#CBR7 Book 84: "The Heart of Betrayal" by Mary E. Pearson

Page count: 480 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is the second book in the Remnant Chronicles, following directly on from The Kiss of Deception. It is impossible for me to review this without spoilers for the first book, hence, skip this if you're not caught up.

Princess Lia is a prisoner in Venda, surrounded by what she has been taught are violent and backward barbarians. Having accepted her feelings for Rafe, she may never have a proper chance to act on them, as they are both captives and the Komizar, the ruler of Venda, seems doubtful as to the use of either of his human prizes of war. Kaden, the Komizar's assassin doesn't want the girl he loves to be killed and argues that Lia's magical gift can be beneficial to the country. Rafe pretends to be a turn-cloak adviser to the Dalbreckian prince, claiming his master is just waiting for the King of Dalbreck to die so he can rule and make an alliance with Venda. Whether the Komizar allows Rafe to live because of this, or because he can be used as leverage to control Lia, is uncertain.

While initially seemingly unimpressed with his royal captive, the Komizar quickly changes his mind about her usefulness, to the worry of both Kaden and Rafe. As Lia is offered limited freedoms, she gradually discovers that all the stories she was told about Venda were lies, and the reason for the country's fierce raids is that the more powerful kingdoms of Dalbreck and Morrighan have brutalised the populace to the brink of devestation. The common people are strong, resilient and above all, in desperate need of hope. Additionally, Lia needs to decide if she can trust Kaden, the man sent to kill her, but who chose to spare her life instead, who is now arguing passionately for her survival. She also needs to examine whether her feelings for Rafe are still the same, having found out his true identity and had to confront all the lies he told her. Most of all, she needs to step extremely carefully, to survive the Komizar's manipulations long enough for her and Rafe to figure out a way to escape their captivity.

While Lia annoyed me for a lot of the first book, I'm completely on her side here and she has come such a long way from the spoiled and impetuous princess at the beginning of the story. Her entire world-view has been turned on its head, and she's forced to acknowledge that most of what she's known before has been lies told to keep her ignorant. While there are still traces of a love triangle, it's not really there on her part, she just needs some time to reconcile the knowledge that the man she fell in love with is not a lowly farmer, but the prince she was in fact betrothed to marry and ran away from. Yes, he lied to her about his true identity, but she did also run away from their wedding, forcing him to hunt her down. He gets himself taken prisoner with her, so as to stay close to her and does his best to reassure her that they will be rescued by his men. Kaden clearly loves Lia still, but I can't really fault Lia for using every advantage she has in trying to get free, even if it means manipulating a man who is risking his life and position to keep her alive.

While I found that some parts of the book still dragged a bit, and I found the Komizar a bit too moustache-twirly to be interesting, I am still enjoying the series. The tribal society of Venda was interesting, especially in contrast of what has been revealed of Morrighan and Dalbreck so far, as were the added revelations in the back story, gradually revealed in the ancient texts Lia carries with her. I'm very curious to see how the pseudo-medieval world in this series emerged from the remnants of a high technology civilisation. I'm assuming all will be made clear in the final part, when Lia, Rafe and Kaden are clearly in for a doozy of challenges after the final third of this book.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 83: "You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)" by Felicia Day

Page count: 288 pages
Audio book length: 6 hrs 17 mins
Rating: 4.5 stars

I'm trying to recall where I first encountered Felicia Day. I think it may in fact have been on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she played one of the many potential slayers in season seven. I know I saw her in Dr Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog (true story, on our honey-moon seven years ago, I declined to go out and explore Stockholm with my husband until I had used the hotel wi-fi - which was really rather slow - to download and watch the second episode) before I actually watched and got completely hooked on The Guild.

I've known of and admired Felicia Day for a long time, is what I'm saying. I've been a member of her online book club, Vaginal Fantasy since it started, and one of the highlights of my month is watching her and her co-hosts talk about fantasy and/or sci-fi romance. I've probably watched most of the stuff she's put out on the web, including Co-Optitude, where she plays video games with her brother. So naturally I was going to pre-order this book. I chose to get the audio book, so Felicia herself could read me her memoir.

