The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, by Jennifer Ashley

TITLE: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie
AUTHOR: Jennifer Ashley

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 335
PUBLISHER: Leisure

SETTING: England, Scotland and France in late 19th century
TYPE: Historical romance
SERIES: Starts a quartet about the 4 brothers Mackenzie

REASON FOR READING: Good comments online, and I thought the hero sounded intriguing.

The year is 1881. Meet the Mackenzie family--rich, powerful, dangerous, eccentric. A lady couldn't be seen with them without ruin. Rumors surround them--of tragic violence, of their mistresses, of their dark appetites, of scandals that set England and Scotland abuzz.

The youngest brother, Ian, known as the Mad Mackenzie, spent most of his young life in an asylum, and everyone agrees he is decidedly odd. He's also hard and handsome and has a penchant for Ming pottery and beautiful women.

Beth Ackerley, widow, has recently come into a fortune. She has decided that she wants no more drama in her life. She was raised in drama--an alcoholic father who drove them into the workhouse, a frail mother she had to nurse until her death, a fussy old lady she became constant companion to. No, she wants to take her money and find peace, to travel, to learn art, to sit back and fondly remember her brief but happy marriage to her late husband.

And then Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

The summary above is pretty good, so I'll only add that when it says everyone agrees that Ian is decidedly odd, that's because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome. That was the main reason I wanted to read the book: because I thougth it would make for interesting issues in the romance, as Ian and Beth dealt with things like Ian's obsessive tendencies, or his difficulties in understanding the non-verbal cues and the subtexts in communication.

Everyone seems to have loved the book, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to be a bit of a party pooper. After reading this book, the first word that comes to mind is "disappointing".

I did like the characterisation, and even most of the romance. Ian's very well-drawn and believable, and quite a fascinating character. So is Beth, actually. She could easily have been overshadowed by Ian, but she held her own, with her good humour and earthiness, and most of all, her matter-of-fact attitude to Ian's difficulties. That, I think, was one of the best things about the book. Beth recognises that Ian has issues, and she loves him for who he is, issues and all. She's even comfortable enough with the real Ian that she can tease him by making little jokes.

The problem was that this potentially wonderful romance got completely diluted by a seriously crappy suspense plot. Ian and his eldest brother, Hart, were somehow involved of the murders of two prostitutes, you see, and there's a police detective who'll do anything (anything, I tell you!) to pin it on them. This was just boring and over-the-top, and completely took over the whole story.

The police detective's character was unbelievable (just wait until you get to the revelation of why he's so unbelievably obsessed with the Mackenzies. Eye-rolling) and the resolution got way too convoluted and silly, as well as giving Beth a perfect opportunity to act like a complete idiot and do her best to endanger herself as much as possible. Even worse, after a while, everything, even the romance, becomes all about the mystery of the dead prostitutes. The development of Ian and Beth's relationship becomes all about whether he tells her the truth or not.

I just got progressively more and more bored and irritated. I started feeling tempted to skim, and that reached a peak during the long, drawn-out resolution. There were pages and pages and pages after the mystery had been solved and nothing much really needed to be settled, and I almost just closed the book and declared myself done with it. That's a bad sign, isn't it, if I didn't care what else would happen?

I also found myself annoyed by the constant and incessant sequel-baiting. Ian has got 3 brothers, and a significant portion of this book was devoted to setting up their stories and trying to get us to want to read them. I didn't find them particularly intriguing, so I kept wishing we could get back to Ian and Beth.

MY GRADE: A complete waste of a fascinating hero and potentially great romance. A C-.

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The Sign of the Seven trilogy, by Nora Roberts

10-year-olds playing hooky on occasion of their birthday, going camping and swearing a friendship blood oath seems like a pretty harmless, even cute thing. However, when Caleb Hawkins, Fox O'Dell and Gage Turner did it, on a 7th of July, they ended up releasing an evil power they couldn't control.

Ever since, their town has been engulfed in violence and madness every 7 years. During the Seven, as they call it, a large percentage of the very otherwise normal people in Hawkins Hollow become intent on killing, maiming, raping and generally trying to hurt each other. It's as they're possessed. After the fact, they remember nothing of what happened, and somehow, the town returns to normal.


Caleb, Fox and Gage are among the few who remain in possession of their senses during the Seven, and they remember everything that's happened perfectly. Over the years, they've done their best to limit the damage, but the Seven seems to be getting worse every single time.

The trilogy starts as the yet another Seven approaches. The boys are now 31-year-old men, and still determined to protect their town. As time passes, and July gets closer and closer, we follow them as they try to find a way to defeat the demon they released, with the help of three women, newcomers to the town, who somehow seem destined to be there.


I've said it before of some of NR's trilogies, but I'll say it again, because it's truer than ever this time: this trilogy really does feel like a long book chopped in three. The only real division between the three is the romances, as each of the men fall in love with one of the women.

I'm a bit ambivalent about the overarching storyline of the Seven.

Likes:

• I quite enjoyed the mix between horror and romance. Not something that's too common, but I wish it was. It truly was scary, too, which I appreciated.


• I liked the idea of the research into the past to understand the nature of the evil and how to defeat it. It felt almost reminiscent of some of my favourite Barbara Michaels (Queen of the paranormal, as far as I'm concerned).


• The teamwork required for the above was great, as well. Each of the six had their strengths, and they were put to use, although not without much bickering :-)


• Finally: the friendship was what I liked best. Both the childhood friendship between the three men, which has turned into a solid one between grown-ups, and the newer one between the three women. This is what Nora does best I think, and these were good ones.

Dislikes:

• I didn't completely buy the fact that the Seven would happen and then things would just go back to normal, and for seven years, people would just live their lives happily. Oh, I am willing to accept a paranormal explanation... the evil that possesses then blocks everything, etc. What didn't make sense was that they would be left alone by the outside world to live their lives. It's not as if the Seven is a secret; in fact, Quinn, the heroine of the first book, actually comes to Hawkins Hollow to write a book about it. Why isn't there more interest, especially since it feels like perfect tabloid fodder?


• The actual story they discover of how the evil came to be trapped and then released wasn't that interesting. Plus, there was a lot of repetition.


• I didn't find the resolution particularly satisfying, I'm afraid. Oh, they do defeat the evil (I'm not spoiling anything, am I? This is romance after all), but the way they do it felt a bit heavy on the mumbo-jumbo power of looooooove! and didn't make much instinctive sense to me.

The romances were good and solid, if unexciting. The one in Blood Brothers features Caleb Hawkins and writer Quinn Black. Cal is a terribly nice guy, and I liked him very much. His family has been in the community forever (notice his last name's the same as the town's?), and he loves it and is determined to save it. Quinn is a writer, specialising in the paranormal, who wants to write about the Seven. She's the perfect one to shake up solid Cal, and she does. They have some very nice moments together.

Fox O'Dell and Layla Darnell are the hero and heroine of The Hollow, the second in the trilogy. Fox is a small-town lawyer, the son of a loving, hippy family. He enjoys his work and his town, and has a lovely, playful charm. Layla is the less gung-ho of the women. Her arrival to Hawkins Hollow was almost accidental. She felt that something was leading her there, and when she discovers what is going on, she feels like she has to stay. Layla is quite quiet and low-key, and rouses Fox's protective instincts. Their romance is sweet.

Finally, the romance in Pagan Stone is the most explosive of the three. Gage Turner grew up as the son of the town drunk, and he escaped Hawkins Hollow as soon as he possibly could. Now a world-famous poker player, he's only back because he loves his two friends and because he promised he'd come back for every Seven, not out of any heroic love of the town. Cybil Kinski is Quinn's friend and specialist researcher, a cool, sophisticated woman, more than a match for Gage. Their romance takes place among much resistance (especially on Gage's side) to falling in line and falling in love, just like the other two couples. This makes for some very poignant moments, as Gage pushes Cybil away needlessly at times, hurting her. In the end, it's a good, satisfying romance.

On the whole, I think Blood Brothers was probably my least favourite of the three. The romance is nice, but there doesn't seem to be any plot. We get the setup, we get the evil force showing what it can do, and everyone's determination to defeat it strengthens. And that's about it, really. It didn't feel like there was a proper climax. I'd grade it a B-.

