Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews

Posted on September 22, 2010 by janicu

Ilona Andrews

Bayou Moon is the sequel to Andrew’s first Edge book, On The Edge, which I reviewed here: . This series is set in a place that straddles two worlds – there’s the Broken, where magic is non-existent, and there’s the Weird, where pure-blood families rule and magic is a part of life. These places exist in the same place but on different planes, and in the space between them is the Edge, where outlaws and the out-of-luck flourish.

I was lucky enough to be sent a advanced finished copy of the book.

The Premise: While this is the second of a series, the focus in this book is on a different couple than On the Edge. William was a secondary character in the first book, but this time it’s his turn to be the hero. William is a wolf changeling with a past as a soldier in the Weird, and a big chip on his shoulder. He’s been just passing time in the Broken, when agents of the Adrianglian Secret Service arrive and ask him to hunt down an old nemesis and to retrieve what he’s been searching for in the Mire. Spider is an agent of the Dukedom of Louisiana’s Hand, and was once was responsible for the deaths of a group of young changelings. William came close to killing him but failed. Spider has been reported to be in the Mire, looking for an edge in the secret war between the two Weird nations of Adrianglia and Louisiana. In his quest to find Spider, William runs into Cerise, a girl whose path seems to be the same as his. She too has an interest in Spider, because her parents have just been kidnapped by his agents, igniting a long burning clan war between her family, the Mars, and their rivals, the Sheeriles.

Read an excerpt of Bayou Moon here

My Thoughts: If you are familiar with Andrews urban fantasy series which focuses on a heroine in post-apocalyptic Atlanta, this series shares some of the strengths of that one, namely excellent world building, heroes and heroines who are interesting mentors to lost youth, and plenty of characters with kick-ass skills. However, the Edge series has more of a focus on a romantic relationship than the urban fantasy Kate Daniels series. Each book has a hero and heroine who eventually get together, but I still find this series different from your typical paranormal romance because the world building and the plots are so unusual. It almost seems to be a urban fantasy romance series (the writers call it a “rustic fantasy”). It defies categorization, but I think people who like romance and/or urban fantasy will like it.

The first thing that I noticed about Bayou Moon was it’s size. It’s immediately obvious that this paperback is thicker than it’s predecessor, and clocking at 462 pages, it looks to be longer than any other Ilona Andrews book out so far. Don’t worry. This is a good thing. I think that this is one of the few books of this length where I wasn’t paying attention to what page I was on and I was actually happy that there was more to read. Even with this length I had polished off the book in a couple of days. Not only that, the length meant that there is plenty of room for not only a romance but for the complexities of the Edge culture, Cerise’s large and interesting family, and for revealing plenty of monstrous enemies.

I think before I talk about the characters, I have to talk about the Mire, the swamplands of the Edge. The people of the Edge are hard. They are known for family unity and for long held grudges that span generations. I loved the Wild West meets Mob Family mentality that the Edgers had. It breeds some very unusual (and perhaps a little crazy) people. But then, take that and add a swamp full of dangerous creatures (sharks, water snakes), and places impassable except by boat. Its not for the fainthearted. It stands to reason that this gritty, wild place in the Edge is where William would find the woman for him.

Being a changeling makes civilized human behavior a difficult language that William has had to learn, and while he yearns to find a woman that accepts him, he’s been disappointed in that area many times. He may have amazing physical strength and skill, but emotionally I think of William as the more vulnerable Edge hero. Cerise is quick to appreciate William’s positive attributes, but she feels that crossing paths with someone she’s interested in has happened at the worst possible time. Cerise is a heroine I’m familiar with in Andrews’ books – smart, strong, and capable, but she also carries very big responsibilities. She’s in charge of her family’s finances, and when her her parents are kidnapped, she is the one to step forward and take on the leadership of the Mars and deal with both finding her parents and with the opportunistic Sheeriles.She has too many people relying on her to be selfish and indulge in a romantic interlude. There is a slow build in their relationship due to caution on both sides, but there is a strong romance plot in this story, compared to the Kate Daniels series, where it is less overt. It passes my personal standards with plenty of emotional buildup to go along with the physical side of the romance, and sex that did not feel gratuitous (hooray!).

The plot in this book was such that there was plenty of room for many secondary characters. There are the bad guys (the Hand), the good guys (Cerise’s family) and the in-between. It’s a mark of excellent writing that every one of the characters where distinguishable and not cliched (I particularly liked with the conflicted feelings of what-could-have-been between Cerise and the Sheeriles’ oldest son). Cerise’s family was huge, but only a fraction of those are highlighted on the page so I was never confused or overwhelmed. I don’t think I can go over them or this review would double in size, but my favorites would be Cerise’s younger sister, Lark, who thinks she is a monster and sleeps outside, and her cousin Kaldar, the family matchmaker and general irrepressible rogue. The large family meant for some impressive battle scenes against the Sheeriles and against the Hand. Of the Hand, we catch less glimpses of, since the focus is mainly on William’s nemesis, Spider, but in many ways the Hand agents are less human after undergoing a process which changed their bodies and fractured some of their minds. They reminded me of the anime Ninja Scroll where the bad guys, the Devils of Kimon, have inhuman enhancements (link to youtube. Warning: icky anime death) which make them terrifying killers. There were some pretty nasty monstrosities in the bunch, but Spider, who is sane, is the creepiest for it. He’s an excellent villian, and we get some hints about his back story too.

Overall: The Edge series straddles genres to create a world that’s unlike any other, and I found Bayou Moon a rare book that entertains so well, I was lost to everything else. All I wanted was to be where I was, enjoying myself while being pulled along to a satisfying conclusion. What a pleasant ride that was.

Bayou Moon is longer than it’s predecessor, but that room only makes it better, because there’s space for a more complex plot, more back story, more world and character building. If you liked the first book, you’ll love this. If you haven’t, I recommend it if you like paranormal romance or like urban fantasy and are open to romance or vice versa. This book has cameos from previous characters, but I think it can be read as a standalone and out of order.

