Review of Moonshifted by Cassie Alexander

It's no secret that I heartily enjoy urban fantasy, particularly the kind with kick-ass female leads and large scale monster hunts. The Edie Spence series is more of the same, except that the heroine is not particularly kick-ass at all. Edie is a nurse working third shifts at a hospital ward secretly dedicated to creatures of the night--shapeshifter, vampires, and vampire's servants. Moonshifted is the second book in the Edie Spence series.

After the events of the first book, I thought it was interesting to see that Edie is becoming even more settled into her role at the hospital, and in fact might even enjoy knowing the secrets of the supernatural world. This, despite the fact that her zombie boyfriend left her, she witnessed a brutal hit-and-run on a werewolf, and she's been asked to appear at her vampire friend's induction ceremony.

What made this book (and the first one) work for me is Edie. She's incredibly well written, and she just feels real to me. She's relatable because she's both an underdog and a bit of a screw-up, yet she's not stupid. Throughout the book, she's genuinely trying to make the best moves and work out who she can trust, but she makes mistakes and the odds are against her. In addition to the supernatural conflicts--the fight between werewolf leaders and the vampire politics, we also get a painfully realistic look at her personal life. Edie's brother is the motivating factor for her working in the supernatural ward in the first place--the powers that be keep her brother off of drugs as long as she works for them. She really and honestly loves her brother, she wants to help him, but she's also faced with the constant realization that her help can only go so far, and she can never afford to trust him completely. Plus Edie is broke, PB&J for dinner every night broke. The girl can't catch a break. My point is, there's something cathartic about seeing Edie's messed up life and her bad decisions with regard to men and her endless fight for survival as a human in a tooth and claw world. She survives on pure determination, and it's awesome.

While I obviously can't say enough about how much I like Edie, the plot of this book in itself was nothing too special. The power struggles of alphas, like we see with the werewolves, is on the point of being old hat in the urban fantasy world. Same with the vampire politics. To her credit, the author does a good job of making us question who Edie can really trust and what the smartest path for her really is. To her discredit, by the time I finished the book I was left with few truly memorable plot points to carry me forward. We'll have to see, with book three, if the originality of the plot improves.

To sum up, I've really been enjoying the fish-out-of-water nature of Edie's story, and I love her character, and for that reason I do continue to recommend this series. I expect good things from it in the future. 4 stars.

Watch This! Angel (Pt. 1)

Welcome to Part One of a three part post series on Angel. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a show that was unique at the time and became iconic, to the point that many shows and movies have since tried to capture it's particular brand of appeal, with varying degrees of success. It seems natural that such a larger than life show would deserve a spin-off. Angel was a natural character choice for a spin-off series. His history and mythology are deep enough to be expanded upon over the course of many seasons. It's still surprising to me that the series only went on for five seasons, when it rightfully could have gone on much longer, as evidenced by it's continuation in comic form. But let's just work with the show we have, for now. This initial post will focus on the main cast of characters, with heavy bias on the ones I find the most interesting.

Angel, Out of Sunnydale

Angel himself is far more interesting in his own series than he is in Buffy. One of the problems with his existence in Buffy is the fact that he is supposed to be centuries old. Buffy, throughout his entire tenure as a main cast member, is a high school student. However wise, worldly, and jaded Angel is supposed to be, however tortured he is, we don't get to fully appreciate it because he's  in the role of high school boyfriend. And that, my friends, has an undeniable ick factor to it. Whether or not you like Buffy and Angel together, whether or not you think they're soul mates, you have to see the truth that as long as Buffy is not grown up, Angel cannot act his age. The writers have to temper his maturity so that it doesn't come across as ridiculously skivvy.

Once Angel gets to LA and starts his mission for redemption, all of the sudden you start to feel his age. He is written as a tortured, reluctant super hero. Suddenly his backstory as a vampire with a soul seems darker, and it fits with the darker tone of the entire show. We see, for example, that he isn't mindlessly good all of the time. He makes questionable choices and get's caught up in the need for revenge. In season two, he becomes so focused on taking out the bad guys of Wolfram and Hart that he completely severs himself from his friends. His mistakes are what make him engaging.

Cordelia, All Grown Up

Cordelia is our second transplanted Buffy character. She was originally a shallow, privileged, mean
spirited foil for Buffy. Gradually, however, she was given more depth. She's shown to be smarter than she let's on, and more complex than the typical cheerleader character is usually allowed to be. She dates the comically unpopular Xander, hangs out with the Scooby Gang, and survives some of the bigger battles of Sunnydale. So while you might initially think that she seems like a rather random choice for a main character in the spin-off series, it actually makes some sense. She's already well established, and at least redeemable if not likable.

One of the things I  appreciated about Cordelia's development is that she kind of continues to be a little vain and a little shallow, despite learning empathy and the need for a higher purpose. She's given the gift of visions of people who need Angel's help. The visions are painful and rob Cordelia of the possibility of a completely normal life, time and time again. As a result, she becomes less of a socialite and more of a fighter, though she has much fewer opportunities to kick ass than the boys do.

In terms of how well she functions as a romantic interest for Angel...well, that never rang true for me. While I'm not the biggest fan of the Buffy/Angel pairing, I never felt like Angel's chemistry with anyone else was really complete.

Wesley

In Buffy, Wesley was best described as Not Giles. He's there to try to replace Giles when the council determines that Giles sucks at his job. He comes across as irritating and even a bit comedic, and his character continues in this fashion throughout his initial appearances in Angel. His character development takes a series of turns, however, beginning with the episode in which he's captured and tortured by Faith. From this point on, he becomes steadily darker and more complex, making some morally questionable decisions, but always trying to fight on the side of good. Like Cordelia, I initially disliked his character, and like Cordelia I felt he remained flawed throughout the series. However, his character get's a better treatment in terms of both romance and send off. I really liked him with Fred, is what I'm saying.

Gunn

The first non-transplant character in Angel is also the most manufactured of the main characters. I urban character, a tough guy who has lived on the streets, maybe even been in a gang of sorts, but is still on the right side of the good/evil line." And out of that mold springs Gunn, with his tough sounding name and his tough attitude and his tough toughness. Still, it's hard to dislike the guy, who frequently serves as the team's muscle despite a lack of formal training or super powers of any kind.
can almost hear the writers cooking this guy up. "Okay, we have this urban fantasy set in Los Angeles. We need a really

Angel has a lot of other recurring characters who, depending on what season you focus on are part of the main cast. It would be impossible to fairly cover all of them. In terms of which recurring characters I liked the most...

