55 Books in a Year: Book #40 The Lure of Shapinsay

My first book about selkies and it was definitely better than I thought it would be. Although the romance of it was a bit OVER THE TOP and Edward/Belle-esque, I enjoyed the story of a selkie torn between the sea he loves and the girl he's lured into being with him.

I thought this story was going to be told through the eyes of the selkie male (named by his 'captor' Eamon) and, it was. However, it is also told through the eyes of the girl, Kait and it seems that it is Kait's story that receives most of the attention in it we find a girl being forced to follow conventions and marry. Her parents have died and it would seem her twin brother Blair thinks he is doing her a favor by setting her up before he pursues his own bride. He believes this to be especially true since Kait's best friend has a baby that isn't quite human, and, because it was thrown out to sea to drown the selkies want some sort of vengeance. Eamon, too, is trapped by duty and a fear of humans, except for he can't stay away from Kait for too long.

It's pretty cool that this story takes place on the island of Shapinsay during the same time period that Balfour Castle was being built, the middle 1800s, when people still believed in faeries and the evil of witches. Kait learns that to keep Eamon with her, she must steal his selkie coat, and hide it in a place that no one would ever look. This is what human men have been doing to beautiful selkie women for ages and it works in reverse, but at what cost. While Eamon and Kait love one another and are bound to one another it must be determined if this love is strong enough to live through so much on both sides of the equation.

Although predictable (what love story isn't?), the ending has a twist that I truly enjoyed. I look forward to reading more lovie-dovie romances by Krista Holle and I need to find more books about selkies, as I don't know any of their legends and lore. I feel like I'm behind the times and must go watch The Secret of Roan Inish and Ondine immediately.

55 Books in a Year: Book #34 Kiss Me I'm Irish

Through one of my friends I Goodreads I found and joined a group titled The Knights of the Round Table. This book has been created to give people books to read in exchange for honest reviews. If you want to know more information check it out.

There were two books up for grabs for review and the minute I researched this one I knew that I wanted to review it. A strong-willed Cornish girl, Emily, is propelled into the future when she accidentally stumbles upon a time portal. She is glad to have escaped being sent to a convent, but is perplexed by modern America (Tennessee to be exact), its scantly dressed women and its convenient amenities (there's a scene with a toilet and a shower that is just hilarious). Of course, all of that changes when she gets to know Liam a dobro playing (I'm not sure why there isn't a dobro on the cover) Irish boy and Emily has a thing for Irish boys just ask the stable boy or the footman or her pompous great-aunt.

So, Emily gets propelled to the modern day South were things aren't at all what they seem to be and Liam isn't at all like all the other Irish boys. First of all, he runs hot and then cold and then hotter than hot and when he plays the dobro she can't help but think if him inapproriately. Add to this the pixie that got her there in the first place, Liam's sister, a band in need of a big break and scary coin dealer in need of gold and you've got all the fun and adventure for this story.

I enjoyed all three main characters (Liam, Emily and Tinker), and frankly I enjoyed the story of magic and schmoopiness and lovely music.

Adorable light summer read, perfect for a lazy Saturday when one should be doing productive things like cleaning the living room or doing laundry. I still feel all smiley.

If you really want to get in it go to Bella Street's website and go to the Kiss Me, I'm Irish page, she's got a playlist and everything.

55 Books in a Year: Book #33 Changeless

So, after I read Soulless I spent a lot of time on Gail Carriger's website/bloggie thing. It's a pretty awesome site, but it's even cooler after you've read her book and gotten into the minds of her characters...she's pretty adorable. There's a daily dose (your moment of parasol, your infusion of cute, your tisane of smart, and your writerly tinctures) and she's so clever all of the time.

This book isn't really much different than the first. There are some adorable times with Lord and Lady Maccon (why buy nightgowns, really?), there's a scene where Lord Maccon is naked in the middle of London...that was fun to imagine *cough, cough*, Ivy's love life also heats up which is pretty fun to read about, there's a fight on a dirigible (who's reasons and answers aren't totally fleshed out by the end of the book, I believe on purpose!), and there's a mummy full of mystical wonder. Alexia's sister is also along for the ride, I'm still not really sure why she's in the book as there are enough characters to keep track of without her whining and complaining and flirting and fainting. There are some new gadgets like the aether transmitter and the book takes place mostly in Scotland.

You know actually when I think about it, this story much like the story from the first book is full of mystery and kept me on my toes throughout. It's the characters that didn't really do it for me. Like I mentioned there's Alexia's sister (I can't even remember her name), Ivy is especially annoying and faints too and often, and then there's this character a tall French lady, Madame Lefoux, who Alexia thinks may be a spy (this woman has some sort of crush on Alexia that I just found distracting and unnecessary), Angelique shows her true colors, and Lord Maccon's wolf and human (yes, human) descendants are a bit stubborn and don't understand why he is so angry with them.

