27. Revelations

Revelations (A Blue Bloods novel), by Melissa de la Cruz

I've reviewed the first two Blue Bloods books here, but this time, I actually bought a copy instead of picking up a galley at a conference. I was shopping for groceries, and bought this on impulse. I tend to like to stick with a series once I've started it.

Schuyler Van Allen is kind of a cross between Harry Potter and Serena Van Der Woodsen. She's gorgeous and talented, but a poor relation from a once-powerful supernatural family. In this installment, Schuyler is still in love with Jack Force, but he's still creepily promised to his evil sister, Mimi. The soulmate twins thing really and truly gives me a the creeps. The silver bloods are still sneaking around trying to kill off the blue bloods, and nothing else much has changed. There are some confusing fight scenes and some drama as several people come under suspicion of being a silver blood, but still, the characters all seem to be in the same places as before. Mimi is obviously a bad seed, but she's cleared of being truly, truly a baddie. The Leviathan under the Christ statue in Brazil seemed to come from out of nowhere, but maybe we'll get some of this cleared up later. Ah, well. It's entertaining while I'm reading it, but then pretty much forgotten.

23-25 Tea Shop Mysteries

This winter break, I picked up more of Mom's books, this time the tea shop series. The heroine of this series is Theodosia Browning, who owns the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston. Theo is a little different from Carmela, the scrapbook protagonist. She's a never-married thirty-five-year-old with no living family. She comes off as a lot older than her age, is kind of buttoned-up, and has a seemingly chaste relationship with her boyfriend Jory Davis, who for some reason, is almost always referred to by his full name.

The language in these books is a bit flowery and the characters seem kind of old-fashioned. If there weren't references to text messages and email, I'd think they were set in the seventies or eighties. They're nice reads, though, and the characters are likeable, if kind of simple and unbelievably talented at whatever they do (except detecting). The descriptions of the teas and foods are great, and probably contributing to me overdoing it on baked goods this winter.

One big gripe I have is that Theo is a such a terrible investigator. She's always lying and hiding evidence from the police and totally misreading every clue she comes upon. If she was a bumbling amateur working with Tidwell, instead of at cross-purposes with him, I'd probably like the books better.

23. Shades of Earl Grey, by Laura Childs (2003)

During an engagement party for a well-to-do Charleston woman, niece of one of Theo's frenemies, at the Heritage Society's house, the greenhouse roof caves in, killing the groom-to-be. The heirloom engagement ring is missing, and doesn't turn up in the rubble. Theodosia decides to nose around and root out the killer, despite grumpy Detective Tidwell's warnings not to get involved. Soon, Theo realizes there's a cat burgler on the loose in Charleston, and the plot thickens!

24. Gunpowder Green, by Laura Childs (2002)

At a yacht club regatta, Oliver Dixon is killed when an antique starting pistol explodes. When it starts to look less like an accident and more like sabotage, Theo looks around for suspects. Is it Dixon's much younger wife of a mere few weeks? Ford Cantrell, whose family has been fueding with the Dixons for generations? A business rival? Of course Theo locks horns with Tidwell in her hunt for the killer.

25. Jasmine Moon Murder, by Laura Childs (2004)

The murder hits closer to home in this installment. During a "ghost crawl" in a historic cemetary, somebody murders Jory Davis's uncle Jasper. Theo literally stumbles over a hypodermic needle, the first clue about the cause of death. Jory begs Theo to look into the murder and figure out who killed his beloved uncle. A fox hunt, a second murder, and a really implausible motive round this one out.

22. Frill Kill

Frill Kill, by Laura Childs (2008)

I'm sure I've mentioned here before that when I visit my parents' house, I stay in a guest room stocked with plenty of paperback romances and mysteries I probably wouldn't otherwise choose for myself, but that I tend to really enjoy. For the past several months, my mom has been really into the Laura Childs scrapbooking and tea shop mystery series'. When I was here in October, I chose this scrappin' story because it takes place at Halloween.

