Meljean Brook

Do any others have a June 24 release? I know there are a ton more coming out July 1st. *whimpers*

I talked about this last year, and listed a few of my favorite (paranormal) novellas — the kind of novella that I loved so much, I’d have bought the anthology just for that, and thought it was worth the money. They were:

• “Fairies Make Wishes, Too” by Maggie Shayne — in A SPRINKLE OF FAIRY DUST (like a fairy Little Mermaid)
• “Everything She Does Is Magick” by Maggie Shayne — in BEWITCHED (Virgin Hero would have sold me on this, anyway)
• “A Dream of Stone and Shadow” by Marjorie M. Liu — DARK DREAMERS (read this one recently; the voices are incredible. *happy sigh*)
• “Roarke’s Prisoner” by Angela Knight in SECRETS VOL. 2 (I remember thinking: shit. this is what I want to be writing.)
• “Love’s Prisoner” by MaryJanice Davidson in SECRETS VOL. 6 (The elevator scene isn’t for everyone, but works for me.)
• “The Nekkid Truth” by Nicole Camden in BIG GUNS OUT OF UNIFORM (and it’s even in first person, which I’m usually kind of squiggy about in romances)
• “The Night Owl” by Emma Holly in HOT BLOODED (the hero is just…yeah. And the heroine, too. But it’s so sweet how he’s tongue-tied around her. Awwww.)
• “Dark Journey” by Anne Stuart in STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT — about Death, and a little holiday that he takes.

Since then, I’d add to the list with Patricia Briggs’s “Alpha and Omega” in ON THE PROWL and Kresley Cole’s “The Warlord Wants Forever” in PLAYING EASY TO GET, Nalini Singh’s “Beat of Temptation” in AN ENCHANTED SEASON … okay, and I know there are others, but my memory is not-so-good, and I sucketh at the record-keeping. (Also, I haven’t read as much in the past year as in previous years. The anthologies in my TBR pile are almost as high as the single-titles.)

So are there any out there that you think are worth the price of the entire anthology? I’ve listed paranormals only here (I fudged a little on “The Nekkid Truth”) but I should also compile a list of my favorite contemporary and historical novellas at some point — but feel free to mention novellas in any genre.

…excuse me while I bawl like a baby. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Story of a Mother, illustrated here at scans_daily. The artwork alone is worth a look.

Echo, don’t read this. Really.

First — I just noticed that Anne Bishop has the cover up for THE SHADOW QUEEN. w00t! There are no words for how much I’m looking forward to this book. There’s already a sequel planned, so I’m hoping that it will have the same kind of sweeping, epic-ish story that the original trilogy did. But even if it’s only the scope of THE INVISIBLE RING, I’ll be happy.

One of the problems that I have with the BJT is that I loved it so much.  It’s very difficult for Bishop’s work to live up to my hopes (but I think this is a danger that every author runs — there will be the one book that is just IT, and you hope to recapture that feeling with every book. But I don’t know if any author can hit it out of the ballpark every single time. Now, there are authors that are consistently good or even fantastic, and they always deliver a solid read even if it doesn’t get you right in the gut — and Bishop is one of those authors for me. I’m never sorry I read her work, even if not all of it has that special thing that made the BJT a yearly re-read.)

Case in point: TANGLED WEBS. Here’s the description:

The invitation was signed Jaenelle Angelline, she who had been both Witch and Queen.

It summons her family to an entertainment she has specially prepared. Surreal SaDiablo, the former courtesan and assassin, is the first to arrive. But as she and her escort enter the house, the door disappears. Surreal finds herself trapped in a nightmare created by the tangled webs of Black Widow witches…a nightmare where the monsters are all too real, and if she uses Craft to defend herself, she risks being sealed in the house forever.

But Jaenelle did not send the invitation.

Now, Jaenelle and her family must rescue Surreal and the others inside without becoming trapped themselves—and they also must discover who created such an evil place, and why. Because there is one thing they all know about this house: no matter who planned it as a way to kill members of the SaDiablo family, only one of the Blood could have created the trap…

Like the Jaenelle and Daemon novella in DREAMS MADE FLESH, this book takes place after the events of the BJT. And like DREAMS MADE FLESH, I enjoyed Lucivar’s portion of the story the best.

The problem with these two stories is — as many have noted before me — that after the huge conflict in the BJT and villains like Hekatah and Dorothea, the antagonists aren’t as … well, don’t quite measure up. So I do think it was a good idea  to put Surreal and her Warlord in physical danger, rather than trapping the big guns inside, and to make the challenges that Daemon and Lucivar face more internal than physical.

Despite the lack of huge conflict, I enjoyed this quite a bit. I would have liked just revisiting the characters, but Bishop managed to include them and to expand her world a bit. Or, perhaps, deepen it. For example, showing the role of the landens vs. the Blood, and Saetan’s concern about Jaenelle’s haunted house.  Daemon’s worry that he’s lost his edge. Of the original three primary male characters, though, I felt that Lucivar was filled out the most, and I especially liked how the different manner in which he saw the world — and the uncertainty that brings him early on in the story — plays into the haunted house plot.

And I really enjoy the family/friendship dynamics in this series. These characters are family, and you can feel it. So this book ended up being a nice return to the BJT world, even if it wasn’t as an incredible one. Also, it included one of my favorite lines of the year so far, when Lucivar walks into the haunted house. There was some writer-envy and hate going on from me, because it was one of those, “Oh, damn! I wish I’d written that!” moments.

So overall, I liked it — I don’t think I’d recommend it to someone who wasn’t familiar with the BJT world, though. There is a plot and a fun storyline, but I don’t know if characters like Daemon or Jaenelle would seem all tell and not-much-show, unless a reader knew what they were capable of doing.

BELLADONNA wasn’t as successful for me. I’m always amazed by Bishop’s world-building, but in this book, I never felt I got a tangible grasp on the world (heh, and the world is called Ephemera.) And because I couldn’t visualize it as well as I did the BJT, I struggled in a few places.

This is the second book in the duology (the first book is SEBASTIAN, which I talked about way, way back when). And it’s not that it isn’t a solid story; it is. But I was confused more than once (and I don’t think I forgot that much about SEBASTIAN) and I didn’t feel the romantic tension between the leads. The big thing, though, was that in this book, the family scenes kind of made me grit my teeth. Maybe it’s because I don’t know these characters as well? I’m not sure (and this isn’t just BELLADONNA; I also have problems in, say, an NR book with family scenes if there are characters from previous books that I don’t know. But I don’t with Robb, so I really, really think it is my familiarity that’s an issue when it comes to family dynamics in books. An ‘it’s not you it’s me’ thing.)

And I liked how the plot played out, the sacrifice and the resolution; but, maybe because of my confusion (hee hee, I know! I know! Pot meet kettle) it felt like it took extra long to get there. But still, Bishop is a fantastic writer and I don’t regret reading it at all — but I would not recommend starting here (or a two year break between the books). You would want to read SEBASTIAN first (and it is definitely fantasy, though, and not nearly as dark as the BJT — there is a romantic thread (and it’s stronger in the first book) but could not be labeled a paranormal/fantasy romance.)

In Sebastian, national bestselling and award-winning author Anne Bishop introduced a stunning new realm, a world of strange and magical landscapes connected only by bridges – bridges that may transport you where you truly belong, rather than where you wished to go. But only the magic of the Landscapers can protect this world from the entity determined to enshroud it in darkness…

One by one, the landscapes of Ephemera are falling into shadow. The Eater of the World is spreading its influence, tainting people’s souls with doubts and fears, and feasting on their dark emotions. With each victory, the Eater comes closer to extinguishing Ephemera’s Light.

Only Glorianna Belladonna possesses the ability to thwart the Eater’s plans. But she has been branded a rogue, her talents and vast power feared and misunderstood. Determined to protect the lands under her care, Glorianna will stand alone against the Eater if she must – regardless of the cost to her body and soul.

But she is not alone. In dreams, a call has traveled throughout Ephemera: “Heart’s hope lies within Belladonna.” That call has traveled far from the landscapes Glorianna claims and reached Michael, a man with mysterious powers of his own. It awakens a fierce hunger within him to find the dark-haired sorceress he’s dreamt of, over and over again – a beautiful woman named Belladonna.

As Michael and Glorianna’s hearts call out to each other across the Landscapes, together they may offer Ephemera the very hope it needs…

Okay, okay. So it’s been a while since I said I was finishing Through the Veil and for a while I was thinking, OMG, it’s taking me a long time to get into this book, which isn’t usually the case with Shiloh Walker’s books (usually I can fall right into them) but here’s what happened: I’m retarded and lazy.

I got an advance e-copy of this book and I was massively excited to read it because — well, the blurb and the excerpts I’ve read hooked me. So I started it … but kept having trouble staying with it. Usually, I print off an e-book so that I can go relax with it in the sofa (or my car, where most of my reading is done) but I used up my last ream of paper printing off my revision manuscript and was too lazy to go buy another just yet.

Here is what I have realized about myself: I have trained myself too well (and guilted myself too well). When I sit at the computer, it’s either for writing or editing. So I’d get antsy and Alt+Tab to my revisions or the novella I’m writing instead of reading.

So, what do I do? Go get paper? An e-book reader? Nope (although my birthday is coming up, and I think one is going on my list). I went and bought the book this weekend (because it’s out now) and settled into it.  And … yep, much easier, and I tore through it in a single evening.

Not that you don’t have to pay attention, because you do. In the first chapters I’m still familiarizing myself with the world Shiloh has created, and it’s a multi-layered one with different realms and caste structures, and types of demons. There’s our world (where the heroine, Lee, starts out), the realm of Ishtan (which I wanted to call Ishtar, because I’m re-reading the Epic of Gilgamesh) where the hero Kalen lives and leads the resistance against the forces of Anqar. There’s magic and technology in an interesting mix, but a mix that makes sense — the warriors live in tents and don’t use their tech for good reasons, and I really, really appreciated that it wasn’t barbarians with phazors. It’s fully realized, with reasons for how they live, where they live, how they fight. And the Warlords have their own, different reasons for fighting, and the politics there and the machinations are dependent on individual characters. No hive minds here, but many different motives. There’s a lot to absorb, in other words, but — because Lee is thrust into the world just as we are — it’s not hard to follow along.

Lee herself is a mystery — I won’t give anything away, but there is a real question as to who she is, and how she’s been crossing the Veil in her dreams for so many years. I really enjoyed how that played out, particularly a few of the characters and their roles (gah! so hard to avoid spoilers). The story takes a few unexpected turns, and there were a few points where I was whacking my head and thinking, “Don’t do that, Lee!” but then I’m happily surprised when she doesn’t go where I thought she was going. (I love being proved wrong and surprised )

On the fantasy romance slide, I do think this leans slightly more toward fantasy — not that there isn’t a core relationship that develops and Shiloh’s trademark wayhawt scenes, because there is. But the setting is a warrior’s setting, so there isn’t much of the softer side of it (which wouldn’t be realistic anyway — there is a lot of death in this story, so anything romantic in the flowers and perfume sense would just feel wrong). And the hero is part of the reason for that; he’s solid and steadfast (and you can feel how torn he is by what the war is doing to his world, and his people) and he’s been waiting for Lee all his life. And because their romance is so tied up with Lee accepting and knowing the world around them, the romance itself is much more tightly entwined with the fantasy aspects than I usually see in paranormal romance (hence the weight on the fantasy side.)

So now I’m wondering — is there going to be a sequel? Because the world built here has a LOT more that I think could be explored, and I’m interested in a couple of characters in particular. No spoilers, but — one who wore a mask and also two on the other side of the Gate, who we don’t meet, but who have a connection to Lee (and, it seems, a reason to come looking for her).

If so, count me in Here’s the blurb, and there’s more info at Shiloh’s site (ooooh, and a Mrs. Giggles review!)

Found wandering in a field as a child, Lee Ross was given a name by the state and put in a foster home—without anyone realizing she wasn’t entirely human. All her life, she’s tried to forget the odd dreams that have plagued her, of monsters creeping through the night and a man fighting demons by her side. But the bruises she wakes with are all too real to ignore…

Then the man from her dreams appears—in the flesh. His name is Kalen—and he insists that her destiny lies in his world, the world of her dreams. To save their people, he must convince Lee to give up everything she knows, follow her heart, and cross over into the Under Realm—even though once she does, she’ll never be able to return…

From Whedonesque:

Steven Brust’s Firefly novel now online.

“My Own Kind of Freedom,” the Firefly book Steven Brust wrote as a proposal for a tie-in Serenity novel back in 2005, has finally been released as fanfic. Really, really good fanfic.

*Note: Joss Whedon doesn’t mind this kind of stuff, and loves fan participation. So go, read, if it interests you.

