Category Archives: book review

Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews and Meljean Brook

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Must Love Hellhounds
Ilona Andrews

I preordered this one because this anthology of four paranormal stories featuring hellhounds has a couple authors I like in it.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

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1) Magic Mourns by Ilona Andrews: This is the third story in the anthology but I read it first. 🙂

The Premise: This is a story set in the same world as the Kate Daniel series, but this time the first person narrator is Kate’s best friend, Andrea.  Andrea is filling in for Kate one day, when a call comes in about a member of the Atlanta Pack being chased after by a giant, three-headed hound. Andrea goes out to help and is dismayed to find Raphael, a were-hyena is the Pack member in trouble. Raphael has been pursuing Andrea for a while but Andrea is afraid he’s only interested in her for her novelty, not for herself.

Excerpt of Magic Mourns

My Thoughts: It’s probably better to have read the Kate Daniels series before reading this short story because much of the back story on Andrea’s origins and her relationship with Raphael is in those books, but that’s also reiterated in this story, so it’s not hard to understand what’s going on. I thought Andrea’s personality was similar to Kate’s (independent woman, hiding something, and doesn’t trust easily), but her voice was different enough from Kate’s (more wry humor I think) to make the story interesting. I enjoyed reading this one, because the pacing was just right to me, with a good balance of urban fantasy action and romance. I could savor it slowly. The reader already knows what will happen between Andrea and Raphael, especially if you’ve been following the Kate Daniels series, but it’s satisfying anyway. I also liked how well the story intersects with the Kate Daniels series and reveals a couple of things for people paying attention, but you don’t have to have read that series to follow this story (and there are no spoilers).

Overall: I’m a big fan of Ilona Andrews so no surprise: I liked this story a lot. A must read for Kate Daniel’s fans.

P.S. Is anyone else noticing some re-occurring themes in Andrews stories? Like the protection of children? Not that this is a complaint, I just find it interesting.

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2) The Britlingens Go to Hell by Charlaine Harris: This is the first story in Must Love Hellhounds, and by one of the two headlining authors (the other is Nalini Singh).

The Premise: Batanya and Clovache are both part of the Britlingen Collective, highly trained bodyguards for hire, who are assigned an unusual client. Crick wants Batanya and Clovache to protect him in Hell while he retrieves an item that he’d been hired to steal but he was caught the first time he was there.

My Thoughts: It’s a quirky, odd tale and not quite what I was expecting from Charlaine Harris. It takes some time to figure out who the Britlingens are and they use a combination of high tech and magic for their jobs, and hell is a bizarre place with a mixture of mythical creatures in it. Their client and others they run into are oddball people, and the whole tale uses a rather cheerful, matter of fact tone no matter what is happening. An example of bizarre is that someone has 2 penises. TWO PENISES!! It’s half-funny and half-I-don’t-know-what.

Overall: I’m not sure if this will appeal to everyone depending on their sense of humor or level of tolerance for the off-beat. I didn’t dislike it, but it didn’t love it either. So I suppose it was in the “OK” to “good” range for me.

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3) Angels’ Judgment by Nalini Singh: Set in the same world as Singh’s Angel series, this story centers on vampire hunter Sara Haziz.

The Premise: Sara Haziz’s job is to bring back runaway vampires to their angel masters. Her latest retrieval is of a vampire whose head was almost cut off. Word is that a rogue hunter who has killed other vampires this way is responsible, and Deacon, the Slayer, is brought in.

Excerpt of Angel’s Judgment

My Thoughts: This was a straightforward whodunit with two ass-kicking characters and romance between them. The world building was interesting, and I didn’t have any problems following what was going on even though I haven’t read any of the novels set in this world yet. I couldn’t tell where this novella fit in the timeline of the Angels’ series though. At first I thought it was after Angel’s Blood, the first book, and was concerned that I was being spoiled, but then later on it sounded like Elena, Sara’s best friend and the heroine of the series, hadn’t met an archangel yet, so maybe this novella is supposed to happen before the series starts. The biggest issue I had with this was the repeated references to the sexual attraction of the two main characters, which made the romance very physical and not mental enough for me. Deacon bluntly tells Sara he wants to take her to bed within a very short time of knowing her and they pretty much sleep together while on a job together.  In the middle of their investigation when Sara is going to be the next hunter Guild Director? I also found it silly that Deacon was so big that he couldn’t fit into Sara’s car and had to follow on his motorcycle. Other than my inability to suspend disbelief at these things (and I think I’m in the minority from what I’ve seen), the story itself was relatively enjoyable.

Overall: Not bad but the romance was too predictable and physical for my tastes, but I think it would appeal to those who like a little steam in their stories.

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4) Blind Spot by Meljean Brook: This one is another story linked to a series I haven’t read, which is the Guardian series.

The Premise: Maggie is the equivalent of a butler for a very wealthy and powerful family, and her boss happens to be a vampire. When Maggie’s employer’s niece, Katherine, is kidnapped in New York, Katherine’s brother, Goeffrey Blake goes to get her, but he runs into some trouble and Maggie is sent over. Maggie and Geoff must work together (along with the family’s hellhound, Sir Pup) to find his sister.

