Tag Archives: Book review

Kresley Cole: MacRieve

Book review, World of Books July 9, 2013 1 Comment

I wonder if it’s possible that Kresley Cole‘s books get better and better with each installment that comes out or I just enjoy each of them so much when first time reading them.

And I admit, I had my doubts when I realized what exactly Chloe might be. I was disappointed.

Luckily though, I didn’t stop reading as I already know from previous Cole’s books that even when I macrievedoubt, those doubts always prove unfounded.

So it was this time as well. 🙂

It actually got much better – it was one of those books where you feel the emotions of characters in your stomach while reading their dialogues. The love, the fear, the anger – it all had its share of my stomach (I do hope I’m not the only one this happens to?).

Will (MacRieve or Uilleam which I still don’t know how to pronounce) is the starting point of the story and is truly a tragic hero.  There are really many connecting points to the real world we live in – child molesting for one thing even though I wonder how many people thought of that actually.

Chloe, on the other hand, is such a strong girl, I wish I had her strength of character. All KC females are strong but this is the first one I could connect to. She is truly a Baby T-Rex (her nickname) as in, she is strong of will and character,  even of body, never mind her place in soccer is usually reserved for bigger people. She is also loving, fun, friendly and proud in the fairest sense of the word,. So, making such a strong female suffer and cry hurts my heart too.

I also already know I will be re-reading this book soon.

 

One of the things I love so much about these novels (Immortals after Dark) is all the modern references (making it all appear more real) that appear in them (case in point, Beliebers) but I am not so sure about loving the fact that she makes me root for violence. As in payback for what was done to the good guys. It seems though I condone violence in specific situations. :S

If you are ever interested in starting with a series featuring paranormal steamy romance – Kresley Cole is my first suggestion.

And now I wait for the next one…

Claudia Dain: Daring a Duke

Book review, World of Books June 6, 2013 1 Comment

I love historical romance but it seems to be very difficult for me to find new authors I might add to those I already love reading as you all know, no author produces books at the pace we, the readers, would like.

Therefore I am very happy that I can say I found a new one to add to those whose books I read as soon as they come out. In this case, I have a stash of already published books to go back to. 🙂

And before I go on with my review, I want to say that when it comes to romance, reading the blurb doesn’t help at all. You either read a great one and the book doesn’t even come close, or you read a bad one and never pick up the book which could have been by a new favourite author.

But enough of that.

Basically, I loved this one from the start. 🙂 Instantly, it brought back ideas of Austen’s romance novels, I am not sure why, I think it might be the easiness of story telling. I’m not sure but that was after reading the first page (later I learned that our hero’s name is Hugh Austen).

After that, it only got better. The women are true to their mischievous, not always nice to each other Daring-a-Duke-225x362selves. But friendly at the heart. I wonder if this only makes sense to women. 😉 They also fight and get annoyed for real with their husbands (the real anger, even though it’s short-lived here, never actually appears in other historical romances I read).

We also get to hear a lot of inner female not voiced thoughts which I found chuckle-worthy. Actually, I found many things chuckle-worthy, I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun reading a book.

The best part for me, and you probably won’t believe it, was the fact that there are no steamy sex scenes in here. And I didn’t mind it one little bit. I believe in seduction happening through our minds and here it is a verbal (well and physical at some points, as in men fighting, not the other kind of physical) seduction going on through out the novel. Sparring on several fronts with wonderful dialogues.

Another interesting book is that the whole story is happening during a wedding breakfast.

Lately, I’ve been lamenting all the young female characters for their, well, stupidity. Jane on the other hand, although obviously young and naive to some ways, is still very much intelligent, smart and nice.

Edenham on the other hand, is what I consider a man should be – certain of what he wants and not scared to go after it (or give-up at first hurdle).

Both are easily likeable and fun to be around with.

If you enjoy historical romance, I urge you to give Claudia Dain Courtesan Chronicles a shot (ignore the covers).

 

I got my copy of the book in a give-away. I love how fate works in mysterious ways (especially when it suits me). 😉

Sam Cabot: Blood of the Lamb

Book review, World of Books June 3, 2013 Comments: 3

“The Historian meets The Da Vinci Code in this exhilarating supernatural thriller set in Rome, where rival groups are searching for a document that holds a secret that could shatter the Catholic Church.

