FANGS, WANDS & FAIRY DUST

How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back: Historical Fiction or Fictional History?

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

How Miss Rutherford
Got Her Groove Back

February 21, 2012

Available as Mass Market Paperback (368pages)
and E-book (Kindle 598 KB)

Synopsis:
Emily Rutherford is having a very bad day. Of course, having the man you’ve loved forever, announce his engagement to your (now very former) best friend will do that.
Emily is sure nothing good could possibly come out of this horrid situation. But she lets her sisters and Adrian’s cousin, Francis Riley, the delectable but brooding Earl of Dunhurst, convince her a season in London will be just the thing.
Now Emily has a choice: sulk in a corner while her sisters enjoy the glitter of the ton. Or become the belle of the ball, dazzling everyone on an earl’s arm. But as Francis helps Emily get back on her feet, she quickly realizes that a childhood crush is nothing compared to the power of true love. (www.sophiebarnes.com)

	As in other period fiction and historical fiction, Vauxhall Gardens play an important part in this story so I wanted to see what it looked like. Sophie Barnes' website has a lot of research on Vauxhall and other aspects of her work.
Vauxhall_Gardens_by_Samuel_Wale_c1751.jpg‎

This story is a Regency Romance occurring in 1811 placing it during the period when George III was mad and George IV became the Prince Regent. It's a bit of a shoulder period between the prior Georgians and the Victorian period.

The problems I had with it stem from a ludicrous title for Regency, and highly improbable dialogue. These periods in history were not as proper as we're led to believe. And, so, attempts were made to protect young women from the coarser aspects of life. But, don't we protect children anyway.

The Prince Regent: "Gent. No Gent & Regent!! Pubd by T. Tegg,
No. 111 Cheapside, July 5, 1816." Image via Wikipedia

There was a lot of debauchery in Regency England. The Prince Regent was known for his womanizing and gambling. The time period did have a great influence on style and fashion, as well as history.

Aside from a few redundant phrasings, the writing would be more acceptable in a later period. Whether or not one is trying to make the Regency more accessible through more modern language. I think it would have been better set into a later time period, or as Science Fiction because I don't think a gentleman of the character described in the story, during this period, would behave towards a woman he was intending to marry as Francis, Earl of Dunhurst does in the book. He does preserve her "virginity" but not much else.

I do commend the reality with which the three sisters' plight, and that of all single women of the gentry, faced regarding marriage and property during this time.

I don't intend or like to be too harsh or unkind, but I felt this was a fairly mediocre piece of fiction, altering historical details and overreaching with the depiction of sexual behavior. But then, it is fiction.

This is an official trailer. Most of the pictures are later than the Regency period.

Available thru my Amazon A-Store

Disclosure: Loaned E-Galley from publisher through Edelweiss. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions are my own.

Pack and Coven is Light and Entertaining

2012-01-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

PACK AND COVEN
by Jody Wallace
Carina Feb 20, 2012
81,000 words, approx. 257 pages

Synopsis

Harry Smith is a lone wolf, and he likes it that way. When he's targeted to be co-alpha of the local pack, there is only one thing he can do to maintain his freedom: flee. But it'll take a miracle to stay a step ahead of shifters in their own territory.
June Travis has been in love with Harry for years, but he doesn't know her real identity. He sees her as the sweet owner of the local tearoom?the facade June presents to humans and werewolves to keep them from finding out she's a witch. She may not be able to offer Harry a miracle, but she can help him escape.
Harry is drawn to this new side of June, and not just because he's grateful for her help. With her magic temporarily hiding Harry from his pursuers, the witch and the wolf explore their mutual attraction. But there are consequences for witches who bed down with wolves...
http://www.jodywallace.com/books/packandcoven.htm

This story is told in a voice similar to Molly Harper or Mindy Klasky. But since it involves the male perspective, as well as the female, it isn't just chick-lit. While I think it is a book that will be read by many more women than men it is more a Jack-and-Jill PNR than anything else. It's kind of Nice Girls Don't... mixed with the Dresden Files. The parallel is even stronger as the male protagonist is also a Harry.

p. 77

What does it mean? Well, Mindy and Molly both write lighter-toned and often funny books. That isn't to say they don't delve into serious tropes. It's just approached from the funny bone instead of the broken bone.

The author is handy with a turn of phrase and gives the characters different voices as she switches a third person narrative point of view back and forth between the two main characters Harry and June. Some of the characters are drawn a bit too crudely. I think when writing a crude male, writers have a tendency to go too far.

The same funny turn of phrase can sometimes feel odd, for example, hen Harry plunges his tongue into June's mouth while kissing it sets,...

Off a chain reaction of desire from her lips to her privates. (p. 76)

I haven't read the word privates in a piece of erotic fiction ever!

The world is our with a shadow society of supes unknown to us. Some supes are even unknown to each other. The writer's world is unique; and I found it interesting. It is not too tightly woven, nor is the plot. There's a lot of sloppy action. The sex is well written and sounds fun. I wasn't sure if I felt June a bit manipulated into bed, but afterward she isn't too upset.Once again, better communication skills for sexual partners could avoid serious consequences.

This book gets a "recommend" for being light, active and entertaining despite a dose of violence.

Take the A-Train to my A-Store!

SHAMELESSLY INTERNATIONAL WINNER

2012-01-28T08:48:00.001-05:00

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

FOR WINNING SHAMELESSLY INTERNATIONAL!

The Winner has been emailed!

THE THIRTEEN Susie Moloney

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

THE THIRTEEN

by Susie Moloney
Harper Collins
William Morrow Paperbacks
Trade Paperback: 336 pp.
Kindle: 5 KB
March 27, 2012

Published in Canada by Random House Canada

Amazon Link for The Thirteen Through my A-Store

SYNOPSIS

Haven Woods is suburban heaven, a great place to raise a family. It's close to the city, quiet, with great schools and its own hospital right up the road. Property values are climbing, and the crime rate is practically nonexistent.
Paula Wittmore hasn't been back to Haven Woods since she left as a disgraced teenager. Now she's returning to care for her suddenly ailing mother, and she's bringing her daughter and a pile of emotional baggage. She's also bringing, unknowingly, the last chance for her mother's closest frenemies . . . twelve women bound together by a powerful secret that requires the sacrifice of a thirteenth.www.harpercollins.com

Super Creepy Inter-Generational Horror

There is a lot of talk about The Thirteen being Updike's Witches of Eastwick meets this or that. And, they certainly have a point. I would pair it up plot wise with the most recent piece of literary fiction by Chris Bohjalian, The Night Strangers. Maybe a bit of Kelley Armstrong's Dimestore Magic. For horror maybe a little Amityville.

At first, in fact, I would have sworn it was in the same town in Massachusetts where Armstrong's book is set. But the dialect is distinctly Canadian, eh? However, I think what all three books share is a central, nasty female witchy character (although in Armstrong's book there is more than one). Here that is Izzy. The witches from Bohjalian's book must have called Moloney's about blood (animal and human) sacrifice. There is no doubt there are fashionable themes and plots in writing.

Slight romance. nothing but a couple of kisses. Scary action sequences. Evil cats, and good dogs. Mostly the book is about the power of covetousness, disappointment and envy to foster evil. Want a better life? Well, then you'll have to pay. Even if you default you will pay.

This is not about Wicca, this about freely consorting with evil for personal gain. That is the opposite of Wiccan tenets.

The writing is somewhere between genre and literary fiction. The characters are a bit thinly drawn—we are most familiar with the youngest character. But she is of the least import in the story's plot. What is occurring in the book is revealed in layers. I didn't enjoy it very much, but I also didn't enjoy The Witches of Eastwick—too much darkness for me.

E-Galley from Publisher through Edelweiss. No remuneration exchanged. All opinions are my own.

