UPDATE! Caris Roane's GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Caris Roane with a review of the fourth book in her GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION SERIES:  Born of Ashes.

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Steven Harper's CLOCKWORK EMPIRE SERIES

Author:  Steven Harper (pseudonym for Steven Piziks)
Series:  CLOCKWORK EMPIRE
Plot Type:  Steampunk
Ratings:  V4; S3; H2
Publisher and Titles: Roc
        The Doomsday Vault (11/2011)
        The Impossible Cube (5/2012)
        The Dragon Men (11/2012)
        The Havoc Machine (5/2013)

     This post was revised and updated on 1/10/13 to include a review of the second book in the series: The Impossible Cube. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the series and a review of book 1: 

          BOOK 2:  The Impossible Cube          

     If you have not read book 1, the author includes a "story-so-far" introduction that hits the high points of that plot.  

     As book 2 opens, Alice and Gavin are on the run—actually, on the fly—from Third Ward agents Philippa, Simon, and Glenda, who are furious that Alice let loose the Clockwork cure in England, thus stopping the Clockwork Plague, closing down the Third Ward and leaving them jobless—not to mention the fact that they will no longer have access to the clockworkers who have keep England supplied with multitudes of clever mechanical weapons. Alice and Gavin are traveling with Dr. Cleff (the crazed clockworker who invented the Impossible Cube in the previous book), Feng (son of the Chinese ambassador), Kemp (Alice's mechanical valet), and Alice's menagerie of mechanicals (small, metal, mechanized devices that follow her commands). Gavin's clockwork symptoms are getting worse and worse, and Alice believes that the only way to save him is to go to China and beg the Chinese clockworkers (aka dragon men) to develop a cure. 

     The romantic relationship between Alice and Gavin has developed to the stage where they are now engaged, but are putting off marriage until Gavin can be cured. The situation becomes strained as Gavin occasionally goes into a clockwork fugue state during which he is uncharacteristically rude and arrogant to Alice, treating her like a lowly worker. She knows that he can't help it and isn't even aware that he's doing it, but his behavior still hurts her feelings. On the other hand, Gavin is impatient with Alice because she insists on spending much of her time curing clockwork plague victims in every city they visit. Being touched with her blood cures most of them immediately—but, unfortunately, it doesn't work for Gavin. Almost every time Alice stops to heal someone, she puts their group in danger.

     The early part of the book consists of the good guys flying away and the bad guys catching up with them. Each time, a battle ensues and the good guys take off again. Eventually, Gavin leads the group to Luxembourg, where they hide themselves in a circus owned by Gavin's old friend, Dodd. When the circus train reaches Kiev, Alice and her group find a powerful enemy who is even more dangerous than Philippa and her cohorts. 

     Kiev is considered to be the original source of the clockwork plague, and it has more than its share of clockworkers, mostly belonging to the Gonta and Zalizniak families, who have joined together for strength. The clockworkers are kidnapping children from the streets of Kiev and turning them into clockworkers—virtual slaves to the two families. The climactic ending battle brings the Impossible Cube back into play as the primary and secondary characters on both sides nearly destroy the city of Kiev. 

     The bare bones of this plot include one or two meaty relationship scenes, and a few nice action sequences, but compared to the complex plot we saw in book 1, this story is more famine than feast. The lack of action is at its lowest level during the too-frequent scenes in which the Gavin and Dr. Cleff go into their clockwork mode and explain (at great length and in highly technical language) the how and why of their various projects and schemes. Frankly, I found myself skimming past those paragraphs/pages. Another problem is that Alice and her team are supposed to be quite intelligent. So...why, then, do they keep getting caught in various traps, and why don't they ever have any contingency plans? A final detriment is that Philippa's sudden change of behavior in the final scene doesn't ring true. From the very beginning of the book, she has been driven by her sense of betrayal and her daddy-related emotions  to capture or kill Alice and Gavin, no matter what the cost. Her almost instantaneous change of heart strikes a definite false note. For me, this book just doesn't live up to the promise of book 1. It actually seems more like a "bridge" novel—a set up for the confrontation with the dragon men in book 3.

          WORLD-BUILDING          

     This is a full-on steampunk series with all of the requisite bells and whistles—all of them steam-powered and gear-driven, of course. Set in mid-Victorian London, the story depicts a population overrun by the clockwork plague, an insidious disease that either kills its victims or turns them into mindless zombie-like creatures. Some plague victims—a very small percentage—beat the odds. Instead of dying or becoming zombies, they morph into clockworkers—creative geniuses who invent impossible machines and automatons that are frequently related in some way to music. Unfortunately, their creativity is heavily tinged with madness, which eventually overcomes their minds and drives them totally insane. The British government takes advantage of the clockworkers' brief periods of genius by locking them up and using their inventions for "the good of the empire." A mysterious organization called the Third Ward has been given the task of dealing with the clockworkers in the Western world. Headed by the militaristic Philippa, the Third Ward is a body of highly trained warriors who use a variety of powerful, state-of-the-art weapons to capture and imprison clockworkers. China has its own set of clockworkers (called Dragon Men). The two countries are in a constant competition to stay one step ahead of the other in technological inventions, including weapons, so they are both anxious to wring every idea they can from their captive inventors.

     In London's complex social world, the rigid class system is in full swing, with the lower classes succumbing to the plague in large numbers as they scrabble out a meager living while the nobility uses its wealth to maintain security systems, manned by both humans and automatons, to keep the infectious zombies at bay. Women have two choices in this world. They can join the Ad Hoc Women—who wear trousers, vote, and are looked down upon by patrician society—or they can live as respected ladies with no real civil rights at all. 

     Here is how Harper describes the creation of the series: 

     "It started with the THX noise. It's that weird swoopy noise they used to play at the beginning of movies. My son Aran is autistic, and the noise causes him active pain. (Autists often process physical sensations differently than neuro-typical people do.) As a result, I looked into the science of sound, and I learned how the square root of two rules music with an iron and irrational fist.

