'Virgin River' by Robyn CARR

Melinda Monroe is recovering from the death of her husband, Mark. In a fit of grief, and in a bid to escape the pity of friends and family, Mel accepts a job offer to live rent-free in the small mountainside town of Virgin River. A certified nurse and midwife, Mel thinks that country doctoring and a laid-back atmosphere is just what her sore heart needs… but what she finds is a run-down cabin, no reception, treacherous roads, a cantankerous doctor and no Starbucks for miles and miles.

Virgin River, population 600, is not what Mel’s grieving heart needs, and she intends to beat a hasty retreat. But on her way out of town she stops in at the local (and only) pub, owned by ex-marine Jack – who wishes Mel would give his town a second chance, if only to improve the scenery (and give him a chance to get to know the sexy nurse). But it’s not the sexy bar-owner that has Mel backtracking and extending her stay in Virgin River… it’s the abandoned baby left on the doctor’s doorstep.

This book is a little hard to review. It was so-so for me, but I liked the world Robyn Carr established, and having read the blurbs of the other books I actually do look forward to further reading. 

I liked the fact that ‘Virgin River’ wasn’t an idyllic little town. True, it was beautiful and Mel gets deer in her front lawn and enjoys the mountain-sights while fly-fishing. But Carr also wrote its gritty side, giving the place a firm base in reality. There’s a town drunk called Cheryl whose only in her 20’s but has been on a steady decline since she was a teenager. There’s also a town leech called Nick who has been ‘slapped down’ by just about every woman in the town, much to the humiliation of his sweet-tempered wife, Jo. On the outskirts of town is a caravan-community of marijuana-growers, for whom the local Doctor and Mel are occasionally called upon to doctor after bawdy fighting.

Mel and Jack didn’t have a whole lot of sizzle; it was more of a slow burn. Granted, Mel was coming into the romance with a lot of baggage, her husband being dead not even a year. But I also liked the fact that Jack wasn’t a choirboy; he has a ‘friend with benefits’ in a town over, and we do get scenes with him and his sometimes-lover, so it’s not as though he does a complete 180 just because Mel walks into his bar. I liked their romance because it was a lot of give-and-take, nothing came simple and even though the slow burn was frustrating, it was completely in character for both of them.

I really liked the way that Robyn Carr dealt with Jack’s being an ex marine, and the fact that he saw a lot of combat (five wars). Jack’s military trauma is briefly touched on, but Carr deals with it in a very realistic and thoughtful way. She uses the same explanation for Jack’s coping methods as she does for Mel’s grieving – it won’t go away, it’s a part of both of them and it’s unrealistic to think that a blooming romance will suddenly act as band-aid for such problems.

One problem I had was the extra narrative by a 16-year-old boy called Ricky, who works in Jack’s bar and who Jack took under his wing years ago. It was just a little bit random, to swing between Jack and Mel’s perspective, and then suddenly read the insights of a 16-year-old boy. Ricky also has a slightly disturbing relationship going with Liz, an overly mature 14-year-old girl who wears shorts skirts and tight tops and is driving her aunt up the wall. I think Ricky might be a recurring narrative in future books, and his story might become a book in itself, but it was still strange to suddenly have his POV.

This was a good read. It’s a contemporary romance – so there is a level of predictability and expectation from the plot and ending, but I was pleasantly surprised overall. It’s not the best contemporary romance I’ve ever read, but I predict the series will get better as it goes on.

I read the blurbs of the other books in the series, and was a little cautious; because the rest of the books also have a marine Alpha-male in the lead. I was heading into ‘Virgin River’ prepared to be totally skeptical and scoffing at a 600-person town that just so happened to have plenty of hot marines on tap. Actually, Robyn Carr sets up the future romances pretty well. Jack is an ex marine from the 192^nd battalion, and once a year his old squad come and visit him and indulge in a bit of fly-fishing and deer hunting. They are clearly brothers-in-arms and it’s not too outlandish to think that such a close-knit group would extend their camaraderie to civilian life.

The other books in the series spike my interest more so than this first book. So, because I enjoyed Carr’s writing enough, and the rest of the series sounds promising, I intend to revisit ‘Virgin River’.  

