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Mixed Bag: September 2010 (Blue Bloods series)

Decadence — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00:50 +0000

This month’s Mixed Bag has a slightly different format. Decadence has begun yet another series, and this month she reviews the first four books of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz.

Blue Bloods Boxed Set (Books 1-3) by Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz is a very clever writer. In her Blue Bloods series, De la Cruz has combined the current paranormal romance trends of fallen angels with vampires and set them against the backdrop of New York glamour where she makes her living. The story is mainly told in the third person from the viewpoints of Schuyler Van Alen, an impoverished misfit with an old money ancestry, spoilt It-girl Mimi Force, and Mimi’s friend, fish out of water Texan transplant Bliss Llewellyn.

The story is an intriguing mix of secrets and illusion wrapped up in glamorous privilege and exclusivity. All three girls are students at the prestigious Duchesne college, but have different backgrounds. The only other thing they have in common is that they are becoming vampires. For various reasons, each girl experiences her transformation in a different way. This is actually a characteristic of De la Cruz’s tricky style. She imparts information in such a way that, based on what the reader knows at the time, they might infer a particular reason for a character’s behaviour, only to discover later on that there was a completely different reason that hadn’t been hinted at earlier.

The series explores three distinct layers or issues—the first being wealth, privilege and old money in New York’s upper echelons. The three girls attend a private school with truancy written into the school program, exclusive parties, and they do a bit of modelling on the side as a hobby. Mimi Force is the reigning It-girl, who is friends with Bliss Llewellyn because of their father’s networking. As queen bee, Mimi likes to ensure that she gets VIP treatment at all times and that her friends follow her advice so that they can be cool enough for her to be seen with without seeming to be superior to her in any way.

The second layer is of the beautiful, wealthy and powerful, all of whom are vampires—literally Blue Bloods, with unnatural metabolisms and magnetism. They have past lives as fallen angels and are reincarnated as vampires every so often. Part of a Blue Blood’s transformation is reconciling their old memories with their new lives. A Blue Blood will have a vampire twin or soul mate, whom they must find in each incarnation and renew their bond. Sometimes their other half may be a family member in this life, but as they are not really human and one’s lover in this life could be a twin in the next. It’s not quite inbreeding, although this is supposed to be where the human concept of intermarriage arises—to keep the wealth within the family.

Mimi’s mate is her twin brother Jack, who loves her, yet is drawn to Schuyler Van Alen, his ‘cousin’. Mimi hates Schuyler because of Jack’s interest and because she is a poor relation with a shabby chic style that only she can get away with. Only expensive, exclusive chic has any value to Mimi.

Schuyler has a crush on Jack, but also a close relationship with her best friend, Oliver Perry-Hazard. Warning to Kat: there is a love polygon between Oliver, Schuyler, Jack, Mimi, and eventually someone else who will remain unnamed to prevent spoilers.

The third layer is of the largely unacknowledged threat against the Blue Bloods from the evil Silver Bloods. Many of the Blue Bloods are too arrogant to believe that they could be prey to anything or that their previous victory over the Silver Blood Caligula (reincarnation of Lucifer, the Morningstar) was anything less than complete and permanent.

The series as a whole works through its intriguing blend of secrets, deception of others, self-deception and a paranormal spin on the teenage rites of passage that still makes the characters relatable, despite their world being so different from ours.

Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods, Book 1)

Schuyler has a mini crush on the school hunk, Jack Force, who happens to be Mimi’s twin brother. He seems to be unaware of her existence until she sees him get hit by a cab outside a local nightclub. The only thing is, she’s the only one who seems to have seen Jack get hit, but he walks towards her like nothing happened. Even the cab continues on its merry way.

Showing interest in Schuyler for the first time, Jack has a quick conversation with her before heading to the exclusive club, next door to the run-of-the-mill dive where Schuyler, Oliver and their friend Dylan Ward are lined up. Jack meets Mimi, Bliss and Aggie, another Blue Blood. Later, Bliss, Aggie and Dylan go to the alley between the two clubs for a cigarette, and while Bliss and Dylan get to know each other, Aggie is killed and drained so that she cannot be reincarnated.

It can only be the Silver Bloods, but no one wants to acknowledge their existence. After all, there have been murders over the centuries, but they always stop on their own. Jack is convinced that they are under threat and shares his knowledge with Schuyler, who is strangely ignorant of the transformation she is going through.

Through Bliss’s modelling and her growing relationship with Dylan, she becomes friends with Schuyler and questions how much she really has in common with Mimi. She misses Texas and finds Dylan, Schuyler and Oliver more down to earth than snobby Mimi. Her transformation alarms her, but everyone around her assures her it’s normal.

Mimi Force has everything. The paparazzi follow her every move and girls want to be her. She knows she is powerful in both the human and the vampire worlds and has found her bondmate in her twin Jack. When Aggie dies, Mimi is relieved not to have to return the clothing she borrowed and is the centre of attention as the grieving best friend. But why does Jack talk to that nobody, Schuyler Van Alen?

ISBN: 9781905654741 | Release date: March 2010 | Publisher: Orbit | Format: B format

Masquerade

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods, Book 2)

Schuyler and Oliver track down Schuyler’s grandfather Lawrence Van Alen in the hope of getting some help with the Silver Bloods. Her change isn’t going according to plan and she has to take a Red Blood (human) familiar to feed from, but emotionally doesn’t feel ready for the inherent intimacy, which might have something to do with Jack Force, even though he’s playing hot and cold. Even though, as her human Conduit, Oliver knows about Schuyler’s transformation, her vampire commitments help drive a wedge between them.

