Flight into Fantasy

Last semester, before I got my handy dandy ebook reader, I had a pretty firm grasp on the books I wanted to read fairly soon, because I’d use Text Aloud to record the ebook text files onto mp3 CD’s that I’d play on my way to school. Now that I have the ebook reader, I can just read whatever I happen to click on next. Which means that shiny things keep distracting me. So I thought it would be useful to write up a list of books I’d like to finish reading for this month. I’m too lazy to hunt up Amazon links, since this is an activity I’m trying to do to calm myself down so I can sleep. Hopefully, you’ll manage to forgive me. Hopefully, I will remember to go back through and edit this list as I finish reading them. Any that are left over I’ll just move onto the list for next month.

• Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian (I know book 3 is supposed to be the awesome one, but I’m a wank about reading order and I think this is the first Midnight Breeds book.)

• Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (I keep hearing that she’s an awesome writer and I find her LJ entertaining.)
• Son of Avonar by Carol Berg (I started this one months ago, loved it, then got distracted by something shiny, so I’d like to start fresh.)
• Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop (I hate starting a series and not finishing it and even though I was underwhelmed with the first book, I should probably read the second while I can sort of remember what happened.)
• Doppelganger by Marie Brennan (She leaves interesting blog comments. That proves exactly nada, but hopefully I’ll like the book.)
• Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (I like the Dresden Files books. I’m about due for another one.)
• A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole (I’ve been told this series might be more up my alley than some other paranormal vampire books out there.)
• Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day (I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like this much, but hey, at least the protectors of humanity aren’t vampires or lycanthropes. The premise alone interests me enough to try.)
• Greenmantle by Charles de Lint (I haven’t read a de Lint book in months and I like his earlier stuff better.)
• King’s Dragon by Kate Elliot (Yet again, I started it, never finished.)
• Gideon by Jacqueline Frank (Why not? It’s Christine Feehan light, but the first book kind of had its charm.)
• The Shadow Game by Christine Feehan (those people that told me that Feehan’s Ghostwalkers books are tons and tons better than the Carpathian books had better be right, dammit!)
• Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn (I really liked the bits of her pagan-y book I was validating for Bookshare, so I put her novels higher on the TBR pile.)
• The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason (I can’t believe this book beat out Meljean Brook in the DABWAHA tournament going on over at Dear Author and Smart Bitches. It better be fantastic is all I’m saying.)
• The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt (I keep meaning to read this and haven’t gotten around to it yet.)
• The Master by Jean Johnson (I love this series. This is definitely one of the books I will be getting to this month.)
• At Love’s Command by Samantha Kane (I am so sad that this will be my last Samantha Kane book for a while. And Lisabea says it’s awesome, so I won’t horde it.)
• Candles Burning by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell (I validated this for Bookshare, but didn’t end up reading very much of it. What I did glimpse was intriguing enough that I’ll definitely be getting to this one.)
• Immortal in Death by J. D. Robb (I’m about due for more Eve and Rourke goodness.)
• Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh (I got my friend Jaliya to read the first book. She’s now read all of them. *Sigh* I need to catch up.)
• Bitter Waters by Wen Spencer (I don’t know if I’ll get to this one this month or not, but it’s another series I have a prayer of finishing, sooo… We’ll try.)
• Stardoc by S. L. Viehl (Another blogger I read. The commentary about her vampire books has been mostly meh, but I think I’d like to start with her sci-fi.)
• The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (Validated this one for Bookshare. It was an excellent scan, so I didn’t get to read nearly enough of it. But the Repairman Jack books are ones I’ve been interested in, so we’ll see if they work for me.

OK now… I promise myself that if I don’t read all the books on this list–which I won’t–I won’t guilt myself over it. I’ll never whittle down the list of books I want to read OMG right now, but I figured having a list of books I wanted to try might keep me organized.

Title: Triad
Author: Lauren Dane
Genre: paranormal erotic romance
Grade: C-
Reason for Reading: I don’t remember how Lauren Dane wound up on my radar. I think a friend recommended that I try her, so I did.

Synopsis:

Lee Charvez is a witch in a family where all of the women are born with inherent gifts of power. She is a witch dreamer, she has the ability to walk in dreams and the subconscious and to work magic there. There is only one Charvez witch dreamer each generation and she’s the strongest in generations.

She meets the man of her dreams, literally, when she bumps into Aidan Bell outside their apartment building in New Orleans. He’s a three-hundred-year-old vampire with the face of a wicked angel, and he has no problem with claiming her as his own. As if that isn’t miraculous enough there’s another man, a powerful wizard, Alex Carter, who makes their partnership into a triad. Problem is, there’s no time to sit back and enjoy her newfound loves because there’s a demon out to destroy the source of her powers, and her entire family in the bargain.

My Thoughts: I could have enjoyed this a lot, and for the first quarter of the book, I did. It never would have been an A book for me, but it was headed toward B territory. Then the momentum just kind of fizzled and I ended up sitting on the book for several months without finishing it.

Lee Charvez is a powerful witch. She’s a witchdreamer, which means that she is even more powerful than your ordinary witch, and she is born of a long line of powerful witches who protect the city of New Orleans. This makes her come across as quite a Mary Sue. She doesn’t really struggle except in the basic sense that she has to control her power somehow, and I felt that everything pretty much fell into her lap.

