You Must Read This Book

Y'all.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing (okay, the geese are honking, which isn't quite as pleasant, but whatever), and I read a really, really good book today.  One of my Goodreads friends recommended it to me, and I'm so happy they did.  This story should not be missed.

Here's the blurb (it doesn't do the story justice by any means, but it's what we've got to work with):

Straight jockboy Kevin thinks he has gay, cross-dressing 
Danny under his thumb. Kevin only likes girls. 

So... why does he keep thinking about her? 

Or him. 

Whatever.


Kevin is a star football player on the verge of losing his spot on the team because of his grades.  But that all changes when he spots a pretty girl across the room at a party and realizes that it's actually Daniel, the new kid in school and the second string quarterback.  Kevin makes a deal with Dani-- she helps him pass his classes and he won't tell the whole school about Dani's little hobby.


The relationship between these two characters is absolutely magic.  Real and easy and loving and painful and everything that a true relationship is, no matter the genders or sexualities of the people involved.  It's a beautiful thing to watch unfold, and the author does an incredible job sharing it with us.


Kevin may be presented as a typical jock, but he's so much more than that.  There is real kindness there, under the rough, teenage boy exterior.  And Daniel, Danny, Dani, is a real person, struggling with issues of identity and acceptance.  More acceptance of self than acceptance by others.


It's not perfect.  There are places where difficult dynamics seem to be more in the characters' heads than on the page.  Well, many of our problems are more in our heads than in reality.  But in the relationship between Kevin and his father, Kevin seems to be pushing hard against an obstacle that just isn't there.  At the same time, the author doesn't shy away from some difficult, painful truths in Kevin and Dani's relationship.  Both have their issues, and something kind of horrible happens between them that must be overcome.  I'm not sure how I feel about that incident, but it's a lot like looking at other relationships that have hit a hard speed bump.  Could I get past it?  I don't know.  But do I believe that these two have managed to move on?  Absolutely.


That's what's so wonderful about these characters.  They're real and believable.  They grow and change individually and as a couple, and it's a wonderful journey.  The end of the book is a little after school special, but Kevin and Dani are so terrific that I'm willing to forgive that.


So where can you buy this amazing book?  You can't.  Because for some reason it's not been picked up and published by anyone.  (Silly, silly publishers.)  It is available for free, though, published online by the author.  (And that is the final proof of how good this story is-- I hate reading on a computer screen for any length of time, but I happily spent the entire afternoon reading this.)  So here it is: The Girl For Me by Failte.  If you enjoy it half as much as I did, I hope you'll pass the link on to everyone you know.  This story deserves to be read.

Review: She Went All the Way

Review by Diva


I've been rereading some old favorites and recent reads...trying to cut down on the old nook budget which, due to nausea and self-pity, was beginning to balloon out of control.  So I took another pass at Meg Cabot's She Went All the Way, her stand-alone chick lit romance novel.

Background:  I never read The Princess Diaries but I suspect, judging by the Queen of Babble trilogy and her 3 "Boy" novels, that her famed YA series had traces of her smart, sassy, yummy writing. I'm a Major Fan of Ms. Cabot's books.

Set Up:  Oscar winning screenwriter Lou Calabrese hops on a helicopter to a remote film location in rural Alaska, annoyed that she has to share a ride with film star Jack Townsend who famously changed a catchphrase line she wrote for him six years ago...and she's never forgiven his lameass egotistical "I think I need a bigger gun" quip that became a bumper sticker and pop cultural phenom. When their pilot tries to blow Jack's head off, Lou saves him and the copter crashes in the wilderness in a snowstorm. Their adversarial relationship continues as they attempt to survive the elements and evade paid assassins bent on making Mr. Townsend a distant memory.

What Worked:

It's Funny.  I like her sense of humor. Her fine deadpan use of the phrase "F--- bunnies" to refer to womanizer Jack's ex girlfriends is priceless.

Supporting characters: Jack's society matron rich mom comes off dimensional, sympathetic and endearing. As does Lou's gruff ex-cop dad. Neither descend into caricature which is pretty impressive alongside some of the contrivances present.

The MC.  She's tough, smart, and doesn't take any crap off Mr. Fabulous. Except when lust makes her all stupid.

What Didn't:

The Romance. Sorry, guys, but anytime a character utters the line "Has anyone ever told you that you are really cute when you're mad" my gag reflex engages. Plus, she's mad at him, he's nearly gotten her killed, pulled some stupid stunt jumping a gorge on a snowmobile with her in tow and she's all Oh the Kiss He Kissed Me SWOOOOON CITY! I have never felt this way ever not ever before where are the trilling birds from Disney's Cinderella I feel a musical number coming on...

Two Words:  No condom. That's right, folks. Our h/h hook up without protection. I lost all respect for everyone involved, including myself for reading the book. How difficult would it have been to mention that the heroine, who carries peanut brittle in her purse in case she gets hungry might have a condom in there too? I realize it's a snowstorm and all, but seriously...I would have felt sooo much less used and dirty as a reader if Cabot had tossed in a convenient prophylactic.

