CBR14 Book 30: "Be the Serpent" by Seanan McGuire

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR14 Bingo: Series (this is book 16 in an ongoing series, do NOT start here). 

Spoiler warning! This is book 16 in the series. It's impossible to review the book without referring to events in earlier books, so if you want to remain completely unspoiled, skip this one. I'll try to avoid any big spoilers for this book.

October "Toby" Daye not only survived her wedding, but so did her husband, Tybalt, King of Cats, and all her friends and found family as well. She and Tybalt get to enjoy a brief period of wedded bliss before trouble comes calling once more. Rayselline Torquill is about to be woken from her elf-shot-induced sleep, and there are a lot of faeries who have a score to settle with the unstable young elf woman, including Toby, whose boyfriend died because of Raysel's actions. However, time (and a new husband) heals a lot of wounds, and Toby wants to make peace and for Rayselline to have somewhere safe to recover, so she shows up and demands service for a year and a day from the newly awakened woman (so that Rayselline can seek refuge in Toby's house rather than return to  old home and her parents' expectations and worries). 

While at court, it becomes very obvious that something very bad is happening or soon to happen to one of Toby's best friend's family. Stacy Brown is one of the changelings that Toby grew up with and part of her large and self-created family. For reasons no one entirely understands, Stacy and her husband Mitch (also a changeling) have several children who seem to be clairvoyant in some way. Two of them are at court with Toby, and both have horrifying visions at the same time. Something is threatening Toby's friend, and it turns out to involve very old and unpredictable magic. The honeymoon is most certainly over, and while Toby is brave and heroic and has faced a lot of dangers in the past, it seems unlikely that she'll get through this adventure without suffering some truly staggering losses.

In a long-running series like this (how is this already book 17? How long have I actually been reading these books?), there are some books that are more "adventure of the week" and some that focus on major events that shake up the whole series. From her author's notes, it's clear that McGuire has had a lot of things for this series planned from the very beginning, and keeps portioning out these huge plot changers with care. Now, after a few books where we've been building up towards Toby's wedding, McGuire now unveils another of her really big continuity events, and this one brings with it some pretty staggering losses for our heroine and her friends. So while there was a happy ending to the last book, be prepared for the fact that some bad sh*t goes down in this one and the ending especially is quite the mind f*ck. 

During the last few books, some of the big bads making existence difficult for Toby and her crew have either been neutralised or have made peace with her, so it makes sense from a storytelling perspective that some new (or possibly very old) enemies were introduced instead. The revelations in this book certainly open up for taking the series in some intriguing directions. These books still remain a high point of my reading calendar each year, and I'm always looking forward to a new installment. It helps that McGuire releases a new one every September. In contrast, after book 16 and 17 of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files (which the readers had to wait more than six years for) I find that I'm rather bored of that world, and unsure of whether I'm actually going to continue when the next book eventually comes out. 

I can absolutely understand that a new reader could be a bit intimidated by the many books in the series and the fact that McGuire seems to have quite a few books left before she's done telling her story. With my current mental headspace, I don't think I'd embark on a similarly long series now. However, I've been a fan of these for books for over a decade and each new book feels like reuniting with old friends. I'd keep reading even if this book hadn't ended on a fairly big cliff hanger (which it does). Outside of the books of Ilona Andrews, these are my favourites. 

Judging a book by its cover: Whoever is responsible for the covers for the last few October Daye books is doing excellent work. As paranormal fantasy covers go, these are among the best out there. I really like seeing Toby in full defender mode. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 107: "Once Broken Faith" by Seanan McGuire

Page count: 420 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is book ten in an ongoing series, and as such, REALLY not the place to start. While my review may not have too many spoilers about earlier books in the series, there is a whole lot of history in the books before that is required for this book to be fully satisfying to a reader. Start at the beginning with Rosemary and Rue. 

After changeling knight and sometime champion of the realm, October "Toby" Daye's adventures in the Kingdom of the Silences, there is now an actual functional cure for elf shot (poison arrows that make a pureblood fae sleep for a hundred years). Queen Arden Windermere pops up unexpectedly while Toby is hosting a slumber party for the various teens in her life. Arden wants Toby to be there while the elf shot cure is administered to the queen's seneschal, as well as her brother, both struck down by her enemies. It needs to be done before the High King can show up and forbid them to use the cure. As it happens, they manage to wake one of two, before High King Aethlin Sollys arrives and postpones any further awakenings until they've had a big conclave, discussing whether the cure should be allowed, or buried forever.

Toby is ordered to appear at the conclave and is none too pleased about it. With so many different faerie rulers and high powered dignitaries in one place, it is important that Tybalt assert himself fully as the independent and aloof King of the Court of Dreaming Cats. As the Court of Cats doesn't swear fealty to anyone, even the High King, Tybalt can't really associate publicly with Toby, a knight to with a very set allegiance to the Divided Courts. The enforced distance hurts and unnerves them both.

