Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

Fire Touched
by Patricia Briggs
Pages: 352
Date: March 8 2016
Publisher: Ace
Series: Mercy Thompson (9th in series)

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 11 to 13 2016
Except for short stories, and short story collections, oh and all but one graphic novel, I have read everything published by Briggs (as far as I know – so many authors turn out to have written, or write under other names that I can’t ever really know if I’ve read everything a specific author has published). This is around 23 books. Including this book here. I think.

I had this specific book here on my ‘to read’ shelf since I learned of its existence. However many years before publication that might have been. I bought the book the day of publication. But then . . . I kind of was vaguely reluctant to actually go ahead and read it. Simple-ish reason – I’ve, for the most part, loved the books I’ve read by Briggs, and didn’t want to find out that she’s another author who I would need to move into a ‘no longer read’ column. Not because I suspected anything like that might occur, just that a lot of the authors who I loved from the era I started reading Briggs, have slowly fallen out of my reading rotation. So, I was reluctant to start the book.

Well, I hadn’t anything to worry about. It was kind of interesting, in its way, to read the book – and see a certain higher level craftsmanship in evidence – after reading and liking books by others of either lesser writing skills, or imagination.

*shrugs* - why am I doing another rambling review as opposed to any of my more organized reviews? Because the book came out on the 6th of March and there are already 506 other reviews on GoodReads. And 3,172 ratings. Anything I say will just drop into the sea and sink beneath the waves of others.

So I do a somewhat minimal review: 1) interesting to return to Briggs; 2) writes a high quality story; 3) enjoyable read; 4) brings to mind the difference between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy (maybe in my own mind) – they might both deal with the same subjects, have the same ‘out there’ creatures, etc., but one seems vaguely obsessed with sex & romance (PNR), while the other might mention it, but only in passing (UF), or, at least, isn't the main point of the book. I’ve had this thought before, but this is one of the few times I’ve actually jumped back and forth between a PNR book and a UF book. Well, I didn’t read them at the same time; I mean read them back to back. Hmms. Well, I’d been thinking of more ‘Fashionably Dead Down Under’ (no this book 1) is not set in Australia; 2) involve someone who’s ‘down there’ is ‘dead’; 3) involve anything ‘down under’. I’m not actually sure why it has the title it has – yes, the main character goes to Hell, but there’s a huge point made that Hell isn’t ‘under’, heaven isn’t ‘up there’, but all three are just on different planes of the same location) & ‘Fire Touched’, but there’s a bunch of books in between. Okay, I’ll pretend I meant ‘Fire Touched’ and ‘Hell on Heels’. That one is even more obsessed with sex than ‘Fashionably Dead Down Under’ so there’s that.

So, yeah, I read this book, it was high quality; there’s no inherent need to recommend or not recommend since it’s the ninth in a series. A series that has an interconnected ‘other’ series that currently has 4 books in it. All of which occurred before this book here. So that means that there are 12 books in the combined series that occurred before this book here. And the books are connected, one thing leading to another, characters growing, relationships expanding/contracting. You can’t start with this book here, basically is what I’m driving at. So I can’t recommend it for that reason. All I can say is that if you’ve read the other books in both series before this one, then yes, I recommend this book here.

March 14 2016

Ménage à 3 Round 7 by Gisèle Lagacé & David Lumsdon

Ménage à 3 Round 7
by Gisèle Lagacé & David Lumsdon
Pages: 176
Date: January 12 2016
Publisher: Pixie Trix Comix
Series: Ménage à 3 (7th collection in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 11 2016
The gang returns for their seventh year. And shesh, I think I'm having trouble seeing now. And breathing.

I've been waiting to read this volume for like a year now (or something like that). I've been waiting until it got released. Which might not sound different than the norm, except I could have been reading it for the last year - since this is a webcomic. I was waiting for it to be all collected. Mostly because I can never remember where I am in webcomics, so I need to read by volumes. This specific one collected June 19 2014 to July 18 2015. Which means, unless the comic ended (I don't think it's ended), I have July 19 2015 to March 11 2016 I could now read. But . . I must . . resist. Until the next volume is out.

Some of the action is vaguely repetitive, in terms of certain people not admitting to their sexual orientation, while at the same time participating in same sex/bisexual/straight sex seemingly non-stop. While doing so in a very humorous way.

