Pemberley by the Sea by Abigail Reynolds

Posted on February 17, 2010 by janicu

Pemberley by the Sea: A modern love story, Pride and Prejudice style

Abigail Reynolds

I am still working on my Everything Austen challenge (ummmm… 2 months after it officially ended), and so I picked up Pemberley by the Sea at my library when I did a search of their catalog for Jane Austen and this showed up.

The Premise: This is a modern day Pride and Prejudice with Cassie Boulton, the Elizabeth Bennet character as a marine biologist, and Calder Westing, the Darcy character is a Senator’s son. They first meet in summer at Woods Hole, Cape Cod, where Cassie asks Calder to dance to avoid an ex-boyfriend but is coldly turned down. Cassie’s best friend Erin his the Jane character and has a relationship with Calder’s best friend, Scott (the Mr. Bingley of this book).

Excerpt of Chapter 1 of Pemberley by the Sea (link is to a .pdf file)

My Thoughts: Yes, yes, I am quite a sucker for the modern-day Jane Austen stories. Avert your eyes if you hate them, for I am an addict. This author has quite a few Jane Austen books – but she specializes on Pride and Prejudice what-ifs (What if Elizabeth accepts Darcy’s first proposal? What if Elizabeth gets engaged to someone else while Darcy is away?) and veers off from the original story from that point onward. This is her first modern-day retelling.

I would say that this really a exact retelling, it more takes the basic frame of Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth and Darcy meet, Elizabeth dislikes Darcy from this first meeting while he starts to be intrigued by her in their subsequent meetings. The Jane and Mr. Bingley story in the meantime is even more loosely based on the original: they meet and date but encounter problems when summer is over. There isn’t really a Wickham, lots of sisters, or a silly Mr. Collins.

The focus is instead on the two characters and their relationship. The book is modern in that there are a few intense sex scenes, but I didn’t find them distasteful. From the beginning there is substantial chemistry between Cassie and Calder, which is obvious to the reader, but maybe not so obvious to the characters themselves. The tension is palpable, and when their relationship becomes physical (in a very memorable way) it’s too early for them to turn it into a relationship. When they move their separate ways, but keep running into each other anyway, the tension continues. Calder assumes how he feels is obvious, but to Cassie, his face is unreadable, and she assumes that she doesn’t belong in his world, especially with her low beginnings and a brother in jail. The revelation of how Calder really feels in the form of his “letter” to Cassie was one of my favorite parts of this book.

I enjoyed the setting of this story. The academia that surrounds Cassie’s day to day life was really well done – her hours in the lab or in the field, looking at results or teaching students worked well as a backdrop to her story. I liked the camaraderie and traditions, like playing Trivial Pursuit while eating the lab stew. The author does a good job of making the characters lives seem real. Likewise their pasts and family backgrounds are delved into deeply and are an integral part of the plot. I already mentioned that Cassie comes from a low income background. She distances herself from her past and hides it from her associates, thinking that they would judge her for it. Calder too has a childhood that haunts him. His upbringing as a Senator’s son was full of trauma and he’s learned to put on a mask to the world because of it. It explained why he came off as stony to Cassie, and it’s really sweet to read how he really felt and how she responds.

The only problem I had with this book, was that it seemed to continue far past where you’d think the Happily Ever After was. There was a lot of drama from both Cassie and Calder’s pasts that kept coming between them, but then they’d find away around it, and something else would come up. I didn’t feel like this part of this book was uninteresting, and it is original stuff (very different from the Pride and Prejudice story), but it seemed to go on much longer than it needed to. I found myself wanting to move ahead and flipping past to find out that Calder and Cassie were OK, then coming back to reread from where I skipped. One part I managed to miss the first time was what happened to Scott and Erin, and at first I thought the author had left their story unfinished – the focus was so much on Cassie and Calder’s family dramas that the other relationship was swallowed up in it if you get too impatient. I think I would have been a little happier with this book if the second half was edited substantially, because it doesn’t have the same pull for me as the first half, which I adored.

Ooohh, *gasp*, I just discovered that there is a sequel to this book which is coming out this year, called Morning Light, and it sounds like it retells Persuasion but in the same world – in Woods Hole, and the protagonist Annie Wright is friends with Cassie. I will definitely look for it.

Overall: This was a keeper, I plan to buy myself a copy. I loved the first half of this book, but the second half was a little long once the author continued the P&P story past it’s original end (and there was a lot of family drama that didn’t interest me as much as the romance did).

