Friday, November 06, 2009
Friday Flashback
Smoke in Mirrors by Jayne Ann Krentz. Gothic, romantic suspense.
It's been quite a while since I've read a romantic suspense---odd, since it's one of my favorite kinds of books to read. I fell into this one right away. It reminded me of Barbara Michaels' books, with the creepy house with all those mirrors, and I was hooked from there.I wrote a lot more about this book, but it's all in conversation form, including comments from Jayne Ann Krentz. Read the entire thread here.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Gothic, RomanticSuspense
Labels: books, flashback, gothic, RomanticSuspense
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday Flashback
Isle of Skye by Constance Hall. Gothic romance.
Isle of Skye really took me back---not just in history, but to many years ago, before I read "romance". I didn't read romance, but gothics, like Victoria Holt's books, were guilty pleasures. I'm not sure if this fits a strict definition of a gothic, but that's how it felt to me, & I just devoured it.You can read the entire discussion thread here.
A haunted castle, a family curse, suspicion everywhere, a tormented hero who's vowed to avoid love, and a smart, brave heroine who saves them all. Quite possibly my favorite type of comfort read.
I liked the search for Avalon, and the Arthurian quest of Regan & her father.
I did suspect Tyg at first, then decided he couldn't be the bad guy because he was too obvious, & because he was so devoted to Quin. I suspected Gillis the longest, & never ever suspected who actually was the bad guy, or his accomplice. (Trying not to give anything away here. )
Lachlan's mother's diary was heartbreaking. I felt so sorry for those boys.
Emma was intriguing. It's probably just that I'm used to series, but I'd like to read more about her as well.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Gothic
Labels: books, flashback, gothic
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Wicked and the Wondrous
The Wicked and the Wondrous by Christine Feehan.
- ***½ The Twilight Before Christmas. Contemporary paranormal romance.
This is the second story in the Drake sisters series about a magical family.
Kate Drake is the second oldest sister and a writer, returning to her hometown to open a bookstore and settle down. Matt Granite has also returned to their hometown--an ex-army ranger, he's now joined his family's contracting business. They become reacquainted when Matt offers his professional services to help with the old mill building Kate wants to renovate for her bookstore.
Unfortunately, in the process, they accidentally release an ancient evil that hates Christmas and is threatening the entire town, and the sisters have to work together to defeat it.
Kate and Matt were pretty cute together: Kate's one of the more private sisters, and doesn't think someone as great as Matt would be interested in her, particularly since whenever she's around him, she gets clumsy, and his brothers keep laughing at her. Little does she know that they're laughing at Matt, who tends to get clumsy in her presence as well, and for the same reason. I always enjoy the type of plot that has the characters looking at the same thing but drawing completely different conclusions.
However, the horror plot leaves quite a bit to be desired. The evil entity's motivation is weak, and the fight gets repetitious until it's ended in a predictable manner.
Also, this story suffers from the same problems as the rest of this series: awkward dialogue, and too much repetition. Still, it's worth reading as part of the series.
- ***** "After the Music". Gothic.
Dillon Wentworth was a famous musician, until he was seriously burned trying to rescue his children from a fire that killed his unfaithful wife. The injuries have made it impossible for him to play as well as he once did, but the guilt and depression were worse. But now he's starting to work again, to help out his former band members, some of whom are in financial difficulties, and they've all gathered at his secluded estate.
Jessica Fitzpatrick has been taking care of the children since the fire, but there have been mysterious threats, and she's worried about them, so she decides the safest place for them will be with their father... and if moving in forces him to face his fears and act like a father again, so much the better.
This is a classic gothic romance: you've got the brooding, scarred hero in the secluded country estate; the spunky yet innocent governess; mysterious danger; and you can't tell who to trust. And, of course, the happy ending.
I would never presume to tell an author what to write, but good lord... Feehan's gothics are the absolute best things she writes. Too bad there are so few of them. Part of it, admittedly, is my own love of the gothic subgenre, but there's more to it than that. Her dialogue, choppy and awkward in other books, particularly in the Drake and Dark series, is smooth and realistic. The plots and the atmosphere fit perfectly, and the descriptions are some of the best I've ever read. Ah, well. Their rarity makes them even more of a treasure.
Categories: Books, 5stars, 3.5stars, ParanormalRomance, Gothic
Labels: 3.5 stars, 5 stars, books, gothic, ParanormalRomance
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Ghostlight
***** Ghostlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Gothic. Re-read.
I read this years ago, and put it back in the TBR pile after Dagny read it last summer and left it here. It's always interesting to read a book you loved in the past to see if your perceptions or tastes have changed. In this case, I still enjoyed it immensely.
