Review: Ménage with the Muse by Nico Rosso

menage with the muse by nico rossoFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: paranormal romance
Series: Demon Rock, #3
Length: 180 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: August 4, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

What happens when two very different satyr rock stars find their Muse…and discover it’s the same woman?

Musician Mia Dillon’s having the week of her life. Sharing the stage with the world’s biggest acts at a hedonistic festival is a rush, but she discovers new thrills as she frees her sensual side. A brief flirtation with sexy drummer Wolfgang quickly escalates as they lose themselves in wild music and the desert heat.

And then there’s Ethan. Silent, almost samurai-like, he’s the best guitarist she’s ever seen. He’s broken out of his quiet reserve just for her.

But Wolfgang and Ethan share two secrets. One: they’re demons. Two: they’re starving. The ancient rules of demons have shifted and if they don’t feed soon, the lights will go out for good. Mia’s energy has marked her as The One…for both of them.

Mia’s never had two men—let alone two demons—at once. Nobody’s heard of demons sharing a Muse, either. But the three of them make a sexual melody unlike anything else. Mia’s never felt so alive, but with the enemy growing closer by the minute, it will take everything Wolfgang and Ethan have to keep her that way.

My Review:

Read this one with a fan. Or be sure to have the air conditioning on, and yes, I know its supposed to be Fall.

Heavy Metal Heart by Nico RossoFor that matter, read this whole series with a fan for coolth, starting with Heavy Metal Heart (reviewed here), and then straight into Slam Dance with the Devil (review).

Every time I read a book in this series, I can’t help but hear Bob Seger singing “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” both for the beat and for the sentiment, even though, in the case of these rock and roll demons, its they who can’t forget the music.

They try to make sure that the music forgets them, because they’ve been playing forever–since music really was rock; rocks beating against sticks, skins, or even just other rocks.

These musicians are the demons that were created when humankind sang and danced around the first fires, when both the demons and humankind and even the world itself were young.

These rockers are the best in the world, because they’ve had thousands of years of practice. But the party might finally be over.

In this alternate (or perhaps just under the radar) rock opera, there’s a legend of the Muse. The one woman for each demon who can become part of their world, and who can absorb the energy of the crowd just like they can. Or even better.

But there’s a catch (there’s always a catch). Once a demon finds his muse, he can only feed off the energy of the crowd if she’s on stage with him. Once he finds her, he’ll die without her.

Muses were only legends, even myths among these mythological beings, until one demon found his muse. Then another. Their world is changing, and their enemies are trying to prevent that change.

Into the middle of the legend, one woman with a heart of rock and roll comes to a music festival to make her own legend–and steps into the middle of a myth that is older than time. Mia Dillon arrives at the Ocatillo festival intending to share the stage with rock and roll’s finest.

And it so happens. But Mia also finds herself pulled into the arms of two legends; Wolfgang and Ethan. Wolfgang is the drummer for one of the biggest bands in the world, and Ethan is a wanderer who never stays with any group, either of musicians or people. Until Mia binds the three of them together.

But once they’ve found each other, can they work out what they are, together? And can Ethan finally come in from the wandering cold?

slam dance with the devil by nico rossoEscape Rating B-: In my review of Slam Dance with the Devil, I said that the Demon Rock series was every bit as hot as Olivia Cunning’s Sinners on Tour series, but without the threesomes. I should have said something about just waiting for the threesomes, because here Menage with the Muse delivers an intense one.

The story in this installment of the Demon Rock series is primarily about Wolfgang, Ethan and Mia finding a way that they fit together. There isn’t anything in the muse legend about one woman being the muse for two demons simultaneously. Both Wolfgang and Ethan spend the first part of the book thinking that she must be the other one’s muse, because things don’t quite fit right (and I don’t mean that in the “tab A into slot B” sense, either). They can’t figure out how the relationship works, how one muse can feed two demons..

I’m not saying they fight over her, or that she doesn’t have a choice. It’s ALL Mia’s choice. The two guys keep trying to get out of each other’s way, and it’s up to Mia to knock their heads together and take them both on. What makes it more difficult is that Ethan has always been a wanderer. Not just that he travels, but that he can’t stand to be with people. If there was ever an extremely introverted rock and roller, it’s Ethan.

