The Cat’s out of the bag…

Although it shouldn’t be that big of a mystery or secret what the cat was/is… I found another lovely little series, where I am looking forward to the next book.  And, what do you know?  It’s paranormal!  😉

The Familiar, the first in the Bad Tom series by Jill Nojack was a cute little read.  There was magic, a little romance (although zero steam), mystery, and a little fun.  It wasn’t earthshatteringly unique or original – a witch who doesn’t know she is a witch stumbles upon someone who has been affected by magic and she tries to

save him – but there were enough differences and enough of the stuff I like to make this quick little read enjoyable.  My primary critique – that I would love to have had a little more depth to the characters, so that I would feel like I got to know them a little better.

The main story goes something like this: When Eunice (and old woman and not the nicest witch) dies (or is probably murdered) Cassie, her granddaughter, is left everything and needs to decide what to do about her Gran’s store (because Gran owned a magic store, of course), powers, and Cat.  And, Cat is not just a cat (or kitten since he gets squished and reverts back to kitten state in the use of one of his 9 lives), but a man turned cat some 45 years ago and held hostage by Eunice.  The biggest unique element, which I loved, is that this story is told mostly from Cat’s perspective.  And, sometimes, Cat really is more cat than man.

There were some interesting and dark turns, and just enough mystery that I classified it as a mystery.  After all, we still don’t know how Eunice actually died.  And we don’t know what Mr. Liu wanted or if he is important.  We don’t know what Eunice was looking for in issues of Architectural digest.  And we don’t know what else the coven is capable of.  We don’t know if Kevin will go off the reservation in revenge at the coven of his father.  So, there’s still a lot to solve.  I admit, I don’t know if solving any of that is top of the list of things to tell us in book 2 or 3, but I am looking forward to finding out.

Mostly well written (a few typos, but less than in the book 2 of the Reapers series – which my readers will hear about shortly in a review – but still a few showing, yet again, the glaring issue with self-published/kindle published without a real editor books) and certainly well paced as I read it in less than 2 days.  And, I never felt the story was dragging or boring.  It progressed through the plot at exactly the right pace.  I am not sure paranormal romantic comedy is exactly the right description, but it’s close enough.  And, can I say, I adore the artwork on the cover of all three (the artwork for the 2nd and 3rd planned books is on the authors website)!!  Love the Cat on this one!

I know this isn’t the longest review, but it was just such a cute and pleasant little distraction that there isn’t much else to say.  I was eager to run out at lunch and finish the story off.  I was pleasantly surprised by a few things, and I am eager to read the second book when it comes out.  I would like to know a little more about the characters – and what is driving each of them – but if the second follows in the paw prints as the first, I am sure I will enjoy it.  And I am looking to see how our Cat adjusts to life outside the house and with Cassie!

UPDATE:  Just a quick thanks to Jill for mentioning my little blog on her blog!  In addition to checking out Tom and his adventures in The Familiar, check out her blog, with info about Tom and her other books!  http://www.jillnojack.com/article-about-my-kindle-scout-experience-and-blogger-thanks-yous/

It couldn’t get more superficial than this

And I thought that Bella’s love was superficial and grounded in nothing other than what the boy looks like.  This book makes that love story look like the deepest, soul reaching, romantic and well developed love story ever.  **Shudder**  I know that so many books, Para-YA and PNR especially, don’t exactly do the whole getting-to-know-you thing between the characters before they declare themselves madly in love, but here, it made even the fastest move at a snail’s pace in comparison.  And, unfortunately, it’s not smart enough or well enough written to be love-at-first sight.  Instead, it’s love at first “OMG isn’t he the most gorgeous person ever”.

I am talking about the first installment in the Guardians series, titled The Girl by Lola St.Vil.  It is not all that original a story as we are looking at a good vs evil, balance needs to be kept or the world will end, a human and an angel relationship, and a quest plus a prophecy of some sort.  Not that I need it to be that original – look at what I read for goodness sakes, mostly clones of one of a few stories with subtle differences.  Here, the difference is the idiocy and angst of some of the characters is off the charts.  Also, the inconsistent grammar, character development, and detail vomit that happen from time to time just get to be a little too much.

Believe it or not though, I am reading the next book.  Because despite all the issues I had with the first, and there were plenty (I will share just a few), I still thought it was a fun little read.  It was a great little distraction and I am interested enough in a few of the collateral characters that I want to see where the overall story takes us.  How can I have so many issues with the series after just one book yet keep reading?  It’s like watching a soap opera – the terrible acting, terrible scripts and story lines, pregnant pauses for the sake of it taking three weeks to get out a single sentence – and yet you keep watching anyway because it is still fun.  So, this is a review after all so I will share a few of the things that were (more than) a little eye roll inducing.  Before I do that, though, let me give a 10 second synopsis.  We have angels who are trying to prevent the devil (and her minions) from letting evil take over the world.  Marcus, the leader of the angels trying to do the saving is dating another angel on his team.  His team meets Emmy, who is important because she is a clue that can lead to how to either let evil win or how to stop evil.  And Emmy falls for Marcus.  Chaos ensues.  Fights break out (not just the physical kind either) and characters die and others make-out.  And the angels have some cool powers but there are rules to the game that is being played and mostly the good guys have rules while the bad guys have very few.  Ok, I think that’s enough for the review.

