Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Foxmask

Book 1/12 (for me).

Foxmask by Juliet Marillier

This is actually the sequel to Wolfskin and is set in Orkneyjar (the Light Isles), but it focuses much less on the Norse tradition than the first book did. This continues the story of Nessa and Eyvind in the form of their daughter, Creidhe, as well as bringing closure to the mystery of Somerled's exile by introducing his unknown son, Thorvald.

The book opened with Thorvald being told the truth of his parentage, which had been kept from him for sixteen years. Determined to discover if his father was truly the monster everyone claimed, Thorvald set out with Sam (and Creidhe, who stowed away) to discover where Somerled had gone - if he had even survived his strange exile. Instead, the trio stumble upon the Lost Isles which are being tormented by an annual Hunt to retrieve Foxmask - an important seer and all that keeps the Unspoken Tribe from stealing the breath of every new babe born to the Long Knife People. Creidhe thought she was followng Thorvald out of love, but she ends up finding her one true love, as well as the secret of Foxmask.

As always, Ms. Marillier manages to weave beautiful settings that make the map in the front completely useless. Her characters are equal parts of good and bad (though Creidhe verged on being too good), and the plot closed the circle formed with the first book beautifully. The ending itself felt rushed to me, though, and it felt like there was a chapter missing. I haven't heard of a third book in the Children of the Light Isles series, which is kind of troubling. The book really does end with a cliff-hanger, even if the main plot is resolved, and the ending just doesn't match what I've seen her do before (particularly in the Sevenwaters Trilogy).

The book is wonderful, but the emotion felt less than in the Sevenwaters Trilogy. Creidhe's tale (on her own) was typical childhood romance, and you knew it would all end happily, which was kind of a disappointment. Creidhe isn't the strong female character Nessa was in the first book. The tale itself (and the inherent mythology) are, as always, wonderful. All in all, a good book. *-*

As you can see by my top count, I'm setting a goal of one book a month. I currently have 14 new books to read (all fantasy and science fiction), and I'd like to think I won't need an entire year to finish them. *-* Still, for now, I'm keeping the goal modest.
Posted by Andria :: 7:37 PM :: 0 comments

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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

To Marry The Duke

Book 8/52 (some how - if I keep this pace up I doubt I'll have any problem making that 52 books read goal)

To Marry the Duke by Julianne MacLean

An American heiress and a British Duke in need of money and attracted to the unique beauty gracing the London Ball rooms.

I liked this book, but it felt a bit stale in terms of plot. I've seen the basic story line done better by others, although this one was passable as proven by the fact that I actually read the whole thing.

It had promise in the beginning but then it started to feel like an older romance with the hero withdrawing and basically explaining nothing to the heroine as to why. There were scenes in here that could have been true tearjerkers but were not.

I suspect my love of tortured heroes allows me to see this story in a better light then others might. But, even then, the true nature of the Duke was never really explored either.

I enjoyed it to a point, but there were so many unfulfilled possibilities in this story... *sigh* I'll try the others in the series more than likely to see if she grows into her story ideas.

Posted by Amme :: 10:06 PM :: 0 comments

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Tuesday, January 24, 2006

books 6 & 7

These are going to be short and sweet today as I have tons to do but don't want to forget I've read these.


When A Texan Gambles by Jodi Thomas:

Yes, this author looks familiar. This is the second in the "Lottery" series by Thomas. I wrote about the first one a couple days ago. Here our heroine, Sarah, finds herself married to a stranger who gets knifed in the first town they stop in. She gets him out of town and nurses him back to health, or relative health. Over time she learns her husband is quite wealthy because he's a bounty hunter. This also means there are a lot of people in Texas looking for him. Over all a decent story, although I think I enjoyed the first one in the series better if only because there were aspects in this second story which were a bit two familiar to the first one.


The Pretender by Celeste Bradley:

First in her Liar's Club series about a group of spies in Regency England. I loved this book. But it contains the two elements that guarantee I'll like it: Regency setting and a tortured hero.

Both Agatha or Simon (our heroine and hero) tell quite a few lies in these story as Agatha is searching for her missing brother and so is Simon who thinks her brother is actually her lover and that he's turned traitor to England. I loved that the author did not take the typical route and make Agatha and Simon get completely affronted over the lies they've told each other. No, the true problem in this relationship is Simon's importance and duty to England vs. his love for Agatha. The solution is lovely and I can't wait to read the second in this series.

