Thursday, March 31, 2016

The Faerie Godmother's Apprentice Wore Green by Nicky Kyle


The Faerie Godmother's Apprentice Wore Green
by Nicky Kyle
Pages: 54
Date: March 23 2016
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 31 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first story by this author that I have read.

It is difficult, in its way, trying to figure out what to put in a review for a story that is only 54 pages in length. If it was a mystery there are things I could mention, characters, setting, what type of mystery, how well everything was depicted. But this isn’t a mystery, but a fantasy. Granted there are two things of note regarding mystery and mysteries – (1) an investigation does take place; (2) the investigator and investigation was actually of a higher quality level than many a mystery I’ve read. And yet, I still would hesitate to fall back on calling this a mystery. To a certain extent that’s because this is a fantasy in a fantasy land and no one died. You can have mysteries without death and you can have mysteries in stories that involve fantasy, but it is not exactly tremendously common.

Right, enough of that. There is this village, see, called Styesville. It’s a time of changing seasons and the ground and everything is kind of wet and muddy. Which is good because there’s this dragon that, for no known reason, has taken a liking to wander by every once in a while and breath on things. This isn’t normally good, since there is fire involved with the breathing. Things are only singed, though, because of the wetness. Well, some of the sheep and the like aren’t exactly fairing well, but for the most part the danger is a bit of ‘singe’ getting on stuff.

Still, dragon around, and stuff, so the villagers have put the call out for some help from those that bounce about on horsies while wearing a lot of metal, and carrying pointy-things. It’s been a short while, oh, about two months, but alas, no knights appear to be turning up. A stranger did turn up, but that cloaked person came to the village under the power of their own two feet, and apparently lacking things like weaponry and metal protection. This stranger would be the lead character in the story, a Dea.

Without anyone taking much notice of Dea, an investigation is conducted. Relatively quickly, certain things are noted. Neither the mystery, nor the cloaked figure are exactly what they seem. I’m not exactly sure why I’m being all careful here, anyone reading this review has access to the book cover. But I retain an air of mystery.

The story flowed smoothly. I rather liked Dea, the fantasy world that has been created, and the stories that are told. I’d love to see more of both this world and more of Dea’s time in that world.

One last bit before I move on. One of the shelves I use is LGBT. It is true that one of the characters in the story has an opinion expressed about them that they neither confirm nor deny, said opinion being that they, the woman in question, prefers the company of woman – romantically. Well, that is not why I stamped ‘LGBT’ on the book. No, that’s because of the main character. Another review already mentioned the issue, but if you haven’t read that review – the main character in this story, Dea, falls within the LGBT framework. Though more when people recall that LGBT, elongated, includes more letters. LBGTQIA. Dea falls under the less talked about A category. And no, that doesn’t mean that Dea is an ‘Alley’, but an ‘Asexual’ (though I do not wish people who just took a biology class and then see this review and become confused, I am not referring to asexual reproduction here).

A highly entertaining story. Much recommended (there’s a slight issue of a 54 page story with a $3.99 price tag, but I’ll just mention that in passing *mentions* then move on).

Okay, I already said ‘one last bit’, but really, this time I mean it – one last bit – this story involves dragons, mysterious strangers, a fantasy world, magic, asexuals, and the magic of faerie godmothers (oh, sorry, forgot one that I really wanted to mention – a good nice bit of pleasant humor). A lot of those are less commonly seen (though known about). Though that just might be my own luck/reading habits that lead to me not seeing a lot of dragons, asexuals, and faerie godmothers (though I did just read one book that had faerie godmothers, strangely enough).

March 31 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Girls With Guns by Carsen Taite, Michelle Grubb, Ali Vali


Girls With Guns
by Carsen Taite, Michelle Grubb, Ali Vali
Pages: 240
Date: April 12 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.85, 4.74, and 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 29 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book containing short works by three different authors. Michelle Grubb, Carsen Taite, and Ali Vali. Vali is someone who has been on my radar for two or more years now. This will be my first time reading something by her. Grubb and Taite were, oddly enough, two I looked at for the first time earlier this month. I am not certain, though, if I checked them out this month because of this book, or because I'd spotted their names among books read by friends and others. I occasionally go through authors other people have read and liked, and believe I checked Taite and Grubb out because of that tactic.

First Story: Bow and Arrow by Carsen Taite
The first story in the book, despite the line up of the authors on the cover, is Bow and Arrow by Carsen Taite. As noted, this is my first story by this author. So I do not know if Luca Bennett, Jessica Chance, or, for that matter, if Teresa Perez or Cris Perez-Soria have appeared in anything by Taite before now (ETA: there is a three book Luca Bennett series that Chance appears in. Going by the book descriptions, this story here might be considered 3.5 (not rating, but series order number; three books then this short story). I know books like this have a tendency to have one of three types of stories – (1) a story involving a character from a series (either as a cameo or as the lead character in the story); (2) a completely new set of characters; or (3) stories by different authors that are, in some way, linked together by character, story, events, or some other issue. I do not know, yet, which category these stories in the book fall under.

Bow and Arrow follows Luca Bennett, ex-cop, and current bounty hunter. The story starts with her returning to work after having been shot. At work she's a bounty hunter, so it's a good thing that she's on the hunt for a fugitive (since that's what they pay her to do). She’d rather be at home wiggling around with her love, Jessica Chance, but her boss would be annoyed if she didn’t actually return to work at some point. So there she is, in her car, watching a place she believes a suspect is located. She has her dog Cash with her.

Relatively easily . . . well, I’ll go ahead and note this issue. She momentarily captures the fugitive but he has information on another fugitive, someone by the name of Teresa Perez. Another ex-cop, and someone who had previous run-ins with Chance and Bennett (a kidnapping of Chance was mentioned, the part where Bennett had been shot might be related, but not sure – the events that occur in this story kind of lead me to believe I might be following up on a previous story). Perez is someone both Chance and Bennett really want. So Bennett is going to go after her.

Just a quick note – I do not know why I keep calling her Bennett, I believe she gets called Luca a lot more often, but I got kind of trapped there in which names to use.

Okay then, the story will be about a former cop, current bounty hunter who will be investigating a fugitive cop (though she herself had not specifically been assigned to find said ex-cop). Except . . . complications ensue. Luca has jury-duty. Heh. Kind of neat in its way. Must investigate! Have leads! Must . . . wait? What? Well crap. *sitting impatiently in a jury waiting room . . . waiting for the obvious dismissal . . . waiting. Name called. Waiting for the questions from the lawyers. She’s an ex-cop who lives with a cop, and hunts fugitives, obviously she’s going to be bumped . . . except she isn’t bumped*.

It’s neat to see a case from the jury-perspective, especially through someone who knows investigations and the like. So the story turns to Luca investigating the missing/fugitive cop and attending trial. As a jury-member.

I mentioned another name above. Way way above. That of Cris Perez-Soria. But hadn’t mentioned her yet. She’s a fellow jury-member and really talkative. Really enjoys the chance to be a jury-member. And stuff. She had too many lines, so to speak, for me not to include her name above in the list of people who might have previously appeared in a Taite book.

I rather liked Luca Bennett. And the story was quite neat. I didn’t particularly like Cris, but she’s not the lead so whatever. A few more things before I give a rating: (1) Romance – Jess and Luca are already a couple when this story opens. They appear lovey-dovey, though there are a few complications. (2) Sex – possible I missed it, but there wasn’t any. (3) Mystery/Trial – both were about what I’d expect for a short work and I have no complaints there. (4) Short work - I was at 28% of the file when the story ended. The book is listed as being 240 pages. So that’s 67.2 pages for this part of the book.

This specific short story I’d give a rating of 4.85 out of 5 stars. I’m quite interested in looking into other stories by Carsen Taite, though I have ‘experiences’ with tackling people who write both short and long work. Boiled down – I grew up reading short story collections (best of [insert year]; Treasury of the best [insert genre]) and short story magazines. I found out several things. Short stories are something in and of themselves (and not just fragments of a larger story; though serial stories exist as well). There are good ones, great ones, and crap ones. And the skill to write an outstanding short story does not always translate to the ability to write a great book (and the opposite also applies). There are some authors who I hated when I tried them in short story form (Jack McDevitt), but loved in long form (McDevitt – tried a long form by accident). And some I love in short form, but never really loved anything they wrote long form (many names could go here, I’ll just use Lawrence Block as an example). So, my near 5 star rating for this short story does not mean I’ll instantly love anything and everything by Taite.

Second Story: Hammersmith by Michelle Grubb
As I mentioned, I’ve read none of these authors before, including Grubb. Hammersmith involves a woman named Belinda Riley. She works for an anti-terrorism unit in London England, specifically the unit that monitors the underground (as in the mass-transit trains that run underground; USA – mass transit trains running underground get called subways, not sure ‘underground’ gets used for anything in the USA (except, say, underground railroad (which, to confuse things, wasn't actually a railroad)); UK – mass transit trains running underground get called ‘underground’ (or ‘tube’), ‘subway’ is an underground passage for pedestrians to use. At least these were the definitions in use when I was in London in the ‘90s).

Riley is relatively new in the unit, though she’s been in the police for a while now. She’s 30, but can pass for 21. This is important, not specifically being able to pass as 21, but being able to ‘blend in’, to not look like an obvious cop. Because that’s what she does for half her day, ride around (or stand around on platforms) underground. Other half of the day is spent in training. Oh, and for those who recall the title of this book – ‘Girls with Guns’ and know UK police tend to not be armed, they have special units that are armed, well – as luck would have it, anti-terrorism is one of the units that are armed.