The Hollow was just as good in terms of romance, but better in terms of plot. There's a not-so-supernatural antagonist introduced, which helped give the book a bit more of a resolution (the evil force cannot be defeated without ending the series, but this guy could). I really loved Fox and his family, and there was also an interesting subplot with his sister, who wanted to have a child with her partner. A B.

I liked Pagan Stone best. The romance is the most absorbing, and there's also Gage's relationship with his father. After his mother's death, Gage's father became an alcoholic who'd beat up on his son for no reason. But now he's kicked the drink and repented, and would like his son's forgiveness, which Gage isn't at inclined to give him. I liked the way this was handled, in a much more subtle and nuanced way than silly "he's your blood so you should forgive" crap. A B+.

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The Spymaster's Lady, by Joanna Bourne

TITLE: The Spymaster's Lady
AUTHOR: Joanna Bourne

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 384
PUBLISHER: Berkley

SETTING: Early 19th century France and England
TYPE: Historical romance
SERIES: Not really, although some characters will appear in future books

REASON FOR READING: Online buzz having reached deafening proportions!

.
.
She's never met a man she couldn't deceive...until now.

She's braved battlefields. She's stolen dispatches from under the noses of heads of state. She's played the worldly courtesan, the naive virgin, the refined British lady, even a Gypsy boy. But Annique Villiers, the elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, has finally met the one man she can't outwit..
.

The Spymaster's Lady is basically a battle of wills between two spies. To give you a very basic idea of the plot (part of the joy of reading this book is discovering what direction the action will take, so I don't want to say much more): Grey is a very high-up member of the British intelligence-gathering community, while Annique has spied for the French since she was a girl. Annique is supposed to have the plans for Napoleon's invasion of England, and Grey wants them. After they escape a horrible Parisian prison, where both were about to come to very bad ends, Grey will do his best to get Annique and her valuable information to England, while Annique will do hers to avoid this.

I'm not particularly attracted to spy plots, but this was a good one. Bourne didn't fall into the temptation of making things convoluted just because. The plot is relatively simple, but loses no punch for it, as the potential consequences for whichever side winning were huge. I loved that there was no automatic assumption that we should be rooting for the British to win, and that Annique would obviously realise the error of her ways and go over to the British side. I especially appreciated this, given some revelations about her past, which written by other authors, could easily have led her to change sides without even thinking about it. Annique is French and retains loyalty for her country. She doesn't necessarily want them to destroy England completely, but she doesn't want to cause them to lose, either.

But what was best of all was that both Annique and Grey were 100% believable as what Bourne told us they were: competent operatives, so competent that they were considered to be among the best of their respective sides. This sounds obvious, but I can't even begin to count the times when an author has told me a particular character was terribly competent and experienced at their job, but their actions were so idiotic that I just couldn't believe it. For some reason, it seems to be worse with spies. Well, not so with Annique and Grey. They clearly knew what they were doing, those two.

And, I must add, they were each just as competent as the other, which is also important for me. It was quite an adversarial relationship for a long part of the book, but I liked that they each won some of the battles. Annique was just as capable a spy as Grey, so he couldn't easily (or even not easily) manipulate her. I didn't get any feeling that she might be in above her head, which is something that's tended to happen in other romance with heroines in similar situations. Annique could definitely handle herself, and she did, and she got the better of Grey as often as he got one over her.

As for the romance, well, this is why I read romance. I love getting that tingly feeling you get when there is real chemistry between the characters and you absolutely and completely care about what happens to them, and I got it in spades with this book. The romance is among the most fantastic I've read in the past few months. I cared, and cared deeply about whether Annique and Grey would be together. Every kiss made butterflies flutter in my stomach, and every scene with Annique and Grey together made me want to turn the pages as fast as I could, but at the same time, want to slow down so that it wouldn't be over so soon.

It was the scenes from Grey's POV that I most relished, I think. He's this cool (I'd say cold, actually) man who, after so many years playing the game, knows he cannot let his emotions become engaged and expect to keep functioning as he was. But when it came to Annique, he wasn't cold at all. He's a very self-aware character, too, and this means that he doesn't jump to judge Annique, because he knows exactly what's involved in their jobs.

I know there are some little things in the book that might have been hard to believe, but I loved the book so much that I was happy to suspend disbelief. Can a blind woman remove a bullet? Whatever doubts I might have had, I was so caught up in the action, the writing, the chemistry and the fascinating characters, that I didn't care!

Finally, the ending. I just loved it. I had absolutely no idea how Bourne could manage to get them Annique of the tangle she was in, but she did, and in a way that made perfect sense to me. Excellent all around.

MY GRADE: An A.

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Vision in White, by Nora Roberts

TITLE: Vision in White
AUTHOR: Nora Roberts

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 352
PUBLISHER: Berkley

SETTING: Contemporary US
TYPE: Contemporary romance
SERIES: First in the Bride quartet.

REASON FOR READING: Autobuy author.

Meet childhood friends Parker, Emma, Laurel, and Mac--founders of Vows, one of Connecticut's premier wedding planning companies.

Wedding photographer Mackensie "Mac" Elliot is most at home behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into the bride-to-be's brother . . . an encounter that has them both seeing stars.

A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitely not Mac's type. But a casual fling might be just what she needs to take her mind off bridezillas. Of course, casual flings can turn into something more when you least expect it. And Mac will have to turn to her three best friends--and business partners--to see her way to her own happy ending.

Oh, I've missed this! As much as I've enjoyed the fantasy/horror in NR's latest trilogies, I've missed her straight contemps. This is just vintage Nora. I sank into the story immediately, and didn't want to come up for air.

Photographer Mackensie Elliot and her three best friends own Vows, a wedding planning business. The brother of one of their latest brides turns out to be an old acquaintance of them all, and way back when, he used to have a crush on Mackensie. Mac never paid any attention to him back then, but now Carter Maguire has grown up to be a deliciously sexy nerdy professor, and she's interested, all right!

If you really think about it, nothing terribly exciting happens during this book. That's the beauty of a good NR contemp. Even when nothing much is happening, it's fun to read and interesting and I keep turning the pages.

For instance, we see a lot of Mackensie and her friends running their business. They experience a couple of very minor mishaps and bid for a big project. That's it, but how I enjoyed reading it! I had a blast with the drama of a groom's asshole brother, who was determined to bring his new lover to the wedding, even though his extremely recent ex was the bride's maid of honour (or MOH... the accronyms really made clear the military precision of Vows' operation. That Parker should have been a general).

And it was quite the same with the romance. The only rock in their path there was the lightish one of Mac being very reluctant to commit, influenced by the fact that her parents were complete asshats and horrible at relationships and parenting. That did create some conflict, but no high drama, or anything like that. Apart from this, Mac and Carter's romance was all about two people getting to know each other and realising they fit well and falling in love. Just lovely. I enjoyed seeing Mac realise she couldn't live without Carter, and I adored Carter's constancy and the way his quiet insistence just completely wore Mac down.

Another strength of the book was the strong depiction of female friendship. I just loved the relationship between Mac and her friends. It was so very satisfying. They clearly loved each other and knew one another to the core. It was great that their friendship wasn't all sweetness and light. They behaved like a family, i.e there was teasing, fighting and annoyances, with it still being clear that they loved each other to bits.

I even liked the bits about Mac's relationship with her mother, who was an incredibly annoying, inconsiderate user. I got frustrated with Mac's difficulties standing up to the woman, but at the same time, I did buy her behaviour and understood it. I suppose I got just as frustrated with her as she did with herself, which helped not make this a problem with the book. Of course, she does end up standing up to her mother, and that was very satisfying, but I appreciated that it wasn't an over-the-top moment and that Mac knew that there would still be problems and scenes in the future.

I should note that unlike previous NR trilogies, there is no overarching storyline here. I do really like these in the author's series, so I missed having one here a bit, but at the same time, it does mean that I don't need to beat myself up for being weak and not being able to wait until all the quartet is out before I read the books.

MY GRADE: I'm tempted to give it an A-. Objectively it's probably more like a B+, but what the hell, I enjoyed reading it so much that I'll be generous.

