A Bite of Magick, Rhyannon Byrd
Mar. 21st, 2006 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI think I blogged earlier about Wolf Tales, which was my worst read of the year so far back in January. I've read (and actually finished) a book that is worse. Or maybe it just seems worse because I had read another Romantica book by this author and thought it was fairly good, only to have this one be the closest thing to porn that I have ever read. Its ostensible HEA is the only thing that is holding on to the romantica label for this book, IMO. Seriously, A Bite of Magick: Magick Men II by Rhyannon Byrd sucked monkey balls. What did I not like about it, let me count the ways:
1. Not a stand alone book. Yes, it is part of a series, okay, but it made NO sense since I hadn't read the first one. Worse than Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, in terms of needing to read other books in order to understand.
2. The world building was half-assed. Where'd the bad guy come from? Dunno, because it was never explained why he was so evil, other than the fact that he'd seduced the heroine first. Bad, bad, bad to have sex with the heroine before the hero gets a chance to. What's the make up of their "magic" society? How/why is the hero a scarred warrior -- what's he been fighting? Seemed like stuff was made up and added as the story went along
3. The hero was angsty to the point of whinging. Ooh my god (except there is an actual name for the Magick deity he would curse/pray to, but I've forgotten it already), I cannae (yes, fake Scottish accent) have sex with you, I'll turn into a beast and scare you! Okay, then bugger off, why don't you?
4. The heroine was TSTL - she sneaks out of the house while her life is in danger to confront the bag guy alone.
5. And the sex and the constant mental lusting. Could the prose have been any purpler? I don't think so.
Checked the copyright date -- e-pubbed in 2004, trade paperback printing in 2005. You mean people bought this in electronic format first? I've already pbs'd this book and was happy to be rid of hit.
1. Not a stand alone book. Yes, it is part of a series, okay, but it made NO sense since I hadn't read the first one. Worse than Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, in terms of needing to read other books in order to understand.
2. The world building was half-assed. Where'd the bad guy come from? Dunno, because it was never explained why he was so evil, other than the fact that he'd seduced the heroine first. Bad, bad, bad to have sex with the heroine before the hero gets a chance to. What's the make up of their "magic" society? How/why is the hero a scarred warrior -- what's he been fighting? Seemed like stuff was made up and added as the story went along
3. The hero was angsty to the point of whinging. Ooh my god (except there is an actual name for the Magick deity he would curse/pray to, but I've forgotten it already), I cannae (yes, fake Scottish accent) have sex with you, I'll turn into a beast and scare you! Okay, then bugger off, why don't you?
4. The heroine was TSTL - she sneaks out of the house while her life is in danger to confront the bag guy alone.
5. And the sex and the constant mental lusting. Could the prose have been any purpler? I don't think so.
Checked the copyright date -- e-pubbed in 2004, trade paperback printing in 2005. You mean people bought this in electronic format first? I've already pbs'd this book and was happy to be rid of hit.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 08:45 pm (UTC)Doug Hoffman, still to lazy to remember his LiveJournal info.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-23 01:32 pm (UTC)I have to admit that I'm not much of an original Star Trek fan. But I loved The Next Generation...although that may have been because of Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard.