Lessons in French, and Also Getting Back in the Groove

And so I ease back into the swing of the blog writing.

Having finished one book and reading another in its entirety over the weekend, I finally feel like I'm at a point where I can, you know... write about books again. Sorry it's been so long, but with the Festival-ing and the driving, I honestly had not finished a new book before this weekend. And now I'm going to write about it. Woot.

But first a digression (try not to be shocked):

Dear Nicholas Sparks,
No, your books are not "romance novels." They're the stories romance editors dismissed as being too repetitive and trite. You sir, are the heir to the Danielle Steel throne. Got it?

Kbye.

(those wondering wtf I'm talking about should visit http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-03-11-lastsong11_CV_N.htm)

Moving swiftly onward.

Oh oh oh! Speaking of the opposite of Nicholas Sparks, the book that I finished this weekend (as opposed to the one that I read in its entirety) was Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale.

WAYS IN WHICH THIS BOOK IS EXCELLENT (unlike Nicholas Sparks' books):

1. The heroine was not stunningly beautiful, as acknowledged by just about everyone in the book, including the hero, who nevertheless was madly in love with her.

2. The heroine had a quirky habit (obviously), but it was animal husbandry, which was both realistic for the time and her life-station. Not to mention that Hubert the Bull needs his own sequel.

3. The hero was damaged, but not in such a way that he behaved like a complete douchebag toward the heroine. In fact, despite his damage, he is a totally cool and adventuresome dude.

4. The hero tells the heroine he loves her well before the halfway point of the story, and lo! The L word does not in any way solve any of the problems besetting our characters, nor does it make them particularly mopey and naval-gazey

5. The hero has a badass mother who is one of the best new characters I've read since Nucking Futs Nix. And that's saying something.

6. The story ends a little conveniently, but there's still a nice little zinger in the epilogue to make things go out with a bang.

So, let's review:

Laura Kinsale, widely acknowledged to be one of the best living romance novelists, wrote a novel that, while reportedly not her best, was still far superior to anything Nicholas Sparks has ever written. Awesome.

Tomorrow: The Book I Read In Its Entirety Over the Weekend (or) Why My Boyfriend Is The Best.

Excited much?

Dear Kate:

You are an inspiration!I am humbled. While you manage to get your WriMo ass moving, I am stuck in readers paradise. I got the latest JD Robb book in the mail yesterday. As if WriMo wasn't difficult enough, now I have to share my writing time with my reading time (and I even started knitting again!)! Yowza!

Okay, so I read those Tessa Dare books that you made me read - and then I mailed the latest one to you. Thanks for the push. I did enjoy them and they were very easy and comfortable reads. Like wearing old slippers with new soles. The characters were fresh, the heroes believable (if a bit dominating) and the heroines were not too prissy!

Now I have to get into my Eve Dallas mindset. Ready to absorb the intricacies of being a famous NYC cop of the future, married to the richest man in the known universe. Your grandfather is already asking me if I have finished it... we soak them up! Will get back to you, when I have finished, to let you know what I thought!

Hugs and kisses, Wendy Pan

National Novel Writing Month (OR: Why I Might Be Writing Nonsense in this Blog for a While)

So National Novel Writing Month has started once again, and once again I am testing my sanity (and creative abilities) to see if I can write 50,000 words in a month.

So far, I'm 1/25 of the way through, and I'm feeling pretty good. But ask me about it again in a week.

I'm working with an idea I started toying with last year at about this same time; I remember it really coming together on the ride from San Diego to San Francisco to see my cousin for Thanksgiving. I honestly haven't given it much thought since then, and 2,000 words in, it's already very different from what I originally had planned. We'll see what happens.

In the spirit of the paranormal age, I'm aiming for something with a paranormal bent, but grounded in the real world. Should be fun, right? Yeah, well we'll see.

I might need to use this as a forum to write through some ideas and philosophies, so be ready. There's a lot more rambling to come.

