Review: Strategic Alliance

Strategic Alliance by Vanessa Liebe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Tongue-in-cheek lively paranormal romance is entertaining. I picked this book up purely because of the author. I barely glanced over the blurb. I recently read a book by Ms. Liebe and it contained four hilarious paranormal erotica shorts. Sure, some of it was dub-con, but it was funny. In this one, Ms. Liebe continues the erotic shenanigans in a less than dub-con way. More like a roofie rape manner which is supposed to be sexy hot. This may cause some problems for readers looking for a smexy erotic read. Please note, it is really only one scene and the aggressor is the female, not male.

This story is a little over the top for me as far as numbers and powers. Isabelle and Lucian are royalty in an arranged marriage to cement the alliance between the witches and vampires. Due to a common enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend …The relationship conflict between the two is fine. Both characters tend to be a little too juvenile for me. The drama lama scenes from Isabelle are not my cup of tea. Back to the numbers issues, what throws me is the sheer number of demons they are fighting in their battles. It just doesn't compute how little the vampires and witches are hurt. The power thing which bugged me about Isabelle is how much "power" she possesses. This makes it a little too easy for her to defeat these demons. Really, why even need an alliance? Then when Isabelle is captured, her recovery time to get her powers back is a stretch of the imagination. Obviously it is needed in order for the story to work, but it all feels a little too deus ex machina for me.

For me, if I do not really like the characters or they are just "meh" for me, I cannot connect with the story. Both characters are too one dimensional. For a short story, that is okay. For a longer story like this one, it leaves a reader wanting. Lucian is the stereotypical heavy handed chest beating male. Isabelle is the gorgeous super kickass heroine who needs to prove herself to the manly man. Based on my previous experience with Ms. Liebe, I had hoped for a little bit more. A little more wit from the characters in their repartee would be nice. Their dialogues tended to be more sticking out their tongue at each other style. Perhaps more sexual tension, not immature one upmanship would also enhance the story.

* Review copy provided via Reading Alley in exchange for an honest review.

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