His adjustment, not so much to being a member of a ménage but of having to reintegrate back into society is almost as difficult as Mia’s adjustment to becoming part of the demon world.

Although Mia has one battle with the evil Philosophers and their minions (mostly the minions) the three of them put the forces of joyless order into flight pretty fast.

Read this one to see a really kick-ass rocker take charge of her life and her men, with lots of hot sex and a “you are there” feeling of a rock festival in a ghost town. And remember what I said about the fan!

***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: Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh

Rock Addiction by Nalini SinghFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Rock Kiss, #1
Length: 356 pages
Publisher: TKA Distribution
Date Released: September 9, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

A bad boy wrapped in a sexy, muscled, grown-up package might be worth a little risk…

Molly Webster has always followed the rules. After an ugly scandal tore apart her childhood and made her the focus of the media’s harsh spotlight, she vowed to live an ordinary life. No fame. No impropriety. No pain. Then she meets Zachary Fox, a tattooed bad boy rocker with a voice like whiskey and sin, and a touch that could become an addiction.

A one-night stand with the hottest rock star on the planet, that’s all it was meant to be…

Fox promises scorching heat and dangerous pleasure, coaxing Molly to extend their one-night stand into a one-month fling. After that, he’ll be gone forever, his life never again intersecting with her own. Sex and sin and sensual indulgence, all with an expiration date. No ties, no regrets. Too late, Molly realizes it isn’t only her body that’s become addicted to Fox, but her heart…

My Review:

I love Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series, but I’ll admit to being ‘meh’ about the Archangels series. So I picked up Rock Addiction to see how I would feel about her writing in a non-magical contemporary romance.

The story gets jumpstarted in a way that left me wondering if my ebook had lost a few pages in the beginning. Molly and Fox’s romance begins with the instantest insta-lust I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever.

They see each other across the proverbial crowded room, and he decides to pick her up. He waylays her in the elevator and talks her into a one-night stand. It doesn’t take much talking, either. Fox is a rock star on an epic scale, and Molly is a librarian.

Being a librarian myself, the whole concept of this story has elements of wish fulfillment/fantasy; mild-mannered librarian sweeps rock god off his feet, and he whisks her away to his sex, drugs and rock and roll, over-the-top lifestyle of the rich and famous.

We librarians aren’t all mild-mannered, and neither is Molly. Also Fox doesn’t do drugs, and the life of a rock star who intends to be good to the music requires a lot more rigor and dedication than an outsider might imagine, at least according to this story.

It’s hard work to be good at anything, and that includes music. Also, the constant touring is exhausting and draining, no one ever gets to really relax or be offstage and out of reach. But it’s the price they pay for the music.

Fox and Molly connect instantly on every level, including (especially including) sex. Molly gives her virginity in a one-night stand with a rock star that she never expects to see again. While Fox makes it obvious to the reader that he intends more than just one night, Molly doesn’t know that. It took way too little convincing for Molly to jump into bed with Fox under those circumstances, unless it was all about his status and not the connection.

There are a lot of sex scenes in this book, in every chapter and seemingly multiple times. To the point (for this reader) that the sex got in the way of the story. These are two people who both carry a TON of emotional baggage, and for their relationship to go even half as smoothly as it did, there seemed to be a lot of communication missing until the second half of the book.

Fox’s abandonment by his mother is only one part of the tragedy. The scandal that surrounded the end of her father’s political career, criminal prosecution, and death left Molly with scars so bad that she changed her name to escape the relentless harassment and bullying.

In between all of the sex, it is sweet the way that Fox and Molly manage to overcome the scars they both have, and create a loving relationship that is capable of withstanding the relentless pressure of the media. They are attacked and hounded, and yet they still find a way to forge something strong and beautiful.

The second half of the book, showing the way that they manage to find a way through, together, was both hot and extremely romantic.

Escape Rating B+: The second half of the book is stronger than the first. By that point, Molly and Fox are actually communicating enough out of bed for the reader to believe that they are building a relationship. We see them work through their issues and the adversity that threatens them, and are able to root for them to make it together.