While I knew that Felicia Day was a good actress in the things I'd seen her in, as well as extremely smart, creative, fond of video games and romance and an internet entrepreneur, I learned so many new things about her from this book. That she and her brother were home-schooled, that she went to college at sixteen and ended up with a double major in violin and mathematics, or that the reason she cut her hair in a pixie cut a while back (which she, naturally, as a woman on the internet got so much hate about) was because stress and other very serious medical issues made her hair fall out in clumps.

I suspect that even if you don't really know who Felicia Day is, you'll enjoy this book. She's very honest and open and recounts stories from her life and her many impressive achievements in a very entertaining way. Being a successful woman in the social media age is not easy, being a successful woman who dares to have an interest in and opinions of video games on the internet has made her the target of a lot of hate and harassment. She's very forthcoming about her anxieties, the two years she was completely addicted to World of Warcraft, her obsessions and what drives her. I found her impressive and admirable before, now I'm very much in awe of her. This is not a funny celebrity autobiography like Bossypants or Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, although there are absolutely bits that made me laugh out loud. The closest comparison I can think of is Jenny Lawson's book, but they're really not all that similar.

This isn't a very long book, I listened to it in less than twenty-four hours. It pretty much made me feel all the feels and I can highly recommend it.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 82: "A Wish Upon Jasmine" by Laura Florand

Page count: 323 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

All Jasmin "Jess" Bianchi has ever wanted to do was make perfumes, like her father. The brain-child behind the massively popular Spoiled Brat, she has achieved great commercial success, but is everyone assumes that what she intended as an ironic comment on the industry is all she's capable of. When she inherits a small perfume shop in Provence, in the same year she had to bury her father and the little artisanal perfume company she had started was bought up by the powerful Rosiers, it's like a dream come true. Then she discovers that the Rosiers considers her little shop their rightful property, and the man she'll have to fight to keep it, is the man she almost lost her heart to, many months ago.

The Rosier family have a saying. "Be careful what you wish for, Damien will get it for you." While his cousins can be creative and nurturing, Damien Rosier is expected to be the calculating, ruthless and efficient one. He makes sure that the Rosier empire is strong, powerful and wealthy enough that his cousin Matt can grow roses and jasmine and his cousin Tristan can create new perfumes in his labs. Feeling deeply responsible not just for his large family, but the people and businesses in their little corner of Provence, Damien also makes sure that as many as possible are employed, preventing them from having to move from the area. He's very good at what he does, he just wishes everyone around him didn't think he was completely cold-hearted.

When Damien met Jess at an industry party many months ago, it was clear she didn't know who he was, and they shared a night of unforgettable passion. But the morning after, he woke up alone, and the next time he saw her, she looked stricken as she was told he had bought the company she was part-owner of. Now he finds her in the perfume shop where the Rosier brand started, discovering that his meddling great-aunt Colette has given it away. His grandfather wants Damien, the ruthless one, to make sure the shop is returned to the Rosiers. Damien wants an answer to why Jess just disappeared after their night of passion.

The big misunderstanding that is so often a feature in romances happens before the plot of this book really kicks off, revealed to the readers only in flashback. Jess and Damien are unaware of each other's true identities when they meet, spark an instant connection and share a night of hot sex together. Jess has to leave so early not because of second thoughts about her hook-up or guilt, but because her father is dying in hospital. All her life, Jess has heard stories of the Rosiers, who had such complete control over the region where her father was born, that as a non-Rosier perfumer, he had to leave to be able to make a name for himself. She believes them to be the enemy, a belief that isn't exactly disproved when her tiny company is gobbled up by their ruthless chief of acquisitions.

Due to their misunderstanding, the initial meetings between Jess and Damien in Provence are antagonistic, but they are also clearly crazy about each other and soon the hostility returns to the growing attraction they felt when they first met. It's pretty much confirmed that tante Colette keeps portioning out her inheritance to long-lost female heirs in some sort of really elaborate match-making scheme, but that she'd believed Jess to be a good match for Tristan, the youngest cousin.

While Laura Florand's books are always enjoyable, this one didn't really excite me much, probably because once Jess and Damien actually clear up their initial misunderstanding, there's very little tension left to overcome. Jess is also insecure to the point of stupidity, refusing to believe that Damien can have feelings for her for so long that I wanted to reach into the book and slap some sense into her.