So, storywise, Book Two in the Parasol Protectorate series is just as good as the first. It's the characters that make it a little less than the first. It isn't until the end that this truly comes into fruition. Since I don't have to wait until the third book, I know everything turns out all right in the end I'm not too worried about it...I'm pretty sure that if I'd read the book when it first came out I'd have been as tee'd off as heck. This is one of the majors reasons that I wait until a series is finished before digging in.


If you can manage to not get annoyed by Felicity-wait! that's the sister's name--or ticked off at Lord Maccon, Ivy or the French Spy you are in for a wild and fun ride through the moors of Scotland. I won't be picking up the third book until after the Summer...I've read the blog and know what's going on...I'm willing to wait. And, yeah, this review seems a little disjointed because I don't know where I stand on this book...let's just end with I love it, go read it...and, if you can't wait you'd better have that third book ready!

55 Books in a Year: Book #31 Soulless

I absolutely love this book and when I love a book I have a hard time focusing on what I want to say about it. This book is especially hard to talk about because it has so much going on...first it is set in London and is Steampunk, it has werewolves and vampires and supernaturals and preternaturals. It has witting dialogue and romance woven in to a story of mystery and science. It may seem like a simple Steampunk novel, but, the author Gail Carriger touches upon the big themes of acceptance, playing God and gender roles in society. Seriously, it's a whopper, a fun and sexy (seriously werewolves, I want one) whopper, but a whopper nonetheless. 

To keep myself focused on reviewing the novel, I've found a lovely article that delves into the Steampunk genre without talking above my head and gives three tropes that most Steampunk stories and novels seem to possess. I will use these three to discuss Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger.

Language

Either Cockney or the Queen's English (in terms of the Victorian Era)

Through language Carriger distinguishes the many social levels evident in her book. Lord Maccon, of course, being the upper crust, has such a gentleman's voice that all the other male characters pale in comparision. He seems smooth and controlled, Lord Akeldama would be the opposite of that and then the various underlings take on various accents and characteristics appropriate to their level in society. We even understand the Alexia Tarabotti is a bit of a posh, who may be separated from others in her society by her Italian blood, but who language is elevated compared to her best friend and opposite Ivy Hisselpenny.

Industrialization

"Machinery that either experiments with the use of steam, or involves industry on some scale"

This is an easy and fun aspect to think about concerning this novel. There are glassicals (Ben Franklin type trifocals with various levels of examination), mechanical carriages, funky hats and parasols. While I don't think these machines are as fleshed-out and realized as those in other Steampunk novels I've read, I do believe they help set the scene for this Victorian London.

Historicism

Questions authority and "offers interrogations of famous figures, historical events"...this looks different in the States (think the Wild West) versus England (think Queen Victoria as a robot)

Soulless is a novel full of social commentary. I love that there are so many times that Alexia is prohibited by her gender and literally her skirts from being the true bad-a she'd like to be. She also recognizes that if she were married she'd be able to do more and she understands the class system. Sometimes all of this knowledge is detrimental as it prohibits her from having thoughts of freedom and, sometimes it limits her ability to see herself as a woman who possesses all the traits women want to possess. Even she is trapped in seeing herself as an object.

"A novel of vampires, werewolves, and parasols"...what more could you really ask for, I mean really?

Cravat count: 29

55 Books in a Year: Book #24 Tangled Tides

I wasn't really into the cover of this book, the mermaid is in some sort of misty ecstasy with pastel water splashes and a thunderstorm in the background, so it took me awhile to actually read it, which is sad because Tangled Tides is my favorite mermaid book so far. It combines romance, suspense and mythology to entice the reader to go on the journey with Yara.

This is the first mermaid book that I've read that actually delves into the history of mermaids, talks about how there are more than one type of mer-creature and doesn't have a heroine that cries and whines all the time. Sure, Yara doesn't want to be a mermaid, but she also doesn't understand how much her family and friends are involved with these ancient creatures either.

While Yara is truly the star of the show, Hooper compels us to get to know each of the characters in this universe she's created. There are two warring half-brothers, this creates a love triangle sort of (another part I like about the book a new twist on the triangle of love), who happen to be on the opposite ends of the same side, an adorable old guardian uncle, a bewitching siren and so many beautiful and colorful mermaids that I couldn't pick a favorite secondary character. I like how the story gets told through the voices of three characters, not just one. At first I thought this was going to be annoying, but then realized the story moved forward with each interpretation of the tale and the three very different voices kept me intrigued.

