Buy on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/otgm84z
(Quick note: From other reviews I've looked at, there seems to be a very descriptive sexual assault in the book that is continually brought up. By the time I stopped reading, I had not gotten to it yet, so I cannot comment on it. Please keep your triggers in mind if you pick up this book.) The second book in the Jackdaw Hammond series by Rebecca Alexander and I'm already not looking forward to this as it seems to be a run of the mill Twilight knockoff. I just want to say that, first, I haven't read the first book and after reading this one, I have no interest to. Second, I tried very hard to finish this book, but I could not do it. It's boring, repetitive, and there's nothing to really link the three ongoing stories together. I decided to pick up this book despite knowing what it was because the back cover gave me hope for something more interesting than a dreary and dry romance story. The description leads one to expect a supernatural mystery with vampires and magic. As of what I've forced myself to read, that doesn't seem to be the case. What we do have is a story that flipflops between three different main characters and third and first person point of views, the first being Jackdaw and her friend Sadie as they clean out the destroyed home of a…the book doesn't say how Jack is related to this woman, though she may be someone's aunt or great aunt. The second story takes place in the past, involving what I can only presume is the 'historical' part of this book that is historical fiction. I've honestly never heard of Edward Kelley, so I cannot say if I should know of him or if he's only prevalent in England's common knowledge. In the past, Kelley is called to Venice to conduct research but stumbles upon a more sinister plot related to the main villain of the last book. Or I assume so since their last names are the same. The third part, and I suppose the 'erotic' part of the book features Jack's love interest Felix Guichard in New Orleans researching blood's effects on people who drink it. That’s a lot going on in one book and it's really way too much. In fact, this is enough to plot two, even three books, not one. For a woman who prides herself on having a MA in Creative Writing, I would expect Mrs. Alexander to know this. It really hurts this book. The most interesting part of this book is what Jack is doing, because she is our main character, and yet we spend so little time with her. We spend more time with Kellie and Felix in the first eight chapters than with Jack and what the pull of this story is supposed to be: the questionable death of the house's previous owner, the mysterious family that threatens Jack and Sadie, and the magic garden. Speaking of Felix's side of the story, it goes nowhere. It’s just the author rambling on about how she did some research online and wanted to tell you what she found about 'real life' vampires. If this was used in the plot in some manner, this would be interesting, but it's not so it isn't. Instead, we have the same obvious question being asked over and over again: "are there any side effects to blood drinking?" Keep in mind, I have not read the first book, but Jack is a vampire, or at least a corpse of some kind. It doesn't matter how you dress it up or what you call them, she is a vampire. I bring this up because I don't understand why Felix is asking the above question. I don't even understand why he couldn't take five minutes to think about why drinking blood would or wouldn't have side effects and thus have his answer like any one would do when posed with this question. For such an 'intelligent' man - or I assume he is as he mentions having an office, traveling, and observing rituals and studying the occult - he acts as if he's never studied how blood can carry pathogens, much less considered all the times he's sure to have ingested a small amount of blood from either a cut lip or any steak he’s ate in the past. To further waste our time, each book starts with a needless quote, such as the ones being from the perspective of the garden. What all this comes down to is it needlessly slows down the pace of the book and most of these different perspectives and information could have either been integrated into the story or removed completely. Because of all the jumping and the introduction of so many side characters who are just as bland, I started to forget who they were or what they were there for, which is the worst thing to do in any mystery story where the reader is expected to keep up. To make this worse, some of the sentence structure is strange. This could simply be because I am American and the author is English, but I think it's more along the lines of it made since in her head, but no one bothered to give it another look before she published it. I also don’t understand why we go out of our way to make the American characters dislike the ‘British’ nature of English characters. For example: (Page 33) ”He’ll talk to me though. If you come along, and don’t act so – British - he might get you into one of the (vampire fetish) clubs.” What does this even mean? Is the author implying that Americans think English people are shy virgins and stuffy prudes? Or is she trying to say Americans are loose and wild? Either way, I take offense at the author’s stereotyping. If you have not read the first book, then you will not know or understand the in universe terminology that this series uses. The book casually throws out that Jack and Sadie are 'Barrowed Timers'. What does that mean? If I have to guess, the author needs to go back and rewrite into the story a quick explanation. I've said it before in my review of Unholy Magic: you cannot expect that the person reading your second book has read your first book or will even go back to read your first book. As an author, you must take the time to explain in every book what you expect to be common knowledge to the reader. It doesn't have to be as detailed as the explanation in the first book, but it should basically be a cliff note for new readers and a reminder for returning readers. In conclusion, don’t buy this book. There is nothing for you here. I'd like to thank BLOGING FOR BOOKS for a free print copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. |
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