Reviews (mini) Urban Fantasy- Living Dead in Dallas, Moon Called, Darkfever, Angels' Blood, Grimspace

It's been a while since I've done any reviews, I know. The last few posts were all about me, me, me. Actually, I've been doing what I said I wanted to and have been hanging with DH after he gets home instead of reading. So reading time has been cut way down. I've really been enjoying myself though, and that's what counts. But I do miss the process of reviewing.

For the purpose of my blog, I prefer to read and review books by lesser known authors, ebook authors whose books don't get that many reviews and such. So while I've wanted to read more mainstream books, I've put them off for books that I would like to review. But since I took a break, I decided that I would use that time to read the books by well known, mainstream authors for a change.

These last few weeks I've been focusing on reading Urban Fantasy, a genre I haven't really read unless you want to count JR Ward in that. So I got started on a few series by authors I've been wanting to read.

I'm not going to fully review these books but I felt that I wanted to comment a little bit.

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Living Dead in Dallas
by Charlaine Harris
April 2002

In the follow up to Dead Until Dark, telepathic friend of the undead (and vampire bar cocktail waitress) Sookie Stackhouse puts her newfound powers to the test. After an unfortunate incident, Sookie finds herself beholden to a group of Louisiana vampires. So she agrees to travel to Dallas with her undead boyfriend Bill and track down a missing vamp, but only if the vampires promise to let local humans go unharmed. That seems easier said than done when an upstart religious cult threatens to destroy all things vampire - including Sookie, who is quickly scheduled for sacrifice.

I've been listening to this series on audio and I think I'm really enjoying it because of the way actress/reader Johanna Parker is reading these books. She's pretty amazing and I'm sure I might have gone off these books on this book if it weren't for her way of reading Sookie and the other characters.

As a series, I really love the way Charlaine Harris describes this world of vampires, shifters and so on. She has a very down to earth and vivid way of bringing her characters to life. I particularly like Sookie, which is good since she's the main character in these books and it's through her eyes that the stories are told.

I really love how on the one hand she's so straight-laced, reminding me of the old stereotype of a schoolmarm in how affronted she acts about all kinds of things that go against what is typically accepted as moral. And yet, she has no problem disposing of dead bodies, covering up crimes, and she's just so open to all kinds of things that go against the grain. That dichotomy in her character makes her so appealing to me.

Who I'm not getting, and I know I could get a bunch of crapola for saying it, is Bill. Bill sucks. Really. I never really warmed up to him and in this story it gets even worse for me. I'm currently on the next book Club Dead and I wish he'd just go away. Leave Sookie and be gone. For me he's just a lame dude without that oomph that ready gets my juices flowing. Not only that, he's so flaky with Sookie. Blows hot then cold. He would drive me nuts.

Who does make my mouth water is Eric. What a delicious specimen he is and I'm glad he's getting more page time. And I'm totally drooling over Chow, the Yakuza inked vampire bartender.

Little side rant here:

{Umm... what does bother me a bit is that he's a vampire who has Yakuza ink all over. This happened in another book and it annoyed me. There is a difference in Japanese and Chinese names and they never sound anything like each other. Chow is NOT a Japanese name. So I don't know of Ms Harris did that out of ignorance or maybe I missed that he's really Chinese or has a Chinese father, or she just wanted to call a Japanese Yakuza guy by a Chinese name. That kind of thing bothers me though. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this please.}

Never the less, I want to know more about him. Yummers.

The whole story line in this book was kind of lame to me as well; it just didn't really grab me although I like that there is more info on the shifters and their world. If it weren't for Johanna Parker's way of telling these books, I probably would have not finished this one and dropped the series even though I love Charlaine Harris' voice.

My grade for this one- C+ for lame story, A for writing, and A+ for Ms. Parker's rendition of this book.

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Moon Called (Mercy series book I)
by Patricia Briggs
Jan 2006

Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself.

I've been reading and hearing about Patricia Briggs' books for a long time now, everyone raving about them and I finally got to read one.

I've been teetering on paranormals these days. Part of me just so bored with them and yet, there are these authors like Patricia Briggs writing paranormals that I feel I must read. Moon Called was one of those paranormals that juiced me up again to the genre.

