Review of the Final Book in the Willowmere Series by Candace Camp

Last year, I wrote a review of A Lady Never Tells and A Gentleman Always Remembers, and now after what seems like forever, I am back to give you the deets on the final book in the series: An Affair Without End.

For those that don’t feel like reading the other review, here is a synopsis of the series so far. In Book 1, we meet the Bascombe sisters: Mary, Rose, Lily, and Camelia. Their parents were members of the British Aristocracy, who created a scandal by eloping to Gretna Green in Scotland and moving to the fledgling United States (the girls are all in their late teens and early 20′s, and since this book takes place in 1824, their parents must have settled in the US sometime around 1800–perfect timing, what with the creation of the first Alien and Sedition Acts under President Jefferson not long after that.). They did this because the girls’ mother was of a higher social status than their father (I believe he was the second son of a lower aristocrat and she was a member of one of the oldest families in England–the Talbots can trace their lineage straight back to 1066!), and her father would not approve of the marriage. However, when the youngest sister was only 12, their father died and their mother remarried the horrible Cosmo Glass, who was both lazy, relying on the girls to work in the pub that their father owned to make money, and a criminal, involved in such shady dealings as selling Rose to a man. After their mom dies, Mary takes her sisters off to England, hoping that their grandfather would take them in, but when they get to Stewkesbury House, they learn that he is dead and that their cousin, Oliver Talbot, is the current Earl. Fortunately, he believes the girls and agrees to become their guardian. By the end of this book, both Mary and Rose are engaged–Mary becomes involved with Sir Royce Winslow, Oliver’s step brother, and Rose agrees to marry the boy she had a tendre for before leaving America–leaving just Lily and Cam under Oliver’s protection. Book 2 focuses on Fitz Talbot, Oliver’s half-brother, and Mrs. Eve Hawthorne, the widow Oliver hires to help guide Cam and Lily into English society, a job Eve has trouble with simply because she cannot control her feelings for Fitz. In the end, Fitz and Eve get engaged as does Lily and Fitz’s friend, Neville Carr.

An Affair Without End picks up where the second book leaves off. It is about two months since Fitz and Eve have married and Lily and Neville have gotten engaged, causing Cam to feel left out. As a result, she leans on her friend, Vivian Carlyle, more than she did in the previous books. Vivian has known the Talbots for as long as she can remember, and she has never really had a problem with any of them, even though Oliver can be somewhat of a stuffy prig, so she has no trouble hanging around Stewkesbury House. However, she has never been around Oliver as much as she has been over the last several months, and after stumbling on a jewel theft as they leave a ball, she ends up spending even more time with him in order to solve the puzzling mystery.
At first, Oliver doesn’t want anything to do with Vivian’s latest escapade, but he quickly found himself being drawn in as well as being drawn to Vivian, whom he always saw as being a “carrot haired hoyden”. Not long after joining her “investigations”, he is surprised by Vivian’s proposition: a no strings attached affair. She never planned to marry (and being 28, she was unlikely to catch a husband) and she knew that he planned to marry an “appropriate” woman, which she was not. Oliver balks at first, but eventually gives in for he cannot keep away from her.

Aside from Oliver and Vivian’s romance, there was a minor sub-plot involving Cam’s first season and her belief that she will never marry because she just does not fit in with the proper British society. However, once she meets Gregory Carlyle–Vivian’s brother and a future Duke–she is almost immediately in love, and luckily for her, so is he.

By the end of the book, all 4 (Oliver, Vivian, Gregory, and Cam) as well as Fitz and Eve are involved in uncovering the jewel thief and a murderer. Everything, of course, works out for the best, and both couples end up engaged.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book (it took me less than 36 hours to read), however, some of the questions that I had from the first book are still left unanswered. One of my biggest problems with A Lady Never Tells was that there was very little time spent in the mind of Sir Royce, making it hard to know what he was feeling. One thing that we did know was that there was something causing a strain in his relationship with Oliver. I hoped that because Oliver would have his own book that we would find out what was causing the tension between the step-siblings. Unfortunately, that never happens–probably because Sir Royce and Mary never appear in the book (neither does Rose–understandably since she sailed back to the US with her husband before the 2nd book began–, and Lily was only in a few scant scenes).

While I wish there was more time spent on Oliver’s relationship with his brothers, I still liked the book, and I felt that this was the hottest pairing of the series, probably because Vivian and Oliver were so different from each other and because the staid earl had to let his hair down (figuratively speaking). In the other books, he is depicted as being this very stern figure, who put a lot of stock in his familial duties. Even though this is still very much a part of his personality, we finally get to see him have some fun–he even gets into a fight while engaging in some subterfuge with Vivian!

My only other problem with this book was that very little time was spent on the development Cam and Gregory’s relationship. I found it hard to root for them as a couple because they did even meet until more than half way through the book, and even once they met they spent almost no time together. I understood their reasons for liking each other, but it was hard for me to understand why Gregory was chomping at the bit to propose (or why Cam was anxious to say yes, for that matter). Compared to the time spent of Lily and Neville’s relationship in the second book, Cam and Gregory were short changed.

Overall, I would rate An Affair Without End as a solid B+/A-. Candace Camp novels will always be a guilty pleasure for me, and I have absolutely no regrets in saying that.

Happy Reading!

