Karissa's Reading Review

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday - 12/5/12

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week my Waiting on Wednesday book is

The Indigo Spell: A Bloodlines Novel by Richelle Mead.

Click on the image to go to Amazon and read more about this book.

The Indigo Spell: A Bloodlines Novel by Richelle Mead
Release Date: February 12th, 2013

Publisher: Razorbill
Length: 432 pages
ISBN: 978-1595143198

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Early Review - Scent of Magic (Healer, Book 2) by Maria V. Snyder (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 416 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Release Date: December 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0778314189
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Healer series
Source: eBook from Netgalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the second book in the Healer trilogy by Snyder. I didn’t like this book as much as the first book, it was pretty much a war and strategy fantasy read. It’s missing a lot of the mystery, adventure, and romance we saw in the first book. I recommend reading the first book before picking up this one.

Avry leaves Kirran and infiltrates the holy army both to try and catch up to her sister Noell and to do what she can to fight against Tohon. Kerrick is sent back to Alga to deal with a different invasion and battle.

I didn't like this book as much as the first in this series. Nearly the whole book has Avry fighting in one part of the battle while Kerrick is sent to Alga to deal with a battle on a different front. I honestly thought the whole thing was pretty boring. Lots of battle strategy talk and intrigue but not a ton of action. We don’t get any of the tense interplay between Kerrick and Avry; the monkeys are split up for much of the book as well.

I didn’t feel like any of the characters grew or changed much throughout this book. Avry does learn more about the Lilies and she does grow some in power. Kerrick does finally realize that he neglected his home kingdom while he was trying to find a cure for the Prince. Outside of that it was all preparing for battle and then a face-off between Tohon’s undead army and the holy army.

There isn’t a ton of action. Avry is masquerading as a sergeant and spends a lot of the book teaching soldiers how to move silently through the forest. When she isn’t doing that she is trying to hide what she is, and she doesn’t do a very good job keeping her secret.

The best part of this whole story is the mystery surrounding the Death/Peace Lilies. Avry does interact with the Lilies quite a bit in this book. Rather than get answers though, we are mostly left with more questions.

The book is decently written, I just had a lot of trouble staying engaged with the story. Not a lot happens and I didn’t care much about the characters by the end of it all. Since most of the major characters are separated we don’t get the fun rapport between characters that we did in the first book.

Overall an okay addition to the series, but lacking in the adventure, mystery, and romance of the first book. The book is well written but mostly focuses on battle and strategy...not things I enjoy reading about. We don’t get the witty dialogue between Avry, Kerrick, and the monkeys since they are separated most of the book. So in the end I had a lot of trouble engaging with the story and caring about these characters. At this point I am uncertain whether or not I will read the final book in this trilogy. I would recommend reading Snyder’s Poison Study series instead of this one, that is a much better story.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Zombie Reading Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge

Monday, December 3, 2012

Review - Dark Currents (Agent of Hel, Book 1) by Jacqueline Carey (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc Hardcover
Release Date: October 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-0451464781
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Agent of Hel series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the first in a new urban fantasy series by Carey called Agent of Hel. I really enjoyed Carey’s original Kusiel’s Dart trilogy and also enjoyed her urban fantasy book Santa Olivia. This book was different from all of those books, and while a fun read was much more run of the mill urban fantasy.

Daisy is half demon and also Hel’s chosen liaison for the town of Pemkowet. Pemkowet has a functioning underworld which is reigned over by Hel, an old Norse deity . Pemkowet is also a popular tourist location in the summer. When a college boy turns up drowned in the river under suspicious circumstances, Daisy is called upon to collaborate with her old crush (and werewolf) Officer Cody Fairfax. Cody and Daisy need to figure out if this was just a case of a college kid getting too drunk or if eldritch forces were involved in what might be a murder.

This was a well written and fun read. The first couple chapters were a bit rough and awkward, but after that Carey really found her stride. While there is nothing super special here, this was a well done and well written investigative urban fantasy.

Daisy is pretty tame as a character. She has this whole demonic father thing going on, but besides occasionally being tempted to call on her demonic powers and sometimes losing her temper, she is your typical nice girl. Oh and she has a tail; Carey spends a lot of time telling you what Daisy’s tail was doing which was kind of odd and bothered me a bit. Daisy starts out as seeming very innocent and young, she changes as the story goes on and grows up a bit. Still as an urban fantasy heroine she comes off as a bit too Mary Jane for me.

Cody is your typical overprotective werewolf type. He doesn’t want to get close to people because of his werewolf background, yet he is super protective of Daisy.

The most interesting character in the book was the new head Ghoul in town, Stefan. Ghouls are eldritch beings that feed off of emotion to survive. They feature prominently in the story and are the most creative aspect of this new world that Carey has created. Stefan is super tempting to Daisy because he is awesomely hot and can help her control her temper and demonic powers by feeding off her emotions. He is kind of mysterious, but acts very nobly throughout the book...I really want to know what his story is and hope he features in future books in this series.

The mystery is very well done and very creative. It does end up featuring sexual abuse of an eldritch creature. This was creepy and yucky, but also very well done and intriguing. The investigation is nicely tied up, with a couple questions left open for future books.

I also really enjoyed the faerie creatures we bump into in this story. We encounter a Ginny Greenteeth, vamps, faeries, Dryads, Lamia, etc. There’s a nice variety of eldritch races here to keep things interesting. There was some discussion of the underworld and how that works, but not a detailed discussion. Hopefully in future books we’ll learn more about how this world works.

The writting style for this novel is much more casual than even Santa Olivia. Gone is the beautifully lyrical prose we saw in her Kushiel’s books. Even the lyrical nature of Santa Olivia is missing here. This book is written in a very casual, very urban fantasy-like voice.

Overall a solid urban fantasy read. The first couple chapters were a bit shaky, but once the story got going Carey found her stride. Daisy is a bit to goodie-two-shoes for me, but she matures and grows some as the book progresses. The mystery was very well done and creative, if a bit creepy. There are a lot of different eldritch races here to make things interesting too. I would tentatively recommend this book if you are a fan of urban fantasy. It’s a solid urban fantasy and I enjoyed it, but there isn’t a lot here that is super creative and sets this apart from a million other urban fantasies out there.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge