#CBR5 Book 121. "Drums of Autumn" by Diana Gabaldon

Page count: 1070 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is the fourth book in the epic Outlander series, and I really wouldn't recommend it as a starting point (as things won't make a whole load of sense if you begin reading there). Obviously, this review may also contain spoilers both for earlier books in the series, as well as this one, so skip it if you want to avoid such things.

James Fraser and his time traveller wife Claire, have rescued their nephew Ian Murray from the kidnappers who took him to the Caribbean and are now in America, ready to start a new life away from the Scottish highlands. After a period accepting the hospitality of Jamie's aunt Jocasta, Jamie accepts a land grant from the governor of North Carolina, which he agrees to settle and find tenants for. Having had most of their fortune (a cache of precious gems), being robbed by river pirates, they're unable to ship Ian back to his family, but Ian's quite happy living in the woods of America, befriending the natives and settling the land with his uncle. Jamie finally gets to meet his daughter, when Brianna, having discovered in an old historical document that the Frasers are going to die in a fire in 1776, goes back in time to Scotland and takes a ship to America to find them and warn them. She is followed by historian Roger MacKenzie Wakefield, who wants to marry her.

Of course there is all manner of intrigue and complication - river pirates who rob and rape, murders, hernias, bear attacks, a surprise visit from Lord John Grey (one of my favourite supporting characters in the series) and his stepson, an epidemic of measles, inconvenient pregnancies, a paternity mystery, people being beaten to a pulp and sold to Indians, quests to get said individuals back from the Indians, and so forth.

As I mentioned in my review for Outlander, the first book in the series, these books have been a part of my life for a long time. The first time I read this book was fifteen years ago, and I still regard most of the characters very fondly. Re-reading this time, I discovered that I have a whole load less patience with Roger and Brianna than I used to, and especially the sections that involved them before they travel back to 1760s America bored me a lot more than they once did. These are big books, and the everyday Frontiers life stuff is balanced with some pretty crazy sauce melodrama. Unfortunately, the later books in the series contains a lot more less than thrilling filler, and I'm psyching myself up to read the really rambling ones that follow. Need to finish my re-read before the release of the new one in March next year.

#CBR5 Book 120. "Raw Blue" by Kirsty Eagar

Page count: 274 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Carly works the evening shift as a cook at a small cafe, so she can spend her days surfing. She's estranged from her family, and dropped out of university, and keeps herself mostly to herself. The thing she can't tell her family is that surfing is the only thing that makes sense to her anymore, and that helps her not to dwell on the incident after her high school graduation two years ago, when she got drunk, separated from her friends, and woke up in a strange apartment having been raped by three strangers. Carly doesn't want to be a victim, and telling people about rape, always makes them pity and see you in a different light - so she doesn't talk about it, and she allows no one to get close.

While Carly may want to stay isolated, there are people around her who want to get closer. Hannah, a Dutch woman estranged from her husband,lives upstairs from her (but has to keep using her shower because her plumbing is bad) and tries to take Carly salsa dancing and makes her breakfast. Danny, a persistent kid she meets while surfing has synesthesia and won't leave her alone, even when the colour he sees her as is occasionally unpleasant. He keeps wanting to hang out and discuss surfing movies, and persuades Carly to get him a part time job at the cafe. Lastly, there is Ryan, who stands out from some of the crowd of macho surfer dudes. He doesn't hide the fact that he's just out of jail, and that he'd like a chance to get to know Carly better. He wants to turn his life around into something better, and if Carly will let him, he wants her to be a part of that life. The question is if Carly is ready to let him in?

My friend Erica read this some time ago and rated it very highly indeed. She gave me a copy, but it's been lingering on my TBR shelf until blue was one of the monthly keywords for this month. Must admit, I didn't love it as much as she, or quite a few book reviewers out there on the internet did, possibly because I had such a hard time engaging properly with the book. I felt really bad for Carly, and really hoped that she'd get over her assault, but I didn't really like her all that much, and her very narrow goals in life (work in cafe, surf) were not something that resonated with me. While I felt bad about it, I occasionally found myself thinking that maybe Hannah, Danny and Ryan should just let her sulk in peace, she was clearly not going to reciprocate the kindnesses and patience they kept showing her. I also have absolutely no idea if the surfing terms used in the books are accurate, but am going to assume so, as it's such a central part of the narrative.

I've seen the book classified as young adult and new adult. As Carly is nineteen and Ryan is twenty-six, and there is some description of sex (while nothing particularly graphic or explicit), I think it would fit better in the new adult category. I'm not particularly bothered by such labels, myself, but figured it might be worth noting that the romance in this book is not of the "fade to black" variety, even though it's aimed at younger readers.