Darla seems like a natural addition to the cast, since she's Angel's maker and a huge source of conflicted emotions for him. During one of the shows more interesting arcs, she brought back to life as a human with a soul, and she struggles with how to deal with that. Later she's given the Mystic Pregnancy treatment, and her character basically becomes a plot device. I'm mostly okay with the way the writer's handled this, however. I like that, while she's mostly a villain, we do get a sense that she has a good side, a part of her does actually love Angel, and she is capable so sacrifice.

I also really like Lindsey, both as an antagonist and reluctant ally. He's a cynical, jaded character with a murky sense of morality--basically he's the clichéd lawyer from all shows and movies. During his time at Wolfram and Hart, you kind of get the sense that he's in over his head, that he doesn't want to become entirely evil. Yet he's not above some underhandedness, and he does stay with them despite a chance to jump ships. He's the kind of character that I really enjoy, because you can see his motivations, but you're never sure how evil he actually is. And, in fact, he's probably mostly just selfish.

That's the run down of Angel's most interesting characters, or at least as much as I'm able to do in a reasonably sized post. In Part 2, I'll be discussing the world building and How Things Work in the Angel/Buffy universe. The final part of the posting series will of course be a top ten episodes list, and then we'll be moving on to other things. Stay tuned.

Watch This! Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Pt. 3)

When Angel left the show and went off to his own spin off, there was a kind of boyfriend vacuum around Buffy that just had to be filled. Enter Riley Finn, the very bland anti-angel college boyfriend.

I liked a lot of things about seasons four and five. I liked seeing Buffy go on to college and mature as an adult. I liked that the show allowed her to develop and gave her new, more adult challenges to cope with. I liked that the plot itself took some risks and went in very different directions, instead of sticking with the constant monster-of-the-week format. What I did not like, one little bit, was the romantic subplot of Riley Finn.

As previously stated, Riley is written to be as anti-Angel as possible--he's human, entirely good, a faithful boyfriend that offers Buffy a kind of stability that she's never had a chance at before. As the show progresses, Riley is given a bit more depth, getting in over his head in the supernatural world and ending up fairly damaged. But however tortured the writers tried to make him, he always failed to do the one very important thing (at least in my mind), which is challenge Buffy in any way.

The normal, familiar boyfriend vs. the challenging, complicated boyfriend has been done often enough that we can safely call it a cliché. If you go through the list of well known love triangles, you'll find that this conflict is often the basis of the triangle. The most familiar of all--Edward vs. Jacob, does it with the least subtly of all. Jacob is not only the best friend/old friend of the family boy, but he out right says on multiple occasions that he's Bella's only choice at a normal life--she wouldn't need to change to be with him. The easy, comparatively normal choice is almost never the one that wins out. In fact, I'm having trouble thinking of a single occasion in which a heroine chose the normal, nice guy over Captain Tortured Pants. Why not? In short, because that would be boring.

Being with Riley is too easy for Buffy. He's entirely human and, until later in the story, pretty much without emotional baggage. He already knows about the supernatural world, so she doesn't have to explain her lifestyle to him, per se. She can sleep with him as much as she likes. Their relationship is completely dull. There are several episodes where you can feel the writers struggling to come up with a conflict for the two of them, and when they do it's always disappointing. Maybe Riley is insecure because Buffy is so much stronger than him? Okay, that just makes him seem like a whiney baby.

One of the things I did sort of appreciate about the Riley story arc is the fact that even the writers seemed to understand that he was only ever going to be a rebound boyfriend. They made sure that Buffy got emotionally involved, but always held something back, so you kind of knew that the relationship had an expiration date--and it could not come soon enough for me. I felt like the time spent with Riley might have been better spent with Buffy learning to be okay alone, and I could have done without the whole thing.

Lest you think that I'm hating on the "everyman" characters, I want to say that I'm all too eager for someone to subvert the cliché. I would love to see more everyday heroes presented as a viable choice for the heroine, instead of as the third wheel or the conflict that must be overcome in order to reach the real happy ending. It's worth stating, also, that I really like Xander--and he's as ordinary as they come. His lack of special powers is what lends him his charm, and I would love to see something similar in more of our male love interests.

Watch This! Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Pt. 2)

If you missed Part 1 (here, have a link), I focused on how Buffy has effected the way that I view fictional heroines, and in particular those of urban fantasy. Today I'm going to talk about Angel. Now, I might at some later date dedicate a post or two to the Angel spin-off series, but today I'm going to focus on Angel's character as he's introduced in Buffy's story, and prior to his show.

I think we all tend to forget, in this Twilight soaked modern day, that Stephenie Meyer did not invent to sympathetic and more accessible vampire (that crown likely goes to Anne Rice, although I'm far from an expert). Angel and Buffy did the centuries old vampire/teenage girl love story years before, and with more intelligence.

Angel is a vampire cursed with a soul. In the Buffy universe, vampires are essentially demons who feed on humans and lack a conscience. The fact that Angel has a soul means that he does have a conscience, and he feels really bad about all of the people he killed before he had a soul. Dark, broody, self punishing--all of the ingredients necessary for romantic drama with a vampire slayer.

The romance between Angel and Buffy is just as starcrossed and just as silly as any YA novel, but Joss Whedon does more with it than you'd expect. One of the shows early weaknesses, in my opinion, was the fact that it failed to explain why they like each other in the first place. You barely see them talk or share anything. They have little in common besides a mutual desire to kill evil vampires. We're just supposed to buy the idea that they feel this attraction, and it won't go away, and so they must be together. The setup is shallow, but the conflicts and the payoff are a lot more interesting, and that is the point, after all.

The conflict between Angel and Buffy stems not only from their antithetical roles as slayer and vampire, but also from their age difference and finally (the biggest catch of all), from the curse that makes Angel sympathetic in the first place. The fact that they're aware of the age difference and actually play on the creepiness a couple of times in and of itself gives us permission to not take it to seriously (although, of course, we do). I particularly like the Halloween episode when Buffy dresses like the girls Angel would have known when she was his age (and turns into an airhead as a result of the shenanigans), because it underscores how ridiculous their relationship is in the first place.

The culmination of their relationship is fairly well known, even among non-fans of the show. Angel's soul-having curse comes with the catch that if he experiences true happiness, he loses that soul. And turns all evil and stuff. And kills people. So Angel and Buffy do it, it makes him happy, and he turns evil. I've never gotten over how contrived that plot point is, but it's also an interesting metaphor. It puts Buffy this position of feeling guilt and loss and sadness, emotions that aren't altogether uncommon for women after an ill advised sexual encounter. Everything about Buffy and Angel's relationship speaks to how actual teenagers fall in and out of love, right down to having to say goodbye and move on.

In the interest of total honesty, I actually liked Angel a lot more after he left the show and got his own. The brooding romance did start to wear out after a time, and it was for the best that they put a stake in it.

