Ooooo, YAY!

It's not like I actually know css or html. I have dinked with what I've got here enough to get the template looking pretty much how I want it, but every now and then I see a widget that I covet. But when I figure out how to get what I want? It makes me ridiculously happy.

Do you worry about your blogroll getting too long? I do. I have hesitated to add book blogs, usually ones that aren't really romance blogs, just because I didn't want that list to get too long and unwieldy.

And I know there are ways around that. I just didn't know what they were. Not too long ago I saw one that had a short list of blogs, but then the magic little clicky that says: "Show All." Perfect! I made a mental note to email the blog author to ask how to do it, but mental notes are not worth the paper they're written on...at least mine aren't, with apologies to Sam Goldwyn... huh, I thought it was Yogi Berra, go fig.. YOU SEE HOW I FORGET THINGS?? ... and so I promptly forgot to email AND also which blog I saw it on.

Today I was adding a new blog to my non-book roll, and LO AND BEHOLD IT'S THE SIMPLEST LITTLE BLOGGER CHECKBOX EVER!

Thanks, Blogger, I love it! And now I can grow my blogroll to ridiculous proportions. WIN-WIN.

Short Stuff

Some weeks run like a well-oiled machine. I'm reading good stuff, I have a review or two scheduled ahead of time, maybe something for a publisher plus something from my own list. Another one that I knock out in real time. Maybe a T-13 or a Lazy Post or a contest plug for variety.

Yeah, this is not one of those weeks.

Short Story Saturday is back here at Alpha Heroes for February, after taking its January turn at Literary Escapism. I've taken the bold step this week of rigging pre-populating Mr. Linky with a couple of anthology reviews that I noticed around, so if one of those belongs to you, I hope you'll a) forgive me b) check around on the other links and c) come back next Saturday with another one. As a fledgling meme, SSS is not getting a lot of lift. If you want it to stick around, your links are appreciated!

I have been trying with the short pieces this week. The lovely Book Smugglers pulled my name from the internet version of a hat and send me a faboo package of contemporary fiction, including several anthologies.


Hot for the Holidays
'Member this cover? Sure you do. I almost bought the book JUST for the cover. I mean. That spot right there by his thumb? Is one of my favorite spots-- and I don't like peppermint. I'm sayin'.

Anyway. The stories, right. *opens kitchen window* That's better. Where was I?

Yeah, so this is one of the books that the Smugglers sent me, and I am familiar with most of the authors. I started with Anya Bast, because I wasn't in the mood for Leigh's forced-mate/weird penis Breed stuff or Knight's kooky mages, and I liked Bast's offering for the What Happens In Vegas anthology a couple years ago quite a lot. And so far, Sweet Enchantment is OK. However, I, uh, have fallen asleep twice and gone onto different books, but I have come back to it and I do want to finish it. I've been pretty tired lately... but still. Fell asleep twice. That's the closest I've got to a review so far.




Wrapped In Seduction
You know, I don't review erotica. It's too hard for me to analyze what I like about it without giving a lot of context about what I like in bed, which is TMI. For you, and for me.

Fortunately, this particular anthology is more just piping hot romance than erotica, I think; in what I think of as true erotica, it's the exploration of sex and sexuality that is the center of the story. In this little trilogy, there is some serious steam but they really are love stories. Overall, three decent stories about three sisters finding love in their hometown. As a whole, the stories fall prey to the general weakness of a novella -- not much conflict and they read very fast, as in over before you hardly know what's happening. I found only one or two scenes truly scorching, but that might just be me. It's a small town Christmas theme, so that may factor into when-- or whether-- you'd be in the mood for it.



Blood Lite
OK, I'm not very far into this one but I'm loving it. I do not know if the title is a play on "Bud Lite," but I suspect so after sampling a few stories.

So I've been really trying to avoid paranormals for awhile. I feel really burned out on them and have been enjoying a stroll through historicals and contemps for the last month or so. I have a feeling that that break made these stories just that much more entertaining.

People have been telling me for awhile now that I need to try Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, and I finally believe them after reading Day Off, a scant 30-odd pages in which Harry finishes a [thinly disguised D&D game in which actual wizards and weres are playing wizardy, warrior-ish characters. A debate about how a magic firebomb spell would work possibly gives some insight to the author process of "how 'real' do I need to make this magic stuff, anyway," which I could easily see becoming one of those tangents that take a long time to come back from.

