Dead Sexy by Tate Hallaway

Posted on March 20, 2008 by janicu

Tate Hallaway

I've had this window opened for a long time and I just haven't felt like reviewing anything. So I think it's a quick review for Dead Sexy:

This is book two in the Garnet Lacey series. Garnet is a sort of quirky, cute seeming goth looking girl who is a Wiccan and runs a book store and new age type of shop. You'd never guess she is harboring a goddess (Lilith, who slumbers within Garnet's womb), who Garnet called when she was attacked by some Vatican witch hunters. Those witch hunters died under Lilith's wrath, Garnet was left with the bodies and has been hiding from the law ever since. While Garnet's behavior is considered eccentric by normal people, she's really a witch who can see dead people and read auras and has vampire boyfriends. In this book the law may be catching up with Garnet and there seem to be an unusually high number of zombies about.
If you read book 1, this was close to the same level as that for me. Actually, maybe better because in book 1 I kept feeling exasperated at how impulsive Garnet would act over a man. Here were less cases of me saying "Garnet don't be an impulsive idiot" as I read this. Also some relationship developments which made the series move forward nicely for me.
I called Garnet "cute" but she never crossed the line into saccarine or Mary-Sue. I feel like I must clarify that.
I liked the secondary characters in this, especially Garnet's friends. They weren't cliched, they seemed real – not always doing the right thing and always being there when the main character needed them, but still family none-the-less.
This was written in the first person point of view.
You could probably read this without book 1, but it might be a bit confusing. Garnet does summarize some of what happened in the first book, but I would recommend reading this series in order.
I find these covers very cute. Especially the little cat.
So.. fun read. An entertaining narrative, some romance, zombies, friends and magic.
Excerpt of book 2
Book 3, Romancing the Dead comes out in May 2008.

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Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

Posted on March 9, 2008 by janicu

Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace (A Jennifer Scales Novel, Book 1)

MaryJanice Davidson

OK, finished this one a week ago. I liked the first book of the Undead series and this series had good reviews on Amazon so I picked it up through paperbackswap.

It didn't really work for me. The protagonist is a teen girl who discovers that her parents never told her that she's half weredragon. And her race has an ancient feud with were-arachnids and beaststalkers. While I could suspend my disbelief with the paranormal aspects of this story, I had a problem with the characters and their interactions. Jennifer often acted like a brat, lashing out at her parents over everything, for example – her dad not being there because of his job. Jennifer takes out on her mom just because she was there. Okay, teen angst, sure, but more than I have patience for, so when she kept doing it I wasn't enthused. At one point Jennifer said something "insightful" but it backfired, because I thought it was just a backhanded way of telling her mom that she was spineless.

Meanwhile, her parents alternated between saying nothing and just letting Jennifer rant, and snapping back beyond the point I thought an adult should. Her dad got so annoyed, he just dropped Jennifer off at her grandfather's, said something nasty, doesn't let her know what's going on, and leaves. I was thinking: what kind of parenting is this? I also don't understand why they never told her what she was. The "protecting her" excuse seems very flimsy. The communication in this family is disfunctional! Her parents let Jennifer believe what she wanted without setting her straight and then revealed she was very very wrong and should feel bad (is this supposed to teach her something? Becuase I thought it was passive aggressive on her parents part). On top of that some of the other people seemed to act out of character (I couldn't really buy the ending and how forgiving somebody was). And finally; there were people who added nothing to the plot at all - I said to myself - why were they there?

I know. I sound ranty. I think I expected more is why. The writing wasn't bad, the world wasn't bad, but I didn't like the characters. I'm past the young adult audience, but sometimes young adult books transcend age groups. This one is just for teens though, not targeted at practically 30 year old me. So I don't think I'll be looking for the rest of this series. I've been disappointed by quite a few young adult books in the past year – am I maturing? Or maybe I need to stop just trying to read everything willy-nilly and think more about if I'll really want to read books before I get them. TBR is huge anyway. It's at 131..still.

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Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

Posted on February 29, 2008 by janicu

Unshapely Things

Mark Del Franco

Cover: I find it interesting how many covers this cover model, Nathan Kamp is on. I think it's over 400, many of them romance novels, and now he's on an urban fantasy. He's everywhere! And yes, I recognize his face now, as I suspect many readers do. Oh and there is a blog that tracks this. Let me find the link…. I see, only on the top of the list when I google his name – here. This fascinates me. Maybe I should add a tag – Nathan Kamp cover, along with my butt-shot cover tag… I like this cover by the way, I think it hints at what the book's about pretty well.

What's going on in this book: Connor Grey is an ex-druid mage. He used to be a big shot in the Guild, catching criminals left and right, and not really treating people he worked with really nicely because he was too caught up with being a rising star. But – a magical injury that blocks most of his power lost him his job, his apartment, and most of his friends, and Connor becomes suddenly and uncomfortably aware of what type of person he was. Now he lives off his pension and a small stipend he receives from the police department for helping them with cases related to fae that the big-shots at The Guild can't be bothered to take. The latest case involves a string of nasty murders against some fairy prostitutes.

Why I got it: This is book of the month over at the league blog, and a new to me author (actually this is his first novel).

What I thought: Well this was a police procedural first of all, except with some unusual types of people as the victims (male fairy prostitutes), the murderer, and the people after him (Connor and his cop friend Murdock). What was most interesting to me was that Connor is going through a rebirth – he's weak and handicapped now and you feel his frustration at not being able to do things he used to do, but he's learning how to deal with this. He's learning how to treat people better as well. Several of the secondary characters point out that he burned bridges when he was powerful, and now he has to rebuild them. This redemption was a strong storyline and something I want to see more of in the next books. Also because of it, I think we have some strong secondary characters that interact with Connor (ex-coworkers, his mentor, his partner Murdock, his flit friend Joe). It seems to me like his fall is an opportunity to get to know these people who are still sticking by him better and we start to see that. I would love to see this continue.

The other thing I liked is the strong sense of the place that everything happens. A gritty Boston that I had no problems visualizing (even though I don't find Boston this dark in real life!). Alleyways and bars and slums in a section friendly to the fae called The Weird, where tourists like to go and gawk at the locals. I could see it clearly in my mind reading this book.

And now my complaint! There is so much focus on Connor and it IS from his point of view that we see very little of the villian of this piece. In the end I saw a glimpse of who he was and what he was trying to do, but it was confusing and fleeting compared to how well Connor was drawn. I think there was some opportunity to really show a compelling picture of this bad guy but there wasn't really enough time. Everyone else was very well written and two dimensional, maybe this is why I even noticed, but I think it would have made this book stronger. So much was focussed on Connor and his past that the rest of it – finding the bad guy, wasn't in the forefront, and this made the pacing slower for me. I can see this as being a good foundation of what's to come though.

Book 2 is Unquiet Dreams and it came out in January 2008. There's a little hint of whats to come from book 1 so I'd like to see how things go with Connor.

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Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland

Posted on February 27, 2008 by janicu

Star of the Morning: A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms

Lynn Kurland

This is a fantasy novel by an author who usually writes romance. I hear she has some popular time travel romances out. I think I was curious to read this because I liked her voice in the The Queen in Winter anthology. There's a little half-teasing tilt to it, especially when the characters banter with one another.

So this is a straight fantasy, with a little romance (not really in your face). Adhémar, king of Neroche has suddenly lost his magic powers, his magical sword doesn't work anymore, and he's very put out by it. His youngest brother Miach, who is also the archmage, suggests that he travel to the most unlikely place to find someone who can wield the sword. At the same time, a mercenary named Morgan who has been asked to bring a magical dagger to the king. They cross paths but Adhémar can't reveal his identity or the reason for his quest and Miach can't reveal why she's going towards the palace or that's where she's headed. Miach pops in to check on his brother and starts tagging along because he's interested in Morgan even though he's supposed to be monitoring the kingdom's borders. There's some light banter between the brothers (king – grumpy, archmage – deflecting grumpiness with practiced ease), and also humor from Morgan's belief that the king is a huge jackass who should keep his mouth shut. She proclaims this any chance she gets. The conflict here is that Morgan loathes magic but Miach is a mage so he worries about what she thinks when she finds out. At the same time Morgan is very troubled by her quest and about learning that she has an affinity for magic.

The book started out amusing – I really liked the beginning, but after a while it went into the usual fantasy quest route and I started to lose interest. There wasn't anything very urgent or compelling going on that would keep me glued to the page, the pacing was quite relaxed. Perhaps too relaxed. I almost walked away from this book even though I only had 50 pages left, I just wanted to skim the end and had to make myself read it (and that's where more interesting things started to happen). I'd recommend this for readers who don't generally read fantasy and want something light and wholesome to read. I also had the random thought that this story lends itself to being easy to read out loud. I was thinking – "I bet my grandmother could read this out and it would be ok, because this book has nothing really dirty in it". Maybe some cursing and graphic violence would give it some pizzaz, but I don't think that's the author's thing, and it wouldn't fit into the rest of the story anyway. Oh well – it wasn't a bad read, but to me, a bit tame after what else I've been reading lately. This is the first book of a trilogy; the second book is The Mage's Daughter and continues this story.

