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Pax Arcana #1
Charming
John Charming isn't your average Prince...
He comes from a line of Charmings — an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chainmail and crossbows to kevlar and shotguns, he was one of the best. That is — until he became the abomination the Knights were sworn to hunt.
That was a lifetime ago. Now, he tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. One that shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar... Right?
He comes from a line of Charmings — an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chainmail and crossbows to kevlar and shotguns, he was one of the best. That is — until he became the abomination the Knights were sworn to hunt.
That was a lifetime ago. Now, he tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. One that shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar... Right?
366 pages, Paperback
First published September 24, 2013
About the author
Elliott James
21 books728 followersAn army brat and gypsy scholar, ELLIOTT JAMES is currently living in the blueridge mountains of southwest Virginia. An avid reader since the age of three (or that's what his family swears anyhow), he has an abiding interest in mythology, martial arts, live music, hiking, and used bookstores.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 909 reviews
May 17, 2016
● Yet another stellar group read courtesy of the MacHalos. We really rock this DNFing Buddy Reading thing ●
☠ DNF at 33%. Because I've never been a soap opera fan.
Don't worry, my Little Barnacles, for this one is not going to take long. I'm exhausted, pissed off, tired of ready crappy books, and have wasted enough time with this one as it is.
So.
Call me young and naïve, but when I pick an Urban Fantasy book up, I expect to read mostly about Urban Fantasy (weird, I know). NO, I do NOT want to read about Insta Freaking Love (IFL™). NO, I do NOT want to read about Freaking Relationship Drama Worthy of Days of Our Lives (FRDWoDoOL™). NO, I do NOT want to read about a Freaking Love Triangle of Doom and Destruction (FLToDaD™). Especially NOT when all this Freaking Stuff (FS™) happens between twoFreaking Idiots (FI™) fascinating characters who have only known each other for 24 FREAKING HOURS.
Ourdear author could have stopped at this Beautifully Condensed Crappiness (BCC™), but all this FS™ obviously wasn't enough, so Elliott James very graciously decided to bless us with these Delightfully Delectable Add-Ons (DDAO™), too:
☠ Thefabulously captivating male MC is a Freaking Blabbering Bore (FBB™) who tries too hard to be funny and has the lamest sense of humour ever. Yay.
☠ The female MC is super hot, super blonde, super ass-kicking perfection. A good thing I'm a huge Freaking Mary Sue (FMS™) fan. Woohoo.
☠ Thisamazing story features a delicious collection of unpleasant characters with attitude problems. They all know better than everyone else, too. Such an awesomely appealing bunch. It's positively enchanting. Yasss.
☠ A boring plot about boring vampires. Boring fights included. Squeeeeeee.
♥ Yeah, this book is seriously awesome ♥
Then again, I only have my little self to blame here, and should have known this was going to happen. I mean, have you seen that Freaking Cover (FC™)? It looks like nightmarish stuff from the 90s! *shudders* And that ridiculous-title-that-is-also-the-MC's-pathetic-name! *eyeroll* Add that to the fact Elliott James deviously misled me into thinking she was a male UF author, which she isn't, because, you know, she is sort of a SHE…and you get a glorious case of I'm a Total Nitwit I Should Have Seen this Coming from a Few Million Miles Away Self Flagellation shall therefore Be Me (IaTNISHStCfaFMMASFstBM™).
➽ And the moral of this enthralling non-review is: John Charming, you ain't no Danny Faust . John Charming, you ain't no Happy Dresden . John Charming, you ain't even no Iron Druid . John Charming, you sure ain't no worthy of my High Security Harem. Stay away from it. Unless you want me to unleash the crustaceans on you, that is. I'm pretty sure I'd slightly enjoy the delicious blood-shedding that would ensue, but I'm not sure you would.
PS: before writing this captivating non-review, I thought I'd read the book wrong (which rarely ever happens, as you very well know), since 99.999999% of mydear friends seem to love it. But I then came to my senses and remembered that all my dear friends have despicable book taste. So now all is well in the world again {insert Happy Sigh of Relief (HSoR™) here}
☠ DNF at 33%. Because I've never been a soap opera fan.
Don't worry, my Little Barnacles, for this one is not going to take long. I'm exhausted, pissed off, tired of ready crappy books, and have wasted enough time with this one as it is.
So.
Call me young and naïve, but when I pick an Urban Fantasy book up, I expect to read mostly about Urban Fantasy (weird, I know). NO, I do NOT want to read about Insta Freaking Love (IFL™). NO, I do NOT want to read about Freaking Relationship Drama Worthy of Days of Our Lives (FRDWoDoOL™). NO, I do NOT want to read about a Freaking Love Triangle of Doom and Destruction (FLToDaD™). Especially NOT when all this Freaking Stuff (FS™) happens between two
Our
☠ The
☠ The female MC is super hot, super blonde, super ass-kicking perfection. A good thing I'm a huge Freaking Mary Sue (FMS™) fan. Woohoo.
☠ This
☠ A boring plot about boring vampires. Boring fights included. Squeeeeeee.
♥ Yeah, this book is seriously awesome ♥
Then again, I only have my little self to blame here, and should have known this was going to happen. I mean, have you seen that Freaking Cover (FC™)? It looks like nightmarish stuff from the 90s! *shudders* And that ridiculous-title-that-is-also-the-MC's-pathetic-name! *eyeroll* Add that to the fact Elliott James deviously misled me into thinking she was a male UF author, which she isn't, because, you know, she is sort of a SHE…and you get a glorious case of I'm a Total Nitwit I Should Have Seen this Coming from a Few Million Miles Away Self Flagellation shall therefore Be Me (IaTNISHStCfaFMMASFstBM™).
➽ And the moral of this enthralling non-review is: John Charming, you ain't no Danny Faust . John Charming, you ain't no Happy Dresden . John Charming, you ain't even no Iron Druid . John Charming, you sure ain't no worthy of my High Security Harem. Stay away from it. Unless you want me to unleash the crustaceans on you, that is. I'm pretty sure I'd slightly enjoy the delicious blood-shedding that would ensue, but I'm not sure you would.
PS: before writing this captivating non-review, I thought I'd read the book wrong (which rarely ever happens, as you very well know), since 99.999999% of my
March 4, 2020
Kindle Daily Deal on March 4, 2020 for $2.99 Here
I debated on 3.5 or 4 stars....but after a few days I still really liked this book so I'll split the difference call it a 3.75 and just round up to 4. I'll actually just throw in the extra 0.25 because of this one line
Popular young adult novels notwithstanding, vampires only sparkle when they burn.
John Charming hasn't really lived a charmed life so far. There have been no sleeping princess's to wake with a kiss or rescue from a dragon. No quests for a holy grail or kingdoms to rule. No, he is stuck in an order of Knights trying to protect a magical barrier, the Pax Arcana, that makes sure mere mortals don't figure out there are magical beings in the world. What's worse is the afore mentioned Knights seem hell bent on killing him too. But as least there is coffee.
"Coffee is one of the few constants in my life," I explained. "No matter where I go, no matter how crappy a day I'm having, no matter what kind of mood I'm in, coffee is always there to make me feel a little better."
If you are a fan of heroic tales, urban fantasy with a different twist to the vampire, fae, were-wolf lore and like kick ass fight scenes then this will be right up your alley. I will say that the choices for fantasy creatures are a little out of the norm too. I like this isn't just vampires, werewolves and fairies....oh my. No, the author goes out on a limb and included Valkeries and Naga, shades of World of Warcraft spin in my head, add a Murlock to the next book and I'm hooked. There are also different cultures included for fighting styles, weapons (he uses a katana omg cool) and religion as it is used against the bad guys.
My favorite thing though is John, as bad-ass and `Charming' as he is, he's broken and really girls who doesn't like a fixer upper. The side characters are also interesting my favorite besides Sid, our damsel in distress, is Molly. She is Thelma from the Scooby doo gang with some religious mojo.
"...what's with the Christmas music? And the parka? And the Beanie?"
"I'm celebrating Christmas," she told me.
"It's April," I pointed out, just in case this was necessary.
"Vampires scare me," she said reasonably. "And Christmas makes me happy."
The flirtations between John and Sid are fun and funny. I enjoyed most of the dialog between the supporting characters and I enjoyed John's narration of the story. The bad guy is also an interesting shift of sorts as well. This book is a little guilty of infodumping, there is a backstory to the Pax Arcana and it is a little complicated so at times information is just fed to you, but I never minded it.
John's narration reminded me a little of Michael from the show Burn Notice where in the middle of a car chase he explains the best way to get away, or how to really crack a safe, or take a punch and so on. I liked the character teaching me the best way to absorb a punch or what you should do when blinded in a fight.
All and all I enjoyed my time in the world that Elliot James created. I cared about the characters by the end of the book and wanted to see what becomes of them in the future. I also want to see if the Pax Arcana will survive or better yet what happens when it is broken. Elliot James you have my attention and I would like to see what happens next,especially if there are Murlocks. Are there Murlocks?
ARC provided by Orbit Books thru NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
I debated on 3.5 or 4 stars....but after a few days I still really liked this book so I'll split the difference call it a 3.75 and just round up to 4. I'll actually just throw in the extra 0.25 because of this one line
Popular young adult novels notwithstanding, vampires only sparkle when they burn.
John Charming hasn't really lived a charmed life so far. There have been no sleeping princess's to wake with a kiss or rescue from a dragon. No quests for a holy grail or kingdoms to rule. No, he is stuck in an order of Knights trying to protect a magical barrier, the Pax Arcana, that makes sure mere mortals don't figure out there are magical beings in the world. What's worse is the afore mentioned Knights seem hell bent on killing him too. But as least there is coffee.
"Coffee is one of the few constants in my life," I explained. "No matter where I go, no matter how crappy a day I'm having, no matter what kind of mood I'm in, coffee is always there to make me feel a little better."
If you are a fan of heroic tales, urban fantasy with a different twist to the vampire, fae, were-wolf lore and like kick ass fight scenes then this will be right up your alley. I will say that the choices for fantasy creatures are a little out of the norm too. I like this isn't just vampires, werewolves and fairies....oh my. No, the author goes out on a limb and included Valkeries and Naga, shades of World of Warcraft spin in my head, add a Murlock to the next book and I'm hooked. There are also different cultures included for fighting styles, weapons (he uses a katana omg cool) and religion as it is used against the bad guys.
My favorite thing though is John, as bad-ass and `Charming' as he is, he's broken and really girls who doesn't like a fixer upper. The side characters are also interesting my favorite besides Sid, our damsel in distress, is Molly. She is Thelma from the Scooby doo gang with some religious mojo.
"...what's with the Christmas music? And the parka? And the Beanie?"
"I'm celebrating Christmas," she told me.
"It's April," I pointed out, just in case this was necessary.
"Vampires scare me," she said reasonably. "And Christmas makes me happy."
The flirtations between John and Sid are fun and funny. I enjoyed most of the dialog between the supporting characters and I enjoyed John's narration of the story. The bad guy is also an interesting shift of sorts as well. This book is a little guilty of infodumping, there is a backstory to the Pax Arcana and it is a little complicated so at times information is just fed to you, but I never minded it.
John's narration reminded me a little of Michael from the show Burn Notice where in the middle of a car chase he explains the best way to get away, or how to really crack a safe, or take a punch and so on. I liked the character teaching me the best way to absorb a punch or what you should do when blinded in a fight.
All and all I enjoyed my time in the world that Elliot James created. I cared about the characters by the end of the book and wanted to see what becomes of them in the future. I also want to see if the Pax Arcana will survive or better yet what happens when it is broken. Elliot James you have my attention and I would like to see what happens next,especially if there are Murlocks. Are there Murlocks?
ARC provided by Orbit Books thru NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
May 16, 2016
*** 3.70 ***
A buddy read with the MacHalo Freaks group:-)
This was more fun than I expected! I always try to go into a book with no expectations, but having read many a mediocre books in the YA and UF genres, I always prepare for a bit of a disappointment... Thank goodness this was not the case here.
John Charming has trust issues and he has come by them honestly. After having the group of Knights who raised him attempt to kill him, having to constantly run and hide, having lost the woman he loved, and living in fear that one day his "condition" will overtake him and he will loose control and his soul, John keeps himself away from meaningful contact or any relationships. He is alone and cannot seem to get away from the unpleasant side of the supernatural elements coexisting with the mundanes, but hidden under the spell of Pax Arcana, allowing them to exist under our noses, but blocking our brains from perceiving them....
John is bartending the night a blonde, who makes him take several looks, and a vampire come in and he can smell trouble looming over the place... Wanting or not, John gets involved and in the process gets to meet a half Valkyrie, a weird Astro projecting Eastern European psychic, an Episcopalian ex priest, and three other guys, a pacifist Naga, and a cop, with whom they go after a crazed vampire queen in the making and her hive... They are not the good, sexy, only wanting to be understood, sparkling, vegetarian vampires either. They are crazy, evil and merciless and things are looking ugly!!! But never fear, Charming, the far from perfect, dubious character with trust issues will most probably not leave town before doing something to help...
I liked the different perspective on familiar themes of werewolfs, vamps, good and not so good fantastic creatures, and the story was enjoyable and entertaining! I am definitely planning on reading the rest of the series and want to see where the author takes us:-) It is appropriate for maybe over 13 years old, has some violence and sexual innuendo, but nothing graphic...
I wish you all Happy Reading and may you never run out of good books!!!
A buddy read with the MacHalo Freaks group:-)
This was more fun than I expected! I always try to go into a book with no expectations, but having read many a mediocre books in the YA and UF genres, I always prepare for a bit of a disappointment... Thank goodness this was not the case here.
John Charming has trust issues and he has come by them honestly. After having the group of Knights who raised him attempt to kill him, having to constantly run and hide, having lost the woman he loved, and living in fear that one day his "condition" will overtake him and he will loose control and his soul, John keeps himself away from meaningful contact or any relationships. He is alone and cannot seem to get away from the unpleasant side of the supernatural elements coexisting with the mundanes, but hidden under the spell of Pax Arcana, allowing them to exist under our noses, but blocking our brains from perceiving them....
John is bartending the night a blonde, who makes him take several looks, and a vampire come in and he can smell trouble looming over the place... Wanting or not, John gets involved and in the process gets to meet a half Valkyrie, a weird Astro projecting Eastern European psychic, an Episcopalian ex priest, and three other guys, a pacifist Naga, and a cop, with whom they go after a crazed vampire queen in the making and her hive... They are not the good, sexy, only wanting to be understood, sparkling, vegetarian vampires either. They are crazy, evil and merciless and things are looking ugly!!! But never fear, Charming, the far from perfect, dubious character with trust issues will most probably not leave town before doing something to help...
I liked the different perspective on familiar themes of werewolfs, vamps, good and not so good fantastic creatures, and the story was enjoyable and entertaining! I am definitely planning on reading the rest of the series and want to see where the author takes us:-) It is appropriate for maybe over 13 years old, has some violence and sexual innuendo, but nothing graphic...
I wish you all Happy Reading and may you never run out of good books!!!
