Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Rest Falls Away
****½ The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason. Fantasy.
In every generation, a
The vampire slayers in this universe are called "Venators," and it's a hereditary trait that can be accepted or passed on to the next generation. Most Venators are male, but Victoria Gardella Grantworth's great aunt Eustacia is one, and her mother was called, but turned it down. Now it's Victoria's turn.
Unlike Eustacia, who sacrificed having a husband and children of her own for her duty, Victoria is determined to have it all, and accepts her childhood sweetheart's suit. Phillip, now a marquess, loves Victoria, but becomes increasingly concerned about her odd disappearances.
And those disappearances are becoming more frequent, as the vampire Lilith moves into town with her minions, looking for a mysterious book that will give her even greater powers.
In addition to Aunt Eustacia, Victoria is aided by the enigmatic Max, who's also a Venator, though not a hereditary one; and the even more mysterious Sebastian, who owns a vampire bar.
I love Buffy, I enjoy Regencies--it's a fabulous combination. It was so much fun watching Victoria try to merge her two lives, and grow in confidence even as her life becomes more complicated. The action is exciting and suspenseful, and there's just enough worldbuilding to keep me grounded and make things logical, but not so much that it gets overwhelming. The three men in her life: Phillip, Max, and Sebastian, are all interesting and hero-worthy in different ways, and there's plenty of sensuality between them.
But I wouldn't call it a romance, regardless of what's on the spine. The romantic scenes are not the focus of the book at all--the focus is on the paranormal action/adventure and on Victoria dealing with a dual life. Which is just fine, because otherwise, the ending would have been infuriating rather than painful and emotional. Er. Hope that wasn't too spoilery, but I think it's precisely because I wasn't expecting a romance that I enjoyed this book so much. As it turns out, the balance between the subplots worked perfectly--the lack of focus on the romance subplot kept me from expecting (and from being disappointed in the lack of) a romantic resolution, or HEA.
I bought this book after reading descriptions of it on Colleen Gleason's blog, and I'm really glad I did. The second book is in my TBR pile, and the third is on my must-buy calendar for next February.
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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Fantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, fantasy
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Music of the Night
**** The Music of the Night by Lydia Joyce. Historical romance.
Sebastian Grimthorpe, Earl of Wortham, is bent on revenge after his former friend, Bertram deLint, raped Sebastian's young, illegitimate daughter. A carriage accident gives Sebastian the excuse to fake his death, and he goes to Italy, where he makes an elaborate plan to pay deLint back.
When deLint and his family arrive, Sebastian notices a young woman with a pock-marked face, and remembers the mistress who'd abetted deLint in the rape, so he decides to add her to his scheme.
The scarred woman, however, is deLint's mother's companion, Sarah Connolly. She'd been born in the slums (hence the pox marks), but has raised herself as high as she's able, given her past.
The more Sebastian sees of Sarah, the less he wants to involve her in his plan for revenge. Still, his guilt over not protecting his daughter drives him to revenge, even though he knows it'll destroy Sarah's regard for him.
Sarah, on the other hand, is happy to have his attention and affection, but her knowledge of her status is deep-rooted, and she can't believe her future holds anything better than working as a companion until she's too old, hopefully accruing enough savings to support herself in her old age.
So they're both holding back, but of course, love is a steamroller.
The ending fell a little flat for me. I'm not sure how I was expecting it to turn out, and I loved the twist, but I think the villain's recitation of his misdeeds was my biggest problem. It seemed forced, like an actor in a play addressing the audience directly.
There was also the issue of... (okay, it's not that much of a spoiler, because part of it is mentioned in several of the reviews) ****spoiler****Sarah had been a prostitute for a period in her teens. It seemed tacked on at the end, almost like a change of mind, because in the first sex scene, Sebastian encounters resistance, which made me expect virginity. I couldn't figure out a good reason for the deception, nor a reason for what amounted to "oh, by the way, I used to be a prostitute."**** I guess I just wish it had been expanded on.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Venice setting. It's been over 22 years since I was there, but the descriptions still evoked memories. I also enjoyed the characters trying very hard not to fall in love with each other. I'd figured out Sebastian's revenge plot ahead of time, but it still kept me on the edge of my seat, begging him not to go through with it.
I'd read (and loved) The Veil of Night (#39) when it first came out, but unfortunately forgot to keep looking for Lydia Joyce's books. I've remembered now, and don't think I'll forget again. I have her next two books in my TBR pile.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, HistoricalRomance
Labels: 4 stars, books, HistoricalRomance
cadaver calculator
I got this one from Becca:
$4475.00 The good news: at least there's not a lot of incentive to cash in.
Categories: AboutMe
Mingle2 - Online Dating
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: quiz
Monday, October 29, 2007
The Garrett Files
The Garrett Files by Glen Cook. Fantasy.
This is an omnibus of the first three Garrett fantasy/mystery novels. Garrett is a P.I., a human with no special magical powers, who lives in a world peopled with a variety of supernatural creatures. He lives with his partner, "The Dead Man," who's a Loghyr--450 pounds of dead flesh housing a mind that's capable of telepathy and telekinesis and tele-what-have-you... when he feels like it, anyway. He also has a butler/housekeeper/cook named Dean (who's perpetually trying to hook Garrett up with one of his innumerable personality-rich nieces), and a penchant for redheads.
