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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

5. Night Road

Night Road (A.M. Jenkins, 2008)

Vampire novels are fun, and I enjoy seeing the different mythologies authors come up with. This story is the first that makes being a vampire seem completely unglamorous. Jenkins' vampires don't even like to be called vampires--they're hemivores and regular humans are omnivores, or "omnis."
The story is about Cole, who's part of a hemi collective in New York City, but spends most of his time traveling alone on the road. Johnny, the leader of the group, calls Cole back to the Building and charges him with the task of mentoring a new and problematic young hemi.

Night Road is very well written and I was interested in the characters, but the story is pretty flat. Not much actually happens. This is pretty effective, because it reinforced how dreary and repetitive the lives of the hemis really are. I liked the novel, but I wasn't completely captivated by it. It has potential as the start of a series, but I don't know for sure that's what's going to happen. The pots would have to get more interesting, but the characters are interesting enough that some excitement would keep my interest. So, I have mixed feelings about this one.

48. Dead Sexy

Dead Sexy (Tate Holloway, 2007)

A few pages into this, I realized it was a sequel. I hate reading things out of order, but it's okay. Most authors summarize what's happened before, so it doesn't take too long to get into the story. I can't remember where I heard about this book and why I thought I'd like it, but it came in on request at the library. I'm borrowing so much stuff that it's hard to keep track of it.

Basically, the Garnet Lacey books are chicklit romances with a magical theme. Garnet is a witch and both her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend are vampires. In the previous book, Garnet's coven was murdered by Vatican assassins. Lilith, the goddess who lives inside Garnet (and partially in her boyfriend--yeah, weird) slaughtered the assassins. A year later, the bodies surfaced and the FBI started investigating. I was not buying any of this for the first couple of chapters, but it was such a quick read that I thought I'd give it a shot. I ended up finishing the whole thing last night.

It's not a great story, really, but I ended up liking the characters. I'd like to call it a mystery, but besides the FBI agent, nobody's really investigating anything. It's more like Garnet and her boyfriends are trying to figure out how to keep themselves out of trouble. There's a subplot involving voodoo and zombies, but it doesn't amount to much besides a few extra action sequences. Dead Sexy is a fun, easy read, but I'm not sure I'll stick with the series.

31. The Historian

The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova, 2005)

This is the book that really slowed my progress in this reading project. For months it's been sitting in my "to-read" pile and I've been avoiding it like the plague. Several people have recommended it enthusiastically, but it was hard to get in the mood to read something dense. I finally decided to tackle it, but it took me a week to get past the first couple of chapters and then a couple more weeks to finish it.

Basically, this book stressed me out. Once I was almost halfway through part one I was hooked, but it was slow going because the subject matter made me anxious. It's probably good I read this during the summer because it would have freaked me out more during the windy, bleak winter. Now I'm finished and still don't know how I feel or what I think about it.

Kostova is an excellent writer and her story is full of amazing detail. I enjoyed the heavy use of letters and exerpts from the documents the characters were studying, as well as the mystery central to the story. I must say that when Dracula finally appears, I was disappointed. He was kind of a dud, in fact. The other part that bothered me was the epilogue. I think I would have liked the book to just end after chapter 79, which was itself mostly exposition. That last chapter was different enough in tone to almost take me out of the story, but then to add the epilogue seemed like overkill. That's just my opinion. I guess I liked The Historian, but it thoroughly creeped me out for many nights and I'm glad to be done with 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.

24. Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods (Melissa de la Cruz, 2006)

I picked up a galley for the sequel to this book at Midwinter, so I decided to start at the beginning. Blue Bloods is the story of teens who find out they're really vampires. De la Cruz created a completely new version of the vampire myth based on the fall of Lucifer and weaves in colonial U.S. history. The religious and historical themes made the story come alive; I really believed in the universe de la Cruz created for her characters and story. These vampires feed on humans, or Red Bloods, but don't kill them or make them into vampires. Schuyler, the protagonist, is sixteen, a misfit at her exclusive prep school, and just found out she's a Blue Blood. I liked that idea that, as in our reality, Blue Bloods are those born into nobility, but with the added dimension of being vampires.

Of course, there has to be a bad guy. We learn that there is an uber-race of vampires called Silver Bloods, who feed on Blue Bloods and kill them. Of course Schuyler decides to try to figure out where Silver Bloods came from and who might be one in disguise. In addition to the vampire stuff, there's a lot on the standard rich teens in Manhattan themes: drinking, fashion, nightclubs, love affairs. It's a fun soap opera with a gothic twist. It's also an ALA Quick Picks top ten book.

22. Dangerous Girls

Dangerous Girls (R.L. Stine, 2003)

Keeping with the vampire theme, I read another book I picked up in YA materials class. I'd heard of Stine, but hadn't ever read his books before. It definitely wasn't what I expected. Upon returning from summer camp, Destiny and her twin sister Lizzie begin experiencing strange changes. Destiny sets out to figure out what's going on. The story is really creepy, and fun, so I enjoyed it a lot. It's really dark, and I know that's what I liked when I was a kid, and I see there's a sequel. I don't read a lot of YA series, but I'd probably stick with this one if Stine keeps them coming.

21. Vampire Kisses

Vampire Kisses (Ellen Schreiber, 2003)

The first of two vampire-themed young adult books I read this weekend, Vampire kisses is an engaging teen romance. Raven, the only goth kid in "Dullsville," is obsessed with the mysterious boy who recently moved into the creepy mansion on the hill. While the love interest himself isn't that interesting, I like Raven a lot and really enjoyed her relationships with her family and the other kids at school. The secondary characters are really interesting, and I found myself wanting to learn more about Ruby, Becky, and even little brother Billy (aka Nerd Boy).

During my YA materials class in library school, some YA librarians gave us each a few review copies of books that were reviewed but not selected for YALSA awards. This was one of mine, but I only just got around to reading it. Since I picked this up in 2004, Schreiber has written three sequels, but I'm a little leery of its series potential. I rather liked the unresolved ending of this book, so I might leave it at that.