lgbt Archives - The Y Logs

Yzabel / January 20, 2018

Review: Undercover Princess

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life.

Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty – a world filled with secrets, intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy Jamie, she’ll soon discover that reality doesn’t always have the happily ever after you’d expect…

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.]

There were good ideas in there, and I was fairly thrilled at first at the setting and prospects (a boarding school in England, hidden royals that looked like they’d be badass, etc.), but I must say that in the end, even though I read the novel in a rather short time and it didn’t fall from my hands, it was all sort of bland.

The writing itself was clunky, and while it did have good parts (the descriptions of the school, for instance, made the latter easy to picture), it was more telling, not showing most of the time. I’m usually not too regarding on that, I tend to judge first on plot and characters, and then only on style, but here I found it disruptive. For instance, the relationship between Ellie and Lottie has a few moments that border on the ‘what the hell’ quality: I could sense they were supposed to hint at possible romantic involvement (or at an evolution in that direction later), but the way they were described, it felt completely awkward (and not ‘teenage-girls-discovering-love’ cute/awkward).

The characters were mostly, well, bland. I feel it was partly tied to another problem I’ll mention later, namely that things occur too fast, so we had quite a few characters introduced, but not developed. Some of their actions didn’t make sense either, starting with Princess Eleanor Wolfson whose name undercover gets to be… Ellie Wolf? I’m surprised she wasn’t found out from day one, to be honest. Or the head of the house who catches the girls sneaking out at night and punishes them by offering them a cup of tea (there was no particular reason for her to be lenient towards them at the time, and if that was meant to hint at a further plot point, then we never reached that point in the novel).

(On that subject, I did however like the Ellie/Lottie friendship in general. It started in a rocky way, that at first made me wonder how come they went from antipathy to friendship in five minutes; however, considering the first-impression antipathy was mostly based on misunderstanding and a bit of a housework matter, it’s not like it made for great enmity reasons either, so friendship stemming from the misunderstanding didn’t seem so silly in hindsight. For some reason, too, the girls kind of made me think of ‘Utena’—probably because of the setting, and because Ellie is boyish and sometimes described as a prince rather than a princess.)

The story, in my opinion, suffers from both a case of ‘nothing happens’ and ‘too many things happen’. It played with several different plot directions: boarding school life; undercover princess trying to keep her secret while another girl tries to divert all attention on her as the official princess; prince (and potential romantic interest) showing up; mysterious boy (and potential romantic interest in a totally different way) showing up; the girls who may or may not be romantically involved in the future; trying to find out who’s leaving threatening messages; Binah’s little enigma, and the way it ties into the school’s history, and will that ever play a part or not; Anastacia and the others, and who among them leaked the rumour; going to Maradova; the summer ball; the villains and their motivations. *If* more time had been spent on these subplots, with more character development, I believe the whole result would’ve been more exciting. Yet at the same time all this gets crammed into the novel, there’s no real sense of urgency either, except in the last few chapters. That was a weird dichotomy to contend with.

Conclusion: 1.5 stars. I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be interested in reading the second book. I did like the vibes between Lottie and Ellie, though.

Yzabel / January 19, 2017

Review: When the Moon Was Ours

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and magical realism, but also has central LGBT themes—a transgender boy, the best friend he’s falling in love with, and both of them deciding how they want to define themselves.

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.

But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.]

Enchanting and full of diversity, although the flowery prose didn’t convince me.

The book opens on Miel and Sam, a skittish girl with roses growing out of her wrist, and a boy who doesn’t exactly know if he wants to be a boy or go back to being a girl. In itself, this was an interesting premise, as both characters were searching for their inner truth, all lthe while being surrounded by lies (or what they perceived at such): Miel’s memory—not exactly the most reliable; what Aracely, Miel’s adoptive guardian, knows and what she doesn’t say; Sam having to hide his body in everyday life; and the Bonner sisters, with their red hair and their mysterious ways, four girls acting as one, enchantresses ensnaring boys and wielding their own kind of power that always gets them what they want in the end.