- ****½ Sweet Silver Blues.
In this introduction to the series, an old marine buddy of Garrett's has died and made Garrett an executor of his will... a will in which he left a fortune in silver to an ex-flame of Garrett's, who was apparently also an ex-flame of his friend's.
So Garrett has to go back to the Cantard (where the war over silver mines is ongoing) to find her, and it rapidly gets complicated.
There's magic and mystery and espionage and action and even a little romance, though Garrett's idea of romance doesn't involve monogamy.
I had a little trouble keeping all the characters straight in the beginning, but even so, I was hooked, and very glad that I'd bought the first two omnibuses.
- ***** Bitter Gold Hearts.
Here, Garrett is hired when a Stormwarden's son is kidnapped. But he's not hired to find the son, or to deliver the ransom--he's asked his advice, then he's paid and sent on his way.
The plot thickens when a young woman of the household hires Garrett's friend Saucerhead for protection, on Garrett's advice, and ends up dead, and Saucerhead nearly so.
This story was more of a classic mystery, and I really enjoyed the twists and turns and figuring out whodunit and why. Since it was the second book, I was familiar with the characters, which made it easier to follow, as well.
- ***** Cold Copper Tears.
This one is even more twisty. We're introduced to religion and street gangs when what looked like an ordinary (read: boring) security guard job that Garrett passed off to a colleague ends up with Garrett being attacked and the colleague turning up dead after returning Garrett's advance and saying he got a better offer.
The client disappears and Garrett finds himself up against a cult headed by a would-be god. In addition to his usual allies, he has Maya, head of a street gang who he'd known as a child. But she's not a child anymore, as she keeps reminding Garrett.
I appreciated how each book seems to reveal a little more of Garrett's universe, and this one, with an abundance of intrigue, was fascinating. I was a wee bit squicked by the age difference between Maya and Garrett, but then so was Garrett.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, 5stars, Fantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, 5 stars, books, fantasy
Monday Morning Meme
A Little About Us
snagged from Sweet Memes
The basic facts:
Who is your significant other? Carl
How long have you been together? since February 1984--23+ years
Dating/Engaged/Married? Married.
How old is your S.O.? 48
What’s his/her middle name? Wilhelm
Which one?
Who eats more? He does.
Who says "I love you" first? Both.
Who weighs more? He does.
Who sings better? Me.
Who’s older? Him.
Who’s smarter? Carl says I am, and I'd hate to disagree with him.
Whose temper is worse? His. Definitely.
Who does the laundry? Me. Unless Dagny's here, then she takes over.
Who does the dishes? Carl, 90% of the time. Which is really nice because we don't have a dishwasher.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, here. It changes in different rooms, like when we move or are at a hotel or something.
Whose feet are bigger? His.
Whose hair is longer? Mine. He's an Army officer--his hair never gets to his ears.
Who’s better with the computer? He used to be, but I am now.
Who mows the lawn? He does, unless he's conned one of the boys into doing it.
Who pays the bills? I do. Always have.
Who cooks dinner? It's about 50/50 depending on the state of my health.
Who drives when you are together? He does.
Who pays when you go out to dinner? He does.
Who's the most stubborn? LOL! me.
Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? Carl.
Whose parents do you see more? His. Well, his mom, anyway. It's only partly because we're on the same continent. It's also because she's the one most interested in seeing us.
Who named your dog? The friend who found her wandering the streets in Corpus Christi.
Who kisses who first? I demand the kisses, he provides them. LOL
Who asked who out? Uh...we just sorta started hanging out together.
Who's more sensitive? He is.
Who's taller? He is.
Who has more friends? I have more friends, but he sees his more frequently.
Who has more siblings? We each have one brother.
Who wears the pants in the relationship? He says I do, because though I'm not bossy, I do have veto power. I think he has veto power, too, but he never uses it. Almost all decisions are pretty mutual.
Note: I changed a couple of things so they could apply to men or women.
I had to do some searching for a meme this morning, because I was too tired to do a Smart Bitches Day post. This one appealed to me because I'm feeling all warm & fuzzy about Carl today. Awwww...
I'll tag:
Carrie
Doug
Melody
and anybody else who wants to play.
...more
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: about me, random memes
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Link of the Week #50
Amazon reviews get a lot of criticism, and rightly so--a majority of them are pointless: "this is the best book ever!" or "this book sucked so bad, I could only read the first 3 sentences!" or "this book was okay, but you really should read my friend's book instead (followed by a blurb for the friend's book)." And the helpful/not helpful ratings are more whether people agree with the # of stars or not. How else could a 10-word "review" be considered helpful? Still, I find them a good source of information about books and products, and quite often a source of entertainment. Like this guy:
He likes Earl Grey tea because it makes him feel like Cpt. Picard. His review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a description--at great length--of the book's physical appearance. He criticizes Finding Nemo at great length because real fish don't act like that. I did cringe whenever he took on politics, but he does seem to skewer both sides. What's nearly as funny as his reviews are the comments from people who think he's serious.
