Tag Archives: series

Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey

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Naamah's Kiss
Naamah’s Kiss
Jacqueline Carey

This book was sent to me for review by Hachette Books.

Premise: This is the beginning of a new series in the same world as the two Kushiel series, but takes place a few generations later. The heroine is Moirin, who was born into the Maghuin Dhonn, worshippers of a great brown bear, a wild people who are known as great magicians and feared for their past. Moirin at first has a simple life, living in the woods with her mother, but as she grows up, she learns about the outside world. Her father is a D’Angeline priest of Naamah, the goddess of desire. Moirin is guided by her diadh-anam (spirit guide) to believe that she is not meant to stay in Alba, so she first goes across the sea find him and to embrace her mixed heritage.

My Thoughts: You don’t need to read the other series in order to start at this one, however there are references to what happened in the past which could be spoilers if you’re paying close attention to them about what happened in the earlier books. The world building in these books is complex, but the book is written so even if you don’t know all the background (such as knowing the complete story of Elua and his companions – which I did not), you can still grasp what’s going on. (P.S. There’s an amazing amount of detail on wikipedia about this series!)

This is a very easily readable book despite it being over 600 pages. The words flow and the language lends itself to just paying attention to the story. Told in the first person point of view, the book is a coming of age tale that’s in three parts: Moirin’s childhood in Alba, her introduction into society in Terre d’Ange, and her adventures in Ch’in.

Because Moirin is half of the Maghuin Dhonn and half D’Angeline, she has two goddesses who watch over her and who guide her. Morin often consults her diadh-anam when she wants to make important decisions and sees the faces of “the Bright Lady” and the Maghuin Dhonn, who help her choose her way. Her Destiny is a big part of Moirin’s decision-making, and in some ways I’d have liked her to actually choose rather than having a tool to make decisions for her, but Moirin’s faith is large part of her personality.  Her father and her mentor are both very spiritual as well and Moirin gains a lot from them. And because Moirin doesn’t turn away from her Alban roots she holds onto her gift of “twilight” (that allows her to disappear from sight). Meanwhile, her comfortableness with Naamah’s gift (that of desire) means that Moirin is very open with her sexuality.

There are a lot of sex scenes in this story because of Moirin’s lack of hangups and her connection with Naamah. These were tastefully done without purple prose, but it is explicit. Terre d’Ange itself is a very sexually open society so she’s not alone. I read Kushiel’s Dart a long time ago so I wasn’t very surprised, but I thought that at times her approach was more for enjoyment than for a reason, like that of Phèdre nó Delaunay, the protagonist of Kushiel’s Dart. Moirin has no problems switching partners, men or women, on the spur of the moment. Maybe for that reason I didn’t find any of the relationships in this book particularly romantic, although Moirin obviously cared very much for many people.

There is a large cast of characters in this story. It’s at first Moirin and her mother in Alba, with the neighbouring lord’s son Cillian who comes by to visit. Although some reviewers found the first part of the book slow, I found it my favorite part – it reminded me of childhood and summer days without much worry. It is in the part of the book I found Moirin’s character least like she is in the other parts – more sure and wild maybe. When childhood ends is the beginning of the second part in Terra d’Ange. Here Moirin’s exoticness from being a beautiful “bear-witch” are much lauded (slightly excessively in my mind, but not enough to rile me), and Moirin meets several royals and people of the D’Angeline court. Of particular interest are Queen Jehanne and her lover, Raphael de Mereliot. These two characters I had the hardest time pinning down, they were so capricious – at some times selfish and at others very kind. I would say that they changed as Moirin learned more about them. It is here that Moirin grows and learns the most about her powers and about people. Finally, when Moirin finally meets her Destiny in Ch’in, she goes with a sage who she’d met in Terre d’Ange – Master Lo, and his bodyguard Bao. There she meets the fierce princess Snow Tiger. Ch’in is where the most action occurs and all that Moirin experiences culminate here in her Destiny. Although it was convenient, I still thought the resolutions were clever because I’d forgotten about couple of things until that point.

Although this is the first of a probably trilogy, the book ends in a satisfying place with most threads tied up. There is of course a couple of things where you want to find out what happens next (such as hints about someone she expects to meet again), but I was happy where the book finished.

Overall: An epic fantasy coming of age tale (at 645 pages-a bigger time commitment than the average book) with a very spiritual and sexual young heroine. If you’re a fan of Jacqueline Carey, this book is as strong as her past books, with the same detailed world building and absorbing storytelling. If you DO mind sex in your fantasy, then skip this one. I had only very minor issues (regarding Moirin’s Destiny, and Moirin’s exotic factor), and found it a good read.

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Other revews: (both positive)

Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson

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Lord of the Fading Lands
Lord of the Fading Lands
C. L. Wilson

The Premise: This story is set in Celiera, where Ellysetta Baristani (an orphan picked up by a woodcarver and his wife) lives. Ellysetta is a good girl, who is considered plain and with low marriage prospects who is unfortunately being courted by the creepy butcher’s son, Den. Thankfully for Ellysetta, when the Fey visit Celiera from the Fading Lands, Rainier vel’En Daris Feyreisen, the Tairen Soul, King of the Fading Lands, declares that Ellysetta is his shei’tani (truemate). Obviously Ellysetta is more than she seems and so begins their courtship. Meanwhile, the Mages of Eld, who caused the death of Rain Tairen Soul’s first wife over a thousand years ago, have been waiting to come back into power. They will do all they can to destroy all that is good and are interested in who Ellysetta is.

Excerpt of the book

My Thoughts: I wasn’t sure I’d like this book when I started it. It was only because I’d seen so many good reviews that I thought I really needed to keep an open mind and try it before I made a decision.  One of my fears was the idea of the “truemate” or soulmate in the book. Usually I am not a fan of this and I find that it shortcuts a lot of the romance, making it more about the immediately physical than a slow mental buildup.  I was pleasantly surprised that this book doesn’t actually do that. While there’s the idea of the shei’tani and the shei’tan, the shei’tani has to accept the bond first, so there was a courtship. I was glad that the soulmate concept was done a little differently. Although you know these two will eventually be together, at least the concept wasn’t used as an excuse to completely skip the process of falling in love.

