Review - Where Angels Fear to Tread (Remy Chandler, Book 3) by Thomas E. Sniegoski (4/5 stars)

This is the third book in the Remy Chandler series; the most recent information that I can find says Sniegoski was contracted for four books in this series. This book was a great addition to the series.

Remy gets contacted to work a missing child case; only this missing child is drawing prophetic pictures in crayon and is more than she seems. Deliliah, cursed to forever live without love, is also looking for the child. Samson gets pulled into the mess in an attempt to help Remy fight Deliliah, as he has been tasked by God to destroy her. Drawn into the mess is also an ancient god Dagon, who is trying to use the child to be reborn.

There are some interesting characters in this book but they aren't necessarily the strong point of the story. What really distinguishes this book (as well as the first two) from others in the genre is the tight plot and great action scenes. Sniegoski does an excellent job of weaving a tight and engaging mystery/plot that doesn't waste space. Remy always has a clear goal and follows a logical path to get there. I just love that there is no rambling in these books or any sense of Sniegoski not knowing what he wants the characters to do.

Those who were hoping that this book would expand on the changes that happened in Hell in book 2 may be disappointed. Though the reformed Hell is mentioned in passing, it is not a focal point of this story. In fact this book could be read without reading the first two (although you would be missing some of Remy's background); in general it is a very contained story.

This books are also starting to get a bit formulaic for me. They always start with Remy getting a case, they always end with Remy having to yield to his angelic nature in order to save humanity from destruction. I am not saying this is bad; in general the books in this series have been quick, fun reads that are well written and enjoyable.

Overall I thought this was another solid addition to the Remy Chandler series. I was a little disappointed that the main story arc involving the reformation of Hell wasn't dealt with much; in fact many of the side characters from previous book were missing. Still, it was an entertaining read. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next book in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

 

Waiting on Wednesday - 3/17

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

This week my WoW book is "Dark and Stormy Knights" edited by P. N. Elrod.  This is an anthology about modern day knights...so to speak.  It is going to include works from a variety of great authors; Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Shannon K. Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod, Deidre Knight, Vicki Petterson, Lilith Saintcrow, and Carrie Vaughn.  Sounds like this could be an excellent anthology to me!

See below for synopsis and cover :-)

Dark and Stormy Knights

Pages: 384 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: July 20th, 2010

Synopsis (from Paperbackswap.com) : "They’re the last defenders of humanity, the lone wolf bad boys— and girls—who do dark deeds for the right reasons. Modern day knights who are sexy, funny, mad, bad and dangerous to know because they do what most of us only dream about…and get away with it. In this all-star collection, nine of today’s hottest urban fantasy authors bring us original stories of supernatural, modern day knights that will have readers clamoring for more!"

Review - The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (3/5 stars)

I actually saw this book the first time through the Amazon Vine program; I ended up getting it from the library instead, but the cover and book description intrigued me. I liked some parts of the book and disliked others; overall it ended up being an okay read. It was more a tale of people making bad decisions about love than a fantasy though; you should know that before you pick it up.

Most of the tale centers around a young girl Ida and a photographer Midas. Midas is very introverted and grew up on the island; while Ida is very monochromatic and extroverted, although at one time she was vibrant. Ida has a disease that she seems to have picked up when she visited the island, she is slowly turning to glass from the feet up. Midas is at first fascinated by the image her glass feet portray and then fascinated by Ida herself. Ida is dealing with the uncertainty of her illness, while Midas is dealing with his fright of people. The lives of numerous people weave in and out of their story. The book is full of people who regret choices they have made in their lives and full of people who have lost the loves of their life.

As you might guess from the description this is not a heartwarming book or a happy book. The majority of characters are incredibly depressed; the whole story is a bit monochromatic as all the characters are bleached of any positive emotion. Ida, despite her horrible affliction, is the greatest point of light in the whole novel. While the description of the book makes it seem like a fantasy, it really is not that at all. The book deals more with people's past decisions and how those decisions affected their families; it also deals with how a life-threatening illness affects the people around you. There are mysterious happenings on the island but they are never explored, only briefly discussed, and are just accepted as part of the island.

