Tracey MartinBesprekingen

This was a fun and entertaining story! I liked the characters and the pace. Hopefully there will be more!

Misery Happens is the 5th book in the Miss Misery series by Tracey Martin. I thought this was the best book in the series and a fitting conclusion. In this last book, the red sky means the opening of the Demon prison in which they could destroy the world. There's a prophecy which says a small group can close the prison and save the world I'm reluctant to say much about the plot without giving too much away. But I will say it's been a great series to read. I enjoyed the surprises, working out who were their allies and being shocked by the betrayals. I’ve enjoyed the journey, and thought the character progress of Jess was particularly satisfying. Will read future series from this author

Darkest Misery is the 4th book in the Miss Misery by Tracey Martin. I have read all of the previous books and was happy to get this book to continue the series. Jessica has convinced the Gryphons, the magi, the satyrs and the goblins to work together to stop an apocalyptic prophecy from coming true. Bu the truce she has finally managed to build is a fragile between the differing factions - but that doesn't mean they won't stop bickering. I've liked this series a lot, I enjoyed the diversity of characters and types of creatures. But the main complaint I had with this book was a lack of action and too much arguing. The positives - love the different plots that the author manages to keep together and are easy to follow and handled well. I will look forward to the next book in the series

Full disclaimer, I have not read the other books in this series and I jumped into the story here. This was a fun book that I enjoyed reading. I wish I had read the others in the series because I feel like I would have had a more rich understanding of all the different groups and the backgrounds on some of the difficulties / feuds between the groups but this book absolutely does work as a standalone and the author provides enough information that you can get a good sense of what happened in the other stories. I love the writing style of this author. It is fun, punchy, easy to follow, engaging, and did make me laugh out loud a few times. So, despite feeling a little lost throughout this book because I hadn't read the previous ones, I still like this one a lot. The characters are interesting (if a bit frustrating at times), the story moves at a good pace so you don't feel like it's dragging too long in any one spot, and there is enough tension and intrigue to make you want to keep coming back to the book every time you put it down.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this but with the caveat that it would probably be even better if read in order with the other books in the series!

Misery Loves Company is the third book in the Miss Misery series by Tracey Martin. So this book is about how Jess is wanting to cut ties with the Gryphons (regardless of blackmail) especially not after what she learned about her childhood, until her best friend cousin is turned into a ghoul. What I liked about this book was that there was a good mystery that was both personal to Jess and relevant to the plot. The investigation was interesting, and all the elements are really well balanced, the pacing is excellent and it made the book fun to read. I enjoyed reading about the magical aspects of the world, lots of adventure and excitement and was great to explore more complex themes.

Jessica Moore thrives on misery. Literally. Thanks to a goblin's curse, she gets a magical high from humanity's suffering. A shameful talent like that could bury a girl in guilt, so to atone, she uses her dark power to hunt murderers, rapists and other scumbags, until one of them frames her for his crimes.

Totally confusing. The information above is from the publisher and that is how I knew what sort of gift she had. On top of that there is just too much happening and too many people and creatures appear in this book.
Readable, absolutely, but I won't go for part two.
Disclaimer: I got this book in the Librarything Early Reviewers.

The magic mixed with spicey and the banter is really good. This is the second book in the series and is steamy. The writing is really well done and I enjoyed every moment of it!

Life is complex enough, but when you add in multiple non-human races to deal with, it can be pretty overwhelming. If that wasn't enough to have you tearing your hair out, what about when one of them goes on a killing spree and you're blamed. What can you do? Fight your curse, the one that has you getting highs from others misery? Try turning that around while being 'rescued' by a satyr. Interesting implications crept into my mind just imagining the possibilities. Read the book and see whether Jessica survives her predator, and her protector. Well crafted story.

I got this book as part of the early reviewers program and in order to give it a fair review of course I had to read books 1&2. before 3! Let me start by saying books 1 and 2 are largely world and character building. However book three is different.

This book 3, Misery Loves Company, is by far better than the first two. Jess the main character sees a large amount of character growth and overall feels less stagnant, like she is preparing to enter her chrysalis and emerge a bada** butterfly. I am slightly disappointed that there is no growth for her love interest, he's the same as he was when he first became the love interest. I cant decide if they should stay together.

