So for a $15 amazon GC, I'm wondering – what is the book or books you are most anticipating this year? Comment with your answer and you're entered! I'll announce the winner on friday.
Random $15 Amazon giftcard giveaway
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Amusing reviews I’ve read today
OK for some reason today is the day for things that make me snort. Two reviews for books I've read had me chortling away:
A Twilight Review here: http://mekosuchinae.livejournal.com/39690.html
This is so snarky.
and
A review of Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair here:
http://thebooksmugglers.com/2009/03/guest-dare-games-of-command-by-linnea-sinclair.html
This reviewer liked the book a lot (which is good because this is my favorite Sinclair so far) and she still made me laugh.
And for good measure here's a short story that pokes fun at the idea of certain kinds of heroes: http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2009/03/18/one-hero-doesnt-fit-all/
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Takes a Holiday is the third of the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. In this series a werewolf with a talk radio show introduces the world to the supernatural.
My earlier reviews:
Book1: Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Book2: Kitty Goes to Washington
Because of the events at the end of Kitty Goes to Washington, Kitty is ready to take a break, so she's rented a house in southern Colorado. It's practically in the middle of nowhere, which allows her wolf half to roam and her human half to hide and write a book. Unfortunately those plans aren't going so well. Kitty hasn't written much at all and her wolf is taking over more than she'd like. Then Kitty begins to feel watched, and she wakes up to find dead animals and blood on her front porch. Local authorities are unhelpful at determining the source of the problem, and things only seem to get creepier as time goes by.
My thoughts: Despite the ongoing mystery of what is targeting Kitty, if I were to classify this book I'd call it the relationship book. Kitty's friends Ben and Cormac make significant appearances, and they begin to be cemented as major characters in this series. Reading back on my opinions of the earlier two books where I was saying that there was very little to no romance but I suspected a potential love triangle – well this book changes that. It actually surprised me that what happened occurred in this book when there was little prior attention to these things before, but I wasn't complaining. I found it refreshing the way Kitty addresses some of the questions that are brought up head on, but that doesn't mean things are resolved. I'm certain that things can (and will) change at any moment. I'm trying to be vague and not spoilery here so I'll just say that I really enjoyed the way things progressed.
Another one of the things I mentioned in my last review was about Kitty's view of her wolf half. I'd said it was interesting how Kitty in her wolf form was written in the third person while the rest of the book was in first. In Kitty Takes a Holiday some light is shed on how Kitty views her wolf half when she talks to a newly made werewolf that helped me understand her situation some more. I really like how information in this series is not dumped all at once and instead is dispensed in the natural course of the story.
A third interesting thing, was this book had a very different type of plot from the other two. Rather than the last third of the book being where the action is, the action happens earlier when we discover the cause of Kitty's disturbing visitations. The consequences of the action is what gets dealt with at the end of the book, and boy is it a doozy. Again; I was surprised.
Overall: This was a really good installment of the series and so far my favorite book. I was blown away at some developments and I there will be significant impacts to story arcs, so it's worth reading just to get to this point. Also of the three books I think this one also had elements that I found truely menacing, especially in one particular scene where Ben and Kitty do some investigation, even when what happened was in broad daylight! I am really looking forward to reading Kitty and The Silver Bullet, the next book in the series.
Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot
This was another library choice because I wanted to read something light for a bit. Pants on Fire is a standalone young adult. This one is typical Meg Cabot - just a fun read, but I didn't connect very well to the protagonist/narrator. Anyway, it was cute. I keep thinking this to myself after reading young adult like this: maybe I'm too old for young adult books. But then I pick up another one.
Katie Ellison lives in Connecticut in the seaside town of Eastport. Everyone there is crazy about Quahogs. That's both the bivalve and the high school football team. Secretly Katie hates the tast of quahog, and she doesn't think that football is that great either, but because she wants to keep people happy, she never voices this opinion. She's a well practiced liar and just tells people what she thinks they want to hear. Naturally she's very popular. This year she's running for Quohog Princess, while spending her free time kissing boys – either he jock of a boyfriend Seth, or the guy she's running around with behind his back, Eric. I know, she really doesn't sound very likeable, but somehow it gets pulled off, probably because Eric and Seth get painted as really only good kissers but other than that not complementary for Katie.
Suddenly Katie's life gets distrupted by the arrival of Tommy Sullivan. Tommy left town in eighth grade under shocking circumstances, and Katie can't believe he's back. She also can't believe how great he looks and how tall he is, but she's convinced he's after her for revenge.
Overall: While I had a hard time believing that Katie was actually considered a brainiac in her school what with the addiction to making out with people, and being so bubbleheaded about certain things, she was overall likeable enough for me to keep reading, and eventually Katie does redeem herself for her past actions. It was a fun story and overall the romance was cute, though I cringed in certain places (contact embarrasment)!
What happened with Tommy and why Katie is so paranoid about his return is also not fully revealed and only hinted at throughout the book. This drove me slightly batty until all was revealed near the end (hmm, very sneaky Cabot).
