Review of Rogue Rider by Larissa Ione

It's fair to say that Larissa Ione has her fair share of duds, even in an otherwise lovely series. That was certainly the case here. In the interest of full disclosure, it's not like I went into this book expecting a terrific read. As a hero, Reseph failed to excited me. He spent the previous three books as the vile, villainous version of himself. We were never given enough information on good Reseph to make me feel like I wanted to see his redemption story. Nevertheless, I was willing to try.

So, to recap, Reseph had been turned into Pestilence, and committed all sorts of crazy evil. In the last book, Pestilence was stabbed with a dagger that turned him back into Reseph. Now, Reaver (the guardian angel of the four horsemen), erased his memory and dropped him in a snow bank. Our heroine, Jillian, discovers him, takes him home to her cabin, and romance ensues. Jillain was once attacked by demons. When her neighbors start dying under very demon-like circumstances, she's determined to believe that Reseph is not to blame, despite the fact that he doesn't know who or what he is.

The first and most obvious issue with this book is pacing. We spend a lot of time with Reseph and Jillian in her cabin, just kind of waiting on something to happen. It is boring as hell. To rub salt in the wound, the payoff following all that boredom isn't particularly grand. There is just nothing within the plot that captivated any part of me.

Sadly, I was not enamored with Reseph. He has his charming moments, I'll admit. He's sweet and protective toward Jillian, and yet he appreciates her ability to take care of herself. I was regrettably distracted by the fact that he has amnesia, which of course I knew would come crashing down at some point. I was distracted by the nasty things he did while evil, however involuntary, and by whether the author was going to get around to resolving all of that angst. I wasn't crazy about the way his family handled his return, either. No one could decide whether it was okay to be pissed at him for what Pestilence did, or if all should be forgiven because it was all against his will. At the risk of getting a tiny bit spoilery, I was also really unsatisfied by the fact that he doesn't earn his redemption or return to sanity--the heroine kind of does it for him.

Jillian, who initially seemed bland and uninspired, actually turned out to be the more engaging of the two. She's survived a horrible ordeal, coped by living alone and working her ass off on her farm, and she makes huge sacrifices for what she believes is right. Her judgment in blindly trusting Reseph very questionable, but I'm willing to assume she simply has good instincts.

Whatever my expectations might have been for this book, it did not surprise me and it did not elate me. I can only hope Ione's next book will be better. 2 stars.

On Breaking Walls: A Review of Requiem by Lauren Oliver

After finishing this book, I gave myself a full twenty-four hours before I started to compose my review (an excessive amount of thought gathering time for me). I wanted to make sure that I wrote this from my brain and not just from my gut, which felt hallow with disappointment at the end of this novel. When I finished Delirium, I had some basic issues with the story, but over all I felt that this author had some new and interesting things to say on the subject of teen love and relationships in general. With Pandemonium, I was very impressed with her ability to write internal dialogue and the character development that Lena undergoes. The only thing there that frustrated and let me down was the ending, which I honestly should have seen coming. Even that highly questionable ending, I still held out hope that Requiem would prove me right about this series, that it would draw the story together, end in a satisfying manner, and say all of the big and meaningful things I wanted this series to say. It did not. It didn't even come close.

Requiem continually switches point of view between Lena and Hana. Lena has returned to the Wilds with Julian. Her relationship with Julian and Alex is uncertain, and I'll save you some time--she never resolves her feelings. She goes all Bella Swan and hops back to Julian whenever Alex appears to be shunning her, only unlike Bella she never conclusively makes a choice. My opinion of Lena plummeted throughout this book, in part due to the love triangle issues and in part due to her utter inability to do anything useful. Hana, on the other hand, has been cured and is living a seemingly safe and charmed life, engaged to the soon-to-be mayor. I found Hana's story more interesting than I thought I would. Her conflict over whether she has lost herself after being cured--can she still feel, can she still dream, does she want to?--is thoughtful. She quickly discovers that the life that is expected of her will likely be miserable.

In terms of character development this book fails almost entirely. Instead of progressing forward, getting stronger, gaining clarity, Lena remains stagnant and perhaps even regresses a bit. Not only does she not manage to choose between the two boys who inexplicably have feelings for her, but she fails at every turn to step up and take action.

