Fiction

Review – Magic Slays

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Magic Slays

By Ilona Andrews

Penguin Group

ISBN: 9781101515259

4 stars

This is the fifth book in the Kate Daniel series and if you haven’t read the first four books, starting here would be a mistake.  Not because you’d be lost, Andrews provides enough details for the first-timer and for readers who may have let a bit too much time lapse between books, but because you’d miss all the fun.

Kate, now the Beast Lord Curran’s wife for lack of a better term, she’s living with the Pack and acting as Alpha to Curran.  While she’s still not entirely comfortable with her new position and unsure how to handle her emotions now that she’s allowed herself to admit she loves Curran, she clings dearly to her new business, the only thing she has some control over.  Setup with funds from the Pack, Kate is ready to work for herself rather than the Guild but finding business is proving harder than she imagined.  In an Atlanta full of magical beings, shapeshifters, vampires, witches, and mages, no one is asking for her help.  When her first client walks through the door, the gates of hell open below her feet.

One thing I love about these books — sheer brain candy.  That’s a good thing so don’t be turned off.  The books are short, entertaining, and Andrews has created an Atlanta full of wonderful characters, most of which are the staples of urban fantasy, but they all feel new.  I devour these books and wait patiently for the next installment so I can schedule time on the couch to sit and become absorbed in Kate’s world.  She’s brash, doesn’t think things through, acts crazy at times, and takes constant risks even when the people in her life ask her not too.

I waited for four books to see Kate and Curran get together and no I’m not saying that to ruin anything for you if you haven’t read these books yet.  You see it coming in book one and when it happens, it works.  I know some of you might be saying, “Romance in urban fantasy?”  Don’t worry, it’s not out of control and fits with the story without becoming the story.

If you haven’t read these books yet, try them.  They’re so fun and if you don’t love urban fantasy, you will when you finish these books.  If you want to start at the beginning, the books in order are: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds, and Magic Slays.

Review – Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV

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Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV

By Karleen Koen

Crown Publishers

ISBN: 978030771657-6

4 stars

I’ve always had a soft spot for the antics of the French court even more so than the English courts and I’m the type of person who can’t turn down a story about the Tudors. In books revolving around the monarchy, whether French or English, one can’t have a story without a mistress and let’s all agree that’s what makes the story. Isn’t that why these books are so much fun? Oh, it is and Koen doesn’t disappoint.

Cardinal Mazarin, the French prime minister, is dead and Louis XIV, only twenty-two years-old, is now king of France and a king with power. That power is not yet firmly grasped but he’s intent on learning to yield it fully. Unaware of many of the financial arrangements his mother and the Cardinal made while ruling in his stead, he’s in for a surprise when he finally takes it upon himself to investigate. Unsure of his financial minister’s monetary affairs and how mingled they are with the crown’s accounts, he has suspicions and employs a faithful counselor to help him sort through the courtly promises and financial advice being offered.

To add another distraction, Louis has fallen in love with his brother Philippe’s wife, Princess Henriette, a woman captivating not only the king but the entire French court. A man not used to being denied, Louis attempts to make Henriette his mistress against the wishes of not only his brother but also his mother who believes it will be his downfall. Married to a woman he greatly admires for her breeding and royal pedigree, unfortunately, he doesn’t truly love her and is looking for a distraction she can’t provide. He knows it’s the idea of passion and surprise that comes from his illicit affair with Henriette but Louis can’t help himself. To calm the court, Henriette suggests he flirt with one of her maids; a shy but very pretty young woman named Louise. Then something happens he didn’t expect — Louis finds he might have fallen in love.

Before Versailles started slowly for but it was almost as if it was waiting for Louis to find his footing as king and once he found his confidence, so did the story. While the affair between Louis and Henriette is more intense, the affair with Louise is completely the opposite but in a way more satisfying. All the court intrigue requirements needed for a story like this are met and then some. Oddly, the financial scandal is also quite good, adding a harder edge to what is mostly a love story. It’s a nice contrast for Louis as he grows into his role as a king and what he’s dealing with on the political level makes you see why he craves love in the quieter parts of his life. I was happy to see the political elements here. In stories about kings and mistresses it sometimes gets pushed to the side and becomes background noise. Here that doesn’t happen and it’s refreshing. There is a small side story involving Louise that feels slightly out of place but it’s the only stumble in an otherwise entertaining book.

