Mixed Genres & Mixed Reviews (Mixed Drinks Optional)

March over and so is the whole ‘March Madness thing.  It’s a lot more reliable than crocus as a sign of Spring. Clocks have been pushed ahead and we have daylight at 7PM again.  Allergies aside, I like spring.  Blossoms start appearing on shrubs and trees, daffodils, hyacinths, and forsythia bloom and my taxes get done by my accountant.  Yippee.  Spring ain’t for sissies.

Neither is reading voraciously as I do.  Thank heavens for Amazon and its sales. The nice thing about their 4-for-3 promo is that I can try new series and new authors and not feel bad when I get a book I don’t like.  Hey, not everyone likes everything.  Most reviews on Amazon showed readers loved An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette, I didn’t.  I sent a review to PBS for their book blog but it likely won’t show up there for months.  I basically didn’t like the lead character.  Her personality annoyed me.  I’m the same way about Wendy Roberts’ Ghostdusters mysteries, I just don’t like them.  They aren’t badly written or anything, just ……. well, annoying to me.  Despite that, I had waited patiently to get a copy of the first book she wrote back in 2005 for Red Dress Inc, Dating Can Be Deadly, through PBS.  Well it finally made it thru the US postal system and I read it this week  I’ll start my reviews there.

• Title:  Dating Can Be Deadly
  
• Author: Wendy Roberts
• Type:  Contemporary paranormal mystery
• Genre: Chick-lit mystery
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
  
• Rating:  PG – 13
• Length and price:  Novel – 80,000+ words – price varies
• Where Available:  Available from used book sellers, including Amazon, Alibris, Half.com
• FTC Disclosure: rec’d through through an online book swap site

As I noted above, I can’t get into Wendy Roberts’ Ghostduster mystery series, but I wanted to read Dating Can Be Deadly, so I had it wish listed on PBS for the past year and finally got a copy.  Light, amusing, entertaining and far more enjoyable for than her Sadie Novak Ghostdusters books.  Worth a read if you can find a copy.

New Releases: A Mixed Bag of Genres

Well, I’m still busy reading away, but life does interfere with my plans.  I did enjoy a few good books.  Barry Eisler got close to being back on track with a new John Rain thriller.  Laura Resnick has another chapter in the Esther Diamond series with Vamparazzi – one of the BEST titles this year!  Vicki Lewis Thompson continues her amusing paranormal romance books and .  No, none are stunning blockbuster books, but all were above average and really good reads.

• Title:  The Detachment
  
• Author:  Barry Eisler
• Type:  Action thriller
• Genre:  John Rain and Dox get drawn into another adventure
• Sub-genre:  Manipulation, deception, and the impossible is all too plausible
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Novel – about 90,000+ $8.25 to$12
• Where Available:  Available at most bookstores and online
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased from an online book seller

The best news, John Rain, one of the BEST characters developed by any author in the past decade, is finally back.  So too is his Dox, his sniper friend and sometimes partner.  Barry Eisler had lost much of the edge that appealed to me with his two Ben Treven books, both of which I found disappointing.  He seems to recapture much of his old magic in The Detachment, though the plot is more obvious than those in his far more twisty and better written early books, and Col ‘Hort’ Horton is not in any way an admirable, or fundamentally honorable person.

Rain has broken up with his girlfriend and Mossad operative, Dehlia.  She refused to leave intelligence agency and he found he could not live with her job – or maybe he was just bored.  As always, he returned to Tokyo, living quietly and going just one place he might be associated with – the Kodokon.  He notices two Americans watching from the stands.  When he catches the them quickly checking the next night, he knows he’s been found.  His response is classic Rain – he leads there where they want to go, lulls them and then kills them both.

