Friday Videos: Felicia Day learns about Steampunk; Rob Thurman TV ad

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CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein

I don’t normally read historical fiction. I’ve found it tends to get bogged down in the details, and I feel like I’m reading a textbook. Sometimes textbooks are less boring than historical fiction. Too often the authors have learned all these details and are bound and determined to shove them down my throat. But when I got an opportunity to get an early look at CODE NAME VERITY, I knew I had to give the book a chance. It’s got some great buzz and a great premise, so I had to see what the hype was about. Soon into the first few pages, I found it also has a intelligent and engaging unreliable narrator. I was hooked.

This is a story about a most unlikely friendship. I don’t want to give away any of the fabulous plot twists, but I do want to say that I couldn’t even guess what might happen in this story. The twists are good. Now that I’ve read it once and know all the secrets, I want to go back and read it again with this new perspective.

This book made me cry. I figured it would from the premise, and because I’m a softie. When a plane gets shot down in enemy territory, and the story essentially is the girl’s confession of secrets having been captured and tortured, I knew enough not to expect sunshine and rainbows. However, the story has this fairy tale quality to it, and hope is so tightly woven throughout that I think the reason this book haunts me, and will continue to haunt me, is because I keep thinking, “If only…. If only….”

World War II buffs will love this book. Wein has woven a lot of research, lots of great details, seemlessly into the story.  Though it’s entirely fiction, I feel like this story could have actually happened. The characters are each unique, clearly defined people. The details are rich and realistic. This book will have a lot of book clubs talking.

Expect to hear a lot more about this book.  A lot of folks will be talking about it.

DIME STORE MAGIC by Kelley Armstrong

[This is the third in a series of posts counting down to the last in the Otherworld series, THIRTEEN, set for release July 24, 2012. ~~ 1.BITTEN 2. STOLEN]

As I mentioned before, DIME STORE MAGIC was the first book by Kelley Armstrong I found. I immediately fell in love. Armstrong really finds her voice with this novel.

In the prologue, we meet the limo driver for cabal leader Kristoff Nast. We immediately learn the previous driver mysteriously disappeared and likely the Nasts were involved in the disappearance. The limo is pulled over by a police car, even though the driver wasn’t speeding. The female officer asks the driver to step out. She points out a broken tail light and manages to pin him to the back of the limo with her cruiser. Meet Leah. Half-demon, and one of Armstrong’s best “bad guys”. With the driver sufficiently out of the way, Leah then goes to make a deal with Kristoff. She knows where his daughter is, and she’s willing to deliver. Kristoff’s daughter happens to be Savannah Levine, the precocious witch we met in STOLEN.

Savannah is living with Paige Winterbourne, a twenty-three year old witch who has her own less-than-stellar reputation with the Coven. Now it’s up to Paige to keep Savannah safe from Leah and her group, who will stop at nothing to get the girl. Including framing Paige for murder. With the young witch coming into her powers, and all too eager to dip into some illegal dark magic, Paige really has her hands full.

It’s hard to say exactly how Armstrong’s writing has improved with this novel. The dialogue is shaper. The descriptions are fewer and more to the point.

This book made me wonder what the story would be like if told from Savannah’s point of view. So I’m all the more curious to get to the last three books of this series.

THE IMMORTAL RULES by Julie Kagawa

I’m having the hardest time figuring out how to review THE IMMORTAL RULES.  It’s not a horrible book, but it’s not holding my attention either.

The book is split into parts. The first part is great.  Allison Sekemoto survives in the outer Fringe circle of a city controlled by vampires. Outside the Fringe, zombie-like contagion-infected creatures called Rabids run rampant. Allie lives in an abandoned school with a few friends. Every day is a struggle to find food. They can’t go out at night for fear of the vampires. Beyond the walls are abandoned houses full of food, ripe for scavenging, but that area is populated by Rabids.

This part was great. Chockful of tension and excellent world building. But then Allie gets wounded by a Rabid and the only way to live is to make a deal to turn into a vampire. Part 2 finds Allie waking up, realizing she’s a vampire, and learning how to live as one. This is where the book falls apart. The tension thread is completely lost. It’s like starting over with a brand-new story – a very dull one with lots of info dumps. I realize Allie has lots to learn as a vampire, but there was a lot for us to learn about the world in part one. Part two could have been done with more action and fewer scenes of talking heads.

I love Kagawa’s action scenes. She has a real gift for tension and dramatic action. It’s the in-between stuff she needs to either eliminate or improve upon, because that’s where I was skimming to get to the next scene.

Sadly, this was not a book for me. This realization is very disappointing because there was so much potential to love it.  (I mean, who wouldn’t love a katana carrying vampire?)

I have a feeling I’m in the minority with my opinion. I think there will be plenty who will love this book, even those who’ve grown tired of vampire stories.

Book Trailer for UNTIL I DIE (Revenants # 2) by Amy Plum

There’s kissing in this book trailer.

 

Book trailer for ARISE by Tara Hudson

Spooky. Intriguing. I like it.

FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT by Darynda Jones

I was crusing through Chapters last week, looking for books to gift myself for my birthday. Whenever I go to Chapters, I have to look through the shelves of horror, romance and fantasy to find urban fantasy titles, but I always stroll through the mystery aisles, too, because I like mysteries. This is how I came upon a great new urban fantasy author. In fact, I was stopped by the great cover of the second book in the series, but the first in the series has an equally great cover.

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I do love these clever covers! Well done, St. Martin’s Press!

I was equally impressed when I opened the cover of FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT and saw glowing blurbs from J.R. Ward, MaryJanice Davidson, Jayne Ann Krentz, Gena Showalter, and Kresley Cole. Great bunch of authors, but they seem like an odd choice when you’re going to shelve the book in Mystery. How’s an audience supposed to find it?

At this point I was confused. The back of the book tells me the main character is a grim reaper. She see dead people and as a private investigator, she ends up working murder cases. Sounds urban fantasy. So where does this book fit in? The back cover calls it “paranormal suspense”. Is this is some kind of new genre? Or is someone trying very hard to avoid describing the book as urban fantasy or paranormal romance? Hmm.

So I flipped open to the first chapter and found a voice that was humourous, reminding me of Janet Evanovich. I kind of spiralled down into the story from there.

Charley Davidson is a grim reaper. She sees dead people and helps them get to the afterlife. She’s also a private investigator and takes on a few cases, but mostly she uses the title to help her police investigator uncle solve murders. Things are going along as normal for Charley until three lawyers are murdered and Charley’s life is on the line. But things are looking up when she is saved by a mysterious and sexy entity.  The relationship is hot, steamy and not of this world. Charley becomes determined to learn more about this entity, who might be tied to a human she once met.

Charley Davidson is so likeable, you’ll want to take her home. Though at times the voice can get annoying (it’s set in Albequerque, but sometimes the characters sound like they’re in New Jersey), she makes interesting choices and is fun to watch. She’s a fighter. She takes risks. She lives with ghosts. She’s survived assult. And then there’s her steamy romance with some kind of otherworldly being.

If you like a steamy paranormal romance crosscut with lots of action and mystery, this is the book for you.