Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Dragons of Autumn Twilight: A
Fantasy; fiction
Dragonlance Chronicles #1


Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a sorrowful woman, who bears a magic crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world. No one expected them to be heroes. Least of all, themselves.
(back cover)



It's sad that fantasy and sci-fi books have such a bad rep because I think if written well, such stories are super fun to read. Besides, I don't discriminate: if the book tells a good story, I read!

The citizens of Krynn believe that their True Gods have abandoned them and in the True Gods' place, rises the Seekers and a group of friends are out to set right all the wrongs. This includes creepy Raistlin with hour-glass shaped eyes, the noble half-elf Tanis, the silly Tas, and the grumpy but fierce dwarf, Flint.

In pursuing this journey, they struggle with questions of honor, of love, of doing the right versus the wrong.. they go up and down mountains, meet elves, fight the evil draconian and reptilian Seekers, and essentially takes you through four hundred and something pages of adventure.

Apparently, the Dragonlance Chronicles inspired 90+ books to create this magical world of dragons. I don't think I'll read all ninety books just yet, but I do plan on reading the other three in this series.

Hooray for fantastical reads!

Karen Robards: Shameless

Shameless: C
Elizabeth Banning & Neil Severin
The Banning Sisters Trilogy #3
Historical - Regency

Lady Elizabeth, the youngest and most headstrong of the three Banning sisters, has been engaged three times, and has most scandalously broken off all three engagements. Her fear of becoming any man's property has kept her from marriage and earned a reputation in the ton as a heartbreaking flirt. Neil Severin is a wicked rogue, black of heart and black of reputation. A man of no morals, devoid of compassion, he is a government-sanctioned assassin. And his newest target is a man Beth holds dear. When the flame-haired beauty thwarts his plan, Neil exacts his own brand of spicy revenge. Beth despises him. Neil doesn't care. But circumstances most unexpectedly throw them together, and with Beth's life in danger, Neil finds himself in the unexpected role of hero, racing to save her before it's too late... (back cover)

Here are some facts:

1. I have read all three of the stories about the Banning sisters.
   
2. I loved the first one: Scandalous.
   
3. The second one, Irresistible, was pretty cliched and uninteresting.
   
4. The third - this story - is slightly more interesting but still pretty cliched.
   

OK. End of review.

Just kidding... sort of.

What more to say about this novel other than the fact that I've been waiting years and years for Beth's story only to have it sort of peak and then plateau into an abyss of semi-blandness?

I liked Beth, though I couldn't really relate with her unwillingness to have any man be her master. I mean, I knew she was headstrong and stubborn, but when I read Scandalous (book 1), she was but 15. What 15 year old isn't headstrong and stubborn? Ms. Robards neglects to delve into Beth's psyche as to why she dislikes marriage. What we know about Beth's cruddy family situation is from past books... and authors cannot rely on back information from other books to support the current story. Besides, I never got Beth's perspective on it. (In this aspect, Meredith Durant did a better job in explaining Mina's absolute insistence on being her own person in Written on Your Skin. )

And I liked Neil, but only in the most vague and superficial manner possible. As in, he fulfilled the part of the cold, heartless assassin in a manner that was most expected. Cliched, I suppose.

Surprisingly, the adventure was enough to keep me reading without sighing in irritation and without copious amounts of eye-rolling.

HOWEVER!

The way Ms. Robards ended the novel was bad. As in, without the epilogue, there would be no happily-ever-after. In essence, she didn't end the story: the epilogue was the last chapter of the novel. Why she labeled it as an epilogue is beyond me.

Authors, 'epilogues' are not used as last-chapters. It is a step beyond the end of the story. It's the "what happened after the happily-ever-after? Where are they now?" chapter, not a "let me finish the story."

Let me explain myself another way.

An epilogue is a bonus feature that can be taken out without adversely affecting the story. The story will still have an ending without the epilogue.

Without the epilogue at the end of Shameless, it would have felt unfinished and would have been highly unsatisfying. This is the point I would add in the WTHeck?! This is Ms. Robard's, like, twentieth book. I would think she knows all this already......

Regardless, the entire story proves to be a most average sort of story.