And here was where I was going to insert a funny strip from the collection. But I can't find it now. mmphs.

This isn't it but a sequence I refound after looking for what I was going to insert:



This is the one I was going to insert:


March 11 2016

In Medias Res by Yolanda Wallace

In Medias Res
by Yolanda Wallace
Pages: 208
Date: March 1 2010
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 9 to 10 2016
My third book that I’ve read by this author.

And I wish to immediately lead off with noting that I might, possibly, have ended up giving this book a higher rating if I had read this first instead of third. This is vaguely unfair to the author, since this book is the first one that got published. Still, after two books I gave 5 stars to, one of which I seriously considered making a six star shelf for, I kind of set myself up for failure. Sure, a counter to that might go, most of these books by this author appear to have relatively low ratings by other readers, – but that includes the two I gave 5 stars to.

Right, so. This is a book that stars Sydney Paulsen Stanton. And by star, I mean that everything and everyone is experienced by the reader through Sydney. Even the person who is . . . um, I guess I’ll go with ‘her other half’ gets short changed. It’s all about Sydney.

The book opens with Sydney running through an airport in Chicago. While running she realizes that she doesn’t know where she is, nor, for that matter, who she might be. Yes, I knew that she would end up having amnesia, I just expected something more than ‘poof – you have amnesia now; bump on the head? Why, no. Illness/disease? *shrugs* doesn’t appear to be the case. Just . . . ‘here, have some amnesia with your tea’.’

She does have, though, a ticket to Key West in her hand. And . . . . she boards the plane. Here’s a woman with the inability to figure out who she might possibly be, and she . . . leaves the city? Maybe everyone on earth who knows who she might be is located in Chicago. Maybe, I don’t know, try to get help in Chicago? Or, you know, ever try to get help? Oops, jumped ahead there. But then, so does the book.

See, we are in ‘present time’ while Sydney’s stumbling around with amnesia. But she does get some flashes of her past while she’s on the plane digging through her own stuff. That’s also how she learns that she happens to have a house in Key West and that happened to be where she had been rushing off to. Course she learned this on the plane. For all she knew she might have found the ticket on the ground and had been rushing after someone to give it to them. Wouldn’t she have been surprised if she found that out once she dug through her bags on the plane – or maybe once she arrived in Key West. She might have ended up in Key West without money, identification, and without that actually being her destination. Lucky then, eh? That she actually was the one that belonged to that ticket.

Even so, this part isn’t the part that felt like a let down from the prior books I’ve read. I actually found the mystery created by the lack of memories to be intriguing. And I liked where the story was going with that woman she bumped into in Key West. Seemed quite interesting. Then, of course, she started to get more memories, her husband turned up and . . . well; I didn’t particularly like how everything turned at that point. My biggest issue, though, was when there’s this massive chunk/scene/section wherein Sydney relives what had caused her to get the amnesia. I just . . . maybe it was the placement in the book? At that exact moment I didn’t want that, I wanted [insert what I can’t say without using spoiler tags]. Instead I got [again with the spoiler tags].

Bah. I’ve used spoiler tags before. At the moment the massively long, and I mean really really long, flashback occurred, Syd was rushing off to find the love of her life. We were at something like the 70% mark. At this point the romance in the book involved . . . .flirting with a random stranger (Marcy, who I actually liked more than anyone else in the book), and fucking between a man and a woman (I just recalled that aspect, no I didn’t forget the MF sex, I just recalled that I don’t remember FF sex. Was there FF sex? Crap, I can’t remember. I have amnesia! There probably was FF sex and it was either so good or so bad it gave me amnesia. . but only about it. *nods*).

Where was I? Oh, right. So, 70% mark. Syd rushing off to meet the love of her life to try to regain her life. And then . . . a really long flashback. That takes up to something like the 81% mark? Maybe not that long but I’ve a vague recollection that was the case. So, that means they’ll have at least 19% to be together, right? Well . . . not exactly.

Vaguely humorous, on one level, that I read MF paranormal romance book before this book here and got a woman who kept getting aggressively groped/kissed by another woman (and hating it I should add); then read a FF lesbian romance and get . . . MF sex. Well . . . yay?

