The Hunter’s Moon by O. R. Melling

Posted on December 19, 2007 by janicu

The Chronicles of Faerie: The Hunter's Moon (Chronicles of Faerie)

O.R. Melling

This is a young adult novel was recommended as being along the same lines as Holly Black's Faerie series, so I went to look for it. Findabhair and Gwenhyvar (Gwen) are two cousins (one Irish, one American) who want to believe in Faerie and to have adventures. Gwen visits Fin one summer and they plan to tour Ireland together, centering around famous Faerie related places, but soon after their tour begins Finabhair is stolen by the Faerie, leaving Gwen to seek her. Gwen pretty much gets guided by helpful strangers to chase her cousin, the king of Faerie, and his court across Ireland.

While the writing was really lovely and magical, especially in describing the scenery, the story felt predictable – a quest story, sort of mirroring fairytales of snatched princesses and the brave journeyer who uses their resourcefulness to save them. It started to get repetitious – Gwen catching up with Fin, then losing her again, then following her again to the next site. The characters themselves were also a little flat. I found myself bored several times and putting the book down. What I felt redeemed this book were those beautiful descriptions (especially of Faerie) I mentioned and all the references to Irish myth. You could tell the author knew what she was writing about. Here's an example of a passage when Gwen is asked to dance with the fairies:

"Parting leaf from twig and eyelid from slumber, anyone and everything was awake in the night. To life we wake from the long forgotten dream, the beautiful mystery. The taste of existence is a drop of honey on the tongue. So very sweet and very old, we have gone to seed and run wild in the wind. It ws a dance of stars and flowers and souls. Gwen stepped into the chain to become part of the whole. How long she danced she couldn't know. Time branched like a tree and each bud was eternity. She could feel the world dissolve into myth."

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Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

Posted on December 16, 2007 by janicu

Me and Mr. Darcy: A Novel

Alexandra Potter

Emily is the manager of a New York City bookstore who after a string of bad dates is fed up with unchivalrous men. She decides no one can hold a candle to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Darcy and is in no mood to join her best friend in a trip Cancun where the plan is to meet men and party. To avoid this unappetizing trip, Emily hurriedly books a tour of Jane Austen country instead. Arriving in London and joining the tour, Emily finds herself surrounded by elderly ladies and one surly male journalist who is writing an article about Mr. Darcy, and through hallucination or magical circumstance (it's never quite explained), Emily also meets the actual Mr. Darcy. In truth she meets him in more ways than one.

I think that this is a contemporary romance/chick lit novel which would probably appeal to people who are fans of Pride and Prejudice (who aren't sick of re-tellings/ sequels/ spin-offs) and who are not expecting to find something like a re-write of a classic, but rather a fun homage. If you love that book (/movies/miniseries) you might get a kick out of the way Me and Mr Darcy parallels the story told there and also with the crossovers where Emily actually meets Mr. Darcy. I liked it. I felt like a P&P nerd for reading it and being amused. There are a few pop cultural references and references linked to the recent Pride and Prejudice movie and the Colin Firth version of the mini series, so more reason to be a P&P nut and then read this. Not that this was not a fun lighthearted novel without liking P&P – but it helps. This book also made me want to go on a nice bus tour of the English countryside and to go stop at museums and old mansions. The scenery and tourist destinations described here felt very realistically portrayed. Also the timeline of this book happening for a week around Christmas and New Years makes this a book to read now to start gearing up for a nice holiday, particularly if you happen to be going somewhere outside the country.

An aside: I'm looking forward to vacation… Probably 3-4 more days of work! I'm still trying to decide what to do with the one extra vacation day I got because management sent a note last week giving my department the 2nd of January off. Yaaaaay!

Stats for today: My TBR is @ 110. I've read 93 books this year. The goal was 100, so I have 2 weeks to read 7 books. I don't know if I will do it.

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Some interesting links

Posted on December 11, 2007 by janicu

Just a few links to thinks from other book blogs that I saw today and thought were interesting.

On online reviews:

A link to sfsignal – "How have online book reviews affected the publishing world?" – different opinions from the sf community. I noticed a lot of comments along the lines of "blog reviews aren't as in depth and professional as offline reviews". I'm thinking – isn't that sort of the point? Anyway… I shall make interested murmurs. This book blog is definitely not professional.

