Not envious of a love triangle

Anna Godbersen, your latest Luxe novel, Envy, was strangely addictive. I'm not sure why, either. I wasn't sure I was in the mood for drama but your story sucked me in even though the book focused way too much on Penelope, who everyone hates. She's a schemer, a liar and to be honest, I think she deserves Henry, who is pathetic, weak and a drunk. I know, I know, he only married Penelope to save Diana's reputation but since that clearly didn't lead to anyone's happiness, since now all he does is drink and long after Diana. And Diana wavers between hate and love for Henry and being a slut with Penelope's brother. Ah, love triangles, where no one is happy.

Let's talk about Diana's sister, Elizabeth. All Elizabeth did was puke throughout the entire novel (hello, morning sickness!). She was so faded in the story, letting life roll on by but I was truly surprised by her ending (and Diana's, too).

Carolina's story was fine but I'm not a whole-hearted fan of hers. I still think she's going to end up with Tristan, since she's also a major liar.

The Palm Beach setting was a nice change and kept the action rolling along. I'll definitely read all the books in this series because they're freakin' addictive. Also, all the covers in the series are amazing.

Rating: 7.5/10

From existential to serious

After reading The Moviegoer, I couldn't just switch to a light, happy novel. My follow-up read was The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.

To start, this is a weird cover, isn't it? It's a potrait of some woman, and from her apparel, I would guess the 1920s, which is when The Painted Veil was written. It mesmorized me; those eyes, her haircut, that bird...I couldn't look away.

Yet I evidently broke the spell and actually opened the book and was surprised by how easy it was to read and that I actually enjoyed it.

Bred with one goal in mind, marriage, Kitty is a bit startled to realize that she's reached her mid-20s, is unmarried and her sister is about to marry a titled lord. She hurriedly chooses one of her suitors, Walter Fane, to marry because he adores her, will be going to the Orient for his job thus sparing her the pain of staying in England to watch her sister's grand wedding...and yeah, those are her reasons.

The marriage is a disaster and Kitty has an affair. Walter figures it out and forces her go with him to a cholera-infested area of China--in hopes that she'll die (or so Kitty believes). Kitty must reckon with herself and who she has become--and what she will do in the future.

This is not a romance, but rather a story of flawed people who make poor decisions--yet they struggle for redemption and hope. I wasn't sure if I would like the story but I did. It's deep without being painful (eg., The Moviegoer) and still manages to present an interesting story.

Rating: 9/10

Dripping with emotion

I was somewhat looking forward to reading Evernight by Claudia Gray but wow, I didn't really enjoy it and here's why: teenage love. I just can't handle all the emotions teenage love comprises.



Evernight is about Bianca, a girl who's forced to go to boarding school (but don't worry; her parents are teachers there, so she's not alone but she's SUCH an outsider...yeah...) and is forced to make new friends. She feels like she doesn't fit in, is super shy, blah blah blah...but then she meets Lucas. She can be herself with Lucas! It's LOVE! So they have a little fight and don't talk for weeks...it's still LOVE. Okay, so you don't even know why they're in love other than they're both misfits...it's still LOVE.

Basically, the love aspect of the story was just dumb...I couldn't accept it at all. And the book reminded me majorly of Twilight. So much so, I was literally about to stop reading it...but then, Gray pulls out a nice twist that kept me reading. The book ventures into an un-Twilight-esque book from there, which is good.

Yeah...I just didn't like the book. Too much drama, too much "love," too much...teenageness.

Rating: 6/10

The worst spy ever

I liked M. L. Tyndall's pirate series. Sadly her latest work does not involve pirates, but rather the world's worst spy.

Okay, seriously, to read and enjoy this book, give up any expectation for realism. The characters, action, etc. do not fit the early 1800s. And while it is a Christian romance, it's probably one of the "edgier" ones.

Here's the plot: Dominique is being forced to spy for France in order to save her brother's life. She unwillingly does so, agreeing to become a governess for an English admiral's son. Surprise, surprise: the governess and admiral fall in love/lust. There's emotional turmoil because the (young) admiral has been widowed; he doesn't belive in God anymore; and dang, that governess is hottttt. Dominique, on the other hand, is the world's worst spy; it is simply amazing that the admiral was too blind to see her actions.