The writing style is both good and bad. At times the descriptions are so beautiful as to be inspiring, at others the plot wanders a bit too much. Shaw bounces between present and past without much warning. The storyline is told from a number of characters' viewpoints; which can get a bit confusing at times. When I got to the end of the book, I also thought that some of the characters could have been left out of the story without much impact...then we could have spent more time with Midas and Ida.

The most beautiful parts of the book were when Henry is exploring the insects of the regions, followed by the parts with Midas and Ida. This book is not really a fantasy and definitely not something to read to lift your mood. The mood of the book feels like winter; cold, unforgiving, and hopefully giving way to something better. To be honest the story left me feeling chilled.

Overall, there is some excellent imagery in the book and some creative ideas. I thought the execution left something to be desired; the plot meanders a lot and the book dealt more with bitter people than fantasy. In general an okay read; but not something to brighten your day. It didn't make me eager to read any more of Shaw's work.

This book went towards the following reading challenges:
- The Debut Author Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

 

Teaser Tuesday - 3/16

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from "The Girl with Glass Feet" by Ali Shaw.

 

Here it is: "I used to dress in bright colors," she said, "saffrons and scarlets.  Jesus, I used to have a tan." pg. 6

Review - Goblin Hero (Jig the Goblin, Book 2) by Jim C. Hines (4/5 stars)

This is the second book in the Jig the Goblin trilogy by Hines.  This one is very much in the style of the first book and makes for another humorous dungeon delving quest.

Jig has been granted the power of healing by his god Autumnstar and would love nothing more than to spend his days healing goblin wounds and being left alone.  However the goblin chief sees him as a threat and when an ogre shows up asking for Jig Dragonslayer; the chief is happy to see Jig leave.  Now Jig has another quest, against evil pixies to be exact and he has some dubious goblin companions who just may help him if they don't kill him first.

This book goes between two different character viewpoints.  Like in the last book we follow Jig, but in addition we hear a lot from Veka's viewpoint (she is a goblin who greatly desires to be a hero).  As far as writing style, plot style, character style goes this book is much like the first one.  I found the characters humorous but not incredibly engaging.  I found the plot interesting but not edge-of-your-seat gripping.  This book wasn't quite as funny as the first book.  A lot of time is spent with Veka and she is not a pleasant character...she takes herself way too seriously and I didn't like hearing from her as much as Jig.

This is another very classic dungeon crawling adventure; although this book has a more "save the world" tone to it than the first book.  The book wraps up nicely and gives a very complete story.  You wouldn't have to read "Goblin Quest" to enjoy this book, but "Goblin Quest" does give some nice background on Jig for this story.

Overall another fun and amusing read.  I look forward to reading the third, and final, book in this series "Goblin War".

This book goes towards the following reading challenge:
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

Review - Gobiln Quest (Jig the Goblin, Book 1) by Jim C. Hines (4/5 stars)

This is the first book in the Jig the Goblin trilogy by Jim C. Hines.  This was a humorous and entertaining classic dungeon crawl adventure.

Jig the goblin is the runt of the goblin community.  When he accidentally gets tangled up on a quest with two humans, a dwarve, and an elf he finds himself having to be more courageous than ever...which is something a goblin never is.  Jig will face off against a necromancer and a dragon and become the worshiper of a forgotten god, and all he wanted to do was get off of muck duty for a day...

This was a very amusing and humorous book.  This book is very much a classic dungeon crawling adventure; with a lot of irony and dark humor thrown in.  You got all your stereotypical characters: an elven thief, a human mage, and dwarven warrior.  You got all your stereotypical villans: an evil dragon and an evil necromancer.   But, all the characters and situations have some rather comical twists thrown into them.  So, even though they are stereotypical (which is part of their charm) they are also rather quirky.