Ooo, speaking of tangents. Anyway, after the game, Harry encounters some teenage goth "Darth Wannabes" with Harry Potter accoutrements and a faux pipe bomb, an inept apprentice who keeps blowing up his basement lab, and a swarm of insect-sized magic parasites... all before he can go on his big date. It's mostly very funny, though you could see how some elements might turn more serious in a full-length story, and it really made me want to read more. Which is about the highest praise I can give a short story.

In other stories, Kelley Armstrong's Ungrateful Dead was a cute little character sketch of a necromancer who leverages her talents into seances and spiritualism shows that are mostly completely faked. I was enjoying the ride, but I felt like it ended too fast -- I was just getting into the world-building and the characters and BOOM, the end.

Following that act is a creepy story titled Mr. Bear, a bizarre imagining of what happens when a mild-mannered traveller is caught up in the orbit of an anthropomorphized, English-speaking, cigar-smoking, booze-guzzling Smokey the Bear. Complete with the hat. Oh yeah, and he's utterly sociopathic. Can a bear be a socio-path? Good question. Gitchyer black humor here (by Joe R. Lansdale).

Short Story Saturday: February Edition

Slacker

My Short review isn't ready yet. Hopefully later today or maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you've got one ready to go, by all means, hit it!

Crash Into Me, by Jill Sorenson -- Review

Easily Influenced

OK, I admit it. The fact that Ms. Sorenson stops by here regularly and leaves thoughtful, non-self-promoting comments probably has a lot to do with how her book got onto my radar. I spotted it last week at a favorite bookstore and that recognition undoubtedly made the difference between scooping it up and passing it by.

I've also been focusing on contemps and historicals these last few weeks. I think I'm a little burned out on paranormals and the modern California setting was appealing.

The Heroine
I absolutely adored the heroine of this book, Sonora Vasquez, a/k/a Sonny, alias Summer for this particular assignment. The scene where we are introduced to her is completely fabulous. I don't always go for the device of having a secondary or throw-away character's viewpoint for the intro, but Sorenson makes it work.

...he saw a premonition of his own defeat in those strange, light eyes, and Mitchell didn't have time to blink before Vasquez dropped him, with a blow to the temple so well-placed it was almost a caress.

An excruciating, debilitating caress.

What a great start!

I want to say more about Sonny's character, because it's one of the great strengths of this book. Sorenson builds her character up in complex layers, but in a way that I always feel like I know exactly what Sonny is doing and why. I really *feel* her internal conflict in a way that doesn't always happen when I'm reading. And maybe I'm deluding myself, because I'm never going to drop an FBI agent with an excruciating, debilitating caress, but in some ways I related to Sonny on a personal level-- we both tend to be analytical and deliberate; we make plans that do not account for emotional derailment, but then every now and then we embrace the crash (to belabor a metaphor) and accept the consequences with a certain stoicism.

The Plot
Crash Into Me starts with one count against it for me: it's a serial-killer plot. A creepy, Ted-Bundy-esque serial killer to boot. And there were a few points where I wished it wasn't. But the pacing and plotting didn't allow me time to dwell on it; I was too busy turning pages. And Sorenson manages something tricky: she plants enough information about the murders to built the tension -- we know he's a sick, dangerous, awful man-- and leaves the rest to the imagination -- which I kept a very tight rein on, thank you very much; but I could imagine that a different kind of reader could spiral it into some pretty cold horror.

Plotting, pacing, and tension is runaway success for this book (if I could come up with a surfing term that fit, I'd use it, but I grew up land-locked. Best I could do would be "hang ten..."). It's not a cast of thousands, but the secondary characters are vibrant and interesting and the whodunit aspect will have you mulling the possibilities. Sorenson nails the action scenes and furthermore manages them in a way that seems realistic. Sonny's a "kick-ass heroine" without requiring any superpowers and is realistically fallible.

The other kind of tension works really well too. The scenes between Sonny and Ben were excellent, and true to the characters. On the heat scale, whew. The love scenes show up just where they need to, and let's just say, yumm and leave it at that (I refer you to my rule about letting my kids, my mother, and the PTA read here, LOL).

