Two paranormal DNFs

TITLE: Prince of Power
AUTHOR: Elisabeth Staab

How annoying. I really, really wanted to like this. The first book, King of Darkness, was very promising. I enjoyed it, even though it had some issues, and the author spent a lot of pages setting up a story for the following book that I absolutely loved. I was intrigued by both Anton, the 'good' son of the evil wizard, who wants nothing to do with his family's fight against the vampires, and Tyra, the king's sister, whose role as a powerful warrior is not questioned by the male vampires. It was clear even then that she’s the warrior alpha in that relationship, and that he bloody loves it.

So I started full of hope, but it took me only a few chapters to grind almost to a halt. Turns out the plot was tedious and frustrating at the same time, and I had to force myself to keep reading. Basically, these people are incredibly stupid and sloppy about defending themselves, and that made me want to shake them. It's shoddy plotting, really. Staab needs Tyra to be taken by the wizard master, so she just engineers a situation in which this happens, even though this situation makes her characters come across as complete and utter idiots for not taking the basic precautions. I read about half of the book, and it took me several days, because I’d get annoyed and put it down and read something else. After a while, it became clear the annoying elements weren’t going to improve, and I just gave up.

Oh, and I had some issues with the writing, as well. For instance, Staab is writing from Thad’s POV and he thinks he’ll sit down on the microsuede overstuffed sofa, and looks at the egg-and-dart mouldings. Really, he would have thought in those terms?

MY GRADE: A DNF.



TITLE: The Darkest Day
AUTHOR: Britt Bury

This is set in a world where humans have become extinct. Paranormal creatures have taken over. The main characters' families have been at war forever, and the hero has sworn to kill the heir to the heroine's family. On meeting her, he realises that a) the heir is a heiress, and it's the heroine, and b) she's actually a human, the last pure human left alive in the whole world. So, discovering she's super-special, she decides not to kill her (for now), and they start the trek to his keep instead.

It sounded like it could be a fun read, and I even started it in the best of moods for it. But even in a very forgiving mood, there was a bit too much silliness, and most of all, the heroine annoyed me with her TSTL behaviour. We're talking old-skool foot-stomping, hair-tossing feistiness, putting herself in risky situations just because, etc. She knows all sorts of creatures will eat her in a heartbeat, the minute they smell her human blood, and yet she uses some of the tiny vial of liquid that hides her scent for all sorts of silly reasons? Die, you idiot. And the hero was a dense, caveman idiot as well.

Also, I knew it was reminiscent of Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, but some of the world-building was a direct rip-off. I mean, the Ascencion is here under another name, the whacky witch who can see the future, etc.

MY GRADE: Another DNF.