IMMORTAL HOPE by Claire Ashgrove Poor Communication Skills Are Dangerous

2012-01-27T12:15:00.000-05:00

LAST DAY FOR SHAMELESSLY INTERNATIONAL

And WEEK THREE OF BLACK SUN'S DAUGHTER 4 BOOK GIVEAWAY from POCKET/SIMON & SCHUSTER

IMMORTAL HOPE

The Curse of the Templars

by Claire Ashgrove

Tor Romance

January 3, 2012

Mass Market Paperback 368 pages

Kindle Format: 641 KB Sold by MacMillian

Immortal Hope: The Curse of the Templars at My Amzon E-Store

CENTURIES AGO,
Templar knights defied the archangels and unearthed the copper scroll, revealing the gates to hell. Cursed for their forbidden act, they forever roam the earth protecting mankind from evil. But darkness stalks them, and battles they fight bring them ever-closer to eternal damnation. One promise remains to give them salvation – the return of the seraphs.

Embittered by his purpose, Merrick du Loire must honor an ancient pact and bring peace to his cousin’s soul. When he stumbles upon history professor Anne MacPherson, he discovers she possesses a sacred artifact that marks her as a seraph. Duty demands he set aside his personal quest and locate the knight she’s fated to heal. As he struggles with conflicting oaths, Anne arouses buried hope and sparks forbidden desire that challenges everything he’s sworn to uphold.
Anne has six weeks to complete her thesis on the Knights Templar. When Merrick takes her to the Templar stronghold, he presents her with all she needs—and awakens a soul-deep ache, he alone can soothe. Yet loving Merrick comes with a price. If she admits she's destined for him, her gift of foresight predicts his death.
ClaireAshgrove.com

Roused myself to finish the book and write this up. Thanks to everyone for your get well wishes.

The Templar knights or the Order of the Templar Knights is an historical entity but shrouded in mystery. They are the cloth of legend and Gnostic Christianity. At first they were beloved then the church and royalty turned in them and many were executed. Lately, in genre fiction, they have been all over the place appearing in books with angels and demons. I first thought this was a thinly veiled religious text. There is a lot of belief-based plot.

Flag of the Knights Templar Image via Wikipedia

A while ago I read something about things in romances that keep people apart. One was a force or circumstance that was externally imposed by a third party; like a giant hedge of thorns or being imprisoned in a tower. Another was a force or forces internal, like assumption, miscommunication, or poor communication skills, obstinancy, selfishness. In this story all of the internal forces come into play.

It is actually more Anne than Merrick keeping them apart. I felt she was selfish and unlikeable. Granted she was unwillingly brought to the big Templar house and all by the big, tired and rude Merrick duLoire. But, once Anne realizes the place is the answer to research into the Templars affecting her career she tries to learn all she can. I don't get why she is writing a thesis when she already has a Masters and Doctorate. Getting a promotion depends on this thesis. And she refuses to sacrifice her career to save men and the world.

The man is a big obstinate, old-fashioned immortal. Just your garden variety, pro-football player sized guy from the 12th century who is cursed because of something he dug up. She is a psychic history professor living in the home of a murdered reliquary keeper, but she is also a Seraph who is meant for just one Knight Templar to assoil his soul.

I didn't get that and I didn't understand the misheard communication that is the second block to the couple's happiness. Seems to me she could have asked someone about a hundred pages earlier. Or that the archangel who just figured she would already know everything necessary would maybe have checked. Duh.

The romance was intense although the sex was vanilla. But then again, she knows he is tortured by what he feels is dishonor in having her. But she lets him be all bummed out about it. She was a bit immature there.

As a series, it has promise. It looks like Anne's twin sister, Sophie (a former model) is the subject. It seems like there is a future for the story line and it could be pretty popular. While I enjoyed reading it, the religious stuff and the unlikeable Anne rubbed me the wrong way. That, however would not discommend it, even to me, since I finished it. I will annoint it with a shaky "recommend."

In Sickness and WIth Elves

2012-01-27T08:38:00.004-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Today's title is apropos of nothing, except that as a paranormal book/film reviewer I think that it's funny. And I am wicked sick. Hope to have something here later today, but don't count on it. Recommend that you take advantage of the last day to enter Shamlessly International and the third week of contest for Black Sun's Daughter.

VICIOUS GRACE REVIEW AND BLACK SUN's DAUGHTER GIVEAWAY EVENT WEEK THREE

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

author website

VICIOUS GRACE
by MLN Hanover

Simon and Schuster/Pocket
Mass Market Paperback 384 pages
Kindle file size: 2251 KB
November 2010.
Amazon Purchase Link for Vicious Grace

When you’re staring evil in the eye, don’t forget to watch your back . . .

For the first time in forever, Jayné Heller’s life is making sense. Even if she routinely risks her life to destroy demonic parasites that prey on mortals, she now has friends, colleagues, a trusted lover, and newfound confidence in the mission she inherited from her wealthy, mysterious uncle. Her next job might just rob her of all of them. At Grace Memorial Hospital in Chicago, something is stirring. Patients are going AWOL and research subjects share the same sinister dreams. Half a century ago, something was buried under Grace in a terrible ritual, and it’s straining to be free. Jayné is primed to take on whatever’s about to be let loose. Yet the greatest danger now may not be the huge, unseen force lurking below, but the evil that has been hiding in plain sight all along—taking her ever closer to losing her body, her mind, and her soul. . . .

Horrifying.
It must be horrifying to see what you have become. To think it may not be a good thing that you think is fighting the good fight; that it may be a lie.

Jayné is a very introspective young woman. It struck me while reading the book that Jayné comes from a punishingly religious family. She escaped but now without the introspective ability needed to examine what her thoughts and beliefs are. She peels her emotional scabs off. This leads us to a woman who was, at the beginning of the series, of the depressed opinion that she was a loser with nowhere to go.

I wonder if would she have called her uncle for help? Was he benevolent?

There isn’t much sexy or romantic in this novel. It is enough Urban Fantasy/Thriller/Light Horror to pull it right out of the Paranormal Romance category. It is shocking, sad, regretful and well-crafted. It starts out as a paintball/hand-to-hand fighting training. But from there it goes to some scary places.

It is a good book. A page turner. But it lacks the lighter tone Jayné could conjure in the first two books. It is the darkness that comes with the deep knowledge of mortality and that we have left our childhood behind. And with her introspective bent she can’t leave that scab unpicked.

I really like the series. “Hanover’s” style in developing Jayné’s voice is better with each story. His tone as a word smith is modern, incisive, ironic, and often witty in those situations where without a bright spot all would be lost. Like Stacia Kane's Chess Putnam, Jayné and her friends are imperfect heroes, which makes them more approachable.

Highly recommended.

AND I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU ENTER THE GIVEAWAY MADE POSSIBLE BY POCKET/SIMON AND SCHUSTER BELOW.

The rules seem long because they cover four weeks of contest and additional entries information. You do not have to follow nor tweet, nor have entered last week to enter. It is not hard to get through them — I promise.

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DARKER AFTER MIDNIGHT HITS THE SHELVES

2012-01-24T23:54:00.000-05:00

Darker After Midnight

Midnight Breed Series Book Ten

Lara Adrian

Random House

Delacorte Press

January 24, 2012

Synopsis (www.LaraAdrian.com)

The climactic novel in Lara Adrian’s New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series--and her hardcover debut--Darker After Midnight invites readers to enter a thrillingly sensual world where danger meets desire.
In the dark of night, a blood war escalates within the hidden world of the Breed. After existing in secret for many long centuries, maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware, a single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. It falls to the Order--a cadre of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own and humankind alike--to stop Dragos, the power-mad vampire at the center of the conflict, before his push for domination can explode into catastrophe.
At the center of the Order’s quest is Sterling Chase, once a morally rigid enforcer of Breed law, now a warrior fallen from grace, whose biggest battle is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him toward eternal darkness, Chase’s path to redemption has never seemed more out of reach--until he finds himself drawn to a beautiful young woman who may be something much more than she seems ...

