Alpha Heroes

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 25: Best of 2011

2011-12-29T19:29:00.000-08:00

Oh, did you think this would be *my* best-of list? That would be great, wouldn't it? But that sounds like a lot of work. Instead, here are 13 lists from my list of romance bloggers and a few new ones. Brace yourself, your TBR list is about to get a lot bigger...

Mandy at Smexy Books
Katiebabs
Jen at Fiction Vixen
Samantha at Fiction Vixen
Hilcia at Impressions of a Reader
Kmont at Lurve a La Mode
Sharon at Best Romance Stories
Brie at At Romance Around the Corner
Janga at Just Janga
Marg at Intrepid Reader (not actually romance, but I'm a Marg fan, so I'm including it anyway)
Laura and Carol at Book Chick City
Melanie at Barnes and Noble
Amazon's picks

Happy holidays to you and yours!

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Brick and Mortar and Random Musing

2011-11-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

Black Friday at Barnes and Noble
Sigh. I miss my local Borders. I will try to transfer my affection to the B&N, but... I just don't like it as much. I don't actually know what Borders did wrong; what buying or inventory or pricing practices drove them out of business, or if it was as simple as being too late to the e-selling game. I hope that doesn't happen to Barnes and Noble.

But still... it's not the same. At Borders, you could find a terminal and look up a book yourself to see if it was in the store, or which section you could find it in, or search on a title to find the author, or search on the author to find the latest title. At B&N, you have to ask a store worker to do that. If you can find one (I grudgingly give them a pass for being busy on Black Friday).

At Borders, my pal Andrea made sure that my favorite authors' new releases were available on release day. She called me to tell me when they arrived. I realize that this isn't a Borders standard, and other Borders stores were not as good at the release day thing. But B&N didn't have the new Ilona Andrews, or if they did, I couldn't find it, and I couldn't find someone to help me find it. Boo.

On the Bright Side
I'm That Auntie, the one that gets you classics instead of the next Disney Fairy throw-away book. I really love the B&N classics lines, for kids and adults (although I sort of wish the kids' ones were more standardized). B&N kids' classics are nicely bound and illustrated and priced less than a mass market paperback-- I bought A Little Princess & The Time Machine for the independent younger readers, and Alice in Wonderland and Frankenstein from the adult series for the older readers. (But I have a curmudgeonly wish that B&N would standardize their bindings and expand the line.)

In any event, I really want that brick and mortar buying experience. I like browsing. I like walking around in stacks of books, picking them up, flipping pages. I actually want the excuse of leaving my house and going someplace else (preferably some place with coffee and chocolate). I know I could solve the release-day thing by pre-ordering at Amazon, but sometimes my decisions change on the day-of. If it's a big release day, I might put off one author in favor of another. I have to be a little budget-conscious, so I can't pre-order every release from every author I like. I waffle, and I kind of enjoy the waffling process-- I don't want it to be too automated.

I will probably get an e-reader sometime in the next year or so. Maybe this year at Christmas. There are enough of my favorite authors with early e-pub dates, and some intriguing titles that are e-pub only, that I guess it's unavoidable. But I think I will have to keep making pilgrimages to whatever brick and mortar stores I can find, for the occasional tactile fix. Whatever happens in the publishing and e-publishing industries in the next ten or twenty years, I expect I'll swing both ways.

Secrets of a Proper Countess, by Lecia Cornwall - Review

2011-11-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

Masquerade
So right off, the opening of this book reminded me of this:

The zipless fuck is absolutely pure. It is free of ulterior motives. There is no power game . The man is not "taking" and the woman is not "giving." No one is attempting to cuckold a husband or humiliate a wife. No one is trying to prove anything or get anything out of anyone. The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn. And I have never had one.

— Erica Jong, Fear of Flying (1973)

"Call me whatever you wish, my lady-- Lancelot, or Tristan, or Romeo. anything will do." His eyes burned into hers from behind his mask. "I am at your service, and I will be whatever and whomever you wish me to be tonight."

Isobel stared at him, spellbound. The room wavered and spun, and all she could see was him, all she could feel was the heat from his eyes, his body. She was melting with desire. Surely she was dreaming. She would wake up in her widow's weeds at Maitland House and realize she'd imagined the whole encounter.

(I'm also tempted to run a quote from a Billy Joel lyric here -- you know the one-- but I decided that would be over the top).

One of the recurring threads in the romance genre is the anonymous encounter, and in historicals, the masquerade is quite popular. I think I have at least three books within reach right now that employ it. The adrenaline, the headlong topple into hormonal bliss without all the messy emotional and pragmatic entanglements that inevitably surround an affair--very tempting indeed. The stuff of fantasies, and in some ways, it's a metaphor for why we read romance at all:

The feeling of falling in love is something we want to experience again, and I think readers can do that safely in a book... without giving up the love we have. -- Julia London, as interviewed by Sarah Wendell

However, messy entanglements make for interesting reading, and like Erica Jong's character, Isobel Maitland doesn't get her zipless fuck either. She knows that rake under the mask, and her infatuation turns into full-on passion; and while "Lancelot" doesn't know her name, he can't forget her.

Plot and Context
The suspense/mystery plot that draws them together in an ancillary way is deftly woven into each encounter. I can't say it's the most original mystery ever to bring a widowed countess and a playboy marquess together, and when I first read the blurb and some of the introductory background I was a bit skeptical:

Lady Isobel Maitland cannot afford to be caught doing anything even remotely scandalous, or she risks losing everything she holds dear...

There were strict rules governing her behavior, carefully noted in her husband's will, and enforced by her mother-in-law.

But as I read on, Cornwall constructed a believable and slightly horrifying context. I think it's easy to forget, as a modern reader, how restrictive life could be for women in those times. There are plenty of stories that play fast and loose with these strictures, that set up their protagonists as triumphing over a value set that is not the same as the readers'. This is a story that doesn't let you forget how simple a matter it was in those days to place a woman completely at the mercy of others, who control her financially and through the fate of her son. In her mother-in-law's household, Isobel is surrounded by enemies and spies, and the least wrong step will see her married undesireably or exiled to a remote estate without her son, or possibly worse yet. She is not even permitted to manage her son's education or free time-- this all falls under the jurisdiction of her brother-in-law.

Chemistry and Characters
Isobel is no Mary Sue though, and I loved the way she went after what she wanted. The heat between the protagonists is very hot:

Yasmina. That's all he had, a made-up name. He shook his head, still dumbfounded and searched the dark pavilion for his coat and his cloak. He wasn't usually so easily distracted when he had work to do, but she had been exceptionally diverting.

He found his garments easily, but the telltale buttons took longer. A gardener or guest who found one button would hardly remark upon it. A scattering of six buttons in such a secluded place screamed scandal. Phineas Archer was an expert at avoiding scandal.

Unless, of course, he wished to be caught.

He found the buttons and pushed them into his pocket. He pulled his cloak over his gaping breeches and turned to go, and almost tripped over something. It skittered away to hit the wall with a soft chime. He picked it up and carried it into the light. It was the lady's shoe, delicate and encrusted with pearls and embroidery, with a curled-up toe that was hung with a little bell.

Now, see, that's not even the love scene, that's the aftermath. Isn't it wonderful? Some might find the Cinderella touch a little bit of an eyeroll, but I have to say that I loved it.

So the villains in Secrets are a bit over the top, the usual corpulent, scruple-less, crass, grasping, opposite-of-hero types, but overall Cornwall puts together a nice fabric of secondary characters with just the right amount of complexity to keep the plot interesting on a number of levels.

Bottom Line
I really enjoyed this debut; it has all the right ingredients for a satisfying regency: likeable, lively characters with emotional chemistry, heat, and just the right touch of humor; adept ebb and flow of plot and sexual tension; and an effortless command of voice and language and period that's easy to overlook when it's done right. If you've missed this title, I recommend you check it out, and I'm looking forward to The Price of Pleasure, due out in January.

Around the Blogosphere
At Dear Author - not actually a review, but a nice behind-the-scenes tidbit.
The Romance Dish Also not a review, but an entertaining day-in-the-life essay
Romance Addict
Kay's Blog
Love Romances and More
Tracy at Book Binge
Romance Reviews by Alice

(I must say, either Ms. Cornwall's publicist is exceptional or the word of mouth on this title is really a snowball -- there are pages of reviews for this on Google! so here are just a handful)

WINNER!

2011-10-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

I used the random number feature in Excel to choose a winner who is....

(drumroll please)

!!! DONNA S !!!

Donna, please email your mailing address to: nicola327 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Thanks for playing, everyone.

Emerald City RWA Giveaway

2011-10-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

You know, for a romance fan, there aren't many places that are better to live in than Seattle.

For one, it's gorgeous. You may have heard that it rains all the time--and yes, it can be dreary in the winter, BUT it's also lush and green all year. I have camellias in my yard that bloom every January. January! And on a clear day, the view of the Cascades or the Olympics or Mt. Rainier or the Sound or one of the many lakes is a great mood lifter.

Honestly, I don't mind the overcast weather. Because what goes better with a great book than a cozy sofa, a hot beverage, and the sound of rain on your windows? I'm not alone, because Seattle still ranks as the #1 American city for booksellers per capita.

But for the true book geek, the fact that the Pacific Northwest is home to an amazing number of great authors has to be the best thing about being a reader in Seattle. And for a romance reader in particular, the Emerald City RWA bookfair is the candy store to my inner kid.

It's really an embarrassment of riches. Earlier this year, I went to a Bookperk "tea" and met Julia Quinn and Eloisa James. I've been to signings by Candy Tan, Jacquelyn Carey, Kim Harrison, and Patricia Briggs. I bumped into Jayne Ann Krentz and Stella Cameron in the Barnes and Noble, for crying out loud!

So what does a person do when they have it really, really good? Share the wealth!

I thought about a couple of different ways to do this, but in the end, I'm a fan of the KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

So Here's The Deal:

Check the author roster in the post below, then leave me a comment telling me which of these talented authors you would like to have a signed book from. If you win, I'll get it for you, and send it to you. Simple!

I'm feeling generous, so it's open world-wide. You get one extra entry/chance if you share this post on FaceBook, Tweet, or "like" Alpha Heroes' FaceBook page. Contest closes at midnight Pacific time Thursday, Oct. 27, and I'll run the pick sometime Friday morning.

Oh! and breaking news: Julia Quinn is not on the official list for the bookfair, but she confirmed in her Facebook feed that she'll be there. So she's an option too!

October...

2011-10-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

"If I could forgive the temporary weight gain due to excess water retention

I could forgive the rest too...

it's just a fact of life that no one cares to mention

She wasn't good, but she had good intentions..."

Yeah.

OK, I'm a little late, but I think I can still pull this off. I have this FANTASTIC idea for an October feature.

Here it is. Question: what do these authors have in common?

Karen L. Abrahamson
Cherry Adair
Susan Andersen
Vivian Arend
DaniJo Avia
Calinda B.
Kinley Baker
Diana Ballew
Anne Marie Becker
Jenna Bayley-Burke
Elizabeth Boyle
Meljean Brook
Susan Colleen Browne
Vanetta Chapman
Ann Charles
Rebecca J. Clark
Jennifer Conner
Karina Cooper
Lecia Cotton Cornwall
Kate Davies
Heather Davis
Sherri Dub
Karen Erickson
Eilis Flynn
Amanda Forester
P. G. Forte
Susan Fox
Yasmine Galenorn
Sarah Gilman
Gwen Hayes
Delle Jacobs
Paty Jager
Chris Karlsen
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Sherry King
Cindy Kirk
Rose Lerner
Laurie London
Susan Lyons
Jess Macallan
Margaret Mallory
Josie Malone
Bob Mayer
Christa McHugh
Kristina McMorris
Theresa Meyers
Danielle Monsch
Alexis Morgan
Brooke Moss
Debra Mullins
Elisabeth Naughton
Laura Navarre
Dawn Nelson
Erin Nicholas
Terry Odell
Bernadette Pajer
Darlene Panzera
Sheila Roberts
Val Roberts
Gina Robinson
Jacquie Rogers
Gerri Russell
Jeanne Savery
Inara Scott
Alice Sharpe
Stefanie Sloane
Shelli Stevens
Natasha Tate
Candis Terry
Olivia Waite
Christine Warren
Sarah Wendell
Linda Wisdom
Rebecca Zanetti

?

Answer: They are all attending the Emerald City RWA Conference Bookfair. And I am GOING. (Just to the bookfair; while I'd love to go to the conference itself just to hang around with these talented ladies, it kinda doesn't make sense for a non-author to go to all the workshops.)

Sooooooooo, wouldn't it be great to feature as many of these authors as I can in the month of October? Watch for some profiles, link round-ups, and so forth over the next few weeks.

Off the cuff, a few comments on the ones I'm already familiar with:

Meljean Brook and Christine Warren - auto-buy. Any questions?

Lecia Cotton Cornwall - I picked up her debut earlier this year as part of my cover experiment, and really quite liked it. Looks like she has a new release, too.

Margaret Mallory - Ooo, yay! I really like her books, and I think I'm behind. Which means hopefully some new yummy medieval goodness to acquire at the fair.

Gerri Russell - I had a chance to get to know Gerri outside of the book world a year or two ago, and she is just the most lovely person. Her first series (3 or 4 books) is about Scottish Templars -- two great tastes that taste great together. Her books don't usually show up on endcaps, so you might need to go looking for them, but I recommend you give them a try.

Shelli Stevens - Man, she is just so cute. I picked up "Take Me" at this same bookfair a couple of years ago from her. She gives me this sideways look..."It's... smexy," she says, as she hands over the book. Hoo, is it ever! And... I'm going to stop right there on account of the PTA president might be reading this.

Elisabeth Naughton - Hmm, well, I did review Marked awhile back, and I also read "Stolen Fury" but didn't review it. They're entirely competent books, but something about them just didn't grab me. I have the second book in the Eternal Guardians series in my TBR, maybe I'll give the series another go.

Cherry Adair - I gather Ms. Adair is something of a celebrity among the local authors. She hosts an annual writers' challenge and is a popular speaker. Unfortunately, the one book of hers that I read, I really didn't like at all. Just not for me. It's been several years so I can't even tell you what I didn't like but it was a pretty strong reaction. Oh well.

Elizabeth Boyle - So the title, "Confessions of a Little Black Gown," really grabbed me and I really, REALLY wanted to like this one but I thought it was only so-so. I did a mini-review here. Don't know if I'll try again.

Debra Mullins - I really liked To Ruin The Duke! Why didn't I review it? I don't know, dammit. Maybe the next one. And wow, she has quite a backlist. Definitely will be diving into that one a bit more.

It's going to be a good blogging month, I can feel it.

The Envy Chronicles by Joss Ware - Series Review

2011-09-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Series Review and Post-Apocalyptic Thoughts
Thought #1: "Man, if the grid ever goes down, I'm gonna be food."
Thought #2: "I should get some books on edible native plants... one that includes medicinal properties -- I could be like Claire in Outlander."
Thought #3: "How would you rig a windmill to generate electricity? I should learn how."
Thought #4: "... I'd better stop right there, or I'm going to end up in a cabin in Montana with a lot of freeze-dried food and guns...."

Generally speaking, I'm not big on science fiction and futuristic settings. I tend to get bored by the space opera world building and the obsession with technology. That's what I do for a living (not space travel, but pretty high tech stuff). When I read for fun, I want more character, more emotion in my stories.

But there's something different about the post-apocalyptic subgenre. It's futuristic, but lower-tech. In some, maybe most fictional visions, it's pretty much no-tech. Something about that appeals to us, both to our fears and our desires, I think. Those of us who are into blogging and reading blogs are a self-selected audience of people comfortable with technology, people who turn to the Internet for fun and entertainment, possibly in addition to using it as an everyday tool for work. Who among us has not had a fleeting thought that maybe we should be out touching the actual world, and not the internet avatar of the world? The Information Revolution, and before that, the Industrial Revolution, have done more in the last 200 years to change how people lived than the preceding millenia or two. Don't you sometimes think that maybe people aren't meant to live this way? Me too. (Then I go back to playing "Combine" on Facebook, checking my email, or surfing blog reviews.)

OK, I told you that this stuff gets me going into Deep Thoughts. Which is one reason that I'm so fascinated by Joss Ware's Envy Chronicles. There aren't too many post-apocalyptic romance series. (MOAR PLZ).

Series Premise
Something catastrophic-- we're not sure what-- happens to the planet more or less overnight, which caused massive earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes. Mass destruction.

Geographically, the series, at least so far, unfolds between Arizona and Las Vegas, which is the new west coast. California has fallen off, it seems, sunk or crumbled into the Pacific. The Arizona/Nevada desert has transformed into a tropic. While some generated electricity is around, most people are living in small commune-style farming communities. Envy, named for the remnants of the LAS VEGAS, NV sign, is, as far as anyone in this story knows, the largest urban settlement around.

I haven't read a ton of stuff in this genre, but most of it focuses instantly on food production. If you think about it, if "the grid goes down," the most immediate impact for most people is going to be feeding themselves. Most of us are so far removed from actual food production that the abrupt rupture of those supply lines would.... well, it wouldn't be pretty. Ware's universe glosses over this a little bit. Having fast-forwarded 50 years into the future, after the trigger event, she can kind of zoom out from those details and allow the reader to make the reasonable assumption that enough trade is established that the city can feed itself. The series arc focuses on figuring out what or who caused the cataclysm, and who the mysterious powerful Strangers are. It has a WW2 Résistance vibe to it, overlaid with good old Cold War-esque conspiracy theory.

The Heroes
I'm loving the characters, and as Casey over at Literary Escapism recently observed, they are nicely diverse, too. (Nothing like the total destruction of civilization as we know it to get humanity to finally pull together, right?)

This delicious group of alpha men in their prime mysteriously survive the cataclysm, because they were deep in the Sonoma caves at the time, and something about the vortexes or ley lines, or mystic hoo-ha protected them. Like five Cinderellas, they fell into a deep sleep for 50 years while the world changed around them. When they emerge (I'm not exactly clear on what woke them up?), they are bemused to discover that they each have a paranormal gift; generally as some sort of extension of their pre-event talent.

Really, this is a great setup. Five men, restless, bored, frustratingly purposeless in our times; they're wealthy, athletic, handsome -- but rudderless and reduced to thrill-seeking. Frozen in time for 50 years, their awakening coincides with a culmination of events that lead to some shocking revelations on the depth of human greed and corruption. The destruction of their world, and the gifts they are given, turn these dilettantes into warriors -- and that's pretty damn hot.

The Heroines
The women of this series are all products of their times, but they run the gamut from hard-bitten former POW, to soft-spoken information specialist, to a post-modern Robin Hood, and world-weary healer. Generally speaking I think this is a series that's more about the men, but the heroines are well-realized and good partners for their heroes. (I have a particular affection for Robin Hood, err, that is, Zöe), and I like that Ware pairs them up in unlikely ways.

The Tech
You know how "they" always say you should write what you know? I think in some ways, the opposite also applies: you should NOT read what you know. It's like how lawyers aren't allowed to serve on juries. Honestly, Ware does an excellent job overall writing with authority on how things might be, on technology that could survive. One of the series threads is that the group is working to re-establish the Internet, by setting up wireless outposts around Envy, and propagating beyond from there.

To a degree, this is all feasible and believable. Sage and Theo and others work feverishly in a basement bunker of Envy, downloading and retrieving cached information from salvaged hard drives. The wireless transmitters are solar-powered. You can kind of dig it. Until you realize that she's talking about retrieving data off FIFTY-YEAR-OLD hard drives and flash drives. Uh, unfortunately I have to call shenanigans on that. Have you ever tried to dig a file off a dead drive? OK, how about fifty year-old drive?? I'm sorry, that's just Not Happening. Heh. You'd think that if I could buy into vampires and zombies, chambermaids that marry earls, and handsome honorable pirate captains with all their teeth, this wouldn't be such a stretch.

General Thoughts
There were times in these books where I found the prose a little bit of a slog; just... not as effortless or smooth as I'd like. And the weird villainy gets kind of super-weird there in the fourth book. Sometimes I felt like the paranormal gifts of the heroes, as well as the sub-plot of the zombies, were distractions from the really interesting parts of the series.

The undeniable thing is though, that the series is fascinating, the world-building has me totally hooked, and I love these heroes. So bring on more Night, Ms. Ware, I'm waiting....

Reading Order & Facts & Stuff
1. Beyond the Night (Elliott & Jade)
2. Embrace the Night Eternal (Simon & Sage)
3. Abandon the Night (Quentin & Zöe)
4. Night Betrayed (Theo & Selena)

According to Ware's website, there are two more Envy books contracted, but no word on when or who. We're still waiting for Wyatt and Fence's stories, and it would be a shame if Lou Waxnicki didn't get some kind of HEA.

Ware is a pen name of Colleen Gleason, who also writes the arguably more successful "Gardella Vampire" and the new "Regency Draculia" series. I haven't read these, and right now I have to say I'm more interested in Envy. I hope the vampires don't get too distracting.

Q&A with Mary Jo Putney

2011-08-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, something I read raises a question in my mind that continues to niggle away until I need to find out more about it. In my review of Nowhere Near Respectable, when speculating on the "believability" (for lack of a better word) of Kiri and Adam's acceptance into the British ton, my first thought was, "that would never really fly," thinking more of 19th century American attitudes toward race. My second thought was, "well huh, Britain is much less racist than America, so maybe?" thinking of early 20th century examples of famous African Americans like Josephine Baker. My third thought? "I have no idea whatsoever." Thus, the niggle.

A little superficial googling will bring up articles on immigration and racism in Britain, and Anglo/Indian politics and tensions, but nothing much is readily available about the aristocracy. So I decided to go to the source, and emailed Mary Jo Putney directly. I was properly thrilled to receive a gracious, in-depth reply, along with permission to post our conversation.

Nicola: Hi Ms. Putney! I'm a longstanding fan of yours and recently read and reviewed Nowhere Near Respectable on my blog. I really enjoyed the story very much (as well as the first Lost Lord book) but I was wondering a little about the biracial heroine, and if you would be interested in a little interview or follow-up on the topic?

MJP: I'm happy to discuss this topic because it interests me. I've had a number of mixed race protagonists. Partly that is because it's easier to have such a character in a Regency historical if one of the parents is English and well-born. Partly it's because the world's great diversity fascinates me. Lastly, being caught between two worlds is a good metaphor for the feeling of not belonging that most of us experience as some times in our lives. (Especially but not exclusively in adolescence.)

Nicola: I'm convinced that the not-belongingness is the root of the paranormal popularity, especially the typical arc where the main character, like Harry Potter, spends a good chunk of their life not belonging, and then experiences the joy of realizing that no, it's not their imagination, they really ARE different, and furthermore, finding their "tribe" where they DO belong. It's a pet theory of mine. :-)

MJP: VERY interesting, Nicola! I hadn't thought of it, but I'm sure you're right, especially with the many YA paranormals.