Excerpt of Blind Spot

My Thoughts: I haven’t read the Guardian series, but I have read another novella set in this world in the Wild Thing anthology. I remember liking the worldbuilding in that story, but this one is even better. I think this author has grown, and I’m impressed! I felt like I was seeing Geoff and Maggie get to know one another and that although they each had an interest in each other they were aware that finding Katherine was more important. The attraction is shown more subtly, like their mutual curiosity for each other, and in gestures, like Maggie’s quick looks everywhere but pauses on Geoff’s mouth and hands. Meanwhile, Geoff’s thoughts reveal that he has known and thought about Maggie far before they ever met, which pulled me in because I wanted to know why and how that happened. The fantasy elements, such as Sir Pup the shape-shifting hellhound, and interesting abilities (really cool but I don’t want to spoil you), were unique and fascinating but also help along the story. I adored Sir Pup, the half-scary chaperone and  comic relief.

Overall: Really enjoyable blend of the fantastic and romantic. I liked this more than I expected to: it ties with the Ilona Andrews novella as my favorite in this anthology.

Other reviews:
The Good, The Bad, and The Unread – I think I consistently have a very different opinion from this reviewer, just like now, but we agreed on the Meljean Brook story. She’s also misinterpreted Andrea and Raphael’s relationship prior to when the novella takes place, IMHO.
Literary Escapism – I’m somewhat in line with her thoughts, but probably liked the Singh story less than she did.
Smexy Books – Same as above.
Shaymless Aymless at Babbling about Books and More – also in line with LE and Smexy books

On The Edge by Ilona Andrews

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Oh this cover! The girl with the red pickup truck and the gun captures the backwoods feel of the setting, but not a fan of the floating head, this would have been perfect without it. I know it’s a signal for “this is a romance”, but eh, the model is not cute. The Premise: Rose Drayton lives in the Edge. The Edge is the place where our world, the Broken, overlaps with the Weird, an alternate dimension where magic is real. The people who live in the Edge are poor, and have to go over to the Broken to make money. They can do small magics, but most of their bloodlines are diluted. So when Rose proves herself to have a remarkable mastery to control her “flash”, suddenly the out-for-themselves Edgers will stop at nothing to have Rose, either to enhance their own bloodlines or to sell to the highest bidder. One day, Declan, the Earl of Camarine, a pureblood from the Weird appears at Rose’s door.

Excerpt of On The Edge

My Thoughts: This is much more romance focused than the Kate Daniels series and falls under paranormal romance rather than urban fantasy, but the great world building I’m used to is still there. The idea of the different worlds is a really interesting one, sort of a spin on a faerie world we can’t see except it’s really just down that road there. It’s just that only people who have the right bloodlines can see it and walk past the boundary. I’m always a fan of Andrews’ detailed world building, because it’s so well thought out. Like they’ve said, “You can build a most fantastic world, if you take care to make it logical and follow its own rules.” This is what I always appreciate in an Ilona Andrews’ series: a fantastic world that makes sense.

The Edge is like the Wild West. They don’t belong in the Broken, where magic doesn’t exist, but they aren’t part of the Weird either, where pureblood magic families rule. In the Edge, it’s everyone for themselves, but families band together. The Edgers are poor, some rather trashy, lawless, and feisty.  There are some real characters living in the Edge, especially with magic thrown in the mix. Rose herself has two younger brothers, Georgie and Jack who exemplify the oddness of the Edge. Georgie is a little necromancer with a soft heart. He resurrects animals he feels sad have died, and their grandfather Cletus (who gets drunk on dog brains). Jack was born a changeling, and like the cat his other half is, is easily distracted by birds and climbing trees.

So Rose has her hands full raising her two brothers because their parents aren’t in the picture, but they’re good kids (who also bring something to the story). Rose also has to deal with all the people who are after her because of her amazing control over her flash, and when Declan arrives at their door, a pureblood from the Weird who says he will have her, Rose isn’t pleased. At first Declan’s statements would dismay me. He would often spout some really over-the-top alpha hero stuff, but Andrews manages to fix this for me later on with a viable explanation (thank goodness). Maybe there’s also a touch of Pride and Prejudice here: Declan making his remarks and Rose taking offense, thinking that he’s the typical blueblood. Rose’s circumstances are much lower than Declan’s but she’s being avidly courted by someone who is obviously a catch. The book takes on a romance feel with Rose’s awareness of Declan’s appearance (I imagined He-Man) and breeding, and his alpha male assertions that he will get what he wants. On the other hand, Rose is pretty cool, and it makes sense that Declan realizes this. She’s a good sister, working hard and going without so that she can buy her brothers those Inu Yasha comics they’re obsessed with (Inu Yasha, good choice kids), and she’s smart and determined, but just has a hard life where she has to be independent in order to survive.

The paranormal/contemporary fantasy aspects of this story had probably about equal footing as the romance. Creepy rotting creatures in hound like form start terrorizing the Edge, and the mystery of what’s going on keeps Declan and Rose busy. The results aren’t pretty, but it makes for a great story.

