#CBR5 Book 28. "Luck in the Shadows" by Lynn Flewelling

Page count: 479 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Alec of Kerry is a teenage orphan stuck in a dungeon on trumped up charges of spying. He's worried that he's going to be killed when a mysterious stranger is thrown into the dungeon with him, and proceeds to not only free himself from  the shackles, but takes Alec along as well. Some horse thievery, swift thinking and a fair bit of hiding, and the two have escaped their pursuers.

Over the course of the next few days, Alec discovers that the stranger is able to assume a number of personas and identities without any trouble, and is actually a spy of sorts. His true name is Seregil, and after noticing how quickly Alec picks up new skills, he impulsively offers to take the young man on as an apprentice. Alec has never really known any other life than that of a trapper and hunter in the provincial north, so Seregil's tales of adventure, excitement, travel and exotic locations sounds mighty tempting indeed.

Of course, the covert life of espionage is a bit more dangerous than being a country hunter, and some of the people Seregil's in the area finding information about are entirely ruthless. When Seregil falls seriously ill while they're on the run, Alec gets the chance to save Seregil's life, using what he's learned and his quick mind to get them safely to the capital and Seregil's wizard friend.

They discover that there is a plot against the crown, and someone is trying to implicate Seregil with very clever forgeries. Alec needs to help his new friends figure out who is behind it, before it's too late.

Attentive readers of my blog may have noticed that I'm participating in a whole slew of reading challenges now. There's obviously the CBR5, but also the historical fiction challenge, the Mount TBR challenge, and last but not least, the monthly keywords. This book is a whopping triple whammy, as it's been on my bookshelf for so long that it precedes my habit of writing my name and the date when I got the book in the front. So we're talking late 1990s, early 2000s here. That's a heck of a TBR. It's also most certainly historical fantasy, and luck is one of the monthly challenges. Hence it was nice to finally read this.

I had not realised, however, that this is basically only the first half of the story. It ends after the first part of the story is concluded, but on a fairly abrupt cliffhanger, there's even a to be continued.  So for anyone who hasn't read the book already, there is a second part, Stalking Darkness, that finishes the story of Alec and Seregil and their main adventure.

The book took me longer to read than I'm used to, both because I've been busy with course work and correction in the last weeks, but also because it's fantasy written in a different style than what is mostly common now. The story builds in a much slower way, and while there is plenty of action scenes interspersed with the exposition to keep the reader interested, the exposition is a lot more gradual. It reminded me a bit of playing a computer game, where you start out with an inexperienced, low-level character. First you have to discover your surroundings, get some basic equipment, learn your basic skills, do the basic quests. Following Alec on his adventure with Seregil is reminiscent of that - he gets new stuff, learns new skills, and slowly but surely "levels up", getting more experienced and discovering more of the world and more dangerous things keep happening.

It's a fun book, and I will absolutely be reading the next book to see how young Alec's adventures proceed.

#CBR5 Book 27. "Sonen" (The Son) by Jon Fosse

Page count: Not sure, it was part of a collection of plays
Rating: 1 star

Jon Fosse is a contemporary Norwegian novelist, poet and playwright and his works have been translated into more than forty languages (which isn't shabby for a Norwegian). He is highly critically acclaimed both nationally and internationally and apparently considered one of the world's greatest contemporary playwrights.

In the play Sonen, or The Son, an elderly couple (most likely living somewhere in the picturesque but often sparse region in the West of Norway - because that's where Fosse sets a lot of his works) go about their daily life in the same monotonous routine as every other day. They keep repeating the same phrases over and over, lamenting the darkness outside (it's worth pointing out that in the winter time, much of Norway barely gets any daylight at all) and the increasing lack of people in their little village. The young people move away to the cities because there is nothing to do, the old people wither away and die. The only light they see is the window of their neighbour's house. They wonder about their son, who they haven't heard from in months.

