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Today and tomorrow we are having a Molly Harper Spotlight. Earlier today we joint reviewed Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs the first book in the Jane Jameson trilogy; Now, we take a look at Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men (book 2) and Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever (book 3) . And tomorrow, the author will be stopping by to talk about her inspirations and influences and to answer YOUR questions – plus you will have a chance to win a set of all three books!
Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men
Publisher: Pocket
Publishing Date: August 2009
Paperback 400 pages
Summary: Once a devoted children’s librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a rundown occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she’s now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she’s an eternal bridesmaid — which leads her to question where exactly her relationship with her irresistibly sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mercurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment-phobic vampires are nothing if not hard to read. While Jane is trying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid’s dress in history at her best friend Zeb’s Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb’s mother, hell-bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with Zeb, Jane’s got the feeling she’s just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.
Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow’s own Black Widow, Jane’s Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiancé. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane’s biting her tongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she has a future with a vampire?
Review: In Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men, Jane Jameson, former librarian turned vampire after she was accidentally killed when a deer hunter mistook her for a deer , is still coming to grips with her life as one of the undead. If that was not enough, her best friend Zeb is getting married to a werewolf and the two families are not getting along, to put it very mildly; Zeb’s mother (AKA Mama Ginger or the Mother From Hell) is bent on getting Zeb to marry Jane instead and the werewolves are not very keen on Zeb either who now has one less toe, the result of one of a myriad of pranks they play on him. The wedding is to be Titanic themed, with an Iceberg and everything and Jane is supposed to wear the most horrendous bridesmaid dress of all time.
On top of that, Gabriel, Jane’s sire and boyfriend keep going away on business, disappearing for days without contacting her, never answering the phone. Jane is certain he is cheating on her but her lack of self-confidence prevents her from confronting him. Then her Grandmother Ruthie, a serial Widow starts dating someone new and Zeb starts sending really weird vibes her way. All of sudden, Jane maybe well be the sanest person around ,which just goes to show how insane this whole book is.
Drama: this book has in spades. Only, of the funny variety. Although, less hysterically funny than the first book, I still had a smile pretty much the entire time I was reading. Although a comedy at heart, this is also a character-driven story and Jane continues to grow as a character. And in this book, it is all about her circle of relationships and how she interacts or reacts (or not) with them. Sometimes, she manages to be proactive, sometimes she just shuts down completely. I also LOVE to read about the other character’s relationships especially that between Andrea and Dick Cheney. I am so rooting for them!
On the flip side, I was not very keen at all about the whole Grandma Ruthie storyline and could have done without it. I was also very frustrated with the relationship between Gabriel and Jane. He was hardly ever around and I could not, for the life of me, understand how Jane did not deal with that for most of the book. BUT that is part of their story and definitely part of Jane’s arc.
On to the next one!
Notable Quotes/ Parts:I love how Jane is a Jane Austen enthusiast. Her dog is named Fitz after Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice for example. But she also loves Sense and Sensibility. I loved how in several scenes in Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men, she would be in situations and she would muse whether she should behave like Elinor (and be logical) or Marianne (and be emotional).
Verdict: Although not the best in the series, this book is still funny and sexy and quirky.
Rating: 7 Very Good
Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever
Publisher: Pocket
Publishing Date: December 2009
Paperback: 336 pages
Summary: Nothing sucks the romance out of world travel like a boyfriend who may or may not have broken up with you in a hotel room in Brussels. Jane Jameson’s sexy sire Gabriel has always been unpredictable, but the seductive, anonymous notes that await him at each stop of their international vacation, coupled with his evasive behavior over the past few months, finally push Jane onto the next flight home to Half Moon Hollow — alone, upset, and unsure whether Gabriel just ended their relationship without actually telling her.
Now the children’s-librarian-turned-vampire is reviving with plenty of Faux Type O, some TLC from her colorful friends and family, and her plans for a Brave New Jane. Step One: Get her newly renovated occult bookstore off the ground. Step Two: Support her best friend, Zeb, and his werewolf bride as they prepare for the impending birth of their baby…or litter. Step Three: Figure out who’s been sending her threatening letters, and how her hostile pen pal is tied to Gabriel. Because for this nice girl, surviving a broken heart is suddenly becoming a matter of life and undeath..
Review: Warning. Contains spoilers for books one and two.
Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever picks up where Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men left off, with Jane and Gabriel touring Europe. Gabriel is still been a mysterious pig. Although it is obvious that he loves Jane, he is hiding something as the phone calls, letters (who read like love letters by the way by someone named Jeanine) and sudden business meeting prove. And he simply refuses to explain what is going on. Then, back home someone breaks into her new bookstore and she decides to leave Gabriel behind and go back home.
Back in Half Moon Hollow, thinks are as manic as usual. Zeb and Jolene are pregnant (and who knows how many babies a werewolf mother may give birth to) ; Dick and Andrea have moved in together; the ghosts of Mr. Wainsworth and Auntie Jettie are going steady; then Jane decided to join the Chamber of Commerce (where all the members are named Courtney) and whomever was writing letters to Gabriel start threatening her.
This book is slightly more serious than the previous books but this is because Jane has come a long way as a character. This is where she finally takes definite proactive actions. Seeing all of her friend settled and happy makes wonders to her life; her new business starts to grow (and does really have a love for books and literature) she settles her issues with her sister and confronts Gabriel . I have to admit I actually grew fonder of the guy with this book but Dick Cheney takes the cake for best make character of this series. His arc with Andrea was the best romantic arc in the books and I loved the way it ended for both of them. They provided me with laughter and even a bit of tears (which is to be admired considering this is supposed to be a Comedy).
But this is also a more balanced book and the best one in the series. The author has also grown as a writer and it shows. The story has less zigzagging and I thought a cleaner , simpler plot that worked out really well.
On the whole, I really enjoyed reading this series. I think these books are really funny and heart-warming with a bunch of great characters. I will miss reading about them but I don’t wish for more books in the series. I generally think that series tend to go for too long which a lot of the time results in series exhaustion, character assassination, jumping the shark, etc. I think Jane and Co are in a really good, happy place right now. Let them be.
Notable Quotes/ Parts: Because I am such a romantic at heart, I have to say I loved the interactions between Dick and Andrea. And there is one scene between Dick and Jane that was so cute. And adorable. I have a crush. So sue me.
Verdict: The strongest book in the series, it is a perfect ending for the trilogy.
Rating: 7 Very Good leaning towards a 8
Make sure to come back tomorrow for a chance to learn more about the series and ask Molly Harper your own questions, and for a chance to win a set of all the books in the Jane Jameson series!
Today, we give you an urban fantasy double-shot of goodness, in the spirit of Smugglivus! Now, we take a look at the first two books in UF author Adrian Phoenix’s The Maker’s Song series, A Rush of Wings and In the Blood. And later today, Ms. Phoenix will be stopping in to answer YOUR burning questions – plus you’ll have a chance to win one of TWO autographed sets of the books.
A Rush of Wings (Book 1 of The Maker’s Song)
Publisher: Pocket (Simon & Shuster)
Publication Date: January 2008
Paperback: 416 pages
Summary: (from Simon&Schuster.com)
HIS NAME IS DANTE.
Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot called Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.
HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.
FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer…and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be nightkind: in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien De Noir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.
HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.