Unfortunately, although I liked the handling of the soulmate concept, the romance/courtship didn’t do it for me.  I think it was a combination of reasons. First the age difference. Rain is centuries older than Ellysetta. Of course,he didn’t act older at all, so it should have worked, but I kept hearing his age repeatedly, and it kept throwing me because it wasn’t just 20-30 years. It was over a thousand years. Then I just couldn’t get into the courtship, like how Ellysetta is at first both scared and yet attracted to him. This is an example of how the courtship never got past the superficial for me, that just Rain’s presence or looks can cause such a response, but there’s no real meeting of the minds. The biggest problem I had was with the two main characters. Rain and Ellysetta  never felt fully developed, so I couldn’t connect to them and thus couldn’t connect to the romance. This is how I saw them:

  • Rain – he’s over one thousand years old and he has anger management issues. I understand that this is explained by the heartbreak he had over watching is wife die, something that was so painful he scorched the world, killing many many people, an event forever remembered in poetry and art. And then he has to contend with the “bond madness” because of finding his “truemate”. However, this struck me as dramatic rather than romantic. His emotions are always extremes, and his considerable powers means no one really puts him in his place for it. I had a hard time with his being King yet having no diplomatic skills whatsoever from his 1000+ years of experience.
  • Ellysetta – she’s the ingénue with a lot of Mary Sue traits. OK I can see some readers liking her, but I can’t seem to get past how overly idealistic she is. She’s pretty, but doesn’t think so: “Her mouth was too wide, she acknowledged critically, her lips too full and too red”, her height “too tall to be considered feminine” and so on and so forth. On top of this, other females are often jealous of the attention she gets as the new Feyreisa, and try to tear her down, but are always thwarted. The Fey can see her purity and kindness, and they  would be honored to die for her. There is nothing wrong with any of this, but I yearned for more depth in her character. The biggest flaw I could see was a fear of her own power, but even this was made idealistic.  Although she denies that her powerful magic abilities exist, she manages to heal the soul of one of her bodyguards, Bel, so that his “heart weeps again”, which earns her his undying devotion.
The labelling for the book was “paranormal romance” but I’d say it’s more of a fantasy romance.  There’s a well-done blend of both fantasy and romance, but this book’s emphasis is on the romance side of things. I already talked about the romance. As to the rest of it: there were a couple of things I liked in the world building, such as the Celerian laws and their use in arguments before the King. I also liked Queen Annoura’s character because she was gray – she genuinely loves her husband but she has bad traits as well, such as a jealousy towards Ellysetta which clouded her actions.

Unfortunately there were other things I didn’t like. I think the problem is I grew up reading fantasy. When I look at the fantasy aspects in this book, and even though the world building is OK and the writing flows very well (although I found the dialogue overwrought), I saw a lot of things that I had seen before. There were a lot of fantasy clichés, like the epic battle between Good and Evil, the orphan raised by a poor family who is more than they seem, and a magical animal with a bond with a main character.  I’m not saying I won’t like a fantasy if it has one or more clichés, it’s in the way a book handles them. In this case I wasn’t wowed.

Another issue I had was that the writing is such that every point is reiterated. A lot of telling over showing, like Ellysetta standing up to someone and then narration as Rain or her guards admire her for it, so the reader knows Ellysetta has a spine. There is often an over-abundance in description as well.  Rain and his men “bristle” with knives and swords, but they have magic to fight with. In tairen-form, Rain can fly, has glowing lavender eyes, venom-filled fangs, and can shoot out warning flares of fire.  There were too many examples of this kind of overkill.  I found it impossible to overlook them so that I could enjoy the book.

Overall: This is one of those books where I’m a little surprised: I didn’t like it. It was very close to being a DNF. I found it very hard to connect to but I was encouraged to keep going and so I did. After a certain point I figured I may as well read it all so I can say I honestly gave the whole book a try. Many people loved this book, obviously things that bothered me were seen differently by others. I see so many good reviews (a few from people I usually agree with!) that I question my sanity.  I recommend looking at the other reviews I’m linking below today and make up your own mind.

Amazon | B&N

My not liking it isn’t all bad. If you’ve been dying to read this, I want to give away my copy. It’s a 2007 ARC, read once. Send me an email – janicu [at] gmail [dot] com. I’ll give the book to the first responder.

Other reviews:

Gossamer Obsessions gave it a C, and a similar opinion to mine
Angieville – I had the same opinion as she did
Aneca liked it and gave it a B+
Rosario’s Reading Journal – gave it an A-
The Book smugglers – Ana gave it a 10 and Thea an 8

My Soul to Lose // My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

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My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent
My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Lose is a free short story prequel (free!!!) which is available here at Rachel Vincent’s site.

The Premise: This is prequel happens about a year before the events in My Soul to Take, and is referred to in the book. Kaylee is shopping in the mall with her best friend Emma when she sees someone who triggers an attack. It is so bad that Kaylee’s aunt and uncle go to extremes for her own safety- they put her into a psychiatric hospital.

My Thoughts: A substantial freebie and worth reading. My Soul to Lose fills in some back story mentioned in My Soul to Take, while hinting at Kaylee’s problems in that book. It also was a little illustration on Kaylee’s relationship with her friend Emma – who sticks by her through everything. The setting seemed well researched as well. I’ve visited psych wards and Vincent does well to describe the setting, although I would say in my experience there is a mixed bag – friendly and not so friendly people, not all scary which seemed to be the perception here. I found it interesting that the reader finds out some things in the short story that Kaylee doesn’t remember in the first Soul Screamers book. I’m curious if she begins to remember in later books.

My Soul to Take (Harlequin Teen)
My Soul to Take (Harlequin Teen)
Rachel Vincent

I wanted to read My Soul to Take after I saw Tez’s review, and was happy to the ARC at BEA at the Harlequin booth. Harlequin is starting a new Teen line (Harlequin Teen) and My Soul to Take is their first offering.

