Leaving blogger, changing focus

I've decided to change the focus of my blog, and so I'm taking this chance to move off blogger and onto wordpress. You will find me at:

www.thedeadauthorsclub.wordpress.com

where I will be participating in a classics challenge, and blogging about classic books and other books that were published prior to the turn of *this* century.

I have made this decision for a number of reasons. Being featured on the "sidebar" of the STGRB site, along with the Emily Giffen debacle, is pretty much the last straw. I am not interested in continuing to blog about authors who are being currently published. There are a lot of people who are fulfilling that function, and things have just gotten too stroppy and scrappy. I really thought that by blogging primarily about trad pubbed authors, I had insulated myself from the cray-cray. If Emily Giffen can lose her ever-lovin'-mind, then anyone can. Plus, there are just far too many really shitty, derivative, and worthless books being published right now. I prefer to use whatever small voice I have in the reader community to highlight books that are a bit older, but still excellent reads, that aren't getting any attention from the reading community in spite of the fact that they deliver something wonderful.

I am participating in a challenge where I will be reading 50 classic books in the next five years. This challenge is hosted by theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com, a really neat blog that brings together readers who are interested in classic literature.

Thanks!

Julia Spencer-Fleming

I had purchased the first of Julia Spencer-Fleming's Russ Van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson mystery series when it went on sale in February.




This sale was followed by the two subsequent books going on sale as well: A Fountain Full of Blood and Out of the Deep I Cry.






I enjoyed In The Bleak Midwinter, and thought it was a nice series starter, but it didn't galvanize me to read the second and third books. It wasn't until my mom mentioned how much she was enjoying them that I read book two, and then book 3. A Fountain Full of Blood was a good, solid mystery that continued the character development that began in the first book. The relationship between Russ and Clare develops as well, as they have very clearly fallen in love with one another. This is a forbidden love, because Russ is very much married, and both of them struggle with their attraction to one another, and the consequences of falling in love.  

In Out of the Deep I Cry, the series really hits it's stride. This is a split narrative, with part of the book taking place in the present, when the staff doctor for the Millers Kill free medical clinic disappears, and a woman who butted heads with him over the danger of vaccinating children, comes under suspicion. The other portion of the book takes place in the past, when the patron of the clinic was a small girl, having lost four siblings to a terribly virulent strain of diphtheria. Her father also disappears, and her mother goes on with the business of raising her, seeking to have him declared dead so she can officially be considered a widow. His disappearance was never solved.  

Once I got to book three, this series became something of an addiction for me. The mysteries are enjoyable, and well plotted, but the true delight of the series is in the characters of Russ Van Alstyne, Clare Fergusson, and Millers Kill itself. There are a number of secondary characters that are introduced along the way, including skinny Flynnie, or Kevin Flynn, the youngest of the officers at the MKPD, the sexton of St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Mr. Hadley, Hadley Knox, his granddaughter and erstwhile police officer, among others. Some big events occur in that fourth book, and I can't do plot summaries, or even really plot references, without adding a major spoiler alert. Therefore, I will confine myself to simply linking to books 4 through 7, in order, here:









Miller's Kill is a fascinating small community, and by book seven, the series is confronting serious and significant issues, including emotional infidelity, the intersection of faith and faithfulness, whether we, as a society, are doing an adequate job of supporting our combat veterans, the impact of a bad economy on small towns, and service to one's greater community. All in all, Julia Spencer-Fleming has written a wonderful series of mysteries. At the end of book 7, One Was A Soldier, we are left with a piece of good news for Russ and Clare, and with a long wait to book 8, which is projected to be released in April, 2013. While this is a long time to wait, there is every reason to believe that Ms. Spencer-Fleming won't let her fans down.

Unraveled by Courtney Milan

Unraveled by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unraveled by Courtney Milan: 4 1/2 stars

"Maybe he'd simply given himself a Miranda quota."

