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Aerulan

Aerulan

A Little Night Magic

A Little Night Magic - Lucy March 3 1/2 stars
Loved the magic in this, very original and fun. I've got a soft spot for unusual magic systems in fantasy books and this one definitely qualifies as different. Liv was a little wimpy and she has some moments verging on TSTL and a few others where I felt she made really stupid decisions for the wrong reasons like when she decides to give up and let the villain take her magic -which would be fatal- in order to keep her from killing anyone else. Because giving someone who has murdered several people already, tried to kill you, and threatened to kill a busload of children and destroy a town full of people, unmatched power and make her stronger than most anybody else... Yeah great idea, because once she has that power she's totally gonna be all fuzzy bunnies and rainbows with her new magic. If you really want to go all self sacrificing a bullet to the head so the villain doesn't get what she wants makes more sense. At least then you don't have a psychopath with phenomenal cosmic powers wandering around rearranging the landscape at whim. But the story was enough fun that I could mostly overlook the dumber moments of the heroine.

While I was reading this one it brought to mind a few other books. Mainly Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls by Jane Lindskold and most of Nina Kiriki Hoffman's books but particularly her House series.

Open Season

Open Season - Linda Howard Might have liked this better if I wasn't expecting a romantic suspense. First half of the book is Daisy getting a makeover and changing her life. Which I found got really dull while waiting for the bullets to start flying. Then the story picks up a little (very little) around the halfway mark when she accidentally witnesses a murder. The only thing is there isn't any real suspense. Daisy is in some rather distant danger but the guy who is sent to kill her never gets anywhere near her, by the time he comes around she's already safely stashed away and out of reach. She's never in any actual peril, and that whole section of the plot feels very easy. Everything falls into place and the bad guys are all caught with a minimum of fuss. I was expecting some real tension and danger, which Howard can do very nicely, but it never materializes. This mostly reads as a small town romance, with a weak suspense sub-plot in the second half.

Captive

Captive - K.M. Fawcett

Gets a 2 1/2 because it wasn't bad by any means but it didn't blow my skirt up either.
Generally well written (better writing skills than a lot of the scifi/futuristic romances I've read) but something about this one kinda turned me off the story, though I can't put my finger on what exactly. Never really connected with the characters and the set-up felt slightly off. Still willing to try other stuff by Fawcett though, I'll be eager to see what she does next. I think the whole premise with the aliens was just not quite believable enough.  Or maybe we just didn't get enough info to explain things. I couldn't get it to work in my head and it kept knocking me out of the story. Solid skills, interesting concept, but not quite there for me.

Knight Awakened

Knight Awakened - Coreene Callahan

It's set in a fantasy version of Transylvania in 1331 and the characters use phrases like "exit strategy", "define the variables", "clue you in", and "doesn't do random". Those are all direct quotes. The whole book is like this. Cover to cover anachronisms, really really blatantly stupidly obvious anachronisms. It's just sort of embarrassing to read. You expect the characters to pull out smart phones and order pizza or Chinese food after a hard day. The dialog and the way they think and act is so relentlessly modern I wondered why she bothered setting it in the 1300s if she wasn't going to make any effort to actually set it in the 1300s. Just because the world includes magic and dragons isn't an excuse for sloppy writing. And this book is nothing but sloppy writing.

 

I had a similar issue with her first Dragonfury book. Mainly that it was full of really obnoxious slang and irritating speech patterns. I just can't stand the way Callahan writes dialog. Which is too bad because she has some neat story ideas I'd like to read. But not if the characters do any talking. At all. Ever. Definitely an author who's style doesn't work for me, not going to try any more of her books.

 

If you don't care about this sort of thing the book might be a fun read. Totally ruined it for me though.

 

Kidnapped the Wrong Sister

Kidnapped the Wrong Sister - Marie Kelly

Writing was really really awkward, and the characters were idiots. Plot was pretty weak too.

A Demon Does It Better

A Demon Does It Better - Linda Wisdom This one felt like it took too light a view of what should have been a fairly dark storyline. All the magical stuff was fluffy and light and goofy. And then you have the conflict part of the storyline which has the inmates of the hospital asylum being severely abused and experimented on by the doctors and staff.
Add in the main character Lili being an idiot who fumbles her way through the whole story and completely fails to bridge the two aspects and things just don't mesh well.

This could have been a good dark paranormal if most of the magical stuff had been less cute and fuzzy and happy feelings.
Or it could have been a nice light funny paranormal romance if the parts with the asylum had been something significantly less dark. None of the descriptions were as graphic as it could have been, it's mostly 'off stage' as it were. But hinting pretty obviously that one of the patients has just been beaten and raped by the guards isn't actually any better than coming out and saying that is what happened in terms of making it clear this is a really awful situation. As it was, the cuteness of the magic and the shopping trips and talking cat was jarring against the torture, abuse, and blood sacrifice that made up the other part of the story. Is it supposed to be funny? Or what?
Because going from patients being tortured in a secret ward to Cleopatra reincarnated as a cat bitching about not getting more expensive cat food and giving Lili advice about her sex life..... I don't know, I'm all for gallows humor but that wasn't what this was, it was just weird.

