Category Archives: World of Books

Keri Arthur: Moon Sworn

World of Books September 1, 2010 Leave a comment

I feel a bit bad that all I do lately is talk about books when I started my blog because of perfumes but I need to get these books off my chest and in the mean time, I am smelling many different things and will talk about them soon, I promise.

I was a fan of Keri Arthur even before her Riley series kicked off. This is the last book in the series (for a change, it seems most series these days go on indefinitely).

At the beginning of the book, I got a bit scared that this might veer in the wrong direction than what I anticipated from Riley books. The last one ended when Riley had to kill her soul mate (which is really bad for a werewolf since you only get one per life). Even though she is half vampire, half werewolf, it almost killed her and we get into Moon Sworn reading a lot about how she is questioning everything about her life and should be grateful for Quinn but her soul is shattered and so on and on. You see why I got a bit scared?

Anyway, the plot suddenly gets transported into action and that’s when things start to get interesting.
Even though the book kept my interest, I got the feeling it lacked more meat concerning the story itself. It was kind of flat. It feels like previous Riley books weren’t so easily predicted as this one.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, it just didn’t live up to my expectations which Keri Arthur raised herself. I saw a lot of reviews saying how great this book was and if you enjoyed the rest of the series, this one will fit nicely. I just wonder is it me or did anyone else feel like this?

Pic by: http://www.keriarthur.com

Tess Gerritsen: Ice Cold

World of Books August 31, 2010 Leave a comment

It seems this is the US title (British one is Killing Place).  I really don’t understand why they do that except that it makes me think I missed a book.

I don’t think I ever wrote about Tess Gerritsen. A serious oversight. I enjoy the Isles & Rizzoli series immensely. It’s like an improved version of Kay Scarpetta novels. This now sounds awful but I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that here except for the forensic pathologist Maura Isles (like Kay Scarpetta), we also have a female police detective Jane Rizzoli (and there’s Pete Marino in Scarpetta novels but he’s a guy). There are many similiraties between the series and both are quite gruesome. But I sort of feel more faith in human nature coming through T. Gerritsen’s books than in Scarpetta. And they both deal with some seriously scary stuff.

For example, this one (Mephisto Club as well) reads almost like a horror story, the way it’s written. It definitely has all the characteristics of a horror movie. Incredible really. And then the story unfolds and even though it’s unfortunately very possible and believable (as in it could happen for real after some bad circumstances piling up on each other but that’s the way bad stuff usually happens), it ends on a relatively optimistic note for humanity. It also displays the fact that most of us are cowards in our daily lives which does not become visible until we are faced with adversity.

I would recommend this series to everyone who enjoyed Kay Scarpetta novels and likes some scariness mixed with the criminal story. I can’t wait to see what comes up next.
And btw, if you are going to read it, start from the beginning.

Pic by: http://www.tessgerritsen.com

Laurell K. Hamilton: Skin Trade

World of Books August 16, 2010 Comments: 2

It doesn’t really happen that often that I cannot remember what the book was about or that I actually forget I read it.  I was completely sure when starting Skin Trade that I never read it before. Which was ok because I felt like reading it for the first time (even after I remembered some parts but didn’t remember how it ends).

So, Vittorio from Incubus Dreams (that’s where we met him first) sets a trap for Anita in Las Vegas and she has no choice but to get there (while Jean-Claude is still asleep so cannot argue against it). But since this is an already known vampire serial killer, Edward, Olaf and Bernardo also come to play. This is where we get to see Olaf trying to get more quality time with Anita (from his perspective of course).

 Spoilers ahead again. 🙂

And since Master of Las Vegas animal to call is a were-tiger and Anita is carrying the top were-tiger lycnathopy, there is a whole new set of problems with that. Standard stuff of the last several Anita books. 🙂 While trying to find the resting place of Vittorio through the were-tiger that is helping him, they also seem to realize that there was not only a vampire problem the police in Las Vegas was dealing with but a demon as well. That turns out to be a lesser problem because Vittorio is not just an ordinary master vampire. He is Father of the Day to Mother of all Darkness who she stripped of some of his powers but they seem to be returning in this book. Of course, Anita is there to deal with that problem. 🙂
What interests me more is what happened with Marmee Noir? I mean the vampire council feared her waking so much that they blew up her resting place. But for some reason I cannot believe that was the end of her. 🙂 You don’t get rid of the mother of all vampires just like that. We’ll see.