When Miranda Darling appears in a disguise and using a false name to testify untruthfully as a witness to a crime, Magistrate Turner, better known as Lord Justice, recognizes her. She had been a witness before him before, although not in a disguise. He follows her home, and they become intertwined - a young woman of dubious parentage and the brother of a duke.

Courtney Milan writes exceptional historical romances. Her style and characters are unique. Smite Turner is a deliciously damaged hero: a man of uncompromising integrity and attention to duty. He rejects sentiment as weakness, and feels that he is too damaged to deserve happiness. He lives in austere rooms, his life confined to the discharge of his duties as a magistrate in the criminal courts of Bristol. He does not indulge in second thoughts - his mind, once made up, is inalterable.

Miranda Darling, the heroine, is a headstrong young woman with a taste for dangerous men. She is not a young woman of his social class - the daughter of a pair of actors, she grew up in a theater troupe. The two of them agree that Miranda will become Turner's mistress for one month. For that month, he will provide for her, and then, at the end of the month, she will be paid a thousand pounds - a veritable fortune for a girl of her social class.

The interactions between these two main characters are wonderful. Miranda is irreverent, sarcastic, and not even slightly intimidated by Turner. She softens him, and makes him wonder if, maybe, he shouldn't demand more than the circumscribed, sterile life that he has been with satisfied with until he met her. She unflinchingly accepts every part of him, even the parts that are harsh, frightening, and unyielding.

This book was nominated for the RWA historical romance of the year, and it deserves the accolades it has received. The romance is bittersweet and compelling. It is interesting because it is set, not in London, amongst the ton, but in Bristol. And while Smite Turner is an aristocrat, he is no gentleman of leisure. It is beautifully written.

A few of my favorite quotes:

"So why was it that she heard "Miranda, darling," instead? Maybe he paused for emphasis. Maybe he paused to indicate a comma. Never had one little punctuation mark mattered so much."

"If this was magic, magic was tiring. It drained him until he was bone-weary, until all that was left was a deep, empty ache, and a desire to belong to someone else, if only for a few moments."

"You anchor me without holding me down. You frighten me without threatening my future. You're unflinchingly devoted. I love you."

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when inalterably headstrong falls in love with unrequitedly stubborn.

This was a sad book. That I really liked anyway.

When the book opens, in 1893, Gigi has just asked her husband, Camden, for a divorce. The two spouses haven't seen one another more than three times in the decade since they married. He lives in America, she resides in England. They are cordially estranged.

Private Arrangements flips between 1883, the past, and 1893, the present. The story truly begins when Camden and Gigi meet in 1883 shortly after her fiancé, the Duke of Tremaine, has unexpectedly died a mere two weeks before he was scheduled to wed her. Gigi is extraordinarily wealthy, with a tinge of common to her cash. Camden is extraordinarily well-bred, with a tinge of royalty to his pedigree. Attraction blossoms within moments of their meeting.

Gigi is a girl after my own heart. She is unabashedly wealthy and determined to make a good marriage. Her mother wants her to catch a duke, and she decided that the best way to accomplish this was not by charming him into a wedding. Rather, she bought up all of his debts prior to his death and blackmailed him into proposing. After he dies, she informs Camden, his heir and the new duke, that she will call those debts should he decline to take the place of her erstwhile, deceased, fiance. Camden declines, politely, because he has made a promise to one Theodora von Schweppenburg, a penniless singer.

Gigi is not the sort of girl who would let a little thing like a promise to the insipid Miss Schweppenburg stand in the way of something she wants, so she engages in a bit of light deception in an effort to persuade Camden to marry her. To her surprise, and dismay, she not only feels bad about the deception, she falls in love him. Deeply, devastatingly, irrevocably in love with him.

And, he falls equally in love with her. When he learns of her deception, shortly before the wedding, he plots an exquisite revenge. They would have one passionate night - their wedding night - and he would decamp from her side permanently.

What I loved about this book:

Ultimately, this is a book about second chances and maturity.

