Envy by Sandra Brown

I picked up this audio book because I really enjoyed the last Sandra Brown book I read (Rainwater). This one…

Genre: fiction

Blurb: (from Goodreads) Living on a remote island under an assumed name, novelist Parker Evans guards his secrets well. Fascinated by this reclusive genius, publisher Maris Matherly-Reed decides to pursue him. But this new project threatens an old commitment, a commitment at the very center of her life. 

What I didn’t like: Compared to Rainwater, this wasn’t half the book that was. The plot was a little thin – the main bad guy (Todd, M’s husband) was a bit too stupid for my taste. He kept thinking his villainous plans would work, even after his wife caught him cheating, and he threatened her.  It bothered me that M fell for the crude — character. It’s a bit hard to understand how an educated, savvy business woman would do that, but I guess it could happen. I also thought Brown made him – the supposed good guy in the story – too crude. A bit crude, sure, but not as raunchy as she made him. The other thing that bothered me is the sex in the book, mostly because I wasn’t expecting it. Neither the back audio blurb nor the blurb you read above give you any idea of this. And having read Brown’s Rainwater before this, I wouldn’t have expected it from this author. It seems more like a book about the act of sex with a revenge story as a back drop vs the other way around. Plus when Parker Evans is injured in the ocean as badly as he was injured, he would have bled out and died if the sharks didn’t get to him first (if there are sharks around the Florida Keys). And on a personal note:  as a writer, I don’t like to read books about writing. I use reading as an escape, and reading about writing is not an escape for me.

What I liked: Not a whole lot, as you can see from above. It has good dialogue and flows well even with a thin plot at times, but I was expecting more of a story after reading Rainwater before this one. If you like to read sex scenes, Brown does a good job with those and there is plenty of them throughout the book, but I didn’t pick this book up looking for that. Victor Slezak did the narration for this audio book and he did a fine job. I wonder how he kept his cool through all those sex scenes!

Rating: 2/5

Photo Phriday

I am sharing this photo because I have had 11 male goldfinches at our feeder this week – at one time! (and I can count only three females – what a ratio!)

From Jeffrey Foltice’s blog – photo nature blog

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Book II in the Infernal Devices series

Genre: YA fantasy

Blurb: (goodreads) In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

What I didn’t like: There were two things I wasn’t too thrilled with but they were both minor. One was the odd ending. It actually confused me. Very close to the end Clare, after the big dramatic fight scene, seems to end the book when someone special shows up at the Institute’s doorstep – I won’t say who. I don’t want to give anything away for those who want to read it.  Then she adds a bit that I would guess will be clarified in the next book, but it’s just confusing to me. The interesting bit for book III is the person who shows up. She should have left it at that.  The second was in the audio version, two different people did the reading, one male, one female (sorry, I forgot to write down their names). They both did a wonderful job, I just wished they would have stuck to one person. It is kind of disconcerting to switch back and forth.

What I did like: The book has the usual good dialogue, good character and plot development, but what I have to give her kudos for is a scene about 3/4 of the way through that allows Tess and Will (the two main love interests) to let their feeling go when they shouldn’t have. It was brilliant! It is a wonderfully seductive scene as well, for teens and non-teens alike. I really like how Clare makes a scene steamy without being raunchy. Very important for a YA audience and I appreciate it myself. The woman (Clare) knows how to build sexual tension.

Rating: 4/5

Photo Phriday

In honor the the first flowering shrub in our yard – it’s got a ways to go yet, but I can wait for that wonderful fragrance and soft, purple color. It’s one of my favorites!

The Plague of Doves by Louise Edrich

I picked this out of a hat. I had never read any of Edrich’s stuff before.

Genre: fiction

Blurb:  (goodreads) The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation.

Part Ojibwe, part white, Evelina Harp is an ambitious young girl prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina’s grandfather, is a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. And Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, who bears witness, understands the weight of historical injustice better than anyone. Through the distinct and winning voices of three unforgettable narrators, the collective stories of two interwoven communities ultimately come together to reveal a final wrenching truth.

