Home › Review › Snakeskin Boots

Author

Sirius

Related Posts

24 comments

  • Hey Sirius,
    I’m not big on were-anythings anyway and from your review…*brrr*
    Guess I’ll stay away from this even though I liked “Zephyr” from the same author. Thanks for the warning.

    • Hi Feliz. With this book I strongly urge you to seek other reviews (if you are tempted at all by the blurb of course). I mean as with any other book of course, but even more with this one. Review was sitting in Q for few weeks because I went to read other reviews and it seems that overall people enjoyed this one. I tried to figure out what I was missing but could not, nevertheless as I said seems like people liked it. This one taught me to ignore the reviews not just after I am done, but till the review is up and running, then I am usually not tempted to change it lol.

  • Hi Sirius!

    Thanks for your review. Yeah, books are subjective. The fun part of this indie book market is all the variety available to read! I too saw all the enthusiastic reviews for this book. Not my thing. I just can’t do the shifting snake thing {shudder}.

    I did read Mark Alder’s book The Nourisher– MC was an alien spider. Mark did a great job on that one! 😯

    Sometimes they workfor a reader and sometimes– not quite.

    Thanks for the review!!

    • Hi Reggie. I have read Mark Alder’s series and thought Vernon was a sweetheart. I was hesitant but very glad that I gave it a try 🙂

  • I enjoyed this book. There is a bit of a sink or swim mentality in the world building, but I didn’t mind, and as far as I know there are other stories in this universe which should explain quite a lot.
    Also, it’s a good mixture of the funny and the dark. Yes, the snakeskin boots are gross, but they are supposed to be.

      • Hi Rhys yes one secondary character is a were elephant, and there is no indication that this character is the only one in existence of their species.

        • Huh. How… I mean how does that work for ratio of body mass? I’m curious as to the mechanics of it all. I’ll have to think about that.

          Thanks for the review. Honestly, now I’m intrigued by the were-elephant component.

          • Hi Rhys I am afraid author did not share the details of how elephant shifting actually works, as far as I remember anyway. Maybe one day she will write a book where wereelephants will be main characters (so not for me) and will give her readers more details.

  • I am pleased I resisted this one. 🙂

    I was strongly tempted as I think snakes are beautiful to look at and was interested in the way it would work out within a real social setting. It sounds like I would have been disappointed.

    Many thanks Sirius.

    • Hey Raine. I want to say seek out other reviews due to general positive reaction, at the same time I still have strong doubts that the book is for you. Humor may work for you or not, world building may work for you or not, however even in the positive reviews I have read (I do not mean comments here) I have not noticed praising a book for portraying characters in depth. I know characters are very important to you and I found bothain characters to be bland and not interesting at all. I suppose doing additional research is always a good idea,maybe you will end up loving the book.

  • I had wondered just how far the shifter fad would go. I’ve read a very few that I thought were worth spending time on, but the current trend is just laughable. Anything to make a buck, I guess.

    • Hi Catana, sorry I missed your comment. I think authors are trying hard to distinguish their books from every other book on the market, thus ever growing army of the shifters of different kind. JMO of course, and also IMO sometimes it work, sometimes it does not. I have no problem with a lot of were…, but there are some things I definitely would not want to read about. As I mentioned to Wave when I was choosing the book I shudder to think that one day somebody may come up with werecockroaches for example. 😯

  • Hi Monika, I am happy that you enjoyed the book . I did not find the world building convincing at all. I also do not think that after reading the story of this length I should go look for other stories to receive answers. I do not even require the world building to be that detailed necessarily. Have you read Equilibrium by Katey Hawthorne? For me this book was a great example of world building which could be expanded a lot however at the same time she easily convinced me in the believability of her world, where group of people with paranormal abilities exists along side of ordinary people. Nothing like that happened for me in this story unfortunately. As to snakeon boots, yes I hoped it was supposed to be gross, but I picked more amusement than gross from the page and it was just not working for me. Thanks for commenting.

  • *Fans of the author may feel differently.*

    I LOVED this story! I can understand that not everyone is going to enjoy the book like I did, but will forgive you 😉

    I really enjoyed XXX’s take on shifters. Yes Brad was perfect…we saw him through Jeff’s eyes. When I first started dating my husband, I painted him with the same brush Jeff did Brad. We don’t want to take notice of flaws when we first start dating someone.