Categories: LOTW
He likes Earl Grey tea because it makes him feel like Cpt. Picard. His review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a description--at great length--of the book's physical appearance. He criticizes Finding Nemo at great length because real fish don't act like that. I did cringe whenever he took on politics, but he does seem to skewer both sides. What's nearly as funny as his reviews are the comments from people who think he's serious.
Categories: LOTW
Labels: cool links
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Rush Hour 3
***½ Rush Hour 3. Action/adventure.
Directed by: Brett Ratner.
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker.
We saw this with the boys at the Hercules, having enjoyed the first two in this franchise.
The action this time takes Lee (Chan) and Carter (Tucker) to France, where there's something about a list of the leaders of the Triads.... oh, you don't care about that--the plot's only there to give a reason for the jokes and the stunts.
Truly, the plot's a bit confusing. A diplomat who gets shot just as he was going to reveal the leaders of the Triads; a list of names tattooed on a woman's head; various factions after Lee and Carter and the woman and each other.
The action and jokes are pretty much what you'd expect if you've seen the first 2 movies. One of the bad guys, however, is Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada) Lee's "brother" (they'd grown up together), and that provides a nice bit of emotional conflict.
The other thing that distinguishes this movie from the first two is the Paris setting, with a cool action sequence on the Eiffel Tower, but mostly with the sneering Parisian cab driver George (Yvan Attal), who provides even more laughs and ends up making a surprising ally. The addition of his character to the Tucker/Chan duo kept it fresh, not unlike an old married couple with a new audience for their stories (not that I'd know anything about that). I also really enjoyed his rather skewed view of America--it's not actually all that exaggerated.
It wasn't quite as good as the first two, but it was a fun way to spend an evening--we always enjoy Jackie Chan, even in his cheesiest movies (or maybe that's especially), and as Camden's English teacher is wont to say, "Chris Tucker is a funny man."
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Categories: Movies, 3.5stars, ActionAdventure
Labels: 3.5 stars, action, Movies
Safe Harbor
**** Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan. Contemporary paranormal romance.
This is the 5th story and 4rd full-length novel in the Drake sisters series. The first two were novellas. In order, they're "Magic in the Wind" (in Lover Beware), The Twilight Before Christmas, which for some reason I thought was an anthology, so it's still in my TBR pile, Oceans of Fire (#30), Dangerous Tides, and Safe Harbor.
The seven Drake sisters all have magical abilities. This story focuses on Hannah, who's a supermodel. Though appearing in public is very difficult for her, she pushes herself to do it because she thinks it's what her sisters want and she doesn't want to let them down.
Jonas is a long-time family friend, the local sheriff, and sometime government operative. He's also always been in love with Hannah, but thinks she's too good for him, and hesitates to expose her to the danger of his jobs.
Danger finds her anyway, when a crazed killer attacks her with a knife on national television, as Jonas watches, horrified, from the other side of the country. She's saved by the mysterious Prakenskii, who has powers of his own, and designs on sister Joley.
I very much enjoyed this story. Jonas's tendency to bark orders when he's worried rather than explain his concerns is even more pronounced here--understandably so, since his emotions are out of control. The danger to Hannah and the way the various suspense plots come together were exciting enough to hold my attention.
I loved the emotional aspect, which is where I think this story shines. Jonas demonstrates that beneath the bossy exterior, he truly loves and understands Hannah--in fact, he understands her better than her sisters, and admires her courage in continuing a career that takes so much out of her, even while he's nagging her to quit because he knows she's not happy. Hannah's journey of self-discovery is lovely to see--she finally realizes that her sisters love her for herself and want her to be happy, and she takes responsibility for having hidden her unhappiness to try to please them.
Her post-attack trauma is, of course, what accelerates her growth, and it's very realistically done. She doesn't get over it right away--people don't. And that touches on a societal concern I have about people being expected to recover instantaneously from trauma or grief or whatever. Instead, she recovers gradually, and the reactions between Hannah, her sisters, and Jonas were true and emotional.
My problem with the book was that it could really have used a good editing. The repetition and backstory slowed down the pace to a crawl in spots and seriously interfered with my enjoyment. It's probably better to read this book at a skimming pace--reading to get the gist of the story rather than reading every word. Which is so odd. In some books (#18), Feehan's writing is so lush and rich that not only do I read every word, but I slow down my reading to savor them. This isn't one of those.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 4 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
Friday, October 26, 2007
Suzanna's Surrender
**** Suzanna's Surrender by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.
This is the fourth book in the Calhoun series. The previous books are Courting Catherine, A Man for Amanda, and For the Love of Lilah. These four actually make one long story with four romances.
Suzanna is the wounded heroine (gotta have one, if you've got a series or trilogy, right?). Divorced from a rich asshole, she runs a plant store and takes care of her 2 children, with help from her sisters and Aunt Coco.
In their search for the emerald necklace and delving through family history, they determine that the artist ancestor Bianca (the necklace's original owner) was involved with was Christian Bradford, grandfather of Holt Bradford, who's recently moved into his grandfather's cottage.
