Review: Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone

two serpents rise by max gladstoneFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Steampunk
Series: Craft Sequence #2
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Date Released: October 29, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc — casual gambler and professional risk manager — to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him.

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father — the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists — has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire… and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

My Review:

When I decided that I just had to read something I wanted to read, instead of the next thing on my schedule, I turned back to Max Gladstone’s incredible Craft Sequence. The first book, Three Parts Dead, was utterly marvelous (see review) and I couldn’t resist diving back into his world.

It’s a world where the gods are real, and they can be worshiped, killed, chained, or sometimes all of the above. The power that they wield is the equivalent of mega-power companies with soul-binding contracts. You really do give a bit of your soul when you worship.

three parts dead by max gladstoneBut gods that are manifest can also be fought. In Three Parts Dead, the story was about the internecine warfare that ensued when a god died. Or was killed.

In Two Serpents Rise, the action moves from a city whose god is openly worshipped, to a place that overthrew its gods and set science-based magic up in its place.

Red King Consolidated provides clean water to the desert city of Dresediel Lex. It’s not just a name, there really is a King in Red. But he’s not human anymore. Sixty years ago he led the forces that threw down the gods of the city. Now he’s a Craft practitioner who gave up his flesh to live forever. The King in Red is a skeleton in a red robe, held together by the magic of his will.

And part of his will is to be the sole provider of clean water for the entire city. To that end, he subsumes his last competitor, Heartstone. And sets off chaos.

The hero of the story is Caleb Altemoc. He begins as a mid-level administrator for RKC with a penchant for gambling and a different kind of skeleton in his family closet. His father is the last living priest of the old gods who thinks that RKC and the King in Red are anathema. He’s a terrorist moving heaven and earth to get the old gods back.

Even though they required human sacrifice.

Caleb and his father don’t exactly get along.

When Caleb investigates an attack on the water supply that looks like his father’s work, Caleb finds a woman who has no business being on the scene. He thinks she’s a danger-seeking bystander being used by the terrorists.

It’s not until the final consolidation of RKC and Heartstone that Caleb discovers that the woman who fascinates him is also an executive of the other company. He still thinks she’s innocent, especially when they both get tapped to investigate more sabotage.

As the tale unfolds, we discover that everyone is being used; by their companies, by their gods, by their leaders.

Especially Caleb.

Escape Rating A: Although the publisher summary for this book emphasizes the romance between Caleb and Mal, the female executive for Heartstone, their relationship feels like more of an infatuation, more of a tease than the motivation it might have been.

And that’s a good thing. A number of the red herrings and false starts that make the solution of the underlying mystery so fascinating result from Caleb and Mal’s distraction of each other. They are each set upon a path, but they can’t stop veering off course to save or damn each other.

A much more important and foundational relationship in the story is Caleb’s friendship with Teo. Teo is the person who is there for Caleb at every turning point in his life and in the story, because they are best friends and not because there is any romantic possibility.

Another building block for this chapter in the Craft Sequence is that old saying: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Everyone who gets too close to the old gods tips over the edge into insanity, and that includes Caleb’s father Temoc.

In the end, the story turns on Caleb making a huge gamble, a gamble he’s able to envision precisely because he is not an absolutist in either the religious or the quasi-scientific Craft camps. He sees both sides, and persists in trying to find a way to compromise the absolutes.

Caleb’s journey is the one that we follow; he travels from safe, mid-level manager to a mover of worlds, while trying to solve a mystery that too many people want to use to destroy an entire city.

full fathom five by max gladstoneCaleb, and this world of the Craft Sequence, are amazing, absorbing and utterly fascinating. I can’t wait for book three, Full Fathom Five.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: The Obsidian Heart by Mark T. Barnes

The Obsidian Heart by Mark T. BarnesFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: epic fantasy
Series: Echoes of Empire #2
Length: 438 pages
Publisher: 47North
Date Released: October 15, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

A plot to overthrow the Shrīanese Federation has been quashed, but the bloody rebellion is far from over…and the struggle to survive is just beginning.

Warrior-mage Indris grows weary in his failed attempts to thwart the political machinations of Corajidin, and faces the possibility of imprisonment upon his return to his homeland. Moreover, Indris’s desire for Corajidin’s daughter, Mari, is strong. Can he choose between his duty and his desire…and at what cost?

Left alienated from her House, Mari is torn between the opposing forces of her family and her country—especially now that she’s been offered the position of Knight-Colonel of the Feyassin, the elite royal guards whose legacy reaches back to the days of the Awakened Empire. As the tensions rise, she must decide if her future is with Indris, with her family, or in a direction not yet foreseen.

As he awaits trial for his crimes, Corajidin confronts the good and evil within himself. Does he seek redemption for his cruel deeds, or does he indebt himself further to the enigmatic forces that have promised him success, and granted him a reprieve from death? What is more important: his ambition, regaining the love stolen from him, or his soul?

