Update! Rhiannon Frater's AS THE WORLD DIES TRILOGY

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Rhiannon Frater with a review of the second book in her AS THE WORLD DIES TRILOGY: Fighting to Survive.

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

UPDATE! Jennifer Estep's ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Jennifer Estep with a review of the sixth book in her ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN Series:  By a Thread.

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

"The Hunger Games"—From Print to Film

Since this is a book review blog, I've analyzed the film only as it relates to the book. For an in-depth look at the movie itself, click on the link below to go to Lisa Schwarzbaum's excellent critique that appeared in Entertainment Weekly magazine. Overall, I agree with Lisa and give the film an A-.

Click HERE to read Lisa's movie review in the 3/29/12 issue of Entertainment Weekly. Click HERE to read my reviews of all three books in the trilogy.
GROUND RULES: 
This comparison is NOT a microscopic analysis of every single discrepancy between the movie and the book. As we all know, a book's transformation into a movie requires certain adjustments. Film makers are forced to make compromises that frequently alter or eliminate certain details—even characters and scenes—as they write their screenplay. Keep in mind that Suzanne Collins was one of the screenwriters, so she approved, or at least consented to, all of the changes. Still, a reader/viewer is entitled to a divergent opinion. The points that I make here are ONLY those that seemed most important to me as I watched the movie.

NOTE: 
Each of the pink links below will take you to the appropriate page on the Hunger Games Wiki.

                           THE PROS                           



Effie & Katniss



Casting: 

The casting is mostly perfect. Jennifer Lawrence does a great job as Katniss, getting her grit and uncertain social skills down perfectly. Three other standouts are Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Amandla Stenberg as fragile little Rue. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale are also well cast. We'll be seeing more of Hemsworth in the later movies. Alexander Ludwig is particularly good as Cato, the primary tribute villain. Woody Harrelson is O.K. as Haymitch, but his film Haymitch isn't as intensely mean-spirited as the book Haymitch. 

Trueness to the Book: 

The movie follows the book quite closely, but there are a few exceptions, mostly minor. For example, in the book, Madge, the mayor's daughter gives the famous mockingjay pin to Katniss, while in the movie Katniss herself gets the pin from Greasy Sae as a gift for Prim, who gives it back to Katniss as she leaves for the Capitol. Also, in the book the revolution in District 11 doesn't begin until after Katniss and Peeta stop there on their victory tour. 

The Violence:
Director Gary Ross wanted to keep this a PG-13 film, so he filmed the violence in an impressionistic way. There are no lingering, slow-motion shots of heads falling off shoulders or blood dripping down arms and faces. Sword slashes are seen as seconds-long flashes. You see blood, but the images are thrown at you so fast that you get just a horrific impression of the violence. For me, the initial Arena scene conveys the brutality in manner that is blood-curdling perfect.

The Capitol

The Look of the Capitol: 
The Capitol itself is stunning with its minimalist architecture and sweeping lines, and it fit with my mental image from the book. 

The Fiery Outfits: 
I admit that I doubted that the filmmakers could successfully portray the coal-fire chariot suits and Katniss' fiery interview dress, but the costume designers are apparently just as good as Cinna because the flaming costumes looked terrific.

The Gamemakers: 

Seneca's beard

In the movie, we get more details about the Gamemakers and their actions during the Arena time than we do in the book, and this is a huge improvement over the book. The vast room full of computerized gadgetry and emotionless technicians makes a great contrast to the mayhem that resulted from their actions. Plus...I love Seneca Crane's fancifully sculpted mustache and beard!

                     THE CONS                     

Gingrich

Casting: 

Sutherland

On the down side of the casting, I have trouble believing Donald Sutherland as President Snow. He just doesn't come across as evil enough, and his shaggy hair and beard definitely don't fit with President Snow's meticulously neat, rose-embellished persona. (I have to confess—and this is NOT a political statement—that I have always pictured President Snow as looking exactly like Newt Gingrich. What do you think?)

Trueness to the Book: 
The story in the book has much more detail than a movie could ever include, so I strongly recommend that you read the book before seeing the film. Two areas that would have enhanced the film if they had been emphasized more are the scenes in the Hob with Greasy Sae and the scenes between Katniss and Rue. (Although, I must admit that teenage girls sitting near me were sobbing during the flowery death scene.) The mutts are handled differently in the movie than in the book, where they were dog-like apparitions of the dead tributes. That connection isn't made in the film, and that totally changes the meaning of the scene, making it a plain vanilla horror experience when it should have had a much deeper, and even more horrible, significance to the characters and the viewers alike.

