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The Telepathic Clans #3
Broken Dolls
Book 3 of the Telepathic Clans Saga
Alternate cover edition.
Private investigator RB Kendrick makes her living nailing cheating spouses, digging up other dirt to help in a divorce, finding long-lost relatives, and occasionally sniffing out criminal activity and fraud.
When she takes a job to find a missing girl, she has no idea she is headed for the most dangerous case of her career. Usually, her ability to read minds gives her an edge. But when the people she’s hunting are also telepaths, that advantage is limited.
The search takes her into the dark underbelly of telepathic society, where anything, and anyone, is for sale. She discovers that telepathic women and girls are being trafficked as the ultimate sex slaves.
With people trying to kill her, she’s on the run, not knowing who she can trust. Will she find the missing girl, or become a victim herself?
A novel of paranormal suspense set in the world of the Telepathic Clans.
The Telepathic Clans series is now complete.
The Succubus Gift
Succubus Unleashed
Broken Dolls
Succubus Rising
Succubus Ascendant
Broken Dolls is set between Succubus Unleashed and Succubus Rising.
Alternate cover edition.
Private investigator RB Kendrick makes her living nailing cheating spouses, digging up other dirt to help in a divorce, finding long-lost relatives, and occasionally sniffing out criminal activity and fraud.
When she takes a job to find a missing girl, she has no idea she is headed for the most dangerous case of her career. Usually, her ability to read minds gives her an edge. But when the people she’s hunting are also telepaths, that advantage is limited.
The search takes her into the dark underbelly of telepathic society, where anything, and anyone, is for sale. She discovers that telepathic women and girls are being trafficked as the ultimate sex slaves.
With people trying to kill her, she’s on the run, not knowing who she can trust. Will she find the missing girl, or become a victim herself?
A novel of paranormal suspense set in the world of the Telepathic Clans.
The Telepathic Clans series is now complete.
The Succubus Gift
Succubus Unleashed
Broken Dolls
Succubus Rising
Succubus Ascendant
Broken Dolls is set between Succubus Unleashed and Succubus Rising.
249 pages, ebook
First published September 27, 2013
298 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
B.R. Kingsolver
42 books955 followersI made silver and turquoise jewelry for almost a decade, ended up in nursing school, then took a master’s in business. Along the way I worked in construction, as a newspaper editor, a teacher, and somehow found a career working with computers.
As to my other interests, I love the outdoors, especially the Rocky Mountains. I’ve skied since high school, with one broken leg and one torn ACL to show for it. I’ve hiked and camped all my life. I love to travel, though I haven’t done enough of it. I’ve seen a lot of Russia and Mexico, not enough of England. Amsterdam is amazing, and the Romanian Alps are breathtaking. Lake Tahoe is a favorite, and someday I’d like to see Banff.
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As to my other interests, I love the outdoors, especially the Rocky Mountains. I’ve skied since high school, with one broken leg and one torn ACL to show for it. I’ve hiked and camped all my life. I love to travel, though I haven’t done enough of it. I’ve seen a lot of Russia and Mexico, not enough of England. Amsterdam is amazing, and the Romanian Alps are breathtaking. Lake Tahoe is a favorite, and someday I’d like to see Banff.
For special deals and news about new books, sign up for my newsletter.
http://brkingsolver.us1.list-manage.c...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
October 14, 2013
* I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST OPINION. I DO NOT PROFIT OR BENEFIT FROM THIS IN ANY WAY.
Broken Dolls is a paranormal thriller set in Europe & takes the reader into the dark underground of the telepathic society. Rhiannon Kendrick (known as RB to her friends) is tall & gorgeous, but also notoriously klutzy. You see, RB is not your typical private investigator; she is a telepath with many gifts that helps her seek out the truth. Thank "goddess" that she has a best friend that happens to be a healer because trouble seems to follows her no matter where she goes. Just when it seems that her life as a PI is in a monotonous rut, Lord O'Byrne, head of one of the Irish clans, calls upon her for help to investigate & bring home a young succubi who has disappeared. As RB digs deeper in deeper into the disappearance of the girl, she discovers it's more than just a mere disappearance. Someone is kidnapping young telepath's and succubi's and trafficking them into the sex slave industry. RB must untangle the web of lies and deceit and not only try to find the missing girl but also save herself or forever parish into this underground of slavery.
This is not your average storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it kept me reading page to page. There are a lot of plot twists and turns and you never know who RB can and cannot trust. I loved that the story kept its course without immersing you too deep into the sexual details of these girls. I frequently got confused when RB described all of the different "gifts" that she and other telepaths have, so I started to keep notes (but then at the end of the book I discovered there is a list of all of the powers and what they do). At any rate, it was easy to keep the storyline straight even if you couldn't remember what power did what & who had these powers because the way the story was written. I enjoyed this so much, that should the author continue this series in the future, I would definitely continue reading them- I would love to see what trouble RB gets into next and to see if she actually picks up a serious love interest. This book was well worth reading and I would recommend this to anyone who likes a little adventure in their life without all of the heavy sexual content.
Broken Dolls is a paranormal thriller set in Europe & takes the reader into the dark underground of the telepathic society. Rhiannon Kendrick (known as RB to her friends) is tall & gorgeous, but also notoriously klutzy. You see, RB is not your typical private investigator; she is a telepath with many gifts that helps her seek out the truth. Thank "goddess" that she has a best friend that happens to be a healer because trouble seems to follows her no matter where she goes. Just when it seems that her life as a PI is in a monotonous rut, Lord O'Byrne, head of one of the Irish clans, calls upon her for help to investigate & bring home a young succubi who has disappeared. As RB digs deeper in deeper into the disappearance of the girl, she discovers it's more than just a mere disappearance. Someone is kidnapping young telepath's and succubi's and trafficking them into the sex slave industry. RB must untangle the web of lies and deceit and not only try to find the missing girl but also save herself or forever parish into this underground of slavery.
This is not your average storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it kept me reading page to page. There are a lot of plot twists and turns and you never know who RB can and cannot trust. I loved that the story kept its course without immersing you too deep into the sexual details of these girls. I frequently got confused when RB described all of the different "gifts" that she and other telepaths have, so I started to keep notes (but then at the end of the book I discovered there is a list of all of the powers and what they do). At any rate, it was easy to keep the storyline straight even if you couldn't remember what power did what & who had these powers because the way the story was written. I enjoyed this so much, that should the author continue this series in the future, I would definitely continue reading them- I would love to see what trouble RB gets into next and to see if she actually picks up a serious love interest. This book was well worth reading and I would recommend this to anyone who likes a little adventure in their life without all of the heavy sexual content.
September 13, 2015
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although I'm not familiar with this series, not having read the other Telepathic Clans books, I found this to be quite easy to understand. Although I couldn't see all of the details about the different Gifts the characters had, I thought there was enough explained in the narration and dialogue that I didn't get confused.
I did like Rhiannon's character, though I did think that she seemed quite high-powered at times and less so at different points in the storyline. I would have liked to have more details about how the different abilities worked. I wasn't very clear on why succubus was such an offensive word, though... or why Rhiannon kept using it even knowing it offended the people she was interacting with.
I thought it was interesting to see the way people's actions affected the colour of their souls. I was intrigued by the fact that it affected Rhiannon's moral compass. I also found it interesting to learn about the succubi and how they had to recharge by sleeping with men.
I thought there was a lot of tension in this book. The concept of broken dolls kept cropping up and it was interesting to see it as a running theme throughout the plot... even though I thought the references were a bit disrespectful. There was also a lot of intrigue going on... and not a whole lot of nice people in the book.
I liked the fact that Rhiannon did come across as caring quite a lot about the girls who were being taken and used. I also thought it was good to see some of the details about how abilities were passed on... and I liked the opportunity to see how the succubi 'hunted'.
There were a few things that I found a bit unexpected in this book, but there were others that I felt were a bit harder to follow. This book was quite short, but I think it could have been expanded... and I would have liked to see a lot more details about characters and their relationships to each other.
In the future, I'd be interested in reading the other books in this series and getting to know more about the world and the characters.
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although I'm not familiar with this series, not having read the other Telepathic Clans books, I found this to be quite easy to understand. Although I couldn't see all of the details about the different Gifts the characters had, I thought there was enough explained in the narration and dialogue that I didn't get confused.
I did like Rhiannon's character, though I did think that she seemed quite high-powered at times and less so at different points in the storyline. I would have liked to have more details about how the different abilities worked. I wasn't very clear on why succubus was such an offensive word, though... or why Rhiannon kept using it even knowing it offended the people she was interacting with.
I thought it was interesting to see the way people's actions affected the colour of their souls. I was intrigued by the fact that it affected Rhiannon's moral compass. I also found it interesting to learn about the succubi and how they had to recharge by sleeping with men.
I thought there was a lot of tension in this book. The concept of broken dolls kept cropping up and it was interesting to see it as a running theme throughout the plot... even though I thought the references were a bit disrespectful. There was also a lot of intrigue going on... and not a whole lot of nice people in the book.
I liked the fact that Rhiannon did come across as caring quite a lot about the girls who were being taken and used. I also thought it was good to see some of the details about how abilities were passed on... and I liked the opportunity to see how the succubi 'hunted'.
There were a few things that I found a bit unexpected in this book, but there were others that I felt were a bit harder to follow. This book was quite short, but I think it could have been expanded... and I would have liked to see a lot more details about characters and their relationships to each other.
In the future, I'd be interested in reading the other books in this series and getting to know more about the world and the characters.
October 15, 2013
RB Kendrik is a British private investigator normally assisting in finding proof of marital infidelity, corporate fraud, or finding missing relatives. Then RB is requested to find a young succubus who has gone missing from university in Ireland. It is soon suspected that the beautiful young succubus has fallen victim of an underground sex trade ring.
In Kingsolver’s ‘Telepathic Clans’ saga the definition of a ‘succubus’ is rather different to what readers might be familiar with (meaning they aren’t demonic ladies who cruelly steal the respectability of sleeping/dreaming men *eye roll*). The telepaths (RB included) have numerous ‘gifts’. The succubus gift involves numerous talents and physical attributes. Of course those talents and attributes are linked to attractiveness and sexual prowess. RB, as all telepaths are, is very beautiful and sexy but not a succubus. She’s just really awesome. BR Kingsolver’s ability to create fantastic extremely likeable characters seems inexhaustible. RB is definitely my favourite so far.
She uncovers a whole world of exploitation and illegal activities. There’s lots of travel, posh and not so posh venues, shady underground people and extremely likeable allies for RB. But what’s greatest is the strong storytelling. Reading Broken Dolls I felt that this is how reading a mystery should be. I did not want to put it down and I really should have at some points because I was busy!
I never expected to enjoy a mystery like this so much. It was a real pleasure to read.