On Adam: A Review of Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

This poor book--it arrived right in the middle of my reading slump, so it took me way too long to finish it. The good news is, after all of that, I did not hate it. Mercy is like an old friend to me, and I'm always happy for a new book about her, and even more happy to see her with Adam. Which is why I was so bummed that he was kidnapped.

The book opens up with Mercy and Jesse getting into a car accident, and then finding out that the entire pack has been taken. Mercy uses her mate bond with Adam to contact him, finding him pissed off and in pain, in the hands of men who want him to kill a US senator and thus start a war. Mercy wants to rescue Adam, but her first priority is to protect his daughter, Kyle (Warren's mate).

I like that Mercy is still discovering the extent of what she is and what her powers are. She's always been appealing because she appears to be one of the weakest supernatural beings in her world, and yet she has hidden depths. This book specifically comments on her will and her stubbornness, and how she uses that to overcome impossible odds. It also shows us that she has some pretty serious and mysterious magic--she can do things that no one has ever heard of, and that makes her a wild card.

I've always found Adam likeable, in that usual alpha-shapeshifter kind of way. He's brave, loyal, self-sacrificing, and he actually likes Mercy for all of her flaws. I enjoyed the fact that we got to see a lot of him in this book, and that he was able to be at his most commanding despite getting his ass kicked and suffering major losses. I liked that some of the passages were more from his point of view, which helped to put a different spin on the state of things.

I liked that this book employed so many familiar and well liked characters from previous books--Stefan, Zee, Tad, and so forth. Mercy's world has really grown over the course of seven books, and it's interesting to see what the author can do in that well established world--both in terms of explicit plot points and hints of things to come.

Now, the core plot was serviceable, but to my mind not so memorable as some of the past books. That may have a lot to do with the fact that I spent so much time kicking and screaming my way through reading anything, and perhaps even a brilliant plot would have eluded me. But, in any case, while I can appreciate the dire concerns for supernaturals in law and politics, it seems to me that we're never given quite enough scope and context to become truly concerned, because we rarely step out of Mercy's head. I don't know that I got the high resolution big picture that I was meant to get. But that's okay, it was still enjoyable.

So to conclude--Mercy Thomspon should be at the top of your Urban Fantasy TBR if you haven't tried her yet. And this was a nice edition to the series, even if it took me way to long to get through. 4 stars.

Watch This! Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Pt. 1)

This month, I thought I'd dedicate a few posts to one of my all time favorite shows--Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show first started in 1997 (I would have been 7 at the time), but I didn't get into it until around 2000. At that time, I had just discovered Harry Potter and with it, a love of fantasy and all things supernatural. Buffy has a very different tone, but it's similar in that it's grounded in the real world, where most people are not aware that supernatural forces exist, and that the heroes are normal teenagers with normal problems that are only exacerbated by the presence of magic and so forth. Also similar is the "chosen one" premise, the idea that fate picks one seemingly ordinary individual to be the savior. The difference in premise is that while Harry has one singular task to perform (kill Voldemort), which once completed will ultimately leave him free to live out a happy ending, Buffy is stuck killing vampires until she dies. Harsh, yes?

Buffy is the Mother of the Kick Ass Female Protagonists of Urban Fantasy

Oh, there were kick-ass females before her and there have been even  kick-assier females since. Hell, Anita Blake predates Buffy by about four years, and she's certainly earned her alpha stripes (despite enumerable flaws). But what Buffy did, in my humble opinion, is bring the kick ass female into mainstream light. The show is popular, a pop culture phenomenon, and for my generation she was the final word on unlikely female heroines.

Joss Whedon has become somewhat famous for his ability to make petite female protagonists into convincing fighters. Buffy is consciously written to subvert the cliché of the ditsy blond teenager who is the first to die in every horror movie. Her influence has made small-but-lethal ladies into a popular trope in and of itself in urban fantasy. Buffy makes up for her weak appearance with implied superpowers--supernatural strength and speed. Many UF authors do something similar, granting their heroines magical powers or gifts that bely their harmless visages. Others use brains or extreme weapons training, or some combination of all of the above. You can see why this is such a popular premise to launch a series on--it makes for such interesting and varied protagonists, with varying levels of angst and drama.

Buffy suffers from the classic fantasy heroine conflict--she wants a normal life, but she can never have one. Something always gets in the way. But she is, essentially, just like every teenage girl--and thus she goes through all of the same milestones--but on steroids. The loss of her virginity is a huge disappointment, to the tune of her boyfriend turning psycho-killer. She runs away from home and is met with a wake up call, in the form of a bizarre demonic slavery system. She finds that she wants to be popular, and become Homecoming Queen, but ends up fighting homicidal monsters all the way to the dance, only to find that she's not even runner-up. And so on. Buffy is relatable because, like most teenage girls, she feels like nothing ever goes her way and the world is against her. In Buffy's case, her life really is often miserable and the world really is out to get her. The relatability draws you in, her losses and disappointments make you emotionally invested, and her constant triumph over the monsters brings you comfort.

The fact that Buffy was so widely popular and is still remembered fondly (and continues on via comic books and so forth), means that she's often the basis of comparison for any UF heroine. Rightly so. When I read young adult urban fantasy in particular, I'm always looking to see in they included the traditional Buffy character--naïve but not stupid, seemingly and yet actually quite strong, snarky and unexpectedly smart. Maybe she has a group of friends like Buffy, or impossible romantic relationships like Buffy. Whatever variation the author goes with, there's almost always a tiny tribute in there somewhere.

On Baby Mama Drama: A Review of Lover At Last by J.R. Ward

Okay kids, strap on your shitkickers and bring out your bullshit shields, because today we're going to talk about the latest BDB volume--Lover At Last. I'm not going to lie about the fact that my relationship with this series has been rocky at best over the past couple of years. I jumped onto this series back when book three had just come out. I have years of my life invested in these goddamned vampires and their stupid names and their weird little frat house that they live in. And their gang wars and their social drama and all of the leather that they wear. Make fun of me if you want, go right ahead, but books two and three remain two of my favorite books of all time. All. Time. See Ward, I can do one word sentences with unnecessary emphasis too. But yes, I love this series and these characters, and it's because I love them and because the bar is set so high that I take any flaws or dud books so hard. For example, Lover Unleashed (Manny and Payne's book, in theory), was hugely disappointing for me, and had me considering a permanent boycott of the books. I didn't follow through on that because, as I said, I'm invested. This newest installment rewarded me in some ways and...screwed me sideways in others.

Team Quay

If you have read any of this series at all, you know that the Blay/Qhuinn relationship has been brewing for awhile. They were first introduced as young boys in book three, as part of John Matthew's training class. By that point, they are already best friends. Following their transitions to full of vampires, the sexual tension between the two begins to develop. Once Blay realizes that he's gay, he's pretty quick to come out to his friends about it, and even tries to explain how he feels to Qhuinn. Qhuinn, however, has major commitment issues and just issues in general, so he turns Blay down flat, and so on and on we go for like five more books. After all of that, a full novel to deal with their relationshit is not only justified, it was necessary. I was totally in line with other fans who just really wanted to see them work it out and get mated, in whatever form that might take, and I applauded Ward for going the full novel route with it.

