Once Upon a Bookshelf

The Story

Beth Randall has been living in Caldwell, New York, working at an unsatisfying job at the local paper. Being kept away from the large stories, Beth is starting to feel like she needs a little bit of adventure in her life. Enter Wrath, one massive, gorgeous and dangerous purebred vampire.

Believing that she is an orphan, whose parents died shortly after she was born, Beth has always thought she was a normal human being. But when Wrath tells her that her father was a vampire who just got killed by a group of lessers (vampire hunters), her world is turned on its head. Neither Beth nor Wrath expect to fall in love with each other while they adjust to the changes their lives are taking, but things don’t always happen as you would expect them to…

The Review

Let us just take a moment to reflect on a couple of things. First, what have I stated over and over again that I am totally sick of?

1. Urban Fantasy books that centre around romantic vampires

And what are the biggest things that I absolutely hate in books?

1. Depthless women who are essentially Mary Sues
2. Brooding and/or emo male leads.
3. Books where the plot seems to revolve around characters trying to have as much sex as possible, to the detriment of real plot and real character development.
4. Women who will give up all their morals or personality as soon as omg hot guy comes along.
5. Vampire sex. Lots and lots of vampire sex. Because omg vampires are so romantic and sexy and not scary at all.
6. Books where the main character comes across something that TOTALLY BLOWS THEIR MIND (omg, vampires are real?! And I’m turning into one?!) but a page later is totally okay and awesome with it, and doesn’t have to struggle with the fact that omg everything they thought wasn’t true totally is.

Basically I don’t like flakey characters or stories that focus solely around sex without any plot or character development or romantic vampires. So…. if this book had most of the stuff that I don’t like or am sick of, WHY COULD I NOT PUT IT DOWN?!

What is it about this book that made it consume my brain from the moment I started it until the moment I finished it? What on earth is in this book that has done this to me? OMG brain is blown.

Because I don’t know what it was that I loved about this book! I feel like a hypocrite loving it! And it’s a little embarrassing admitting exactly how much I loved it. Because I did. Even though there was so much about it that I hated. Like! Like the two main characters!

There are SO MANY people who LOVE this series and I have a feeling I’m going to get some comments telling me about how awesome this book is and how awesome Beth is and omg how could I think she isn’t a strong kick-ass female? But… I just didn’t get that from the book. As soon as Wrath came into her life, it was like her whole world all of a sudden revolved around him instead of around the sun. She lost her individuality in the span of a day.

And Wrath… can we say “tortured hero”?!? How much did he remind me of Heathcliff? And how much do I hate Heathcliff?!

But… but for every thing that I hated about this book, there was something in it that kept me from putting it down, that kept me turning the pages and actually wanting to know how things turned out.

The only thing that I can put my finger on that I loved was Butch, Beth’s cop friend. Even after Beth hooked up with Wrath, after he met Marissa, he still cared so much for Beth’s safety and well-being. He had nothing in life to live for, but his character growth when he met the Black Dagger Brotherhood was awesome.

I think that if the book was not about Wrath and Beth that I would enjoy it. And so the fact that the other books in the series don’t seem to have Wrath and Beth as main characters seem like a positive to me. Let’s just see if I can get over the whole “romantic vampire” bias that I’ve got going on.

The Bottom Line

This book consumed me while I was reading it, and yet I still cannot figure out why. It actually embarrasses me how much I loved it. I have a feeling I’m going to continue on with this series, but will probably take a break for the time being and attack some of those other books that have been sitting on the TBR pile for a while.

Other Reviews

Love Vampires, Best Fantasy Stories, 25 Hour Books, ReadingAdventures, Bitten By Books. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.

The Story

It’s Hogswatchnight Eve, and the Auditors have decided to hire the Assassin’s Guild to kill off the Hogfather, as the Hogfather does not fit into their (the Auditor’s) view of the universe.

Mr. Teatime is sent off to dispatch the Hogfather, and when Death realizes what is going on decides to become the Hogfather for Hogswatchnight, in order to keep people believing in the Hogfather.

When Death’s granddaughter, Susan, discovers her grandfather is posing as the Hogfather, she goes off to investigate what Mr. Teatime has done to the real Hogfather.

The Review

How on earth is this the first book I’ve ever read by Terry Pratchett? I mean, I knew people loved the Discworld books, but but but! I never ever picked one up – why?!

