Review: Midnight Crystal by Jayne Castle

It began with Krentz...continued with Quick...and now it will end with Castle.

For many earthly centuries, a legendary curse has plagued the Winters family, stemming from the tumultuous founding of the Arcane Society. But now, on the futuristic world of Harmony, the curse's final mystery will be unraveled...Head of the ghost hunters guilt Adam Winters and dreamlight reader extraordinaire Marlowe Jones must break the curse, save Harmony's entire underworld - and fight a passion that could destroy them both.

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned before that out of the three Jayne Ann Krentz incarnations Quick is my favorite. I've only read one other Jayne Castle book, the first one in her Ghost Hunters series, After Dark. I wasn't all that impressed, more disappointed with it and haven't made any other efforts with her Castle books. I wasn't planning on reading Midnight Crystal either; the first two parts of the Dreamlight Trilogy left a lot to be desired for me but I saw this in the library and thought what the hell.

Midnight Crystal felt lackluster to me. I liked Adam and Marlowe but was bored throughout most of the book. The revealed secret of the midnight crystal was a let down and this being the third and final installment in this trilogy, I hoped for some kind of a resolution here. The mystery of the crystal had lasted for centuries and it was all for a simple message? Is that really supposed to be the payoff for sticking with a trilogy of dissatisfying books?

Midnight Crystal meanders its way through a familiar plot that is quite a bit like After Dark and many other of her Arcane novels: two fairly powerful people on different sides of the fight get wrapped up in a mystery that involves psychic powers on either Earth or a futuristic-ish world inhabited by Earth's descendants called Harmony. You know what it really reminded me of? The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. All that quartz glowing that eerie acid green that is found hidden in the woods (or jungle in this case) and messes with your head with evidence of highly intelligent aliens who lived in freaky mazes made of the stuff. I didn't finish reading The Tommyknockers and it's one of the few King novels that I didn't really like. I'm surprised I made it through to the end.

Jayne Ann Krentz's next book, In Too Deep: Book One of the Looking Glass Trilogy, is the book I've been waiting for in her Arcane series for a long time now - Fallon Jones's book. Fallon pops up in every Krentz (not Quick or Castle) Arcane book and he's been desperately needing a woman. I like Krentz too much as a writer to be turned off by a less-than-captivating trilogy. Please let it be a good one!

A Book Review Roundup

Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James is written in James’s typical engaging style but her protagonists are utterly maddening to the point where this book almost became a wallbanger. I wanted to shake Charlotte vigorously and kick Alex in his private parts. Why in the world would James have these characters make such hideous choices? Worse than any plot of Three’s Company, the misunderstandings and assumptions made – mostly on Alex’s part – caused a disgusting amount of unnecessary heartache for everyone involved. By the end, I wanted to spit. The worst part? I want to read book two in this trilogy, Midnight Pleasures. Starring Charlotte’s good friend Sophie and Alex’s twin brother Patrick, I am confident that these two might not be so awful.


Nicole Peeler’s Tempest Rising, the first in her first series about a girl named Jane True, is a refreshing urban fantasy novel with lots of romance and has a likable heroine who is vulnerable yet resilient. Jane is introduced to the world of supernatural creatures, many of them right in her backyard. The town outcast with a painful past, Jane lives a quiet life of caring for her father and working in the town bookstore. A murder throws Jane straight into the investigation and a relationship with a vampire named Ryu. I liked Tempest Rising enough that I went out and bought book two, Tracking the Tempest, before I was halfway finished. I am curious to see what happens next between Jane and Ryu AND Jane and Anyan. Something tells me that the vampire won't be here to stay. Not for very long anyway.


Pride Mates by Jennifer Ashley was an ebook I got through my nook when I saw B&N had cut the price to $2.62 (it has since gone up to 5.59). I have only read one book by Ashley - a historical romance - and I wanted to see how she handled the pararom genre. No surprise here; she handled it just fine. This was a good paranormal romance about werewolves and how they're integrated into human society with some social commentary on the side. Set in a version of our world where werewolves are "out" but not really "in," Pride Mates is about a defense lawyer who is given a murder case involving a shifter and how she gets dumped into the middle of shifter politics. She also ends up mated to one. I am mightily looking forward to the next chapter in this series, Primal Bonds, that focuses on Liam's brother Sean. He carries a big sword and knows how to use it.