My Review:

Garden of Stones by Mark T BarnesJust as with The Garden of Stones, the first book in the Echoes of Empire series, The Obsidian Heart left me with a terrible “book hangover”. When I turned the last page, I was just not ready to step away from this world. While it’s definitely not a place I’d want to live (at least at this moment in the story!) Shrian is certainly a place filled with compelling stories.

Even though The Obsidian Heart begins with a recap of previous events from the first book, the story as a whole owes some of its intense immersiveness to the way that the reader is dropped into a history that feels like it has gone one for centuries, and will continue after the book is closed, whether our heroes survive their particular tale or not.

The weight of Shrian’s past helps the reader to sink inside the tale.

And the tale that continues from The Garden of Stones is both epic and deeply personal. Lord Corajidin continues on his mad quest to fulfill the destiny he saw in a vision, a vision that told him that he would become the Emperor of a new Awakened Empire, and lead his people back to their former greatness.

But Corajidin’s vision has convinced him that the glory he has foreseen justify any means necessary to come to fruition; even means that his people would consider anathema. Not just political assassinations by the score (the history has precedents for that!) but by dealing with the demon and death-bringing witches of the dreadful Drear.

Corajidin reminds this reader all too much of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; he creates the conditions that the witches foretold because of the foretelling. He doesn’t see that the path his self-fulfilling prophecy has led him down will ruin him and all he thought he fought for in the end.

There are three point-of-view characters in The Obsidian Heart. One is Corajidin, voraciously chewing up everything and everyone in his path to achieve the destiny he believes should be his. Or perhaps has been led to believe to be his. I wonder.

Indris shows us a different side to Corajidin’s dreams of a new empire. Indris is a warrior-mage of the Seq. His order was born two millennia ago to fight the witches that Corajidin is bringing back to prominence. He wants to stem the tide of death and put the evil creatures back in the fell places where Corajidin’s allies found them.

But Indris, as we saw in The Garden of Stones, is also an heir of one of the rival Houses to Corajidin. He could take the throne himself, or at least return to being a leader of his own House. While his only desire is to be his own man and follow his own agenda, too many factions have plans of their own for him, and none of those plans are in Indris’ best interest. Even worse, Indris believes that those plans are not in the empire’s best interests.

While Indris wants to fight Corajidin, there are too many forces arrayed against him who try to force him, whether by physical threats or magical torment, to go down the path of their choosing.

The last perspective belongs to Mari, the warrior-poet daughter of Corajidin. She has never fit into her father’s plans for her, but there was a part of him that enjoyed her defiant spirit. But she believes that her father has gone mad as well as evil, and she betrayed him. Her family has chosen to believe that her betrayal was caused by her affair with Indris, and not by the convictions of her own mind. They want her back within the family fold, whether she wants to be there or not.

The Obsidian Heart is a story built of many overlapping layers. Corajidin’s manipulations to bring about his new Awakened Empire push the action forward, as Indris and Mari fight to remain together and to save what they can. The politics and the magic constructs that underlie the war make for fascinating reader, as each player follows an agenda that impacts the others.

As this installment of the story concludes, one is left breathless, wondering how much more can possibly go wrong for the forces of good. Always a dangerous question, but one that leaves the reader begging for more.

Escape Rating A: The Obsidian Heart is definitely the middle-book in this trilogy. As the story progresses, the situation gets darker and darker for Indris and Mari.

Shrian is a dark and dangerous place. Every person that we meet has their own agenda, and it’s almost always hidden. Indris and Mari spend a lot of this chapter of the story preventing other people’s nefarious plans, both for the empire and for themselves. The entire world they know seems to be arrayed against them. While they are not the only people working towards something like the greater good, they seem to be the required element that pushes so many people to get off their self-satisfied asses and do something about it.

The only thing required for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.

And so many of the plots regarding Indris’ and Mari’s potential futures are worse than nothing. Too many people are using the chaos to forward their own agendas, and they are more than willing to block our heroes from taking forward action.

The political backstabbing and level of assassinations and faked enemies that takes place in order to make Corajidin’s vision come to fruition reads like the layers upon layers of plotting in Kushiel’s Dart. It also reminds me of the original Dune, in that feeling that the machinations are part of a Great Game of politics and empires that has been going on since long before the current story; where this is but a chapter in some greater history.

But the downward progression is reminiscent of one of Murphy’s lesser known laws: Things are always darkest just before they turn completely black. The Obsidian Heart is rather like The Empire Strikes Back, in that the story ends on a breathless down-stroke.

pillars of sand by mark barnesI’m almost sorry that I didn’t wait until May, when the third and final chapter, The Pillars of Sand, is due to be released. Because I want to know what happens next, and I want to know now. But The Obsidian Heart was every bit as amazing as The Garden of Stones.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Blade to the Keep by Lauren Dane

Blade to the Keep by Lauren DaneFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, audiobook
Genre: paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Series: Rowan Summerwaite #2
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: December 9, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Rowan Summerwaite is no ordinary woman. She’s smart and strong and with the power of an ancient goddess in her belly, she’s the perfect candidate to re-negotiate the fragile Treaty keeping the peace between the Vampire Nation and the last line of defense for humanity, The Hunter Corporation. A meeting of the Joint Tribunal, and Rowan’s new status as Liaison sends her straight to the last place on earth she wants to be—The Keep.

