“The firebird drops a feather,’ was his summary, ‘and if you’re fool enough to pick it up and chase the bird itself, you’re in for trouble.’ ‘And adventure.’ ‘Aye.’ He nodded. ‘True enough. But what you bring back with you in the end,’ he said, ‘might not be what you started out in search of to begin with.”

– The Firebird, Susanna Kearsley

This was my first Susanna Kearsley. I always hear good things about this author, but never quite got round to reading. But this book was £1.99 and I admit, the beautiful cover drew me to it, and then the setting – Russia and Scotland – sealed the deal. This book slips between past and present effortlessly, telling the story of Anna in the past and in the present, of Nichola, who has a gift that allows her to see flashes of the past when she touches an object, a power she feels uncomfortable having and struggles to accept. Nichola touches a small wooden carving of a firebird, and sees her first glimpse of Anna, as she receives the statue from Russia’s Empress Catherine, and the rest of the book is spent following Nichola as she joins up with her ex lover Rob, a far more powerful psychic, and chases after the back story behind that one, fleeting vision.

Anna’s story was riveting and I laughed and I cried and bit my lip in nervous anticipation at every twist. What would happen to her? I always wanted to know. Where this book let me down was in its present storyline, with Nic and Rob. Rob was so powerful in his abilities, seemingly limitless in his capability to read people, and present and past. There was one scene, one point in the book that I had to stop reading as I was so overwhelmed by…an indescribable feelings, perhaps something akin to sadness, for him. Just how was he so collected? So functional? When he seemed to be constantly slipping into the past, or future. Did he even see the present? And when he saw his visions of the future, surely it would distract him? Did he sometimes slip into peoples mind accidentally, when tired or unaware and see things he did not wish to? And maybe he could control what he saw of the past, but how could he control what he saw of the future? I admit I stopped to ponder Rob, and his abilities and found myself lost. Also I could get behind Rob pushing Nic to accept her gift and embrace it in her personal life, but I was disgusted when he pushed Nic in a corner in order for her to admit to her abilities in her professional life. That could have gone so wrong, and it felt too convenient that it did not. And to go back to Rob and his powers it was revealed a couple of times he had seen before what would happen in the future, the events in the book, so what would have stopped him from knowing all of it, right from the start? I could not help but feel that it was all a bit manipulative of him, if he knew, and did not let Nic know the extent that he did. That’s the problem with giving a character too much power, without clearly setting their limits, you cannot help but doubt them. Though it shows how invested I was in this book that I pondered it so. The author writes exquisitely, and the book just comes alive in your mind, the places and people so vivid. Its a beautiful book really, and an engrossing read, but not without its flaws.

(Also: it really, really bugged me how the author insists on writing out the Scottish accent. It was distracting.)

Nillness, thought Strike, for a second distracted. He had slept badly. Nillness, that was where Lula Landry had gone, and where all of them, he and Rochelle included, were headed. Sometimes illness turned slowly to nillness, as was happening to Bristow’s mother… sometimes nillness rose to meet you out of nowhere, like a concrete road slamming your skull apart.”

– The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith (Cormoran Strike #1)

I bought Cuckoo’s Calling as my first audio book. I have a lengthy walk to university, and I was intrigued by the prospect of filling it somehow, of being productive whilst speed walking. With so much to do, and feeling as distracted as I have lately, I’ve been finding it difficult to read books paper or digital. With Audible’s current deal with one book a month for £3.99 I was sold. I tried this for my first book – I’ve been wanting to check it out, because yes, of course the Big Reveal.

At first this book captivated me and I am not sure if it was from the thrill of experiencing listening to a book like this for the first time or the book itself. I’m leaning more towards the former. The writing in this book is lovely – a little stiff at times, but evocative and personal. The characters are engaging and sympathetic. But. I found the book…typical. Although competently written with a streak of dark humour throughout, and a raw portrayal of the struggles of the characters, I found myself eventually drifting away from it all, getting bored.

Strike is your typical unattractive gruff but with a good heart detective, with a Dark Past and a slight tendency to over drink, of course. Robin was slightly more original – wonderfully creative and competent at her job. But then we have the Disapproving Fiancé of hers. And then there is Charlotte, beautiful Charlotte who I feel is treated unfairly in this book – and who never feels more like a touch of melodrama rather than a person. Beautiful and crazy and manipulative, is Charlotte. There is no sympathy for whatever she suffers from. She is just a “nutcase”. That word bothered me, majorly. I do not like that word. And that, that was one thing that really bothered me about this book – this view of mental health as something that only affects the very young, the very beautiful, the very twisted. It is not something that touches the ordinary. I disliked that. I hate when mental illness is treated with that kind of glamour. I think where the book really lost me though was the sex scene. OK, its only talked about as having happened, never in detail and yet somehow it felt gratuitous, and unnecessary, just another thing to think typical about, and/or a cheap way to get Robin to think about Strike that way to create some sexual tension between them (I could see the author playing games trying to set up a will/they won’t they with Strike and Robin, when it never actually felt tense in that way between them – they never came across as more than working partners to me.)

