The Dutiful Wife by Penny Jordan

Author: Penny Jordan
Title: The Dutiful Wife
Publication Date: 11th Jan 2010
Pages: 189
Source: Library

Saul Parenti has always been glad that he's second in line in the Arrezzian monarchy. He can concentrate on his business empire...and the delights of his new wife Giselle... But when his cousin is killed Saul must ascend the throne. Instead of pursuing their own dreams, Saul and Giselle must now make their lives about pomp and protocol. But the secret traumas of Giselle's past have scarred her deeply; she never wants to be a mother – and that leaves her marriage in crisis: because her royal duty is to produce an heir...

THE PARENTI DYNASTY Power, privilege and passion The worlds of big business and royalty unite...

The premise sounded really interesting. I, for one, don't remember the last time I read a HP where the couple were already married and still together and still in love from the very beginning of the story. Unfortunately, the story is interesting only in name; the execution was horrible.

My impression was that the relationship was very unhealthy. What else can you think when any mention of the guy going somewhere on his own for even 5 minutes triggered feeling of "Oh he doesn't love me anymore; oh our marriage is not strong because we are not spending every waking moment together" in the heroine?

Speaking of the hero and heroine, they were both a bit Mary Sue and Gary Stu and quite stupid. A few good slaps of good sense into them would not have been amiss at all. They kept claiming to be in love, but I didn't see it. All I saw was two people acting so formal with each other, and two unhealthy people in an unhealthier relationship.

The treatment of post-partum depression in this book angered me. It was stupid, and not fit to print. Saul was an idiot and Giselle was an even bigger idiot who should have been put in counseling when she was 6 years old.

Not a good HP.

★★

TGIF @ GReads #4: Love Stories

TGIF is a weekly meme hosted every Friday at GReads, asking reading/book-related questions which are fun to answer. This week's question is:

Love Stories: What are some of your favorite fictional love stories?

Oooh!

The very first story that comes to mind is Rachel and Gabriel's story from Archangel, by Sharon Shinn.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their love story. I love everything about it. I love those two characters and their journey to love. It is a story about two very imperfect people learning to make the best of a 'bad' situation.  They're also very unusual characters in the world of fantasy and romance:  a very prim-and-proper and uptight angel, and a VERY stubborn-to-the-point-of-idiocy heroine. Their flaws, their strengths, their weaknesses, their (more like Rachel's) past pain...it was glorious to experience. To date, they remain two of my very favorite characters in all fiction.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I positively adore this story. What's special about it is that it's not about romantic love. Instead it's the story of a little orphan girl who's foisted off on her unwilling curmudgeon of a grandfather. And watching the gruff ole loner show his love for Heidi in many little ways is so sweet.  Equally sweet is the love Heidi has for her grandfather and the Swiss alps. So strong is this love that Heidi has to be returned to her darling grandfather after well-meaning "social services" separate them. I adore this tale so much that I planned on naming my daughter either Adelaide or Johanna, in honor of this book and the author who could think up such a delightful tale. But that was before I decided that darnit, I am not European, so none of my children are getting European names.

Akorfa Asiedu, veteran Ghanaian actress

My last entry is not from books. But the love stories from the old time Ghanaian movies (late 1980's, early 1990's) are some of my favorite of all time. They were awesome, and no one ever forgets them. Even today, start singing

"Sakina, O Sakina, my endless love for you will remain,
My love for you will never ever die,
O Sakina, O Sakina"

to a group of Ghanaians over 20 years old, and everyone will reply back with

"Nico, Nico, I love you from the bottom of my heart
Nico, Nico, I love you from the bottom of my heart,
O Nico, O Nico."

Nico and Sakina's forbidden love story was epic! The movie was Matters of the Heart, released way back in 1996. Unfortunately, you can't find this, or any of those movies anywhere anymore, since no one was forward-thinking enough to record them, and the movie companies that made such awesome moves are mostly defunct now.

Anyway, that's my piece. the ball is in your court now. What are some of your favorite love stories?

On the Prowl (anthology)

On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs
My rating: ★★★★

Alpha and Omega - 5 stars
This is my second read of this novel, the intro to Patricia Briggs' Alpha and Omega series, and I am upgrading my rating to 5 stars. I loved it! And I had more time to notice other things since I was already familiar with the storyline, and oh, the things I noticed! I LOVED Anna's first impression of Charles, and the descriptions she gave of him were KILLING ME SOFTLY!!! And Charles, being all studly on Anna made me giggle (and melt), LOL! You stud, you.