Raised at the knee of The First, honed into a weapon by the Hunter Corporation, wielding ancient knowledge from the Goddess within, Rowan must navigate around bloodthirsty opposition among Vampires and Hunters alike to avoid an all out war that puts humanity in the crosshairs.

And she’s got to do it as she attempts to manage a politically awkward romantic relationship with Scion Clive Stewart during a trip back to a place she escaped nearly fifteen years before. No pressure.

Walking the path between her two lives has already made Rowan a pariah. If she leaves it to become something even more Other, she may lose even the shreds of home she has left.

My Review:

goddess with a blade by lauren daneGoddess With a Blade was one of the first books I reviewed for NetGalley, but that’s not the only reason I remember it so well.

It is an absolutely awesome urban fantasy with truly amazing world building, and an utterly kick-ass heroine who manages to be down-to-earth human in her emotions while being more-than-human in actuality.

Rowan Summerwaite is a mass of contradictions. She was raised by the leader of the Vampire Nation, using methods that were totally beyond abusive–and she has the physical and emotional scars to prove it.

And yet, he did the best he knew how to prepare her for the role that she would have to play; she is the vessel of the goddess Brighid, and she is a licensed vampire slayer of the Hunter Corporation.

Her job is to enforce the treaty between the Vampire Nation and the Hunters, a treaty that keeps us regular humans from discovering that the things that go bump in the night have always walked beside us, and have generally preyed on us.

Goddess With a Blade was our introduction to Rowan and her world, and it is awesome. She has to investigate a vampire serial killer, while dealing with a tension fraught reunion with her foster father and an incredibly hot frenemy she’s not sure whether she wants to stake or mate.

Blade to the Keep is a direct sequel to Goddess With a Blade. If you love urban fantasy with a romantic subplot, and you haven’t read Goddess, start.

Blade takes us back to where Rowan grew up. She goes home to The First’s castle/palace/headquarters, but this isn’t a family visit. She is the official Liaison between the Vampire Nation and Hunter Corporation, and her job is to get an amendment to the peace accords passed the inevitable nasty politicking that will hopefully prevent some of the damage done by the serial killer to occur again.

There’s a story here of political infighting at its nasty best (or worst) with both sides having an “Old Guard” that wants to return to the good old days. Of course, each side’s version of what those good old days really were is rather different. And all the people on both sides who want to go back to war are not the ones who would fight said war.

The commentary on how willing the button pushers always are to send other people out to fight is particularly pointed. Possibly also fanged.

Rowan is uniquely qualified to get the accords passed. She just has to survive everything that is being sliced at her from both sides of the negotiating table.

Escape Rating A+: Goddess With a Blade was on my best ebook romances of 2011 list because it was just so fantastic. Blade to the Keep is a more-than-worthy successor.

The worldbuilding just keeps getting better. By taking the story back to Rowan’s childhood home, we learn much more about the people and forces that shaped her in the heroine we see.

There’s not a question that Rowan has a version of Stockholm Syndrome, in that she loves the father who certainly abused her, there’s also a recognition that he loves her as much as she can’t stop herself from loving him.

He knew what her future was going to be and made her strong enough to bear it.

But he’s still “The First”, the oldest and strongest Vampire in the Vampire Nation, and he is the leader of his people in the treaty negotiations. Even when they don’t want to be led, and even when they challenge his leadership by threatening Rowan.

While Rowan’s past comes back to both haunt and enfold her during this visit to her former home, The First’s past literally comes back to bite him. And through that conflict we learn even more about the early history of vampires in this alternate universe and the Vampire Nation.

Rowan’s relationship with the Vampire Scion of Las Vegas, Clive Stewart, continues to gain depth. Even though they are on opposite sides of the negotiating table, and even though their relationship is considered unwise in some quarters and anathema in others, they both maintain their roles as opposing negotiators and assist each other in rooting out malefactors. All while coming closer to figuring out what they can be to each other.

When Goddess came out in 2011, it looked like a one-off, but I so wanted more. This time, there is an announcement that book 3, Blade to the Hunt, will be released in November 2014. I can hardly wait.

*Reviewer’s note: To my utter delight, there are ads for Goddess with a Blade and Blade to the Keep on Seattle Metro Buses. Seeing “Reading Reality” on the ad as the source for the quote was beyond awesome.

blade to the keep bus ad

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Guest Post by Lesley Young on the First Person + Giveaway

skys end by lesley youngToday’s guest is Lesley Young, the author of the fascinating science fiction/space opera romance Sky’s End (see today’s review). In her guest post, she goes into the reasons why she wrote Sky’s End as first-person from her heroine’s point-of-view.

