Bound to the Bachelor
(The Bachelor Auction series, Book 1)
Sarah Mayberry
Tule Publishing
Fiction, Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since Lily arrived in Marietta, Montana, she's fought rumors about her checkered past as a stripper and a mutual dislike with ex-Marine Beau. Despite
him being the brother of her best friend and former across-the-hall neighbor Andie, she'd just as soon never be in the same room with the cocky security expert. But she needs one more man for her bachelor auction, a fundraiser for her recently-crippled godson, and a man with Beau's good looks ought to rake in some serious dough even in conservative Marietta.
Beau wanted to say no when Lily turned up at his office. Sure, the woman helped Andie through a rough period and helped her find the love of her life, but something about Lily just makes him uncomfortable. Lily's nothing if not persistent, and she has a way of hitting his buttons. Though he's sworn off the idea of a serious relationship, focusing on his growing private security business, one silly little date won't hurt him. It's for a good cause, after all. And it's not like Lily herself would bid on him.
When Lily receives an inheritance from her late abusive stepfather the day of the auction, she wants nothing to do with his money. On an impulse, she throws it away on a
bachelor... on Beau. It wasn't supposed to be a for-real date; she just wanted to give the money to her godson and his mother, and she knew they wouldn't take the ten grand if she handed it to them directly. But Beau insists on following through on his end of the bargain. It isn't long before they realize that their mutual dislike isn't hate at all, but something much more dangerous...
REVIEW: I needed a palate-cleanser after the last book I read, so a nice straightforward romance fit the bill. This one ticks off the standard genre checklist:
an ex-stripper with a heart of gold and traumatic past, a hunky lone wolf bachelor who never lost his heart before, sizzling sexual tension from the first page, and a
crisis to bind them together. Lily makes a spunky heroine who finds a good match in Beau, whose protective instincts come in handy more than once... though he ultimately
does more to empower her than physically protect her. As with most romances I've read, there's some sexist luggage lurking in the story: Lily's basically a secretary, after all, and Beau's past and job are about as alpha male as one can get without actually being a wolf. Despite that, the story moves nicely and the writing's smooth, with a decent heat level and some lively, zinger-filled dialog. If the overall story arc's a bit predictable, well, it is a romance, after all. In a lousier mood, I might have clipped a half star for the sexism and a little predictability, but I wanted a straightforward book that delivered on its promises, and Bound to the Bachelor does that.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Sunday, July 12, 2015
The Alchemyst (Michael Scott)
The Alchemyst
(The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, Book 1)
Michael Scott
Ember
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Fifteen-year-old twins Josh and Sophie never expected their summer jobs to change their lives forever. But when a strange man and his unnatural brutes destroy the bookshop where Josh works - right across the road from Sophie's coffee shop gig - their whole world turns upside-down. The bookshop owner isn't just an eccentric middle-aged man, but Nicholas Flamel, a medieval French alchemist kept alive by a secret elixir in a long-lost Codex. The attacker was none other than Dr. Dee, famed astrologist and magician to Elizabeth I, whose Dark Elder masters have long sought Flamel's Codex for their own purposes. During the strike, Dee snatches the Codex... but Josh manages to hold on to two important pages. Now he and Sophie are on the run from Dee's allies and minions, accompanied by Flamel and the warrior vampire Scathach. Along the way, they learn more than they ever wanted to know about magic, Elders, and more - not to mention their own grim place in a prophecy at least as old as humanity itself.
