I usually love Hawk's works, but...

I'm a pretty die-hard Jordan L Hawk fan. I stopped counting how. many times I've read or listened to SPECTR, Whyborne & Griffin, and Hexbreaker.

However, over the last few years, there has been a distinct lackluster result in Hawk's books. Why do I keep buying? I keep hoping there will be another powerful book coming out of that wonderfully creative mind. Unfortunately The Forgotten Dead was not it. The characters are blasé. The storyline could have been really interesting, but ended up petering out with a whimper instead of a bang.

I would like to blame it on the results of the pandemic, but Hawk's writing style has been faltering for longer than that, I think due to the rush felt by indie authors to get as many books out as possible. When doing that, the result is never going to be great. Good maybe. But not great. And I do expect great from Hawk.

I understand Hawk's writing romance, but before there was more of a hands-off, too many things are going on to be turned on. vibe until later in the book. Now, the characters are into each other from the beginning, which thus ends in constant attraction and lust. BORING. It ends up sounding like all the other lackluster MM Romance books. Come on, Hawk. I know you can do better than this. Get your game back on!

While I like Tristan James, and loved his narration in the Hexworld series, his accents here caused problems for me. Quite often I wasn't sure which of the main characters was speaking.

I at least finished this one, which can not be said for the Rath & Ruin books. So there is that.

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not upset just disappointed

I couldn't finish the novel. The characters are so one detentions that you don't realize Nigel is transmale till a little more then halfway through. Something that one would assume would affect his life much more then just a mention of a trans t-shirt his mother gave him when he came out. From fears of being inadequate towards affections from the man he has a crush on to general relief that the group he hangs out with is obviously lbgta friendly, none of those thoughts or emotions are explored. The beginning before I found out that the MC was trans. I felt the novel read like one of her previous novels named 'Restless Spirits' in which about scientist is trying to prove and exercise ghosts with sceince... and a reluctant medium that helps him survive the haughting. Restless spirits is a historical romance while this one is modern. That's really the only difference. oh and the characters are much more flushed out in Restless spirits. This story just feels empty or rushed. It could easily be twice it's length if she would have taken the time to develop the characters more and the horror of the house.

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Fun Queer Paranormal Romp

So I have listened to this book multiple times through at this point and I have to say, what a fun time!! To be honest, I was excited just to see a mlm tale set in Appalachia, the spooky vibes were exactly what I was looking for, and then to have trans characters that are so well written and so easily talked about?

It feels so clear to me that this book is a work of love and I am honestly so excited for Rattling Bone!! I adored Tristen's voice work as well, his accents were wonderfully done and I felt like each voice he gave to different characters fit perfectly!

To be honest, and no disrespect to my other reviewers, but I think that what may feel like to some as Odd Pacing or the story not quite reaching its emotional depth may be chalked up to the fact that largely this story is queer! like it's not going to follow the same paths as even as cisgendered mlm story and for me this was shown beautifully between the emotional chemistry between Nigel and Oscar.

One of my favorite things I noticed during my listens is that the lost and gain of trust feels earned when it does occur, Oscar and Nigel largely take the other at their word and I don't know if this was intentionally adhd/autism/nuerodivergent coded but it scratched an itch in my brain that really just felt nice!!

A fun listen and well worth the time, excited to see what the next book holds!

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An Enjoyable listen.

Jordan L. Hawk is one of my favorite authors. I was looking forward to this book and was glad to see it avaliable in audio so quickly. It did not disappoint. Tristan James does a great job with the naration. He's one of my favorite narrators.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is thrilling and has some very creepy moments. I do not recommend listening to this audiobook before bed. The characters were interesting and well developed. I enjoyed getting to know them including the secondary characters. The romance is sweet and not the main focus of the story, but I still really enjoyed the connection between the main characters. I hope to see Nigel and Oscar again and see how their romance develops. I'm hoping there will be more books in the series.

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Spooky and Delightful Listen

I dont always enjoy horror romance, but when I find one I really enjoy I devour it! that was this book, it was well written, actually spooky, and at points cute. The story itself was fascinating and I really liked how they incorporated the main characters past into it. The romance aspect was what prohibited this from being a 5 star, the love happened extremely quickly and I wish it were developed a little bit more so it would get away from the instalust type of feel that it had.

Spooky haunted house plus romance!

This was the start of a super interesting series! Ghost hunting, but also add in an academic and romantic slow burn relationship! And mystery with the haunted house. Can't wait for more in this series!

A story that captures

Jordan L. Hawk is a new to me author so this was the first book that I have gotten by him but it certainly won’t be the last! I absolutely loved this story!! The characters were well written and so was the plot. As the mcs and crew entered into the haunted world of the house they were sent to investigate I remained on the edge of my seat! Jordan L. Hawk can certainly describe a scene and Tristan James brought the story to life with his voice acting. I cannot wait for the second book!!

Good

This book came with a lot of warnings, I was expecting it to be dark, scary and depraved. It was not. Also, no sexy times. Overall, it was a decent young adult book.

Another hit for Jordan L Hawk

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great first book for a series. I am looking forward to the next one and i hope it doesn't take too long to come out.

Not what I had hoped

I picked this up on sale a couple of days ago, reviews are very mixed and now I see why.

Tristan James definitely carries this story with his phenomenal narration skills.

As far as the story itself, we have a Transmale prof being guilted into taking a job because he needs the grant money.
He is then forced into hiring a mediocre internet ghost hunter team to go with him to investigate a haunted house. In theory this sounds like a good plot. But the execution of it just didn't work for me.

In the past, I have enjoyed this author work, but the authors insistence of late, of including every letter in the LGBTQIA+ person(s) in one story is a little much. And we are losing focus on the actual story.

At the end of this we were definitely set up for more to come, but I will pass.