#CBR5 Book 119. "Death Masks" by Jim Butcher

Page count: 374 pages
Audio book length: 11 hrs 21 mins
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is the fifth book in The Dresden Files, the books about professional wizard Harry Dresden. This review may therefore contain some spoilers for books that came earlier in the series and also for this one, and you may want to skip it until you've read the books up to this point.

Harry has a number of difficulties facing him - his ex-girlfriend Susan (who Harry's been moping over since she left him a few books ago) is back in town, getting ready to pack up her stuff to move to South America, and Harry is worried she may have found a new guy. A powerful Red Court vampire is also in town, challenging Harry to a duel, to settle once and for all the bad blood (pun intended) and warfare between the wizards and the Red Court once and for all. If Harry refuses to duel, the vampire will hunt down and kill anyone Harry cares for or has worked with, so he's not really got much choice in the matter. Thirdly, a priest wants to hire Harry to look for the stolen Shroud of Turin, and it seems like there are demonic entities who'd like nothing better than to find the artifact first, so they can unleash a devastating plague on humanity.

I keep trying to get into the Harry Dresden books, because so many people out there on the internet rave about them, and I feel that I should read something with a male protagonist, just to balance things out a bit. My fellow Goodreader and Cannonballer Ashley/Narfna has made it a lot further through the series than I have, and mentioned in one of her reviews that she listens to and really enjoys the audio books, which happen to be read by James Marsters, an actor I know and love from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and his recurring guest spot on Torchwood. Since I have a whole ton of extra Audible credits, I figured I'd see if I liked the books better in audio, and downloaded this one. Marsters really does an excellent job with the narration, and maybe it's just that Susan is actually back, so Harry isn't constantly moping about her, and she's less annoying than I remember her from the earlier book she was in (don't ask me which one, I honestly don't remember), but I liked Death Masks more than previous Dresden File books.

Marsden manages to make Dresden seem more charming than annoying, and as I said, while I was initially worried about Susan's reappearance, she kicks quite a lot of ass in this book, and promptly goes off to do her own thing at the end of the book, so she gets a pass for now. I have certain misgivings about a particular scene between her and Harry in this book, which is one of the reasons this book gets 3.5 stars instead of a full 4, but if that's because I'm used to reading relationships written by female urban fantasy writers, or whether this is a a bit of a misogynist, I'm honestly not sure. Don't want to go into spoilery details, but you'll know the scene when you get to it, it involves enchanted rope.

I'm also not sure if Harry's constant underestimating women, who pretty much immediately turn on him and double cross him, is supposed to be endearing or annoying. Suffice to say, it happens more than once in this book. There's also a lot of cool stuff, like a pretty creepy demon cult who I'm sure we've not seen the last of, some really bad vampires, Harry's friend Michael Carpenter and his fellow Knights of the Cross, Susan kicking ass, the return of Thomas Raith (one of the White Court vampires who feed off psychic energy, and who's always fun) and the introduction of the Archive, an adorable little girl who's had the sum of all human knowledge passed down to her through her maternal line (Harry nicknames her "Ivy").

I'm warming to Harry as a character, and as I don't have enough Audible credits to get the rest of the books in the series as audio books, I may alternate between reading and listening to the rest of them. I'm slowly getting hooked, and since I'm now no longer actively hating the series, I suspect I'll get through the rest slowly but surely.

#CBR5 Book 118. "Where She Went" by Gayle Forman

Page count: 274 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is the sequel to If I Stay, and both this book and this review unavoidably contain spoilers about the ending. So if you want to avoid spoilers, or haven't read the first book in the series yet, skip this review.

Three years ago Adam Wilde's girlfriend Mia was in a car accident and lost her entire family. She nearly died as well. While she was in a coma, Adam pleaded with her to wake up, and said he'd even live with her leaving him, if she would just stay alive. Mia woke up from the coma, left Oregon for New York and is now a lauded prodigy having graduated Julliard early.

After dropping out of college and caring about nothing for quite some time after their breakup, Adam then poured all his emotions about the loss of Mia (and her family) into song lyrics, and his band went from being Indie darlings played at college radio stations to a platinum selling sensation touring stadiums world wide. Now dating a talented actress/producer, Adam lives in LA and is constant tabloid fodder. He barely speaks to the other members of the band, copes with the stress of fame with pills and alcohol and has a reputation as a real bad boy. When he's spending one night alone in New York, before heading off to London for another tour, Adam meets Mia again for the first time since they broke up. She's about to go on tour as well, starting in Japan. She invites him to come along as she says goodbye to all her favourite New York haunts.

