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A review by dtaylorbooks
Darkly Dreaming: A Fantasy Romance Anthology by Elizabeth Hunter, Cate Rowan, Grace Draven, Danielle Monsch, Kristen Painter
3.0
I was approved for DARKLY DREAMING through NetGalley and I didn’t realize that 1) these are NOVELS, not novellas and 2) it’s self-published until after the fact. The former isn’t an issue; it just took me a while to get through it. The latter is my own fault although in this case it worked out a little in my favor. Still, I’d prefer not to make a habit of it.
The only book I was able to read on my NetGalley copy before THE IPHONE UPDATE OF DOOM killed my phone and ate the book was MASTER OF CROWS by Grace Draven. I couldn’t find a way to contact the “publisher” to try and get another copy so I just ended up buying it through iBooks for a whopping .99. I could spare it. So four out of the five books were read through a finished copy. Keep that in mind because I do make comments on editing in some of these.
For this review I just said some things about each book on it’s own. It wouldn’t have done the anthology justice to review it on a higher level.
Master of Crows by Grace Draven
It was weaker on the world-building and I didn’t feel like it was a solid presence in the story but I didn’t have difficulty picturing anything. It just wasn’t as vivid as I like my fantasy worlds. The romance was rather standard and pretty predictable but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t rooting for it. There was a lot of back and forth with the does he/she/doesn’t he/she in terms of feelings for each other along with some misinterpreted emotions to cause drama, etc that only fueled the standard romance notion. Martise was a solid character that, for the most part, knew her station and knew when to speak up and when to shut up. She was endearing in her situation but I didn’t wholly believe her spy status. That device seemed rather flimsy. Silhara was pretty okay if not a bit moody. Not as bad as other romance love interests and I didn’t come to revile him but he had his moments of being a dick that I could have done without. I liked the god aspect with Corruption trying to take control of Silhara at first by persuasion and then by force. That aspect of the story lent itself to a bit more vivid world-building without really developing the world the characters were in. I liked how it had enough power to wreak havoc on the world but not ruin it entirely without coming into a vessel. Again, it lent itself to world-building without much of a world to build upon. The ending was predictable and fuzzily sappy but manageable. It was pretty easy to see coming but at least it rounded out the story nicely. I didn’t really feel a lot of the romance, not much by the way of tension. It went from nothing to something with skipped gaps in between so I didn’t have a lot to build on. The sex was okay, nothing too involved but not wholly hot either.
Stone Guardian by Danielle Monsch
This was a somewhat cute, fun romp through a world broken by magic. It mixes up fairy creatures and darker, more horror-centric creatures in a neat way that makes them all blend together. It doesn’t feel like it’s a mish-mash of supernatural stuff thrown together for the sake of variety and storytelling. It’s a bit poorly edited with missing words in sentences and off syntax where I had to go back and re-read phrases because they didn’t make sense and only in context could I guess their meaning. That happened far more than once. I’m not a fan of the whole instalove thing and while it was definitely going on here (the whole story took place over the course of a couple of weeks) it didn’t bother me too much. Terak was a pretty endearing character and I liked how gargoyles existed in shadow and away from the world until the Oracle prophesied Larissa’s involvement with the gargoyle clan. I wished the gargoyles were a little more fleshed out; their history wasn’t all that involved from a lore standpoint and only the basic group dynamics were mentioned. Seeing as how that kind of mythology isn’t incorporated into stories too often they didn’t have the already-known elements of their lore to fall back on, like vampires do. Larissa was a pretty strong protagonist despite a couple of her conveniently stupid decisions. She’s definitely someone to stand behind and it was easy enough to root for her. She was well aware of her own weaknesses but when pushed to the limit she wasn’t beyond fighting. Fallon was probably my favorite, though, being the smart-mouthed, take-no-shit woman that deserved more story time than she got. But guessing by the peek into the next book the sequel will be all about her. The use of the terms male/female irked me to no end. Terak was Larissa’s male and she his female/mate. Man and woman. Nouns. Not adjectives. I’m well aware of Terak’s male-ness and his ability to mark Larissa with his seed. Lovely. Call him a man, her a woman and be done with it.
