REVIEW | A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

Publication Year: 2016

Genre: Historical Mystery (?) Science Fiction (?)
Series: Kendra Donovan #1

Awards: None
Format: Audio (from Audible)

Narrator: Lucy Rayner

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WHY?: Murder! Mystery! Time Travel! 

SYNOPSIS:  Kendra Donovan is a genius who was more experiment than daughter to her parents, so it's no surprise that she rebelled against them and is using all her inherited smarts as a profiler for the FBI.  After an operation goes terribly wrong she chases the perpetrator to a role-playing house party in the English countryside where, while in pursuit, she unceremoniously is transported back to 1815. While stumbling around trying to find her footing in this weird situation, one of the housemaids goes missing and she snaps into full-on FBI mode which, needless to say, is rather shocking for all the 1815ers.  

THOUGHTS

I liked this book.  I really, really did.  I'm putting this right up front because I suspect that contrary to that fact, my review is going to read like a litany of complaints.  There were a number of little things that bugged me and kept the book from being all it could be but even with all that I had an enjoyable time reading it.  So just keep that in mind while I fail to prevent myself from whining about what was and what could have been.

A Murder in Time's protagonist and main perspective character is Kendra Donovan.  When we meet her at the start of the novel she is a brainy FBI agent yearning to see a little field action.  She gets her wish but unfortunately it's in an operation that goes terribly wrong.  Afterwards, she gets really pissed off and goes rogue in order to get revenge on the big bad.  She's on the verge of getting said revenge when she walks down a hallway in a English country manor house, walks through a door and into the 19th Century.  There is very little explanation for this in this book though there are some hints that discovering why and how she went back in time will play a larger role in future books.

Once the book shifts in time, the story really begins.  A missing housemaid leads into a mystery and manhunt that is an interesting and fun whodunnit.  Kendra must figure out how to solve a crime without modern law enforcement technology and must rely more heavily on her profiling skills.  Needless to say, in a society that sees women as delicate, emotional flowers, she sticks out like a sore thumb. She makes little effort to blend in with the time period which in many ways bugged me (more on that later) but the author was clever to have her stick to being American so Kendra is able to pass off her eccentricities to her nationality. Because, obviously, Americans are crazy!  I may seem like I'm joking there but I'm not - we're nuts  - hopefully in a lovable way. 

There are a couple of other characters that help Kendra and are quite interesting as well. The first is the owner of the manor house, who is luckily for Kendra, a little scholarly and eccentric so he is very tolerant and open-minded about Kendra her behavior.  I can see him developing into a father figure for Kendra whose real family in the modern day is less than ideal.  The second is a noble spinster lady, about Kendra's own age, who is scarred by smallpox and who chafes against society's restrictions on women. In solidarity, she takes Kendra under her wing despite being rather shocked by her.  To be honest, and this is a big reason for mild dissatisfaction, I actually found both these two characters more interesting and likable than Kendra.  

Which leads nicely into the complaining portion of post. The book had so much potential and only partially lived up to it in my estimation.  The first issue I thought was with the beginning.  The book didn't really get interesting for me until the first murder is discovered in the historic time period and there is SO MUCH set up and dallying in the modern-day before that takes place.  I appreciate that the author really wanted to establish Kendra's life in contemporary times before shooting her into the past but I honestly didn't feel like I got to know her all that well in those first chapters and the modern day storyline was boring and pointless.  

And speaking of the modern day, one of my biggest complaints which has nothing to do with the book itself was with the audio version.  The narrator, Lucy Rayner, was all wrong for it in my opinion.  She has this very plummy, almost cartoonish British accent with a treacly sweet voice.  It's really jarring during the modern day section where the author is going for hard-boiled modern America with F bombs being dropped and an elaborate shoot out.  In the historic sections it fits a little better but she was still too sweet voiced for this.  I could see her reading the crap out of a Gail Carriger book or a particularly fluffy Regency romance but a mystery/thriller starring an American lead? Nope. 

Kendra.  The reader is repeatedly told what a genius Kendra is, and not in a normal sort of way - she is supposed to be a brilliant, through-the-roof, graduated from college when she was 15 kind of smart. She's read Jane Austen and at times recalls dates in history for specific and often obscure inventions. From her actions, she's not great with people but she doesn't completely lack social skills.  Put all of that together and you'd think she'd be on the ball enough to at least try to be inconspicuous and fit into the time period she finds herself in, but nope.  She doesn't even really seem to try and it is only because she has the good fortune to find herself with the two champions I mention above that she is not carted off to a madhouse or tarred and feathered.  She's always bossing everyone about, finding herself alone with gentlemen and referring to modern day things carelessly.  It stressed me out!  Maybe I need to stop reading so much literature set in the Regency era,lol. Her fish out of water behavior definitely leads to a few interesting scenes but overall it just felt lazy that Kendra didn't even try to fit in.  The author, I think, was just really jazzed up about using modern forensic profiling in a historic setting so didn't fuss with the reality of the situation. Your mileage will vary on how much that bothers you.

There is some romance for our intrepid heroine but the love interest is basically "Generic Regency Dude" and the interactions between he and Kendra who is also a little flat, are  pretty lackluster.  The chemistry isn't absent but it's barely bubbling.  I was much more invested in headstrong spinster lady friend finding herself some lovin' but there isn't even a whisper in that direction.  

