Tag Archives: won

Gracier

Book Review of Milissa R. Bailey’s Gracier

Leave a reply

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.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Book Review of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Leave a reply

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Sometime last year I won a copy of Seth Grahame-Smith’s  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter from CuriosityKilledThebookworm.

Description from Goodreads:
Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother’s bedside. She’s been stricken with something the old-timers call “Milk Sickness.”

“My baby boy…” she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother’s fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, “henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose…” Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

Review:
I have to confess. This book was significantly better, or more serious, than I expected. I really thought it was just going to be a silly gore-fest. It wasn’t at all. It was an artful blending of history and fiction. I wish I had enjoyed it more. It is written as a retelling of Abe’s life after someone studies his personal diaries, interviews people, etc. I had a really hard time engaging in this narrative style. I’m not suggesting it was done anything but masterfully. In fact the book is quite well written (though I didn’t think the pictures contributed anything). I just couldn’t loose myself in it, I’m sorry to say.

I did feel incredibly sorry for Abe and his losses, could appreciate the position he found himself in and enjoyed his tenuous relationship with Henry. However, I absolutely cannot accept Henry’s final decision concerning Abe and can’t believe Abe would have accepted it. I thought that last little tidbit was a a complete cop-out on the authors part. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty predictable, but I could have done without. I also would have liked to know a bit more about Mr. Smith. I liked him in the beginning, but he never resurfaced.

I’m glad to have read it, but I’m also a little happy to be finished. If you know what I mean.

More Deaths Than One

Book Review of Bryan Islip’s More Deaths Than One

Leave a reply

More Deaths Than OneI won a copy of Bryan Islip‘s More Deaths Than One through Goodreads’ Firstreads program and I should start by apologising to the author for taking a full year to get around to reading it. I have excuses, but I figure they’re probably pretty irrelevant to anyone but me.

Description from Amazon:
Thomas Thornton has settled down to expatriated family life in Saudi Arabia. He is wrongfully caught up in shariah law on drugs dealing charges then finds himself implicated in a far more universal situation. Injustice is a bitter pill – potentially a fatal one where your landing card is headlined in red italics: Death For Drugs Dealers. Even with a past life as explosive as that of Thomas Thornton’s, what odds against a future for himself, his family; what of his love for the ways of Arabia?

Review:
Thomas was the best of the best. But even the best get tired of the game at some point. His attempt to make a go of it as a civilian goes spectacularly wrong and luckily those old skills hadn’t gotten too rusty. I really liked Thomas as a man, a soldier, and a main character. Despite being exceedingly dangerous he also understood the value of human life, the splendid variety in human cultures, and the importance of love and family. All of his comrades were likeable too, though it did feel a little like England must be an exceptionally small island. Despite the small size of the SBS unit he managed to run into a whole heck of a lot of Ex’S’s in the course of regular business.

The book starts out with a rather long prologue that chronicles the highlights of Thomas’ life until the point he decides to leave Her Majesty’s Service. While making for a slow start it does give the reader a strong impression of what sort of man Thomas is and why. 90% of the rest of the book is dedicated to Thomas’ attempt to extricate himself and those with him from a whole web of lies, betrayals, double crosses, etc. That remaining 10% or so is all we are given of Thomas as a civilian businessman, husband, father, friend, etc. It’s an important 10%, but the reader is expected to extrapolate for a lot of it. I could have done with a little more details about this life he was trying so hard to get back to.

I haven’t decided how I feel about the moral implications of The Planter’s scheme. The book had a definite message to impart on the subject of the drug trade. And Thomas seemed to take it all in stride there at the end. I wasn’t sure how exactly he rationalised the whole thing in order not to feel incredibly betrayed. I think I would have.

There are some typos in this book, not a huge number of them and they seem more frequent in the second half, but there are enough to be worth mentioning. The story, however, is a really good one. All-in-all I’m thrilled to have finally gotten around to reading it. It’s almost a humanised James Bond. Islip is a really talented writer (as well as painter, poet and more apparently). I’ll definitely be looking out for more of his writing.