chez_jae | Entries tagged with content: non-linear narrative

Holiday With A Vampire: Christmas Cravings / Fate Calls (The Calling #6.5)

Holiday With A Vampire: Christmas Cravings / Fate Calls by Maureen Child

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At work today I finished reading Holiday with a Vampire. It was a two-fer anthology, containing stories by Maureen Child and Caridad Pineiro.

The first story, by Child, was "Christmas Cravings". Vampire Grayson Stone has returned to what was his home when he was mortal, as he has done each Christmas since he was turned. He is surprised to find the home occupied. Tessa Franklin has been on the run for years from a stalker, but she's done running. She's putting down roots by buying a home and opening a Bed and Breakfast. When she finds an injured man in the snow, Tessa brings him in. She soon learns he's a vampire, and that he's brought danger to her doorstep.

This story was confusing, in that Grayson was refusing to align himself with either the vampire king or the 'other side' in a vamp war. As a result, the 'other side' wanted to kill him. Wha? Why not attempt to woo him to your side? It made no sense. Also, Grayson can't tell when another vampire is near, nor when Tessa's mortal stalker was around? Plus, the stalker ended up getting killed (of course). Um, what did they do next? Bury the body? Call the police? I don't know.

The second story was "Fate Calls" by Pineiro. This one was worse. It skipped around in time, back to when Hadrian was turned. He was an utter ass, hating on Connie Morales just because she was dressed as Santa and doing the bell ringing for the Salvation Army. He kidnapped her, tied her to the bed, fed from her without her consent, and enthralled her to moon over him. Who the hell considers this to be romance?! There was also explicit sex between Hadrian and other characters, which is a big no-no in a short romance. Even bigger in a novella. Connie, of course, is too vapid to stay away when she finally escapes captivity.

What an awful story to market as a holiday romance.

Favorite line: In her experience, promises weren't worth the breath used to make them.

The first story was average, but the second story disgusted me, frankly. It drags the rating as a whole down to a two. Blah.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: "Naughty List" ~ Meghan Trainor

A Whisker of a Doubt (Cat Cafe Mystery, #4)

A Whisker of a Doubt by Cate Conte

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Storms chased me offline last night, but that enabled me to finish reading A Whisker of a Doubt by Cate Conte. It's the fourth book in the 'Cat Cafe' mystery series, featuring cat cafe owner Maddie James. Narrative is in her point of view.

The holidays should be a happy time, but Maddie is feeling blue over the implosion of her relationship with handsome dog groomer, Lucas. He left Daybreak Island for a short stint, and now she hasn't heard from him in a month. To keep her mind off of Lucas, Maddie throws herself into work. Since winter brings a lull in tourism, the cat cafe is undergoing renovations, and Maddie is keeping busy as a volunteer feeding and caring for a colony of feral cats. Unfortunately, the colony is in the woods just beyond an upscale neighborhood, and the residents have been at odds with the volunteers. When Maddie finds one of the residents dead in the snow and her friend Katrina is arrested, she sets out to clear Katrina's name. With the help of her grandfather, Leo (the retired chief of police), and her ex-boyfriend-but-still-friend, Craig (a current police officer), Maddie starts uncovering a wealth of conflict in the Sea Spray neighborhood. However, she also learns that Katrina has a history of being involved in a radical animal rights group. As if sorting out the crime isn't enough, Lucas returns and wants to "talk". Having been ghosted before in a previous relationship, however, Maddie isn't interested in hearing him out. More secrets come to light, putting not just Maddie's heart in danger, but also her life.

I liked the story, but I would have enjoyed it more had it not skipped around, time-wise. This is completely subjective on my part, but I really hate it when stories do that. I blame my OCD. I did like how so many people stepped up to help Katrina, including the island's eccentric Leopard Man. You know, I'd like to read a book wherein Leopard Man is the main character. He's a cult of personality unto himself! I didn't care for how Maddie's family tried to butt into her relationship issues with Lucas. If they knew something she didn't, why not tell her rather than simply imploring her to hear him out? Given her past history, I don't blame her for being stubborn about it.

Favorite lines:
♣ Tonight here I was, creeping through a stranger's yard in a snowstorm, about to sneak through a snow-covered hedge to get into the woods while dragging a forty-pound bag of cat food. All while talking to myself. I really had become the crazy cat lady.
♣ Our family had always done Christmas Eve big.
♣ All I knew is that the more I let people get away with stuff in my life, the more stuff they tried to get away with.
♣ "We cat people need to have each other's backs."

Overall, an entertaining and engrossing read. Four stars.

Current Mood: calm

Yellow as Legal Pads (Biscuit McKee Mystery #2)

Yellow as Legal Pads by Fran Stewart

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

During my lunch break today I completed the book Yellow as Legal Pads by Fran Stewart. It's the second book in the "Biscuit McKee" mystery series, although it's the first one I've read. It will also be the last.