FINAL VERDICT:  I found this time-travel mystery thriller to be a mixed bag - it had a lot of potential but only got halfway there, at least for what I was looking for.  The mystery was pretty good and because of that and some of the side characters, I am definitely interested in checking out subsequent books in the series. 3 out of 5 stars.

OTHER OPINIONS ARE AVAILABLE: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books | The Lit Bitch

REVIEW | A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde

A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde

Publication Year: 2016

Genre: Historical Mystery
Series: Rosalind Thorne Mysteries #1

Awards: None
Format: Audio (from Audible)

Narrator: Sarah Nichols

WHY?: It was on sale at Audible, I love historical mysteries and the Regency era is one of my favorite time periods, primarily because of Our Lady, Jane and all the romances inspired by her that are set in this era.

SYNOPSIS:  Rosalind Thorne is a useful woman in Regency Society.  While no longer considered part of the Haute Ton, she has managed to hold on to enough of her respectability, after a scandal, to be able to support herself by advising and doing small favors and jobs for the society ladies.  Her life suddenly gets more complicated when she finds a corpse in the famous ballroom of Almack's and her help is solicited in finding out what happened.  

THOUGHTS:

I was really chuffed to stumble upon this book on Audible, the first in a new historical mystery series.  The Regency time period is always fun to visit and I was especially excited that this series featured a woman detective.  I was interested to see how Wilde would manage this, given how hemmed in by society's rules women of this time were.  I think ultimately she manages it pretty well primarily by opening up Regency society to include what we would now call the middle class but then is probably more accurately termed the working class.  This is a class of mostly educated men and women who perform work that is above the blue collar and servant classes but they must work and earn a living unlike the gentry.  

When we meet Rosalind Thorne she is a genteel and wealthy young lady, not noble but high enough to have achieved an Almack's invitation. She's met a boy of similar station and fallen in love and all seems right with the world.  Then disaster strikes within her family and the book skips ahead a few years.  With the fall in Rosalind's prospects, she lost her beau and her family, but she has landed on her feet in a pretty unique way.  She was taken under the wing of a relatively influential society lady who kept her afloat until she'd made herself, with her good sense and taste, an indispensable asset to many of the ladies of the Ton.  It's quite unique to see an independent, spinster lady during this time period and I'm unsure just how realistic this was but the scenario is plausible.  

Rosalind is a fine protagonist, if a tad on the vanilla and boring side.  I like that she's pretty independent and believably brave about tracking down a murderer (i.e. she's not foolishly reckless but she doesn't back down).  She has two love interests in the book, one of which I clearly prefer but both of which pose interesting relationship conundrums.  One represents her past and the other the woman she is evolving into.   It's a pretty decent set-up for a fairly low key love triangle.

The story itself is okay.  Wilde does get a little too bogged down sometimes in the minutiae of Regency custom and life but I generally dig that stuff so it didn't bother me much. However, if you're looking for a cracking, page turner of a mystery this isn't going to ring that bell.  The mystery story isn't inconsequential but it won't win any awards for inventiveness or suspense.  

I liked the book and I intend to read on in the series though I won't obsessive about it.  Rosalind is an engaging enough protagonist and has great potential as a character. I'm also pretty interested in how her romance works out. 

It's been a few weeks since I listened to the book and I don't really remember the narrator which is generally a good thing.  She was fine and a good pick for this type of book. 

FINAL VERDICT: This is a perfectly fine and low key historical mystery with a dash of romance set in one of my favorite time periods to read about; Regency England.  I'll be picking up the sequels.  3 out of 5 stars

BRIEF THOUGHTS | The Enola Holmes Series by Nancy Springer

Several years ago (okay, so apparently it was 2014 which wasn't that long ago), I read the first in Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes series, The Case of the Missing Marquess.  This is (ostensibly) a middle-grade series featuring Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes' heretofore unknown 14 year old sister Enola Holmes.  Every bit as brilliant as her sleuth brother and not inclined to life as a proper young lady in Victorian England, when Ma Holmes disappears, Enola chooses to strike out on her own.  Along the way of course she solves some mysteries.  

Sounds fun, right?  Well it is and it isn't but more on that in a sec.  I am a bit of a Sherlock Holmes fan fiction junkie and will read anything that has that Holmesian flavor.  Picking up this series was a no brainer and with the set up I was ready to be delighted.  After recently reading the second and third books in the series, The Case of the Left-handed Lady and The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, I instead found myself mildly depressed, stressed and a little confused. 

My memories of the first book were vague but I feel like Enola interacted with a few other children her age and I went into these two books expecting those characters to be recurring and to play a part in Enola's adventures.  Springer makes the bold and unusual choice of not going that direction and keeping Enola completely alone.  It is obviously what she intended for the character from the beginning judging by the fact that Enola's named spelled backwards is 'alone'.  It's an interesting choice and unfortunately it doesn't really work for me.  

First of all it stresses me out.  Enola is 14 and while in my head I know that girls of that time matured faster or at least more mature things were expected from them at that age and that Enola in particular is especially smart, my heart was not okay with this situation.  How dare Enola's mother purposefully abandon her child to the mercy of her chauvinist brothers and an even crueler world. In books two and three, Enola has accepted her mother's leaving her but spends most of the time in her head, where the reader resides, pining for her mother and feeling desperately lonely. It was distressing in the extreme to me.  As such, I also thought the books read older than middle-grade and are more properly young adult.

