The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee (The Portlock Paranormal Detective #3) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jun 14, 2024 Katyana rated it it was ok

Shelves: vampires, kindle-unlimited, fuck-this-chick, tstl, uuuugh, uf, whiny-heroine

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This one drops to 2.5 stars, and I'm not sure I'll bother reading on.

This series is a mashup of cozy mystery and UF. Honestly, the vibe is more cozy mystery than UF, just in terms of tone. And while I did enjoy it for awhile, it is starting to grind my gears a bit. Let me explain.

First, I don't like the FMC Bunny. Partially this is because she's inconsistent...so much so that I wonder if this isn't partially due to the two authors. Like, maybe they haven't meshed into a single voice very success This one drops to 2.5 stars, and I'm not sure I'll bother reading on.

This series is a mashup of cozy mystery and UF. Honestly, the vibe is more cozy mystery than UF, just in terms of tone. And while I did enjoy it for awhile, it is starting to grind my gears a bit. Let me explain.

First, I don't like the FMC Bunny. Partially this is because she's inconsistent...so much so that I wonder if this isn't partially due to the two authors. Like, maybe they haven't meshed into a single voice very successfully? I don't know. Bunny is a 23-24 year old poor little rich girl, who alternates between being as vapid as a Kardashian and as smart as a whip. And sometimes she makes that turn on a dime, in a way that is jarring. She's also hugely self-absorbed and spectacularly TSTL. But yet, despite acting like a complete moron a lot of the time (especially when it comes to danger - she walks right into it like a brainless twit), she will - as needed by the book - make a lightning-fast connection between two pieces of evidence that no one else was able to see. She also makes a point of her independence. I get that - I'm similar, to the point where I consider it a flaw (I am like practically phobic of co-dependence) - but when you're talking about dangerous situations, it is unbelievably stupid. She takes offense at people offering to walk her home ... when there is a murderer disappearing people around town in book 1, and she has only been in Alaska (and so therefore, out of the wild city life of London) for like 3 days.

The only reason she hasn't died a million times is because it is really hard to kill a Mary Sue.

I hated her even more in this book for the way she treated Connor, honestly. She's just appallingly selfish.

My next major point of criticism is that we are 3.5 books in - and these are long-ass books (prequel short is 168 pages, book 1 is 529 pages, book 2 is 455 pages, book 3 is 528 pages) - and there has been almost no information on major plot elements.

We learned back in the prequel that someone paid Franklin to turn her. We learned in book 1 it was a witch. And that's it. No more info.

Her did went happily along with her being turned against the law and without her consent. Why? Is he in on it? Is he mind controlled? No info. Mom found out she was turned in the prequel that that was that - she disappeared from the page until she and Bunny texted in book 2. Briefly. But not about any of this at all.

Bunny is a super special snowflake. We learned that she's got magic. She's got a heartbeat (very slow). She apparently needs to breathe. Things that kill vampires don't kill her (that's been the case 2 times now, at minimum - the crystals in the face in book 2, and the banshee in this book), and we have no info about why. Just that she's super badass, and apparently draws super badass magical animals to her as if she's the Pied Piper of magical creatures (not that we know anything about them either, but Fluffy is clearly not just a dog - pretty sure he's died twice too, but didn't stay dead - and Shadow is clearly not just a cat/lynx). We haven't been given even the teeniest speck of information about why ... and yo, I have read 1,680 pages. It is RIDICULOUS that there has been no forward movement on any of these plot points, and I'm out of patience.

Bunny is also a TERRIBLE police officer. And that's fair, she's been a police officer for about 3 weeks. I think. There's not a clear indication of how much time has passed, but it doesn't seem to be much. But she acts like she's a badass police officer, and everyone treats her like she is too. This is partially because of the (unjustified) leaps of intuition where she puts pieces together that no one else can apparently see. And I can give a little leeway on that - she has an eidetic memory, so I can accept some Psyche-like piecing together of info. But she's had no training, and Gunnar is handing her guns (I laughed when he did that in a previous book, handing this British chick who behaves like a 15 year old a revolver) and letting her take the lead on cases. And she constantly handles herself poorly. For example, in this book she charges in - without backup - to confront someone she suspects is a murdering witch (who has already killed a banshee, and who seems to have taken down Connor and Lee ... the leader of the vampires and his second). And leaves, in the car, all her gear ... like the magic-suppressing cuffs, or her bulletproof vest. She is a complete and total dumbass.

It has become exhausting and tedious, to be quite frank. ...more

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Jun 28, 2024 ~♥*Marianna*♥~ rated it liked it

Umm.. what’s with that fade to black? It wasn’t even a fade, it’s was a complete skip! I don’t know about that… I’m also not up for mama drama in the next book. This whole time I’ve been waiting for vampire stuff but there is nothing going on with that! It’s just all these other supernaturals we learn about! She’s never around vampires! I want some vampire politics and culture please!

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