I loved Gigi. She was unapologetically lively and intelligent, with a passion for life. She loves her husband, but accepted that she had lost him through her own bad behavior, and accepted complete responsibility for her part in the schism. She didn't however, allow his repudiation of her to destroy her. She developed a full life for herself, using her financial solvency to benefit other young women who made poor choices in their youth. She has grown up considerably, and tries very hard not to
make the same mistake twice. In her zeal to avoid the mistakes of her youth, she very nearly makes an altogether new one.

I also loved the secondary romance between Gigi's mother and her neighbor. Oftentimes in these regency romances, the mother figure is a combination of ridiculous and irritating. The character development seems to frequently stop right where Jane Austen left it with Mrs. Bennett. Gigi's mom was, of course, an ambitious mama, but she was also bright and intellectual. A bit of a bluestocking, really. And the mature romance was lovely to behold.

I'm conflicted about Camden. He wasn't the kind of hero I was expecting, but he was the kind of hero that Gigi needed. His stubborness was a vice, though, and not a virtue, and it is because of his inflexibility that both he and Gigi were deprived of a full decade of happiness. There was a
poignancy to their HEA because it was delayed well beyond the time that the separation made sense.

Overall, this was a really good historical romance read. It was engaging and beautifully written, with an appealing heroine and a likeable hero.

View all my reviews

Callum and Harper by Fisher Amelie

Callum & Harper by Fisher Amelie
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The issues that made this book a one star read:

One-dimensional wish-fulfillment heroine. Harper was unflawed, perfect, so gorgeous that all of the men who encountered her immediately fell in love with her.

Seriously awkward writing, which causes disasters like this sentence: "Callum was as selfless a man could be and in a world where an attribute of that caliber was more rare than a pink diamond, I clutched him tightly to my heart, fully aware of just how priceless he undoubtedly was." The next time Ms. Amelie writes a book, she should put down the thesaurus. Because that sentence is INSANE, and it is one of many that are just as awful.

Totally unrealistic financial situations: in what world do two completely unskilled, homeless, and unemployed high school graduates in NYC manage to earn 5K in two weeks by grabbing odd jobs? Whether the author can do the math or not, I can. This is $1200 a week, which is a whopping 62K a year per character. Why would anyone ever get a college education or a job if they could make more than the average teacher by washing dishes under the table on an ad hoc basis. Let's not even talk about the ridiculous "wedding" that a bunch of (basically) strangers threw for our H & h, on their own dime, for no other reason than that they were pretty

Random tense changes within the same sentence, which led to this:  "Heat coursed through my arm and when he removes his hand, I felt a lacking I'd never known I could possess."

WARNING: THIS PART IS SPOILERIFIC

Two freaking years of being fake married. Two freaking years of being fake married. Two freaking years of being fake married. Yes, seriously. Totally in love with each other, yet living together in an unconsummated marriage for two years, afraid to admit their feelings for each other. I could've believed six months, but two years of unrequited, yearning, celibacy is just completely unrealistic and absurd.

Finally, as the piece de resistance, beautiful Harper is stalked by a serial killer who is also a former foster kid, in a story line that really just devolves this book into farce. He burns down their apartment. He murders a bunch of women who either share her name, her address, her hair color, or some other attribute, and when the police finally catch him after he nearly murders her in a library, they are so in-fucking-competent that he escapes by bashing one of them on the head and running away. And then, instead of issuing an APB for him, he blithely boards a plane with Harper and kidnaps her on her way to Seattle so she can confess her love to Callum. Then he hauls her all over Seattle, makes her dress up and pretend to love him, and then nearly beats her death. While she is hospitalized, he conveniently throws himself from a pier and his body washes up as she recuperates.

END SPOILERS

Ack.

When I bought this book, I was hoping for a simple, cute story about a pair of foster kids growing up and falling in love. What I got was a poorly written, unrealistic, absurd, wish-fulfillment, nonsense-filled pseudo-crime-drama.

