The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

The Name of the Star is one of those books that I saw reviewed a dozen times but it really didn't grab me. "Girl goes to London, ends up in Jack the Ripper copycat murder investigation" just wasn't appealing. Then I started following @maureenjohnson on Twitter and she completely sold me on it.  I can't even pinpoint why, except that she's a very funny person in that medium and I was dying to be part of the fun of promoting both this book and the one that follows (The Madness Underneath.)  I requested both the paper copy and the e-book copy from the library, and they both came in at the same time. Of course.

So. Girl (Rory) goes to London to live at a boarding school for her senior year of high school. While she's at Wexford, a copy cat murderer starts to kill people in the style of Jack the Ripper. After Rory sees a potential suspect very close to a murder scene, she becomes deeply involved in the investigation, and discovers that she's got new superpowers.

I'm not sure why I ever doubted this one. I've read 13 Little and it's sequel and enjoyed both of them. Why wouldn't this one be as great? Because it totally was. First, Rory has such a great personality. She's a bit quirky, funnily realistic and has a terrific way of talking about her hometown in the swamps of Louisiana.  Rory arrives at Wexford as the token American, and while she doesn't struggle to fit in, the intensity of the boarding school experience is very well written. (I can say that, having gone to boarding school myself.) For example, this paragraph from page 60:

When you live at school, you get close to people really quickly. You never get away. You eat every meal with them. You stand in the shower line with them. You take class and play hockey with them. You sleep in the same place. You begin to see the thousand details of everyday life that you never catch when you just see people during school hours. Because you're there constantly, school time moves differently. After only one week at Wexford, I felt like I'd been there a month.

This is absolutely true. Even if I hated the rest of the book (I didn't), the boarding school bits are completely dead on.

Now that I've talked about everything else, what is the book about? Is the plot any good? Why yes, yes it is. So there's this murderer running around and one of Rory's new friends, the guy she's interested in, happens to be slightly obsessed (along with most of London.) While Rory is tagging along with Jerome, she happens to see a man near a crime scene, and upon further questioning, realizes that no one else can see him. Shockingly, the police take her seriously, and she become crucial to the investigation. Johnson's reasons for why some people can see ghosts are believable (once you believe in ghosts) and there are only a few moments of "hmm, I dunno about that..." It ends in a horrifyingly wonderful way, and has a definite ending while also setting up for the next book in the series. (Kind of like the end of Christine, if you read that. It ends, but there's that little "Ping!" of the next book.) I am really glad that I only have to wait until February 26th for the next book, because I'm really excited to see where this is going.

Because some people care about these things in YA books- there is a little kissing but nothing more. There is a little bit of light drinking, but they are in London, where the drinking age makes the legality of this a bit hazy.

If you pre-order The Madness Underneath, you get free gifts. (Offer ends Feb. 26.)
You can find Maureen Johnson online, on Tumblr (highly recommended), on twitter, and on Facebook.

Source: library e-book.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood is not your typical teenage boy- he's a ghost hunter. He moves around, tracking the worst of the worst, the ones that are murdering innocent people, and then dispatching them with his father's knife.  His father was killed ten years ago doing the same thing, and now Cas uses his knife to continue the work. Cas and his mother have recently moved to a new town because rumor has it Anna, resident ghost, is getting worse and something needs to be done.  Cas shows up for the first day of school, charms the school's Queen Bee and makes the Head Jock jealous. He cons them in to taking him to see Anna, and then all hell breaks loose.

I grabbed Anna Dressed in Blood after reading Andi's glowing review. I brought it home, I read the summary, I put it on the shelf (as I am wont to do) and then when it came close to the point where I had to read it, I got started. And here's what happens- 75 pages into the book Anna shows up. She's terrible and beautiful and powerful and scary, and I closed the book to read it NOT at bedtime. Somehow, I managed to check a ghost story out of the library, and then was surprised when frightening things happened. (Huh? Yeah. Me too.) Despite the fear, I returned to it and finish it within a few days. Anna is still scary, but she's also remarkably human, and likable, and the more you know about her, the more sympathy you have for the ghost.