The Verdict: Fine if you don't think too much or mind that they're risking disease. 

Review: I Do Not Come to You By Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Review by London Betty

It's hard to find English language fiction about sub-Saharan Africa, by authors who were born and still live there, so this book is a good find for this reason alone. The book takes place in Nwaubani's home town and the areas where she's lived. 

I Do Not Come to You by Chance (I love the title) is about Kingsley, a young man from educated but poor parents, who can't find a job even with his university degree. As the family falls deeper into poverty, he finally ends up working "419" scams--those famous Nigerian emails we've all received--and naturally the book's tension hinges on both his moral dilemma of being a scammer, and the inherent danger of the activity. 

While the author isn't very good at descriptive writing--I didn't get that "Ooh I want to see Nigeria!" feeling--she's great at everyday detail. I learned a lot about daily life (public transportation, placing a long distance call, education, dating, village vs city life, names, money, etc.)  I think if you were Nigerian you wouldn't be bored/feel like she was writing for foreigners, but as a foreigner I was able to learn a ton about life in Nigeria. Super super interesting. And of course I learned about 419s. Nwaubani's done her research, and I never found the topic tiresome. The variety of scams being run is simultaneously fascinating, sad, creative, and funny. And I had to love the gangsters with their names like Cash Daddy and Protocol Officer and World Bank.

In the beginning I put this book aside for several weeks, because the start is slow. She's carefully trying to establish Kingsley's character, and why and how he would end up in 419s, but I think she could have shortened the front end of the book, and elaborated a bit in some other areas. For example, we don't witness his actual transition into scamming at all--it's a fait accompli when we hit Part II of the book. And towards the end, when we reach the inevitable point of having to choose between his new criminal lifestyle, or returning to the poor and honest path chosen for him by his parents, the choice would have felt more difficult if (a) the author had better maintained his connection with his mother, and (b) if the romance in the latter part of the book had been introduced earlier, and handled differently. The book's first romance is really heartbreaking, and this later romance could have had that potential.

On the plus side, Nwaubani's writing is really entertaining. The last book I read was also by a first time author, and he too was attempting to write a humor book about his nation (Canada); and though he was obsessed with proper English (he admits to this obsession) I found his similes and descriptions unoriginal and long-winded. Nwaubani, on the other hand, uses words in odd ways, and her writing is a bit sloppy; yet her similes and metaphors were creative, and her descriptions were funny. I don't have any quotes 'cause I can't underline on my ereader, but here's a good one someone posted:

"Then came my father’s diagnosis. For a poorly paid civil servant to get caught up in an affliction like diabetes was the very height of ambitious misfortune."

Also, I loved Kings. His character arc was realistic, he was a good kid, and I was rooting for him. I was curious to see how Nwaubani would choose to end the book, and I'm giving the book four stars solely on the basis of the last chapter (epilogue). It was perfect. It is so so SO rare to find that perfect of a last chapter. It was tight, it was funny, it answered all my questions, and it was satisfying.

I will definitely read her next book.

Review: Mr. Maybe by Jane Green

Review by DivaBetty

I noticed in Barnes and Noble that Green's 90's chick lit books have new classy covers. I prefer the old one for Mr. Maybe...shredded male torso, clothesline of jokey boxers...because it is what it is.  A relic of the glory days of early chick lit, when Bridget Jones chronicled her calories and Good In Bed was shocking. This is one of the classics...juicy, frivolous, and rather well written to boot.
 
Libby is a twentysomething Londoner who loves her job in PR, burdens her charge card with funky designer finds, and feels like she's ready for a fling. Her bff, Jules (she of the Perfect Marriage to convenient accessory Jamie) insists that Libby can't handle a fling...she'll end up heartbroken. But Libby meets Nick, fun, hot, and unapologetically on the dole, he's an immature dreamboat built for delicious sex with no strings attached. 

The bathtub sex scene is STILL one of the best I've ever read. In case you're interested in that sort of thing. ;)
 
They have a terrific time together in and out of the bedroom but Libby can't handle his slovenly and unambitious lifestyle and horrid friends. They break up. She's crushed. A rich guy, Ed, comes into the picture and is everything she says she wants. 

Ed makes me gag.
 
There's a very realistic take on "storybook" romance here and the likelihood that you should be careful what you wish for. 
 
By the time Nick shows up again, I was singing Hallelujah to the heavens because at no point does it seem like Ed is anything but Mr. Hell No. Libby has some growing up to do, though, and it's rendered well. She learns to be true to herself and it feels authentic, not like a sitcom Learning a Lesson moment. 
 
I wish all chicklit was this good, this hilarious, this tasty.

Review: Lessons in Love: A Cambridge Fellows Mystery by Charlie Cochrane

 Review by Chronic Betty

St. Bride’s College, Cambridge, England, 1905.

Jonty Stewart is handsome and outgoing, with blood as blue as his eyes. When he takes up a teaching post at the college where he studied, his dynamic style acts as an agent for change within the archaic institution. He also has a catalytic effect on Orlando Coppersmith.