And, if you want action there's that too. The gorgons want their cursed prize, there's a deadly sickness that mermaids get if they stay in our world too long and they're running out of the cure and time, there's a shark attack that I didn't breath through as I read and there are some sexy scenes and kisses that left me quite breathless, and wishing I had fins and a tail and my own blue-haired tattooed man friend.

This is definitely a book for those people who love their water creatures (as there are mermaids, selkies, water sprites, sirens and gorgons), but it also for people who love mythology (I never really thought about where mermaids came from, until I read this book), or just want a good suspenseful romance.

Oh, and I got this book for free, when it was free, it's now $4.99 on your Kindle and I couldn't find an ebook version on Barnes and Noble.

55 Books in a Year: Book #12 Fins Are Forever

I'm not sure how I feel about Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs. On the one hand I love the continuation of the story from the first book, I love the character Quince and I love the Lily is learning more and more how to be herself. On the other hand, I felt that new  characters were added just to add meat to the very thin story, I thought that the story was predictable to the point of boredom and, well, there's a whole lot of Dosinia and Doe (as she is called) is the character we spent the whole entire first book disliking--frankly, I disliked her soooo much that, even at the end of this book and we find out a few things about her, I still wanted her to get eaten by a shark.

Although the bond has been severed, at the end of the first book, Lily and Quince decided that they should be together. This means that Lily must give up her kingdom...for a boy. I was willing to accept this fate for Lily as she spent the whole book crying and not listening to her heart and needed to be shown that her true happiness really does matter. In this book she jeopardizes (although by the end we all see why) her future and her happiness, and I still can't decide if it's because she was too stubborn to get it or if Doe is a bigger b-word than I thought.

Which brings me to the fact that I don't like Doe. I suppose that I should be grateful that Childs has written her character so well that I want to vomit every time she's around, which in this book is often, as she's been banished from the kingdom and forced to live with humans. Of course, Brody is back and there's another boy who is heir to a throne in dire straits. Because of this fact, there's more relationship tension between Quince and Lily...tension caused by Lily and her inability to trust people...ugh.

Part of the problem I may have with this book is that I felt that the first one ended so nicely. Actually, this book has a pretty sweetastic ending also, it just took me about 45 pages to understand that there could, in fact, be more to the story.

It may not sound like I enjoyed this book, I did like it, I just know I would have liked it more had it been a stand alone and not a sequel.

I'm looking forward to the third book, Just For Fins, and I still love myself some Tera Lynn Childs, however, this particular book didn't totally live up to my expectations.

3 Stars
 

55 Books in a Year: Book #5 Paranormalcy

Mermaids and werewolves and vampires and faeries and hags and shape-shifters and waterspirits, if you can name a paranormal, I'm sure they are at least mentioned in Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.

This book rocked my socks off! It's soooo very awesome! It's so awesome, in fact, that I'm sorry it took me two years to read it, so awesome in fact that I'm sorry I don't have the second book right now!

This is one of those cool books that on the surface seems like a cute romp into paranormal land, but is actually a commentary on discrimination, service and relationships.

Evie is seriously that perfect female heroine that I've been looking for when I read teen SF books. She's so girly (pink and animal print are incorporated into everything she wears), but she can also kick major butt using her pink rhinestone encrusted taser, nicknamed Tasy, of course. She falls for a shape-shifter and has doubts, but not the whiny (sorry, I'm about to compare her to two teen girls who annoy the dickens out of me) "I can't live without you" doubts of Bella Swan or "the too tough too touch me blocked-headedness" of Katniss Everdeen. Evie is the rock-star of these girls.

While the plot of this book is not new, the approach is. And, don't let the cover fool you, this book isn't at all fluffy and girly (unless you want to count Evie's pink heeled boots). In the world of Paranormalcy there are humans who know that paranormals exist these humans have taken it upon themselves to defend the world against these creatures and have created an agency to do this. Evie is part of this agency. After she meets a shape-shifting teenage boy, much like herself, she begins to wonder where she fits into the whole thing. Is she trapped? Is she a pawn? Is she an asset? And, most importantly, what does she want?

This book is told with enough humor and seriousness that I found myself laughing seconds after a sad event and I found myself sharing bits of this book to my student in the hallways and at lunch.

It's another one of those books that makes me wish I could have read it when I was 14 and it's another one of those books that I can't wait for my daughter to find.

50 Books in a Year: Book #35 The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf

I was a little apprehensive to read this book 1] because I thought the first book How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf was so funny and delicious I didn't think this book could possibly be as good and 2] I didn't really like Maggie as she was portrayed in the first book and thought that Harper would have to do a lot of work to make me like her while still being loyal to Mo and Cooper.