October 15, 2013
Actual rating: 3.5
John Charming looks like your average bartender...until a statuesque blonde and a vampire walks into his bar. I mean, "pub." We then learn about his Deep, Dark Secret. He is a rare breed, indeed. Half werewolf, half Knight Templar. Half monster, half dedicated to an order dedicated to eradicating such misbehaving monsters from the world. Let's face it, have you ever heard of a well-mannered werewolf when the moon comes around? Nuh uh. It's like a calorie-free chocolate bar. Theoretically perfect, but doesn't exist. Said statuesque blonde is Sig, a Valkyrie, a kick-ass woman in her own rights (with plenty of emotional and physical baggage). John gets reluctantly pulled into her oddball group of hangers-on; together they fight off the big, bad things that go bump in the night.
Well, not really. Just a group of rogue vampires, led by a 17-year old teenaged mastermind who "wears cheap perfume that smells like a peach barfed on a lilac." (As a fan of perfumery, I found that passage particularly amusing.)
Here's The Good, The Somewhat Bad, and The Bad. I honestly cannot title my list The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, because there's really nothing that stands out as being ugly in this book.
The good
The setting and world-building: Modern-day rural United States, with a paranormal twist. The setting is well-described, without being overly wordy, without being too far out of place for a book of this character, with a male narrator who is observant (he's trained to be), but doesn't feel overly effeminate in his scrunity (*cough* Ethan Wates). The paranormal aspect doesn't destroy any boundaries, it is a very traditional one. We have vampires, we have werewolves, we have geists, we have nagas. We have humans with skills beyond that of the ordinary, due to family inheritance, or due to religious beliefs.
What I love are the explanations. We get a clear history of myths, of beliefs, and how they came about. Ordinary myths, like that of vampires fearing mirrors, are given a historical background, and explained; the explanations are clear, succinct, and never feels textbook-y, or out of character with the narrator's voice.
The writing & The narrative:
a) so downtrodden as to make doormats ashamed of sharing their name
b) woefully emo, with a hipster-like pretentiousness that screams Holden Caulfield-wannabe
c) an asshat
I hereby declare John Charming to be one of the 2 (ok, technically, it's 1.75) male narrators in a paranormal whose narrative I actually loved. He is awesome. John is hilariously witty, he is snarky at times, without ever crossing the line into the territory where I wanted to take one of his own wisecracking jokes and shove it up his ass. John, for me, is my male equivalent of Georgina Kincaid, of Succubus Blues fame. Whatever there is wrong about this book, the writing and the spectacular narrative are not among its faults.
Fine, I admit that I'm a little juvenile and a little frat-boy-ish when it comes to humor, but guys, this book was hilarious.
The Somewhat Bad
Main Character Building: I do like the characters, they're wonderfully written, but they could use a little more complexity and development. We are given an explanation into John's character (well, no shit, he's narrating the book in first-person POV), but I never feel like his despair, his existentialist suffering, was real. I laughed with him more than I cried with him. John's debacle and internal conflict between his wolf-self and his templar self, and his struggle with fulfilling his geas (or quest, to put it simply) was well-explained, but it just lacked a certain something that would make me empathize with him. I loved his personality, I like that he is respectful, I like that he admits his feelings, I like that he gives Sig her personal space when he asks for it, I like his determination; John is the perfect gentleman, he truly is a Prince Charming, if this were a fairy tale. But as a human, as a believable character, he leaves much to be desired.
Sig was pretty kick-ass, as one would expect of a Valkyrie. She is beautiful, but she can seriously defend herself. She takes no bullshit. She has her flaws, and I loved her at first, but man...eventually she started grating on my nerves, and I know why.
Despite the fact that Sig is not the main character...she is kind of a Mary Sue. She is too fucking perfect. A buxom, 6 foot tall blonde, descended from Nordic mythology, with serious fighting skills (and an admirable set of tits). She can put away impossible amounts of food without gaining weight. Men fall for her left and right. She's got a sad past...etc. Yes, her flaws are there, her past is mentioned, but the development of her character beyond her perfection is too brief to make an impression.
Her wishy-washyness regarding romance and her unwavering loyalty to someone who is clearly wrong eventually got the better of me. I fell for Sig as much as John did, when we first met her. Unlike John, my good impression of her did not last.
The Side Characters: Cute, but way too kitschy to be believable. We have a large, intimidating black man, with the terrifying name of Choo. We have Molly, small, cute, chubby woman who plays holiday music all the time and dresses like she's in the middle of Winter Wonderland because it makes her happy. We have the paunchy, ill-mannered, wisecracking cop. We have the surly Eastern European dudes who can barely grunt out a few words of English and who prefers to communicate with their fist and their sniper rifles. We have the Slavic boyfriend who is perpetually grumpy and inexplicably rude. We have the Indian Tech Guy.
It gets a little too clichéd at times. I mean, I enjoyed their characters...but I would have appreciated some originality. Really? Why do all the grumpy guys have to be Eastern European. It's just too predictable.
The Bad
...And...here we go. I'll give you 2 guesses.
That's right!
Insta-Love: People, people, these are fucking ADULTS we're talking about. Reasonable adults with extended lifespans (remember, John has been alive for almost a century) SHOULD NOT FALL IN LOVE THIS QUICKLY. And in the middle of a huge mess of an investigation, no less. I'm glad Sig pointed out the ridiculousness of it, but John, get your head together, man!
The Love Triangle: Or rather, the love square. Because it seems like every guy (and a few girls) in this book just adoooooooooores Sig. But geez, there's so much conflict between Sig's suitor and current boyfriend. The two guys act like two little kids fighting over a toy they both want. The macho tension practically oozed from the page. I half expected either of them to pee on Sig's leg to mark their territory at various points during the book.
Overall: recommended, for a fun, fast, lighthearted paranormal fantasy with a great narrator.
There are tens of thousands of people, all around you, maybe hundreds of thousands, who at some point have experienced something that they can’t explain. And these people are silent. They are ashamed. They are afraid. They are convinced that they are the only ones, and so they say nothing. That is the real reason the Pax Arcana is so powerful. Rationality is king, and your emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.This was a fast read, a well-explained but very traditional version of a paranormal world existing besides our own. The characters and their personalities are nothing complex, but the main character is funny and snarky without crossing the line into annoying territory, and his narrative voice made the book a lot of fun. This book doesn't break any mold, but it's still a good one.
John Charming looks like your average bartender...until a statuesque blonde and a vampire walks into his bar. I mean, "pub." We then learn about his Deep, Dark Secret. He is a rare breed, indeed. Half werewolf, half Knight Templar. Half monster, half dedicated to an order dedicated to eradicating such misbehaving monsters from the world. Let's face it, have you ever heard of a well-mannered werewolf when the moon comes around? Nuh uh. It's like a calorie-free chocolate bar. Theoretically perfect, but doesn't exist. Said statuesque blonde is Sig, a Valkyrie, a kick-ass woman in her own rights (with plenty of emotional and physical baggage). John gets reluctantly pulled into her oddball group of hangers-on; together they fight off the big, bad things that go bump in the night.
Well, not really. Just a group of rogue vampires, led by a 17-year old teenaged mastermind who "wears cheap perfume that smells like a peach barfed on a lilac." (As a fan of perfumery, I found that passage particularly amusing.)
Here's The Good, The Somewhat Bad, and The Bad. I honestly cannot title my list The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, because there's really nothing that stands out as being ugly in this book.
The good
The setting and world-building: Modern-day rural United States, with a paranormal twist. The setting is well-described, without being overly wordy, without being too far out of place for a book of this character, with a male narrator who is observant (he's trained to be), but doesn't feel overly effeminate in his scrunity (*cough* Ethan Wates). The paranormal aspect doesn't destroy any boundaries, it is a very traditional one. We have vampires, we have werewolves, we have geists, we have nagas. We have humans with skills beyond that of the ordinary, due to family inheritance, or due to religious beliefs.
What I love are the explanations. We get a clear history of myths, of beliefs, and how they came about. Ordinary myths, like that of vampires fearing mirrors, are given a historical background, and explained; the explanations are clear, succinct, and never feels textbook-y, or out of character with the narrator's voice.
That’s one of the things that sucks about magic: it moves molecules around; and when molecules move, electrons shift; and when electrons shift, the air becomes electromagnetically charged. This is why all of those reality shows about ghost hunters basically amount to a bunch of guys with science degrees getting excited while they talk about energy readings, and you’re just sitting there bored watching a TV screen fill up with fuzz and static before the cameras go off-line.Some things are given a historical explanation, other things have a more scientific-based background, some myths regarding the paranormal are based on a basic human instinct. The paranormal aspects of the story are so well-written, and I truly enjoyed reading about them.
The writing & The narrative:
“I’m involved with somebody else.”This book and the narrator's voice was a joy to read. The writing is, frankly, awesome. The narrator is disctinctly male, but not annoyingly so. I have to admit that I have a problem with male narrators in paranormal fiction. More often than not, they come off as either
Of course she was. All the good Valkyries are taken.
“OK, but you maybe saved my life, and you’ve seen me naked,” I said. “In some countries we just got married. Can I at least know what name you go by?”
a) so downtrodden as to make doormats ashamed of sharing their name
b) woefully emo, with a hipster-like pretentiousness that screams Holden Caulfield-wannabe
c) an asshat
I hereby declare John Charming to be one of the 2 (ok, technically, it's 1.75) male narrators in a paranormal whose narrative I actually loved. He is awesome. John is hilariously witty, he is snarky at times, without ever crossing the line into the territory where I wanted to take one of his own wisecracking jokes and shove it up his ass. John, for me, is my male equivalent of Georgina Kincaid, of Succubus Blues fame. Whatever there is wrong about this book, the writing and the spectacular narrative are not among its faults.
Fine, I admit that I'm a little juvenile and a little frat-boy-ish when it comes to humor, but guys, this book was hilarious.
The woman set Sig’s chocolate orgy out in front of her and deposited my steak on the table.Between John and Sig (buxom blonde Valkyrie)'s sexual-tension-laden banter, the whole book just flew by for me.
“Y’all must work out,” the waitress observed a little sourly. She apparently did not.
“I’m going to throw this up later,” Sig said expressionlessly.
“I have a tapeworm,” I said cheerfully.
The Somewhat Bad
Main Character Building: I do like the characters, they're wonderfully written, but they could use a little more complexity and development. We are given an explanation into John's character (well, no shit, he's narrating the book in first-person POV), but I never feel like his despair, his existentialist suffering, was real. I laughed with him more than I cried with him. John's debacle and internal conflict between his wolf-self and his templar self, and his struggle with fulfilling his geas (or quest, to put it simply) was well-explained, but it just lacked a certain something that would make me empathize with him. I loved his personality, I like that he is respectful, I like that he admits his feelings, I like that he gives Sig her personal space when he asks for it, I like his determination; John is the perfect gentleman, he truly is a Prince Charming, if this were a fairy tale. But as a human, as a believable character, he leaves much to be desired.
Sig was pretty kick-ass, as one would expect of a Valkyrie. She is beautiful, but she can seriously defend herself. She takes no bullshit. She has her flaws, and I loved her at first, but man...eventually she started grating on my nerves, and I know why.
Despite the fact that Sig is not the main character...she is kind of a Mary Sue. She is too fucking perfect. A buxom, 6 foot tall blonde, descended from Nordic mythology, with serious fighting skills (and an admirable set of tits). She can put away impossible amounts of food without gaining weight. Men fall for her left and right. She's got a sad past...etc. Yes, her flaws are there, her past is mentioned, but the development of her character beyond her perfection is too brief to make an impression.
Her wishy-washyness regarding romance and her unwavering loyalty to someone who is clearly wrong eventually got the better of me. I fell for Sig as much as John did, when we first met her. Unlike John, my good impression of her did not last.
The Side Characters: Cute, but way too kitschy to be believable. We have a large, intimidating black man, with the terrifying name of Choo. We have Molly, small, cute, chubby woman who plays holiday music all the time and dresses like she's in the middle of Winter Wonderland because it makes her happy. We have the paunchy, ill-mannered, wisecracking cop. We have the surly Eastern European dudes who can barely grunt out a few words of English and who prefers to communicate with their fist and their sniper rifles. We have the Slavic boyfriend who is perpetually grumpy and inexplicably rude. We have the Indian Tech Guy.
It gets a little too clichéd at times. I mean, I enjoyed their characters...but I would have appreciated some originality. Really? Why do all the grumpy guys have to be Eastern European. It's just too predictable.
The Bad
...And...here we go. I'll give you 2 guesses.
That's right!
Insta-Love: People, people, these are fucking ADULTS we're talking about. Reasonable adults with extended lifespans (remember, John has been alive for almost a century) SHOULD NOT FALL IN LOVE THIS QUICKLY. And in the middle of a huge mess of an investigation, no less. I'm glad Sig pointed out the ridiculousness of it, but John, get your head together, man!
The Love Triangle: Or rather, the love square. Because it seems like every guy (and a few girls) in this book just adoooooooooores Sig. But geez, there's so much conflict between Sig's suitor and current boyfriend. The two guys act like two little kids fighting over a toy they both want. The macho tension practically oozed from the page. I half expected either of them to pee on Sig's leg to mark their territory at various points during the book.
Overall: recommended, for a fun, fast, lighthearted paranormal fantasy with a great narrator.
June 10, 2016
Question to author: What made you decide to become an author?
The same things that make anyone want to become an author, really. A combination of crippling loneliness, habitual lying, greed, and delusions of grandeur.
Okay, I kind of love her now.
But, seriously, I thought this author was a guy because she wrote a great first person narrative from a male's POV. And, I really liked John Charming. He was funny, self-deprecating, sarcastic, and intelligent.
He's also a half-werewolf, but doesn't shift.
"So you don't change form," she mused. "I guess that makes you some kind of neuter."
"That's not what your mom said," I replied.
Oh no he didn't!! I love a good "yo momma" joke! I've been known to spout off a few myself, and I love it when I can walk in on my kids' friends when they are telling one because it's about me!! I love being the center of attention! (not really. I'm a hermit. It's more like I love catching that look on their little teenage faces when I ask them what they are saying about me. Ha!)
And then I laugh and laugh!!
So, John Charming is a halfwolf who used to be a knight that protects the world from figuring out that the magical does exist. He's not a knight anymore, because they are racists against werewolves, and instead they are trying to kill him. I swear, you lift your leg on one magical sword and suddenly you're "not cool"! Picky, picky!
He peed on the sword because he heard their plans...
John meets up with a valkyrie named Sig while having a run-in with a vampire. Sig has compiled a band of misfits who are hunting vampires and she wants him to join them. Being that Sig is kind of a knock-out, John agrees. Men! They are willing to do a lot of crap to get a girl! As soon as he gets her he probably won't be willing to cut off a bunch of vampire heads anymore. And, then she'll be all, "Why don't you ever kill anything for me anymore like you did when we were dating?" as he lays in front of the television scratching his ass...
Can I have one freaking minute of alone time? Sheesh!