First, and worst of all, the life-changing insta-love that Marcus and Emmy, the two main protagonists, feel for each other – because the kicker is that even though I see this all the time in the stuff I read (I readily admit that I am not a great literature addict – I love Dumas, Bronte, Shelley, Dickens, Carroll, Tolstoy and more but I am addicted to the… hmmm… crap, for lack of a better word), readers typically at least see that semi-developed over the course of the protagonists encounter – they spend time together, talk to each other, get to know each other (a little)…. The point is, it becomes something that is easier to understand and substantiate.  Here, does that happen?  Nope.   They spend no time together (I am ignoring the one car ride they take, because it is so insignificant) and yet they are turning their lives upside down because of this love that they feel.  I will lump in the awful amount of immaturity and jealousy that Emmy displays into this problem as well.  It’s almost comical it is so extreme.  And since there is no real relationship to back it up, the awfulness is magnified.  Honestly, it makes me really dislike Emmy as a character.  I know she is merely 15/16, but she is really hard to stomach.  Instead, it is all about how drop-dead gorgeous he is and he’s soooo handsome **swoon** so that means I luuuuurve him.  Lust at first site is love at first sight for Emmy.  And all Emmy really cares about is what everyone else looks like.  It’s really pretty pathetic and disgusting.  Marcus has the personality of a cardboard box, but he’s pretty, so she’s in love.  Ugghhh.  You know it’s pathetic when I am comparing this to Twilight and saying that Twilight is so deep in comparison.  Because even if you adore Twilight, you have to admit, the relationship wasn’t exactly built on mutual adoration, friendship, trust… you know all those things that make for a good relationship.  Instead, it was “he’s smokin’ hot, I am in love.”  Again:  Ugghhh.

Problem two is the information vomit that the author does.  I can’t believe I am saying this – because recently my complaint has been lack of enough to keep me interested.  But clearly, I am looking for that perfect balance of enough information to understand what is going on and not too much that I have little desire to read more.  Here, we get (what appears to be anyway, although maybe I am wrong and I will have to eat my words after reading the next books) all but one of the mysteries solved in the first book.    Too much.  There’s no sense of suspense left really, at least not with respect to the world building.

Problem three is the grammar.  I am no grammar queen, I admit.  I have problems with tense sometimes and pronouns, dangling participles, etc.  But, I don’t write novels for a living.  If I did, the first thing I would do is get a book or take an English grammar class.  Come on people, learn the language you are writing!!!!!!   Better yet, HIRE AN EDITOR.  Because, you know, the best idea ever it to have your friend who thinks s/he is good at it to do it.  Pay a professional, who does it for a living!  Because they really are good at it, they don’t just think they are good at it.  While the ability to self-publish has lead to some great stories it has also lead to some really terribly written ones.  Even worse are the great stories that are written very poorly.  Because they are even more of a let down.  And don’t even get me started on the typos.  They were everywhere.  When I realize I have typos on this blog I am embarrassed and pissed off at myself.  But I write, then proof-read right away.  And it is easy to miss typos and misspellings when that is the process – my brain reads what I knew I wrote (or meant to write).  If I were attempting to put a book out in the public or if I made my living writing this little blog (gee, don’t I wish!) I would have someone who is good at proof-reading do just that before publishing.  But I guess that makes me crazy and abnormal, for thinking logically like that and thinking that I would care about the quality of my work.

Problem four is one particular scene.  That’s right.  One scene is bad enough that it is a significant enough problem to mention it by itself.  Marcus meets with the Sage and is told that he needs to use Emmy, he doesn’t need to be nice to her. Then Marcus takes his girlfriend to spend time together and convince her that he loves her.   And they do all sorts of angel adrenaline junkie things (their version of sky diving and stuff).  Then, he heads off to Emmy.  And, given the sequence and what the Sage said, I assume that when in the very next scene  Marcus is confessing his undying love, that he is just going to use Emmy.  But apparently that wasn’t the case.  The melodrama, the unintentional (I assume) sap that virtually flows off the page giving the reader sticky finger, is so overdone, it’s turned a hunk of meat into a lump of charcoal.  He really does a 180, and in the most unrealistic so over the top kind of love confession it was stupid.  Not romantic but idiotic. Here’s a passage:  “Since I met you I have been unable to count in days.  I can only count your eyes.  How long until I see your eyes again?  That’s the only clock I have in my head.”  When Emmy calls him on that, he say’s it is all true.  So, here I am thinking the whole time that he is going to really turn out to be just using her.  But nope.  And, not to mention the confession about taking all the invisibility snaps so he can be a peeping tom and not be seen – that’s just creepy.  Like EL James, 50 Shades stalker creepy.  That whole scene, the dialogue, the way it came about… yikes.  Just yikes.  

Problem five is that the author completely disregards certain elements of Emmy’s home life.  Emmy end up grounded, but goes out anyway and gets beaten up and no mention of the fact that she had been punished.  Since a big deal was made about the punishment and Emmy’s not being able to read or listen to music, I thought, great, some realism.  Them two months of grounding turns into like one day and then going to West Africa and no repercussions – not even a passing mention of one.  It’s a failure to plot out (or outline) the story well enough.  It’s an oversight that felt amateur.

Problem six is the cover.  So, I got this book because it was a suggested on goodreads in the YA category.  But the cover implies something definitely other than YA.  And while the writing style and actions of Emmy are juvenile enough to justify the YA category, at least at the moment, that is not the impression I got from the cover.  And, ok, there are other version of the cover.  But the one I have is the cover shown above.  the other two cover options in goodreads are certainly more aligned with the whole YA category.

Is there anything redeeming here?  The story is just interesting enough, that despite its lack of originality, it isn’t wholly without value.  And Miku, Rio, Reese and Jay are great characters.  In fact, in many ways they are the characters that I feel I know better after finishing.  Emmy is too superficial and so green with jealousy that it is beyond annoying.  Scratching my own eyes out would probably be more pleasant than reading one more word of her jealous inner monologue.  Miku, Reese, Rio and Jay?  Like the fantastic four though.  We learn more about them, including things about some of their lives and deaths, then we do about Marcus or Mimi.  And we learn a little about what motivates them, how they think and feel.  Where the heck is that character development for Marcus and Emmy?  It’s just poorly balanced.  But, I want to see more of the wonder twins and if they ever join their powers, I want to know what happens to Jay.  So, I am already  into book two, and think unless it gets much worse (although not sure how it can) intend on riding this out until the end.   Although I do think that is a sad commentary on the series – that I am saying this has to be rock bottom so I will read because it has to get better….

