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snoopydoo77's review
4.0
3 ½ ★
This a nice start to a new series.
We meet Madison just as she finds out that the ability to see souls is more than she thought and that she is part of the supernatural community that she has no idea excised.
She starts a job as an Illuminant Enforcer, which basically is there to protect the world for all evil being. Since she is pretty knew to the supernatural works she has all kind of things to learn . Some things she learns faster than other as she is thrown in to the pool, not knowing how to swim basically.
I really liked Madison, when we first meet her she is a just a girl trying make ends meet and struggling with money or to hold a job. She is feisty and snarky and sarcasm is her weapon of choice. She also has love for her cat, a lot of it. And she kind of lusts after the vet, Dr. Love <– no joke.
You can find my full review here:
http://snoopydoosbookreviews.com/a-fistful-of-evil-illuminant-enforcer-1-by-rebecca-chastain/
This a nice start to a new series.
We meet Madison just as she finds out that the ability to see souls is more than she thought and that she is part of the supernatural community that she has no idea excised.
She starts a job as an Illuminant Enforcer, which basically is there to protect the world for all evil being. Since she is pretty knew to the supernatural works she has all kind of things to learn . Some things she learns faster than other as she is thrown in to the pool, not knowing how to swim basically.
I really liked Madison, when we first meet her she is a just a girl trying make ends meet and struggling with money or to hold a job. She is feisty and snarky and sarcasm is her weapon of choice. She also has love for her cat, a lot of it. And she kind of lusts after the vet, Dr. Love <– no joke.
You can find my full review here:
http://snoopydoosbookreviews.com/a-fistful-of-evil-illuminant-enforcer-1-by-rebecca-chastain/
angels_gp17's review
2.0
~ 2 Fistful of Evil Stars ~
A Fistful of Evil is book one in the Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer series by Rebecca Chastain. I really wanted to like this urban fantasy novel. It was not bad, but not good either. It’s a little long and slow going throughout the novel.
My main issue with this book is Madison our heroine. I like POV’s, but I could not stand Madison. I have never been in love with young 20 something heroines. They make silly mistakes and don’t seem to learn from them. I think she was supposed to be portrayed as fiery, spunky, and sassy, but she came off as a whiny immature hormonal teen with no brains. She has this great gift, but does nothing to learn about it, until she comes into contact with this guy, Kyle, when looking for a job. Does she ask questions? Nope? She believes everything Kyle says, but she does not know him and she believes him right off the bat. Next her boss and coworkers don’t tell her anything about her gift, Soul-Sight or Primordium, keeping her in the dark which causes her to go off and make mistakes over and over again. What she needs is some hand to hand training and someone to actually tell her how to use her gift and what evil is out their instead of letting her run around like an idiot and getting herself into trouble. How did all the other Illuminant Enforcers learn there skills? Last every time a good looking man walks into the room she goes off into la la land and hormonal over drive, which leads her to forget what she is doing, to ask questions, or look into the Primordium (as she was told to do). As for the bad demon. Well it's obvious who it is once they are introduced, but does Madison figure it out? Nope, she is to distracted in la la land to tape into her gift until she is in way over her head.
I kept reading hoping to see if Madison would learn from her mistakes, ask questions, and give us more insight into the Primoridum, but nope it did not happen. Each page was her jumping into trouble and a hot guy sending her into hormonal teenage overdrive.
A Fistful of Evil was not the book for me. If the blurb intrigues you, I urge you to give it a shot. Just because it did not work for me does not mean it won’t for you.
* Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy free of charge from Rebecca Chastain with the sole purpose of an honest review. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.
A Fistful of Evil is book one in the Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer series by Rebecca Chastain. I really wanted to like this urban fantasy novel. It was not bad, but not good either. It’s a little long and slow going throughout the novel.