Posted by Amme :: 3:57 PM :: 0 comments

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Monday, January 23, 2006

Hard Day's Knight

Hard Day's Knight by Katie MacAlister


First let me say, Katie MacAlister is one of only a tiny handful of writers that I can tolerate to read in first person. I like third person for romances because you get to see both sides of the romance, but MacAlister writes so well in 1st person that the lack of another viewpoint is not noticeable at all.

This is a fun light read. Our heroine Pepper Marsh goes to a Renaissance Faire with her cousin looking for a man. She finds one - but not the one her cousin expected. Pepper focuses on Walker McPhail who has issues with jousting; a sport he had previously been the best in before some mysterious accident stopped him from competing.

Their relationship is complicated by his issues when he's forced to take up his jousting once more and hers of feeling left out of the search for who ever has targeted his team with "accidents".

The mystery portion isn't that much of a mystery but the interaction between the two of them is wonderful and makes this a great read.

This is book 5 of the 52 I hope to read during 2006
5/52

Posted by Amme :: 8:28 PM :: 0 comments

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Sunday, January 22, 2006

The Texan's Wager

Yes, another book already. I love having a couple days off in a row.

The Texan's Wager by Jodi Thomas is.... yep, you guessed it, a historical romance. Bailee and two other women find themselves kicked off the wagon train they were on and are forced to head into Texas with just their belongs, their wagon, and food for a couple weeks. They make it but run into a bit of trouble and end up in jail for killing a man. It's sad that this is really the most unbelievable portion of the story because I other than "the author needing them to" I could see no reason for them to head into the nearest town and confess to the murder. However, it's been a while since I've read a historical western romance so I continued on. Besides, the back of the book promised me a hero that didn't speak and that had me interested.

This is the first in a series -- I'll probably read the second one tomorrow -- so we have the basic set up of this "Lottery" where the women basically agree to marry the man who's name they pull out of a hat and the man pays their "fine" for killing the man. (Yes....doesn't make a lot of logical sense, does it?)

Bailee ends up with Carter McKoy who doesn't speak and is an outcast to the town. He comes in to sell his crops and pick up supplies and that's basically it. Carter is wonderful. His backstory is intense and his choice to be silent is intense. The instances when he actually speaks to Bailee are romantic in the sense that the reader gets that each word he says is showing his trust growing toward her.

My problem with this book is that a lot of the action and subplots serve only to maneuver Bailee and Carter into situations the author wanted them to be in. They did not serve to enhance the book and a few, like the beginning lottery, seem quite ridiculous.

However, the question I can't answer is --would I have found them so bad if I didn't look at the story with the eye of one who writes as well? I'm not sure. I suspect that lends to some of my annoyance with the story.

Overall, if you can gloss over the convenient plot events, it's a great story.

Posted by Amme :: 6:59 PM :: 0 comments

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Saturday, January 21, 2006

Fool For Love

Book Three in my quest to read at least 52 books this year is Fool for Love by Eloisa James.

Historical Romance, no big surprise there. You'll probably be seeing quite a lot of them from me over the year.


Our heroine is Lady Henrietta who has resigned herself to never marrying because she has the same condition her mother had which everyone blames for her dying during childbirth. However, after meeting Simon she goes home and indulges in a fit of fantasy by writing a love letter from him to her.

The letter makes an appearance to get the two together and their road to happiness is a rocky one when - you guessed it - Henrietta becomes pregnant despite their carefulness (and, no I don't consider that a spoiler because if you didn't see it coming shortly into the story...well, you probably don't read alot of romances!).

This is a good book, better than the last one I read by this author, even though it is pretty easy to see what is coming through out. Simon is one of the few gentleman described as a "dandy" that I've ever been able to genuinely like. :-)

A major subplot that takes up a good portion of the story deals with Esme, Simon's step aunt by marriage who is expecting a child and has to deal with her guilt over the death of her husband and her love for the man who might or might not be the father of the child she is carrying now.

Posted by Amme :: 9:07 PM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Third member

We have a third member for Musings whom I'll call Marium for short.

She'll be posting occasionally with the two of us already here in an effort to get a bit more reading in. :-)


Isn't it odd how reading is probably what got most of us into writing - and yet the more time spent writing seems to mean the less time spent reading?

Posted by Amme :: 3:21 PM :: 0 comments

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Sunday, January 15, 2006

Book #2 (Val)

I got to get on the ball with writing in here. I'm several books ahead of this post.

Anyway, Book #2 of 2006 was Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory. It is about a man who is invited to dinner with Jesus of Nazareth. It's an excellent, thought-provoking book. And it doesn't shy away from any of the hard questions, the things you'd want to ask if you were confronted with someone claiming to be Jesus.

