Book Review: More Vacation Reading

Our two weeks on the Outer Banks ends in the morning. Here are a few examples of how I spend a vacation.

Christian author Deeanne Gist took me to a tobacco plantation in Virginia in the 1640's. A BRIDE MOST BEGRUDGING  finds Lady Constance Morrow stolen from living a life of privilege in England to being a " tobacco bride" in the Colonies. Through the eyes of this pampered young lady, Gist gives a very accurate glimpse of the hardships of life that our early settlers lived. The author's notes give us a fuller idea of the Indian situation and the life style that Constance would have experienced.

The book is very simply written. There is some sexual tension between Constance and her new husband, but the scenes never take the reader into their bed. The description of violence is also restrained, but I still had an emotional reaction to the death of several characters that I had grown fond of.

SHADOW FALL by Erin Kellison takes place in modern New York City where the world of fantasy and the real world are at war. Two years ago Custo Santovari had been killed by an agent of the Wraiths. Now he is back as an angel, of all things, to protect ballerina Annabella from a wolf who has escaped from the dark side of a fantasy world.

 Annabella has worked hard all of her life to be a principle dancer and is about to make her debut as Giselle.  While she is lost in her dancing something truly magical happens and the portal between the two words opens. (I liked the idea that a "magical performance" can be indeed magical) If you like your romance stories to include shape shifters, angels, wraiths, mermaids, etc., you might want to try author Erin Kellison. This is a surprisingly good twist on the "good vs. evil" plot.

It is always a big thing to me when I find an author who goes immediately to my found-a-new-author list. Nancy Pickard may be an old name to you, but DEAD CRAZY made me a fan. Her series heroine is Jenny Cain, head of the Port Frederick, Massachusetts, Civic Foundation. Her job is to see that the foundations monies go to worthwhile community programs. In DEAD CRAZY she is answering a request for an old church to be turned into a refuge for the town's street people. After the objections of several neighbors of the church and several murders, Jenny is able to bring everything to a satisfactory ending.

This book moved well; the characters were well developed; the plight of the mentally unbalanced  members of a community realistically portrayed. This was all written with a touch of humor that never was cruel to our most vulnerable neighbors. I will be checking Pickard's other writings.

ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS is an anthology that I will be keeping around for awhile. The book contains the best loved authors from this genre, ie. Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, G. K. Chesterton. Well, you get the idea. The stories are in chronological order, making it fun to watch the evolution of the English mystery.

The introduction to ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS should be  required reading for anyone who is a fan of this type of literature. The rules that must be followed are carefully set out for the would be author. Two important conditions; no author should attempt such an undertaking if that author is not English and no character within the story is ever named Lefty.

OK, one more Bodice Ripper. TENDER IS THE KNIGHT  by Jackie Ivie is a typical story with predictable plot and characters, the ice goddess trapped into marriage with the rough, very sexy, fierce, Scottish warrior. Set in Victorian times, the story does make good use of the fact that the war between Scotland and England was not over. This was an enjoyable read, but there are better examples of the genre being published.

Now it is time to pack to go home. These books ( with the exception of English Country House Murders)  will stay at the condo for the next person and I will return to attack the books that are waiting under my bed. 
  

Book review/or what I did on my vacation

Our two weeks at the shore consists of my husband fishing while I read. Some of the books are worthy of an individual review and some get short comments. Usually the short reviews are of the historical romance genre ( or, as I like to call them, "Bodice Rippers)

If you are a regular reader of POV, you know that I was told to downsize my library. I did the best that I could and what I could not get on the only bookshelf allowed to me, I stuck under the bed. Things were going well until my husband opened our front door to find a bag of books from a new neighbor. I was delighted; it included new Bodice Rippers by some of my favorite authors.

The first was THE TROUBLE WITH HONOR by Julia London. Honor is the eldest of four sisters. They are stepdaughters of the Earl of Beckington who is dying. His death will force the sisters out of their luxury lifestyle and their place in society. The Earl's son, the future earl, is engaged to a social climbing young lady who wants the stepsisters out of her life. The only way Honor can see to save her and her sisters is to convince the biggest rake in London to seduce the fiancee, giving Honor time to find a husband who will support her and her sisters in style. Well, you can see where this leads.

The thing that makes a Regency Romance such fun is the heroine is usually audacious and witty; Honor is both. Julia London is able to take the typical historic romance plot and keep it moving with a few surprises along the way. Usually when the story contains a group of sisters that means that each will have her own book. The next sister's name is Grace. It sounds as if I will have to hunt for her story.

DEVIL'S PRIZE is by Kat Martin. Damien, Lord Falon has cheated the exquisite Lady Alexa Garrick out of quite a large sum of money at the gaming table. She is too proud to ask her brother for the money and when she asks Damien for more time, he tells her that he will forgive the debt for one night in his bed. From this simple idea the reader is treated to a plot that not only includes some hot sex, but smuggling and French spies.