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Nightlife, by Rob Thurman

TITLE: Nightlife
AUTHOR: Rob Thurman

COPYRIGHT: 2006
PAGES: 352
PUBLISHER: Roc

SETTING: Alternate reality New York
TYPE: Urban Fantasy
SERIES: First in one.

REASON FOR READING: I'm still trying different kinds of Urban Fantasy, seeing if I can find something that suits me. So far I've only really enjoyed Wen Spencer's Ukiah Oregon series, but the Cal and Niko Leandros series came highly recommended, so I had high hopes for it.

Welcome to the Big Apple. There’s a troll under the Brooklyn Bridge, a boggle in Central Park, and a beautiful vampire in a penthouse on the Upper East Side-and that’s only the beginning. Of course, most humans are oblivious to the preternatural nightlife around them, but Cal Leandros is only half-human.

His father’s dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares-and he and his entire otherworldly race are after Cal. Why? Cal hasn’t exactly wanted to stick around long enough to find out.

He and his half-brother Niko have managed to stay a step ahead for three years, but now Cal’s dad has found them again. And Cal is about to learn why they want him, why they’ve always wanted him…for he is the key to unleashing their hell on earth. The fate of the human world will be decided in the fight of Cal’s life…

Was Nightlife as good as I'd hoped? Not quite. It was all right, and I think I'm intrigued enough to keep reading, but I had some niggles.

The series is set in an alternate version of our world, one where monsters lurk in every corner. Cal Leandros is one of them, or rather, half one. His father was what he and his half-brother Niko call a grendel, a kind of violent, psychotic monster straight out of classic fairy tales (but before they were sanitised!).

When Cal was a teenager, his father kidnapped him, taking him through some sort of portal into the grendels' terrifying homeland. Cal managed to escape after some 2 years, but he's completely blocked what has happened. He only knows it's not an experience he cares to repeat. Cal and Niko have been on the run from the grendels ever since, and they spend their lives looking over their shoulders.

Their running comes to an end in Nightlife, as the grendels finally catch up and we discover just why they're so interested in Cal.

There were quite a few really good things here. My favourite was the relationship between Niko and Cal. Brotherly love at its best. They are both quite obviously willing to die to protect one another, but that doesn't prevent them from teasing each other mercilessly. It was sweet, and Niko was especially so. He had this zen ninja thing going on which was really hot :-)

I also enjoyed Cal's struggle with what he sees as the monster inside him. This was really interesting, and it doesn't feel as it's something that's been completely resolved.

Unfortunately, not everything was great. The action is narrated in the first person by Cal, and at times, his voice irritated the hell out of me. It was quite strange, but he sounded almost like a feisty, TSTL heroine at times. And things didn't improve when the narrator changed (don't want to say any more to avoid spoilers). That was such an unenjoyable experience. As much as Cal kept annoying me, at least he didn't make my skin crawl.

MY GRADE: A B. This was a good enough intro to this world, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Niko, as well as about a couple of other characters who were introduced, such as Robin and Rafferty.

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Jackson Brodie series, by Kate Atkinson

Reason for reading: On a recent trip, I travelled with a colleague who was reading the third book in this series. He was so absorbed in the book that I thought it must be good! He said I should start at the beginning of the series, though, so I did.

This series starrs former soldier-cum-policeman Jackson Brodie. When we meet him at the start of Case Histories, he's a private detective and a bit bored with his routine cases (mostly divorce, as you would expect). But then bam! Complicated old, cold cases start coming out of the woodwork. It's cases he has no desire to take, unfortunately. Theo wants him to solve his daughter's mysterious murder. Amelia and Julia want him to discover what happened to their little sister, who disappeared decades ago. Sheila?? wants him to find her missing teenager niece, whose mother is a convicted axe-murderer.

They're all Interesting cases, with strong a-ha moments at the end. There are even good reasons for why Jackson would be able to solve them now, when that hadn't happened all those years before (well, the two he solved, anyway. The third case, the one about the axe-murdering young woman wasn't solved, as much as revealed).

The best thing about this book was the small, understated connections. I expected that all the cases would end up being somehow connected, but while there was a small element of that in the resolution, the links weren't in unbelievable coincidences. It was a lot more subtle than that. It was more a case of small echoes, sentiments expressed by more than one person, in different contexts, or insights gained in one case that gave an idea for making progress in the other. And yes, some links were "accidentally" formed between the people involved in the different cases, but that felt right as well.

There are plenty of interesting characters around. Jackson, for one, has a complex, deep backstory and a very defined personality. He's no all-powerful detective, but has vulnerabilities. But the secondary characters were also interesting, and Atkinson made me care about them, enough to be truly touched by the ending. Theo, the father of the young woman who'd been knifed was probably the one who touched me the most. I wanted to hug him, and although of course, he didn't get a *happy* ending (impossible without raising the dead!), he did end up in a much more hopeful position. I was also happy for Amelia.

Finally, the tone and Atkinson's voice was very interesting. It's not funny -exactly-, but there is quite a bit of humour and compassion there.

MY GRADE: a B+. I like it even better on reflection.


I had a completely different reaction to the second book in the series, One Good Turn. I mostly enjoyed it as I was reading it, but on starting to think about it, I find that too many things irritated me.

Jackson is in Edinburgh for the festival, when he witnesses an incident of road rage. Also present on the scene are a variety of characters, including a painfully shy writer, an assassin and a wronged wife, whose lives end up tangling in all kinds of strange ways.

This second case is a lot more confusing than the one in Case Histories. The coincidences and links here are a lot less subtle, and really strained credulity. Time and time again, I couldn't really suspend disbelief and was thrown out of the story.

But I think what bothered me the most was that quite a few times, characters behaved in ways that were illogical and even worse, completely out of character. Jackson, especially, had a couple of episodes like that. His refusal to talk to the police after witnessing the road rage incident (even though he knew he was a trained observer, and really had no reason to assume someone else would have registered the relevant license plate) was one of them, and another was his decision to plead guilty after a the guy responsible for that incident assaulted him later, even though it would have been extremely easy to tell the police about what had happened. I don't know, maybe the fact that this behaviour was so out of character for Jackson *was* supposed to tell us something about his state of mind, but I was unconvinced.

I was also disappointed by the conclusion to Martin's story. I suppose I felt about him a bit like I felt about Theo, in the previous book, wanting to hug him, wanting to get his happy ending, albeit not in the exact form he wanted it (the happy, stalwart farm wife would have been all wrong for him. I really thought he and Louise, the inspector who ends up tying most of the ends of the case together, would suit perfectly). But... no definition whatsoever! Oof.

Not to mention, no real definition or closure in the case, either, with it finishing with a supposed twist that didn't make all that much sense to me, or add much to the story.

It wasn't all bad though, no matter what my litany of complaints would suggest. Again, we have vivid characters and a page turner, but the first one was a lot better.

MY GRADE: A C+.


The third book, When Will There Be Good News falls somewhere in the middle. We again get coincidences and connections, as well as an incredibly endearing character in the middle of them.

The huggable character in this case is Reggie Chase, a teenager trying to hold things together on her own, after her mother's death. Reggie is motivated and determined to do well. She's studying hard for her A-levels and working as mother's helper for a doctor to keep the money coming in. She loves her job and she loves Dr. Jo Hunter, whose baby she's minding. When Dr. Hunter disappears and no one seems to think anything's wrong, Reggie will do all she can to make sure the police do their job.

This main storyline was actually quite interesting, and Reggie was a fantastic character. The problem is, the rest wasn't as good. The bit about Dr. Hunter's past and the person from her past who shows up at one point was intriguing, but the resolution of it left me thinking "so what was the point of that?". And Jackson is beginning to bore me a bit. This thing of his with Louise is just completely uninteresting.

MY GRADE: I think a B-, as on the whole, the book was a page-turner.

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Unreviewed April reads

April wasn't a month of spectacular reads, but most were pretty solid.