This document, dear friend, will shatter the Church…..

Reading these words in a letter in a dusty archive, Thomas Kelly is sceptical. The papers to which they refer have vanished, but Father Kelly, a Jesuit priest, doubts anything could ever have had that power—until the Vatican suddenly calls him to Rome to begin a desperate search for that very document.

Meanwhile, standing before a council of her people, Livia Pietro receives instructions: she must find a Jesuit priest recently arrived in Rome, and join his search for a document that contains a secret so shocking it has the power to destroy not only the Catholic Church, but Livia’s people as well.

As cryptic messages from the past throw Thomas and Livia into a treacherous world of art, religion, and conspiracy, they are pursued by those who would cross any line to obtain the document for themselves. Thomas and Livia must race to stop the chaos and destruction that the revelation of these secrets would create. Livia, though, has a secret of her own: She and her people are vampires.”

Well, calling vampired by another name just seems superfluous as it’s obvious from the beginning (I admit I haven’t read the blurb to the end so I was rolling my eyes waiting for the “v” word to appear).

Calling this book a mix between Da Vinci Code and The Historian is actually pretty accurate. It’s not as thrilling as Da Vinci Code but it’s not as boring as The Historian either.

I also seem to be becoming rather jaded when it comes to Church and Catholics (Christians in general blood lambactually). Honestly, the whole premise of Church being destroyed by the information about to be revealed is rather weak from my perspective, but then, I see Church as a human-led organization which basically means it’s liable to be as good/bad as humanity is. Which isn’t exactly an optimistic thought. But I would call it realistic.

Which also brings me to Father Kelly and his reaction and behaviour once he finds out Livia is a vampire. I mean, really?! As a well educated priest of the Catholic church, displaying such incredible prejudice seems a bit opposite from what the Catholic religion is all about.

He does get over it though, so I wasn’t upset with him all the time.

I might be over-reacting to all things connected to Catholicism at the moment as I’m rather upset it is being used here in a movement to get a definition into the Constitution saying marriage can only happen between a woman and a man. The whole movement is based on the religious beliefs of “true” Catholics trying to “save” the family notion. I am not sure from what though, because if they think their beliefs are based on the teachings of Christ, they are sorely mistaken. I find it rather ironic that I, who no longer consider myself Catholic, believe more into Christ’s words (I was raised as a Catholic after all) and try to live my life in a similar manner, than all these people going regularly to mass (and I’ll stop here not going into their hipocrisy).

My tolerance for narrow-minded religious beliefs is dwindling, if I have any left. And I am not really an atheist.

I apologize for hijacking this book review for my rant but it’s something I get very frustrated over. And over.

Back to the book – I enjoyed the fact that the Noantri (vampires) track one another by perfume. Well, they track Livia’s personal blend which gets her noticed and makes her trackable through the city. These vampires don’t fit the usual description though, which is why Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (he was one too) in order to misdirect humans into believing what vampires should be like. 😉 I think that is a brilliant idea.

I also enjoyed the ending a lot – didn’t see that coming. 🙂 Which is always a huge plus in any book I read.

Dan Brown: Inferno

World of Books May 24, 2013 Comments: 5

infernoI think my memory might be faulty.

I kept thinking of Dan Brown‘s novels as being similar to James Rollins’ ones but I was wrong (I find Mr. Rollins’s ones much better).

But since I’ve read all Dan Brown’s novels so far, I definitely wanted to read Inferno and see where the story with Dante might take us. I learned a lot again – which is one of the good things about this book.

One of the bad things about this book is that it annoyed me to no end. 🙂 From the beginning to the end pretty much.

All of my initial misgivings about some seriously “stupid” plot parts were satisfyingly explained afterwards (I was hoping for that, otherwise it would have been a serious error on the side of the editor).

I do hope I am not going to give away any spoilers but I found the plot to be consciously misleading for the reader until such time as Mr. Brown decided to let us in on what’s actually happening. First, I had a hard time turning my mind around who did what, then I expected that to be another smokescreen until it seemed at the end, that was it.

Speaking of the end, I’m also a bit unsure of how did that female partnership come to happen so easily but I’m happy with that being the case.