You know how the TV series LOST strung you out every week for years, never giving a real answer and never letting you believe that anything you learned was true? Darker After Midnight, the tenth book in Lara Adrian's newest Midnight Breed Series (released yesterday) does NOT do that. It gives you satisfying truths, conclusions and still leaves room for the series to grow.

That has been the strength of the series as a whole. Lara keeps it fresh. There is a format of a sort, a member of the Order or a high ranking "good" Breed falls in love, almost always with a breedmate. Some kind of conflict ensues that causes danger. The story doesn't always happen in Boston, We've been to Alaska, Germany, New York, and other locations. New things that add a nuanced layer to the series world are brought in: Things the Order members never believed they would see come to pass in each new entry in the series. This is Sterling Chase's, AKA "Harvard's" story and it's a very sexy story. The rest is shocking!

When Chase's future looks like he has thrown it away in a belated attempt to save the Order in the last book it may open up again. What won't open again, as we have seen in the many previews that Lara has afforded us, is the Boston complex which Dragos purposefully and Chase unwittingly compromised.

So, if I saw a bunch of fast SUVs screaming down the Maine Turnpike, or Route 295 recently I would have known the Order was on the way to its newest safe house borrowed from a Gen Two-ish Breed male Lazlo Archer. I actually invited Lara to let them stop here if necessary on the way to the great forests of Northern Maine.

This book is about forgiving, hope, betrayal, truth, and the power of love to save the world. All powerful tropes. Lara makes you believe it. We have a new character come up, Tavia Fairchild. She is the PA to a Senator. It was the Senator's party that Chase infiltrated in an attempt to assasinate Dragos, one of the senator's biggest campaign contributors, masquerading as businessman, Drake Masters.

If you like this series, this new addition is worth the price. The series was not getting stale, but all the same this book breathes new life into it. I am trying to think of an analogy but I am fresh out. Maybe its like another layer on an already delish cake, more pixels added to your digital camera, the Red Sox win the World Series, the Bruins win the Stanley Cup and the Pats win the Superbowl all in one year and they cure a horrible disease too? Whatever! You get the idea, right? It's something good!

It's about half and half UF and PNR with a bunch of action and violence. You will be really, really surprised by what happens. THIS IS A MUST READ!

Disclosure: Purchased.

Available through my Amazon e-store or, please,
use my Powell's Button in my Sidebar.

"Official Trailer"

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Firelight Is A Hot Romance With Cool Surprises!

2012-01-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

www.kristencallihan.com

Firelight

by Kristen Callihan

Grand Central Publishing

Imprint Forever

February 1, 2012

Synopsis

Once the flames are ignited . . .
Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family’s fortune decimated and forced her to wed London’s most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .
Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it’s selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can’t help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn’t felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.
www.kristencallihan.com--firelight

Mystery, Danger and Passion will keep you reading this book when you need to be doing something else, like sleeping!

The mystery of who Archer is—what he is, goes almost a little too long. But, just when you might chuck it in, Callihan gives you just enough to keep you turning the pages. Great pace and a good length. Each chapter is punctuated by an occurrence; something necessary.

Which of the characters is the villain is almost obvious, but until the crisis I wasn't sure which of the assortment would be the one.

The main characters are, obviously going to be crazy for each other. They are soul mates and will sacrifice anything and everything for each other. They are both headstrong and she is before her time, certainly. She has a power she would give anything to conceal. He is so afraid of "his deformity" being seen that he hides everything about himself away. You will desperately want them to be together.

There was something about the sun and the moon that I didn't understand. But, at the end, the whole thing is paranormally logical. No mysterious, outside force comes in to get the characters out of their pickle. That is satisfying all on its own and tells me the writer had a plan.

There was a bit of backstory that would have been helpful. Ember, a series prequel is on on the first as an E-book for $.99. A third book, Moonglow, will be out in August.

I say this is a good Historical Paranormal Romance - Hearty Recommendation.

covers all www.kristencallihan.com

EMBER
A prequel to the darkest London series

After a fire consumes the Ellis family fortune, the beautiful and resourceful Miranda finds herself faced with an impossible dilemma: enter a life of petty crime or watch her family succumb to poverty. But once her fiancée learns of her descent into danger--and of the strange, new powers she’s discovered --saving her family may come at the high price of her heart.

When his one chance for redemption is destroyed by corrupt London antiquarian Hector Ellis, Lord Benjamin Archer vows to take what Ellis values most—his daughter Miranda.
Forced to hide his face behind masks, Archer travels the world hoping to escape the curse that plagues him so that he can finally claim his prize.
But once Archer returns home to London, will it be revenge he seeks? Or will the flame-haired beauty ignite new, undeniable desires?
www.kristencallihan.com--ember

Moonglow

Once the seeds of desire are sown...
Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy’s door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors...
Their growing passion knows no bounds...
Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.
www.kristencallihan.com--moonglow

Disclosure: Book loaned by publisher via NetGalley.com for purpose of review. No remuneration was exchanged and unless otherwise noted, all opinions are my own.

If Walls Could Talk, My, Oh My!

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

www.lucyworsley.com

If Walls Could Talk

An Intimate History of the Home

by Lucy Worsley

Bloomsbury Publishing, Imprint: Walker and Company

March 7, 2012

A fascinating chronicle of how people really lived, loved and died through England's history.

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries"? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly, and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes.

Lucy Worsley is, by day, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens. By night, she is a writer and presenter, most recently author of Cavalier: a Tale of Passion, Chivalry and Great Houses, described by the Mail on Sunday as "a remarkable achievement by an immensely talented and innovative historian."Marketing Copy, NetGalley.com

www.bbc.co.uk

Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, takes us through 800 years of domestic history by exploring the British home through four rooms, meeting experts and historians on the way. www.bbc.co.uk

There is a BBC series as well as the book. Not yet available on this side of the pond. Read excerpts from the BBC here.

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition," says Samuel Johnson, (as quoted) on the last page of Lucy Worsley's excellent treatise on the home. As true as the adage that on their deathbed no one wishes they had spent more time at the office, the home is the place we value more than any other. Would you wish to be in the richest palace if your family could not be with you?

I was really excited when Bloomsbury permitted me an advanced E-Galley of this book. A lot of speculative fiction and romantic fiction is built on an historical model, and the tease "Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm?" was way too alluring not to find out the answer.

What I found was an in-depth treatment of the history of the home through its rooms from before rooms were labeled bedroom, living room, kitchen through the twentieth century and from the poorest homes to the riches manors. Much time is spent on Tudor houses; it seems to be a turning point for the home and is also filled with some surprises. How people treated King Henry VIII's bathroom was very different from the treatment after absolute monarchy had it's head chopped off. Also, the King was never alone, not even at his stool.

Who cooked? Where, and with whom did you eat? How many windows did you have? How many servants did you have? How many candles did you burn? How was your bed made? When did we become the private people we are today; expecting to sleep with just our partners? How did the flush toilet develop and why did it take so long? All these are questions Worsely addresses and it is fascinating, if highly detailed reading. A list of monarchs and their years of reign would be a useful reference to keep at hand. It is perhaps likely that an educated English person would know the dates of every monarch but, we in the States are lucky if we know all the Presidents, never mind when they were in office.

However, the American home is also addressed and compared to the British and European houses. Worsley is able to tie climate, religion, politics and everything thing else, including the kitchen sink together and wrote it all down in an interesting, conversational and, sometimes saucy, tone to create this very valuable book. Humanity's history is the history of human habitation. And, she is incredibly well qualified to put this all together.

Usually I don't mind that an E-galley is only on my list for a period of time before the permissions on it expire. But, this is a reference book and a good read I think I would like to return to again and again. I may even buy a copy myself!