I’ve Entered a Writing Contest

For those that do not know, i like to write. A lot. I’ve been doing it off and on my entire life. In 2009, I found out about a website, textnovel.com, where unpublished writers can post there stuff and enter contests in which they can win a potential writing contract. Last month, I decided to enter the 2011 contest after my story The Winds of Time was chosen as an Editor’s Pick 2010. In order to move up in the ranks, I need people to vote for and become fans of my story. Please check out my story, and if you like it become a fan and vote.

I have heard from some people that voting is confusing. First, you have to sign up for a free account and create a profile name (you can create a reader only account, which is what my mom did). Then, you must validate the account through your e-mail. Finally, you can vote. Go to http://www.textnovel.com/story_detail.php?story_id=5440 or search for The Winds of Time. When you’re on the page, there are 4 icons: a thumbs up, a cell phone, the letter R (the rating), and the RSS feed button. To vote click on the thumbs up button, and to subscribe click on the cell phone.

I hope you enjoy it!

Twins + ESP = Review of Blind Eye by Jan Coffey

In a world of stark white walls, Blind Eye is the literary equivalent of that ugly 70′s era wallpaper–busy and unfocused. It seems as the writing team known as Jan Coffey had a few to many ideas for this book, so they put them all in one hat, pulling out random ideas until they came up with a plot. I can see the reveal now: nuclear disaster (ooh), twins with ESP (ahh), literal corporate head hunting (ooh), strangest long distance romance ever (ahh), doctor that falls for his almost comatose patient (ooh…um, who put that one in there?)

I had a few problems with this book, which disappointing because I used to really like Jan Coffey thrillers. I remember the first time I saw one of their books at Costco (shut up.), and thinking this looks so cool, so I had my dad buy it for me. I devoured that book in a week. The second book I bought was similar in its “can’t put down”-ness with the plus that it was about the type of thing that I was thinking of studying. From there it went downhill. The next book I picked up was one of their older books–it was nothing like the other two, and at times I thought I was reading a Stef Ann Holm novel instead. Next I picked up, The Deadliest Strain, which was also about something I was interested in. Unfortunately, that book was the worst of the lot. The pacing sucked, whenever the main characters entered the canvass, the plot become so slow that if it was a person it would be the little old lady with the hip replacement.

Blind Eye wasn’t that bad, but the fact that I didn’t care enough about what was happening that it took me almost a full month to read a 406 page book when I have read more than twice that in a week, tells me that this isn’t the spine-tingling thriller that Coffey would like it to be. The book starts out with the murder of Fred Adrian, part of the team that was responsible for WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plan), and someone that needed to be “removed” in order to kill the project. Next, we meet Marion Kagan, a graduate student from UC Davis that is part of a research team working in an underground research lab (which we later find out is WIPP), when a bunch of gunmen storm the lab killing everyone else and shooting Marion in the head. Meanwhile, at the same time in Connecticut, a woman named JD (for Jane Doe) starts having convulsions and needs to be sedated. Next, is Mark Shaw, who recently got back from Iraq (or maybe it was Afghanistan–I don’t care enough to check), and isn’t sure about what he wants to do now that he’s home. Mark is watching the news, when he sees Marion’s picture flash across the screen. He can’t believe the woman that he spent less than a day with at Logan International Airport is dead. He had meant to call her when he got back to the states, but he kept putting it off, and now she was dead. Soon, we return to JD, who in the 6 years since she has been in the Waterbury long term care facility, has never had an episode like she did at the exact moment that Marion was getting shot in the head. Her head nurse, Jennifer Sullivan, is worried about her, and convinces the new facility doctor to consider changing JD’s medications or trying something new. This doctor eventually asks a neurologist named Sid, who is doing a study in which he uses some advanced equipment to record images of what is going on in MCS (minimally conscious state) patients’ brains. Because JD presumably has no family, they have no problem enrolling her in the study. Almost immediately after being hooked up the the machine, JD “sends” them the image of a phone number–which turns out to be Mark Shaw’s cell phone number. After some hemming and hawing, Mark agrees to come to the facility, and identifies JD as Amelia Kagan, Marion’s twin sister, who disappeared 8 years earlier, long before he met Marion and gave her his phone number. Obviously, Marion couldn’t have given Amelia his number, or could she? Both Mark and Sid believe that she could and did–through the twin connection. This also leads them to believe that Marion might still be alive, especially when Amelia starts giving them the details of WIPP–details that came straight from the manual that Marion was reading, trying to figure out how to get out of the facility in time to get help to stop a nuclear disaster. When the gunmen turned off the power, radiation began to leak into the facility, and there was only a matter of about 42 hours until the radiation reached outside the facility to the rest of New Mexico. After Amelia wakes up (after 6 years!), Mark decides to go to New Mexico and try to get to Marion, who he is convinced is still alive.

Somehow, the villain of the piece, knew about Amelia when nobody else did, and is trying to have her killed too. Before Mark left for New Mexico (and before Amelia had come out of the minimally conscious state) someone attempted to poison Amelia. Luckily, Mark was able to stop the nurse from administering the drug long enough for Sid to come back from his shower and explain to the nurse that there was no new medication for Amelia. When this doesn’t work, the bad guy arranges for her to be kidnapped–not realizes that wherever she went Sid had to go too–there was a strange attraction there. Because of this, they are able to escape.