And of course I loved the three references to Samuel. He wasn't there in the book, but his father and brother's perceptions are so telling. From them I caught a glimpse of the 'lighthearted person who "had joy in abundance"' (in spite of his past) and had taken the time to teach Mercy to be joyful too. I saw him how he should be instead of the sad person he is now, bowed under the weight of so much pain. And my heart broke all over again.

Bran  must have some amazing genes to have created the offspring that he has! Patty sure knows how to write those Cornick men!

Inhuman - 2.5 stars
Eileen Wilks tells a story set in the World of the Lupi, about a hellhound and a telepath caught in the search for a killer. It's not too hard to follow, but there were quite a few references to things and events I can surmise happened in the previous book (this novella is #1.5). I was a bit impatient with the heroine: if i tell you there's a killer who can assume anyone's shape and then later I tell you that people who saw the killer say they saw you - wouldn't you be able to put two and two together? It was a good enough read, but the first half was much better than the second. It also felt rather soapbox-y to me, making me want to steer clear. Overall not a bad novella, but it doesn't inspire me to go looking for more books in this series.

Buying Trouble - 5 stars
This one is labeled Dorina Basarab #1.1 I haven't started the Dorina Books, and have only read the first of the Cassie Palmer books. In the one I read, I was really confused and not too impressed with Ms. Chance. Well, now I am super impressed. But for a moment there I had no idea what was going on. The main character was introduced and I went 'Claire who? LOL!' It's the same world, I guess, but this one was so much more fun than Cassie's book. There's a motley crew of paranormal beings featured - everything from trolls and fey to werewolves and dragons and a 'null'. and let me tell you, I have never read any male described as having "creamy buttocks," LOL! the story was full of surprises I didn't see coming; and laughs too. Wholly original and so much fun. Oh yes, the story is about the adventures of a Fey and a Null.

Mona Lisa Betweening - 2 stars
As far as I can tell, this one was about a shifter queen running around having sex with the men in her court under the full moon - rather reminiscent of Anita Blake. No thanks.

View all my reviews

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Morganville Vampires #1
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
My rating: ★★★½


I don't know if my rating is fair or not, because I rated the last Rachel Caine I read 3 sars, and I enjoyed Glass Houses way more than that one. The book had some seriously good moments. But it also had seriously iffy moments, hence the 3-star rating, I guess.

Claire Danvers is a 16-year old genius who had the chance to attend any college she wanted - but her parents made her go to some backwater college in Morganville, not too far away from home. That stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Any Ghanaian parent who's child was smart enough to be accepted to some of the best universities in the world would ship them off. First. Chance. They. Got - because a good education makes all the difference. (Again, this is a story about a sheltered American kid. Not Ghanaian. I get that. But still. I was like, are you kidding me, really?)

But never mind. Rachel goes off to college and finds herself in the sights of a clique of really, really mean girls. Because of their meanness, she flees college and finds accomodation and friends at the Glass House. This one bugged me a lot. If Claire was 12 years old and going to 9th grade at Morganville High School, it would have been perfect. Not College. I mean, 18 or 19-year old girls behaving like this? No. Oh they can still be mean, but it's more innocuous and sinister than this.

Claire also behaved more like she was 10 or 12 years old than like a sensible person who's 16 years old, much less someone who's a genius.

That notwithstanding, it was a good story. I liked the inhabitants of the Glass House - Michael, Eve, and Shane. And while I did think something was weird about Oliver, I did not see that twist coming. It made for a very awesome climax.

The resolution is the final issue I had with the book. I don't like cliffhangers, especially ones that come out of nowhere. Grr. But yeah, I'll be reading the next book in series when I can get my hands on it.

View all my reviews

Memorable monday #1

Three guesses where/who I saw doing this meme. Sigh. So I am still only going to do two memes a week.  Instead of a Waiting on Wednesday this week, we're going to have a Memorble Monday (yes it's Tuesday, I'm late I know, but still ^_^)

 Memorable Monday is a new meme hosted by the ladies over at Escape in a Book, and invites us to share a memorable quote from something we've read/ are reading.


Here goes!!




My entry is from Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs, found in On the Prowl (an anthology). The review for the anthology will be up on Friday. Anyway here's my absolute favorite line from the book:

"I promise you will enjoy sex with me," he murmured.