That's not to say that I'm not going to keep reading Florand's books. There are after all, two more cousins left who haven't been paired off, and what I'm assuming are more attractive female heirs (or male, I would love if one of the cousins were gay, but I doubt it) tante Colette can give Rosier property to in upcoming books.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 81: "Magic Shifts" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

Spoiler warning! This is book 8 in the series, and some really big stuff happened in the last book. Seriously, if you haven't read Magic Breaks yet, there will be spoilers, so return once you're caught up. If you haven't read any Ilona Andrews books yet, you should do your very best to change that as soon as possible. They write among the best paranormal books out there, you won't be sorry.

After a period of adjustment after the confrontation in the previous book, mercenary and magical powerhouse Kate Daniels is trying to settle down and make an honest living, aided by her fiancee, former Beast Lord of Atlanta, Curran Lennart. Being hired for supernatural jobs can be a bit tricky when your partner's a giant werelion, though, and their money situation is starting to get tight. While neither of them miss the constant need for diplomacy and the complex infighting of running the Pack, it's clear that being a simple mercenary is also not challenging enough for a man who ruled over a thousand shapeshifters for more than a decade.

When Jim, the new Beast Lord offers Kate and Curran a controlling share in the Mercenary Guild, both of them initially refuse. The many chaotic events in Atlanta over the last few years have wreaked havoc with the formerly quite orderly Guild, making it a bad financial bet. Then they are approached by George, the closest thing Curran has to a sister, asking them to locate her fiancee, the were-buffalo Eduardo. All the trails lead to the Guild, suggesting that Eduardo disappeared while out on a mission. While re-tracing his last known missions, it's clear that something big and dangerous is rising in Atlanta, a city now under Kate's protection, and they need to hurry if they're going to find Eduardo alive.

Because the Andrews' were only initially contracted for seven books in the Kate Daniels series, so much of the overarching plot in the series built up towards the events of the last book, Magic Breaks. This book takes place in the aftermath, where there's been a lot of changes for our protagonists, but life still goes on, and Atlanta is still a dangerous place to be. Possibly more so after Kate finally revealed just how powerful she is, in accidentally claiming the city as her territory in order to prevent her father, the ancient Roland, from doing the same.

This is a low-key book compared to the previous one, with an almost mundane search and rescue mission at its heart. Of course, it wouldn't be a Kate book without horrible monsters to fight , interesting mythological adversaries and Kate throwing herself head-long into danger, without any care for her own safety or mortality. That's not to say that there isn't gradual setting up for the final confrontation that Kate will one day have with her father, but for now, there is dinner at Appleby's, new neighbours to placate and bills that need paying. The Andrews' excel both at world-building and at populating their books with an awesome supporting cast. There's amazing dialogue, several laugh-out-loud moments, clever plotting and nail-biting action.

If you've enjoyed the previous Kate books, you'll like this one too. The stakes are lower, the pace is somewhat quieter, there's more actual detective work, like in some of the earlier books. This book ends with a wedding, and the next book promises to have another one, which I'm not going to pretend I'm not ridiculously excited about. Just such a shame I'm going to have to wait a whole year.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 80: "Lady Be Good" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Lily Monroe is trying to make a better life for herself, working hard to acheive the dreams her dead sister had for them about becoming a respectable gentlewoman and rising above their poor backgrounds in London's East End. She now calls herself Lilah Marshall and is one of the hostesses at Everleigh's Auction House, making a decent living. Unfortunately, her uncle needs her to do him one last favour, involving the use of some of her thieving skills to acquire some documents. Lilah's dirty deed is witnessed by one of the auction house's prominent customers, Viscount Palmer, who doesn't hesitate to blackmail her for assistance with his own business.

A lauded war hero, Christian "Kit" Stratton is the toast of London. He is desperate to stop the madman who has sworn to kill each and every member of Christian's family and after discovering a distinctive candlestick at the Everleigh Auction Rooms, it is obvious its owners have a connection with his enemy. Now Palmer needs to get close to Miss Catherine Everleigh, and after discovering that her trusted employee, Miss Marshall has a nefarious past, he is more than willing to use one woman to get close to the other. Tempting Miss Everleigh with a house full of antiquities he needs to have appraised, he insists that the enigmatic Lilah Marshall come with her as her assistant. He wants to Lilah to steal any correspondence of Catherine's and show it to him, or he will reveal her true background and most likely get her fired.