Cas starts the book as a bit of an arrogant jerk. He shows up at the new school with no plans to make friends, and is not at all surprised to gain the attention of several girls. As the book progresses, we learn that he's really not that outstanding physically, and you start to wonder where the initial magnetism comes from.  Despite his desire not to make friends, and his history of working alone, Things Happen that cause him to need the assistance of other people, and we find ourselves with a bit of a Scooby Gang. Thankfully, they are all likable enough, and aside from having a high percentage of weird names, believable enough. (If you can get past the idea of a 17 year old out to rid the world of ghosts, with his peers as sidekicks. Which, hello, Buffy.)

Overall, a great story and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, Girl of Nightmares . Once past that initial scene, the intensity of the ghost scenes drops a bit, so don't let it being a horror story put you off completely. There are a few other disturbing things, that I find I can't share without spoiling it for you, so if you're prone to nightmares maybe skip it. If you're a Stephen King fan, you're probably ok for this one too.

You can find Kendare Blake online here, on twitter, and on Facebook.

Nora Roberts' Key Trilogy

I'm addicted to Nora Roberts lately. (You may have noticed.) I don't think it's possible to read all 200+ of her books, but it sure looks like I'm trying! I recently reread the Key Trilogy on impulse (if I keep rereading them I'll never get to new ones!) My library has these as a box set, so you check out one item but get all three books, but if you're reading them on your own the order of the Key Trilogy is as follows:

Key of Light
Key of Knowledge
Key of Valor

I think that it's fairly important to read these in the correct order, as the books center around a quest and you would want to read about it from beginning to end. This series centers around three women who are destined to save the souls of three Celtic demigoddesses from an evil sorcerer. (Not at all far fetched, ahem.) Each woman has her own book, and her portion of the quest will center around her own strengths. The magical aspect of this series is treated as a central element of the stories, unlike the way the supernatural aspects are treated in a series like the Inn Boonsboro books. The three mortal women have to come to believe in magic, and fight it, without any magical powers of their own.

As with most of her series, the relationships between the women (or men) are what draws me to Roberts' books. It's slightly unbelievable that the three strangers will become immediate fast friends, but less unbelievable than the bit about the evil sorcerer. Despite being strangers, I enjoy seeing the women together and wish I could pop in for a girl's night with them. The same can be said for the three men of the series, life-long friends who find themselves integral parts of the quest.  The relationships between each couple is strong, of course, but it's not what draws me to the books.

My favorite of the three books is probably Key of Knowledge, though I'd be hard pressed to call Jordan my favorite hero. Key of Knowledge is a friends to lovers to enemies back to lovers type story, and you all know I can't resist best friends falling in love. Brad, from Key of Valor, is a terrific hero, determined to get prickly Zoe to fall for him as hard as he has for her. Sadly, Zoe is my least favorite of the women, as I felt she hung on to her excuses a bit too hard, in the face of overwhelming evidence otherwise, and then caved in a matter of a page or two.  This series didn't feature a money-hungry, selfish, absent mother figure, so that's another point in it's favor.  I don't know that this is a favorite Roberts' series of mine (I still love the Chesapeake Bay brothers and the Bride Quartet an awful lot) but if you're a Robert's fan, it's worth a read.

Other links of interest:
Nora Roberts' Chesapeake Bay series
Nora Roberts' MacKade series
Robyn Carr's Virgin River series
Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold series

Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts

It seems that lately whenever I'm feeling a bit aimless about my reading, that I reach for a contemporary romance novel by a tried and true author. One that I know will a) have a happy ending and b) compell me to read it almost straight through. There is a certain type of romance that fits this slot nicely for me, typically they are full length novels that revolve around a town or a family, and are often part of a series. Examples of this feel-good, quick read, series that I've loved include:

• Nora Roberts' MacKade brothers
• Nora Roberts' Cheasepeake Bay brothers
• Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold Series
• Many of Nora Roberts' stand alones
• Robyn Carr's Virgin River series (even though I have some quibbles with them.)

So despite having quite the haul of library books, and the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood series on stand-by, I picked up Midnight Bayou.  Midnight Bayou has been on my TBR shelves for years. I'm pretty sure I got it from Paperbackswap and it's managed to stay on the shelves through the moves and the purging. Due to Ms. Roberts incredible success, her paperbacks often have tons of blurbs, and a glossy full length picture of the author, but no easy to locate plot summary. So I knew it was a romance, and I knew it took place in or near New Orleans, and I knew I could expect some paranormal activity. I'm a huge sucker for a New Orleans/ Cajun / Bluesy setting (In the Midnight Rain by Ruth Wind being an all time favorite book, not just romance!) so I dived in.

