Tag Archives: WoW

WoW: Laurell K. Hamilton

World of Perfume October 22, 2009 Leave a comment

If you’re a fan of kick-ass heroines from vampire/werewolf stories, Anita Blake series is definitely not to be missed. It’s how I got started and hooked. 🙂 The series has progressed to some 17 books or something (I don’t really bother remembering the number, I just check periodically to see if something new is coming out).

As you can probably guess that many books usually mean the quality might be questionable at some point. Well, that guess would be true. The good thing though is that it seems with this last book, Mrs Hamilton is on her way to what we came to expect from Anita Blake. The last book in the series “Skin trade” is finally back on track with some serious problems and typical Anita. Strong in her convictions, constantly questioning the rightness of her choices (which are usually one of lesser evils) and standing firm in the face of danger. But, there are many heroines which come with a sense of humor, if that’s what you are looking for, forget it. Anita is not a light, humorous being. She’s dark (on the outside as well) and ironic as hell. She is also constantly conflicted, due to her strong convictions and Catholic upbringing.

It’s actually interesting to follow the books from the beginning and see how they progresses. If I got it right, Mrs Hamilton wasn’t married at the time she started writing and several books in the beginning have no sex in them. Just some physical attraction, and that’s it. At some point though, sex started appearing in all manner of situations and it almost went into porn category (the quantity and explicitness). It just deteriorated with each following book. Now, there’s still sex but the book is much more story oriented. Thank God. 🙂 And I got the feeling that the original Anita is back. With all her lovers. 😉

It’s funny, there’s one more series written by LKH, the Merry Gentry which revolves around Fae. And again you have there the heroine who without any wish or inclination ends up having a whole bunch of lovers. 🙂

Oh, I almost forgot to say, Anita is not a simple human. She’s a federal marshal hunting vampires, called the Executioner by the vampires, and the strongest Necromancer in the last couple of centuries. 🙂 I’ll keep the rest of what she is to myself, if it sounds interesting give it a try. You’re bound to be frustrated and angry at several points but it’s still dark and interesting.

P.S. It’s evident from what I wrote that I have all the books from both series, right? 🙂

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

WoW: Patricia Briggs

Uncategorized October 18, 2009 Leave a comment

I barely made it – this being the last day of the week. This week’s author is Patricia Briggs who is climbing my personal writer list. I’ve read this week the “Hunting ground” – her second book in the series Alpha and Omega. Those being the werevolves. It’s interesting, I’ve been reading books with werevolves for quite some time, and I never came across a reference to an omega werevolf (they are quite rare and do not display the aggresive behaviour of most of werevolves nor are they submissive, that being the solution to not being a strong enough wolf so everyone bows to what you say).

The Alpha and Omega series just gets better with each book and I was sorry to read at Mrs. Briggs site that another book is not coming anytime soon, there are other books scheduled for release. The good news is that one of them is another of Mercy Thompson series – happening in the same world as the Alpha and Omega, mentioning some of the characters as well (like the Marrok – leader of all American werevolves and father to sons, one appearing as the Alpha in the A and O series, and another as a friend (used to be lover) of Mercy Thompson.

One more good thing I realized browsing through Patricia Briggs’ site is that there are some fantasy books available (and I already saw some of the titles in my favourite bookstore – Algoritam). I’ll buy one of them to see if I’m going to like them (I somehow don’t doubt it) and let you know after how it went.

WoW: Sabrina Jeffries

Uncategorized October 10, 2009 Leave a comment

Finally! It took me quite long these last few days to finish a book. Any book. Because I have 3 more waiting half-read until I decide what I would like to read. I suppose it is a consequence of how I’ve been feeling lately – nothing seems to be able to lift my mood for a longer period of time. I’d actually rather not discuss it here, but in short, I hate politicians and the way they “run” my country. One of these days when my frustration reaches its peak, I’ll talk more about the climate we live in here.

Enough of that, on to Sabrina Jeffries. You can trust Mrs Jeffries to lift your romance mood right and proper. 🙂 What upset me on the other hand is that she also has a book series on a school for heiresses (girls) same as Mary Balogh. And I kind of got lost who wrote what and what are the characters and stories from which series. My advice is, now both series came to an end, stick to one, and then read the other. In my case that’s completely unachievable since the moment I discover a new author I like, I don’t wait for the series to end (unfortunately) so I kind of lose the previous stories (unless I google and somewhat refresh my memory). Anyway, I lost the thread with School for heiresses even though I have all the books and have read them (I’ll just go through them again – I do find them that good). 🙂

Since I already mentioned Mary Balogh’s school series, just to give a short comparison. I love both series but it somehow seems Balogh’s series is more serious while Jeffries has more fun with her characters and the overall style of writing. I might be mistaken, it is a while since Mary Balogh’s books were front in my mind, what I usually have in my head, after a month or so after, are impressions.

