Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

Chill of Fear

By Kay Hooper.

Quentin Hays is a precog working for the FBI's Special (i.e. psychic) Crimes Unit. He's still obsessed with the murder of his childhood pal Missy, who died at a fancy hotel named The Lodge that seems to be a magnet for deaths and disappearances. Now it's finally "the right time" to figure out what's going on there.

Also at The Lodge is Diana, a medium who's spent almost her entire life drugged up one way or another to treat her "mental condition." Now off the drugs, she can clue in to the various ghosts around the Lodge, some of whom try to tell her what's going on, and one of whom she's more closely connected to than she knows.

I found this to be a pretty interesting story, albeit an odd one. If you're expecting a romance in this one, it doesn't really happen, but I didn't miss it. It would have felt awkward given the setup of the story. I'm not madly in love with this read, but it's not bad.

Three and a half stars.

Best. Disclaimer. Ever.

I agree with all of this.

Time Without End

By Linda Lael Miller.

Hmmm....I kind of feel about this book the way I did about Demon Moon: love the vampire, am not so impressed with his lady love.

The scenario: Valerian Lazarus (hee) is a studly, egotistical, charming Las Vegas magic-act vampire who has a deep and tragic secret. His true love Brenna somehow gets reincarnated every century or so (same looks) and he finds her again, and then she ends up dying fairly soon into the restarted relationship. Valerian is getting pretty freaking tired of his ladylove(s) being targeted for death. In 1995 he meets Brenna 7.0 or so, a homicide cop named Daisy, when some of Valerian's employees are getting murdered. Valerian finally gets a clue that he must have some secret enemy around here somewhere, and that this needs to be dealt with.

To some degree the plot is kinda predictable. There's a limited number of people the secret enemy could be. However, there is one shocking twist that does come about that kinda blew my mind when it happened....but you never do figure out how or why it happened, and it doesn't really get followed up on. It seems to be there to give the villain extra motivation, I...guess?

The narration of this is all over the place. Third-person from Valerian's POV, first person narration from Valerian, third-person from Daisy's POV, various retellings of Brenna/Daisy's past lives. I really freaking wish the author had stuck to one or two changes. Maybe narrate Valerian from first person (his dialogue is the most amusing and charming stuff going on in the book) and keep Daisy/everyone else on third, but not making it so freaking complicated.

Also, I have to say that the DAISY/Valerian relationship, such as it is, gets short shrift. We don't see why she'd go for him other than "vampire hot destiny" or whatever, they just kind of take a shortcut to spiritual sexin'. We get to briefly know her past lives as the not-terribly-pleasant hooker Betsey, the sweet Jenny and (even MORE briefly) Harmony the Bostonian madam, all of whom seem more interesting than our current heroine. Now, I can't say I was terribly fond of Betsey, but I don't deny it was quite a switchup to make Valerian rediscover his love in the guise of a lady of easy virtue who operates on "how can I use this guy to get money" more than anything else. The romance between Valerian and Jenny is incredibly sweet, and I would have rather read about THEM than any of the other versions of Brenna. Harmony, alas, gets very briefly summarized (and I believe there's another version or two that never got mentioned in the book at all), which is a shame because she sounded interesting too.

Anyway, I saw glints of potential in this book, but mostly things do not come to fruition terribly well. Two stars.

The Bloody Sun

By Marion Zimmer Bradley.

This is the (semi-distant) followup to The Forbidden Tower.

Once upon a time, a teenaged Cleindori Aillard (see City of Sorcery) decided to become the Keeper of Arilinn Tower (pretty much the top female position on the planet), because with the power alloted to her in that job, she would be able to make changes in the world. For example, proving that virginity isn't a requirement for it...

This does not go well.

Thirty years later, a Terran bloke named Jeff Kerwin returns to Darkover. He was born on the planet and grew up in the Spaceman's Orphanage until he got shipped off-planet at thirteen, and he's always wanted to return. But things start out weird from the getgo. He can't find records of his previous existence on the planet anywhere, and the locals keep mistaking him for....well, someone local and important. Must be the red hair. And the stone he wears that he won't let anyone else touch.