Midnight Bayou is a standalone romance (I wonder if Remy and Effie might have their own book, but have been too lazy to figure out). Our hero, Declan, has purchased a large plantation in a state of disrepair and has moved from Boston to restore it. Lena is a descendent of the house, and is now a moderately successful bar owner. Dec is down right perfect. Seriously, no flaws. None. And is rich. Lena isn't perfect, she's pretty cynical and distrustful of love, and it takes her a while to come around. I love that the conflict is never about how they feel about each other, or how much they trust each other. There is no big misunderstanding. In fact, there's very little conflict at all, except with the ghosts, and I liked that.

Here's the thing though, while Midnight Bayou hit the spot exactly, I didn't really love it. It did have quite a few flaws- the paranormal aspect is heavy heavy. Really heavy.  If you don't want a story with ghosts, skip this. Unlike Roberts' new Boonsboro Inn series, the ghosts are very very prominent.  Additionally, it seems that Roberts has recycled Lena's mom Lilibeth into Mac's mom in Vision in White. In both cases, I think the new versions are better, but overall I hate that I noticed at all. And last, the book ends very abruptly. I read it in two long sittings, but for several hours after I finished I kept having that feeling that I was at the very end of a book and needed to see how it ended. It was annoying.

In the end, typical Roberts, I'm glad I read it, but not a favorite.

January Mini Reviews

There are always a handful of books that I don't really want to write a full review of, but that I'd like some record or having read.  


Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  I'd really have liked to review this one fully, but was completely stumped at trying to summarize the plot. I really enjoyed it a lot, loved the world Taylor created and the characters of Karou and Akiva and Brimstone. I loved the set up for the series, the reason for the book, if you will. I did think the last third of the book really bogged down, and if you've read it you know what part I mean. The more time that passes since I finished, the more I like it though, and at this point I'm very excited to see what happens next. Highly recommended.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. A 13 year old boy, an ill mother, a nightmare come to life. This one is loved all over the blogosphere and when I saw it on the library shelf I grabbed it. I really had no intention of reading it before seeing it there.  This is a short book, with lots of really striking drawings and terrific writing and is easily read in one sitting. I will admit that it made me sob, like it seems to do for most people. However. Almost the instant I closed the cover I felt manipulated. I didn't see any reason at all for the book, other than to make me cry. I went to read other reviews of people who saw Conor grow and confront his own guilt and grief but I was just a little bit annoyed by it.


Whiskey Sour (Jack Daniels Mysteries) by J.A. Jonrath.  This was my first entry into my personal challenge.  It was perfect for the time, I had a couple other books going that required more brain power. In the end though, I didn't love the book.  While the humor made me laugh in spots, the writing was a bit simplistic and I thought some of the jokes were a bit insulting. For funny mysteries I'd stick with Janet Evanovich, for interesting mysteries I'm still loving the Inked series by Karen Olsen, and for murder I'd choose J.D. Robb's In Death series every time.

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Karen Marie Moning, you have made me neglect all other reading obligations and focus on you, good job! Darkfever is yet another first in a paranormal/urban fantasy series, which I needed like I needed a hole in my head, and yet I am hooked.

MacKayla Lane is your average pretty Southern girl- right up until her sister is horribly murdered while at college in Dublin. Mac can't stand the thought that no one is even investigating her sister's death so she hops on a plane to go investigate. It only takes a few hours before Mac realizes that all is not human and only a few days before she realizes that she, Mac, is in the middle of something really big, and really bad. There is a war coming between the Fae and the humans and Mac has a starring role.

So maybe you think you read enough paranormal series, that there are too many of them anyway and you don't need to be sucked into one more- I think you should give this one a shot.  It has a different voice from the others, very casual and friendly. At times it's annoying ("Mom says..") and at times it's just fun. There are a lot of mysteries left unsolved in this one (Who is Jericho Barrons, anyway?) and it is in no way a stand alone novel.  When you reach the end of it you'll either love it and want more more more or walk away with an unfinished story.

The copy I checked out of the library was Large Print (LOVE Large Print!) and had a cover more in line with the romance world. Despite these things, Mike picked it up and read it in an evening and then demanded I go back to the library and bring him the next four in the series. Unfortunately for him, books four and five were (and still are) checked out, but he blew through two and three in as many days. I'm a bit slower, my reading time has been taken up with my new job, but I am definitely in the camp of reading the next one immediately to see what happens. A big thank you goes to Christine for hooking us on these!


