Felicia Day

First, let’s get this first piece of new over with:

I’VE MADE IT!

How exactly is that you ask? The Guild getting popular? An awesome role in the 13th episode of Dollhouse? Something bigger? Oh yes. Take a gander at this recent piece in the NEW-frikkin-YORKER:

“The success of the ebook is being fueled by the romance and erotic romance market,” Peter Smith, of ITworld, reports. Smith cites the actress and Kindle enthusiast Felicia Day, of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” who has been bingeing on paranormals like “Dark Needs at Night’s Edge.” “I’ve read like, 6 books this week and ordered about 10 more,” Day blogged. “It’s stuff I never would have checked out at the Barnes and Noble, because the gleaming and oily man chests would have made me blush too much.”

Oh yes, I’m the “oily chest” chick.  My Dad is proud all right. Er….whatever. Onto the book reviews I’ve accumulate for the past month or so:

Thorn Queen (Dark Swan, #2) – Richelle Mead
My appetite for the “tough paranormal chick” literature has waned in the recent months, namely because I think I’ve read them all. Like, hundreds this year it feels like. But this series really caught my interest with the first book, Storm Born. The second book, Thorn Queen, after a slow first couple of chapters lived up to expectations. Eugenie is a cool character, a real-life working Shaman but who is connected to the Faery world as well.  What I like about this series is that some takes place in “real life” and some in the Faery land.  It’s what the Merry Gentry series from Laurell Hamilton COULD have been (other than porn with lots of guys, bleck).  I really liked how the characters developed in this second book and a few twists in the romance were very satisfying.  I can’t spoil anything, except to say I really really hope that the ending isn’t a feign, and that a key character who’s yummy doesn’t turn bad in the third one!  If you like Laurell Hamilton, or Jeannie Frost or Lillith Saintcrow or Rachel Caine you’ll like this series.  Also, for a time the Kindle edition was free download on Amazon, not sure if it’s still free but check it out!

Naamah’s Kiss (Kushiel’s Legacy, #7): Jacqueline Carey

I loves me some Jacqueline Carey.  I mean, I even turned into a blithering idiot getting a video with her at last year’s Comicon.  Whatever.  She’s had two books come out lately, Sainta Olivia last month (which I liked a lot as well) and just recently Naamah’s Kiss, which I went out and bought in hardback because I need her on my “keep you long time” bookshelf.  So, if you’ve read the first 6 you’ll know the world, and this book is the start of a new series in the same world.  This time the heroine is Moirim, who turns out to be er… *slight spoiler*

a hot bisexual druid.  You read that right.

*end spoilers*

The world is lush and awesome, I love love it as always, and after we visit familiar territory we take a jaunt outside of the worlds that have been established towards the end of the book.  I enjoyed it a lot.  It’s hard to live up to Phedre and Jocelyn from the first trilogy, but this had enough intrigue and definitely set up for some tussles down the line.  There are a BUNCH of (awesome) racy scenes in this, so if you’re not into that…who’s not into that again?  I just think this author is the bomb and would read her grocery list if I could.  The book has a lot of romance in it, but the world building is so rich and thorough it’s really epic fantasy at its best.  I would compare her to Guy Gavriel Kay with way more naughty bits.

Desperate Duchesses: Eloisa James

Ok, boys look away.  This is pure romance crap coming towards you.  Eloisa James’ Duchess series, starting with Desperate Duchesses is crack, pure and simple.  Think “Pride and Prejudice” meets “Sex and the City” or the “OC”.  It’s amazingly addictive.  I’ve tried a lot of other authors in this historical romance genre lately, and none of them capture the flirtation and wit that this author does.  It’s just really enjoyable to be frivilous with these aristocrats.  I’ve read pretty much all her Duchess books and am working my way through her other series as well.  They’re all very similar, but enjoyable as the characters weave in and out and pair up book after book.  Fun reading.  I enjoy them with no shame…because I have the Kindle to hide behind.

Best Served Cold: Joe Abercrombie

Boys, you can come back now. If you follow my reviews you already know my love for the First Law trilogy by Abercrombie.  Well, his latest installment, Best Served Cold, just is….as awesome.  Whew!  Cool thing is, a few of the secondary characters from his trilogy come back in this book and are much more fleshed out.  It’s a very cool way to expand the universe. If you like grit and blood and nastiness and double crossings, this is the author for you.  The realism of his descriptions and his world is really intoxicating.  After I read this book I wanted to log onto a FPS game and shoot me some zombies.  There’s no “romance” in this book, Abercrombie busts any of that into bits, and it’s so fun to watch!  I really loved it and hope to make a drooling YouTube video where I look like an idiot with him one day as well.  If you like George RR Martin, or Stephen Erikson or Brent Weeks or Richard Morgan’s SF books, try Abercrombie, you will not regret it.

Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1): Lian Hearn

So, do you like Kung Fu or Samurai films?  Did you like Memoirs of a Geisha?  Would you like those things combined and then some magic thrown in?  Then try this series starting with Across the Nightingale Floor.  I have a weakness for any movies involving Asian Martial arts, so I was sucked in big time!  The books are set in a nebulous country, but it’s so similar to Japan you might as well say it’s Japan.  There are feudal lords and women held hostage, orphans and assassins…it’s got it all.  Boys and girls will like this.  I will be continuing this series!