So, after finding my bearings, I enjoyed the book immensely, and the sexy hot scenes which abound. Ok, maybe not abound, but you don’t have to wait half a book for a steamy scene (sometimes even longer) since they are interspersed all over the book. And are quite good. 🙂

I read ‘Dont Bargain with the Devil’ and now I have one more left until I reach the end of series – which is of course the book where the head mistress finds love as well. 🙂 One with the misterious cousin Michael with whom she corresponds through all the books but doesn’t know who he is. I can’t wait to discover it myself! 🙂 Ok, so, I peeked a bit at a spoiler on amazon… It couldn’t be helped, I don’t have time to start reading at the moment and I wanted to know. 😉
Anyway, if it isn’t clear from what I wrote until now, Sabrina Jeffries is definitely one of top romance writers in my book. 😉
One whose books I buy whenever I can find them (or they come out) even though the excerpt might not sound terribly interesting.
Excerpts are often misleading.

WoW: Julia Quinn

Uncategorized September 29, 2009 Leave a comment

This week’s author is Julia Quinn, and the book Minx. I do think I’ve already read Julia Quinn before but must say that I usually read covers and if the excerpt doesn’t sound promising, I don’t buy the book (unless it’s one of my established writers). 🙂

So, I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the excerpt but thought it might be ok. Well, her books are not about steamy sex scenes, I can tell you that. You get some kisses and in the end the book progresses accordingly, but almost the whole book is more concerned with emotions. One good thing I can say about that is, it’s been a while since I actually felt my chest constricting with emotions from reading what the characters are feeling (maybe I was just in the mood but I don’t think it was that). I don’t know if you remember the feeling of unrequited love or just feeling completely in love with someone who is not returning that love the same way and that feeling of tightness in your chest that can accompany such anguish. Well, Ms Quinn has managed to evoke it in me. And that makes her good in my book. Now, I’ll just have to check whether she can repeat the experience. 🙂

And I do like the heroine, a cheeky brave girl of 20 (going on 21). Most of the time she is funny. And one of the first things that seduced her future husband was the smell of lemons coming from her (her hair). And that fact that he is fascinated by her smell is repeated several times in the book.
Well, I don’t think anyone is going to remember me by the same fragrance my hair or my skin may be emitting… 🙂

WoW: Stephanie Laurens, Bastion Club

Uncategorized September 23, 2009 Leave a comment

I finally finished yesterday the last book in the Bastion club series, Mastered by Love, the one dealing with the mysterious Dalziel (turns out he’s the Duke of Wolverstone – such a cool name). Anyway, there’s a new series by Mrs. Laurens in the making and I can’t wait to get my hands on that as well, since the Cynster series is coming to an end as well. Well, SL (in this case Stephanie Laurens and not Serge Lutens) is quite proliferous so I’m not scared there won’t be more of the same type of historical romance I got used to reading from her. 🙂

She’s definitely one of my favorite historical romance writers (more will be featured in WoW as I go through them). Like I was saying the other day with Mary H. Clark, all novels follow the same structure but when you know what to expect and enjoy it, well, it is certainly fun to read them. My expectations are not big for such type of romance and I cannot understand all those people who get upset because sometime the writer is not up to the level of the previous book for example. I don’t understand such strong feelings regarding this type of literature but hey, I usually don’t get too upset in my life as a general rule (could be because I’m an Aquarian).

Anyway, I got my dose of steamy sex scenes, fun conversations, some crime and one-upping men (love that part). Although it’s always about partnership in relationships. That’s why she is one of my favorites among many I have read (some tend to talk about partnership but it leans more toward male partnership, that’s why I’m no longer interested in Johanna Lindsey although I still do read her novels as well).
The Bastion Club is a series revolving around men who were British spies during Napoleon wars and are now back and trying not to get caught in marriage by tonnish mamas. Eventually, of course they all fall in love but have a slightly hard time convincing their chosen brides they should marry them. 🙂

Now, I’m very much looking forward to Black Cobra quartet by SL – first novel will be out at the end of October. Yeey!

