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megglettep 's review for:
Death Becomes Her
by Michael Anderle
Alright I first read this in November/December of 2018, before I knew anything about Kindle Unlimited or self publishing and the types of books that get published that route. These are not literary masterpieces, they are not necessarily award winners. They are meant to be fun popcorn books that will get you pumping your fist a little and enjoying the main characters unmitigated success. Which on this reread, I certainly was. I didn't "lower my expectations", I just adjusted them.
I did really enjoy the fight scenes. I remember liking them back in 2018 and that assessment stayed. The opportunity to read about a main character who faces very little difficulty being a badass and keeping up with the fighting and scifi around her was just plain ol' fun. I admit that the first ~40% of the book before the paranormal stuff started happening (which was all military politics) was quite boring for me and I only stuck it out to see the fight scenes.
THRILLED that Bethany Anne isn't made into a sexual object/romantic object right away. Nathan/Alexei/Ivan could have expressed attraction towards her after her change, but none do, and I an FUCKING THRILLED. Bethany Anne has a throw away line about how now she's surrounded by hot shirtless men, but it doesn't go any farther than that joke. Keep it up :thumbs up:
The first time I read the book I remember being surprised and a bit miffed that it turns into a space/extraterrestrial book partway through, because at the time I preferred straight up fantasy and I was excited to see the vampire exploits and politics. Now of course it's got a whole other flavor.
The book went by fast and there are a butt-ton of sequels so when I feel the urge to read more, there's a lot more. Anderle seems preternaturally prolific in his writing output.
**Quick summary, spoilers abound**
On a mission invading a warehouse in Virginia, a badass soldier Bill, with allusions to his profound strength and endurance, and unnaturally long life, is caught in an explosion which destroys his body beyond salvaging. This causes his best friend and wrangler, Carl, to decide to "wake him up", referring to some paranormal patriarch. His government contact Frank reluctantly agrees.
In a secret underground bunker in a secret, underground military base, a door opens on a room sealed since just after the atom bombs were dropped in Japan. On the door is a letter addressed to the general of the base, bringing up some debt to be fulfilled "On his Honor".
Elsewhere, Bethany Anne (a very long name for a MC, imo) is a career-long CIA agent who works for a clandestine agency that solves cold cases. She has received a summons to change her assignment and it calls her to Colorado, to the same mountain base where her father, a General, works. You can see where this is going. She is furious because she assumes her father had some part in orchestrating her reassignment. Her boss Martin assures her that is not the case, and he also has no idea why she has been called. Recently diagnosed with an incurable and non-specific blood disease, Bethany Anne has 3-8months to live, but closer to 3. She hasn't told her father yet as her mother died from the same mystery illness when the mom was 28, the same age Bethany Anne is now.
Elsewhere, Michael wakes up. He is the famed patriarch with a strict black and white moral code and almost a thousand years of messing up paranormal politics with his strict ethics and stricter penal code. He is disappointed to discover Bill's murder and agrees with Carl that it was targeted and can't be attributed to a random attack. He and Carl discuss the qualification for the candidate who will replace him as a new vampire, which the military is obligated to supply on short notice to repay their honor debt.
Frank talks to the General and gives a bare bones explanation.
Carl flies to the Colorado bunker, as does Bethany Anne, but separately. Bethany Anne's father the General pushes back their meeting by a few hours so he can meet with a retired soldier who was working at the base 60+ years ago when the mystery bunker was opened the last time. He relays that 3 men went into the room, all sick with a diagnosis to live less than 6 months, but only 1 came out, babbling about how he didn't have enough 'faith'. The man died a week or two later. The General dismisses the retired man and meets with Carl.
Carl gives another minimal explanation and when he gets push-back from the General, says, basically, "fuck around and find out." Michael becomes mystically corporeal in the office and freaks out the general enough that he agrees to provide a candidate (which Carl and Frank have actually already chosen. No points for guessing).
Bethany Anne meets with her father and he surmises she is about to die. He and she reconcile and go out for a huge blow out dinner on her company card as a farewell (32k!). He knows she will survive and they will try and find a way to meet again.
Michael has decided Bethany Anne is strong enough in body, soul, and 'faith' that he will take her to where he was turned and change her in the same manner he was changed. He warns that there will be extreme pain. They go to the snowy mountains of Romania and he takes her to the cave where he was reborn.
