Hold Me Closer Necromancer

McBride positioned this book with a lighter comedic tone and mind, and that shows given Sam's often nervous musings and side comments here and there. He does have his funny moments, although there are times when the humor feels a bit forced and falls flat on its face.It's largely told using the first person perspective, which is well and good when you're in Sam's head. However latter chapters have us jumping into the mind of Douglas and another character Brid without much warning or a clear shift in the tone. So things get a little confusing after the first few jumps until the author decides to settle down and focus on Sam - mostly.Many will argue that it follows the Harry Potter style secret world hiding in plain sight sort of thing, but that's a trope that many stories have employed even before Rowling and will continue to do so. But this time around, the twist is that not only is Sam unaware of his legacy, but then we don't have a benevolent mentor figure swooping in to teach him either. Instead we have an odd collection of characters acting as his support group (primarily his friends) although they don't exactly have practical solutions for him all the time.The angle of the other supernatural creatures was certainly interesting and clearly there's a lot of potential lore to explore and define in latter books. But in this case the inclusion of Brid's story seemed underdeveloped since we didn't learn more about what Douglas was really up to. Instead his plans are already in motion and the rest of us are trying to catch up the entire time. And by the end of the book, both the characters and readers are left uncertain as to what Douglas has been busying himself with in recent years.Some of the characters could have been fleshed out better and the story could have been tighter most certainly. But it's light reading and remains rather fun and I suppose we should focus on those aspects for now. But if you're looking for something as richly developed as Harry Potter or Tolkien, this isn't going to be one of those books.Hold Me Closer, Necromancer means well and has a lot of heart in it. Sam is a decently likable character and we certainly want to learn more about how things work in this world with Necromancers and stuff. And I liked how McBride's idea of a Necromancer isn't solely focused on death and sacrifice, which does present a more balanced view of something that is typically "evil" in most stories.

I was doing vendor work for a Fantasy/Sci-Fi convention and a girl recommended this book. I'm glad she did as I enjoyed the story of average person gaining a unwanted legacy and being forced to roll with it. The puns including with the chapter names gave me a chuckle each time as well as the story being worth the time. I recommend this one the sequel Necromancing the Stone and look forward to future installments of this series. Thank you to the one who recommended it and the author who wrote it.

I read this one on a cruise one night last week, when I couldn't sleep and my cabinmates were passed out. It was a very quick read- I read the Kindle version, but I can't imagine the book being too thick. It pretty much hit the spot of what I was looking for- fun, easy, light book to pass the time.Sam is our hero. As I read it, I realized I don't often read books with a male-as-main-character. Not sure why, but in any event, I did like Sam. He was funny, loyal, and snarky. His point-of-view was my favorite to read in the alternating narrative style of the book. I thought he was the most developed and credible of all of the characters in the book.The minor characters are unfortunately, quite flat. I think Brid is supposed to be the heroine of the book, but I really couldn't get a sense of her as I read. She doesn't seem to have any flaws, and her narrated chapters were so few I don't really know what purpose they served. The other minor characters were likeable, but again, not very developed.The pacing was pretty quick, but there was a lull in the middle where it seemed like nothing seemed to happen to the hero and heroine, and gave some background information from the minor characters' perspectives. One thing that was missing was an element of world-building about the mythology of the characters- I'm not sure how all the supernaturals are structured, or how they coexist yet. Of course, it's the opening book in a series so I'm sure that will come out as Sam learns more about his supernatural world. Oh, and another thing I liked about the story was that it was funny- I love humor in books.The romantic relationship was a dud for me. I didn't really get a sense of a strong connection between the characters. It was very light on romance- definitely not an epic love story.I liked it- fun book and a series I will try to keep up with. I'm interested to see where the story goes.[...]