In the Woods by Tana French is an unusual pick for me. A murder mystery written by an Irish woman is something that generally makes my eyes cross. That's my issue not theirs; fiction like that is too dense for me and makes me give up way too easily. In the Woods sounded promising with a cold case of the unsolved disappearance by two children from a group of three where the third was found in a wood, catatonic with no memory of what happened and blood soaked into his sneakers. This third grows up and becomes an incognito detective who catches the new murder case of a teenage girl who is found pretty much where he was twenty years prior. I loved French's style but with a frustrating ending and somewhat obvious mystery, In the Woods disappoints.

Review: Sooner or Later by Debbie Macomber

They can't fight forever...

No one in the tiny town of Boothill, Texas, knows the real Shaun Murphy. Heck, most of them don't even know his first name - and that's the way Murphy likes it. But he can't hide from the pretty young postmistress, Letty Madden. Letty's brother is missing, and she knows Murphy's the only one who can help her find him. But Murphy doesn't need her money. So when Letty comes to him, her begging brown eyes as dark as bittersweet chocolate, he makes her a very indecent proposal.

Letty Madden is a woman of grit and faith, a woman with a mission. She'll do anything to get her twin brother back, even if it means giving herself to Murphy. But their rendezvous is far more passionate than they ever expected...and, sooner or later, they'll have to face the fact that they've fallen wildly in love.

I have no idea why, with all the brand new books I have waiting to be read, I picked up this one yesterday. I wanted something comforting to read, something predictable yet fulfilling emotionally that I could read and not think about. I did not get what I was looking for here and I've given it a grade of C-. I'm pretty sure that that is the lowest grade I've given, maybe ever, and with good reason. This book by Debbie Macomber is a stinker.

I have read a few books from Debbie's Cedar Cove series in the past and thought they were about average. Maybe a little above, but not the best I've read. So when I got this one in the mail the other day (no, I didn't pay for it) I thought it might be promising. Um, no. I found the men in this book to be so ridiculously heinous that the only reason I finished it was to see them realize how stupid they were. I found the story to be equally awful.

Exhibit number one: Shaun Murphy. This is one piece of work, people. A complete pig, he considers women only good for one thing and one thing only. He doesn't respect them and when Letty approaches him to ask for help, he flat out tells her no. Repeatedly. Then he starts to think about it and her and how he hasn't gotten lucky in a while and so he comes back with a request in lieu of money - lose your virginity to me and you've got a deal. To be fair, he didn't want to be involved in going to an unstable country to rescue her brother and he figured this was the quickest way to get her out of his hair and to deal with the tiny bit of guilt on his conscience. After all, there was no way this twenty-something virgin was going to put her, ahem, body where her money was, right? Ha! I do love a woman who can call a bluff. And so, when she invited him over for dinner before the big moment, she spiked his food and managed (mostly) to avoid the subject. I was so proud of her. Then they go to "Zarcero," a Latin American country to get back her brother and Murphy spends the first half of the trip barking at her like a dog. By the second half, he realizes he's in love with her. Oh no! Say it's not true Murphy! Jerk.

Exhibit number two: Jack Keller. I believe this jackass gets the next book in this series as his own and I couldn't be any less interested since he may be worse than Murphy. Jack is also a mercenary who works for the same company as Murphy and he got shot in the first book apparently. Now that he has some time off, he figures he'll go visit his good time lady friend, Marcie. Marcie is one of those pretty women who thinks that if she gives men her love and her body they'll love her back. Marcie owns her own beauty shop and used to wait with bated breath for "Johnny" to come to her for their customary sex filled weekend. You see, Jack didn't give her his real name but told her to call him Johnny and doesn't think anything's wrong with flitting in and out of her life whenever he feels like it. When Jack goes to see Marcie, he discovers that she's got a boyfriend now and she's changed her attitude about him and their relationship. 'Ol Jack doesn't like that too much so he decides to come straight, tell the truth, and let their chemistry do all the talking. He even agrees to marry her. What a nice guy! I absolutely loved that Marcie picked the less interesting but forthright Clifford (I kept picturing a big red dog whenever he was there) over the jerk Jack.

