DERIK'S BANE AND THE CURSE OF THE TBR CHALLENGE.

Though I've thoroughly enjoyed participating in this years Take Control Of Your TBR Pile Challenge - what better way to read some of those books that have been begging for your attention? - for me it has been a cursed challenge in so far as that out of the 8 books I've actually finished (I've also read another two neither of which met the challenges criteria) I've only actually enjoyed Keeping Faith AND Dry Season.

So before my next review here's a recap of just what I read (with previous reviews hi-lighted)......

• WORKING FOR THE DEVIL by Lilith Saintcrow
• KEEPING FAITH by Jodi Picoult 
• BAREBACK by Kit Whitfield
• THE LION OF CAIRO by Scott Oden
• A BOY BEYOND REACH by Cheri Florance
• THE LAST GOSPEL by David Gibbins
• DERIK'S BANE by MaryJanice Davidson.
• DRY SEASON by Dan Smith - ReaD BUT NOT YET REVIEWED.

And now onto my review of ......

DERIK'S BANE by MARYJANICE DAVIDSON.

Derik's a werewolf with alpha issues - and a body to die for.

Sara is the personification of unspeakable evil - and smells like roses.

Now if they could just stop lusting after each other long enough to save the world. 

 It's always good to have a psychic around - except when she tells you the world will soon end unless you do something about it. For werewolf Derik Gardner that means heading to sunny California and destroying the reincarnation of possibly the most powerful sorceress in history: Morgan Le Fay.

But the beautiful - and slightly ditzy - Dr Sara Gunn has no idea that she is Morgan Le Fay. Her masses of wild red curls and crystal blue eyes make killing her an unpleasant prospect for Derik ... and his half-hearted attempts don't meet with much success. So if he can't kill Sara, he'll join her, on a cross-country odyssey to change her fate, confront a medieval evil - and hopefully get lucky...

....... Outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Prologue - The Past): The man had short brown hair, neatly trimmed.

MEMORABLE MOMENT(Page 80): Did she really believe he was going to turn into a wolf and round around peeing on fire hydrants? (Hardly memorable I know but its the best I've got. PW)

MY THOUGHTS: Given this by a friend who wanted to know if it was suitable for her 8 year old grand-daughter who liked the cartoon like cover - thank goodness she did so as full of expletives and the occasional (laughable but still pretty graphic) sex scenes it was far from suitable.

Largely regarded as a riotous romp of a read, sorry to say I found this to be full of an outdated school-boyish 'humour' (odd given that its written by a woman) and obnoxious immature characters who came out with some of the most dreadful un-funny lines ("Don't get me wrong cutie. I'd love to find the right girl and knock her up) I've read for a long while.

At a mere 200 pages (200 too many in my opinion) arguably Derik's Bane is too short a read to really get to grips with any real plot or character development and perhaps I'm being too harsh in expecting anything other than a weak storyline and shallow characters but goodness only knows the author's Sleeping With The Fishes (see my review HERE) whilst hardly wonderful proves she is better than this poor offering.

KEEP IT OR NOT?: Would it surprise you to know I won't be keeping this?

Disclaimer #1 :Removal of any part of this post without my express consent is considered copyright infringement. This post was created by and for Petty Witter @ Pen and Paper. If you are reading this post on any other site please contact the original blog owner/reviewer.