The story consists of Riley riding around on the train, and, separately, unwinding with her current new-ish girlfriend Esther (who is, apparently, around 36). Quite an interesting story, though for a moment there I was recalling how the first story didn’t have sex. And how lesbian romance/fiction tends to at least hint at it. And, for a moment or two, I was thinking that this story here, Hammersmith, was the sex part. Because Riley and Esther spend a rather good amount of time humping. But no, there is also police work as well.

By the way, I’m writing these notes before I’ve finished the story. Not sure how far along I am, though I could be close to the end (I was at the 40% mark when I wrote this sentence, and the story ends at the 63% mark). And I kind of got a feeling about how things are going to unfold. Though they haven’t exactly unfolded yet. As of now, Riley is on alert for a ‘cleaner’ (suicide bomber). And is following orders to get off trains, get on trains, etc.

Note: I read most of this story . . . um, I don’t know how long this story is. Okay, I read the start of this story while on the train. While Riley was on the train. Checking people out. Seeing if they might be a suicide bomber. Hearing something that heightens her alertness . . etc. Quite a way to heighten my own tension and the suspense of the story – to read that while actually being on the train. Conversely, I read the sex part on the train as well. Not exactly where I wish to read about someone being bent over, their pants lowered, and their knickers lowered, and stuff occurs.

More to come . . . now.

Baring the note about sex, I last left things with me hovering in the middle of the story with a strong sense of how things were going to unfold. I was both wrong and right. I can’t really say what I mean without giving too much away.

I feel like a giant hand picked me up, put me into a blender, then a giant finger hovered over a button for a while. Then pressed the button. That’s the way this story made me feel. Like I’d been blended. Or, well, like I’d been put through a blender.

I rather liked Riley. I’m not certain how I feel about anyone else in the story, including Esther, but Riley I liked. It was a rather neat story – the action and adventure, the twists and turns, the danger. Quite exciting. Can’t say anything about the sex, though. There were two sex scenes – one occurred while I was on a crowded train, and the other occurred while I was out in public eating lunch. So I mostly skimmed those parts to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but didn’t get too involved with the graphic sexual stuff. So I can’t say anything about the quality of that specific issue. I know people were dying to know what I thought of the sex. Hehe.

A good story. I’ll look for more by Michelle Grubb. If the story had unfolded the way I thought it might be unfolding I probably would have given the story something around 4 something out of 5 stars. Because it unfolded the way it did unfold, I’d give it closer to 4.75 out of 5 stars.

I’ve now read 63% percent of the book. So, I can say that I’d rate the first 63% of the book 4.8. Oh, and taking up 35% of the book, as ‘Hammersmith’ did, puts it at roughly 84 pages in length. Assuming the second half has ‘extra stuff’ (tiny brief mentions of other books by the publisher) as books by this publisher normally does, then the last story is something shorter than 37% of the whole book (or roughly 88.8 pages).

Third Story: Hell Fire by Ali Vali
Hell Fire involves someone named Dr. Abigail Langois Eaton. And someone named Agent Riley Abbott (shesh, bad parents! Don’t give your kid the first name of Agent! *I weird*). And . . . I don’t know any more than what anyone can read from the book description. As noted, I’ve not yet finished the second story yet.

Abigail Eaton is in New York with her three young children (6 year old Victoria, 3 year old Liam, and 8 year old Sadie. They are there to meet up with Eaton’s in-laws. The Eaton’s are, apparently, wealthy, and the kids stand to inherit some money. Especially as Frederick and Nicola are now dead (Nicola being Abigail’s partner, and Frederick being Nicola’s brother).

While hurrying to meet up with the in-laws in some restaurant, Abigail and family run into a bunch of people holding weapons and shooting them into a limo bus. Abigail, naturally, flees from the scene with her kids.

Riley Abbott, first introduced in the story as ‘Detective Riley Abbott’ despite the description calling her ‘Agent Riley Abbott’, is in the Bronx tracking . . . something. Involving computers. She’s a computer expert. As far as the guy whose Bronx precinct she is in, Captain Brock Howard, Abbott is a detective sent there, with Roberta Schumer, to tackle some kind of signal that got sent through a computer in Howard’s building. Sent there by the Police Commissioner, at least that’s what Howard thinks . . . was told . . whatever. In reality, though, Detective Riley Abbott is in fact Agent Riley Abbott, of the FBI. She’s working undercover as a detective in the NYPD police department.

During a visit with her FBI boss, Riley gets involved with the earlier mentioned shooting that is in the process of being investigated. Since she’s good with computers, she is asked to sit and move the camera around. The shooters all wore masks. The driver of the limo is gone. The riders of the limo are dead. The cameras do pick up, though, a woman with kids fleeing the scene. Riley’s tasked with tracking down that woman.

I rather dislike Abigail. Life in danger, what’s she do? Everything, it seems, that’s stupid so that her life and her children’s life’s are put into more danger. At least that’s the way things seemed. Bah I disliked her. I’m not sure if putting Dr. in front of her name saves her from TSTL (To Stupid To Live), but maybe. Let me be more exact. As an example – after being shot in the arm, she’s taken to a hotel. A cop is there to try to help. That ‘cop’ being Riley. Harsh pounding on the door. The cop tells Abigail to step back into the bedroom (which she just exited so she’s inches from there), the same bedroom that contains her kids. Abigail, just like earlier when the in-laws told her to leave the city, does the opposite of everything she’s told to do. She refuses to do the smart thing. Like take cover. Gun fire erupts. TSTL? Probably. Heheheheh. Crap. Stubbornly resisting all advice. Up to know she’s been weirdly strong (get shot in the arm? Pfft, whatever. For fuck sake, she didn’t even bother to check to see if her kids were okay). Then the cop tells her to take a breath and she screams hysterically (Abigail, that is), and can’t stop crying. WTF? What the hell kind of personality is being revealed here? Abigail really annoys me.

Shesh, everyone except for Riley, and possibly Riley’s boss Russell, are super emotional freaks of nature.

This short story started off well enough. And it kept my attention. But . . . I had problems with everything except, possibly, Riley. The plot/emotions/everything was over the top. The romance was quite odd on several levels. It was if I had accidentally missed an important scene or something several times. Two reasons - they went from 'I'm a cop protecting you' to 'we love each other' kind of in a single bound without much in the way of connecting text; there is a scene wherein Abigail was profusely apologizing to Riley - I had no inherent problem with that except for the part where I had no clue why she was apologizing. Maybe there was a scene that got left out of my copy of the book? Riley left to go do something, came back and . . . Abigail became stating things like how she needed to apologize. I was super confused.

Overall
I'm reminded of what I put in one of the paragraphs up with the first story - I've long experience with reading short stories hoping to find authors to pursue. Some authors are good at short, medium, and long stories. Some are not. So, just because I loved the first two stories in this book doesn't mean I'd love a full length book by either (though I hope I will); nor does it mean that the fact that I didn't particularly like the last short story in this collection that I'd never like anything by that author. So, I'll probably run across all three authors again.

It is unfortunate that I ended up with two stories near 5 stars each and ended with a story closer to 3 stars. Means I end up with an overall rating for the book of 4.2 stars.

March 29 2016

Monday, March 28, 2016

Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt


Ancient Shores
by Jack McDevitt
Pages: 388
Date: 1996
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Ancient Shores (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 27 to 28 2016 (and sometime back in 1996)

I don’t really do re-reads. There are so many stories out there to be read, so much to ingest, to devour. Re-reads, even of past favorites, take time away from that further expansion of the pleasure zone of the mind (I’d have left it to ‘expansion of the mind’, but I read more for pleasure than anything else).

And yet . . . here I am, having finished a re-read of ‘Ancient Shores’. By an author who I kind of stuck onto my ‘favorite’ list then onto my ‘annoyed me’ list (in this authors specific case, the promise inherent in his Academy series never actually got developed, despite the 7 books in the series, and the last one of them was a prequel that I neither liked, nor could fathom why it had been written; similarly, the concept of someone who digs into antiques, from a future perspective, so some of these antiques are from a future between our own time and his, or from our time, or from a time prior to the readers perspective is a very intriguing idea – and the first book promised something that was both slightly delivered and slightly sidetracked – my I kind of hate the lead protagonist in that Alex Benedict series, specifically because it isn’t Alex Benedict).

So, why the reread? Because one of the books I did love written by this author had a sequel. A sequel that appeared somewhere between 9 and 10 years after the first book appeared. It didn’t appear to be a very highly rated sequel, but still, it was there. And I had rather enjoyed Ancient Shores way back in 1996 when I’d read it. Heard to read ‘Thunderbird’ without rereading the book that came before it.

So . . . took me months, but I eventually caved and did a little reread. One thing I learned almost immediately – I had loved this book, the discovery of mysterious objects, the, um, stuff that unfolded . . . and I couldn’t remember a single bloody part of it. No no, I remembered that something got dug up by a famer in the Dakotas. A device that was both mysterious and allowed travel between worlds. But beyond that I didn’t remember anything. No, I take that back, I did remember that the government had to be fought because it acted badly in this book.

There are no real ‘lead characters’, since things hopped around a lot, following a ton of people. But there were at least two that ‘close-ish’ to being the leads – April Cannon and Max something-or-other. I’d remembered the farmer, Tom Lasker, and the kid – his son, who had helped uncover the suspicious thingie that was buried on his land. I did not remember that the kid had no impact on the events. Nor that one of the two leads was a black woman (April), and the other was something of man who lived to run from danger, something of a coward (Max).