We are also able to see the way the Molly and Fox’s relationship builds a family for his entire band, and see just how much the members of Schoolboy Choir care for each other, and rely on each other. The glimpses into the relationship between drummer David and Molly’s sister Thea are tantalizing. I can’t wait to read their full story in Rock Courtship.

I also hope that we will someday get the full story behind whatever is going on with Molly’s best friend Charlie and her boss, T-Rex. While a relationship between a boss and his admin is a classic trope, it’s classic for a reason.

As far as Rock Addiction goes, I love the concept of normal girl gets rock star. It has a wish fulfillment aspect that is irresistible. I wish that their relationship had a little more communication in it, and not quite as many sex scenes. Each scene was individually good (terrific) and very hot, but they got in the way of the plot.

I was surprised that there was no “big bad” or truly scary and possibly break-up worthy crisis. There’s a crisis, but Molly and Fox weather it with a bit too much ease. I was glad they did, but it just didn’t seem like as much of a test as I would have expected.

But their happy ending was very special and very much earned. And I raced through the book in an afternoon in order to get there!

***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: Harbor Island by Carla Neggers + Giveaway

harbor island by carla neggersFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: romantic suspense
Series: Sharpe & Donovan, #4
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 26, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Emma Sharpe, granddaughter of world-renowned art detective Wendell Sharpe, is a handpicked member of a small Boston-based FBI team. For the past decade Emma and her grandfather have been trailing an elusive serial art thief. The first heist was in Ireland, where an ancient Celtic cross was stolen. Now the Sharpes receive a replica of the cross after every new theft—reminding them of their continued failure to capture their prey.

When Emma receives a message that leads her to the body of a woman on a small island in Boston Harbor, she finds the victim holding a small, cross-inscribed stone—one she recognizes all too well. Emma’s fiancé, FBI deep-cover agent Colin Donovan, is troubled that she’s gone off to the island alone, especially given the deadly turn the thief has taken. But as they dig deeper they are certain there is more to this murder than meets the eye.

As the danger escalates, Emma and Colin must also face do-or-die questions about their relationship. While there’s no doubt they are in love, can they give their hearts and souls to their work and have anything left for each other? There’s one thing Emma and Colin definitely agree on: before they can focus on their future, they must outwit one of the smartest, most ruthless killers they’ve ever encountered.

My Review:

Declan's Cross by Carla NeggersI was introduced to the Sharpe and Donovan series with last year’s Declan’s Cross (reviewed here), the third book in this romantic suspense/mystery series. Being a completist, I went back and read the prequel novella, Rock Point, and the first two books in the series, Saint’s Gate (review) and Heron’s Cove (review), so that I could get up to speed.

All of that catching up certainly came in handy when I got to Harbor Island, because all of the characters who have had important roles in the previous books get major parts (and have major parts of their arcs resolved) in this story. And, the quest that has been driving the entire Sharpe family of art detectives crazy for ten years also acquires some new twists and turns.

That bit is resolved, and it isn’t, both at the same time, which was pretty cool. But I’m not giving it away.

Sharpe and Donovan are two FBI agents who fell in love while investigating a murder. Both Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan are Mainers, but Emma Sharpe grew up in middle-class Heron’s Cove, while Colin Donovan spent his childhood in the rough and tumble fishing village of Rock Island.

Emma’s family are well-respected and relatively well-to-do art detectives. Colin’s family were fishermen and innkeepers. They came to the FBI from very different roads, and have very different jobs. Emma uses her knowledge of art history to track down art thieves. Colin is an undercover agent.

When one of her art thieves turned out to be his mob boss undercover assignment, they found each other. For the moment, her art thieves have turned up so many murders that Colin has been able to have a relatively regular assignment with the Boston High Impact Team, where Emma is stationed.

Harbor Island is yet another convoluted case where Emma’s art thieves turn to murder and mayhem in both New England and olde Ireland, allowing the chase to involve their friend Sean Murphy, a senior investigator with the Garda.

The Sharpe family of art detectives has been investigating a string of high end art thefts that have been going on for ten years, starting in Sean Murphy’s patch at Declan’s Cross. When a woman starts probing that string of art thefts for a possible movie, someone turns to murder.