Enola being always alone poses a narrative problem as well.  Enola has no one to talk to or interact with  - the reader is stuck in her head as she talks to herself and follows logic trains.  I found it rather tedious and boring.  Even the notoriously odd and anti-social Sherlock has a companion, because hanging around in his head might be an interesting story but not perhaps a very gripping one.  Relationships and their evolution are interesting to me so to give Enola none, even with her brothers, is kind of a bummer.  I respect that Springer avoided the ubiquitous romance found in female character led YA and middle-grade lit but a friend or two would have really made these books work so much better for me.

There are positives of course.  The mysteries are interesting and involve a lot of secret codes.  The secret language of flowers is used frequently particularly in Bizarre Bouquets.  The series is also unapologetically feminist and Enola is an independent girl rebelling against society's sexist expectations.  I just wish the the books weren't so darn grim and melancholy. I listened to the audio of Bizarre Bouquets and it is read by one of my favorite narrators, Katherine Kellgren but unfortunately the rather sober tone of the book is much suited to Kellgren's enthusiastic and vocally acrobatic style.

Okay, so maybe my thoughts weren't all that brief. Anyway, I'm left feeling a little unsure about whether I will continue with the series. I suspect that much of my negative reaction to the books is really just disappointment of my expectations of zany and charming Holmes stories. Has anyone else read this series? What are your thoughts about it?  Am I being overly sensitive and critical?

REVIEW | Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Publication Year: 1984

Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: NA

Awards: None
Format: Audio (from Library)

Narrator: Grover Gardner

WHY?: For some reason this book is in my head as a classic.  In reality it was written in the 1980s and won no awards.  So I think it was just a bestseller when I was a kid and got stuck in my head.  

SYNOPSIS:  The book is set during the year 1906 in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, U.S.A.  It is told from the perspective of the 14 year old Will Tweedy and relates the events surrounding his grandfather's too quick re-marriage to a younger woman after the death of his first wife which scandalizes the whole town.  

MY THOUGHTS:

I really enjoy a good coming of age tale, especially if it takes place in an idyllic past or a small town peopled by quirky folks.  Cold Sassy Tree is all of these things and I definitely enjoyed those elements of the story but in the end, my feelings about the book were a little complicated. I liked the book with some reservations.

The book does a skillful job evoking a bygone age.  An age that actually was on the cusp of change - during the course of the book there are debates about the town's leadership wanting to change Cold Sassy's name to something more progressive sounding and during the book the town gets its first motorcars.  Indeed, the events at the heart of book make a stir because they buck established convention.  The figure at the eye of the maelstrom is E. Rucker Blakeslee, the 59 year old grandfather of the book's 14 year old narrator Will Tweedy.  In many ways, Grandpa Blakeslee rejects the "progress" coming to the town but in some other pretty significant ways he has no problem embracing change, especially if it benefits him.  

The book is a very readable portrait of the town and this larger than life man at this one moment of time spanning a few months.  Much of its charm can be credited to the narrator Will Tweedy.  The story, which at times is grim and the people, who are at times despicable, are made more bearable by being seen through the relatively innocent eyes of Will.  The book is also infused with a good dose of humor and the style of writing is folksy without being twee.  It manages to be one of those books with a tone that can make you laugh while also feeling a little sad and thoughtful.  I think if this had been a more serious novel, I would've reacted very negatively to Rucker but in the end I was just a little disgusted with him.  

One of the main themes of the book is a contemplation of death and mortality.  Two characters die and even Will faces a near death experience.  It questions the extent of God's hand in our fates, how death affects the living and what is properly due to the dead. As I mentioned, it could have gotten quite grim but manages to stay upbeat and light for the most part. This focus on mortality is of particular interest because the author actually began the book after she was diagnosed with Lymphoma, and she felt inspired to start adapting her family's history into this fictional novel.  It was obvious that she had a lot of questions and that mortality was on her mind.

I suppose I've got to tackle the character of Rucker. Rucker is a character with a capital C  - he's feisty, irreverent, strong-willed and full of life.  He's complex and interesting but not always likeable and I have to say while I appreciated that, I was also pretty disappointed about what a selfish old coot he ends up being.  This is definitely a man's world being portrayed  - a rich white man's world to be precise - which is a pretty accurate portrait of the time and place but the book doesn't do a lot to comment on this.  That's a fine creative choice but I found it frustrating and in the end it tempered my enthusiasm for the book.   The women aren't without agency or spunk but they nevertheless come off as being there, at and for the men's pleasure. 

Well known and renowned narrator Grover Gardner read the audiobook and he does a fantastic job.  There is a lot of southern dialect ( for example: “Livin' is like pourin' water out of a tumbler into a dang Coca-Cola bottle. If'n you skeered you can't do it, you cain't. If'n you say to yourself, "By dang, I can do it!" then, by dang, you won't slosh a drop.”) and he handles it all well and makes it sound natural.  In fact, reading the quote above convinces me that listening to the audiobook may be the way to go as I think I might have been distracted by the dialect in writing.

FINAL VERDICT:  An interesting and relatively entertaining portrait of life in a small Georgia town at the turn of the century.  

