Book 1 of the All Souls Trilogy

Viking Adult, 2011

Rating: 5/5

Maybe the fact that I’ve been reading little else but trashy romance novels lately has cleansed my witchy reading palette (or reduced my reading IQ to the point where I like anything with a decent, well-written plot), but A Discovery of Witches is a refreshing take on the witch/vampire/daemon mythos.

Diana Bishop, a hereditary witch from an old family doesn’t use her powers (except in extreme circumstances, such as her washing machine overflowing). One day, while researching alchemy (her field as a historian) in Oxford’s Bodleian library, she manages to call up the long-lost Ashmole 782, a bewitched alchemical manuscript that hasn’t been seen in over 150 years. Suddenly, she is hunted by witches, vampires and daemons who all want access to the manuscript. The only problem is, Diana sent it back, and it refuses to appear again.

With the aid of gorgeous, mysterious 1,500 year old vampire Matthew Clairmont, Diana is forced to learn more about the world of the Creatures, their history, and her own magic. Their partnership in itself begins to draw attention from the most powerful of Creatures based on an agreement for voluntary segregation agreed upon during the Crusades.

We learn that Ashmole 782 is a magical palimpsest that may hold the key to the creation of all three species of Creatures as well as humans, and explain why they may be dying out. Diana and Matthew seem to be the only ones able to decipher the manuscript—that is if they can get ahold of it again.

The book itself is full of interesting references to alchemy, history, religion, and wine—and the de rigueur debunking of common vampiric myths by the vampires in the story. It is written with the clear expression of someone who is immensely excited and knowledgeable about the information within—as one would expect of a history professor, which Harkness is. Bishop and Clairmont have an intense, complicated relationship, but If you’re looking for sex, look elsewhere (though I expect it’ll come in later books). This story isn’t focused on romance, but on discovery of self, community and knowledge. We’ve all heard of the Philosopher’s Stone and the goal of turning lead into gold, but Harkness inspires you to discover what alchemy really is and to explore the thin line between science and magic that we continue to research to this very day.

A bit of interesting trivia, the Bishop’s farm is in the town of Madison, NY, located about 30 minutes SW of me (and well-known locally for its many antique shops). There is indeed an inspiration for the farm itself, but it isn’t located in Madison—according to the author, it is located in Pelham, MA. She decided to use Madison as the setting after living in nearby Hamilton.

I haven’t been able to find out details about the final two books in the trilogy, aside from the fact that there will be two more according to Harkness (in another tweet). But I’ll be waiting. Not to provide spoilers, but the last paragraph of the book carries much foreshadowing—my belief is of the positive kind.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon

Preview it online: Google Books

This book was acquired with my own resources. No money or goods were exchanged for this review—it is my personal opinion, not that of the author, publisher or any other entity.

Book 1 of the Dreamlight Trilogy, book 7 of the Arcane Society

Putnum Adult, 2009 (Jove, 2011)

Rating: 3/5

Breaking my usual habit of reading a series from start to finish, after reading In Too Deep, I decided to jump back to book seven in the Arcane series, which happens to be the start of another trilogy.

This trilogy is tied together by the legend of Nicholas Winters, and the “burning lamp” he created at the end of the seventeenth century. Fired Up follows his direct descendent Jack Winters, who believes he’s going insane because of the curse of the Winters family—modified DNA from Nicholas’ experiments with the lamp causes increased power at age 36 for rare descendants.

According to the legend, Jack must find a powerful dreamlight reader—a woman who is sensitive to the unique waves given off in dreams, and also those contained within the lamp. Until she is able to save him, he must also stay off the radar of Jones & Jones, for fear that they will execute him as a monster—which he thinks he’s becoming because of the curse.

Enter Chloe Harper, member of a family of skilled artists with a history of making fake antiques, ids, and any other number of forgeries. She’s a strong dreamlight reader, and Jack’s perfect counter.

Like with In Too Deep, Krentz does a good job of providing plenty of information to the reader in case she hasn’t read the previous books in the series. Overall, there was very little feeling that I was missing something.

One thing that did bother me was transitioning. Some of the transitions between chapters and characters were very jarring. The worst is the first time we’re introduced to Fallon Jones in this book—we’re dumped straight into his point of view with no previous reference to him or his purpose in the story.