      And then characters started forming. A teenaged boy with perfect pitch who lives on an airship which is attacked by pirates. A young woman who owns a mechanical cat and desperately wants to re-enter a society that snubbed her.

     It came together. Dirigibles. Glass cutlasses. Automatons. Mad scientists. A world ravaged by plague and zombies. And behind it all, a single, impossible, irrational number."

     The author has created a web site for the CLOCKWORK EMPIRE. Click HERE to go to that site.

          BOOK 1:  The Doomsday Vault          

     As the first book opens, Alice B. Michaels, an impoverished young noblewoman—daughter of a baron—has an encounter with a mob of zombies on the streets of London and gets involved with some Third Ward warriors as they sweep in to get the situation under control. Alice is considered by society to be a spinster because she is twenty-two years old and has no husband and no family money. Her fiancé died of the clockwork plague several years ago, leaving her without any romantic prospects. Alice's mother and brother also died of the plague, and her father was left crippled, unable to walk. Alice's Aunt Edwina turned her back on the family and went to live on her isolated estate, communicating only through the automatons she sends as gifts to Alice, all of them signed, "Love, Aunt Edwina." Alice feels responsible for her family's plague infection and believes that she must maintain the family title by encouraging the courtship of the rich and powerful Norbert Williamson, who wants to marry her for her skill at building and repairing automatons and because their first-born son would inherit the title of Baron. Norbert is a real piece of work, with questionable business practices that would ruin him if society were to discover them. A strange inheritance from Aunt Edwina sets Alice off on some independent adventures that free her temporarily (and perhaps permanently) from Norbert's grasp.

     In the meantime, a young American airman, Gavin Ennock, finds his life irrevocably changed when his airship is captured by pirates and he escapes to roam the streets of London, earning a pittance by busking in Hyde Park. Gavin is blessed with an angelic voice and an extraordinary talent for playing his violin. Soon, though, Gavin is kidnapped by a mysterious woman and placed in solitary imprisonment in a tower with only with his violin for company. The plot follows Alice and Gavin as both try to make the best of the difficult situations in which they find themselves. Gavin yearns to be free so that he can continue his life in the air, while Alice dreams of a life that would free her father from his debts and thus allow her to refuse Norbert's marriage offer. Her primary interest is in technology, specifically automatons.

     As the story advances, Alice and Gavin meet and are mutually attracted, although they both realize that a romance between them would never work. After all, he's an American commoner and she's a Baron's daughter. When a mysterious masked clockworker begins to shadow and taunt Alice, the action ratchets up, until eventually the romantic leads get themselves involved in capturing gigantic automatons, freeing an imprisoned clockworker, and leading a rebellion. The most outrageous automaton is in the shape of a giant tree.   

     This is a fresh and inventive story, with interesting characters and lots of steampunk-inspired action, including airship pirate battles, political intrigue, wild weaponry, automatons of every size, shape, and ability—and always plenty of clockwork zombies! Particularly entertaining are Alice's two automaton sidekicks: Kemp, her persnickety manservant, and Click, her clever cat. Alice also uses a bevy of tiny flying automatons to lace up her corsets and perform other housemaid duties. Those scenes put me in mind of the Disney Cinderella movie in which Cinderella receives personal assistance from a flock of tiny bluebirds and some mice. Click HERE to read chapter one of The Doomsday Vault.

UPDATE! Caitlin Kittredge's BLACK LONDON SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Caitlin Kittredge with a review of a new novella from her BLACK LONDON SERIES entitled The Curse of Four.

Click on the author's name or the title above to go directly to the updated review.

UPDATE! Jennifer Ashley's SHIFTERS UNBOUND SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Jennifer Ashley with a review of the third book in her SHIFTERS UNBOUND SERIES:  Wild Cat.

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Sara Humphreys: THE AMOVEO LEGEND SERIES

Author:  Sara Humphreys
Series:  THE AMOVEO LEGEND SERIES
Plot Type:  SMR
Ratings:  V4; S4; H3
Publisher and Titles:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
        Unleashed (10/2011)
        Untouched (4/2012)
        "Undenied" (e-short story, 10/2012)
        Untamed (11/2012)
        Undone (5/2013)
        Unclaimed (12/2013)

     This post was revised and updated on 12/4/12 to include a review of the first short story and the third novel in the series: "Undenied" and Untamed. Those reviews appear first, followed by an overview of the world-building and a review of books 1 and 2:   

PROTOCOL FOR VILLAINS:  In order to prevent spoilers, every time I mention the villain in each of these books, I will use the gender-neutral pronoun "it" or "that" rather than "he" or "she" in order to keep the identity a complete secret. In some of the books, if you know the gender of the villain you can easily guess the identity. (I hate spoilers!)

     E-Short Story:  "Undenied"     

     As of the date of this posting (12/4/12), you can click HERE for a free download of this story at amazon.com. This is the mating story of Boris Zankoff, an Amoveo Bengal tiger and Lillian Cordero, a psychic human palm reader. When Lillian arrives in New Orleans without a place to stay, someone recommends Boris, who rents her a room behind his bar. (Boris is the brother of the female tiger shifter who was killed in book 2.) Lillian has dreamed about tigers all her life (she even has a tiger tattoo on her back), and when she sees the snarling tiger picture over the door of Boris's bar, she feels like she has come home. When Lillian meets Boris, his voice sounds like the voice of her dream tiger. Then, she reads Boris's palm and sees visions of shape-shifting tigers, and when she touches him, they both are overcome by the usual waves of lust felt by Amoveo mates. To top things off, she hears his voice in her mind. This is all a big shock to Lillian, since she doesn't yet know anything about the Amoveo or the mating destiny. But it doesn't take her long to sort things out, and before they have known each other for 24 hours, the two have officially mated. (I believe that this is the fastest true-mating I've come across so far in all my reading of paranormal romances.)