P.S. My fiance didn't like this cover. Hmmph! I ignored him. The only thing I have to say about the cover is – she should be wearing pants. She's supposed to be a mercenary.

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Keeping It Real by Justina Robson, part 2

Posted on February 25, 2008 by janicu

I forgot to post excerpts for this book, there were nice long ones I found online at www.thenoshows.com (the website for the band in the book) – which also has a track from the band, which is a nice extra.

Common Knowledge

Excerpt of the first three chapters

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Keeping It Real by Justina Robson

Posted on February 25, 2008 by janicu

Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1)

Justina Robson

First of all – this book is a trade paperback and… I HAVE to say this – it smells good! The paper is a nice quality, it does not have that newspaper smell of mass market paperbacks, instead it brings to my mind the smell of a nice new textbook (in a good way). I could get high on the smell. And the book feels heavy, meaning the paper is dense. I was quite pleased with the experience of reading because of this. I would not mind it at all if more publishers paid attention to things like paper if they are going to charge $15+ for a trade paperback.

Anyway, moving on to the actual words on the pages. The book begins with a short summary under the heading of "Common Knowledge" that describes what has been going on in the world. A quantum bomb that exploded in 2015 has changed the world as we know it, opening up five other parallel realities to ours. When I read the first page which described the bomb and altering matter, I was a bit bored. It was pretty late at night and I was sleepy, and I was suspicious that this was a prologue in disguise. Many people skip those things. I never do, but I did put the book down. A while later I read past page 1, and things got interesting. I recommend that you DO NOT skip the Common Knowledge section, it explains much about the parallel worlds (Alfheim - populated by elves, Zoomenon – world of the Elements, Demonia – filled with demons, Thanatopia – realm of Death, and Otopia – world of Faerie). By the time the story starts the information there will be useful.

The basic premise is that Lila Black, a special agent with a body that is mostly machine, has been tasked to protect the lead singer of The No Shows – an elf named Zal. Zal is unusual amongst his kind and has made a strange choice to be "slumming" down on Earth. Someone from Alfheim, who disapproves of Zal's lifestyle is sending him death threats. Half of the book takes place on Earth and the other on Alfheim, but I don't think I can even begin to start describing it. It was so much fun to read! How do I explain why!? First of all – this was not done in a fluffy silly way – when I tried to explain it to someone: "There were elves, and one of them is a rock star-", I got a face. It's not like that at all. The characters are compelling. Lila is a woman who has guns popping out of her body and rides a black motorbike, but she's very confused about how she feels about elves – they almost killed her and that's what made her this way. She has difficulties with accepting what she looks like now. And Zal is a bit of a mystery at first, an elf who has chosen to defy his people and "go native" in another world, exiled because of his choices. His character is rather complex and undefinable. There were a couple of other very interesting characters I wish I could get into but I can't without giving away big chunks of plot. Speaking of the the plot, it unlike anything else I've read, unpredicable, full of action and thrills. There are a lot of pop culture references and jokes (other reviews say many funny LoTR references, which totally went past me, I haven't read those books since I was 14), but you don't need to get them to enjoy the story. The only thing I'd complain about is that there were times in the story where, especially dealing with elves, I felt like they understood something about what was going on that I did not (why did they do that now?). Maybe this lends itself to the whole clash of cultures between human and elf, or maybe I just need to reread those parts. I felt like Robson was an intellectual writing something fun instead of something with a serious agenda. And I'm glad, because I loved it.

Keeper!

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Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman

Posted on February 10, 2008 by janicu

Staying Dead (Retrievers, Book 1)

Laura Anne Gilman

My dad saw me buy this book and said something like "Staying Dead? I thought the problem is staying alive?". And laughed to himself. Anyway.. Imagine me rolling my eyes.

Here's another new to me author, though I think I've read books that Laura Anne Gilman edited. It's an urban fantasy set in New York City, and I believe its the first in a series, but there is actually a short story that comes before this one. I think the sequence is:

1) Staying Dead

2) Curse the Dark

3) Bring it On

4) Burning Bridges

5) Free Fall (2008)

This is a series of adventures about Wren and her partner Sergei. Wren is a Talent (aka someone who can manipulate energy) and a thief who does jobs retrieving objects for people. Sergei is an art-dealer who takes care of the business side of Wren's job. The clients contact Sergei, Wren uses her Talent and they both work together to track down the object. I believe that there is some background missing from this book but enough hints about it throughout for you to pick up that Sergei and Wren met 10 years ago when Sergei was fleeing from a mage, got into a car accident, and Wren saved him. After that adventure they decided to go into business together, and Sergei feels like part of his job is to protect Wren although she's the one with the special powers. There is also some backstory on Sergei's past (like why he was being hunted by a mage) that isn't revealed until midbook as well.