I also wish it was set outside London. Having it set in London only adds another layer of unoriginality, only takes that much more from it. A new city could have added something special and unique to it.

As it is, its a somewhat entertaining, well written book, wonderfully read by Robert Glenister and worth checking out, but not the sort of book to savour, or to fall for. Honestly, I was completely disinterested by the last few chapters and had to force myself to the finish.

(As to how I’m enjoying audiobooks – very. Its nice to be able to ‘read’ whilst getting on with things. Although I do think audio books are very…intangible. It is unlikely I will go and listen to this again, I cannot highlight or take quotes… and I miss major events every time a truck drives past. :/ )

Books: April-July 2013

Did not get much read these past few months. :/

29) Community Service by Vaughn R. Demont – Separate post here. Liked it, but likely only out of lingering love for Coyote’s Creed and one Spencer Crain.

30) First you Fall by Scott Sherman – This book was disappointing. I really appreciated how certain elements of this book were treated without the usual angst. Kevin was a wonderful character. The book remained light hearted and fun throughout whilst still treating heavy subject matters respectfully and it came off as realistic, too. Yet, the mystery plot was so-so and veered into the “really?” towards the end (losing that wonderful sense of reality alongside it) Things came together in a very convenient way and people were way to willing to spill the beans. Also: I figured out who killed Allen halfway through and I was hoping- hoping I wasn’t right. I was right. And I did not like the portrayal of the shy woman or the fat woman. It was a little bit offensive. And what on earth did Tony do to deserve forgiveness? I really wanted Kevin to say no, sorry you had your chance and make a fresh start. The fairly open end does not suggest that happening :/ I think I need to avoid romantic suspense? This is clearly not a genre that works for me.

31) Drowntide by Sydney J. Van Scyoc – Appreciated that it was a compact, single volume fantasy. Excellent word building. But did not work for me overall. As an aside: I miss the hand painted covers for fantasy books. The cover of drowntide is gorgeous and actually related to the book!

32) Not Dead Yet by Peter James – Loaned to me by a friend for easy holiday/airport reading and it certainly did the job as exactly that. The writing was technically good, but I found it far too plain- it’s very much we’re told what’s happening, and what characters are feeling or thinking, and as such I didn’t connect to the characters or their relationships. However the book is intricately plotted and I enjoyed immensely trying to figure it all out, as James skillfully plays between viewpoints, that seem unrelated at first, but of course were not. An engrossing read as purely an interesting mystery. But I don’t think I’ll check out any more of this author, as I do not enjoy his writing style.

33) The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino – Galileo as a TV series was just a typical detective Jdrama- nothing special, but entertaining enough. So when I watched the movie that followed I was taken by surprise by how different it was. How much better. It was powerful and moving. The book is a little different from the movie, and maybe even better. The crime, or rather its cover up because uniquely that is the center of this mystery, is very elaborate and you do wonder- would someone really go that far for a love that isn’t even returned? But it is that that probably makes this book so devastating. Really, the book starts of a bit confusing but once it gets going and everything starts unravelling it’s hard to stop reading. The last few chapters were just so incredible, and the ending tragic. I also enjoyed book Yukawa- he was a little more human, still quirky but not quite so eccentric or strange. It was so sad seeing him struggle with knowing what his friend did. I really want to get hold of more of the Yukawa books, although unfortunately it seems only one other has been translated (Maybe there is only one?)

34) The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells – Once again a Martha Wells book that I struggle with at the beginning, but eventually end up loving completely. Like what I’ve read of Wells so far, this book is mature and although written in a light hearted manner with a dry sense of humour throughout, it is none the less sad in many ways. The characters are all broken and often twisted, the relationships between them uncertain and not always happy- they argue, feel betrayed, feel hurt. The book is a dark, moving adventure, with incredibly detailed world building (I am amazed at how well Nicolas knew the streets of the city and even its sewers as this meant the author must know this. Imagine building a world right down to its lower levels. Incredible.) and some brilliant characters. Also: this book is set 300 or so years later than element of fire and I did appreciate the subtle call backs to that book- although I am not sure I picked up on them all, I did think it was marvellous the reveal of just who nicolas ancestors were. (Though it was terribly sad to see him and his family still paying the price for what an ancestor they never knew did)  I am not usually fan of these sorta Victorian London settings, but I really enjoyed this one. Also, gotta appreciate how Wells has released her back list as very affordable and very well formatted ebooks.

