Review: Black Magic Woman

Black Magic Woman by Christine Warren

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Well, out of all of them that I read, THIS one was the best. And that’s not saying much. This was also the last that I’ll read in this series.

Content warnings: dubious consent, possession, misrepresenting parts of religion, attempted sexual assault while possessed.

So, I know that the main character has a thing for the guy in this book. I read that. Very clearly. But him kissing her without asking if it was ok was not ok.

On the whole, I liked that I went an entire 100 pages before anything not consensual happened. The rest of the series I’ve read I don’t even get that far.

For various reasons I’ve researched voodoo/vodun because I have a serious lack of understanding of it. I know more now than I did a few years ago. It’s a very interesting religion. But parts of this book, from everything I’ve read about it, get it wrong to a degree (yes yes I know artistic license but personally for something as misunderstood as voodoo/vodun I REALLY DON’T like artistic liberties being taken with it because it causes FURTHER misunderstandings all in the name of entertainment which is harmful to the real people who practice the religion). I do like that the author seemingly did at least some measure of research to use proper terminology for the people who practice the religion and didn’t just throw a bunch of made up shit into it or misunderstandings of it into it.

I’m always against books that deal with possession of a body that isn’t yours unless you have the express consent of the person whose body you intend to possess to do so. And consent for things is a huge thing for me. Especially when it’s something like taking over someone’s body/spirit.

This book was moderately better than the rest of the series. The mythology/lore that goes into this series is great. Unfortunately it’s not great enough for me to enjoy the boy/girl meets girl/boy and they fall in love and everything’s hearts and flowers except for this one plot for this to happen first before they can be together stories. It’s boring and overdone.

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Review: Big Bad Wolf

Big Bad Wolf by Christine Warren

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Content warning: rape, dubious weighing on non consent

I told myself I wasn’t going to try another one of the books in this series. Yet here we are. And I’m going to do at least one more (since the library conveniently had it ad conveniently has none of the others). But ugh! This series makes me so angry.

I don’t like the whole “I’m alpha (insert paranormal creature/human here) so you’re going to do as I say” mentality. It is steeped enough in our culture as it is that to have it thrown in my face in books is insulting. But at least the sex scenes in this book are using of adult language and not overly colourful.

Too many decidedly white characters, not enough diversity (though some of the werewolves *COULD* have been non white as they’re only described according to the colour of their pelts once they’ve changed but main characters are all white. I HAVE ENOUGH REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA AS IT IS, STOP WRITING PEOPLE WITH MY SKIN COLOUR). And too much non consensual acts happening.

“ooh you’re fertile and I can smell it but I’m not going to say anything because my cousin’s a douchebag and trying to usurp my throne so I’m going to purposefully impregnate you even though you haven’t consented to dating me or anything outside of fucking me and not going to tell you until I tell everyone else before you”. -Actual thought process of the main male lead (without actually quoting the book).

I need a conversation on how dangerous that thought process is in books but I don’t have the energy to have it right now. But it NEEDS to happen if it hasn’t already. After the next book in this series I read (which I don’t think is the next chronologically, I think it’s book 4 and this is like book 2) I’m completely done with this series. I have no desire to ever read another one of this series and I have no desire to ever read this author again. Unless it can be proven that she writes a better book without all this problematic bullshit.

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Review: One Bite With A Stranger

One Bite With A Stranger by Christine Warren

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Good things about this book:
well the one good thing about this book that I DON’T have that much of a problem with but still have a minor problem with:
It’s taken note of the fact that when she’s wet from anticipation he has more lube and that when she’s fully aroused the sex feels SO MUCH BETTER. Even if all the sex is is just a finger in her vagina. Technically that’s two things. But I’m counting it as one because it falls together.

Everything after this is going to be spoilers.
Content warnings: sexual assault, non consent/dubious consent (it’s very murky line), invading another person’s mind (or multiple people’s minds) without consent, coercion, slut & kink shaming, too many gorram white people (seriously black vampires are a very sexy idea as are other races I’ve read a few books with vampires as races other than white that are hot as hell), paedophilia insinuations, infidelity, and sex. So NSFW content (no photos but words yes).