     Of course, there is a villain in the story to make sure that the road to love isn't totally smooth. This villain is a purist who wants Boris to join their side in the coming civil war within the Amoveo, and that villain is not happy to discover that Boris's mate is a human. This is a very short story with an HEA for the happy couple but no resolution to the conflict with the Purist. If you want to get a taste for the series, this is a good—and free—way to do it.

     BOOK 3:  Untamed     

     The third book tells the love story of the peevish and pretentious gyrfalcon shifter, William Fleury, who is a friend of Malcolm and Dante. In the first two books, the buttoned-down William was a constant thorn in the sides of the soul-mate couples as he disdainfully looked down on his friends for behaving so foolishly around their mates. Now it's time for William to be humbled by a mate of his own—a sassy and independent hybrid (human mother, Amoveo father) who takes one look at what she calls William's "bossy pants" ways and runs as fast as she can in the other direction.

     The bulk of the book follows William and his destined mate, Layla Nickelsen, along the extremely rocky road to their eventual HEA. Layla was the photographer on Kerry's photo-shoot in New Orleans in the previous book, and as soon as she and William met, that old familiar soul-mate electricity started simmering between them. Since then, William has been pursuing Layla in the dream realm, but she has been hiding from him, refusing to face him. As the story opens, William has had enough of Layla's blocking him in her dreams, and he decides to face her down in person at her childhood home, where she thinks she has hidden herself away from him.

     Layla was raised on a rural farm by Rosie, a human, who also raised two other Amoveo hybrids, twins Raife and Tatiana. Layla is a cheetah, and Raife and Tatiana are timber wolves. The twins have been able to shift since they hit puberty, but Layla has not yet been able to shift yet and it makes her feel inferior. All three feel abandoned by their parents and have been told little about Amoveo history and culture. One thing they have been warned about, though, is that they will each probably succumb to the Amoveos' predestined-mate tradition, and that scares Layla. She wants to be in complete control of her own life, and she doesn't need any snooty pureblood grabbing her up and trying to control her. Layla holds on to this attitude almost to the very end of the story, even though William does his best to get her to understand that's not what mating is all about. I have to say that even though I could understand Layla's initial reticence, I got sick of her anguished interior monologues (all very self-centered) and her constant whining that "I have to be me." William is actually a pretty nice guy in this story, without all the sneering and posturing we saw in the first two books. He is very patient and understanding with Layla, trying not to push her into anything and keeping her protected in the least alpha-ish way that he can manage.

     The villain doesn't show up until well into the story, and it's fairly obvious who it is. Needless to say, the Amoveo boys kick into action and protect Layla and her family, so all's well there. The real conflict in this book goes back to the series story arc with the good-guy Amoveos squaring off against the intensely bigoted Purists. The situation gets tense and then explodes in this book, changing everything for all of the clans and forcing each clan member to take a side in the dispute, which is turning into a civil war. 

     This plot runs its course in much the same way that as the first two books, with the building of the angst-filled romance and the interference by various villains who try to make life difficult for the starring couple. At least in this book the heroine already knows that she is a hybrid Amoveo, so we don't have to deal with the shock and awe that we had with heroines 1 and 2 when they found out that they were shifters. This heroine, though, is so obnoxious in her self-centeredness, that her bad attitude gives all her scenes an uncomfortable, caustic edge. 

     Book 4 will tell the love story of pure-blooded Amoveo bear-shifter Marianna Coltari (Dante's sister) and Pete Castor, a human retired police officer who works for Dante's security firm.

     WORLD-BUILDING     
     In this world, the Amoveo are a species of shape shifters divided into ten animal clans (e.g., eagle, bear, fox, coyote, lion, tiger) who live in the mortal world, but are mostly unknown to humans. Only two groups of humans are aware of their existence: the Caedo, fanatic bigots who want to kill all Amoveo, and members of the Vasullus family, who have protected the Amoveo from harm and discovery for centuries. The Caedo are all descendants of Victor Caedo, a human man who was in love with an Amoveo woman. When that woman spurned him for her Amoveo mate, Caedo followed them and saw them shift into their animal forms. His love turned to hate, and the Caedo have been hunting down the Amoveo ever since.

     The Amoveo are led by their Prince, Richard Muldavi, and by their Council, which is made up of one representative from each clan and two members of the Vasullus family. For the most part, the Amoveo find their mates within their own species, but their are exceptions to this, and the focus of the first book is on one of these exceptions.

     The Amoveo believed that each one of them has a predestined mate. Generally, the mates find one another in the dream realm first and then get together physically after that. An Amoveo who doesn't complete the mating destiny by his or her thirtieth birthday begins to lose his or her powers, including the ability to shift. Eventually, all powers fade away and the Amoveo becomes human—a fate worse than death.

     Along with the Caedo fanatics, another villainous group emerges in book 1 and continues to threaten our heroes and heroines: the Purists. These folks are as bigoted as the Caedo, but what they are opposed to is intermarriage between the Amoveo and humans. Apparently, some of the Amoveo males have been impregnating human women over the years, unknown to the rest of their clans. Many of those children—called hybrids—are now growing up and having mating dreams with pure-blood Amoveo. The Purists want to put an end to all of these hybrid offspring.

     BOOK 1:  Unleashed     
     As the story begins begins, Samantha Logan is leaving New York City and heading back to her childhood home on the oceanfront in small-town Rhode Island. Samantha tried to make it as an artist in NYC, but she hasn't had much success, and now she has started to have dreams of home—dreams that include a sexy man whose face she cannot see. So...off she goes, leaving an angry ex-boyfriend in her wake. Waiting for her in Rhode Island is Malcolm Drew, who knows that Samantha is his one true mate. He also knows that Samantha has never heard of the Amoveo and that she has absolutely no idea that she herself has latent shape-shifting abilities. Here is yet another paranormal fiction heroine who was orphaned early in life and is totally unaware that both of her parents had supernatural powers. In this case, Samantha's father was an Amoveo wolf, and her mother was a powerful human psychic, so Samantha is a hybrid who has not yet manifested her powers—always a prime target for the villains of paranormal fiction.