I read a lot of historical fiction and I love when authors find a way to make well-known figures interesting and intense characters that allow you to imagine another life for that person. Koen does that with Louis XIV. I finished wanting to know more about the king that would build the palace of Versailles. That can be difficult to accomplish sometimes.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

 

Review – Child of the Northern Spring

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Child of the Northern Spring

By Persia Woolley

Source Books

ISBN: 9781402245244

4 stars

Guinevere, a young woman barely 18 years-old and while a strong and intelligent person, she’s out of her element when it comes to practices of the court.  The chosen bride of the newly minted King Arthur, she’s leaving her father and the only home she’s ever known to meet him and prepare to be his wife and queen.  Their first meeting a few years prior to the marriage arrangement left her interested but not fully convinced she was the right woman for him.  Without a better marriage offer and wanting to protect her homeland, she undertakes the journey to become his partner.

Arthur and Guinevere’s match is a good one — they’re both strong people and have an affinity for each other.  When the Saxons, always a threat to the country at this time, decide to attack, Arthur moves his armies to meet them and they both find out what it means to be king and queen and husband and wife.

I prefer Arthurian legend stories with a touch of historical reality rather than magic.  There is some magic in Child of the Northern Spring but it’s more in the form of religion and gods which is fine.  Merlin does make an appearance and there are moments when he calls down the gods and their wrath and the same can be said for Arthur’s sister, Morgan.  I’m all right with magic in that capacity though.  For as much as I adore fantasy, I don’t always like it mixed with my Arthur and Guinevere.  Go figure.

This book does move slowly and is told in more flashbacks than I felt necessary but it provides a nice background and history for Guinevere and who she is as a person.  I like that she isn’t a meek woman in this story and even though she’s unsure of herself, some of that is due to her age and that she’s never lived at court or even ran her father’s household after the death of her mother.  It’s a lack of confidence and she begins to gain more at the end of the book.

Child of the Northern Spring is the first in the Guinevere trilogy and with my ability to never walk away from a series, especially one that involves Arthur and Guinevere, I see myself reading more.  If you enjoy Arthurian legend, this one is worth a look.

Review – The Map of Time

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The Map of Time

By Félix J. Palma

Atria Books

ISBN: 97814391673097

4.5 stars

If truth be told, the idea of time travel has fascinated me for a long time, since I read The Time Machine as a teenager in a high school English class. The complicated systems, consequences, and the mechanisms by which time travel is possible are the making of stories I love dearly. Then there are the questions: can the past be changed and should it be? So much potential for a fantasy lover like me! In The Map of Time, three stories intertwine to make Victorian England the birth place of time travel with the author, H.G. Wells, crisscrossing stories to investigate instances of time travel.

Andrew Harrington is a man in mourning for a woman brutally murdered by Jack the Ripper. Years pass and yet he still can’t forget the harlot he met in the dark, dank, back alleys of London. He had hopes of bringing her home to his comfortable mansion and making a true lady of her; a dream now lost. His cousin, however, has plans to change his grieving by means of time travel. If Andrew could travel back in time, he would be able to rescue his girl and move on with his life. Game for anything that will stop his pain and possibly save the love of his life, Andrew agrees and the plot to kill Jack the Ripper is set in motion with the aid of H.G. Wells.

On the other side of London, Gilliam Murray, the proprietor of Murray’s Time Travel, an expedition taking patrons to witness a great future battle between man and automaton, is happily filling his coffers thanks to a time traveling device and fabulous marketing tactics. It is on this expedition that Claire Haggerty, a woman attempting to escape to the future and a new exciting life free of Victorian ideals, falls for the brave Captain Derek Shakleton, the man who saves humankind. But has she really fallen for a man from the future?

Pondering the affect his work, The Time Machine, has had on readers and literature in general, H.G. Wells is approached by a man claiming to be a true time traveler and a man in need of his help in order to save great works of literature from destruction. Skeptical, Mr. Wells becomes a detective of sorts to understand what and who he is dealing with — is the man a true time traveler? Can he be believed? Should he be? Can time travel really exist? Unsure what to believe, he decides to meet with the man anyway and see what his future, and fate, have in store for him.

What Palma does so well is make everything believable even for the most skeptical of his characters, H.G. Wells. He is also a master of tying up loose ends; creating an amazing web of intricate tales that all have similar elements yet are so very different. He’s a fascinating writer able to bring alive the time period of Victorian England with its fascination with new inventions as well as imagining a future world that would entrance. Each of the three stories have common themes, love being the main one, and he treats each story gently to make everything plausible — even if some of the characters are not sure of what they’ve gotten themselves into.

The Map of Time is an intricate story set in a brightly imaged Victorian England but with a fantasy subplot that causes each and every character to re-think their actions and lives. This story is a cautionary tale about the use of science and the foibles of love for his characters but above all, it’s an utterly fascinating and readable book. You won’t want to put this one down.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Short Story Review – The Abandoned

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The Abandoned

By Amanda Stevens

Mira

EAN: 9781426888861

3.75 stars

Ree Hutchins is on-duty at the mental hospital when her favorite patient passes away.  Never a believer in the supernatural, and certainly not ghosts, Ree can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right; especially after overhearing a conversation involving a doctor she admires greatly.  Ree spends her days trying to understand what she overhead at the hospital and hoping the creepy feeling she’s experiencing will fade.  Finding herself in a cemetery late one night with no recollection of how she got there, Hayden Priest, an amateur ghost hunter, comes to her rescue in more than one way.

This is a prequel to The Restorer which I really enjoyed.  (My review is here if you’re interested.)  It’s a short story but because I’d read The Restorer first, I had very high expectations.  I tamped the expectations down and enjoyed the story more at the end than at the beginning.  In ways, it felt as though I was waiting for more and that was because I knew the other later story that came from this one.  Stevens was definitely honing her story idea here.

As part of my 2011 reading, I’ve been trying to read more short stories, something I don’t often do because in certain ways I feel cheated.  I get attached to a story or a character and then it ends quickly.  I’m slowly learning to overcome this so even though my review seems only lukewarm, it’s not intended that way.  That has more to do with my non-ability to read a short story without being picky.  If you’re looking for a quick little ghost story, give this a try but do it before The Restorer if you have that on your list.  It’s an enjoyable story.

Review – Northanger Abbey

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Northanger Abbey from The Complete Works of Jane Austen

By Jane Austen

Douglas Editions

BN ID: 2940000816981

4.5 stars

On a quest to finish reading all of Austen’s works this year, I bring you my Northanger Abbey thoughts.

Seventeen year-old Catherine Morland is excited to be on holiday with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Allen.  Her first visit to the resort town of Bath, she befriends Isabella Thorpe, a young woman much like herself with many of the same interests and the two becomes quite close in a very short time, attending balls and gossiping about the town’s visitors.  While waiting for her love interest, Henry Tilney, to return, Isabella’s brother John Thorpe begins to pursue Catherine.  She manages to keep him at bay and at the same time make friends with Henry’s sister, Eleanor, who invites her back to their estate — Northanger Abbey — for an extended visit.  Catherine, a reader and enthusiast of gothic novels, lets her imagination run wild envisioning the Abbey to be more thrilling than the tranquility it exudes and she starts looking for exotic explanations for simple human reactions to tragedy.

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s take on a gothic novel.  Each time I pick up one of her books I have a certain expectation —- there will be a heroine, a love interest, a blossoming love story, a love-laced blunder, and true love found at last.  All of that happened but there was a little more to this one; the gothic tale.  I’m not familiar with the novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliff which the main character Catherine adores, however, since reading this book I have downloaded it to my Nook and plan to take a look soon.  It’s really a wicked little jab at these horror stories and Catherine’s love of these types of books and her insistence on how well-written there are goes against the proclamations of others and is obviously Austen’s opinion of this genre made very clear.

