Code Black, Paranormal Crimes Division, Tina Moss
Review from jeannie zelos book reviews
Genre: Romance, Sci-fi and Fantasy
This sounded a fun read and I’m always hoping for a new series that I can fall in love with....but first books in a fantasy series have a huge task. They need to introduce new characters, different paranormals, a new world setting and of course deliver a gripping story. For me this book didn’t quite make it – there’s promise there but I’m torn over whether I want to read more. I think on balance there’s enough there for me to put aside my reservations and read at least one more book before choosing.
Sera, we see right from the start she’s different, and I felt for her because she was so alone ( apart from Guy!), and there’s no-one to tell her what she feels is right or wrong or how to control her powers.Its a world where many Supernaturals are registered and recognized, but she’s a type no-one seems to know about and she’s always been told by her dad to keep quiet, to never show she’s different.
Then she’s on the scene as part of a lead on a gruesome story and gets dragged right into it. It brings her to the notice of special agent Talon Rede and his colleagues. There’s a connection between the two right from their first conversation – and that’s simply a phone one!
The issues I had were that there were so many types of paranormals, and so many different departments and groups. It took til at least halfway through the book before I could even begin to get them clear in my mind, and there was lots of flipping back to see who belonged to which group. They seems so disorganised too – with everyone treading on the others toes, no-one sure of who’s really in charge. For a specialist group Talon’s crew are not at all what I’d expect, instead of a tight knit group of close colleagues who respect each other and work seamlessly, they’re a shambolic bunch who seem to dislike many of the others in the group, and things get done more by accident than design. I could take most of that though if it wasn’t for my pet hate, Powers we’ve never heard of coming into play to get people out of an impossible spot just at the right moment. All Supernaturals in fiction have a bit extra talent, its what makes the genre such a fun read and each author tailors the format, but here it seems like some people have abilities to cover almost every situation, and it takes the excitement, the danger element out when you know that one of them will always be able to handle it. There was a bit too much of that – the hand waving moving air currents to get things/people just where they needed to be, that kind of problem solving. Then there’s Sera’s handy fire, she gained some pretty accurate control over that very quickly. I need the characters to struggle a bit, to use their talents certainly but not this catch all magic fixes we saw here.
Stars:Three, a decent read with some fresh elements but I’ve reservations about the series.
ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers.
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