More Books than Time

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

What the Lady Wants, Romance Romantic Novel Jennifer Crusie

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What the Lady Wants is a light romance, cute with some funny moments. The hero is a private detective who helps his client Mae solve a murder, find a diary and fall in love.

I am on a bit of a Jennifer Crusie kick right now. I read a couple of hers and enjoyed them enough to look for more.  I found this one at the library. It’s the lightest of the three I’ve read so far, all fluff. Cute fluff, funny fluff, but fluff. I prefer books that have a little bit of meat to them. This a Harlequin romance, so we’re not looking at War and Peace, but…

It’s cute and a very fast read; at 155 pages we’re talking an early evening. There are some explicit sex scenes (it is a Harlequin after all) and some good dialogue.

Three stars.

Here are my reviews of her previous books.

Anyone But You review is:  Anyone But You, Romance Novel by Jennifer Crusie Romantic Comedy

The Cinderella Deal review is:  The Cinderella Deal, Romantic Comedy by Jennifer Crusie

The Monstrumologist, Rick Yancey, YA Fantasy Fiction Review

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I liked Rick Yancey’s Alfred Kropp series so much I looked for more books he wrote. The Monstrumologist was disappointing. I could not get past about page 40.

Maybe I started The Monstrumologist with my expectations set too high after the Alfred Kropp series. Or maybe it simply just is not as good as the Alfred Kropp books.

I could not get interested in the main character, Will Henry, nor did the plot or style interest me. I did not finish The Monstrumologist and cannot recommend it.

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Another Pan, Dark Fantasy Fiction Review, Daniel Dina Nayeri

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I enjoyed Another Faust and quickly checked out the second book by authors Daniel and Dina Nayeri, Another Pan.

Maybe I should have waited a bit to read Another Pan. It was interesting and enjoyable until about halfway through, then it got boring and tedious. I finished it only because the prior book was so good that I kept hoping Another Pan would reach its potential.

Sadly, it never did. The characters and premise were interesting, a play on the Peter Pan story with backdrop of the female demon Legion from Another Faust. The book brought in Egyptian legends, teen girl infatuation, young teen nerd-kid angst along with a heartless, selfish Peter.

I suppose there are girls who could remain infatuated with a young man even after they learn he is actually 80 years old, but I think most 15 year old girls would be repelled by the idea. And sure, there are many nerd boys who are so desperate to be accepted that they could toad eat a gang of older boys, even after realizing they are a gang of criminals.  But both?  At the same time?  And even while they are offered friendship by one of the most popular boys in school?

I also got tired of the repetitive “bitterness” that the Egyptian legendary characters were supposed to have felt.  Lots of people face similar evils and tragedy.   It was hard to believe that only these five individuals died with so much bitterness and were mummified that their very bones could defeat death.

The premise and characters just didn’t work for me. I give this 2 stars.

You can read my review of Another Faust here:

Another Faust Book Review Dark Fantasy Fiction Daniel Dina Nayeri

Barely OK: Witch and Wizard Fantasy YA Fiction, Magic, Dystopian

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Witch and Wizard by James Patterson combines magic with a frightening future. The heroes are Wisty and Whit, both 15.

Witch and Wizard has gotten good reviews and has been well-marketed. The Science Fiction Book Club offered it in hardback. However, this is one YA fantasy that is best enjoyed by younger teens, not adults.  There isn’t any substance or meat to the plot, characters, setting or dialogue.  Think of this book as eating cotton candy at the fair; OK while you’re in the middle but when you finish you wonder why you bothered.

I found the book good enough to finish, but not good enough that I care to read the sequels. For one thing, you know right from the first page that there will be sequels. How many books begin with the main characters tied up and ready to hang? You then spend the next 200+ pages reading how Whit and Wisty and their parents got to that point, or at least far enough towards it that the author could bring the book to a cliff hanger ending.

The dialogue is silly, banal and ridiculous. The characters don’t seem like real kids and the villain is an amalgamation of Lord Voldemart with Emperor Palpatine. It’s not enough fun that you can ignore the fake conflicts, ridiculous plot and tepid characters.

I’ll give it two stars just because it is a fast read that didn’t waste too much time.

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth YA Fantasy Fiction Zombies

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a popular dystopia set in a post zombie apocalypse world.  The book started out interesting and I found myself almost caring for the characters, but about a quarter through it suddenly went flat.  I lost interest and had to force myself to read further.

