User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Midlife Bounty Hunter is book one in the
Forty Proof series by Shannon Mayer.
Breena is a 41 year old heroine starting over. Her ex-husband has done a number and saddled her with all his debt and stolen her Grandmother’s house out from under her. She needs money and fast.
I liked Breena. I could relate to her and some of her life experience. I liked that she’s smart and resourceful. At times she did come across as a bit whinny, but the humor took me away.
I liked Robert. He’s the skeleton that Breena befriends in the cemetery on her way to an interesting interview. We meet a verity of supernaturals and are treated to lots of funny moments, magic, demons, an annoying ex-husband, and more.
This story takes us on a journey. Breena finds herself in the most unlikely of situations and it is hard not to feel like you are with her every step of the way.
Midlife Bounty Hunter is a nice start to the
Forty Proof series and I can’t wait to read on and see what happens next. It’s an entertaining read!
Rated: 3.5 Stars 
Rating: really liked it
Addictive! Shannon Mayer is new to me as an author, this is the first of her books that I have read, although I do have others on my tbr pile! I picked this up because of the synopsis and having recently read about an 'older' main character in a book, this appealed to me....
What an absolutely great book! At first I was a little unsure, the characters, the plot, the world... but somewhere along the line I became hooked! I absolutely love
Breena and her history. I love
Robert, Crash, Feish and all the rest!!!
This book is fun but at one point I actually teared up, it's nail biting in places and I'm rooting for things to happen in future books.
I got this book from
Kindle Unlimited and I've already downloaded book two. I definitely recommend this book if you love things that go 'bump' in the night!
Rating: really liked it
Midlife Bounty Hunter by Shannon Mayer
Aka Grave Magic Bounty. 1st book in the Forty Proof series. Paranormal women’s fiction trending towards urban fantasy.
Breena, divorced at the age of 41, returns to Savannah to discover magic is not only real but her life is now immersed and dependent on the magic passed down from her grandmother. She needs to figure out quickly who can help and what creatures would rather see her gone. And that doesn’t just mean out of Savannah.
Magic, a talking skeleton, a Bigfoot, and a spider with spells are just a small part of the underworld in Savannah. Fast moving with a few twists that were surprising. Plenty of humor.
I thought she was a bit too focused on her age, her libido, and hated how she referred to her ex-husband, but in the end, I actually liked her pluckiness. I also liked the respect she feels for her grandmother and the level of magic she will have to learn.
I will definitely continue this series to see how Breena survives the world around her.
Rating: really liked it
I almost died laughing. First thing's first: I really appreciate the over forty protagonist. Smart, resourceful, and experienced, coupled with insecurities pushed on her from society (and a failed marriage) about her age. I identify with most of that and enjoyed it!
I felt super nostalgic after reading about Robert - a talking skeleton that Breena befriends in the cemetery. She offers him a chocolate bar for his help, but a part of me wonders what will happen if she gives him.... wine. Reminded me of a certain favorite childhood movie.
Lots of hilarious monologue. Most notably, the references to my favorite curse word that autocorrect loves to change to 'duck.' Hahaha!
Grave Magic Bounty is definitely a PNR, so imagine my delight that there is more than one potential love interest! And even though Breena's libido is making a comeback, I think it's refreshing that this seems like a slow-burner. Looking forward to the next installment!
Rating: really liked it
AwfulTo be fair, I only made it to chapter 4 and gave up in disgust. The MC sounded like a whiny 20-something, not a 41 year old fully grown woman. Her reference to her ex as "Himself" was cringey and the dialogue was trashy. I'm assuming there is some marketing ploy for these books about the paranormal and women in their 40's, but my god, that doesn't mean the author needs to mention this character's age constantly. The premise was absurd- staying with the ex's cousin who she barely knows because divorce lawyer husband tricked her into signing all of their possessions over to him? What is this 41 year old woman's IQ? And then she gets a random ghostly job interview in a graveyard and the cousin happens to be one of the interviewers? Please stop. Thank God it was free. I'll be wiping it from my kindle momentarily.