2.5/5

'Goddess of the Hunt' by Tessa DARE

Lucy Waltham has been in love with Sir Tobias Aldridge ever since he mistook her for a pheasant and shot at her (he missed) and bowed his apology. Lucy has known Tobias, ‘Toby’, and her brother Henry’s other two friends, Felix and Jeremy, ever since she was 12 and they started journeying to Waltham Manor once a year for holidaying. But things have been changing of late. Henry married Marianne five years ago and now has three children. Felix married Kitty Hathaway, and for this years holiday Kitty bought along her beautiful younger sister Sophia Hathaway, who has managed to charm Toby right out from under Lucy’s nose. But not without a fight! Rumor has it that Toby intends to propose to Ms. Hathaway before their holiday ends, and Lucy intends to seduce Toby away from the angelic Sophia. But to do that she needs practice in the art of seduction, and book reading will only get her so far. So Lucy decides to practice her feminine wiles on Jeremy Trescott, Early of Kendall, and the frostiest man she’s ever known. If she can thaw Jeremy out, surely seducing Toby will be a snap.

What Lucy hasn’t counted on is her game of seduction actually working on Jeremy…

I loved this book. LOVED! I always go into romance books with a slight sense of trepidation, especially romances not written by the authors I have come to trust whole-heartedly with the hit-or-miss genre (Lisa Kleypas and Julia Quinn).

I was so pleasantly surprised by this debut novel by Tessa Dare, that I am now adding Dare to my ‘must read’ list and have already ordered the next 2 books in this series from Amazon.

Above all else in this book I loved the female lead, Lucy, most of all. Female protagonists make or break a romance novel. I’m not a fan of reading about effortlessly beautiful women for whom men and relationships are in abundance and they’re wealthy to boot. Lucy is a fantastic leading lady; she’s a 19-year-old clumsy, spirited tomboy at the precipice of womanhood and utterly under qualified to deal with the seductive course she has set out for herself;

What was it about helplessness men found so attractive? She supposed they must enjoy the illusion of superiority. Well, Lucy did not feel the least bit helpless or inferior, and her pride rebelled against the notion of feigning either state.

Is this a feminist ahead of her time or what? Sometimes when regency romance authors set out to write a strong-willed female protagonist, they do so at the expense of believability. Often times a female lead’s fiery independence is utterly misplaced in an 18^th century setting, skewing the entire novel. But Lucy’s independent streak is explained by the setting. She is exerting her wanton liberty amongst friends – a group of men (including her brother) whom she has known since she was 12 years old and followed along on fishing expeditions and hunting trips.

Furthermore, her beguiling innocence is further explained by her brother’s lack of interest in exerting any real strictness with her, presenting her to the Ton or even letting her ‘come out’ in society balls. There is a level of obliviousness to Lucy that’s completely charming (for readers and Jeremy both) and also a little heart-rending. It’s gut-wrenching to read about the emotional blows she feels when she is forced to watch her childhood crush lavish another woman with his affections.

Aside from a fantastic female lead, ‘Goddess of the Hunt’ works so well because it’s so simple. There’s no convoluted plot revolving around matters of mistaken identity or life-and-death situations. It’s a refreshingly simple plot that is wholly focused on the romance between Lucy and Jeremy. There is a level of predictability (it is a romance after all) but the journey is so much fun you really don’t mind the inevitability of the destination.

The romance is steamy. What Lucy lacks in experience, she makes up for in enthusiasm - and her heated exchanges with Jeremy are sometimes funny, but definitely smoldering. There is a certain wardrobe-tryst that gave me tingles (in between my toes!) to read. Not since C.S. Lewis has a wardrobe held such fascination. There is only one 'but' and that is Jeremy's supposed rakish behavior back in London. It's not mentioned until further in the book that Jeremy has enjoyed quite a bit of female companionship in his time - but until that was explicitly stated I was sort of imagining Jeremy as a slightly more modest man. Not a monk or a virgin by any means, but I wasn't really getting the 'rake' vibe from him.

