Chrissy’s Book Shelf: Necromancy

Tuesday, 6 July 2021

Review: Thieves About (The Enchantress Series Book 2) by Erin R Flynn

Thieves About by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ghouls and Vampires

This is the second book of a continuing series. You need to read the first book in order to understand this book.

In this book, we learn much more about Soraya’s relationship with the ancient vampires that she hid with as a child. It’s a dark and twisted history with some moments of genuine affection thrown in to confuse the issue even more.

The case that Soraya is involved with, in this book, revolves around someone summoning ghouls and they are relying on Soraya to clean up the mess they leave when they lose control of them. When dealing with the case she comes into contact with a young vampire, who is running the case for SPU, with whom she engages in lots of hot sex. Detective Hunt has also moved into her apartment building so is sniffing around for more information but he seems conflicted about Soraya and his attraction to something he hates.

We once again see how Soraya protects her coven and even the other supernaturals of her city and how hard she works to provide for everyone she can.

At the end of the book is an additional chapter that is a flashback to when she first sought refuge with the nest of ancient vampires. It’s not essential to the story, but it’s really good additional information that explains a lot.

Another good story that sucks you in. I’ll definitely keep reading the series.

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Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Review: Night Watch (Soul Reader Series Book 1) by Annie Anderson

Night Watch by Annie Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting Urban Fantasy

I'd probably give this book 3.75 ⭐ if I could.

Sloane Cabot went to bed human and woke up next to a grave, anything but. Next to her grave was her parents’ graves. Alone and scared she kills a creature that attacks her, finding out that she can consume the blood, memories and soul of those she bites. Terrified of what she has become she spends the next year killing to feed and to protect humans from the evildoers she has discovered. A year after starting her killing spree she is taken in by the Night Watch, a group of Arcane bounty hunters and a new phase of her existence begins.

As I was reading this book I felt that there were a few areas that were thin on explanation and it wasn’t until towards the end of the book that I realised that though this was a new series, it was set in a world that had already been long established. These abbreviated descriptions may have been because the author didn’t think anyone would jump into reading this book first, either that or she didn’t want to hammer things home too hard when other readers would be annoyed by repetitive explanations.

I liked Sloane, what I could see of her personality anyway. A lot of what is shown of Sloane is based on her immediate reactions. There is little history, so her personality doesn’t feel fully formed to me. People are not comprised of the events of a single year, they are based on a lifetime of memories and emotions. We are shown very little of Sloane’s past with the exception of a few paragraphs scattered here and there throughout the book. However, this treatment is not applied to just Sloane but to all the characters. We just get a thumbnail sketch of everyone. This means that the book is essentially plot-driven and fast-moving. This makes for a fast and exciting read, but it didn’t leave me particularly emotionally satisfied.

I feel that this author probably writes her books as part of a series and therefore each book is part of a greater whole. However, whilst I can assume that this is the case, I can’t say definitively that it is. I can only hope that the series as a whole is more emotionally satisfying as we get to know the characters involved. Aside from this, it was a straight forward and interesting plot, based in a fascinating world that I would like to get to know better.