Anyway, this book was a lot of fun. There was tons of mythology from various cultures mentioned and enough action to keep it lively. Also, enough bloodshed to keep us blood-thirsty readers happy. Gotta have my fix of bloody fights and murders or I get cranky.
Yay! It's family fun night!
The same things that make anyone want to become an author, really. A combination of crippling loneliness, habitual lying, greed, and delusions of grandeur.
Okay, I kind of love her now.
But, seriously, I thought this author was a guy because she wrote a great first person narrative from a male's POV. And, I really liked John Charming. He was funny, self-deprecating, sarcastic, and intelligent.
He's also a half-werewolf, but doesn't shift.
"So you don't change form," she mused. "I guess that makes you some kind of neuter."
"That's not what your mom said," I replied.
Oh no he didn't!! I love a good "yo momma" joke! I've been known to spout off a few myself, and I love it when I can walk in on my kids' friends when they are telling one because it's about me!! I love being the center of attention! (not really. I'm a hermit. It's more like I love catching that look on their little teenage faces when I ask them what they are saying about me. Ha!)
And then I laugh and laugh!!
So, John Charming is a halfwolf who used to be a knight that protects the world from figuring out that the magical does exist. He's not a knight anymore, because they are racists against werewolves, and instead they are trying to kill him. I swear, you lift your leg on one magical sword and suddenly you're "not cool"! Picky, picky!
He peed on the sword because he heard their plans...
John meets up with a valkyrie named Sig while having a run-in with a vampire. Sig has compiled a band of misfits who are hunting vampires and she wants him to join them. Being that Sig is kind of a knock-out, John agrees. Men! They are willing to do a lot of crap to get a girl! As soon as he gets her he probably won't be willing to cut off a bunch of vampire heads anymore. And, then she'll be all, "Why don't you ever kill anything for me anymore like you did when we were dating?" as he lays in front of the television scratching his ass...
Can I have one freaking minute of alone time? Sheesh!
Anyway, this book was a lot of fun. There was tons of mythology from various cultures mentioned and enough action to keep it lively. Also, enough bloodshed to keep us blood-thirsty readers happy. Gotta have my fix of bloody fights and murders or I get cranky.
Yay! It's family fun night!
December 9, 2014
3.5 stars
I've been in the mood for fun books lately, and this one certainly fit the bill.
But.
I feel the need to address this awful cover.
Now maybe you can't see it very well, so I've taken the liberty of blowing it up for you just a bit. Although, I have to say, even blowing it up to that size doesn't do it justice. The picture below actually looks much cooler than the book I'm staring at right now.
For one thing, when you're holding the book, it looks like the dude's eyes are crossed. I even went so far as to try and look up alternate editions online, to try and get the bad taste out of my mouth, but this is apparently the Cover of Choice.
*shudder*
Whyyyyyyy?!
I had the paperback version, so that visual was what greeted me every time I started to read. And, at first, I thought that maybe it was published 20 years ago or something...but, no!
2013!
It's like some straight guy who still listens to a lot of Bon Jovi on the weekend designed this.
Because in his mind, this is an attractive and/or badass look that would lure in the female readers. Ugh.
P.S. Jon said he wanted his jacket back when you're done, Charming.
Well, whoever you are...Great Job!
Alright, fine. I'm a cover whore, and I'll admit I've spent too much time ranting about this one. But in my defense, the cover so ugly it made me slightly crazy(er).
And here's where the saying Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover comes into play.
The actual story wasn't anything incredibly new, but I loved the tone of the book. It's a fast-paced urban fantasy with an extremely likable lead character, and the dialogue had me smiling for the entire book.
And John Charming's inner monologue was surprisingly funny! Now I always hate it when reviewers rave about how funny a book was, and then when I read it, I feel totally betrayed.
As in:
How the fuck could someone think drunk chicks giggling over a dildo like 12 year old girls is all that funny?
Well, we all have different ideas about what makes something humorous, right? So in an effort to help others avoid making a mistake, I'll add in the first paragraph of the prelude below. Then you can decide for yourself if it makes you giggle.
There's a reason that we refer to being in love as being enchanted. Think back to the worst relationship you've ever been in: the one where your family and friends tried to warn you that the person you were with was cheating on you, or partying a little too much, or a control freak, or secretly gay, or whatever. Remember how you were convinced that no one but you could see the real person beneath that endearingly flawed surface? And then later, after the relationship reached that scorched-earth-policy stage where letters were being burned and photos were being cropped, did you find yourself looking back and being amazed at how obvious the truth had been all along? Did it feel as if you were waking up from some kind of spell?
Now, see, that paragraph made me do this:
But maybe you felt more like this:
Well, now the decision is in your hands!
My only recommendation is to either get the digital version, or perhaps tape brown paper over the cover of the book.
Bonus points if you have an especially crafty grandmother who like to crochet!
I've been in the mood for fun books lately, and this one certainly fit the bill.
But.
I feel the need to address this awful cover.
Now maybe you can't see it very well, so I've taken the liberty of blowing it up for you just a bit. Although, I have to say, even blowing it up to that size doesn't do it justice. The picture below actually looks much cooler than the book I'm staring at right now.
For one thing, when you're holding the book, it looks like the dude's eyes are crossed. I even went so far as to try and look up alternate editions online, to try and get the bad taste out of my mouth, but this is apparently the Cover of Choice.
*shudder*
Whyyyyyyy?!
I had the paperback version, so that visual was what greeted me every time I started to read. And, at first, I thought that maybe it was published 20 years ago or something...but, no!
2013!
It's like some straight guy who still listens to a lot of Bon Jovi on the weekend designed this.
Because in his mind, this is an attractive and/or badass look that would lure in the female readers. Ugh.
P.S. Jon said he wanted his jacket back when you're done, Charming.
Well, whoever you are...Great Job!
Alright, fine. I'm a cover whore, and I'll admit I've spent too much time ranting about this one. But in my defense, the cover so ugly it made me slightly crazy(er).
And here's where the saying Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover comes into play.
The actual story wasn't anything incredibly new, but I loved the tone of the book. It's a fast-paced urban fantasy with an extremely likable lead character, and the dialogue had me smiling for the entire book.
And John Charming's inner monologue was surprisingly funny! Now I always hate it when reviewers rave about how funny a book was, and then when I read it, I feel totally betrayed.
As in:
How the fuck could someone think drunk chicks giggling over a dildo like 12 year old girls is all that funny?
Well, we all have different ideas about what makes something humorous, right? So in an effort to help others avoid making a mistake, I'll add in the first paragraph of the prelude below. Then you can decide for yourself if it makes you giggle.
There's a reason that we refer to being in love as being enchanted. Think back to the worst relationship you've ever been in: the one where your family and friends tried to warn you that the person you were with was cheating on you, or partying a little too much, or a control freak, or secretly gay, or whatever. Remember how you were convinced that no one but you could see the real person beneath that endearingly flawed surface? And then later, after the relationship reached that scorched-earth-policy stage where letters were being burned and photos were being cropped, did you find yourself looking back and being amazed at how obvious the truth had been all along? Did it feel as if you were waking up from some kind of spell?
Now, see, that paragraph made me do this:
But maybe you felt more like this:
Well, now the decision is in your hands!
My only recommendation is to either get the digital version, or perhaps tape brown paper over the cover of the book.
Bonus points if you have an especially crafty grandmother who like to crochet!
September 25, 2013
3.5 stars Don't let the cover fool you. This is not a girly romance book. This is fun Urban Fantasy all the way! Guys, you can come out of hiding!
Anyway...*cue dramatic sigh* We've probably all been where I'm at right now. I've managed to avoid it for a while, but I finally hit the dreaded reading-slash-reviewing slump. I'm going to chalk it up to summer coming to an end and me realizing that there's still a bunch of summer-type things I want to do which don't involve reading and reviewing. Here's my half-assed review.
Charming was a lot of fun. I'll be wanting to check out book 2 when it's available.
Actually, my complaints are fairly minimal. Charming probably had enough moments to make it more of a 4 star book than a 3 star book, but something held me back from rounding up. Come to think of it, the amount of world and character information really didn't bother me as much as it did my buddy reading partner. I'm guessing that this might have something to do with me being a huge fan of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series, so I'm sort of used to this style of writing.
I could EASILY throw out a good twenty or so quotes from the book because the wit is fabulous. And there's a good chance I could sell you on the book just from the wit alone. The chapter headers were silly in a fun way, ranging from gems like Blood, Bath & Beyond to Which One of You Ordered the Stake? And the banter was just the way I like it (One second you're sounding metrosexual talking about coffee preparation, the next you look like you're going to rip my heart out and eat it).
So here's a quick rundown. Charming was :
Cram-packed with sarcastic humor.
Filled to the brim with crazy antics.
Absolutely full of offbeat lore.
Overflowing with unique characters.
Who would I recommend this to?
Fans of Kevin Hearne (the writing style is VERY similar).
People who are tired of flowery writing.
Anyone who likes to roll with the punches.
Who would I not recommend this to?
People who need instant gratification when it comes to any sort of romance.
Fin.
Anyway...*cue dramatic sigh* We've probably all been where I'm at right now. I've managed to avoid it for a while, but I finally hit the dreaded reading-slash-reviewing slump. I'm going to chalk it up to summer coming to an end and me realizing that there's still a bunch of summer-type things I want to do which don't involve reading and reviewing. Here's my half-assed review.
Charming was a lot of fun. I'll be wanting to check out book 2 when it's available.
Actually, my complaints are fairly minimal. Charming probably had enough moments to make it more of a 4 star book than a 3 star book, but something held me back from rounding up. Come to think of it, the amount of world and character information really didn't bother me as much as it did my buddy reading partner. I'm guessing that this might have something to do with me being a huge fan of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series, so I'm sort of used to this style of writing.
I could EASILY throw out a good twenty or so quotes from the book because the wit is fabulous. And there's a good chance I could sell you on the book just from the wit alone. The chapter headers were silly in a fun way, ranging from gems like Blood, Bath & Beyond to Which One of You Ordered the Stake? And the banter was just the way I like it (One second you're sounding metrosexual talking about coffee preparation, the next you look like you're going to rip my heart out and eat it).
So here's a quick rundown. Charming was :
Cram-packed with sarcastic humor.
Filled to the brim with crazy antics.
Absolutely full of offbeat lore.
Overflowing with unique characters.
Who would I recommend this to?
Fans of Kevin Hearne (the writing style is VERY similar).
People who are tired of flowery writing.
Anyone who likes to roll with the punches.
Who would I not recommend this to?
People who need instant gratification when it comes to any sort of romance.
Fin.
October 3, 2016
Wow, I haven't been this surprised by a book in ages!
First, I have to admit that this is a 4.5 star book, not a 5 star one, but hell, more people need to read it and the rating has to grow!
I'll start with the not-5-star thing. The female character wasn't so great (or well, she was eclipsed by the guy).
Oh, but the guy! Have you ever found that perfect balance between sarcasm and intelligence that you absolutely love? Well, that's what I found here. I absolutely loved this guy! Not only was he a badass (he isn't the first nor the last one I'll read about), but he was damn smart too!
I haven't heard of Elliott James before and I admit that I should have. His writing is great, this book was so captivating! And let's leave that aside, but his characters are wow! I can't even imagine how much work this book was, it had so much information (not only on all kinds of combat techniques but on historical events as well (I googled some of them, the guy wasn't making it up)).
What made me give this book 5 stars, despite the not-so-good female character, was the plot twist at the end. I DID NOT EXPECT THAT! And that is hard for me to admit (I pride myself on figuring out the twists in a story). So all in all, this book is definitely worth trying out. If for nothing else at least for the mythology and the world builder.
Wow, just wow. Hats off to you, Mr. Elliott James for a job incredibly well done.
First, I have to admit that this is a 4.5 star book, not a 5 star one, but hell, more people need to read it and the rating has to grow!
I'll start with the not-5-star thing. The female character wasn't so great (or well, she was eclipsed by the guy).
Oh, but the guy! Have you ever found that perfect balance between sarcasm and intelligence that you absolutely love? Well, that's what I found here. I absolutely loved this guy! Not only was he a badass (he isn't the first nor the last one I'll read about), but he was damn smart too!
I haven't heard of Elliott James before and I admit that I should have. His writing is great, this book was so captivating! And let's leave that aside, but his characters are wow! I can't even imagine how much work this book was, it had so much information (not only on all kinds of combat techniques but on historical events as well (I googled some of them, the guy wasn't making it up)).
What made me give this book 5 stars, despite the not-so-good female character, was the plot twist at the end. I DID NOT EXPECT THAT! And that is hard for me to admit (I pride myself on figuring out the twists in a story). So all in all, this book is definitely worth trying out. If for nothing else at least for the mythology and the world builder.
Wow, just wow. Hats off to you, Mr. Elliott James for a job incredibly well done.
May 9, 2016
I really, really, REALLY enjoyed this.
John is a fun and witty dude. The world that he lives in is a little bit whack, but the story is told in such a way that the world building felt organic and natural and never like an info-dumping slap in the face.
The characters in this are excellent. Sig is awesome. I also really like Molly. And the banter in their little crew of misfits was wonderful.
The start of the book was a little slow, but it really picked up steam as it went along and I could barely put it down. I enjoyed learning about this world and the action sequences were particularly good. The running joke about John always being naked or taking off his clothes was obviously another favorite part of mine.
The love story, if it can be called that, wasn't too in your face and it flowed naturally on the pages. My only real complaint was that the motivations of the main villain seemed very.... hollow? I would have preferred there to be a real, violent and horrible reason that was doing everything. Oh! And that sword he's holding on the cover, is nothing like the sword he uses in the book. He uses a Katana, not a bloody hunting sword.
I really enjoyed the way John struggled with his supernatural side. The mating rituals and things that he found himself doing without even realizing it were quite entertaining.
I have already put the next book on hold at the library and will be continuing as soon as I can get it in my hands.
This is the first UF I have enjoyed in a long time and I'm a very happy Jessica right now.
4 I-want-to-eat-John's-sausage Stars
Thanks for the buddy read action you awesome MacHalo weirdos!
John is a fun and witty dude. The world that he lives in is a little bit whack, but the story is told in such a way that the world building felt organic and natural and never like an info-dumping slap in the face.
The characters in this are excellent. Sig is awesome. I also really like Molly. And the banter in their little crew of misfits was wonderful.
The start of the book was a little slow, but it really picked up steam as it went along and I could barely put it down. I enjoyed learning about this world and the action sequences were particularly good. The running joke about John always being naked or taking off his clothes was obviously another favorite part of mine.
The love story, if it can be called that, wasn't too in your face and it flowed naturally on the pages. My only real complaint was that the motivations of the main villain seemed very.... hollow? I would have preferred there to be a real, violent and horrible reason that was doing everything. Oh! And that sword he's holding on the cover, is nothing like the sword he uses in the book. He uses a Katana, not a bloody hunting sword.
I really enjoyed the way John struggled with his supernatural side. The mating rituals and things that he found himself doing without even realizing it were quite entertaining.
I have already put the next book on hold at the library and will be continuing as soon as I can get it in my hands.
This is the first UF I have enjoyed in a long time and I'm a very happy Jessica right now.
4 I-want-to-eat-John's-sausage Stars
Thanks for the buddy read action you awesome MacHalo weirdos!
December 1, 2016
I have had this book on my to-read list for a couple of years now. I'm not sure why I never started it, except that I'm always a little worried about starting new Urban Fantasy books because I've been disappointed so many times. But I've been on a bit of a shelf-cleaning-binge lately, trying to get through some of the stuff that I keep wanting to read and kept putting off for whatever reason and this was top of the list of series that I wanted to dive into. Then I read the seven prequel short-stories and was intrigued.
As a quick aside - the unresolved thing left hanging in Talking Dirty....not resolved here either. Although, apparently, it was resolved as some time or another, because there's no reference to it here either. And, also, I'd love to read a short-story prequel about the events that happened in Alaska that are mentioned in this book....
I'm not one of those readers that inserts themselves into the main character, living the story through them, like I know some readers do (and there's not anything wrong with that, it's just not how I read). I've always been the reader that experiences the book like it's a movie, or something that I'm experiencing over the shoulders of the main character. Sometimes the characters feel like friends and people I almost know, but I never feel like I am the character. Which is why I'm not sure why, in general, Urban Fantasy books with male main characters don't tend to work as well for me. Don't shoot me, but I'm not a fan of Harry Dresden.
This might actually be the reason why, despite how much I wanted to dive into this series and love it, I delayed. Because I didn't want to be disappointed by it when I didn't love the main character.
But I love John Charming. He's the perfect blend of broken, cocky, smart, and sarcastic that I love. He's got a history -and issues, loads of issues, particularly a big furry one - and he's eminently capable. He tends to brood, a bit, which I admit I kind of dig in my characters. And he's got an over-developed sense of responsibility, which I always love because what's in his best interest isn't always what he's going to do - and it's not just the geas that's making that choice for him.
But it's not really a surprise that a male author can write a believable, realistic male character. What really sold me on the characters was Sig, and to a lesser degree, Molly. I admit I have a weakness for the particular supernatural being that Sig is and I'm pre-disposed to like them, but that's not why I enjoyed Sig so much. She's a heroine that I can get behind. She's smart, a leader, strong as all hell, doesn't need to be rescued, and blunt. She has her code and values, and they're important to her. But that doesn't mean she can't change and recognize that sometimes sticking to something just for the sake of it isn't always the best plan. I'm really looking forward to seeing her character growth in the next book(s).
I've always kind of been a sucker for the 'team' device in a story. I love Ocean's Eleven, and Leverage, and Six of Crows, and Avengers, for example. And when you get together a team of disparate personalities there's plenty of opportunity for conflict without it seeming terribly contrived. And I look forward to that in the future as well. Though, I have to say, it's the one aspect of this book that I didn't love. There was one part that was terribly cliche. Because of course Sig is in a relationship and there's this intense attraction between her an John. And of course the guy Sig is with is a tool and (eventually revealed to be) a bad guy. And then, of course it can't end in any way except the way it does. *sigh* Honestly, I would have been happy if it had went any way but the expected. I suspected what was going to happen with that particular thread the moment that it was revealed, and I'm a little disappointed that it went down the way it did. I would have liked a bit more surprise and maybe a twist to the traditional resolution. But now that it is resolved, it doesn't bother me, either. Because at least that is resolved. I would have hated it even more if it had dragged on forever and ever.
It's really a minor complaint, in an otherwise brilliant read. The world is what I'm most interested and looking forward to exploring more. It's one of those worlds that lives just on the edge of our real world. The one that could almost, actually, really, exist. Maybe it does in an alternate universe. Maybe it does right now. Maybe the Pax Arcana is a real thing....And that's what I love. Just enough realism and possibility to make it work for me. Who knows, after all, what's real and what's fantasy.
This was a nearly perfect book for me. It had a ton of kick-ass action, lots of dry humor with a healthy dose of sarcasm, characters with an astonishing amount of depth and diversity, a world that feels both real and fantastic, and a plot that grabbed my attention. This is the kind of book and series that I've been waiting for - and here it was waiting for me to just pick it up off of my shelf.
Review also available at The Book Eaters
30 June 2015: $1.99 on Kindle
25 December 2014: $2.99 on Kindle
17 August 2014: $1.99 on Kindle
As a quick aside - the unresolved thing left hanging in Talking Dirty....not resolved here either. Although, apparently, it was resolved as some time or another, because there's no reference to it here either. And, also, I'd love to read a short-story prequel about the events that happened in Alaska that are mentioned in this book....
I'm not one of those readers that inserts themselves into the main character, living the story through them, like I know some readers do (and there's not anything wrong with that, it's just not how I read). I've always been the reader that experiences the book like it's a movie, or something that I'm experiencing over the shoulders of the main character. Sometimes the characters feel like friends and people I almost know, but I never feel like I am the character. Which is why I'm not sure why, in general, Urban Fantasy books with male main characters don't tend to work as well for me. Don't shoot me, but I'm not a fan of Harry Dresden.
This might actually be the reason why, despite how much I wanted to dive into this series and love it, I delayed. Because I didn't want to be disappointed by it when I didn't love the main character.
But I love John Charming. He's the perfect blend of broken, cocky, smart, and sarcastic that I love. He's got a history -and issues, loads of issues, particularly a big furry one - and he's eminently capable. He tends to brood, a bit, which I admit I kind of dig in my characters. And he's got an over-developed sense of responsibility, which I always love because what's in his best interest isn't always what he's going to do - and it's not just the geas that's making that choice for him.
But it's not really a surprise that a male author can write a believable, realistic male character. What really sold me on the characters was Sig, and to a lesser degree, Molly. I admit I have a weakness for the particular supernatural being that Sig is and I'm pre-disposed to like them, but that's not why I enjoyed Sig so much. She's a heroine that I can get behind. She's smart, a leader, strong as all hell, doesn't need to be rescued, and blunt. She has her code and values, and they're important to her. But that doesn't mean she can't change and recognize that sometimes sticking to something just for the sake of it isn't always the best plan. I'm really looking forward to seeing her character growth in the next book(s).
I've always kind of been a sucker for the 'team' device in a story. I love Ocean's Eleven, and Leverage, and Six of Crows, and Avengers, for example. And when you get together a team of disparate personalities there's plenty of opportunity for conflict without it seeming terribly contrived. And I look forward to that in the future as well. Though, I have to say, it's the one aspect of this book that I didn't love. There was one part that was terribly cliche. Because of course Sig is in a relationship and there's this intense attraction between her an John. And of course the guy Sig is with is a tool and (eventually revealed to be) a bad guy. And then, of course it can't end in any way except the way it does. *sigh* Honestly, I would have been happy if it had went any way but the expected. I suspected what was going to happen with that particular thread the moment that it was revealed, and I'm a little disappointed that it went down the way it did. I would have liked a bit more surprise and maybe a twist to the traditional resolution. But now that it is resolved, it doesn't bother me, either. Because at least that is resolved. I would have hated it even more if it had dragged on forever and ever.
It's really a minor complaint, in an otherwise brilliant read. The world is what I'm most interested and looking forward to exploring more. It's one of those worlds that lives just on the edge of our real world. The one that could almost, actually, really, exist. Maybe it does in an alternate universe. Maybe it does right now. Maybe the Pax Arcana is a real thing....And that's what I love. Just enough realism and possibility to make it work for me. Who knows, after all, what's real and what's fantasy.
This was a nearly perfect book for me. It had a ton of kick-ass action, lots of dry humor with a healthy dose of sarcasm, characters with an astonishing amount of depth and diversity, a world that feels both real and fantastic, and a plot that grabbed my attention. This is the kind of book and series that I've been waiting for - and here it was waiting for me to just pick it up off of my shelf.
Review also available at The Book Eaters
30 June 2015: $1.99 on Kindle
25 December 2014: $2.99 on Kindle
17 August 2014: $1.99 on Kindle
August 18, 2014
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
I loved Elliott James’ PAX ARCANA universe, his first person POV writing style, and John, the male protagonist, but I had some major issues with the love triangle, info dumps, and the fact that the female lead was a Valkyrie. However, the former appears to have been resolved, and even though I have reached my limit on books that feature this type of lore, the Norse mythology was light enough to be tolerable. And, because of this, I will not hesitate to one-click DARING in September. CHARMING was made for audio, as soon as I heard Roger Wayne’s voice I knew that this series was meant for my ears and not my eyes.
A number of reviewers mentioned that having the narrator speak directly to the reader was a little weird; I on the other hand did not have this problem thanks to the audiobook. From the prelude onward I felt like I was part of the story, and I really enjoyed that aspect of James’ style. The world-building was rich albeit a little too much at times, and I especially liked the idea behind the PAX ARCANA. Many authors struggle with whether supes are ‘out’ or not, so I loved the idea behind a world-wide spell. The Knights Templar oath also added an interesting twist on what John can and cannot do, plus he’s learned how to brew the perfect cup of coffee—a man after my own heart!
I’m not sure why the love triangle surprised me, but I honestly just didn’t expect one from a male Urban Fantasy author which is probably why it annoyed me way more than it should have. Dvornik and Charming are two bad ass characters, so the fact that they are fighting over Sig like a couple of school boys struck me as ridiculous. And, at times I found that the vampire hunt became secondary to the romantic drama which caused me to lose interest in the story. But, the wonderful secondary characters helped to reel me back in, and John’s wit & snark reminded me of Atticus O’Sullivan (Kevin Hearne), another protagonist whom I adore.
Roger Wayne was an instant hit with this listener; I loved everything about his delivery and tone, and how I felt like he was talking to ME because of the first person POV. His narration flowed well, and I liked all of his character voices. I sometimes had difficulty telling when an explanation wasn’t part of John’s storytelling, but otherwise this audiobook was a near perfect listen. I finally have another male narrator to add to my favourites list—I’m now at two in case you’re wondering.
CHARMING brought a lot to the table with great writing, lovable characters, and the geeky humour that I love. It wasn’t perfect, but Elliott James hasn’t really even gotten to the best part yet… the werewolves!
I loved Elliott James’ PAX ARCANA universe, his first person POV writing style, and John, the male protagonist, but I had some major issues with the love triangle, info dumps, and the fact that the female lead was a Valkyrie. However, the former appears to have been resolved, and even though I have reached my limit on books that feature this type of lore, the Norse mythology was light enough to be tolerable. And, because of this, I will not hesitate to one-click DARING in September. CHARMING was made for audio, as soon as I heard Roger Wayne’s voice I knew that this series was meant for my ears and not my eyes.
A number of reviewers mentioned that having the narrator speak directly to the reader was a little weird; I on the other hand did not have this problem thanks to the audiobook. From the prelude onward I felt like I was part of the story, and I really enjoyed that aspect of James’ style. The world-building was rich albeit a little too much at times, and I especially liked the idea behind the PAX ARCANA. Many authors struggle with whether supes are ‘out’ or not, so I loved the idea behind a world-wide spell. The Knights Templar oath also added an interesting twist on what John can and cannot do, plus he’s learned how to brew the perfect cup of coffee—a man after my own heart!
I’m not sure why the love triangle surprised me, but I honestly just didn’t expect one from a male Urban Fantasy author which is probably why it annoyed me way more than it should have. Dvornik and Charming are two bad ass characters, so the fact that they are fighting over Sig like a couple of school boys struck me as ridiculous. And, at times I found that the vampire hunt became secondary to the romantic drama which caused me to lose interest in the story. But, the wonderful secondary characters helped to reel me back in, and John’s wit & snark reminded me of Atticus O’Sullivan (Kevin Hearne), another protagonist whom I adore.
Roger Wayne was an instant hit with this listener; I loved everything about his delivery and tone, and how I felt like he was talking to ME because of the first person POV. His narration flowed well, and I liked all of his character voices. I sometimes had difficulty telling when an explanation wasn’t part of John’s storytelling, but otherwise this audiobook was a near perfect listen. I finally have another male narrator to add to my favourites list—I’m now at two in case you’re wondering.
CHARMING brought a lot to the table with great writing, lovable characters, and the geeky humour that I love. It wasn’t perfect, but Elliott James hasn’t really even gotten to the best part yet… the werewolves!
November 8, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. It has shades of Jim Butcher in terms of tone and having a cast of disparate, alternately-talented characters who end up having to work together towards a common goal.
John Charming has been on the run from his former trainers for decades, ever since he started manifesting symptoms of being infected with lycanthropy. That has made things complicated and he's become used to running first and asking questions later (if at all). Then he runs into Sig and her band of cheerful (okay, desperate and a little freaked-out) warriors and finds himself re-evaluating his current life patterns as he helps them deal with a particularly nasty vampire nest growing in their town.
I enjoyed the world-building in this book, along with the individual characters. Things held together remarkably well in a way that made sense without being too hand-wavy. Organizations and institutions worked and had enough justification and background to be interesting (though mostly off-stage at the point of this novel).
And I enjoyed the humor, even if some of it was kicking the low-hanging fruit a bit. The chapter titles were particularly pun-ish, but I like that kind of thing. Yeah, I know. Feel free to judge me...
But mostly, I enjoyed the characters. Molly, Chauncey, even the soviet bloc contingent all had their own motivations and reasons for being where they were and for working together. And I liked that Sig was the glue that held them together when John was the viewpoint character. So many of these novels would have relegated her to a more sidekick role as John has more experience, training, and, frankly, survivability in the battles they face. Plus, he's the hero, right? But it was Sig's team and she really is the glue that holds them together and I like how that played out during the course of the novel--particularly how her trusting nature (and sometimes outright naivety) informed both their strength and their weakness.
In the end, I found the book a delight and look forward to the next. I want to see how John reconciles the various factors complicating his life--and see if he can begin building lasting relationships that are based on more than convenience, shared danger, or hormones.
John Charming has been on the run from his former trainers for decades, ever since he started manifesting symptoms of being infected with lycanthropy. That has made things complicated and he's become used to running first and asking questions later (if at all). Then he runs into Sig and her band of cheerful (okay, desperate and a little freaked-out) warriors and finds himself re-evaluating his current life patterns as he helps them deal with a particularly nasty vampire nest growing in their town.
I enjoyed the world-building in this book, along with the individual characters. Things held together remarkably well in a way that made sense without being too hand-wavy. Organizations and institutions worked and had enough justification and background to be interesting (though mostly off-stage at the point of this novel).
And I enjoyed the humor, even if some of it was kicking the low-hanging fruit a bit. The chapter titles were particularly pun-ish, but I like that kind of thing. Yeah, I know. Feel free to judge me...
But mostly, I enjoyed the characters. Molly, Chauncey, even the soviet bloc contingent all had their own motivations and reasons for being where they were and for working together. And I liked that Sig was the glue that held them together when John was the viewpoint character. So many of these novels would have relegated her to a more sidekick role as John has more experience, training, and, frankly, survivability in the battles they face. Plus, he's the hero, right? But it was Sig's team and she really is the glue that holds them together and I like how that played out during the course of the novel--particularly how her trusting nature (and sometimes outright naivety) informed both their strength and their weakness.