I really like this world of riff-raff type scrappers that Ms Briggs created. Mercy is an intriguing and different kind of character. Heroine characters who go against the grain and are tough and yet soft-hearted at the same time are female characters that I can relate to and respect. Mercy also has an odd occupation for a woman, she's a mechanic, which makes this story even more unique. What's also appealing about Mercy is that she does what needs to be done, no matter the danger to herself, to save those around her whom she really doesn't have to get involved with. She just jumps in there and goes for it.

The paranormal world is exceptionally complex, which grabbed me as well. It's well developed with clear delineations as to the power structure and hiearchy of the shifters and Vamps vs. humans. And I really like that it's set in the Pacific NW, which carries darker themed stories much better to me than say, Arizona or Florida. I can see these beings staying hidden from contemporary America in the nature of the PNW, which added to the overall feel of this book.

This book really isn't a romance per se, but it does have some elements in it. I actually liked that Mercy is not hopping into bed with any of her potential love interests at this point.

I'm definitely going to continue on with this series as Ms Briggs' writing is very entertaining.

My grade: B+

BevQB's take

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Darkfever
by Karen Marie Moning
Aug. 2007

MacKayla Lane's life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she's your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death - a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone - Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister's killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed - a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane - an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women - closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book - because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

I got this book because of BevQB and JenB's ravings about it. I was so not disappointed. Loved, loved this book. The whole world building and creatures involved are so different from much of what I've been reading. I loved Ms Moning's take on the whole Fae concept.

So dark and delicious is this world and it moves at a nice pace. Mac is a funny character as well. An unlikely heroine, she's more concerned about matching the color of her nails with her shoes and designer bag than she is about the fact that she's mixed up in a dangerous world of nasty Fae. But I liked her for it. She's just a normal girl who finds out that she's got some special abilities that are needed to save the world and it's kind of hilarious to me that she still clings to these superficial things. What she wasn't was, TSTL, which could have easily happened considering that she is so into how she looks and dresses.

Again, as in Moon Called, I liked that there is some sexual chemistry and energy flowing between her and the hero, Barrons, but that it stays in the realm of not getting expressed. Barrons is a fascinating character as well and not knowing where he's coming from and what his stake in the whole matter is, partly keeps this story compelling. What also keeps this story gripping is the mystery of what is going on. As Ms. Moning is doing an excellent job of world building, slowly introducing the reader to this intricate world of Fae, she's also keeping a fine balance of intrigue vs. satisfaction by keeping what is going on really, a huge secret that Mac has to find out.

I downloaded the second book, Bloodfever right after I finished the first one because I loved it Darkfever so much.

My grade: A-

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Angels' Blood
by Nalini Singh
March 2009

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux is hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael. But this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other—and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break.

First I'm going to say that I really love Nalini Singh's psy/changeling series books. Love them! Ms Singh really has exceptional world building skills in her books and each one is so unique in that world that it doesn't get boring.

So I was really hot to read this book. Unfortunately, against what everyone else is saying about this book, it just didn't grab me. I had a hard time sticking to it and put it down, reading other books in between. I finally forced myself to just finish it up the last few days since I had read quite a bit already and didn't want that that time was wasted by putting it down altogether. I knew I wouldn't pick it up again.

Once again, Nalini Singh has created a really complex and delicious world consisting of Vampires and Angels in this one. I really got off on the fact that the angels weren't the goody two shoes that is the understood nature by most people. They are nasty and feared as well as revered. That's just me though, I enjoy when accepted ideas and myths get shattered and go against the grain.

The Vampire world here is not much different from the usual, but in context, I liked that they are in servitude even though they still have power to glamour humans to them. As with the psy/changeling series, there isn't straight up good vs. bad in this story except for maybe the guild hunters, which Elena is part of. I get off on blurry lines and imperfection with characters and worlds, which keeps things interesting and real for me.

Elena as a character is so tough and feels, but is not overly aggressive nor too soft. She's very human, but holds her own. She has her own demons, which she's fighting and which still hurts her. The pain of her father disowning her is still something that drives her but she also has guts and stands up to those she's afraid of. It's a nice mix of characteristics.

Where this book went off for me and bored me was that there were too many similar themes to the psy/changeling series even if the world was completely different and some other areas that didn't work for me.

