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pshelling's review against another edition
3.0
Based on the description, I was hoping for a page turning paranormal investigation. What I got instead was a typical romance. If you walk in with more realistic expectations of the romance genre, then you will probably like this book. It was solid in delivering a romance to a T, so the author displays mastery of the genre.
The main reason I rated his book with 3/5 stars is how dislikeable Cameron is. He's immature, irrational, and constantly trying to pick fights with his love interest. I guess it creates conflict, but the repetition of the themes of the arguments got old.
Other than Cameron, the writing is actually pretty sold. The loose ends get tied up so you won't feel cheated by a cliffhanger, but there's definitely still room for the series to expand. The prose was error free and consistent in voice. My only complaint with the exposition it that there's no time breaks, which means I had to sit through the mundane parts of Cameron's life until the story started moving.
I received a review copy of this book.
The main reason I rated his book with 3/5 stars is how dislikeable Cameron is. He's immature, irrational, and constantly trying to pick fights with his love interest. I guess it creates conflict, but the repetition of the themes of the arguments got old.
Other than Cameron, the writing is actually pretty sold. The loose ends get tied up so you won't feel cheated by a cliffhanger, but there's definitely still room for the series to expand. The prose was error free and consistent in voice. My only complaint with the exposition it that there's no time breaks, which means I had to sit through the mundane parts of Cameron's life until the story started moving.
I received a review copy of this book.
princessleopard's review against another edition
3.0
Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
Explicit content: Graphic sex scenes, child abuse, death, violence
I would describe this as a guilty pleasure sort of book. Obviously, it has a plot (that isn't half bad), but the central draw is the romance. Unfortunately, our romantic lead is, frankly, a complete jerk. He's violent, rude, obnoxious, and overtly hostile from literally the first minute he and our main character meet, and he never really gets any better. As soon as he receives any push back at all from our protagonist, he's instantly snarling and shouting. At one point, he literally tells our protagonist (who is a victim of some serious child abuse, including watching his sister getting murdered) that his mother /murdered the wrong child./ And this never comes up again! He never apologizes for saying this!! It's just swept under the rug with the typical "I hate having feelings and getting close to people so I lash out" thing.
The sad thing is, otherwise, he is kinda a compelling romantic lead, if you're into snappy tough guys. There are moments in the story where he shows vulnerability and tries to be gentler and such, but he always ends up throwing it away and being a jerk again, until the very end. A lot of the fights he gets into are just silly and for milking the drama, but they end up making him really difficult to like and root for as a love interest.
I've seen some other reviews blaming our protagonist for also having an explosive temper, which I really don't get. Jason starts pretty much all of the fights, and, again, he's aware that Caleb has had an extremely abusive and traumatic childhood. Not to mention a lot of their tiffs are because Jason isn't respecting Caleb's house or his space and won't leave when he's told. I was on Caleb's side for pretty much every argument. Caleb himself is a pretty good character - he has some complexity to him that I think comes off as wishywashyness to some. He does seem to vacillate a lot on whether or not he believes in the occult, but again, given his background, I think it's understandable.
The main plot is interesting, but not too intricate. There's a lot of general spookiness, which I enjoyed. The side character renting his house were also nice (more positive representation, which I enjoyed). There was kinda some iffy stuff every time the police came around, where they brushed off Caleb's complaints as lovers' spats because he's gay; the author pretty much beat us over the head about it, which I'm not sure was a good thing, both for the bluntness of it and because she doesn't share this same perspective herself (though it's possible she's had friends deal with the situation in the past, I have no idea).
Overall, I really wish I could rate this story higher, because it is a mostly enjoyable read - however, the abusive undertones and general jerkishness of the main romantic lead really dragged the story down for me, to the point where I'm not sure I can really recommend it, even for those into the genre. Reader discretion is advised, I guess.
Explicit content: Graphic sex scenes, child abuse, death, violence
I would describe this as a guilty pleasure sort of book. Obviously, it has a plot (that isn't half bad), but the central draw is the romance. Unfortunately, our romantic lead is, frankly, a complete jerk. He's violent, rude, obnoxious, and overtly hostile from literally the first minute he and our main character meet, and he never really gets any better. As soon as he receives any push back at all from our protagonist, he's instantly snarling and shouting. At one point, he literally tells our protagonist (who is a victim of some serious child abuse, including watching his sister getting murdered) that his mother /murdered the wrong child./ And this never comes up again! He never apologizes for saying this!! It's just swept under the rug with the typical "I hate having feelings and getting close to people so I lash out" thing.
The sad thing is, otherwise, he is kinda a compelling romantic lead, if you're into snappy tough guys. There are moments in the story where he shows vulnerability and tries to be gentler and such, but he always ends up throwing it away and being a jerk again, until the very end. A lot of the fights he gets into are just silly and for milking the drama, but they end up making him really difficult to like and root for as a love interest.
I've seen some other reviews blaming our protagonist for also having an explosive temper, which I really don't get. Jason starts pretty much all of the fights, and, again, he's aware that Caleb has had an extremely abusive and traumatic childhood. Not to mention a lot of their tiffs are because Jason isn't respecting Caleb's house or his space and won't leave when he's told. I was on Caleb's side for pretty much every argument. Caleb himself is a pretty good character - he has some complexity to him that I think comes off as wishywashyness to some. He does seem to vacillate a lot on whether or not he believes in the occult, but again, given his background, I think it's understandable.
The main plot is interesting, but not too intricate. There's a lot of general spookiness, which I enjoyed. The side character renting his house were also nice (more positive representation, which I enjoyed). There was kinda some iffy stuff every time the police came around, where they brushed off Caleb's complaints as lovers' spats because he's gay; the author pretty much beat us over the head about it, which I'm not sure was a good thing, both for the bluntness of it and because she doesn't share this same perspective herself (though it's possible she's had friends deal with the situation in the past, I have no idea).
Overall, I really wish I could rate this story higher, because it is a mostly enjoyable read - however, the abusive undertones and general jerkishness of the main romantic lead really dragged the story down for me, to the point where I'm not sure I can really recommend it, even for those into the genre. Reader discretion is advised, I guess.
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