Review: Any Given Doomsday, Lori Handeland

Elizabeth Phoenix has always had special powers that she has never wanted.  These powers lost her a job in the police force, caused the death of her partner, and made her realize that her first love cheated on her with another woman.  When a beloved friend dies, Elizabeth discovers that she must embrace her powers and even acquire new ones to save the world.

Nothing wrong with that premise.  I thought that there were many problems with this book, though.  I did not like Elizabeth.  It seemed to me that all she wanted was to have sex, over and over again, and not even exclusive sex.  There were far too many scenes of this caliber in this book; roughly half of it seemed to be about Elizabeth’s desire and the fulfillment, or not, of said desire.  I don’t know about you, but that’s not usually what I look for in a book; one or two is fine, but this was just too much.  I get the feeling that she doesn’t actually care about anyone; she seems to interpret lust as love.

The rest of the book is spent learning about various types of magical creatures, both good and bad.  There are way too many of them for one short book.  It’s overwhelming and it’s difficult to be entertained when Elizabeth discovers something new constantly and the reader has to remember all that she’s learned, which isn’t made easy here.

For these reasons, I think this book is meant to be largely set-up for the rest of the series.  It introduces many of Elizabeth’s enemies and her relationships with these two men, but it doesn’t go very far.  It’s a quick read, but I spent a lot of it skimming past the sex and trying to figure out why what I was being told was important.  I don’t think I’d recommend this one, and I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of the series, either.

Still interested?  Check this book out on Amazon.