Since that first-person perspective was a big part of what made this story work for me, I enjoyed this glimpse into her writer’s process of what made it work.

The First-Person Perspective
by Lesley Young

Three reasons why first-person was the right— albeit selfish perspective—for Sky’s End;

Not for one moment did I even consider writing Sky’s End: Book One in the Cassiel Winters Series in third-person perspective. This story, which chronicles the journey of a young woman in earth’s fledging space military, demanded fast-paced, urgent and visceral telling. Wheedling a third-person narrator between Cassiel Winters and the reader would have dragged down the experience for readers. . .  and for me!

As the author, I wanted to get in Cassiel’s head, react in each moment as she would, and yes, admittedly, live vicariously through her. Here are three more reasons why first-person worked so well for this story (which is also in written in present tense).

*Connection. Readers get “inside” Cassiel’s head from the moment they begin reading. They get to know her intimately, and she confides openly with them. You can’t beat this kind of connection. It’s why so many reviewers are in love with her and rooting for her, yet also want to smack once or twice (she’s stubborn!).

*Believability. The story is set in the future. By writing it in Cassiel’s voice, readers get the sense of a direct account. There’s an authority there that I felt was especially important to establish because she’s a female protagonist in space. I also wanted to engage readers who wouldn’t normally science fiction and felt that Cassiel’s first-person voice would help handhold them through the new world-building they’d experience.

*Character development. First-person voice allows for character development opportunities you just can’t get with third-person, like showcasing Cassiel’s unique sense of humor, or her philosophy toward the universe, or what she really thinks of the alien’s who are chasing after her. In first-person, readers spend the whole book listening to Cassiel’s voice, ‘hearing’ her diction, and thus remembering her like they might a close friend. And that was my end goal: I wanted to create a memorable character who impacted readers’ lives.

I’d love to hear who your favorite kick-ass female characters are! Thanks for the opportunity.

Lesley Young author picAbout Lesley:
Journalist Lesley Young never thought she would delve into the world of writing fiction, but when she sat down for the first time to put pen to paper, ideas for what would become her first novel just poured out naturally. Young’s first book, “Sky’s End,” is a multi-genre tale that showcases her unique style of weaving romance, action and wit into one page-burning story.Young was born in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. She holds an arts degree from the University of Alberta and a journalism degree from the University of Victoria.Young now lives in Loretto, Ontario where she works as a journalist, freelance writer and editor for health, décor and business magazines. Since 2008, Young has written more than 300 articles for print and online media including Profit, Toronto Life, MSN Green, and Elle Canada among others. She is a regular contributor to Reader’s Digest, Best Health, Canadian Living and House and Home Magazine.Young has won three gold honors for feature stories from the National Business Magazine Awards and another top media award from the Canadian Dermatology Association.

Soul Mate Publishing released “Sky’s End” on July 15 in paperback and e-book and since its launch, it has remained an Amazon Best Seller. The novel is Young’s first installment in a series about Cassiel Winters, a futuristic heroine, and her outer space escapades.

LesleyYoungBooks.com
Facebook.com/CassielWintersSeries
@LesleyYoungBks
Sky’s End is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Skys-Cassiel-Winters-Lesley-Young-ebook/dp/B00DXV8G9K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391376009&sr=8-1&keywords=sky%27s+end

~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

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Lesley will be awarding print copies of Sky’s End to ten randomly drawn winners, and a grand prize of one $50 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner during the tour.
To enter the giveaway, just fill out the Rafflecopter below. For more chances to win, be sure to visit other stops on her tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Sky’s End by Lesley Young

skys end by lesley youngFormat read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Cassiel Winters #1
Length: 430 pages
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Date Released: June 15, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

A secret she must never share. A secret that two warring species are determined to control. A universe’s future at stake. Twenty-year-old Cassiel Winters joins Earth’s new space academy in hopes of finding her brother, one of Command’s top pilots and her only family, who’s been reported MIA. But she quickly realizes she may not be cut out for life in space, where female cadets are outnumbered, competition’s fierce, and she’s already failed her hand-to-hand combat test once. Even the station’s most respected officer, Lt. Damian King, probably can’t help Cassiel pass the second time around-so why is he so interested in her progress? If only one of her freaky deja vu visions would offer an answer instead of mysterious messages like hide. When Cassiel’s manipulated into a perilous mission, she encounters a warrior species bred to protect the universe from an even greater threat. And she learns that her secret visions are at the heart of it all. Now Cassiel must fight to control her own destiny and race to save her brother-even if it means pretending to be the pawn of Prime Or’ic, the cold-as-steel Thell’eon leader. Even if it means risking her life, facing hard truths, and making the ultimate sacrifice.

My Review:

I have to say that Cassiel’s first person point-of-view really sold the story for me. First person is hard to do well, but in this case, being in her head and experiencing her confusion about the world and her naivete is what made the story work. Even when I knew that I should roll my eyes, seeing things through Cassiel’s eyes worked. Her lack of experience with the world and it’s betrayals made the otherwise incredible story make sense.

