Fire Burn & Cauldron Bubble

I have not forsaken my blog! I'm back. With a weekend full of migraines (ew!), weather too beautiful to stay indoors and computer problems I had a hard time getting down to business to write this book review. Today I'm feeling much better, it's cloudy and cool and my 'puter is back up and running so here goes ....

Author: H.P Mallory
Genre: Supernatural/Romance
Type: E-book read on Kindle for iPhone
Series: 1st book in the Jolie Wilkins series

Synopsis: Jolie Wilkins runs a run-of-the-mill fortune telling shop. Business isn't booming and Jolie is barely scraping by. One day Rand Balfour, a strikingly handsome warlock, walks in and hires Jolie to help him solve a 100 year old murder. He sees Jolie as an untapped source of supernatural power. With his help Jolie learns how to go back in time to see who committed the murder and ends up bringing the murdered person back to life. News of Jolie's supernatural ability sends shock waves through the supernatural community. When an evil witch wants to get her hands on Jolie and her powers, Jolie learns that her life is now at risk and a war of good versus evil has started in the supernatural world with Jolie in the middle of it.

My Thoughts: This book was highly rated on Amazon.com so I figured I'd get it for my Kindle app. Unfortunately I don't agree with the majority. While this book wasn't a waste of my time it wasn't a book that I loved (or even liked that much).

This book did have some great ideas for storylines and even some good characters but I didn't feel like the author took advantage and used those ideas to their potential. Jolie has a cool supernatural power (bringing back supernaturals from the dead) but it's barely touched on other than the fact that evil forces want to use her powers. I guess I was hoping for more action in this book but I got more 'romance' (is that what you'd call it?) and too much "who will Jolie pick to be with?" type writing. She had men from all over the place suddenly wanting her. From warlocks and werewolves, to fairy kings and vampires!

We also delve into the age old love triangle (but this one involves warlock vs werewolf) which was too similar to Twilight for my tastes (not to mention that this author also uses the name Bella for a main character). I know that the main love interest is supposed to be Rand but I didn't want Jolie to be with him (call me contentious with a capital C) but I much preferred Sinjin the dangerous/bad boy vampire who has a soft spot for Jolie. If you're going to go supernatural why not go for the bad boy supernatural (case in point - evil Damon from Vampire Diaries! But I digress ....)?

I did have some gripes about the writing in the book. First let me say that I'm not a prude and I understand that swearing and crude language are necessary in certain situations. It's when it's used 'just cuz' or to sound cool that I don't like it. There were many examples to pick from - here are a few:

1. instead of having Jolie say that her elbow was hurting her the author has Jolie say "my elbow's still throbbing like a bitch."
2. There were a few examples where I wondered if a 14 year old had written the book (note: that comment is not meant to insult 14 year olds I just picked an age). For example, "Ryder was a craptastic teacher" and "I needed to look as good as possible, much though I didn't want to see the asshole, bastard, jerk-head ...". Is the author in the 9th grade?
3. Then we get into the 'C'mon, did we have to go there?" level of crudeness that just wasn't necessary to get the point across. "I tried to feel happy for her, but it was tough given the fact that my love life sucked balls." Nice mental picture! That beauty of literary savvy is only surpassed by "He looked like a wet dream come to life." Charming. Is this supposed to be the 'romance' part of the "paranormal romance"? Somehow I can't see Miss Elizabeth Bennett saying the same thing about Mr Darcy. Or is just me?

My Rating: 2/5 stars (aka meh)