There is another subplot about Fred Adrian’s wife and daughter. It seems the day before he was murdered, he sent a package to his daughter Cynthia. In the package was everything anyone needed to know about WIPP. For this, the bad guys cause her to get into a car accident. When they don’t find the papers on her, they end up killing her mother, Helen, who though drunk at the time, managed to find and hide the 1 piece of paper with the name of the guy in charge’s name.

In the end, Mark saves Marion and Sid falls in love with Amelia, who seems to reciprocate.

What bothers me about this book was that it was all over the place. One minute, we’re in New Mexico, next we’re in Connecticut, and then we’re in San Diego–all within the span of 10 pages. I get it, they were trying to go for fast paced, but it ended up seeming unfocused, and sometimes the transition was jarring. Another problem, I had with this book was that Mark and Marion met once, despite which Marion assumes that he will find her. Seriously? Don’t you have that one guy friend that after one meeting will come to your rescue? No? Me neither. Problem number 3 was how much they relied on the twin connection (At one point, Mark asks Sid to have Amelia tell Marion to call him–and not 5 pages later, Marion sends him a text message.) I do believe that twins may have a connection, but I have never heard of any twins that could communicate the way these 2 could.

Overall, I would give this book a C-. At least, now I know I won’t be spending any more of my money on Jan Coffey books.

A Writer’s Voice

Writing is hard. You have to have an idea–something original or at least a new direction for an old concept (unless that new direction is sparkling vampires). Then, you have to do some research (What do you mean none of the Salem witches were burnt at the stake?!). Finally, you have to actually sit down and write the thing. Sure, the characters may speak to you (as long as you know that they’re not real and they aren’t telling you to do things, you’re good), but that doesn’t mean that what they’re saying to you is going to captivate your readers. You need to be able to capture your reader’s attention quickly or risk losing them to something more instantly gratifying. How do you do this? You develop a voice that is uniquely your own. There are some authors that are so good at this that when you pick up one of their books you know through their prose that it was written by them. I’m not saying that every character you write should sound the same; your voice should transcend your characters, especially when you’re writing a third person narrative, which are extremely prevalent right now. You are the narrator, not your characters. It is your wit that will draw your readers.

What bugs me is when an author seems to change their voice. There is this one author that I used to love, so much so that I constantly recommend her books to people that want taut psychological thrillers, but recently her books have left me cold. At first, I couldn’t figure out why that was, but I just picked up one of her more recent books, realizing that it seems to be told by a completely different narrator. I am not the only person to feel that her more recent books are…off. Doing a quick search, I found that many readers are also upset with the last few books that she has released. I don’t know if this was a deliberate change (if it is, i can’t understand why she would risk alienating her readers) or if something caused this change (There is another author that has admitted to having a medical problem that has affected her writing style and her narrative voice). What I do know is that I won’t be spending any more of my money on her books, which makes me so sad since I loved her so much.

What Makes You Stop Reading a Book?

Many people don’t know this about me, but there are times when I simply cannot finish a book. Gasp. I said it. There are some books that do not enthrall me. It isn’t the author’s fault (okay, sometimes it is); he or she may have written a really well researched book with unbelievably flowing prose and richly drawn out characters, but somehow I just was not interested. Sometimes a book suffers from the “I just finished an amazing book that is simply beyond compare, and any book that follows up pales in comparison” blues. This happened to me a few years ago, I had just finished reading what has become my absolute favorite book (Three Fates by Nora Roberts), and I decided to try Pen Pals by Olivia Goldsmith, which while really good, was very different from the other book. After about 100 pages, I got fed up with it–it seemed to move very slowly. A couple of years later, I decided to try it again because there MUST have been something that made me buy it in the first place. This time, I really liked it (although, the description of the hero’s looks made me think of a smarmy guido–which he wasn’t); the heroine even quoted The Sound of Music (my favorite movie)! After finishing it, I couldn’t believe that I had given up on it before. I came to the conclusion the SOMETIMES you need a break between books because the high that you get from one book may make the slow simmer of another feel like a pot that never boils.

However, sometimes, a book is just bad. For instance, about 2 years ago, I purchased a bunch of Nora Roberts books: Sanctuary, Montana Sky, and Hidden Riches (so bad that i had to google the title because I couldn’t remember it). I read Montana Sky first, and I loved it. Then, I read Sanctuary, and loved it too. However, once I started Hidden Riches, I couldn’t get into it. I thought that the heroine was tstl (too stupid to live) and that the hero was an ex-cop with baggage best revealed to Oprah (or a slew of psychologists). I got about 100 pages into the book and gave up. I was puzzled. How could this be written by the same person who wrote the other two books? Having already come to the conclusion that my enjoyment of the previous books may have biased me against the third, I decided that I would put Hidden Riches aside and pick it up again. Six months later, I tried it again. And hated it even more than i did the first time.

