On Reading More

Since my cataract surgery, I’ve been doing a lot more e-book reading and just reading in general.  The problem I’m finding with e-books, aside the egregious formatting issues, crap editing, awful proofreading, and total lack of spellcheck (Or authors really DON’T know the difference between imminent and eminent or the fact a point is moot, not mute!) is that authors tend to write long novellas or very short books, under 200 pages, that leave characters undeveloped, no time for world building, secondary characters that have great promise become a flash-in-and-out shallow non-entity, and I’m left feeling like that should have been really good, but it ended up little more than a dog’s dinner of a slightly fleshed out outline.  Shallow, empty, unable to engage me completely the whole thing is little better than a piece of cotton candy in print.

Reading more has also shown the weaknesses of many highly acclaimed and/or bestselling authors.  Take Janet Evonavich.  Her most recent bit of fluff, Look Alive Twenty-Five was so bad I ended up skimming it.  Trite, reusing sentences and partial paragraphs in every damn book, predictable plots, everything a series that should have retired gracefully 15 books ago becomes, added the final insult – not one thing was truly funny.  Her fans will consistently overlook all these flaws and rave about Steph, Morelli, Ranger, and Lula – never looking at the downward spiral of the quality of the plots and increasingly absurd ‘set pieces’ designed as humorous skits within the book, but unrelated to the story.  Her fans are rabid, but sales are declining with quality.  Evanovich has made her millions, it doesn’t matter.  The stories can be on life-support and her ardent fans will buy and rave about them.  I get free e-books or I don’t bother.  Look Alive Twenty-Five – which gets a D- (0.8*) from me – wasn’t even in the review listing. Why?  Her fans just don’t care.  As the Bard would say, “There’s the rub.”

There are some real quality authors doing e-books at novel length, but the short attention span of readers seems to push publishers and authors into a short format.  Publishers of print books rarely give new authors a chance to build a following.  The result is astounding mediocrity.  Or as I said to my doctor, “Short and predictable.”  There is no greater condemnation than that.

It also says a lot about readers.  They will settle for a steady diet of bland ‘fast food’ books rather than take the time to find something worth the effort to read and be willing to wait for a well-crafted novel that is fully visualized and researched with three-dimensional nuanced characters and creative world building.  98% of ebooks are the equivalent of a fast food drive-thru window items thrown together by people who know nothing about food, managed by people who care only about time (not taste), owned by a soulless company, and consumed by people indifferent to anything except a quick refueling of their stomach.  The meal is forgettable and tasteless but they can claim they ate something resembling food.

Why this rant?  Well, as I said, I’ve been reading more, sometimes 15 books in a series in 3 days – yeah they’re that short!  You quickly realize that every genre has been infected.  UF, paranormal, and cozy mysteries have a pandemic of lousy books.  Not far behind are books that ‘borrow’ a character or element from a bestselling author and spin empty stories around them.  One of the worst offenders is The Jack Reacher Cases by Dan Ames.  Ghastly is giving them too much credit.  I began reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books before anyone knew who Lee Child was or heard of Jack Reacher.  Jack Reacher, like Robert B. Parker’s Spencer, became an iconic character.  Why Lee Child allowed the use of his character as a plot point is beyond me.  The books are so badly written and plotted (There was a PLOT????) they can’t even be called average.  AVOID THIS SERIES!  Oh yeah, avoid Diane Capri’s The Hunt for Jack Reacher series too.  She still hasn’t found a decent plot or a coherent story.

Seeley James, an action thriller writer of average or slightly above skill, start the Sabel Security series.  I had issues from book one but gave the author time to develop the characters and the over-arching plot.  I tell you, the whole concept was so OTT I struggled from book 1, but Book 5, Death and Secrets had me once again trying to figure out how to throw an ebook against the wall in outraged frustration.  The heroine is the owner of Sabel Security, a business started by her adopted billionaire father and named for her.  Pia Sabel isn’t just a former world-class Olympic soccer champion, she’s natural at security and working out arcane plots.  Yes, she even learns her REAL momma is now the evil VP of the US!  So a soccer champion heiress turned security company president and field operator (with zero experience) not only outwits all these super-villains, she looks great doing it and teaches kids soccer when she can!  BARF!  The books ranged from D to C+ (2-3.2*) and only if you suspend all credibility.  If you can get past Element 42 (good luck with that) it doesn’t get worse till book 4 and 5 and that’s where I gave up.

Now you know I had some good reads too.  Here they are:

Kill for Me (Victor, Bk 8) by Tom Wood gets a solid B+ (4.2*) recommended read from me.  Victor the assassin remains steadfastly in character through the series, adhering only to his own ethics while hunting and being hunted.  A fascinating character, not likable but not repulsive either.  Tom Wood does a fine job keeping his plots tight and interesting.  A recommended series for anyone who enjoys the anti-hero genre.

Fortune Furlough by Jana DeLeon sees Ida Belle, Gertie, and Fortune off on that long talked about vacation in Florida on a fictitious island called Quiet Key – which has a geographical description that seems to move it around but sounds like Sanibel/Captiva mixed with Little Palm Island (wrong location, right rescription) and Longboat Key (same problem).  Other than that, the plot is pretty good and there are enough laughs that you can enjoy the mystery of who killed the conman.  It gets a B- (3.8*) as it’s still not quite up to the early books but is an easy, fun read.

In a Badger Way is Shelly Laurenston’s latest shifter humorous romance and bless that author, she does make me laugh.  We were introduced to the MacKenzie sisters in Hot and Badgered that featured the oldest half-sister Charlie.  This installment features Stevie, the neurotic musical and scientific genius.  Stevie is not one of my favorite characters, but the book is fun and funny and loveable Panda Shen Li who we met way back in Bite Me.  Stevie decides Shen is her boyfriend.  He simply has little say in the matter, even after seeing what she shifts into.  But pandas are among the most easy-going shifters so, in many ways, Shen is Stevie’s best choice and truth be told, he’s not exactly averse to the idea.  Good fun with the usual slam-bang ending.  It gets a solid B (4*) and recommended read from me.

One of the series I gang read is still in progress, the Ascending Mage series by Frank and Rae Lea Hurt.  Book 1, Changeling Justice starts the story of Ember Wright, the younger daughter of two high ranking mages, her father who works with numbers for the Counsel, and her mother, a Class 5 Healer.  As a child, she shows no talents at all.  Come he testing day Ember is ready to declare herself a lost cause, but the man doing the testing is the most respected Investigator alive, called by one and all, The Legend.  While all mage tracks have 6 levels, Investigators have only 3.  And that is what Emmy is, an investigator.  The story starts with her apprenticing with The Legend himself.  They are chasing a culprit in a cemetery when Ember says the name of the person whose gravestone she tripped over – and calls forth his ghost.  Wallace knows she’s far more than a simple investigator and is carefully guarding her secret.  When she reaches Senor status in just 10 years, he sends her to Minot to do the census of Dru – mages and changelings and things go sidewise from the start.  Ember becomes relentless in her pursuit for justice and with her mentor so far off she finds another one in the cemetery and the real plot begins unfolding through Changeling Hunter and Buried Truth.  So far the series is getting B- to B (3.8 to 4.0*) from me and book 4 is on pre-order.  It’s a definite cut above the typical UF fluff.

OK, that it for now and I’ll try and do more series reviews in a month or so and update any here I’m still reading.

Annual e-Book Edition

Well, I may have been lax on posting, but not reading.  I made some finds and also found some lemons.  Most have been average.  I am reading nearly 90% e-books.  In part, this is due to the near-complete annihilation of mass-market paperback a publishers booting authors out the door.  Some authors seem to waver between self-publishing and finding a new print publisher to relieve the burden of self-promotion.  None the less I’ve found some offbeat goodies in large part due to BookBub.

These will be mostly short reviews as I have a lot to get through and I’ll look at series in an overall fashion.  Before I start my rants and raves, allow me to wish you all a belated Happy New Year!

Let’s start with light cozy style humorous mysteries:

Julie Mulhern wrote two books featuring Poppy Fields, Field’s Guide to Abductions and Field’s Guide to Assassins.  Then she stopped writing them, something I find really annoying.  She responded to my comment on BoobBub saying the death of a friend some years ago caused her to stop writing the humorous series but she planned to pick it up again.  If she does, this is a worthwhile series.  If not, skip it and move on.  Characters are good and of the outer edge of plausible, but the plots are decent for the genre.  A good choice for a lighter read.  My grade is B (3.8*) with the conditional recommendation as given above.  NOTE:  The author has finally restarted this series and book 3 is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Next up is Camilla Monk’s Spotless series.  There are 4 books ranging from somewhat interesting while being annoying to WTF??????  Ms Monk was apparently aiming for a kind of Lexi Carmichael style geek girl accidental adventure series and bombed.  Spectacularly.  The 4th book is a MOAB of epic proportions.  Spotless, Beating Ruby, The Crystal Whisperer, and MOAB Butterfly in Amber represent a perfect example of characters that are shallow, badly drawn, and hard to like, plots that are choppy, without logic, and by book 3 just plain annoying and in book 4 it makes you wonder if there is a satisfying way of burning an e-book.  The synopsis is best summed up a ‘STUPID’.  Grades from C-(2.8*) at the start and descending to hell from there, though I am limited to giving Butterfly in Amber an F (0*).  It deserves less.  AVOID THIS SERIES.

