Category Archives: Challenges

Gracier

Book Review of Milissa R. Bailey’s Gracier

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GracierI won a signed copy of Milissa R. Bailey‘s novel Gracier from the Librarything’s Member giveaway.

Description from Goodreads:
Everyone around her knows. Everyone she trusts has lied. And the one man who held the key to Jessica McCabe’s past is dead. Welcome to Gracier, Iowa, a well-kept community with even better kept secrets. Lives are peaceful, streets are quiet, but behind the tranquility is many a tale to be told. Veterinarian Jessica McCabe has returned, but it is not the homecoming she had expected. Her grandfather, Jonas McCabe and Gracier’s longtime vet has died, leaving behind the practice they had hoped to share. The reading of Jonas’ will sets off a series of events that bring into question Jessica’s birthright, the truth surrounding her mother’s untimely death and her grandfather’s sanity. With her world turned upside down she is thrown into a partnership with Matthew Cassidy, the man who chose his family’s wealth over Jessica’s love. Her determined spirit leads Jessica to stay, continue the veterinarian practice and return to the life and community she loves. But a secret loft and a box filled with a hidden past change the course of her life once again. Longtime family friends, Dr. Andrew Harrison and retired Sheriff Chester Caughlin know the truth. A promise made to a dear old friend to protect the girl they helped raise is one they intend to keep. But the wheels of fate have been put in motion. The people entrusted with protecting Jessica from the past are losing control. The small town of Gracier, Iowa holds many secrets and those who have kept the truth hidden are about to discover that not everything has been laid to rest.

Review:
Gracier brings small town Iowa to life. I hope there are still towns out there like that. If so, I want to move there. The book is beautifully written as everything is meticulously described in lovely language. Unfortunately, that flowery prose also slowed the book down a lot. It often came in the middle of some other event or character’s internal monologue and I frequently wanted to rush it along to get back to the meat of the problem.

About half way through chapter two I decided I knew where this book was heading and for a long time it looked like I was right. Then there was a twist (making me only half right). For the last couple chapters there was enough occlusion for me to wonder if the book was going to stay the new course or return to the old, so in that sense it maintained enough of a mystery to keep if from being completely predictable. For the most part I really enjoyed it, but I can’t say I liked all of it.

The basic premise is that Jessica returns home for her grandfather’s funeral and is forced to face someone from her past that she would rather forget. It soon becomes obvious that everyone around her is hiding something and she sets out to find out what. This is all well and good, but despite the whole why of the secret being explained, I didn’t buy it. It essentially comes down to a bunch of men deciding to keep some pertinent information from one woman. They do it for all the best reasons of course, but it’s still far too paternalistic for my taste. I would have wanted the painful truth and would have a hard time forgiving anyone, let alone everyone important to me, hiding it from me. Who are they to decide what’s best for someone else? It would be another matter if she was 12, but she’s well into adulthood. Jessica also seems to have a whole sense of crisis about all of this before she has enough information to know that it should and would cause emotional upheaval. I understand that it was supposed to be Michael’s presence that put her so on edge, but she seemed disproportionately wound up about the whole thing before having enough clues to put her there.

I also didn’t understand Steven’s change of heart. I don’t want to post a spoiler so suffice it to say that after years of pining after one person he suddenly goes and changes his mind with no obvious impetus. It’s great that he did, but why? I also could have done without all the God is great, blah, blah at the end. Luckily it wasn’t nauseatingly overt. All-in-all, I enjoyed the read even if I couldn’t comfortably put myself in the place of the main characters.

Review of Witchy Business, by Eve Paludan & Stuart Sharp

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Witchy BusinessI grabbed Witchy Business from the Amazon KDP list. It’s written by Eve Paludan and Stuart Sharp and apparently presented by J.R. Rain. I’m not sure what to make of this ‘J.R. Rain presents…’ It reminds me of the old Masterpiece Theatre, “presented by PBS.” I don’t mean to make fun of it or anything. I mention it because I don’t know how to, or even if I need to, incorporate it into my review in any way. I don’t really know what it means. I’m guessing ‘edited by’ or ‘mentored by,’ but that’s just a guess.

Description from Goodreads:
What would you do with unspeakable power?

Elle Chambers is Edinburgh’s hardest working insurance investigator, and one who solves cases using unconventional means. Supernatural means. Elle is a witch–and a damn good one, too.

