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Shadow of Wings (Dragon Claimed #1)
Shadow of Wings (Dragon Claimed #1)
Ellie Pond | 2026 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
SHADOW OF WINGS is the first book in the Dragon Claimed series. We begin in a world where shifters are known about, and Raine lands the job of a lifetime, curating a private art collection in the Swiss mountains.

Kieren, Roark, and Evander are thunder-mates, which means when they find their mate, they will share. They have been searching, hosting 'candidates' as they try to find their mate. Raine is the last opportunity, as they are tired of it all. They all feel something for her, but is she the one? Not only that, but trouble is brewing between the dragon clans, most especially with their long-term rivals, the Firesteds.

This is fairly fast-paced, with some skips and jumps in the timeline. On the whole, it flows fairly well, but I did get lost a couple of times. While the main male characters are also pretty much defined, there were also a couple of times when I had to go to the beginning of the chapter to make sure I knew who was speaking. Leo is the only one I didn't confuse! I want a Leo of my own!!

I found this to be a lighthearted and fun read. I don't fully understand the role Aisling has to play yet, as I don't feel she added that much to the story, but I'm hopeful it will be clearer as the story progresses. It does end on a huge cliffhanger, though, so consider yourself warned. The ending didn't come as a surprise, but I look forward to the next book to see where it takes me.

If you like dragon shifters and why choose, then I can recommend this one.

** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Mar 12, 2026
  
Shadows & Dreams
Shadows & Dreams
Alexis Hall | 2014 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy
1
3.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Review** spoiler alert ** *Warning: contains spoilers, bad words, and quite a long rant*


To be honest, I was very disappointed in this book. It had a great premise, which meant it had the potential to be a really good story, but the writing style of the author just completely ruined this book for me.

The basic idea behind the story is that Kate Kane, a paranormal PI, sets off on a case to find the brother of a woman she slept with once, and during this investigation, she runs into ALL MANNER OF TROUBLE. There are vampires and werewolves and ex-girlfriends around every corner, just lurking and waiting to pounce on Miss Kane. It's a very busy and involved story, and if it had been better written, I would have easily given it four stars at least, but there was just TOO much about this book -- style-wise -- that drove me insane.

For instance:

1. The plot, itself, is actually fairly well thought out and developed and is nowhere NEAR as cheesy as it sounds when you hear, "Vampires fighting werewolves," -- which, let's be honest, these days is so trite and overdone that it is scoffed at on a regular basis. However, there IS a good story in this novel. But the way Hall writes the not-cheesy story is so cheesy that it makes you THINK the story is cheesy. A lot of cheese, huh? A little confusing? Well then, let me give you an example.

Page 7-8: "Truth be told it was a little bit awkward, but my social weirdness threshold has gone way up since my girlfriend tried to murder my ex-girlfriend because her ex-girlfriend tried to murder her."

Okay... a bit ridiculous, especially seven/eight pages in, but I can roll with it. However, at the bottom of page eight:

Kane asks, "Who saw him last?"
Her assistant -- who is actually a statue brought to life and gifted to Kate by a group of rats who are apparently all seeing and all knowing God-types -- says, "I don't know. [...] Probably somebody at the hospital."
Kane asks, "Which one?"
And the assistant replies with this fantastic line: "The Whittington. He broke his leg changing a light bulb. Because he was standing on a swivel chair because he's an idiot."

Okay, I concede that maybe this line is supposed to sound ridiculous and funny, so I can even let that one slide. But then, three pages later, Hall completely turns me off to the book with this:

"Well, fuck. I was about to be hired by a woman I'd very nearly slept with to find her missing brother who was working for the woman who'd left me for a tech startup at the tech startup she left me for."

Wh-wh-what?! Are you kidding me? Could that sentence BE anymore convoluted or that plot-point any more ridiculously stereotypical?

And what is truly awful is that the story itself REALLY WASN'T THAT BAD. I mean, the writing was awful, which, overall, meant that the novel was -- in my opinion, of course -- bad, but the way the story progressed WAS interesting. It was nowhere near as bad as these 'recaps' by the main character make it sound, but the problem is that Hall throws in these inner-monologues for Kane ALL throughout the book, and they are terrible! Which, in turn, decreases the value of the entire story.

