On Pregnancy: A Review of Broken by Kelley Armstrong

When I picked this book out of my TBR pile, I remembered only one fact with any clarity: this is the one where Elena is pregnant. And, I'm not going to lie, that was what intrigued me. I really wanted to see how this strong character, so familiar and beloved to me, would cope with impending motherhood.

The meat of the plot, however, deals with Elena unwittingly unleashing the soul of Jack the Ripper from a stolen letter. As a result, she and the gang have a zombie hunt to deal with.

Positive Comments

I really enjoy these characters, and I find that any chance to visit them is a treat. I like the fact that Clay and Elena have clearly grown as a couple. The relationship has continued to mature and develop, as good relationships do in real life. Their willingness to take the risk to try to become parents is evidence of that maturity.

I really appreciated the fact that the core plot was not about the baby. We were blessedly NOT victimized with the mystical pregnancy trope, so common to the fantasy and paranormal romance genre. Instead, it's a relatively normal pregnancy that causes normal conflicts and ends happily. Armstrong could have easily made Elena's baby have the spirit of Jack the Ripper or Satan, or be the werewolf chosen one. Nothing so ridiculous happens here.

Critical Comments

To be honest, I really found the Jack the Ripper plot to be entirely uninteresting. I'm not big on serial killers and old mysteries and so forth. I admit that it made for a few suspenseful moments, but for the most part it just felt like something I had to read through.

Recommendation

Six books in...is it still a great series? Admittedly, I don't think I've enjoyed any of these books as much as I did Bitten. Broken may actually be the weakest in terms of plot. This is partially balanced out by the fact that I really like the primary and secondary characters, and I enjoyed seeing them interact in new ways. So, yes, if you've liked the series up to this point, I suggest you keep reading. 3.5 stars.

On Cabals: A Review of Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong

I'm sure this happens to every serious reader now and then: You come across a book that has nothing really wrong with it, but that for you personally is like pulling teeth to get through. For me, this was one such book. After close to two weeks of struggling, I finally gave up and started skimming. So I want to warn you to take my opinions on this with a grain of salt, since I didn't read very closely. At the same time, I feel obligated to share my less then stellar reading experience in the name of honest reviewing.

This is book four of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, but it's the second one with Paige as the narrator/protagonist. In this one, the teenage children of Cabal members (basically the supernatural mafia) are being murdered. Paige and Lucas (who is the black sheep son of a Cabal leader) get roped into solving the murders and catching the killer.

Positive Comments:

I really like Lucas as a character, and there's plenty of him in this book. He's an interesting hero to me, because he isn't a strong brutish alpha as is so typical in fantasy/paranormal. Instead he's an intellectual, somewhat nerdy character who happens to be a sorcerer (and a lawyer). His presence kept me wanting to read through the tedium.

I felt the most engaged in the story when some of the cast from the previous books showed up--Adam, Elena, Clay, etc. Maybe it's a bad sign when you start reading a book for the secondary characters alone, but that's how I felt.

The concept of the story is pretty decent. I thought having Paige forced to work with a Cabal would make for a lot of interesting character interactions and lead to some development on her part. Had the book not gotten bogged down in other stuff, this premise could have made it a winner.

Critical Comments:

In my review of Dime Store Magic I state that it took me a long time to get through the book, but I wrote it off as being my own fault for getting busy and distracted. But I had the same problem with Industrial Magic, so I'm forced to conclude that it's not me...it's the book. Some books are page turners and have to be ripped from my hands so that I'll feed and shower myself now and then. With other books, I have to talk myself into reading. This one was somewhere in the middle, but dangerously close to the latter. I just didn't feel immersed in the story.

This is not a problem that I experienced with Bitten or Stolen, so I'm inclined to think that Paige is a big part of the issue. I don't dislike Paige, but she just isn't very interesting. Her actions are predictable and often stupid. She really doesn't seem like the best person for and investigation job. Dime Store Magic was more believable because Paige was more of a victim fighting against circumstances. In this one she volunteers for a task that, to me, should have gone to another character.

