book review post
Read this month:
note: My method of categorising books is to list them by the primary focus of the story - if the first focus of the narrative is obviously a romance plot (about getting the characters together), that's what's going in first. If I feel the focus of the narrative is a conflict and the romance happens to occur along the way, then that's what's going first.
This makes Nora Roberts' trilogies rather difficult to define, since they're often about a big arc that requires resolution, but the romances happen along the way and are marked out by assigning each pairing a book's worth of relationship arc. So...the trilogies tend to be fantasy/romance, but the individual books are romance/fantasy.
It's a conundrum.
Hands Of Isis by Jo Graham - Historical/Fantasy
I enjoyed this one a lot. (Not as much as Black Ships, but still.) Charmian doesn't speak to me as much as Gull did, but I liked her. Then again, I think I like Graham's female characters - ones for whom love and relationships are a part of their life, but not the whole of it. And who operate in historical time periods where women had little power outside the home, but who were in places to change history. And since she's writing a Stargate Atlantis tie in novel series, this is a good thing! Can't wait to see Stealing Fire which is due out...next month, I think.
The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer - Romance/Historical
I mostly liked this, although it felt a little overdramatic. Lots of mooning about by Lord John and Diana. Geeze guys, get a grip and deal! And the sister in law annoyed me - Lavinia. (With a name like that, it's no wonder she's a ditz.) Acceptable reading but probably not re-readable. (Unlike Heyer books like The Masqueraders, Arabella, and Sylvester.)
More Than A Mistress by Mary Balogh - Romance/Historical
This one didn't hit me. It felt...too pat. The ending, where everything comes together? A little too forced. And did she have to be pregnant? Because that makes her acceptance of him, well, inevitable. She's out of options, so of course she marries him! Newsflash: marrying someone because you're out of options is not romantic.
Maybe it was just this book. I'll try another one, but...this one had an interesting premise, but completely fell apart in the denouement.
Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts - Romance/Fantasy
I'm not as into this one as much as I was the first time reading through, but in her trilogies, the first novel is usually my least-favourite, the second novel the most. I like Blair and Larkin much better in personality and storyline than Hoyt and Glenna. Still in re-reads, though, so...we'll see if it gets better.
Born Of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Romance/Sci-Fi
I don't find this one well-written at all. I feel like I'm reading something that was penned by a sixteen year old - it's all angst and dramatically overdone description.
What do I mean by angst and overdone description? Okay, try this: he's an assassin, which instantly makes him a soulless killer...but wait! He has a heart! And he's all angsty over the heroine who's beautiful and pure and everything he's not (in spite of having been kidnapped and raped when she was a child and having to watch her mother die before her eyes) and I could go on about cheekbones of ice and everyone having really distinctive eyes...but I won't.
The style feels very adolescent to me - and yet she's a huge author in the supernatural/fantasy romance genre. I dunno, maybe there's payoff at the end. I'm reading through to see if anything comes out at me, although I doubt it.
Kris Longknife: Mutineer by Mark Shepherd - Sci-Fi/Fantasy
I've only read the 1st, 2nd and 4th books in this series, and I like them. Kris works for me as a heroine in much the same way as Esmay Suiza does (Once A Hero: Elizabeth Moon), although she's a bit more forward than Esmay is. And the author doesn't sugar-coat the bad shit - it's bad and the consequences of action or inaction - are bad. One of the things I admire about Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy series is that everything has a reaction: drop a pebble in a pond and the ripples spread and rebound. The same law applies in these books - what Kris does has repercussions, on her, on her friends, on her family, and - as we see in later books - on her future.
This entry is also posted here on Dreamwidth and currently has
comments.
I'm turning off LJ comments this week in honour of three_weeks_for_dw. Come over and comment at DW instead!
- Hands Of Isis by Jo Graham
- The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
- More Than A Mistress by Mary Balogh
- Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts (re-reading)
- Born Of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon (just started)
- Kris Longknife: Mutineer by Mark Shepherd (re-reading)
note: My method of categorising books is to list them by the primary focus of the story - if the first focus of the narrative is obviously a romance plot (about getting the characters together), that's what's going in first. If I feel the focus of the narrative is a conflict and the romance happens to occur along the way, then that's what's going first.
This makes Nora Roberts' trilogies rather difficult to define, since they're often about a big arc that requires resolution, but the romances happen along the way and are marked out by assigning each pairing a book's worth of relationship arc. So...the trilogies tend to be fantasy/romance, but the individual books are romance/fantasy.
It's a conundrum.
Hands Of Isis by Jo Graham - Historical/Fantasy
I enjoyed this one a lot. (Not as much as Black Ships, but still.) Charmian doesn't speak to me as much as Gull did, but I liked her. Then again, I think I like Graham's female characters - ones for whom love and relationships are a part of their life, but not the whole of it. And who operate in historical time periods where women had little power outside the home, but who were in places to change history. And since she's writing a Stargate Atlantis tie in novel series, this is a good thing! Can't wait to see Stealing Fire which is due out...next month, I think.
The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer - Romance/Historical
I mostly liked this, although it felt a little overdramatic. Lots of mooning about by Lord John and Diana. Geeze guys, get a grip and deal! And the sister in law annoyed me - Lavinia. (With a name like that, it's no wonder she's a ditz.) Acceptable reading but probably not re-readable. (Unlike Heyer books like The Masqueraders, Arabella, and Sylvester.)
More Than A Mistress by Mary Balogh - Romance/Historical
This one didn't hit me. It felt...too pat. The ending, where everything comes together? A little too forced. And did she have to be pregnant? Because that makes her acceptance of him, well, inevitable. She's out of options, so of course she marries him! Newsflash: marrying someone because you're out of options is not romantic.
Maybe it was just this book. I'll try another one, but...this one had an interesting premise, but completely fell apart in the denouement.
Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts - Romance/Fantasy
I'm not as into this one as much as I was the first time reading through, but in her trilogies, the first novel is usually my least-favourite, the second novel the most. I like Blair and Larkin much better in personality and storyline than Hoyt and Glenna. Still in re-reads, though, so...we'll see if it gets better.
Born Of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Romance/Sci-Fi
I don't find this one well-written at all. I feel like I'm reading something that was penned by a sixteen year old - it's all angst and dramatically overdone description.
What do I mean by angst and overdone description? Okay, try this: he's an assassin, which instantly makes him a soulless killer...but wait! He has a heart! And he's all angsty over the heroine who's beautiful and pure and everything he's not (in spite of having been kidnapped and raped when she was a child and having to watch her mother die before her eyes) and I could go on about cheekbones of ice and everyone having really distinctive eyes...but I won't.
The style feels very adolescent to me - and yet she's a huge author in the supernatural/fantasy romance genre. I dunno, maybe there's payoff at the end. I'm reading through to see if anything comes out at me, although I doubt it.
Kris Longknife: Mutineer by Mark Shepherd - Sci-Fi/Fantasy
I've only read the 1st, 2nd and 4th books in this series, and I like them. Kris works for me as a heroine in much the same way as Esmay Suiza does (Once A Hero: Elizabeth Moon), although she's a bit more forward than Esmay is. And the author doesn't sugar-coat the bad shit - it's bad and the consequences of action or inaction - are bad. One of the things I admire about Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy series is that everything has a reaction: drop a pebble in a pond and the ripples spread and rebound. The same law applies in these books - what Kris does has repercussions, on her, on her friends, on her family, and - as we see in later books - on her future.
This entry is also posted here on Dreamwidth and currently has
comments.
I'm turning off LJ comments this week in honour of three_weeks_for_dw. Come over and comment at DW instead!