Well, as it turns out, Jeff's the long-lost son of Cleindori, and once the locals find him, they adopt him into the current circle of psychics at Arilinn Tower. Things have gone downhill since Cleindori ran the place, and they're pretty much trying to hold on to what they had, and prove that those with laran can still be better than what the Terrans offer with regards to mining. Jeff hits it off with most of his new crew (in the case of the younger ladies, a little too well when he falls in love with the designated virgin, Elorie), but one guy, Auster, continues to be suspicious and insist that Jeff must be some kind of Terran spy, whether he knows it or not. And when someone does turn out to be spying....well, things all go to hell.

I liked this one, the story was interesting (both the main plot and what happened when things went awry in the past), and I liked figuring out how things truly went.

I do, however, have to comment on how easily things went in this book compared to its predecessor. As I said before, The Forbidden Tower is ALL ABOUT getting Callista laid. There is a similar situation going on in this book, but it's very easily gotten over compared to that. Okay, so there's references here and there about Elorie not being trained AS harshly as previous Keepers, but it kind of insults the work that was done in FT to make it so easily gotten over with. But that's a different book, I suppose.

Four stars.

The Forbidden Tower

By Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Wow. Never before have I read a book (that wasn't porn, or even a romance novel, and even the latter isn't this obsessed) that was so obsessed with getting people laid. That is almost the entire plot of this book.

Specifically: Callista was a trained Keeper (they are pretty much in charge of maintaining group rapport in psychic actions), trained/brainwashed into virginity since before she hit puberty, and she's had plenty of safeguards built into her to kill/beat the stuffing out of any guy who tries something. Unfortunately for Callista, she fell in love and wanted to get married to a Terran named Andrew. Much to the non-pleasure of the current Keeper, Leonie (who is desperate to find a replacement for herself), Callista quits and gets married. At the same time, her twin Ellemir gets married to Damon, an ex-Tower technician who got kicked out of the prestigious Arilinn Tower some years back for "being too sensitive" (i.e. secretly being in love with Leonie, who could never act on it). Damon is in love enough with Elli to move on, but still has feelings for Leonie.

Anyhoo, 80% of this book boils down to the following: Callista loves Andrew and Andrew loves Callista, but due to the virginity brainwashing, she can't even stand to do more than vaguely touching fingertips with him, and certainly not kissing or cuddling or actual nookie. The latter becomes a problem because if they don't have sex, the marriage can be declared invalid by well, pretty much anybody with authority. Plus it's a real mindfuck on those two: both for Callista to try to get over the built-in reflexes and for Andrew for obvious reasons. Plus Andrew is not used to living in a telepathic society and doesn't get why Ellemir is willing to have sex with him when Callista can't. The logic behind this boils down to, "We're all telepathic, we KNOW how you feel about this, it's driving us nuts, JUST GET IT ON WITH SOMEONE ALREADY." I actually enjoyed the strangeness of that particular situation and how the two couples pretty much evolve into a foursome, even if Andrew got raised to think about these matters differently.

Trying to get over said mindfuck eventually makes Callista very ill. Damon goes to work on trying to figure out how to de-psychically-neuter a Keeper...which leads him to some dramatic personal revelations, and a whole lotta frustration at how the current system works by ruining people's lives. Eventually (very eventually) this leads him to start a rebellion that may very well cause him and his family to lose their psychic powers, marriages, and/or lives.

The latter part sounds more gripping than it is. Now, I understand how the whole sexual frustration thing leads to Damon coming to the realizations that he does, and him finding the courage to stand up for his convictions. That part is great. But I desperately wish there was something else to read about other than sexual frustration for 300 pages before the plot gets good. There is a B-plot that's genuinely gripping that's seeded in at one point, then dropped, then comes back around page 300....and then winds up by page 315. The B-plot eventually leads to the final confrontation, which is cool and I liked the ending...but man, for a book called "The Forbidden Tower", I wanted more tower, more plot, less OMG CAN'T HAVE SEX AIEEEE. Or more specifically, having more of a B-plot or even a C-plot to keep me interested despite the prolonged angsting. It's requisite angsting, mind you, but that still doesn't make it too much fun to get through.

Three stars.

City of Sorcery

By Marion Zimmer Bradley.