What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer — and she’s pretty sure that link makes him the CCK’s next target. Heather must unravel the truth behind this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man — who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire — in order to bring a killer to
justice. But what Heather doesn’t know is that Dante’s past holds a shocking secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny…
Review:
Heather Wallace is a Federal Agent on a mission – to stop and capture the “Cross Country Killer” from striking again and ending another innocent life. Her investigation has taken her to New Orleans, to the scene of the CCK’s latest murder outside of a nightspot called Club Hell. The CCK’s modus operandi has changed ever so slightly, but Heather cannot shake the gut feeling that this latest murder is his – and she’s determined to figure out the cryptic message he has left behind. When she attempts to question the owner of Club Hell, band front man Dante Prejean, however, she’s met with a stubborn refusal to cooperate. Turns out, Club Hell is not only a happening nightspot for goths and vampire wannabes, but an actual haven for supernatural creatures – at least, that is what they tell Heather. Dante insists that he is nightkind, that is, a born vampire. His entourage and circle of friends also are creatures that aren’t exactly mortal, both vampire and fallen (as in fallen angels) alike. It soon becomes clear to Heather that Dante is the focus of her suspect’s murders, and she attempts to protect him only to meet strange resistance at the FBI – someone doesn’t want her poking around Dante Prejean, or the CCK. But Heather won’t rest until she gets to the bottom of the mystery, even though it takes her down a dark and dangerous road.
At first glance, A Rush of Wings sounds like countless other entries in the Urban Fantasy genre – one unbelievably sexy (and promiscuous, and french-speaking, and leather wearing) vampire meets one attractive yet totally competent badass officer of the law (with a heart of gold) and try to overcome sizable obstacles together. But, despite the familiarity of the character tropes and subject matter, A Rush of Wings manages to distinguish itself enough from the myriad sexy-vampire/cop books to make it a worthwhile read. From a plotting and writing standpoint, this debut novel from Adrian Phoenix has a distinct style and complicated, well-conceived world. The idea of nightkind, of True Bloods and Fallen may be a tad familiar, but are enhanced by the new terms and concepts Ms. Phoenix creates (and there’s a handy glossary in the back of the book to help readers sort out exactly what certain things mean). The plot, unfortunately, is somewhat uneven as the novel starts strong but crumbles under the complicated side-plots and shadow conspiracies (for example, the involvement of the government in a super secret project to create sociopaths seems a tad over the top – in any case, it’s hard to suspend disbelief as the novel progresses). Ms. Phoenix does manage to make ends meet by the conclusion of the novel, but the road there is rocky.
Though the plotting isn’t the most sure-footed, Ms. Phoenix’s characters are the true standouts that make A Rush of Wings worthwhile. The archetypes for Heather and Dante are standard fare, but Ms. Phoenix manages to give these protagonists complicated and unique backstories that add layers of realism to the characters. Dante Prejean is much more than just a promiscuous, leather-clad vampire; he’s also an orphan with a dark past, and, in a wonderful twist, is only 23 years old (and acts like it). He’s beautiful and self-assured, but he also struggles with some truly horrible inner demons – if there’s any vampire that deserves to wallow in self-disgust, it’s the sociopathic Dante. Ms. Phoenix also gives him a distinct voice with his creole french interspersed in his speech (in a kind of Gambit-esque way), that feels very real, if a little cheesy at first. Even more impressive, however, was heroine Heather Wallace. Though her FBI-procedurals are a bit shaky and unconvincing, as a character, Heather is a firmly grounded and mature woman. I loved that she is the older, more experienced one in the relationship (31 to Dante’s 23), and her determination to do her job at all costs is an admirable trait. The secondary characters too – particularly Dante’s more-than-friend Lucien DeNoir, one of the fallen and strangely protective of young Dante.
Overall, I enjoyed A Rush of Wings – enough so to continue with the series. There’s a lot of potential in this first novel, and as it was Ms. Phoenix’s first, I had high hopes for her subsequent work.
Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read chapter one online HERE.
Verdict: Despite an uneven plot, the characters were enough to salvage the novel and keep me engaged. Definitely recommended for those looking for a sexy, paranormal read with complexity.
Rating: 6 – Good
In the Blood (Book 2 of The Maker’s Song)
Publisher: Pocket (Simon & Schuster)
Publication Date: January 2009
Paperback: 480 pages
**PLEASE NOTE: The review of In the Blood (including the synopsis below) necessarily and unavoidably contain spoilers for the first book, A Rush of Wings. If you have not read book 1 and wish to remain unspoiled, stop reading now!
Summary: (from Simon&Schuster.com)
DANTE LIVES.
Vampire. Rock star. Begotten son of the fallen angel Lucien. Dante Baptiste still struggles with nightmares and seizures, searching for the truth about his past. It is a quest as seductive as his kiss, as uncontrollable as his thirst, and as unforgiving as his determination to protect one mortal woman at any cost.
KNOWLEDGE KILLS.
FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace now knows the extent of the Bureau corruption that surrounds her, but worries she is losing the battle. And when Dante and his band Inferno come to Seattle on tour, Heather can’t help but be drawn back to the beautiful, dangerous nightkind. But what Heather and Dante don’t know is that new enemies lurk in the shadows, closer than they think…and even deadlier than they fear.
DESTINY UNFOLDS.
Shadowy government forces have pledged to eliminate all loose ends from Project Bad Seed — and Heather and Dante are at the top of the list. Elsewhere, the Fallen gather in Gehenna, intent on finding their long-awaited savior, the True Blood nightkind whom Lucien DeNoir would die to protect. And a damaged and desperate adversary, with powers as strange and perilous as Dante’s own, plots to use Dante as a pawn in a violent scheme for revenge. But only one of these lethal forces holds the key to Dante’s past — a key that could finally unlock the secret of his birth and the truth of his existence…or destroy him completely.
Review:
What a difference a book makes! While A Rush of Wings was a strong character novel with a shaky plot, In the Blood shows more of what Ms. Phoenix is really capable in terms of writing. The plotting has grown stronger and more assured, the mythology of her Maker’s Song universe more intense and layered – and add to that her already solid characterizations, and you’ve got a strong sophomore effort on your hands.
The Bad Seed project has been terminated, E destroyed, and Dante and Heather have gone their separate ways. Dante still struggles with his migranes and the darkness that bubbles beneath the surface, a legacy of his Bad Seed days and his not quite restrained alter-ego, S. But though the primary doctor of the experiments is now dead, Bad Seed has even deeper roots in the FBI and government, and those in charge are not so easy for Heather and Dante to avoid. A nefarious plan ensues to “trigger” Dante and to control Heather is set in action, and once again the two must team up to get to the bottom of the powers threatening them both. Meanwhile, Lucien finds himself embroiled in a power struggle between his fallen brethren in the alternate plain of Gehenna – he must protect the identity and very existence of his son Dante, lest Dante’s unique powers as a creawdwr (an extremely rare and powerful creator) are discovered and claimed by the other Elohim.