As for characters, she once again delivers.  Catherine — a naïve, very likable person unwilling to believe a friend could do her wrong or that a dark side of life can exist.  She’s really lovely if somewhat absorbed in a world of fantasy.  I also very much enjoyed John Thorpe.  He’s brash, annoying, disagreeable, unlikeable, and spot on.  In no way do you want Catherine to acknowledge him let alone fall in love with him.  Henry, for me, was slightly boring (he’s no Mr. Darcy but who is?) but I found him endearing and a good fit for Catherine.

I waited a long time for the story to move to Northanger Abbey and was slightly disappointed with it, much like Catherine herself, but I loved her enthusiasm in uncovering what she believes to be the truth about the old Abbey.  It did follow a regular arc I’ve come to expect and love from Austen and I found Northanger Abbey to be a worthwhile addition to her collection and one I think I might read again.

Mansfield Park is next in my Austen reading but I probably won’t slip into it until later this year but I’m looking forward to it.

Review – Dawn of Avalon (short story)

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Dawn of Avalon: Morgan and Merlin — The Beginning

By Anna Elliott

Smashwords Edition downloaded to Nook

3.75 stars

Oh, my soft spot for all things King Arthur.  After having finished a rather long book, I thought it would be a good idea to read a few short stories to get myself back into a reading groove.  And of course, I also thought I’d return to a love of mine — Arthurian stories.

Morgan Pendragon has disguised herself as a boy and offered her services to King Vortigern.  She ends up working as a healer in his dungeon to get close to a certain prisoner; a man who can tell no one who he is, where he comes from, or which side he’s fighting for.  When Vortigern gets nothing from him after days of torture, he decides to sacrifice the man to appease the gods in an attempt to hold off Uther Pendragon’s impending invasion.  Morgan, not willing to watch him die, helps him to escape and finds out he’s more than just a soldier.  He’s a man with magical abilities — a man named Merlin.

Morgan and Merlin are some of my favorite characters from Arthurian stories.  Morgan was slightly different; softer, less hostile, less magical, and for me not nearly as interesting.  It’s not a bad thing, I just have a general standard in my head for the character of Morgan and she’s a meaner and harder figure but this Morgan did fit this particular story better.  As for Merlin, I usually think of him as very self-assured and able to make decisions supernaturally so his being helpless again took me out of my comfort zone.  He needed Morgan to survive both physically and emotionally, but again, it fit with the story being told.  All in all it, was good and I might look up a few more things by Anna Elliott particularly Twilight of Avalon.  Dawn of Avalon is the short story that serves as the prequel to that book.

Review – Heat Wave

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Heat Wave

By Richard Castle

Hyperion

EAN: 9781401394769

3.5 stars

Nikki Heat is one of New York’s finest with a new case on her hands — a millionaire real estate developer found dead on the sidewalk in front of his exclusive Manhattan apartment.  Saddled with Jameson Rook, a celebrity journalist who somehow managed to get himself on a ride along, she begins her investigation at the same time a heat wave hits the city.

Sometimes all I want is a good old fashioned crime novel full of clichés, bad dialogue, and a criminal that sticks out from the first time you meet him/her on the page.  I got what I wanted out of this one.  It was all the above and more.  Parts of it made me laugh, cringe, and not once did any of it make me want to stop reading.  I know these books are the basis for the TV show Castle (or the other way around, I don’t know) which I’ve never seen, but now I may watch an episode just to see what it’s like.  It probably would have been helpful to have seen the show before reading this book too but I looked past a few things and went with it when I came to something that a person who watches the show probably would have known.

At its heart, Heat Wave, is a cop book.  It moved fast and entertained and that was what I needed at the time.  I have a soft spot for Lee Child novels but I think I may add a few Castle books to my crime thriller list for when the need strikes.