As for the plot, you can telling book 3 everything in the first two books has been leading up to this and things are about to come to a grand end- but not in this book thankfully! We will get a well thought out ending when it does come.

Lastly the spice rating, because the character skills revolve around lust and pheromones there's a few spicy sceens however overall it's fairly mild. I'd say 2/5 for spice.

Dirty Little Misery, the second book in the Miss Misery series by Tracey Martin picks up from the first book where Jessica is dealing with being framed for murder. Despite being cleared, Jess is jaded with the same council she yearned to join. Jess can't help but getting pulled into the Gryphon organisation to solve murders that are linked to certain pred. I got frustrated by Jess at times, jumping into situations without thinking and being snarky to those she loves. But I can understand her reluctance to connect given her powers.
I enjoyed this second book, the pacing was spot on, added mystery balanced well with the action scenes and I thought the author did a great job of continuing to build the characters.

Wicked Misery, the first book in the Miss Misery series by Tracey Martin. I liked this book mainly because it had different supernatural creatures than most other urban fantasy series. There are humans with magic (like the main character Jessica who feeds on negative emotions). Humans work for the Griffins. Loved how there were unique paranormal characters like satyrs, goblins, furies, harpies and not just vamps and weres. Lucan was Jessica's love interest and I can't wait to see where this love interest leads in other books.
There were a lot of mystical elements but the way the author wrote, it all blended seamlessly together without feeling like an info dump of world building. A unique story that I hope to continue reading in future books

I found this story to be really compelling and the unique takes on familiar supernatural and paranormal creatures made the lore feel more alive. I felt for Jess in her quest to exonerate her name and find the true killer. I wished we could have had more time with Jess and Lucen. Their relationship (or lack thereof) wasn’t as fully fledged as others, which made believing that they had known each other for ten years less believable. I’d like to read the next book in the series when it becomes available solely to watch Jess grow more into her powers.

Persuasion meets Taylor Swift.

Jessica is now facing the final chapter of her story – an ominous red sky signals the opening of the Demon prison – the first demons, the progenitors of the Furies and a terrifying force that could literally destroy the world.

Prophecy points to one small group of people who can close the prison and save the world – and chief among them is Jess. She has a lot to learn in very little time as well as a powerful magical artefact to find.

And just when she was getting her life together and finally deciding what she wanted from life: just as her life comes under unprecedented scrutiny – and hostility.

I generally really liked this book and the conclusion of Jess’s story – which came to an excellent conclusion. There are only two issues that pulled it back

Firstly, around the middle of the book it all kind of wobbles; the book kind of pauses. I can see why it wobbles and it makes sense for it to wobble but that doesn’t necessarily make the wobble. Basically there’s a tense moment in the middle of the book where everything is on hold. Everyone is researching, everyone is waiting for the bad guys to make the next move, everyone is tense, everyone is fearful, everyone is worrying about what will happen next, everyone is worrying about whether they’re ready or how their lives will change. Everyone is in holding as preparations happen. But everyone – specifically Jess – isn’t actually doing a whole lot. Even though I completely understand why they’re not doing an awful lot, it still feels frustrating – it feels like we’re gearing up to a major ending without actually heading for it, more like we’re waiting for a major ending to land on us. In some ways it’s the same issue I had with the last book – we have lots of preparation for stuff to happen without it actually doing so.

While I’m not a fan of what it does with the plot, I do like how it allows for a lot more focus on Jess, especially on her last outing. Here she can look at the remaining issues she has with being a satyr (including addressing her brief wish to turn Lucen human) as well as coming to terms with what she wants against her constant push to want what she thinks she should want, what is deemed acceptable to want. Her secrets exposed to the world, Jess is put in a position to look at her whole life and decide what she wants out of it – while at the same time also (with Lucen) recognising that it’s ok to have got as much wrong as she did. It was ok not to be perfect, it was ok to need to grow. Her relationships, her positions between the Gryphons and the Preds, her relations with friends and family are all examined and put in their place as Jess makes major decisions about herself and her place around them. No matter what ever else ends in this book, her personal story has reached a massively satisfactory conclusion

I am not happy about the woo-woo that drops that suddenly makes Lucen capable of monogamy. It seems to fly in the face of all this acceptance and still give her an out so she can have that conventional happily ever after even after she’d already accepted she doesn’t need it.