Thankfully, my brain did not turn to mush nor my IQ drop to drool level and I was saved by Marianne Delacourt’s Tara Sharp series.  Sharp Shooter, Sharp Turn, Too Sharp, and Sharp Edge so far.  Set in Perth, Australia and featuring Tara Sharp who has been blessed – or cursed – with the ability to see auras, although not always getting her reading of the auras right – proved by her terrible taste in boyfriends and current jobless state.  The dialogue quick and sharp, Tara is real and witty, and the plots are entertaining with enough tension to make them worthwhile.  The secondary characters are well drawn and offbeat.  There are some noticeable editing errors as the series moves on.  A chronic problem e-books that drives me nuts.  Still, they are fun reads but be warned, they are also filled with Aussie slang and have the rhythm of Aussie speech, so if you hate dealing with that, you might not enjoy them as much.  New entries are erratic as the author is mainly a sci-fi writer under another name.  My grades are C+ (3.7*) to B (4*) and they are a recommended read for those who enjoy Jana DeLeon, J. B. Lynn, or Josie Brown.

Speaking of Jana DeLeon, she published two new Miss Fortune books in 2018!  Reel of Fortune and Swamp Spook.  Both are good and everyone seems back in character but some of the tension is gone from the series making a shade less satisfying than most early books and with less snark.  Still, but get a B- (3.8*) and remain recommended reads.

Also back in the saddle, Julie Moffett finally put out a new Lexi Carmichael this year.  It centers around Slash’s past and Vatican politics.  Not her best, but it has some excellent moments and Slash and Lexi remain solid characters even though I found the plot on the lame and sentimental side.  No Stone Unturned left lots of stones unturned, so it gets a C+ to B- rating (3.6*) but is still a recommended read.

Finally, there was a find worth reading K. F. Breen’s DDVN world books featuring bounty hunter Reagan Somerset and vampire elder Darius Durant, the worst investigative team ever.  Written in the first person from Regan’s view, she’s tough, feisty, snarky, and just my kind of female lead.  Darius has his hands full and oddly, for an old vamp, he’s enjoying it.  Born in Fire starts the plot, Raised in Fire takes it up a notch, and Fused in Fire finds Reagan finally getting a grip on her powers.  All are excellent, but book 3 is a bit darker and less humorous.  You have it all, weres, vamps, mages, magic, and demons – and a brief appearance by Lucifer.  The books get solid B to A- (4* to 4.4*) with the first two being my favorites.  The author will be continuing this world using Vlad, the vamp elder, as a lead later this year.

Breen has done several other series, but none I’ve enjoyed as much.  Her current best selling Demi-gods of San Francisco, the 3rd and final book due this month, are pretty good, but they are more romance than UF adventure and the best character is a too-old-for-her-years teen with a sharp mind and smart mouth, not the lead characters.  I give Sin & Chocolate and Sin & Magic get C+ to B- (3.6* to 3.8*) for paranormal romance.  Decent choices for readers of the genre.

I read book one in her Chosen series and was bored stiff, so don’t assume her character traits and style carry over.  I speed read the Chosen series and frankly, there are better things to read that aren’t to damnably predictable.

The Librarian by Phillip Wilson looked right up my alley as a woman turned vengeance seeking killer against crooked cops.  Preposterous is the kindest thing I can say about the plot and characters.  On the plus side, it was fairly short, so the sheer magnitude of stupidity didn’t do permanent brain damage.  My grade is D- (1.8*) with the strong suggestion you just pass this by.

Hell Bent by Gregg Hurwitz is the latest installment of his Orphan X series, though he did release a new book this month.  Book 1 was very good, book 2 was annoying, and Hell Bent took the plot down a whole new road and rescued the series.  Evan Smoak has to fulfill the dying request of his old teacher and save his most recent student.  After the angsty and annoying Nowhere Man, this was back in top high-speed form as Evan tries to rescue and less than trusting teen girl from the kill squad that’s wiping out all traces of the highly illegal government program.  Exciting and well paced and Joey is a surprising plus in the plot.  My grade is B- (3.9*) for action thriller/assassin readers.  (I read the HC from Amazon)

The first 3 books of the Thirteen Realms series by Aussie author Marina Finlayson, Changeling Exile, Changeling Magic, and Changeling Illusion are better than average UF/Pnr Rom.  The story centers around 3 young women each with a tie to the Fae Realms.  The books are fairly well done, though Changeling Illusion seems choppy and not smoothly told, plus too predictable.  As a group, you get C+ to B- (3.3* to 3.7*) and each of the 3 females friends appears they will a trilogy of their story.  Best character, Yriell, the High King’s sister who lives outside the Realm disguised as a cranky old healer.  Her I loved.

Marriage Vow Murder is Book 9 in the Merry Wrath series by Leslie Lantry.  This has been an erratic series and the books, though short, somehow manage to screw up timelines and facts from previous books and leaves things just dangling.  Wrath is finally getting her big day, but the groom is missing.  Of all people, Merry goes to her sharp as a tack 4th-grade teacher and puzzle fanatic to get help with the clues to find Rex and maybe the solution to a hidden treasure.  If you can suspend all credibility, it’s kind of OK.  Best I can muster is a C+ (3.5*) well below the Amazon ratings.  Langtry scrambles her facts and timelines in every series.  She desperately needs a continuity editor.

And I close with a fairly reliable author, Jenn Stark with her latest The Lost Queen.  The second of 3 stand alones that tie with her Immortals of Las Vegas as Sara Wilde takes over as Justice for the Council.  Niki is still with her and the Magician is as remote and enigmatic as ever, though he seems to go full masochist here.  The Lost Queen is a very powerful witch but the real story becomes about the witch Danae and a spirit Myanya who seeks to inhabit the most powerful witch alive.  I’ll give this a B- (3.7*) and it’s a must read for fans of Immortal Las Vegas.

 

 

 

Another Round of Erratic Reads

Swear to heavens, authors need a kick in their collective butts.  I hate when a book is so boring it could be a sleeping pill.  The other thing I hate is plots so predictable I can tell what will happen after 10-20 pages.  It’s like most authors have gone BLAH and taken the easy road.

John Grisham wrote two excellent books – The Client and The Pelican Brief.  He’s lived off his reputation since.  There are a lot of writers like that.  Series writers get stuck in a character rut so deep there’s no way out.  The list is endless.  Smart authors limit their series to 3-5 books.  After that, the characters often go stale.

I started this entry back in early March, but colds and allergies and the weather got to me, and I was in a BAD MOOD for weeks.  I’ve also been dealing with dry eye and discovering some drops cause bad reactions for me, and the carpal tunnel in my right wrist is still there, some days really bad.  The problem with my eyes made reading ebooks hard, so I read a few DTB.  We’ll start a few that are a waste of time and move on from there.

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Having problems with insomnia?  Need a sleeping pill?  Don’t turn to drugs, try reading Camino Island by John Grisham.  I won it in a book swap game in hardcover, so it was easy on my eyes.  Generally, I give a book 30-50 pages before giving up.  I gave Camino Island over 100 pages before literally tossing it across the room.  OMG.  Tedious, boring, yawn-inducing, and uninteresting.  I can’t even remember a character.  I’m pre-disposed to like books set in Florida, but even that couldn’t save this dull mess.

Camino Island is supposed to be a ‘caper’ book, fun and fast-paced.  I’ve always loved caper books since way back in the days Ross Thomas and Donald Westlake had a blast with this genre.  The key to all good caper books is characters, snappy dialogue, misdirection, and very fast pacing.  All of these elements were absent in Camino Island.  If you have to force yourself to read 100 pages, it is NOT a good caper novel, it’s junk.

No grade, just a DNF and a piece of advice to avoid it – unless you need to take a nap.  Ross Thomas is mostly out of print as are most of Westlake’s, but The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie is a good example of ‘caper’ style book as are the first 3 in the Kipp series by John Sanford (originally published under his real name, John Camp.)

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Phillipa Bornikova wrote 2 really good Linnet Ellery books.  I waited over 2 years for Publish and Perish.  She didn’t jump the shark, she a double gainer with a twist over the Statue of Liberty.  The long build up to saving Linny’s lover John from Fae was not a dramatic climatic event.  It was as exciting as mopping the floor and happened so fast you got whiplash.  Oh, thanks to the shard in his eye the evil queen won’t remove, John still has no emotions.  Basically, he’s walking emotionally dead person.  It kept right on jumping double fips and reverse twists as it lept from one thing to another until the ‘big reveal.’  There are no words to fully describe how ludicrous it was.  I couldn’t believe she got it past a sane editor without a complete re-write.