The Premise: Kaylee Cavanaugh is a teen with a secret problem. Sometimes she sees people and knows they’re going to die, and this causes an unbearable compulsion to scream – loud, scary, wails that she has no control over which scares everybody and herself. Her family treat her like she has some kind of panic attack and seem afraid of her episodes. One night Kaylee and her best friend sneak into a nightclub and run into Nash, a very popular guy at school. Remarkably, Nash seems interested in Kaylee, and when she starts feeling an episode coming along, he has an idea of what to do and how to help. But things don’t end there, girls Kaylee’s age keep dying for no visible reason, and Kaylee begins to feel convinced that they were never supposed to die.

My Thoughts: Kaylee seems like an average, run-of-the-mill teenager. It seems to be an unremarkable life except for her strange “panic attacks”. I prefer hearing about a “normal” teen, not someone who is a teen cliche, like “the cheerleader” or some other stock character.  She isn’t too angsty despite her problems either – she has a balance and a small, but good support system.  She approached her problems with a level head even though she was confused and frightened about what was going on. As heroine’s go, she’s not too bad: I wouldn’t call her voice distinct, but she has interesting abilities and life.

The world building is the best part of the story. When you first get into the book there are a series of questions that as they get answered, provide the basis for a whole world unbeknown to most. What Kaylee’s screaming really is and why it’s happening. What the people around Kaylee know. How the world we don’t know about works. What Nash knows and how he fits into things. I enjoyed the way the author took a seldom used aspect of the supernatural in this book and put her own spin on it, but I won’t go into detail because that would be spoilerific. I DID come into this with a guess as to what Kaylee was because: girl who senses death and cannot stop a scream? It points to one obvious thing. However, Vincent makes it a little more complicated than that. This is told from the first person point of viewpoint of Kaylee, so we learn as she does at a natural pace as events unfold. I thought this was well done and made me keep turning the pages to learn more.

One thing I have to say though: What the hell is up with the adults in this book? They did some questionable things, particularly Kaylee’s dad and his decision regarding her upbringing. I guess his past was his excuse but I found the excuse a little flimsy and felt as annoyed as Kaylee at all the adults around her when she discovers what had been going on. It seemed to be more of a convenient way to keep Kaylee ignorant rather than believable parenting. I hope they redeem themselves in some way in the next book because I wasn’t satisfied here.

The other minor issue I had was to do with the romance. I believed that Kaylee and Nash made a cute couple, and Nash seemed to care about Kaylee once he made it known he was interested, but I couldn’t quite trust his explanation for why he was interested in the first place. He’s a known player in school, going from girl to girl and tossing them aside like Kleenex, and suddenly he seems genuinely interested in Kaylee. Kaylee herself half expects his attention to be a big joke and for him to ignore her the next day at school. It’s true that they have more in common then you would initially suspect, but I can’t believe it’s just what Kaylee really is that attracted him, yet that’s what seems to be his reason for noticing her. This didn’t satisfy me as a reason to date someone, and his explanation to Kaylee contradicted his mom’s comment about “finally” meeting her. I hope more is explained in the next book because right now it makes me feel a bit like something is “off”, despite the pacing and other aspects of the romance being fine. Kaylee genuinely seems to connect with Nash, and he is the only one who can calm her or know what’s going on with her “panic attacks” which brings the two of them closer fairly quickly. It just bugs me that his motivations don’t seem clear, and that I know why Kaylee likes him (he’s charming despite her reservations), but not vice versa (but this could be a downside of the first person POV). Hmm.

Overall: A solid read. It didn’t bowl me over, but I really liked the world building in this one and there’s enough mystery and suspense in it to keep me reading. There’s a decent teen romance here as well, secondary to the main plot.  Although the romance’s pacing is fine I still have an unexplained niggling feeling about it  (expounded on above), which may be splitting hairs. I’m interested enough to probably read the second book My Soul to Save which comes out in January 2010.

My Soul to Take is released August 1st.

Jess is giving away a copy but deadline is TONIGHT (July 24th)

Other reviews of My Soul to Take (Most I see so far loved it):
Sci Fi Guy gave it a glowing review
Anna’s Book blog gave it a 5/5
Book Reviews by Jess – she gave it an almost perfect score
Tez Says – also a good review with a profound reaction
Reviews of My Soul to Lose
Dear Author gave it a C-
Anna’s Book blog gave it 3/5

Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

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Mark of the Demon
Mark of the Demon
Diana Rowland
This is another one of those books where the cover caught my attention first, but the blurb made me really want to read it. Soon after I mentioning that I was eying the book, I met the author on twitter and she was nice enough to put me on the reviewer list. A cover flat came along with the ARC, and boy, the cover is gorgeous in real life (I gasped aloud when I saw it). It’s matte with shiny symbols, and the colors look otherworldly. It’s probably my favorite cover this year.

The Premise: Kara Gillian is Summoner – someone who has the ability to call demons from a parallel plane. She’s been studying and training unbeknownst to the outside world under her mentor/aunt for ten years, and has gained enough skill to work without assistance. Kara’s day job is equally important to her. She’s a detective who has just been promoted from Property Crimes to the Violent Crimes Division at the Beaulac Police Department, just as their town’s serial killer, the Symbol Man has reappeared. The Symbol Man dumped several bodies all over town before disappearing three years ago. All races, all ages.  The only connection between the victims is that they are transients (so no one seems to care they are missing), and a the same symbol is found somewhere on all their bodies. Kara knows that the symbol has arcane significance, but she has no idea what it is. Ever since she saw the body of a victim when she was a beat cop, Kara has wanted in on this case. Now she’s surprised to find she’s the lead investigator and she finally has a chance to use her hidden abilities to catch the killer.

My Thoughts: I’ve been pleased this week to be reading books that had great pacing. It starts off with a bang:

“I could hear the intruder breaking into my house.
Unfortunately, it was in the same instant that the demon appeared before me.”

