Book Reviews: Magic Burns and No Rest for the Witches
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
I read two short books Wednesday and Thursday. The first, Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews, was great fun and very well written. It’s book two of her Kate Daniel series, and it certainly left me eager to read book three (which has just been turned in to the publisher, as I understand it).
I think I’m missing something, though. There are references to an ex-almost-boyfriend, Maximillian Crest, in Magic Burns. I just read Magic Bites at the end of March, and I don’t remember Crest at all. I don’t remember Kate having a love interest at all, in fact. Only a fool could miss the sexual tension between Kate and Curran, but that’s unresolved. I don’t remember any prior encounters with a teenaged urban shaman, either. So did I just miss some things, or are there stories set between the books that I don’t know about?
I do recommend these books to anyone who enjoys the urban fantasy genre. This one played around with Celtic mythology, which I also enjoy.
No Rest for the Witches contains four novellas. MaryJanice Davidson is the headliner, since she’s apparently the best-known of the four authors. I don’t remember how this book ended up in my hold queue at the library, but there it was with the others, so I checked it out.
Davidson’s contribution is “The Majicka,” which might or might not be set in the same world as her Betsy Taylor and Wyndham Werewolves stories (maybe even the mermaid series, although I haven’t read those so I can’t be sure). You really need a good reason to toss a fairy, a vampire, a werewolf, a woman enchanted into a vehicle by her archmage ex-SO, and a dryad into one novella. I didn’t really buy the explanation, honestly. I didn’t find the main character interesting or attractive, nor did I see any reason for the obligatory love interest to find her irresistible. But it’s a romance novella, and one of the absolute necessities seems to be people falling into love at first sight.
The setup of “Voodoo Moon” by Lori Handeland was a bit better, although that main character should turn in her FBI badge and forget having any career in law enforcement. The first guy she meets should have been wearing a red shirt, because it was way too obvious that he wouldn’t last long.
Cheyenne McCray’s “Breath of Magic” needs to be relabeled “erotica” instead of “paranormal romance.” Even if the hot guy does whisper sweet nothings to the main character, this novella is about the two people bumping fuzzies. There’s an intricate plot setup for absolutely no reason, as it certainly wasn’t necessary for them to get naked together, and there isn’t any resolution to any of the plot threads. The only way the sex scenes could have been more explicit would have involved wiring the two up to measuring devices, as inches and degrees are the only details not given. From the teaser of one of McCray’s books, it seems that the intricate plot is explored more thoroughly in at least one book. I got the feeling that the sex would be similar, as well.
“Any Witch Way She Can” by Christine Warren opens with much grousing by the main character about her spinsterhood. She then proceeds to try a love spell, but does a lot of ingredient substitution and doesn’t follow the instructions properly. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work as expected. Unfortunately, she doesn’t experience any dreadful consequences as a result of toying with things she doesn’t understand, either. And of course she, like the characters in two of the other novellas, will end up in bed with a guy she meets right after meeting him.
I need to go through my hold queues at both libraries to be sure there aren’t any more romances hiding there, because I obviously have a very bad attitude about them. I know that there’s a formula, and it seems that all of these novellas do follow it. But I don’t like formulaic fiction, and I don’t know that it could be written well enough to really please me.
On to Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow. That should provide a nice change of pace.
Tags: Cheyenne McCray, Christine Warren, Ilona Andrews, Lori Handeland, MaryJanice Davidson, paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Dragon Con, weekend planning, and back to school
Posted by Cyn | Filed under College, Education, Family, Fun, Health, Movies, Needlework, Parenting
I won’t be going to Dragon Con unless a ticket (or pass — hey, I’m willing to do panels, ya know) falls out of the air. Sam will be running games and the girl will be working the con, so they both got passes. 🙂
I’d happily meet out-of-towners for lunch or something, though. Jeannie, you still coming?
I expect lots of fun photos (with you in them, not just of the crowds!) and stories from y’all next week to make up for not going, of course.
I’m trying to plan some self-care so I don’t get too lonely and grumpy over the weekend. I’m figuring in stitching time, definitely, but could use some suggestions as to movies to watch while stitching. I never go to the cinema, so you can safely assume that if it’s been out in the last two years, I haven’t seen it (except Serenity, of course!).
Other suggestions for the weekend?
My current “fun” reading is Widdershins by de Lint, but I’m not really getting into it for some reason. I need to see if the library has something fluffy like the “Undead and ____” novels. Yeah, they’re easily bought, but I read them like literary M&Ms, so the high cost of paperbacks just doesn’t seem justified. Dekalb’s library doesn’t suck, but I miss Gwinnett’s far better selection of genre fiction, as well as living close to a branch of the PINES system as we did in Cobb.
I did something for me today, though: I put things in motion to return to school. If all goes as the school thinks it will, I could actually be doing some online classes next week! That is, if they give me the financial aid package I want. If not, I’ll wait ’til January. But I’d really like to go back now, as I’m feeling extremely empty-nested with Katie gone back to school. I don’t want to do just online classes, because I really miss the discussions of a “real” class and I think it would be good to have something regular for which I have to leave the house.
On the other hand, online classes take lots less energy, which leaves more for the actual academic pursuit and the rest of my life.
Happily, Katie prefers doing her homework next to me rather than holing up in her room as I did at that age, so I get a fair amount of time with her when she’s home. That really does push the need for a laptop, though, as she can’t be online (or just typing) and be in the living room with me and Sam. When she had one she made really good use of it.
I really like the fact that she’s attending a school with a good location and community ties. We couldn’t really ask for better than where she is in that respect. I’m looking forward to moving closer to the school, though.
Tags: adult learning, Charles de Lint, Dekalb County Public Library, distance education, Dragon Con, Gwinnett County Public Library, high school, MaryJanice Davidson, online classes, PINES, Widdershins