Not Perfect
I did have a couple of minor problems, but nothing close to a dealbreaker. I thought Ben's character was a little flat, and given that he's "the world's most famous surfer," it seemed odd to me that he spent pretty much zero time surfing in the story. Inside his head, there were references to surfing terms, but it seemed a little bit labored to me. If you require an A+ hero to enjoy a romance, I'm not sure you'd find him here.

The story arc for Carly, Ben's daughter was something that worked OK for me while I was turning pages, but when I got to the end and looked back, I felt like it was resolved a little too easily -- we're introduced to her via a suicide attempt, and I'm not sure that was treated as seriously as it should have been. And while I liked the character of her boyfriend, James, and the way he interacted with the adult characters, I was a little put off by the teen romance.

This might be hypocrisy on my part, but I just really didn't want the physical details between them. I want to say "it wasn't necessary for the story," but to be honest that might not be true. I'm trying to imagine the book without those details, but it might be that without them James would not be as a rich a character.

I also found myself questioning some of the procedural stuff - like the fact that Sonny is put on the assignment alone. Don't FBI agents always work in pairs? If that's not true, then the whole universe of buddy movies just got jolted off its axis...

Bottom Line
Even with a little room for improvement, Crash Into Me is a really solid first novel with excellent bones. Sorenson has the chops for great characters, great plotting, and great tension, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

My Internet Ears are Burning

Does that even make any sense? Cathy over at Kittling: Books is talking about me today on her Scene of the Blog feature. Which is cute and original and you should check it out in general, not just because it happens to be about me today. :-)

Lessons In French, by Laura Kinsale -- Review

Everyone's a Critic
I can pinpoint the moment in my reading history when I started reading romances more critically. I started a thread on a forum back in 1999 and traded "favorites" lists with other romance fans. My goal was really the same as this blog-- to find other romance lovers and to chat about the books. What I found was a lot of that, but also some really insightful, literary discussions about the best of the romance genre.

This is the point that I was introduced to Laura Kinsale, along with a few other greats I had missed along the way. Flowers from the Storm consistently rates high on "all time favorite" lists and just has so many layers to it. Eric Selinger, a professor at DePaul University and pioneer in the academic study of romance literature, consistently includes FftS in various curricula, teasing out an allegory to Milton's Paradise Lost while he's at it.

I'm also a big fan of her two related medieval novels, For My Lady's Heart and Shadowheart. Contrary to popular pattern, these are not Britain-centric, but have more the Italian/Venetian flavor of the Borgias and Medicis.


Kinsale Lightens Up
These are some tough acts to follow, but Lessons in French does not disappoint. This book is a bit lighter than most of Kinsale's backlist, lacking the deeply tortured hero that she's so famous for. Don't get me wrong, Trev has his problems and they're not trivial, but we're not talking "I had a stroke and got committed to an asylum" or "I was raised by maniacs from the toddlerhood to be an assassin, no wonder I can't trust anyone," level of problem, you know? It has elements of a romantic comedy, with an absurd little subplot about a prize shorthorn bull. Like any good farce though, the parts that make you laugh are also connected to character truisms that will pull on your heartstrings.

Here's the blurb (from Kinsale's website, this isn't exactly what I have on the back cover of the review copy. Your Blurb May Vary):

She is, after all, Lady Callista Taillefaire, jilted three times in spite of her fortune and her father’s best efforts to find her a husband. Now her greatest desire is to win the silver cup at the agricultural fair with her gigantic prize bull, Hubert. But when Callie’s only old flame returns from his long and mysterious absence in France, her quiet spinster life turns upside down.

Dark-eyed, elegant and a magnet for trouble, Trevelyan d’Augustin has given Callie lessons in more than his language in the past. Her father put a harsh and humiliating end to any dreams of romance with a French émigré scoundrel, however, and Callie never thought to see him again.

Swallowing his pride, Trev has finally come home to care for his failing mother, but his secrets and misdeeds follow him. Callie soon remembers that nothing is ever peaceful with Trev around. The enormous Hubert vanishes into thin air, one of her former jilts comes back to woo her in a most determined manner—and her bull takes the town by storm! In the midst of these misadventures, Callie finds herself falling in love again with the worst possible man for her…

My Favorite Things
The best part of Lessons in French is the chemistry between Callie and Trev, and the pitch-perfect dialogue that brings it all to life. My review copy has dozens of little sticky flags pointing at bits that simply delighted me. I know it's going to be good when I start reaching for the flags on page EIGHT* :

"Come, I know it's you," he said gently. He sat down beside her. "I can see a stray lock peeking out from that prodigious lovely turban."

