Readathon Progress Post

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This post is going to get updated all day, so check back here if you are interested in seeing how I fare throughout today’s Readathon.

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470 pages read

8:00am (Hour 0) – Here we go again. I have coffee in hand and I have 20 pages to go to finish Patricia Brigg’s Wolfsbane which I started last week.

I’m already procrastinating and joining in a mini-challenge for hour 1.

1)Where are you reading from today? Westchester county, NY
2)Three random facts about me…

  1. When I was a kid we had pet chipmunks (they were called squirrels where I was, but in the US, they look like what are called chipmunks here)
  2. I have a scar on my forehead from balancing on some bricks around a garden bed and falling when I was 4 years old.
  3. My favorite color is blue.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? At least 10
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Nah, I’m going to take it easy this time.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? Just have fun!

9:00 (Hour 1) – I’ve read 30 pages and finished Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs. I’ve updated goodreads and paperbackswap and I’ve been playing with html so I can get a progress bar (see above). Now I have to go find my copy of  The Thief so I can start that next.

10:00 (Hour 2) – Um.. I was on twitter, then replied to comments, found The Thief, but for reading – I have actually been researching something for work. 😛 I suppose rereading the same 15-20 pages in a reference book may count as reading? I’m also watching The Husband run around as he’s getting ready to drive up to Vermont for The Tour of the Battenkill and ‘helpfully’ asking if he packed this or that.

12:00 (Hour 4) – I took a break to eat something, say good-bye to The Husband, more tweeting. Read 50 pages of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. Liking it you guys.

2:00 (Hour 6) – Had some lunch, took a shower, had tea and biscuits, read 75 more pages of The Thief. I really am taking it easy this time. Am considering doing laundry..

3:00 (Hour 7) – Not really sure where the time goes. I only read 20 more pages. I guess I was cleaning up the apartment a little bit and checking if the laundry room is free (it’s not).

5:00 (Hour 9) – Well I’m on page 178 of The Thief, so I’ve read uh, 33 more pages in 2 hours. This is pretty bad eh. I don’t know what it is, but I’m SO ANTSY this readathon! I have done my laundry. Folded. Had dinner. Talked to the husband on the phone (he reached Vermont fine). Cleaned the bathroom some more. Feeling a bit more like I can sit and read now though. Maybe.

7:00 (Hour 11) – Is it seriously 7? Yikes. So… I vacuumed. I know, there is something wrong with me! I need to stop cleaning and read! *slaps self*. In other news, the sister called so that was a good half hour taken away from reading time. And I watched an episode of Empty Nest. Another half hour. I read 30 more pages of the book.

9:00 (Hour 13) – Just past halfway! I have finished The Thief! I guessed part of the ending but I still liked how it went. And I read the 16 pages of extras in my copy (loving the book recommendations by the author!) So now I’ve read 88 more pages, for a total of 326. Hey, getting better there.

12:00 (Hour 16) – Finished Calamity Jack, a graphic novel by Shannon & Deal Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale. 144 pages, so still going.

1:00 (Hour 17) – I’ve been having cuddle time with the cat. He’s on top of me right now, with his face in my neck. Luckily I have a laptop and don’t need to see the keys to type. For the past hour I’ve just been surfing the net. I’m tired and I have to get up tomorrow and work. I think the idea of that has made my mind not fully engaged in the readathon this time. Oh well. I’m off to bed!

Just not feeling it

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Remember I wrote up a list of my favorite tropes? Well, earlier on this month I was talking to a blogger who isn’t so interested in the Jane Austen/regency-type books.  This is OK, we all have different things that work for us and things that don’t, but it got me thinking: what are those books that I have no interest in reading? I’m going to borrow a phrase from Angie, and call it “lacking a gene”, because these are tropes that a lot of people like, but when I see them, I’m making a face like when my mom tells me how delicious marrow or chicken feet or durian is and how I’m missing out. Pass.

These may shock you.