Rating: really liked it
My third experiment into the Midlife trope and my research is yielding an amazingly dismal result, is there any hope for me?
Dnf @ 18%Another divorced middle aged woman who know something about magic. She can see into the shadow world but when she got married she asked her grandmother to close her eyes to all thing magical. Now that her husband is "trading her in for a newer model" she decides to explore the world of magic.
Terrific premise so far but then it all went to hell. So when her husband threw her out she had no place to stay, her grandmother died and though she left the FMC her possessions, her husband somehow switched/copied the signatures on the divorce papers and put them on the property deeds so now she's trying to make money to buy it by from him by means of some subterfuge so he doesn't jack the price on her. I don't know a lot about laws/deeds/properties but why didn't she get a lawyer and say he copied her signature. Why did she just accept it. Maybe there was a reason for the explanation she gave but I obviously don't get it since I stopped at 18%.
Going back to having being thrown out by her husband, she goes to live with her ex-husband's cousin who she only met once and he had said in passing that if she needed anything, she just has to ask. Well, our FMC didn't ask, she just showed up at his house with her luggage while he was entertaining and asked to stay with him. He is obviously shocked because wth does that!
When she applies for a new job in the shadow world, one of the interviewer was her exhusband's cousin. How does that happen. This is the ex husband that doesn't believe in anything magical how come his cousin does. It felt like a bit of a stretch. She never even questioned why he was one of the interviewers, again this is till where I stopped at 18%, I just didn't get why she wasn't surprised to see him or something.
The thing I absolutely loathed in the book was that she called her ex-husband
Himself , the first time that was said I thought it was , well not cute but a little funny, then when I read for the 100th time in such few pages I wanted to thump my phone so hard so I just don't see that dreaded word any more.
I am stopping just because of that word, I cannot take it. WTELF is that sh*t.
Rating: really liked it
I absolutely loved this, so much more than I was expecting. So glad I gave this author and this series another chance and fell in love with it. I can't wait for more!
Rating: really liked it
I don't send many books back to audible and ask for a refund but this was one of them.
I'd wanted a light, slightly silly, paranormal read that my wife and I could listen to together in the evenings to wind down. 'Grave Magic Bounty' seemed to fit the bill. The main character is a recently divorced woman in her forties returning to her home in Savannah after twenty years away to start a new life and re-enter the Shadow world that she had run away from when she married.
It started to well enough with some flashes of bitter humour about 'himself' her former husband, and stories about life with her (recently deceased) gran, who had taught her how see the Shadows and how to deal with them, that an encounter with a boogeyman that ended with her being sent to an asylum led her to ask her gran to seal off her Sight and that she had left Savannah with no intention of returning.
I thought that was a promising backstory. I liked that it was shared, in bite-sized chunks, while our heroine was going through a bizarre interview in a graveyard that quickly became more like an ordeal by combat with various supernatural those-don't-really-exist-do-they? creatures.
That was enough to get us through the first thirty per cent but not enough to make me put up with the books three main faults: the pacing of the storytelling was uneven and often dragged; the wit was thin, forced, mostly mean-spirited and soon became wearisome, and the main character was very hard to like. She had bitter writen all the way through her like Brighton in a stick of rock. She ogled men and werewolves with boring regularity and in a forced penny-in-the-slot knee-jerk way that would have had any male character pilloried. She kept telling herself how clever she was while completely failing to understand what was going on.
A book stops being a relaxing read when you start to wait for the heroine to meet her well-deserved painful ending.
So it went back and I got a refund, which was probably the best part of the experience.
Rating: really liked it
I love it, this book is life! No for real, hear me out. The story flowed effortlessly and held my interest throughout. It was funny and totally entertaining. Here’s the kicker, our heroine is over 40 and basically obsolete in the world because she gave her best years to a guy. If that doesn’t ring true to a lot of us. It was a nice change being able to completely relate to a character. Add in a paranormal twist and now we’re having some fun!