But no one who has ever been involved in the case thinks that it’s their thief. So who is targeting Emma, and why?

saints gate by carla neggersEscape Rating B+: There has been a large cast of fascinating characters involved in the entire Sharpe and Donovan series, and it seems like every single one of them has a part to play in Harbor Island. As much as I enjoyed Harbor Island, and I did very much, I was extremely glad that I had read the other books first. These people have a lot of intertwined relationships, and the story is better if you know who the players are and what parts they are playing. (Start with Saint’s Gate)

Emma is the primary investigator (and target) in this one. The crime seems to be wrapped up in her family’s long-running search for that mysterious thief. Not only was the first victim following in the Sharpe family footsteps, but she was poking her nose into lots of lives and secrets that no one wanted revealed–even in a fictionalized version.

As the victim’s last movements are traced from Boston to LA to Maine to Ireland and back, it seems as if she stirred up multiple hornet’s nests; accusing relatively innocent parties of being the notorious thief, and alienating her family with her relentless pursuit of her project, intending to use someone else’s money to make it happen.

There’s always a question, did the thief kill her, did she expose something else she shouldn’t have, or did her family finally explode? The answers are a surprise.

And in the background, we have a forbidden love story simmering, and the second chance at a happy ending for an estranged married couple, mixed with a fascinating exploration of art and murder.

~~~~~~TOURWIDE~~~~~~

We’re giving away a copy of Harbor Island to one lucky (U.S.) commenter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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 9-7-14

Sunday Post

The Light Up the Night giveaway is already over, and the No Limits giveaway still has a week to run. The shortest and the longest. (I confess, that longest one happened because of an “Oops!” in Rafflecopter.)

Next week, I have a couple of rock star romances, (I didn’t realize I nearly had a theme going until this weekend) and a couple of non-fiction books. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is  the number one pick in the Library Reads! books for September, and I heard the author speak at the ALA conference.

I chose No Place to Hide for 9/11 because, well, reasons. You’ll see in the review.

Current Giveaways:

No Limits by Lori Foster (U.S. only)

bees by laline paullBlog Recap:

Labor Day 2014
A Review: The Bees by Laline Paull
A- Review: Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb
C+ Review: The Bully of Order by Brian Hart
B+ Review: Light Up the Night by M.L. Buchman + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (103)

 

 

No Place to Hide by Glenn GreenwaldComing Next Week:

Harbor Island by Carla Neggers (blog tour review)
Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh (review)
Ménage with the Muse by Nico Rosso (review)
No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald (review)
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty (review)

Stacking the Shelves (103)

Stacking the Shelves

I don’t know why it makes me feel better when I get to the end of the week and only have a short stack; I already have so many books to read that I probably won’t finish in my lifetime.

Hello, my name is Marlene and I’m a biblioholic.

Speaking of things I’m looking forward to getting around to, Humble Bundle has yet another book bundle, and this time it’s Star Trek comics. If you like Trek, it’s definitely worth checking out.

For Review:
Gray Bishop (Cornerstone Run #2) by Kelly Meade
Heart Fire (Celta’s Heartmates #13) by Robin D. Owens
The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister
Only Enchanting (Survivor’s Club #4) by Mary Balogh
Say Yes to the Marquess (Castles Ever After #2) by Tessa Dare

Purchased:
Black Rook (Cornerstone Run #1) by Kelly Meade
Humble Star Trek Bundle

Borrowed from the Library:
Up at Butternut Lake (Butternut Lake #1) by Mary McNear

Review: Light Up the Night by M.L. Buchman + Giveaway

light up the night by ml buchmanFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: military romance
Series: The Night Stalkers, #5
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Date Released: September 2, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Name: Trisha O’Malley
Rank: Second Lieutenant and AH-6M “Little Bird” Pilot
Mission : Take down Somali pirates, and deny her past

Name: William Bruce
Rank: Navy SEAL Lieutenant
Mission : Rescue hostages, and protect his past-against all comers

They both have something to hide
When hotshot SOAR helicopter pilot Trisha O’Malley rescues Navy SEAL Bill Bruce from his undercover mission in Somalia, it ignites his fury. Everything about Trisha triggers his mistrust: her elusive past, her wild energy, and her proclivity for flying past safety’s edge. Even as the heat between them turns into passion’s fire, Bill and Trisha must team up to confront their pasts and survive Somalia’s pirate lords.

My Review:

