This is the sixth book in the Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick, published 2013 by DAW Books Inc. I listened to this Paranormal comedy fully cast narrated by Graphic Audio.
The story starts with Esther being furious at her boyfriend or ex, Connor Lopez, for having sex with her then forgetting to call her. It doesn’t help when he arrests her and she loses her job, almost being out on the streets she finally gets a break in Chinatown as she become casted in a independent movie production but her job is threaten… by cursed cookies.
The main cast in this one seemed to be Esther and Lopez, their relationship seems to be in focus but just like in previous books, it isn’t concluded and the constant will they, won’t they continue. Max role was… weird. We find out more about his previous crush on a woman that dies, but it doesn’t play into the plot much other than the woman who looks like his former lover seem to be entangle in the cursed cookies. Frankly, he barely in this book along with the hitman Lucky who also didn’t have much to do. I guess it is fine that side characters don’t have as many scenes but why did we find out about Max past only for it to not mean anything?
I’m also not sure about the plot, I mean Chinese curses sounds interesting then the fortune cookie comes into play and I just find it… stereotypical. I guess it is interesting that the author mention in the book that the fortune cookie isn’t a Chinese tradition but an American one but still… Why use the word Feng Shui without going into the long philosophical nature of it. It is merely called out upon without touching what it is and what the culprit does with it. Now, if the third books problem was info dumping then this one was the lack of information all together.
I also found the comedy stale, it didn’t get me to chuckle and along with the mystery being lackluster, I must say that this book is the worst one in the series so far. It wasn’t bad necessary, but it hadn’t anything that lured me into it or entertained me. When I was done with it, the on and off again romance is still going. the jokes are flat and few, the mystery is undeveloped and Lopez powers are starting to become annoying. They only show up at the end to save Esther and is hardly addressed in the rest of the book. They are only there to Deus Ex Machina the books.
There was also so many things that bothered me, such as Esther running around worrying about getting a parttime job to pay her bills, she has just worked as a Santa Elf during Christmas and now it’s New Years eve, how can she be out of money. Not to mention why haven’t she asked Max for a job. After all he has done for her, he would probably offer her both a home and a job if she asked. Esther’s constant anger over Lopez also overstayed its welcome after a while, the author milked that storyline a bit too much.
Overall, the story’s problem seems to be that the author doesn’t know what to write and just milk old plotlines while reusing others, such as the Max’s flashbacks, but in previous books they were there to show us information instead of just telling us. Here it doesn’t give us any information that will affect the plot and all it does is take up space, which I think is its purpose. I cannot give this book more than a 4 out of 10. It really didn’t entice me and I fear that if this continues, this series will go out on a bad note.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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