This part of the book also examines several deep issues with hugely potential storylines that were excellent on the face of it and, perhaps annoyingly, would have also been excellent to develop… which of course we didn’t have time to. Like the Mages throw in some interesting curve balls this book, and there’s a huge debate between magical hatred and prejudice that would have been fun to examine as well as Jess’s own position with the press, people, Gryphons and her own family. What was done was excellent – excellent enough that I think they would have been interesting to follow up.

The second thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of was the ending… it felt rather anticlimactic. Perhaps it’s because of the people who died in it, the cost that was paid or the nature of the battle with the enemies, but it didn’t feel… epic. Powerful and strong – but epic? The big bads just didn’t really sell me as big bad, especially considering several books of utterly huge and amazing build up going on.

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Revive is told from Sophia's perspective alternating between the present as she struggles with her true identity, and looking back as her memories come through. The writing style isn't always fluid, especially at the beginning, as Sophia's thoughts are jumbled, and the writing becomes more fluid as her thoughts became more organized. The realistic narration made what might seem like crazy unbelievable as so much more plausible as well as adding to some pretty great character development.

Now, there are a lot of lies that unfold in Revive. I spent the entire book not really trusting anyone, which put me in the story with Sophia. How crafty is that?! What makes Revive so awesome is all of those secrets, but it is those secrets that make it so frickin' hard to tell you about it...

So, instead, my thoughts on the big players early on:

Sophia - is a euphemism for badassium, If she isn't human, what is she?
Kyle - I wanted to like him, but there is is definitely something up with the dude
Cole - seems like the most untrustworthy among Sophia's 'peers'
Malone - is a creepy bastard
Fitzpatrick - AKA Bitchpatrick is one nasty biatch, so nasty that I kept thinking that it had to be a front for something better

The end didn't come as a complete surprise since I had some idea by the time it came, but it was no less great to see it play out and it was a fast paced and explosive ending. More please.

Was I right about any of the characters? You should read it and find out. Let me know if you do.

Jessica has successfully forced the various factions of the city to come together to talk about the Fury threat.

Unfortunately talking doesn’t mean they’re going to do anything productive.

Inevitably she finds herself with few people she can trust as she’s pushed to find out exactly what the Fury’s plan and how she and her follows are involved – she needs these answers even if it means going to the Gryphon home base in France to get them

I want to love this book. I tried really really really hard to love this book. I loved the previous books in this series, I love the world, I love the characters, I give it a definite nod for its diversity even if it’s not among the main cast, I love the concept, the plot and, so far, I’ve really loved the writing

But this book? I can’t love and that depresses me when I find myself having to write a negative review about a book I was really hoping would be awesome. Alas, I have to. I do hope that this is just a transition book on the way to a whole new direction to the series – which does happen in several series. So I’m clinging to this because I love this series and don’t want this to be more than a temporary hiccough in my love

So why didn’t I love this book? Mainly because a whole lot doesn’t really happen

At the end of the last book Jess has managed to bury a lot of her grudges and prejudices to forge an alliance between the disparate forces of the city: The Mages, The Gryphons and The Preds. They were going to come together with Jess as the go-between, to ensure the Furies’ plan to unleash carnage on the world doesn’t come pass. So they come together and… bicker.

And bicker. They meet and bicker. Then they…. Uh… bicker. And a mage dies but Jess isn’t part of the investigation and all they do about it is bicker a bit more. The bickering is occasionally broken by Jess having temper tantrums which is somewhat understandable given her frustration but part of her whole choice in the last book was to be the diplomat. She fails spectacularly at it.

We then have a satyr bigwig show up to be a colossal arsehole. That’s kind of the sole purpose of this character.

