I was very leery of purchasing this book. Indie self-published authors are a mixed bag on Amazon. There are some very good authors that are lost in the midst of a bunch of money grabbing authors producing novella length Kindle Unlimited turkeys trying to pass their “book” off as something that is both great to read and worth the price.
Regrettably the KU business model is to pack as much sex and violence into the Amazon preview encouraging the suckers to delve further into the novella that is little more than word porn and fap material.
I expected Warlock's Son (Andrew Moore, #1) by D.R. Rosier to follow in the same vein as other KU turkey-writing indie authors. I was pleasantly surprised that the Amazon preview, while a bit shorter and less information filled than I would have liked, still aroused my interest enough that I purchased the book.
I have not read the previous trilogy, which I understand focuses on Andrew’s father. Depending on how this trilogy (yes – I bought all three books) I might go back and read the books about Andrew’ father.
The author writes well and is obviously an accomplished writer by the standards of most authors. Rosier’s dialogue is smooth and I never once lost track of who was talking to whom. Dialogue is important in an erotic supernatural, paranormal urban fantasy and Rosier does a good job of keeping the flavor of each character.
The action is fast and well written, if late coming in the book. I would have liked to have seen more of the great cat lycanthropes than what has so far been revealed. Of all the lycanthrope species, the great cats are my favorite, perhaps because I hate Twilight so much that it soured me on werewolves forever.
The sex is graphically well-written and erotic so if you are adverse to MFF threesomes, with FF action and less than traditional non-safe sexual practices, you might want to skip this book. The author walks a fine line between word porn and an erotic urban fantasy.
The main characters are fairly well described with enough back story and information to get me invested enough that I care what happens to them. Of all of the women in Andrew’s bed so far Katia is my favorite, even though she is the least and shallowest described character.
The beginning is a little slow, and dragged because there was little to no action and was all plot development. The author needs to apply the principle of Chekhov’s gun a bit more liberally then he has so far.
I found it odd, unsettling and unusual that Andrew’s mother just dumped on him and then left his life never to be seen again. Most mothers, especially one that Andrew said raised him lovingly on her own would not just walk away from their child. Andrew’s mother’s situation as described by the author made her disappearance an author-driven plot device that I felt was not what Andrew’s mother would do. Perhaps Andrew’s mother returns in later books in this series.
Andrew’s hero complex is irritating but considering the story arc understandable. I thought that Andrew got over getting shafted by Lillian awful quick because he was thinking with his dick not his brain. Andrew thinks a lot with his dick through this book not always a bad thing.
Mercy is the luxury of the strong and Andrew is not nearly strong enough to be granting mercy. By pairing with a pride of decimated large cat shifters, Andrew allies himself with a group that he does not need. He should have gone for the snakes, bears or wolves, but they wouldn’t make as hot of bed companions.
Ultimately, the book was decent enough that I purchased the whole series, and am considering getting the first trilogy about Andrew’s father as well. I had to suspend belief a little in this book, but not as much as some other urban fantasies. Perhaps what sold me the most is these books are set near where I live and describe familiar settings.