There’s more magical realism than actual magic here, although Aracely’s ability to cure heartbreak, as well as her being a self-professed curandera, definitely hint at ‘witchcraft’. It’s more about the way things are shown and described, in the moons Sam paints and hangs outside people’s windows, in the roses growing out of Miel’s skin, in the rumoured stained glass coffin meant to make girls more beautiful, in how modern life and themes (immigrants in a small town, transgender teenagers, fear of rejection, or the practice of bacha posh, which I didn’t know about before reading this book…) intertwine with poetry and metaphor, with images of rebirth and growing up and accepting (or realising) who you’re meant to be. Not to mention racial diversity, instead of the usual ‘all main protagonists are whiter than white.’

To be honest, though, as much as the prose was beautiful at first, in the end it seemed like it was trying too much, and the story suffered from too many convoluted paragraphs and redundant descriptions & flashbacks. As it was, even though I liked this book in general, I found myself skimming in places that felt like déjà vu. Granted, it’s much more a character- than a plot-driven novel, but I’m convinced all the prose could’ve been toned down, and it would have remained beautiful without sometimes running in circles and drowning the plot now and then.

Conclusion: 2.5 stars.

Yzabel / May 14, 2016

Review: Falling in Love with Hominids

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, The Salt Roads, Sister Mine) is an internationally-beloved storyteller. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as having “an imagination that most of us would kill for,” her Afro-Caribbean, Canadian, and American influences shine in truly unique stories that are filled with striking imagery, unlikely beauty, and delightful strangeness.

In this long-awaited collection, Hopkinson continues to expand the boundaries of culture and imagination. Whether she is retelling The Tempest as a new Caribbean myth, filling a shopping mall with unfulfilled ghosts, or herding chickens that occasionally breathe fire, Hopkinson continues to create bold fiction that transcends boundaries and borders.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

To be honest, I had no idea who Nalo Hopkinson was until I requested this book. But I was definitely interested to read stories by an author who seemed to have an approach stemming from a different culture than mine. I didn’t know what to expect; I wasn’t disappointed.

This collection features stories inspired from various sources, situations and ideas—the author mentiones some of those before each story. Ghosts haunting a mall keep reliving their deaths. Plants that find an unusual soil to grow. Retellings of “The Tempest” and “Bluebeard”. A story set in Bordertown. Another one in a world ravaged by a strange epidemic, forcing children to band together until they all fall sick as well.

Urban fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, magical realism: Hopkinson weaves a lot of ideas in various settings, while never losing sight of human beings: their complexity, the depth of their feelings, all their doubts and ambiguities. A mother tries to make her teenage girl realise that “taming her hair” may amount to rejecting where she came from. Fairy beings, humans and “half-breeds” mingle in Bordertown, but do they all really accept each other? Beings preying at each other, feeding on each other, going through phases of desire and guilt, of doubt and acceptance. Beings with both monstrous and loving sides, displaying alien features yet also deeply human ones, like the girl turning into a dragon, but whose deep desire remains, all in all, to be accepted by others… her own self included.

Here are the stories I liked best in this anthology:

“The Easthound”: a children-oriented vision of a post-apocalyptic future, where everybody turns into a monster when they reach puberty. A band of kids doing their best to survive, knowing all too well, though, that sooner or later they’ll have to kill one of their own, lest it kills them first.

“Shift”: a retelling of “The Tempest”, with themes revolving around identity, underlying racism, unfulfillable desires, and relationships that may be doomed to fail as soon as they are born.

“Old Habits”: ghosts trapped in the mall where they died, forced to go through their own deaths again and again, pining at the smells they can’t perceive anymore.

“A Raggy Dog, a Shaggy Dog”: pretty creepy, in a fascinating way. A woman very well-versed in orchids has developed… interesting ways to find a partner.

“Blushing”: another retelling, this time of “Bluebeard”. We all know what the new bride is going to find in that room; how she will react, though, is always another matter.

“Ours Is The Prettiest”: I’ve never read any Bordertown stories, but I don’t think the lack of background here would prevent someone from enjoying this stories. On a backdrop of enchantments, celebrations and impending danger, a woman is trying to help those around her… but is she right in doing so, or only making things worse?