Few photos to express my initial feelings:

The last one will definitely get explained later on.

So, last chance. Spoilers ahoy!

Things I didn’t like:
-WHY DO WE HAVE TO PUT RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT IN TO MOVE THE PLOT ALONG OR TO HELP MOVE THE PLOT???????
-too many white people
-lack of informed consent
-coercively getting someone into a relationship because you’re “mates”
-jumping inside of people’s minds to figure out what their fantasies are and how to push them in directions you want them to go
-withholding shit from your “lover”
-forcing someone into doing something they really don’t want to do(especially as friends)
-WHY IS IT NEVER STATED THAT THEY GO PEE AFTER SEX? ARE WE ASKING FOR POTENTIAL UTI’S?
-WHY CAN’T THEY USE CONDOMS?
-WHAT IS SEXY ABOUT POTENTIALLY GETTING A UTI BECAUSE YOU WANT TO FINGER YOUR PARTNER WITH SHAMPOO ON YOUR HANDS (well what didn’t transfer onto her body when you cupped her boobs)?

There’s plenty more but those are my big hitters.

First I’m going to address that last photo. Yeah one of her best friends, Ava? That so defines her and how their relationship looks. Like it’s stated explicitly by Regina that she DOESN’T want to participate in the “fantasy fix” thing that her and her friends started. And Ava is the one who absolutely INSISTS that she HAS to. And that there’s no way she’s getting out of it now that they’re single. They talk about it when they’ve been drinking wine and aren’t fully sober. They make these plans that can potentially fuck their friends up while not sober. That is very not cool to me. And then gets mad at her because she dared slip out of meeting this fantasy fix dude Ava was gonna set her up with. When Regina has been saying from the start basically that she DOESN’T WANT to do this. Yes, worked out great in the end. However, not very good friends to do that.

Next, after Regina’s turned into a vampire and her engagement to her friends announced Regina and Dmitri take a shower (this is after all her friends have barged in on them after sex and feeding to “save her from the vampire”) and he gets in with her (which admittedly can be sexy/hot and/or comforting. But here it’s painful for me) and soaps up her hair for her (which again can be sexy and hot and/or comforting) and then goes from that to cupping her breasts and then from that to fingering her. It’s never stated that he washes the shampoo off first. It is literally stated in the order I just put it in.

All the conflicts (Dmitri being a vampire and figuring out how to tell Regina, Regina deciding if she’s truly going to date him and be his like he says she is, and who is randomly turning people into fledgling vampires to attack people in the city) are resolved by page 288. The end of chapter 22. Everything except her friends bursting in while they’re naked in bed is basically fluff and her announcing the engagement. It’s eye rollingly numb. And the aforementioned shower scene is in this fluff.

Another thing that bothers me are some of the names he calls her in Russian. One of them translates to ducky or duck. One translates to sweet/honey/dear/dona/dear heart/old girl. One translates to kitten/kitty/kit. And the last he calls her is Hebrew and means Queen or ruler. The one that translates to sweet/honey though he tells her that it translates to sweet little girl (also he says the Hebrew one translates to that too though I’ve yet to find the word in Russian so I’m a little iffy on that). The fact though is that he tells her he’s 804 years old. And he’s calling her a sweet little girl. That has some seriously paedophile overtones to it to me. I just…eeeewwwww. I know daddy/mommy and little girl/boy are things with kink and great that’s their things but they NEGOTIATE it which makes it a whole lot LESS creepy to me (I mean it still kind of is creepy to me but I understand it and know it’s consensual so I’m 100% ok with it long as I’m not involved in it). But that’s the thing. It’s NOT negotiated in this. She never actively consents to being called that. He never asks her if she’s ok with it. He just comes flying out the bat with all of them. I have a serious problem with that.