In the end, I found the book a delight and look forward to the next. I want to see how John reconciles the various factors complicating his life--and see if he can begin building lasting relationships that are based on more than convenience, shared danger, or hormones.
June 18, 2013
I liked this book more than I thought I was going too. Especially when I could see that the author was pushing the main character into a relationship with a woman that was already seeing somebody.
I am guessing the reasons that this didn’t bother me too much is the fact that the man she was seeing was a complete douche canoe. Oh, and not in just everyday standards, he is a manipulative evil bastard.
The other reason that it didn’t bother me too much was the fact that the main character was up front and honest to both parties of his attraction, and that he wasn’t going to act on them until he got his own shit straightened out. So the background romance was interesting and not the angsty moon eyed crap that is in a lot of books since Twilight.
I really enjoyed John’s blunt honesty through the story, how he didn’t hold back his thoughts to spare others feeling. He explained why he was the way he was, why he didn’t the things he does with hardly any apologies for them. This is not to say that he didn’t apologize for his fuck ups, he is very up front with these as well.
I didn’t like how quick John trusted Sig and her Scoobies, especially when two of them proved themselves to be untrustworthy. For somebody that has been protecting himself for so long, with as many enemies that he has this didn’t make much sense.
So I am curious about book two in this series, I want see where the author goes with the story.
On a complete random none I also want to say that each character was not unlike a character from Scooby Doo? I wonder if this was intentional or just tropes in play. We had Sig/Daphne the hawt girl that everybody wants, Molly/Velma the nerdy girl in glasses, Choo/Shaggy the stoner, John/Fred/Scooby the hawt alpha male with canine abilities.
I am guessing the reasons that this didn’t bother me too much is the fact that the man she was seeing was a complete douche canoe. Oh, and not in just everyday standards, he is a manipulative evil bastard.
The other reason that it didn’t bother me too much was the fact that the main character was up front and honest to both parties of his attraction, and that he wasn’t going to act on them until he got his own shit straightened out. So the background romance was interesting and not the angsty moon eyed crap that is in a lot of books since Twilight.
I really enjoyed John’s blunt honesty through the story, how he didn’t hold back his thoughts to spare others feeling. He explained why he was the way he was, why he didn’t the things he does with hardly any apologies for them. This is not to say that he didn’t apologize for his fuck ups, he is very up front with these as well.
I didn’t like how quick John trusted Sig and her Scoobies, especially when two of them proved themselves to be untrustworthy. For somebody that has been protecting himself for so long, with as many enemies that he has this didn’t make much sense.
So I am curious about book two in this series, I want see where the author goes with the story.
On a complete random none I also want to say that each character was not unlike a character from Scooby Doo? I wonder if this was intentional or just tropes in play. We had Sig/Daphne the hawt girl that everybody wants, Molly/Velma the nerdy girl in glasses, Choo/Shaggy the stoner, John/Fred/Scooby the hawt alpha male with canine abilities.
December 24, 2014
Originally posted at paperbackwonderland
Arc provided by netgalley
I tried!! I really did!!
But i just can't force myself to continue reading this!! And i really wanted to like this! Because the premise sounded really good...unfortunately it didn't live up to the expectations.
I'll start with what i liked:
_The concept of the story, the idea of a "Charmings" bloodline, whose main occupation would be fighting monsters...
_Basically the first paragraph...it was funny. It was witty...and it was completely deceiving... because i thought i was going to love this!!
_The cover... O_O
What i disliked:
_ Info dump....this book takes that concept to the extreme. I know that this is the first book of the series, and that the author is trying to provide us will ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION ...but really, please FOCUS ON THE STORY!
_Once again "info dump", this time right in the middle of ACTION SCENES...c'mon!! So the guy's running for his life, while at the same time he's giving us some "classes"...about something!!
_John Charming who supposedly would be this kick ass Knight...OLD kick ass Knight, just sound too YOUNG, and naive...he doesn't steal the spotlight from the other characters, you know?
Hes just another one...
_Cheesy Lines, that when not told by a gangly thirteen year old, just sound stupid...
_The female character's name: Yeah, i hated it! It made her sound a piece of furniture...she doesn't have to be named after a gun, to be tough!!!
What a pity. Because this could be so much more...
[image error]
"
Arc provided by netgalley
I tried!! I really did!!
But i just can't force myself to continue reading this!! And i really wanted to like this! Because the premise sounded really good...unfortunately it didn't live up to the expectations.
I'll start with what i liked:
_The concept of the story, the idea of a "Charmings" bloodline, whose main occupation would be fighting monsters...
_Basically the first paragraph...it was funny. It was witty...and it was completely deceiving... because i thought i was going to love this!!
_The cover... O_O
What i disliked:
_ Info dump....this book takes that concept to the extreme. I know that this is the first book of the series, and that the author is trying to provide us will ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION ...but really, please FOCUS ON THE STORY!
_Once again "info dump", this time right in the middle of ACTION SCENES...c'mon!! So the guy's running for his life, while at the same time he's giving us some "classes"...about something!!
_John Charming who supposedly would be this kick ass Knight...OLD kick ass Knight, just sound too YOUNG, and naive...he doesn't steal the spotlight from the other characters, you know?
Hes just another one...
_Cheesy Lines, that when not told by a gangly thirteen year old, just sound stupid...
_The female character's name: Yeah, i hated it! It made her sound a piece of furniture...she doesn't have to be named after a gun, to be tough!!!
What a pity. Because this could be so much more...
[image error]
"
September 3, 2013
3.5 STARS
This one's a bit of a tough call for me to rate.
I haven't read a lot of fantasy books written by male authors because it feels a bit intimidating to me (the potential for nerdspeak is too great and I don't know how much my plebeian mind can handle). But after reading 14 barely a month ago, I think I'm starting to sense a common thread, one I'm eager to put to the test in the next male-penned fantasy read (no not you GRRMartin, you go back and finish your series first).
Charming is told from the POV of its protagonist, John Charming and if that doesn't perk your interest at first glance, maybe the premise will.
In the world imagined by Elliott James, we are protected from the supernatural plane by the Pax Arcana, think an impenetrable wall that separates us from the paranormal: magic, monsters and mayhem. The integrity of the Pax is looked after by the Knights Templar who are not only bound by a spell (gaea) to hunt and eliminate any supernatural being that poses a threat to its function, but also trains men to further their cause.
I'm a bit fuzzy on how these men are chosen but one of these men is John Charming, from the long illustrious line of Charmings of lore.
Yeah those may or may not be his (not so) great grand-daddies (I'm marginally sure not Simba though). With less crazy eyes and none of the glass slippers, kiss of life BS but more on the dragon slaying, monsters hunting and witch killing tradition. But in a cruel twist of fate, John becomes one such monster making him the hunted by his brethren, leading him to live the life of a fugitive, working as a bartender in a pub in nowheresville, keeping his head down.
Until a six-foot blonde woman and a vampire walks in his life… which also meant an exterminator, a detective, an Episcopalian priestess and a couple of vampire hunters walk in to his life.
What I loved about this book is that John was a snarky little smartass that made the story, more often than not, readable and genuinely entertaining. I could easily throw him in the douchebag pile but for some reason I don't think he belongs with Daemon, Dante, Dex and Drew, not because his name is John but mostly because he didn't come across as arrogant to me . He was just a wiseass with a good enough backstory to make the reader care for him. He's also a brilliant narrator, most of the time, cleverly phrasing his accounts and recollections when he doesn't venture into Dane Cook territory of funny (which is NOT).
I really enjoyed reading his banter with all of the characters but I liked his dialogues with Sig best. Whether they are giving each other shit, teaming up to give someone else crap or Sig just handling John was loads of fun. As a heroine she was a bit of a slow grower on me because I thought her strengths could very well be her weakness in that she had no vulnerability whatsoever. But her own backstory was pretty solid despite my difficulty of imagining a six-foot tall blonde woman who doesn't look likeTaydolf Swiftler Taylor Swift. (mostly because I've been imguring again)
The story was well-paced, everything happened in a span of weeks and there's a good number of action sequences that ended this side of gory that made me quite happy. I also appreciate that there's enough emotional backstory for each of the characters to merit some sympathy.
My problem lay with the infodump . I don't mind the attempt to integrate a wide variety of mythologies in the story and I found the wikipedializing interesting in certain stretches with setting certain traditional beliefs straight or giving the proper backstory to the supernatural lore. What I did mind was how these were weaved in the story in such a way that it interrupted the flow of the narrative and thus messed with the flow of my joy and understanding of what the hell is going on.
So you get an intense scene where John's trying to keep himself alive form getting killed in a gnarly way...oh,but wait! He has to explain the merits of the creature's history, abilities and how to kill it before he actually kills it. My interest waxed and waned so many times particularly on the first half of this book that at one point I've already decided on a 2-star rating just out of sheer annoyance. And no, that little thing at the end where doesn't make it all okay.
The other thing that bothered me was the nerdy-cool overkill . I understand that due to the nature of the story, with John being trained to be a buffet assassin for all kinds of paranormal creatures, his skill-set has to be varied. But I can also imagine how his character was put together:
He's a motherchucking badass, we get it, trying too hard kind of negates the message.
This was actually counterproductive to how the plot progressed towards the end because the fight versus the vampires felt grossly skewed in Team Charming's favor that I sniffed out the plot twist a good few chapters before it happened.
I can see those who enjoy their urban fantasy/PNR reads with a healthy dash of humor AND a healthier interest on world mythology enjoying this, so definitely recommended if you fall on both categories.
But proceed with caution AND extreme patience if you're like me who can't skim pages even if your life depended on it (it's a curse I have to live with).
ARC provided by Orbit Books thru NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
"I stopped believing in 'happily ever after' a long time ago, Anna Marie," I said. "You don't know what I'm capable of."
This one's a bit of a tough call for me to rate.
I haven't read a lot of fantasy books written by male authors because it feels a bit intimidating to me (the potential for nerdspeak is too great and I don't know how much my plebeian mind can handle). But after reading 14 barely a month ago, I think I'm starting to sense a common thread, one I'm eager to put to the test in the next male-penned fantasy read (no not you GRRMartin, you go back and finish your series first).
Charming is told from the POV of its protagonist, John Charming and if that doesn't perk your interest at first glance, maybe the premise will.
In the world imagined by Elliott James, we are protected from the supernatural plane by the Pax Arcana, think an impenetrable wall that separates us from the paranormal: magic, monsters and mayhem. The integrity of the Pax is looked after by the Knights Templar who are not only bound by a spell (gaea) to hunt and eliminate any supernatural being that poses a threat to its function, but also trains men to further their cause.
I'm a bit fuzzy on how these men are chosen but one of these men is John Charming, from the long illustrious line of Charmings of lore.
Yeah those may or may not be his (not so) great grand-daddies (I'm marginally sure not Simba though). With less crazy eyes and none of the glass slippers, kiss of life BS but more on the dragon slaying, monsters hunting and witch killing tradition. But in a cruel twist of fate, John becomes one such monster making him the hunted by his brethren, leading him to live the life of a fugitive, working as a bartender in a pub in nowheresville, keeping his head down.
Until a six-foot blonde woman and a vampire walks in his life… which also meant an exterminator, a detective, an Episcopalian priestess and a couple of vampire hunters walk in to his life.
What I loved about this book is that John was a snarky little smartass that made the story, more often than not, readable and genuinely entertaining. I could easily throw him in the douchebag pile but for some reason I don't think he belongs with Daemon, Dante, Dex and Drew, not because his name is John but mostly because he didn't come across as arrogant to me . He was just a wiseass with a good enough backstory to make the reader care for him. He's also a brilliant narrator, most of the time, cleverly phrasing his accounts and recollections when he doesn't venture into Dane Cook territory of funny (which is NOT).
I really enjoyed reading his banter with all of the characters but I liked his dialogues with Sig best. Whether they are giving each other shit, teaming up to give someone else crap or Sig just handling John was loads of fun. As a heroine she was a bit of a slow grower on me because I thought her strengths could very well be her weakness in that she had no vulnerability whatsoever. But her own backstory was pretty solid despite my difficulty of imagining a six-foot tall blonde woman who doesn't look like
"I've wanted you ever since I saw you in that stupid bar."
"I wanted you from the start too," I assured her.
"Yes but I'm good at judging people." Her tone was arch. "You just thought I had nice boobs."
"Well in my own defense…"
The story was well-paced, everything happened in a span of weeks and there's a good number of action sequences that ended this side of gory that made me quite happy. I also appreciate that there's enough emotional backstory for each of the characters to merit some sympathy.
My problem lay with the infodump . I don't mind the attempt to integrate a wide variety of mythologies in the story and I found the wikipedializing interesting in certain stretches with setting certain traditional beliefs straight or giving the proper backstory to the supernatural lore. What I did mind was how these were weaved in the story in such a way that it interrupted the flow of the narrative and thus messed with the flow of my joy and understanding of what the hell is going on.
So you get an intense scene where John's trying to keep himself alive form getting killed in a gnarly way...oh,but wait! He has to explain the merits of the creature's history, abilities and how to kill it before he actually kills it. My interest waxed and waned so many times particularly on the first half of this book that at one point I've already decided on a 2-star rating just out of sheer annoyance. And no, that little thing at the end where doesn't make it all okay.
The other thing that bothered me was the nerdy-cool overkill . I understand that due to the nature of the story, with John being trained to be a buffet assassin for all kinds of paranormal creatures, his skill-set has to be varied. But I can also imagine how his character was put together:
✓ So he's the descendant of those Prince Charmings…
✓ Oh and he's .
✓ And he has to wield a katana! (cool!)
✓ And a wakizashi!! (double cool!)
✓ And know all these kenjutsu techniques and hand to hand combat shiz!!! (super double cool!)
✓ And how to make things go splodin with guns and grocery stuff!!! (I have gone blind from the coolness that froze my retinas!!!)
✓ And he has to know how to Australian rappel (huh?)
He's a motherchucking badass, we get it, trying too hard kind of negates the message.
This was actually counterproductive to how the plot progressed towards the end because the fight versus the vampires felt grossly skewed in Team Charming's favor that I sniffed out the plot twist a good few chapters before it happened.
I can see those who enjoy their urban fantasy/PNR reads with a healthy dash of humor AND a healthier interest on world mythology enjoying this, so definitely recommended if you fall on both categories.
But proceed with caution AND extreme patience if you're like me who can't skim pages even if your life depended on it (it's a curse I have to live with).
ARC provided by Orbit Books thru NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
March 11, 2018
3.5 stars. A tiny buddy read with some MacHalos.
While I did find the world-building and overall story interesting - I missed having more characters I liked. I liked Charming for the whole book, but only warmed to one or two more characters at most.
Overall it was a decent listen!
While I did find the world-building and overall story interesting - I missed having more characters I liked. I liked Charming for the whole book, but only warmed to one or two more characters at most.
Overall it was a decent listen!