“Message in a Bottle” was good, too, though I felt it lacked something—probably that something is “being turned into a novel”.

Yzabel / February 8, 2016

Review: Luna: New Moon

Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

The scions of a falling house must navigate a world of corporate warfare to maintain their family’s status in the Moon’s vicious political atmosphere…

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations-the Five Dragons-in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation-Corta Helio-confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I’m definitely not a fan of present tense 3rd person narration, so it took me a while to finally get to this book. However, once I was immersed into the story, its plot unfurled and flew by quite fast, keeping me interested.

There’s corporate warfare, and strange politics based on contracts voluntarily built on loopholes to allow a way out. There are trials fought to death in gruesome duels, in a society full of glitz and glamour, of parties and fancy clothes, of heaps of money pitched against the utter poverty of those whose shallowest breath is still counted and charged, driving them more and more into depth. An exquisite blend of blinding limelights obfuscating ugly shadows, and of soft shadows trying to stand against a destructive light.

Quite a few characters evolve in this first part of the “Luna” duology. The list at the beginning kind of made me fear I wouldn’t find my way through them—and so, exerting the full strength of my usual spirit of contradiction, I decided not to read this list, to see if I could sort it out myself. Answer: yes, I could. Even though the language of this “new moon society” is full of terms borrowed from many cultures, the story still flowed in a way that let me understand who was who, who was married to whom, and who was doing what.

This same society is tremendously complex, old-fashioned and open at the same time. Alliances are drawn through arranged marriages, sometimes even between teenagers and adults fifteen years older than them (and wrapping one’s mind around that is quite a feat); those same alliances, though, don’t rest the least bit on traditional conventions. Men marry men if they like; some live in codified polyamory relationships; some decide to assume an identity based on neither femininity nor masculinity; some even go with pronouns related not to their gender but to their deeper self (especially the “wolves”: people influenced by the waxing and waning of the Earth). It’s good to see relationships going in varied ways, and I thought it fitted a future society whose defining norms were in part similar to those we know, and in part so different.

It’s, frankly, an overwhelming world, a microcosm full of its own self-aggrandised perception, dependent on Earth for some things, keeping Earth in a tight vise for others (Corta Hélio “lights Earth every day” through its helium-3 exports); as much open to it (“Jo Moonbeams” leave the blue planet on a very regular basis to come and work on the moon) as it is closed (moon people have basically two years before their bones become too brittle, and after that time, either they have to go back to Earth or decide to stay in space forever, since gravity would literally crush them). In a way, one novel—or two—isn’t enough to explore all this, and it was a bit frustrating: inwardly, I was screaming for more.

The cast of characters reflect this society. They are ruthless, they are fighters each in their own way: Ariel in the courts, Lucas through his schemes, Carlinhos with his bikers and his knives, Marina with her Earthian strength and will to find a job to support her family… Even Lucasinho, through his little teenage rebellion that however allows him to understand what finding allies truly means. They dance in their own world, wary of the other families yet drawn to them out of necessity, to play the game of alliances, of betrayal, of selling and getting information, of trying to reconcile their real feelings to the fact they cannot afford to show anything, lest they be seen as weak. And the intrigue: a slash here, a blow there, events piling up on each other now and then, until the finale. All under the failing eye of Adriana Corta, the Founder, the Matriarch, fearing her children would fight for the remains of House Corta, and trying to remain as hard as she used to be when, as a young woman, she set out to found her own dynasty, the Fifth Dragon.

(I like Adriana. I first discovered her in a short story, which made me jump on the novel when it was on NetGalley. Her own narrative, her confession, highlighted the story of the Cortas, of how they rose to power, of their allies… and of the enemies they made along the way.)

On the downside, I wasn’t too sold on the “reverse werewolf” idea: while interesting, it seemed to come out of nowhere (I was more interested in the other part of Wagner’s story, to be honest). But maybe it’ll play another part in the upcoming volume. There’s also a soap opera side to all these relationships and backstabbing and guessing who’s preparing what against whom, that was perhaps a bit “too much”. This said, since I still found myself rooting for some of the characters, and entrenched within the story, I am not going to complain: sometimes, “too much” is highly entertaining no matter what.

