A review by redhairedashreads
Booked for Murder by R.J. Blain

2.0

 

2 stars - It was ok

Well this was disappointing. This book started out really interesting with librarian Janette coming to work finding that a murder happened. Janette is a former bodyguard of a rich man who was injured in a car accident, and is now hiding from her past. Janette is also a exsanguinator, a controller of blood, and is a very powerful one at that.  From this, I expected a kickass heroine who is hiding from her ex-boss so she can live her own life and learn to deal with her disability. Sadly, that isn’t the case.

Janette should have been a strong female character, especially considering she is basically a blood bender. Instead Janette quickly let her old boss back into her life with no fight at all and after that, just let him and his family basically take over her life again. Yes, I did enjoy the banter between Janette and Bradley, but that doesn’t overlook everything else. Janette and Brandley were both very flat characters overall. Janette basically became a woman who constantly talked about her cat, her need for orange chicken, and her ability. She didn’t have much personality outside of that. Bradley, the ex-employer, wasn’t scary or anything. He was a sweet man, who was also a very flat character. He was only seen taking care of Janette, the cat, and doing whatever his mother said. I expected an alpha male because she was running from him but that wasn’t the case at all. 

The world had some interesting parts but for the most part, was lost in the long dialogues filled with extensive details that don’t go anywhere really. They are after a killer of politicians but any time it was discussed it got very technical and a bit boring. One aspect of this world that should be noted is that they discuss lifetime contracts to a person, which is what Janette was running from, and it basically means they are slaves. I didn’t like that at all and it seems like it will get worse because the politicians in this world are trying to make it even more like slavery. 

My biggest issue with this book though is that nothing really happens. This 500+ page book is basically a lot of dialogue about who might be doing the murders, repeated injuries to Janette, and them attempting to start a investigator cell to hunt the killers. That is it. I felt like I am missing half the book, which I guess is going to be book two. 

While this did have an interesting premise, it just didn’t work for me. I stuck it out hoping it would get better but sadly it didn’t and I am left feeling confused. I will not be reading book two.

Trigger Warnings: car crash recounted; panic attacks; emergency surgery; heroine is shot; murder; gore; blood depiction;