Reason?

Though it was labeled a paranormal romance, the h/h were apart at the end of the book. I’ll read it, because now that I know how it’ll end I won’t be disappointed — and she said that otherwise, it was a fantastic book. Just that she was looking forward to seeing how they overcame everything and ended up together. So what might have been a really great read for her was pretty much ruined at the end because of the expectation created by the labeling (and fifteen years of reading romance). Sigh.

There was apparently an epilogue, though — and a baby. I guess that’s supposed to make up for the fact that the h/h won’t be together until after she dies.

An unconventional HEA (in that they aren’t together until LONG after the book ends?) Yes. But is it happy if they’re apart? I just don’t know. I don’t see how it’s much different from a human character dying at the end, and the other saying, “Oh, but we’ll be together in Heaven.” That just doesn’t work for me as a romance … but it might work for me just as a love story.

If you want to know what book it is, click here (and Megan did say it was a really good book, so it might be worth it, as long as you know going in). If you’re a reader who doesn’t mind that kind of ending in a romance, don’t click so it won’t spoil the surprise.

In other news, I was stuck at a gathering that I didn’t want to be at, so I took (and read) the novelization of 30 Days of Night. And cried at the end. The book freaked me out, too. It’s not the same as the graphic novel (how awesome is that?) but still a good before-bedtime read. I’m going to look for Tim Lebbon’s other horror work now, because I’m in that kind of mood.

Gah, back to work on stuff that I’m really supposed to be doing.

It’s probably odd that I’m sticking these two books in the same post, because they aren’t much alike, except that they are both wonderfully written, and that they’re the type of books that stick in your ribs and in your head, and there’s a hell of a lot to love about both.

First, Soul Song — I love Marjorie Liu’s writing, it’s smooth and gorgeous and has wonderful depth, lyrical prose … yeah, okay, I’m a fangirl. I think I remember reading that this book was originally going to be a novella, the novella in Dark Dreamers, and I’m glad it’s not for two reasons: I love love love “A Dream of Stone and Shadow” from that anthology, and its dark-fairy-tale flavor, and Soul Song has that same flavor, but is longer, which makes me a very, very, very happy reader. It’s not quite like the other books in her Dirk & Steele series (although characters from those novels do make appearances) in that it’s not so much about the agency and the different conspiracies and groups that they are fighting, but it does open up a little more the darkness underlying the world they all inhabit. It’s not different in that there’s magic and superpowers and and violence and fantastic characters and bad guys and witches and romance and not everything is as it seems.

And this is one of those books that, when I close, I think: goddammit, I wish I had written that, because it’s flippin’ fantastic. But then I think, okay, not really, because that’s a lot of work, and I couldn’t do it like she does anyway, and it’d come out completely different, so I’m just as happy letting Marjorie do all of it and I’ll just read it. But it’s also one of those books that when I’m done, I read again to pull it apart. Like, “how does that phrase come off so beautifully?” “how does she manage to capture a character with one image that doesn’t mean the character is one dimensional, and there’s certainly more that we find out later, but gives us enough that we partially know him right away?”

Then there’s Threshold by Caitlin R. Kiernan (it looks like a placeholder site for now). Here’s the book description from Publisher’s Weekly, because it describes the plot better than I could: “Set in present-day Birmingham, Ala., the novel centers on Chance Matthews, a promising young paleontologist left bereft by the recent deaths of friends and family. Chance and ex-boyfriend Deke Silvey, a loser with latent psychic powers, wallow in self-destructive angst until they’re sought out by Dancy Flammarion, a strange teenage girl who claims to be pursued by monsters. Details of Dancy’s wild story inexplicably jibe with an anomaly Chance finds in the fossil record, and a pattern gradually emerges that points to an inconceivably ancient entity surviving from Earth’s prehistory that is consciously shaping their lives and miseries to suit its inscrutable purposes.”

I don’t know what to say about this book. There are passages that I want to read over and over and over, but I can’t, because I’ve got to get to the next part. The writing is like Faulkner and Lovecraft twisted all together, where she cements words together in ways that are exactly right (although at the same time, calls attention to itself, which maybe isn’t so great … but the effect in the novel is amazing, efficient and poetic at the same time. I’ve read something that tells me she doesn’t do it in later books (which kind of makes me sad, but if she can pull off the same feel without using that trick … wow)). And she sets a mood that is creepy and weird and dark and rotting, and the setting is tangible and oppressive despite the sense of unreality that permeates everything, and her characters aren’t always likable but always fascinating, and the language adds to the sense that it’s all a dream/nightmare, slipping and half-seen from the corner of your eye, and not remembered all that clearly when you wake up. But it sticks with you.