Conclusion: a few elements that I wasn’t convinced by, but a world and a plot I definitely want to see through in the second book.

Yzabel / December 30, 2015

Review: Mad About the Hatter

Mad About the Hatter by Dakota Chase

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

This isn’t his sister’s Wonderland….

Henry never believed his older sister, Alice’s, fantastic tales about the world down the rabbit hole. When he’s whisked away to the bizarre land, his best chance for escape is to ally himself with the person called the Mad Hatter. Hatter—an odd but strangely attractive fellow—just wants to avoid execution. If that means delivering “Boy Alice” to the Queen of Hearts at her Red Castle, Hatter will do what he has to do to stay alive. It doesn’t matter if Henry and Hatter find each other intolerable. They’re stuck with each other.

Along their journey, Henry and Hatter must confront what they’ve always accepted as truth. As dislike grows into tolerance and something like friendship, the young men see the chance for a closer relationship. But Wonderland is a dangerous place, and first they have to get away with their lives.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A slightly different take on Wonderland, with a highschooler character instead of a little girl, and with Alice (and her brother) as contemporary young people. Not the usual Wonderland, but why not? The world had that delicious, in a nonsensical, atmosphere, with its inner “logics” that appears silly at first, yet also holds its own explanation when you think about it. That’s something I had liked in Carroll’s story: how much “wonder” is in fact governed by its own rules, if you care to dig deeper and have a look at them.

However, this novel didn’t accomplish much in the end. It was more light-hearted than I had expected, and the dangers the characters had to face never felt really prominent. The Red Queen and her guards could’ve been much more of a threat, but never were. The action ended up being mostly Henry and Hatter wandering around (in dangerous areas that didn’t feel as wonderful and at the same time dangerous as they did in the original novel), with a thin enough plot, all things considered. A bit of a twist after the second third, sure… and that was all.

I didn’t care much for Henry either, who didn’t seem to have much of a personality, and looked more the pouting teenager on the verge of throwing tantrums (at least the Red Queen’s were to be expected). The mutual attraction between him and Hatter was cute, but… nothing more. Barely any character development here, and not the kind of relationship I thought I’d find here. It also hovered too much between actual romance and barely-touched-upon romance, which in turn made it a weird mix: either too much or not enough. As if, past some point, the novel couldn’t decide whether to take things further or not.

A few brain farts as well when it came to the writing style: at times emulating the original tale’s, at others much too close to spoken modern style. The clash between both wasn’t very pleasant.

Conclusion: cute, fluffy, and a nice read if you don’t want to think too much. While readable, it was nothing exceptional.

Yzabel / November 29, 2014

Review: The Dark Victorian: Risen

The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

“Way will open.”

She is Artifice.
A resurrected criminal and agent of HRH Prince Albert’s Secret Commission.
An artificial ghost.
A Quaker.

He is Jim Dastard.
The oldest surviving agent of the Secret Commission.
An animated skull.
A mentor to newly resurrected agents.

In a mechanical and supernatural London, agents of Prince Albert’s Secret Commission, their criminal pasts wiped from their memories, are resurrected to fight the eldritch evils that threaten England. Amidst this turmoil, Jim Dastard and his new partner Artifice must stop a re-animationist raising murderous dead children. As Art and Jim pursue their quarry, Art discovers clues about her past self, and through meeting various intriguing women—a journalist, a medium, a prostitute, and a mysterious woman in black—where her heart lies. Yet the question remains: What sort of criminal was she? A new beginning, a new identity, and new dangers await Art as she fights for the Secret Commission and for her second life.

Review:

(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This novel is quite a short one—too short, in fact, for the scope it seemed to want to reach. Maybe it’s a case of “first book in a series syndrome”. Anyway, I found the premise interesting, but kept wishing it went deeper into some of its aspects, and developed things more than it did.