McDevitt isn’t always the best with character work, but he did a good job this time around. As much as I kind of grew to dislike Max, he was mostly full-formed. As was April. Heck, one of the problems I had with the book was that he was a little too detailed with minor characters of little importance. Boom – another character, has a very brief scene in the book, then gone. The reader, me, now knows more about that character than they had any desire to know. But bah, that’s life.

It was a good book. Interesting. Certain things that occurred seemed far-fetched ( (1) every bloody scientist was, even if somewhat cautious about things, were accepting of this alien find?; (2) every single bloody scientist could not stop saying stupid fucking things that drove people wild with fear; what the fuck was that about? Was someone actually slipping them money? Every bloody one of them seemed to just live to say (a) the technology is real; (b) it will be easy to reproduce; (c) it will drive every current technology out of existence. I mean, seriously, what the fuck was that about? Even the angry archaeologist who came to scream at them for not having an archaeologist involved seemed quite accepting of the fact that there was alien technology being dug up. So, why were all the scientist so single minded in accepting the findings (unreleatistic, that), while seemingly going out of their way to word things as ‘badly’ as possible – badly in terms of killing the economy?). But despite those occasional moments of far-fetchedness, there was still a good deal of fun and excitement to be found in the book.

Now to see if I’ll actually go ahead and read the sequel. Now that I’ve gone to all this trouble to do a reread.

March 28 2016

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Crisanta Knight: Protagonist Bound by Geanna Culbertson


Crisanta Knight: Protagonist Bound
by Geanna Culbertson
Pages: 434
Date: May 10 2016
Publisher: Boutique of Quality Books
Series: Unknown name for series (1st in series of a projected 8)

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 25 to 26 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Boutique of Quality Books in exchange for an honest review.

This is both the first book I've read by this author and the first book in this series. I found the book somewhat randomly when I was searhing through NetGalley to see if there was anything interesting to read. This one caught my eye, and I'm glad it did.

There's some kind of addictive/hypnotic quality to the writing that caused me to want to keep reading, to continue following along as the story unfolded. This is a good thing, since the lead character had a tendency to do something that I normally find annoying - she was in her head a lot. Not little snippets here and there, but massive amounts of words trapped inside the lead character's head. but, as I noted something was addictive about the whole process so I just shrugged off that specific annoyance.

Characters
Crisanta Knight: is the lead character in this book, and sole point of view. She's a 16 year old girl, and has spent a good bit of her life going to a specific school. One for young pincesses and other protagonists. I'll mention more what that means in the plot section. For now I'll just leave it at (1) 16 year old girl; (2) is a princess - the daughter of Cinderalla and Prince Charming (though the father's given a different name, I didn't really catch why though); (3) Crisanta has spent a good part of her life attendin the school I already referenced; (4) she, and the vast majority of the others in this book live in a place called 'Book', which, in it's way, is a fantasy land; (5) Crisanta is not happy with the concept of being a 'princess, a damsel in distress, who must be rescued by her prince' and fights that fate as much as she can, despite her position in the world.

SJ: is both a good friend to Crisanta and her roommate. She is also a princess. The daughter of Snow White (SJ's actually Snow Junior, hence SJ). Of the three girls who live in the same dorm room at the school, she's the most 'princess-y' of the lot. Crisanta's more half and half - half princess-y; half rebelleous. SJ, as part of her being the perfect princess, does the things expected of a princess - which includes following the rules, speaking correctly, singing perfectly, and having many animal friends who do her bidding.

Blue: the third roommate, is a 'common' protagonist and one of the very rare few allowed the very slight chance of being some form of minor heroic figure (though not a hero, apparently). Even though she's a 'common' protagonist, she's also a 'half-legacy', because her sister was a protagonist - her sister being little red riding hood (Red wore a red cape all the time, Blue wears blue all the time).

Jason: is a prince at the male version of the school Crisanta attends. He's friends with the three, though closest to Blue.

Daniel: is a 'common' protagonist, a roommate of Jason's, and something of an antagonist to Crisanta (though not really, they just get on each other's nerves).

Setting
This book takes place in a land of 26 kingdoms called Book. There are some adjacent realms, mostly unspecified, though one of them is a place called 'Earth.' There are also two other places mentioned in this book, though I'm not certain if they are adjacent realms or in Book.

The people in 'Book' grow up in a society wherein they know that some of the people will end up being 'protagonists' in books (though it is not specificed as to whether or not they know what that means). Royals and select commoners become protagonists. The rest are left to being something like side characters.

Plot
Crisanta is quite annoyed with the idea of being a 'damsel in distress' and fights constantly to try to change her fate, despite knowing that there is no way to change her fate. At least, that's what everyone tells her. So, instead of saying do not, she says don't (as in she uses contractions, 'princess do not use contractions). She'd prefer to take classes in sword-fighting rather than classes in fainting, but that isn't her fate. For she's a princess.

The majority of the book takes place at this 'Lady Agnue's School for Princesses & Other Female Protagonists' place. There are a few 'balls', 'field trips' and other such events during the school year, and a summer vacation of some unknown number of months.

So the book follows Crisanta as she attempts to navigate this school; while being constantly 'attacked' in her dreams by rather vivid nightmares (and some blurry ones as well). The nightmares are where I pull in the part wherein I noted that most of the action takes place in Book. Well, some takes place in Crisanta's dreams of a specific girl who happens to live on earth.

The school year proceeds, events unfold, places are visited on field trips, sporting events occur, and finally a quest is attempted involving a few young women and a few young men.

Overall
I rather enjoyed the book and wish to immediately continue the story. Alas I cannot. For the most part I liked the people I was supposed to like, and the only real negative I can think of, well two negatives: (1) there are a lot of pages in which Crisanta is 'thinking' a lot in her brain. Not exactly whimpering like thoughts, but bordering on them; (2) there are a lot of pages in this book, there is a bunch of stuff that occurred but it didn't really feel like the story actually got going until the endish parts. Then the book was done. The book ended on something of a cliff-hanger (in terms of the story not being wrapped up, not in terms of literally having a scene cut in half; I've had that happen to me before. Being in the middle of the scene, someone is thrusting their fist forward . . . .book ends, have to wait until next book to see what happens (in one specific case involving a story by David Weber, the book ended mid-invasion, and the invasion wasn't picked up again until like three books later). So yeah, this ended without the story being wrapped up, but not mid-scene.

It's a good neat interesting book. I recommend it for one and all. Or something like that.

March 27 2016

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Department of Temporal Investigations: Time Lock by Christopher L. Bennett



Department of Temporal Investigations: Time Lock
by Christopher L. Bennett
Pages: 112
Date: September 5 2016
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Series: Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations (4th in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 25 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Pocket Books/Star Trek in exchange for an honest review.

This is the fourth book in the Department of Temporal Investigations, and the fifth book I’ve read by this author (though one of those books is a full length novel hidden inside a longer collection of novels. It is titled ‘Places of Exile’, and is roughly 192 pages in length, and is found inside the book titled ‘Infinity’s Prism’).

As the Acknowledgments and notes section . . . um . . . notes, Agents Lucsly and Dulmer ‘were introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Trials and Tribble-ations”’ episode. This explains to me where there was a note at the beginning of this that indicated that this was somehow connected to Deep Space Nine. This confused me, since I didn’t recall any of the previous books specifically including DS9 people. As in, since DS9 takes place at the same time, same century/year, as The Next Generation, and Voyager, I was confused as to why DS9 was specifically mentioned. But I realize now why it was.

Just like the previous books in this series, this book is about a government agency that has the directive to safeguard any and all time travel devices that it comes across. Unlike the previous books, the two main characters who were partners in the previous books, have been separated. Lucsly is working on the ice-moon Eris, while Dulmer is now an assistant director setting up a new branch of DTI on Denobula.

Before I get too far down this road, I need to note something(s): (1) I was excited to have the opportunity to read this book – regardless of the next comment, I am/was excited to be able to read this book; (2) one of the reasons I decided to read this specific book right now, instead of any other book I have access to, is relatively simply the idea that I felt a small need to dive into something that did not/does not have romance in it. Well . . . that idea failed. One of the main characters gets himself involved in a bit of romance. Who knew, eh?

Right, back to business –

While doing his job in the ‘vault of secret time devices’, Lucsly’s day is interrupted when one of the objects d’time suddenly activates. And spits out military personal carrying weaponry. A bit of Trojan Horse going on here (a phrase, well ‘Trojan Horse’) specifically used in this book. Agent Gariff Lucsly, several scientists stationed at the base, and the DTI director Laarin Andos (who just happened to be there for some reason or another) attempt to fight off the invaders. Hampered, somewhat, by the fact that while they might be agents, they are not, and I wish to word this carefully, highly trained military personal. I think. At least Lucsly makes a comment to that effect at some point.

While the fight commences in the secret base, Dulmer, and the rest of star fleet, attempt to provide some assistance. Hampered, somewhat, by the defensive measures put in place when the invaders invaded. That whole thing, the ‘defensive measures’ and the like were quite neat.

Long and short of it – this was a quite neat, fun, exciting novella. I already knew it was only 112 pages, so that didn’t specifically matter to me – as in, I knew I was reading a short story. As a short story, it had almost everything it needed. Ended on kind of a cliff-hanger, but still, a fully formed story. Though access to knowledge of the previous books in the series would help – plus access to knowledge of the books that occur – or are set around this specific point in time (2385) could conceivably help – there was mention of several books that this story falls in between so it is possible that my lack of knowledge of those books might have had an adverse impact on my enjoyment of this story. Or, in other words, it is possible, however slight or large this possibility might be, that I might have had a higher level of enjoyment if I had read those other books – the Titan ones, not the other books in this series, since I’ve read the other books in this series.