Another example falls right on the heels of the page 11 jewel.

Page 14: "I really really hoped this wasn't going to be another zombie plague. There'd been an outbreak when I'd taken Eve up to Lake Windermere for our third anniversary, and we'd spent the whole weekend under siege in the hotel, making molotovs from the minibar and clubbing re-animated tourists to death with souvenir walking sticks."

Really? Zombies now? On top of the vampires, witches, and werewolves? Can we POSSIBLY fit anymore para into this normal?

Enough with that.

Now on to point number 2. The girl on girl sex scenes in this book between sexy, snarky PI and her vampire girlfriend, the Prince (yes, Prince) of Cups, should be hot, right? No. They are forced, fake, and ridiculous. Halfway through the first one, I thought, "Jesus. This isn't lesbian sex. This is lesbian sex if it was written by a man who WISHES he could see some lesbian sex." That was the point at which I decided to look up more info on Alexis Hall, and I found out that he is, in fact, a man, which at least explains the sex scenes.

#3. Speaking of sex scenes, Hall also has this really irritating -- and distracting -- habit of throwing in random, explicitly sexual thoughts at TOTALLY inappropriate times. Right in the middle of the most stressful situations -- being locked up, about to be killed, thrown in prison/on trial -- Kate Kane begins inner-monologuing with herself about how much she'd like to fuck whatever female happens to be standing in front of her. RIDICULOUS! And annoying. Hated it.

4. One of the MOST annoying things about this book, however, was that it was in DESPERATE need of a SERIOUS case of editing. All throughout the book there were glaring errors that any first year college student should have caught while reading. I'm willing to discount SOME of these "errors" as simply being lost in translation, as the book is written with a British tone, and I am very much American. However, SOME of these errors simply CANNOT be due to anything other than careless editing.

For instance, page 113: "It's main distinguishing feature, right, was that was it was blue."

WAS that WAS it WAS blue? What does that even mean? Oh, yes, it means that no one bothered editing this beast before printing.

Page 141: "Piercing the heart will paralyse, but it won't kill, and anything will do, it doesn't have to wood."

Okay, so maybe the "paralyse" is simply British, but surely the "doesn't have to wood" bit needs a "be" in there somewhere, right?

Page 157: "Have we have achieved case closed, Miss Kane?"

Yes, yes have we have.

There are several -- SEVERAL -- more examples of these type errors, but I'm not about to point them all out. If you read the book, I'm sure you'll easily catch them on your own.

5. Another thing that drove me NUTS was the repetition. The awful thing is I'm fairly certain that Hall used these repetitious lines PURPOSELY to create some kind of effect -- humor, maybe? Whatever the desired result, it failed to do anything other than annoy me.

For instance, page 163: "'Hi. So. Look.' I tried to find a way to express the fact I had some good news and some bad news that wasn't I've got some good news and some bad news. 'I've got some good news and some bad news.'"

...blink... ...falls over...

Page 177: "All the more reason to tell them. [...] If they know that we know that she has returned, then they will not be tempted to conspire against us out of the false belief that we do not know. Of course, they may already know, but at present, we have no way to know what they know. If we tell them, we will know what they know, and all we will not know is how long they have known it."

Oh. Jumping. Jesus. On. A. Pogo. Stick. Please tell me you aren't serious.

And there was this one thing that repeated over and over again throughout the book. The first time, it was actually pretty clever. The second time, even, was okay. But by the time I'd read it nine times -- yes, NINE TIMES, no exaggeration whatsoever -- I was ready to never EVER read anything like it ever again.

This particular phrase was something Kate Kane internalized or muttered aloud to herself each time she decided to do something stupid OR she felt her life was in danger. The basic format went something like this:

"Here lies Kate Kane, died peacefully in her sleep aged 94. Beloved daughter."

The "Here lies Kate Kane" part remained constant, as did the "Beloved daughter." It was only the middle part that changed, for instance, "Here lies Kate Kate. Should have minded her own business. Beloved daughter." Or perhaps, "Here lies Kate Kane. She made a difference to dozens. Beloved daughter."