Also on the topic of consent. Dmitri determines that she will be his lover before they ever speak (thanks to the creepy mind reading thing). He determines what kind of sex they will have because he reads her mind and her mind says “oh yes, this is what I want to do” even though she tells him to stop verbally. He pauses. Doesn’t actually stop or untie her but he does pause and then eventually continues after a minor bout of talking. He drinks her blood twice without asking her if she’s ok with it AND puts a veil into her memory so that she won’t remember it. He never asks her if she wants to use condoms. He doesn’t ask her if he should wear gloves/dental dam to finger her/go down on her. He doesn’t wash his hands prior to fingering her. I have a lot of serious problems with those. Especially the protection thing. He asks her to be his lover before/after they have sex when she’s very clearly NOT thinking clearly.

And then there’s the issue of Regina herself and her inner monologue. She apparently grew up in Connecticut (I think) in a very conservative (or was it religious) area (either way doesn’t matter since it’s a trope of either super religious or super conservative for this) and every time she enjoys sex she thinks about everything she’s been taught about how wrong sex is and then slut shames herself for enjoying it. And when the kink comes out she kink shames herself about how wrong it is and how she shouldn’t enjoy it even though she does. And I get it. Really I do. I was raised in a more liberal type family but because society’s pressures and shit I use to slut shame myself (and other girls) constantly. And once I found out I liked kink I shamed myself on that too. So I get it. We can identify with this. But at the same time, I’m so tired of seeing this over. and over. and over. and over again. Unless we’re in puritanical times or medieval times I don’t like seeing this. Or the person is raised in or brought into a type of place like that. But modern-ish New York? It’s out of place and out of date.

And then we get to the sexual assault. *sighs heavily* So, Regina dates this douchewad (whose name I don’t care to remember) and breaks up with him after she finds him fucking his secretary (who also turns out to be the “bad guy” who turns him into a vampire) on his desk when they’re suppose to go out (they meaning Regina and douchewad) for lunch. Well after Regina meets Dmitri (which is something like 6 months after the breakup) douchewad calls her to talk. And practically tries to rape her (both in sucking her blood and sexual assault) in the back alley of a restaurant/club that he pulls her into (like out from the back doors and into the alley). Douchewad gets knocked around by Dmitri and runs off like the scared coward he is and then later tries to kill Regina in the epic battle showdown (though on the good note she actually kills him instead).

I just….There’s so much to dislike about this book that I’m missing things and I don’t even give a fuck right now because it’s so bad that I don’t ever want to pick it up again.

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Review: Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale

Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale by Christine Warren
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