Her ‘big reveal’?  Black Masons.  No, I’m not making that up.  Apparently, the author felt the need to drag National Treasure plotlines in and create White Masons (good guys) and Black Masons (NOT good guys) and dear old dad – is guess what?  Very touching.

The entire book was little more than a string of scenes of loosely held together by frayed bits and pieces to a flat-out stupid ending.  Shame on the editor for letting this garbage go to print.  Reading it risks permanent brain damage.  Worse, I paid for the blasted thing from an online bookseller.

My rating is a rare F (0*).  This is a HUGE disappointment and total waste of time and money.

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The most recent entry in the Elemental Assassin series did what too many publishers have done, changed a series from mass market paperback to trade size.  I bought the ebook on sale.  Venom in the Veins is a solid entry but a bit shorter than her other books.

Gin Blanco, AKA Spider the best assassin in Ashland, it trying to find out about ‘the Circle’ that ordered her mother killed.  And as the leader on Ashland’s Underworld, something she doesn’t want but is kind of stuck with, she’s always alert to other assassins trying to move up in the world and take her place.  But first, she and her foster brother Finn have to have dinner with Finn’s boss, a dwarf, at the swankiest place in town.  At least she doesn’t have to cook – but she’s wearing black just in case Spider has to come out and play.

Dinner was great, but Finn’s boss is attacked and we’re off piecing past and present together as Mab Malone’s belongings get auctioned off and the daughter of a female vampire/cannibal Gin killed as a teen still under Fletcher’s tutelage comes for her.  Interesting twist at the end.

Venom in the Veins gets a B- (3.8) as it’s pacing and twists were predictable since Estep never changes her formula in her plots.  Recommended series.

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Book 3 in the Orphan X series finds the man now called Evan Smoak AKA Nowhere Man, looking for the last protege of the man who trained him and acted as his surrogate father, Jack Johns.  Hell Bent pits Evan against an old nemesis, another Orphan who can’t forgive Evan for being chosen first and being better, Van Scriver.

Like the first two books, the pacing is fast and furious as the race is on to the find the last Orphan – Evan to save them, Van to kill them and Evan so the whole program can be closed down before it’s it’s found out.  But 16-year-old Joey isn’t an ordinary Orphan, Joey is a girl.  Evan gets there first, but she’s not trusting and Sciver is hot on their heels.

The action is relentless and Joey is well trained, but not trusting.  The uneasy alliance is based mostly on Jack’s Rules and slow bond of trust that builds while running from the well equipped and financed Sciver.

Greg Hurwitz can be uneven in his books, but he nails it here.  The reader is pulled headlong into the story and the 400+ pages just flew by.  The ending had an amazing and unexpected turn.  I bought this online in hardcover.

Hell Bent gets a solid B to B+ (4.2*) for an action thriller.  Smoak and Joey are well-developed characters, Van Sciver less so, but enough to give him depth, the shady secret group remained shady and secret, except Evan knows at the end where it came from.  Book 4 will be a must-read.

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Wilde Fire, Book 10 in the Immortal Las Vegas series is the final book in the story arc about the Arcane Council, Sara Wilde, and the war to keep the old gods out of this world.  Jenn Stark has slowly built a complex world of magic based on the Tarot and centered around Sara Wilde who starts as a relic hunter with a touch of magic and evolves into a powerful magic user and one of the Major Arcana.

In book ten, the Veil is finally torn and the battle rages and Sara is the lynchpin.  Her ally is surprising, so is her biggest enemy.  The denouement was great and has led to a spin-off series about former demons who are the only ones that can hunt and demons that end up on the Earthside on the veil.  (I started the first but wasn’t thrilled.)  Dixie and other characters get involved and the war brings the Connected out of the shadows all over the world.

I give Wilde Fire B- (3.9*) and strongly recommend reading the series in order and the overarching plot evolves in each book and it’s the only way the plot makes sense,

 

Where does the time go?

I’ve had a busy couple of months and I’m amazed at how the days slip away when retirement should be a long, boring nothing. Sometimes I wonder how I managed when my days were 12 hours long.  I’m starting this on Veteran’s Day so thanks a vet everyday!

 

And now Thanksgiving is over and you hardy shoppers are out bargain hunting while I hide at home.  I leave the weekend to folks with strollers, screaming kids, and bored husbands.  My days of massive gift buying are gone and I’m entering the, “I need to get rid of this crap!” stage.

I’m also entering the carpal tunnel years and ‘dry eyes’ years.  Annoying combination when using a computer.  Not to mention reading – ebooks and print.  SIGH.  One perseveres against such things and goes right on reading – brace on wrist and drops for eyes!  Typing is a bit more problematic, hence the delay.

Oh, if you didn’t get the memo – I HATE WINTER!  It hasn’t been cold, but here it is 5 PM and IT’S FREAKING DARK OUT!  I keep telling myself, “It’s not that late!”  It still feels like nights are forever!  (Days after I wrote that we got snow and single digit nighttime temps and days in the 20’s.  I should shut-up about nice weather.  I scare it so badly, it runs away.)

Well, I’m on my third wrist brace.  Here’s hoping it helps.  So, some quick reviews of the books I’ve been reading.

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White Knights by Julie Moffett – first book in a young adult series that spins off of her Lexi Carmichael books.  The same general premise with girl nerd set in the high school where Lexi went undercover and includes some of the characters from No Test for the Wicket.  Not bad, Lexi and Slash show up.  Angel Sinclair is the younger sister of Gwen who was a character in No Living Soul.  Sort of a watered down Lexi and a decent read for 14 and up.  (C+ to B- 3.6*) E-book and expensive paperback.  Stay e-book.

Everlasting, Maine

This is part of the Amazon version of the old Thieves World concept.  Create a place and characters and let different authors write books set there, each a basic stand-alone where previous characters may show up for cameo roles.  Rather than fantasy, these are light paranormal cozies by a number of well-known names.  All are e-book or expensive paperback.  Not worth the print price.

Dead Man Talking is book 1 by Jana DeLeon about a haunted lighthouse and lost treasure that someone is hunting for – and her aunt got injured in the process of stopping the thief.  Light roman and quick read.  Easy to figure out.  C+ to B- 3.7*

Witchful Thinking by Kristan Painter who has turned her own Nocturn Falls into an Amazon ‘Land’ book using the same multi-author technique.  In Witchful Thinking, book 4 in the series and may or may not be the last, the lead is by far and away the best.  Charlotte Fenchurch has found a grimoire, not just any grimoire, but one that can be opened and read by just one witch and it chooses that witch at the Everlasting library.  Charlotte saved when the head librarian tosses it out as just an old book, but in Charlotte’s hand’s it’s not.

Walker Black is a  leopard shifter that works for the Fraternal Order of Light – it’s always guys, right?  He attracted to Charlotte, not just because he thinks she has the book, but because she’s his mate.  Charlotte doesn’t know it, but a lot of people want her and that book.  A good plot, solid pacing moved along both the romance and mystery, and some of the better characters.  A solid B (4.1*) from me.

Fooled Around and Spelled in Love is actually book 3 but who cares.  Author Michelle M Pillow is far better known for her erotic romance, but is moving into other genres as the ebook houses publishing Romantica (lady porn) keep closing down.  Here she keeps it PG and fairly good, but a bit OTT with Aunt Polly and a magic camera.  About an average cozy read, nothing special.  A baker who is a great photographer and a bespelled camera and former citizen of Everlasting turned writer who can’t wait to leave till he meets Anna.   C+ (3.4*) though Amazon gives it a higher rating.

I haven’t read the final book, but I’ll let you know.  Another converted Romantica writer, Mandy M Roth is the author.

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No Regrets, the latest Lexi Carmichael installment lacked a lot of things – and many are regrettable.  It was almost painfully obvious in its plot, not very much fun, flat ending with the bad guys – especially The Father, who never was a developed character – and a few stray moments of classic Lexi humor to semi-redeem this otherwise blah book.  It starts with Xavier and Basia’s wedding (big miss in a chance for fun, pelican notwithstanding) and immediately moves to an improbable case for Andy, the COO of ComQuest, the company Xavier and Elvis Zimmerman work for.  Suffice it to say, in retrieving ComQuest’s newest invention – a sort of Trekkie tricorder that diagnoses diseases – Lexi lands at the same resort where Basia and Xavier are sharing their super, secret honeymoon.  (Somehow Lexi wrestles a crocodile on the ferry from St Thomas to Tortola.  Only problem, there are no crocs on St Thomas OR Tortola.  One does wonder where it came from.)  After only one lesson Lexi also successfully uses Krav Maga.   Sigh.

In creating White Knights for young adults, Ms Moffett seems to have given short shrift to this book and slapped No Regrets together using bits and pieces of others stories and tried to loosely, and ineffectively, link them in some coherent fashion.  It didn’t work.  My grade is C- (2.7*).  Forgettable and missable, but I suppose there are worse ways to spend a few hours.  E-book only.  I read an ARC.  It will be released later this month.