In terms of plot, well, there isn't a lot of it. I find that I'm often disappointed with how dystopian series end, because the world so often fails to undergo the radical transformation that I want to see happen. They tend to end on a barely hopeful note, and I always feel like there is so much more to the story, like we've stopped in the middle. That's how I felt with this book. Like there should be at least one more book, and of course there isn't.

More than anything, when I finished this book, I felt bad about having looked forward to it and bad about having recommended the first two. I can't imagine ever wanting to return to this series, ever rereading this book, or ever recommending it to anyone again. Obviously, if you've read the first two, you're going to read this one. In the case that you haven't read this series, and you think you might want to, I would gently caution you that it's very unsatisfying. 2 stars.

On Bindings: A Review of The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss

I was, of course, attracted to this book by the unusual binding--the accordion style that allows you to read from either direction. I thought the idea of telling a love story twice--form both sides, as it does--was immensely clever and perhaps not too gimmicky.

It's the story of Brendon and Evelyn, who meet and fall in love unexpectedly, only to be separated by circumstance. I chose to read Brendon's side first. Initially intrigued by the starcrossed nature of the love story, I quickly became frustrated with the style of the writing. I noticed a decided lack of detail and tendency toward telling rather than showing. Brendon's father dies, he marries another woman, and she's in a crippling accident, all within a few paragraphs. No time to become invested in what's happening, no reason to care about the characters, just...nothing.

When I moved over to Evelyn's story, I did find it more favorable. She has a slightly more fanciful world view that made her side of the story more palatable, though no less rushed. By the end, though, I found myself no more engaged with the story than I was to begin with.

The book itself is a beautiful object that I'm happy to own, and I think the idea is brilliant, but it needs a better author to pull it off. So few pages does not, for me, a fulfilling story make, especially when so much of it is vaguely described. I would recommend this book as a collectable, perhaps, but not as entertainment. 2 stars.

On Tarot: A Review of Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

I might as well warn you right out of the gate that I didn't like this book, even though I intended to. I was so sure I'd like it that I bought my own copy without reading an excerpt or any reviews. I'm like a cautionary tale for impulse buying.

Tough to detail the plot, since all of the legitimately interesting portions are spoilers, but...Basically, an apocalypse happens, in which the sun flares and kills all plant life and vaporizes all water on the Earth's surface, and Evie is one of few survivors. She's unfortunately terrible at surviving, but is lucky to have first her mother and then Jackson to take care of her. Jackson is a Cajun juvenile delinquent, and it's an opposites attract situation with Evie having been a peppy cheerleader in her pre-dystopian life. The plot gets (comparatively) interesting when we start to learn that Evie has magic(ish) powers to do with plants--and that there are other teens out in the world with other powers.

Positive Comments

The prologue is gripping, and the final chapter is rather triumphant. I can't deny that there are a lot of great ideas in this book. I really wanted to know about the Arcana and what their purpose in the world is. I can't deny that I'm still intrigued, and that even though I really, really did not like this book, I will probably read the next one in the series. That's how interesting the fantasy elements are.

Critical Comments

Let's start with Evie. I found it very, very hard to like, relate to, or sympathize with Evie on any level. Now, it's not like I really expect to connect directly with every heroine I read about, especially in YA. But dear God, Evie is unlikeable, and more importantly she is useless. It's fine for a character to start out useless, or weak, or cowardly, as long as they show some sort of steady development over the course of the story. But Evie does not. With the exception of her breakthrough at the very, very end, she is content to rely on Jackson for survival, even when he puts her down for being dead weight. Where is her sense of pride or self respect? Where are her survival instincts? Why should I care about this girl?

The romance did not work for me, and the main reason for that is Jackson. Jackson comes from a dirt poor background where he's had to learn to fight for basic survival--and by fight, I mean beat men's faces into their skulls. He's a bad boy...okay, fine, I like bad boys. The problem is he just doesn't come across as redeemable in any capacity. He drinks heavily, puts Evie down all the time, and hits on another girl to make her jealous. If all that isn't bad enough, I'm left with the impression that his only motivation for helping Evie is to get into her pants. At one point, when she puts a stop to their physical activities, he blows up at her, basically saying "I saved your life, the least you could do is put out!" Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! So this book fails entirely as a romance, and whether the relationship stands a remote chance of being salvaged for me in future books is doubtful.