Overall: A paranormal romance with awesome world building and the perfect balance of romance and fantasy. There’s more romance in this than the Kate Daniels series, but expect the same fantastic storytelling.

I’m looking forward to reading the second book. This time, William, who was introduced in On The Edge will be the hero.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Other reviews (all positive)

Angieville – loved it
Literary Escapism – positive review
Book Love Affair – “charmed”
Smexy Books – 5 out of 5 stars
Mardelwanda – “a very satisfying read”
The Book Smugglers – 7 Very good

Other links:
Worlds of the Edge
Ilona Andrews and Ann Aguirre at Babel Clash

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

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I kept seeing good reviews of the debut novel by Seanan McGuire everywhere, but Urban Fantasy (one of my fav blogs), really cinched my interest when they recommended Rosemary and Rue “especially for fans of Ilona Andrews or Patricia Briggs.” After that I was sold! I planned to buy this, but got lucky and won it over at Lurv a la Mode. 🙂

The Premise: This is the first book in a series about October (Toby) Daye, a changeling living in San Francisco. Toby is detective who has had it with the world of the Fae but her resolve to stay far from it dissolves when a pureblooded fae calls her before being murdered and puts a curse on Toby to find out who killed her and why.

Excerpt of the book

My Thoughts: It didn’t take me very long to fall in love with the world building in this book. The prologue was a mind blower (and in this case you HAVE to read it to make sense of what happens afterwards and why Toby wants to distance herself with her faerie friends), and I started getting excited about having another author to stalk. Deety at Urban fantasy had said, “there’s a level of uniqueness that makes this book stand out from the pack” which I saw in the way the world of the faerie blended so well against the backdrop of San Francisco. I just loved how Toby, our narrator would explain the world as things were happening. I could see San Francisco and I could see the hidden parts and faerie creatures that were everywhere for Toby, but hidden from human eyes. Some parts are beautiful, some are scary and gritty, and there are so many varieties of creatures from Pixies and Undine to Cait Sidhe to Kitsune. And then we have the halfbreeds and the changelings, like Toby, who are considered lower caste for their human blood, diluted magic, and shorter lives. In Toby’s opinion, changelings have the short end of the stick, because no one knows what to do with them really, they don’t belong in the human world, but they aren’t treated well by the faerie.

There are quite a few characters we’re introduced to throughout the book. Toby has a lot of friends, many with back stories hinted at throughout the book. I liked a lot of them and wanted to read more. Hopefully many of them will be reoccurring characters in this series. There’s also suggestions of possible romantic interest in Toby, but only very brief ones, this is still an urban fantasy. Two of these guys I firmly believed to be *wrong* for her and I was rooting against them. I already had my favorite ship, which I share with Ana of the Book Smugglers – Tybalt, the king of the Cait Sidhe. Ana says in her review, “Even though you try to hide your feelings, I know, deep down you so totally love the woman.” – exactly!

Toby is unusual for wanting her own life and a job outside of the faerie world. After what happens to her in the prologue her pulling away from it further made sense as well. The prologue gives you a pretty good indication of the author’s storytelling – things get messy for our heroine. This book has some gritty aspects along with the prettiness: deaths, kids being exploited, unhappy people. Toby makes mistakes and the bad guys are willing to do anything to get what they want. This means Toby gets very beaten up in this book while trying to figure out who killed her friend.

And this is where the flaws in the book come in. I was really happy reading the book until about halfway, when my glee and lovefest began to dim. I wasn’t sure why until I read some other reviews which pointed out what the problem was: Toby kept getting railroaded by the bad guys, over and over. She almost dies a few times, and still she has to keep moving and running around or she will die. When Toby finally figures out what was going on, I didn’t think it was her sleuthing skills so much as dumb luck and a lot of help along the way. The consequences of who it ended up being are very interesting, and I liked that Toby finds out some harsh truths about herself, but the constant rebounding Toby has to do to get there was exhausting. I also ran into a pet peeve which is a character having sex after almost dying – that’s just not realistic!!

Anyway, despite those quibbles, I really liked this book, and I’m very happy that there’s a second and third book coming out quite soon – A Local Habitation comes out in March 2010, and An Artificial Night comes out in September. The only problem is that I’ve gotten sucked into another series (I can’t seem to help myself), which doesn’t really seem to have an end in sight (the author’s FAQ says “several” and hints at eight or more books).

A_Local_Habitation_smAn_Artificial_Night_sm

Overall: I’d say it made me excited to read this. The world building was very strong (LOVED it!!!), but the plot isn’t without it’s flaws which made the second half weaker than the first. I am eagerly anticipating the second and third book just to see where things go and hoping Toby gets together with the love interest I’m pulling for.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Reviews elsewhere:
Urban Fantasy – see above 🙂
The Book Smugglers – Thea gave it a 7, leaning towards and 8, Ana gave it an 8
SciFiGuy – “destined for my top 10 list for 2009”
Lurv a la Mode – very highly recommended
Book Love Affair – “love at first sight”

Dawnbreaker by Jocelynn Drake

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This review is for an ARC I received from EOS books

The Premise: This is the third Dark Days novel, narrated by Mira, a 600 year old vampire, known as the Fire Starter, the only nightwalker (aka vampire) with the power over fire. Mira is in the middle of a war between the nightwalkers and the naturi, a race of beings who think that all humans and nightwalkers should be eliminated to cleanse the earth. Mira’s fight with the naturi has traversed the globe, from her home in Savannah, to London, to Venice and back. Now things have progressed so that the naturi are about to break free out of the seal keeping most of them out of the world, but Mira is hellbent on stopping them.