Bethany Anne wakes up months later. She is not in any pain, but there is a voice speaking inside her head. They reveal that they are a pacifist extraterrestrial being, sent as a scout to identify potential sapient species to participate in an enormous war their species is fighting. Bethany Anne is less than thrilled to have a parasite, essentially. She does not mind, however, that her legs are longer and she is in tremendous shape. As someone with short calves, I understand the fantasy, but there is a peculiar fixation on the legs for the rest of the book. Bethany Anne names her new 'roommate' TOM.
Bethany Anne and TOM do a few more genetic tweaks to strengthen her bones and physical form. She also adds a bio-organic computer behind her ear. So now she has two symbiotes. She then re-enters the world to see how it has changed.
Meanwhile, a Were (werewolf) Nathan is contacted by Frank to find Michael and his vampire candidate (Bethany Anne) as they have been missing for months. Carl's plane also disappeared over the English Channel months ago. Frank offers 400 trusted techs to help with Nathan's cybersecurity company while he goes on the clandestine mission to Romania. Once there, he catches scent of other Weres bugging his room, despite his asking permission before he arrived. He hires Ekaterina, a beautiful barmaid and wilderness guide, to take him up into the mountains. Ekaterina and her brother Ivan rent Nathan some kit and they go into the mountains.
There, Nathan and Ekaterina go to find huge bear tracks recently spotted. Nathan is sure they belong to a WereBear and wishes to talk to them about the missing vampires. When on the mountain, they are attacked by 3 Werewolves from the local pack, including their Alpha. The bear shifter, Alexei, is Katia's uncle and comes to help fend off the attackers when she is injured. The wolves are using silver bullets which wound the weres significantly, and both Nathan and Alexei are in dire straights when Bethany Anne arrives.
Bethany Anne has been experimenting by the lake with her new physical prowess when she hears a gunshot and comes to the rescue. Despite her speed she is too slow to reach the sniper when she suddenly teleports above him. She drinks his blood to strengthen her and TOM's connection to the Etherium where all her energy comes from, eliminating the need for food and water. Bethany Anne then appears in the main fight absolutely covered in blood. She snatches the wolf that was about to attack Alexei and claps his head, exploding it. She then goes to find Nathan outnumbered by 2 other wolves. When attacked she grabs the wolf out of midair and rips his head off and drinks some more blood. She orders them to turn back to humans and Nathan submits and immediately complies. The other wolf attacks her and she incapacitates him and brings him back to Alexei, who puts a heavy paw on him. BA checks on Alexei and offers to take the silver bullets out of him with her speed and strength.
Bethany Anne checks on Katia, who is waking up. Nathan tentatively challenges BA that Katia doesn't need to be "wiped" (memory erased). BA is miffed at Michael's previous treatment of the subject and stabs the Alpha wolf with Nathan's silver Bowie knife. The wolf confesses they were hired by Petre, Michael's 'grandson' to eliminate Nathan and her (if they could find her). She coaxes Petre's location out of him using some kind of silvertongue magic although it isn't explained. BA then lets Alexei and the Alpha duel in the next clearing and Alexei handily eliminates him.
BA, Nathan, Katia, Alexei, and Ivan go to a safehouse and plan how to infiltrate Petre's lair to kill him. While Katia and Alexei find and guard the emergency bolt-holes, Nathan ties up BA to pretend to exchange her (unchanged, she doesn't smell like a vampire) to get safe passage back to the US. Petre's minions take BA to a tarp covered room and shoot her with a shotgun, blowing a hole clear through her torso, a nice reference to the movie 'Death Becomes Her' ha. BA however isn't dead and immediately kills everyone there. Nathan is shocked to say the least.
BA chases Petre down a bolt-hole after hearing him screaming. Petre had come out where Katia was, who flashed him and distracted him enough to walk into a bear trap. BA comes and knocks Petre out after shooting his other leg.
After some brief interrogating, Petre is killed. TOM assured BA that her blood and guts on the wall will be broken down by their nanobots and untraceable in a few hours, therefore it is safe for them to leave.
Celebrating with their found money and jewels, BA impresses Nathan into unwilling service to help her. Katia comes along more willingly as she wants to get out of her small village and she and Nathan have a budding sexual tension. Ivan and Alexei will ultimately stay home. Their next target is to find Stefan, Michael's son and Petre's sire, in the Balkans (and probably kill him).