According to the Ilona Andrews website, there are two books contracted for the Edge series, but I’m crossing my figures that there will be more. There are a couple of men in Cerise’s family who I’d love to be in the next book (Kaldar, anyone?)

Bayou Moon comes out September 28th.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews::
Angieville – ” Bayou Moon struck me as a stronger, darker, meatier installment in the series”
Fantasy and SciFi Lovin’ News and Reviews – 4 out of 5 stars
Dreams and Speculation – 6 out of 10
Scooper Speaks – “Bayou Moon is a keeper in my opinion”

Restoree by Anne McCaffrey

Posted on September 20, 2010 by janicu

Restoree

Anne McCaffery

I am not sure where I heard of this book. I thought it may have been somewhere on the paperbackswap forums, but a quick search says no. Anyway, what sold me was someone saying that it was a science fiction that had a romance in it where the heroine’s first impression of the hero was that he was ugly and an idiot. I’d been debating whether to get it but holding back, until I saw it for 50 cents at the a library sale section of my library.

The Premise: Sara is a young, plain looking, twenty-something librarian working in New York City, when one day walking through Central Park she is overwhelmed by a terrifying force and she blacks out. She endures some kind of horror and when she regains her senses she finds herself in a new planet, in a new body, and a caretaker of an a seemingly ugly man with very diminished mental capacity. After some time pretending to be the lackwit the guards think she is, Sara realizes that the man is being drugged. When Sara brings him back to his senses by sharing her undrugged food, she discovers that the man is actually Harlan, the Regent of the planet she’s on – Lothar. Together they escape and try to fight the people who put them in the sanitarium in the first place, and discover terrible deeds done during Harlan’s incapacitation.

My Thoughts: As I was reading this book, I could tell that this was an older McCaffrey title – there were old fashioned technology mentioned in it, and romantic tropes like a virgin heroine and the idea of “claiming” (I think it’s used as a sort of marriage here) that I wasn’t used to seeing from this author. Turns out this is McCaffrey’s first published book and it came out in 1967, so that explains it, and it works – the semi-familiar tropes are more than made up for by the parts that are well thought out story building. The fantasy of waking up in a beautiful body does happen to the heroine, but rather than making her a Mary Sue, the new body makes her more interesting because of why she has one. Her flesh was eaten (shudder) by an alien race called the Mil – a race that are the Lotharian’s greatest enemy. They’re the ones who abducted Sara from Earth in the first place, and somehow she ended up in Lothar afterward, where someone performed a reviled procedure called restoration on her. The fact that she’s a restoree is a death sentence on Lothar because of the stigma associated with it.

This idea of restoration and the fact that it’s considered taboo in Lothar is a unique concept, and there are other carefully thought out ideas here that I really enjoyed, like the rules for Regency and ascendancy to Warlord or the political mapping of the world. I thought it was a very clever concept that much of Lothar’s culture has been influenced by their war against the Mil, and they had gaps in technology because of it too. For instance, they wrote on slates, not yet on paper, but they also had spaceships and explored their nearby galaxies. The world building was well done and fed into the plot perfectly. This is not a “light” science fiction story and it has an interesting take on first encounters and alien technology and how they affect a world.

In the FAQ on Anne McCaffrey’s website it says ““Restoree” was a once-off jab at the way women were portrayed in science-fiction” and that “it served its purpose of an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist of an S-F story”. As a heroine, Sara is smart and resourceful and she’s instrumental in helping Harlan escape and in getting back his power, but there are chunks where her role is more of an observer. Mulling over the statement about Sara in the FAQ, I thought about Sara, and eventually I decided that I found her likable but maybe a hair idealistic. This is where this impression is from: the romance happens early and then the two are separated, so by the end of the book, when she can do no wrong in the hero’s eyes, I question it a little. I think I’m probably being a little unfair in that, but I wanted to see more of how they fell in love, and more of them together. Anyway, this was a minor complaint. The other minor nit I had was how quickly the heroine learned the language just through overhearing it. Supposedly she was on Lothar for months so she may have subconsciously learned a lot while she was in a catatonic state, but suddenly “waking up” and understanding what people were saying required some suspension of disbelief.

When I read this book there are things that remind me of the first part of Cordelia’s Honor (Shards of Honor ) – a resourceful heroine, the hero and heroine have to work together, the hero comes from a military based society, and the concept of a Regent in this society are all there. This was done very differently, and I think I liked the slow build in the romance in Shards of Honor a bit better, but there’s enough there for me to suggest this book for those who enjoy Bujold.

P.S. The cover.. mmm hmm. I don’t think I would have thought to pick this book up on this cover alone.

Overall: This was published in 1967. I think that makes it an old school science fiction romance. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and I recommend it for those looking for a quick read with a similar feel to Lois McMaster Bujold.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s (I see links to used copies for under a dollar there – see “This title in other editions”) | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Please let me know if you’ve reviewed this one and I’ll link it here!

Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Posted on September 4, 2010 by janicu

Return to Paradise

Simone Elkeles

This is the continuation of the story that began with Leaving Paradise

(my review for that is here: ).

Again, this was a signed ARC copy that I picked up at BEA.

The Premise: Months have passed since the events in Leaving Paradise, and Caleb Becker, the misunderstood “bad boy” of Paradise finds his path unexpectedly crossing Maggie Armstrong’s once again. This time the two teens whose lives were so changed by the drunk driving accident that sent Caleb to juvenile detention and Maggie to the hospital, find themselves together in Re-START, a program for teens affected by teen reckless driving. Caleb needs to do this program to stay out of the latest trouble he’s found himself in, and Maggie is using Re-START as a thesis paper for a scholarship to Spain. Neither can leave and have to endure each other’s company and the awkwardness of rehashing the accident to an audience of other teens.

******Spoiler for the end of LEAVING PARADISE, but it’s the spoiler on the back of the blurb for RETURN TO PARADISE.. *****

My Thoughts: At the end of Leaving Paradise, things were left up in the air between Caleb and Maggie. The two had acknowledged the feelings that they had for each other, but Caleb’s other issues with Paradise overwhelm the positive effect of their relationship. Caleb sees no other choice but to leave, and we’re left with an unresolved, bittersweet goodbye.