Rating Among Similar Books: 

Rating Among All Books: 

Character Rating: 

OVERALL RATING: 

Other Opinions Are Available: The Blog of Litwits 

REVIEW | The Colonel's Lady by Laura Frantz

The Colonel's Lady by Laura Frantz

Publication Year: 2011

Genre: Romance, Christian (inspirational), Historic

Series: NA

Awards: NA
Format: Ebook from Library

Narrator: NA

WHY?:  It's complicated? Or perhaps a long story?  I am not a religious person though I am also not hostile to religion.  I am fine reading a book that espouses moderate Christian values but I don't want to be preached at.  However, the most important thing for me in a romance novel are the characters and the relationship development and while I don't mind a sex scene or two, I do think they can be a crutch and aren't really necessary to a satisfying romance. Also, I like a romance that take its time (slow burn) and it seems in traditional romance there is an expectation for the sexy times to make an appearance pretty early in the book which kind of rushes things along and makes me sad.  So, despite my reservations, I have been eyeing Christian (or inspirational) romances for a while to see if perhaps these might give me the slow burn romance I'm looking for.  A fellow blogger (who I can't remember dang it) recommended another book by this author but this book was available at the library and looked interesting.

SYNOPSIS:  It's 1779 and America is in the midst of the Revolutionary War.  Roxanna Rowan's mother has just died and she is left with nothing to do but travel from Virginia to a Colonial Army outpost in Kentucky where her Father is posted.  Unfortunately when she arrives, she discovers her father has also died but the handsome, Irish Colonel McLinn who commands the fort vows to take her under his wing  Guess what happens next?

THOUGHTS: 
I won't be coy; this book didn't really work for me.  It was okay and honestly did a lot of things very well!  The writing was good, the story was mostly good, the historical details were interesting, the romantic scenes were lovely.  Frantz does a good job slowly drawing the two lovebirds to their Happily Ever After.  It's not rushed and their feelings develop naturally.  Colonel Cass McLinn is a suitably dreamy hero though a smidge too Alpha for my preferences.  For all this goodness it definitely deserves at least the 3 out of 5 stars I've given it.  I think for most readers, particularly Christian readers this book will work well for you.

However, I had three main problems with the book that kept me from loving it:

1) Roxie, the heroine, is boring.  She also spends much of the book depressed or in despair.  Understandable, considering her parents are both gone, she has no safety net and she's stuck at a military fort in the wilderness.  Understandable or not, though, it is just not fun reading about someone so mopey and woe is me.  She's also just so....good...both morally and skills wise.  Because she bored me I was also rather bored by the romance.  It was believably developed but it was also rather ho hum.  There's a little bit of excitement towards the end but it's too little too late and it all felt just a little too inevitable.

2) My personal preference, and it's a strong one, is for frivolous and funny romances.  With a morose heroine and a stern and serious military hero, this book was neither of those things.  It was exceedingly earnest and fraught with angst.  There is good dialogue but no witty banter or saucy exchanges. 

3) It was a little too heavy on the preaching and bible quoting for my taste.  For much of the first part of the book McLinn has lost his faith but Roxie's pure heart and staunch belief help him to embrace his faith again.  It mostly fits in with the narrative being told and there were no beliefs pushed that I would struggle with but I just could have done with less.  So maybe Christian fiction ain't my cup of tea?  I've read at least one other book by an author labeled as writing "christian fiction" and the religious components were much more subtle so perhaps I'm not ready to give up yet and really this wasn't too over-the-top.

One smaller complaint, and this could be said about many if not most romances, is that I would've liked the secondary characters to be more developed and less caricatures.  There are a few other woman in the "cast" but they are mostly there so Roxie has someone to talk to.  

FINAL VERDICT:  This book wasn't my cup of tea but I was impressed enough by the author's writing that I'd definitely plan to give another of her books a shot. My lack of connection with the book was really for very personal reasons which I tried to make clear so that if you don't share them, you should not hesitate to read this overall well done romance.  3 out of 5 stars

Other Opinions Are Available: Historical Novel Society | The Ramblings of Two Readers

REVIEW | The Woman Who Rides Like A Man by Tamora Pierce

The Woman Who Rides Like A Man by Tamora Pierce

Publication Year: 1986

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Series: The Song of the Lioness

Awards: NA
Format: Audio

Narrator: Trina Alvarado

WHY: Well, it's pretty self-explanatorily the third book in a series I have been enjoying.

Out of guilt and sadness, I've been dragging my feet about writing this review.  You see, most of my thoughts on this YA classic are pretty negative which bums me out and makes me feel like an old curmudgeonly jerk.  But before I get to the complaining, here's what happens in the book.

SYNOPSIS:  Alanna of Trebond is now officially a knight and she sets off into the world to do knightly things.  Honestly, I don't remember if she has a goal when she sets out?  Anyway, she ends up being captured by the people who live in the Desert, the Bashir (sp?), who are obviously patterned after a generic middle-eastern culture.  Even though this culture only allows women into more home-based roles, Alanna quickly wins them over, beats the one bad person who doesn't love her and becomes the tribe's shaman.  She adopts 3 young people as her apprentices and brings Prince Jonathan in to broker a historic alliance between the two peoples.  

