Review: Not bad at all
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2014
I should probably start by mentioning that urban fantasy isn't my most favorite genre. It's not that I dislike it, it's just that the bar I've set for calling one "good" is on the high side.I'd call this one good.Not perfect. I had a few issues with it, which I admit are entirely personal preference things. For one thing, the two main characters fell "in love" far too quickly. It's a trap to which most books with a strong romance plot line fall prey, but just because we may see a lot of it doesn't mean it doesn't grate. I'm sure one could argue that in an intense life-or-death sort of situation, emotions run strong, and I'd agree that that's probably true. But, a fast burn on the romance makes it harder to believe that the happily-ever-after will actually last once the characters settle into regular life. Along those same lines, the obligatory reveal of the deep dark secret and the subsequent obligatory reconciliation were unrealistic.Another issue I took with the story has to do with the sex scenes. I probably remember as much of 9th grade health class as anyone does, and I know that the safest way to have oral sex is with a condom. Without turning this into an expose of my own sex life, let's just say that I have never, EVER met anyone who required a condom for oral, including among some extremely safety-minded men, and...hmm, how to put this...I know whereof I speak. It was a very responsible choice for the author to make, but the fact that not one character even blinked at the idea struck me as supremely unlikely.One last thing I wished had been different was the explanation of sorcery. See, the book deals heavily with hauntings and necromancy and evil corporeal spirits, and that magic seems to rely heavily on support of the various belief systems. Some of the characters also use sorcery, though, and that wasn't explained...it was just mentioned in a "oh yeah, there's that too" sort of way. I'm not sure it needed to be explained - the story wasn't exactly lacking for it - but that's the sort of thing that really catches my interest. I not only like magic in my books, I like the rules of it laid out there for all to see. It's harder to suspend disbelief when I don't understand how or why something is happening.As I said, though, I'd still call this book a good one. Jordan L. Hawk is a magnificently talented writer, and she can really wrangle her words in some inspired ways. She's also one of the better character writers I've read lately - her characters are rich and nuanced and loveable. She was able to add a surprising amount of tension to what turned out to be pretty repetitive action scenes ("Oh dear, we're being attacked by an evil ghost." "Again." "Oh look, there's another one.") by cleverly escalating the threat. And I'll also say that for a straight woman, she did a decent job of portraying the pain and fear surrounding the closet, or at least as much of it as the story allowed for.While this is nothing at all like her Whyborne & Griffin series (BTW, read that if you haven't), which, incidentally, has set the bar quite high all on its own, it's a respectable contribution to the urban fantasy genre that I enjoyed quite a lot.