Rating: 3🌈
Grand’s affinity for writing quirky, offbeat characters is evident in her paranormal novella, Jaeger’s Lost and Found. It’s in every main character and all the secondary characters as well. Their personalities are so different from the mainstream, even the paranormal ones.
What makes them so unusual is both easily understood and vaguely explained, a dichotomy of traits that’s a hallmark of Grand’s. That quicksand of characterization, while making the beings interesting can also make them less connectable.
It starts with Archibald Jaeger, the last of the famed Jaegers. The bloodline has become so weakened in him as he’s the last that the famous gift of the family, to be able to find anything, has become weakened as well. It no longer works as it should and his livelihood depends on it as does that of his partner.
Archie’s got his own deep quirks outside of a gift gone wonky. He hates to leave his establishment but the author refuses to call it agoraphobia. He’s got a certain way he’s got to dress and act (won’t step on cracks in the pavement) but again there’s an outright decision on Grand’s part not to label him as OCD or anything else behavior related. But those odd mannerisms add up, continuing to pile on top of one another. Plus he’s otherworldly, just what we don’t know. It’s a constant lack of definition here and it’s frustrating.
His partner is slightly better. She’s a naga. Or considered part naga because of an inability to shift. This changes towards the end of the story. We get fangs and venom and the fact she’s an unwelcome species but not much else. Just that as outsiders, she and Archie have stuck together.
We really need so much more world building than we get here.
There’s some really great stuff here. Like Archie needing to suddenly veer off and find lost things because they call to him. Love that aspect of the narrative.
But instead the main storyline goes to a vampire who’s behaved so poorly to his coven they’ve cut him loose. We get to meet the vampire equivalent of entitlement. Oh joy.
Gael Murray is another one of those characters that I can’t get invested in. His backstory for one isn’t that type of story that makes one immediately root for him. Yes he’s dying. But, he’s been living his life away from the coven, hasn’t stayed in touch with them, preferring the company of people. Now he’s whining about lost contact. Hmmm, ok. Yes. Got it.
There’s an actual romance that makes no sense and has no foundation laid down for it Or little chemistry between them. And the journey to find the coven is that of hardly going anywhere.
I think the solution for Gael’s problem the author came up with and the descriptions involved ,was again, one of the better elements here.
So, in the end, I found the story interesting and certain elements fascinating, but the romance made no sense, and many of the other things were absolutely frustrating.
Read this because you’re a fan of the author and genre. It’s short enough that the interesting aspects are worth it.
Buy Link:
Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Jaegers-…Kindle – Jaeger’s Lost and Found eBook : Gränd, Ofelia
Blurb:
Jaeger’s Lost and Found is the only finder shop to be had on the whole of the west coast. The problem is, Archibald Jaeger, the last of the Jaeger line, seems to be defective. A result of too many generations of crossbreeding with humans. But Jaegers are finders, and there’s nothing to be done about it.
Gael Murray has lost his connections. A vampire can’t survive without the energy exchange he has with the members of his coven through mental links. And, as of this morning, they’ve all vanished. Gael will die if he doesn’t reinstate his connections through a blood exchange. And his only hope to find the other members of his coven is to hire a finder.
Even a terrible finder is better than none at all.
Together Gael and Archie set out to save Gael’s life, but what was an already difficult task becomes nearly insurmountable. And Archie, who can never find what he’s looking for, finds himself falling in love with a man he’ll be hard pressed to save.
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC (June 1, 2019)
• Publication date: June 1, 2019
• Print length: 107 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 