     The plot has the usual two strands: the romance, first and foremost, and, secondarily, the threats to the heroine by various villains, not all of them Caedo fanatics. The identities of the real villains are telegraphed early on in the story, but the author throws in a red herring to try to throw us off the track. Unfortunately, this story line follows an entirely predictable path, from beginning to end, so I doubt that you will be fooled. The hero and heroine are the stereotypical paranormal romance leads: strong, handsome, arrogant male and feisty but fragile, heroine with really low self-esteem. The villains are also stereotypical—bad-to-the-core bigots who have no redeeming qualities. Here is one of them as it admires its big black crossbow and plots its next move: "This was a graceful weapon. Exactly the kind of weapon one of God's chosen would wield...He was a chosen one. He was sent to save the earth and save the humans from annihilation. He knew that one arrow in the wing wouldn't kill it...Best thing of all, it would suffer. A smile spread across his face at the very thought of it." (p. 197) You can almost hear it laughing to itself, "Bwaaah, Haah, Haah," like a cartoon villain. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Unleashed.  

     The mythology for the series is inventive, but the plot and the characters (at least in book 1) are genre retreads.  

     BOOK 2: Untouched     

     The heroine of this book is Kerry Smithson, Samantha's BFF from childhood (from book 1). Kerry is a gorgeous super-model who can't bear to touch anyone because her raw psychic abilities would force her to read their emotions. As the story opens, the only person she can touch without pain is Samantha, and when they touch, Kerry visualizes a gray wolf—but she doesn't tell Samantha about that and she doesn't have any idea what it means. When Kerry heads to New Orleans on a modeling assignment, Malcolm and Samantha hire a bodyguard to accompany her because Kerry's crazy cousin (from book 1) is still lurking around somewhere. That bodyguard is Malcolm's sexy cousin, Dante Coltari, a fox shifter who has been giving Kerry hot shivers ever since she first laid eyes on him. When Kerry discovers that she can touch Dante painlessly and that his touch actually feels good, she can hardly believe it. The story follows the quick development of their romance and mating, along with Kerry's introduction to her Amoveo heritage. The secondary story line involves a mysterious villain that calls itself "the Punisher." Humphreys uses an old horror story device here as the Punisher always refers to itself by that term—never by name—so we don't know who it is until the big climactic scene. I have to say that I was surprised by the Punisher's identity, but I was disappointed at the stereotypical creep that Humphreys created. Just as in book 1, it had the cardboard quality of a cartoon villain.

     The falling-in-love part of the story happens too quickly, with little or no angst, and the couple's lovey-dovey behavior gets to be cloying. Once again, the heroine accepts the whole idea of Oh-my-God-I'm-an-animal-shifter without much fuss. So no drama there, either. The only drama in the book is really melodrama, with the overblown antics of the over-the-top villain and with huge family secrets coming out of the woodwork at the very last moment. All in all, this is a mostly predictable story, except for the identity of the villain.

UPDATE! Kate Pearce's TUDOR VAMPIRE CHRONICLES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Kate Pearce with a review of the third book in her TUDOR VAMPIRE CHRONICLES SERIES: Mark of the Rose. 

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Sarah Wendell's "Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels"

Author: Sarah Wendell
Title: Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2011

    Although this nonfiction book is more about regular romance novels than paranormal romance novels, much of the content applies to both. Two paranormal fiction authors and/or works are referenced: Nalini Singh and Kresley Cole. Wendell is the co-author of the 2009 book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, which is an entertaining look at the genre. She is also a co-founder of the blog, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a popular book review blog devoted to the romance genre.

     In this book, Wendell mines the minds of her blog readers and a handful of romance authors to analyze just what life lessons we can take away from romance novels. As she did in her previous book, Wendell strongly opposes the popular notion (among people who don't read romance novels) that reading "those" books means that romance readers have unrealistic expectations of real life because they believe that their lives should mirror the ones of the romantic heroines. On the contrary (or, as Wendel says, "Wrongity wrong wrong wrong"). She goes on to say, "That accusation implies that we don't know the difference between fantasy and real life, and frankly, it's sexist as well. You don't see adult [male] gamers being accused of an inability to discern when one is a human driving a real car and when one is a yellow dinosaur driving a Mario Kart, but romance readers hear about their unrealistic expectations of men almost constantly." (p. 6)

     In the "Introduction," Wendell asks romance writer Loretta Chase for her perspective on hero and heroine behavior and on character traits that are required for a romance. Chase immediately points to the movie, The Wizard of Oz, saying, "The Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man are seeking traits that, combined, make my idea of a romance hero—Courage, a Heart, a Brain—and Dorothy, who has all those traits, is a heroine. Equally important, we can relate to all of them at some very basic level." (p. 18) After the lengthy (25 pages) and rambling "Introduction," Wendell divides her book into these nine chapters. 

Chapter 1: We Know Who We Are, and We Know Our Worth: aka: Seeing Yourself in a Romance Novel Is Not a Bad Thing!