Trisha O’Malley may fly a different type of helicopter from the rest of the crew that we’ve met in The Night Stalkers series, but she brings the same kind of dedication, drive and skill to her “Little Bird” that previous team members have carried to their positions on the big DAP Black Hawk helicopters that are the SOAR trademark.

Trisha’s “Little Bird” helicopter may be tiny, but its sole purpose on the mission is to rain death and destruction on its enemies. The weaponized version barely has enough space for a pilot and co-pilot, and the space is only spacious enough when they fly with the doors off.

Trisha herself is a smaller package than the previous women of SOAR, but that package is an ace helicopter pilot and a martial arts expert. She’s small and mighty. Mighty enough to hold her own in a fight with the 6’2” Navy SEAL she rescues in Somalia.

Billy Bruce starts out just plain mad that she pulled him out of his embedded operation among the Somali pirates. She saw that his cover was totally blown, and dragged him out semi-attached to the outside of her bird. It wasn’t until the middle of his rant aboard ship that he realized that the pilot he was yelling at was female. The first smart thing he did was to keep yelling, and not treat her any different because she looked like a pixie.

Neither of them wants a relationship, which doesn’t stop them from exploring the crazy chemistry between them. It starts out being easier that they are both Lieutenants but from different services; he’s Navy and she’s Army. It adds a friendly rivalry to the beginning of their story, and keeps them from violating the anti-frat regs.

But when Billy has to rush home for his mother’s funeral, and Trisha faces her own crisis of faith, they support each other in choppy emotional waters that bind them together. Even as the fear of how much it will hurt when the military inevitably sends them in different directions threatens to tear them apart before they can truly explore what they have.

In the midst of a dangerous hostage rescue, in the middle of the Somali desert, they discover that what they have is just one more reason for them to fight. Not with each other, but together against the odds.

night is mine by ml buchmanEscape Rating B+: The entire Night Stalkers series (start with The Night is Mine, reviewed here) is terrifically fun adrenaline-packed romance. If you want military romance packed with excitement both between the sheets and on the field of battle, this series is a winner.

Trisha has some elements of the character of Emily Beale, who was the heroine of The Night is Mine and was the first woman in SOAR. She is also Trisha’s role model. But they share something else in that both Trisha and Emily are children of privileged backgrounds, and both of them had mothers who desperately tried to mold them into more traditional female roles, and failed.

The difference is that Trisha spent her teenage years running with a gang in South Boston, and then coming home to her cushy but stifling upper-crust home. The gang taught her survival skills, got her started in martial arts, and helped her become a strong survivor.

Billy is from an even more streetwise background. The death of his father in the disastrous military operation at Mogadishu pushed his mother and 8-year-old self into poverty. Billy ran with some dangerous gangs until he got his revenge on the man who shot his best friend, and nearly killed Billy too.

Both these people have terrible scars, and dark secrets in their past. They’ve both learned to rely on no one but themselves, and one of the things they have to overcome is their tendency to keep secrets from each other.

On the lighter side, the humor and camaraderie of the mixed SOAR, Delta Squad and Navy crew aboard the old helicarrier create laughter and chuckles with the way that they tease and dig at each other. It was fun to see the Night Stalkers actually mingle with a bigger group, and not just hover on the fringes.

bring on the dusk by ml buchmanAnd it was an absolute pleasure to see Lola Maloney, the heroine of Take Over at Midnight (reviewed here), come into her own as an officer and as a mission commander. She does a fantastic job filling Emily Beale’s very impressive shoes.

Even though all the positions on the first Black Hawk have been both filled and partnered, I’m very happy that the author has found a way to continue the series with liaisons to the team. Which means I’m also looking forward to Bring on the Dusk, coming aboard next March.

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

M.L. Buchman and Sourcebooks Casablanca are generously giving away copies of The Night Stalkers backlist titles. (The series is awesome!) Grab an entry while you can!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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 Bully of Order by Brian Hart

bully of order by brian hartFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, hardcover
Genre: historical fiction
Length: 403 pages
Publisher: Harper
Date Released: September 2, 2014
Purchasing Info: Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Set in a logging town on the lawless Pacific coast of Washington State at the turn of the twentieth century, a spellbinding novel of fate and redemption—told with a muscular lyricism and filled with a cast of characters Shakespearean in scope—in which the lives of an ill-fated family are at the mercy of violent social and historical forces that tear them apart.