The book starts with Wren beginning a job. The client is missing the cornerstone of their building and Wren has been tasked to find it. The book goes straight into the story as if the reader has had some background from some prequel story. While I liked being considered smart enough to figure it out, and I did figure it out, I still wish that I knew their backstory earlier on in the book. I'm afraid that not knowing for as long as I was made the book boring at first. I thought the first couple of pages started off promising but then not really being filled in after that started to grate on me. It was after I picked the book up again and kept reading and got about 150 pages in that the book finally picked up. By then I understood who I was reading about.

The world was interesting – we have people of Talent like Wren, the Nulls who have none, and the fatae (sort of fae people, like men with stag horns, angels, and demons that look like the Yeti). There is also different groups – the Council which governs most magic users, lonejacks (those that have left the Council's rule), hategroups that target the fatae and Talent, and a secret society called the Silence. On top of that there is this job that Wren has – more difficult than she originally expected, with more people involved than she originally realized. But to me the most interesting part of the book was Wren and Sergei. It reminds me of Moonlighting, Remington Steele and The X-Files. Two people partnered together who you know are both secretly in love with the other but who deny it to themselves the whole time. Sergei and Wren are so comfortable together. They can sleep in the same bed or undress in front of the other. And they are so used to their routines – they eat the same meals at the same restaurant at the same table, and they both know to brew tea for each other before the other asks. Yet Wren hides her crush and Sergei is overprotective. I don't think I've read a book with a partnership so in tune and comfortable with each other (yet blind) in a really long time. In the end that was probably the best part of the book. Overall it ended up feeling OK – I wasn't on my seat, but I liked the characters and I'm still interested to see where it goes.

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Heart of Stone by C. E. Murphy

Posted on February 7, 2008 by janicu

Heart of Stone (The Negotiator Trilogy, Book 1)

C.E. Murphy

I started reading this book because it was the book of the month at the League of Reluctant Adults' blog. On top of that, C. E. Murphy has been on my list of authors I wanted to read because I read a short story by her in Winter Moon and really liked the writing.

This is book 1 in a trilogy that centers around Margrit Knight, a hardworking lawyer working for LegalAid, and a gargoyle named Alban. At first Margrit lives in the "normal" world, unaware of any kind of paranormal happenings in New York City, but after Alban speaks to her, she suddenly becomes involved in not just Alban's situation (believed to be a murderer) but in others as well. I found Margrit's character believable as someone I'd meet in this world, and someone admirable as well. Margrit is just that type of person that's has strong convictions about helping others, and she is very good at that. There were several places in the book where despite the fact that she's in a position of weakness, she never allows that to be an issue when she speaks. She always manages to convey strength with whom ever she is dealing with, and I really liked that! At the league blog when we were discussing themes, I suggested that one of those was feminism, and tmthomas posted a really interesting comment about formal vs informal power. In either case, it was something refreshing to see. I felt like this is the kind of strong heroine I like.

On top of that, the secondary characters were quite well written as well. Margrit's on-again, off-again lover, her roommates, her boss.. they all played understandable roles of people concerned for Margrit although unaware of what was really going on. There were understandable conflicts that came out of this. Then there are the paranormal/supernatural/Other creatures. Murphy has some new twists to the conventional myths and also populates the world with some beings not usually found in urban fantasy. These "people" feel dangerous and unknown but also fascinating. Particularly during their interactions with Margrit. I'm looking forward to finding out more about them through Margrit's dealings with them in the next two books. And – the city. I have to say, it does feel like New York to me when I read this book. An everyday, yeah I live here, New York.

So basically – good, above average read. I wasn't staying up all night to read it, I took my time (about 5 days?), but the writing was skilled, I did enjoy myself, and I felt quite satisfied when I finished.

Here's an excerpt from Heart of Stone

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Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

Posted on February 1, 2008 by janicu

Gabriel's Ghost

Linnea Sinclair

Oh my, look at this cover. Racy! I have another cover but vox gives me an error if I try to get it.

Since I'm on the space opera kick and my Borders is closing and there are sales, I went and bought about $50 worth of books there. My TBR is 129-ish. Don't judge me, I am weak. I will make it go below 100 some day. I say this and then I laugh a little.

