Book Review: The Pirate’s Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke

 

Title: The Pirate’s Wish

Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke

Series: The Assassin’s Curse #2

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Book received from publisher via Netgalley but all opinions are my own.

 

At the end of The Assassin’s Curse, Naji and Ananna are stuck on an island waiting and hoping that Marjani will return to rescue them. They’ve learned that there are three impossible tasks they must complete before the curse can be broken. Ananna knows that one of them isn’t impossible and so believes that the others must be possible somehow too. They fairly quickly make it off the island, but not before gaining a manticore as an ally. We meet up with Marjani, more pirates, Ananna’s parents AND there are talking sharks. Yes, talking sharks.

The Pirate’s Wish definitely feels like the second half of a larger book. I also wish it was just the middle. So much happens in the book and happens fast. They just bounce from one place to the next. The way that everything always works out is a bit disappointing. It just all seems too easy.  

Ananna is more self-assured in this book. That is, except when it comes to Naji. Naji is almost too enigmatic. I really wish that we got into his head, but because the book is in first person, we don’t. He is a very fascinating character and I can see what Ananna sees in him.  There are cracks in his armor that only she sees. 

I have mixed feelings for the end. I did like that it was true to the characters and allowed them to not compromise on what was most important, but it isn’t quite a true happily ever after.  While I didn’t like this one as much as the first book, I still really enjoyed it and will seek out more books by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I think there are also some short stories set in this world that I will have to pick up.

Also, is it just me or do Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot books have covers that are filled with awesomesauce?

Tempestuous Eden by Heather Graham

 

Tempestuous Eden was originally the very first Candlelight Ecstasy Supreme (say that five times fast). It’s been reissued a few time, most recently by Open Road Media, which is the version I read.

The novel opens with a series of memos sent between Taylor and G.M. (also referred to as Chief and is Taylor’s boss). Taylor has just asked “why?”

Taylor--

I have one main answer. CLASSIFIED!

Your orders are concise. Stick with Huntington’s daughter; keep her safe; keep her in the dark; move when told.

G.M.

Craig Taylor is NOT happy about keeping an eye on Blair Morgan (Huntington’s daughter). Currently Blair is working in a Central American country with an aid company focusing on hunger. Taylor is sent in as a new recruit and while Blair is instantly suspicious of him, she can’t say why. The rest of the “Hunger Crew” are instantly enamored with him and find his focus on Blair as innocent romantic interest.

As the two work together, they start to fall in lust (and love). The cover is actually rather accurate since a secluded stream plays a part in their romance. Unfortunately, Taylor gets orders to move Blair out of the country and kidnaps her. As Taylor cannot, and will not, tell her who he really is or what he really is doing, she spends the whole trip thinking he is a terrorist. And Taylor knows he’s in for it when the truth comes out.

This was originally published in 1983 and it definitely shows its age, especially with the smoking habit of the main characters. Yes, I know people smoke, but the casualness just isn’t common in stories today. There are a few other details that escape me that date the book, but once I started to read it as, dare I say it, a historical, I found myself enjoying it much more. I understood why these people fell in love and also what motivated their conflict. So while the middle dragged a bit, I enjoyed reading Tempestuous Eden. I may just search out other early Heather Graham books.

-copy of Tempestuous Eden by Heather Graham was provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Engineering erotica

Ah, husbands and the things they say. So I have an erotic romance menage book sitting around that I won't name due to it being a contest book, but my husband was flipping through it and noticed the phrase "testing the tensile strength of the condom" (due to the force of his ejaculation).

As my husband informed me, if anyone should find that hot, it should be an engineer (which he is) and he most assuredly does not.

Seriously, "tensile strength"?

Wow, been a long time.

Oops, I last blogged in October!

Had a rough night last night as L decided to wake up multiple times in the night. It was easy to put her back down each time, but I don't do well with fragmented sleep. She's currently watching Yo Gabba Gabba on the iPad. Why that show I do not know. She's never wanted to watch it before.