Keen to make his fortune, Jacob Ellstrom, armed with his medical kit and new wife, Nell, lands in The Harbor—a mud-filled, raucous coastal town teeming with rough trade pioneers, sawmill laborers, sailors, and prostitutes. But Jacob is not a doctor, and a botched delivery exposes his ruse, driving him onto the streets in a plunge towards alcoholism. Alone, Nell scrambles to keep herself and their young son, Duncan, safe in this dangerous world. When a tentative reunion between the couple—in the company of Duncan and Jacob’s malicious brother, Matius—results in tragedy, Jacob must flee town to elude being charged with murder.

Years later, the wild and reckless Duncan seems to be yet another of The Harbor’s hoodlums. His only salvation is his overwhelming love for Teresa Boyerton, the daughter of the town’s largest mill owner. But disaster will befall the lovers with heartbreaking consequences.

And across town, Bellhouse, a union boss and criminal rabble-rouser, sits at the helm of The Harbor’s seedy underbelly, perpetuating a cycle of greed and violence. His thug Tartan directs his pack of thieves, pimps, and murderers, and conceals an incendiary secret involving Duncan’s mother. As time passes, a string of calamitous events sends these characters hurtling towards each other in an epic collision that will shake the town to its core.

My Review:

It drove me crazy trying to figure out exactly where this book takes place. (The disadvantage of an eARC is that there is no map, even if the book has one). I think this stretch of coastline is somewhere between Gray’s Harbor and Cape Disappointment, but that covers a lot of ground.

I cared because I live in Seattle, and picked this book because it takes place in an extremely fictionalized Washington coast at the turn of the last century, around 1900. Early Seattle history is pretty damn colorful to begin with, so I wanted to see how an author would deal with making it even more picturesque. Or even possibly more picaresque.

For me, The Bully of Order is very much of a mixed feeling book. I love historical fiction, and I am always interested in the history of places I live or have lived, so this was all set up to be a two-fer; the parts of the story that aren’t in “The Harbor” (maybe Gray’s Harbor?) are set in Alaska.

The story has multiple viewpoints. Many multiple viewpoints. Narrators switch in and with regularity. And alacrity. To use an old expression, it seems as if everyone has a dog in this hunt.

There is a hunt. Multiple of them.

The story seems to be about Jacob Ellstrom and the complete mess he makes of his life and the lives of everyone around him. He comes to The Harbor with his young wife Nell, and claims to be a doctor. On the frontier, a lot of people claimed a lot of things that weren’t necessarily true “back in the States”, but a doctor is only as good as his self-confidence makes him (and the last patient he saved).

If there is one thing that Jacob Ellstrom doesn’t seem to have much of, it’s self-confidence. He lets everyone else define who he is. His wife thinks he’s a good man, but his older brother bullies him into bad behavior, including racking up massive debts and drinking to the point where he botches his medical practice.

There’s also a conspiracy of silence about his brother’s rape of Nell, Jacob’s wife. Matius Ellstrom is set up to be the embodiment of evil, and he pretty much succeeds at that. Escaping Matias, or running away instead of standing up to him, becomes the driving force in Jacob’s life, Nell’s life, and their son Duncan’s life.

The Harbor is a gritty logging boom town that the reader knows is going to bust; the omnipresent timber woods, do, in fact, run out. The town never gets civilized, and criminal lawlessness is always just one drink too many away.

The miasma that surrounds The Harbor reminds me of the dark atmosphere of Deadwood, but the storytelling in The Bully of Order isn’t nearly as clear. It definitely is just as bloody.

The story is both Jacob’s search for redemption, and Duncan’s search for retribution. At the end, it is left up to the reader to decide whether either of them achieved what they desired.

Escape Rating C+: The language used in the story is lyrical, even when (especially when) the events that are described are heading downward into an increasingly dark and complex history for the characters.

The chorus effect of the number of perspectives reminded me a bit of The Spoon River Anthology; every single person has their own part to play, and their own way of telling their particular bit. I particularly liked Kozmin the Hermit’s tale of the Russian scout who traveled with Baranov during the early days of the Russian outpost in Alaska. The Bully of Order has itself been compared to Russian literature, both in its darkness and the bleakness of its setting and story.