Results of the "Ethics in book reviewing survey". Looks like I agree with the majority of these results. "76.5 percent think it's never ethical to review a book without reading the whole thing." – I'm ok with reviewing and saying "I could not finish" and saying why.

On series:

http://a4.vox-data.com/6a00cd96f8411f4cd500e398c6fa840005-html

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books contributor Sarah is on romancenovel.tv explaining why some series drive her crazy. I think she explains it better than I have been able to when I get into my series/pet peeves rants. I hope this embedding thingy worked.

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Out of print

Posted on December 11, 2007 by janicu

Remember when I was all gung-ho about trying to do BTT every week? Well that stopped quickly. Anyway, last weeks Booking Through Thursday question was a good one:

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

There are a few books out of print that I own, so in a way I'm content even though they are out of print because I can go over and pet them and hug them and laugh to myself that they are mine as much as I want. On the other hand, I wish more people knew about and owned them so it would be nice if they were still in print. Also there are some books that are out of print that are so expensive I don't own them and I'm not sure I ever will. I'm not sure these are favorites, but they do make me yearn/burn for them to be reprinted. So two sections:

1) Out of print, but still available used at prices normal non-crazies can afford:

The Adventures of Holly Hobbie – A novel, by Richard Dubelman (about $10?)- ok. I don't know if this book is any good anymore, but I read this when I was 12 or so and it's about that Holly Hobbie girl with the big bonnet around her face who is on a lot of kids toys and illustrations. In this book a girl - Liz, whose parents are archeologists, meets Holly through some time stepping magic type thing, and they go find Liz's missing dad. It involves Mayan pyramids and I remember it being fascinated by the descriptions of that ancient civilization and its beliefs. I vaguely recall some magic involving either light or an eclipse which I thought was very cool at the time. I went to the whatwasthatbook community on LJ to figure out what this book was.

Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (I got it for about $15-$20? but it sells for around $30 on up, eck) – I thought I posted about this book but looks like not. Sherwood Smith, author of Inda and Crown and Court Duel has recommended it on livejournal (http://community.livejournal.com/athanarel/111008.html) and describes it very well, I suggest clicking on that link for a better description than I can give. This was growing pains type of book. You see the silliness of youth and moving away from that and becoming more comfortable in your own skin. It's basically a well written young adult novel. Shannon is the main character – a girl who isn't sure if she wants to go to college instead spends the summer helping her uncle with a case with a will. She spends all summer pretending to be someone she isn't, playing detective, and trying to glean information about the people specified in the will, and along the way she comes out of her shell and also learns a thing or two about relationships.

Nameless Magery and Of Swords and Spells by Delia Marshall Turner (about $3 each?)- I bought one of these in college and didn't get the second book till a year or two ago. They can be read in either order but Nameless Magery goes first. Both are in the same universe and involves a futuristic, sci fi world/s where people can also do magic. There are robots and a mage school and smart young women protagonists and hyperspace drives and all kinds of meshing of sci-fi and fantasy and trickery. I don't think I've read anything else like it that blends those two genres so well together. And I think they're the only two books this author has written.

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman (about $3-$5)- This is an author who has 2 books (I own both), and every year or so I will go and check if she's written anything else. And then I'll cry to myself because the answer is no. I also do this with Delia Marshall Turner but I think she's definitely not writing anymore, I feel more open ended with Katie Waitman. This book is a sci fi-ish story centering around the life of an abused boy (Mikk) who becomes the galaxy's master performance artist. In some ways it feels like a fantasy novel even though it's more sci fi. The description of the alien species, the performing arts school, Mikk's life, growing up, dealing with censorship and the stigma of his lovelife.. it's all great. The book says "discovery of the year" across it, but then.. no more books by her! I sob to myself.

The Night World Series by L.J. Smith (about $1-$10 each? Depends on how well you do on ebay) - ok this is a silly teen series with vampires and true love and whatnot. But I bonded with people who are now my closest friends over these books so I'm adding them here for nostalgia's sake. If I read over these books now, they're not bad but they aren't fabulous. I had to have them all (and maybe extra copies of certain ones) just because. And is book 10, Strange Fate, the last of this series ever going to be printed? I don't know.

