Monday Book Haul

I got a lot of books last week. Mainly because...it was my birthday! So I always get a lot of books for my birthday because I love them :-) I also had a lot of wishes granted on paperbackswap.com some of them are listed here; although I won't get most of those until next week.

A quick note, I gave up on "Raven's Strike" just couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. It goes on my list of 6-7 books that I have never been able to finish. Someone on paperbackswap.com really wanted it; so I sent it to them along with Raven's Shadow and hopefully they will get more joy out of it than I did!

On to the list of books I got last week:

From Paperbackswap.com:

So since the movie for this is coming out I finally have an excuse to get this series read. This is the first book in the trilogy and I am hoping to get the second and third book soon.


I have the first and fourth Fabelhaven books and have been (not so) patiently waiting for the second and third. So finally I got the second book. I think this is the next young adult series I am going to start reading! The fifth book is the last in this series and comes out later this year.


This is the first book in another trilogy I have been really wanting to read. It will go on the shelf until I get the second and third book.


This is another first book in a series I am really interested in. Five books total in the series.


The third book in the Larklight series by Philip Reeve. I love the first book "Larklight". Now if I could only get my hands on a copy of the second book "Starcross" then I would be set! I'll keep my fingers crossed :-)

Books I Got As Gifts for My Birthday:


The description of this book drew me. I am excited to read it; it reminds me some of Elizabeth Hand's writing which I love.


I was so excited to get the next Vampire Hunter D novel. I have been holding off on reading volume 11 because I know that the author ends in the middle of things when he carrier a story over between two books. Now I can finally read volume 11 too!


The fourth book in the "Signs of the Zodiac" series. I love this series and am really excited to read the next installment.


I love the Kushiel's series but wasn't so hot on the second series Carey wrote. This is a stand alone novel that is Carey's take on the super hero world. I am interested to read it and I am betting I will really like it.


The latest installment in "The Spook's Apprentice" series. This is a favorite young adult series of mine and I am eager to devour this book :-)

That's it. Another huge haul. Lots of books to read; just how I like it :-)

Swallowing Darkness by Laurell Hamilton (4/5 stars)

This is the seventh book in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell Hamilton. It is the only Laurell Hamilton book for a long time that I really actually liked. This book was on par with some of the earlier novels in the series. The plot really progressed and the book overall could have wrapped up the series for good. Although I know "Divine Misdemeanors" is out later this year; I am not sure what to expect from that book since this book wraps up most of the big issues remaining in the series.

This book starts right where "A Lick of Frost" left off. Merry is in the hospital recovering from being raped by her uncle. Gran comes to visit her but something is wrong with Gran and Gran tries to take out Merry's men. All of this leads to Merry and Sholto summoning the Wild Hunt and going off on the ride of their lives. Miracles abound and great battles are fought; Merry shows her tough side even as she tries to protect the twin babies she carries.

This book spends a lot of time with Sholto and the slaugh; which I loved because the slaugh are probably the most interesting group in faerie. This book covered a lot of ground. Lots of really neat fairy magic happens and great relics of fairy are returned to Merry and her guards. There was a lot more action and fighting in this book than in any of the previous books and a lot less sex. I personally thought it made for a wonderful book.

Merry really toughens up and you start to see her strength. She starts to really exercise her special abilities and use her hands of power. The book proceeds at breakneck speed and you are thrown from battle to battle and from miracle to miracle as the Goddess makes her presence strongly known.

My biggest complaints about the book would be that Merry calls on the Goddess a lot; it almost seems like Merry can't solve anything without the Goddess's help. Also at multiple points in the book, despite her new-found toughness, Merry spends the majority of a fight laying underneath a guard while the guard takes the majority of the physcial battle damage and Merry can't see what is going on. Other than that this book was way better than any of the recent ones.

I also mentioned that this book basically ties up all the loose ends of the series. It would be a great place to end the series. Now that I know another book is coming out I am really confused about what more is going to happen, and a little worried that the series will, yet again, take a turn for the worse.

Demon Princess: Reign or Shine by Michelle Rowen (4.5/5 stars)

I got this book as an ARC (advanced reading copy) through the Amazon Vine program. When I received the bright turquoise book with a bubble-gum looking blond on the front sporting a tiara and horns...I was was unsure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised; this was a really good book!

Nikki Donovan is your typical teen. She has just moved into a new school and lucked out in making friends with the popular girl in school. Her luck holds when the hottest guy in class asks her to the dance and even her mom's lousy new husband isn't screwing her life up too much. Then this creepy guy starts stalking her, ends up his name is Michael and he wants to take her to the Shadowlands to visit her father who is a demon, oh and Michael is really cute. Nikki never knew her father. Even weirder supposedly Nikki is a Darkling and is half demon and her demonic powers are about to surface.

