Category: Canada - Alyce Caswell - Author

Alyce Caswell - Author

A Confusing Hive of Sith and Villainy

2/10/2023

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (Star Wars Legends)
by Sean Stewart

Count Dooku seemingly wants peace and has invited Yoda to a rendezvous on a world teeming with darkness and madness. It's obviously a trap. So Yoda takes with him a team of Jedi and begins a clandestine journey across the galaxy, though it won't stay clandestine for long - Asajj Ventress is on the hunt and she is closing in. And more Jedi means more chances for someone to fall to the dark side.

Uhh, so I'm a bit confused by this one. A great chunk of it felt like a YA novel, completely with teen characters and comedic hijinks involving Yoda disguised as a droid. I think I would have loved it had it been targeted at younger readers. But it's an adult release so I'll judge it as such.

There is precious little space devoted to the "dark rendezvous" suggested by the title, though what we get of it is quite good - Dooku and Yoda verbally sparring was fantastic. Too bad most of the content is something else. The YA stuff...it's fun, but it doesn't belong here. Anakin and Obi-Wan... sure, they had a purpose (to cut the rendezvous short) but they were also unnecessary. I suppose I'm annoyed because the blurb hinted at a tighter, more focused story than the one I got.

This book contains some good parts, but it is not greater than the sum of those parts.

Left Me Cold

25/4/2023

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

Climate change is marching everyone further north, where untapped resources and years-old secrets are to be found in the retreating snow. Rose is there to spy on the deluded man who thinks he's building a campus. Grant has come to teach the men known as the Diggers and shed the shackles of his family name. But there are more agendas in Camp Zero than most people realise.

This had a great premise and a great start, but the story soon became sluggish and didn't recover. Things only got interesting towards the end...which of course was when the book abruptly ran out of pages! I'd have preferred more plot over the extra POVs. And not all of those POVs seemed necessary to me. Lately I've had the misfortune to buy books that read like drafts. This is one of them.

Another Reliable Sands' Romance

18/10/2022

Highland Wolf (Highland Brides #10)
by Lynsay Sands

Claray is saved from a dreadful marriage at the last minute by the Wolf, the infamous mercenary of the Highlands. But his name is Conall - or rather, that's one of his names. His survival has been kept secret so that he may one day return his lands to their former glory. The one thing that hasn't changed since he lost most of his clan? He's still Claray's betrothed! From one wedding to another...

What I really enjoyed about this book was the logistics of getting an abandoned castle back up to scratch. That was pretty interesting and I don't think I've seen it covered in another romance novel before. I didn't feel that Conall's "reveal" about his identity had much impact on the plot and the finale veered into melodrama territory, but gosh it was fun to read. I wish I hadn't been quite so sleep deprived while reading this book, because I might have enjoyed it more. Or perhaps the opposite is true!

Boy, do I miss the cookie cutter!

12/10/2021

Retribution (The Pack #2)
by Geena Tillman

Markus is hunting a pack traitor when he happens upon a small town and stays in the B&B belonging to Missy, a local derby champion. Markus thinks he knows where the danger is. But it might come from an unexpected source. Meanwhile, stuff happens with the pack at home.

I would have really loved this book to actually focus on the characters mentioned in the blurb. I don't expect, in a PNR series, to have to read about book 1's couple having sex in book 2 when the story is supposed to be following another couple instead. To make matters worse, other couples were also getting page time and constantly interrupting the plot. This could have been so much better if it was spread out over more books. A disappointing read.

A Cookie-Cutter PNR

10/10/2021

Blue Moon (The Pack #1)
by Geena Tillman

Jason is trying to run his werewolf pack in the aftermath of his father's death, but not everyone wants to keep in line. Elise has just arrived in town after running from an abusive situation and is out taking photos in the woods when Jason finds her. They have an instant connection. But both of them are being stalked by danger.

This was a pretty standard paranormal romance and does the usual stuff you'd expect of book one - starts the series, sets up the world, introduces characters who will get their own stories. There's quite a few spelling/grammar errors, but I didn't find them that intrusive. I did feel that the bevy of POVs detracted from the main couple, however. An average read.