Once again, Ms. Phoenix has an ambitious undertaking with In the Blood – the plot involves two parallel locations (the more earthly Seattle and otherworldly Gehenna), and multiple side characters hungry for a piece of Dante’s power, each fueled by different motivations. The storytelling is less confusing and more believable this time around, though the police procedurals and government conspiracies still feel somewhat forced. The additions to the Maker’s Song universe, are more than enough to make up for any shortcomings in terms of plotting – Dante’s uniqueness, the role of Lucien and the other Elohim are fascinating as well. And, as with the first book, the true strength of In the Blood lies with Ms. Phoenix’s characterizations – which are expanded and built upon in this second book. Dante – vampire, crazed sociopath, uncontrollable, and incredibly powerful creature – is a risky choice of hero. He’s both familiar (as the French speaking sexy vamp) but unique (he’s got issues, brainwashed and conditioned from his bad seed days). Heather, as in the first book, is an irresistible heroine with her levelheadedness and her devotion to her job and those she loves. In In the Blood, we learn a lot more about Heather’s colored past – the shaky and mistrustful relationship she has with her father, the truth of her mother’s murder, her manic depressive and manipulative younger sister Annie. Lucien too gets much more attention in this novel, which is a welcome addition as he is one of the more fascinating characters from the first book, and the history of the fallen and his brethren add an extra dimension to this novel. Too, the new additions to the cast are complex and layered – from the “cleanup” crew vampire Caterina, to the twins Alexander and Athena, to Heather’s sister and father, to the nefarious Wells himself.
Overall, I was much more impressed with In the Blood than I was with its predecessor, and I eagerly await the release of book 3 in the series, Beneath the Skin.
Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read chapter one online HERE.
Verdict: A much stronger novel than its predecessor, In the Blood has enough action, mystery and character to satiate any fan hungry for a dark and sexy Urban Fantasy read. Recommended.
Rating: 7 – Very Good
**********
Make sure to stick around for a chance to ask Adrian Phoenix your own questions, and for a chance to win an autographed set of all the books in The Maker’s Song series!
Today, we give you a supernatural double-shot of goodness, in the spirit of Smugglivus! First up, it’s the lyrical stylings of Ryan Mecum, followed by a zombified version of a holiday classic from Adam Roberts…
Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum
Publisher: How
Publication Date: August 2009
Paperback: 144 pages
Summary: (from amazon.com)
You hold in your hands a recently discovered poetry journal – the poetry journal of a vampire. William Butten was en route to a new land on the Mayflower when he was turned into a vampire by a fellow passenger, a beautiful woman named Katherine. These pages contain his heartbreaking story – the story of a vampire who has lived through (and perhaps caused) some of America’s defining events. As he travels the country and as centuries pass, he searches for his lost love and records his adventures and misadventures using the form of poetry known as haiku.
As Butten documents bloody wars, a certain tea party in Boston, living the high life during the Great Depression, two Woodstock festivals, the corruption of Emily Dickinson, and hanging out with Davy Crockett, he keeps to the classic 5-7-5 syllable structure of haiku. The resulting poems are hilarious, repulsive, oddly romantic, and bizarre.
Read along, and you just may find a new appreciation for – and insight into – various events in American history. And blood.
Review:
Earlier this year, Ana and I read and reviewed Ryan Mecum’s delightful Zombie Haiku – and we liked it so much, we of course responded with alacrity when he invited us to review his new poetic book, Vampire Haiku.
Like Zombie Haiku, Vampire Haiku is written entirely in a series of haiku (that’s a three line poem, with 5-7-5 syllables per line), but tells an overall story. This novel is the poetic journal of a man named William Butten, a translatlantic passenger on the good ship Mayflower in 1620. En route, William meets a lovely married woman named Katherine – who isn’t exactly what she seems, as becomes clear to William when she drinks his blood and turns him into a vampire. Over the next few centuries, the vampire William documents his adventures, his conquests, and his love for Katherine in his journal (all in haiku form, of course).
And what can I say? Mr. Mecum does it again with his winsome Vampire Haiku, capturing a slightly different interpretation of American history through a vampire’s eyes. This slim, glossy book comes in a cool package – the interior of the book, the accompanying illustrations, photographs and blood spatters are gorgeously composed – and the haiku are as fun as ever. A few favorites:
The syllable count
for “vampire” is confusing.
Two? Three? I’ll guess two.Blood tastes like cherries
mixed with a lot of copper
and way too much salt.When a mosquito
pierces my neck and drinks blood,
is that irony?I just saw Twilight.
It’s labeled a vampire film,
but I don’t know why.These were not vampires.
If sunlight makes you sparkle,
you’re a unicorn.
Even better than the humor, though, is the unrequited love story between William and his Katherine over the ages – it adds a touch of bittersweet heartache to the book.
Though I think I still prefer Zombie Haiku (as a zombie fan first and foremost, this is a – pardon the lameness of the pun – “no brainer”), Vampire Haiku is a wonderful little book, and another solid entry from Ryan Mecum. Perfect for a stocking stuffer, or for someone looking for a quick, quirky pick-me-up. Definitely recommended.
Rating: 6 – Good
I Am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas by Adam Roberts
Publisher: Gollancz (UK)
Publication Date: October 2009
Hardcover: 160 pages
Summary: (amazon.com)
Marley was dead. Again. The legendary Ebenezeer Scrooge sits in his house counting money. The boards that he has nailed up over the doors and the windows shudder and shake under the blows from the endless zombie hordes that crowd the streets hungering for his flesh and his miserly braaaaiiiiiinns! Just how did the happiest day of the year slip into a welter of blood, innards and shambling, ravenous undead on the snowy streets of old London town? Will the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future be able to stop the world from drowning under a top-hatted and crinolined zombie horde? Was Tiny Tim’s illness something infinitely more sinister than mere rickets and consumption? Can Scrooge be persuaded to go back to his evil ways, travel back to Christmas past and destroy the brain stem of the tiny, irritatingly cheery Patient Zero? It’s the Dickensian Zombie Apocalypse – God Bless us, one and all!
Review:
Since the wild success of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies earlier this year (reviewed HERE), the taking of an established classic work of literature and zombifying it has become something of a trend. Adam Roberts’ I Am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas takes Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and twists it into something a little more…silly (and by “silly” I mean bloody, gorey, and brains-y).
The basic story is thus: Ebeneezer Scrooge, the miserliest of misers, he of the “bah humbugs,” turns out to be the only person in the world immune to the encroaching zombie plague (which he discovers after a re-animated Marley bites him on his backside). On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by three spirits (Present, Future and Past) for a specific purpose – to see the extent of the zombie plague, and to give him the motivation to stop it (by putting the maniacal mastermind behind the zombie outbreak to a preemptive death).
If you buy I Am Scrooge, you already know what you are getting into. This is a silly book that isn’t really about zombies as metaphor for human failings. It’s not George A. Romero. It’s not Kim Paffenroth or Robert Kirkpatrick. But, for what it is – a good, healthy dose of the ridiculous followed by a serving of Christmas Puddi-er-Brains – I Am Scrooge is wonderful. Mr. Roberts does not make the awkward mistake of trying to ape Charles Dickens’ prose (as Mr. Grahame-Smith attempted with Jane Austen), nor does he rely on A Christmas Carol too much. Instead, he takes the basic premise of the novel and writes a wry, brisk, slip of a book (it’s only 150 pages), that involves time travel, some famous author cameos, and the strategic location of Australia.
Seriously.
Add to that a sometimes-narrator that has fun with the english language, i.e:
‘Brains!’ moaned the beast, its arms flung wide as if in greeting. It writhed, slowly, jerkily, upon its wooden-knob of impalement. Of its impaling. Its impaleness. Of its Impellor.
Of its being impaled. Yes, I think that’s the right one.