Eventually Jess and Devon eventually just seem to say “fuck it, we’re going to France” and they do just that, going to the Gryphon’s main library where they read.

And read.

And read some more and get more frustrated about not finding anything in the books

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I stumbled on this book on one of the Goodreads ads and said what the hell, it seems right up my alley so i got it. Spoilers below, so you can't say you haven't been warned.....

The general concept of it is more then good, a solid background for a pnr series. But there were some really big issues throughout the novel that just brought it down. Lets start with Jess our leading character. So she is cursed, right? Right. Well by the end of the novel you come to a revelation that she is half satyr, or whatnot. So satyrs in our authors world use lust (as well they should) to gain power, or feed. They even have addicts to sustain them. Then why the Misery? Our leading lady uses negative emotions to get a charge. She can belt out lust like a bad breath on someone, bespell them for a while and let them go when she's done. I just don't see how misery has anything to do with it. In fact the life of a satyr couldn't be more removed from our leading lady and that is her heritage.

So the satyrs can control up to a degree how they can affect someone, but not shut their power off completely; so when in the midst of a burning city the satyr Dom, Lizzy grabs jess by the wrist, nothing happens, she is unaffected. And this is their Dom we're talking about, the most powerful one. But every other encounter with random satyrs had some kind of sexual awareness going trough our heroine, so much so that she made a solid point of not touching any of their kind. See what i mean? Small things in general, but meaningful.

The very last thing about this novel was the one that makes me doubt i will buy the next one out is....
That cliffhanger, of all the things possible, why in the hell that one? See it's the very first novel, with so many things left unexplained, throw in something that will make everyone's jaw drop to the floor and drool to find out what happens next.Her heritage, parents, murder, a million other things. Not sex. NEVER SEX. Of all the things possible, the cliffhanger is Lucen and her sayin' lets do it.

Shoot.Me.Now.

In PNR you either layer sexual tension, culminating in a fantastic display of sweat and writhing bodies, either in the same novel or trough a series. That is the reward for the MCs, and the reader combined. But this, THIS, just destroyed the entire thing for me. One can only imagine the next book, mind this will get published later. You fall out of the world of Wicked Misery and you need a startup again. Imagine the shock to the system when in the first five pages you wind up in Lucen's bedroom. In an even worse, more crappy scenario they are going to get interrupted by another paranormal urgency that needs their undying attention. And they are left unfulfilled...Yet again.... Spanish soap opera, move the hell over.

Along with humans, the world is divided up into Sylphs, Satyrs, Goblins, and Magi, also know as Preds. And each one preys on the human population in their own way. In this world humans can bargain for anything they desire as long as they use their soul as collateral. But most people don’t realize what they have until it’s gone, so Jess bargains for innocent souls by giving the Preds the soul of an evil person in return. She feels that this way she is giving back to humanity, since she’s been cursed with the need to feed on human misery in order to survive.

But when a serial killer is on the loose, and Jess is framed for the murders, she goes to Lucen, the one person she knows can help to keep her safe but he’s also the one person she feels most vulnerable.

I liked this book, it reminded me a lot of Harry Potter, but for adults. I liked the descriptions of the Pred towns outside of Boston and every time she went to Shadowtown or The Feathers I envisioned Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.

Jess is likable too, but could be extremely annoying at times. She asked for help, but made it almost impossible to protect her. She doesn’t want to be dependent on anyone and instead of letting someone protect her, she goes out of her way to go off on her own, and would put herself in obviously dangerous situations. Several times I wanted to yell at her because she was acting like the dumb blonde in a scary movie, who continually does stupid things.

Jess has an interesting relationship with Lucen, but because he’s a Satyr and feeds on lust, she doesn’t trust that what she feels for him is real. That it may all be due to his ability to incite lust in whomever he wants. But she slowly comes to the conclusion that what she is feeling is real, and determines that he’s the only one she can trust.

The world building was really good, and the idea of being able to “Soul Swap” was an interesting concept, that I don’t think I’ve read before. I look forward to reading the next one in the series.