Orlando is a brilliant, introverted mathematician with very little experience of life outside the university walls. He strikes up an alliance with Jonty and soon finds himself heart-deep in feelings he’s never experienced. Before long their friendship blossoms into more than either man had hoped.

Then a student is murdered within St. Bride’s. Then another…and another. All the victims have one thing in common: a penchant for men. Asked by the police to serve as their eyes and ears within the college, Jonty and Orlando risk exposing a love affair that could make them the killer’s next target.

This book has been previously published and has been revised and expanded from its original release.

---

Product Warnings

Contains sensual m/m lovemaking and men in punts.

I love Samhain's product warnings, don't you?  I think I've read more of their books based on the warning than the blurb.

Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith meet when Jonty sits in Orlando's chair.  They soon become inseparable, first as friends, and then slowly as something more.  During this time a murderer starts targeting homosexual students at St. Bride's.  Suddenly their relationship is dangerous on three fronts:  Jonty knows he's homosexual, but Orlando has been basically asexual until this point in his life.  Is this what he wants?  People are dying on campus for being homosexual, do they want to risk catching the murderer's attention?  And, homosexual acts were illegal in England in 1905.  Do they want to risk hard labor if they're caught?

I'd heard good things about this book, and I was eager to give it a try.  But I had a very hard time connecting, mostly because of the POV.  It was written in 3rd person omniscient, which I generally don't like.  And in a book where a large part of the focus is the romance, that distance doesn't serve the story well.

I did get more involved as the mystery plot drove to its conclusion.  But I also think that the last third or so of the book was more interesting because we were spending more time with Orlando's thoughts than Jonty's.  This was really Orlando's book.  He grows the most, changing from a complete loner to a man with a dear friend and lover.  He also has to shift his thinking away from his very prudish upbringing to accept any sexual feelings at all, let alone feelings for another man.  And yet it seems like we spend a lot more time in the early part of the book in Jonty's head, as he dances around trying to slowly seduce Orlando, while at the same time trying to preserve his "precious innocence."  (Jonty's interest in Orlando's complete innocence and unworldliness was a bit squicky to me.)


In the end we finally get to see Orlando understand what he really wants and be the hero by rescuing Jonty.  And I think that's as much of the reason why I liked the end of the book as all the action in catching the killer. We're finally getting to experience the important stuff through the right pair of eyes.


I struggled with this one, but don't take my opinion for gospel.  There are eight books in this series now, so apparently many others liked it.  I caught a spoiler by accident for book 8, and now I'm trying to decide if I want to push through all the books in between, hoping they get better, or if I should break a cherished reading law and just jump to the good bit.  That spoiler sounded wowza.


I give it a C-.  Not horrible, but not quite in the middle of the pack, either.  I was able to borrow this one, now that lending is available for the Kindle.  Unfortunately, I have yet to find a m/m romance available for download through the library.

Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Review by Diva

I have to do a dual Diva review on this one. It is impossible to compute otherwise.
 
The STORY(Diva, 32)
 
Lonely teen Grace has no interests except her obsession with the wolves living in nearby Boundary Wood. They mauled her when she was eleven (and playing on a tire swing? at eleven? how bout piercing stuff and reading seventeen magazine? realism alert!) and she was rescued by "her" wolf, a yellow eyed beast who seemed to understand her very soul. The wolf watches her. She watches it. There's a connection.

Some jerk from her high school gets killed by the wolves and comes back as a shapeshifting werewolf.  Ecstatic, Grace tells her photog buddy Olivia "hey, i saw this wolf who looks like Jack I bet he's a werewolf now!" and Olivia is all "you are just stoked to jump yellow eyed dog and hope he's a dude." (Okay they don't talk like that at all. It only SEEMS like they do).

Sam is "her" wolf, he shows up in naked 18yo guy form bleeding on her back deck and she tends to him, hides him in her room for weeks, unbeknownst to the Stupidest Parents in the Entire Canon of Literature as We Know It. But, hell, they remained in their woodsy house AFTER she got mauled by wolves as a kid and assured her "wolves are peaceful creatures" then locked her in the damn hot car that summer for hours and she had to be rescued and revived cuz they FORGOT her. (PS an eleven yo couldn't get out of the damn car???)

Grace and Sam fall in love. They have to keep him warm so he doesn't morph back into wolf form. He didn't change in warm weather this year so it's his Last Year As a Real Live Boy. So he wants to see the people and the landscapes and ball the girl because he will never have another chance evah.

But there is the problem of his pack (as well as the fact that every time he gets cold in friggin Minnesota he changes back to a wolf so he has to sit in the warm car a lot). Raised by Beck, a sometime lawyer sometime wolf/highly fallible father figure, Sam has to deal with Shelby, a jealous, murderous she wolf. She tries to kill Grace. Sam finds out Beck has intentionally had kids bitten to perpetuate the pack with new members. He is sad and angry. He takes Grace on a date to SMELL CANDY. Because that is romantic. Then they shag. This does not satisfy my curiosity about whether or not sex will make him transform into a wolf (sex kept vampire Ian Thornheart from craving blood on Port Charles years ago. he was hawt.)