TITLE: Then Comes Seduction
AUTHOR: Mary Balogh

Second in the Huxtable series. This one's about the third sister, Katherine, who is the subject of a really awful bet made by hero Jasper. He ends up repenting at the last minute, but a few years later, they are not able to avoid the consequences. Strangely, even though it had the potential to be quite angsty, it wasn't. In fact, the first book in the series, in which hero and heroine didn't have such a conflictive history at all, was much more so. I did like it quite a bit, though.

MY GRADE: A B.


TITLE: To Seduce a Sinner
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Hoyt

TSAS is also second in a series, this one the Four Soldiers series. Wallflower Melisande has been quietly in love with Jasper (hmm, just realised it's yet another Jasper!) for ages. When he gets jilted by his second fiancee in a year, she steps forward and offers to marry him. Jasper has only been vaguely aware of Melisande's existence, but once she's right before his eyes, he can't believe he never noticed her.

It was quite a nice, sweet, gradually developed romance. My only complaint is that Melisande has a very interesting history that isn't really as well developed as it should be. I got the impression it was only used as an excuse for giving her a lot of sexual knowledge and making the book extra hot.

TSAS also continues the storyline that started in the first book, about the investigation into was the traitor responsible for the massacre at Spinner's Fall. I found this as interesting as the romance, and can't wait for the next book to see what develops. The next one seems to be a nice gothic, too!

MY GRADE: Also a B.


TITLE: Moon Called
AUTHOR: Patricia Briggs

First in the Mercy Thompson series, which is urban fiction. Everyone who loves UF loves this series, which I suppose means that since I thought this was nice enough but nothing special, UF will never be my favourite genre. I did really like Mercy as a heroine. She's tough and brave, but sensible with it. No feistiness and certainly no episodes of TSTL behaviour. If there's something she can't cope with, Mercy is the first one to run for help. The worldbuilding is interesting, but I have to say werewolves make me a bit uncomfortable (er... reading about werewolves, I mean. I imagine real werewoves would make me a bit more than uncomfortable!). I think it's the whole thing about dominants and submissives, which plays a large part of the character development here. This is not romance, but there is a bit of a triangle being set up, with two characters clearly interested in Mercy. I'd like to see how it develops, but I don't know if I'll have the energy!

MY GRADE: A B.


TITLE: Tempted All Night
AUTHOR: Liz Carlyle

I really enjoyed myself while reading this one, but only a few days after, there's only some vague feelings about it in my mind. Definitely didn't make a huge impression, clearly. It's got one of those heroines determined to get involved in something dangerous... this time it's Phaedra wanting to rescue her lady's maid's sister, who's abandoned her child and is apparently working in a brothel. Although given Phaedra's history, this determination ends up being understandable, even if to the reader it's obviously a pointless activity.The hero, Tristan, is investigating some spying related to the same brothel, and so they work together. I liked both characters, and enjoyed their interactions, very much including the love scenes. Pretty steamy, this one, with some non-standard hints which were really well done.

MY GRADE: Yet another B. See what I mean about a solid, unspectacular month?


TITLE: The Economic Naturalist
AUTHOR: Robert H. Frank

Only the latest of many "popular economics" books I've been reading. This one's got an interesting format: the author, an economics professor, sets his students an assignment every year that he calls "economic naturalism". The idea is that they have to look around them and ask a question about how a certain area of the real world works the way it does. Then they have to answer by applying economic principles. You get questions that range from "Why does a light come on when you open the refrigerator but not when you open the freeezer?" to "Why do brides buy a really expensive dress that they'll wear only once in their lives, whereas grooms rent a suit that wouldn't be that expensive to buy and they could actually wear plenty of times in the future?". There are some interesting ones, but really, to someone with a background in economics, most are a bit too obvious.

MY GRADE: A B-.


TITLE: Predictably Irrational
AUTHOR: Dan Ariely

More pop economics, this one concentrating on the most fashionable field of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics is all about how we human beings often don't behave in the way economic rationalism would predict, and how we deviate from those predictions in, er, predictable ways. We have certain biases, in other words. It's an interesting field, but I think I've been reading way too much about it for work, because most here was stuff I'd already read about in other books. Not Ariely's fault, of course, but it did result in me not enjoying the book as much as I might have. A more objective criticism I have is the writing style. It felt somewhat uncomfortable, in an "I'm an academic trying as hard as I can to write in plain English" kind of way.

MY GRADE: B-.


TITLE: The Woman Who Walked into Doors
AUTHOR: Roddy Doyle

I read this one for my book club, and that's the only reason I would ever have picked it up, and the reason I finished it at all. I knew I probably wasn't going to enjoy it. I tried my best to keep an open mind about it, but I think I would have felt the same way even with no preconceptions. It's about the life of an Irishwoman called Paula Spencer, who ends up married to an abusive man. The book starts as she receives the news that her husband, who she had succeeded in kicking out a year ago, is now dead, and Paula looks back at her life. I suppose objectively, it's a successful book, in that if you consider it sets out to accurately describe the unrelenting ugliness of this woman's life and how complex the relationship between an abused wife and her abuser can be, it does that pretty well. Unfortunately, I hated every minute of it. I couldn't stand Paula, which might be a failure in MY character. As much as I understood why she'd be as she was, I despised her for even after almost 20 years of abuse, still making excuses for this horrid bastard and still loving him. The D I'm giving it is purely about how much I enjoyed my experience of reading it. If I had to rate it thinking about how well it does what it wants to do, I think possibly more a B. I've got one bit of objective criticism, and that's that after Paula's descriptions of exactly what Charlo did to her for 17 years, I didn't believe for a minute that she would have been able to get rid of him the way she did. Oh, no, he wouldn't have stayed gone. Eh, well, at least it was quite short.

MY GRADE: A D.


TITLE: If You Dare
AUTHOR: Kresley Cole

First in the MacCarrick Brothers trilogy. Oh, I had high hopes for If You Dare. I mean, an Andorran setting? But unfortunately, after a little while I had to recheck the copyright, to make sure it was 2005 and not 1985. It had a horrid old-school vibe, with a feisty, foot-stomping heroine and a complete asshole of a hero. I probably would have been able to tolerate Annalia, but the "hero" kept treating her like shit, making stupid assumptions and accusations, like the worst examples of bodice-ripping idiots way back when. My limited reading time is too valuable for this.

MY GRADE: DNF.

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Scream For Me and Kill For Me, by Karen Rose

TITLE: Scream For Me and Kill For Me
AUTHOR: Karen Rose

COPYRIGHT: 2008 and 2009 respectively
PAGES: 472 and 438
PUBLISHER: It's Headline in the UK

SETTING: Dutton, Georgia
TYPE: Romantic Suspense
SERIES: Yes, second and third in the Vartanian series, after Die For Me. If you haven't read that one, don't read on, as you'll find plenty of spoilers.

REASON FOR READING: Die For Me is probably my favourite Rose book so far.

Special Agent Daniel Vartanian has sworn to find the perpetrator of multiple killings that mimic a 13-year-old murder linked to a collection of photographs that belonged to his brother, Simon, the ruthless serial killer who met his demise in DIE FOR ME. Daniel is certain that someone even more depraved than his brother committed these crimes, and he's determined to bring the current murderer to justice and solve the mysterious crime from years ago.

With only a handful of images as a lead, Daniel's search will lead him back through the dark past of his own family, and into the realm of a mind more sinister than he could ever imagine. But his quest will also draw him to Alex Fallon, a beautiful nurse whose troubled past reflects his own. As Daniel becomes attached to Alex, he discovers that she is also the object of the obsessed murderer. Soon, he will not only be racing to discover the identity of this macabre criminal, but also to save the life of the woman he has begun to love.


Five teenage girls have been murdered. One survived, and only she can reveal the secrets of a disturbing ring of people who kidnap and sell teenage girls on the black market. But those responsible for the crimes will do whatever it takes to maintain her silence.

Susannah Vartanian and Luke Papadopoulos have both sworn to stop the murderers for their own reasons. Susannah, the sister of the hero in SCREAM FOR ME, suffers from a mysterious past that is connected to the sinister black market. Luke is an investigative agent and a computer expert who refuses to let another child predator get away.

