Review: Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks

Holy mother, this book was good. I thought The Way of Shadows was good, but it was nothing compared to this one! Weeks really hit his stride in this volume of the story, and I absolutely loved every minute of it.

It’s been a long time since I got really emotionally drawn into a good old fashioned fantasy trilogy. I don’t know when exactly it happened, but this series definitely broke that dry spell. I don’t remember feeling quite so emotionally attached to the characters while reading The Way of Shadows.. And I’m not quite sure when exactly I became attached to them. I didn’t even realize I was attached to them until… Well I can’t say what it was, because that would spoil it, and I’d determined to make this a spoiler free review. But the thingy thing I’m talking about? I did not see it coming at all, and my heart was instantly broken. That’s when I realized this characters had become real to me, and there was no turning back.

And damn. The twist in the epilogue? Did not see that coming either. There was just so much good in this book.. I want to gush and gush about all of the things I loved about it, but I don’t want my review to be full of spoilers, so I’m forcing myself to hold back.

Bottom line – if you liked the first book, you won’t be disappointed by this one. In fact, I think you’ll be pretty damn impressed by it. It’s not often that I end up rating the second in a series higher than the first in the series, but it’s happening with Night Angel. Five stars…. And now I have to wrap this up, so I can get to reading book three!

Review: The Troll Hunter by Keith C. Blackmore

A warrior with a secret. A band of cutthroats. And a monster of legend.

A morning that no one wanted. Battle rusty from the war infirmaries, a company of Sujins are ordered to march north through a war torn country, guarding a mysterious koch. They are whipped by the murderous Rusk the Two Knife and led by the enigmatic Bloor, the only cavalier to survive the Field of Skulls.

Together, they will march into the unknown, and arrive at the teeth of hell.

And only one man will possess the skills necessary to bring the survivors back.

A tale of heroic fantasy. Some graphic violence and language.

Trolls – mindless, destructive monsters, driven by their hunger and willing to eat any living thing – especially humans. Terrorizing the countryside and any towns they cross, trolls kill and eat all the humans they can. From far and wide, people travel to locate The Troll Hunters – the only men able to track and kill these man-eating beasts. How did these men become Troll Hunters and what motivates them? This is their story.

That little summary above is a lot closer to what the book is about than the actual blurb. But even then it really doesn’t tell the reader what the book is about before the reader picks it up. And that is the major problem I had with this book – the description of the book does not give the reader any real clue as to what is going on. A friend recommended this book to me – telling me that it was very like David Eddings (one of my favorite authors).

If I had to try to compare this book or author to anyone I would say that Keith C. Blackmore and The Troll Hunter is a lot closer to Glen Cook and The Black Company. This is Military fantasy without any magic…just a really big and really bad troll. Not an evil troll, just destructive and hungry. So, I really wasn’t expecting Military Fiction…and I’ve been a bit of a moody reader lately. I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. The book is very well written and I did enjoy it…I just wasn’t expecting it.

Quickie: Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

People with parental issues should stay away. It’s full of bad parents who are forcing themselves on their traumatized adult kids – with overtones of the kids should just forgive all the crappy parenting (or lack thereof) simply because the parents are now “better.” Fuck that.

The ending was exactly what I was fearing. Everyone resolved all their mommy and daddy issues and became a happy family.

Those of us with families know that family issues don’t just get resolved like that. I was kinda annoyed with how easy it was for the HEA for everyone.

The beginning was rather funny but as more asshole parents and family members showed up, I stopped having so much fun.

But I did love Nina. She was great.

So. The book was ok. A lot more fun for other people than for me. I think I can see this one going to my mom.

I keep asking myself why I gave this three stars. Maybe I should lower the rating? hmmmm….

Review: Always by Carol Rose

Always (or “The Angry Heroine”) by Carol Rose

The Blurb:
Elinor Prescott has come home at last…to Oakleigh, the gracious antebellum mansion that was home to generations of her Southern family. But the beautiful old house is a near-ruin and she can’t afford to restore it. Elinor hopes to find a buyer who will cherish the home as she does. But she has one rule–she won’t sell to handsome, self-made millionaire Cole Whittier.

Cole has the locals upset over his plans to build a factory nearby and Elinor’s leading the opposition. He’s got a fight on his hands to convince the stubborn beauty of the merits of his plans–and of everything else he discovers he wants to offer her.