The positives?  I liked the change of setting and an exploration of a slightly different form of magic.  The story while a little meandering was interesting enough to keep me listening.  The tone of the books has become more and more overtly feminist which is mostly a good thing.  Pierce doesn't inject or explore a lot of the nuance between feminism and a respect of a different culture though she doesn't do a terrible job  - she doesn't demonize the entire desert culture/people, just certain elements and the book does suggest that some of the feminist shifts are already slowly happening naturally.  However, there is a touch of the white savior complex happening here.

And that's about it for the positives.

My major beef in this installment, if you can't tell from the synopsis, is with Alanna who has become increasingly less appealing as the series has gone on.  I loved the spunky cross-dressing girl of the first book who worked hard to become a knight.  Unfortunately, her characterization has become increasingly shallow and unbelievable as time has gone on and she crossed the line into unlikeable for me in this book.  

Reason number one is that she is good, nee the best, at absolutely everything.  Oh she messes up now and again but even her screw ups end up just making people love her more.  Because they all do.  Love her.  Most of the men she encounters want her or if they're a little older, wish she was their daughter.  In fact, her old teacher Myles officially adopts her and leaves her his estate and all his wealth.  Oh there's a few people who don't like her which immediately tags them as the villains of the piece.  Basically,  she is too good at everything and everybody loves her too much for her to be relateable and she is not given enough depth to balance her perfection.

And then there is her love life which is literally THE WORST.  I liked when Prince Jonathan and she started up a clandestine affair in book 2 but when it was revealed that her friend George also had the hots for her I almost audibly groaned.  In this book some manufactured strife is created by Pierce pretty randomly injecting some hard core male chauvinism into Jonathan.  He starts off legitimately struggling with the weight of responsibility that comes with being the heir to the throne and is feeling stifled and restless.  Alanna is completely unsympathetic about this despite the fact that many of her objections to getting married, because of course Jonathan proposes, are exactly the same reasons he is struggling. She at least has the luxury of saying no or at least not right now.  It is at this point Pierce has Jonathan suddenly and uncharacteristically act like an Alpha-hole out of a romance novel so that Alanna has an excuse to storm off in a huff while being morally superior and judgmental.  And of course she heads to George.  Whom she begins sleeping with.  After hearing rumors that Prince Jonathan is paying attention to another lady.

And please don't think that I am slut-shaming in any way.  If Alanna enjoys sex she can sleep around all she likes.  What I have a problem with is that she is sleeping with two men who are in love with her while she is not entirely sure of her feelings or intentions.  Both the men are ready to make a commitment to her  - their intentions are clear.  She comes across as using them for comfort and to boost her self-esteem while not having any intention of returning their commitment.  It's pretty crappy.  And it should make me like her more because it's a break in her perfection but the problem is there are no real consequences or payoff in the book.  Everybody still loves her.  It's sloppy and shallow and the whole kerfuffle just feels false and manufactured.

 Contemplating it, I think I wouldn't have had these problems with Alanna if I had read this at 15.  I wouldn't have minded the lack of complex and consistent characterization and would have just enjoyed having a strong, desirable female to read about.  However as an adult, her character is just not working for me anymore.

FINAL VERDICT:  This book mostly just gave me a headache but I have enough love for books one and two of this series to finish it out and will continue on to book 4.  As such it gets a generous 3 out of 5 stars.

Other Opinons Are Available: Book Whispers | Leaf's Reviews

REVIEW | Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series by Rick Riordan

Book 1 | The Lightning Thief | 2005

Book 2 | The Sea of Monsters | 2006

Book 3 | The Titan's Curse | 2007

Book 4 | The Battle of the Labyrinth | 2008

Book 5 | The Last Olympian | 2009

WHY?: Honestly I'm surprised it took me as long as it did to start this series.  I was (and still am) a HUGE Greek Mythology nerd as a kid and this series would have been a godsend (Hee!) for me back then.  It's natural that I would pick it up now.

This book was my entry into the sordid world of the Greek Gods.

If you've never read it and have any interest in Greek Mythology go get it and read it now. Go on.  I'll wait.  ......  Isn't it great and the artwork stunning?  I eventually graduated on to Bulfinch's Mythology and Edith Hamilton's Mythology but D'Aulaires' will always have my heart.  I would pore over it again and again and again and my young self was never even phased by the fact that the Gods?  Kind of assholes and really amoral.  It is one of the things that is so great  and impressive about Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.  He manages to capture all the stuff that fascinated me as a child and he doesn't ignore the more troublesome aspects of the mythology but it also never seems sordid and ugly.  It's full of love, adventure and Satyrs just like D'Aulaires.

From D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. I like how Aphrodite is at the bottom all "I was born of sea foam so who knows where I fit on this family tree!"

Persisus or "Percy" Jackson is a dyslexic 12 year old, apple of his mother's eye but who has seemingly been kicked out of every school in New York City.  Unbeknownst to him, his father happens to be a Greek God. I won't say which as that is a bit of a spoiler for the first part of book one but suffice it to say his dad is very powerful.  Percy becomes aware that there is something different about him when he starts to see things others do not.  Oh and his math teacher turns into a monster and tries to kill him.  Percy is what is known as a demi-god which are somewhat more  plentiful than you would assume (or if you've read the Greek myths maybe not) and all these children of the Gods are powerfully attractive to monsters.  Many don't live for very long and others are destined to be great heroes.  Before their fate is known however many, including Percy are found and brought to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp in upstate New York where they are kept safe and trained to take on missions for the good of the Gods of Olympus.

