CBR2 Book 36: "The Dead Travel Fast" by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira
Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 17th, 2010
Date finished: March 18th, 2010

I absolutely adore Deanna Raybourn's three previous books: Silent in the Grave, Silent in the Sanctuary and Silent on the Moor. They are Victorian mystery novels with a romantic subplot, and delight me immensely. So when I heard that Raybourn had a completely stand-alone book out, inspired by Gothic novels and set in Transylvania, I had to put it on my pre-order list immediately.

The book arrived about a week back, and I'm assuming the big-busted lady on the cover is supposed to be the heroine, Theodora. When her grandfather dies, Theodora Lestrange saves her brother-in-law the trouble of having to decide what to do with his spinster, authoress sister-in-law by declaring that she will travel to Transylvania, to attend the wedding of her old school-friend Cosmina. Theodora has written some mystery stories and made a bit of money, and is sure that the evocative surroundings of her friend's exotic home will be the perfect place to write her full-length novel. She ignores the protests of her sister, brother-in-law and publisher/would-be fiance, packs up her meager belongings, and leaves Edinburgh to set off on her adventure.

Theodora's friend Cosmina is a poor relative of the Draculescu family, and was sent to school in Germany by her kindly aunt. Once Theodora arrives in Transylvania, she discovers that the Draculescus live in an imposing castle, towering on an inaccessible cliff. She is welcomed by an overjoyed Cosmina, the sickly, but benevolent Dowager Countess and the Count Dragulescu himself, Cosmina's intended. Theodora is instantly drawn to the handsome and imperious Count, but tries to ignore her attraction, as he is to be married to her friend. She is determined she will only observe him to use him to model a character in her novel. But when it is revealed, shortly after her arrival that the Count and Cosmina are not getting married after all, Theodora has a difficult time staying away from him.

Transylvania is a place full of ghost stories and superstitions. It is believed that several of the men of the village run off and become wolves in the woods around the full moon. There are whispered rumours about strigoi, or vampires, who haunt the Draculescu castle. Theodora is a practical and pragmatic person, who at first refuses to believe in the stories, but when a maid servant is found in the castle, with puncture wounds on her breast, apparently drained of blood, events start to take a more sinister turn, and it becomes more difficult for her to disbelieve the fantastic tales. The Count is mysterious, pale, brooding and mostly nocturnal. Could he really be a vampire?

While The Dead Travel Fast was an enjoyable read, it did not quite live up to the expectations I had, created because of the excellence of Raybourn's previous three novels. It was nice to read a self-contained story, though, which comes to a definite end - no pesky year-long waits for sequels. Theodora is a good protagonist, well-educated thanks to her scholar grandfather, determined to make her own way in the world with her writing, yet not anachronistically free-spirited or forward-thinking for her time, as is sometimes the case with historical heroines.

The book is told in first person, meaning we never get to see Andrei (the Count), or any of the other characters' points of view. It helps keep the events more mysterious and suspenseful, but does mean the reader does not really get a very good insight into why Andrei should be so very attractive to Theodora, or why we should care about whether she will end up with him in the end, unsuitably matched though they may be. I didn't dislike the book, and think it's nice when author's occasionally try to go different ways in their writing, but would like Ms. Raybourn to hurry up and write/publish the fourth Lady Julia/Brisbane book soon, now, please.

CBR2 Book 35: "Impossible" by Nancy Werlin

Publisher: Speak
Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: March 16th, 2010
Date finished: March 16, 2010

Impossible is a modern fairy tale, inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song Scarborough Fair. Lucinda "Lucy" Scarborough has grown up with loving and supportive foster parents, ever since her mother became stark raving mad shortly after giving birth to her, only 18 years old. When she goes to prom, her date is sweet and attentive, and per her parents' request, sober all evening. Yet at the end of the night, he rapes Lucy, gets in his car and drives into a tree, dying as a result. Lucy is afraid to tell anyone that he looked as if he were possessed when he assaulted her.

Only her foster parents and Zach, the boy from down the street who's been around her whole life, but who now stays with them, knows the truth about what happened to her on prom night. About a month after prom, it becomes obvious that Lucy is pregnant, even though she took the morning-after pill. Zach finds her mother's journal, written in the months before Lucy was born, and it seems to support what Lucy's foster parents always said, that Miranda (Lucy's mother) was not crazy before she gave birth. Miranda writes about a curse. She says that all the Scarborough girls are cursed. They get pregnant and give birth to daughters when they are 18, and unless they manage to break the curse, they go mad when the baby is born. All because long in the past, a girl named Fenella Scarborough rejected an Elfin Knight.