This book was a quick, fast-paced, and fun read. I zipped right through it in one night and really enjoyed it. Nikki's demon powers and transformations are really something and really made for a great book. The tension between Nikki and the Shadow, Michael, was also wonderful. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of this book was more focused on action and world-building, a lot of these types of books spend too much time with teenagers angsting about each other and not doing anything. Nikki was a smart practical character than took her changes (pretty much) in stride, she didn't whine, she didn't complain, and she wasn't stupid about the guys around her.

I loved the book and am really looking forward to reading the next one in the series "Demon Princess: Reign Check". I think fans of Buffy will really get into this series. Fans of The House of Night series can also find relief here and maybe get over the disappointing fifth novel. This is a smart, fun read that will leave you smiling.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman (3/5 stars)

Right away I will say that I didn't realize this is the first book of two. So anyone who is thinking about reading this book should know that. This book does not resolve any part of the story and really leaves you hanging. It is an okay book overall; there are some things about it that are amazing and some things that are really annoying. I listened to it on audio book and the audio book quality was good; although sometimes the narrator got a bit shrill when reading parts where Eon goes into a panic.

Eona is a Dragoneye candidate. She is passing as Eon, a male candidate, because females are not allowed to be candidates. Eon is special because she can see all the dragons in the spirit world. Her Master is desperately hoping that Eon will get chosen to be the new Dragoneye Apprentice.

The story is a good one. There is a ton of attention to detail with regards to the Asian feudal society and the beliefs and rituals of that time. Eon is a good character that treads a tough path; in the beginning she seems weak but she ends up having a core of toughness that is admirable.

Unfortunately there was a lot more that bothered me about this book. The plot moves very, very slow for the first half of the book. Part of this is because of the great amount of detail the author puts in. Some of it is interesting but a lot of it is unnecessary. For example at one point Eon is going in to bathe; the author needs to describe how stressful it is for Eon, how the tiles look in the bathing room, the temperature of the water, etc. I actually fell asleep for 5 minutes in the car and when I woke up I asked my husband what was going on. He laughed and said that Eon still hadn't quite gotten into the bathtub. This is how this book went. It seemed like some action was imminent (like taking a bath) and it would take 15 minutes (for the audio book) to get through all the descriptions and Eon's panicking to finally get to that action; it made for horrible pacing. Both my husband and I found it wearying and boring to the point where we almost stopped listening a number of times.

The other large thing I didn't like about this book was Eon in general. Eon was susceptible to almost constant attacks of panic and self-doubt throughout the whole book. Even as she became more powerful she would still drop into lengthy digressions about how dangerous something was, how she might be caught, how she didn't know if she could do it, and what if she wasn't enough? This is understandable for a character to go through once in a while, but Eon did this very frequently and it didn't get better as the book went on. I understand that Eon lived in constant fear. As a reader we understand this, we don't need that character to go into lengthy panicky digressions every other page; it didn't add a lot to the story and took up a lot of page space.

My last complaint is that the book doesn't resolve anything. You are pretty much left in the middle of a battle. The next book isn't released until 2010 sometime. That is a long time to make your readers wait. If you are looking at reading this duology I would recommend waiting until the second book has been released.

Overall this book wasn't a favorite of mine. The pace was just too tedious, the detail painful, and Eon exceptionally whiny and panicky. I will read the next book though because nothing is resolved in this book.

Raven's Shadow (Raven Duology, Book1) by Patricia Briggs (3/5 stars)

This is the first book in the Raven Duology by Patricia Briggs. It was an okay book. I liked the world and the magic system but thought that the pacing throughout the book was a bit erratic. I have also read Briggs Mercy Thompson series (which I thought was okay, but lacking in character development); this series is much different from the Mercy Thompson series. This series is written in a more traditional fantasy style, with less humor, and a slower pace.

Seraph is the last of her Traveler Clan. She thinks her and her husband have settled down for a life of farming when they find out a greater evil is targeting both the Travelers and the land as a whole. Seraph and her family are drawn into the very conflict that Seraph tried to avoid when she was younger.

The first part of this book was really slow for me. I had to really, really push through it. I tried to be patient and remember that sometimes good fantasies take a while to set up. It doesn't help that I recently read "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson which was an amazing book. A lot of time was spent dealing with the past when Seraph met her husband, and I really thought this probably wasn't needed and made the story take a lot longer than necessary to get going.

Once the story did get going though I really enjoyed some of the other characters; mainly Teir, Jes, and the Emperor. The plot was well done and the end of the book was action packed and fast-paced. I never did care much about Seraph. I was also disappointed that Seraph's younger daughter (the weather witch) was left at home; she was a great character and she got shuffled out of the story.

