Long May She Reign - well, at least all week!

Marcie of

 

is this week's
SUPERNATURAL SUMMARIES SUNDAY SOVEREIGN!
Marcie had a perfect score!

Carry Your Own BaggageWhose Baggage Do You Pull off the Carousel?

Image via Wikipedia

Earlier today I reviewed Stone Kissed by Keri Stevens. I really liked the book.  In my review I talk about the lovers having baggage, and in this I don't mean a suitcase.

We all have a bunch of things we hang on to through life. I don't know if the answer to having a successful relationship is  losing your luggage, learning to carry it with grace or as the song in the musical Rent goes: I need somebody whose baggage goes with mine.

Regardless, of the options I don''t know if we can, or even should, lose the luggage.  Afterall, we are a product of our life experience. The best we can hope for are the latter two solutions. 

And baggage doesn't only apply in relationships; baggage has the ability to pop up in all aspects of life, work, school, our eating behaviors, etc. And, it is not just our parents who give us the baggage, lovers, teachers, other relatives, coaches, etc. all pitch in.

So, in Stone Kissed,  Delia and Grant are both carrying some heavy suit cases. He carries his with a bit more grace. In Shiver and Linger both romantic main characters carry a ton of luggage leading her, mostly her, to make decisions that probably weren't to brilliant. Her baggage is largely from fairly neglectful parents, and his from parents that try to kill him (mostly). 

in Halfway to the Grave Cat is WAY over the luggage limit. Date Rape, a mother who resents her existence, being strange, all make her a pretty wary and dangerous person.

In the TV Program, Sanctuary, the Psychiatric Profiler, Dr. Will Zimmerman, has baggage from seeing his mother attacked, and either she was an abnormal or she was killed by one.  He also has baggage deriving from loss of credibility in his field.

In your reading experience, what characters stand out as having baggage that you notice and recall?  What is its source? What do you think about carry versus a total jettison of luggage?

FTC Compliance Disclosure CSN online stores have sponsored this link. I will receive a gift code which I will use to buy something and review it for CSN,

Like A Rock

Stone Kissed

By Keri Stevens (http://keristevens.blogspot.com/)

Carina Press

Excerpt available on Carina link

Publication date: 12/27/2010

Provided by Carina through Net Galley

No remuneration provided

Read Dec. 2-3 reviewed Dec. 5

Book Description:

When Delia Forrest talks to statues, they talk back. She is, after all, the last of the Steward witches.
After an arsonist torches her ancestral home with her estranged father still inside, Delia is forced to sell the estate to pay his medical bills. Her childhood crush, Grant Wolverton, makes a handsome offer for Steward House, vowing to return it to its former glory. Delia agrees, as long as he'll allow her to oversee the restoration.
Working so closely with Grant, Delia finds it difficult to hide her unique talent-especially when their growing passion fuels her abilities.
But someone else lusts after both her man and the raw power contained in the Steward land. Soon Delia finds herself fighting not just for Grant's love, but for both their lives...(Net Galley)

My Take:

This has to have had one of the more unusual premises for a story I have ever read. There were lots of twists I would never expect. Delia is stubborn, quick to anger, smart, torn, under pressure, making peace. Grant is arrogant, but it is more about confidence than the assumption that everything is going to go his way. He’s smart, loyal, has a sense of integrity, and a sixth sense on what is scary. Neither of them is perfect. Delia comes from a damaged family history with a father who couldn’t come up with enough love to raise his daughter without emotionally abuse. Somehow, Delia comes up with forgiveness for her father, I don’t know how but she does.

Grant’s family comes with a lot of baggage too. And, not the past Delia assumes.

Witches seem to play a part in Delia’s family history. Maybe the women in the family had been raised with the knowledge of it in times past but all Delia can do is talk with statues, have verbal relationships with them. It’s a big secret that pretty much every one knows, some believe and some don’t. Delia has struggled to hide it and has moved to DC and become a statue restoration expert⎯the perfect foil for her gift.