I loved this book and then I read it to my husband who loved it too.

Posted by Val :: 8:55 PM :: 0 comments

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Thursday, January 12, 2006

Book #2 (sort of)

Read Nora Roberts's Going Home which is a collection of three books previously published by her many years ago.

Unfinished Business - a typical category romance about a woman returning home to re connect with her mother and finding herself still in love with her childhood sweet heart. No surprises here, just a nice sappy romance. (originally pub. 1992)

Island of Flowers - This one...actually feels more like something Diana Palmer would write with the young girl going to seek out her father and her father's partner who is very harsh and distant and tends to think the worst of the girl until the end. But, considering it was published in 1982 and a category romance, this is pretty much standard.

Mind Over Matter - Here we turn a bit toward the paranormal with a heroine who is an agent for her psychic mother. The hero wants to do a documentary about her mother and that leads us into conflict. Still pretty standard for category romances (published originally in 1987) but it shows Roberts's coming interest into paranormal matters.

I liked them all. I picked up the book because I was looking for a nice comfort read that wouldn't demand much of me and that's what I got. Unfinished Business was my favorite of the three.

Posted by Amme :: 8:46 PM :: 0 comments

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Hullo and Val's Book 1

Hi, I'm Val and Amme has kindly allowed me to join her on this blog. I was going to try to copy Lauren Baratz-Logsted's goal from last year and plan to read a book a day for the whole of 2006. 365 new books. It is now the 10th of January and I just finished book #4. So, I might have bit off a bit more than I can chew, even though I do read fast. *shrug* Oh well, I'll just keep plugging along.

And I'll say that if I hadn't made True Believer by Nicholas Sparks my first book, I'd probably be a lot further along. I'm not a big Sparks fan to start off with, but I trade books with a couple girl friends of mine and one of them is a huge fan.

I find his books fairly slow (I've read The Notebook, The Wedding, and A Walk to Remember), but they do tap some kind of emotional sweet-spot, so I read them through. At least, the other three (which were all written in first person) did.

I never got into True Believer and I'm pretty mad that I spent so much time fighting my way through the book. I should have just gone with my first instinct and put it down. I tried to read the sequel, At First Sight, but I put it down and vowed never to read it after I read the prologue and found a very familiar sentence. It was the same sentence as in the prologue of A Walk to Remember, except this one was in third person (the sentence was about wishing they could turn back the clock and erase the sadness, but then that would erase the joy too). Anyway, that killed it for me since I didn't care about the characters at all anyway.

Sorry my first entry was such a downer. The next three books I read (the first three of a six book series) were fantastic, but more about them tomorrow.

Posted by Val :: 9:15 PM :: 1 comments

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Monday, January 09, 2006

Welcoming a new poster

A big welcome for ValMarie to Musings on the Written Word!

She will be posting along with me here about the books she reads during the year.

Not sure if she has a specific goal in terms of amount to read - but I'm sure she'll let us know if that is the case.

Either way, I'm looking forward to reading her posts. :-)

Posted by Amme :: 10:42 PM :: 0 comments

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Sunday, January 08, 2006

#1 - To Love an Earl

This is actually a re-read although I barely remember the story itself. Originally published in 1988, To Love an Earl by Elizabeth Thornton has one of the classic trademarks of that period which is now looked upon with disgust (and really, it should be). The forceful man who pretty much rapes the heroine (for her own good of course) because once they've had sex he thinks she'll fall madly in love with him. Of course she doesn't, but I can't feel too sorry for heroine. Deirdre is one of those annoying heroines that never seem to grow until the last page or so of the book and her actions directly result in some of the hero's worst behavior.

There are redeeming qualities in this book. The story starts out with us realizing that the Earl is pretty much in love with Deirdre already and has been for years. This is new, but unfortunately leaves the author, in my opinion, coming up with more and more stupid behavior for her heroine to indulge in to keep either of them from admitting their feelings. Which is a shame because Gareth Cavanaugh, Earl of Rathbourne, had the potential to be a great hero. It was the undeserving heroine who pretty much ruined the book for me.

This is not a good example of Thornton's books for she does much better in other stories, but it is interesting to read to see what not to do in a romance story.

Posted by Amme :: 6:38 PM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- 2006 Plans

My plan is to read at least 52 books this year - one each week.

So far, so good.


My secret plan is to read even more than that.
We'll see how it goes.

Posted by Amme :: 6:22 PM :: 0 comments

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