My reviews:
Book 1: Nightwalker (livejournal, wordpress)
Book 2: Dayhunter (livejournal, wordpress)

Browse inside Dawnbreaker

**** There are minor spoilers for the past books from this point on ****

My Thoughts: I had very similar thoughts about this book as I did for the previous two, except I would say that this book has even more action. Dawnbreaker is like one of those blockbuster movies with plenty of fights and pyrotechnics (which makes for a quick read whenever I picked it up). The book starts off where Daywalker left off, with naturi pursuing Mira while she tries to stop them from breaking the seal that keeps most of their kind from returning to the world. By Mira’s side are several people who we’ve been introduced to in the past couple of books. There’s a lot of characters to keep track of, but I had no issues remembering who they were because of quick summaries of who is who exactly when I needed it. All of these people are under Mira’s protection and she takes her job very seriously, but the bombardment from the naturi means Mira is a busy woman.

One of the people surrounding Mira is the vampire hunter Danaus who over the past couple of books has become something of a friend. Their relationship is an odd one. They have to work with each other because only Danaus is able to expand Mira’s abilities, but they are natural enemies. This book is very much an urban fantasy because there is almost no romance, but there are hints that Danaus and Mira feel more for each other than they are willing to admit. These hints were *very* few and far between, and are about equal in number to the comments that one day Mira and Danaus will kill each other.  They both seem able to understand one another in times of trouble, but Mira and Danaus have seen each other do things they didn’t approve of. In any case, because this book was focused on the race to stop the naturi from re-entering the world, there was less time to delve into relationships as deeply as they were in previous books. Much of the interesting interactions happened in the last quarter of Dawnbreaker. I don’t doubt we’ll see more of that to come, both between Mira and Danaus, and between Mira and others, including the vampire Coven leaders, whose long term plans are hard to guess, and Mira’s new vampire family. This book leaves us with some problems solved and other problems appearing (Mira’s seat on the Coven, Danaus’ identity, The Great Awakening). I can’t wait to see how Mira and Danaus tackle them!

My family used to live there, so I have a very small nit about the Peruvian weather: Peru isn’t far from the equator and the change of seasons is quite mild, so the description of the winter winds and seasons being the opposite of North America’s isn’t accurate. I’d say Cusco is only colder because of the altitude and there really is only a dry season and a rainy season, not four seasons.

Overall: Ramps up the non-stop action which is found in the first two books. This book continues with the same dark, Gothic undertones and epic scope. I love the complex relationships between characters which is sparingly doled out here, but I have no doubt they will come to the forefront again soon enough. There are a couple of juicy issues left for Mira and Danaus to tackle after this book, and I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Links and other reviews:
Jess’s Book reviews as a interview and contest for Dawnbreaker that ends 10/5 (this is awesome because it comes with a picture of how Drake imagines Danaus)
Interview at SciFiGuy (I was interested to find out about a preview novella in the Unbound anthology, and that the next books will be called Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk)

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

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The Premise: This is the second book of Patricia Briggs parallel series to Mercy Thompson, featuring a mated Alpha and Omega werewolf couple, Anna and Charles. Bran, the Alpha of all werewolves in North America is getting ready to out the existence of werewolves for various reasons and wants the European wolves on board or at least willing to stay out of the way during the process. Charles has an inexplicable bad feeling over Bran going to Seattle convinces Bran to send Anna and himself instead.

Excerpt of Hunting Ground

My Thoughts: The conference with the European wolves happens parallel to the Mercy Thompson series (I think between MT books 2 and 3?), but I don’t think you really need to have read Mercy Thompson to enjoy Anna and Charles. I would say that you DO have to read this series in order, probably starting with the short story, Alpha and Omega in the anthology On the Prowl, and then book one, Cry Wolf.

My reviews:
On the Prowl (with Alpha and Omega short story) – livejournal | wordpress
Book 1: Cry Wolf – livejournal | wordpress

I think that when I started reading this book I had a couple of expectations. I expected to see some growth in Anna, development in her relationship with Charles, and I was expecting to find out some back story on the exposure of werewolves to the world. Let me try to go over my main points of interest:

  • Anna – Anna’s growth and emergence of a backbone delighted me and was the highlight of the book. When I was first reading this I was struck by the first couple of chapters because Anna seemed very comfortable with Bran and Charles, and in teasing and playing with them. I was a little surprised after her timidness in Cry Wolf. Then when she goes to Seattle, the old, scared Anna seems to come back in the presence of all the alpha wolves. This made sense to me. Anna is getting used to being an Omega wolf and she is still recovering from what happened to her in her old pack. There’s a few things that happen over the course of the story which allow Anna to work through some of her hangups in a satisfying way.
  • Anna and Charles’ relationship – This is still developing and it’s not easy. Charles finds himself very protective of Anna, and it’s hard to reign in his wolf sometimes. Anna on the other hand isn’t past her abuse by her previous pack. The Alpha and Omega series is different from the Mercy Thompson in that it is more of a paranormal romance, with more emphasis on the relationship, than an urban fantasy. There was a scene I liked in particular between Anna and Charles, which is actually illustrated on the cover of the book, but as to the rest of the book, I mostly felt that there was something missing between the two of them. There seemed to be a lack of spark, and it was hard to really buy into their relationship. This is a big problem because the relationship is such a huge part of the series. Everything between Anna and Charles felt a little awkward, which wasn’t a problem I remember having while I was reading the earlier book. Those moments that happen between couples where you can tell there is something deep between them – I just couldn’t see it. I hope that this is a problem only in this book and not in the continuations.
  • And out come the wolves – This is something mentioned in the Mercy Thompson novels – that Bran, the Alpha of the werewolves in North America had planned to have the world know about the existence of werewolves. I was really interested in the specifics of this, which we get and I was mostly happy with it, but once we get the gist it moves behind a closed door, and I wish more focus was put on it’s ramifications and the dealings between werewolf packs. What ended up happening is that the focus went to Anna and the problems surrounding her by virtue of being an Omega and Charles’ mate. She becomes the target of an abduction and the book focuses on that mystery and inserted action is about this. In the end I enjoyed Anna’s part in bringing the bad guys to justice (again – I liked Anna in this book!), but the rest of it had an abrupt feel, so the execution for the most part underwhelmed me.

So I think basically, while I do get some of the things I expected in this book, it feels like the focus is fractured. Something just didn’t flow as well as what I’m used to seeing in a Briggs novel. Things niggled at me, as I described above.  I also noted unnecessary repetition that bothered me, such as almost every female joking with Anna on how to deal with Charles, or where someone calls Anna timid and irritates Anna for doing so. It didn’t feel as tight as past books.

Overall: This is a really hard review to write because although I’m a big fan of Briggs, throughout the book I kept having this feeling that things were off. I put the book down for a few days and picked it up again when I was in a better frame of mind, but I still had this feeling which I’m having a hard time putting my finger on. I would say that it is still a good read, but it fell below my high expectations of Patricia Briggs. The story wasn’t as cohesive and for me, the biggest issue I had was the lack of spark between the hero and heroine. I’m still not sure if I’m just not seeing it while other readers are. I plan to continue reading this series and hope that this is just a one-off.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Other reviews (mostly good, one not so good):
Angieville (found it stronger than it’s predecessor)
The Book Smugglers – 8 out of 10, excellent
Dear Author – gave it a B+ but noted some things I had problems with
calico reaction – rated it “Give it away” – liked it less than I did I think.
Smexy Books – 8 out of 10

Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout

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Norse Code
Greg Van Eekhout

I saw a few reviews of Norse Code when it came out a few months ago (in May), but I had a hard time deciding whether to pick it up based on them. To make my decision for me, the ever awesome calico-reaction sent me a copy and I finally read it this week. 🙂

The Premise: This is an urban fantasy which takes it’s fantasy elements from Norse mythology. Mist is a once-grad student who was murdered and became a Valkyrie. Now she works on project NorseCODE to increase the number of warriors in Odin’s army for Ragnarok, the Norse version of Armageddon. Meanwhile, Odin’s wanderer son, the god Hermod is also working to prevent Ragnorak. Their two stories overlap in a series of odd adventures on Earth and elsewhere.

Excerpts: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

My Thoughts: The book begins with an event amongst the gods which was believed to be the first sign that Ragnarok will come to pass, and then thousands of years later, we’re in modern day United States and it looks like Ragnarok is right around the corner. At first I had a hard time figuring out where things were going (Mist suddenly decides she’s going to rescue her sister from Hel, Hermod is off in California looking for wolf pups who will swallow the the moon), but once a mutual objective was decided, things got more interesting. Actually – I had no clue what Ragnorak was, Norse mythology is something I know very little about so that’s probably why I was semi-mystified. I think I only know some of the big names like Thor, Odin, and Frigg, and most of those is from learning where the names for the days of the week came from sometime in middle school. Looking at wikipedia, the basic story of Hermod and his brothers, Höd and Balr used in Norse Code is taken directly from Norse mythology, so those more familiar with it would probably pick up the story faster than me, but I had no problems following once I did.

The other bit of confusion on the book may be the shifting points of view. Most of the book is told from the third person, focusing on first Hermod, then Mist and vice versa, but there are also chapters told in the first person from one of Odin’s two ravens, who constantly fly everywhere and take note of what is going on. This gives the reader an opportunity to find out what other characters are up to while Mist and Hermod do their thing, and it does fill in the blanks which would otherwise be there, so I had no issues with this, but I can see other readers not particularly liking the multiple POVs.