Bottom line: Read, I suppose, but don't buy.

Joanne Harris: Chocolat

Chocolat: A
Fiction

When beautiful, unmarried Vianne Rocher sweeps into the pinched little French town of Lansquenet on the heels of the carnical and opens a gem of a chocolate shop across fro the square form the church, she begins to wreak havoc with the town's Lenten vows. Her uncanny ability to perceive her customers' private discontents and alleviate them with just the right confection coaxes the villagers to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness, but enrages Pere Reynaud, the local priest. Certain only a witch could stir such sinful indulgence and devise such clever cures, Reynaud pits himself against Vianne and vows to block the chocolate festival she plans for Easter Sunday, and to run her out of town forever. Witch or not (she'll never tell), Vianne soon sparks a dramatic confrontation between those who prefer the cold comforts of the church and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure... (back cover)


I must say that this book was a gem to read. Ms. Harris' words are itself like warm, sweetened confections and completely succeed in making your insides tingle. She is one I would consider to be a poetic writer, with such beautiful taste and style.

The story is also very delightful, with the church pitted against Vianne's chocolate shop. Is it all right for one to indulge in their passions and desires? And what to do when one in a position of authority leads the people (or the congregation, in this case) in a direction that does not have so much to do with the people's well-being but has to do entirely with obtaining power? Are there absolute black and whites with no grays?

Oh, the questions! (And you know how much I like books that ask thoughtful questions..!)

Besides that, the entire book was about Vianne preparing delicious goodies that literally made my mouth water. Mmm..

If anything, read to see how Ms. Harris' sculpts her words to simply create a wonderful read.

Meredith Duran: Written On Your Skin

Written On Your Skin: C+
Mina Masters & Phineas Granville, Earl of Ashmore
Historical - Victorian

The society beauty who saved his life...
Beauty, charm, wealthy admirers: Mina Masters enjoys every luxury but freedom. To save herself from an unwanted marriage, she turns her wiles on a darkly handsome stranger. But Mina's would-be hero is playing his own deceptive game. A British spy, Phin Granville has no interest in emotional entanglements... until the night Mina saves his life by gambling her own.

The jaded spy who vowed to forget her...
Four years later, Phin inherits a title that frees him from the bloody game of espionage. But memories of the woman who saved him won't let Phin go. When he learns that Mina needs his aid, honor forces him back into the world of his nightmares.

In lives built on lies, love is the darkest secret of all...
Deception has ruled Mina's life just as it has Phin's. But as the beauty and the spy math wits in a dangerous dance, their practiced masks begin to slip, revealing a perilous attraction. And the greatest threat they face may not be traitors or murderous conspiracies, but their own dark desires... (back cover)

This is the sequel to Bound By Your Touch and Ms. Duran's third novel. I have only read her first, The Duke of Shadows, and if I'm remembering correctly, it was an enjoyable read.

This one was a little harder for me to get through.

Sometimes, I read something and I wonder if I'm just not smart enough to comprehend what's happening. There were times when I was reading this story and I thought, my goodness, what on Earth is happening?

Essentially, Ms. Duran's writing is complex and all-together good, but is sometimes a little superfluous. The narration is roundabout and I'm not quite sure if this is because the characters happen to be super complex and I am just... not. This is highly plausible, and if this is the case, it's no wonder the wording of the novel took me a while to get through.

Whether this is the case or not is rather irrelevant here. When it comes down to it, the superfluous writing made it hard for me to truly get into the story and more importantly, to stay with the story. Most of the time, I manage to finish romances in one-sitting. This story took me days to get through, and even though everything else was fine, I cannot say that I felt a kinship with the story.

In the end, that's what matters to me. I want to feel as though I'm walking away knowing the characters and their story without a haze of mild confusion.

Bottom line: Read but only if you're smart.