What am I talking about? Sky’s End is science fiction of the space opera school, and it’s also very definitely science fiction romance. And it’s the story of a very young woman who has an unfortunate tendency to leap before she looks, even though she can often see the results of the leap before she takes it.

Cassiel has a secret–sometimes she experiences the future just a few seconds or few hours before it happens. Then she changes it. She thinks of it as an extreme form of deja vu, but she’s also aware that most people will think she’s crazy.

In her future world, Earth, under the auspices of ESE (Earth Space Exploration) is engaged in a long-running interstellar war with the Thell’eons. Her brother Daz is missing in action, after leaving for a mission that no one is willing to admit he’s on. But then, he is in ESE’s equivalent of the spook squad.

So Cassie joins the ESE Academy to make sure that she can hunt her brother down personally, since the ESE doesn’t seem willing to admit he’s lost.

And that’s where the story really begins. Because after Cassie fails her end-of-year exams, she’s given an unprecedented second chance, which is also rigged for failure. And finally, the ESE has her where they really want her; willing to do anything to stay in the ESE. Including let herself be captured by the Thell’eons.

Who seem to have made it part of their ongoing mission to capture human females, supposedly because Thell’eon females don’t enjoy sex, and human women do.

Of course, their society is way more complicated than that. But then, the ESE is nothing like it seems, either.

Everyone wants to use Cassie for something. The Thell’eons, the ESE, and even the man who claims to want to protect her.

It’s only when Cassie finally discovers who and what she really is that she starts questioning whether she should be using them for her own ends.

If she can figure out which of the possible futures she sees is the best one–for everyone.

Escape Rating B: No one is exactly what they seem, and that’s a lesson that Cassie spends the whole book learning. By seeing things from inside her head, we’re able to understand why she doesn’t get how much she’s being used; she doesn’t have the experience yet to be as cynical as she should be. And she truly wants to believe the best of everyone.

Too many of the men who Cassie deals with tend to fall in love with her, or at least become very protective very quickly. It’s explained in the story by the reason why so few females remain cadets in the ESE, and by the way that the Thell’eon society is structured. It’s a bit of “handwavium” but it’s consistent in the story.

Also Cassie doesn’t know how valuable she is to both war efforts. At the beginning, she doesn’t even know the true nature of the war, and what her deja vu gift really is. Or how it makes her a target.

So the story is Cassie’s journey of discovery, and some of that discovery concerns her own sexuality. One man seems to love her, and one alien wants her for the war effort. She’s still in the process of figuring out whether either of them wants her for herself, but her experimentation is as emotional as it is physical.

Be prepared for an ending that leaves a lot of loose ends dangling. Cassie spends a lot of this book being a pawn for the various sides in the war, but by the end she finally realizes that she needs to decide where she belongs, and where she can do the most good.

A question which is much, much bigger at the end than she ever imagined.

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 2-16-14

Sunday Post

For some of us in the U.S., this is the middle of the last 3-day weekend until the end of May.

For others, it’s just another Sunday–or maybe it’s a Sunday in the middle of “Snowmaggedon” back east. In Seattle, it’s just another rainy, gray day.

I have a lot of SF and Fantasy coming up this week. And they are all terrific!

Haunt-Me-Heather-Long-Banner2-1024x646Current Giveaways:

Tourwide Giveaway: $25 Amazon Gift Card from Heather Long

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the $10 Gift Card in the Fire and Ice Hop is Amy B.
The winner of the $10 Gift Card in the Share the Love Hop is Jessica D.
The winner of the The End and The Long Road ebooks by G. Michael Hopf is Susan N.
The winners of Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd are Ann V. and Lysette L.

back to you by jessica scottBlog Recap:

B and C Dual Review: Dreams of the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn
B+ Review: Haunt Me by Heather Long + Giveaway
A- Review: After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman
Series Shakedown: Terran Times by Viola Grace
A+ Review: Back to You by Jessica Scott
Stacking the Shelves (76)

Blade to the Keep by Lauren DaneComing Next Week:

Sky’s End by Lesley Young (blog tour review, guest post and giveaway)
Blade to the Keep by Lauren Dane (review)
The Obsidian Heart by Mark T. Barnes (review, guest post and giveaway)
Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone (review)
All for You by Jessica Scott (review)

Stacking the Shelves (76)

Stacking the Shelves

The great thing about participating in two blog hops two Saturdays in a row is the amount of traffic that they generate–I hope some of the people who tuned in for the hops are sticking around to see what else is going on!

The bad thing is that my Stacking the Shelves post really stacks up!

And of course there were some events that added to the stack! This is my first Stacking the Shelves since ALA Midwinter, and I wasn’t totally able to resist the ARCs in the Exhibit Hall.

random penguin 2Closer to home, representatives from Random Penguin came to my library for a Book Buzz. That’s an event where the publishers bring ARCs to the library and talk up their books. They brought some terrific books, and I also got some ARCs from NetGalley and Edelweiss based on what they said.