I've been doing pretty good in the reading department so far this year. I challenged myself on Goodreads to read 175 books this year. It was around 150 last year. So far I've read 15, so that's pretty good start to the year. Now actually saying something profound about them, who knows?

L is growing like a weed and starting to get attitude. But the moments of cuteness make me forget just how much they work me up. Supermom, I am not. But I still do love being home with her despite everything.

Ironskin by Tina Connolly

 

So freakin’ disappointed in this one. I don’t even think it was the hype, which made it out to be steampunkish and so unique. It’s more of a fantasy/alternate history where WWI was fought with the fey.  It’s unique all right, but all the fantastic elements fall apart in the end.  It’s so very obviously a Jane Eyre-inspired piece which I didn’t know it was going to be going into the story.  I loved Jane Eyre and the romance in that book, but in Ironskin, the romance between Jane and Edward makes no sense. They spend no time together and Jane deciding she loved him seems to come out of nowhere.

The world was interesting, but the more I think about it, the more it kinda falls apart. Honestly, when the book was over, I felt more empathy for the fey than the humans. I’m fairly certain I won’t be picking up future books in the series. A creative world that falls apart upon inspection just doesn’t do it for me when there’s not even a good romance and interesting characters to prop it up.

Ironskin by Tina Connolly. A big fat dud.

Underwhelming romantic suspense

Finally got around to reading Maya Banks’ Echoes at Dawn. Here’s what I said at Goodreads:

I'm iffy about how I felt about this one. I read it fairly quickly, finishing in one night, yet I skimmed a LOT.
I just didn't get a sense of Rio and Grace actually falling in love. Maybe lust. And Rio....he talked too much. His speeches to Grace about healing and getting her telepathy back and whatnot just grew old after awhile.
I like the concept of this series, but I don't think it's working for me anymore. Makes me want to go back and read Linda Howard's Midnight Rainbow again. I want to read something like that again.

But now I’m in the mood for a good military romantic suspense. Help! I really like action and what something fast-paced. And no wimpy heroines. Grace, for all that we heard she was strong, was weak in this book.

Renewal and birth–or rather, me blogging!

So I’m once again trying to get back in the saddle. I’ve got a two year old and I've been a stay at home mother since her birth. I still read a lot, but struggle with remembering what I read the night before long enough to get it down. Need to write myself notes at night. Any tips? It seems such a pain to annotate on the Nook Color, but do people use it that way? Or maybe I just need to put a book light on a notepad and do it that way.  Hmmm…nice how ideas come to me when I’m typing. Seriously, I cannot tell you how many hundreds of blog posts I’ve written in my head before falling asleep. Hundreds.

And on birth, I do have another blog I started up. N²+1 (My husband and I, plus my daughter). It’s more about everyday stuff and my adventures as a Pinterest-addict.

Update on those June titles

I posted here about June 2012 anticipate titles, but only have gotten around to reading a few.

Devil’s Gate by Thea Harrison was okay. Not the best in her Elder Races series, but a nice dip into the world until the next book comes out.

The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresina was delightful. I really loved that the hero wasn’t nobility. No one becomes rich in the end or is discovered to be a long-lost heir. It’s not a perfect book, but I found I liked it enough to really not care about the issues I found with it. I look forward to reading more books by Fresina.

I tried to read Worldsoul by Liz Williams, but I couldn’t get into it. I was just too confused in the beginning and wasn’t interested enough to wait until things were tied together. I do LOVE her Inspector Chen series, though.

Finally read Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh. I love her Psy/Changeling series, but as a standalone romance, this one didn’t really make the grade. I had fun reading it and thought it a good addition to the series, but it’s really a continuation of Hawke and Sienna’s story. And I now want more Vasic. I’d love to see how she’s fix such a broken man.

Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey is another Elemental Masters story. It’s just average and while a comfort read, if this is your first foray into the world, I doubt you’d be fired up to read more. There are much better books in the series. It is romantic, in its own way, as are most of the books in the series.

Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander really surprised me. I really enjoyed it. Edie Claire just really clicked with me. She may not be the most likeable character, but I found her interesting. Can’t wait for the sequel, Moonshifted, in November.