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other reviews/ Links
Diary of an Eccentric – a positive review (“impressive”) – also an interview at this link
Diary of an Eccentric – interview with the author about another book

Airhead by Meg Cabot

Posted on February 8, 2010 by janicu

Airhead

Meg Cabot

I received this book for the Book Blogger Holiday swap from Marireads.

The Premise: Teenager Emerson Watts has always been a little bit of a outsider. A smart girl who likes to play video games and isn’t interested in fashion or girly things, she mocks the popular kids and despairs that her sister wants to be a cheerleader. Then one day, Em suffers a fatal freak accident. Well, almost fatal. In order to save her, her brain is transplanted into the body of supermodel Nikki Howard.

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: We’re introduced to Em in her old life, arguing with her younger sister, feeling resentful of the way the popular girls are treated just because they are pretty (even when they spout superficial things), and crushing on her best friend Christopher, a fellow geek. Then disaster strikes, and Em wakes up in a hospital and learns she’s in someone else’s body. Of course, despite her new celebrity status, this is not a dream for Em. Officially she’s dead -only her immediate family, and the Stark Corporation, Nikki’s main employer, knows that Em is still alive. She has to learn how to be a model, figure out the complexity that is Nikki’s lovelife, and hide the fact that she’s not Nikki. Turns out that being a teen-aged supermodel is not as simple as you’d think.

Surrounding Em/Nikki are several secondary characters. At first they are what you’d expect – Nikki’s bubbly best friend, the rich boys who follow her around, the annoying kid sister, the quiet geek, but as the book progresses, you see that they are more than that. Lulu is the best example of this. She starts off as a perky ditz, but you discover that she really IS Nikki’s friend and has Nikki’s back. She listens and gives her own special brand of advice, and it may not be what you’d expect, but she’s very sweet nonetheless. She surprised me. Similarly, Nikki’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brandon at first seems like the typical playboy, but there are hints about Brandon’s relationship with his father, the head of Stark Enterprises, which suggest that his life isn’t that golden. And Christopher, who is on the page very little, has one of the most interesting characters because whenever he does (or doesn’t) speak, his body language conveys volumes more.

This is the first book in a series, and there looks to be a lot of set up for the next books. The story really feels like a beginning and I didn’t feel as satisfied closing this book as I have with other Cabot stories. There seems to be more going on with this brain transfer than it would initially seem. Stark Enterprise is painted as doing some shady things – from doing this to Em and making her family sign confidentiality agreements and contracts, to spying on it’s employees. Meanwhile, there are a gaggle of boys pursuing Nikki/Em (who discovers that in Nikki’s body, she gets addle-brained no matter who is kissing her), and Em still harbors her crush on Christopher. And that’s not even counting Em having to learn how to be a model and go to high school at the same time. There should be plenty of fodder there for an interesting series. I particularly like how Meg Cabot seems aware of the current celebrity news and fashion, and it’s reflected in this story. I found myself wondering what real life teen idols Cabot had in mind while she created some of these characters.

Also: The model in this cover looks a lot like Kate Bosworth, doesn’t she?

Overall: Well, this is Meg Cabot, so the story is a light bit of fun. Cabot has a way of writing that’s warm and entertaining and has the right voice for a young adult novel, but this one spends so much time setting up the premise for the series so I feel like I got just the beginning of a story. it made me feel unsatisfied, but maybe reading the next book will fix it.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other reviews:
xicanti – 4 out of 5 stars
Liv’s book reviews – “I would highly recommend it”
Ms. Bookish – B+

Dark Nest by Leanna Renee Hieber

Posted on February 5, 2010 by janicu

Dark Nest by Leanna Renee Hieber

I liked The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Persephone Parker – it was very Gothic and different. So when I found out on The Galaxy Express that Leanna Renee Hieber had also written a futuristic fantasy novella, and it won the 2009 Prism award, I said – “holy crap, I want to read that”. Earlier this year the author contacted me and offered me a copy to review so I jumped on the chance.

The Premise: This is the blurb: “Chief Counsel Ariadne Corinth has just found out her long-time lover, the powerfully gifted Chief Counsel Kristov Haydn, has died. Newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and Ariadne is sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, Ariadne must find out what really happened to Kristov, unite her people to discover vast new powers the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide.”

Read an excerpt of Dark Nest

My Thoughts: The setting with two ‘nests’ in space, both full of people who are Psychically Augmented, one light – who believe in order and suppression of emotion, one dark and more dramatic, intrigued me.
In terms of setting, there were several details about the ships I enjoyed. I think the Light Nest made me think of the Enterprise with it’s clean lines and bright spaces, but I loved the first introduction to the Dark Nest: “A vast, stylized, silver-blue steel Notre Dame now floated through space, giving a new and literal meaning to “flying” buttresses.” I’m not sure why they looked like this, but it ‘s lovely to imagine.