Truth Jourdemayne is the daughter of notorious psychic con-artist Thorne Blackburn, who started an occult movement in the 60s and who killed her mother during one of his rituals, then disappeared.
So she's dedicated her life to showing the truth about such things, scientifically, and put the past, and her father, behind her.
But now she's been asked to write her father's biography, and her aunt Caroline gives her Thorne's grimoire, and Truth decides it's time to go back to Shadow's Gate and write the true story.
When she gets there, she discovers a cult trying to recreate her father's work, and everything becomes much more confusing.
I think I liked this so much because I'm a huge sucker for gothics. The creepy old house, the intrepid heroine, the two men--one good, one evil, but you don't find out until the end which is which, and the whole air of mystery.
The twists and turns in this one were both surprising and logical, and I was sucked right in. I really enjoyed Truth--sure she knows what's real, desperate to distance herself from her father, but deep down even more desperate to know her father and for him to be someone she can love and admire.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Gothic
Labels: 5 stars, books, gothic
Monday, October 23, 2006
***** Crazy Like a Fox by Anne Stuart. Contemporary romance/gothic.
Do not judge this book by its cover. Honest, the hero is not an ape-man. To be fair, the heroine might well have had big hair--it was written in 1989, and, well, a lot of us had big hair then. We didn't know any better. The cover of the reissue has better-looking people, but it has nothing to do with the story, unless it's trying to show us what happens after the story ends. Yes, they do end up at Mardi Gras, but not like that, and not with the kid. Also, the kid is a girl, and that sure looks like a boy to me.
So, the cover gods used to have it in for Anne Stuart. But she showed them. She put a fabulous story inside anyway.
When the book opens, Margaret Jaffrey, widowed and destitute (her husband was a gambler, and not a very good one), decides as a last resort to take her daughter Carrie to Louisiana, to Dexter's family home. From there, the story is pure gothic.
There's the extended family with the forceful matriarch, the big house, the gothic atmosphere, the mystery, but most of all there are the cousins Peter and Wendell. Both are handsome, in the same way Dexter had been, but Wendell is a charming lawyer, and Peter is cynical and unemployed... because he's under house arrest, kept locked in the attic (okay, a suite of rooms on the top floor), after being acquitted of his wife's murder by reason of insanity.
Margaret finds herself drawn into the family's web, blocked every time she tries to assert her independence, and unsure of their safety when the whole family seems convinced that Peter is dangerously insane. However, she's reluctant to take her daughter from the happiness and stability she's found after so many months of living hand-to-mouth. Wendell has given her a job, and offered a marriage proposal her mind tells her would ensure Carrie's and her futures, though her heart says otherwise.
For such a short book (typical Harlequin--251 pages), a lot is packed into it. Each member of the family has an agenda, and you're never quite sure what's true. There's intrigue and the mystery surrounding Peter's wife's death, and in the middle of it all, Margaret is falling in love with the very worst choice--a crazy man who'd confessed to killing his wife.
I'm slowly collecting Anne Stuart's backlist, but there are so many books that it's been slow going. This book convinces me to try to speed up the process a bit.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Gothic
Labels: 5 stars, books, gothic
Saturday, September 09, 2006
**** The Judas Kiss by Victoria Holt. Gothic.
I think I've already mentioned that gothics are the first romances I ever read. I didn't realize at the time, of course, that they were romances--I considered them more a peculiar form of mystery. (Yes, my feet were wet, and I could see the pyramids.) I also considered them a guilty pleasure. Now, it's more nostalgia.
The Judas Kiss is about Pippa Ewell. She and her older sister Francine are orphaned and sent with to live with their cruel, controlling grandfather. He intends to marry Francine to their Cousin Arthur. Rescue comes in the form of foreigners at Granter's Grange, the neighboring estate. Francine runs off with Rudolph, heir to the ruler of a small Bavarian kingdom. Pippa gets a few letters from Francine, telling about her marriage and child, then the letters stop. Some time later, she learns that Francine had been killed when Rudolph was assassinated, and that nobody in Bruxenstein believes there was a wedding or a child.
Making things worse for Pippa, her grandfather has now transferred his plans to her, and intends for her to wed Cousin Arthur on her 17th birthday.