Maggie understood that Caleb wasn’t ready to completely trust her in the previous book, but when he returns in this one, enough time has passed (eight months) for Maggie to feel abandoned. There may be a physical attraction between the two, but their once sweet relationship is now a volatile minefield. Hurt feelings and misunderstandings abound. At first this works for the story. Maggie and Caleb needed to talk to each other about the accident that lies between them and about why Caleb left, and until they do, things would not be right between them. Caleb and Maggie dance awkwardly around each other as they get used to Re-START and the other teens in the program. Maggie is hurt that Caleb never contacted her when he was gone or that he won’t admit the truth about who really hit her. Caleb doesn’t know Maggie knows his secret and is frustrated that he’s the one blamed, that she is avoiding him, and that she may like another boy.

Unfortunately, these initial problems got even messier. The barriers and misunderstandings between Caleb and Maggie needlessly multiply, and somewhere along the way, I felt like I couldn’t recognize the couple that I met in Leaving Paradise. They were arguing, then making up, then arguing with dizzying regularity. They did things that felt completely out of character. I often found myself asking, “OK, why are they mad at each other now?” because I couldn’t keep track. I was even confused when they weren’t mad at each other. At one point Caleb announces some deliberate mistruths about Maggie. Later that night he makes some pretty stupid decisions, gets into more trouble that makes him look like a HUGE jerk. Any girl would be appalled to find him in the state he was in, but Maggie helps him get out of that situation by pretending to be his girlfriend. Do they ever talk about his earlier betrayal? No, because they’ve moved on to the next wrong. It was so frustrating. Actually, it was doubly frustrating – first that that these two would act this way at all, and then rather than resolution, there’s waffling. When I thought that these two were going to sit down and hash out their problems, the plot veered sharply away. I wondered why these two were talking in circles and when the crazy train would stop.

Return to Paradise has the same sort of addictive style as Leaving Paradise, and yes, Maggie and Caleb have an electric pull on me when they’re together on the page, but this book had too much see-sawing filler and not enough substance. Frankly, Return to Paradise was so disappointing in comparison to Leaving Paradise that I am baffled by it! I wonder if these uncorrected proofs from BEA are far from finished work. I did notice discrepancies in the plot time line issues. Could these be copies sent out before some massive editing and corrections were made? Sadly, I can only review the book I was given, not the book I wished it was.

Overall: I think that it would be difficult to read Leaving Paradise (which I loved), and not want to read Return to Paradise. Unfortunately, the sequel does not live up to it’s predecessor, and a lovely teenage romance becomes overly complicated. Liberal use of the Big Mis mixed with confusing plotting made this a book that felt unpolished, and I am actually hoping that my uncorrected proof is far from the final product.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Angieville – “A very big disappointment” – I think she makes an excellent point about Caleb being mean here which he wasn’t in Leaving Paradise.

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Posted on September 3, 2010 by janicu

Leaving Paradise

Simone Elkeles

Since I loved Jennifer Echols’ Going Too Far, i was told that I would probably also like Simone Elkeles. I kept this in mind when I went to BEA, and I glommed onto every Elkeles book I could find. I got three – Leaving Paradise, Return to Paradise, and Rules of Attraction. After reading a bunch of speculative fiction books in a row, I was ready for a little genre palette cleansing, so I looked at my TBR and decided to finally give Elkeles a go. Leaving Paradise was the obvious choice to begin (the other two were sequels), and I spent a lovely weekend reading both this book and it’s continuation (I’ll be reviewing Return to Paradise next).

The Premise: This story is about two teens whose lives were most changed by an accident that rocked the small town of Paradise. Over a year ago, Maggie Armstrong was hit by a drunk driver and had to go through hospitalization and intensive physical therapy for the past year. She will forever walk with a limp. Caleb Becker was the boy charged with the crime and has spent the past year in juvenile detention. He will forever be associated with crippling Maggie. Now a year later, Caleb is out and the two have to meet again. They see in each other the person who damaged them, but they also see the only person who can understand what they’re going through.

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 of Leaving Paradise here

My Thoughts: What a premise! I’m not sure if anything connects two people more closely than a shared tragedy, and this is one that obviously left things in pieces for both Caleb and Maggie. The book is told in alternating chapters from each of their points of view and I felt rather addicted to finding out what each of them thought of their situation and to the ensuing drama when they see each other again.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not), they have lives that strangely reflect each other’s. Maggie has an protective mother who anxiously tracks the progress of her daughter, and she’s isolated at school because of her injuries. Once a strong tennis player and peripheral member of the popular set, Maggie is now ignored. She’s even lost her best friend Leah, because Leah is Caleb’s twin sister. Maggie’s father is pretty much absent from the picture after he divorced Maggie’s mom years ago. All Maggie wants to do is go to an exchange program in Spain where no one will treat her as that girl who was hit by a drunk driver.

Caleb’s family on the other hand, especially his mother, don’t want to face the realities of the accident. His mother pretends that they are an ideal family, his father just goes along with the farce, and his sister has turned Goth and walled herself off from the world. Caleb’s friends have changed as well, but in less obvious ways, and Caleb has a big chip on his shoulder because no one really seems to understand his life in the past year was like. He never wants to go back there again, and he’s angry at how he’s treated as a criminal by everyone he knows.

The two of them together? The pages are charged:

“I’ve been face to face with him many times, but now everything has changed. He doesn’t even look like himself, except for his straight nose and confident stance that has been, and I suppose always will be, Caleb Becker.
“This is awkward,” he says, breaking the long silence. His voice is deeper and darker than I remember.
This is not just seeing him out of my bedroom window.
We’re alone.
And it’s dark.
And it’s oh, so different.
Needing to go back to the safety of by bedroom, I try to stand. A hot, shooting pain races down the side of my leg and I wince.
I watch in horror and shock as he steps forward and grabs my elbow.
Oh. My. God. I automatically jerk away from his grip. Memories of being stuck in the hospital bed unable to move crash through my mind as I straighten.
“Don’t touch me,” I say.
He holds his hands up as if I just said “Stick ’em up.”
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Maggie.”
“Yes… yes I do,” I say, panicking.
I hear him let out a breath, then he steps back. But he doesn’t leave, he just stares at me strangely. “We used to be friends.”
“That was a long time ago,” I say. “Before you hit me.”

