Bec McMaster - Kiss of Steel

Honoria Todd has more secrets than most people and she's hiding them in Whitechapel. Blade is the master of the rookeries and agrees to protect her, but at what price?
Most people avoid the dreaded Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it's the last safe haven as she hides from the Blue Blood aristocracy that rules London through power and fear.
Blade rules the rookeries-no one dares cross him. It's been said he faced down the Echelon's army single–handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood–craving he's been quicker, stronger, and almost immortal.
When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She's so...innocent. He doesn't see her backbone of steel-or that she could be the very salvation he's been seeking.

Comment: I had this book in the TBR list since 2015 and due to a recommendation. PNR and UF were genres I gravitated to for a while between 2005 and 2015 (like many other readers I imagine) but not so much nowadays. Still, I do want to try some of the books on the TBR, even though some might not appeals much anymore. This one was, therefore, a positive surprise.

Honoria Todd and her younger siblings are living close the Whitechapel rookeries because they no longer have access to the privileges they did when their father was alive. She tries her best to make ends'meet but things more complicated after each day. Things only get worse when she is finally "summoned" by Blade, the master of the rookeries who has been feared by many, including the blue bloods who rule London, so that she pays him for the protection of her family. Although they agree on a price, the attraction between them is undeniable, but are both of them ready to trust the other? What about all the other issues in their lives which should be the focus of their attention?

This book was recommended by a reader whose taste I shared a decade ago, and that is why I decided to give it a try... well,better late than never. This is a story set in London, where vampires, werewolves and steampunk culture exist, with the same old social distinction and the snobbery between classes. Honoria is the oldest daughter of a scientist who wanted to cure the blood virus, which gives people more power for a while, but degeneration at some point causes vampirism and all the negative aspects that come with it.

It was easy to feel engaged with this world and the characters and I'd say that, for me, the main reason was probably due to the "vibe". Although the world presented has good and bad people, as always, and the characters mostly deal with negative aspects in their lives and have worries, the situations aren't presented in a vicious manner, nor in a hopeless state of things. There is also friendship and caring for others and I think that the feeling of knowing that good things exist in the world helped me wanting to see what would come next for the characters.

The world building is interesting and relatively easy to follow, although the whole dukedom houses and who can be a "good vampire" (my take on those who are infected with the virus but are in control of it) and a "bad one" (one who has been infected for too long, I assume) still feels rather confusing. there are other beings and ways to change people or to enhance them somehow, but I've kind of put those worries aside to simply invest my focus on the characters and on what they were facing.

Honoria is a determined heroine, she wants to protect her siblings although their financial situation is very complicated. She is also worried about her brother, who is infected with the virus and about her work, which depends on her appearing unconcerned about money. Her emotional journey about what she should be controlling or not was interesting for me to see happening, as well as her romance with Blade, even though some details didn't always seem convincing.

Blade is one of those heroes who seems to be a bad guy but who is, in reality, someone who protects those under his care. His character development is, as expected, affected by falling in love and all that comes with it. The romance between them is slow and sets on an emotional bond before anything physical happens, so there is that, follows the positive vibes I got from most of the novel.

The end of the book was a little predictable if one has read many PNR books for instance, but I still liked it that they got their HEA. In regards to plot, several issues were solved while a few things are left up in the air, I imagine to set up the next installments. I did like this book overall, but do I want to read the rest of the series... right now, not really. Who knows...? I had read other books by the author, from a different series and one I liked, the other so-so... thus, food for thought.

