Category Archives: books/book review

Book Review of Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest

BoneshakerI picked up Boneshaker (by Cherie Priest) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this. I liked that it wasn’t all action and blowing stuff up. I liked that there was a 35-year-old, tired out mother as a heroine. I like that the son wasn’t a sniveling baby, but also wasn’t overly confident. I liked that people were smart and could read between lines and such. I enjoyed the alternative world and the basic story-line. I also just plain enjoyed the writing style.

I did think it got a little slow at times and dragged a little here and there. I also would have liked to have known the fate of the City-crew after Briar and Zeke left and there did seem to be a number of convenient coincidences. But all-in-all an enjoyable read.

Book Review of Bloodshot & Hellbent (Cheshire Red Reports #1 & 2), by Cherie Priest

I picked Bloodshot and Hellbent (by Cherie Priest) up from my local library.

BloodshotDescription from Goodreads:
Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride. 

Review:
A fun, if shallow read. I enjoyed Raylene’s OCD self-identified craziness. I loved the drag queen side kick and I thoroughly enjoyed that the vampire love interests was a little broken and vulnerable—no alpha a-holes here.

It was a little on the predictable side and the writing was nothing extraordinary (though perfectly readable). Basically, the book was a fun fluffy vampire read.

HellbentDescription from Goodreads:
Vampire thief Raylene Pendle doesn’t need more complications in her life. Her Seattle home is already overrun by a band of misfits, including Ian Stott, a blind vampire, and Adrian deJesus, an ex-Navy SEAL/drag queen. But Raylene still can’t resist an old pal’s request: seek out and steal a bizarre set of artifacts. Also on the hunt is a brilliant but certifiably crazy sorceress determined to stomp anyone who gets in her way. But Raylene’s biggest problem is that the death of Ian’s vaunted patriarch appears to have made him the next target of some blood-sucking sociopaths.  Now Raylene must snatch up the potent relics, solve a murder, and keep Ian safe—all while fending off a psychotic sorceress. But at least she won’t be alone. A girl could do a lot worse for a partner than an ass-kicking drag queen—right?

Review:
Another fluffy, easy read. As in the first book, I liked Raylene’s OCDness and the way she was just so matter of fact about it. I liked her side kick. I liked her family-building, as well as the fact that romance is hinted at but never becomes part of the story. I also liked the writing and narrative style, which is surprising as it’s first person and I generally don’t like first person. I did think this one came across as a little juvenile. Mostly because Raylene was tasked with hunting down baculum, which requires 14 thousand references to penis bones and the likes. It because apparent that this was there for comic effect, but it also made me feel like a 15-year-old would have appreciated it more. Despite that, if there were a 3rd book I’d pick it up.

Book Review of Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville #1), by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty and the Midnight Hour I borrowed Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Carrie Vaughn, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station – and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it’s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?

Review:
I picked this up as a random audiobook from the library. While nothing about it amazed me, I was amused throughout the entirety of it. Kitty’s ‘I’ve always been weak’ bothered me, but it was also always in context of ‘I’m not anymore,’ so I dealt with it. I did feel like the book didn’t really accomplish anything significant. The smaller mystery was solved, but the primary conflict wasn’t and the book felt a little like a randomly selected period of time. But as a basic fluff read, the book did the job admirably. My library has the next two. I imagine I’ll listen to them at some point.