2) Out of print and super expensive, maybe I can win the lottery or sell my car/left leg/kidney/soul to afford:

Anima Mundi by Mark Ryden ($300-$1000+)- An art book that has popular low brow art for those who have no idea who the hell Mark Ryden is. Lots of pictures of cute kids, animals, and meat products reminiscent of a child's picturebook. Really detailed work and often on album covers. This was on my wishlist when it was $25 on Amazon. Then three months later it went out of print and went up to $300+ dollars. After that if I saw a pamplet by this artist that I wanted, I got it without waiting around. I have his Bunnies and Bees book that I bought for $20? $25 when it came out which is now going for $90-$150 or so. Josh and my sister have a copy too. My attitude - "ok I know this is going to go up.." - *buy*. I also have Blood (one copy sealed, one unsealed) which I got for $25 each and which is selling for over $100 and it's this TINY thing really. Maybe these prices are less on ebay… Maybe not. OK I think telling Josh this is making him want to sell his Bunnies and Bees book.

Wagner's Trilogy – Tannhauser, Parsifal and Lohengrin by Willy Pogany (from $300 to $2000+ each depending on edition and condition). Pogany was a prolific illustrator in the early part of the last century, mostly of children's books. Some of his best work is in this set of three books. I found illustrations of Lohengrin online several years ago and since then I've been looking for copies that aren't expensive. All I can find for "cheap" aren't first editions, and even those go for $200-$300. I have Tannhauser (reprint), but not the other two. Like this on ebay. I don't remember how much I paid, but it was not over $150 and that was a few years ago. Every book in the trilogy have lovely pages bordered with illustrations and pictures, both black and white and in color and the boards for these books are often gilted and pretty. I once saw pictures of the whole set for sale online bound in white leather going for about the price of a car.. $10,000.. I coveted. I saved the pictures for that sale on my computer but they got lost in hard drive crashes. Oh well. Here's an image heavy link to many gorgeous Pogany illustrations. P.S. I also like his version of Alice in Wonderland.

Masques by Patricia Briggs – This book goes for at least $60 on ebay, $120 to over $600 elsewhere. Which I think is CRAZY. I find that Briggs's earlier work isn't as good as her recent books, but yes there is the compulsion to own everything by an author you like. Masques was her first published book I think. Right now, she's very popular because her Mercy Thompson series is one of the best urban fantasy series out there (in my opinion). Sigh. $60 is too much for an old used paperback book that may not be that good.

Mushroom Girls Virus by Deanne Cheuk – Another art book. This one came out in 2005. I saw this, loved it at first sight and bought it from the author. I'm glad I did, now it's out of print and selling for at least $150. Sheesh. I bought it for $45. Mine's not "mint" because I actually wanted to look at it, but I keep it in a plastic wrap because its got a lovely embroidered cover and I don't want anything to mess it up. I hope it gets reprinted, its lovely and girly and pretty. Click here for illustrations in the book. Also here.

There's more but I'm tired..

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Pop-up books by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda

Posted on December 9, 2007 by janicu

Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy

Matthew Reinhart

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation

Lewis Carroll

I wanted to post about these pop-up books for a long time now but I was waiting till after Hanukkah because of certain people who read this blog (who I bought copies of these pop-up books for as gifts). Basically – I like pop-up books, their construction is a big complex puzzle – let's make something 3D out of 2D parts and let's make it squish down back to 2D when the reader turns the page. That's awesome – engineering + art. And these books are on the high end of the pop-up book – they boggle my mind. First of all – how are they only around $20 each? Because the construction – there must be 3 or 4 dozen slots and tabs and things that needed to be glued down to create each page – can a machine do that? Is this all hand done?! For $20?! And when I look at it – I see that often things are printed on both sides of a pop-up, so in the Alice pop-up when I see a giant Alice stuck in the White Rabbit's house, I can peer through the windows to see her inside. And I see wallpaper in there. On top of that, there isn't just one pop up per page, oh no, each page has one giant pop-up in the middle, then little mini books on the side with mini-popups in there too! What…my head just imploded. In the Star Wars pop-up book there are light sabers which light up when you open the pages that shut off again when you close them. I think the dinosaur book has a page where one dinosaur pop-up "bites" the other dinosaur. That's some cool beans.

