Thursday, June 25, 2020

The Sinner by J. R. Ward

Unfortunately, I did not read Blood Truth before I read The Sinner, which is a must, so if you haven’t done so, drop Sinner and go read Blood Truth so you won’t be as confused as I was. BT introduces Syn and his proclivities, so it’s important.

Now, The Sinner is about one of the Band of Bastards, his name given only as Syn. Syn is a complex character with a huge chip on his shoulder. In the old country, he was known for killing bad people and playing with their corpses.  The Bastards know about it, but the Brotherhood does not. When they learn they’re none too happy about it, but he seems to have not brought the habit with him to the new country, so they let it slide.

Except, bodies are stacking up, and so are the facts. Is Syn the Sinner everyone thinks him to be?

And of course, there’s a girl. There’s always a girl. Jo is a half-vampire who doesn’t know what she is, what she’s to become. And she’s obsessed with finding out the truth of some of the weird goings-on in Caldwell, mainly, are vampires really real? The Brothers have been systematically wiping her memory of things she’s seen on the chance that she doesn’t transition and become and real vampire. Little does she know she’s been sleeping with one all along....


There are a few typos, especially early in the book, but not enough to harsh your mellow. Read on.

Blood Truth by J. R. Ward

I keep thinking Ward has jumped the shark with her leather-clad warriors, but somehow she keeps it fresh. The Blood series is about the apprentice warriors who signed up for the Black Daggar training program. It concerns itself with the lives of the trainees. Blood Truth is about Boone, a glymera son who finds himself cut out of the will in favor of his father’s lover, his butler.

But Boone doesn’t care about the money. He just wants distance. While on leave from patrolling due to the sudden death of his father and stepmother at the shadow’s hands (and in the middle of a treasonous gathering, to boot), Boone is tasked by Butch to help him solve a series of gruesome murders. The sister of the murdered woman is Helania (and just how do you pronounce that? HEL-ah-Knee-ah?) who catches his eye immediately, and he finds himself knee-deep in mating hormones.

I will say this: the world is getting really crowded with bad guys who have no resolution. Ward needs to clean things up a bit, with all the story arcs all over the place. They’re hard to keep up with. Whatever happened with Throe? Or did it happen and I forgot about it after I read it?

Anyway, I’ll keep reading as long as Ward keeps writing. Love me some leather.

Embracing Destiny

I love Hutchins. I do. That being said, I think the quality of her writing is going downhill. Embracing Destiny was hastily written, by her own admission. And there's a sequel, or rather, a part two coming. That's fine.

Here is the issue. And maybe it's just an issue for me personally, because I require more from my authors than just sex sex sex. There's a lot of it in here, which is fine I suppose. Except that it's not especially sexy. It's kind of rape-y, with a heavy dose is BDSM, which again, is fine if you're into that, and I've been known to be into it. I just couldn't connect to the scenes in any way, which made them unsexy. In fact, I had trouble connecting to the whole book, which has never been a problem for me with Hutchins' Fae series.

Here is one problem: she apparently does zero research for her characters. Yes, they're made up, but some of them are based on existing legends, and if you use some of the facts of those legends to flesh out your character, it gives your book real depth. Take Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs for example. If ones of them refers to a character of legend, you can look that character up and see that they've used some of the actual legend to give that character life. That's a mark of a great author.

Then there's the typos and repetitive word use. Flesh is used 61 times (although down from her all time high of 123 times), and pretty is used 54 times (also a reduction, but not enough). The thesaurus is free. Seriously. When you can make it a drinking game, it's too much. There are 47 typos that I personally caught. There could be more. And they were typos. The grammar was pretty good for the most part.

In a conversation, Hutchins told me she used 3 different word processors to edit her books. And therein lies her problem. An algorithm is no substitute for a sharp pair of eyes. They don't catch homonyms. Ever.

I will say this book was edited better than her last one by A LOT. But it's still not good enough.