That said, Lady Kiri was confident as a golden retriever. She was raised with wealth, position, and a loving family, and had no self esteem issues to speak of. That was a deliberate contrast with her brother Adam, hero of Loving a Lost Lord, who was raised in very different circumstances and felt the need to bury the non-English side of his nature. (Much of his character arc in that book is accepting that side of him.)

Nicola: I loved that about Kiri! no victim-ness or self-pity about her.

Nicola: First I want to say that I don't mean to put you on the spot or try to play "spot the historical error" - I am no historian at all and if the answer to all the questions is "I made it up because it makes a great story," I think that's fantastic!

MJP: I'm capable of shameless invention {g}, but I try to work from facts where I can, and invent within a plausible framework.

Nicola: Mainly, I am curious to know whether there is historical precedent for bi-racial persons being accepted into the British ton, and if you had any interesting anecdotes that you might have come across in your research.

MJP: The best example I can think of is Lord Liverpool, who was Prime Minister of Britain in the tumultuous period from the late Napoleon wars up until 1827. He was part Indian, though I'm not sure the percentage. A quarter, I think, but I won't swear to it. He was the most powerful man in Britain for 14 years and while there might have been some racial sneers behind his back, it certainly didn't dent his career.

In the earlier days of the British occupation of England, there were very few English women, so it was common for Britons to take Indian wives. Naturally, the result was Anglo-Indian children. This shifted during the Victorian period when transportation improved dramatically and the "memsahibs" came out to India. With them came racism, unfortunately. To quote from the introduction to my Indian set historical, Veils of Silk (advert: now available in e-book form {g} ):

A paradigm of the racial situation was the elite Indian Army cavalry unit known as Skinner’s Horse. It was founded by James Skinner, the son of a British officer and his Rajput wife. By the end of the nineteenth century, James Skinner’s mixed blood would have prevented him from serving in the regiment he had founded.

Nicola: I remember Veils of Silk and the other Silk books, featuring the Khyber pass -- I often think of that when the extreme geography of Afghanistan is referred to in respect to the current war. One thing I miss about older romances -- say, 20th century publications {g} -- is characters who travel.

MJP: A friend of mine calls them the "globe trotting books" because she misses them, too. So do I, but page counts have dropped drastically over the years, and there isn't as much room for plot or exotic setting since first and foremost, the story has to be a romance. I think this is one reason why e-pubbed versions of backlist historicals are selling well. Some readers really miss them.

[Back to real-life examples...] Field Marshall Lord Roberts is another mixed race historical figure. He was a great Victorian military hero who was born in India and had Indian blood. (Again, I'm not sure how much.)

Nicola: It certainly seems inevitable that there would be a couple of generations of Indian/British offspring of all classes; but I have to admit I really had no idea how much acceptance they would have had in society and whether the laws of primogeniture applied. I thought it was believable in Adam's story, which then logically meant Kiri's acceptance had to be believable too, because it wouldn't do to snub the sister of a duke {g}.

MJP: Plus, she's a gurrrl, and hence less threatening to the status quo. Aristocratic men were always willing to bed exotic sexy females, and occasionally even marry them (though preferably as a second wife.) An actual peer like Adam, a duke, is much more threatening and unnerving. Hence his belief as a boy that he had to be as English as possible, or else.

Nicola: I've seen a few critiques of your use of the word "Hindu" to represent race rather than religion -- I assumed that it was a contextual usage? any comment?

MJP: You're correct. I'll do my best to avoid offensive language that will jerk readers out of stories, but I prefer not to use terminology that is correct now but wouldn't necessarily have been used in the historical period the story is in. So I'll often use the historical term if it's clear in context what it means even if it's different from current usage. (Actually, in the Regency, Hindoo was a common spelling, but I avoided that here except for the epilogue.

[Nicola's edit: to clarify, the wikipedia article on the word "Hindu" states: "Originally, "Hindu" was a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent (or "Hindustan") irrespective of their religious affiliation." ]

Nicola: Finally, since Kiri's mixed heritage is such a key element of the character and story, a reader might have expected to see a darker-complected model on the cover. Cover "whitewashing" is becoming a bit of pet cause on romance blogs, so I was wondering if you might have any comments on that?

MJP: Sigh. I could point out that her Indian relatives are from North India, which tends to be lighter complected than South Indians, but it has more to do with the fact that authors have limited control over covers. Kiri is a shade or two darker than the heroine on the previous book, for what it's worth. But after all my years in the business, I'm happy when a cover is pretty and eye catching. (A purist would point out that the gowns on my last two historicals are a lot fuller than typical Regency wear. But as I said, I'm a pragmatist.)

Nicola: To be honest, covers so rarely have any relation at all to the characters inside, I barely notice them. I know most authors don't get much say in their covers but I thought with your position you might be an exception. I assume that the more selling-power the author has, the more say-so they get. Every now and then one catches my eye enough to give it a look, and once in a while they are so bad that I am repelled {g}, but mostly I look for author names that I know or have been recommended. I do think that diversity in cover models is becoming -- ever so slowly-- less of an anathema to publishers.

MJP: I hope you're right! My publisher does listen some about covers, but that doesn't give an author leave to mess around too much. One must pick one's battles.

Nicola: Thank you so much for your time and thoughtful responses!

MJP: As I said, the topic is one that interests me and that I've returned to again and again in my books. And it's always much more fun to chat then to keep hammering away on my overdue book.

-------------------

Seriously, this kind of interaction is one of the best things about the internet, in my opinion. Mary Jo Putney has been publishing wonderful romances since 1987. I discovered her Fallen Angels series in the late 90s and she has been a total favorite of mine ever since. If you have never read her books and you love historicals, you are really missing out.

Nowhere Near Respectable, by Mary Jo Putney - Review

2011-07-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

I am such a fan of Mary Jo Putney. While I didn't like her foray into historical paranormal, her non-paranormals are almost always among my favorites.

Nowhere Near Respectable is no exception -- another winner in Putney's impressive catalog. I think my favorite thing about this story is that it has so many of the things I love about "old skool" romance-- the things that made me fall in love with the genre-- AND all the best elements of "modern-day" historicals.

Old-Skool: exotic traditions, royalty, bi-racial heroine, brutal bad guys, split-second heart-pounding rescues, manacles, smugglers, high stakes adventure, heroine in detective mode side-by-side with the hero.

New-Skool: mutual seduction, inverted power imbalance (she is well-born but he is not), cleaner pacing, no "victims" in the relationship.

If you love historical romance with a bit of smuggling, Napoleonic intrigue, assassination plots, and class commentary, this is one you should pick up. Some of Putney's books have less of a center-stage plot, and I love those too, those quieter, character-focused stories, but this one has a non-stop page-turning mystery plot speeding along next to the characters falling in love.

When the story opens, Kiri makes a classic old-skool impetuous hair-tossing mistake. Grievously insulted by any standard, she rides out on her own on a too-far, too-late journey and falls victim to the afore-mentioned brutal bad guys. In the process, she becomes entangled in a far-reaching plot of kings and traitors.

One of the key plot points here is Kiri's nose. Although I'm sure it's a very pretty nose, since Kiri is beautiful in the way of romance heroines, I'm referring to a talent rather than appearance. Like musicians with perfect pitch, there is similar olfactory talent, which makes that person a nose or a perfumer. Kiri is able to isolate specific notes of scent and can even identify individuals once she's given them a good sniff.

Did that make you snicker? I have to admit, I didn't find that premise to be all that believable, but hey, it certainly makes for a bit of a change of pace in the usual "find the spy" plot. I know, actually, that this is a real "thing," that there are famous noses who are in great demand in the fragrance business. I've even seen them once or twice in romance before (I want to say Judith Ivory had one?). Using the talent to sniff out (heh) a criminal is a bit over the top, but hey, if you can't be over the top in a romance, when can you?

Like the first Lost Lord book, NNR features a bi-racial protagonist -- this time it's the heroine rather than the hero. My first reaction is that it's pretty unrealistic to have these characters accepted by the ton, but then I remember that England was more liberal about race than the US. To be honest, I don't really know. Surely with all the military and economic activity of the British in India this sort of thing must have happened sometimes, so I decided to just go with it. I would be very interested to see an article about historical examples of English/Indian mixed-race individuals in the aristocracy.

I have to say, I'm a sucker for a couple who knows/believes that they cannot make a marriage but decides to go for it anyway (maybe my hedonist roots are showing). I've run into this sort of thing a couple of times lately, where one or the other or both of the couple explicitly thinks or says, "even if I can't have this forever, I will seize this day, this moment." And that just appeals to me.

Around the Blogosphere
Love Letters to a Library
Fiction Vixen
My Book Addiction
In the Hammock

As always, if you've reviewed this book and would like a link, just let me know by email or comments and I'll edit it in!

The Penis Mightier, for 200, Alex

2011-07-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

(Title Reference-- My point -- The Penis sells page views. Did it bring you here?)

It's always fun to rip on the romance genre -- it has everything! Sex, morality, paternalism, and, um, sex! As a result, there is always someone doing it. (Er, ripping, that is.) So by now most of us have seen Susan Quilliam's article about how Romance Ruins Lives and have dismissed it for the unsupported nonsense that it is and are well on our way to forgetting all about it. I rather wish I had done the same.

I was contacted by a journalist, Katie Drummond, and asked to comment because of my "expertise." I really did not want to participate in yet another throw-away article that implies that romance readers are idiots of one shade or another, but when I reviewed her past work, it seemed like she typically shows both sides of a question, even if she's leaning a bit to a certain conclusion. And, I'll admit it, I hoped that maybe it would drive a little traffic here, so I agreed to the interview.

Unfortunately, after a good 15-minutes or so of discussion about the genre, what constitutes fact versus opinion, and expectations (eg: no one expects mystery fans to endanger themselves by interfering in police business) Ms. Drummond quoted me thusly:

“My husband isn’t somebody you’d call an alpha hero. Let’s just say he’s very in touch with his emotions,” Nicola Onychuk, whose blog, Alpha Heroes, covers the romance genre. “But we’re very happy. I can distinguish between fiction and reality.”

Which was pretty much a sidenote in the conversation that I thought we were having, not to mention much, much oversimplified.

But, I guess now that my name is attached to this, I need to make my opinion clear (as if there were any doubt).

FIFTEEN MINUTES: WIN! Congrats on your 15 minutes, Ms. Q. They say no publicity is bad publicity.

RESEARCH: FAIL Quilliam has an opinion about romance and how it affects her patients. Fine. Interestingly, when she attempts to back up her opinions with facts, she uses one reference regarding condom usage which Linda Holmes at NPR.org thoroughly debunked, starting with the fact that it's 11 years old (thanks Laura, for pointing me to that one). The second study actually refuted her findings but she cites it anyway, saying

And yet … and yet... I would argue that a huge number of the issues that we see in our clinics and therapy rooms are influenced by romantic fiction.

Based on...what? Gut feel, apparently? Oh, oh, wait:

It's not all gloom, though. Browse – as I did for this article – the ‘romantic fiction’ section of your local book shop, and {bla bla irrelevant snark about covers}, the sexual content inside can be very healthily presented.

She actually browsed some books on the shelf--browsed, not read-- which... also didn't support her claims. OOO KAAY, lady. Whatever.

CREDENTIAL: FAIL Who exactly is Ms. Q referring to when she mentions "our clinics and therapy rooms"? Is it me or is she implying that she is a practicing therapist? You can find her CV online, and I for one do not see any mention there of her ever actually seeing patients in any capacity.

MATH: FAIL Quilliam states: some fans read up to 30 titles a month, one book every 2 days. OK, maybe this is just mean, and picking on a typo. But, really? this is a woman who is being cited and rehashed all over the internet (including here, sigh, which makes me part of the problem...) and... and.. .just look at what she writes! (Hmmm. Note to self for article idea- don't worry about cites-- "pop-psychology makes you stupid at math...")

I think that takes care of Quilliam. Now, for young Ms. Drummond.

POP REFERENCE: FAIL Fabio? Really? You couldn't do any better than the guy who was popular 30 years ago and then had a brief comeback satirizing himself with a fake butter product? How about Nathan Kamp, Sam Bond, Paul Marron, or Jimmy Thomas? Using a name that's outdated and a common object of ridicule gives you away as either lazy or biased or both.

FOCUS: FAIL Did you have a point here? Because your article really just rehashes stuff that Quilliam said without bringing anything new to to the table, and ends on just as wishy-washy of a note. I mean, apparently you got her to speak to you and give you some new quotes, but there were no new points, no other cites. I knew that when I responded to you I was running the risk of being made to look insipid or stupid or both, but one reader telling you that "my husband isn't like a romance hero and that's OK" is not much in the way of support for an argument. Not that you had an argument that I could see.

Your email and your title vaguely indicate that you want to address the age-old (#4) question of whether romance readers have unrealistic expectations about their partners and their relationships. Again, this was addressed in multiple studies cited by Quilliam which either explicitly conclude, "Nah," or indicate that romance readers skew toward better relationships and more satisfying romantic (yes, that means SEX) lives.

Perhaps what this means is that, if there is any effect at all, romance readers have REALISTICALLY HIGHER expectations of a mate*. We expect a mate that treasures us, that connects with us emotionally, that will put some effort into overcoming obstacles-- internal or external-- to be with us, and, yes, good sex. I'm trying to figure out what there is in there that a "relationship psychologist" could possibly object to.

If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.

Other People Who Think Quilliam Is ~~Full of Shit~~ Unconvincing
The Smart Bitches
Barbara Vey
Maya Rodale
Stephen Wenlock
Catherine Bennett (possibly my favorite)
Margery Kempe
KatieBabs, in her inimitable style
Laura Vivanco
Late add: Laura Mensch, who might be my new hero even if she did beat me to the point I wanted to make.

_______________
*if I were the angry militant feminist type**, I would add a comment here about how understandably scary that must be to the oppressive patriarchy. Which incidentally, would not be incorrect. Or irrelevant.

**What does that even mean? angry militant feminists can make some pretty good points too, fyi.

Defiant, by Kris Kennedy - Review

2011-07-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Best New (to me) Author This Year
It's true, I do adore a good medieval. I just do, as I have previously documented. For escapist fantasy, there's nothing quite like the romance of castles and kings, and chivalrous warriors with those long sexy swords.

And the romance shelves these days just don't have enough of them. Particularly ones where no one turns into a wolf or sprouts fangs. Not that I don't love my paranormals, but you know. Sometimes you just need a good Knight.

Defiant is what AAR refers to as a "road romance" - most of the story takes place while the hero and heroine are traveling together. This is a great device for throwing them together in more intimacy than a usual relationship might encounter, and especially in an historical setting, where sleeping and eating and the actual travel are more primitive.

In Defiant, the hero and heroine are both chasing after a priest who has become something of a pawn in the political machinations of King John, who, as we in the 21st century all know, is one of Western history's Ultimate Bad Guys. The hero's motives appear to be Bad, while the heroine seeks only to protect the priest.

As the story unfolds however, there are generous hints that Jamie Lost's badness is ambiguous, as are his motives. This is my very favorite kind of hero, I think. (Also, has there been a better hero name, ever? I think not.)

Narrative Voice
(Wow, that's a terrible subtitle. But I can't think of what else to put there). I haven't fallen in love with a narrative voice like this since my first Joanna Bourne experience. Like Annique, Eva has a French sensibility, political acuity, and is surprisingly good in a fight, although she's not quite the ninja that Annique is. Near the beginning:

[the priest says:]

"I would not hand you a flower from a garden. I will surely not give you what may be the most powerful bargaining chip in these negotiations. Who knows whom you might sell it to next?"

To his credit, the bishop's shiny face flushed a bright red. "So be it, Peter of London," he snapped. "Ever have you brought these things on yourself."

He reached for the door, but by then, Eva had completed her slow circling of the room and come up behind. She reached out, her blade up, and placed it against the front of his throat.

The bishop froze.

"Now hush," she murmured. "You have brought this on yourself."

Not exactly a Mary Sue! Another reason I love medievals - they somehow lend themselves better to really intense drama than Regency or Victorian eras. Life was more brutal, politics more precarious, and while medieval European women may in reality have been just as cloistered and limited as in later centuries, it's somehow more believable when their fictional counterparts throw off convention and really wade into the action.

Things That Blow My Mind
There is an absolutely amazing passage in the book that starts out: "The heart hangs over a pit. Strung up like a sacrifice, it swings in the winds of the world..." and really, that little piece of prose, about four paragraphs long, almost stopped my own heart. I started to excerpt it here, but for the first time, I've decided not to pull out this choice bit because you, readers, deserve to come upon it in context and have your own breath knocked out of you. It's not a plot spoiler, but I think it would be an experience spoiler.

That Paralysis Thing Again
I'm still struggling with the paralyzed perfectionism that I wrote about awhile back. Seriously, I started this review more than a month ago. And I just got stuck, because I didn't want to fail to do it justice. I don't know how to finish this review; how to put a nice conclusion on it and make the whole thing feel cohesive. And then I didn't want to post about other books because I really thought I should finish this one first. Auggh.

So even though this seems unfinished to me, I'm going to post it anyway.

Bottom Line
I loved this book, and I would recommend it to a) everyone; b) everyone, especially medieval fans; c) everyone, especially Joanne Bourne fans.

A Body At Rest

2011-07-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

Inertia
Sir Isaac Newton observed that "a body at rest will remain at rest; a body in motion will remain in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force."

More or less.

And while Newton meant this very literally, about physical things and velocity and acceleration, it's also true in other dimensions, including, of course, blogging.

It's so boring to read blog posts about not blogging. So I'll keep this short. I just felt weird about starting back in after radio silence for so long. This is me, attempting to get back in motion!

Second Book Syndrome

2011-06-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

I've reached a state of paralysis with the paranormal series. I'm pretty much caught up with my must-have authors but where to go next? I've started and enjoyed the first books of these series:

Carolyn Jewel's Immortals
Joss Ware's Envy Chronicles
Laura Wright's Eternal vampires
Erin Kellison's Shadow dark fairy tales

.. and I have the next book or books in all of them just lying in wait for me. Plus I have a new-to-me series by Robin D. Owens (Heart series) that I picked up for pennies at my local second-hand store, Pamela Clare's MacKinnon's Rangers trilogy which I totally mistook for a) paranormals and b) Pamela Palmer's Feral Warriors which I didn't really like. I hate when I do that.

I'm having one of those months (we all have them, right?) when my budget isn't what I need it to be to pick up the latest Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews and Alyssa Day (waiting impatiently for payday, my pretties) but I have so much good stuff on my shelf as it is, I can't really complain.

Help me pick the next series to start or finish from my bookshelf! What should I read next?

Legend of Michael, by Lisa Renee Jones - Review

2011-05-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Niche Marketing
Just when I think the number of sub-genres in romance has every possible angle covered, along comes another, even narrower one. Lisa Renee Jones has kicked off a special-ops/military, paranormal, futuristic romance... and she's not the only one. Readers who enjoy Joss Ware's "Envy Chronicles", Jayne Ann Castle's Harmony series, Cindy Gerard and some of Lora Leigh's Elite Ops, and so on, will feel right at home here.

Jones' premise of genetically modified super-warriors is not unique in and of itself, but I really enjoyed her personal spin-- the windwalking talent is mysterious and sexy and dangerous and super-cool. Love it. Michael and Cassandra's world teeters on the brink of apocalypse, with the super-race bifurcated into Team Zodius, with the naked goal to rule the world and force ordinary, unmodified humans into slavery; and Team Renegade. The thing that makes this series potentially Very Interesting is that Team Renegade is a long ways from white hats and rainbows. Power struggles, loyalties, and betrayals abound, so if you enjoy political intrigue, this should be right up your alley.

Characters
While the redemption of Michael is a major theme, Legend is more of a plot-driven story, in my opinion. I never really bought into Michael's "badness" so the redemption was a bit less dramatic than it could have been, but this is a tough line to walk. You can't make a hero too bad or the reader loses empathy. Overall, I'd prefer an author to err on the side of "not quite that bad," as Jones perhaps does. That line is highly individual though, so your take may differ.

Cassandra was an entirely adequate heroine, but more or less along for the ride and a bit of a Mary Sue if one were to be picky. The villains are pretty much over the top evil, which leads me to...

World Building
I'm not always a fan of the military books, but I did like this one. It starts out with a somewhat odd mix of the way-out paranormal and the mundane routine you might expect from a more realism-based contemp, but an early plot explosion sets the stage for the post-apocalyptic -- or more accurately, a pre-apocalyptic-- feel. There is a sense throughout the story of a world on the edge of disaster, while Our Heroes struggle to contain and prevent the cataclysm. The factions each live in something of a bunkered fortress while the rest of the world carries on more or less unaware.

Jones' Zodius world is consistent, creative, and compelling - it's a worthy scene-setter for a new paranormal romance series. The foundation is laid and there are a number of interesting directions it could go. This is another "fated mate" trope, and it doesn't really make any more sense to me than any of the others out there... but it's no worse, either. There's a definite similarity to Leigh's Breeds in that lovemaking bilaterally "seals the deal" for the bond between them, changing both of them physiologically and emotionally/psychologically. Personally, it's not a trope I dig that much but it's not the central focus here and didn't get in my way too much.

The one criticism I have about Jones' world is that the villains are too evil. The genetic intervention takes a permutation that basically causes certain individuals to go insane, but I dunno. I think it's less interesting than a "grayer" set-up. Perhaps future books will have more nuance; I think she's left adequate loopholes and I hope she takes advantage of them.

Bottom Line
While I can't honestly say that this is the very best book I've read lately, I do think it's a well-written paranormal romance with strong plotting and world-building, and I would happily pick up Zodius #2: THE STORM THAT IS STERLING when it hits the shelves this November -- and that's really the acid test, isn't it?

Around The Blogosphere
The Minding Spot
Black Lagoon Reviews
A Buckeye Girl Reads

To Read or To Blog, That is the Question

2011-05-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've been on a total book bender the last week or two, which partly explains why the blog is so silent. I've read some great great stuff lately: I absolutely loved Afterlight by Elle Jasper and the buzz about Thea Harrison's Dragon Bound is 100% justified, if you ask me. Devon Monk's latest Allie Beckstrom book delivered her customary awesomeness; I completely adored Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet and I'm dying to write a post about how she integrates characters with their careers and maybe another one about how much I love the way she writes a kiss scene; I'm in the middle of a fabulous Mary Jo Putney; I need to re-read this awesome Roberta Gellis re-release and review a new paranormal/special ops series by Lisa Renee Jones (liked a lot!); I think we need a discussion about the latest generation of vampires; I'm noodling on a post about romantic/erotic chase scenes and frankly I'm reduced to looking up synonyms for "awesome" to complete this paragraph.

What's got you excited about romance lately?

Wickedly Charming, by Kristine Grayson -- Review

2011-05-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Appealing, vulnerable characters
Who doesn't love a good fairy tale? I'm convinced that my love of romance in general dates back to the stack of well-thumbed fairy tale books of my childhood -- Grimms, Anderson, and their descendants and variants.