The Look of the Capitol: 

The clothing, hair styles, and hair and make-up colors are somewhat true to the book, but the ensembles aren't nearly outrageous enough. They don't look much different from the styles shown at the recent New York fashion week, and the hats were quite similar to those seen at a certain British royal wedding. Plus...nobody has green skin.

 

                     CONCLUSIONS                     

       1.  Read the book first.

       2.  Then, enjoy a very good movie. 

 

Stephanie Tyler: ETERNAL WOLF CLAN

Author:  Stephanie Tyler
Series:  ETERNAL WOLF CLAN
Plot Type:  SMR
Ratings:   V5; S5; H2
Publisher and Titles:  Signet Eclipse
          Dire Warning (e-book novella prequel, 2/2012)
          Dire Needs (3/2012)
          Dire Wants (11/2012)
          Dire Desires (7/2013)


          BOOK 2: Dire Wants            

     The second book tells the romantic story of the mind-reading Dire, Stray (aka Steele), and the witch, Kate Walters. The Dires have been searching for a powerful witch to assist them in overcoming the villainous sorcerer, Seb, and his army of Dire ghosts. When Stray finds Kate, she is being pursued by Shimmin, the leader of the weretrackers. Stray carries Kate off to the Dire's magically hidden house, where the two fall in lust/love almost immediately. The romance is the primary focus of the plot, but it is closely connected to all of the action story lines: the upcoming battle with the Dire ghost army, the rescue of Rogue from the evil spirit who has him paralyzed,  the mystical prophecy regarding Stray and Killian, and Jinx's attempts to close the portal to Purgatory that he inadvertently opened at the end of book 1. In addition, there are a few other thin story threads, the most substantial of which is the developing romance between the FBI agent, Angus, and the young werewolf omega, Cain.

     Once again, we have an extremely cluttered plot with multiple story lines and numerous points of view. Although the primary narrators are Kate and Stray, we also have many scenes narrated by Jinx, Gwen, Cain, Angus, Seb, and Killian. Trying to juggle so many POVs and story lines is a difficult task—one that the author mishandles more times than not. Time after time, the chopped-up narrative bumps along an error-filled path. Characters answer questions that aren't asked. They do things that don't track with what happened a paragraph or two earlier. For example, on page 235, Kate begins to read a grimoire that she and Stray just found that very night. In the same scene, on the next page, the narration says, "As she got to the chapter she'd stopped on originally a few weeks back...the same nervous feeling...fluttered in her stomach..." Wait just a minute! She is not reading the witchcraft book that she was reading a few weeks ago; she is reading her newly discovered grimoire. This is one of many examples of sloppy writing/editing.

     Copyproofing errors compound the problem, especially when a reference to a particular character is made using a different character's name. For example, on page 263, we have this dialogue between Stray and Kate:

     "Don't use your powers out here," Stray admonished. "you don't know who's watching. Bad enough we had to bring you out." 

     "I can't stay locked inside forever." 

    "It's not the time to argue with me. Stay close," Stray told her... He turned to talk to Stray for a minute, his hand still on hers.

    Notice that in the final sentence Stray turns to talk to Stray—to himself—when the line should have said that Stray turns to talk to Killian (his brother). If this were the only mistake of this type I would be more forgiving, but it is just one of many. All in all, this is not an easy or a pleasant reading experience. 

     The lead characters—Stray and Kate—are barely developed. Yes, we get the details of their back stories, but we never really get to know them as the people they are now. They fall in love almost as soon as they meet (which is a stereotypical action in paranormal romance novels), but they spend so much time mistrusting and misunderstanding each other that it's hard to see how their deeply professed love could develop so quickly under such unpleasant personal circumstances. 

     Kate is definitely a TSTL heroine who puts herself and her mate in danger more than once. And then there is the manner in which Kate develops her witchy powers, which is totally unbelievable. When the story begins, Kate doesn't even know that she is a witch. Then, as soon as she touches the grimoire she is instantly able to chant in strange languages and cast all kinds of spells. This might have worked better on the page if the author had developed some kind of mythology to explain it all, but that doesn't happen. That is quite surprising, because the author spares no ink when it comes to detailing the whole mythology of the Dires, which she explains over and over again, both in the narration and in an extensive glossary. 

     Another problem is that the Dires' planning process for their battle with the ghost army is slapped together so haphazardly by so many different players that it's difficult to understand exactly what is going on. I found myself going back and rereading paragraphs just to figure out who was saying what to whom and what was really happening. Unfortunately, when that battle scene finally arrives, it turns out to be the same old wolf-on-wolf combat that we've seen so many times before—in this series and in many others. You'd think that a Dire-vs-ghost battle would have a little something extra going on, but no, it's the same old thing. I was hoping that this series would improve, but that hasn't happened.