REVIEW: I've read recommendations for this series from many sources, so I finally decided to give it a try. The story starts out with potential and very little lag time before events pick up... a breakneck momentum that carries throughout much the story almost to the point of numbness. However, there are breaks now and again - including entire chapters that seem to exist merely to relate backstory infodumps. Scott tends to repeat himself, sometimes within a few paragraphs, as though not trusting the reader to learn things the first time around. Perhaps by extension, Sophie and Josh prove singularly dense about their changed circumstances. Over halfway through the book, having seen and touched and even smelled magic in many undeniable forms (including a face-to-face encounter with the Elder Hecate, inspiration for the goddess cult, and her home in a great tree grown from the seed of the Norse world-tree Yggdrasil), and having been in enough danger to know that they're in way over their heads and need protection... still the twins are looking for the "hidden cameras" and decide their best option is to run away - in a move that does little but highlight their own stupidity. At this point, I honestly almost put the book down. Between Scott cramming just about every myth, magical tradition, and urban legend into the narrative and these two dimwits, not to mention having half a hundred new creatures and powers and Elders and such thrown at me ever ten pages or so, I was just about burned out - not just on this book, but on contemporary young adult fantasies as a whole. Nevertheless, I pressed on, only to find that my guesses about the direction the plot was headed mostly played out as I expected. (There's also a subtle sexist vibe here, despite Scathach, with Josh doing all the driving and being the brawn rather than the brains, and Sophie needing special protection, not to mention Flamel's immortal wife Perenelle being captured early on and remaining largely helpless through the book.) I finished with a sense of exhaustion rather than anticipation over future installments; that burnt-out feeling, brought on by the writing style and obtuseness of certain characters, is what dropped this one a half-star below a flat Okay rating. Some elements were imaginative, but the whole just became too numbing, trying to throw too much at the reader too fast (often with little reward, as a good deal simply got overwhelmed in the general rush), then repeating itself for good measure.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Everworld: Search for Senna (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) - My Review
The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan) - My Review
(The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, Book 1)
Michael Scott
Ember
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Fifteen-year-old twins Josh and Sophie never expected their summer jobs to change their lives forever. But when a strange man and his unnatural brutes destroy the bookshop where Josh works - right across the road from Sophie's coffee shop gig - their whole world turns upside-down. The bookshop owner isn't just an eccentric middle-aged man, but Nicholas Flamel, a medieval French alchemist kept alive by a secret elixir in a long-lost Codex. The attacker was none other than Dr. Dee, famed astrologist and magician to Elizabeth I, whose Dark Elder masters have long sought Flamel's Codex for their own purposes. During the strike, Dee snatches the Codex... but Josh manages to hold on to two important pages. Now he and Sophie are on the run from Dee's allies and minions, accompanied by Flamel and the warrior vampire Scathach. Along the way, they learn more than they ever wanted to know about magic, Elders, and more - not to mention their own grim place in a prophecy at least as old as humanity itself.
REVIEW: I've read recommendations for this series from many sources, so I finally decided to give it a try. The story starts out with potential and very little lag time before events pick up... a breakneck momentum that carries throughout much the story almost to the point of numbness. However, there are breaks now and again - including entire chapters that seem to exist merely to relate backstory infodumps. Scott tends to repeat himself, sometimes within a few paragraphs, as though not trusting the reader to learn things the first time around. Perhaps by extension, Sophie and Josh prove singularly dense about their changed circumstances. Over halfway through the book, having seen and touched and even smelled magic in many undeniable forms (including a face-to-face encounter with the Elder Hecate, inspiration for the goddess cult, and her home in a great tree grown from the seed of the Norse world-tree Yggdrasil), and having been in enough danger to know that they're in way over their heads and need protection... still the twins are looking for the "hidden cameras" and decide their best option is to run away - in a move that does little but highlight their own stupidity. At this point, I honestly almost put the book down. Between Scott cramming just about every myth, magical tradition, and urban legend into the narrative and these two dimwits, not to mention having half a hundred new creatures and powers and Elders and such thrown at me ever ten pages or so, I was just about burned out - not just on this book, but on contemporary young adult fantasies as a whole. Nevertheless, I pressed on, only to find that my guesses about the direction the plot was headed mostly played out as I expected. (There's also a subtle sexist vibe here, despite Scathach, with Josh doing all the driving and being the brawn rather than the brains, and Sophie needing special protection, not to mention Flamel's immortal wife Perenelle being captured early on and remaining largely helpless through the book.) I finished with a sense of exhaustion rather than anticipation over future installments; that burnt-out feeling, brought on by the writing style and obtuseness of certain characters, is what dropped this one a half-star below a flat Okay rating. Some elements were imaginative, but the whole just became too numbing, trying to throw too much at the reader too fast (often with little reward, as a good deal simply got overwhelmed in the general rush), then repeating itself for good measure.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Everworld: Search for Senna (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) - My Review
The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan) - My Review
Friday, July 10, 2015
The Boy Who Cried Ninja (Alex Latimer)
The Boy Who Cried Ninja
Alex Latimer
Peachtree Publishers
Fiction, YA Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When a ninja steals the last slice of cake, Tim tells his mother, but she doesn't believe him. He gets sent to the yard to rake leaves and think about what he's done - but all he's done is tell the truth! The next time something strange happens - the sunburned alligator parachuting onto the roof and snapping the TV antenna - Tim lies and says he did it himself, but that just gets him in even more trouble. How can he convince anyone to believe him?
