A review by see_sadie_read
Demons Not Included by Cheyenne McCray
2.0
I've had just plain rotten luck lately. This is the latest in a string of disappointing PNR. I thought about upping my rating to a 2.5 at one point - 2 for the first half and then a 3 for the last half. But then I reached the end and saw how many open threads were left and gave up on the idea.
My primary complaint was the first person narrative. I really don't like them. I always wonder why exactly the person is telling the story in the first place. It's exacerbated in this case because the heroine, Nyx, is constantly referencing her Drow powers. I don't know how many times she says, "because of my Drow half...," "I'm Drow so...," "my Drow powers enable me to..." It was a lot though. It felt very much like someone who was overly proud of their heritage and taking every opportunity to brag on it. How many of you like spending time with braggarts?
Then there was all of the unnecessary detail in the first half of the book. (It did lighten up in the latter half once the reader was expected to have gotten used to what sort of person Nyx was, which is part of why I considered upping the star rating.) The fact is that I just didn't care if her coat was by Fendi, bag is Dolce & Gabbana and her shoes were Salvatore Ferragamo. Couldn't they just be a coat, purse and heals? And what is an XPhone. It got really distracting being referenced as such. Couldn't it just be a phone, cell, or tablet? I found the whole first half of the book really cluttered with this sort of detail, as well as with all of the descriptions of all of the different species.
Lastly, I didn't get a feel for any of the characters other than Nyx (and just barely her). You know how most books have a couple side characters who you see, but don't know. That's how every character in this book felt. Everyone seem inconsequential. They popped up every now and again to throw out a witticism and then disappeared again.
The whole Paranormal Peacekeeper idea was interesting and there was some interesting world-building. But the whole thing was fairly predictable and wrapped up shockingly easy. I generally just found the whole thing disappointing.
My primary complaint was the first person narrative. I really don't like them. I always wonder why exactly the person is telling the story in the first place. It's exacerbated in this case because the heroine, Nyx, is constantly referencing her Drow powers. I don't know how many times she says, "because of my Drow half...," "I'm Drow so...," "my Drow powers enable me to..." It was a lot though. It felt very much like someone who was overly proud of their heritage and taking every opportunity to brag on it. How many of you like spending time with braggarts?
Then there was all of the unnecessary detail in the first half of the book. (It did lighten up in the latter half once the reader was expected to have gotten used to what sort of person Nyx was, which is part of why I considered upping the star rating.) The fact is that I just didn't care if her coat was by Fendi, bag is Dolce & Gabbana and her shoes were Salvatore Ferragamo. Couldn't they just be a coat, purse and heals? And what is an XPhone. It got really distracting being referenced as such. Couldn't it just be a phone, cell, or tablet? I found the whole first half of the book really cluttered with this sort of detail, as well as with all of the descriptions of all of the different species.
Lastly, I didn't get a feel for any of the characters other than Nyx (and just barely her). You know how most books have a couple side characters who you see, but don't know. That's how every character in this book felt. Everyone seem inconsequential. They popped up every now and again to throw out a witticism and then disappeared again.
The whole Paranormal Peacekeeper idea was interesting and there was some interesting world-building. But the whole thing was fairly predictable and wrapped up shockingly easy. I generally just found the whole thing disappointing.