And if you think from the start that this might be a mystically fantastic story, you’re going to be wrong. There is a good, rational explanation to everything (except the reason why every character is SO terribly smart).

I would say that the best thing about this novel is that it tackles one theme that I found scary in an another book I read this year (Frozen Solid by James M. Tabor) and that is over-population, i.e. private ideas and actions on how to curb it. Which are never good.

Inferno makes some good, hard points about the fact that we collectively need to start inferno2thinking about this as rather soon it will kill the planet we live on. Correct term for it being “Malthusian growth model” or exponential mathematics. Very scary stuff and unfortunately very true.

That is just one of the interesting things I learned reading Inferno. One other interesting thing is that it makes you wonder and ask yourself some things that you probably wouldn’t like to answer (or know what your answer might be).

For those reasons alone I would say it’s a book worth reading. Just turn a blind eye to the frustrating parts. 😉

 

Patricia Briggs: Frost Burned

Book review, World of Books May 19, 2013 Comments: 5

frostThis was a really good choice after my HP problem. 🙂 It seems to me that Mercy Thompson series is getting better with each new installment which is not something I can say for many others. Quite the contrary, several series I enjoyed reading, I read no longer as I lost interest. Or even when I do, they are just not as good as I remember the previous books.

Not so with Frost Burned. Although I admit to forgetting some previous plots in the meantime (or the fact that Samuel had a fae mate?! when did that happen?).

So, while writing this review I went to check the previous books and I realized I have missed River Marked. I just don’t think I would have so completely forgotten so many referenced things in this novel if I had read all of the previous ones. That is why River Marked is on my list just after I finish Inferno by Dan Brown.

Frost Burned starts off action packed and rather thrilling. I know I oftentimes mention my frustration with characters being stubborn to the point of stupidity, and even though Mercy would fit as a stubborn person with her idiosyncrasies, she is never stupid, quite the contrary. So, it can be done in YA novels too (because I don’t find teenagers stupid – albeit Mercy isn’t a teenager but I would say it still applies).

There are many times in the story where Mercy’s intelligence and practicality are displayed and I loved it! The more I know her, the more I like her.

One part that made me smile was when werewolves are being all secretive and the message going around is that there were some “disturbances in the Force”. 😀 I am not a geeky fan of Star Wars but I love cross-references like this.

One other point that I’d like to comment on is the fact that some authors have the ability to make you root for the bad guys to get killed as soon as possible (by the end of the book at the latest if it can’t happen sooner).

I could mention many things I enjoyed in this book – like how it made me think how our early religious beliefs (well, they are not exactly ours when we are children) but how they can influence your adult life to a painful for the soul point.

How being evil is not exclusive right of the male gender.

Basically, I can’t wait to finish Inferno so I can go to River Marked (as it’s making me a bit upset at some points).

 

Eloisa James: Desperate Duchesses

Book review, World of Books April 4, 2013 1 Comment

Huh.

I’m very ambivalent when it comes to this book. I keep thinking, I liked this part, but, then I start thinking, I don’t think that was good, but…. – and in the end I’m basically not sure. 🙂

Let me try and explain. It is historical romance but set a bit earlier than what I usually read so lovers while one is married are common, and encouraged. Ok, we then learn that our main characters might not be in that vein but still, many others featuring in the story are. Or at least seem to be.

Then, Roberta first seems  rather silly with her notions of love only to learn seriousness and more about herself in a matter of days making her into a complete person.  The story keeps being light-heartedly funny and then trying to look serious so you’re never sure what exactly it’s supposed to be.

I realize Mrs. James is a Shakespeare connoisseur and the story shows it but I’m not sure it works that desperatewell. Although I’m not sure it has actually anything to do with Shakespeare, it’s more like the moving ground you’re on is not making this an easy-to-like novel.

But once we get past the initial adulterous inclinations (they are like teenagers, lusting, loving, liking not being sure what is which), the contours of romantical love start to appear.  I just can’t seem to reconcile the different points into a satisfying whole. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story, but it does mean I am not sure I will be picking up another book from the series. I believe I might enjoy Jemma’s story but I’m not sure I can read more about that particular type of marriages and extra-marital activities.

I guess it bothers me in my romantic inclinations. 🙂

What I could do is read more of the wonderfully funny and convoluted dialogues. Those were great.