            WORLD-BUILDING            

     This series comes across as an imitation of—or, at the very least, a borrowing from—several venerable paranormal romance series. There are distinct similarities to both J. R. Ward's BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD and Gena Showalter's LORDS OF THE UNDERWORLD—right down to the cute male names, the sarcastic gibes among the alpha heroes, the fancy homes, and the bitter curse of immortality. Sprinkled throughout are traces of other series, including Lora Leigh's BREEDS (i.e., a very special male mating characteristic). So...the series is complicated, and it is definitely derivative. Click on the pink links above to read my reviews of the two series. Read my review of BDB in my book, Fang-tastic Fiction: 21st Century Paranormal Reads.

     Set in the Catskill Mountains of upstate of New York, the series follows a pack of six Dire wolves as they protect regular Werewolves (aka Weres) and safeguard humans. The immortal Dires are oversized, extremely strong werewolves, each having a particular magical talent. Currently they have disguised themselves as big, bad biker dudes. Their history goes back to the age of the Vikings—specifically, to the Norse god (Loki), his son (Fenir, the wolf), and Fenir's son (Hati). The Dires are ruled by a council of three cranky Elders. This small pack of Dires survived the Elders' purge of the remaining Dire population while the six were off on their Running, which is a take-off on the Amish custom of Rumspringa, in which adolescents are allowed to go off and mingle with the general population as they decide whether they wish to join the community or go off on their own.  

     Here is Rifter as he explains the Dires' history to Gwen in book 1: "The Elders council was created six years before they instigated the Extinction, and they told the Dires to revere the abilities found in some young Dires, not fear and destroy them. They were told that Harm would be their new king and that they should not harm any more humans. But the Dires didn't heed the warnings...and the Extinction was put upon them....We were spared because the Elders asked Hati to do so. We work with the Elders to keep the Weres in line and to help the humans our kind once hurt—and we also keep Hati happy. The Weres were created to continue to worship Hati and chase the moon with him." (p. 183)

     The villains are an alliance of two diverse groups: witches and weretrappers. The witches are dabbling in black magic by summoning demons to help them control the Weres, and in some cases, the witches themselves are possessed by demons. The weretrappers are human fanatics who capture and/or kill Weres in order to experiment on them for various nefarious reasons.

Here are brief biographies of the Dires:

  >  Rifter (Rift): The reluctant king of the Dires. He was cursed by a shaman at birth to dream walk—to go into the dreams of other werewolves, push back their nightmares, and absorb their pain and fear.

  >  Harmony (Harm): The appointed king of the Dires, who refused to return after his Running and has spent his life living with humans. His ability is to charm and control people and Weres with his singing.

  >  Vice: Born with all of the seven deadly sins as a part of his sexy body and dark soul, he is ruled by his vices, but can sometimes use those extremes to help others find their balance.

  >  Jinx: Twin brother of Rogue, he has the ability to communicate with ghosts—the dead who are still earthbound.

  >  Rogue: Twin brother of Jinx, he can communicate with and control spirits—the dead who have gone on to the afterworld. As the series begins, he is in a coma-like state that was induced by a witch's spell.

  >  Stray:  He is not an original member of the pack, but was found on the streets and adopted by the Dires. Although he has not admitted his talent as the series begins, he has the ability to read minds. He and his brother, Killian, are the key to a prophecy that foresees world destruction.

These are the continuing supporting characters:

  >  Sebastian (Seb): An Adept, or master witch who was Rifter's best friend for centuries but then turned his back on the Dires and joined the witches' coven. Now he is one of the Dires' greatest enemies. He is the witch who put the coma spell on Rogue.

  >  Cyd and Cain: Werewolf twins who were driven from their pack for moon madness, they have been adopted by the Dires.

  >  Liam: The new werewolf king. In book 1, the Dires save his life after from a brutal attack by weretrappers and witches.

            BOOK 1:  Dire Needs            

     As the book opens, Rifter (the hero) picks up Gwen (the heroine) in a Were biker bar and takes her back to her home for a night of sex that is interrupted when Gwen has one of her increasingly frequent seizures. Gwen is a medical resident who has been told that she has a terminal brain tumor, which is supposedly what is causing the seizures. When Gwen's home is attacked by witches and weretrappers, Rifter moves her into the Dires' home for protection. The plot follows the couple as they fall in lust/love in between attacks by their enemies, who are desperately trying to capture Gwen for reasons unknown to either Gwen or the Dires. The romance is the first and foremost focus of the plot, with the attacks as the secondary story line. Eventually, even the FBI gets involved. There is one more slender plot thread that follows Liam's doomed love affair with a human nurse who works with Gwen. The bedroom scenes between Gwen and Rifter are graphic enough to earn a "4" in sensuality, but I bumped up the book's overall sensuality rating to "5" because of a detailed threesome scene involving Vice and a Were couple.