Now off to double check when it is that I can post this review at this time.

March 25 2016

Friday, March 25, 2016

The War Within by Yolanda Wallace


The War Within
by Yolanda Wallace
Pages: 281
Date: July 14 2014
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 23 to 25 2016

This is the fourth book I’ve read by this author. And to think, this all started from me asking for and receiving ‘24/7’ through Netgallery (and the publisher). Who knows if I would have otherwise ever gotten around to reading something by Wallace, eh?

Characters
I could very well be confusing myself, but I believe this book has two points of view. And it’d be a much different type of book if those two points of view were the opposite sides of a coupling. Since the point of views are that of Meredith Moser and Jordan Gonzalez (this is the first time I noticed that Jordan’s last name is Gonzalez; took me looking at the description to catch that point); grandmother and granddaughter.

Meredith Moser: The book starts with Meredith in her, I believe, 70s. In the late 1960s, Meredith was a nurse in Vietnam. Where she met George Moser, and Natalie Robinson (along with others, but those are the two important ones).

Jordan Gonzalez: Jordan is around 20 years of age, a junior at college, someone who has changed their college major something like at least 3 times, and, as her mother puts it, has ‘causes of the week’. She’s the kind of woman, Natalie that is, who enjoys protesting and protests, even if, she might get arrested during these protests. She’s also the kind of woman who (1) respects her grandfather George and grandmother Meredith despite her own anti-war sentiments, and their own status as military veterans; (2) the kind of woman who wears t-shirts with protest slogans on them on vacation, like the time she came face to face with Tatum Robinson while wearing an anti-war shirt – though, weirdly, Tatum never pointed out her choice of apparel (as far as I recall).

Natalie Robinson: Natalie, unless I’m confusing myself, does not have her own thoughts and feelings exposed to the reader, no she’s seen, mostly, through the eyes of Meredith – both directly, and indirectly through Meredith’s stories that she tells Jordan during their summer drive. Natalie, like Meredith, is also in her 70s. She’s still actively working, as a nurse at a nursing home. Some of whose patients are actually younger than she is. Unlike Meredith, Natalie was as open as she could be as a lesbian in the military in 1967. As in, she didn’t hide her own nature from herself, nor keep herself from going to gay bars.

Tatum Robinson: Tatum is Natalie’s niece. If her age was given, I didn’t pick up on it. She’s at least old enough to have spent time in the military – long enough to have served in Afghanistan, get injured, and is forced to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She works at a hotel on the nightshift. I forget if her title is actually ‘night manager’, though I’ve a vague sense that it might be. She, like Natalie, also does not have her own point of view and must be seen through the eyes of another – in this case mostly through the eyes of Jordan.

Setting and Plot
“Each year, Jordan would spread a map of the United States, close her eyes and point” – thus random chance puts Jordan & Meredith on the path that leads them to Natalie Robinson and Tatum Robinson.

And so, this book takes place in a car driving long distance; in Vietnam through stories told by Meredith to Jordan on this drive; and in Jekyll Island Georgia (and, I believe, a scene or two in Savannah Georgia).

The scenes in Vietnam take place in 1967, in Saigon, and other locations inside Vietnam. There’s danger, death, tension, and romance in this Vietnam. The danger coming both from enemy combatants seen (those openly running around with guns) and unseen (those leaving bombs in various locations; many of which were supposed to be places of relaxation for the US (and other) forces); and from their own military – both by regulations (if the military finds out you are gay/lesbian they will dishonorably discharge you), and by those who do not mean well (some ‘friends’ appear to be on active look out for those who might be gay/lesbian and enjoy reporting on them to authorities).

Through the stories told of Meredith’s experiences in Vietnam we learn many things. (1) Natalie is and has always been a lesbian; (2) Meredith’s sexuality was clouded and unknown, even to herself – while in Vietnam Meredith came to find two loves of her life, one in the form of a man, George Moser, and one in the form of a woman, Natalie Robinson. Meredith had always dreamed of finding a good man, marrying, and having a family. Apparently she had both never found a man that was acceptable to her, until coming to Vietnam and meeting George; nor realized she might have any feelings for a woman, in a sexual/romantic way, again until arriving in Vietnam and meeting Natalie. Meredith meets both at roughly the same time. Meredith had a choice to make, go against her own desires for a family, and against societal and military pressure and pursue Natalie, or go with her desires for a family, and keep from fighting society and the military, and pursue George. Her decision is not exactly a spoiler – I mean, she is telling this story to her granddaughter while driving to that island in Georgia.

So, the plot. It alternates between the past and the present – at least while on the drive to Jekyll Island. Once there, Meredith pursues her old flame, while Jordan pursues her own thing – working for some extra money, and pursuing women (while also being somewhat . . .conflicted about learning of her grandmother’s feelings).

Romance
The romance is split into two couples. Meredith and Natalie; Jordan and Tatum. Plus something of George and Meredith’s romance is seen through Meredith’s story of her time in Vietnam.

Meredith and Natalie’s time together probably fell just slightly within a ‘good range’ in terms of detail/number of pages/etc. Tatum and Jordan’s relationship, though, seemed somewhat short-changed by the nature of having their story appear as if an appendage to Meredith and Natalie’s tale. Which is unfortunate as I felt like I might have, to a certain extent, liked Jordan and Tatum as individuals and as a couple.

Overall
I enjoyed the book. I like being in the present, so books with flashbacks can annoy me, but once I realigned my brain, the ‘stuff’ that occurred in Vietnam was quite interesting.

Let me expand upon that a tiny bit – by ‘present’ I mean present in the story. If it’s 1918 in the ‘present’ in the book, I don’t particularly wish to ‘flash back’ to 1908. Or, specifically in terms of this book, if it’s 2014, I do not really want to ‘flash back’ to 1967. I read the book in 2016. My present is 2016. I’ve no problem reading a book set in 2014, or 1967. Reading a book set in 2014 that flashes back to 1967 is what I have trouble with. Though, as I noted, I was able to get over my annoyance to enjoy the book. (All of this reminds me of seeing the film Lawrence of Arabia. You know what happens at the beginning of the film? They show Lawrence crashing his motorcycle and dying. Meaning the whole rest of the bloody film is a fucking flashback – I already knew he was dead; it was a movie about a bloody British dude who was running around Arabia while it was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire during WWI. Did I really need to see him die on a motorcycle to have me connect with the fact I’m looking at someone’s story from the, to me, distant past? Mmphs).

Right, distracted myself there. I liked the book. It was good. Might have been better if more time/space had been allotted to Jordan and Tatum’s relationship, but everything seemed to otherwise work.

March 25 2016

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

A Kiss Before Dawn by Laurie Salzler


A Kiss Before Dawn
by Laurie Salzler
Pages: 258
Date: October 27 2015
Publisher: Bedazzled Ink Publishing, LLC
Series: Dawn (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 18 to 23 2016
I received a copy of this book free from the author

This is the third book that I’ve read by this author, all of the books falling within a series called ‘Dawn’.

I read this series kind of weirdly – I read the middle one first – the one that followed a different set of main characters than those that populate the first and third books in the series. Hmms, that was confusing. The main characters in the first book pop up in the second, but aren’t the main focus of that book, and then take back the lead spot for the third book.

Then, while attempting to read the first book in the series, I – and I still am unsure how this happened, acquired and read the third book in the series. And now, finally, I’ve read the first and final book. Heh. First and final. Well, it’s the first book in the series, and the final book I needed to read to have read them all.

So, with this experience I say this – the middle book is connected to the other two books but can very easily be read as a stand-alone. Sure, you learn in it that Mary Jo and Chris are a couple, and that there was some incident that they don’t like to talk about (I actually forget how forthcoming they were about ‘the incident’ and have a vague recollection, this long time later, that they just mentioned that something had happened). But there wasn’t really any secret, I can now say having read the first book, that Chris and Mary Jo were potentially going to be a couple or really good friends.

I kind of messed this up, sorry. All I had been attempting to note was 1) I accidentally read the books out of order, reading the second book 1st, the third book 2nd, and the first book last; 2) after reading the books in that order, I’d say that there is no inherent problem with reading the second book first; or second. On the other hand, beyond that I don’t know what to say. 3) I know I got a lot more out of the third book, reading it second, that I might have if I had read it third.

I like the concept of actually seeing a couple be a couple, instead of yet another book wherein two people meet, circle, and potentially ‘hook up’ and then book ends. So if you read the series 1, 2, 3, then you would see Chris and Mary Jo come together, be a couple in 2, then . . . do the thing they do in the third book that I can’t actually mention without going into spoiler territory. Though I can say that I now understand why people might have been disappointed or rated that book lower than I did. Since I read that third book in the series with those two, Chris and Mary Jo, after having only read them as being a ‘presence’ in the book I had read; when they took center stage in the third book in the series. So I had nothing specifically invested in them. As such, the events that unfolded in that book didn’t impact me the way I know they would if I read the series in order.

Right, so, that was a lot of me basically saying that I can’t recommend which direction to read this series. Though reading the second book first seems safe enough.

This specific book here involves Chris Martel and Mary Jo Cavanaugh. Before I move too far, let me briefly note that I kept thinking, in my mind, ‘Charlemagne’ when I saw Chris’ name pop up. And that’s all I’ll mention about that (eta: actually, I see I noted that specific issue in at least one other review; I see that I repeat myself).