Suzanna is tasked with asking the surly ex-cop for help, checking to see if there's anything in his grandfather's belongings that would give them a clue. And gee whiz--Holt's had a crush on Suzanna since they were teenagers.
I'm being sarcastic, but it's actually a pretty decent story. There's still the flashbacks, this time from Christian's diary rather than Bianca's, but at least it's from a different POV this time, so it's not quite so repetitive. And this is the only book in which there are parallels between Bianca's story and the present-day story, so it works much better.
There are some nice moments, and I absolutely loved scary Aunt Colleen giving Suzanna's ex Baxter hell.
Like all wounded-heroine romances, though, it makes me wonder why the heck she married Bax in the first place. At least she wasn't quite as much a doormat as some others have been, and she did stand up for her kids, which I could respect.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance
Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance
Next
**** Next. Science fiction, action/adventure
Directed by: Lee Tamahori.
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel.
This was the second movie of the double feature at the Auto-Kino.
Cris Johnson (Nicholas Cage) is a Las Vegas magician, stage name Frank Cadillac, with a talent a little more esoteric than sleight-of-hand: he can see 2 minutes into the future. His own future. The exception is Liz (Jessica Biel). When he's around her, he can see much further.
He's been keeping a low profile, but comes to the attention of the FBI anyway. When he prevents a casino robbery, it gives Agent Ferris (Julianne Moore) the leverage to force him to work for them. See, there's this group of terrorists with a nuclear bomb....
I loved the premonition plot, and was impressed by how well the concept was portrayed on-screen, as basically imagining the consequences to each small choice and then choosing the course of action with the best outcome. The best scene depicting that is in the diner when Cris actually meets Liz, the woman he's been seeing in visions.
The action plot I wasn't quite so enthralled with. I didn't quite understand why they needed Cris's talents, and I didn't understand the terrorists' objective, and what the heck the FBI was doing to Cris with the eye clamps is a complete mystery. Granted, some of that might be because of the rapid pace of the dubbing and my limited fluency in German.
The climax, however, using the precognition in an action scene, was very cool, and I enjoyed it as much as the somewhat similar scene in Morgan Hawke's novella "Fortune's Star" in Hard Candy.
I know Nicholas Cage gets on some people's nerves, and this is not the movie to change their minds. I like him. It's Julianne Moore who gets on my nerves. She seems too bland to me to be convincing as a tough FBI agent. Eh. It's personal preferences, either way. If you like both of them, you'll probably love the movie. And Jessica Biel, well, she was just there. Eye candy, I presume. I'm not the target audience there.
We'll probably get the DVD eventually, maybe used from Netflix. I'd like to see it again, in English, this time, and I think the boys would enjoy it as well.
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Categories: Movies, 4stars, ScienceFiction, ActionAdventure
Labels: 4 stars, action, Movies, ScienceFiction
Strictly Taboo
Strictly Taboo by Jaid Black. Erotic romance.
This is an anthology of erotic romance, in 3 different sub-genres (sub-sub-genres?), with the connection of the couples being off-limits to each other in some way.
- **½ "Barbarian". Historical.
Viking Ivar is attacking Lady Elen's castle. Her father's been killed, and all seems lost, until she takes charge and repels the invaders. So Ivar vows revenge on the woman who dares to defy him, and when he does conquer the castle, he takes Lady Elen, planning on making her his bed slave.
Pretty standard stuff, but then about halfway through, it's a different story, and Ivar's only claiming Lady Elen because her father had promised him her hand and Lady Elen refused the match. WTF? No, it's not a paranormal parallel world story--it's just that Ivar's motivation abruptly changes in the middle of the story. Because a novella is so long it needs more than one plot?
- ***½ "Nemesis". Contemporary.
Failed actress Diane has come up with a way to give herself and her child a new start: a week as a nude waitress/whatever on a cruise ship. Just one week, and she'll earn enough money to get them settled back in her home town, and nobody will ever need to know about it.
Except that her high school nemesis, Garek Ennis, now a football star, is on board. (cue dramatic music)
An injury has curtailed Garek's football career, and even womanizing is getting boring--all those naked women leave him cold, except for Diane, who he's always had a thing for, but who snubbed him back in high school.
Lots of contrived (by the characters) situations for them to get intimate, lots of misunderstandings and hurt feelings on both sides.
Cute story, as far as it went, but I had trouble believing the characters and I couldn't really buy the premise. Plus, the cruise ship is in Germany for no good reason, and the hero complains about weak German beer. The American hero. Complained about weak German beer. Uh-huh. **headdesk**
- **** "Naughty Nancy". Paranormal.
This one was just fun. You really have to suspend disbelief for it, though.
Nancy dresses as Xena for a Halloween party, and a witch ends up whisking her into another dimension. She ends up in a nest that's perched reeeeaaaallly high up on a skinny pedestal (no way to get down).