But it was a setup and the men pawns that were deliberately sacrificed to catch Rain on camera and blackmail him into doing a job for Col ‘Hort’ Horton.  In LA Hort tells Rain there’s on oligarchy ready to create domestic terrorism in such a way that suspending the Constitution and granting extraordinary powers to the President and Executive Branch of Government seems the only logical course of action.  He uses the very real slow erosion of rights and privacy that the Patriot Act and various government entities – from ICE to TSA to the NSA have already created as a way to get citizens accustomed to a ‘new reality’.

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This week I’ve read two really long books in the paranormal genre – and they could NOT be more different.  Each deserves its own review, but for different reason, so this is one of my single book reviews, something I don’t do much of lately.  For all the hype on both books, neither came up to scratch.

• Title: A Discovery of Witches
  
• Author:  Deborah Harkness
• Type:  Paranormal romance adventure; book 1 of a trilogy
• Genre:  A witch who refuses to use magic, finds a hidden book sought by the 3 other races
• Sub-genre:  Academic blend of magic, romance and science
• My Grade: C+  (3.3*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Plus novel – about 120,000+ $15-$20 with list of $28.95
• Where Available:  Available at most bookstores
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased from online bookstore

Short Reviews: Paranormal, Erotic Romance, Mystery, Action Thriller

My tastes in reading range far and wide, but mostly, I just like a good read.  Some here were, some weren’t.  Consider this a snapshot of my TBR mountain.

• Title: Under Wraps
  
• Author:  Hannah Jayne
• Type:  Humorous paranormal with an UF edge and a mystery
• Genre:  A magic resistant human gets involved in investigating a serial killing with a handsome detective
• Sub-genre:  Quirky blend of ordinary woman in a paranormal world who’d love to kick ass, but lacks the instincts and skills
• My Grade: C-  (2.8*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full novel – about 80,000+ $6.99
• Where Available:  Available at most bookstores
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased from online bookstore

New Paranormal UF and a Paranormal Romance

The third installment in The Kara Gillian series is another really good combination of police mystery and UF.  This is becoming a favorite series of mine.

• Title: The Secrets of the Demon (Kara Gillian Book #3)
  
• Author:  Diana Rowland
• Type:  Paranormal UF mystery with ongoing personal story
• Genre:  Louisiana police procedural with supernaturals
• Sub-genre:  A police detective is also a demon summoner tried to solve a series of deaths that has political consequences
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full novel 90,000 words for $7.99
• Where Available:  Available at most bookstores
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased from online bookstore

New Paranormal Release and a Good Mystery

Somehow, and for reasons known only to my subconscious, I joined a combination swap and reading challenge on PBS.  As if I don’t have enough to do.  I’m already reading for other swaps and sometimes I do need to work for a living.  It’s amazing how humorless American Express and my mortgage bank are about things like paying bills on time.  The two books below are part of the reading challenge.  I selected titles in different genres to humor my taste – which has been described by my family as ‘that weird crap you read’.  Of course, that’s the category reserved for all paranormal, si-fi, fantasy, UF, romance, and erotic romance.  In short, anything but mysteries, thrillers, historical adventure, and non-fiction = crap.  Well, only one of these isn’t dismissed out of hand by the family and that is a mystery that borders on a cozy, so no one would read it but me.  Hence, into the swap it went with a cheery one fingered salute to my beloved, but taste limited, family.

• Title: Eat, Prey, Love
  
• Author:  Kerrylyn Sparks
• Type:  Paranormal romance
• Genre:  Shapeshifter finds human mate
• Sub-genre:  A were-panther that’s part of the vampire household finds a human mate when he needs a panther
• My Grade: C- (3*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full novel about 90,000+ words for $7.99
• Where Available:  book available at any book store
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from online bookseller

Short Reviews: Two New eBook Releases from Samhain

• Title: Bear Necessities
  
• Author:  Dana Marie Bell
• Type:  Erotic paranormal romance
• Genre:  Shifters; expansion of the Halle Pumas series; bear meets mate
• Sub-genre: Bear shifter falls for Outcast wolf when visiting cousin in Halle
• My Grade: B+ (4.3*)
  
• Rating:  NC-17 to X
• Length and price:  Full novel; 80,000+ words for $5.50; some discounts available
• Where Available:  ebook available at Samhain
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from publisher’s website

I followed Ms Bell’s Halle Pumas series and generally liked her books, but with Bear Necessities she kicks it up a notch and writes a well balanced story with humor, suspense, and lots of hot sex.  It helps that I loved Alexander ‘Bunny’ Bunsen, the bear shifter hero and I really liked Tabby, his Outcast wolf mate.