I have recently decided that buying books is a lot like buying lipstick. When you’re in the store, the color looks amazing, but as soon as you get it home, you realize that when wearing it, the color is more neon fuchsia instead of the pretty pink that it appeared to be in the store. Books also suffer from a case of neon fuchsia-itis. In the store, the cover looks pretty and shiny and the synopsis makes it sound amazing. Then, when you get it home and you sit down, wearing your comfy pajamas, the cover is faded and the blood dripping off the vampire’s fangs looks like something an assistant photoshopped into an already cheesy cover. But, you paid for it, and sometimes a cover is not indicative of the contents, then you realize that what’s inside is worse than what is outside, making you wish for some memory erasing flowers or chocolate–SOMETHING to make that monstrosity GO AWAY.

There are unfortunately many books like this. They look pretty in the store, but when you get it home, the apple on the cover is opened to reveal a half eaten worm. A couple of months ago, I bought Original Sin by Allison Brennan (one of my favorite authors). The cover was cute, despite the half cut-off face that seems to be ubiquitous in the romance genre. The back copy–interesting. Moira O’Donnell can’t help remembering her boyfriend’s horrible death at the hands of her EVIL witch of a mother, and sets out to find her, which leads her to THE END OF THE WORLD. She and a small cadre of others must find Moira’s mother Fiona, who is the catalyst to the end.

I got less than 10 pages in before I was ready to give it up. The heroine, Moira, was definitely tstl. She has a nightmare/vision and panics, calling a monk that helped raise her when her mother left her as a child. Okay–cause that’s usually where one ends up when their parents leave–a monastery. Then, she starts thinking about how all the other monks are mad at her for getting her bf killed. How did she do this? She decided that she needed to fight fire with fire, and use her own magic to stop Fiona. When said bf dies, she comes to the conclusion that ALL magic, black and white, is evil–the work of the devil. I could have looked past this, but then the monk got on the phone, and they start talking about Moira’s magic scar that lets her know when danger is afoot. That’s when my spidey-sense went off. Big bad evil. Scar. Seven book series. OMG! Fiona is really Voldemorte! Which means…Moira is Harry Potter! Does this mean…is Allison Brennan really J.K. Rowling?! Unfortunately, what it doesn’t mean is originality. One thing that I like in a paranormal romance is some level of originality–it doesn’t need to invent a new were-species, but it should be based on a NEW idea. Not one stolen from one of the most successful authors of young adult novels. I love Harry Potter, but I do not need to read his story in another format.

Confessions…

No, these are not my confessions (that would be a whole other type of blog). Today, I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. I read the book that it was based on a few years ago, but i couldn’t bring myself to watch the movie. Why? There were certain aspects of the main character that seemed unsympathetic in the book, so despite its funny moments, I often felt awkward reading about her. For those of you that do not know what the book/movie is about, here is a synopsis:

Rebecca Bloomwood has a problem. She shops. Boy does she shop (and most of the things she buys are absolutely hideous). She also wants to work for one of the top fashion magazines in the country (from the depiction it is most likely a Vogue knock off), but the job she wanted was already taken, so she ends up interviewing for a money magazine, and after initially blowing the interview gets the job, which also comes with an incredibly handsome boss. Soon Rebecca is a sensation, writing articles about savings and finance that every reader can understand. (What I don’t understand is why “ordinary” people were reading a money magazine in the first place. It would seem that it would be a niche magazine, and the only people that would in fact read it are people that understand business/investments in the first place.) She also quickly catches the eye of her boss, Luke Brandon. She has in fact become so successful that she lands on a daytime talk show right beside Luke, with whom she has begun a relationship. Unfortunately, that relationship, and her entire career are based on a house of cards that would fall at the most predictable moment. In the end, everything works out. Becca gets the guy and a job–not to mention out of debt.

In the book, Rebecca’s spending is supposed to be funny, but to me it was totally irresponsible, and that made her an unsympathetic heroine. She lies to everyone. Her parents, her best friend, her boss–and every potential boss (she claims that she is fluent in Finnish), and most of all to herself. She doesn’t think that she has a problem, despite the fact that she is in debt up to her eyeballs. However, what truly makes her unsympathetic is the way she looks down on her mother because she was responsible enough to save her money (Yes, her mother could have better clothes and she didn’t need to save to the point that Walmart was too expensive, but still). I truly could not understand how someone as selfish as Rebecca was could get everything that she ever wanted (or that she didn’t know that she wanted) with very little consequences.

In the movie, however, I found myself pulling for Rebecca, despite all of her flaws, and the only reason I can come up with for this is that Isla Fisher’s performance made her sympathetic. You can see that she has a problem and that she seriously doesn’t realize that she does until the very moment when that house of cards falls down on her. She is funny, intelligent (despite the things she does to get a job and to shop), obviously cares about her parents (she doesn’t want her father to sell something that she felt defined him to help her out of her problems–I do not remember if this was the case in the book, as some storylines in the book were dropped in the movie), and is very much in love with Luke (really who wouldn’t be). She is the everywoman. What woman hasn’t wanted the really pretty shoes or the nice dress, buying them despite the exorbitant price tag? (The difference between most women and Rebecca is that they don’t go into hock to get the pretty shoes or the nice dress.)

So, what’s the verdict? Skip the book, and see the movie, which is something that I never thought I would say. =)

Eve Dallas and Temperance Brennan (tv)

Two characters, created roughly a decade apart, could be considered two parts of one whole. Since 1995, thousands of people have been reading about the life of NYPSD (no, the S is not a typo) Lt. Eve Dallas. They have watched her battle scores of “bad guys”, fall in love with husband, Roarke, and create a family for herself. Ten years later, thousands of viewers tuned in to watch as Temperance “Bones” Brennan (the television version not the book–from what I have heard there are marked differences) helped FBI agent Seely Booth solve crimes through the practice of forensic anthropology. However, if you have not met both of these characters, you would not know how very much a like they are. Keep reading to find out what characteristics these two share.