Ah well. What the book might have been like if Marcy and Syd had been able to spend more time together. ….. (ETA: Marcy's the woman Syd meets in Key West, by the way - I kind of left that hanging there)

I feel like I should say more, write more, but . . . there isn’t really anything else I wish to note

---
crap. the last third of my review disappeared. No idea where it went. I just went on to note that the book takes place in Chicago, Key West, and Honduras. And . . . there were a few other things but can't recall what they are now. mmphs.

March 10 2016

Murder on the Rocks by Clara Nipper

Murder on the Rocks
by Clara Nipper
Pages: 240
Date: April 12 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 2.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 10 2016
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author.

I am both reluctant to write this review, and vaguely unsure how to rate this book. But let’s see what I can do, eh?

First off, and I double checked this issue just now, this book is marketed as a Mystery, so let’s start off with the mystery:

Mystery
My first question would be: What mystery? Right, let’s move on.

The book stars a police detective in Tulsa Oklahoma named Jill Rogers. She is self described as being gung-ho on policing, top-notch, really really good. Meanwhile her boss constantly makes comments indicating that he thinks she’s dumb, and would let her go if she wasn’t just so gosh darn lucky on her cases – closing so many of them.

The first body involves someone found in a blood smeared room. Shot multiple times. Expectation is that the person was killed by bullet. Except, Jill notices, the bullet holes didn’t bleed (or something like that) then notices a line around the body’s neck. Therefore, strangled to death and shot afterwards. Jill’s expert eyesight finds what, apparently, no one else was able to find – a bullet sitting in a sink. Jill, after providing her expertise, immediately heads off to another body. She’s going to help a sheriff named Perryman with a dead body. That first body? Never again mentioned in this book. At least, not that I recall. And I was looking. Did I dream this sequence? Did this death not actually occur in this book? Okay, fearing I’d gone insane, I just checked. Yep, the first body is as I said. Hmms.

Right, so, second body. A woman’s body has been found on the side of the road. Everyone and their dog (not really) believe that it is a simple case of accidental death and to record it as such and close the case file – everyone that is except for Sheriff Perryman and Detective Jill Rogers. One thing before I move on – what the fuck? Even if it’s a case of accidental death – the body shows evidence of being hit and dragged to death. That, in and of itself, even if accidental, is a crime. The DA and everyone just wants the file closed? WTF? Right, whatever. Neither Perryman nor Rogers accepts this decision and they investigate. Mostly Perryman. Rogers is kind of busy being a bitch elsewhere. Sadly, the story follows Rogers, so the investigation is mostly ‘off-page’ and being handled by Perryman. Except for an interview or two.

Right. So body three and four – husband and wife. Rogers, in yet another moment of insanity, learns of yet another body that ‘should have been hers’ and decides, right then and there, to go to the crime scene. But she has no car. And the one car she has been using she is told she can’t use. No taxis can get to her quick enough. So she hires a limo. Arrives at the crime scene. Finds dead husband, sexually assaulted and dead wife. Immediately believes she knows who did it. Roars off to ‘catch them’. One of the few times Rogers is actually shown actively ‘investigating’.

And then the fifth body – mentioned but not seen – a person connected to the sheriff. Rogers offers to help Perryman. She is turned down. D.A. mentions a twist. Rogers doesn’t investigate. She’s just told this twist. Later she decides to visit someone, the probable murderer and gets shot at. While there she finds what she needs to make her case – through shrewd observation.

I’ve a vague idea that one I marked as the fifth body was actually the sixth mentioned, but I can’t recall what other body was found/mentioned.

So, where exactly is the mystery? Yeah, I mentioned a bunch of deaths that could have been investigated and been mysteries to be solved. But, as mentioned, Rogers doesn’t actually investigate any of them (other than participating in an interview or two on the case she worked on with Perryman) except for the husband & wife murder. Which she solves, but only after running around like a moron. Actually, she didn’t solve it, or at least complete the investigation, for a reason I mention in a spoiler down in police procedure.

A bunch of deaths which are either ignored, investigated by others, or poorly investigated by Rogers does not make a mystery. Maybe a humor book, but not a mystery.

So, is this more of a ‘police procedural’ book? Real cops have multiple unrelated crimes to work on. Is this supposed to be some gritty realism type of book? Well, let’s see . . .

Police Procedure
Jill Rogers is one of the worst police officers I’ve ever seen depicted in fiction. Who isn’t, you know, actively corrupt or attempting to get themselves fired (for whatever weird reason they might be attempting to do that).