The magic system was very interesting as was the structure of the clans. If the second book keeps up the pace of the last third of the first book; then the second book will be a great book. I would buy both books at once if I was going to read this series. Although the first book concludes a major plot point there are many loose ends left hanging that have yet to be wrapped up. Also keep in mind these books are very different from the Mercy Thompson series both in character-type and writing style.

Personally I liked Rhiannon's Ride by Kate Forsyth and Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson much better than this book when it comes to your traditional fantasy type of book.

The Secret of Zoom by Lynne Jonell (4/5 stars)

This was a very cute and humorous read. I thought it was a charming book; it reminds of many other books that involve child geniuses dealing with distant parents (Artemis Fowl, A Taste of Red, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Theodosia).

Christina lives in a old house on the border of a forest that is home to a secret lab that her father works at. Her father tries to be a good dad but is more concerned with mathematics and seclusion of his daughter (for her safety) than Christina's experience with the outside world. Christina's mother was "blown to bits" in her laboratory and her father has become overprotective since these events. Christina wants nothing more than to escape and find the secret tunnel that leads into the forest. With the help of an orphan boy she does. Then she finds out that nothing that is happening in her family or town is quite as it seems.

This was a fun book. It had me laughing out loud a number of times. It was a quick read, the was fast paced and really drew you through the book. The characters were likable; even Christina's father is easy to identify with and understand. The plot itself it fairly predictable but this doesn't detract from a good story. Some of the ideas, mainly song and pitch being used to power things, are very creative and interesting to read about.

As far as the age-group for this book, I think it could be read to younger children. There are some scarier parts but nothing too horrible.

I don't have any major complaints. The story is pretty focused on a small series of events; so no huge attention to world-building. The real strengths are in characterization and writing a good mystery/adventure.

Overall a good read. I liked the humor throughout and enjoyed the story.

Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (5/5 stars)

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book. Overall this book delivered a story that was much more than I as expecting and much broader. The research that had to have gone into this book is amazing and the story both sweet and bitter. I listened to this on audio book and it was a great story to listen to; it had a very lyrical quality to it and I think listening to it added to the beauty of the story.

The story starts out with the narrator telling about the car crash that left him recovering in the burn ward. From there we take part in his recovery in the burn ward, learn about his past, and meet Marianne, a woman from the psychiatric ward. Marianne befriends the narrator and aides in his recovery by recounting stories of friends in her past. Eventually the narrator leaves the burn ward and moves in with Marianne; they struggle both with the narrator's morphine addition and Marianne's psychosis. This is a quick synopsis; but the book is about so much more than that.

Let me start by saying I really loved and enjoyed this book. Let me also say that this is not a book for the faint at heart. The descriptions of what happens in a burn ward will have your stomach turning with nausea and your knees weak in sympathetic pain. The descriptions of the narrators' former career (as a porn star) may also be too much for some. I should also mention that the pace of this book is deliberate, it kindly of gently winds itself around you while slowly creating tension and making you wonder what will both happen to the narrator and to Marianne as she gives up her hearts to the gargoyles she carves.

The worst part of the book for me was the pace; sometimes I wished the book would pick it up a little bit but this was also part of the beauty of the book. This slower pace really conveyed how the narrator dealt with the expanses of time he spent recovering from his burns.

There were a number of things I absolutely loved about this book. Marianne for one. Marianne was such a gracious and interesting character. She had equal parts toughness, madness, wisdom, and vulnerability. Yet, she was so certain in her destiny.

I also loved the detail that the author put into certain aspects of the story. I enjoyed the detail about how burn victims recover, the detail spent on how people are diagnosed with schizophrenia or manic depression, and the detail on the history of Marianne's supposed abbey.

I loved Marianne's stories. Marianne's stories were like small novellas in and of themselves. The stories were creative, always bittersweet, and always filled with interesting historical detail. I, like the narrator, always looked forward to one of Marianne's new stories.

Best of all I loved the story itself. The narrator deals with so much pain and changes dramatically throughout the novel. He makes a comment at one point of how ironic it is that when he was beautiful he acted ugly and now that he is ugly he has learned how to be beautiful. The narrator and Marianne deliver a story of pain, hope and incredible history tinged with a bit of fantastical mystery.

All I can say is that whatever you think this book is from the synopsis; it will be different from what you think. It will be both more beautiful and more gruesome. If you start the book and are irritated with the pace; I can only suggest that you hang in there because the journey is worth it. I will definitely be checking out more of Davidson's book; even though this book was outside of what I normally read.