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Monday Mini Reviews

June 20, 2011 in Monday Mini Reviews

I am so far behind on writing reviews, so I figured Monday will now be our “cheat day”. You don’t need to hear me re-hash what it says in the blurb on Amazon, you want the straight up goods & what we all think about a book. Back Log  = Monday Mini Reviews.

Today I am going to tackle:

Frostbound is the final book in Sharon Ashwood’s Dark Forgotten series & I am sorry to see such a great series go. The characters (Talia & Lore) were my favorites out of all the previous books, the chemistry between them was electric. The pace was fast & as usual the world building phenomenal! And the plot, whoa. Frostbound had one hell of a plot which made reading a total treat. There’s so much going on, but told in a way to keep you caught up & on the tips of your toes, hanging off the couch.

Frostbound is totally worth the read, but I am so sad to see such a great series end.

Kitty’s Big Trouble is the 9th book in the series & my least favorite of the bunch. I found that there was a lot of whining on Kitty’s part, that she’d lost her edge. I loved that we got more Cormac then we have recently, but I find there was more chemistry between Cormac & Kitty then there is between her & Ben. I wasn’t a fan of the storyline at all, General Sherman means nothing to me as a Canadian. I admit, I had to look on Wikipedia to figure out who he was.

While I still think this series is underrated, I don’t think this was the best of the bunch for Kitty. For American History buffs, you’d love it.

I love the way Shiloh Walker writes a novel, especially in a series where you can pick up any book & it will totally stand alone. This is the case with Hunter’s Fall, while it’s the 13th book in the series, you don’t need to have read the previous books. The pace was steady & action packed, which made it a quick read. While I absolutly loved Dominic, Nessa drove me slightly batty. She’s still suffering, all these years later by events that happened in her past. She doesn’t seem to come out of this depression & that wore on me. The ending was a bit too predictable for me, I knew what was going to happen.

Not a bad book by any means, I just wish Nessa would have got over it all.

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After the Golden Age – Carrie Vaughn

April 20, 2011 in Reviews

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • List Price: $24.99
  • Publisher: Tor Books;  (April 12, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765325551
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765325556
  • Carrie Vaughn’s Website

Buy After the Golden Age at:

Can an accountant defeat a supervillain? Celia West, only daughter of the heroic leaders of the superpowered Olympiad, has spent the past few years estranged from her parents and their high-powered lifestyle. She’s had enough of masks and heroics, and wants only to live her own quiet life out from under the shadow of West Plaza and her rich and famous parents.

Then she is called into her boss’ office and told that as the city’s top forensic accountant, Celia is the best chance the prosecution has to catch notorious supervillain the Destructor for tax fraud. In the course of the trial, Celia’s troubled past comes to light and family secrets are revealed as the rift between Celia and her parents grows deeper. Cut off from friends and family, Celia must come to terms with the fact that she might just be Commerce City’s only hope.

This all-new and moving story of love, family, and sacrifice is an homage to Golden Age comics that no fan will want to miss.

Celia West is the daughter of two superheros & somehow the gene skipped her. Celia tries to distance herself from her parents while coming to grips with her lack of ability. When she is called into her bosses office to help put away a supervillain for tax fraud, Celia gets thrown into the media eye & her past comes out. Which ends up pushing her further away from her family & friends.

Celia has had  little contact with her parents, as she cut ties with them as a teen. Her parents (Spark & Captain Olympus) put the good of Commerce City before Celia. Celia understood their priorities, she didn’t like it, especially when villians assumed her parents did care & continuously kidnapped her.

“Couldn’t you sound….you know….Scared or something? (Kidnapper)

“Sorry. But you know I’ve done this before. This isn’t exactly new to me.” (Celia)

“We’re different” (Kidnapper)

“They all say that.” (Celia)

“Shut up…..” (Kidnapper)

I was pleasantly surprised by After the Golden Age, okay I lie…I went a bit fanish about it. I’m a fan of Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series but I was disappointed with Discord’s Apple, the first non Kitty book. I was a bit apprehensive when starting After the Golden Age, but I loved it from start to finish.

After the Golden Age alternates between snark, love & family flawlessly. It all comes together perfectly, you feel for Celia one moment & one to smack her the next, even if you understand where she’s coming from. Cause really it would suck if everyone around you had superpowers & you got shafted.

