Review: A decent series but needs more editing/proofing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 17, 2012
I have a book or two by Lisa Renee Jones on my shelves and though I haven't read them yet I was familiar with the name. So when I saw this box set on sale at Amazon, I was quick to one-click!  Vampires, werewolves, romance, and smexy times...right up my alley. The box set is made up of five novellas. There are three novellas in the Vampire Wardens series and the other two novellas are from the related Werewolf Society series. The characters will often cross over from one book to the next and one series to the next. The novellas combined probably equal one good size novel.This set is not a serial so you won't be left hanging at the end of each novella. It is more like a regular series where each one gets wrapped up with an HEA for that story, but there is also an overarching story line that runs through them all. The stories are standard paranormal romance fare and focus more on the romance aspect at the expense of the suspense and conflict. Threats to the main characters were often resolved easily leaving me to say to myself "That's it? It's over?" Even when it was building up over a couple of books, it just seemed to end quickly without a lot of effort. Though I did like the storytelling overall, I personally don't think there was always a good balance between the romance and the plot. So if that doesn't bother you and you read more for the romance than the intrigue, you're good to go.I did find myself becoming invested with some of the characters. I liked the brothers Evan, Aiden, and Troy, but probably enjoyed Troy's story the best. His character felt like it had some extra depth that the others did not due to his unique situation. It added some more layers to explore though I can't say they were really explored that much. His story is also the last one of the three brothers to be told so you get more page time with him and have more time to connect.The stories did keep me reading and I can say I enjoyed them but I did find some issues that frustrated me at times and that I just can't overlook. There were inconsistencies in character actions, plot holes, and about 70+ typos for the entire box set which is about the size of a novel if you combined all the novellas. That is quite a bit and not just a "handful" that you can expect from most any book. Almost half of them occurred in the last novella alone. Not sure what went so wrong with that one compared to the others. It became quite distracting in the last book since they were popping up so frequently at that point.So now for the tough part...what to rate this boxed set. I am torn between actually liking the stories, the world, and the characters, and being frustrated and disappointed with the lack of editing/proofreading, which sometimes distracted me and pulled me out of the stories. I didn't dislike them, but I can't say I really liked them as much as I could have if they had been polished. Even with all the typos and issues I still liked the set as a whole so I will give this three stars.There are more Werewolf Society novellas out or coming out and it is likely that I will pursue them if the price is right because after reading five of these books in a row, I do have some investment in the series and would like to see what happens next. I will be doing so knowing what to expect polish-wise but also hoping that the quality will improve.***Hot Vampire Kiss- Kindle Locations: 61-62 thru 1217-25 (1% thru 21%) - Word Count: approx. 25,170 (Novella)Hot Vampire Seduction- Kindle Locations: 1225 thru 2580-27 (21% thru 44%) - Word Count: approx. 27,961 (Novella)Hot Vampire Touch- Kindle Locations: 2588 thru 3886-93 (44% thru 67%) - Word Count: approx. 25,100 (Novella)Wicked Werewolf Night- Kindle Locations:  3893-94 thru 4828-36 (67% thru 83%) - Word Count: approx. 19,690 (Novella)Wicked Werewolf Secret- Kindle Locations: 4836 thru 5735-43 (84% thru 99%) - Word Count: approx. 18,630 (Novella)