Mimi is upset over Jack’s attention to Schuyler and Bliss’s rise in popularity since appearing on a billboard for designer jeans with Schuyler, while Bliss is becoming disenchanted with being Mimi’s friend and misses Dylan.

Arguably the best part of the aptly named Masquerade (old souls masked in new incarnations) was the introduction of mysterious and charismatic Kingsley Martin, who is a little bit wicked and stirs the pot. He flirts with and challenges Schuyler, Mimi and Bliss and has his share of secrets, which is why I like him so much.

I received the series two books at a time, so I read Blue Bloods and Masquerade together and later, Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy. I wasn’t ready to write my review after The Van Alen Legacy but I didn’t want to move on and lose my impressions of the series by reading something else, so I returned to Masquerade simply because I like Kingsley, despite him being a minor character.

I have this feeling that there is only one first reading experience for every book. It’s like watching The Sixth Sense. There’s only one first time to note the little signs that something’s not quite right and maybe you guess at the twist or maybe you don’t. But by the end, everything has come together and any time you watch it after that first time, you already know what’s going on and everything you see is coloured by the knowledge you didn’t have the first time around. Maybe it makes you appreciate the story more or by going back you pick up on things that you missed the first time. I treat reading a book like watching The Sixth Sense, and when I write a review, it has so far always been from that perspective, because unless a reader absolutely loved a book, they are likely to only read it once, so that’s how I’ve reviewed.

Armed with a greater sense of the big picture, I found a greater appreciation for de la Cruz’s subtlety now that I could see how carefully she’d sown the seeds for this and later books. Call it forethought or sequel-baiting, but she drops little hints about the Silver Blood conspiracy throughout the story and intersperses the chapters with newspaper clippings and documents relating to the disappearance of Maggie Stanford, a transforming Blue Blood who disappeared about 100 years ago.

ISBN: 9781905654772 | Release date: March 2010 | Publisher: Orbit | Format: B format

Revelations

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods, Book 3)

Tensions rise between Schuyler and Mimi as they are forced to spend more time together. Bliss finally learns the truth about Dylan and which angel she is.

Oliver wants more from Schuyler than she is able to give him and Jack’s behaviour towards her is more hot and cold than ever, especially when Mimi brings forward their bonding date. The bond is taken so seriously by the Blue Bloods that a vampire who breaks the bond must be hunted down and destroyed by their former bondmate, both of whom are weakened by the breach.

Aggie Carondolet’s murderer is finally revealed.

The writing has developed beyond the sequential layering of the first two books and is more evenly woven together throughout the story. Instead of having the Silver Blood threat only dealt with later in the book, de la Cruz makes better use of pacing and starts pulling these threads together earlier in the book and laying more threads so that the reader has a better sense of what has been brewing. Revelations lives up to its name and feels like less of a world building exercise than the earlier books, having appropriately developed beyond the author’s previous efforts. No stranger to sequel baiting, she leaves some questions unanswered and I’m sure these will be revisited in later books.

To compensate for the lag between reading Masquerade and Revelations each for the first time, I followed up my Masquerade reread with a Revelations reread. This gave me a better appreciation for de la Cruz’s technique of showing one thing to distract from what she’s keeping under wraps. But even if I learn her little tricks, de la Cruz still manages to pull out surprises completely out of the blue.

While the love triangle between Oliver, Schuyler and Jack isn’t as anywhere near as extreme and destructive as a better known relationship between a girl, her friend and her vampire lover, Schuyler’s denial and thoughtlessness at times left a bad taste in my mouth (fuck you very much, Stephenie Meyer!) Despite its occasional and uncomfortable similarities with that other relationship that shall not be named, the saving grace of this love triangle is that Schuyler actually has a life and destiny outside the relationship and her men don’t manipulate her to get their own way.

ISBN: 9781905654789 | Release date: April 2010 | Publisher: Orbit | Format: B format

The Van Alen Legacy

The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods, Book 4)

I should almost do a separate review for The Van Alen Legacy because it is a world away from the earlier three books in the series. While it shares the soap opera quality of the others, the surface layer of the privileged life plays a much smaller role and the characters have developed in leaps and bounds since Revelations, particularly Mimi, whose character was the most in need of development.

The story picks up over a year after the events of Revelations and has largely progressed beyond the superficial first layer. We still have the soap operatic romantic entanglements but they are now played out against a more urban fantasy backdrop of hunting and fighting a known enemy.

Schuyler is on the run with her trusted Conduit, Oliver, Mimi comes into her own as the dark angel Azrael, and Bliss struggles with regaining her life after discovering that a year had passed while she was unconscious and is determined not to follow a prescribed path. The Blue Blood world is finally forced to acknowledge that the Silver Bloods are back and still very much a threat to them.

Although this makes the writing less subtle, de la Cruz is still able to pull off enough surprises to keep the story interesting. New revelations are made and the world expands exponentially from the earlier books. It also becomes clearer how much more this series promises, as the world and the characters grow up.

Keys to the Repository by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods, Companion Novel)

The back of the book contains a deleted scene between Jack and Schuyler and one where Kingsley comes clean. The last page promises more secrets will be revealed in the companion Keys to the Repository, compiled as the series really starts coming into its own.

Told you de la Cruz was clever.

ISBN: 9781905654796 | Release date: April 2010 | Publisher: Orbit | Format: B format

Yay or nay?

There are qualities in this series that aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if you can accept multi-book plot arcs and love triangles, the subtlety in the layering and dropping of hints, as well as the compelling nature of the characters, will make it worth your while. And the series deserves a reread.

Review copies of all four books were generously provided by Hachette Australia. These books were first released in the USA. The next book in the series, Misguided Angel, will be released on October 26, 2010.

Other books in the Blue Bloods series

Release date: 26/10/2010

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Blameless by Gail Carriger

Wandergurl — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:05 +0000

Blameless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate, Book 3)

After the cliffhanger that was Changeless, the latest instalment in the Parasol Protectorate series brings us back to romance territory.

After Changeless, I was very frustrated. It was a total cliffhanger, and I went as far as DMing Gail Carriger on Twitter to ask what was going to happen next. She very nicely replied, I’m very sorry but I can’t tell you. Fortunately, Kat got a review copy of Blameless last Friday, which coincided with Carriger’s visit to Galaxy to randomly sign things. She assured us that, as a believer of happy endings, she always makes sure everything ends with a HEA.

Alexia Tarrabotti is back at her mother’s house following her separation from her husband, Lord Maccon, after he accuses her of cheating on him when she tells him of her pregnancy. (Werewolves can’t breed.) Alexia wants to prove him wrong, but Lord Akeldama, her gay BFF who possibly has the answers, has left town. She decides that the answers are in Italy, with the order of Templars, so off she goes with her trusty assistant/butler Floote and Madame Lefoux, the mysterious hat-maker cum inventor, who incidentally likes to cross dress.

In the meantime, Professor Lyall, the Woolsey pack Beta, is desperately trying to keep the pack together while her husband is off getting drunk off his face on an unknown source of alcohol. Of course, people—I should say vampires—keep trying to kill her, which adds to the mystery. How did she get knocked up, and why does everyone want to kill them?

I’ve always loved Alexia as a character. She never lets anyone knock her down and has the kind of stubborn tenacity that’s enough to kick butt without being annoying. I like how despite her circumstances—she left her husband, and that alone is enough to make someone a pariah in Victorian England—she kept trying to make the most of her situation and hold her head up high. Her husband was the only person who was able to bring her down to her knees (and even then he had to do it first!) and now his betrayal of her has left her reeling, even though she tries to pretend it doesn’t. I think that part was well done.

Despite everything, Lord Maccon manages to redeem himself in the end. I loved him in the first book and then he fell out of favour, so to speak. He’s begun to worm himself back into my good graces with his actions in this one. His actions and behavior, especially his interactions with his second, Professor Lyall, lead to some of the best comedic moments in the book.

I felt that the tone and language, as before, was in line with the era and the steampunk elements fit in very well. The dialogue was sharp and witty and the descriptions, while giving a vivid picture of the situation, left just enough to re-create the wonders of steampunk in my own imagination.

The storyline was wrapped up well—if their marital issues hadn’t been resolved I would have hurled the book across the room—while more details were dropped to make you wonder what would happen next. I, for one, am excited at the prospect of their coming progeny and its implications, and would like more details on Alexia’s father and the mysteriously evil cultish Templars. (Carriger is really good at dropping these hints that leave you wanting more.)

Yay or Nay?

A definite YAY! But only if you’ve read the rest of the series. If you start here you’ll be coming right in the middle of the story, and while it could work, you’ll be missing out on a lot. Fortunately, there are two more books in the series due next year. Can’t wait for those!

This book was released on September 1, 2010 by Orbit. Gail Carriger will be at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, Sept 2-6.

Title: Blameless
Series: Parasol Protectorate (Book 3)
Author: Gail Carriger
ISBN: 9780316074155
Release date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Orbit (Hachette Australia)
Format: A format

Where you can buy this book

Parasol Protectorate

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Soulless by Gail Carriger

Catching up on other book news…

Kat — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:17:15 +0000

Bronwyn Parry’s third Dungirri book shelved

In case you missed her announcement, Bronwyn Parry is no longer working on her third Dungirri book. If there’s one thing I admire in an author it’s knowing when to let go of a book or series. The good news is that Parry seems to have a new book in the works, so yay for her and for us readers!

FANGtastic Fiction’s change of focus

I noticed that our friends over at FANGtastic Fiction have decided to stop selling books directly but have become a kind of portal for book recommendations. If you love your books with a touch of the supernatural, it’s worth checking out the site.

Coming soon from Australian romance authors

Watch out for these titles, which are coming out in the next couple of months:

Blame It On the Moonlight by Tracie Sommers – Spice Briefs, Aug 2010, Paranormal romance (with ‘some really hot bits’ – yes, that’s an actual quote from the author)
The Dream Master by Maggie Nash – Total-E-Bound, Sep 2010, Erotic romantic suspense (featuring the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the cover)
Savage Transformation by Lexxie Couper – Samhain, Sep 2010, Erotic paranormal romance (featuring shapeshifting Tasmanian tigers!)

Pocket After Dark

Simon & Schuster has launched Pocket After Dark, a new online community for romance and urban fantasy readers. The site includes excerpts and will have free backlist titles available for a 30-day period. There’s a points system, although as far as I can tell they’re only for bragging rights at this point. I’m not sure what I’ll do with yet another social networking account, but I can’t resist the lure of free books. The site needs Flash to work properly, so no love for iPad users, I’m afraid.

Mudgee Readers Festival

The Mudgee Readers Festival will be held from September 10 to 12 at the Parklands Resort and Conference Centre. There don’t seem to be any romance genre authors in the programme, but big names include Tom Keneally and Di Morrissey. I’m particularly interested in Sherman Young’s panel, Is page turning a thing of the past?, as well as his talk, which will apparently feature a show-and-tell of ebook technology.

Stephanie Laurens in The Circle

Early this month, Stephanie Laurens was interviewed in The Circle. You can find the video on the Channel 10 website (you’ll need to search for ‘Stephanie Laurens’ under the Video Menu button). It’s a bit irreverent to the genre but also fun. I’m flabbergasted that not one audience member admitted to reading romance!

I found out about the festival and Laurens’s interview via the Australian Romance Readers Association email list. Which brings me nicely to…

ARRA book signing – not long to go!