It seems their widowed neighbour, who is prone to drunkenness, has heard their son was in prison for some unspecified crime. They're not sure what to believe, but as they haven't heard from their son, they are worried and uncertain. When the long lost son suddenly shows up for a surprise visit, they don't know how to relate to him at all. The drunken neighbour's presence doesn't improve things.

The best thing about this play, which is one of the many texts I have to read for my current course, is that it's short. I read it in less than an hour. Having listened to a very interesting lecture, and several of my fellow students discussing the play earlier today convinced me that I wanted to give it a try, even though my previous attempts at Fosse's literary output in assorted short stories left me decidedly unmoved and unimpressed. I doubt I would've bothered finishing the play if I hadn't already listened to a very engaging analysis about it.

Fosse is classified as a neo-Modernist, and there is a lot of things in the play that reminded me of Becket and Pinter, while the play is a lot less absurd than some of their output. Now, I absolutely loathe Modernist literature, and I didn't like the extremely minimalist style in which Fosse writes. Because he leaves immense amounts of things unsaid in every scene, it's up to the reader to interpret and draw his or her own conclusions. There are very sparse descriptions and stage directions, leaving a lot up to the reader (or viewer, in the case of the play). The characters are incredibly passive, and static. Fosse has stated that he cares very little for obvious themes or messages in his works, and that's painfully obvious here.

Very little actually happens in the play. The mother and father are colourless, inscure and spineless. The drunken neighbour is like a malevolent serpent spreading unsubstantiated rumours. One might have a bit of sympathy with the son, but at the same time, the young man has been gone for over six months without any communication with his parents, so no matter how neglectful and inept his parents may have been in the past (and again, most of this is left up to the reader to interpret for themselves), he seems a bit callous and heartless. Then again, if your parents would rather believe unsubstantiated gossip from an alcoholic rather than your word, maybe you'd want to disown your parents too? Based on this play, and the previous short stories I've read, I'm not really interested in exploring more of Fosse's writing. He may be one of the great Norwegian writers of right now, but it's clear it's not for me.

#CBR5 Book 26. "Frost Burned" by Patricia Briggs

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is the seventh book in the Mercy Thompson series, and this review will probably contain spoilers for stuff that happened in earlier books. It's also not a good place to start reading the books. You want to start with Moon Called. The spin off series, starting with Cry Wolf, is also very good.

Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson Hauptman is out Black Friday shopping with her stepdaughter Jesse when she suddenly has a panic attack and crashes into the car ahead of her. It turns out that the reason she freaked out is because her husband, the alpha of the local werewolf pack, and all the werewolves of the pack have been subdued and kidnapped by shady, possibly government operatives. Only one of the wolves escaped, and he's in pretty bad shape. Realising that both she and Jesse are prime targets, Mercy has to act quickly to get them to safety and try to figure out how to save her husband and the rest of the pack.

Through the magical mate bond she has with Adam, her husband, she's able to ascertain that all the werewolves have been heavily drugged and are manacled somewhere dark and remote. A man calling himself "Mr. Jones" wants Adam and the werewolves to kill a prominent senator for him, and Mercy knows that if the thugs get their hands on her or Jesse, Adam will do anything to keep them safe, even if it means destroying the already patchy reputation that werewolves have since they became public knowledge a few years back. She does her best to get Jesse to safety, then gathers what few allies she has available to rescue Kyle, boyfriend to one of the pack werewolves.

Who has the resources to hire mercenaries powerful enough to take out an entire werewolf pack? Can Mercy gather enough allies to rescue her pack? Is the abduction in some way connected to the recent power play against local Vampire Queen Marsilia? And what will Marsilia do to Mercy once she sees the state her precious luxury car is in after Mercy is done with it?