     One of the major problems with book 1 is that it is overstuffed with exposition, much of which is repeated several times. This is a series that could definitely have used a Prologue to get the mythology out of the way once and for all, because the Dires' history is told, retold, and told again throughout the book—way too many times. Also repeated ad nauseum are the cutesy wolfy phrases "big bad wolf" and "huffing and puffing." 

     Additionally, there are several holes in the plot. I can't go into detail on many of the plot problems because I want to avoid spoilers, but I will describe one of the worst. (Although it is a spoiler, I don't think that it will ruin the story for you because I am confidant that you will have figured out Gwen's situation long before it is formally revealed.) Throughout most of the book, Rifter and the rest of the Dires believe that Gwen is fully human, and she comes to live in their house very early in the story. Then, very late in the book, we learn that their house is visible ONLY to supernaturals—that NO humans can see it. Now, I ask you—how could these supposedly intelligent Dires not wonder why the supposedly "human" Gwen had no trouble living in and walking in and out of their "invisible" house for days and days? My guess is that the author needed the house to be invisible for a key scene near the end of the book, but she didn't bother to restructure the story to deal with Gwen's habitation of the house. The author tries to fix things up in a six-line dialogue between Gwen and Rifter in which Gwen tells Rifter that the house was never invisible to her (Duh!) and he says, "If you'd said that earlier, it would've been my first clue that there was something going on with you." (p. 342) Totally illogical and unbelievable—and very sloppy story plotting.

     So...in conclusion, I'm not really impressed with this series. It is a mash-up of the mythologies of several other (better) series, and book 1 is overloaded with repetitious exposition. This first book is nearly 400 pages long, and it could easily have been edited down by 40 or 50 pages just by telling us about the mythology just once. 

UPDATE! Laurie London's SWEETBLOOD SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Laurie London with a review of the third book in her SWEETBLOOD SERIES: Tempted by Blood.

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

Alexandra Ivy: IMMORTAL ROGUES TRILOGY

Top-2012 Cover
Bottom-2003 Cover

Author:  Alexandra Ivy (aka Debbie Raleigh)
Series:  IMMORTAL ROGUES TRILOGY
Plot Type:  HIS, SMR
Ratings:  V3; S2; H2-3
Publisher and Titles:  Zebra
          My Lord Vampire (reprint, 2/2012)
          My Lord Eternity (reprint, 11/2012)
          My Lord Immortality (reprint, 12/2012)

    This post was revised and updated on 12/31/13 to include reviews of the second and third books in the series, My Lord Eternity and My Lord Immortality. Along with a review of book 1, the three reviews appear in chronological order below, following an introduction to the series and an overview of the world-building:

            INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES             

     These books are all reprints of Zebra Regency Romances originally published back in 2003 under the name of Debbie Raleigh. Take a look at the past and present cover art for book 1 to see the difference in emphasis. The top image is the newest iteration, with its focus on the dark and mysterious vampire lover—check out his eyes! The bottom image is the much tamer 2003 version, with the focus on the lovely lady in her bright red gown. Note also the difference in the backgrounds: the moonlit bare trees vs. the lush garden. Tastes in paranormal fiction have definitely changed since this series first hit the bookstores—with urban fantasy competing with romance for sales. The new cover is definitely a play for the urban fantasy market. The content of the stories, however, is definitely old-school paranormal romance. 

           WORLD-BUILDING            

   In this world, vampires are born, not made. These vampires once lived among mortals, dining regularly on human blood, but their leader, Nefri, wanted to move her people away from their savage and brutal ways, so she used a magic Medallion to cast a veil, behind which the vampires have been living for the past two centuries in security and peace. Now that they don't need to hunt down human prey, they have no need for their previous vampiric powers: shape-shifting and mist walking. These vampires have no traditional vampire traits (except for their immortality and quick healing). They walk in the sun, eat regular food, are peaceful and kind, never flash their fangs, and aren't any stronger than a human. This lack of supernatural traits essentially makes them non-paranormal—and kind of dull.

     Naturally enough, some vampires want to go back to the old ways when they were the superior society and humans were just a food source. To prevent the rogues from lifting the veil and forcing all vamps back to their old lives, Nefri has broken the magic Medallion into three amulets, giving the pieces to three young mortal women in Regency London. The rogues are now trying to hunt down the three women so that they can take possession of the amulets.

