4 fluffy bunnies
Soulless makes me giggle when I think about it. I really have no way to categorize this book, because it's nearly a smut book but just doesn't quite reach that level. I suspect that the lack of heaving bosoms and pulsing members is what prevents it from being what I consider straight-out smut.
The premise of the book is quite interesting, though just another drop in the well of books about vampires and werewolves. The added twist to this particular story is that in addition to the supernatural, there is also the preternatural, ie, those without souls.
The main character, Alexia Tarabotti, just happens to be such a preternatural. While perfectly normal looking (well, unattractive, according to standards of the day), the 26-year-old spinster (this is 19th-century London, after all) can negate the supernatural powers of werewolves and vampires with a single touch. Her inquisitive, obstinate nature and preternatural status constantly put Alexia in compromising and potentially dangerous situations, which tend to lead to Lord Conall Maccon, alpha werewolf of the local pack and head of BUR (a government agency that supervises the supernaturals) being called in.
Alexia and Conall irritate each other to no end, so there's the sexual tension...
With a little steampunk thrown in for fun, Soulless is a fun, guilty-pleasure type of novel. You read it not for any type of edification, but because you like vampires, werewolves, and a little bit of pinch and tickle and don't mind wasting a few hours of your day.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman
3 stars -- It's okay
I really prefer the softcover image to the hardcover of The Foretelling, but that's neither here nor there.
The Foretelling is about a girl named Rain, whose mother is the queen of the Amazonians. Destined to become queen herself, Rain struggles to inherit her birthright, because her mother treats her like she doesn't even exist. Rain was conceived by rape, and her mother has never forgiven herself for her weakness, her attackers for their intrusion, nor her daughter for being who she is, the personification of sorrow in human form.
Rain invests herself in becoming the best equestrian around, as horses are the reason the Amazonians have been able to defeat their enemies. She also excels at training to be a warrior and even manages to capture and tame a bear. She seems to be all that is needed in an Amazonian queen, but foretellings of her future predict that her own people will turn on her.
I have to say that the book is rather anticlimactic. While well-written and quite lovely as a story, not much actually happens. The brother that promises to be the spark of the conflict is taken care of with little issue, and the face-off between Rain and her people is peaceful. Granted, Rain is supposed to be the new way of the Amazonians, but there is so little actual action in this book that I was disappointed. The love story in place also seems to sputter and fizzle out without disturbing the peacefulness found in the telling of the story.
The Foretelling isn't bad, but it's not that good either. For a book about a warfaring people, the telling is suprisingly mild.
I really prefer the softcover image to the hardcover of The Foretelling, but that's neither here nor there.
The Foretelling is about a girl named Rain, whose mother is the queen of the Amazonians. Destined to become queen herself, Rain struggles to inherit her birthright, because her mother treats her like she doesn't even exist. Rain was conceived by rape, and her mother has never forgiven herself for her weakness, her attackers for their intrusion, nor her daughter for being who she is, the personification of sorrow in human form.
Rain invests herself in becoming the best equestrian around, as horses are the reason the Amazonians have been able to defeat their enemies. She also excels at training to be a warrior and even manages to capture and tame a bear. She seems to be all that is needed in an Amazonian queen, but foretellings of her future predict that her own people will turn on her.
I have to say that the book is rather anticlimactic. While well-written and quite lovely as a story, not much actually happens. The brother that promises to be the spark of the conflict is taken care of with little issue, and the face-off between Rain and her people is peaceful. Granted, Rain is supposed to be the new way of the Amazonians, but there is so little actual action in this book that I was disappointed. The love story in place also seems to sputter and fizzle out without disturbing the peacefulness found in the telling of the story.
The Foretelling isn't bad, but it's not that good either. For a book about a warfaring people, the telling is suprisingly mild.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Secret Society by Tom Dolby
1.5 stars -- Meh...
Secret Society bored me. It bored me so much that I put it down five pages from the end and forgot that I hadn't finished it. It was only a week or so later that I thought, "How did that book end? Surely the author didn't leave it like that..." and picked it up again to see where I had left off.
Not that the ending made a difference.
Secret Society is about (can you guess?) a secret society that promising, rich, New York high schoolers can get inducted into.
The four main characters, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch, are flat and not believable. Their personalities fluctuate too frequently (is Lauren rich and untouchable, or is she this weak, sniveling girl who doesn't know what to do about anything... How did Patch, a countercultural poor kid, suddenly become a buff, ripped, secret society wanna-be?).