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Mixed Bag: July 2010

Wandergurl — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:00:21 +0000

A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire (October Daye #2)

A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire (October Daye, Book 2)

Toby Daye is sent by her liege, the Duke of Shadowed Hills, to the County of Tamed Lightning to check on his niece, the reigning countess. Toby thinks that this will be an easy job, but once she and her assistant Connor arrive, she finds it more complicated than that—people are dying and their souls aren’t being carried away by shades, the traditional soul bearers of the fae.

Toby has grown from the previous book, and it shows—I liked how her character didn’t remain static and bitter. She has become more stable, has found herself on more solid footing. She even has girlfriends and goes on night outs. Her situation (explained in the previous book, Rosemary and Rue) sucks but she’s learnt to deal with it better. She’s still a strong character and you can’t help but barrack for her.

McGuire pays good attention to world building and detail. I liked how the different aspects of the fae came together and the political complications of Tamed Lightning were interesting. However, the murder mystery part of the story was a predictable, and I found myself getting as frustrated as Toby with the lack of cooperation from the characters and their inability to see past their noses. I was also a bit surprised that Toby didn’t figure out who the murderer was, because despite the misdirection it seemed obvious, given the murderer’s personality and characteristics.

I love this series, so I was very excited when McGuire announced that two more books had been picked up by her publisher. I think I will keep reading them even if the series reaches Laurel K. Hamilton proportions with no end in sight. (Please have an end, Ms Maguire!) That said, while this can stand alone, I would recommend starting with Rosemary and Rue. It provides a more detailed background of Toby’s past and sets up the story. It’s also a bit more exciting than this one.

Yay or nay? Not as good as the first book, but still a good adventure. You can read an excerpt via the author’s website.

ISBN: 9780756405960 | Release date: March 2, 2010 | Publisher: Penguin | Format: A format

White Star by Beth Vaughan (Palins Sequence #2)

Or: I tried but I couldn’t.

This book was given to me to review. My apologies but I simply could not finish it, though I tried three times. The problem with this book isn’t the writing or the plot or the characters—I don’t think I got far enough to get the entire plot. It’s just that it was book two of the series and it didn’t stand alone.

The book starts at the end or in between part of the last novel. There was a lot of stuff I didn’t get right away, which I think would be better understood if I had read the other novels. Perhaps Vaughn explains it more later, but as I didn’t get past chapter five, I won’t know. The world building looked promising, but I did not get enough background in the character motivations or in the nuances of culture to see the whys behind their actions.

Yay or nay? If you want to try this one, start with book one. I have read Vaughan’s other series, Warprize and quite liked it (though I must admit to not reading book two) so if I were to recommend anything it would be that.

A review copy of this book was generously provided by Hachette Australia. In the US edition the author is named as Elizabeth Vaughan and the series is called the Star Series.

ISBN: 9780575084230 | Release date: April 2010 | Publisher: Gollancz | Format: A format

In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah

In this standalone sequel to The Caliph’s House, Shah talks about his continued life in Morocco and how he goes about ‘finding the story in his heart’. As a culture with a strong sense of oral tradition, it is said that in Morocco, everyone has their own story—one that is meant for them and will have special significance once it is told to you. Shah goes about finding his story by seeking out storytellers, also in an effort to preserve the dying art of storytelling. Along the way, he talks about his life in his big, crumbling renovated house, his memories as a child with Afghani/Nomadic history, with strong ties to Morocco, his relationship with his family, past and present, and the many colourful characters he meets along the way.

I loved this book. I bought it on impulse after The Caliph’s House saved me from a day of boredom in my old job, where I sneakily downloaded it on the work laptop and pretended to be reading PDF documents. (Yes, it was on my TBR for a loooong time. Why, I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t want it to end.) You don’t have to read the first book to understand this one. One of the things I liked most about In Arabian Nights were the stories within stories. There are many layers to this book—the stories that he hears from others, the stories he remembers from childhood, and the present. The parable-like tales delivered by storytellers are never interpreted, and you are left to understand how they relate to you—and at least one of them will. When Shah finally found his story, I felt uplifted, as if I had found my own story, the story in my own heart.

Yay or nay? It was a beautiful tale. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9780553818765 | Release date: March 12, 2009 | Publisher: Bantam Books | Format: Paperback

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky

The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky

Despite the title, this is actually a history of New York. Kurlansky is popular for writing gastronomic histories, using food to illustrate the history of the world or places as he did with his books Salt: A World History and Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. I actually bought The Big Oyster while in New York, inspired to read the history of such a fascinating place.

The book starts out strongly, with the appearance of the Dutch on American shores and the first sighting of oysters. It takes us all the way to the present era in the last chapter, discussing movements and events that shaped New York. It was an interesting way to cover its history.

While I enjoyed this book, I also got a little depressed right from the start because I know that New York has been around a while and it’s quite polluted—for example, no matter what anyone says I would never swim in their river, or eat anything caught from there—and I knew the oysters were doomed. Its not a secret; you can tell this from the prologue. It was depressing and the little environmentalist in me was aghast at seeing how it started and how unmanaged sewage and filth and lack of hygeine basically just lead to the destruction of the area and pretty much the extinction of the New York Oyster. (I shall get off my green soapbox now.) I also felt that while, yes, this is a gastronomic history, it had too many recipes and cookbook excerpts.

Yay or nay? If environmental issues don’t upset you too much, I would recommend this as a history of New York, told in simple terms, with oysters. I would, however, recommend Kurlansky’s other books more, particularly Salt: A World History and The Basque History of the World, which introduced me to his writing.

This book is published in the UK and Australia by Vintage Books (Random House) as The Big Oyster: A Molluscular History of New York.

