Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark-Hunter, Book 12)

Hallelujah, I can finally sleep!

So what did I think?

Part one

Well, I loved the first part. Despite feeling that the writing lacked a certain authenticity, I found the storytelling so compelling that the book was almost unputdownable. Acheron’s early life is gruesome, and Kenyon doesn’t pull any punches. She manages to find that fine balance between laying it all out for the reader without making the violence feel gratuitous. Probably because she leaves the most horrific parts unsaid or off-page, which is always much, much worse, I think, because it almost compels you to fill in the blanks and imagine the hundred different yet equally terrible things that may have happened.

About halfway through the first part of the book, I realised that Kenyon was playing me. And doing it beautifully. She intersperses scenes of beauty and simple joy with acts of barbarism, and she balances these so finely that I was shocked yet again by each act of betrayal that Ash suffers. I completely bought his back story.

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Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark-Hunter, Book 12)

Note: This post was originally published in installments in July 2008. I’ve collated the liveblog into one post for simplicity.

Childhood

So the first part of Acheron is all about Ash’s childhood. I haven’t read all the Dark-Hunter books, and of the ones I’ve read, I’ve forgotten the bits about Ash, so I don’t know what’s a spoiler and what’s not.

I have to tell you, I’m so into this book. I’m not really a fangirl of the Dark-Hunter series. (Not like I was of the BDB.) But I’m loving this book even though this first part is difficult to read. Difficult as in subject matter, not the writing itself. I might have cried if I hadn’t been reading in the middle of a crowded train and had to look like a human being when I arrived at work in the next half hour. The only real thing that’s bothered me is the language. It just doesn’t sound very ancient. But I gotta say, the story’s so absorbing that I barely give that a second thought.

And if there’s one thing that shines through in Acheron, it’s how much Kenyon loves Ash. It’s so clearly reflected in her writing.

Okay, I gotta get back to the book. Don’t hate me. :-P

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The Godfather by Mario Puzo

It’s been a while now since I’ve read a book that has stayed with me for days. I finally read The Godfather for the first time, and … wow. I loved the first two movies (can barely remember the third–I only watched it once), and I wanted to see if it’s one of those rare times when the film version of a story surpasses the book. No, it doesn’t. But it is one of those even rarer times when the movie changes the book just enough to make it great in its own right without taking anything away from the book. On balance, I think the storytelling in the movie is much more sophisticated, but the book gives a far better insight on the characters.

I wouldn’t consider the book to have the greatest storytelling I’ve ever read. In some parts, the exposition is awkward, and maybe I’ve been spoiled by having read some fabulously written romances recently, but at some points in the novel, I wished Puzo would tell less and just show, show, show, because there’s so much opportunity for showing that there rarely seems a real need to tell. But there are also times when he gets the balance right and produces something exquisite.

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Kathleen O'Reilly books

One of my favourite authors read some comments I made at Dear Author bemoaning–nay, whingeing–about my inability to find some of her books and when would her latest series ever get here, poor me, oh, my, oh, my, etc.

And she asked what books I was after and offered to send them to me.

And I was sneaky and said I was after her entire backlist (the ones I didn’t already have) although, ahem, I wouldn’t expect her to send me ALL of them. Ahem.

And then I got this in the post.

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Suzanne by Michael Betcherman

When I was offered a review preview of Suzanne, I was quite excited because I’ve always felt that modern storytelling has so far underutilised the power of multimedia. Suzanne is an epistolary story told via e-mail (as in actual e-mail sent to the reader) over three weeks. It’s an interesting experiment–one which had mixed results for me.

The heroine

Suzanne Braun is a not terribly successful single mother struggling to recover from the debts left behind by her late husband. She’s shunned by society and considered a gold-digger after refusing to marry an older businessman who insisted that she sign a prenup.

The hero

Mark Rogers is recovering from the break up of his 14-year relationship. A successful businessman, he’s coming back home to start afresh.

The setup

Suzanne has been invited by her in-laws to a spend the summer at their cottage in the swanky community of Lake Joseph, and she’s planning to use the opportunity to check out potential husbands with the means to help her out of her bind.

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Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty (Hell's Eight, Book 1)

Caine’s Reckoning has not been an easy book to find. First, Spice (Harlequin’s erotic line) isn’t published in Australia. Second, my husband had to scour bookstores all over San Francisco to find a copy, which he finally did in some obscure Borders Express store somewhere. Yay for husbands! I really wanted to love this book, and I can see why it’s generated so much buzz (aside from the fantabulous cover), but it fell a little short of my expectations.

