Review: This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Book Reviews, Reading
This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was an unexpected delight. Lawyers? Meh. Even lawyers with paranormal spice.
But Linnet Ellery is no ordinary lawyer, even for a young lawyer in a White Fang law firm. She has no end of backbone and smarts, not to mention luck — or should I say Luck? Because fortune swirls around her like nobody else, making her a nexus of events and a little too conspicuous for her very discreet employers.
That’s not to say that she doesn’t make her share of mistakes — that wouldn’t be any fun, now would it? She survives and learns from them, then helps others avoid the same.
Living in a world of vampires, werewolves, and Alfar (elves) might be intimidating to most humans, especially when those beings (Powers) are essentially in charge. Linnet doesn’t let them intimidate her. She uses her contacts and plays to her strengths, winning more and more significant battles every time she goes to bat.
Bornikova sets things up very nicely for a sequel, and I am personally hungry to read more. I strongly suggest this book to anyone who enjoys paranormals, urban fantasy, or simply good, humorous fiction with a dollop of suspense and a strong heroine.
Tags: Linnet Ellery, Phillipa Bornikova, urban fantasy
Review: Face Off by Mark del Franco
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Book Reviews, Reading
Face Off by Mark Del Franco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I went back and forth on the rating for this book, but finally settled on a four. I honestly found all the conflict to be exhausting and unpleasant, but it was very realistically written and I certainly felt connected to Blackstone. I decided that if del Franco weren’t such a good writer, I wouldn’t be feeling everything so much.
I read Face Off right after finishing Skin Deep, which is how I recommend that you read them. That is, after all, how the plot works. There’s a lot more of Jono Sinclair in this volume than the first, which will be popular with romance fans.
During the events of Skin Deep, Laura retired the Janice Crawford persona. Her life should be simpler now that she’s just herself and Mariel Tate, right?
Wrong, because she and Mariel Tate are being pulled in opposing directions by powerful forces, and she has two more-than-full-time-jobs. Toss in an order to impersonate an uncooperative prisoner in order to infiltrate a terrorist group, and her life is at risk every day too.
In the midst of all this, there’s a visit from royalty, and her boss assigns Mariel yet another top priority.
The only respite is her growing relationship with Jono Sinclair, who is also undercover with the terrorist group. He’s the only person in the world who always knows who she is, no matter what glamour she’s wearing.
Laura started wondering how much of herself was left behind all the personas in Skin Deep, realizing that “Laura Blackstone” was in danger of becoming just another persona. She’s even more concerned about that issue in Face Off, but thanks to Jono she’s getting back in touch with who she is behind the masks. Will she be able to hold on to her progress? Will she be able to simply survive the undercover assignment with almost no preparation? Or will it be the internal Guildhouse politics that do her in? These questions kept me reading and interested. I was thrilled with how del Franco answered them, and I’m intensely curious as to whether those answers leave any room for further adventures with Laura and Jono.
Tags: Laura Blackstone, Mark del Franco, urban fantasy
Review: Skin Deep by Mark del Franco
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Book Reviews, Reading
Skin Deep by Mark Del Franco
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is an intriguing beginning to a series. I’ve played a character with similar abilities in a long-running roleplaying game, so I was particularly interested in this book. I think the author did an excellent job of exploring just how much could be done with “essence” (glamour), while setting believable limits to the character’s abilities. She has an exceptionally well-trained memory, but even she slips on a few details here and there when juggling too many personas or with someone very close to her for a long time.
The plot was less interesting to me, frankly, than the character. In fact, the details are a little fuzzy and I just finished the book earlier today. (Of course, I’ve read most of the next book since then, too). Even while reading it, though, some details strained believability. That detail took the rating down a point.
Still, I was interested enough to go right on to the next book in the series, and I intend to read more of del Franco’s work. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy urban fantasy.
Tags: Laura Blackstone, Mark del Franco, urban fantasy
Review: Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of course I (along with all Jim Butcher’s other fans) have been absolutely dying to read this book ever since finishing Changes. Sam Chupp and I have been talking about how there could possibly be another book that occurs after Dresden’s death. Of course, the novella included in Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files was very good and got along quite well without Dresden, but that probably wasn’t going to work for an entire novel.
Sam hasn’t even started Ghost Story yet, so I can’t gloat at home. I was actually right in some of my speculation! I’m being non-specific so as to not give too much away, even though I am hiding this review behind spoiler warnings on GoodReads in case he does read it and remember what I had said (which is highly doubtful). But I feel like bragging somewhere, so you, dear readers, have to put up with it.
