Book Review-Devil's Bargain by Rachel Caine

Title: Devil’s Bargain

 Author: Rachel Caine

Series:  Red Letter Days

Published:  5 October 2012 by Mira

Length:331 pages

Source: publisher

Other info: Rachel is best known for The Morganville Vampires, and has also written Weather Warden, Outcast Season and Revivalist series.                                                                         

Summary :  Jasmine "Jazz" Callender is on the downhill slide to ruin. Once a decorated homicide detective, she's lost it all: her former partner's been convicted of murder, she's been cashiered out, and she's drinking away what little self-respect she's got left.
But Jazz has a talent for trouble, and somebody knows it. When a mysterious, sexy stranger comes looking for her with a fateful red envelope in his hand, she's about to make the deal of her life...for good or bad.
The deal requires her to enter into a partnership with a stranger and investigate cases that arrive in special red envelopes...which is odd enough, but gets weirder as she and her new partner Lucia realize that they may be working for someone with supernatural abilities.
And maybe they're not on the side of the angels anymore.

Review: Jazz Callender isn’t doing well. Having lost her job as a homicide detective when her partner gets convicted of homicide, she has nowhere to go. So, one day, James turns up. He’s a lawyer and comes with an offer- to save her Ben, she’ll have to work for a strange society which may or may not have psychic powers.

It started kind of well. There’s a lot of mystery when James shows up and you get quite intrigued as to what will be required of Jazz. The mystery builds when Jazz and her assigned partner Lucia do things which they weren’t really expecting, such as observing ordinary going ons. The action doesn’t really kick in until just over halfway, when someone gets killed.

The psychic element, in my opinion, should have been more prevalent if you were going to market it as a psychic paranormal book. It just didn’t seem like much of a threat, even when we met XXX and understood how things were playing out and why. For a romance, there wasn’t that much of it either. It did work really well as a thriller, with intriguing trails, action of realistic physical fights, and the mysterious red envelopes.

The characters are good. Jazz and Lucia are both independent, strong and intelligent, and work really well together. Manny, the tech guy, was a little bit of comic relief, as well as providing useful things.  Borden isn’t that interesting in terms of character, but in terms of what he does plotwise, I liked it. Lucia was my favourite.

The world, the society, didn’t really captivate me that much. The writing, Jazz was a good narrator but there wasn’t anything particularly special about it. The pacing, I would have liked a few more big important things to come along a bit earlier, as you wait a long time for things to happen.

Overall: Strength 3 to a mystery thriller with good characters but not so much plot.  

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Shattered Dreams by Ellie James

Title: Shattered Dreams

 Author: Ellie James

Series:  Midnight Dragonfly

Published: 5 July by Quercus  

Length: 300 pages

Source: Publishers

Other info: This is Ellie’s debut. The next will be called Broken Illusions then Fragile Darkness.

Summary : Trinity has never known who she really is. Strange dreams haunt her nights, and she has always been able to sense things that others can't. When Jessica, the most popular girl at school, disappears, Trinity realises she will have to draw on her secret abilities to help find her. Soon, Trinity is subject to visions that terrify her and make the police sceptical. As her dreams grow darker and the visions more frightening, Trinity realises she must risk her reputation and her sanity to save a girl who hates her.

Review: It was just a game in a haunted house. Teenagers daring each other to do things in the abandoned house soon takes a darker turn when Jessica goes missing and the investigation soon becomes a murder one. Trinity gets dreams. She doesn’t know why, but she can see things happening. Which then actually happen. while being pulled into the police investigation, Trinity also gets pulled into another-the one looking behind her family.

I didn’t know about this before I got hold of it, so I can’t say I had high(or any) hopes for it. The whole psychic-mystery thing isn’t that new, but I always like reading these kinds of things.

The first half is good.  it’s a quick start, and there’s a lot of intrigue. My favourite bits were the parts in the haunted house. The writing is exceptional in those bits and I felt both a little bit creeped out and really wanting to know more. The visions are also done well.

The missing-girl line is carried on. obviously, Trinity is the only one who can solve it, but she doesn’t know what her visions really properly mean. I really enjoyed the mystery, the guessing, and all that.

