Susan IlleneCritiques

I really enjoyed this one initially as it didn't follow a lot of the stupid clichées.
Yea, we have a badass heroine but a lot of effort went into making sure things are kept "real".
Things like well-defined "power levels" and believable fight flow. Things like realistic torture or the emotional impact of different kinds of trauma and shock.
All these kinds of things and more are initially kept very believable.
A lot of effort went into small details which made the world feel believable and I did appreciate that a lot.
The plot wasn't groundbreaking but it wasn't just a collection of old clichées like I usually see.
There is a bit of covert plot convenience going on and unnecessary vague foreshadowing bordering on prophecy by a druid (which is a personal pet peeve of mine) annoyed me but all in all, there weren't any major flaws.
I was completely baffled by the comparatively low rating at first.
But then while approaching the 3/4 mark things regrettably went downhill fast.
Facts are suddenly made up on the spot non-stop sometimes completely contradicting previous information.
The biggest issue with the magic is the number of possibilities that the on the spot made up stuff theoretically allows. Any semi-intelligent person could use those in devastating ways but no one does because the author just didn't think about the ramifications of all those cheap throw-away plot devices.
The magic system is rather soft so you really have to disregard common sense to cause obvious holes in it like that.
The concept of "show, don't tell" flies right out the window repeatedly. Characters start saying out loud what they feel in a very awkward way that is clearly meant for the benefit of the reader instead of showing it in a natural way even tho the author has clearly proven she is capable of doing it right.
I really don't know what happened here. Maybe the author had a bad slump but had to finish within a deadline or something?
I had a sense this might be a fresh breeze in the rather stale genre. I felt like the book had the guts to deviate from beaten paths and not fall into every clichée trap out there like most in this genre do.
For that, I am actually willing to put up with quite a bit of roughness on the edges but ultimately despite a promising start, it didn't happen.
It ended up just aggressively preaching the power of friendship and all that crap like all the others do. Ethical dilemmas and morally ambiguous decisions and their consequences are just being fixed with cheap copouts like "turns out that person was pure evil anyway".
A world that clearly had the potential to have many shades of grey sadly crumbled into naive black and white just pretending to be something more.
And what is going on with the sudden flirting and touching followed by swooning around multiple flaming hot guys?
It ends so incredibly cheese that I couldn't take the last few pages and dnfed like 15 minutes before the end.
It felt like the author replaced her calligraphy feather with a wax crayon part-way through the story.

Although I read a lot of fantasy, I don't usually read a lot which contains vampires, werewolves, witches and the lot. Still, I read it for a book discussion, and I really enjoyed it.
The characters are well developed, and the lead character undergoes some changes in the course of the book. She has some strengths and weaknesses at the beginning, but she fights and overcomes prejudices, and she takes on responsibility.

It is a fast-paced story that gripped me right from the start. There even is a bit of a romantic interest, although there are three likely candidates, and you'll need to read the sequel(s) to find out who'll make it.

The narrator was well fitted, and did a good job with this book.

Genre: Fantasy (Urban)
Author: Susan ILLene
Book: Darkness Haunts (The Sensor #1)
My Star Rating: 4
Will I read I read it again? No

The story description does quite a bit to draw my attention. I'm thinking a soldier-type female main character, that evidently knows something about the supernatural (Supes) race(s) living among humans. She gets drawn into a search for a friend who has "gone missing" in Alaska - a supposed haven for these Supes. And supposedly she has some 'special skills'......

This is the kind of story I like in a good urban fantasy. I admit, it sounds like the same basic plot that so many of them have, but it is the story-telling of the plot with the details that draw me in. I was so looking forward to getting to this one, that I let it skip a few others I had in my pile before it. honestly, I was a little let down.

Our main character, Melena, is an orphan, raised by a foster family, which were killed/died/whatever, and she ended up with a "distant family member" to raise her. Around HS graduation age, she joined the Army, and supposedly served in Airborne, though it was as an interrogator. So, not to spoil it, she does have some "supernatural" power, but I'm not saying as it will spoil it for you. The rest of the book description pretty much covers it.