Martinsville librarian Bisque "Biscuit" McKee is enjoying her honeymoon when the celebration is abruptly cut short by murder. A man has been poisoned, and when Biscuit's new husband, Bob, tries to help the victim, he absorbs a dangerous amount of the toxin, as well. Now, instead of celebrating her recent nuptials, Biscuit is left to keep vigil in the hospital.

If you remember Blaine and Antoine from In Living Color, I hope you can hear their voices saying, "Hated it!", because that's how I feel about this book. How do I hate thee, book? Let me count the ways:

1. A grown-ass woman going by the name 'Biscuit' because her idiot, potter mother named her and her sister Bisque and Glaze. Frankly, when I picked up this book, I thought Biscuit was the cat. Silly me. I don't know why I would have presumed the ginger cat, featured prominently on the cover, might be the titular character of "Biscuit".
2. This may have been classified as a mystery, but Biscuit did not do any sleuthing, investigating, nor questioning. She simply kept vigil in the hospital, which is a realistic reaction to your new husband almost being murdered, but was not entertaining for the reader.
3. TOO MANY POINTS OF VIEW! Biscuit was in first person pov, but every other pov was third.
4. Not only did the book 'open at the close', but it skipped around, time-wise.
5. A huge chunk of the story had nothing to do with Biscuit nor the murder, but rather took the reader back in time to set up why the murder took place.
6. The narrative was utterly disjointed and confusing.
7. If Bob was an unfortunate victim, why then did the murderer try to kill Biscuit towards the end? She was distraught. She wasn't busily piecing together clues and coming closer and closer to figuring out who done what and why.
8. The cat, whose name was "Marmalade", by the way, had nothing to do with the investigation either. She was sentient and had her own names for the main characters in her life (which was another whole level of confusing, but let's not go there), and she seemed to be able to pick up on Biscuit's thoughts and emotions even though they were separated by distance.

Favorite line: Shuffling things around, she piled a couple of pairs of rubber gloves on top of the popcorn box, shifted the canola oil over to the side of the cabinet, wondering as she did so what the hell a canola was.

In short, this book was a hot, confusing mess. Did not like; would not recommend. Too bad for me that I bought two books in this series. I "Hated it!" so much that both of them are going in the donation bag. I regret wasting my time reading this one, and I refuse to waste any more of my precious time reading the other one.

One star, reluctantly given, but it's the lowest I can go.

Current Mood: irritated

Hurricane Homicide by Nora Charles

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Last night I completed Hurricane Homicide by Nora Charles (really?). It's the 4th book in the "Senior Sleuth" series with main character, widowed Kate Kennedy.

Kate and everyone else in her condo building are forced to evacuate quickly when a hurricane, which resident and TV forecaster Uncle Weatherwise predicted would miss Palmetto Beach, instead heads right for them. The next morning, Kate stumbles upon the weatherman's dead body outside the shelter. She isn't planning to get involved, but when she's questioned by police officer (and acquaintance) Nick Carbone, he asks her about the summer of 1950. Now Kate can't help but begin piecing clues together, all of which may lead to a murderer.

Color me confused. The story made precious little sense, and it didn't help matters that it kept vacillating between present day and the summer of 1950, when Kate met Russian-born Sophie and developed a tentative friendship with her. This is purely subjective, but I don't like stories that skip around, time-wise. I didn't get a good grasp of the characters, and the plot had precious little flow. The motive for murder was bizarre, and the resolution was not satisfying, in my opinion. In short, did not like.

Favorite line: "I told you if we dressed to kill, we'd get away with murder."

I bought one other book in this series. I am stubborn enough to read it, although I guarantee it won't be any time soon. This was a short book, and it took me yonks to read it, because it failed to hold my interest. Very bland and blah. Two stars.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Expedition Unknown

Due to a minor cat-astrophe, I have the morning off, and I used it to finish reading Night of the Loving Dead by Casey Daniels. It's the fourth installment in the "Pepper Martin" series, featuring cemetery tour guide and reluctant medium, Pepper Martin.

When Pepper's boss gets sick, it's up to Pepper to take the woman's place at a cemetery convention in Chicago. While touring one of the local cemeteries, she meets the ghost of Madeline Tremayne, a former research scientist who was murdered in a mugging gone wrong. Instead of asking Pepper to solve her murder, however, Madeline seems more keen on sending Pepper after the doctor she used to work for, Dr Hilton Gerard. Madeline claims the man is misusing funding and cooking the books at his research facility for indigent patients with mental health issues.