Despite thinking of herself as being something of a supercop, Rogers has some rather major flaws.
1) Rogers has poor gun discipline. She pulls her gun at the drop of a hat. It’s almost instinctual – which is shown in one scene when she almost pulled her gun when someone surprised her. While talking with subjects in recorded interviews, Jill plays with her gun. Spinning it, pointing it at the suspect, doing everything wrong possible. Later she pulls it and holds it against the head of the DA. Then points it at herself. Using it as a pointing device. Constantly that gun is out – but I do not recall it ever going off (even that time I mentioned above where she had been fired upon – she couldn’t return fire because of cold hands . . . or something). The only explanation I can think of is that she actually has no bullets in the gun. But even then, good gun discipline says to treat all firearms as if they are loaded. I.e., don’t point them at your own head.
2) Rogers tries, as much as she can, to ignore or avoid orders. She lacks respect and discipline towards her superiors. I’ll just mention the avoid orders – several times Rogers learns of dead bodies that ‘should have been hers to investigate’ but no one can find her. Told to her by an assistant district attorney Marny Marlowe. Who, for the most part, seems to have no problem finding Rogers (weird how others can’t find her, eh?).
3) Breaking any and every law she wants, because hey, she’s a cop – giving cigarettes to underage people. Kidnapping kids (or, in other words, shoving 10 year olds into your car and driving off with them without asking anyone permission or otherwise mentioning what they are doing with the kid). Is this supposed to be funny or something? No? Just didn’t want to take the time to have the cop do the few things so it wasn’t kidnapping?

Of the crime scenes she visited: (1) the first one went uninvestigated; (2) she seemed to work on the second only when forced to do so by Perryman; (3&4) she rapidly determined who she thinks did the crime and roars off to get him – piss poor police work there (yeah yeah, same style used in that murder used by a guy Rogers arrested in the past; but 1) she investigates without waiting for backup and almost gets killed; 2) arrests ‘the fucker’; 3) the fucker didn’t do it; 4) evidence of who in fact did do it was on the crime scene – something that Rogers would have noticed if she had, you know, spent more time looking around; 5) the scene involving this incorrectly assumed murderer seems to only have been included so that Rogers could learn that two people were working together – she finds one of them . . . and never looks for the other and basically the only time that Rogers is actually shown ‘investigating’; (5) I’m not actually sure what she did regarding the fifth body found constitutes investigation.

If this is actually supposed to be a police procedural type of book – it’s showing a piss poor excuse for a police detective.

It’s marketed as a mystery, not a romance, but let’s look at that, shall we?

Romance
Jill Rogers, for lack of a better word, is a dick. Selfish. Me me me. Which doesn’t specifically address the romance question, eh? Sorry.

The activity that occurs in this book does not, really, constitute a romance. Which is fitting since this is a mystery not a romance.

Let’s see, what did I put in my status updates. I guess the romance is supposed to be between Jill Rogers and Sophie?
They have a bad horrible relationship, and while Jill is a massive bitch, Sophie isn’t exactly a good match for her. She seems to know, accidentally or otherwise, how to set Jill off. Hmm, I mean, get her to do stupid things that in turn cause Sophie to get pissed at Jill about. Having a woman that ‘accepts’ some (most?) of your bullshit is good. Having that same woman also be the cause of you almost continuously doing stupid shit isn’t good.

I want to make some comment about abandoning a woman, excepting her to wait for you, waiting something like six months before you return, getting pissed at them when they don’t immediately fall into your arms, getting even more angry when you spot a man there, thrusting yourself between their relationship . . . but I am unsure how to make said comment.

Sex
There are two sex scenes (well, I recall two). One involves the roughest sex I’ve ever seen involving two women who were acting in a consensual way, and didn’t involve some kind of BDSM relationship. The other one probably should just be ignored and wiped from memory (bah, repeated use of the word ‘turgid’ annoyed me; especially now that I actually look it up and see it doesn’t mean what I thought it did. Heh).

Humor
A lot of the stuff that happens in this book appears as if it was intended or included for humor. I am uncertain if that was in fact the case. I did, though, laugh twice. Hopefully this was not supposed to be a humor book.

The scene wherein Jill walks along beside a car as it ‘goes out of control’, as in continues in a straight line, on the road, but unable to stop . . . caused one gasp of a laugh to escape.