Anyway, there's a happy ending and all that, including the admiral turning back to God. That was probably my biggest issue of the book. I firmly, firmly believe that you need to marry someone on your spiritual level--and someone who believes the same as you. Otherwise, you're heading for a load of trouble. Dominique is a Christian and the admiral has turned his back on God. He starts to pray at the end and everyone seems to think that everything is all right again. There wasn't true repentance and salvation; it was a "ok, let's make everyone okay with God so they can get married" ending.

I think the best example of that sort of ending is the Cheney Duvall series--Shiloh actually leaves her and goes away for awhile to fully develop a true relationship with God, without any distractions. That spoke true sincerity to me and a putting of God first above everything else. I didn't see that in this book.

Rating: 6/10

In which Jane develops a romance novel heroine complex

In a nod to my fondness for pioneer novels, I reviewed Jennifer L. Holm's Boston Jane: An Adventure back in September. My new library in my new town has book two in the series, Boston Jane: Wilderness Days, so of course I had to immediately check it out.

Book two didn't spark my fancy quite as much--mostly because Jane developed several romance novel heroine complexes. She and the male lead had a Big Misunderstanding, which seriously, if they just communicated a teeny, tiny bit, would be resolved within seconds. This book alone shows the importance of good communication to create a healthy relationship. (True, this book is geared to the YA audience, but still, Jane and Jehu, the male lead, had the dumbest misunderstandings. Just freakin' TALK to each, Jane and Jehu!) As it is a middle school YA novel, there isn't much romantic action at all. There's just more talk and no action.

The plot was a bit scattered and a large part of it was based on Jane's feelings--more character than plot driven. Still, there was plenty of pioneer grit and gristle in the book, with the promise of more to come in the third one.

Yeah...so from reading this entry you may think I didn't like this book. I did like it; Jane just annoyed me with her HUGE assumptions and failure to listen/talk/be reasonable--which, hey, we've all encountered those heroines in various romance novels. I just hope the third book, Boston Jane: The Claim, has a more consistent and likeable Jane in it.

Rating: 6.5/10

What an invitation

At a garage sale this weekend, I hit one awesome sale--the lady just wanted to get rid of everything. I was able to get four books for 25 cents! Bling bling. I actually ended up getting six books for my church's library and two for myself. One book I picked up was a Nancy Drew mystery: The Twin Dilemma. The book isn't part of the original series; it's actually part of the later "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories." Twin Dilemma was written in 1981 and the series evidently went up through the 2000s.

But the cover lured me in. Its tagline read: "Nancy receives an engraved invitation to danger." How could I resist? An ENGRAVED invitation to danger???? How exciting!

Unfortunately, there were no invitations anywhere in the book, other than vocal ones. Booo to misleading cover descriptions. And how disappointing that there was no engraving anywhere.

Basically the plot is this: Nancy, Bess and George go to visit Nancy's Aunt Eloise in New York City, who has to be the worst aunt ever. She lets the girls go wherever and do whatever they want--alone!--in freakin' NYC. The girls are only 18! Auntie E never makes them check in--at one point, the girls are trapped in a BURNING BUILDING and have a narrow escape but when they get home, Aunt Eloise is asleep. They wait until morning to tell her what happened. Her response? "Oh, you'd better call your father and tell him your adventure." Another time, Bess and George leave a party with two random guys who end up being bad guys. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Anyway, the book features about four different mysteries, somehow loosely tied together. There was something about a missing model, then a kidnapped reporter, then missing clothing, lying people, illegal imports, conniving employees and other connections I don't understand. This is kind of embarrassing, but it was too taxing to figure it all out and remember who all the random people were, so I gave up. I'm still not sure what happened. (This might be a good time to mention that I have a B.A. in English and a master's degree in library science...so I am literate. Still, that Nancy Drew was too much for me.)

Let's not even go into the believability aspects of the parts I did understand. A top designer let Nancy model, gave her sketches of his designs and let her wear his dresses to random parties. Whatever. Not even Nancy Drew could finagle that.

To be honest, I'm going to recycle this book. No one should ever read it--I love the original Nancy Drew books, but this was just pure trash that didn't make sense. On the plus side, it was entertaining at times.

Rating: 3/10

Why I like living in the 2000s

If you read this blog, you know I love Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary. I'm looking forward to reading book three in the series and did a bit of googling to find out more. Well, I discovered Raybourn's wonderful blog--and the name of her next book: Silent on the Moor! The bad news? It's not due out until March 2009--but the good news is that it's going to be a really long book (600 pages or so)--yay! Isn't it fabulous that authors blog and have websites and share all sorts of wonderful tidbits with their readers? I think I may re-read Silent in the Sanctuary again. I'm just in the mood for some fabulous Julia and Brisbane interaction.