The fact that we are seeing a full length, hard cover romance novel in a mainstream series dedicated to a gay couple likely has more social implications than I'm qualified to talk about. Ward is not the first mainstream romance author to write about openly gay characters, or even to award them a happily-ever-after, but she is one of the more popular and successful authors to do so (in 500+ pages, with sex scenes). As a comparison, Suzanne Brockmann had Robin and Jules in her Troubleshooters series, and they got a novella in which all nookie faded to black at the bedroom door, if memory serves. I want to take this as a sign that readers are becoming more open to reading about sex and sexuality in it's more diverse forms--but again, I'm probably not qualified to discuss this.

Sex, Sexual Orientation, and How Things Work in The BDB Universe

Now that I've brought up the fact that this book has sex, I of course have to go into my issues with how mating bonds, sex, and sexual orientation work in this universe. I'm going to start with the sex, because that's the easiest to complain about. I'm going to ignore the fact that vampires apparently don't need lube of any kind, because...I just don't need to go into that. No. My issue is the timing of the sex in this book. Blay and Qhuinn are hot together, but they have some seriously messed up timing. They don't talk things out, they don't deal with their issues, they just keep having sex. Revenge sex, angry sex, sad sex. Lots of sex. The one that stood out as the most inappropriate for me was when Layla is having issues with her pregnancy--Qhuinn is pretty sure he's going to lose the daughter he so desperately wants. And Blay and Qhuinn have sex. I can't actually think of a less sexy situation to be in, and I can't imagine getting turned on under those circumstances.

Ward's approach to how sexuality is handled in the BDB universe is at once interesting and terribly frustrating. Blay has the best case scenario when it comes to coming out of the closet--accepting friends and family, no hang ups, almost no self doubt. Qhuinn, on the other hand, is resistant to being labeled as gay or bisexual or anything else, never really "comes out", per se, and more or less implies that he only swings that way for Blay. He's had sex with other men, but only as a dominant party and usually in situations involving women as well. Blay is the only person that with whom he's acted as a receiver, and he thinks of it as losing his virginity, and insists that nothing he's done prior to that act marks him as gay. It's interesting to me that, at least in the mind of this one character, the only truly gay act is the most submissive one.

Now, Ward's couples have always been fated mates. The formula is that they bond at first sight, there is a psychological and biological need to get together, and when they're separated they both end up depressed--especially the male. With Blay and Qhuinn, the emotional and biological imperative seems much less pronounced. They certainly want one another, and they ultimately bond, but it's no where near the level of intensity we've seen with some of the male/female pairings. I'm not sure what this is supposed to imply, and I'm not complaining exactly, but it seems to me that Ward has mate Blay and Qhuinn's mating less fated and more voluntary. Make of that what you will.

Ward goes out of her way to let us know that all of the "good" characters are cool with the gay couple getting mated, and the only homophobes in this universe are the glymera--a group of people we already dislike. This black and white portrayal of the issue smacks of a certain naiveté. In the real world, reactions to sexuality still vary across a spectrum. Some people will be understanding and unbothered, some will be uncomfortable but choose not to show it, and some are going to be assholes. The fact that everyone from the old school males of the brotherhood to sheltered young Layla are totally happy for them with no persuading is pure sugarcoating, and it belies the struggle that real world gay  couples cope with.

Baby Mama Drama

I'm not a fan of Layla, and I never have been. There's something far too passive and dull about her. The fact that she's having Qhuinn's baby is annoying, because it meant that I had to care what happened to her in this book, instead of quietly praying for her to be hit by a bus. Anyway, she's pregnant and she really wants to stay that way, and it's a BIG FREAKING DEAL. To be clear, I want Qhuinn to have his child and be happy. I'm just bummed that it had to be with this vapid little bitch. What's worse is that, at a couple points, I actually felt sorry for her. Yeah. I know. The fact is, though, her pregnancy drama was not something I wanted to read about--not something I found entertaining or enjoyable.

One thing that really irritated me was how everyone behaves about the pregnancy. Beth hangs around Layla because she's hoping for a little contact fertility, despite the fact that her husband does not seem to want children. Havers, the only competent vampire doctor, tells her she's just an incubator, and he will only address her mate (which of course she doesn't have). Phury, who is primale and therefor morally responsible for Layla, treats her like a child who has been wronged and doesn't understand her situation. He automatically assumes that Qhuinn must be solely responsible for her condition, and that she was pressured into pregnancy, when in fact it's quite the opposite. Nobody makes an effort to just be her friend and treat her as an equal, because the only friend she's really made (Quinn) is tangled in the middle of the drama.

New Characters and Subplots

This universe is getting a bit full for my taste. I've never been in love with Ward's habit of switching POVs all of the time, but it's especially annoying when it's new and seemingly unnecessary characters. While I'll admit that Assail seemed somewhat interesting in some ways, he felt out of place in this book, and so did his little romance. Ward's narrative has never been cohesive, but it gets more sporadic with each passing book. That's not to say that any given part bored me or angered me, but just that it didn't all need to be there. Given a choice, I would have preferred more development for Blay and Qhuinn--particularly Blay.

In Conclusion

To sum up, this book was very flawed and yet entirely addictive. I think you have to be a fan in order to get immersed despite all of the many, many problems, but if you are that sort of fan you'll find it to be a page turner. So yeah, I guess I am still deeply invested in this series, and will continue to look forward to the books in the years to come. 4 stars.

On Strawberry Fluff: A Review of Kiss of Pride by Sandra Hill

 Today for your reading delight, I have this...well, it's meant to be a romance novel, I think. I bought this when it was $0.99, thinking that it would make for light-hearted amusement some day. And then I got into this reading funk, and I sort of realized that I wasn't going to become fully immersed in anything, no matter how awesome, so why not choose something shallow?

The book jumps right into the back story, so I'll start there. Prepare yourself for some silly-ass world building. Vikar and his merry band of brothers were all vikings, and that made them pagans, and so God wanted to wipe them out. The archangel Michael pleads their case, and they end up as vampire/angels in training instead, doing penance until they make up for their sins (there are seven brothers, seven sins, DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING?). Vikar's sin is pride. Anyway, they've been time jumping for awhile (for some reason), but now they've settled in present day Pennsylvania, in a town that subsequently becomes a vampire themed tourist trap.