This wouldn’t be a book that everyone would enjoy. There’s a lot of ambiguity, time slips, dream sequences, and — like I said — nothing to put your finger on at the end, particularly about the monsters. I’ll be reading the next one, definitely (although she’s only got about five novels out right now, so I’ll wait, and savor each one, and hope they are all as good as this one). Also, I think the writing will either turn people off, or really capture them. The excerpt at Amazon looks like it’s a bad photocopy, so this is from the page that introduces Dancy, the albino girl who shows up and who much of the mystery centers around, to give you an idea of what I mean (she’s in the library reading National Geographic): (more…)

I have a whole bunch of books on the sidebar that are listed as TBR, that really aren’t TBR any longer, but just R. A few, I’ll talk about a little more later this week (Caressed by Ice, Riding the Storm, Soul Song, Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy) but there are others that I’ve read in the last month or so but probably won’t ever devote a whole post to them, and besides, everyone but me in the blogosphere has pretty much already read them anyway, so here goes a couple:

Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie

Here’s the thing: I’m not really a fan of straight contemporary + funny (I can do paranormal or historical, though.) Or rather, I rarely like it as I read it (the humor doesn’t work for me), and in those rare instances that I have a good time, I rarely revisit the book (for example, I really loved Bet Me, would have easily graded it an A, but I know I’ll never re-read it, and this is my second Crusie) … and therefore I avoid the whole sub-genre like herpes. That is why I’m sure I didn’t pick this one up when it came out long, long ago, because the “Love & Laughter” line? Bleeeeechhhhhhhh. And oh-so-cute dogs/kids/oldpeople in romances? Double bleeeeeeeecccchhhh.

That said, I really loved this one, and have already re-read several scenes. And, double w00t! I got this one from a shopping cart outside my local USB for about … $0.10

Yeah, I’ll probably pick up another old Crusie up in a couple of months.

Count to Ten by Karen Rose

This is one of those books that I picked up solely because of the word-of-mouth factor. I’d read a couple of glowing reviews online, and I hadn’t read a rom-suspense in a little while (okay, I hadn’t read anything in a while because of a certain deadline). The last one I’d read was Bad Girl by Michele Jaffe (due to another recommendation) and loved it like crazy, and maybe because I was thinking of that one, Rose’s book came in just slightly below that. I skimmed a very few tiny parts, but overall, liked it bunches and bunches. Enough that, very soon, Die For Me will be in the TBR pile. And the rest of her backlist, too, but I’m trying to be a good girl.

The Billionaire Next Door by Jessica Bird

I didn’t really intend to read this, but I was stuck in Centralia, WA after being stuck in Portland traffic and being WAY late to a meeting with a writing buddy *sob*. I didn’t want to turn around and drive right back to Portland, so instead I went to Safeway, picked this up, and read it while sitting all by my lonesome in a restaurant. And, everyone probably already knows I’m a fan of category romances, but they lean toward the over-the-top Harlequin Presents line (and, oh my god, I’ve read some really bad ones lately, enough to make me rethink my guilty pleasure, but I’ll spare everyone the details) … but this really worked for me. It was a great way to spend about two hours when I didn’t have my laptop, and I didn’t want to get started on a single title that I’d have to put down (unless I wanted to get a hotel in Centralia, and lemme tell you … I didn’t.) I might even pick up the others when they come out, but I’m not sure. It was good, but there was no achy feeling in my chest that I get sometimes from her Ward books, so … yeah.

Also, I kind of dream of having luscious blond hair like the cover model’s.

Is the term “heroine” part of the problem? Because it seems to carry a lot of baggage with it, as in: “the character that the hero saves at the end.” And in a book where there’s both a hero and a heroine, and usually the hero is named first (no one says “heroine and hero”) does that demand the qualifier to assure the reader that “although the hero is first, the heroine is strong and stands up as a character, too?”

Of course, ‘male lead’ and ‘female lead’ just don’t have the same ring. Sigh.