Delia has been stuck on Grant unrequitedly for aeons, which is a classic romance novel device. Close proximity brings out a natural attraction on both sides. They make mistakes in judgment with each other and Delia cannot believe someone as rich and powerful as he is wants her. She has some major chips on her shoulder. It may be their collapse that allows her to make peace with her father. Grant is not a man interested in long term and that is also part of Delia’s reticence. When they meet again, she finds him gorgeous but cold and tells him he used to have a heart but not now.

There is a reasonable amount of intimacy, well written. For a human Grant has great stamina. Delia is very practical and her lingerie confirms that in her personality. But for two people with the issues they have they have an easy comfort with each other.

Interesting things happen with the statues. They know there is something wrong with Delia’s cousin Cecily, Delia does too. But even I didn’t think she was the bad actor that is revealed. She is thwarted at every turn, and lashes out each time.

There are a few loose ends, but they add to the characters’ depth and show their idiosyncrasies. To reveal them could be a bit spoilerish. Perhaps they’re there to provide a thread for a sequel. Minor.

The book, for what one would think was going to be light and fluffy had surprising depth. I really enjoyed seeing what would happen next. You’ll want to carve the name of this book into your mind for the next time you wonder what to read next.

SUPERNATURAL SUMMARIES SUNDAY!

Dec. 5, 2010 Number 5

I am leaving this open through Monday!



 

SHARING Elven Economics 101An Analysis of Victorian Literature

Here is something from this month's Blogger Blogs of Note:The Economy of Elfland

Image via Wikipedia

Important, perhaps, for Steam Punks, where technology and the paranormal are part of the  Victorian era or where the Victorian Era is influenced  by technology and the paranormal this article looks a the scientific analysis over time of word use frequency. If you write or read steam punk this could be very useful:

Analyzing Literature by Words and Numbers    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/books/04victorian.html

Here is some scary info. This is probably an offshoot of the research I studied in college. Plus, for any writer or reader gives insight into the changes in culture and what you read or write. We don't often think of how trends (long-term and short) influence fiction, and often forget  the lessons of The Children's Hour*, Animal Farm, The Crucible and all the classics we leaned about in school. But, then, growing up during the Viet Nam era, discussing literature as a protest movement in a conservative climate was seditious. Then Jane Fonda went to Nam**, protest became patriotic as we all remembered Thoreau.

 There is already a algorithm that describes which songs will go gold, or whatever they go these days. There is a fear that research and modeling like this will result in the same for literature.

*If you have never read The Children's Hour or seen the movie with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacClaine , you should. Read this excellent review on Amazon by Gary Taylor.

** Of course there was much more to protest being seen as a patriotic rather than a seditious act.  First and foremost was the cost in lives and money of Viet Nam and the gradual realization that it was an action that could not be won. Also, the intellectual talent in this country, which held more sway then, spurred the protest on. After this period the intellectuals were painted as the East Coast left wing intelligentsia; a place where theories fester in "ivory towers."

Related articles

• Mechanical mustache envy (hackaday.com)
• Analyzing Literature by the Words, but Also the Numbers (nytimes.com)
• Steam (Punk)? (tor.com)

Halfway to the Grave  

Night Huntress Book One

Jeaniene Frost  http://jeanienefrost.com/

Kindle Edition

289 KB

HarperCollins e-books (October 30, 2007)

Sold by HarperCollins Publishers

Also Available as a Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages

Avon (October 30, 2007)

Several other formats available

Purchased

Read 12/1-12/2

Product Description

Flirting With The Grave…

Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father – the one responsible for ruining her mother’s life. Then she’s captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unlikely partnership.

In exchange for help finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She’s amazed she doesn’t end up as his dinner – are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn’t have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side … and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat. http://jeanienefrost.com/books/halfway-to-the-grave/

The first thing I want to say about this book is that it is an intelligently written and edited story and that it does not insult my intelligence.