In this chapter, Wendell makes the point that in modern romance novels, the heroine is much more important to the relationship than she was in the romance novels of 20-30 years ago. She goes on to say, "romances teach readers that we should know ourselves, and value ourselves, in order to find happiness....That's the first lesson of romance novels, really: romance is found in how we treat ourselves." (p. 28)

Chapter 2: We Know More Than a Few Good Men

Here, the point is that in our real lives we don't really want a clone of a romance hero. "And because of the over-the-top, top-heavy images of males in romance, one of the most common accusations tossed in the direction of readers is that all that romance reading gives women unrealistic expectations of love, of sex, and of men in general." (p. 56) Wendell calls this theory, "deep-fried bullpucky." (She uses a lot of colorful language.) She goes on to analyze the traits of romance heroes: the care-giving alpha male, the heroes who tackle and learn from their problems, the heroes who honestly recognize their own worth, and the hero who is full of mystery. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the top nine romance heroes, based on her blog survey. 

Chapter 3: We Know What Not to Want

Here, Wendell points out that romance readers can use their reading to recognize and avoid certain traits of romantic heroes. A prime example is possessiveness. If you've read even one paranormal romance, you know that the hero—be he werewolf, vampire, or whatever—is nearly always supremely possessive. Although this makes for entertaining reading, in real life some of these guys would be considered to be stalkers, and the girl would be filing for a restraining order. Wendell's point is that "romance readers recognize traits they love in fiction and in heroes which they would abhor in actual people—and...these readers can absolutely identify the differences and similarities in their own lives." (p. 89)

Chapter 4: We Know How to Spot Real-Life Heroes and Heroines

In this chapter, Wendell lists the traits of an ideal romance character (respect, honesty compassion, etc.) and proposes that seeing these traits in the behaviors of romance heroes and heroines allows us to extrapolate those experiences to real-life situations.

Chapter 5: We Know Good Sex

The first point Wendell makes in this chapter is that "sex depictions in romance novels have changed drastically, and the rapetastic romances are things of the past....In romances published today, not only is the sexuality a variable part of the pilot...but both parties participate in making sure the sexuality is fantastic for all involved." (p. 113) She makes the argument that readers can explore levels of sexuality in romance novels that may help them make decisions within their own sex lives. "Reading about passionate sex and sex as a method to express emotional passion has two benefits. First, you get to think about, or mentally try out, acts that you're curious about without actually doing them...Second, you are able to read and learn in privacy." (p. 117)

Chapter 6: We Know How to Solve Problems

Here, Wendell lists various problems that must be solved within hero-heroine relationships and suggests using the characters' problem-solving methods to take care of your own, way-less-severe problems. She makes the point that in romance novels, there is always plenty of conflict, but almost all of it gets worked out by the end of the book. She says, "Repeatedly reading about courtship and the problems facing each one also allows readers to see and consider problems that are solved in myriad patterns." (p. 158)

Chapter 7: We Know How to Ask for What We Want

In this short chapter, Wendell uses excerpts from romance novels to make her point: "The characters figure out what they want and decide to go after it. This step...usually means revealing everything the person feels, and what that person wants. It's risky, but the payoff is worth the terror." (p. 179)

Chapter 8: We Know That Happily Ever After Takes Work

Wendell calls this the number one lesson to be learned from romance novels: "Happily-ever-after isn't sometime in the future. It exists right now, and starts with you." (p.181) She ends the chapter with three easy steps for romance and courtship.

Chapter 9: The Final Chapter: The Happy Ending Starts...Now

In this brief concluding chapter, Wendell includes a table entitled "Life Lessons Hidden in Romance Novels." She also summarizes her main points in the book and closes by saying, "May we all be happy, may we all feel the joy of romance, and may we all live happily ever after." (p. 214)   


     This is an entertaining book that romance readers will probably enjoy. Wendell lards her pages with many, many quotations from her blog readers, which I found myself skipping over to get back to the author's witty rants.

UPDATE! Nina Bangs: GODS OF THE NIGHT SERIES

Here is the latest news about the future of the GODS OF THE NIGHT series from Nina Bangs. In a recent posting on her Facebook page, Bangs says: "I've received a lot of e-mails asking about my GODS OF THE NIGHT series. Here's where things stand as of right now. I'm trying to write Rap's story at the same time that I write Wicked Whispers. I don't have a contract for Rap's story. The publisher chose not to continue with the series, but I can't leave readers hanging. So I'll be self-publishing several more GODS OF THE NIGHT books because I know how much I hate it when a series end prematurely. I'm hoping to be finished with Rap's story around May. Yes, I do have a contract for several more CASTLE OF DARK DREAMS books, and I'm trying to find time to write a proposal for a new series. The new series will be dark since that's what publishers seem to want now. Can we say stressed?" 

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/NinaBangsAuthor)

     If you haven't been reading GODS OF THE NIGHT, click HERE to go to my review. This is a solid paranormal romance series, and it would be a shame for it to end before we get all of the predators' stories and learn just how their leader (Fin) fits into the whole situation. Personally, Fin is my favorite character, and I was looking forward to reading his full story. Kudos to Nina Bangs for plunging ahead into the self-publishing world. How ironic is it that the publisher pulled out this year since the series is based on the Mayan 2012 end times mythology?

"The Walking Dead: Rise of at the Governor" by Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga

Authors: Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga
Title: The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor
Series: WALKING DEAD
Plot Type: Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Horror
Ratings: V5; S3; H1
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2011

     First came the graphic novels, then the TV series, and now the book. If you've read the graphic novels, you'll be familiar with the Governor, one of the most cruel and frightening villains to appear in in science fiction in recent memory. Wizard magazine voted him "Villain of the Year" in 2006, the year he debuted in the graphic novels (issue #27). But was he always such a cold and lethal man? Where did he come from? What were the factors that molded his post-apocalyptic identity? What is his real identity? This book provides all of the blood-curdling and sometimes shocking answers. Even if you've never read the graphic novels or watched the TV series, you can still enjoy this story.


     This novel was written by Jay Bonansinga from an outline by series co-creator, Robert Kirkman. There are plenty of shocking twists and terrors, with dark dread lurking beyond every turn of the page. The story reads almost like a screen play. As you read the frequent descriptive phrases, you can picture a camera coming in for a close-up shot. 