Jim Butcher deserves major praise. Ghost Story is amazing. Dresden has become such a powerful wizard that few enemies are truly a challenge, and wiping out the entire Red Court with one spell was an amazing feat. What do you do for an encore to that? Having Dresden immaterial and operating without magic does seriously push him, and that makes for a fascinating tale. Being able to keep a series fresh in its thirteenth volume says a lot for Butcher’s talent. I think Ghost Story is the best Dresden Files book yet, and I’m looking forward to book fourteen even more!
Tags: Books, Dresden Files, Jim Butcher, urban fantasy
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
Review: A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
A Rush of Wings was a random “that looks interesting” choice from the library’s new books shelves. I was somewhat surprised to find that the book was just published this January, because the copy I checked out has obviously been read many, many times. It seems as if Adrian Phoenix’s first novel is a hit.
It wasn’t bad, especially for a first novel. It’s yet another urban fantasy/horror vampire story, but it didn’t feel too derivative. I did wonder if Phoenix has read much of Nancy Collins’ work, but she still has a reasonably different spin on the genre.
I liked the main character, FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace. Her love interest, Dante, didn’t do much for me, but then I’m not into bad boys or goth kiddies. I didn’t quite buy the attraction between them, but happy Wallace did (mostly) continue to live by her values.
I think I would have been slightly happier if I didn’t feel like the book was being set up for sequels if it sold well. Whatever happened to standalone novels? Phoenix’s website says that her next book, In the Blood, will be released next year. I didn’t find anything that says it’s about Dante and friends, but I have a feeling that it is.
Tags: A Rush of Wings, Adrian Phoenix, horror, urban fantasy, vampires
Review: Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health, Humor, Needlework, Reading
I’m way behind on book reviews, so I’ll try to do one each day for a bit. Emphasis on the try. I’ve read some great stuff lately that deserves the attention!
I’ll start with the most recent book, Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner. It’s the first book of the Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series. I don’t actually remember any soccer games, but yep, Kate Connor is definitely a soccer mom in the sense that Clinton used the phrase.
I can’t remember if it was Michelle Sagara West or Tanya Huff who said it, but either way, I agree with her that the best way to sum up this series is to imagine that Buffy the Vampire Slayer grew up, got married, and had kids, but didn’t tell her family anything about her past. Kate works for the Vatican instead of the Watcher’s Council, has an Alimentatore rather than a Watcher, and isn’t the Chosen One—there are supposed to be many demon hunters. Unfortunately, the youth of today aren’t as easy to recruit, according to the Church, and an old demon hunter is usually a dead demon hunter.
Kate and her partner, Eric, had retired and moved to a place they identified as having very little demon activity. They had a child, and after Eric died (we don’t learn how in this volume), Kate remarried. Stuart Connor is an attorney with political ambition. Remember how Sabrina had so much trouble pretending to be a normal executive’s wife in Bewitched? Take it up several notches, and you know where some of the book’s humor comes from. The novel is definitely a nice departure from the paranormal romances that have a lot more romance than action, although I have yet to figure out why Kate would ever have settled for Stuart. And yes, I’d have to say she settled.1
I’ve put the next two books, California Demon and Demons are Forever, on my wish list. I’m looking forward to finding out how Kenner develops the characters, and whether Kate starts filling her kids’ water bottles with holy water (I would). I’m not a big enough fan to put the rest of her books on the pile, but I haven’t ruled it out yet.
1 Of course, so did Sabrina.
Tags: Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom, Eric, Julie Kenner, Kate Connor, Michelle Sagara West, Reading, Stuart Connor, Tanya Huff, urban fantasy, Watcher's Council
I have For A Few Demons More!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
Yes yes yes, I do! Sam bought it as part of my birthday present. Squee! Thank you, love!
I can’t start reading it yet, because if I do, I won’t stop. I have to be a good girl and do homework, then it’ll be time for bed. But it’ll be there for me tomorrow morning! Squee!
I made the mistake of reading the first chapter, which is on Ms. Harrison’s site, right after she posted it. I’m not linking there because I tell you, you do not want to start until you can go on with this book!
Expect a review soon 🙂
Tags: birthday, For A Few Demons More, Harrison, Kim Harrison, Rachel Morgan, supernatural, urban fantasy