It must be awfully hard to make fantasy characters as believable as the folks next door, but Frost does that.  Cat has some incredibly soul-felt internal dialogue and some of her situations; coming to grip with a mother who is, at best, difficult and who doesn’t accept her, trying to move out and get going on her own, falling in love and making tough decisions are heart-breaking. She also grows-up a lot in the course of this book.

Cat and Bones, Cat and Bones. For a while that was all I saw online (well, that and Sookie and Erik). They are a pretty great and compelling couple; right up there with Clare and Jamie Fraser. So, I am a convert. At the end I really wanted her to find a way to stay with him.

Cat’s family is a little bit 2-D, but, to Cat, at her age, they may be that way. And, I think Bones would have surely seen him in that light. Frost doesn’t bring in a bunch of extraneous characters. All the introduced characters are important to the progress.

Was the book “about something?” Did it have a message? I think it does have a message of accepting who you are and making the most of your abilities, at the same time, sticking to a bargain, admitting when you are wrong and that someone else may be able to teach you something. Those are all important parts in the maturation process of a woman Cat’s age. 

Pace, pretty good. I don’t recall thinking, “Will they get on with it already!?” I really enjoyed reading this book; it was interesting beyond the sex. I want to know what happens next.

Entertaining, readable, highly recommended.

New Affiliates

Aside from my affiliations with Ad Sense, Amazon (a fab form of instant gratification) and Cadsawan  Jewelry (inspired by Vampire Academy, True Blood, and things that go bump in the night), I now have several other affiliations as well:

Chronicle Books: A selection of distinctive books, gifts and stationery. 

Moo Cards: I love moo cards designs, and the quality of the graphics and the paper. I get the Moo mini cards and always feel I am getting much more than I pay for!  Business cards, stickers, note and greeting cards.

The Hip Chick: carries the clothes you see celebrities wearing. Very cool!

The ThinkGeek has fun, strange and useful objects everyone loves.

So please check out the items in my sidebar. If you were to click through and buy, I would receive a small commission.

I saltu ergo sum

It is truly amazing, every week there are blogs I haven't discovered yet. Seemingly an endless quantity,  we defy the laws of physics.

I hop therefore I am. (I saltu ergo sum).

Also, what great people bloggers are! Thanks Crazy for Books and the Parajunkee's View for hosting!

This Week Parajunkee features Icey Books and this question:

What do you do besides reading / reviewing as a hobby??

I volunteer in my community: sitting the board of a  charity providing opportunities for youth at risk, Web Site Administrate for my Junior League, do graphics, fund raise.

Take Pilates twice a week and do cardio at least four times a week.

Play with my cats

In the summer I work in my yard - I have a lot of perennials.I could be out there all day and never be done. 

Shop

I love to paint but with blogging, hopefully growing blogging into a business, who has time.  I love blogging; it is the most fun I have ever had "working."

Crazy-for-Books Book Blogger Hop

"What very popular and hyped book in the blogosphere did you NOT enjoy and how did you feel about posting your review?"

There are three I can remember: Two in a series I love and one in a series everyone else seems to love.  The latter was Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter and the former were  Undead and Unfinished by Mary Janice Davidson and Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris.

With Darkest Passion I thought, wow, everyone loves this but me. What is wrong with me?  With Undead and Unfinished and Dead in the Family, I was really disappointed because I had been waiting and waiting. That it failed to live up to my expectations was sad, and I have yet to find any other review that had the same impression of Undead and  Unfinished.

 Generally, I feel sad whenever I give a bad review. But, that is the job. Nothing is all roses.

Third Sentence Thursday/ Murphy's Library Contest Note

From Sniffly Kitty's Mostly Books

I'm starting up a new meme (hopefully it will catch on and become a meme anyway heh). The title was inspire by a post on Scalzi's Whatever Blog in which someone claims the third sentence in The God Engines is the worst ever. I thought it would be amusing to review third sentences in general and maybe some other fun things with third sentences.

