Sabrina and the Gargoyle by Marie Dry – Review

Tags

4 stars, gargoyles, Marie Dry, paranormal romance, vampires, werewolves

Review by Riley

About Sabrina and the Gargoyle

Sabrina married Mark after only knowing him for two weeks. Although he’s the man of her dreams, the man she loves more than life itself, she’s started getting strange vibes from him. Sometimes, she could swear he moves faster than the human eye can follow, and she’s sure she’s seen him change into something with wings. Could he be a vampire? A gargoyle? She tries to tell herself she’s being ridiculous, that those things don’t really exist. But when a strange being bursts through her bedroom window and kidnaps her, Sabrina is forced to admit the truth—not only are the creatures from her nightmares real, her own husband is one of them, and he married her for reasons other than love…

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Review of Sabrina and the Gargoyle

I think my husband is a vampire and the question becomes, will he suck my blood or am I delusional and soon to be taken away by the men in white coats.

This sets the tone for the first part of the book. Husband Mark is a mystery and not at all forthcoming. Sabrina loves him anyway, but wavers between loving him and not wanting to have anything to do with the lying, cheating bastard. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure what to make of her. I want to think that she is strong, as eventually evidenced by her ability stand against certain psychic forces, but she is constantly giving into a hero that, like I said, seems to be a lying, cheating bastard.

Mark denies cheating. Note, I do not say that he denies lying. He changes the subject a lot. So there are all sorts of clues that he is not what he seems to be. This is intriguing and, at the same time, frustrating, both for Sabrina and for the reader.

Sabrina and the Gargoyle is chock full of supernatural creatures – vampires, gargoyles, and werewolves. There are witches and a wolf/dog that seems to understand everything Sabrina says when she is talking to herself – out loud. But there is something bigger and badder than all these creatures and all the big bad supernaturals seem to fear the drogge. So they unite, in a manner, to combat the drogge. The thing is, the goodness or evilness of those supernatural creatures is not exactly evident. At least not all the time. So there is a lot of I-don’t-trust-you-but-I-need-you.

Sabrina, though merely human, has a role in this fight too. She is just not aware that she is involved. Which takes us back to Mark. Who withholds a lot of facts. More frustration for Sabrina.

By the way, Sabrina swears in Klingon. Respect. I am not a swearer myself, but I admire the Sabrina’s creative use of an alien tongue, to get around a grandmother who did not liking swearing. Grandmother may be gone, but the Klingon swearing continues.

Occasionally, there is what I would call an information dump. It shows up in dialog, as if to quickly inform the reader or anyone else in the dark (Sabrina) of what is going one. It feels forced and without background. As the first book in a new series, I thought maybe it was a way to introduce all the key players and elements. And there are a lot of them.

One of the aspects of Sabrina and the Gargoyle that I truly enjoyed was the setting. While some authors/publishers would minimize the local references and vernacular in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, Ms. Dry has included plenty of local color, thereby appealing to the intelligence of her readers. Capetown, South Africa is the setting. And speaking of local color, I was enchanted with the description of Sabrina’s house:

The house was painted turquoise with the shutters a beautiful purple to compliment the roof, the circular stairs in front a bright pink.

This prompted me to look up Bo Kaap, the richly colored Cape Town neighborhood that Sabrina calls home. In this story, there was also quite a few South Africanisms, including discussions of food. I don’t read a lot of stories with this same setting, so I found it fun and fascinating!

Sabrina and the Gargoyle has all the elements you look for in a paranormal romance. Romance (odd as it is), paranormal creatures, good guys and bad guys, and ultimately – a great face down between the evil bad and the heroine and the hero.

The author provided a copy of her book so I could bring you this honest review.

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Links

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Jager by Jessica E. Subject – Review

Tags

4 stars, aliens, Book Review, Jessica E. Subject, new adult, romance, scifi, series

Review by Riley

About Jager

Jager’s new squad of Defenders has completed training, but the spoiled princess who has grated on his nerves since her first day of training is called back to Hemera for a yearly celebration. When Princess Katrina doesn’t show up, Jager must find her and drag her home, where he wishes she would stay.

Katrina is a Defender, not a princess. And there is no way she wants to return to a planet she hates for some stupid ceremony. Not when she could be out killing Erebus with her squad.

But when a new enemy threatens both their lives, they must work together to survive.

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Review of Jager

Katrina and Jager are both very young. While Jager has been a defender for a while, Katrina is new to the organization and is anxious to prove herself. Her fellow defenders mock her princess status (not cool) so Katrina does everything she can to prove she is not just a princess.

As her squad leader, Jager is supposed to train her. Jager seems to have a hard time training his team which leads me to wonder why he is a squad leader. He really should have had Katrina jumping at his commands rather than doing her own thing. Even if her own thing is to kill every simulated Erebus the training program can throw at her. As a squad leader, Jager has few things to learn.