…and you’ve got a party. I Am Scrooge is absurdism at its best – the final showdown will have you rolling your eyes, and yet strangely delighted. At least, I know I was delighted. I appreciated how off-the-wall silly this book was, and devoured it in a single sitting. It’s not War and Peace (or even A Christmas Carol) – but then again, it’s not meant to be. And for what it is, it rocks. Recommended, if you’re looking for silly, fast, and escapist. With brains.
Rating: 6 – Good
**********
Reading Next: Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamand
Title: Blind Spot (in the anthology Must Love Hellhounds)
Author: Meljean Brook
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publishing Date: September 2009
Pages: less than 100
Stand Alone/ Series: A standalone story set in the Guardian’s universe.
Why did I read the book: I have read all the books and novellas in this series, because they are THAT good.
How did I get the book: Review copy from publisher
Review:
I can always count on Meljean Brook to deliver a good story. I have read all of her novels as well as all of her novellas and she is very successful in writing both formats.
Blind Spot starts after the events of Demon Forged. Maggie Wren, a secondary character in that novel is now working for Colin Ames-Beaumont as his butler. He sends to her New York accompanied by Sir Pup (the hellhound) to aid his many times great-Nephew Geoffrey Blake in finding his missing sister Katherine. Maggie is a highly qualified former CIA operative and prepared to take care of this problem especially given as how the problem may be connected with her own past. What she did not know was that Geoffrey is a problem solver himself, working for the family business’ Ramsdell Pharmaceuticals. He also happens to be blind – a fact Colin failed to mention and which surprises Maggie. But being a member of Colin’s family means Geoffrey’s blood is tainted by Dragon’s blood giving him a very special ability.
I really liked this story. After the VERY dark Demon Forged it was great to see a story set in the same world but a little lighter. Of course, Maggie and Geoffrey are dealing with dangerous villains but the tone is much less heavy. Not only because the story is mostly a character piece with little connection with the overall story arc (no word of what is happening with the Guardians for example or with Michael) but also because of Sir Pup – he is a delight to read. A Hellhound with 3 heads and a sense of humour. Awesome.
Plus, in a world populated by Guardians, Demons, Vampires it is very refreshing to see a human couple taking the centre stage. The story takes place over a few hours and I love that Meljean Brook does not force a full-blown relationship down our throats. These two have a clear mission and they are working together towards it. As they move around the country, each of them is revealed to the reader – their past, their issues, their personalities. I loved for example the difference in background: Geoffrey coming from a huge, loving traditional family whilst Maggie was a loner. The prospect of being part of a family is one thing that he can offer her. Plus, I adored how Colin played a role here and how we see another side of him – the whole “Winters” thing was adorable.
It is plain that Geoffrey already knew Maggie and had a crush on her, but they only just barely got to know each other. And this is the great thing about Blind Spot: by the end of the novella, even though there were no words of love uttered, even though they only kissed twice, the promise is there and I know enough about each of them to believe that there is a HEA for them somewhere in the future.
And once again Meljean Brook delights me with fabulous last lines to close the story : it refers back to Maggie’s thoughts about caring x being careless, completing her character arc and revealing the well-thought out (short) journey the author granted us with.
Notable Quotes/ Parts: I loved this passage:
“Who was this man? Was he for real? Her fingers were clumsy as she unbuttoned the cuffs of her sleeves. What kind of person offered trust like this? Acceptance? She wasn’t family. Their only connection was one of the few impulsive acts Maggie had performed in her lifetime. She wouldn’t even matter to him.
And yet…his acceptance and trust had begun to matter to her, too. It must have, because her throat was aching, and she wanted to say “Thank you” in return.
But as she moved toward the bathroom, she only said, “You aren’t at all what I expected, Mr Blake.”
Additional Thoughts: Blind Spot is only one of four stories in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology. The other three are:
Angels’ Judgment by Nalini Singh – part of her Guild Hunter series. I plan to read this story next.
And two other stories which are part of series I do not read and I have no plans to read them.
“The Britilingens Go to Hell” by Charlaine Harris (note: NOT a Sookie Stackhouse story) and “Magic Mourns” by Ilona Andres (set in the Kate Daniel’s universe)
You can check other reviewer’s thoughts about these stories here:
SciFi Guy’s
Janicu’s
Mandi’s
Babbling About Books and More
Verdict: Blind Spot is a good, solid character-centric story of two interesting people. Even though it is connected with the world of the Guardians it is not essential to the overall story arc. As a die-hard fan of the series though, it is essential to my keeper shelf. But then again, I basically devour any morsel of writing that Meljean Brook deems to throw at me.
Rating: 8 – Excellent
Reading Next: The Dust of 100 Dogs
Title: Blood Promise
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Publication Date: August 2009
Hardcover: 512 pages
Stand alone or series: Book 4 in the ongoing Vampire Academy series
How did I get this book: Review Copy from Publicist
Why did I read this book: I’m kind of a huge fan of Richelle Mead’s, and the Vampire Academy books are amazing – Twilight fans, you really should be reading about Rose and Dimitri, because this is a series that kicks the scrawny, melodramatic Twilight’s butt. On Thursday of last week, we hosted a stop on a Richelle Mead blog tour, and what better way to follow that up than with a review of Blood Promise?
Summary: (from RichelleMead.com)
Rose Hathaway’s life will never be the same.
The recent attack on St. Vladimir’s Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose’s neck, a mark that says she’s killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life’s vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She’ll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?
Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?
Review:
***IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS NECESSARY SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST THREE BOOKS IN THE SERIES. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS YET, LOOK NO FURTHER! Major spoilers for the first three books ensue, after the break… (And also, if you haven’t read these books yet, for the love of Pete, what are you waiting for!!!!???? Go forth and pick up Vampire Academy. IMMEDIATELY.)***
We’ve got a special, unexpected treat for you today – we’re kicking off a long-awaited Richelle Mead Book Blog Tour, in honor of her most recent release, the fourth book in her ongoing Vampire Academy series, Blood Promise!
Rose Hathaway’s life will never be the same.
The recent attack on St. Vladimir’s Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose’s neck, a mark that says she’s killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life’s vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She’ll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?
Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?
For the duration of the tour, six blogs will be participating in an interview with author Richelle Mead, asking her our burning questions about her Vampire Academy books.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, we give you our questions with Richelle!
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The Book Smugglers: You have a thing about putting your heroines through hell and back – both Georgina in your Succubus series and Rose in Vampire Academy have to deal with some major heartache. What’s with the Angst? Will Rose have some relief in the future?
Richelle: I’m not a cruel person, but I do believe characters have to work for their happy endings. It’s also unrealistic to write a book in which everything that happens to the character is happy and wonderful. No one would want to read it! We like to go through the ups and downs. And as for Rose, well…that’s not something I can give away. You’ll have to keep reading to see what happens next.
The Book Smugglers: Your take on vampires is really detailed, with careful and thoughtful delineation between Dhampir, Moroi and Strigoi. What were your inspirations for your particular take on vampire lore and hierarchy? Did you do any specific mythological research for your world building in the Vampire Academy books?