King Arthur/Camelot

Knights of the round table, magic, a young boy who becomes a king who unites the land. Sounds great in theory, but I don’t have the gene. I’ve read The Mists of Avalon, in high school. Granted my tastes may have changed since then, but as far as I recall, it was OK, but I don’t remember loving it. I remember that it was very long and I was making myself read it. And I think that’s the part of problem I seem to have: it’s never one book. It’s a SERIES. If it is one book, its a big tome. And King Arthur dies at the end, doesn’t he?  I read the books waiting for him to be betrayed and cut off from his men, get a killing blow, and then return to the lake, never to be seen again. The only book that worked for me in this category is The Once and Future King (also Cabot’s Avalon High, but that was a modern retelling so I don’t think it counts). Note that neither book deals with King Arthur’s death. Which is why when I read The Book of Merlyn, also by T. H. White, I didn’t like it as much.  I have no interest in the Merlin mini-series.

Zombies


Out of all the supernatural beings, this is my least favorite. I’ll take mummies over zombies. I’ve read and reviewed books about zombies here, and I can objectively read a book with them, but mm, not my favorite supernatural creature. They’re dead and shuffle-y, and the eating brain thing is gross. The thing is, the past couple of years, they’ve become SO POPULAR (should I blame Shaun of the Dead?) that they make surprise appearances in books that don’t give you a clue that zombies will be in them. They’re trendy now! This is where I, as an old fogey, stamp my cane.

I am perfectly willing to be converted though. I remember that over ten years ago, I was a straight fantasy girl. I avoided contemporary fantasy like the plague, and I tried to read a book where an elf somehow through some inter-dimensionality was in New York City, and it was a DNF for me. That was my first foray into urban fantasy. Which I now love and read all the time, but I can’t seem to convert my brother, who complains that he doesn’t like “the real world in his fantasy books”.

How about you? Have any “just not feeling it” tropes?

The Espressologist by Kristina Springer

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The Espressologist
Kristina Springer

Bookcloseouts is the cause of many impulse buys – the prices on their discount books make it very easy for me to try out a new-to-me author whose book I don’t see in my library catalog. During one of my periodic checks for Jane Austen modern-day retellings (shh, it is my weakness, don’t judge), I came across a mention of the Emma-like heroine of The Espressologist. Before you get excited – this is not a retelling of Emma, but the comparison was made because the heroine of this book, Jane, is a young matchmaker who does a great job matching others, but not herself.
 
The Premise: Jane Turner is a barista at Wired Joe’s, who spends her time on an idle hobby – taking notes about how a person’s favorite coffee drink matches their personality. She’s a senior in high-school with a final semester of fluffy subjects to take and a couple of college credit classes in community college, but with all that and a job, she enjoys figuring people out based on their drinks. It doesn’t take long before she realizes that her personality test can be used to hook up her friends based on their drink orders. She even matches her best friend Em, with Cam, the cute boy in her English class. When her manager, Derek gets wind of Jane’s Espressology, it becomes a marketing device for their coffee shop. But why is Jane feeling unsettled?
 
Read an excerpt of The Espressologist via google books
 
My Thoughts: At 184 easy pages, this is another short read (I’d been in the mood for short reads this last week). I had no trouble reading this book in one sitting. I would call this a light, untroubled story. It was sweet and passes the time. I wouldn’t necessarily call it shallow, but the story is light on complications. Jane is the narrator and she describes her day to day goings on, where her job and the observations are the highlight of her days. We meet Jane’s regulars, her best friend Em, her co-workers, and even a nemesis in the form of a high school mean girl who discovers where Jane works.
 
The behind-the-scenes look at a local coffee shop was appealing – just the description of the drinks made me want one, and it seems like the author did her research in that area. And this setting is a good one because the most interesting part of this story has to be the concept of matching personalities with drinks. There are several examples, and some of them are quite funny, including the one the book starts off with, the “Large, Non-fat, Four-shot, Caffe Latte”, which Jane calls the “Cocky sex-deprived butthead guy drink.” I had fun reading about the customers that went with each drink and Jane’s attempts at matchmaking, which she turns out to be very good at. Other than that though, there is relatively low conflict in Jane’s life. She may have to deal with snarky comments from her high school nemesis and she has trouble finding a guy for herself, but these aren’t life changers. When something does happen that knocks Jane for a loop, it’s settled quickly. I found the coffee and matchmaking concept memorable, but not really the rest of the story. I was hoping the romance in this one would be a bigger part of the story, but it ends up feeling underdeveloped.
 
Overall: I liked the concept of coffee and matchmaking, and that part of the story enlivened the plot, but outside of that concept, The Espressologist isn’t very meaty.  I still found it a fun little book, but a passing diversion more than anything else.
 
Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository
 
Other reviews:
The Hiding Spot – C+
Amaterasu Reads – Shining. 4 (out of 5)

The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt

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The Sevenfold Spell
The Sevenfold Spell
Tia Nevitt

There was some buzz about this novella a few months ago, so I requested an eARC for review from Carina Press through Netgalley.

 

The Premise: This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, told from the point of view of a young woman and spinner who is affected by the curse. Talia is a plain, not very attractive girl, with limited prospects, but she has a nice relationship with Willard, a farmer’s son, and she hopes to marry him one day. These simple dreams are shattered when the princess of the land is cursed by an evil fairy, and all spinning wheels are ordered destroyed, including Talia and her mother’s. This is the end of their livelihood and, with their reduced circumstances, Willard’s father uses the opportunity to renege on his promise to let his son marry Talia. Instead, Willard is destined for the monastery.
 
Read an excerpt of A Sevenfold Spell here
 
My Thoughts: I really liked the premise of this one – an ordinary girl who doesn’t seem much, with her simple desire to marry the not-so-attractive himself Willard has her life turned upside down because of how the Royal family’s life affects the everyday people. Talia’s anger and grief over what her life has been reduced to is a palpable thing, and when she has almost no income, and she’s lost Willard, she grasps at what she can get. So before Willard leaves for the monastery, she gives herself to him, in the hope that at least she will have a child.
 
It is around here where the story goes from a regular fantasy tale into more erotic/steamy territory. Several trysts are recounted in detail, with Talia uncaring of Willard’s brother’s overhearing them, or of the village knowing. The creative ways they’ve found to be together are described. I don’t know if this is my prudish side coming out or just not being a fan of this much explicit sex in my stories, but this is where I sort of got bored and stopped reading. I guess I wasn’t expecting this ebook to have this level of sex in it because it was labeled as being in the “Fae, Fantasy, Legends & Mythology” category. I understood that Talia was trying to hold on to Willard in some way, but after the first couple of encounters, I got the idea and recounting all the sex didn’t seem to add much to the story.
 
A few months later I figured I would pick up the novella again, and once Willard has left to join the order, the sex continues. Talia is looking for a connection similar to that she had with Willard, and she enjoys having sex, so she uses her body to pay for favors from their next door neighbor, and describes getting a reputation and gives us a general idea of her numerous trysts. What kept me going was that outside of all this, there are hints of the Sleeping Beauty tale. Characters familiar to that story appear, and I wondered where it was going and how Talia fit into the story. I’m glad I kept reading because just when the story seemed to be getting darker, suddenly something happens which manages to propel the story forward into a happy ending with a twist. It all ends on a sweet note.
 
Overall: Not a bad way to pass the time, and at 97 pages, this is a short read and it has a unique spin on a well-known fairy tale, but it’s heavy on the sexual content, which almost kept me from finishing this short piece. I’m glad I pushed on because of the last part of this story, which had a nice twist on the happy ever after.
 
Buy: Amazon (kindle) | Carina (PDF/ePub)
 
Other reviews:
Fantasy Cafe – 7/10
The Book Pushers – B-
The Book Smugglers (Joint review) – both gave it a 6 (Good)
Fantasy Literature – 4/5
One More Page – 2/5
Stella Matutina – 3.5 stars (out of 5)
A Buckeye Girl Reads – positive

Outside In by Maria V. Snyder

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Outside In
Outside In
Maria V. Snyder

I really enjoyed Outside In when it came out last year so I’ve been looking forward to the second book for a while. I snapped this one up on Netgalley.

*** The premise of this book has spoilers for the ending of Outside In, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, go check out the review for the first book: https://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/livejournal_com.gifhttps://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/wordpress.jpg ****


Have they gone yet? OK.

The Premise: Trella and her band of Sheep have managed to overthrow the dictatorship of the Pop Cops and the Insiders now know they are in a giant spaceship and that Outside is really Outer Space. The good news for everyone is that their ship has many more levels than they previously thought – plenty of room to expand, but the whole ship suffers from growing pains as a result of the recent changes and revelations. A committee has been created to lead the ship, but it can’t seem to agree on anything, scrubs and uppers still treat each other with the same disdain, and Trella wants nothing more than to explore and let others take care of the current mess.