Then Isabel, rich bitch sis of newbie werewolf Jack, tells Grace she knows everything and demands help. Together they figure out that Grace's Dumbass Parents saved her from werewolfism by locking her in the hot car so the temp burned the werewolf out of her or some shit like that. They steal meningitis infected blood to infect and "save" Jack, Sam, and Olivia (who got bitten by pissed off Jack).  Spoilers:  Jack dies. Olivia opts out and frolics wolfily into the woods. Sam's form is unstable and he can't stay a human long enough to get injected fully. He disappears.

At the end (SPOILER) he shows up out of nowhere and they hug. We do not know if he has been human for like weeks since he was injected or how he survived the meningitis that killed Jack or if this is permanent or anything. The End.

PS. This girl has the self-esteem of Bella Swan (read: I must have my para hottie or I AM NOTHING) but Sam is a very cool character. His narration made it possible to finish the book. I fell asleep twice. Old Diva
 
THE STORY (Inner 15 yo Diva)
Grace feels a deep connection to the wolf who saved her life. Little does she know that he is secretly an attractive teen during the summer months. Despite the obstacles in their path, they come together one winter and hope the warmth of their love can protect Sam from leaving her forever to lead life as a wolf permanently.
 
Because she is part wolf herself, the result of the attack from which Sam saved her, Grace can understand him better than anyone. She is drawn to him and all the meaningless responsibilities with which she has filled her lonely life fall away until all that is left is Sam, fragile loving and hopeful. His wounded heart (his parents cut his wrists to kill him when he changed into a wolf as a kid) trusts her alone and they lead a full but narrow life together shutting out the cold and reality. 

A car accident sends a rush of cold air through the broken windshield and steals the last of his humanity, leaving Grace to go on alone. Fortunately her newfound friend Isabel, whose brother has been bitten, helps her discover the key to Grace's own resistance to becoming a wolf. They need to cause a high fever in the victims to save them from becoming wolves forever. Together, they execute a desperate plan that claims one life but saves another.
 
Sweepingly romantic, descriptive and atmospheric, dreamy. XOXO Teen DIVA

Review: Salaam, Paris by Kavita Daswani

Review by London Mabel


I picked up Salaam, Paris by Kavita Daswani as a sale book, so I didn't have big expectations. It's about Tanaya, a young Muslim Indian woman who's always dreamed of living in Paris. When her family wants her to marry a Muslim man living in Paris she agrees to go meet him, but instead turns her back on the arrangement and lives an independent life, eventually becoming a fashion model. The usual conflicts arise--feeling torn between her traditional upbringing and her bikini-clad magazine spreads, as well as re-meeting the man she was supposed to marry and finding herself falling in love with him.

This book was so good, and so bad. I didn't mind the fantasy setting, Tanaya's quick rise to fame etc., because other elements were realistic, such as the shocked reaction of her family, and her own torn feelings. I liked that she maintained her moral standards throughout, and the book avoided a lot of "overnight success story" clichés. I also liked that Tanaya missed her family, that she missed India, and she wasn't wholly enamored of this new lifestyle--she didn't turn overnight from a shy, obedient granddaughter to a Paris Hilton, or a western-style feminist.

BUT. I still kept waiting for her to change. The movie that makes Tanaya want to go to Paris is Sabrina, but surprisingly the author doesn't give her the same sort of transformation as Sabrina went through.  While I didn't expect Paris to fulfill Tanaya's fantasies, I thought it, or her new life, would fulfill her in some other, unexpected way. How can someone go from living the life of a child, on an allowance, with a very narrow future ahead of her--and she was never particularly rebellious--to being extremely wealthy, with enough money to do whatever she'd like with her life, and not experience Something? Surely she would have changed in terms of confidence? Feeling something new flower in her? Wouldn't she find out something important about herself? Instead, she felt like the exact same person throughout. She didn't like other people telling her what to do, but never rebelled against them (with one lame exception at the very end); and it never really felt like she was enjoying herself. Daswani never described Tanaya's experiences in Paris in a way that made me want to go to Paris. And in fact, half the book takes place in New York, which was disappointing and seemed unnecessary to the plot.

So while I loved the book for the first three quarters, my opinion crashed in the last quarter, when I realized there weren't going to be any interesting epiphanies. This is also when the almost-a-fiancé re-enters the picture. She falls instantly for him, though it's hard to understand why; and he suddenly becomes the center of her universe. She realizes she should have just married him in the first place, which is frankly the same thing I'd wondered at the beginning of the book--why wouldn't a conservative girl, who wants to live in Paris, not agree to an arranged marriage to a man who lives in Paris? (In other words, the author didn't convince me that this person, this character, had reason enough to rebel against this marriage.)

