Afbeelding van de auteur.

Voor andere auteurs genaamd TA Moore, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.

26+ Werken 244 Leden 16 Besprekingen

Reeksen

Werken van TA Moore

Skin and Bone (2019) 26 exemplaren
Wanted - Bad Boyfriend (2018) 22 exemplaren
Dog Days (2016) 15 exemplaren
Liar, Liar (2017) 14 exemplaren
Every Other Weekend (2018) 14 exemplaren
Swipe (2019) 14 exemplaren
Prodigal (2020) 13 exemplaren
Bad, Dad, and Dangerous (2020) — Medewerker — 13 exemplaren
Dead Man Stalking (2019) 11 exemplaren
Shift Work (2021) 10 exemplaren
Ghostwriter of Christmas Past (2017) — Auteur — 9 exemplaren
Stone the Crows (2018) 7 exemplaren
Split Shift (2021) 6 exemplaren
Labyrinth of Stone (2015) 4 exemplaren
Shiftless (2021) 4 exemplaren
Cash in Hand (2020) 3 exemplaren
Dirty Work (Dirty Deeds, #1) (2022) 3 exemplaren
Sticks and Stones (2019) 2 exemplaren
Take the Edge Off (2019) 2 exemplaren
Labyrinth of Stone 2 exemplaren
Dirty Job 2 exemplaren
Wolf at the Door (Wolf Winter) (2020) 2 exemplaren
Tailor Made 1 exemplaar

Gerelateerde werken

Devil Take Me (2018) — Medewerker — 31 exemplaren
The Phantom Queen Awakes (2010) — Medewerker — 27 exemplaren
Dead Souls (Anthology 25-in-1) (2009) — Medewerker — 19 exemplaren
Requiems for the Departed (2010) — Medewerker — 13 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Leden

Besprekingen

tl:dr: two out of four, a better average than most collections I've tried.

'Monster Hall Pass,' by Bru Baker, is pretty good. It needed a better edit.

'Kismet and Cadavers,' by Jenn Moffatt. This felt disjointed to me. Part was the two POVs were hard to tell apart for over half the story. Part was interweaving of one character talking while the POV character thought things, same paragraph. And, there were odd time skips. Needed work.

'Elf Shot,' by TA Moore. Awful title, rich world, engaging characters. Best story so far.

'Wolf at First Sight,' by Rhys Ford. Well. I got close to the end, but only by skimming, and then I gave up. Very wordy, nothing unique, lots of repetition. Definitely the worst of this author I've read.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
terriaminute | 1 andere bespreking | Dec 4, 2022 |
Wanted – Bad Boyfriend stars Nate Moffatt, a wedding planner/organizer, and Flynn Delaney, a mechanic and emergency team rescuer. The story is told in third person through both Nate and Flynn’s pov.


First, I want to comment that I do think this was a cute plot idea, even though the story didn’t work for me. I will mention some things I thought the author did well at the end.

The blurb sounded so promising. Pretend boyfriends between two older men who couldn’t be more different in personality and lifestyle. However, the execution of the plot fell far short. I was very disappointed even though I held out hope the story would pull itself together by the end. As soon as I started reading, I felt something was off with the writing. My mind wandered and I had to force it back to reading. I concentrated on why I was having problems staying focused.

The plot. It sounded like the book would be about the relationship between Nate and Flynn, but no. Instead, the relationship was the backdrop for the wedding that Nate was organizing and the rescues Flynn went on. I wondered why I felt cheated about the relationship. It was because it wasn’t the front story. The relationship was the third story behind Flynn's rescues and Nate’s business.

The first couple of chapters nothing important happened. Just a lot of description of stuff. In fact, that was one of the problems with this story; there was too much description of nothing. Things like: the coffee was too hot or too cold. How it burned someone’s lips and where the cup was tossed, or the coffee spilled. There was a lot of talking about coffee that didn’t lend anything to the story. There was a lot of monologue, and it was telling rather than showing. The first quarter of the book could have easily been pared down. In fact, the book would have improved if it lost fifty pages and eliminated much of the description that didn’t move the plot along.

As I pushed myself through the story, I wondered why I couldn’t get into it. Why I felt like I was reading through a fog, at least mostly for the first half of the book. I finally realized that part of the reason was the sentence structure. The sentences often were almost all long, the same length, the same rhythm with sometimes an unrelated comment or thought inserted in the middle of the sentence. I don’t think I would have noticed if the same structure happened infrequently, but since it happened often enough, I picked up on it. Sometimes, the sentences didn’t seem to relate or segue into what happened to the next sentence or paragraph. I felt like I couldn’t get a grip on the story because my mind was jerked in different directions.