Diverging Feelings about the Divergent Series

I read all three installments of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth in quick succession, back-to-back-to-back as if they were simply parts to a larger single volume.  Since they were all read together I’m going to review them together.

A few notes first:  There are things that I will discuss and there’s no need to distinguish which book it applies to and there are others where it is absolutely critical.  So keep that in mind.  As I planned out my review I was struck by a sudden sense of déjà vu. Although it took a little while to figure out why. When I did, it’s because I realized that I had a similar reaction to the Golden Compass series by Philip Pullman (and I read that series quite some time ago). The first book was really pretty good; the second book things started to take a turn but it wasn’t bad even though it certainly didn’t live up to the expectations I had set by the first book; third book – yikes. I found myself with both series wishing in many ways that the author had stopped writing after book 2, or at least I wish I had stopped reading at the end of Book two.

I will also say that this is one of the unique instances where I saw the movie first and really wanted to read the book because I liked the movie so much. Too often today young adult book adaptations just don’t seem to live up to the quality of the book. It’s not always the case – personally, I believe the film adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones wasn’t terrible, but I like the book much much better. Twilight, well let’s face it, both book and film were really pretty bad in their own rights albeit for entirely different reasons.  But, the movies were just mediocre adaptations of terrible books (I guess the terrible-ness compounded).  The Golden Compass was an absolute travesty of an adaptation, and with the star power of James Bond, I mean Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and so many others, it was just awful and my expectations were so much higher.  Ink heart?  Cute book. But the movie?  Youzers!  And that was with a pretty good performance by Helen Mirren.  Beautiful Creatures was fairly faithful to the source material but it still fell completely flat (and I love Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons so that’s a shame) and as a result, the movie totally lost the magic the book had. Percy Jackson, despite some large differences was a fun little movie (and who doesn’t love some Pierce Brosnan) but that’s the high point in this list. And it probably rates a C+ as far as adaptation quality.  Then there’s Harry Potter. Despite the fact that the film adaptations were mega hits (you should know I actually adore all of them, own multiple copies of each of the movies and watch them constantly) and despite JK Rowling’s involvement in the development of the films, I actually think they were pretty poor adaptations. Key word there is adaptations.

I give you this list (of my opinions) to help set the stage. Because I thought the movie was good. Like solid B/B+ on its own.  And, I think is quite an accomplishment really given all the crap that is made for and marketed for the YA movie-going audience.  So, when I read the first book, I totally understood the differences and necessity for them – and I really didn’t think it took away any major plot points. (This is where I am so critical of the HP films. I still love them. But there were changes, which I guess we’re for the sake of shorter running time, that would have added 4 minutes. So was the cut really necessary? And other changes that took away some of the magic of the wonderful world JKR built so painstakingly).  So, it was then followed with a solid B+ on the adaptation scale.  And that’s an even bigger accomplishment.

I liked the first book. I liked the first movie. I totally dove into the second book, with expectations of greatness.  Knowing that the second movie is already in the works only added to the excitement and anticipation.  And that’s where I fell flat on my expectations.

Because the second book was just okay. What an utter disappointment after all that setup. It started down a strange path, so that by then end of it (and the start of the third book), there was no place to go except into the land of the absurd. By the end of book three, the holes in the logic of the entire society and the socioeconomic system make a slice of swiss cheese look like it would provide good shelter from the rain.  Grrrrrrrrr.

I get that the categorization and classification into factions is a typical plot device in dystopian fiction, especially the dystopian of the YA persuasion. But here, the reasons for it, and the manner in which the sustenance of the factions survives, is beyond ludicrous. One of the things that drives me nuts about books and authors who write about physical challenges/abilities (e.g., learning a martial art) is that they have no sense of the time certain things take. And I am sorry if this will offend – but younger authors suffer from this even more. I saw a transcript of an interview with Roth and Roth talked about Tris not being able to hold a gun for a long time after she killed Will but it wasn’t that long a time. Granted it was longer than the training time (which I am sorry but there’s a reason military boot camps are longer than 4 weeks) but to condense the story across a few weeks and say that that’s such a long time means that someone’s perspective is a teeny bit skewed.  You don’t get totally proficient in fighting and being able to defend yourself or attack others so that it is second nature, a reaction without thinking, in a mere 4 weeks.  12 weeks is the current USMC boot camp time.  12.  Not 4.  It’s a lack of enough worldly experience or lack of research.  It’s ok if an author doesn’t have the right experience, but I then expect a little research.

It’s also difficult to really feel like the author had a good plan for the plot of the whole story arc from the start when the plot takes such a left turn into being about genetic engineering when there clearly is not a good understanding by the author of genetic engineering. The whole thing hit a point where by the time I got half through book 3 I was just tired and fed up and glad for it to be over.

In that same interview I referenced earlier, I found it interesting to hear the author’s take on how Tris was true to herself and her own character.  She said that the ending **spoiler ahead** where she dies was the right end for Tris because of who she was in the other two books. Poppycock!!! Who she was in the first two books: yes, someone who was courageous, and yes, someone who would stand up for others.  But it was one heck of a jump to turn Tris into some sort of sacrificial lamb, willing to sacrifice herself totally for the greater good without a whole heck of a lot of substance to support that messiah complex.  Here’s where it totally felt like the author was trying to figure out a way to throw in her religious beliefs, even though it was in a veiled way.  Now, that’s not to say that most of us would not give ourselves for a sibling, and certainly most would give anything including our own lives for our children, and lots of other members of our family and friends – it’s a natural thing to do when we love someone and if it was totally unheard of we wouldn’t have our armed forces, firefighters and police who sacrifice so much all the time and all too often they sacrifice all.  But it didn’t, in my opinion, feel like the natural thing for Tris.  She struggled with being Abnegation after all.