Oh Charles Cornick, you stud, you! What we have here is Charles being all suave and cool after he'd told Anna his wolf wanted her for a mate and she'd told him bitingly that after being treated like a whore for a year, she didn't like sex. Patty keeps her series really vanilla, and Charles is really somber, so for him to go all studly and say something like this...It made me giggle so much.  Alpha and Omega is a very short story that worth way more than its weight in gold. You should check it out!

Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare

I-Team #1
Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare
★★★★

For some reason, the series name, I-Team, had me expecting an Elite Ops/SEAL/mercenary sort of romantic suspense. So I was confused for a moment there when I realized we were dealing with the Investigative team of a newspaper and not hot men who are trained killers, heh. But once that was cleared cleared up, I started noticing a few things.

The book is a lot more romance than suspense, so much so that you could take the suspense part out, and you still pretty much had a solid romance going on. Speaking of romance, this one was as steamy as you could get without making it erotica.

I liked Kara and Senator Reece. They were solid characters who behaved their age - both in their thirties, not too much angst, hiding information leading to big misunderstanding, no TSTL moments...it felt age appropriate.

It was a very quick read. It didn't feel like 300+ pages at all, which is a very good thing, right?

The epilogue was HELLA cheesy! But it was all good.

Overall, it was a nice evening's escapism, and a good introduction to romantic suspense for someone used to reading romance. I am adding this series and Ms. Clare to my TBR list.

View all my reviews

Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

Jane Yellowrock #2
Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

★★½

The first book in this series surprised me into enjoying it and checking out the rest of the books. Unfortunately, this book is a disappointing follow up to the first book.

Jane Yellowrock is still in Louisiana, even after completing her job for the Vampire Council. It seems she has been hired on to do some more work for them: a rogue is making new vampires and must be stopped.

For a long while the story just seemed to be going nowhere, so I went back and checked the synopsis, and it was vague, much like the story itself: there was not much of a sense of the plot moving forward to some sort of culmination. It remained flat until the final few chapters, where it picked up a bit, but by then I couldn't care less about any tensions or happenings that had to be resolved, I just wanted the book to end.

I also found myself returning to my initial assessment of Jane (you know, before the turn of magic that had me change my mind about the first book) as a rather uninteresting character to get to know. The one thing that perked me up was her relationship with "Bruiser", which alas, seems to be fated to either go nowhere or be part of a love triangle/quadrangle.

I was really disappointed in this installment. I think I will go on to read the next book in series to gauge whether the first book was a fluke or if it's truly worth coming along for the ride.

And...the cover is horrible. Womp.

View all my reviews

Thank you!!

This post is just to say thank you to Bilal Aslam, who helped me get threaded comments on my blog.  I am a technology dunce, you see, and when I couldn't figure it out fro the instructions on his blog, he took the time to have me email him my template and then he fixed it for me. That was so nice of him!

For anyone who's having similar trouble, I suggest you take a look at the tutorial: click me!!
I would also encourage just browsing his blog, which has tons of useful tutorials for bloggers who use blogger.

If you're reading this, Bilal, thank you so much! You are a prince among men! :D

LJ
 

TGIF @ GReads #3: Book Appeal

TGIF is a weekly meme hosted every Friday at GReads, asking reading/book-related questions which are fun to answer. This week's question is:

Book Appeal: When you're browsing goodreads, the library, or another blogger's reviews, what grabs your attention to make you want to read it?

The library: The cover. And the blurb on the back of the book. I will bypass a book whose cover doesn't impress me. I've missed out on many good books that way (Patricia Briggs' series), but I can't help it. If I don't like a cover, I'm most likely not picking the book. And the section. I am usually in the Romance/Fantasy/Science Fiction section. So unless I am looking for a specific book, books n other sections pass me by.

Goodreads: When I'm looking at a random book on Goodreads, the first thing I do is look at the average rating. If 1, 000 people have read it and the average rating is 4.30, then I'll take a closer look at it. I'll look at some of the reviews. More importantly, I'll look at what my friends and people I follow have to say about it. If I get a positive vibe, I'm much more likely to attempt to acquire the book. If I get an intensely enthusiastic vibe from them, I'll get the book and start it right away (that's what happened with Dragon Bound, by Thea Harrison).

Another Blogger's reviews: What they have to say. I am not much for detailed synopses and book report-ish reviews. I want to know how the reader felt, whether they liked it, loved it, curse it with fire and brimstone...you know, that sort of thing. And if the feelings expressed are strong either way, I'll take a second look at the book.

