Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from February!

1) Ilona Andrews-A Questionable Client (Kate Daniels #0.5)
In a world beset by magic waves, Kate Daniels works as a mercenary. She is tired, hungry, and there is foul-smelling blood on her boots. All she wants to do is to go home, but when Mercenary Guild offers her a job she can't refuse, she finds herself protecting a man against Russian wizards. 

In this book we meet Kate Daniels who is a mercenary and sometimes bodyguard. She is paid to take over guard duties on a rich shifter, who is being targeted by the Russians. He is accused of both kidnapping a young woman, and stealing a magical object but the truth is much more complicated than that. Kate finds that Russian witches and folklore are her enemies in this case if she wants to keep her obnoxious client alive.

I had read the first Kate Daniels novel many years and gave it three stars but I wasn't fully in the mood for it then so I'm going to give the series another try. I liked the idea of the magic waves coming and going-when the magic is working, electricity fails and vice versa. I found that concept interesting, as was Kate herself. I liked the Russian folklore coming into it and wanted to hit the vain client Saiman! Overall it was a good re-introduction to Kate's world and I'll be gradually reading more in the series.

Read February 2020
4 star.

2) John P Logsdon-The Bleeding (LVPPD #0.5)
Ian Dex's early years in Netherworld PPD, before his time in Vegas. Ian and partner are investigating a Vampire.

This was my first time reading this author so I wasn't sure what to expect. Ian Dex is in training to be a cop in the Netherworld PPD but he really wants to work topside among the normal humans where he can blend in better. He and his vampire partner/mentor Sarge are on patrol and find a vampire covered in human blood. As they investigate they find that vampires are holding humans hostage as food sources. I loved the character of Sarge and it's disappointing that he is due to retire and may not feature at all in the further adventures of Ian.The writing was very good and I particularly liked the world-building in the book.

Ian is certainly interesting. His DNA is a mix of the paranormal races who despise him for being a mixed breed, but it gives his strength, speed, agility, basic magic and healing abilities. He also has a few nifty tricks like Freeze-which freezes his emotions and lets him kill without remorse for a short period of time, and Haste which lets him move at speed to deal with issues, which leads to an amusing scene with angry werebears! I liked the abilities but I am a bit wary about Ian saying his enhanced abilities have led to him being horny all the time. That concerns me as I'm not a great fan of oversexed MC's. There was enough here for me to read on to the next short story, but I do have concerns.

Read February 2020
4 star. 

3) John P Logsdon-The Chief (LVPPD #0.6)
It's all fun and games until the day you get promoted.
Ian Dex was living the dream. He was a supernatural cop who worked from sundown to sunup, took down the bad guys, and got to play around with the ladies on his squad. Too bad the good times don't last forever. A fae by the name of Fay showed up and the wheels fell off. She'd gotten her hands on a mind-control device that promised to help her take over the city. Despite what you may have heard, it turns out that being subjected to the influence of a mind-control device isn't all that fun. Fortunately for Ian, there was something about his genetic makeup that gave him an edge.

Join the ride and learn how Ian Dex, officer extraordinaire, became the chief of the Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department. It not only changed his place in the department, it also put one hell of a damper on his sex life.

I read this book straight after The Bleeding. It was another decent story, well written and again I enjoyed the world-building as we see Ian's switch from Netherworld to cop in Las Vegas. A dangerous Fae called Fay is trying to take over the city and starts by taking control of the Chief and Ian's partner Rachel. Ian isn't as infected and realises that it is up to him to stop Fay and save the city. I liked the actual story and we see Ian using different skills-his brain and the department's AI Lydia--who gushes and coos at Ian in an annoying way.

My fears did come to pass in this short story. From start to finish, Ian is talking about and thinking about sex non stop, which gets in the way of a good story. A few lines in, he's telling the reader about banging Rachel and propositions her later in the story too, he tries to seduce a woman at the hotel, gives an account of an ex, and is considering sex with Fay. All in a short story. There are the typical crude comments about the women which are sexist, and Ian is like a walking hormone who is also vain and arrogant. I didn't much like his character in this story. Sex seems to be his reason for living and it gets in the way as he tries to chat up women when he should be doing his job. Who would promote this guy to boss??? I'm now not sure about even going to the full length novel but I would still try other series the author has written in this world and hope for less sex and more plot.

Read February 2020
2.5 star.    

4) John Crace-I, Maybot
Ever since Theresa May first whirred into inaction as prime minister, there has only been one reliable source of strength and stability: John Crace's political sketches for the Guardian. These doses of biting satire not only provided much-needed respite from the madness of it all, but also gave us his now notorious moniker for our automaton PM, the Maybot. In I, Maybot, Crace introduces a curated selection of his most acerbic sketches, charting May's tumultuous premiership to date. From the EU referendum and ensuing tragicomic leadership campaign, to the snap election, Tory-DUP coalition of chaos and endless Brexit wranglings, Crace's analysis makes for essential and uproariously entertaining reading.

This book is supposed to be a satire version of the events from the resignation of David Cameron through all the problems Theresa May had with Brexit and controlling her own Cabinet. I was looking forward to a funny account of these events as a lighter look at politics but it was not what I thought it was going to be. I figured that lots of MP's would be ridiculed in the book but it was really just a book aimed at picking on Theresa May with very few digs at anyone on the opposition benches. It also featured her as a real robot with system overloads, fried circuits and reboots, but it also made up a lot of incidents and distorted actual events, with things like policy advice from plants, which is not what I was looking for. The humour fell totally flat and I found it really annoying and dull. I won't be reading any more of these parody things, that's for sure. 

Read February 2020
1 star.