Jess decided she was going to have nothing to do with the Gryphons any more, regardless of their blackmail, not after what she learned about her childhood

That’s until her best friend Steph’s cousin is turned into a ghoul by the Goblin who owns his soul. How can she refuse to be involved in the investigation and turn her back on her friend?

Of course, going back to the Gryphons isn’t helping her rocky relationship with her satyr boyfriend, Lucen, who wants her to accept the multiple sex partners that are necessary for satyrs. And that’s before she tackles her own conflicted feelings about her own Pred heritage.

Looming over all of this, several prophecies are aligning – and the end of the world may be nigh.

This book is moving the story to a whole new level – in some ways it’s a transition book; but usually that would mean a weaker novel but that’s far from the case here. It feels like Jess has reached the end of her journey of self-discovery and all the conflict there and it has been done excellently. I’ve loved every step of that.

On top of that we have an introduction of the next stage of the meta-plot – the ominous prophecies we’ve been hearing for a while. We can see this looming, it has been introduced and the series has some excellent deduction

And, among that, we have a decent mystery that is both personal to Jess and relevant to the meta-plot but still stands up sufficiently on its own to make sure the book isn’t all about setting up the next book. We have an investigation, a clear book-specific story arc as well.

All three of these elements are really well balanced, really well paced and work extremely well together – it made the book fun to read while still serving up plenty of hooks for the fourth book.

On top of all this, as I said in the previous books, the world building of this series – the Preds and their feeding on different emotions, their forming of circles of addicts – is really original. I love reading something so very different from everything else I’ve read

The cornerstone of this book is Jess’s identity issues and they’re complex and really well done, especially how it relates to the greater world building. Jess was raised as a human, raised, like most people, to hate and fear Preds and even aspired to join the Gryphons, a kind of magical police force that exists to control and, at one time, war against the Pred races. But she has learned that, no, she isn’t cursed, she’s a pred. She’s a kind of satyr. And she’s a satyr because a segment of the Gryphons experimented on her and others while they were children – which has definitely flipped the script she’d always lived by as to who the good and bad guys are.

But it’s not just simplistically flipping the story over. After all, the Preds ARE predatory, by definition they’re predatory, they do prey on people, they do addict people, they do use people and a lot of people suffer because of their supernatural hunger. But nor are they entirely monstrous as we see their society does have rules (albeit not always closely adhered to) and many Preds do their best to cause minimal damage while feeding hungers they cannot avoid (at the same time, the choice to become a Pred is generally that – a choice – so even one who is very moral and kind with their addicts can’t be considered completely free from blame). And, of course, Jess knows several Preds who seem to be good people – on top of that it’s rightly pointed out to her that Jess is a Pred who avoids many of the downsides of being a Pred since she isn’t physically identifiable as one (satyrs have horns) and she doesn’t need addicts; in some ways judgement from her comes from a position of great advantage compared to her fellows. And flipping back to the Gryphons, we’re equally clear that they’re not all brutal fanatics and they do have an important role to play in maintaining order and protecting people and she isn’t able to write off the organisation because of the inexcusable actions of one.

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After her rather public exposure last book, Jessica receives an offer from the Gryphons – they want her to work with them as a consultant, using her unique gifts to catch criminals. For which she will be paid a generous salary – and not go to prison. It’s less an offer and more a demand with menaces.

And part of her “unique gifts” involve exploiting her friendship and connections with the satyrs – who are currently prime suspects in a series of grizzly, sex related murders.

The satyrs are not happy about this, nor overly happy with Jessica. And Jessica may finally be getting her dream job – but can she live with the strings attached? And is that her dream any more, especially as she learns more and more about what she is and the source of those oh-so-mysterious powers.