Last but definitely not least, there is a new book bundler on the Interwebs; Bookbale. Their current bundle (good until the end of  February) is a science fiction bundle with 8 books for $10. I bought it for the Kristine Kathryn Rusch title, but several of the others look interesting as well. And the price is fantastic.

For Review:
As Hot as it Gets (Out of Uniform #10) by Elle Kennedy
Bittersweet Darkness (Order #3) by Nina Croft
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
Cauldron of Ghosts (Honorverse: Wages of Sin #3) by David Weber and Eric Flint
The Clockwork Wolf (Disenchanted & Co. #2) by Lynn Viehl
Dancing with Dragons (DRACIM #2) by Lorenda Christensen
Dangerous Angel (Earth Angels #4) by Stacy Gail
Death Defying (Blood Hunter #3) by Nina Croft
Eagle’s Heart by Alyssa Cole
Falling for the Wingman (Kelly Brothers #3) by Crista McHugh
Ghost Seer (Ghost Seer #1) by Robin D. Owens
Hope Ignites (Hope #2) by Jaci Burton
Hot Rock by Annie Seaton
Lovely, Dark and Deep (Collectors #1) by Susannah Sandlin
The Martian by Andy Weir
Night Owls (Night Owls #1) by Lauren M. Roy
The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher
Prince’s Fire (Hearts and Thrones #3) by Amy Raby
Raising Steam (Discworld #40) by Terry Pratchett
Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1) by Kelley Armstrong
The Time Tutor by Bee Ridgway
Waiting on You (Blue Heron #3) by Kristan Higgins
The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon

Picked up at ALA Midwinter Conference or Random/Penguin Book Buzz:
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
Once in a Blue Moon (Hawk and Fisher #8) by Simon R. Green
The Quick by Lauren Owen
Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
Waiting for Wednesday (Frieda Klein #3) by Nicci French
Why Kings Confess (Sebastian St. Cyr #9) by C.S. Harris
Year of the Demon (Fated Blades #2) by Steve Bein

Purchased from Bookbale:
Alien Influences by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Iterations by Robert J. Sawyer
Ivory (Birthright #14) by Mike Resnick
Lights in the Deep by Brad R. Torgersen
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
Ocean by Brian Herbert and Jan Herbert
Their Majesties’ Bucketeers (North American Confederacy #3) by L. Neil Smith
Veiled Alliances (Saga of Seven Suns #0.5) by Kevin J. Anderson

Borrowed from the Library:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Touched by an Alien (Katherine “Kitty” Kat #1) by Gini Koch

Review: Back to You by Jessica Scott

back to you by jessica scottFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: Military Romance, Contemporary Romance
Series: Coming Home #3
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Forever
Date Released: January 7, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

He’s in for the fight of his life . . .

Army captain Trent Davila loved his wife, Laura, and their two beautiful children. But when he almost lost his life in combat, something inside him died. He couldn’t explain the emptiness he felt or bridge the growing distance between him and his family-so he deployed again. And again. And again…until his marriage reached its breaking point. Now, with everything on the line, Trent has one last chance to prove to his wife that he can be the man she needs …if she’ll have him

. . . to win back his only love.

Laura is blindsided when Trent returns home. Time and again, he chose his men over his family, and she’s just beginning to put the pieces of her shattered heart back together. But when Trent faces a court martial on false charges, only Laura can save him. What begins as an act of kindness to protect his career inflames a desire she thought long buried-and a love that won’t be denied. But can she trust that this time he’s back to stay?

My Review:

Back to You is the story that everyone who has read Jessica Scott’s Coming Home series has been waiting for. And I’ll say that it was definitely worth the wait.

because of you by jessica scottTrent and Laura Davila have been part of the series from its very beginning, in the marvelous Because of You. As each of the men in Trent’s command have found their happily ever after, readers have been watching as Trent screwed up his own marriage. It’s been heartbreaking to watch, especially since it was so clear that there was much more going on than we saw in glimpses.

For one thing, Laura still loves her husband. She just doesn’t believe in him anymore. It’s not just what he’s done, it’s also what he hasn’t done, and hasn’t said.

She had no idea that Trent was volunteering for back-to-back deployments in combat zones. He let her believe that they were assignments he couldn’t refuse. Finding out the truth is Laura’s last straw; or maybe the next to the last.

The accusation of sexual misconduct is absolutely the last.

It’s pretty clear to followers of the series (and if you’re not, start!) that Trent isn’t guilty of that crime, or the embezzlement and theft charges that are also laid at his door. There is a rotten apple in Trent’s command, but he isn’t it.

But Trent withdraws from every friend he has during the investigation, and Laura decides she’s lost her faith, and her trust. She doesn’t know what to believe, since Trent isn’t talking to her.

She believes that she deserves more, even if it’s apart.