While the last two books in the Mercy Thompson series were good, but not great, I was starting to worry that the quality of the books would be dropping. Fair Game, the most recent book in the spin off series (featuring the werewolves of the pack where Mercy was raised) was mostly excellent though, and the dramatic event at the end of that book made me very excited to read more. While the series can be read independently of each other, the books are set in the same world, there are mentions of the same set of characters, and they nicely complement each other. As well as featuring a return of a whole bunch of characters from earlier in this series, Frost Burned had a guest appearance from one of my favourite of the supporting characters in the Alpha and Omega books.

Mercy is a great character, and unlike a lot of paranormal fantasy heroines, she's not crazy powerful. Sure, she can shapeshift into a Coyote, and seems to be able to detect various kinds of magic, but she's not super strong, or fast or has amazing magical powers. She is, however, stubborn as a mule, and fiercely loyal to those she loves. This means that she has gained the trust and affection of a lot of powerful supernatural creatures, which comes in handy when the werewolf pack she is bonded to is taken out of commission.

Like in many of the earlier books, the plot twists and turns, and what may seem like the main part of the story is resolved about halfway through. That doesn't mean that the book ends, and unlike the past two books, that didn't engage me on as many levels as the earliest four in the series, this one had me fully invested and riveted all the way through. I'm glad to see that Patricia Briggs is back on form, and can't wait to read what comes next.

#CBR5 Book 25. "Pleasure Unbound" by Larissa Ione

Page count: 338 pages
Rating: 2 stars

Eidolon is a doctor at a secret demon hospital. Recently, there seems to be someone hunting down supernatural creatures and harvesting their organs. Eidolon and his brothers Shade and Wraith would really like to figure out who's behind this.

Tayla Mancuso (yes, all the names in this book are awful, I spent a LOT of time rolling my eyes) is a demon slayer, and a really fierce one at that. At sixteen, she saw her junkie mother repeatedly raped and killed by a demon, so she has absolutely no time for any of them. Of course, the group of demon slayers who trained her has never really figured out that just like there are good and bad people in the world, there are also good and bad supernatural creatures.

When Tay's partner is killed in a fight with a particularly vicious demon, because she has some sort of fit that meant she lost control and couldn't back her up, Tay is left for dead and brought into the demon hospital where Eidolon is Chief of Staff. Most of the staff are extremely pissed at seeing her there, and argue vocally that she needs to be killed, but Eidolon overrules them and patches her up. He discovers that while she may be a slayer, there is something seriously wrong with her insides, and it seems that Tay is slowly turning into the thing she hates the most - a demon.

Pleasure Unbound is this month's (March 2013) alternative pick in Vaginal Fantasy Hangout. It was picked because the main read is Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a YA novel, which is traditionally very light on the graphic smexy times. This was selected because of the high levels of smuttiness, which would balance out the lack in the main book. Sadly, while the sex scenes were plentiful (the first one is in the second chapter, while Tay is still in hospital and pretty much out of it) and graphic, bordering on the straight up porny, the plot and characterisation in this book left a lot to be desired (yeah, see what I did there?)

The large amounts of sex is explained by the fact that Eidolon and his brothers are incubi, sex demons who pretty much screw everything with a pulse. Apparently Eidolon is a lot more controlled than his two brothers and normally not as easily led by his libido. However, the sex demons go through a change when they turn a hundred, where they have to find a mate with whom to bond until death do them part, or lose control and give into the urge to impregnate any female they meet. As Eidolon is on the cusp of said change, he doesn't need much persuading to bonk Tayla, in her fricking hospital room, not caring if anyone walks in on them, even though he hates her and hasn't even made up his mind about whether to let members of the hospital staff dispose of her for the greater good. The fact that he, the mighty sex demon, can't bring her to orgasm because of her deep sexual hangups is an actual plot point.

