Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Arm Dealers (Katey Hawthorne and Jenna Rose)
2.5 stars
With the promise of a three things I love in a book – whodunnit mystery, supernatural beings, and romance – I thought this could be a winner through and through. Alas, I wish I liked it more than I did because it didn’t really do much for me.
First off, the world-building… okay, I admit that the supernatural beings in this world were nothing new. We had shifters, elementalists, zombies, etc. Having said that, I still thought there were things that were not explained clearly. For example, why were the Bureau for Supernatural Protection and Defense considered racists when it came to Beast, included their stance towards Kanaan? Was it something that happened in the past, a certain history there in this world? I am bit of lazy reader when it comes to urban fantasy / paranormal stories. I like things to be explained – especially since this is a world that is totally unlike the one I’m living in.
Then the mysteries … Kanaan and Tilney had two cases going on. One was the missing Eddie Quintus and the second one was a woman who thought she was being stalked. As always, with mystery, I guess I wanted it to be pretty much front and center, or at least that the romance didn’t interrupt the flow of investigation. Unfortunately, that was what I felt here. I thought that the relationship, ESPECIALLY the sex scenes (Kanaan and Tilney got down and dirty even before reaching half-way of the book!), were highly distracting. Every time they started to rut against one another (ha, I made a pun!), I just wanted to say, “Yes, yes, finish it, we have TWO cases to solve! Jeez!”
This one was probably my fault; I tend to build up a set of expectations when it comes to anything resembling ‘mystery’ even in romance so I always feel disappointed when it doesn’t turn out the way I hope for *shrugs*
Third … uhm, okay, I need to highlight Tilney’s sexuality here. Tilney was a demisexual … I actually applauded the authors for bringing a demisexual character into a story. It was nice to see another spectrum of sexuality. Having said that, again it had something to do with a set of expectations I had (or at least the way I imagine a demisexual character is), I just didn’t get enough ‘vibe’ or differences of Tilney being one.
I read this article in Huffington Post about a demisexual teenager, and the way she said about “… can’t feel attraction towards people unless I already love their personalities and minds along with a few other special snowflake qualities.” Well, that was what I thought was missing in this case. I guess I wanted to read more about Tilney loving Kanaan by finding Kanaan’s special snowflake – or maybe I thought this kind of attraction for demisexual would take a longer time to build that intimacy and closeness, compared to the time passed in this book.
I’m not going to pretend like all demisexuals are the same – I’m an asexual and I’m sure my experience would not be 100% similar to other asexuals – and maybe Tilney did experience that closeness to Kanaan faster than I expected. But I guess I just wanted … well, more.
As always, this was my opinion, mine alone, and just a drop of water in the ocean. I’m sure there would be readers who love it way more than I did. *smile*
The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
With the promise of a three things I love in a book – whodunnit mystery, supernatural beings, and romance – I thought this could be a winner through and through. Alas, I wish I liked it more than I did because it didn’t really do much for me.
First off, the world-building… okay, I admit that the supernatural beings in this world were nothing new. We had shifters, elementalists, zombies, etc. Having said that, I still thought there were things that were not explained clearly. For example, why were the Bureau for Supernatural Protection and Defense considered racists when it came to Beast, included their stance towards Kanaan? Was it something that happened in the past, a certain history there in this world? I am bit of lazy reader when it comes to urban fantasy / paranormal stories. I like things to be explained – especially since this is a world that is totally unlike the one I’m living in.
Then the mysteries … Kanaan and Tilney had two cases going on. One was the missing Eddie Quintus and the second one was a woman who thought she was being stalked. As always, with mystery, I guess I wanted it to be pretty much front and center, or at least that the romance didn’t interrupt the flow of investigation. Unfortunately, that was what I felt here. I thought that the relationship, ESPECIALLY the sex scenes (Kanaan and Tilney got down and dirty even before reaching half-way of the book!), were highly distracting. Every time they started to rut against one another (ha, I made a pun!), I just wanted to say, “Yes, yes, finish it, we have TWO cases to solve! Jeez!”
This one was probably my fault; I tend to build up a set of expectations when it comes to anything resembling ‘mystery’ even in romance so I always feel disappointed when it doesn’t turn out the way I hope for *shrugs*
Third … uhm, okay, I need to highlight Tilney’s sexuality here. Tilney was a demisexual … I actually applauded the authors for bringing a demisexual character into a story. It was nice to see another spectrum of sexuality. Having said that, again it had something to do with a set of expectations I had (or at least the way I imagine a demisexual character is), I just didn’t get enough ‘vibe’ or differences of Tilney being one.
I read this article in Huffington Post about a demisexual teenager, and the way she said about “… can’t feel attraction towards people unless I already love their personalities and minds along with a few other special snowflake qualities.” Well, that was what I thought was missing in this case. I guess I wanted to read more about Tilney loving Kanaan by finding Kanaan’s special snowflake – or maybe I thought this kind of attraction for demisexual would take a longer time to build that intimacy and closeness, compared to the time passed in this book.
I’m not going to pretend like all demisexuals are the same – I’m an asexual and I’m sure my experience would not be 100% similar to other asexuals – and maybe Tilney did experience that closeness to Kanaan faster than I expected. But I guess I just wanted … well, more.
As always, this was my opinion, mine alone, and just a drop of water in the ocean. I’m sure there would be readers who love it way more than I did. *smile*
The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
5