Richelle: When I sat down to write a vampire book for teens, I had no idea that that genre would be so big. I knew the adult market was going strong, though, so it was important for me to do something very different from those books. So, I tried to stay away from the ‘standard’ vampire stories in our culture and see what else was out there in the world. Interestingly, almost every culture has myths about some type of vampire. I’d taken Eastern European folklore classes in college, so I jumped into research about those myths first and found the Moroi and Strigoi stories. There wasn’t a lot there, so I’ve had to improvise a lot in the series with how I best think a world with two vampire races would live. Dualism is a big part of Russian and Romanian myths, which is why the balance of light and dark is always so key in the Vampire Academy universe.
The Book Smugglers: What are your future writing plans for the Vampire Academy books? When can we expect (and what can we expect from) the next installment to this fabulous series?
Richelle: There are going to be eight more VA books coming out over the next few years. Two of them will be about Rose and will finish off her story. The next six will be a “spin-off” starting a whole new story that takes place in the same world but follows different characters (whom we’ve already met).
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Scorpio Richelle Mead is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy books for both adults and teens. Originally from Michigan, Richelle now lives in Seattle, Washington where she works on her three series full-time. Before becoming a writer, she considered a few different career paths. She received a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan, an MA in Comparative Religion from Western Michigan University, and a Master in Teaching (Middle & High School English) degree from the University of Washington. In the end, she decided writing was the way for her but believes all of her education prepared her for it.
Visit Richelle Mead online at her website http://www.richellemead.com/ or her blog, Even Redheads Get the Blues.
So there you have it! Make sure to check out Frenetic Reader for the continuation of this interview…
Also make sure to check back in on Monday, when we’ll have a review of Blood Promise and a giveaway to boot!
Happy Sunday, everyone! I kindly want to kick off this week’s edition of our Sunday Stash to say…
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! As of this instant, UCLA has a better football record than USC. Suck it Trojans. SUCK IT!
Ahem. Now back to business.
Giveaway Winners:
Our Neil Gaiman giveaway of two copies of The Graveyard Book is officially closed! The sorting hat has spoken. The two lucky winners are:
Allison King (Comment #152)
RKCharron (Comment #31)
Congratulations! Please send us your snail mail address (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com), and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible! Thanks again to all who participated. You all gave some wonderful book and author suggestions that we will be sure to check out!
Some Freaking Sweet News:
Universal has bought the rights to adapt Melissa Marr’s fantastic debut novel Wicked Lovely into a movie! SQUEE! The movie will be produced by Wild West Picture Show Prods. with Caroline Thompson to adapt the book to screenplay (she did Edward Scissorhands – so Wicked Lovely is in good hands!!!). As you may know, we Book Smugglers are Melissa Marr fangirls – we’ve interviewed her, we’ve had guest posts from her, we’ve loved all of her books. In fact, both of us have Fragile Eternity on our lists for best reads of 2009! So we are THRILLED for Melissa, and cannot wait for the film.
Any ideas for your dream casting of characters for the movie?? Some folks over at the Wicked Lovely Forums have some great ideas…I really like the suggestion of Amanda Seyfried as Donia.
In other fantastic-omg-headexplode news, our good friend and honorary book pimp Karen Mahoney has announced….HER VERY FIRST BOOK DEAL!!!! Kaz’s debut novel, a young adult urban fantasy type called The Iron Witch has been sold to Flux (the imprint behind Maggie Stiefvater’s Ballad!), along with its as of yet unwritten sequel (The Wood Queen)! We are so freaking happy for Karen…and now are patiently waiting for our ARCs. *NINJA*
And rounding out the dose of awesomeness is news from blogger buddy Carolyn Crane (aka CJ of The Thrillionth Page). Her urban fantasy debut, due out in March 2010, has a cover! And it’s gorgeous, isn’t it? CJ says:
But I’m sure it’s fine to say that, in a nutshell, Mind Games is the first in an urban fantasy trilogy about a hypochondriac who joins a psychological hit squad. It takes place in a fantastical Milwaukee/Chicago. (Specifically, the Milwaukee/Chicago of my childhood imagination. I lived in suburbs of both cities as a young child.)
Anyway, I’m just so so excited.
As are we!!!!
Other Cool Announcements & Goings On:
You may have seen it around, but last Monday marked the launch of Kristin Cashore’s Fire blog book tour! Over the course of three weeks, each blog on the tour will introduce you to characters in Fire, giving avid fans a little taste of what’s to come.
Fire is the companion novel/prequel to the 2008 success Graceling (which Thea loved). And, we can tease you by saying that Fire is every bit as delectable as its predecessor! The Book Smugglers is one of the last stops on the book tour, so make sure to tune in. The schedule is as follows:
1. Monday, 9/14 – The Compulsive Reader
2. Tuesday, 9/15 – Pop Culture Junkie
3. Wednesday, 9/16 – Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf
4. Thursday, 9/17 – The Page Flipper
5. Friday, 9/18 – Reading Keeps You Sane6. Monday, 9/21 – Presenting Lenore
7. Tuesday, 9/22 – In Bed With Books
8. Wednesday, 9/23 – Hope’s Bookshelf
9. Thursday, 9/24 – Shaken & Stirred
10. Friday, 9/25 – The Frenetic Reader11. Monday, 9/28 – SciFiGuy.ca
12. Tuesday, 9/29 – The Book Smugglers
13. Wednesday, 9/30 – Fantasy Book Critic
14. Thursday, 10/1 – Melissa’s Bookshelf
15. Friday, 10/2 – The Story Siren
For more info about the tour, check out Kristin Cashore’s blog.
In other cool book-ish news, Dacre Stoker – descendent of Bram Stoker! – has written an Official Sequel to his many times over Great Uncle’s iconic classic, Dracula.
The official sequel to Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, written by his direct descendent and endorsed by the Stoker family.
The story begins in 1912, twenty-five years after the events described in the original novel. Dr. Jack Seward, now a disgraced morphine addict, hunts vampires across Europe with the help of a mysterious benefactor.
Meanwhile, Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school to pursue a career in stage at London’s famous Lyceum Theatre. The production of Dracula at the Lyceum, directed and produced by Bram Stoker, has recently lost its star.
Luckily, Quincey knows how to contact the famed Hungarian actor Basarab, who agrees to take the lead role. Quincey soon discovers that the play features his parents and their former friends as characters, and seems to reveal much about the terrible secrets he’s always suspected them of harbouring. But, before he can confront them, Jonathan Harker is found murdered.
The writers were able to access Bram Stoker’s hand-written notes and have included in their story characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago. Dracula is one of the most recognized fictional characters in the world, having spawned dozens of multi-media spin-offs. The Un-Dead is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker estate since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi.
Uh, HELL YES!
Dracula The Un-Dead will officially launch on Monday September 28, and for all you lucky folks in London, there’s a great opportunity to meet Mr. Dacre Stoker and hear him talk about the book. Here’s the venue information:
WATERSTONE’S PICCADILLY – London
Monday, 28 September 2009, 7:00PM
Tickets £3 redeemable against purchase of the book on the night
The Great Grand Nephew of Bram Stoker, will be discussing his new novel ‘Dracula: The Un-Dead’, the official sequel to ‘Dracula’ and first story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker estate since the original. Dacre was also able to access Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes and has included in the story characters and plot threads from the original manuscript.
This Week on The Book Smugglers:
Ok, down to official business! We have another packed week for you. On Monday, Ana reviews the long awaited third novel in the Hathaway series from Lisa Kleypas, Tempt Me at Twilight.