Vorik F'al Vader is a shapeshifter (sort of gargoyle-shaped and human-shaped), and apparently, screaming "help me!" sounds exactly like the cry of a hungry yenni, a not-very-bright creature whose food is the shapershifters' ejaculate. And coincidentally, they look quite a lot like human women, except they have metallic tails (hence the Xena costume, with its sword that in the dim light, he mistakes for a tail--don't quibble, just go with it).
Unsurprisingly, there's quite a lot of oral sex in this one, but it goes on from there. It's a very nice blend of hot sex scenes and laugh-aloud humor. Vorik's confusion and concern for the poor yenni who was so hungry she couldn't eat cracked me up. The romance part worked itself out quite satisfactorily, too, despite the couple's inauspicious beginning.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, 3.5stars, 2.5stars, EroticRomance
Labels: 2.5 stars, 3.5 stars, 4 stars, books, EroticRomance
Thursday, October 25, 2007
TT #71
Part 2b: Bayern: Garmisch & the Eibsee
In the beginning of August, we took a week-long trip to Bavaria with all three kids and Carl's mom. Unlike our usual habit, we did touristy things every day, which made Dagny very happy. Last week's TT, if you missed it, was about the castles we saw on the trip.
1.  | 2.  | 3.  |
4.  | 5.  |
6.  | 7.  | 8.  on the way to the Eibsee, we had to stop at this bridge |
9.  this is what they saw when they looked down | 10.  paddle-boating on the Eibsee |
11.  view on the Eibsee | 12.  view in the other direction | 13.  having a snack after all that paddle-boating |
The town is actually called Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Eibsee is the lake at the foot of the Zugspitze. We'd planned on going up to the Zugspitze until we saw the prices: 230 euro just for the cable car ride for all of us, and the peak had been cloudy all week. So we had fun on the lake, and then went up the Kreuzeckbahn, which I'll show you next week.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
- Red Garnier's favorite books
- Nicholas: books with animal titles
- Tempest Knight: haunted places
- Susan Helene Gottfried: California fires
- Christine d'Abo: candy
- Open Grove Claudia: plastic surgery don'ts
- Angela/SciFiChick: lame superpowers
- Babystepper: NaNoWriMo ideas
- Carrie Lofty: Juliette's birthday
- Lori: holiday stress relief
- Julia: Halloween memories
- memories that date Elle Fredrix
- Friday's Child: ways to be handy around the house
- Melody: Booking Through Thursday
- Doug's son turns 12
- Julia: Julianne MacLean
- You're next!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
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Categories: ThursdayThirteen, AboutMe
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Knocked Up
***½ Knocked Up. Romantic comedy.
Directed by: Judd Apatow.
Starring: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl
We saw this as part of a double-feature at the Auto-Kino (drive-in).
Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl) just got a promotion, so she and her sister go out to celebrate. She has a few too many to drink, meets Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), and has a one-night stand with him.
A few weeks later, she discovers she's pregnant. After some soul-searching and a lot of cringing, she decides she'd better tell Ben. He vows to stick with her and help raise the baby.
Ben lives with his buddies, smokes pot, and they have desultory plans to create a celebrity website, but they don't work on it much. At first, he keeps on with his life the way it is, but little by little, he starts growing up and taking responsibility.
There's a secondary plot with Allison's sister and her husband having a crisis in their marriage that serves to both encourage and warn Allison and Ben about their future.
It was a cute movie, as far as it went. I'm not sure I understand the rave reviews: 7.8 stars on the IMDB for a comedy is amazing. That's the same as The Blues Brothers and Blazing Saddles and Stranger than Fiction got, and this is nowhere in the same league as those. Different tastes, maybe, but those had more going on than just humorous situations. Maybe this one did, too, and I just didn't see it.
I do know that I missed a lot of the one-liners that a lot of people appreciated. They don't tend to translate all that well into German. And the dubbing, while it's done very well here, still makes the dialogue incredibly fast, as German takes half again as many syllables as English to say anything. So I missed the verbal nuances, if there were any.
My favorite part of the movie was Ben's growth, and, to a lesser extent, Allison's. It was presented with humor and sympathy. The problems between Allison's sister and brother-in-law were realistic, but I couldn't sympathize with either of them, which made it less effective for me.
The premise, however, just didn't sit well with me. Because of a one-night stand, this couple is deciding on a permanent commitment to each other. It just made me squirm, and nearly turned the movie into a pro-life propaganda piece. Allison does initially turn down Ben's marriage proposal, but neither of them ever question whether they should be together permanently or not--just whether they should have the little piece of paper.
Much of that has, I admit, more to do with me than with the movie. I've been married 23+ years, and I know how much work marriage is, even when you love each other, and especially when you start off the marriage with a child (our first was born 11 months after we got married, but we didn't live together until after I was already pregnant). Then, too, I have a 22-year-old daughter who's far too prone to trying to make relationships work even when she'd be better off letting go, and I couldn't help seeing her in the same situation.
Ah, well. Maybe a lot of it was lost in translation. It was an entertaining movie to watch for a date night, but I don't think I'll be watching it again in English to see what I missed.
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Categories: Movies, 3.5stars, RomanticComedy
Labels: 3.5 stars, Movies, RomanticComedy
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Hart's Hope
***** Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card. Fantasy.
I got this one years ago at the flea market--in other words, before I'd read Ender's Game (#42).
