Low Red Moon

In an effort to clear my mind of child murder for entertainment, I decided to read "Low Red Moon" by Ivy Devlin.  I must admit, I have a Nook, and therefore don't always know what I'm reading.  By that I mean, I get the book, put it on my Nook, then forget what it's about.  Since I have yet to figure out a way to read a preview, sometimes I'll just pick a random book and try it out.

I really like "Under the Blood Red Moon", and this is at least partially why the title caught my eye.  Sadly, this is not much the same.  This is a whiney YA werewolf novel.  Oh yeah, that annoying. 

Avery is not your average teen whose parents are killed.  While dealing with this (and being the one that finds them), she also falls in love with Ben.  Oh, yeah, and she can't remember how her parents died (even though she witnessed it), and something about the forest communicating through her.

Don't get me started.  It goes way to fast on the things that do matter, and spends too much time on things that don't.  Character development?  Meaningful explanations of the book's lore?  Yeah, not included.  I kept thinking that this was the first of a series, or possibly a second and I was just missing things, but after looking around online, this doesn't seem to be the case.

In fact, she's a one hit wonder, and from the looks of her blog, not much older than her main character.

The pacing was odd, the story didn't make a lot of sense, and the killer?  Seriously?  He could have been so much better!!!  Minus the expected twists, turns, and not plot devices, there was nothing to this book.  It would have helped if she had explained things better, but instead just skims over the lore.  Not cool, Devlin, not cool.

2 snowflakes.

Note: Some language, Supernatural, Violence, Teen Sexuality (minor)

Mounting Desire

I know, I know.  I've been gone for the past six months.  It's not that I haven't been reading.  It's been that I haven't been reading a lot worthy of blogging.  And when I have, it's been a weird time.  Honestly, school is insane, moving is nuts, and well, I just haven't been here.  Apologies.  Now I'm back.

I just finished Mounting Desire by Nina Killham.  It looked cute when I picked it up.  That's really the best thing I can say about it.

Jack is a romance novelist.  He writes under a female name (which makes me wonder how many of my favorite romance authors are really men...), and writes bodice rippers.  Oh man.  But he believes in true love.  He believes in it so much that he goes celibate for 5 years.  Then Molly moves in with him.

Due to circumstances, Molly lost her job and her apartment.  She's looking for a new job, and moves in with Jack.

Madness ensues, of course.  There's also a bunch of seperate story lines involving: Jack's mother, Jack's sister, Jack's niece, Jack's best friend, the woman Jack might marry, and Jack's cat.  Yes, I'm serious.

So why did I waste my night reading it?  It was like a train wreck.  Or a season finale.  They just kept missing each other by an inch.  She loves him, he proposes to someone else.  He loves her, but suddenly she's pregnant (WTF? Where did that come from?!?).  He loves her and is miserable without her, but she's engaged to his best friend.

You just have to keep reading to find out if they get together.  Never mind the cheesy dialogue, Jack's annoying insistence of why true love triumphs, the family that you aren't sure if you want to shoot or just toss into the Atlantic, and Jack's weird affection for his characters, and how they have sex on his bed.  Yeah, seriously.  Okay, so I have no idea why I finished it.  It was a train wreck.  You don't want to look, but you can't help yourself.

The USA Patriot Act Reader

Get ready for a bunch of these types of posts, I still have 4 more books to get through, and if they're this interesting, you'll be hearing about them. This one was edited by Alphonse B. Ewing.

This one goes over the Patriot Act (oh so long), then talks about libraries. But not in defense of libraries, but in defense of the Patriot Act. It was weird.

But really good. He addresses what the libraries were saying, and actually made me look at it a different way. The fact that libraries are never specifically addressed, for one thing. The wording is a little questionable too.

Something new to think about.

Anyway, I have to give it a 3 because there is a lot of boring for just a little insight. But what insight it is.

Temperatures Rising

So, I went from surprisingly stellar CF to a huge letdown romance. I'm just that kind of person, I guess.

Anyway, I just finished Sandra's Brown Temperatures Rising, an old one (1989!), so a straight romance.

Let me just say, Scout was very obsessed with Chantal's breasts. They came up at least once a page.

Anyway, Scout is an engineer working on a resort in the islands off Hawaii when he's kidnapped by Chantal, a beautiful native woman. He's accidentally shot, knocked out, and dragged to their village.

Chantal is a brilliant geologist who's village needs a new bridge. She kidnaps Scout so he'll build it for them. It's a rocky road (he doesn't want to, she ends up burning the bridge down so he will), never mind the fact they're both so attracted to each other that it's practically killing them.

I wasn't all that impressed. The writing was only okay, the plot line despicable, the characters unbelievable and annoying.

None of the great twists I've come to expect from a Sandra Brown, but then again, it is an early one before she had her style set.

Let me just say, I doubt I'll be reading it again.

Tantalize

I took a Young Adult writing class one semester. Since then, I've realized that not all young adult novels are terrible, or cliched.

And, of course, we all know how I feel about YA vampire novels. Until today, I never met one I didn't like.

Of course, today I did. I read Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Oh my gosh, what a disappointment.

Our protagonist is a 17 year old who is in love with a hybrid werewolf (that should have warned me off...). She's also rebuilding the family restaurant.

When her head chef (and grandfather figure) dies, a mysterious replacement comes. He begins wooing her away from her "boyfriend."

And then, somehow, with almost no warning and for sure no biting, she's suddenly a vampire. Many of the usual things about vampires aren't true, and suddenly she is introduced to a whole world of the supernatural, where there are almost no rules.

In the end, she'll sacrifice everything for...the restaurant? Really?

Yeah. That's the big disappointing ending.

It was just...odd. Too much happened with almost no explanation. The girl is hardly believable, there are no redeeming qualities by the big bad vampire, not even bad qualities. He's too...vanilla. He's not scary, not nice, not attractive...he's boring.

Disappointing.

Stripped

I'm trying to read Stripped by Brian Freeman.

The key word here is trying.

I'm 70 pages in, and I just don't care. I should...I really should. It's about 3 cops, two who are in love and working different cases (Serena and Stride), and Stride's partner, Amanda the transvestite.

Serena is working the hit-and-run of a kid, while Stride and Amanda are working the murder of a tabloid celebrity.

The plot is interesting...by the writing just doesn't grab me. I don't care about Stride's homesickness for Missouri, I don't care about Serena's hidden deep dark secret, even Amanda makes a bad tranny. I don't care about the celebrity or the kid. I don't even care that it takes place in Vegas. All that means is that the people in the story have excuses to screw around and act like morons.

It seems good...I just can't get through it.