REVIEW: We had more down time at work, so I read this one while waiting for things to pick up again. It's a silly little story about truth and lies and proving you're right even when everyone else thinks you're wrong. (I could almost imagine a young Fox Mulder in Tim's place.) The pictures are bright and fun. It's a nice, light read that made me smile.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Night of the Gargoyles (Eve Bunting) - My Review
The Skull of Truth (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Dan Santat) - My Review
Alex Latimer
Peachtree Publishers
Fiction, YA Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When a ninja steals the last slice of cake, Tim tells his mother, but she doesn't believe him. He gets sent to the yard to rake leaves and think about what he's done - but all he's done is tell the truth! The next time something strange happens - the sunburned alligator parachuting onto the roof and snapping the TV antenna - Tim lies and says he did it himself, but that just gets him in even more trouble. How can he convince anyone to believe him?
REVIEW: We had more down time at work, so I read this one while waiting for things to pick up again. It's a silly little story about truth and lies and proving you're right even when everyone else thinks you're wrong. (I could almost imagine a young Fox Mulder in Tim's place.) The pictures are bright and fun. It's a nice, light read that made me smile.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Night of the Gargoyles (Eve Bunting) - My Review
The Skull of Truth (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Dan Santat) - My Review
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Meet the Dullards (Sara Pennypacker)
Meet the Dullards
Sara Pennypacker, illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
Balzer + Bray
Fiction, YA Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Mr. and Mrs. Dullard have gone out of their way to raise their three children in the safest, most boring manner possible... but then they discover the kids reading exciting books about the circus - and even, horror of horrors, wanting to play outside and go to school! Fearing the neighborhood has become too exciting, they move to a newer, even duller town - but can they protect Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud?
REVIEW: Another quick read during down time at work. This is a fun jab at overprotective parenting; the Dullards give their children blank paper to read instead of books, demand the paint store mix an even duller color than gray or beige, and realize the neighborhood's become too hectic when they see a snail crossing the driveway. No matter how hard they try, though, it seems the kids find ways to rebel. One can only wish all children of such parents could find the escape that the little Dullards eventually discover...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown) - My Review
Monsters Eat Whiny Children (Bruce Eric Kaplan) - My Review
Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct (Mo Willems) - My Review
Sara Pennypacker, illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
Balzer + Bray
Fiction, YA Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Mr. and Mrs. Dullard have gone out of their way to raise their three children in the safest, most boring manner possible... but then they discover the kids reading exciting books about the circus - and even, horror of horrors, wanting to play outside and go to school! Fearing the neighborhood has become too exciting, they move to a newer, even duller town - but can they protect Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud?