That all being said, there was no depth to the story, or its characters. Everyone is sexy/hunky for the most part. Every male loves/lusts/wants to be with the main character (and no one else it seems). Thankfully the most "sex scenes" were internal monologues that were very short (thank goodness) made by the main character about musculature features of said males. The story had a few small goodies I liked, and overall completed itself enough to be a stand alone story.

Cons:
- MC tried to be a "big girl" and was saved by a hunky male way too many times, and way too obviously coming in the story
- no depth of character, or story world - this being mostly in Alaska - Fairbanks area - we are kind of left to our imagination

Pros:
- Story idea was good, and I liked how it overall came together
- No cliff-hanger - even knowing there are like six books in the series
- MC superpower is one (or similar to) I have read about from other authors, and yet has it's own unique 'extra' to it

Middle of the Road:
- The lack of description for the story world. I have no clue what the area around the location truly looks like, though I am sure it varies greatly from what I've seen on documentaries of polar bears. But I like that we could sort of form our own impressions of the "layout" from city to cabin to forests, etc. I thought it weird they could be in "downtown" Fairbanks, then five minutes later be at a cabin 200 yards off the main road, that has working plumbing.

Excellent star to a new series.

Interesting paranormal world

I have mixed feelings about his book. I was intrigued by the main character and her sensor abilities. A different take on a paranormal aspect. Magic doesn't affect her. I liked this paranormal world. The sups, or supernatural beings, seem to band together. Vampires, werewolves, witches, trolls, fairies, pixies, and even nephilim. Some are good and some are bad. The thing that held me captivated and reading to the end were the unanswered questions, which never all got answered. I guess I will be reading more of the novels for sure. There is just too much I want to know about Lucas, Derrick, and Nik. They all have my attention.

The downside. I found myself doing too much skimming. They say only write the parts that want to be read. For me, I could do without some of the scene descriptions, and some of the internal conflict the character experienced. I wasn't completely drawn in by the plot either. The plot didn't become more involved until halfway through.

A few too many racy descriptions. Virtuous readers will be turned off by the dance club turned orgy in the first chapter. Though details are vague, it's still enough to emphasize the inappropriateness. No sex, surprisingly. Moderate swearing, so I can't recommend this to my Christian friends.

Melena Sanders, ex-military, is planning to attend college in the fall in California but right now she has to track down her missing friend, Aniya. A cryptic message left by her points Mel to Fairbanks, Alaska. There she discovers a war brewing that involves plenty of supernatural folks. Not all are human friendly. Luckily for Mel, she’s a little more than human. She’s a Sensor and that gives her just enough of an edge to be a true threat to these werewolves, vampires, and witches.

This is my new favorite urban fantasy series. This book is off to a good start, introducing our main character, Mel, and the paranormal world she deals with. Her dedication to her friends is a key component to the plot for this book. In her search for Aniya, she tries to keep Lizette out of it for her own safety. However, this goes a bit awry and I’m sure these two will have some words for each other later. She also makes some new friends in Alaska, some out of necessity and others out of choice. She needs all the assists she can get as she tries to find Philip Mercer, the last person Aniya was seen with.

There’s tons of alliances in this book and some of those alliances pull good folk into bad situations while other alliances pull questionable people into doing good deeds. Things, actions, and people are not always clearly evil or good and I really liked this aspect of the book. It kept me on my toes and engaged throughout the story.

There’s a powerful magic user, Variola, who holds several witches and werewolves in fealty. Mel has to make a deal with her and she wants an ancient vampire, Nikolas, found so she can destroy him in some ritual. However, the alpha werewolf, Derrick, isn’t too happy with how things are going down. Then there’s this Nephilim, Lucas, that follows Mel around. Half the time he’s keeping her from harm and the other half of the time he’s threatening to end her life. It’s a complex relationship that involved Lucas killing Mel’s protector, Wanda, several years ago with no explanation. Just because allegiances aren’t convoluted and strained enough, things get shook up once again when Nikolas comes out of his vampire sleep. Oh, yes! Whoever decides they want Nikolas dead is going to have their hands full!

One of the main draws for me was Mel’s character. She’s not without training and life experience. She has some years under belt and has had to make her way in the world for some years. She has been honed by both joys and tragedies. In short, she knows her own mind and walks into this story knowing exactly what her goal is (to get Aniya back) and can make her own decisions on how to go about it. She’s knowledgeable about guns and other weapons and not afraid of hurting or killing, if that is what’s needed. Yeah, I want to be Mel when I grow up.