Read Chapter 1 of Outside In here

My Thoughts: The story begins again with Trella trying to get back into her old habits – which are to do her own thing and let others fend for themselves. Although Trella notes that the committee is having difficulties and that there is a general sense of dissatisfaction on the ship, all she wants to do is let someone else take care of the problems for once. She doesn’t feel comfortable making decisions responsible for the people of the ship, but when saboteurs appear, Trella doesn’t hesitate to jump in and help. That Trella is willing to risk her life for people on the ship, but not willing to lead them, frustrates Riley. This frustration is compounded by Trella’s usual reluctance to let him know what is going on.

I thought that the first half of this book was promising, albeit without the same sort of pull that the first book had on me. I felt like there was a little awkwardness in its execution – a lot of dialogue and a plot that feels oddly episodic (a string of events following each other with cliffhanger-ish endings to each that segue into the next event). I had mixed feelings about Riley’s character in this book as well – his reaction to being unhappy with Trella didn’t sit well with me, but I was willing to see where their relationship went.  I still felt that the story had some interesting ideas that I was willing to follow where the plot led. I liked that things were not easy for the Insiders – after what happened in Inside In, things aren’t all solved. Instead there’s chaos as people try to figure out what to do next and what their roles are. Although the story wasn’t as strong as the first book’s, the science fiction concepts are interesting enough as an introduction to the genre, and comparing it to a similar book with people in a spaceship (Across the Universe), I felt like I liked this book better. There are a lot more secondary characters which influence the running of the ship and the conflicting personalities made me hope for some compelling drama. The mystery of who was behind the explosions and why also captured my imagination. I wondered what it would take to fix these problems and to get the people of the ship to band together.

Then the concept of Outsiders is introduced. (This is not a spoiler, it’s mentioned in the back blurb).

At first I was still relatively optimistic about this. It seemed to be just the igniter for Trella’s determination to save her ship and for the Insiders to band together. But then the plot sort of dissolved into a bunch of vignettes in which Trella moves forward only to find another setback. One disaster followed another but they happened so quickly, without pause between each that there was no room for Trella to do any self-analysis or any contemplation before she’s moving on into the next fray.  The constant action felt forced, and it made events blur into one another in a meaningless jumble. By the time the end came, I found myself disappointed in the direction of the story.

To be honest, in the midst of reading this book, I read a review of it over at the Book Smugglers where Thea pointed out “once the outsiders become known, they change the trajectory of the story, shifting the focus from internal strife to banding together against an external threat – which feels like a writerly cop-out”. I don’t think I am one to be influenced by others opinions but I did read this before the Outsiders began to really influence the plot – take that as you may. I still don’t dislike this book as much as Thea ended up disliking it, but I did end up agreeing with her on the above point.

What compounds my disappointment beyond feeling like using the Outsiders was an easy way out is that with this addition to the story we have the first book all over again. All you have to do is replace the Outsiders with the Pop Cops and the Trava family. Trella begins with her usual exploration, she ignores others, she is pulled into current events, she and others unite against a common enemy.  I don’t see anyone else remarking on this, so I am definitely in the minority in seeing this pattern. At any rate, I wish I didn’t see it, because I’d prefer if Outside In was more distinct from its predecessor. When I compare this book to the first one, it makes me wonder if the series was planned beyond book 1. There doesn’t seem to be a long-running story ARC, just a sort of repetition of the same concepts.

Overall: I have mixed feelings.  This is still a fine story for newcomers to the science fiction genre. If you loved Beth Revis’ Across the Universe, I’d recommend this – I like it as much if not better. It has plenty of urgency and action as well as a twisty plot. However, Outside In suffered from an awkwardness that I didn’t find in the first book, and the direction of the story was disappointing. I wanted things to be less pat, and more complicated. I wanted harder lessons. I’m not sure how others would weigh the mix of likes and dislikes I had, but they sort of balanced each other out and put this book under “it was OK” in my mind. So I recommend the first book but feel that your mileage may vary on the second.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
All Things Urban Fantasy – 4 bats (out of 5)
Galleysmith – mixed review (I had similar feelings to hers)
Squeaky Books – 5/5
Presenting Lenore – 4 zombie chickens (out of 5)
Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks – 3.5 (out of 5)
Good Books and Good Wine – positive
Tez Says – positive
Larissa’s Bookish Life – 4 Loveys (out of 5)
Reading with Tequila – 5 shots (out of 5)
The Book Smugglers – 4 (Really Bad)
Genrereviews – 3.5 pints of blood (out of 5)
Calico_reaction – Like, not love