The story hints that the nests were not so divided as they are now, that outside forces deliberately put a wedge between the sister spaceships. When the story begins, the difference in the nests have become so pronounced that there is hardly any interaction between the two at all. All the Nesters went to the same school and have past history, but the visits that used to happen between the two ships, have ceased except for Couriers who send messages back and forth for business purposes. There are low rumblings about the slow separation between ships that have been working together (searching for worlds that can support human life), but few question it. Nor do many question the intrusive watches on everyone -the monitoring of emotions and the information sent back to Earth.

Dark Nest won the Prism award, and I can’t find anything but glowing reviews of it online, but I had one problem with the story, and that was that by the time this story is told, I feel like I have to catch up to where the characters already are, and so things seem to happen too quickly and the ending came too soon. When Ariadne’s ex, Kristov, dies, at the beginning of the book, Ariadne is surprised to hear he was murdered, possibly through the order of the Homeworld because of his rebellious views. Much has already happened by the time that Kristov Hadyn dies, and the reader learns through Ariadne how far things have gone. The romance mostly happens off the page as well. Ariadne has a back story with the person she ends up with, and a flashback to their past is what we get in terms of romance. When they meet again, there is low conflict between them. I think Ariadne feels more stress in thinking of seeing him again than with actually seeing him. His personality is such a draw to her that all he does is give her his special look and they’re together again.. The conflict in this story instead lies with the two types of Nesters and their Homeworld (What exactly is the Homeworld’s plan for the Nesters? Is it true that they used brainwashing and lies to divide the two ships?) but that too seemed quickly resolved: the rebels have a plan. I thought the writing and the setting were well done, but if I could wish for something, it would be more in terms of not learning things after they were already established like the romance, the plans for the rebellion, and the insidious workings of the Homeworld; I’d rather read about them as they happened.

Overall: I liked the writing and I liked the setting, but I wish there was more. This is a novella so by it’s very definition it’s short, but I think I still wanted to experience events as they unfolded, rather than feeling like I was getting the wrap up of a longer and meatier story.

Buy: Amazon (paperback) | Powells (paperback) | B&N (ebook)

Links:
Interview at Kwana Writes
Interview at Gossamer Obsessions
Interview at the Book Butterfly
Interview at Galaxy Express

Can’t Stand the Heat by Louisa Edwards

Posted on January 31, 2010 by janicu

Can’t Stand The Heat (A Recipe for Love)

Louisa Edwards

The Premise: It all starts the opening night of Adam Temple’s restaurant, Market. In a room full of press, foodies, and society people, Délicieux food critic Miranda Wake, tipsy on the alcohol in ready supply and impatient to be served, interrupts Adam’s opening speech with quick judgments about the food. He responds rashly and a challenge is thrown down: “You wouldn’t last ten minutes in my kitchen.” To Adam’s horror, Miranda accepts (with visions of a book deal dancing in her head).

Read an excerpt of Can’t Stand the Heat

My Thoughts: From a food lover’s point of view, this book is a lot of fun. The author really puts you there in a busy kitchen in New York City. Her writing has an exciting flavor – it feels very modern to me, maybe because it doesn’t try to make things more refined than they are. The kitchen is full of characters, people who are rough and loud, but very close knit and fit into the restaurant life. Details about the stations, the pecking order, the bustle, and the cooking seem well researched but presented in an exciting package. The food is a large part of the courtship: Adam shows Miranda how to make poached eggs and waffles with bacon, and despite his initial misgivings, Miranda’s unfiltered appreciation for Adam’s food wins him over.

I really liked Adam. He has passion for Market and he’s alive when he’s there – the center of the hurricane of activity, he seems really happy with his life: his new restaurant, a well-tuned crew, doing what he loves. Adam’s intensity of focus as the head chef is heady stuff to Miranda, who likes her job, but sees it as a job, not as a passion. Miranda’s ambitions are a result of her responsibility in raising her younger brother, while Adam loves making food for itself. Despite Miranda quickly annoying Adam with her plans to “expose” his restaurant with a book and interviewing everyone with that goal in mind, Adam doesn’t stay mad very long. He doesn’t dwell on Miranda’s mistakes, and focuses his energies on noticing how pretty and smart he finds her. It was surprising how quickly he was willing to forget that he was angry with her, but his quickly dissolving temper and zest for life is a consistent part of his character so I let it go. This is a good thing in this relationship, because Miranda is constantly doing things I considered low. She has her reasons, but they were tenuous, and I found myself on the edge of disliking her throughout the book because of her willingness to exploit others. On the other hand, I felt for Miranda because of her older sister protectiveness of her younger brother, and I liked her persistence in the face of adversity. Unfortunately, this didn’t really excuse how Miranda kept messing up just when I’d gotten over the last thing she had done. The conflict between the hero and heroine never lasts long, mostly due to Adam’s easygoing nature, but it propels the story along to it’s movie-style ending.