Like Daniel Poole's book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England (Touchstone 1994) If Walls Could Talk offers a view into a world lost to us. Why should people take note of the situation of a particular room and the size of one's park? And why couldn't Pepys give the poor woman an orgasm? Walls can answer many questions one has when reading an historically accurate story. And, if you just like to visit old houses, or even live in one you probably have lots and lots of questions.

This book is full of answers to those questions. It's fun, humorous, quirky and an easy read. You will, as is said in Jane Austen, be all astonishment!

My Recommendation: Highly recommended to most, must read for lovers of history or historical fiction, and an absolutely must read for anyone writing it!

authorstalkingbooks

DISCLOSURE: E-Galley loaned by publisher via NetGalley. No remuneration was exchanged and unless otherwise noted, all opinions are my own.

Available from pre-order through my Amazon affiliation:

Hot Summer Nights in the Dead of Winter With Eden Bradley

2012-01-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

Summer Solstice
Celestial Seductions Book 3
by Eden Bradley
Kindle Edition File Size: 336 KB
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
(August 10, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Well, it's dead winter, my husband is sick with a bad cold and I am hotter than the boardwalk in summer. I had answered a question on Addicted2Heroines: Which author writes the best sex scenes. Now, I love Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic scenes, but then I remembered a book I read over a year ago, a novella really, The Lovers by Eden Bradley (REVIEW). If you come by here much, and of course you do, you know I read a lot (209 novellas and novels read last year) and that the mediocre doesn't stick in my head. The bad and the good I recall. The Lovers was good. It is rare that a writer can use "Pussy" and "cunt" and not skeeve me out a bit. But the way Eden does it makes it seem pretty natural.

So, I saw Celestial Seductions, Summer Soltice, and it was a short inexpensive buy. I am working on a couple of longer things so I decided to buy it.She has some longer pieces with a reasonable price tag nut I was in the market for a short.

From EdenBradley.Com:

This summer is going to be twice as hot…

The view from Leigh’s front porch was never this nice. In fact, her hunky new neighbor is sparking all kinds of naughty ideas about how to beat the heat. Much to her delight, the feeling is mutual—as long as they keep things light. Her divorce left her a little lonely, but far from needy.

Jared doesn’t plan to spend much time in his new place before jetting off on his next photojournalism assignment. Leigh’s classic, California blonde looks are any man’s fantasy. A little flirting, a little playful, neighborly car washing, and it isn’t long until their summer fling is in full swing.

Neither can imagine the sex being any hotter—until Jared’s sometime roommate and lover, Matteo, comes to town. In the arms of two men, Leigh brings her ultimate fantasy into scorching reality.

Jared revels in the chance to command his two lovers’ every move, but when he gets the call for his next overseas gig, he’s not so sure he’s ready for the fireworks to end. And even as Leigh gives her two lovers the most precious gift—their freedom—she wonders how she’ll find the strength to say goodbye.

Well, it starts off with describing Leigh's character pretty well, you have an idea who she is. She's been divorced, is creative, and she likes big men and sex. She hasn't had the latter in a while. She isn't hung up about sex. She isn't looking for a white picket fence but she is really drawn to her hunky and hot neighbor. The Santa Monica Summer is not helping any either; it's usually temperate but this summer there's a long heat wave and it's about to get personal. They get together pretty fast; it's a a short story. And, then my toes started to curl. They stayed curled until I finished the book. And I suddenly needed to turn down the heat. I thought briefly about opening a window.

Bradley doesn't just write sex, she writes romantic erotica. She writes well.
I did think there was a paranormal element because of the title, but there isn't. Unless you count really hot sex, and a romantic relationship as magic. Plus some fun surprises. Well if the prince and princess live happily ever after? I won't tell. But, Bradley writes magic!

Check out Summer Solstice, Celestial Seductions at Amazon through my affiliate link:

Jane's Pride and Prejudice Is Most Ill-Used!

2012-01-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Pride and Prejudice,
Hidden Lusts
Mitzi Szereto

Kindle: 454 KB Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Cleis Press; 1 edition (July 5, 2011)

Somehow I have gotten into Mash-ups lately. As you may know I mostly review books that have some thing paranormal in them. But, once a week or so I get into anything else. This week I decided to look at a classic fave mashed-up into a full length erotica. This was recommended so I decided to pop for the fairly high price of $8.77 to buy it.

I have read Pride and Prejudice several times and watched both the mini-series and recent film with Kiera Knightly several times. Mitzi's book has the same characters as the classic and outside the sex, the story is almost entirely similar (except for an incident with Mr. Collin's teeth). But, by no means am I a scholar of the period, especially in Britain.

At the beginning it is Jane's P & P interspersed with the perversities Ms. Szereto has assigned to each character. If her imagination were correct, Austen's world would have been filled with nymphomaniacs, dypsomaniacs, fetishes, oral rapists, and women who masturbate almost anywhere. There would have been plenty to write about but the writer herself would have been too busy getting off to write about it.

The whole thing would be fine if it didn't mostly read like: Austen Austen Austen, insert strange sexual activity, Austen Austen Austen, insert bizarre sexual activity. I think we all know the basic story of Pride and Prejudice so I won't bother to summarize. Eventually, the story is caught up into Darcy's and Elizabeth's convoluted courtship and the sexually aberrant behavior becomes less distracting.

Image at the beginning of Chapter 34. Darcy proposing to Elizabeth.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: George Allen, 1894.

Remember this is Regency not Victorian and the Regency was fairly wild by even our standards, but to imagine nearly the entire gentility being as perverse as Ms. Szereto would have them is too much. And, then to pretend that something like Lydia's nymphomania (serious, heavy duty, real nymphomania possibly with a dash of sociopath or psychopath) was just innocent fun is somewhat ridiculous.

I was actually beginning to enjoy the story around Elizabeth and Maria's visit to Rosings Park's vicarage. Lady Catherine De Bourgh administers highly unusual, BDSM justice among the people of her estate and surrounds, and then Darcy comes to her to most offensively propose and he pulls his penis out and begins to pull at it. There are no circumstances under which I could suspend my disbelief enough for this to be possible.

Neither can I see Colonel Fitzwilliam attacking and dry-humping Lizzy on her walks around the Rosings Park area. Nor Mr. Bennet being a period porn addict.

I can't even imagine the likelihood of the scene where Lizzy is traveling with the Gardiner's and staying in Lambton, when she learns about Lydia's elopement that Darcy again pulls out his penis and she gives him a blow job. A moment before he is so worried that she is too ill to find her uncle and then he is stuffing her penis down his throat.

There's enhancement and then there is just silly. Imagining Bingley as a closeted homosexual in love with his best friend, no problem, sympathetic even. Imagining Charlotte Lucas as a lesbian, sure. Imagining Collins as a sodomizing clergyman, hell, that's ripped from the headlines of today!

Certainly there was more licentious behavior in the period than we may be lead to believe. We do look at history through the lens of the Victorian period. A woman of the gentry might be ruined if her indiscreet behavior were discovered. And, homosexuality was still considered a crime, although I am certain it existed as much then as now. People were and have always been, I am sure, subject to the same variety of sexual inclination or gender preference.

What I see with this book is the application of gratuitous sexuality to the story set forth by Jane Austen. Only Lydia's, Bingley's, Caroline Bingley's Dominatrix thing, Charlotte Lucas' preference for her own sex are believable for the characters. Lizzy and Mary discover their sexuality but with Lizzy the behaviors go a bit beyond what Austen's character would allow. Mary just continues an unattractive, creepy, pious girl.

Lizzy was restricted by both her character and her social position to behave properly. She would not have permitted impropriety in herself. Nor would a woman who thought herself ruined by her younger sister's elopement consider that same sister's constant masturbation on the legs of the officers "innocent." Since the sexuality is tied to characters who are tied to the original tale then I think a certain amount of congruence is required.

