The Good:
By Kendare Blake
A
This was amazing.
In a sea of utter and depressing sameness this stands out like a shiny,
gore drenched scalpel. (I went looking
for a book in YA over the holidays and got lost because 90% of the titles had
the exact same cover. Black binding. A pretty girl.
A dress. Falling/blood/feathers. You’ve seen them. They’ve taken over EVERYTHING.) A boy with a legacy of ghost hunting ends up
in a town with a big, nasty ghost via a tip and his own obsession. The idea of a kid living on the edges of
society is handled remarkably well, as are the High School interactions and
budding friendship/sidekicks angle. Everything
is familiar to genre fans, and rings bells for Supernatural fans as well. The joy is that the author knows this, and works
it, not for post hipster irony, but for fun snap-changes. But the thing that resonates most deeply is
the relationships. The mother-son
dynamic which starts out false and weak and gradually changes to fierce and
believable; the ghost/hunter soap opera, which consistently and surprisingly
resists becoming a soap opera, and
the reactions of all of the side characters which struck true to the bone
without fail. Overall, solid proof that
YA is not just a wasteland of Twi-hard knockoffs and well worth picking up,
even at hardcover prices.
By Christopher Moore
A-
Oh how I love Christopher Moore. He writes: I buy. The very first book I ever got of his was Blood Sucking Fiends, and I never looked
back—but it also means that I have a warm fuzzy spot in my heart for Jody and
Tommy and to be fair I did not love You
Suck: A Love Story. This mostly
redeems that, though the original is still ever so much better. It’s funny, it’s fluffy, and it makes a fair
number of salient points more than willing to sneak up and bite you if you let
them. While not as BuymeBuymeNOW as Dirty Job and Lamb, it’s still enjoyable, especially for long term fans.
Shaedes of Grey
By Amanda Bonilla
A-
This is paranormal romance, pay no attention to the
fact that our lead is an assassin. But
graded on that curve, it’s really enjoyable.
A girl who is more than human and the only one of her kind is hired to
kill a man who may be just like her and this sets her on a journey to discover
her own heritage. Our lead is saved from
being irritating by the author’s bold choice to make her wrong about just about
everything, all of the time. This is
probably unsustainable for future books, but it balances her certainty about
life nicely this go-round. The romantic
lead/s are fun and intriguing. The villain
is less of a guessing game and more of a suspense thing, but still motivating
enough to make a fast read. Bits of the
ending could have been less obvious, hence the minus, but overall, still a
brisk, solid start to a series that promises to be an excellent distraction and
time suck.
By Diana Rowland
B
This was a bit of a surprise for me. Based on the covers and back blurb, I spent
years assuming this would fall on the unfortunately icky side of Paranormal
ROMANCE, but recent additions to the series changed to a more intriguing cover,
so I picked it up again. And sure
enough, can’t judge by covers, because it was actually light on romance, long
on paranormal and for a first time author, quite solid. It did fail my sex in the first book test
rapidly and spectacularly, but redeemed itself by having the protagonist slowly
realize that she’d been manipulated. The
biggest drawback is that the villain is instantly recognizable. There are some twists, and I read it
fast. Overall, a good enough start that
I just bought the second one. At cover price
even.
The
Romances
When I just want to shut out the world; when I’m
overwhelmed by life, or when I just want to turn off my life, I reach for
romances. Yes. I admit it.
Typically I go in for Regency, but occasionally I pick up a ‘save me’
rescue fantasy, which so often involves a serial killer as a villain. I think I actually like the ‘oh my god this
is dumb’ moments. Due to some family
being extra gold star over the holidays, I went into my local used book
store. These are the results.
By Eloisa James
B+
I liked this book.
Just to be clear. I enjoyed it,
and won’t mind reading more by the author.
Have to get that out there, because I am about to jump on my soap box
and rant. This book should have been an
A+. The leads are flawed, but really
likable. The obstacles are both
realistic enough to buy into and silly enough to still be a vacation from real
life. There are tear jerk moments, and
funny moments. But there is also a
secondary romantic obstacle that the author straight up tells us in the notes
is named after Forest Gump. Because he’s
mentally slow. And this is NOT handled
well. At the edges of the text are hints
of what might have been. The reality of
being a mentally handicapped first born son in the age of primogeniture. The reality of being engaged to one. I would have given this book to every single
person I knew if it had gone in for making him the real lead. But it didn’t. He’s almost a joke. And then he dies. Normally, I hesitate when people say that
killing characters who transgress boundaries is indicative of secret hate. This time I see the logic. I wish our lead had married him, and that
this had been that book. Oddly, the
author seems capable of writing that book.
Maybe I’m wishing too much into it, but I swear moments of that book are
in here. Barring that, I wish the heroine
had simply broken it off with him rather than had him die a hero. The whole final few chapters feel like
something out of a very different book.
Sigh. I don’t even know what to
say, really. Missed opportunities,
mostly. To be different. To be amazing.
By Jaci Burton
D+
A detective’s high school flame returns for his
adoptive parents’ anniversary after vanishing for years in order to be a super
spy only to have the past catch up to them both. This one is
. . . so silly. It’s not just the
super easy game of Spot-the-Villain, or the tired plot, or even the ‘a 4 year old could write that’ plots
points. It’s really bad characterizations. It’s the ridiculous idea of what cops are
like, or how they talk, or what their work environment is like. I might not like cops on a general level, but
I do know a few. Hell, even if I just
used the show “COPS” to base off of (always a bad plan) I’d call Bullshit! I mean, the special ops hero gets a fake FBI
badge—and then an offer to join the FBI for realsies. For the love of suspension of disbelief
people! Everything about the plot is
arbitrary, a because the author says so irritation that is so damn sloppy that
it takes all of the So Bad it’s Good fun out of my reading. Why isn’t this a D- then? Because it’s fairly hot, and balanced with
sweet, and I know a lot of people are into that. So, if that’s your kink, this may be for
you. The whole reunion of sweethearts
thing. Go team that. If your thing is mystery or suspense though,
look elsewhere. Pick it up used if you
do bother.
A
note on Grading: on my Scale A=I might buy the hardback; B=pay trade cover
price; C=get it used or from the bargain bin; D=used if you’re in to self
flagellation; F=what, are you stupid?
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