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Virgil Flowers, AKA ‘The Damn Flowers’, has a Minnesota winter mystery on his hands.  Two if you count the creatively altered x-rated Ken and Barbie dolls that seem to be coming from the same town of Trippton.  Trying to get answers on the dolls is tougher than getting answers on the murder – a woman frozen in a block of ice – hence Deep Freeze.  Of course, getting the crap beaten out of him by 4 women and ending up with what looks like a squid on his face to keep his broken nose in place does not improve his mood.  There’s some BDSM lite here and as usual, Sanford carries the plot with fair humor and wit.  Not as dark as his last few and interesting as he usually has Virgil chasing two things at once, and this is no exception.  Clever ending.

Deep Freeze gets a B- (3.8*) for traditional mystery fans.  HC only at this point so get it from the library or buy cheap used.  Got the book through a game on Paperback Swap.

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The first book of a new series by a writer not known to me is a chancy thing.  Still, it was a book exchange game and this looked interesting.  I was right.  The Drifter by Nick Petrie didn’t have the ‘blow you away’ impact of The Killing Floor by Lee Child, or it’s complexity, still, it had a lot in common.

Peter Ash is an Iraq and Afgan war vet who developed an odd version of PTSD – being in enclosed spaces causes him to hear a kind of ‘white static’ and get louder and louder till he gets a violent urge to get out.  The plot revolves around one of the men under his command who died by a purported suicide.  Ash comes down off his mountaintop and goes to investigate.

There’s some action but too much focus on his ‘white noise’ issue – to the point where it was annoying and at times distracted from the plot at just the wrong time.  Reacher is a force of nature and a trained investigator.  Ash is curious by nature, but not the kind of expert that Reacher is, though the author imbues him with certain ‘intuitive’ gifts.

The writing was good, the plot got a bit silly there at the end, but it was a decent, if derivative, read.  I give The Drifter a C+ (3.6*) and something that fans of Reacher might enjoy or be annoyed by.  I’ll likely try book two, but if the ‘white noise’ distraction remains disruptive, I’m done.

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From a Jack Reacher wannabe to the real thing, The Midnight Line was unexpected and kind of timely and Lee Child’s best book in a while.  Like most Reacher books, it starts off with him wandering a small town while waiting for his next way out – preferably somewhere warm, a LOT warmer than Wisconsin.  But seeing a West Point graduation ring, one that HAD to be earned by a woman given its size, in the window of a pawn shop, sets the plot in motion.  This is Reacher – the real thing – and the pawn shop owner tells him how the stuff in his shop REALLY gets there.  That sends Reacher not south to where it warm – but across the Great Plains determined to return the ring – and smelling a crime behind the whole thing.

But the pawnbroker made a call, and some guys are waiting for ‘Bigfoot’ in the tiny town.  Everyone makes mistakes and Reachers gets his next clue and the little rat who set him up gets killed by his boss.  So Reacher gets colder as he heads to Wyoming where he finds the ring’s owner living in a tent with some other ex-soldiers who the VA have kicked from the system despite obvious physical and mental issues, including severe chronic pain and mental issues.  This is Reacher.  He helps them ………… well I’ll let you find out.

Better than many of his recent books.  I could have done without the sex bit.  The Midnight Line get a B- (3.7*) from me.  Not his best, but the best of his most recent books.

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Janet Evonavich keeps this tired series limping along in Hardcore Twenty-Four.  Steph is still wrecking cars, sleeping with 2 men and eating at mom’s.  There’s also a giant boa constrictor named Ethel on the loose, raccoons raiding a broken down trailer, a naked bail jumper (no Vaseline this time), and sexy Morelli and Ranger.  And there’s always Lula.  And just for laughs, the enigmatic Deisel shows up and starts sleeping in her place.

Now you’d think with all this going on it would be fun, if not blessed by a coherent plot.  Laughs were few and forced.  The plot hectic and often in WTF territory.  Whole scenes are reruns from earlier books.  The Zombies are new.  Not real – but when your plot centers around a grave robber and stolen brains and a missing insane scientist who usually works for some secret government agency, well, let’s just say the plot needed work.  A LOT of work.  Starting with throwing it out and doing some more believable.

If you think you’d like X Files Meets Lucy and Ethyl, give it a try.  But please DO NOT BUY THIS JUNK.  Get it from the library.  Mine was loaned in ebook from a friend.  Free is good.  Hardcore Twenty-Four gets a D+ (2.4*) and a suggestion it’s for the desperate only.

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Book 2 in the Posie Parker series, The Tomb of the Honeybee by L.B. Hathaway is set in 1920’s London, an historical mystery in the Golden Age of mystery, was a decent read – except I knew who did it.  Still, the characters were good and the plot interesting with unexpected trips to France and Egypt thrown in.

It all starts when a distraught and somewhat disheveled Lady Violet Boyton-Dale arrives at her office asking her to take a case pro bono to find her famous adventurer brother Alaric Boyton-Dale.  She pleads with the reluctant Posie to come out to the manor for the weekend.  Nothing about the weekend feels right to Posie and soon she off to the South of France where her erstwhile boyfriend and business partner is supposedly staying with dear old dad while he recuperates from serious health problems.  She’s shocked to find him married to his ex-girlfriend to whom he lied about the large reward Posie got on her first case.  Posie proves tough and resilient and realizes she was lucky to have lost a chronic liar in Len, but frankly, it was all kind of – “Is it me, or does this whole thing seem odd to you?”.

Her search for Alaric is well done and finding him ends up putting them both at risk – and is a bit OTT.  As I said, I knew who did it but getting the confession is fascinating.

The Tomb of the Honeybee is a good read despite some holes in the plot and I give it a C+ to B-  (3.6*) rating.  Read in e-book and that’s what I would suggest.  Print is overpriced.

 Happy Holidays!

 

Paperback Swap (PBS)

With some trepidation and a feeling that the site was withering on the vine, I returned to PBS.  I played in some swap games and argued with folks on the political affairs forum – and then a very strange thing happened.

PBS showed the site was not secure.  They corrected the login page and swear the kiosk where they sell junk is safe but ………………… well, nothing else is.  Now being somewhat security conscious while keeping in mind there isn’t much there that’s correct, I pressed them a bit and was contacted by a woman in the IT department and assured the site with our names and addresses and all manner of private info being exchanged by what PBS calls, incorrectly, ‘Private Messaging’ was getting converted to a secure site.  I began making deletions and changes.  I also posted two threads, one on the political forum and on on the general chat forum warning folks about the security issues.  PBS naturally came in and “Oh dear, it was just us forgetting to pay the fee for the security for an hour or so.  All is well.”  When I pointed out all but the Login was unsecured, they came back with ‘how hard it was to changes everything to https format’.

Now, remember, most of us are PAID members.  I’m not on a ‘free’ site anymore and haven’t been for 3 years.  And in 3 years they haven’t managed to secure the site.  I was not impressed.

BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!

A stranger wanders into tiny little Current Affairs and Politics (CAAP) forum and starts a thread.  The thread title “THOU  SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS”.  No, that is not a joke.  Some complete twit actually had the unmitigated temerity to use a Biblical quote, and not just any old quote, one of the Ten Commandments.  Apparently, the poster, Len, uses a rather modern bible as the quote is normally “Thou SHALT not bear false witness….”  Now I am an agnostic and knew both those things, and also knew the commandment had to do with perjury more than general falsehoods although they too are covered.  But he posted a somewhat questionable graph and article about the number lies Trump has told vs Obama.  Now these ‘lies’ are not weighted in any way, a deliberate oft-repeated whopper like ‘If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!’ vs cheating on your golf score or lying about your weight both equaled 1.

It also did not count how many time the answer was evaded, side-stepped, responded to with a non-sequitur, or simply ignored.  Obama was a master at those things.  Trump’s mouth is in gear before he thinks.   Never give a straight answer when and equivocation will do.  Chris Wray, Director of the FBI, did that by constantly saying, “We’ll wait for the Inspector General’s report,” to question from Committee members.  (I’m not counting on living that many years.)

So there’s a bit of back and forth – and I even eschewed remarking on this thread title and then I thought, “What the hell is a PBS Team Member who has extensive access with the powers that be doing on a political forum?  This doesn’t seem right.  It’s like a judge dating one of the lawyers trying a case in his court.”  hummmmm  So I am extremely uncomfortable.  All the forum members have different jobs and experiences and a wide variety of expertise and life experience, but there we are all equal.  A PBS Team Member is an insider with access none of us have to both personal information and people in power.  This bothers me.  If he wishes to engage in political debate, he should go to a site where he too is naught but an equal.  There are thousands to choose from.

Thinking about this more bothered me enough to send an email to Richard Pickering, the nominal owner of PBS.  I get a reply from the ever-anonymous, and super secret, and feared employee, The Librarian.  All these years and no one has ever ‘come out’ and admitted to being The Librarian.  Speculation is rampant.  Perhaps they get taken by a demon if caught out and new Librarian appointed.  Now one does not bandy words with The Librarian.  Well, except me.