So to get the big SPOILER for the end of If I Stay out of the way. Mia lives, but despite Adam's obvious love for her, she doesn't stay with him. She goes off to New York, without even giving him proper closure - she just stops talking to him, and doesn't return home for Christmas. If I Stay was entirely from Mia's POV, Where She Went is entirely from Adam's. Most of the chapters start with excerpts from the lyrics Adam wrote after he dug himself out of the worst depression after the breakup (as I - to the husband's great sorrow - am not all that into music as anything but background noise, I can't speak for the quality or lack thereof of said song lyrics). With "Collateral Damage", Adam's lamely named band "Shooting Star" became mega rock stars, and it's quite clear that Adam hasn't really enjoyed the rise to fame and stardom.

He's clearly unhappy in his relationship with his movie star girlfriend, who despite all that he tries to tell himself has 'rebound girl' written all over her perfect face. Because the press decided that "Shooting Star" really only were a backup band for Adam, who as song writer, lead singer and lead guitarist might be seen as doing all the heavy lifting, his band barely speak to him anymore. They usually stay at separate hotels during their tours. Adam has trouble sleeping, and goes through life on a cocktail of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication. He's never gotten over Mia, and seeing her again makes him a big ol' mess.

While Adam occasionally comes across as a giant emo whiner, who should thank his lucky stars for the awesome friends he has and the insane success he's been lucky enough to experience, the story never fails to make the reader sympathetic to him as well. While they weren't his actual biological family, Mia's parents and brother dying in that car accident affected him greatly as well. Staying by her side as she recovered, trying to be supportive, and then having her just dump him without any explanation - it's no wonder the boy is gutted. It's also not surprising that like so many other young people suddenly thrust into super stardom, Adam doesn't always handle it as well as he should.

Mia and Adam exploring New York together at night reminded me of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, and for all that the book deals with heart break, it's also very romantic. It's clear that Adam and Mia, despite their various unfortunate decisions, are meant to be together. This is another YA book that in the hands of a lesser writer could have been trite and cliched, but instead was engaging and sweet.

#CBR5 Book 117. "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

Page count: 262 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Mia has everything a girl could want. Loving, supportive parents, a little brother who's more funny and clever than annoying, a likely admission to Julliard, and a romantic and talented boyfriend. Then her family are in a car accident, and her parents are killed instantly. Mia watches herself and her brother being transported to the hospital, and spends the next twenty four hours out of her own body, watching her relatives, friends of the family, her boyfriend Adam and her best friend Kim as they huddle in the hospital waiting room for news about her.

With her body being kept alive by machines while she's in a coma, Mia suddenly only has one thing left - she has to decide whether she's going to choose to live, and go on without her immediate family, or whether she should let go. Is there enough left for her to make staying worth it?

If I Stay is not a long book, and has fairly short chapters, alternating between Mia's present, where she observes her grieving friends and relatives waiting to see whether she wakes up from her coma or not, and her past, giving us a full picture of the life she had before, and what she lost when her family died in the car crash. Her father, the former rock band member turned high school teacher. Her mum, a former Punk chick. Her younger brother, that she helped deliver when he was born. We see how the daughter of rock enthusiasts started playing the cello and eventually excelled at it. How she and her best friend Kim started out as enemies and became inseparable. How Adam, who plays guitar in a promising Indie rock band, took her to a Yo Yo Ma concert for their first date, and how their relationship blossomed despite their seeming to come from different worlds.

Not feeling like she entirely fits is one of the things that makes Mia question whether she should stay alive. A classical musician surrounded by parents and family friends who preferred rock, with a boyfriend whose band is on the verge of launching their career. From her recollections about her life, it's clear she frequently felt a bit like a fish out of water. Insecurities are natural for teenage girls to have, even when most of their loved ones have completely different frames of reference to them.

A lot of themes are explored in the book, chiefly obviously loss and grief. I found it an engaging and moving read, and am not at all surprised to discover that it is being adapted into a movie, with Chloe Grace Moretz starring as Mia. Hopefully the film captures the sadness and emotion of the book, and doesn't just turn into a maudlin melodrama.

#CBR5 Book 116. "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" by Holly Black

Page count: 440 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Tana wakes up after a high school party to find that while she was passed out in the bathtub, the other party-goers in the house were brutally slaughtered by vampires. As she's dealing with the shock and trying to find her things (you don't want to escape a house of carnage in your bare feet if you don't have to), she discovers that there are survivors - her douchy ex-boyfriend Aidan, and a dark haired boy she's never seen before. Both are tied up in a back bedroom where the windows have been covered, most likely left as a snack for later. When trying to untie Aidan, he lunges for her, and Tana has to face the fact that Aidan is turning Cold.

