3 Books in April

In April I made an attempt to read True Beauty by the plus-size model Emme. The book came out in the 90s so it could be considered outdated, but the conversational style was good. I didn't finish the book, something I'm doing all too often lately. Even my tried and true - go to books aren't really holding my attention these days. True Beauty was no different. I got about half way through it and still didn't feel like I'd learned anything new. The message basically said you can't lose weight and get healthy until you're comfortable with yourself and love the skin you're in no matter what size you are.

I do believe you have to love yourself and be comfortable with yourself in order to be truly beautiful, but Emme didn't give me any real suggestions on how to go about coming to terms with your weight, your body, and realigning your body image to something more positive than negative. So that was a bit of a disappointment.

In addition to True Beauty, I also picked up Dark Possession & Dark Prince, both by Christine Feehan. I actually finished both of these novels and enjoyed them even though I read them out of order.

Dark Possession is the latest in Christine Feehan's Carpathian series. In this one Carpathian hunter Manolito sets his sites on MaryAnn, a therapist from Seattle that his sister in law hired to help a young woman in her family. During their rocky courtship Manolito struggles against his own dark nature as well as curiosities in MaryAnn's. She is a great heroine, one with flaws and personality quirks that make her much more three dimensional than many romance heroines. Erotic and suspenseful, I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good vampire novel with a twist.

It was because of the twist I tracked down Dark Prince, which is the first of the Carpathian books. Much of the book is devoted to setting up the Carpathian society, how the Carpathians differ from the vampires of legend, and the long term conflict between the Carpathians and the human vampire hunters that want to eradicate them. I didn't enjoy Dark Prince as much as Dark Possession, though it was a fun read. While Mikhail the leader of the Carpathians is an interesting character and his flaws are touched on and given enough screen time to make him into more than just a cardboard hero, I didn't get the same sense of Raven, the heroine. She was a bit flat to me - good and kind, virginal, filled with innocence despite the horrors she's witnessed while helping the police on different cases. A little too perfect for my tastes. I was much more interested in the scenes between Mikhail and the other Carpathians, their personalities were fascinating and I enjoyed the banter and report they shared. I've bought the second book in the series, Dark Desire, but haven't had the opportunity to read it yet. Looking forward to it though.

Dime Store Magic

The third book in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Other World series was fantastic. In Stolen, the narrator Paige Winterbourne came across as pushy and arrogant, in Dime Store Magic she comes into her own. The reader gets to see her as an idealist who wants to bring the North American Witches Coven into the 21st century as well as a young woman struggling against the loss of her mother and the added responsibility of taking care of Savannah, a 13 year old orphan.

When Savannah's biological father is told about her whereabouts he brings forth a paternity suit. The elders of the coven want Paige to give Savannah up because the child is too willful and lacks the strict morality of the coven. Since Paige's mother entrusted Savannah to her care, Paige is unwilling to abandon her. Instead she fights the paternity suit and deals with the reprecussions Savannah's father throws at her.

This is the first book in this series without Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in existence, as a major character. While she does make a couple of brief cameos due to being friends with Paige, it is obvious from the first page that this book isn't about Elena and she isn't vital to the story. The series and the world it's set in gets a little bigger through this distinction and it makes you wonder who else might wind up as the main character. Could we see stories about Cassandra the vampire? Or Leah the half-demon? I rather doubt we'll see a book about Leah, she's a bit too much the villian in this one.

The pacing in this book is good and the characterizations work well. Paige, Savannah, and the new character Cortez are all fully fleshed out. I enjoyed the characters and even warmed up to Paige, a character I did not care for in the previous book Stolen. I was disturbed by the way the coven members turned their back on Paige and Savannah during the conflicts of this book, that showed a severe failing in the coven itself.

Kelly Armstrong has created a wonderful world that is just different enough from our own to make it recognizable and yet fantastic at the same time. Her characters are interesting with flaws and insecurities as well as great power at their fingertips. I highly recommend her books to any lovers of paranormal stories.

Stolen

Just by looking through the titles found on this site it should be no surprise that I enjoy paranormal mysteries/romance novels. A couple of years ago I read the book Bitten by Kelly Armstrong. Was a good book with plenty of werewolves, suspense, family dynamics, engaging characters, oh and of course a bit of romance. I had a hard time warming up to the main character, Elena, at first but after the first three chapters or so I was hooked and by the time I was done I throughly enjoyed Elena's sarcastic sense of humor and was pleasently intrigued by her mate Clayton.

This month I picked up the second book in Armstrong's "Women of the Otherworld" series Stolen and enjoyed it even more than I enjoyed Bitten. In Stolen we meet up with Elena, Clayton and thier Pack Alpha Jeremy. Someone's kidnapping supernaturals and it's up to Elena and her allies to find out who it is and stop it. The story moves at a good pace and new characters are introduced that are a lot of fun, particularly Adam, a half-demon that's actually very sweet. Stolen also introduces readers to Paige Winterbourne, the young sometimes arrogant witch that will lead The Coven. Paige also happens to be the narrator of the third book in the series Dime Store Magic. That one's waiting for me at home.

Stolen is a good read if you enjoy supernatural stories the way I do. If you have an interest in Werewolves and pack dynamics you'll love it.

I have two books on my plate for this month, Dime Store Magic and The Time-Traveler's Wife, which I'm reading for the Book-A-Month Challenge. If I finish those two I'm going to check out The Other Boelyn Girl as I've been told it is absolutely fantastic. Look for those reviews in the coming weeks and keep on reading!

