Craig, Jamie: Chasing Silver
Chasing Silver
Writer: Jamie Craig
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 282
I put off getting this book for a LONG time, and I do mean a LONG time. I mean, look at that cover! Not that's poorly done, but I'm tired of seeing such eye-candy on covers of books, particularly those aimed at women. COME ON.
But I got on a Juno Books kick a while back, so between that and curiosity (this being the first Juno book that had even a HINT of SF), I picked it up. Decided to read it now because I wanted something fast and easy to get through, and trust me, fast and easy to get through it is.
I'm going to be honest: this book DOES NOT BELONG in the SF/Fantasy section. I don't care who published and what their reasons were, and I don't care that there's a time travel element involved. Do you see Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series shelved in SF/F? No. But it's time travel. What about Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife? It's one of the THE BEST time-travel stories I've ever read! But no, it's not shelved in SF/F either. Both of the previous mentioned books are shelved in "fiction," and rightly so: they attract a slightly broader audience than would normally frequent the SF/F shelves.
So where does Chasing Silver belong? Not in SF/F. Not fiction either. No, this book deserves a spot on the Romance shelves, and even though I'm no expert on the genre, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it specifically needs to be shelved in Erotica.
There is nothing, not even the time-travel, about this book that excuses it being shelved in SF/F. Take out the sex, and it's romance thriller/suspense with time travel. That's it. And I'm stressing this whole genre thing so heavily because I want potential readers to know EXACTLY what they're getting when they pick up this book, and also because book two, Touching Silver, didn't get picked up by the bookstores and was therefore canceled, and you know what? I think the first book's shelving is why.
The premise: Remy is on a heist in Washington, DC trying to make a frantic getaway when she's suddenly transported back in time to the year 2008, in LA. Not only does she have to reconcile her new surroundings with how she's used to living, but she also has to reconcile her feelings and desires for the man who finds her. More important, she's still running from her "futuristic" past, and if she's not careful, it's going to catch up with her.
Spoilers ahead.
I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit. Once I realized what it was--sex, sex, and more sex--it was easy to put aside any preconceived notions and enjoy the book for what it was. It's fluff. Sexy fluff, but fluff.
Granted, there were some things that annoyed my inner-critic. The final explanation for the time-travel via the Silver Maiden coin essentially amounted to folk-tales and magic, which was fine, but still left a few questions: was the coin still split into two, and that's how Kirsten was able to follow Remy? If it gave you what you wanted most (I'm assuming Remy and Nathan were essentially soul-mates), why did it BURN Nathan instead of simply do nothing?
There's also the whole issue of time-travel itself. Very little thought is given to fucking around in the past (which will effect the future), both figuratively and literally. I kept wondering, because I'm evil, how does Remy know she's not screwing with a distant relative? Told you I was evil. ;) But I did wish a little more thought was given into Remy being fifty-plus years into the past in terms of how she might be altering history or whatever. I don't mind the end result, but I just wanted to see a little more consideration.
I also got a little tired of the sheer AMOUNT of sex in the book. I think half of the book IS sex, and along those lines, could Jamie Craig choose an UN-sexier word for panties than BRIEFS? I mean, if I don't picture the tightie-whities men wear, then I'm picturing granny-panties that cover your whole ass and half your stomach. I mean, REALLY. Panties, thong, even underwear would've been a better description than BRIEFS. And for the record, the word pussy was just used WAY too often. Of course, that's what clued me into the fact that this book was really erotica, but still.
Then again, I'm just not used to reading this stuff.
But I think, if the reason the second book has been canned has something to do with the sales of the first, it's a no-brainer. This book is NOT for the casual or devoted SF/F reader who'll take a look at the cover and either assume 1) it's urban fantasy and 2) it's for guys because of the hot chick. It's NEITHER. In fact, if people were to take this title out of the SF/F shelves and shove it on the romance or erotica shelves in their local bookstores, I wouldn't be surprised if the books numbers started doing better, or at least better for an erotica. I hate harping on this, but I've read urban fantasies that were improperly labeled and shelved in paranormal romance ( Witchling, anyone?), and now I've pretty much read the opposite. Genre can sometimes make or break a book, and I'm afraid in this, it broke a series. It's a shame, because I would've bought the next one, because frankly, I had fun with this one, despite the nitpicks. I knew I could sit back and enjoy the show, not worry about Remy or Nathan getting too terribly hurt (come on, there HAD to be a happy ending!), and enjoying the lovely banter and tension Remy and Nathan experienced with his best friend, Isaac. I wanted to know how Kirsten would get hers (though I wish Remy had more of a direct hand in confronting her. It was a nice little climax there with Remy's poker face, and Gabriel shooting Kirsten was a nice surprise, but still), and I wanted to figure out just why our hero and heroine had such an insane, insatiable lust and need for each other. Not realistic by any means (then again, neither is getting dragged back through time), but it worked. I enjoyed it.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: IF, and only IF, you're looking for what amounts to as sex, sex, and more sex with a splash of thriller/suspense and time travel mixed in. It's fun and it's fluff***, in a good way, but don't let the SF/F shelving fool you into thinking this book is something it's not. I'm sorry to see that Juno won't be publishing the sequel, but I do hope the authors (Jamie Craig is actually two people, yo) find a way to publish it, even as an e-book. It's fun, and if you're into sex, sex, and more sex (with a time travel twist), you'll find it fun too.
Next up: Storm Front by Jim Butcher
*** = Let me define "fluff" here, just to be safe. In this case, any time there was a chance to complicate the plot or create conflict, there was usually a sex scene. I enjoyed the story, but there could've been a LOT more done with it, and maybe it's because I'm no critical reader of erotica (I don't know what to compare it too), I can't see the sex scenes as escalating or standing out from one another, except the last two. That's that.