There is a lot to like about this book and let me start with the cover of my edition. Ooh shiny with a nice big member of the crow family on the book! Nice!OK on to the book. I liked the characters, starting with Sam. He is the Mr Average that you have as your best friend, who nothing exciting ever happens to-until now. His smart ass friend Ramon is a bit of a joker but when trouble comes, he is deeply loyal to his best friend. Then we have nerdy Frank who is one of life's victims and zombie Brooke. You'll find out for yourself what I mean when you read it. I also loved Mrs W, the sex obsessed pensioner who lives next door to Sam as she was very funny, always disappointed to hear that Sam isn't sleeping around and partying. Ashley was a lot of fun to read about and I enjoyed her appearances. We also meet Brid the werewolf, who is a tough and snarky gal used to taking care of herself, and a few other side characters. They are all likeable and are nicely developed within the book plot.Then we have the bad guys. As an uber baddie, I just could not take Douglas seriously and I found him as scary as potato salad. If this is the most powerful necromancer in the USA, why would he have Michael, the world's most useless werewolf as his sidekick, screwing everything up? OK so to be fair, Michael is good for comic relief in the plot but he doesn't do much to the evil image of Douglas. He was more Artemis Fowl than Lord Voldemort on the bad guy terror scale but maybe that is how we are meant to feel about Douglas.I liked the story of poor confused Sam trying to work out what is going on when Douglas wants to kill him, then having to do research on discovering that he is a powerless necromancer. Frank excels himself with his computer research at this point! I liked the fact that the guys had no idea what to do other than wandering around occult shops asking random weirdos for help until they stumble onto someone genuine. That is when the family secrets all start to come out, adding another level of interest. There is also a lot of good humour in the book which readers of all ages should enjoy. There is not a massive amount of action until the end of the book and I would have liked it to be a bit more fleshed out but that's me being picky. The plot did develop nicely and left a few interesting things open for book two.The one thing that dropped down the book rating a half star was the section of the book when we started switching over to the Brid chapters. A few of these could have been skipped because all that really happened was Brid exchanging insults with Michael and sitting around a cell which was not particularly exciting. And it slowed down even more when Sam gets captured and the whole book slows to a crawl. I just needed the middle section of the book to have kept the same pace as the rest of the book and I would have given this book 4 stars. As it was my interest in it dropped a bit until the action picked up a bit with Ramon trying to help find Sam and Douglas teaching him lessons.I did however love the zombie panda plot and I was amused by the way that and the Brooke story were resolved. I liked Tia's story and hope to see more of Uncle Nick in the future and of course Mrs W stole every scene that she was in.So overall the 3.5 star is well deserved. There is one sexual scene but it is very much implied, not described so I would rate the book suitable for adult and older young adult readers.I rate this book 3.5 out of 5 on my star rating which is different to this site.1-didn't like2-ok3-like4-really liked5-loved

What a great read. The main character (as another reviewer has pointed out) has an echo of another Sam, from the TV series Reaper, but he's not a cheap knockoff. He is likeable and realistic, with a great cast of supporting characters, including a well-written female, Brid. The plot was sound and the action moved along at a good pace. I am going to avoid spoilers but there are certain moments that made me snigger, one being the first interaction between Sam and one of Brid's brothers.The only negative that I have to mention is the price of the follow-up volume. The Kindle version is more expensive than the print copy, which seems rather odd and I wonder what the publishers are thinking - not a good marketing decision. If it had been the usual Kindle price I would already have bought it, but the almost £10 price tag made me pause. I will buy it because I really want to read more from this author, but publisher please take note!

Don't get me wrong I really liked this book but it just wasn't fabulous! I finished it in one session because I really wanted to know what happened next but it just left me a bit cold when I finished it. Sam was endearing enough but when I came on here to read about people finding him hilarious, I had to laugh. I don't think I laughed out loud once when reading this although I did find it entertaining. I couldn't help but think at several times that it felt like the author was writing a movie more so than a book. I will probably go onto the next one in the future but I am in no rush.

Just a really, really fun read. If you like urban fantasy with original twists and decent humor you will like this (and the follow-up). I find it very hard to credit that this is his first novel. Very well crafted, very well written, very good value. I will definitely be looking out for his books.

This was a lot of fun. The usual urban fantasy, we have a foundering male lead unaware of his powers, complete with sarcasm. A cute, fun read.