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1

In Mark of the Demon, something was always going on, and the movement of the story from one scene to the next was seamless. With Kara investigating murders, interacting with demons, hiding her identity as a summoner, and dealing with men in the police department and FBI, it was only reluctantly that I put the book down. If I didn’t have other review deadlines, I’d have read this sooner, because the first page really hooked me. It’s this kind of book that had me enthusiastically informing my husband what’s going on despite him trying to sleep to concentrate something else.

The “About the Author” page says that Diana Rowland has worked in law enforcement as “a street cop, a detective, a computer forensics specialist, a crime scene investigator, and a morgue assistant”. It shows in the writing. I found the scene with the medical examiner in the morgue fascinating (I did always wonder about bone dust. Suspicions confirmed), but the author’s experience shows elsewhere as well. The way Kara handled herself with all the male testosterone in the police department amusing and admirable.

Kara’s character is somewhat isolated. With her background as a summoner she has to be, so the list of secondary characters that Kara is familiar with is extremely sparse. The only person she feels close to is her aunt, but in Mark of the Demon Kara is introduced to an FBI agent and to the Demon Lord Rhyzkhal who I think will become more significant as the series progresses. I look forward to reading how things will turn out in later books and there is plenty of room for relationship growth.

Demons are a large part of the story, and Kara summons a few types into our world. Information about their society and how summoning works is dispersed to the reader in bits and pieces as things happen, and it’s very absorbing stuff. What really fascinated me was the complex sense of honor that has such a huge part of their world. It’s only this sense of honor that enables summoners to stay alive when they bring these creatures into our world, as long as they stay within the agreed upon rules.

The mystery of whodunit took me some time to figure out. I had my suspect about one quarter of the way through the book, but that was blown out of the water several pages later. It’s only when a secondary character fills us in on some back story that I figured out who the Symbol Man was and by that time the book was mostly done. I found out earlier than Kara did, but it was believable that she wouldn’t have figured it out by then, and the killer ensured she’d look in the wrong direction.

Overall: A very satisfying police procedural with demons and summoners thrown in. Kara Gillian is very human, despite her abilities, and it’s nice to read an urban fantasy with this type of protagonist and where the case is the focus and magic is one of the tools to solve it.  Recommended.

I’ve been trying to think of another author who writes police procedurals with supernatural elements and I came up with C.E. Murphy’s Walker series. I certainly think if you are a fan of that series, you will enjoy this one.

This book will be released June 23rd, 2009.

Want to win a copy?

Bitten by books contest (ends 11:59pm PDT TODAY)
I Do Not Want to Wait, I Want the Book Now (comment answering the authors question for a chance to win. Not sure when this ends, so comment quickly)
On Twitter – @bantamspectra tweeted that if you reply to them with #spectra1000 you are entered to win one of 5 books (Mark of the Demon was just added to the list). US Only. Ends 5pm EST Wed 6/17

Other reviews:

The Book Smugglers (gave it a 7 – very good).
Lurv a la Mode (4.5 scoops. Reading her review I’ve discovered we share very similar opinions on this book)

Soulless by Gail Carriger

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Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Gail Carriger

Soulless caught my eye a couple of months ago when I saw the cover, but I really wanted to read it because of the blurb. When I found this book at BEA I was ALL over it, and with the number of entries for my Soulless giveaway, I wish I had more copies to give away, but alas I only have the one.

I was going to write this review and then shelve it till end of September, but a lot of copies of this were at BEA, so I expect reviews to show up pretty soon, and I’ve had a lot of people asking me how the book is!

Soulless comes out September 30th from Orbit books.

The Premise: Alexia Tarabotti is a spinster and twenty-six years old (she was officially put on the shelf at the early age of fifteen). The daughter of an Italian and well known for her modern sensibilities, headstrong personality, and interest in science, Alexia isn’t the typical young Victorian lady. She has a long nose, dark Italian skin, and loves to eat (treacle tarts are a favorite).  One night, Alexia attends a ball, and is dismayed to find that the host has provided NO refreshments. Taking matters into her own hands, she asks be served tea in the library. One thing leads to another and suddenly there’s a dead vampire on the library floor and Alexia has to fake a faint. The agents of BUR, headed by Lord Maccon (an irritable, scruffy, Scottish werewolf) aren’t fooled for a second, and she is asked questions regarding their investigation.  Vampires and werewolves are appearing where they shouldn’t be, and disappearing from where they should. Of course Alexia decides to do some investigating on her own, and drives Lord Maccon crazy in the process.

My Thoughts: Wow, this book was a lot of fun to read. The blurb is a spot-on indication of what you’ll find in the book – tongue in cheek stuff, a heroine who is a force of nature, and a romance thrown in.  The author calls the book an “urbane fantasy”, and from what I can see there’s an overlap of genres here. There are romantic elements, urban fantasy elements, a very Victorian setting, and a dash of Steampunk. I couldn’t help mentally hearing the words in a proper English accent. First, no one here says “parasol”, so I had to, and second because of the style of the language. There was even a nod to the old-fashioned in the way the chapters were titled (“Our Heroine Ignores Good Advice” is just one example).  Along with the writing, there are a lot of references to fashions, manners and day to day life of the Victorian time period.

The world here is our own, but Great Britain has had supernatural help to conquer so much of the planet. There are werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, with similar traits to what I’ve seen in other urban fantasy (such as banding together under one Alpha or hive ruler), but the criteria for a human to change into a supernatural is something new. This time the amount of soul a person has is a factor. Only people with an excess of soul can survive the change, and supernatural creatures are rare. Alexia is even rarer, she has no soul. This makes her a preternatural, a person whose touch negates the supernatural completely. I don’t think I’ve seen this before. I’ve read books where one character is immune to supernatural effects, but can’t do what Alexia does.  I like the idea.

The worldbuilding was well done and had enough complexity where I felt that while I was seeing and understanding a lot of it, there is still more to come, perhaps in later books. In particular I think the politics between the vampires, werewolves, and the crown has been touched upon but there is more to explore there.