We’ll see if another Eloisa James book review appear here, you’ll know then if I succumbed. 😉

James M. Tabor: Frozen Solid

Book review, World of Books March 26, 2013 Comments: 5

Now, this was a ride! 🙂

From the start you can tell this will be a medically-oriented novel, even the metaphors are going in that directions. But what you don’t know is how fast-paced, intriguing and scary it will get. And when I say scary, I don’t mean horror but real-life possibility. Which I find to be even scarier.

“The South Pole’s Amundsen Scott Research Station is like an outpost on Mars. 
Winter temperatures average 100 degrees below zero; week-long hurricane-force
storms rage; for eight months at a time the station is shrouded in darkness.
Under the stress, bodies suffer and minds twist. Panic, paranoia, and hostility
prevail. 
When a South Pole scientist dies mysteriously, CDC
microbiologist Hallie Leland arrives to complete crucial research. Before she
can begin, three more women inexplicably die. As failing communications and
plunging temperatures cut the station off from the outside world, terror rises
and tensions soar. Amidst it all, Hallie must crack the mystery of her
predecessor’s death.frozen solid
In Washington, D.C., government agency director Don
Barnard and enigmatic operative Wil Bowman detect troubling signs of shadowy
behavior at the South Pole and realize that Hallie is at the heart of it. Unless
Barnard and Bowman can track down the mastermind, a horrifying act of global
terror, launched from the station, will change the planet forever—and Hallie
herself will be the unwitting instrument of destruction.
As the Antarctic winter sweeps in, severing contact with the outside world, Hallie must
trust no one, fear everyone, and fight to keep the frigid prison from becoming
her frozen grave.”

At some point you realize there must be a previous book featuring Hallie and Wil Bowman meeting and having an adventure after which they become an item. That book is now on my TBR list (and it does exist). 🙂

But, you don’t actually have to read the first one in order to fully enjoy the second one. The only reason I felt bad for not reading it is because I believe it might be great and I missed it (but not for long).

Hallie is a wonderful character, a military brat grown into an intelligent, fit and extremely capable woman (that is what I read from the story). At some points, her adventures are more of the James Bond type but they are nevertheless great.

Basically, it’s a very good thriller, featuring more or less realistic characters (I believe there are many gifted people in the world but some seem to have been gifted by their writers rather well), nevertheless, it feels realistic and unfortunately believable.

I wonder if as I grow older I’ll start believing in conspiracy theories. If I keep reading things like this it’s quite possible…

The world population is a rather big issue and seeing morals and ethics being put aside for the greater goal makes me feel scared that it might easily happen.

 

My copy of the book came from NetGalley.

Mia Thompson: Stalking Sapphire

Book review, World of Books March 19, 2013 1 Comment

Sometimes I look back on a book I read and find it funny that I read it. 🙂

I mean, there’s nothing really to recommend this book but the story. Ok, that is something. You don’t learn anything from it, the characters are annyoing the first half of the book (the two main characters, and they’re not even teenagers) and then the premise is rather shaky when you consider how Sapphire acts in her day to day life.

But, the story is actually interesting and fun to read and certainly makes for a more interesting night than what is usually on TV here.sapphire

Despite the illusion Sapphire Dubois presents to the rest of the world, she is not just your stereotypical 22-year old Beverly Hills heiress; she hunts serial killers. While her fellow heirs spend their nights with trending celebs and drugs at the hottest club, Sapphire secretly spends hers luring, capturing, and anonymously handing over So-Cal’s most wanted killers to the police — just your average Tuesday night. 

What Sapphire doesn’t know is that one of her adversaries is watching her every move, aware of both her true identity and her unconventional hobby. Needless to say, he doesn’t approve. Used to being the one who redefines the definition of predator and prey, Sapphire’s world abruptly shatters when a gruesome ‘gift’ arrives for her at the Beverly Hills Country Club. With her involuntary crush, handsome Detective Aston Ridder, close on her tail, Sapphire now has to rethink her routine strategy and figure out how to capture a killer who already knows she’s coming.

Now, it might seem I am not very satisfied with the book when actually I am. I am already looking forward to the second one (the ending of the first one implied it) and hopefully we’ll get some better characterisation of basically everyone except for Julia (that character is the only one who seemed well done).

