House of Dolls

House of Dolls Series, Book 1

By: Harmon Cooper

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Hate your job. Win the lottery. Get a superpower.

Roman Martin is a normal guy until he happens upon a winning lottery ticket that grants him an incredible superpower.

Unfortunately, Roman has to keep his new power a secret, and in a society that separates superpowereds from half-powereds, that's a big deal.

There's also his troubled past, a dark secret that constantly looms over him, his coworker's mysterious death, and the fact that Roman is being blackmailed by two beautiful female spies at war with one another.

So Roman does what any down-on-his-luck partially exploited office worker would do in his situation: get women, get good, and get ready to fight back.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Harmon Cooper, Boycott Books (P)2018 Tantor

Fun and sexy

Another fun and sexy adventure from Cooper! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the rest of the series.

sweet read

absolutley loved this book, a bit of a change from the norm. cannot wait to see where the story takes us.

I'm sure it's good but not for me.

I'm sure this book is good but the series just isn't in my wheelhouse of interest.

Not great but certainly better than average

So I picked this up, along with a bunch of others, because I was in the mood for some harem books and this was one of the better books. So if you just want a short review, if you like morally grey and complex MCs and just good story and harem than you can do a lot worse than this book. You can do better than this book but well, above average is a good place for a book in a new series especially given the Cooper here tends to start his series off weak and gets better as they go.

The Pros

This actually out weighs the cons for a change. While the world isn't that different than a fantasy, litRPG or superhero book it blends these genres well which gives it a nice spin. Add to this each character, there are three MCs and numerous sides, have a sense of reality to them given that no one in the story is a saint, nor are they really a devil either. They are dealing with a less than perfect world that has given them rather difficult histories and there is promise of some real depth to not only their interactions but also their circumstances that I'm looking forward too. Also did I mention there was sex? Graphic sex and kinks on display? No? Well there and that might be a turn off for you but given they don't get in the way of pacing, character development, or plot and I actually like having sex in my harem books thank you very much this goes in the plus side of thing. Beyond all the heavy stuff, and there is a good deal of heavy, the characters are fleshed out and complex. Once more unlike far to many i get a super power stories there are several times where the MCs just goof off with their power because well, 'how cool is that!?" which is nice. Add to this that none of the characters histories are given to you out right but you get tid bits throughout the story a bit at a time, like you're supposed to, you're shown how they feel rather than told, my two biggest gripes of writing and I have to say I really enjoyed this book.

Cons

If there had to be it would have to be that while everything is well done, very much so, nothing is done all that different than a dozen other books. There is nothing really original here, not sure if that is a bad thing but given that what prevents this from getting that vaunted 5 stars it has to count.

In the end if you like the genre and are happy with tropes done well with competent writing on top you should buy this book. If you want a book that stands on par with something from Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Ilona Andrews or the other heavy weights of Fantasy than this ain't it. This is average mediocrity done very well but nothing special either. That said it does have promise that the next book in the series will be something special.

good start to a series

being fair to the author ....this book by itself is a very entertaining start to a series... the massive cliffhanger doesnt occur til book 3... my suggestion is wait til 4 comes out before you read 3.

It was a great listen.

Thanks to the great Mr. Cooper I was able to win a copy of this book. I thought it was great to have a harem of his own and not sleep with them. Directly any way. I also enjoyed the power system and the way it was used. I was kept interested throughout the entire book that I immediately preordered the 2nd book.

Great book

I love it I wish they would put the second book on so that way I could finish

This book is completely author driven

This book is author driven not character driven. The MC is a smart anti-hero who keeps everyone at arms length his greatest skill besides his newfound powers is his sly intelligence. I actually like this MC alot hes interesting and there's alot of room for character development. It is therefore extremely annoying that all of the MCs Major problems come as a direct result of dumb decisions dealing with minor problems these minor problems aren't even that complicated and have simple easy solutions to them. This kind of author heavy handedness is extremely annoying because having a character make out of character decisions only to further the plot and pad out a book is frustrating to the reader.

great story!

Harmon Cooper is one of my favorite authors and this is yet again another great new series that doesn't let you down! cant wait for the next book in the series to hit audible!

Fantastic

I love just about everything Harmon Cooper puts out so it's no surprise that I loved House of Dolls. Whatever the genre, Harmon always puts his own unique spin on things, and that is never so evident as it is with this book series. Harmon's take on the superhero genre is unlike any I've read before. When I think 'superheroes' my mind immediately jumps to crazy mayhem and massive battles, but as I said Harmon always puts his own unique spin on a genre. There are indeed fights, but the focus is really on introducing us to this new incredibly complex world/society. Harmon takes a regular flawed being and then hits him with one of the coolest superpowers ever and we get to see how to starts to come to terms with his power and the unique way he decides to use it. Not to mention how it gets wrapped up the espionage happening between that various governments. Great characters, fascinating world, a touch of Harmon's trademark humor. House of Dolls is a wonderful start to what I am hoping will be a long series. Please not the book is definitely meant for adults, as it contains adult themes and content.

Neil Hellegers knocked it out of the park on this one. Seriously, he brought this world to life and I hope he'll be narrating book 2.