3 Short Reviews: New Release Mystery, Erotic Paranormal, Erotic Romance

It’s a mixed bag this week, so see if anything appeals.

• Title: Tomb With A View
  
• Author:  Casey Daniels
• Type:  Paranormal mystery
• Genre: Amateur sleuth; Pepper Martin series; an obnoxious volunteer dies in the Garfield Memorial
• Sub-genre: President Garfield helps Pepper Martin solve several crimes
• My Grade: B- (3.7*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full novel; 90,000+ words for $7.99; some discounts available
• Where Available:  book available at any book store
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from online bookstore

Several eBook Short Reviews

Is there a worse time of the year than tax time?  Jeeze.  Every year I come away traumatized yet again, even though, as usual, I overpaid my taxes.  Still, the whole process of taking financial stock of a year is scary.  Even more so for those who are self-employed and struggling in the current economy.  Of course it doesn’t help that I am such a messy record keeper.  Now that the worst is over and I can get back to books.

Well Samhain is back with a whole new look and lots of books offered from other publishers as well as their own.  Thanks to the 20% discount they offered, I bought a number of novellas for a more reasonable price.  As for the site itself, well, the jury is still out.  I’m have very mixed feelings about all those ebooks from other customers, mostly overpriced.  Obviously they sell or they wouldn’t be expanding that relationship.  Between Ellora’s Cave offering short novellas from various anthologies for insanely high prices, and now other epubs raising their prices across the board, the short format books stories are disproportionately expensive.  This is readily apparent when looking at price vs. length.  Alas, the novella is rarely well done, so I am rarely satisfied.  There are some exceptions, but mostly, they fail to impress or satisfy.  At worst, they leave all manner or unanswered questions and dangling story threads.  This week was a perfect example of all of these flaws made all the more obvious because I also read two excellent novels, a fantasy epic first book and a really good urban fantasy that kicks off a new series.  I’ll review them separately.

• Title: Wolf Flight
  
• Author:  Vivian Arend
• Type:  Paranormal romance
• Genre:  Werewolf shifters; woman in jeporday; Teenage crush is really mate
• Sub-genre:  She’s running from a corrupt Alpha to hide her Omega gifts; he needs a first mate to become a wolf
• My Grade: C (3.2*)
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price: Novella – about 36,000 words for $3.50 (20% discount for short time)
• Where Available: ebook available on the Samhain site
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from publisher’s site

Book Review: Nice Girls Don’t have Fangs by Molly Harper

• Title: Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs
  
• Author: Molly Harper
• Type:  paranormal Contemporary Romance chick lit
• Genre:  Librarian has day from hell and wakes up undead
• Sub-genre:  Fangs, family, and a hot sire in a small town; Tracy and Hepburn do vampires
• My Grade: C+ to B- (3.5*)
  
• Rating: PG-13
• Length and price: Full Novel – over 80,000 words for $7.99; various discounts available
• Where Available: Where books are sold
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased from online bookstore

I do love finding books with a sense of humor and snappy dialogue.  I also like finding new authors.  With Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs I found both, though there is a strong sense of déjà vu.  The unoriginal trope and all to familiar characters weigh against the book, but that’s offset by the acerbic wit of Jane Jameson, the first person narrator for the book.  On the whole, the lack of originality was made acceptable by a combination of good writing, fast pacing, and plenty of laugh out loud moments.