The other part is Trinity’s personal life. Romance with Chase, the hot guy developed nicely, but it wasn’t the main thing, so that was good. more emphasis was given to Trinity’s past, about her mother and her psychic powers. These were nice, but weren’t amazing. And then there was something else that I don’t really get...somehting about Pitre and Dylan and so on..I really wasn’t following any of that.

The characters were good. Trinity is very inquisitive, and takes everything in good stride. Chase is a little boring, but I didn’t really care about him when he might have been in danger. Some characters seem to appear randomly, just to clear something up, make something else more complicated and leave, for example that fortune teller girl. I hope she comes back.

The pacing isn’t great and the scenes are a bit random, in a bad way. Something happens and then something completely different happens and it’s hard to understand. The big final scene seems a bit rushed. The guy who took Jessica especially seems to have come out of nowhere and I didn’t really care.

The paranormal bit takes the back seat, which you may or may not like, depending on your preferences. The murder mystery is the main thing. I’d like a bit more of Trinity’s psychic-ness in the next book too.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a thriller that really pulls you in, but also messes with your head. I’ll read the sequel in the hope that it gets better.

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Clarity by Kim Harrington

Title:  Clarity

 Author: Kim Harrington

Series:  Clarity #1

Published:  June 2012 by Scholastic UK. March 2011 by Scholastic US

Length:246 pages

Warnings: violence, suggestive situations, 13+

Source: ARC from publisher

Other info: Book two, Perception, should be out in 2013 for us UK people.

Summary : Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It’s a gift. And a curse.
When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case—but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother—who has supernatural gifts of his own—becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

Review: Clarity “Clare” Fern comes from a long-ish line of psychics. In relation to her family, she didn’t do too badly-if she touches an object, she might be able to pick up on memories associated with it. Might. Her powers don’t always work. And then a girl turns up murdered, and her brother Perry is the prime suspect-everything leads to his being the killer. Determined that he is innocent, Clarity uses everyhitng she can to try and find the true killer. But it may not be as easy as simply using her sight-she might have to rely on ex-boyfriend Justin and new-guy-in-town Gabriel too.

Murder and psychics-I definitely wouldn’t give this one a miss. The opening chapter is Clare confronting her possible killer. Joy oh joy. Then back to nine days before, setting up the scene. Introducing the family, introducing the characters, and killing Victoria off (who we never actually meet, so it’s not a big plot spoiler or anything) within the first fifty pages. Fun.

There’s something about the majority of the cast that makes them really likeable. I’m not sure what it is, but I found myself seeing the characters as if they were real, and wanting things to go well for them, and generally caring for them.

Clare is quite well rounded, and she handles herself well. She’s a good narrator, adding humour where it’s relavent, and her relationship with her brother is your typical, easy relationship where playfights are common. Throughout the course of the book, she learns a few important lessons, such as using her common sense, and not jumping to conclusions. Perry is ok, somewhat funny even though he’s not really a comic relief character. I couldn’t really get close to Justin-I just didn’t care about him when we first met him, and when he starts becoming important, I had to remember who he was. Gabriel, his attitude was a little annoying. And most guys who the author describes as being hot, I don’t like-Gabriel was one of them. I didn’t hate him, but I also just didn’t care.

It’s amazing how easily a love triangle can kind of kill the awesomeness. Especially if one of the boys involved has already had his chance with the girl. The romance didn’t add anything.

I really liked the whole psychic aspect. Madame Maslov was one of my favourite characters, who wasn’t as bad as we first thought.   Clare’s mother was also really cool, and I thought it was sweet how she wouldn’t give up on the hope that her husband would be coming home.

Plot turns were simple, but well done. Nothing was incredibly complex, but it’s at the enjoyable, not patronising level, There were a few things that were predictable (ie the rising body count), but the climax/reveal of the killer was totally unexpected. To be honest, I couldn’t see who it would be. But it’s nice it ended how it did.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a new psychic mystery series. I’d definitely like to read the next book, Perception.

Links: Goodreads | Author website |