August 5, 2014
DNF. Gave up on p83 when I realized I'd slipped into hate-reading. Life is too short and I have too many books to read for that.
Way, way too much exposition, like info-dumps within info-dumps within fight scenes. Transphobia and other sexism, both casual and "ironic" -- not aided by the fact that John and Sig meet each other while Sig is chasing a serial rapist (why is it always rape? can't you find another plot device?). Using world religions as a major part of worldbuilding while demonstrating ignorance of those religions. Below are the parts that bugged me the most -- but there are a lot of other pieces that bugged, and I stopped before the halfway point.
So much packed into two sentences. The derogatory term "transvestite" to indicate that anyone who can't pass as a cis woman or any woman who looks too masculine is unworthy of (positive) notice. And it doesn't really get better from there.
Ok. So. I'll just comment about the Buddhist aspect since that's what I'm most familiar with, but... a Tibetan religious symbol is probably Buddhist, not all Buddhists worship deities of any type (it's very culturally dependent), and several paths of Buddhism involve pantheons. The Tibetan Buddhist pantheon alone is massive. Also, in terms of symbols, I'm just trying to imagine the hero whipping up a quick sand mandala to stave off the undead. It does make me laugh, but in a slightly mocking way.
I get that the author is trying to go for an inclusive approach to his worldbuilding, but that only works if you know what you're talking about. And he so doesn't. Or if he does, he's not using it. Bringing in Valkyries and talking about how they collect the souls of those killed in battle to bring to the halls of the slain, but only mentioning Valhalla and not Sessrumnir? That makes me want to cry at the lost potential.
Way, way too much exposition, like info-dumps within info-dumps within fight scenes. Transphobia and other sexism, both casual and "ironic" -- not aided by the fact that John and Sig meet each other while Sig is chasing a serial rapist (why is it always rape? can't you find another plot device?). Using world religions as a major part of worldbuilding while demonstrating ignorance of those religions. Below are the parts that bugged me the most -- but there are a lot of other pieces that bugged, and I stopped before the halfway point.
"Rigby's does attract an odd combination of local rednecks and students with a sense of irony. So when a striking six foot blonde who wasn't an obvious transvestite sat down in the middle of the bar, there were people around to notice."
So much packed into two sentences. The derogatory term "transvestite" to indicate that anyone who can't pass as a cis woman or any woman who looks too masculine is unworthy of (positive) notice. And it doesn't really get better from there.
"I have personally seen Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and Tibetan symbols work on undead creatures... I can use just about any holy symbol and make it work as long as the religion doesn't worship pantheons...
Ok. So. I'll just comment about the Buddhist aspect since that's what I'm most familiar with, but... a Tibetan religious symbol is probably Buddhist, not all Buddhists worship deities of any type (it's very culturally dependent), and several paths of Buddhism involve pantheons. The Tibetan Buddhist pantheon alone is massive. Also, in terms of symbols, I'm just trying to imagine the hero whipping up a quick sand mandala to stave off the undead. It does make me laugh, but in a slightly mocking way.
I get that the author is trying to go for an inclusive approach to his worldbuilding, but that only works if you know what you're talking about. And he so doesn't. Or if he does, he's not using it. Bringing in Valkyries and talking about how they collect the souls of those killed in battle to bring to the halls of the slain, but only mentioning Valhalla and not Sessrumnir? That makes me want to cry at the lost potential.
July 11, 2013
My thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an e-ARC of Charming in exchange for an honest review. My first impression of this book -- and keep in mind this was before I knew anything at all about it -- was that it was going to be an urban fantasy targeted more towards female readers. I suppose it was the reference to "Prince Charming" that did it. And the cover image featured a tall dark and handsome young man wielding a shiny silver sword emerging from a background of predominantly light pastel teals and purples, the title rendered in pretty loopy scrollwork classical font.
Turns out, I was a little off-base. In actuality, found that Charming read more like an urban fantasy novel in the same vein as those in series starring male protagonists like The Dresden Files or the The Iron Druid Chronicles. More recently, I read Jim C. Hine's Libriomancer which also came to mind when I read this. And what do all the leading men in these series have in common? They all have these kick-ass supernatural powers, possess a sense of humor that falls slightly on the geek-side, are all great at battling vampires and other forces of darkness that threaten the human populace, and always come to fights armed with plenty of witty pop culture references.
Which is just a rambling, roundabout way of me trying to point out that readers who enjoy the genre should also feel right at home with this book and its main character John Charming. Trained by the modern day version of the Knights Templar, John comes from a long line of monster hunters and was one of their best fighters. But a werewolf attack on his mother right before he was born had resulted in John becoming a new type of strange hybrid, and the day he manifested his symptoms was the day his own people turned on him, labeling him an abomination that must be destroyed.
Now John is on the run, hiding in rural Virginia with a new identity. He's rented a home near the woods and has taken up a bartending job in a college town, hoping to stay under the radar. Everything's copacetic, until two mysterious newcomers show up one night at the pub where John works, threatening the peaceful and quiet undercover life he has worked so long and so hard to maintain.
Like I said, if you love urban fantasy and especially the series I mentioned above, there's a really good chance you'll like this too. I think that's one of the reasons I took so quickly to Charming and its characters, because reading it was like returning to a place that feels comfortable and familiar. The problem with this, however, is that it can always act as a double-edged sword. While on a certain level a lot of the urban fantasy series I read may share a lot of similar traits and elements, my favorites are always those that stand out amidst the rest somehow, very often setting themselves apart through a unique idea or memorable features, say, like an alternate history or an interesting magic system.
As such, one issue I have with Charming is that I don't feel like it adds much to the genre. Many of the ideas I read here felt like the retreading old ground or that I've seen them elsewhere before. Somewhat related to this is also the sheer amount of info-dumping I noticed spread all throughout the novel. I usually give first-in-a-series books like this a pass on this since world-building from scratch is a tough but necessary evil, but I've seen other authors pull this off much more subtly. Of course, this also just might be an indication of me having read too damn much UF; I'm sure someone just diving into the genre reading this book through fresh eyes might have a totally different experience and opinion on this than me.
Anyway, every hero needs a team, and John Charming's no different. As expected, we have the supporting cast here including a couple of your instantly recognizable archetypes ("the hot leader chick that everybody has a crush on", "the genius techie guy with all the cool gadgets", "the smarter-than-he-looks cop", etc.) but on the whole I liked the diversity of characters. The ones that stood out for me are Parth the naga scientist that brings with him a refreshing take on South Asian mythology, and Dvornik the jealous boyfriend who despite his hideous personality has a pretty interesting dynamic with Sig, the aforementioned hot girl. I have to say this made the resulting Sig-Dvornik-John love triangle pretty interesting to read about, and this is coming from someone not usually keen on romantic drama bogging down my action in UF.
Character-wise, I think my one disappointment was actually with John himself, and more specifically, it was his "Prince Charming" background and angle of the book that I wish had been more overt or explored further. After all, Prince Charming is a prominent but often underdeveloped figure in many classic and beloved fairy tales, and he rarely gets top billing like this. The blurb for this book and some of the other publicity materials for it appear to play up this point, which is why I was surprised there was not more of a link between John Charming (and his ancestors) and the Prince Charming of legend and fable. It it weren't for the family name, there wouldn't have been much of a connection.
All in all, a fun read. I had some mild issues with the main character and wished that the plot, lore and world were a bit more inventive and unique, but on the whole I enjoyed this and would be interested in reading more of the series.
Turns out, I was a little off-base. In actuality, found that Charming read more like an urban fantasy novel in the same vein as those in series starring male protagonists like The Dresden Files or the The Iron Druid Chronicles. More recently, I read Jim C. Hine's Libriomancer which also came to mind when I read this. And what do all the leading men in these series have in common? They all have these kick-ass supernatural powers, possess a sense of humor that falls slightly on the geek-side, are all great at battling vampires and other forces of darkness that threaten the human populace, and always come to fights armed with plenty of witty pop culture references.
Which is just a rambling, roundabout way of me trying to point out that readers who enjoy the genre should also feel right at home with this book and its main character John Charming. Trained by the modern day version of the Knights Templar, John comes from a long line of monster hunters and was one of their best fighters. But a werewolf attack on his mother right before he was born had resulted in John becoming a new type of strange hybrid, and the day he manifested his symptoms was the day his own people turned on him, labeling him an abomination that must be destroyed.
Now John is on the run, hiding in rural Virginia with a new identity. He's rented a home near the woods and has taken up a bartending job in a college town, hoping to stay under the radar. Everything's copacetic, until two mysterious newcomers show up one night at the pub where John works, threatening the peaceful and quiet undercover life he has worked so long and so hard to maintain.
Like I said, if you love urban fantasy and especially the series I mentioned above, there's a really good chance you'll like this too. I think that's one of the reasons I took so quickly to Charming and its characters, because reading it was like returning to a place that feels comfortable and familiar. The problem with this, however, is that it can always act as a double-edged sword. While on a certain level a lot of the urban fantasy series I read may share a lot of similar traits and elements, my favorites are always those that stand out amidst the rest somehow, very often setting themselves apart through a unique idea or memorable features, say, like an alternate history or an interesting magic system.
As such, one issue I have with Charming is that I don't feel like it adds much to the genre. Many of the ideas I read here felt like the retreading old ground or that I've seen them elsewhere before. Somewhat related to this is also the sheer amount of info-dumping I noticed spread all throughout the novel. I usually give first-in-a-series books like this a pass on this since world-building from scratch is a tough but necessary evil, but I've seen other authors pull this off much more subtly. Of course, this also just might be an indication of me having read too damn much UF; I'm sure someone just diving into the genre reading this book through fresh eyes might have a totally different experience and opinion on this than me.
Anyway, every hero needs a team, and John Charming's no different. As expected, we have the supporting cast here including a couple of your instantly recognizable archetypes ("the hot leader chick that everybody has a crush on", "the genius techie guy with all the cool gadgets", "the smarter-than-he-looks cop", etc.) but on the whole I liked the diversity of characters. The ones that stood out for me are Parth the naga scientist that brings with him a refreshing take on South Asian mythology, and Dvornik the jealous boyfriend who despite his hideous personality has a pretty interesting dynamic with Sig, the aforementioned hot girl. I have to say this made the resulting Sig-Dvornik-John love triangle pretty interesting to read about, and this is coming from someone not usually keen on romantic drama bogging down my action in UF.
Character-wise, I think my one disappointment was actually with John himself, and more specifically, it was his "Prince Charming" background and angle of the book that I wish had been more overt or explored further. After all, Prince Charming is a prominent but often underdeveloped figure in many classic and beloved fairy tales, and he rarely gets top billing like this. The blurb for this book and some of the other publicity materials for it appear to play up this point, which is why I was surprised there was not more of a link between John Charming (and his ancestors) and the Prince Charming of legend and fable. It it weren't for the family name, there wouldn't have been much of a connection.
All in all, a fun read. I had some mild issues with the main character and wished that the plot, lore and world were a bit more inventive and unique, but on the whole I enjoyed this and would be interested in reading more of the series.
April 25, 2016
I started reading this as a buddy read here on GR with my friend M. Unfortunately, I think I lost her somewhere along the way. But not to worry, I ended up reading a book that I otherwise might not have read and M, you're still an awesome friend because this book was your suggestion for our buddy read.
I haven't read much in terms of paranormal books since the great Twilight fiasco. As in the books were gifted to me by my children and I read them. That pretty much cured me of any interest I may have had in regard to vampires or werewolves and I've never been a fan of zombies (thankfully none were created in the making of this story). What this story did have that I really appreciated were some good old Knights Templar, now you have to understand these guys are special at my house because...well I married one. So I love stories that utilize this particular organization and their history.
John Charming, yes that's right our hero's name is John Charming and at times it's definitely a bit of a misnomer, is a Knights Templar unfortunately he's also considered to be an abomination in the eyes of this same group that trained him and taught him how to be one of their best monster hunters ever. So there you have it the beginning of the very basic foundation of this story. Knights Templars are modern day hunters of monsters, things that go bump in the night if you will, and our hero has been cast out of this group for being what they consider to be an abomination.
Charming is the story of how and why and what happens to John Charming as he makes his way in the world of humans after being rejected by the Templars.
The thing that sets this story apart from so many others for me was the way the author merged the world of the paranormal with the world of the normal or as I said to my personal Knights Templar, the fact that the story explained the unbelievable using the believable. Yes at times details were stretched but if you're going to make me believe in all those things that go bump in the night a little stretching of the imagination is going to be needed on both sides of the story. However, Mr. James made it so easy and possible for my imagination to create his story to buy in to how his world could possibly exist and I really enjoyed it.
I hadn't really planned on reading this series beyond this book but I really enjoyed the world building and the character development that occurred in this first book and I'm sure that my natural curiosity won't let me stop at this point.
If you're a fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files like I am, you might want to check this one out. I could easily imagine Harry Dresden and John Charming existing in the same world as a matter of fact I think a book with these two men fighting evil side by side would be pretty epic and probably incredibly entertaining.
I haven't read much in terms of paranormal books since the great Twilight fiasco. As in the books were gifted to me by my children and I read them. That pretty much cured me of any interest I may have had in regard to vampires or werewolves and I've never been a fan of zombies (thankfully none were created in the making of this story). What this story did have that I really appreciated were some good old Knights Templar, now you have to understand these guys are special at my house because...well I married one. So I love stories that utilize this particular organization and their history.
John Charming, yes that's right our hero's name is John Charming and at times it's definitely a bit of a misnomer, is a Knights Templar unfortunately he's also considered to be an abomination in the eyes of this same group that trained him and taught him how to be one of their best monster hunters ever. So there you have it the beginning of the very basic foundation of this story. Knights Templars are modern day hunters of monsters, things that go bump in the night if you will, and our hero has been cast out of this group for being what they consider to be an abomination.
Charming is the story of how and why and what happens to John Charming as he makes his way in the world of humans after being rejected by the Templars.
The thing that sets this story apart from so many others for me was the way the author merged the world of the paranormal with the world of the normal or as I said to my personal Knights Templar, the fact that the story explained the unbelievable using the believable. Yes at times details were stretched but if you're going to make me believe in all those things that go bump in the night a little stretching of the imagination is going to be needed on both sides of the story. However, Mr. James made it so easy and possible for my imagination to create his story to buy in to how his world could possibly exist and I really enjoyed it.
I hadn't really planned on reading this series beyond this book but I really enjoyed the world building and the character development that occurred in this first book and I'm sure that my natural curiosity won't let me stop at this point.
If you're a fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files like I am, you might want to check this one out. I could easily imagine Harry Dresden and John Charming existing in the same world as a matter of fact I think a book with these two men fighting evil side by side would be pretty epic and probably incredibly entertaining.
March 27, 2019
Dear Mr. Elliott & my pretties,
Holy Crap this book was awesome. Is there going to be a Robot with a Docking option? Just the creature features will keep me coming back for more of this authors work. John Charming was hilarious and very witty. I liked the fast-paced plot.
10-15-2017 was the second time I read this, and I will probably read it a few more times just for $hit$ and giggles.
That's all for now.