Anyway, my latest read is Rebecca Ryman's Shalimar. The subtitle reads: "A novel of romance and espionage in nineteenth-century Kashmir." To be honest, I'd subtitle it: "A novel of politics, some espionage and what-some-people-might-deem-romance." This is actually one of the few times that I wanted a map in a book. The setting is in India/Kashmir/a bunch of other places I've never heard of. So....I was lazy and didn't look up a map; therefore part of the story was lost on me, I'm sure.

The book follows several storylines--politics of that era (late 1880s), Russian spies, English intelligence agents, some other people and a "romance" between Damien and Emma.

The book is seen through from Emma Wyncliffe's eyes. She is a headstrong spinister (insert conventional headstrong spinster stereotypes here) who is coerced into a marriage with Damien Granville--a landowner in Kashmir. Why didn't I like this couple? Well, in their first meeting, Damien tells Emma that he supports physical punishment for cheating wives--and in India, it's a pretty rough punishment. In their second meeting, he slaps her. Um, that sort of action is NEVER acceptable. I don't care if he was angry; it was absolutely wrong.

It's not like Damien spouted off support of wifely abuse, but his actions somewhat supported it. (Rebecca Ryman is a pseudonym for someone who was raised in and lived in India [but isn't Indian? Her bio didn't say.]. So I wonder if her heritage or religion had anything to do with presenting Damien in this manner--and Emma, for that matter. Emma was upset, etc., but didn't condemn Damien for his treatment of her.)

Basically, the convenient marriage romance--which I normally like--didn't work for me. The espionage parts of the book (and there were plenty) sometimes confused and bored me. At the end, the storylines do come together nicely, if somewhat unbelievably and suddenly (for example, the identity of the random Armenian slave girl that all sorts of people are looking for).

So...overall, it honestly wasn't a bad read, just not engrossing and with a shoddy romance--but I would not re-read it, that's for sure!

Rating: 6.5/10

Bleh weekend reading

My weekend reading was less than stellar. I started out with Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney and ended with Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund. Both were disappointments.

Snobbery had odd writing--I felt like the point of view shifted or suddenly became omniscient. It was odd. And I couldn't get ahold of the main character. She shifted too much to really understand her; however, this is the first book in the series.

It also had a completely predictable plot. Seriously, someone mentioned a totally bizarre theory and somehow they managed to prove it. I was ticked off (let's just say it involved a crazy guy sleeping with virgins to try to cure his syphilis...and yes, this happened in the early 1900s). Did anyone actually believe that anymore, much less an Englishman living in England?

Rating: 4/10

Secret Society Girl was my own issue. I thought it was going to be a serious sort of book, one like The Night Climbers, which has an amazing cover:

Seriously, I love it. So gothic and a great representative of the book.

Anyway, the girl book turned out to be major chick-lit and more about who Amy, the main character, was sleeping with than the secret society. At one point, Amy realizes she wasn't the society's first choice; she gets all sad and is like, oooh, that makes sense, who'd want me? I was like, yeah, that's right, Amy; who would want you? I had to stop my bitterness and finish reading it since I was on a plane and had nothing else to do. Anyway, maybe it was just my not-into-sororities coming out or what, but I will not be continuing the series.

Rating: 5/10

Tortuous

Not too long ago, I read Priced to Move. It was okay--okay enough that I decided to read A Steal of a Deal, the second book in the series.

Pretty cover; annoying writing inside. It's southern chick lit on overdrive--way too hick for me. (Yeah, it's set in Kentucky.) There was a lot of bad grammar (aka dialect), annoying asides, too many emotions and a lack of reasoning by the main character, Andie. Seriously, I wanted to smack this girl.

The plot is very similar to the first book. The stars of STUD (a home shopping network) go to an exotic place and get entangled in gem smuggling, murder and mayhem. Andie then struggles with her warring emotions toward Max, her STUD show co-star. She consistently suspects him of awful things, but you know that he's innocent. You just want to smack her for being so ridiculous.

What conclusively proved to me that this book wasn't so great is that I picked out the murderer in the first 40 pages or so--and a murder hadn't even occurred yet! It was just way too obvious.

At least it was a super fast and light read.

Rating: 4/10

Highland indeed

Some people really enjoy exotic or unique settings in books. I generally don't get too swept away by setting. I have favorite time periods (mid-19th century, early 20th century) and settings (America, Russia, India) within those time periods that I like, but that doesn't mean I'll read anything because of it.