I must say I struggled a little bit with this book in the beginning. I don't think I've ever run into so many parentheticals and nested parentheticals in so few pages before:

It was going to be hot-- California, too-dry-to-tolerate, fifty-bottles-of-Gatorade hot-- but it wasn't hot yet. Still, she hoped she had on enough sunscreen (even if it did make her smell like a weird chemical coconut). She had her hands on her hips (which hadn't expanded [much] since she was a beautiful young girl, who caught the eye of every man) as she surveyed the stunningly large building in front of her...

The first couple of chapters are riddled with paragraphs like this, in both the heroine and the hero's viewpoint. My guess is that this sort of stylistic choice was employed to add the light-hearted, gossipy, "wacky" voice, in kind of a satiric version of an omniscient narrator, or a parent-to-child effect as though the story was being read aloud. I found it a little overdone/awkward, but it eased up relatively quickly.

Prince Charming
While this is really a story about the heroine, I found the hero's arc to be very appealing. He starts out feeling defeated and past his prime, divorced and powerless. At times, this characterization even teeters toward unattractive, but his character progression saves him. In letting the people he loves shine on their own, this prince discovers true power, true magic. Charming is one of the better-drawn beta heroes I've seen, re-imagining his strength from the shallow "sweep you off your feet and into the sunset" style hero to the kind of man who provides a bedrock and battles villains, but stays out of the spotlight most of the time.

StepHeroine
Stepmothers get a bad rap in fairytales, let's face it. Really, "step-mother" is shorthand for "amoral greedy woman who comes to a bad end." In this day and age of mixed families, it's time for an update.

I once read about a stepmother who listened to her stepchild relate a fond memory of something she'd shared with her mother. The child mis-remembered; it was something that had happened with the stepmom. But this particular biological mom was not the fairy-tale, loving, sadly deceased parent; she was alive and unwell and was not very capable of creating fond memories. My friend, the stepmother, in one of the more selfless gestures I've ever heard of, said nothing, allowing the child to re-imagine that lovely memory with a woman who really, really didn't deserve it...because it made the child happy.

All this is by way of saying even the best stepmoms-- you know, the ones who don't lead the kids out into the woods and dump them, or make them pick cinders out of the fireplace ashes-- have it tough. Grayson imagines a dark, intriguing backstory for this particular stepmother-- sometimes I was more interested in the backstory than the story-story.

The Story-Story
Frankly I'm always a little leery of a story where the main character is an author; frequently it feels a little too self-referential. On the one hand, I can see how "telling her story" and the analog to the problematic (to the heroine) fairy tale genre makes it an obvious choice. On the other, it's... a little obvious. And a little self-referential.

And if you're tired of bitter unsatisfied women being cast as the villain, don't look to this book for any major changes. It seems that yesterday's Princess is today's Witch, with Charming's ex cast as the villain of the piece.

I thought the most interesting piece of the plot was the glimpse we got of the darker magics of the Kingdoms, but that element was a bit player at best. Still, it served to play up Charming's brains and protectiveness, which helped balance his slightly over-done "geek" element, and there's a seed or two that might come back in other books in Grayson's fairy tale universe.

Bottom Line
Overall I enjoyed this character-driven story, mostly because it takes me back to my childhood enjoyment of fairy tales. It's a story about second chances, and the message is a real one: you have to work for your happily-ever-after. I thought it was uneven in places and sometimes felt like it was trying too hard; but it soon hit its stride and pulled together a readable reminisce with characters you'll root for.

__________
Note: a review copy was provided to me by Sourcebooks.

Review: Touch of a Thief, by Mia Marlowe

2011-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Release date: Tuesday April 26

First Sentence Hook:
"On any given day, someone writhed in exquisite pleasure at the home of the most sought after courtesan in Amjerat. Unfortunately for Captain Greydon Quinn, on this day it wasn't him."

Wow, you have to admire that-- heat, humor, and an exotic setting all in two knockout sentences. I mean, "writhed"-- that's a word with punch, you know?

Even better, this opening is a lovely kernel of Quinn's character and how he relates to the heroine, as you learn while it unfolds.

While Marlowe's story doesn't exceed typical genre boundaries for sex and violence, she makes a bold move by putting them both in the first five pages, and she doesn't mess around with tentative versions of either one.

Characters
One of the interesting aspects of this story is that Quinn retains a certain youthful idealism, though he is by no means innocent, while Viola is definitely more the pragmatist of the two. I liked that neither of them were to one extreme or the other, but the tendencies were gender-reversed. I had a sense that Quinn was supposed to be a tough guy, but he has an unexpected sweetness and generosity.

Now, Viola is a jewel thief. There's just something about that trope (is it a trope?) that I enjoy. I can think of a number of authors who've done this - Jane Feather, Alyssa Day, Shana Abe', Nora Roberts, and Meagan McKinney come to mind (and readers? I just spent about an hour trying to dig McKinney's name out of 15 years' worth of my brain's archives. I do this for you, mwah.) There's a Robin-Hood flavor, as the victims are by definition wealthy, and I don't know, I just like reading about jewels, so sue me. I found Viola to be daring, smart, and likable - great combination.

The Plot and the Paranormal
Although there's nothing lacking to the characters, I felt that this is more of a plot-driven story. Marlowe has crafted a taut and twisty page-turner with surprises around every turn. It's my favorite kind of thriller, with real suspense but not a lot of graphic torture or violence (although the villains meet bad ends, as is right and proper).

One common/recurring paranormal theme or "power" is psychometry, or the ability to "see" or understand things about an object by touching it. For whatever reason, it's a premise that particularly appeals to me, more than certain other recurring "gifts"-- somehow it just seems not only sort of plausible, but awfully useful, and interesting, and potentially dangerous. Great story fodder with lots of potential directions. In Touch of a Thief, Viola experiences the history of a jewel when it touches her skin-- she can "see" what has happened to other people who were touching the stone, and the stones also "speak" to her with unique resonances. This is a great advantage to a jewel thief, as she can instantly tell the real thing from even the best fakes. The other paranormal aspect of the story is the cursed jewel that they seek - a red diamond. I like that there's a strong connection across the paranormal pieces.

I've noticed a number of books lately where the paranormal powers allow the characters to bypass certain genre routines - getting to know one another, misunderstandings, even the epiphany moment or question of "do I love him" or "does he love me" etc is sometimes just handed to the character rather than something that has to be learned, earned, or unfolded. This can be OK if it leaves room for other interesting twists, and I think Marlowe accomplished that. In this case, even though Viola got a shortcut to Quinn's secret from one of Quinn's personal gems, she still misinterpreted events, which led to conflict. (I hope that makes sense...)

While the cursed-gem aspect of this story didn't appeal to me hugely, it was consistent and tight throughout the book and worked. I just found it a bit over-the-top for a story where the paranormal wasn't exactly "out of the closet," and some of the physical evidence of it seemed like it might have raised more questions.

The Heat
Like Viola herself, the love scenes in this book are uninhibited, lush, and gorgeous. I have a small quibble with Quinn using the Hindi anatomical words in his internal narrative-- this can be explained by the opening scene where we learn that he is a student with an exotic Indian teacher, but I can't help but think that an Englishman is going to think of his dick in English, foreign lessons notwithstanding. Minor, though; and let's face it, no matter what word an author chooses to represent "vulva" or "vagina" or "penis" or "scrotum," it's not going to appeal to everyone.

Bottom Line
Touch of a Thief is great read - pick it up if you like historical in general, and especially if you're a bit tired of the standard Regency offering. Marlowe delivers Victorian adventure, spice and romance in a tight paranormal package.

As Always--
If you have reviewed Touch of a Thief, feel free to leave a link and I'll edit it in.

_________

Disclosure: a review copy was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

ABCs of Authors - Weekly Geeks 2011-14

2011-04-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Two memes in a row, is this a problem? The Geeks are suggesting we post an alphabetical list of authors - favorites, or categorized any way you like, this week. With a bit of cheating, I managed to find almost 26-- these are all authors I've read and enjoyed. Not necessarily my all time faves -- I have way too many B's, C's, and S's on that list, but it's a fun little exercise:

A	Keri Arthur
B	Meljean Brook
C	Jacquelyn Carey
D	Alyssa Day
E	Eloisa James (cheat)
F	Jane Feather
G	Diana Gabaldon
H	Kim Harrison
I	Ilona Andrews (cheat)
J	Sabrina Jeffries
K	Jayne Ann Krentz
L	Stephanie Laurens
M	Devon Monk
N	Nora Roberts (cheat)
O	Maggie Osborne
P	Mary Jo Putney
Q	Julia Quinn
R	Luann Rice
S	S.M. Stirling
T	Sherry Thomas
U	Umberto Eco*
V	Lynn Viehl
W	J.R. Ward
X	X-Men Comic author Marjorie Liu
Y	Yeah, I got nothing.
Z	Roger Zelazney

*Ahahahahahaha. Not really.

If you're new to the Weekly Geeks, I really suggest you check them out. It's book-blog oriented, and they're more writing or post- prompts than a meme, really, because it's different every week. I don't participate in all of them but the nice thing is that sooner or later they have topic that will appeal. Show some Geek Love and visit a few at the Mr. Linky.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 24: Pending Review

2011-04-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

When stumped for a topic for a list, I can always come up with a list of things that I should be doing but am not. I have such a backlog of books that I genuinely want to review, or just talk about... Their covers peer at me hopefully, pensively, wistfully, accusingly. I'm trying to get back in the swing, I really am (have you noticed that Alpha Heroes has a Facebook page now? It's like I'm all caught up with 2009...)

Anne Stewart's House of Rohan trilogy (juicy)
Laura Wright's Eternal Hunger - the next vampire series you have to read
Kathleen Woodiwiss' Shanna, for the Rewind feature
Kristine Grayson, "Wickedly Charming" (May release)
Kim Lenox, Night Falls Darkly - really original Victorian paranormal
JR Ward, Lover Unleashed
Nora Roberts' Bride quartet
Leica Cornwell's Secrets of a Proper Countess - wonderful regency debut
Christina Dodd's Taken by the Prince - serious fun, great heroine, just enough of a dark edge
Playing for Keeps, by LuAnn McLane - a cozy small town contemp
Janet Chapman's Dragon Warrior
The Legend of Michael, by Lisa Renee Jones (May release)
Touch of a Thief, by Mia Marlowe, release date April 26

I really need to get cracking on those May releases. Yikes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Series Review - Jayne Ann Krentz's Dreamlight Trilogy

2011-04-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

This seems like an opportune moment to publish this review, since I'm hoping to swing by a signing tomorrow at the Seattle Mystery Bookstore. This is extra fun because the contemporary part of the trilogy takes place in the same historic Pioneer Square neighborhood.

I'm not sure why the stars aligned just right for me with this trilogy, but the first one caught my eye shortly before the third one came out, so I got to read them all pretty close together, which I think is really fun.

Krentz has always been one of the really innovative authors in romance, in my opinion, and manages her career with the steely resolve of one of her contemporary Titans of Industry that were the popular Alpha Heroes of the late 90s (and still are, sometimes). She writes and writes and writes and rarely disappoints. She writes historicals, contemporaries, and is one of the few and one of the first romance authors to venture into futuristic sci-fi romance. She started writing paranormal before "everyone" was doing it, with heroines who had mild paranormal powers (well, mild compared to say, turning into a werewolf or sprouting the wings of a guardian angel, or what have you). Her Arcane series is the first of its kind, as far as I know, that weaves back and forth among her three pen-names and corresponding three subgenres: Amanda Quick in historical, Jayne Ann Krentz in contemporary, and Jayne Castle in futuristic. I think of her as Jayne Ann Krentz, and I believe that's her most successful persona, but her real name is Jayne Castle. I just can't think of her that way, heh.

She's also something of a hero of mine for being among the first to point out the hypocrisy of critics who "worry" that romance readers are giving themselves false expectations of their own lovelives, while apparently having no concerns that readers of Steven King or Robert Ludlum will suddenly start attempting to solve outlandish murders outside the law or setting fires with their minds. If you haven't read Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, you really should. Then, more recently, I heard her give this gem of a speech about the genre.

OK, but none of that tells you about the trilogy, right? Well, to cut to the chase, I liked it a lot. Moreover, Krentz succeeds brilliantly at tying the stories together without making them dependent on each other, so if you only like one of the subgenres, you can still enjoy the series. However, it can get a bit confusing if you actually want to follow the books in the order published. I recommend you check the website and maybe keep a spreadsheet. (That's a joke. Sort of.)

So the Dreamlight Trilogy is a subset of the Arcane series, following the past, present, and future of an artifact of paranormal power. The futuristic one, Midnight Crystal, is the first Arcane book to also be a Harmony (set in the future on the planet Harmony) book, but it fits pretty seamlessly into the Harmony worldbuilding.

How do I know that? Well, actually I've only read a novella from the Harmony books, other than this one, so maybe there are contradictions all over the place, but knowing Krentz, I doubt it. The paranormal elements of the two different worlds are nicely complimentary and work together just fine. I can't say that Harmony is my favorite paranormal world -- it's a lot like 21st century earth, for reasons that are explained, down to email, cell phones, and motorcycles, powered by an eerie green grid. Sort of like Tron, I guess.

It was interesting to read the trilogy all together. I'm not sure I've ever seen one done quite this way -- the plot for all three was pretty much exactly the same, but with very different settings and different villains, getting in the way for their own reasons. I enjoyed each book, but I'm not really sure how I feel about how very very similar the plots were, if that makes sense. I felt like the women characters were more differentiated than the heroes, but there were still a lot of similarities, especially between Chloe and Marlowe. I have to admit being completely charmed by Adelaide's sketchy backstory as a fortune teller in a Wild West show. I kind of wanted to read that book.

One of the things I like about the Arcane world is how the paranormal powers are just known and accepted by the characters. While it's sort of the parallel, hidden world that's common in urban fantasy, there is less of the "no one must ever know!" undercurrent that you get with vampires and shifters; and even less of the fear that others will think they're crazy if they acknowledge or use their powers. That isn't bad in and of itself, but it can get tedious, so the matter-of-fact approach is really refreshing to me. I like that the h/h can just talk to each other about their talents without dancing around it for an extended near-big-mis.

The Dreamlight Trilogy delivers Krentz's trademark fast pace and engaging characters. Read just the ones you want or all three, it will still work for you -- although I think the Midnight Crystal probably references the prior stories the most. I think the similarity of the stories is overall slightly disappointing, although in a way, it's an interesting experiment in exploring how setting matters. This might be a case where the sum isn't greater than the whole and the books might be more enjoyable on their own.

ps, I have a post percolating on the plotting pitfalls of the paranormal proficiencies... but it would make this post too long.

Connecting with Book Lovers

2011-04-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

I mean, isn't that really why we're here? I hope you don't think it's creepy that I think of some of you as actual friends, whether I've met you face to face or not (and that would be mostly not...)

So I tried something new on Sunday -- even though I'm not much of a phone person (I lurrrrrrve texting way more than a forty-something should, but I promise never to abbreviate "you're" as "ur"-- I just can't do it, and that's how you'll always know I was born before 1980*).. where was I? oh yeah, not much a phone person, BUT how could I pass up the chance to talk Black Dagger Brotherhood with my best pal Jackie?

First I just dialed in for the audio but while we were talking I figured out how to log in to the chatroom (easy) and got to follow both angles of the conversation. I do recommend you do both or you'll miss something. Hosted by Jackie and Larissa, you really haven't lived until you've heard Jackie refer to a certain Black Dagger Brother as a "whiny little bitch" or Larissa get her smackdown going about Layla.

Anyway, it was SO much fun and they gave me like, "panelists" status mostly for just showing up so I wanted to give them a shout out and recommend that you check out the upcoming schedule and if you obsess over any of these series like I do (or have done) about the BDB, you should check it out.

Main page is here, and the upcoming schedule:

Time:	Duration:	Title:
04/22/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Katherine Kitty Katt with Gini Koch
05/06/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Morganville Vampires Discussion
05/20/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Kate Daniels Discussion
06/10/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Sookie Stackhouse vs True Blood Discussion
06/17/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Sabina Kane Discussion
07/09/2011 03:00 PM EDT	120 min	H&W Investigations with Jess Haines
07/22/2011 09:00 PM EDT	120 min	Hoodoo Discussion with Adrian Phoenix

__________
*Uh. Quite a while before 1980. Just sayin'.

New Authors and Book Acquisition Success

2011-04-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

So last week I was in Barnes & Noble at lunch (again, do you see a pattern here?), with a $20 certificate that was about to expire. It was a rare week when I was caught up with my favorite new releases, and I just wasn't sure what I needed to acquire.

I decided to try something different. I had told Ms. Krentz & Ms. Cameron that I don't really buy covers, I buy authors; AND that maybe covers shouldn't be too, too different from the other books in their sub-genre. So I thought I'd test a theory. I decided to buy 3 books by authors I'd never heard of. I thought hey, let's do a contemp, a paranormal, and Regency. I wanted authors that I hadn't browsed before, hadn't seen any buzz about, hadn't formed any impression of at all. (not as easy as you might think!) As I browsed, I added one more rule -- I didn't want to grab anything out of the middle of an ongoing series. I succeeded! Here's what I found:

In the historical category, a debut author (bonus points!) with a typical historical cover, maybe even a little racier than usual: Secrets of a Proper Countess, by Lecia Cornwall.

Partial blurb:

If Lady Isobel Maitland is caught even speaking to an incorrigible* rogue like the Marquess of Blackwood, she stands to lose everything she holds dear. Strict rules in her husband's will ensure that if she remarries or even forms friendships her mother-in-law does not approve of, then she will never see her young son again. But one night, in a dark garden at a masquerade ball, Isobel gives in to temptation, and lets an innocent flirtation turn into seduction.

*I bought it in spite of the use of "incorrigible" in the blurb, which is a word that really ought to be limited to badly written Victorian spanking porn by Anonymous. NOT, erm, that I would know anything about that stuff. No, not me.

Next up, Afterlight by Elle Jasper. I like the title and the author's name-- mind you, I wouldn't reject a book for a klunky pen name, but it's nice when they sound intriguing-- and the cover art reminds me of Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss series (which reminds me, I should check on when her next release is due, seems like it should be soon?)

Partial blurb:

There is a reason we fear the night....

As Savannah's most unconvential tattoo artist, Riley Poe* is quite familiar with the local underground scene. She lives and works on the edge of it every day. Now she's about to step over the edge.

When her younger brother is taken by a sinister cult led by centuries-old vampires, Riley discovers a world of shadows and blood-- and those who exist there.

*Heh. Are those ravens in the cover art? Betcha they are...

And here's a cozy small-town contemp; I'm thinking Robyn Carr, Sheryl Woods, Debbie Macomber: Playing for Keeps, by LuAnn McLane. Not a debut author but first in a new series. Once I looked inside I could see that McLane actually has quite a few titles under her belt.

The blurb:

Olivia Lawson is peeved when Noah Falcon roars back into Cricket Creek* after all these years, thiking he can take the lead opposite her in the community theater's summer play. When she was his English tutor in high school, she crushed on the hotshot ballplayer, while he barely noticed her.

*anybody else got an earworm now?

Wish me luck in my foray into unknown territory!

Other book acquisition goodness: I went to Half Price Books the next day or so and totally scored-- Nora Roberts Vision in White, which I have been stubbornly refusing to pay trade paperback price for -- not merely half off but a Supersaver at $4.00. Not only that, but it was the last one I've been missing from the Brides Quartet AND the first one of the series. So it was a little like getting 4 books to read for $4.00.

Also found the second in Carolyn Jewel's current paranormal series. I must say I think I like her straight historicals better, but I'm giving these a chance and the first one was good enough to make me impatient for the rest of 'em.

Last but not least, I decided to give Stella Cameron another try and scored the first book in her Court of Angels series. I dropped her a few years back when she started writing mostly romantic suspense but since we're like BFFs* now AND I've got that whole paranormal addiction going, I figure why not.

____
*Slightly exaggerated. A real BFF would probably pay full price. I mean, it's not like she bought me lunch or anything.**

.

**Kidding, people, I'm KIDDING.

What Happened to March?

2011-04-02T19:20:00.000-07:00


Photocredit: dichohecho

I really have been neglecting this poor little blog, although I think about it and you, my lovely readers, frequently. I have any number of blog posts started in my head, including an April Fool's post that didn't quite make it. Been reading lots and lots.

So what did happen to March? Oh, right, it was Girl Scout Cookie season. And I was Troop Cookie Mom. Hoo boy, that's a job. Wanna know what 157 cases of girl scout cookies in your living room looks like? It looks like this:

Also, I broke my car. I did not know it was so easy to do this. I got stuck, and in my attempts to get un-stuck, I, um, blew the engine. Not as sexy as it sounds. The original plan was to fix it; the dealer found an engine with 50,000 miles on it -- mine had 85,000-- but when it arrived, it looked more like 100,000 [hard] miles based on wear and tear. So then we had some financial arrangements to make and a couple of weeks of challenging one-car logistics (we live in the suburbs, yo) and finally brought home a new-to-us Honda Accord last week.

Work got crazy hectic for me there for awhile, and I went to Dublin (where the company headquarter are) for a week in the middle of the automotive hijinks. Unfortunately I didn't see much of the city, although I did ride around on a bus tour and eat some good meals. I don't particularly think of Dublin as a foodie city but I had some very tasty dinners. I may or may not* have sampled a Guinness or two, and I managed to sneak out of work long enough to tour the Jameson distillery.

So that pretty much took care of March for me.

I haven't stopped reading though. I started Jayne Ann Krentz's new (?) Burning Lamp trilogy. I guess it's new. Anyway, I picked up books two and three this week -- the first one was really good and I just started the second one. Both her Krentz and Quick books are pretty much sure-things for me, but this will be my first foray into her futuristic books under the Castle pen name, so, fingers crossed there. I have to say I find it harder to keep up when the series cuts back and forth across the different pen names.

Tried a new author that I found in a Dublin bookstore: Kim Lenox, the "Shadow Guard" series-- it's a Victorian paranormal, and I was dubious at first, but the writing is super-tight. I'll be looking for the rest of this series.

I did manage a re-read of Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss for my "Rewind" feature, which I was hoping to run on the 2nd of every month. Sigh. If it's one thing that three years of blogging has taught me, it's that schedules and due dates don't work for me. I do want to put up a review though, it just won't be on Mar. 2. Or April 2, apparently.

And Tuesday was the latest J. R. Ward release. I plan on doing a full review, but the highlights are: a) not too bad; b) a little unfocused; c) I think her flashbacks to the Ye Aulde Countreye are getting worse. Gack. d) I don't really care about Qhinn and Blay any more. When you stretch tension out too long, eventually the rubber band snaps, you know? Ward has been using her Facebook page more and more lately, so if you're put off by the fanatical territory of the message boards and the lack of updates on the main webpage, check it out. Today she finally spilled the beans on the next book: Tohrment (Tohr not Thor) is up. I believe it's confirmed that his romantic interest is She of The Random Apostrophe, a/k/a No'One, which I can't say I'm thrilled about. Oh well. What's an addict to do?

How about you? Was March a blur or is it just me?
____
*I did.

Fangirl Moment

2011-03-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

So I'm in the Seattle Barnes & Noble at lunch today, perusing the new releases in romance, minding my own business, when these two women stroll by behind me, discussing their options, pulling books off the shelf, saying things like "How about this one?" and "Oh, I like that one. That's a good one."