Jane Eyre 2011

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I’ve been dying to see the new Jane Eyre adaption for a while now, and when it came out, I was bummed to find that it wasn’t playing nearby. I live near NYC, but taking a train for 40 min to an hour each way, getting on the subway to get to a theater, etc etc = dude, too much work for a movie, even if it is Jane Eyre.  So after ranting sadly to the Mister, he pointed me at this list of theatres, and I saw that the movie would be playing in a town only 15 minutes away on 3/25.  YES!  I’m so glad that we tend to get lucky with the limited release movies over here.


Anyway. I liked it. I think this version did a really good job with the creepy parts of the story, and the locations used were spot on. There was a dark gloominess in the visuals in this version of Jane Eyre that I liked, but it wasn’t overbearing – it contrasted nicely to the scenes with light.  There was a time or two where there were hand-held camera shots, which is not my favorite device to show agitation of the characters, but thankfully it was only used a time or two.

I thought that Micheal Fassbender did a good job in his Rochester. Grumpy and a little intimidating yet with a glint of humor and pleased surprise when he interacted with Jane. I was (like many I think), worried about Mia Wasikowska’s portrayal of Jane after her performance in Alice in Wonderland, but her blankness worked when it came to Jane’s reserve. If I were to nitpick I would have preferred to see a little bit more nuance in her facial expressions. She can’t seem to convey more than a sort of outward calm, slight confusion, or utter crying upset. I thought the actor who played the younger Jane Eyre was better, to tell you the truth. Wasikowska had some great lines though – I think Jane got the most laughs in this movie for her deadpan responses to Rochester.


The move was 115 minutes (just under two hours), and it did well in showing the story, although there was a scene that was hoping to see that I didn’t, and I wished it was a bit longer because I felt like although it did show Jane and Rochester falling for one another, it still felt a bit truncated.

I have to say I don’t have the 2006 Masterpiece Theatre miniseries version of Jane Eyre to compare it to. I suspect I will like the miniseries better just because with these adaptations, I find that I like the longer versions better. And for the response of a total Jane Eyre newbie, my husband liked it too. I was afraid he wouldn’t, since he fell asleep during North & South (the horror).

ETA: Husband says that because the movie began with Jane hearing her name being called in the wind, he thought she hearing voices and thus crazy. He also felt like the movie didn’t show enough of Rochester/Jane falling in love, but this only served to prove that Jane was insane. HAH. I’m so amused.

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Shades of Milk and Honey
Shades of Milk and Honey
Mary Robinette Kowal

I’ve been eying this book since last year, particularly after this review at The Book Pushers when I basically realized that this was a regency romance with magic in it. When it was nominated for the Nebula Awards, I joined the Nebula Readathon at The Book Smugglers as an excuse to read this.
 
The Premise: (I’m going to go with the book blurb on this one) “Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a version of Regency England where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.
 
Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right–and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.”
 
Read an excerpt of Shades of Milk and Honey here
 
My Thoughts: This book really feels like a big ol’ homage to regency romances of Jane Austen’s era. From the get-go I was struck by how regency-eque Shades of Milk and Honey was and how often it uses the same conventions as Jane Austen’s stories. We begin by being introduced to the Ellsworths, a respected family with two daughters, a hysterical mother, and a doting father who would like nothing more than to see his daughters happily settled. Jane is the sensible and somewhat plain older sister, and at twenty-eight she’s resigned herself to being on the shelf. Melody is the pretty one, and at eighteen she has a much higher chance of getting married, but as the younger sister, she’s also more impulsive and reckless than Jane. The Ellsworths spend most of their time visiting their friends nearby and going to parties, and proper manners are always assumed. Sounds familiar no? Yes, it’s like a mix of every Jane Austen novel out there. Jane Austen era spellings like ‘shew’, ‘chuse’, ‘teaze’ and ‘nuncheon’ to add to that feel.
 