Susannah and Luke are instantly attracted to each other, but their troubled pasts prevent them from immediately acting upon their feelings. The case will lead them to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where anyone can mask their identity. As Susannah and Luke draw closer to the criminals, they discover a chain of deception so intricate they don't know who to trust. Susannah and Luke find comfort in one another's arms, but the killers are ruthless and determined, and will take extreme measures to insure their anonymity and keep their business intact.

After Die For Me, I'm afraid these two were a bit of a disappointment. What I love so much about Karen Rose's books is that both the romance and suspense are very strong, and both are enjoyable. In Scream and Kill For Me, although both were strong, I didn't much enjoy the suspense bit.

Both books follow continuing stories, involving dastardly deeds related to one Simon Vartanian. He was introduced in the first book, which basically was an investigation into a string of crimes committed in... I want to say Massachussets?... by this guy. Those crimes were solved, but it was suggested, that they weren't the first committed by the sick, sick bastard. The next two books move to Dutton, Georgia, the Vartanians' home town, and star Simon's brother and sister, Daniel and Susannah, both of whom have been very much affected by Simon's crimes and their parents' tolerance of them.

My problem was I absolutely hated every single second spent in Dutton. Creepy Simon and his asshole friends had pretty much created a reign of terror there. It got to be just way overwhelming. It wasn't just the ridiculously high body count (there were quite a few deaths in Die For Me, as well), it was the fact that it seemed everyone with power in Dutton was corrupt and in the pocket of these little bastards. Everyone's evil, everyone's for sale, or at least, will cave under a bit of pressure and end up on the take. So different from Die For Me. That one was all about seeing a smart, professional police force painstakingly solve a complicated crime. The last two were about how solving relatively straightforward ones is pretty much impossible in a corrupt hellhole.

In the middle of all the shit and ugliness, however, the romances were still good. Daniel, Susannah and their respective partners are decent, brave people determined to right the wrongs of the past, and that I really liked.

MY GRADE: The romances were strong enough to make me give these books B-.

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Three recent books

TITLE: Silent in the Grave
AUTHOR: Deanna Raybourn

Silent in the Grave starts with a really intriguing first line: "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.". Cool, I thought. I like this narrator's black humour.

Edward's death happens in the middle of a dinner party, and since he's been frail since childhood, it's put down to natural causes. But not long after the funeral, his widow, Lady Julia, receives a visit from Nicholas Brisbane. He's a private enquiry agent, he says, and Edward had engaged him to investigate some threatening anonymous notes. Nicholas can't help but suspect that the death wasn't quite as natural as it has been assumed. At first, Julia refuses to even conceive the possibility and doesn't believe him, but then she finds one of the notes herself, and she engages Nicholas herself. But of course, she insists on cooperating in the investigation, whether he wants her to or not.

I've heard many good things about this series, and I really wanted to like the book. I did, but not as much as I would have expected to. It was good enough, and had a lot of elements which were good, such as the atmosphere and some interesting, well-drawn secondary characters, but I didn't really connect with the narrator, her love interest, or the story itself. Maybe it was because I felt the novel suffered from overkill. There were way too many subplots and Julia's family, while very likeable, had a few too many unbelievable quirks. And I'm afraid Nicholas was nowhere near as fascinating and mysterious as Raybourn was obviously setting him up to be. As for the mystery? Well, the murder weapon was surprising and very apt, but the murderer was way too easy to spot, even if I didn't guess the motive.

MY GRADE: I think I'll go with a B-. I'm not feeling particularly interested in reading the next book, but a couple of people have told me the first one was the weakest. Any advice?


TITLE: The Various Flavours of Coffee
AUTHOR: Anthony Capella

Saga-like books covering years and years are not usually my thing, but I'm glad I made an exception for TVFOC. We meet Robert Wallis when he's a lazy, shallow young wannabe poet. His life consists on whoring, sponging off his parents, hanging around in coffeehouses trying to look interesting and dashing off bad epigrams. It's in one such coffeehouse that he meets coffee trader Samuel Pinker, who notices Robert's superior palate for that drink. Pinker wants to develop a guide to all the different kinds of coffee bean available, and he makes a job offer the perpetually cash-strapped Robert cannot refuse. The work on the guide goes well, but Robert falls for Pinker's daughter Emily, and she for him. This results in his being sent to Africa to make his fortune by establishing a plantation of the best coffee in the world.

Quite a lot happens in this book. This is only the start of it, and the story covers quite a bit more, but I think readers will best discover it on their own. What I will mention, though, since most people reading this will be romance readers, is that you shouldn't go into this book expecting a romance. It's nothing like Capella's wonderfully romantic The Food of Love in that sense. Robert starts out as a complete and absolute bastard with women. Actually, not only with women; I despised him for most of the first half of the book. He's a spoiled git with a huge sense of entitlement. Selfish, dishonest, lazy... that's just an understatement. As for his romance with Emily, suffice it to say that he continues to whore constantly even while telling himself that he loves her.

It probably sounds quite awful. I seriously considered giving up on the book after some 100 pages, but the beauty of Capella's writing kept me going, and I'm glad I kept on. Things improve quite a bit once Robert gets to Africa. For starters, he gets his comeuppance with women, and I cheered the person responsible for it. And by the time he comes back to England, Robert has grown and become a much, much better person, and I actually cared about him.

It is a rich, absorbing story. It takes place in the early part of the 20th century, and the setting really comes to live, as well.

MY GRADE: A B.


TITLE: Gabriel's Angel
AUTHOR: Nora Roberts

Reclusive artist Gabriel Bradley is driving back home in a heavy snowstorm when he witnesses an accident. The driver is 8-month pregnant Laura Malone, who's on the run from her late husband's family (they're cold blue-bloods who want to take the baby away from her, of course). Gabriel rescues Laura, and they end up snowbound in his cabin. And that was basically all that had happened up to the point I stopped reading.

Why did I stop? It wasn't that the book was horribly bad, it was just really boring and predictable. It's a 1980s category romance, and it shows. It shows in the clichéd characters and in the dated situations. Laura is hyper-feminine and flawless and Gabriel is broody, and that's pretty much all there was to their characters. They felt quite flat. I just didn't care what was going to happen to them, and I had no motivation to pick up the book when I put it down.

MY GRADE: A DNF.

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Angels' Blood, by Nalini Singh

TITLE: Angels' Blood (excerpt)
AUTHOR: Nalini Singh

COPYRIGHT: 2009 (out next Tuesday)
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: Berkley

SETTING: Alternate reality New York
TYPE: Paranormal Romance
SERIES: 1st full novel in the Guild Hunter series (there's an exclusive e-novella called Angels' Pawn which just came out yesterday, which introduces the series).

REASON FOR READING: Nalini Singh is one of my favourite authors. If she's writing it, I'm reading it. And as much as I love the Psy/Changeling series, I was very intrigued by the idea of a different one.

USA Today bestselling author Nalini Singh introduces a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires…

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best—but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option...even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

Ok, so what is this book? Is it a vampire book, as I've seen many other readers speculate (hope or fear, although fear seems to be running ahead)? Nope, not exactly. This is a world that includes vampires, and although I dont know what the next books will be about, I expect some of them will be the protagonists in upcoming installments. However, the heroine and hero of Angels Blood are a human and an angel.

Elena Deveraux is a vampire hunter. In this alternate world, angels pretty much run things, and one of their powers is to make humans into vampires, giving them immortality (as well as some cool powers of their own). In exchange for the conversion, the newly made vampires commit to serving their sires for a century.

If they decide to renege on their deal and pull a runner, thats where Elena and her fellow hunters come in. Hunters have especially powerful senses that allow them to track vampires. This is dangerous, highly prized work, and hunters have organised themselves into a Guild, which takes care of them and makes arrangements for their jobs.

Elena is one of the best hunters out there, and this (unfortunately, as she sees it) brings her to the attention of the archangel who's in charge of New York. Raphael has a choice job for her, one so hard and terrifyingly dangerous that Elena doubts she will survive it. It's not a mere vampire she has to hunt down this time, but another archangel, one who has gone blood-mad and has embarked on an orgy of slaughter and destruction. And even if she survives the hunt, Elena is sure she won't survive her increasingly intimate relationship with the very, very scary Raphael.