The story alternates telling you about the past & moving seamlessly to the present. Though it started out slow, it quickly gains pace & moves along fast.

After the Golden Age was wonderfully written, in fact I think this is the best book Ms. Vaughn has written to date. The world building is by far some of the best I’ve read, I could clearly see Commerce City in my head. Though Celia starts out rather whinny, she grows & accepts her lot in life for what it is.

I can’t praise this book enough, run out & buy a copy ASAP.

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Kitty Goes To War – Carrie Vaughn

June 10, 2010 in Reviews

  • Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
  • Carrie Vaughn’s Website
  • List Price: $7.99 US/$9.99 CDN
  • Publisher: Tor Books (June 29, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765365618
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765365613

Pre-Order Kitty Goes To War at:

Kitty Norville, Alpha werewolf and host of The Midnight Hour, a radio call-in show, is contacted by a friend at the NIH’s Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Three Army soldiers recently returned from the war in Afghanistan are being held at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs.  They’re killer werewolves—and post traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people.  Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.   

Meanwhile, Kitty gets sued for libel by CEO Harold Franklin after featuring Speedy Mart–his nationwide chain of 24-hour convenience stores with a reputation for attracting supernatural unpleasantness–on her show. 

Very bad weather is on the horizon. 

This go around with Kitty has her hearing a lot of weird things about a chain of convenience stores, Speedy Mart during her call in show. When Kitty ends up being sued for comments made on her show, she decides to investigate the callers stories about Speedy Mart & the paranormal activities that have been reported. Kitty also is dealing with a bit of a problem, three soldiers have returned from Afghanistan & they are a huge problem. They were turned werewolf, the ultimate killing machine but they’re also suffering from PTSD & are unable to control themselves after the Alpha that turned them died. Add to that Cormac has a secret, one that freaks even Kitty out.

Kitty Goes to War is the eighth book in the series, fans who missed the lack of Cormac in book seven will LOVE Cormac in this one.

The story-lines in Kitty Goes to War were amazing, from crazy things happening at Speedy Mart to the freaked out military weres. I had no idea what was going to happen next & I was rooting for the Soldiers. Then Carrie throws in Cormac’s big secret & you are hellbent on knowing what else is going to be thrown in. No matter what Kitty does, she always ends up in the middle of the action even when she wants nothing to do with it. To me, the best part of Kitty is that she really tries to keep out of all the drama but she’s always dead centre trying to help someone, complete with snarky attitude.

There are some real out of left field moments where you are shocked, especially with Cormac who has changed so much since he’s been released from jail, to Ben trying harder to look like the Alpha male that he is. I loved it, non-stop action complete with snark! Carrie Vaughn is continuing to make this series one of the best out there, complete with a solidly written cast of characters you wish you knew yourself.

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Interview & Giveaway With Carrie Vaughn

June 9, 2010 in Author Interviews

When I first started interview authors, I never thought I’d ever get to interview so many of my favorite authors.The Kitty Series by Carrie Vaughn is one of my favorite series, so please welcome Carrie to WLP. Don’t forget to check out Carrie’s Tour Dates, sadly no Canada dates. *sniffle* Next week I will be reviewing both of Carrie’s upcoming books!

WLP: Can you tell us in 2 sentences or less about Kitty Goes to War?

CV: In Kitty Goes to War, Kitty has to help a squad of werewolf war veterans adjust after they return home from Afghanistan.

WLP: Did your background (Military Brat) have any influence on Kitty Goes to War? Research?

CV: In the sense that I’ve always been sympathetic to people in the military because of my own family history — that influenced the book, definitely.  I had to do a lot of extra research, though, because my father was an officer in the Air Force, while my characters were Army Special Forces enlisted.  They’re two very different areas of the military, with different outlooks.

WLP: I have to ask, can we get a sneak peak on Kitty # 9? Maybe a little something that’s on the playlist? (Carrie always includes a playlist at the start of each Kitty novel)

CV: Kitty heads to San Francisco in Kitty 9 — I’d tell you the title but I’m still waiting for my editor to okay it.  It’s a good playlist, I think.  B-52′s “Mesopotamia” is on it, and P.J. Harvey’s “Down By the Water.”

WLP: What Character do you find is the hardest to write in the series?

CV: The vampire characters take a lot of work — I want them to be familiar and otherworldly at the same time.  I also try to work out at least some of the back story on most of my characters, and for vampires that have been alive for decades or centuries, that’s a lot of back story.

