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Book Review of Night Shift (Jill Kismet, Bk 1)

Night Shift (Jill Kismet, Bk 1)
sandylu562 avatar reviewed on
Helpful Score: 3


2-1/2 stars
My, my. Saintcrow really bombed with this melange of Kim Harrison and Laurell K. Hamilton (The Hollows and Anita Blake novels). I'd say she got her ideas from these two series, but she obviously didn't actually read the series and that's too bad.

Saintcrow needs to do better research on firearms. Glocks, being semi-automatic handguns don't have a hammer like a revolver nor are they cocked by pulling back on this non-existent hammer, nor is there a click of the hammer when the gun is cocked (or uncocked HAHAHA). It is correct to say there's a bullet in the chamber and that's mentioned once. Refer to Laurell K. Hamilton for some really great descriptions of a woman using threatening behavior with a Glock! No hammers there!

Yeah the gun thing really really bugged me!

Ok, for the rest of the book. I was rooting for the bad guys cause they were so much more interesting! Sadly we aren't shown enough of Jill Kismet to admire her, feel sorry for her, or bond in any way with her. Again see the Harrison and Hamilton series for great female protagonists who may be annoying, but in the end, are absolutely fascinating!

Rebecca mentioned in her one star review that the italics drove her nuts. Yeah there were some random words italicized. But the dream sequences and "in head" thinking were all in italics and this chick had looong dreams and lots of thoughts (ok at least they were funny sometimes)! I'm in the camp that liked to see the difference between the current action and the dreams, so italics there were fine. Something else could have been used though, formatting, different font (not that it would show up on my e-reader), or just little gray boxes setting off the dream text.

Yeah, just fire that editor and start over!

The point of this book is, (sadly) don't do something that's already been done if you can't do it better. And this book is definitely not better.

Yes I enjoyed the Dante Valentine series (4-5 stars there) and will be reading the other books in this series, but mostly because I'm so fond of the genre. Yaay for used book swaps and libraries!

Will you like this book? Well, if you haven't read Harrison or Hamilton and love the genre, give it a whirl. It's kind of like going to (the old) Knotts Berry Farm before going to Disneyland. Both good in their own way but you have to see them in that order to appreciate Knotts and that's how I think of Night Shift.

It lost 1/2 star for the annoying gun stuff and another 1/2 star for being a bad copy-cat.