But Laura’s request for a divorce finally slams home the idea that Trent has a partner he still wants to come home to–if he can win her back.

It will be the hardest battle he’s ever been in.

ill be home for christmas by jessica scottEscape Rating A+: Back to You is a story that lives up to the anticipation that precedes it. Reading the previous stories in the series (Because of You, Anything for You, Until There Was You and I’ll Be Home for Christmas) we’ve known that this story was waiting to be told.

Like every story in this series, Back to You tugs at your heartstrings, and makes you reach for tissue. But there’s more to it than that.

This is a powerful and moving second-chance at love story, between two people who almost lost each other. The reason that Laura files for divorce resonates; she needs to know that she’s waiting for someone who wants to come back. She expected that Trent would be deployed, but she has the right to the truth about why it keeps happening. He keeps breaking her heart, but she doesn’t get to heal. So she finally decides to walk away.

While the court martial hangs over the story, it serves more as a catalyst than an actual threat. It forces Trent to make decisions about what is really important to him; his pride, his grief and his silence, or his wife and children.

It’s a hard journey. The grief and the feelings of responsibility, PTSD and survivors’ guilt, that Trent has to work through make the reader feel for his struggle. His re-entry into his family’s life is incredibly difficult. He wants to be there again, but he doesn’t know how.

The need to present a united family front in the face of his court martial bring all the simmering issues to a boil.

The romance in this love story is about whether they can find a way back to each other. They’ve never stopped loving each other. Their journey back is something special.

If you enjoy military romance, read this series.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Series Shakedown: Terran Times by Viola Grace

STARBREAKERFor thousands of years, aliens have been coming to Earth, waging war over our most precious resource: easily breed-able human women. They appear in our mythology as shapeshifters, vampires, dragons, demons, angels, fae, merfolk, and any manner of other supernatural creatures.

In the Not Too Distant Future, Star Fleet The Alliance will take steps to protect humanity from continued exploitation. Two thousand Terran Volunteers shall be selected to travel forth into the universe, as ambassadors for our planet, earning Earth a full-fledged induction into Star Fleet The Alliance. These are their stories. 

Today, dear readers, we are in luck, because I just so happened to get my hands on a copy of the first draft of The Terran Volunteer Application. Do you want adventure? To travel the stars? To seek out new life and….dance? Well then look no further!

Congratulations! If you answered "yes" to most of the above, you have been selected as a Terran Volunteer!
Congratulations! If you answered “yes” to most of the above, you have been selected as a Terran Volunteer!

Viola Grace has written somewhere in the realm of 100 short stories detailing the sexcapades of the 2,000 women who completely voluntarily relinquished all their rights to an ineffective and inconsistently-written alien governing body. (Why? Because.)

ScorcherThese women go out into the universe fully aware that at any moment they will be ordered to reproduce, that they will have no say in their breeding partner, and no guaranteed rights to the product of the mandated union (unless it’s female, then they are shuffled off to some alien backwater to live in anonymity).

No form of reproductive choice exists. In the event an unintentional (as in, not ordered by the government) pregnancy occurs, the fetus can be transferred to the father and brought to term through other means without the mother’s knowledge or consent. Of course, such advanced technology cannot be utilized to just have the women make an egg donation and let the government match up compatible cross-breeds in the lab. What kind of crazy talk is this? The contract requires that you pass on your DNA in the most physically, psychologically, and emotionally traumatic way imaginable.

EnthralledIf that’s not repugnant enough for you, the volunteers are constantly subjected to genetic, surgical, psychic, and technological body modifications. These are not conducted for the benefit of the individual, but rather the convenience of their employer and/or breeding partner.

Consent? Hah! Informed consent? LOL! That’s a good one! You humans and your ridiculous conceptions of basic rights and liberties. Why would you want those when you can fly around in space ships, meet aliens, and then be raped in the spaceships by those aliens? (Character motivation? What’s that?)

Do you have a feel for the quivering spineless cookie-cutter series protagonists? The collection of women who have no fucking self-respect or brain power? (They sign the damn contract, and are stunned when it’s enforced. What the fuck did they think would happen?) These are first humans to galavant around the universe.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Viola Grace shares the Jack Harkness view of space exploration (so many species, so little time…). Which means she doesn’t bother with things like plot or world-building to compensate for her pathetic protagonists. Why plot when you can play Terran Times Sex Bingo?

Viola Grace BingoTo be fair, I have no proof she plays Bingo to to write her stories. It could be a dartboard. Or dice.

JailedNotice the high probability of a story consisting of nothing but slavery, forced sex, and forced breeding? That’s because the only over-arching series-long plot is slavery and sex-trafficking. Each and every story will mention how humans are a protected species that can not be enslaved. The irony of making such statements to a person who has enslaved you, roofied you, bought sole rights to your reproductive system, is forcing you to marry him, trapped you on his planet where you have no rights, or plans to do any of this above, is apparently lost every character in the series. (It’s like poachers talking about how much trouble they’ll get into for hunting endangered species while they are selling the fur and meat.)

