Recent Reads - the DNF's

The Sea King by Jolie Mathis
I know a few readers were wondering what I thought of this one. Actually this one is a DNF with a star. I read about a chapter or two and then set this one aside to read later. From the brief bit I did read, it was an “I hate you ‘cause you done me wrong” book. There isn’t anything wrong with this kind and given a different time I like them myself and this one is still getting good reviews so I don’t want to not read it, but I’m just not feeling like reading one right now where the hero/heroine start of antagonistic with each other. And since it is getting good reviews, I didn’t want my mood to colour what might be a book I would enjoy in a different time.


Shadow of the Moon by Rebecca York
I’ve read her previous books in the werewolf series and quite enjoyed them. Therefore I was really looking forward to this next one. But somewhere between the last one and this one something happened to the author. I don’t know if she was kidnapped by aliens and replaced by an inferior clone or she was ‘encouraged’ by someone to change her style or what but this one is way different. First off the sex scenes are ratcheted up. Now that normally wouldn’t be so bad except the plot suffered because of it. Lance Marshall is a reporter/werewolf. He’s looking for a story and he’s looking for it in a hot sex club. He runs into Savannah Carpenter in the woods and manages to save her. She’s also looking into the same club to see if she can discover what happened to her comatose sister who just happened to be a member of this 'special' club.
Sounds good right? Not. First off Savannah is one TSTL heroine. She’s constantly making one dumb move after another. Next there is this real ick factor. She has found her sister’s journal which contains rather explicit details about her experiences in the club. Not only does our heroine read it (looking for clues) but she gets turned on by it. EEEWWWWW. Then after that we have her falling for the old “we have to have bondage sex in case anyone is watching when we infiltrate the club” line the hero feeds her. Now all of these are bad enough but the one that made me put it down was when our heroine saw the hero turn into werewolf mode. Was she horrified? No. Was she shocked out of her mind? No. In fact she was incredibly nonchalant about the whole thing. I know these aren’t real; there is no such thing as werewolves, but still there has to be a base of reality in them for me to buy the fantasy. There is no f’in’ way someone would be that blasé upon seeing a guy turn into a wolf.
Like I said, I enjoyed all the other ones previous to this one. I probably will read the next one because every author is allowed one or two stinkers.


Hide in Plain Sight by Michele Albert
I wasn’t sure if I should include this one or not as a DNF. I’m hoping someone who’s read it can convince me to keep going ‘cause I’ve read and loved all her other books under both her names so I hate like heck to give up on this one. But I’m having issues with this one. I’ve picked it up and put it down a number of times now. The problem I’m having is with the hero. Griff Laughton is a spy who works for an undercover organization. In order to catch the bad guy he figures the best way to do it is to use Fiona Kennedy as bait. I haven’t gotten very far into it, but I’m bothered by Griff’s cold-blooded idea to seduce, use, then discard Fiona. Right now I’m not liking him very much. So, if there’s anyone who has read and liked this one and can tell me Griff gets better and get what at this point anyway he richly deserves – I’m listening.


'til later