Readers Beware: Here Be Spoilers

1. Crime Solvers: At the most basic level, both of these women are crime solvers. Dallas has been a cop for over a decade, and for most of that time she has worked homicide. Bones, however, has not worked with the FBI as long. At the close of this most recent season she has been working with Booth for 5 years. They both dedicate their lives to standing up for those that cannot stand up for themselves–for Dallas this is a calling; she has known exactly what she wanted to be almost from the moment she woke up in a hospital bed with a broken arm and no memory of her life. Bones has only come to this realization since partnering up with Booth, and recently she has begun to have problems with this new “calling”. When she started as a forensic anthropologist her goal was to discover the cultural and physical evolution of the human race. She enjoyed going on long term digs (in the first episode, she had just returned to the states from a year-long dig in the Philippines). This is not to say that she no longer wants to do these things–she does, and as of the 5th season finale, she is on her way to a dig in Indonesia, which will keep her away from DC (and Booth) for a year.

2. Daddy Issues: Fans of the “In Death” novels will tell you that Dallas has daddy issues in spades. For the first few books of the series, nobody, including Eve, knows what really happened to her before turning up in a Dallas, TX hospital when she was 8. However, she has nightmares–flashes of things that happened to her during her first 8 years of life, and slowly she begins to understand. First, came the realization that daddy was a monster. In dreams, she learned that from roughly the age of 5 her father molested her. He would come to her bed (in whatever seedy hotel room they were in) and rape her night after night. She would remember the smell of candy mixed with the strong smell of alcohol on his breath, and she would remember how every time she heard him coming, she would hope that he was too drunk to do anything. It wasn’t long until she remembered how she got away–in one nightmare she learns that the last time he tried to rape her that she took a knife and stabbed him until he was dead. (In Reunion in Death, we learn that afterward, she picked herself up and walked nearly 20 miles to an alley where she was found and taken to the hospital.) Last, she learns that the reason her father molested her was so he could pimp her out to pedophiles.

Compared the Dallas, Brennan’s dad could win Father of the Year. Max Keenan never would have dreamed of doing the things that Rick Troy (Dallas’s father) did to Eve. However, like good old Rick, Max was a criminal. In the first season, it is revealed that both Brennan’s mother and father were bank robbers, who when she was 15 years old vanished into thin air, leaving Bones and her brother, Russ, on their own. During the second season, Max shows up in Brennan’s life, and when she finds out that the man she thought was a priest is actually her father she attempts to have him arrested. However, she is conflicted over her relationship with her father. She never knew what he was, so she only remembers him as a science teacher (possibly the reason why she is a scientist). Despite the fact that she knows that he belongs in prison (not only is he a bank robber, but he has killed at least 2 people), she doesn’t want him there.

3. (Pop) Culturally Ignorant: Both Eve and Brennan are terribly unaware of pop culture. This is obviously caused by their lack of a childhood. In one of the “In Death” novels, Peabody (Eve’s partner) mentions a Barbie Doll, and Eve has no idea what that is. In Witness in Death, Eve and Roarke attend a production of Witness for the Prosecution, another pop culture (maybe more literary culture) thing that she has never heard of. A lot of these things are because until the day she met Roarke the only thing that she could see was the badge. Brennan is the same way. Most of the pop culture things she knows come from the time before her parents disappeared (Hot Blooded and the Smurfs), although sometimes, like in a recent episode when she recognized Kiss from a Rose as being by Seal (c. 1995–about 4 years after her parents disappeared), she will surprise everyone (including herself) by knowing things that based on past experience she should not know.

4. Emotionally Distant: In Naked in Death, Dallas is all by herself. She lives in a one bedroom apartment in New York City. She is a Lieutenant for the New York Police and Security Department (I told you the S wasn’t a typo), but she works alone–she has no partner or aid. She can count her friends on two fingers: Mavis the former conwoman that she busted when she was still a patrolman and Captain Ryan Feeney, her former partner, who when he was promoted chose to transfer to the Electronic Detectives Division (EDD). She doesn’t understand emotions (probably because of her past–criminological theorists would say that she was improperly socialized, and the fact that she did not have an attachment to anyone by the age of 8 means that she is doomed to a life of loneliness). (In a later book, Dr. Mira, admits that she believed that Eve was beginning to burn out when she caught the case that introduced her to Roarke.) Then, she meets Roarke, and everything begins to change. At first it was just lust, but it quickly developed into more. This of course is a problem for her, because he was on her short list of suspects for the murder of several Licensed Companions (LC) (in 2058 prostitution is legal). Despite sometimes wishing that she could go back, Eve cannot turn back the clock to when she enjoyed being alone. (As of the most recent book, she has more friends than she can count: Roarke (husband), Peabody (partner–first aid), McNab (Peabody’s bf and EDD detective), Nadine (crime reporter, tv personality, and author), Dr. Mira (police psychiatrist, best profiler in the city, and mother-figure), Feeney (former partner and father-figure), Mavis (bff), Leonardo (Mavis’s husband and baby-daddy), Charles (former LC), Louise (Charles’s wife), Baxter(detective), Truehart (Baxter’s aid), and Dr. Morris (the ME).)