When reviewing a series that continues good elements it can be hard to write reviews of second and later books. I mean, how often can you write about the same world that continues to be compelling, unique and interesting? Ultimately it’s repetitive – but if the goodness keeps on going from book to book to book, then shouldn’t it continue to be mentioned? If you take the “good” as a given and only mention any new badness then your review looks negative undeservedly

This is my long winded way of trying to excuse being repetitive – because what I have to say about world building and story for this book are the same as for the first book. They’re unique, deep and fascinating. The pacing is excellent, the mystery very well drawn out and balanced; action scenes blend well with character building and exploration. Mental monologues provide enough information to both feel the world and the characters’ place within it without swamping out the actual activity. The plot is twisty without being twisted and complex without being convoluted

All of this is wonderfully shot through with some really good complexity that adds so much depth to the world building. Yes there are sexy satyrs – but the consequences and realities of sexy satyrs are considered. We’re not supposed to lust over them, we’re supposed to see their moral ambiguity in their powers, the exploitation and the fearsome control they have over people

We see a police force that is intrusive and gets in the way and we’re not just thinking of ways to cover it up – but asking questions about what’s being covered up, how to negotiate around the Gryphons and not just falling into the trap of demonising them

The whole thing has layers and complexities all with an exciting story with lots of twists back and forth to sell the whole thing. There’s a lot of good here

Jessica is a very real character to me and one that is surprisingly lacking in tropes – she has good friends (and female friends at that!), a supportive family (even if she isn’t as close as she’d like). She has a lot of moral conflicts, a lot of growth and some very reasonable flaws – even flaws that make me kind of not like her at times, but are very real to her character: Like the Satyrs

Jessica’s treatment of the satyrs annoyed me. In the last book, they went to bat for her. They risked a lot for her. They protected her, they housed her, they risked a seriously conflict with the other Preds for her. They owed her nothing but still gave and risked so much for her… and she doesn’t really acknowledge it in this book. She still regards them with hostility and suspicion. She doesn’t seem to realise any kind of debt she owes them nor even seriously consider that her being part of the Gryphons can be seen as a betrayal. Yes she had no choice – but she is still using her connection with the satyrs to gain information about them without ever really acknowledging what they’ve done for ever or even trying to be apologetic about it

I don’t know if it’s a terrible part of the character though. Jessica, like most humans in this world, has a strong fear and distrust of the Preds. And not entirely unreasonably, since they feed on humans and control them through their sin addictions. This is something she does have to work through with the book and something she does come to realise and adapt as the book progresses. It annoys me, but I think it’s not a bad part of the character – it’s an annoying part of a developed character; after all, not every character is going to be entirely likeable or made up of likeable traits. Or they shouldn’t be anyway. Jessica has unfortunate preconceptions about Preds, they’re not always fair and sometimes cause her to be a bit of an ungrateful arsehole sorely in need to a stern lecture – such is her character

On the other side of the scale, she has a wonderfully epic, ragey moment confronting someone who is behind her unusual nature. It’s epic, I cheered and it’s probably deeply, deeply unwise. A sensible character probably wouldn’t have done it – but I would have and I was behind her all the way.

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We start off DIRTY LITTLE MISERY with the Gryphons calling Jess in and blackmailing her into working for them. As you can imagine, not everyone in her life is happy to have her on the inside, and it just so happens that not everyone on the inside has Jess's best interest at heart. I thought that Jess handled the situation and being in the middle of two different worlds pretty well. It definitely isn't easy but she pulls through and everyone is better for it by the end of the book.

There are a lot of bombs dropped on Jess throughout the book. She knows a tad bit about herself going into the story but by the end she knows a whole lot more. It really throws her through a loop to learn how she gained her powers and who is behind her having them.

DIRTY LITTLE MISERY brings a little bit of a love triangle. We already know Lucen, but we are now introduced to Jess's new partner. Her relationship with Lucen isn't always easy for her so when her partner shows interest she questions what it would be like to be with him. I won't tell you what happens and who she is with in the end.

I enjoyed WICKED MISERY so I was happy to get a review copy of DIRTY LITTLE MISERY. I had a few tiny issues with some confusing scenes in book 1 and I am happy to say that did not carry over into book 2. The action was intense and the danger and mystery behind Jess's case brought along lots of drama and suspense.

* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Jessica hungers for misery. She feeds on it. She thrives on it. In some ways it’s fortunate that she is so very miserable herself. Refused by the Gryphons after her magical talent was so badly cursed, she now makes a living trading souls – helping desperate people out of the deals they make with the Preds – supernatural beings that feed on vices – by trading their souls for the most evil humans she can find. And making a prophet along the way

It’s legal, just. It’s debatably moral – but it gets her by.

