Review: Come Alive by Karina Halle

Come Alive by Karina Halle
Series: Experiment in Terror #7
Release Date: June 23rd, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

It’s one thing to bring the woman you love back into your life. It’s another to try and keep her there. For Dex Foray, con­vinc­ing Perry Palomino to open her­self to their bur­geon­ing rela­tion­ship has been more chal­leng­ing than hunt­ing ghosts, bat­tling demons and stalk­ing Sasquatch com­bined. Add in the fact that the only way they can keep their Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror show run­ning is to take on a third part­ner in the form of the mys­te­ri­ous Max­imus Jacobs — all while inves­ti­gat­ing a sin­is­ter voodoo sect in New Orleans — and you’ve got the per­fect South­ern storm and a recipe for dis­as­ter. Luck­ily, Dex has never been one to back down, even when his life –and heart — are on the line.

When I first found out that this book would be written in Dex's POV I was beyond excited. I had read and loved And With Madness Comes Light and felt like if anyone could pull of a male-pov it would be Karina. I was right.

Although I didn't think I was at first. After the initial excitement wore off, I started remembering what Dex was like. Now we all love Dex, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend a whole book in his perverted mind. When I started the book for the first 11% percent I had been right. I wasn't enjoying the book and Dex was starting to *gasp* annoy me .

But then things turned around. Then the creepiness and other things came in and I started remembering why I, why we, all were in love with Dex in the first place. 

This is one of my favorite series. It's creepy and original and this book didn't change that. 

This book takes us to the city of New Orleans, which (I think) is well known for voodoo magic. We have that but this book also has zombies. As in real life scary ass zombies. I've never been a huge zombie fan. I am not sure why that is but when it comes to Karina, I don't seem to mind anything. She has this brilliant way of crafting an amazingly unique story. The horror and creepiness levels went up by a couple of notches in this one which was relieving because honestly, the 6th book had not done it for me. It wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped it would be after the awesomeness of the 5th one but Come Alive did not disappoint. Although I'll admit to missing the ghosts.

What I was really glad to see was that even though this was written in Dex's Pov, he didn't overshadow Perry. Perry wasn't just 'a character' she was still one of the main characters. She managed to stand out as someone who wasn't just Dex's love interest and someone Dex spend almost the whole book lusting after. Karina gave Perry a voice and it was almost as strong as Dex's. She remained as strong and lovable as always. 

Dex managed to surprise me though. He surprised me by being a good narrator but even more of a good character. Sexual innuendoes and jokes aside, Dex was actually an incredibly likable character. In fact when Perry had her doubts about Ambrosia, he may have chalked them up to jealousy but he at least followed up on them just to be sure because he respected her and her opinions. She wasn't just a piece of ass to him. The thing about Dex is he manages to show depth at the most surprising of moments, he is such a charming and hilarious character that you sometimes forget that he can be serious as well. I might not have agreed with some of his decisions but I respect them. 

We were also reunited with one of our (not so beloved) characters, Max. I never really liked Max in all honesty. Maybe because I was too busy holding the Dex flag. He was alright in the 2nd book but in the 5th one I had come to hate him. So I wasn't too happy when he was redeemed and when his true identity came to surface. There are several reasons for this but I don't want to spoil anything so I won't elaborate.

The 6th book left us with a very shaky ground for Dex and Perry's relationship. After the incident of the 4th book, Perry wasn't sure she could trust Dex so easily but she realized she needed him. Their relationship finally blooms in this book though, after 7 books of waiting for the two to admit to each other that they love the other, it FINALLY happened and it worked out beautifully. 

This book, though not my favorite in the series, was a great installment. There was creepy, awesome, romance, heartbreak and let's not forget Dex's incredibly amusing wit. It was a good addition to the series and fans should definitely pick this up asap. 

Review: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
Series: Benny Imura, #1
Release Date: September 14, 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Buy: Amazon | The Book Depository

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

In all honesty, I absolutely adore zombie novels. But for whatever reason, it's been impossible to satisfy me with zombies recently. They're all too... boring. They can't turn doorknobs, they shamble along and in all likeliness, their only purpose is a scare/action type factor. So, you can see where I'm going with this. Benny's zombies just weren't scary enough.

On the back of my copy of this book, it says "Benny Imura couldn't hold a job, so he took to killing". That makes him sound like the king of all badasses, but in the long run I didn't even really like him. As characters go, I thought that he was remarkably flat. He didn't have the emotion that I expected him to have, and... I didn't feel his drive. Like, I knew why he was doing things, but I couldn't feel it. There were no emotions behind him as a character.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't really care for the writing style either. It made the book a very slow read for me, even when the plot was really moving. I just kept trudging on and on. That was the only speed at which I could read Rot & Ruin, a trudge.

Don't get me wrong, the story was interesting enough. The plot was okay, and there were a few surprises... but it was bogged down by flat characters and I slightly confusing point of view. Most of the time, Benny was our narrator, but I noticed a few times that it was Tom, which was slightly awkward. I think that I just have a problem with third person writing. Maybe that's it.

I did like Tom, but he wasn't really in the book for very long. He had a great sense of justice, and he was wonderful when he was telling stories to Benny, which makes him one of the bright-ish spots in this novel. The ending was nice and gave me closure, but unfortunately... I don't really believe that I'll continue the series. All in all, Rot & Ruin just wasn't for me, no matter how much I wish that it was.