The story is divided into three sections: 

Part 1—The Hollow Men (Chapters 1-8): This section introduces Philip and Brian Blake; Philip's daughter, Penny; and their friends, Nick and Bobby. The action takes place during the first few days of the zombie plague as the group takes shelter in a McMansion in a Georgia suburb as they plan how to get to the refugee center that they've heard is operating in Atlanta. Philip is the fearless group leader, followed closely by Nick and Bobby, with Brian straggling behind, dealing with his multitude of overwhelming fears. Here is a scene between Philip and Brian just after Brian takes Philip's gun to kill a zombie, but then is unable to pull the trigger: "You listen to me," Philip growls in a threatening, husky voice that's both sober and drunk at the same time. "Next time you take a gun from me, you make sure you're ready to put it to good use...."You better get past your namby-pamby bullshit sheltered life and start carrying your weight around here and stoving some heads in because it sure as hell is gonna get worse before it gets better!...We're gonna survive this thing, and we're gonna do it by being bigger monsters than they are! You understand? There ain't no rules anymore!" (p. 96)

Part 2—Atlanta (Chapters 9-17): Now, the group is down to three men and Penny, and they are shocked to learn that the Atlanta refugee center is a myth. Seeking shelter, they settle into an apartment building with David Chalmers and his two grown daughters, April and Tara. For awhile, it looks as if they've found a safe place to stay, but Philip has a horrible moment in which he loses control, and they are forced to move on, this time with no weapons or supplies. In a foreshadowing of what is to come, this section opens with a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche: "He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you." (p. 105)

Part 3—Chaos Theory (Chapters 18-23): Here, the group escapes from Atlanta on brand new Harleys and finds a new safe place in an abandoned Victorian country estate. Each time things get better, though, they soon grow even worse. Early on in the section, Brian wonders "whether Penny might actually be the glue that's holding them all together, keeping them from self-destructing." (p. 217) This turns out to be a prescient thought. Soon, a drugged-out gang invades their new home, imposing a horrible loss that drives the group into deep grief and triggers changes in all their lives. Philip begins to descend into a kind of madness as he dedicates his existence to taking care of Penny, while Nick buries himself in his Bible, and Brian keeps trying to cope, always unsure of what to do next. After that attack, they pack up and move on, eventually reaching the tiny town of Woodbury, where a small group of survivors lives under the sociopathic leadership of three former National Guardsmen who are more interested in power for themselves than in the survival of the townsfolk. In a stunning conclusion, everything changes for Philip, Brian, Nick, and Penny. Here is Nick as he explains to Brian his conclusions about the zombie plague: "What's the thing Satan hates the most? The power of love? Maybe. Somebody being born again. Yeah probably. But I kinda think it's when a person passes, and their spirit flies up to Paradise....That's what's going on here, Brian. The devil's figured out a way to keep people's souls trapped here on earth." (p. 251)

The Governor, in all his
frightening glory.

From beginning to end, we get inside these characters, learning what makes them tick. In an on-line interview, Bonansinga explains how important that is: "That's how horror works. That's catharsis. Getting into the characters' should and then twisting the knife."


Although there are a few rough spots (i.e., some over-used phrases and some lapses into blatant sentimentality), this is a plot that moves along at a fast pace while still allowing us to get to know the characters. I'm glad that the authors decided to go with a print novel rather than a graphic novel, because this way we absolutely do get into the characters' heads to a much greater degree than would be possible in an all-too-short graphic novel.


The zombie descriptions are, of course, graphic and horrible, but that's a big part of why we read zombie novels—right? Here is part of a two-paragraph description of an oncoming mob of zombies: "The greeting party, as copious as a Roman army and as slapdash as a swarm of giant arachnids...comes from a little over a block away....All shapes and sizes and stages of deterioration, they emerge from doorways and windows and alleys and wooded squares and nooks and crannies, and they fill the street with the profusion of a disordered marching band....each and every one of their faces uniformly pale and decomposed, like an endless orchard of shriveled fruit rotting in the sun—a thousand pairs of lifeless gunmetal-gray eyes locking in unison...a thousand feral, primordial tracking devices fixing themselves hungrily on the newcomer in their midst." (p. 103)

M.L.N. Hanover: BLACK SUN'S DAUGHTER

Author: M.L.N. Hanover (pseudonym for Daniel Abraham)

Series: BLACK SUN'S DAUGHTER
Plot Type: UF
Ratings: V4-5; S3; H2-3
Publisher and Titles: Pocket
        Unclean Spirits (2009)
         Darker Angels (2009)
         Vicious Grace (2010)
         Killing Rites (2011)

    Somehow I overlooked this series, so here's a review of the first four books. This is turning out to be a solid UF series, and I'm looking forward to more installments—just haven't been able to determine any dates or titles for upcoming books. I'll keep checking and will update the blog entry when I find something. 

    As the series opens, an organization called the Invisible College controls the magical world. Led by the evil and powerful Randolph Coin, the College specializes in harnessing demonic spirits, called riders. Every seven years, the College holds a ceremony in which a new crop of humans is infected with riders—all of whom are loyal to Coin and the College. The demonic spirits stay in their human host bodies until that body dies. Then, they go on to inhabit another body. 