After politely expressing my concerns to Mr Pickering, who ignored me, his loyal minion wrote:

Dear xxxxx,

The Team is usually far too busy to participate in Forums; we have no policy against it, though.

Len is our head programmer. He is an integral part of the Team, and we know him to be invariably gracious, patient, genial, kind, well-informed, and very highly intelligent. Without reading any of his recent posts, we strongly believe that if he has chosen to participate in the Discussion Forums, those who encounter his posts should consider themselves fortunate to have his contribution to the discussion.

As long as Len is being courteous, we don’t know why it would make you uncomfortable to have him participate in Forums. He is not your “boss” — he does not actually close accounts or reprimand members (although he *could* do those kinds of things, he is far too busy keeping the site running, and overseeing members is not his responsibility). Also, if you are doing something in Forums that you fear will get you “in trouble”, you should not be doing it! 🙂

It’s also wise to bear in mind that any member of the Team, or any member of the club, can “lurk” in any Forum at any time (meaning, read without posting), so you should not consider any communications there to be privileged or private. You should not be sharing anything in Discussion Forums that you aren’t comfortable with anyone (Team member or not) reading.

Luckily, there is an easy solution if you don’t like Len’s posts: you can click “Ignore this member” on one of them, and you will not see them anymore. It would be a shame in our opinion — you would be passing up an opportunity to learn something — but that is your choice! Also, if it makes you uncomfortable to have one of the Team participate in a particular discussion, you can always recuse yourself from that particular topic and let a few days pass; chances are good that Len won’t have the leisure time again for a good while, and there are plenty of other discussion topics in which to participate.

Of course, if you feel that Len has been discourteous or abusive, please specify the text to which you object and give us a link, and we’ll look into it!

All the best,

The PaperBackSwap Team

 

So, without checking anything, Len is praised as the font of wisdom that we poor, pitiful, uneducated, benighted, souls should look to for enlightenment.  And as an encore, he’ll walk on water and do the loaves and fishes!!!!!!!!  I don’t know about you but I sure as hell wasn’t feeling all that ‘fortunate’ about arguing with the HEAD PROGRAMMER of a site that has personal information on me!  Now anyone with an ounce of sense would stop there, but, well, I was REALLY pissed at the patronizing, condescending tone that twit took with me.  So naturally I replied:

 

By the way, as Head Programmer, you just admitted he has at his disposal all the skills and equipment to destroy my life.  Yeah, I want him on a political form.  Lurk all you like.  You run an unsecured site, so if I’m supposed to be impressed by his dedication, you’re crazy.

 

OK, there go both my Queen of Tact and Miss Congeniality Awards for 2017.  I might even get booted for a more …….. er, pointed post in the thread.  Yes, I did mention the bit about loves, fishes, and walk on water thing.  I also might have said something about The Librarian either being his mother or in love with him.

 

I don’t know which is worse, the moron from PBS who thinks Len walks on water and does the loaves and fishes routine, believes everyone here is so stupid and uneducated we need his brilliance and insight to manage our pitiful, ignorant, depressing, uneducated lives, plus we mustn’t be naughty because almighty PBS might be watching!  I assume The Librarian is Len’s mother or is madly in love with him.  She also thinks PBS customers need to be spoken to like dimwitted 5 year olds.  She obviously missed her calling as the Commandant of a daycare stalag.  I do so love being patronized and condescended to.  Malice drenched in sugar.

 

That post might just put me in the running for the Sarcastic Bitch Award.

I sent The Librarian’s response to Pickering with the following:

 

Are these people related?  Married?  Or does she just worship Len from afar?

I would be passing up an opportunity to learn something????  ARE YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS DEMEANING TO YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS????   That twit called me ‘stupid’ about 4 times – albeit in the most patronizing and condescending manner possible.  You and she know nothing of my accomplishments or education.  You know nothing about me.  

But I will say this, if you want to backhand insult your own customers, you managed nicely.  Too bad your Librarian didn’t think that perhaps the golden boy Len might learn something from others.  Obviously, he knows it all.

That sandbox crack about getting myself ‘in trouble’ is so infantile I’m between speechless and wanting to dope slap the jerk who wrote it.

No wonder PBS is in a death spiral.  I’ll help give it a good kick on my blog.

 

Well, I’ve kept my word.  Here is the blog post about the idiots that run PBS.  My advice – RUN AWAY!

And Even More Binge – Short Reviews

My apologies for not posting.  I’ve been suffering fatigue and just kind of digging out of it slowly.  Yes, I’m still reading, actually more ebooks than print lately.  Why?  Well, publishers have consolidated, ruthlessly cut authors and series, no longer give a series a chance to develop a following and delay publication dates 18 months or more except on big name bestsellers.  On top of all that, they raised prices and reduced quality of everything from the paper itself, to the crappy proofreading and editing.  No wonder authors have turned to self-publishing.  Earlier this year, cozy mystery writers had contracts canceled and whole series dropped.  Now si-fi, fantasy, paranormal, and dystopian are getting the same treatment.  Action, espionage, military thrillers and many mysteries, from humorous to noir have gone ebook.

Looking at my Amazon purchases, I found I ordered more non-book merchandise than books.  Five years ago, the first Tuesday of the month meant UPS had sacks on boxes at my door.  Now a get maybe 2 books a month, 4 in the high release months.  Having moved from quality packaging, Amazon now also save money using padded envelopes, except the books often arrive with creased covers and scuffing thanks to Amazon and the PO abuse.  When I spend $20+ on a book, is it too much to ask for a dust jacket that’s NOT TORN?  A trade paperback with a bent, creased cover?  Can the damn publishers not use recycled tissues for paper so thin I can see the print on the back of the page and despite great care, the fragile paper rips just turning a page?  Better still, can they find printers who don’t leave blotches of link like mini-Rorschach tests all over the pages – often causing those frail thin pages to glue themselves to each other?

God knows ebooks are the prototype of bad proofreading – not to mention authors who seem unable to exercise even minimal self-discipline in CONTINUITY ERRORS – but they aren’t $20, either.  I get a lot of them through Book Bub on sale for $0.99 to $2.99 and a lot of free books.

The big downside of ebooks is the fact most authors choose a short novel length.  That might be what ebook readers prefer, but it often leaves the characters and plot wanting.  Certainly, Golden Age mysteries were largely short novel length, with Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time being one of the finest mysteries ever written and one of the shortest.  Christie’s books were all shorter novels, especially her best early works.  Same for Hammett and even Chandler.  But today’s writers are simply not in that class – or even close.  Today’s writers lack the skills of compacting paragraphs of atmosphere into a single sentence.  “It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in,” from Chandler’s The Big Sleep tells you more that paragraphs about the setting and the atmosphere in a modern book.

But bemoaning the loss of mystery’s Golden Age is a bit pointless.  Today’s books reflect the taste of modern readers and the fact they want easy, entertaining diversion – and apparently a limited vocabulary.  Not many authors can command a wide audience other than a handful of big names that run more on the reputation for their past works than their often mediocre, formulaic current novels.  Still, even ebooks have good, bad, and indifferent authors, so let’s see what we have for July/Aug mysteries.

PS:  No, I have not lost my fondness for UF and paranormal, but most paranormal now seems to fall into mystery or romance genres.  Pickings are lean there too.  Some authors have nothing new out – due to the whole publisher issue or the fact they’ve just hit a dry spell I can’t say.  I do have a few for the next print book reviews group.

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The newest entry in the Merry Wrath series is decent but choppy and frankly, not that credible, but still a fun read.  Mud Run Murder is decent as an ebook, but try and borrow it unless you’re a hardcore fan.  SHORT book.  C+ to B- (3.7*)

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The Never Say Spy series books 1 to 10 that I binge read:

OK, this series is set in Canada and involves a cross between a spy series, near future virtual reality, and a book keeper who is mistaken for a deep cover spy.  It has humor, heart, twists, turns, excitement, and some interesting takes on the James Bondish style send-up mixed with serious stuff.  Each book, while part of an overarching story, is complete unto itself.  Aydan Kelly, the woman who insists she’s a book keeper (which she is) is a terrific lead character, but would be more believable as someone 10 years younger.  Book one, Never Say Spy, is free and ebook.  Give it a try.  I enjoyed the series a lot.  The books ranged from C+ to B (3.6* to 4*)

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The House of Spies, the 17th book in the Gabriel Allon series, was the usual 500+ page tome by Daniel Silva.  What it wasn’t was great.  In fact, it barely made good.  With a cast of ever character you can think of – and some extras, an episodic style, and no really solid lead, it limped along in Mediocreville.  Completely miss-able.  Get from the FOL sale or borrow it.  Read the HC version – it was cheaper than the ebook.  C- (2.8*)  Not impressed by a usually reliable author.  Retire Gabriel, please.

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How a really good series can cause an author to rush out a book before it’s time.  Call of the Wilde is a very short book.  Yes, it’s action packed because the author doesn’t take the time flesh out any of the many individual elements and it all becomes messy in the headlong rush to the big finale in London.  Let’s do, not think.  Never a good plan.  Loose ends all over.  The rush had predictable bad consequences.  Not as well done as the earlier books.  Unpolished and fragmented.  My score is a C (3*).  Had Ms Stark taken the time to just breath deeply and THINK, it would have been light-years better – and 50-75 pages longer.