There are a lot of strong supporting characters in this book. The people in Adam’s kitchen were drawn very well, and there is hint of sequel bait with Devon Sparks, a TV personality whose restaurant Adam once worked in (confirmed with an excerpt for the next installment of Recipe for Love series). In particular Adam’s maître d’, Grant, his best friend (and sous chef) Frankie, and Miranda’s college-aged brother Jess. There is a side romance between Jess and Frankie that affects the main one. Their romance is one of opposites attracting – the shy young college student and the brash, punk-rocking, Cockney cook – it works, although at times I found it over-romanticized.

Overall: I loved the writing style and the way New York restaurant life was represented, and I liked the vivacious hero, but the heroine walked a really fine line for me. Despite this flaw, I would gladly read the next one in this series.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other reviews:
Smexy books – 8 out of 10
Monkey Bear reviews – C
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books – B-
Racy Romance Reviews – “Overall, I really enjoyed Can’t Stand the Heat.”

Links:
Louisa Edwards on the trueromance blog

The Hidden Worlds by Kristin Landon

Posted on January 25, 2010 by janicu

The Hidden Worlds

Kristin Landon

This is a book that keeps popping up as a recommendation on Amazon, based on what I seem to search for there. I finally bought it after a long time with it languishing in my wishlist.

The Premise: Linnea Kiaho is a young woman who lives in a fishing village in the world of Santandru, where people are rough and poor, believe deeply in their religion, and elk out livings in a hostile environment. When the village’s fishing boat is destroyed Linnea is an unmarried woman trying to keep her sister and her sister’s kids together. No one is hiring in the nearby town and in desperation for money, Linnea uses a family secret passed down from her mother to try to get money from the Pilot Masters. The Pilot Masters are the leaders of the system of planets – the only people with the genetic ability to pilot ships between worlds. Their offer is that of work for Linnea as a servant on Nexus, which Linnea accepts despite the shunning she receives from everyone (Nexus is considered decadent and sinful). Linnea hopes that she can convince the Pilot Masters to renew their trade contract with Santandru, which is the only means that her people can continue to survive. There Linnea is indentured under the Pilot Iain sen Paolo, who is embroiled in his own troubles and doesn’t want her. Unfortunately, the secret Linnea holds entangles their lives and puts targets on them both. This is the first book in a completed trilogy.

Excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: I loved how this book started. The contrast between technology and the lives of the poor fishing village was striking. I was sucked into the setting of a poor planet that depends on trade with other worlds so that they can get parts for their fishing ships, and the problems when “the brain” of the ship stops functioning. Despite the presence of high technology, these people are too poor to really afford it. Not everyone knows how to read, women are expected to marry young, and Linnea is considered strange for not being unmarried (she’s nineteen). I also liked the idea of Nexus, the home world of the Pilot Masters as seen through the eyes of this backwater planet. It’s rich and decadent, but Nexus doesn’t have the same beliefs or culture that they do, so it is Evil, even though no one that Linnea knows on Santandru has ever been there.

When Linnea finally gets to Nexus, it is a huge change. The people are mostly men, because only men can be pilots, and they only want boy babies. Woman are only allowed there when they have a contract, and births are very strictly regulated. Only people of the Line, who have been vetted by the Council, are allowed to have children. In the meantime, the men are very open about relationships with other men, and casual sex is the norm. In their eyes, Linnea is an ignorant country girl. It was interesting to see the culture clash.

I really enjoyed the book up to when Linnea meets Iain and gets adjusted to his home. Until that point I was reading this book non-stop, and then I had to put it down to go to sleep for work the next day. The next time I picked up the book, the focus had changed and I found myself less engrossed. Rather than centering on Linnea and Iain and they’re getting to know each other, the book begins to focus on other problems – Iain’s political rivals, his uncle and his cousin, and on Iain’s father. Linnea suddenly becomes a tool in their power struggle and Iain’s relationships with the other men becomes more important in the story, and the stubborn woman becomes a submissive servant. By the time we get back to focusing on Linnea, it is further along in the story. Despite the danger for Iain and Linnea, the things Iain’s father refuses to hide from him, and the sadistic manipulations of Iain’s cousin, I was disconnected from the story on Nexus.

