March 16th, 2010 — 3 Stars, Book Review, Clumsy Heroine, Contemporary, Love Triangle, Paranormal, Stephenie Meyer, United States of America, Vampire, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Werewolf, Young Adult
The second book in the Twilight saga is entitled New Moon and if the first book was about finding true love, then this book is about losing true love. I am not particularly fond of this book. It is because it contains so little Edward. We are introduced to the other paranormal group just up the road however. We meet those that live La Push Reservation, home to the Quileute Tribe. Some we've been introduced to before, like Jacob Black. Others are new.
If you couldn't wait for the library to hand you this next book in the series, you read the beginning chapter that was at the end of Twilight. A teaser that leaves you wondering what happens to Bella when she cuts herself at the Cullens house. Her blood makes them thirsty, none more so than Jasper who has the least control. Edward gets Bella to safety but the damage is done.
The next few days he becomes more and more distant to Bella. She's desperate to break through to Edward when suddenly he starts to talk to her again. Only she wished he wouldn't. I wished he hadn't too. He breaks it off with her at the edge of the forest. It is better than the sewers Angel dumped Buffy in, but I was heartbroken and Bella more so. Here it is, I thought, the end of a good story (but just you wait... keep reading).
So deep is her grief over losing Edward she loses herself and becomes a walking shell. It isn't until half a year later that she can even stick her head above the water. She does it only because Charlie is running scared and pulling ultimatums about going to Florida to live with her mother. Bella can't do that. Doing that means leaving the magic of Forks behind and relegating Edward to a memory and not a reality. So she asks a friend to the movies... anything without romance. She couldn't handle that. It's after the movies that the story gains interest again. She hears Edwards voice... in her head. His voice is a beautiful hallucination warning her of the danger ahead.
What follows next is a series of stupid reckless moves as Bella fights to hear his voice. She turns to Jacob Black to help her fix motorcycles, thinking the danger in riding them would provide her with Edward's voice. She becomes Jacob's friend, and over the hundreds of pages left he becomes the sun to warm the desolation of her life. I don't like Jacob. He keeps pushing the friend boundary, so certain of Bella turning to him and forgetting about Edward despite her repeated warnings that she'll never love anyone but Edward.
But then the story changes again and it's like sweet music playing in your mind because you just know Edward's coming back into the picture. And like Bella, you fear you are going to miss him, lose him again. The book ends on the sweetest note imaginable and you close this sad book feeling ridiculously happy. The ending is four and a half stars.
Rating: 3 Stars
Originally posted 2008-11-19 04:13:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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July 20th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Acting, Book Review, Contemporary, G-I, Great Britain, Jane Austen, Love Triangle, Regency, United States of America
Do you hide your Austen movie DVDs so nobody will know you’re in love with Mr. Darcy? If so, then you might also benefit from a trip to Austenland. When Great-Aunt Carolyn dies, she leaves Jane Hayes with a nonrefundable reservation at an exclusive resort… that caters to women (and possibly men) with Austen fantasies.
Did Carolyn do this for Jane to kick her Darcy infatuation or to encourage it? Jane thinks it was done in hopes to give Jane freedom from her impossible daydream, but I think it was meant to help her stop getting in the way of her own Mr. Darcy.
When Jane arrives she’s immediately dubbed Miss Jane Erstwhile and forced to fork over all her modern clothes and gadgets. The first man she meets on the site is Theodore the gardener, his real name is Martin Jasper. He’s there to act as dance instructor, as nobody else was available. He’s tall, good looking, and inspires quite a bit of lust in Jane.
As she meets the lead actors and paying players, Jane dithers back and forth between being really into it and thinking it all a lark. Mr. Nobley is the most Darcy-like of the men and she finds him irritating and (a tad) boring (in the beginning) but undeniably sexy. She makes it her business to pick and poke fun in homes of eliciting conversation and smiles from him.
The novel revolves around her relation with these two men. Each of the chapters starts out with the details of one of her past relationships: how they met, what they did, and why they broke up. Parts of the narrative were frankly bizarre as I was reading it from third person heroine point of view and she sometimes referred to Erstwhile as if the woman wasn’t herself. It was like the author was getting in the way of the heroine.
Will finish by saying the ending was great – and I wouldn’t mind seeing this as a three hour BBC miniseries!
Rating: 3.5-4 Stars
Buy: Austenland
Find and buy more Shannon Hale novels.
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April 22nd, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, A-C, Book Review, Contemporary, Enemies, Erotica, Mistress or Courtesan, Paranormal, Police, Politician, Survival, United States of America, Vampire
Victoria (Tori) reminds me of Anita Blake
. Here's why:
- She's known for always wearing a gun.
- Not to mention she's a police officer with connections to the vampire scene (not widely know to humans to exist).
- She visits vampire clubs.
- Tori brings her gun into the bathroom with her when she showers.
- Tori even resists Michael like Anita resisted Jean-Claude at first.
Michael reminds me of Twilight
vampires, because interestingly enough Tori smells to him as Bella does to Edward. He labels the smell of her to something akin to mimosas. Michael can also feel her feelings, like Jasper of Twilight, and project feelings onto her.
Vampire lore:
- All have mind reading capabilities.
- All are involved to some extent in the D/S scene.
- All possess a type of thrall called: affascinare.
- All have the ability to project feelings/sensations called: trucchi.
- All obey or follow the vampire code/law of Alleanza.
- Humans can bond with vampires as equals and as slaves.
- They can be warm/hot and have heartbeats.
- They breathe.
- They sleep?
The bad guys are particularly scary. They make the book very dark indeed. Think vampire Mafia with terribly nasty taste in sexual preferences (torture/slave).
Sex: D/S, voyeurism, good kinky fun
Overall it was a pretty enjoyable read but there were some problems in the story telling. For instance terms are not defined. As the first in the series they should have been. That's not to say that quite a few can be derived from connotation but the nuances are lost. Additionally, while some of the Italian terminology is similar in format to the English translation, not all of them are.
A few inconsistencies and redundancies scattered the pages, ones that should have been picked up by an editor. They stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise seamless story. There is some great dialogue scattered throughout the book. One of my favorites was:
"I wish I believed you."
"So do I."
If you can get past the small annoyances it wasn't half a bad read. The bad guy gets caught, the good guys triumph, the couple gets together, and you close the book happy.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Buy: Blood & Sex, Volume 1: Michael
Buy Audio Version.
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