Now, the part about minding my own business? That's not really my forte. So I turn around and strike up a conversation about Karen Marie Moening's Highlander series. "Did you like it?" the lady asks me. "Well," I said, "yes, although it's one where you have to have a heavily reinforced suspension of disbelief." I'm trying to find a nice way to say that I liked it but didn't love it, but if you like a certain kind of light fantasy, it's just right. And then I really look at the person I'm talking to.

She looks a lot like this:

And I blink and I say [brilliantly], "You look like Jayne Ann Krentz!" And she very graciously replied, "I am," and introduced me to her friend, Stella Cameron.

And then we had a very nice 15 or 20 minute conversation about cover art. Ms. Cameron was looking for inspiration for her next release, which will be a paranormal set on (I think she said) Whidby Island.

We talked a little bit about babyfaced models versus the more rugged look. I mentioned that I liked the matte covers that are popular right now, and the ones that were sort of veiled or muted, like the Kresley Cole/Gena Showalter Deep Kiss of Winter cover, but we all agreed that Gena Showalter's name looked a little like an afterthought:

Now, this image shows Gena's name in gold, the same color as Kresley Cole's, but I would have said that it was red in the store.

*hunts down own copy*

OK, so the ink is kind of iridescent and its location on the shelf made it look like a different color. Mystery solved. Against the darker section of the background, it definitely doesn't pop as much.

We considered whether Christine Warren's cover for Prince Charming Doesn't Live Here was too busy. Ms. Cameron thought maybe so. I thought, it's busy, yes, but not too busy, because I kind of like that it shows the multiple elements of the story. Ms. Krentz, who is really Ms. Castle (Krentz is her best-known pen name) suggested that it works because of the monochrome aspect.

In the trade paperback section of the new romances, there were lots of offerings from Ellora's Cave and Spice. (Debbie Macomber's demure floral cover for her most recent offering looked wildly out of place). Ms. Cameron disliked the skin-tastic photo-real covers, but agreed that it was appropriate for the material. I picked up Victoria Janssen's The Duke and the Pirate Queen and thought the cover was pretty (I would have picked it up in mass market, but not at $15).

The only one I where I couldn't really articulate what I was thinking was JR Ward's Crave. I think the image is just fine, but something about the font/lettering bugs me a little. I think it's too big, or the white is too stark, or something. It's nothing catastrophic, but on further reflection it seems a little, I dunno, shiny-magaziney or something. I did say that I know many of her fans thought it was stunning.

Other than that, I mentioned that I had seen both of them at author events, and complimented Ms. Castle/Krentz on her speech about heroic values and managed not to babble too much.

And that is the story of my Fangirl Lunch at Barnes & Noble!

Free Books!

2011-02-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

Sometime targeted marketing is really nice! Look what popped up in my Facebook sidebar today-->

I don't really read category or ebooks, so it's not the deal for me, but the site concept is pretty interesting--the home page at Copia proclaims boldly:

If a book is worth reading,
it’s worth discussing.
Copia is the place to do both.

and,

All your books.
All your friends.
All in one.

and then goes on to talk about something called "social reading."

Interesting, because that's kind of what we do here in book-blog-land, isn't it?

Then of course, there's GoodReads, and the Amazon communities... This seems to be taking it a step further. Interesting concept!

I can't seem to use the link from Facebook directly, but the main site is at The Copia.

On The Hunt - Game and Promotion

2011-02-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

This sounds like fun....! Don't know about you, but I'm going to play.

Want to chase the winter blues away? Join the hunt. Four authors. Five hidden images. One red-hot anthology. Hunt down the contest images hidden on Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher, Jessica Andersen and Deidre Knight's online homes to win an iPod Nano multi-touch and a signed copy of ON THE HUNT. A second prize winner will add 10 sizzling Signet Eclipse releases to their bookshelf!

The winners will be announced during our Valentine's Day Afterglow chat event on Thursday, February 17th @ 9pm ET. All of the ON THE HUNT authors will be on hand. Plus, there will be a few surprise giveaways for those that attend. Bookmark our chat room - TKA Chats!

Click here to find out how to join the hunt and take the exclusive "Hunter or Prey?" quiz.

**Contest begins on Monday, Feb. 7th @ 9:00am ET and ends on Thursday, Feb 17th @ 3pm ET. U.S. residents only**

(Hmmm, I think I like the sound of the second prize possibly more than first....)

All I Ever Wanted, by Kristan Higgins - Review

2011-02-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

Again With The Tissues
This book made me laugh out loud, cringe in embarrassment and sympathy for the main character, and yep, made me cry. Not the first time for this author, I might add. Ms. Higgins is becoming my go-to author for those times when you just need sweet romance with a side of salty tears.

Callie is my favorite Higgins heroine yet. She's smart, funny, confident, and generally just really good at life -- except when it comes to men. Even then, she knows that she's "doing it wrong," even when she can't help herself. Emotion is pesky that way.

This is a story that crackles with fantastic dialog and vivid secondary characters. At times the secondaries might veer near the edge of caricature, but the important ones are grounded with the kind of telling details that make their relationships with Callie very real, whether they're her sister, her BFF from fourth grade, a scheming co-worker, or the drinking buddies at the bar.

Higgins' heroines have bordered on the farcical in the past, but I felt like this book marked some kind of leap in the author's ability to create a character that was whimsical and quirky but still felt real and not too much like the 80's sitcom wacky neighbor. For instance, the dogs in this book had some personality and lent some character insight, but there was no 120-lb mastiff in heat careening through the streets with the heroine trailing, wackily, behind [Just One of the Guys]. I mean, it's possible that I just liked this heroine and this book better, but I think there's a developing maturity in Higgins' characters that has me really looking forward to the next one.

The hero is a little out of the ordinary for a modern romance. All the right bones are there -- wounded past, emotionally distant, sort of anti-social [read: an asshole] at first. The biggest difference - and some reviewers had issues with this -- is that we don't get much time inside his head, so he is pretty distant to the reader, too.

In some ways I like this, because it puts the reader in the same vulnerable space as the heroine, when you don't quite know what's going on with that guy. But it does make him a bit less sympathetic to the reader. What I liked best about this slightly damaged, slightly angsty hero is that, while the bubbly, friendly heroine does help heal his wounds, his more taciturn nature enables him to see under Callie's facade and gives her a space where she doesn't have to be "on" all the time. In his words, she "doesn't have to try so hard. Not with me, anyway." It was a terribly awkward moment for both of them when they have this exchange, but it becomes a real turning point for Callie, and-- besides raw chemistry-- the real reason that he is The One for her.

Around the Blogosphere
Lusty Reader
The Allure of Books
Dear Author
The Book Pushers

Weekly Geeks - Blurry Book Disorder

2011-02-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Recognition
Oh, I had a good laugh at this week's Geek challenge. Tara says,

B.B.D. (Blurry Book Disorder) : When one can no longer keep characters and storylines straight. Often brought on by reading multiple books from the same genre in a short period of time.

By the end of last year, I had a terrible case of B.B.D. I was mixing up couples, plot points, and even authors.

Tara goes on to suggest that alternating genres might help, and asks fellow Geeks to share strategies to avoid this dread disorder.

Why Pathologize?
Seeing as how I started reading romance in the 70s, I can only say that my answer is to embrace the disorder. Outside of my very favorites, I do not remember titles or authors, and I'm OK with that. I tend to remember character names the longest, and sometimes very basic plot points.

But it can be an advantage. Do you know WHY blonds have more fun? Highlight for the answer: Because they have such tiny little attention spans that everything always seems new and exciting! OK, that was a cheap shot. But you know, if you forget a book thoroughly enough, you can get two or three times the entertainment value!

Dave Barry once wrote this about remembering things in college:

The idea is, you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life.

It's very difficult to forget everything. For example, when I was in college, I had to memorize --don't ask me why-- the names of three metaphysical poets other than John Donne. I have managed to forget one of them, but I still remember that the other two were named Vaughan and Crashaw. Sometimes, when I'm trying to remember something important like whether my wife told me to get tuna packed in oil or tuna packed in water, Vaughan and Crashaw just pop up in my mind, right there in the supermarket. It's a terrible waste of brain cells.

I suppose that if I remembered everything about every romance I ever read, I might be doomed to professorhood, which would be really hard because I think the number of "Professor of Romance Novels" jobs is pretty small. So I like to think of my ability to forget most details, as a conservation of brain cells.

Groundhog Day Rewind!

2011-02-01T22:55:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to imagine the pitch for the movie Groundhog Day. Really? Same day, over and over? Trying to get something right but you don't know what you're doing wrong? And why Groundhog Day? Why not, oh, I don't know, Arbor Day, or Pi Day, or something? (you could make a good argument for the numbers in pi not repeating, but maybe you'd need to be a math nerd to think so...)

Is it the 2? 2/2? like a repeat? or a... rewind? That gave me an idea...

I have to admit that I like the Old Skool romances. I do. I'm not sure what I'd think about a newly published one, with all the heaving and dying and whatnot, but I have a fondness for the real Old Skool ones that actually does stand-up to the repeat read.

About a year ago I got ahold of a couple of Rosemary Rogers titles and really enjoyed them. So I think I'm going to seek out some of these old skool re-reads. Keep an eye out for them on the second of the month. Like... today?*

Oh, Bertrice Small... I loved her books so much when I was the same age as her heroines (13? 14?), and none more than Skye O'Malley. Will I still?

Answer: Oh yes. Yes yes yes! and then I fainted.

Poor Skye faints a lot, especially after a good orgasm. There is lots and lots and lots of sex in this book and I wouldn't say that it's not graphic, but it's not as...erm, detailed as you generally see in the "hotter" modern offerings. Two to three paragraphs, max. I love this story with my whole heart, but I will concede that the sex scenes may have been written by a virgin. No matter how bad it starts out, it almost always ended up OK. PTSD had yet to be identified, much less understood, and so Skye, like any good Old Skool heroine, shakes off the odd rape or pirate attack with a good cry and a complicated revenge plan.

Small's villains are completely vile, indulging in such horrors as incest and anal sex. Also they hit women and tend to have thin lips. This is your best bet for distinguishing them from the heroes, who, just like the villains, pursue the sweet, virtuous but proud and tempestuous beauty, helpless against their baser desires, driven to possess her by fair means or foul. The villainesses are promiscuous and generally batshit crazy in one way or another.

The other difference, besides the thin lips, is that the heroes (and there are more than one), are not cruel at heart and always genuinely fall in love with Skye. In this book (there are sequels) she has 4 husbands and 7 children and still looks like an ante-bellum Scarlett O'Hara. Those 16th century women sure had a lot of stamina.

I've always been puzzled by assertions that romance readers actually identify with the hero. If that's you, you probably aren't going to like Skye O'Malley at all. She's hard on husbands. Jennifer Crusie says this about romance:

Seventy percent of book buyers and eighty percent of book readers are women, and like me, those readers are tired of serving and losing and waiting and dying in their fictional worlds. The romance heroine not only acts and wins, she discovers a new sense of self, a new sense of what it means to be female as she struggles through her story, and so does the romance reader as she reads it.

And that is Skye O'Malley to a T. You might even say this isn't even a romance-- it is perhaps three romances, but it IS the story of the heroine and her struggles to act and win.

One thing that I found interesting about Skye is that it is no Cinderella story. Skye is pampered and bejeweled and privileged from the first page to the last, and there is lavish descriptive detail about the lifestyle -- the food, the furnishings, the rich clothing, fabulous jewels, festivals. The point of view is far more omniscient that current standards, with little introspection or inner dialog. PoV travels easily from one head to another but it's nearly all in the service of describing the action and setting up the plot.

It's epic and adventurous and while I could probably rip it up on technicalities, it's just too much fun to read. It's a slice of lush fantasy, a moment out of time where I imagine myself fabulously wealthy, fabulously desireable, and clever enough to outwit my jealous enemies.

Next up: I think maybe Shanna, by Kathleen Woodiwiss.

______________
*Oops. I flubbed the scheduling bit so it went through a little early. Oh well. It's the second in most time zones...

I Swear

2011-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

Because I'm a word nerd, one the things I've been noticing lately are the words that an author chooses for a character to swear with. These are the words that come out of a character's mouth when emotions are at the highest, when the action is peaking. They can add period authenticity in historicals and subtly reinforce elements of a paranormal world. In a contemporary, they can serve to peg the character into a class, region, or ethnicity. Swear words have a lot of power and they tell you a lot about a character. James Lipton likes to ask his famous interviewees what their favorite curse word is.

The book that sent me down the path of this post is Meljean Brook's The Iron Duke, and Mina's favorite oath: "My blue heaven." It just fit so perfectly into the world where the skies are clouded with smog; and there's this one moment when she sees an actual blue sky, possibly for the first time:

Rhys watched her face as she stepped down from the car, and saw that her first glance was in the same direction as everyone else who journeyed from London-- up, where the sun hung high in the brilliant blue sky, rather than shining like a dull coin embedded in a shark's belly. Her lips parted and her face softened, and Rhys vowed that he would see that expression again.

I swear I'm not that old, really, but I knew that "My Blue Heaven" was the name of a song; I thought maybe from the 40s or 50s, but when I looked it up, the original is even older than I thought -- 1927. Not quite the right era, but it does kind of evoke the motorcars and early era of technology that fits in with the steampunk aesthetic, yes? No? OK, maybe that's a stretch

.
I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's just one of those little authorial choices that seems to add so much to the story, at both a character and world-building level.

************

Then came Anne Stewart's, Reckless, which opened a bit shockingly:

"Move yer bleedin' arse," Miss Charlotte Spenser's maid, Meggie, said to her.

The contradiction of formal title and the rude language and particularly that the maid says it to the lady, is a great hook and pulled me in to the character quickly. Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit gimmicky as the whole schtick about the "Bluestocking Ladies" learning how to swear was dropped right away. It was a decent introduction but it could have added a lot more to the story if the author had wanted to work it a bit more.

But... I can't let this one drop without observing that it can't possibly be a coincidence that it's exactly the same line that Eliza Doolittle lets loose with in My Fair Lady, can it? (Well, technically, Eliza says "bloomin'," rather than "bleedin'". Still.)

********

I already talked a bit about how Kim Harrison uses the phrase, "By the Turn" in her Rachel Morgan/Hallows series. I found it a bit heavy-handed (though that could be a cumulative effect of multiple books) and it lacks the delicious subtle layering of Brook's "my blue heaven," BUT it does reinforce the otherness of the Hallows world and the cultural magnitude of the event that "outed" all the paranormal beings.

********

So tell me about your favorite use of profanity in fiction - how do authors use it to make a point about their characters? For you writers lurking out there, feel free to jump in with any of your own favorite examples.

And finally, I leave you with this, just because it's hilarious (it's heavily bleeped but you might want to have headphones on if you're at work or have rugrats in earshot)

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 23: Stuff I Do

2011-01-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Thirteen Things I Do Other Than Read, Blog, or Read Blogs....

Work. I have a good job, and it's fairly consuming. Add in the commute and it's a good 10-11 hours/day.
Parent. I have two kids in grade school. They require a certain amount of upkeep -- food, clothes.. you know how it goes.
Girl Scouts. I was a leader for 4 years. This year I've stepped back from leading but we still do a lot of Scout activities. (Want cookies? Call me).
Quilt- it's actually been quite a while since I did anything on this, but I finally got going on a project for my niece who'll be two in May. Hoping to have it done by then.
Scrapbook - photos, papers, stickers, albums, oh my. I swing both ways: traditional paper and digital.
Internet forums - when I want to kill 10 or 20 minutes online, this is where I go. I'm a member of several different once and they each have different "personalities." I've made a lot of friends this way over the years --I've been a member of one of them for going on 13 years!
Facebook... need I say more?
Social director - I manage a list of folks that all used to work together for happy hours every other week. It's a fantastic bunch of people and has evolved into a fairly powerful networking group--we genuinely know, like, and look out for each other.
Other networking - I keep an eye on LinkedIn and try to make it a point to jump in with something that's hopefully helpful to a contact, usually around 3-4 times per month.
Begin home improvement projects. I have trouble finishing them, though.
Housekeeping. Oh man, do I hate this. And I do a lot less than some people (mymomcoughcough) would consider a bare minimum. But I haven't figured out how to avoid entirely, so.
Drink coffee. I do live in Seattle, after all. The first time I ordered a drink with more than two descriptors, I had a funny little moment, but I got over it. Double-tall non-fat vanilla latte, if you please.
Play puzzle games - if I can't read, I might be playing sudoku or spider solitaire, or this facebook game called Combine that I have found oddly addictive.

But really, after #1 and #2, reading is my first love and I'd always rather be doing that than *almost* anything else. So even when the blog is quiet, you can assume that if I'm breathing, books are getting read.

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Bloggiesta 2011 - Finish Line

2011-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm a little late with this but I was all worn out from the fiesta yesterday.

Here's the original list with updates

Write reviews. Drafted/outline two reviews; completed one for publication this week.
Write backup posts for a rainy day. Drafted two thinky posts
Write that great post idea from three months back. See above; also noted some ideas for future and uploaded to google docs.
Create template posts for your future reads. This doesn't really work for me since my format is very loose. I did do one for the Thursday Thirteen posts that includes the header pic and the footer text. It took me less than 10 minutes.

Clean up tags & blogrolls - Blogrolls-DONE; labels not so much
Fix the favicon - DONE
Work on any specialized projects (Friday Fantasy Feature) - not so much
Put out invitations for guest posts for above - Opened up some dialog with fave fantasy bloggers
Master the art of the feed reader and blog subscriptions. Researched a bit. Did not really have any "a-ha" moments.
Make business cards (eh, maybe). Nah.
Back up your blog. Nah
Participate in some mini-challenges. I read most of the challenge articles but didn't really do the exercises.
Learn more about blogging, read great articles, get inspired. Yes! thanks fellow participants!
Make sure you have properly copyrighted your blog and know what to do when somebody reposts your material. Sooo, as near as I can tell from the decidedly non-actual-legal advice I found on the challenge and elsewhere, your own material is copyrighted whether you put the special little symbol in your footer or not; registering with the copyright office (for a fee) may give you more protection. Opting out of that for the moment.
Help other bloggers, answer questions, share your expertise (let’s face it – this is the best part of Bloggiesta!) Yes! I can't really say "Done" because how can you be "done" with something like that? but I did chip in my 2 cents here and there while I was hopping around. Good thing there was a challenge for this because I am known for being shy and retiring online.

========================================
Things I did that I didn't expect to:

Added social networking buttons to the post footer template.
Went down a rabbit hole researching fancy ways to organize labels on the Blogger platform; decided to leave any major re-org for another time, but collected a list of reference links.
Discovered a book with associated challenge that sounds interesting (The Heroine's Bookshelf).
Thinking about glomming onto the Sunday Salon meme.
Updated my "About" page.

========================================
So all in all, a very productive weekend. I managed about 12 hours over two days, perhaps a bit more if you include the bloghopping (loved the participant feed reader!)

Many thanks to Natasha at Maw Books for hosting and organizing; I found the whole event to be a great motivator for those "tune-up" items that are easy to procrastinate on.

Bloggiesta 2011 - Almost Done

2011-01-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

Today's been almost a bust. I completed a post for later this week and meandered around some other blogs. Added one to the blog-roll. It's been a puttering kind of day.

I'm clearly not going to make it to 20 hours. Maybe I'll get a second wind after dinner. *yawn*

Right now, I'm thinking: siesta.

Bloggiesta 2011 Check-In

2011-01-23T00:41:00.000-08:00

Halfway Mark
It's really more like 2/3s over, but since I didn't start until today, I'm 1/2 done.

How am I doing? Not too bad. I've spent about 8 hours on Bloggiesta, interrupted by a shopping trip for craft supplies (school project for the kid, quilt project for me) and a school play-- just spectators; my girls had several friends performing.

I pruned back my blogrolls for those that are no longer active (*sob*); updated the "About" page and debugged my favicon. Sites that provide free hosting for .ico files seem to come and go; my favicon has been MIA for awhile now. I found a new hosting site for it (IconJ) and it's working again. Took awhile though; and I fiddled with my ISP account for a bit to see if I could host the file myself but it was too much of a PITA to set up. Of course, I made that call after spending close to an hour on it. Grrr.

Those are the visible changes; for the rest I have drafted about 4 upcoming posts to varying degrees of completion and jotted down ideas for 3 more. I also checked out this year's mini-challenges -- unfortunately none of them really resonated with me so I don't know if I'll participate.

Research
I poked around on a couple of different stats counters. I've had people tell me that my numbers look too low, but two different programs are showing approximately the same numbers, so *shrug* I guess I'm what you call a "boutique" blog, lol.

I did some research about ways to categorize/group labels in Blogger -- I'm very jealous of the two-level organizational capability that Wordpress has. Ultimately I decided not change anything at the moment because my options (that I could find) appear complicated, difficult to maintain, and yet still not quite what I want. Toying with the idea of moving all my author labels to a page though, since the label list is getting long and I'll probably always have a lot of authors with only one link.

Hopping
Outside of my own blog content, I've hopped on over to a couple of random Bloggiesta-ers to check out what they're doing, and left a couple of comments. I wish I had time to visit everyone, it's such a candybox to have a couple hundred blogs to choose from -- you never know what you're going to get, but your odds are good of finding something tasty!

Bloggiesta 2011

2011-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It:
A blog-improvement marathon. Hosted by Natasha at Maw Books, this is an event that she has run a number of times. Officially it goes from 8 am today (ie, NOW) to 8:00 am Monday morning. However, there is flexibility -- not many of us can expect to start right at that moment or to work continuously all weekend. Click on the emblem in the sidebar to see the announcement post with the rules, sign-up, and suggestions.

I did this challenge about a year and half ago, in the summer of 2009, and my goals are going to look remarkably similar now as they did then. Thing is, some things you can do once and forget them; some you need to pay constant attention to, and others, well, you can let them go for awhile but it's good to spruce them up every now and then. The Bloggiesta challenge is good motivation/inspiration for me to do that kind of maintenance and maybe to look at my long-term strategy.

This Year's To-Do List
Because Natasha has gotten so good at these lists, I've done a cut and paste from her post (credit where it's due!), deleted the ones that I'm not interested in or have completed, and modified a few to suit me:

Write reviews.
Write backup posts for a rainy day.
Write that great post idea from three months back.
Create template posts for your future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so you can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities (interesting idea, no? worth a try!)

Notice that these all pertain to making it quicker and easier to get good content out of my head and into the blog. I have a notion that I might outline a few ideas I've had -- I could write them later but there are a few ideas I've had knocking around for quite a while. What I've learned after three years of blogging is that at this point? if I don't do something pretty soon, they'll fade away. These ideas don't need more mental percolation time to gel; they need butt-in-seat, hands-on-the-keyboard time to make it happen.