Miranda taught Lucy's foster parents a special version of Scarborough Fair, completely different from the Simon and Garfunkel song. Recalling an incident from her childhood, Lucy opens a hidden panel in her bookshelf, and finds a letter from her mother, outlining the curse, and how to break it. Lucy and Zach want to believe that Miranda was already mad when she wrote the letter to her unborn child, but once some research reveals that at least four generations of Scarborough women all gave birth at age 18, and then went insane, it seems like her story is scarily plausible.

To break the curse, Lucy will have to complete three tasks. She has to create a shirt with no seam, using no needle. She has to find an acre of land between the sea and the land, and plow it using only a goat's horn, then seed the whole acre with just one grain of corn. Unless she does this before her child is born, she is doomed to madness like all the Scarborough women before her. Soledad, Lucy's foster mother, remembers Miranda asking her about how one would go about making the shirt. While the entire family are convinced it's a little crazy, they throw themselves into the task of solving the riddles and completing the tasks to save Lucy and her baby. But the Elfin Knight does not play a fair game, and tries to throw obstacles in their way. In the end, only true love will save Lucy.

Impossible is a very well written book, and the story unfurls gradually, revealing to Lucy that her tragically insane mother that appears in her life at inconvenient moments is only trying to protect her and give her the chance no one else in their long line of doomed ancestors has had. In her journal and letters to the unborn Lucy, she has tried to put as much advice as she can, desperately hoping that the family curse be broken. Lucy has a limited time to deal with her magical tasks, as well as having to cope with a teen pregnancy resulting from rape.

Lucy is a sensible and pragmatic girl, who really doesn't want to believe what is happening to her until the evidence is irrefutable. She is a very engaging protagonist, and faces up to both the mundane and the supernatural challenges in a very believable way. She has the support and help of her very likable foster parents, her best friend from school, and most importantly, Zach. He initially blames himself for what happened to her at prom, as he had promised her parents to pick her up, but arrived just a little bit too late. Later, he realizes there would have been nothing he could have done to prevent her getting pregnant, but is determined to do everything he can to be there for Lucy during her pregnancy and beyond.

The plot's suspense increases gradually, as the end of Lucy's pregnancy nears its end. The fact that the sinister Elfin Knight makes his appearance occasionally, and that he has insinuated himself into her family's life without them knowing his true identity also adds to the tension. While not the best "evil faerie" story I have read, it was compelling enough that I finished it in one day, and put aside pretty much everything I needed to do so I could read it.

CBR2 Book 34: "Succubi Like It Hot" by Jill Myles

Publisher: Pocket Star
Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 14th, 2010
Date finished: March 15th, 2010

Jackie Brighton has a promising new job as an archeologist, and has come to terms with the Itch (the desperate need all succubi get to have sex every other day or so) because she has two gorgeous men with which to soothe said sex cravings. Then things start getting messy. Noah refuses to share her with Zane, and claims he wants them to not see each other until she makes up her mind. Someone has put a curse on her, meaning that the Itch comes every day instead of every other, and she can put a human in a coma by just touching them. She needs to get to New Orleans to talk to Delilah, a succubus who is also a voodoo priestess.

Remy has a new porn movie to promote, so suggests they take a road trip. Jackie is upset that Noah won't speak to her, but persuades Zane to come along, as she still refuses to have sex with anyone she doesn't have feelings for (unlike Remy, who will grab any guy who is conveniently nearby). Then Zane discovers that she's cursed and leaves her stranded at a rest stop. Remy keeps being intermittently possessed and craving blood (due to events at the end of the last book) and then people start turning up dead around them.

Jackie is a lot less annoying in this book, possibly because she isn't quite as painfully gullible this time around. Towards the end of the book, she even gets of of a fairly nasty situation all by herself, showing quick thinking and ingenuity. There is more development of the secondary characters, especially Noah, who becomes a lot more interested in helping Jackie once Zane has vanished. Of course, Zane is not as callous and selfish as it first seems (as he'd make a rubbish third in a love triangle if he was). I generally liked Succubi Like It Hot a lot more than the first book, and am now looking forward to checking out the third book in the series.

CBR2 Book 33: "Gentlemen Prefer Succubi" by Jill Myles

Publisher: Pocket Star
Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 12th, 2010
Date finished: March 13th, 2010

I was seriously debating whether to put the cover of this one up on my blog, as it is one of the most blatant examples of mantitty (TM Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) in my entire book collection. But it is only the second book I have won ever, and the first that I've won online, and I did actually promise the author (who arranged the contest) that I would review it here. And since I'm really quite OCD when it comes to sticking to the pattern I've established for the blog, I couldn't post about the book without the cover, so here you go. Mantitty in all its glory.