This series centers on Carmela, the owner of Memory Mine, a scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Carmela has just reunited with her cheating scoundrel of a husband when she finds his uncle murdered. Of course, the amateur sleuth gets in the middle of the investigation and decides to ferret out the murderer. As in many mysteries aimed at women, Carmela's best friend Ava is the requisite gorgeous, sassy sidekick, and Carmela herself is beautiful and fashionable. The mystery itself is pretty typical, but the writing and characters were entertaining enough to make me decide Laura Childs' books are a good way to spend a few hours when I'm here with family.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson (2009)

Rick drove me up to Casper on his way to Newcastle for Thanksgiving 2009, and we met up with Nina at Wind City Books. He was looking for something to read, and ended up with this. He read the whole thing over the holiday weekend and gave it to me when we got back to Laramie. I'm glad he did.

Of course, over a year later it's old news, but I loved this book. Honestly, it took me a while to get into it, like four or five chapters, but once the story started unfolding I was hooked. There are probably too many storylines going on at once, but I liked the unfolding of everything happening gradually. Personally, I'm more interested in the Blomkvist character than that of Lisbeth Salander, but that's just me.

At this late date, I probably don't need to say much about the plot, though the mystery of the missing Harriet was pretty disturbing and creepy. I usually don't go for really gritty mysteries, and hate reading about violence against women, but it was nice to find a book that portrays it in a completely unglamorous way. TGTDT is top notch, even if it does have as many endings as the first Lord of the Rings book.

20. Double Cross

Double Cross, by James David Jordon (2009)

I didn't realize at first this was Christian fiction, a genre I don't generally read. That said, I appreciated that the narrative wasn't really preachy or sappy, and that the protagonist was kind of a doubter, a critical thinker (a quality I think is important for everybody). The protagonist, Taylor, is a secret service agent-turned private security provider. What I didn't like about her was her voice, which didn't ring true as a woman. I kept thinking of her as a man, and then would be jarred when references to her dating, looks, etc. came up again. I haven't had this problem with other women characters written my men, either.

The story was interesting enough--Taylor is trying to solve a suicide that might be murder and figure out who might have been blackmailing the victim. At the same time, the mother who abandoned her shows up and Taylor tries to reconnect with her and figure out what's happened in the twenty years since they were together. Still, I wasn't that engaged with any of the characters because I couldn't get a good sense of them. Their motivations weren't clear and it seemed like the author was doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.

It's not a terrible book, but not my cup of tea, either.

19.Fearless Fourteen

Fearless Fourteen, by Janet Evanovich

Sometimes, it's nice to read mindless candy. I picked this up at the grocery store in a weak moment when I was sick, then stayed in bed all day reading and eating Popsicles. Stephanie Plum mysteries are the perfect books for that.

I had forgotten where I left off in the series, so I might have skipped right over thirteen (or twelve). It doesn't really matter, though. I vaguely remember being dissatisfied with the last one I read, but I found Fearless Fourteen had just the right mix of trashy characters and wacky hijinks to entertain me when I was flat on my back.

11. Any Given Doomsday

Any Given Doomsday, by Lori Handeland

I've been gravitating toward fantasy more and more lately, but this book was not for me. It's a huge red light for me when every character is impossibly gorgeous, but I was willing to try to overlook that. The mythology wasn't well-built--I felt like the author tried to cram every supernatural being in too early. If she would have focused on vampires and skinwalkers and then brought in the fairy and werewolves in subsequent books, she might have been able to flesh out the back story.

There's also lot of sex that's very clumsily woven into the plot. Elizabeth can take on the powers of the Nephilim she has sex with? Sounds like something out of a bad porno. I'm not opposed to well-written sex scenes, but these aren't it. If you're into supernatural romance, this might be worth a shot, but I'm not likely to read the rest of the Phoenix Chronicles.

9. Motif for Murder

Motif for Murder, by Laura Childs (2007)

Whenever I visit my parents, I raid their bookshelves. Mom's gotten into Laura Childs' scrapbooking and tea shop mystery series' lately. If you're not familiar with the scrapbooking series, it's set in New Orleans, post-Katrina. The scrappy (I can't resist) heroine is Carmela Bertrand, who in this book, is trying to reconcile with her husband Shamus, the scion of a wealthy family. Shamus is kidnapped, his uncle is murdered, and Carmela sets out to solve the crimes.