Some housekeeping type things, to do in between the heavy-duty content generation:

Clean up tags & blogrolls
Fix the favicon
Work on any specialized projects (Friday Fantasy Feature)
Put out invitations for guest posts for above
Master the art of the feed reader and blog subscriptions.
Make business cards (eh, maybe).
Back up your blog.
Participate in some mini-challenges
Learn more about blogging, read great articles, get inspired.
Make sure you have properly copyrighted your blog and know what to do when somebody reposts your material.
Help other bloggers, answer questions, share your expertise (let’s face it – this is the best part of Bloggiesta!)

I'm not going to have much time to work on this today, and I have some other stuff to do here and there over the weekend, but I figure I could probably get in 15 or 20 hours. Let's call 20 the goal. I'll be checking in here and there, and be sure to visit Natasha for the linky -- do some bloghopping and get some ideas for your own improvement program.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 22: 2011's Most Anticipated Paranormals

2011-01-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

In the January tradition, here are 13 paranormal/urban fantasy/fantasy releases this year that I am eagerly awaiting. What's on your list?

Lover Unleashed, J. R. Ward
Demon Marked, Meljean Brook
Magic On The Hunt, Devon Monk
Kiss of Snow, Nalini Singh
Naamah's Blessing, Jacqueline Carey
Pale Demon, Kim Harrison
The Tears of the Sun, SM Stirling (unofficial)
Disillusionists #3 (title tbd), Carolyn Crane (unofficial)
Vampire in Atlantis, Alyssa Day
Forgotten Sea, Virginia Kantra
Eternal Kiss, Laura Wright
River Marked, Patricia Briggs
Shady Lady, Ann Aguirre

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!

Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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2010 New Author Round-up

2011-01-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

Every Year, Jackie at Literary Escapism hosts a New Author Challenge, the spirit of which I like very much. However, I'm not very meticulous about posting links etc. so I often don't sign up for the challenge formally. But I think it's worth talking about -- it's very easy to stay in that circle of known authors, especially with everyone writing series these days. Sometimes it helps to have a nudge to try someone new. So I fell pretty short of the challenge goal of 50, but here's my round-up. I'm sure there are a few I've missed, as I'm also not especially meticulous about documenting what I've read unless I also happen to review it. (I read lots and lots of books that I don't review).

In no particular order:

Jill Sorenson
Louise Allen
Diana Rowland*
Jennifer Rardin*
Kate Emerson
Cherie Priest*
Barbara Monajem
Wendy Markham
Carolyn Crane
Keri Arthur*
Elisabeth Naughton
Gayle Williams
Shaba Abe
Vicky Pettersson - no reviews yet but really liking the Zodiac series
Devon Monk* - wait, really? no reviews on this one either? love, love loving it
Tracy Madison
Laura Wright
Nancy Holzner
Courtney Milan
Meredith Duran
Christie Ridgeway
Charles de Lint
N. K. Jemisin

*The starred authors are ones I was inspired to try by Jackie's various "mini-challenges" that she held throughout 2010. I find it much easier to commit to a monthly theme than a whole year-long goal!

Forged: A Random Word Association Post

2011-01-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

Forge, as per dictionary.com:

–verb (used with object)
1. to form by heating and hammering; beat into shape.
2. to form or make, esp. by concentrated effort: to forge a friendship through mutual trust.

It's just such an evocative word. It makes me think of fire and heat and sweat and dark smoky places lit with glowing orange; of mysteries and caves and middle earth; of volcanos and lava and brute force.

"To form by heating and hammering; to beat into shape..." That works on so many levels, doesn't it? The raw material is tested by fire, pounded on by great force -- and emerges stronger, less brittle, able to be honed and sharpened; potentially deadly.

Then there's the notion of forging on, forging ahead, forging a path -- strong phrases with strong imagery; the implication of challenging barriers. You never hear about someone forging a retreat. One who forges is almost by definition a hero, right?

This post was inspired by the title Hellforged by Nancy Holzner-- which I'm liking; and which reminded me of Demon Forged by Meljean Brook which I totally loved. It almost makes me want to go hunt for titles that use the word "forged" (except as it turns out you need to really enjoy reading World of Warcraft books if you want to go that route).

Is there a powerfully evocative word that's been catching your attention lately?

Maybe This Time, by Jennifer Crusie - Review

2011-01-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

To Borrow A Bandwagon
One of my favorite bloggers is running a blue light special on Crusie reviews, and since Crusie is also one of my favorite authors, I figured I'd hitch a little ride. Hopefully Jessica won't mind too much.

"Maybe This Time" is a great title for how I was feeling about Crusie when I bought it. She used to be one of my all-time favorite writers; I just couldn't get enough. But... well, I haven't loved everything. The collaborations with Bob Mayer were OK, but they weren't the Crusie stories I loved. And to be honest the two three-way collaborations with Anne Stuart and others were pretty much stinkers. So I was pleased to see that this was a new solo act, and I thought, "maybe this time..."

It sat on my shelf for a little while though-- it's a hardback, and I usually don't drag my hardbacks back and forth on the commute, so they wait for the perfect weekend moment. And what could be more perfect than Christmas Day in the afternoon, with my kids sleepily playing with their new loot, after the chaos settled? A little gift to myself, as it were.

The Characters
Now, I've been keeping up with Jessica's reviews, and she is pulling so many little tidbits out of Crusie's style, and I'm sitting here going, oh yeah, that, and that, and that's in here too... Andie, the heroine, is a slightly scattered high school teacher who is kind of anti-corporate and yet she'd make a heckuva CEO or drill sargeant:

"Mrs. Crumb, I do not want to have to fire you, but I will if you cause any more problems. You will keep the kitchen clean and you can supervise the Happy Whosis*, but you will not tell any more stories about ghosts, and you will not make any more veiled threats, and you will either assist me with the cooking or get out of my way, and you will answer any questions I have without muttering. Is that clear?"

*the housecleaning service Andie hires

Oof. It's certainly clear to me.

The hero is Andie's workaholic lawyer ex, whose job drove them apart. As the story of how they broke up gets filled in, you see pretty clearly that both of them failed each other and neither is a true bad guy. His impression of Andie after ten years: "She'd looked so good, warm and round..." (that was for Jessica). Crusie is pretty famous for her characters and dialog, and while MTT is chock full of her trademark madcap secondaries, it's really more of a plot-driven story than I expected. As a result, North, the hero, is adequate but in a sense is kind of just along for the ride.

Interestingly, Andie doesn't get a BFF in this story, which traditionally has been one of the best parts of the Crusie book. Instead, she's the centerpiece of several secondary relationships, and I'm afraid that the one between her and Alice, the little girl, kind of steals the show from the romance. Andie also especially sparkles with Lydia, her former mother-in-law:

"If you find out what's wrong with Carter and fix it, if you bring these children to Columbus, you'll have the full force of the Archer family behind you."

"Okay," Andie said, taken aback.

"But if you break my son's heart again, I'll rip out your liver and fry it for breakfast." Lydia stood up, looking down at Andie. "Don't blow it this time, Andromeda," she said, and swept from the room.

The Story

So. The story is completely crazy, and the setup doesn't make a lick of sense for any time in the last two centuries. It's an homage to Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" with a nod to Edward Gorey-- it comes with a castle, a string of suspiciously coincidental deaths, and a very strange late-twentieth century spin on the Agatha Christy houseparty, where the entire cast is trapped together in the creepy house. It takes a certain amount of torture applied to the contemporary format to get it adequately hammered into the James' parallel. But if you can run with that, the dialog and story pacing will haul you through the rest of the story at a trot.

This isn't Crusie's first run at a paranormal story but it's by far the best. I'm not a big fan of the ghost stories in general but the ones where nobody's falling in love with an incorporeal being seem to work better for me. Crusie does a great job turning the madcap three-ring circus into a high-stakes thriller with a convincingly creepy edge. It turned quite a bit darker than I expected and she got me with the twist at the end. (Hint: just because there are only a few pages left? doesn't mean it's all over...)

An honorable mention goes to the character of Isolde, the medium who helps them with their pesky ghost problem. She's got some salty sarcastic one-liners when she's introduced, but here she is when the story takes a turn for the serious, in North's point of view:

She was a caricature of a woman dangerously out of touch with fashion, all dark eye makeup, big hair and shoulderpats, but the emotion she was feeling was real, and he couldn't leave her alone in that icy barn of a hall, especially since she really believed the place was haunted. [snip]... Whatever Isolde Hammersmith was, she wasn't a faker or a con artist.

Which is a pretty nice microcosm of how the whole story darkens from kooky to creepy.

The Tropes
All up, a pretty typical rollicking Crusie story in terms of characterization, humor, dialog and pacing, but with more of a mystery/thriller at its heart and less of romance (perhaps her collaborations with Mayer have left a stamp on her plotting chops). It's been said that the "old-skool" romances were typically a coming-of-age story for the heroine, and I think that's a pretty good description of Maybe This Time. While we get a glimpse inside North's head once or twice, the story is told almost entirely from Andie's point of view; and a major theme for Andie is resolving old baggage... some of which may or may not be attributed to simple immaturity.

Feminism?
I'm not good at this sort of analysis, but Jessica leaves me no choice but to consider it. I can't say that the professional woman gets a very good rap in MTT. Actually, pretty much all the women are crazy or bitchy in some way or another except for Andie, who holds the only remnant of normalcy or "real"-ness. Wacky hippie mom, piranha mother-in-law and reporter; crazy drunk housekeeper. The next-sanest (or at least, most sympathetic) woman in the story is Isolde, the medium, so... yeah. Make of that what you will.

The Buzz
Chrisbookarama
Dirty Sexy Books
S. Krishna's Book Reviews
The Stay At Home Feminist Mom
Romance Rookie
Smexy Books

As always, if you have reviewed this book and would like to leave a link, please feel free to put it in comments and I will edit it into the list.

Note, the Edward Gorey illustration is from his book "The Gashlycrumb Tinies." Hard to mistake the homage there.

Destiny Kills, by Keri Arthur - Review

2010-12-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

Jaded
You know you've been reading too much paranormal fiction when you crack open a book that starts with a naked, blood-splattered amnesiac heroine waking up next to a dead body and you think, "oh this old thing again??"

Marjorie Liu's Wild Road comes to mind, but I'm sure there have been others. Hasn't there? Help me out here.

Keri Arthur's new-ish series, Myth and Magic, is not too bad but not as good as I might have hoped, given how in love I have been with the Riley Jenson series --in fact, I mistakenly bought this book last summer thinking it was part of the Jenson series.

Sharp characters and imaginative world-building save this story from a mediocre plotline of paranormals on the run from evil scientists performing unspeakable experiments. The hero is a pretty classic Bad Boy, with a touch of the Charmer (honestly, I think there's a lot of overlap in the eight classic archetypes). Trae as a hero hits all the right notes for me -- he's strong, smart, ingenious, funny, ruthless with the bad guys and tender with the heroine. He's not a masculine Mary Sue -- he's got his own agenda and he doesn't always play fair, but Destiny doesn't let him get away with it. Two thumbs up for Trae.

Destiny is harder to peg. She's more vulnerable than I generally like in a heroine, but that's consistent with the story set up -- she's spent the last third of her life in captivity, washing up on shore with no clothes, no money, and no ID. She's a paradoxical mix of innocence and cynicism, also consistent. This book came out near the end of the Jenson series and I felt like Destiny's voice wasn't as separate from Riley's as it could have been, but Destiny is younger and a bit softer. Her most interesting qualities, I think, are her supernatural abilities. As a sea dragon, she has certain powers over bodies of water -- now, I've seen this trope before-- for example, with Alyssa Day's Warriors of Atlantis-- but Arthur gives it a unique and intriguing spin.

I particularly liked the sense of antiquity around Arthur's dragon mythology -- there's a bit of mysticism and ritual that gives it a nice distinction from the gritty, no-frills Jenson series. The next book is due out in April and follows Trae's sister, so it's looking more like a paranormal romance series than the one-heroine UF style Arthur brought us with Riley Jenson and, later next year, Risa Jones whom we met as a child in Riley's series.

As I alluded to, I was a little disappointed with the tired plotline -- it's a rehash for PNR in general, and Arthur herself has already done it-- and the two-dimensional badness of the villains. Ambiguous evil is so much more interesting. And this is a nitpick, but I wish the author had come up with some menacing corporate sort of name for the research group -- calling them "the scientists" throughout the book was a bit off-putting and anti-intellectual to me, since I prefer to think of scientists in general as good guys.

Bottom line, it looks like a promising series with a solid, if not outta-the-park debut. I'll be picking up the book in April for sure.

Dragons and Selkies

2010-11-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

I Can't Believe It's Not Blogged...
I first discovered Kantra in an anthology during my Antholopalooza event two years ago, and I really liked the novella that she contributed, so I went out and got the first of her Children of the Sea series and I've really enjoyed them. I had every intention of doing some reviews but for some reason I never managed it (this happens to me a lot).

I kind of lost track of where she was with her series, but then I spotted her name recently and I snatched up Immortal Sea when I saw it on the new release shelf. I guess that officially makes Kantra an auto-buy for me. Really enjoyed it.

I Can't Believe It Took Me So Long

When this series came out, I was buried deep in vampires and I wasn't so interested in the historical/paranormal combo, so I didn't pay much attention to the hype going around. But holy moly, this is a good series! I'm through the first three so I have a couple more to look forward to.

I am hugely impressed by the voicing in this series; by the lushness of the writing; by the way the author makes it feel like a fairy tale and a true story at the same time. I absolutely love the way Abé hints that the Drákon shifters are also the source of human tales of the Fae without ever coming out and saying so; at least, that's what I read between the lines in the description of their human (but more beautiful) forms, and the treatment of the parallel worlds.

Two Great Tastes?
OK that's interesting and all, you might be thinking, but why are they sharing a post?

The thing that really struck me about the Drákon characters is how very alien they are. With a lot of paranormal fiction, the characters are "superhuman," that is, they are human-plus. Their perspectives and small everyday habits are relateable. OK, so maybe they also like to drink blood or cast spells or turn into a wolf with the full moon-- but at bottom they're human characters with extra features.

I did not feel this way about Abé's characters. She would lull me into familiarity, with a sort-of typical Regency ton sort of thing going on, and then the whole scene tilts sideways-- in one of the early scenes in the first book, the two characters spend several days in a completely empty house, subsisting on oatmeal. No servants, almost no furniture. It's a bit eerie.

There are quite a few more examples where it would just hit me in the middle of a scene how surreal things were and how not-human --yet completely believeable-- the characters' point of view and motivations were (A more perfect blogger than I would have an illustrative excerpt to pull for this paragraph.)

As this occurred to me, I realized it was a familiar-- but not common-- feeling and I was racking my brain to remember what other author had inspired that reaction. Luckily, having picked up Immortal Sea around the same time, Kantra's selkies and fin-folk were fresh in my mind. Of course!

Kantra and Abé both achieve something rather remarkable: they write characters that are aloof and emotionally chilly, and make them fall in love without changing their essential character. Furthermore, they make the reader care about them and believe in the love store even with that edge of remoteness.

But What Does It All Mean?
I'm not a particularly philosophical reader, but I do see some repeated themes in paranormal romance-- animal nature vs. social convention/civilization in shifter/were stories; the meaning of being alive for vampires; explorations of good and evil; intellect and instinct; belongingness and "otherness", mythology and religion and power and humanity.

I think part of what makes both of these authors really stand-out, fresh voices is that they are both allowing their characters to be something truly different, truly alien. Their characters' struggle to find love gets some imaginative new twists, and brow-raising new challenges. I wish I could think of 4 or 5 more ways to say "fresh." These are stories that continue to linger in my mind -- they refuse to blend in with the large population of paranormals in my reading history.

Reading Order - Kantra
1. Sea Witch
2. Sea Fever
3. Sea Lord
4. Immortal Sea
5. Forgotten Sea (June 2011)
anthology adjuncts: Sea Crossing (antho- Shifter) and Shifting Sea (antho-Burning Up)

Reading Order - Abé
1. The Smoke Thief
2. The Dream Thief
3. Queen of Dragons
4. The Treasure Keeper
5. The Time Weaver

The Invisible Box

2010-11-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

I take a fair bit of pride in going a little beyond the superficial in my reviews here on Alpha Heroes. Or so I like to think, anyway.

The downside to this is that it often takes me quite some time to put a review together; up to 6 hours sometimes of drafting, editing, formatting, reference checking, etc. And when I get a book in hand or a concept in mind that I really want to do justice to, I sometimes delay, procrastinate, etc. until I feel like I have a nice chunk of time and mental energy to devote to it. Because I don’t want to do a half-assed job.

However, lately this has been getting in my way. So I want to kick off a plan for the next two weeks – kind of like NaNoWriMo, I’m going to post something every day. Might not be as well-thought out or as prettily-formatted as I generally like to do. But there’ll be something. (This one counts).

Here’s a thought for today – not about books or reading or blogging per se, but for those of us with a procrastination problem. Have you heard the term “paralyzed perfectionist”? In a nutshell, you’d rather not start something unless you are sure you can do it perfectly. Which, on the surface, is an admirable thing—if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly, and all that. It’s the difference between “properly” and “perfectly” that can become tricky.

I once heard this described very amusingly along these lines: “My house is messy. I was going to take out the trash, but then I notice that the floor around the can had a spill, so I stopped to wipe that up with a rag. While I was down there, I realized that the linoleum was starting to peel up and that we need to get that taken care of right away or water will get underneath and ruin the substrate. So I started working up the budget for that and decided that I’d rather go with hardwood than replacing the lino so I started researching the different woods and finishes. And then I looked up and it was midnight so I went to bed and the trash is still sitting next to the can waiting for me to take it out.” This isn’t really a story about getting distracted but a story about turning a little task into a monstrously complicated/expensive/difficult one.

A couple of good background articles:

A good general view
Regarding perfectionism in kids...

Does this apply to you? Do you have any strategies for breaking loose? As it relates to blogging, this daily-post commitment is my strategy for now (and it has worked before, though I haven’t explicitly discussed it).

So here I go, hitting the post button without finding the perfect image to go with the article or second-guessing the article title...

OK, that's a lie, I did second-guess it and third-guess it, but I haven't come up with anything better, so here goes.

The Iron Duke, by Meljean Brook - Review

2010-10-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

I have yet to dislike anything from the genius pen of Meljean Brook, and The Iron Duke is no exception. But I had some trepidation.

I know a lot of people are excited about the trend, but to be honest, steampunk romance doesn't particularly do anything for me in and of itself. I enjoy alternate history, fantasy, romance and highly imaginative stories of all stripes, but a cover with brass clockworks on it isn't going to automatically get me going. As a category, the danger point where steampunk risks losing me is exactly the same as sci-fi or futuristic romance -- a tendency to dwell on the tech at the expense of the character or the storytelling.

Then there's the second-series syndrome. This is a tough one -- I really would prefer that an author kick off a brand new series rather than beat a successful one to death, even if it makes me sad to see the end of a beloved world (Sigh. Keri Arthur, I'm lookin' at you). Even so, sometimes I'm reluctant to start a second series, because how can it measure up to the awesomeness of the first? (cf J.R. Ward).

But Meljean's world-building chops are pretty damn tight from the Guardian's series, and rather than a weak imitation of that world, she turns her considerable talent to an entirely different kind of alternate reality.

I rather think the best thing about this book is that the characters take center stage, but the world-building continuously informs the characters, their voicing, the narration -- without anything like an infodump. The surreal, literally dark and smoky physical world lends a tremendous amount of texture to the story without ever taking over.

The story opens like so many historical romances, with Our Heroine reluctantly attending a ball, knowing that she isn't a belle, knowing that she's not dressed right, knowing that she isn't going to enjoy it. But instantly the Other-ness of this world is apparent from the smoky dark atmosphere and the reversal of the social order:

...everyone's togs were at the height of New World fashions. Mina suspected, however, that forty of the guests could not begin to guess how dear those new togs were to the rest of the company.

Further description goes on to reveal a desperately poor gentry that reminded me a bit of the American Reconstruction South, with an intricate undercurrent of moral judgment, fear, and social stratification. Also, I love the way Brook re-casts ordinary English words-- bounder, bugger (!!), the Horde. She has an instinctive feel for one of the recently explicated Laws of Fiction:

All of this is interesting enough, but then throw in the unique twist on nano-technology, which tosses elements of the Six Million Dollar Man, McGyver, Night of the Living Dead, steampunk machinery (of course) and a dash of free-floating Jungian free-will angst into a blender, and presses frappée -- not with the gleeful abandon of Blendtec, but with the easy elegance of a tuxedo'd James Bond preparing a pefect martini: shaken, not stirred.

The result is a perfectly crafted, imaginative, surreal world that effortlessly suspends your disbelief from the first page to the last. I loved this world.

And you know, that's not even the best part. I love character-driven stories, and while there is always mad plotting to be found in a Brook story, it takes well-built characters to stand up to all that and the world too. Mina and Rhys deliver; Mina in particular.

Mina has this armor-- literally, she buckles herself into and out of it throughout the story. She wears it always, even over a ballgown--uncomfortable and inappropriate though it may be. She wears it by land, sea and air; and in retrospect, the scene where she gives it away is more meaningful than it seems at the time. I really loved this thread of Mina's character.

As for Rhys, well, I did not know that Wellington (the real one) was called The Iron Duke until I googled the title looking for the cover image. There are some interesting parallels, I guess, although I don't know as much about the real Wellington as I might. In any event, it pretty much went over my head until after the fact . I found Rhys to still retain some mystery even at the end -- I don't know what's coming next in this series but there is still plenty to be discovered about this not-so-modern-day Ironman to support additional books. Something tells me the Horde isn't done with the Brits just yet. I also muse that the Blacksmith might make an interesting protagonist, although his mechanized appearance might make it challenging to cast him as a romance hero.

This is a really nice cross-over book that should appeal to readers of steampunk, sci-fi, fantasy, as well as romance -- it has a little bit of everything, and all of it is just wonderfully well-executed. I hope you read it and I hope you love it.

Crave, by JR Ward -- Deep Thoughts

2010-10-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

Not a Review
I'm working back up to doing actual reviews. For now, I really just have a topic I want to muse on, which is this:

I think JR Ward is a hellluva storyteller in the paranormal space.

However, I do NOT like her writing about the metaphysical.

Too Deep For Me
I'll credit one particular element of Crave for making that distinction gel for me -- and it applies to the Black Dagger Brotherhood books as well as the Fallen Angels.

The wings, like him and Eddie and Adrian, were neither there nor not there, real nor unreal, tangible nor intangible.

They just were.

Honestly? That's just weak. I have the same issues in the BDB books with the Omega's tampering with time and with Darius's reincarnation into a being that had to have been born before Darius died.

Furthermore, a fair amount of Jim's character development and scene-setting for future series story arcs are predicated on the corporeal nature of these immortals, including the arch-angels:

Nigel, as with the others, neither lived nor breathed; he simply was. And the food was the same, neither necessary nor extant-- as was the landscape and all that the four of them did to pass their eternity. But the trappings of a gracious life were of value. Indeed, the quarters that he shared with Colin were well kitted-out and the sojourns they took therein were not for any sleep necessity but for recharging of a different kind.

War was exhausting, its burdens ne'er-ending, and at times, one needed physical succor.