Then, during that strange second sex scene, a comment here or there uttered by Alastair caused me to laugh.

Overall
Well, this is going to be a tough section to write. Especially since I don’t know how to rate this book. Hmms. I liked the cat, Jonathan. By the 14% mark I realized I deeply loathed the main character, Jill, and that never really left. Didn’t particularly care about any of the other characters. Though I suppose I do not have any specific issue with Penelope or Alistair (however his name is spelled).

There wasn’t much in the way of a mystery. The police work was such that I fear police. The romance, if what occurred can be labeled ‘romance’, annoyed the hell out of me. The humor element seemed to be there, forced, and caused only a moment or two of laughs.

I’m inclined to give this book a rating of 2 stars. Which would be my second worst rating for a Bold Strokes Book. I’ve rated about six 3 stars, most as 4 or 5 stars, and one as a 1 star work.

March 11 2016

Fashionably Dead Down Under by Robyn Peterman

Fashionably Dead Down Under
by Robyn Peterman
Pages: 334
Date: March 27 2014
Publisher: Self
Series: Hot Damned (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 9 2016
The second book I’ve completed written by Peterman. Though not the second one I’ve tried. I read the first book in this series in the beginning of this year, then, because the second book was supposedly going to take place in hell, and I kind of vaguely tired of reading books with characters visiting hell, I put off reading the second book in the series. Still, I enjoyed the first book I’d read by this author so tried another first in a series book. ‘Ready to Were’. My records appear to be wrong, since they mention a start date of December 28th, an earlier date than what I know was my first book. I just know I started it twice and just couldn’t continue.

So, 1 success, 1 failure on my part. Naturally it took me, then, two months to try the author again. And I ended up liking this book so much that I looked into buying the third book in the series before I’d even completed book 2. Sadly there’s a main character change. On the one hand I dislike when series involve character changes. On the other hand, I haven’t had much success with this author when someone other than Astrid is in control. She kind of gets on my nerves at times, Astrid that is, but clicks just right to have enabled me to get through two books with her in the lead. Well, ‘get through’, is wrong. Since I enjoyed both books I've read with Astrid.

I found the first book in the series quite enjoyable and hilarious. I found this one to be a good way to pass the time, though I do not actually recall laughing at any point.

I’m going on about this specific set of topics because 1) they matter to me personally; 2) I’m uncertain what I can and can’t get myself to say about this book that might not be spoiler-y or something like that.

So, 2 months after I finished the first book in the series, I started the second. Which I mention only to point out that the second book begins immediately after the first. And I didn’t exactly reread the first or even glance at the description for it, so I was slightly ‘out of it’ at the very beginning. I caught on rather quickly, though.

Astrid is in pain. Manages to open her eyes and look around. She finds herself in a relatively rich looking, though vaguely tacky, bedroom. Specifically on a bed. Eventually, what she’s kind of tired, she finds out that she isn’t restrained or anything like that, and has her clothing on. Then she notices that there’s music floating in the air and it’s . . . Journey. Last thing she recalled she was being dragged to hell. Hell, so far, doesn’t exactly look like it’s been advertised.

Eventually she makes it out of the bed, has a wall talk to her, and meets the owner of the fine establishment she found herself in. Well, first she hid and watched an attractive young woman being verbally assaulted for her goody-goody ways, and her straight A report card. One thing leads to another and Astrid realizes that she’s witnessing a fella named Satan. And his daughter, Dixie.

Satan, it turns out, is the brother of the guy she just killed (you know, her father). So, you know, that means that her uncle is Satan. And, she later learns, Dixie has 7 sisters – otherwise known as the 7 deadly sins (basically they are the personification of those sins – wrath, lust, pride, sloth, etc.). So, awkward and complicated. Oh, and to top things off – doesn’t appear to have her vampyre powers (which she found out when she attempted to fly), for some odd reason can breath, but not all is different – she’s still pregnant, and she can’t eat or drink anything because everything tastes like ass.

The book is mostly Astrid visiting hell, and her relatives. Though there’s something of a quest in there. Kind of. Involving a sword. Mostly, though, it’s about meeting her uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

As I closed the review for the prior book in this series – yes, there’s graphic sex in this book. Which I found interesting. Despite it involving a male and a female.

Right. The above is kind of crap, but hey, there are already 229 reviews so . . . I don’t feel too bad.

March 9 2016