Picture by: http://www.harpercollins.com

WoW: Mary Higgins Clark

Uncategorized September 18, 2009 Leave a comment

I read this week Clark’s “Nighttime is my time” although unfortunately in Croatian, not in original (I borrowed it in a library so my mum could read it as well). I won’t go into detail about the translation and typos because in that case it would seem the book wasn’t good when it actually was a typical MHC read, which is what I was looking for. A good suspense to relax me.

Of course, there’s always someone dying and the main character almost dies in every of her novels but gets saved in the nick of time, and there’s always a budding romance between the characters colored by suspicion because they are never sure if maybe the potential partner is the killer (but of course, that never happens even though the evidence might suggest different throughout the novel leading one to doubt whether the accusations are true or not).

The good thing though is I couldn’t tell who is the killer. Perhaps if I had given the whole plot more thought, and not have gone blindly through the novel, then maybe I could have guessed – this way, I just couldn’t be sure. This being a psychological suspense, it is supposed to make you wonder.

What I like about MHC is that her novels seem well, possible. As if they could have happened, or like a news article you read at the end of a police case, but here you have a full story. She’s one of those authors whose books I just need to make sure I haven’t already read and I just take them with me because I know what to expect and I know I won’t be disappointed. 🙂
Picture by: images.amazon.com

WoW: Jenna Black

Uncategorized September 11, 2009 Leave a comment

Last weekend I had time to read the third installment of Morgan Kingsley exorcist fun. 🙂 As I was saying last week with Ilona Andrews, it seems the further they go, the better they get. Or maybe, in this case it’s just me and the fact that I have a hard time of accepting characters that go against common sense and their own wellbeing (I can’t understand people not maintaining a healthy balance in their life – that goes for both books and real life). It seems Morgan is finally growing up (sort of) so I find it easier to follow her mind.

Anyway, Morgan is an exorcist and demons are public. You even have societes that want to host demons, they are not allowed to posess people unless the people go through a strict procedure saying how that is what they want to do. Once they host demons, they are pretty much done with their lives. Well, in case demons to not heed the law, Morgan is called to exorcise them (and of course, she’s the best there is).

It all gets terribly complicated straight away in book one, when she gets posessed against her will, but being of very stubborn nature, the demon can’t do much. The complications arise when she finally realizes waht happened and it turns out demon kingdom is in a fight and the legitimate king is actually hiding in her. That is all the story I’m giving and that’s only the beginning of book 1. It gets much more interesting later and Morgan is a very complex character (that actually means, I’m still not understanding her completely). 🙂

The good news for me is I somehow missed there are now 5 books in the series (and the excerpts sound promising) so I’ll be getting the next two installments soon.

This probably sounded quite bizarre and my guess is most of you are thinking:”What in the world is she reading?” That would be urban fantasy but instead of vampires and werewolves, we have demons this time. And I haven’t even gotten to fairies yet…

Open mind people – you never know what is hiding in plain sight. 😉

Ilona Andrews or the beginning of WoW

Uncategorized September 3, 2009 Leave a comment

By now, I guess you got a picture of how much I love to read. 🙂 That’s actually an understatement, but never mind now. All this week I’ve been thinking about the book I read over the weekend and how I was positively surprised by it (I’ll get to that part) so yesterday I decided to gather my books and author comments into a new feature: Writer of (the) Week (WoW just sounds and looks better than WotW so please forgive the non-existant “the”).

This week’s author is Ilona Andrews who is actually Ilona and Gordon Andrews but the books are published (the ones I read) just under Ilona. I’ve been reading their Kate Daniels series and while thinking about this post, I realized that I have no idea how to classify most of what I read. I mean there are so many categories, ok, so it is paranormal, is it at the same time urban? Urban fantasy? Paranormal romance? 🙂 So, I just read and do not bother with discerning what type it is – I either like it and will continue reading the series, or I won’t.

Since I’ve read book 3 over the weekend (Magic strikes) you can safely assume I like the series. Well, now I do. It almost lost me on book 1 (Magic bites). The first book seemed undefined, characters not enough evolved and I got lost in the world created by the Andrewses. The book 2 was better, but I’m hooked with the book 3 and now I can’t wait for the next one. The third book finally answered some questions I’ve had since book 1 and explained some of the history of the characters. And now it seems they are prepared for new dangerous assignments. 🙂

As you probably deduced from title of books, there is magic, there are vampires (have to admit, the Andrewses have got a completely new angle on those), were animals, etc. If you are just starting with paranormal fiction, then Kate Daniels might not be the place to start. But if this part of fiction world is already familiar territory, then give it a try.

And you do know what is the signature idea/crucial premise of all these paranormal fantasy books?

The kick-ass heroine. 🙂

Picture by: www.amazon.com