Alex is a jaded reporter with a tragic past--her daughter and husband were murdered. She wants nothing more to take revenge, but her plans are interrupted when she's put on an assignment to interview Vikar. Almost immediately after arriving in Transylvania Pennsylvania, she is bitten by the resident bad vampires--they're called lucipires, and they work for the devil. Consequently, the hero has to start cleansing her of the inherent badness that lucipires spread, and he does said cleansing through a lot of sucking, which is even less sexy than it sounds.

I assumed from the start that I wasn't meant to take this book seriously, and that it would be more of a light PNR. But at times, a serious fact or moment would be thrown in there, and I got the impression that I was supposed to become invested, that I was supposed to find the romance in the midst of the ridiculous. Instead, the whole book is just awkward. The tone is way off, like the author has no idea how to balance horror, sex, and humor. Kresley Cole is the queen of that balance. Gena Showalter is not bad either. J.R. Ward has some seriously awkward bullshit in her stories, but the tone is still mostly cohesive. This book? This book is a mess. The author wants to be funny, but she doesn't understand how to be--she thinks that referencing Twilight and Micheal Jackson and all of the other pop culture things she knows about will make it funny, but all of those jokes are just flat and annoying. Then she wants to be serious, she wants us to feel sad or concerned for Alex, or to find Vikar sexy, or to get caught up in their relationship, but she ends up being hilarious by accident with her awful world building and purple language. You end up laughing at the author and not with the author, laughing at all of the wrong things.

Even if the world building were not unforgivably silly, it would still be terribly unoriginal. I'm entirely sick of seven deadly sins books. If you're going to use Christian/biblical mythology, pick something that hasn't been done nine million times already. Don't get me wrong--angels and demons make interesting characters, but you have to have a good feel for how to write them and how to make them seem both real and different (the same principle applies to vampires0. Hill doesn't seem to know what to do with the mythology, and she doesn't want to bother digging up some fresh and new concepts from it, so she's deriving everything from other PNRs in a way that's too obvious and too sloppy for a traditionally published author.

The Christain nature of our vangels is then used as the main obstacle keeping the hero and heroine from getting their freak on, and is the reason they decide to have lots of near sex. It's only a real sin if there's actual penetration, apparently. You know who thinks like that? Teenagers. Stupid, horny teenagers who believe that celibacy through technicality is just as good as actual self-restraint. Seeing adults rationalize in the same way is just plain stupid --either sexual acts are a sin, or they aren't. Whatever you believe is fine, but don't try to have the cake and eat it too--you're just being hypocritical.

Delicious, and versatile.

The sex (or almost sex) scenes in themselves are the most unintentionally hilarious things I have ever seen in a modern romance novel. At one point, the heroine thinks she sees a halo around the hero's dick. She pronounces it "cute", and the sex continues. Yeah. Later, the author treats us to the silliest purple terms she could think of--including, but not limited to "woman channel", "woman dew", and my personal favorite "strawberry fluff" (which described the heroine's pubic hair). When the strawberry fluff came into play, I had a small and not altogether quiet break with reality where I collapsed in a fit of giggles. In my world fluff is a marshmallow topping you put on peanut butter sandwiches--so you can imagine what my mind cooked up in the context of the sex scene. Sorry, NEAR sex scene.

When I finally finished this book, it was with the feeling of relief that comes with being fairly certain that you've hit rock bottom. I have found the worst of the books, there is nothing more awful, and anything else will be fantastic by comparison because I have lived through lucipires and strawberry fluff. Do I recommend this book? Well, I don't know, it did make me laugh. Not at the right moment, and not in the way it meant to, but by God did I laugh. So, yeah, if you have a good strong bullshit shield and you like "so bad it's good" books, maybe. Overall, though, it's probably not worth it. 1.5 stars

On Dacians:A Review of Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole

After the Poison Princess disaster, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to read something that reminds me that I actually like Kresley Cole. I like the world of the Lore, how diverse it is and how many different sorts of creatures reside in it. I like how incredibly sexy her romances are. I like the humor that she incorporates, which gives us permission not to take everything too seriously. And yet, the plots and pacing always keep me invested. This book is all of those things,  and though not without flaws, it has restored my faith in Cole's work.

Following a brutal attack that robbed her of her powers and left her feeling helpless, Bettina agreed to a tournament that would decide who she married. A series of bloody battles to ensure that only the strongest male will possess her. She hopes that her best friend and long time crush, Caspion, will enter the tournament and win her hand. Trehan Dacian is shocked when he encounters Bettina by chance and finds that she's his Bride--his fated mate. Entering the tournament to win her hand would mean losing his rightful place in his kingdom. Bettina and Trehan are forced to choose--between what is familiar and safe, and the growing love between them.

The tournament premise was actually fairly entertaining, offering interludes of action in what could otherwise have been a very dull story. Trehan is an easy hero to cheer for. He's an introvert and very intelligent, but nevertheless willing and able to kill. Even more intriguing than his fighting prowess, though, was his determination to do right by Bettina. He drives most of the relationship development directly, pursuing his Bride with his brain and his heart open.

My primary issue with this book was Bettina. She's way too passive for my tastes. Her reasons for letting the tournament happen in the first place made her seem weak. Makes sense--she is physically weak, and she did recently lose her power. But the fact that her feelings of insecurity somehow translated to: "I'll just marry an enormous brute, and that will solve everything,"--that is unpardonably short-sighted and weak-willed. Couple that with her crush of Caspion, and she comes off as a woman-child who has no idea what she wants. Everything that happens to her, all of the development she undergoes, is orchestrated by the other characters. She doesn't take revenge on her enemies, she doesn't get her power back on her own, she doesn't take responsibility for the consequences of the tournament--you get the idea. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Bettina. But when I compare her to some of Cole's other heroines, the ones that kick ass and stand up for themselves and have their own place in the Lore? She falls so short of all of that, I'm embarrassed for her.

I'm really excited to see what else Cole has in store for the Dacians. This particular spin-off series has a lot of potential, and I'm so happy that I didn't hate this. 4 stars.

On Nursing: A Review of Nighshifted by Cassie Alexander

I bought this book based on the description, and looked at reviews after the fact. They were pretty mixed, and many of them quite critical. So when I started I had some feelings of trepidation, to be sure.

Edie's brother is a drug addict, and she's sick of watching him flirt with overdose and infection. So when she's offered a mysterious nursing job on a floor called Y4, in exchange for a mysterious promise that her brother will become clean, she takes it. Y4 turns out to be where non-human patients are sent--vampires and their servants, werewolves, shapeshifters, zombies, and so forth.   When a patient dies on Edie's watch, having asked her with his last words to find Anna, she's compelled to do just that. Her actions soon put her on trial with the vampires, in a life or death struggle for survival.