This story was so full of emotion, but it’s done with a delicate hand and the overall effect leaves you breathless. I zoomed through this book, experiencing the pain and frustrations of Maggie and Caleb, but also feeling like there was something hopeful for both of them at the end of it all. I wanted the two of them to be whole again and it really felt like the key to that was each other. I wanted them to forgive each other and I really wanted them to be honest about what happened between them that fateful night, but a good book is not predictable. Elkeles had me worrying about the couple and their fledgling feelings for each other, and once the book was done it did not go the way I expected. I think that if I didn’t have the sequel in my possession I would have been very upset. I closed this book and immediately started reading Return to Paradise with barely a pause.

Overall: Loved it. Another one that does that slow build of romantic tension that comes with falling in love well, and it does it in a emotionally satisfying package. I would put this in the ‘Blew me away’ category if it wasn’t for an ending that leaves you yearning for the sequel.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Angieville – she loved it too
Stacy’s Place on Earth – 5 out of 5 stars
Monkey Bear reviews – recommended
See Michelle Read – positive review

Allegra Fairweather: Paranormal Investigator by Janni Nell

Posted on September 2, 2010 by janicu

Allegra Fairweather

This was another offering from the new Carina Press. This looked like an interesting urban fantasy (it was really more of a paranormal mystery) so I requested an eARC from Harlequin.

The Premise: Allegra Fairweather investigates paranormal happenings and solves problems related to them. In her newest case, she’s been called to the village of Furness, next to Loch Furness in Scotland, by pub owner Douglas MacGregor who wants her to investigate the appearance of a very rare rosebush that suddenly sprung up. Douglas has some interest in Allegra, but Allegra is interested in her Guardian Angel Casper, who she knows she can never have. Unfortunately Allegra has other problems besides men when a day into her visit, a death changes her trip from pure research into a full-blown investigation.

Read a short excerpt of Allegra Fairweather: Paranormal Investigator here

My Thoughts: This story had a lot of elements that reminded me of a amateur sleuthing story, so I’d categorize this as a paranormal mystery instead of what my first impression of it from the cover was. It was like an episode of Rosemary and Thyme: set in a small idyllic country town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, a newcomer is invited to investigate a rare plant when suddenly there’s a murder and whispers of secrets and more death to come, except in this story, all the secrets are related to the paranormal. There is sort of a stereotypical portrayal of village life with familiar characters like the kindly old lady, a trio of foolish drinking buddies, even a local mansion run by an unlikeable rich owner, with his equally unlikeable butler and cook. Dinnae’s and cannae’s pepper the text (I am never fond of them, though their inclusion was not unbearable).

I thought that this story had a pretty straightforward style. Allegra comes to Furness, chats with Douglas and then just sets off in her investigations. Along the way she interviews the locals and has to figure out what’s going on. I think that the mystery isn’t immediately obvious but you do begin to figure out pretty easily who the bad guys are, just exactly what they did and how to fix it takes longer. Casper shows up when there’s the possibility of danger so he can do his Guardian Angel duties and protect her. At first the writing has a sort of choppy feel with short, almost abrupt dialog and sentences but as the book hits it’s stride, I didn’t really notice that awkwardness anymore. It’s pretty light fair and an easy read with the mystery as the main entertainment in the story.

The love triangle is not really a strong one – it’s clear who Allegra likes best and any attraction with another man is half-hearted. Allegra and Casper’s back story is largely inferred as she’s known him since she was six, so there is no getting to know him as she does, rather we see them in a sort of uncomfortable impasse since any type of physical touch that is sexual in nature will set back Casper’s entry into Heaven. I thought that the characters were rather quick sketches – not quite superficial but I didn’t really feel like I got to know them enough to really connect with them. I was OK with that because the mystery kept me relatively interested.

I thought much of this story had a sort of cheery charm, although at times I found my tastes at odd with the blithe nature of the book. Some of the tongue-in-cheek humor I found a little on the silly side (for example a reference to Allegra helping a female Bigfoot get shoes in her size), and I questioned how seriously Allegra took why Casper was a Guardian Angel. I mean, the man pillaged and raped when he was alive. I also thought she was rather cavalier about death because of her Guardian Angel, something the rest of us can’t be. Warning: rape is mentioned often in this book as a violence that happens to females, and one side character is a victim of repeated rape. It is not explicitly described.

Overall: An entertaining paranormal mystery story that I think fits the bill for a light and short beach read. I had minor reservations with it but overall I think it had a sort of cheery charm that may not linger afterward but keeps you pleasantly occupied in the moment.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s

Other reviews:
Reading with Tequila – 4 shots out of 5

In Enemy Hands by K. S. Augustin

Posted on August 30, 2010 by janicu

In Enemy Hands

In Enemy Hands is a science fiction romance from the new Harlequin imprint – Carina Press, a digital only publishing house. This review is from an eARC I requested from the publisher.

The Premise: Dr. Moon Thadin is a scientist who lives in a futuristic universe controlled by a ‘Big Brother’-like governing body called the Republic. When her first research partner revealed himself to be a rebel against the Republic, Moon spent two years in prison as his suspected ally. Now she’s free, but the taint of her association with a terrorist, despite her innocence, follows her. Moon wants to exonerate herself with succeeding in her research to reignite dead stars. The Republic has given her a state of the art laboratory on the Differential, and a new research partner so she can conduct real trials. Srin Flerovs, is Moon’s new research partner. He’s special – not only is he a math genius, who can make calculations in his mind at a faster rate than the most advanced Quantaflex computers around, but he also has his own handler, who secretly drugs him to ensure compliance. Srin’s memory is reset every two days.