This is the sequel to Thendara House. This book takes place about seven years later. Magda and Jaelle have declared freemates and become lovers on some level (though Magda is still romantically involved with someone else as well), and have each had a small daughter, and work with the Forbidden Tower group. A "Bridge Society" has also been created for Terran women who wish to become Renunciates but can't live in the Guild house.

There's a Terran woman working on Darkover who doesn't like Magda and her "Lorne Legend" very much, named Alexis. After flying over "The Wall Around The World" and spotting a hidden village, she somehow comes back without her plane or her memory. Magda is called in by Cholayna to help restore Alexis's memory. Unfortunately, Alexis decides that she's going to hire Rafaella as a trade guide and go out to find the hidden city. Magda, Jaelle, Camilla, Cholayna, and a Bridge Society recruit, Vanessa, decide to go after them. Some of them have heard that there was a city of women (er, sorcery) dedicated to the goddess Avarra hidden somewhere, and at least some of the party are intrigued at this idea.

It's a long, rough slog through the snow and ice, and the party learns to bond together while fighting off bad guys, running into a rival sisterhood, and wondering if they will EVER be admitted into the place. I will say that it ends on an...awkward...place. There's some dramatic shocks that go on, and it feels like the book ends just when things are getting good. (And you'll never know what happens after that now.) So on an ending note, it's not as satisfying as I hoped, though I guess it's as good as it was going to get.

Three and a half stars.

Thendara House

By Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Previous book here.

Thendara House is all about a work exchange: Magda goes into a Guild house for six months to learn about the ways of the Renunciates, get de-programmed from how to deal with men on Darkover, bond with her sisters, etc. She's fairly weirded out at her new lifestyle that requires her to do chores and go to meetings, and one day she gets in trouble when forced to defend the house against a jealous husband and his mercenaries. Not to mention that she starts getting confused about her sexuality, having not been around lesbians before.

But Magda's having a freaking FIELD DAY compared to Jaelle, who's now married Peter Haldane as a freemate and moved into Terran HQ to work in Magda's old job of translation and teaching people how to blend in with the Darkovan population. She makes the occasional friend (Cholayna, head of Intelligence, is all for female bonding), or at least meets friendly male allies such as the big boss's son and the guy she has to train in infiltration. However, she's forced to wear skimpy Star Trek-ish uniforms, she's constantly referred to as "Mrs. Peter Haldane" no matter how much she doesn't want to be (it goes against her oath!), and that's if someone's being polite. Mostly she's just "Haldane's squaw." Lovely.

And then there's her relationship with Peter. She fell in love with the guy in a hurry, but now on his own turf she realizes he's a political schemer who really wants to get ahead at work, and he seems to appreciate her but doesn't get where she's coming from, and Jaelle's occasionally picking up of his thoughts reveal that he really, really wants a son and heir. She gets pregnant, but is that really by her choice, or just to please him? And as the marriage goes on, well... I mentioned one time in a review that I felt terrible rooting for a character to have a miscarriage, but the same thing was going on here. Eesh. Between that and Jaelle's finding out that any child she has will be a Comyn child and Domain heir whethe she likes it or not, girlfriend is having a rough time. 

In the end, Jaelle goes off to someone's rescue, Magda goes after hers, and they come to some realizations (and in Magda's case, one weird experience) and meet some new allies.

As a feminist, I enjoyed reading this book and savoring the lives of the Renunciate women. I shuddered in horror, a lot, at Jaelle's treatment among the Terrans, but in the end the book came to a pretty good end, albeit a wistful one.

Four stars.

The Shattered Chain

By Marion Zimmer Bradley.

This is the first in a trilogy about the Renunciates of Darkover, an Amazon-esque group sworn not to marry di catenas or to submit to men. They're about as emancipated as one can get on Darkover, and I found it interesting to hear what life was like for them rather than the Comyn.

The book follows two time periods. In the first section Rohana Ardais has hired a group of Renunciates to rescue her long-lost kinswoman Melora Aillard, who was kidnapped by a dominating thug named Jalak twelve years ago and he killed the men who tried to rescue her. Now Melora's not only got a daughter who's almost old enough to be chained into female slavery, she's about to give birth to Jalak's heir. The Renunciates rescue Melora and her daughter Jaelle, but Melora dies giving birth. Jaelle asks to be fostered with the leader of the Renunciate band, not wanting to have anything to do with her Comyn relatives (that aren't Rohana).

Twelve years later, Terran Intelligence Agent Magda Lorne's ex-husband Peter Haldane is mistaken for Rohana's son (other than the fact that Peter only has five fingers, they could be clones) and kidnapped, and she can't get anyone at Terran HQ to pay the ransom and save him from being murdered. Rohana helps Magda as best she can, suggesting that if Magda wants to avoid running into troubles with men, that she dress as a Renunciate. Rohana figures she can pull it off as long as she doesn't run into any real ones....

Which, of course, Magda does. She runs into an all-grown-up Jaelle and Camilla, one of the women in the original rescue party. They figure out quickly that she's a faker, and are somewhat sympathetic to her story...but in order to prevent spies from infitrating the organization, Magda is forced to take the Oath or die. And much to her surprise...she finds herself wanting to stick with it. And even feeling like this is the way to bridge the gap between the Terrans and the Darkovans.

After rescuing Peter, the three of them stay at Rohana's at midwinter, and Peter and Jaelle fall in love. This surprises Jaelle, and she wonders how one reconciles the life of a Renunciate with living with a man. By the end of the book, she and Magda essentially trade jobs so that she can find out. It ends on a hopeful note.

The book feels slight, but I enjoyed the characters and their moral dilemmas (even if I am not so captivated by Peter). Three and a half stars.

Midnight Never Come

By Marie Brennan.

Once upon a time, two queens took the throne in England: Elizabeth I of the mortals and Invidiana of the faeries. Elizabeth's reign, as you know, went pretty well. Invidiana's....not so much. Which is to say, she's a total tyrant.

In this book, two courtiers try to make their place in their respective courts.

On the mortal side, Michael Deven has become a Gentleman's Pensioner for QEI, but his real goal is to become a protege to Walsingham, who's looking for a "hidden player" that's somehow affecting the queen's decisions. On the faerie side, Lune is trying to get back into Invidiana's good graces after having pissed her off for not negotiating with the sea people in the way that Invidiana wanted. Trying to clean up her reputation, Lune agrees to pass as a mortal among the mortal court and spy on things. Dressed up as Anne Montrose, she gets romantically involved with Deven, but has to break it off when he wants marriage. After that, things go a lot worse for Lune, and Michael figures out that Anne wasn't who she said she was. He goes to the astrologer John Dee, who says that Anne will return, but in mortal danger...

And soon the two sides, with the aid of some awesome brownie ladies, join together to bring down Invidiana, find how she came to power and how she can be ousted from it, and discover the truth of who she was before.

And it's awesome. The backstory to this is quite interesting, and I liked the development of the tale. I wished there'd been a little more fleshing out of the lead characters and their love a bit, but other than that, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Four stars.

Frostbitten

By Kelley Armstrong.

This is the tenth book in the series overall (#9 can be found here) and the fourth book featuring Elena as a narrator (previous one of those here). I definitely liked this book better than both books linked here.

In this book, Elena and Clay go to Alaska to investigate the following: (a) tracking down a young mutt who's about to be framed for man-eating, (b) finding out what local mutts did something bad to the new mutt when they spotted him in town, (c) investigating some presumed wolf-eating-man stories and missing young women, and (d) tracking down the Stillwells, two former Pack members who moved to Alaska. All of these things end up coming together, of course, with unexpected twists and turns, one massive surprise, deaths, and betrayals. Oh, and did I mention one of the bad guys is a rapist? Since Elena has been there and done that in her horrible childhood, it's especially an issue with her. 

Also in this book, it's formally announced that Elena will become the Alpha of the pack in a few years after Jeremy retires. This wasn't exactly a surprise to anyone but Elena (it's obvious that out of five candidates, she's the only choice for the job), but Elena feels the need to make mental adjustments to the status anyway. This especially hits home in this book due to her past and her gender. I've mentioned in the past that I love the Kitty Norville series for having her be an alpha without any gendering issues, and this book comes pretty close to that standard. Elena does worry about her mental ability to be an alpha, as well as her physical ability to take down someone who goes after her directly in such a personal manner. But it's done reasonably, and one ends the book feeling pretty confident that she'll handle herself. Mostly, this book is about Elena growing into herself and her ability to handle being 100% in charge. So, good job there.