Laurell K. Hamilton: Blood Noir

World of Books August 16, 2010 Comments: 2

First time around I thought this book was kind of plotless. Now I’m wondering how in the world did I get to that? Probably because it felt it was just Anita and Jason visiting his dying father and getting tangled up in his childhood problems because of a really big wedding starring a guy who looks exactly like Jason. Which of course leads to a whole bunch of problems on top of which Marmee Noir makes a surprise visit out of which Anita comes out with a new animal to call and loss of memory. Richard also makes an appearance, again causing problems for everyone but at least he gets to lose Anita’s rage he inherited through the triumvirate and Anita learns how to feed ardeur through something else than just sex.

You know, there is a lot of parts in all the books when Anita is trying to explain metaphysics and magic to people (usually police) who are not sensitive and cannot imagine what it is like.  That also serves as a good reminder that the readers might have problems with getting the idea but I cannot say I had that problem. I just accept whatever comes up as the part of the world in which Anita lives. Although sometimes I do wish people around her wouldn’t get that terribly hurt (including her).

Laurell K. Hamilton: The Harlequin

World of Books August 16, 2010 Leave a comment

I shouldn’t be mentioning their name, should I? I haven’t received a mask, meaning it’s forbidden to discuss them. The vampire policing band of seriously old and powerful vampires. And they’ve arrived to St. Louis under pretense of checking the Church of Eternal life.

Spoilers ahead. 🙂

That was the official line. When actually the head of the Harlequin just wanted territory for himself before Mother of all Darkness wakes (that would mean some kind of protection which I managed to foget what actually it was). Too many metaphysical explanations to keep them all in my head. Anyway, Anita and company manage to deal with them. Company this time includes Edward and Olaf. 🙂 Olaf being the serial killer whose type of women are exactly what Anita looks like. Yeah, her life is never easy. But since Anita knows what Olaf is like, she tries to keep contact to a minimum, until the end of the book when she practically fulfills Olaf’s fantasy with him (meaning he is now seeing her as an attractive partner and not prey).  Which will get more obvious in Skin Trade.

You know, I wouldn’t be writing about each of the books in the series if I didn’t participate in the Anita Blake challenge. I am glad I decided to read them again, those books make me feel brave and ready to face the world. It’s because Anita is a character that is at the same time fragile and extremely brave and tough. I’m sure she would get angry with me if she were real and saw this. 🙂 She, along with Harry Potter are the two characters that feel most real to me. As if they really could exist in this world. Or, and this is worse for me, as if I could get lost in their worlds forever and never want to leave. There are some books/series that make me feel like that. Like I need to learn to live my life again ince I’m done with them. Which is at the same time proof that the author in question does some excellent writing and a problem for me because I tend to want to go back and feel a bit depressed that I can’t. One more book that does this is The Lord of the Rings.

One last thing about the book. It’s even more vampire politics complicated with spies, rules, council politics etc. getting all mixed up in the story. I should have paid more attention when reading it because I got a bit surprised in the end with trying to figure who did what and why. 🙂 Well, I am on a vacation after all. 😀

Laurell K. Hamilton: Danse Macabre

World of Books August 16, 2010 Leave a comment
Is it just me, or do other people get lost among the titles of Hamilton’s books? I mean this one and the last two (I’m not including Micah here) get mixed up in my mind. Oh well.
I’m behind writing about the books again (vacation will do that to you – make you lazy I mean). So today I want to go through those I read  and then it feels like I’ll be able to retain my writing schedule – I read a book and I can write about it.
Danse Macabre is the book where a vampire dancing troupe comes to St Louis to visit along with other Masters of City who want to offer people to Anita to choose another pomme de sang (apple of blood even though she is not that kind of vampire). You get a lot of vampire politics, machinations, metaphysical surprises (which are almost by definition related to sex), some gay sex with Anita at the same time (so be warned). The one thing that I remember this book by the most is the part where Asher and Anita  are not allowed to have sex alone after it. I won’t say why now, if you read it you’ll know, if you didn’t, it’s better like this.