Made To Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong
I can see the Nadia Stafford series as a tv show. It falls into the same category as a crime drama like CSI – shot mostly at night, but it also has the action of a spy thriller like Alias or La Femme Nikita. Despite this Armstrong series not being urban fantasy like her Otherworld books, I think it still has Armstrong traits – a smart heroine, a dark but not too dark storyline, plenty of action, plus some romantic elements. It's one of my favorite series out right now.
The basic background is this: Nadia is an ex-cop who left her law enforcement career amidst a very public shaming for killing a suspect in her custody. Knowing the the deepset trauma in her childhood that Nadia had never been able to come to peace with, her reasons for the killing become obvious. Of course, growing up in a family of cops, Nadia finds herself alone after this act because none of them agree with her method of justice. Now Nadia's the owner of a hunting lodge and channels her passion into a secret side job as a the contract killer "Dee". "Dee" works for one mob family, earning extra cash to keep her business afloat, but she only kills people who got away with some crime that deserves punishment.
Surrounding Nadia is a small group of people. Her hunting lodge employees on one side, her mentor Jack and a few people in the hitman business on the other. So when the teenage girl who Nadia has been paying to work part-time at the lodge disappears along with her baby, despite the town's belief that Sammi just ran off, Nadia decides to find out what happened.
I am not feeling very coherent right now so I think another bullet list would be best:
- I have a lot of the same comments as with the first book as this one. The characterization stays consistent between the books. My review of book 1 (in which Nadia and her fellows track a hitman turned serial killer) is here, and reading it I agree with myself there for this book too:
- "Almost everyone in this book: is the strong silent type. Even Nadia." – Nadia is pretty quiet but her mentor takes it to another level. He barely speaks in full sentences until he's putting on another persona. So background information comes in crumbs and it is fascinating to find out details about the characters.
- "The whole profession: REALLY interesting to read about." There is so much secrecy to keep their identities secret from each other – after all they're all killers. Nadia's identity is known by Jack and Evelyn only as they sought her out first to get into the business.
- "this book was delightful because I like a smart heroine. And Nadia Stafford is a smart woman; she has to be, she's a hitman."
- Again this book is told from the first person viewpoint, and this time we don't shift focus away from that.
- Nadia is very smart and good at what she does, but because she's "the strong silent type", she can be a bit oblivious about relationships. As is her mentor Jack. It amused me no end that another character, Evelyn, gets exasperated by it.
- The love triangle I thought there were hints of in book 1 begins to take shape in book 2. But of course, Nadia being dense doesn't really see it. So this has romantic elements because of it, but it's slow moving.
- The culmination of the missing teen case was quite good. I liked how it was handled and how Nadia took care of herself quite easily in the situation she found herself in.
Doubleblind cover
Ann Aguirre posted the Doubleblind cover up on her website yesterday. Isn't it PRETTY? I really like it. She also posted a blurb:
"It’s not easy to tread lightly wearing steel-toed boots.
Sirantha Jax isn’t known for diplomatic finesse. As a “Jumper” who navigates ships through grimspace, she’s used to kicking ass first and taking names later—much later. Not exactly the obvious choice to sell the Conglomerate to the Ithtorians, a people whose opinions of humans are as hard as their exoskeletons.
And Ithiss-Tor council meetings aren’t the only place where Ambassador Jax needs to maneuver carefully. Her lover, March, is frozen in permanent “kill” mode, and his hair-trigger threatens to sabotage the talks—not to mention their relationship.
But Jax won’t give up on the man or the mission. With the Outskirts beleaguered by raiders, pirates, and the flesh-eating Morgut, an alliance with Ithiss-Tor may be humanity’s only hope. Which has Jax wondering why a notorious troublemaker like her was given the job…"
This book comes out in October September 29th, 2009. I'm now going to update my wishlist since I somehow missed this one. Ann will also be in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2, which I also have to look out for.
Match Me if You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
I was in the mood for a HEA on saturday and I'd never read a Susan Elizabeth Phillips book (something that I heard should be remedied), so I picked up Match Me If You Can on a whim.
Here's the premise: Annabelle Granger is a vivacious redhead who is starting off in the matchmaking business in Chicago. The business used to be her late grandmother's but Annabelle is modernizing it and changing the name to Perfect For You. She just needs a big name client to help spread some buzz – that's where super sports agent Heath (The Python) Champion comes in. Through Heath's searching for the perfect wife, and Annabelle's connections to some famous footballers and their wives, gives her an in to speak to Health about hiring Perfect For You.
Thoughts: At first I found Heath to be a bit unlikeable but despite a few jerky moves, his overall motivation seemed honest and he did acknowledge his mistakes and felt guilt over them. Health had a strange notion of the perfect wife – refined, intelligent, beautiful, but at the same time willing to be his slave and raise his kids without complaint. His ideas were all about image and his life plan, which stems from wanting to shed his beginnings as trailer-trash, living with a drunk father and no mother, only an endless parade of his father's girlfriends who always ended up leaving. Of course Annabelle is the one for him, but he didn't really realize it. In the meantime they spend a lot of time together, and Heath began to grow on me. His teasing of Anabelle was fun because she gave as good as she got. Annabelle was an interesting character, I had a harder time really pinning her down, I wish I had more time in her head. Sometimes she's vulnerable and insecure, but other times she's confident and articulate.