By gosh people she did it!

We see Maggie grow up a little at the end of How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf, I can guess that it's just enough that we want to read a whole book about her. But, in this book, we truly see her transformation. She puts aside some deep seeded prejudices, recognizes that it's these prejudices that almost got her and her whole pack killed, and even accepts the faults in others when an encroaching pack tries to take over her land. In this respect, I think that Maggie may be a stronger character than her predecesor Mo. Maggie doesn't do what she doesn't want to do, Maggie communicates (which means those silly misunderstandings that happen in all romance novels don't last long) and the reason why she comes off as a bully in the first book and sometimes in this books is because she is so passionate about her love of family, her people and her wilderness.

In a believeable way, Maggie bumbles around trying to make the right choice of who to marry, while not understanding why she's drawn to a man who should be anything, but her type. There's a hilarious scene were Nick suspects Maggie, in werewolf form, of being Mo and in a fit of crazy jealousy, she bites him on the rear and then regrets that decision everytime she sees him limping around. She makes fun of baby showers and other kinds of girlie rites of passage (my kind of girl). She is honest and sincere (almost to a fault). She is the kind of female hero that I'd like to see more often in any book I read.

Cool things I like about this series:
1. If I hadn't read the first one, I would have still understood what was going on in this one. She tells us just enough that we get whats going on and, as a person who read the first one, I didn't feel like I was being beaten over the head with the information.
2. You aren't going to find a sex scene until page 230 of this book and, yes, that's a cool thing, as it lends to plot and character development. There is sexual tension, but it's of the cute romantic comedy variety and it seems that in werewolf land, once you've mated they're yours for life...so sex and biting (the werewolf kind) are taken pretty darn seriously.
3. All of the characters in this series seem attainable. Nick, who is the love interest in this book, is a nerdy werewolf hunter who has to be saved, at least once, by Maggie because he's too dorky to realize he's in danger. And, he sounds just yummerrific in glasses, carrying a load of books on the extraterrastrial. Maggie, too, possesses typical, but not redundant and cliched, and likeable strong female lead attributes.

I am in love with this series and will definitely be reading all that Molly Harper decides to write, especially if they are books about Alaskan werewolves.

Fantasy Cast #2: How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

I had so much fun reading How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf that I really had no choice, but to spend an exhorbitantly large amount of time finding the perfect cast, should it ever become a movie. And, just so you know (this only applies if you read the paperback), while she mentions the naked werewolf on page one and you meet the werewolf on page 32, there isn't any dirty naked werewolf copulation until like page 180...and, while I was sad about this at first (remember how I said if I'm going to read a romance novel I like it to at least have some dirty-ish anything), I realized a) she makes up for it by having several more 'little' scenes in the rest of the 200+ pages and b) it leaves room for such wonderful character development. Seriously, I've never been sad about a romance novel ending and I was a little sad about this one ending and a little sadder that the next book seems to focus on Maggie, but we can talk about that later! On with the fantasy casting.

Ok, so at first I thought of Cooper Graham, Mr. Sexy Crabby Werewolf, looking a little like this...

Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing Era

...and, then I realized that what I really wanted him to look like was this...

Alex O'Loughlin

No offense against Patrick Swayze as he forever changed the way I look at men and at dancing, but I really, really, really needed Cooper to look good when angry, look guilty and feel remorse (if you haven't seen Alex O'Loughlin in Oyster Farmer, a quirky, Australian film, stop reading and go watch it now), have nice hands and be gosh-darned lickalious (yes, it's a word that my friend made up to describe...well, to describe men who look like Mr. O'Loughlin or Ryan Reynolds...HELL-O!). Sure, Alex has already played a vampire, but he was meant to be a wolf...scouts honor, have you seen him shirtless!?

Mo (I'll save her full name so you have to read the book to find out) Duvall-Wenstein is part Jewish, part hippie and all her own person. She needs to be portrayed by the kind of person who looks too girlie to go out of doors, but isn't afraid to, oh I don't know, hit a werewolf over the head with a fire extinguisher.

Michelle Monoghan

I picked Michelle because I thought she was a dainty little actress until I saw Eagle Eye and she is amazing in action.

OK, so now here's where you're going to have to bear *snicker, snicker* with me because there are soooo many minor characters in this book, so many wonderful characters in this book that I had to cast the lot of them (well, almost all of them, anyway).