The best parts of the book are, without a doubt, those that take place in the hospital. You can tell the author knows nursing, and has just added the supernatural parts in for flavor, and as a result it feels very real. I was drawn into Edie's life and her struggles to fit in and do her job.

Edie's a surprisingly novel sort of heroine. She's kind of a screw up--she makes mistakes that endanger patients and coworkers, she makes questionable personal decisions, she has random unprotected sex...But she has a good heart, too, and she means well, and she's terribly easy to relate to. At every turn, I could easily see myself making the same fatal errors.

Among the secondary characters, we meet a zombie and a shapeshifter--both potential love interests, predictably. But the zombie is really different from your typical UF hero, and I found myself very intrigued by him. He's not at all attractive, for one, with lots of scars. I hope to see more of him as the series progresses.

The biggest problem with the book is that, outside of the hospital the plot mostly drags. It is not nearly as inspired, and the mystery is not something I could force myself to care about.

Overall, this urban fantasy manages to stand out a bit because of the medical aspects and it's oddly appealing heroine. I hope for great things from this series. 4 stars.

On Snakes: A Review of Archangel's Storm by Nalini Singh

It would be impossible to review this book without mentioning the previous novels, and how very, very much I enjoyed them. Even book four, Archangel's Blade, who's hero I initially found terribly unappealing, managed to capture my full attention and more or less win me over. For this book the bar was set, if not overly high, at least well above the ground. It lives up to expectations quite nicely.

Jason overcame the most tragic of childhoods to become the most skilled spymaster known to angels or vampires. When the consort of archangel Neha is violently murdered, Jason is sent to investigate and prevent further bloodshed. But Neha will only allow Jason into her court under the condition that he swear a blood vow to the princess Mahiya.  The dark secret of Mahiya's birth has made her position in the court tenuous at best for her entire adult life. She longs to be free and start her own life out in the world. To earn this right, she plays the games of politics and survival.

Positive Comments

Going into this, I had no particularly strong feelings toward Jason one way or another, except that I knew he was all cool and mysterious. I really like him. He's got that tortured past, broken soul thing going on (love that), and yet he never gets really angsty. His abilities are beyond awesome, and they make the process of solving the mystery more intriguing.

I also really liked Mahiya. She's smart and brave, but she isn't the fighting alpha heroine that we've seen in the previous novels. Refreshing, yes? I like that she consciously tried to remain kind despite the cruelty around her.

I really liked the relationship building. I felt that Jason and Mahiya were well matched and had excellent chemistry. Their interactions never stuck me as cheesie. The sex scenes were hot and sweet, but did not devour the plot.

I ended up very drawn into the plot and finding out what was going on with the murder and the politics of the court. Even after you figure it out, the tension remains.

Critical Comments

 

My only real disappointment with this book was the resolution of the action/mystery plot. Of course I can't actually explain to you why I found it unsatisfactory (this being a spoiler free review). Suffice it to say, there's a build up to a moment that should have been a BIG DEAL, both in terms of character development for one of our protagonists and in terms of the overarching plot of the series...but then the guns are lowered and everyone goes home to fight another day. I already feel like that's saying to much, so...yeah, did not like that ending.

Recommendation

 

Paranormal romance fans, if you haven't read this series, go do it. Go do it now. You can thank me later. Oh, just one caution though, they are extremely gory. Some chapters are more like a horror novel than anything, so if you aren't cool with blood I'd avoid these. Otherwise, go get yourself a copy of Angels' Blood. 

For fans of this series, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I found myself pleased with it, and I think you will too. Of course, I think many of us are waiting for Illium's story, but until then...4 stars for this book.

Follow Friday 9/21/12

 

Q: What hyped up book do you think was not worth all the talk?

 

Existing readers can already guess my answer. Twilight. Dear God, Twilight. By the time it came out, I had like five years of paranormal romance under my belt and so when I read that (or actually, listened to the audio book I think), I just couldn't. I was like "Yeah, it's a romance novel with a really douchey hero. Been there, seen that..." I think what made it worse were all of the people telling me that I "just don't get it", and also arguing the point that it is, in fact, a romance novel.  No, I get it. I understand the appeal. But I like my romance novels to have likeable MCs, relationship building, and satisfying endings. Thanks.

End rant.

Books that were worth the hype?

Hunger Games was not as good as people said, but it was still good. Anna and the French Kiss surpassed my expectations. Divergent was decent. I'm sure there's others...

On Revenants: A Review of Redlisted by Sara Beaman

I should start by saying that I turn down and ignore a lot of vampire novels these days. There are too many of them and I'm too jaded to review them fairly. That happens with any sub-genre--after a few dozen, you need to take a break or you will lose your mind. So, obviously, what enticed me to read this book was not the vampires.

Redlisted is the story of Kate, who cannot recognize her own face or remember who she really is. She finds that she needs blood to keep going, and becomes dependent of Adam (a revenant) to supply it to her. She and Adam (along with a cast of secondary characters), try to recover Kate's memories while balancing between opposing vampire factions and trying to expose the truth about one evil vampire.

Positive Comments

As expected, the vampires weren't the hook for me in this book. What set it apart, what made it work for me, was the creepy, weird, and at times disorienting thriller story about a woman (Kate) who's very identity was taken from her. The style suits this perfectly, switching narrators and using gradually recovered memories to reveal the back story. Kate remembers things in reverse order, remembering a scene at a time, constantly raising more questions for the reader. That method of storytelling often works for me, as I find myself insatiably curious about how all of these events got started. There are downsides, but I'll get to that later.

Along with Kate's story, we are also shown how Adam came to be as he is. Vampire origin stories are a dime a dozen, aren't they? Yet, I felt that the author did a fair job of keeping this tired story line intriguing enough that I was able to get through it without much eye rolling, and I did start to feel some sympathy and concern for Adam.

Critical Comments

The downside to any amnesia story is that the remembering part of the plot takes over and leaves little room for moving forward with the character arc. In this particular story, I felt that it had the unfortunate side effect of making Kate rather hard to identify with. We don't know anything about her, and most of the memories that are recovered revolve around the conspiracy and the mystery. She's never given a proper personality. Really, she could be anyone. It took me awhile to figure out if I was reading about a girl in her teens, or a woman in her twenties or thirties. That's how flat the character development is.

The vampire politics,while interesting, add very little to the plot or tone of the story. It's all explained rather vaguely, and you'll be lucky to get a firm grasp on who's in charge and what is being done.

Recommendation

Thriller/horror/mystery fans, this one is for you. It's dark, creepy, and impossible to put down. It's very light on the romance and even lighter on the humor, so exercise caution if you lean toward either of those genres. Personally, I found this very readable, and I would be intrigued enough to read future books in the series. 3.5 stars. 

