Steamroller by Mary Calmes

Steamroller by Mary Calmes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


It's kind of confusing how hit and miss Mary Calmes is for me, considering that everything she writes is fundamentally the same. It doesn't matter whether she's writing contemporary or urban fantasy or whatever, I could pick a Calmes out of an anonymous lineup after ten pages. It'll be the one with the serious desire kink—where every other guy desperately wants the protagonist – and possessive behavior on the part of whichever muscle-bound Neanderthal is the central love interest of this one, who will win the protagonist after somewhat strenuous pursuit. It's a formula. She really, really, really likes it. And it seems to be working for her, so hey, carry on.

I keep reading them because her protagonists have a range and vividness I'm not used to seeing in this genre. These guys get to be real and flawed and complicated in ways that ring true (though don't expect the same treatment for the love interests. Like . . . at all.) And she has a nice touch with the friends and community. (Though as a side note, I can't tell if I'm perturbed or entertained to see that the gay romance genre substitutes "douchebag straight friend" for the "sassy gay friend" of your standard het romance.)

This one was a total miss because it wanted to be a novel, but she didn't let it be one. Dunno why, but this novella is missing about 40,000 words. Prickly overworked poor college kid is wildly pursued by wealthy adored football star on the way to the draft, see above re desire kink. Cut so many emotional corners it lost all tension and interest, and didn't live up to the promise of the protagonist.




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Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Look, this is book fourteen, and I still don't know why I'm here. By now evidence is mounting to suggest I don't want to know why I'm here. So fine. I give up. I'll just read the damn book and stop interrogating my enjoyment of it for an explanation that might make even a little bit of sense.

I didn't like this one as much. It got a ton of shit done, but that was part of the problem. It was all A plot! B plot! C plot! D plot! B plot C plot B plot A plot! Because it had to move a whole bunch of pieces into a new configuration and it only had so many words to do it in. Ghost Story was a quieter book on the gratuitous fight scenes per page ratio, and while it's not like I really enjoy Harry Dresden when he's getting all philosophical – God save us – that book had a stronger emotional throughline, and *gestures* other analysis stuff I don't really care enough about in this context to put words to.

Which is all a silly reviewer way of saying this is a setup transition book, so yeah, it was unsatisfying. Do I care about the stuff it was setting up? Sure, why not. Though the shape of the conflict – the outermost reaches of it as revealed in this book – are so exactly identical in presentation to the conflict in his other series that it made me a bit weary even before we've gotten to the doubtless pages upon pages upon pages of Jim Butcher jizzing over just how much he loves 'defend this wall from an unbeatable hoard of millions of monsters' battle scenes. Get some new material, dude.

…Lol. Spoiler. He won't.




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