I also loved this book because the narrative is so clear. It happens a lot in romance novels, but I really hate it when there’s no ellipsis or chapter to cut up the narrative voice, and the POV changes halfway through a paragraph. In ‘Goddess of the Hunt’ the narrative voice swings between Jeremy and Lucy and they switch every few chapters or so. Dare has written two very strong characters in Jeremy and Lucy, so much so that I think the book could even have worked if we’d never had Jeremy’s insights, and just had his mannerisms, and veiled comments to go on. But Jeremy’s increasing infatuation is so much fun to read amidst Lucy’s naiveté.

My one complaint is that the ending is a little drawn-out. It borders on redundant and ridiculous when Lucy hosts a grand party for Jeremy’s tenants to win him the popularity vote… but it’s a small complaint on my part.

I have to say a big thank-you to Mandi of Smexy Books fame for reviewing this book, thereby prompting me to check it out.

5/5

'Blue Bloods' by Melissa De La Cruz

From the BLURB:

Schuyler Van Alen is a freshman at the prestigious Duchesne School. A loner by nature, she finds her life thrown into turmoil when she turns 15. Suddenly she is allergic to the sun, craves raw food, and if she cuts herself, her blood is blue. Schuyler has no idea what is happening to her. As more and more curious things happen, Schuyler must confront her family and friends to discover the truth behind her blue blood. But there are bigger problems soon to be faced. When a girl in school is found dead, with mysterious bite marks on her neck, Schuyler is more confused than ever about her heritage…and her destiny.

This is the first book in Melissa De La Cruz’s YA vampire series ‘Blue Bloods’. The story is Gossip Girl meets Vampire Academy, with a fantastic premise. De La Cruz has story-mapped a very different vampire mythology based around the Roanoke Colony. Settled in the Virginia Colony in the late 16^th century, there are many urban legends surrounding the Roanoke colony whose inhabitants disappeared shortly after settlement. ‘Blue Bloods’ is De La Cruz’s own take on what happened to that disappearing colony, namely that they were a group of vampires.

De La Cruz’s vampire mythology is unique, detailed, and actually kind of plausible. Based around the idea of ‘Regenerative Memory Syndrome’ – whereby vampires live in one-hundred year cycles, after which their body dies but their memories and ‘soul’ live on to be regenerated in another lifespan. It gives whole new meaning to déjà vu.

Despite having a great premise and wonderful vampire back-story, De La Cruz’s novel suffers from hasty explanations and unnecessary narration.

‘Blue Bloods’ has three main narrators. Schuyler Van Alen is the Duchesne School outcast – she wears baggy op-shop clothes, is stick-thin with blue/black hair and she refuses to conform to the expectations of Queen Bee Mimi Force. Mimi is the other narrator; she’s a cutthroat mean girl with an unhealthy obsession over her brother, Jack; her new best friend describes Mimi as a ‘beautiful monster’. Bliss Llewyn is the third narrator; she is new money from Texas, and Mimi’s reluctant minion.

Schuyler is very much a Mary-Sue character. Despite being the school outcast, De La Cruz can’t help pointing out her stunning good looks. So beautiful is Schuyler (described by a model scout as being the next Kate Moss!) that at the age of 15 she lands a Time Square billboard for a new range of denim jeans du jour. Gag.

Mimi is the real stand out character. Villains are so much scarier when they closely resemble real life, and everyone has crossed paths with a mean girl at least once. Reading about Mimi’s blessed life is so fascinatingly egocentric that it makes for a great read. The same reason Blair Waldorf’s ‘Gossip Girl’ character is begrudgingly beloved, is the same reason Mimi’s POV is so interesting to read.

The narration that doesn’t flow is Bliss’s. The novel would have worked a lot better if we were given just Schuyler and Mimi’s opposing narrations – light and dark, good and evil. Throwing Bliss’s words into the mix makes the narration a bit clunky, because Bliss is neither a total goody two-shoes like Schuyler, nor a bully like Mimi – she’s middle of the road and boring.

‘Blue Bloods’ fell flat for me mostly because De La Cruz rushed the explanations and did a slap-dash conclusion.

Around about page 144 (roughly half-way through) the entire vampire explanation is given to the chosen Duchesne students by having them attend a lecture. Despite the fact that until this point Bliss and Schuyler have been experiencing strange flash-backs to past lives, have noticed their veins becoming darker and are developing an appetite for raw meat, the big reveal is given in a student/lecture setting. Boring!