Never mind the fact that she also didn’t really think she wasn’t going to survive. She was pretty convinced she was going to survive the death serum. And she would have survived had she not otherwise been injured. Where I’m going with this is that there was nothing in Tris’ background or the dauntless training (that she seemed to really embrace in so many ways) that would lead me to believe it was realistic for her to have the character to take on that last mission as a suicide mission.  Not to mention, the nature of her divergent personality in a lot of ways contradicted that. In fear simulations she didn’t do the things that were dauntless like nor was she selfless. There wasn’t enough self-sacrifice in her for her to stay in the faction with her parents or that I could read in her personality and that made that ending feel very unfitting.  The reckless behavior she exhibited in the second book further underscores that point. It was reckless; it was not intentional bravery that saved others. Instead, it was a complete disregard for herself out of grief and guilt. As motivation it just doesn’t sync up with having her sacrifice herself – it was really for all the wrong reasons.  To me, a more natural ending would have had her survive the death serum, and live happily ever after with Four.

Turning back to the whole reason we were in a dystopian world to begin with, I struggle with the idea that people with “flawed genes” could be set into a confined environment and then all of a sudden after a few generations – and here’s the kicker… in Tris’ case a whole whopping single generation because remember, her mother was from the outside world – would all of a sudden magically be perfect and clean and restore the gene pool and be some magical perfectly pure person.  I have enough concern over where this particular element of the book started to go that I’m not going to even describe it any further.  It will likely turn into a treatise on political or religious views and I keep those views of mine off the Internet. Suffice it to say that I really wish the plot had taken a different direction in the reasoning for the war and the city and the factions. But it didn’t so we’re stuck with what we’ve got.  And before you jump to the conclusion, I will put it out there for you, you are right this may have colored my judgment of the series but it still didn’t change the fact that I didn’t like the third book (and I could see this awful turn coming clearly while reading the second).

I don’t know where I got the expectations for plot and story development but I bring them with me into every book that I read. Maybe it’s from all the reading I did as a little kid maybe it’s from the fact that I continue to read quite a bit of classic literature even today – for example the count of  Monte Cristo is one of just the number of books that I reread because it remains one of my all-time favorites. And the writing in that book is drastically different than so much of what we get today. It is not just the language or the words but it is the plot, and all of the intermediate steps that take us from those wonderful opening words or chapters through every element of the story, every step of the plot to the last final chapter and the end. I was left with the feeling that the author originally had a great idea for a story, which starts off with a bang by the way, and is going like gangbusters only to crash like ocean waves beating the rocks on shore.  That is, the author seems to not know how to finish and so she haphazardly comes up with something that sort of works to just get us to a conclusion.  Frankly, it’s disappointing. I don’t know if it is the time pressure to get installments out quickly or maybe it is the pressure to take stories more suited as standalone novels (even if they are a little longer) and turn them into series.  To do a series and do it well from start to finish without any faltering in the installments or the overall story arc takes a lot of work. And I am just not sure some of these authors, especially some of the beginners/younger ones, have what it takes to have each of the books in their respective series be well written, good stories, from start to finish. That is not to say that these books aren’t worth reading it is just a weakness that they have. And I wish I could say otherwise. Plenty of people can disagree with me,  it is just my opinion.

Now after all that, will I reread detergent? Probably.  Will I reread the second book? Probably not.  Will I reread the third book?  Absolutely not.  Will I re-watch the first movie? Absolutely. Will I watch the second movie? Probably. Will I watch the third? Well that is totally going to depend on the second. So all in all, the author has at least sold some books and will make some money off of the movie tickets. Therefore, depending on how you measure success, these books in some ways were success. In others, like from the purely literary perspective, I am not sure I would say they were totally successful.  All these mixed feeling about the Divergent series.  Guess it’s fitting, given the name!

Midnight’s Mess – the real Dark Warrior

When I picked up the Dark Warrior series by Donna Grant I was as skeptical as I always am when starting a new series in this genre.  Will it live up to the standard by which I hold all PNR books – that of the first 6 Black Dagger Brotherhood books (and it is just the first 6 because after that they shifted into “urban fantasy”, but this review isn’t about those books so I will let that go for now)?  Unfortunately, it didn’t.  It was kinda a hot mess.  I started with the first of the Dark Warriors series, I did not read the Dark Sword series first.  That didn’t make things difficult from a plot perspective, but it was surprising in a few ways to discover that there were a number of books that came first.  The same way there were two factions (the druids/good and drough/bad) of magicians in this series, my thoughts on these books are split into good and bad thoughts.  Hence, the mess…!

Lets start with the good.  The books were easy to read.  The good characters were generally likeable, even though they were, as usual in this genre, frustrating sometimes.  The background, which presumably came from a bunch of other books, is nicely summarized in each book (concise, consistent and usually timed perfectly in the plot of each individual book).  In fact, the summaries were so similar that once you realized where they started (it helped that I read these all back-to-back), skimming them was possible without missing any info that would be important later.  There seemed to be chemistry between the characters.  And, while each story took place over a relatively condensed time frame, it often lasted more than two days.  Which, when trying to convince a reader that a relationship has developed is nice.  And, the entire series takes place over a few years.  This is a nice change of pace from a lot of the contemporaries in this genre which insist on having a life altering relationship “develop” in 30 seconds or less.