My main issue with this book is Madison our heroine. I like POV’s, but I could not stand Madison. I have never been in love with young 20 something heroines. They make silly mistakes and don’t seem to learn from them. I think she was supposed to be portrayed as fiery, spunky, and sassy, but she came off as a whiny immature hormonal teen with no brains. She has this great gift, but does nothing to learn about it, until she comes into contact with this guy, Kyle, when looking for a job. Does she ask questions? Nope? She believes everything Kyle says, but she does not know him and she believes him right off the bat. Next her boss and coworkers don’t tell her anything about her gift, Soul-Sight or Primordium, keeping her in the dark which causes her to go off and make mistakes over and over again. What she needs is some hand to hand training and someone to actually tell her how to use her gift and what evil is out their instead of letting her run around like an idiot and getting herself into trouble. How did all the other Illuminant Enforcers learn there skills? Last every time a good looking man walks into the room she goes off into la la land and hormonal over drive, which leads her to forget what she is doing, to ask questions, or look into the Primordium (as she was told to do). As for the bad demon. Well it's obvious who it is once they are introduced, but does Madison figure it out? Nope, she is to distracted in la la land to tape into her gift until she is in way over her head.
I kept reading hoping to see if Madison would learn from her mistakes, ask questions, and give us more insight into the Primoridum, but nope it did not happen. Each page was her jumping into trouble and a hot guy sending her into hormonal teenage overdrive.
A Fistful of Evil was not the book for me. If the blurb intrigues you, I urge you to give it a shot. Just because it did not work for me does not mean it won’t for you.
* Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy free of charge from Rebecca Chastain with the sole purpose of an honest review. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.
claire_loves_books's review
2.0
I didn't really enjoy this, I just found the main character really unlikable- she really suffers from the authors belief that a 'strong' female character means a character who takes every risk and makes every stupid decision there is- at points in the book I felt her reasoning might as well be "derpy derp derp" it's like she sees a bad idea and decides to go for it so that she can be rescued by Niko often referred to as sexy/gorgeous/dark and handsome and other descriptions that felt like they came out a hormonal teenager's brain (on that note the obsession with huge boobs also felt like something conjured up by the mind of a hormonal teenager) and she seems kind of gross and pervy throughout. She also doesn't particularly seem that nice and you have to give me either smart, nice or hilarious, something to make the MC interesting for me to enjoy it, none of which were here.
I did enjoy it in places but this was outweighed by the boredom and annoyance I felt the rest of the time. perhaps if it was edited well and the characters had a bit of dimension it might be okay because the plot isn't terrible but I didn't enjoy it as it was and I won't be reading the rest of the series.
I did enjoy it in places but this was outweighed by the boredom and annoyance I felt the rest of the time. perhaps if it was edited well and the characters had a bit of dimension it might be okay because the plot isn't terrible but I didn't enjoy it as it was and I won't be reading the rest of the series.
nelljustice's review
3.0
for full review go to http://www.onebooktwo.com
The good: It was a quick light read, a fun paranormal fantasy. Madison Fox… you got some moves, girl! Madison is learning to use her ability and this is her story. She’s quick witted and gusty. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have the guts to pull off what she did. Madison fully supports taking care of animals. Rescuing dogs and kittens – that is something I would do, so I could fully relate. It interested me to read how she describes the darkness that takes over someone through bad choices or bad actions. I was pleased to read that while more bad actions breed more darkness, good actions clean out the darkness. That means there is hope for some people after all.
The bad: Some people are just plain evil and they will take whatever advantage they can find to leverage against the good guy. Some darkness can’t be beaten or driven back. It just is.
badge3v4The ugly: The only ugly part was when Mr. Bond got hurt. I’m sending out a warning ahead of time so there will be no freaking out. He ends up just fine. Don’t worry. Other than that, no ugly.
The take-away: There wasn’t a cliffhanger, but there is hinting at Madison publishing more adventures. I really hope so, because she is fun and she loves animals. I especially liked the message about animals being homeless. It broke my heart to watch Max go to the pound. I rate it a 3.