Chocolate Milk

When you have a cold and your two year old asks for chocolate milk, well, she gets it. I survived my week in Minneapolis only to get a cold. Yech.

June 2012 titles I’m interested in

 

So there you go. Some books I want to look into/read.

Drive-by mini reviews

Going to make a quick run-down of what I've read lately.

A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare - stayed up WAY too late reading this. There's this awesome scene where they are trading math terms.

The Bro-Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted - chick lit from a guy's perspective. Surprisingly good.

Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward - yes, this series is like crack. I know it's bad, but I can't stop reading.

Natural Evil and Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison - Ms. Harrison is fast becoming a favorite paranormal romance author.

All three of Michael J Sullivan's Riyria Revelations. This fantasy series is SO good. I just adored it and couldn't stop reading once I started.

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs - the latest in her Alpha Omega series. Not my favorite in the series, but I still love everything she writes.

An Affair with Mr. Kennedy by Jillian Stone - good. I hope to read more in the series and can't wait for her next book.

Trick of Treatment by Simon Singh - excellent book about alternative medicine.

Baby Talk by Sally Ward - good book about encouraging kids to talk

My Pinterest Addiction

 

Okay, I admit it, I’m a Pinterest addict. I love love love this site. Just love it. So who else is a Pinterest addict with me?

Phoenix Rising by Corrina Lawson

Phoenix Rising by Corrina Lawson

1st book in The Phoenix Institute series

Here’s the blurb from Samhain’s site:

He was born to be a weapon. For her, he must learn to be a hero.
A Phoenix Institute story
Since birth, Alec Farley has been trained to be a living weapon. His firestarter and telekinetic abilities have been honed to deadly perfection by the Resource, a shadowy anti-terrorist organization—the only family he has ever known. What the Resource didn’t teach him, though, is how to play well with others.
When psychologist Beth Nakamora meets Alec to help him work on his people skills, she’s hit with a double-barreled first impression. He’s hot in more ways than one. And her first instinct is to rescue him from his insular existence.
Her plan to kidnap and deprogram him goes awry when her latent telepathic ability flares, turning Alec’s powers off. Hoping close proximity will reignite his flame, she leads him by the hand through a world he’s never known. And something else flares: Alec’s anger over everything he’s been denied. Especially the passion that melds his mind and body with hers.
The Resource, however, isn’t going to let anything—or anyone—steal its prime investment. Alec needs to be reminded where his loyalties lie…starting with breaking his trust in the woman he’s come to love.

Product Warnings

Contains telekinetic sex, nuclear explosion sex hot enough to melt steel, and various and sundry swear words.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I feel like I should have loved it since it’s an idea I like. I want to read more superhero/comic book type romances. Give me some X-Men or Wildcats or Witchblade or something along those lines (I confess to being a product of 90s comics. I was an Image fan. No one ever said I had the best taste in comics). Marjorie Liu comes very very close with her Dirk and Steele books, but I really do want more.

One of the main problems I had with this book is that Alec seemed so juvenile in his emotions. I never quite found him romance hero material. Hero material, yes, but he seemed locked in his teens as far as his hormones went. This is not what I want when reading an action romance. Beth also seemed so young and I never really felt as if she was the competent, professional that she was supposed to be. I almost found the leader of F-Team (the elite team that backs him up) more appealing. Actually, I found Beth’s adopted father Drake intriguing too. Now if there were books about them, I’d read them.

Even with all the problems that I had with the two main characters, I did enjoy reading the book. I liked the writing, for the most part, and aside from Alec’s rather juvenile behavior, the action was great. I will look for the next book in the series since I think it has potential and my qualms with this one are mostly with these particular protagonists. Next time, hopefully, we won’t be trying to meld a coming-of-age story with an action romance. So in the end, I thought of it as a happy-for-now, rather than a happy-ever-after.

Does anyone have any suggestions for some action/superhero romances?