35) Scorpion by Aleksandr Voinov – The world building in this one is no where near as intricate as Martha Wells above, and at times I felt the world building was actually a little flat. The author also pushed at the line of having the erotica take over the plot- there were just so many sex scenes and with so many different people that it kinda distracted from the plot. Even the world did come across as a little over sexualised at points, which didn’t help the flatness. But although a little sparse, the world building was consistent, and I did very tense throughout wondering how things would unfold because although I could not quite grasp the world and its dynamics, I liked the characters and the relationships between them and this was what kept me reading/invested in the book. The book was unpredictable and there were many unexpected twists: the author surprised me with the identities of certain characters, and how the relationships in this book them unfolded. Kendras had an incredible strength and his dedication, and therefore his fears, about his officer were heart wrenching. I appreciated how the author handled their relationship (I really let out of a sigh of relief at the end when it came to them), and more importantly I appreciated that how the relationship between Kendras and Steel played out- anything else would have been icky and unbelievable. (Though Steel was such a strange character- he was presented as the main, but was never really developed so what happened to him did not have as much impact as it could, and should have) Also- how beautiful is the cover to this book? I admit I was drawn in by that cover because yes, that is a deciding factor for me when browsing  books.

36) The Taker by Alma Katsu – No. This looked to be something I would enjoy but I just could not get into it. I did not like Lanny and did not understand, nor particularly care about, her obsession with Jonathan. This  book was such a long, hard slog to get through. In fact, I actually started it last year and then abandoned it when I left for Malaysia and only picked it up again recently to finish, as I did after all buy it, but man, I am so glad to be done with it. (lets not talk about how its a trilogy. one is enough!)

“This has the potential to end badly. But if there’s one thing I know in this situation, it’s James. Talk to a guy long enough, go through enough shit with him, be there for enough significant moments in his life, and there are stories he will tell you, things he will confide that he wouldn’t tell a stranger. He’ll tell you about the first time he saw the bruises, really saw them, and knew he had to leave. He’ll tell you about living under someone’s control, helpless, hopeless, and then finding real freedom, and how he’d rather die than live through that again.
This isn’t covered in the sidekick handbook. You don’t expect this when you sign on. […] A Coyote doesn’t expect to be anyone’s confidante, not anyone we’re not working an angle on.”

– Community Service, Vaughn R. Demont (Broken Mirrors #3) 

It’s hard to articulate my feelings about this book. I loved Coyote’s Creed and a good chunk of its successor, Lightning Rod. Then something happened towards the end of Lightning Rod that made me want to scream and haul the book across the room. It was the author pulling the rug from under the reader in the worst way. It made me cry like a little child, and I was not happy to find myself doing that when it seemed the book was heading to a beautiful, romantic, compelling HEA. I was also annoyed with how Spencer was depicted in that book, though I cannot remember why.

I debated whether I even wanted to read the third book in the series, and hesitantly picked it up as it was on sale. I finished this book in about two days, so I cannot say I did not enjoy it. Except I don’t think I did. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened, even as I wasn’t enjoying what was happening. I really don’t like the direction the story(/series) is taking. The character of Ozzie and his relationship with James felt shallow and happened too quickly, too conveniently. I hated how Rourke wasn’t in Lightning Rod and was just kicked to the curb in this book. And after how quickly Spencer and Rourke’s relationship started I was hoping that  things would slow down- but the brief scenes between them felt rushed and showed nothing new. I was really hoping that Spencer would have matured and their relationship would have grown, and yeah, I am really disappointed it did not. But Spencer is maturing into a character I love even more than I already did in this book, and so I’ll keep reading to see what happens to him. See if he ends up with Rourke (as he should cos yeah, I’ll go down with my ship) And I still really love this authors writing style. There were a few annoying moments here but damn, those moments where it becomes so beautiful and magical still get me. I especially loved the way that James’ memories were written, in such a dreamlike, innocent way, as if from a child, but with a hidden sense of danger. There was almost a story book quality to them. I almost found myself reading through them again in search of the hidden message.

Books: March 2013

Not too many books this month, and I’m still rereading a lot as I’m still broke.