Also – man I am depressed that this Borders is closing. I've been going there for 9 years. It's in walking distance. 😦 There's a Barnes and Noble that's a couple of blocks closer, but I still like the Borders better. If you live in Westchester, New York, the White Plains Borders has a 40% off sale now until it closes on Saturday (tomorrow). I could cry.

I picked this one up because I knew it was standalone plus I'd just read Finders Keepers by the same author. I guess this cover to the left conveys that this is both romance and science fiction with spaceships and stuff. Which it is – Chasidah Bergren was a Fleet Captain when she was courtmartialed for a crime she didn't commit, and sentenced to the prison planet Moabar, where life expectancy is very low. After two weeks, Gabriel Sullivan, a mercenary she's spent time trying to capture in the past, finds her and offers to help her escape the planet. Of course there are things she doesn't know, like why he tracked her down of all people, and what is he doing alive, because he was supposed to have died years ago. Larger things are happening and she is part of it. Much fun space opera action ensues.

When I read Gabriel's Ghost I was mentally comparing it with Finders Keepers, and it feels like it's a later novel. I just checked and that's true. I didn't see the repetition in phrases I was seeing in Finders Keepers, so that habit is gone. Also the romance is more complicated in this book, less predictable. Despite that, although the writing still pulled me in, I liked Gabriel's Ghost less than Finders Keepers. The first part of the book was very interesting, but then about halfway through, the story started to lag. I felt like the relationship should be all resolved by then and I' dlike to see it build from there, but it was just being dragged backward and having wrenches thrown in because Chaz Doesn't Really Know the Truth About Gabriel. She would find out something, freak out a bit, then got over it and become reasonable. But this keeps happening because Gabriel gave her the facts in little crumbs. I think the book could have been better if this didn't go on as long as it did. Plus, to add to this – the hints about Gabriel were all over the place. There were a couple of things I didn't guess that were minor, but if Chaz had figured the obvious this book would have been shorter in a good way because the story picks up towards the end and then – it ends! A couple of major parts were resolved, but.. certain other very large questions are not. IS there is another book? If there is, I would feel happier. They never really completely fix the issue that they are trying to fix. This book ends one battle but more are forthcoming. There are also major prejudice in certain characters which our heroes have to confront soon. I wondered how that was going to go. Plus, in the end, I wasn't completely convinced that there was proof Chaz wasn't being manipulated. I felt like that wasn't resolved as well as it could have been. More could have been said! So not a bad read but for me it was cut short.

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Endurance by S. L. Viehl

Posted on January 29, 2008 by janicu

Endurance (A Stardoc Novel)

S.L. Viehl

This is Stardoc book 3 (I seem to be on a space opera kick), and this time Cherijo Veil is under the control of slavers. As she usually does, Cherijo uses her skills as a surgeon to help everyone that needs medical attention, saving many lives and often making life harder for herself to do so.

I don't think this review is spoilerific but may allude to things that could be spoilers. So if you want to know NOTHING, don't keep reading, my vox doesn't have LJ cuts.

{possible spoilers below}

Cherijo's mental state seems different from books 1 and 2 – she believes she was betrayed, and this makes her very very grouchy throughout the book (at least to me). There was a fine line between defiance and stupidity and sometimes Cherijo crosses it, needlessly provoking the prison guards and not allowing people to protect her. Sometimes this was frustrating to read. Cherijo also the reason the people around her are enslaved, but she feels as if she's even with them for what they did. I think most of them didn't have much choice, so I thought Cherijo was seeing things a little bit too black and white. Of course, others see things in a similar black and white way and want Cherijo dead for what has happened. Cherijo does manage to convert some people but not others. The usual addictive high action drama occurs.

This was a overall an OK read for me, but I preferred book 1 out of all these so far and book 3 the least. The second half of the book was better than the first, but I don't understand why her friend Alunthri was added to the story. His being there seemed very forced in order to make Cherijo even angrier about her betrayal. I think her attitude of bullheaded defiance throughout the book, not really trusting or looking at things from other people's points of view was beginning to wear thin on me. Basically because she's brilliant she is always right (ha) - often naturally taking the role of a leader and hard to sway once her mind is made. It is even harder for others to get her to do what they say just to keep her alive. They are forced to great lengths to save her. I'd like to see how much her attitude changes in book 4. I hope she learns some lessons about trust instead of dragging out a tense situation. Meanwhile, one of the best parts of the book was when Cherijo goes deep into her subconscious, I think this is part of a much larger, very interesting story arc which I'd like to read more about. Another good thing in this book which is something it has in common with others – is the humanizing of the "bad guys" – not everyone is put into a tidy slot and there are facets to their personality – some of the slavers are terrible, while others turn out to be very honorable.

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