Read the Prologue of In Enemy Hands here
A smaller excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: I really liked the backstories of the hero and heroine in this book. A hero who loses his memory every two days and has been told that he’s got a degenerative disease to explain away his aging? A heroine who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is now forever uncertain of her freedom under the Republic? It was a compelling read just to find out what these two thought about their situations! At first Moon is the more complex one because we follow her as she first steps onto the Differential and is introduced to her lab and to the people on the ship, which include a sympathetic Captain Jeen, the open-faced Srin, and his handler Dr. Hen Savic. As the book continues, Moon is usually the focus of the third person narrative but we sometimes the shift is to Srin and his struggles with his memory.

Although the book was a quick read at 257 pages for the eARC, it felt like there was enough going on in those pages to satisfy me. The world building was good – I enjoyed the science part of this story. It felt well researched, and although I wouldn’t call it hard science fiction, it wasn’t light either. Knowing pretty much nothing about astronomy, some of the science discussion went over my head but I could infer what Srin and Moon were talking about. I also found the writing well done. I noticed a couple of editorial issues which I will take as this being an ARC and not a finished product, but other than that I liked the flow and style. Srin’s memory loss is major problem for the hero and heroine in their path to a HEA. The Republic breathing down both their necks for a positive outcome to their experiments is another hurdle. I found myself wanting to know how they’d overcome these issues, and both characters were likable so I was invested in them escaping their situation.

Despite liking much of the writing, I did have a nit with the some awkwardness in the way the romance is laid out in this story. First of all, Moon notices the handsomeness of both her ex-research partner and Captain Jeen before ever meeting the hero, Srin. I thought that maybe the author wanted to show that despite the hero’s average looks, the heroine fell in love with him, but if it wasn’t for the back blurb that told me that Srin was the hero, I’d be identifying Moon’s ex-partner as the hero (from the excerpt above there are lines like “He didn’t touch her but she felt the heat of his body radiating out to hers, and then he flashed her that quick grin again.”), or Captain Jeen. That was rather confusing. Then there is the issue of Srin’s memory loss and their romance. At first the author manages to make the romance between them believable – Srin comes back every two days with a clean slate and every time he does he begins again as someone who is attracted to Moon, much to Moon’s private dismay – she’s already in love with someone who doesn’t remember her. Then as things progress it felt like sex was used as a shortcut – twice after Srin’s reboot to a man wiped of his memory, Moon throws himself at him, and he’s at first shocked but of course goes with it, they have mad sex and he suddenly recalls who she is. I didn’t really find Moon’s actions there believable and the sex scenes at those points felt gratuitous. In fact there are about 4 sex scenes in this book and I thought about half of them could have been cut along with a scene with Moon by herself, but your mileage my vary on that one.

Another problem I had was that because Moon was a very intelligent woman, I found it hard to believe that her character would miss the obvious about what the Republic was up to regarding her experiments. It seems too obvious for her not to realize. The story suggests she didn’t want to admit the truth to herself because it would mean rocking the boat, something she in particular wouldn’t want to do, but this didn’t seem to fit with her character and questions about Srin. What was also strange was that Srin actually tells her about the Republic’s likely plans and she is shocked/dismayed, but then a little while later he tells her again and she is shocked/dismayed again. I hope this repetition was a problem in editing and not going into the final product, but I found other incongruities in the writing similar to that.

Overall: This is a science fiction romance which I think has a lot to recommend it – really good premise and interesting characters for one. I found the writing compelling and worth trying out for science fiction romance fans. I did have reservations about inconsistencies (see above), but since this is an eARC, these may not be there in the final product. I suspect however my issues with the romantic plot will still be there, but I did find these issues relatively minor.

A comment on the cover: The hero and heroine are scientists and I don’t think either model on this cover looks right. Why would practical Moon be wearing a leather skirt and a whatever that is on top? It seems to fit a generic idea of a SFR couple rather than the actual couple in the book. What I do like is the starry background, the fact that it IS a couple on the cover to convey a romance and that that the font also fits the SFR genre that the book belongs to. So mixed feelings on this cover.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s

Other reviews:
Couldn’t find one in my social circle. Let me know if I missed yours.

Hutch/Bookshelf review and giveaway from CSN Stores

Posted on August 26, 2010 by janicu

This is what our bookshelves in the office look like. It holds all our read books (my TBRs are in the living room and under my bed). Yes, it is like an explosion. If you click it a supremely HUGE version of this picture is viewable for the curious. Sorry about the bike.

For a while we’d been talking about putting in a shelf to go over the office desk. When CSN Stores offered me a chance to review furniture, I decided to try a bookshelf because it was book-related and it would be a nice excuse to post pictures of books as well as finally get that shelf we’ve been talking about for probably a year now.

CSN gave me $60 towards the bookshelf, and I spent another ~$40 0n top of that to get the shelf we liked which was $99 (shipping was free on that item). By the way, CSN Stores has over 200 websites for all kinds of furniture, not just bookshelves. I’m going to be doing a giveaway for $65 (U.S. and Canada only this time, sorry) for their stores. Check the end of this post for details. You can buy anything from a modern chair, to a dog bed, to a briefcase! I like their modern cat furniture, except I’m pretty sure my cat will still go for our couches.

The bookshelf we decided to buy was the Belcarra Contemporary Hutch/Bookshelf in expresso.

It came in a long box about a week (probably 4 business days) after I placed the order, but it took us a couple of weeks to get to putting it together because we kept having to go somewhere during our weekends.

1. When we finally started to set it up, the cat promptly sat his ass on it.

2. When we opened the box, the cat explored it.

3. His highness, Prince Nosy-Bum inspected it from every angle.

4. “Helping” unpack.

I didn’t notice any chips in the laminate. It was packed pretty well. Eventually I think there was one nick that we colored in with a brown pen that came with the screws and other parts. I’m not sure if that was already there or we did it putting the shelf together.

5. Cats have no need for instructions. They sit on your instructions.

The instruction sheet that came with the shelf was a little brief on detail. It was a legal sheet length of paper with both sides covered in steps in both English and French, but you had to pay attention to not only the steps but the pictures too. And read between the lines. For instance the first step is to “attach the top and bottom to center gables and sides using Confirmat screws”. Well, you needed to notice in the picture that at the back of each center gable will be screwed into the rear stabilizer, and that there is a hole on the back of each gable for that. But only on one side. So it is easy to put them in upside down and then you have to take the whole thing apart and put it back together right. Which I did.