Heart of Fire by Kristin Painter
Fail for lack of sex. Don’t give me a fantasy romance with a ton of sexual build-up only to end in a fade to black wedding night with a fast forward I’M PREGNANT epilogue. Especially when the cover is nothing but a set of (wrong-colored) flaming male abs (although I’m guessing the fact that said abs are in black and white is indicative of Ertemis’s skin tone, I guess he’s just desaturated and not actually something other than caucasian?). Yeah, I can get how that happened but I’m not reading such a heavy romance element for the cock tease. I did like the story itself and I found myself invested in finding out what was going to happen. Jessalyne was a pretty solid character that could certainly stand on her own if she so demanded it and I did like Ertemis. He took his place in life as good as anyone could but he wasn’t all falsely noble when it came to accepting a truer place for himself in society. He was right on top of that. What I didn’t like was that Ertemis was basically a black guy (I believe his skin was silver? But elves are ethereal white and half bloods are born the tell-tale silver/black color) whom Jessalyne kept referring to as a beast and barbarian, who was a “dark elf” with nasty powers and a nasty, murderous reputation and people either ran from him or he had loads of women flocking to him for bedding bragging rights because apparently once you go dark elf, you never go back. He also has a bad habit of calling Jessalyne his wench. Considering the connotations behind that word he’s basically using ‘whore’ as a term of endearment. I was also rather fed up with the antagonistic relationship that plagued both of them for at least half the book. Push and pull and they outwardly hate each other but inwardly bemoan the loss of one another and on and on. At least once they finally came together that was done. Like I said I liked the story and the world was okay except there was a bit too much smeerping going on. Hael instead of Hell, firstlight instead of dawn, lastnight instead of dusk, and so on. Swapping out known worlds for “fancy,” world-specific words does not world-building make. The thing is the world was solid without these terms, both the human world, the little nooks of non-human within the human world and Elysium. The word-swapping just cheapened it. So yeah, less than impressed with this one for a myriad of reasons. Plus it was as poorly edited as STONE GUARDIAN.
Kismet’s Kiss by Cate Rowan
By far my favorite out of all the books. The world is lush and dripping with description. It’s an Arabian world where even if it were in the real world it would still be foreign to me. Rowan used a lot of (I think) more traditional aspects of that real culture as a foundation for this foreign world. But I never thought, for an instant, I was in my real world. She made it all her own and I believed every piece of it. Varene is a steadfast, somewhat hardnosed healer called to Kad to help the sultan heal his family. Of course she falls in love with the sultan, and he her. But, you know, wiveS. Plural. And it’s a real hurdle for Varene. No surprise there. And she really sticks to her laurels about it and it made my heart sing and ache for her. Kiramos is an arrogant cad (ironic that his land is called Kad) that’s used to being the sultan. Of course he has SECRETS that make him tortured and a little bit bitter but one fully expects Varene to break down those barriers, as she is wont to do. She does put him in his place but there are consequences for that. Tagenne is more open when it comes to women and women with power and more than once Varene had to be reminded of her own hypocrisies when it came to existing within Keramos’s world. It’s another push and pull relationship but I felt more for this one, I rooted for them to find a way, any way, to make it work. It felt more tortured and real to me and I teared up more than once for it. And the sex. Glorious sex. Desperate and wanting and fervid all rolled into one. It’s such a rich, tearing story that I really couldn’t get enough of and I wish there were more books to it. There are other stories in this world but it looks like Varene’s and Keramos’s is done. Sad but ultimately fulfilling. I think Rowan approached the romance really well and posed the harem as well-regarded family by Keramos and not just holes to plug and swine to breed. There’s a lot of love in that household despite the sultan’s nasty reputation and it endears Varene to it all the more but the girl really has a lot to get over and it’s difficult for her. Really, I can’t say enough good about KISMET’S KISS. The head-hopping was grating and it was difficult at times to realize who was talking because the shift was so sudden but other than that, no complaints. I’m going to go add the rest of the stories in this world to my reading list.