Rather than going into the plot of each book, the overall trajectory of the series is to follow Percy from the age of 12 to the age of 16, when a great prophecy says he (or some child of the gods) will make a decision that will save or destroy the world.  Each book features a different quest-type adventure except for the final book in the series which focus on a war among the Gods and the fulfillment of Percy's prophecy.  On all his quests Percy has some help from his friends like Grover a somewhat bumbling but goodhearted satyr who just wants to find the lost nature god Pan; Annabeth, daughter of Athena and very smart; Tyson, Percy's half-brother and also a cyclops; Thalia, daughter of Zeus and somewhat too like Percy for them to work together comfortably; Chiron, the famous centaur and Percy's mentor; Dionysus, the negligent camp director; Nico D'Angelo, a mysterious young demi-god with troubling powers; Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mere mortal who somehow can see through the "mist" which usually obscures anything magical from humans and many more of the campers.  All the Gods also make appearances, some to help, others...not so much.  In all it's a fun cast of characters and Percy's voice as the narrator of it all is pitch perfect.  He's very personable, funny and believably adolescent and his growth from kid to young man worked really well for me.

I haven't seen the movies but Logan Lerman looks perfectly cast to me (though he's too old)

I have to admit that I wasn't immediately drawn into this series.  I started it a couple times before I persevered and I'm really glad I did.  The Lightning Thief was a little slow for me; there was so much set up and the quest portion of the book ended up feeling very short and anti-climactic.  The Sea of Monsters (book 2) was also a little slow but it featured the introduction of Tyson, a character I really love, and  I liked it a bit better than book one.  Riordan really hits his stride though in Book 3, The Titan's Curse, and I think each of the following two volumes just get better and better.  Book 4, The Battle of the Labyrinth was probably my favorite. which isn't surprising considering it has a pretty baldly stated environmental message.  All that is to say, if you are like me and after book one are unsure what all the fuss is about, hang in there because ambrosia and nectar are on their way.  The books did not seem to age up quite as much as happens in for example the Harry Pottter series but they do become a little more complex and deal with some of the more interesting ethical debates that might be expected to be confronted when dealing with the ever so naughty Greek pantheon.  Basically the themes become a little more mature but it never loses it's overall playful spirit nor gets as dark as the HP series.

I also felt like in the first couple books that the slotting in of the Greek mythology into modern civilization was a little clunkier then it is in later books.  In fact, Riordan's skill at doing this in the later books is one of the total delights of those books.  It's fun to see his vision for how each of the Gods and mythological creatures fits (or not) into our modern culture.  As a hardcore Greek mythology geek, I love revisiting all the myths but seeing them in a new light.

I like how the series ends.  The final battle is sufficiently infused with tension and is exciting with the wrap up of all the moving pieces being mostly satisfying.  I was a little disappointed in the fate of Rachel Elizabeth Dare who kind of immediately became one of my favorite characters when she was introduced.  In fact,

I would have preferred her and Percy to end up together vs. he and Annabeth - Horrors! Don't worry, I'm not that strongly against Percy and Annabeth but I did like the character of Rachel better than Annabeth.

I feel like I should also comment on how I think this series would work for the target audience since I am WAY out of it.  In a word, I think it would go over great and of course it has since it has sold a floppity-jillion books.  I know my nephews, who aren't big readers loved this series when they were younger (they are now teenagers).  I think Percy's status as the hero of the books despite his dyslexia and problems in school might be incredibly empowering to many kids. As I've said the Greek Myths do not always provide the best examples for good behavior but I think Riordan does a really good job presenting and addressing all things in a responsible way while also understanding that kids will eat up all that borderline scandalous behavior.

Finally, I listened to the whole series which had the same narrator, Jesse Bernstein, so I should say something about him.  For me Jesse was absolutely perfect for Percy.  His normal voice and the way he voiced Percy's thoughts and jokes and dialogue were perfect.  For everything else, he was somewhat less perfect, only because his voices for the other characters tended to be a little too exaggerated and cartoonish.  When voicing someone who is meant to have an American southern accent he sounds oddly Australian.  He voices Annabeth, with kind of a valley girl type inflection ending each line of dialogue on a up note which may have contributed to me not liking her as much as I could have.  Overall, I really enjoyed listening to the series and he did a great job conveying the meaning behind the lines but he did struggle with the voices.  So, if that's a pet peeve of yours beware.

FINAL VERDICT:  A fun middle-grade series that got better and better as it went along with an engaging cast of characters and action/adventure galore.  Plus GREEK MYTHS!  4 out of 5 stars for the whole series (3 out of 5 for the first two books and 4 out of five for the final 3).

Other Opinions Are Available: Writer of Wrongs | Indianapolis Public Library

Have you read this series? What's your favorite of the books?  How big of a Greek Mythology nerd are you?

REVIEW | Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Publication Year: 2016

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Short Stories

Series: Lunar Chronicles 

Awards: None

Format: Audio

Narrator: Rebecca Soler

WHY?: Because I'm a certified Lunartic:0).