Alice

If these books ever go out of print they are going to start getting expensive in the used book market. I think they're collectibles you'll want to keep for a long time. The only thing I see that people could complain about is that you have to be gentle with these books. So they're more for adults and older children who know how to treat their books. You have to make sure nothing gets caught or torn to preserve them. So far ours are still pristine and both of us (I got the Alice book, the rest I got for the boyfriend) put our books back into the plastic sleeve the books came in after we're done looking at them.

Even Martha is a fan - these two pop-up guys were on her show. And I want to make the pop-up reindeer card that's on the martha stewart website.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up

Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters

Robert Sabuda

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Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel

Posted on December 5, 2007 by janicu

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)

Ernst Haeckel

And now a different kind of book from what I usually blog about. Actually I am a little bit in love with collecting art books so I thought I'd post about some art books I've been drooling over and which would make good christmas/hanukkah gifts for science geeks/illustration lovers/art students.

Ernst Haeckel is a big name in biology. According to wikipedia he named thousands of new species and "coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny, ecology and the kingdom Protista". He also was an artist and his book "Kunstformen der Natur, "Artforms of Nature") has over 100 detailed pictures of animals, especially sea creatures. Even if you aren't into biology – it's gorgeous.

I am not sure how I came upon this book. I think it was random surfing from one blog to a site about bird illustration to googling Haeckel to some other website to looking it up on amazon. Anyway, somewhere in there, I stumbled upon a german site which had a lot of his illustrations scanned and viewable as jpgs along with a pdf file which I think is the whole book in german. Then, randomly a day or so after finding out it was on Amazon (see link to the left), I found this book at anthropologie of all places, and I was surprised because all the illustrations are very nicely done in glossy paper and they are all in one place after a nice introduction about Haeckel and his life, but also the book itself is also a little oversized, which is good - you can really see the detail in the pictures. It shall be mine.

P.S. For more biological books online (including Haeckel's) go to www.biolab.de where you can find cool stuff like this.

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Hot Mama by Jennifer Estep

Posted on December 5, 2007 by janicu

Hot Mama

Jennifer Estep

I had fun reading Karma Girl so I picked up the second book Hot Mama, when it came out last month. This was also like candy – really easy and fast to read, fun and campy, but I ended up not liking it quite as much as the first one in the series for a number of reasons.

This is the book dedicated to the story of Fiona Fine, successful fashion designer who is really Fiera, part of the Fearless Five. We continue a few months after Karma Girl leaves off with the Five moving on with their lives and Fiona, after mourning her fiance's death has started thinking about dating again. In the meantime, two more ubervillans – Intelligal and Siren, have entered the scene in Bigtime, New York. Much of the first part of the book rehashed book one – so new readers could read this book without reading the first one (but they would probably be spoiled for book one's ending).

Fiona Fine aka Fiera is a different character from Carmen Cole – and this was probably part of my issue. She's got a fiery personality to match her superpowers but sometimes stubborn and willfull felt like bullheaded and obtuse! I missed Carmen because she paid attention to details while Fiona sort of stomps all over the place and ignores subtlety – even when it was so obvious to everyone else. In Karma Girl I could guess the secret identities of many of the superheros/ubervillans. I think it wasn't meant to be hard to do, but in Hot Karma it felt like we got twice the amount of hints and Fiona isn't even *trying*. At least when Fiona finally figures it out she does say how ridiculously obvious it was, which somewhat mollified me because I was ready to throw my hands up at that point.

I felt that while there were a couple of compelling emotional story arcs in here (Fiona's grieving for her fiance, falling in love and dealing with vigilante revenge) the book moved forward through Fiona's dating, working, and fighting the bad-guys without me to feeling like I really connected with her character. Emotions of hers were repeatedly brought up but I still coudn't buy it. I got that she was hot-tempered, but I wish I understood her reason for her flare-ups more than – so and so is annoying. Also when she thought about her fiance she'd describe his qualities but I didn't feel emotionally connected to her grief just because she kept saying she was sad. I could buy Carmen's actions and thoughts in Karma Girl and that coupled with the zany story made me really like it. In Hot Mama the fun stuff was there but I didnt feel as involved in Fiona's character. It's weird though – I mean this book is a seriously easy read. So Fiona wasn't enough for me to put the book down, and the rest of the world in the book kept me engaged, but once I finished I felt unsatisfied with how I felt about her character. Maybe this is a matter of preference. I'd be interested if others agree/disagree about Fiona. Meanwhile I'd still recommend this for those looking for an unserious, very-much-like-candy read.