However, after I finished Highland Masquerade by Mary Elgin, my first thought was, "Anyone who loves a Scottish setting will eat this book up like chocolate."

Me? Not so much. Aillie Rannoch (who I just realized isn't "Allie" as I've thought all along) left her Scottish home after her father was somehow driven to suicide. She puts a curse on the town and leaves. Fast forward 10 years and Aillie is returning home. She's had a successful career as an actress but some shadowy accident (I still don't really know what happened; I think she hurt her legs?) and a chance job offer has brought her home. She puts her acting skills to good use and dresses up like an old maid. But then three strangers in a train car derail her plans...

Yeah, so this book is DRAMATIC. Aillie is just a more mature version of a wild teenager who put a Gaelic curse on everyone who attended her father's funeral. She sounds a bit uncontrollable, for sure.

Half of the time I couldn't even understand what she was saying or why--and that's only throwing in a wee bit of confusion about the Scottish brogue they all used.

I only read this book because I am a total sucker for Listmania! lists on Amazon. I stumbled across one titled "Vintage Romantic Suspense" and since Mary Stewart, Barbara Michaels, Victoria Holt and M. M. Kaye were all listed, I decided to trust the creator of the list. Highland Masquerade definitely fits this mold; it just wasn't quite up my alley.

The plot had such potential! A girl returning home in disguise! She used to be an actress! Oh well...if you like drama and vintage romantic suspense books, give Mary Elgin a try.

Rating: 6/10

I am not alone!

My favorite blogs is Go Fug Yourself. (Fug is "fantastically ugly.") They Fug Girls make fun of celebrities' horrible clothing. It's hilarious.

Anyway, today they had a post about Isla Fisher, who is starring in Confessions of a Shopoholic. We all know that I can't stand the heroine of that series....and it appears I'm not alone! The Fug Girls had a great post about it:

"For those who haven't read it, Confessions of a Shopaholic is the first in a series of increasingly annoying books about a pretty darn irritatingly stupid girl for whom things seem to work out beautifully despite the fact that she never learns her damn lesson in a lasting way. It'd be sort of like if Helen Fielding had kept writing Bridget Jones books, where she kept finding new and maddeningly idiotic ways to screw up her relationship with Mark Darcy over and over again, and then got him back again no matter what. Makes it kind of hard to root for the heroines long-term, because all you want to do is smack them upside the head and be all, "STOP IT! AAAAAAARRRRGH." Emphasis on the aaaaaaarrrrgh."

My emotions exactly! Click here to read the rest of the post.

I have conquered!

It's official: I FINISHED The Mysteries of Udolpho. Yay yay yay yay yay. I am so very happy!

Here's the plot summary from Wikipedia: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe follows the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert who suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father, supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle, and the machinations of an Italian brigand. It is often cited as the archetypal Gothic novel.

Here's the main things that happen:
-People die
-Emily cries
-Emily looks at the scenery
-Emily almost faints
-Emily cries some more
-Emily writes poetry
-Emily gets scared

Okay, so I'm making fun of this book, but it really wasn't that bad, once I got beyond the first 200 pages (the book had 632 pages in teeny tiny print). It was dramatic and I may have muttered "you have GOT to be kidding me" and "oh my word" and "pirates? oh yes, of course, pirates" a few times to myself.

I felt as if I had to finish it because This Rough Magic mentioned it, the fun "Northanger Abbey" Masterpiece Theater made fun of it, and two other random books that I picked up and skimmed a few pages all happened to mention this book. I felt as if it was DESTINY for me to finish it.

I was only confused about one thing: I had heard before I read the book that Count Ugo was such a bad guy, etc., etc. But he was barely in the book. I didn't understand it all, but oh well, her step-uncle makes up for it!

Anyway, earlier I declared it to be the most dramatic book ever, and just as proof, here's a few of the key plot elements that happened in the last 200 pages or so:
-Murder
-Pirates
-Nunnery
-Kidnapping
-Shipwreck
-Girl is FINALLY reunited with her lover, but oh wait, he's now a depraved rake with a gambling problem and a mistress
-Oh wait, he's not---now they can get married!
-Poison

The book is a 18th century soap opera and the main character cries/faints waaaaaay too much but I'm glad I forced myself to read it.

Rating: 6/10


Psssst....you want to read it, too? Download it for free here--but you're crazy if you want to read this entire book on the computer.