This book should be taken as a light read and you shouldn’t expect much from it aside some fun storytelling. And that is in the end why I enjoyed it – I had fun reading about a serial killer not killing his  secretary because she finally learned her job (so choosing somebody else instead), or wondering who is the killer stalking Sapphire or reading about what an idiot Aston is (not that Sapphire lags much behind).

 

I said recently for The Romanov Cross how it comes off as very realistic and possible. Well, this one doesn’t but still, if you take it as a fun and easy read, you won’t be disappointed (probably).

Robert Masello: The Romanov Cross

Book review, World of Books March 17, 2013 Comments: 7

So many times in my life I thought about how I wished I knew if I was going to like a book or not. Reading blurbs just doesn’t happen and often I finish a book and then I have this terrible problem of deciding what next might prove interesting.

I am ashamed to say that I have quite a lot of titles I received from NetGalley and I’m not really going through them in a timely fashion – I can’t decide from the blurbs which one might be very good. So I decided to randomly start reading them and see how it goes.

It proved to be a rather good idea as I quickly both discarded some and found an interesting one to read. 🙂 The Romanov Cross.

“Nearly one hundred years ago, a desperate young woman crawled ashore on a desolate arctic island, carrying a terrible secret and a mysterious, emerald-encrusted cross. A century later, acts of man, nature, and history converge on that same forbidding shore with a power sufficient to shatter civilization as we know it.”

What I liked about this book is that even though there are some “supernatural” parts to the story, the romanov crossrest seems realistic. People and their actions sound real which is usually something I find  lacking in novels taking place in the real world. And the fact that it deals with the possible outbreak of the Spanish flu only makes it even more interesting in my mind.

If you’re wondering where do the Romanovs feature in the Spanish flu outbreak, I am not going to tell you, and you will never guess either.

I find the whole idea of the novel very intriguing and I finished the book wanting to learn more about what happened in Russia and with the Romanovs, just so I could check whether the ideas I got from this book are based in fact or the author made it work for him.

It takes a while for the story to pick up pace, in the beginning you have no idea why are you reading two different stories but once they start coming together, you’re hooked.

And now I’ve said that the story seems realistic, I should add that the storytelling has some horror elements. 🙂 The horrifying part being they seem possible.

Also, at some point, before you realize there are some supernatural parts to the story, you start wondering how some things would be possible (a pack of wolves surviving on a rather small island for decades?) but once the story gets you to realize there are some unexplained spiritual things happening in this world, you just go with it.

Which brings me to the fact that after reading the book, I was left wondering about the religious/spiritual inclinations of the author. There is a mention of both in the novel, but in a positive way when it’s spiritual, and less positive when it’s religious in the modern-day sense (being a believer of a particular religion).

 

Steven Brust: Dragon & Issola

Book review, World of Books March 5, 2013 1 Comment

I realize I’m only writing about books lately but I promise I do have some perfume reviews coming up in the near future. 🙂

 

Now, I wonder why it took me so long to find my way back to the world of Vlad Taltos. Well, it’s not his world but as the story is told from his perspective, I’m calling it his.

The funny thing about this series is, you read one book but since they aren’t coming out chronologically brust dragontalking about Vlad’s life (we move back and forth some), you read one of the novels as a self-standing book wondering why? what was the point of this story? only to learn that two books down the road.

That was my experience so far. With these two, you do not get to learn what they mean in the grand scheme of things but you do get to ask the questions. 🙂 And they just pile up one on top of each other.

I shouldn’t admit to this, but it only got clear to me with Dragon that as each book represents one line of the Dragearan society, the story of that book depicts the characteristics of that line.  I’m pretty sure every reader of Vlad T. books had realized that long before now.

So, in Dragon we get a very convincing description of what war feels like in one’s mind. We also get to read about daily activities, but I found the stream of thought in fighting more interesting.

As for Issola, that line of Drageareans is known for their courtliness and surprise and we get to see Vlad actually displaying some of both. 🙂 We (the readers) get surprised as well I should add.

 

I’m already looking forward to reading on (I just have this little problem of not being able to find the next book – I know I have it, I just don’t know where it is).

It actually reminds me a bit of Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards series. Or as I read the Taltos books first, it’s vice versa. Only without the swearing. 😉