Sunday, May 08, 2016

Review: Urban Shaman

Urban Shaman  (Walker Papers, #1)Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I started reading this series because of the short "Easy Pickings", a Jane Yellowrock/Joanne Walker crossover which happens in a sort of parallel universe. So basically I'm coming down off a Yellowrock high and start reading the Walker series. I'm not sure what it is, what's missing. But something is missing. Yellowrock I couldn't put down. Had to be reading it or die. Walker? Not so much. I enjoy the books, but I can stop in the middle of one and go clean house or whatever.

I like the concept- a sort of expatriate of The People (Cherokee Nation) flees the tribe to become a mechanic and eventually police officer, much to her chagrin. She inadvertently discovers her shamanic powers, mayhem ensues. It's a great concept for a story. It's a good story, as written. I think part of the problem is that it moves at a snail's pace. By book three we are still establishing that there *could* be a thing with that other character, but it's going to go sooooo slllloooooowww we can barely see movement.
And the thing with Cernunnos? SO much potential for hotness. You can see the beginning of something really really hot, but it just sort of....stops. Not as in cliffhanger stops, but just, nothing. And then there's the thing that's not a thing but that could be a thing but you never know because it just moves...soooo...slooooow.

There are a lot of points here that one can trace to Patricia Briggs skinwalker/shapeshifter series with Mercedes Thompson, who is, by the by, a mechanic. I haven't looked at the timeline for who wrote what when, and I suppose there's a good bit of synchronicity going on, but we have three series about Native American women who are all badass (nothing wrong with that) characters, and one starts to see a bit of overlap. But it's all good. Everyone is their own person.

Still, all that said, it's an entertaining series. I just wish it were perhaps a little sexier? And moved a bit faster.



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Review: Dragon Actually

Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin, #1)Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I don't remember when I started reading this series. It's been years, frankly. And I read them out of order, so for a while I was quite confused about the whole process, I just knew I loved the weird little characters Aiken comes up with, so I decided to start re-reading them all to get it straight. So glad I did.
What fun! Dragons, distressing damsels, damsels who need no saving, lusty sexy romps...what's not to love?




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Review: Archantel's Engima

Archangel's Enigma (Guild Hunter, #8)Archangel's Enigma by Nalini Singh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Yay! A book about Naasir!
Easily one of the most interesting characters in the Archangel's series, Naasir is...different...from anyone else. He's a more primal, primitive, intuitive and sensuous being than all the other guys. He seems to get coddled a lot, people thinking he doesn't "get" modern anything. He does. He just doesn't care. He's singularly focused when he sets his mind to something. When that something is a mate, well the luck girl just better hold on to her panties.

While I do like Singh, a LOT, she has an annoying habit of repeating the same description over and over and over again. It's like she's trying to fill space. She doesn't need to. Even paring things down, doing some editing (where's her editor? What are they doing?), would make her books sing rather than hum. Granted, she has a formula and she follows it, but that's what series books are about. The guy, the girl, the conflict, the resolution. And you know he's going to get the girl, or she's going to get the guy. It's a given for most any series, but when you have as engaging a character as Naasir, it's worth the ride.

Let's just quit "honing" things, or having "silver eyes", "silver hair", "shattering blue eyes", etc. More than two or three references to the same characteristic is just a bit much. Quit padding those lines missy! We like you already!



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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Writing prompts- April 19

April 19 : Freaky Friday- If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?If that seems too easy,try this one:who would you like to have spend a day as you and what do you hope they’d learn from the experience? 


Frankly, this stymies me. For both prompts. Who would I like to be? Well, I think any fit, driven, well-balanced individual would do. Someone who's out horseback riding on a trail somewhere, near a waterfall where I can dismount and swim in the buff for a while as my horse cools down. Stuff like that. I don't know who does those kinds of things IRL, but that's who I would be if I could be them. So there.

As far as someone to share my day- any person who has ever doubted the debilitating features of vertigo. All of them. Because they're out there. Many of them in my family. "Oh, you're dizzy? Well just sit down for a few minutes. It'll pass".  What is it about 6 hour attacks that you do not understand? Hmm?