ISBN: 9780345476395 | Release date: January 2007 | Publisher: Random House | Format: Paperback

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2010 R*BY Awards – Finalists

Kat — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:52:13 +0000

The finalists for this year’s Romance Book of the Year (R*BY) Awards have been announced. Congratulations on the finalists and good luck!

Long Romance Category
Mistletoe Magic by Sophia James
Mastered by Love by Stephanie Laurens
Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens
Wicked Little Game by Christine Wells

Short Sexy Category
A Doctor, A Nurse: A Christmas Baby by Amy Andrews
Bedded By Blackmail by Robyn Grady
Playboy Boss, Live-in Mistress by Kelly Hunter
Billion-Dollar Baby Bargain by Tessa Radley

Short Sweet Category
Marriage Reunited: Baby On The Way by Sharon Archer
Single Father: Wife And Mother Wanted by Sharon Archer
Colorado Christmas by CC Coburn
Wanted: A Father For Her Twins by Emily Forbes

Romantic Elements Category
Red Dust by Fleur McDonald (Kat’s review)
Night’s Cold Kiss by Tracey O’Hara (Kat’s review)
Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry (Kat’s review)
The Hunter’s Wife by Katherine Scholes

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Mixed Bag: June 2010

Kat — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 06:13:23 +0000

It’s a mix of genres this month in the Mixed Bag, which includes Deborah Locke’s memoir—a must-read for fans of Underbelly.

Don’t Bargain With The Devil by Sabrina Jeffries (School For Heiresses #5)

Dont Bargain With The Devil by Sabrina Jeffries (School For Heiresses, Book 5)

When Lucy Seton discovers that famous magician Diego Montalvo plans to build a pleasure garden next door to Charlotte Harris’s finishing, she’s determined to thwart his plans. But he’s sneaky and charming and continually makes Lucy forget her vow to be the paragon of propriety. Diego has ulterior motives, however. He intends to return Lucy to her long-lost grandfather even if he has to kidnap her.

Don’t Bargain With The Devil is the kind of book I might have enjoyed when I was just discovering historical romance, with its over-the-top dashing hero and the heroine who tries to be a good girl but can’t help herself in the hero’s presence. But I’ve been reading historical romance for a long time, and this one didn’t stand out above the rest. I skimmed bits of it, and while Jeffries comes up with some good lines here and there, the most interesting bit about the book is the mystery of who the hero in the final book of the series will be.

Yay or nay? The story has its moments, but it’s ultimately forgettable. You can read an excerpt via Simon & Schuster.

ISBN: 9781416560814 | Release date: July 2009 | Publisher: Pocket Books | Format: Mass market

The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano

Melody Grace McCartney has been in the Witness Protection Program (WITSEC) for twenty years, and as she’s moved yet again to a different life with a different name, she comes face to face with Jonathan Bovaro, the son of the man who wants her dead. It’s almost certain he means to kill her, but Jonathan is the first person who knows who Melody is and she gambles away her life of anonymity for this one chance to live her own life.

David Cristofano’s debut novel starts off so promisingly that it’s almost a tragedy when the story falls apart. Melody’s voice is strong and rich and, at least in the beginning, confronts the reader with the paradox of life in WITSEC—to be safe, she must relinquish her dreams for the future: ‘I can’t help thinking that I am experiencing the slowest death known to mankind.’

But the lyricism in Cristofano’s prose sometimes veers just that little bit too much towards sentimentality and the plot takes some unbelievable twists that made the last part of the book almost unreadable for me. The conflicts presented by Jonathan’s appearance and Melody’s increasing desperation to find freedom in her limited world become almost unbearable, and their resolution, while clever, was far from satisfying.

Yay or nay? This book is worth a try, although it doesn’t quite reach the heights—or perhaps lacks the depth—to which the strong narrative voice and intriguing premise aspire.You can read an excerpt via the OpenBook widget above.

ISBN: 9780446582223 (HB) 9780446582216 (TP) | Release date: March 2009 (HB) March 2010 (TP) | Publisher: Grand Central Publishing | Format: Hardback or US trade paperback

Watching the Detectives by Deborah Locke

Deborah Locke is one of the whistleblowers whose evidence was used in the Royal Commission on the NSW Police, and this book is a memoir of her experiences in the NSW police service.

I read it in a day and couldn’t put it down, but this was due to the subject matter—systemic police corruption—and its ties to Underbelly: The Golden Mile. It’s chilling to read what Locke’s colleagues were up to and the level at which corruption existed.

Locke also talks about the toll on her personal life, and I was especially fascinated with the relationship with her chronically alcoholic parents. There’s a very deep sense of compassion and love that permeates her story, and it surprised me (in a good way) given the neglect and conflict Locke suffers from their single-mindedness to get that next drink.

My biggest complaint about the book is that the structure was a bit of a mess. I didn’t think the transitions between personal life and police life were done very well, and the sequencing of events was just serviceable.

Yay or nay? A good reading complement if you’re watching Underbelly: The Golden Mile.. You can read an excerpt via the Browse Inside widget above.

ISBN: 9780733312427 | Release date: September 2003 | Publisher: ABC Books | Format: C format | Rerelease: December 2009 (9780733327964)

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments #1)

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments, Book 1)

When fifteen-year old Clary Fray discovers she can see things that other people can’t, she’s caught up in a battle between demons and hunters. Her mother disappears and it seems Clary’s life had been steeped in secrets and magic all along.

Clary is sheltered by a group of young Shadowhunters—half-angel warriors who hunt down demons. All Clary wants to do is to rescue her mother, who they believe has been captured by a powerful and ruthless Shadowhunter, but to do so she must find the Mortal Cup and, in the process, she uncovers the role her family plays in the ancient war.