The plot felt somewhat muddled, rushing in parts, not really going anywhere in others. I’m still wondering what exactly it was about. A reanimator, sure, and a gallery of other characters that looked like they were introduced for later use mostly, because while they helped with things like clothing, they didn’t really do more. But I didn’t exactly feel a sense of urgency, and it was as if some hints and links between events were thrown in, in a disjointed way.

The banter between Art and Jim was likeable at times, definitely weird at others, taking space that might have been better used for more scenes, more plot development. Art’s way of speaking was also rather quirky, the whole Quaker business leaving me perplexed: I didn’t understand to which degree it was relevant. She seemed like an interesting character enough as it was, with a lot of potential, without the need to add such quirks. Maybe reading the sequel would allow me to appreciate them more… or maybe not. I honestly can’t tell.

I would also have liked to know more about this organisation resurrecting criminals while wiping their memories. Not “more” in terms of secrets (every such organisation needs secrets, to be revealed later), but as in “a larger view of its agents”. Who else was involved? How does the Secret Commission operate, since everybody appears to know about it and either respect or fear their badges? There’s some potential here as well, and I’m positive it would have deserved more spotlight in this first installment. Just a few more agents walking around, to make me feel like Jim, Art and Fall weren’t the only ones.

Art’s leaning towards other women was also dealt with a little too strangely to my liking, in that the way it was revealed, the way it unfurled, felt wonky and jarring. It’s probably a pacing problem more than anything else, because I had the same feeling with other scenes, as mentioned above. However, it was also good to see it accepted by other characters as something that just happens, something that “is”. Though Jim makes a few quips about it, it’s in a friendly way, the same kind of way he comments about other situations.

I’m not sure I’d pick the next book. It’s more a 1.5* for me, leaning towards a 2, because there are intriguing elements about which I’d like to learn more, so you never know… But not if it’s as disjointed as in this one.

Yzabel / May 12, 2014

Review: Shadows & Dreams

Shadows & Dreams by Alexis Hall

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

My name’s Kate Kane. And right now, I don’t know which is more dangerous: my job, or my girlfriend. My job makes me the go-to girl for every supernatural mystery in London. My girlfriend’s an eight-hundred-year-old vampire prince. Honestly, I think it’s probably a tie.

A few weeks ago, I was hired for a simple missing person case. Next thing I know, I’m being arrested for murder, a vampire army is tearing up London, and even my dreams are out to get me. Something ancient, evil, and scary as hell is on the loose and looking for payback. The vampires are in chaos, the werewolves are culling everything, and the Witch Queen can’t protect everyone.

Which means it’s down to me. And all I’ve got to hold back the shadows is a stiff drink, a quirky sidekick, my creepy ex-boyfriend, and the woman who left me for a tech startup. It’s going to be another interesting day.

This title is #2 of the Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator series.

Review:

[I got an ARC of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I liked this one better than the first one. Partly because I already know the characters, but also, I think, because I found it less heavy on some of the things that had bothered me in the previous volume.

Characters, first. The reader will meet known ones again: Julian, Nimue, Ashriel, and get to know more about others (such as a Eve). Kate remains a fun point of view character, with a good dose of humour even in dire situations. She has a tendency to do things that aren’t exactly good for her, but at least she acknowledges it… even though it doesn’t prevent her from getting into dangerous situations. Elise plays a more important part, being here from the beginning, this time, and I must say she’s also a character I’ve taken quite a liking to. She’s discovering life as a normal human being (well, as normal as possible in the circumstances, that is), has an interesting way of speaking and apprehending the world, and I found that her becoming Kate’s assistant actually helped with furthering the plot. In “Iron & Velvet”, I sometimes felt that Kate stumbled upon information; Elise being tasked with finding information streamlines things a bit, and makes the investigation more believable in my opinion. Last but not least, Eve: she may seem bigger than life to some, but I found her geeky, Batman-wannabe side quite funny. And she gets the job done; no comic-relief useless sidekick on her part here.