Now, the WARDen can build her world any way she wants to, but the thing is, I'm just not feelin' it, to use the vernacular. You can't say in one sentence that the physical doesn't matter and then in the next say, oh well, but it helps. I don't get it. Why would one need "physical succor" if one doesn't need oxygen or food or, hey, the laws of physics?

And the coyness of the reference to Colin and Nigel's relationship really turned me off. If you're gonna go there, let's just spit it out, shall we?

OH! and can I just say: the fake what-what-old-chap dialog/narration around the archangels SUCKETH MIGHTILY, YEA VERILY HUZZAH. (of course I can. See? I just did.)

OK, I Guess It Actually Is a Review
Ward's writing and pacing and male characters keep me turning pages, they honestly do. And Jim is promising, aside from the metaphysical problem. I liked his engagement with Devina's victim and in general I'm liking his character development.

As for the romance, it's vintage Ward, in both good and bad ways. Grier and Isaac had good chemistry and an interesting non-supernatural storyline. But I pretty much felt like the characters were a rehash: poor sad little blond princess, who is so so very good and smart and pretty and good all the way to her patrician blue-blooded bones finds such unexpected, unseemly happiness with the earthy passionate badass damaged Taurus desperately seeking redemption.

All up? Not that great.

Lazy Post

2010-10-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

One good (?) thing about giving the blogosphere a rest for a couple of months is that there is so much fun stuff out there to re-acquaint yourself with. (I say "you", but I mean "me.")

By way of The Cultural Gutter, I found this awesome thing tonight. Because I'm a geek, I love flowcharts and this one is awesome. Please go check out "The Female Character Flowchart." Be a geek like me and zoom in so you can trace each cliched, wittily rendered path.

I have also found myself ridiculously entertained by The Oatmeal and Hypebole and a Half, neither of which are book-oriented but are written by people who a) know how to write and b) have a disturbing insight to stuff inside my brain and my life.

(I'm particularly fond of HaaH's Why I'll Never Be an Adult. If I ever manage to Clean All The Things you can expect to see CNN covering it).

The Mysterious Disappearance and (hopefully) Triumphant Return

2010-10-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Right.

It's been a weird summer. I can't really claim that I was too busy to blog, because I had some major chunks of idle time, but the thing is, I don't do idle very well.

The big thing that was going on is that my workplace basically imploded. There was a merger/takeover, and pretty much everything I liked about working there ceased to exist, so I spent the summer stressing and jobhunting. I had a vague notion that I would use September BBAW to re-juice the blog, but that turned out to be when I transitioned from the old job to the new one.

As it turns out, jobhunting and stressing apparently consumes the same pieces of my brain that blogging does (I know, who'd have thought, right?) because on any given evening, when I'd normally be blogging or cruising other blogs, I'd be either browsing jobhunting sites, writing LinkedIn recommendations for my also-job-hunting co-workers, or staring into space.

Then at the same time as I'm starting a new job, my nanny quits, which is actually a good thing (long story), but making new arrangements and helping my girls with the transition took a lot of mental energy too.

I was hoping to go to a big signing event in Portland, OR but couldn't take a day off the same week I started a new job (boo) and today I found out that I missed the Emerald City RWA book fair last weekend, which bums me out a lot.

The good news is, I woke up the other day with a few ideas for posts rattling around where the jobhunting stress used to be, and I really want to get going again. And I never stopped reading, so I have no shortage of subject matter.

I missed you all, book bloggers, and I'm glad to be back.

Waking the Witch, by Kelley Armstrong – Review

2010-08-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Rolling the Dice
It’s always a gamble to review a book that’s farther along in a series than you’ve read. If you don't like, is it because of the book, or because you don't have enough background? If you DO like it, maybe you would've LOVED it if you'd read the whole series.

On the other hand, some series are just so far along that I have to give myself permission to skip around a bit in order to enjoy a book while it's current.

Anyway, all that is to preface the fact that I picked up Waking the Witch , book # eleven in the series, when I’d only read previously read Bitten. I liked it so much though, that I was willing to take the gamble.

Note:-- Small spoiler for Stolen
The first thing that struck me about WTW is the YA feel of the book. A lighter, quicker read than I normally see from Armstrong; I feel like WTW is informed by her recent YA series. The sexual tension that was such a strong point in Bitten was largely absent here – there are elements of love interests but they were definitely more of a PG-13 rating. Savannah is young, only 21, has a chip on her shoulder and something to prove to her foster parents. Her inner dialog and attitude read pretty young to me; for example:

The lights were on and a car was in the drive. I figured it was a bad idea to cut across the lawn, so I took the walkway to the porch, rang the bell, and waited very patiently for at least a minute before knocking. No one answered.

I left a card in the door, asking to meet for coffee--my treat-- at her convenience. You couldn't get any more considerate and respectful than that. At least, I couldn't."

Doesn't that last little zinger sound teenager-y to you? Spoilerish comment: Faithful, in-order-reading series fans met Savannah way back in “Stolen,” where she’d been kidnapped and her mother killed by that book’s villains. (Her foster mother, Paige, is likewise introduced in that book and both of them feature in Dime Store Magic, novel #3 in the series--it's a spoiler because now you know that both of them get out alive).

Armstrong’s series is not really like most UF or PNR series. Some of the stories are romance-like, and some are not. Rather than feature the same hero or heroine through the entire series arc, OR a different couple for each book that are related in some way, the Women of the Underworld series hops around from one narrator to another, spending two books with Elena, then several with Paige, and so on. ( I’m not sure if this is a strength or a weakness but it kind of keeps you on your toes as a reader.) There are cameo appearances by a number of series characters, which, while they are undoubtedly more fun for the up-to-date fan, were still enjoyable and colorful if you’re reading out of order or stand-alone.

The story opens with a prologue from the point of view of a minor character. I have to say I was confused, and I don’t think it had anything to do with jumping around in the series. The story is basically a murder mystery, and it took me two or three chapters to figure out that the prologue was referencing three murders and not two. It’s always possible that I’m just dense though.

Once the story gets rolling, it’s very engaging, with good characters, a twisty plot, and well-done, consistent paranormal element. Armstrong is a total pro at effortless prose.

There are kind of three different things that happen at the end that all push my reaction in different ways. Without spoiling, I’ll say that the whodunit part was near-perfect – it was a super-twist that I didn’t see coming, and yet I had that “OF COURSE!” feeling once I got to the reveal – like if the story had gone on for one more paragraph I would’ve figured it out myself.

The second bit didn’t thrill me, in that she gets into some pretty serious physical trouble from the villain but it gets rather hand-waved away. Perhaps the scene where this was resolved got edited down too much, I don’t know.

Then there’s this little epilogue that is more of a setup for the next story (or the next story for Savannah, anyway) that was a MAJOR cliffhanger; one of those game-changing twists that makes your jaw fall open. In a good way, but an IMPATIENT way, if you know what I mean.

Bottom line:
All up, a quick read, a bit of an almost-YA murder mystery with a side serving of paranormal/UF. Well done, but possibly not exactly what Armstrong fans are expecting from the Underworld series.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 21: New Releases

2010-08-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

OK, we're doing a simple one this week. I just got back from a whirlwind tour of the midwest and I'm fried.

I have shown such amazing restraint of late. There are tons of books out by my favorite authors and yet my TBR pile is teetering and I'm behind on reviews, so I've very virtuously been delaying some purchases that I'd normally snap up on release day. Here are thirteen of them (in no particular order):

1. Eloisa James- A Kiss at Midnight
2. Julia Quinn, 10 Things I Love About You
3. Susan Mallery, Almost Perfect (I'm actually behind by several books of hers)
4. Judith James, Libertine's Kiss
5. Elizabeth Hoyt, Wicked Intentions (oddly, I was a bit underwhelmed by her Prince series but her more recent ones are calling to me.)
6. Loretta Chase, Last Night's Scandal (Oh, it physically HURT to leave this one behind. Soon, my pretty.)
7. Robyn Carr, Summer in Sonoma -- also very behind on this author.
8. Christina Dodd, Chains of Ice -- want want WANT. I love Dodd's paranormals.
9. Kristan Higgins, All I Ever Wanted
10. Carly Phillips, Kiss Me If You Can. Yes, she's had a couple of clinkers. But somehow I'm ready to give her another chance.
11. Lisa Kleypas, Love in the Afternoon
12. Tessa Dare, Three Nights with a Scoundrel Sigh. Behind. So many books, so little time.
13. Anthology, Burning Up. Despite my well-documented lack of affinity for anthologies, I have a really hard time passing up anything with Nalini Singh OR Meljean Brook's name on it. And both? In one book? Yeah, I'm a goner.

You might notice some glaring omissions here, like Demon Blood and Bonds of Justice and The Forbidden Rose. That's because I had no restraint where they are concerned. Next T-13 I'll shoot for is the last 13 books I've read - maybe by then there will be overlap with this one.

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Once and Future Posts

2010-07-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

The past is now....
I actually started the Tsunami Blue post below a week ago, and for some reason, Blogger likes to put the old date on it unless you actively change it. Which I usually do, but sometimes forget. So I posted it yesterday, but it's showing up with last Tuesday's date, which I think means it got lost in a lot of feeds. This post is an attempt to gently bump it to real time. Which might be a teeny bit presumptuous, so I'll also offer a smidgen of new content

...and in the FEW-CHA
Coming up next, Kelley Armstrong, Waking the Witch, with some possible color commentary about Stolen and Dime Store Magic.

I'm headed out of town on Sunday but if I can squeeze in a third post before I go it JUST MIGHT be about Melanie Rawn, who wrote one of my favorite high fantasy series ever, and is back with a contemporary urban fantasy about witches that I really enjoyed. Stay tuned.

Tsunami Blue, by Gayle Williams - Review

2010-07-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Ripped from the Headlines
I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "tsunami," my head goes to one place immediately-- the devastating southeast Asian tsunami that hit Indonesia the day after Christmas of 2004.

(The second place my head goes is to that surfer-dude episode of Gilligan's Island, which is, I think, where I first encountered the word... what can I say, I'm a child of the 70's).

The plot of Tsunami Blue is reminiscent of Kevin Costner's cinematic flop Waterworld from 1995: the sealevel has risen so that coastal cities are submerged, governments are in chaos, and marauding pirate gangs rule the waters.

Good Stuff
I quite liked Blue's character. Her wistfulness and loneliness come through sharply and the author does a good job of making us understand the level of danger she lives with. It's scary stuff. I also liked the "Tokyo Rose" inspiration, and the idea that Blue is a voice out in the world, bouncing off the moon.

Unlike lots of current popular fiction, the narration in this story is very consistently from Blue's point of view, which leads to uncertainty around the hero's actions and motivations. I think this worked very well for this story-- it really served to keep the reader's emotions and reactions aligned with Blue's. The voicing is strong, steady and appealing-- a big asset for the story.

World-building-- a bit uneven
Generally I like the premise, but the details don't always hold up (as Ciara astutely points out). As a Midwesterner (albeit transplanted) I couldn't help but wonder what was going on further inland. I'm no meteorologist, but as far as I know, tsunamis wouldn't cause a permanent change in the sea level (although of course they can certainly wreck coastal areas), nor would they cause much commotion for say, Iowa or Nevada. Washington DC and NYC might be wiped out but it seems to me that there would be enough government and naval remnants in the world to prevent the wholesale chaos that Williams portrays.

Now, that might be different if, as it says on the blurb (but not, I don't think, in the book) that the world has been transformed to a series of islands. But Williams doesn't give me enough of an event to really believe that. It may be that the details were in there and I skimmed over them, but I spent probably 3/4s of the book assuming that the continental interiors should be mostly intact. I'm still not really sure why they wouldn't be.

The Romance

Here again, I'm going to use the word "uneven." I think all the right ingredients are here, but it didn't quite gel for me. Blue is portrayed as both naive (from her isolation) and street-tough (from her time with her uncle) and somehow they both worked against her feelings for the hero. She distrusts him, but not quite enough... and then when she falls for him, it's also not quite enough-- for me, anyway.

One Other Completely Random Point
Blue is a pretty young character. And the cover model looks very young. My ten-year-old was dying to read it based on the pretty cover and the blurb. In some ways this book seemed like it was struggling to be a YA romance --if it weren't for the graphicness of the violent bits I would've been pretty much OK with handing it over to her.

Reena, linked below, had a similar comment:

Right off the back, I loved the voice—slightly insane, but fully aware. I’m not surprised Dorchester scooped Ms. Williams up. It was also youthful, repetitious at times (you know how young folks are), but done in a way which added flavor to Blue.

Bottom Line
Despite some technical flaws, the storytelling is excellent--I think Gayle Ann Williams is an author to watch. There will be a second book in the "Blue" world, with different characters, due in March of 2011, and I will be checking it out.

Bonus Material
The author has this to say in an article about what inspires her:

On Christmas night, in 2004 I boarded a plane out of Seattle and flew right into the Southeast Asian Tsunami. In the air when the deadly wave hit, I knew that if I had arrived earlier, I might have been a statistic. As I traveled around the region, I listened and observed, hugged and cried, and all along, the writer in me asked, what if?

As I continued to travel in the region over the next few months, I encountered a great deal of sadness. But also, something else. The resilience of the human spirit surfaced and with it, hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better future. I did not know this at the time, but this experience, this life changing adventure, would become the foundation for TSUNAMI BLUE.

Author website: Gayle Ann Williams

Around the Blogosphere
Check out Caffey's Giveaway
Tez Says
Bitten By Books
Katiebabs
Smexy Books
Reena's Blog

There are lots more, because I am super-late in posting this review. Pub date was ages ago-- April, I think. But... better late than never.

Does it ever get to you?

2010-07-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

I think I've overdosed on urban fantasy lately. I really, really loved Devon Monk's series, and I've been reading Kelley Armstrong and I like it but... dang, the violence and mayhem is just really getting to me. I think I'm going to take a break with some lighter weight historical and contemporary for a few weeks. I mean, at the end of Stolen, there was just a flat massacre, and Dime Store Magic had plenty of murder.

None of it is so bad on a book-by-book basis, but I've been reading so much of it lately it's really starting to just... I don't know, it's getting to me. It's to the point where even though I've got Industrial Magic sitting in my pile just waiting, I need a break.

Last time this happened, Kristan Higgins was just what the doctor ordered, but I didn't love the last one of hers that I read (it was OK, just not as good as I'd been hoping).

Any recs for sweet and light stories or authors? Of course there has to be conflict, but a minimum of blood, torture, and murder would be preferred....

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 20

2010-07-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Thirteen Lies About Why I Haven't Been Blogging
(the truth is, there *isn't* any really good reason. I thought that some lies would be more entertaining)

13. TOO BUSY. Good excuse right? Not true though. I was really busy for about two weeks on a home project and have been expending a lot of energy ever since to avoid doing all the clean-up stuff that needs to be done. Since this involves playing a lot of Sudoku on my iPhone, maybe it's not a total lie. Sudoku is definitely taking away from the blogging time.

12. TOOK UP RUNNING; I'm so hooked on this. I mean, it feels SOO good. The endorphins! I do it all the time and.... *oh I can't do this* HAHA HAHOHOHEE HEEHEEHEE!!! *wipes tears* HAHAHO *eats some fudge*

11. KIDS ARE SICK. Ooo, that would be a great one. Selfless, even. *checks foreheads all around* ... sigh. Nope. Not that either.

10. HOOKED ON "GLEE". Plausible. But no.

9. MY COMPUTER BROKE. Or maybe the internet was down? Something like that.

8. A GLITCH in the time-space continuum. I was doing some time-travel research and when I got back, I'd skipped like two months of blogging.

7. MYSTERIOUS POWERS. Recently, I discovered that I am descended from a supernatural race and have, um, some kind of superpowers that were activated when I, uh, hmmm, still working out those details... maybe there was a comet?... Anyway, I've been busy learning katana-fu and getting ready to save the world from Certain Destruction. Also, looking for a shade of red haircolor that really works for me.

6. BITTEN BY A VAMPIRE. One of the good, sexy ones; not a horrible one.

5. KIDNAPPED BY A GREEK BILLIONAIRE. As soon as I find a way to access email on Dmitri's complicated laptopper thingy and get myself rescued, I'll tell you all about it.

4. CONFRONTED BY SECRET BABY. So, I know it sounds a little implausible, but as it turns out, unbeknownst to me, some of my eggs were harvested back in the 80's when I was ~~passed out at a frat party~~ *scratch* in the hospital ~~with mono~~ *scratch* getting my tonsils out; then combined with genetic material from David Hasslehoff, and the result is this very bitter person who was apparently raised by evil scientists. It's been a headache. (What? it could happen. Ask Erika Kane).

3. ARRANGED MARRIAGE. Turns out my marriage of 12 years is a fraud, as my real parents legally married me by proxy to a Duke of the Realm when I was just a baby. Tragically, they were killed in an anachronistic carriage accident some few days later and loyal but misguided servants gave me to some kind, hardworking Midwesterners to raise-- to protect me in obscurity. Paperwork and DNA tests have only recently come to light. The Duke is pretty cute, but has some issues (don't they all??).

2. INHERITED $47.3 BILLION from a Nigerian princess. She was such sweetheart; so sad about the cancer of the amaryllis (apparently it's very painful). Not a great speller though. The paperwork has been a bitch but the funds should come through any day now.

and the number one lie........

NO GOOD BOOKS TO READ.

Seriously, I've been reading my head off, and it's been some great, great stuff. Devon Monk, Kelley Armstrong, Vicki Pettersson, Melanie Rawn, Susan Mallery, Kristan Higgins, Jo Bourne, a bunch of new authors. Gonna really, really try to get some reviews up for you.

...I won't even wait for the Nigerian funds to clear.

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Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey - Review

2010-07-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

The Love Continues

I adore this series. Carey delivers quality epic adventure, book after book. To be honest, I don't have much new to say that I haven't said before about her writing --

Review of the Kushiel double trilogy

Review of Naamah's Kiss

Review of Santa Olivia

-- but I can confirm that there's absolutely no fading to the power and lyricism of Carey's storytelling.

There are still lands untraveled in Carey's universe, and Naamah's Curse takes us with Moirin through the steppes of western China, Russia -- perhaps Mongolia would be a more correct analog (what can I say, I'm geography-challenged)-- and what I guess to be the Khyber Pass and Pakistan.

Once Upon A Time

Most of Carey's stories can be described as a quest, but that applies even more so to Curse than it did to Kiss. Moirin must find Bao, the stubborn boy and lover who bears half of her diadh-anam which is a sort of spirit-energy; a link to mother-bear deity of Moirin's people. Something I particularly loved about this story is how it inverts the classic fairy tale rescue motif: our intrepid princess must pass a number of harsh tests of strength, skill, and faith before she rescues the prince, who is imprisoned in a [surprisingly] passive state by an evil witch. You could easily imagine flying monkeys on the attack.

You know it's just too easy when she finds him within 100 pages. They are separated again through magic and ambition-- isn't it always the way?

A new theme emerges with Naamah's Curse, as she undergoes imprisonment and an Inquisition-esque forcible conversion. Along the way she questions her inquisitor's interpretation of his God's will, and finally has this to say:

"And yes, there are moments of glory and wonder in your tales. Yes, your Yeshua sounds like a decent fellow for a god, filled with love and kindness toward mankind. But there are also great, long boring bits about the genealogy of the Habiru, which holds little interest for me and there are tales that make no sense at all, and other parts that are simply harsh and cruel."

He looked aghast. "Only because you do not understand them yet!"

"Do you think so?" I shook my head. "No, I think I am beginning to understand. These scriptures, they were written by mortal men. And mayhap some of them were moved by divine grace, but others were petty, jealous fellows, moved by the ordinary concerns of everyday life, like being cuckolded by a straying wife."

Though Carey's world is particularly at odds with a Puritanical religion that considers sensuous pleasures a sin, this sort of questioning is repeated in other circumstances, as applied to other gods and scriptures, in attempts to make it an even-handed statement about divine will, and the fallacies of mortal interpretation. I suspect most readers who are already fans will not have major issues here, but it isn't much of a stretch to think that some readers who aren't expecting it might be offended.

Overall I give this story a huge win; I am loving this trilogy.

Reading order:
Naamah's Kiss (out now in paperback)
Naamah's Curse
Naamah's Blessing (due next year)

Bonus: I've been making it a habit to attend Carey's signings when she comes to Seattle, which are just a delight. I really enjoy the way she interacts with her readers, from the casual fan to the most ~~obsessive fanatic~~ dedicated (yes, I spotted more than one thorny rose tattoo in the audience). She usually reads an excerpt from the next, unreleased book and this year's was no exception. I don't think I'm overstepping to share with you that Moirin's next journey will intersect with..... {drumroll please} ....... the Aztec. Chocolate! Parrots! Human sacrifice! Cool, eh?

Someone actually videotaped and posted the Seattle event. My voice is in there somewhere and you totally can't hear what I asked. But maybe you can guess from my choice of excerpt.

Around the Blogosphere:
(I'm running really late to this party; the book has been out for a month now, so there are lots of reviews to choose from)

In Bed With Books
The Book Smugglers
meredithdias
The Discriminating Fangirl
Gripping Books
Inside of a Dog (which incidentally, has to be the VERY BEST name I have come across for a book blog in recent memory!) Awesome.

As always, if you have a review of this book, please feel free to leave a link in comments or email me and I will edit it in.

One Last Thing....
I was supposed to do a giveaway for this book, but I'm so late posting the review I'm not sure the offer from the publisher still stands. I'm checking... so you check too. Back here, that is. I'll put up a fresh post if there's a giveaway.

Real Vampires Don't Sparkle

2010-07-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked about JR Ward here lately, have I? Don't worry, Lover Mine is on my list to review.

In the meantime, I give you this little Facebook exchange between a high school friend of mine and me:

Test Pattern

2010-06-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

It's not that I'm that busy, really. Weird stuff going on at work, possible job change ahead. End of school year busy-ness for my kids and the Girl Scouts. Just a bunch of stuff that is draining my ~~will to live~~ blogging mojo. It'll come back, I have faith. I'm trying not to stress too much about the hiatus here.

I have a few commitments I need to fill here for reviews - I especially want to get something up for Naamaah's Curse, by Jacquelyn Carey. (Hint: I loved it as much as I have loved all her Terre d'Ange books) and Hachette is sponsoring a giveaway for me. So keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, I haven't forgotten about Alpha Heroes or you, my friends and readers and fellow bloggers. I'm just temporarily making some mental space for other stuff, but I expect the biggest ones to resolve in the next week or two.

Hope you're enjoying your summer so far!

photo credit (Cool T-Shirt, eh?)

Dear Keri Arthur:

2010-05-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

A Fan Letter
I seriously cannot wait for Moon Sworn tomorrow. You are officially my current favorite author-- I've torn through all the Riley Jenson books up until this point, haunting the bookstores for back issues, losing sleep, dreaming of strange beings and super powers, missing bus stops*, and accidentally buying duplicate copies of titles.