On the romantic front, there’s a kind-of love polygon between Clary, her best friend Simon and Jace, the Shadowhunter who takes it on himself to protect Clary … and between Clary, Jace and Alex … and between Simon, Isabelle and Clary. The relationships are interesting if predictable for the most part. I loved that Clary isn’t stupid about it. Her feelings are conflicted, but she’s honest to herself and to the guys. She’s not blind to Jace’s personality defects even when she’s attracted to him. I’m usually bothered by love triangles, but in this book I didn’t find it so bad.

The weakest aspect of the story for me was the mythology and the set up of the main extrernal conflicts. There’s something a little Harry Potter-ish about City of Bones. Every time the story talked about Valentine, the evil Shadowhunter, and his followers, I thought of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Each time Clary defended a demon or a mundane (i.e. human), I thought of Hermione defending the house elves.

Yay or nay? An action-packed story with a sensible heroine and some unexpected twists means I’ll be looking up the next book in this series.You can read an excerpt via the author’s website.

US edition

ISBN: 9781406307627 | Release date: August 1, 2007 | Publisher: Walker Books | Format: B format

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Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Kat — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:11:08 +0000

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Not to to be effusive or anything, but this is the book that began my love affair with Melina Marchetta’s books.

When I read fiction, regardless of genre, I automatically seek a sense of connection with the words on the page. Sometimes a scene will get me, or a character, or a turn of phrase. I long for these moments of empathy that can turn an otherwise forgettable book into a treasure in my bookshelf.

Saving Francesca gives me diamonds on every page.

Francesca Spinelli is one of thirty girls at St Sebastian’s, a previously ‘all-boys’ school that has opened its doors to girls in Year Eleven for the first time ever.’ She misses the feeling of belonging she had at her old school with her old friends:

St Sebastian’s pretends it’s co-ed by giving us our own toilet. The rest of the place is all male and I know what you’re thinking if you’re a girl. What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls? But the reality is that it’s either like living in a fish bowl or like you don’t exist. Then, on top of that, you have to make a whole new group of friends after being in a comfortable little niche for four years. At Stella’s, you turned up to school, knew exactly what your group’s role and profile was, and the day was a blend of all you found comfortable. My mother calls that complacency but whatever it’s called, I miss it like hell.

To make things worse, Francesca’s mother, Mia, has had a breakdown, and as Francesca struggles to make sense of who she is in her new school, she has to find a way to define her family when its most dominant personality is suddenly silent.

Francesca is nominated to represent the girls and argue for improved conditions. When Will Trombal, one of the House Coordinators, urges her to tell the girls to go with the flow and acts dismissively, Francesca can’t help but put him in his place.

This first act of defiance seems to trigger a spark of rebelliousness. Francesca turns ‘into a delinquent’ when a teacher fixated on rules and punishments gives her a week of detentions for failing a butcher’s paper exercise. And she begins to question whether her old life at Stella’s had been as good as she had thought.

Because it’s a Melina Marchetta book, there’s also a bit of romance thrown in. I wasn’t a fan of Will at first, but the antagonistic attraction between him and Francesca was just too thrilling—and too close to how I remember high school being like—to resist:

I so don’t want to be attracted to him and the fact that I am surprises me. Sometimes when I get home I convince myself that I’m just romanticising anyone who’s actually spoken to me, but then I see him the next day and my heart starts beating fast and I can’t really kid myself… When he looks at me he must see the annoyed look on my face because I get the same annoyed look back. That’s how I feel. Annoyed that I like him.

The Melina Marchetta experience

Saving Francesca doesn’t have vampires or werewolves or kick-arse heroines. It’s about a bunch of teenagers on the brink of adulthood coming to terms with who they really are and attempting to define the foundations of their lives.

The backdrop for Francesca’s year of catharsis is St Sebastian’s, where Marchetta seems to have distilled her experiences as a Catholic school teacher to produce teachers, students, activities and attitudes that, I daresay, anyone who ever went to a co-ed Catholic school in Sydney will find familiar.

The story is narrated in the first person, and there’s a sense in which Francesca kind of lives in her own head, but Marchetta surrounds her with a cast of supporting characters who, although they touch on some stereotypes, are complicated, individual and just so damn interesting—including the adults.

When Francesca and her girlfriends, for example, are told that the boys call them Bitch Spice, Butch Spice, Slut Spice and Stupid Spice, they’re hard pressed to determine who exactly is which:

‘There is some possible overlap here…’

‘I kissed two guys one night in Year Nine, so I could be Slutty Spice too,’ I tell them.

‘No. Not possible. Because what would that make me? I’m not stupid, nor am I bitchy,’ Siobhan says.

‘Siobhan, you’re the whole spice rack as far as some people are concerned’…

Or when Thomas Mackee, the cause of the butcher paper detention, says something that makes Francesca feel good, she thinks that ‘deep down he is a sensitive guy, who sees us as real people with real issues’ except that as she’s practicising, in her head, how to thank him, he goes on to ogle at some girl’s boobs.

I couldn’t put this book down. Even after I was done, I had to go back and read it a second time. Then again. The only way I could stop reading it was to buy another Marchetta book to pore over.

Saving Francesca encapsulates everything I love about Melina Marchetta’s books. Her young characters are passionate, mercurial, unrestrained, vulnerable, compassionate and defiant. Despite her characters’ missteps and conflicts, Marchetta conveys an underlying sense of optimism about the younger generation and confidence in their resilience.

She also gets their voice. Take this conversation between Francesca and her friend Justine, who has a crush on a tuba player she met at a school band three years ago:

‘Have you ever spoken to him?’