When Bones premiered in 2005, Brennan had less friends than Eve did. She considered Angela to be her one and only friend. Sure, she worked with others, but she didn’t consider them to be her friends. They were colleagues–and intellectually inferior colleagues at that. Then, she began working with Booth, and everything changed. She began feeling things for others, although, she would not really admit to having feelings because scientists aren’t supposed to have them. By the end of the second season, she even began to see her colleagues as her friends–she resisted having the replace her assistant, Zack, when he was sent to Iraq to work for the government. At the end of the third season, she uses her influence with Booth to keep Zack out of prison for his part in the Gormagon serial killings. As of the end of the fifth season, she has created a family, while not as large as that created by Dallas, that is extremely loyal to her. Now, she has Angela (original BFF), Booth (partner), Cam (technically her boss), Hodgins (the bug guy–and more recently Angela’s husband), and Sweets (the FBI profiler and clinical psychologist). Unlike Eve, the emotions are becoming too much for Brennan–at the end of season 5 she decided to go to Indonesia more to escape her feelings for Booth than because she wanted the intellectual thrill. It seems to me that this is the true turning point for her. She is at the point that Eve was in at the start of the “In Death” series. During the last few episodes (starting with the trial of the Grave Digger), she has had trouble dealing with the feelings that she has for her “family” (She was plagued with nightmares of not being able to save Hodgins and Booth from the Grave Digger). Her trip to Indonesia will serve as the catalyst needed to push her towards the life she wants to have (but is afraid of–Daddy Issues). It is clear to everyone, except for Brennan, that she is totally in love with Booth (who has admitted to her that he feels the same way).

A few years ago, Mel Gibson’s production company optioned the “In Death” novels to be made into movies (this was before his anti-Semitic rant). When people began “arm-chair” casting, one of the names mentioned (to play Eve) was Emily Deschanel (Bones). Honestly, she would make a good Eve, but I fear that this would simply be type-casting. So, while I have no doubt that she could play Eve, I don’t think that it would be a good idea if a movie ever does get made.

Review of the first two books in the Willowmere Series by Candace Camp

Okay, you’ve caught me–i love historical romances, and i have since approximately October 2003 when i accidentally bought Mesmerized by Candace Camp. For the longest time, she was the only historical author that i would read, however, the Smart Bitches changed that with the review of The Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. Despite learning of less cliched historical romance novels, Camp’s books are still automatic buys for me.

Last month, the release of A Lady Never Tells started the Willowmere Series, which features the 4 American Bascombe sisters (only one of which is a featured heroine) and their British cousins (The Earl of Stewkesbury, his brother Fitz–hero in book #2–, and his step brother Sir Royce–hero in book #1).

In A Lady Never Tells, we are introduced to Mary (the heroine), Rose, Lily, and Camelia Bascombe, who have fled the United States after their mother’s death (their evil step father tried to sell Rose into marriage) and have arrived in England to search for their grandfather the Earl of Stewkesbury, who had disowned their mother Flora when she married the younger son of a lower aristocrat.

Trouble seems to follow the sisters, as when they disembark from the ship that brought them to England a thief makes off with their case (with all of their documents they had planned to use to prove who they were to the Earl). Like any American girl (stereotype, much?), Mary, Rose, and Cam take off after the thief. Watching this scene is Sir Royce Winslow and Gordon Harrington (a foppish sort that likes to partake in hideously colored clothes, too much alcohol, women, and gambling). Calmly, Sir Royce trips the assailant and gets the case back, and escorts the sisters to an inn (even paying for their stay). Before leaving he takes as payment a kiss from Mary, who while surprised enjoys the kiss.

The next day, Mary takes off in search of her grandfather, and in the process gets thrown out of the Earl’s home after she insists that she is his granddaughter. After getting lost, she returns to the inn to find Sir Royce visiting with her sisters. With very little reluctance, she tells him what she was doing and who she is. Although skeptical at first, Royce agrees to take the sisters to the Earl, claiming a relationship with the man. So, they make the trip to the Earl’s estate, where they learn that the Earl is not their grandfather Reginald (he died a year earlier), but their cousin Oliver Talbot, who looks over their papers and declares them his cousins, making himself their guardian.

While there are some hilarious scenes, including one in which Oliver has invited the Aunts (sisters to the girls’ mother) to meet the new members of the family (the girls joke about having to defend their family farm from raiding Indians when confronted by Aunt Euphronia’s distaste at learning that they know how the use a gun), A Lady Never Tells in lacking in respect to Camp’s other books. The romance is brushed aside and the mystery aspect (the girls keep being attacked) falls flat. My biggest criticism is that there was very little from Sir Royce’s point of view. For instance, he seems to hold some antipathy towards Oliver that is never explored (or even really addressed) and his relationship with the icy Lady Sabrina is given very little explanation (apparently, she broke his heart by choosing to marry an older titled gentleman over him, souring him on women because, by God, they must all be exactly like the Ice Queen).

My one hope is that when Oliver’s book An Affair Without End is released (March 2011) it will address the relationship between Oliver and Sir Royce.