In Kingsolver’s ‘Telepathic Clans’ saga the definition of a ‘succubus’ is rather different to what readers might be familiar with (meaning they aren’t demonic ladies who cruelly steal the respectability of sleeping/dreaming men *eye roll*). The telepaths (RB included) have numerous ‘gifts’. The succubus gift involves numerous talents and physical attributes. Of course those talents and attributes are linked to attractiveness and sexual prowess. RB, as all telepaths are, is very beautiful and sexy but not a succubus. She’s just really awesome. BR Kingsolver’s ability to create fantastic extremely likeable characters seems inexhaustible. RB is definitely my favourite so far.
She uncovers a whole world of exploitation and illegal activities. There’s lots of travel, posh and not so posh venues, shady underground people and extremely likeable allies for RB. But what’s greatest is the strong storytelling. Reading Broken Dolls I felt that this is how reading a mystery should be. I did not want to put it down and I really should have at some points because I was busy!
I never expected to enjoy a mystery like this so much. It was a real pleasure to read.
September 17, 2015
Private Investigator RB Kenkrick is asked to investigate missing person case that involves a telepath(people with special gifts). Over the course of the investigation discovers a trafficking ring for both telepaths and norms(regular people). The more RB learns about this trafficking ring she wants to get the people responsible for it. When RB meets a young woman that is acting odd like a broken doll it concerns her in many different ways. Will the missing person be found? Whose behind the trafficking ring? Can the trafficking ring be stopped? Your answers await you in Broken Dolls.
This is the second novel I've read by this author. I must admit that I'm impress with how the author treated this hot button topic. The story is fascinating, unique, well written, and thought provoking. The characters I admit at times were stilted and had no depth. Yet some characters were intriguing, compelling, and flawed.
This is the second novel I've read by this author. I must admit that I'm impress with how the author treated this hot button topic. The story is fascinating, unique, well written, and thought provoking. The characters I admit at times were stilted and had no depth. Yet some characters were intriguing, compelling, and flawed.
January 24, 2015
Broken Dolls is a paranormal thriller set in the world of the Telepathic Clans series, but is a standalone story, so you don’t need to have read the Succubus books to understand what’s going on.
To be frank, I started reading the first book, The Succubus Gift, and put it down after 3 chapters of dialogue info dump. It was well written dialogue, but too much info without action for me.
Having now read Broken Dolls, I am going to go back and plough on through until I get to the plot, because I really, really enjoyed reading this one.
Rhi is a private investigator, based in London, UK, using her psychic talents to expedite her work – and she’s good at it. Snarky, confident and dismissive of her physical beauty, she is a wonderful, strong and independent female lead.
When a family friend asks her to investigate the disappearance of a young girl – who also happens to be a succubus – she travels to Ireland, and is quickly plunged into the murky world of human trafficking. Or to be more precise in this case, trafficking in girls with the succubus gene.
Her search leads her into the dark underbelly of politics, and also into the crossfire of Clan warfare. There are hot men, hot girls, action, telepathic manipulation and psychic powers a-plenty. Fast paced and written in a smooth, easy-to-read style, my only real disappointment was the lack of description of the wonderful locations – if I hadn’t visited most of them at one time or another, I would have struggled to visualise them, and that’s how I like to ‘see’ the action in a book; as if watching a film.
The plot has all the twists and turns you’d want from a thriller, and yet the characters are fleshed out and develop through the course of the book; a pleasing balance.
I did struggle a little to keep track of all the names, there are so many characters, clans, relatives, hangers-on etc., but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment; I found myself reading on regardless. It was a little the same with all the Gifts – if only I’d found the glossary at the end of the book sooner!
Probably my only doubt about this book was that I was uncomfortable with the casualness of all concerned about wiping people’s minds and memories, and re-programming them. Whilst it is a convenient tool when you have a criminal, or someone who is morally challenged, I was discomforted by the way no one questioned the ethics of doing such a thing – what makes it right for one segment of society to do this, and consider it wrong for another? You could argue that the baddies were doing it for selfish gain, and at the physical expense of their victims, and the good guys were doing it for the good of society, but I’m still not convinced that makes a valid argument.
On the upside, good on the author for highlighting such a repugnant trade and posting a link at the end of the book to where the reader can help out in the real world.
So on balance, a very solid four and a half stars, and I will certainly be reading the rest.
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes, and all opinions are my own.
To be frank, I started reading the first book, The Succubus Gift, and put it down after 3 chapters of dialogue info dump. It was well written dialogue, but too much info without action for me.
Having now read Broken Dolls, I am going to go back and plough on through until I get to the plot, because I really, really enjoyed reading this one.
Rhi is a private investigator, based in London, UK, using her psychic talents to expedite her work – and she’s good at it. Snarky, confident and dismissive of her physical beauty, she is a wonderful, strong and independent female lead.
When a family friend asks her to investigate the disappearance of a young girl – who also happens to be a succubus – she travels to Ireland, and is quickly plunged into the murky world of human trafficking. Or to be more precise in this case, trafficking in girls with the succubus gene.
Her search leads her into the dark underbelly of politics, and also into the crossfire of Clan warfare. There are hot men, hot girls, action, telepathic manipulation and psychic powers a-plenty. Fast paced and written in a smooth, easy-to-read style, my only real disappointment was the lack of description of the wonderful locations – if I hadn’t visited most of them at one time or another, I would have struggled to visualise them, and that’s how I like to ‘see’ the action in a book; as if watching a film.
The plot has all the twists and turns you’d want from a thriller, and yet the characters are fleshed out and develop through the course of the book; a pleasing balance.
I did struggle a little to keep track of all the names, there are so many characters, clans, relatives, hangers-on etc., but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment; I found myself reading on regardless. It was a little the same with all the Gifts – if only I’d found the glossary at the end of the book sooner!
Probably my only doubt about this book was that I was uncomfortable with the casualness of all concerned about wiping people’s minds and memories, and re-programming them. Whilst it is a convenient tool when you have a criminal, or someone who is morally challenged, I was discomforted by the way no one questioned the ethics of doing such a thing – what makes it right for one segment of society to do this, and consider it wrong for another? You could argue that the baddies were doing it for selfish gain, and at the physical expense of their victims, and the good guys were doing it for the good of society, but I’m still not convinced that makes a valid argument.
On the upside, good on the author for highlighting such a repugnant trade and posting a link at the end of the book to where the reader can help out in the real world.
So on balance, a very solid four and a half stars, and I will certainly be reading the rest.
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes, and all opinions are my own.
November 4, 2013
This review and more at www.tattooedbookreview.com!
“He dropped my right arm. I raised the pistol a pressed the barrel under his chin. His eyes widened. I hesitated, a part of me horrified at what I was doing. I was killing a man I had slept with. A man who had been tender and loving. A man who had briefly made me feel less alone. A man who planned to wipe my mind and enslave me. I pulled the trigger.”
A great reads for fans of action-packed mystery and suspense. Broken Dolls has the added bonus of a fantasy/paranormal twist and a sexy-as-hell, kick-ass female heroine.
RB (Rhiannon) Kendrick, is a telepath, and a powerful one at that. When a clan leader asks her to try and mind a missing telepath, she’s discovers a dangerous human trafficking ring, and as the story goes on, she finds out that this ring reaches far and wide. Government officials, powerful bankers, and powerful telepaths are all involved, and the human trafficking is just another layer of shaky and often violent clan politics. The plot line is quite in depth; though the plot moves quickly, with tons of action, there are a lot of key players. There’s a ton of information to absorb: Gifts, clans, people and places are thrown at the reader in quick succession. The author does a very good job in filling in information and background as necessary (there’s also important info provided in a forward and appendix) and keeping the story moving. Intense action sequences and moments of pure tension and suspense kept me on the edge of my seat for much of the book.
Our heroine, Rhiannon, is a fantastic female lead. She’s smart, sexy, and powerful, at times feeling like a superhero, and other times human and vulnerable. She usually works alone, and struggled with the amount of other people required to help her in this operation, but I loved her genuine interactions with them and the depth that the secondary characters brought to the story.
This book is paranormal mystery/suspense, with no romance and most sex was “off camera”. But, the story has a sexy edge: many of are main cast are extremely beautiful telepaths who aren’t afraid of their beauty or the effect they have on men. And these women will stop at nothing to end the men who might exploit these gifts in others of their kind. Much of the content is dark: they are dealing with sex-trafficking, and there are violent conflicts between good and evil, but there is humor added to balance it out. Overall, a great read for both fans of paranormal/fantasy and mystery/suspense.
*I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
“He dropped my right arm. I raised the pistol a pressed the barrel under his chin. His eyes widened. I hesitated, a part of me horrified at what I was doing. I was killing a man I had slept with. A man who had been tender and loving. A man who had briefly made me feel less alone. A man who planned to wipe my mind and enslave me. I pulled the trigger.”
A great reads for fans of action-packed mystery and suspense. Broken Dolls has the added bonus of a fantasy/paranormal twist and a sexy-as-hell, kick-ass female heroine.
RB (Rhiannon) Kendrick, is a telepath, and a powerful one at that. When a clan leader asks her to try and mind a missing telepath, she’s discovers a dangerous human trafficking ring, and as the story goes on, she finds out that this ring reaches far and wide. Government officials, powerful bankers, and powerful telepaths are all involved, and the human trafficking is just another layer of shaky and often violent clan politics. The plot line is quite in depth; though the plot moves quickly, with tons of action, there are a lot of key players. There’s a ton of information to absorb: Gifts, clans, people and places are thrown at the reader in quick succession. The author does a very good job in filling in information and background as necessary (there’s also important info provided in a forward and appendix) and keeping the story moving. Intense action sequences and moments of pure tension and suspense kept me on the edge of my seat for much of the book.
Our heroine, Rhiannon, is a fantastic female lead. She’s smart, sexy, and powerful, at times feeling like a superhero, and other times human and vulnerable. She usually works alone, and struggled with the amount of other people required to help her in this operation, but I loved her genuine interactions with them and the depth that the secondary characters brought to the story.
This book is paranormal mystery/suspense, with no romance and most sex was “off camera”. But, the story has a sexy edge: many of are main cast are extremely beautiful telepaths who aren’t afraid of their beauty or the effect they have on men. And these women will stop at nothing to end the men who might exploit these gifts in others of their kind. Much of the content is dark: they are dealing with sex-trafficking, and there are violent conflicts between good and evil, but there is humor added to balance it out. Overall, a great read for both fans of paranormal/fantasy and mystery/suspense.