I can’t give too much away, but the murder mystery running throughout the book is also hastily dealt with, making for an entirely unsatisfying ending.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. The vampire mythology is fantastic and highly original, it’s just a shame that De La Cruz couldn’t deliver the goods with plot and narration.

I probably won’t bother reading the rest of this series.

2/5

'Howling at the Moon' by Karen MACINERNEY

It had been a heck of a day. My mom was in jail for murder. For the first time, I’d seen and been identified by another werewolf – a gorgeous one, to be sure, but still a werewolf. And let’s not forget the cute little poem on my desk, which meant somebody was about to let the cat – or in this case, the wolf – out of the bag. (page 32)

Sophie Garou is a 28-year-old accountant living in Austin, Texas. She’s a normal girl with a fantastic lawyer boyfriend called Heath, a slightly eccentric occult mother, a penchant for Kate Spade handbags and once a month she turns into a werewolf. Sophie’s mother enjoyed a year long Paris rendezvous with a handsome werewolf who had to split once Sophie was born, never to be seen or heard from again. As a result Sophie is totally in the dark about her wolfy side – she drinks wolfsbane to control her changes and limit them to once a month, she could buy stock in Gilette razors and she’s never actually met another werewolf. Until one day she drives by a very scrumptious male werewolf on the street, who holds her gaze and leaves her panting. But she doesn’t get a chance to dwell on sexy fantasies, because her mother has been hauled to jail, accused of poisoning and killing a councilman with her love potion. And on top of all that, someone is sending Sophie wolfsbane and silver bullets.

This book was all pretty so-so for me. It’s not a terribly original Urban Fantasy plotline – urban werewolf tries to retain normalcy and humanity without letting her nearest and dearest see her hairy side. The stakes are heightened by the subplot about her mother being accused of murder and the anonymous care-packages that could blow-the-lid on her secret identity. But Karen MacInerney doesn’t utilize the subplots – and instead has Sophie waddling along, trying to prove her mother’s innocence with gumshoe detective work that ends up dragging.

The other half of the plot is supposed to be the ‘romance’ centered around the mysterious werewolf Sophie spots on the street. But MacInerney let’s that drag into boredom too. Sophie spends more time lusting after Tom than spending any actual time with him. Her lustful fantasies are legitimized by the fact that it’s close to the equinox and her time of the month, so there’s a certain animal magnetism. I can see that the author has tried to make Tom a bit of an enigma; he drops little hints to Sophie about him being packless, a ‘lone wolf’ and a gun for hire in the werewolf community. MacInerney also repeatedly describes Tom’s bulging biceps, golden hair and snug-fitting jeans, in an attempt to justify Sophie’s fascination. But it all falls flat; Tom is interesting and as a reader I wanted to read more about him, but MacInerney wrote so few scenes with him and Sophie interacting that all the lustful build-up was for nothing. I was so sure all of Sophie’s fantasizing about Tom was leading to a heated confrontation – I was thoroughly disappointed when it all came to nothing but two kisses.

I’ll admit extensive reading of the genre has turned me into an Urban Fantasy snob. A UF connoisseur, if you will. ‘Howling at the Moon’ just doesn’t live up to other books in its genre. Carrie Vaughn does it better with her ‘Kitty Norville’ series, and Patricia Briggs does it best with ‘Mercy Thompson’.

1.5/5

'Cracked up to be' by Courtney SUMMERS

From the BLURB:

Perfect Parker Fadley isn't so perfect anymore. She's quit the cheerleading squad, she's dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she's failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she's playing games.but what they don't know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn't something she can say out loud. It isn't even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody--be totally alone--then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.

This is one of the best Young Adult novels I have ever read.

Parker is a prickly character, and I’m not sure why I liked her so much. She has a biting wit that she mostly turns on new head cheerleader, and former frenemy, Becky. Becky was a hanger-on to Parker’s popular posse, but has since stepped up to become ‘Parker Lite’. At one point Parker makes this dry observation about Becky;

I’ve never met a girl so content to be a growth.