There’s a lot going on in this book. As soon as the adventurers jump out of the frying pan, they’re into the fire, and no matter what they try, the next step towards Ragnarok happens. Yet Mist and Hermod keep trying because if they didn’t, the world of humans, Midgard, would be lost forever. Because of this, the book is primarily an action-adventure as our heroes scramble to prevent the inevitable, and character development is produced in quick, hurried strokes. A look or sentence here and there throughout the story. If you don’t pay attention, you’d miss the smidgen of romance or the nature of relationships between siblings. I found this OK, since the story itself was interesting enough, I didn’t need to focus on the characters, but it would have been nice to get into the character’s heads more. I thought that Hermod was the best-written character in the book, perhaps because he had the best lines. The humor in this book sneaks up on you. There’s one particularly brilliant scene where Hermod reads a note from his father aloud, and rather than reading what it really said, he inserts his own version which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

This book is categorized as “urban fantasy”, though I would nitpick a bit there and call it “contemporary fantasy”, just because so much of the book doesn’t even happen on Earth as we know it. There are a couple of books that it reminded me of, in a very cursory way: Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, just because of the Valkyries, and Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series just because of the use of interconnected worlds with some similarities (lots of ‘heim’s). Yes, people who have read these books, they are NOTHING like Norse Code whatsoever, but I like pondering how authors take a concept in very different ways.

Overall: I liked it in a “Oh, that’s a clever idea” kind of way. I probably would enjoy it more if I knew more of Norse mythology so I could have fun identifying myths and gods, but I wasn’t so confused I couldn’t follow the story. There’s a very readable writing style, and the moments of wry humor tickled me. I’d recommend reading excerpts to get a feel for the book before you buy.

P.S I think this is a standalone.

Buy it: Amazon | B&N

Other reviews:
Calico reaction rated it as give it away.
Scooper Speaks “interesting, but [..] a tad bit choppy”

Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

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The Premise: Well. I really think the blurb for this is better than anything I could say because…hooks for hands people:
“In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself. Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her. But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does. “

My Thoughts: At 197 pages (at least that was the length of my ebook), this was a short read that I read in a couple of hours. The narrative goes back and forth between Lucius and Aurora’s points of view, but they are very short passages, sometimes just one sentence. There’s a sort of poetic quality to the writing, as if sentences are used sparingly for maximum dramatic effect.

This is a Beauty and the Beast tale, but there’s a lot more going on than this (although it’s one of my favorite tropes). Lucius and Aurora are both high school students going to a new school. They’re both sophomores and encounter different reactions from the student body.  Lucius is treated badly, both for his appearance and rumors of what he’d done to get his hooks, but Aurora is immediately accepted and well liked. The way it was written, it conveyed high school and family in a believable way. Lucius is an outsider but he didn’t strike me as a real bad boy, despite what he’d done (and this book’s cover). His attitude was more of an intelligent guy who is marginalized by others, but I liked how Aurora trusted her own judgment in him. I could see this happening in any high school with regular students rather than a Hollywood version of high school with the usual cliches. There’s the idea of starting over, which both Aurora and Lucius have to do, going with or against the crowd, rumors, the consequences of your actions and a really sweet romance. And had a couple of laughs at Lucius’s sarcastic sense of humor, especially when he goes shopping with his younger sister and is forced to discover how pitiful his fashion sense is.

When I look at other reviews for this book I see people wanting more to the story, wanted to see more of what happened after it ended, but I didn’t have so much of that problem just because I knew that the book was short, and I guess I had that in the back of my mind. I think I ended liking it better than them. The only minor complaint I’d have is wanting to know a bit more about what Lucius was up to when he blew up his hands. It takes a while before we get there and when we do, his reasons behind it weren’t delved into and I wish they were, but maybe this book didn’t want to focus on the past as much as focus on moving forward.

Overall: I liked this quite a bit. A short, feel-good kind of read with a sweet romance in it.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Reviews elsewhere (seems to be rated average by most, so I think I liked it a better than them. Main issue was wanting more fleshing out to the story):
Genrereviews – 3 pints of blood
Fantastic Book Review 3.5 out of 5 stars
Tempting Persephone wanted a bit more

Win it (contest ends Sept 25th) at Fantastic Book reviews

Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre

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I’ve been dying to read Doubleblind since, oh last year when I finished Wanderlust. So when I was lucky enough to get a early copy of the book (it comes out Sept 29th), it vaulted past everything else on my TBR (past some other books I’ve really wanted to read) and I started reading that night.

Doubleblind is the third book in the Sirantha Jax series:
Book 1: Grimspace (review: LJ | wordpress)
Book 2: Wanderlust (review: LJ | wordpress)

The Premise: Sirantha Jax is finally on Ithiss-Tor, feeling way over her head as an ambassador for the Conglomerate. The Conglomerate needs her to bring the bug-like aliens, the Ithtorians to their side because they need an ally against increased attacks by the Morgut (a species of violent, frenzied eaters that see everyone as food). The Ithtorians are the only species the Morgut have ever respected. A “jumper” and former party-girl, Jax doesn’t feel in her element as someone responsible for such an important task, and March, who has always been at her side isn’t himself to help her.

Excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: I would have finished this much faster if it weren’t for those pesky things like parents coming to visit, going to work, eating, sleeping, blah blah. All I wanted to do was read this book. I love space opera and science fiction romance. This is one of my favorite series. I think I’ve been anticipating it so much that by the time I got it I was getting lightheaded with giddiness and enthusiasm and I had a feeling that perhaps I was talking too much about it. You know that feeling where – internally you’re saying to yourself, why are you still talking, you idiot, now they know you’re crazy and Ann Aguirre will run away from you?! Yes, that was me on twitter this week. Ahem. So instead of doing what I briefly considered (just writing “SQUEE” in big, bold, underlined letters as a review), I’m going to try to be rational.

The thing is, it is so hard to stay quiet while reading this book, because there’s these elements you just want to talk to *someone* about. For me it was character development and the twists in the plot. I think Ann Aguirre has an evil streak. First of all, she wrote Wanderlust and ended it the way she did (if you read Wanderlust, you know what I mean). What she puts her characters through has me looking around desperately for someone so I can discuss what I just read.

First of all, you would think that by now, the third book, March and Jax’s relationship would be stable.  But Aguirre did something that was the equivalent of pressing the “reset” button, and it is delicious. Neither March or Jax are the same people they were at the start of this series. In fact, I’d say that what they’ve been through has pretty much reversed their roles, although their old selves are in there somewhere. The first half of the book had me hanging on to every word or gesture between the two of them. I kept saying “intense”, because that was the word to describe it (besides “AHHH!!”). It was kind of torture, yet I was happy. It was well worth going through the wringer in Wanderlust and here to come out the other side. There was one particular scene early in the book where March and Jax talk that had me completely involved and.. well I just don’t have the words.

Aguirre seems to excel at character growth. Since we’re on Vel’s home planet and diplomacy is the reason for being there, Vel has the biggest role besides Jax, who is the narrator. I was really interested in finding out more about Vel in Wanderlust so I was pleased with learning more about him through Jax.  The others were around less often (they weren’t needed for all the negotiations that Jax attended), but everyone in Jax’s circle is multi-faceted, and you catch a glimpse of inner depth in Jael, Dina, Hit, and Doc. If you’re familiar with Ann Aguirre, you know these aren’t always happy people either. Jax has a past full of scandal and self-preservation, and March is a psychic and soldier who had to do horrible things.

One of my favorite tropes is a stranger in a strange land or a culture-clash story, which we have here as Jax navigates the Ithtorians, some of who don’t consider humans very smart. They remember an earlier delegation which had disastrous results. There are many Ithtorians who would like Jax to fail in her talks, even enough to kill her. That’s why Vel is so important, explaining to Jax subtle gestures such as meaning to a bow. The story also covers what foods to eat, what markings on caripaces mean, and Ithtorian politics. I loved this. I also liked the description of the lush, tropical world the Ithtorians’ surrounded themselves in, which is nicely illustrated on the cover by Scott M. Fischer.

Overall: The best installment yet. If you read Wanderlust, you really *need* to read Doubleblind. And if you haven’t read this series and you like space opera/science fiction romance, I think you should pick it up. Every successive book is better than the last.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Other review:
Genrereviews gave it 4 1/2 pints of blood (I thought this review was spot on).

Originally posted on janicu.vox.com

Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

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Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict
Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

I can’t remember how I first heard of this book, but after getting a used copy, it stayed on my TBR pile until I saw a review at mardelwanda‘s livejournal. Mardel said of the main character, Sylvie: “She’s kind of mean, kind of angry.  But I actually enjoyed reading her angry sarcastic comments.  She’s just so damned mad and tough she doesn’t care who she’s mouthing off too, a god, an erinyes, witch, whoever.  You get the feeling, from hints, that she’s killed a lot of….beings.”

So I was intrigued. A pissed off character. It can go either way. I mean, a character that rubs you the wrong way can make or break a book for the reader, if they’re just jerks, that’s no good, but if there’s depth and development to them and it gets really interesting.

The Premise: Sylvie Lightener is a a private investigator specializing in paranormal cases. She’s been through a lot, including the recent killing of one of her employees, and in an effort to protect the people around her, she’s closing up shop. Just as she does, one last customer comes in.  This man tells her:  “My name is Kevin Dunne. I am the god of Justice. And I need your help.”  He wants Sylvie to find his missing lover, who he can’t find anywhere, but he knows that he is still alive. Since Sylvie isn’t really allowed to say no, she flies to Chicago to investigate.

This is the first in a new series called Shadows Inquires. Lyn Benedict also writes as Lane Robins (Maledicte – which I haven’t read)

My Thoughts: I thought Sins & Shadows was well-written. Good sense of place (Chicago), characters with depth, and good pacing. I’ve seen reviews who disagreed about the pacing, but for me I just picked it up to read the first chapter and then it was 2 hours later and I’d read 150 pages.  It starts out as a mystery, but turns into much more. I think my favorite part was anything to do with the gods and how they worked. Actually, how magic worked. This book had some really interesting ideas that sort of made me go, “Ohhh. Cool.” because it made sense and things fit together. Most of it was about the Greek gods, but the Christian god fits into it as well, and the way Benedict brings in well-known characters associated with the deities (such as the Furies and others) was really nicely done.