*I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
November 18, 2013
Grade: A (5 stars)
I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and as I was reading, I kept turning to my boyfriend, and say, "Hey, guess what just happened in my book", and this time, he was actually interested. I love the succubus idea for this novel. clever, interesting and unique. Plus, RB is such a fun character. She's got strength, smarts, style and a little bit of sass. The idea of the levels of power the telepaths have also interested me a lot, I love that the author took the time to really describe all the gifts in the back of the book, for those of us who really wanted to know more, without weighing down the actual story with all this extra detail. I also thought the intro was quite helpful to set up the clans, the powers, and the general behind the scenes plot for the novel. Going into the story knowing that allowed a lot more of the story to slide by without needing excess explanation. Interesting plot angle to tie succubi to the sex trade. I would have never seen that angle coming for a book about succubi but I actually really loved the idea as a plot. I thought that the scenes were described well enough, maybe a little more could've been added, but it wasn't really necessary. I know a lot of reviews mentioned that a lot of RB gifts didn't get fully explained, but she does list them out and the back of the book goes into a lot of great detail for that, so I didn't really feel like it hindered the story in anyway. I loved that it was set in Europe and especially Ireland. It's just such a lovely place, so I love when books are set somewhere a little exotic from my boring,everyday, united states life. Overall, the plot has twist and turns, and the major one dealing with the girl they were trying to track down was the one that really got me. But I loved being surprised, I loved this world, and the characters were fantastic even if some of them suck as people. Check this book out, it's a great paranormal read with mystery and humor! It's perfect.
** I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and as I was reading, I kept turning to my boyfriend, and say, "Hey, guess what just happened in my book", and this time, he was actually interested. I love the succubus idea for this novel. clever, interesting and unique. Plus, RB is such a fun character. She's got strength, smarts, style and a little bit of sass. The idea of the levels of power the telepaths have also interested me a lot, I love that the author took the time to really describe all the gifts in the back of the book, for those of us who really wanted to know more, without weighing down the actual story with all this extra detail. I also thought the intro was quite helpful to set up the clans, the powers, and the general behind the scenes plot for the novel. Going into the story knowing that allowed a lot more of the story to slide by without needing excess explanation. Interesting plot angle to tie succubi to the sex trade. I would have never seen that angle coming for a book about succubi but I actually really loved the idea as a plot. I thought that the scenes were described well enough, maybe a little more could've been added, but it wasn't really necessary. I know a lot of reviews mentioned that a lot of RB gifts didn't get fully explained, but she does list them out and the back of the book goes into a lot of great detail for that, so I didn't really feel like it hindered the story in anyway. I loved that it was set in Europe and especially Ireland. It's just such a lovely place, so I love when books are set somewhere a little exotic from my boring,everyday, united states life. Overall, the plot has twist and turns, and the major one dealing with the girl they were trying to track down was the one that really got me. But I loved being surprised, I loved this world, and the characters were fantastic even if some of them suck as people. Check this book out, it's a great paranormal read with mystery and humor! It's perfect.
** I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
December 2, 2013
Broken Dolls takes a horrible reality, human trafficking, and puts a paranormal twist on it. The search for one girl leads RB to uncover a horrible trafficking business that reaches international proportions. There was constant danger for RB and the people she hoped she could trust. I found myself holding my breath, hoping everyone would get out alive.
RB is an amazing character. First she has a large number of Gifts, more than most other telepaths and Druids around her. She uses her gifts, mostly, to stop people who are doing things wrong as a PI. I thought that was an awesome way to showcase her abilities. I loved her sense of loyalty. She also has morals about some things that others with Gifts don’t. She was tenacious, strong, and brave. She protected others, but could be vulnerable. She was a well rounded character full of depth, and I loved her.
As for the other characters, there were so many. I could have become confused, but I think that they all tied together nicely. I loved some of the people who helped RB out along the way. The different male characters were interesting. The twins were probably my favorite. The book was full of dreamy guys, good guys, bad guys, and people that just left me guessing right up until they revealed their true colors. I really enjoyed the female characters that helped RB the most. They were all strong females who threw themselves into the search.
I was expecting one ending in this book. I had myself sure of where things were heading. Then BR Kingsolver threw in a few wrenches to disrupt things. I ended up shocked at how things went at some points. I loved how the book ended. I think everyone who enjoys paranormal thrillers will love Broken Dolls. I can’t wait to read The Telepathic Clans Saga. It they are anything like this book then I will love them, and I hope to read more RB. She was such a great character; I want to know more of her story.
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
RB is an amazing character. First she has a large number of Gifts, more than most other telepaths and Druids around her. She uses her gifts, mostly, to stop people who are doing things wrong as a PI. I thought that was an awesome way to showcase her abilities. I loved her sense of loyalty. She also has morals about some things that others with Gifts don’t. She was tenacious, strong, and brave. She protected others, but could be vulnerable. She was a well rounded character full of depth, and I loved her.
As for the other characters, there were so many. I could have become confused, but I think that they all tied together nicely. I loved some of the people who helped RB out along the way. The different male characters were interesting. The twins were probably my favorite. The book was full of dreamy guys, good guys, bad guys, and people that just left me guessing right up until they revealed their true colors. I really enjoyed the female characters that helped RB the most. They were all strong females who threw themselves into the search.
I was expecting one ending in this book. I had myself sure of where things were heading. Then BR Kingsolver threw in a few wrenches to disrupt things. I ended up shocked at how things went at some points. I loved how the book ended. I think everyone who enjoys paranormal thrillers will love Broken Dolls. I can’t wait to read The Telepathic Clans Saga. It they are anything like this book then I will love them, and I hope to read more RB. She was such a great character; I want to know more of her story.
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
November 3, 2013
It isn't very often that you come across a book written about Succubi. I have come across them in stories, but not with them being the focus of the story. This story is all about Succubi and hints at the existence of the Incubus. RB is genetically similar to a succubus seeing as her mom is one. She carries the genes, but is not an actual succubus. Those genes separate her from the "norms" by giving her special telepathic powers. Each person of the telepathic lines has what are called gifts, which the author has provided a detailed description in the back of the book of each gift. I found her explanations through out the story to be given in enough detail that you really don't need the appendix, but they are there in case you forget what each gift being used does. In the case of our main character, RB is extremely gifted with 15 gifts. This makes her highly useful to the clans of telepaths.
Now that you have a general idea of the main character, let's talk about the story. RB is given a job by her benefactor who also happens to be a not-so-distant family member. I believe he's her uncle if I remember correctly. Anyway, a succubus has been missing for over a week and he suspects that she has been kidnapped. The clan is worried that she may have been sold into a women trafficking scheme. A succubus is extremely useful in the sex-trade because she thrives of having sex. She craves it and in some cases desperately needs it. Some women actually don't have a problem being involved in this dirty scheme. Well RB is hired to find the young girl and bring her home. She is to do pretty much whatever it takes. She learns exactly how terrible the sex-trade is, almost getting stuck in it herself. You will be disgusted by what people will do for money, shocked at what some women are willing to do, and fall in love with BR Kingsolver's writing. I found this book fascinating.
Read more books at Identity Discovery Blog.
Now that you have a general idea of the main character, let's talk about the story. RB is given a job by her benefactor who also happens to be a not-so-distant family member. I believe he's her uncle if I remember correctly. Anyway, a succubus has been missing for over a week and he suspects that she has been kidnapped. The clan is worried that she may have been sold into a women trafficking scheme. A succubus is extremely useful in the sex-trade because she thrives of having sex. She craves it and in some cases desperately needs it. Some women actually don't have a problem being involved in this dirty scheme. Well RB is hired to find the young girl and bring her home. She is to do pretty much whatever it takes. She learns exactly how terrible the sex-trade is, almost getting stuck in it herself. You will be disgusted by what people will do for money, shocked at what some women are willing to do, and fall in love with BR Kingsolver's writing. I found this book fascinating.
Read more books at Identity Discovery Blog.
April 4, 2016
Broken Dolls starts off with some promise. The synopsis/summary alone had me quite curious. The whole book takes place around Rhiannon (also known as RB or Rhi) when she is requested for a special assignment.
Rhiannon is a telepath (a very powerful telepath) who works as a private investigator and is called to assist and locate a family member of the Lord who helped 'raise' her. She is quickly pulled into knowledge of a major human trafficking of young girls. She is quick to find many girls and their 'owners' but the girl she is sent to find is constantly just out of reach.
I liked the twist to this cat and mouse book by adding the telepathic powers, and the addition of the succubi was also an interesting element. I was very excited to see where it would go.
However the biggest draw to the book also led to it's downfall for me. Rhiannon ends up TOO powerful with too many powers, physical skills, language skills and more that just is too much to believe. She is so over the top I found it impossible to connect with her.
Ultimately, while I love fast paced stories, this one was a bit much. It goes from one scene to another in mere paragraphs. No setting is ever given. Everything happens so fast I could not visualize a single scene in the book. At least, all the important scenes, in my opinion. She can find a ringleader, break in and rescue the girl and interrogate the guy and be off after the next victim in just a couple pages! Yet a scene shopping for clothes takes just as long!
In the end, I just felt frustrated toward the character and the chase left me disoriented and lacking in excitement. For those who want to just read about a super-powered woman or who are curious as to human trafficking or just want to learn about the telepathic powers of this world you may enjoy this book. For me though, it was not enough.
Rhiannon is a telepath (a very powerful telepath) who works as a private investigator and is called to assist and locate a family member of the Lord who helped 'raise' her. She is quickly pulled into knowledge of a major human trafficking of young girls. She is quick to find many girls and their 'owners' but the girl she is sent to find is constantly just out of reach.
I liked the twist to this cat and mouse book by adding the telepathic powers, and the addition of the succubi was also an interesting element. I was very excited to see where it would go.
However the biggest draw to the book also led to it's downfall for me. Rhiannon ends up TOO powerful with too many powers, physical skills, language skills and more that just is too much to believe. She is so over the top I found it impossible to connect with her.
Ultimately, while I love fast paced stories, this one was a bit much. It goes from one scene to another in mere paragraphs. No setting is ever given. Everything happens so fast I could not visualize a single scene in the book. At least, all the important scenes, in my opinion. She can find a ringleader, break in and rescue the girl and interrogate the guy and be off after the next victim in just a couple pages! Yet a scene shopping for clothes takes just as long!
In the end, I just felt frustrated toward the character and the chase left me disoriented and lacking in excitement. For those who want to just read about a super-powered woman or who are curious as to human trafficking or just want to learn about the telepathic powers of this world you may enjoy this book. For me though, it was not enough.
Read
January 26, 2023Rating: ----- minus 2
I did not write a review when first I read it. As I review my reviews, I have to backfill the blanks and even reread some books. I think that the cover art was changed because I do not believe that I would have read it otherwise. For me it would be a bad sign but the book itself turned out to be more urban fantasy than than the two previous books.
I finally got to a book in the series that was interesting to me. On its own merits, it was perhaps not earth shaking. In comparison to the first two books though, it brought vitality to the background universe. There is finally a glimpse into the depths of intrigue and the life and death power struggle that seems the underlying basis of the status of various factions and individuals.
