A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Gosh this series is good. Good mysteries, Clare's conflicting feelings with her vocation and her church and her passion for Russ, Russ's struggle with his feelings for Clare and his wife, a town that seems to be a hotbed for pertinent social issues, and enough humor so the stories don't feel preachy. The main reason that I'm reading this series, of course, is Russ and Clare and what happens between them. I hope that something happens eventually. There's six books so far and I am having a hard time believing that you can stretch unrequited love very much farther before something snaps. I wonder when Russ's wife Linda will finally make an appearance. She's become something of a Vera or Maris (oddly enough, both are tv characters connected to Frasier Crane), where only Russ is allowed to speak to her. Anyway, Out of the Deep I Cry is next in the series and I'm looking forward to it.

Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

Darkness will summon her

Elizabeth Phoenix once used her unique skills as a psychic to help in the Milwaukee Police Department’s fight against injustice. But when Liz’s foster mother is found viciously murdered—and Liz is discovered unconscious at the scene—her only memory of the crime comes in the form of terrifying dreams...of creatures more horrific than anything Liz has seen in real life. What do these visions mean? And what in the world do they have to do with her former lover, Jimmy Sanducci?

To places she’s never been before

While the police question Jimmy in the murder, Jimmy opens Liz’s eyes to a supernatural war that has raged since the dawn of time in which innocent people are hunted by malevolent beings disguised as humans. Only a chosen few have the ability to fight their evil, and Jimmy believes Liz is among them. Now, with her senses heightened, new feelings are rising within Liz—ones that re-ignite her dangerous attraction to Jimmy. But Jimmy has a secret that will rock Liz to her core…and put the survival of the human race in peril.

I got my copy of this book from the awesome folks over at LibraryThing. They give away books each month and last year the publisher handed out a 1000 copies through LT with the understanding that the recipients will write a review of the book they receive. I actually got two and it still took me until March to read it. I try to put off reading new books from authors that I like because then I'll have to wait another year before the next one and I hate that. Anyway, Doomsday finally made it last month. I had read the prequel short story "In the Beginning" that Handeland wrote and gave away for free on her website, in which we learn what happened during the end of Liz Phoenix's career as a cop. By the end of it I was intrigued. Liz Phoenix is a tragic character - foster kid, had abilities she's doesn't want or understand, suffered through heartbreak by the man she's still in love with, blames herself for the death of her partner in the line of duty, etc.

Tragic or not, I liked Liz. For maybe the first half, anyway. I thought the whole deal with Sawyer and gaining powers though sex was a turnoff. It reminded me a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and how disappointed I was when it became basically a vehicle for bad porn. Then she believed she could save Jimmy from his father's clutches with sex. That seems pretty naive to me, having seen what Liz had already been through. I was disappointed with this effort from Lori Handeland, having read and liked most of her Nightcreature series. I will probably read the next one, Doomsday Can Wait, even though this one was lukewarm.

Saturday, 4 March 2009

What a week. The procedure I mentioned on Wednesday is over. It was a test, I should tell you, not really a "procedure." I was freaked out about it, as I had every right to be, but it looks as if everything is going to be fine. No cancer for me, yay :) Just about every woman (at least in this country, I guess) will most likely have to endure it at some time in their lives and mine was Wednesday. I'm deliberately being vague about this because I think it's stupid to share intimate information on the internet since you don't really know who is going to be reading it but I think you can probably read between the lines here anyway.

As I said, this experience has been rough for me and I learned something because of it. It is this: I should not write about books when I'm not altogether me. On Wednesday, I was completely out-of-sorts and wrote about The Vampire Shrink. I didn't like it; everything I wrote was something I thought or felt while I read it. I have certainly read goofier vampire novels than this one but I really ripped it and earned a comment from the author, Lynda Hilburn herself. Holy cow. I think of and write on this blog as if it's my personal book diary and I forget that it is on the internet and anyone can see it and so this morning, as I logged on to list the books I have read these past few days and noticed that I had a comment (proof that other human beings are reading this blog), and that comment turned out to be from the author of a book that I ridiculed, well, I almost sprayed coffee all over the monitor. If I had been Ms. Hilburn and saw what some unimportant nobody (in the book world) wrote about a book that she is most likely proud of, I probably wouldn't have been as classy as she was. So, in the spirit of graciousness and tact, Thank you Ms. Hilburn for wishing me luck after I made fun of your work. You taught me a valuable lesson about standing behind your work and kindness. I won't take back what I said but I will give it a second chance.

Books Read in March '09

The Accidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy (B)
Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (A)
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (B)
A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming (A)
The Vampire Diaries (omnibus #1) by L. J. Smith (dnf)
Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder (B)
Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (B+)
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming (A)
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (A-)
Promises in Death by J. D. Robb (A)
Lord of the Beasts by Susan Krinard (B)
A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole (B)
I Only Have Fangs For You by Kathy Love (A)
Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh (A)
Slightly Sinful by Mary Balogh (B)
Slightly Tempted by Mary Balogh (B-)
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks (B+)
Demon Angel by Meljean Brook (A-)
"Falling for Anthony" in Hot Spell by Meljean Brook (A)
Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh (A+)
Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balogh (C+)
Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh (B)
Slightly Married by Mary Balogh (A-)
Hot Shot by Charlotte Hughes (B)
Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland (B-/C+)
A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh (A-)
Madhouse by Rob Thurman (B-)
How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn (A)
The Lady in Question by Victoria Alexander (A-)
A Kiss to Remember by Teresa Medeiros (B)
Dead to Me by Anton Strout (A-)
One Night of Scandal by Teresa Medeiros (B)
First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh (B+)
When the Duke Returns by Eloisa James (B)

(March total: 34, 2009 total:99)

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Today I am trying to read The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn. Did you notice I used the word "trying" when I mentioned reading it? I am on page 252 (there's 392 total) and I am trying (there's that word again) to come up with a reason to soldier on instead of dropping it cold. I'm not sure what exactly is turning me off; it could be Kismet (?), the aforementioned Shrink, who is surprisingly the least ridiculous character in this book. It could be Devereux, the main vampire, who is apparently infatuated with Kismet and has all the neat vampire abilities such as teleportation - between dimensions, no less - and is the vampire king or whatever. I do like Alan, who is just like Fox Mulder (his FBI buddies actually call him Mulder as Mulder's colleagues called him Spooky) and is hot on the trail of the mean vampires, aka not Devereux and his ilk. 

This book is ridiculous and yes, I am aware I've already used that word. Kismet is utterly stupefying in her resistance to believing in vampires. Even her name is stupefying. And then, there's Devereux. Utterly beautiful (if you go for girl hair on a man), he won't stay out of Kismet's head and performs a protection ritual on her in which he did a dance that did nothing but make me giggle. I had a funny yet erotic-like dance routine from Napoleon Dynamite running in my head while reading it. And he only wears leather! All the time with the leather. There's also other characters named Midnight and Emerald and it's all too much. It's definitely possible that I'm just not in the mood for this book and if I picked up some other time I might enjoy it so I'm probably going to drop it. At this point, I just don't care what happens to Kismet and Devereux. Alan, who is secure enough in his masculinity to wear pink sweats while his clothes are in the washer, could keep me interested but I don't think he's gonna win. It's hard to beat a guy who can read your mind and make you sleep with a thought. I think I'll reread Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Her books are like comfort food for me.

My mood can definitely be attributed to the procedure I have to endure tomorrow morning. A procedure I didn't expect to go through until I was forty, at least. I don't think it's going to have a negative outcome but I'm worried nonetheless. Wish me luck.