Discussion- Deep Kiss of Winter (Just the Kresley Cole one)

When I say I have been waiting over a year and a half for this book, it is not in any way shape or form an exaggeration. This book (story?) was supposed to come out in January 2008, and I definitely had it pre-ordered before that. Publishing snafu, publishing snafu, publishing snafu...

Here we are.

There is an inherent problem in releasing this book so late: it takes place straddling all of the books that have come out in the interim (there are four of them!) which makes it occasionally confusing. Actually, it pretty much straddles all of the books in the series.

Which makes it feel way behind the times.

I refuse to blame the author-- I don't think this is the order in which she would have chosen to release them. But when the heroine, Danii, "passes by" Emmaline's room at Val Hall it's jarring-- in real time, Emma's book came out in the Fall of 2006. In other words, in my head, she's already been out of Val Hall for over three years.

But this is neither here nor there. Danii and Murdoch's book has really been in the wings since Dark Needs at Night's Edge, Conrad Wroth's book, when we really get to know Murdoch and realize that he has indeed been blooded. We just don't know whowhatwhenwhyhow. In terms of the story, I wish a lot of the interpersonal conflict had been minimized-- it's bad enough that she's ice fey and they can't touch, do we really need his commitment issues, too?-- on the other hand, with so many paranormal peeps running around and hook-line-and-sinkering for their "fated one" in 2.5 seconds, it's nice to see a more realistic take. Go on, soak up the irony. I'll wait.

Now, a word about the series as a whole: I'm nervous. In the beginning, Cole all but presented a list of the people who were going to have their own books, and those numbers are rapidly dwindling. In fact, with the release of Garreth and Lucia's book in January, we've officially run down the roster. I can see a book for Kristoff in the future (maybe with one of the Wroth sisters once they're brought forth?) but I have a serious concern that she's going to start making people up for the sake of giving them books. I love all of the people in these stories, and I'm not sure I care about any other peripheral characters enough to want their stories too.

Regin would be a disaster.

Nix is too crazy to settle down.

The demon mercenaries are too generic. (I might make an exception for Desh... maybe)

I don't want a story set in Icegard, so there goes the dude Danii just handed her crown to.

And this is problematic, because for all of these books, the Accession has been looming, and right now it hasn't even started yet. I'm not sure exactly who the bad guys are (the split Horde?), and it does seem that everyone is on the same side at this point. So... where's the battle? And are we going to get to see all of our favorite badass characters on the front line? (Personally, I would pay good money for a second Conrad and Neomi book. They would rock the socks off the front line.)

I have implicit trust in Kresley Cole-- she's only delivered what I would consider to be two lackluster books, and I can blame myself for that opinion. The first one was never going to live up to my expectations, and the second one I really didn't care about the character. So for the moment I'm going to be thankful to have finally read Danii and Murdoch's story, and I am going to get pumped for Garreth and Lucia. Because I do love me some Lykae in the morning.

On Behalf of a Friend...

We read this.

And so we help, by mentioning a new phenomenon: chachbag.

Thanks for playing.

Review- Tempt Me At Twilight

It's taken me a while to write this review, much in the same way it took me a while to actually read the latest entry in Lisa Kleypas' historical collection.

Confession time: As much as I adore Kleypas' new foray into contemporaries, I have found her historicals of late to be hit-or-miss. I haven't read all of the Hathaways, but I enjoyed Win's book (who wouldn't with an uber-hunk like Merripen?) and I am very, very much looking forward to Leo's book, especially with this cliffhanger. But more on that later.

In the way that Goddess of the Hunt took historical romance standards and kept them fresh, Tempt Me At Twilight comes dangerously close to retreading old territory. Poppy Hathaway is madly in love with a man who is keeping their relationship on the DL until he can find the right time to break the news to his father. You see, the Hathaways, even in "this day in age" are considered new money and not nearly haut-ton enough for some.