Jacqueline Brighton wakes up in a dumpster, and a tramp stole her handbag, claiming she was clearly dead, so it wasn't like she was going to be needing it. She appears to have lost an entire 24 hours, and has only very hazy memories of the night before her blackout. There is blood on her neck and spaghetti in her hair. Then she runs into a drop dead gorgeous guy, who seems to know her, and offers to buy her breakfast even though she is covered in dumpster debris. In flashes of memory, Jackie then remembers that she and Noah, who the hunky guy introduces himself as, had a very steamy date just before she blacked out. She accuses him of drugging her and dumping her after their date, but he explains that her life as she knows it (as a chubby, ever-dieting museum guide) will never be the same. The tramp was right. Jackie was dead. Now she is a succubus.

Noah explains that he is a fallen angel, and that Jackie probably ran into a vampire who drained her close to death before they hooked up. Apparently succubi are created if a vampire nearly kills a woman, and she then has sex with an angel. Jackie thinks Noah is crazy, but is persuaded to take his business card just in case. Within 24 hours of waking in the dumpster, she has lost 10 dress sizes, gained 2 cup sizes, her formerly mousy hair is a long, luxurious mane of red right out of a shampoo advert, and she desperately craves sex. She nearly assaults her doorman, before calling Noah for help.

He brings the only other succubus in town (who works as a porn star) to help her, and Jackie, who previously led a quiet and lonely life, is shocked to discover that she has to have sex every 2 days or she'll wither away and die. Apart from that, she's practically immortal. Soon Jackie has pissed off her boss who thinks she took time off to have breast implants, promised a non-fallen angel a small favour, which leads to Noah being taken hostage by the queen of the vampires. To save him, Jackie has to go on a quest for a legendary halo, accompanied by her new succubus friend Remy and the charmingly roguish Zane, who she is starting to suspect is the vampire who bit her in the first place. Being a succubus is much more complicated than Jackie was first led to believe.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't have read Jill Myles' book if I hadn't won it, as she shares a blog with several authors whose books I greatly enjoy, and sooner or later I probably would have been curious enough to order it. I enjoyed it, but was a bit exasperated by just how naive and gullible Jackie is for most of the books. She really does cause a lot of her own problems, and I kept wanting to slap some sense into her. She's not quite TSTL (too stupid to live), but fell for the most obvious ploys I could see coming a mile away, and kept being surprised when they were traps. In a first-person narrative, the protagonist's stupidity is a flaw.

Still, the supporting cast are very enjoyable. Noah and Zane are both very gorgeous in each of their vastly contrasting of each other ways. Remy is a lot of fun, and can't understand why Jackie doesn't just embrace a life of vicarious promiscuity like she has. And while Jackie annoyed me, I did like the book enough to go out and get the sequel.

CBR2 Book 32: "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson

Publisher: Penguin Books
Page count: 270 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: March 1st, 2010
Date finished: March 8th, 2010

My review of Mother Tongue, (the American title appears to be The Mother Tongue) or proof to any readers who may have doubted that I read anything but paranormal fantasy and/or romance, that I do indeed, on occasion, read other stuff as well.

Bill Bryson writes not only non-fantasy and/or romance, but non-fiction. I have read several of his travelogues, and his musings on living in the U.K., the U.S. and was greatly entertained. As a language teacher and an eager student of languages myself, I honestly don't know why it took me so long to pick up his book about the English language, which is just as well written as the other books by him I have read. In Mother Tongue he covers most aspects of the English language, from the emergence of various Indo-European languages, to speculations on where and how English will evolve in the future.

I teach English as a foreign language to secondary school pupils (age 13-15). Many of them come from a large variety of ethnic backgrounds, but seem to find many of the same things very difficult when attempting to learn to read, speak and write English. In Bryson's book, he explores exactly why foreigners might and (probably should) find English such a difficult language to learn, as it is probably the most vocabulary-rich language used in the world today, and there is scarcely a word that cannot hold more than one meaning. Add to that the fact that many names, places and words are pronounced wildly differently from the way they are spelled, and that spelling itself can vary depending on whether you use British English or American English.