The last quarter of the book is a flat out mess--rushed, disingenuous, and finally clichéd. A book that could have been light yet subtly moving, instead turned out to be a 1980s Harlequin. Color me: Le Disappointed.

Review: The Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon

Review by Chronic Betty

Relationships can be murder. Bookseller and mystery author Adrien English is looking for love in all the wrong places -- and, according to hot and handsome LAPD detective Jake Riordan, it's liable to get him killed.

Fatal Shadows
A serial killer is stalking gay men, and a tawny-eyed LAPD detective wants bookseller Adrien English in handcuffs -- for all the wrong reasons!

A Dangerous Thing
When his romance goes south, Adrien heads north to the California Motherlode country. Can murder -- and Adrien's favorite LAPD detective -- be far behind?


I love mystery series with a romance that evolves over multiple books, particularly if the romance is complicated.  Think Julia Spender-Fleming and Deanna Raybourn.  Well, this weekend I found a new author to add to that list- Josh Lanyon.


Adrien English is a gay bookstore owner with a bum ticker and a serious problem.  His best friend has been murdered, and he's Suspect #1.  Jake Riordan is the hostile, deeply closeted detective who's been assigned to the case.  As the bodies start piling up, all Adrien wants is to figure out who the real killer is and clear his name.  What Jake wants... is a greater mystery.

These books were phenomenal.  I read all five books in the series over the course of three days, and the whole thing has been rolling around in a big ball of goodness in my head ever since.  After being that immersed in the series, it's hard to know what to say without spoiling something.

What I can tell you is that the mysteries were exciting and well plotted.  The relationship between Adrien and Jake was intense, and it drags you right along with them.  Books three and four smashed my heart into a million pieces.  Book five slowly put it back together again.  The sex is explicit, and hot, but never over done. These are mysteries with strong romantic elements, not erotica.  And you may pick up the next book in the series because you're dying to see what's going to happen between Adrien and Jake, but that's never the main focus of the story.

I give the whole series an A.  Excellent, excellent work.  And in case you were all wondering if I've flipped my wig after this mess of a review (wig flipping always being a possibility with me), I've found a few people who agree with me.  The fifth book in the series, The Dark Tide, made the American Library Association's 2010 Over the Rainbow List.  The third book, The Hell You Say, was the winner of the 2006 USA Book News award for best GLBT fiction.  And that's just for this series.  There are plenty of other awards for his other work, too.

I borrowed The Adrien English Mysteries 1&2 through the Kindle lending program.  Once I finished devouring those, I popped over to Fictionwise and bought the rest of the series.  In three days my borrowing period will be up, and I'll have to hop online and buy myself a copy of those first two books, because there's no way I can go without them.  One of you will not have that problem, however.

I loved these books so much that I'm going to do something I've never done before.  I'm going to put my money where my keyboard is.  I'm having a contest!  To enter, just comment on this post.  Have you read any of Lanyon's stuff?  Do you want to?  Do you have questions about the series?  Any old comment will do. On Friday night I'll close the comments and randomly draw a winner.  That winner will get an ebook copy of The Adrien English Mysteries 1&2.  That's the first two books in the series.  It's available from several different vendors, so I can be flexible to meet your device's needs.  There don't appear to be any geographic restrictions for this title on Fictionwise, so it's open to everyone.  If you absolutely can't do an ebook, well, the two book collection isn't available in paper.  But I'll do my best to get the first book, Fatal Shadows, into your hands.

So go forth and comment!  And if you're impatient (like me) and can't wait for the drawing, Fictionwise has a 40% off coupon running now through the 14th.  (vday2011)  Great books and a great deal!

And I suppose I ought to say, just in case the FCC is one of the handful of people reading this, that no one paid me in anyway to do this.  The prize is coming out of my own pocket.  I loved this series that much, and I wanted to share it.

Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Review by Chronic Betty


Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. 


I loved this book, y'all.  And if you've read many of my reviews, you know that's not something I just come out and say very often.  But Deborah Harkness, with her debut novel A Discovery of Witches, has knocked my socks off.


Dr. Diana Bishop is doing nothing more than some research, and stressing out about a paper for an upcoming conference, when she stumbles across Ashmole 782.  She's unknowingly called up a magical manuscript that's been missing for 150 years.  Knowing only that it's magical, and that she has renounced all magic, she returns the book to the library.


Suddenly the library is filled with the three creatures of the magical world, other witches, vampires, and daemons, all waiting for her to do it again.  And there's one vampire in particular who won't leave her alone.


Matthew Clairmont is a scientist and a vampire.  He wants the information contained in Ashmole 782.  But maybe he wants Diana more.


It's hard to know what to say about this book, beyond "I loved it!"  It clocks in at a hefty 579 pages, and a lot of stuff happens on those pages.  But the story unfolds in an almost leisurely way at times.  There is a scene early on when Matthew takes Diana to a yoga class.  It was so beautifully described that it felt like I was there as I was reading it.  And yet, the scene also gives the reader vital information about the world the author has created and relations between the three species of creatures, as well as information about Diana and Matthew.  