The Bully of Order is not a story for the faint-of-heart; bad men do bad things often for bad reasons, and if anyone escapes a terrible fate, it’s by luck and not by their actions. The Pacific Northwest was a rough and brutal place back then (true stories of the Klondike Gold Rush will make your hair stand on end), but out of that brutality arose the beautiful places that we know today.

The journey, at least as portrayed in The Bully of Order, was often a very dark and very sad one. No good deed, and very few of the bad ones, went unpunished.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***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: Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb

becoming josephine by heather webbFormat read: ebook borrowed from the library
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: historical fiction
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Plume
Date Released: December 31, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Rose Tascher sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris to trade her Creole black magic culture for love and adventure. She arrives exultant to follow her dreams of attending Court with Alexandre, her elegant aristocrat and soldier husband. But Alexandre dashes her hopes and abandons her amid the tumult of the French Revolution.

My Review:

220px-Josephine_de_Beauharnais,_Keizerin_der_FransenIn history, she’s the one we think of first when we hear the name Josephine. Her full name was Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie de Beauharnais. History refers to her as the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon is the one who named her Josephine; until they met, she referred to herself as Rose. He attempted to remake her just as he tried to remake France after the Revolution and the Terror. It is possible that he was more successful with France.

Rose/Josephine’s early life makes a great novel all by itself, even before Napoleon appears on the scene.

She was a planter’s daughter in Martinique. Her family owned a sugar plantation. Even though this made her a member of the upper crust of Martinique society, the plantation was in debt and money was tight. Her parents sent her to France to marry a rich relative, in the hopes that her husband would then save the family’s finances.

Instead, the man she married turned out to be a bigger spender than her family (and with less excuse) and eventually lost his inheritance and forced his own parents into debt. He temporarily rose with the Revolution, and then suffered an ignominious (and ultimately fatal) fall among the insanity and excesses of the Terror.

He fell under the guillotine. Rose survived several months imprisonment, but her health was broken. After her release and recovery, she met Napoleon. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But instead of a barebones historical account, the author has presented us with a livelier, and often more heartbreaking, story from Rose’s point of view. It’s her story of how she went through the first three decades of her life as Rose, and then turned herself into, or was transformed into, Napoleon’s Empress Josephine.

Ultimately we see Rose as a survivor. She’s always done the best that she can to save her family, her own children, and herself. She is a woman often alone in an age where women were financially dependent on men. So she often uses the men around her to keep herself and her children fed, clothed and housed, and ultimately to secure a future for them.

After her first bitter (and melodramatic) disappointment with her first husband, Rose doesn’t look for love. She looks for security from her many affairs, but seldom finds much. She becomes Napoleon’s Josephine initially for security. He is a boor, but he falls head over heels for her (his correspondence bears this out).

Her tragedy is that she falls for him after he has discovered that she is using him. Their relationship never recovers, and it seems that neither do they.

Escape Rating A-: We see the entire story through Rose/Josephine’s eyes. She shares her inner thoughts on her life as she lives it, and her reasons and choices. It is as if she is telling her story to the reader personally, and we live it vicariously through her eyes.

It can be difficult to make a known historical character sympathetic, especially when history has already formed its opinion.

I’ll confess to wondering at points where Rose’s descriptions of her own behavior, particularly when she is being self-sacrificing, did not make her slightly more beneficent than she was in real life. But then, when we tell stories on ourselves, we often emphasize the good we have done, and discount the self-serving.

(Rose’s stories about life under the Terror reminded me a bit of The Spymistress. Different war, but same concept, a woman living under an occupation trying to do the best she can for the prisoners of that war.)

Because this is Rose/Josephine’s personal story, we see how she treats other people, and how they treated her, through her eyes. Sometimes she is soap opera melodramatic. Sometimes she is petty and even cruel, or at least thinks those thoughts.

At the end, what we feel is how very human she was. She steps from the pages of history and comes alive.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***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 Bees by Laline Paull