Nowhere did things fall into Lee’s lap more than the romances. It looked like Ms. Dane was going to give a nod toward some emotional complexity involving the menage relationship, but she never quite does so. Lee meets Aidan, realizes that she has some kind of connection with him, and a few pages later they’re married… after only scant hours have passed. From there, there’s no real conflict between the two of them, and Ms. Dane pretty much dismisses any jealousy issues that Aidan might be having when Alex shows up. Apparently, in paranormal romance, good sex cures everything.

There was a lot of sex, and after a while, it got a bit repetitive. I was, however, disappointed that Ms. Dane didn’t quite do much with the simmering attraction between Alex and Aidan. I really thought she would, and I understand that in other series, she does explore the M/M aspects of her menage relationships in greater detail, but in this case I was disappointed.

As for the plot… Well, like I said, it felt too easy. I never got a sense that anyone was in real danger, so there was no sense of urgency during any of the pivotal scenes. The villains were of the typical moustache-twirling “Bwahaha, I am teh evol!” variety, which made them boring.

There were nice moments, though. I was intrigued by the relationships between Lee and her family, and I did like all of the characters. There were some lovely, sweet, tender moments that I enjoyed. I also did like that the fact that Lee is such a Mary Sue isn’t really all that lost on any of the characters.

I’m not sure that I’ll be rushing out to buy the next book, and I’m not sure I’d recommend this one, but it’s certainly not the worst book, or even the worst menage story out there.

One of the complaints I hear a lot around blogland is that a lot of paranormal romances are basically retreads of each other, even though the notion of paranormal romance ought to invite a lot more variety in the genre. This seems to be true for me–after all, how many times can I read about fated vampire mates or fated shifter mates or, hell, anybody’s fated mates without wanting to snap?

That being said, Alice Gaines isn’t writing the same old paranormals. In fact, my reaction upon learning, from my friend Jaliya, to the series I’m going to be writing about was pretty much, “What the fuck was she smoking?”

I am, of course, referring to the Mannhof,/a> series from Changeling Press. Normally, I don’t buy from them much because when I buy ebooks, I want to buy something that’ll last me a while. But this series had me breaking that rule, because it’s about shape-shifting motorcycles. Yep, you read that right. I was startled, too, and then intrigued. Could Ms. Gaines pull this off?

Surprisingly, the answer is: mostly. It’s not the shape-shifting motorcycles that I had much of a problem with. I don’t think shape-shifting inanimate objects will become the next trend in paranormal romance, although what do I know? But the premise is certainly not one I’ve read before.

The books in the series go in this order:

• One Owner, Lady Driven

• Driven to the limit
• Driven to Justice.

The problem with all three of these books, for me, is the problem I have with a lot of shorter ebooks. There’s not really enough story to let me get to know the characters. They are painted in very broad strokes, and though each of the women faces different issues in their lives, I thought that the healing process and the road to love required a bit more time than the space permitted.

One Owner, Lady Driven starts off the series when Claire Wilcox purchasses one of the horrendously rare Mannhof motorcycles at an auction. When the bike changes into a stud named Will, well, there goes Claire’s productivity and her sense of control.

To be honest, I didn’t ever warm up to Claire. I thought it was awesome that she knew exactly what she wanted and went for it, but she was kind of a shrill harpy, and I hate reading about those. I also felt horrible for her junior executive, Ted, who Claire never appreciates. She never really thanks him until the end of the book, and I thought she should at least give him a raise. As for the romance? It worked for me mostly except for one scene in the climax of the book where I thought the hero was being kind of a whiny, codependent jackass.

Driven to the limit worked slightly better for me. Lauren has come home from rehab, and now she’s back working for Dagger, a successful rock star who is into drugs, violence, and the whole party scene. Lauren’s only bit of solace is Dagger’s Mannhof motorcycle, Jake.

This book worked the best for me out of the whole trilogy, at least it did after I stopped fretting about why anyone would want to bear her internal struggles to a motorcycle. I know I wouldn’t. The nearest thing to talking to machines that I do involves cursing at them. But hey, whatever works for Lauren.

I liked watching Lauren recover some of her self-confidence, and I loved the climactic scenes in the book.

Driven to Justice rounds off the series. Cop Charlie Thomas’s job is being threatened because she insists on going after the men who raped her. With the help and love of Nick, another Mannhof motorcycle, she might just manage to do it.

I wanted to like this last story very much. But I thought that, yet again, everything was dealt with too quickly and easily as per the word count. Charlie could have been a great complex character, but she wasn’t really allowed to be. The thing is that at least in the end she is agreeing to go to therapy, which made me feel a lot better about the lightness with which the issue of her rape was treated.

Overall, I thought the series was cute. It’s nothing that’s going to stick around very long in my memory–well, the shape-shifting motorcycles pretense totally will–but it was a pleasant enough read. I would have liked for each of the boys to have had a distinct personality. They really didn’t, so it was hard not to see them as basically pieces of meat.

I think I might be interested in some of Ms. Gaines’ longer works, but for this series, I’m going to go with an overall grade of C+.