There were multiple scenes like that, where one character or another displayed a deep knowledge of not so every day topics, like alchemy, history, genetics, rowing, horseback riding, billiards, wine appreciation, and probably others that I'm forgetting.  The only scene that wasn't illuminating for me in some way was the billiards scene, although someone familiar with the terminology might have gotten more out of it.


Although it's not a perfect comparison, in some ways the book reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen.  It's darker, more intense in spots, and not as charming as a Sarah Addison Allen (that's not a negative so much as a point of reference, since I find SAA exceptionally charming).  But the gentle way the story flows at times definitely reminded me of her work.  Also, Matthew sometimes reminded me a bit of Barrons from the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, although Matthew was more willing to explain things when necessary and didn't make me want to kick him in the taint so often.


Lest I leave you with the impression that this is the wimpiest paranormal ever written, there are many things more evil than Matthew that want to get their hands on Diana and Ashmole 782.  Diana and Matthew go through two significant attacks, their families are both in danger, and an organized group of very bad dudes are willing to go to great lengths to get what they want.  I can't really say more than that without getting into spoiler territory.  But let me reassure you, it's not all wine tastings and yoga classes.  Big stuff happens here.


As for Diana and Matthew, there's some serious character growth from both of them.  Diana goes from wanting to ignore and deny her power to desperately trying to learn to harness it.  That's a big shift in terms of accepting who she really is vs who she was trying to be.  Matthew's changes weren't as obvious, partially because the story is told mostly in 1st person by Diana.  But the way he treats her, his willingness to share with her and to let go some of the events from his past show how far he's come.


A word about POV.  As I said above, most of the story is told in 1st person from Diana's point of view.  But occasionally it shifts to 3rd person for a chapter, to show things that Diana could not possibly know.  The first time it happened was (the very short) chapter three, and I found it extremely jarring.  I read the next few chapters just waiting for it to happen again.  But after that, either because I knew to expect it or because I was so involved with the story, the transition was perfectly comfortable and not jarring at all.  I know not everyone is a fan of the shifting POV, so I thought I should mention it.  If you can get past the first one, it gets much better.

A little bit of good news: even though the book weighs in at nearly 600 pages, you're going to want more.  Word is that this is just the first book in the All Souls trilogy, so there is much more goodness to come.  I haven't heard anything about when the next book is due, however.

Brace yourselves.  I give this one an A.  It's a fascinating, well written story with engaging characters.  And even more than that, it's got that It factor that will keep you reading way past bedtime and have you thinking about it for days.

I was lucky enough to win an advance copy through GoodReads First Read program.  A Discovery of Witches goes on sale next Tuesday, February 8th, just in time for Valentine's Day!

Review: Like Clockwork by Bonnie Dee

Review by Chronic Betty

Victoria's work with automatons has gained her renown and changed the face of London. But her concern that the clockworks are taking too many jobs away from humans, creating social unrest, is ignored. Given the ugly mood of the underclass, she fears more outbreaks of violence similar to the murder spree of the notorious Southwark Slasher.

Dash, unemployed thanks to the clockworks, has pledged fealty to The Brotherhood, a group determined to bring about the downfall of the automatons by any means necessary. His plan to kidnap Victoria goes awry when the unorthodox scientist pledges her assistance to their cause.

Despite their opposite social classes, a bond grows between them, and Victoria begins to feel emotions she never expected for the passionate Dash. But when the Slasher strikes close to home, Dash and Victoria realize that the boundaries of polite society are far from the only threat to their happiness...


I was really psyched to read this one.  I read another one of Dee's Carina titles last summer, Jungle Heat, and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Throw in some steampunk, and I'm there!  I was a little disappointed when I found out that this was a novella, because they generally aren't my favorite.  But I decided to give this one a go.


This was a very crowded story.  We've got steampunk, we've got civil unrest, we've got a kidnapping, we've got a nefarious government agency, and a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer on the loose.  Then we've got the lovers, two people who've never met each other before and have to overcome significant class differences to get to their happy ending.  All in just under 90 pages.  That's a lot of ground to cover.  One of the biggest plot points isn't even resolved on screen; we just hear about it later.


With all the other stuff going on, there just wasn't time for the romance to develop.  There were some nice moments in the middle of the story between Victoria and Dash, but the beginning just wasn't believable.  He kidnaps her, and within an few hours she's totally on his side.  (So, OK, politically she was pretty much on his side to begin with.  But I'm sorry, I don't care how much we agree philosophically, it's going to take more than a few hours to get over the desire to scream and bash my kidnapper over the head with my handbag.  I'm not going to invite him in for a drink and let him kiss me.)  And then we skip forward five months for the epilogue and the happy ending.


If there's going to be this much story in my story, it really needs to be about three times the page length.  Barring that, I would have liked to see Victoria and Dash's romance play out more naturally on the page, with some of the other threads left to be picked up in another book.  This could have been an excellent introduction to a new world and a new series, but I see nothing on the author's website about any planned follow up books.  There's certainly enough going on here, enough not satisfactorily resolved, to support more than a 90 page novella. 