Okay then – Mary Jo Cavanaugh is the new vet in the area, and Chris Martel owns a horse farm – one specifically designed to be a breeding farm (people keep their mares there). They first meet when Mary Jo’s partner/mentor/friend introduces Mary Jo around (partner as in veterinary office partner). They kind of meet badly, what with Mary Jo doing something stupid, and Chris yelling at her.

They attempt to move past this bad start, and something of a friendship/romance proceeds to unfold. Slowly.

I am not certain how I might have felt about this book if I had read it first, but know two things – I had some vague idea how things would unfold since I had read the other books first, and … I don’t remember the second thing. Right, so – I knew that certain things would unfold, but I didn’t specifically know everything that would occur.

The characterization of Chris, Mary Jo, and Frances (the elderly neighbor lady) was good. The story unfolded naturally. The sex was fade to black (unless I missed something), oh except . . well, it depends on how much information constitutes fade to black, and how much leads to the word graphic being used. I mean, there was this scene in a bar that was kind of detailed. Mostly, though, events would start to unfold, and then the next morning would arrive – suddenly. The violence, though, was graphic.

I liked the book. I enjoyed having the chance to read the book. I’d recommend the individual books in this series, though am unsure how to recommend them – as in what order to read them. On the one hand, things obviously enough flow more naturally when you read them chronologically; on the other hand I believe I personally was able to ‘get more’ out of the third book than I might have if I had read things in order (as in, I’m fairly certain I’d have been really annoyed by the stuff going on in that book if I had been more invested in the characters when I read that book; annoyed to the point I’m not sure I’d even been able to actually finish the book; and yet I did finish the book, and enjoyed the book).

March 23 2016

A Fashionably Dead Christmas by Robyn Peterman


A Fashionably Dead Christmas
by Robyn Peterman
Pages: 128
Date: December 15 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Hot Damned (5th in series)

Review
Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 22 2016

I like holiday stories, I like Christmas stories, I seem to have an odd attraction to reading holiday family stories, and I like humor. There are series and authors in which my favorite thing in the series, or by the author, happen to be holiday stories.

This was an annoying, disagreeable mess.

And please, for the love of everything and anything, stop fucking going on and on about the super old vampires whose bodies keep accidentally falling out of their outfits. It wasn't exactly that interesting the first time (or 10 or 20 times) this little bit of 'humor' popped up. But it was bearable. But . . . do we really need the same humor beaten to death, mounted on the wall, taken down, unmounted, beaten some more, then mounted to the wall again?

Also, what the fuck are 'baby Jesus' figurines? The next is unrelated, specifically, to this story, but since I'm on 'baby Jesus' anyway - why the fuck do so many fucking people seem to prefer asking help from/praying to/worshiping baby Jesus as opposed to, oh, I don't know, non-baby Jesus? They just not want some 30-something dude's help? Prefer the help of a baby? For fuck sake.

March 22 2016

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Keystone by Bridget Balentine


Keystone
by Bridget Balentine
Pages: 179
Date: February 28 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Dreams and Dreamers (3rd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 21 to 22 2016

The third book in this series and third book I’ve read by this author.

It’s been a while since I read the first two parts of this series, so I’m just going to assume that the second book ended in a cliff-hanger – based on how this specific chapter in the story opened. Actually, let me just look at what I wrote for the previous book. Won’t take me two seconds. Be back in a jiffy.

Ah, hehe. I wondered what was up with the many occasions when Josie talked to herself inside of (). Reminded me a little too much like I was reading Jim Gaffigan, but without the humor. As in:

I really like cheese . . . (Is he going to spend the next hour talking about cheese? I came here to listen to humor! He better not talk about cheese for too long or I’ll I’ll . . leave! *both parts spoken by Gaffigan, second part spoken as if he was giving a very bad impression of attempting to do a fake woman’s voice)

At first I thought that () stuff was because Josie’s sections, at least in the first part, were flashback scenes. And I thought the () was ‘current’ comments she was making while the scenes unfolded. But that () continued in the second part when Josie’s scenes leapt to present day. – I say, getting back to my prior thought that I had been wondering about that () -> I see from my review of the last book that the prior book used heavy italics to convey flashbacks. Well, this time there isn’t heavy use of italics, which I’m happy about. The () was weird, but much more livable than heavy use of italics.

Okay, finally got to what I was looking for – yeah, the second part ended abruptly. As I kind of assumed. The second part ended with Sabrina about to go to a party hosted by her ‘semester abroad’ mentor/teacher but in a certain amount of distress because she just had a fight with the, literally, love of her life (or, in other words, the woman she has loved her whole life, even if the other never really noticed her). This third part opens with that still to be resolved.

Sabrina’s been kicked out by Josie, and must find some hotel room to inhabit until the party. And to change into. We read this from Sabrina’s point of view. Josie’s point of view? At least in the first part, she’s stuck in the past (and that’s one of the reasons I was really confused when the book opened, because the book doesn’t actually open with a continuation of the prior story, but opens in a flashback – Josie flashing back to her time living with her bitchy, alcoholic abusive mother).

Right, so. This is not a work that can be read on its own. I mean that both in terms of this specific book here, and probably, to a certain extent, to this series. It’s probably easier to ‘take’ if read all in a row. Wasn’t possible, for me, since the second part was read by me in November of 2015, and the third part didn’t come out until Feb 28 2016.

The story follows Sabrina in the present as she tries to get over the very brief and abruptly ending affair she had with the woman she has always fancied, Josie. While also having to put on a brave face and go mingle at that previously mentioned party hosted by Tobin, Sabrina’s ‘semester abroad’ teacher/mentor.

Meanwhile, Josie’s in the past reliving, or flashing back, to living with her dreadful horrible mother. And not being able to cut the ties. Not being able to get over her disappointment. Somewhat easier to ‘get/understand/accept’ when the reader adds to the ‘that’s my mother’ aspect the part where she had given her dying father the promise that she will attempt to watch over her mother.

Sabrina needs some time to collect her thoughts, but her sister, Lilly, keeps hammering her with texts. Apparently Lilly needs Sabrina to call their mother. So Sabrina does. And learns of an issue that Josie needs to address, and an issue better expressed face to face. So, Sabrina must face Josie. Only to find her looking horrible, and all the workers at Sass, Josie’s restaurant, giving Sabrina evil looks. Sabrina hurriedly conveys the message that she was tasked with delivering and flees.

Sabrina’s relationship appears to be over, but her career is just starting so she must go to the party. Which I express in this way, because Sabrina learns at the party that part of Josie’s ‘problems’ involves being forced out of her job – Josie has a rotten mother she has to deal with (that’s the issue that Sabrina had to give a message about, face to face), a broken relationship, and a wrecked career.

Sabrina figures out that she needs to be more of a friend than a disgruntled positional/former/future lover and goes to try to give comfort to Josie. I mention all of this story so I can finally get to the part wherein they decide, based on a suggestion by Sabrina, that the thing to do is to drive cross country from New York to Colorado so that Josie can both deal with the issue with her mother, and give herself time to address her problems with Sass the restaurant.

I believe that it might have been around here when the two points of view both shift into the present, for the most part. Though, it might also have been point wherein Sabrina kind of took over more of the book – with Josie’s sections being fewer and further in between.

Right, so, that isn’t the whole of the book by any means, but something of it. A relationship in turmoil, a career beginning/ending, etc. etc. Overall quite good story.

One thing to note, something of a warning I guess since some people care more about this issue that I normally do – there are certain . . . formatting issues? Something like that. Wherein words are missing. Letters are missing (as in, using pass when mean to use passed). 99% of the time I just let the issue flow past me, and do not add or subtract any ‘points’ because of the issue.
One example, though not the one I was going to use (the one I was going to use apparently is refusing to be found by me):
She heard the muffled sound of her mother talking other voices in the background and cringed because Josie definitely wasn’t going to be up for all the residents of Castle Rock to want to stop by and see her as though she were an exhibit on loan from a New York City Zoo
. (not the best example, but one that I can find, insert, and move on from).

March 22 2016

Monday, March 21, 2016

Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from Eighties Movies (and Why We Don't Learn Them from Movies Anymore) by Hadley Freeman


Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from Eighties Movies (and Why We Don't Learn Them from Movies Anymore)
by Hadley Freeman
Pages: 352
Date: June 14 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 11 to 21 2016
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author. This is a non-fiction book about movies in the 1980s. To a large extent, more than I expected, these films are seen through a certain level of reactions to those films compared with what is seen today on screens.

Hmms. The last time I looked at the book page I thought I’d seen 100s of reviews, but I only see 54 at the moment. I was going to make some comment about how many reviews there already were, and how mine wasn’t really needed but . . I see I was wrong, sadly.

Okay, let’s see what I can do:

1) Dirty Dancing: Abortions Happen and That’s Just Fine
This is one of the better chapters in the book. I had entered the book figuring I’d get some nice little insights into both films that I enjoyed in the 1980s, and films that I hadn’t seen. Possibly a third category of films I didn’t particularly like, but was willing to learn more about. Instead I got whacked upside the head with social commentary, obsessions about how much better films were then compared with today, and how so many of the films made ‘then’ (1980s) couldn’t even be made today (or, I mean, have a studio allow the film to be made through them).