Burland's king Nasilee's reign is destroying the country, so Palicroval is urged to overthrow him for the good of the country.
He defeats Nasilee. Then, to solidify his position, he takes Nasilee's young daughter Asineth as a bride, publicly consummating the marriage (rape, in other words) so there's no doubt. He can't, however, bring himself to kill her, though his advisors all agree he should. Instead, he sends her away with the wizard Sleeve, and turns to Enziquelvinisensee Evelvenin, the most beautiful woman in the world, whose hand he'd won before his quest.
Asineth, bitter and bent on revenge, is pregnant with Palicroval's child, which ends up being a 10-month baby--magically significant. She sacrifices the child and uses it to become Queen Beauty, turning Sleeve into a court jester and taking Enziquelvinisensee Evelvenin's appearance for herself, turning the real Enziquelvinisensee Evelvenin into a hag.
She returns to the capital and takes over, allowing Palicroval to go anywhere in the land but the capital. She magically watches him and torments him for her amusement.
Finally, the gods take a hand and cause Palicroval to father a child, Orem, whose task, though he's unaware of it, is to set things right.
This is a rather unusually written story--told as an epistle to Palicroval, with the epistle-writer's commentary and advice along with the narrative. It took me a while to get used to the style, but once I did, it added to the feel of the story. It's distant--the omniscient POV doesn't allow the reader deeply into any of the characters' thoughts or emotions--but the story is epic in scale, spanning centuries and involving gods and the fate of a nation; and it's a morality tale as well, so the style fits the story.
The action is gritty, from the rape to the torments Queen Beauty visits on Palicroval, to the events Orem endures on his unknowing quest. Nothing is sugar-coated or coyly avoided, and that too serves the story, showing how even good intentions can result in evil and victims become villains.
And it shows the dangers of attracting the attention of the gods. Isn't there a famous saying about that? Or perhaps its just a truism. The gods' intervention led to the changing fortunes of Palicroval, and the existence and eventual fate of Orem.
It's not that much of a spoiler to say that the ending is open-ended. That, too, serves the story, giving a reason for the epistle to Palicroval.
I'll be re-reading this one more than once, I'm sure.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Fantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, fantasy
passion quiz
| Your Passion is Purple! |
 You've got a ton of passion, but you don't always wear it on your sleeve. If something truly excites you, you let your inner intensity shine through. But otherwise, your passion tends to morph into energy ... which you never lack. You're a balanced woman, knowing when to turn on the fire in your heart. |
My passion tends to morph into energy? Damn. I wish.
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: quiz
Stolen
***** Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. Contemporary fantasy.
I read Bitten five years ago and loved it. And I'd intended to look for this one when it came out, but that was before I started keeping a calendar list of what's coming out when, and I ended up forgetting about it. Argh.
Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf. Her job for the pack is to help keep the werewolves' secrecy by investigating anything online that might indicate a mutt (non-pack werewolf) getting himself noticed.
She's following a lead when she agrees to meet with Ruth and Paige Winterbourne, aunt and niece, who are selling proof that werewolves exist. When she meets them, she finds out that not only do they have proof--they know all about her, personally, and that they'd placed the ad specifically in order to meet her. The women explain that they are witches and they wanted to meet her to invite the pack to a meeting of representatives of supernatural races, convening to discuss the disappearance of supernaturals of all sorts, kidnapped by billionaire Ty Winsloe.
Elena is disbelieving, but when a stalker in fatigues who seems to know she's a wolf tries to grab her, she's a little more willing to listen. So she, the alpha Jeremy, and Clay, her lover, attend the meeting along with the witches, a vampire, a shaman, and a half-demon.
Then she's, well, Stolen--abducted after the meeting when her vehicle gets separated from the one carrying Clay and Jeremy. She's taken to an underground facility with cells housing other supernaturals who are being experimented on. Think Season 4 of Buffy, and The Initiative (which, by the way, is mentioned, making me laugh).
That's why the scientists and doctors are there, anyway. Winsloe just wants his own extreme LARP.
Stolen opens up the series by introducing other supernatural races. Witches are pretty much what you'd expect, but vampires are a little different from what I've seen elsewhere, and the half-demons, who have a variety of powers depending on their demon parentage, are quite unusual.
There's a lot of worldbuilding in this story, and the plot facilitates that--first by Ruth and Paige explaining things to a disbelieving Elena, and then by the experiments and observations of Winsloe's scientific team.
Even though the story is told from Elena's first person POV, the various characters are all unique and well-developed, including the villains, who aren't just cardboard cut-outs of Evil, and are all the more chilling because of that.
The suspense kept me turning pages, and I particularly appreciated that Armstrong skipped the cliche of the stupid villains--that most of the ways Elena tried to escape had been anticipated and prevented, and that she kept having to stretch her ingenuity.
There is, of course, less of the werewolf pack and Elena's relationship with Clay--that was done superbly in Bitten, and kudos to Armstrong again for not simply rehashing the first book. There's a bit, though, enough to keep fans happy.