Guest Review from EggJosh: Soulless

Alrighty, so this time around, I'm talking about the manga adaptation of Soulless by Gail Carriger. I'm not a huge manga guy, but it still appealed to me on some level. So, let's get to it, and break down what did and didn't work in this book.

The Art
Being in the style of a Japanese graphic novel, I shouldn't comment on how it looks visually. Personally, I liked it. Being that the intended audience is clearly female, the art style tends to lean towards some of the "pretty boy" manga I'm at least slightly familiar with. There are plenty of effeminately drawn male characters; not typically my thing, but it fits with the paranormal romance feel of the story. The characters all looked very nice, and I liked the simplistically drawn 1-page side story at the very end as well. I feel that I have to mention the sheer amount of man-ass in this book. Since there's werewolves involved, there's plenty of male nudity, with strategically placed items to cover up dangly parts. Its accidentally kind of humorous the lengths they go to in order to cover up naughty bits.

"Yes, Basil! Nice rack!"

The Characters
The main character, Alexia Tarabotti, is a preternatural, meaning she has the unique ability of nullifying supernatural powers. She's a decent protagonist. Nothing really stands out about her. She's considered a "spinster" for being slightly too old to be single by Victorian standards, and has to try to keep up appearances while being wooed by the far more interesting Lord Conall Maccon, a werewolf who heads up a paranormal task force. Maccon and his sidekick have all the best lines, and his efforts to get Alexia are the best part of the story, compared to the murder and kidnapping plot.

The StoryAs I mentioned, the plot revolves around the appearance and murder of a rogue vampire. The story is nothing special, but the complications that arise from Alexia's efforts to "act normal" while still being a super useful, bad-ass vampire-killer are quite entertaining. There's also a humorous running gag about a hedgehog. The best part of the story is the interactions between the characters. Yes, there is plenty of action, but Maccon trying to court Alexia, as he would a female werewolf is great.

Final VerdictObviously I'm not the intended audience for this book, being a heterosexual, male non-manga-fan, but it didn't bore me. I read it in one sitting, and didn't regret doing so. If you can get it from the library, or borrow it from a friend, I say go for it. 3 stars

On Selkies: A Review of Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler

Alright people, you're about to get the very definition of a "mixed review". This book was ADORABLE, but boring. It had these great fantasy elements, but it was boring. It had an awesome, likeable heroine that I could relate to...but it was boring. See where I'm going with this?

Tempest Rising is book one in the ongoing Jane True series, which centers around a half-human, half-selkie (named Jane, of course). This book is mostly about her finding out what she really is, and discovering the world of the supernatural. This world includes gnomes and vampires and all manner of shape-shifters (awesome, right?) Jane also has a tragic past to come to terms with, and a more recent local murder mystery to solve. Enter Ryu, the sexy investigator with fangs, who enjoys being Jane's tour guide through the supernatural world (and getting into her pants).

Positive Comments

I liked Jane. She's sort of your average twenty-something, except for this one unusual ability (swimming in a near-frozen water). She's loved and lost, and gone through periods of depression, and been institutionalized, and survived everything. She's defenseless in this book, but her strength of will makes me think that she won't be for long. 

Loved the world building. I get so excited when I find books where demon dogs mingle with gnomes and kelpies.

I liked Ryu, and many of the other characters introduced...but God, I smell a love triangle coming, and I'm worried about that. While I felt that Jane was sexually attracted to Ryu, and that she enjoyed his attention in general, I didn't get that true love vibe from them. And that's fine. But yeah, if it turns into a love triangle I might have to kick a seal. (Commenters who have read further into the series should also know that I throw sharp objects at those who spoil things for me. You've been warned.)

Critical Comments

It's boring. Yeah, I know, I was surprised too. How jaded am I that I can be bored by a book that has selkies, sex, and murder? But seriously, just trust me on this, the plot drags after a certain point. The pacing sucks big time. There isn't much to the murder investigation, and we aren't even introduced to the murderer until 3/4 of the book is over. There's a lot of Jane and Ryu having sex, Jane trying on fancy clothing, Jane thinking about things, Jane's libido talking to her...

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of talking libidos or talking hormones. Am I alone here? Do other women have horny feelings that manifest in the form of voices in their head telling them to hump things? This is a minor pet peeve, but it's one of those little details that just gets under my skin. There are other ways to let your reader know that the character is feeling...amorous.

Recommendation

I was so charmed by so many things about this book, that it's hard not to recommend it, even though I found a good chunk of it hard to get through. I'm tempted to say that this book just has "first book" woes, and now that the world is all set up, the next books will be better. But I don't know yet. So what I will say, is that I liked it enough to order book 2, and we'll see how it goes from there. I offer a cautious positive recommendation to the patient urban fantasy reader. 3 stars. 

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 Karma: A Review of A Good Man by Vanessa Morgan

This is a slightly odd one. When the author of A Good Man asked me to do a review, I was intrigued. The story sounded compelling, and even though is is a screenplay and not a novel (way outside my comfort zone) I really wanted to read it. So I did. But reviewing it is hard because it's so wildly different from my usual experiences that I have nothing to compare it to. Forgive a little rambling?

This is, in fact, the English translation of a French screenplay that I understand will be made into a film soon. The story is of Louis, a vampire who was turned at the age of 55. Being older, her suffers from things like arthritis and wrinkles--none of the usual advantages of being a vampire. Still, he tries to be a good guy. He makes friends and helps people. He feeds the homeless and is a vegetarian. But does that make up for the people he murders in his vampiric thirst?

Positive Comments

Taken as a whole, this is an undeniably chilling story. It asks us to empathize and pity a killer, and it succeeded in a lot of ways. I felt sorry for Louis, who's life was so entirely miserable. I wanted him to find a way to do the right thing, whatever that means, and my heart sunk when I realized that he couldn't or wouldn't.

The story is well paced, giving us exactly enough information to understand the story without overwhelming us with details.

Critical Comments

Well...hmm. Here's the thing. My number one criticism would normally be "awkward dialogue", but the fact that this was a translation leads me to believe that the translation process, not the writing, is what made it awkward. So...the dialogue is bad, at times, but I don't think that's the author's fault.

In all honesty I must admit that I really didn't like this story. Not because it's poorly written, but based purely on personal taste and gut reaction. The theme of the story is trying to overcome one's nature in order to be good. But what does "good" really mean? Instead of answering this question, the story shows a lot of irony and bad luck and bad judgement, topped off with the most depressing ending possible. Again, it's clever, it's well executed, but it's not to my liking.

Recommendation

If you are comfortable with reading a screenplay, and one that has clearly been translated, and if you like dark horror stories, go for it. I personally would not recommend this one to readers who share my taste. But there is nothing wrong with it to make me warn you off of it, either. 2.5 stars.