On the other side of the coin, there’s a touch of flirtation here and there. Others have told me that there’s a full romance later on in the series, so for those of you who enjoy romance, you have that to look forward to. I found the flirtations of Nikolas amusing and they added a little bit of humor to a pretty tense book.

The ending did leave me with several questions concerning Lucas and Mel’s future. She has some hard choices to make, I think, in the next book. So I’m glad that the entire 6 book series is out, ready for me to tear through.

The Narration: I enjoyed Cris Dukehart’s narration. She started off a little rough, making bullet statements, but within the first hour she smoothed out. I did like that she didn’t sound all girly, but rather as a grown woman who’s used to making her own decisions – which fits the main character perfectly. I also liked her various accents for some of the older characters. She made a very believable flirtatious 800 year old vampire.

I received this book through the Early readers program in exchange for an honest review.

I had not read/listen to the previous books in the series. I felt like it was hard to follow the book and keep up with all that was happening. The characters were not engaging and the story had too many plots. Maybe I will go back and read the previous books to see if this one makes more sense.

I received this book through the Early readers program. I thought at first this was another of the YA supernatural books so prevalent these days but I found myself about halfway through it hoping it wasn't for the YA crowd as it has a pretty graphic sex scene about the halfway mark.
This book seemed to want to be too many things at once, Action book, supernatural book, horror novel, romance book that it doesn't take the time to be any one genre long enough. I was disappointed at the number of characters/species the author tried to cram into one book so that it became a chore just figuring out who was who. And the story line was hard to follow as we first try to rescue this person than that person.
I always try to find something I like about a book and some of the characters were amusing, the humor was funny here and there but there was just too much going on to keep it all straight.
Vampires, Nephilim, pixies, werewolves, archangels, demons, humans and senors, Witches, you name them they are thrown in somewhere.
It might have helped if I had read the other 6 books that make up this series, but somehow I doubt it. I like a good Horror story, action adventure, but this is not one.
And the graphic sex scene was just gratuitous and unnecessary.
Though it doesn't bear on the story I also had trouble with the format. I've grown to enjoy audio books on cds but these were MP3 coded cds making them impossible to play on just any cd player, I had to download to my PC and then copy to my MP3 player, a time consuming and completely unnecessary step.
Oh, and don't let me forget that the story switches perspective back and forth every other chapter, from Lucas told in third person to Melena told in first person, another confusing thing.
Sorry, but I didn't enjoy this book.½

I had received this audiobook from librarything.com in turn for an honest review.

I had not read any of the other books in this series before listening to this book. So I wasn't sure of a few things when the book had first started out. I didn't know the characters backgrounds and such, but that didn't make a difference for me.
I really enjoyed this audiobook. I enjoyed learning about the different class/type of characters in this book and why they interact the way they do with eachother.
I agree that the sex scene really came out of nowhere in this book and there is always sexual references but then only one big scene.
I really want to go back and read the other books in this series now and see how everything started and turns out.
The only thing that I really didn't enjoy about the audiobook was the voice that did the reading. She would not have been my first choice.

I don't feel anything about this book, which should actually say something about how little the characters mattered to me. The plot in this book is almost non-existent, I couldn't care for the characters, didn't care if they all died, and what the actual fudge does that sex scene accomplish in the novel?
I was pretty excited for this book, but I found it lacking in most parts.

The thing that saves it a little is the voice actor of the audiobook, which is the only reason this has 2 1/2 stars instead of 1/2.½

Darkness Wanes by Susan Illene suffers from being part of the series. Not enough back story is given to really make sense of all the relationships and characters in the story. World building is also lacking, as it was probably done in an earlier book and not repeated in this one. This is a series that you definitely can't jump into with any book. The sex scene was unnecessary for the plot. I think a lot of urban fantasy writers suffer from the "must include sex idea." It really puts a damper in the flow of the prose. I'm still trying to figure out what the plot was supposed to be. Was it to rescue an angel from hell or rescue one of the protagonists friends? Either plot could have been interesting, but they weren't given enough time to make an emotional impact. The narrator did a decent job differentiating the characters, but some of the vocalizations of male voices lacked any emotion behind them.

