I’ve had a severe case of review burnout. I am reading books, and for the most part they are lovely, but I haven’t felt like I could write cogently about them. I’m going to try to write a bit about some of the things I’m reading in the coming days, although I don’t know if they’ll be proper reviews so much as scattered thoughts, since that’s all I seem to be capable of blogging about.

Anyway, hi to everyone still here. What are you all reading lately that I should check out?

Dean Lynch is a preacher’s wife. Her husband is an ambitious pastor in the Methodist church, and Dean has always chafed under the restrictions his duties place upon her. When she and Ben move to Crystal Springs, Florida, though, her life changes when she meets and is befriended by Augusta Holderfield. From a distance, these two women have nothing in common. Augusta was raised with wealth and privilege. Dean, in the meantime, was raised by backwoods drunk rednecks. Augusta is wild and vivacious, while Dean is thoughtful and careful. But the two develop a bond. But when a tragedy strikes, Dean will have to reevaluate all her priorities and beliefs in order to figure out her place in life.

The thing that pleasantly surprised me about this book was how flawed the characters were. Dean is by no means a poor put upon woman whose life sucks due to her martyrdom. She does martyr herself a lot, but she’s also kind of judgmental and passive aggressive. In this way, she and her husband, Ben, are perfect for each other, because Ben is also great at being passive aggressive as well as a complete douchebag. At the beginning of the book, I was afraid that I couldn’t stomach 500 pages of Dean and Ben being horrible people to each other. But Dean grew on me. I found mmyself empathizing with the struggles she went through, and as the book went on, I kept encouraging her to leave the life she was leading, which clearly didn’t suit her, and get a new start.

This isn’t going to be an easy book for some readers of this blog to get through, and that’s another of the book’s surprises. We have adultery, some of which Dean disapproves of, some of which she justifies. The paragons of loving relationships that are most obvious are a gay couple. And King doesn’t seem to be saying verry positive things about organized religion, especially things involving church politics. If those things bother you, then you ought to skip this book. But for the most part, all those things worked for me. The gay couple is adorable, the adultery gave the book a dash of realism that I appreciated even if I didn’t always approve, and I can well imagine there being some truth to what Dean thinks about church politics.

If I have any quibbles with this book, it’s that I thought Dean took a long time to finally manage a new start for herself. She didn’t take the steps necessary to get to a happier place on her own initiative. She was reacting to the circumstances around her, and she basically had to wait until she had no other choice. I also hated the final treatment of Ben. Dean’s last encounter with her husband is ludicrous and anticlimactic. I wanted a bit more oomph there, and I’m still a bit angry that I never got it.

Overall though, I really did enjoy this book, and I would read more Cassandra King if given the opportunity. I’d recommend it to fans of women’s fiction who like a bit of darkness in their books, and who are open-minded to flawed characters. This one gets a B+ from me.
Note: I read this book via Bookshare. Also, I could not find other reviews. If you’ve read this book, let me know what you think of it in the comments!

Anyway, the book I took on my plane was the audio version of venetia by Georgette Heyer. For those of you not up on your romance novel history, Georgette Heyer was basically the creator of the Regency romance as we know them today. She wrote from 1926 until her death in 1972 and in addition to historical romances she wrote mysteries as well. I would argue that there isn’t a historical romance author who isn’t a little bit influenced by Heyer. If they’ve never read Heyer, then they’ve certainly read other authors who have.

I have read a couple of Heyer’s other romances, and quite enjoyed them, but Venetia was the first Heyer book I loved. And I loved everything about it–the characters, the plot, Heyer’s writing. I’m afraid I am not capable of reading another historical romance for a little while, since I don’t want to be drawing comparisons between whatever unfortunate bookI choose to read and this one.

