werewolves – notesfromthebookshelf

Fool Moon (Dresden Files)

By: Jim Butcher

(Urban Fantasy/Mystery)

320 pages (Hardcover)

Harry Dresden is at it again, this time with werewolves… lots of werewolves.

I know I’ve said in the past that I wasn’t that into werewolves and vampires these days, but I guess I like contradicting myself. Also, I wanted to continue the series so I didn’t have much of a choice.

This book was quite a bit more violent than I expected from the tone of the first book. There was some gore in that one as well, but this one was worse. I guess werewolves are like that, and Harry spent most of the book getting ridiculously beat up. Ultimately though, I think it reminds the reader of his vulnerability. He’s just a guy with some knowledge and power, doing the best he can, although given how many close calls he has, he’s pretty lucky too.

What kept this book a little more interesting was the different types of werewolves. Rather than just hunting down one target, we get to see different ways one can become a wolf. I liked the variety. It added some much needed complexity to a potentially simple and predictable subject.

There are also hints about deeper things in the story like Harry’s past and who might be setting certain things in motion, all with the desired effect of subtly killing him off. These bits and pieces pop up here and there, which make these books more than a monster of the week kind of thing. I’m interested to see where all this goes. Until next time…

Happy Reading!

Charming {Pax Arcana Book 1}

By: Elliot James

elliottjamesauthor.wordpress.com

(Urban Fantasy)

366 pages

I give this book a solid like, but I didn’t love it, for a couple of reasons. Three reasons to be precise.

Ohhhh, so this book is about vampires…

I had been hoping for something more than the age old vampires and werewolves thing. To be fair, the back of the book did mention something like “a vampire and a hot blonde walk into a bar” so maybe I should have paid more attention to that. While the story does involve some cool lesser known supernatural beings, it was really about hunting vampires. I think it would have been more interesting if the lesser known beings had been more prominent in the story. Everything is so vampires and werewolves these days that it starts to feel predictable.

On the subject of Prince Charming…

Well, that’s the thing…see, there wasn’t a very strong link to the Prince Charming aspect of things. Sure it’s his last name and he is supposedly a descendent of theirs but that’s where it ends. I was expecting it to feature more in the story than it did. It’s mentioned in the beginning and the end but that’s about it. I wanted John Charming to be more directly linked to those ancestors and really he’s more involved with the Knights Templar than anything else. I found that to be rather disappointing since “Charming” was plastered all over the cover of the book, and that was mainly why I picked it up.

Charming and the hot blonde…

Something about his love interest being the athletic blonde woman just seemed obvious and I didn’t love how she was so physically tough, but so emotionally weak. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I just didn’t love it.

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Complaints aside, I liked the humor and irreverence, especially in the chapter titles. It moved quickly enough and I don’t recall any serious lulls. I absolutely loved Molly’s character and would have been happier if someone more like her had been set up as Charming’s love interest. She’s meek and scared, due to a traumatic experience with poltergeists, but she is so brave in how she handles it, especially her use of Christmas things to keep her feeling safe and happy. Her character seemed more interestingly complex to me than Sig (that would be the blonde).

In the end it was an enjoyable enough read, but I was hoping for more. Will I read future books in this series? Honestly I’m not sure. The next one focuses on werewolves and I’m not all that interested in that particular topic at the moment. I’ve got a lot of books on my list so there is a good chance this series will get pushed to the bottom. But if you’re looking for some light, irreverent, urban fantasy, don’t mind a cliche or two, and are into werewolves and vampires then you’d probably enjoy it. Until next time…

Happy Reading!