Thursday, March 03, 2016

I've been siiiiick. Like, cold and flu sick. I'm not sure which it was. It started out with throwing up, then a sore throat with laryngitis, now it's just more mucus than any one person should EVER be able to produce. Ever. My mucus laughs at Mucinex. Haha! Take THAT!

Anyway. I spent actual time in the studio today for the first time in a week. It's still there. I should have sat and thrown a bunch of stuff, but I was into this book and wanted to finish it. Now that that's done, I think I'll sit and watch a bunch of pottery making videos and learn something new. I've had a request for thrown bird houses. They look simple enough. I'm always up for something new. Right? Right?

It's sad, but I have nothing of importance to say right now. I did go vote. Sadly, Clinton won Alabama. Poor Bernie. And he started out so strong! Now it's down to Clinton and Trump, I'm fairly sure. This is a sad day in American politics. So very sad.

We should probably all start drinking right now.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

That Vertigo Thing, Part Deux

So, when you have Meniere's Disease to the extent that I do, which is to say, nearly what's known as "end stage" Meniere's, treatments are few, far between, and ever more drastic.

The worst of these involves removing all the functioning parts of the inner ear to the affected side. From this point hearing in that ear is impossible. It's a pretty drastic measure.

The next-worst of these is called vestibular neurectomy. It involves severing the vestibular nerve that leads to the affected ear. The hoped result of this treatment is that in severing the vestibular nerve, which is responsible for balance, to that ear, the other ear can then take up the duties both ears once took care of. It's a permanent fix, if it is indeed a fix. It works for a lot of people. At one time, before I was diagnosed with MS, this was the fix we were going to try out. During pre-surgery testing, a caloric-conversion test showed that I had some type of brain damage. It was from that point that my MS was diagnosed. But that's another story. Anyway, because of the brain damage, the oto-neurologist strongly advised to never have the procedure done. I've stuck with that recommendation. I may not have much balance left regarding that ear, but I do have SOME, which is better than none.

The recent vertigo problems had obviously become bad, heading toward severe. The next-line defense against vertigo of my type is injecting steroids directly into the inner ear canal, thus killing the hair cells responsible for balance, and temporarily relieving the vertigo. It also has the unfortunate side effect of causing hearing loss in that ear, but I really didn't have that much to lose to begin with, so bugger that.

Last week the ENT did the steroid injection thing, which has greatly helped. In case you're suffering just a bit of the dizzies and are thinking this sounds like a groovy idea, keep in mind it involves cutting a hole in the ear drum, inserting a needle (after application of deadening agents and peroxide and much suctioning) into the canal and filling it with steroids. It hurts. Rather a lot.
However! The procedure has been very successful, as I am now only having 2 bad days a week as opposed to 4-5 bad days a week. Woot!

I will likely have another treatment of the same next week. Might as well kill as many of those little buggers as possible, right?

Meniere's Disease usually goes into remission after a couple of months. Usually. My case is fairly rare, with the disease seldom going into remission completely. I've lost at least 70% of the hearing in my right ear, with a small amount of loss in the left ear. I have a 30%+ chance of developing Meniere's in my left ear. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's already there since I've got ringing in that ear as well. Did I mention the ringing? My ear has about 5 different ringing tones, varying from a light buzz to one that sounds like those old-fashioned fire alarms you had in school when you were a kid. I've had the ringing since 1995. I thought I was going to lose my mind at first. I learned that a number of people with tinnitus caused by Meniere's actually commit suicide. I can understand that.

I can't say I'd ever kill myself over it, but I get the urge. Totally. You never know how much your balance means to your every day life until you don't have it.

So good-bye balance. I knew ye when....

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Happy Anniversary!

Our anniversary (#23 for all you who doubted us) is on Sunday. Naturally Tom was without a clue as to what to get me. So I helped him out. As any good wife would do.