The plot is nothing romance readers haven’t seen before. We have Venetia, the young and inexperienced country girl living in impoverished gentility at her fammily estate, managing it and taking care of her scholarly and crippled brother, Aubrey. Venetia is vaguely discontented with her life, but she doesn’t really see any way out of it. At least not until her older brother Conway returns home, which he’s not inclined to do. However, her life changes rather abruptly when Lord Damerel, a notorious rake, moves into the estate next door, which has belonged to his family but remained unoccupied for years. Even though people have warned Venetia about what a horrible reputation Damerel has, she falls in love with him anyway. And then, like all good drawing room comedies, a series of circumstances contrive to keep them apart until the inevitable end.

The characters are absolutely wonderful. Venetia is unconventional in a way that other romance heroines wish they were. I liked her, because she was guileless and flirty and full of laughter. She doesn’t take the world all that seriously, nor does she expect the world to take her seriously in return. She’s not a whiny martyr, either, and she doesn’t view the world through rose-colored glasses. She is also perfect for Damerel, who she can laugh with and who finds the world absurd. Damerel’s cynicism is an excellent compliment to Venetia’s unworldliness. And then there’s Aubrey. Y’all know how squeamish I am about reading about disabled characters in my books. But Aubrey was wonderful. He wasn’t the moral center of Venetia’s life, and he was as flawed as any other character, despite his disability. And, of course, the thing that endears Damerel to Venetia is how Damerel treats him.

The plot is perfect for a Regency romance. There are the requisite drawing room visits, the look at London’s fashionable set, and in the end everyone gets what they deserve. But here again Heyer surprises me. Venetia doesn’t need to be rescued from wild scrapes. When she decides to go after Damerel, she does so with a vengeance and she gets him in a way that was perfect.

As for the romance, despite the fact that there are no bedroom scenes, it was hot. I very much felt the chemistry between the two of them. Of course, it might have helped matters that I was a little bit in love with Damerel myself. I loved his passion, and I loved his vulnerability, which was evident in his self-mocking attitude. I also liked that he was as ruthless as Venetia turned out to be. And the best part about the romance? Heyer lets us see their developing friendship. She contrasts Venetia’s friendship with Damerel to the other men who’ve sought her hand, and leaves the reader in no doubt whatsoever as to her suitability with Damerel.

I don’t know how much more I can squee about this book before y’all get sick and tired of hearing about it. Just go forth and read it. You will not be sorry that you did, especially if you like a well-written romance with excellent characters. I did not want this book to end, and I took a lot longer to read it because I was so much in love with these characters that I didn’t want their story to be over. Obviously, this one rates an A.

Other Opinions

• Vulpes Libris

And now we come to this decision again. Moira Rogers has asked us to choose between vampire and werewolf once again. But this time, we have a contest in bad-assery. Is a vampire lumnberjack or a werewolf bootlegger more awesome?

The answer, of course, is patently obvious. The vampire lumberjack wins without a contest. After all, he comes equipped with a weapon–an axe that no doubt will help to display impressive muscles when he takes off his shirt. And if he sparkles in the sun like some other vampires we could name, no one would laugh at him, because, hello, giant axe?What does the werewolf have? Some alcohol? Oh, please.

Plus, the vampire lumberjack is not without precedent in American folklore. Paul Bunyan regularly had to stop for a little type O negative as he traveled the American west, taming it with his axe. What werewolf bootleggers in literature can you name? None? That’s what I thought.

So, agree or disagree? Is a vampire lumberjack the epitome of awesome, or do the rest of you just have no taste? And what other classic literature out there would be improved with more epic vampire vs. werewolf battles?

This post is a part of Moira Rogers’ Creature Feature Kindle Throwdown Contest. By leaving a (meaningful) comment, you will be entered to win a Kindle from Amazon.com, or an alternate grand prize of $275 to spend at an online book retailer. For a full list of rules and more ways to win, visit the contest page.

I know, I know. I haven’t been blogging for a while, and now I’m going to post a book review like I expect you to just be OK with my flakiness and forgive me. What can I say? Flakiness is part of my charm.

