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A review by tynga
Night Owls by Lauren M. Roy
3.0
The life of seven unlikely people will change forever the day Father Value, Jackal (aka Creeps) hunter, dies on a mission. He died to protect a mystical book and his partner, Elly, will risk her life - and the one of many others- trying to keep it out of Creeps' hands. Will she succeed or will his death be in vain?
I dove into Night Owls hoping for a good old urban fantasy, and while the genre is accurate, I'm afraid to say I wasn't impressed. This review will be very hard for me to write because I usually mention the things I liked and things I disliked about the book, but in this case, I didn't like nor dislike the novel, it kind of left me unaffected. While this isn't a bad novel, I just didn't feel passionate, or even involved in any of the proceedings. I didn't even care who lived or died, which is sad.
I think one of the main reason I didn't feel connected is the lack of a clear main characters. Reading the synopsis now I realize Valerie and Elly were suppose to be the main characters, but it was far from clear. Valerie (a vampire), Chaz (her human Renfield), Elly (Creeps Hunter) & Cavale (former Creeps Hunter) share, it seemed to me, equal parts of the main spotlight. On top of this, Justin (human) and Sunny & Lia (succubi) bring up the rear with secondary roles. All of these characters sharing the scene, fighting for our attention, just made it hard for me to connect with any of them in particular and it didn't help with my lack of caring. Not only are they many, none of them are particularly amazing.
The plot was correct if not particularly engrossing. We followed a rather linear line of action, without many surprises, but the fighting scenes were well delivered. Unfortunately, the solution to their problem was so simple in the end, it was ridiculous. Miss Roy should've thought harder to find something complex enough to justify the trouble they all went through.
I think the best aspect of this novel was the lore because it featured a type of characters I hadn't encountered before: Jackals/Creeps. They are some kind of cannibal (because they eat human flesh) shape shifters who smell like rotten flesh. They have abilities and weaknesses similar to your traditional vampires (sunlight, silver, etc), but they kind of look like wolves when turning and some of them have special skills.
All that being said, I did finish reading this novel without dragging my feet too much, so it wasn't a bad novel, it just didn't stir any passion from me whatsoever, so I didn't like it either. As far as I know, this was Lauren's first book and I think she has potential, so even though I won't keep reading this series, I won't disregard anything she writes in the future either. I would suggest you read an excerpt (I couldn't find one for you sorry!) before you decide to buy the book, and see if you think you might like it.
I dove into Night Owls hoping for a good old urban fantasy, and while the genre is accurate, I'm afraid to say I wasn't impressed. This review will be very hard for me to write because I usually mention the things I liked and things I disliked about the book, but in this case, I didn't like nor dislike the novel, it kind of left me unaffected. While this isn't a bad novel, I just didn't feel passionate, or even involved in any of the proceedings. I didn't even care who lived or died, which is sad.
I think one of the main reason I didn't feel connected is the lack of a clear main characters. Reading the synopsis now I realize Valerie and Elly were suppose to be the main characters, but it was far from clear. Valerie (a vampire), Chaz (her human Renfield), Elly (Creeps Hunter) & Cavale (former Creeps Hunter) share, it seemed to me, equal parts of the main spotlight. On top of this, Justin (human) and Sunny & Lia (succubi) bring up the rear with secondary roles. All of these characters sharing the scene, fighting for our attention, just made it hard for me to connect with any of them in particular and it didn't help with my lack of caring. Not only are they many, none of them are particularly amazing.
The plot was correct if not particularly engrossing. We followed a rather linear line of action, without many surprises, but the fighting scenes were well delivered. Unfortunately, the solution to their problem was so simple in the end, it was ridiculous. Miss Roy should've thought harder to find something complex enough to justify the trouble they all went through.
I think the best aspect of this novel was the lore because it featured a type of characters I hadn't encountered before: Jackals/Creeps. They are some kind of cannibal (because they eat human flesh) shape shifters who smell like rotten flesh. They have abilities and weaknesses similar to your traditional vampires (sunlight, silver, etc), but they kind of look like wolves when turning and some of them have special skills.
All that being said, I did finish reading this novel without dragging my feet too much, so it wasn't a bad novel, it just didn't stir any passion from me whatsoever, so I didn't like it either. As far as I know, this was Lauren's first book and I think she has potential, so even though I won't keep reading this series, I won't disregard anything she writes in the future either. I would suggest you read an excerpt (I couldn't find one for you sorry!) before you decide to buy the book, and see if you think you might like it.