Given this book for a honest review. I think had I began reading from #1 in the series that this would have been better for me. Too many references to earlier things that had happened and not enough back ground to "catch up"; therefore, not making it a truly stand alone volume. Some parts were stilted and others flowed very smoothly and kept the story moving along. Character development was somewhat lacking, but I think that it has to do with this being book 6 and I probably missed that in previous volumes. All in all, it was not a bad book and probably would have been at least a 4 star if I had read the prior volumes.

Fatally flawed and difficult to endure.

As renfield1969 has noted, this book has no discernible plot or point. Worse, while based almost entire on action scenes, they were all lackluster and--given that the characters are all so shallow I couldn't care about any of them--I couldn't get remotely invested in the action. Worse, the writer's use of language is deplorable. She doesn't know how to use pronouns, and consistently got he/him, she/her, and me/I confused, which was horribly distracting, and annoyed the heck out of me.

Then, in the middle of the book and for no apparent reason, there was a cheesy and poorly-written soft-core porn scene that came out of the blue. If I wanted soft-core porn, I would have chosen a bodice-ripper. It *really* had no place in this novel.

Do yourself a favor and give this one a miss.

Nearly plot free and cluttered with characters, the magical world the author built rarely makes a lick of sense. This book really suffers from the "series trap" in that the author has to take time to explain the events of every single book that came before it, which in this case happens rather organically but only serves to complicate the narrative. The worst parts are when something does happen to one of the main characters you can be sure that character will take time to explain what happened to the other characters, so essentially the reader is forced to endure several scenes two or three times over.

An apocalyptic tale of two dimensions colliding, allowing dragons to pass over from a dimension they’ve been stuck in for the last millennium. The collision causes earthquakes, thunderstorms and tornados over a short period of time and the newly arrived dragons go on a rampage of killing all over the world.

The story follows Bailey, a woman born to be a dragon slayer, on the day after graduation when she’s about to head home to the family ranch in TX, finds herself stuck on campus in OK due to the dragons and a huge chasm from earthquakes that prevent her from being able to get there. The story is told from two points of view; in the first person by Bailey, and in third person by Aidan, a dragon shapeshifter who is the natural enemy of the pure, animalistic dragons.

The concept of the story is interesting, as are the world building and characters. I’m intrigued by Aidan’s situation and want to know how that turns out.

But the story has a few problems. The first is that it moves rather slowly with the same flavor of fight for survival situations repeated a number of times. Then, as with her prior books (and I was hoping to see some improvement here) you just don’t feel the character’s emotions; never feel like you’re in Bailey’s head and along for the ride. With Bailey, the author does give an excuse for this in the story. And lastly, there are a few things that just don’t make sense.

I read this via Kindle Unlimited. If the next book is also available for free, I’d be willing to read it to see what happens next. But otherwise I can’t say that I enjoyed this enough to pay money for the next release.

3.5 stars½

Melena is a Sensor, meaning that she’s both empathic and can sense supernaturals from a distance of one half mile, and magic doesn’t work on her. This is something that she can’t let anyone know about because if the supes find out, it’s an automatic death sentence. But when her roommate goes missing after heading up to Alaska with her boyfriend, she makes the trip to Fairbanks, the center of the heaviest population of supernaturals, in order to find her. A world of vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, pixies, nephilim, etc, that most humans don’t know exist.

I found the story arc to be different than other urban fantasies I’ve read, although the fact that more than one guy is interested in her when she’s always avoided relationships is not. This is not a romance; at least not at this point.

The story sucked me in with the challenges, decisions and actions Melena must face. Where this story fell short for me was that while told in the first person point of view, not once did I ever feel like I was in Melena’s head. We know she feels emotions because we’re told so, but we should also be experiencing the emotion along with the character. And while we’re given enough reasons to like or dislike some of the other characters, we don’t know much about them. Some of that is obviously on purpose.

I did enjoy it enough to download the next book.