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Braced 2 Bite by Serena Robar + Boys that Bite by Mari Mancusi

Posted on December 2, 2007 by janicu

Couple of quick reviews. I read some YA in recent months and never posted about them.

Boys that Bite

Mari Mancusi

Boys That Bite: This one is about a teen named Sunshine who gets mistaken for her goth sister Rayne (yep, Sunshine and Rayne) by Rayne's vampire sponsor. This means that she gets turned into a vampire when she wasn't supposed to and she's not happy about it. Sunshine has to get accustomed to her new form while trying to find a way to get changed back and trying to pretend to be normal. So she goes to school even though the daylight makes her feel very tired and has to pretend garlic doesn't make her want to run away. Meanwhile Sunshine's mom begins to get very concerned about drugs because of her red-eyed, tired look and pale skin.

This one was a mixed bag. There were some things I liked – a chubby, acned slob of a vampire slayer, some slacker Druids, the humor at times. There were others I disliked, but I think some of them had to be because I keep seeing this in YA –

a) Why is the heroine so obsessed with the prom?

b) Why does a two hundred+ or whatever old vampire even like this teen girl obsessed with the prom? Also does not compute. This is a common thought of mine reading vamp books.. At least here there is a matching system to explain it, which helps.

Overall the main characters didn't feel like they really stood out to me. There were a lot of cliches in their characterization. That said – uh, maybe I'm just not in the age range for this book, and maybe I've read a lot of teen vampire books and I'm just jaded at this point. So taking it for what it was – a light young adult novel – ok it manages to be that. This is the start of a series. Book 2 deals with her sister being recruited as the next vampire slayer, even though Rayne is pro-vampire.

Braced2Bite

Serena Robar

Braced 2 Bite (eck, "2" being used instead of "to", but the rest of this series has numbers in the titles as well so at least theres continuity): There are similarities between this book and the one above – besides the word "bite" in the titles. Again we have a teen girl who thinks about the prom/homecoming who did not want to be turned into a vamp but becomes one against her will. Instead of mistaken identity, Colby Blanchard is attacked by a rogue vampire. Written from a first person point of view (also like the book above), we follow Colby as she pretends to be normal and not half-undead. As in Boys that Bite, there is a vamp society with rules, and unfortunately for Colby, one of the rules is no half-vampires allowed. She has been assigned a Vampire Investigator who may become her executioner.

In this one Colby is mostly concerned about proving that she be allowed to live since there is no way for her to turn back. Her character was very proactive about this, and it were interesting twists to it. For example she was popular before her attack but people start to think she's faking it when she recovers quickly and refuses to go to the hospital. Also her family is all in on her secret and rallys around her (including her dentist dad who outfits her with braces to suck blood), but they don't know about her troubles with proving she be allowed to live. I'd say that my one major complaint besides a little sniff of a) and b) listed above is that this book felt rushed, especially towards the end. This too is the start of a series – book 2 follows Colby to college and continues her activities championing half-vampires.

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Enchanted, Inc. By Shanna Swendson

Posted on December 2, 2007 by janicu

Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler Series, Book 1)

Shanna Swendson

Remember that post I made a while ago about this series (I was miffed because I heard they were chopping it off at book 4 instead of the complete 5)? I finally got around to reading book one.

The series is about Katie Chandler, a Texas girl who has relocated to the Big City (NYC) and discovered that she's normal. So normal that she's in fact rare – someone with no magic in her what-so-ever, which means that she is not fooled by enchantments and can see through them. She thinks she's just not jaded enough when no one else blinks at the girl in fairy wings or the gargoyles that aren't always in the same place. Then she finds out other people aren't seeing what she's seeing and she's so unusual she's offered a job.

Excerpt of book 1

In one word – the book was "charming". I think it has a sweet, uncomplicated appeal to it. Nice texan girl comes to New York and makes good using her common sense. I also like the idea of a secret side to the city, and the author does incorporate a lot of New York into the story. There is also a lot of interesting aspects to the magical world that the author included in the story (like how many frogs in Central Park really are princes and the hijinks that ensue when Katie gets talked into going to kiss some with her tipsy female coworkers). I'm having a little trouble categorizing the genre of this book though. The romance is so light I don't even know if I should mention it, but I think it's possibly going to come up more in following books. I think it comes closest to being chick-lit. Except ..I guess I'm used to chick-lit books being more stand-alone and something, than this book feels. Anyway: a pleasant read, I found it hard to put down. I'll be looking for book two.