Title: The Wolf: Sons of Destiny, book 2
Author: Jean Johnson
Genre: fantasy romance
Grade: B+
Reason for Reading: For once the phrase, “I love this series like a fat kid loves cake” is perfectly appropriate. Because though the first two books in this series have their flaws, they are charming and I keep wanting more.

Synopsis: Alys of Devries has loved Wolfer, the second in the eight brothers now exiled on the island of Nightfall since she was a tiny child. However, for the past few years she has been living under the thumb of her cruel uncle Broger. At last, Alys escapes Broger and comes to Nightfall, where she once more reunites with the man she loves. But Broger’s machinations are far from over.

My Thoughts: As with the first book in this series, this book is campy and a guilty pleasure read. But in this installment, we get more of Johnson’s world-building, a bit more character development of everyone around, and a really sweet romance.

I actually liked Alys a lot better than I liked Kelly. In another author’s hands, she would have been incredibly wishy-washy and irritating, but for whatever reason, she worked for me. She is gentle and sweet, and we actually do see the mixture of bravery and timidity that everyone mentions, though it gets tiresome to hear about said mixture of bravery and timidity every five minutes.

Wolfer stood out a lot more for me as a character than did Saber, which is all to the good. Yes, he is described in terms of being a predator, but at least we didn’t get to hear about his raging beast within. And for all that he was described as somewhat wild, he was really quite cute and cuddly and a genuinely good beta hero. I just wanted to give him a hug and muss up his hair.

As for the romance, well, see, that’s where I start to quibble. It’s mostly over by about the halfway point of the book. There’s no real dark moment for either of these characters, just a minor bad patch that is easily straightened out. I would have liked their courtship to have been just a tad more complicated instead of basically tossed aside there at the end for external conflicts. That being said, I do like that Ms. Johnson’s sex scenes aren’t always full of sparkles and fireworks. They are, in fact, fairly realistic for romance novel sex scenes. At first I thought that was a bit irritating, but now I’ve decided that’s an idiosyncracy I can live with.

As for the secondary characters, I thought that there was some good development happening. I do like that Ms. Johnson gives her men distinct enough personalities that you can tell one from another. And some of them (like Evanor, my current favorite) are, once more, wonderfully non-alpha. So it was good to reconnect with the brothers again. That being said, there was waaayyyyyy too much Kelly in this book. I thought she had a bad habit of stealing every scene she was in, and her personality definitely eclipsed that of the shy, gentle Alys. It’s awesome that Kelly stole the show in her own book, but she already had her turn, and after a while she irritated me. Particularly since she started gloating about her sex life to Alys within five minutes of their meeting, which would have really irritated me IRL.

The plot is slowly coming together, too. There’s enough of a story arc that we have good reasons to keep reading the series. I’m fascinated by the idea of a land of female mages, and I can’t wait to see what Dominor’s been up to since the events of the last book.

Overall, this is a fun addition to the series and comes recommended.

Emily Veinglory has been calling for bloggers to post something positive about epublishing this Saturday. And since I am all about the fluff over here, I’ll happily oblige.

I remember my first exposure to ebooks. A role playing buddy had gotten published with ExStacy Books. She wrote some pretty BDSM-y titles that I still haven’t managed to buy because I think she’s trying to move on to bigger and better things, and also, despite her being my friend, that type of story doesn’t appeal. At any rate, that got me curious about this whole epublishing thang, and so I started googling.

I can’t remember how I got from my friend to Dakota Cassidy, but somehow I ended up on Dakota’s Yahoo group, and from there I found Changeling Press, which introduced me to the notion of what it was finally like to have a TBR pile. (Incidentally, I didn’t stop buying from Changeling Press because of the covers, which are, of course, a non-issue for me. I stopped buying from them because I find really short quickie type stories somewhat less than satisfying.)

After my first few purchases of ebooks, I soon started reading little else. Sometimes this involves a lot of scanning, but hey, I know what I like.

Right now, I mostly still don’t pay attention to the publishers I buy from, because I have discovered Fictionwise. Because of them, I’ve discovered more authors and stories I never would have even considered reading, and my To Be Bought list has grown significantly lately. What I particularly like about shopping via Fictionwise is my exposure to e-authors who aren’t writing erotic romance. Hey, I love me some erotic romance, but I can’t do a steady diet of it.

So it’s all just a viscious circle designed to ensure I never have money again. First there are the ebook authors, then the publishers, then Fictionwise, and finally, my credit card howling for release. And I love every minute of it.

Title: Cry No More
Author: Linda Howard
Genre: romantic suspense
Grade: A-
Reason for reading: For some reason I really like suspense-y books which feature children prominently, and it seems like this book came under my radar because people mentioned how intense it was.

Synopsis from Bookreporter.com:

Bestselling author Linda Howard is at the top of her game with this romantic suspense novel that shifts into emotional high gear in the first chapter when a six-week old baby is snatched from his mother’s arms on a street in Mexico.

For Milla and her doctor husband, David, life had been pretty close to perfect until that horrible moment. They were young, madly in love and had just been blessed with the gift of their newborn baby, Justin. Despite Milla’s concerns at giving birth in Mexico where David was volunteering at a health clinic, everything had gone off without a hitch. But her relief and joy at being a new mom was abruptly shattered when Justin is brutally and inexplicably taken from her in a vicious attack.