While this was kind of a typical amateur sleuth story, I liked the characters and the settting a lot. Usually, my taste in mysteries runs toward those set in Seattle, Sweden, or England, but I'm branching out a bit lately. I'd read more of these, probably when I next go see my parents.

8. Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

I can't believe I never blogged the final episode of the Twilight Saga. Maybe I was so burned out on it by the time I finished the fourth book that I mentally blocked it out. But I'm committed.

This book is terrible! I hated, hated, hated it. Now, I'm not the first person to point out the terrible messages in Stephenie Meyer's books. And I'm not going to repeat myself and talk about the clunky writing--after all, I was entertained enough by the first three books to read the fourth. But the story here is CRAP. I've hated Bella's choices from the start, so I should not be surprised that she marries Edward at age 18, births a demon baby, and becomes a vampire. Just because she can't see the point of life without her perfect stalker lover. Grody.

I refuse to read any more Stephenie Meyer! Besides, Host just sounds creepy.

4. Cathy's Ring

Cathy's Ring, by Sean Stewart (May 2009)

I read this one soon after picking it up at Midwinter in Denver. Driving to a big conference meant I came home with 36 free books, and it's taking me a while to get through them. And to blog them, I guess.

This is the third installment in a series, and I haven't read the others. The publisher rep told me this series is controversial because of the promotional tie-ins and multimedia enhancements (the email addresses and phone numbers in the books actually work). I didn't try any of this stuff out, so I reserve judgment.

The story is pretty engaging and exciting, though I'm missing context from the earlier books. To the author's credit, he doesn't re-explain everything to the readers, something I find really annoying in series fiction. Cathy, the main character, is in love with an immortal. There's a whole cabal of immortals, most of them evil. For some reason, the main baddie, Ancestor Lu, is trying to kill her and she goes on the run with some friends. There's a semi-bad doppleganger, a love triangle, and some family intrigue to make things interesting. Maybe after I finish up my huge stack of unread galleys, I'll check out the rest of this series.

28. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell

The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell, by Lilian Jackson Braun

It's kind of sad to end the year on this book, but it's the last one I finished in 2008. I was done with Bridge of Sighs and was staying in the guest room at my parents' house. Its bookcase is stocked with my mom's romance novels and a few mysteries. Desperate for something to read, I chose this one.

Don't get me wrong, I've read this series before, and the books can be sort of charming in a really idealized, completely out-of-touch-with-reality sort of way. But this one is dumb. There's not really any mystery here, and Qwilleran doesn't do any detecting. The famous cats really don't even provide many wacky antics. We know what happened from almost the start, and there are no surprises to speak of. I'm not sure why the author even wrote it, besides the obvious profit to be gained from another installment of the series. Oh, well. It kept me occupied on a snow day.

26. Eclipse

Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer

It was annoying to find out the third Twilight book is still only hardback, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait for paper. At least I pass them on to a friend when I'm done!

Again, the love triangle causes trouble, even though we know there's no love like Bella and Edward's love (gag). There's a rash of murders in Seattle that have everybody on edge, and that definitely plays a big part in the story, but the central tension in the story is the ancient war between werewolves and vampires and how that plays out in the modern world.

This book finally gets the pacing of the action right. Instead of impending doom but nothing happening until the end, we get more foreshadowing and people actually trying to figure things out. Shocking! Now I really have to read the fourth and final book.

25. New Moon

New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer

I did end up grabbing the second Twilight book and this one was a much faster read. I don't think it will spoil things too much to reveal the existence of werewolves in this alternate Forks universe. This time around, Bella has an emotional breakdown, a love triangle emerges, and the vamps and Bella take a trip to Italy.

Bella's still annoying, Edward's still patronizing, and Jacob is still crossing all kinds of lines. What does it say about me that I most identify with Bella's parents and wish they were taken into more consideration? Basically, I'm too old for this series, but am hopelessly addicted.