In this world, there were always vampires, but they were few and kept themselves hidden. Until one day, a single individual decided to just feed a little off his victims instead of killing them, starting an epidemic that soon spread world wide. When bitten, but not killed, by a vampire, the victim turns Cold. They start to hunger for human blood, and once they drink it, they transform fully into vampires. If they manage to lock themselves away and avoid the temptation to drink the blood for 88 days, they're cured of the infection, but barely anyone ever has the strength to manage it. As a result, to stop the spread of vampirism, there are walled off cities around America, where vampires and the ones who are turning Cold are confined. In the Coldtowns there are celebrity vampires, and live streams of their glamorous parties and all over America there are people who worship and dream of becoming just like them.

Tana knows that vampires may be beautiful, but also that they are deadly and that those infected by them are overcome by an obsession for blood, to the point where they don't care who they have to hurt to get it. When she was ten, her mother was infected. Tana's father locked her in the basement, determined to keep her isolated until she was cured, but little Tana was unable to resist her mother's desperate pleas and reassurances that she wouldn't hurt anyone. She was tricked into opening the door, and as a result, has physical and deep emotional scars to show for it. She doesn't want to abandon Aidan or the mysterious other boy, and risks her own life to get them both to the nearest Coldtown. There is also the possibility that Tana herself is infected, and to keep her best friend, her sister and her father safe, she needs to leave them behind to an uncertain fate.

I love Holly Black's books about faeries. Now she's written an amazing book about vampires. It's the closest thing to an anti-Twilight I've read since Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In). Not that sparkly vampires, or the spoofing thereof is in any way done in this book. This book made me think of Robin McKinley's Sunshine (one of my favourite vampire books of all time), Anne Rice's early Vampire Chronicles and Lie to Me, that absolutely awesome episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2 where a bunch of vampire groupies dress up in velvet and capes and want to join the "children of the night". Yet it also does its own thing completely.

The story of Tana, Aidan and Gavriel (the mysterious third survivor) is told in short, action-packed chapters that often end on a cliffhanger. Every other chapter fills in the back story, about Tana's past, before and after her mother was turned, about Pearl - her little sister, Pauline - her best friend (they have such a great friendship), her messed up relationship with Aidan, and how she came to be the person we meet in the first chapter. There are also the occasional chapter where the POV changes to Pearl, who has to deal with Tana disappearing, and some that give the back story on Gavriel. These chapters are the reason I'm deducting half a star, as Tana is such a great character that I didn't want any other focus to the book but her, and everything that took away from my time with her, be it in the very tense, dangerous and scary present, or her mostly grim and character building past, made me annoyed.

There is no love triangle in this book, although as is almost always the case in a good vampire story, there is a minor romantic subplot. Vampires have always been sexy and erotic, and while the vampires in this story are all decidedly scary and blood sucking monsters, it's not surprising that Tana, with her dark past and complex survivors' guilt would be attracted to someone openly monstrous. She clearly has a history of bad boys, Aidan really has very few redeeming features, and the fact that Tana risks her own life more than once to get him to a Coldtown is one of the reasons why she's such a great heroine.

I always find it so much harder to write about books I love than ones I feel perfectly indifferent about. The world building in the story, with the Coldtowns, and the vampire reality shows, and the groupie cultures that have sprung forth due to social media are all fascinating, as is the idea that by great strength of will, and basically going "cold turkey", you can cure yourself of the infection. While I adored Tana and want to be her best friend (even though she already has one), the other characters in the story are also great, and multi-faceted, and even though some of them are clearly TSTL when it comes to their romanticised delusions about vampires, you still feel bad for them when they have their eyes opened brutally.

There is a creeping tension throughout the book, from the first chapter and all the way through the story. This is a proper horror story, with a lot of grisly details, and quite a lot of death along the way. At least one of the characters is a merciless and quite mad vampire, but you can't help but like him anyway, and I was completely swept up in the romance between him and Tana. I've read a lot of vampire books before now, and it was great to catch the subtle references that Black has clearly put in. While this is a YA book about a teenage girl and some vampires, don't let the publishing trends of the last few years put you off. This has a very capable, smart, brave and resourceful heroine, who doesn't wait around for anyone to save her. Tana rescues others, as well as herself. For anyone who enjoyed McKinley's Sunshine, this should be a MUST READ book. I think I might even like this better, as Sunshine has always cried out for a sequel, whilst this works beautifully as a stand alone novel with a very promising end. If you ever enjoyed a vampire story, give this book a chance.