There were positives.  I liked the premise, and I liked Victoria and Dash, as much as I got to know them.  It wasn't a total dud.  I just wish there had been enough breathing room for the positives to really develop.

While it's an A for creativity and story building, I have to give this one a D for execution.  It was a very interesting idea, but it's too much story shoehorned into too few pages.  


I picked this one up as a promotional freebie from Harlequin.

Review: Warrior by Zoe Archer

Review by Chronic Betty

To most people, the realm of magic is the stuff of nursery rhymes and dusty libraries. But for Capt. Gabriel Huntley, it’s become quite real and quite dangerous… 

IN HOT PURSUIT…

The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the Earth and beyond—where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. And frankly, Huntley couldn’t be more pleased. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress—just what he needs.

IN HOTTER WATER…

Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, because a proper lady would have no hope of recovering the priceless magical artifact Thalia is after. Huntley’s assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn’t easy to deceive… 

This is the book I picked for Read a Happy Book Week, and I was quite delighted with it.  You know what was so delightful?  The conflict.  There was some.  I've read so many romances lately where the one thing standing between the Hero and Heroine goes something like this: "My mother left my father, who was an abusive asshole.  Therefore all women are dirty whooores!"  Ugh.  In this one, their stumbling block to happiness went more like: "We're being chased by a pack of madmen searching for a magical treasure that will allow them to rule the world.  Maybe now is not the best time for humperating."  Also, there was a small misunderstanding that was quickly resolved by communicating with one another.  What a concept.


Beyond the refreshingly realistic interpersonal conflict, Warrior is just a fun story.  Archer does a good job of laying out her new world without slowing down the action.  Most of the story takes place in Mongolia, which is a new setting for me.  And the two leads, Thalia and Gabriel, really seem to fit together.  He was protective without being smothering; she's the one with all the knowledge and experience with magic, and she doesn't make the second-rate heroine mistake of running off half-cocked and then expecting to be rescued.


One thing that I found slightly distracting is that a couple of the descriptions of magic in the story strongly reminded me of scenes from The Mummy and Lord of the Rings, and the setting and situation for the final showdown reminded me quite a bit of Helm's Deep from The Two Towers.  These things were enough to make my mind wander from the story for a minute, but not enough of a distraction to make me put the book down.


I'm also a little concerned about The Blades of the Rose (the name of the group fighting to protect the magical items) and their overall motivation for the series.  They're determined to protect these items, called Sources, for the native people and cultures in which they're found.  They're not allowed to collect or use the magic themselves.  So instead of being proactive, they're constantly reacting to the moves of the Heirs of Albion (the bad guys) and behind the 8 ball, because the Heirs have no problem with using what they take.  It's a negative goal and a war that they can't ever really win.  I understand the thinking to a certain extent-- if they start gathering Sources too, what makes them different from the Heirs?  But it also strikes me as a slightly... wimpy stance.  I hope in future books the Blades find a way to get more proactive in their defense of the Sources.


This was fun adventure and an excellent start to the series.  I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad that I have the next two books ready to go in my TBR file.  I don't remember for sure, but it was on the Pocket, so I must have picked this one up from Kobo with a coupon.  I give it a B++.  (Only books that make my hair stand on end, in a good way, get an A rating.  Warrior didn't have that final zing to push it over into that category, but it came very close.)

Review With a Capital "EW"

Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
Review by Diva


The Story:

Icy lonelyhearts rich girl Maddy goes to a charity bachelor auction to keep her new stepmom from cuckolding dad by paying money for some hunky humping. She outbids Stepmommy on Bachelor #19, the "gorgeous, muscular, friendly" Jake the paramedic. He likes Maddy. She is disgusted that he was in a charity bachelor auction and makes the hip-breakingly wild cognitive leap that because he auctioned off a date to a ball game with himself he must be a high priced man-ho. She does him anyway. He doesn't tell her he isn't a gigolo because she has walls around her heart (I imagine them being cute lego brick walls) and needs to control the relationship by paying him or something. It's like Pretty Woman--all the cynicism without the fun shopping. Then they develop Feelings-with-a-capital-wtF and drama follows involving her sister's upcoming loveless-match wedding, her dad's fourth marriage, and a bypass surgery.
 
 
What Worked:

Convenience-- I was sick and needed something to read, ergo it was the obvious choice. 
Frugality--it was free. I feel dirty now.
 
What Didn't Work:

Characterization--the Diva had to refer back to the book twice to confirm the names of the main characters despite third person narration and the fact I had read the names hundreds of times. No one has a personality. I was compelled to call them Uppity Hot Girl and Washboard Abs. It is also a challenge to believe that Uppity is truly as icy as her adjectives declare when she yanks up her tank top and commences dry humping outside the bar on the first date (excuse me, non-date they are just friends---I have friends, we NEVER do stuff like that)
 
Motivation--Dear Washboard (May I call you by your first name?): She thinks you are a whore. She gives you a check for 30K to be "exclusive" and service her for one month. Explain to me why you would do this. 'Because she is Uppity Hot Girl' is not an acceptable answer.  Love, Diva
 
Names--in addition to Uppity and Washboard, we have characters named Tabby and Bitsy. 