Double Down

Double Down - Katie Porter

This was a tremendously fun read. Finished this in one sitting because it was just too much fun to quit.

Necromancing Nim

Necromancing Nim - Katriena Knights Excellent! Loved this one. Now if only the second (I assume there will be a second) book were out, I really want to know what happens next!

A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious

A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious - Mary Wine

Stupid stupid stupid villains in this one. Which ruined the book for me.

Lets say you have a resource. Something with tremendous power and limitless applications that can only be collected by a person with an incredibly rare talent, 1 in million type thing. So if you happen to locate somebody with this ability, you'd absolutely send them out to collect this item in a way that will almost certainly kill them unnecessarily and in very short order, possibly before they can even get one of those objects you want so desperately. Makes perfect sense right?........ Oh wait NO IT DOESN'T!

 

You'd have to be a utter moron to waste a valuable resource like that.  And it's exactly what the baddies in this one do. Go to great lengths to kidnap the heroine because of her special talents and then send her off into a volcano field to die of heatstroke and sun exposure as soon as she's been captured. No hat, no water, no suitable clothes and they tell her outright the conditions are going to kill her very quickly and that they want it that way. Any villain with sense would have figured out how to have her working for the next 50 years pulling those stones out of the cooling lava flows. But no, lets shoot the goose that lays the golden eggs and have a nice roast goose for dinner. Who needs gold eggs, you can't even eat them!  If they villains in this were any stupider they'd be sitting in a corner drooling and chewing the furniture.

 

(show spoiler)

 

In many books, the villains define the conflict that drives the story, if the bad guys are so imbecilic they couldn't put on a hat correctly it pretty much kills the story. Exactly what happened here.

 

How to Ravish a Rake

How to Ravish a Rake - Vicky Dreiling This one wasn't bad, it just wasn't good either. The conflict was lacking in conflict, there was almost no action or tension in the story at all, in fact. Too much inner monologue and not enough of anything happening. Also, Will was supposed to be a terrible rake "the worst rake in London" or whatever but he doesn't ever come off as even mildly bad, and all his behavior seems pretty much on par with the expected actions of a wealthy well bred bachelor of the time. Nothing makes his excesses seem all that excessive. Certainly nothing that would deserve more censure than a fair portion of other men at that level of society. And it was slow slow slooooow.

The Serpent's Shadow

The Serpent's Shadow - Mercedes Lackey

 I liked some of it (and I really wanted to like this one) but it never quite worked for me. I felt like the suffragette bits were tacked on and didn't really do anything for the story, likewise her profession as a doctor felt like it could have been handled in a way that was more compelling. Actually most of the story feels like that, lots of potential it never manages to live up to. It's a neat concept and I love historical fantasy and fairy tale re-tellings so this should have been perfect for me. All the right elements for a great story but nothing really comes of it. It's like its' got plenty of flash but no substance. Also I was not a fan of the animals (who were standing in for the seven dwarves), the were much too blatantly used to further the plot, some subtlety please would be nice.

And the way they provided an easy out at the end, just coming along to neatly solve all the problems and save the day, and Maya's life, totally ruined the climax of the story for me. Sorry but I want the final battle against the villain to be a struggle with some actual effort on the parts of the heroes, not for a bunch of gods to pop in and fix things.

(show spoiler)

At the Edge

At the Edge (Psychic Triplet Trilogy, #1) - Cait London

This would get negative stars if I could manage it.

Second time I've tried a book by this author, made myself finish this one and now I'm sorry I bothered. Total waste of time. No redeeming qualities.

This is what drove me crazy about this book.  The bold emphasis mine.

Then Claire, the intuitive, the empath, the most vulnerable.


“Be careful, Claire. I feel it stirring. I would stop it if I knew how. Protect yourself and stay away from large bodies of water. You’re most vulnerable there.”


They were in contact now, reassuring each other, the elder sisters checking on Claire, an empath and the most vulnerable.

 Can you say 'vulnerable' one more time? I think I missed the point of that paragraph, were you implying she's .....vulnerable?

That isn't bits taken out of context from separate parts of the story, that's the whole awkward passage as it reads on the page. And if that were the only time it would be fine. But she pulls the same stunt all through the book. Every possible bit of information is repeated over and over and over sometimes within a paragraph or a sentence of the last time you were told that particular bit of info. It's the same with the dialog, it seems like the characters spend most of the book rehashing the same things when they talk. You'd think it would be frustrating for the characters, having the same conversation a dozen times. It was certainly frustrating to read. I'm not stupid. I don't need to hear something a dozen times before I understand it, but this author seems to like to beat you to death with everything.