There was less romance/erotica this time, and for me, it was for the best. I guess I’m used to the Kate-Julian relatioship now, so I wasn’t bothered by insta-love or anything similar. Owing to the plot, the two women didn’t spend as much time together, which wasn’t pleasant for them, sure, but also allowed less room for the sex scenes. (I don’t have anything against sex scenes, only they didn’t work for me in book 1, in part because of the weird similes often associated with them. So, yes, less of those here meant less clunky scenes in my opinion.) Although I still think Kate should learn to keep her dick in her pants, metaphorically speaking, she wasn’t as unfocused as previously, and therefore felt more believable as a PI.

I must admit that the Patrick/Sofia routine, while funny at first (with all the drama queen antics and the woe-is-me-I-totally-shape-the-world-to-my-beliefs attitude that clearly hints at bad emo stories), became a little tiresome after a while. I must’ve rolled my eyes as often as Kate did. But then, Patrick is an infuriating character, and one that is meant to serve as a comic relief.

The bit about the Vampire: the Requiem game made me smile. No irony lost here. It reminded me a bit of the RPG bit in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, and I wonder if this was intentional or not? On the other hand, I’m certainly not holding that against the author here, because it’s the kind of scene I like (and would probably write as well at some point).

Not the best book of 2014 for me, but definitely an improvement on the first one. I think I’ve warmed up to this world and characters.

Yzabel / April 22, 2014

Review: Iron & Velvet

Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

First rule in this line of business: don’t sleep with the client….

My name’s Kate Kane, and when an eight-hundred-year-old vampire prince came to me with a case, I should have told her no. But I’ve always been a sucker for a femme fatale.

It always goes the same way. You move too fast, you get in too deep, and before you know it, someone winds up dead. Last time it was my partner. This time it could be me. Yesterday a werewolf was murdered outside the Velvet, the night-time playground of one of the most powerful vampires in England. Now half the monsters in London are at each other’s throats, and the other half are trying to get in my pants. The Witch Queen will protect her own, the wolves are out for vengeance, and the vampires are out for, y’know, blood.

I’ve got a killer on the loose, a war on the horizon, and a scotch on the rocks. It’s going to be an interesting day.

Review:

A fun read in several ways. I quite liked the tone in general, as well as some of the characters. I think Elise remains my favourite, even though she doesn’t appear that much, and I can only side with Julian when she says, basically, that “very few people manage to give life to something inanimate, it’s a great feat of ancient, difficult magic… and most of the time, they use their creation as a sex toy.” But then, I’m always partial towards golems. And London, because I love this city. Blood magic and creepy fairies and a hive mind of rats. And there’s a Geat vampire prince. Seriously, how fucking cool is that?

However, after a while, some of the recurrent sass became a little, well, too recurrent—notably Kate’s “Huh” and her tendency to underline the crappy situations in which she put herself in (“Here lies Kate Kane, blah blah. Beloved daughter. Sorely missed.”). She didn’t strike me as a good investigator, spending too much time running here and there grasping at straws, too easily distracted, and I felt that the lead she needed rested too much on happenstance, and was made for plot convenience, rather than something a talented investigator could deduce (or maybe she should have deduced it, considering her origins?). At times I wanted to bang my head and call a too stupid to live on her.

I really didn’t connect with the Kate/Julian relationship. I do get lust, physical attraction, spur-of-the-moment desire, but I tend to find it hard to believe when it turns into strong ties in barely a few days. Certainly not when 800-year-old immortals are concerned (I’d expect them to be more jaded about that). The “sweeting” bit got on my nerves pretty quickly—but I have a hard time with pet names in general. Also, every other female wanted to do Kate, or had been her girlfriend, it seems, and this is treading too much into Mary Sue territory to my liking. As for the sex scenes, they weren’t so exciting—too much purple prose and weird metaphors (“She lay underneath me like an unexploded grenade”… How to put it… Uhm, no?).

I still don’t know if the hints at other stories (Patrick, for instance) are intentional, winks, or lack of inspiration. They’re fun, in a way, but… I don’t know.

2 or 2.5 stars, not sure. I can’t say I disliked this novel, because it does contain elements that make me go squee; however, I can’t say I loved it either.