‘He looks at me at the bus stop. Sometimes I’m on the bus and it drives past his stop and we have eye contact.

I think about it for a moment. ‘I had a bus-stop relationship for four years at Stella’s.’

‘What’s his name?’ she asks.

‘The Boy From The Bus Stop.’

It was like being in my late teens all over again, except mine was called The Guy In Grey and it was a train-carriage relationship.

In which I attempt to create balance in this review

Lest you think I can’t see the dirt past the diamonds, I had some (very minor) issues with this book. First, I think the book needed a few more scenes showing Francesca with her parents, just to balance out the amount of time we see Francesca at school or with her school friends.

Also, ‘Filipino’ and ‘Filo’ are misspelled on page 98, both in the reissue and in the original edition, which I borrowed from the library. (Interestingly, Chachic of Chachic’s Book Nook tells me that it’s spelled correctly in her copy, which was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers.)

And finally, I find the cover of the reissue a step down from the original. It’s a nitpick, I know, but another Marchetta fan mentioned this to me, so I think it’s worth whingeing about commenting on.

Yay or nay?

This is just about the perfect YA novel, as far as I’m concerned. The characters feel like real people, reflecting the language and sensibility of the inner suburbs of Sydney, and the story accurately depicts the experience of attending a systemic Catholic school. If you only read one Melina Marchetta book, read this one.

This book was first published in 2003 by Viking (Penguin Australia) and reissued in B format in 2006.

Title: Saving Francesca (excerpt)
Author: Melina Marchetta
ISBN: 9780143000976
Release date: June 5, 2006
Publisher: Penguin Australia
Format: B format

Where you can buy this book

Other editions of this book

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2009 Australian Romance Readers Awards – Winners

Kat — Sun, 16 May 2010 01:36:19 +0000

Anna Campbell took out the top prize in last night’s Australian Romance Readers Awards, held last night at Cello’s Restaurant in Sydney.

Campbell was voted Favourite Australian Romance Author of 2009 and also won Favourite Historical Romance for her fourth novel, Captive of Sin.

The night was a bonanza of wins for Australian authors, with Paula Roe, Kandy Shepherd and Bronwyn Parry taking the prizes in their categories.

Roe won Favourite Short Category Romance for The Magnate’s Baby Promise. Shepherd won Favourite Contemporary Romance for Love is a Four-Legged Word. Parry won Favourite Romantic Suspense for Dark Country.

New Zealand author Nalini Singh, who was also the guest speaker for the event, won Favourite Continuing Romance Series for her Psy-Changeling books and Favourite Sci-fi, Fantasy or Futuristic Romance for Angel’s Blood.

Other winners included J. R. Ward’s Lover Avenged for Favourite Paranormal Romance and Lauren Dane’s Laid Bare for Favourite Erotic Romance.

The awards were well supported by local independent bookshops, including Ever After, Galaxy Bookshop, Love Books, Romance Direct, Romantic Reflections, Rosemary’s Romance Books and Temptation. Mills & Boon sponsored the category romance award.

The full list of nominees, winners and award sponsors is available on the ARRA website.

The Australian Romance Readers Awards are held each year to recognise ARRA members’ favourite romance books. Finalists and winners are nominated by readers.

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The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale

Wandergurl — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:20:43 +0000

The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale

Wandergurl gives everybody’s favourite author a second chance, in an attempt to fulfil Kat’s dream of finding the perfect Laura Kinsale novel for her. No such luck.

Lady Leigh Stachan’s family was killed by a crazy cult leader, driving her to travel all the way to France dressed as a boy to find the legendary S.T. Maitland, once known as the Prince of Midnight, to train her so she can avenge her family. S.T. Maitland has spent the past few years keeping to his eccentric self in backwater country France, with his pet wolf, hiding a few ailments of his own. He falls in love with Leigh and decides to help her in her quest.

Second chance challenge

This is a second chance romance for me. Second chance in the sense that Laura Kinsale never worked for me before, but I promised I would give her another try. AnimeJune (Gossamer Obsessions) and I made a deal: I would give Kinsale a second try if she did the same for Nalini Singh.

She did a hell of a lot better than I did, because it only took her a few weeks to read the book (we made this agreement in January!) and she actually read the whole thing. I read about half of this book and skimmed the rest, finally finishing it … what, four months later? I felt that I owed it to this book and to the second chance challenge to write a full review, so here it is.

Ticking all the right boxes…

The thing is, everything everyone has ever said about The Prince of Midnight is true. The characters are well written. Leigh is a strong heroine without being a try hard or too plucky. She’s been through a lot, and you can really see the character growth. She travelled through England and France dressed as a boy, which would seem implausible enough by itself, but there’s something realistic about how she did it. There is even, if I recall correctly, an implication that she wasn’t above using her feminine charm (i.e. sex) to further her cause along, and this fits with a woman of her time. This is the power that they had, and she used it. I liked her determination.

ST is every bit the dreamy hero. The kind who has a quiet strength, falls in love right away and is sweet but not sappy about it. He has all these disabilities that just makes you want to take care of him. He even has a pretty cool wolf.

The plot is well thought of and everything moves along the way it’s supposed to. Kinsale writes very well, and the language fits with the time and flows well.

Kinsale also does drama exceedingly well. And here we come to the part why I didn’t like this book, and why I stopped and why this author is not for me.

…but where’s my escapism?

While I am not averse to drama, I found that this book had too much realism or realistic drama for me to like it. I felt that if I wanted that kind of drama—cult figures, murders, etc.— I should have picked up romantic suspense or even a crime novel. Or I could have seen a movie.