Ta-ta,
shizuku
Holy Crap this book was awesome. Is there going to be a Robot with a Docking option? Just the creature features will keep me coming back for more of this authors work. John Charming was hilarious and very witty. I liked the fast-paced plot.
10-15-2017 was the second time I read this, and I will probably read it a few more times just for $hit$ and giggles.
That's all for now.
Ta-ta,
shizuku
June 8, 2013
I almost rated the book a 2-stars had the positives not outweighed the negatives.
+ the world building
Info-dumping thrived like weeds, and my patience neared bottom level after a couple chapters. Yet, because the info-dumping was relevant and interesting and didn’t interfere with the action scenes, it didn’t become as big an issue for me as it could have easily been. Astoundingly, the plot kept to a brisk pace.
I really liked how the book didn’t stick to a particular Western mythology for its world building, that it went beyond to include Eastern elements. The deft mixing of diverse elements in its world building, from a naga to being one of the characters to the villains using Vietnamese guerrilla warfare à la Viet Cong, reminded me of the great world building in the Kate Daniel series, one of my favorite Urban Fantasies.
+ the characters
I also liked how diverse the characters were, considering the fact that they were sketched from cliches. For example, Parth was the token geek character. What made him beyond a cliche was the fact that he was a naga, one of the most dangerous paranormal creatures, and thus powerful in his own right. I always hate it when geek characters are made stereotypically weak. Molly was the token priest character suffering a crisis of faith. What made her beyond a cliche was how she was a woman Christian priest who despite the crisis her faith remained strong and an effective weapon against vampires as she tried to work through her issues by kicking paranormal evils’ ass. I loved how she pretty much defied the stereotype of an intolerant, chauvinistic, kill-all-the-nonhumans-(and humans sympathizing with nonhumans) priest.
Molly’s character compensated for the fact that among the villains were the knights who were these fanatic bigots who hate and wish to kill all paranormals no matter the cost, the “who gives a shit if a great number of innocent humans die in the process, it’s for the greater good, let God sort them out” kind of cost. Though the sides were black and white, which usually tugs on my suspension of disbelief, the development of the bad guys made them believable. In other words, it took no effort for me to believe in the bad guys.
One thing that did tug my suspension of disbelief and tugged hard was the character development of the hero, John Charming. Because of his very tragic, frequently detailed past, the guy was supposed to have major trust issues and major aversion to forming social ties. Yet the way he acted throughout the story was completely to the contrary. He didn’t leave town the moment other paranormals were aware of him, he didn’t leave town the moment Sig and her friends found out about his true identity because practically everyone who found out tried to kill him. He fell for Sig despite the last time that he was in love the romance ended on a tragic note with his fiancé dead. He made friends with some of Sig’s comrades despite the multitude of past betrayals he suffered and how anyone that ever got close to him lived an unexpectedly short life, and the list goes on.
Fortunately, what saved the character for me was his foresight, his strong abilities and success in battles, the fact that he thought things through and thought cleverly, and most importantly, the fact that he confronted his issues head on. I really liked how he openly communicated his thoughts and feelings, especially when they were in regard to Sig, his love interest. I was amused by how some of Sig’s comrades recognized their coupling was inevitable and not-so-subtly matchmade the two, never mind the obstacle that was her ex-boyfriend (It’s Complicated) who wanted her back. The fourth wall was pierced to send a message: lookee here, strong male lead *points to John*, strong female lead *points to Sig*, now get together and kiss *shove the two heads face-to-face*. The self-deprecating romance mixed in well with the save-the-town-from-evil-vampires plot and was far from being angsty as I feared.
The evil vampires were admirably cunning. I loved that vampire queen wanna-be was so cunning, using modern day technology to recruit and avoid detection and putting in the infrastructure for an empire, that the good guys had to think quick and well and do a lot of planning to take down the mad girl. I was delighted that both the villains and heroes were competent, especially with the heroes and their planning because it is rare in Urban Fantasy that heroes plan things out. Irritatingly, way more often than not, Urban Fantasy heroes react to shit as it hits the fan and have to run a good long distance before they catch up with the villains.
In regard to the villains, the thing that anchored the book into “like” territory was its theme of “Monsters versus Humans, oh wait, turns out the Humans are Monsters too,” that it was not what the characters were that mattered but the fact that the evils they did were evils of human provenance. I love it when books dissect the idea of what it means to be human and point out the fact that human and good can be mutually exclusive aspects.
In Conclusion
I rate Charming 3-stars for I liked it. I had issues with the world building and the hero but they had enough good things to win me over.
+ the world building
Info-dumping thrived like weeds, and my patience neared bottom level after a couple chapters. Yet, because the info-dumping was relevant and interesting and didn’t interfere with the action scenes, it didn’t become as big an issue for me as it could have easily been. Astoundingly, the plot kept to a brisk pace.
I really liked how the book didn’t stick to a particular Western mythology for its world building, that it went beyond to include Eastern elements. The deft mixing of diverse elements in its world building, from a naga to being one of the characters to the villains using Vietnamese guerrilla warfare à la Viet Cong, reminded me of the great world building in the Kate Daniel series, one of my favorite Urban Fantasies.
+ the characters
I also liked how diverse the characters were, considering the fact that they were sketched from cliches. For example, Parth was the token geek character. What made him beyond a cliche was the fact that he was a naga, one of the most dangerous paranormal creatures, and thus powerful in his own right. I always hate it when geek characters are made stereotypically weak. Molly was the token priest character suffering a crisis of faith. What made her beyond a cliche was how she was a woman Christian priest who despite the crisis her faith remained strong and an effective weapon against vampires as she tried to work through her issues by kicking paranormal evils’ ass. I loved how she pretty much defied the stereotype of an intolerant, chauvinistic, kill-all-the-nonhumans-(and humans sympathizing with nonhumans) priest.
Molly’s character compensated for the fact that among the villains were the knights who were these fanatic bigots who hate and wish to kill all paranormals no matter the cost, the “who gives a shit if a great number of innocent humans die in the process, it’s for the greater good, let God sort them out” kind of cost. Though the sides were black and white, which usually tugs on my suspension of disbelief, the development of the bad guys made them believable. In other words, it took no effort for me to believe in the bad guys.
One thing that did tug my suspension of disbelief and tugged hard was the character development of the hero, John Charming. Because of his very tragic, frequently detailed past, the guy was supposed to have major trust issues and major aversion to forming social ties. Yet the way he acted throughout the story was completely to the contrary. He didn’t leave town the moment other paranormals were aware of him, he didn’t leave town the moment Sig and her friends found out about his true identity because practically everyone who found out tried to kill him. He fell for Sig despite the last time that he was in love the romance ended on a tragic note with his fiancé dead. He made friends with some of Sig’s comrades despite the multitude of past betrayals he suffered and how anyone that ever got close to him lived an unexpectedly short life, and the list goes on.
Fortunately, what saved the character for me was his foresight, his strong abilities and success in battles, the fact that he thought things through and thought cleverly, and most importantly, the fact that he confronted his issues head on. I really liked how he openly communicated his thoughts and feelings, especially when they were in regard to Sig, his love interest. I was amused by how some of Sig’s comrades recognized their coupling was inevitable and not-so-subtly matchmade the two, never mind the obstacle that was her ex-boyfriend (It’s Complicated) who wanted her back. The fourth wall was pierced to send a message: lookee here, strong male lead *points to John*, strong female lead *points to Sig*, now get together and kiss *shove the two heads face-to-face*. The self-deprecating romance mixed in well with the save-the-town-from-evil-vampires plot and was far from being angsty as I feared.
The evil vampires were admirably cunning. I loved that vampire queen wanna-be was so cunning, using modern day technology to recruit and avoid detection and putting in the infrastructure for an empire, that the good guys had to think quick and well and do a lot of planning to take down the mad girl. I was delighted that both the villains and heroes were competent, especially with the heroes and their planning because it is rare in Urban Fantasy that heroes plan things out. Irritatingly, way more often than not, Urban Fantasy heroes react to shit as it hits the fan and have to run a good long distance before they catch up with the villains.
In regard to the villains, the thing that anchored the book into “like” territory was its theme of “Monsters versus Humans, oh wait, turns out the Humans are Monsters too,” that it was not what the characters were that mattered but the fact that the evils they did were evils of human provenance. I love it when books dissect the idea of what it means to be human and point out the fact that human and good can be mutually exclusive aspects.
In Conclusion
I rate Charming 3-stars for I liked it. I had issues with the world building and the hero but they had enough good things to win me over.
March 13, 2018
3.5 Stars
🎆 My choice for a BR with my MacHalos
~~ Basically it was just me & Ali ~~ 🎆
John Charming is the Templar Knight equivalent of a Kinder Surprise egg that opens and pop goes the sarcastic fucking great warriorweasel wolf.
As you have already realised - probably - John has entered the "Me Likey" part of my cave. He is sarcastic, humorous and he knows how to fight. He uses a katana sword and guns, throws bottles at 100 miles per hours (among other things) and most important he has no issues about getting naked.
He was like
Yes you guessed right, I loved all the fighting scenery. It was simply written yet super effective without too much details drowning the fucking thing.
The world was interesting as well. I recognized creatures I've read elsewhere and everything was explained agina without drowning us.
The writing in general was real easy going. Best thing had to be the chapter titles though! Such Lol 😂
John was great.
The problem was the rest of the cast.
Generally you have to like another soul within a book. Doesn't really matter who it is or why you like them as long as you do. I liked John but no one else really and not for the lack of trying on my part.
Not Sig, the supposed love interest, even though I do give her points on a couple of occasions.
Not Molly, who has signs of being a character I could get behind if only she actually "showed up" more.
Not Choo Choo who for the name alone should have been in the likes yet he wasn't sure or wouldn't decide where his character fell.
Not Cahill who was the stereotyped cop.
Not the villain who was presented as genius and dangerous but was overwhelmingly Meh.
The story in itself is nothing special but it is a great start to a series/world. John is a good hero with mucho potential. The rest of the cast is the reason this isn't a 4 star rating book, but for some of them there is hope yet.
Some have compared John to Harry Dresden and I can admit that there is base for that. I saw it and noted it as well. John though is of course an infant to Harry but I would just love to throw those two in a room together. And add Kate Daniels in as well. Boy, oh boy!
🎆 My choice for a BR with my MacHalos
~~ Basically it was just me & Ali ~~ 🎆
My name is Charming. John Charming
John Charming is the Templar Knight equivalent of a Kinder Surprise egg that opens and pop goes the sarcastic fucking great warrior
As you have already realised - probably - John has entered the "Me Likey" part of my cave. He is sarcastic, humorous and he knows how to fight. He uses a katana sword and guns, throws bottles at 100 miles per hours (among other things) and most important he has no issues about getting naked.
He was like
Yes you guessed right, I loved all the fighting scenery. It was simply written yet super effective without too much details drowning the fucking thing.
The world was interesting as well. I recognized creatures I've read elsewhere and everything was explained agina without drowning us.
The writing in general was real easy going. Best thing had to be the chapter titles though! Such Lol 😂
John was great.
The problem was the rest of the cast.
Generally you have to like another soul within a book. Doesn't really matter who it is or why you like them as long as you do. I liked John but no one else really and not for the lack of trying on my part.
Not Sig, the supposed love interest, even though I do give her points on a couple of occasions.
Not Molly, who has signs of being a character I could get behind if only she actually "showed up" more.
Not Choo Choo who for the name alone should have been in the likes yet he wasn't sure or wouldn't decide where his character fell.
Not Cahill who was the stereotyped cop.
Not the villain who was presented as genius and dangerous but was overwhelmingly Meh.
The story in itself is nothing special but it is a great start to a series/world. John is a good hero with mucho potential. The rest of the cast is the reason this isn't a 4 star rating book, but for some of them there is hope yet.
Some have compared John to Harry Dresden and I can admit that there is base for that. I saw it and noted it as well. John though is of course an infant to Harry but I would just love to throw those two in a room together. And add Kate Daniels in as well. Boy, oh boy!
August 18, 2015
MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTIONS
I wanted to like this book more because the premise was interesting. A former Knights of Templar (or at least John Charming was taught by the knights) who became one of the hunted himself after showing signs of lycanthropy -- and then he met a band of misfits, uhm, I mean, hunters, and then off they went to hunt vampires that had been kidnapping people. I should like the premise...
But something was just off with the characters, I couldn't find myself particularly care for any of them. Which was sad, because as far as characters go, they should be interesting. I mean, we have a Valkyrie, a female priest, and African-American professional exterminator, a kresnik ... but somehow they just didn't spark my interest. I wonder if the info-dump in the beginning played a factor, or I just didn't like Charming that much.
I was a bit turned-off with the romance -- I didn't like the fact that Sig was still in a relationship, even if Dvornik was a douche. Or maybe because Dvornik was a douche. It made it too easy for people to root for Charming and Sig. Especially since we had Dvornik as the villain in the end, simply because he couldn't take rejection. It was off-putting for me.
Oh, and I also didn't feel enough 'threats' from the vampires, even if they left enough bodies. Somehow, the story felt more about Charming and Sig and the team, and I didn't feel the intensity of the vampires viciousness, if that makes sense.
There were moments where I felt potentials -- thus I could still give this my okay 3-stars rating. However, at this moment, I'm not planning to read the sequel. Not a bit curious about their next adventure.
PS: Thanks Elspeth for the recommendation
I wanted to like this book more because the premise was interesting. A former Knights of Templar (or at least John Charming was taught by the knights) who became one of the hunted himself after showing signs of lycanthropy -- and then he met a band of misfits, uhm, I mean, hunters, and then off they went to hunt vampires that had been kidnapping people. I should like the premise...
But something was just off with the characters, I couldn't find myself particularly care for any of them. Which was sad, because as far as characters go, they should be interesting. I mean, we have a Valkyrie, a female priest, and African-American professional exterminator, a kresnik ... but somehow they just didn't spark my interest. I wonder if the info-dump in the beginning played a factor, or I just didn't like Charming that much.
I was a bit turned-off with the romance -- I didn't like the fact that Sig was still in a relationship, even if Dvornik was a douche. Or maybe because Dvornik was a douche. It made it too easy for people to root for Charming and Sig. Especially since we had Dvornik as the villain in the end, simply because he couldn't take rejection. It was off-putting for me.
Oh, and I also didn't feel enough 'threats' from the vampires, even if they left enough bodies. Somehow, the story felt more about Charming and Sig and the team, and I didn't feel the intensity of the vampires viciousness, if that makes sense.
There were moments where I felt potentials -- thus I could still give this my okay 3-stars rating. However, at this moment, I'm not planning to read the sequel. Not a bit curious about their next adventure.
PS: Thanks Elspeth for the recommendation
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 26, 2014
I passed this book at my local B & N about thirty times before curiosity killed the cat. It looked so good, but I've been hurt before and don't like to put myself out there. Finally, I gave in and invited Elliot James home, and woke up in the morning happy with my choice.