Four stars.

Living With The Dead

By Kelley Armstrong.

This is pretty much my least favorite book of the author's, I am sorry to say. Back when it came out in hardback, I flipped through it on the way to buying it and just could NOT get into it. Since I hate buying hardback anyway and don't do it unless I'm really hyped to get the book, I eventually decided to wait for this one in paperback. Having now read the book, I am glad I waited. It's not terrible, but it's not nearly up to the usual standard.

The plot of this one follows Robyn Peltier, a normal human, who has been working as the PR consultant to a Paris Hilton-type. Unfortunately for both of them, her client takes a photo with her cell phone that happens to feature two supernaturals in the back of it, and forwards it on to Robyn. Next thing you know, the client is dead, Robyn's on the run, and any cop that she looks to for help gets killed. Unless she's hiding out with her best friend Hope Adams and her boyfriend, she just keeps on being found. Meanwhile, the cop on the case happens to be a mild necromancer and Robyn's dead husband is trying to help him with the case. And the villain in this one is thoroughly creepy...

Problems with this book:

1. The third person narration. I'll admit to being biased because I vastly prefer first person to third in general, and have enjoyed the first persons used in this series before. But it just felt WEIRD to have Hope as a third-person narrative. Did not like, did not get into very easily in the reading. There's one brief cameo of Savannah in the book that made me feel like I was reading the usual fresh "voice" of this series, but mostly it just felt flat, as did the new characters. I even had a hard time getting into Hope and Karl, and I like them!
2. There are five narrators of this tale, which gets kind of irritating and jerking around at points. One of them doesn't even do much.
3. I don't know why the author felt so compelled to have Robyn as a character. All things considered, this girl is on stage a lot, and what does she do? Run from bad guys and mourn her dead husband. It's kinda dull. Why are we bringing a "norm" into the Otherworld again? For what, exactly? A freaking cell phone photo? Finn (the police detective) isn't much more interesting, but at least his power gives him a purpose. 
4. The plot drags on and on, mostly with Adele (the villain)'s plotting and gloating, and Robyn running, and the other good guys trying to help. It takes a long-ass time to get past the cell phone thing. Very eventually a surprise character comes onto the stage and things get more interesting, but it took a looooong time.
5. A special problem with paranormal novels and "normal" people: If it takes 200 pages or more for the "normal" person to find out that the paranormal exists, I start to get really annoyed. In this case, it's over 250. And then Robyn (who can figure out for herself that Something Is Wrong Here by now, thanks) gets told that she shouldn't ask any questions and should stick her head in the sand! At great length! Argh!
6. I spent the entire novel trying to figure out which was more heinous: Adele's activities or the kumpania she belongs to's policies. I also spent a lot of time shuddering. 

Mostly I felt like this book (eventually) is here to set up some future conflicts for Hope with regards to her chaotic abilities. But beyond that, this does not feel like a story that will last in my head, or that I will want to reread. I probably would have skipped this one entirely except for the fact that the books in the series build upon each other.

But on the plus side, very very eventually the plot gets more interesting. And I enjoyed certain cameos (particularly an end scene involving a sword) that cropped up here and there.

Two and a half stars. Sigh.

How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater

By Marc Acito.

I read these out of order, having already read Attack of the Theater People. Now, I am all caught up.

So, when we first meet Edward Zanni, he's about to start his senior year of high school, and is having fun and good times vandalizing Buddha and other crazy hijinks. Would that the rest of the year went that way...But instead, Edward's dad marries an "artist" named Dagmar, who turns out to be far more unpleasant than first thought. And Edward's business-loving dad decides that he'll only pay for Edward's college if he goes to business school. And Edward is SET on Julliard.

So Edward moves in with his girlfriend Kelly by claiming to be gay (hm, her mom believed that so easily...), attempts various crappy jobs that he can't stand, and eventually ends up going along with his very crooked friend Natie into a crazy scheme that involves (a) stealing from Dagmar, and (b) donating said money to Julliard with specific scholarship requirements. Naturally, that can't go right....