So, there isn't a single truly likeable character...maybe the plot is still good? Yes, to a point, but the pacing is way off. The first third is spent on Evie's high school drama--maintaining popularity, having a surprise birthday party, maybe losing her virginity to her perfect boy friend...none of which shows any signs of being even slightly relevant to the actual plot. A lot of this could have and should have been slashed in favor or interesting things.

Recommendation

Unfortunately, I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It annoyed and infuriated me on so many levels. Will I read the next book? Probably. But there's no reason that you should suffer as well. 2 stars.

On Shadow Lords: A Review of Pledged by Gwynneth White

You know, I spent a lot of time with this book. I dragged it to work, read during lunch, on the ride home, on the coach, in bed, late into the night...it felt like I spent ages reading this book. Yet, it's hard to articulate how I feel about it. I can say for sure that it's neither the best, nor the worst book I've read in 2012...But beyond that, what can I say?

I was asked to read this for the purpose of participating in the blog tour, and the synopsis provided really didn't give me an accurate idea of what I was getting into plot wise...I don't know if I can describe it any better, but I'll try. Seth's brother is marrying Erin's sister, and so the two meet in Botswana on the way to the wedding. Seth has agreed to help his brother (Kyle) find an ancient diamond that turns out to be the key to making or breaking an ancient curse. Guardian angels swoop down and grab Seth and Erin and promptly tell them all about soul mates, and how they knew each other before they were born, and how their are many couples just like them, and isn't it wonderful? But in order to be together, they need to break the curse tied to the diamond. To understand the curse, they have to peer into the ancient past and watch how it has kept other couples from their happy endings. The remainder of the book mostly takes place in the 10th century A.D., with Seth and Erin as invisible witnesses to the loves and losses of a would be Shenayan leader.

Positive Comments

I really liked a lot of the concepts that the book presented. I find the idea of a soul mate, someone you met and loved before you were born, to be very intriguing. Suspense is created when the reader is informed that having or meeting your soul mate doesn't necessarily mean a happy ending--you need to work for that yourselves. That's a very balance view of fated romance, and I like it.

Critical Comments

When Seth and Erin travel back in time to watch the events of the past unfold, it brought to mind for me the sixth Harry Potter book, where Harry spends most of the book watching people's memories in order to try to understand Voldemort's seeming immortality, and also his potential weaknesses. I really enjoyed the concept in that book, so...why doesn't it work as well here? Well, I think the difference is that with Harry Potter, we had already had five books to build up stakes, make us care about what's going on in the present day, and curious about what happened in the past. With this book, we are only given the most vague descriptions and accounts of our main characters before they are sent to the past as invisible onlookers. I don't know enough about them, or feel enough toward them, to care about how the colossal pile of info-dump and back story relates to them. Stylistically, it just doesn't flow well, and it failed to keep me invested.

Seth and Erin have no real chemistry...because an inadequate amount of time is spend building that chemistry. So it's not a very romantic book.

Seth, and pretty much every male character in the book, is selfish, short sighted, and stupid. He gets better, but for me it was too little and too late.

It has more pages than the content of the story justifies, taking 100 pages to tell us what could be said in 50. The pacing is snail slow. You feel every page of the book, because you're waiting for the main characters to be able to do something. But they just watch, and you just wait, and not much comes of it.

I couldn't get invested in what went on in the historical portion of the story 1)because the characters are unlikeable 2)because I know the stories end badly, or we wouldn't have the present day story 3)because nothing in the narrative makes it feel like I'm in 900 something AD. I'm not anal about historical accuracy. However, I do find it distracting to have foreign characters in an ancient time using super modern language. Terms like "sleep together" (as a euphemism for sex), or being told that the warlord of this time has a desk...those sort of things feel out of place. There was nothing to really create the proper tone of being in a different time and very different culture.

Recommendation

Obviously, for me personally, cons outweighed the pros for this one. I did not enjoy the experience. What kind of reader would really like it? Well, I'd say if you like stories with dick-ish heroes that eventually see the light, and if you really get into angels and demons and curses, and you don't mind wading through back story, this is a good book for you. For those who like a deeper romance, a faster pace, and a more concise plot, don't bother with this one. 2 stars.