It might be too much for fans of the first two books but for me it was an entertaining installment. If the series continues in this vein, I think that I will enjoy it. James Bond mixed with urban fantasy was different from the usual.
The major theme seemed to be that "The strong do as they will, the weak endure what they must". I think that that is a quote from Thucydides. Sad but true almost two and a half millennia later.
This site is an advertising shell for Amazon, which we all realize but it could be easier to find books compatible with taste. Other than relying on cover art, that is. Maybe they will create new categories to make it easier. 🙂
I have read very little science fiction or fantasy for a little while. The supernatural/paranormal romance books are fine and they seem varied in emphasis and writing, which is normal. The bulk of low end science fiction that Amazon push is very not. All human interaction is political but that does not mean that I expect political rants in place of fiction. (Heavy sigh) 🙂
I find it easier to find and locate better science fiction on the streaming services. The video fantasy seems worse than the print, which was a surprise. It probably suffers from all the factions involved in the financing, production, etc but it is what it is. 😊
About three years ago, I began using YouTube to search for science fiction channels that make recommendations. I was pleased to discover that there are so many interest area channels and from there, I came across my first book channel. 😍😍 They are all fantastic and I would suggest a visit to several for any reader. I will list some below.
The fostered reader communities are awesome. The groups comprise readers who are thoughtful, vary widely in their tastes and interests but all of whom love all things bookish.
My next discovery was the dedicated educational video sites. It is incredible that exist and that they offer such a variety of content. They seem to all offer really good essayists, lecture series and actual courses, as well as documentaries. Wondrium, Magellan TV and Curiosity Stream/Nebula are just a few and all were reasonably priced, I thought.
My YouTube picks of the moment.
New Economic Thinking, Narrowboat Pirate, Mia Mulder, Tom Nicholas, Sarah Z, Harbo Wholmes, 2Cellos, EarleWrites, Red Plateaus, Owen Jones, Mandy, Sarah Z, Some More News, The Shades of Orange.
YouTube have strange issues which will probably cause the site to be superseded soon enough. There is a great series written and produced by TV writer, Melissa Hunter but she can not show it on her channel. The owners of Addams Family sent her a cease and desist letter because of her very funny parody skits. Too expensive to challenge, she dropped it.
You have to search YouTube for Adult Wednesday Addams and thank goodness that some channels downloaded and saved it (some one season, some both seasons). I dislike the "i-word", so let us say that the ir**y is that a porno film with the same name was not so restricted because of some legal loophole, though I would hope that it is not on YouTube. 😐 Other content creators received copyright strikes for material that they have created themselves or taken from the public domain. 😑 None except the largest channels ever get a response to queries. Commercials still show but the creators receive no revenue. 🤔 So it is not perfect but can still be a good resource for information and entertainment.
As for Amazon, please consider treating this as a hostile site. 😐
I wrote a brutal review of a "sorry salute to the January 6, 2021 hero" (posing as a science fiction novel). After months of harassment comments, the corporation joined in by masking commenters' names, preventing my seeing other reviews and sometimes grays out my 'like" buttons. There have been other actions but you get the idea. There has been no response to my queries. So much for customer concerns. 🤔
See my review of Powers of the Earth (a sorry salute to the January 6, 2021 hero) and the attack and "My boy" comments from a Claes Rees, Jr/cgr710 (a self-identified NeoNazi and US patriot).
Ominous music begins. 😊 Please protect yourself against both certain members and the site employees. Minimize profile information, remove lurkers and screenshots of the odd and the ugly are a good idea. Ominous music ends. 😊
Some of my favorite YouTube channels are.
Important message: To the patriotic US members who descended on these channels with viciousness and ugliness, please consider. Filthy comments to a thirteen year old girl who is a boat channel creator is sick, insulting a retired couple because they are "nothing special" is just so, so wrong and sexual insults against a female historian is gross and disgusting. This is what your country's patriotism looks like? Please stop, if only because you have been recognized as American and it does not make your country look good. 😑
TVP News, Red Plateaus, A Clockwork Reader, Owen Jones, Munecat, Jean's Thoughts, Mythic Concepts, Tibees, MANDY, Tara Mooknee, DUST, Narrowboat Chef, Narrowboat Girl, RealTime History, Brandon F, Real Engineering, Kathy's Flog in France, Lilly's expat life, OrangeRiver, The Who Addicts, Chloe Stafler, Book Odyssey, Elina Charatsidou, Philosophy Tube, WION, Sort of Interesting, Second Thought, Lady of the Library, Renegade Cut, Hello Future Me, Boos and Lala, The Templin Institute, Harbo Wholmes, Let's Talk Mythology, Crecganford, Jake Broe, Perun, Emma Thorne, Between the Wars, Military Aviation History, Brittany Page, Bernadette Banner, Cruising Alba, Cruising Crafts, Traveling K, Physics Girl, Certifiably Ingame, What Vivi did next, Folklore Worldwide, Zoe Bee, Zoe Baker, BB: Bisaya-Briton Adventure, Baskar Sunkara, Richard Wolff, ARTiculations, RobWords, Bobbing Along, Cruising the Cut, Historical Fashion, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Spacedock, Katie's Corner in Space, Plasma Channel, Jessie Gender, With Olivia, Storyworldling, Roomies' Digest, Books with Brittany, Odyssey, Linguoer Mechanic, Melodie Rose, Diane Callahan Quotidian Writer, Alt Shift X, Sarah Z, Danica Patrick, Lex Fridman, Useful Idiots, Julie Nolke, Sarah Millican, Adult Wednesday Addams, GeoGirl, Viva La Dirt League, Kraut, Quinn's Ideas, Double Down News, Lindsay Stirling, Lindsay Ellis.
I wish you a great morning, a glorious afternoon, a pleasant evening, a wonderful night and nay we all continue learning.
He who lacks Empathy, lacks Humanity.
Stonewall Jackson 🙂
I did not write a review when first I read it. As I review my reviews, I have to backfill the blanks and even reread some books. I think that the cover art was changed because I do not believe that I would have read it otherwise. For me it would be a bad sign but the book itself turned out to be more urban fantasy than than the two previous books.
I finally got to a book in the series that was interesting to me. On its own merits, it was perhaps not earth shaking. In comparison to the first two books though, it brought vitality to the background universe. There is finally a glimpse into the depths of intrigue and the life and death power struggle that seems the underlying basis of the status of various factions and individuals.
It might be too much for fans of the first two books but for me it was an entertaining installment. If the series continues in this vein, I think that I will enjoy it. James Bond mixed with urban fantasy was different from the usual.
The major theme seemed to be that "The strong do as they will, the weak endure what they must". I think that that is a quote from Thucydides. Sad but true almost two and a half millennia later.
This site is an advertising shell for Amazon, which we all realize but it could be easier to find books compatible with taste. Other than relying on cover art, that is. Maybe they will create new categories to make it easier. 🙂
I have read very little science fiction or fantasy for a little while. The supernatural/paranormal romance books are fine and they seem varied in emphasis and writing, which is normal. The bulk of low end science fiction that Amazon push is very not. All human interaction is political but that does not mean that I expect political rants in place of fiction. (Heavy sigh) 🙂
I find it easier to find and locate better science fiction on the streaming services. The video fantasy seems worse than the print, which was a surprise. It probably suffers from all the factions involved in the financing, production, etc but it is what it is. 😊
About three years ago, I began using YouTube to search for science fiction channels that make recommendations. I was pleased to discover that there are so many interest area channels and from there, I came across my first book channel. 😍😍 They are all fantastic and I would suggest a visit to several for any reader. I will list some below.
The fostered reader communities are awesome. The groups comprise readers who are thoughtful, vary widely in their tastes and interests but all of whom love all things bookish.
My next discovery was the dedicated educational video sites. It is incredible that exist and that they offer such a variety of content. They seem to all offer really good essayists, lecture series and actual courses, as well as documentaries. Wondrium, Magellan TV and Curiosity Stream/Nebula are just a few and all were reasonably priced, I thought.
My YouTube picks of the moment.
New Economic Thinking, Narrowboat Pirate, Mia Mulder, Tom Nicholas, Sarah Z, Harbo Wholmes, 2Cellos, EarleWrites, Red Plateaus, Owen Jones, Mandy, Sarah Z, Some More News, The Shades of Orange.
YouTube have strange issues which will probably cause the site to be superseded soon enough. There is a great series written and produced by TV writer, Melissa Hunter but she can not show it on her channel. The owners of Addams Family sent her a cease and desist letter because of her very funny parody skits. Too expensive to challenge, she dropped it.
You have to search YouTube for Adult Wednesday Addams and thank goodness that some channels downloaded and saved it (some one season, some both seasons). I dislike the "i-word", so let us say that the ir**y is that a porno film with the same name was not so restricted because of some legal loophole, though I would hope that it is not on YouTube. 😐 Other content creators received copyright strikes for material that they have created themselves or taken from the public domain. 😑 None except the largest channels ever get a response to queries. Commercials still show but the creators receive no revenue. 🤔 So it is not perfect but can still be a good resource for information and entertainment.
As for Amazon, please consider treating this as a hostile site. 😐
I wrote a brutal review of a "sorry salute to the January 6, 2021 hero" (posing as a science fiction novel). After months of harassment comments, the corporation joined in by masking commenters' names, preventing my seeing other reviews and sometimes grays out my 'like" buttons. There have been other actions but you get the idea. There has been no response to my queries. So much for customer concerns. 🤔
See my review of Powers of the Earth (a sorry salute to the January 6, 2021 hero) and the attack and "My boy" comments from a Claes Rees, Jr/cgr710 (a self-identified NeoNazi and US patriot).
Ominous music begins. 😊 Please protect yourself against both certain members and the site employees. Minimize profile information, remove lurkers and screenshots of the odd and the ugly are a good idea. Ominous music ends. 😊
Some of my favorite YouTube channels are.