Urban Fantasy is a genre that can be iffy at times, you just don't know what you're going to get. I've picked up some titles, gone through the first to chapters and have turned away in disgust. I love Butcher's Harry Dresden novels, but few Urban Fantasy stories are as creative or well written. I know some people are tired of them and others hate the series, blah, blah, but for those who do like the books they know what I mean.
In between Dresden Files I find myself itching for another read. I'm like a heroin fiend chasing the dragon; I need more of this Fantasy stuff piping through my veins. "The Iron Druid Chronicles" are amazing, and I really like the Sandman Slim novels for sure. Nightside is pretty good as well. I just finished Verus, who for me was akin to Harry Dresden light while Sandman was Harry with an ethanol chaser. There have been others here and there, and I've gotten over my fear that all UF books with a female protag are just Paranormal Romance cross-dressing as Urban Fantasy. Charming though is the real deal. I enjoyed this book a lot. There are still some points to be worked on, but it was good, especially for a first book in a series.
John Charming isn't your Prince from the Fairy Tales, he's an ass kicking ex-Templar knight who is in hiding (yea he's old). He's living as a bartender in a po-dunk town, lying low staying off the radar until a blonde and a vampire walk into a bar. The first chapter is actually titled A Blonde and a Vampire walk into a Bar, and the encounter sets things in motion that make John have to decide if he wants to keep running or come out of hiding.
There are tropes in this novel that are not new. We have a world where people are unknowingly living besides the things that go bump in the night. We have said bumpers of the night, vampires, werewolves, Valkyries, and all the usual suspects. The Pax Arcana is basically a geas put on the Knights Templar to police the baddies forever, they cannot turn away from their duties and even though John is an Ex-Templar the Pax remains. The themes in the novel are not a deterrent though, because James spins them just right and keeps everything believable.
He also uses characters to drive the story. John and his supporting cast all have back stories, and I love good characters with great back stories. Also, there is a villain and an antagonist! Actually, there are multiple antagonists that John has to deal with and this brings extra suspense and stakes that make the plot so much more interesting.
The fight scenes are terrific; John's movements, use of weapons and the descriptions of the action are cinematic. I kept picturing John as Jason Statham even though he's depicted on the cover. Something about the fighting style draws the comparison.
My issues with the novel were small overall. I wish the primary villain was a little more evil, and offered as much of a challenge as the antagonist did on his own. Some of her reasoning behind her actions weren't as solid as I liked. She has a case of be careful what you wish for and I'm not sure that it coincided with her previous actions. Also, there is a companion of John who is African-American that has a stereotypical dependency that didn't serve to enhance his character or tell anything about him. It could be argued as a coping mechanism, but as the only African American character he could have expressed behaviors less stereotypical of society’s misguided expectations. It was a little thing, but in the midst of a really good story it stood out to me, and I know I'm more sensitive to such slights and really didn't feel like it was a deal breaker.
I give it 3 1/2- 4 Stars. A great read and addition to the Urban Fantasy genre, I have read some of the short stories and really appreciate James' use of Fairy Tale, mythology, and his creativity. Actually his/her creativity. I'm not sure of the author's sex, not that it matters but the picture at the back of the book is a woman I think, and the profile says the author’s a guy, but it also says he’s a prolific liar. Regardless, “Charming” is a great read, can't wait for the next in the series; "Dashing".
Urban Fantasy is a genre that can be iffy at times, you just don't know what you're going to get. I've picked up some titles, gone through the first to chapters and have turned away in disgust. I love Butcher's Harry Dresden novels, but few Urban Fantasy stories are as creative or well written. I know some people are tired of them and others hate the series, blah, blah, but for those who do like the books they know what I mean.
In between Dresden Files I find myself itching for another read. I'm like a heroin fiend chasing the dragon; I need more of this Fantasy stuff piping through my veins. "The Iron Druid Chronicles" are amazing, and I really like the Sandman Slim novels for sure. Nightside is pretty good as well. I just finished Verus, who for me was akin to Harry Dresden light while Sandman was Harry with an ethanol chaser. There have been others here and there, and I've gotten over my fear that all UF books with a female protag are just Paranormal Romance cross-dressing as Urban Fantasy. Charming though is the real deal. I enjoyed this book a lot. There are still some points to be worked on, but it was good, especially for a first book in a series.
John Charming isn't your Prince from the Fairy Tales, he's an ass kicking ex-Templar knight who is in hiding (yea he's old). He's living as a bartender in a po-dunk town, lying low staying off the radar until a blonde and a vampire walk into a bar. The first chapter is actually titled A Blonde and a Vampire walk into a Bar, and the encounter sets things in motion that make John have to decide if he wants to keep running or come out of hiding.
There are tropes in this novel that are not new. We have a world where people are unknowingly living besides the things that go bump in the night. We have said bumpers of the night, vampires, werewolves, Valkyries, and all the usual suspects. The Pax Arcana is basically a geas put on the Knights Templar to police the baddies forever, they cannot turn away from their duties and even though John is an Ex-Templar the Pax remains. The themes in the novel are not a deterrent though, because James spins them just right and keeps everything believable.
He also uses characters to drive the story. John and his supporting cast all have back stories, and I love good characters with great back stories. Also, there is a villain and an antagonist! Actually, there are multiple antagonists that John has to deal with and this brings extra suspense and stakes that make the plot so much more interesting.
The fight scenes are terrific; John's movements, use of weapons and the descriptions of the action are cinematic. I kept picturing John as Jason Statham even though he's depicted on the cover. Something about the fighting style draws the comparison.
My issues with the novel were small overall. I wish the primary villain was a little more evil, and offered as much of a challenge as the antagonist did on his own. Some of her reasoning behind her actions weren't as solid as I liked. She has a case of be careful what you wish for and I'm not sure that it coincided with her previous actions. Also, there is a companion of John who is African-American that has a stereotypical dependency that didn't serve to enhance his character or tell anything about him. It could be argued as a coping mechanism, but as the only African American character he could have expressed behaviors less stereotypical of society’s misguided expectations. It was a little thing, but in the midst of a really good story it stood out to me, and I know I'm more sensitive to such slights and really didn't feel like it was a deal breaker.
I give it 3 1/2- 4 Stars. A great read and addition to the Urban Fantasy genre, I have read some of the short stories and really appreciate James' use of Fairy Tale, mythology, and his creativity. Actually his/her creativity. I'm not sure of the author's sex, not that it matters but the picture at the back of the book is a woman I think, and the profile says the author’s a guy, but it also says he’s a prolific liar. Regardless, “Charming” is a great read, can't wait for the next in the series; "Dashing".
March 9, 2015
John Charming comes from a long line of monster hunters. Once part of an order of knights whose job it is to stop supernatural creatures from making their presence known to humanity, he's now on the wanted list himself.
Reviled as a monster and on the run from his former colleagues, he's minding his business tending bar one night when a vampire walks in--followed by a gorgeous blonde, who's hunting the vampire but isn't human herself. When John gets involved, he finds himself part of a monster-hunting team again, but this one's nothing like his old Order. And it's almost as dangerous, as at least half the team wouldn't mind at all if he managed to get himself killed on the job.
It was a fun read, and the first-person narration has a great, snarky voice. It's the start of a new series that borrows from lots of different world mythologies, rather like the Iron Druid Chronicles, and could easily prove just as entertaining.
Reviled as a monster and on the run from his former colleagues, he's minding his business tending bar one night when a vampire walks in--followed by a gorgeous blonde, who's hunting the vampire but isn't human herself. When John gets involved, he finds himself part of a monster-hunting team again, but this one's nothing like his old Order. And it's almost as dangerous, as at least half the team wouldn't mind at all if he managed to get himself killed on the job.
It was a fun read, and the first-person narration has a great, snarky voice. It's the start of a new series that borrows from lots of different world mythologies, rather like the Iron Druid Chronicles, and could easily prove just as entertaining.
May 28, 2021
Enjoyable urban fantasy that uses the tropes of werewolves and vampires, but adds a new spin upon them to make it interesting enough. This was a quick read, as I finished reading it within some 3 hours. The writing was simple, laced with some irony and humour, and some pop-culture reference which gave it a contemporary feel. The action was good, and I like the characters who are a little flawed, dealing with their own problems and trying to live in a world that kills.
I liked the premise of a magical world being hidden due to some powerful enchantment enacted by the elves thousands of years ago. Elliott James explains the rules and lore of the Pax Arcana in a very scientific manner which lends a sort of credulity to the story.There wasn't enough suspense in the story, but it was thrilling enough to delve into the motivations of the antagonists which kept me going through.
Moreover, I loved the chemistry between John (the half-werewolf and knight templar) and Sig the Valkyrie. They're hot as a couple it seems, but, their relationship doesn't develop much at all, though there's a romantic tension between them. This was a light brezzy read without much gloom and doom, and hence, I was able to appreciate it more. It's different from the Dresden Files, and for me it's a good thing as I'm tired of Butcher milking the series to an extreme limit. I will definitely continue reading the Pax Arcana series.
I liked the premise of a magical world being hidden due to some powerful enchantment enacted by the elves thousands of years ago. Elliott James explains the rules and lore of the Pax Arcana in a very scientific manner which lends a sort of credulity to the story.There wasn't enough suspense in the story, but it was thrilling enough to delve into the motivations of the antagonists which kept me going through.
Moreover, I loved the chemistry between John (the half-werewolf and knight templar) and Sig the Valkyrie. They're hot as a couple it seems, but, their relationship doesn't develop much at all, though there's a romantic tension between them. This was a light brezzy read without much gloom and doom, and hence, I was able to appreciate it more. It's different from the Dresden Files, and for me it's a good thing as I'm tired of Butcher milking the series to an extreme limit. I will definitely continue reading the Pax Arcana series.
December 15, 2021
Every once in a while, I read a book and absolutely love it. So much so, I instantly start looking at what other books/series the author has written or what he is up to these days, and I started feeling like a stalker because, after this series, the author has completely disappeared or may have started writing as another alias - who knows? If you know, let me know ;)
okay stopping stalker Joe mode now...
This is an interesting world with just enough background information provided to keep you engaged. James doesn't do a knowledge dump, for which I am grateful. I know he regrets not including all he knows, because I read his interview as well - well, not looking for it exactly but included as the end of the book, brief interview. I am still keeping my stalker tendency to minimum :) but I am still grateful because a lot of time, the authors tend to include a lot of background information, I feel like dying from paralysis by analysis.
That being said, it still has a lot of information, not about only one thing in particular but he touches so many worlds - some real, some paranormal - it feels like you are still connected to the entire story. So many mythical creatures are mentioned and each one of them has some background story. Vampire, werewolf, Valkyrie, Knights are the ones who are prominently mentioned but there are lesser-known ones as well. The entire concept of Pax Arcana is pretty cool too because it just creates a solid foundation for other legends to grow.
I guess all of these things work because of an amazing way of storytelling by the protagonist himself. He is a pretty interesting character with a quick wit and sarcastic responses. This book made me laugh which let me tell you, is not that easy thing to do. I also like a little hint of romance as well - I am a reader who likes paranormal romances with little references of romances, not heavy pnr - I know I am being unreasonable but apparently, I am not alone :D
Needless to say, I would be continuing with the series and will cry once I cannot find/read from the same author again but I will save it till the end of the series.
okay stopping stalker Joe mode now...
This is an interesting world with just enough background information provided to keep you engaged. James doesn't do a knowledge dump, for which I am grateful. I know he regrets not including all he knows, because I read his interview as well - well, not looking for it exactly but included as the end of the book, brief interview. I am still keeping my stalker tendency to minimum :) but I am still grateful because a lot of time, the authors tend to include a lot of background information, I feel like dying from paralysis by analysis.
That being said, it still has a lot of information, not about only one thing in particular but he touches so many worlds - some real, some paranormal - it feels like you are still connected to the entire story. So many mythical creatures are mentioned and each one of them has some background story. Vampire, werewolf, Valkyrie, Knights are the ones who are prominently mentioned but there are lesser-known ones as well. The entire concept of Pax Arcana is pretty cool too because it just creates a solid foundation for other legends to grow.
I guess all of these things work because of an amazing way of storytelling by the protagonist himself. He is a pretty interesting character with a quick wit and sarcastic responses. This book made me laugh which let me tell you, is not that easy thing to do. I also like a little hint of romance as well - I am a reader who likes paranormal romances with little references of romances, not heavy pnr - I know I am being unreasonable but apparently, I am not alone :D
Needless to say, I would be continuing with the series and will cry once I cannot find/read from the same author again but I will save it till the end of the series.
November 1, 2018
It was ok, but I don't think I'll follow the series. Longer review may come if I'll manage to motivate myself to write it :) Basically, there's nothing wrong with it. I guess it's just not for me, but I can understand why people like it so much.
July 4, 2024
As a first book in a series, this one caught my interest enough to go on to the second one. This is a new to me author and narrator and I liked both. There are a lot of info dumps and book 1 is often kind of clunky because of that but I liked John and some of the crew. I’m interested to see what happens next .
August 25, 2013
With a name like John Charming, one would need to develop a thick skin, because the opportunities to be the brunt of not-so-witty references to ‘Prince Charming’ could be endless, especially when you are immortal and in an alternate universe, you really are a descendant of THE Prince Charming. Be warned- Charming by Elliott James is not a twenty-first century fairy tale with sparkly fairies, magic wands or princesses waiting to be rescued, it is a dark urban fantasy filled with evil, attitude and the eternal fight to keep humans safe from things they do not even know exist. Templar Knight John Charming reluctantly finds himself in the thick of it, once again as he is thrown back into the fight against contemporary ‘things that go bump in the night.’ Contemporary vampires are getting sloppy and their casual blood-sucking is threatening to expose supernaturals to the world. Joining forces with a powerful, gorgeous Valkyrie and a team of Others, the fight between good and evil rages on, but at what cost to John, whose questionable mixed-blood line makes him an enigma with a few extra tricks up his sleeve.
Elliott James turned the blender on high with Charming, mixing fairy tales, alternate histories and dark urban fantasy with a dollop of snark, a dash of romantic tension and pound of flesh, living, and undead, human and supernatural. What came out was a fresh, fast-paced and creative adult tale that had me begging for more and pondering the question-what if Harry Dresden and John Charming teamed up…oh, the possibilities!
An ARC edition was provided by NetGalley and Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group
Series: Pax Arcana, #1
ISBN: 9780316253390
Number of Pages: 400
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Adults
My Rating: 4 Stars
Available from: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
For more reviews check out Tome Tender's Book Blog or find us on Facebook.
Elliott James turned the blender on high with Charming, mixing fairy tales, alternate histories and dark urban fantasy with a dollop of snark, a dash of romantic tension and pound of flesh, living, and undead, human and supernatural. What came out was a fresh, fast-paced and creative adult tale that had me begging for more and pondering the question-what if Harry Dresden and John Charming teamed up…oh, the possibilities!
An ARC edition was provided by NetGalley and Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group
Series: Pax Arcana, #1
ISBN: 9780316253390
Number of Pages: 400
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Adults
My Rating: 4 Stars
Available from: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
For more reviews check out Tome Tender's Book Blog or find us on Facebook.
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