Stars above is a collection of stories set in the Lunar Chronicles universe though only one in the collection deserves to be classified as a true short story. The majority of the stories are prequel chapters that provide a little more background on the characters from the novels.  They are arranged chronologically: first is the story of how Scarlet goes to live with her grandmother and is joined by a certain Lunar Princess, Cinder's first few months being awake and living with the Linh family, how Cress ends up living in a satellite and Ze'ev Kesley becomes a "wolf", how a teenage Thorne navigates high school, and how Winter and Jacin grow up together.  There is also a re-telling of Kai and Cinder's meeting in the market place from Kai's perspective and the collection ends with the one future story which brings all the characters together again about two years post Winter.

The one oddball story, which was my favorite, was The Little Android.  It is the only entry in the collection that has a fully fledged story arc and could really count as a short story.  I really love the idea of sentient androids, which is probably why I love Iko so much, and the story uses this idea to re-tell The Little Mermaid (which is my favorite fairy tale).  It is done with Meyer's usual creative flair and works really well.

The last story is the most fun because we get to peek at where our friends are after Winter ends.  It solidified for me that Cinder and Kai, the original couple, are my favorite.  I'm a sucker for characters with a strong sense of duty and responsibility, especially when said characters get their much deserved rewards.  There's something so satisfying about it.  Because of my love for them I also really enjoyed the story of their first meeting from Kai's perspective.  

Rebecca Soler was the narrator for the entire series and I really like her reading.  On the audio version at least there is an excerpt from Meyer's next book, Heartless, a story based in Wonderland (as in "Alice in") and I was hooked and can't wait for that book to come out now!

FINAL VERDICT:  This is an enjoyable companion to the Lunar Chronicles series that any fan will definitely want to read!  3 out of 5 Stars.

Other Opinions: Readers in Wonderland |  Feminist Fairy Tale Reviews

REVIEW | MYSTERY | Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan

Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan

Publication Year: 2010

Genre: Historical Mystery, 1870s Boston

Series: Nell Sweeney Mysteries, #1

Awards: NA

Format: eBook (bought)

Narrator: NA

WHY?:  I really like books that are primarily X (whatever X may be - in this case a mystery) but that have a long simmering romance that bubbles along in the background.  Book 6 in this series was mentioned in a Book Riot post about best literary love declarations which got me intrigued.  The fact that historical mysteries are my jam, sealed the deal.  

NOTE:  There will be some mild spoilers in this review.  I won't reveal the murderer or anything but the identity of the main suspect's identity is up for question during the first couple chapters. 

SYNOPSIS:  The murder of a sailor in an opium den unexpectedly intrudes into the well-ordered life of one of the most prominent families in Boston, the Hewitts.  The matriarch, Viola is particularly concerned and she enlists the help of Nell Sweeney, her adopted daughter's governess, to dig into the case and find out what she can.  What connects this lowly sea man to the wealthy and prominent Hewitt's?  Why does the main suspect refuse to admit or deny his guilt?  

The subtitle for this book could have been - Everything you ever wanted to know about smoking opium and being an opium addict.  Another subtitle could have been Man, the Civil War really sucked.

The book begins in 1863 but the majority of the story takes place a couple years after the U.S. Civil War has ended.  It wastes no time throwing curve balls at the readers and it's got a couple of killer twists/hooks right off the bat that served to suck me into the mystery.  It is a fantastic beginning! However, that level of eventfulness and action is not sustained and in fact the book dragged a little from time to time but for the most part I was engaged with the mystery.

The historical aspect of the book is handled okay though I didn't think, besides the Civil War aftermath, it was too important to the plot. Some of the conventions and restrictions of the time come into play but we are introduced to many characters who flout these conventions and don't seem to be negatively impacted in any way, which ends up feeling a little anachronistic.

Ryan takes great pains, more pains than the average historical mystery, to flesh out her main characters and give them some depth.  Nell is not entirely what she at first appears and her motivations throughout for sticking her nose into the mystery are pretty solid.  First, she has great affection and gratitude for her mistress and wishes to be loyal, then her reasons become more personal when she develops an attachment to the murder suspect. I really liked Nell even though she is described as being very attractive to men. Why can't we ever have heroines, even in mysteries that are just fine looking but have kick-ass personalities? *shrugs*  At least in this book, Ryan uses Nell's attractiveness as a means to open up otherwise closed doors as Nell investigates (a little bit ala the episode The Bubble on 30 Rock).  The murder suspect William Hewitt, Viola's thought-to-be-lost son, has a very interesting history which has served to wreck him pretty thoroughly.

Finally, I have to talk about the romance since that is what initially drew me to pick up the series.  Unfortunately, I found it decidedly meh because I thought Viola's love interest was pretty insufferable.  He's arrogant, rebellious, impossibly handsome and has a serious case of the poor little rich kid blues.  Ryan does her best to give him a tragic enough back story to explain why he is troubled and, of course, at heart he is solid gold but I just didn't like him.  As soon as I detected the way the wind was blowing, I think I may have emitted an audible groan.  I personally preferred the police detective, who is not nearly so handsome but is hard working and a lot smarter than the average Joe.  He sadly has a loving wife. Sigh......  I am willing to see how things develop in the next book but based on this first installment the romantic elements will not be what draws me on in the series.

FINAL VERDICT:  A mostly engaging historical mystery series with an interesting female protagonist.  I recommend as long as you are not a stickler for historical accuracy or mind learning A LOT about smoking Opium.  3 out of 5 stars.