Grade: 7/10

Bec McMaster - The Last True Hero

In the drought-stricken Wastelands that arose out of an apocalypse, Adam McClain never thought himself the hero. Kicked out of the town he created, and shunned by his friends and former allies when they discovered what he was, he's managed to find work as a bounty hunter. After all, who better to hunt the wargs and reivers that haunt the Badlands, than one of the monsters themselves?
Mia Gray learned the hard way that men can't be trusted, and when McClain strides into her bar she knows that trouble just walked in. The rugged bounty hunter is her greatest weakness–but he's hiding something, and the last time a man kept secrets from her, she got her fingers burned. Tempting as he is, Mia's staying far away.
But when a horde of reivers strikes her town and captures her sister, the only one Mia can turn to is McClain. Together they might just be able to rescue her sister, but what will happen when Mia learns of the secret McClain is hiding? Can she ever trust him again? And when the man who broke Mia's heart in the first place discovers the same secret, will McClain survive?

Comment: After having enjoyed the first book in this series, to my complete surprise since that book was labeled as post apocalyptic and dystopia -  which I rarely read not because I hate the concept but mostly because it usually features scenarios too sad and often unfair to go through - I saw this one was also out and I decided to try it, hoping I'd have more of the same positive elements that made me like the first one.

This story pretty much follows the incidents of the first book and found Adam McClain as a loner in a bar way out of his former settlement Absolution. Adam was unmasked as being a warg, a man who was clawed and now turns into an animal but he can't control his animal side which makes him - and others like him - dangerous to others.

Adam has been feeling pretty down because of recent events but when the opportunity to help Mia, the woman he has been attracted to lately, arises he does join a small group of people who will go on a mission to rescue kidnapped members of their community.

Among all the challenges the rescuing group needs to face, can Adam be honest with Mia and win her over when all its done?

I admit I was really hoping to be as wowed as I was when I read the first installment. Like I said, I tend to not enjoy reading stories where terrible things happen to "good" characters and that is quite a trend in apocalyptic stories, so... but after finishing this book, despite its positive aspects, I was left with more doubts than will to eventually read the third book when it's released.

This story is focused on the plot to rescue some people who were kidnapped to be sold as slaves. Adam is the main character and he is part of the rescuing group simply because he was close by and decided to join in. One could say his motivations weren't simple as he wanted to impress Mia, a woman he flirts with when he's at her bar but feels could be so much more if only he wasn't a warg but more than that, he wanted to be important for something after being expelled from the community he helped creating and protecting. His feelings aren't strong, his morale was low enough that the first scene of the book is his memory of how he tried to commit suicide but didn't do it.

Adam is indeed a complex character. He is the sort of hero one finds easily in romance novels and I actually felt for him and his feelings of inadequacy, of loss and depression. Of course he becomes a better man, and so on, as his decisions try to take the group into their goals.

However, despite his personality being well done, I hoped for more when it comes to his being a warg. In the previous book there scenes (and hints) that would lead the reader to think being a warg could be something wargs themselves could control/use for their own improvement and acceptance. I think this situation wasn't exploited well because although there's mention of that, practically no change in the state of affairs happened throughout the plot. I imagined that accepting being a warg would lead Adam to become more confident but nope...

Then there's the romance. Well, perhaps I wasn't having the best state of mind for it but it seemed the romance was very poorly done. Adam and Mia could be falling in love but it didn't seem like it. The other book was so well balanced between personal development and romance when it came to the main couple. But in this book I missed the emotional engagement that would enable me to feel happy for them and in the end the romance didn't feel so, it was just another element to add to the story and that was it. It was a weak romance as a whole and the attitude of the characters to admit a physical relationship at least by being unsure about it was a bit boring.

Mia herself as the heroine wasn't a character I felt very invested in. I can't explain but her personality just didn't win me over and that might be part of why this story felt weaker too.

The setting of this story keeps being interesting. Dystopia and apocalyptic stories usually follow a trend though: the exploitation of what is the norm now instead of looking for to change for the better what became of the world/society. How much more demanding that could be... well, for each their own taste.

All in all, a good enough add to the Burned Lands series but not amazing to me.