This continued NINE TIMES. It is not cute, funny, or clever after about the second time, definitely after the third. BUT NINE TIMES?! Come on!

And finally, my last complaint.

6. Several of the items, scenes, quotes, etc. in this book seemed waaaaaaaaaay too close to things from other books for my taste. Perhaps it is simply a coincidence and the author did not intentionally siphon plot points and details from other authors -- except, of course, when he obviously did in his quotations, such as his use of "Not all those who wander are lost" and "As old as my tongue, a little bit older than my teeth" which are DIRECTLY taken from other books, but I'm hoping those were intentional and not attempted-to-get-away-with-it plagiarism.

But there are several things in this novel that could have been taken from Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files", Lewis' "Narnia" chronicles, and Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series. I'm hoping, however, that they weren't, but they were very, very similar.

All in all, I'm disappointed to say that I was not a fan of this book at all, and I will most likely not be reading anymore Kate Kane books.
  
Five Minutes Longer (Enhanced #1)
Five Minutes Longer (Enhanced #1)
Victoria Sue | 2017 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
different but brilliant
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted the AUDIO file of this book.

Some 30 years ago, children began waking up with a mark on their faces and enhanced abilities: speed, strength, mental abilities. Talon, now given the job of setting up a human/enhanced task force within the FBI, was one of the first. He doesn't want to work with normals on his team, but this task force is his, and the other enhanced team members, last chance at becoming a useful member of society, not just a mark on his face. Finn wanted to join the FBI forever, and worked hard to get to apply, but he is not accepted. Instead he gets a cryptic phone and flies to Florida, and finds himself face to face with several huge enhanced, one of whom makes Finn want that boyfriend he never had. They have four weeks to make this team work, do or, quite possibly, die.

Oooooo-eeeee! Loved this! Different, very different and different is always good in my book!

The guys on the team really don't want Finn around, but know they gotta put up with him, at least for a little bit, but he grows on them, Talon especially but Talon fights that attraction all the bloody way, and when he finally gives up the fight?? Oh yes ma'am, that boy falls hard and he falls FAST! And when Finn gets caught in the cross fire at a bank robbery?? Talon goes all MAJOR Alpha-Male- Protect-What's-Mine!

I loved that not everything is fully revealed about the guys abilities, I think there is quite a bit more to come!

Nick J Russo narrates and he does a sterling job! He's a firm favourite of mine, and each and every time I listen to his work, it becomes my NEW favourite!

Russo's voices are clear and distinctive, even in multi person conversations. He reading voice is deep and even and I had no trouble, not at all, keeping up.

He gets cross all of Finn's emotions and his reactions to the guys, to Talon. His intense dislike of his brother and how his mum was with his dad. Russo gets across all of Talon's fighting, and that boy fights hard, his feelings for Finn, and you get just how much Finn means to him, when he thinks Finn is lost.

This is book one, there appears to be an underlying story arc running through these books, and I look forward to watching that unfold, and to watching these guys fall, like dominoes, one by one.

Off to listen to book 2, which is a continuation of Finn and Talon's story.

5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
5 stars overall

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Finding Home
Finding Home
Meg Harding | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Finding Home by Meg Harding
Finding Home starts off with Jared. He has lost his job, is living back with his mother as his husband cheated with someone else, and now he finds out that his grandma has died. His mother wants him out of the house so she sends him off to hell (Florida in May) where he finds more than he bargained for, and learns about just who he is and what he wants.

This is a sweet and steamy, low angst, story full of feel-good factors. Jared's brothers are all brilliant, and Chase is... well, Chase is Chase and I wouldn't change a thing. Jared's neuroses were a tad annoying to start with, but as his story became clear, all was forgiven as I literally couldn't see him growing up any differently given the circumstances.

One thing I loved in particular (without giving away any spoilers) is when Jared does something that others might not agree with, but he does it for himself, for his own reasons, and to find things out about himself. I LOVED THAT!!! He is aware of what jumping into something might be like, but he is prepared to work with himself to ensure that everything goes the way it should.