The thing about these men is that they're not bad people. They can be honorable, unbelievable as it seems. That leads me to think that either Debbie Macomber missed the mark here and this is an isolated incident of story and characters gone bad, or she actually thought that they would be appealing. You want to hear the really stupid thing about this book? After Letty and Murphy travel to Zarcero they get shot at, Letty is almost raped, they find some abandoned children and travel way out of their way to get them to some family, Murphy gets arrested and beaten, and they still keep fighting their way to her brother and guess what? He dies in his sleep! Talk about getting tackled on the one yard line! That was truly ridiculous. Also ridiculous is that nine readers on B&N.com gave this book four and a half stars (amazon readers gave four).

I guess this is what I guess for picking up this mess instead of continuing Dark Road to Darjeeling. Don't worry about me - I have learned my lesson. I try not to be a book snob and I seriously dislike ripping books like this but I couldn't just let this one go and not say my piece. I am utterly disappointed.

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch every move. 

Except Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce - he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page-turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

I think it's time for me to take a break from YA pararoms. Not all of them, just the ones that can't distinguish themselves from their peers. Fallen is one of these; it's an amalgamation of Twilight and Hush, Hush. With a female main character who can pine with the best of them, Luce wants Daniel as much as Bella wanted Edward only this time, the beautiful boy isn't a vampire, he's an angel. An angel that runs as hot and cold as the faucet in my bathroom. How irritating.

Actually, the most irritating aspect of this book wasn't Daniel or even Luce - it was the total lack of answers that you get by the end. I get that the publishers want us suckers readers to come back for more but c'mon! Help a girl out! Throw me a frickin' bone here! I dislike series like this where the reader is kept mostly in the dark and I quit watching Lost during the second season for just this reason. Just so I don't come off as a complete wretch, I will admit that I did like some of the secondary characters like Penn and Arriane. Cam and Miss Sophia were pretty predictable. Also, I happen to like stories with angels and their mythos and this one was just intriguing enough to compel me to crack open book two. Maybe.

Fallen turned out to be one book in a crowd of okay but unimpressive YA.The sequel, Torment, comes out on September 28, 2010.

Review: Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer

The wildest ride at Dreamland isn’t the roller coaster.

Lots of women think they’ve fallen in love with a demon. Mab Brannigan really has...

Mary Alice Brannigan doesn't believe in the supernatural. Nor does she expect to find that she’s the newest recruit in the Guardia, an elite team of demon fighters formed centuries before to guard the five Untouchables, the most powerful demons in the history of the world, now imprisoned right there in the Dreamland amusement park. That would be bad enough, but there’s a guy she’s falling hard for, and there’s something about him that’s not quite right...

Then there’s Ethan Wayne, a former Green Beret who’s come home to Dreamland to die. Ethan has his own problems including a bullet in his chest inching closer to his heart, a true love who shoots him on sight, and a mother who drags him into the Guardia after he’s possessed by a crazed killer mermaid demon. Between ducking his mother’s attempts to reform him and dodging the bullets of a secret government agent he’s pretty sure is his soulmate, Ethan really doesn’t have time for demons, touchable or not.

But rocky romances and demented demons aren’t Mab and Ethan’s only problems: they’re also coping with a crooked politician, a supernatural raven, a secret government agency, an inexperienced sorceress, a betrayer within the Guardia, and some mind-boggling revelations from their own pasts. As their personal demons wreck their newfound relationships and real demons wreck the park, Mab and Ethan find out that the Untouchables have escaped and opened the gate to hell on earth. Now they’re facing down the Devil himself and finding out what everybody who’s ever been to an amusement park knows: the end of the ride is the wildest.

I have no idea what Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer were thinking when they wrote this book and certainly I wouldn't be so presumptuous to tell one of my favorite authors what to write about in the future but as a faithful reader, I have one thing I really need to say: Please stay away from paranormal stuff in the future. Please. Pretty pretty please.

I so wanted to like Wild Ride. I have written about how freaking fantastic I think Jennifer Crusie is (Bob Mayer deserves a mention too) and how I love her books but I have to admit, when I read the blurb for this book way before it came out I got a little nervous. Why is Jennifer Crusie writing about demons when she writes about regular people so well? I got even more nervous when Jane said she couldn't even finish it. Whoa! I had prepared myself for a book that had some problems that weren't so big that they couldn't be ignored but she couldn't even bring herself to finish it? That's so not good, I thought, but I put on my big-girl panties and sat down with this alleged odious book to see what I thought anyway.