It’s up to Cole to persuade Elinor to see things from his perspective. The sexy industrialist is convinced that Elinor is well worth winning over.

I had a lot of problems with this book. There are a lot of good ideas but the bad execution destroys a lot of that promise. The story should have been right up my alley…but I found myself wanting to toss this book across the room on several different occasions. I also found myself putting it down and not coming back for long periods of time. In fact, I had to force myself to finish. That’s never a good sign. This book is in need of a good editor, STAT.*

I think that a lot of my issues with this book deals with characterization and the lack of character growth. Elinor was just too…angry throughout the entire book. She was mad about this, mad about that…yelling and screaming and flinging accusations left and right. With all of her explosions…I never once thought of her as feisty or as a spitfire – she was just plain annoying as hell and slightly unlikeable. I’d see her as more of a nag and really couldn’t understand why Cole liked her. I felt sad for him that he was dating her.

There was very little emotional or sexual tension between the hero and heroine. I saw Cole try and try with her…but all I saw from Elinor was anger and reverse snobbishness. In fact, by the end of the book I was so sick and freaking tired of her money issues that I wanted to shove some money down her throat so she could choke on it. Most people – especially Americans – respect riches that are the result of hard work. Cole came from nothing and did it all himself…but the reader is subjected to Elinor’s angry money issues time and time again.

While still carping on Elinor’s anger issues, lol, I wanted to say that her anger made it hard for me to believe the story. WHY would Cole want to marry her?? WHAT had she done beside be a bitch? I never saw any real growth in their relationship that would make me feel that leap was possible. I can’t even remember Elinor instigating affection between the two of them.

The only point that Elinor had in her favor was that Cole lied to her – by omission – about being the anonymous buyer of her grandfather’s house. And then he kept up that lie throughout the entire book…which – of course – clues the reader in to the final “big misunderstanding” that the couple will have (much too early).

And the ending. Wow. It just made me so angry. Wow, so angry.

*Note: a good editor is NOT a proof reader.

Review: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

I was pretty bored during the entire first third of this. I almost gave it up several times, just because it was taking me so long to dredge through it. I wasn’t digging the plot or the characters, I just didn’t think the premise was “my thing”. Science fiction, sky pirates… Sounded weird to me. But I’m really glad I stuck with it. The characters grew on me, the plot stepped it up, and I got sucked in. Hell, I got so emotionally attached to the characters that I almost teared up in one spot. I’m not a crier when I read books, so almost tearing up is a pretty big deal.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

This book was nothing at all like I expected it to be. I’ll admit that I thought it was going to be a kind of ‘carnival-freak’ book, where all the weirdness is exploited and glamorized into something sexy and cool, but it wasn’t like that at all. And I’m very glad that it wasn’t.

Review: The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach

Imagine spending your entire life devoted to the creation of one thing, just one item.

Your every moment spent hunched over, toiling away on it every single day. Every aspect of your life, your wife and children, all are dedicated to this one single endeavor. Your town, your nation, your entire planet geared towards this undertaking.

And when you’re done, when you’ve completed this lifelong task, you give the item to your son to sell. The money he makes from that sale go towards his own lifelong quest to do the same thing you’ve done and create his own lifetime-spent masterpiece.

And this goes on for untold generations. Never changing, never varying, never getting easier. Day in and day out, toiling away the hours and devoting an entire life to a single item.

All in the name of your God-Emperor, for what you create is for his glory and happiness.

The item in question? The one you and your ancestors for generations have each spent entire lifetimes creating? What magnificent masterpiece could ever require such a devotion of each persons entire existence?

Romance Shorthand

As I write more reviews for romance novels…I notice that I end up with a lot of abbreviations. The abbreviations come in at the fact that most romance novels have similar tropes and activities that are easily summed up in three words or less…which then lead to abbreviations.

I realize I am not going to stop using these abbreviations – so I thought I’d give you a list to refer to in times of need. 😉

HEA = Happily Ever After
HFN = Happy For Now
TSTL = Too Stupid To Live
H/h = Hero/Heroine (or Heroine/hero)

*Note: This list will be updated as needed. Or requested.