1. The archangels rule the world. They are not all nice beings, a few being corrupt with one gone rogue. This is very similar to the psy ruling the world with corrupt members and having to go after and kill a rogue psy in Slave to Sensation. Another similarity is the archangels each having rule over a territory in the world and there being a council of members trying to keep each other in check as well as forming alliances for power take overs.

2. Beings from two different species coming together with one or both having to give up something of their racial characteristics to be with the other and both fighting as a team against evil from either group, is another psy/changeling theme.

3. I know almost everyone else will disagree with me, but I felt no chemistry between Elena and Raphael. I know, I know... Nalini Singh is a master at creating sexual/love tension between her characters. However, I felt that between Elena and Raphael there was no heat. Nothing. Even when they finally get it on it was almost a let down for me. Very anticlimactic.

Actually, I wasn't really feeling Raphael as a man that Elena could go up against really. She's so tough and he comes across as even tougher, initially. But for some reason I felt that he went soft way too quickly on her. I was almost wishing him to be a just a bit more cruel with her, keep her at a distance for a longer period of time, or to really own her and take her. I just didn't feel that and was left with the feeling in the end that she will run over him one day and or that she will turn into a Suzie homemaker all domesticated with him by the way she was acting at the end. I hope it turns out to be different in the next book.

4. The whole wing thing... yes, I know they are angels, but it was very distracting to me that their wings were always there. When they sleep, make love, and even in the bath tub and shower, they are there and seemed huge and in the way. I know that's a very petty thing for me to go on about, but I was thrown out of the story so many times trying to work out the mechanics and feeling of that in my head every time they did something normal and mundane like sitting and such.

5. There were some parts of this story that went right into hokeyville for me. Not to give spoilers, but the end was just too pat and unrealistic to me. It lost all that nice tension and energy build-up from the whole rogue archangel going whacko and having to fight him. Again... it fizzled for me and was just too unbelievable even in an urban fantasy paranormal.

I don't know if I will read the next book in this series. I'm sure like the psy/changeling it will move on to other characters, which might be interesting, but I'm not as hot to jump on the "guild hunter" series as I was the psy/changeling one.

Grade: B

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Grimspace (Sirantha Jax series book I)
by Ann Aguirre
Feb 26, 2008

As the carrier of a rare gene, Sirantha Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace-a talent which makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. Then a crash landing kills everyone on board, leaving Jax in a jail cell with no memory of the crash. But her fun's not over. A group of rogue fighters frees her...for a price: her help in overthrowing the established order.

Ann Aguirre is another author that I've been reading and hearing so much about that I really wanted to get to her books. You know, I read so many books where I'm left with feeling meh. Even less so with books that I think wow, that was good. Even rarer are those books that when I finish it I'm thinking WOW!, that was frigging amazing. Grimspace was one such book that left me feeling Wow, that was amazing, having blown my mind.

I can't say that I'm a sci-fi fan as in that I actively seek it out, but I do enjoy a lot of sci-fi if it happens to be there, so I found this book a total turn on in that aspect. As I'm not a huge fan and don't have that much experience with the genre I can't say if this world that Ann Aquirre has created is unique or runs along conventional sci-fi themes, but it was fascinating to me. The futuristic tech side of this story didn't blow over my head and with general themes of power abuse and control that we deal with today being a huge part of the story, the world building was easy to grasp and take in.

Even if the world itself is typical to many books in the genre, the character development and story telling was so alive and vivid to me. Jax is such an intense character. I totally loved her.

Again---it seems to be a theme in UF---she comes from a family that has disowned her, wanting her to be something she's not inherently. She has a special gene that makes her part of what she is, was destined to be. And again---as in other urban fantasies--- she's a reluctant heroine. Being forced against her will to fight for something she doesn't believe in or care about, she still does what's right in the end and her internal struggles to come to terms with who she is rather than what she thinks she wants is very a real and human conflict.

Another thing that Ann Aguirre accomplished in this book was that she kept the sexual tension up between Jax and March. Both of these characters are damaged and come from a hostile environment and hard backgrounds. While the romance aspect of this book was way on the back burner, I felt the subtle and soft intensity around how Jax and March kind of need each other without all the drama really added some human normalcy to the cold, almost emotionless, world in which these characters are living in.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series. It's definitely a keeper.

My grade- A+

Bev QB's Take