Important message: To the patriotic US members who descended on these channels with viciousness and ugliness, please consider. Filthy comments to a thirteen year old girl who is a boat channel creator is sick, insulting a retired couple because they are "nothing special" is just so, so wrong and sexual insults against a female historian is gross and disgusting. This is what your country's patriotism looks like? Please stop, if only because you have been recognized as American and it does not make your country look good. 😑
TVP News, Red Plateaus, A Clockwork Reader, Owen Jones, Munecat, Jean's Thoughts, Mythic Concepts, Tibees, MANDY, Tara Mooknee, DUST, Narrowboat Chef, Narrowboat Girl, RealTime History, Brandon F, Real Engineering, Kathy's Flog in France, Lilly's expat life, OrangeRiver, The Who Addicts, Chloe Stafler, Book Odyssey, Elina Charatsidou, Philosophy Tube, WION, Sort of Interesting, Second Thought, Lady of the Library, Renegade Cut, Hello Future Me, Boos and Lala, The Templin Institute, Harbo Wholmes, Let's Talk Mythology, Crecganford, Jake Broe, Perun, Emma Thorne, Between the Wars, Military Aviation History, Brittany Page, Bernadette Banner, Cruising Alba, Cruising Crafts, Traveling K, Physics Girl, Certifiably Ingame, What Vivi did next, Folklore Worldwide, Zoe Bee, Zoe Baker, BB: Bisaya-Briton Adventure, Baskar Sunkara, Richard Wolff, ARTiculations, RobWords, Bobbing Along, Cruising the Cut, Historical Fashion, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Spacedock, Katie's Corner in Space, Plasma Channel, Jessie Gender, With Olivia, Storyworldling, Roomies' Digest, Books with Brittany, Odyssey, Linguoer Mechanic, Melodie Rose, Diane Callahan Quotidian Writer, Alt Shift X, Sarah Z, Danica Patrick, Lex Fridman, Useful Idiots, Julie Nolke, Sarah Millican, Adult Wednesday Addams, GeoGirl, Viva La Dirt League, Kraut, Quinn's Ideas, Double Down News, Lindsay Stirling, Lindsay Ellis.
I wish you a great morning, a glorious afternoon, a pleasant evening, a wonderful night and nay we all continue learning.
He who lacks Empathy, lacks Humanity.
Stonewall Jackson 🙂
October 6, 2015
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rhiannon Kendrick is a powerful telepath with 15 gifts (powers) in total including telekinesis and magnetism to name just a few. Having these gifts helps her with her job as a private investigator, the cases she usually works on are normally about cheating spouses where her gift of mind reading comes in real handy. One day she hears from Lord O'Bryne who she's known from when she was little as she was always visiting his home, he also paid for her to go to college. Lord O'Bryne wanted to hire her services as a young girl had gone missing, this wasn't just any young girl she was a succubus and so the police were never notified as the clans like to deal with things themselves. Normally Rhiannon cases are simple as she usually just deals with cheating humans, but with this case she is pulled into dealing with sex traffickers who are also strong telepaths with powerful gifts of their own.
When i started reading this book i wasn't sure if i would like it as it's not the type i usually read but once she took the case from Lord O'Bryne i was hooked. The story was well written and each time we read about another gift the author described the the ability of it so that it was easy to follow along. There was also lots of twists to the plot which made you want to keep reading to find out what happens next.
The only thing that let it down for me was we never got to see all of her gifts, there was a list of all the powers and meanings of them at the end of the book which kind of helped but i would have preferred to have read them in the story.
All in all a really good read, and even though its part of a series it can be read as a standalone.
Rhiannon Kendrick is a powerful telepath with 15 gifts (powers) in total including telekinesis and magnetism to name just a few. Having these gifts helps her with her job as a private investigator, the cases she usually works on are normally about cheating spouses where her gift of mind reading comes in real handy. One day she hears from Lord O'Bryne who she's known from when she was little as she was always visiting his home, he also paid for her to go to college. Lord O'Bryne wanted to hire her services as a young girl had gone missing, this wasn't just any young girl she was a succubus and so the police were never notified as the clans like to deal with things themselves. Normally Rhiannon cases are simple as she usually just deals with cheating humans, but with this case she is pulled into dealing with sex traffickers who are also strong telepaths with powerful gifts of their own.
When i started reading this book i wasn't sure if i would like it as it's not the type i usually read but once she took the case from Lord O'Bryne i was hooked. The story was well written and each time we read about another gift the author described the the ability of it so that it was easy to follow along. There was also lots of twists to the plot which made you want to keep reading to find out what happens next.
The only thing that let it down for me was we never got to see all of her gifts, there was a list of all the powers and meanings of them at the end of the book which kind of helped but i would have preferred to have read them in the story.
All in all a really good read, and even though its part of a series it can be read as a standalone.
November 4, 2013
In Broken Dolls, we are introduced to many telepaths who have lived side by side with us "norms" but remain hidden and keep to themselves. There are many different gifts that a telepath can have and some (like RB) have many gifts. RB (Rhiannon Kendrick) is a private investigator with the perk of also being telepathic. She mainly focuses on marriage infidelity and the occasional missing person.. But when the head of a Clan asks for her help, she drops everything to go and help the man who is like a father to her.
A missing telepath with the succubus gift needs to be found and RB is put on the case. She quickly uncovers a major network of human trafficking of very young girls that is even more deviant in that they are stealing Succubus' - very young ones at that, to fill their numbers. RB is looking for just one girl but keeps finding more and more "Broken Dolls", girls who's minds have been wiped and had constructs put in. They are no more than empty shells which makes it easier on the leaders to keep them contained.
The chase across Europe trying to find the missing Irish girl is full of suspense and drama. I loved the twists and turns in this book! The characters are all well thought out and I personally love learning about all their various gifts! The ability to open one's 1st level to communicate telepathically is amazing! I was completely enthralled with the entire concept and the book ! If you like paranormal and mystery/thrillers, I think you will definitely enjoy this one!
A missing telepath with the succubus gift needs to be found and RB is put on the case. She quickly uncovers a major network of human trafficking of very young girls that is even more deviant in that they are stealing Succubus' - very young ones at that, to fill their numbers. RB is looking for just one girl but keeps finding more and more "Broken Dolls", girls who's minds have been wiped and had constructs put in. They are no more than empty shells which makes it easier on the leaders to keep them contained.
The chase across Europe trying to find the missing Irish girl is full of suspense and drama. I loved the twists and turns in this book! The characters are all well thought out and I personally love learning about all their various gifts! The ability to open one's 1st level to communicate telepathically is amazing! I was completely enthralled with the entire concept and the book ! If you like paranormal and mystery/thrillers, I think you will definitely enjoy this one!
Read
May 8, 20154th in the Hidden Gem Awards
Blog:ScookieReviews
Private Investigator R.B. Kendrick usually uses her telepathy to help nail cheating spouses. But when she's asked to investigate the disappearance of a missing girl, Kendrick uses her abilities to unravel a much more dangerous plot in the dark underbelly of the telepathic society.
I loved the creativity in this one. The feisty character’s main gift was telepathy, which allowed a brilliant spin on a private investigator story. My favourite part was how Kendrick can tell what nasty things a person has done by the stains on their soul. There were also lots of juicy plot twists and action scenes too – a lot to keep me reading onwards.
As much as I loved the concepts, explanations were often wordy and complicated, even when rereading. It all seemed to sound overly complicated for what it was, and new powers would pop up whenever needed rather than recycling old ideas to really knit the concepts together. I thought it would be better if the characters didn’t have so many gifts each – I can’t remember half of them, and I’m certain that not all were used.
Other than that, the writing was strong, and the bold and intelligent main character carried the mysterious kidnapping plot.
Blog:ScookieReviews
Private Investigator R.B. Kendrick usually uses her telepathy to help nail cheating spouses. But when she's asked to investigate the disappearance of a missing girl, Kendrick uses her abilities to unravel a much more dangerous plot in the dark underbelly of the telepathic society.
I loved the creativity in this one. The feisty character’s main gift was telepathy, which allowed a brilliant spin on a private investigator story. My favourite part was how Kendrick can tell what nasty things a person has done by the stains on their soul. There were also lots of juicy plot twists and action scenes too – a lot to keep me reading onwards.
As much as I loved the concepts, explanations were often wordy and complicated, even when rereading. It all seemed to sound overly complicated for what it was, and new powers would pop up whenever needed rather than recycling old ideas to really knit the concepts together. I thought it would be better if the characters didn’t have so many gifts each – I can’t remember half of them, and I’m certain that not all were used.
Other than that, the writing was strong, and the bold and intelligent main character carried the mysterious kidnapping plot.
November 12, 2013
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Rhiannon Kendrick is a British private investigator. She usually works on cases related to infidelity or divorce. To top it off, she’s telepathic and works with other clients with a special gift. She’s really good at what she does; so when the chief of the O’Byrne clan contacts her for assistance in finding a young succubus, she flies to Ireland to his aid. He had done so much for her during her childhood; she didn’t give it a second thought. In her search for Myrna, she uncovers a large trafficking ring kidnapping young girls with gifts, and soon becomes uncertain who she can trust. Will she find Myrna before it’s too late? She also learns more about her own family, the O’neil clan. Will she finally have the family connection she’d only ever dreamed about?
This was an action packed Paranormal Mystery. There was never a dull moment and the gifts are amazing. This novel was so imaginative. Can you imagine Irish clans being connected to telepathic gifts? Being able to throw fire or harness electricity? This was a fun read with characters that you’ll love to see go down in flames and some you’ll just want to hug. If you like Paranormal Mysteries, you’ll love Broken Dolls!
This was an action packed Paranormal Mystery. There was never a dull moment and the gifts are amazing. This novel was so imaginative. Can you imagine Irish clans being connected to telepathic gifts? Being able to throw fire or harness electricity? This was a fun read with characters that you’ll love to see go down in flames and some you’ll just want to hug. If you like Paranormal Mysteries, you’ll love Broken Dolls!
September 22, 2015
*Disclaimer* I got this book for review.*
Do you know that moment when you are reading a really good book and without even realizing it you start to play that book in your head, the characters and the places in the book all of a sudden become a movie inside of your head. This is exactly what happened with this book.
I've never read a book quite like this. It was surprisingly really well written and very enjoyable. The main character R.B was awesome. This book reminded me of a mix between the movie Taken and the show Lost Girl. The suspense throughout the book was killing me I wanted to know what was going to happen. Oh it was fantastic. The ending was so good and it definitely left me wanting more. I'm gonna have to read more books from this author.
Hands down the best book I've read this year. So I definitely recommend it.
Anyways I will be writing a longer Review for my blog.
Do you know that moment when you are reading a really good book and without even realizing it you start to play that book in your head, the characters and the places in the book all of a sudden become a movie inside of your head. This is exactly what happened with this book.
I've never read a book quite like this. It was surprisingly really well written and very enjoyable. The main character R.B was awesome. This book reminded me of a mix between the movie Taken and the show Lost Girl. The suspense throughout the book was killing me I wanted to know what was going to happen. Oh it was fantastic. The ending was so good and it definitely left me wanting more. I'm gonna have to read more books from this author.
Hands down the best book I've read this year. So I definitely recommend it.
Anyways I will be writing a longer Review for my blog.
September 18, 2015
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review *
A paranormal mystery/suspense with a sassy, sharp witted heroine who happens to be a klutz at the most inopportune moments.