     Here is one character's explanation of the process: "...all the ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties you've ever heard of really exist. Vampires, werewolves, zombies. People doing magic....Well...a lot of it is about demons. Or spirits or loa or whatever you want to call them. Seelie Court, Unseelies, Court Radha, Petro, Ghede. Ifrit. Hungry ghosts. All kinds of them. The generic term's riders. They get inside a person, and they change them. Make them do things, make them want to do things. Give them freaky powers. Normal people who've got a feel for it and the right training—call 'em wizards or witches...they can do some pretty weird shit, but nothing compared to what riders are capable of." (Unclean Spirits, p. 28)

***   ***   *****   ***   ***

     As Unclean Spirits begins, Eric Heller, a veteran demon fighter, believes that he is on the verge of destroying Coin, but his adventure ends tragically in the opening scene when he is killed by a gang of riders. When Eric's niece, Jayné (pronounced zha-nay', but usually mispronounced as Jayné) arrives in Denver to settle his estate, she learns that her Uncle Eric was an extremely wealthy man, with properties all over the world and a huge bank account—and Jayné is the sole heir. On her first day in Denver, Jayné checks out one of Eric's palatial apartments, where she finds Midian Clark, a desiccated, zombie-esque man who claims to be one of Eric's associates. Here's Jayné's description of Midian: "...he looked like something from Jim Henson's worst nightmare, his flesh ropey and dark and implausible." (p. 204) Midian explains that he is more than 200 years old and was cursed by Coin, who was in a different body back then. Midian tells Jayné the story of Coin and the College and suggests that Coin's riders probably killed Eric. 

     At this point, Jayné thinks that she has stepped into a really bad dream. She plans to call the police and have them go after Coin and then leave Denver to scout out the rest of Eric's estate. Jayné's plans change, however when several riders break into the apartment and try to kill both her and Midian. At this point, Jayné begins to believe that Midian's story might actually be true. During the battle with the riders, Jayné unexpectedly finds herself fighting like a ninja—a skill that she never had before—and she and Midian manage to kill all of the attackers. In the aftermath, Jayné calls Aubrey, Eric's assistant, to help them clean up the mess, and he brings two more of Eric's associates to the scene: Xavier (aka Ex), a former Jesuit, and Chogyi Jake, a mystical Buddhist. The four unlikely companions try to give Jayné a better idea of Eric's life and eventually they form a team so that they can complete Eric's final mission to take down Coin. The plot focuses on Jayné and her cohorts as they strategize, carry out plans, fail, and try again. They teach Jayné a bit of basic magic and give her some weapons training. Along the way, they help a woman get rid of a rider that has possessed her fiancé. In the romance department, Jayné and Aubrey are attracted to one another, but she soon discovers that there is an impediment to their relationship. There also seems to be a spark of interest between Jayné and Ex.

***   ***   *****   ***   ***

     Darker Angels opens six months after the end of book 1, just as Jayné and her crew are hired by a former FBI agent, Karen Black, to help her track down a loa rider that once possessed a serial killer, Joseph Mfume, but is now in New Orleans causing more trouble. When Jayné, Aubrey, Ex, and Chogyi Jake arrive in New Orleans, the rider immediately attacks Jayné in the form of an old Black woman who demands, “What the hell you think you doing in my city?” (p. 34) Then, she turns into a huge snake and tries to take a big bite out of Jayné. Just as the battle is getting dicey, Karen Black turns up and saves the day. Karen explains that the loa rider that attacked Jayné is planning to kill a young girl—the granddaughter of the human it possesses (who, by the way, is called a horse—demonic spirit rides human horse, get it?). Eventually, the group decides to kidnap the girl and take her to their rented house so that they can save her life. From the beginning, Karen assumes control of the group, a situation that causes mixed feelings for Jayné. On the one hand, Jayné is relieved to hand over the responsibility to this experienced monster fighter. On the other hand, Jayné likes to have a hand in logistical decisions and hates seeing her position usurped. When Jayné learns that Karen and Ex have become lovers, her reactions are even more mixed, particularly after Chogyi Jake tells Jayné that Ex has feelings for her. Early on, Karen leads part of the team into a dangerous confrontation with a powerful and hostile loa, resulting in a life-changing experience for one of Jayné's group. Soon, Ex turns his back on his friends—just as he did back in book 1—but this time, he’s determined to help Karen, not Jayné. As the climax approaches, Jayné realizes that Karen has not told the truth about a lot of things. After consulting with her remaining team members, Jayné decides that they are going to have to work with their enemies if they are to resolve the case. In a climactic scene at the end, Jayné and her new allies battle the evil loa rider with the help of some good (i.e, non-evil) riders. The fact that some riders may be good is a new concept for Jayné and her crew. In this book, Jayné continues to demonstrate physical powers far beyond her meager training, and no one is really sure why she has them or where they came from.

     This story is filled with Haitian vodou mythology, particularly the loas Legba and Carrafour—the good and evil (day and night) keepers of the crossroads. The themes of this story are “be careful who you trust” and “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By the end of the story, Jayné is once more at the head of her team. She's still sleeping with Aubrey, but remains friends with Ex. (is there a law somewhere that requires a love triangle in every UF series? Just wondering.) The villain in this book is pretty easy to spot, even though the author has tried to camouflage him—or her—or it (To prevent a spoiler, I won't be specific as to gender or species). Other than that, I have only two criticisms. First is the the romantic triangle, which is getting kind of old already. Second, everyone else on the team has advanced skills in magic, but, so far, Jayné doesn't seem to be learning much in that area. That makes her seem like a weak heroine, since she has only her unpredictable physical skills to turn to when she is confronted by a rider. Here's where logic flies out the window—because although she gets one major injury per book, she defeats every rider and wins every battle. We need more information—and sooner is better.