You think that sounds melodramatic and exaggerated? It's not. Raphael truly is scary, even cruel. The thing is, you see, at the beginning of the book, he's not human. His brain doesn't work in the same way as humans' do. Elena just knows that he won't have mercy on anyone who defies him or fails him or represents a danger for his kind, and she's right.

But... his attraction for Elena humanises him. As much as I loved Elena, it was Raphaels character arc that fascinated me the most, basically because he goes so far. I was engrossed by the way he slowly started feeling things that were alien to him and found himself making choices he never would have made, seeing things in a different light. It was a wholly believable, gradual process, and enriched the romance enormously.

And speaking of the romance... (yeah, like I was going to skip that!). As strong and powerful as Raphael is, this is a romance among equals. Elena is more than a match for him, even physically, once she finds a way to bring herself closer to his level. Her refusal to let herself be steamrolled by Raphael seems suicidal sometimes, but then, she's already accepted that she probably won't get out of her mission alive. Plus, she's not feisty with her defiance. No stupid foot-stomping from Elena, not at all. She's just mentally strong, even with her vulnerabilities, and has too much respect for herself to let even an archangel make her into a plaything.

The tone of the story feels very different from that of the Psy/Changeling series. This world is darker and the violence is more graphic, and I think it felt a bit closer to Urban Fantasy. Not quite, though, which is good news for me, because it meant that it had the best of both worlds. There's the strong, kick-ass female protagonist and edgy feel of UF, but theres also the strong romance of, well, Romance, with its HEA ending, as well as a strong hero, whose POV were privy to.

Granted, we do see a lot more of Elena's POV than of Raphaels, but I have the feeling that is necessary, given the huge humanisation his character experiences throughout the book. The glimpses we catch of his thoughts at the beginning really reflect his otherness and inhumanness excellently, but much more than that and he either wouldn't have been that mysterious and unsettling, or he would have become a bit too scary.

As always with Singh, the worldbuilding is complex and coherent, and the book is full of fascinating characters about whom I was dying to know more about. And imagine! Singh does this without any sequel-baiting whatsoever! Every one of those interesting characters had a necessary role in the story, and that was something I appreciated.

The only reason I'm not quite giving this book an A grade is that I felt it was a bit slow to get started. During the first half of the book I wondered a few times when the actual plot would really get going, and it felt like Elena and Raphael were just circling each other for a bit too long. Mind you, it was still a really good read, that first half, but I found it a teeny bit too easy to put the book down.

Oh, there was also a bit of a sense of dissatisfaction on my part with the way we never get to know for certain exactly what happened with Elena's sisters. We get some extremely tantalising hints about an earlier blood-crazed serial killer with whom Elena had an extremely traumatic experience, and we get some details about what that experience was. I kept expecting her to share this with Raphael, so that I could know exactly what happened, too, but at the end of the book, I was still waiting. Hmm, I dont know, maybe this is something well find out later. I'm still not 100% sure if upcoming books in the series will feature new characters, as in the Psy/Changeling series, or whether Singh will go in a more UF direction and keep Elena and Raphael as her mains. Theres certainly plenty more to explore there, so either option would be fine with me!

MY GRADE: A very solid B+.

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Into the Fire, by Suzanne Brockmann

TITLE: Into the Fire
AUTHOR: Suzanne Brockmann

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 608
PUBLISHER: Ballantine

SETTING: Contemporary US
TYPE: Romantic suspense
SERIES: Yes, and a loooong-running one. This is book 13 in the Troubleshooters series.

REASON FOR READING: Autoread author, although I've learned to wait and then read a few books together, once I'm sure there won't be any emotional cliffhangers in the last one I've got ;-)

Vinh Murphy–ex-Marine and onetime operative for the elite security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated–has been MIA ever since his wife, Angelina, was caught in a crossfire and killed during what should have been a routine bodyguard assignment. Overcome with grief, Murphy blames the neo-Nazi group known as the Freedom Network for her death. Now, years later, Freedom Network leader Tim Ebersole has been murdered–and the FBI suspects Murphy may have pulled the trigger. To prevent further bloodshed, Murphy’s friends at Troubleshooters scramble to find him and convince him to surrender peacefully.

Murphy himself can’t be sure what he did or didn’t do during the years he spent mourning and lost in an alcohol-induced fog. He does know he occasionally sought solace from Hannah Whitfield, a former police officer and the very friend who’d introduced him to his beloved late wife.

But Hannah, still grappling with the deafness that resulted from an injury sustained while on duty, was fighting her own battles. For years Hannah had feelings for Murphy, and one painful night their suffering brought them together in a way neither expected–and both regretted.

Murphy is ready to rejoin the living. As always, he finds himself knocking on Hannah’s door, and as always, his longtime friend welcomes him back into her home. Yet even as Murphy slowly rebuilds his splintered life, he continues to fight his growing feelings for Hannah.

Then he learns of Ebersole’s murder and comes to believe that the Freedom Network has targeted him–and Hannah–to avenge their leader’s death to violence. Now Murphy must face the terrifying prospect of losing another woman he loves.

As the Troubleshooters desperately search for him, Murphy races toward a deadly confrontation with the Freedom Network and ultimate choice: surrender his life in hopes that Hannah will be spared, or risk everything to salvage whatever future they may have together.

MY THOUGHTS: As always, Brockmann manages to surprise. Heh, I really shouldn't have been surprised to be surprised, I suppose.

When I heard that this book starred Vinh Murphy, whom we'd last seen falling to pieces after the violent death of his wife in Hot Target, and his and Angelina's best friend, who'd been in love with him forever, I kind of formed an idea of what the story would be like. Given that all we'd heard from Murphy in the intervening books indicated that he'd been drinking himself to death, because Angelina's death meant that he might as well be dead, I expected something involving him fighting both to stay sober and his feelings for Hannah, thinking he must not betray Angelina. And same for Hannah, she'd feel terribly guilty about being with Vinh, with Angelina dead. Only at the end would they have the epiphany: "Angelina would want us to be happy".

Well, I didn't get that. At all. Not 50 pages into the book, Murphy is sober, having gone through rehab (which did feel a bit sudden), and neither he nor Hannah need the epiphany, because for both, betraying Angelina is just not an issue. They know she'd want them to go for it and not want Murphy to bury himself with her. Of course, Vinh and Hanna are not completely comfortable with their feelings for each other, but hey, we do need some internal conflict to last through the book, don't we?

Now, as happy as I was that things weren't going in the expected, predictable direction, the main romance wasn't the most gripping one ever. I think Hannah was the problem here. I did like what I saw of her. She seemed strong and courageous and smart, and I admired the way she was dealing with her recent deafness. But here's the thing: there just wasn't enough there for me to feel I knew her, not enough to really understand who she was. There seemed to be tonnes and tonnes of backstory between her and Vinh, and so much stuff relating to how she had adapted to her deafness, but we didn't get to see much of that. You know what if felt like? Like Brockmann had actually written that, and then had to edit big chunks out of the beginning of the book. And hey, I suppose it's possible, since the book was pretty long. But anyway, whether that was the case or not, I'm afraid that when a Hannah/Vinh relationship scene started, I enjoyed it well enough, but stilll kind of wished a little bit that we would continue with whatever previous scene I had been reading... usually one about Izzy and Eden.

And that was probably the most surprising thing: how much I absolutely loved the secondary romance. Izzy's asshole quotient had been way too high in previous books (fortunately, it was toned down drastically here), and a guy in his late 20s with an 18 year old? Ick. Usually. Not here, though. Here it felt yummy. I loved Eden, and considering the things she'd had to get over in her life, she felt plenty mature enough (and let's face it, Izzy's quite immature for his age, himself). Their relationship was not quite concluded by the end of the book, and I'm looking forward to see how things will turn out.

Finally, in the relationships area, there's a bit of Sophia and Dave. I'll write more about them when I review Dark of Night (which I'm reading right now), but for now, I'll just say: yay! And knowing who ends up with whom, plenty of clues here of what's going to happen.