I think this is was a mess. The goofy Jenny Crusie humor was there in spots thank goodness but the overall tone of the book was sad. "...a former Green Beret who's come home to Dreamland to die"? What's entertaining about that? And Mab, a repressed woman who spends more time involved with her artistic works than with people? What about the demonic possession and death in an old amusement park? That definitely sounds plausible to me since clowns are freaky but am I going to want to read a romance with that as the setting? Probably not. Sounds more like a Dean Koontz novel.

Maybe it’s because my copy is an ARC and they hadn't completely worked out all the bugs but some things aren’t clear, like how Ethan and Mab are basically strangers that graduated from the same high school class but by two-thirds through the book, with what seems like little interaction, are close and think of each other like siblings. I would have liked to have seen more of what their childhoods were like and seen them fleshed out a bit more. We are told that Mab’s mom was a bit fanatic about demons in the park but why? Some real family history would have been nice instead of little bits supplied when only necessary.

Not only were the platonic relationships out of whack but the romantic relationships are different than usual too: in Jenny Crusie books, the main male and female characters become romantically involved by the end but usually fight in the beginning. My favorite example of this is Bet Me. In this one, Mab falls for a drunkard who is possessed by a demon and pays her the slightest bit of attention. She goes instantly from obsessing about the decorations and artifacts in the park to becoming a infatuated with a man, then falling again with one look at another while Ethan ends up with a Homeland Security soldier who fights the paranormal, a female GI Joe. Ethan and GI Jane make sense but after Mab quickly gets over her demon and she falls for that other guy, it seems more like an afterthought, as if they don't want Mab to feel left out of the happy ending.

I'm not going to talk about all the demonic stuff happening at Dreamland except to say that in the right author's hands, it could have been good and scary as I don't think it was meant to be a romance. Though there are some amusing things about Wild Ride that stuck out to me, like there being a witch named Glenda and the squabbling demon spouses. There were periods where Wild Ride had the feel of Agnes and the Hitman, the only collaboration of the three between Crusie and Mayer that I felt was a success. Those periods were the reason that I made it through Wild Ride and for them, I thank you. On crusiemayer.com they have for a free download a short story prequel to Wild Ride called "Wild Night". I haven't read it yet as I found it as I was writing this review but maybe that will be the backstory I was looking for. Jenny Crusie has a solo book out on August 31, 2010 called Maybe This Time. Ironic title, don't you think?

Review: Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a pulse-pounding thriller that goes behind the doors of an exclusive academy with a terrifying secret...

Ever since her father was stabbed to death in a home invasion, Julia "Jules" Farentino has been plagued by nightmares. Her half-sister, Shaylee, now seventeen, has had her own difficulties since the tragedy, earning a rap sheet for drug use, theft, and vandalism. Still, when Jules learns of her mother's decision to send Shay to an elite boarding school in Oregon, she's skeptical. The Academy has a reputation for turning wayward kids around -- but one of its students went missing six months ago and her body has never been found. There are rumors she may have died during one of the school's questionable treatments. Once enrolled, Shay grows fearful, convinced her every move is being watched. And the deeper Jules digs, the more concerned she becomes.

On impulse, Jules applies for a teaching job at the Academy. Though the facility boasts state-of-the-art equipment and a breathtaking campus, Jules senses cracks in the director's do-good demeanor. Shortly before Jules arrived, a student was found hanged, and a hysterical Shay believes it was murder. Staff members are wary and unwelcoming -- all except Cooper Trent, another recent hire who has his own suspicions, and his own secrets.

Then another girl goes missing, and yet another is found dead. There's no doubt something sinister is at hand -- but Jules may be too late to stop it. Behind the Academy's idyllic veneer lurks an evil force on a brutal and terrifying mission. And Jules has become the next target of a bloodthirsty killer without limits, without remorse, without mercy...

Lisa Jackson has written some very good romantic suspense in the past. She's pretty formulaic; in many of her books, there is a hot guy from the western US, most likely the Pacific Northwest, and a woman with whom he has some history. She may be a member of a prominent family who thinks that she's slumming when it comes to him. Somebody will be angry, murderously so, said woman will be thrust into her former lover's arms, and naughty parts ensue. The hot guy will save the day and everybody, save the murderer, will live happily ever after. I've enjoyed many of these reads so if I spy with my little eye a new Lisa Jackson laying around at the local library, I'm gonna pick it up. I was looking forward to one of those good romantic suspense novels but unfortunately, Without Mercy is not one of them.