RB Kendrick, a private investigator with gifts that make her jobs almost dull, wraps up another case in London and heads to Dublin. Her benefactor, Lord O’Byrne, has a job for her – a missing girl – which upon investigation, unravels into an insidious network of characters involved in trafficking and the sex slave industry. The unfolding twists and turns of the case, are set against the backdrop of characters with an array of supernatural gifts and Clan politics across Europe.
Despite not having read any of the previous Telepathic Clans books, it’s an easy to follow story and has certainly peaked my interest to read more of these intriguing characters. An enthralling book that deserves praise.
A paranormal mystery/suspense with a sassy, sharp witted heroine who happens to be a klutz at the most inopportune moments.
RB Kendrick, a private investigator with gifts that make her jobs almost dull, wraps up another case in London and heads to Dublin. Her benefactor, Lord O’Byrne, has a job for her – a missing girl – which upon investigation, unravels into an insidious network of characters involved in trafficking and the sex slave industry. The unfolding twists and turns of the case, are set against the backdrop of characters with an array of supernatural gifts and Clan politics across Europe.
Despite not having read any of the previous Telepathic Clans books, it’s an easy to follow story and has certainly peaked my interest to read more of these intriguing characters. An enthralling book that deserves praise.
April 27, 2015
How exciting! Broken Dolls is an action pact adventure where good triumphs over evil. The heroine is a badass woman with special telepathic powers who works as a PI. Her life changes when she takes a job tracking down a girl who was abducted into the sex trade. Her hunt leads her all throughout Europe where she uncovers the secrets of the sex trade of young girls with special abilities. I love the fantasy world BR has created. Aside from the existence of people with telepathic abilities, the world is exactly like our own. The setting is modern, but the story dips into old world pagan and druid mythology. Although this is primarily a detective story, I recommend it to anyone interested in European mythology, fantasy, and combating human trafficking.
November 26, 2013
I could not put this book down! B.R Kingsolver wove a fantastic tale of murder and mystery and kept me on my toes during the entire story. Forget Stephanie Plum, it's all about R.B Kendrick.
January 27, 2015
**Book provided by the author for an honest review**
Rhiannon Kendrick is a very gorgeous, 5'8, ginger with green eyes telepath and private investigator in London. Catching cheating spouses for a living just to pay the bills was just about to get tiring when RB is contacted by an old family friend for a job. The "old family friend" is none other than a powerful Clan Chief, Fergus O'Byrne, of Ireland. Although O'Byrne isn't a direct relative of RB's, he has aided in her upbringing, and RB is therefore obligated to come when he calls. A very young succubus (succubi are also known as Druids in polite Ireland society) has gone missing, and the Clan fears she has been kidnapped! O'Byrne needs RB to find her and bring her to the safety of the Clan straight away. RB drops everything to go to Ireland and start working. While tracking the missing girl's last whereabouts, RB is taken further and further into the rabbit hole of a more elaborate underworld nightmare than she could ever imagine. Will RB find the missing girl, Myrna Kavanagh, or will she find trouble she can't fight her way out of? This is the million dollar question!
This book was so much more than I could have ever possibly imagined, it blew my mind! The story seemed like it would be a straight forward "mystery"with a twist (the whole succubi, telepath world), but no! The detail and history of the Clan's telepaths, and succubi were just outstandingly well-constructed. This is one of those books you really have to be paying attention to when reading it because of the intricate plot, sub-plots and character abilities. The structure of how the Clan worked was really interesting and kept you sympathetic to the families within it because of the back stories and relationships. I really loved the characters throughout the story. When RB took the case for Lord O'Byrne, she was partnered up with Morrighan O'Byrne, a Druid. I don't know which character is my favorite right now, Morrighan or Rebecca, I'm on the fence! Morrighan's story is very complex but jaw droppingly amazing! There is this long story explaining Morrighan being a "High Priestess," and in telling that story, it is also explained how one "inherits" becoming a High Priestess. The person to inherit being the next High Priestess has to be present and physically touching the current High Priestess, and ALL of their memories, along with her predecessors' memories are transferred to the new recipient. So this chick is walking around with 25 CENTURIES of memories in her!!! Morrighan and RB become friends quickly after a special moment they share, and it's very enduring......awww. It turns out the two ladies work great together behind the scenes, but RB does prefer to work alone when out in the field. After all, she does possess 15 gifts! The more gifts you have, more importantly what the gifts are, the more powerful you are. RB is pretty powerful considering your average telepath/succubus only possesses 9 gifts.
The character, Rebecca, comes into play very late in the book but is very memorable. Lord O'Byrne asks RB if she would like to continue investigating another avenue that was revealed during her search for Myrna, and of course she agrees. For this mission, a whole new team is brought in....."great" is what RB was thinking, haha. Rebecca is a "Wilder" from the states that Lord O'Donnell took in under his wing and cared for. A Wilder is a telepath/succubus that has been abandoned by her parents and having no knowledge of what they are or how to control her gifts. Wilders can be very dangerous because of this to themselves and to others. So needless to say at this point, but I will anyway, Rebecca has a sordid past with demons in her closet. I loved Rebecca because for one, although she wasn't full grown into her powers yet, she knew how to use them very creatively. Two, she was very confident and a take-charge kind of girl, and lastly, she taught RB in a heartbeat how to plan a tactical assault with a partner! These are two things RB was never taught, and she always feared that, working with a partner, she would be more vulnerable. Case in point, my favorite RB moment; "For a girl who likes to work alone, I had over a hundred people engaged in an operation to bail my ass out of trouble. Note to self, try to stay a little more low key." As they storm the castle, I could almost hear the battle cry! The battle scene at the end of the book was so anticipated that I caught myself holding my breath and scanning the pages faster! The female characters in this book win for most impressive abilities and strength! The thing in the limo between Rebecca and RB is my favorite part of the book, and when you read it you will know why! This book will blow your mind with the telepathy, the way they are able to communicate with each other, breach the different levels of a persons mind, lay compulsion on a person, construct a person's mind and wipe a person's mind! It is all freaking creepy and awesome and wrong but all the same level of amazingly cool!
Broken Dolls is definitely a keep on the shelf to re-read! Is this going to be a series? Cause it totally could be, needs to be, and I would be first in line to get the next book!
Rhiannon Kendrick is a very gorgeous, 5'8, ginger with green eyes telepath and private investigator in London. Catching cheating spouses for a living just to pay the bills was just about to get tiring when RB is contacted by an old family friend for a job. The "old family friend" is none other than a powerful Clan Chief, Fergus O'Byrne, of Ireland. Although O'Byrne isn't a direct relative of RB's, he has aided in her upbringing, and RB is therefore obligated to come when he calls. A very young succubus (succubi are also known as Druids in polite Ireland society) has gone missing, and the Clan fears she has been kidnapped! O'Byrne needs RB to find her and bring her to the safety of the Clan straight away. RB drops everything to go to Ireland and start working. While tracking the missing girl's last whereabouts, RB is taken further and further into the rabbit hole of a more elaborate underworld nightmare than she could ever imagine. Will RB find the missing girl, Myrna Kavanagh, or will she find trouble she can't fight her way out of? This is the million dollar question!
This book was so much more than I could have ever possibly imagined, it blew my mind! The story seemed like it would be a straight forward "mystery"with a twist (the whole succubi, telepath world), but no! The detail and history of the Clan's telepaths, and succubi were just outstandingly well-constructed. This is one of those books you really have to be paying attention to when reading it because of the intricate plot, sub-plots and character abilities. The structure of how the Clan worked was really interesting and kept you sympathetic to the families within it because of the back stories and relationships. I really loved the characters throughout the story. When RB took the case for Lord O'Byrne, she was partnered up with Morrighan O'Byrne, a Druid. I don't know which character is my favorite right now, Morrighan or Rebecca, I'm on the fence! Morrighan's story is very complex but jaw droppingly amazing! There is this long story explaining Morrighan being a "High Priestess," and in telling that story, it is also explained how one "inherits" becoming a High Priestess. The person to inherit being the next High Priestess has to be present and physically touching the current High Priestess, and ALL of their memories, along with her predecessors' memories are transferred to the new recipient. So this chick is walking around with 25 CENTURIES of memories in her!!! Morrighan and RB become friends quickly after a special moment they share, and it's very enduring......awww. It turns out the two ladies work great together behind the scenes, but RB does prefer to work alone when out in the field. After all, she does possess 15 gifts! The more gifts you have, more importantly what the gifts are, the more powerful you are. RB is pretty powerful considering your average telepath/succubus only possesses 9 gifts.
The character, Rebecca, comes into play very late in the book but is very memorable. Lord O'Byrne asks RB if she would like to continue investigating another avenue that was revealed during her search for Myrna, and of course she agrees. For this mission, a whole new team is brought in....."great" is what RB was thinking, haha. Rebecca is a "Wilder" from the states that Lord O'Donnell took in under his wing and cared for. A Wilder is a telepath/succubus that has been abandoned by her parents and having no knowledge of what they are or how to control her gifts. Wilders can be very dangerous because of this to themselves and to others. So needless to say at this point, but I will anyway, Rebecca has a sordid past with demons in her closet. I loved Rebecca because for one, although she wasn't full grown into her powers yet, she knew how to use them very creatively. Two, she was very confident and a take-charge kind of girl, and lastly, she taught RB in a heartbeat how to plan a tactical assault with a partner! These are two things RB was never taught, and she always feared that, working with a partner, she would be more vulnerable. Case in point, my favorite RB moment; "For a girl who likes to work alone, I had over a hundred people engaged in an operation to bail my ass out of trouble. Note to self, try to stay a little more low key." As they storm the castle, I could almost hear the battle cry! The battle scene at the end of the book was so anticipated that I caught myself holding my breath and scanning the pages faster! The female characters in this book win for most impressive abilities and strength! The thing in the limo between Rebecca and RB is my favorite part of the book, and when you read it you will know why! This book will blow your mind with the telepathy, the way they are able to communicate with each other, breach the different levels of a persons mind, lay compulsion on a person, construct a person's mind and wipe a person's mind! It is all freaking creepy and awesome and wrong but all the same level of amazingly cool!
Broken Dolls is definitely a keep on the shelf to re-read! Is this going to be a series? Cause it totally could be, needs to be, and I would be first in line to get the next book!
January 22, 2023
Broken Dolls
3.5 Stars
I love this series, and B. R. Kingsolver as an author. However, I rated this book lower due to dark themes, and difficult subject matter of human trafficing. I prefer my reading a little lighter, uless I'm in the mood.
3.5 Stars
I love this series, and B. R. Kingsolver as an author. However, I rated this book lower due to dark themes, and difficult subject matter of human trafficing. I prefer my reading a little lighter, uless I'm in the mood.
November 27, 2013
RB is a powerful telepath and a private detective, working outside the clans on a series of mundane cases, often finding cheating spouses.
But outside the clans doesn’t mean she has no ties to them and when a young druid is kidnapped – one among many, she is the one that Lord O’Byrne turns to to investigate.