content warnings: dub con bordering on non con, abuse So, I picked this up at the library without realising it was part of a series. That’s the first thing I’m going to say about this. The next thing I’m going to say is that if I could give this a 1.5 star rating I would. It’s not bad enough for a full 1 star but it’s not decent enough for a full 2 star in my eyes. There’s A LOT that really did NOT work for me and pretty much all of it is going to be spoiler-y shit. But here’s what DID work for me: -the spelling of faerie and the actual explanation in the book that faerie is a place not a thing -the explanation of all the different faerie races -vampires and werewolves and other were-animals(ok there was only 1 other in the book but point still stands) -the fae being immortal creatures Now for what DIDN’T work for me: -dubious consent bordering on non consent (this NEVER works for me) -soul mates (I’m sorry heart mates same concept different terminology almost never works will go into why after the list) -one of the main character’s best friends -motivation for bad guy So from here on out will be spoilers. You’ve been warned. I’m going to deal with Ava first (the best friend of the main character). Page 85 is where we get the first description of her personality. “If Corinne had held out any hopes of Ava taking Luc in hand and bending him to her will the way she seemed to manage with every other living thing in the universe, she was doomed to disappointment.” I DESPISE people who can seemingly take someone in hand and bend them to their will. I’ve met people like that. One of them was an ex of mine and he was very abusive in multiple ways towards me. Partly because of him and other prior experiences with others like that I can’t be friends with people like that. Later on, she’s described as using the femme fatale routine. Now, some of her description from Corinne does sound like jealousy particularly the point where on page 87 Ava is offering drinks and she says in the last line before Corinne is showing jealous snark “Unless you’d prefer something hot? coffee? tea?” and then the next line from Corinne’s mind is “or me? Corinne snarked in her head”. Now, while I realise that that is a fairly typical line “coffee, tea, or me” (I even use it from time to time though mostly in jest) it bothers me in this context. Because Corinne is pulling that nasty girl vs girl attitude that’s beat into us by society to someone who is suppose to be one of her best friends. I give her props for not saying it out loud but only in the she’s hitting the bare standards for being a decent human being. And I don’t think we should hold people being decent human beings up on pedestals. Both in literature and real life. Heck even in other forms of media we shouldn’t. It should be the standard everyone should be hitting regardless. Later on (still on page 87), Ava is described thusly (actually shortly after the drink convo like the next sentence after): “Ava never missed an opportunity to put the moves on a man this good looking, unless he spoiled it with his attitude before she managed her patented I’m-too-good-for-you-but-I’ll-do-you-anyway come-on.” I’m also not entirely fans of people who pull the “I’m too good for you but will do you anyway” type of attitude. It annoys me to no end. Especially when the person thinks that their job or amount of money they have makes them better. The dubious consent bordering on non consent. Luc and Corinne are in a crowd and almost get hit afterwards, he picks her up and carries her to her apartment where he starts kissing her in the elevator without any indication from her she wants to be kissed mostly because his adrenaline is pumping and practically tries to have sex with her before they even hit her apartment. He basically assumes that he’s staying with her in her apartment before hand and they’ve literally just met. This is a) tropey as hell and b) so overplayed that I’m sick of it. It’s to the point that basically all the female lead has to do is look at the male lead even in glancing and it’s taken by the male lead as “please come ravish my body”. I DO NOT LIKE THAT IN MY BOOKS. EVER. The soul mates thing. Ugh. I will never be able to properly explain my disdain for it. Call it soul mates. Call it heart mates. It doesn’t ever work for me. Love/lust at first sight can be workable for me. But soul mates who get absolutely no choice in the matter never works for me. This is where Kenyon’s were-hunters get slight points in. Because they have a choice. Yes, fate deems they should be together but doesn’t rob them completely of choice (I’m not a fan of negative consequences of said choice but the choice is there). Whereas this book and many others that do the soul mates (or variations of them) don’t get choice. One kiss, touch, time sleeping together and they have no choice in the matter. They can’t be apart. Ever. Even if the characters don’t like each other. They’re screwed. Now, I do know (and have even experienced) that people can start out hating each other and then go to falling for each other. And I’ve seen it done decently. Though that’s not the case here. The case for this book is they’ve just met, he kisses her once, and instantly knows they’re heart mates because she sees through his glamour. He doesn’t tell her this happens. He doesn’t explain it until almost before the last conflict in the book. Because Queen Mab is the first to use the term around her. Her friends know what’s going on but their mates/significant others refuse to let them tell her because it isn’t their place to say (which on one hand I agree but on the other hand really don’t like that it’s basically kind of intentionally kept from her until the conversation with the fae queen). And Luc only tells Corinne what it means because she asks afterwards and tells him he can either tell her now when she’s exhausted or he can wait til she’s gotten rest and has the potential for an anger outburst. I hate that he keeps it from her even though he should have told her when he realised it. I hate that neither gets a choice. Fergus, the bad guy. He’s basically trying to fuck everyone over because he was one of Mab’s favourites and shared her bed many times and she promised him things and didn’t deliver on them. But most of all he’s angry at her because she wants love but according to him is incapable of feeling/returning the emotion. It seriously sounded a lot like “I fell in love with a woman and she never gave me a chance -insert whining and crying- and all women are bitches and never go for the nice guys ™” bullshit that I mostly hear online from men justifying their violent and misogynistic behaviour towards women. And he sets up the queen’s nephew who causes trouble regardless (and never faces any repercussions for his behaviour because he’s the queen’s nephew) to cover his own tracks. So because of his anger he’s going to fuck everyone over, kill her, and take over her throne. *rolls eyes* And he hits Corinne more than once and tells her he’s going to kill her. Just to hurt Luc and because everyone but him is expendable to him. I just…..I can’t with this book. I doubt I’ll like the first book any more but I’m going to give it a try at least before moving onto things I might enjoy more.

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