Another problem was some of the words used. Maybe it’s me, but I found that some words were used oddly. The one that sticks in my mind, and I’m paraphrasing here, is when Nate and Flynn are kissing. I think it was from Nate’s pov, talked about Flynn’s ‘muscle’ delving into his mouth. That ‘muscle’ was Flynn’s tongue. That is not sexy or romantic, at least not to me. I found more than a few of what I consider, odd word usages or sentences that threw me out of the story.

I did like the plot idea, but nothing much was done with it. Nate and Flynn got together in public a few times to get the gossips going. They got together for sex and supposedly, that’s when they discovered they really liked each other. On the sex, I feel there was too much. It was used as a plot crutch that really didn’t move the story along, just used to keep the reader interested. The two men never discussed anything important together during sex or revealed anything important to each other about themselves that built a connection. Flynn was tight lipped about his past except for telling Nate about how he got a scar. The only thing they had in common was sex and fantasies. We’re supposed to believe they fall in love because they liked sex with each other? Nowhere in the story did the author convince me that the men had a heartfelt connection other than sex.

Now to the characters. Here I think the author did a decent job. It’s implied at the beginning of the story that Nate is a good person, taking care of his mother and he has a good job. He has a best friend named Max. Flynn has the reputation of a bad boy, at least all the rumors going around the island say he is. As the story moves along, we begin to learn that isn’t the case. That maybe it’s Flynn who’s one of the few good people on the island and Nate, and especially Max, aren’t very great. Sure, Flynn is rough around the collar, but he is kind. The things he does to help people shows he’s kind. He doesn’t fight back against the gossips, usually anyway. Nate on the other hand is consumed by his work and wanting people to quit setting him up. That’s why he gets the idea to ‘date’ Flynn. However, he never considers how it will affect Flynn when they fake break up. How people will despise Flynn even more. Nate’s all about Nate. That he looks put together on the outside, but he doesn't know how to have a relationship and gives up easily, usually trying to find the quick way out. The golden boy who has never had any real challenges to overcome. Flynn struck me as his age throughout the story, but Nate and Max acted like immature guys in their twenties, I had to keep reminding myself that they were close to forty. The author did a good job in getting me to cheer for Flynn instead of Nate. Flynn isn’t perfect, but he’s a good guy.

There’s a small mystery that’s tied to the gossips and rumors that I liked. What I didn’t like was it was hard to follow along because it was covered up by the extra description and the front story of the wedding Nate was planning. The other part I found difficult to follow was the way secondary characters were introduced, especially at the beginning. It was haphazard so I just gave up and hoped I’d figure it out as I read further.

To finalize, I found Wanted – Bad Boyfriend a disappointment. It didn’t live up to the blurb; it was too filled with description, too long with too much monologue, and telling. Shortening the story by 50 pages at the very minimum, would pick up the pace and delete unnecessary description. Also focusing on Nate and Flynn instead of the wedding and the rescues would make the story more interesting. I didn’t buy into the relationship because so little time was spent on building it up. I can only give this book 2 Stars

An arc copy of this book was provided to me for an honest and unbiased review.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Penumbra1 | Oct 11, 2022 |
Bad, Dad, and Dangerous is an anthology composed of four stories. They’re all told in third person povs.



The stories in order are:

Monster Hall Pass by Bru Baker
Kismet and Cadavers by Jenn Moffatt
Elf Shot by TA Moore
Wolf at First Sight by Rhys Ford

Monster Hall Pass was my favorite. First, I have to mention I love the title. It’s way too cute! I like reading this author’s paranormal books and she keeps improving her writing with every one I’ve read. This one was about a vampire dad, Hugh Whitby, who thinks once he ships his daughter off to camp, he hopes to embark on his monster hall pass of replenishing his stores of energy from criminals, and a few dalliances. That is until he meets a fae prince who turns his world upside down.

I believed the characters as a couple although I would have liked more information about Rykoff in terms of his emotions. I wasn’t able to get into him as much as a character as I could Hugh. One thing I liked that the author did, was while being in Hugh’s head we got to hear a lot of the questions he had about what was happening. For me it made the story more humorous, but also showed how much he cared for his daughter. The fact that Hugh was a father first and foremost, even willing to sacrifice his health, came through loud and clear. I give this story, 4.5 Stars

Kismet and Cadavers was a fast, quirky read. Two best friends hunt ghosts. They plan on going to a cemetery on the Solstice to see if they can get any good videos. There’s a prologue to this story that starts back when both KJ Beshter and Thomas Anders are young. I didn’t care for it, but it was necessary to set up the rest of the plot. Thomas runs an occult shop and has shipped his daughter off to camp. He’s hoping to relax and maybe find some hook ups, but he has his daughter’s resurrected dead cat to take care of. In walks magic sensitive KJ and the two immediately hit it off. But they can’t get together to do anything about it until after the graveyard video. And there’s some bad energy around town that Thomas has to look into.