The suspense? Interesting and gripping. The hatemongering cult leader Murphy blames for inspiring (pretty much ordering, really) Angelina's murder has been murdered, himself, and Murphy is suspected. Problem is, he hadn't been in rehab yet at the time when the murder happened, so that whole period is a blur for him. For all he knows, he could have done it. So he and Hannah need to track his movements and see if he did it or not. Of course, things turn out to be a lot more complicated soon enough.

MY GRADE: A B+. Solid, and if I'd been more into the main romance, it would have gone into A territory.

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Catching up with Eve Dallas

I was a bit behind with JD Robb's In Death series, but now I'm almost caught up, with only the short story in Suite 606 to go. I think I'll just wait until Promises in Death is out in February, because though I tend to like the In Death short stories, they do feel a bit unsatisfying, compared to the single titles.

Eternity in Death, in the Dead of Night anthology (also includes stories by Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan and Mary Kay McComas, which I didn't read).

The case: A young, spoiled heiress is found having been bled to death. Investigations soon lead Eve to discover that she'd recently become involved in an underworld where people play at being vampires. But when she meets her main suspect, it doesn't feel like he's actually playing at anything.

The character-based stuff: Well, not much of a conflict, here... probably no space for that in such a short story. We know by now that Roarke is a lot more open to the fantastic and supernatural than Eve (see Haunted in Death, for instance), and vampires aren't the exception. His readiness to believe annoys Eve, and her refusal to even consider there might be more things in heaven and earth irks Roarke even more. But not much of a problem, really.

I quite liked the story, especially the dark humour of the face-off between stubborn Eve and the almost stereotypical (but not quite) supposed vampire. I also enjoyed the different characters' reactions to the possibility of vampirism. Peabody, for instance is kind of in the middle of Eve and Roarke's positions. She wants to be rational and cop-like and dismiss all that out of hand, but can't quite convince herself. Very true to character.

Case vs character-based stuff: I'd say in this one the character stuff wins. The case was interesting, but only in how it affected the characters.

MY GRADE: A B.



Creation In Death

The case: The New York of the In Death books is full of serial killers, and this is yet another of them. Only there's a twist: the serial killer known as The Groom had stopped killing years ago, and Eve and Feeney, who'd originally investigated the case, had assumed he was dead. But now dead women are again being killed in his signature, horrifying way.

The character-based stuff: When they had originally investigated the Groom case, Eve was a newbie detective and Feeney was leading. Now this is Eve's case and Feeney is merely assisting from his post as head of the E-section (or whatever it's called). This leads to quite a bit of tension between them when Feeney starts feeling sidelined.

Case vs character-based stuff: I think the police procedural angle worked best here. Maybe there was a bit too much time spent in the mind of the serial killer, but that was compensated by the fact that the hunt for him was good stuff: logical, detailed and satisfying. I'm a bit ambivalent about the ending, though. It had me laughing gleefully, but what Eve did there was so not Eve-like. Even worse, it wasn't treated as un-Eve-like. Still, that was better than the Eve-Feeney conflict, in which they both behaved in ways that I thought were completely unlike themselves. I really didn't get what they were fighting about!

MY GRADE: A B.


Strangers in Death

The case: It was a very embarrassing way to die. Tied to the bed, clearly a victim of an erotic asphyxiation game gone wrong. But for Eve, there's something about businessman Thomas Anders' kinky death that doesn't ring completely true.

The character-based stuff: I'm afraid there was nothing too scintillating here, although I think it's the first time that I've seen them quarrel about money. I would have thought this wouldn't have been an issue by now, that Roarke would have understood Eve better in that sense, that he would have got her reluctance. Although I suppose this made him a bit more human.

Oh, and I did like the developments between Charles and Louise. That was fun!

Case vs character-based stuff: The case was again better. This was one case where Eve was pretty sure about who the killer was from early on, so it was more a howdunnit than a whodunnit. I quite like those as well. Eve knew where her investigative path would lead her, but it was finding what path to follow that was hard, and it was fascinating to watch Eve do it. I'm not always a fan of mysteries where we readers know more than the detectives (which was the case here, as Baxter and Truehart are investigating a seemingly unconnected case which turns out to be very much connected... something very obvious to us, simply because otherwise, why would it even be included in the book?), but it was very nicely done here. The pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly.

MY GRADE: A B+.


Salvation in Death

The case: When a priest falls dead in the middle of a funeral mass, poisoned by the wine in his chalice, Eve is called to investigate. Father Miguel seemed to have been loved by everyone, so why would anyone kill him? However, Eve soon finds clues that point towards him not being who everyone thinks he is, but someone with a much more problematic past.

The character-based stuff: Not much relationship development here, but it was interesting to see Eve struggling to understand the faith of the people she was dealing with. I quite liked what Robb did with this. Eve remains a non-believer, but she knows she needs to get this stuff much better than she does in order to solve the case, so she really does try to understand. Her constant questioning of Roarke, and his very lapsed Catholic-like "why are you asking me??" reaction made me smile.

I also enjoyed seeing Ariel again, a character we'd first met in Creation in Death. It was good to see her doing well, and it was even better that her showing up in the action was wonderfully integrated into the crime-solving bit of the story.

Case vs character-based stuff: Both were good, but there was a lot more meat in the case. Really, really good stuff there. It was a baffling case, and one where the solution made perfect sense.

I especially enjoyed the glimpses of past (future, for us) history. The crime ends up having links to an old string of bombings during New York's troubled past, and it was very interesting to see what had been going on in the barrios back then, how gang activity had gone out of hand.

I also liked the initial ethical question raised by the fake priest's actions. He seemed to be a good person now, conscientious about his duties, doing his best to serve his parishioners. Did this compensate for whatever crimes, however horrible, he had committed in his distant past? Unfortunately, Robb didn't quite go in that direction, as Father Miguel turned out not to be such a swell guy in the present, either. I really shouldn't blame authors for not taking the story where I would have liked it to go, but damn, it would have been such an interesting thing to explore!

MY GRADE: Another B+.

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Two charming reads

This is the word that came to mind when I read these two books: they were utterly charming. But they had other things in common, too, like the strange fact that I just couldn't put them down until they were finished, even though on reflection, they were hardly thrilling!

TITLE: The Uncommon Reader
AUTHOR: Alan Bennett

This slim book imagines what would happen the Queen (Queen Elizabeth, that is; on reread just before posting, it occurs to me that she's not the only Queen out there!) were to become a reader.

The naughty behaviour of one of her corgi leads the Queen to stumble upon a mobile library on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Her sense of noblesse oblige, in turn, leads her to borrow a book, just out of politeness. The reading bug doesn't take long to strike her, and she's soon playing hooky to stay home in bed with a book and driving her equerries* nuts by asking innocent and bewildered members of the public what they're currently reading.

I think what I liked best about this book was how it humanised the character of the Queen, while not falling into clichéd "she's just like you or me!" territory. The character remains The Queen, someone shaped by experiences very far from those that shaped "you or me" (for instance, she doesn't get Austen, because those minute class differences that form such a larg part of Austen's novels are meaningless to her, dwarfed by the difference between her class and that of even the most elevated of Austen's characters). Only once she becomes a voracious readers, certain traits emerge in her character that I'm sure all the readers of this blog will recognise without much trouble.

Up to a point, that is. As the ending approaches, what emerges is the idea of wanting to write as a natural and necessary continuation of a love of reading. It seems according to the author, after a while, it's just not enough to read, it will necessarily lose its charm. The "necessary" bit was what bothered me somewhat, mainly because it was an instance in which I could detect the author's hand in the story, temporarily suspending my suspension of disbelief. Why? Because I think there is a tendency in many writers to consider readers as wannabe writers as well, and I think that's where this came from.

Still, that was just a small bit of what was otherwise a book that rang true. Even though nothing momentous happens (until the end, that is!), Bennet's voice and the humour wih which he narrates the little things makes them just fascinating.

* Equerry: an officer of the British royal household who attends the sovereign or other member of the royal family (I had to look it up).

MY GRADE: A B+.


TITLE: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
AUTHOR: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This is an epistolary novel, taking place only a few years after the end of the Second World War. Writer Juliet Ashton spent the war writing humourous newspaper columns intended to keep morale up. That work has made her a household name, but she's now ready to try something else. But what? Inspiration seems elusive, until she receives a fortuitous letter from Guernsey.

