Meh is perhaps the best I can say about this. And it’s never a good start when that is the first thing I can think of to say about the first novel in a series. But hey, at least it’s short. It’s not awfully written, but it’s by no means great either; in fact I’d struggle to even go as far as good. It’s absolutely safe to say that there is certainly no linguistic flair hiding within the pages. It’s all rather dry and lifeless in brutal honesty - lots of demons get their asses kicked, lots of characters obsessed by sex, main character is apparently wonderfully caring and yet acts more like a paranoid jackass.

To make the whole thing that little bit more annoying, the characters had nothing that drew me into their lives. In fact, the main characters instinctive reaction to anything he doesn’t like is to want to punch it. That was actually quite entertaining when Mira Grant did it, but this author just doesn’t have the flair to make it anything but juvenile... The love story is a strange combination of boring and disturbing; I don’t know where the current fascination with writing paranoid and control freak males and pretending it’s romantic, but I don’t like it. Following someone when they don’t realise – particularly when you can already see out of their damn eyes anyway – is not romantic, it is stalkerish and authors really need to stop with it.

The writing is repetitive and didactic. The author tells rather than shows and for such a short book there were a lot of moments where I had to force myself not to skim read; the only reason I succeeded was because I knew it was so short. The characters are barely fleshed out - other than the fact that we know everybody’s sex drive is working as the author is determined to ram it down your throat that they are all red blooded and horny. All of the male characters seem to be ruled by their dicks. Motivations are repeated inanely, character thoughts are hammered at you, the mind talking tells you nothing that you don’t get from their speech and the entire thing is in reality weak as hell.

The skipping backwards and forwards in time was also messy and purposeless. It’s almost like flashbacks, but flashbacks are meant to be interesting or at least bring something of use to the story and none of these fit that criteria. Then of course you have the surrealism, which is so heavily shovelled on, the author needed to lend you her pitchfork to dig your way back out. A novel this length should be tightly written and this simply doesn’t deliver the goods. It feels like the author had a random idea, put words to paper but missed all of the important steps - like proof reader or editing or not relying on a weak romance to carry a novel. If they had then maybe this wouldn’t be as disjointed, messy and ultimately utterly boring.

As a final point, and possibly the straw that breaks the camel’s back, the book quite literally ends in the middle. I’m not joking. There is not attempt to finish the narrative arc at all, instead the author just tails off at a random point. I can only assume is a ploy to get you to buy the next book. That’s just shoddy writing though. More fool me however; I bought the collection on kindle and will therefore give the second in the series a shot... if only because it is in reality the second half of the first book and because I have already paid for it. If it’s as lacklustre, thin and uninspiring as the first instalment however it may be the last I do read of this author.

I tried. And, yeah I gave up. Everything that was wrong with the first book is still wrong with the second book. Writing is repetitive, bland and insipid. Characters are limp and uninteresting. Plot is boring as hell. There is no improvement at all. Not a fan.