One thing I realized while re-reading this series is that it’s really not in the author’s/series’ best interest when you have to wait for a year to read the next one because you just forget so much. And reading through the progression of Anita’s powers (not just the ardeur) and reading a bit interviews with LKH, made me realize that Anita’s world was always about violence and sex even though at the beginning it might not have appeared so much in the novels. But I think the idea was always there for LKH. And if you are a prude, these books are so not for you (Danse Macabre is the book that will make you figure out if you aren’t sure). 🙂

Laurell K. Hamilton: Cerulean Sins and Incubus Dreams

World of Books August 8, 2010 Leave a comment
I’m already quite late in writing about Anita Blake novels so I decided to group these two together because honestly, they are mostly about sex and Anita’s problems with the ardeur.
Before I go on, there are going to be spoilers ahead so if you haven’t read them, be warned.
Cerulean Sins brings us into vampire politics territory. Belle Morte has sent her envoys who have arrived too early and all manner of problems are occurring – one of them is that she wants Asher back (who of course doesn’t want to go) and unless he is sharing Anita’s and Jean Claude’s bed, he will have to. Of course that Anita and J-C defeat all the problems they face with both their enemies and people who should know better (Richard and Dolph who bullies Anita because of her ties with the “monsters” since his son wants to marry a vampire). Told you there would be spoilers. 🙂

I don’t want to go into details but Marmee Noir makes into the story and the start of the Anita’s pornographic ardeur trip starts. There’s been a lot of talk about how the series have downgraded from here (and honestly, re-reading the series I kind of got stuck in the middle of this book because I just didn’t feel like reading through so much self-torture done by Anita through her I’m a lousy Catholic and shouldn’t be having so much sex with so many people attitude). So I finished Cerulean Sins after reading some other books in the mean time. And then I went on to Incubus Dreams.

Which goes deeper into the whole ardeur=food=sex territory but is less problematic to read (unlike Danse Macabre I’m reading at the moment where there’s so much ardeur philosophy and sex that it feels there is no story underneath it).
Although honestly, I just now take the books in the series as they come. I just hate it when people trash authors for taking the characters and story to a territory not approved by some of the readers. I mean, if you don’t like, write your own books. Or just don’t read them. There is really no need to add to the negativity we are surrounded with in our everyday lives. I love Anita Blake world even though it’s darker and more pessimistic than I usually go for but it still displays that one should stick to one’s own ideals and character even when it means going against the world. Because good is the choice one should take even though it would be so much easier to go the easier route. And faith is something we should never question or presume to know what the deity in which we believe thinks of our lives. We try. That is the best we as humans can do.
Ok, so, this has nothing to do with the story. 🙂 But it seems I have some strong opinions about the series.

Well, again a lot of problematic sex. A new triumvirate. Richard eases his way back into the original triumvirate but is still making problems for everyone.
It just feels like the crime stories in these two are there just as the backdrop for all the sex. I know this sounds awful but it’s still the truth. It’s not that the books are bad, quite the contrary, they are easily read (ok, maybe some sex scenes are not for the faint hearted – ok, not maybe but for sure) but it still lacks the darkness and seriousness of the first several novels.
The interesting thing is, everyone (or almost everyone) who got hooked on Anita through those first books will forever read any story in her world because we are waiting for her to master that ardeur and start dealing with serious crime. And well, it’s not like the sex is bad. 😀