The writer of the letter, a Dawsey Adams, has purchased a novel that once belonged to Juliet, and wonders if she knows more about the author and his œuvre (ah, those pre-Internet days!). Other details in the letter, however, capture Juliet's attention, and soon she's corresponding not just with Dawsey, but with the entire membership of his Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and learning the moving details of what it was like to live under German occupation during the war.

This is a book of two halves. The first is basically what I've described above: Juliet finding inspiration for her new novel in the recent history of Guernsey and becoming friends with its inhabitants through their correspondence. She also dreams of some day, hopefully soon, visiting her new friends. And in the second half, she does.

It's not that the second part is bad, but the first was just so much better! Learning about what happened during the war (like Juliet, I knew the Channel islands had been occupied, but hadn't really though much about what exactly that would have implied), but also learning about the people of Guernsey. There's quite a few of them, but each and every one of them came alive and became an individual being to me.

I suppose in the second half we continue learning about those things, but there's also Stuff happening, and that changed the whole feel of the book for me. Of course, I can't really complain, as that stuff involves a very nice romance, as well, which I did like very much!

MY GRADE: A B+

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Two authors I love, but mixed results

TITLE: Demon Bound
AUTHOR: Meljean Brook

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I've come to expect that from Brook, and she didn't dissappoint with this story about creepy Alice and sweetie puppy-dog young (for a Guardian) Jake. The plot is straightforward (for the author *g*): right before she was turned, Alice made a bargain with a demon that she's since come to regret. It's unthinkable that she might fulfill it, but if she doesn't, the eternal torture she'll undergo will be just as unthinkable. Nothing to do but desperately search for a loophole that might allow her to escape it completely, a search in which Jake is determined to help her. And as they do, Jake begins to think that creepy Alice isn't so creepy after all (even with the spiders and all that).

What can I say that I haven't said before in my previous reviews of this author's work? The characters are fantastic... complex, real, fascinating and very individual. Brook really delves into what makes them tick, and succeeds in making them come alive. And not just the protagonists, everyone around them (including characters from previous books) is just as well characterised. Also, the worldbuilding is top-notch and feels like it's going somewhere, somewhere I can't wait to explore. How long until Alejandro and Irena´s story?

MY GRADE: An A-.


TITLE: The Laughter of Dead Kings
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Peters

This is a new book in Peters' Vicky Bliss series, after an interval of almost 15 years. As much as I love the original 5 books in the series, I wasn't really anticipating this one. To me, Night Train to Memphis had provided a perfectly good close to the series, and I would much rather had got a new stand-alone Barbara Michaels (or a stand-alone Peters, or a new entry in the Jacqueline Kirby series... now *that* one could use some closure!).

Fortunately, not having had my hopes too high, my dissapointment wasn't that huge. Still, it was a bit sad to read this competent-but-not-special romp. A bit like meeting up with old friends you thought were amazing years back and realising that they're not that interesting. The plot was serviceable, but a bit meh, the characters were nice, but lacked the zing they used to have, and the offbeat-but-oh-so-romantic feel of John and Vicky's relationship was gone completely. Eh, well, I did quite enjoy it.

BTW, something that I thought was really interesting was that Peters made no attempt to set the book right after the last one (which would have been in the mid-90s), even though the action is supposed to take place soon after NTTM. Nope, this is set in the present, complete with blogs (and yay! she clearly understands the difference between a blog and a website!). Weird, but it worked.

MY GRADE: A B, and I'm being quite kind.

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Delicious, by Sherry Thomas

TITLE: Delicious
AUTHOR: Sherry Thomas

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 432
PUBLISHER: Bantam

SETTING: Late 19th c. England
TYPE: Straight romance
SERIES: No

REASON FOR READING: Because I loved Private Arrangements (haven't reviewed it yet, but I hope to do so soon).

Famous in Paris, infamous in London, Verity Durant is as well-known for her mouthwatering cuisine as for her scandalous love life. But that’s the least of the surprises awaiting her new employer when he arrives at the estate of Fairleigh Park following the unexpected death of his brother.

Lawyer Stuart Somerset worked himself up from the slums of Manchester to become one of the rising political stars of England’s Parliament. To him, Verity Durant is just a name and food is just food until her first dish touches his lips. Only one other time has he felt such pure arousal—a dangerous night of passion with a stranger, a young woman who disappeared at dawn. Ten years is a long time to wait for the main course, but when Verity Durant arrives at his table, there’s only one thing that will satisfy Stuart’s appetite for more. But is his hunger for lust, revenge—or that rarest of delicacies, love? For Verity’s past has a secret that could devour them both even as they reach for the most delicious fruit of all…

THE PLOT: The summary above is perfectly good (and if I have to actually write a summary, this will never get posted. I'm still slooowly sliding back into writing reviews, after all.)

MY THOUGHTS: Yep, I know who I'm voting for as fave debut author in this year's All About Romance readers poll. Interesting characters, beautiful writing, cool setting and historical romance that's wholly character-driven? Yum.

The latter can't be understated, btw. I bet it's a lot harder to write stories where the tension comes purely from the characters and their relationships (as opposed to from half-baked suspense plots), and not have them lose steam. But Thomas succeeds completely in this. Why? I think because of the characters. They were truly interesting, and I loved them all. Verity is my favourite kind of heroine: strong, resourceful and a woman who can rescue herself, thank you very much. But at the same time, she's not perfect and has her vulnerabilities. Her back story was truly moving, and made perfect sense in making her the woman she was now. And the same could be said about Stuart, actually. His childhood and his position made it practically impossible for him to deviate in any way from society's expectations and still keep his position. It was even more moving, then, to see the risks he was willing to take for his Cinderella. I always enjoy seeing a staid, conservative hero being brought low :-)

The relationship between them was sensual and exciting. Both "stages" of it were amazing, actually. The original relationship, 10 years earlier, when Stuart fall in love with the mysterious woman he only knows as Cinderella was beautifully told, through flashbacks. This is a device I'm not that much of a fan of, but Thomas uses it to great effect. And then the present day story was even better, with Stuart becoming more involved every day with this cook whose face he's never seen and whose cooking captivates him. I've read some criticism of the fact that he pretty much fell in love with Verity again without even seeing her face, mostly through the food she prepares for him. Well, I had absolutely no problem with this. I bought it, hook, line and sinker. This is something I tend to love, actually. I'm thinking of the movie Like Water for Chocolate, or Anthony Capella's The Food of Love. The idea of expressing feelings through food is something that intrigues me, and this is what was happening in Delicious, the reason why Stuart reacted to Verity's food as he did.

I also liked the complexity of both Stuart and Verity's relationships with Bertie, but especially the former. I assumed at the beginning that Bertie was going to be a villain, but his depiction was quite a bit deeper than that, and I thought it made the book all the better. And same thing about Lizzie, Stuart's fiancée: she could easily have been made into an evil other woman character, but instead, we get a fun, exciting secondary romance starring her.

Oh, and last, but not least, the language was truly delicious (heh). It reminded me of Judith Ivory... especially her two Judy Cuevas books, Dance and Bliss (might have been the setting, as well, even though Delicious was set in another country and a couple of decades earlier), in that it was rich and lush, without ever crossing into purple territory.

And now we come to the slightly painful part. Delicious was an A right until near the end. However, I thought it felt a bit anticlimactic and lost a lot of steam after the big scene where Stuart finally recognises Verity and reacts to this. After that, I felt that the action didn't have nearly as much energy as it had been having previously. I can pretty much pinpoint the scene after which things started going downhill (not a very steep hill, so I still enjoyed the descent, but it was a hill, all the same): when Stuart tries to resist opening the door, thinking it's Verity. This scene was brilliant and wrenching, but after this, I could hear a pfffffff-like deflating sound. And I must say, I really disliked the way things with the Duchess were solved. I didn't buy for a minute her convoluted justifications for her actions, plus, it felt like a bit too much narrative... too much telling and not enough showing. It just didn't go with what the rest of the book was like.

Still, the book was strong enough until that point that this is a B+. With two absolute winners, I can't wait to see what Thomas comes up with next.

MY GRADE: Er, just said it: a B+.

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