When foreigners return to Granter's Grange, Pippa meets and falls in love with Conrad, who she takes to be an upper-level servant of some sort. He asks her to come with him as his mistress, but she declines.
Hmmm. I'm going to be outlining the entire plot of the book if I keep this up. Not what I intended to do. Suffice it to say that Pippa ends up in Bruxenstein, looking for her nephew and evidence of her sister's marriage. She and Conrad are torn between love and duty, amid dangerous political machinations.
As with a lot of older gothic romances, I had a hard time believing either of the couples had truly fallen in love. It's almost as if the falling in love part is just too private to be mentioned--either that, or it's considered something along the lines of magic--something that "just happens" and has no rhyme or reason to it.
And I knew who Conrad was from the start, which made me think Pippa was... if not TSTL, at least pretty darn dumb.
Also, the murder whodunit was never really completely solved.
However, particularly once Pippa gets to Bruxenstein, the emotional angst is quite well done. If you accept that Pippa and Conrad are in love (and you pretty much have to accept it as a given, otherwise the rest of the story is pointless), they truly are caught between a rock and a hard place, both of them for different reasons.
I also appreciated the mystery of Francine's child. There were a couple of red herrings and wrong turns, and I was sure I knew who he was, but I was wrong.
Other than who killed Francine and Rudolph being assumed but never proven, the rest of the threads in the story were neatly tied up, including those I'd assumed had been forgotten.
...more
Categories: Books, 4stars, Gothic
Labels: 4 stars, books, gothic
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
**** Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer. Gothic.
Well. This surprised me. I was expecting a Regency romance, which is what Heyer is famous for, and instead, I got a gothic. I lurrrrve gothics.
The "Cousin Kate" of the title is an orphaned, penniless young woman who's been invited to live with her aunt after losing her position as a governess. Her old nurse, to whom she'd turned, contacted the aunt Kate had never met, and at first, all seemed fine.
The aunt was kind and solicitous, and her cousin Torquil a handsome but moody young man, but the expected introductions to London society never materialized with their hope of contracting a marriage for Kate, and instead they lived quietly in the country, with the poor health of her aunt's husband, Sir Timothy, as an excuse.
With the arrival of Sir Timothy's nephew Phillip, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems, and Kate is thrust into the middle of a mystery, not knowing whom to trust.
I've been wavering between 4 and 5 stars for this book. On the one hand, I have no complaints about it whatsoever. I love the gothic style, and this was a pretty much flawless example of a gothic romance. On the other hand, it's a flawless example of a gothic romance--that is, there was nothing to distinguish it from other gothic romances, nothing that made me say "oh, my god, this is such a good book." Realizing that my ratings have been becoming inflated of late, I'm sticking with the 4 stars. Which I've always intended to mean "a book I really enjoy, but that doesn't make me want to do a little dance."
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Categories: Books, 4stars, Gothic
Labels: 4 stars, books, gothic
Sunday, August 06, 2006
***** Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart. Gothic.
It's symptomatic of the way I found books and authors when I was younger that I never discovered Mary Stewart's gothics until a couple of years ago. In my teens and early twenties, I loved Victoria Holt's gothics, considering them a peculiar sort of mysteries, and a bit of a guilty pleasure. I hadn't heard the term "gothics". I'd have loved Mary Stewart's books, too, but it never occurred to me to look for books similar to Holt's; nor did I talk to any other readers about them. Not that I really knew any other readers. The same thing happened with mysteries, and science fiction and fantasy. I read everything by a handful of authors, some popular, some more obscure, but completely missed a lot of the giants of the genres.
But it's all good. It just means that I have a few zillion old books to enjoy... along with the few zillion new books on my list.
Airs Above the Ground is a bit unusual for a gothic, in my experience anyway, in that the heroine is already married to the hero. Vanessa thinks her new husband is on a business trip to Stockholm... then she sees him in a newsreel with another woman on his arm--and they're in Vienna.
So when a friend asks Vanessa to escort her teenaged son to visit his father in Austria, Vanessa takes the chance to find out what's going on, and they find themselves caught up in the exotic world of a small traveling circus, international drug smuggling, mysterious deaths, and the world-famous Lipizzaner Stallions. Not to mention the difficulties of being newlyweds.
The atmosphere is pure gothic, and a lot of the Amazon reviews rave about the horses (I'm not a fan of horses), but what I enjoyed most about this book is how all the various threads intertwined and affected each other.
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Categories: Books, 5stars, Gothic
Labels: 5 stars, books, gothic
