More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Yes, It’s Light, But Not Silly and Not for Kids – Medium Dead, Chris Dolley

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I was in the mood for something funny, not too serious and found Medium Dead. This book was one of those “if you like A then try…” on my Nook. It sounded cute so I got the free sample, read it and immediately bought the full story. Just what I was looking for: fun, interesting characters, underlying mystery and a serious back story, fast plot and great dialogue.

Heroine Brenda has been vegetating since finding her best friend with her husband four – count ’em, four – years ago. Since then she’s watched soap operas, gotten an undemanding job with great hours, lives alone three hours from Mom and older sister Susan, and, oh yes, sees ghosts. She meets a new ghost one morning who warns her to leave NOW or risk her life. Sure enough, in comes a serial murderer-rapist along with his car jacking victim, ineffectual Brian.

Only catch is that Brian is hard to kill. He absorbs bullets, even loses his head, and still keeps after the bad guy. Brenda doesn’t know what’s going on but she gladly helps, improvising right along with Brian. After Brian tells Brenda that he is a Vigilante Demon, here to fight crime. Fun ensues.

A few minor quibbles. I can’t fathom why anyone would claim to be a demon although Brian invents a demon call center staffed by Sanjay for some of the funniest dialogue. The plot has loose ends.  If Brian and Brenda stay crime-fighting partners and see Mom and Susan again, I’m not sure how Brian will morph from sexy Fabio the model, doctor and fireman to Brian. And at the end we see Brian is not a demon, just a semi-normal guy with a passion to put the creeps away.

Overall the plot is pure fun, the characters interesting, dialogue witty without a bit of meanness. Brenda and Brian feel like real people – ghosts and shape changing aside – and interact with other real people. The villain is well done and creepy, and at the end we see enough of the other creeps to know there’s plenty of room for a sequel should Dolley choose.

Medium Dead is a fast read. I finished in one evening and got to bed early. Don’t think that it’s written in a juvenile style though. There aren’t a lot of big words or heavy historical allusions but it’s meant for adults.

I recommend Medium Dead. In fact, I just started another Dolley novel, Resonance. Always a happy event to find a new author!

Excellent and Not Just for Kids! The Paladin Prophecy Fantasy by Mark Frost

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I was up till 12:45 last night. Why? The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1 kept me up. Just a few more pages, just until we find out what’s going on.

This book could have been 539 pages of copy cat fiction, with a helping from number 4, mortal coil and a dose of harry potter. The plot uses Will, a teen hero who unexpectedly gets a perfect score on a standardized test and gets recruited for a special school. Sound familiar? Last month I read Diamond In My Pocket that had a similar starting point but dwindled to a mediocre YA fantasy. The Paladin Prophecy turns that on its head in the first 4 pages.

Will wakes up feeling a “queasy cocktail of impending doom” that takes on shape when he sees the dark sedans that seem to be chasing him on his way to school.  The book takes off from that.  We have a raft of interesting characters, including Will’s nutty roommate Nick, adults that may be just what they seem or not, a New Zealander that drives a souped up hot rod (and who happens to be dead), obnoxious bullies at school and of course other friends and roomies.

The Paladin Prophecy is listed as YA fiction but it’s not really. True, the main characters are teens and author Mark Frost glides past plot and background elements that adult novels may explore a bit. But the characters feel real and the underlying conflict is not for kids. Plus the dialogue, setting, people are richly done and the plot moves at 90 miles an hour. Which is how I found myself nearly done at 12:30 and staying up just a few more minutes to finish the ending.

You notice the “Book 1” in The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1. We ended with many loose ends:

  • Are the school headmaster, teachers and board part of the conspiracy?  Or are they good guys?  Or a mix?   The ending gives us very good reason to suspect the school is not on the side of the angels.
  • Why did Will’s roommates believe him almost at once?
  • What happened to Dave?
  • Who is “The Old Gentleman” and does he have a human analogue?
  • How did the roommates get their abilities and why?
  • Is the conspiracy really done?  (Of course not, but we need to find out!)

Book 2 is out now too, Alliance: The Paladin Prophecy Book 2, and from Amazon’s descriptions there will be at least one more.  I intend to get that one just as soon as possible!

Review: The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen

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I don’t know how to categorize The Girl Who Chased the Moon.  Is it fantasy?  Romance?  Coming of age?  It’s all of these.  Sarah Addison Allen also wrote The Sugar Queen and Garden Spells, both also hard to classify.

This is an excellent book, a fast read with memorable characters and just enough plot twists to keep it moving.

All of Ms.Allen’s books are set in southern small towns; all include characters who took a wrong turn somewhere and need to come back and fix it. And all include a dose of fantasy. The Girl Who Chased the Moon includes fantastical wallpaper that changes to match the moods of the girl who lives in the room. There are strange lights that glow on moonlit nights and a continuing sense of things being just a bit awry. Our characters work through the novel to reset those things.

One thing I love about her books is that they have happy endings. No, not everything is perfectly resolved and you can peek around the corner to see that Emily will have the usual high school senior moments, that Stella needs to find her center, that Sawyer and Julia have work to do. But the characters are happy. They found peace and mended the broken relationships.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon has four main characters, Julia and Sawyer, Emily and Win. They have tangled histories, connected through their families. The back stories are left shrouded until the end of the book although we see pieces earlier.

It is this history that must be untangled and set upright. The minor characters are excellent: Stella, Julia’s landlord and friend; Morgan, Win’s father, Vance, Emily’s very tall grandfather, Beverly who is Julia’s rapacious ex stepmother. All are important and all feel like real people. You end up caring about them as much (or more) as about the main characters.

Ms. Allen knows her small town South. She shows the sense of place that is so important to the characters. Not only the geographical place, but the place within the society, the relationships that follow generations. I have never lived in the south but I feel like I have after reading her novels.

I highly recommend The Girl Who Chased the Moon and give it Five Stars.

I got my copy from the library. You can purchase copies of The Girl Who Chased the Moon at Amazon and at Barnes and Nobleicon.  The links in the post go to Amazon and pay commission.