I'm glad I finally remembered to get this. The third book is already in my TBR pile.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Haunting
****½ The Haunting by Hope Tarr. Paranormal romance.
I'd loved two of Hope Tarr's earlier historicals--My Lord Jack and Tempting, but forgot to keep up with her books until someone on an email list mentioned her. Now I'm scrambling to catch up.
American history professor Maggie Holiday is putting her life back together after losing her parents and her sister in a plane crash. Part of that is a new house (well, an 1850s Victorian) in a new town, and a new job as assistant professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Except that her lover, D.C. psychiatrist Richard, calls it running away, and Maggie's starting to notice that he takes every opportunity to belittle her choices, and she realizes she needs to break things off with him.
There's no rush, though--he lives in the city, and hates the small town, and her old house, so he's out of her hair most of the time. First things first--exploring her house.
She finds a diary of a previous inhabitant, Isabel, who describes her romance with a Union officer, and Maggie begins having vivid dreams about the war and Isabel's life.
She gets a little more than she bargained for in the attic: an intruder, dressed in a civil war uniform--though how he got in, she doesn't know. He doesn't seem violent, and the way he talks and the fact that he calls her "Isabel" leads her to believe he's a relatively harmless reenactor who's a wee bit too caught up in his role. And then he seduces her.
Actually, he's Captain Ethan O'Malley, the same man Isabel had written about in the diary, and he was hanged when a man who wanted Isabel framed him for espionage. Now his ghost is trying to be reunited with Isabel, or rather, Isabel's reincarnation in Maggie, and to clear his name.
The Haunting is a short book, 244 pages, but it's complete nonetheless. Maggie's reactions are much more realistic than I've come to expect in this sort of paranormal romance--she keeps trying to figure out how the "intruder" got in, gets a new security system, etc. Even after the seduction, she doesn't immediately trust him, and it takes a lot of convincing before she believes, and remembers.
In addition, her relationship with Richard is, sadly, all too realistic. He tries to control her by belittling her and trying to make her doubt her sanity. But when she's doing what he wants, he acts loving and charming, so it's a real effort for her to break up with him--especially when she's not sure he's not right about her sanity... after all, she's having an affair with a ghost.
Even as I enjoyed the story, I had no idea how they'd resolve the issue in the end. We learn early on that Ethan has a limited amount of energy he can use to become corporeal, so their physical relationship can't continue in the same way indefinitely. I won't give away the solution, but it was clever and satisfying.
This was an "Extreme Blaze," but obviously, I read too much erotica, because I didn't even realize it until I read an Amazon review complaining that the sex scenes were too extreme. Obviously, a case of YMMV.
I'll definitely continue to look for more of Hope's backlist.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
Monday Morning Meme
Saw this at Twiga's:
The Alternate Name Meme.
1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Duchess Moby
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Cherry Gelato Zimtsterne
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
D-Sto
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Violet Dragonfly
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Kaye Alma
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Sto-Da
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Turquoise Coffee. Oh, that doesn't work. The Turquoise Jasmine Green Tea? Nope. The Turquoise Margarita? That's marginally better.
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Harold Durwood.
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Peaches Dark Chocolate
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Jayne Eugene
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Gunderman Genova
12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Summer Lilac
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Raspberry Slippersy
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
(Banana Nut) Waffles Cherry
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Reading Storm Tour
16. Your Porn Name: (First Pet + Name of street you grew up on)
Duchess Coe
Well, that was silly. But it's about as much intellectual stimulation as I can handle this morning.
I'll pass on the fun to:
Julia
Melody
JMC
and anyone else who wants to play.
...more
Categories: AboutMe
The Alternate Name Meme.
1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Duchess Moby
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Cherry Gelato Zimtsterne
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
D-Sto
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Violet Dragonfly
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Kaye Alma
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Sto-Da
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Turquoise Coffee. Oh, that doesn't work. The Turquoise Jasmine Green Tea? Nope. The Turquoise Margarita? That's marginally better.
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Harold Durwood.
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Peaches Dark Chocolate
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Jayne Eugene
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Gunderman Genova
12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Summer Lilac
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Raspberry Slippersy
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
(Banana Nut) Waffles Cherry
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Reading Storm Tour
16. Your Porn Name: (First Pet + Name of street you grew up on)
Duchess Coe
Well, that was silly. But it's about as much intellectual stimulation as I can handle this morning.
I'll pass on the fun to:
Julia
Melody
JMC
and anyone else who wants to play.
...more
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: random memes
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Link of the Week #49
Ever wonder what would happen if you replied to one of those scamming spammers?
Well, somebody's done it for you:
http://www.geocities.com/steerp1ke/index.html
He has six different scammers he's responded to, and my favorite is the Halloween-themed one, where he adds in a lot of Lovecraft and pop culture references.
There are also links to ten other sites doing the same thing, and tips for yanking your own spammers' chains.
Enjoy!
Categories: LOTW
Well, somebody's done it for you:
He has six different scammers he's responded to, and my favorite is the Halloween-themed one, where he adds in a lot of Lovecraft and pop culture references.
There are also links to ten other sites doing the same thing, and tips for yanking your own spammers' chains.