The plot is weak (the society kills people, but WHY?). The story is unoriginal. And I am not looking forward to the sequel.
Secret Society bored me. It bored me so much that I put it down five pages from the end and forgot that I hadn't finished it. It was only a week or so later that I thought, "How did that book end? Surely the author didn't leave it like that..." and picked it up again to see where I had left off.
Not that the ending made a difference.
Secret Society is about (can you guess?) a secret society that promising, rich, New York high schoolers can get inducted into.
The four main characters, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch, are flat and not believable. Their personalities fluctuate too frequently (is Lauren rich and untouchable, or is she this weak, sniveling girl who doesn't know what to do about anything... How did Patch, a countercultural poor kid, suddenly become a buff, ripped, secret society wanna-be?).
The plot is weak (the society kills people, but WHY?). The story is unoriginal. And I am not looking forward to the sequel.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Everafter by Amy Huntley
4 stars -- I liked it!
The Everafter is a really quick read. It took me less than three hours and only one sitting (yay for lazy Saturday afternoons!).
The book starts with a girl in a large seemingly empty space. She realizes she's dead, but she doesn't know who she is, how she died, or even how she knows she's dead. Without a way to note the passage of time, it's hard to pinpoint how long she stays in her bubble before she begins exploring the area she's in, which she's nicknamed Is, but eventually she does.
Learning to expand the bubble that encompasses what remains of her (is she a ghost? is she a soul?) and move through Is, the girl starts traveling toward little pinpoints of light she can barely see in the darkness.
It turns out that each pinpoint is an object, and each object, when touched, brings Madison to a point in her life where she lost that object. Able to view the scene from outside her body or to join with her body and relive the moment, Madison learns who she is, who her friends are, and relearns about the love of her life, Gabe.
Madison makes it her goal to find out how she, and, she's pretty sure, Gabe, died at the age of 17, but no object brings her to that scene. She learns that she can change the outcome of the scenes by either finding the object (after which she can no longer visit that moment) or moving other little things around but also realizes that doing so changes the fabric of who she was.
The Everafter is a fascinating look into one person's take on how life after death might be, and the puzzle found within the story is quite captivating--will Madison find Gabe? How did Madison die? What is Madison's best friend's place in all of this? The outcome, while not exactly surprising and a little far fetched, is satisfying and the steps that led to the ending are clearly defined in retrospect. I'm pretty sure the letter at the end made me tear up a little bit.
The only complaint I have about the book is that the the Everafter, which the dead can go to and leave at any time, is a little vague and doesn't sound very pleasant to me. But I suppose heaven is a bit hard to describe, and everybody has their own ideas about how it will be.
The Everafter is a really quick read. It took me less than three hours and only one sitting (yay for lazy Saturday afternoons!).
The book starts with a girl in a large seemingly empty space. She realizes she's dead, but she doesn't know who she is, how she died, or even how she knows she's dead. Without a way to note the passage of time, it's hard to pinpoint how long she stays in her bubble before she begins exploring the area she's in, which she's nicknamed Is, but eventually she does.
Learning to expand the bubble that encompasses what remains of her (is she a ghost? is she a soul?) and move through Is, the girl starts traveling toward little pinpoints of light she can barely see in the darkness.
It turns out that each pinpoint is an object, and each object, when touched, brings Madison to a point in her life where she lost that object. Able to view the scene from outside her body or to join with her body and relive the moment, Madison learns who she is, who her friends are, and relearns about the love of her life, Gabe.
Madison makes it her goal to find out how she, and, she's pretty sure, Gabe, died at the age of 17, but no object brings her to that scene. She learns that she can change the outcome of the scenes by either finding the object (after which she can no longer visit that moment) or moving other little things around but also realizes that doing so changes the fabric of who she was.
The Everafter is a fascinating look into one person's take on how life after death might be, and the puzzle found within the story is quite captivating--will Madison find Gabe? How did Madison die? What is Madison's best friend's place in all of this? The outcome, while not exactly surprising and a little far fetched, is satisfying and the steps that led to the ending are clearly defined in retrospect. I'm pretty sure the letter at the end made me tear up a little bit.
The only complaint I have about the book is that the the Everafter, which the dead can go to and leave at any time, is a little vague and doesn't sound very pleasant to me. But I suppose heaven is a bit hard to describe, and everybody has their own ideas about how it will be.
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