I do think that Szereto's period-language continuity is very good. It feels like Austen's writing and so blends well. And I think she is exploring an interesting idea about the sexuality of the period. I do have an issue with using a pipe to masturbate, but I am unsure whether pipe in Regency England were the same as our soft fired clay pipes of revolutionary America. If so, she took many risks since the moisture would make them soggy and they would be cut (often bit) shorter and shorter. How woud she have explained having her host's broken pipe-end stuck up her behind?

But, I think if you are going to go period you have to go all the way. Darcy wouldn't defile a woman, to have him do so would be like having a telephone ring at Longbourne.

Now I enjoy erotica and love Jane Austen so I really wish I could give this a good grade but it's more like the unbelieving expression of "Good Gravy!"

Shamelessly Intenational Giveaway

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jen at Red Hot Books, Brie at Romance Around the Corner & Michelle at Michelle's Book Blog for putting this exciting new hop together. Some of these blogs are NSFW, but we all offer what we consider appropriate to our own audiences.There are 92 blogs participating so that's 92 chances to win cool prizes. If partial or full nudity offends, frank discussion of adult issues is not your cuppa, then you may not want to continue. And you gotta be 18 to be reading this so it follows that you gotta be 18 to enter. Complete rules with the form.ENTRY VIA RAFFLECOPTER FORM, BELOW
My Contest is Shamelessly International:UP TO $10 at Book Depository (you must be within their area of free shipping) or for USA only a $10 Gift Card from Amazon. No need to decide now, if you win I will ask you what you want!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO HOP ON:

Blog Hopping, Come On Along!

2012-01-19T22:58:00.003-05:00

Check with Parajunkee to find
out how to blog hop!
Click below!!

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

Blog Hop Question:

Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to get your hands on any particular book?

When I was much younger I got up really early to drive 45 minutes to wait in line for hours to buy a book and get a place in line. Then I drove 45 minutes home and then later that day back again to wait in line for several hours to get the book signed by Ann Rice right after she had signed the largest book contract ever. It wasn't even for me! It was a birthday gift for my [then] brother in law.

I haven't hopped for a while. Let's see, what happening. I have a four week long four book series giveaway event from Pocket for the Black Sun's Daughter and starting at midnight I'm taking part in Shameless Giveaway with my own Shamelessly International contest (right above this post).

Darker Angels The Black Sun's Daughter, Book II Review and Giveaway Event

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

Wherein Jayné rediscovers herself and learns that her world is more than black and white.

Darker Angels

MLN Hanover
Simon and Schuster September 2009
Mass Market Paperback 368 Pages

In the battle between good and evil, there's no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller's uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations -- and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully Jayné has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She'll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who's taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic.

Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, Jayné races to track down the demon's next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, Jayné will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won't rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most....
Simon and Schuster Author Page

CONTEST
Below the review, you will find an entry form for a contest I am running over four weeks with Pocket/simon and Schuster providing and shipping all four current books in the series. No following is required but it will get you extra entries. And entering each week will get you extra entries too.

REVIEW
The second book in the series is even better than the first. It is edgier than Unclean Spirits was. Jayné is more of a person and she is coming into her own. Of course, first she has to figure out who she is and what it means.

Karen Black the confident ex-FBI agent has Jayné on the ropes emotionally and eventually physically. She is a wedge driving herself into the small family Jayné has create for herself. I like that from the start Hanover sets the two women against each other; first in contrast to each other and later as opponents. The result is that Jayne doubts herself even more than she has. This magnifies her tendencies to come up to the edge of an idea and not understand until it's too late—like coming up with the perfect retort after the moment has passed. In the end it's usually luck that cuts anyone a break in this business.

In the first person retelling of the events I can't decide if Jayné's habits of saying something like, "For a moment I thought we could win," or "If only I had understood, but when I did it was too late." These are used multiple times in both books. Are the character quirks, repeated because they are a part of the character's make-up, like another character's Zen-like responses, or, is it just a writer's habit?

We get a little more romance emotionally for Jayné and Aubrey, in between having the stuffing beat out of them they are able to become a couple, sort of.

All in all, this is a lot about Jayne maturing. She has been trying to be her late Uncle Eric, make the decisions he would have; but she doesn't really know what they would have been. But, she is also learning that the world isn't as simple as "Riders Bad, Humans Good." This is not just her lesson.

For some reason, I keep thinking that Jayné is going to run out of money, but that doesn't seem likely. Or, at least someone will tell her to cut back I hope.

I highly recommend the book and it's starting to look like a great series. I also highly recommend you enter the contest!

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I won't share your information with anyone. Of course, if you win I will have to give Simon and Schuster your name and address.

Can't Wait to win? The books are available through my store at Amazon:

Disclosure: My copy was sent, unsolicited and without obligation, by the publisher in hopes of a fair review. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions are my own.

Between The Living and the Dead THE KINGDOM is A Haunting story

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Kingdom

The Graveyard Queen Series: Book II

by Amanda Stevens

Harlequin/Harlequin MIRA March 27, 2012

Back Cover Summary:

My name is Amelia Gray. They call me the Graveyard Queen. I've been commissioned to restore an old cemetery in Asher Falls, South Carolina, but I'm coming to think I have another purpose here.

Why is there a cemetery at the bottom of Bell Lake? Why am I drawn time and again to a hidden grave I've discovered in the woods? Something is eating away at the soul of this town--this withering kingdom—and it will only be restored if I can uncover the truth.

My Take:

This was a great read, continuing Amelia's story from THE RESTORER (my review). There's just enough back story, but I wished I had been able to skim the first book.

This story is creepy. Very creepy. I live next to a graveyard, and before we bough the land I gave it thought. There's a ravine between our house and it so I felt it would be hard for the ghosts to get to me.

You won't know who is good or bad until the end except for a few obvious exceptions. There's one kind of gratuitous stalker-chick thing, a post-crisis crisis. Even then the difference between savior and villain is greyed as is what happened.

If you love animals you may be in suspense and even outraged to learn how people treat animals. Not the people in the book; but a cultural treatment of animals that is possibly a bit of a political statement.

There is not much in the way of erotic action, just a couple of brief encounters. It's interesting to watch the characters learn about themselves too. And, you will be left waiting for the next book, maybe wistfully.

Once again Stevens does a great job with the atmospheric elements: secret rooms and symbols, creepy mausoleums, true Witches of Eastwick style crones, and a creepy old man in a mouldering house on a hill. It all takes place on an island cut off from it's bridge. But, beyond that the house on the hill is cut off by hatred, greed, secrets, and flooding.

Highly recommend.

The Kingdom (The Graveyard Queen Series) is available from Amazon in mass market ppaper back and for Kindle.
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages, Kindle ed. file size unavailable.

Trending on Alice What's your favorite?

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

It seems like everything is coming up Alice these days.

Yesterday, I reviewed Ali in Wonderland by Ali Wentworth (hilarious, btw). I commented that there seemed to be a lot of both Alice and Wonderland popping up lately. I thought I would take a look and share a few with you. I have only reviewed those where it says I have, but, just in case, I have place purchase links via the titles (movies) or the covers for books.

The whole story strikes me as falling through to a rather Spenserian fae-dimension. The two queens could be seelie and unseelie, and the hooka-smoking caterpillar and the Chesire cat, the mad hatter and al the rest strike me as varieties of fae. And the different potions are similar, of course to the snake-oil medications of the time, like laudanum or the actual heavy duty opium and such.

Do you know of, or have a favorite Alice besides the original, or is the original the best and/or only for you?

Movies: (titles are Amazon purchase links)

Malice in Wonderland (R)

Alice is an American law student in London. Knocked down by a cab, she wakes with amnesia in a world that's a million miles from home - Wonderland. We follow her adventures as she is dragged through an underworld filled with twisted individuals and the lowest low-lifes by the enigmatic cab drive Whitey (The White Rabbit). She needs to find out who she is, where she's from, and use what wits she has left to get back home in one piece.

