Review for "A Job From Hell"

"A Job From Hell" is the first book in Jayde Scott's "Ancient Legends" series.

 








The cover of my copy shows a young woman standing in front of a towering black wrought iron gate the shadows of night flowing across her gothic dress as the wind whips her black hair out violently into the air behind her.
Since I got my copy the author has updated the cover. In this version a young woman with brown hair pulled into a bun looks like she is torn between running and staying. The voluminous cloth of her skirts billowing in the same air that whips at the autumn leaves.
In either case it's fair to say that the young woman is our heroine, seventeen year old Amber. In an effort to put herself through college Amber takes on a position as a housekeeper at the McAllister Mansion in Scotland. When the cabbie refuses to take her all the way up to the road even Amber knows this isn't going to be like any summer job she's ever had before. Compound that with a house that never seems to need cleaning, and a sexy aloof man who doesn't eat at home and Amber wonders exactly what she's there for. But when her brother decides to pull her in on his next big scheme things go from weird to worse in a heartbeat.

What I liked:

• My favorite character was probably Cass, the only character whose humor actually seemed natural instead of corny and forced.
• Somewhere inside of all this I felt like there was a solid story, what with the Shadows and the race but the parts that could have made it memorable were sadly left out.

What I disliked:

• Nothing is ever explained beyond the surface, its a skin deep kind of story.
• Aidan and Amber's romance is all fluff and destiny, no real romance.
• Amber is hard to pin down. One minute she's complaining about how chubby she is, or how stubby her legs are, the next she's strutting around in skinny jeans. For a while she's quite, nervous, then all of sudden brazen and bold cracking wise in life-threatening situations.
• The great 'gift' that puts her in so much danger doesn't ever really see much if any use.
• Things just sorta happen without much action or intro or thought process behind them. They just are, jumping from point a to point b in a mad rush to get to the end.

This book is the equivalent of a girl's night out. You go out, you have a few drinks, you laugh over nonsensical stuff, you relax. But when you come home for the night, you don't remember anything memorable or special about the evening that makes it worth doing again on a regular basis. It's what you needed at the moment but not the next day, or the next week, or maybe even the next month. It's fluff and filler when you have nothing better to do. And for that purpose it works.
I get the feeling that this is one of those series that chooses a different character to focus on for each of the subsequent novels. You get to find out how everybody in the inner circle gets their happy ending. This time it's Aidan and Amber, next time it's Cass, and so on and so forth.
Right now 'A Job From Hell' is available for the kindle for free, and as such if you need to fill a lonely boring night it's a good easy bet. The subsequent novels in the series are 'Beezelbub Girl', 'Voodoo Kiss', 'Dead and Beyond', 'Forever and Beyond', and 'Shadow Blood' each at $2.99. If you really take a liking to 'A Job From Hell' by all means pick up the series.  You can find out more about the author, the Ancient Legends series, and her other books at www.jaydescott.com

3 out of 5 crowns

Recommended for mature teens in search of a paranormal romance and adults who enjoy light reading.





Synopsis: "The moment Amber starts her summer job in Scotland and sets eyes upon Aidan, her fate is sealed. Summoned by an ancient bond, she can never love another. Lost in the woods one night Amber enters Aidan's deadly world when she unknowingly participates in a paranormal race and promptly wins the first prize...a prize worth killing for.
In a world of forbidden love, ancient enemies, legends and rituals, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Life will never be the same again, unless she enters the Otherworld. But to do so, Amber must die..."