    One of the best features for me in Snakeskin Boots was how the characters actually acted like their animal kin. I also enjoyed reading about different types of shifters…elephant, scorpion, snake, spider monkey, and more. I love paranormal reads, but hate when the characters are swept up in the whole “Mate” thing. “I’m your mate, sleep with me” is so overdone.

    I think you should know that I am biased. I have read the second book in this series already and it is simply fabulous. We get to see more of Jeff and Brad (sorry Sirius) and the book has a more in plot depth.

    Lastly, Xara’s humor and writing skills are more than an author trying to make a buck. That’s insulting to say when authors get paid so little. Not being mean, just pointing out that there are people out that write because they enjoy it and want to share that joy with you. If you are hesitant to read something, trust the author. Allow them to take you on their journey. Not all stories will be to your liking, but for me…it’s just worth it.

    Happy Holidays everyone!

    • Hi Summer I am pleased you loved the book. Overall it did not work for me but I found writing to be technically decent enough and snakes fun. Thanks for commenting.

  • Sirius

    Are the snakes cold? 😯

    I think I’m going to read this book just for fun because it’s so unusual and I want to find out why the snakeskin boots were so gross. I did warn you when you requested Snakeskin Boots that it might not be to your taste because the blurb was so unusual.

    I’m not sure I can regard were elephants and scorpions as protagonists, and that character with the 22 inch dick?? I sure hope that his love interest has elastic parts. 😮

    • Hey wave you indeed warned me 🙂 as I mentioned in my review lol, but what you warned me about – actually was to my taste. In fact this was the only part of the book that was to my taste. I enjoyed seeing how snake shifters still keep some animal characteristics when they are people and I thought two dicks which Jeff kept in his human form was actually truly funny in a good way. 22 inch dick did not work for me at all – I kept imagining the real one and got a bit nervous an I also thought that it was milked for more than it was worth and calling it “eggplant” got very old for me and very fast. Anyway please let me know what you thought after you finish.

    • Oh forgot to add – were elephant and scorpion are secondary characters. I am not sure I would have enjoyed the book with we’re elephants as main characters.

  • I read this as well and agree with many of your thoughts. My favorite part was the way the animal characteristics were so well incorporated into the human side. The snakey stuff worked really well I think. I thought the humor was sort of a mixed bag. Most of it I really liked but some was a bit overdone (too much eggplant).

    My biggest issue was the tone change honestly. Most of it was so light and funny and then it turns really seriously and almost horrifically violent (the boots are gross in an “OMG that is shockingly awful way”, not a light “ew grody” way. Seemed strange to me that the title makes it seem like a light pun). So it just threw me a bit to make such a switch in tone.

    I will be curious to check out the next books though. I actually liked the wide range of shifters after reading so many wolf stories so I”ll be interested to see where she takes things.

    P.S. If anyone cares I have a full review on my site Joyfully Jay.

  • Hi jayhjay you expressed my issue with boots 🙂 perfectly thank you – they are horrible and title leads you to believe it will be a light pun. I also agree that change of tone did not work for me. Thanks for commenting.

  • I see I’m jumping into the discussion late… but I really liked this book a lot and look forward to reading more stories set in this world.

    I like how the different species all interact together and the zoo has a lot of possibilities. I also like the fact that injuries suffered while shifted turn up in their human form. It adds a nice sense of danger.

    I could have dealt with little less sex, and while the jokes were funny at first, many eventually got played into the ground.

    But overall I think this has the pontential to become a really imaginative series.
    😀

    • Hi Diane, it looks like a lot of people liked this story indeed. It is never to late to enter a discussion by the way, if we get wordpress notification that new comment appeared, we always respond :).

      Okay, for the purposes of the discussion only, and feel free not to answer, but I am curious so here it goes 🙂 Why did you like the main characters? As I mentioned above I totally get how humor and world building may or may not work for different people. I also totally get (and even liked that part myself) how the reflection of some animalistic characteristics in their human shapes was fun. But besides those animalistic characteristics Jeff and Brad were so very bland to me. Did you find them to be distinct and memorable characters? As I said I am just curious and of course I would love to hear from anybody who loved this book. Thank you for commenting 🙂

Comments are closed.