As well as more faerie royals in one place for over a generation, the conclave is attended by the oldest of the Firstborn, the Sea Witch herself (and Toby's aunt), the Luidaeg. She intends to bear witness to proceedings and brings along Karen, Toby's honorary niece, an oneiromancer (she can walk in and interpret the dreams of others). She's been tasked with speaking the opinions of Evening Winterrose, Toby's nemesis, and the original inventor of elf shot. While Evening herself is sleeping through a hundred years after being elf shot herself, she wants to make sure that her case is heard at the conclave and has no qualms about emotionally blackmailing a vulnerable teenage girl to enable it.

What initially seems to be likely to be a boring few days of pureblood faeries yelling at each other, turns a lot more sinister when one of the kings are murdered and the Duchess of Saltmist is unexpectedly elf shot in her quarters. As always, when Toby starts investigating, things get bloody and fraught with several near-death experiences, taking turns for the very bad before getting better again.

With Toby being almost invincible because of the gifts inherited from her mother, it seems as if Seanan McGuire needs to come up with new and horrific ways in which to injure our intrepid protagonist. While I'm not sure anything can top the book where she was disemboweled more than once (!), the pain and horror Toby has to suffer in this book is still pretty gruesome.

Being close to Toby is always dangerous and the people out to cause havoc will happily target those nearest and dearest to her if it means taking her out of the game, even temporarily. As I adore all of Toby's little found family and neither of them have the near-immortality that she does, I was absolutely terrified for a while when things were at their darkest in this. No matter how much I've enjoyed this series, and how much I look forward to each new instalment, there are some character deaths that will make me drop the series immediately, should they occur. Not only that, I will never read any of the other series she's written either. I can be deeply unforgiving if crossed.

Luckily, to my deep relief, I did not have to make this decision now, and hope I won't have to do so in future either. This is the tenth book in the series, and it seems from the preface that Ms McGuire has no intention of ending the series any time soon. As I love spending time with Toby, Tybalt, May, Quentin, Raj, Sylvester and the Luidaeg, I'm quite happy to follow wherever the story takes me next.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't know who the cover artist who makes these for Seanan McGuire is, but whoever it is, they are very good at their job. As always, Toby is featured front and centre, here in a clear defencive pose (which considering the events of the books is probably wise). There's nothing to get too excited about on this, but considering the awfulness of a lot of paranormal covers, this is still tons better than what I'm used to.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 55: "Walk the Edge" by Katie McGarry

Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Thomas Turner, better known to his fellow Reign of Terror motorcycle brothers as Razor, is conflicted. He wants to be unquestionably loyal, but when a police detective reveals new information about his mother's death, he can't leave the case alone, despite warnings from his father and other gang members. Having always believed she committed suicide, he's compelled to find out whether the Reign of Terror were in fact involved in her alleged murder.

Breanna Miller has always felt like an outcast, both in school and at home (she is the middle child of NINE siblings). She's super smart and dreams of going away to an elite school, where she's even managed to secure a scholarship, but is denied the chance because her parents need her at home. Her parents rely on her to help take care of her younger siblings and generally seem to ignore the fact that time and again, Breanna gives up on her dreams because of her family. Her only friend, Addison, has a lot of problems of her own, and as such, isn't someone Breanna feels she can turn to.

Like everyone else at school, Breanna is initially afraid of Razor, and there are all sorts of rumours about what the members of the Reign of Terror have to do to patch in. After Razor helps her out one afternoon when her brother's forgotten to pick her up, Breanna starts wondering about the mysterious Thomas Turner, and soon the two can't stop thinking of each other. Breanna's brain is constantly looking for puzzles to solve, and Razor just happens to have some messages in code that could help him figure out what really happened to his mother.

Once Breanna realises that a) Razor is not the dangerous criminal she feared, but actually a very smart and chivalrous boy and b) contrary to what she expects, he doesn't find her a brainy freak, but is fascinated by the way her brain works,, she starts warming up to him. Unfortunately, someone snaps a picture of the two of them, which out of context looks really salacious, and uses it to blackmail Breanna. She's terrified that the picture will be leaked on social media, potentially ruining her chances to get into college and away from her smothering family.

There is frequently an opposites attract, protagonists from different worlds theme in Katie McGarry's books, and this one is no different. Razor is the close-mouthed, emotionally closed-off loner, a motorcycle-riding bad boy with a dangerous reputation. He's grown up among members of the motorcycle club, and would never conceive of trying to leave them to live a different life. He's always wondered if his father's love of women was partially responsible for his mother killing herself, and once he discovers that his mother's death wasn't a suicide, but that she was quite possibly run off the road, he can't stop digging into the case, no matter what the older Reign of Terror members tell him.