The trail leads across Europe to a huge human trafficking network of vulnerable women – and uncovers tensions that may start a war between the clans
So much good to say here.
Let’s start with the world. A world with a huge hidden population of Telepaths – with varying gifts. Some of those gifts produces druids – or succubi (with lots of history explaining this odd link). And by varying gifts – our protagonist, RB has 15 separate ones and I get the impression she doesn’t even have a quarter of them so there’s huge scope for “varying” under that umbrella. The Telepath clans are woven into our history in a way that draws on it and explains their current affiliations, enmities and ongoing issues but doesn’t appropriate it (for example, the Clans are very involved in World War 2 but never said to be responsible for it) but with the odd name drop implying certain famous people are Telepaths in ways that work without being skeevy (like the Medici family for example) and just make me further appreciate the integration. The world is huge and awesome.
The plot is really fast paced and wide. It has a lot of elements all of which are inter-related and draw on each other as RB sees the conspiracy she’s facing grow every wider and more complex as the human trafficking she’s exploring becomes Europe wide and related to various clan plots. Despite that, RB is excellently focused on her goals among the temptation to bloat elsewhere. The action is really well written, the story is extremely fast paced – the race to find and save a girl, the many leads they have to chase down all feel both realistic and exciting; from the excitement of a new lead to the disappointment of another route blocked, it carries you along.
I love the main characters. She’s powerful without her super-woo-woo being her defining feature. She’s blessedly free of angst. She gets on with other women and doesn’t have any of those insta-hate moment. She’s sexual without it completely overwhelming the story. Her main assets, despite all of her super powerful magic and her supernatural beauty, is actually her brain and detective skills. She has familial support despite her estranged father, she has a community, she has a life and she’s happy about it. It’s kind of sad how rare all of these elements are and how refreshing it is to have a protagonist who combines all of them.
I have to say with all this awesome world building that there was perhaps too much. I felt sometimes like I was reading the second book in a series – there were so many clan names, so many special powers, so much history, so much detail so much information – it was hard work to keep up with it all at times. I actually started keeping notes before finally just reading and running with it – maybe I’d forget the information just given but usually it wasn’t too relevant and I could get a rough idea of what was happening.
The same applies to all the characters – so many characters from so many clans on different sides and different factions. This was somewhat worse than the world building because I actually had one of her allies confused as a bad guy for a time before realising my mistake.
And then there’s the story. RB moves from Ireland to London to Paris to Munich and there and back and there and back meeting new people, following leads then checking on old leads – all at that excellent pace I mentioned. It makes for a really exciting, fast paced story. But it also means that I got confused more than once. I say again, you can keep reading through it, you can keep going and pick up the train you’ve just derailed – but it’s not something I like doing.
Read More
But outside the clans doesn’t mean she has no ties to them and when a young druid is kidnapped – one among many, she is the one that Lord O’Byrne turns to to investigate.
The trail leads across Europe to a huge human trafficking network of vulnerable women – and uncovers tensions that may start a war between the clans
So much good to say here.
Let’s start with the world. A world with a huge hidden population of Telepaths – with varying gifts. Some of those gifts produces druids – or succubi (with lots of history explaining this odd link). And by varying gifts – our protagonist, RB has 15 separate ones and I get the impression she doesn’t even have a quarter of them so there’s huge scope for “varying” under that umbrella. The Telepath clans are woven into our history in a way that draws on it and explains their current affiliations, enmities and ongoing issues but doesn’t appropriate it (for example, the Clans are very involved in World War 2 but never said to be responsible for it) but with the odd name drop implying certain famous people are Telepaths in ways that work without being skeevy (like the Medici family for example) and just make me further appreciate the integration. The world is huge and awesome.
The plot is really fast paced and wide. It has a lot of elements all of which are inter-related and draw on each other as RB sees the conspiracy she’s facing grow every wider and more complex as the human trafficking she’s exploring becomes Europe wide and related to various clan plots. Despite that, RB is excellently focused on her goals among the temptation to bloat elsewhere. The action is really well written, the story is extremely fast paced – the race to find and save a girl, the many leads they have to chase down all feel both realistic and exciting; from the excitement of a new lead to the disappointment of another route blocked, it carries you along.
I love the main characters. She’s powerful without her super-woo-woo being her defining feature. She’s blessedly free of angst. She gets on with other women and doesn’t have any of those insta-hate moment. She’s sexual without it completely overwhelming the story. Her main assets, despite all of her super powerful magic and her supernatural beauty, is actually her brain and detective skills. She has familial support despite her estranged father, she has a community, she has a life and she’s happy about it. It’s kind of sad how rare all of these elements are and how refreshing it is to have a protagonist who combines all of them.
I have to say with all this awesome world building that there was perhaps too much. I felt sometimes like I was reading the second book in a series – there were so many clan names, so many special powers, so much history, so much detail so much information – it was hard work to keep up with it all at times. I actually started keeping notes before finally just reading and running with it – maybe I’d forget the information just given but usually it wasn’t too relevant and I could get a rough idea of what was happening.
The same applies to all the characters – so many characters from so many clans on different sides and different factions. This was somewhat worse than the world building because I actually had one of her allies confused as a bad guy for a time before realising my mistake.
And then there’s the story. RB moves from Ireland to London to Paris to Munich and there and back and there and back meeting new people, following leads then checking on old leads – all at that excellent pace I mentioned. It makes for a really exciting, fast paced story. But it also means that I got confused more than once. I say again, you can keep reading through it, you can keep going and pick up the train you’ve just derailed – but it’s not something I like doing.
Read More
September 23, 2015
I really enjoyed this fast-paced book that pulls a telepathic private investigator, tracking one missing girl (also a telepath and succubus), into a race to bust up a large-scale human trafficking ring before she herself gets swallowed up in it. Broken Dolls is part of a series and I haven't read any of the others, but it was easy for me to follow this story without feeling lost. It has its own singular plot and there is an appendix to help sort out all the telepathic gifts, as well as a foreword that gives you background on the telepathic Clans of the world.
Things I liked:
- The main character is strong, funny, and humble--and has really cool paranormal talents.
- The paranormal elements are pretty cool and unique: the many telepathic gifts and the levels of the brain that are described, the Clan politics and culture, the backdrop of the "norms" (regular humans) against this paranormal story world.
- The plot involving human trafficking was interesting and deserves some limelight in the real world.
- Despite such a strong sexual theme, there are not any explicit sex scenes in the book.
- This book can be read as a stand-alone novel, despite being part of a series.
- There were some great twists and turns.
- I liked most of the other characters, too--and great bad guys.
Things that I didn't like as much:
- I wish there was more imagery. The book is very fast-paced, and while I could visualize a lot of the story, I think the action overpowered some of the novel, leaving me unable to "see" things.
- At times, I thought some of the telepaths seemed not to know certain things about their own kind that didn't seem to jive with that particular character's supposed background (i.e., they didn't grow up in a cave!) and it didn't necessarily need to be that way to advance the story (as an author convenience, etc., in other words).
- There were a few threads left hanging (that perhaps will pick up in a later book), and my curiosity didn't get satisfied on that level. (Ex. Is Peter an incubus? What did Myrna end up like?)
- The ending felt rushed and almost like an afterthought. Not the main resolution to the plot, but the actual last few paragraphs. It just kind of stopped with nothing interesting to leave me thinking about--very anticlimactic.
All in all, though, well written and worth reading! I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
Things I liked:
- The main character is strong, funny, and humble--and has really cool paranormal talents.
- The paranormal elements are pretty cool and unique: the many telepathic gifts and the levels of the brain that are described, the Clan politics and culture, the backdrop of the "norms" (regular humans) against this paranormal story world.
- The plot involving human trafficking was interesting and deserves some limelight in the real world.
- Despite such a strong sexual theme, there are not any explicit sex scenes in the book.
- This book can be read as a stand-alone novel, despite being part of a series.
- There were some great twists and turns.
- I liked most of the other characters, too--and great bad guys.
Things that I didn't like as much:
- I wish there was more imagery. The book is very fast-paced, and while I could visualize a lot of the story, I think the action overpowered some of the novel, leaving me unable to "see" things.
- At times, I thought some of the telepaths seemed not to know certain things about their own kind that didn't seem to jive with that particular character's supposed background (i.e., they didn't grow up in a cave!) and it didn't necessarily need to be that way to advance the story (as an author convenience, etc., in other words).
- There were a few threads left hanging (that perhaps will pick up in a later book), and my curiosity didn't get satisfied on that level. (Ex. Is Peter an incubus? What did Myrna end up like?)
- The ending felt rushed and almost like an afterthought. Not the main resolution to the plot, but the actual last few paragraphs. It just kind of stopped with nothing interesting to leave me thinking about--very anticlimactic.
All in all, though, well written and worth reading! I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
November 18, 2013
I've never read anything like this before. It's unique, and that's a hard thing to accomplish in the writing world nowadays. You have a book full of succubuses, women who need sex to survive, who drain men's energy. There are even genetic sluts, kid you not. There's sex trafficking, telekinesis, mind reading, mind manipulation, brainwashing, everything you can think of.
At the heart of it all is this tough, incredibly powerful woman who's a Telepath and private investigator. What starts as a favor to a long-time friend becomes an agenda of sorts to rescue as many "broken dolls" as she can. The heroine has a good heart and lets nothing stop her.
The broken dolls are succubuses, norms, or Telepath who have been abducted and sold and turned into unemotional, walking robots who exist for the sole purpose of pleasing the men who purchase them. Sex trafficking is a serious problem and I appreciate what the author did here, mixing a serious, very real issue with tons of paranormal excitement.
Just when I thought I'd finally learned about all the "powers" the heroine had, another ability popped up. I am truly amazed at the author's imagination.
I laughed out loud at the heroine's mother...
"Rhi! What a wonderful present!" Mum exclaimed, fixing them (two men/bodyguards accompanying the heroine at the time) with a smile. "Just go on into the bedroom and take off your clothes. I'll be with you as soon as I fix my daughter a cup of tea."
LOL!!!!!!!!!!! (Her mom's a succubus.)
It was a very enjoyable and interesting read, but I must admit to being overwhelmed at times. Too many characters made it hard to remember everyone and who they were/what they'd done. There was also just too many powers and abilities to keep track of and remember as well. The clan war thing became jumbled after a while also. I think, as odd as this will sound, the book needed more boring moments, tamer scenes, to balance out the constant action/revelations, so readers are not bombarded with so much to remember at one time. It would also have been nice to really get to know the heroine better. More emotion/internal thoughts from her would have gone a long way. Despite it being first person, I never felt we were really IN her head, that I was getting to know her.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2013/...