She drew a deep breath. "No, can you? And I was so hoping to be taken for a Saracen." She tucked at the nape of her neck without looking at him.

"You've mislaid your camel, it would appear."

These are the first words they exchange after a nine-year separation. Isn't that wonderful?

Later, Trev is joking with Callie about his nature. Although there is more weight behind his words than she realizes, I just adore her dry-as-dust response:

[Trev says] "I haven't sold my soul. Only mortgaged it, you understand, at a very reasonable rate of interest."

"I quite comprehend the fine distinction."

The characters of Trevelyn and Callie instantly engaged me. Trev has a big problem in his backstory, one that does, in fact, make it impossible for him to stay in England with Callie -- for once not some misunderstanding blown out of proportion. It is solved honorably by the end, but not too easily.

And in someone else's hands, Callie might have been too Mary-Sue, because she has a deep streak of Just Plain Goodness, shown mostly through her care of Trev's ailing mother. But she is beset by circumstantial problems large and small, and just comes through as so very human. It's impossible not to love her.

Now finally, the plot and pacing of Lessons In French won't let you down. There is an awful lot going on here, but all on a really human and intimate scale. Trev's mother is ill, dying. His French heritage and activities during the Napoleonic wars have made his status in England precarious. Callie has been jilted three times, making her completely notorious through no fault of her own, and all but killing her chances to marry. Since her father passed away, her home has been taken over by the new holder of the title, and she knows that her tenure there is limited. Just when she believes her only future is with her sister Hermione, once Hermey locks up a marriage proposal, along comes not only Trev and his complications, but one of her former fiances with a dubious second chance. Then there's Hubert the bull.

All of these story threads come together in a perfect balance of drama and farce, weighty and trivial, darker and lighter. Whether you're new to Kinsale or a longtime fan, I encourage you to pick up Lessons In French. C'est l'amour!


________________
*on the review copy, the numbers may differ in the final publication)

Acknowledgements: thanks to Danielle Jackson at Sourcebooks for providing a review copy. Lessons In French is available in stores on January 26, 2010.

A Quick Plug

I'm not very good at challenges. The quickest way for me to DON'T WANNA all over a book is for someone to tell me that I *must* read it. Even if *I* am the someone.

Yeah, welcome to my inner child. She's kind of a brat.

So anyway, I had pretty much decided not to sign up for challenges this year. I signed up for several last year and promptly ignored all of them, all year long. That takes a certain dedication.

But Jackie is wily. She is offering PRIZES. And it's a short term contest, not a year long one, which suits my attention span. AND it features a crew of some of the most entertaining writers around, The League of Reluctant Adults. If you're not following that blog, you ought to be.

So go to Literary Escapism to get the contest details. Of the 20 authors there, I've read two of them and I've been following Carolyn Crane (a/k/a CJ)'s blog for well over a year. I enjoy her blog writing so much, I can't wait for her actual book (due out in March, it sadly doesn't qualify for the contest).

Mark Henry and Kat Richardson are both local to me and I've had the pleasure of meeting them both at signings. Although I gave Henry's first book a mixed review, I will say that he is hugely funny in person and if you've missed his vlogs, they are worth the click (uh, only if your kids and boss aren't around. And if you're not eating anything.) I also spotted him in the back row with some other troublemakers at a Patty Briggs signing. I totally believe the tagline on the League blog that says:

We're a bunch of paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors who occasionally blog, make filthy jokes and prowl the halls of conferences and conventions with switchblades!

... particularly if by "switchblades" they mean "strong alcoholic beverages and possibly a video camera."

I've also read the first two Graywalker books by Kat Richardson but hadn't got around to doing any reviews. This will give me some incentive to get the 3rd one under my belt and get that review up! Besides being really engrossing ghost stories, they're set in the older part of Seattle near where I work. It was just layers of awesome to go to a signing right in Graywalker's main character Harper's neighborhood:


View Larger Map

Now I just need to figure out which of the other authors I want to try. If you're having trouble too, I recommend browsing through Jackie's archives. Glancing through that list, I'm pretty sure she has reviewed or discussed a lot of them over the last two years!