22. Twilight

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

I hadn't even heard of the Twilight series when I heard a movie was coming out and that teen girls were freaking out about it. After looking into it a little and discovering the story is set in Forks, Washington, I decided I to read the books, or at least the first one. I try to read as much lit set in Washington state as I can, and I do seem to have a habit of testing out vampire novels.

The movie was coming out the next week, and I wanted to see it and get my fix of rainy and green landscapes, so I grabbed up the mass market paperback at the grocery store. For some reason, I have a really hard time going to a movie based on a novel without reading the book first, unless I have no intention of ever reading it. In this case, I thought I'd devour it in a sitting or two as usual for YA, but it didn't come that quickly.

To be honest, I considered giving up on this one several times during the first third of the book. I took to reading a chapter or maybe two before bed each night and wondering when the action would occur. The characters are actually kind of unlikable, especially Bella. Several times I felt like smacking her for either staring dumbly at somebody who just spoke to her or doing stupid things that put her and then, by extension, others in danger. So, I guess she's a realistic enough teenager.

I stuck with it and got hooked on the story, though, even though nothing, literally nothing happens until the last third. Maybe it was all the description of the Olympic peninsula, or maybe it was the dialogue, which is just corny enough to entertain, but not enough to lapse into total parody. In any case, I decided I needed to read the rest of the series to see what has everybody so hooked.

21. Compulsion

Compulsion, by Jonathan Kellerman

I used to really like Jonathan Kellerman's books. I'll probably never forget Silent Partner, which creeped me out and fascinated me as a teenager. This one was an impulse purchase at the grocery store when I was sick and knew I would need something trashy and easy to read while staying home from work, since I don't have cable tv--no talk shows or soaps for me.

Alex Delaware, the psychiatrist protagonist, seems so boring and stiff as a main character. He seemed so irrelevant to the plot of this "mystery." The story starts with the gruesome stabbing of a retired teacher in a nice neighborhood, in full view of a neighbor. Delaware and his old friend, LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis, figure out who dunnit really early in the book, so it's more like they're chasing the guy as he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake.

Milo is a far more interesting character, and I think Kellerman should consider writing from his perspective. The shrink plus cop buddy formula used to work pretty well, but only when Dr. Delaware actually did some in-person analysis of people instead of vaguely diagnosing sociopathy from afar, as he did here. There was really very little psychology involoved in the story. Maybe the author is just getting stale, but this book was pretty dang boring. I considered not finishing it, but decided I had nothing better to do on my sickbed. Don't waste your time.

11. Tall, Dark, and Dead

Tall, Dark, and Dead, by Tate Hallaway (2006)

Last year, I read Halloway's Dead Sexy, the second Garnet Lacy book. I finally got around to reading the first. This was more of an adventure than I expected. I requested the book from a partner library and didn't read it right away when it came in because I always go on sprees and order several at a time. Then, I realized it was coming due soon and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I renewed it and hoped I'd run across it at home or in my office, but hoping I didn't do something stupid like take it with me to Midwinter and leave it in the hotel or on a plane somewhere. When the renewal was finally up, I still couldn't find it and just paid the replacement fee so I wouldn't have a block on my account.

Of course you know what happened. I moved offices a couple of weeks later and found the book wedged beween my desk and the wall, suspended in the air. I hadn't been able to see it when I crawled around the floor and rummaged through every stack of paperwork and books in the office, so I had thought it was gone for good. But, to make a long story a tiny bit shorter, I quickly read the book before turning it in for a refund of my fine.

I have to say I really like these books. The treatment of wicca, while very much magical in the spells and possessions kind of witchcraft, is still pretty respectful to the religion. The characters are interesting, and nobody's all good or all bad. Garnet, the main character, could easily go wrong, but she feels pretty real to me. She makes mistakes and hooks up with (the wrong) guys too quickly, and she doesn't always get what she wants. I like her. It's chick lit in the best sense of the term. I'm trying to get over that label, and was happy to read this in a Q&A with Jennifer Weiner she posted to her blog today:

The good news is, no matter how the publishers and booksellers label the books, and what the critics say (that’s if they bother to say anything at all), readers know what they’re getting with quote-unquote chick lit. They know they’ll laugh, they know they’ll identify with the heroine and her dilemmas, they know her voice will be familiar and that her story will end well. And if that’s what chick lit is, I don’t think it’s so terrible, or so dangerous.