Unfortunately it also brought her to the attention of the wrong people – and she is now being framed for a crime she didn’t commit. She is forced to seek sanctuary in the last place she wants to be – among the Preds. Worse, these crimes are pitting the most powerful factions in the city against one another – and the whole city may soon burn

The first thing that struck me reading this book was the world building. This world is rich, it has a lot of non-human, mystical elements in a human setting and there is a lot of effort to ensure that they meld seamlessly. And they do – it’s a really believable, well thought out setting where everything works together and nothing feels jarring and out of place

Which deserves more praise because this world is really unique. The mages are entirely different than I’d expect, the different kinds of Preds feeding on human emotion and vices. The whole new take on demonic pacts and supernaturals preying on humanity and even a magic system that seems to be quite unique. There’s a lot there – and, in some ways, I think not enough of it is explained entirely… but at the same time I think if there were more explanations the whole book would evolve into one incredibly long info dump that would have to be convoluted just because of the sheer amount of information that would need to be conveyed. As it stands, I love this world and would really like to read more, though have a slight feeling of not quite knowing enough to truly absorb the plot. There was a hole there and I think some things fell through. But what was there was epic and generally easy to follow

I also loved the plot. A nice murder mystery with twist after twist after twist. And the twists made sense, the alternate theories made sense, the distractions made sense. Even the people who were causing problems and scapegoating or blaming Jessica made sense. I loved that you had all these groups that were either hurting and looking for someone to blame or implicated and looking for someone to scapegoiat and by the end it wouldn’t even matter who was responsible to many of these groups so long as they could blame someone. And on that we have the authorities floating around, causing problems and generally not being involved anywhere because the world really does convey the very essence of the subcultures here – there is a great sense of both the Preds and the mages being part of society but still very much separate, especially when law enforcement is around; it’s a hard balance to strike (other books make law enforcement so distant.

When you have frustration and twists and red herrings it’s easy for the story to feel like it’s not going anywhere or that the pacing is off – but the excitement kept going, I kept being pulled in and I never felt it was dragging or slogging

My only complaint, plot wise, is that when the bad guy was finally revealed they’d been so tangential by that stage in the plot that it felt almost anticlimactic. It’s like of like watching an Agatha Christie movie and learning the kitchen maid did it. Sure, you can see why she did it – but when the character has only held a tea tray and delivered scones it feels a little off that she turns out to be the murderer. Because of that, a lot of the motivation and reasoning behind the mystery seemed to be packed in at the end.

Now, on to Jessica, our protagonist. I don’t think I like Jessica as a person, but I like her as a character., I don’t like her for good, solid character reasons. I like her power, I like that she is unique in a way that isn’t massively over powered – so we can have a unique, different protagonist without the usual trappings of Chosen One specialness. I like the moral conflict she lives with, trying to live with her power, feed off the misery of others, revel in that misery and try and find a morally acceptable way to deal with that; trading souls to make her living but, again, trying to find a way to do it that isn’t reprehensible. She draws lines and worries about crossing them. She’s angsty and does, at times, indulge in in some self-pity. But it’s never over the top and her unique abilities and history give her strong reason for it. And it’s a strength – her ability to be able to cannibalise her own misery is a really unique spin on an angsty character. She’s also not perfect – she envies people, she resents them, she has a streak of bitterness 10 miles wide, she relies on her friends a lot without giving much in return. Her attitude towards Lucen and other Preds is based far more on (not entirely unreasonable) prejudice than on their actual behaviour and she’s often extremely unfair. Her selfishness and unwillingness to trust leads her into foolish, reckless situations and puts a large number of people at risk

Because she’s very human. Does she threaten the future stability of the satyrs and the Preds in general? Yes. But she does it for her own survival, she doesn’t like the Preds – is she supposed to be a noble, self-sacrificing hero or something? Her actions are reasonable even if not always likeable, her mistakes are human, her dislike understandable even when it is unfair. It’s not always likeable, but it is realistic, it is human.

