Shannon Mayer definitely tops the list for many urban fantasy & paranormal romance readers as an immediate buy (something most of us aspire to be). I must admit that I’ve read a few myself and recommended them. While waiting on Book 3 of her Golden Wolf series, I started on an older series, Rylee Adamson. The usual book basics are below to start our chat.
If you’re new to my Books & Cats blog feature, please note that we chat about the book first as a reader and then we’ll approach it as writers. You’re welcome to read either or both…but please note that the cute cat picture is at the very end!
Now, let’s get started!
Priceless (A Rylee Adamson Novel, Book 1)
Shannon Mayer
Published November 19, 2013
Amazon rating of 4.5, 11,430 ratings
Goodreads rating of 4.0, 17,932 ratings
When things go bump in the night, and children go missing, she is the last hope to bring them home.
“My name is Rylee and I am a Tracker.”
When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I’m the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot.
I’m on the FBI’s wanted list.
I have a werewolf for a pet, a Witch of a best friend, and have no need for anyone else in my life.
But when a hunt for a missing child starts to spin out of control, help comes from a most unexpected direction. One that is dangerously dark, brooding and doesn’t know a thing about the supernatural.
One whose kisses set me on fire.
PRICELESS is the first full length novel in the completed Rylee Adamson Series. With over 1.2 million books sold, Rylee has earned a place on every Urban Fantasy fan’s shelf.
Readers who love Anita Blake, Mercy Thompson, Kate Daniels, October Daye, Rachel Morgan or Jane Yellowrock and have been needing another fix of a heroine who has no fox to give, will love Rylee Adamson!
This book is over 10 years old but Amazon notes that over 100 hundred copies have been read/ bought over the last month. At least I wasn’t the only one giving it a try! As usual, I looked for repeated criticisms in the negative reviews to focus our chat.
- Shallow characters
- Predictable plot
- disjointed
- Overuse of sexual attraction/ profanity
I’ll start by sharing that I very much enjoyed this book and give it 4 stars! It was just what I was looking for which always makes for a fun read. I will also continue the series, but let’s chat about what others didn’t like though.
Shallow Characters/ lack of development
Considering it’s book 1, I never expect to have all of my questions answered. I like that I get a snapshot of the character and that there’s still growth ahead. I haven’t read further yet, but I feel like we’re at a good starting point.
Rylee has a good grip on the magical world, but she has a traumatic past. A few reactions are glossed over and a few are repeated. That seems reasonable as part of a process so it wasn’t anything that bothered me.
Predictable Plot/ Disjointed
I linked these together as it made me chuckle when reader reviews disagree. Here, some thought it was too predictable while others had a hard time following it. The plot isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I liked how it revealed a widely varied magical world with feuds, legends, and more. I would expect more explanations in later books, but the level in book 1 had me intrigued and wanting more.
Sex/ Profanity
Profanity doesn’t bother me at these levels. Cursing does give it a grittier feel which works well for the story style. I wasn’t overly fond of the use of ALL CAPS to demonstrate yelling so often, but it was a minor annoyance.
The physical/ spicy side wasn’t much and worked well for the characters I thought. It did throw me off that the MMC has wanted to arrest her for 10 years. The sudden interest in each other was much more acceptable than thinking of any such interest when she was underage.
Again, I enjoyed this read and would recommend it to others!
Now, I’m really excited to look at this from the writing side so let’s get to it! If you prefer, scroll down to the end for a cute cat picture!
I had the idea to review this in a similar way that I do when editing my books. This book report format will focus on the pacing to reveal plot and character points, but there will be some vague spoilers you may wish to avoid.
27 chapters: FMC 1st person, MMC 3rd person
- Immediate start with parents of missing kid (main plot), a little world building
- MMC intro/ argue [new strategy to handle him]
- Past intro – a bit more on magical world; found family feel
- Best friend intro (obstacle to main plot); drama
- More on found family with magical revelations
- Work associate – FBI reveal/ foreshadowing
- Spell use; MMC argument
- New character intro – bit of hook at end of chapter
- More magical world building in new character info; training
- Building on MMC relationship strategy
- MMC POV; short road trip with more magical revelations
- Another new magical creature and threat [FMC shaken/ weakened]
- Friend and MMC quiz her on injury/ situation [friendships/ found family]
- Home: magical fight
- MMC POV: magical reveal and battle; best friend returns/ argument [longer chapter]
- Escape – friends argue – MMC returns
- MMC POV – lust spell
- Working together – Harpies – ending hook
- More magical reveals – unhappily working together
- Arrest – escape [another creature – mix of magic and mundane obstacles to main plot]
- Gore – found family
- Bonding/ working together to go after bad guys and rescue child
- Magical battles/ rescue
- Attempted escape thwarted at end
- Magical battle – potential new villain
- MMC POV – resolution with hints of magical futures
- Additional resolution with more magical future hints: ENDING HOOK
What conclusions can you draw from this report? Have you done something similar with your writing? This review/ editing process works well with 3 Act Story Structures too.
For Priceless, I think it moved forward on 3 main lines: main plot attempts, worldbuilding for current and future issues, and characters. Each chapter does move one or more of those forward. There’s a nice mixture of dialog, setting, relationships, and action as well. As you can see from the review discussion in the reader section above, the majority of readers agreed via high ratings. There were some that didn’t enjoy the book though.
Do remember that we will all encounter readers who don’t like what we write – analyze any repeated criticisms to learn, but otherwise just move on.
If any fellow writer would like to join the fun and do a Book Chat of a recent read, just reach out and let me know. If you try it with your own books and would like to do a guest blog, we can chat about that too.
As I’ve recently returned to more reading time, you’ll see another first for this blog – I’ll post a review of an entire series (Juliette Cross’ Stay a Spell). I hope you’ll come back and ‘stay a spell’ to enjoy that chat too!
Take care,
-RSJ
US Amazon Link for Shannon Mayer HERE
Additional Book Blog Chat link: Ghosted Book Chat [paranormal cozy mysteries reviews] Here’s the Juliette Cross Stay a Spell series link for our next book chat!
[Obligatory cute cat picture with book – Darcy says hi!]
Rennie St. James 