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An interesting concept, a former Episcopal priest turned war vet turned professional poker player/trouble shooter.  The Preacher was a book I wanted to like.  It had all the anti-hero elements.  It was dull, predictable, occasionally tedious, and just blah.  The Preacher gets called into some dusty torn in New Mexico by and old seminary friend to find out what’s wrong.  How he does this playing poker only works because the poker players are what’s wrong.  As sere and dusty as eastern New Mexico.  I was frustrated at wasting my time on this.  My score C- (2.8*) and give it a miss.

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OK, a favorite author – G.A. Aiken/Shelly Laurenston and a favorite series, the Dragon Kin.  Bring the Heat was a sure bet – sort of.  Now Branwen the Awful is a great character and so to is Aiden the Divine, what didn’t work do well is the choppy plot.  You’ve got Annwyl the Bloody in Hell, the dragons wiping out the followers of the blind god,  and Brannie and Aiden escorting Keita to poison another dragon queen because he son was kidnapped and murdered while under the Dragon Queen’s care.  Anyhoo …… the scene switching is not unusual, but the story isn’t smooth or as interesting, which is a shame as Brannie is one of my favorite characters.  My score is C+ (3.3*)

 

On Leaving PBS

After nearly a year of long of difficult self-debate, I finally decided to drop membership in PBS (PaperBack Swap).  This past year I found my myself more absent than there thanks to the eye surgeries, at the same time others things began happening.  I left the games early letting players know I’d be back after I could see with both eyes again.  It took almost 3 months.  But over those 3 months, I’d stop in a do a short hello or something ……… and found fewer and fewer games.

Life is taking a toll on the older members as they cope with personal and family illness.  Many leave for the ease of ebooks and the fact getting to the post office, especially in winter can be tough on the elderly.  The ranks of hostesses have thinned a lot, so there are fewer games.  So I went back and looked at my game log.  I’d played in well over 1,000 games.   I had been blaming my blurred sight on the slowdown before the surgery, but no such problem existed after Jan this year.  Aside from a brief explosion of fun games in March, I was playing in maybe one or two kind of boring games at a time.  Five years ago I averaged 10-15 games.  Two years ago 4-6 games.  Now it was 0-3.

I loved spinning my stories of my groundhogs and their insanity that were just fun and entertaining episodes.  I liked the players – with one exception – but rarely ‘won’ a book I wanted, sending the books to family or other gamers who did want one of the books I won with my compliments.  My membership was expiring in August, but with games taking longer to complete despite fewer players, I looked at the cycle time and realized I had to stop playing with the game I was in.  I no longer had time for another.

At the end of the game, I announced my departure.  I received multiple offers of free membership, but at $20 a year, the cost was not what was driving my decision, the lack of books was.  PBS book listings fell from 4 million+ to under 2 million in 2 years.  Many of my friends and PBS members had gone digital.  There was a drought of books that were new releases, my wish list was getting no offers, even mass-market paperbacks were scarce.  Finally, there was the mass cancellation of series and author contracts by publishers as they ruthlessly downsized.  The market for printed books was getting smaller and hardcovers insanely expensive.  I’d troll through Amazon listings and come away empty handed.  The games had few new book titles and even fewer authors.  I found myself reading more and more ebooks as they were cheap, good, and simply not in print at any reasonable price.  In short, I’d hit the perfect storm.  In the end, to stop the angst among game players, and my second guessing myself, and I simply closed my account a left a short “Goodbye”.

Authors had discovered that daunting as self-publishing is, they are no longer at the mercy of layers of people from agents to editors to printing schedules and distributors.  They could cut out all that overhead, write a good book and make more money per book than they did using traditional publishers.  They have to shoulder more of the promotional aspects, find editors, proofreaders, and copy editors, but all those people were laid off by publishing houses and now working freelance themselves.  I know one of my good friends will be leaving when her paid membership expires in December and she was a hostess.  She wisely transferred her virtual box to another hostess a few months back.  She will simply fade away as she has been doing and others did before her.  I didn’t have that option as my characters had become such ‘real’ personalities and were wanted in the games as much for their stories as for the fact I was one of the few with new release books.  It was just more drama than I expected.

I check on them as I had to open an account for my SIL and I’m slowly teaching her the basics of listing, the whole acceptance and order processing procedure, making lists, and looking for books.  So I can ‘ghost’ the site and make sure all is well.  Unfortunately, Games is just getting quieter and quieter with fewer and fewer players and fewer hostesses.  Summer is always slump-time, but so many of our players are MIA and more seem to just slip away.  PBS is dying slowly, but games, which attracted 70+ players 5 years ago, now can’t get 20.  Life has changed that much.

I have not gone happily or willingly into ebooks.  I swear there are claw marks on the door as I cling to print books, my preferred format.  But just looking at my Amazon account I realized so much of what I buy there, and I but a lot of different things, have nothing to do with books.  Of the books I buy, maybe 60-70% are hardcover.  The rest is a mix of mostly trade paperbacks and a small handful on mmpb’s.  But overall the number has diminished to a trickle while ebooks have surged thanks to promotions by authors, sales at Amazon, and Book Bub, and new release special pricing when you’re on an author’s mailing list.

So now I am free of PBS – with mixed feelings as I really miss the game players and telling my stories.  But – it was time.  Where will my 1,000+ books go?  Those I don’t keep – and I already have hundreds of ‘keepers’ – ok over 1,000 – so making the cut to ‘keeper’ status is hard, will go to FOL sales and the food pantry.  The action thrillers to my brother and his wife can take care of their new account, so in a way, I will still be feeding PBS books.  My SIL has zero interest in games and hates looking at LCD screens for long, so she’ll just exchange books and that’s it.

So the blog will go on with more ebooks showing up and fewer print.  I read as much or more than ever, it’s just different.

Another On Again, Off Again Binge

Hard though it may be to believe, there are times when books simply don’t appeal and I revert back to old favorites.   A bad cold started a round of sulking (I’m could compete in the sulking Olympics, but not the Drama Queen portion) followed by a burst of reading.  So much reading I haven’t had time to blog.  (OK and playing games on PBS.)  I apologize.

Binge reading has its pluses and minuses.  With cozies or light mysteries, they quickly become predictable.  With heavy paranormal, you hit a wall and have to stop and take a breather with something to lighten your mood.  But some flow seamlessly and have just the right balance of humor, action, paranormal events, and unfolding story arc to be great for a binge.  A good friend out in CA who has a lot of overlap with my taste in books, especially paranormal, recommended the Immortal Las Vegas series by Jenn Stark.  Once I started it was worse than a bag of my favorite potato chips.  I was up all night finishing one book and starting another.  In my younger days, I’d get dressed and go to work without sleep.  Now I’m retired and keep vampire hours.  (I am happy to report I have no urge to bite people in the neck or drink blood and do not burst into flame in the sunlight.)

Anyway, I’m still adjusting to needing reading glasses again.  By the way, the only upside to cataracts is you get your near vision back for a couple of years ……. until they get so big you’re going blind.  Five people I know have had or are going through cataract surgery.  Sure sign I’m getting old!  Honestly, emails from friends sound like plots for some TV hospital drama.  The award winner was a friend and her husband who had his prostate removed and finished radiation and took a week at the Gulf Coast before starting chemo.  Well, he stepped on a stingray and got a barb in the foot.   Normally not a huge deal, but painful.  Except for the fact the tip of the barb pierced a bone in his foot and now he has a bone marrow infection.  What are the odds?  This is TV movie territory.

Yup, just one of those years.  Thank heavens for books to escape in.

NOTE: All books reviewed below were ebooks either purchased or loaned by a friend.  All are available in multiple formats.

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OK, this series is not the usual vamps and shifters, it’s based in the tarot and those with some magical ability called ‘the Connected’.  Now if you are not familiar with the tarot deck it has 4 houses, just like a poker deck has 4 suits, plus what are called Major Arcana – cards that show Death, the Hanged Man, the Magician, etc.  This series is based on the premise there is an Arcana Council that keeps the balance between light and dark magic so neither side can control things and the Veil, behind which ancient and powerful non-humans have been banished stays intact.  Now the Council is composed of once humans that are now immortals, each possessing the characteristics of the Major Arcana they represent.  Knowing this and knowing something about tarot is very helpful in understanding the ‘world’ in which this is set.

Getting Wilde sort of throws the reader into the world without fully developing it first, so it’s a bit choppy and hard to get a grasp on but shows the potential for this series.  Hang in there and get through it and things improve rapidly.  Sara Wilde is an artifact hunter using her tarot deck to guide her to her goals.  She’s one of the Connected and mostly her bounties go to Father Jerome in France who rescues and hides connected children and families.  They are being hunted, not just by a secret sect in the Catholic Church called SANCTUS, but by technoceutical manufacturers, and black practitioners for body parts – especially hearts.  Protecting them is her main goal in life.  Being a ‘finder’ – modern-day magical artifact hunter – is dangerous, but high paying work.  The man who hires her for many jobs recently is the Magician, one of the Arcane Council, its leader at the moment.  He’s old, powerful, and very, very handsome.