The romance in this book was understated. The relationship grows because they only have each other to turn to, and it’s not an easy path for either of them. There are a few things for them to overcome, like abuse and their different backgrounds, but the basis for the relationship is put down in this book. I think it will be interesting to see where it goes in the rest of the trilogy.

A note on the cover: I like the cover – the colors and the couple suggest that it’s a science fiction romance, but the guns are misleading and my idea of Linnea and Iain from reading the book is really different from the cover models.

Overall: A promising new science fiction romance series. Very good world building and writing. I liked this book, but found the second half less strong than the first. It sets things up for an interesting series which I plan to continue reading.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Reviews and links:
Patricia’s Vampire Notes
Calico_reaction’s review – she liked this one

Kristin Landon Interview at Galaxy Express
Heather Massey guest blogs at SF Signal
Catch a Rising Star: Kristin Landon (at Galaxy Express)

Child of Fire by Harry Connolly

Posted on January 13, 2010 by janicu

Child of Fire: A Twenty Palaces Novel

Harry Connolly

This was a book I won over at the lovely Book Love Affair which is one of my favorite blogs for urban fantasy recommendations.

The Premise: Ray Lilly is a newly released convict who drives around a powerful woman named Annalise. Annalise tracks down illegal spell users and other nasties associated with people using magic and fixes the problem (often without mercy and with a high bystander death rate). Ray is not fond of Annalise and her methods, and as for Annalise, she hates Ray. The only reason he’s still alive is that Annalise was instructed not to kill him by someone in the Twenty Palace Society, the community of Sorcerers that she works for, so Ray works with her in mutual dislike. Their current assignment is to track down the odd magic signature in the town of Hammer Bay.

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: It’s nice to have a male protagonist in an urban fantasy. Ray was an interesting character — he’s a very recent ex-con and he mentions things he did in his past which go from car theft to murder, but the particulars are unclear. I got the impression that his last stint in jail was somehow related to having his new job now. Clues about his past are slowly fed to the reader, and I hope more will be explained as the series continues about what really happened. From what we see of Ray, he has a conscience and the thought of killing people horrifies him. He’s also protective of innocents around him and gets very bitter when he thinks that someone is just standing around doing nothing. Annalise calls him too sentimental for the business, but he ultimately does what he has to for survival and to do his job. I also like that he’s got little magic compared to his boss so he has to rely on his quick thinking more than on his spelled tattoos and ‘ghostknife’ made out of paper wrapped up in tape and laminate. Ray has a lot of depth. Annalise on the other hand is someone who is very hard to read. Probably because we see her through Ray’s eyes. With him, she has two facets – impenetrable, and stoic. Every so often a little bit of emotion seems to seep through her but it’s enough for Ray and the reader to know she’s one of the good guys, but I think it will take more than one book to get a real reading on her.

The townspeople in Hammer Bay on the other hand did not much as big as impression on me. They were sketched with a quick hand – prominent features like a mustache or hair color and height would give you a general impression, but it would be enough to recognize them later on in the book. There are a lot of townspeople that Annalise and Ray meet, and I don’t think the reader is supposed to really get too attached to any one of them because they’re soon fodder for the evil and corruption going on in Hammer Bay. I mostly did not like the town, because sometimes the reactions of people were so extreme, such as going from having a pleasant conversation with Ray suddenly disliking a comment he makes so much that they’d let him walk into a beating by a band of Hee-haws. It was almost a cliche about small town suspicions and prejudice against strangers, and I’m not sure how much was supposed to be natural and how much was the influence of the evil presence in the town.

There’s a lot of violence in this story. Most of the time it didn’t get past vaguely uncomfortable, I think I was able to keep myself mentally separated enough not to get squicked, but there are some sad parts, especially when you discover what has been happening to the children. I would say this book has some elements of horror in it, which becomes apparent early on. I wasn’t expecting it so I was surprised by how the book started out.

Overall: The writing is good and there is plenty of action which meant I kept picking it up and reading it when I had the chance, but it has a lot of violent bits which left me with an unsettled feeling throughout. If you like gritty tales, you will be fine I think.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other reviews:
Book Love Affair – 7 out of 10
Lurv à la Mode – 2 out of 5
Fantasy Dreamers Ramblings – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Karrissa’s Reading Review – 4 out of 5

Silent In the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Posted on January 9, 2010 by janicu

Silent in the Grave

Deanna Raybourn

This book has been on my radar for a while now. It was on a lot of best of 2008 lists and had positive reviews from bloggers who have tastes similiar to mine, and then Angie of Angieville has been pimping it left, right, and center. When I noticed that the ebook was offered for free (FREE!!) at everyone’s reading I downloaded it immediately. The direct link to the downloads by the way are here — epub, mobipocket.