As a really intriguing insight into Lucas's mind, this is a very good novella. Before I read it I was moaning about another shirtless hero on the cover of urban fantasy book, but this cover suits Lucas and this story to a tee. It was pretty great, especially the ending with Melena, which made me really look forward to the next book. Also, loved Sons of Anarchy mention. *thumbs up*

Darkness Haunts was good, peeps, and I breezed through it within a couple of hours. Miss Illene is a definite fan of urban fantasy and it is her genre. I also loved that all of this was happening in Alaska. This is not a region very popular in UF, and I can only name a few books that chose to use it as their setting.

There are plenty of yummy moments and interesting characters: Mel herself is an intriguing woman with a background as a military interrogator; Lucas is a Nephilim angel who mostly annoys her and occasionally saves her life; and Nikolas oozes charm surprising for his advanced age and level of power.

I very much enjoyed Mel. She is tough, she is not afraid to be ruthless and use her knife or her gun. She fights for what she feels is right and she knows when to retreat. I like clever and resourceful characters, and I think that given some time, Mel will become a formidable heroine.

The plot moves really well and involves all sorts of supernatural beings - werewolves, vampires, witches, fairies. Saying all that, the book felt too tentative in its exploration of the characters and world-building. I was interested in the world and I wanted to know more, and I think the book would only have won from extra 100 or so pages.

Susan Illene is not afraid of writing about darkness, and her villains are done really well, I just think she should dig even deeper and bring all those deep, powerful, painful emotions, all those conflicts and moments of extreme joy to the surface to make her future books even better.

I will be rooting for this author because I think she's got great potential. Susan, turn it up to eleven! *grinning*

I've already said while reviewing the first book in the series that Susan Illene had a very good potential. She writes pure urban fantasy and is obviously a huge fan of this genre herself.


All the action in this series is happening in Alaska. I don't know about you, but I know very little about this region, and to me the location is refreshing. This time Melena, a kick-ass sensor and former military interrogator is forced to go against demonic infestation in Juneau.

She is sassy and tough, and she doesn't bend to supernatural wills trying to boss her around. Whatever happens she tries to negotiate the best conditions for herself and her adopted daughter.

The book is really fast and like book #1 feels shorter than I would have liked to see. Maybe it's just me? I've enjoyed seeing more of delicious Lucas, and the problems associated with him in Melena's life definitely piqued my curiosity. Overall, this was a very engaging read which I'd recommend for the fans of Kate Daniels. Short and sweet.

I am really enjoying this series, folks. While it's not a mind-blowing urban fantasy like Written in Red by Anne Bishop or the latest Kate Daniels from Ilona and Gordon Andrews, it's still a helluva lot better than a lot of new urban fantasy authors I tried recently. Lauren M.Roy, James Elliott, Dana Cameron and Leigh Evans come to mind as authors of the series I unfortunately have absolutely no desire to continue.

Susan Illene on the other hand is a solid four stars urban fantasy read, where I pretty much like the plot, main characters and a slow development of the world they live in.

Melena, the sensor, who fell in love with her nephilim guardian, has this down-to-earth, matter-of-fact practical ruthlessness I particularly adore in my heroines. She does what needs to be done and doesn't suffer from unnecessary guilt or righteous indignation before or after.

In fact, she and Lucas, her lover, who has a very bad name in the world of supernatural suit each other perfectly. When she is in trouble he is ready to destroy everything and everyone to help her, and when he is in trouble, aka stuck in Purgatory with a 60 years sentence of daily torture, she finds a way to break in, wreak havoc and shoot anything in sight, so she can get him out.

I loved Melena in Purgatory! She was amazing, and the way archangels punished her afterwards was particularly fun. And no, I can't tell you what it was, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.



I am anticipating all hell breaking loose in the next book and having more time with my favorite torturer *grinning*. He is a funny, awkward character, that man, and now he can't get away from Melena, so it will be fun! Recommended.

3.5/5
Cute and fun, this is a lightning fast read, that showcasts the ongoing changes in Melena, and how the balance of power in her relationship with Lucas is at last shifting. Lucas was even *gasp*flirty at times! And I loved the amount of snark in this installment. Kerbasi's involvement was a good call which added a very much needed hilarity to the series overall. Recommended.

One of the pleasures of being a book blogger is discovering and supporting self-publishing authors since the very beginning of their journey. I'm happy I was there all the way for Elizabeth Hunter, and I am just as happy for Susan Illene.