Well, this specific chapter was about both the film Dirty Dancing, and social/cultural/political aspects of abortion. This is a film made in the conservative 1980s. It showed, as an important plot point, a horribly botched illegal abortion. This is just one of those things that occurred – the people of the time (especially the studio), and the author, just kind of pushed past that as just something that occurred – today a film like this would either not include that plot point or drastically change the outcome. One note before I go on – I specifically recall that abortion angle from the film, from watching it when I was a kid – I didn’t push past it, it’s one of the reasons I’ve only seen this film once or twice. A horribly botched abortion and an asshole boyfriend, yeah, I didn’t particularly like that.

The compare and contrast? Mentions how today things had oddly changed. Abortion is either not even thought of ('Knocked Up')/mentioned/dealt with, or things go a somewhat anti-abortion direction. Like in Juno when the kid decides to keep the baby directly caused by her going to an abortion clinic and getting stopped by an abortion protester.

2) The Princess Bride: True Love Isn’t Just about the kissing parts
This is both a good chapter in the book, and one of my favorite films of all time. There’s interesting tidbits about the filming of the film, personal interactions the author had with the film, etc. I can’t really add anything else.

3) Pretty in Pink: Awkward Girls Should Never have Makeovers
Is it this one or the Harry met Sally one that goes on and on about Romcoms then and now? Well, this specific chapter digs deep into Molly Ringwald, John Hughes, and the man-boy that was Hughes.

Ah, I see the subtitle to the next chapter. Yeah, Pretty in Pink was more about how the female stars in the 1980s were able to be themselves, to dress the way they want to dress, to chose or not chose the boy they want, etc. And look ‘normal’. While the female stars of today all, every single one of them (apparently, I’ve not personally spent much time watching teen films of today) fit size zero.

Teen women in the 1980s were allowed to be independent and their own people. The teen women of today, in films, are appendages of men – and they show how they’ve grown through those cliché makeover scenes that turn ugly ducklings into swans.

4) When Harry Met Sally: Romcoms Don’t Have to Make You Feel Like You’re Having a Lobotomy
There was a time when all women were not shown to be insane, and all men weren’t shown as gross douchbags. That time was the 1980s. But that’s how they are shown today.
Romantic comedy films of today are ‘misogynistic bullshit’. They were not always that way.

5) Ghostbusters: (with a Segue into Top Gun: How to be a Man
I should have paid more attention to the subtitle before going into this one. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been as confused as to why I entered a chapter about a film I enjoyed, Ghostbusters, and mostly read about how ‘Top Gun’ was actually gay porn (or however the author worded that). Something along the lines of – Iceman was obviously Maverick’s boyfriend, reinforced by a) end of film when Iceman smiles and says ‘you can ride my tail anytime’; b) the woman only got to sleep with Maverick, who kept ducking actually having sex, by dressing as a man.

The chapter is also about how, when films in the 1980s were not teen films, when they had actual adult men - they actually acted like adult men - like, say, in Ghostbusters. As opposed to today in which men, at least in films act like boys who do not wish to grow up. While in the 1980s many a man wanted to race, as quickly as possible, to adulthood. Now men just want to be boys forever and ever.

6) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: The Impact of Social Class
The ‘men are boys’ talk in the last chapter kind of threw me. The part wherein Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a social commentary on life and on how the rich are either assholes or have asshole parents . . . kind of lost me. Apparently John Hughes was from the lower class. This film here is his fantasy of what it might have been like if he had money. Apparently a lot of Hughes films were overt or covert commentary on the class struggle inherent in American life.

Figures. I just thought Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was a good film. Not everything needs to lead to decades long discussions on the social economic status of the world and everything. Sometimes they can just be good films. That’s me talking here in this paragraph, not the book.

7) Steel Magnolias: Women are Interesting
Oh see, I got all annoyed and stopped wanting to read after chapters 5 & 6, then turn to yet another ‘commentary on then and now’ chapter, using Steel Magnolias as something of an example, along with other films like Beaches, and I actually liked the chapter. Who knew?

Okay then – once upon the time there used to be this type of film that gets called various things, though mostly ‘women’s films’. The films involve more than one woman, likely many more than 2, the women actually like each other, and the main goal of the film/characters is not, horrors, to land a man. Now-a-days these types of films find it very difficult to be made. Various reasons. Changing nature of the film industry (the movie houses are all corporate owned now; international proceeds are very important; both men and women will watch ‘men’s films’, but only women will watch women’s films (apparently); etc. etc.).

So, today, most of what you can find slips through by likely independent means, or with an edge of grossness (ala Bridesmaids). Mostly, though, films involving women today either have the women be nothing more than someone’s girlfriend without much of her own personality, and/or there to bitch at other women. Unlike the old days, as in 1980s, when women could actually be fully developed people, and not erupt into bitchiness every two seconds.

8) Baby Boom: Successful Women are Sexy as Hell
It’s odd, in its way, but women used to be able to be shown to have careers back in the 1980s. As in high powered ones. Back then a woman could have a more successful, or at least as successful job as the men in the film; and while having it all was a struggle at the time, it was handled ‘better’ then than now (as in, then women were allowed to have careers – heck men even enjoyed that the woman had a career; now men get pissed if the woman puts her career first and have to be taught a lesson – several films now-a-days have the man change not an iota, while the woman would have to do things like quit her job to appease the man). An example of 'now' is 'Love Actually', wherein all the women, except for, I think, two, had much less important/powerful careers than the men they were with - and of the two with high paying jobs - one worked in porn, and the other 'didn't get to have a man'.

9) Back to the Future: Parents are Important
This film is much more about the parents than about Marty McFly. In the ‘40s parents were seen as the wise guiding hand to their kids in teen orientated films; in the ‘50s & ‘60s they were seen as something to rebel against; in the ‘70s parents were either bland or as depressing as the kids; in the ‘80s ‘parents really came into their own’. In the ‘80s kids tried to help better their parents. Like in Dirty Dancing wherein Baby tried to teach her father some moral lessons. And in Back to the Future the kid tried to get his parents to take charge of their lives. Though it also included scenes of a mother lusting after her, unknown to her, son.

10) Batman: Superheroes Don’t’ have to be Such a Drag
This chapter is about both the Batman franchise and Tim Burton. Burton being someone the author fondly loved. Or something like that.

Let’s see – Burton’s Batman was the best of them all. Especially because the Joker died. And Keaton had crazy eyes.

Nolan’s Batman films are strangely pro-Bush; pro-breaking the law to get the bad guys; ultra-surveillance, etc.

The non-Burton Batman films in the 1990s were horrid garbage.

11) Eddie Murphy’s Eighties Movies: Race Can be Transcended
This chapter focuses on Murphy’s career. From attempting to join SNL, and being told that the black spot had been filled and him having to be a player instead of a signed cast member, to his bitter old man guise of today.

Of all the comedic actors of the 1980s, the only one who made it to today with a respectable career is Bill Murray. Not the person who had the biggest success in the 1980s, that being Murphy. Murray, unlike a lot of the comedians of the age, was able to transition. Murphy, and the others, largely flopped – Murphy flopping with highly successfully billions in profit family films. Murray succeeding by making films with Wes Anderson.

Right, so – this chapter, as noted, follows Murphy’s career. It’s a quite interesting chapter. Murphy’s first film role, in 48 Hours, literally had the lead character shouting racist words at him. And yet Murphy still pulled off the role and made it his own. Several of his later parts had actually originally been written for white people, like Beverly Hills Cop (Sylvester Stallone had the part at one point) and Golden Child – and he was able to transcend race. Other than a few jokes that included his race, and the part where he had to be basically asexual, the fact that he was black in the part was largely of little importance.

And that’s all folks. That’s the book.

Overall: I expected to dive in and wiggle around in glowing remembrances of films I’d seen and loved from yesteryear. And, to a certain extent, that’s included in this book. There was a lot more, though, on feminism, social injustice and other social issues, than I expected to find. Some were quite interesting. Some flew over my head. Some were just confusing (re: Bueller as social commentary; Top Gun is a gay film).

Despite some of the things I noted above, I would still recommend the book to any and all. Though it probably helps, somewhat, if you’ve already seen every movie mentioned by in chapter titles, and inside the chapters. With exceptions, the author had a tendency to dwell a lot more on ‘other’ films inside each chapter, instead of just on whatever film is listed in the chapter title.

March 21 2016

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Fashionably Dead in Diapers by Robyn Peterman


Fashionably Dead in Diapers
by Robyn Peterman
Pages: 232
Date: February 17 2015
Publisher: Self
Series: Hot Damned (4th in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 18 2016
In this fourth book in the series (and fourth book I've read by this author), the series returns to following Astrid (you may or may not recall that the previous book involved following Dixie, Satan's daughter).

Astrid's baby's been born and its aging/growing in experience much more rapidly than expected. As in, I think the kid was talking by two months old or something like that. Well, the book involves several 'dangers of having a child with power - being watched by babysitter' type moments. Plus 'new mothers are very horny' type moments. Then one evening (day? night? whenever), things kick up a notch when invaders do something weird like, you know, invade. The house I mean. There's yelling, screaming, death. Man, these invaders are really easy to kill . . . two are left. They flee the room. Screams from the nursery. Astrid hurries and . . . one dead invader, one missing invader . . . and no baby (nor, for that matter, are the two vampires that Astrid sent in currently in the room). The vampire prince dude . . um . . whatever the fuck his name is, he's the father of Astrid's child and her boyfriend, well he's in the room as well and he notes that one of the evil dudes who had invaded made off with both the baby and the vampires. Though he didn't specifically want to bring the vampires with him; they latched on while he was fleeing with the baby.