One of the great draws for me about romance novels is the kind of escapism that it offers. We know that, even if everyone suffers, in the end there’s that happy ending. Sometimes the characters don’t work hard enough to get it or the plot device (aka big misunderstanding) is too ridiculously contrived for them to get there, but they do anyway. And while it doesn’t necessarily need to be all sweetness and light, I prefer my romance to provide a healthy form of escapism along the way to this happy ending. I did not feel this way with this book. I felt that all the cult drama sounded like it was going on right now, that it could have happened somewhere in rural NSW, or for that matter, the girl that was eliminated in the second week of this season’s America’s Next Top Model who lived in a cult ’til she was eighteen. Kudos to Kinsale for having written the descriptions so well that it felt like you were right there with them but, sorry, I could not take the drama.

The difference between this and urban fantasy, paranormal drama—like, let’s say, Nalini Singh’s Changeling series—with murders and serial killers and cults is that there’s something in there that’s really not real. I haven’t met a man that can change into a big cat (I would never tell you if I did anyway, and I would keep him to myself and possibly chain him to my bed, but that is a whole different story altogether and I digress…) and there are supernatural elements that allow you to step back and say, Yeah, that’s not gonna happen as this world really doesn’t exist.

Kinsale crafts a world so real that, even if this is set 200+ years ago, it could happen now. And I didn’t want that. This is not why I picked up this book. I did not want to picture in my head people being brainwashed and murdered because they didn’t believe in the same thing as everyone else. I stopped halfway and skimmed the rest of it because of the realism, because I kept getting the feeling that something bad was going to happen and I almost really didn’t want to know. I had a sense of foreboding (again, well written) that made me not want to pick up stuff and then I had to almost force myself to just put it in my hands and read.

Yay or nay?

Would I still recommend this book? Yes, actually. If you like drama, swooping heroes and strong heroines, this is for you. They do have lovely romantic scenes, and everything ends happily in the end. (And, yes, AnimeJune, I agree ST is a wonderful hero.) It is really very well written, and Kinsale does live up to the hype that everyone has been saying. It’s just really not for me.

Will I ever read her again? I’ve been told that her latest book, Lessons in French, is lighter fare and I quote, ‘I don’t see how you can’t like it!’ so maybe I’ll get around to that one eventually. In the meantime, I will accept that I am possibly the only romance novel reader who does not like Laura Kinsale. ‘Til the next second chance challenge…

This book was originally published in December 1990. This review is based on the 2008 mass market release of the book. Sourcebook is releasing the book in B format this month with a snazzy new cover (pictured above) .

2008 mass market release

Title: The Prince of Midnight (excerpt)
Author: Laura Kinsale
ISBN: 9781402246869
Release date: May 2010 (rerelease)
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Format: B format

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Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Kat — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:00:30 +0000

Meridian by Amber Kizer (Fenestra, Book 1)

The beginning shows promise, but the plot is heavy-handed and it’s frustrating that so many aspects remain unknown by the end of the book.

From the day she was born Meridian Sozu seemed to be surrounded by death. On her sixteenth birthday she’s suddenly wrenched from her family with instructions to seek out her great-aunt, her namesake who Meridian has never met.

The beginning of the story is intriguing, but there’s something inexplicable about the way Meridian’s family fails to prepare her for her destiny, especially knowing that she’d have to leave when she turns sixteen and her special power comes to fruition.

Fenestra vs Aternocti

Meridian is told that she’s a Fenestra, a conduit for the dying to get to the afterlife. She’s pursued by the Aternocti, who ‘carry souls to the lightless place’. Her aunt is 106 years old and Meridian must master her power so she can help her aunt transition to her afterlife. It’s not an easy task because souls can pull untrained Fenestra though with them when they pass to the other side.

Her aunt’s companion, a teenager called Tens, leaves Meridian with mixed feelings. He turns out to be her protector, and eventually they form an emotional bond that goes beyond his duty and her destiny. It’s a sweet relationship—there’s a lot of furtive glancing and mixed signals—but the relationship lacks the emotional depth I expect in a romance.

The pressure on Meridian is heightened by sinister forces—possibly the Aternocti—who seem determined to ostracise her aunt and, later, Meridian herself. Her aunt’s local community has become dominated by a fundamentalist Christian pastor, Reverend Perimo, and old friends and neighbours now look at Meridian’s aunt with suspicion.

Clunky characters and unsatisfying mythology

My biggest issue with this book is the clunky way it uses the fundamentalist church to set up the external conflict. It was too easy and too obvious. Meridian has a lot of internal issues to sort out, which were a lot more interesting to me than a hellfire and brimstone pastor who comes out quoting Biblical passages every time he’s in the scene. For someone who supposedly ingratiated himself into the local community and earned their trust, Perimo comes across as a blunt instrument and lacks the charisma I expected him to demonstrate.

The mythology behind the Fenestra also feels wishy-washy. There’s a lot of talk about the Creator and the light and trusting love, without much detail. The story alludes to other kinds of people with special powers, but they only appear—rather conveniently—at the very last part of the story.

Finally, Meridian fails as an urban fantasy heroine. She’s essentially passive for most of the book, and her ability to master her power isn’t developed all that well. I felt there was too much focus on the Aternocti threat and not enough on Meridian’s personal growth as a character.

Yay or nay?

Meridian is an easy read and the beginning shows promise, but it’s frustrating that so many aspects remain unknown by the end of the book. Some elements of the plot are extremely heavy-handed, the mythology is fairly light, and I was frustrated by the main character’s lack of growth by the end.

A review copy of this book was generously provided by Random House Australia. The US hardback version of this book was published in 2009.

Title: Meridian (excerpt)
Series: Fenestra (Book 1)
Author: Amber Kizer
ISBN: 9781864718782
Release date: May 2010
Publisher: Random House Australia
Format: B format

Where you can buy this book