After recovering from the near-fatal stab wounds inflicted by the kidnappers, Milla vows never to give up until she finds her son, who was likely stolen for an illegal adoption ring trafficking in black market babies. Her marriage eventually collapses under the enormous strain of grief and her obsessive drive to find Justin at all costs. In the ten years following the kidnapping, Milla dedicates herself to the cause of finding lost children by establishing the Finders organization. Her tireless work in seeking the missing enables her to both pursue leads for her son and numb the pain of her own loss.

Although the trail for Justin had long since grown cold in the ten years since the kidnapping, an anonymous phone tip may suddenly lead Milla to her son’s kidnappers. A mysterious assassin named Diaz becomes her unlikely ally in the search, and she finds herself powerfully and physically drawn to him against her better judgment. The attentions of a wealthy local businessman with an agenda of his own complicates the picture and Milla finds herself caught up in a web of deception and deceit, uncertain of who to trust, even amongst her closest friends. On the twisted and danger-fraught trail of cold-blooded killers, she and Diaz slowly unravel the horrible and shocking truth behind the illicit baby adoption operation and a related organ smuggling scheme. When at last Milla is given the vengeance she deserves and the information she had so long craved, she is forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, resulting in an emotional and bittersweet conclusion.

My Thoughts: Wow. This really was an intense book. The plot is tight, the characters are rivveting, and the book packs a hell of an emotional wallop. I’m not a mother myself, but I loved Milla’s fierce determination to find her son at all costs. The things that she was willing to do for her baby were extraordinary, and she was a strong, fierce woman who didn’t need to prove her strength and fierceness.

I also loved Diaz. He’s a cold, detached man, and I thought that he was wonderfully bad-ass. No posturing or emo bullshit for him–he simply gets the job done. We didn’t spend much time in his head, but I loved his determination to stick by Milla, even when she wasn’t sure about him. I like the strong, silent type, and that fit Diaz to a tee.

I also particularly liked that Ms. Howard didn’t go the stereotypical route with regard to Milla’s relationship with her ex-husband. I believed that David and Milla grew apart, and David wasn’t villified. For that matter, I particularly liked the subtle drama playing out between Milla and all the people in her life. Losing a child is a traumatic experience, and everyone in the book reacted to it in a way that seemed real to me.

As for the plot, for the most part it worked well for me. The action was intense, and the romance elements provided some quiet moments. That being said, I thought that the climax was a bit anticlimactic. Like Milla, I would have preferred a big final showdown, although I can’t penalize Ms. Howard for not doing that because I thought that what happened was much more realistic. Still, one of the biggest problems I saw was that the villain was revealed very early on, which in some cases can add to the suspense, but in this case it sort of detracted from the overall storyline.

Overall, this was a very good book. I was a little underwhelmed by the last Linda Howard book I read, but if she’s got any more like this, I will be coming back.

I meant to blog about my amusing discoveries at Fictionwise the other day, but every time I sit down to write a blog post, someone invariably distracts me with a shiny object.

Anyway, I was shopping over at Fictionwise last Saturday and came up with a shopping list of books I must have. I spent too much money there, because it turns out that thanks to the Internet, my ability to impulse shop is hard to curb.

That, however, is not the point. The point is that I did a search of the books on Fictionwise from longest to shortest. As I’ve said, if I’m going to spend over $5 on an ebook, I want something I can sink my teeth into.

Anyway, what I discovered was that the longest title they sell on Fictionwise is an audio book which doesn’t interest me in the slightest. The third longest book they sell at Fictionwise is the Bible.

What, you may ask, is the second longest multi-format book on Fictionwise, and did I buy it?

The second longest book on Fictionwise is Tempering, which is the second book in the
Jarheads series by Sean Michael.

So, yes, Shannon bought some gay romance. She may even read it one of these days. If I do get around to reading that book, I, too, can participate in Man Love Monday, which has suddenly become a goal in life. *G*

The thing that startled me about my experience on Fictionwise was that it was happening while I was chatting up some blind friends of mine, exactly none of whom realized that they could buy easily accessible ebooks from there for reasonable prices. Which really burns my toast, because if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, blind people would be damn good customers for ebooks. We should really be being marketed to way more than we are.

Title: Tainted Trail
Author: Wen Spencer
Genre: science fiction
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: I really enjoyed the first book in this series.

Synopsis: Ukiah Oregon, who ran with wolves as a boy, is teaming up again with his partner, Max Bennet, to find a missing person. This time they’re looking for Alicia Kraynak, the niece of their friend on the Pitsburgh police, who went missing after a hike somewhere in the mountains of Oregon. The case proves to be more complicated than any of them expect, and soon Ukiah is embroiled in another deadly struggle while trying to find out more about his past.

My thoughts: The problem with sequels is that they have to provide something new and interesting to bring to the table in order to keep the story from treading down the well-trod path of formulaic and familliar. And often, they’re more disappointing if the first book was amazing. For the first half of this book, I was fairly underwhelmed. I was interested, but not particularly engaged. Luckily, the second half provides a much more compelling read.