In A Gentleman Always Remembers Oliver Talbot has hired Mrs. Eve Hawthorne, a young widow whose husband had served in the British military, to be a chaperone for his cousins, Lily and Camellia (since both Mary and Rose–this was a subplot in the first book–have gotten married). Instead of simply sending a carriage for her, Oliver asks his younger brother, Fitz, to meet the woman, whom they both assume is a middle-age matron. On his way to escort Mrs. Hawthorne to Willowmere, the seat of the Talbot family in the Lake District, he comes across a beautiful woman playing in the water with a young child, so he stops to flirt with this naiad (a water nymph), and he even kisses her (all before introducing himself–after which she flees from him). Not long after, he arrives at the vicarage, where Eve lives, only to learn that his naiad was the very woman he was there to see.

Eve, worried that she has given Fitz the wrong impression, and that he will tell his brother that she is an inappropriate chaperone for the Bascombe sisters, dons a dowdy dress and a matronly bun before meeting him at the vicarage. Quickly, she realizes that he is not going to tell her sanctimonious step mother (all these evil step parents are making me wonder what kind of family Ms. Camp comes from, but i digress) about their previous encounter. After Fitz leaves, Eve’s Stepmother warns her to stay away from Fitz because he is a complete rake that enjoys having affairs with widows because there are less entanglements involved with them than with never-married girls. This, despite coming from said stepmother, causes Eve to swear off any possible affair with Fitz. However, this is not a stance that she can easily maintain. She soon realizes that Fitz, while an inveterate flirt, does care about her, and they have their next lustful encounter at the wedding reception for Sir Royce and Mary, after which she then swears to stay away from him again.

When Oliver has to return to London, Fitz is left in charge of the estate and the Bascombe sisters, and Eve’s job gets even harder when Fitz invites his friend Neville Carr (a man with an “understanding”) to stay with them. (Neville catches Lily’s eye and the two are determined to be together despite the fact that he is engaged to be engaged to Lady Priscilla Symington.) Also, complicating Eve’s life are a series of letters that she receives regarding a watch she believes was given to her by her late husband. (For most of the book she is determined not to tell Fitz about the letters despite the fact that a man tried to break into the estate more than once.)

This book is much better than the first in the series, as the romance was much better explored and the mystery was actually a bit of a mystery (not the who, but the why). There were also a couple of entertaining sub-plots including a French balloonist with a broken leg that ends up staying at Willowmere while he recuperates and young Gordon Harrington (seen briefly in the first book), who has fled to the estate because of a problem with a “lightskirt” (read prostitute).

What I liked most about this book was how “real” the romance felt. Almost immediately after becoming involved with Eve, Fitz begins to become a better man (taking on more responsibility than the former rake had ever imagined). Towards the end, there is a definite homey feeling when the couple are described as spending each night together (in Eve’s bed because it was further from the rest of the guests, which at this point included Neville Carr, the Frenchman, Gordon Harrington, Lady Symington, and Priscilla Symington). This is something that I have rarely encountered in an historical (probably because the hero and heroine rarely share a residence). Adding to this feeling is the fact that they are both responsible for most of the guests (and even some of the servants that have contracted the Measles, which was deadly in 1824).

There were some problems with the story, though. First of all, throughout the book, I was waiting for Oliver’s reaction to Fitz and Eve’s relationship and the changes in Fitz’s demeanor. This, however, was not explored (although the scene in which he returns is absolutely hilarious–it involves 2 marriage proposals and a fight between Fitz and Neville over Lily’s honor). The second problem was that there were a few too many anachronisms for my taste. For example, when Fitz learns of the letters and the fact that the person sending them wants Eve to give him/her the watch, he calls the perpetrator an “extorter”. While in a contemporary romance this would most likely be an accurate description, in an historical it is absolutely false (Under the Common Law, such actions would only be considered extortion if the perpetrator was a government official abusing his power). Camp also writes that an accomplice had attempted to burglarize the household, but this is also false. Under the Common Law, for a crime to be considered a burglary it must be committed at night. Neither time that he entered the house was during the night, so he could not be charged with burglary–breaking and entering would have been the proper charge.

Despite these anachronisms, A Gentleman Always Remembers is a fun trip into the past, and I look forward to the final book in the series, which will feature Oliver and Lady Vivian Carlyle (a friend of the family’s that was introduced in the first book).

Review of Black Friday by Alex Kava

I have been reading Alex Kava novels since 2003, and never before have I been disappointed. This book at just under 300 pages feels like almost 500. It is slow moving, and relies on conspiracy theories (and the fact that the reader knows these theories) to move the plot along. In this book, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell, a profiler for the FBI, is called in by the Interim Director to investigate a series of explosions inside the Mall of America on Black Friday (according to the book this was Nov. 23, but unless it takes place in 2007 that is not possible since 11/23/09 was a Monday). My first major problem came after Maggie received the phone call. Instead of immediately getting ready, she and her friends gather around her television to watch Fox News to see what is being reported. This makes little sense to me. It seems that if Kava wanted to create a sense of urgency, she would not have had her main character standing around talking to her friends about the Interim Director’s reasons for bringing her in on the case. My next problem is that it seems that in order for Nick to be present in several of Maggie’s investigations, he needs to change jobs left and right: Sheriff, lawyer, and now security consultant? This is starting to get ridiculous. Another problem was the lack of her circle of ancillary characters, which were only present at the beginning and end of the book. Yet another problem was the fact that unbeknowst to Maggie her half brother (referred to as her step-brother, although they have the same father) was tangentially involved in the bombing. It took more than half of the book for her to find that he was there, despite the fact she saw someone who looked like her father in the lobby of the hotel the investigation is headquarted at.