My other complaint is that the plot seems unnecessarily bulky. It's a 500 page book, and about 150 of those pages could easily have been snipped away. For one thing, there are a lot of  "eating breakfast" ,"checking on Savannah","getting on the air plane", "insert mundane task here" paragraphs that really don't need to be included. But more importantly, the central plot is just not as fast paced as I would like it to be.

Lastly, I'm not a person who likes murder mysteries, and I tend to be impatient with them. If you do like murder mysteries, you probably won't mind this book. For me, reading about characters I don't know getting killed is not very motivating or very exciting. That sounds awful, but it's just how I feel.

So, Industrial Magic was really not a winner for me in any sense. I still like Kelley Armstrong, and I'm not ready to give up on the series yet, but this one did not thrill me. 2 stars.

Following Friday (8)

  

Q.If you could have characters from a particular book meet and form an epic storyline with characters from a particular TV series, which would you choose and why? 

 

1. I want Sam and Dean from Supernatural to meet the "vampires" from Twilight and go on a mass killing spree. Sorry Twilight fans.

 

2. I'd put teenage Savannah from Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Other World books in The Secret Circle. She's a more interesting character than any of the six teens in that show, and she could probably help them get their issues in order faster than they can by themselves.

 

3. Finally, just for fun, I want to transplant Harry Potter into True Blood for a season. It could be the evil wizard season! I think it would be hilarious to stick a relatively wholesome (but still pretty tough) character into the violent oversexed world of Sookie Stackhouse.

 

I could invent more, but I'll just leave it at three. 

 

New followers (and old ones too) please take a moment to participate in our weekly poll--Your Favorite Classic Monster! Thanks in advance!

On Teenage Witches: A Review of Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Dime Store Magic is the third book in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, but the first with Paige as the narrator. The previous two books focus on Elena, a werewolf. The first question I usually ask with these types of series is "Does order matter?" In this case, I would say yes. You need to at least have read book two, Stolen, for this one to make sense. And you need to have read Bitten for Stolen to make sense. You can find my review of Stolen  HERE. 

This book focuses on a Paige, a coven witch, and her struggle to retain custody over her thirteen-year-old ward, Savannah. Savannah was the daughter of a witch who practiced dark magic and fraternized with many supernaturals whom the coven considers highly undesirable. One such undesirable, a sorcerer named Kristoff Nast, shows up claiming to be Savannah's father. Paige struggles with nasty rumors, her coven's prejudices, and outright attacks from various parties, as well as winning over the trust and affection of her ward.

Dime Store Magic was kind of slow going for me. Partly because I've been insanely busy, and partly because it has a pretty slow moving plot. I don't at all mean to imply that it was boring, because I found it quite entertaining, just that is isn't as lightening fast as your typical fantasy novel. I really enjoyed the details about witches and sorcerers and they're history, the process of spell work, and Paiges quest for lost magic in ancient grimoires.

The part of this book that I liked the most, however, was the character building and the relationships. Paige is pretty young (23?) and untried, and not physically tough at all. She certainly wants to be a stronger witch with more offensive magic, but that's something she has to work very hard at. Furthermore, offensive magic is against the rules of the coven. Added to this, she's trying to figure out how to raise a teenage girl. Paige and I are of a similar age group, so I found myself imagining what I would do if asked to care for someone like Savannah. The conclusion I came to was that the task would be herculean. But Paige does her best, and she does start to make some genuine emotional connections with Savannah.

The romantic interest of the book is Lucas Cortez, a lawyer working on Paige's case. His strengths, like Paige's, are more intellectual than physical. He's smart, articulate, and a bit of a nerd. I thought they were a good match. Although it isn't a romance novel with a happily-ever-after ending, I was satisfied that something meaningful was happening there.

So in sum, while it took me a little longer than anticipated to finish this book, I really enjoyed it. It has a different tone from Bitten or Stolen, and in my opinion that was a positive thing. 4.5 stars.