Other Opinions are Available:  Dear Author 

What are your thoughts about this book?  What about the wealth of female protagonists who are devastatingly good-looking?  Is it a detraction?

REVIEW | Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Publication Year: 2015
Genre: Fantasy
Series: NA
Awards: NA
Format: Audio (from Audible.com)
Narrator: Julia Emelin

WHY?:  Did you see the gushing reviews of this book?  How could I not read it?


I wanted to write and post a review of this book mostly because I have a contrarian viewpoint.  I liked it but I didn't love it and even have a couple of criticisms. Horrors! It was a solid 3 to 3.5 star read for me and I'll try to explain why it didn't inspire, in me, the adoration that so many others felt.

However, first things first - the story.  The Dragon is a sorcerer who has lived in the valley for as long as folks can remember.  He comes to the villagers' aid when the evil Wood gets particularly fractious and in payment, every few years, he takes one of their daughters to live with him in his tower. Agnieszka has never worried that she might be the daughter taken.  She's always been a bit of mess; clumsy and awkward, with little talent for anything.  It is her beautiful and accomplished best friend Kasia who is believed to be the most likely candidate, so it is to everyone's surprise, including the Dragon's, that Agnieszka ends up accompanying him back to his home.  At first it seems that Agnieszka will be just as hopeless at serving the Dragon as she is with everything else but she turns out to be a powerful and unconventional sorceress who greatly helps the Dragon combat the sentient and malevolent Wood.

Hopefully the synopsis gets across that the book has a strong folk tale feel to it that it particularly draws from Russian and Eastern European myths.  It has a beautiful and really fascinating and terrifying magic system with Agnieszka's in particular drawing from nature.  The foreboding Wood is so well developed and its various menaces are truly horrible - it is a very worthy and unique adversary.  In fact the whole book is very richly imagined and the world that Novik presents feels complete and very real.  Basically, this book is really great in a number of ways but I want to focus on the things that didn't work for me only because you will have no problem finding reviews that point out all the wonderful.  Just know, that while I am focusing on the negative, I did, in fact enjoy the book and would recommend it but with a few caveats.

My problems:

1) The Plot.  While the overarching plot - bitter sorcerer and plucky girl fighting an old and evil adversary - is great and takes a unique form, the execution of said plot was a little slow and rambling for me. I thought the pacing was a little off  and the various components of the story didn't quite connect tightly enough.  When I think back on the book I think of it in episodes that all seem very discrete and separate instead of a flowing thread of story.  Also, frankly, I got bored.  Several times.  Not enough to stop reading the book altogether but it did not suck me in or pull me along as it seems to have done with others.

2) The Characters.  This one is a personal thing that I think would not be an issue for most readers.  I have been realizing lately that I have a really hard time connecting with characters who are impulsive and reckless and who don't respect existing systems (aka rule breakers).  Agnieszka strongly falls into this category of character and while I didn't dislike her, I also didn't really enjoy reading about her either.  So, if you're a repressed rule follower like myself who never does anything without overthinking it and preparing a detailed plan than you might also have trouble connecting with Agnieszka:).  Or maybe not.  Unfortunately, this repressed reader just wanted to continually roll my eyes at every scrape Agnieszka got herself into.

3) The Romance.  This was the most disappointing for me because before reading it, I was SUPER excited by all the descriptions I read of the romance in the book.  I'm a fan of the whole May-December thing generally and so many people felt this was a lovely, swoony addition to the story.  Unfortunately it left me completely cold.  Sarkan (the Dragon) is an ass, beginning to end.  By the end, maybe he is a little more grudgingly accepting of the different way in which Agnieszka does magic but that is essentially all that has changed.  He never apologizes for how utterly awful he was to her in the beginning of the book.  And lets talk about the beginning.  Agnieszka does not (nor any of the girls one supposes) have any idea why Sarkan takes girls and of course she imagines the worst.  She is a sheltered village girl who has never even been away from home.  Sarkan doesn't show her any kindness, which is harsh but I can deal with as a character thing.  What was unforgivable was how he explains nothing to her and just lets her stew in terror and continually mess up.  He does not explain anything, not for weeks and months.  It's nonsensical and really cruddy and feels like it was a cheap way to create some tension in the story.  If he had actually taken an hour and laid out the whys and wherefores, we couldn't have had pages and pages of Agnieszka being terrified and angsty about what was happening to her.  It was a really icky beginning to their relationship and I feel like Sarkan never really did anything to redeem himself so I was completely confused by why Agnieszka would want anything to do with him romantically.  There is a post on The Book Smugglers about the Romantic Douchecanoe trope which sums up my feelings fully and in much better fashion than I just did.  This type of romantic hero has never done it for me and Uprooted was not an exception.

What it comes down to in the end, is that there is much in the book that I admired and liked but it fell down in what for me were three pretty key areas.  It's probably safe to say that the hype around the book had an effect as well.  I had very high expectations and also knew perhaps a little too much about the story to really appreciate it.  Most folks will undoubtedly enjoy and many will adore Uprooted.   I thought it was just pretty good. And that makes me really sad because I so wish it had given me the same feels as it gave many readers.

FINAL VERDICT:  A solid and imaginative folk tale inspired fantasy novel that was just a little too slow and unfocused for me to truly love it. 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

Many Other Opinions Are Available: Of Dragons and Hearts |  The Book Smugglers