While Catherine initially has little time for Lilah and mostly seems to detest her, certainly complicates matters somewhat. Christian also claims that he intends to propose marriage to Miss Everleigh, but it's Lilah he really seems to be forming a connection with, as she meets him in his office every evening to report on Miss Everleigh's correspondence.

Meredith Duran always tends to go for heroes with dark pasts and complicated emotional issues. Kit is celebrated as a war hero wherever he goes, but was captured after a battle, tortured and lives with the knowledge that a madman with a deep personal grudge against him had his older brother murdered. Always meant to be the spare, Kit feels unprepared for the duties of the title and holdings he now possesses and he struggles to keep his mother and his sister safe, without being able to confide in them about his fears.

In Lilah Kit recognises someone else who presents a cheerful and spotless exterior to the world, while all manner of interesting secrets rumble under the surface. He doesn't feel the need to act the hero with her, instead acting in a very underhanded and imperious fashion, hoping to keep her from growing as attached to him as he is getting to her. Knowing that anyone close to him could be his nemesis' next victim makes him cautious, but Lilah's background and experience has made her strong and resourceful, and she refuses to be coddled or protected.

While I occasionally found the plot in turns a bit slow then convoluted, I really enjoyed this book. I didn't love it as much as Fool Me Twice, her last one, but as I consider that one of the best romances I've read in years, it was going to struggle to measure up. Since I'm about a month behind on my reviews, I actually have the sequel to this, featuring the romance between Catherine Everleigh and Lilah's mob boss uncle already lined up on my E-reader. They have an interesting encounter in the latter half of this book, and I'm looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 79: "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy

Page count: 465 pages
Audio book length: 13 hrs 21 mins
Rating: 4 stars

Farmer Gabriel Oak falls for the pretty, independent-minded and headstrong Miss Bathsheba Everdene pretty much the first time he sees her. He proposes to her, but is rebuffed, as she's unsure if she ever wants to get married. After losing his entire livelihood after one horrible accident, Gabriel has to go back to being a lowly shepherd and through a series of circumstances ends up working on for Miss Everdene, who's inherited a farm from her uncle and is determined to run and manage it herself.

While steadfastly and loyally working for the very woman who rejected him, Gabriel falls into the role of her reluctant confidant, watching her interactions with other suitors, the vain and arrogant Lieutenant Troy and the older, most prominent farmer in the area, Mr. Boldwood. While Bathsheba is an impressively independent and progressive woman in a novel written in Victorian times, she shows extremely poor judgement when it comes to men, something the narrator bemoans while being gently supportive of her wishes to run her own life.

Having sent Farmer Boldwood a Valentine in jest, mainly to catch his attention, poor Bathsheba is mortified when she realises that her tiny missive has made him interpret the situation all wrong, and she spends the next few years trying to fend off his semi-stalkery declarations of undying affection and increasingly more insistent proposals. Then the silly young woman gets taken in by the dashing red coat and the handsome face of Lt. Troy and ends up married to him, quickly realising that she's made a huge mistake. At this point, the book, which starts out as a quiet pastoral tale with some romantic undertones turns into a melodrama to rival even the most impressive soap opera.

My only previous experience with Thomas Hardy was Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which I had the great misfortune of having to read for English lit at University. To this day, I think it's one of the most relentlessly miserable books I've ever forced myself to read all the way through and I absolutely hated it. From what I heard about other Hardy books like Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge, it didn't sound like I would ever want to read anything of his literary output, and I would probably have stayed far away from this novel as well, if not for the current movie adaptation starring Carey Mulligan, making me curious. This review over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (warning: does get quite spoilery) and Bonnie's review, recommending the Audible version narrated by Nathaniel Parker, convinced me that maybe I should give Hardy one more try. I'm very glad I did.