Liz Carlyle: Beauty Like the Night

Beauty Like the Night: A-
Helene de Severs & Camden Rutledge, Earl of Treyhern
Historical -British Regency

The daughter of London's wickedest widow, Helene de Severs left England in disgrace and has struggled to overcome her heritage. Renowned within Europe's emerging psychiatric field for her gift for healing children, she returns to England confident she has learned to govern her reckless emotions. A disastrous marriage left notoriously ruthless Camden Rutledge, Earl of Treyhern, with a traumatized child and he decides to hire a governess so that he can concentrate on other family fires. Yet the moment Helene arrives, Treyhern's cold reserve is melted by desire he long thought dead. With her elegant clothing and mountain of luggage, the woman is not who he expected. Or is she? Sometimes the workings of the mind are as dangerous as those of the heart. And soon, danger is truly everywhere... (back cover)


I like Ms. Carlyle. I feel that she stays true to the dialogue and the nuances of eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain.

I also happen to love reunion stories. You know, the cheesy first-love, you're-the-only-one-for-me stories where years have passed and yet, the hero and heroine are still in love with each other. What is more romantic than that? (answer: nothing!)

As a novel with the two above-mentioned aspects, I devoured this rather lengthy (419 pgs) story in a matter of hours.

Helene and Cam grew up with each other due to the affair between Helene's mother and Cam's father. Both adult figures were less than stellar parents. Cam's father was inebriated most of the time, flitting from woman to woman while Helene's mother - well, she was a demimondaine.

They fell in love in the wild, unrestrained way that seventeen/eighteen year olds do. But it was more than mere teenage histrionics; lo behold, eleven long years have passed since Helene and Cam were separated and when they meet - Helene is hired as Cam's daughter's special governess - it is hard for them to control their emotions. Whatever happened in the past ...is the past... right? (Wrong!)

The angst that Helene and Cam face, I feel, is founded on realistic doubts and insecurities: both people work hard to avoid turning out like his/her respective parent, but at the same time, they struggle with the depths of their feelings they have for one another.

As I've stated in previous blog entries, I'm not fond of kids that play a vital part in the romance equation because the focus is then not on the hero and heroine, but on the child as well. And dammit, those children need a lot of attention! Though Beauty Like the Night featured Cam's little daughter, she played a cool and un-bratty character. I had no desire to, like, smack the child upside the head.

There is also a tiny little mystery-adventure at the end. It's as adventurous and thrilling as one might expect an adventure in a romance novel to be. (I mean, how can it be super duper mysterious if you know all's going to turn out well in the end?) I realize I'm being somewhat vague with the plot, but I can't help it. I dislike spoilers and so I will leave you with:

Read. Be happy. Ignore the giggle-inducing cover.
(Really, were gentlemen's breeches that tight? Because... uh... IthinkIseemalecoverartmodel'sbuttcrack. I can't ignore it, really - it's smack-dab front-center! See for yourselves!)

on a completely off-topic note

I laughed so hard while I watched this... and then thought, We're fucked.


Um, I still can't figure out how to embed videos here. Alice, you are smarter than e-blogger. You are smarter than e-blogger.

Who'm I kidding? E-blogger is completely smarter than me.

But I figured it out! Hooray!

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games: A+
YA fiction


Oh man, this book was good. It was really good. It was really, really good.

The United States is no longer and has given way to a nation called Panem, split into twelve districts and its Capitol. In order to have the citizens of Panem remember the cost of rebellion, the Capitol hosts The Hunger Games annually, where two kids (ages 12-18) are sent from each district to fight to the death.

Our heroine is Katniss, sixteen and toughened from the harsh conditions of living in Disctrict 12, a coal mining district. Her father passed away when she was young and when her mother went into serious depression, she took over as the head of the household, working hard to support her family. She adores Prim, her sister younger by four years.

It is time for The Reaping, and out of all applicants, Prim is the female tribute selected and Katniss quickly volunteers to go in her stead.

So starts The Hunger Games, a story that will really have you on your toes, but even greater is how it makes you think ...about life. What is love? What is death? And what do you do when you have to survive? Katniss sees the indulgence and excess in the Capitol - what is overindulgence and what is compassion? Of course, what had me in tangles was the love angle of this entire affair.

Simply put, it is quite a grand read. I rushed to Borders the next day, consumed the sequel in three-and-a-half short (but glorious) hours, and am counting down until the third is released.

It's the kind of book that makes me remember why I love reading.