The Scribe by Elizabeth Hunter
Probably my second favorite book in this anthology except by this point I’m just really over the soul mates/mates/meant to be together aspect of PNR. It’s old. People need to start using a new plot device. At least here the man and woman have known each other for a few weeks before they’re declaring their undying love for each other instead of days. Still, I wasn’t buying it and I even sneered at it a little but it lent itself more time. For that I’m thankful. I liked how Istanbul was it’s own constant presence in the story. I felt like I was there reading it, the descriptions of places and people were so vivid. Ava’s an okay character. She managed to maintain her tougher edge even after she and Malachi got together, although she did get rather clingy with him. Annoying. And Malachi was, of course, your token possessive mate that feels the need to protect the woman and pee on her leg to claim her as his territory. I didn’t have any issues with his character but his actions with Ava were rather standard. Still, I liked the paranormal side that Hunter introduced with the angels. Not the biggest fan of forcing the pseudo-Chosen One syndrome onto Ava but since I liked that part of the world that the author developed I was able to overlook it. The whys of the angel story weren’t answered by the end of the book and if you read the sneak peek for the next book at the end it’ll only open up more questions but they’re good questions. I do want to find out what happens, what ulterior motive is going on with the Fallen and the Grigori. I want to see more Irina as a means of balancing out Ava’s aloneness and I want to see more Irin too. Or at least more of those whom I already saw. They existed within the shadow of Malachi. I want to see them come out of it. I’m torn on the ending. It was rather anti-climatic and because it did all happen so fast I wasn’t able to feel much about it. Sucky situation but that’s about it. On the other hand it feeds my need to not have a happy ending all the time, which is rather sadistic. It was a nice departure from the other books in this anthology and, of course, it opened itself up for more books. I’m just not sure how good it worked in this context. But based on the last chapter the end is only the beginning, it would seem.
Two out of five, definitely, but I’ll be generous and say three out of five despite the editing in STONE GUARDIAN. Not a bad like ratio for an anthology, especially for an anthology of self-published novels. I did put more of Cate Rowan’s and Elizabeth Hunter’s books on my Want shelf so that says something too, at least for me.
3
The only book I was able to read on my NetGalley copy before THE IPHONE UPDATE OF DOOM killed my phone and ate the book was MASTER OF CROWS by Grace Draven. I couldn’t find a way to contact the “publisher” to try and get another copy so I just ended up buying it through iBooks for a whopping .99. I could spare it. So four out of the five books were read through a finished copy. Keep that in mind because I do make comments on editing in some of these.
For this review I just said some things about each book on it’s own. It wouldn’t have done the anthology justice to review it on a higher level.
Master of Crows by Grace Draven
It was weaker on the world-building and I didn’t feel like it was a solid presence in the story but I didn’t have difficulty picturing anything. It just wasn’t as vivid as I like my fantasy worlds. The romance was rather standard and pretty predictable but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t rooting for it. There was a lot of back and forth with the does he/she/doesn’t he/she in terms of feelings for each other along with some misinterpreted emotions to cause drama, etc that only fueled the standard romance notion. Martise was a solid character that, for the most part, knew her station and knew when to speak up and when to shut up. She was endearing in her situation but I didn’t wholly believe her spy status. That device seemed rather flimsy. Silhara was pretty okay if not a bit moody. Not as bad as other romance love interests and I didn’t come to revile him but he had his moments of being a dick that I could have done without. I liked the god aspect with Corruption trying to take control of Silhara at first by persuasion and then by force. That aspect of the story lent itself to a bit more vivid world-building without really developing the world the characters were in. I liked how it had enough power to wreak havoc on the world but not ruin it entirely without coming into a vessel. Again, it lent itself to world-building without much of a world to build upon. The ending was predictable and fuzzily sappy but manageable. It was pretty easy to see coming but at least it rounded out the story nicely. I didn’t really feel a lot of the romance, not much by the way of tension. It went from nothing to something with skipped gaps in between so I didn’t have a lot to build on. The sex was okay, nothing too involved but not wholly hot either.