A Blog Tour Review of The Orphan, The Soulcatcher, and the Black Blizzard

I want you guys to know that I really tried to like this book. And I mean, I reached a point where I was so desperate to get into it that I backed up and reread parts a second time. And at the end of the day I came to the conclusion that it isn't a bad book...it just isn't for me.

Our characters are Charlie, a teenage orphan with a kind heart, and Bartholomew "Buck", a being of the supernatural world. Together the two navigate the seedy neighborhoods of depression era Chicago while a mysterious otherworldly threat looms over them.

Positive Comments (aka Why I Wanted to Like This Book)

The setting. I wanted to immerse myself in a time period that I don't normally see in books, because unless you read serious literature, the 1930s are not among the more popular eras. The author does a great job of capturing the grittiness of gangs and poverty and violence.

Charlie is so likeable. He's had a rough life, and despite everything he still genuinely cares for people. He's smart, but he doesn't show it off. And Buck is equally likeable, with an even more interesting back story and character development. Even their dynamic together is great, with Buck trying to suppress his overly proper nature, and Charlie trying to protect Buck from everything.

Negative Comments

The plot and the world building just did not come together the way I wanted them to. The world building is very vague, and there's a great deal of withholding that caused me to feel lost. Again, I found it necessary to reread to make sure I wasn't missing anything, but it wasn't my fault. The world building is just genuinely sloppy. The plot moves forward quickly, but manages to ramble at the same time. I got impatient waiting to find out what everything was leading up to. And by the time the climax came around I had stopped caring.

So really, much of my objection to this book is related to personal taste. I have no patience for mystery. I like my world building to be a lot clearer. I prefer less subtle supernatural elements. I feel like this was a book with good features that didn't work together--like wearing pinstripes with polka dots. I liked the characters, but they weren't enough to bring me into the story.

Recommendation

I'm not going to recommend this one. Overall, I just found it boring, and while I do suspect that the problem is more with me than the book, I don't want anyone to have the same experience I did. It isn't poorly written, but I just didn't find it interesting. 2 stars.

Find your copy here: The Orphan, the Soulcatcher, and the Black Blizzard

On Gifts: A Review of a Job From Hell by Jayde Scott

A Job From Hell is probably about as stereotypical of a vampire book as you can get. I can't really say why I decided to read it, but I can tell you that it did not knock my socks off.

Despite a distinct lack of domestic skill, Amber accepts a job as Aiden's housekeeper and quickly discovers that there's something odd about him. He sleeps all day and never seems to eat and...you know the drill. Amber is Aiden's fated mate, so she's obviously stuck falling in love with him. Then she ends up unwittingly participating in a paranormal race where the prize is a supernatural power that will make her a walking target.

Positive Comments

The dialogue and character interactions are actually very clever. At times it might be a little forced, but at least it's amusing.  I liked the cast of secondary characters, perhaps more than I liked either main character.

The plot approached interesting, but it did so from a sideways route. I kept thinking that if the author had focused the book on different elements--the prize, the magic book thingy, all of the darker stuff introduced in the world, the book might actually be really good. This actually gave me vague hope that the sequels might be decent, although I have no immediate plans to read them.

Negative Comments

Fated mates. Don't like them. End of story.

To be more specific, I do think that fated mates can be a good trope, but you cannot use it in place of relationship development. You still need to have your characters go from meet cute to happy ending via a well paced, logical route. This book doesn't do that. A lot of the emotions, especially on Aiden's end, are "I must be with her because she is my mate." There's nothing specific that makes them work as a couple.

It's just terribly cliched. Aiden is a rich vampire. Amber is a financially struggling human. Come on now, can't we rise above this old gambit? And then there's the "will he or won't he turn her" plot. Boring. Boring. Boring. Nothing new to add, the plot goes exactly where you'd expect it to, and you'll feel like you've wasted hours of your life.

Amber is a flaccid, dull heroine. She surprised me a bit near the end, when she actually became somewhat useful. Otherwise she's incredibly boring. She's an ordinary girl with ordinary goals. She takes a job she's not qualified for. Finds herself in a fish-out-of-water situation when surrounded by rich supernaturals. Reacts to it exactly as you would expect her to. Even her flaws are boring--she's clumsy and she can't cook.

Recommendation

There's nothing wrong with the writing style, and the book wasn't a total disaster. For me, it was mostly just dull. So I'm going to warn you off of it, but gently. If you're a huge vampire fan, for example, this might be a satisfactory book for you. It just wasn't for me. 2 stars.