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Red Handed and Blacklisted by Gena Showalter

Posted on November 23, 2007 by janicu

Red Handed (Teen Alien Huntress)

Gena Showalter

Blacklisted

Gena Showalter

These two books by Gena Showalter are from the young adult half of her Alien Huntress series. In this series the focus is on strong women who live in a futuristic society where aliens live amongst us. To protect themselves from some of the more dangerous aliens, humans have A.I.R – Alien Investigation and Renewal agency, which these books revolve around. The list of books so far:

Adult:

Awaken Me Darkly
Enslave Me Sweetly

Young Adult:

Red Handed
Black Listed

I read Awaken Me Darkly first, early this year. This centered around A.I.R. agent Mia and on Arcadians – aliens tha sound like the twins from The Matrix. I liked the action and the aliens but the story lost steam in the second half and the plot became much less tight. Basically I liked the world but it didn't end up a keeper.

Red Handed and Blacklisted are in the same world except the protagonists are teenagers. The reader also gets to learn about other alien species that weren't discussed in detail in Awaken me Darkly. Also, these books can be read in any order without missing anything. Characters from past books make appearances but they are not central to the story.

In Red Handed, Phoenix is a recovering drug adult trying to redeem herself in her mother's eyes. She just got back from rehab for an addiction to Onadyn – a drug that some aliens need to survive but deprives humans of oxygen. Phoenix tries to stay away from her friends that still use but misses the companionship, so she ends up at a party in the woods where many kids are high. Aliens attack the party expecting little resistance but Phoenix is sober and fights back with the help of a mysterious boy she meets at the party. Unfortunately for Phoenix, when she gets home her mother only thinks it's more drugs. The people who brought Phoenix home suggest a boot camp to straighten her out, and Phoenix's mom is only too ready to let her go. The twist is that this boot camp isn't a rehabilitation center. It is a training center for A.I.R., the mysterious boy is an A.I.R agent, and Phoenix has just been recruited. The rest of the story deals with Pheonix's training, making friends in A.I.R and overcoming the stigma of being an addict. I enjoyed reading about Phoenix's struggles to prove that she has moved past her addiction and to become more than an ex-junkie. The portrayal of the bitterness from others, especially her mother, for what Phoenix put them through and Phoenix's subsequent shame added depth to the story. This ended up being my favorite book in this series.

Blacklisted centers around an ordinary girl named Camille with a huge crush on Erik, who goes to her high school. She and her best friend sneak into a nightclub that they heard he was going to be. Erik isn't happy to see her because he's involved with drugs, and he needs to lose the tail of A.I.R. agents watching him, so he gives her an empty napkin hoping this would both make her stop following him and distract the A.I.R. agents. Unfortunately Camille proves to be more resourceful than he expected and follows him into a high security area of the club, leading A.I.R. to believe she's involved in his shady dealings. A.I.R. is even more unhappy with Erik than the usual drug-dealer because he used to be an A.I.R. agent himself. Erik has a reason for why he's doing what he does, and he doesn't want to involve an innocent like Camille, but her actions means A.I.R is now looking for both of them. This was an interesting story because it looked at the situation from a different angle – where A.I.R. and laws that condemn the guilty can also condemn the innocent at the same time. In this story the actions of A.I.R. were bullheaded from this point of view. An interesting point and written nicely, but I preferred Red Handed. I think my main issue was that I found Camille to be silly from the beginning for doggedly pursuing Erik, and I just couldn't shake this view of her as foolish and impulsive. Even when she continued to trust and believe Erik, I thought – in real life this would be a parent's nightmare – their daughter romanticizing a drug dealer. In real life he wouldn't really be a good guy. This book also tied up really quickly and easily in the last few pages which I had real trouble with as well. I think I would have felt more satisfied with an ending that was less easy, if that makes sense.

Last point – both of these books had sexual situations which make them geared to a more mature teen. It's interesting how much more of this I see in books now than in my teens (10 years ago). I did notice that both girls were 18, the author is careful about that, and they in what seemed to be serious long term relationships.

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