It has loooong been my dream to be able to design and make my own jewelry. Since I was a kid long. I used to cut pictures of rings and such out of Service Merchandise catalogs and just sit and look at them. It's why I own so much silver jewelry. I love it. I would bathe in it if I could.

A while back I asked a fellow artist/friend if she knew anyone who taught classes in jewelry making. She gave me the name and number of a lady who does so locally. I had the number for a good while but just never followed up on it, figuring that it would be much too expensive to do. Day before yesterday I finally decided to contact her, via email. We discussed the particulars, and the lessons are actually viable. So I told Tom that's what I wanted for our anniversary! To get jewelry lessons! I'm so excited!

It's not actually far afield from my usual request for jewelry, but this time I can make it myself. I'm going to sit down and try to sketch out a few things and see if we can do them during the lessons. I've got a container full of gemstones to use. Squeee!!!

Guess what absolutely everyone is getting for presents from now on?

(Oh. Psssttttt! It's a secret, but I got Tom a leather coat. He's been trolling for one. It's dreamy.)

Monday, February 15, 2016

Say tongue.

Sometimes a word just strikes you as so funny it seems as though it shouldn't be allowed to be a word at all. I was pondering the merits of just such a word one night, and was trying to convey its weirdness to Caity (who just happened to be home for Christmas).
:
Lying in bed, we're watching TV.

Me: Tongue is a weird word. Say it. Say "tongue".
Caity: What? Why?
Me: Say it. Say "tongue".
Caity: You're weird.
Me: Say it. Say "tongue".
Caity: No!
Me: Say it. Say "tongue". Just say it. It's a weird word. Say "tongue".
Caity: No!
Me: SAY IT! Say "tongue".
Caity: No!
Me: Say it! Say "tongue"! Say it!
Caity: Tongue
Me: See? It's it a weird word?
Caity: You're weird.

I know what you're doing now. You're saying "tongue", and thinking about how weird it is, aren't you?

Series books that shouldn't be

Let me just put this out there in the universe:

It really is OKAY to have a one-off book. Not every single book out there needs to have a sequel. No, really, it doesn't. Granted, there are plenty of authors whom I am quite pleased, nay, ecstatic, to have multiple volumes. Ilona Andrews, G.A. Aiken/Laurentston, etc. But they are in the minority for the most part, and they seem to have started their series with the idea that a story should be finished within its pages, then a larger arc residing in the background which the reader can decide if they want to become a part of. Many authors, who really shouldn't be giving up their  day jobs, are writing 3 book stories and just taking that leap that assumes we want to slog through their first one. Well gee. We just don't.

Highland Shift by Laura Harner is one such book. It's not that the writing is so very bad, because as far as putting sentences together, she seems relatively able to do that. But her heroine? Oy Vey. I would slap her silly, but she's already there. Once again, we are subjected to the "virgin heroine" syndrome, in which a 20-30 something gorgeous woman has "just never had time" for sex. Buh? Do these people actually exist? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but apparently in genre romance land, the trees are ripe with them. Anyway, within 24 hours of meeting the godlike Scot who has deemed himself her protector and has moved himself into her home, miss never-had-time-for-it has decided he has to be her first. And that it's going to be meaningless sex. So she sets her hat for Mr. Scot, attemtping to seduce him. Within the next 24 hours she has decided, within the same sentence and in this order, that 1) she wants a one-night-stand, and 2) he has made her fall madly in love with him! Oh noes! In one sentence! Freak.  And it's not, he's so aweomse I fell in love with him, it's YOU made me fall in love with you. Like it's his fault she's freaking bi-polar. And crazy.

I didn't go any further with this one. I just couldn't after that. I can put up with a lot of stupid, but when the "heroine" blames others for her own shortcomings right off the bat, and practically date-rapes him, well it's just more than I can deal with. This is one of those books that shouldn't have a sequel, and yet, inexplicably, does. Desktop publishing has brought us some wonderful authors over the past few years, but its also brought us garbage like this.

Let's hope it swings back the other direction sometime soon.