Hot historicals for August

I'm planning on reading and reviewing some inexpensive historical romances in August. I just spent $25.00, and bought seven books:


 

This book is priced @ $3.99, and I have heard really good things about Sherry Thomas. The product description is quite intriguing - estranged husband and wife see one another again after many years.

 

Unraveled is $3.82. I have enjoyed everything I've read by Courtney Milan. We'll see how this one works out for me.

 

At 4.99, this was one of the two the most expensive books I bought. The description looked like so much fun, I couldn't resist it.

 

 I love Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels. At $4.99, this should be a good read for the price.

 

A full-length novel (405 pages) for .99 and the first book in Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove. She is a new author to me, so, here's hoping for a good read for the money.

 

This one was only $1.99. Another fun premise, with a young widow as the heroine. Hopefully a nice change from the classic debutante historical. And, finally:

 

For 3.99, this is the first in Hoyt's Princes trilogy. I enjoyed the first book of her Maiden Lane series, and I've heard really good things about this trilogy. All three books are reasonably priced @ $3.99.

So, there we are - for $25.00, a nice little stack of books. I'll probably sort through my kindle looking for some additional historical romances that have been sitting around for a while and give them a go as well.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, I love the cover. It's gorgeous, even on a computer screen, and is a nice change from the ubiquitous pretty girl in a ball gown which seems to be on about every third YA book being published these days. The drawing is fabulous, and really helped me to visualize how the Hartmann saw the world that she was building.

Second, the world building. Far be it from me to go all squealing fan girly, but dang it, this was some good world building. The richness is unbelievable, from philosophy to religion to music. I loved everything about the world of Goredd and the dragons and the dragon/human interaction.

Third, the richness of the characters. Seraphina is internally conflicted, and occasionally filled with self-loathing, which is her birthright. As the daughter of a dragon and a human, she is considered a freak, and an abomination by every one who knows about her parentage, right down to her own father. Her status of a half-breed, though, in a sense, is freeing. Her loyalties are not with one, nor the other, and she can choose who, and what, to believe in based upon what is right, not what is expected. Lucien Kiggs, her love interest, is almost always worthy of her regard. And how refreshing is it to have a Princess - Gisselda - who is not inane, who is not petty, and who is more than just a pretty face?

The first half of the book is a bit of a rough go, but the last half is a headlong rush to the finish. It's not that the first half is poorly paced, it just took me a while to warm up to the characters and to become so deeply engrossed in the story that it played itself out across my mind like actors on a stage.

Finally, the love story between Linn - Seraphina's mother - and Claude - her father - is almost unbearably poignant. I don't know if Hartman plans to write a prequel, or a story, that tells Linn's story, but I hope she does. Just the little bits and pieces that she gave her readers in this book, through Seraphina, about Linn and about her decision to leave behind her people because she fell in love with a human is so compelling that thinking about it hurts a little bit.

I really, really liked this book.

In The Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book for a whopping 2.99 back in February, when it was on sale. It's taken me this long to read it, but I've been in a bit of a mystery frame of mind recently, and my mom recommended it to me, so I thought I'd give it a try.

This is the first in a series of books about Russ Van Alstyn, the police chief of the small town of Millers Kill in upstate NY, and Reverend Clare Fergusson, Episcopal priest and former helicopter pilot. Millers Kill is her first parish, and the story begins when someone leaves a newborn baby boy on the steps of the church on a dark winter's evening in December. The bodies quickly pile up after the police launch an investigation into the identity of the baby's parents.

In this book, the mystery took a bit of a backseat to the character development and to the rapidly developing relationship between Russ and Clare. Clare is single, but Episcopal priests are, of course, able to marry. Russ is married, and wife hovers at the fringes of this book, but never makes an appearance. The attraction between them is nearly immediate. I also love a good cold weather mystery set in a small town. Millers Kill is an appealing setting.