Interestingly, the gods weren’t really all that important.  Don’t get me wrong, the fact that they existed and made the men in this series Warriors was integral to the overall story arc for the series.  But, the details of which god had what powers (etc.) wasn’t something that a reader needed to worry about or remember.  Contrast that to the Lords of the Underworld series (which I love), and we have two ends of the spectrum with how much of a role the gods themselves play.  I liked the background role they played here versus being front-and-center, in your face, causing all kinds of direct problems with the relationship development that they do in some other series.  The ladies were also generally not weak, whiney, pathetic women.  They went into battle (albeit magical battle) and I wasn’t questioning them being there.  The dialogue, with the exception of the accent (which I will address in the cons section), wasn’t too cheesy and was easy to digest.  Overall, the entire story arc was something that was easy to digest and easier to route for the good guys.  Finally, it was a nice surprise to get a few other magical beings tossed into the mix – kept things from getting too stale, and let characters die yet live on, without feeling like the author wussed out and contrived some too-easy way out of letting the character get what was coming based on the course of the plot to that point.

The bad.  Well, it’s inevitable.  Like in all these books where good can’t exist without bad, and vice versa, this series too had its areas for improvement.  There were small and large issues.  Plot inconsistencies and holes can seem little, but in my mind they are always large.  They indicate, to me, a failure in planning by the author or laziness.  Small items that are inconsistent seem more like laziness to me (but, I am not an author of anything more than short stories).  And there were a number of small items, that really nagged at me the whole way through.  For example, Gwen joins the folks in the castle in the first book.  But then in the second book, there are statements about it being so long since anyone new came to the castle.  But, these two books weren’t exactly set months apart.  That one stuck with me, and reared its head a few times throughout the series.  Then, the fact that Jason could not know he had magic, study up and practice and learn all that Declan did and more in less than a year?  Please….  That’s too much of a stretch of reality, even for a fantasy book for me.  Part of the problem is that when fantasy tries to keep a foot in reality, the fantastical aspects should be the only ones that are fantastical.  You know, if I am going to suspend reality for the notion that there are gods and druids, but still be required to believe in security at famous places and cars being normal, then I don’t want to all of a sudden have every human be able to teleport their mail.  Maybe that’s just me…

There were a few big plot holes too.  While I admit it was nice to dispense of Deirdre relatively early on, the how and (real) why of the time travel is lost for quite some time.  And the how is never really solved.  If folks can time travel, why don’t they do more of it to solve many of the problems here.  And the prophecies…? I assume that those are in the Dark Sword books, but that’s the one set of facts that gets glossed over and never really discussed.  There’s potential for more there!  And, one of the biggest – is how the heck does one god live in two people at the same time?  Huh?  How?  Explain that one to me.  Please.  Luckily, the gods, as I said earlier, aren’t as important as one might think.

Then, there’s the language:  “doona”, “willna” and “wasna”, “no’ going” and “no’ likely”.  These made me want to bang my head against the nearest door.  Either write everything with the accent or don’t write it at all.  I am reminded of Alexander (that awful movie staring Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie) – they all had different accents, and they were speaking English.  In ancient rome, do we really think they spoke that way?  I’m not an idiot.  I would rather ditch all pretenses and just speak English without the fake accents (or better yet, the Hunt for Red October did it excellently, check it out to see what I mean – they used transitions and it was a million times better).  So, if you aren’t going to give me the phonetic spelling of all words from the highlanders, don’t give me any.  It is distracting.

Finally, there the sex scenes.  I don’t mind reading stuff that is pretty steamy.  But, these books tend to be a little… softer.  So when “rod” is thrown in with all the softer terms its a little shocking.  This happens a number of times (same bat-word on the same bat-channel) throughout the series.  And, turns out that this author isn’t even all that creative with these scenes.  If you want to be explicit, be explicit; if you want to be soft, be soft.  But here, it feels like a discombobulated mess.  Steaminess on a scale of 5 sits at about a 3.  Creativity score on the same scale sits at a 1.  Repetitiveness (not to be confused with non-creativity as I mean them in two totally different ways) is a 4.8.

Will I read the other series?  Probably.  Although I have a few JR Ward, Larissa Ione, Molly Harper, Dakota Cassidy (and others) installments to read first.

Fifty Shades of just ok.

The latest to get the Girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-watercooler-buzz seems to be Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.  Apparently this started out fan-fic on some Twilight board or something.  And the author doesn’t deny it.  So, those looking to chastize for it being of that caliber good for you for noticing.  Otherwise, no one is claiming that she is the next Jane Austin.

Christian Grey and Ana Steele.  They meet at his office when Ana’s roommate, who arranged the interview and was supposed to conduct it, falls ill.  Because Ana is so unprepared for the interview, having not been well prepared with even a bio from Kate, leaves him with the impression that she is someone with a slightly different personality.  He is intrigued by her, and he is a Dom, looking at her as a potential Sub.  He introduces her to sex for the first time, and then tries to get her to be part of his BDSM world.  Along the way, between all the kinky and not so kinky sex, they fall for each other.  But they really do live in two different worlds.  Throughout most of the story, the big question is will she or won’t she try to stay with him, to sign his contract setting out the rules and demands of this type of relationship.  He says he will try to give her more – but, will they manage?

He has a sorted history.  He was adopted.  His birth mother was a crack whore.  And, it seems like she physically abused him too (or someone did) since he can’t stand to be touched.  And he has scars all over his chest.  A friend of his adoptive mother’s introduced his to the BDSM world when he was only 15 (Ana calls her Mrs. Robinson, and does point out the pedophile nature of the relationship even though he doesn’t see it that way).  And Ana is very jealous of Mrs. Robinson especially once Ana learns they are still friends and business associates.  Ana has met his family, and he has met hers.  Kate has all along thought something was fishy with him.  Ana struggles with her feelings for him, the arousal she gets from participating in certain things with him, and the little bit she knows of his background (which help her make a little sense as to why he enjoys what he enjoys).  But Ana wants more and she doesn’t like that some of what he wants scares her too.  He has certain stalker like tendencies.  And he has a list of rules – that he wants her to follow so he is always in control.  But the rules are a challenge for her.  Not just because she doesn’t understand some of them (and I had to google a few myself!) but because she has a sparky spirit that doesn’t like to take orders and be pushed around the way he pushes her.

