May's book count

[jmc_bks]

I read some good books this month, and some crappy books.

1.  The Surgeon's Lady by Carla Kelly.  A-.  Harlequin Historical.  I meant to review this book, but never got around to it.  It's the second book of a trilogy, with the heroine of each being sisters, the illegitimate daughters of Lord Ratliffe.  This book got an A- minus rather than a straight A from me because it felt vaguely repetitive -- in places it reminded me a great deal of Kelly's With This Ring, which is perhaps my favorite Kelly read.

2.  Lessons in Discovery, A Cambridge Fellows Mystery by Charlie Cochrane.  A.  M/m, ebook.  This is author and series is one of my Finds for the year so far.  The mystery took a backseat to the personal developments in this book, in comparison to the two earlier installments, but it worked very well.  I was thrilled to read that several more installments are planned, and that the series is going to be edited and reissued as part of Samhain's transition of Linden Bay (original publisher) away from romance to YA.

3.  Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy.  B-. 

4.  Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris.  C  Urban fantasy.  Done with this series.

5.  Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward.  D+.  Urban fantasy.  I have gotten over the crack, and now it just reads as overwrought and underedited.

6.  Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre.  B+.  Urban fantasy noir.  This book works so much better for me than Aguirre's Sirantha Jax scifi series.

7.  Strokes of Genius by L. Jon Wertheim.  B.  Nonfiction.  Wrote about it here. 

8.  Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.  D.  YA paranormal romance.  Uh, sparkly vampires?

9.  Vision in White by Nora Roberts.  C.  Contemporary.  Almost anything written by La Nora could be considered a comfort read for me.  Her single title suspense rocks, and I love the Eve Dallas series.  But this book?  Eh, it didn't work for me.  The hero was fine, but I didn't really care for the heroine, and the setting for the series is one that grates on my nerves -- the wedding industry.  I've seen too many Bridezillas and the monumental debt that people go into for the setting to be entertaining.

10.  Eve of Darkness by S.L. Day.  C-.  Urban fantasy.  The book opened with a Problem that wasn't actually solved (or even addressed) by the end of the book, and screamed, "Series bait!"  Uh, not interested, thx.

11.  Burning Alive by Shannon K. Butcher.  F.  Urban fantasy?  Paranormal romance?  I'm not sure what this was supposed to be, but it failed on both counts for me.  The writing was competent, but the story was chock full of romance and UF tropes that I have low tolerance for.  I took a lot of notes about this book as I read, but most of them boiled down to this:  Mary Sue heroine; selfish hero who was all about what was convenient and useful for his quest without consideration for the damage he was doing to others; similar behavior in his sidekicks, which does not bode well for future installments of this series; poorly established fantasy world that was eventually sort of explained via "well, as you know, Bill"; boring sex scenes that could've been chopped in half; uber evil villains whose villany seems pointless and exaggerated; etc.  Based on how this book ended, I'm guessing it is supposed to be a paranormal romance, rather than strict urban fantasy, and of course more books in the series are coming.   Again, not interested, thx.  It's me, not you, I'm sure.

12. and 13.  Deadly Nightshade and  Deadly Wrong by Victor J. Banis.  B-.  M/m mystery.  I just finished these two the other day and am still thinking about them.  On one hand, they drew me in and kept my attention; on the other hand, they were pretty predictable, in terms of the mystery and in terms of the developing relationship between the gay and straight homicide inspectors.


 

Comments

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for the opinions on the Day and the Butcher. I already have the Day, so we'll see where I fall, but you're the third person to tell me the Butcher is completely horrible, so I'll skip that one!

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

The Day book wasn't bad, really, especially in comparison to the Butcher. My main frustration was that the prologue/opening chapter ended with the heroine in Big Trouble. Then the book skiped backward and showed how she became a Kick Ass Heroine, and then came back to the point of the opening of the book and STOPPED! It seemed like monumental series baiting and teasing to me, which really put me off.

[dancechica1821.livejournal.com]

I won an ARC of Eve of Darkness from Tor, but barely made it past the first few chapters before I started skimming. It just didn't interest me, and I didn't really like the story's characters. Also thought there were way too many paranormal creatures, making the mythology feel cluttered. It all lacked a certain cohesiveness.

I've given up on Charlaine Harris, too. Definitely Dead was my last Sookie book. My main problem was that I felt the series lacked direction; like there was no overreaching arc that the series and its characters were moving towards, and I began to suspect it was going to become another of those never-ending series, with no conclusion in sight.

I dumped JR Ward after Lover Awakened. I didn't buy Butch's book but I did briefly skim it just to make sure I was really done with the series. I was. I stopped because I didn't like the direction the series was heading in, and based on what I've read of the recent books, I'm glad I stopped when I did.

I was kind of interested in trying Blue Diablo, but hesitant to pick it up since Grimspace didn't work for me. I might give Blue Diablo a try now since it worked better for you.

Then again, I think I may be reaching an urban fantasy/paranormal burn out. Nowadays, when I see new UF/paranormal books, I'm just not as interested in trying them as I used to be. :-/

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Blue Diablo was an impulse purchase for me; I was hesitant to try the series for the same reason you mention. While the writing style is the same, the characters are completely different. I think part of the reason I like BD better is that for all that it is urban fantasy, it is set in modern Mexico and America, in a world I understand, albeit one with magic. Whereas the Jax series is in future space, which takes monumentally more world building. I find that often the stories collapse under the weight of that world...or the world is too flimsy and it falls to pieces.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I'll give Blue Diabio a chance, then. It sounds like I might have better luck with it than I did Grimspace.

[dancechica1821.livejournal.com]

Oops! That was me. Forgot to sign in. lol.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Also, for the Harris series, I'm not sure that I was looking for a particular arc for the characters, but in the last couple of books I've felt like the characters have become a cash cow, and the series will go on for as long as the books sell well.

For Eve of Darkness, I agree about the cohesiveness. The abrupt ending made me wonder if books 1 and 2 were originally written as a single book, then separated for marketing purposes. It just felt incomplete.