You've got me all shook up, Ms. Arthur, and it's rare that an author steps outside the bounds of my reading time to occupy my thoughts during random "real life" moments. Riley has the perfect character balance between "special, outrageous, extraordinary" and the everywoman, relate-able quality. Yes, I know that's contradictory. That's why it's so hard to do, and so rare to find.

I'm also a sucker for well-done folklore and mythology. Of course, by "well-done" I mean, "done in a way that I particularly-- and completely subjectively-- really like." I like the way you combine legends that I know a bit about with the more obscure ones-- you've got everything from ghosts and vampires, to judeo-christian-esque demons and that cat thing, whattaya call it, bakeneko . Not to mention a lovely, series-wide sub-theme about power and how it plays out in different times, different populations, and with different paranormal twists. It's done with both familiarity and respect to tradition as well as ingenious originality. I know, contradictory again.

And the thing is, I'm first and foremost a romance fan. And these aren't really romances. But the series-long romantic arc is so enjoyable. I love the way you separate sex and love for your characters -- they are related of course, but they're NOT the same, and I love that your characters don't fall prey to the Magic Hoo-Hoo/Curse of the Bad Wang** syndrome. I haven't read Moon Sworn yet (not on the lucky review copy list) but I can say that I was STUNNED by the series romance plot turn in Bound by Shadows and cannot wait to see how you resolve Riley's conundrum. Treated as a whole-- assuming that Moon Sworn delivers (and word is, it does) -- the series is a wonderful romance.

Thanks much to Kassa for the idea of the awesome Author Fan Letter Crawl. I chose Keri Arthur for two reasons -- one, Moon Sworn is my MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK in more than a year; and two, I can't really write a review, because I really do try for at least a little objectivity in my reviews... and I can't be objective when I'm MADLY IN LOVE with an author.

So in conclusion,

Keri Arthur, I am MADLY IN LOVE with you and-- thank you so much for providing so many hours of superior entertainment. Your work is fabulous and amazing and sets a bar to which other UF writers should aspire.

Love,

Nicola O.

___
*not literally true -- but close; very close.
**The Smart Bitches develop this concept more in their book, but essentially it's the idea that the heroine is physiologically incapable of having really good sex unless it's with the Hero of the story, ergo, any sex that the heroine may have had prior to meeting said Hero must suffer from Bad Wang.

Please visit Althea tomorrow for the next letter in the crawl. If you missed Stacy's yesterday, head on over to her tribute to Shiloh Walker. And please stop by Kassa's place to get the complete list of participants and to thank her for having such a great idea.

I Really Hate It When

2010-05-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

...bloggers post non-posts about how much they suck and how they are so sorry and life got in the way and blah blah blah.

Is there anything more boring?

I'm sorry. I suck. Life is getting in the way, a little bit.

I will get the carnival up in the next couple of days and hopefully I can get my mind on a couple of the Arthurian posts that I wanted to do shortly thereafter.

Bookworm Carnival Update

2010-05-10T12:22:00.001-07:00

I'd like to post the carnival/round-up on Wednesday evening, so you still have time to put up a post if you'd like to participate.

You can send me a link to something you've already written, or if you'd like to post something new for the occasion, that works too. If you'd like an idea-starter, the discussion question that I'm throwing out is this: do you prefer the more fantastical versions of the story, or the more realistic? What role does Merlin play in your favorite version?

New deadline is noon-ish on Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing what you've got! Email me: nicola327 AT hotmail DOT com.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 19 - Arthurian Style

2010-05-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Collection
I have a shelf dedicated to Arthurian fiction. I didn't start out intending to collect the books, it just sort of happened that way. I've kept most of the ones that have come into my possession, even some that weren't particularly remarkable.

In addition to novel-style treatments of the legend, I have a few semi-academic references and a book on armor and arms, with illustrations.

Eventually, the collection bled into related legends, like Gawain and the Green Knight, and Tristan and Isolde... then further out into general Celtic mythology; books on Dierdre of the Sorrows and Bran and Brian Boru and some wonderful stuff by Morgan Llewellan.

This is a somewhat random assortment of books that are actually on my shelf at the moment, mostly novels. (Before you read on, I must warn you that looking these up on Amazon can be highly dangerous; I was checking some titles and the "people who looked at these also liked..." links are pure evil. I saw at least 3 titles that made me go OOOOOO at mere glance. Consider yourself warned!)

THE THIRTEEN

1. The Once and Future King – TH White
2. The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart
3. Idylls of the King – Tennyson
4. Firelord - Parke Godwin
5. The Road to Avalon, Joan Wolf
6. Child of the Northern Spring; Queen of the Summer Stars; and Legend in Autumn - Persia Woolley
7. Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
8. The Winter King; Enemy of God; and Excalibur - Bernard Cornwell
9. The Pendragon – Catherine Christian
10. Merlin - Steven Lawhead (there are at least 5 books in his Pendragon cycle, not sure why I only have the one!)
11. Guenevere: Queen of the Summer Country; Knight of the Sacred Lake; and Child of the Holy Grail - Rosalind Miles
12. The Child Queen; The High Queen; Queen of Camelot - Nancy Mackenzie
13. The Fionavar Tapestry—Guy Gavriel Kay

Keep an eye out early next week for the Bookworm Carnival post that will bring it all together!

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Marked, by Elisabeth Naughton - Review

2010-05-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

Series Premier
Marked by Elisabeth Naughton is the beginning of Naughton's new "Eternal Guardian" series and the April installment of Dorchester's Publisher's Pledge book.

OK, there were a couple things that really bugged me about this story, so let me just get them out of the way.

1. Theron (the hero) resembles Wrath from Dark Lover so, so much-- it bugged. There were other similarities as well - like the bar where Casey works and Theron first shows up is called "XScreams," while one of the main hangouts for the BDB is "Screamers." I have this problem where I am frequently comparing all paranormal Dude-Group series to JR Ward's, and sadly the comparees often fall short.

2. The extensive liberties that the author took with traditional Greek mythology bugged me too. There was a time when I was really into Greek and Roman mythology, and while I'm certainly no expert, I wasn't crazy about the artistic license here. (But then, I didn't like that Disney gave Hercules a girlfriend, either).

Now, either of those things might be elements that other readers really liked or maybe didn't even notice, so they definitely fall into the realm of personal peeves versus a failure of skill.

Onward and Upward
On the plus side, Naughton creates an absorbing paranormal world of alternate dimensions, bickering political deities, and a growing evil threat. This first book introduces the various factions involved - the Argonauts, the daemons, and the half-breeds. The heroine is at the center of a prophecy, and its resolution in this book is a distinct stage-setter for the rest of the series.

This story weaves together several plotlines with nary a loose end, and the well-drawn secondary characters add to the enjoyment. Altogether a densely plotted, fast-paced and vividly imagined tale.

The Romance
Theron's conflict is a fairly typical romance trope: duty and honor preclude him from acting on his feelings for Casey. The twist? She's not exactly destined for another -- she is supposed to die*.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, it's one thing for a loyal soldier to offer up the woman he loves to another man, especially if it's a man the hero is loyal to. But knowing that she's supposed to die, sacrificed to their cause? Worthy though it is (salvation of the human race, etc. etc.) ? I couldn't exactly condemn him for following through on his duty, but it did give me some pause.

Otherwise, there's good chemistry between the two; the love scenes are steamy enough to take off wallpaper, and the HEA ought to elicit a satisfied sigh or two.

All in all, an entirely competent entry in the Paranormal Dude-Group Saves The World romance subgenre, and a risk-free one too, as part of Dorchester's money-back guarantee on their Publisher's Pledge books. Watch for Entwined, coming out July 27 of this year.

______________
*there's a loophole, of course. But then you knew that, because it's a romance!

The Lusty Month of May

2010-04-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting all year to post this:

I wish I could find a clip from the actual production. You can see Vanessa Redgrave do a much more seductive version if you like.

The musical Camelot, and more largely, the Arthurian legend, is one of my very favorite romances in the same way that Gone With The Wind is. I do not care that there is no HEA, I do not care about the ways in which either does not follow genre protocol. I just love them.

I'm using May Day as an excuse to kick of a week or so's worth of Arthurian related posts, which I'll cap off with a Bookworm Carnival roundup the week of May 10.

Today though, I just wanted to post about this song. As a kid, I was thrilled-- in a relatively innocent way-- by how it celebrated misbehavior, amorous or not. Of course, the lyrics also foreshadow the tragic ending: It's time to do/A wretched thing or two/And try to make each precious day/One you'll always rue but it sounds so merry and joyful that you just don't think the consequences could be serious... until they are.

GUENEVERE
Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray.
Tra la! It's here!
That shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts
Merrily appear!
It's May! It's May!
That gorgeous holiday
When ev'ry maiden prays that her lad
Will be a cad!

It's mad! It's gay!
A libelous display!
Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,
Ev'ryone breaks.
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May!

Whence this fragrance wafting through the air?
What sweet feelings does its scent transmute?
Whence this perfume floating ev'rywhere?
Don't you know it's that dear forbidden fruit!
Tra la la la la! That dear forbidden fruit!
Tra la la la la!

GUENEVERE:
Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That darling month when ev'ryone throws
Self-control away.
It's time to do
A wretched thing or two,
And try to make each precious day
One you'll always rue!
It's May! It's May!
The month of "yes you may,"
The time for ev'ry frivolous whim,
Proper or "im."

It's wild! It's gay!
A blot in ev'ry way.
The birds and bees with all of their vast
Amorous past
Gaze at the human race aghast,
The lusty month of May.

[CHORUS]

When all the world is brimming with fun,
Wholesome or "un."

[CHORUS]

(I snipped out some of the more repetitious lines)

So anyway, I encourage you to enjoy the springtime, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, and to revel in a little romance - a genre that celebrates love and life and lust

Just watch it on the wretched acts, 'kay? Let's try not to bring down western civilization as we know it.

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Got some thoughts on Arthurian fiction? Post 'em before 5/6 and email me the link, OR check with me about guest posting. nicola327 AT hotmail DOT com.

Keri Arthur Update

2010-04-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

Holy Twisted Endings, Batman!

At the time I wrote the Thursday Thirteen below, I had just started the 8th and most current Riley Jenson book, Bound to Shadows.

So now that I've finished it, I just needed to update with a #14: WOW! I *so* did not see that twist coming. The emotional climax to this story is an amazing set up for the series ending, Moon Sworn, releasing on May 25th.

Moon Sworn just became my most-anticipated book of 2010. I cannot wait. And I must congratulate myself on timing my read of this series so that I don't have to perch on these pins and needles for too too long. A month is juuuuuuust long enough to enjoy some delicious anticipation.

Will I be at Borders' door on May 25th? Oh yes I will. Bet on it.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 18 - Riley Jenson

2010-04-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

I really loved Jackie's February mini-challenge, and I really wanted to do it again this month. So I started with Keri Arthur, because I've been meaning to check her out, ever since I enjoyed her short story in the Hotter Than Hell anthology (wow, I can't believe it's been more than a year. The TBR pile is out of control, people).

The April Challenge involves a smackdown between two group author blogs: Fangs, Fur and Fey versus Deadline Dames. (There are prizes -- you should check it out!).

However, one thing that's getting in the way of me trying several of the authors on Jackie's April list is... Keri Arthur. OMG, I am SOOOO addicted to her Riley Jenson series.

Since it happened to work out this way, I thought I'd try a T-13 on the series so far. Usually I like to review a single book or a whole series, and believe me, I *will* finish this series. But I have a deadline so I figured I should just park the butt in the seat and get it done with what I've got so far. Here we go:

13 Random Thoughts about Riley Jenson
(Riley is the character, Arthur is the author)

Other reviewers have used the word "unabashed" a lot when talking about Riley's werewolf sexuality, and for good reason. This element of Arthur's world is incredibly well-done -- Riley's physiological need for sex and the werewolf cultural acceptance of "casual" sex and multiple partners creates inherent conflict with her significant others, and elevates the erotic scenes from merely titillating to critical plot- and character- drivers.
Riley is half werewolf and half vampire, with most of the best parts of both and few of the weaknesses, which is very cool.

Yet there is still a good balance with her physical limitations -- she's strong, even supernaturally strong, but her foes are supernatural too, and it usually seems like a pretty fair fight.

I love the way Arthur mines world folklore to bring nightmare characters and boogeymen to life. She puts a modern spin on the legends while respecting longstanding traditions, and the result is a suspension system for your disbelief that Mercedes-Benz would envy.

Riley wears fabulous shoes -- now, I am not a designer shoe kind of girl, but it's fun to read about her specially-made stilettos with wooden heels -- the better to impale the bad vampires with.

The tech: Arthur's world is slightly futuristic, maybe 20-50 years down the road. The "tech" is mostly just extensions of current technology, done in a believable way that doesn't get in the way of the story. (I am especially fond of the earlobe comm-link).

Salliane, a/k/a Sal The Cow. She's a secondary character who shows up around book 4 and I love the banter between the two women. It sounds too hateful to excerpt but when you're reading it, you can hear the teasing underneath, and through several books you can see the friendship grow. I also like how impossibly efficient Sal is.

Series OCD rating: 11 on a scale of 1-10. I've been so anxious to acquire the series that I accidentally bought Bound to Shadows twice. I finished #4 sooner than I planned (at, uh, about 1:00 am) so when I found myself at a happy hour right next to Barnes and Noble, I strolled over and bought #5 and 6 both, just to be sure.

I like how -- most of the time-- Arthur's supernatural races are not inherently good or evil, but a little of both, just like the human race. Their individual characteristics may make them more prone to some vices or virtues, but there isn't a base assumption about the whole race.

Arthur's bad guys strike a good balance between scary/bad/evil/powerful, and defeatable. This is a tough thing for paranormal authors to accomplish, and Arthur does it well, book after book.

Inclusivity: Both race and sexual preferences have a role in the series. Most of the characters in the series are "color-blind." Beauty and attraction come in a wide variety of packaging, and Arthur portrays them effortlessly. A major secondary character is gay, and he and his partner are an integral part of Riley's professional team. As the m/m relationship develops over the several books, the difficulties they encounter mirror Riley's insecurities in a subtle but meaningful way.

The men in this series are TO DIE FOR. I mean seriously: a horse shifter. (Think about it. Uh huh.) Alpha wolves. Suave vampires (also scary ones, but the good ones are yumm).

I didn't intend to write a total rave - I had a couple of minor nitpicks - but I don't think I'm going to bother with them. As I compile my thoughts here, I'm coming to a surprising conclusion: I cannot think of a series that I have enjoyed more than this one. It's top 3 for sure, along with Meljean Brook's Guardians and Nalini Singh's Psy-Changelings. (The BDB... well, I have an irrational love for the first 4 books but as a series it's uneven at best.)

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Book Worm's Carnival, Call for Submissions

2010-04-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Knight of the Table Round

One of my own enduring romances is my love affair with King Arthur.

Or Lancelot.

Or Merlin.

Depending on who tells the story, anyway.

I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to Arthurian fiction, but it's been awhile since I read any new ones, so I thought it would be a great topic for a carnival.

In fact, I could go on so much about the topic, I will likely dedicate a week or so worth of posts here at Alpha Heroes leading up to May 7.

One of the guidelines for the Book Worm's Carnival hosts is to provide a discussion question for participants. (You don't have to answer the question to submit a related post). One of the fascinating things about Arthurian stories is that they can take almost any direction-- adventurous, political, romantic, fantastic. So here's my question: do you prefer the more fantastical versions of the story, or the more realistic? What role does Merlin play in your favorite version?

To participate, create your blog post on the topic and send me the link by May 7th. If you don't have a blog, you could post in a public Facebook note, or a Shelfari or GoodReads review.

send links to: nicola327 at hotmail dot com by May 7th.

If you can't think of somewhere to post where a link could be provided, you can always stop back here and post your thoughts in comments, OR, contact me ahead of time for a guest-post slot.

In the meantime, maybe this will inspire you:

For more information on the Book Worm's Carnival, check out the main carnival site -- you may see some upcoming topics you'd like to participate in, or perhaps you'd like to sign up for your own theme. Slots are available coming up in June/July, I believe.

The most recent carnival was held by Jo at Ink and Paper, with the theme High Fantasy.

Watch for the Poetry Carnival coming this week from Nicole at Linus's Blanket.

Interlude

2010-04-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Do people ever try to get a rise out of you for reading what you read?

scene: my office
cast: me, Literarily-Inclined Co-Worker (LICW)

LICW: *picks up book from my desk* Hey, whatcha reading?

Me: That's the new Jenna Black.

LICW: *teasingly, from the front blurb* "Who says demons don't like to party?" I don't know, who DOES say that? Certainly not me, ha ha!

Me: Mmmm. *typing email*

LICW: *reading from back blurb* mumble mumble "It seems that demons have started showing up at the hot spot in alarming numbers and in the unwilling bodies of rough-trade club-goers...." Rough trade? *spluttering* Rough trade?! I haven't heard that term since... I mean, you usually only hear that in reference to, like...

Me: *sighs, stops typing* LICW, some of the books I read have adult content. You know, for grownups? *shrug* If you can't handle it....

*end scene*

.........................................................

Now, you could read any of that as snarky or mean, but it was mostly friendly teasing; just with that little edge of "Really? isn't this kind of thing just for idiots?" and the "no, actually; would you like to compare IQ scores?" undercurrent.

It reminded me of the Apologia Scale, which I love with so much love. I was pretty happy with the fact that I didn't get flustered or defensive but managed something that really kind of translates to a socially-acceptable, workplace-acceptable "fuck you."

Mind Games, by Carolyn Crane - Review

2010-04-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Not Your Average Heroine
OMG, how much do I love Justine? She could not be more different from the popular crop of UF heroines. She is not outwardly confident and poised while nursing deeply-hidden insecurities. No, she's outwardly a mess, with a neurosis bordering on mental illness, and the book starts her down the path of discovering her deeply-hidden strengths.

Bottom Line
Despite a couple minor nitpicks, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend that fans of UF and psychological thrillers give it a try.

The Deets
I suppose this is the point where I should give you the summary or a blurb or something, but since I'm the last person in RomLand to review this, I'll just link to it. Mind Games Blurb.

Justine's EveryWoman qualities make it easy to connect with her. I enjoyed her preoccupation with fashion, understood her longing for a "normal" life -- though I have to say that when the significant other is named "Cubby," I know instantly that there isn't a chance in hell he's going to work out long term. One thing that I enjoy about UF versus genre romance is that the relationships are more ambiguous and uncertain, just like real life, even if hardly anything else in the story is like real life.

Justine is not super-woman, she doesn't carry a katana* or a stiletto in a spring-loaded forearm holster; she's not a black belt in anything. She's not going to be literally kicking any asses any time soon. Rather, she plays on the bad guys' emotional and intellectual weaknesses, and when it comes to the battle of wits, she's definitely a superhero.

Here, she's in as much physical danger as it gets -- she's tied to the bed of a serial-killer whose turn-ons include 1950s card games, custom hypodermic cocktails and dress up games (it occurs to me that You Suck at Craigslist might be an excellent source of inspiration for non-sympathetic characters...). There's really no chance that she can manage any kind of getaway in a physical confrontation, but she keeps her cool and talks the guy into a fit of paranoia, playing him like a violin. She needs to touch his body, anywhere, preferably with her hand to hit him with a psychic "zing." Here's how she manages it:

"I would have you lie down and relax your muscles, and I'd need one hand free to poke specific reflex points on the balls of your feet."

"You just want me to untie you."

I look at him like he's crazy-- a look I perfected in high school.

Can't you just see that? I used that look a lot too. I love that she's talking to this psycho killer like he's that annoying pimply kid who hangs around you in that one class, never actually asking you out or anything, just hanging around with that slightly pathetic hopefulness...

"One hand. What do you think I'd do? Honestly, one hand? I can barely focus thanks to your drugs, and you have the knife. But fine. Why should I give a crap? I'm sure you'll get your diagnosis soon enough."

Minutes later he's lying in bed next to me, the opposite way, angled so his head is at the far corner and his feet are near my shoulders. Three of my limbs are still attached to the bed frme, but I have a hand, and that's all I need.

The other big thing to love about Mind Games is that the plotting is twisted and tight; no one is exactly who they seem to be; and there are no loose ends disguised as sequel-baiting -- there is a sequel, but the reason you want to read it is because this book ends with the "end of an era," and poised on the brink of a new one. (Can't wait to see how the new partnership works out!). It's a rare author that can combine kooky and funny with dark psychological thrills, but that's exactly what you get with Mind Games.

I will say that there were a couple things that didn't work perfectly for me. Justine is infatuated with the character of the police chief, and... I wasn't. I don't know if this is just a case of chemistry between me and a character (ie, none) or if the author just didn't adequately convince me of his allure. If this had been a romance, I think it would've been a disaster for my enjoyment, but fortunately I was able to roll with it, the way you do when your best friend or sister falls head over heels with a nitwit.

The other bit I struggled with a little is the world-building. The "high-caps" - folks with over-developed, relatively familiar psychic abilities like telekinesis - was believable enough. However, the really interesting premise of Crane's trilogy is the idea that the disillusionists can "zing" their negative mental energy/anxiety into other people. I struggled with that a little bit more. Although the narrative mentioned months of training, the way Packard taught her how to "zing" seemed a bit too easy to me. And Packard's claim that only he could tell the disillusionists (the hit squad that he has trained) who is safe to "zing," was too readily accepted.

Why, oh why, the present tense? I get it for a time travel book; but I didn't see a reason that this story needed to be in present tense. Normally I find this VERY distracting and aggravating. However, the chatty, intimate voicing made the whole book seem like something your best girlfriend might relate to you over a pitcher of margaritas and it ended up being OK. I tend to think it would've worked just as well in a traditional past tense, but I guess an author has to roll with how it sounds in her head.

I think my favorite bit is near the end, and I can't give you the full context without it being spoilery, but in essence, Justine starts apologizing for [stuff that led to the story's showdown] and [characterx] tells her, "It's so amusing ... [snip] ...How little you see of your own integrity..."

And that's really what makes Justine a heroine rather than a pawn between the other players in this game.

_______________
Edited to add: OOPS, I knew that was a good line. I sort of accidentally stole it. Dirty Sexy Books review.

Change of Heart

2010-04-01T12:14:00.001-07:00

You May Have Noticed...
My posting frequency is down. It's true, I've been struggling with this blog a little bit lately. Maybe it's the lingering gloomy weather. Maybe it's my impending forty-(cough cough) birthday, or my baby's kindergarten registration. I don't know.

I feel like I'm coming to one of life's crossroads. One of those times when you question whether you're doing it right, you know? Wasn't I supposed to be a CEO by now? Or at least a VP of something? Shouldn't I have an expense account? Maybe a jetpack?

And my kids. Am I doing a good job parenting them? I mean, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. But am I doing the best I can? Shouldn't I be doing more flash-card oriented games, and planning more culturally-enriched outings? Why is Spongebob such an integral part of our family?

I struggle. Most of the time, I think I'm doing OK, but you know what? I could probably do more. Do better.

Be better.

And when I think about all the things in my life that I could change, it occurs to me that one avenue of personal enrichment would be to reach for better in my personal reading. Perhaps all that potential that my teachers talked about when I was my kids' age has been siphoned off into frivolty. Into literature that doesn't matter. Literature that's fun. How can that be good for me?