6. Almost done with step 1.

I swear I didn’t keep putting the cat on the shelf and box. He really is that nosy/annoying.

7. While I was putting the shelf together, The Mister looked for studs and made sure things were level.

8. Wall Stabilizer mounted on the wall. Computer screens protected from dust by cut up grocery bags.

9. The Hutch fits on top of the Wall Stabilizer.

We had a bit of trouble putting the hutch onto the wall stabilizer. It needed two people because it’s long and heavy, and at one point it kind of slipped, which was scary because we’re doing this over a desk full of flat screens (all not mine by the way, in case you were thinking to be jealous of me. Nope. Using a tiny little netbook at the moment). Although the instructions say when you mount the wall stabilizer, “position screws so that they do not line up with the hutch gables”, somehow the Mister managed to line up one screw with the hutch gable which meant the hutch did not fit QUITE right. The measurements on this thing are EXACT. EXACTTT. Which is good unless this sort of thing happens and then the hutch doesn’t fit into the wall stabilizer. The Mister said that he measured and thought he was good but turned out he was not. In the future it would be helpful if the wall stabilizer had lines where the gables would be so you DIDN’T put the screw there.

The finished product. One half of the shelf is mine, other half is The Mister’s. Guess which (click for humongous).

I decided to use the shelf for my favorite author’s with last names beginning with A. Yes, I know it looks rather sad right now, but think of the possibilities. Lots of room for more books no?

Giveaway Details:

It’s the usual, but this time since this is $65 bucks, which is nice, you get more points for being a follower (subscribed to RSS/friend on LJ):

1. Email janicu[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject CSN GIVEAWAY, and with

“please enter me” or something like that, and that should be it. Counts as one entry. But if you are a follower, please let me know, you get an extra entry.

2. One email per person please.
3. This giveaway is US and Canada only. Sorry, usually I do international giveaways but CSN only ships to North America.
4. This contest ends midnight EST September 10th.

Winner gets a $65 dollar gift certificate from CSN stores which will be emailed to them.

ETA – photobucket resized the “humongous” picture to merely “big”. I reuploaded them but leaving the “big” size for people with slower connections. This is the old bookshelf (explosion), and this is the new bookshelf in “humongous” size.

Also, I’ve had questions about followers for the giveaway. I meant subscribed to my RSS feed. On wordpress you can do that here, and on livejournal you can do that here. These two blogging platforms just don’t allow javascript which the Google Friend Connect widget uses. I know that caused some confusion looking for it.

Following on twitter doesn’t count, sorry.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Posted on August 23, 2010 by janicu

The Black Prism (Lightbringer)

Brent Weeks

Brent Weeks is an author I was introduced to because of my husband, who nagged and nagged me to try the Night Angel trilogy. I enjoyed it. So this year I requested a review copy of The Black Prism, the start of Weeks’ new Lightbringer series. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a chat the two of us had about the book, but for today, here’s my review:

The Premise: Kip is a fifteen year old, overweight son of a drug addict mother and an unknown father. He lives in Rekton, a small village in Tyrea, a satrapy which has suffered in the sixteen years after the Prisms’ War because it sided with the losing brother, Dazen Guile. Now the victor, Gavin Guile, is Prism and figurehead of the seven satrapies, but the Prisms’ War has left a lasting impression. There are those in Tyrea who are displeased with the current state of affairs. They have their own agendas, which start to become known when they set to wipe out every man, woman, and child in Kip’s village.

In the meantime, the Prism, Gavin Guile, is 5 years away from the end of his rule and 5 goals he has set for himself. He is the only man in the satrapies with the ability to bend light in all seven colors of the spectrum, but his power is not that of a ruler, it is more that of a figurehead. When Rekton is targeted, he has a unique perspective on what the ramifications are, on both the Chromeria and on the secrets he’s been hiding from everyone for over sixteen years.

Read an excerpt of the first three chapters of The Black Prism here

My Thoughts: I don’t think the premise really covers everything that is going on in this story, but it will have to do because there is a lot going on in this book. Where do I even begin? Let’s start with the characters. The book is told in the third person with multiple points of view. The focus mostly shifts between Kip and Gavin Guile, but it sometimes moves to others, like Karris, Gavin’s one time fiance, now a warrior elite, and Liv, Kip’s childhood crush. There is also one more character we hear from – a mysterious prisoner.

We begin in Kip’s village as Kip learns that the army of the Tyrean satrap is moving in to make an example of his village. The horror of the killing seen through Kip’s eyes as well as his confused escape feels like classic Brent Weeks stuff. In Night Angel, I found the life of children in the slums very dark (it’s probably the darkest part of the book), and similarly in The Black Prism, war is hard on it’s victims, and as a reader, you feel very protective of those that have escaped those horrors. Kip is a boy who thinks of himself as a “fatty” and is painfully aware of his own awkwardness, but that is balanced with a strong sense of loyalty and a stubbornness that endears him to the reader.

In contrast, Gavin Guile seems like the opposite of Kip – powerful, accomplished, handsome and smart, he exudes a confidence which is matched by what he actually can do – he’s probably the most powerful Prism the world has seen. Of course when we read more about him, we find that he has his own problems. In some ways he’s been an outsider like Kip, and although he’s ruthless, he’s been using his power in the hope of doing something for the Greater Good. It was interesting to compare Gavin’s revelations about his past with Kip’s current growing pains. He’s very likable despite what we find out about some of the things he’s done as the book progresses. I found myself seeing a person who is at fault for some horrible things, but not a bad person. His past decisions haunt him. It was fascinating to find out more and more about his past and what his secrets are, and I don’t think we uncover it all by the end of The Black Prism.

