Ella's book review

Ella has started reading a really lovely Austrlian series of books about four different girls in different Australian eras.  The two she has read so far concentrate on Grace who is sent out to Australia as a young convict.  I have attached her book review.

New Jayne Ann Krentz

Just found the new JAK Arcane Society Novel In too deep at the Collins Bookshop in Bairnsdale (has a very nice cafe attached to it - it is obviously in an old building and it looks like they have resurrected the old archways/brickwork - it is very nice and has good coffee).  This looks like it is the first in another trilogy where she is crossing over to her other books/names - the first one set in contemporary times under Jayne Ann Krentz, the next set in the past by Amanda Quick and the last one in the future by Jayne Castle (this follows the Burning Lamp series). 

This one concentrates on Fallon Jones - a secondary character in a number of the Arcane novels - who is the head of Jones and Jones, the psychic detective agency that works for the Arcane Society.  Although a secondary character he has been integral to the developing Nightshade storyline (Nightshade are the nemesis of the Arcane Society and have their roots (like the Arcane Society), in the past featured in the Amanda Quick novels), and many comments have been made about his possible madness, loneliness and his need for an assistant.  In steps Isabella Valdez - on the run from her own conspiracy.  Unfortunately, despite my desire to really like this book as it is nice when secondary characters get their own book, there did seem to be a few jarring moments.  Despite Fallon being able to 'see' the connections that events make and connect facts to make conspiracies he seems somewhat reluctant to believe that Isabella is involved in a dangerous conspiracy - despite the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that she is suffering from conspiracy delusions.  It just didn't make sense to me when I read the story.  The back of the book says this book is the first in the new Looking Glass trilogy but the looking glass only turned up in the last few chapters - previously (as in the Burning Lamp trilogy), the object was a main part of the books.  It kind of seemed a bit tacked on.

It did include the first chapter of the Amanda Quick next book in the trilogy at the end which did sound a tad more exciting so I will withhold my full judgement until I read the full trilogy.

End of term!!

It has come to that time of the term when everyone is sick and tired of school - teachers and students.  You can see everyone at school has that 'countdown' face going on - where they are all mentally reviewing just how many more times that they have to sit in that class and interact with those students and teachers. 

We are heading back to Traralgon to finish up with the Glengarry property (settlement is on the 14th), catch up with people and then head to Melbourne for a few days.  Russ and I have a romantic weekend booked - just need to be awake and well enough to fully appreciate it...

Disappointing reads from good authors

I have just finished reading two very different books from two authors I usually really like: the new Patricia Brigg's "River Marked" (I have been waiting for this to be published since last year - her Mercy Thompson series is a really fantastic vampire/werewolf series that hasn't sold out), and an old Katie Fforde "A perfect proposal" (usually quite good chicklit).  Both books left me somewhat disappointed.  The Patricia Brigg's is the sixth in the series and the previous books have been really good.   The main character Mercy Thompson is a mechanic who is part native American and is a 'walker' - someone who shapeshifts into a coyote.  Native American folklore is full of stories of Coyote the Trickster (similar to other figures in mythology), and Mercy ends up being the catalyst to a number of different events - there are the Fae (from European fairy folklore), the figures from Native American folklore, vampires (not cast as the amazing lovers/seducers in this series), the werewolves and the largely unsuspecting normal population.  Unfortunately 'River Marked' seems to have lost its way and kind of feels a bit like a filler between bigger books - it introduces other 'walkers' into the storyline but it leaves behind - or only just mentions - characters from the previous novels.  I think this novel is the poorer for centering the action on Mercy and her new husband Adam (there is also something to be said for the loss of the UST (unresolved sexual tension), which gave such depth to many of the previous books).

The Katie Fforde book read like it was a painting by numbers - or merely a plot outline.  It really needed someone to come behind and fill in some of the dimensions and flesh out the characters.  I soldiered on and managed to finish it (because it was all I had to read at the time), but it was an effort - which is precisely what chick lit should not be!  Reading this sort of fiction is supposed to be fun and enjoyable not a labour.  I really felt like pencilling in some character development in between some of the stilted dialogue but didn't think the East Gippsland Shire Library would really appreciate it...

Inhaling kindle books

I read to relieve stress - new job, new town, plenty of stress, LOTS of reading!  As I am in rather a small town with a very small library that only has three branches (and no SWIFT!), I have been spending inordinate time with my kindle downloading cheap books.  I have also spent rather a lot of time reading drivel and tripe (are they the same thing?).  Even though many of the titles have been fairly awful when I am in a book consuming mood they have to be really awful for me to stop reading them.  Consequently I have read rather a lot of mediumly awful books over the last couple of weeks. 

I really think editors need to have a word with their authors and point out that the addition of a werewolf or vampire cannot ressurect (like the link to the vampire theme?), bad writing.  I think it kind of highlights the bad writing as it sticks out like a sore thumb (or a vampire on the beach...).  While they were on the subject they could also add that shoving in a sex scene to fill up some space and a word count is not always best for the storyline...  I am in the middle of a 'take down' of the baddies but I think I will just slip over to the corner for a bit of nookie???  Slightly impractical.

The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton

Have just finished reading The Outsiders for my Year Nine English class.  What a great book!  What was really interesting was that it got even the reluctant boys involved (although not through reading it themselves - there was a bit of reading aloud in class).  Even though it is set in the 1960's it still seems to have a lot of relevance to  the modern teenage angst about belonging and identity.  We also watched the movie that seemed to have every heartthrob of my teenage years in it (Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and more).  Manged to find quite a bit of extra footage on youtube that is not included in the final cut of the movie.  Interesting to see the different emphasis the movie places on characters and story line.  A lot of the movie was very similar to the book but the bits that were ultimately left out seemed to change the whole thrust of the story line.  Instead of it being all about Ponyboy and the gang and how they fit together it was more of a comment on the disintegration of the character of Dally.  Anyone else seen/read it?

The lure of the family saga - even if the book is not that good

I have found myself reading the Nora Roberts Bride Quartet (about four BFFs who set up a bridal business - Parker organises, Emmaline does the flowers, Mackensie takes the photos and Laurel designs the cakes).  I started at book number two (the library didn't have the others when I was there), and even though I am not normally a fan of Roberts straight romances (I prefer the suspense romances as they have  bit of mystery and danger), I found myself sucked in.  I am not that sure why, as the story itself was not very exciting and the details of the bridal business got a tad boring (I am also of the opinion that some people spend way too much money on their weddings!  Some of the trappings that the Quartet (the nickname of the four main characters), were producing for the weddings seemed incredibly over-the-top - but maybe those sort of weddings are normal in the US... 

So even though I felt a bit blah about the story I found myself downloading number three and four onto my Kindle (couldn't wait for them to get into the library!  Why??!).  I think it is because each of the books is about one of the main characters and you begin to buy into them as people and want to find out what happens to them.  I haven't read number one in the series as I already know what happens to Mackensie from the other three books and the story itself is just not that gripping.  I have now satisfied myself with finding out their 'history' but find myself feeling somewhat unfulfilled from reading the books. 

The same thing happened when I started reading Stephanie Laurens and her Cynster family stories - once you cut out all of the gratuitous 'love making', there wasn't that much in the way of story left but there was still the inclination to keep on reading them to find out how all the family members end up.  This is why these writers are able to churn out so many bestsellers - all of their readers begin to buy into the characters and want to know what happens to them all.