Tay starts this book pretty much a total bitca, and her stupidity and knee-jerk prejudice pissed me off. Eidolon, who the reader is probably supposed to sympathise with more was pretty much just a sex obsessed jerk. While stories where the couple start out antagonistic can work really well, this one fell down flat for me because I didn't really care whether they ended up together or killed each other. I don't mind graphic sex in my fantasy occasionally, but if there isn't a decent plot and at least some likable characters, it just gets boring. It's one of the main reasons that Laurell K Hamilton never appealed to me  all that much. The book gets a bit better in the second half, which is why it's getting 2 stars. Larissa Ione has written a whole bunch of books, all fairly highly rated on Goodreads - there are four more in this series. I doubt I'll be checking out any more, though.

#CBR5 Book 24. "Undeniably Yours" by Shannon Stacey

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars

Guy meets girl when breaking her boss' nose. Guy gets girl fired. Guy meets girl again at his brother's wedding. They have a one night stand. A month later, girl shows up and tells guy she's pregnant.

Kevin Kowalski has women throwing bar napkins with lewd propositions and phone numbers at him, but the only woman he really wants is the one doesn't seem to be interested in a relationship at all, despite being pregnant with his child. Beth Hansen gets pregnant after a one night stand (turns out that even using a condom doesn't always keep you safe), and is stunned with Kevin not only doesn't freak out when she tells him the big news, but seems quite excited about becoming a father.

Having grown up an only child with over-protective parents, Beth doesn't like to stay tied down in one place for too long. She's fiercely independent, and extremely worried that taking her developing friendship with Kevin to the next level will blow up in her face somewhere down the line, dooming her child to a miserable life with parents who hate each other. So she insists that they just stay friends. Even when the giant Kowalski clan do their best to envelop her and make her feel welcome and supported, and she moves into a flat over Kevin's bar, right across the hall from him, and even, later in the pregnancy, accepts a job from him. Despite Kevin's best efforts to woo her, she will not be swayed, and there are still all those eligible ladies throwing their numbers at him. Is he really going to wait around forever?

This book was not as fun as Exclusively Yours and Yours to Keep, mainly because Beth kept being so incredibly insecure and stupidly stubborn, long after it was realistic. If Stacey had set up some sort of horrible relationship trauma in her past that made her so wary of committing again, it would have been more plausible, but even after living next to Kevin for eight months with him proving time and time again how totally committed he is to her, their future child and making her safe and happy, all she can do is whine about how she feels smothered because he keeps doing nice things for her and wanting a real relationship with the mother of his unborn child.

While she's right that they barely know each other when they have the night of passion that knocks her up, and he keeps being given bar napkins with random women's phone numbers, it's made quite clear over the course of her pregnancy and the months following it that he has no interest in ever acting on any of those offers, and instead keeps being supremely patient, waiting for her to wake up and smell the amazingly supportive baby daddy.

Still, the supporting cast of the various Kowalskis and the sweet secondary romance of Kevin's bar manager Paulie and her ex-fiancee, as well as some of the banter was enough to keep me interested. I really did want to reach into the book and shake Beth so her teeth rattled a bit though. Also, her constant diet of cheese burgers or chicken wings while pregnant set my own teeth on edge. Not healthy, lady. Not healthy at all.

#CBR5 Book 23. "Warm Bodies" by Isaac Marion

Page count: 356 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Meet R. He's a zombie. He can't remember the rest of his name, or even who he used to be, but it was someone who died wearing a suit and tie. He spends his days, along with countless other zombies, shuffling along in an abandoned airport. Every so often, he and his fellow zombies will shuffle into the city to find food, eating some of the desperate survivors hiding out in boarded up buildings. They eat the flesh, but the brains are the best part, as they allow the zombies a brief moment to relive the memories of the person whose brain it is.

R is a bit different from the other zombies at the airport. He keeps collecting things he finds when they're out hunting for food. Little trinkets he brings back to the 747 he's made his home. He likes to listen to music. He prefers vinyl because the sound is purer. One day, when he, his friend M, and a bunch of others are out hunting for food, R eats the brain of a young man called Perry, and when M tries to kill Perry's girlfriend Julie, R stops him. He finds himself inexplicably drawn to Julie, and takes her home with him to the airport.

