More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

The Billion-Dollar Bride – Real Stinker by Kay Thorpe

by Leave a Comment

I read this stinker of a Harlequin Presents last fall through Hoopla and now got the paperback version in a book lot on eBay. Ugh. Much as I enjoy Kay Thorpe’s writing The Billion-Dollar Bride is boring, pretentious, stupid, with an on-again/off-again “heroine” who dumps her loving adoptive family to embrace the mega-rich lifestyle that her grandfather-by-blood has left her.

See, her nasty old grandfather forced his unwed daughter, heroine’s birth mother, to give her up for adoption but now has second thoughts and wants forgiveness. In the meantime birth mom and birth grandma died and good old grandpa remarried and adopted his stepchildren, making his adopted son the heir to his fortune and boss of his companies. (He gave stepdaughter – whom he also adopted – money but no affection.) He decides to leave his “real daughter” (our heroine) an enormous fortune provided she marries her step/adopted/no-real-relation brother, the aforementioned company boss and stays married for a year.

At first our heroine is all set to renounce any inheritance and fly back home to England, but when she discovers the number of zeros before the decimal point she dumps that for a bad idea, stays in California, marries the hero and embraces the life of the idle rich.

So we have the step/adopted daughter, the step/adopted son, the blood/but dumped daughter and 2nd wife all in a happy circle. The most interesting character is the step/adopted daughter who is furious at getting a tiny pittance (OK, to you or to me it would be a lot of money!) compared to the heroine. Does the heroine give any of her new riches to this lady who is now her sister in law? No. Does our heroine act responsible for the company positions she inherited in any way? No.

Do we like the heroine? No.

Is the writing style up to Kay Thorpe’s usual standard? No.

Is the hero a delightful hunk we can drool over? No.

Is there tension or any romantic suspense. No.

The setting and minor characters get a lick and a promise, definitely not up to Kay Thorpe standards. The Billion-Dollar Bride is part of Harlequin’s Welocked! series, which includes some excellent reads so I was doubly disappointed.

1 Star

Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Harlequin all have E and paper versions of this stinker and you can look for used copies on Thriftbooks and eBay. Personally I advise you to skip it!

All Amazon links are paid ads.

Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper – Unsatisfying Fantasy Humor

by Leave a Comment

Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper is meant to be funny, and it starts out well.  The Grim Reaper is Death himself, cape, cowl and scythe; Kingston Raine is the fictional hero of the newly not-supposed-to-be-dead author Don Keaton.  Don writes enormously popular novels featuring the intrepid Kingston Raine but is stuck half way through book number 7.

The book gets complicated.  Death is the CEO of Death, Inc., and under threat by a hostile takeover and hostile unions.  Somehow Death turns Kingston Raine from a character in a story to a person who is now hiding in Limbo.  It gets more and more complicated, and less and less intelligible and less and less interesting as we go.

Death was the best character here and I skimmed most of the book looking for his scenes, which became less enjoyable as the book progressed.  Kingston Raine is a jerk, annoying and I skipped his parts.

The premise, with Death as a company set up to process souls in Limbo before sending on to their final destination, is intriguing and could make a likable story.  Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper, sadly, is not that likable.

1-2 Stars

Review: Witches Gone Wicked: A Cozy Witch Mystery (Womby’s School for Wayward Witches Book 3)

by Leave a Comment

Witches Gone Wicked is bad.  Lead character Clarissa is a witch wanna-be, newly hired to teach arts and crafts to young witch kin at Womby’s charity school.  The book could have been quite good, following Clarissa as she tries to teach art with $25 per year supplies budget to students who would just as soon stick her on the ceiling as pay attention.  Unfortunately the author chose to model Clarissa and the plot and the setting on the Harry Potter series.

Clarissa herself grew up ignorant of her witch heritage and now needs to learn fast; however no one wants to teach her because her biological mother was a powerful witch of the dark arts.  We don’t get a chance to get to know Clarissa as a person because she is too busy jumping to conclusions and flirting with the attractive wizard Julian (who is of course a Bad Man).

The witch kin in this series are half fae and half human (or their descendants) and have significant magic tendencies.  If they fail to master their magic then they are fair game for the fae to snatch for servants or the Tithe.  Wouldn’t this be an interesting idea to explore, to understand what’s involved, and possibly, how the witch kin can fend off the fae?    Author Sarina Dorie may cover this in other books in the series; in Witches Gone Wicked she chose to focus on Clarissa.  Clarissa’s magic affinity which is touch, which she experiences as extraordinarily sensual and powerful and any pain is unbearable.  She has power over others’ bodies too, should she learn to use it.

Most Amazon reviews are positive, with no ratings below 3 stars at this time.  This novel is not listed as YA although it may appeal more to younger teens than it did to me.

I received this for free in expectation of an honest review.

1 Star

Review: The Memory Magus: The Haze by Dean F. Wilson

by Leave a Comment

This short story came to me through InstaFreebie and the cover and title intrigued me so I read it.  Unfortunately the title is the best part as the story has no plot, no point, no character development, no setting.

An old enemy arrives one evening and demands that Magus Ladesan uses his memory altering talent to ensures this enemy wins an election.  The method is brutally simple:  first extort and torture voters then erase memories and record their vote.

That’s the story.  Bad guy wins.

1 Star

Amazon links are ads that pay commission to blog owner.