This was a great classic adventure novel; you don't see too many of those around these days.  There weren't any huge surprises but this was an easy and amusing read.  If you are into adventure quests with some satire you would like this...think Piers Anthony, Terry Prattchet, stuff like that.

There were a couple things that could have been better in this book.  The book takes a bit to get going.  The characters were amusing but I was never really drawn into actually caring about them.  The plot was also somewhat engaging, but never really had me on the edge of my seat and never really grabbed me and made the book hard to put down.  The writing style is very straight-forward and easy to read, but nothing phenomenal.

This book was very complete.  The main points of the adventure were solved and the book was well wrapped up.

Overall this was a fun and amusing read.  I look forward to reading the next book in the series "Goblin Hero".  Hines is definitely an author to keep an eye on; especially if you enjoy humor in you classic fantasy.

 

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:

- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- 1st in a Series Reading Challenge

Mailbox Monday - 3/15

Mailbox Monday can be found at: The Printed Page

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I got five new books this week.  Two are advanced reading copies for review.  "Heartless" by Anne Elisabeth Stengl is a book that I got through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  "Mercury" by Hope Larson I got through the Amazon Vine program.

The remaining three books I got through paperbackswap.com.  "The Story of O" is a piece of erotic fiction that I have heard referenced so many times that I thought I should read it.  "The Better Part of Darkness" by Kelly Gay and "Three Days to Dead" by Kelly Meding both sounded like interesting reads.

You can find more info on these book below.  Hope you all have a great week and Happy Reading :-)

Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
 
First Sentence: "Two children, a brother and a sister, played down by the Old Bridge nearly every day, weather permitting.
From Amazon.com: " Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.
Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil."

Mercury by Hope Larson

First Sentence: "Our story takes place here, in the tiny Maritime province of Nova Scotia"
From Amazon.com: "In 1859 French Hill, Nova Scotia, Josey Fraser has just met handsome Asa Curry -- a man with a mysterious and traveled past. While quickly winning young Josey's heart, Asa reveals a secret ability to locate gold on the Frasers' farm. But there is darkness in the woods...and in Asa.
In the same town one hundred fifty years later, Tara Fraser is dealing with the aftermath of her house burning down; a house that has been in her family -- and Josey's -- for generations, when Tara discovers a pendant that turns out to be much more than a simple heirloom. As Josey's story plunges into tragedy, Tara's emerges with the promise of gold.
A compelling combination of history and romance, marked with Larson's signature touch of magical realism, Mercury is a remarkable depiction of two girls tied by blood and separated by time"

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

First Sentence: "I don't recall the first time I died, but I do remember the second time I was born."
From Amazon.com: "They’ll never see her coming. . . .
When Evangeline Stone wakes up naked and bruised on a cold slab at the morgue—in a stranger’s body, with no memory of who she is and how she got there—her troubles are only just beginning. Before that night she and the two other members of her Triad were the city’s star bounty hunters, mercilessly cleansing the city of the murderous creatures living in the shadows, from vampires to shape-shifters to trolls. Then something terrible happened that not only cost all three of them their lives but also convinced the city’s other Hunters that Evy was a traitor—and she can’t even remember what it was.
Now she’s a fugitive, piecing together her memory, trying to deal some serious justice—and discovering that she has only three days to solve her own murder before the reincarnation spell wears off. Because in three days Evy will die again—but this time there’s no second chance. . . ."

The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay 
 
First Sentence: "You told a two-thousand-year-old oracle to prove it."
From Amazon.com: "Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She's recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.'s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim -- but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?"

Story of O by Pauline Reage
   
First Sentence: "Her lover takes O for a walk in a section of the city where they never go - the Montsouris Park, the Manseau Park."
From Amazon.com: "The classic erotic novel, THE STORY OF O relates the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for Rene. As part of that intense love, she demands debasement and severe sexual and pychological tests. It is a unique work not to be missed."