Enter ubersexydangerous hotelier Harry Rutledge who takes one look (well, maybe two) at Poppy and decides he has to have her. He ruins the relationship, compromises Poppy, and has her at the altar almost before she can blink.

Unfortunately the newlyweds don't have any time for happiness before she finds out what he's done-- in fact, her beau shows up before the ceremony to unmask Rutledge's dastardly deeds-- and a seemingly endless amount of time is spent before she decides to get over it and he decides to apologize and try to be an acceptable human being.

It's strange how Rutledge goes from ruthless collector (there's really no other word for it) to hopelessly in love with the heroine. Sure she's charming and lovely and why wouldn't he? But things turn around for both of them a bit abruptly. And I'm sorry, but the kidnapping incident at the end can be described as nothing but an obvious attempt to reinforce the reconciliation. The person who is kidnapped and the person who did it don't even make that much sense in terms of story relevance.

Now, a moment: In the past two books, there has been a sparky interaction tinged with inevitability between Leo Hathaway (de facto pater familias) and Poppy and Beatrix's chaperone, Miss Marks. Heaps of progress was made between the two in this book -- she's not so plain when you look closely! she's an actual human being, not a dragon lady!-- that can only mean that the next book is theirs. I would have been happy enough with their progress had the last paragraphs of the book not had Leo tracking Marks through Ramsay House to corner her:

"Struggling for self-discipline, Leo took a deep, steadying breath. 'Cat... we have to talk about what happened.'"

WHAT HAPPENED?? Because I officially can't wait to find out.

Rating:
Plot- .5 (done done done done done)
Characters- 1 (even with main character inconsistency, it was nice to see everyone again)
Sex- 1 (standard, hot Kleypas)
Style- .75
Consumption- .75 (sorry, but it took me a while to jump in)

TOTAL: 4

Review- Goddess of the Hunt

It's got to be hard, at this point, to come up with a fresh idea for a historical romance novel. It's the oldest sub-genre within the genre, and there is only so much one can do with Medieval castles, pirates, and Regency ballrooms.

So what's to be done? Take the familiar things and make them better, fresher, and seriously improved.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Tessa Dare, and Goddess of the Hunt.

No, it's not an original story: Jeremy falls for Lucy, his best friend's sister, after she tries to seduce him as "practice" for another one of their friends. Following? Naturally the Jeremy and Lucy are caught in a compromising position, and even though they both want to be together, conflicts arise to keep them unhappy in the early stages of their marriage. Something Happens, they are reunited, HEA and offspring ensue.

Sounds familiar, yeah? (Note: If it doesn't sound familiar, either A. you have never read a historical romance novel or B. I did a terrible job of explaining. You make the call)

The difference between Goddess of the Hunt and every other book with this plotline lies in the writing and delivery. First of all, most of the story is from his perspective, as opposed to her swoony and annoying one. He's a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal to be sure, but he never hauls off and assumes she's a slut; in fact, he never gets more than seethingly jealous whenever Lucy mentions his friend.

It would have been so easy for Dare to make Jeremy a stereotype: there is one point in particular when Lucy is left alone with the friend, that is a clear demarcation between the novels of yore and the novels of... nore. Twenty years ago Jeremy would have assumed that Lucy and Toby had slept together, then he would have slept with her (read: raped her) out of anger, only to discover her virginity intact after it was too late. Then he would have left out of guilt, and they would have spent the whole book apart recovering from their own mis-assumptions.

There is a minor instance of mis-assuming, but it's not dire, and is more-or-less acceptable. It's resolved in a reasonable time for us to enjoy our hero and heroine together, and lets us have some fun make-up sex.

Surrender of a Siren is the next book in the series (its heroine is the irresistably charming Lady Sophia), and I can't wait.

Rating:
Plot- 1 (it's been done, but rarely so well)
Characters- 1- (Loved everyone, but Lucy was occasionally annoying)
Sex- 1 (Hot. No other word for it)
Style- 1
Consumption- 1

TOTAL- 5-