Pic by: http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/

Curtis Sittenfeld: Prep

World of Books July 25, 2010 Leave a comment

I don’t know where to start. 🙂

Let me start be confessing my shame. I don’t remember the last time I read a contemporary novel set in real life. It seems all I read these days is paranormal fiction, fantasy and historical romance and it seems now I might be missing out on some great books.
I am seriously grateful to Transworld Publishers for hosting this summer challenge and making this book available to me.
First off, let me say that I was wondering through half the book if it is possible that the author was a guy because of the name since the main character Lee Fiora is a girl and the private boarding school experience we follow through the novel is just so well written from the female perspective that I was wondering if a guy could possibly have done it. But no, Curtis is a woman. Which should have been obvious from the way the novel is written.
I was sucked in from the start. And I still don’t know how to describe this book. It is a perfect picture (in my opinion) of what normal girls go through in their high school years (be it a boarding school or normal high school). I found myself in those pages so many times. 🙂 I do wish I knew then what I know now and it seems the author feels the same – there are little windows into the future where she lets us see where some of the situations ended.
At about the third of the book, I became aware of the fact that I don’t know when the story is happening – they have a pay phone in their dormitory and first I thought there were no computers and cell phones. Then it seemed there were some computers around but still no cell phones, so my guess is the high school years here are early 90s. Perhaps.
It doesn’t really matter – because the high school experience seems universal. At least to me. It’s exactly what I would wish every teenage girl would know but the problem is, she probably wouldn’t understand it before getting through the experience and then some time passing for her to take a relatively objective view of the past and realizing how true this book is.
I found myself back in those years reading through all the irrelevant things going through her mind (I know they are quite relevant then but now that’s no longer true), thinking about boys and interacting with them,  insulting her intelligence and everything else about herself (making it seem she is insignificant in the order of things) – I remember all those things. And I’m still working on them, well working against them staying in my life.

Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to take a look back to their teenage years and enjoy the view while learning something about those years and about yourself.

Pic by: http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk/

PC & Kristin Cast: HoN Burned

World of Books July 24, 2010 Comments: 2

Well, I survived the waiting period between books 6 and 7 (since books 6 in series in my experience always end terribly and you are left bewildered how in the world are you ever going to survive the wait until the next one).
Btw, there are going to be spoilers ahead so if you haven’t read book 6, you might want to stop reading now.

Since Zoey’s soul shattered in the previous book, it was a good guess there weren’t going to be a lot of her in this book. Which I can’t say was a bad thing, I liked following Stevie Ray’s life and Stark’s coming of age in psychological terms. In the end I was left wondering though what will happen between Stevie Ray and Rephaim. There are some interesting developments we might see in the future there.

I liked the fact that I feel like I got to know other characters better and the world where they live (but that I mean the vampire universe the Cast women created) got expanded and explained.

I found it funny how all the love problems seem so teenage which is what they are supposed to be like, I mean they are all teenagers after all. Even though at times they seem more serious than teenagers should be, but they are fighting evil so I don’t think they could be anything other.

It seems now I’m writing this that my feelings for this book aren’t very strong. 🙂 True but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it or that I’m not going to read the following book(s) (I don’t know how many are planned). It’s not as captivating as some other books in this series but it’s good.

Pic by: http://www.amazon.com/

Matthew Reilly: The 5 Greatest Warriors

World of Books July 19, 2010 Comments: 2
Well, it’s not like I have much new to say. 🙂 It’s Matthew Reilly through and through. We start where we left off in The Six Sacred Stones. Of course that Jack West managed to get himself out of the cliffhanger situation from the end of the last novel. Was there ever any doubt? 😉

I’m lucky though that I read the previous book just a while ago because there was a 2-year pause between them.

Like I said the last time, Mr. Reilly’s books are the ones that make me stop reading anything else that I might be reading at the time. Besides, you go through them really fast since the pace of the book is fast and you just have to go through it fast because you can’t stop.
It was a bit of a shock for me reading through the part where it is described what some of the evil guys in this book do to their enemies (btw, not all the enemies are bad guys which makes it even worse). I sincerely hope that is not possible and never happens to anyone for real.

If you read the previous 2 books, you can probably guess the relation between the title and the story.

There’s not much I can say without getting too much into the story, all the characters are back along with some new, some of them get seriously hurt or killed and of course it ends with our group of heroes saving the world. 

What I found fascinating was some interesting insights into the Catholic church and its doctrine or the origins of the faith) – I will give it more time and look for some other books on the subject.

Pic by: http://www.matthewreilly.com