Carole's Sunday Review: Cross Cutting

Author: Wendy Hammer

Title: Cross Cutting The Trilogy

Genre: Paranormal, short stories, & Urban Fantasy

Pages: ebook

Published: July 2017

Where I Got It: My shelf (Given to me by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion.)

This gritty urban fantasy by Wendy Hammer is an omnibus of three novellas: The Thin, The Hollow, and The Marrow, and features two new short stories.

The Thin: Strange vans roam the streets as people go missing or turn up dead. The city can't fight the monsters alone. Trinidad O'Laughlin is a guardian looking for a territory to bond with and protect. Indiana's distress call may give her a chance at one--if she can survive long enough to take it.

The Hollow: Ache Vetrov is clairvoyant and a caretaker of secrets and lost things. When a mysterious wave of violence threatens to overwhelm the city of Lafayette, Ache begins to investigate. He and Trinidad O'Laughlin uncover creatures with concave faces devoid of feeling or mercy. Ache, Trinidad, and their friends must hold strong if they hope to find a way to stop the monstrous invasion before it erases everything.

The Marrow: Trinidad O'Laughlin has people to love and a city to watch over. Lafayette has become a true home. Her newfound peace is shattered when another cut opens in her territory and unleashes the malevolent force behind the previous invasions. Trinidad and her friends must defeat it before the whole world falls to its hunger.

What a fun world and fun ride! There were three short novellas and then two short stories.

The Thin:

Not a bad introduction to the world and characters. It started a little shaky though. The dialogue was shaky as well As the story unfolded it got better on both accounts. I started to understand what was going on and start getting invested in the world. I was still a little confused about Trinidad and her powers. I didn't really get it even near the end. Maybe it was just me?

I liked Ache and Iris, but I LOVED Fireman Dan. Cute old man. 

The Thins were creepy, but I wanted to learn more about them. They were interesting. 

The chemistry between Trinidad and Ache made me angry. JUST KISS ALREADY! *shakes fist* But kuddos to the author for making this chemistry and for not making this a paranormal romance that just focuses on them. Yes, there is some love, but it is not the focus. Kicking the baddies butt was the main objective and I liked it. 

I hated the ending though. It made me sad. I wanted to throw my kindle.

In the end, this was okay. A good intro to the world and characters. I'll give it a 3. 

The Hollow:

Ooooooooh! I love this being in Aches POV. It allowed us, the readers, to learn more about Aches and his feisty sis, Iris. I had liked Aches in the first short story, but now I love him.

I was hooked from page one. I blow right through this one. 

The unfolding of the story and the dialogue was WAY better in this one. Everything felt more natural and less awkward. 

We were able to learn more about Aches and Iris, but we were able to learn more about Trinidad, so that made me happy. Questions I had from the last short story was answered in this one, so that made me happy as well.

We were introduced to Marshall who the about the cheesiest person alive. Hello, soulmate! LOL!

The ending was good. I liked this one SO much more. Out of five, I'll give this 5. 

The Morrow:

Sighs. Back to Trinidad's POV. I do like her, but I like Aches much more and a part of me was hoping for Iris' POV. One can always hope and dream. 

This was a little scarier than the last two and I was worried that they wouldn't be able to beat this new baddie. I wasn't sure what to expect! 

I can't really say much else without giving away major spoilers, but I feel like the other two stories were just practice for this baddie. There was a lot on the line and you could feel it on each page. We got to see more and learn more about everyone. 

This was good but not as good as the last one. I'll give it 4 stars. 

All Your Fears:

This was super short. I really feel like it needed more pages to really come to life. It was okay, but not great. It felt like it just ended. No real resolution. Maybe I am just spoiled now with the longer novellas before it? Who knows. I'll give this 2. 

Snow Days:

Another short one, but this, I feel, had the right amount of pages. I am happy that I got to see more of Iris. It was a fun little short story and I want to see more of Iris and Carmela in the future. I'll give this 5 stars. It was really good. 

Conclusion:

In the end, this was a fun journey as I mentioned before. A very interesting group of pals saving the cities they love. Very interesting concepts and the writing was done well. I want more for sure! Maybe a full-length novel in the future! Now...overall stars? *does math* I shall stamp this with 4 stars.