Julie is understandably terrified, but quickly discovers that R really is different from the zombies she's been taught to fear. He promises to keep her safe, and saves her life more than once. He also seems to get more articulate the more time they spend together. Is it possible that zombies can be cured. Can they reclaim their humanity and give up their grisly diet of human flesh and brains? Will Julie be able to convince her father, the zombie-hating General Grigio, that R is not just a mindless killing machine?

This is my second attempt at reading a book featuring zombie romance. I'm still rather uncomfortable with the idea. I really loved the movie Warm Bodies, and Nicholas Hoult's (I'm still baffled by how handsome the funny-looking kid from About a Boy turned out) excellent performance as R the zombie mostly made me forget that he was an undead putrefying corpse who survived by consuming brains, and that he was falling in love with the girl whose boyfriend he KILLED and ATE. At least Angel in My Life as a White Trash Zombie only ate the brains of already dead people she found in the morgue. R actually kills and eats people. It's not his fault, he has to, to survive - but it's not particularly attractive in a guy. And no, I don't know why I can forgive and find Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries so attractive, when he's a blood-thirsty vampire. I'm suspect it's the rotting flesh aspect that makes me more prejudiced against zombies.

 I also suspect I would have liked the book more if I hadn't seen the film version first. All through the book, I kept comparing the film and the book, and the book kept coming up short, every time. The book isn't bad, at all, and I really like the idea that there is no explanation as to why the zombie plague started in the first place, or any deus ex machina that triggers the cure in some of the zombies. I guess I just thought the film was funnier, and a bit more romantic, and took the potential that was in the book and turned it into something even better.

Disclaimer - I recieved a free copy of this book from Random House, via NetGalley.

#CBR5 Book 22. "Exclusively Yours" by Shannon Stacey

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Keri Daniels, journalist in an LA gossip magazine, wants a promotion and it's almost within reach. Then her ruthless editor discovers that her high school boyfriend was Joseph Kowalski, reclusive bestselling author, and presents her with an ultimatum. Get an interview, or lose her job.

Joe Kowalski has never forgotten the girl who really broke his heart, by leaving him in the dust after graduation and never looking back. Now she desperately wants an interview with him, and while he's not really inclined to share his secrets, few as they are, with the world, by agreeing to answer her questions, he can spend some more time with Keri. If she comes with him on the two week Kowalski family camping trip, she will get to ask him one question for each day she survives. No phone, no computer, no social media of any kind - just Keri Daniels and the entire rambunctious Kowalski clan.

Keri can't really refuse, and the sexual chemistry between her and Joe is as potent as ever. Of course, Keri's former best friend, Joe's twin sister Terri, is not about to see her brother's heart broken again, and will do anything in her power to stop keep Keri and Joe apart.

This is the first of the many contemporary romance novels by Shannon Stacey, chronicling the lives of the many eligible Kowalski men. I've previously read the third in the series (there is really no need to worry about reading these in order), so when this was FREE on Amazon a while back, I jumped at the chance to get it. Stacey writes believable, engaging characters who clearly enjoy spending time in each others' company. She does a brilliant job of introducing a large cast of supporting characters, as well, without it feeling like obvious sequel bait, like some authors seem to.

In this case, Joe's formidable parents, his siblings and their many energetic kids are almost as much fun to read about as the former high school sweethearts finding their way towards their happy ending. Joe's twin Terri (Theresa Kowalski Porter) is probably the most important secondary character, as she's struggling to piece her own failing marriage back together and channels far too much of her anxiety towards Joe and Keri, determined to break them apart. Unsurprisingly, since this is a romance, no one ends up getting divorced, and Joe and Keri discover that while they didn't find their HEA straight after high school, it's never too late to rekindle that old flame. I will absolutely be checking out more of Ms. Stacey's books.