Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) By William D. Arand

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Hate the harem thing

Decent book overall, but the harem thing smacks of serious narcissism and ruins it for me. Good plot and plenty of action, otherwise. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) When two of your favourite genres mix, you will be happy no?

I love urban fantasy and recently started loving Harem genre. And this is the book that mixed well, well Logan jocobs already did bloodmage but this is kinda of awesome because I like Williams writing more. This is a very good detective urban fantasy harem story. I just loved Trish, she is too freaking awesome!
Note: Even though the book is harem it doesn't have any sex scenes! Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) Note:
Really nice balance of characters, relationships & plot. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) A quality Urban-Fantasy with a Harem element 4 stars.

Set in a contemporary Urban-Fantasy version of a US full of Para-Humans who live out their hidden lives just like you and me. Gus is one of those Para-Humans, or so it seems. In truth he is a Boogieman. A Para so infamous, even the rest of the Paranormal world fears and hates hem. Usually he shuffles around papers and does paperwork at his PID job (Paranormal Investigation Division). By accident however he and a regular homicide detective get involved in a rather weird case that just keeps on going.

I really enjoyed this novel. Gus is your standard (hidden power) protagonist and the story is fine, the real selling-point however is the side characters and especially Melody. She practically stole every scene she was in and her brand of insanity was just hilarious. The harem aspect is handled rather well by making it just as weird for everyone involved.... Well except for Melody of course.
I really do hope this novel turns into a series. I liked the premise and it is clear the world has far more to offer.

Solid UF hope there will be a sequel. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1)
“Swing Shift (Swing Shift #1)” is an entertaining take on the paranormal harem storyline.

I picked this book up because of the narrator - I just love Andrea Parsneau and I’m trying books I wouldn’t normally listen to just because of her narration. So, as you may have guessed, “Swing Shift” is not a lesfic romance.

MC Vanessa does have a girlfriend, though, so all is not lost! Unfortunately, her girlfriend Wendy is not the nicest of people….partly because she’s a werewolf, though she hasn’t told Vanessa. There are lots of paranormals living amongst humans, but they keep themselves secret because the humans vastly outnumber them. When incidents arise that might expose the paranormal world, the Paranormal Investigations Department (PID) gets involved to quiet things.

MC Gus is a world weary detective with PID, and tries to live a quiet 9-5 life. Vanessa gets temporarily assigned to work with him by his captain, though they both promise to erase her memories of the PID “soon”.

Their task is to find out why some normally calm paranormals are suddenly becoming extremely violent, exposing themselves to the human world.

The harem starts when Gus meets the powerful “contractor” Melody, who is perhaps more than a bit insane, and who decides she loves Gus and intends for them to marry. Oh, and she recruits Vanessa and an elven dryad sorceress (aka a nymph), to join her with the harem she is building around Gus.

Gus is pretty nonplussed about the whole harem thing, but everyone pretty much goes along with the domineering Melody, which all-in-all is actually pretty hilarious.

Everyone keeps putting off having sex, although Melody reminds everyone she can’t wait for the time when they can enjoy a threeway or a fourway together!

Meanwhile, the mystery is actually well done - it’s very entertaining. Many of the side characters (especially Gus’ mother) are terrific too. If you like paranormal action/mystery stories where romance and sex are not in the forefront, you’ll enjoy this story. 4.3* Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1)

Rating 4.0 stars

I really liked this book. I have a love/like relationship with William Arand and Randi Darren (and yes I know they are the same writer). I tend to love everything from Randi Darren but not be that interested in William Arand writings. The styles are very similar so it is hard to put into words why the discrepancy. Both books have Harem elements but Randi Darren takes it a step further. William Arand books have the element but never take it to the next level. I guess the best analogy would be Randi Darren books are rated R and William Arand books are rated PG-13. The main characters are all similar, they are somewhat loners at the beginning but are competent if not excellent with what they do. There is usually some special talent that is hidden from everyone else. They always end up surrounding themselves with beautiful competent women. I guess one of the reasons I don't like William Arrand's characters as much is because his main characters are less believable. My main comparison is between Wild Wastes and Super Sale on Super Heroes. I just felt Felix from Super Sales on Super Heroes was just too young and new to what he was doing to act so confident.

In a Randi Darren book the main character would come up to a woman and tell her how beautiful she is and they would go have sex or something. In a William Arand book, the main character would go up and tell a woman how beautiful she was but then get surprised when the woman responds. If you walk up to a woman and tell her she is beautiful, you are hitting on her. William Arand main characters don't seem to realize that.

While both Darren and Arand writings are great in the day to day story telling. The overall story seems to be lacking in my opinion in Arand books. The big picture question of why the character is doing what they are doing never makes sense to me, where I don't have that same problem with Darren books.