Buy From Amazon: A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

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.

On Mermaids: A Review of Goddess of the Sea by P. C. Cast

A Painting by Josephine Wall

Goddess of the Sea was one of the books I attempted to read this weekend. When it comes to paranormal romance I try to suspend disbelief and just go with the story, trusting that either the author will create a plausible world or that the story will be so amusing that I won't care about implausibility. This book is a rare case in which the author wasn't successful in either manner to my great disappointment. I did a lot of skimming to the end of this book.

The premise of the book is that on her 25th birthday CC is lonely and drunk and performs a ritual in which she asks the goddess of the earth, Gaea, to bring magic into her life. The result of this is that CC switches places with Gaea's mermaid daughter, Princess Undine. She is also sent back in time to about 1014 I believe. CC is allowed to return to land as a human (in Undine's very beautiful form) but she must return to the water and transform into a mermaid every 3 days. The only way to break this cycle is to find a man, fall in love, and have him accept her completely. On land Undine is "rescued" by a hansome solicitous knight who she assumes will be the man for her. Meanwhile, she has already encountered a merman who she is drawn to, Dylan, and they enter into an erotic relationship.

Now in fairness this book had it's good parts. I liked the use of mythology/fairy tale that made the story seem familiar and comfortable. I liked a lot of the discriptive ideas, like the scene where she actually becomes a mermaid--very well written. The setting was fairly intrigueing, all though the time travel portion of it was somewhat pointless. The romance was passable. And from what I could tell, there are some interesting plot twists thrown in to keep things fresh.

My issues with this book are many. The humor is at best awkward and clumsy. It's never fully commited to. The openning scene of the book has the heroine talking to herself and pathetically drinking alone. At the same time we are supposed to believe that she's a smart professional member of the United States Air Force. I guess my problem with her character and this part of the premise is that I wanted to like her, but she's inconsistantly written. I think that the author either need to commit to making a humorous slightly ditzy character, or a smart well put together one. Or give us some background to justify the lack of consistancy. This problem carries over into the actual story as well. Half of the time the effort is made to give good logical reasons for things, and half of the time no explanation is given at all. The other major issues is that the characters are, for the most part, flat and underdeveloped. An effort is made to show that CC has a meaningful change in her worldview and character...but thats about it, everyone else is fairly static. Overall the writing is rough. 2 stars.

Mental Illness and Horror: A Review of Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

I read Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves several months ago. This book was recommended to me for a number of reasons. First, although I am an adult I occasionally enjoy a YA novel. There's a strange sort of nostalgia to reading about characters younger then myself. Secondly, I have an odd fascination with mental illness. And finally, because paranormal/fantasy is my favorite genre and the one I read most often.

WARNING: Minor Spoilers Ahead.

This book is surreal. Hanna is a bipolar sixteen year old who was living with her aunt, but for one reason and another ran away from home to live with the mother she has never met or had contact with. Her mother, Rosalee, doesn't seem to want her anymore then her aunt did, but Hanna is determined. Rosalee tells her that if she can manage to fit in and make friends she can stay. Hanna quickly finds that her new home is extremely unusual. The town is full of monsters and supernatural phenomena. Everyone treats Hanna like an outsider, and expect her to die or run away screaming at any minute. Hanna meets Wyatt, who is part of a group of monster fighters called Mortmaine. Hanna and Wyatt banter back and forth and quickly succum to their mutual attraction.

The best sub-genre to place this in is horror, without a doubt. It's plenty violent and gory, with moments that even a jaded reader may find disturbing. The gratuitous violence was not really a problem for me, because I frequently read horror and usually enjoy it. The bizarreness of it all is also not a problem, because at least it's imaginative. Because Hanna suffers from hallucinations, what is real and what is in her head is sometimes ambiguous. I thought that was a nice touch.

My issue is the characters. Hanna has all the characteristics of a problem teen: she acts out, is sexually promiscuous, doesn't have a problem with violence, does drugs, and never thinks about consequences. She's bipolar and doesn't always take her meds. She's so very desperate for someone to love her, it's pitiful. There is just something off about Hanna's character. I liked her, I even sympathized with her at times. But, whether because of her illness or the weirdness of the setting/scenery, she never seemed real to me. She seems more like a caricature then a real person. And because of this, it's difficult to become really invested in her story.