There are a lot of amusing side characters in this book. Usually there’s one or two side characters I kind of like, but here I liked a lot of them, though they are almost caricatures. The poor best friend with horrible taste in hideous, flamboyant, hats, the gay vampire with his baroque furnishings and coterie of foppish young men, the stoic and capable butler, the list goes on, but it works very well. It’s a comedic ensemble cast (complete with straight men) that buttress our heroine and hero.

This book is also a romance. While this is Victorian England so no sex before marriage, there are serious shenanigans going on that are decidedly more modern than this era. Even knowing what a free spirit Alexia is, there are a few scenes where some artistic license takes place in terms of Alexia’s reactions to her love interest. This was a slightly less believable part of Alexia’s character, but we’re reading a book with werewolves and vampires here, so I didn’t dwell on it. The part that irritated me was the repetition of Alexia’s “flaws” which she and her family were concerned about: that Italian nose, dark complexion, and inability to be controlled. I’d prefer Alexia to have been less repetitive in worrying about these silly things, thinking no one wants to marry someone like that.

Overall: This book is going to be popular. It’s as fun as it looks, I promise you, and I love that this feels like something new. I wanted to pick it up as soon as possible whenever I had to put it down. There’s plenty of action, sly wit, and romance going on to keep the pages turning and I will be reading the second book, Changeless.

There’s an excerpt of Changeless at the back of Soulless, and I’ve already checked, but the release date hasn’t been announced yet.

Links:

Video of Gail Carriger at BEA (filmed by Ron Hogan)

Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine

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Salt and Silver
Salt and Silver
Anna Katherine
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since I found it browsing online and I read the excerpt.  The cover and the excerpt made me think this would be shelved in urban fantasy but I found it in the romance aisle. The spine says “paranormal romance”. It kind of walks on the line on the two genres I think.

Note on the cover – I noticed they changed the cover font from blue and white to half silver (to resemble molten silver) and half white (like sprinklings of salt) – Love it.

The Premise: Allie is an ex-spoiled rich girl. The kind of rich that meant a mansion in Long Island, designer clothes and accessories, and two equally spoiled and rich best friends, Amanda and Stan, who grow up next door. The day her mother stole all their money and ran away to Brazil with her lover Rio, Allie suddenly had to grow up. She had to take a job as a waitress in diner in Brooklyn.  After her first day at Sally’s Diner, Allie, Amanda, and Stan perform a silly ritual in a fit of drunkenness which ends up opening a Door to Hell in the basement of the diner. Immediately a Stetson-wearing demon hunter, Ryan appears. This was six years ago. Allie has grown up, taken over management of the diner, and on the side she helps Ryan kill demons that escape from the Door. Until one day the Door in the diner’s basement suddenly disappears and she and Ryan have to find out what happened.

My Thoughts: The narrative is in the first person and is really informal – almost stream of consciousness, and full of swearing and sarcasm. It almost seemed young adult but not quite. After thinking about it I decided it was the voice of a young twenty-something, and it’s a BIG part of whether you will enjoy the book. If the voice here isn’t for you, you won’t like it, so I highly recommend reading the excerpt of chapter one.

The world here is ours except there are Doors to Hell which every so often let out creatures that the door guards kill. Normal people (the mundanes) don’t know about it and just keep living their lives. I won’t go into more detail than that, but I thought that the world building was really organic – you learn as the story goes along, with Allie not ignorant, but kept uninformed of certain facts from the hunters until she needed to know. The demons and monsters that Allie runs into all have basis in mythology and a wide variety of beliefs. For example there are different versions of Hell and it was really fascinating how characters reacted to what they saw in the Hells according to what they believed.

Allie has grown up  but her two friends from her old life have not. She holds on to them because she remembers that they were there for her when she became poor, but you get the feeling she keeps in contact because of loyalty, not because she actually likes them. It’s an interesting situation, and it’s sort of a coming of age aspect that you don’t usually see in adult urban fantasy. This also works with the story because Amanda and Stan’s selfishness and immaturity affect what’s going on with the Doors.  I think it explains Allie’s voice too. She may have grown up but her thoughts sometimes channel Cher from Clueless, but not in a way that made me dislike her. I actually really liked Allie’s character because of what she’s gone through, and because she came out with a wish to be a better person. She can’t hate the Door under Sally’s Diner because she knows it brought her Ryan and fighting it has also made her a more mature person.

The romance is a decent chunk of the story, but Ryan and Allie’s relationship has been an ongoing one so a lot of the falling in love seemed to have happened before the book even starts, with some flashbacks to key scenes and the only barrier is Ryan’s admitting that he feels anything (Allie on the other hand admits freely that she has a huge crush). A lot of the book happens before it starts, with flashbacks used to show how things have changed over the years, not just with their relationship, but with Allie’s relationship with Stan and Amanda. Ryan’s reasons for not acting on his feelings for Allie were believable (though I didn’t agree with him), so I found it understandable why he kept pushing Allie away even when it’s obvious he really likes her. When the relationship heats up, I guess it is “finally” for a lot of other characters, but because this book doesn’t really show all 6 years up to that point, to me it was a little surprising.  I thought it would take longer for Ryan to break down, he acts very standoffish when the book begins, but by chapter two his soft center regarding Allie begins to show, so apparently six years was enough. I liked this couple, especially Allie, but I wasn’t a fan of Allie begging Ryan with “Please” during certain scenes.

Overall: Really liked this one – I had a hard time putting it down and it was a fast read. It has a bit of a quest in different dimensions in it which is something I like reading (looks like the authors enjoy researching magic and superstition), and the romance was sweet – good friends becoming more. The voice is different so do go read the excerpt before you buy. This isn’t a standalone, it’s the beginning of a series, but I think that other books may focus on other characters in this world if I read the authors comment’s on it here right, so you can probably treat this as almost a standalone. The ending is in a good, satisfying place and I’m definitely putting whatever else Anna Katherine writes on my wish list.