But first, shopping! BA is taking Nathan on a shopping spree for her............ for some reason. I mean, she needs new clothes, but why take Nathan.
I did really enjoy the fight scenes. I remember liking them back in 2018 and that assessment stayed. The opportunity to read about a main character who faces very little difficulty being a badass and keeping up with the fighting and scifi around her was just plain ol' fun. I admit that the first ~40% of the book before the paranormal stuff started happening (which was all military politics) was quite boring for me and I only stuck it out to see the fight scenes.
THRILLED that Bethany Anne isn't made into a sexual object/romantic object right away. Nathan/Alexei/Ivan could have expressed attraction towards her after her change, but none do, and I an FUCKING THRILLED. Bethany Anne has a throw away line about how now she's surrounded by hot shirtless men, but it doesn't go any farther than that joke. Keep it up :thumbs up:
The first time I read the book I remember being surprised and a bit miffed that it turns into a space/extraterrestrial book partway through, because at the time I preferred straight up fantasy and I was excited to see the vampire exploits and politics. Now of course it's got a whole other flavor.
The book went by fast and there are a butt-ton of sequels so when I feel the urge to read more, there's a lot more. Anderle seems preternaturally prolific in his writing output.
**Quick summary, spoilers abound**
On a mission invading a warehouse in Virginia, a badass soldier Bill, with allusions to his profound strength and endurance, and unnaturally long life, is caught in an explosion which destroys his body beyond salvaging. This causes his best friend and wrangler, Carl, to decide to "wake him up", referring to some paranormal patriarch. His government contact Frank reluctantly agrees.
In a secret underground bunker in a secret, underground military base, a door opens on a room sealed since just after the atom bombs were dropped in Japan. On the door is a letter addressed to the general of the base, bringing up some debt to be fulfilled "On his Honor".
Elsewhere, Bethany Anne (a very long name for a MC, imo) is a career-long CIA agent who works for a clandestine agency that solves cold cases. She has received a summons to change her assignment and it calls her to Colorado, to the same mountain base where her father, a General, works. You can see where this is going. She is furious because she assumes her father had some part in orchestrating her reassignment. Her boss Martin assures her that is not the case, and he also has no idea why she has been called. Recently diagnosed with an incurable and non-specific blood disease, Bethany Anne has 3-8months to live, but closer to 3. She hasn't told her father yet as her mother died from the same mystery illness when the mom was 28, the same age Bethany Anne is now.
Elsewhere, Michael wakes up. He is the famed patriarch with a strict black and white moral code and almost a thousand years of messing up paranormal politics with his strict ethics and stricter penal code. He is disappointed to discover Bill's murder and agrees with Carl that it was targeted and can't be attributed to a random attack. He and Carl discuss the qualification for the candidate who will replace him as a new vampire, which the military is obligated to supply on short notice to repay their honor debt.
Frank talks to the General and gives a bare bones explanation.
Carl flies to the Colorado bunker, as does Bethany Anne, but separately. Bethany Anne's father the General pushes back their meeting by a few hours so he can meet with a retired soldier who was working at the base 60+ years ago when the mystery bunker was opened the last time. He relays that 3 men went into the room, all sick with a diagnosis to live less than 6 months, but only 1 came out, babbling about how he didn't have enough 'faith'. The man died a week or two later. The General dismisses the retired man and meets with Carl.
Carl gives another minimal explanation and when he gets push-back from the General, says, basically, "fuck around and find out." Michael becomes mystically corporeal in the office and freaks out the general enough that he agrees to provide a candidate (which Carl and Frank have actually already chosen. No points for guessing).
Bethany Anne meets with her father and he surmises she is about to die. He and she reconcile and go out for a huge blow out dinner on her company card as a farewell (32k!). He knows she will survive and they will try and find a way to meet again.
Michael has decided Bethany Anne is strong enough in body, soul, and 'faith' that he will take her to where he was turned and change her in the same manner he was changed. He warns that there will be extreme pain. They go to the snowy mountains of Romania and he takes her to the cave where he was reborn.