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

Welcome to Temptation is a fun book! This short book has as many plot turns as an epic fantasy novel so it’s rather hard to summarize. Here’s the blurb:

Sophie Dempsey wants to help her sister film a video and then get out of Temptation, Ohio. Mayor Phin Tucker wants to play pool with the police chief and keep things peaceful. But when Sophie and Phin meet, they both get more than they want. Gossip, blackmail, adultery, murder, vehicular abuse of a corpse, and slightly perverse but excellent sex: all hell breaks loose in Temptation as Sophie and Phin fall deeper and deeper in trouble… and in love.

This is my third Jennifer Crusie book and I think I made a slight miscalculation. This book is fun and silly but it’s not quite as good as the first books I read. I think I cherry picked the best of the group first and it won’t get better from here until the next new release. The good part is that I felt this was a four star read…so I’m not really missing too much!

I really did enjoy this book. This book is set in a small town in the middle of Ohio – Temptation. The reader gets both the good and the bad parts of [this] small town life. A lot of romances that focus on small towns always try to make the small town the pinnacle of the American Way. What I loved about this book is that Crusie was able to show that small town life worked for some of her characters but was completely horrible for others. Crusie did not place small towns on a pedestal – she made them just as fallible as any location to live. I really enjoyed that.

Another thing I liked was that Phin didn’t sneak around with Sophie. There were lots of discreet moments…but when you’re a single dad trying to screw someone’s brains out, you have to be somewhat circumspect. But he didn’t try to hide Sophie and his relationship with Sophie from any adult or from his kid once he realized his kid already knew.

“I suppose you had to,” Wes said when Phin went back to join him at the table.
“Pretty much. She seduced me.”
“Yeah, right,” Wes said. “She said, ‘Please fix the kitchen drain,’ and you interpreted that–”
“She said, ‘Fuck me.’ ” Phin put two balls on the table and picked up his cue. “I interpreted that to mean she wanted sex.”
“Oh.” Wes picked up his cue. “That would have been my call, too.” He squinted at the table. “Why would she have said that?”
“On a guess? Because she wanted sex.”

Sophie and Phin were great characters and I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop. Also enjoyable is the fact that Crusie took the time to really flesh out her secondary characters. Again. Damn I love this author! I received an actual full cast of characters instead of two characters (the H/h) and a bunch of cardboard cut-outs. Delicious!

I’m also starting to really get a kick out of the Crusie’s book covers. So far all of them employ a visual symbol of a reoccurring theme or item in the book. In Bet Me the item are shoes, in Agnes and the Hitman it’s flamingos and in this book it’s a cherry. Very cool. The academic in me wants to cast symbolic meaning to these items…but this is fun so I fight that urge.

Four Stars and another good read! I really have to stop buying her books this year. I think I’m going broke, lol.

Review: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

This is definitely (in my humble opinion of course) the best of the Rain Wild Chronicles series so far. It’s still not quite at the Farseer/Liveship/Tawny Man level, but regardless, it’s at least a solid four star rating for me.

I’ll say this though.. It’s definitely only half of a story. Actually, it’s more like half of the second half of a story. Each book so far in the RWC series has been significantly shorter than normal Hobb novels, really the series probably could have been a two book duology and done better that way. The first two started and completed a story arc, and it seems like these two will as well. This one ends sort of abruptly, and I almost wish I hard waited for the last in the series to come out before I read it. It’s not necessarily a cliff hanger.. But neither are any story lines wrapped up. But still… It was a Hobb fix. And we all know I loves me some Hobb.

There’s really not much else to say. If you’re looking for reviews of this book, chances are you’ve read the first two, so you know what to expect. And if you haven’t read the first two, then you’re looking up the wrong review, you need to check out Dragon Keeper. And for that matter.. Even though this series does sort of stand alone, it definitely should be read after the Liveship series for maximum impact. But not before Tawny Man… And Liveship has to come after Farseer. Really though. Reading all of the books in order is well worth it. The Farseer Trilogy, then the Livership Trader books, then the Tawny Man series, and finally the Rain Wild Chronicles. Honestly… That’s the only way to go. You’re missing out if you skip straight here and read this as an independent series! Just saying.

Anyway, back to the review.. Four stars. This was an enjoyable continuation of the series, and I’m looking forward to the release of the last book.