bees by laline paullFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Length: 357 pages
Publisher: Ecco
Date Released: May 6, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.

But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all—daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility—enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society—and lead her to unthinkable deeds.

My Review:

I’m not so sure about the comparison in the blurb to either (or both) The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games, but if it gets people to read this marvelous book, well, it’s done its job.

The Bees is the story of a rigorously structured society where the obedient survive, everyone has their own place, and deviation, or even curiosity, is usually rewarded with death. And while the author sets the story in a beehive, among, naturally, bees, she’s really talking about us.

People.

Of course, Flora 717 and the other bees in her hive think of themselves as people, too. Everyone else that impinges on their world is either an enemy or a myth. Occasionally both.

Flora 717 is different from the other bees in her hive, who are all her sisters, daughters of the Queen, except for the very few male drones. More on them in a bit.

In a hive, only the Queen can breed. For Flora 717, it is both law and religion, and rigorously enforced by mind-numbing scent trails as well as power-hungry priestesses and ruthless Fertility Police. Flora 717 bumps and bumbles her rather large way into every rule and precept of her restrictive hive.

The hive is a place where the needs of the many are paramount, and the needs of the few or of the one have no meaning at all. There is only supposed to be the hive, and service to it.

Flora 717, as our point of view character, is different from her sisters. Something either went right or wrong in her creation, and she is larger than her sisters, and also more capable. Floras are the lowest of the low, they are the sanitation workers of the hive. They aren’t supposed to think, they aren’t supposed to be able to talk, and they are not supposed to be capable of ANY of the higher functions of the hive.

Flora 717 can not only talk, but she can sense the hive mind directly. She also has the capacity to feed the larvae in the nursery, and she is strong enough to fly out of the hive and forage for food.

The hive is in danger. Not just from possible direct attacks, but also from the changing world outside. Pollution reduces their foraging grounds. Rain makes it impossible for the foragers to even go out and find food. Life in the hive is changing, and not for the better.

As Flora 717 finds herself the object of an experiment (and not killed out of hand as an outlier) she is able to view all of the strata of life in the hive, from her lowly roots as a sanitation worker, to the dangerous and desperate freedom of the foragers.

She even briefly ascends to the heights of attending the Queen.

All of the knowledge and experience she gains makes her a leader among her own lowly Flora sisterhood. And gives her the courage to foment her own, quiet and inexorable, rebellion.

Escape Rating A: The way that the author portrays the hive’s institutions works well both as an explanation of bee behavior and as an ironic send-up of human behavior. The priestesses exploit their religious positions to accumulate power. The fertility police are brute enforcers and thugs.

And the drones, “Their Malenesses” are both funny and tragic. Their purpose in life is to die for the good of the hive. Or some other hive. But until their last, tragic flight to create a queen, they are indulged in their every whim, and their very essence makes the female bees swoon at every turn.

Yet their self-indulgence is so often their undoing, as well as the hive’s.

You wouldn’t think that you could be absolutely riveted by the supposedly proscribed (and short) life of a bee. But the story so cleverly couches real (and bloodthirsty) life in a hive into human terms that we can’t help but root for Flora 717 to survive and find a destiny that seems to be outside the proscriptions.

It both is and isn’t, in the end, but the way that it works provokes satisfaction, the sense that things change, but that it is part of the greater whole. Which for Flora 717, turns out to be as it should be.

***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.

Labor Day 2014

In the U.S. the first Monday in September is designated as a holiday. For Labor Day, a whole lot of us get the day off from, well, labor. Or at least the kind that generates a paycheck.

681px-LABOR_DAY_1942_-_NARA_-_535654

The image above is from Wikimedia Commons, and was created by the Office for Emergency Management, Office of War Information, Domestic Operations Branch for Labor Day in 1942.

Which makes it both a terrific poster and domestic war propaganda at the same time.

Also very apropos for today, over the weekend we went to MOHAI, the Seattle Museum of History and Industry. While we went for the tasty Chocolate exhibition, MOHAI has many marvelous exhibits about the industrial history of Seattle, including galleries devoted to the Seattle General Strike of 1919. Fascinating!