     When Nefri gave out the amulets, she bound each woman to her amulets so that she can only give it up by freely choosing to do so. It can't be taken forcefully from her. Aside from hiding the amulets in the human world, Nefri is also doing a bit of matchmaking, as she sends three sexy, handsome vampire men to protect the women and their amulets. The rogue vampires are stronger than the three protectors because the rogues have drunk human blood and have regained their abilities to mist and shape shift, while the non-blood-drinking protectors must rely on their physical strength, their intelligence, and their abundant charm.

     This series has a connection to Ivy's GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY series in the character of Nefri, who has a romance with Santiago, Styx's best tracker. Their story is told in Darkness Avenged, which will be published in June 2013. My guess is that reissuing the three IMMORTAL ROGUES books just before publishing the Nefri-Santiago book is no coincidence; it's a money-making effort on the part of the author and the publisher. My opinion is based upon the fact that Ivy includes a lengthy excerpt from Darkness Avenged at the end of the second IMMORTAL ROGUES novel. Click HERE to read my review of the GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY series.

            BOOK 1: My Lord Vampire             

Top-2012 Cover
Bottom-2003 Cover

     The first heroine is Simone, Lady Gilbert, a blond beauty, supposedly a widow, who is causing the hearts of all of London's eligible males to flutter as she refuses to settle down with any of them. When she first meets Gideon Ravel, her vampire protector, she believes that she can use her beauty to control him just as she does every other man. But Gideon, of course, cannot be controlled. Against their wills, the two gradually fall in love. Meanwhile, the vampire rogue, Tristan Soltern, uses various violent and devious means to get his hands on Simone and her amulet. The plot follows the romance as the two must learn to trust one another and share their personal secrets in order to defeat their common enemy. 

     This is a stereotypical paranormal romance in every way, with lots of thick and heavy melodramatic dialogue (e.g., "Ah, my love, you do not know how you torture me." "Oh, my sweet, you fill my heart with joy."). The hero and the heroine are good and pure, if a bit arrogant, and the villain is evil to the core. You expect him to twirl his mustache and bellow, "Bwaaa, haahh, hahh!" like a cartoon villain every time he appears in a scene. Here, he mutters dramatically to himself, "Soon, my lady,...Soon you will be in my power and I will sink my teeth deep into you." (p. 214) The plot has several bumpy spots. For example, when Simone sees a centuries-old portrait that looks like Gideon, she doesn't consider for a moment that it might just be a painting of one of his ancestors. No, that wouldn't move the plot along quickly enough. Instead, based solely on this incident, she immediately concludes that Gideon is not human. 

     If you are a fan of the old-time paranormal romances, you'll probably enjoy this series (if you didn't read it back in 2003), but if you like more action and sensuality, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

            BOOK 2:  My Lord Eternity             

Top-2012 Cover
Bottom-2003 Cover

     In the second book of this trilogy, the lovers are vampire Lucien Valin and Jocelyn Kingly, a beautiful young women who is living on her own on the edge of a London slum district rife with prostitutes, pickpockets, and hoodlums of all sorts.  Jocelyn wears the second piece of the magical Medallion. She was cast out by her parents after a "scandal" (which turns out to be much ado about nothing), and she has turned her energies toward saving the prostitutes and the abandoned children in the neighborhood. That is the first major weakness in the plot. It's impossible to believe that in Regency London an upper-class young woman would be living in a house by herself, much less a house in a slum. She also owns a farm nearby where she sends the prostitutes she "saves" so that they can live a normal life. Since laws at that time prevented women from owning property, how could she own both a house in town and a farm in the country? And who can believe that her parents—no matter how reprehensible they are—would allow their daughter to live like this, particularly after they threw her out for a far less scandalous action? The entire premise is completely implausible. 

     Lucien has always been a laid-back, fun-loving dude who hates responsibilities of any kind. He's not happy to be assigned as Jocelyn's protector, but he mans up and agrees to do his duty. When Jocelyn advertises that her attic rooms are for rent, Lucien answers the ad and talks her into letting him move in. Soon, he is accompanying her on her charity rounds and winning their games of chess and cribbage (claiming kisses for his reward). That's when the villain shows up in the form of Amadeus, one of the three vampires who are determined to retrieve the three parts of the Medallion and achieve world power. Amadeus is a boring villain—a one-dimensional, all-bad, psychotic killer with no redeeming qualities and no depth to his character.