This is not a science fiction romance series. This is a goddamn rapeathon. A rapeathon where the women all ultimately enjoy and embrace the assault, coercion, force, or deceit.

The author appears to be doing well enough with these mini-monstrosities. She’s set herself up to write another 1,900 of them. That’s 1,900 more women (usually virgins) who have no agency, and yet will “decide” to overlook the sexual assault in favor of bright skin colors, pretty hair, and prehensile cocks.

Some of you may see the decent ratings on goodreads, short length, and think “hmm, this might be a good intro for my friend who loves romance/science fiction, but doesn’t really read science fiction/romance.” Do not make this mistake. I can assure you, there is neither science fiction, nor romance, to be found in The Terran Times/Chronicles of Terra. Just rape and mythological creatures and superheroes called aliens. For reasons.

Escape Rating: F for are you out of your fucking mind?!

*My apologies to Nalini Singh for being so harsh last year. I take it all back. I’ll upgrade you to a C, and read your next book to make it up to you.

 

Review: After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

after i'm gone by laura lippmanFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: Hardcover, Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: February 11, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette “Bambi” Gottschalk at a Valentine’s Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative-if not all legal-businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi’s comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes.

Though Bambi has no idea where her husband-or all of his money-might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she’s left to join her old lover-until her remains are eventually found in a secluded wooded park.

Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealously, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women: a faithful wife, a dead mistress, and three very different daughters. And at the center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.

Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

My Review:

I haven’t read any of Laura Lippman’s previous books, because I didn’t want to start a series seven books in. But lots of people have recommended her Tess Monaghan series, and if it’s anywhere near as good as After I’m Gone, now I know why.

After I’m Gone is both a mystery and a character study. It really starts with a cold case, and then flashes back to the circumstances that set the whole chain of events off, and back to the murder being investigated.

This one has lots of interesting layers, and that’s what kept me glued to the book.

In 1976, Felix Brewer disappears, leaving behind a wife and three daughters. And a mistress. Although Felix has never been found, his disappearance isn’t the cold case–it just sets up the events.

Everybody knows that Felix disappeared so that he wouldn’t end up in jail on a federal gambling charge. He was guilty as sin.

But by 2012, Felix’ whereabouts have become secondary. Either he’s very old or he’s very dead, wherever he is.

However, his mistress, Julie Saxony, was murdered in 1986, and there is no statute of limitations on murder. Her murder is the cold case, because one retired cop turned consultant is haunted by her face.

In the present, the point of view is Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, an ex-cop who helps the Baltimore Police Department close old cases. (He reminds me a lot of the cold case squad in the British police mystery series, New Tricks, except that Sandy is one-man band, not a squad.)

Sandy knows that everything in Julie’s murder has to hinge on Felix Brewer’s long-ago disappearance. Even though Julie had a successful restaurant, the most important thing in her life was that she was Felix’ girl.

So who wanted her dead? And why? In his investigation, Sandy goes back over the old ground, and interviews everyone left alive who knew Felix or Julie. His questions revolve around whether Julie was in touch with Felix, and whether any of the other women abandoned by Felix, his wife, his daughters, still wanted to see her dead for the old betrayal.

Sandy’s mantra in every cold case is that “the name is in the file”. There are 800 pages of names in this particular file, but he’s right that one of them is the culprit. Figuring out who, and more importantly why, tears apart the world of every single person that Felix left behind.

Escape Rating A-: Even though After I’m Gone is definitely a mystery, the story is all about diving into the motives and the history of the various personalities. Even though the “whodunnit” is important, it’s figuring out the why that’s so fascinating.

Because it’s all tied up in the people.

Even though Felix’ disappearance is what links all the characters, the story is all about his wife and daughters; who they became, how they survived, the way that Felix’ disappearance and the subsequent collapse of the family finances, ruled their lives. They are all still Felix’ girls, even though Felix is long gone.

No one really moves on from the catastrophe; not his friends, and certainly not his family. Blaming his mistress for everything that goes wrong is all part of the family coping mechanism. But with the discovery of her death, they are forced to change some of that story. Julie clearly didn’t join Felix wherever he is; she’s been dead almost as long as he’s been gone.

So what happened? All the women in Felix’ life had motives for killing the mistress, but the more Sandy delves into events, the less sense that seems to make. Sandy’s dogged determination to discover the truth upsets a lot of applecarts.

And Sandy’s own story is worth following as well. He’s every bit as interesting to the reader as all the characters in Felix’ drama. Sandy’s own story is revealed through the course of the investigation, and the reader can’t help but feel for him, in the same way that he feels for the women he’s investigating.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Sandy as the investigator again.

One quibble about the book; it uses a lot of flashbacks, from 1959 to 1976 to 1986 to 2012 and back again, over and over as the layers of the case are revealed. It was occasionally a bit confusing trying to figure out which part of the timeline the narrative was in, but it all came together beautifully in the end.

TLC
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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.