War of the Roses trilogy by Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson
This trilogy starts with Knight Errant, a story in which 20 something Hollywood movie producer Robyn meets a man, falls in lust, travels to England to celebrate his birthday only to find out he's married. Enter the scum-sucking ditch pig's sister, who convinces Robyn to go hiking, where she meets a knight out of time and is determined to meet him again. Through witchcraft she is sent back to the 15th Century, gets caught and imprisoned for witchcraft, meets the 15th century version of the scum, his sister and the sister's daughter. Eventually she finds herself back with her knight and falls in love and becomes secretly betrothed to her knight and beloved by the commoners, only to be sent back to modern day England.
Enter Lady Robyn. In this book we find Robyn frantic to get back to her love, Edward of the March (and future King of England as well as the father of the 2 little princes who are later said to be murdered by their uncle in the Tower of London...). Robyn manages to get back to the 15th Century. Robyn is again captured and imprisoned for witchcraft. She spends much of the book lobbying against Edward's uncle's attempt at taking the throne and thus putting Edward in direct line of succession, and therefore making the lives of her future children uncertain (see above comment about the little princes). Robyn and Edward are reunited and publicly flaunt their engagement and everyone is happy. Until...
The White Rose. Here again Robyn finds herself transported back to modern day England where this time she and her sleazy assistant are both transported back to the 15th Century (by the wife of the scum-sucking ditch pig, who greatly dislikes Robyn for sleeping with her husband and realizes that assistant Heidi is ready to seduce the scum as well). Robyn and Heidi are captured (Again. Surpise!) and Heidi takes one for the team and keeps Robyn from being raped by their captor by screwing him herself. Robyn and Heidi leave, travel, get captured and escape, Robyn is in debt to the Venetians and needs Edward to bail her out, blah, blah blah. She uses the Witches' Flight to visit Edward, only to find her rival doing the same thing and Edward of course enjoying himself. She gets pissed, they reunite and NOTHING is tied up and settled. Do they or don't they get married? Does Edward pay her debt? And what about the child that Robyn finds herself carrying early on in the book (because Heidi just happens to have a pregnancy test on her when they are transported to the 15th C...), is it boy or a girl?
Honestly, I enjoyed the first two books in the series, as improbable as they were. I was able to suspend my disbelief and look at this as an alternative history, rather than a true historical account. I mean, for the most part Robyn's witchy-ness was accepted, including the never dying computerized organizer and fancy watch that Robyn wore. Edward even takes to keeping a lighter under his pillow, so it must be an alternate history, right?
But the third book pissed me off. It ended so very abruptly that I thought maybe I had missed something. Were my pages stuck together?? Nope. Ok. Maybe the author decided to add a 4th book. Hmm. Probably not since it's been nearly 6 years since the 3rd book was published. Well what a big ol' pain in the butt.
Because of book 3, I honestly wish I had never picked the series up. It left things too unanswered for me and was decidedly unsatisfying.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Twofer
The Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs.
This was actually the best Mercy Thompson book I think I have read. That's partly because I started with Briggs' Alpha & Omega series, and I've known Samuel longer than I've known Adam and I am heartily sick of the trend of love triangles. But Briggs settled the triangle issue in the last book, pairing Mercy with Adam. She develops that relationship nicely in this book while exploring pack relationships at the same time.
It did make me sad to see Samuel left out in the cold and rather unstable. He's been quite unstable for a while now, seeing Mercy as his chance at redemption and this certainly put an end to that. This book explores his reaction to that and gives us a glimpse of his past as well.
I was certainly left wanting more. More of the pack, more of Samuel's past. (And I certainly want more Alpha & Omega, Fall 2011 is sooo far away...)
My next book is pretty much my answer to the Terry Pratchett-esque Reading Challenge #7: Go to the library and wander into an aisle you do not usually frequent. Pick a book from the shelf and read it. One way to do this is to look in the new books section, and pick something from a category you don’t usually read.