What makes Shades of Milk and Honey not just a remix of Austen, is the idea of glamour, a type of small magic that is used for pretty illusions. With glamour, a lady may create a subtle scent in the air, embellish a painting, record and play music, and even enhance her own appearance. There is no end to its uses, although it is considered mainly an artistic skill, not a dangerous one. It is a skill of high merit in well-bred ladies of society, much like the ability to play music or paint.
 
Jane is particularly skilled at glamour. I was hoping that Jane’s skill in glamour would be more essential to the story than it was, but it seems to be merely there as an interesting skill that gains Jane admiration from those around her. In fact, it is the quality that she is most admired for, and her sister harbors some jealousy because of it, despite her own pretty face and easy grace, which Jane lacks. There’s a bit of sisterly competition when it comes to men because of the their differences. Both girls share an admiration for a neighbor, Mr. Dunkirk, and he is a point of contention, despite never giving either sister a reason to hope. At times, the little jabs at each other got a little nasty, at others they are remorseful for their previous behavior. It was a bit of a see-saw, which I suppose shows the complications of sisterhood, but I wish their relationship was delved into a little further, beyond their little squabbles.
 
On the other hand, none of the relationships in this book were delved into. The story is very readable and I was easily drawn into Jane’s world, but beyond the social obligations and underlying drama of who may be courting who, I felt a lack of connection between Jane and the other characters. Jane feels more like an observer than a participant in this story. She watches as her sister flirts with gentlemen such as Mr. Dunkirk, and the newly returned Captain Livingston. She sees her mother go into yet another fit of hysteria and commiserate with similarly afflicted Mrs. Marchand. She wonders what secrets her friends Beth and Mr. Dunkirk are hiding. She wonders at the surly Mr. Vincent who creates beautiful works of glamour but doesn’t seem to like her very much. Internally she has a lot of thoughts about her glamour and what people around her are doing, but she doesn’t voice them. She doesn’t act until she is forced to by others, and about 75% into the book, I realized that I wasn’t really sure where the story was going. I felt like Shades of Milk and Honey was circling the airport. I wondered aloud “When are you bringing this baby in?”.
 
It’s not until she is drawn in by an unexpected suitor and by the threat of family ruin that the story really gets anywhere, and this happens far into the story. I did like where it went, but some of the excitement and interaction at the end of the book would have been nice to see in the rest of the story. I also felt like the romance Jane had was trying to replicate a Darcy and Elizabeth romance, with what looks like initial dislike becomes something more, but I must have missed the subtle growth of their relationship, because when the declarations of love happened, I really wasn’t sure why. Jane spends so little time with her eventual paramour, that the romance, while very sweet, didn’t feel backed up by emotional growth.
 
Overall: Shades of Milk and Honey reminds me of the stories of Jane Austen in that it has characters that spend their time visiting one another and going to parties, and proper manners are expected. It also has a lot of plot points that hark back to the Jane Austen books: sisterly bonds, strawberry picking, men after dowries, and secret engagements. I think that my love for this stuff kept me reading at a happy clip. For this alone, I’d call the book “good”, but beyond the Jane Austen trappings, I wanted more out of the characters and plot (and more out of the concept of glamour), so it didn’t move past being merely entertaining for me.
 
P.S. Does anyone know the significance of the title of this book? Is it a reference to the biblical phrase ” “a land flowing with milk and honey“? OK, that would make sense…
 
Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository
 
Other reviews:
Jawas Read, Too! – 8 (out of 10)
The Book Smugglers – 6 (good)
SFF Chat – “didn’t turn out to be exactly what I had been hoping for, it was a pleasurable way to pass a couple of hours”
The Book Pushers – 5 stars (out of 5)
Fantasy Book Critic – A- (“a very light novel that epitomizes “beach reading” for me”)
Christina_reads – Didn’t live up to expectations
Stella Matutina – 3.5 stars (really liked it)
I love this book trailer

 

Children of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

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Children of Scarabaeus
Sara Creasy
Sara Creasy

I think that thanks to a couple of influential bloggers, this series is on more people’s radars, and that makes me happy. I really enjoyed Song of Scarabaeus when I read it in September last year (https://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/livejournal_com.gifhttps://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/wordpress.jpg), and when I heard that it’s sequel, Children of Scarabaeus was available on NetGalley, I requested it ASAP.
 