On Tuesday, Thea reviews A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, a historical fiction young adult title that won the Los Angeles Book Prize, along with many other awards. (Hint: All those awards? MUCH DESERVED)
On Wednesday, Thea will review and have a giveaway for the recently re-released Ariel by Steven Boyett – a novel that has since its original publication in 1983 become a cult favorite in the fantasy genre. Mr. Boyett has written a long awaited sequel, titled Elegy Beach which will be hitting stores on November 3.
On Thursday, our latest victim, Lusty Reader is over here for our infamous Guest Dare! She’ll be reviewing Fables vol. 1: Legends in Exile.
And finally, on Friday we’ll have a joint review of The Declaration by Gemma Malley, another post-apocalyptic/dystopian young adult title (since you know how much we love those!).
That’s it for now folks! Back to football….
~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers
Title: The Strain
Author: Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Genre: Horror, Speculative Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow (US) / Harper Collins (UK)
Publication Date: June 2009 (US & UK)
Hardcover: 416 pages
Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the planned Strain trilogy.
Why did I read this book: Well, there are a few very compelling reasons. One, it’s oscar winning freaking genius Guillermo del Toro (I have such huge love for Chronos, Hellboy, Hellboy II, and Pan’s Labyrinth). Two, it’s a new, vicious take on vampires (as opposed to the leather-clad/ridiculously sexified vamps that dominate literature and tv these days), in the tradition of ‘Salem’s Lot. Three, Ana is my sugar mama – she went to a signing in London to celebrate the release of the book with a bunch of other wonderful UK bloggers, and SHE GOT ME A PERSONALIZED, SIGNED COPY OF THE BOOK. Seriously:
So, as you can see, I had no choice but to read this book.
Summary: (from amazon.com)
The Strain
They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come.
In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country.
In two months–the world.
A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing . . .
So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city–a city that includes his wife and son–before it is too late.
Review:
The Strain begins with a prologue of sorts, as a young man named Abraham listens to a bubbeh meiseh, a grandmother’s story, about the evil that lurks and waits in the darkness. This evil has overwhelmed many before, and continues throughout history, as Abraham will discover during the course of his life. Many decades later, an airplane lands at JFK in New York, but something is horribly wrong. The plane is dead. No lights, no noise from the pilots or passengers. When the CDC arrives on the scene under the leadership of Ephraim Goodweather, the find that the all the passengers on the plane save four have died, mysteriously drained of all their blood. Fearing a viral outbreak, Eph rushes to find the cause of the mysterious deaths – but what he discovers shakes him to his very core, and forces him to confront everything he’s ever known about science. As the situation in New York grows more dire following a total eclipse that eerily coincides with the airplane deaths, Eph teams up with an old man who has seen this evil before and remembers it well from his grandmother’s stories, and together with a few other determined survivors they strike out to stop the spread of the strain.
The Strain isn’t really what I was expecting – I thought this would be a horror novel, when in actuality, thematically and in writing style this is much more of a thriller novel. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – simply unexpected. In many ways, The Strain reminds me of books by Robin Cook or Richard Preston (i.e. Outbreak, The Hot Zone). I used to read these bioterrorism/CDC/USAMRIID books when I was in middle school and Ephraim’s scientific angle with the CDC dominates a lot of this story. On the other hand, balancing the scientific elements The Strain is also a tale of the supernatural, written very much in the tradition of ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. There’s a Master, there’s a moving coffin storyline, there’s a male hero with the son character, and there’s the necessary Van Helsing character. I guess what I’m getting at, is that The Strain borrows heavily from established works of fiction (even the central theme behind the trilogy, with vampirism as a pathogen or strain can find its roots in Richard Matheson’s classic tale I am Legend), cobbling together a modern, grittier take on vampires.
Unfortunately, the overall effect is sadly uneven as the story struggles to balance both thriller with horror and blend science with fiction. The Strain isn’t a bad book, but it’s firmly locked in mediocrity.
The beginning of the novel is undeniably strong – starting with a prologue of sorts in Romania and a glimpse of young Abraham (who will become our Van Helsing in New York many years later). It’s a very Guillermo del Torro-esque way to start a story – as with the story of Nuada and the Golden army in Hellboy II, the grandmother’s tale about the monster Sardu is one that sets an eerie, dark atmosphere for The Strain, haunting with the telltale sound of the monster’s cane (“pick-pick-pick“). It is in this element, the supernatural, that Mr. del Torro and Mr. Hogan excel – the old stories of evil, powerful master vampires in the trenches of WWII, the ancients that still remain on Earth, the motivations for destruction of the human race – these are the thematic and storytelling highs of the novel. In contrast, the medical thriller The X-Files-cum-Outbreak just doesn’t quite work. Ephraim’s struggles with his bureaucratic bosses may ring true, but it’s not something I want to read about for fifty pages, and the alacrity that Eph and Nora switch from concerned CDC scientists to sword-wielding slayers of anyone infected isn’t quite believable. There’s also an attempt to make vampirism a pathogen that can be defined by science, but then it’s countered by decidedly non-scientific factors that don’t make any sense if vampirism is due to a virus (vampires cannot cross moving water unassisted, mirrors only show vampires if they are backed with silver, vampires can be hurt by UV lamps but not killed by exposure to the sun). It never really quite works either way.
As I’ve mentioned above, The Strain is written in the style of a thriller. Actually, a more astute observation would be that The Strain is written in the style of a TV movie or episode of CSI. Sections end on commercial break-like cliffhangers, switching constantly from following Eph’s storyline to Setrakian’s (that is, Abraham’s), to the infected survivors from the plane, and to anyone these characters may have been in contact with. It’s a schizophrenic, sensationalist writing style that I’m not particularly fond of – but perhaps this is just a matter of personal taste. There’s no beauty to the writing, it simply is. Blood gushes, eyes look angry, etc. The action verbs and adjectives are in the right places, but The Strain is descriptive without finesse or anything to set it apart. Yes, there is an apt amount of description of dismembered body parts, but it’s hollow. There’s a lot of ’so and so was sad and tired’ instead of ’so and so rubbed a weary hand over his brow, attempting to soothe the pounding in his head’ or whatever. There’s simple telling, but no showing.
The characters are similarly bland – not badly written, but not particularly memorable or compelling. At best, they are caricatures. Archetypes. There’s the Hero – estranged from his wife, a Good Man, a doting father to his loving son, the man who means well but is married to his job of saving the world. Of course, there’s his predictable love interest Nora (who hardly gets any narrative insight other than being Ephraim’s partner at work). The other main character is of course Setrakian, the knowledgeable old man who has been fighting evil since his days as a survivor of the Holocaust. Again, the characters aren’t poorly written, but there’s nothing particularly interesting about any of them.
Also, another notable writing flaw in The Strain is a bizarre tendency to explicate the strangest little things. For example, at one point in the story, rats have invaded an apartment by vents in the walls. The narrative will suddenly break from the story and start describing characteristics of rats in apartments, i.e.
Norway rats – Rattus norvegicus, city rats – have a highly defined sense of smell and taste. Their front incisors are long and sharp, stronger than aluminum, copper, lead, and iron. Gnawing rats are responsible for one-quarter of all electric-cable breaks in the city, and the likely culprit behind the same percentage of fires of unknown origin. Their teeth are comparable in pure hardness to steel, and the alligator-like structure of their jaw allows for thousands of pounds of biting pressure They can chew through cement and even stone.