I thought that this book was boring. The only reason that I finished the book was to find out the identity of the killer. (Yes, I could have peeked but it's against my programming. As is dog-earing pages.) I do okay with predicting the killer in this genre but Jackson always tricks me and yet again, I was surprised, but not in a good way. Everybody who reads murder mysteries knows there’s no such thing as an unneeded character; each character has a purpose, even if it’s just to be part of the background and more often than not, it’s someone the author introduces and then excludes from the majority of the plot. This time when I got to the less than fantastic reveal, I thought Really? That guy? He wasn't even on my radar and it did not make sense to me why she chose them. I did like the extra twist though. THAT was interesting. Much like the end of a horror movie when you think the baddie is dead, something even worse pops up. Jackson left it open too – I wonder if she’s planning to revisit this set of characters. Ugh. I'm not sure if I'm going to want to read more about these bugass crazy people.

Formulaic romances aside, I find that Lisa Jackson’s writing style is usually agreeable. She’s not afraid to pull out the bad words when needed but she’s not profane and she may not use language that regular people would generally use but this time I thought she was being overly fancy in her prose. From page 360:

“Was it possible? Had he been covering for them? Or had they given him the slip earlier to do their horrific deed?”

Horrific deed? Who talks or thinks that way that isn’t in a Jane Austen novel?

I also was disappointed in the romance between our fearless heroine, Jules, and her ex-boyfriend who is also the hero, Connor Trent. It was as shallow, flat, and boring as the plot. It didn’t help that I found Jules to be irritating on her own. She's a shrink's dream come true and Connor should have ran the other way as soon as he could after seeing her for the first time since she dumped him five years before.

So, to sum up, Without Mercy is a somewhat interesting yet lackluster murder mystery with some romance, suspense, and an irritating heroine. It did, however, have an interesting twist at the end which was good. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than the most devout Lisa Jackson lovers. 

Review: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures
 
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Here's a great way to start this review: I HATED the ending. So much so that this book was almost a wallbanger. Yeah, it was that frustrating. And it wasn't an ending like Atonement where the author yanks the rug out from under you but it pissed me off just the same. But. Once I finished the book, I went on Trussoni's website and saw that there will be a sequel called Angelopolis. Ooh. Then I calmed down. Actually, she's writing a series of these books and the rights to Angelology has already been bought by a major movie studio. That is definitely a no-brainer since angels are all the rage these days.

So, I HATED the ending for a little while but now just have some issues with it. I thought that the ending was a bit rushed; there was a ton of explanation, inspection, and action leading up to the conclusion, barreling towards it actually, and then BAM! Bad things happen and that was that. I felt so cheated! The conclusion was predictable too and while that's not really a good thing, knowing that there will be a sequel makes what happened pretty necessary. 

I may as well mention too that I found Evangeline to be even more frustrating than the ending. I've been trying to think of another character I've read that was more clueless than she but I'm coming up empty. Evangeline had been witness to much of the backstory and she still couldn't piece things together without lots of help. I was a little bit proud of her at the end but just a little. After all, she did let her father put her in a convent without protest. I'm sorry, but I would not be a good nun. And not just because of the obvious reason :) Neither was Evangeline - she falls for the first man she meets outside her family or the convent that catches her attention.

Speaking of the backstory, a big chunk of the middle of this book is a flashback covering about four years during WWII but the actual progression of the plot speeds through only two days. When I finished Angelology, I felt that the book did indeed stretch two days into years but conversely, the flashback seemed much shorter even though it covered four years. It took me a while to get absorbed in the story - and I did, halfway through the flashback - and by two-thirds of the way through Angelology, the plot really gets rolling. Unfortunately, it gets rolling into its ending. 

I haven't read many reviews of Angelology but I'm sure it's been compared to The Da Vinci Code. Possibly The Historian too and those are both legitimate comparisons because Trussoni definitely did her homework for Angelology; as with The Da Vinci Code and The Historian, there's just enough factual and true history to make the reader wonder how much of what she writes about is true. Using Abigail Rockefeller as a central figure without ever presenting her directly was a clever idea and it worked - I looked her up. I bet the MoMA is loving this book.

I will definitely be reading Angelopolis whenever it comes out since I have to know what happens. She better pick up the story right after Angelology ends or I might be throwing a book that day. I originally gave Angelology a B- but have since changed it to a C. I was intrigued yet disappointed with this book and that little part of my brain that HAS TO KNOW what's going to happen isn't going to let go anytime soon. That has to count for something, right?