The categorization as “Mommy Porn” is interesting.  I can see why it has been dubbed that.  (Although then I am left to wonder, is certain other stuff “Daddy porn”?)  Being a fan of the PNR genre, with JR Wards early installments of the BDB being some of my favorite, the explicitness in this book didn’t bother me.  Even the bondage we see is mild compared to what I was imagining after reading a number of other reviews.  I can’t say this is great literature, but what in this genre is?  And, unlike many of the other reviews I have read, I won’t slam the author for the character that is Ana because if you try to understand her, I think her indecision and then snap reaction at the end are really by products of her naiveté and inexperience, and the emotions that she was written with.  If she really was falling in love with the man, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to be so very confused and to want to find explanations for his behavior,  to try to see if she can change some of it, and to see if she can stand some of it. Especially once you consider the fact that there are emotions that come with a first sexual relationship too.  But the whole things was… just… ok.  Not great, not terrible.  A little exciting, not face-flushed inducing. Certainly not worth the embarrassment some have over reading it.  It was… ok.

Sure, the dialogue is cheesy but that’s the norm with all things in the Romance section.  Sure, the romance buds very quickly.  Sure, there’s some big dark struggle that’s looking like it could keep them apart.  And sure, there are characters who know our couple and who they really are and can recognize that they are in love before they do.  It’s not like the Romance Novel Formula doesn’t sell.  And if the formula bothers you, then the entire genre probably bothers you.  This may not be anything earth-shatteringly new or refreshing, but I would guess that’s exactly why it is so popular.  Everyone who purchases out of the romance section is looking for that formula.

I wasn’t originally planning on reading this.  But everyone seems to be reading it, so I picked up a copy.  It was ok.  But I am not sure I see what all the fuss is about either.  I will read the other two, because I am a sucker for series, even bad ones, and because one of the things that keeps this book from being terrible, is that I think the struggle Ana faces knowing Christian isn’t a devil, he’s troubled and disturbed but playful too when he lets he guard down, is genuine and real enough to make me curious as to what is in store for these two characters – to see if they can save each other.  The nature versus nurture battle seems to be shaping up with regards to the type of person Christian will be in the end, and I for one am curious.

Archangels and Demons Galore!

The Return to Sanctuary series starts with “Out in Blue” by Sarah Gilman.  Where we are in a world where archangels and demons are out and the archangels are poached for their feathers.  Ginger was raised by a demon (Devin) in Haven (another sanctuary in Alaska).  She knows lots about angels and doesn’t think the poaching of angels is right.  There is more to Ginger though…  When Ginger overhears some poachers talking about getting an archangel – Wren – she can’t help but try to prevent the poachers from getting to him.  When she manages to save him, they become instantly close.  And they feel a pull towards each other.  When we learn (early on, so I am not going to consider this a spoiler) that Raphael is in fact still alive, Wren wants to keep away from Ginger to protect her.  But, getting Raphael away from Lark is very important too.  Wren struggles with trusting the Guardians because of Lark’s behavior when he killed Wren’ mother and father (or really, kidnapped Raphael).

This is an interesting take on angels and demons.  And, without any theology.  So, I loved it!  Despite the epic world record speed with which our two characters fall in love, it was still a wonderful story.  The characters are complicated yet simple.  The story is unique and intriguing.  So often the first book in a series is all set up – plot and characters – that there isn’t any real action.  Here, that was not the case.  We were introduced to the world and the characters as the plot moved, and it added to the story; it was never the distraction of a flash back but thoughtful and well planned discussions as the characters get to know one another.  I would like to know a little more about the Guardians and the history of the world, why the original archangels fell and how the demons came to be Guardians.  So, I hope we will get more of that in how many ever stories come next.

My rant about the types of serials that exist, with the last book review (the Forever Twilight series), would apply here too except that this seemed to set up a new world wonderfully, and there was quite an ending to this story (I was on the edge of my seat, saying to myself “I can’t believe it” and “how is this going to be the happy-ever-after that’s required by this genre”, but the author did it and in such an amazing way!)!  And, I would rant about epilogues here (because I have an opinion about epilogues and prologues too, but we’ll save it for a book that deserves to get slammed because of one – or both!) but it was tasteful, well done, and I can see other installments picking right up from the end and the epilogue won’t get in the way.  I loved that I got satisfaction out of the end of this installment as well as the epilogue.

The prose wasn’t the romantic and poetic prose of authors like Maggie Steifvater but the relationship was believable and the dialogue was realistic.  The prose also wasn’t the badass macho stuff that is so prominent in the PNR genre.  But it was solid and pleasant to read.  I didn’t find myself skimming or wanting to skip paragraphs.  Instead, I wanted to immerse myself in the world and the characters – and that’s always a good thing!   Despite the fact that on my steaminess scale it rates only about a 1 and 1/2, it was romantic and a nice little read.  I am looking forward to more of this world!

The only thing I wonder, is where the title came from, what the reference is to…

The series that shouldn’t be a series: Forever Twilight

Darkness Fallen, the first in the Forever Twilight series, by Peter Crowther is the first in a new series.  But it felt like it should have been the first few chapters in one book, not the first book in a series.

I made the mistake of reading a review by someone else of this book.  Now I can’t find anything original to say.  But I guess that’s fitting since the book too wasn’t very original.  At least not to someone who has read Steven King’s various versions of the end of humanity as we know it (or has seen the TV versions of the same.  Or really, has seen any number of flicks on the SciFi network (and yes, totally off on a tangent, I refuse to use the rebrand of that network since since then, it totally sucks!)).  Not to mention the repetitive nature of the book itself.    The narrative style, where we get the events from different characters, in this case made for a very repetitive book since we got the aftermath of the flash from everyone, we got the sense of desertion after the flash from everyone, we got the realization that everyone else for some reason disappeared when the flash happened – after the flash – from everyone….  See how that gets annoying?