Kat Martin also does fun romances set in the "Old West" I always pick up her books when I find them. She meets all of my requirements  for an entertaining read; witty dialogue, plot twists and relateable characters.

Eloise James is probably the steamiest of these authors so I was surprised to find that the hero of WHEN BEAUTY TAMED THE BEAST is badly crippled and unable to father an heir. Since all of Society believes that our heroine, Linnet Berry Thrynne, is expecting the Prince's child but that he  will not marry her, she agrees to travel to Wales to marry the bad tempered Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant. Linnet is sure that once she simply flashes her famous smile at Piers, he will fall in love with her.
.Piers has turned his castle into a hospital and has gained the reputation as an excellent physician. His patients come from as far away as London. When scarlet fever breaks out, he has to fight the local doctors who believe that bleeding a patient is the only cure.

This was actually the best of the three for character, plot, a bit of medical history and a bit of a moral lesson. This is another author that I depend on.

After several days of reading steamy sex scenes, I am ready for an old-fashioned murder mystery, Then, of course, I might just go back to some more Bodice Rippers.

Book Review: THE FINISHER

Author David Baldacci has stepped away from his normal contemporary crime novels and into a fantasy world aimed at the Young Adult market. Since Baldacci is one of my regular authors and I firmly believe that some of the best books being published are in the Young Adult section of any library, I had to check out his THE FINISHER 

Vega Jane is fourteen sessions old. She lives with her younger brother in the village of Wormwood, an isolated village surrounded by the densely forested Quag, an area full of blood thirsty beasts. It is a known fact that to enter the Quag is certain death. Vega works as a finisher at the local factory putting the fine touches on decorative and useful objects to be bought by the wealthy villagers. Although, there seem to be very few of them.

One night Vega watches an old family friend being chased by members of the Council and their dogs.  His escape into the Quag changes Vega's life. She learns that Wormwood is not what she had been taught it to be and that she, particularly, is in danger.

Vega is a heroine worthy of any hero in literature today. She is honest, loyal, and able to think and move quickly. All of these traits serve her well as she fight the bullies and the supernatural forces lurking in her village.

I was often reminded of The Giver and The Hunger Games series as I got lost in Wormwood. The young protagonist fighting an evil system has been fairly standard plot material, especially in youth literature. What the author does with it makes for the stand out book.

Baldacci is an action author who can develop characters to go along with his fast moving plots. The Finisher is not an exception. His talent puts THE FINISHER up there with any fantasy/action being published. There are times when I get weary of the "Oh, the poor heroine is having problem after problem after problem" type of plot, but when an author can have that heroine save herself by using her wits, I am captured. Vega is a finisher, not only at her job but in her attitude toward life as well.

The Finisher is the first in a series. It has an "ending", but there are still so many unanswered questions that I will be getting The Keeper at my next library visit.

BOOK REVIEW: Case Histories

British author Kate Atkinson is hard to put into a genre. My guess would probably be "literary detective, mystery with touches of dark humor". If such a catagory does not exsist, it should.

CASE HISTORIES opens with the disappearance of three-year-old Olivia. Olivia was the youngest of four daughters and the favorite of their mother. Their father ignored all four of them. The novel jumps to Laura Wyre's murder by an apparent madman while she is working at her father's law office. The next person we meet is Michelle, the mother of an infant and living on an isolated farm. Michelle snaps and we leave her sitting on the floor holding an axe beside her murdered husband.

Several years later Jackson Brodie, ex-policeman now in private practice, is approached by three different people, each with a relationship to the victim in these cold cases.

Two of Olivia's sisters have found a clue that makes them want Brodie to look into the whereabouts of the sister whose body has never been found. It has been 35 years since her disappearance and the recent death of their father has brought a new twist to their case.

Laura Wyre's father has been obbsessed with finding his daughter's murderer. For the ten years since her death, he has been working on his own to solve what appeared to be a randon act of violence. Now he is getting older, his health is bad and he feels that Brodie can help.

Shirley Morrison is Michelle's sister. She does not want help concerning the murder;she wants Brodie to find her now twenty-five -year-old niece.

Kate Atkinson is a master of the non-linear story line. It is the appearance of Jackson Brodie that pulls these three stories together. It seems that the only thing that they have in common is Brodie himself. Each story does come to a conclusion. Maybe not one that purists would approve of, but a conclusion just the same.

This is an author who will not appeal to every reader. She takes what could be a straightforward story and adds twists and turns that do not always make sense at the time and leads the reader into surprising territory. I like the fact that she gives that reader the compliment of taking for granted that he or she will keep up. She never writes down to her audience.

Jackson Brodie appears in several later books by Atkinson. CASE HISTORIES gives us a view of his own history and he is an old friend when we meet him again. This is an author that stays on my regular look - for - list.