The big make-it-or-break-it part of the book is definitely (as you’d guess from what I’d said about pissed off characters) Sylvie. You know how it can be really annoying when the main character is the type who just doesn’t know when to shut up? It’s a really close line here. I can see people finding Sylvie abrasive, but for me, these moments came in spurts (the more danger she’s in, the worse she is). She starts off mean to her loyal employee Alex, trying to get Alex to stay away from the job in an effort to protect her, but then after that Sylvie didn’t really seem that bad until much later on. It actually seems to work with the plot, which I was a little impressed by.  There is an angry voice inside her which she hears, and I was beginning to wonder if that had deeper implications, but you have to read the whole book to see what I’m talking about. Sylvie is a dark heroine, one who is flawed in a way where I disagreed with what she was doing and saying. She’s very motivated by revenge. It clouds her judgement where others look at her in dismay but she refuses to budge in her thinking. Yet this works because she has to deal with the consequences of this, and I want to know if she can redeem herself or not. It’s truly a toss-up, because all through this book, she hasn’t done enough assure me that she can change. It makes me really want to read the next book though and find out. Weird, huh?

One issue I had with the book would probably be that I kept getting the sense that I was reading the second book of a series rather than the first. The first chapter throws you in midstream with Sylvie closing up shop and you don’t really find out why until much later. Then there’s Sylvie and Alex’s shared back story which sounds substantial but only piece together bit and pieces of it.   And there’s Sylvie’s relationship with ISI agent Michael Demalion and other hints dropped here and there about Sylvie’s past. I wanted to know more information but because it wasn’t directly related to the current action, it wasn’t forthcoming. I hope this is remedied in later books.

Overall: Has a pissed off main character, so avoid if you hate that, but I think there’s so much potential there for character growth, and I’m so interested in what the author did here that I’m  looking forward to the next book. (So I guess I kinda liked it).

Other reviews (a mixed bag):
Calico-reaction – rated it “give it away”
Mardelwanda – liked reading the book
Fantasy debut – a neutral review I think..

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Mercy Thompson: Homecoming by Patricia Briggs

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Mercy Thompson Homecoming
Mercy Thompson Homecoming
Patricia Briggs

This is the graphic novel which collects the first four comics in this series. I pre-ordered this one since I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.

Premise: This is a graphic novel prequel to the events in the Mercy Thompson books. It covers Mercy first arriving at the Tri-Cities, getting a job as a mechanic and meeting Zee, Stephan and others. In true Mercy form, she manages to find herself involved with trouble (starting by being attacked by a pack of rogue wolves), but stubbornly works through it in her own way.

My Thoughts: Wow, I’m seeing a lot of negative reviews on Amazon from people who thought this was a novel, not a graphic novel.  Yikes!  Perhaps they pre-ordered *very* early before the cover which says “an original graphic novel set in the best selling Mercy Thompson universe” was put up, and didn’t check Patricia Briggs’ website to see that the next Mercy Thompson novel is Silver Borne and is coming out Spring 2010. :  It’s a bit sad to see it getting a lot of negative reviews because of this.

Anyway, as a graphic novel, I liked that everything is in rich color (not always the case)!  I’ll probably be flipping the book open to stare at the artwork every so often this week. I’m enjoying having images of the characters to look at. It looks like the illustrators were changed halfway from Francis Tsai to Amelia Woo, so there were some subtle differences in how people were drawn, but I wasn’t completely thrown. I did feel that there was an uneven-ness in the way Mercy was drawn. First: she looked asian sometimes, white others, and native american rarely. Then in the first two comics Mercy looks similar to how she looks on the covers by Dan Dos Santos, but in the second two she has lighter hair and skin. I’m not sure why. It’s too bad Mercy looked so different when she’s the main character. Either way, I still liked the artwork, so that’s a minor complaint. I most liked how Adam was drawn by both illustrators. Zee looked the most like I imagined, but maybe more wiry and less stocky than I expected. Stephan looked the *least* like I expected (90’s grunge vamp? didn’t expect that one).

Story-wise, there is a lot of subtle back story hints which fans of the Mercy Thompson novels will like. How Mercy got her lamb necklace and her cat for example, but I do think this graphic novel is better when you have already read the Mercy Thompson books so you can pick up on these things. Bran doesn’t really show up in this book but there is a drawing of him in the extras at the end of the book (the other extra is an interview with Patricia Briggs about working on this GN).

Overall: A nice graphic novel prequel to the books. A must for die-hard Mercy Thompson fans, but if you don’t like graphic novels you may want to skip it. I personally like it a lot and am happy I bought it (*hugs it* but then I’m a big fan of this series). The only minor complaint I have is that the artwork had some inconsistencies and uneven-ness particularly in the way Mercy was drawn.

Links:

The Dabel Brothers are also making the first Alpha and Omega story into comic book form: http://www.dabelbrothers.com/index.php?categoryid=16&p2_articleid=59