The good: It was a quick light read, a fun paranormal fantasy. Madison Fox… you got some moves, girl! Madison is learning to use her ability and this is her story. She’s quick witted and gusty. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have the guts to pull off what she did. Madison fully supports taking care of animals. Rescuing dogs and kittens – that is something I would do, so I could fully relate. It interested me to read how she describes the darkness that takes over someone through bad choices or bad actions. I was pleased to read that while more bad actions breed more darkness, good actions clean out the darkness. That means there is hope for some people after all.
The bad: Some people are just plain evil and they will take whatever advantage they can find to leverage against the good guy. Some darkness can’t be beaten or driven back. It just is.
badge3v4The ugly: The only ugly part was when Mr. Bond got hurt. I’m sending out a warning ahead of time so there will be no freaking out. He ends up just fine. Don’t worry. Other than that, no ugly.
The take-away: There wasn’t a cliffhanger, but there is hinting at Madison publishing more adventures. I really hope so, because she is fun and she loves animals. I especially liked the message about animals being homeless. It broke my heart to watch Max go to the pound. I rate it a 3.
iamjamface's review
3.0
2.5 / 5 ✨
While parts of this book were interesting, the rest was extremely boring and kept making me not want to finish
While parts of this book were interesting, the rest was extremely boring and kept making me not want to finish
canadianbookaddict's review
2.0
This book was ok but not one I would read again in the future and I won't be reading the rest of the series. It just wan't for me.
chllybrd's review
4.0
I gave it 3.5/5 stars
I ended up really liking Madison, but she is sort of treated like the class idiot. She walked into a job interview knowing zero about her abilities or even that having her abilities meant something. When she is thrust into this new job she knows nothing about, everyone just assumes she must know something. When she proves she doesn't she gets help, but it's very limited and a lot of stuff is kept from her, making it so she gets in even more trouble than needed. She is a quick learner, but has a way of messing things up with wanting to prove herself before she's ready.
A FISTFUL OF EVIL was a unique concept. I really liked learning about the abilities that not only Madison had, but also her colleagues. There are also a lot of different personalities thrown into the mix and it was fun watching them learn about each other. The author did a great job with the world building. Everything was easy to understand and follow. I loved the hiding in plain site business plan as well as the weapons that are used on the job. I did find there to be a few spots in the book that slowed down. It wasn't horrible, but it was enough to almost make me start skimming at a few points. I think some stuff could have been cut out during those points to make if flow better. Thankfully those were few and far between. A FISTFUL OF EVIL was a good start to the series and I plan to continue it!
* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I ended up really liking Madison, but she is sort of treated like the class idiot. She walked into a job interview knowing zero about her abilities or even that having her abilities meant something. When she is thrust into this new job she knows nothing about, everyone just assumes she must know something. When she proves she doesn't she gets help, but it's very limited and a lot of stuff is kept from her, making it so she gets in even more trouble than needed. She is a quick learner, but has a way of messing things up with wanting to prove herself before she's ready.
A FISTFUL OF EVIL was a unique concept. I really liked learning about the abilities that not only Madison had, but also her colleagues. There are also a lot of different personalities thrown into the mix and it was fun watching them learn about each other. The author did a great job with the world building. Everything was easy to understand and follow. I loved the hiding in plain site business plan as well as the weapons that are used on the job. I did find there to be a few spots in the book that slowed down. It wasn't horrible, but it was enough to almost make me start skimming at a few points. I think some stuff could have been cut out during those points to make if flow better. Thankfully those were few and far between. A FISTFUL OF EVIL was a good start to the series and I plan to continue it!
* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.
imzadirose's review
4.0
I enjoyed it. It was different and I focused on it because it mentioned a gaming convention. The MC was likable, even though she wasn't getting a lot of help. It was obvious who the "bad guy" was, but overall, enjoyable book.
momwithareadingproblem's review
3.0
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.
A Fistful of Evil by Rebecca Chastain was just ok for me. It’s about Madison Fox, a down on her luck woman who finds out she’s a bit special because she can see evil. Now she gets this awesome paying job working as an Illuminant Enforcer, fighting evil, and saving the city she lives in. It’s billed in the synopsis as being similar to Stephanie Plum….this was its mistake. You see I LOVE Stephanie Plum and all her crazy antics. I have loved her for the last 15 years (which is when I discovered her and Joe). So this book set high expectations for me and unfortunately didn’t meet them.