On Green Penguins and Werewolves

Miss Rosemary Glacier has at long last accepted her existence as a rare pink penguin. Most of the other penguins are black and white, and pink is a most conspicuous and unexpected quality in a penguin. For a long time she refused the acknowledge her condition, insisting that she had merely eaten too many strawberries and would return to "normal". But over time, and through many tribulations it became obvious that pink was the way she would always be, and so she accepted all of the special powers and privileges that went with it.

Rosemary, and most of the Council of  Pink, insisted that they were alone in their uniqueness and that all other penguins must of course be black and white. Until Rosemary was contacted unexpectedly by a green penguin, known simply as Pickles.

...Which of course must lead her to wonder what other kinds of penguins might be out there.

Something similar happens to Elena in Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. In Bitten, the first book, Elena takes steps toward accepting herself as a werewolf and her place in her pack. Then in Stolen she is contacted by a witch, who explains to her that there are in fact many types of supernatural creatures and that they require her help.

Now, Bitten is easily my favorite shapeshifter book, and ranks pretty highly among fantasy books overall. First and foremost, this is because it has such a strong female narrator who's story evokes empathy in a way that few others in the genre manage. Secondly, because it addresses everything associated with being a werewolf--from blood-lust to pack structure--on a very personal level. And finally, because Armstrong addresses Elena's relationships, romantic and otherwise, with so much honesty and realism. Given all of this, it might seem like Stolen has impossibly big shoes to fill. How does it measure up? SPOILERS AHEAD!
  
Well, as I said this book is still focused on Elena. So it has the advantage of her wit, sarcasm, toughness, and deeply buried emotions that surface unexpectedly. In the books initial chapters I thought I just might be in for a pleasant surprise, because not only did we have Elena and her fantastic supporting cast--namely Clay and Jeremy--but a whole new intriguing group of characters. Paige the witch, and her Aunt Ruth, invite the werewolves to a council of supernatural creatures to address the recent kidnappings of many of their kind. Turns out there are also half-demons, shamans, vampires, and...who knows what else. The werewolves are naturally unaccustomed to playing nice with others, and so it doesn't exactly go perfectly.

In any case, if the opening was a treat of paranormal politics and character establishment, the middle was a kind of torture. Elena is kidnapped and it quickly devolves into a capture/escape story. Which brings me to my main complaints. The kidnappers seem to want the supernatural beings in order to study them (among other things). This happens often enough in urban fantasy that I'm starting to think that Murdered by Evil Scientists in Research Related Endeavors must rank somewhere in the top 10 causes of death for supernatural creatures. For her part, Elena spends her time in captivity feeling kind of sorry for herself, meeting the researchers and other captives, and half-assedly thinking up escape plans. I was very bored by this process.

Then there's the none to subtle nod to The Most Dangerous Game . Ty Winsloe, the money behind the research operation, has a thing for hunting supernatural creatures. I had an itch in my brain telling me that I'd read something like this before and I realized that Keri Arthur did her own version of "werewolves= the most dangerous game" in her book Dangerous Games. Note: I'm fairly certain Dangerous Games was published after Stolen. Regardless of this, while I have to acknowledge that being hunted like prey (or even doing the hunting) does make for an exciting plot line, it isn't the most original thing in the world and it didn't add much to this book.

Now, I'm fairly certain that this capture/rescue research facility plot was designed to force the various supernatural creatures to work together. I can respect that and I admit that I enjoyed it. In fact, the last several chapters in which everyone's strengths and powers are utilized in a team setting is fantastically well done.

In sum, this was a book with a very strong start and a satisfying ending, but a pretty lackluster middle. It was extremely difficult to assign it a grade. It doesn't at all compare with Bitten and if I were to rate it based on that comparison it would be pretty low. It lacks all of the things that made Bitten great--the pack dynamics, the romantic conflict, all of the character development. But ignoring this comparison it actually is worth reading. All things considered I'm giving it a 3.5.