So. That happened. Mother on a rage. Baby's been taken. I've been vague, but the identity of the invaders actually was known more or less immediately - they are evil fairies. No not evil gay men (I make this 'joke' because it's made both in this book and series a lot; like in - haha, fairy = gay dude, or something), fairy as in the kind that's magical (not to imply that gay men can't be magical). The fairy's were there to kill Gemma, who is the newly returned (arrived/discovered/whatever the fuck) rightful queen of fairyland. The current leader of fairyland, queen bitch, wants Gemma dead.

It immediately becomes clear that (1) the fairy dudes took the baby to fairyland; (2) they think the baby is Gemma's. Naturally that means that Gemma's significant other, that guy who likes to wear a tutu and was in the first book . . . why can't I remember anyone's names? Well, he, Ethan (that's the vampire dude, right?, and Astrid head off to Fairyland to retrieve the baby.

Things are going great on their quest to save the baby, until they come to a bridge. They all attempt to cross. Winds pick up. The next thing Astrid knows she’s waking up in some kind of cabin. Listening to strangers talking. She listens to them. Gets the idea that there’s some ‘stuff’ going on. And that there’s this baby. And stuff. Eventually everyone realizes that she’s awake. They call her Astrid. She replies that she’s fairly certain that that is not her name. They mention things like vampires and fairy’s, and Astrid is confused. See, she’s lost her memory.

Overall the book was actually quite interesting. A new ‘plane’ was visited – that of the faerie folk that apparently live in an amusement park like setting, and really love reality television. There’s a certain amount of humor, a certain amount of fun/excitement/etc. had by the reader. I’d have said had by all, but considering that a baby’s been taken, as well as someone’s memories – that same someone imagining they have 24 children with a human husband (or possibly a human wife) while at the same time lusting after that vampire guy; who, it appears, has two concubines (the two vampires who had gone and gotten themselves latched onto the kidnapper) – well, not fun for them. But fun for me. The reader.

(Please note: yes I know they spell vampire as vampyre in this book, but I'm too lazy to remember that and spell it that way in my review).

March 21 2016

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Haraken by S.H. Jucha


Haraken
by S.H. Jucha
Pages: 310
Date: March 1 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Silver Ships (4th in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 17 to 18 2016
My fourth book by this author and the fourth book in this series.

It’s . . um . . six to nine years after the end of the previous book and a new batch of problems have strolled in. They are in a heavily weaponized ship, claim to be from a ‘United Earth’ and would kindly like everyone to join them. Since they arrived in Méridien space first, and Méridien are Méridiens, their attempts to convey this information, and any and all communication are answered with . . . . silence. The Méridiens work on their own time and not even the entrance into their system of a spaceship that looks built for war will change their stance. Heck, they let half their civilization be destroyed the last time their confederation was invaded, why would they change now?

Well, one of the Méridien house leaders is unhappy with how things are playing out and heads off to ask help from someone who has shown that they can handle themselves and threats. Namely Racine, President of Haraken. President Racine proceeds to examine the situation.

The book is a good and interesting continuation of the series. Mostly quite fun and exciting. Just one specific thing that has been a relatively reoccurring issue keeps popping up to annoy the hell out of me – the author likes taking time, and pages and pages of text to give backstories for every little itty bitty character he comes across (well, not really, but he likes suddenly thrusting readers into unimportant characters backstories; the not really has to do with he doesn’t actually give everyone’s backstory). It slows everything down and, quite frankly, I don’t need to know, deeply know, a character that will never again be seen by the reader. Either because they, right after that, die, or because . . . they just disappear from the active story-line.

Otherwise, as I noted, a good continuation to the series. I look forward to the next book.

March 18 2016

Friday, March 18, 2016

Worth the Risk by Karis Walsh


Worth the Risk
by Karis Walsh
Pages: 264
Date: April 1 2012
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 16 to 17 2016
This is my fifth book that I have read by this author.

Firstly – I’m surprised at myself that it took me a good long while before I caught on to the title. Well, maybe not surprised, since I wasn’t really paying attention to the title. ‘Worth the Risk’ – I was seeing it, when I briefly rarely thought of the issue, as ‘is the proposal by the person who wishes to pay a million plus dollars for a horsie worth the risk?’ And yes, there is a connection between the two – the proposal and the book title. But then there’s also the other type of risk. The one I might have caught on to quicker, or at least caught the connection to the title, if I had been paying more attention – ‘is this person worth the risk to break through the barriers that I have put up around myself?’ – and before you ask, that question goes to both characters.

At a relatively young age, Jamie Callahan was caught making out with another female by her parents. Neither of whom approved of the activity. And let Jamie know. The step-father, though, took the ‘punishment’ rather far. Then the mother abandoned them. And, eventually, at the age of 15 Jamie broke away with her younger sister to attempt to both protect her sister, and attempt to do something approaching a better life. She put herself through college, got a job, one that she was/is highly successful at. Though she’s something of a large shark in a tiny pond because she’s staying in the Portland area instead of attempting to make it big in one of the larger financial sectors of the nation (like, say, New York and possibly Chicago). To a large extent she’s stayed a large shark because she has a kid to raise who has ‘special needs’ (which is both true and misleading, depending on how someone interrupts my use of that phrase). Let’s be clear – her niece is in a wheel-chair; Jamie is raising her because the mother is dead; Jamie, somewhat, blames herself for both the need for the wheel-chair, and the death of the child’s mother; having to grow up fast, she’s not emotionally equipped to show love – neither to her sister, who she raised since she was 15 (and the sister was . . . 10?), nor to her niece. So, she has work that distracts her and many one night stands. She doesn’t think she’s equipped for more than that. But, is it worth the risk to have more than just sex? More than just a one night stand? With Kate Brown?

Kate Brown’s parents raised her to always be striving to go as high as she can socially. To be a social climber. They left their homes in Kentucky, and put on airs of being more than they were so that Kate could push higher (by the way, the mother doesn’t like the name ‘Kate’ as she thinks it’s too . . . mundane? Something). And Kate has fallen into the trap that she wants to both protect her parents (reputation? Something else?), and advance herself. So, when the opportunity came to reach higher than she currently resides in the horse jumping world, she jumps at it. The opportunity involves a horse, a million dollar horse, which will allow Kate to reach the heights of the field, maybe even an Olympic medal (the maybe even part might need to be stricken from the sentence). Kate works hard to get the financial backing to get the horse. She has a proposal in at Davison and Burke, and Jamie Callahan has been assigned by D&B to investigate the proposal. The ‘is it worth the risk’ for Kate is two-fold – is it worth the risk to break away from her parents desires and strive for her own (i.e., she found happiness in her own situation – a barn, (a) good horse(s), teaching students (some of whom require special teaching methods, like those who are autistic, or use wheelchairs, or have M.S.)), and/or is it worth the risk to see if there’s more that could develop between her and Jamie Callahan?

The conflict, stress, turmoil involved, found within the story seems, at a first read glance (which is good enough for me, I rarely do more than one read) to be largely in keeping with the characters and story-line. And yes, there is conflict, there is drama, angst, and ‘issues’ that come up. Barriers that have to be breached. Issues that have to be tackled. Emotional growth that needs to occur.

I think I just wrote a teaser instead of a review. Hmms. Mmphs.

Well, I rather enjoyed the time spent with the horses, the time spent between Kate and Jamie, even when both were trying to be professional; the time they spent when they weren’t trying to be professional; the various competitions; the growth shown by Jamie in various areas. The sex.

March 17 2016

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Renovations by J.A. Armstrong


Renovations
by J.A. Armstrong
Pages: 127
Date: February 29 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: By Design (6th in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 16 2016
I'm not sure what it is about this specific series, but I surely do seem to enjoy it more than the others, and, to a certain extent, more than I'd expect.

I only have a few comments this time - (1) yay, mention of another story in this series (unlike that other series I like by Armstrong which didn't mention a 'continued in'); (2) I've a nephew named Spencer - that actually caused me to avoid this chapter in the series a few times, opening the book and seeing that opening wherein Jameson is calling for Spencer . . . made me pull back out a few times for some reason; (3) I really like how 2 of the three series (and I assume the 3rd is going this way as well, and probably will be there starting with the next story) follow a couple - too often I'll read a book - watch a couple circling, 'merge' and . . . 'that's all folks!' as the pig would say. I like being able to follow couples beyond that 'that's all folks' dividing line - and more than just a small little epilogue (or seeing the couple pop up as side characters in some other couple's unification story).

So - Jameson is watching Spencer while Maureen is attempting to regain her faculities; Candace is there off and on – busy as she is with the business of being the new governor of New York (and a few political crisis that pop up); and the rest of the extended family are doing their thing.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this one as much as the prior entries in the series and probably the real reason I kept dodging the entry, what with really liking the story that came right before this one, I was somewhat nervous things would let me down – my fear was not confirmed. As would be expected in a situation like this – while I recommend this story (I mean, I did give it 5 stars), I only do so with the clear note that this is a story that builds on itself. I’m not even sure you could read this specific entry without the knowledge gained from reading the five previous entries. I know there are moments where certain things are somewhat indirectly mentioned, and I picked up on what was being said, but someone new to the series has no real chance on picking that info up (one example would involve several comments by or about Laura, indirectly referring to her horrible family – without actually mentioning that they are horrible or why Laura might appreciate the motherly like attitude Candace points in her direction).

Hmm. This ‘review’ is shorter than the actual story description. I think.

March 17 2016

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

True Blue Colors by Kelli Jae Baeli


True Blue Colors
by Kelli Jae Baeli
Pages: 12
Date: December 20 2013
Publisher: Self
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 16 2016
Always the best reason to read a story, eh? Because it's been on my possibilities list for a longish time, and I'm tired of it being there. Plus, it's only 12 pages in length. So . . I'm going to 'get rid of it' now. I go in knowing that this is just a snippet, a scene, a not-complete story. So maybe I'll get something out of it, eh?