I also love how this book is helping to introduce a genre that is focused on the rest of us out there. The ones that are a little worse for wear and so much wiser for it. Midlife women. We may be down but we are far from out. I’m excited for this series and I am here for it!!
Rating: really liked it
*1.5 stars* - I really wish they would gives us the options for half stars.
Anyways, I checked out the reviews for this book and thought I'd give it whirl.
I liked they idea of a grown woman who has already lived some of her life and has learned from it and is going back to her roots after being fucked over.
That being said, that's not what I found when I read it. I couldn't connect with the main character because I found her really annoying. I get that her ex treated her like shit for years and that has lasting effects, but she came across as an self-depriciating, whinny adolescent rather than a grown woman. I couldn't stand how she constantly refers to her ex as 'Himself'. Every god damned time. At points, it was used on every page in a chapter at least once. It was seriously ridiculous and too much to take. The constant referring to how she is old, also got old real fast. If the MC wasn't doing it, everyone else was. ALL THE TIME!
I found it also took a long time for the actual plot to come through. At points I was asking myself, what is the point of this? Where is it going? Is the whole story just about her 'training for a new job' (and I use that term very loosely) or is something actually going to happen? Eventually, something did but by that point I was just reading to finish it and didn't really care.
I liked very few of the secondary characters. Mainly, Robert, Feish and Jinx. Other than that, there really wasn't much that holds my interest in this series. I also don't find any of potential love interest that great.
To all those who enjoyed it, good for you. I was really hoping I would as well but that wasn't the case.
Hope some of you find this review helpful!
Rating: really liked it
This was a really entertaining read even though there were a few irritating tics. But by the end I’d forgotten them all.
Rating: really liked it
Does this author know what 40 really is?It’s like women magically turn into shriveled hags 12 months after their 39th birthday.
Constant complaining about aches which would be appropriate if she we an ex rodeo clown or some other physically extreme career, and the railing about being old was offensive. Thousands of books about men in their 40s being distinguished and we get turned into unfrigable bitties. Not cool.
Rating: really liked it
Such a great book.
A 40 something divorcee returns to her home town of Savannah to regroup and hopefully save her grandmother's home from her bastard ex-husband.
She takes a job as a supernatural investigator / bodyguard in the hopes of making some cash...only to discover she's actually pretty good at it.
Great fun from start to finish.
Rating: really liked it
I really enjoyed the story here - the setup and the world. And I love Breena, the main character.
But I seriously dislike most of the secondary cast, dislike how they constantly belittle and manipulate her, and I loathe Corb. There is NO excuse for the horrible, abusive shit that has fallen out of his mouth this whole book. I don't think he's any different than her ex. And it's going to take a hell of a lot to change my mind, so currently, the thought of him as possible love interest makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Please don't go there. The thing that should be awesome about this new genre is that we have intelligent women who have learned some life lessons, and aren't just falling into bed with whatever fucktard flexes at her.
Lastly, he ex is too much. He's an asshole dialed up to caricature levels. He better get some huge karma kick to the nuts, and then fuck right off out of her life. Because allowing him to continue to fuck with her just ruins any badassery she's got going on. She should have fed that asshole his spine, when he admitted he used magic to fuck her over. And if she doesn't in the next book, I will think so much less of her for continuing to be a doormat.
Rating: really liked it
Shannon Mayer "Grave Magic Bounty" (Forty Proof #1) is a wonderfully original and quirky look at our heroine who is over 40 and starting over. I pissed myself laughing out loud all the way through. Shannon is a loose cannon when she writes and trust me you would not want her any other way. Shannon and the other Fab 13 are taking the world by storm by showing that being over 40 does not mean the end of life but something to be celebrated, pee pads and all. This brilliant story takes us on a journey where Breena finds herself in the most unlikely of situations and it is hard not to feel like you are on the run with her every step of the way. With laughter and magic, ex husbands and demons, leprechauns, werewolves, skeletons and more and you have everything you could ever want in a story, now you just need a bottle of wine and a quiet place to lose yourself in Shannon's fantastic writing. Bring on the next book.