Breanna is a loner in a different way, and despite her large family, feels like she has no one to turn to. The fifth of nine siblings, she is seen as an annoying younger sibling by the four eldest and as a nagging older sibling by her four youngest. Because she's extremely smart and well-adjusted, her parents constantly ignore her to prioritise more pressing needs in the family and rely on her for babysitting duties. She's denied her wish to go away to a prestigious private school because her parents, who both have to work full time to support their giant family, can't spare her. At seventeen, Breanna is pretty much raising her younger siblings, and that is not a job a young girl should have to have.

To add to her troubles, the star football player wants to pay her to write his essays for him, and when she continues to refuse, he manages to secure an incriminating photo of her and Razor together. The fact that nothing at all happened is completely irrelevant. The photo is snapped at exactly the wrong moment, and Breanna is worried that she's going to have to agree to the douchewad's demands, in order to make sure her future isn't ruined.

I have yet to find a Katie McGarry book that I don't like and she tends to do excellent pairings, with deeply likable protagonists, often in interestingly fucked up situations, who find solace in each other. In this, I was furious at Breanna's parents, who so selfishly kept reproducing and expecting their children to pretty much raise each other. I honestly don't understand how Breanna's mother, who works as a nurse, could ignore contraception in such a way. As far as I could tell, they were not religious nuts who believed safe sex was a sin. Who has nine children, when it's quite clear that they can't support said children both financially and emotionally? They completely ignore Breanna and all her troubles during the first part of the book, only to go mega overboard on being protective in the second half, once they discover she's been dating a biker. They made me really angry.

The "we know best, just never ask any questions" attitude of the older Reign of Terror bikers was also pretty frustrating. As they are clearly set up as law-abiding and above board, despite all the rumours in the local community about them, it was obvious to me that they hadn't conspired to murder Razor's mother, but their complete inability to be open with him, and insistence on blind, unquestioning loyalty, even when the kid is clearly struggling, was baffling to me.

While I care about as little about motorcycle gangs as I do sportsball players, I am a sucker for well-written, emotionally resonant romance. Because this is YA, there aren't really any smexy times, although there is some pretty impressive UST and some great smolder and kisses. McGarry keeps delivering books that hit me right in the feels, even when some parts of the story annoys me. I will eagerly await the next book in the series.

Judging a book by its cover: There are a number of different covers for this book, all of them variying degrees of meh to awful. The version I read actually had a pretty decent cover, which fits with certain scenes in the story. A blond guy in black jeans and a white t-shirt, walking along the train tracks on a railway bridge - this could be a scene of Razor in the book. Several of the key scenes in the story take place near just such a bridge, so I think it's quite fitting, and much better than say, the headless couple leaning against a convertible (had it been a motorcycle, it would have fit better) or the badly photoshopped couple embracing, while pouting out of the image that make up the other two covers of the book that I have seen.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR7 Book 139: "What a Wallflower Wants" by Maya Rodale

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Miss Prudence Merriweather Payton has been dubbed "London's Least Likely to Be Caught in a Compromising Position" and after four seasons, she may be the only woman to go unmarried for so long after graduation her finishing school. No one, not even the loving aunt who raised her or her two best friends, knows that Prudence was raped at a ball early in her first season and has made very sure she's never alone with a man or considered marriage material. After all, her entire worth on the marriage market has been forcibly stripped from her. Yet now, with the upcoming anniversary ball of her finishing school, where even her two former wallflower friends have found happy marriages, she can't bear to be the only graduate left unmarried.

Taking matters into her own hands, Prudence travels to Bath and arranges a marriage of convenience to a gentleman who she knows will never expect or demand conjugal rights, as he's rather more interested in his best friend. However, on the way to his estate, where they are to be married by special licence, their stagecoach is attacked by a highwayman, and her intended pushes her out of the carriage to distract their attacker. She manages to escape, no thanks to her fiancee, without attracting the robber's attention and is left to make her way to civilisation alone.

Trudging through uncomfortable heat at first and later pouring rain, Prudence vows never to trust another man again. When she's offered a ride by a dashing and handsome man who introduces himself as John Roark, Viscount Castleton, she refuses even though she's cold, wet and tired. They nevertheless meet again at the country inn where she seeks refuge. As the torrential downpour continues for days on end, the two are trapped, along with a number of other guests, until the weather settles down. John and Prudence spend quite a lot of time in each other's company, and it doesn't take long for John to realise that someone badly hurt Prudence at some point in the past.

Roark is on his way to London with a grand business proposition which will secure not only his own future, but that of his mother and sister. He has secrets he cannot divulge and certainly isn't looking for or able to support a wife in his current situation. Yet he gets more and more smitten with the wary Miss Merriweather (she doesn't give him her full name) and when her dark past shows up unexpectedly at the inn, and she nearly suffers a repeat performance of her former attack, he doesn't even think before jumping in to defend her and pummelling her attacker.