There were a lot of secondary characters (some from previous books), and also a secondary romance which I liked as much as the primary one. Some of these characters I really found interesting (Dean Robillard, Portia, Bodie) but some of the cameo characters I wasn't as interested in. A couple of characters I could have done without, for example Annabelle's ex. His story felt like a red herring that didn't really add much other to have something for Annabelle to have a complex over. It felt out of place to me, because I didn't think her that deeply affected by it, but perhaps this is splitting hairs.
Overall: This was a fine read. Funny in places, good happy ever after with hero doing some decent repenting and being raked over coals, and good interaction between characters. I also liked how the romance built up slowly and you could believe these two fit together. But it didn't quite do it for me. I have to say that it's one of those times where I can see others loving this book but something didn't work for me personally. I can't put my finger on it really. Maybe the overall plotline just didn't excite me? Maybe it was a couple of odd phrases that jarred me (guinea fowl breasts? use of the word 'spunk'?) that may not even be noticed by others. Maybe it was my mood? I feel like I will very likely find a SEP book that I will love (I really want to read her newest release), but this didn't quite get there.
Giveaway for Kitty Goes to Washington
Wow, what timing, I just saw that Kitty Goes to Washington is being offered as a prize at Drey's Library (There's also a review). Cool. Click here for the link. You have until March 15th.
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Goes to Washington is the second of the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. Review of the first book, Kitty and the Midnight Hour is here.
It's been a little while since the events in book one, and Kitty has been touring the United States, driving from one radio station to the next to host her radio talk show about the supernatural, The Midnight Hour. On the way to California, Kitty receives a call from her lawyer, Ben O'Farrell, who gives her the news that she's been subpoenaed by the Senate on a hearing about paranormal affairs. Kitty is apprehensive, but she wants to avoid a witch hunt against shape shifters and vampires, so she goes.
*** mild spoilers for the first book from this point ***
What she finds is a bunch of people in Washington D.C. working towards their own pet agendas regarding the supernatural community. Because this book takes place mostly in Washington, characters and story lines related to her ex-pack and the vampires in Denver don't come into play. We do however see some familiar characters – Ben, Kitty's lawyer, Cormac, the hitman who specializes in werewolves, show up to support Kitty. There is also Dr. Paul Flemming, the head of The Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology, whose press conference at the end of the first book prompted these hearings. Kitty finds his motives suspect but isn't sure what he's really involved in. Finally there's Elijah Smith, a dangerous man no one is sure is human who claims he can cure the supernatural who shows up at the hearings as well. After the death of one of Smith's followers that escaped and called Kitty in the last book, Kitty is determined to expose him, whatever he is.
Kitty also continues learning from other supernaturals. She meets new vampires and shape shifters in Washington, and discovers a very different approach than the werewolf pack and vampire families she had been exposed to. There isn't a shape changer pack, the weres in Washington are independent allies, and rather than a large vampire family with one leader who controls everyone, there is Alette, a beneficent vampire who wants to help Kitty in her own way.
I really like the way that Vaughn writes the real world. I can see Washington, I can see wherever Kitty is and it doesn't feel fabricated. Scientists sound like scientists, politicians sound like politicians, people seem to have layers like in the real world, not like caricatures, and because of this it accepting the supernatural in the story didn't feel very hard. Through the radio show and Kitty's encounters with people of her own kind you see each supernatural creature as individuals coping with their "disease" in their own ways. No one is pure evil, just human.
I'm still curious about Kitty's relationship with her inner wolf. In this book and the last, while most of this book is first person, the narrative switches to third, like the wolf is a separate character, not part of Kitty. Maybe this is to show that Kitty is still differentiating herself from her "other half" because she's a new werewolf and not fully comfortable or in control of herself. I wonder if that will start to change.
As I've said earlier there is very little to no romance in these books, but Kitty has a fling in the middle of things (doesn't seem very serious), and there was one small suggestion of interest in Cormac, but I'm not sure if that's going anywhere, they seem like an odd couple. I suspect a potential love triangle, but maybe I'm just reading more than there is.
Overall: Less dark to me than the first book but still gritty, and an enjoyable continuation of the series. There is strong world-building – the supernatural aspects are explained artlessly, without info-dumping. When Kitty learns something new, it doesn't feel like it's only to progress the plot, but to develop the world further, and I found the description of the world very realistic. The book was a quick read, and pacing was good, particularly the last third of the book, when I was so caught up with what was happening, I stayed up till 1am to finish it! Extra bonus: the short story Kitty Meets the Band at the end of this book.
Links:
specficromantic 