REVIEW: Another quick read during down time at work. This is a fun jab at overprotective parenting; the Dullards give their children blank paper to read instead of books, demand the paint store mix an even duller color than gray or beige, and realize the neighborhood's become too hectic when they see a snail crossing the driveway. No matter how hard they try, though, it seems the kids find ways to rebel. One can only wish all children of such parents could find the escape that the little Dullards eventually discover...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown) - My Review
Monsters Eat Whiny Children (Bruce Eric Kaplan) - My Review
Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct (Mo Willems) - My Review
Saturday, July 4, 2015
The Sisters Brothers (Patrick deWitt)
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt
HarperCollins
Fiction, Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Eli and Charlie Sisters have built a decent reputation as despicable men. Employed by the Commodore out of Oregon City, they travel the rough Western frontier dealing with various problems on the man's behalf - usually with bullets. When they're sent to San Francisco to eliminate an eccentric prospector, it seems like any other job - but Eli's getting tired of this life he never asked for. He starts to question his lawless existence... and a gunman who starts asking questions is a gunman digging his own grave.
REVIEW: This isn't so much a straight Western as it is a somewhat surreal examination of crushed dreams and hopeless dreamers, violent lives and inevitable deaths, and the bonds of love and hate. Black humor and red gore drip from nearly every page. The frontier of the Sisters brothers isn't the promising dream of a new life or the jarring clash of cultures that often appears in other Westerns, but a corrupt and hopeless folly riddled with the corpses of fools, a place that rewards both failure and success with impersonal torment and death, a trap from which only the lucky or the morally bankrupt few escape. Many peculiar characters, often doomed, cross Eli's path, each in their own way acting as guideposts as he navigates the unfamiliar trail toward redemption after many years of simply riding in his brother's wake. As repulsive as some of the episodes could be, and as meandering as the narrative often grew, there was something oddly compelling about it, moments of profound truth and beauty that kept me reading and wanting Eli to succeed, even when it seemed impossible. One review compared it to the Coen brothers film Fargo, and that honestly is about the best comparison I can come up with: a somewhat quirky, often darkly comic examination of good and evil, where violence doesn't need a reason and good people can be caught up in terrible events by a simple turn of indifferent fate. Ultimately, it just squeaked over the line to four stars.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ghosts of Belfast (Stuart Neville) - My Review
Six-Shooter Tales (I.J. Parnham) - My Review
Patrick deWitt
HarperCollins
Fiction, Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Eli and Charlie Sisters have built a decent reputation as despicable men. Employed by the Commodore out of Oregon City, they travel the rough Western frontier dealing with various problems on the man's behalf - usually with bullets. When they're sent to San Francisco to eliminate an eccentric prospector, it seems like any other job - but Eli's getting tired of this life he never asked for. He starts to question his lawless existence... and a gunman who starts asking questions is a gunman digging his own grave.
REVIEW: This isn't so much a straight Western as it is a somewhat surreal examination of crushed dreams and hopeless dreamers, violent lives and inevitable deaths, and the bonds of love and hate. Black humor and red gore drip from nearly every page. The frontier of the Sisters brothers isn't the promising dream of a new life or the jarring clash of cultures that often appears in other Westerns, but a corrupt and hopeless folly riddled with the corpses of fools, a place that rewards both failure and success with impersonal torment and death, a trap from which only the lucky or the morally bankrupt few escape. Many peculiar characters, often doomed, cross Eli's path, each in their own way acting as guideposts as he navigates the unfamiliar trail toward redemption after many years of simply riding in his brother's wake. As repulsive as some of the episodes could be, and as meandering as the narrative often grew, there was something oddly compelling about it, moments of profound truth and beauty that kept me reading and wanting Eli to succeed, even when it seemed impossible. One review compared it to the Coen brothers film Fargo, and that honestly is about the best comparison I can come up with: a somewhat quirky, often darkly comic examination of good and evil, where violence doesn't need a reason and good people can be caught up in terrible events by a simple turn of indifferent fate. Ultimately, it just squeaked over the line to four stars.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ghosts of Belfast (Stuart Neville) - My Review
Six-Shooter Tales (I.J. Parnham) - My Review
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