I tend to be a reader who needs good characters in order for a book to even remotely work for me. I thought that Ms. Spencer did a good job in that regard with her first book, and I was really impressed this time as well. I like that Spencer has seen the ramifications of the difficulties someone like Ukiah would have in integrating fully with society. And I liked seeing his insecurities and his vulnerabilities. Without those things, Ukiah would be an annoying uber-powerful character, but he’s not. Also, as with the last book, I loved the relationship between Ukiah and Max. It is pure and good, and I love that Ukiah has someone that he trusts so implicitly. The romance that develops for Max was also great, and it moved along at exactly the right pace for the amount of time that passes in the novel.

Spencer’s writing is also excellent. I love that she conveys character, setting and place with vivid, well-chosen sentences. She does a lot of showing rather than telling, so I had a great picture of the people and places in my mind as I read. I also have no doubt that, aside from the few obvious fictions, if I went to that particular part of Oregon, I’d find many of the things she describes in the book.

The plot is the only real part that I have issues with. As I said above, I thought that for the first half of the book, not a whole lot happened, and I didn’t care about it when it did. That being said, at least I was expecting the fact that these books are definitely science fiction, and wasn’t surprised when the plot went in that direction. I also think that a lot of the problems I had with the plot of this book could have come from the fact that I wasn’t really in the mood to be reading this type of story, because aside from some pacing issues I couldn’t tell you exactly why it didn’t work for me.

Overall, aside from a slow start, this is a good book, and I definitely intend to read the third book in the series.

Title: Night Life: Cal Leandros, Book 1
Author: Rob Thurman
Genre: Urban fantasy
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: Actually, I first heard about this book from someone I used to roleplay with. She was playing Robin Goodfellow from this particular universe, and I loved the character, so I decided to keep an eye out for the books.

Synopsis:

“There are monsters among us. There always have been and there always will be. I’ve known that ever since I can remember, just like I’ve always known I was one…

…Well, half of one, anyway.”

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

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

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

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I didn’t absolutely adore it, but that’s OK, because I’d still recommend it.

What I particularly liked here were the characters. Cal, who narrates this book is great–snarky, sarcastic, and full of self-efacing wit. I absolutely adored his devotion to his brother Niko, and I loved his cocky, full-of-complete-bullshit attitude that masks some hellishkly dark secrets. Cal isn’t always a nice guy to be around, but he is generally a decent person, and I loved his utter and complete devotion to Niko. And Niko’s reciprocal devotion to Cal is truly touching.

I also enjoyed meeting the various secondary characters, particularly the aforementioned Robin Goodfellow, who is, yes, a puck straight out of Shakespeare. It’s nice to see an immortal character for once who doesn’t brood excessively, and I just adored most of the scenes with him in it.

As for the plot, it’s fast-paced and well-orchestrated. There’s a lot going on, not all of it pleasant for our protagonists, but there were good moments of humor interspersed throughout. The villains were a shade stereotypical, but I guess you can’t have everything.

My quibbles are fairly minor. There were some characters I’d have liked to see more of. Particularly I’d have liked more than one scene with Cal and Niko’s love interests, so that I could be convinced they weren’t just throwaway characters. And, like I said, the villains were on the cartoonish side. I think that at times Cal and Niko came off a bit like Mary Sues–they kick ass and take names with astonishing ease, and so I never really felt like they were in any sort of actual danger. Aside from that, though, I really did enjoy this take on urban fantasy, and at some point, I will definitely return to this universe.

In what universe is the following political argument even considered valid?

“Well, if we elect Hillary Clinton, and she gets on the rag, then what will happen?”

This got said in my Women’s Studies class last night. I think the phrase, “You’ve got to be shitting me” passed my lips, especially when my professor actually took the argument seriously and said, “Well, she’s menopausal, so it’s not like that’s ever going to happen.”

That’s not the fucking point. We would never ever *ever* say that about a male candidate. I mean, srsly! Did we invade Iraq because Dubya got morning wood one day and Laura didn’t do anything about it? Is that the real reason for most of the wars the U.S. has gotten involved in? Because that seems equally as likely as Hillary, if elected, getting on the rag and doing something to fuck up the nation because of that fact.

Ann Aguirre has a great post today In praise of the idiot. I totally get where she’s coming from, because I’ve always loved reading about guys who are cute but dim. (Conversely, I also love me some nerds, but that’s a whole other post.) I went through this phase a couple of years ago where I got really into Bonanza reruns, and I realized that my favorite Cartwright brother was Hoss, the slightly dim but good-hearted one.

Also, I clearly need to read more Loretta Chase, given that I had to reread Lord of Scoundrels for a paper I wrote for one of my classes, which made me realize just how awesome that book is.

Before I get to the rant, let me whine for a minute.

I am having such a hard time finding something to read this weekend. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have books out the yin-yang, and I also know that, seriously, mine is not a major issue. But I can’t seem to settle on one book as something I! must! read! now.

Therefore, I provide you links.

I just started watching the Fangs, Fur and Fey community on LJ, and I noticed when I was going through the archives that I could see that someone posted a spot-on post about disability and stereotyping. The original poster quotes some guy named Colin Barnes, whose babies I would humbly offer to have for him should he ever chance to read this blog. He says the following, which I’m quoting from the FF&F post because it is totally spot on and he gets it exactly.

