CBR4 Book 93: "Eternal Pleasure" by Nina Bangs

Page count: 308 pages
Rating: 2 stars
Date begun: October 13th, 2012
Date finished: October 13th, 2012

This was the alt-book in Vaginal Fantasy Hangout in September, and due to the rather unusual subject matter, I felt compelled to check it out. As the e-book is currently unavailable, I ended up paying 5 times the cost of the actual book to have it shipped from the US, but it did entertain me, so I guess I don't mind too much.

There's a lot of paranormal fantasy and romance out there featuring shapeshifters of various kinds. I suspect it's the most common trope after vampires. The hero in this book, is a slightly different sort of a shapeshifter, hence the lovely ladies of VFH's enthusiasm, and my needing to read the book. But what is it actually about, you ask.

Apparently there is a battle between huge and powerful forces in the world, and the bad side, known among other things as the Lords of Time (and yes, there is a Doctor Who reference in the book!), whilst the good guys are the Gods of the Night. The leader for the Gods of the Night is called Fin (he has long, silvery sparkly hair and silvery eyes with hints of purple - my brain can't even fully visualize that, but boy, do I want to read whatever book he's the hero of). He leads the Eleven, who are souls who have been resting since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and now have been placed in the bodies of super hot dudes. Who have to help Fin fight the various evil supernatural creatures that are the minions of the Lords of Time (just to make it more confusing, there's "good" vampires and werewolves too). If the Gods of the Night don't stop the baddies,humanity will be wiped out on the 21st of December 2012 - the exact date when the Mayan calendar ended!

Our hero in this book is Ty Endeka, who when he was last conscious, was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yeah, I kid you not. All of the Eleven were dinosaurs in their last incarnation (although it's suggested that that is not who they originally were, and this battle between good and evil has been going on a LONG time). They need help adjusting to the modern world, and can't drive cars, so they have sexy ladies to chauffeur them around (because who wants a dude to do stuff like that?).

His driver is Kelly Maloy, who when she's not making lots of money driving the hot, but clearly dangerous Ty around is a student of some sort (I don't remember the finer details - c'mon, I just wanted to get to the dino parts!). If the Eleven don't concentrate real hard, their inner dino-ness seems to affect everyone around them, and people tend to get twitchy when gigantic pre-historic predators are around (yeah, none of the hot dudes seem to have been herbivores, if there had been one,  I bet that guy would be the quiet, sensitive, nerdy one of the group). Anyways, Kelly is attracted to Ty, but also understands that he's not just your normal hot dude.

While the truth behind the Eleven is supposed to be kept secret, too much stuff happens over a short space of time for Kelly not to understand that there's a lot more out there that goes bump in the night than was dreamt of in her philosophy, and soon Fin has let her in on all the secrets, and conveniently Kelly is needed to help them defeat one of the evil lieutenants, boringly just called Nine (because there are Nine of them).

Over the course of the book, there are obviously a bunch of action sequences where the dino-dudes have to fight evil vampires and werewolves and such. I was disappointed to find that the Eleven don't actually shapeshift into actual gigantic dinosaurs, it's more like a big big dinosaur-shaped forcefield around each guy (which can still bite and rend and claw, so that's convenient). Also, at least one guy is a flying dinosaur, and one is one of those gigantic toothy water-based ones, which I liked a lot.

Naturally Kelly and Ty's attraction to each other is because they are each other's soul mates. The romance aspect of this book is not exactly the most compelling I've ever read. Nor is this ever going to be classified as great literature. But it was quite fun, it certainly offered something new in a genre where a lot of things are very samey and if it turns out that Nina Bangs (I do hope that's her real name) ever writes Fin's book, I promise to buy, read and review that too.

CBR4 Book 92: "The Raven Boys" by Maggie Stiefvater

Page count: 496 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Date begun: October 13th, 2012
Date finished: October 13th, 2012

Blue Sargent lives in a household of psychics. Her mother's one, her aunt is one, and all her mother's friends. Sometimes their predictions are vague and non-specific, sometimes they are very accurate. Blue has known for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. Until this summer, that hasn't been a problem. Blue knows boys are trouble, and the Raven Boys, the young men enrolled at the prestigious Aglionby Academy in town, are the most troublesome of all.

Every year, on St. Mark's Eve, Blue and her mother go to an abandoned graveyard at the outskirts of Henrietta to watch for all the spirits who will die in the next year. Blue normally can't see them, her power is that she enhances the psychic abilities of those around her, and it's her job to write down all the names of the ones her mother speaks to. This year, Blue goes with her aunt, and for the first time, she sees one of the spirits on the Corpse Road. Unfortunately, that means one of two things. Either the boy is her true love, or Blue is the one who killed him. The spirit said his name was Gansey, and he was dressed as one of the Raven Boys.

Richard "Dick" Cambell Gansey III, known to all his friends and acquaintances as Gansey, is completely unaware of Blue's vision, or even existence. He enrolled at Aglionby Academy in  Henrietta, Virginia because he is looking for the burial place of Glendower, a legendary Welsh king. With the help of his friends, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and the mysterious Noah, he searches the town for evidence of ley lines and mystical artifacts.

Adam is a scholarship student at Aglionby, and only managing to keep his place there by holding down three different jobs. He's Gansey's best friend, but the difference in their backgrounds and financial situations create conflicts and complicated undercurrents in their relationship.

Ronan Lynch is one of three orphaned brothers, vicious as a wild animal and self-destructive to the extreme. Gansey and Adam do their best to keep him out of trouble, and from being expelled from the Academy. Noah lives with Ronan and Gansey, but seems strangely strangely quiet and distant from the others. He never eats anything when others are watching, and spends a lot of time on his own.