Anyway, lately I have been absorbed in what I lovingly refer to as werewolf pr0n. (And won’t that make for some fun search results?) I plan to talk about two of my werewolf pr0n reads in this post, and if you come back later, you could win a fabulous prize, which should, in itself, be insentive for you to put up with my blather.

Anyway, the Red Rock Pass series by Moira Rogers is far more than just werewolf pr0n. And I’m not just saying that because I think Bree and Donna are the bee’s knees. There is plenty of smut to be found in the books, but there’s also political intrigue, werewolf politics, and witty banter, and if you don’t like any of those things, then I really don’t know why you’re here.

I had read the first book in the series a couple of years ago, and so when I went to catch up on the series I’d found that I’d forgotten a lot. And this isn’t good, since the second book picks the action right up.

Sanctuary Lost is the second book in the series. Brynn Adler and her sister Abby have been living in Red Rock Pass for a few weeks now. Red Rock Pass is basically a safe place for newly turned werewolves, because their pack alphas aren’t overbearing, power-hungry jerks. But that’s not quite enough for Brynn. She hates that the events of the first book have made her afraid, and she hates that her humanity leaves her vulnerable. She is also inexorably drawn to Joe, one of the stronger members of the pack, and the feelings are mutual. Brynn wants Joe to help her through the transition into becoming a werewolf, but Joe’s been down that road, and it wasn’t very pretty. Plus, if that weren’t enough, the werewolves who were after Brynn and Abby in the first book are back. And soon the pack is dealing with another complication in the form of Sasha, an apprentice witch whose mentor was savagely attacked and killed and who now seeks sanctuary in Red Rock.

A lot is going on in this book, and if you wait a year and a half like I did in between reading the first and second book, it will take some getting used to. I eventually pieced together who everyone was, and found myself devouring the book in a matter of hours. The werewolf politics were absolutely gripping stuff, and I liked the addition of witches into the mix.

That being said, the romance was kind of weak. It’s not that Brynn and Joe were bad characters, because they’re not. And they did have chemistry, and I wasn’t unsatisfied by the way they got together. But there wasn’t really anything unique or fresh about them as a couple. Having read the book a few weeks ago, I’m hard pressed to remember any particular scenes between the two of them that stood out.

That being said, one of the things I did enjoy was Brynn’s relationship with her sister. It is complicated. Brynn is kind of a rebel, and Abby has always been there to mother her. Brynn chafes at this, but her love for her sister is very obvious. In short, it was a very realistic sister dynamic. As someone who is close to my own sister, I love reading about other close sister bonds.

One last thing. I also appreciated that long-lasting romance doesn’t make couples invulnerable. There was a heartbreaking scene featuring Abby and Keith from the first book that surprised me, because I hadn’t been expecting any further complications in their relationship.

While I enjoyed Sanctuary :Lost , I loved Sanctuary’s Price. And I can express my love in two words: beta hero.

You see, Internets, I am that rare breed of romance reader that would rather read about vulnerable men than men who always kick ass with no difficulty. And Dylan Gennaro is that man. He came from the evil pack that’s been bothering Brynn and Abby, and now in Red Rock he’s something of a local hero, having had a shining moment of badassery at the end of Sanctuary Lost. This is a first for him. In his old pack, he was pretty much beaten into submission, having to always hide his wolfish instincts, so he’s got a lot of scars.

Sasha, the witch we met in the previous book, also has scars. She’s been thrust into this world without her mentor, and the wolves need her magic. When the pack alphas ask Sasha and Dylan to work together to study some pack lore, they find themselves fighting their attraction. Then, a wolf pack in Maine finds itself in trouble, and there are vampires causing havoc, so it’s road trip time, during which time Sasha and Dylan must evaluate their feelings and make some difficult choices.