Enjoy!
Categories: LOTW
Labels: cool links
Angel of the Lake
***½ Angel of the Lake by Ana Seymour. Historical romance.
This 1993 historical is one of my flea market finds.
Josh Lyman and Kari Aslaksdatter were both passengers on the doomed SS Atlantic. They hadn't met, but Josh had noticed her on deck and been drawn to her then. Josh had taken his wife Corinne on the trip, hoping that time together, away from her pampering, overprotective family, would bring life into their year-old marriage.
But when the ship sinks, Josh can't find Corinne. She's not in their cabin, and he's forced to flee without her. Escaping from the sinking ship, he discovers the young woman he'd admired lying injured and unconscious in a trunk. He saves her life.
On shore, he searches among the other survivors, but can't find Corinne, and is forced to admit that she's drowned. He checks on the young woman he saved, and finds that her injuries, while not serious, have robbed her of her memory. Feeling responsible for her, he takes her home with him.
They become friends on the trip to his home, and he installs her in his house to recover, over the objections of Corinne's family. She charms his family, falls in love with Josh, and eventually regains her memory. He promises to help her find her brother and other traveling companions in the spring.
The romance between the two of them was sweet, and I enjoyed Josh's dilemma. His relationship with Corinne had been a matter of childhood sweethearts, and had never become a true adult marriage. Corinne had been childlike and spoiled, and the indignities of marriage had sent her crying to her mother. Still, her death before they'd been able to resolve matters between them one way or another, weighed on Josh. And the fact that he was falling in love with, was happier with a woman he'd saved while Corinne had drowned, made the guilt nearly unbearable. His reactions and his pain were very realistic and believable.
Kari, however, was a little too good to be true. The perfect woman, she made everyone blissfully happy. Sang like an angel, cooked scrumptious meals and treats, organized the household to perfection, cured Josh's mother's malaise, etc., etc. ad nauseum.
I was also distracted by expecting to find out where Corinne had been when the ship sank, and why Kari had been in the trunk. Neither circumstance was ever explained, so I was left with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling.
What was fascinating was the depiction of Norwegian immigrants to America. It's not a subject I've seen much about, and I appreciated meeting immigrants who weren't from England, Scotland, or Ireland.
...more
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, HistoricalRomance
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, HistoricalRomance
Sorceress of Faith
***** Sorceress of Faith by Robin D. Owens. Fantasy.
There's a reason why Robin D. Owens is on my must-buy list, and this is one of them.
It's the second book in the series about alternate dimension world Lladrana, following shortly after Guardian of Honor. I have to laugh at the reviews--so many of them say it's either better than or not as good as the first. Personally, I think it's just as good as Guardian of Honor, and kudos to Robin for expanding the series by making this one different from the first.
This time, it's the Sorcerers on Lladrana who are summoning an Exotique. Or rather, the Marshalls are summoning one for them. The Sorcerers do not work together well enough to summon on their own. On Lladrana, Sorcerers are the scholars, which makes the new Exotique perfect for them: graduate/perpetual student Marian Harasta.
Marian is also interested in magic and spells, and is doing a spell of her own when she's summoned. So the adjustment to the world of Lladrana is different for her than it was for Alexa.
When she arrives, she's claimed first by Jaquar, who she's drawn to, but something tells her he's a danger to her. He's challenged in rapid succession by two other sorcerers, who are finally overruled by the oldest and most powerful sorcerer, Bossgond, who announces he'll be her teacher, and whisks her off to his tower.
Marian's love of learning serves her well, but she's adamant that she not stay on Lladrana, needing to return to earth to be with her brother, who's seriously ill with MS. She agrees to help in exchange for their help in curing him.
Jaquar is one of the most powerful sorcerers on Lladrana, but his interest in the project is more personal: the monsters killed his family, and he wants revenge. His plan was to send the Exotique into the monsters' nest to destroy it. And if she's killed in the process, well, that's the price you have to pay.
That plan changes once he gets to know Marian--even if he hadn't found her personally appealing, it's much easier to plan the sacrifice of someone who's anonymous. Still, it's difficult for him when he takes over her weather training, realizing how powerful she is, and how well she'd accomplish his initial plan, and balancing a growing love and respect for her with his need for revenge.
The weather magic, at which both Jaquar and Marian excel (Bossgond's specialty lies elsewhere), is fun and exhilarating to read about, and Marian's hamster Tuck is just a delight.
The conflicts in Sorceress of Faith are more emotional than physical (which I believe accounts for the differences of opinions in the reviews as to which book is better), but they're no less suspenseful for that.
I loved Marian's eagerness to learn new things, and her easy acceptance of the existence of the different world--both well-explained by her personality and her past. Her love and worry for her brother were the driving force in her life, contrasting poignantly with her painful relationship with her cold, disapproving mother.
I was turning pages far too late at night, needing to find out how Marian resolved being torn between a whole world that needed her and one person who needed her (her brother). Ah, to be an end-reader.
I won't say how it turned out, but it was very satisfying. I loved this second visit to Lladrana, and seeing another side of it. I can't wait to read the next book.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Fantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, fantasy
