Review: Sucks To Be Me (First Fangs Club #1) by Kristen Painter #PWF #2020AudiobookChallenge

Today, I’m sharing my thoughts about Sucks To Be Me by Kristen Painter. It’s the first book in her new paranormal series, First Fangs Club.

Plus it’s part of a new reading genre that I’m really excited about. Paranormal Women’s Fiction or PWF for short.

What is Paranormal Women’s Fiction?

Well, 13 amazing paranormal romance, urban fantasy and paranormal cozy mystery authors have teamed up to write books where the protagonist is a woman in her 40s or older. As a menopausal woman within spitting distance of the big 5-0, I’m overjoyed at this new genre and can’t wait to buy them all! (You can check out the ones I’ve read by following the tag PWF.)

What’s Sucks To Be Me about?

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Last year, I decided that shorter reviews were the way forward me and my blog. 😉 Consequently, I only write full detailed reviews for the books I receive from authors, publishers and PR organiser (ARCs).

What did I think about it?

A Wonderful New Series That I Can Sink My Teeth Into.

I’ve read and enjoyed a few other books by Kristen Painter but this one felt slightly different: less light-hearted. This is a good thing as the setting for this book needed more weight. This book proved that Kristen can tweak her writing style to accommodate different reading genres. I absolutely love that her main character in this new series is a middle-aged woman. I did chuckle and smile, recognising many nods to women of my age, although, I wish some of Donna’s trademark middle-aged qualities hadn’t disappeared – I wear my middle-aged trademarks as badges of honour.

As with the other books I’ve read, I found this book very easy to read and loved Kristen’s writing style.

I engaged quickly with our protagonist, Belladonna aka Donna because she demonstrated all the personality traits that I crave in a main character. Donna proved to be intelligent, resilient, resourceful and had plenty of gumption. Although Kristen wasn’t breaking the mould with any of her characters, I enjoyed that she created a wealth of them with various personalities. Each played their part to progress the story. I really enjoyed the plot with all its twists, turns and different threads which kept me reading. Enjoying how some threads were satisfactorily concluded by the end, while others were left to continue into the next book.

I downloaded the narration and enjoyed B.J. Harrison’s performance.

The story is written from the point of view of our protagonist, Donna, with no “head-hopping“. In my opinion, the pace of his narration captured her maturity and personality. I liked his vocal variances during the dialogue for the different characters in this story.

I don’t think that there’s any offensive content within these pages – language, violence or sex. However some of the implied violence linked with the mafia theme is frightened. Therefore, I’d recommend this book to lovers of second-chance stories and standing up for what’s right. Readers who want courageous protagonist who create their own destiny. Read this one even if the paranormal genre isn’t your usual thing.

Keep reading to find out more about this series and its author.

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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my thoughts, I really appreciate it.

I hope I’ve sparked your interest and that you add this one to your groaning TBR piles. Or any of the First Fangs Club books! 😉

Bye for now,

Flora x