1. Have your character interact with people as equals. Don’t just have them be charity cases. Show them give as well.

2. Make your character multidimensional. Make them have complex personalities with a full range of emotions.

3. Don’t make the disability a sign that the character is evil.

4. Don’t create a peeping tom feeling to your story. The protagonist’s disability shouldn’t have a voyeur aspect to it. They should be part of a cast of characters, doing an array of things.

5. Don’t make the character’s disability central to the humor of your piece.

6. Don’t use their disability as a way to make them a victim.

7. Don’t make them superhuman in an attempt to compensate for their disability. Make them human. Not sub-human. Not superhuman. Avoid “extraordinary abilities or attributes. To do so is to suggest that a disabled individual must over compensate and become superhuman to be accepted by society.”

8. Avoid stories where the protagonist needs only be tough and have will power to succeed and survive life with disability

9. Don’t make the person with disabilities sexually deviant, or asexual.

10. Don’t expect to create an person with disabilities that represents all disabilities. (Barnes 6-7)

Word! Just word! I’ve mentioned, at least on my LJ, that it’s hard for me to read books featuring disabled characters, because invariably one of these rules gets broken. And it’s been my experience that in romance stories where the disabled character is one of the protagonist, the magical power of healing vajayjay (or cock, depending on who the disabled one is) clears that problem up. Maybe it’s just that I’m a bitter and cynical blind person, but having really good sex has not restored my vision. I’m pretty sure that in most cases it wonh’t. And I think you could achieve a perfectly plausible HEA in a romance and still keep your disabled characters realistic enough that they’re not eligible for the miracle cure.

Oh, and this came up yesterday in conversation, so I thought that the sexually deviant comment warranted more discussion. Someone actually went into paroxysms of joy at the prospect of making love to me when he (naturally it was a he) found out I was blind. Naturally, what I should have done was try to figure out a way to let him, because it’s been a long time since there has been hot Shannon-on-anyone action, but in some areas of life I am too honest for my own good. Yeah, kids. Blind people aren’t any better lovers than anyone else. I’d venture to say that given the blind people I, personally, know, you’re more likely to find blind people who are slightly sexually repressed. And, um, isn’t the whole point of really good sex touching and being touched? I wasn’t under the impression that most people laid in bed and stared at each other as a valid form of foreplay. Maybe it is in some places, but even if I could see, I think I’d be wanting something more than that.

So I was on the phone with one of my published author friends. (This makes me sound like such a hoity toity little snot, doesn’t it?) and she was telling me about something that I thought was an interesting bit of fodder for discussion.

Apparently, my friend was doing some promo one one of those chat loops. (Incidentally, I hate this form of promo. Mostly because it usually involves a bunch of authors trying to find interesting things to say and maybe 3 readers participating. And those bitches never hold their chat loop things on days when I can make it. And since everyone should naturally conform to my schedule, this is a bad thing.)

Anyway, in this chat, apparently the question was raised about what people consider good romance. My friend said that she got the following responses:

• 1. Internal conflict between the hero and heroine, but not so much that it goes on too long.

• 2. Villains who aren’t too scary.

Title: The Sword: Sons of Destiny, Book 1
Author: Jean Johnson
Genre: fantasy Romance
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: I saw that someone was starting a role playing game based in this universe, and since I had the first one, I figured I might as well see if the books were any good.

Synopsis: A seer has spoken and there is a prophecy involving eight brothers, four sets of twins, each of whom will find their prospective mate. Of course, the first part of the prophecy spells disaster, so the eight brothers in question are exiled to Nightfall Island, where women are strictly forbidden… At least until Morganen, the youngest of the brothers, plucks Kelly Doyle, a modern American woman who just so happens to know kung fu as well as a lot about medieval society and, well, pretty much whatever she needs to know about anything to keep the story moving, out of our world when some mean people decide that the people in the local medieval re-enactment society (Ms. Johnson is careful not to call it the SCA) are evil and Kelly is some sort of witch. Anyway, Saber, the eldest of the eight brothers, is really pissed that Morganen brought Kelly into their world, but strangely, he is attracted to her. Will they manage to avert the disaster that’s going to befall them and start their destinies rolling?

My Thoughts: I have a soft spot for the modern American girl gets plucked out of our world and into another plotline. I tend to prefer that she end up in a fantasy world where the author isn’t tempted to play fast and loose with real history as well as the suspension of my disbelief, so I found this a very pleasant read. Actually, I thought this was a good example of a guilty pleasure type book. There are things about the story and the characters that, if they hadn’t been couched in such a pleasant story would have really burned my toast.

I liked the whole destiny prophecy premise, and thought it was an unusual way to work the fated mates concept. The prophecy itself doesn’t stand up well from the standpoint of someone who’s read more traditional fantasy (it’s just a tad too literal to be really good), but it’s certainly a more interesting setup for me than some guy meeting his mate and tripping her while she’s trying to get a cup of coffee. Plus, I have to admit that “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” is one of my all-time favorite movies ever, which is just more proof that I am a complete and total dork.

The only thing that did bother me about the prophecy is that I thought it made for some pretty superficial characterization of the other seven brothers. Wolfer is all about hunting in the woods, and I bet that when I read his book the word ‘predator’ will make an appearance. Dominor is, as someone I used to roleplay with would say, a “dominate male”. Rydan loves the night, and he is emo gothness personified. You see what I mean? It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to roll my eyes.

