Review: Indulgence in Death

Author: J D Robb (2010)

Summary:  First it was a limo driver shot through the neck with a crossbow. Then it was a high-priced escort stabbed through the heart with a bayonet.  Random hits, thrill kills, murderers with a taste for the finer things in life – and death – are making NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas angry. And an angry Eve can be just as an efficient and dangerous predator as the killer.  As time runs out on another innocent victim’s life, Eve’s investigation will take her into the rarified circle that her husband, Roarke, travels in – and into the perverted heart of madness….(Goodreads)

My thoughts: I feel like I've been talking about these books a lot lately.  I've been doing some rereading, and then I was offered this newest one for review and I just couldn't pass it up.  As you all know, I'm a huge fan of this series.

This episode is a little different in that we know very early on who the bad guys are.  The trick lies in proving it.  Eve has to race against the killers as she tries to pin them with their crimes before they claim another victim.  It's a bit of a different way to do the story, but I liked it.  I generally figure out who the bad guy is pretty early on anyway, so it was nice that the suspense of this story didn't depend on the mystery.

One thing this series does very well is give you chilling glimpses into the mind of the killer.  This time it's even more creepy than usual because this killer is both totally sane and completely without conscience.  Yikes!  I guess it's not scary, exactly, but it definitely gives me the willies.   If you don't like this type of writing, though, this book will most definitely not work for you.

I notice that Eve and Roarke are talking more and more about having children.  Can I just go on record and say that I hope that never happens?  When they have a baby it will be the end of the series for sure.  So much of the dynamic that makes this series what it is just won't work if they have a kid.  I suppose all good things must come to an end, and at 30 (?) books this series has had a good long run, but I'm not ready for it to be over yet. 

Final word: (4/5) Awesome.  One of my favorites of the series.

This book was received for review from the publisher.

Review: Nightshade

Author: Andrea Cremer (2010)

Summary: Calla has always known exactly what her future held.  On her eighteenth birthday, she will marry Ren and together they will be alphas over a new werewolf pack.  They will do the will of their masters, the Keepers, as all Guardians do.  It doesn't really matter how Calla feels about it, because there's nothing she can do to change fate.  Right?  And yet Calla finds herself risking everything to save the life of a mysterious hiker, a boy named Shay.  As she gets to know Shay better, Calla realizes that, powerful as she is, the only thing she wants might be beyond her reach.  Can she change her fate after all?

My thoughts:  Oh. My. Gosh.  I just finished reading this book and I literally cannot wait to tell you about it.  I haven't been this excited about a book in a long time. 

Ever since I started reading YA paranormals, way back with Twilight, I've been waiting for a book that reverses the roles.  Let's have a girl be the mysterious and alluring paranormal creature.  Let the human boy be smitten with her even though he's not sure what he's getting himself into.  That book has arrived!!  Calla is a fantastic, complex character.  I loved that she was strong in so many areas of her life, and unsure in a few unexpected ones.  Her confusion as she tried to sort out her feelings for Ren and Shay had me completely pulled in.  This is going to be a great book for bad boy lovers and goodie girls alike.  I have to admit I fully hated Ren most of the time, but I know plenty of you are going to fall for him.  He's really the embodiment of an jerk with a soft center, once you figure out what that center is.

Speaking of being pulled in, this story has "hook" in spades.  On page one, you are thrown right into the action- and it doesn't let up.  There's love, lust, family, intrigue, terror, hope, confusion and plenty of things that go bump in the night.  Actually, the action started off so fast that I found myself struggling to catch up a few times.  But I promise you I was never bored.

I loved the way this story melded the paranormal genre with elements of dystopian fiction.  Calla's growing realization that the rules she's always accepted might not be there for her own benefit ranks right up there with some of the great YA dystopians.  I was particularly reminded of The Uglies Trilogy and The Giver.  That feeling of "everything is good, everyone knows their place" slowly turns to "nothing is what I thought it was" and I couldn't quite put my finger on the place in the story where my stomach started twist with dread.  Perfect.

CLIFFHANGER ALERT!  This book is definitely going to leave you wanting more.  I don't know how I'm supposed to survive until next July for the sequel, Wolfsbane.  This is an absolutely stunning debut from Andrea Cremer. 

Final word: (5/5) WOW.  This book knocked my socks off so hard I'm actually still looking for one of them. 

Content: Sexuality, violence and disturbing religious references.  Recommended for older teens and adults only. 17+

Review: Aunt Dimity's Death

Author:  Nancy Atherton (1993)

Summary: Lori Shepard though Aunt Dimity was just a character in the bedtime stories her mother used to tell.  So when a letter appears announcing that Aunt Dimity has died and left a final request for Lori, she's understandably surprised.  Lori travels to Britain to fulfill Dimity's last request, and discovers that there's more to it than she realized.     

My thoughts: Aunt Dimity's Death isn't exactly a typical mystery novel.  There's no crime to be solved, but rather an intrigue to be unravelled.  So it wasn't quite what I expected, but I did really enjoy it.

When the news of Aunt Dimity's passing reaches Lori, she's in the midst of a very hard time.  Her marriage has ended, her mother recently died, and she's stuck temping at a series of horrible jobs.  When the letter from fancy law firm Willis & Willis arrives, it seems like the perfect escape hatch- so perfect she has a hard time believe it to be true.  Accompanying Lori on her journey is Bill, the junior Willis on the letterhead.  It seems Bill might just have an ulterior motive for helping Lori, but what could it be?   I have to say, Bill was a little bit annoying, but he also cracked me up.  He's a bit like a big galumphing puppy dog that hasn't quite grown into its feet.  He made the perfect counterpoint to Lori's overthinking and suspicious nature.

While there isn't a crime in this book, there is definitely a wrong in need of righting.  Lori and Bill discover that Aunt Dimity had a bit of a dark secret in her past, and they are determined to discover what it is.  Through it all, Lori manages to learn, not just the secrets of the past, but some important lessons about life and love.

Final word: (3/5) Not exactly what I expected, but undeniably heart-warming.

Recommended by: Gina @ Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Teaser Tuesday: Remarkable Creatures

Today's teaser is from Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. You can read my review here.

There were no warning, no pebbles raining down or the groan of stone splitting from stone.  It were that sudden that one moment Fanny and I were laughing about men's parts by the cliff, and the next the cliff just dropped.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted each week at Should Be Reading.

Review: Remarkable Creatures

Author: Tracy Chevalier (2009)

Summary: From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world's creation and stimulating debate over our origins. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Even nature is a threat, throwing bitter cold, storms, and landslips at her. Luckily Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who is also fossil-obsessed. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy. Despite their differences in age and background, Mary and Elizabeth discover that, in struggling for recognition, friendship is their strongest weapon. (Goodreads)

My thoughts: Remarkable Creatures is one part history, one part novel.  It follows the known events in the life of Mary Anning, filling in the unknowns with fiction.

As history, I thought it was excellent and very interesting.  I'd never heard of Mary Anning before, but in a way she was responsible for huge sections of science as we know it.  Mary Anning was the woman who discovered many of the first dinosaur fossils to be recognized for what they were.   As a woman, she got little if any credit for her discoveries, and the book details to some extent her struggle for legitimacy. 

What I found most interesting was the impact these discoveries had on society.  Dinosaurs and tthe theory of evolution are so familiar to me that I don't think twice about them.  But when these fossils were first discovered, it was earth-shaking, calling into question the basic assumptions about the world that most people took for granted. It would be as if someone came along and told you that the earth is actually a ticking time bomb created by aliens as a weapon in an intergalatic war.  Actually, it would be more than that, because these discoveries were made during a time when the majority of people thought the same way about things, and speculation into alternate possibilites was frowned upon.  The way this book explored the societal impact was new to me and completely fascinating.

As a novel, Remarkable Creatures didn't really grab me.  The friendship between Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning is supposed to be the driving force of the drama, but I wasn't really buying it.  They kept talking about how important they were to each other, but I never saw and felt why that was.  It was ok, but not the world's greatest friendship that the cover copy made it sound like.

Final word: (4/5) Completely unputdownable, even though I was't feeling the character connection.