The plot looks like this:  there’s a bright all consuming flash of light and most of the world disappears in that instant.  Except for the few who don’t disappear.  And, with the first character we meet there’s an airplane involved (“The Stand” sound familiar?). We don’t know why they aren’t “taken” but each of them comes to realize that there is something going on and they don’t know what.  Then, 24 hours after the first flash, wham!  There’s another flash and everyone (although I am not sure it is everyone, but it doesn’t really matter, at least not yet) is back.  But they are different.  They are all zombie like.  And, the individuals and small groups of those who weren’t taken the first night slowly come together.  And they slowly discover some weird things about those who have returned (in my head, I dubbed them the “originals” and the “remakes” as far as groups go.  Because remakes are never as good as the originals).

When the book ends, the story is really just beginning.   And after 416 pages, that’s sort of an accomplishment itself.  See, as I see it there are two different types of serials:  those with an overall story arc, but individual stories which are concluded in some way in each book (think Harry Potter) and those which simply march towards the conclusion of the overall story arc (think… Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel).  I prefer series in the former category, but can enjoy a well written series that fits in the later category (hence the reference to the outstanding Flamel series).  Problem is, so many series in the latter category are not well written.

When the character development is all there is and there is no plot, I can’t enjoy it.  There needs to be both.  The plot that existed in this book could be summed up in 3, maybe 4, sentences.  Despite the nature of this type of serial, there needs to be more to the story arc than that.  I can sum it up this way:  there’s a bright light, most people disappear, then they come back zombielike.  I need more!  I need more to make me feel invested in the story so that I come back for the next installment.  Often, character development can make up for the lack of plot development, by having great characters that a reader gets attached to.  Then, I can get pulled into something even if the plot isn’t sufficient.  But here…

…the character development should have been better given how much time we get with each of the few “main” characters.  Ronnie, for instance, is likable, but that is all.  He’s one of the originals.  His inner dialogue was awful, his development started out promising but as soon as the light happened, his development hit a wall.  Then, when we see the other characters, their stories, while different hit the same wall (and some of them never really had much development before that) when the light happened.  And after the light, well, their experiences were just too similar.  It felt very repetitive.  Even the quirkiness of some of the originals – the little girl who is psychic, the resident serial killer, and the multiple personality Sally – were really not all that interesting, nor did they add to the story.  At least not yet.  And since this was really all set up and no plot, no teasers of what is to come, it is hard to look forward to seeing if anything will come of those folks and their uniqueness.

I felt more like I was reading the script for a movie – since so many of the details would be background and all scenery and therefore the 400 pages would be the first 30 minutes of a movie.  But when I pick up 400 pages, I want a story, not a tiny tiny little portion of the beginning of it.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t read this.  It’s just that I would personally prefer to wait until all the installments are published (since this seems to be one of those series that should have just been one long book, but the publishers don’t make enough money (however, not every story should be a serial, no matter how much the publishers may want it to be) that way and since serials seem to be more popular then ever I don’t think we will be seeing an end to them) so I could read them all at once.  There were a few starts to interesting ideas here (the alien influence, the little centipede creatures, the flying cars, and the notion that there might be another light and more changes in the future), so it wasn’t a total waste.  But again, I would wait for other installments and read it all at once.  The cover promises that this is book 1 in the Forever Twilight series.  I don’t know out of how many, but I will wait to read 2 (and any subsequents) until we get the final book in the Forever Twilight series.

No passion for Passion, but it does get a page

Well, I read Passion by Lauren Kate.  And what an utter disappointment.  If you read the pages on Fallen and Torment, you will see that I liked Fallen but didn’t really like Torment.  Yet, I managed to still have hopes for Passion.  What was I thinking?  

Pages are up for the series – because I am sure I will read #4 – but my hopes are that Lauren Kate doesn’t pull an Alyson Noel and say that it’s the final book and then all of a sudden have a cliff hanger that will lead to 3 more (I have the hard-copy first edition of Evermore which stated that it was the first of the “trilogy” – you know, as in 3 books!!) awful books.  Feel free to debate the merits of the series, but this book sucked all desire to read more by this author out of me.  It’s a shame too – the series had such promise.

Why create pages for this series then, if I harbor so much disdain for it?  Because I will read #4 – it’s like watching a bad movie – so much time already invested, I need to see how it ends even though it’s terrible…  and I am going to do all that I can to purge the memory of this book from my brain between now and reading #4, so I will definitely need the page on Passion to remind me of all the awful and ridiculous happenings so far that will be needed to understand Rapture.

Anywho… the review is below – and on the page.

I loved Fallen.  I mean I really thought it was great.  I wanted more info so I didn’t feel so very lost about certain things, but I still really thought it was a great book.  It pained me to read the second (Torment).  It was not a great follow-up.  Despite the epic failure that I thought Torment was, I still had high hopes for Passion.  Shame on me.  Don’t get me wrong, I will read Rapture – if for no other reason than the text on the page facing the last page states:  “Rapture – The Final Book in the Fallen Series – Spring 2012” and I can close the book on a series that had so much potential but fell flat fast.

Here, virtually all the characters we got to know in the first two books were non-existant.  The promise of a “team Cam vs team Daniel” – shattered.  Primarily by the fact that Cam was in all of like 3 chapters and he was peripheral.  And expendable.  And he didn’t really influence the plot or the characters in any way.  The only characters that really mattered in this installment were Daniel, Luce (both, in all their incarnations) and the new Bill character.  And while this is a petty, nit-pickey, tiny little annoyance – was it really necessary for every version of Luce to be named some version of Luce?  Really?  Before we get to the Mayan civilization or Chinese one, we couldn’t get a different name?  With Bill as the guide, it wasn’t really necessary for that to happen.  But anyway… onto bigger complaints.

