Werewolves Be Damned (Otherworld #1; Magic & Mayhem #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 22, 2011 Sandra rated it liked it

Shelves: pnr-uf, own, vampires, shifters, witch-magic-fae, kindle

Nexi was adopted and has grown up on Earth, not knowing that there is the Otherworld, and her birth parents came from there.

Nexi, is half Guardian and half witch. When she was a baby her mother was murdered and her father thought it best that she grow up on Earth so she could have a normal life. Her magic was bound.

However, the bad guy who killed her mother is looking for her and when she's found, he has her adopted parents killed, almost in front of her. Guardians come to take care of the bad ...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Carrie rated it liked it

Shelves: witches, asked-or-received-for-review, netgalley, vampire, urban-fantasy, paranormal-romance, werewolves, 1st-in-a-series, magic, tower-team

Nexi is on a mission, to find the wolf that got away. The wolf that did not die at the guardians hands, after the rogue pack murdered her parents. She will never forget that wolf, she will find it and kill it.

After the murder of her parents Nexi's life is tossed upside down. Everything that she knew of the world, herself has changed. Not all things are what they seem. There are supernatural beings from the otherworld who cross over, but to a mere mortal they just appear to look just like every o ...more

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Apr 25, 2013 namericanwordcat rated it liked it

Shelves: arc-netgalley, grief, vampire, alterative-dimension, wolf-shifter, pnr, witches, kick-ass-heroine, elemental-powers, big-and-tall-hero

A promising new paranormal romance series.

Nexi, our heroine, has been plunged into a new world with the murder of her adoptive parents where she discovers she is half witch and half guardian. Guardins are super strong immortals who seem to have a bit in common with Beserkers. She is trained in her new skills by an uber hot guardian named Kyden. While hunting down the bad guy, romance ensues.

The novel is an expansion of a previous published work The Willow from Kennedy’s Magical Sword series and A promising new paranormal romance series.

Nexi, our heroine, has been plunged into a new world with the murder of her adoptive parents where she discovers she is half witch and half guardian. Guardins are super strong immortals who seem to have a bit in common with Beserkers. She is trained in her new skills by an uber hot guardian named Kyden. While hunting down the bad guy, romance ensues.

The novel is an expansion of a previous published work The Willow from Kennedy’s Magical Sword series and creates an interesting world and cast of others for the reader to play in. We have sexy werewolves, vampires, guardians, and witches. The witches are the most intriguing group here with elemental powers and soul sister connections. The werewolves, as usual, are pretty yummy too.

The book and therefore the series is promising. I am always on the look out for fun new paranormal worlds. However, at this point the book just offers a promise more than it delivers. The world is well developed and the action scenes are good. The characters all have great qualities--like Nexie's is pretty kick ass. However, the logic and motivation in the plot and characters isn't really there. An example: they are in the middle of investigating the murder of her adopted parents and we get very little investigation. There are more ways to find out things than beating a witness and often that doesn't even happen, they are just killed

Character development is a bit lacking. An example, did Nexie have a job before the events of this novel? It would have been great if the couple could have spent a bit more time together as well. Then novel felt a bit shorter than it needed to be.

Overall, it was a pleasant read and I will likely read the second in the series because I like the world and hope some of the less pleasing aspects of the writing are worked out. I think of this kind of book as popcorn. It fulfills a craving (in this case for training in fighting and witches-the best parts of the book) but I am not going to return to it again and again for rereading.

This book was given to me as an ARC for an honest review.

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Jan 08, 2011 Alisha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Rating: 2.5
Quick Take:
The mechanics of the story were a mixed bag; interesting overall world building, alongside rushed (and perhaps uneven) manner of exposition. All told, it didn't offend or wholly satisfy me, but did provide moments of excitement and adventure.

Well. We can't love everything all the time, can we? ^_^ The Willow has many elements that usually perk me up over a book: a heroine who discovers and develops her own amazing abilities and origins; playful romantic intrigue; a team of Rating: 2.5
Quick Take:
The mechanics of the story were a mixed bag; interesting overall world building, alongside rushed (and perhaps uneven) manner of exposition. All told, it didn't offend or wholly satisfy me, but did provide moments of excitement and adventure.

Well. We can't love everything all the time, can we? ^_^ The Willow has many elements that usually perk me up over a book: a heroine who discovers and develops her own amazing abilities and origins; playful romantic intrigue; a team of supernatural-regulatin' badazzes. Cracking open to the beginning of this story was also intriguing. A grieving, devastated young woman sits under her favorite willow tree, in the middle of a suicide attempt. She wants to end her lonely existence, and almost immediately gets her wish, though not in the way she expects.

From the start, and for the first several pages, there's quite a bit of exposition. I mean, a lot. This is not an inherently negative thing; it's just that it didn't feel all that smooth, but rather stilted and rushed. The progression of events--as well as Nexi's reaction to them--just didn't ring believable to me. Suspension of disbelief--not for the fantastical elements, but the mundane--only took me so far.

About halfway through the book, things did get pretty fun. The overall tone (and pace) was infused with excitement and intriguing twists. It'd be a lie for me to say there weren't some high-octane, tension-filled segments.

…but it's too bad I was unimpressed with the main villain of the story. he was mentioned early in the tale and was built up as intimidating, worthy of fear and wariness. Indeed, he was powerful being that caused trouble…but to me, he never really made it out of mustache-twirling territory. He remained pretty one-dimensional and thus not engaging.

Now, I'm not usually one to delve into the more technical aspects of a book (I hesitate to even mention it now)…but in this case I can't not bring it up, since it was actually distracting. I'm referring to the legion grammatical errors. In some places it was a few per page. Now I know such a factor does not have bearing on the "meat" of a story…but seriously, it kept pulling me out of the tale. (If you know me, that's saying something.)

The structure of the supernatural world was a big point of interest. Head of each supe "species" forming a council; an "enforcement" crew who carries out the law…I really dug it! I anticipate the politics being quite a complex and engaging draw in future books, now that a bit of world building has been done.

So yeah. I didn't outright dislike this book, so I can't rate it lower. But I didn't find it wholly satisfying, either, so I can't rate it any higher. I know I'll eventually pick up the next book, though (I don't give up on a series after one book, period), and do look forward to it.

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Nov 22, 2011 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, read-in-2013, stacey-kennedy

Werewolves Be Damned is the first in the Magic & Mayhem series and it's definitely one of the best new series I have read in ages!

Nexi is a half-guardian/half witch hybrid anomaly who is thrust into the supernatural after the brutal murder of her parents. Kyden has been charged with keeping Nexi safe as she tries to find her way in this new world, she's hellbent on avenging her parents deaths so he not only has to keep her safe from those who want to do her harm but from her own actions resulti ...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Steph rated it really liked it

Shelves: author-웃, series-ongoing, series-book1, year-read-2013

Another fun series from Stacey Kennedy. At times her writing felt YA-ish. But, then she'd turn up the heat, which she does so well. So, I'm thinking New Adult is a better classification. I loved the world she's created with this one; I look forward to returning to it again. ...more

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