Review: Dangerous Gamble

Title: Dangerous Gamble (Luck's Voice Book 4) 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09R7ZH1QM/

Author: Daniel Schinhofen 

Rating:  4/5

Comments:  This is the big finale of the first arc of Doc's Weird West adventure, and it's good.  All the big confrontations that have been building for the last 3 books erupt across the page like a herd of buffalo.

At this point it's book 4, so if you've made it this far, you should keep going.  If you haven't tried it, give book one a shot.  

Oh and if you like Posey, well you're going to love this one.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: The Vixen War Bride Series

Title: The Vixen War Bride Series

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094X4D8RK 

Author: Thomas Doscher 

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: I found this series by one of the most unexpected sources, a Facebook advert.  Since I read a lot I see a LOT of book adverts, and most of them are worthless but occasionally I'll see one that piques my interest and it will go in the TBR pile.  Most of them are DNF's that I never even bother to review.  Vixen War Bride is an exception and a welcome one at that.

The absolute core of the story is the culture clash and language barrier between the soldiers and the Va'Shen and Doscher puts it together in a way that is just perfect.

People who have talked to me about books know I hate it when a story switches POV.  Most of the time it's gratuitous and doesn't really add to the story. The worst, for me, is when we switch to a character who is immediately killed for a quick emotional shot but is the literary equivalent of a grind time sink in a video game.  "We know you're an epic hero who has conquered the Tyrant, but could you go kill us 100 cows please?  The game developers need to stretch out the play time but don't have any ideas on how to do that creatively."

I'm happy to report that with this series, most of the POV switches are done to move the main narrative along and the switches between the happy couple are absolutely necessary for you to understand the unintended consequences brought about by their mutual ignorance of language and culture.

Speaking of Ben and Alacea, Doscher does a great job making them deep and believable characters and while he borrows a lot from existing cultures, he makes it feel authentic.

Besides the main couple there are a host of side characters which add a lot of emotion and humor to the tale, which takes it from a "it doesn't suck" to "this is great".

Anyway if you want a culture clash tale, you could do a lot worse.  I am looking forward to book 4.

Oh and it looks like these are the first 3 from this author.  I applaud his success and hope to see more good stories from him.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Brambles and Thorns

Title: Brambles and Thorns (The Infinite World Book 4)

Author: J.T. Wright

Rating: 3/5

Comments:  I had to let myself cool off for a day after finishing this one, and then I went back and looked at my review of the first three books.  Now I can probably write this without descending into a froth of profanity and invective.

This book was around a 4/5, right up until the last page.  To say the end was abrupt would be a massive understatement.  I literally redownloaded the book and checked it again.  Then I went on the Kindle cloud reader and looked at it there.  THEN I went on his Discord and asked if it was for real.  It was for real.  I broke a personal rule and said on the author's forum that it was a shitty way to end it.

Honestly I have rarely been so enraged by the way a book ended.  It was like 820 pages of foreplay with no happy ending.

If you liked books 1-3, I would pass on this one until book 5 is out so maybe you can get a satisfactory payoff.  Or find out where he's posting updates online and go there (I think he has a Patreon.) Based on the fact that book 4 took 14 months to produce, I wouldn't get too excited to see book 5 any time soon.

For myself, I doubt I will bother. This experience has tainted the entire series for me. 

If I just base my feelings on the first 819 pages, it wasn't bad.  Like most books that try to have multiple POV's you get dribs and drabs of the other important characters, enough to let you know they're not dead, but not enough to make them meaningful.  Cullen, Tersa, Kristin, Orion and the rest make brief appearances, but they don't do anything important.  Then you've got random scenes from people we've never seen before and don't care about and just kind of waste our time.

What a fucking disappointment.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Backyard Starship

Title: Backyard Starship

Author: J.N. Chaney, Terry Maggert

Rating: 3.7/5

Comments:  Basically this is a classic story of boy finds spaceship, boy becomes interstellar sheriff.  It's really not bad, but it's very inconsistent.  I assume the jarring shifts are where the 2 authors transition, but you would think someone would have said something in editing or beta reading.  It's a constant bait and switch as you think "Ok, so this is where the story is going" and then they wrap up that bit with a couple sentences off screen, and go on to something else.  It doesn't suck, but it's I found it unsatisfying as a story.  I honestly doubt I'll read the next one despite liking the characters.  

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Challenger's Call 1-4

Titles:

Downfall And Rise

Brace For the Wolves 

Woad Children
 

Lighting Distant Shores
 

Author: Nathan A. Thompson

Rating: 4/5

Comments: This series is LitRPG, which I am ambivalent about, but the crunchy bits are pretty minimal, so it's not a real issue.

Overall the story is very solid with nice character growth and very interesting characters.  The inter-personal relationships are believable if sometimes a little too naive.  The author has a gift for making sweet but funny characters (Breena I'm looking at you).  He also has a penchant for confusing the reader as you don't always understand what's going on, but it holds your interest because you want to find out.

Solid series, I pushed through the first 4 books without a break.

Bedroom Activities: None

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