The mystery was interesting albeit predictable. I don't necessarily object to predictability in a crime novel, since most murders are, in actuality, fairly predictable events. A convoluted plot relying too much on coincidence does not, in my opinion, make a compelling crime story. I have the second and third books in this series already loaded onto my kindle, as they also went on sale in March and April, and look forward to reading them.

The Witch In Winter by Ruth Warburton

A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Having just finished two really exceptional books, this book suffered a bit by comparison. It's not a bad book, and is fairly well written, but it didn't possess that spark that separates the awesome from the pretty good.

There are things that I liked about this book. I liked the characters, especially Maya. I am a bit of a sucker for witch stories, especially where the story incorporates historical witchcraft elements. I also really enjoy stories set in England, and written by English authors.

Overall, though, I would say that the book had a lot of weaknesses. First, I found Anna's untrained ability to manipulate her power to be completely unconvincing. There was not an adequate explanation of how her power could be so latent, yet when she started using it, was so substantial. It is also absolutely inconceivable to me that she would've been able to fly under the radar for as long as she did. Perhaps some of these questions are answered in the second book.

In addition, I always have a problem with romances that develop too quickly and unrealistically. Infatuation, and even too rapid professions of love, are all well and good, but they don't convince me that the love is genuine or deep. The relationship between Seth and Anna felt like it developed far too quickly without anything genuine behind it. Hopefully, this will also be remedied in the second book.

The final conflict was resolved far too easily, and the idea that Anna could've tapped that latent power and overcome witches and warlocks who far outstrip her in training and resources is simple unbelievable. While I am prepared to suspend my belief to some degree - this is a story about witchcraft, after all - this is sort of the equivalent of the girl from my local raquet club managing to win Wimbledon after receiving a couple of tennis lessons. I don't care how good of an athlete you are - the untrained prodigy doesn't beat the well-trained expert.

If I had to sum up this book, it is an acceptable first effort by a new author. It felt very shallow, and I could see it being developed as a television show for the Disney Channel or Nickleodeon. It was a bit too "Witches of Waverly Place" for my taste, without enough convincing conflict to keep me satisfied. Having said that, I liked it enough that I think that I will read the sequel and see where Ms. Warburton takes the story next.

Happy Fifth of July

The fifth of July - not nearly so much fun as the fourth. Especially when the fourth falls on a Wednesday, which basically means one day off in the middle of the week. Although that one day off does involve fireworks, which, when there is a 12 year old boy in one's life, is monumentally awesome.

I got in lots of quality reading time between the barbecue and darkness yesterday, so I was able to finish off Grave Mercy - a very, very long book that I loved - and I started




which isn't nearly as interesting, subtle or unique as Grave Mercy, but it is entertaining so far, nonetheless.
 
I am behind on my reviews. I need to post reviews of:
 









and
 



I have also decided that I am simply not going to include plot summaries in my reviews anymore. They are boring to write, and, probably, more boring to read. The product pages always contain plot summaries. Trying to write a plot summary without spoilers is difficult, because I never really know what readers will consider a spoiler, since I am not a spoiler-hater myself.
 
I am going to try to update the blog every other day for the rest of July, and I have some organization changes that I want to make to the blog, including some posts related to what I've bought during the month. I belong to a wonderful kindle book club where the seven of us contribute $25.00 to the account and we end up buying between 15 and 20 books during the course of the month. My backlog grows bigger with every passing day. I'm so far behind, I'm sure I'll never catch up.

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

I have decided that I am not going to do plot summaries on my reviews anymore, because I am just that kind of a rebel. And, because they are boring to write and to read. If you want a plot summary, the author has kindly provided one on the book page.

Now, who is this R.L. LaFevers who wrote this book, and where has she been all my life? I see from looking at her backlist that she has written two separate middle grade series. This book is targeted toward an older, late YA audience, but if her other books are as enjoyable as this one, I'm prepared to give them a try.