Other reviews:

Scooper Speaks (she couldn’t connect with the main char)
The Book Smugglers – gave it a 7 (very good)

The Better To Hold You by Alisa Sheckley

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The Better to Hold You
The Better to Hold You
Alisa Sheckley

I got this book from the awesome avidbookreader.com. The review there was so interesting I was amazed I got there first to win the book!

The Premise: This book centers on a veterinarian, Abra Barrow, who lives and works in Manhattan. Her husband Hunter is a journalist, and he’s just come home from a several month long trip studying wolves in Romania. It’s not long before Abra has to admit that something has happened on Hunter’s trip – she suspects he’s had an affair, but at the same time the doctor she interns under suggests that her husband has come into contact with the lycantrophy virus. Hunter feels restless and unhappy in the city and declares he needs a forest and will be moving to his family’s home in Northside, New York. As usual he leaves little room in his plans for Abra, but to save her marriage, Abra quits her job and joins him. Thrown into the mix is Wildlife Removal Operator Red Mallin, a strange man at ease with himself and the wilderness. He’s got an interest in Abra and seems to know a lot of strange things about what’s going on with Hunter.

My Thoughts: This book is different from the usual urban fantasy (it’s marked as paranormal romance; I disagree – OK it’s about relationships and there’s a little romance, but it’s not quite romance). It’s more about the angst of relationships and marriage with the supernatural as a small part of that whole. The story reminded me of Nick Hornby or Emily Giffin’s writing with some Stephen King thrown in. In the first few pages I felt the discomfort of witnessing a marriage break up but throughout the book there’s also the discomfort of reading about the messy details of life – menstruation, smells, and hair growth patterns are all described. This book may have shades of woman’s fiction/chick lit, but it’s the darker, serious side of chick lit and fluffy it is not. The supernatural is an unknown world to most people but to those who do learn about it, it is scientifically treated. For example, lycantrophy is described as a virus which only affects those with a predisposition (work on isolating the gene is mentioned), and Abra seems to easily accept what happens with only very brief thoughts of calling a mental hospital.

The thing the struck me first was Abra’s husband Hunter. I hated him. When I first picked up the book, I only read about 50 pages in but later that night I had a dream about killing him. The way that Hunter treated Abra was never “obvious” abuse, and he seemed to swing back and forth between disinterest and contempt to attention and passion, so I could see the confusion an intelligent person like Abra could go through. But all the little things he would say that seemed to show a lack of respect for the woman he married drove me up the wall. I’d say his brush with lycantrophy may have brought this to the surface but reading flashbacks when Abra met him, I don’t think he was ever a nice person.

Then we meet Abra’s mother – Piper LeFever, a B-movie actress with a penchant for the theatrical and who always manages to make everything about herself. First I thought oh, Abra’s mother hates Hunter, is Abra rebelling? But then I wondered if Piper’s narcissistic personality just made Abra susceptible to the same type of thing in her spouse? Her mother made Abra the type of person who abhors a scene, the type of avoidant person who could get easily manipulated by Hunter – he often put her in the position where she had to either accept his crap or ignore it to avoid drama (narcissistic abuse?) Well this book got to me that’s for sure, I was (armchair) psychoanalysing the characters.

It’s a good thing that I was so fascinated by the dark relationships in this book, because the angst here came close to turning me away. I despised Hunter, and I on the fence about whether to dislike Abra for staying with him.  About midway through the book I contemplated putting it down as a DNF but decided to keep going. Luckily that’s when things started getting interesting regarding another man’s interest in Abra and the hope of her leaving Hunter kept me reading on. THANK GOD for Red Mallin’s character! He was a breath of fresh air and I liked him so much more than Hunter. In fact, I hated Hunter so much I had no issues whatsoever with Abra’s being interested in another man when she was married. He was that bad.

Other minor comments I feel too lazy to expound on:

  • Very intense sex scenes
  • Many mentions of wolves sprinkled throughout the book like an easter egg hunt.
  • Alisa Sheckley writes as Alisa Kwitney for some contemporary romance/woman’s fiction stories – I don’t think Ive read any of her other books though.

Overall: Really like nothing else I’ve read in urban fantasy – it is more like messy relationship angst with the supernatural as an aside. Avoid if you can’t stand books that go into details of real life relationship drama but go for it if that is something you find fascinating. Usually I can’t take angst myself, but it did make me think a lot and it was saved by a somewhat happy ending (and by Red Mallin’s character), but it’s a bumpy ride. I may wait a bit before I read book 2 – Moonburn.

Avidbookreader’s review (I know I ranted and her review was more glowing, but surprisingly I thought this was about a B read which is what she gave it too).

SciFiGuy’s review (he wanted to strangle Hunter too – THANK YOU, I agree most heartily)

Bad to the Bone by Jeri Smith-Ready

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Bad to the Bone
Bad to the Bone
Jeri Smith-Ready
This is the second book in the WVMP series by Jeri Smith-Ready. The main character is college student and reformed con-artist, Ciara Griffen, who finds out that the DJs at the radio station she’s doing PR for are all real vampires. Ciara, being the enterprising marketing student that she is, uses the truth to sell the station – no one believes it anyway and think its a great gimmick – all the DJs are vampires, trapped in the time period they died so that’s the music they specialize in! Of course while this solves the problem of losing the station, it seems to paint a big target at WVMP. Unhappy campers range from local vampires afraid of their secret becoming public, to fundamental christian groups who are convinced that eliminating the vampires will save humanity.

Wicked Game, the first book in the series was one of my favorites of last year. My review of book 1 is here: vox / livejournal

Insert whine:

You know, I’m re-reading my review of Wicked Game and maybe it’s just the time of the year, but I keep getting interrupted when I read this series. It has been driving me UP THE WALL! I need to hole up and turn off all phones for the next book. I’d read and then Life would interrupt and then it would take me days to be able to get back into it, so the reading experience became disjointed 😦

/end whine

*** minor spoilers for the first book from this point ***

Bad to the Bone starts out not too far off from the events ended in Wicked Game. Ciara has managed to stop the radio station from being sold to a media conglomerate and thus all the vampires in it (including her now boyfriend Shane) are safe for now. Not is resolved however – her con-artist father has disappeared, and Ciara’s relationship with Shane is the longest and most serious she’s ever had, so while Ciara and Shane are happy, the idea of commitment frightens her. These become minor issues however when at the station’s Halloween bash, their signal is suddenly hijacked by a fundamental christian radio station, and a reporter from Rolling Stone who happens to be doing a piece on WVMP becomes a bit too nosey about the vampires.

