Review - Temping Fate

Temping Fate

Esther M. Friesner

3.5/5 Stars

I was in the mood for something light and fluffy and Temping Fate certainly delivered. The writing was fun and quirky and I finished it in an evening.

Due to the fact that the book was fairly short, there were some aspects of it that could have been fleshed out a little bit more. The one-on-one interaction between her sister and her parents, for example.

Despite the shortness of the book (and although there are no sequels), I would honestly watch a TV show based on the ideas in the book. The basis is that the gods and goddesses (especially from the Greek Mythos) need temps to help them with their big work loads. The protagonist, Ilana, and her co-workers all seem to have really interesting personalities that I would enjoy watching on a weekly basis as they deal with their mystical jobs and immortal employers.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light read after reading something a lot heavier and more in depth. Sort of a pallet cleanser, if you will. Especially if you're a fan of the Percy Jackson books, this would make a great follow-up read.

Book Haul

I needed to get out of the house today - pregnant woman cabin fever! So the hubby and I headed to the local Value Village and I picked up a few books pour moi!

Three of them are YA fiction and the other is a non-fiction book on wee folk, which is going in my ever-growing collection of books on the topic.

The other three are:

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins - It's the second book in the Hex Hall series, but I sadly don't have the first one yet, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled. Poor lovely book will have to sit on the shelf for a while until I find it.

Torn by Amanda Hocking - This is also the second book in it's series, the Trylle series, a book about Changelings and such. I guess I'll also have to keep my eye out for the first one in this series as well. I've gotta pick them up when I find them, though - otherwise I won't find them when I need them!

Temping Fate by Esther Friesner - This is a stand-alone book so I can dive right in if I want to - and I think I do! It's also hardcover, so I'm stoked about that, too. They just look so awesome on the shelf...when they eventually find their way there.

Off to read!

Movie's About Books

Today I felt the urge to watch Fahrenheit 451 again. I've probably seen the movie 3 or more times at this point - it's just got this drawing aspect to it. A world where books are illegal - what would you do in that sort of dystopian future? Would you horde the books or would you cheer for the firefighters as they burn piles and piles of books? 

I have a feeling I would continue to horde books - and be seen as "an anti-social" and retrained for doing so. Books are so important to the world. I fear, though, that anti-social behaviour has already taken hold in our world - and it's not in the form of books. Those of us who read avidly talk about those books with other people, we write reviews, we have book clubs and discussions. 

The real anti-social behaviour is cell phones. We'll have people over to our home to play board games or to hang out - and everyone is always staring at their phones. Waiting for texts, sending texts - constantly. It's appalling. 

Read more books! Learn new words! Travel to other lands and have grand adventures. Always read.

Review - The Immortal Rules

The Immortal Rules

Julie Kagawa

4.5/5 Stars

This book had absolutely everything I love in a book, thematically:

-Dystopian world

-Vampires

-Zombies (rabids)

-A normal person starting out in their normal world and finding themselves in a fantasy-esque landscape (becoming a vampire)

I just couldn't go wrong with this book – and I wasn't disappointed. I absolutely love Kagawa's writing style, and this book was my first introduction to her work. She's written a very strong female lead, which is just amazing. Compared to books like Twilight, which focuses on a female lead who's shy and just completely obsessed with boys – Kagawa's book is a refreshing take on the vampire genre.

The book is fast paced and you never once feel like a bit of the book should have been edited out.

Her vampires are not sexy and sparkly – they are demons with human faces. Severe, monstrous, and predatory. Her future world is not an easy life – it's ridiculously hard to survive in and even if you do, you're certainly not living comfortably.

Despite it being published by Harlequin Teen (which I, at first, had reservations about), there's no grand lovestory that encompasses the entire book. There is, eventually, a love interest – but our protagonist, Allison, is not so infatuated with him that it takes away from the rest of the story.

Kagawa's writing style has impacted me to the point that she's now one of my favourite authors – I look forward to reading her Iron Fey series when I can get my hands on them.

The one complaint I do have – which doesn't impact the book itself at all – is the cover. Our protagonist is Asian (perhaps a Japanese background), and the girl on the cover just does NOT look Asian. It is a lovely cover – but I found it to be another example of an inacurate portrayal of the protagonist it's supposed to depict.

Review - The Magnolia League

The Magnolia League

Katie Crouch

2/5 Stars

This is another book that I was very torn about. Due to this, this particular review will contain some minor spoilers about the book.

WHAT I LIKED

Crouchs' writing style is marvelous. It's quirky and cute and it's what drove me onwards to finish the book.

Crouch has actually done a little bit of research on hoodoo culture, which is always nice to see when you're reading a book that has basis in real-life, rather than original mythology. As someone who was once a practitioner of Vodou, she hit the nail on the head a lot of the time. Doc Buzzard was a real character in hoodoo history, and is mentioned in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (a book published in 1994, movie followed in 1997). Although, with the small amount of research done – it did sort of feel like she just “copy and pasted” information she got off of wikipedia.