The author did a good job with the characters. Each was distinct and I could believe in KJ and Thomas as a couple. The dead cat was a great idea and leant humor to the story.

I think this story could have been longer, especially the ending which felt rushed, but it worked. KJ slid easily into Thomas’ life because he already believed in the occult and he was a sensitive. Even though the daughter wasn't physically present for most of the story, the author conveyed her presence through the dead cat as the subject. At times the father even communicated through telepathy with his daughter. I give this story, 4 Stars.

Elf Shot is a dark story and the one I liked the least. While the other three stories were written in the same optimistic style as many contemporary paranormal fics, this book required lots of world building because of the fae’s otherworld. It took the legend of fae’s kidnapping people and how some returned as changelings.

Quick rundown of the plot. Conri drops off his son at camp. I’m guessing his son is either fae or a changeling. This whole story is vague and often left me wondering what was happening. I never really understood what the truce entailed or even if some faes were given to live in our world in exchange for the humans that were taken. It was never clarified and that’s one of the issues I had with this particular story. Also, the plot is focused on rescuing other teenage fae/changelings rather than involvement with Conri’s son.

There is a tremendous amount of monologue describing what is seen and what the characters thoughts are about everything. It felt like this was the longest story of the four because it droned on and I grew bored. I had to frequently put the book down because my mind drifted reading the monologue.

The writing style was vague and convoluted which I didn’t care for. Here’s one example I’ll paraphrase: Conri, the changeling, has a brand under his arm. Bell traces it with a finger. Conri says he’ll tell him about it if he wants to know. Bell asks if he wants to tell him. Conri says no. And that’s the end of the subject. Vagueness that’s never answered later in the story, unless it’s a series, is not appealing to me. It’s like a dropped plot point and I don’t find it clever or interesting. There were numerous scenes that gave these vague non-answers and I found them aggravating. I read another book by this author that was evasive like this one and didn’t care for it either. I’m guessing this is the author’s style and I just don’t like it.

I didn’t care that much for the characters, no matter how much Bell talked about how he found Conri more and more attractive, I never believed it, probably because of the overwhelming amount of monologue. I couldn’t see them as a couple and the ending was bittersweet rather than HEA or even HFN because they already agreed the chances of them staying together were dim. I found this to be a depressing book and wouldn’t read this again. I give this story a reluctant 3 Stars because the author put a lot of effort into creating a tangled-up world.

Wolf at First Sight was a fun, quick read. SFPD Lieutenant Joseph Zanetti stumbles into a world he didn’t know existed even though it was right under this nose. Once he sees Levi Keller, owner of St. Connal’s Pub, he’s extra committed to finding out what’s happening there.

I loved the characters. Joe, Levi and every other character was distinct. The interaction between Levi and his son was heartwarming and at times hilarious when his son called home from camp. This story is, I think, the most family oriented of the four books. It’s not just between Levi and his son, but between Joe and his grandmother too.

The author has a way with words. Even in this short story, conversations, descriptions and thoughts are all vivid without extra flowery words or by being vague. I always know I’ll have an entertaining read with one of this author’s stories. The only thing I wish about this one, was I wish it was longer. It feels too short and a bit rushed, and that’s not just because I liked it. I therefore give this book, 4 Stars.

Overall, I liked this anthology. Three of the stories were in the same uplifting contemporary style. The third story was darker and didn’t have that optimistic feel. For me, it’s out of place in this anthology and would be better on its own or in a different type of anthology. Because of this, I can only give this set, 4 Stars.



I received a copy of this book from the authors for an honest and unbiased review.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Penumbra1 | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 11, 2022 |
What a pleasant surprise! I will definitely reread this story and check out everything else from this author.
 
Gemarkeerd
ika_129 | Sep 11, 2021 |

Prijzen

Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk

Gerelateerde auteurs

Statistieken

Werken
26
Ook door
5
Leden
244
Populariteit
#93,239
Waardering
3.8
Besprekingen
16
ISBNs
40
Talen
2

Tabellen & Grafieken