Stone Guardian by Danielle Monsch
This was a somewhat cute, fun romp through a world broken by magic. It mixes up fairy creatures and darker, more horror-centric creatures in a neat way that makes them all blend together. It doesn’t feel like it’s a mish-mash of supernatural stuff thrown together for the sake of variety and storytelling. It’s a bit poorly edited with missing words in sentences and off syntax where I had to go back and re-read phrases because they didn’t make sense and only in context could I guess their meaning. That happened far more than once. I’m not a fan of the whole instalove thing and while it was definitely going on here (the whole story took place over the course of a couple of weeks) it didn’t bother me too much. Terak was a pretty endearing character and I liked how gargoyles existed in shadow and away from the world until the Oracle prophesied Larissa’s involvement with the gargoyle clan. I wished the gargoyles were a little more fleshed out; their history wasn’t all that involved from a lore standpoint and only the basic group dynamics were mentioned. Seeing as how that kind of mythology isn’t incorporated into stories too often they didn’t have the already-known elements of their lore to fall back on, like vampires do. Larissa was a pretty strong protagonist despite a couple of her conveniently stupid decisions. She’s definitely someone to stand behind and it was easy enough to root for her. She was well aware of her own weaknesses but when pushed to the limit she wasn’t beyond fighting. Fallon was probably my favorite, though, being the smart-mouthed, take-no-shit woman that deserved more story time than she got. But guessing by the peek into the next book the sequel will be all about her. The use of the terms male/female irked me to no end. Terak was Larissa’s male and she his female/mate. Man and woman. Nouns. Not adjectives. I’m well aware of Terak’s male-ness and his ability to mark Larissa with his seed. Lovely. Call him a man, her a woman and be done with it.
Heart of Fire by Kristin Painter
Fail for lack of sex. Don’t give me a fantasy romance with a ton of sexual build-up only to end in a fade to black wedding night with a fast forward I’M PREGNANT epilogue. Especially when the cover is nothing but a set of (wrong-colored) flaming male abs (although I’m guessing the fact that said abs are in black and white is indicative of Ertemis’s skin tone, I guess he’s just desaturated and not actually something other than caucasian?). Yeah, I can get how that happened but I’m not reading such a heavy romance element for the cock tease. I did like the story itself and I found myself invested in finding out what was going to happen. Jessalyne was a pretty solid character that could certainly stand on her own if she so demanded it and I did like Ertemis. He took his place in life as good as anyone could but he wasn’t all falsely noble when it came to accepting a truer place for himself in society. He was right on top of that. What I didn’t like was that Ertemis was basically a black guy (I believe his skin was silver? But elves are ethereal white and half bloods are born the tell-tale silver/black color) whom Jessalyne kept referring to as a beast and barbarian, who was a “dark elf” with nasty powers and a nasty, murderous reputation and people either ran from him or he had loads of women flocking to him for bedding bragging rights because apparently once you go dark elf, you never go back. He also has a bad habit of calling Jessalyne his wench. Considering the connotations behind that word he’s basically using ‘whore’ as a term of endearment. I was also rather fed up with the antagonistic relationship that plagued both of them for at least half the book. Push and pull and they outwardly hate each other but inwardly bemoan the loss of one another and on and on. At least once they finally came together that was done. Like I said I liked the story and the world was okay except there was a bit too much smeerping going on. Hael instead of Hell, firstlight instead of dawn, lastnight instead of dusk, and so on. Swapping out known worlds for “fancy,” world-specific words does not world-building make. The thing is the world was solid without these terms, both the human world, the little nooks of non-human within the human world and Elysium. The word-swapping just cheapened it. So yeah, less than impressed with this one for a myriad of reasons. Plus it was as poorly edited as STONE GUARDIAN.