Right. So I’ve talked about Dylan, and he really made this book for me. And while I did not love Sasha, I did like her a lot. I liked that they were both two very wounded people who needed each other to recover from their various emotional scars. That kept the power balance in the romance on an even keel, which made me believe in the romance arc.

There’s a lot going on, plot-wise. Again, I don’t think this is a standalone book, and yet again, Rogers doesn’t insult the reader’s intelligence. We’re expected to keep up with the twists and turns and the nonstop action. And some of that action makes certain events feel a bit rushed. But I didn’t mind. These books are quick reads, and the fourth book, Sanctuary Unbound, comes out tomorrow, so I won’t have to wait a year to catch up with the Red Rock crew.

A note to my blind readers: Samhain Publishing offers romance ebooks of all genres that are DRM-free and reasonably priced. If werewolf politics are not your thing, explore the site. You will find something there you like, if you’re into romance at all!

In the meantime, for everyone, stay tuned. You could win a copy of Sanctuary Unbound if you come back in a few hours. And you know you want some free books.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read my review of Happy Hour of the Damned, the first book in the series.

In this installment, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend Gil has started a vampire-making business. It goes horribly wrong, however, and the vampire he’s just made vows revenge. Plus, Amanda’s received news that her mother may be on the point of dying. So she, Gil, and their friend and fellow zombie, Wendy, embark on a road trip which turns out to be more exciting than any of them could have predicted. Along the way, they meet a hot werewolf, a creepy family, some cultists, and a moderately accurate psychic, as well as a host of others.

If you liked Happy Hour of the Damned you’ll like this installment. Amanda is still snarky, the jokes are often scatalogical, there are footnotes, and Henry still inverts and deconstructs urban fantasy tropes with aplomb. This time, Amanda gets a real love interest–or at least a lust interest, this being Amanda–which will complicate her life quite a lot. In fact, the requisite sex scene was absolutely hillarious, something I don’t find all that often.

I don’t really want to say much more about the book than that. Amanda should be experienced without my biases coming into play, and if I went into further detail, I’d be entering slavering fangirl mode, and nobody wants that.

There is a new book in this series, Battle of the Network Zombies which I have already purchased and plan to read. This series is great fun, and totally unlike anything else out there, as far as I know. A- for this one.

Other Opinions

• Love Vampires
• Tez Says
• The Book Girl

I should point out that I am not really a fan of unreliable narrators. Generally, I like to cruise along trusting the narrator of the book I’m reading to tell me the story. I guess it boils down to the fact that I really don’t want to have to think about what I’m reading, especially since so much of what I do have to read outside of leisure time requires intense thought.

To that end, it took me a while to get enmeshed in Liar. I knew that Micah was a liar. She says so on the first page. And knowing that I couldn’t trust her made it hard to get involved, at least at first. Then something happened–I’m not sure what, exactly–and I got sucked in anyway. I needed to know what was true and what wasn’t. And when I reached the second part of the book and the plot twist that I’ve seen other reviewers mention, well, from there I just didn’t stop.

In the end, the novel worked for me. I still wasn’t sure that I liked Micah, but she is a character that will linger in my mind. For days after I read about her, I would wake up with questions and theories that I couldn’t tell anyone about, because this is not a book that should be spoiled. And, ultimately, I think that’s the best compliment an author can receive. Liar still makes me think. I still want to talk about it, and I definitely recommend it. An A for sure.

Other Opinions

There are zillions of reviews of this book. You can find oodles of them here.

P.S. I listened to this one on Audio. The narration was neither brilliant nor horrible, though they did cast the narrator well, since she had an appropriately young-sounding voice.

As you can tell by my lack of postings on this blog, I’ve suffered a bit of blogger ennui lately. It’s not that I haven’t been reading, but much of what I’ve been reading isn’t really worth talking about. I even tried writing up a massive post o’ mini reviews, and I just don’t have a lot to say about a lot of the stuff I’ve read lately, especially since a lot of it has been creative nonfiction and humor collections, which I find difficult to review, because you either think the humor/creative exercise works or you don’t, and I haven’t figured out a way to say things about those books in a way that is compelling to read.