Starring: Maggie Grace, Danny Dyer; Directed by: Simon Fellows
Release year: 2009, from Magnolia

Phoebe in Wonderland (PG-13)

This heartfelt, fantastical story of a troubled, imaginative girl devoted to Alice in Wonderland explores the agonies of growing up as an outsider and the complexities of parenting.

Starring: Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson; Directed by: Daniel Barnz
Release year: 2009, Studio: Image Entertainment

Books: (covers are Amazon purchase links):

Visually reimagined:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia

Reading level: Ages 8 and up
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Harper Design (February 2, 2010)

Since its publication in 1865, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland has delighted the world with a wildly imaginative and
unforgettable journey, inspiring children of all ages to suspend
disbelief and follow Alice into her fantasy worlds. This new gift
edition presents Carroll's tale fully unabridged with a unique visual
interpretation by renowned artist Camille Rose Garcia.

In BDSM erotica:

Alice (A BDSM Fairy Tale) (Modern Wicked Fairy Tales) by Selena Kitt

In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, Alice is madly in love
with a man who taps into her naturally submissive nature and introduces
her to the pleasurably painful delights of the BDSM world. When her
Wade Knight sends a car to take her to a strange and wonderful new
place, Alice finds herself in a very sticky situation where everything
is upside down and nothing is as it seems.

Kindle Edition File Size: 205 KB Print Length: 42 pages

Publisher: Excessica Publishing (April 1, 2011)

Literary Fictional Memoir:

Alice I Have Been: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle) (DNF)
Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (December 21, 2010)
Kindle Edition: 747 KB Print Length: 380 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 12, 2010) Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
Hard cover Large Print and Audio Versions also available.

Comic-Mystery:
The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-QuartersAlice Harte's life is falling apart. Her boss at the real estate firm where she works is a litigious and murderous man with ties to "The Mob" in Florida. She KNOWS he has literally beheaded someone in the past.

Her whole life she has dreamed of living in England and meeting a man similar to John Cleese. In an attempt to start breaking away from her boss who is threatening her with a lawsuit, she flies to England to meet Nigel Channing, who has been charming her through e-mails and phone calls.

As her life in Miami falls apart, with mobsters and a pending fraud lawsuit, her romantic savior in England looks more and more tarnished by the hour. And then she stumbles across a beheaded mob boss. How will she ever keep her head and win the lawsuit? And what about love?

Kindle Edition: 446 KB Print Length: 238 pages
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Contemporary Short Fiction:

Alison Wonderland (reviewed) by Helen Smith

After Alison Temple discovers that her husband is cheating on her, she does what any jilted woman would do — she spray-paints a nasty message for him on her wedding dress and takes a job with the detective firm that found him out. Being a researcher at the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation in London is certainly a change of pace from her previous life, especially considering the characters Alison meets in the line of duty. There is her boss, the estimable Mrs. Fitzgerald; Taron, Alison’s eccentric best friend, who claims her mother is a witch; Jeff, her love-struck, poetry-writing neighbor; and last, but not least, her psychic postman.

Clever, quirky, and infused with just a hint of magic, Alison Wonderland is a literary novel about a memorable heroine coping with the everyday complexities of modern life.

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books (January 3, 2012)

Kindle Edition: 442 KB Print Length: 201 pages
Publisher: AmazonEncore (August 16, 2011) Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

As Anthologized Erotica:

Alison's Wonderland edited by Alison Tyler (review)

Publication Date: July 1, 2010

Over the past fifteen years, Alison Tyler has curated some of the genre's most sizzling collections of erotic fiction, proving herself to be the ultimate naughty librarian. With Alison's Wonderland, she has compiled a treasury of naughty tales based on fable and fairy tale, myth and legend: some ubiquitous, some obscure—all of them delightfully dirty.From a perverse prince to a vampire-esque Sleeping Beauty, the stars of these reimagined tales are—like the original protagonists—chafing at desire unfulfilled. From Cinderella to Sisyphus, mermaids to werewolves, this realm of fantasy is limitless and so very satisfying.
Penned by such erotica luminaries as Shanna Germain, Rachel Kramer Bussel, N. T. Morley, Elspeth Potter, T. C. Calligari, Sommer Marsden, Portia Da Costa and Tsaurah Litzsky, these bawdy bedtime stories are sure to bring you (and a friend) to your own happily-ever-after.

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Spice; Original edition (July 1, 2010)
Kindle Edition
File Size: 341 KB
Print Length: 369 pages

There are many more plays on the name titles: a varieteria of ways in which the original tale of a young girl falling through to another dimension.

Some of these are merely taking advantage of a fortuitous confluence of an idea or a name that matches somehow. For others it is a stretch yearning to take advantage of the current popularity of mash-ups. Not everyone loves them. Some are good, some are funny, some are poignant. Like everything else there is good and bad.

So, today friends, I am having a common screening test that makes one loopy and sleepy afterwards. Just for today I am turning off moderation and turning on a comment report filter. This means if two people report something as offensive it will be removed. If I am in my right mind, I will take it over again, and, I hope I remember to do all this after I have written and scheduled this post!

ALI IN WONDERLAND by Mrs. Stephanopolous

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ali in Wonderland
And Other Tall Tales

Ali Wentworth

Harper Collins (February 7, 2012)

Hardcover 272 pages, Kindle 5 KB
ARC provided by publisher. No remuneration exchanged, all opinions are my own unless otherwise noted.

Sorry, Sorry, Had to do it....
Confession time: I requested this book from my Harper email because Ali Wentworth is married to George Stephanopolous, Bill Clinton's early press secretary and now journalist. As I am half-Greek (Ethnically Greek from Turkey via diaspora), I am required by law to know things about him.

To spin it back to genre: there have been so many books recently riffing off the classic fantasy tale, Alice in Wonderland. This is one of the better ones.

From Harper Collins:

Growing up in a family of political journalists—and daughter of President Reagan’s White House social secretary—Ali Wentworth rebelled against her blue-blood upbringing, embracing Hollywood, motorcycles, even a few wildly inappropriate marriage proposals. Today she is an acclaimed comedic actress and writer, former Oprah regular, wife of political and media star George Stephanopoulos, and a mother who lets her two girls eat cotton candy before bed. Though she’s settled down, her rebellious nature thrives in her comedy and her view of her crazy world.

In this addictively funny and warm memoir, she takes us through the looking glass and into the wonderland of her life, from a childhood among Washington’s elite to a stint in the psych ward they called a New England prep school; days doing L.A. sketch comedy (with then-aspiring artists Will Ferrell and Lisa Kudrow) to a series of spectacularly failed loves (that eventually led her to Mr. Right). Constant throughout is her mother, Muffie—a flawlessly elegant yet firm, no-nonsense force of nature and pure WASP convictions.

As charming and off-the-wall as Ali herself, Ali in Wonderland is an entertaining look at life that is both intimate and hilarious.
www.harpercollins.com

What this memoir tells me is that George lied to his family and the couple hid Ai's past from his father a priest and his mother, a Presbytera. Before I started hanging out with WASPS I used to say that my was more conservative than WASPS, now that "some of my best friends are WASPS" I know that WASPS are often politically conservative but in personal life liberal with Mulligans on lifestyle.

This book sure as all get out proves it. While essentially substance-free, Ali's pre-George life was filled with partying and men, depression and a jet-setting lifestyle, proving drugs are not necessary for being all messed up. A lifetime of careless parenting, boarding school and gentility as well as a clinical depression, left Ali screwed up. It was, apparently meeting George S. that brought her to a place where she could get it together.

If her life has been strange, it has also been filled with an opportunity to look back and laugh (as in, "Some day we'll look back on this and laugh."). Her writing is how I think I sound. Since I think I am really funny, and that you should be laughing right now, that is a compliment.