     As in the first book, the plot follows the romantic couple as they quickly fall deeply in love and try to keep the villain from achieving his goal. Once again, the language is over-the-top flowery and dramatic. Here are some cringe-worthy examples: 

     "In the silken night his long-denied passions shimmered with incandescent heat." (p. 78)

     "He would devote his heart, his soul, and his very life to her. He could offer no more." (p. 140)

     "Oh, my dove, you do know best how to touch my heart." Her breath caught at the fragile, wondrous moment. (p. 173)

     "Was it possible that less than an hour before, this maiden had been filled with the glorious, dazzling warmth of love? He would give everything he possessed, his very soul, to feel that warmth once again." (p. 1914)

    The silliest scene is the one in which Lucien comes upon Jocelyn as she is sewing a shirt for one of the homeless children. Lucien immediately picks up needle and thread and begins mending another shirt with perfect "tiny, utterly precise stitches." (p. 171) Even Jocelyn is surprised by Lucien's stitching ability. She says, "Everything you do is perfect....Do you have no faults whatsoever?" Lucien admits that he does have faults, but we never see them. He is an absolutely perfect hero—which makes him an absolutely uninteresting one as well. Earlier in the story, Jocelyn describes Lucien's perfectness: "Blast it all, he was so utterly beautiful. The chiseled perfection of his features. The faint bronze of his skin. the tawny satin of his long hair. The pure gold of his eyes. And above it all, the shimmering appreciation for life that crackled about him with an irresistible force. It seemed rather unfair that one gentleman should be so blessed." (p. 121)

     If you enjoy old-fashioned romance novels with big, strong heroes who rescue/protect/seduce lovely, fragile maidens, you might like this series, but if you're used to reading modern paranormal romances, this series is not for you. One last point: Although there are 344 pages in this book, the novel itself is just 286 pages long. The remaining 158 pages are devoted to lengthy excerpts from two other books: My Lord Immortality (third book in this series) and Darkness Avenged (an upcoming GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY novel featuring Nefri as the lead character). 

            BOOK 3:  My Lord Immortality             

Top-2012 Cover
Bottom-2003 Cover

     In the final book, the lovers are vampire Sebastian St. Ives and Amelia Hadwell, a beautiful young women who wears the amulet containing the third piece of the magical Medallion. Jocelyn is living on the edge of a seedy London neighborhood with her mentally challenged brother, William. She took William away from their parents when Mom and Dad threatened to commit him to Bedlam, an insane asylum. Amelia's brother is her greatest weakness, and as soon as sweet, gentle William is introduced, we (the readers) know immediately that the villain will use him against Amelia in an effort to get her amulet. That villain is Drake Ramone, an arrogant, psychotic, not-very-smart bad guy who is almost an exact replica of the villains in the previous two books.

    In this book, however, a new super-villain emerges. We got a hint of this mysterious scoundrel at the end of book 2 when Nefri began to suspect that the three villainous vamps who are after the Medallion are being controlled by an evil master vampire. 

     The plot follows Sebastian and Amelia as they work together to try to outwit Drake and fall deeply (and quickly) in love with one another. When Amelia gets the news that her lover is actually a vampire, she is more calm and controlled than the previous two heroines were. Once again, the hero and the heroine are perfect people with nary a negative trait between them. They are both extremely attractive, intelligent, reasonable, self-controlled, brave, courageous, kind, gentle, etc., etc., etc. I don't know about you, but I get kind of bored when the lead characters are flawless. It seems to me that a few imperfections make a character a great deal more interesting and considerably more fun to watch.

     As you might guess, the whole Medallion situation is resolved in the final scene, and the good guys come out on top—a foregone conclusion since page 1 of book 1. Once again, the language is flowery and dramatic, the plot is extremely simple and straightforward, the villains are summarily defeated, and the lovers get their immortal HEA.

     Just as in book 2, this one ends with a lengthy excerpt from Darkness Avenged, the love story of Nefri and Santiago that is part of the GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY series. That book is due to be published in June 2013. 

     This series is not for everyone, primarily because it takes such an old-school, bodice-ripper approach to the romance. If you enjoy Amanda Ashley's paranormal romances, you might like these books. Both Ashley and Ives have the their virtuous couples waiting until after marriage to make it into the bedroom, and both adhere to rather formal language as they tell their stories. You should be aware that this series is nothing like GUARDIANS OF ETERNITY and that you won't need to have read this series to understand what's going on in Darkness Avenged.

UPDATE! Devyn Quinn's DARK TIDES TRILOGY

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Devyn Quinn with a review of the third and final book in her DARK TIDES TRILOGY: Siren's Desire.