First, the entire plot annoyed me.  Luce needed proof that their love was real?  This book felt like an unnecessary detour through time just so the author could try writing about time travel.  Bill could have gone all “3D” Luce with the first step back and Luce would have felt it right away.  But that would have cut out at least half the book.  Because Luce gets a hint that “choice” is important, but there really isn’t any context to help the reader guess why and the time traveling got old.  Fast.  And there were still all these rules around the curse, but even after learning what the curse was and where it came from, where’d the rules come from?  The little we learn about the characters all happens in the last 30 pages.  And there isn’t enough meat to the rest of the pages before that to keep a reader really engaged.  I constantly felt like “get on with it, where’d the curse come from?” and was relieved when a chapter was over because it meant I was getting closer to the end to figuring out what the end game of this installment was.

The characters were flat.  Everything about them came from the first two books and the prose, which was decent in the first book, was just as bad as it was in the last.  There are plot holes, unnecessary time traveling, changes to time lines with out any consequences (even though they are all about making sure nothing too drastic changes, but they need to create the loophole in the first place – so, it’s like an oxymoron in a way), and the descriptions of the scenery and setting are bloated and felt like a way for the author just to show off some historical research.  The time frames really didn’t do anything other then play window dressing and after a little while, it got annoying having to read 3 or 4 pages of setting description before really having any clue why those particular lifetimes were chosen.

I am ready for this series to end.  All the romance has been sucked out of the series for me, the way Luce’s doubt came about in Torment and the way it was “resolved” here didn’t do anything to bring that romance back.  And, I don’t even really want to think about the theology that must be coming in the last book….  This book was really more of a transition from love story in the first two books to what ever battle of good vs evil is coming in the last one (at least that’s what it seems to be setting up for).  The first books weren’t really ever about saving the world, but about Luce and Daniel’s love story.  Now, all of a sudden we are shifting to the need to save the world.  I don’t know why it took that (mis)direction, but it spoiled the story.  We had to get through the anti-climax of where the curse came from so we can get to the angels battling satan so we can get to the end of the series.  We learn nothing about the annoying Announcers.  We get introduced to “the Scale” but what a waste of words that was.  There was no real action here.  No real depth to the plot.  No real romance between the characters.  No real elegance to the dialogue.  That leaves no real hope for the last, except for the fact that it will be the last!

Ultraviolet Review

This is a new author for me. And I am not sure if that is good or bad. I had expectations based on the description that totally weren’t met. I am starting to wonder if the people who write the little snippets have even read the books they write them for. I know the idea is to get people to read the book, but personally, I am starting to get annoyed by how often they are just flat out wrong or misleading.

We are teased by the snippet here: “Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her—and that she’s capable of far more than anyone else would believe.” So… I am waiting for Alison’s capabilities. And, even after finishing the book, I was still waiting. The part in the synopsis about her having killed a girl is misleading too – but it’s an acceptable misdirection (I won’t spoil, so I won’t say more than that for the moment) given the way the rest of the book turns out. The primary problem is that this isn’t really a paranormal YA book, which is what the synopsis lead me to believe. I wish I had been thinking Sci/Fi instead of paranormal….

What is the story? Alison wakes up in a hospital, not sure what happened. She is immediately shipped off to a mental institution. And a girl is missing. Turns out, Alison thinks she killed the girl. She’s deemed a danger to herself and others and is kept an an involuntary patient. She meets a few other patients who each have their own varying levels of issues (from fire-starters to those with eating disorders and those who see alines). Some of which, aren’t such subtle foreshadowing of what’s to come. Anyway… Alison has to come to terms with what happened to try to get free of the institution and the doctor who is keeping here there. And suddenly, another “dr” shows up and he can explain why Alison has been different all her life. Except it’s nothing paranormal. Its a disorder having to do with the way her senses work and perceive things. Now… this does tie into something later, but the events and the solution to the big mystery as to whether Alison really killed Tori really don’t have a cause and effect relationship. We get the mystery solved in the end though, without any cliffhanger that would suggest another book. So…

As for the writing, it was ok. At first it was distracting to me. There were just way tooooooo many adjectives. Every sentences was so flowery and the descriptions of people and sounds and places was so heavy it bogged down the prose. I found myself rolling my eyes at the inclusion of colors in every sentence to describe every tiny little thing. When I realized that this had to do with Alison’s perception it alleviated my frustration a little. But not enough since it was still distracting. The relationship development also left me feeling unsatisfied. We see Alison interact with folks, but there isn’t much to it. This book really is more of the internal dialogue Alison has with herself, more about her own struggle, and less about the mystery around her. The sudden feelings for the mysterious foreign doctor are hard to believe because we are just told they spend a lot of time together. but short of the few conversations where we learn the name to Alison’s disorder we don’t see much of it. The book was unbalanced in that we get lots of sentences about what words taste like and how Alison can see the colors of people’s speech (etc.), but we get very little in the way of events and character interactions. Had that been more balanced, maybe I would have felt a little more invested in the other characters, and wouldn’t have felt like they were barely even necessary.

The pace of the book also left me a little frustrated. The first two-thirds felt like nothing happened. And it seemed to drag on. And then the end – happened way to fast. The end was almost too easy. After all the buzzing and perceptions and the hatred between Alison and Tori – and to suddenly find that so easy to get over, deal with, and then to have the mystery resolved so easy? It almost gave me whiplash.

I would be interested to see if the author does better with different subject matter. I saw promise in the story and the characters. I am just not sure things were planned or executed as well as they could have been.