Assigned back-to-back cases, Elle must first find a missing bad boy who might or might not be a werewolf. Next, a simple missing artwork case turns out to be not so simple. What Elle is about to discover will change her life forever…and open her heart to the possibility of love.

Review:
I thought this was an alright read, though it didn’t really do it for me. I don’t even really know why, but I finished with a bit of a ‘meh.’ I did enjoy the way the book played with the normal hero/romantic partner character. Often in PNR (I’m thinking Ward, Frost, etc. here), the hero is muscle-bound, leather-clad, beefcake, and the antagonist is the smooth-talking, well-dressed, and sophisticated. Both character types are present in this book, but the heroine’s choice of mates is unexpected. The effect of this was that I spent the whole book waiting for the reversal, the point when the good guy suddenly reveals his betrayal and the heroine runs into the arms of the unexpectedly compassionate, stoic man on the side. This never happened. It was a fun little twist and proof that sometimes it’s not a matter of what’s written but what isn’t that can add the most spice to a story.

But I also felt that the whole thing rolled along a little too smoothly. N. goes to great lengths to meet Elle, but we never discover how he even knew about her to begin with. We never learn when, why, or how exactly he fell so deeply in love with her unless it’s just a matter of ‘we’re the only two like us, so we should be together.’ That seems pretty weak to me. There is definitely some insta-love on Elle’s part, however. Then there is Rebecca and Everett, who can blithely acknowledge Elle’s burgeoning feelings and tell her to arrange to kill that person in the same conversation. Seems a little unrealistic to me. Could they really expect compliance? Elle solves the missing art case, seemingly without any clues, and in the end, manages to resume her life despite the coven’s long-standing policy of eradication against her kind. Yep, everything is resolved just a little too easily.

On a side note, I also didn’t find the book to match the description very well. The bad-boy werewolf is already found when the book starts and he’s an overwhelmed lawyer with mother issues, not a bad boy at all. For most of the book, Elle is a decidedly weak enchantress, not the damn good witch described. (In this particular story, there is a divide between witches and enchantresses, so it’s not the same thing.) And she isn’t assigned back-to-back cases. She is an insurance agent who solves cases with a little magical assistance, though, and she is on the case of a missing piece of art. Maybe these are small details, but still…

Despite the above points, it was an entertaining enough read for an evening. The writing seemed fairly smooth and I didn’t notice many, if any, editorial mishaps.

Book Review of Meredith Allen Conner’s Dead Vampires Don’t Date

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Dead Vampires Don't DateI grabbed Meredith Allen Conner’s PNR, Dead Vampires Don’t Date, off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Kate Storm is your typical everyday mortal witch. She owns her own matchmaking business, hangs out with her vampire best friend, Morgan and enjoys the company of Big Al, her hit man channeling Chihuahua. Plus there’s a certain demon that she has her eye on. Life is pretty good until her first important non-human client winds up dead and his body is dumped at her back door. Turns out, disposing of the body is the last thing she needs to worry about. Kate will have to find the true killer if she wants to save her business and her life. And her new found witchy detective skills may not be enough to save her, especially if the demon is involved.

Review:

This was an entertaining, quick read. Though fairly useless in any sort of combat and therefore unable to do much in terms of defending herself, Kate is a fairly strong character in other respects. She’s quick witted, sarcastic, and relatively self assured. I particularly liked that she isn’t a stick figure. She’s described as a size 10 on a good day. I always appreciate seeing alternative body types (ie, not the anorexic ideal of the modern west) described as equally appealing.

There was a lot of good humour here and, though no actual sex, a few steamy almost-sex scenes. This does lead me to my one significant complaint about the book though. I don’t know if this is the first of a series, but there are quite a few things that are hinted at throughout the entire book, but it ends without any sort of reveal. One of these is why Ash is so interested in Kate to begin with. He purposefully seeks her out, is unusually aggressive in his pursuit of and affection for her, essentially admits to having an ulterior motive (Kate is certain there is one), and he is constantly running off and appearing again, but the reader never discovers why. In fact other than being a distraction from the mystery and adding a little spice he plays almost no role in the book. This only heightens the sense that something important has been left out. Why else is he there?

I also thought some of the jokes when a little overboard. For example, the Bewitchedconnection was just ludicrous. For the most part however, I enjoyed Kate’s narrative style. The mystery was fun, though I don’t think too many people will be overly surprised by the identity of the culprit. Still, it’s an all-in-all good summer read.