Excerpt of Chapter 1

My thoughts: There is something about Jeri Smith-Ready’s writing that just works for me. It’s simple, not flowery, but it flows well from one scene to the next. You would think that the first person *present* tense would be odd, but I didn’t have a problem with it. When I think about what happened in this book – it seems like a lot, but I never felt overwhelmed with the information or that the pacing was too fast. It’s just that the relationships evolve along with the story at an appropriate pace: so while Ciara is dealing with figuring out who it was who took over their airwaves and what is the meaning of the ominous “YOUR GOING TO HELL” sign at the Smoking Pig, she’s also dealing with her own personal issues. That means – going to school and writing papers, deciding if she wants to make the next step with Shane, and worrying about her best friend Lori’s taste in men.

Ciara’s big flaw seems to be more about trusting people and making commitments because of this fear than anything else. Despite this fear she also has a huge amount of loyalty and common sense. So I knew she was sometimes a little overwhelmed by committing to Shane but I was a little surprised at how this manifested as in this book! I can’t really go into it because it would be a spoiler, but whoa, it’s interesting! I’m not sure I quite *liked* it, but Ciara really never betrays anyone, I think her panicked brain was considering escape plans, so that’s why I could accept it. Also whoa is Ciara and Shane’s sex scenes. This book is urban fantasy so romance is not a focus, the sex seemed more of a fact of being a “normal couple”, but I think Katiebabs should peer at them to consider them for her sex positions post. They are evolving as a couple and I’m very interested in seeing how it goes. Shane is still a bit mysterious though – he seems quite perfect, but we’re only seeing him through Ciara. I wonder how he really feels sometimes because with Ciara he seems very sure about the two of them – he has to have worries that he has to work through too.

Again I am going to say that if you like Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series, you will like this one. Not because it combines supernatural plus radio (and they both do this in very different ways), but because the main character is a woman who isn’t particularly badass or a hunter/killer, they are women who use their own wits to solve problems and help others. Things have a feeling of “realness” to them because of the characters and relationships, and also the world is ours – the same time, the same geography, just with a supernatural element.

Random bullet time:

  • Every chapter is named after a song. I would see the song name and immediately this song would be in my head. Sigh, I wish my brain wouldn’t do that!
  • There is a dog in this story which I think you may have guessed from the cover. I love this dog, he is cute and he advances the plot. I am apparently a sucker for this type of thing.
  • As with Wicked Game, Ciara is quick to think on her feet and uses her talents as a grifter to get inside information about the people who have been targeting the station. She also brings in her best friend Lori. I like their relationship and what happens when they team up. There’s a scene after Lori and Ciara infiltrate a support group for people who have been bitten by vampires, which had me cracking up out loud.
  • The older a vampire is, the more they lose their humanity and become more “stuck” in their own era and more obsessive compulsive traits pop up. Knowing people with OCD myself, this is particularly tragic to me, and a reason for Ciara to worry about Shane and her future. There is also something monstrous in all of them which shows up from time to time, in some vampires more than others. It’s interesting to see how this is dealt with and I am wondering how Ciara and Shane will fare later on. I’m also wondering what Ciara is going to do when she and Shane can no longer rein in a certain vampire DJ’s baser instincts. I sense it could be a problem later.
  • We do get some back story on Shane and Regina which explains some of Regina’s over protectiveness.
  • There are I think 6 vampire DJs in WVMP, but probably 4 of them have more face time than others, so sometimes I get a bit confused about who certain people are because they aren’t mentioned as much and my brain is a little fuzzy on the details of book 1. I think my memory is getting bad. I should probably have read the free short stories about each one of the vampires and how they were turned that Jeri Smith-Ready put up online (4 of the 6 are up):

Overall: I really like this author, and this is my favorite series of hers so I think I’m already predisposed to like this book (um, full disclosure: I may have hugged my ARC when it arrived). Compared to book 1, I prefered Wicked Game slightly more because of the sweet romance in it that begins there, and it worked for me almost like a stand-alone, but it would be impossible to replicate that in the second book, so other than that, both books are equally well-written for the reasons I described in “my thoughts” above. Bad to the Bone ends in a good place but it more strings are left untied which make me want to read book 3 (Ciara’s uniquiness, the Control, Ciara’s family). I also am most curious to see what is going to happen with Ciara and Shane. Is Ciara just going to have to accept that she will lose Shane to time (which will bring her aging and his fading?) or is there some other solution for them? I am dying to know.

Bad to the Bone is out in stores May19th

Reviews elsewhere:

Tez Says (as a music aficionado, Tez would like to have words with Shane! :D)
Brooke reviews (I think her opinion matches mine)
Scooper Speaks (points out a bittersweet aspect I didn’t cover)
Angieville (also a good review)

Other links:

Jeri Smith-Ready has a Spread the Word contest going on NOW (prizes are gift cards and goodies from the WVMP store)
Jeri Smith-Ready has a feature at Bitten by Books also going on now (with a contest for books)

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

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Strange Angels
Strange Angels
Lili St. Crow

Note: this review is based on an ARC I received from the publisher

Premise: Dru Anderson knows all about scary creatures like werewulfen, suckers, gator-spirits, chupacabras, ghosts, and zombies and she’s helped her dad track and kill a few. It’s a rough life but Dru has been doing this since her grandmother died and her dad came to take her with him. They’ve moved from one town to the next while tracking down the next supernatural target. Now Dru is sixteen and the latest town is Foley, South Dakota. They’ve been here for a very short time, still unpacked (though they never unpack anymore), when one night Dru’s dad goes out after something doesn’t come back the next morning. Dru knows something horrible has happened – her gifts warn her in her dreams and it isn’t long before she’s forced into battling creatures by herself. An unexpected ally appears in a schoolmate – goth boy Graves has taken an interest in Dru and offers his help despite not knowing anything about the trouble she’s in. Both of them are alone in the world until that point, but things get further complicated when Christophe shows up talking about the Kouroi and telling Dru she’s more special than she thinks.