Bethany Anne wakes up months later. She is not in any pain, but there is a voice speaking inside her head. They reveal that they are a pacifist extraterrestrial being, sent as a scout to identify potential sapient species to participate in an enormous war their species is fighting. Bethany Anne is less than thrilled to have a parasite, essentially. She does not mind, however, that her legs are longer and she is in tremendous shape. As someone with short calves, I understand the fantasy, but there is a peculiar fixation on the legs for the rest of the book. Bethany Anne names her new 'roommate' TOM.
Bethany Anne and TOM do a few more genetic tweaks to strengthen her bones and physical form. She also adds a bio-organic computer behind her ear. So now she has two symbiotes. She then re-enters the world to see how it has changed.
Meanwhile, a Were (werewolf) Nathan is contacted by Frank to find Michael and his vampire candidate (Bethany Anne) as they have been missing for months. Carl's plane also disappeared over the English Channel months ago. Frank offers 400 trusted techs to help with Nathan's cybersecurity company while he goes on the clandestine mission to Romania. Once there, he catches scent of other Weres bugging his room, despite his asking permission before he arrived. He hires Ekaterina, a beautiful barmaid and wilderness guide, to take him up into the mountains. Ekaterina and her brother Ivan rent Nathan some kit and they go into the mountains.
There, Nathan and Ekaterina go to find huge bear tracks recently spotted. Nathan is sure they belong to a WereBear and wishes to talk to them about the missing vampires. When on the mountain, they are attacked by 3 Werewolves from the local pack, including their Alpha. The bear shifter, Alexei, is Katia's uncle and comes to help fend off the attackers when she is injured. The wolves are using silver bullets which wound the weres significantly, and both Nathan and Alexei are in dire straights when Bethany Anne arrives.
Bethany Anne has been experimenting by the lake with her new physical prowess when she hears a gunshot and comes to the rescue. Despite her speed she is too slow to reach the sniper when she suddenly teleports above him. She drinks his blood to strengthen her and TOM's connection to the Etherium where all her energy comes from, eliminating the need for food and water. Bethany Anne then appears in the main fight absolutely covered in blood. She snatches the wolf that was about to attack Alexei and claps his head, exploding it. She then goes to find Nathan outnumbered by 2 other wolves. When attacked she grabs the wolf out of midair and rips his head off and drinks some more blood. She orders them to turn back to humans and Nathan submits and immediately complies. The other wolf attacks her and she incapacitates him and brings him back to Alexei, who puts a heavy paw on him. BA checks on Alexei and offers to take the silver bullets out of him with her speed and strength.
Bethany Anne checks on Katia, who is waking up. Nathan tentatively challenges BA that Katia doesn't need to be "wiped" (memory erased). BA is miffed at Michael's previous treatment of the subject and stabs the Alpha wolf with Nathan's silver Bowie knife. The wolf confesses they were hired by Petre, Michael's 'grandson' to eliminate Nathan and her (if they could find her). She coaxes Petre's location out of him using some kind of silvertongue magic although it isn't explained. BA then lets Alexei and the Alpha duel in the next clearing and Alexei handily eliminates him.
BA, Nathan, Katia, Alexei, and Ivan go to a safehouse and plan how to infiltrate Petre's lair to kill him. While Katia and Alexei find and guard the emergency bolt-holes, Nathan ties up BA to pretend to exchange her (unchanged, she doesn't smell like a vampire) to get safe passage back to the US. Petre's minions take BA to a tarp covered room and shoot her with a shotgun, blowing a hole clear through her torso, a nice reference to the movie 'Death Becomes Her' ha. BA however isn't dead and immediately kills everyone there. Nathan is shocked to say the least.
BA chases Petre down a bolt-hole after hearing him screaming. Petre had come out where Katia was, who flashed him and distracted him enough to walk into a bear trap. BA comes and knocks Petre out after shooting his other leg.
After some brief interrogating, Petre is killed. TOM assured BA that her blood and guts on the wall will be broken down by their nanobots and untraceable in a few hours, therefore it is safe for them to leave.
Celebrating with their found money and jewels, BA impresses Nathan into unwilling service to help her. Katia comes along more willingly as she wants to get out of her small village and she and Nathan have a budding sexual tension. Ivan and Alexei will ultimately stay home. Their next target is to find Stefan, Michael's son and Petre's sire, in the Balkans (and probably kill him).
But first, shopping! BA is taking Nathan on a shopping spree for her............ for some reason. I mean, she needs new clothes, but why take Nathan.