Having previously stayed far away from all Raven boys, Blue now needs to discover the truth about Gansey. Is he her true love? Did she cause his death? Is there any way she can prevent his spirit from ending up on the Ghost road? Can Blue and her family help Gansey and his friends in the search for Glendower?

Based on the blurb of the book, I was expecting something a bit different from what I actually got. First of all, for all the ominous talk about kissing and dooming boys, there is very little romance in the story. Blue is a very sensible girl, and fully aware that her family's predictions are nothing to be messed with. When befriending the Raven boys, it's not even Gansey she feels drawn to, at first, but Adam. Still, not wanting to tempt fate, Blue's not about to be kissing any boy, rich or poor.

Gansey and Blue do not get along at first, mainly because of a massive misunderstanding, and because they come from vastly different worlds. Gansey has never known a day of want in his life, and has always had huge amounts of money that he can buy whatever he wants with. He doesn't understand why Adam would rather work three jobs to go to the Academy and stay with his abusive father, rather than accept a loan from Gansey and stay with him and their other friends in the huge warehouse apartment off campus. He only wants what's best for those he loves, and is painfully aware that occasionally he insults people just because of his carelessness with money. Gansey has several reasons for wanting to find the missing tomb, Adam needs to find it because of the supernatural favour the finder is supposed to be granted. He needs to get out of his dead end existence, but he can't do it while relying on someone else - he has to know that he managed to get out while being beholden to no one.

Maggie Stiefvater has an amazing way with words, and I always have very high expectations to her books. I think that's why I was a bit disappointed with her previous book, The Scorpio Races. I want to love her books, and it's very difficult for me when I don't. This book was different from what I was expecting, but drew me in and enveloped me in the sort of magical worlds that I've come to expect from the author.

It is very clearly the first book in a series. There are story lines that are resolved, but also new ones that clearly need to be addressed in later books. The character of Ronan, who I've not really written much about in this review, but who is also a very interesting and complex character (say what you want, but Stiefvater is brilliant at creating fascinating people to read about), will clearly play a more prominent part in the next book, if the last page of the book is anything to go by.

The back of the book may suggest that this is a supernatural love story, but it's much more of a mystery, with a quest narrative thrown in. The friendships of the four Raven Boys, and the relationship of Blue to her family are central, and all really well depicted. The villain in the book could've been given better characterisation, and I never quite felt that the stakes were as high and dangerous as they were probably supposed to have been, but the book is very good indeed, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

As this is both a mystery, and to a certain extent, a story where ghosts feature, I think it qualifies well for the R.I.P VII read.

October Read-a-thon 2012: Hour eighteen

End of Event meme: 

1. Which hour was most daunting to you?

Without a doubt, hour fourteen, between 3 and 4 am, when I nearly nodded off three times. I did get a bit of a second wind, though, and keep going until 5 am, in the end.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for the next year?

I can highly recommend both The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve Read-a-thon next year?

No, I think it's fine the way it is. Maybe someone could make sure the links to mini-challenges actually work, though. That'd be good

4. What do you think worked well in this year's Read-a-thon?

I'd picked a good selection of books, and because I kept checking the 24-hour Read-a-thon blog every hour, I kept myself motivated.

5. How many books did you read?

I managed to finish 4 books and one trade paperback of comics - so 5

6. What were the names of the books you read?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Eternal Pleasure by Nina Bangs

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Batman: Time and the Batman by Grant Morrison and a bunch of artists

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

Probably A Wrinkle in Time, but The Raven Boys is a very close second.

8. Which did you enjoy least?

Time and the Batman, as it's really only a collection of linking stories from some Batman-comics I read ages ago, and some that I really want to get to

9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

I will absolutely take part in the next Read-a-thon, which I'm assuming will be sometime in spring. I love these things, and am so glad I've now completed three of them! I will obviously be a Reader.

Summing up of my Read-a-thon:

Hours awake and actually reading: 18 (includes some time off for eating and bathroom breaks)

Pages read in the last hour: 172 (yay for comics!)

Pages read in total: 1329  

Books completed:

The Raven Boys 

Eternal Pleasure

A Wrinkle in Time

Fun Home

Batman: Time and the Batman

Mini-challenges completed: 3

October Read-a-thon 2012: Hour seventeen

Reading now: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (only about a third of the book left)

Pages read in the last half hour: 103

Pages read in total: 1157

Books completed: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Eternal Pleasure by Nina Bangs

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Snacks consumed: Coke and chocolate chip cookies. Breakfast of champions

October Read-a-thon 2012: Hour sixteen (of which I read only half)

Reading now: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Pages read in the last half hour: 46

Pages read in total: 1054

Books completed: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Eternal Pleasure by Nina Bangs

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Snacks consumed: Orange juice

Mini-challenges completed: 3

October Read-a-thon 2012: Hour fifteen

Reading now: Nothing. Going to bed. Haven't decided what I will read tomorrow yet, but it may be comics

Pages read in the last hour: 93

Pages read in total: 1008

Books completed: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Eternal Pleasure by Nina Bangs

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Snacks consumed: None, was really just trying to stay awake

Mini-challenges completed: 3 - Most recent one - Bookmarks at Nisaba Be Praised

October Read-a-thon 2012: Hours thirteen and fourteen

Reading now: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - it's a wonderful book, I wish I'd read it when I was younger
Pages read in the last two hours: 124
Pages read so far: 915
Books completed: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Eternal Pleasure by Nina Bangs
Snacks consumed: More Coke in attempts to stay awake, chocolate chip cookies
Mini-challenges completed: 3, as well as the halfway survey.

Am definately starting to feel sleepy. Will do my very best to stay awake until I finish the book, but then I suspect I'll have to go to sleep, and read more tomorrow instead. After all, Readathon doesn't end until 2pm here.