The Premise: This is the first book in a series set in the Victorian era. The story starts with a party hosted by Lady Julia Grey and her husband Edward, which goes south when Edward collapses on the floor. When Edward dies, it’s not really a shock because of his known family history of heart problems, but Julia’s vision of the world is turned askew by Mr. Nicolas Brisbane, who informs her that he was hired by her husband to investigate threats he was receiving. Mr. Brisbane also tells Julia that Edward was probably murdered. I also have to point out the cracking first line, which every other reviewer has commented on. It just draws you in – read it here in the excerpt.

My Thoughts: This is set in the Victorian era, but it has a modern edge. The story is told from the first person viewpoint of Julia, who comes from an open minded and eccentric family – the Marches. Julia starts off as a bit of a disappointment to her colorful family – all she wants to be is normal, but after her husband’s death, she takes stock of her life and begins to come out of her shell. This is one book where there’s marked growth and change in the main character. The author takes a few liberties with Julia’s character because of her freewheeling family, but it worked for me.

I also liked that around Julia’s investigations, we see a lot of day-to-day interactions between Julia and her staff and between Julia and her family. We catch glimpses into how a household was run in those times, and the ‘rules’ that the nobility abides by, and it’s all very normal and familiar to these characters but for me, it was excellent world building and lovely to read.

I’m not sure you should read this so much for the mystery than for the characters. There are several well rounded side characters such as Julia’s servants (her butler and ladies maid in particular), and members of her family (especially her sister Portia), and then there’s Julia and Nicolas Brisbane. While this has romantic elements and great sexual tension between Julia and Mr. Brisbane, the romance is not at the forefront of the book, and this is one of those series where the relationship evolves slowly over the course of several books. Julia is funny for her nosiness about Brisbane and her adventures in amateur sleuthing. Brisbane, while he is a dark and broody type, has great interactions with Julia, especially when she surprises him. A couple of times, I was laughing out loud at the things Julia did, and Brisbane’s agog response. I was reading this while on vacation and I was in the living room just laughing like a fool while my mother-in-law stared at me like I was crazy.

As for the mystery itself – there are only so many people who it could be, there are not that many characters to choose from, so an early guess is likely to be right, but why they did it and how was more mysterious and ultimately more surprising to me than who did it. There’s also the side mystery of Brisbane himself, which are hinted at when Julia visits him – a strange sudden illness when he’s a healthy man, and his odd interactions with Julia’s laundress.

Overall: I loved this one. It hit me in all the right places and I went on my best of 2009 list. I even made my mom read it (her report – almost done but she peeked at the ending! – tsk. But she asked if I had book 2, muhahaha).

Buy (this book was just reissued in trade PB): Amazon | Powells

Other reviews:
Angieville – A very positive review
The Thrillionth Page – “lovely”
Miss Picky’s column — 3 out of 5
Aneca’s World – 3.5 out of 5
Rosario’s Reading Journal – gave it a B-
Reading Adventures – “highly recommended”
The Book Smugglers – Thea gave it an 8, leaning towards 9
Tempting Persephone – positive review

Links:
Silent Pretties — Angie points out the gorgeous UK covers for the Julia Grey mysteries. I want them too!
Silent in the Grave website

Dancer of the Sixth by Michelle Shirey Crean

Posted on January 8, 2010 by janicu

Dancer of the Sixth by Michelle Shirey Crean

In 2006 I forwarded myself a message board posting about science fiction/fantasy books with strong relationships, and then I promptly forgot about it. A month ago I was searching for something in my email and this old list showed up. There where a few books I’d already read and loved on there (Wen Spencer’s Tinker, Shards of Honor by Lois Mcmaster Bujold, Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair) so I spent some time eying the list and Dancer of the Sixth caught my eye. The cover with a pilot and her flighter jet interested me. After some googling it and finding positive reviews (and 15 5-star reviews on Amazon), I decided to order a used copy of the out of print book.

The Premise: Dancer is a member of the Sixth service, which is a secret arm of military intelligence who have no connections to their past lives – they’re dead as far as everyone else knows, and they run missions to ensure the safety of the galaxy. Dancer was presumed killed during the Lioth massacre by the Karranganthians, a violent race who were routed but still wait to catch their enemies unaware. One day during a patrol Dancer is surprised by a Gypsy flyer that lost control and had to make an emergency landing. And stepping out of the flyer is a disoriented exact replica of Dancer. A replica who uses the name Dancer had in her old life. The solution to this mystery is for Dancer to take her twin’s place in the Fourth Service Squadron (a aerial maneuver team which performs for the public).