The primary problem here is the reader is instantly thrown into the deep end of the pool without a clue as to the nature of the world the book inhabits.  There is an even choppier prequel ‘novella’ – also free on Kindle, but it doesn’t help much.  My grade is C+ (3.4*).  The story is good, the pacing fast with enough humor to lighten the darker moments, and characters really good and slowly fleshed out, but the world building knocked down the rating as it gets confusing.  There is an ongoing major secondary character Nikki, briefly introduced here a transsexual former Chicago cop and a good friend.  Her role grows bigger as the series goes on.  The Kindle edition is free, so read that.  The print books of this whole series are overpriced.

Wilde Card picks up where book 1 left off, Sara still in with the council to act as the astral navigator for the High Priestess – an unpleasant piece of work.  That also leaves her time in Vegas, the last city she wanted to be in thanks to the fact that Brody Rooks, the young cop she had a crush on when a teen helping the cops find lost kids, is now a Vegas Detective.  The Magician sends her on a mission to the infamous ‘Gold Show’ that sells supposedly charmed golden items of power – behind the scenes of an apparently normal gold show.  Too bad Brody is one of the cops sent for security.  But Sara isn’t the only ‘finder’ there and there’s a massive robbery – including the Eye she just managed to steal.  A former client, and generally bad guy, turns out to be the Emperor – Viktor Dal

Now she is after the thieves and falls into a huge stash they’ve amassed.  This is where Sara’s powers start growing and at the end, she is the one who uses the eye to save the world from a creature beyond the veil.  Doing so begins unleashing her full potential – a theme that runs through the series.  My rating is a solid B (4*)  This installment has a lot more meat to it than the first book and is just a good read.  Not long, but action packed and good story telling.  By the way, Death is a punked out tattoo artist that does some work on Sara that ultimately helps bind Nikki closer to Sara for their mutual protection.

Born to be Wilde has Sara back doing a job for the Magician – again.  His healing has saved her life more than once, but his style of healing is very sensual and sexual in its nature and Sara wants to stay as far away from him as she can.

But Viktor Dal, the Emporer and his experiments of allowing demons to inhabit children come to light.  To get the demon back where they belong, Sara must travel to Atlantis to find weapons.  Which she did, only she brought them back embedded in her own body.

Once again, the trip to Atlantis gives us a hint about Sara and her real role yet to be fulfilled.  I give Born to be Wilde a B- (3.8*) as some elements of the plot, especially the mind trip to Atlantis did mesh as well as it should have.

Wicked and Wilde is like paranormal on LSD.  Sara goes to Hell.  Literally.  Why?  The Magician, Armaeus, who is momentarily human, is there ostensibly to bring back the Hierophant, the Archangel Michael.  So human Sara is sent to haul their asses home.  This choppy, episodic, trip in Hell takes way too long and Armaeus comes back even darker and less pleasant than before, setting back any budding romance thing going on and Sara faces her alternate self.  That’s the big death scene with his initial love who died centuries before – and Sara’s alternate self is the one who kills her.  Talk about a WTF moment.  Even worse, it drives her after her teen crush Brody Rooks who is now very taken with Dixie, the owner of a wedding chapel and kind of Connected network mama.  I frankly found much of it just plain irritating as Sara blows hot and cold.  About half way through I yelled, “GROW UP!”

It has a slam-bang ending that kind of made up for the acid trip to Hell – Sara has recovered the much-desired artifact belonging to the head of the House of Swords from her dead ancestor.  As she tries to return the necklace the Swords are attacked, possibly due to a traitor within, and as their leader lays dying, Sara learns she is her heir to the House.

Not the best in the series, which blessedly gets better.  C+ to B- (3.6*) rating but the ending makes up for a lot.  The Hierophant is the best part of the book.  Too bad the author fails to flesh that character out better over the series.  Gammon, the ‘big bad’ she’s been fighting is finally out in the open. This is one you’ll love or hate.

Aces Wilde – book 5 in this series – is about Sara’s inheritance, which has strings attached.  Mostly she must fight all challengers to her being Head of the house.  To win, she needs a magic sword.  Of course, she has to steal it – but this time, her arch competitor is now not just her ally, but an Ace, a kind of hired assassin/finder/bodyguard but without any loyalty to the house and are not part of it.  Nikki becomes an Ace in training and given her size and police background is a natural.

Sara also is keeping up her work with Father Jerome.  For someone used to being a loner, these are uncomfortable adjustments and she has yet to fully recover from the emotional battering she took in Hell.  This evolving and complex plot line across the books makes discussing particulars difficult, but let’s just say it does not disappoint.  The traitor in her House, the person responsible for bringing down the former head of the House of Swords – is  revealed as is the reason why.  B- (3.8*)

Forever Wilde brings Father Jerome and the rescued children front and center.  It also calls into question the involvement of the 2 Houses still hidden, Pentacles and Cups.  The focus in of a series of experiments done on Connected children by Gammon and her partner.  Sara is determined to hunt down and destroy the Tehnoceutical experimental site using children as test animals.  A new strain of technoceuticals has hit the streets adding a ‘boost’ to a connected powers – and Dixie is among the addicted.  When Sara pushed Llyr back behind the veil, everyone in Vegas had a huge surge in their connected powers.  Some want to keep that so badly they are resorting to the drugs – and Pentacles is helping them.

Nicely woven plot with the usual slam-bang ending, where friend and foe become hard to tell apart.  B (4*)

Wilde Child is the most recent release.  A lot of Sara’s past and true parentage comes out here.  Sara finally uses her power as Head of the House of Swords to go after the technoceutical syndicate harming children.  It has more action than most and less of the Arcane Council, which given Sara’s ambivalent feelings toward the Magician give her emotional break – right up till she catches Gammon and her boss.  YIKES!  Talk about wanting to unknow something.  This gets a solid B (4*) and the series as a whole is a recommended read!

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A new series by a new author that’s all action, no character, little atmosphere, and frankly, a dumb plot.  I bought Hard Tide because I like action thrillers and I like books set in Florida (a leftover from getting hooked on Travis McGee).  An ex-spec ops guy can’t reach dad and gets a message for help.  He drives across the country to find his dad’s house empty and his beloved boat trashed.  The pacing is breakneck so it hides all the plot holes and minimal character development.  As for conveying a sense of atmosphere, something the Keys have a lot of, it’s a loss.  The ending brought in people from nowhere who help save the day.  The prose is readable but bland.

D+ to C- (2.5*) and for mindless action thriller readers only.

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D.P. Lyle first mystery, Deep Six, in the Jake Long series was another low-cost ebook I picked up just to try, and unlike Hard Tide, proved a worthy read.  It is the author’s first ever novel and was a very good read.  Jake is a bar restaurant owner in Gulf Shores, AL on the Gulf.  His dad, a retired cop, and very successful PI.  Despite Dad’s urging, Jake refuses to get involved in the PI business but does do occasional jobs for his dad, and that drags him into trouble in a ritzy gated community.

Enter a Hollywood screenwriter using her uncle’s mansion as a getaway and Jake as a willing boy toy, throw in a murder of a jogger for no good reason, international criminals, and suddenly a cheating spouse is small potatoes.

Entertaining, fast paced, good characters, well plotted and worth a read.  B (4*)

 

 

I’m BACK!

Yes, you have all been awaiting my return.  Or maybe not.  But I’m back!  And we the good, the bad, and OMG what the hell were they thinking?

I’m happy to report I can now see again – with both eyes.  Yes, it’s true.  You CANNOT see through cataracts.  I must admit to a certain feeling of persecution as my very blue-eyed dad never wore sunglasses and died at 85 cataract free.  My OLDER brother has hazel green eyes and also never wore sunglasses – and he’s CATARACT FREE!  Both spent/spend a LOT of time outdoors.  I have worn sunglasses – expensive polarized glasses – for decades and I’m the one with cataracts.  Gene pool lotto sucks.

Still, thanks to modern surgery, getting cataracts removed is stupidly expensive, but easy.  It’s the inability to see, and double vision, before, the two different focal points between, and the waiting on the healing to get results and news reading glasses, which I still need.  Then I have to get my driving confidence back.  It’s so nice that street signs are no longer blurry even wearing my distance glasses.  The downside, I might have the beginning of age-related macular degeneration, so add one more vitamin to the mix.  If you’re over 60, it’s actually a good idea.  PreserVision AREDS2 by Bausch & Lomb are recommended and I got mine on Amazon.

Between surgeries (2 weeks apart) I really couldn’t read much and frankly reading before had become a challenge.  But I’ve been playing catchup and plowing through print and ebooks.  So hoping you all had excellent holidays and are ready to check out what new – or at least new to me – in books!