The female characters in this book have less face time compared to their male counterparts but I did enjoy what I read. There were certain passages while the focus was on them that I think Weeks must have asked for female input because I think he got it spot on. I am also happy when there are characters who are mixed or minorities. We see many of those in this book, and Liv has a unique point of view as a Tyrean in a world where her skin color marks her as such and they’re not treated well by the rest of the satrapies. It does affect her experience and how she sees other people’s actions.

There was an excellent balance between the individual character development and the overall plot line which has a much broader scope. It’s through the individual struggles at we piece together an idea of the overall picture – the complex politics, relationships, and past of the world is made human and relatable. For example – as a reader who does not have much interest in battle scenes in books, I was much more engaged in The Black Prisms battles than I usually am. That’s because I felt much closer to the action. The jumping from Kip’s viewpoint, to Gavin’s, and Liv’s and Karris’, I only see a small sliver of the general chaos but I can piece together what is going on and I’m invested in the survival of Kip, Gavin, Liv, and Karris. This is a technique used throughout the book with a lot of success.

Weeks also has a way of putting a lot of twists and turns into each of his stories. If you’ve read Weeks before, you will be familiar with it, but this is a heads up for those who haven’t. At this point, I do find myself expecting the unexpected and I’m beginning to enjoy trying to guess where the next surprise will be, although Weeks still manages to throw in several things that I never saw coming (and I would say are impossible to see coming). In his video interviews, Weeks says that he plans the twists and turns. That has to be the only way to have so many revelations that may have had minor forewarning, but readers won’t realize the clues till later. I’d say that overall I haven’t had a nasty surprise in the revelations or plot twists (Well. One in the beginning tore me up a bit, I recovered), although I do admit worrying about my favorite characters and what could happen to them.

I liked the characters and their development, but my favorite part of this story was the world building. If you follow my reviews, world building is one of those things where if it’s unique and done well, it makes a big impact on whether I ended up liking the book. The familiar fantasy world in the Night Angel books was probably my biggest complaint about them, but I have no such complaint for the Lightbringer series. I loved the level of detail that went into the magic in this book. The concept here is that magic users in this world can transfer light into physical form, and to do so they have to absorb the particular color that they “draft” through their eyes – so light affects magic as does eyesight. Drafters of different colors can do different things and there is a physical toll to using magic that is not only exhaustion. Using magic essentially shortens the lifespan of a drafter. That the world’s government and religion is linked to the seven colors and to the one person a generation who can draft all seven colors (the Prism), just makes things better.

Overall: If you are a fan of epic fantasy, this is an excellent series to try. I found the characters likeable, the world building unique and better than Weeks’ last series, and the twists and turns addictive. I’m not really sure I can come up with any negatives here, and I’m also having a hard time not going into some of the great parts of this book because they would be spoilers. Just know that this story is over 600 pages and it is jam packed with epic goodness. I’m really looking forward to the second book.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Fantasy Book Critic – A++
Grasping for the Wind – “Weeks has written an epic fantasy unlike any of its contemporaries”

Zombies vs. Unicorns by various authors, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Posted on August 18, 2010 by janicu

Zombies vs. Unicorns

Ah, anthologies! I do love them and really should read more. I get to try out new authors and put the book down in nice short story length increments. Zombies vs. Unicorns started as a online argument on Justine Larbalestier’s blog, and then became a book. The humor in this “fight” shines through in the first pages where Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier discuss how the book came about, and again in their introductions before every story. It was fun to hear the argument from both sides as to whether zombies or unicorns are the better creature.

This review is for an ARC copy I received at BEA. Zombies vs. Unicorns comes out September 21st, 2010

My reviews are going to be brief impressions for each of the 12 stories as I read along.

1) The Highest Justice by Garth Nix – This is the story of a princess who calls the aid of a unicorn to avenge the death of her mother. I think this is a Team Unicorn story, but it’s hard to tell. Pretty straight forward revenge tale, with perhaps a little more violence than the princess bargained for. I think the author may have been aiming for a bit of “fairy tale creatures may be noble but extreme views of right and wrong are also rather creepy”, and he got it.

2) Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson – A teenage zombie finds himself going against his instincts when it comes to another teenage boy because of their shared love of Joy Division. A star-crossed lovers sort of tale, full of music references. Made me really want mac and cheese. Romantic yet grisly and perhaps doomed (or perhaps not).

3) Purity Test by Naomi Novik – a drunk teen girl on a park bench in New York City is accosted by a unicorn looking for a virgin to help him on his mission. This was a funny and cute one. The sarcastic banter plus their creative problem solving were very entertaining.

4) Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan – A dystopian zombie tale with the sheltered teenaged daughter of a powerful man as the protagonist. Loved the dystopian feel and the way this ends in a turning point for the protagonist. I wanted more. I also liked how the story jumps back and forth between past and present, but it was presented clearly. Good sense of place – even Papiamento (a creole language spoken in Curaçao) was interspersed (but I had trouble figuring out what the words meant since it was just off of what I knew to be Spanish).

5) A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan – Set in a medieval setting, this short story has three narrators who each witness a small part what happens to a princess after a mysterious event in the forest. This has some questionable bits in it (lovely prose sort of shields you from a high ew factor). Haunting with a ‘ghost story’ vibe.

6) The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson – a teen follows her boyfriend to a summer job in a farm in England, and meets some zombies.. a tongue-in-cheek story that has an interesting take on who and what could start a zombie epidemic.

7) The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund – I believe this is set in the same world as Peterfreund’s Killer Unicorn series (unicorns were once extinct but have reappeared and certain girls have the power to hunt them). The narrator is a teen girl who is an untrained unicorn hunter, so they are drawn to her. One has already killed her cousins. This story had some good growing pains – questioning parents and beliefs, and felt like it could be the seed of a whole book. Liked this one.

8 ) Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld – This is about teens post-zombie-apocalypse living in a gated, zee-free farm with some adults that have protected them. Surrounding the chain mail fence are zombies waiting outside. Interesting take on a communal life after escaping the zombie horde from a teen POV (which includes teen rebellion and crushes). Another one where I wished I could find out what happened next.

9) Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot – A teen gets a unicorn for her 17th birthday. A glowing, farting rainbows kind of unicorn. I think Cabot had a lot of fun creating a unicorn that fits an extreme schoolgirl fantasy, and giving it to a teenaged girl who’s been a little bit jaded by life. I liked this one. Fun but also with a bit of a message for girls.

10) Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare – The girlfriend of the Duke-to-Be witnesses her boyfriend die and then come back to life in Lychgate, a town cursed to have it’s dead come back to life. This had a modern-day fairytale feeling to it, with a combination of Old World traditions in a place that has modern day technology. The ending is an odd combination of both comforting and creepy.

11) The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey – This is told from the first person POV of a unicorn who has lived a long time and although he can heal people, there’s a price for it. He’s been wandering the world looking for the perfect combination of purity and need. I don’t think I really understood this unicorn but I’m glad I didn’t. This story speaks to a dark place.

12) Prom Night by Libba Bray – Another post zombie-apocalypse story, where the adults are all gone and teens keep the town running. The story is told from the first person POV of a teen who stepped in as law enforcement as the kids in town gear up for the Prom. This was a tale which I thought had an interesting message about hope and survival when there is none.

Overall: There was a consistent level of quality in these stories that impressed me. I don’t think I encountered a dud in the bunch and every one left me with something to think about. This is one of the better anthologies I’ve read in a while, although I would warn that much of it is grim and gory and there are only a couple of light stories. I tried to decide which were my favorites and really had a hard time. I finally settled on Meg Cabot’s for my favorite light story, Margo Lanagan’s for my favorite dark (and disturbing), and Diana Peterfreund’s for something in between. Uh oh, all unicorn tales… let the hate mail from Team Zombie begin.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s

Other reviews:
The Book Smugglers – various ratings for each story, 7 overall (very good) – with a giveaway that ends Sat August 21st.
Karissa’s Reading Review – “An above average collection of stories”

Since there are SO many dystopian stories in the bunch..

Thief with No Shadow by Emily Gee

Posted on August 16, 2010 by janicu

Thief With No Shadow

Emily Gee

This was one of my birthday books last year which I’m finally getting to reading this year (eek, I fail against the almighty TBR). This is Emily Gee’s first book. I enjoyed her second, The Laurentine Spy, which I read and reviewed last year ()

The Premise: This is the story of two people. Melke is a wraith, someone who can disappear, which is a magic hated by many. She’s never used her power to do wrong until now – because her brother was caught stealing from the fire-breathing salamanders, Melke stole a necklace from the sal Vere family in exchange for her brother’s freedom. Bastian sal Vere is the man who Melke stole the necklace from, and he’s furious. He catches Melke, but too late – after she’s already given the salamanders his family’s necklace, and the only chance for him to break the curse put on his family by a psaaron generations ago.

My Thoughts: This is a fantasy with a romantic element – there is no lust at first sight but rather a slow build and was not the main focus although it is obviously there. In some ways I felt like Bastian is like a historical romance hero translated into a fantasy world. He’s very proud and very very angry. When he catches Melke he hates her and shows her a barely contained violent facet of himself. Melke reacts stoically but feels secret guilt and shame for stealing something even if it was for her brother’s life. Actually there is plenty of shame and guilt on many of the characters parts as the story continues, because they all blame themselves for the situation they find themselves in.

In this world magic is accepted in every day life. Bastian can speak to dogs (I enjoyed Bastian’s interactions with his dog Endal), and his sister Liana can heal with her touch. Then there are magics that people despise – like the wraiths – Melke and her brother Hantje lost their family because of who they are. There are also terrible magical creatures who men avoid – the salamanders, the psaaron, lamia, and gryphons. In Thief with No Shadow , salamanders and psaaron are the two creatures that interact with the four characters, but the gryphons and lamia are mentioned as well.

For much of this book, I would say that although there was a lot of angsting by the characters, I felt like there would be a HEA because of the slow building romance of the main characters as well as a secondary one, and it reminded me of stories in the vein of Anne Bishop, or perhaps Sharon Shinn (I just reread my earlier Gee review and I said the same thing there). The characters have gone through a lot because of the curse or their magical legacy, but they are honorable and proud, and pretty much “Good”. This is something repeatedly illustrated as the third person focus moves between Bastian and Melke and to some extent their younger siblings. We see Bastian’s day-to-day despair and his attitude when he has to go into town where his family’s fall is well-known. The sal Vere lands, once rich, haven’t gotten any water although lands around them have. Their sheep are dying and their large and beautiful house is run down and empty of valuables. Melke’s family’s misfortune is obvious in their arrival far from their home and resorting to thievery, and she exchanges stories with Liana as how they got to this desperate point.

The back story of violence to Melke and her brother because their family are wraiths, and the heartbreak due to the curse put on the sal Veres I thought was heavy enough stuff, but Gee adds another aspect to all of this. The sadistic punishments the salamanders and psaaron inflict. There are mentions that past members of the sal Vere family were raped by the psaaron when he did not get what he wanted, and I thought that was violence aplenty. Unfortunately not. There is rape (off the page but the aftermath is described in detail) and forced sex in this story which I was hoping not to find but did. I question how it was handled or why we needed two such incidents. Because of that, even though there’s an HEA, my enjoyment of this book was tempered, and I prefer Gee’s second book, The Laurentine Spy.

The pacing of this book also felt a little slow because much of the time the characters are waiting for someone to heal from injuries – particularly in the first part when Melke has to wait for Hantje to recover so she can find out about the salamader’s cave. I know this also allows time for the characters to get to know each other as people, and for Bastian to cool down (it takes him a really long time), but the book was too easy to put down during this part of the book.

Overall: It’s a fantasy with romantic elements, but it also has rather dark elements as well. If it wasn’t for the rape and sadism, I’d say that this is a light fantasy and comfort read with everything turning out all right after all the characters go through (something that I like), but the path along to the HEA hits a wrong note for me. I found Emily Gee’s second book (The Laurentine Spy, also a standalone), better.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Scooper Speaks – “It was alright and slightly different from what I’ve been reading”
Twisted Kingdom – “disappointed”