With no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow, this was a page-turner that had humour, family, hotness, and love. Definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa

Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
2017 | Comedy
Singing (0 more)
Ridiculous plot (0 more)
Sometimes there just shouldn’t be a 3rd one
Contains spoilers, click to show
Back with the Bellas after college to find their lives just aren’t all that great in the “real world”. They’re all in jobs that they seem to hate and miss singing together. They’re thrilled when they’re invited to a performance by the current Barton Bellas only to end up disappointed that they’re not performing themselves. Then it just gets crazy. They end up on tour with other artists who are (unsurprisingly) a lot more talented than the Bellas. Some very well done “riff offs” ensue and of course when the Bellas stop taking themselves seriously they get a lot more popular. This storyline was a bit of fun if not completely predictable and as a Pitch Perfect fan I wasn’t really complaining - I’m mostly there for the music at the end of the day. It was after this though that the movie lost me completely. Turning into an espionage movie where they do indeed sing to get out of trouble. The Bellas are luckily rescued by the military and Beca is encouraged to take an offer from DJ Khaled to sing alone. Then in the final seen Beca opens for DJ Khaled alone but invites the Bellas onstage to sing Freedom! ‘90 with her creating a touching scene that Pitch Perfect always manages to do - especially as this seems to be the end of the road for the group. I loved the song choices in the movie and that the competition was higher stakes but between the convoluted plot line and sometimes forced comedic moments this definitely wasn’t my favourite Pitch Perfect installment.
  
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Merissa (14009 KP) rated Fallen Autumn in Books

Dec 17, 2018  
FA
Fallen Autumn
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First of all, I'm not exactly sure what genre to put this book in as it could be so many - young adult, fiction, fantasy, mythology, action, adventure, nature/environment - either way, it was absolutely brilliant. A slow burner, yes, but absolutely brilliant.

There are parts of the story taken from Greek mythology, fairy tales, Noah's ark and somehow they all seem to fit together perfectly.

The book asks you the question of when will we stop treating the earth as something which owes us and when we will start trying to preserve what we have and to bring back what we have lost but it does it in such a way that you don't feel bashed over the head with it.

The journey for Petra as she learns who she is and what she needs to do is amazing. She has the support of her lifelong friend Ty and recent frenemy, Isabel, as well as that of her grandmother, Demi. You learn how Petra's fate and that of the Polar Bear Queen, Nanuk, are intermingled and you will hold your breath as Petra tries to get to help in time. There was one part of the story that I had to re-read, this time with a tissue wiping away my tears before they could block the words out. And it only got worse when I read the epilogue of the book and saw that this part was based on fact - which I can remember watching on the news.

This is a story to be told and I'm really hoping that there will be another installment! Wonderful.
  
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BookwormLea (3034 KP) rated The New Mutants (2020) in Movies

Aug 29, 2020 (Updated Aug 29, 2020)  
The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants (2020)
2020 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Probably the worst Marvel movie I've seen. And i watched Dark Pheonix
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was so hyped for this movie! Have you seen the trailer? Movie gold! Well. Only half the trailer is actually stuff that happens. And the parts that do are the worst ones. The lead actress who plays Dani, is the most amateur actress ever. Her portrayal of an angry girl who just lost her family is probably the weakest I've seen. She literally looks like she just dropped her sandwich. And it sort of got better in the middle when we found out how they all found their mutations but then the end felt so rushed. Oh suprise! The weird girl you brought in last minute is the cause of the problems that only started when she got here! And the Russian girl who seemed real kick ass, had the most boring fear and her mutation that seemed cool, is pretty much just her being crazy. I kind of liked that the dragon was real to only her but then they went and CGId the crap out of it at the end fight scene. Why???
Oh and why can't they have a movie with no romance?? And oh gosh its 2020 so we just had to have the first Marvel Lesbian couple. Which again was rushed, they literally knew each other all of 4 days or something. And for a little wolfy Catholic girl who repents her sins weekly, she commits a lot of sins weekly. *eye roll*. Clichéd and boring. The worst marvel movie/ xmen film to date. Good job its a different timeline and there isn't going to be another one.
  
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BookwormLea (3034 KP) Aug 29, 2020

And before I forget to add. I love Charlie Heaton in Stranger Things but that accent, was the worst.