There's no gain without pain, right? If I want to stretch my brainpower, I should be reading Proust and Tolstoi, right?

Perhaps the romance critics are right, though it pains me to say it. I can blame everything that's wrong with my life on the unreasonable expectations I've had -- Jayne Ann Krentz, where's my mogul? Christina Skye, I'm waiting for that Special Ops guy to fall through my roof, put me in grave danger, and then rescue me from it! (or, wait, do I really want that?) Nora Roberts, where's my quiet but damaged rock of a man, whose only redemption lies in my love? Dammit, JR Ward, WHERE'S MY HOTT ANGSTY VAMPIRE??

Clearly, the only solution is to give up romance and fantasy novels and read classic, somber literary works. Books that take weeks to finish. Books that end in death and despair. Books that cast a jaded and ironic eye on the notion of "happiness." Books that really hurt if you drop them on your foot. And smell musty.

These are the kind of books that will lower my expectations from life. After a steady diet of Thomas Hardy, Dostoyevsky and Gabriel García Márquez, spending a cold rainy weekend camping out with 120 Girl Scouts will look pretty good. Milton and Bronte will make my cubicle feel like paradise in comparison. A little Nietzche and Sartre will... well, they'd probably make me want to slit my wrists, so maybe I'll hold off on those.

It's time to put away childish things; time to be not a child in understanding. It's time to end my shallow, superficial relationship with genre fiction and reach to be a better, smarter, more serious and more fully realized human being, through better, smarter, and more serious reading.

I'm going to need a new blog name. Classic Heroes? Alpha Classics? I could use some ideas.

Technical Difficulties

2010-03-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Can you see my sidebars? I can't see my sidebars. I don't know why.

If they don't magically re-appear shortly, I'll contact Blogger. In the meantime, sorry and please join me in a hearty WTF??

Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil, by Barbara Monajem - Review

2010-03-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Publisher's Pledge
In Dorchester's press release about their new marketing program, the Publisher's Pledge, there's a quote kind of buried in the middle that makes me really happy:

“Our strength has been identifying emerging voices and trends in the industry rather than chasing bestsellers. Our intent is to reestablish ourselves in the market as the publisher authors and agents turn to first to introduce new talent. " (Brooke Borneman, Director of Sales and Marketing.)

I just really like that there are publishers out there that are specifically looking to give aspiring authors their big break. The bottom line on the Publisher's Pledge is YOUR bottom line: according to the note in the review copy,

Dorchester's Publisher's Pledge program is our way of identifying particularly special books by giving readers a risk-free guarantee. We feel so strongly about Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil, we're willing to pay a full refund to anyone who doesn't find it everything they want in a paranormal fantasy.

Well. That's promising, isn't it?

I don't know if I've been getting burned out on paranormals or what, but I've been finding myself reluctant to try out new authors lately. Ho hum, another vampire. Does this one sparkle, or poof? However, I put aside my reservations and cracked this one open.

Which is all it took. One page, and I'm hooked. It's pretty hard to resist a female vampire named Ophelia Beliveau, whose chief challenge in life is fending off hapless human men who fall under her pheremone spell. Monajem manages to make this aspect of vampirism feel truly inconvenient and occasionally tragic, yet leavened with laugh-out-loud slapstick.

There's plenty of chemistry and conflict between Ophelia and Gideon and they work through it while untangling a couple of related mysteries. Plotting is tight and fast paced. I tend to think of it as a good sign when the guy I'm pretty sure dunnit turns up dead just when I'm starting to be sure. (That might sound like I'm calling it predictable, but that's not what I mean.)

I think my favorite piece of this book is the way the cast of secondary characters come alive. No doubt there will be sequels, but it really didn't feel like sequel-baiting. It felt more like Season One of a new show with a great ensemble cast, and I'm already looking forward to next season.

There's a second "moral of the story" in this post -- I need to take a page from Dorchester's book (so to speak!) and bust out of this new-author-reluctance I've fallen into lately. I'm not always like this, and I should snap out of it already! Truthfully, I love more new authors than I hate, and I like lots more. And the last couple that I've taken a chance on have been really really excellent.

Who have you discovered lately?

Other Reviews:

Janicu
Patricia's Vampire Notes
The Deepening
Vampire News

Note: if you have reviewed this book, feel free to leave a link in comments!

Trendspotting: Not-So-Urban Fantasy

2010-03-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, Urban Fantasy is:

a subset of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times or contain supernatural elements. However, this is not the primary definition of urban fantasy. Urban fantasy can be set in historical times, modern times, or futuristic times. The prerequisite is that it must be primarily set in a city, rather than in a suburban or country setting, which have their own genre subsets.

Maybe it's because I run primarily in romance circles, but it seems to me that the category I think of as "Urban Fantasy" isn't really urban fantasy at all. The UF books I read blend fantasy, horror and suspense; sometimes a little romance; they're always contemporary or near-future; and there are always some characters with supernatural abilities. The "urban" part seems largely irrelevant to me. "Fantasy" somehow doesn't seem specific enough; I generally think of swords and sorcerers when I think of the general Fantasy genre. ( Also, I think wikipedia might be lying about the other "genre subsets." I've heard the term "pastoral" as relates to romance, but if you asked a book store clerk where they shelve the pastoral fantasy? Thinkin' you're gonna get a blank look there...)

I asked my husband, who's a huge fan of classical (not so much current) Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Horror, what's the difference between fantasy-style paranormal or magic stuff, and horror-style paranormal/magic? He thought that horror is a) usually more graphically violent and b) overlaps the "real world" more; while fantasy is usually some entirely other world with its own rules. I say that's a line that's getting blurrier every day.

It's really time to re-name this category of books that includes Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Kat Richardson, Vicki Pettersson, Jenna Black, Christine Warren, Mark Henry, Jim Butcher, Keri Arthur, Kelley Armstrong, and a hundred others, if for no other reason than books that are the same category in every way except setting are starting to crop up everywhere.

For me it started with Ilona Andrews' On The Edge. No reasonable person could describe this story as Urban-Anything. But it's very much the same kind of story as the Kate Daniels books set in Atlanta.

Then I got the ARC for Barbara Monajem's Sunrise in the Garden of Love and Evil (review coming up 3/30), and shortly after that picked up Diana Rowland's Blood of the Demon, both set in rural Louisiana. In Elisabeth Naughton's upcoming Marked, the "our world" parts of the story are set in a small New England town and the countryside around it. And most of the action in Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series is fairly countrified (another way she polarizes the Psy and the Changeling races, but that's another post!).

These are heroines that are comfortable with shotguns, The Dixie Chicks, and good old boys. They're more likely to encounter tobacco chew than Jimmy Choo.

Although I don't have a cite, I recall one of the actresses from the 1980's show Designing Women talking about audiences being "ready" for the slower, slyer pacing of "southern" humor, as opposed to the typical city settings of most of the popular shows of the time-- it seemed like everything was set in LA or New York.

What about you? Are you ready for Non-Urban Fantasy? What the heck do we call it? And should it have its own name? Or do we need a new name for these books... and what would it be? I'm thinking something like... "contemporary paranormal". Descriptive, but not restrictive.

The Best Gift, by Wendy Markham - Review

2010-03-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

Timeline of a Convert
8:00 am, Page 1. Setting: On the Bus. Dialog: Internal.

Man. Is this really written in present tense for the whole book? *flips pages* Auugh, I hate that.

..........................................

12:15 pm, page 38. Setting: Mostly empty office, remains of Lean Cuisine at elbow. Dialog: with Co-worker (Lit major, fluent in 4 or 5 languages, works as a tester in our lab).

Coworker: Whatcha reading?
Me: A romance.
Coworker: Is it any good?
Me: Not really. Someone sent it to me. I'm going to review it. It's all in present tense, augh, I hate that. But it's a time travel thing, so I guess it kind of makes sense for that. You know. It's the Douglas Adams problem.
Coworker: *Laugh* *wanders off*
Me: *still reading*

...............................................................................................................................

6:00 pm, page 100. Setting: On the bus. Dialog: Internal.

Auuugggh, something horrible is going to happen, I just know it. I need to know what. And when. *turns page*

...............................................................................................................................

7:30 pm, page 186. Setting: My house. Dialog: with my kid.
Kid: Mom?
Me: *still reading* Go away.
Kid: But, mom...!!
Me: *still reading* Seriously. Go ask your father.

...............................................................................................................................

9:30 pm, page 236. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

I'll just read for a half hour or so. *yawn* This time change is killing me, I need to get to bed early.

...............................................................................................................................

11:15 PM, page 304. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

Crap. I have to finish this. *yawn*

...............................................................................................................................

11:50 pm, last page. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

Wow. That was incredible. *reads prequel excerpt* I might need to read that. God, I hate that it's in present tense though. Augh. I hate that.

...............................................................................................................................

This book is a really unusual reading experience. It takes place almost entirely within the span of 4 days - two in 2009, and two in 2012. I was tense, anxious, filled with foreboding, and mildly confused for almost the entire stretch, which normally doesn't make me like a book, but in this case, it was very effective at keeping me turning the pages.

I still can't figure out if I liked it or not.

Mind Games Contest

2010-03-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you, I am totally staging a coup on the local Borders as of next Tuesday morning. I cannot tell you how much I'm anticipating Carolyn Crane's debut novel. When I started up Alpha Heroes, Carolyn was one of the first bloggers to really make me feel like someone was out there paying attention to this little blog *sniff* -- I feel like we're friends even though we've never met.

More importantly though, I love her writing. I find The Thrillionth Page so entertaining -- insightful, thoughtful, hilarious. I particularly like when she has those ~~psychotic breaks~~ guest posts by Little CJ and Miss Doreen. I just enjoy the way her mind works, which I think bodes very well for my chances of loving her fiction too.

So natch, I'm happy to help spread the word about her big day. And since I must admit, I do like to eat, this sounded like an especially fun contest.

The Trapped in a Restaurant meme game
Okay, Carolyn made up this meme game to celebrate one of the many mysteries of Mind Games: Why does tortured mastermind Sterling Packard NEVER ever set foot outside the Mongolian Delites restaurant? Anybody anywhere can to play.

Prizes:
First Prize: One randomly chosen player will get $100 toward a fancy dinner at a restaurant of their choice! (Any restaurant anywhere that accepts plastic or sells gift certificates. You don’t have to choose until you win.) Second prize: $50 toward a dinner.

How to play:
Just post the questions, your answers, meme icon and meme game line on social media site (blog, facebook, livejournal, other).

Below is all you have to put (but make up your own answers! LOL):

1. In MIND GAMES, hypochondriac heroine Justine Jones can’t figure out why tortured mastermind Sterling Packard never sets foot outside the Mongolian Delites restaurant. What if you were somehow trapped in a restaurant, what sort of restaurant would you prefer?

Uppity Eye-talian. Mmmmm, pasta, fancy sauces, and rich desserts.

2. What if you won the fancy $100 dinner to a restaurant of your choice, and you could dine with any character from any book, movie, or history. Who would you choose?

Rhett Butler

3. Choose three characters to dine with for a lively dinner party (you can define lively however you want).

Hmmm. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Lady Whistledown, and Sam Donovan (a/k/a Mr. Perfect) . Buncha wordy smart-alecks. Though... if it were the kind of dinner party where someone were to feel, you know, obligated to put out afterward, I might sub in pre-Jane V for Sam, even if his conversation skillz aren't quite up to Holmes' standard.

Meme Game! Send meme game link by 4/8 to meme@authorcarolyncrane.com to enter. Anyone can play. Details at www.authorcarolyncrane.com.

Weekly Geeks - Author Interviews

2010-03-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Aha! a Weekly Geek topic that I've been meaning to talk about! Bernadette of Reactions To Reading, poses us this challenge:

Having recently been told that I'm odd because I'm not terribly interested in author interviews I've started to ponder whether there are two types of readers...those who stick to the books versus those who like to know more about the author's background, thoughts, motivations and writing process.

I must be odd, too (like that's a surprise). I like to know a little bit about an author, but to be perfectly honest, I find most of the author interviews in the blogosphere kind of boring, and especially when there's a "tour" and there are a 6 or 8 bloggers asking the same questions of the same person. Truth be told, I'm just not that interested in what inspires the author or what color their cat is or what music he or she listens to while writing. I know that sounds cold. Sorry.

There are exceptions. I'll confess I went a little cuckoo for JR Ward's site and forum when my fandom was at its most rabid. Eventually I eased out of that "world" for a few reasons not really relevant here, and I mostly don't participate heavily on author sites any more.

So, what about you?

* Do you seek out interviews with authors of books you've enjoyed? Why or why not?

* Do you interview authors on your blog? If yes what did you gain from the interview process? If no is it because you don't want to or because you haven't felt able to ask an author yet?

* Do you subscribe to the blogs of authors you like? Which ones? All the authors you like or only certain ones?

So, no, I don't do interviews here for the most part and I rarely go out of my way to read them. Not because I find authors unapproachable (quite the opposite, usually!); it's just not my thing.

I don't put author blogs on my blog roll, just as a matter of policy. I would feel pressured to add someone to the roll if I feel friendly toward the author but found the last book just OK, as a for instance, and I don't need that kind of angst about something I do here for fun.

I do follow some author blogs more than others but I'm not really religious about following any of them. I mean, good writing is good writing, whether the result is a book or a blog post, so yeah, many of them are entertaining. But honestly, just in general I'm in kind of a lull right now about how many blogs I want to read regularly; I've been reading fewer of my "regulars" and less often as it is. I do like to check in and see what the news is about their releases though.

* Do you track down author websites or look for biographical information about them elsewhere? Would you skip reading a book if you couldn't find out anything about its author?

* Have you hosted an author on a blog tour? Was it someone whose books you already read or did it introduce you to a new author?

When reviewing a new author, I usually do check out the website. I like to know about the book in context with the author's other work; sometimes my review will take into account whether it's a debut book or not. Sometimes authobiographic information is interesting relative to the story -- like JR Ward's previous profession as a lawyer, or Robyn Carr's nursing education.

I am sometimes frustrated if there's no site, or a badly maintained site, but it absolutely won't stop me from reading a book. (I mean, I started reading when the only way to contact an author was to write an actual letter, on paper, and send it to their publisher.) It makes it harder to help promote an author though, if I haven't got a clue about what's coming out next from them. I've seen a big improvement on this in the two years I've been blogging. It used to be that a lot of established authors would have a really crummy site, or maybe a beautiful site with a letter to the readers dated a year and a half ago. I don't see that as much any more.

I've done some blog tours but I usually just do a review and maybe a giveaway.

Bottom line is, I'm afraid I can't deny that when it comes to authors, I'm really just after one thing. I'm not that interested in developing a relationship or indulging in small talk. Don't really want to know about your baggage. I just want to run my fingers over the luscious swells of your embossed titles; inhale that new-book smell; and plunge into the depths of your pages.

Authors, I'm sorry. The truth is, I'm only using you for your stories.

-----------------------------
For more thoughts on this topic, please visit The Weekly Geeks, check out the links, and add your voice.

Blood of the Demon, by Diana Rowland - Review

2010-02-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

Short Answer: Liked it a lot, will continue reading the series.

The Choice
Jackie is quite the taskmaster. I'm glad for the February challenge though; it helped me get back to more discipline about getting my reviews onto the blog. I've been a little lazy lately and hesitant to "make" myself blog -- once this starts feeling like a chore for me, I'm afraid that will be the end of Alpha Heroes, and nobody wants that!

So anyway, I have my eye on a certain ARC or two being offered in the prize package for this challenge, so I'm motivated. I hit Borders yesterday morning, looking for the first book in the Anton Strout series. However, they didn't have it. Diana Rowland's latest release caught my eye, but it's not the first in its series, so I went looking for Mark of the Demon. Which they didn't have either. This all made me a little grumpy, as I like to start at the beginning. Without Jackie's contest, I'd've just waited until I came across the first one for either series.

Stuff I Loved
So I read the first few pages of both books, standing in front of the shelves, and it turned out that I was more in the mood for this one:

The demon was little more than a mist of fog and teeth, barely visible to normal sight. It coiled in slow undulations in the backseat of my Taurus as I drove through the night, the tires of the car humming on the asphalt in low rhythmic counterpoint to the movement of the demon.

With the very first sentences, Rowland makes me smile at the thought of a demon in a Taurus, at the same time that she sets an vividly atmospheric scene. I love the juxtaposition of the familiar and the otherworldly.

I should probably get less anal about reading series in order; I think most authors work pretty hard to make the books stand alone. I could tell there was a backstory between Kara and Rhyzkahl, enough to make me want to go back and read the first book, but never felt lost and had everything I needed to stay with this story. One of the things I really noticed about Rowland's writing is her deftness in seeding the information I needed along the way, intriguing me and playing me like a fish on a line. Unfortunately I was reading too fast to flag many of the perfect little bits, but whatever the opposite of info-dumping is, Blood of the Demon could be a tutorial.

This is a good skill for any author, but especially important when you're building an alternate world. I really, really like Rowland's world of the arcane and the alternate planes. We as readers, like Kara, may not understand very much about that world, but there's a very solid feeling that there ARE absolute rules that govern the alternate world, like gravity and conservation of matter govern rules in our world. An example:

The creatures I summoned had been named thousands of years ago, long before any of the world's religions had designated "demons" as agents of evil and residents of hell.

Now, this tidbit is given to us as a caution not to think of the demons as inherently evil, but we also can infer 1) that the "naming" is significant -- she didn't say they were created or born, but that they had been named. Which is consistent with the common (ie, not specific to Rowland's world) notion about demons which is that knowing their names grants power. We also get a sense of how old these creatures are-- all in one short sentence. Rowland reinforces these "facts" or rules about her universe in tiny ways: "He looked down at me, deep and ancient eyes searching." These are the kind of things that put the "reality" into an author's alternate reality-- when the the alien-ness is simply a part of the fabric of the storytelling.

The mystery plot here is complicated and tight; fans of police procedural mysteries will enjoy the unfolding network of politics, social connections, and scandal. Rowland weaves in Kara's unfolding knowledge of the arcane as a seamless extra element to the mystery as well as a hook for future books.

Stuff That I Didn't Love
I have to say that there's plot point I really didn't get, and I hope this doesn't qualify as a plot spoiler. Let's just say that:

1. you are recovering from a horrible incident involving powerful, amoral demons
2. you are able to summon these demons but don't know a whole lot about them
3. you inherited this ability from your beloved aunt, who right now lies in a coma caused by something arcane.

OK? Now, you need some information and your aunt can't provide it because of her coma. You want access to her library, but you discover that it is locked up so tight you can't get anywhere near it. Do you

a) Give up? (OK, not likely for an UF heroine)
b) Assume your aunt had a good reason for putting up Fort Knox security and find someone who can advise on either your original question or perhaps help you investigate what's behind the locks?
c) Hey, just tear it all down. What could happen?

I was a little annoyed that Kara just broke through all the wards and "locks" without ever thinking that um? there might be a REASON for it to be locked up. So the arcane portion of the mystery wasn't all that surprising to me.

Overall I'd say that the characters themselves are not the strongest part of the book, although I wouldn't call them weak. This is one point that I might have a different opinion about if I'd read the first book first. Kara's backstory includes traumatic violence and somehow dying and coming back to life -- I'll need to read the first book. In this book, she's a gumshoe with human insecurities, integrity, and arcane abilities to summon demons. As a heroine, I felt like she was likeable and adequate, but she didn't pop off the page for me like some of my favorites do.

The Wrap
Pah, I never know whether to lead or end with the things I like the least, either way seems to emphasize them too much. These last two bits are just the least good things, not awful or dealbreakers in any way.

Bottom line is, I really liked the story; tight plotting and pacing; interesting world-building; and I didn't touch on it much here, but the sexual tension with Rhyzkahl and the romantic tension and building mystery about Ryan are more than enough to draw me into the next release. Put it on your TBR list, if it isn't already!

League of Reluctant Adults Mini Challenge

Reviews for the Challenge

For my League reviews, click on the tag "League of Reluctant Adults" - this will show you everything I've talked about on these authors, whether it's part of Jackie's challenge or not.

Short Story Slackerday

2010-02-26T22:59:00.001-08:00

Once again, here it is late Friday night and I've got nuttin' for the SSS meme. Maybe you do though? Help a girl out?

I'll try to get something up this weekend, promise.

Alpha Heroes

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 25: Best of 2011

Brick and Mortar and Random Musing

Secrets of a Proper Countess, by Lecia Cornwall - Review

WINNER!

Emerald City RWA Giveaway

October...

The Envy Chronicles by Joss Ware - Series Review

Q&A with Mary Jo Putney

Nowhere Near Respectable, by Mary Jo Putney - Review

The Penis Mightier, for 200, Alex

Defiant, by Kris Kennedy - Review

A Body At Rest

Second Book Syndrome

Legend of Michael, by Lisa Renee Jones - Review

To Read or To Blog, That is the Question

Wickedly Charming, by Kristine Grayson -- Review

Review: Touch of a Thief, by Mia Marlowe

ABCs of Authors - Weekly Geeks 2011-14

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 24: Pending Review

Series Review - Jayne Ann Krentz's Dreamlight Trilogy

Connecting with Book Lovers

New Authors and Book Acquisition Success

What Happened to March?

Fangirl Moment

Free Books!

All your books. All your friends. All in one.

On The Hunt - Game and Promotion

All I Ever Wanted, by Kristan Higgins - Review

Weekly Geeks - Blurry Book Disorder

Groundhog Day Rewind!

I Swear

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 23: Stuff I Do

Bloggiesta 2011 - Finish Line

Bloggiesta 2011 - Almost Done

Bloggiesta 2011 Check-In

Bloggiesta 2011

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 22: 2011's Most Anticipated Paranormals

2010 New Author Round-up

Forged: A Random Word Association Post

Maybe This Time, by Jennifer Crusie - Review

Destiny Kills, by Keri Arthur - Review

Dragons and Selkies

The Invisible Box

The Iron Duke, by Meljean Brook - Review

Crave, by JR Ward -- Deep Thoughts

Lazy Post

The Mysterious Disappearance and (hopefully) Triumphant Return

Waking the Witch, by Kelley Armstrong – Review

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 21: New Releases

Once and Future Posts

Tsunami Blue, by Gayle Williams - Review

Does it ever get to you?

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 20

Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey - Review

Real Vampires Don't Sparkle

Test Pattern

Dear Keri Arthur:

I Really Hate It When

Bookworm Carnival Update

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 19 - Arthurian Style

Marked, by Elisabeth Naughton - Review

The Lusty Month of May

Keri Arthur Update

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 18 - Riley Jenson

Book Worm's Carnival, Call for Submissions

Interlude

Mind Games, by Carolyn Crane - Review

Change of Heart

Technical Difficulties

Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil, by Barbara Monajem - Review

Trendspotting: Not-So-Urban Fantasy

The Best Gift, by Wendy Markham - Review

Mind Games Contest

Weekly Geeks - Author Interviews

Blood of the Demon, by Diana Rowland - Review

Short Story Slackerday

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