When Katrina defies orders and Jager follows her, they end up in the clutches of what I would call an evil scientist. This part of the story had potential and I would like to have seen it get more attention. This would have made it more scifi adventure and better balanced out the romance side of the story. To me, everything that happened after that was anti-climactic. However, the evil scientist was not the only threat to their love. Katrina and Jager still had obstacles to overcome.

In Jager, the protagonists are young and the emphasis is on romance. This combination puts Jager in a book genre I would not usually read, but categorizing it this way, I am able to review it at a face value. I would have to label this book at NA romance in a scifi setting. Heavy on emotional conflict for the heroine and hero, the resulting romance is touching and sweet.

The author provided a copy of her book so I could bring you this honest review.

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Links

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Free Space by Sean Danker – Review

Tags

4 stars, military sci fi, sci fi, Sean Danker, series

About Free Space

In the follow-up to Admiral, the intergalactic war has ended and hostilities between the Evagardian Empire and the Commonwealth are officially over, but the admiral is far from safe. . . .

“I’d impersonated a prince, temporarily stopped a war, escaped a deadly planet, and survived more assassination attempts than I could conveniently count. After all that, there shouldn’t have been anything simpler than a nice weekend with a charming Evagardian girl.

However, some corners of the galaxy aren’t as genteel as the Empire, and Evagardians aren’t universally loved, which is how I ended up kidnapped to be traded as a commodity.

Their timing couldn’t have been worse. I’m not at my best, but these people have no idea whom they’re dealing with: a highly trained, genetically engineered soldier in the Imperial Service who happens to be my date.”

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Review of Free Space

Talk about a disastrous first date.

Salmagard is on a date with the Admiral when this all begins. But lets backtrack just a bit. In the first book in this series (Admiral), Salmagard and the Admiral shared a kiss. Because of what they went through that hellish planet, there is already an intensity to their relationship, even if they don’t know each other well yet. So in Free Space, the possibility of a deeper relationship is explored – just a little – before all hell breaks loose.

Before the date even beings, there is an assassination attempt against the admiral. Poison. So, he is already trying to avoid pursuers and is in a weakened state. Meaning he is going to have to use his brains instead of his muscles. This is not a surprise for this character. He is a thinker.

Then, the date begins with a kidnapping. Salmagard, the Admiral and another couple. Dianna and Sei, are all kidnapped to be turned into slaves. Throughout the ordeal, not only are they trying to escape from multiple captors, there is always the possibility that the Admiral will be found. Why is there someone after the Admiral? The reasons are murky, but that just seems to add interest.

Things go from on a date, to in trouble and then from bad to worse. This constant state of decaying status adds the same type of intensity to the story that I appreciated in Admiral. Each character handles the struggles in their own way, bringing their unique talents to bear when needed.

The Admiral. That is his only identity. Personal details about The Admiral are few and far between. After two books in the series, he is still an enigma. He may seem to be they kind of spy that will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Thankfully, to add interest to the story, Salmagard is a bit of a chink the Admiral’s armor.

Salmagard – lets just say she is more than everyone (except Admiral) thinks she is. She comes from the aristocracy of the Empire, so she is a bit unexpected. Dianna is another interesting character whose existence tells you a bit more about the empire and it’s technology, philosophy and ethics.

Free Space features multiple locations, each with it’s own special atmosphere to appreciate or cringe at. There are multiple human adversaries. Or are some of them on the same side?

The series title changed from Evargardian to Admiral. Now, this makes sense to me. The Admiral is most definitely the central character. And based on your opinion of him, you form opinions of the other characters. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? A lack of detail about the Admiral makes the nature of the other characters a bit ambiguous. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Normally I like a little bit of questionable character in my heroes and villains, but I am a reader that prefers to have those questions resolved eventually. It doesn’t really happen in this book/series.

The ending is quite abrupt. I don’t know if I would call it a cliffhanger, due to several plot lines being resolved, but it is abrupt and doesn’t so much as leave room for speculation as it does demand to know what will happen next. So, yes, I will call it a cliffhanger.

I did like that you have to work to get answers, but even then you may not get them. All the characters have very little history provided in the telling of the story. This is totally contrary to the types of characters I usually like reading about, but in Free Space, it really works.

Free Space is gritty, compelling science fiction, filled with plots, villains, politics, heroics and, oh, so many questions. If you are in the mood for a book that is not all wrapped up in a nice box, Free Space may be the book you are looking for.

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Links

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Purchase Admiral or Free Space:

In case you missed yesterday’s post with an excerpt from Free Space, here is the link.

If you are interested in last year’s review of Admiral go here.  If you would like to read my interview with Sean Danker check it out here.