**** mild spoilers for Song of Scarabaeus ****
 
The Premise: In this continuation of the story that follows Edie Sha’nim and her bodyguard Finn, Edie has freed herself from her kidnappers and her goal is to use what she’s recently learned to help Fringe worlds with their reliance on Crib technology to keep their environments viable. Unfortunately, her freedom is short-lived, as the Crib government catches up with Edie and her friends, and reclaims her as their property. Edie has to cooperate or Finn suffers, so she reluctantly goes back to work as a biocyph for Liv Natesa’s pet project on a new terraformed world named Prisca. During the project she makes some startling discoveries about what the Crib is up to, including the use of children as their new breed of cypertecks. In the meantime she’s also asked to return to the place where it all began for her: the planet Scarabaeus.
 
Read the first chapter of Children of Scarabaeus here (pdf)
 
My Thoughts: I was anticipating this read so much that it leaped over all others in my TBR and landed on the top of my queue, and then I read it all in one day. I’m happy to say it felt very readable and I had no inclination to put it down once I started. This book had much of the same sort of twists and turns as the first, with escapes and captures, spaceship crashes, deadly planetary disasters and wild animals. Not to mention the manipulations of Natesa, who wants Edie on her project, which promises terraforming at a much faster pace than ever before and of Colonel Theron who wants Edie to work for him on Scarabaeus. Like the first book, Children of Scarabaeus has a lot going on. In fact, it surprises me how much happens in it within a relatively short number of pages (my eARC is numbered at 322 pages).
 
Edie and Finn begin the story with the same relationship they had when Song of Scarabaeus ended, which was a place where they trust each other completely, but things are still new and Edie isn’t quite sure where she stands. It doesn’t help matters that the chip in Finn’s head (the one that could kill him if he’s too far from Edie) causes emotional feedback that makes romantic entanglements complicated, or that Finn is a hard man for Edie to read. Edie wants Finn by her side, but she also wants him to be free, and not have to be by her side, especially when her skills make her a resource everyone wants. I wasn’t sure how things were going to go for them with their general lack of communication, but this book moves them forward a lot more than the first did, and the romance was not as understated as the first installment.
 
The descriptions of the biocyph and cyperteck technology as Edie sees it continues to be fascinating. I really love how it’s described visually instead of trying to explain the technical details behind it. When the cyperteck children are introduced, I liked how they related to the code differently from even Edie and other ‘tecks. Instead of understanding things visually, they go by sound and by feeling. The code is something living that needs fixing so it can be “well”, and the children instinctively work as a team to patch the code up. They have no idea what the code does, all they are interested in is the feel of the code itself.
 
Children of Scarabaeus does a very good job in tying up all the loose plot strings left over from Song of Scarabaeus. There were a few times where I thought the story was going to go one way (and this probably would have lengthened the plot), but Edie and Finn instead are steered towards their destinies. The way things are satisfyingly tied up leads me to believe that this series is now complete, which is in a way disappointing. This is a case where I would be really happy for more books and more adventures with Edie and Finn. I don’t really think that Children of Scarabaeus rushes to a conclusion, but it upon me before I wanted it to be. I wanted to spend more time, leisurely exploring the galaxy and watching the relationship develop between Edie and Finn. I could have used a book or two between book 1 and the conclusion here, and I think that would have also sidestepped the feeling that the plot twists and deaths in the story were a means to get to the appropriate ending within the pages allowed. I hope that the next series Sara Creasy writes next gets to be longer. And this is from a girl who balks at long series, so do not take my words lightly.
 
Overall: I really loved Song of Scarabaeus, and this is a worthy sequel that has the same action and awesome world building as it’s predecessor. It comes pretty close to pleasing me in the same way the first book does, but it has one handicap – it has to complete the story in one book, which means the romance and the complex plot are tied up before I was ready. I think the author did a good job at making these things satisfying (particularly the ending), but I would have been fine if I had to wait one more book (or two) for it. Thumbs up for this series – get both books.
 
Children of Scarabaeus comes out on March 29th.
 
Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository
 
Other reviews:
It’s early yet..