***   ***   *****   ***   ***

     As Vicious Grace opens, Jayné and her team are at a survivalist camp in Montana getting some training in weapons use and self-defense when Jayné receives a call for help from Kim, Aubrey's ex-wife. A year has passed since Jayné first went to Denver to settle Uncle Eric's estate, and she has spent those 12 months trying to live up to her heroic image of her uncle, the heroic, monster-fighting martyr. Kim lives in Chicago, where she works as a researcher and teacher at Grace Memorial Hospital in the field of parasitology—the study of parasites. Another member of the staff is working on a study of brain impulses during dreaming, and his sleep subjects are all having the same image show up in their dreams: a casket from which a demonic creature arises. Since Eric (and now Jayné) owns a luxurious condo in Chicago that the team needs to explore, they head right over. Two plot threads wind through the story, both converging towards the end. First: When Jayné and Kim visit Grace Memorial, a group of seemingly normal people suddenly turn demonic and attack Jayné. This gets the team to thinking that there must be a rider involved—this time it's a leyiathan (sometimes called a leviathan). (Remember, a "rider" is a demonic spirit that possesses a human "horse.") Second: Some incriminating information surfaces that seems to prove that Eric wasn't the altruistic battler for good that everyone thought he was. This second situation causes some big changes in the Jayné/Aubrey/Kim triangle. Here's Jayné as she muses about Uncle Eric: "...I'd made him into the hero of my own private comic book. Eric Heller, gentleman adventurer: Force for good. Decent human being. It hadn't had anything to do with the real man." (p. 326) The climax puts Jayné into an appallingly shocking situation that forces her into actions that will give her nightmares for years to come.

     Book 3 is much more mystical and dense than the first two books, and this is not necessarily a good thing. Even the actual identity of the villainous rider is still somewhat unclear to me. Jayné is constantly getting baffled by her buddies' technical language, and I have to say I was frequently confused right along with her. The same criticism that I made for book 2 holds true here. Jayné has had a whole year to learn about magic, and she has a talented team who could teach her, but Jayné seems not to have learned anything more than she knew back in book 1. Her physical strength in battle is growing stronger, but not in any predictable or understandable way. By the end of the book, she is pretty sure that she isn't quite normal. Jayné is the youngest of the cast of characters by 15-20 years, and her immaturity constantly shows up in her self-focused behavior and her poor decision-making. We would have been better served, I think, if all the characters were in the same age range.

***   ***   *****   ***   ***

     In Killing Rites, Jayné finally takes charge of her own life. She and Ex head for New Mexico for a consultation with Ex's former colleagues—exorcists for the Catholic Church. Early in the story, Jayné saves the day for the priests when a demon they are trying to exorcise breaks loose and attacks them. After she vanquishes that demon, with the help of her own rider, Jayné is sure that her rider is good, and not evil as she feared. But the priests are zealots who believe that all demons are bad, and they insist (forcibly) that hers must be banished. For a time, Jayné escapes and goes off on her own—for the very first time in the series—and this is like a breath of fresh air. She thinks things through, makes her own decisions, and acts on them in a confidant manner, even though she has fears and anxieties while she's doing it. In other words, she acts like a grown-up intelligent woman—finally. In this book, Ex, Midian, and Chogyi Jake join in Jayné's adventures, but Chogyi Jake doesn't show up until close to the end, and Midian's appearance is brief. By the end of the book, we have some idea of the meaning of the series title, but not many details. The ending is a moderate cliff-hanger as Jayne makes another executive decision as to where she will go next and who she will ask for more information. In the romance department, things are still off with Aubrey since he's still with Kim, and nothing much develops in this book between Ex and Jayné.

***   ***   *****   ***   ***

     This series has a strong beginning, lags a bit in books 2 and 3, and then makes a great come-back in book 4. The primary reason for the weakness of the middle two books is the lack of growth in the main character. From the series title, we know that we're eventually going to learn that Jayné is much more than human, but we don't get even the slightest hint of the meaning of "Black Sun's Daughter" until book 4. This is a long wait and seems to be a case of poor series structure on the author's part. In book 1, Jayné's character is clearly drawn, with her unhappy family background affecting her life decisions and her emotional reactions even when she believes that she has put her right-wing, fundamentalist father behind her for good. Unfortunately, for the first three books, her character is stuck in a morass of adolescent pique and immature thinking. This is glaringly apparent because all of the supporting charters are a decade or more older and are mostly more mature and way better educated about the supernatural world than she is. Most of the members of Jayné's team are lightly sketched in the first three books, but in book 4, we finally get some gritty details about Ex's history with the Catholic Church and why he left the priesthood. So far we know next to nothing about Midian and Chogyi Jake (who just smiles enigmatically all the time). We do learn much of Aubrey's story in the early books, and his love-triangle situation with Jayné and Kim is nicely nuanced in books 1 and 3.  

     The plots are generally well constructed and move along at a fast clip. Hanover is extremely good at establishing a sense of place. In Unclean Spirits, I could almost feel the sweat running down my back as I read the description of a blazing hot August day in Denver. 


     Here is a lovely description of twilight in New Mexico: "Snow caught every ray of light from moon or star, glowing blue. The black-barked trees were like cuts in the world with the darkness behind everything showing through. The few bits of light and color—the yellow of a lit window, the single red eye of a truck's unbroken taillight—only served to make everything seem bleaker: Ansel Adams meets H. P. Lovecraft.") (Killing Rites, p. 312)

     Here is a disturbingly organic description of a New Orleans neighborhood several years after Katrina: “I had the sense of walking into a tendril of dead city, as if the destruction of the Lower Ninth had cut a blood vessel, and even here where the city hadn’t suffered the flood, its tissue was dying.” (Darker Angels, p. 249)


    Hanover has a nice way with words. Here’s an example, as Jayné describes her lawyer’s voice: “She spoke with careful enunciation so sharp I imagined all the words being relieved that they’d gotten out alive.” (Darker Angels, p. 26)


     Just in case you’re wondering, in several books, Jayné calls things “little tomato.” For example, in Darker Angels, she addresses a bottle: “‘Well, little tomato,’ I said to the small black bottle, ‘I guess we’ll have to drink you warm.’” (p. 78). This quotation is connected with the band, Pink Martini, a cross-genre musical group formed in the 1990s in Portland, Oregon. Their second album is entitled, “Little Tomato.” This musical reference also explains Jayné's favorite t-shirt. It's Jayné's favorite band, and she listens to their music all the time.