My Thoughts: This is told in the third person with Dancer as the clear focus. It covers what Dancer and the sixth services’ response is to the twin, which is for Dancer to take her place and find out what’s going on, but that particular part of the book isn’t that long. What takes up much of it is a long flashback which covers how Dancer got into the Sixth Service in the first place — when she was found almost dead after the Lioth Massacre. We learn that Dancer barely made it and her healing took a long time. The writer takes the opportunity during her convalescence to for Dancer to recount her past (there are lost loves who Dancer cannot stop grieving over). Then, once Dancer is well enough to move out of her medical confinement, we learn as she does about the Auryx, the dark haired people with minor telepathic ability who the Sixth Service is composed of. One of those men is the Commander, Michael, who is Dancer’s immediate supervisor and her unvoiced crush.

Dancer is one of those irrepressible heroines who won’t stop fighting even when her back is against the wall and all is lost. In some ways she’s a bit of a Mary Sue. She’s a pretty redhead ace pilot with an upbeat character and a dark past that is gradually revealed. She charms everyone with her charisma, and everyone is a little bit in love with her. Meanwhile she cannot seem to stop her interest in every man she meets in the story. The eying of someone’s fine figure or Dancer’s talk of being in love got a little trying, and it was often inappropriate (the suggestion of a sexual relationship with someone under the Sixth Service suspicion, the familiar touching of her supervisor). She’s supposed to have not taken a lover since she joined the Sixth service, but you wouldn’t know it by her casualness in discussing relationships. As the reader, I think we’re to hope that Dancer had moved on from her past and that she’d focus on the man who was in her present, but it is confusing how strong her feelings are for Makellen Darke, the Auryx man who sat with her through her recovery, and then disappeared as if he never was. The competition is smoothed over by the twist ending, but the many loves crowding Dancer’s life not to mention Michael’s position as her superior, makes the romance not as strong as I think it could have been.

The writing was good, especially the parts about flying, but I found it odd at times. Maybe it was the use of the word “child” by Michael and the Auryx for everyone else non-Auryx, maybe it was the inappropriateness I covered already. Maybe it was the old-fashioned aspect to the writing – a formal tone that overlaid everything. It was something I got used to but it sometimes made the book drag, and I found myself unable to read it without breaks.

There are some interesting ideas here and it’s a good first book, and it’s too bad there doesn’t seem to be any more books by Crean. It does feel that this could have been the start to a series because the end leaves us with the implication that that is not all to be expected from the Karranganthians. However, the relationship and the story of this book does have a conclusion, although there may be some reading between the lines you have to do.

Overall: Not a bad book (I liked the ideas and the world building), and although it’s slow at times, it was an nice read for a science fiction fan. The relationships are a big part of the story, yet I think romance could have been better. I would have read the second book if there was one.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other Reviews:
Romantic sf – a mix of opinions there
pick locker – “I’m veering between recommending the book, to not recommending it.” (I found this blogger because of their review for this book!)

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

Posted on January 1, 2010 by janicu

Remember Me?: A Novel

Sophie Kinsella

This was a thrift store buy on vacation here in Arizona.

The Premise: Lexi Smart is a young woman down in the dumps because her father’s funeral is tomorrow, and she missed getting a nice holiday bonus by a week because she hadn’t worked at her job a full year, and her boyfriend is blowing her off. That’s the last she recalls when she wakes up in a hospital bed and she’s been told that she was just in a car crash. Apparently Lexi has amnesia and has forgotten the last three years. Three years where she’s lost weight, fixed her hair and teeth, married a gorgeous man and become the boss at her job. What happened? How did she get here? And is her life as perfect as it seems or is what her husband’s architect Jon right — that she was about to leave her husband for him?

Read an excerpt of Remember Me? here

My Thoughts: This reminds me of the Talking Heads song, but you know where it’s going a little bit — of course there’s no story if she wakes up and discovers she’s made something of herself, and that’s it. There’s got to be a problem, and that is that Lexi doesn’t remember her husband at all, and she doesn’t remember doing her job as head of the carpeting department of Dellar Carpets. Lexi is also surprised to find she’s lost her friends and become known as a tough boss (to put it mildly). If you have ever watched the movie 13 Going On 30, you will know Lexi’s reaction to some of what she finds out about her new self.