Ghosts & Echoes by Lyn Benedict

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Ghosts & Echoes
Ghosts & Echoes
Lyn Benedict

I’d read Sins & Shadows about a year and a half ago (https://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/livejournal_com.gifhttps://i0.wp.com/i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/jayamei2/wordpress.jpg) and have been meaning to read the second book, Ghosts & Echoes for a while, but didn’t get around to it until the recent Border’s bookstore closings where I picked up a copy. This is the rare urban fantasy where the POV was not in first person, but in third!

 

The Premise: Sylvie Lightner is worn out after what happened in Chicago recently, and she’s taken a long vacation, but she’s back in Miami now and back to work. Unfortunately for her, her desire to take on an easy case, one without complications and potential heartache is thwarted by two new clients. One says he is possessed by a ghost, and the other what’s Sylvie to catch a band of thieves. Both cases are more closely linked to Sylvie than she is happy with.
 
Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 of Ghosts & Echoes here
 
My Thoughts: This is an urban fantasy series with a very human heroine. Human but for a special ancestor, which leaves Sylvie with a secret voice in her head that tells her what to do to survive. Otherwise, she is normal, and has to use human means to track down problems in the Magicus Mundi, the supernatural world that most people don’t know exists. She is the one people come to if they want strange problems solved. It’s a very specialized P.I. service, and one that barely covers the bills, but Sylvie knows a lot about the dark magics and woo-woo that exists in the world. Due to this expertise, she gets two new cases that no one else would be able to figure out. Adam Wright, a Chicago beat cop finds Sylvie through a dream – he has a ghost inside him and wants the ghost out. The other case is a series of robberies, where the thieves seem to be able to walk through walls and doors. Sylvie uses a mix of legwork and special contacts (mixed with a bit of threatening) to solve these cases.

In the first book, Sylvie struck me as an angry heroine. There are reasons for this – it’s because of what was happening around her, and because of her own particular genetic legacy. In Sins & Shadows, this worked for me within the story and I wondered how Sylvie would grow over the series. In Ghosts & Echoes, this anger is still there, and yes, it still works when her anger is due to her frustrations in being one step behind in stopping the evil around her, but there were times when her attitude rubbed me the wrong way (and more than it did in the first book). I’d noted before that Sylvie is perfectly willing to be rude for someone’s own good (like preventing her assistant from being in danger), but maybe in her home territory, I wasn’t expecting her to be like this to everyone. I do think that she tries to hold herself back, but when she is pressed for time, she doesn’t have the patience for niceties. Somehow her lack of empathy towards people who weren’t her friends and family felt more pronounced in this installment, and I found it more difficult to empathize with her.
 
This darkness extends to Sylvie’s cases. Both of them turn out to be related to her personally. The ghost that is possessing her client is someone Sylvie knows. One of the thieves that are robbing local stores is someone Sylvie knows. Her moral dilemma here is who deserves her loyalty more – the people that she loves, or her clients who need her help. Her choices aren’t easy. There was a balancing game, and I think that the consequences reflect real life: it never goes as planned. There is definitely a high amount of emotional charge in this story because of Sylvie’s conflict and the personal slant of her cases. I really identified with Sylvie’s frustration in dealing with the people involved. This is all good, I want to be involved in the characters lives and to be emotionally connected.
 
The problem I had with Ghosts & Echoes is that I was ultimately unhappy with how dark it became, which is a very personal reaction. I understood what Sylvie was trying to do and from a logical point of view, I’m not really sure how she could have changed how things turned out, but from a visceral point of view, I like to end a story feeling like although there is bad, the good outweighs it, and in Ghosts & Echoes I’m not sure I liked where the scales stopped. There was a resolution and I’m sure it’s a resolution that worked for many readers, if not most, but I was left feeling unsettled.
 
Overall: A really well-written and gritty urban fantasy. I recommend this series for UF fans who want a realistic story and don’t mind a flawed and abrasive heroine. I would put this book in the “like” column for the writing and world building alone, but my emotional reaction to the overall plot (more bitter than sweet for me) puts it in the “OK” column. I’m wavering between my heart and mind on how to rate the book.
 
I want to know what happens next to Sylvie, but I’d be reluctant to read Book 3 if I find out that the story continues to be this disconcerting.  A review on Amazon suggests that there is a third book coming out but I haven’t seen any news about it’s title or publication date. Thanks to Scooper, I learned the third book is Gods & Monsters, out next month.
 
Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository
 
Other reviews:
Literary Escapism – positive
Fantasy Literature – 5/5