This also has the side effect of making the romance a slow burning one – yes we can clearly see where it’s going, but it’s going to go there through a long rocky road built on interaction and character building before Jessica and Lucen become an actual item.

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I went on a mad Samhain publishing spree a few months ago and WICKED MISERY was one of the purchases. I wasn’t entirely certain about it but I though the concept was quite original so I figured I’d give it a shot. Overall, I did enjoy it. Here’s why.

Let’s start with my favourite part: Martin has created a very compelling world. People know about preds like satyrs, sylphs, furies, magi, and goblins, and humans aren’t overly fond of them. In fact, there’s a police force called the Gryphons consisting of humans with magical abilities. Jess, our lovely leading lady, was on track to become a Gryphon but her magic never matured in the expected way, so she was let go. Despite this, her abilities are quite strong, if unusual — she can feed on people’s negative emotions, especially misery. She’s turned it into an unlikely career path, as the Soul Swapper, trading with goblins to give them the souls of bad people in place of good people who made deals they can’t get out of. I’ve seen lots of books with empaths or people who thrive on misery but I think Martin’s created her own unique spin on the ability, which is awesome. I love it when an author can bring something original to the table, especially in genre fiction, which sometimes feels over saturated with sparkly vampires and broody werewolves.

Martin also does a great job with her cast of characters. Jess is a strong protagonist and she’s surrounded by compelling friends and enemies. Lucen is great. As a satyr, his magic is alluring to Jess but she doesn’t want to be an addict, which is what people hooked on any magics are called in WICKED MISERY. Most preds have addicts, which Jess finds disgusting. I’ll admit, it is a bit off-putting when you see how some folks use their humans but it makes sense in the world that Martin has created and it’s a very practical business arrangement for a lot of the characters. It adds an interesting dimension to the world, as do the pred communities that exist in Martin’s Boston, like Shadowtown.

Plot-wise, WICKED MISERY is also fairly strong. Jess is facing off with an unnamed foe who shares her ability who gets her accused of serial murder. This turns most of the world against her, and I’m definitely a sucker of seemingly unbeatable odds. I also really enjoy stories that have the countdown-to-doom element in them because it adds so much suspense to the story. WICKED MISERY didn’t feel super suspenseful to me in this respect, though, which was a bit disappointing. But Martin has created a well-paced novel with some surprising ups and downs so the loss isn’t too major, and may not be a big deal to other readers.

As I said at the start, I did enjoy WICKED MISERY. It’s my first dance with Martin’s work but I’ll definitely be back for WICKED MISERY’s sequel.

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I tore through this one. The mix of light and a sarcastic main character to the emotions dealing with the break up and sudden face to face as well as her family issues was just what I needed.
I chose to read Another Little Piece of my heart because the synopsis sounded like something I would like. I love stories with musicians, and they didn't disappoint, they had a true love for playing and hearing music, and I could relate with it. I was never good on any instrument, but have loved listening to it, and enjoyed my time dating a musician (he played classical and rock, and was amazing on a guitar).
Jared is a good guy when he dated Claire, and though I can understand his hurt, I also totally get hers at his popularity being based on a song that is not true. She dumped him at the wish of her dying mom, and I think that he should have understood that and stuck by because I know they could have ended up working it out. But I also know that it can't be easy for Claire to have chosen her mom, who clearly disliked him and disapproved of their relationship over him, whether she was dying or not.
But I loved how fate brought them back together, even though it was so hard that she decided to play like she didn't know him so that it didn't get out the song was about her. But he is dating her cousin, and there is all sorts of angst surrounding that. But I loved their secret jokes that ended up coming out and just the unresolved tension between the two, it was delicious.
She is also dating a guy named Zach, who while he seems nice enough, I knew where her heart was, and Claire and Zach didn't have the chemistry that I craved.
Claire herself was a lot of fun to be in her head. She was strong and funny, and no matter how different she felt from her family, at the end of the day she loved and valued them.
I think that the ending worked well for this book and it left it open that I can imagine what happens next while wrapping up enough of the story threads that I wasn't frustrated.

Bottom Line: Cute but emotional at times story of second chances.