WHAT I DIDN'T

I absolutely did not like the protagonist. She annoyed the flippin' crap out of me. To begin with, she's a hippie – the type of hippie that constantly has to lecture people about how bad their lifestyle's are. She talks to people about oil in Iraq, blood diamonds – making her the most pretentious protagonist I have ever come across. I was rolling my eyes every time she was with her new friends, because she always had something to say about how wrong their lifestyle was compared to how she was raised. There were times I just wanted to smack her.

The cover of the book panders to the teen audience, showing a tiny girl with long luscious hair cascading down around her. Our protagonist, Alex, does not look like this until a little more than 3/4 of the way through the book. Would it really have been so bad to show Alex in her “true form” of a pudgy, dreadlocked hippie teenager? Maybe I'm the one who's being pretentious now – but I felt the cover was designed to sell a sexy chick, rather than focusing on what Alex actually looks like.

Every time I read a book – my husband tries to guess what rating I will give it – at first he shot out a 3 because he had asked me near the beginning of the book (when I didn't quite hate Alex as much as I do now), but it slowly wound itself down to a 2 because of the plot and other characters.

Crouch likes to throw out high end names, expecting the young readers to know exactly what she's talking about when referring to things they wouldn't be able to afford unless they were part of the Kardashian family.

At the end, the book felt very rushed – as though Crouch just gave up and needed to find a way to leave a cliffhanger without much previous explaination. After reading an article she wrote, I discovered that I hit the nail on the head. She was preggers and sick of writing and handed the book over to a friend to finish. * sigh *

Avoid this one.

Review - Illuminate

Illuminate

Aimee Agresti

3.5/5 Stars

As I was reading the book, I was really mixed, but when I finished....I was still a bit mixed. I don't really do “half stars”, but this book is getting one. I just couldn't decide if it was going to get a 3 or a 4.

The book is good....not great or amazing, but good. The first half of the book reads more like The Devil Wears Prada than a paranormal fiction. I was a little bored at first, but I pushed through and got about halfway and the book got more interesting. Within the first half of the book is a whole lot of build up and a whole lot of zip to supernatural things. The author hints at it here and there, and if you've read the inside sleeve, you have an idea of what's to come.

The writing is good – good enough to keep you interested until the end. One of the main things I enjoyed about the book is that it dealt with angels and “devils” (apparently not demons) without being preachy. I never want to read a book and feel that I'm being preached at. I want to enjoy the read, focus on the story and characters and not worry about my own belief system.

At about the halfway point, questions begin to become answered. I've never been a fan of authors constantly leaving their fans up in the air about everything in the book. I tend to think they're trying to be more “mysterious”, when in fact I just don't enjoy the book because of so many unanswered aspects.

Agresti doesn't answer everything (what author worth her salt would?) and leaves just enough that you'll want to seek those answers in the next installment. There's no majorly cliffhanger ending, so I'm not pining at Amazon, wishing I had enough money for “just one more book” this month. I can wait, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

The book is a bit long-winded, with some parts having absolutely no impact on the overall story. It did take me a couple of days to get through, and not because I wasn't reading it. Despite it's length, the writing is actually pretty good. If you're a fan of the angel sub-genre, pick this one up.

Why I Didn't Like the Series of Unfortunate Events

Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket

I'll be the first one to admit I'm old. Too old, according to a lot of people to read young adult and childrens books. However, I mostly just stick my fingers in my ears and hum "la la la la" over and over again. I'll be 30 in September - and a Mom in December, so I'm feeling super old right about now.

I've loved children's books since...well, obviously - since I was a child. I still read them on occasion. I happily read through each Harry Potter book in about a day. I love Darren Shan's series Cirque du Freak. I love children's books - I swear I do.

However, I did not love the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler). I know, I know - I'm in the minority here. Hey, there was even a movie! (more on that later).

I've made it through 7 of the books and I just can't bare to read any more of them. I can't. And you can't make me.

I made the disastrous mistake of watching the movie before I started reading any of the books. I thought the movie was awesome. It left a lot of unanswered questions, so I figured I would find them by reading through the series. I was so very, very wrong. There were no answers to be found. The amazing subplot of the parents belonging to some sort of secret spy organization involving spyglasses was completely missing. This was not, however, why I had to stop reading them.

I've already admitted I'm old. Maybe kids get more of a kick out of this than I do....but the adults were DUMB. Every last one of them. There's not a brain in the bunch. Despite overwhelming evidence from kids who are clearly years ahead of others their ages, the adult never believe them.

Let's use common sense when dealing with Count Olaf! Nope. Never once. No common sense to be found. He just keeps getting away - which I suppose is the reason there's 13 of the books all focused on getting the kids away from beloved Count Olaf and the adults never believing them when they say a certain person is clearly him.

I felt dumb reading them. I couldn't suspend my disbelief any further. It was already so suspended, it would never go back to school.

And so, after 7 books I had to tell myself that, no, I wouldn't be finishing the series. The downside...or upside, depending on what type of person you are - is that the books themselves are just lovely. They sit so neatly and primly on my bookshelf I don't think I shall ever part with them. I've got the hardcover copies of all 13.

It's possible the little goblin in my stomach will like them when he or she grows up. That's a waiting game, though. From an adults perspective - reading them is like letting your brain dribble out of your ears.