Kismet’s Kiss by Cate Rowan
By far my favorite out of all the books. The world is lush and dripping with description. It’s an Arabian world where even if it were in the real world it would still be foreign to me. Rowan used a lot of (I think) more traditional aspects of that real culture as a foundation for this foreign world. But I never thought, for an instant, I was in my real world. She made it all her own and I believed every piece of it. Varene is a steadfast, somewhat hardnosed healer called to Kad to help the sultan heal his family. Of course she falls in love with the sultan, and he her. But, you know, wiveS. Plural. And it’s a real hurdle for Varene. No surprise there. And she really sticks to her laurels about it and it made my heart sing and ache for her. Kiramos is an arrogant cad (ironic that his land is called Kad) that’s used to being the sultan. Of course he has SECRETS that make him tortured and a little bit bitter but one fully expects Varene to break down those barriers, as she is wont to do. She does put him in his place but there are consequences for that. Tagenne is more open when it comes to women and women with power and more than once Varene had to be reminded of her own hypocrisies when it came to existing within Keramos’s world. It’s another push and pull relationship but I felt more for this one, I rooted for them to find a way, any way, to make it work. It felt more tortured and real to me and I teared up more than once for it. And the sex. Glorious sex. Desperate and wanting and fervid all rolled into one. It’s such a rich, tearing story that I really couldn’t get enough of and I wish there were more books to it. There are other stories in this world but it looks like Varene’s and Keramos’s is done. Sad but ultimately fulfilling. I think Rowan approached the romance really well and posed the harem as well-regarded family by Keramos and not just holes to plug and swine to breed. There’s a lot of love in that household despite the sultan’s nasty reputation and it endears Varene to it all the more but the girl really has a lot to get over and it’s difficult for her. Really, I can’t say enough good about KISMET’S KISS. The head-hopping was grating and it was difficult at times to realize who was talking because the shift was so sudden but other than that, no complaints. I’m going to go add the rest of the stories in this world to my reading list.
The Scribe by Elizabeth Hunter
Probably my second favorite book in this anthology except by this point I’m just really over the soul mates/mates/meant to be together aspect of PNR. It’s old. People need to start using a new plot device. At least here the man and woman have known each other for a few weeks before they’re declaring their undying love for each other instead of days. Still, I wasn’t buying it and I even sneered at it a little but it lent itself more time. For that I’m thankful. I liked how Istanbul was it’s own constant presence in the story. I felt like I was there reading it, the descriptions of places and people were so vivid. Ava’s an okay character. She managed to maintain her tougher edge even after she and Malachi got together, although she did get rather clingy with him. Annoying. And Malachi was, of course, your token possessive mate that feels the need to protect the woman and pee on her leg to claim her as his territory. I didn’t have any issues with his character but his actions with Ava were rather standard. Still, I liked the paranormal side that Hunter introduced with the angels. Not the biggest fan of forcing the pseudo-Chosen One syndrome onto Ava but since I liked that part of the world that the author developed I was able to overlook it. The whys of the angel story weren’t answered by the end of the book and if you read the sneak peek for the next book at the end it’ll only open up more questions but they’re good questions. I do want to find out what happens, what ulterior motive is going on with the Fallen and the Grigori. I want to see more Irina as a means of balancing out Ava’s aloneness and I want to see more Irin too. Or at least more of those whom I already saw. They existed within the shadow of Malachi. I want to see them come out of it. I’m torn on the ending. It was rather anti-climatic and because it did all happen so fast I wasn’t able to feel much about it. Sucky situation but that’s about it. On the other hand it feeds my need to not have a happy ending all the time, which is rather sadistic. It was a nice departure from the other books in this anthology and, of course, it opened itself up for more books. I’m just not sure how good it worked in this context. But based on the last chapter the end is only the beginning, it would seem.
Two out of five, definitely, but I’ll be generous and say three out of five despite the editing in STONE GUARDIAN. Not a bad like ratio for an anthology, especially for an anthology of self-published novels. I did put more of Cate Rowan’s and Elizabeth Hunter’s books on my Want shelf so that says something too, at least for me.
3