Grade: 6/10

Bec McMaster - Nobody's Hero

First rule of surviving the Wastelands: don't be caught out after the sun sets...
After her father was killed in a warg attack, Riley Kincaid was forced to stand on her own two feet in the brutal Wastelands she calls home. She knows how to survive, but when a lapse in judgment leaves her out after dark, Riley realizes she's in trouble. The sun has set, the monsters are out to play, and there's a band of reivers heading straight for her settlement. Riley needs to warn her people, but that's before she runs a handsome stranger down in her jeep. A stranger who might not be a man after all...
Kidnapping her was the worst mistake he ever made.
Dangerous outlaw, Lucius Wade, lives only for revenge. But when he kidnaps Riley in order to lure an old friend into a trap, suddenly the tables are turned. Riley has no intentions of being bait, and she tempts him in ways he hasn't felt for a long time. He's never played the hero, but suddenly a part of him wants to. Even as he knows there's no point.
When dangerous secrets are revealed, and Luc realizes an old enemy is on his trail, he's forced to change his plans. The hunter is suddenly the hunted, and the only allies he has... is a stubborn blonde who thinks there should be more to live for than revenge, and the ex-friend who shoved a knife in his back ten years ago.

Comment: This was the book chosen for a book club I belong to. It was also my first book by this author and I have to say I was positively impressed, to the point I no longer know what to think about some of my preferences in sub genres.

In this book we meet Riley Kincaid, a young woman who lives centuries in the future, where the planet has suffered several catastrophes, meteors and viruses for the most part. Humans now live in small cities or the wastelands, which are basically camps here and there and everyone tries to do their best while staying away from the organized groups (mercenaries), the wargs (people who changed into animals after being clawed by an infected individual) and revenants (zombies).

Riley is one of the leaders in her camp, Heaven, and when the story begins she is looking for something with Jimmy, a teenager from her camp. They hear som weird sounds though, and night is coming which means dangers as well, so they try to leave and somehow they run over a man. When Riley tries to help him, she discovers he is a warg called Lucius Wade. He kidnaps her so she can take him closer to Adam, a former friend who betrayed him. The problem is that although Wade is a warg and should have no redemption or hope, he is still a man...

I really don't like shows like the walking dead because they tend to focus a lot on the negative side of humans when we can't see a solution to out problems except violence and pain and death. I prefer shows where the more acceptable emotions are key.

Obviously this means I always find myself surprised by how much I seem to enjoy these sort of books that show a dystopian reality or a plot featuring catastrophic events and the attempt to be normal by those who survived. I don't like to think people would forget rules and civilization so easily but the survival's instinct would make us act different, wouldn't it? I was as surprised to have enjoyed a similar plot in Rebecca Zanetti's book I've read last year.

The characters are interesting enough, most fit what one expects of a dystopian, but the main couple is well done and some secondary characters as well. I'm sure some of them will feature in future installments as protagonists.

 Riley is an interesting character, she has suffered loss and is still sad over some things but she is a likable heroine and several scenes with her seem well done and I ended up rooting for her, so she could do her part to reach the HEA.

However, for me, the real enthusiasm was the hero, Wade. He is a man changed, he now needs to live with the knowledge he is looked at differently and he still has the emotional scars of the moment it all happened. But he is still a human being and the way the talks and acts shows he might have lost total control of his body but he is still a person with feelings and choices. I really liked him.

I was quite happy about the way the romance developed. All other elements aside, of course the romance is what I focused on to make me appreciate everything else.

After several complicated situations, not only plot wise but even emotionally speaking, it was really delightful to see how the romantic aspects of their relationship were useful to make them become stronger people. I know it sounds like a cliché but thy both became better people by being together. Also, it was both sexy and sweet to see them together. The HEA was cute.

The plot does follow most of the expectations one imagines in this sort of story. There are bad guys to overcome, there are challenges to face and win and people to save, but I liked that no one we have come to care about dies and I liked how the negative aspects while dealt with are not the focus, the author isn't trying to use situations on the page to make everything look bleaker or more intense for the reader.

I will read the next book. This means that it was a good read for me, for sure. I feel curious enough to see how other characters, also facing some unbearable choices and pasts will be able to find happiness as well.

Grade: 8/10