Darkfever (Fever Series, Book 1)
by Karen Marie Moning
Thomson Gale
2006
444 pages
Source: Library



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The problem with series

Like many (most?) other readers I have quite a few series that I enjoy. Lately I've been finding that the farther I am into the series, the MORE likely I am to quit it.  There seems to be two main reasons for this, first, the author takes the characters in a direction that I don't enjoy. An example of this is Laurell K. Hamilton. I don't believe that the Anita from book one (Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter),) which I loved, would have gone where the Anita of book 9 or so and later has gone.  This is also true of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. I loved the first 6 or 7, but really hated Kay by about book 9 (Trace, I think).  While Kay did grow and change, she changed into someone unlikable and I didn't want to read any more of her.

The second reason I lose interest in a series is because it doesn't seem like each book is new. The best example of this is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series (Starts with One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1) and runs up to Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum) at this point). Every book is pretty much the same as the previous book, with no changes to the characters themselves. They are living in exactly one moment in time and don't vary from that.  I think this is why I enjoyed the one in which she hooked up with Ranger so much (no idea which one that was, sorry, somewhere in the middle.)  This isn't a problem that is immediately obvious either. It seems that most series can handle 3 or 4 books before it crops up. I'm a bit worried that Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden is going to turn out a bit like this, but he still has time to show some growth (Starts with Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) if you're interested), as I'm only on book 4 or 5.

The reason I bring this up is that I recently realized that the reason I haven't reviewed Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 10) by Charlaine Harris yet is that I couldn't really think of anything interesting to say about it. It was better than the one before (Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9)) but that's about all I could say. The characters have some minor changes- Jason for the better, Pam for the better, not so sure about Eric or Sam- but overall it wasn't thrilling or exciting. Oh sure, I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but once I was done it was just over.  I'll probably keep reading them so long as she's writing them, but I no longer feel the need to rush out to find a copy. (This is not true for Evanovich, I think I'm done there.) It almost seems like she's just writing on the surface of the world she built, but not bothering to expand or explore it any longer.  This is in direct contrast with Patricia Briggs's Mercedes Thompson series (starting with Moon Called (Mercy Thompson)) which I love love love.

There are still several series that haven't landed in either of these categories yet for me, series that I enjoy tremendously but just haven't had time to get current on, but I live in dread (as much as you can over a book series anyway) that they will one day fall into one of these groups. I'm curious, what makes you stop reading a series? Do you agree or disagree with any of my examples? I had a very hard time thinking of non-paranormal series for this post, aside from Evanovich. What non-paranormal, non-mystery series do you read and enjoy? Do you see either of these patterns there?


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Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris

Grave Secret (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 4) by Charlaine Harris is (as you might can guess from that link) the fourth book in the Harper Connelly series. Despite being on the fence about it, I managed to read it all in one night so perhaps I enjoyed it more than I think.

Harper has the unique ability to see a person's last moments when in close proximity to their remains. She's gone to Texas to visit her little sisters and while there manages to stir up some trouble by "seeing" something that wasn't meant to be public knowledge.  There are threats to her life and when her partner Tolliver is injured they are unable to just leave town (as they would prefer.)  While there, they visit both their younger half-sisters and Tolliver's older brother and father.  There is a second storyline about Harper's missing sister Cameron, which plays out rather nicely.

If you're reading this series you know that something vaguely creepy happened in the last installment (An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, No. 3) ) that seemed to resolve itself ok. In this one, it comes up again and again and while the talking about it makes it less creepy, the display of it was still wierd. (And yes, this is vague, other readers know what I'm talking about though.)

I'm really on the fence about this one. I don't think the writing is as tight as the Sookie Stackhouse books (Sookie Stackhouse, Books 1-7) also by Charlaine Harris. I found several plot points to be completely useless information that added nothing to the story.  The family dynamics are awkward as well (see previous paragraph) and it makes me wonder where Harris is going- does she want them to have family or to be complete loners?  I loved seeing Manfred again and kinda wish he had his own series, and still enjoy the premise of Harpers ability.  It seems likely that I'll continue with the series, but it's definitely not a favorite.

You can find Charlaine Harris on the web here, and be sure to visit her blog where she recommends great books to her readers.

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris
Berkley Hardcover
2009
320 pages



I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.