I really liked this book. In spite of the cover, which does a poor job communicating how unique this book is (don't get me wrong, the cover is lovely. But it looks like every other YA paranormal cover with a pretty girl in a ballgown standing about looking fabulous). For starters, it is set in Breton, in the 15th century, and is very much a piece of historical fiction. In addition, the main character, Ismaie, is a nun. A nun who is also an assassin. Which is awesome.

The main character, therefore, is a treat. Her romantic interest, Gavriel Duval, is also a treat. Ismaie is tough as nails, knows 300 ways to kill a man (or a woman) and is doing the work of her god, Mortain, the god of death. She is well versed in the subtle art of the poisoner, is capable of freeing a man's soul from his body with the prick of a blade, and is a protector of Breton's independence and freedom. There is lots of court intrigue, and more than a spot of treachery. This book will appeal to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, and has enough magic to satisfy the YA reader who likes a good paranormal romance. It is a genuinely genre-busting read. Can't wait for the sequel.

4 1/2 of 5 stars.

A life in books

I am a wife, a mother, a lawyer, and a reader, but long before I was any of those things, I was a reader. I've been a reader since, as my mother tells it, I was around 3 years old, and would sit with my baby brother on my lap and read nursery rhymes to him from a Mother Goose book.

This Mother Goose book:




Which, miraculously, given my age, is apparently still in print. I remember the cover well, the black checkerboard around the outside. I do not remember reading the rhymes aloud, and I suspect that I wasn't reading at all, but rather, was simply reciting them from memory for the benefit of my little brother.
 
I can still recite many of these rhymes from memory, from Wee Willie Winky (who ran through town) to Humpty Dumpty (who had a great fall) to There Was a Little Girl (who had a little curl and was, unfortunately for all concerned, occasionally horrid).
 
But I don't remember learning to read, and I don't remember not reading. What I do remember is books. Hundreds of them, books that I loved, and that were important to me, and that made me who I am today.
 
I've been thinking alot about this blog, and about making it more than just a record of my reviews. I know that I'm basically the only one reading it, and so, why not. Why not tell the story of my life in books, while I'm keeping track of what I read today, and what I'll read tomorrow.
 
The internet is an amazing thing. It has enabled me to connect, on amazon and on goodreads, with other readers all around the world. One of my online friends is a woman who reads a lot of young adult and lives in Estonia. Estonia! We can trade recommendations and talk about the books that we both have enjoyed - or not. The people in my real life, they largely don't get me and my fascination with, and my adoration of, the written word. What a boon to be able to find other people, who are just as passionate about stories, all around the world, and to hear their stories about books that they've loved.
 
So, the first book I've been told I read is the one pictured above.

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the second book in the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd, which I read directly on the heels of the first.

***Plot Summary***

Once again, Bess Crawford finds herself at the center of a mystery when she sees the wife of a burn patient, whom she recognizes from the photograph that her patient carries with him always, saying farewell to a man at a train station as she boards her train to return to the war front. She can see that the goodbye is emotionally draining for the woman, and that she appears fraught and upset, while the man is cold and uncaring. It isn't long after her return to the front that she receives a newspaper that contains news of the woman's murder on that same day, obviously shortly after Bess has seen her at the station.

When Bess learns that her patient has committed suicide after learning of his wife's murder, she takes it upon herself to try to find out who has committed the murder, and why.

***Review***

Once again, this book successfully immersed me in the life of WWI England. Bess Crawford is a warmly likeable character, a nurse, who moves between civilian life and military life in a way that seems very natural. I am a bit skeptical that movement between the war front and England was quite so easy as these books make it out to be, given that all of the characters seem to flit back and forth between London and the French front with about as much as difficulty as I have driving my car to my local grocery store for a gallon of milk. This is a small thing, though, and is a necessary plot device given that most of the primary characters are, in some way, associated with the war effort.

I am enjoying the ongoing character development of Bess, Simon, and her parents. I don't know if we are moving in the direction of a romance developing between Bess and Simon, but that is definitely one possible narrative arc for the books.