After John beats up her rapist, saving Prudence from another nightmare scenario, she breaks down and finally tells someone about the (to her) deeply shameful secret about what happened years ago, and he comforts her, confessing that his sister once suffered the same fate as her. He is therefore fully aware of how scared and distrustful of men she must be. Even knowing that she may be scared, he proposes that they travel to London together, leaving the inn in case her attacker returns. They pose as man and wife on the road, and John's gentle treatment, understanding and patience gives Prudence hope that she may in time be able to trust another man again and possibly not recoil at being touched. But John's past is about to catch up with him too, and what will happen when Prudence discovers the secrets he's been hiding and the reasons he's in such a hurry to make it to London?

This romance deals with the aftermath of rape, and it doesn't in any way gloss over what happened to Prudence. The scene where she is attacked is graphically described, in a horrible inversion of the usual love scenes in such a book and there is no doubt that something terrible and irrevocable is done to a helpless young woman, whose life is never the same afterwards. Even now, rape is a horrible crime, but in a time when a woman's chief commodity was her virtue and she was seen as tainted goods and worthless if she lost it, rape took away any chance a woman had to make a good marriage. Prudence spends four years carefully making herself as unattractive and unobtrusive as possible, happily embracing her wallflower role, simply so she won't ever have to confess the truth about her tragic fate. When she meets a kind man who not only treats her gently but understands her pain, that is just as attractive to her as his physical beauty. Having kept her secret for so long, she's desperate to confide in someone.

John, absolutely furious about the trauma she's been through, not only beats her attacker within an inch of his life and drives him and his friend out of the inn, but insists on being allowed to show Prudence how to defend herself, as it's not fair that she go through life seeing herself only as a victim. She needs to reclaim her self worth, and his self defence lessons and the way he refuses to see her or treat her as ruined is a great help in making her start to blossom again.

The third and final of Maya Rodale's Bad Boys and Wallflowers, even with some rather melodramatic turns in the last third of the book and some pretty huge coincidences furthering the plot, this is by far the best in the series. Prudence is a lovely heroine, so strong and admirable for refusing to let her ordeal break her. John is a sensitive and understanding hero, who because of his unusual background is able to accept Prue's disgrace in a way most men in her peer group would not. I'm also not entirely sure if the ways in which the villain gets his comeuppance is historically accurate, but it felt very satisfying.

I read romances as a means of entertainment and escapism. In historical romances, I like being diverted by historical locations, pretty dresses, fancy titles and couples finding love, often across societal boundaries that are somewhat anachronistic. This book made me cry, more than once, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just because I was pumped full of fertility hormones. Reading about a young woman having her entire future stolen from her in a savage attack is upsetting, and as Rodale points out in the afterword, many women of the past were driven to depression or suicide by such events. While other aspects of the book weren't perfect, I thought the main issue of the story and the love story between Prudence and John was very effective. Well worth checking out, as long as you're not sensitive about the darker side of the plot.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 130: "Sweep in Peace" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 237 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is the second book in the Innkeeper Chronicles. It can be read as a stand-alone, but to really get the most enjoyment out of this book, and to get a proper feel and understanding for some of the characters, you may want to read the first one, Clean Sweep and also two of the Andrews' Edge books, Fate's Edge and Steel's Edge.

As I did last time, I'm going to let the authors sum up the book themselves:
Dina DeMille doesn't run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies the laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina's door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps at the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde and the devious Merchants of Baha-Char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn...and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it's all in a day's work for an Innkeeper.  

Back in 2012, husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews wanted to try something new, to give themselves a challenge and give something a bit different to their many fans. They started writing a story in instalments, posting it every so often on their website, a chapter at a time. Writing in such a way, they were unable to go back and edit previous chapters until the story was finished. The story,  Clean Sweep, a sort of suburban fantasy/sci-fi hybrid, became popular enough that the authors decided to self-publish it, and it sold in surprising quantities. This year, they wrote a sequel, delighting fans by incorporating characters from their Edge series and expanding the premise set up in the first book. Once again, even though it had been available to read for free on their website for months, it sold in huge numbers once they released it for sale, hitting nr 31 on the USA Today list three days after release.

Currently juggling two other urban fantasy series, the Kate Daniels books and the Hidden Legacy trilogy (where book 2 and 3 have sadly been delayed until 2017), the Innkeeper books does something a bit different, but still contains all the things that fans love about the Andrews' books. There are well-rounded characters, a focus on strong family bonds, whether biological or "found" families. There's great world-building, interesting and dangerous situations, clever quips, thrilling fight sequences and hints of romance. I very much appreciated seeing the return of some of my favourite characters from the latter Edge books in new roles and a new setting and am extremely pleased that the Andrews' plan to continue to write Innkeeper books alongside their other projects.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.