Talking about the Relationship--if Diva had to talk about her feelings and relationships half this much she would be single 4evah. I don't even think I *have* that many feelings. The angsty angst of being a rich woman with  "large luscious breasts and a tiny, tiny waist" who is for some reason paying for it made me giggle a lot until i realized that the only person who should have to listen to her many many thoughts on trust and the impossibility of romantic love would be a trained therapist.

Review: Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong

Review by Chronic Betty

The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favour to one of the agency’s associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.

Soon Savannah is in over her head. She’s run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn’t her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she’s ever had to learn.

I'm a long-time fan of Armstrong, and this book is another strong entry in the series.  After 11 books you might think that both the author and readers would be getting a little tired.  But Ms Armstrong keeps it fresh.  Instead of using one first person narrator through the whole series, she switches things up, using different narrators book to book and focusing on different areas of the supernatural community.

We first met Savannah as a young teen in the third book in the series, Dime Store Magic.  She's come a long way since then.  In this, her first novel as narrator, she shows herself to be smart, tough, and powerful, even if she's also frequently rash and unwilling to accept help.

The case is a difficult one.  A year ago two young women were found murdered in the basement of an abandoned building.  Now, another woman has been found dead in the same place.  Three murders in a year is a lot for tiny, down on it's luck Columbus, Washington.  The sheriff is focused on a suspect, but is it the right one?

There were many likely suspects in this one, and more deaths followed the initial three.  Lots of red herrings (or are they?), and lots of racing around.  Because most of the book is Savannah on her own, you don't need to know much about what has come before.  And when old characters do pop up briefly, you're given enough background to place them without interrupting the flow of the story.

But that changes in the last 60 pages or so.  The ending leans heavily on events from Dime Store Magic, which could definitely be confusing for those who are new to the series.  It was confusing to me, and I've read it, although not recently.  So for old fans a refresher on DSM could be helpful.

Mostly, there's just a lot of stuff going on at the end of the book.  I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just suggest you read carefully.  Maybe take notes.  One major, dangerous plot line is not wrapped up, and it appears to be the subject of the next book, also narrated by Savannah, due out in July.  And there's a major whoa! in the last line, which should make things even more interesting for book 12.

Overall I found this one very entertaining, if a little complicated at the end.  I give it a B.  And once again I send a shout out to the Harris County Public Library for having such an excellent digital collection.

Review: The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening

The original 90's cover

Review by Chronic Betty


I have a regrettable taste for teen soap operas, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a fan of the TV show The Vampire Diaries.  I'd never read the books, though, so this weekend I decided to dive into the first one, The Awakening by L.J. Smith.  Here's the blurb:


A Love Triangle of Unspeakable Horror...
Elena
Searching for the ultimate thrill, she vowed to have Stefan.
Stefan
Haunted by his tragic past, he struggled to resist her passion.
Damon
Driven by revenge, he hunted the brother who betrayed him.
The terrifying story of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.


Doesn't that sound deliciously Old Skool, to borrow SB Sarah's favorite phrase?  Unfortunately, the book worked about as well for me as most romances of the 70s through the early 90s do.  That is, not at all.


The Elena of the book was a straight up Mean Girl.  She is the acknowledged Queen of the School, and she's perfectly willing to use and abuse that power to get what she wants.  I don't find this kind of character at all sympathetic, and it sets me up to root against her whenever possible.


Her obsession with Stefan was squicky as well.  She thought this on the first day of school, having never even spoken to poor Stefan before:

She'd have him, even if it killed her.  If it killed both of them, she'd have him.

Um, ew.  That's a bit extreme, don't you think?  Even for an angsty teen romance, which tend to be a bit OTT anyway.  And then there was this, toward the end of the book:

All she knew was that she needed to see him, to hear his voice, to feels his arms around her.  Being away from him was like being separated from her own flesh.

At least they were a couple by this point.  I had a friend in high school who absolutely fell to pieces when her parents made her go on a band trip over Christmas break.  She spent the whole time wracking up huge long distance charges on the hotel bill (I'm old.  This was in the dark ages before every teenager had a cell phone.) and crying.  I didn't understand this desperate attitude at 18 any more than I do now.


The pacing of the book was off for me, too.  The middle of the book dragged terribly, and then all the interesting stuff happened in the last 30 pages or so.  And most of that was Stefan explaining the backstory.  Then Damon shows up and the book stops.  It doesn't end, it just stops.  There was a sample chapter from the next book in the series, and it picks up exactly where The Awakening stops, like they whacked the end off and glued it onto the next.  That's not a cliffhanger, that's just a dirty trick.


I'm glad I got this one from the library, because I didn't like it at all.  I think I'll stick to the TV show from now on.  The characters, especially Elena, are much more relatable.