I had seen the TV Adaptation a few years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed that, but had a hard time finding a copy of the book to buy in bookstores until a couple of months ago. And put off reading it until this month because Christmas-y books are never quite as enjoyable as they are at Christmas time.

And enjoyable it was. In fact, this was awesomely brilliant. It had engaging characters, an exciting plot, and was totally random in the best sort of way.

I love fantasy novels that are set in worlds with different cultural beliefs than ours. Usually you can see where the author draws inspiration from mythology, but I’ve never read one that was so similar in some aspects to ours. While it was good to see a different spin on Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, it was very cool to see that Pratchett’s Hogfather was originally needed to be sacrificed in order to make the sun rise the next morning.

I’m definitely interested in finding out more about all of the characters that were just given a very brief glimpses of in this book. Perhaps this wasn’t the best of books to start with, as it’s hard to get totally immersed into a universe when so many new things are being introduced all the time, but it’s definitely made me want to read more just so I can understand the Auditors, the Wizards, etc. better.

The Bottom Line

omg. I am definitely keeping this one and will definitely be rereading it next Christmas. In the meantime, I need to read more of Pratchett’s books, but I don’t know where to go next. Please, someone, tell me which of the Discworld books I should read next!

Other Reviews

Libri Touches, Adventures in Reading. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.

The Story

The High King’s Tomb is the third book in Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series. King Zachary’s wedding to Lady Estora is drawing near, the D’Yer Wall is still not strong enough to keep Mornhavon the Black imprisoned when he arrives in the time period that Karigan sent him to, and the Second Empire is gathering for all kinds of nefarious reasons (as evil societies tend to do).

Rider Karigan G’ladheon is sent out on what she hopes is a fairly easy errand – to deliver a message about a book that will help heal the D’Yer Wall, to purchase new horses for the Green Riders, and to discover what she can about a missing undercover Green Rider. Of course, when Karigan is involved, there is always some sort of trouble coming along the way. A series of incidents happen to lead back to the Second Empire, who not only steal the book Karigan is looking for, but also kidnap Lady Estora in order to create a massive distraction that will allow them into the tomb of the royal family of Sacoridia. Karigan unknowingly stumbles upon their kidnapping of Lady Estora, and must act quickly to not only save her friend, but to save the world from the Second Empire and their plots to help Mornhavon the Black.

The Review

Okay. First, the rant. Then the raving.

It was bad enough when books were published to hardcover before being published to mass market paperback. But this one, oh, it was published as trade paperback before being published as a mass market paperback. That made me wait a whole extra year before I could purchase it because I already the other two in the series in mass market paperback, and it would look silly on my bookshelf to not have them all in the same format. It’s hard enough when there’s three years between when the last one was published and this one, but then two have to wait a whole extra two years for my preferred format? Hrmph.

But.

BUT.

The wait was totally worth it.

Because this is STILL my favourite fantasy series.

Finally being able to sit down with the third book in this series was like meeting up with old friends again. I read the first book when it was first published back when I was still in high school, and have reread it so many times that the characters have become quite dear to me. To read more about their adventures finally was so wonderful.

The High King’s Tomb was everything I had hoped it would be. It had everything that I loved in the first two books – the characters, the adventure and the magic – and more. More awesome characters (how much did I love Fergal?), more awesome adventure (sword fights in dresses? a fight with pirates?), and more awesome magic (seriously? the god of death’s steed and Karigan’s interaction was brilliant).

I don’t even know what else to say other than omg! Miss Bay and Miss Bunch were back. Loved that we went back to Selium. Loved Alton and wanted to snuggle him through his stressed crazy the-wall-won’t-let-him-through-to-see-the-guardians period. I want to own a horse and name him Condor. And yay loved loved loved.

The Bottom Line

A very strong third book in the Green Rider series. I highly recommend this series, as it is positively wonderful and Karigan is a rather kick-ass lead female character. (And we all know that kick-ass female characters in fantasy are pretty darn awesome.) I especially recommend this book to any female who, when she was a little girl, wanted a horse of her own. Cannot wait until the next book in the series. (Though, I really hope that I don’t have to wait as long for the fourth in the series; I think what I’ll probably end up doing for it is get the hardcover from the library and buy the mass market paperback when it’s published, just so I don’t have to wait so freaking for it.)

Other Reviews

Fantasy Book Critic. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.