I tend to read anything that sounds good to me, so there really is no aisle that I don't frequent. I even wander through non-fiction occasionally, tending to find a subject and stick with it for a bit before moving on to another subject. So I decided to just look in the new books section and grab something by an author I'd never read before. The title of this book grabbed me.
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.
This book was the story of Reichl's reign as chief restaurant critic of the New York Times. It starts with her being recognized on the plane from LA to NYC and told that all the restaurants in town were keeping on eye out for her. Reichl is shocked to find out just how much is known about her and beings to wonder how she can possibly review restaurants when everyone knows her.
She decides to invent a disguise to allow her to visit restaurants anonymously. She ends up with several disguises, each with its own character and personality quirks.
It was a fun read, poignant and thought provoking at times. And it left me hungry as well, with her detailed descriptions of the food she encountered ;) Conveniently, Reichl offers up recipes along with her remembrances.
This was actually the best Mercy Thompson book I think I have read. That's partly because I started with Briggs' Alpha & Omega series, and I've known Samuel longer than I've known Adam and I am heartily sick of the trend of love triangles. But Briggs settled the triangle issue in the last book, pairing Mercy with Adam. She develops that relationship nicely in this book while exploring pack relationships at the same time.
It did make me sad to see Samuel left out in the cold and rather unstable. He's been quite unstable for a while now, seeing Mercy as his chance at redemption and this certainly put an end to that. This book explores his reaction to that and gives us a glimpse of his past as well.
I was certainly left wanting more. More of the pack, more of Samuel's past. (And I certainly want more Alpha & Omega, Fall 2011 is sooo far away...)
My next book is pretty much my answer to the Terry Pratchett-esque Reading Challenge #7: Go to the library and wander into an aisle you do not usually frequent. Pick a book from the shelf and read it. One way to do this is to look in the new books section, and pick something from a category you don’t usually read.
I tend to read anything that sounds good to me, so there really is no aisle that I don't frequent. I even wander through non-fiction occasionally, tending to find a subject and stick with it for a bit before moving on to another subject. So I decided to just look in the new books section and grab something by an author I'd never read before. The title of this book grabbed me.
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.
This book was the story of Reichl's reign as chief restaurant critic of the New York Times. It starts with her being recognized on the plane from LA to NYC and told that all the restaurants in town were keeping on eye out for her. Reichl is shocked to find out just how much is known about her and beings to wonder how she can possibly review restaurants when everyone knows her.
She decides to invent a disguise to allow her to visit restaurants anonymously. She ends up with several disguises, each with its own character and personality quirks.
It was a fun read, poignant and thought provoking at times. And it left me hungry as well, with her detailed descriptions of the food she encountered ;) Conveniently, Reichl offers up recipes along with her remembrances.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
First Drop of Crimson
by Jeaniene Frost.
This is a new spin off from the world Frost began in her Night Huntress series. It features Cat's best friend, now a widow after losing her husband in the last Night Huntress book.
I really had a hard time getting into it. I missed Cat and Bones. I honestly expected better things from this pairing and I guess maybe my high expectations led me to be let down.
All in all it was an okay book and I'm glad I read it, just because it takes place in the same universe, but I'm glad I got it from the library (which seems to be a familiar theme for me with regular authors lately. Maybe I'm getting jaded, or are the series becoming predictable? Hmmm.)
This is a new spin off from the world Frost began in her Night Huntress series. It features Cat's best friend, now a widow after losing her husband in the last Night Huntress book.
I really had a hard time getting into it. I missed Cat and Bones. I honestly expected better things from this pairing and I guess maybe my high expectations led me to be let down.
All in all it was an okay book and I'm glad I read it, just because it takes place in the same universe, but I'm glad I got it from the library (which seems to be a familiar theme for me with regular authors lately. Maybe I'm getting jaded, or are the series becoming predictable? Hmmm.)
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