So, this is how it will work this week:


1) Take the book you are reading now and post the third sentence
2) Review this sentence anyway you want (funny and silly reviews encouraged)
3) Post a link to your review at Sniffly Kitty's Mostly Books, or if you don't have a blog, just post it in the comments!
4) Prepare for next week:  Pick the funniest third sentence. 

 

Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1)

Well, HMMMM I am currently reading Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost.  The third sentence, technically, is "Hi." Not much to review there.

Expand it and it's "Hi. Something Wrong?" Which still doesn't give me much to go on.
Add the next and you have,
"Hi. Something wrong?" My tone was all innocence while I prayed there was nothing unusual about my eyes."
Finally! Something to work with.

In  this well written book the expanded third sentence really does give us a lot of hints about the book. This book is the first in a series (Night Huntress) so there is not to much we know about the characters or story line.

One, you know that someone has probably stopped her in some way. She could, of course, just be walking down the hall, but in the context of the surrounding sentences we realize she has been pulled over.

Since she makes a point of her tone being all innocence we know she is acting and that she is certainly not innocent. Right away you are going to wonder what she has done.
And, right away, because we are familiar with the genre, we suspect that she is not entirely human because  she, "...prayed there was nothing unusual about [her] eyes."
She could be were, vampire, dhampyre, whatever, because we don't know what they are doing. But, she is worried it will give something away, and a physical malady like being cross-eyed, or red from crying,  wouldn't really bear mention.

I am enjoying this book a lot and may have a review for it today or tomorrow.

Thanks Sniffly for hosting such a fun meme!!!!   Come by here on Sundays to play Supernatural Summaries!




Quick note about an exciting new contest at Murphy's Library. We who blog are always looking for ways to find out what the readers are thinking. Murphy's has figured out a new way. Check it out! http://www.murphyslibrary.com/?p=1600 So, if you read here you may have noted that I don't usually write up a contest in a post.  But this looks like such a fun idea that I decided to talk to you about it.  :-)

Total Eclipse

Have you ordered your Eclipse DVD, BluRay or BlueRay/DVD combo?



What are you waiting for? Yup, if you go through these links I make a bit of dough. a teeny tiny bit, but every little bit helps.

What did you learn in school today? Firespell and Hexbound

 
























I am really excited to tell you that one of my favorite writers, Chloe Neill, author of the Chicagoland Vampire Series and The Dark Elite series will be visiting Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust, on her HEXBOUND Blog Tour on December 10.  Hexbound is out on January 4.

FIRESPELL, Dark Elite 1

by Chloe Neill

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• File Size: 356 KB for Kindle Edition
• Publisher: Signet (January 5, 2010)
• Purchased Kindle Edition, 11/30, 
• Read 11/30 and 12/1

I just read Firespell. the first book in her Dark Elite series. It has a really novel premise and a well developed reality. The story has to be planned out because it moves swiftly and every sentence seems to assist in developing the character and relationships,or in advancing the story, building the world.  I found no lag and the story is clean! Oh, yeah, the parents are absent but not stupid.

The teenage characters are great. Chloe is really good at describing and living within the world. I could hear them talking and the dialogue is real even though, in some cases the situation is pretty unreal. I could feel how cold and unwelcoming the school felt. I think my own feet got cold reading about it. If we could just apply that cold to hot flashes it would be great! I would like to think that places like St. Sophia's were more progressive and less penal but I know enough people messed up by prep schools just like this to know they still exist!

After reading Firespell, I can't wait to read Hexbound. THere are lots of things happening right until the end of the book.If it were out in any format I would have my nose stuck in the book right now! When I read Chicago Land Vampires I got them one after the other.  In this series Cloe shows she can write for youths as well as she writes for an adult audience.

Do you have any questions about the Dark Elite series for Chloe? I would love to pass them on in the interview.  Just send them as a comment with your name and if you would like your website name and address to link it to. 

Jane, Jane, Jane

Jane Eyre is one of those stories where all the ghosts and mysterious paranormal events turn out to be the cold harsh realities of life. Granted reality in the Gothic romance tradition was not overly concerned with reality, more with hysteria. Looks well acted and produced.