For example, in describing her "big, fat WASP, Greek wedding," Wentworth says:

My favorite moment was watching my relatives try to Greek dance. It was like watching a group of old people auditioning for Lord of the Dance. Then mercifully they were swept up by George's family to snake around the room, screaming "Opa" at inappropriate moments.
from the uncorrected proof, p. 187

Unfortunately, like me she has a a tendency to be long-winded, just a little too much about repeat episodes of depression. But very funny stuff. If you happen to have a WASP friend dating a Greek man, get this book for them. It is a fun read, with short chapters, so you can be amused while distracted.

Here is a sample of her video work from Jay Leo 2009 via Youtube:

She complains about her body, post-baby in the book, but she looks great!

Spellcaster EARLY REVIEW

2012-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Spellcaster
The Spellbound Series Book 2

by Cara Lynn Schultz

Harlequin Teen

Currently only on Amazon for pre-order in paperback

Coming March 27, 2010

Finding your eternal soulmate – easy.

Stopping a true-love-hungry evil – not so much…

After breaking a centuries-old romantic curse, Emma Connor is (almost) glad to get back to normal problems. Although…it’s not easy dealing with the jealous cliques and gossip that rule her exclusive Upper East Side prep, even for a sixteen-year-old newbie witch. Having the most-wanted boy in school as her eternal soul mate sure helps ease the pain-especially since wealthy, rocker-hot Brendan Salinger is very good at staying irresistibly close….

But something dark and hungry is using Emma and Brendan’s deepest fears to reveal damaging secrets and destroy their trust in each other. And Emma’s crash course in über-spells may not be enough to keep them safe…or to stop an inhuman force bent on making their unsuspected power its own. http://caralynnshultz.wordpress.com/

Last year Spellbound, the first book in the Spellbound series by Cara Lynn Schultz was one I picked up at the first day of the Book Expo. I loved it and read it all the first night even though my feet throbbed and I was so hot and tired I wanted sleep more than a teenaged boy wants sex. Yes, it was very "high school" but Schultz gives authentic feeling voices to the teenage characters in the book, and it is well-plotted and well written, lacking those airs of adults thinking they get teens. (MY REVIEW)

Emma finds herself in circumstances 180° from where her life was heading before it all went to Hell.
Spellbound brought it all around to a place whence the two young love interests could move on. We pick the story up about four months after the last book ended. Emma and Brandon, are blissfully happy, quite gooey in their love. But in a book early bliss indicated a rocky road ahead.

The story had many currently fashionable literary elements and some tropes common to YA Romance. One such is the above mentioned Happiness Cannot Last Because Someone Is Going to Muck It Up. In this case the muckraker is external to the relationship, but wants the power granted by their love. There are a few things that seemed ripped from the headlines and others thaI have seen in other books lately. When you do read the story I would love to know if you see these plot devices too. There was, in particular a scene in the school library that reminded me a lot of scene in the school library in Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep. Another part reminds me of a plot point in Chris Bohjalian's last book and that I seem to believe I also read or saw quite recently elsewhere as well. Freaky!

One thing Cara does that I like is recognize the powerful sexual urges teens have; the temptations and struggles they go through. She walks a line with Brendan and Emma, in a committed relationship but choosing self control. But she doesn't pretend it isn't there. A lot of the story involves Brandon's sexual past. Those earlier choices can come and bite you in the ass. The problem facing our young couple is a bit like an STD only magical and vindictive rather than biological. But they are dealing with magic and in the real world where today's kids live reputation, STDs or an infant are the more likely outcomes. So for parents this is a great opportunity to indirectly bring up this issue.

Just saying.

The story gives me enough in the way of suspense that I am really NOT certain what is going to happen or at times what decision will be made. The characters and their relationships grow and change as they discover their strengths, weakness and their real characters under assumptions.I particularly enjoyed Emma holding her own against Brendan, and the friendship between Angelique and Emma as well how her relationship with Brendan changes.

I am a sucker for the sentimental and a theme like this, true love and all, will get me every time.

People familiar with NYC will enjoy Shultz's atmospheric touches and I particularly enjoyed the trip to the Cloisters to see the Unicorn Tapestries.

For fans of teen PNR this is a must read, better with Spellbound under your belt though!

What Brings Us Back to Austen?

2012-01-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Jane Austen should be blushing in her grave at the accolades and attention she never received in life. Because in her day the novel was a triviality that concerned parents wished their daughters would avoid.

Novels: romance, mystery, thriller, fantasy, etc. Hard to imagine they weren't always a part of life, but according to Novel a website associated with Northern Virginia Community College:

There was a public demand for the novel. With the expansion of the middle class by the middle of the 18th century, more people could read and they had money to spend on literature.
There was already a high interest in autobiography, biography, journals, diaries, memoirs. Alexander Pope's dictum that "The proper study of mankind is man" led to increased interest in the human character.
The early English novel departs from the allegory and the romance with its vigorous attempt at verisimilitude and it was initially strongly associated with the middle class, their pragmatism, and their morality.
Pamela, (I, 1740; II, 1741) by Samuel Richardson, is usually considered the first fully-realized English novel. (Novel)

Cover via Amazon

So, the development of the middle class, the source of so much innovation is what brought the novel to popularity. But what makes Austen endure? In an age where thrills are electronic or lusty or a thousand other things, why do stories centered around the English gentry of 200-plus years ago interest us? What lures us to read and watch them over and over again? Times and customs have changed, estates are no longer entailed, but people, people are still essentially the same.

What impressed me when I first read Emma And P&P was how her characters so perfectly pegged people I knew. I read the stories and then as i spoke with someone I would realize, Boom! that person is at least partly a character right out of Pride and Prejudice! Somehow she mostly pegged our foibles: Mrs. Bennet, Mary, Bingley are all pieces of people you know.

Sure the manners are strange, the stories are odd to us, the customs seem ridiculous, but the characters make her stories work. Yeah the realizations that come to both Elizabeth and Darcy, the marriage Charlotte makes with Reverend Collins are all interesting and insightful but for me, it is the characterizations, the proper study of mankind is what brings me back again.

What do you think about Austen and the current mash-ups and sequels? What do you think about the stories? Do you prefer the books or the movies?

Demon Crossings: A Portal Opens to Another World

2012-01-13T00:57:00.001-05:00

Demon Crossings

by Eleri Stone
Carina, Jan. 2, 2012 528 KB, 76,000 words, 215 pages, E-book and Audio.
E-Galley on loan from publisher through Net Galley.No remuneration was exchanged and unless otherwise noted all opinions are my own.

Private investigator Grace tracks a kidnapped child to middle-of-nowhere Iowa. Encountering a strange creature she knows can't be a local animal, she doesn't need her psychic abilities to figure out the sleepy town is not what it seems. When she meets the intriguing Aiden, she's plunged into a world of Norse gods and fire demons where the Wild Hunt still rides the night.

Aiden needs Grace's help to cross the portal between worlds and rescue his daughter. Grace is unlike any woman he's ever met. He's drawn to her courage, distressed by her vulnerability and doubtful of her motives. But he knows that her visions are the key to defeating the enemy and bringing everyone home alive.

Grace wants a future with Aiden, even if it means she'll never have a normal life. When a test run to the portal takes a terrifying turn, they must learn to finally trust each other or Aiden's daughter, and their chance at love, will be lost forever...
Carina Press (book cover too)

Eleri Stone is a darn prolific writer so there is good reason she got this book right. With a mix of legends ad creatures, Asgard, Demons, Norse myths, there is a lot even before you add in a hot romance, good sex and danger. The characters have a reasonable amount of development and felt pretty real to me. I felt the use of a certain word regarding the female anatomy, while sparing was gratuitous and out of character.

The mixing up of mythologies and creatures might have gone a little too far, but when the two romantic leads get together you won't really care.