But the thing was, Ms. Johnson doesn’t seem to take herself overly seriously. I thought that the story was mostly pretty lighthearted and breezy, and I very much enjoyed it.

As for the main couple… Kelly was a pretty good heroine. She was a bit of a Mary Sue–she manages to make everyone fall in love with her, she just happens to know a lot about the stuff she needs to know in order to survive this world, and she also knows kung fu. Yes. Kelly is a ninja. She also had the habit of randomly peppering her conversation with pop culture references that nobody else would get, which is something I could have stood a bit less of. But, for all that, she did work for me. She was spunky without being–horror of horrors–feisty, and I liked that she didn’t wallow in self-pity and just got around to doing what needed to be done. I didn’t buy her rather flimsy excuse about why she was still a virgin, because it seemed out of character, but I guess it all worked out.

Saber wasn’t particularly noteworthy as romance heroes go. He’s alpha and domineering, but basically a decent guy. I do have to say, though, that the whole “I don’t want to love her… But damn it, I guess I do!” story arc works for me every time, and it worked beautifully in this case. Plus, you know it’s love when you end up being sick together and are only drawn closer because of the experience.

As for the world-building, well, ardent fantasy fans will find it a little cheesy. Hell, I did, but Ms. Johnson gets lots of points for having there be a culture away from the land where the brothers hang out that has progressed beyond medieval technology. I’ve wanted there to be more fantasy with guns, and I just don’t see much of it.

Overall, I have to say that, despite my nitpicks, I really did enjoy this book and would definitely recommend it. I’m almost tempted to read the next book in the series right away, which hardly ever happens, just because I really want to know about the types of women that will be worthy of the Sons of Destiny.

So the other day my friend, the blogless Alecia, told me she bought a book at Walmart for a quick light read. She read me the blurb and I said to myself, “Hey, we should both read this book so we can talk about it on the blog.” Actually, we tried to get my blogging partner, Jaliya, in on the fun, but something shiny distracted her. Which probably explains a lot about why there is only one post from Jaliya, despite her being, y’know, my blogging partner.

Anyway, here, for your amusement, is Alecia’s take on this particular book. My review of this book has been submitted to Sybil over at TGBTU, and I’ll let you know if she decides to publish it.

Anyway, on with Alecia’s review.

Title: Last Wolf Standing
Author: Rhyannon Byrd
Genre: Paranormal romance
Grade: C-

Synopsis:

Five seconds ago, Mason Dillinger would
have sworn that it could never happen . . .

That a woman who was his perfect match
even existed. And that he’d find her in a
bustling café. Yet just the scent of sweet,
mortal Torrance Watson ignited a driving,
explosive need to claim her that he knew
his Pack would never sanction. . . . Worse,
the rogue werewolf he’d been hunting had
sensed that attraction and made Torry his
prey. Forced to safeguard her from this
ruthless assassin who already posed a
threat to his Pack, Mason now faced the
ultimate challenge. Does he have the
courage to cross the line by sealing the
blood bond that will make Torry his
alone—a disloyalty few of his kind ever
survived—or live an eternity without love?

Alecia’s Thoughts: Though possibly not the most original piece of romantic fiction I’ve

read in the past few months, Last Wolf Standing did have some good

points.

1.  Vast quantities of muscular, half naked men.

2.  Werewolves, my current favorite paranormal creature.

3.  Shades of Cannibalism.

Set…I’m really not sure where, now that I think about it.  Mountains

somewhere.  Was it Colorado?  Last Wolf Standing chronicles the

romance of Torrance and shitican’trememberhisname.  They meet, because

what’shisfuck can’t find a way to politely introduce himself, and so

trips the woman he has just identified as his life-mate.

We learn about a society of half-wolves called Bloodrunners, who track

down and kill canabalstic werewolves.  Actually, Lycans who kill and

eat humans.  Anyway, the consumption of human flesh (my favorite

taboo) makes the book readable, just to see if it squicks out the man

characters.  We also learn that the only sure way to kill a lycan is

to break his neck and sever the spinal chord.

After being attacked several times, Torrance is whisked away by

whoeverheis to his cabin home deep in the mountains

of….whereeverthefuckweare.  They are, of course, attacked before

they reach the mountain hide away.  Ass kicking ensues.  And they

bring home a pet.  His name is Elliot.  (See, I did remember some of

the character’s names.)

After a couple of chapters of Torrance fighting with what’shiscock, we

find out that she wants twoo luff and shithead is afraid to fall in

love because his brother killed himself over his own dead mate.  How

sad.

After some more sap, some B minus sex, and meeting shithead’s folks,

there’s another big fight that involves a lot of blood and guts, and

startling revelations on behalf of…several of the characters, the

book ends happily ever after and hinting heavily that we’ll be hearing

from another character, Jeremy..I think..in an addition that will be

available in April.

All in all, not a bad book, despite the fact I cannot remember the Hero’s name.

Shannon’s random commentary: I hated the names in this book. Mason and Torrance? Well, at least they weren’t called Hawk and Raven, but still. I know I’m the one with the freaking inner feminist bitch, but Torrance is not a name that inspires thoughts of femininity.

Hey, Bev QB!

