The First Two books of 2008
So, if you'll remember, I said I was going to do a 50 book/15,000 pages challenge this year. It's day 3 and I'm two books down. Not that I'll keep up this pace. Both books were basically brain candy, though of radically different kinds, and one was a reread.
Book 1/50
Title: All Emergencies, Ring Super
Author: Ellen Emerson White
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 300
Cover Blurb: Once an aspiring actress, Dana Coakley has abandoned the bright lights of stardom for a less glamorous position: as superintendent of an Upper West Side apartment building. The pay isn't great, and grouting and plumbing aren't dream work, but the rent is free, and it gives her more time to work with the disadvantaged inner-city kids she tutors.
One of those kids, Travis, confides in Dana that he believes a fatal fire in a low-income housing building was actually the work of an arsonist, and not the accident it was deemed. Dana begins investigating, but he snooping unearths more questions thna it answers. What does a wealthy real-estate mogul have to do with the fire? What does a teenage drug lord know about it? And can Dana--with the help of her wisecracking friends--solve the case in between leaky faucets, loose tiles, and whiny tenants?
Grade: B
Review: I enjoyed this. It was nicely paced and the mystery, while not much of a mystery, was told in a compelling manner. The heroine, Dana, doesn't do most of the enormously idiotic things that most heroines do. She put her actress skills to good use, and her friends were fantastic. Ray the cop is amusing on the rare occasion that we see him. Peggy, the trust-fund baby high-powered publisher is interesting. I can't say I like her, really, but she's interesting. Valerie, the actress is quirky and talented beyond what you might expect from her bubbly dumb blonde exterior. Craig her gay neighbor and fellow actor is adorable. Lt. Molly Saperstein, a feisty firefighter whose used to fighting against an ingrained bias against women, is a great character. She's just bitter enough, for what she's gone through without letting it color her whole life. They meet in the book, and they're maybe not quite friends by the end, but they're something close. And Kevin, district attorney and love interest was great. I love that they give this outgoing confident woman, a socially awkward, withdrawn love interest. Kevin is a good guy, and if we see Dana again, I hope we see him as well. And of course, there's the teenager, Travis, who starts the whole mess. Travis is a good kid in a bad place. He's poor and black and nobody expects him to do well, so he's never bothered to even try to rise above their expectations. It's a common story, a real story. The nice thing here is that Dana makes a deal with him. She'll investigate the fire, if he'll go to school and get his grades up. He's a smart kid, and once he actually starts going to classes, he does well in them. I won't read it again, but it was an enjoyable waste of an afternoon.
Book 2/50
Title: The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the Zodiac
Series: Signs of the Zodiac
Author: Vicki Pettersson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 455
Cover Blurb: When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a phtographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset--a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow--seeking answers to whom or what she really is...and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nighmare is just beginning--for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own...
Grade: A-
Review: I liked this well enough to give the second book a try. Joanna is an interesting heroine made even more interesting when she's forced to take on the persona of someone she loves but she's nothing like. The world is engaging, if a little underdeveloped at this point. The feel of the books kind of reminds me of the first couple of Anita Blake novels, even though the situations are not at all alike. Joanna, even reminds me a bit of Anita. She's sarcastic and anger is the emotion she's most comfortable with. She can kick ass, and she's almost as wary of the "good" guys as she is the bad guys. I can only hope that it doesn't go the same way as the Anita Blake books. The only thing that worries me is Pettersson's ability to sustain the plots tension through several books. I hesitate to recommend the book, because I haven't read even the first sequel yet, and not enough is resolved here to make it truly stand alone, but I am guardedly hopeful. This was a fun and sometimes intense read. I'd read it again.
2 of 50 books read
755 of 15,000 pages read
Book 1/50
Title: All Emergencies, Ring Super
Author: Ellen Emerson White
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 300
Cover Blurb: Once an aspiring actress, Dana Coakley has abandoned the bright lights of stardom for a less glamorous position: as superintendent of an Upper West Side apartment building. The pay isn't great, and grouting and plumbing aren't dream work, but the rent is free, and it gives her more time to work with the disadvantaged inner-city kids she tutors.
One of those kids, Travis, confides in Dana that he believes a fatal fire in a low-income housing building was actually the work of an arsonist, and not the accident it was deemed. Dana begins investigating, but he snooping unearths more questions thna it answers. What does a wealthy real-estate mogul have to do with the fire? What does a teenage drug lord know about it? And can Dana--with the help of her wisecracking friends--solve the case in between leaky faucets, loose tiles, and whiny tenants?
Grade: B
Review: I enjoyed this. It was nicely paced and the mystery, while not much of a mystery, was told in a compelling manner. The heroine, Dana, doesn't do most of the enormously idiotic things that most heroines do. She put her actress skills to good use, and her friends were fantastic. Ray the cop is amusing on the rare occasion that we see him. Peggy, the trust-fund baby high-powered publisher is interesting. I can't say I like her, really, but she's interesting. Valerie, the actress is quirky and talented beyond what you might expect from her bubbly dumb blonde exterior. Craig her gay neighbor and fellow actor is adorable. Lt. Molly Saperstein, a feisty firefighter whose used to fighting against an ingrained bias against women, is a great character. She's just bitter enough, for what she's gone through without letting it color her whole life. They meet in the book, and they're maybe not quite friends by the end, but they're something close. And Kevin, district attorney and love interest was great. I love that they give this outgoing confident woman, a socially awkward, withdrawn love interest. Kevin is a good guy, and if we see Dana again, I hope we see him as well. And of course, there's the teenager, Travis, who starts the whole mess. Travis is a good kid in a bad place. He's poor and black and nobody expects him to do well, so he's never bothered to even try to rise above their expectations. It's a common story, a real story. The nice thing here is that Dana makes a deal with him. She'll investigate the fire, if he'll go to school and get his grades up. He's a smart kid, and once he actually starts going to classes, he does well in them. I won't read it again, but it was an enjoyable waste of an afternoon.
Book 2/50
Title: The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the Zodiac
Series: Signs of the Zodiac
Author: Vicki Pettersson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 455
Cover Blurb: When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a phtographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset--a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow--seeking answers to whom or what she really is...and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nighmare is just beginning--for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own...
Grade: A-
Review: I liked this well enough to give the second book a try. Joanna is an interesting heroine made even more interesting when she's forced to take on the persona of someone she loves but she's nothing like. The world is engaging, if a little underdeveloped at this point. The feel of the books kind of reminds me of the first couple of Anita Blake novels, even though the situations are not at all alike. Joanna, even reminds me a bit of Anita. She's sarcastic and anger is the emotion she's most comfortable with. She can kick ass, and she's almost as wary of the "good" guys as she is the bad guys. I can only hope that it doesn't go the same way as the Anita Blake books. The only thing that worries me is Pettersson's ability to sustain the plots tension through several books. I hesitate to recommend the book, because I haven't read even the first sequel yet, and not enough is resolved here to make it truly stand alone, but I am guardedly hopeful. This was a fun and sometimes intense read. I'd read it again.
2 of 50 books read
755 of 15,000 pages read