What I liked: The writing is wonderful, poetic, inspiring as a writer, and  just lovely. The story is intriguing… in places. The beginning story of the young girl, Evelina and her interesting grandfather, who like many elders, has a story to tell gets you to want to learn more.

What I didn’t like: Unfortunately Erdrich doesn’t stay with that initial story. She brings it back later, but there are confusing things in between. You find out that these other people and stories ultimately mean something but I think the story would have been wonderful if Louise could have made the transitions between the different people’s stories more understandable, more logical. She does bring the stories together at the end, but the end seems anti-climactic. It left me thinking: what was she trying to get across in this story? I listened to this and the narration switched between Peter Francis James and Kathleen McInerney. They both do a good job, I just prefer one narrator or a group of narrators that play a specific character. I get used to hearing one voice and it is startling for me when the switch happens. Oh well.

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo Phriday

Isn’t this a wonderful photo? The colors of the men in a colorless backdrop, the dark of the sky… it is just lovely. I picked this picture up on facebook, from Varga Mihaly, and I couldn’t distinguish the artist or location of the photo.

April Joke

I know it’s past April 15th but I saw this on speedbump.com and thought it was funny. It really is funny sometimes, what we think is valuable. (Thanks speedbump! I can’t read the scribble in the left bottom corner to see who the artist or I’d give them credit too)

Poe Anniversay

On this date in 1841, (172 years ago!) Edgar Allan Poe published what is thought to be the first English-language contribution to the mystery genre, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. He introduced C. Auguste Dupin, a French eccentric who used deductive reasoning to solve crimes. Sound familiar?

He also published two other Dupin stories: The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter, neither of which I have read. I think I’ll read these,  starting with the Rue Morgue, which a read a long time ago so I don’t remember, and let you know how it goes.

 

 

 

Photo Phriday`

from joshidaniel.com

I like this photo because of all it doesn’t say.

Who is this person with these lovely decorated feet? Is a women or a man? What else if the person wearing? (I’d really like to know that one.) Why are they wearing these things? All I know is that it is the feet of Kathivanoor Veeran Theyyam from Kannur, Kerala, India, taken in 2012

Joshi Daniel, who took this picture, doesn’t say much about his photographs, so we are left to wonder.

Dead Man’s Chest by Kerry Greenwood

Genre: Murder mystery, a Phryne Fisher mystery (narrated by Stephanie Daniel)

Blurb: (from Goodreads) Phryne Fisher needs a rest. It’s summer. She packs up her family and moves to Queenscliff, a quiet watering place on the coast. Where she meets with smugglers, pirate treasure and some very interesting surrealists, including a parrot called Pussykins. What is the mysterious Madame Selavey hiding? Where are the Johnsons, who were supposed to be in the holiday house?

What I liked: I liked the narrator of this story, Stephanie Daniel, did a nice job with the large number of characters. I like Greenwood’s characterization, the characters are very real and enjoyable and the main character – Phryne Fisher – is a woman to be admired, more notable because this story was supposed to take place, I’m thinking, in the 1920s but the rest…

What I didn’t like: The rest seemed all over the place. I really had a hard time keeping the characters straight, even the main ones until well into the book. Part of the issue might be that this is book 18 in the Fisher mystery series (I was unaware of this when I picked it up), but maybe it’s also because Greenwood is Australian and maybe the book style of that country is different from mine. I have noticed a difference, at times, reading from someone from the UK so perhaps it is similar with the country down under. And the story was very difficult to follow. Greenwood moved from one scene and set of characters to another with minimal to no transition and at times it was difficult to know what the characters were talking about until a page or so into the scene. I kept reading because I liked the characters, but the story itself was uninteresting and odd at times. Perhaps if I tried an earlier work, it would have been better. Sometimes writers or editors become lazy after so many books in a series.

Rating: 2/5