This will be my 11th thing read by this author.

Well, story started off interesting - a woman, Veronica Polk, is floating in the ocean recalling how she ended up there (hmms, I've read at least one other book like that, I don't think it's going to be like Pincher Martin, though, since that one involved someone getting flashes of their life while dying/drowning out on the ocean . . . at least I hope it isn't like that).

She pushed herself upright in the water, kicking to stay afloat, and studied the shoreline. It appeared like the view of a photograph held in front of her face. Not exactly to scale. Who'd be fool enough to believe she could swim that far? (Kindle Locations 32-34).

Interesting little itty bitty tiny snippet of a story. A police officer goes undercover. Goes all out to try to do her duty. The end. hmms. Ah well, I knew it was just a snippet.

Oh, and by the way, there's no sex, no indication of gender orientation, no nothing like that. It matters, to the storyline, that the character is female, but otherwise she could have been an asexual blog of flesh for all it mattered to what occurred in the snippet.

March 16 2016

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Everafter by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam


Everafter
by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam
Pages: 230
Date: October 1 2009
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Everafter (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 14 to 15 2016
My first book with this duo, and 3rd book overall with Stark at the controls (and zeroth with Tam as a solo author).

Hmm. I came here to write about something that I was going to take a certain issue with. But I can’t now. As the issue involved pre-knowledge I thought gleaned from the book description. I guess I got the information from the reviews? No matter – the point I was going to make is that I learned a certain something before beginning the book and this ‘certain something’ distracted me for a certain length of the book. I knew going in several things. (1) the book was split in half, with one main character taking half, and the other taking over the second half of the book; and – don’t read this one unless you’ve read the book (at least from personal experience having this information prior to reading was a distraction) - (2) the one who isn’t a vampire turns into a werepanther. I spent a little too much time in the beginning parts of the book drumming my fingers, waiting for this to occur – that, as I’ve indicated, distracted me from what was going on.

Okay then – this book goes a certain direction I’ve seen several times, though it is, in its way, a less populated path. This is more science fantasy than out and out fantasy; and, to a certain extent, if the creatures involved didn’t reside so deeply in horror or fantasy, I’d probably just call this science fiction. Because, while fantasy creatures are involved, there is a very science-fiction-y explanation for the critters.

I’ve forgotten now what exactly was said, but one is a virus (shifters), while the other is a . . . bacteria? I’ve forgotten now. Ah yes, bacteria (vampires). The explanation for what’s occurring with shifters isn’t as detailed, I absorbed the information that a virus was involved; while the explanation for vampires was quite medical jargon-y. See, there’s this bacteria that invades the body – it attacks a person’s red blood cells, goes inside of them, and explodes them – feeding off the blood. If the infected person gets blood from others, then they can continue to live – potentially forever, though they’ll become more and more similar in nature to the pop culture version of vampires (well, the kind that gets annoyed at the sun, because of the exploding and stuff); while if they ‘feed’ off of a ‘true love’ (not sure ‘true’ was actually there) then they’ll ‘keep their soul’ (see, this whole ‘soul’, ‘true love’, etc. is all magically bullshit, so, fantasy, so not science fiction) – therefore they can continue going outside in sunlight – though the impact of the sun’s rays is still stronger on them than on ‘regular’ humans. (note: I didn’t really think about it until I wrote this paragraph, but, technically, they could be getting this ‘outside blood’ through transfusions of one kind or another – but that’s never even mentioned – probably because of the discussion that occurred when a glass of blood was offered – it would sustain, but isn’t as ‘good’ as getting it directly from the source (more magic-y bullshit).

All of this to say (not really, but it was one of the points): no, this isn’t science fiction, and so a person is left with ‘horror’, ‘fantasy’, ‘science fantasy’ (and then which subgenre it falls into below that). There is a horror element – something of a ‘boogy-man’ ‘rogue’ vampire is going viciously attacking people and turning them into vampires; both of the lead characters have horrifying nightmares, etc. This has some of the elements of horror, but I would not necessarily put it in horror. There are ‘paranormal creatures’ so fantasy, right? But then there’s all that medical jargon, and explanations and . . . stuff . . .. Let’s just go with Science Fantasy and move on, eh?

So, picture this – it’s a Tuesday, there’s this young woman with a very special night planned. The apartment is decorated just so. Preparations for a lovely meal are in the works. A very special ring has been secured. And the love of that young woman’s life will show up in about 15 to 30 minutes. But! Champagne! Valentine ‘Val’ Darrow hurries out to acquire some. She’s distracted by happy thoughts. She vaguely spots a creepy looking dude smoking nearby as she’s heading into a liquor store. She dumps a pile of coins and paper onto the store counter and informs them that she wishes the best champagne that pile of money will secure her. She exits. Still distracted. Walks down the street. All aglow with what the night will bring. Thoughts of this and that and . . . are those footsteps behind her? Are they getting closer? Val moves quicker. The footsteps behind her move quicker. She spots a well lighted area ahead of her – that’s her goal. Running now. Almost there. Pushed into an alley and savagely beaten, knifed, then loaded into a car and driven to Canal Street and dumped (by the way, this takes place in New York; did I not mention that yet?). And so the book begins – seemingly starting with two becoming one, but diverted by a creature out of horror.

The book then proceeds to follow Val as she attempts to figure out what happened to her, and what this means to her. She learns a few things, dodges a few things, and spends an inordinate amount of time hunting her killer. See, there’s this mystery angle going on in this book as well. Meanwhile her girlfriend/lover/almost fiancée follows along for the ride.

Until roughly the mid-point when the story shifts and it’s now Alexa Newland in control of things (or, in other words, things shift to her point of view). It’s difficult to go much into her territory as it’d probably all be spoiler-y. I’ll just leave it as I liked Alexa’s point of view more than Val’s, though I also needed Val’s because if I had just had Alexa’s – Val’s whimpery/depressing/etc. attitude was easier to take, somewhat, with the further knowledge gleaned from being in Val’s head.

Long and short of it – good enjoyable book. I’ve seen at least one review indicating that the next book is even better than this one, and I was interested in reading that one any way; but I think it might be a little while before I tackle it. So – I recommend this book. Especially to those who like fantasy, and science basis’s for fantasy creatures (like might be found in Mira Grants Parasitology series).

March 17 2016

Monday, March 14, 2016

Hell On Heels by Robyn Peterman


Hell On Heels by Robyn Peterman
Pages: 339
Date: September 15 2014
Publisher: Self
Series: Hot Damned (3rd in series)

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 13 to 14 2016
In this third book in this series (and third book I've read by this author), the series turns to a new lead main character (though I know at least two following books follow Astrid, and the sixth in the series follow yet another new batch of main characters). I guess, suppose/assume, that the series shifted to give Astrid more time to be pregnant, and I guess it's boring to follow pregnant people so . . . let's follow Dixie, Satan's nicest daughter, while Astrid's off on the side groaning about her 12 headed baby and wondering when it might, you know, appear.

So far this has been the weakest in the series. In the smallish dose I saw them in Astrid's visit to Hell, Dixie, Carl, Mrytle, Janet, and the rest were some what . . .bareable . . . probably isn't the right word. But interesting enough in their small doses. But a whole book of them? And switching from a character in her, 30s I think, to one who is 21, is annoying. Might be stretching things to call it young adult - I'll shove it into 'New Adult'. So chick-lit with fantasy (the Astrid books) changed to young adult/new adult (with Dixie). mmphs.

Dixie went to a college literally in the same spot she went to high school (apparently Satan didn't want his daughter to head off to Harvard or the like - like most high level demons do, because he didn't think she was ready for earth, so changed her high school into college. Fun, right? Going to the same place for 8 years? Feeling like you never escaped high school?). Which is important because, despite the last book ending with Dixie all set to go to earth . . . things are dragged out. Heck, things got repeated to a certain extent. I don't think any specific event repeated from Dixie's point of view, it's just Dixie got told things/taught things that Astrid got taught. By the same people. In the same way. Using the same words. Frustrating.

Then it got super icky with this 'super hot boy crush' that Dixie had to deal with. And the super hot boy also seemed to be crushing hard on Dixie. Their whole relationship is icky, and dripped with what I image the author imagined drama/relationships are like in young adult novels. To a limited extent I was able to get over this icky-ness, but their relationship wasn't very interesting.

I've lost track of what I have said/what I wanted to say, and what I need to say. mmphs.

Let's see - Dixie, before the beginning of this book, had spent time in high school (time amount not given; fact spent time in high school implied by the words that her college is literally on the same spot her high school was), before moving on to college. And, though it wasn't specifically mentioned in the last book, she might have been near the end of her time at college. Well, so, in this book she graduates from college . . . I think. My mind is kind of jumbled. She was at her high school like college, got news she was going to go to earth on a specific date, she got distracted by this Hayden dude, now she's on earth and her grandpa tells her to go to community college. To which she notes she already graduated college. There might have been a step I skimmed over/overlooked/wasn't there. I don't actually recall her actually graduating from that demon college she went to. No matter.

So, as is somewhat normal in this series, the female lead character with 'massive issues' heading her way; she jokes around, is quite horny, plays with small demons, is destructive, and . . . well if I go too far I'll be in spoiler land. So I won't.

Enjoyable enough book, in its way. Just not as good as the first two books in the series.

March 14 2016