Parker is a bitch, and I don’t know why I found her so endearing, but I did. So do most of the characters in the book – new boy Jake doesn’t understand why he likes her so much, but he does. Her ex-boyfriend is still in love with her; despite the fact that she stole $300 from him during the worst phase of her teenage rebellion melt down. Her parents are clinging to the hope that once a week meetings with the guidance counsellor will set their honour-role daughter back on track. Even Becky still begrudgingly turns to Parker for cheer advice. As a reader it’s difficult to understand why so many people are still holding out hope for Parker, despite her thorny behavior. Parker is just as curious. Through her narrative we learn that Parker meticulously planned her alienation from friends and family – and she’s a little shocked that it’s not yet working.

Granted, Parker doesn’t do anything too hellish, and her self-destructive behaviour occurred before the events of the book take place. As readers we are left in the wake of Parker’s failed suicide attempt, when she is determined to at least graduate from high school and leave it all behind.

Through Parker’s narrative we are also offered snatches of flash back to a night months ago that was the catalyst for Parker’s downward spiral, and the morose atmosphere of her High School.

This is Courtney Summers debut novel and the reason it’s such a good YA book is that it doesn’t talk down to its audience. Parker plays the school guidance counsellor like a violin, and Summers wisely refrains from writing any scenes that have such bandaids work miracles on Parker’s damaged psyche. And she is damaged; readers will deduce this much from Parker’s subtle narrative slip-up’s and character mannerisms. While it may be easy enough for readers to discern Parker’s problems, the brilliance is that Parker herself is forcefully unaware. This makes for fascinating reading as we watch scenes of Parker’s manifesting neurosis and witness characters around her start to pick up on her problems.

Summers also writes very successful flash back scenes. Sometime the ‘flash back’ can be a contrived piece of lazy writing, but Summers puts it to good use, letting it play like a rewind button. Small triggers set off the same memory for Parker, and she replays said memory again and again… gradually lengthening the scenes as she comes closer and closer to an unknown precipice.

This book can perhaps be best summed up in a question Jake poses to Parker during one of their reluctant heart-to-heart’s;

“How do you get to be an eighteen-year-old who’s done something so unimaginably horrible it can’t be fixed? I mean, seriously?”

Another reason this YA book is so good. Summers firmly grounds her plot and characters in reality. Be warned, there are no happy endings, no clean-cut resolutions and Parker’s secret is exactly as bad as she imagines it to be. That’s not to say there isn’t a moral backbone to this book, or a lesson to be learned. There is, Summers has just written it in such a way that’s not preachy, contrived or over-wrought.

5/5

'An Echo in the Bone' by Diana GABALDON

Book #7 in Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’ series starts where ‘A breath of snow and ashes’ left off. The big house on Fraser’s Ridge having burnt down, Jamie and Claire are preparing to set sail for Scotland to retrieve Jamie’s printing press from Edinburgh and present young Ian to his mother at Lallybroch. Jamie and Ian are also keeping a weary eye open for Arch Bug, who is still lurking around the Ridge with his wife, Murdina, in search of the Cameron gold…

‘Echo’ is told from several POV’s - Jamie and Claire’s, as has been the tradition since ‘Outlander’. Brianna and Roger have narrated since their appearance in ‘Voyager’, and in ‘Echo’ they tell their story from the year 1980 where they reside in Lallybroch. John Grey also lends his voice, offering a very different perspective from the British intelligence side of the war – more a battle of wits, connections and subterfuge than sword and musket.

New narration is lent by young Ian – whose story until ‘Echo’ has been shrouded in mystery, only briefly revealed in an exchange with Brianna from ‘A death of snow and ashes’ when he lamented his time with the Indian tribe and his ex-wife, Emily.

Also new to the stories narration is William, Lord Ellesmere. William is Jamie’s illegitimate son, whose mother was Geneva Dunsany. Jamie was a stable hand on William’s estate when William was just a boy, and the two encountered one another on Fraser’s Ridge when William was a lad years later. But otherwise, William has no recollection of Jamie and thinks John Grey is his only father.

These various narrations may seem confusing, but actually they lend a new layer to the story. Jamie has always been a leader – in his lifetime he has been laird to the Lallybroch residents, lead men in battle, remained strong for those men during imprisonment and exile and created a community on the Ridge. The various narrations of those people Jamie and Claire have gathered around them and made family, make for a humbling testimony to the rich lives they have lead (separately, and together). The narrations also lend credence to one of the themes echoed throughout the ‘Outlander’ books – that nothing is ever truly lost to time, history lives on – the very echo in the bone for Jamie and Claire lie in William and Brianna, and their grandchildren, Jem and Amanda and also in their foster child, Fergus, and his family.

