October 2012 reads

Not the greatest month. Even the best ones were only Bs (not even a measly B+!), and I had more C+s than usual.


Thicker Than Blood, by Meljean Brook: B
review coming soon

Short story in the First Blood anthology, one I'd missed the first time around. It tells the story of Annie, a vampire, and the man she loved before her transformation separated them. It's set in the Guardians universe, but a bit separate, with the characters we know and love making only cameo appearances. I didn't mind, it was a good one.


Murder At The Vicarage, by Agatha Christie: B
review here

Audiobook of the first Miss Marple. The body of a horrid man no one likes is found shot in the vicarage. The police investigate, but it's Miss Marple who sees all the clues. Miss Marple is not quite the full character she develops into, but she's still great. Interesting case, too, even if the solution is a bit overcomplex.


One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing, by Jasper Fforde: B
review coming soon

6th in the Thursday Next series. Hostilities are about to break out between Racy Novel and its neighbours, Women's Fiction and Feminism, and Thursday is the only one who can ensure peace negotiations are successful. Problem is, Thursday has disappeared, and the written Thursday, the person/character who plays her in the books, is the only one who can find her. Fun, fun, fun!


Nightfire, by Lisa Marie Rice: B
review coming soon

Third and last in LMR's The Protectors series, and really is Mike very protective of his friend Harry's long-lost little sister, especially when she gets targeted by Russian hit men. Not my favourite by the author, but I did get what I was here for: the hero's total devotion towards the heroine.


A Matter of Class, by Mary Balogh: B-
review coming soon

Wastrel young man forced by his Cit father to marry compromised young woman, daughter of a nobleman in financial trouble (who, in turn, is forcing her to marry). More to this than it appears at first sight. What Balogh tries to do here is quite clever, but it didn't quite work for me in its execution.


Three Fates, by Nora Roberts: B-
original review here

One of Nora's 3-in-1 books. We follow 3 couples falling in love as they travel the world in search of 3 little statues of the Fates. Honestly, I've no idea why, out of all the NRs I've adored, I picked this one to reread. It's not bad, but I didn't think it was great when I first read it, and I actually liked it a little bit less this time.

I did really like the friendship between the women and Tia's character arc (she goes from completely pathetic to a brave woman taking control of her own life in a way that felt natural). The secondary characters are good, and the plot is clever. However, I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the couples (in fact, smug Rebecca and Jack annoyed the hell out of me), and the gender dynamics felt a bit more old-fashioned than usual with NR. Jack's first wife was... *gasp*... a career woman who didn't want kids and didn't help his gran clear the table!


Divergent, by Veronica Roth: C+
review coming soon

Set in a world where people have organised society in factions based on one characteristic. The 16-year-old heroine grew up in Abnegation (the selfless), but it turns out she's "divergent", not clearly defined by a single characteristic. We follow her as she chooses which faction she'll spend the rest of her life in. The world-building is preposterous and the heroine can be really, really, really dense, but it's a page-turner, and strangely compelling. I doubt I'll read the next in the series, though.


Deja Dead, by Kathy Reichs: : C+
review here

Audiobook. Starts the Temperance Brennan series, of which I've read books 4 to 6. Tempe is a forensic anthropologist in Quebec, and this book sees her on the trail for a serial killer. Not too bad, and it's a real page-turner, but it did have a couple too many TSTL moments.


Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison: C+
review coming soon

Read for my book club. Futuristic, written in 1966, but set in 1999. Harrison imagines a world on the edge of catastrophe due to overpopulation, and sets a noir-ish police investigation there. Interesting example of how much a futuristic reflects the time in which it was written. Liked the world-building, not so much the story.


Pushing The Limits, by Katie McGarry: DNF
review coming soon

YA novel. Good girl / bad boy romance. Both main characters are outcasts in school, and have quite big issues to work through, setting things up for loads of angst. I read maybe a quarter of this one, and it didn't really capture my attention. Mostly, it felt very high-schooley, and that does not appeal to me AT ALL. I need a bit more maturity in a romance.


Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife, by Mary Roach: still reading
review coming soon

Also published as Spook in the US, Six Feet Over explores all sorts of issues related to death and what happens right after. Fascinating, full of material I didn't know and had never wondered about. Still not completely sure about Roach's writing style, though.