My biggest problem, however, is Kava’s use of the Oklahoma City Bombing to further the plot. Technically, this is not a spoiler, but the antagonist is allegedly John Doe #2, the man believed to have helped McVeigh and Nichols plan and execute the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. This wasn’t the only national tragedy that she used either. She also mentions Columbine, Virginia Tech, 9/11, and the mass killings at a Nebraska mall a few years ago. These seemed to be present for shock value, and did little to help the plot along.

Further, there was almost no character growth in this novel. Maggie is still untrusting, especially of Nick, who doesn’t trust her either. Patrick doesn’t know or trust Maggie, going so far as to “think over” whether he wanted her help with his situation. This was so implausible to me. If you are a suspect in a terrorist bombing and your sister is part of the investigative team, wouldn’t you run to her for help? No matter how little you know each other, there is no reason not to accept help when it is offered. In the end, he is the only one that seems to have grown.

Review of “Dust to Dust” by Heather Graham

Last night I finished Heather Graham’s latest novel Dust to Dust. It is part of a series called The Prophecy, which deals with the Mayan prophecy that the world was going to end on December 21, 2012. Ms. Graham supposes that the world isn’t going to end in one big cataclysm, but rather by a series of minor events leading up until 12/21/12. In this first book, we are reintroduced to a group that calls themselves “The Alliance”. They have appeared in a few other of Ms. Graham’s (as well as her pseudonym Sharon Sala) books. If you have read any of these other books, then you know the big secret about The Alliance: most of them are vampires. Despite the fact that this group has been used in some of her other groups, the book is more than a third over before “the big reveal,” even though there are some rather pathetic hints dropped throughout the book. For example, “He frowned. There was a tiny trail of red at the corner of her lips (p121).” Melanie, the female protagonist, keeps “cherry soda” stocked in her refrigerator. One of the other characters supplied everyone with rosaries to wear around their necks. But yet, the male protagonist, Scott, has trouble believing what was right in front of him from the very beginning. However, he quickly gets over his disbelief and confesses his love for Melanie.

I did enjoy this book, but I have to say it is not one of my favorites by Heather Graham or even one of my favorite vampire books. Ms. Graham takes the vampire myth and turns it on its head. According to legend, vampires cannot touch a cross or be splashed by Holy Water, but according to Ms. Graham those things only work against evil vampires. I’ve got to say that this is something that they could have used on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and True Blood. Its a really good way to tell a good vampire from a bad one, but my question is what happens when a vampire starts out evil and becomes good? Does it suddenly become unaffected by sacred objects? Or what happens when a good vampire turns evil? Another problem that I had with this book is that she claims that crosses and Holy Water are only effective when a vampire believes that they will be; they need to have faith. Wouldn’t a smart vampire realize that as long as they believe that they won’t be hurt by these things that they can’t be? It just isn’t logical to believe that in all of history no evil vampires would have figured this out.

There were also times when it felt like I was reading a fanfiction written by a 13-year-old girl. For instance, our heroes have found out that the demon Bael is releasing evil mist from fissures caused by earthquakes all over the world, so members of the Alliance have set out to “exorcise” the fissures. They soon realize that they need to keep people away from the fissures because the mist will infect them with evil and they will immediately begin attacking other people, so they go to the San Francisco police department to talk to a cop about getting word to the governor (I wonder if it would be the Governator because he would probably try to save the world himself), the president, and every world leader across the globe. At this point, I began to wonder whether Ms. Graham has seen Is There a Woogy in the House episode of Charmed one too many times. I mean an evil, black mist that makes people turn against their friends and neighbors? Doesn’t that sound like the Woogyman? Why didn’t someone just start chanting:

“I am light, I am one too strong to fight. Return to dark where shadows dwell. You cannot take this Halliwell. Go away and leave my sight, and take with you this endless night.”

I’ll admit that this was always my favorite spell, but you can’t take everything from television. Plus, the description of Bael sounds awfully like Moloch from the Buffy episode I Robot, You Jane. There is just so far that I will suspend my belief in coincidence.

The final problem that I had was the love story between Melanie and Scott. They both seem to have instantly fallen in love with each other despite everything that is going on around them. True, this happens a lot in romance novels, but here it seems rather forced, as if someone told her that she needed to have a little romance in her book. Honestly, the background romance between Judy and Blake was much more believable than Scott and Melanie’s insta-love.

I do have one final question. Why is it that Ms. Graham believes that all Catholic School students (or former Catholic school students) know Latin? I went to Catholic school from 1st through 9th grades, and I was taught very little Latin, and the Latin that I was taught would not allow me to translate a block of text carved in stone, unless the text is the lyrics to Adeste Fidelis.

In my opinion this was a rather mediocre book, and it was not worth the money that I spent on it. If you want to read a good book about a vampire check out the last book in Nora Roberts’s Circle Trilogy.