At the heart of it all is this tough, incredibly powerful woman who's a Telepath and private investigator. What starts as a favor to a long-time friend becomes an agenda of sorts to rescue as many "broken dolls" as she can. The heroine has a good heart and lets nothing stop her.
The broken dolls are succubuses, norms, or Telepath who have been abducted and sold and turned into unemotional, walking robots who exist for the sole purpose of pleasing the men who purchase them. Sex trafficking is a serious problem and I appreciate what the author did here, mixing a serious, very real issue with tons of paranormal excitement.
Just when I thought I'd finally learned about all the "powers" the heroine had, another ability popped up. I am truly amazed at the author's imagination.
I laughed out loud at the heroine's mother...
"Rhi! What a wonderful present!" Mum exclaimed, fixing them (two men/bodyguards accompanying the heroine at the time) with a smile. "Just go on into the bedroom and take off your clothes. I'll be with you as soon as I fix my daughter a cup of tea."
LOL!!!!!!!!!!! (Her mom's a succubus.)
It was a very enjoyable and interesting read, but I must admit to being overwhelmed at times. Too many characters made it hard to remember everyone and who they were/what they'd done. There was also just too many powers and abilities to keep track of and remember as well. The clan war thing became jumbled after a while also. I think, as odd as this will sound, the book needed more boring moments, tamer scenes, to balance out the constant action/revelations, so readers are not bombarded with so much to remember at one time. It would also have been nice to really get to know the heroine better. More emotion/internal thoughts from her would have gone a long way. Despite it being first person, I never felt we were really IN her head, that I was getting to know her.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2013/...
November 14, 2013
Broken Dolls takes place in Europe and had me hooked in from the back story from the start. The author takes the reader on a journey through telepathics and focuses around the main character, Rhiannon Kendrick, who is also know as RB or Rhi. Rhiannon is a telepath who is also an investigator and her powers that she possesses helps her really seek out the truth in people’s stories. She is called upon to help find a girl and is sucked in to a whole other mess of human trafficking. She finds many girls that are in trouble, but the one that she was sent out to find keeps just slipping away from her reach. The girl that she is trying to find is a young succubi that has gone missing and Lord O’Byrne is the one that contacts Rhiannon to help. Rhi finds out along her investigations that someone is snatching up telepaths and succubis and using them in the sex industry. This means that she as a beautiful telepath is also in danger of living just a life that she has recently discovered in her investigation.
I liked that there were a lot of plot twists throughout the book but sometimes the scenes moved a little too fast for me to keep up with. I would have liked a little bit more imagery so that I could build the scenes of what was going on in my head. I like to think of myself as a vivid reader when I am engaged in a story and I need a little bit more descriptions of scenery than maybe someone else that was reading the book. This is just such a small minor detail in the bigger scheme of things. I really did enjoy the storyline because it was one like I had never read before in a paranormal novel. It kept me engaged and I just want to give a heads up that Rhi has a lot of other powers that do not get fuly explained. There was an index for them that I discovered later and it started to make more sense. I would love to see the author continue with this series and see where Rhiannon takes us. There was really no love interest for her in the story and I would like to see that softer side of her…maybe one day! I give this novel FOUR stars just because I would have liked to see a little more imagery to build my senses of what was going on in the storyline.
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes and all opinions are my own.
I liked that there were a lot of plot twists throughout the book but sometimes the scenes moved a little too fast for me to keep up with. I would have liked a little bit more imagery so that I could build the scenes of what was going on in my head. I like to think of myself as a vivid reader when I am engaged in a story and I need a little bit more descriptions of scenery than maybe someone else that was reading the book. This is just such a small minor detail in the bigger scheme of things. I really did enjoy the storyline because it was one like I had never read before in a paranormal novel. It kept me engaged and I just want to give a heads up that Rhi has a lot of other powers that do not get fuly explained. There was an index for them that I discovered later and it started to make more sense. I would love to see the author continue with this series and see where Rhiannon takes us. There was really no love interest for her in the story and I would like to see that softer side of her…maybe one day! I give this novel FOUR stars just because I would have liked to see a little more imagery to build my senses of what was going on in the storyline.
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes and all opinions are my own.
September 19, 2015
Title: Broken Dolls
Author: BR. Kingsolver
Pages: 235
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Synopsis:
Private investigator RB Kendrick makes her living nailing cheating spouses, digging up other dirt to help in a divorce, finding long-lost relatives, and occasionally sniffing out criminal activity and fraud.
When she takes a job to find a missing girl, she has no idea she is headed for the most dangerous case of her career. Usually, her ability to read minds gives her an edge. But when the people she's hunting are also telepaths, that advantage is limited.
The search takes her into the dark underbelly of telepathic society, where anything, and anyone, is for sale. She discovers that telepathic women and girls are being trafficked as the ultimate sex slaves.
With people trying to kill her, she's on the run, not knowing who she can trust. Will she find the missing girl, or become a victim herself?
A paranormal thriller set in the world of The Telepathic Clans.
Review:
*Beware ye who enter… Semi-Spoiler ahead*
Holy AMAZEBALLS y’all, I really enjoyed reading broken dolls; my love for paranormal fiction is unparalleled and BR Kingsolver delivered a terrific read. I was hooked form chapter 1 due to my second love crime/suspense fiction whereas the lovely female protagonist Rhiannon (RB) is sleuthing her way through cheating husbands/wives as a P.I. and making BANK doing so; But every impressive book has faults, but luckily Broken Dolls has but one…. In my opinion. I would have like to discover more about RB and her father’s relationship and why it was so strenuous, not much was written about her father other than he wanted her to (SPOILER) become heir to his throne, (hopefully doesn’t end up like GOT). I was literally turning pages at the speed of light on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen next. I love the way they that the characters collide and fuse with each other, Shipping exactly where you want them shipped instead of being dumb and falling or
(screwing) the wrong person (except that one time). Full of misconceptions, betrayals, and windy slip’n’ slides of lies Broken Dolls is making its way to my ever growing list of favorites... (That’s one down in my TBR pile….Like 24 to go)
‘til the next review…smooches
Author: BR. Kingsolver
Pages: 235
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Synopsis:
Private investigator RB Kendrick makes her living nailing cheating spouses, digging up other dirt to help in a divorce, finding long-lost relatives, and occasionally sniffing out criminal activity and fraud.
When she takes a job to find a missing girl, she has no idea she is headed for the most dangerous case of her career. Usually, her ability to read minds gives her an edge. But when the people she's hunting are also telepaths, that advantage is limited.
The search takes her into the dark underbelly of telepathic society, where anything, and anyone, is for sale. She discovers that telepathic women and girls are being trafficked as the ultimate sex slaves.
With people trying to kill her, she's on the run, not knowing who she can trust. Will she find the missing girl, or become a victim herself?
A paranormal thriller set in the world of The Telepathic Clans.
Review:
*Beware ye who enter… Semi-Spoiler ahead*
Holy AMAZEBALLS y’all, I really enjoyed reading broken dolls; my love for paranormal fiction is unparalleled and BR Kingsolver delivered a terrific read. I was hooked form chapter 1 due to my second love crime/suspense fiction whereas the lovely female protagonist Rhiannon (RB) is sleuthing her way through cheating husbands/wives as a P.I. and making BANK doing so; But every impressive book has faults, but luckily Broken Dolls has but one…. In my opinion. I would have like to discover more about RB and her father’s relationship and why it was so strenuous, not much was written about her father other than he wanted her to (SPOILER) become heir to his throne, (hopefully doesn’t end up like GOT). I was literally turning pages at the speed of light on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen next. I love the way they that the characters collide and fuse with each other, Shipping exactly where you want them shipped instead of being dumb and falling or
(screwing) the wrong person (except that one time). Full of misconceptions, betrayals, and windy slip’n’ slides of lies Broken Dolls is making its way to my ever growing list of favorites... (That’s one down in my TBR pile….Like 24 to go)
‘til the next review…smooches
November 13, 2013
Well it is one of those books which is really difficult to review upon as I have to constantly worry about giving away a hint about the story. Well I felt the story was very well written and the theme has a very good potential to form into another series.
The plot was very unique and from unique I would say one of a kind. The plot was mysterious but was still in front of you. The only thing I can imagine to compare it with would be a roller coaster, yeah a roller coaster with its own thrill and adventure.
Just like the plot, the character was also unique. The first thing I noticed and found attractive in the book was the name of the character. So different and still so familiar. The character was also very well described and I give the credits to the imagination of the author.
Overall ‘Broken Dolls’ had some positive and negative aspects to it but it was an unbelievably mysterious, and full of thrill with just a hint of satisfaction in the end to it .
I would say the author has added a winner to her collection.
I would rate the book with
The plot was very unique and from unique I would say one of a kind. The plot was mysterious but was still in front of you. The only thing I can imagine to compare it with would be a roller coaster, yeah a roller coaster with its own thrill and adventure.
Just like the plot, the character was also unique. The first thing I noticed and found attractive in the book was the name of the character. So different and still so familiar. The character was also very well described and I give the credits to the imagination of the author.
Overall ‘Broken Dolls’ had some positive and negative aspects to it but it was an unbelievably mysterious, and full of thrill with just a hint of satisfaction in the end to it .
I would say the author has added a winner to her collection.
I would rate the book with
June 29, 2015
This is not my usual genre and I enjoyed every minute of it. Having read more than one book by this author I can honestly say that I love her work. I was honored to be gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review of her book, "Broken Dolls".
I really thought that I would get confused by the descriptions of all the "Gifts" that all these paranormal characters could possess. WOW.. B.R. Kingsolver did an awesome job of explaining the intricacies of the "Clans" without dragging the story down. Rhiannon is a kick ass PI who has lots of these gifts. Her talents are being wasted however on cheating spouse investigations and the ilk. When her mentor, leader of one of the clans, calls on her to help find a missing girl she automatically rushes to help. We find human trafficking is alive and unwell with a new twist. Read it and see what I mean. :)
I really thought that I would get confused by the descriptions of all the "Gifts" that all these paranormal characters could possess. WOW.. B.R. Kingsolver did an awesome job of explaining the intricacies of the "Clans" without dragging the story down. Rhiannon is a kick ass PI who has lots of these gifts. Her talents are being wasted however on cheating spouse investigations and the ilk. When her mentor, leader of one of the clans, calls on her to help find a missing girl she automatically rushes to help. We find human trafficking is alive and unwell with a new twist. Read it and see what I mean. :)
January 15, 2017
Psi powers FTW.
This was an enjoyable read, one that kept me reading through the night. I liked the new-to-me types of human powers, and the different take on trafficking. I shall look for more by this author.
This was an enjoyable read, one that kept me reading through the night. I liked the new-to-me types of human powers, and the different take on trafficking. I shall look for more by this author.
August 24, 2024
A new character...a disquieting plotline...good ending. Reread 2024.
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