While this information is undeniably interesting, these textbook-like asides to the reader by an otherwise non-present narrator is distracting and…well, odd. It’s everywhere in the book, from descriptions of HAZMAT suits and eclipse details.
The biggest detractor, however, from The Strain would have to be in the plotting of the story. The first fifty pages or so are strongly gripping, engaging reader interest, but then for a good chunk of time (about half of the novel) the book plods along with boring exposition. The survivors go home and start to feel a little strange. Eph and Nora deal with bureaucratic BS. Setrakian works his pawn shop with a sense of impending doom. As the first book of a trilogy, it has an open ending that will be resumed in the next volume…but I’m not entirely sure this should have been made a trilogy, as there is a good chunk of nothing happening in this first book that surely could have been reduced or cut out of the novel entirely. One particular problem I had was with the whole eclipse storyline – WTF why? There’s a scary total eclipse. People irreparably damage their retinas by looking at the eclipse without protective glasses…and that’s it. There’s no real tie-in to the vampires or anything (and this eclipse takes up a good chunk of narrative time, in the ballpark of two chapters).
Now, I’ve harped on about my problems with The Strain, and I know I sound like I hated it. That’s not the case – I actually did like the book. It’s nothing new or particularly groundbreaking, and it certainly isn’t perfect. But once I slogged through two-thirds of the book, things FINALLY pick up and get interesting. By the time the strigoi-killing dream team has been assembled, humans are becoming vampire meat and silver swords fly, it’s really freaking exciting. And good. And fabulously gory. I just wish it didn’t take so long to get to that point. There are cinematic elements to these big battles at the end (Setrakian’s “My sword sings of silver!” is just as memorable and unexpectedly splendid as the priest in Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive busting into kung fu zombie slaying while yelling, “I KICK ASS FOR THE LORD!”), and I finished The Strain in a flurry of pages, bloodlust sated. I also appreciated the sense of scope in the novel – as nights continue to pass, the threat of the vampire curse spreading grows to apocalyptic proportions and there’s a revealing scene near the end within the vampire world itself. As for the vamps themselves, I really did like this new descriptive invocation of them. Stinger tentacles as opposed to the usual fangs, mutating and disjointed body parts…it’s really wicked good stuff.
Was this action enough to make up for its other shortcomings, all its flaws and lackluster writing? In my opinion…sort of. At least, it was enough to make it worth reading the sequel.
Notable Quotes/Parts: From the first chapter:
“Once upon a time,” said Abraham Setrakian’s grandmother, “there was a giant.”
Young Abraham’s eyes brightened, and immediately the cabbage borscht in the wooden bowl got tastier, or at least less garlicky. He was a pale boy, underweight and sickly. His grandmother, intent on fattening him, sat across from him while he ate his soup, entertaining him by spinning a yarn.
A bubbeh meiseh, a “grandmother’s story.” A fairy tale. A legend.
“He was the son of a Polish nobleman. And his name was Jusef Sardu. Master Sardu stood taller than any other man. Taller than any roof in the village. He had to bow deeply to enter any door. But his great height, it was a burden. A disease of birth, not a blessing. The young man suffered. His muscles lacked the strength to support his long, heavy bones. At times it was a struggle for him just to walk. He used a cane, a tall stick–taller than you–with a silver handle carved into the shape of a wolf’s head, which was the family crest.”
“Yes, Bubbeh?” said Abraham, between spoonfuls.
“This was his lot in life, and it taught him humility, which is a rare thing indeed for a nobleman to possess. He had so much compassion– for the poor, for the hardworking, for the sick. He was especially dear to the children of the village, and his great, deep pockets–the size of turnip sacks–bulged with trinkets and sweets. He had not much of a childhood himself, matching his father’s height at the age of eight, and surpassing him by a head at age nine. His frailty and his great size were a secret source of shame to his father. But Master Sardu truly was a gentle giant, and much beloved by his people. It was said of him that Master Sardu looked down on everyone, yet looked down on no one.”
She nodded at him, reminding him to take another spoonful. He chewed a boiled red beet, known as a “baby heart” because of its color, its shape, its capillary-like strings. “Yes, Bubbeh?”
You can read the first two chapters of The Strain from DreadCentral online HERE.
Additional Thoughts:
For all its writing flaws, The Strain would make a kickass movie. And there are the cinematic book trailers from two scenes in the novel below to prove it!
You can find out more about The Strain online at the very pretty book website HERE.
BUT for a look at books that The Strain channels, here’s my recommended reading list:
- The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
- Outbreak by Robin Cook
- The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
- ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
- Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
- They Thirst by Robert McCammon
- I am Legend by Richard Matheson
- Nekroscope by Brian Lumley
Mr. Barlow is eager for you to join him in Jerusalem’s Lot…
Verdict: An all around bland book, but not without its highs. I certainly wasn’t impressed by this literary effort from Mr. del Toro and Mr. Hogan, but I’ll be sticking around for the sequel in hopes that the writing and plotting improves. Recommended only for genre fans (because, of course you’re going to read this book anyways).
Rating: 5 – Meh, but not without some merit (especially by the end of the book)
Reading Next: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Title: Intertwined
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: YA (Fantasy)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publishing Date: September 1, 2009
Hardcover: 448 pages
Stand Alone or series: book 1 in a planned series
Summary: Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:
One can time-travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the future.
And one can possess another human.
With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now they’re causing him all kinds of trouble. Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’s going to die.
He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.
And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, as long as he’s near her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it’s too late….
Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own, and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist.
Two romances, both forbidden. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger but not everyone will come out alive…
Why did I read the book: I had seen the cover and the blurb and was dying to read it. Then, the Book Fairy (AKA Katiebabs) surprised me by sending me a copy she snatched over at BEA. Yay!
Review:
Crossroads, Oklahoma
16 year old Aden Stone is new in town, having recently being transferred to the D and M Ranch, house for wayward teens. Whilst out exploring the place, listening to his iPod, he suddenly realises that his absent-minded steps have taken him to the cemetery. Big Mistake. Zombies are coming out of their graves and what starts as a quiet walk around the town, ends up being just another dangerous day in the life of Aden – a day when he has to fight zombies, kill them, probably get hurt in the process. The usual.
Except that there is nothing usual about Aden. He is a boy with four souls trapped inside him:
Julian wakes the dead (hence the cemeteries being a no-no place to visit )
Elijah can predict the death of anyone who passed him by and sometimes the future
Eve can travel in time, often taking them to a younger version of himself which can result in dramatic changes of the present time
Caleb can force him to possess someone else’s body.
They have been inside Aden ever since he can remember and that is the problem with Aden’s life: never being able to settle down with foster families because the voices are ALWAYS there leading to the predictable result: he is constantly talking to himself and that has landed him in several mental institutions throughout this life. Now, a little bit older and mature, he is able to control his response to the voices and this has provided some stability to his life as he joins the Ranch. But the abilities he gains from these souls have a high cost: with Elijah’s power he has seen his impending death and with the clock ticking he must find a way to free these souls before they die with him.
He doesn’t know where to start though. He thinks they are trapped souls – but they may be something else. Maybe they are to go away after all, move on. Or maybe they can be transferred to dead bodies. Who knows? The only thing that he does know is that he needs peace. He needs to be alone with his own thoughts, he needs to feel normal. His loneliness is extremely poignant and a paradox, because he is never, ever alone. He shares this body with the souls in a complex, symbiotic relationship where he both wishes he was alone but maybe not, because he really does love the guys (and girl). The piercing sense of isolation is maximized by the fact that he knows he is going to die – but also because of another vision he had, that of a beautiful girl kissing him, something that he has never been able to do.