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Big type, easy reading, mindless, predictable plot, short book.  Perfect for getting back in the game with my brain still in neutral.  Turbo Twenty-Three was better than her last book – which I remain convinced was written by someone else.  That’s it, that all the good to mention.

Evanovich is stretching her reader’s credulity more and more with each book as they get more and more like an I Love Lucy episode – but less funny.  Let’s face it, it’s tough to be Lucy and Ethyl packing chocolates, but she gives it a shot in an ice cream factory.  Sorry, that’s just visual comedy she can’t quite pull off.  Vaguely amusing is about it.

The plot is just painfully obvious, the trip to Disney was pointless except to give Ranger and Steph a reason to climb into bed.  And Ranger was insulted in the last book and this one she insults Morelli.

The eternally young Steph Plum has grown old, tired, and retreads dialogue and plots till you’re just so damn glad you got it through a book swap site and didn’t pay a dime is it a relief.  Frankly, a dime is about the fair price.

Turbo Twenty-Three gets a D+ to C- (2.5*) for a waste of perfectly good paper.  If it takes more than 3 hours to read, try staying awake more.  I know it’s kind of a snoozefest, but it’s fairly painless and you won’t be wincing at the continuity errors like those in her last book.  Highly missable and get it from your library.  Buying this is a waste of money.

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The new young adult Steampunk series by Shanna Swendson is a new genre for the humorous fantasy romance author.  Rebel Mechanics is the series and the book title is All is Fair in Love and Revolution.  Verity Newton is the ‘daughter’ of a Yale University professor who knows she’s not his own.  She is very well educated at 17 and gets a second class ticket to New York City to find a job as a governess.  In this world, England has kept hold of the colonies and conveniences are supplied by their ruling class, magisters, magic users who are titled and act pretty must like all aristocracy.  After being turned down for every job she interviewed for, she finds she must go into the heart of the magister area.  Much to her surprise, she is offered the job, complete with room and board.  Her charges youngish uncle bears a striking resemblance to the gang that held up her train and stole the crown’s money.

These improbable coincidences plague the book’s setup, including the way she meets the Mechanics. The plot is largely simplistic, Mechanics vs. Magisters, as the audience is young adult, and the prose matches that.  The pacing plods along at times and seems to race to cover her bald spots.  Verity is no fool and figures out both sides of the game but is now caught in the web while being governess to the grandchildren of the Duke who rules the city.  Set in 1888, it combines some historic elements with her Steampunk NYC, but at limes seems lacking the verve that make the best book have a sense of life.  I was always outside the story, never really engaged.

All is Fair in Love and Revolution gets high marks on Amazon, where I bought it for under $7 (but buy the ebook or borrow from the library -this is not a keeper).  Despite that, the best I can do is C- (2.8*)  It’s short and fairly fast read for an adult and not a struggle for kids 11 and up.  Not as well imagined as some of the recent Dystopian books and certainly no Harry Potter.  An uninspired read.

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Poison is the New Black is the most recent entry in the entertaining humorous mystery series Eat, Prey, Die by Chelsea Field.  In this, Izzy and her neighbor, overactive senior Etta, get involved in proving the innocence of Mr Black, the legbreaker who threatened Izzy in book one about paying off her ex-husband’s debt to some mob loan shark.  Turns out, Mr Black is just a family man trying to make a living after losing his job, house, and life savings caring for a sick wife and exceeding bright daughter.  Etta, convinced Izzy is a ‘honey trap’ for some secret government agency – not a Shade, a paid food taster highly trained to detect poisons, is convinced they can prove the cops are wrong.

She also has the assignment from hell, being a Shade masquerading as a PA to one of the obnoxious ‘Housewives of Beverly Hills’ type who is competing with other backstabbing females for a position in the annual nude calendar.  Apparently, poisoning the competition is a well-established tradition, all the while maintaining that brittle civility that masks bone-deep loathing among the rich and useless.  Another Shade – one that hates Izzy, is also on the job for another club member.  She makes Izzy’s life miserable.

Worse, her honey, the taciturn Connor, has become even more remote and she about ready to throw in the towel on him – except she needs access to his security company to help Etta and Mr Black.

Altogether a fun, fast-moving story that includes the Christmas short Taste of Christmas.  The author balances the 3 plots lines rather well, with a few bobbles here and there, but mostly dead on.  A good entry if a solid and entertaining series, one I recommend to anyone who enjoys a light, humorous mystery with well-done characters.

Poison is the New Black gets a B- (3.8*) and is recommended to fans of the Miss Fortune series, Whiskey Bayou series, and the Davis Way series.  I purchased the ebook online.

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We go back to Reacher’s past in the Military for this installment in the series, which was an improvement over the usual trope he’s kind of exhausted.  Night School is set in 1996 and takes place mostly in Europe.  It opens with Reacher finding himself sent to ‘school’ with just 3 other men, each coming off an equally highly successful case, one from the FBI and from the CIA.  Someone is trying to sell something for $100 million dollars – who, where, and what are the questions.  Lee brings back Sgt Neagley, who has made several appearances in the Reacher books past and present.

Each man in the class is briefed by members of the National Security Council.  This premise is off to a weak start and frankly, the plot is lame in many ways.  A high-level Iranian asset is at risk and these guys putter around Hamburg, but Reacher becomes convinced a murder in Hamburg is tied to the deal and does his usual off-grid independent routine with Neagley’s help.

The story complex, yet oddly flat and lifeless.  The bad guy – yes military – is no genius yet seems to defeat all the systems.  Even he is two-dimensional.  Yes, there are the usual fight scenes, yes, Reacher gets laid – and not by Neagley.  Yes, the day is saved.  And the whole thing was lackluster with occasional reminders of how good Child can be when he really tries.

Night School gets C- (2.8*) from me.  It good enough for a plane read or an evening’s diversion so long as you don’t ask for too much.  For fans only and borrow it from your library.  My copy of Night School came through the PBS book swap site and will go back out the same way.

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One Fell Sweep is once again one of the most original books I read in months.  Ilona Andrews’  Innkeeper series, of which this is book 3, just gets better and better.  I count it one of my top 5 series.  Unlike some, there is no over-arcing plot that must be advanced.  Each book is a complete story, the characters and secondary plot lines might move on a bit, that’s about it.

Ilona Andrews (a husband and wife team) started this series online on the author website.  A practice they continue.  But the final published book gets rewritten and polished and occasionally changed a bit.  You want to know how much I liked it? I bought the ebook AND the print book.

Dina DeMille’s Inn has been quiet since the ‘peace’ conference she hosted, but the sense of someone brushing her boundary wakes her and she goes to her balcony to find Sean, an alpha strain werewolf and neighbor/sort of boyfriend, is out and about.  He feels uneasy.  And they both soon know why.  A boost bike screams down her road, turns and comes back.  She hits it with EMP that kills the bike.  She and Sean just manage to hide the bike and it’s alien rider before her neighbor gets there.  Her anger at the disturbance is real, but when they get inside and she starts on the Ku rider, it’s lost when he gives her a necklace and a note with coordinates – to a hellhole in the Holy Anocracy – Kahari.  There’s nothing she can do but call Lord Arland Krahr, Marshall of House Krahr for help.  And she gets it – and him and his ship to take them to ‘the anus of the universe’ to get her sister Maude and niece Helen.

As usual, the rescue is the beginning and Arland is taken with Maud and decides to stay at the inn for a much needed ‘retreat’.

The story that unfolds is rich, complex and has multiple plot lines involving a race near the brink of extinction, the Hiru, seeking her help and in return offering her the chance to ask the Archivarius one question about her parents – who disappeared along with their Inn.  But they bring with them another race that declared a holy war on them for no know reason generations ago.  It’s the Hiru’s last chance at survival and the Draziri’s chance at reaching paradise.  Between them stands Dina, her Inn, Sean, Maud and daughter Helen, Arland, the ever-cunning Caldenia, Orro the drama king chef, and Wing the small Ku on a hero’s quest.

With a great story, humor, grief, fighting, adventure, and a touch of romance, this quirky group is as real as any characters you’ll meet.  One Fell Sweep earns an A (4.8*) rating and the whole series is highly recommended to lovers of original, well-plotted and written urban fantasy.

A Publisher’s Game

Remember back in September I posted Belle Chasse was offered as an ebook for $2.99 for those who had already pre-ordered the HC? Well, turns out there was a SECOND catch to that seeming bargain, the publisher will NOT allow the ebook to be loaned. To learn this, you would have had to search in the hidden info that provides the page count, etc., so it was there, just well disguised.

Amazon needs to inform customers an ebook cannot be loaned out at the START of the description, or even in the discount pricing box so we know immediately WHY it’s so cheap, not buried in with page count and other crap most of us ignore.

Since I bought the ebook SPECIFICALLY to loan, they ended up giving me a credit, which was nice of them, but that does not mean I’ll get sucked in by this trick again.

If you want the hard copy for your library and ebook for you portable ereader, it will be fine, so long as you realize lending will NOT happen. Not an Amazon decision, it is the publisher’s decision.