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Liked It “My buddy, Amy on Shelfari's Paranormal Mysteries, suggested I read this one ASAP when she heard I had it on Mt Git'r'Read. So...I did! I'd been looking for a quick reading story and this did the trick. I also wanted a title for What's in a Name Challenge 2 for the Medical Condition section....” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Although I eventually liked the two main characters (Wren, a retriever of stolen items, and her business partner, Sergei) in this paranormal thriller, I never felt drawn to or connected to any of the other strange characters or situations in the book. The storyline was also somewhat hard to...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“My buddy, Amy on Shelfari's Paranormal Mysteries, suggested I read this one ASAP when she heard I had it on Mt Git'r'Read. So...I did! I'd been looking for a quick reading story and this did the trick. I also wanted a title for What's in a Name Challenge 2 for the Medical Condition section. Ta-Da! I'd think 'staying dead' is the ultimate medical condition...anyway...
IYamVixenBooks wrote this review Sunday, September 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I really enjoyed reading this one, even if I had some difficulties keeping up with dialogue or changes in scenery and characters from time to time. I blame it on the reader rather than the writer as I was on a different shift and wasn't always as alert as I'd have liked for reading the adventures of Wren and Sergei. Wren, the Talent, kicks ass, Sergei, the Null, is a sweetie with 'tude and the two of them make a perfect partnership. 'Talent' is what the people with magical abilities are called and 'Null' is the non-magical.
There's a lot of politics going on throughout the book: there's the Council who tries to run the Talent to their way of doing business and there's the Silence and not much is known of them, but both the Council and the Silence want Wren and Sergei brought to heel and work for them than on their own.
And there's the growing unrest among Wren's friends and fellow magical creatures, human and nonhuman alike.
I'm very glad I finally read this from Mt Git'r'Read and happy that it is a beginning of a series.
Four kick-ass Talent and Null beans..... ”“Although I eventually liked the two main characters (Wren, a retriever of stolen items, and her business partner, Sergei) in this paranormal thriller, I never felt drawn to or connected to any of the other strange characters or situations in the book. The storyline was also somewhat hard to follow at times. This book / plot line just didn't draw me in. I won't be reading the rest of this series.”
jennifer g wrote this review Tuesday, July 28 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Wren has Talent. A unique ability to influence and store electricity, and the way she is uses it, most of us would call magic. The Council doesn't really like the word “magic” and so for Wren, what she can do is just Talent, not magic. With Wren's Talent she retrieves things that have been stolen, for a price. When Wren's partner, Sergei is contacted to find a missing corner stone from a building, they might just be biting off more then they can chew between that, a vigilant group trying to kill all of the Fae, and a council of mages that don't care for free runners.
WonderBunny wrote this review Thursday, July 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This was a good first book in a new (to me) paranormal series. I don't think the writing was amazing and it took me a minute to figure out what was going on sometimes. The concept was slightly refreshing. I still feel it was solid enough that I will probably pick up the next one to try.”
“Normally, I can't not finish a book. Even if its boring or poorly written I usually feel compelled to finish what I start. Unfortunately I had to brake my own rule with this book: I couldn't even finish the second chapter.
PollyWannaBook wrote this review Saturday, February 28 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The description on the back of the book sounded like the beginning of a promising new urban fantasy series, but this book started out boring and just got worse. The writing was poor, the characters flat and forced, and the fantasy elements were even dull. ”
“Sorry, put me in the "nay" catagory-couldn't hold my interest, boring characters, frankly the same old same old. How many more "magic user heroine, demon sidekick, brooding older love interest" can these Urban Fantasy authors dredge up?
retroredux wrote this review Friday, February 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Not recommended”
“I bought this one on recommendations... the only problem is, I don't remember whose. If it was you, thank you!
DKayeS wrote this review Friday, November 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Wren is a retriever. That is, she gets back things that have been lost or stolen. For a fee. And she uses magic to do so. Sergei is her mentor/agent/friend.
In Staying Dead, Wren is hired to retrieve a cornerstone that had magically provided protection for a company for decades. It seems a straightforward, if difficult, task to find the thief and steal back the cornerstone.
But if it were straightforward, there'd be no point in writing a book about it, would there? Wren finds herself in more danger than she expected, and from unlikely sources. She also finds herself being forced to question things she'd taken for granted, particularly her relationship with Sergei.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sleuthing aspects of Staying Dead, as well as the twists and turns and the revelations about the motivations behind the various events. I'm rarely a fan of mentor/protegee romantic entanglements, but this one didn't bother me too terribly much, and I found Sergei's dilemma interesting and believable.
My only problem is that, despite the reviews comparing Staying Dead to Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, and Laurell K. Hamilton, it didn't feel at all similar. It had the same sort of feel as Nancy Baker's The Night Inside, which felt as if it had been written by someone who'd never read a vampire novel before. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. It provides a freshness, but it's also like reinventing the wheel.
I'm not explaining well at all, I know. It sounds like I'm saying that most contemporary fantasy sounds alike, but that's not the case. It's just that with the amount out there, it's a reasonable assumption that readers are used to being thrust into a different world, so it's not necessary to constantly remind them. In addition, things that are pretty standard in other contemporary fantasy books, like the magical governing body, were presented as startlingly unusual. Maybe that's what it was, more than feeling like the author hadn't read contemporary fantasy before--it felt like the reader was presumed not to have read contemporary fantasy before. Which could possibly be due to the Luna imprint. I don't know.
Regardless, I will be looking for the next book in the series--hopefully since we've already been introduced to the world, the problems I had with it will be eliminated.”
“This was good, I liked the romance and the main character but what I would not call this book is memorable. I just finished it yesterday and i already forget a lot of it. It is not one of those books you finish then stop and think or simmer with joy. It was good and I will read the rest of the series but something about it just wasn't extraordinary.”
Rinn wrote this review Thursday, October 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I was bored from the start. I didn't like the author's writing style, the editing or the main character. I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. After about 30 pages I gave up.”
bookologist wrote this review Monday, July 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Didn't like it enough to read the rest of the series”
Tina S wrote this review Monday, April 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“My first book from the LUNA line and not only will I be reading more books from it, Laura Anne Gilman and her Retrievers series are new favourites of mine.
kalyko wrote this review Friday, March 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Take a hefty dose of magic, lots of secrets and danger and add a simmering romance and you've got a winner! ”