Almost as bad was the fact that none of the characters had any consistency. Claire refuses to help Neil find out what happened to his son, for perfectly valid reasons, like that she's inexperienced and her mother who has found lost/abducted kids before would be a better choice. Not to mention the whole danger to her sanity part of using her powers. But he insists on the fairly flimsy justification of "But I only trust yooouuu!" and she immediately caves and then is suddenly obsessed with finding the kid and all her reasonable objections are just gone.
And Neil is the same way, he wants her to help then instantly starts arguing with how she tries to do so (because he knows best when it comes to how to be a psychic, obviously) and undermining her efforts at every opportunity.
And that's the pattern for everyone in this, they say one thing "go over and make friends with your new neighbor, Claire", "He's your protector stick close to him", "Stay out of his problems it's dangerous, and you're vulnerable" and then flip and say the opposite without any reason for the reversals. And they go back and forth again and again throughout the book.

And the rest of it with the brother and the evil force was just boring. Actually, it was all boring. There is never any sense that Claire is in danger, even when she is attacked by a man intending to murder her, afterward she hardly reacts and seems to shrug it off within a chapter or so, and if she doesn't seem to feel threatened I don't see how a reader is supposed to believe the stakes are very high at all.

And ... god the more I think about this the more I remember that I didn't like. The psychic powers thing just seemed weirdly structured, like it lacked internal consistency, it didn't hang together right. The idea that trauma could make a psychic more vulnerable to the risks of their powers is fine I can go with that and even that after such an event their powers could be stronger, developing more in order to deal with that trauma. But for Claire the three traumas were...

1.)  Being kidnapped as a child along with her sisters and experimented on for two days, an event that still causes her nightmare and anxieties.

2.)  Walking into a bank robbery and then suffering a miscarriage due to her empathic powers going into overdrive, another event that left lasting scars she was still trying to overcome.

3.)  And then the attempted assault which she barely turned a hair over and seemed to dismiss with little trouble. And yet it was causing the same "my powers are getting more powerful" reaction. One of these things is not like the others.

(show spoiler)



Ugh, I really didn't like this book. And the more I write the more irritated I get with myself for wasting time finishing this book when I could have been reading anything else. Cereal boxes, VCR instruction manuals, something.



Under Your Spell

Under Your Spell (Witches of Mayfair, Book 1) - Lois Greiman

As I was reading this I was sure that it was a later book in a series, probably fourth or fifth and that author just wasn't good about giving you enough info about events from the previous books for everything to make proper sense. But it's actually the first in this series, which makes me think even less of the book. There is obviously a lot of back story but you never get a clear look at any of it. And I'm usually not the type to have trouble telling what's going on with a story. But this one is very frustrating, there are lots of characters but you never really see how they relate to each other or the events that occur. There is this sense that if the author would just tell you what is going on that you'd like the book. But she never does. Characters are at odds and nobody comes clear about why, people make choices that aren't adequately explained by the story. Meh. Not going to be looking for more by this author.

Down Home Zombie Blues

The Down Home Zombie Blues - Linnea Sinclair

I've really liked the books by Sinclair that I've read so I thought this one sounded promising, it didn't live up to the others. The idea was neat but the details were irritating.

 

An alien who is the leader of a group of soldiers who hunt "zombies", in this case alien bug things that eat people's bodily fluids by chewing on their heads, is sent to Earth. Now that's fine, sounds like it will be funny and interesting. But it turns out that English, modern English at that, is almost identical to an alien language, even the written form can be understood by these aliens. So you get some lost in translation bits but mostly they can communicate fine. And it's so far fetched that it just threw me out of the story and I never got back in. 

Language is incredibly complex and can change rapidly and the idea that an alien civilization would develop an identical language. Because apparently English can just generate spontaneously in another species on a completely separate planet without any connecting cultures or history or common root words or anything is such bullshit.

 

Add in things like the cop who ends up helping these aliens hunt their zombies fires a gun in his home in a busy residential area (with very nosy neighbors established as part of the story) and yet nobody calls in gunshots to 911. It wouldn't have taken much to smooth over these details and make them make sense, hell I would have been delighted if some sort of translator device had been used, anything would have been more believable. Sentient mushrooms you wear as a hat that translate via telepathy would have been easier to take. That would have solved 90 percent of my issues with this story but no, modern English is apparently not exclusive to Earth. Even words like zombie that have a very specific meaning and cultural origin are somehow shared with a species on the other side of the Universe.

 

If you are not bothered by stuff like this Down Home Zombie Blues might be a satisfying read but it ruined it for me. Suspension of disbelief only gets you so far.

The Bird of the River

The Bird of the River - Kage Baker

Solid fantasy, not flashy just a very satisfying story.

Kiss at Your Own Risk

Kiss at Your Own Risk - Stephanie Rowe

This was terrible, I'm sorry I bothered to finish it. Total crap. Nauseatingly bad. Was having HULK SMASH rage while reading it. Stupid sexist, misogynistic shit trying to be funny.