That being said, there are a few reviews I want to post, and I hope once I get into a posting habit again, I will do better about keeping up with them.

So I hope I have not lost all my readers. And I hope you all are reading books about which you are enthusiastic!
In less bookish news, my nephew, Logan Charles, was born this morning. I have already been blessed with one niece, who is an adorable four-year-old, but it’s always nice to have another addition to the family. He weighs in at 9 pounds, 3 oz. nd is 20.5 inches long. His Auntie Shannon envisions a promising career as a linebacker already. Baby and mother are still in the hospital, and my brother and mother and niece are going to visit them in New Mexico this week. I would have gone as well, but though I’m sure my nephew is the bestest baby evar, I suspect my college professors might not consider his birth a terribly good excuse for missing a week of class, so instead I will be here, glued to my phone in hopes of news.

I know you look forward eagerly to a new update on this blog, and will no doubt be gnashing your teeth and crying in abject sorrow because last week and this week are midterm weeks, which means that I haven’t had much brain power for anything not strictly school-related. This includes reading and, for that matter, scheduling reviews.

Luckily, the Internet provides us with content.

The other day, Marg wrote a post about the Book Blogger’s Hop. Here are the instructions.

Hey book bloggers! Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following. In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!

I put my blog down on the list. Have you signed up? I’ve already found several blogs that look like ones I need to add to my feed reader promptly.

In other news, I have been swamped with review requests. (By which I mean, I have 3 that came to me unsolicited and I signed up to review two. I’ve decided to make spring break the week I spend reading these review books, because they all look awesome. More on all of them when the time comes.

This was the experience I had with The Bride and the Beast by Teresa Medeiros. It featured prominently on several lists of romances with a Beauty and the Beast theme, so I figured it would be something I’d like. And while I didn’t dislike it, I wasn’t really in love either.

Our story takes place in 18th-century Scotland, in the village of Ballybliss. Apparently, to live in Ballybliss, there’s a requirement that someone drop you on your head repeatedly as a child. Put another way, none of these people, with the arguable exception of our heroine, are smarter than a fifth grader.

Our heroine is Gwendolyn Wilder, the plump, bookish daughter of the former clan chieftain’s steward. Gwen’s three sisters are all skanky whores in the making, but of course, Gwen is too pure and innocent for such things. When the Dragon, who is reported to have moved into the clan chieftain’s former castle and who is, incidentally, our hero, starts making demands of the villagers for vast sums of money, they decide to eliminate their strongest link and send Gwen to be a virgin sacrifice. The dragon takes her in, keeping her prisoner in his castle because if she knew who he was she could tell the villagers and somehow ruin his unnecessarily convoluted revenge scheme.

I liked our leads well enough. Gwen is the sgtronger character of the two, because even though she is pretty much a typical example of a romance novel heroine, she doesn’t go around insisting people call her the Dragon. The Dragon, on the other hand, sorely tested my patience. His identity is patently obvious to any reader who read the prologue, and I didn’t really buy his motivations for deciding to put forth such a cheesy disguise. Granted, he does live in Ballybliss, so maybe he, too, was dropped on his head as a child?

The romance between Gwen and her hero is cute if predictable. There is also a secondary romance between the Dragon’s one friend, the “plodding son of a minor viscount” and one of Gwen’s sisters, who is less debauched than the others. I actually enjoyed that subplot more, because I love a good beta hero and Tupper was adorable. Much more adorable than the Dragon.

Ultimately, though, this book is quite forgetable. I am not likely to remember it in the future, so I don’t feel comfortable recommending it. I’m also not sure how well it fits with my Beauty and the Beast theme this week, since the Dragon isn’t very beastly, and, in fact, the story is more Cupid and Psyche than anything else. I give this one a C.

Other Opinions

• All About Romance
• Mrs. Giggles