Desi, the heroine, is forced into sexual servitude, and the only way Caine can save her is to marry her. I expected very dark, very intense sex scenes that would show how Desi deals with and is healed of the horrors she had to endure. Instead, I felt that her recovery was extremely rushed. While the sex scenes were very erotic and very well written, they didn’t have much emotional resonance. I didn’t understand her sexual choices at all, and at times I felt that she made them just to please Caine, rather than for herself.

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Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh (Psy/Changeling Series, Book 3)

I’ve had this post in draft for ages, and I’ve decided to turn it into a quickie or it may never see the light of day. While Slave to Sensation is still my favourite book in this series, Caressed by Ice is a great read. The Psy hero/changeling heroine combination has a very different dynamic from the pairings in the previous books, and if you like your heroines to be dark, inscrutable and very alpha, you won’t be disappointed.

It took me a while to warm up to the characters in this book, and I had to read it twice to get a better understanding of what made them tick. Judd is a much colder hero, and while I can see how he’d appeal to other readers, I prefer the changeling heros of the previous books. I liked Brenna only after the second reading, because at times I found her irritatingly clingly (though she had good reason to be). I wasn’t certain how Singh was going to resolve the very huge problem of Judd’s need for the Silence protocol, and I found some of the explanations about how dissonance was affecting him confusing. But the book doesn’t take an easy way out, so I’m happy with the way it was resolved, although I would have liked to have understood Judd’s reprogramming of his brain better.

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Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

I’m not gonna lie. I love this book. Mine doesn’t seem to be a popular opinion when I look it up on the blogs, but J. T. Wilder is just … swoonable. He’s just so … manly. And no flowerly dialogue, thank god. (Also, I learned a new word: clusterfuck.) I wish we had more men like him in romance.

It took me ages to warm up to Lucy, however, and that’s unusual for a Crusie heroine. I found her slighty shrill and felt that she didn’t really change much during the book. Some of her scenes with Wilder were so melodramatic, I felt like rolling my eyes. Still, a bad Crusie heroine is far from a write-off, and I loved some of her conversations with the movie crew.

I also loved the tight writing–every scene here has a purpose, even though it got farcical at times. This isn’t your typical romance, and the “I love you” comes out of the blue. Best if they hadn’t included it–I just read through and ignored that bit. But this book is a keeper because of Wilder. As a result, I may have a teeny-weeny crush on Bob Mayer.

If you’re thinking of picking up a romance(ish) novel that a guy might like, try this one. Click here to read the first chapter.

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Lady of Light and Shadows by C. L. Wilson (Tairen Soul, Book 2)

After reading Lord of the Fading Lands, all shame flew out the window and I begged e-mailed the publisher to see if they’d be willing to part with an ARC of the sequel. If at all possible, these two books should be read back to back because while Lord of the Fading Lands focuses on Rain’s courtship of Ellie, Lady of Light and Shadows develops the external plot further and adds much more complexity to the story.

The heroine

Ellie Baristani has been claimed as the truemate of the Lord of the Fey, but as far as Ellie’s concerned, she’s a woodcarver’s daughter pretending to be a queen. Her first official engagement as queen ended in complete disaster when she accidentally wielded magic–of the lusty kind–right in the middle of dinner! Hers is an unpredictable skill that seems to get her into trouble time and again. Now, amidst the suspicion of her own family and friends, Ellie struggles to accept and control the magic she has always feared.

The hero

Rain Tairen Soul, King of the Fey, is convinced that his most bitter enemies, the Mages of Eld, are preparing for an attack. But despite his relentless campaigning, his allies are unable or unwilling to see the danger that is imminent. Meanwhile, he must continue to court Ellie so that she might fully accept their mating bond–for she is now his greatest vulnerability.

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Beat of Temptation by Nalini Singh (Psy/Changeling Series) in An Enchanted Season

Beat of Temptation is part of an anthology, An Enchanted Season, but I just had to post about it. I cried. I can’t remember the last time I cried while reading a romance novel or when I last read in the car, but I did both. It was that good.

Beat of Temptation is a stand alone novella set in the Psy-Changeling world, and while it isn’t essential to the series, it offers a glimpse into the changeling mating bond. There’s an external plot dealing with the relationship between Psy and changelings, but it’s peripheral to the story. Beat of Temptation is about Tamsyn and Nate (introduced in previous books in the series), who recognised the mating bond when Tamsyn was only fifteen and Nate much older (twenty-five?). Now, nineteen-year old Tamsyn wants to … well, get the party started, but Nate wants her to enjoy unmated singledom for a while because he’s scared she’ll end up like his mother, who married young and ended up committing suicide.

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