Monthly Archives: July 2013

Book Review: Jenala, by Cynthia Woolf

jenala cover

Jenala Delasa is alone and in trouble. Someone wants her kalcion mine. They’ll stop at nothing, even murder. Jenala needs help.

Santro Baltin is just what the beautiful red-head needs. He’s huge, a master swordsman, and has a heart big enough to give her the room she needs to heal. When it comes to Jenala’s enemy however, he has his own agenda.

To defeat the notorious Zlaten Vandalar, they have to work together, mind to mind, shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

Review:

This was alright, I suppose. The story was pretty interesting, but I would have liked it more if it had been a little more fleshed out. Everything felt very rushed, and there was very little world-building or backstory. As a result, I was left with questions. What happened to the contract (or whatever it was) that Zlaten had that claimed Jenala would have to marry him if not paid? How did he get it in the first place? What is the difference between a claim and a marriage? This seemed important to the characters, but I couldn’t figure it out. Etc.

The book also tended to repeat itself a lot, with the narrative stating something and then a character saying the same thing and then later telling someone else about it. I think the reader is told three times in the first 10% of the book that Zlaten killed Jenala’s father, wants to steal her mine, and claim her through rape, for example. The narrative says it, then Jenala mentions it, and then the vet tells Santros about it. Once really would have been enough. This happened more than once.

I liked Jenala’s strong, upfront personality and Santro’s gentle, honourable way. I really did. But I also thought a lot of their dialogue was quite stiff. I honestly think Lottie was my favourite character. For a quick read (little more than a short story, really), it was entertaining enough, though. Plus, it was a freebie, so I can’t really complain. I have the sequel, The Swords of Gregara – Riza, which I’ll probably read at some point.

Book Review of Tabitha Levin’s The Feathered Lover

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I picked up a copy of Tabitha Levin‘s The Feathered Lover for free from the Smashword’s seasonal sale. It will be free using code SW100 until the end of July.

Description from Goodreads:
It’s 1943 and Ruby Kelly just saw one of the wild men with wings for the first time in her life. He’d been captured, tied up, and was now being held in the stables at the same Inn she was staying.

She had to get a closer look. She crept downstairs toward the stable window. His chest was smooth and bare, and it glistened with sweat from his recent struggle. Butterflies erupted in her stomach when he looked her way. Did he see her?

Now she had two options, free him and risk the wrath of the thugs who caught him, or pretend she never saw him at all.

Neither would be easy.

Review:
This was an all right read, I suppose. I can’t say it did much for me though. The whole thing just felt wrong. (If that makes any sense.) Starting with Zan. He felt very child-like to me. Everything from his insta-love which reminded me of a kid’s tendency to become obsessed with anything new, to the language divide that left him speaking like a halting toddler for much of the book, to Ruby’s tendency to compare him to a pet, to his occasional tears. As a result I had a really hard time seeing him as the sexy male lead he was supposed to be. That’s a real problem in a book with as much sex as The Feathered Lover. There was a lot of it. I don’t have any real issue with this much of the time, but here it started to clutter up the plot. Everywhere they went–endangered, held hostage, trying to have a conversation was apparently appropriate for a quickie before moving on.

I did like Ruby. She had a stubborn streak a mile long and I appreciated that. She prattled on a bit, having long one-sided soliloquies regularly. I had a little trouble understanding her insta-love with Zan though. She crossed the species/social/legal divide with him based on nothing but one meeting in which she didn’t think him capable of intelligible speech and possibly dangerous. She’d been taught Voltane were wild animals after-all. So what does she do? Well, seamlessly give her virginity up to it of course. What else?

I had to wonder why exactly it was illegal to be in the presence of the Voltage to start with. Was this a species or environmental protection, basic xenophobia or racism, etc. I didn’t understand the social intention, so I had a little trouble understanding the implications of Ruby’s actions. Plus, for being feared and held separate Ruby and Zan seemed to find a lot of sympathisers with almost no effort. I get that this was meant to infer that the society was ripe for social change, but it also felt very convenient to the plot. I also thought that trying to situate the whole thing in an alternation 1943 complicated matters. I didn’t see the relevance.

The writing was fairly simple, but it was clean, perfectly readable and only had a few editorial mishaps. In the end I was left wondering what I had just read, but I imagine that the book will really appeal to some. It was a pleasant change to encounter a hero who wasn’t a bulging alpha with an alarming tendency to aggress on questionably willing heroines. Props to Levin for being willing to move away from the canned PNR.

Book Review of Maggie Secara’s The Dragon Ring

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Author, Maggie Secara sent me a copy of the first and second of her Harper Errant series, The Dragon Ring and King’s Raven. I’ve only read the first so far, but I figured I might as well go ahead and review it.

Description from Goodreads:
Reality TV host Ben Harper has a problem: he owes the king of Faerie a favor. So now he has to track down the three parts of a Viking arm-ring, and return them to their place in time. This takes him through the wolf-haunted forests of Viking Age Wessex, the rowdy back streets of Shakespeare’s London, and a derelict Georgian country house. Partnered with caustic, shape-changing Raven and guided by a slightly wacky goblin diary, Ben must rediscover his own gifts while facing his doubts and the queen of Faerie’s minions, who will do anything to stop him.

The Dragon Ring, the first in the Harper Errant series, is a time travelling epic adventure which takes you to Old England, and beyond.

Review:
The Dragon Ring is a bit like a grownup Harry Potter, with bawdy ballads and raunchy riddles. There’s a magic book or two, endless magical music, self-regulating clothing, time travel, mystic doors, mythical beasts, prophetic icons, bewitchments, bespelling, and even an imaginative curse on occasion. And poor Ben Harper is stuck right in the middle of it all.

Image a young Alan Titmarsh, or better yet, Justin Ryan or Colin McAllister contracted by the King of Faerie to save the world. Not the likeliest of heroes I’ll admit, but Ben does a decent job of it. He seems to have an amazing knack for simply accepting the absurdities that come along with the unexplainable magic in and around the land of Fae. If he hadn’t been American, I would blame it on that much-touted stiff upper lip. As a reader, I had a little harder time of it. Some of the ‘it’s magic, just accept it’ felt a little too convenient for me. Most especially when considering the diary that miraculously held ALL the answers.

I was extremely disappointed in the treatment of Mellis’, Ben’s wife, character. Her role was important as a motivator to Ben, but she seemed to be pointedly left out of much of the book. She might as well have been a cardboard cutout. Then, in the mere 10 or so percent at the tail end of the book that she was active for, she managed to fall and twist an ankle (though I give her credit for not whinging about it) and lose an important artifact. As enamored as Ben was with her, I would have liked her to have a little more depth.

The narrative style is marvellous. There is a lot of humour in it. The writing is tight and elegant. It strikes the right tone for a book about Oberon and Titania. The book does feel a tad like it goes on forever and a day, though. Plus, it isn’t the sort of book that builds to a peak and then settles back down before ending. It kind of builds to a plateau and then continues on until the end. Ben is given his tasks, and then he systematically goes about completing them until he is finished. It’s very much a ‘quest to collect the magical shards’ kind of story.

I’d especially recommend the book for music lovers. There are a lot of music references and melodies play an important role in the story. Additionally, thespians and Renaissance festival regulars will likely have little trouble relating to Ben and his personality. All-in-all an interesting read. I have the sequel, King’s Raven, which I also look forward to reading. (Speaking of Ravens, Raven was my all-out favorite character in the book.)