As for the mystery in this case, it was rather easily solved when it came right down to it. With any mystery novel, though, the investigation is more of the point than the solution, and the authors did a good job of moving the story along and maintaining interest. Bess is, perhaps, not as quick as some of the amateur sleuths, as she seems, sometimes, to fail to make connections that seem fairly obvious to the reader.

One of the things that I really liked about this book, though, is the focus on the war wives, and how difficult it was to serve your country by keeping the homefires burning. Often, the focus is on the hardships suffered by the soldiers, and make no mistake about it - their hardships were the greater. However, I think that acknowledging that it isn't easy to be the one left behind made for an interesting story in this novel.

Once again, I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to historical mystery readers. It's well-written and well-edited and a solid, if slightly uninspired, example of the genre.

Not Mary Russell, but not bad, either

A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

***Plot Summary***

This is the first book in the Kate Martinelli series, set in San Francisco. When a third child ends up a victim of a homicide, Kate, newly promoted, is called into the investigation with her partner, Al. The bodies of the victims are found off of The Road, a commune-like place established by a wealthy, if somewhat eccentric, San Francisco resident. As the clues pile up, suspicion falls upon an artist who has been released from prison after she was convicted of the strangling death of a child as a teenaged girl. Kate and Al must sort through the clues and misdirections to find the truth about the murders, past and present.

***Review***

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Laurie King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, which I recommend over this modern police procedural. It is not that I didn't enjoy this book, because it was a well-written, serviceable mystery, but the Mary Russell books are truly excellent. The subject matter of this book is disturbing, but the deaths of the children take place largely off-screen.

Laurie King excels at characterizations, and this book is no exception. Kate - or Casey as she is known for most of this book - is a fascinating, complete character. She behaves in ways that are consistent, and her compassion and integrity are very convincing.

If this book has a weakness, it is a little bit slow. Because it is the beginning of a series, Ms. King spends a lot of time introducing her characters. This slows down the action somewhat, and the first part of the book drags a bit, in my opinion. In addition, some of the psychological aspects of the book aren't terribly convincing.

Overall, I'd give it between 3 and 4 stars - an engaging read, but not extraordinary. The author is capable of more, but this one didn't disappoint.


View all my reviews

Vampires: Reloaded

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Andrew Fukuda has returned vampires to their rightful spot at the top of the food chain.

***Plot Summary***

Boy is human (or heper, as they are called in this book). Boy doesn't want vampires to know that he is heper, or they will eat him. Boy is very good at hiding the fact that he is heper. Humans have been basically hunted to extinction, except for the few that are kept in a breeding program by the government. People are unhappy with government (good to know some things never change . . . even vamps are anti-government) so government announces that there will be a Hunt to catch and eat those last hepers. Lucky vampires want to be chosen by lottery to participate in the Hunt. Unlucky Boy gets chosen instead. Disaster ensues.

***Review***

This is a very fast read, which I consumed, like a vampire consumes a heper, in about two and a half hours. By the end of the book, I was flipping screens frantically to get to the resolution.

Pros: it's pacey. The vampires are bloodthirsty, and not even remotely emo. Yay for non-emo vamps! They also do not sparkle in any way, shape or form. There are no heper/vamp romances, mostly because the vamps are so overcome by bloodlust at the scent of a human that they simply tear into any heper they happen to find. The book is also interesting, because it really reimagines a society of vampires, who have become just as rulebound and civilized as the humans they replaced. There are some interesting twists, one of which is pretty obvious, the other one took me by surprise.

Cons: the book is somewhat predictable. There are some minor issues with the believability of the world building, especially the attitude of the MC toward the captive hepers. It also felt a little incomplete, although this leaves plenty of room for the sequels to fill in the gaps.

I really did enjoy this book, though, and look forward to the next installment in the series. The issues with the book were relatively minor and did not interfere with my enjoyment of the story. And, again, yay for non-sparkly, non-emo vamps.

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