Mo's parents

James Read and Mia Farrow...excellent parents

James Read was so wonderfully good as the sweet well meaning father in Charmed that I think he would be lovely as Ash the anti-establishment, hippie, but endearing father. And, it is no coincidence that Read was on the brain as he co-starred with Swayze in North and South. Saffron played by Mia Farrow is brilliant, as she made an excellent, singing unicorn princess in 1982. She's subtly funny, she's fierce and would have no problem visiting you unexpectantly and throwing out all your Snoballs, but she's also sensitive and wants you to love her.

Sean Bean

Buzz is the owner of the diner/bar where Mo gets a job as a short order cook, she turns the place around. He's supposed to be big and manly,  blonde and square-jawed, gruff and kind. Everyone loves him and while he pretends otherwise, he loves everyone else, especially his wife, Evie. Sean Bean looks the part because he definitely manly, blonde and when he smiles birds sing and fawns tip toe from the forest to see the beauty. Watch the PBS Sharpe series if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Rosario Dawson

Now, Evie is supposed to be younger and more youthful than her husband, "nut brown" (yeah, not my favorite line from the book either) and Cooper's cousin. Rosario Dawson is beautiful, could easily pull of being the wife of a diner owner. I think she could kick butt as easily has she could don an apron and make inedible pie.

Evangeline Lilly

Cooper has this sister, Maggie, who would just as soon as bite you at the jungular as talk to you. She's featured in the second book of the series, but all she does in this one is whine, beat up people, whine, beat up more people, whine some more and, yet in the end, we're supposed to find her endearing enough to want to read more about her. Evangeline Lilly is fierce, but I don't mind!

Tom Hardy

Cooper also has a cousin. Eli is like Maggie in the sense that he wants whats best for the pack and leads the pack after Cooper gives up his leadership. I pick Tom Hardy to play this part because he could easily be your best friend or your worst enemy. When people start to go missing how willing is Eli to help find them?

Cooper's mother

Lynda Carter

Um...Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman, I think she can play the single mother of a pack of wolves, easy breezy lemon squeezy!

Aaron Eckhart

You don't have a good romance novel if you don't have another man who likes the heroine. This man has to be the opposite of the other guy (you know the foil) and you have to know from the very beginning that he isn't the right choice. Alan is that character. He's a ranger and blonde and nice...too nice.

Which leads me to Mo's best friend Kara, she still lives in the South, but manages to give Mo the support she needs when she needs it and even makes a visit. I imagined Jessica Simpson.

Jessica Simpson

She's sweet, will tell you like it is and just reminds me Southern hospitality!

Now, the next grouping of minor characters come in pairs...

Dolly Parton and Bill Erwin

You'll have to read the book to figure out why I put these two characters together. Susy Q is the mail lady and she's supposed to have big hair and wear loud Western clothing, I immediately thought of Dolly. Abner is this cute little old man. He's a local of Grundy and tries to entice Mo to move in with him because she cooks so well. There are lots of cute old men to choose from, however, I chose the now deceased Bill Erwin because he just reminds me of the best, sweetest little old man ever.

Alex Pettyfer and Paul (Holy Wow!) Newman

Cooper is supposed to have a grandpa that doesn't look a bit over 45 and a brother who's a flirt who doesn't mind being in the nude. Paul Newman (even in the last years of his life) was quite a looker and would make an excellent sick and stubborn grandfather and Alex Pettyfer (sorry I couldn't find this pic in color) is so pretty that it would be a shame to not have him play the fun-loving brother.

There are a several characters I left out, but I believe the above characters are the essential characters in this wonderfully delightful, sexy book about love and werewolves and the Alaskan frontier. I hope I've given you enough reason to read the book, and, inadvertently, I've given you a lovely list of shows and movies to watch!

If you would like to see my first EVER Fantasy Cast click here. (It's for The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand).

And, here's a cast from the Queen of All Things Fantasy Casting. She added different characters to her list.

50 Books in a Year: Book #27 How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf

          On my birthday my Aunt Nellie bought me books, loads of books, one of which was How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf. I told her I was going to wait until Summer to read it and have since decided that we are well into the Summer Season and it's time for a little light reading.

          I'm looking forward to reading about a fish-out of water girl being ravaged by a werewolf with a heart...I'm thinking of it as Big Stone Gap meets Twilight meets Wendy Holden. Frankly, I've always enjoyed my summer reads, especial what I like to call British train trash like Simply Divine!

          I have no idea why I feel that I have to explain why I am reading a light, fluffy book written to entertain and to inform (if you ever meet a werewolf in Alaska and find him attractive)...it's probably all those years of college literature classes, anyway it looks to be fun (love the cover!)

          I envy those of you who are like 'why are you hiding how you feel, read your werewolf porn' and those of you who are not so open with your emotions don't judge it's my teacher time off!