Whew, that’s a lot of reviews (and only a fraction of what I’ve read this summer)!  Books I read that I hate, I simply let the experience go off into the ether.  I know how hard it is to create things, so who am I to dissuade people from trying an author, or trash someone’s creation?  Everything is subjective.  I do add a lot more books than I blog about to my GoodReads account, occasionally those are a little more critical, but I only list ones I would want other people to try.  Here on the blog I try to feature my very favorites.  Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think!

I’ve been slacking on my book reviews, and I want to say right now that it isn’t because I haven’t been reading. It’s because I’ve been reading things I don’t think are worth reviewing. And I’ve been busy. And the dog ate my…blog work. However, I have found a few really good books in the last month that I’d love to share with you. I think there’s something for everyone!

Readers in the UK are the lucky ones with this series, because I believe the whole trilogy is out there. The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie, was one of the best reviewed debuts last year, behind Name of the Wind and Acacia (Both of which I have reviewed and loved.) I agree that this is a quality, fantastic book. It reminded me of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, by Fritz Leiber, if you’ve read those stories. The Blade Itself is an adventure story with original characters and a great gritty atmosphere that is so popular in fantasy at the moment. There are all the requisite cliches, foolish nobility, evil conquerer in the wings, but they are twisted just slightly to make things feel fresh and interesting. The zen Barbarian, the nebulously moral torturer, these characters made me so eager to follow them that I almost finished the book in one sitting. The author has a great way of making the language inobtrusive, so that you are immersed in the story rather than distracted by “fancy prose.” Interestingly, the author is a film editor, and I see that in the visual way he sets out his story. The fight scenes are particularly well written, and I found myself reading a few of them over again, just to get in one the action.

Things I didn’t like about this book: The lack of a map. It drove me batty. Now, I don’t believe you HAVE to have a map in a fantasy book, but if you’re going to refer to geography all the time, and have your characters scattered across the world and jump back and forth between them, then PLEASE give me a visual reference! Maybe it’s my spacial awareness that’s lacking, but I still don’t understand where things are in relation to each other after finishing the book, except for the nebulous bad people in “the North.” I also thought that one of the main characters, I won’t say which one, was very well drawn and interesting until about halfway through, and then I felt like he became a little whiney and cliched. It seemed to defy the story arc that was set up, and I’m eager to have the character more fully fleshed out in the next books, which I hear pay off the quality of the first one, and then some! The second one, Before They Are Hanged is due out here in March, and I will be at the store waiting!

Next is Magic Lost, Trouble Found, by Lisa Shearin. I bought this book on recommendation of a fantasy blog I can’t remember. I stuck it in my Amazon cart without really looking closely. When I opened the package and saw this cover…holy hell. It’s Teri Polo with a broadsword. Meet the Parents I guess didn’t do that well for her, LOL.

I don’t want to be mean because I love this book SO MUCH. But the cover…my boyfriend kept teasing me when I was reading it, and I kept threatening to put it under his pillow so it would make his “man parts” would shrivel up during the night.

But bottom line: I LOVED THIS BOOK. I can’t even tell you guys how much I love this book. I would turn the page thinking, “Man, I want to write a book like this!” The characters are fun, there’s a sense of humor throughout that makes everything feel like a romp with friends. There’s some really scrumptious love interest stuff going on, a good mystery, fun world building…this book had everything I wanted, and I stayed up until 3 am to finish. It has the plotting of all these popular urban fantasy series, but with a lightness and humor that doesn’t feel forced or artificial (despite the cover.) If you like the Sookie Stackhouse series, this is definitely a book for you, and if you’re a Buffy fan (maybe a few out there? ) you will like this as well. The cover blurb says “Enjoyable” and I wholeheartedly agree, except double it. The joy of reading was definitely sparked in me by this book. Hell, I’d love to play an adventure game based on it! This is a girl-power fantasy for everyone to read!

Lastly, I have a mystery, GASP! I know, crazy change, but in fact, mystery books were my first love. I read all the Perry Masons and Ellery Queens after I plowed through the Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys at age 8 or so. Every so often, I’ll find a mystery series I love, mostly of the historical sub-genre, and I’ll eat them up like candy. This is one of those books. Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn, is set in the Victorian era, and follows a very privileged woman who becomes a widow. Of course I don’t want to give anything away, but murder is suspected, and it follows her journey of discovery, both plot-wise and character-wise. This doesn’t read like a typical mystery, it’s more of a tale of self-discovery, spurred by the death of her husband. I loved the characters, and the depth with which the author explores the main character’s past as she tries to find herself without a man in her life. There’s a possible romance, a vividly painted era that feels perfectly real, and I really enjoyed the deliberate pacing that, when the actual mystery plot kicked in full force, took me by surprise and kept me glued for the last 100 pages. There are very modern elements mixed in with the Victorian sensibilities, and I would recommend this to mystery or historical fans alike.