Ravenously Read
Much to Carl’s dismay at times, I go through phases of voracious reading. Lately my literary appetite has craved mostly paranormal lit (specifically urban fantasy, vampires and werewolves, oh my!). Here are a few short thoughts on the various books and series. Please remember: these aren’t literary masterpieces—they’re mostly entertaining, and some are well written, but when it comes down to it, they are, frankly, nothing but modern pulp fiction.
A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah E. Harkness Book 1 of the All Souls Trilogy Viking Adult, 2011 Rating: 5/5 Maybe the fact that I’ve been reading little else but trashy romance novels lately has cleansed my witchy reading palette (or reduced my reading IQ to the point where I like anything with a decent, well-written plot), but A … Continue reading … Continue reading Fired Up
by Jayne Ann Krentz Book 1 of the Dreamlight Trilogy, book 7 of the Arcane Society Putnum Adult, 2009 (Jove, 2011) Rating: 3/5 Breaking my usual habit of reading a series from start to finish, after reading In Too Deep, I decided to jump back to book seven in the Arcane series, which happens to … Continue reading … Continue reading
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Tagged Arcane Series, Jayne Ann Krentz, Paranormal Romance
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In Too Deep
by Jayne Ann Krentz Book 1 of the Looking Glass Trilogy, book 10 of the Arcane Society Putnum Adult, 2010 Rating: 4/5 I began reading this book with the misconception that it was the first book in a new series. I’ve never read anything by Krentz (or her numerous pen names). To her credit, it … Continue reading … Continue reading
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Tagged Arcane Series, Jayne Ann Krentz, Paranormal Romance
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Afterlight
Mixing Gullah, vampires, tattoos and the streets of Savannah, GA should be a promising start to a great series. Unfortunately, debut author Elle Jasper fails to grasp the concept of description. The premise is okay: former-delinquent-turned-respectable-tattoo-shop-owner Riley Poe’s teenage brother and friends break into a crypt and disturb a spell keeping two bad vampires imprisoned. As her brother begins turning into a vampire, Poe’s Gullah grandfather-like figure introduces her to the “good” vampires that have been watching over Savannah for 150 years. It could be a great novel, if the characters weren’t two-dimensional and the attraction between Poe and the vampire Eligius didn’t just reek of Twilight-esque “my boyfriend stalks me and it takes ridiculous self-control for him to not eat me when we’re being intimate because I have awesome blood” issues. Even my fanatic devotion to finishing a series once I start it can’t convince me to pick up book 2 when it comes out, unless I see many reviews about immense improvement in Jasper’s writing style. … Continue reading The Better Part of Darkness
This debut—for the series and author—was average. Just average. Charlie Madigan is an officer of the law in modern Atlanta, tasked in part with keeping humans, Elysians, and Charbydons from stepping out of line. In Charlie’s world, two more worlds have been discovered. This relatively recent discovery has resulted in an influx of off-world immigrants to the larger American cities—like Atlanta. As the book progresses, Charlie and her partner, Hank—a siren from Elysia—must solve the mysterious introduction of a deadly (to humans) off-world drug, all while trying to keep their loved ones safe. There’s nothing especially unique about anything in the storyline. While Gay’s writing is easy to follow for the most part, for the first half of the book I was left wondering if I’d missed a prequel short-story. There is much mention about how Charlie died a few months back, and of her subsequent return to life (integral to the storyline), but Gay continuously refers to it as if we know the whole story from previous reading. By the end of the book, it can be pieced together, but it is not a good way to begin a series, in my estimation. Will I read book 2, The Darkest Edge of Dawn
? Yes, but with hope that Gay improves with experience. … Continue reading Virals
Reichs’ first foray into the YA genre was everything I hoped for. Although Reichs’ writing fell victim to the “must drop brand names in as descriptors everywhere” regime that defines current YA editing, the story retained a style that can easily appeal to many generations overall. Containing far more mystery than sci-fy—Reichs’ forte—the story line had perfect pacing and never fell flat. Main character Tory’s tie to Tempe Brennan (main character of Reichs’ other series, and yes, the same Tempe as in Bones), seemed an unnecessary addition to the plot line; were Reichs’ editors afraid she couldn’t sell without some connection to her existing bibliography? If you like light mystery and don’t mind a little sci-fy thrown in, this is a great read. If you want to ditch the sci-fy, check out Reichs’ other novels. … Continue reading
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Tagged Just Read, Kathy Reichs, Suggested Book, Young Adult
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Blameless
As always, I adore Carriger’s psuedo-steampunk world and well-written witticisms. However, this third installment suffered quite painfully of the disease known as little-to-no character development. We learn enough to keep us coming back for more, but so many rising characters are rather two dimensional, it’s getting a bit boring. Even the development of Alexia and Lord Maccon has stalled. Toward the end, we do learn that Alexia's infant inconvenience as she calls it is not unprecedented, but even then, proper exploration and development is not provided. Regardless of the slight disappointment, I’m still infatuated with parasols and am again anxiously awaiting the next volume. … Continue reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
I had a bit of time and hadn’t been reading much lately, so I decided to take this newest Twilight world novella for a spin. I should have chosen something else. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t anything special. The main gripe I had is that the focus is on these street kids that are being turned into vamps, and so—for the most part—the dialogue is as you’d expect, but then Meyers has them drop some vocab of the day word. It’s jarring. That, and I’m kind of tired of the whole Twilight world. … Continue reading
Dead in the Family
I’m rather disappointed with this newest Sookie book. There wasn’t appreciable amount of character development for any of the existing characters (except when Sookie tells us that their disposition has changed) and many of the newer characters seem like one-off appearances that won’t be integral to the future storyline (and will need far more development if they return). There was a noticeable lack of action compared to the others and the entire story just seemed like fluff for the series. The full storyline of the book seemed better suited to a shorter novella. Here’s to hoping the series doesn’t continue going downhill. … Continue reading
Sabina Kane Sates My Hunger for Urban Fantasy
With two books published so far in the Sabina Kane series, author Jaye Wells has introduced a promising new world to urban fantasy readers. While a strong-willed female protagonist is pretty much de rigueur for the genre, leading-lady Sabina is neither trite nor untouchable. Wells adds in an uncommon take on the origin of the vampire race with a healthy dose of Abrahamic mythology (especially Judaic) and struggling relations between the non-human races, making for an interesting book-world that is statisfyingly dissimilar to any other series I’ve read to date. Combined with easy-reading prose and a healthy dose of taboo, interracial romantic intrigue, the series is well worth starting—so long as you don’t mind waiting until 2011 for the third installment. … Continue reading