21) Faithful Place by Tana French – Man, I love Francis Mackey. He’s manipulative, cunning, cruel…you can assign all these nasty and dangerous words to him. Some of the things he did in this book were both terrifying and disgusting, the way he fucks with peoples minds. But underneath the tough exterior he is so vulnerable and has so many issues that he has clearly never bothered to deal with. I find him such a fascinating character and I just loved this book so much, of course not just for Frank, but for the story too. Its so simple, but devastating. It’s what  I was talking about impact in the rant of strange. You do not need cults or conspiracies or serial killers or gore for impact. This is a book with a relatively straight forward plot, you can suspect the criminal quite early on, but it does matter who. it matters that it happened and that it affected a life, lives. it gets you deep down, this book does. You can see Rosie as Frank sees her and you can feel the ache of what-was right alongside him. Frank and Rosie were so young and filled with optimism in the flash backs and you don’t know that it would have worked, that they would have gotten away, that it would have lasted but by the end of the book you feel such anger, such hurt that they never got the chance to find out. This is part devastating love story, part crime novel and I love Tana French for that- for not making this a standard procedural but really digging deep into this small, awful crime and what a terrible, lasting thing loss is.

Also, as an aside: I adored the way Tana French wrote Frank’s relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. It was slightly heart breaking, but lovely.

22) House of Stone by Vaughn R Demont This is not a great book, but its a very entertaining one .I do like this authors writing style, its quite chatty and conversational but never irritating, and there are moments of startling beauty and intelligence that can be truly moving amongst an otherwise light, humorous, plot hole filled book. It’s a satisfying quick read, as long as you don’t think about it too much afterwards, lest you start noticing all those flaws.

The only thing that really annoys me about this author is that all his books are loosely connected. they are all set in the same world, but at different times and amongst a different set of magical beings and honestly, its distracting because with every hint at another book I start trying to link them together, rather than focusing on the book on hand. Worse, I cannot fathom how they are supposed to go together and it drives me INSANE and it kinda ruins this authors books for me, just a little (although this book is not the worst for it. Some of his others suffer more from this terrible need to link them together)

23) Unnatural Selection by Ann Somerville- This book was…flat. It got better towards the end, when the characters finally started developing some chemistry but meh. Unlikeable characters, a relationship that felt forced, and a plot that was fairly mundane too. Also: I predicted the villain right from the start. No more ann somerville for me.

24) The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan – This is a short, very sweet, very romantic novella. Both characters had strong personalities but were extremely likeable. I especially like what Milan did with the character of the wolf- he could have easily been a bit of a jerk, but she fleshed him out marvellously and made him very sympathetic. The final marriage scene was gorgeously creative, so sweet and hot at once. And I loved that he grew to respect and admire her before loving her. And how, once the relationship began he still respected her such a great amount he would go to such great lengths for her, put her needs before his. That level of trust, respect and selfless support affects me more than any declaration of love.

25) Coyote’s Creed by Vaughn R. Demont – OK, so this is not a good book either. It’s better than House of Stone, but I say that only because I absolutely adore the characters of this book. I love Spencer especially. He’s an immature 18 year old delinquent with a bit of a heart of gold, but mostly he’s just a pathetic, mouthy brat. I love that. I love that he’s a immature teenager written like one and as such, completely unprepared for the adventure he’s been set on. I also love the handling of the main relationship- how Spencer is not in love, and that’s OK because he’s young and really not in the right head space for all that. There are some repeated phrases and stuff, and that would be annoying, if only it weren’t for the author making it an ongoing joke in the story itself that gets caled out by the characters themselves. You get the feeling that Demont really has a lot of fun writing his books. This book makes me laugh, and like House of Stone, there are these moments of beautiy that really get you. It’s totally flawed, but I love it anyway. (Now, if only its loose sequel did not slightly ruin this book for me. This book does suffer from being interconnected, unfortunately.)

26) Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway –  I admit, I bought this mostly because it was 59p and I was desperate for something new to read that would not break the bank. This revealed itself to be a fairly interesting, albeit fairly standard police procedural. I think the reason I really enjoyed it was because I felt drawn to the main character- Lucy. She’s not a tough, hard drinking detective. She’s a vulnerable young woman, competent at her job but still unsure of herself, a police officer more because she was not sure what else to do rather than a passion for it. I really, really liked her. I do wish the book ended better though, the pacing went a bit funny toward the end and the ending felt slightly rushed to a conclusion, with a few frayed plot threads left hanging.

27) Country Mouse by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov – This book was not what I expected. It sounded so fluffy and trite, but revealed itself to be something else entirely.  There’s a surprising depth to this book and to these characters. And yet, I found myself merely liking it. Not loving it. I’m also a little annoyed that the sequel is £4.61, even though its equally as short.

28) Hemovore by Jordan Castillo Price – read this in one sitting. could not put it down. Vampirism as a disease is not exactly a unique plot, but it is always interesting to see what authors do with it. I liked it here, it was dark and slightly heartbreaking, but not entirely hopeless. Everything was consistent and made sense and I never felt lost. Also Mark and Jonathan were extremely likeable characters, and the romance very, very sweet. My only complaint is that it wraps up very neatly. Perhaps a little too neatly.