Fire Me Up

Fire Me Up is the second book in Aisling’s series and brings back all the enjoyable characters from the first book such as Jim, the demon in a Newfoundland’s body, Rene the mysterious French cab driver that’s always in the right spot to get Aisling out of a jam. And of course you can’t forget the captivating leader of the Green Dragon Sept, Drake. When the book opens, Aisling is certain that Drake is out of her life forever, but like she does with most things in the supernatural world she now inhabits, she doesn’t take her place as his claimed mate seriously. And that’s Aisling’s biggest problem. She’s entered into this world within a world, the supernatural underworld filled with demons, witches, dragons, wizards, and all sort of other creatures that make up our best folklore. She’s out of her depth and in Fire Me Up she is trying to learn more so she can understand this world she now inhabits. But the problem is, she doesn’t take it seriously enough. She only goes so far down the path to understanding before she allows love, life, or a mystery to distract her and it hurts her position with the green dragons, the Guardians she tries to petition for training, and the supernatural community (known as the Otherworld) as a whole.

The book is highly entertaining and readers get to learn so much more about the Otherworld and the Dragon Septs, which was a highlight for me. But throughout the book I couldn’t help but be disappointed in Aisling, her personality is great and I love the chemistry between her and the dragons. But as much as I like her, her attitude towards this world she’s a part of is far too flip. She’s learned just enough to get herself into trouble, but has natural talent (and luck) to get herself out again. She doesn’t consider the consequences very well. Makes for interesting but frustrating reading at times.

What frustrates me the most is when Drake shows up and does his best to make sure Aisling will honor her duties as his Mate during a conclave of the Dragon Septs, she has to make a choice and sadly, she never really does. She wants Drake and wants to help him, but she doesn’t really listen when she’s told that the role of a Mate, a role she willingly accepted, was far more important that she realized. A Wyvern (sept leader)’s mate is more than just his lover or wife, a Mate is an advisor, ruler, and partner; someone who needs to be focused on the Sept’s welfare and interests. It’s a lot to take in and Aisling just doesn’t get it. The consequences of her actions in the previous book are brought to light and she has a very steep learning curve by the end. I’m hoping to see an added bit of maturity in her dealings with the Sept in Light My Fire, the third book of the series.

If you enjoy quirky paranormal mysteries like the Southern Vampire series, and you enjoy feisty heroines like Sookie Stackhouse, you can’t go wrong with Aisling Grey.

Living Dead in Dallas

Another from my Summer of Charlaine selection! (I really didn't intend to have an over-arching theme for the summer, but what can you do?)


Second in the Southern Vampire Series, Living Dead in Dallas is all about how Sookie's gift of telepathy is used by Vampire regent Eric as a favor to his counterpart in Dallas. One of the Dallas vampires has gone missing and Eric expects Sookie to be able to help find him. Instead she makes an impression on the vampires, the humans that want to rid the world of vampires, and the shapshifters she didn't even know existed. No matter what, Sookie's life is nothing if not interesting.

This one is fun, but by taking Sookie and Bill out of Bon Temps, I lost a little enjoyment because the supporting characters weren’t there. Sookie is great in any setting, but Bill just doesn’t hold my attention and even still his screen time was very limited so I had to get used to a new set of supporting characters, which we may never see again. With Living Dead I discovered that Bill isn’t on my top three favorite characters list since he tends to be a bit too cold and removed from Sookie in many ways. While I think this works really well for this character that’s forgotten what it means to be human it doesn’t endear him to me that much. The fact that he tries to see things from her point of view and sometimes will react a bit more like a regular guy is interesting, but when he shares the page with the more outrageous and charming Eric, Bill simply pales. Perhaps if I’d read the first novel before Dead to the World I wouldn’t think so, but Eric won me over in the fourth book. Still, even with the sadly dull and remote Bill, Living Dead in Dallas is a fun and enjoyable book.

Quick Status Update: The past couple of weeks have been hectic and my promised review per week simply hasn't occured. This week I'm planning on catching up with all the June reviews so I can start on the July reviews next week. While I don't intend on flooding the blogosphere I do want to catch up so I can review the books I'm currently reading rather than wracking my brain to remember what happened and exactly how I felt with the last few. Two more reviews for June then it's on to July!

Dead Until Dark

Charlaine Harris introduces the world to a new reality with Dead Until Dark. The first of the Southern Vampire series, Ms. Harris tells us about how Vampires have always been all around us, but thanks to a Japanese creation of synthetic blood now they can come out of the coffin, so to speak. With that one detail readers are whisked away into the world of Sookie Stackhouse and the small town of Bon Temps, LA.



With the first novel of a series a writer has to throw a lot of information at readers while still gaining their attention and interest in the characters. Setting up a environment, a world so similar to the "real world" with only one or two differences could be glossed over, but that's not what happens. Instead readers are shown (instead of just told) the dangers to both vampires and humans. Along the way you meet Bill the Vampire, Sam Merlote - Sookie's boss and occasional star of fantasies, her womanizing brother Jason, and a cast of characters that you enjoy visiting in other books in the series. Sookie is a reluctant sleuth, but she is a brave one. She sets out to figure out who's causing a series of murders in Bon Temps with only the smallest hesitation. Her humor and outlook on life are fun additions to the story and will keep you coming back to the series.



Two books down, thirteen more to go before September 1st.