In between, there's all kinds of threesomes going on for a high school in Jersey in the 80's, and man, I am amazed at the amount of action these kids get up! Not to mention, impressed! And a very lovely testimonial by Mr. Lucas on the power of books. ("No, Ted, you can't kill yourself today. You're right in the middle of a really good book...So don't ever let me hear you say you're not in the middle of reading a book. It might save your life someday.")

The ending is kind of a letdown after all the hijinks and shenianigans that went on previously, but I suppose it'd be hard to end a high school novel in any other way, really. But still, good times and four stars from me.

P.S. I am still not totally sure what the "just a little" prostitution was. The doctor's visit?

Laced With Magic

By Barbara Bretton.

In the sequel to Casting Spells, Chloe and Luke's budding relationship is rocked to the core when (a) her old enemy manages to make another attempt for the town even though she's been banished from it, and (b) Luke's ex-wife Karen rolls into town in high distress. They broke up after the death of their daughter Steffie (not something Luke has mentioned before), but now Karen's getting phone calls from Steffie on her cell...

Suffice it to say that Sugar Maple is the best place to get down to solving that kind of dilemma, but it doesn't help that Luke doesn't so much believe in his daughter's ghost, and that the general population of the town has a giant fit at the idea of another human being around At All, and the social awkwardness that comes from your boyfriend's ex-wife griping about his failures in relationships. This isn't much of a "romance" novel, just to warn you all. Though Karen turns out to be a surprisingly sympathetic pseudo-antagonist, and her story relates to Sugar Maple in a way that may not have been expected.

I will warn y'all of this: there's a cliffhanger ending, and one character's "happy ending" is ah...not necessarily what other readers might consider to be happy. It's odd, but fitting to me, but I can see why others might not like it.

That said, it's still an interesting read that I sped through. Four stars.

Doom With A View

By Victoria Laurie.

Previous book here.

Since folks in service industries are doing crappily all around, as is life in Michigan, Abby and her PI partner Candice are lucky to get invited by Dutch's boss to work on a case involving missing kids of politicians. But the problem is that they're teamed with a politically-connected (i.e. can't get rid of him) total skeptic/hottie named Brice, who can't stand Abby even when she proves that she has skills. Candice knows pretty well how to manipulate the guy, and there's clearly some Slap Slap Kiss going on there. But when it comes to the case, A&C have a hard time actually getting to solve it while having to negotiate around a guy they can't get rid of, AND who has power over Dutch if this thing goes wrong. And yes, that might happen...

I enjoyed this one, especially given the machinations going on between Brice and Candice. There's also a pretty drastic change for the cast, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out in the future.

Four stars.

Miami Psychic: Confessions of a Confidante

By Regina Milbourne.

(Note: this book isn't exactly "nonfiction", but I don't necessarily feel like it's all general fiction either.)

Many years ago I read one of the few really bad books that I reviewed on this site, Small Mediums At Large. For obvious reasons, that one came to mind when I picked this one up (I was ah...desperate for reading material while on jury duty, having already read the three books I'd brought for the day). But I owned pretty much everything else in the used bookstore, so I gave this one a chance.

Well, it's better than SMaL, anyway. Regina actually goes into the details of how she practices her psychicness, so that's a plus. Sometimes in great detail. She apparently wrote composite tales of her clients (which aren't all mobsters, though the cover seems to imply this), which are incredibly bizarre and wacky. The woman apparently worked for a lot of blockheads, criminals, stalkers, and creeps. And charged them all incredibly large amounts of money that about made me faint. Occasionally she goes into aspects of gypsy culture, being pissed off at her husband, etc.

Mostly what sticks in my mind after reading this book is the energy of it, which is FRANTIC. It made me feel really hyper and freaked out and wanting to scream a lot, like I'd suddenly become a 5-year-old on a raging sugar high. There's lots of craziness and yelling and general nutbarness. It wasn't so much in a funny vein so much as a "Good lord, I don't care if they are paying you ten thousand dollars, STOP HANGING AROUND THIS PERSON." It wasn't exactly a pleasant read, or a fun one...mostly rather creepy. Which I guess was the point of it, since she now claims to be out of the business.

Two and a half stars.