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

Seanan McGuire: INCRYPTID SERIES

Author:  Seanan McGuire
Series:  incryptid
Plot Type:  UF
Ratings:  V5; S4; H4
Publisher and Titles:  DAW
        Discount Armageddon (3/2012)
        Midnight Blue-Light Special (3/2013)
        Half-Off Ragnarok (3/2014)

     This post was revised and updated on 4/3/13 to include a review of the second book in the series, Midnight Blue-Light Special. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and a review of book 1:

           BOOK 2:  Midnight Blue-Light Special           

     As the story opens, Verity gets some extremely bad news from her Covenant boyfriend, Dominic DeLuca: The Covenant is sending a team of agents to determine if New York City is ready to be purged of all cryptids. This news is terrible on several levels. First and foremost, will Dominic side with the Covenant or with Verity? Also extremely critical: How will Verity warn the Manhattan cryptid population in time, and how can she possibly protect them on her own? The answers to these questions make up the majority of the plot, but we also get a fascinating story line involving Verity's adopted cousin, Sarah, who is a cuckoo. We learned a bit about cuckoos in book 1, but in this book we learn much, much more. Sarah plays an intrinsic role in this story, even narrating four of the chapters in her own voice.

     Once again, Verity shows off her talents as an over-the-top urban fantasy heroine: stashing weapons in every imaginable place on her body; fighting off bad guys—both cryptid and human; leaping from building to building as she races across the city; negotiating constantly with various hostile cryptids; and still managing to keep her romance with Dominic alive and hot. Verity is obviously a pure fantasy character, but she's so courageous and likable and engaging that it doesn't really matter that she's too good to be true. You just keep turning the pages—compelled to read on to the end of this terrific book.

     This story is a rollicking adventure from beginning to end as Verity takes on the Covenant thugs (including a distant cousin) and tries to keep Manhattan safe for her cryptid friends, some of whom have trouble accepting human help, particularly from a member of the Price family. McGuire excels in character development, and her story line about Sarah is powerful—full of pathos and heartbreak to be sure, but also showing the strength and unequivocal love of the Price family for all its members, whether they be related by blood, adoption, or friendship.

     The final steps in the development of the Verity-Dominic relationship are fascinating as we watch Verity being torn between trusting Dominic and fearing that he will betray her to the Covenant. As the story plays out, Verity must make some serious decisions about her life. Here, she has a rare moment of grave introspection: "As a professional dancer, I was on the cusp of failing. At the same time, The Covenant of St. George was in my city, I'd been forced to go into hiding to avoid having them find me, and I had no game plan for getting rid of them. As a cryptozoologist, I wasn't doing much better. All I could really swear to doing correctly was being a member of my family: too pigheaded to know when I was beat, and too contrary to admit when it was time to run away....No matter what, I was a Price girl. And if there's one thing no Price girl has ever voluntarily done, it's back down from a fight." (p. 153) By the end of the book, Verity has resolved all of her issues: her ballroom dancing career, her cryptozoologist career, and her romantic relationship.

     This is a great follow-up to book 1, and it could be read as a stand-alone because McGuire provides quite a bit of world-building information in the early chapters. My recommendation, though, is to start at the beginning of the series to get the full effect of the character development. The third book will turn away from Verity and focus on her brother, Alexander.

           WORLD-BUILDING           

     This terrific new series follows a human heroine—Verity ("Very") Price—through her busy life as she works as a cocktail waitress; competes in ballroom dancing contests; and protects, defends, and polices the supernatural world of Manhattan. Supernaturals in this world are called cryptids, defined in the introduction as "any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proved scientifically." The cryptids range in size and shape from tiny mice to a gigantic dragon, with all sorts of wild and weird creatures in between. The mortal world is, for the most part, unaware of the cryptid community, but many cryptids hide in plain sight amongst humans by maintaining humanoid forms. Click HERE to go to a Field Guide to Cryptids on McGuire's website for drawings and interesting facts about the various species.

    Verity has been trained in defensive arts since she was a child, and she is also a talented cryptozoologist—specializing in the anatomy, physiology, and sociology of cryptids. Many years ago, Verity's grandparents, Alexander and Enid Healy, belonged to the Covenant of St. George, an organization that hunts down and kills all cryptids. The Covenant believes that any creature that wasn't present on Noah's Ark is an unnatural monster that must be destroyed. When Alexander and Enid questioned the morality of killing innocent cryptids who had done no harm, they were punished. Eventually, they fled to America, where they settled in Oregon to raise their family. To this day, the Covenant is still trying to track down Verity's family and punish them for their "sins against humanity." 