Keeping with the theme of time and that nothing is every truly lost, there are many passages in which Jamie and Claire reminisce about old friends and enemies. Claire dwells on thoughts of the disturbed woman, Malva Christie. Jamie and Claire are warmed by memories of the Chinaman, Mr. Wilhouby, and pray he lives on. Jamie remembers characters from the Highlands – Rupert, Dougal and Callum. And many times throughout Jamie and Claire think back on their relationship – their first kiss and wedding day. All these recollections are a beautiful nod to the general theme of echo – while also acting as a very decisive severing. There is a sense that Gabaldon is tying up a few loose ends, gently closing one chapter in Jamie and Claire’s lives, in preparation for what is to come – namely, the war and revolution it begins. Readers will quickly deduce that ‘Echo’ is not the book in which Gabaldon deals with the crux of the American war, rather ‘Echo’ is the intermediary – the book before Gabaldon takes a great leap and starts dealing with truly major historical events.

Gabaldon’s masterful writing lends credence to this sense that something is just around the corner. The war, for certain, but this sense of foreshadowing and preparation for something big comes in the separate narrations as well.

William’s narration has a permeating sense of foreboding. Jamie reminds Claire early on that he promised himself and Lord John Grey that he would not meet his son at the end of a rifle on opposite sides of a war. But as we read William’s story, told from the perspective of a patriotic English soldier, there is a weightiness to his words and an impending sense of doom that when he and Jamie meet, it will end disastrously.

Roger and Brianna’s story (told from 1980) also has a terrible sense of dread surrounding the telling. Having bought Lallybroch and restored it to modern living; Roger and Brianna are trying to cope with life after time travel. But amidst the domestic duties, new jobs and Roger’s crisis of faith, Mandy and Jem are telling disturbing stories of seeing a mythical Nuckelavee man outside their windows and in the mountains surrounding Lallybroch.

‘Echo’ is a slow burn – the action doesn’t really pick up until Jamie, Claire and Ian arrive in Scotland (Part six – around page 620), but after that it’s a mad dash to the finish, guaranteed to keep any reader glued to their seat to read how it all winds up.

‘Echo’ is brilliant, and fans of the ‘Outlander’ series will not be disappointed (only frustrated by the ending, no doubt). It's not the best installment in the 'Outlander' series, but deeply satisfying nonetheless. Gabaldon beautifully intertwines fact and fiction when she writes about the events leading to war. And as always, Gabaldon excels in her clinical descriptions – Lizzie’s child-birthing scene is meticulous and compelling for its gory realism. But best of all, Gabaldon remains true to the love story at the centre of the series – and blesses fans with plenty of Jamie & Claire goodness.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Echo’, and devoured the 800+ book in two days. Alas, now comes the long wait for the next Outlander book. There is often a 5-4 year gap between books; on the one hand it guarantees a tale of the utmost quality from Ms. Gabaldon, but on the other it means a long-suffering wait for the next Jamie & Claire instalment. And ‘Echo’s’ cliff-hanger ending means the wait for book # 8 will be an excruciatingly long one indeed….

I can name only two books I feel profound gratitude for having read. The first is Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ – the second is Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’. If you have yet to read this wonderful book, I cannot begin to implore you enough to go out and read it right now!

5/5

Fantastic Fiction

I want to give a shout-out post to my all-time favourite book search engine; ‘Fantastic Fiction’. My favourite feature of the site is ‘similar books by other authors…’ – the same way Amazon recommends similar purchases, Fantastic Fiction recommends similar genres, plots etc, etc. I have found many great Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance novels because of this feature; Jeaniene Frost’s ‘Night Huntress’ series because of its similarity to Karen Chance’s ‘Cassandra Palmer’ books, for instance. 

The author pages also list books your favourite authors have written reviews for – which was how I found Ilona Andrews ‘Kate Daniels’ series, because Patricia Briggs reviewed it. 

Check it out, bookmark it and spread the word ;)

Fantastic Fiction