I ended up skimming through the last half or so.  I was curious how it ended but not engaged enough to waste more time reading.  The main character, Mary, didn’t make a lot of sense to me.  She didn’t seem to know what she wanted; true, many people never learn that.  But in a book we expect the characters to somehow deal with this.  Mary did not.

The other thing that was just plain stupid was that the world outside the small community was overrun with zombies.  Yet the Sisterhood claimed that no one else existed beyond their small group.  That makes no sense.  If the only source for new zombies was the small contingent inside the community, then how did the zombies outside continue or even increase in number so many years after the apocalypse?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is being made into a movie and there are sequels. I did not care for the book, but many readers love it. It may appeal to girls in the 15-20 age group.

1 Star.

Review: Dragon’s Bait YA Fantasy, False Accusations, Dragons, Vivian Vande Velde

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Dragon’s Bait by Vivian Vande Velde is listed for 12 year olds and may appeal to the pre-teen and young teen girls because the protagonist Alys is the well-meaning victim of her greedy neighbors.  The neighbors accuse her of witchcraft, find a corrupt priest to find her guilty and soon she is tied to a stake for the dragon to devour.

Of course Alys is innocent and the dragon is Selendrile, a young dragon able to change into a young man who is willing to help her get revenge.  Selendrile first sounds like he’s ambivalent about revenge, but he soon takes charge of Alys and her quest.  The book has a couple interesting moments, and occasional hints of humor such as when Alys and Selendrile reach the town to deal with the churchman judge who condemned Alys.

Overall I did not like this.  It was understandable that Alys would like to reclaim her place, but that she would try to get her neighbor’s daughter condemned as a witch for revenge was far-fetched.  Really?  Alys is suffering since she now has no home and no real chance to establish herself.  But to try and make someone else suffer the same way?  Why would we want to read about someone this mean and selfish?

If nothing else the complete lack of a moral dilemma made this book ring hollow to me.  I read the whole thing in a short evening and finished it feeling more and more distaste for Alys, Selendrile and all the other characters.  They were not interesting and did not feel like real people, and were all one dimensional, nasty, the sort you feel the author ordered from the local character-take-out-joint.

The dialogue was boring, poorly done, stilted.  The dragon Selendrile has no motivation to help Alys and at the end of the book, when he offers to take Alys to his home, we simply are lost.  There is no reason, no future, and frankly, I did not care.

I do not recommend this.  The reviewers on Amazon gave this high marks, but I cannot rate it above a 2 out of 5.

Couldn’t Finish These – Den of Thieves and Taming Fire – Fantasy Novels

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Have you ever had a book that you know is supposed to be good but you just can’t get into it?  These two books both came up in Amazon’s “Customers who bought this item also bought” which works for me about half the time.  Sadly these two both fell in the “didn’t work” half.

Den of Thieves: The Ancient Blades Trilogy: Book One struck me as trite. The main character is a thief in a city where thieves are executed and set in a land where a poor man is fair game for enslavement.

We all know how these books go, don’t we: Boy steals something he shouldn’t which kicks off a series of adventures and misadventures. That’s the plot here. I could see that the book could be good if I were able to get into it or was more in the mood. Or something.

Maybe part of the trouble is this is the first book in a trilogy. Sometimes authors take way too long to set up the story. All I know is I got to about page 50 and took it back to the library.

The second book, Taming Fire (The Dragonprince Trilogy, Vol. 1), has a more unusual premise and parts were quite good. The hero is the son of a now-dead thief, who hired himself as a shepherd to a noble. He taught himself to use a sword and knows a few small magics. A wizard finds him and takes him to the academy.

Yes this book has more promise and was far more interesting. Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll keep this one home a few more days and try once more to get past page 20.

Update:  Nope, still couldn’t get into Taming Fire.

Having a Hard Time Reading This One – Emperor Mollusk Vs. The Sinister Brain

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I love science fiction. And I enjoy silly stories sometimes. This book, Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain, by A. Lee Martinez ought to be perfect.

But I’m having a hard time staying with this one. My Science Fiction Book Club listed this and since I’m basically cheap, I got this from the Michigan E library Melcat. It’s a short book at 300 pages and plenty of white space, but so far I’ve only made it to page 60.

Sometimes books take a while to get into. You know the ones I mean, they start slow or the first few characters on stage are obnoxious and you just don’t care. Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain started out ok, with a couple fun scenes, but it’s still slow.

I’ll keep at this for at least another 30 pages or so. But if it’s still unappealing after 100 pages count me out!

 

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