There's a fascinating chapter on the origin of words, which emphasized what I already know, that English will happily borrow and assimilate words from pretty much any language it encounters and make them part of an ever-increasing vocabulary, but also that many words that we use today originate from common misspellings, or were simply invented by clever people, like Shakespeare. I was, quite frankly baffled by how many words and expressions that are quite commonplace today were first used by Shakespeare. To mention a few: barefaced, critical, monumental, majestic, obscene, radiance, countless, excellent, hint, hurry and excellent. A quick search on the internet provides tons more. I always knew Shakespeare was a genius, but never realized how bland and colourless the language would probably be without him.

The chapters on spelling and pronounciation were probably not the most entertaining, but there are chapters on English names, on swearing in a variety of languages, on variations of English all over the world that not only really interested me, but taught me something new. I now need to figure out how to simplify some of Bryson's language a bit, in order to be able to use all the things I've learned in my own teaching.

CBR22 Book 31: "Something About You" by Julie James

Publisher: Berkley
Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Date begun: March 3rd, 2010
Date finished: March 4th, 2010

Cameron Lynde is an Assistant D.A. in Chicago, and spends the night in a hotel while she has her hardwood floors redone. In the room next door, a couple appear to be having a marathon sex session, and as the walls are thin, she finally calls the management to have the situation dealt with. Just before hotel security arrive, she sees a man walking past her hotel room door and assumes the problem is solved. But her problems are just beginning. Hotel security finds a dead escort in the room, and the man she had the prolonged lovemaking with, is a married U.S senator. He is also, coincidentally, clearly not the man Cameron saw walking past her door.

Suddenly a key witness in a high-profile murder case, Cameron is less than thrilled to realize that the F.B.I agent in charge of investigating the case is Jack Pallas, the man who blames her for ruining his career three years earlier. He doesn't know that Cameron actually saved him from being fired, instead of just relocated, after he said some really unfortunate things about her on national TV. But even though he is furious to see her again, he is not about to let anything happen to his witness, and will do anything to make sure she is kept safe.

I don't tend to read a lot of contemporary romance, but had read several very glowing reviews of this on other review sites, and was so happy to discover that all told the truth - this book is greatly enjoyable, and feature a hero and a heroine who are both intelligent, reasonable, very good at their jobs and who communicate clearly and openly with each other. Their dialogue, from the first very tense scenes together, until the end, when their relationship has obviously changed, sparkles and is reminiscent of old-style romantic comedies.

The secondary characters are all great too, from Jack's younger partner, to the policemen on duty guarding Cameron, to her two best friends, one of whom just happens to be gay, but who's also a sports writer and blissfully un-stereotypical. There is no murder mystery, as it is revealed fairly early on who actually killed the victim, and why, and there is also, thankfully, no psycho internal monologue about the killer's motivations for the murder. Some of the reviews I read felt that the ending of the book dragged on a bit, but I didn't really mind, and will absolutely be looking out for more books by Julie James in the future.

Re-read: "Welcome to Temptation" by Jennifer Crusie

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Page count: 416 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Re-read started: February 27th, 2010
Re-read finished: February 27th, 2010

Eagle-eyed readers may notice that I re-read this book all in one day. The first time I read it, on holiday in Russia this summer, it took me a whole two days, but then I was busy exploring St. Petersburg for the most part, and didn't have the luxury of doing hardly anything but reading for a whole day.

Sophie Dempsey comes from a long line of con-men and hustlers. Her father's one, her brother's one, her sister isn't exactly innocent. Yet Sophie just wants to stay out of trouble, and keep her family safe. She is perfectly content making wedding videos when her sister drags her to the little town of Temptation, Ohio to film an audition tape for her brother's faded movie starlet ex-girlfriend. They're only going to be in town for a week, making what Sophie thinks is a perfectly innocent little movie.

Phineas T. Tucker is the mayor of Temptation, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him. He hates being mayor of the dusty little town, but has to live up to the family legacy. As if his life wasn't difficult enough being a single dad with a controlling mother, now he has to deal with a film crew coming to town, and the rumours that they are shooting a porn movie. Sparks fly the first time he and Sophie meet, and they just keep getting hotter each time they run into each other, and the more complicated things get.

Nothing much ever happens in Temptation, but soon Sophie and Phin have to deal with porn allegations, a murdered anchorman with at least a dozen people likely to have wanted to kill him, an unfortunately phallic water tower, various murder attempts, pool, softball, Dusty Springfield and very ugly wallpaper.

I love this book. I really do. It's funny, well plotted, and has an intensely likable cast of characters, including a delightful and not at all annoying little girl. It quotes The Princess Bride, which a sure-fire way to charm me. The romance is completely convincing, the various families portrayed are utterly believable and most important of all, the book delights me and makes me all fuzzy inside when I've finished reading it. A wonderful way to spend a day.