Yzabel / November 21, 2012

Review: One Last Lie

One Last Lie by Rob Kaufman

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Philip and Jonathan have had the perfect life together for ten years – fulfilling every dream except that of having a child. Along comes Angela, Philip’s college friend who apparently conquered her old demons of obesity and manic-depression.

After reacquainting and becoming good friends, the three decide to have a child together through artificial insemination of Jonathan’s sperm.

From that point, Philip and Jonathan’s idyllic life begins to unravel. Angela’s mask of deceit gradually slips as her pregnancy awakens psychological and physical problems, leaving Philip and Jonathan regretting ever allowing her into their lives.

Told from an elderly Jonathan’s hospital bed, Angela’s tangled web unwinds into heartbreak, deception, legal battles, and finally murder – with a surprise ending no one could have ever imagined.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #436 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book proved a little hard for me to read, because I kept on wishing well to the two main male characters, since they were so sweet… yet I knew from the beginning that it couldn’t end well for them, and so, as odd as it may sound, I sometimes found it hard to go on reading. By not reading, I’d delay the unavoidable.

I so enjoyed the relationship between Philip and Jonathan; it had a caring, vibrant dynamics, and they looked and felt to me like people who’d really deserve to be happy, especially after a first scare (Philip’s cancer, that left him sterile–this isn’t really a spoiler, you learn it pretty early in the book). The love between these two men was strong, almost tangible. They were characters I ended up caring about deeply, and this isn’t something that happens too often with me. I kept wanting to tell them “guys, there’s really something wrong with that Angela woman, get the hell away from her, like, fast!” (Angela, yes, I couldn’t stand. Not because she had issues, but because it seemed to me that even with those issues under control, she was still, deep at heart, a cold, manipulative personality who only cared about herself, and was ready to go to many lengths, through many lies, to get what she wanted.)

If there’s one thing I regret, it’s that the story was predictable enough to me. Half into the novel, perhaps a little earlier than that, even, I figured out most of what was going to happen; as I went on reading, I didn’t want to see my suspicions confirmed, and alas, they were. But in the end, it doesn’t matter: predictable or not, this book remains strong anyway for its characters, for the relationships that tie (and separate) them, for the intense feelings that go through it.

Yzabel / November 7, 2012

Review: Tales The Wind Told Me

Tales the Wind Told Me by Rachel Eliason

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

A collection of imaginative tales of myth and magic. Enter a world where a woman must seek her sleeping beauty, a girl must dance with death and trolls walk the streets of Des Moines, Iowa. This is the world of Rachel Eliason, where myth and magic are interwoven with everyday life. It is a place of far flung science fiction and imaginative prose. Aliens manipulate their DNA to create the ultimate caste system, corporations conspire to make you fat and just this once, the sissy gets to be the hero.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #52 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This collection of short stories I found particularly enjoyable, focusing as it did around two sets of themes that were both explored in interesting ways: folklore and tales (trolls, the Boondangle spirit, Sleeping Beauty…), and LGBT-related issues (which would definitely deserve to be ‘advertised’ more, because they’re part of the book’s strong points). The author’s own evolution is reflected in those stories, and what’s at stake in them is carried in ways that seem just natural—in the open, but also with a certain subtlety that makes them flow.

As usual with short stories, every reader has his/her favourite ones. I definitely liked the “Troll stories” a lot, for the way they integrate myths and changeling creatures into urban everyday life. “Dancing with Death” was really poignant, and a beautiful lesson about how to accept death, leaving your beloved ones with dignified memories of yourself. “The Boondangle” had me reflect on quite a few things, especially how we may think we have accepted parts of ourselves that we actually dread, and how easy—yet also damageable—it would be if those were to be taken away from us. Finally, “Gemone” was a wonderful story that definitely holds potential for more, for being even turned into a novel, in terms of plot, world building, characters and thoughts; the society developed in it was, simply put, fascinating.

As for editing matters: I noticed a few typos and editing issues here and there; the only one that bothered me was in “Gemone”, with a tense shift whose role I didn’t understand (either it’s just me, or it was remnants of an original version written in the present tense?).