With all that being said, I have finally found a Arand book that I really liked. Those two annoying problems I wrote about above for previous Arand books are gone. The main character in this book Gus was a little bit older, maybe 30, and I felt was completely believable being as competent as he was. I also understood his goals for the story. Gus is a detective for the PID and explores paranormal crimes. He looks human and everything thinks he is human but in reality, he is a boogieman in hiding. Boogieman feed on fear and have been hunting to almost extinction. In this world the normal humans no nothing about the supernatural world. The main reason for that is that all the supernatural creatures are given IDs that mask their true nature. Something is happening with those IDs though and they are starting to fail, so it is up to Gus to solve the problem. Along the way he meets up with a human detective who ends up being his partner and another woman called a contractor who drops everything in her life to be with Gus and help him in what he is doing. She of course is the best character in the story.

I highly recommend this book if you are either a Darren of Arand fan. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) WOW!!!!!

Ok I loved this book. The author has continued to turn out books that are interesting and entertaining. This book was no exception as it was fun to read. The characters are interesting and I enjoyed how the author worked to slowly introduce new characters and give them some interesting backstory so you would be sucked into the story. Overall another homerun from the author. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) This could have been a good book, if it wasn't for the fact that that this is a just a teenage boy sex fantasy. The main character is wanted by all women. All of them are ridiculously beautiful and want to sleep with him as soon as they see him. He can't help it, they are just drawn to him.

The story has potential, but is ruined by all of this. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) I should have guessed at the first mention of Boogieman that this was written by a twelve year old, or at least someone with the mentality of one. I kept reading because it had some potential, and the main characters of Gus and Vanessa weren't too bad. I should have quit at the introduction of Melody--the most annoying character I've ever had the misfortune to read. The nature and purpose of her contracts was never adequately explained either. There were so many potential storylines that would have made this worth reading, but the author just abandoned them for clunky dialogue and childish fantasies of what relationships are gonna be like when he/she grows up (yes, grown-ups date all their coworkers and talk about sex allllll the time, and live together and watch movies and cuddle and drink beer). It was like it was written by two different people, or just one lazy author: came up with some really great ideas then didn't have the energy, imagination, or skill to follow through with them. Even the main storyline, which I stuck around for, didn't end up being anything. This was a setup for a series (because apparently that's all anyone writes anymore). This series I have zero interest in reading. A male fantasy harem of beautiful, busty, powerful women who still, inexplicably, need protection from the big strong Boogieman. This got a 4+ star rating from over 900 people. The author must have a lot of friends. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1) So much to love but ultimately a frustrating book

The story has so many great elements. The setting was fascinating, the characters engaging and the plot was exciting. Sadly, the writer really let the story down in a number of ways.

Some of the worst issues were:
-The story is very light on physical description. It made it difficult to picture the characters and their environment.
-There was no heat between the main characters. They worked well together but there was no emotional ties or sense of physical attraction.
-New information about the world was being constantly inserted randomly throughout the entire book. I appreciate the author’s unwillingness to info dump but he went too far in the opposite direction. It left the first half of the book feeling disconnected and somewhat chaotic. I found it hard to understand character motives and personalities properly. This also left me with the constant feeling that I was reading a book from an established series. I actually stopped reading early on so that I could see if there were other books I should read first. Sadly, there wasn’t.
-The story was full of loose threads and unexplained facts. The whole concept of contracts was intriguing but only vaguely explained. Melody’s need for a harem was referred to but never followed up. We were never told how the final crisis was dealt with. How many people were killed? How many were captured and how were they punished? The whole drama was just ended without any attempt towards a resolution. I think ultimately, that was what annoyed me most of all.

I’m not sorry I read this book but I am disappointed that it didn’t reach it’s potential.
Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1)

Reports to write, forms to fill, coffee to drink, leads to run down.

Gus’s life was a tedium and boredom he’d grown comfortable with. One that he sought out after he’d come back from his tour of duty.

A Detective in the Paranormal Investigations Department. A job he could work day in and day out in relative peace. One cold and forgotten cup of coffee at a time.

It was an environment that made some sense to him. At least in comparison to civilian life where almost nothing did. On top of that, it gave him a chance to hide what he was from the rest of the world.

An apex predator that made the entirety of the Paranormal world fear him. His very species was often killed as soon as they were found out.

By government and citizen alike

He’s a Boogieman.

A name that made humans laugh, and vampires curse. It was a strange life to be sure.

Now though, Gus’s stable non-life is about to be kicked over. Whether he likes it or not, he’s about to be handed a case that’s going to mess up his already screwed up life.

Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk. Swing Shift (Swing Shift, #1)