    When Verity is dancing, she hides her identity behind a pseudonym and a wig so that there is no chance that the Covenant will find her. Under her "Valerie Pryor" identity, Verity is somewhat famous. She took second place on the Dance or Die TV reality show and has won a number of local dance contests. Dancing means everything to Verity, but she knows in her heart that she must eventually give it up to concentrate solely on her cryptozoology career. She can't get too famous, or she'll risk exposure to the Covenant's wrath. 

     McGuire has written a number of short stories that feature the previous generations of the Healy and Price families. Click HERE to go to a page on McGuire's website with information on accessing these stories:

     Jonathan Healy and Francis Brown, circa 1928:

          "The Flower of Arizona"  in Westward Weird (2/2012)

         "One Hell of a Ride" (free download in various formats)

         "No Place Like Home" (free download in various formats)

         "Married in Green" (free download in various formats)

       Antimony Price (circa 2013)

         "Bad Dream Girl" (in Glitter and Mayhem, 8/2013)

     Click HERE to read my review of McGuire's great OCTOBER DAYE series.

           BOOK 1:  Discount Armageddon       

     As the series opens, Verity  has talked her family into allowing her to come to New York City to develop her ballroom dancing career and to supervise cryptid life in the City. Here, Verity explains her connection with the cryptids: "Most of my nondance hours were devoted to serving, studying, and supporting the cryptid community. Sometimes the only way to serve them was to keep them from drawing too much attention to themselves, and, in the case of the nonintelligent predatory species, that could activate the second part of my job description. Not "cryptozoologist": monster hunter. I'd try relocation first, and if that didn't work....I'd avoid more final solutions for as long as I could. That was the best that I could offer." (p. 42) 

BOGEYMEN

   To earn a living, Verity works as a waitress in a sleazy bar called Dave's Fish and Strips, which is owned by an equally sleazy bogeyman named Dave. Verity is physically fit and fond of the outdoors, so she maneuvers around the city by climbing walls and fire escape ladders and running and jumping from roof to roof in a technique called free running (similar to parkour). One night while running across a rooftop, she is caught by a snare set by a Covenant hunter, the first Covenant member she has ever met. He is Dominic DeLuca, and the two of them begin snarling at each other as soon as they meet.

    When Verity learns that cryptid females are disappearing off the streets, she thinks that Dominic has killed them. Dominic, in turn, believes that the females have fled the city because Verity has warned them of his presence. They soon learn the the truth lies elsewhere. The story follows the couple as their investigation takes them deep into the sewers where they are attacked by strange lizard men. The situation gets even stranger when rumors begin to circulate that a dragon is sleeping under the city. Dragons have supposedly been extinct for hundreds of years, so Very and Dominic decide to work together to get proof of the dragon's existence. As they spend more time together, their physical attraction gets stronger and stronger—and you know where that story thread winds up!

    This is a fresh and inventive series with interesting characters and a well-paced, compelling story line. McGuire is a wonderful story teller, as you know if you've read her OCTOBER DAYE series. Verity is an intelligent modern woman and an extremely competent fighter. She's one of those UF heroines who can handle almost any type of weapon with dexterity, and she's well armed at all times (e.g., guns at her waist, knives on her thighs, bow and arrows in the hallway, ax on the dresser). McGuire does a great job portraying the emotional pressures caused by the duality of Verity's life—her deeply protective feelings about the cryptids and her whole-hearted love for dancing—all the while knowing that she can't continue to have both. She's determined to prove to her family that she can live a successful independent life, but she's also torn between duty and personal fulfillment.

    Dominic matches Verity's weaponry skills and gives as good as he gets in their frequent debates (aka arguments) about whether to kill the cryptids or protect them. The supporting characters are very well developed, particularly Sarah, Verity's adopted cousin, who also lives in Manhattan. Sarah is a cryptid—a cuckoo. Here is Verity's definition of a cuckoo: "They are the perfect ambush predator, capable of blending into crowds...without leaving so much a a ripple to track them by. They look human on the outside and their particular brand of telepathic camouflage means that even when you cut one open, if it's still breathing, you're still going to see what the cuckoo wants you to see, rather than whatever's really there." (p. 130)

AESLIN MICE

    The funniest of the cryptids are the Aeslin mice who share Verity's apartment. They look and act like the cartoon mice in Disney's Cinderella, and their lives are spent celebrating one festival after another, mostly commemorating mundane events from the past years of Verity's life. The mice are supposed to be living in a refurbished Barbie condo in Verity's closet, but they're usually roaming around her apartment, crying, "Hail! Hail! to the Priestess!" They're talking about Verity, who is the most reluctant "priestess" you've ever met. This series is starting out strong, and I'm really looking forward to the second book.