Today I ran across a role playing game based on the Sons of Destiny books by Jean Johnson. I think it was you who loved that series, although I could be misremembering. Anyway, the presence of the game has me wanting to dip my toe into another series, but you and I have such divergent tastes most of the time. Will I like those books, or absolutely hate them, do you think?

Anyone else, please do feel free to comment if you know what I am talking about.

Title: See How They Run
Author: Bethany Campbell
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for Reading: I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but I loved the idea of this plot, and I was curious about it.

Synopsis:

Bestselling author Bethany Campbell delivers a harrowing story of Trace and Ricky, autistic twins who witness a mob hit. Their “idiot savant” abilities can provide evidence to the crime, so the twins are placed in the witness protection program along with their teacher, Laura Stoner, and Mick Montana, the street-wise ex-cop who helps them. They soon realize their protection isn’t going to be good enough, because someone wants them dead, and they can’t trust anyone.

My Thoughts: I have mentioned a time or two that I am not a fan of romantic suspense in general. I keep trying books in this subgenre because I keep hoping to be pleasantly surprised by characters who manage to behave like real people and have a convincing romance despite their circumstances. Very few RS books work for me, either because I don’t buy the romance or I don’t buy the suspense.

I bought both in this book. Laura is my favorite type of heroine. She’s not a conventionally kick-ass woman, but I thought that she possessed an amazing amount of inner strength. She behaved sensibly, and I loved her combination of compassion and practicality. Furthermore, she didn’t shrink from doing what needed to be done, which was a refreshing change from the annoyingly stupid pacifist heroines I usually see running around.

Montana’s a great hero, too. He’s a bit grittier than a lot of the heroes I’ve been reading lately, and I actually couldn’t tell right away if he was going to be the book’s hero. Plus, he is physically disfigured, and not in a particularly sexy way, which I thought was cool. And while he was most definitely alpha, I bought that he could have been a former washed-out cop. He was sufficiently gritty, and he didn’t always act chivalrously and he didn’t do anything stupid. Plus, it was just nice to read about a guy that wasn’t a member of an elite anything.

The kids were great secondary characters, too. It’s obvious that Ms. Campbell did her research, and she imparted her facts about autistic people in a way that felt natural.

I also really liked the suspense plot. It was quite gritty, but this has been the first book I’ve read in a while where we are confronted with intelligent villains. They were perfectly detestable, but their actions made sense, and so justice prevailing at the end (shut up, this is a romantic suspense so it’s not a spoiler!) felt deserved, rather than merely tacked on.

That being said, there were a couple of violent scenes that were written in gritty detail that I could very easily have done without. I’m not too squeamish as a reader, but torture? Not so much my thing.

Still, this book has the distinction of being a romantic suspense I actively liked, so I would definitely read more by Ms. Campbell.

Know what would be fun?
Awesome haiku in the comments
Of this very post.

Why am I doing this?
Because you all need a way
To procrastinate.

It occurs to me
Our haikus might need a theme.
The topic: heroes!

Do you have a fave
Hero that makes you pant with
lust? Give us details!

Try to keep within
proper guidelines for haikus
Aaaaaand… Now go to town!

Will there be prizes?
I have not decided yet.
But you never know.

Also if you want
to pimp this post everwhere
don’t let me stop you!

Title: Love’s Strategy
Author: Samantha Kane
Genre: erotic historical romance
Grade: B+
Reason for Reading: I love Samantha Kane. I even love her enough to read a shortish ebook, which is generally not my preference.

Synopsis:

Valentine Westridge and Kurt Schillig are lovers, and have been since the Peninsular War when lonely young officer Valentine let himself be seduced by the equally lonely Kurt. Now they’re back from the war and intent on beginning the future they dreamed of together, one that includes a quiet country estate, horses, dogs, children, and each other. Their plan, however, also requires a wife. At the suggestion of a mutual friend, Valentine and Kurt believe the financial security they can offer to impoverished widow Leah Marleston will help her accept the unusual sexual relationship they are suggesting.

Leah is at her wit’s end, creditors having taken everything she owns to pay off her late husband’s gambling debts. She must find a way to support herself and her two children, or be forced to marry her abusive and obsessive brother-in-law. In Valentine’s and Kurt’s arms, Leah discovers a passion she never knew existed. Brought together by necessity, bonded by desire, these three lonely people find themselves fighting against all odds for a love that was never part of their plans.

My Thoughts: I fee like I’m going to repeat myself here so this is going to be a shortish review. I really do love Samantha Kane’s books. I’m not bothered by the fact that they’re set in an alternate Regency England that never would have existed in real life. The characters and their connections and insecurities can make me ignore quite a lot.

Leah is one of Kane’s trademark sensible yet tortured heroines. But she doesn’t really struggle with her decision to marry Valentine and Kurt. She sees it as the only option she’s got at the moment, and I thought she was practical.

As ever, I could distinguish between Kurt and Valentine with no problems, although I thought that neither were quite as fully developed, again because of the length constraints, as some of her other couples.

The villain was a bit one-demensional as well, but I liked that I understood his motives even though I thoroughly detested the character. Villains who do bad things for all the right reasons are my favorite, and this one thankfully didn’t twirl his moustache.

All in all, I liked this a lot, and I’m sad that I’ve only got one more Samantha Kane book to be read.