Desolate City by Raquel Jones

**SPOILERS AHOY!**

**2 Stars**

I'll start off by saying that this book is a grammatical mess. There are gaps in the plot, one dimensional characters, words being used in the wrong context, typos and just - it was too much for a 238 page book.

I wanted to like this book soooo much. But sadly, I didn't like it very much at all. This book started off promising. High school setting, the characters seemed interesting enough, albeit I was only about five pages in. But it didn't stay that way.

Albertos isn't in the USA but Jones never mentions where exactly it is. Whether it's even on Earth or in this universe. It's just kind of there. Which is a no-no. It's necessary for world-building. Especially when you have elements in your book that are Supernatural. That should have been hashed out. Before this was published.

Instead of calling supernatural creatures supernatural creatures, Jones calls them Haydens. I don't understand it. I think it's a really cute effort to be different but it was kinda just...yeah. Calling them Haydens didn't and doesn't make much of a difference because a few characters refer to Haydens as supernatural beings anyway.

There is a fine line between babying your readers and expecting them to be able to read your mind. Which is ANOTHER topic all together. That being said, I don't feel like this book was written with the reader in mind. In the first few chapters the writing takes leaps in logic that the reader is supposed to be able to follow but it doesn't get explained until ten or so pages later. Which was a turn off.

Seiren - which I've been pronouncing like Siren. Pardon me if I'm wrong. - is the MC/Protagonist. She doesn't have much of a voice to me. She just felt like she was there. I didn't get a sense for who she was so much as what she does. She apparently likes to run, scale buildings, work in bars with these creatures she supposedly hates, work at hot dog stands and a few other places just so she can afford her crappy apartment with her sperm donor. But there wasn't much character development at all. For any of the characters. We get a bunch of tell but not nearly enough show. I think Jones intended for Seiren to be a strong, independent sort of MC but I didn't get any of that. It felt like she spent a great deal of the book trying to convince us that Seiren is strong and fearless but in reality, that just didn't come across in the writing.

Seiren is supposed to be 17, a student in high school and we're supposed to believe she can hold down three jobs - enough to pay the bills single-handedly - scale buildings in her free time and maintain her school life.

No. I do not accept that.

With her leaping tall buildings, climbing walls, and being able to run faster than "normal humans", she should have known she was something more. Like a Hayden. I would've expected her to be suspicious of it, especially since she knew nothing of her mother but no. It went right over her head.

Luann, Julius, Echo, Tracie, Cece, Vinul, Kilik, Don, Ereshkigal - I'm pretty sure there were more characters introduced after I stopped reading - There were just entirely too many things going on for such a short book yet not much of what was happening did anything to push the plot along. The plot is a bit thin to begin with, anyway but still. I felt the beginnings of some romance between Echo and Seiren but nothing that made me feel it was genuine between them two. Like, the author added it in as an afterthought.

Ereshkigal is a group of Haydens that no one likes. Just because. No real reason, no one knows their origins, no one knows much of anything but everyone knows that no one gets along with them.

What?

These characters go here, they go there, get a bit of info from so-and-so, Seiren chants "Show no fear" to herself about thirty times, passes out more than any MC I've ever read about and throughout it all, not much of anything was really happening. There were A LOT of unnecessary filler-like events going on throughout the entire book, a lot of things being mentioned that had no impact on the plot and some anti-climactic fight/action scenes. I read up until about 64% and still didn't get a clear sense of what the big-bad was. I could probably guess but I didn't feel inspired to keep reading to find out.

All in all, I don't know if I'd recommend this book to many people because it reads like a rough draft; like the author needs to have some drinks with her girlfriends, hand out copies of the MS and discuss that they did and didn't like and what needs to change/be refined. It's a great first shot, but it's kind of all over the map. And not necessarily in a good way, either. Also, the name of the book is "Desolate City". Nothing in this book - that I've read - even suggests that any part of any city is desolate. Maybe I have to read to the end to understand....*Shrugs*

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The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter

First off, yes. I'm late in reading this series. I avoided it because I was trying to venture out into something different than PNR but...what are ya gonna do, right?

I just feel like I need to do a little mini review-ish kind of thing.

**2 Stars**

I didn't accept a great many things that happened in this book. Granted, some things were great and unpredictable, for me. But too many things were just not good.

I didn't like Olivia. I didn't find her character likeable, believable, or intriguing in the least. She was very beige and kept doing things outside of her character parameters, IMO. She was a walking, talking contradiction. In every sense of the word.

Aeron. He was just...there. Why be labeled such a fierce warrior throughout the first 5+ books [I'm including Novellas] only to fall flat in your own? Gideon and Strider were the most interesting things about this book.

Lies and Defeat. Doesn't really inspire much confidence for me in the writer. I find myself growing bored with their demons and their one word demands. VERY staccato and just...generic "evil-demon-softening-for-a-female" kind of feel, to me. I was excited for Aeron's book because he seemed the most interesting to me. With his black wings, tattoos and tortured eyes, he really seemed like It'd be time well spent reading his book. But it totally wasn't.

I've also noted a lot of inconsistencies with Showalter's work; not to mention repetitiveness. Gideon has his hands chopped off in the last book, but in this one - before they grew back - he was interrogating a...let's call her a prisoner, and he "fisted his hands". Um, hello. Two sentences later, his "stubs collided with metal" and started hurting. Something any editor worth their salt should have picked up on. Also, what in the fuck happened to the other two Harpies that were at the Fortress? Did I miss the part where she said they were gone? Completely plausible, of course. As I was half-assed skimming most of this book. Also, the gods be damned teeth scraping when people kiss. It. Is. Not. Sexy. The sound teeth make if they scrape against another.... *Shudders* and the echo it will cause in your head. Yeah, that can put a damper on a boner quickly.

One last rant: WHYYYYY on earth do all of her virgin heroines - thus far - enjoy having their hymen jack-hammered by these well-hung warriors?! IT MAKES NO SENSE.