On occasion, the book dwelt a bit too much on the pub conversations of the many, MANY rural farmhands working for Bathsheba or the minutiae of Victorian sheep farming, but I really did love Gabriel Oak and his quiet and steadfast devotion to the woman he loved, waiting around for her to come to her senses longer than I probably would have done. While initially I had some sympathies for Mr. Boldwood, who is overwhelmed by his belief that the pretty and vivacious Miss Everdene may have feelings for him, they gradually turned to impatience and frustration because he really would not take no for an answer. Way to live up to the "nice guy in the friend zone" stereotype, dude. I had no time at all for the odious Troy and wanted him dead of some sort of painful wasting disease.

Unless someone can convince me that other of Hardy's novels are more in this vein than the misery that was Tess, I severely doubt I'll be reading any others by him. I'm hoping to see the movie adaptation this weekend and am looking forward to seeing how the film holds up.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 78: "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Jude and Noah are twins and have always been very close, to the point where they seem able to communicate without words, reading each other's minds. During the summer when they are thirteen, things are changing. Getting ready to apply to a creative arts high school, Noah is elated, while Jude is less so. Noah is falling madly in love with the boy next door, while desperately trying to appear normal so no one finds out his secret, growing even more introverted, expressing himself only through his impressionistic art. Jude starts acting even more extroverted, wearing more makeup, dressing in skimpy outfits and hanging out with older boys who take her surfing or cliff-diving. The twins remain close until the day their mother appears to prefer Noah's artistic contributions to Jude's and something in their relationship fractures.

Three years later, the siblings, once so close they felt like they shared a soul, barely speak. Jude attends the creative arts school they both applied to, while Noah goes to regular high school, hanging out with his friends on the track team, seemingly no longer interested in art at all. After a series of accidents ruin every single ceramic piece Jude has produced, she gets her professor's permission to find a tutor who can teach her to carve rock. Seeking out the reclusive genius who may finally help her express her feelings in a sculpture leads to dramatic changes in the lives of both twins.

Noah narrates the sections of the book that are set during the year before the twins turned fourteen, while Jude narrates the later parts. They alternate, so that the reasons for their falling out and the truth behind all the things they are concealing from one another, the actions that led to their estrangement and the events that could help them heal are slowly portioned out by the author. The Noah-narrated sections are frantic, almost stream of consciousness on occasion, full of energy and anxiety and repressed emotions. While he loves his sister, he is also a teenage boy, and just as prone to self-obsession and narcissism as other teens. Jude is prickly, wounded and lonely. She's haunted by mistakes in her past and yearning for a chance to make amends, to repair the bond with her brother.

There is a heavy feel of magical realism running through this book, with strange and inexplicable occurrences being taken as something entirely unremarkable. Noah's art is so vividly described and there is a tangible sense that magic could indeed be involved in the lives of these teens. The kids described in these pages felt very real - not just the twins whose story we share, but their friends and the complicated social hierarchy that it's so important to fit into when you're in school. Noah's terror that the boys who often bully him or that his sporty, masculine father discover that he's gay. Jude's growing rebellion towards her mother, trying to create an identity of her own, separate from that of daughter or twin sister. The little exquisite little cruelties that only siblings who love each other deeply are able to perform, because they know better than anyone where the others' vulnerabilities lie.

I've seen this book on countless "Must read" and "Best of 2014" lists. According to Goodreads, it's won several awards, including the Michael L. Printz award for 2015. I can see why it's become so acclaimed, because it really is something special. I did, however, find the disjointed and constantly jumping narrative to be a bit confusing and got somewhat tired of the device in places. As is frequently the case when I read books with multiple narrators, set at different times - just as I've gotten really comfortable in the head of one person and things start getting really interesting, I am ripped away and forced to adjust to someone else in a different place and time. This makes me impatient and takes away from the immersive reading experience I really enjoy. It's a very minor niggle, though, and I appreciate that I was able to share both twin's head space to see what moved them and motivated them.

I also found certain plot events very predictable - this may again be because I've read a lot of books, but a lot of the "twists" seemed really rather obvious to me and I don't know if I was actually supposed to be all that surprised by them. It didn't in any way take away my enjoyment, though. The enthusiastic critics are right, this is a very good book. Just the fact that it's not part of a dystopian sci-fi trilogy or featuring any kind of supernatural creature seemed very refreshing to me.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.