Pepper has had some exasperating clients before, but nothing has prepared her for how snide and condescending Madeline is towards her. Still, she knows if she doesn't help the woman, her ghost will stick around until the case is solved. Madeline reveals that she is concerned about Dan Callahan being involved with the research facility, and Pepper has met Dan before. She doesn't believe he's on the take, and she vows to do all she can to prove his innocence.

As the story unfolds, Madeline keeps revealing more and more about herself, Dan, the good doctor, and the work being done at the facility. When Pepper learns that Dan and Madeline were married, and that Dan still carries a torch for the woman, it throws her for a loop.

( Putting the rest under a cut, because it gets messy, and I'm including spoilers... )

Favorite line: I didn't want to be threatened, shot at, beat up, or followed by menacing hit-man types (all of which happens when I'm on a case), but at least being threatened and shot at and blah blah blah keeps me awake and interested.

I've enjoyed every other book in this series, but this one left me thoroughly dismayed and disgruntled. Personally, I did not like it: I didn't like the premise, I didn't like most of the other characters, and I didn't like that we didn't truly learn what went down when the feces hit the fan.

This one gets a two, and one of those is for the series as a whole:

**

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: furnace running

I stayed up a bit late last night, but I finished reading Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs, which is part of her "Mercy Thompson" urban fantasy series.

On a late night run to the local convenience store, Mercy's SUV is deliberately struck, and she is kidnapped from the wreckage. Things go from bad to worse when Mercy realizes that her abductor is none other than the so-called Lord of the Night--the most powerful vampire in Europe, if not the world. Also, Mercy learns she is in Italy, and that she is too far from home to be able to communicate with her Alpha husband, Adam.

Adam, in the meanwhile, is furious and frantic to get Mercy back. Bonarata, the Lord of the Night, wants to negotiate, and Adam selects a small team of paranormals to jet to Italy with him, including the Mistress of the local vampire seethe, a powerful witch, and a goblin.

Mercy, however, isn't waiting around to be rescued. She engineers her own escape, after shifting into her coyote form, and she stows away aboard a bus, in the luggage department. The bus deposits Mercy in Prague, where she has a new set of problems: she doesn't speak the language, she has no money, and oh yeah, she has no clothes. With help from friends old and new, as well as some guilt-ridden theft from the luggage, Mercy manages to get a message to the pack back home, and she seeks out the local Alpha to request sanctuary.

In Italy, Adam is growing ever more frustrated, as is his inner wolf. All he wants to do is kill someone, but instead, he's forced to use tact and diplomacy, which are not his strong suits. It's all he can do to keep his people alive and not start a war between werewolves and vampires.

When Mercy is forced to flee once more, she encounters other werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and the most powerful spirit in Prague. It may prove to be an ally, but then again, this spirit may have its own agenda.

The story was fabulous and engrossing, but it reminded me of an earlier book in this series, River Marked, in which Mercy and Adam are apart from the pack. One of the main reasons I love these books so much is because I enjoy reading about the pack bonds and their interactions, and I felt cheated out of it in this story. In addition, point of view kept switching from Mercy (first person) to Adam (third person), with another character thrown in willy-nilly as well. Then, to top it off, the timeline was inconsistent, which the author warned for up front. Frankly, I think she could have arranged her chapters so that they were in chronological order, but that's just my opinion.

Favorite lines:
♦ A powerful vampire who knew ASL and unself-consciously watched Scooby-Doo.
♦ I'd lived with magic my whole life--and not in a happy Harry Potter sort of way, either.
Scooby Doo and Harry Potter references, for the win!

Although I enjoyed the story, enough of it annoyed me that this is getting four stars instead of five:

****

mercy

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Dryer

Once again, I stayed up too late last night to finish a good book, but finish it, I did! The book was Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs, and it is the 7th installment in her "Mercy Thompson" urban fantasy series. I love these books, and this one was no exception.

When Mercy is out shopping Black Friday with her stepdaughter Jesse, she intuits that something is wrong with her mate Adam and the Pack. Mercy returns to her work shop, where she meets up with Ben, a Pack member, who tells her that sketchy federal agents took the entire Pack into custody. Now, it's up to Mercy and a ragtag bunch of allies (including vampires, Fae, good cops, humans, and one decent agent) to keep Jesse safe, retrieve the Pack, and get even with the perpetrators. In doing so, Mercy discovers that the kidnapping of the Pack was only a small piece of a large, sinister puzzle.

This series is typically told in first-person pov, from Mercy's perspective, but this one contained some chapters in third-person pov, from Adam's perspective. It was different, but not so as to jar me out of the narrative. The only thing I didn't like was at the end, when the story vacillated between what was going on now, and things that had occurred earlier. Now that was a tad jarring. Nevertheless, giving this one a top rating of five!

♦♦♦♦♦

mercy

Favorite line: "There are some things you never name out loud, like Macbeth, the IRS, and Voldemort."