January TBR Challenge and a few other things

 

 

 

When I saw that Wendy was doing another TBR Challenge for 2012, I decided that maybe, just maybe, this would be a way to get my butt in gear and this poor neglected blog back in action. A lot has happened in the past few years. I have a kid who’s almost 2 and I also no longer work at a bookstore. I also have found myself reading less and less book blogs and more home/design/family blogs. So I really have changed focus and keep wondering if I should just start over with a new blog, or keep all the old stuff. Who knows? Any ideas? But whoever said that I would stop reading once I had kids obviously was not a true reader. I still read a ton.

On to the TBR Challenge! In honor of Wendy, our fearless leader, I chose…

The Major and the Librarian by Nikki Benjamin!

I’m going to swipe my book description from Amazon.

 

For four years Major Sam Griffin had stayed away from Serenity, Texas, gruffly avoiding the fact that he was still heart-achingly in love with the woman who had almost married his brother.

Now home on leave, the devastatingly handsome pilot had to face beautiful Emma Dalton again. And though there was unmistakable yearning in her eyes, Sam could never put down the roots he knew the shy librarian so strongly craved. When Sam finally had the chance to win the heart of the woman he'd always loved, could he convince Emma that her home would always be where he was?

This blurb doesn’t really do the book justice. Yes, Emma almost married his brother, but the reason she doesn’t, is that he dies the day of the wedding. And so Emma and Sam haven’t spoken since as each has secrets that they haven’t shared. Sam has good reason to believe that it was his fault and Emma also has good reason to have felt guilt. Sam comes home when Emma, who is close to Sam’s mother, sends him a letter telling him his mother has cancer.  So he comes home, and eventually, the truth comes out, as we all knew it would.

I actually quite liked it. Emma and Sam really do have good reasons for their actions (avoiding each other, etc), so the lack of them just hashing things out all at once was reasonable.  The Major and the Librarian isn’t a really deep emotional book, but it was a nice winter afternoon read.  I enjoyed how the .romance played out as they got to know each other again while they cared for Sam’s mother. One thing that did bother me is that although we are shown how Sam’s career as a Naval officer impacts his life, Emma’s librarian job is just wallpaper. She could have been anything. So librarian fail. At least we didn’t have her as an uptight virgin!

If I had to grade this, I’d give it a C+. Glad I read it, but it’s not a keeper or something I feel compelled to have around to reread.

Out Loud!: Meg Cabot

So last night was the last Out Loud! event that the local library system here has put on. It was the first time I went to an event and I will definitely have to go to more. They have had some major authors in the past and I hope it continues.



I've enjoyed Meg Cabot's books in the past and after hearing her speak, I'm even more inclined to pick them up. The woman is hilarious. An audience member compared her to Tina Fey and last night I'd have to agree. She had the audience cracking up as she recounted her childhood. I will be thinking of space ships and princes every time I hear basketball for awhile. And about the "vampires" she encountered while she worked at NYU.

After her presentation, which included powerpoint slides with images of rejection letters and illustrated school notebooks, there was a nice long Q & A. She did a great job of calling on people of all ages, from middle schoolers to older readers and aspiring authors of all ages. After that, she did a book signing. Barnes and Noble had lots of her books available for sale, including her newest (but alas, no hist. romance), Overbite. I bought She Went All the Way for myself (I don't think I've read it)and decided I would get two of Cabot's younger audience books for Linnea. So I picked up the first Allie Finkle book and the first of the Princess Diaries.

One thing that I noticed about the presentation, but didn't mention it at the time is that she doesn't make any mention of her historical romances. Perhaps it was because of the audience of tweens and up, but I like her historical romances, so it was a bit disappointing. As she signed my books, I did ask her when those particular books would go to e-format and she said hopefully soon as it is being looked into.

If you ever get a chance to see Meg Cabot speak, GO! She was gracious and laugh-out-loud funny.

5 - 365 in 2011

 

"Gimme that camera!"

4 - 365 in 2011

 

Not the best picture, but she's still cute.

3 - 365 in 2011

 

2 - 365 in 2011

 

365 Photos in 2011

 

Came back from running errands to find Gambit enjoying the heat from Nick's netbook. Love the look on his face. He's about to yawn, in case you were wondering.