Susan writes classic urban fantasy with a stoic, sensible, believable heroine, and I'm glad that by book #4 her series is still going strong.

You know by now that Melena's status changed and with her new immortality comes a bunch of new problems. She is being challenged and the expectations from her friends and enemies both are very high. She gets more and more embroiled in other immortals schemes and intrigues, and frankly she doesn't know if she ever had a chance to refuse to participate in their intrigues.

Darkness Clashes is a dark, intense book. A lot of people get hurt or killed, and there is an overall feeling of rage, hopelessness and desperation hanging in the air. I think, Melena feels more and more cornered with nary a possibility to escape. She is forced to hide some important truths from Lucas and doesn't know if he ever forgives her, and even hilarious moments with Kerbasi struggle to lighten up the atmosphere of doom and gloom.

Ah, Kerbasi! You are growing on me... If you are a fan of Kate Daniels, you will probably find some similarities between him and Saiman, although on the surface they are completely different.



There is also an intriguing new character in this book, Yerik. He is very eccentric right now, and I am not convinced of his loyalties, but one thing I'm sure of is that there is more to Yerik than his damn kilt.

At last, the best part is the fight scenes. My personal favourite is one on one between Melena and Lian, and I totally got an adrenaline rush out of it, but there are a couple of others that are very well done.

Overall, this series is just getting stronger and more surefooted, and it's especially obvious with the last two books. Definitely recommended.

What an ending, ladies and gents! Melena is in trouble... *grinning* ... and so is everybody else!

If you remember last book, Ariel forced Melena to keep silence about Micah, so for most of this book our girl is hopelessly watching Lucas fly from one end of the country to another, torturing bad guys in order to find out where his brother is being hidden. Lucas is suffering, Melena is suffering and as a result they spend very little time together.

At the same time, supernatural plague threatens to destroy some of Melena's dearest and most beloved people while there is frantic search around the globe for the cure. Lots and lots happens in this book, and this time the events affect all the supernatural community for years to come.

I know some people did not like the fact that there was so little interaction between Melena and Lucas, but whatever moments they stole together were some quality time. And by quality I mean HOT. *fans herself* I also enjoyed reading Lucas POV, and I especially loved that Melena's sensible actions prevented major schism between this couple which could have easily happened to a less levelheaded heroine.

Verdict? Very good, dynamic urban fantasy. Recommended, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Also, Kerbasi should get his own book. He is such a walking disaster, and yet I can't help but love him.

If you liked Susan Illene's urban fantasy series, The Sensor, I guarantee you will enjoy this one. She takes an apocalyptic event of our world colliding with an another dimension, and creates a believable, creative scenario, blending dystopia and fantasy genres, magic and technology, dragons and college graduates.


Bailey just graduated from college and is getting ready to ride back to her parents ranch in Texas, when there is a huge earthquake, and suddenly dragons roam the sky attacking people. During an attack on the campus Bailey survives and realises that she is immune to dragon fire.


Suddenly our rational, sensible heroine is forced to admit there is more to world than she can see with a naked eye. Dragons and witches and crazy survivalists thrive, while ordinary people are forced to band together, loot neighbouring stores for food, clothes and water while the thin veneer of civilisation slowly crumbles away.


Bailey's point of view is counteracted by Aidan's, - a young dragon shifter determined to help his clan survive and prevail in the collision of two worlds. Finding Bailey on his territory he recognises her as one of rare dragon slayers and offers to teach her if she helps him fight pure dragons who consider people as food and nothing else.


Aidan's character is pretty awesome. He is cunning, strategic but at the same time, there is no darkness in him. He is a decent guy who is determined to do what's needed to be done, nothing more.


Both him and Bailey have separate struggles and dangers, and both have a solid circle of secondary characters whom I really enjoyed.


The narrator, Marguerite Gavin, whom you might know for her narration of Kim Harrison's works, does a stellar job with Southern drawl for Bailey and her friends, and for expressionless, slightly alien accents of dragon shifters.


Overall, this is a book which lays down the rules and creates the base for an extensive world-building. It's interesting, easy to listen and full of potential. I enjoyed it and very much am looking forward to the next one in the series.