Wyatt is similarly unreal and twisted. I did like him, and I felt like he started to grow a lot in the story. As for their relationship, it was just ok. It gets physical really quickly, and that did nothing to help the realism. They do have some good dialogue and banter. But at no point did I believe they were falling in love, or would remain together long term.

Aside from Hanna and Wyatt, who at least have moments of likeability, I hated every single character. Hanna's mother is irredeemable. I know that on some level she loves Hanna, but not once does she show it in any way that counts. The other teens seem cold and generic, none standing out at all. Except Petra, of course, who is so whiny that you root for her to die horribly.

I also think it's necessary to discuss whether this book is really appropriate for teens. For younger teens, probably not. It's too full of violence and sex with no reference to consequences. But for any reasonably mature teen over the age of 16 or so, this book is perfectly fine. It doesn't go so far as to really condone the bad behavior, and I don't see many readers wanting to emulate a crazy character in any case.

The bottom line is, I didn't like this book because I didn't care for the characters. But I'm entirely in favor of horror and surrealness and all of those wonderful things. So I'd say if your a horror/fantasy, and you don't mind deeply flawed characters, maybe give it a try. 2 stars.

On Changlings: Review of Rosmary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

This week I'm in a fairy frame of mind, so I thought I'd share a review of a book I read not too long ago: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. Sadly, this book just didn't work for me. So why revisit it, why review it? Well, even though I disliked it, it's a mild dislike. And even though the negatives outweigh the positives, it had some impressive positives. Despite the bad start, I went out and bought the second book and I fully intend to read it. It wouldn't be the first time I disliked the first book in a series and ended up gobbling down the rest of them like candy.

This book has a definite case of exposition overload, a condition common to first books in a series, with a healthy dose of over-telling on the side. It's a book full of unrealized potential and falls just short of being good.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD: October Daye is a changeling (half faerie, half human) who works as a privite investigator both in the human world and for her fairy superiors. The book opens up with her on a particularly dangerous case for the fairy world, when she is caught spying on the bad guys. They transform her into a fish and dump her into a pond where she's stuck for fourteen years. After the fish incident, which essentially ruined her life, she wants nothing more to do with the faerie world. She's forcibly drawn back into it, however, when an old friend, Evening, is murdered and charges Toby to solve said murder.

Now I want to comment first on the things I liked about the book. It has a great opening that manages to make you instantly involved in Toby's story. You feel sorry for her, and you're curious about what's going on with the villains and why she's in this situation in the first place, and eager to learn more about the faerie world. The world building has so much potential, using a lot of vaguely familiar folk lore and mythology as well as some unique ideas. The characters also had tremendous potential, though there are a few too many to really name.

The first and most pressing issue is Toby herself. In a first person narrative, the main character carries the story--if you like that character, chances are the book will be enjoyable. I did not hate Toby. I sympathized with her, I wanted things to improve for her, and I liked her personality just fine. But as a PI she seems useless. We are told at the beginning that she's good at what she does, despite not having much magic or physical power, but this is never shown. All we see is her stumbling along, not spotting clues until they fall in her lap, and getting injured. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times she's injured in this book. Toby also has some serious issues when it comes to her social relationships, and that was a bit off putting. She's very inconsistent, saying she dislikes a character but then acting in a way that demonstrates otherwise.

If your looking for an intellectually stimulating murder mystery, this is not the book for you. The villain behind it all is extremely obvious to the reader long before Toby catches on, but I guess the mystery isn't the point. The world building was obviously the author's priority. The plot rambles along, convincing you that Toby really has no idea what she's doing, while explaining various details about the faery world. In my opinion, everything would have been better if the author had stuck with the plot introduced in the prologue rather then getting distracted by Evenings murder. I would much rather learn about faeries through a story of court politics and kidnapping then watch a PI dance in circles around an obvious murderer.

The world building is the most positive aspect, but even that has it's issues. Much of it relies on the reader having heard some of the mythology once before. For example the author refers to Oberon or Mab very casually, not taking a lot of time to explain their role, significance, or place in this particular story. As mentioned, I would have preferred to spend more time learning about the faery world and less time chasing the villain. 2 Stars