called that because they’re actually part demon and part dragon, with the dragon bit keeping the dark-leaning demon side in check. Why or how they’re this way, I don’t know. It didn’t help that the book switched from Ronnie’s first-person POV to Ian’s third person POV frequently. Ronnie has OCD, which I thought was well done for, oh, the first two chapters, and then was promptly forgotten unless it was dragged back out for comic relief or as an example of how Ian’s mere presence “fixed” her. There’s also an annoying running gag about her writing a book about her experiences and whether her creative writing teacher would approve of various chapter titles, dialogue, the believability of various plot points… it just felt like it was trying much too hard to be funny. This is the kind of book that has a wrath demon named Falafel, which sounds delightfully quirky on the surface but just got a bit old when they were trying to have serious conversations about, you know, the fate of the world and all that. It felt, at times, like it was trying very hard to balance between being off the walls quirky and “oh no the world is doomed” and it just didn’t do either well.
While I enjoyed the first few chapters, the book started falling apart once Ronnie met Ian, and the instalust and subsequent instalove really turned me off. I didn’t particularly like or sympathize with either character, and I found their relationship ridiculously unbelievable and unsexy. I forced myself to read the last 25% in the hopes of clearing up the confusing plot points, but while some things became clearer, it didn’t really help the story as a whole. Overall, this was just not my cup of tea at all.
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“I am a dragon hunter,” I told her with great dignity. “We are not woo-woo.”
Much of the plot was a confusing mess. One item, for example – dragon hunters don’t actually hunt dragons, but demons, and they’re called that because they’re actually part demon and part dragon, with the dragon bit keeping the dark-leaning demon side in check. Why or how they’re this way, I don’t know. It didn’t help that the book switched from Ronnie’s first-person POV to Ian’s third person POV frequently. Ronnie has OCD, which I thought was well done for, oh, the first two chapters, and then was promptly forgotten unless it was dragged back out for comic relief or as an example of how Ian’s mere presence “fixed” her. There’s also an annoying running gag about her writing a book about her experiences and whether her creative writing teacher would approve of various chapter titles, dialogue, the believability of various plot points… it just felt like it was trying much too hard to be funny. This is the kind of book that has a wrath demon named Falafel, which sounds delightfully quirky on the surface but just got a bit old when they were trying to have serious conversations about, you know, the fate of the world and all that. It felt, at times, like it was trying very hard to balance between being off the walls quirky and “oh no the world is doomed” and it just didn’t do either well.
“[W]hat’s the good in being a dragon hunter if you can’t cover people in dragon fire and roast them alive?”
While I enjoyed the first few chapters, the book started falling apart once Ronnie met Ian, and the instalust and subsequent instalove really turned me off. I didn’t particularly like or sympathize with either character, and I found their relationship ridiculously unbelievable and unsexy. I forced myself to read the last 25% in the hopes of clearing up the confusing plot points, but while some things became clearer, it didn’t really help the story as a whole. Overall, this was just not my cup of tea at all.
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
astridthebookishsweettooth's review
DNF @50%
This sounded so good when I read the blurb. Then I started reading it and while it was fun in the beginning, the heroine's immature personality got old fast. Look, I love my quirky heroines but there is quirky and then there is silly and childish.She could hold one position in a discussion one minute and in the next she was on the other side saying the exact opposite. Conversations really went in circles with her.
I could never really get a read on Ian, even though I got to 50% I didn't have much to go on what kind of person he was.
The story feels like too much slapstick has been poured into it. The attempts at humor totally distract from the plot. I wanted to love it, unfortunately I got frustrated midway and just couldn't do it any longer.
This sounded so good when I read the blurb. Then I started reading it and while it was fun in the beginning, the heroine's immature personality got old fast. Look, I love my quirky heroines but there is quirky and then there is silly and childish.She could hold one position in a discussion one minute and in the next she was on the other side saying the exact opposite. Conversations really went in circles with her.
I could never really get a read on Ian, even though I got to 50% I didn't have much to go on what kind of person he was.
The story feels like too much slapstick has been poured into it. The attempts at humor totally distract from the plot. I wanted to love it, unfortunately I got frustrated midway and just couldn't do it any longer.
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