WLP: My readers & your fans would not be happy if I didn’t mention Cormac. I’m sure you’ve been asked millions of times, but why Ben?!

CV: Because that’s where the story led me.  It was the most interesting path for me to follow — put everyone in a difficult situation and see what happens, and that was what happened.  And because Cormac would never agree to have dinner with Kitty’s family.

WLP: You also have Discord’s Apple coming out in July as well, can you tell us a bit about that?

CV: Discord’s Apple is the story of Evie, a comic book writer who returns home when she learns that her father is dying.  She discovers a hidden treasure of mythical objects in the basement, and soon realizes that there are people — such as the goddess Hera — who would do anything to get some of those objects.  It’s a book about family, storytelling, mythology, the Trojan war, and the end of the world.

WLP: Which of all the stories/books you’ve written did you most enjoy writing?

CV: I don’t think I could pick a favorite — they all have their great moments, and their tough moments.  I usually like the one I’ve just written the best.

WLP: What is the one book you always go back to & re-read?

CV: The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.  It’s my comfort book.

WLP: What do you do to unwind after writing?

CV: Watch some TV, cook, read a book, work on my crafty stuff — I’m learning how to knit right now.

Quick question time:

  1. Coffee or Tea?   Tea.
  2. Mixed Drinks or Wine or Beer?   Wine.
  3. Sweet or Spicy? Sweet.
  4. Rock Music or Pop Music?   Rock.
  5. E-Books or Paper?   Paper, but that may change soon.

WLP: Finally, name four things you can’t live without.

CV: Books, music, friends, family.

The coolest of cool –  Cassie at Tor/Forge has offered up TWO sets of books (Discord’s Apple & Kitty Goes To War) for two lucky readers! That’s right, you more than likely will have these two awesome books before they hit the stores!

Just tell us – Four things you cannot live without!

US/Canada Only Contest Runs until Friday June 18th at 12PM EST. Winners will be contacted.

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Kitty’s House of Horrors – Carrie Vaughn

January 7, 2010 in Reviews

  • Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
  • List Price: $7.99 US/$9.99 CDN
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Original edition (January 4, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446199559
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446199551

Talk radio host and werewolf Kitty Norville has agreed to appear on TV’s first all-supernatural reality show. She’s expecting cheesy competitions and manufactured drama starring shapeshifters, vampires, and psychics. But what begins as a publicity stunt will turn into a fight for her life.

The cast members, including Kitty, arrive at the remote mountain lodge where the show is set. As soon as filming starts, violence erupts and Kitty suspects that the show is a cover for a nefarious plot. Then the cameras stop rolling, cast members start dying, and Kitty realizes she and her monster housemates are ironically the ultimate prize in a very different game. Stranded with no power, no phones, and no way to know who can be trusted, she must find a way to defeat the evil closing in . . . before it kills them all.

Kitty is offered a spot in a Reality TV Series which also has cast members from previous Kitty books (O. Grant, Tina, Jeffery) and a few new additions (2 Vamps, their human servant, a were-wolf,  a were-seal & a skeptic). The point becomes clear that they have one skeptic in the group that doesn’t believe any of them have paranormal abilities or are paranormals, so the shows premise must be to prove to Conrad that they are real. Soon it becomes clear that there’s another more terror filled plot when members of the house starting getting killed, the power goes out and there’s no phone service.

As a huge fan of the Kitty Series, I was really disappointed with Kitty’s House of Horrors (Book 7 in the series). I found a lot of the book was filler, character’s being introduced only to be killed off or reintroductions to characters that we know about already. The plot twists were easily determined, you knew who was doing the killing. It’s a darker version of Kitty, usually they are light-hearted with action but not this dark and not this many deaths. Maybe it’s a lead up to something bigger in the next book, but I just didn’t get into this book like I did the previous ones. There were a few funny moments, but over-all it was extremely dark.

There’s a little bit of Ben at the beginning and mentions of Cormac, very little romance since Kitty’s not with Ben for almost all of the story. But Cormac fans will have a bit of a surprise towards the end. There’s also mention of the “Long Game” and Roman, which I think will mean more in the next book. Mainly the book is Kitty and the cast trying to survive, with lots of deaths among them and lots of description.

My Rating: 3 out of 5

Buy Kitty’s House of Horrors at:

Chapters/Indigo

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

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