Right on. I read more so-called chick lit and young adult lit than most other stuff, and that's okay. More "serious" stuff is great, but I don't always feel like it, especially these days when I'm reading about research methods, pedagogy, and library trends and services all day long. Sometimes I just want something fun to curl up with in the evening. The Garnet Lacy books really do the trick.

10. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, by Ally Carter (2007)

I can't remember why I ordered this one from the library--it was probably something I saw at the Hyperion booth. I definitely like teen lit with interesting settings. This one's set in an elite private school for girls (pretty typical) in Washington D.C. (less typical), but the twist is that the school trains teens to be future spies (atypical). The protagonist is Cammie, the headmistress's daughter, who had gotten into some trouble in the first Gallagher Girls book, which took place earlier in the same school year.

I think I'm cursed to grab the second book in every series I encounter. I don't think it really made much difference in this case, because even though Cammie's previous escapades were referenced often, there was enough explanation to fill me in, as is often the case in series like this. The story is pretty simple, actually, but I still enjoyed it. I found the ending of the book kind of unsatisfactory, but I expect this in

37. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling, 2007)

Like eleventy million other people, I pre-ordered this and waited impatiently for the UPS truck to bring it on Saturday. When it still hadn't arrived after 6pm, I was vexed. A Twitter friend of mine told me hers came via USPS, and when I ran to the mailbox, I found that mine had, too. Why didn't UPS's tracker tell me they were handing it off to the (often unreliable in my neighborhood) mail delivery? Grr. In any case, I had an errand to run at dusk, so I was finally able to start reading it a little before 8pm. Interrupted only by an hour long phone call, I finished at 3:20am.

I'm not saying anything about the story, except that it was a really entertaining read that had me hooked from the first chapter.

33. Obsession

Obsession (Jonathan Kellerman, 2007)

Back in the day, I read all the Jonathan Kellerman I could get my grubby, teenaged hands on. They all blend together, and the only title I can actually remember is Silent Partner, because of the creepy twin angle and the graphic sex. Obsession is already blending into the rest of Kellerman's oeuvre, even though this is the first of his I've read in probably ten years. It all feels like a retread: implausible "mystery," waif-like patient with obsessive disorder, creepy psychopaths, hints of incest. I should have followed Nancy Pearl's 50 page rule and bailed on this, but it was a fast, brainless read that got me through a half-day home with an upset stomach. So I guess it was worth it.

25. Masquerade

Masquerade (Melissa de la Cruz, 2007)

Hey, look how timely I am. Masquerade is new and out this month! The second in the Blue Bloods series, Masquerade starts up right where Blue Bloods left off. I actually liked it better because the mythology is all firmly in place and Schuyler knows what's going on. There's less of the introductory exposition and more action. And we finally find out who the Silver Blood in disguise, though not before he or she attacks again! The two books are kind of mashed together in my head because I read them back-to-back on Saturday. I read the author's blog and see that she's working on the third enstallment (as well as books in two other series she has going, plus a new one) and it's due in fall 2008. Guess I'll be on the lookout for that one at the Hyperion booth at the next Midwinter. Seriously, Hyperion Teens has delivered consistently good YA stuff lately.

Back to the book. This one has a trip to Italy to find a long lost relative, a fabulous ball, and an exclusive masquerade after party. Schuyler learns more about her family and her link to the powerful family of her nemesis, the nasty Mimi Force. I love the names in the book; Schuyler's last name is Van Alen. Of course everybody is totally fabulous and glamorous, but I like that this is attributed to their vampirism. It's cute how we find out that fashion models are so thin and beautiful because they're usually vampires. It's kind of a sly way of pointing out how unrealistic those images really are.