Buy from Amazon: A Good Man

On Bonded Males: A Review of Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

In a recentish review, I mentioned how I'll forgive an awful lot of flaws in a book, or even a series, as long as it makes me care. Well, that turns out to be the case with J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books. After 9 books of this stuff, I've developed a good strong Bullshit Shield that helps me tolerate all of Ward's writing...shit. The weird gangsta/fake old world speak? Bounces right off the BS shield. Mildly anti-feminist themes? Bounce. Constantly shifting POV? Bounce! Irrational and contrived relationships? BOUNCE! Tohr has to sleep with another female in order to free his dead shellan and son from purgatory?CRACK!

Damn it, Ward, you broke my BS shield! That is the dumbest, most contrived premise or plot line I have ever heard of outside of Twilight! How am I supposed to get through this book now?

But get through it I did, and you know what? It wasn't that awful. Yes, the premise is that Tohr has to move on in order for Wellsie to get to the Fade and be at peace. And somehow this gets interpreted (or possibly misinterpreted), as he needs to get with a new lady friend. He and No'One have some history, and he likes her, so they start sharing a bed, and the story goes on from there. And somehow Ward made it work, for the most part.

Positive Comments

I was touched by the process of Tohr working through his pain and his grief. It's raw and gritty and realistic. I like the way that No'One gets him through this. She's not even fully aware of exactly how she's healing him. She just knows that she cares for him, and she's willing to sacrifice anything for him. Tohr thinks he's using No'One, but falls in love with her by accident. I thought the relationship-building was touching, romantic, and not overly sweet.

I liked the John Matthew/Xhex subplot, which basically involves Xhex wanting to continue fighting and John grappling with his instincts as a bonded male. Intellectually, he wants her to have her freedom, but he can't get past his gut reactions. That made a lot of sense to me, and I can appreciate that Ward is at least aware, on some level, that her male characters are over protective to the point where it's not healthy. I'm just wondering why none of the other couples have had this issue, but...whatever. Bullshit shield.

Blay, Qhuinn...you guys get a free pass in this book. I complained in the last one that the Blay/Qhuinn thing was getting frustratingly drawn out, and that's still true. What made the difference, I think, is seeing both of them at least begin to acknowledge what they really want, both in their relationship with one another and their lives in general. All of which I saw coming, by the way. I can't talk about it though, this is a spoiler free zone.

Critical Comments

The Xcor subplot was the periodic endurance test of this book. It was what I had to push through to get back to the things I actually care about. I'm not a fan of Ward's villain POV habit.

Layla continues to be unlikeable. I don't hate her, but if she got shot in the face I wouldn't mourn her. The problem is, I think she's supposed to be sympathetic, and she really isn't.

Did I mention the overall plot doesn't make any sense? I can't figure out why anyone would look at the facts presented and conclude that the solution to freeing someone from purgatory is sex...or even falling in love again. Why couldn't Tohr move on independently? Why does moving on mean replacing your dead wife? Don't get me wrong, I like Tohr and No'One together, but...NONE OF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE.

Recommendation

It's very readable. It does not suck. It's better than the last book (which in my opinion was barely average). If you've been putting up with Ward's writing for this long, I doubt this will be the book to break you, silly though that premise is. It's very emotional, the main characters are likeable, and the story is romantic. 3.5 stars.

On Suffering Witches: A Review of One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost

Oh my gosh, Helsing is on the cover! 

 

Six books in, Cat and Bones continue to amuse my inner urban fantasy nerd. I'm so glad to see that this series hasn't yet become stale despite it's age.

Fabian, Cat's ghost friend, has a crush on fellow ghost Elisabeth. But Elisabeth's afterlife is wholly consumed by the goal of killing or entrapping Heinrich Kramer, the ghost of an infamous witch hunter. Since his death, Kramer has maintained his sociopathic attitude toward women, haunting and tormenting them. After so many years, he has gained the ability to become solid for a day, and every year on Halloween he captures, rapes, and burns alive three women. Cat must use her unique abilities to beat this murdering ghost at his own game.

Positive Comments

 We already know the characters, we know the back story, we know the world. There's nothing to stop the author from just telling a story, simple and satisfying, with very little explanation required. That's one of the advantages of being six books deep in a series.

Who doesn't like a good ghost story? I enjoyed having such a plainly evil, villainous villain at the center of the story. He's the kind of bad guy that you love to hate. You want to see him defeated, and see him suffer.

Cat and Bones are still super hot together. Frost writes excellent love scenes that manage to be sexy and romantic. And terribly improbable.

Critical Comments

It's predictable. There was nothing in the plot that I didn't see coming, even the things that were built up to be a surprise.

There are a lot of rather useless characters. Some from past books, which I think the author feels compelled to throw in because they are reader favorites. Some that were new. I couldn't really figure out, for example, why Ian was there or if Cat's mom really served a purpose (I guess she never does).

There are subplots that go nowhere. We learn that following Don's death, the secret organization Cat used to work for has been turned over to a government idiot. I guess this is set up for future books? I'm not sure, but it all seemed a bit out of place to me.

Recommendation

Once again, I recommend starting and continuing The Night Huntress series. It has a good balance of urban fantasy and romance, clever plot lines, and lots of action. 3.5 stars.

On Ghouls: A Review of This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

This Side of the Grave is book 5 in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress books. I found book four to be deeply frustrating for a number of reasons (listed here), and so I approached this one wearily.

The main plot of this book involves the threat of a war between vampires and ghouls. Cat's unique abilities and position in the supernatural world place her in the middle of the conflict. In an effort to minimize the bloodshed, she and Bones go to the ghoul queen of New Orleans for help. There Cat learns that her abilities have only just begun to show, and she must fight to keep from being overwhelmed by power even as she tries to end the oncoming war.

Positive Comments

Cat showed a maturity in this book that I didn't see in the previous books. She's come a long way since book one, and it's nice to finally see all of that development realized. Cat's relationship with Bones has likewise matured. And there's still a lot of sex, which I understand might be a negative for some readers, but it's a positive for me.

I like the mythology. You don't see ghouls in too many books. It seems like they fall in line with zombies--second class monsters that are often the villains but rarely the heroes. Frost's ghouls are a little more multidimensional. As a result, the plot engaging.

Critical Comments

My main criticism is just that after 5 books, Frost has ceased to surprise me. Even on the first read through, this book felt familiar, and just shy of predictable. I think the problem stems from having a character evolve over 5 books and so many years, and having many of the changes that she goes through be so drastic. You hit a point where you really don't have anything left to do to that character that readers won't see coming, and where the outcome is not totally apparent from page 1. And that was how this book felt to me. In each book Cat goes through a big trauma, but Frost is running out of things to traumatize her with.

 Overall, this is still a great series. I enjoyed this book, and I do intend to read the next one. 4 stars.