Back to the cemetery though, Aden has just dispatched the zombies when he sees her. A girl. (Maybe his girl?).Then something weird happens: a blast of sound and then nothing else – silence, no movements, time stops. Aden realises he feels peace for the first time, because this girl, can stop the voices. And then another blast of sounds, noise returns and then a gust of wind knocks them both off their feet. She runs away (and the voices return) and he follows her desperately.
The girl is called Mary Ann. A high school girl, who lives with her father after the death of her mother, in childbirth. She is very responsible and has a 15 year plan to become a psychiatrist, like her dad. When Aden follows her to this café, she thinks it weird because she too, can feel the wind. Oddly, the only thing they can think off when they are around each other, is this powerful need to hug tenderly and then…run. And that fraternal feeling makes them become steadfast friends.
And this is only the start: soon, Aden meets his girl, Victoria and finds out she is responding to his call (his call? What call?). Also, she is a vampire princess. Mary Ann starts being followed by a wolf who can talk to her. Lo and behold, a paranormal world neither thought existed all of sudden burst into existence:witches, goblins, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, fairies all turn up at Crossroads following a tremendous burst of energy emitted unwittingly by Aden ever since he met Mary Ann: that day at the cemetery is ground zero for everything that happens in this book and there is a LOT.
How to free his souls? Why is all this happening? What is the nature of the odd thing between Mary Ann and Aden? Why can she negate his powers? Why can the werewolf she becomes entangled to, negate the negation? Why are the vampires here? And the other beings as well? Will Aden die soon? But can he at least kiss Victoria first?
Some of these questions are answered here but some are left to be discovered. Plot-wise the book is really interesting and I was left guessing at every turn. But truly, the greatest aspect of Intertwined is the characters and the complex relationship they have with each other. Their lives become, and you will have to excuse the inevitable pun, intertwined: all of them, including the souls, have a part to play and that made for seriously good reading. Every time I thought Aden or Mary Ann (the story alternates the point of view between these two) would behave in a way, they did something else. In that sense the story was entirely unpredictable. And I can’t wait to see it all unraveling (the next book is quite appropriately titles Unraveled so yeah, that was another lame pun).
My favourite characters were Mary Ann and Aden, the two humans. It was with some degree of sadness that I saw the author going the standard way and pairing Aden with the hawt/mysterious vampire and Mary Ann with the hawt/mysterious werewolf and I couldn’t help but to look at the equation (Human guy + Vampire girl) + (Human girl + Werewolf Boy) = Intertwined and to sort of wish that the vampire and wolf would be removed so that the humans would hook up with each other. (The fact that Victoria seems to be the Only Good Vampire in the middle of Very Bad ones is also a cliché I am not really fond of. Because really. Why? Why is she the only good one? Why are ALL the others bloodsucking EVIIIIILs except for her?) .
I really did love Aden and Mary Ann and thought they were both very down-to-earth characters, completely commited to finding out what the heck was happening, except for when they were with their respective love interests: then it was all very intense and overwhelming. I do understand that teenage love can be deeply felt but part of me wondered if the dramatic element didn’t come from the Supernatural nature of these relationships – with the immortality and forbiddance and all that. Although, if I am going to be honest, I do have to say that I totally get the werewolf attraction and I may have sighed once (or twice) when the werewolf (I am not saying his name because the mystery behind his identify is another cool thing about the book) growled in protectiveness and possessiveness towards Mary Ann. Sometimes one cannot deny the allure of an Alpha bent of protecting the girl.
This is really my only quibble with an otherwise truly excellent novel. Bring on the next.
Notable Quotes/ Parts: I have to say, the opening chapters with Aden and the zombies and the souls and meeting Mary Ann were very effective in introducing the characters and setting up the story. I never looked back.
Verdict: great plot, great characters with a slow executed supernatural mystery and some romance: what is not to like? Harlequin Teen has a good thing going with their YA series and you should check it out.
Rating: 8 – Excellent
Reading Next: Monster by Christopher Pike
Karen Mahoney ( a.k.a. Official Honorary Book Smuggler) is a Young Adult writer whose first story, Falling to Ash has been published in The Eternal Kiss Anthology (reviewed today by Ana) . She is also one of the Deadline Dames and can be found writing about writing, reading and other cool stuff in her livejournal. When we were organising the YA month ,we just knew we would invite her over.
We are more than happy to give the floor to Karen Mahoney and her post on writing YA.
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Eternal Teenagers
I write YA fiction because every time I sit down to write something, my characters turn out to be 17 or 18. Apparently, this means I write YA. 
I think I’m drawn to these ages because this is when a lot happened in my own life, and those experiences always seem more important and powerful when you’re going through all the inevitable changes that the teenage years bring. All those ‘first times’ that we go through… It makes for wonderful drama and conflict in fiction. The potential for emotional writing is huge, and I love writing big emotional scenes. I remember how brave I could be at 17 – there’s a fearless quality to being a teenager that I wish I could get back.
I used to work with older teens, as a student advisor, and I learned so much during that time. I think it was then that I realised I wanted to focus on the teenage years in my fiction. Now that I’m writing YA urban/contemporary fantasy, I can allow my imagination to soar while still grounding myself in the very real issues of what it’s like to be growing up in today’s society. To think that I’m writing books and stories that might one day be read by young adults who experience things so passionately… that just blows me away!
My story in THE ETERNAL KISS, ‘Falling to Ash’, is about an 18-year-old vampire called Moth. She was Turned into a vamp over a decade ago, so she’s really a 28-year-old woman stuck in the body of a teenager. I love thinking about all the questions and issues that raises: imagine being trapped as a teenager for eternity… How would you change and grow? Would you develop as a regular human being should do, or would you always be just a little immature? (Moth can be quite immature and impetuous, but at the same time the wisdom of her years shows through when she needs it.) How would it feel to see ‘real’ teenagers enjoying life, while you just continue on the way you’ve always been? Never growing physically older, but perhaps feeling the weight of years as each one passes. Imagine how it would affect your family and friends. What would you tell them? Would you tell them? All these things I’ve explored with Moth, and packing it into 32 pages wasn’t easy! Luckily, I’ve now written a novel about her (BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS) which I hope will be picked up by a publisher one day. Watch this space… 
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In her varied career Karen Mahoney has been a professional Tarot reader, a college counsellor, a dating agency consultant and a bookseller. Ever since she was six years old what she really wanted to be was Wonder Woman, but has instead settled for being a writer which she thinks is the most fun you can have without bulletproof bracelets.
Her YA contemporary fantasy, THE IRON WITCH (Book 1 of The Ironbridge Chronicles), is currently on submission in the US. Among other work she has recently completed a companion novel, BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS, which is set in the same world but completely stands alone. It continues the adventures of Moth, the teenage vampire who was introduced to readers in her recently published short story, ‘Falling to Ash’.
A huge thank you to Karen for the great post.
Now for the giveaway:
Karen is generously offering a signed copy of The Eternal Kiss to one lucky reader! The contest is open to anyone, and will run until Saturday August 1st 11:59pm (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here. Good luck!
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