A Queen and Her Handmaidens

14/6/2021

Queen's Peril (Disney Canon)
by E. K. Johnston

Amidala's election to ruler of Naboo is not unexpected - what she and her bodyguards do next, however, is unique, unprecedented, and might end up giving Panaka a planetoid-sized headache. A prequel/companion to The Phantom Menace.

It was really nice that Padmé was able to be a teenage girl, just a little bit, in this book. I've always enjoyed stories about the handmaidens - heck, I even have that Legends picture book with the plastic amulet lol - so I wasn't too bothered by the lack of a strong plot here. This was an uncomplicated read, but I did like it. However, while the scenes from the POV of other characters were interesting, I did wish that the space had been used for Padmé and her handmaidens instead.

Spirits and the Spirited

26/5/2021

The Highlander's Irish Bride (Clan Kendrick #4)
by Vanessa Kelly

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kathleen Calvert would rather be back in Ireland, not sent up to an isolated Scottish estate in an attempt to rein in her free spirit. Grant Kendrick knows he seems boring compared to Kathleen, after years spent being the serious, introspective twin. But escorting her away from the confines of Glasgow may just give him the opportunity to rediscover his own free spirit.

I'm on a Clan Kendrick binge at the moment and this certainly did not disappoint. Grant and Kath had such wonderful dialogue! Any scene with the pair of them was a lot of fun (even when Grant was being "boring"). It's also rare to see a potential rival suitor who is actually a nice dude and not the villain of the piece. I'd say this is my second favourite book of the series (Graeme is my favourite twin - sorry, Grant!).

Definitely Not a Nun

25/5/2021

The Highlander's Christmas Bride (Clan Kendrick #2)
by Vanessa Kelly

Donella Haddon hid herself away at a convent to avoid a series of embarrassments, but she is kicked out - ahem, told to leave before she can take her vows. Enter Logan Kendrick, her escort. He is a wealthy widower doing business with her clan. Neither of them are looking for romance - certainly not with each other - but it seems fate and their families have other ideas.

I enjoy these books, especially because the plots are a bit more complex than can be found in the standard fare. And Vanessa Kelly's heroines always surprise me - not only are they real, they make decisions that seem real. As with the last book, this one references events from another series, but here the information about those events was presented in a more organic way (instead of the front-end info dump that occurred in The Highlander Who Protected Me.) A thoroughly enjoyable romance.

Pregnant Pause

23/5/2021

The Highlander Who Protected Me (Clan Kendrick #1)
by Vanessa Kelly

Royal Kendrick is a wounded hero who has pined after Lady Ainsley Matthews and has erred in the past when trying to show his affection for her. Ainsley has been sent to Scotland as punishment for refusing a suitor, so Royal decides to visit her. What he doesn't expect is to find her days away from giving birth! Ainsley is in an untenable position, but she may just have found her hero.

When I pick up book one in a romance series, I expect it to be a clean slate. This wasn't. I didn't realise that a good chunk of the book would be focused on events that occurred in a previous novel in a different series. That really threw me. Once things got going, however, it was an enjoyable read that had me on tenterhooks, wondering when the villain would appear. I also appreciated that this novel dealt with the aftermath of sexual assault, something most historical romances avoid.

But I just couldn't get over how annoyed I was by discovering that this book was not the starting point I thought it was.

It's Getting Scot in Here

19/5/2021

Highland Treasure (Highland Brides #9)
by Lynsay Sands

Rory planned on getting back home to Scotland as quickly as possible - he just didn't know he'd have to do it while escorting Lady Elysande, with danger on her heels and evidence of a plot against the English king's life sewn into her clothes. Rory is a healer, so tending Elysande's wounds from her captivity should be easy. But she has to be in quite a state of undress for him to help her...

Well, I'm happy that Rory finally got his romance, considering that one of his brothers was mistaken for him last time! And that's another amazing cover, hello. This book made for very pleasant afternoon reading and some parts of it were quite amusing. Carlisle was an utterly charming place for our characters to start falling in love. I'm still smiling just thinking about it.