If it's a book I really want to read anyway, then all bets are off. If it's a book I'm leaning towards not reading, the opinions of friends and people I follow are more likely to play a bigger role.

Because I'm feeling rambly, I've left you with some examples.
1. I autobought - if that's a word - Dragon Bound because ALL my friends on Goodreads were raving about it and the average review was really high. I didn't really enjoy the first 50% and I was tempted to give up, but so many of my friends encouraged me to continue - "it gets better," they said. And so I did. I am glad I did because  I majorly enjoyed the second 50% - enough to rate the book 5 stars.

2. Wicked Lovely Series, by Melissa Marr. I got the first book from the library. I read a bit, and wasn't sure I was enjoying it, so I checked out the blurbs for the other books. I wasn't sure I liked where the series was heading, so I looked at my friends' reviews on Goodreads. One particular review, by a person who I follow, was thoughtful, and which pointed out issues she'd had, made me realize I was better off spending my time on other books. I don't regret choosing to DNF the first book and not continuing with the series.

3. Pride Series, by Rachel Vincent. I love Ms. Vincent's work, but usually I want to smack sense into her characters. I was trying to decide whether to start this series, but readers' opinions about Faythe's attitude gave me pause. I looked around and saw another thoughtful review of the whole series by someone I follow whose opinions I respect. Her analysis of Faythe's character made me decide it was better to leave the series alone instead of trying to assess it for myself. And again, I haven't looked back even once: not in the face of glowing reviews or negative reviews. I am content with choosing not to experience this series for myself.

Waiting on Wednesday #3

  Happy February!! Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Jill's blog, and showcases upcoming releases we're highly anticipating.

And my entry for today is somewhat special. I'll tell you why after the blurb, heh :) That's code for I'll be doing a lot of rambling, but it's worth it...I think.

 
Raven Calls, by C.E. Murphy. This baby is going to be the 7th book in the Walker Papers series. It is slated for release on February 21st

Description via amazon.com

 Something wicked this way comes…

Suddenly, being bitten by a werewolf is the least of Joanne Walker's problems.

Her personal life in turmoil, her job as a cop over, she's been called to Ireland by the magic within her. And though Joanne's skills have grown by leaps and bounds, Ireland's magic is old and very powerful….

In fact, this is a case of unfinished business. Because the woman Joanne has come to Ireland to rescue is the woman who sacrificed everything for Joanne—the woman who died a year ago. Now, through a slip in time, she's in thrall to a dark power and Joanne must battle darkness, time and the gods themselves to save her.

I say this book is special for two reasons, the most important being if you had asked me about this series even two weeks ago, I would have said fervently, "Heck no! I hate that series!" and probably proceeded to explain why this is one of those series that must die. The first two books were terrible because the heroine Joanne, frankly, was an insufferable dimwit and I wanted to smack her senseless. My less-than-charitable-reviews for books 1 and 2 can be found here:
 Book #1: Urban Shaman (Goodreads link)
 Book #2: Thunderbird Falls
 Book #3: Coyote Dreams

I read book three ...just Monday? - and all that changed. Ms. Murphy discarded the layers of Dimwit that coated Joanne and showed what lies beneath. She gave us a new Joanne, someone whose journey is worth reading about. And yes, it is as dramatic as I make it sound, at least for me it was. My very-charitable-aka-I-was-wrong-about-this-series review of book three is also linked above, just in case anyone cares. Coyote Dreams changed my view of this series so drastically that I am excited about it enough to power through book 4-6 in 3 weeks or less, just so I can read Raven Calls as soon as it comes out (or slightly before, thank you NetGalley ^_^). I am excited about Joanne and how much potential her character has for growth and I want to be there for the journey. I have no idea what the plots of the next books are, but now, instead of the dread of two weeks ago, I am going into this series with  a sense of enthusiasm and expectation.

Reason  #2: This is another mythology that you won't see too much of peppered along the landscape of fantasy (really bad sentence structure, but you know what I mean). It's basically a series about a half-Irish, half-Cherokee police-officer-who's-really-a-mechanic; it's about being a shaman. It's new. And it pretty much sticks to Native American mythology, which is kinda cool, and again not too common in the Urban Fantasy genre.

I am really excited about this release, for not-the-usual-reasons, and that gives me an extra thrill :)