Madison is a good character, don’t get me wrong! She’s funny, quirky, more than a little stubborn, and she’s willing to do the work. She’s actually a character I could love if I hadn’t been expecting a Stephanie Plum. The problem is she just didn’t hold my attention. She was too fixated on the vet and the hot guy she works with instead of focusing on the fact that she can SEE EVIL!!! Not only that but she’s had this “problem” with seeing evil since she was a kid, but thought she was nuts for it. Now she just accepts it and does the job willingly. That was a bit hard to swallow for me.
Supposedly now that she is looking at the evil beings, the darkness as she used to call it, they see her where as before they left her alone. Again…NOT BUYING IT! Why would the evil leave her alone if her light is as pure as described? Why, now that she knows what they are, are they attacking her? Why did they not attack her before? I just didn’t understand this as it was a main plot driver.
So the plot revolves around Madison coming into her powers so to speak, understanding them and finally using them. This did make for a funny story at times, but at other times I was just bored. There’s a demon that has moved into town, now that he knows there’s a new enforcer and he makes all kinds of trouble for her. I’ll admit that I was surprised by the ending! I didn’t see it coming so kudos for that.
Overall the book was just okay for me. I wasn’t thrilled, I wasn’t asking for more at the end. It was just ok. If you enjoy paranormal, urban fantasy, I highly recommend it. If you’re looking for the new adult aspect though, it is lacking. Although this book wasn’t for me, I do plan to read the next one. Maybe now that the characters are introduced I’ll like it better? Who knows!
A Fistful of Evil by Rebecca Chastain was just ok for me. It’s about Madison Fox, a down on her luck woman who finds out she’s a bit special because she can see evil. Now she gets this awesome paying job working as an Illuminant Enforcer, fighting evil, and saving the city she lives in. It’s billed in the synopsis as being similar to Stephanie Plum….this was its mistake. You see I LOVE Stephanie Plum and all her crazy antics. I have loved her for the last 15 years (which is when I discovered her and Joe). So this book set high expectations for me and unfortunately didn’t meet them.
Madison is a good character, don’t get me wrong! She’s funny, quirky, more than a little stubborn, and she’s willing to do the work. She’s actually a character I could love if I hadn’t been expecting a Stephanie Plum. The problem is she just didn’t hold my attention. She was too fixated on the vet and the hot guy she works with instead of focusing on the fact that she can SEE EVIL!!! Not only that but she’s had this “problem” with seeing evil since she was a kid, but thought she was nuts for it. Now she just accepts it and does the job willingly. That was a bit hard to swallow for me.
Supposedly now that she is looking at the evil beings, the darkness as she used to call it, they see her where as before they left her alone. Again…NOT BUYING IT! Why would the evil leave her alone if her light is as pure as described? Why, now that she knows what they are, are they attacking her? Why did they not attack her before? I just didn’t understand this as it was a main plot driver.
So the plot revolves around Madison coming into her powers so to speak, understanding them and finally using them. This did make for a funny story at times, but at other times I was just bored. There’s a demon that has moved into town, now that he knows there’s a new enforcer and he makes all kinds of trouble for her. I’ll admit that I was surprised by the ending! I didn’t see it coming so kudos for that.
Overall the book was just okay for me. I wasn’t thrilled, I wasn’t asking for more at the end. It was just ok. If you enjoy paranormal, urban fantasy, I highly recommend it. If you’re looking for the new adult aspect though, it is lacking. Although this book wasn’t for me, I do plan to read the next one. Maybe now that the characters are introduced I’ll like it better? Who knows!
heyt's review
2.0
So I borrowed this from hoopla in audio because I needed something light while doing data entry type work. It was definitely light. I usually like heroine led urban fantasy but this was probably the most mediocre I've ever read in the genre. Madison was so inept that it was almost painful to listen to each time she screwed up and I found myself wanting to yell at her to pay attention because I could see what would happen a mile away.