This is a good short Paranormal romantic erotica. I recommend it. I would like to see the obviously talented author push herself into longer and slightly more literary fiction.

Unclean Spirits: A Well-Built Novel And A Good Starter

2012-01-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Simon and Schuster

Unclean Spirits

Black Sun's Daughter Book One

by M.L.N. Hanover (pseudonym)

Simon & Schuster Imprint Pocket

July 28, 2009

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules.
Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers -- and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.
Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means -- magical or mundane -- so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.
Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions -- Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities -- Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast -- or break them completely....
Quote Source and To buy UNCLEAN SPIRITS on Amazon, please click here

This will be a shorter review than normal because I sprained my thumb and with a storm coming I will need the stupid thing to work.

This series arrived mysteriously—almost as mysteriously as the fortune that Jayné inherits from her Uncle Eric.

This is a very well constructed novel. While it falls under the heading of "genre fiction," it is well written, neither too expository or chatty. The male writer does a reasonably good job with the young heroine's voice; alrthough I disbelieved her ability to recognize the scent of oil and metal that indicates weapons. Perhaps the character's father was a hunter.

Hanover brings together characters, a world, mysterious forces and just enough romance to pull you in to the story.

I found it easy to identify with Jayné (mostly the religious parents and being woefully under prepared for life) and I think there is something there that we could all identify with.

We've had a lot online these days about character development and their changing through the story. In this books a shell of a frightened little girl arrives to a world so completely unfamiliar to her that she have to feel like Alice in a more menacing Wonderland, but she sucks it up and rises to meet the challenges while retaining her own personality. The voice may slip a bit there as her personal growth feels a little masculine. She gets girly by going shopping (and that's bad because,...?).

Pacing is a trifle slow—some drag building to the climax with a few scary interludes and a bit of romance. I really enjoyed reading it.

World building is not overly detailed but has enough structure and good continuity. I like that Hanover tells the story with mostly standard genre language for the paranormal elements. Some are obscure but recognizable. But, no learning Elvish or trying to figure out meaning or pronunciation for a particular word. It makes for easy suspension of disbelief.

In short, other than that slight drag as Jayné slowly ~~grows a pair~~ into the woman she needs to be it's hard for me to find much that's flawed. If anything it's a little too well-done; it needs to be edgier and not as careful.

I highly recommend this to Urban Fantasy lovers. On his website Hanover /Abraham points to the pseudonym of Hanover being born of Buffy and Anita Blake. I don't feel much of Anita here. First, Anita always feels older to me that the character's given age, where Jayné feels on the cusp of adulthood. And, second, her baggage, a deeply as the religious wounds her family inflicted on her go, her baggage feels much lighter and she is far less encumbered by religion than early Anita. She feels a bit more like Rachel Morgan but without the humor; not that it is a downer but it seems darker. .

I will be reading one of these a week until February 2. And, I am now offering a contest from Pocket/Simon and Schuster for all four books (currently published) in the series! Thanks POCKET! You may enter vis the form below. Please read the rules on the form. The contest will end at 11:59PM on Feb. 8.

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Disclosure: provided by Publisher without expectation. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions, unless otherwise state are my own.

Marked by Passion Isn't

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

Marked by Passion

Kate Perry

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages

Kindle Edition

File Size: 506 KB

Publisher: Forever; Original edition (September 1, 2009)

Sold by: Hachette Book Group

RULES FOR THE (VERY) RELUCTANT GUARDIAN OF THE SCROLL
1. Don't lose the above artifact you've inherited from your ancestors-no matter how much it starts messing up your life.

2. Do learn how to control its powers. (And, yes, that means putting up with über-complicated guardian lessons from your father's meddling ghost.)

3. Don't trust anyone. Especially Rhys, the mysterious bad boy who's always one step ahead of you . . . and as irresistible as sin.

4. Do anything to keep the scroll from landing in the wrong hands. Even if that brings on a heartbreaking betrayal, an evil you never saw coming, and a choice you may not live to regret.

AMAZON.COM (QUOTE SOURCE AND TO PURCHASE)

In this book, which despite its drawbacks, I had a hard time putting down, I felt as if I were forever waiting for the story to get going as the reluctant heroine verbally spars with her would be assassin/romantic interest, ignores clues as big as a stop sign, pacifies bar regulars at a Cheers type pub, and behaves like a child who doesn't want to go to the dentist even though she has a toothache.

I was ever waiting for her to just finish her paintings already. To be as discombobulated as she is only would prove her father's point that she is too unfocussed. The constant breaking into French as she visits her friend/agent is handled pretty well, but obviously.

And, while there is a bit of a red herring in the villains' corner, the villain is the one we are lead away from. As a reader I find this a little annoying because it feels like the writer thinks I am stupid and the obviousness is a surefire way for me to see the heroine is. After all, she has an intuitively charged magic birthmark that is always sending a signal when something isn't right. It would be like ignoring the ringing phone at the Fire Station.
The energy that Gabrielle has to handle is also hard to characterize and unpredictable but it always flairs in certain situations.

The sexual encounters are not as hot as I expected they would be and there aren't many. Mostly the romance develops and marinates. Eventually it gets tasty. It's hard to see why the romance develops though, sure the heroine is pretty but she is also bitchy, ill-mannered, unfocussed, a slob and lives in a hovel.

So, it is an okay book, mildly erotic, mildly entertaining and mildly suspenseful. It is as if the author knew what she wanted to write but couldn't quite find the words or structure to write it.

If I rated, which I don't it would get an It's Okay rating on a scale from Gak! to This Changed My Life!

Marked by Passion is Book One in the Guardians of Destiny Series.

This book was wither won in a giveaway or sent by Hachette. In any case no remuneration was exchanged and all opinions are my own.

The King and His Druidess

2012-01-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

THE KING'S DRUIDESS
by Sky Purington

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 198 KB
Print Length: 37 pages
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

THE KING'S DRUIDESS ~ Chiomara Ruadh, Druidess of Ulster, will not be swayed from prophecy. If the Gods of Ireland request that she couple with the king, so be it. If it is also their wish that he marry another woman, who is Chiomara, a simple Druid, to stand in their way?
Erc Breac, king of the Dal'Raida, can only think of Chiomara. Her beauty is surreal and the tales that follow her across the land unsurpassed. But that is not enough when faced with the obligations of a king. His people must come first. His future wife and queen, Macha, must come first. Yet, fate is a slippery thing. Will Erc risk the whole of his kingdom for what lays in his heart?

This is a short story available in Amazon's Prime lending library. It is also available for .99 at Amazon.

It is a Fantasy-Celtic Erotic Romance serving as a prelude to Purington's MacLomain series. As a short story it is an interesting concept to try it out as a sample of the writer's style. What I found was a great story concept but in too short a format. The format is too short because the concept is too complex to clarify in 37 pages. We have some sort of past between the King and his Druidess, a complex mythology, and celestial encounters. There is too much to fit. I would like to see the writer lengthen her work. I think it would be a way to better the story and the writing style. I find when there is too much to fit in a story the style can be stiff, the explanations too cursory, the dialogue stilted. That is what I found here. The dialogue and descriptive balance was good, but the characters lacked development and internal dialogue. The erotica was atmospheric but a bit heavy on intercourse.

I haven't read any other work by Sky, so I can't say if these are things that change in a longer story.

So Exciting. Stacia Kane New Chess Putnam Out in March

2012-01-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

I have been so concerned with Stacia Kane's health (better now) that I totally missed this:

You know when you find out something REALLY exciting and want to share it with everyone? That's how I am feeling right now! This is one of my absolute favorite series. The heroine and her lovers are so flawed but still give so much of themselves. You don't have to be perfect to be a hero. Additionally, Stacia almost died this past autumn so we are doubly fortunate to be able to go on with her stories.

Sacrificial Magic at AMAZON.com

Product Description
READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD
When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.
Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.
As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

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