There’s a certain amount of predictably in the storyline — Lexi being confused by her new life and by who she has become, and some soul searching if this is what she really wants. It’s a light read but not really fluffy — although there are a few glimpses of humor here and there, it’s not as amusing as other Kinsella books. The emotions Lexi goes through doesn’t lend itself to it.

The romance is not as straightforward in this book. Lexi is married, but while he’s handsome and nice, and a millionaire, he’s a complete Type-A personality, with a hatred of disorder and a love of ambition which is at odds with who Lexi is. After a while I started to get creeped out by his over-perfectness, which I guess was the aim of the author, because in contrast, Jon accepts Lexi as she is. He’s her husband’s architect, and he tells her that she was planning to leave her husband for him. While Lexi finds Jon annoying at first, it’s obvious she finds him attractive, and is freer with her words around him than around her husband. If you don’t like unfaithfulness in your books, this may be an issue. I think some of the moral issue is taken away with the idea that what Lexi did in the 3 forgotten years was like it happened to someone else, and although Lexi is shocked at herself, she can’t really feel that guilty about something she doesn’t remember deciding to do. It bothered me a little, but the book doesn’t dwell on it.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Overall: I thought the book was alright. It was what I expected; a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, with some amusing bits and sweetness in the romance, but not a book that really moved me. I wasn’t wowed, but I wasn’t disappointed either.

Reviews elsewhere:
Rosario’s Reading Journal – B+
Confessions of a book addict – loved it
The Good, The Bad and The Unread – B- (I think I was closest to this reviewer’s feelings on this book)

Originally posted on janicu.vox.com

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Posted on December 25, 2009 by janicu

Graceling

Kristin Cashore

This is the copy of Graceling I bought on my trip to Boston and finished on the plane ride to AZ this week. My review of Fire, Cashore’s other book in this world, is here: livejournal | wordpress

The Premise: Graceling is the story of Katsa, who is a graceling — someone who has two different colored eyes and preternatural ability in a certain skill. Katsa’s grace is that of killing, and since this was discovered, she’s been nothing but her uncle the king’s enforcer; threatening and killing as he sees fit. As Katsa grows up she dislikes herself and her role in the kingdom more and more. Things begin to come to a head when Katsa meets Po, a prince from another kingdom who is a Graceling too.

My Thoughts: I read Fire before Graceling. Graceling was published before Fire, but chronologically Fire happens before Graceling. I think you can read these books in either order, but I felt that I was a little more spoiled from reading Fire first than I may have been the other way around. I was less surprised about the villain of Graceling than I think I would have been if I’d read them in the other order.

I really LOVED Fire, I found myself just contentedly reading it and not wanting to move or do anything else, but I had a different reaction to Graceling. Graceling was an excellent fantasy with a sweet romance, but it didn’t enthrall me in the same way that Fire did. I found Graceling a slower read and I put it down more, especially in the first third of the book. I think I connected to Katsa a little less than I did Fire. She grew as the book progressed, and she learned to accept her Grace and believe that she wasn’t really a monster, but she was less emotionally available and had problems with opening herself up to people, and maybe that was why I couldn’t connect as well. Or maybe the reason is that I read Fire first so I love that most? It’s hard to tell what makes me love one book more than another sometimes..

I think a few people have already commented on Katsa’s unwillingness to get married. I could understand the idea in general, but when Katsa kept trying to explain it she alienated me more. I don’t think I really needed to read that she felt that getting married was too similar to being owned by someone, the way she was with King Randa. After a while, her constant fearful explanations about it made me think she was just a chicken rather than someone who had a life philosophy and just didn’t want to get married. Why was it brought up so much?! Ug, it started to irk me.

On the other hand, I really liked Po, Katsa’s love interest. He was a lovely secondary character, especially in the way he responded to Katsa and her moods. Cashore really writes some great guys in her stories! Po has a way of accepting Katsa for exactly who she was that was refreshing. I also loved Bitterblue, who is one of the most levelheaded young ladies I’ve read of in a while. I’m glad to know she has her own book which is coming out sometime next year (word is we also can catch up with Po and Katsa in it too).

Final note: There are sexual situations in this book, but it was written in a very vague way; nothing explicit.

Overall: I liked Fire better, but it’s another good young adult fantasy by this author. Brave heroines, understanding heroes and deep friendships make this series a recommended read. Cashore goes onto my autobuy author list.

Buy: Amazon | Powells

Other Reviews:
Book girl of Mur-y-Castell – “it was ok”
Book Love Affair – 9 out of 10
Lurv a la Mode – 4 scoops (out of 5)
Jawas Read , Too – Positive with some quibbles. I agreed with this review
Calico reaction – Worth the Cash