The trilogy is set as a present–past–future series. Check back next week for more on Burning Lamp, Amanda Quick’s follow up set in Victorian England.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon or B&N

Preview it online: Google Books

This book was acquired with my own resources. No money or goods were exchanged for this review—it is my personal opinion, not that of the author, publisher or any other entity.

Book 1 of the Looking Glass Trilogy, book 10 of the Arcane Society

Putnum Adult, 2010

Rating: 4/5

by Elle Jasper

Book 1 of the Dark Ink Chronicles

Rating: 1/5

Mixing Gullah, vampires, tattoos and the streets of Savannah, GA should be a promising start to a great series. Unfortunately, debut author Elle Jasper fails to grasp the concept of description. The premise is okay: former-delinquent-turned-respectable-tattoo-shop-owner Riley Poe’s teenage brother and friends break into a crypt and disturb a spell keeping two bad vampires imprisoned. As her brother begins turning into a vampire, Poe’s Gullah grandfather-like figure introduces her to the “good” vampires that have been watching over Savannah for 150 years. Hopefully they can help Poe save her brother and defeat the baddies. It could be a great novel, if the characters weren’t two-dimensional and the attraction between Poe and the vampire Eligius didn’t just reek of Twilight-esque “my boyfriend stalks me and it takes ridiculous self-control for him to not eat me when we’re being intimate because I have awesome blood” issues. Even my fanatic devotion to finishing a series once I start it can’t convince me to pick up book 2 when it comes out, unless I see many reviews about immense improvement in Jasper’s writing style.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon
or B&N

by Kelly Gay

Charlie Madigan Book 1

Rating: 3/5

This debut—for the series and author—was average. Just average. Charlie Madigan is an officer of the law in modern Atlanta, tasked in part with keeping humans, Elysians, and Charbydons from stepping out of line. In Charlie’s world, two more worlds have been discovered. This relatively recent discovery has resulted in an influx of off-world immigrants to the larger American cities—like Atlanta. As the book progresses, Charlie and her partner, Hank—a siren from Elysia—must solve the mysterious introduction of a deadly (to humans) off-world drug, all while trying to keep their loved ones safe. There’s nothing especially unique about anything in the storyline. While Gay’s writing is easy to follow for the most part, for the first half of the book I was left wondering if I’d missed a prequel short-story. There is much mention about how Charlie died a few months back, and of her subsequent return to life (integral to the storyline), but Gay continuously refers to it as if we know the whole story from previous reading. By the end of the book, it can be pieced together, but it is not a good way to begin a series, in my estimation. Will I read book 2, The Darkest Edge of Dawn? Yes, but with hope that Gay improves with experience.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon or B&N

by Kathy Reichs

Rating: 4/5

Reichs’ first foray into the YA genre was everything I hoped for. Although Reichs’ writing fell victim to the “must drop brand names in as descriptors everywhere” regime that defines current YA editing, the story retained a style that can easily appeal to many generations overall. Containing far more mystery than sci-fy—Reichs’ forte—the story line had perfect pacing and never fell flat. Main character Tory’s tie to Tempe Brennan (main character of Reichs’ other series, and yes, the same Tempe as in Bones), seemed an unnecessary addition to the plot line; were Reichs’ editors afraid she couldn’t sell without some connection to her existing bibliography? If you like light mystery and don’t mind a little sci-fy thrown in, this is a great read. If you want to ditch the sci-fy, check out Reichs’ other novels.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon or B&N

by Gail Carriger

The Parasol Protectorate Book 3

Rating: 4/5

As always, I adore Carriger’s psuedo-steampunk world and well-written witticisms. However, this third installment suffered quite painfully of the disease known as little-to-no character development. We learn enough to keep us coming back for more, but so many rising characters are rather two dimensional, it’s getting a bit boring. Even the development of Alexia and Lord Maccon has stalled. Toward the end, we do learn that Alexia’s infant inconvenience as she calls it is not unprecedented, but even then, proper exploration and development is not provided. Regardless of the slight disappointment, I’m still infatuated with parasols and am again anxiously awaiting the next volume.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon

by Stephanie Meyer

Twilight Saga Novella

Rating: 2/5

I had a bit of time and hadn’t been reading much lately, so I decided to take this newest Twilight world novella for a spin. I should have chosen something else. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t anything special. The main gripe I had is that the focus is on these street kids that are being turned into vamps, and so—for the most part—the dialogue is as you’d expect, but then Meyer has them drop some vocab of the day word. It’s jarring. That, and I’m kind of tired of the whole Twilight craze.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon

Book 10 in the Southern Vampires Series (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)

Rating: 2/5

I’m rather disappointed with this newest Sookie book. There wasn’t appreciable amount of character development for any of the existing characters (except when Sookie tells us that their disposition has changed) and many of the newer characters seem like one-off appearances that won’t be integral to the future storyline (and will need far more development if they return). There was a noticeable lack of action compared to the others and the entire story just seemed like fluff for the series. The full storyline of the book seemed better suited to a shorter novella. Here’s to hoping the series doesn’t continue going downhill.

Form your own opinion: Buy from Amazon Barnes and Noble

The Wells mythology

Coming from the school of “God’s wrath produced the dark races,” Wells’ mythology in the Sabina Kane series bases itself on Old Testament and apocryphal stories and is all about betrayal. The vampire race owes its origins to an affair between post-fratricide Cain and cast-out-of-the-Garden Lilith. As a result of their union, vampires are a bloody-thirsty, immortal race of gingers (red hair being the Mark of Cain) who cannot go out in the sun. Furthering the motif of betrayal, the main vampiric kryptonite is apple—apple juice, applewood stakes, etc.

Mages, Sidhe, Werewolves and demons round out the other races we’ve been introduced to thus far. In-depth explanations of their backgrounds are lacking, although there is a small distinction mentioned about two types of demons (disregarding classes and powers)—those that pre-date Lilith and those who are her children, born after she married Asmodeus, king of the demon world.

A war is brewing between the vampires and mages (its cause is integral to the storyline), and the other races are beginning to choose sides. For the most part, the different races do not get along, although they do have interracial treaties. But for many years, they’ve been content keeping separate, frowning on interracial relations—especially romantic ones.

The players

This section has some spoilers for book one. Nothing too major—much of the book is setting up Sabina’s motivation for her actions in the second book, and explaining some of the mythology, but if you don’t want it spoiled, I recommend reading the book before reading on.

Our main protagonist is Sabina Kane, a mix-blood Vampire/Mage who was raised by her vampire grandmother Lavinia Kane, the leader of the vampire’s ruling body known as the Dominae. Because of her mixed heritage, she is an outcast, influenced into becoming her grandmother’s pawn and trained as an assassin.

As book one, Red-Headed Stepchild, unfolds and she begins to understand the extent to which her grandmother has been using her throughout her whole life, Sabina’s world gets a little rocky as she is forced to reevaluate her purpose and desires in life. Guiding her along this journey is mysterious mage Adam Lazarus, a guard of the Mage ruling council, who was sent by Sabina’s twin sister Maisie Graecus. Reeling from the ultimate betrayal by her grandmother, Sabina heads to New York to meet Maisie and learn more about her mage heritage.

The Mage in Black starts on the journey to NY, and follows Sabina as she meets her sister, runs into an old acquaintance, and learns more about Mage life and her supposed destiny. War is looming on the horizon and it may be that Sabina is the key to winning—and preventing mass genocide of the dark races.

Where it’s all going

So, this entire premise of the first two books has me jumping ahead and wondering where it’s all going to lead—especially with some of the literary foreshadowing signifiers. With all the talk of the second coming of Lilith, surely naming our protagonist with a homophone for Cain wasn’t accidental. Combining suggestions of Sabina being the second Lilith and naming her love interest Adam has my mind running off on a million different tangential storylines—after all, I’m sure Sabina likes it on top. And does the surname Lazarus indicate imminent death and rebirth for the mage? It’s all too much to wait for.

The third book in the series, Green-Eyed Demon, is slated for sometime in 2011, although I can’t find an exact date yet. Further flaming my desire to have my hands on the book right. This. Second. Is the note on Wells’ FAQ that claims she’s only contracted for three books at this point in time. Will three be enough? (No.) Will she get a contract for more books? (I hope.) Will we be left hanging with no resolution? (Please no, I’ll be a good girl, I promise.) The suspense is killing me!

While we wait, if you are looking for more Sabina, or even a place to test the waters, there is a short prequel to the series published in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2, but that might not slake your thirst for this interesting series.

Have you read either (or both) of the books? What are your thoughts?

Update: Book 3, Green-Eyed Demon will be released March 1, 2011.