Excerpt of Strange Angels

My Thoughts: This is the first young adult book by Lili St. Crow. She’s also written adult books like the Dante Valentine series, the Jill Kismet series and others.

I’ve read a couple of books into the Dante Valentine series and Dante to me is a really tough kind of character and once I read some of her past I understood where her demons were coming from. I think it’s Lili St. Crow’s speciality to create strong women characters because Dru also has some elements of this toughness in her. She’s also realistic. Dru has been through a lot and her coping with her father’s death was dealt with in a reasonable way. Dru has to fall apart a little bit, and that’s when Graves finds her. She’s in shock, but she rallies because her life is in danger, and part of her coping mechanism is hearing her father’s voice pushing her on to survive. I prefer having a main character like this, especially since she’s our narrator.

Graves too is not without his depths. To Dru he first he came off as naive, but as she gets to know him she learns he’s smarter and more resilient than she’d expected. I’m always happy (um, possibly biased) to see half-asian characters in books so he’s already a positive addition to the book there, but his sense of humor in scary situations also endeared me to him. I hope in the next book we can learn a bit more about his back story (and Dru’s).

Lots of action is going on as Dru and Graves run into supernatural creatures I was not familiar with along with some familiar ones (werewolves, vampires, zombies) with their own special twist. The zombie scene was particularly nerve wracking and brought to mind those horror movies where you have to watch through your hands! But maybe I’m the only chicken who does that.

It’s a sensory read – for example, weather is one of the things I found very well described. It’s winter in the Dakotas, and the descriptions of the cold and the snow and ice in a small town were prevalent throughout the book. Boy, am I glad it’s spring now because St. Crow’s descriptions took me to a place with bad winter storms and a hushed world covered in white.

Overall: If you want a recommendation for a young adult urban fantasy, I’d put this on the list. It has a serious, believable teen as a protagonist and the creatures that roam around in this book are really creepy.  It’s refreshing to read an urban fantasy aimed at teens that doesn’t have a high school cliche as a main character  because I don’t recall knowing anyone really like that.  Dru on the other hand is tough, but she’s also vulnerable and scared and thinks that she’s just a kid, and she is believable. This is the start to a very promising series.

Strange Angels is available May 14th.

Betrayals (book 2) is available November 17th (this date I’m not 100% sure of)

Reviews elsewhere:

Dayhunter by Jocelynn Drake

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Dayhunter (Dark Days, Book 2)
Dayhunter (Dark Days, Book 2)
Jocelynn Drake

This is the second book in the Dark Days series by Jocelynn Drake. I reviewed the first book, Nightwalker, here (link is to livejournal).

The Premise: 600 year old nightwalker (aka vampire) Mira is the narrator in this series who is the only nightwalker to ever exist with the ability to control fire. She and other supernatural creatures (who humans are unaware of), have been fighting an epic battle against the return of the naturi, a race of powerful beings who believe humans, nightwalkers and everyone else should be exterminated from the planet. 500 years ago Mira was used to create a seal to keep the naturi out, but there are some naturi still around trying to bring their comrades back.

*** Minor spoilers for book 1 from this point on ***

My thoughts: One of the people Mira is fighting alongside is a vampire hunter named Danaus who isn’t quite human. I find myself following the series to find out how their relationship plays out. From enemies in the first book to an unusual friendship in this one, I feel that there are hints of possibly more. The two keep referring to their promise to kill each other once the situation with the naturi is over but bah, I don’t believe it! They work well together and an odd symbiosis means they are both in tune with the other’s thoughts and powers. The reason for that is revealed when we get some of Danaus’ back story along with some more of Mira’s, and their compatibility makes me believe they won’t be going back to hunter and prey later on.

Dayhunter is set mostly in Venice, which is the location of the Coven, the most powerful vampires that rule over the rest. From what the reader sees of them, these creatures are mostly involved with power games where the strong cruelly manipulate the weak in order to make points and further their own agendas. Sadira, Mira’s maker, and the three on the Council, Jaburi, Elizabeth, and Macaire are all equally uncaring of who they have to use for their own purposes.

There’s a lot of unlikeable other characters in this book who Mira deals with, but I found that Mira herself uses her powers to make her own points. So there is some moral ambiguity, although Mira’s reasons are more heroic than villainous, and she has Danaus to stop her from going too far down a path she may regret. Mira and Danaus are quite similar in wanting to do the right thing and I found their conversations about their fundamental conflict as vampire and vampire-hunter revealing. Danaus in particular is conflicted now that he’s met Mira, and it is telling how little he actually knows. In this book we get a little bit more about Danaus’ motivations, and he’s on the page a lot, but his character still feels mysterious.

The book has some dark, dramatic overtones.  I just saw a bit of Francis Ford Coppola’s version of “Dracula” (the one with Gary Oldman in it) on TV the other day. The atmosphere of that movie could work with this book, but add to that plenty of non-stop action. At least Mira and Danaus get to sleep, but one day seems to follow another with more problems and very little time to stop things from unravelling.

Overall: Fast-paced, steeped in vampire politics and intrigue, everyone with their own agenda, and Mira in the thick of it trying to stay alive and protect her friends. If you like a book with courtly intricacies and manipulations, this one has quite a bit of that going on. The writing style has a dark, Gothic feel to it, every so often an elaborate turn of phrase would sneak in.  The voice may not be for everyone, but I associated it with Mira, a 600 year old vampire being the main character, and it seemed to fit her well.

The next book, Dawnbreaker comes out this September.

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