#CBR5 Book 115. "Flowers from the Storm" by Laura Kinsale

Page count: 560 pages
Rating: 5 stars

This is considered one of the great examples of romance literature, and it's been in the top 10 of the top 100 romance novels polls on All About Romance since 2000 (in 1998, it was rated 15th). When romance reviewers are asked to name their favourite books, it keeps being mentioned, and raved about, and I just never seemed to find the time to read it. Written in 1992, it's considered one of the works that really changed the genre (away from the frequently No means Yes rapey/forced consent romances into closer to what it is today). It's also a wonderful book to give to someone who claims romance is just trashy escapism for frustrated, sex-starved housewives. This is about as far from 50 Shades of Grey as you can get.

So what is it about then, you ask? Christian Langland, the Duke of Jervaulx is a dissolute rake if ever there was one, but he's also a mathematical genius, which is why Quaker spinster Archemedea Timms comes into contact with him. Her father, another mathematician, is blind, and Maddy (a necessary nickname if ever I heard one) writes out all his notes and takes them to the duke, and in turn reads all the duke's notes to her father. Then they hear that the duke's been killed in a duel, after an aggrieved husband called Jervaulx out. Maddy discovers this isn't true when she arrives at her cousin's posh mental asylum in the countryside, and finds Jervaulx locked up, senseless and in chains. She quickly realises what no one else has been willing to consider, that he's not mad but maddened, and that he's clearly in his right mind, just furious at being unable to communicate with those around him. A modern reader can see that Jervaulx has suffered a stroke, but it's not at all surprising that the duke's relatives would want him locked up and declared insane, so they could take over the running of his estates.

Maddy, despite being deeply uncomfortable with the Jervaulx's position and his dissolute lifestyle, believes herself to have received a calling from God, to help him. She stubbornly convinces her cousin (who for all the horrors of the asylum really is quite progressive, for the time) to let her tend him, and surprisingly rapidly, the duke is calm and compliant and even able to leave his cell on occasion. They grow increasingly closer the more time they spend together, with Jervaulx coming to depend on Maddy entirely. He has no way of communicating the amount of abuse he suffers from the other minders at the asylum, and realises that he can't risk them feeling threatened. He finally recovers enough that they deem him ready for his competency hearing, and take him to London, where most of his family still believe him completely addled. Only his battleaxe of an aunt believes him to be on the way to recovery, but she's worried about the reputation of the family, and wants Jervaulx to marry to secure the title. If he won't agree to matrimony, she'll have him shipped back to the asylum. Jervaulx has no intention of marrying anyone save Maddy, his rescuing angel, but her religious beliefs make such a union completely impossible.

Kinsale is considered a master of her craft, and I can see why in this book. At nearly 600 pages, it's quite a bit longer than a standard romance nowadays, and the relationship between Jervaulx and Maddy is slowly established, as their romance seems impossible. Jervaulx is all that is dissolute, sinful and decadent, and Maddy is a devout Quaker, who spurns creaturely comforts and worldly titles, calling everyone 'Friend' and even refusing to curtsy to the King of England himself. She fights her attraction to Jervaulx from the start, yet deeply respects his intelligence and kindness to her father, and is the only one who fights for him in the asylum. Yet this isn't the story of a selfless woman who through love and self sacrifice heals a broken man. While Jervaulx is initially terrified when Maddy is away from him, and seems incapable of managing without her, he gradually, with the additional help of loyal friends and servants, manages to rehabilitate himself. It doesn't hurt that most people regard him with so much awe and deference because of his title that they don't notice that he leaves out a few words here and there.

I love that Kinsale shows us both protagonists' POVs, and even the broken snippets of dialogue that are the only thing Jervaulx is capable of understanding as he recovers from his stroke. His rate of recovery is clearly shown in the amount of conversation he's able to follow. We also see firsthand Maddy's inner turmoil, and at no point are her devout religious beliefs judged by the author. There are no quick fixes in this book, there are no easy solutions. The harrowing conditions in even a very progressive and forward thinking asylum for the wealthy are terrifying, and I shared Jervaux's terror that he be sent back there, understanding why he might resort to less than honourable methods to win Maddy's hand in order to get his normal life back. While there is a lot of angst and anguish over the course of this book, it was also a deeply satisfying read, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who thinks romance can't be real literature. I now understand why it's prized so highly among romance readers, and will absolutely be seeking out more Kinsale to read.