The Best Gift, by Wendy Markham - Review

Timeline of a Convert
8:00 am, Page 1. Setting: On the Bus. Dialog: Internal.

Man. Is this really written in present tense for the whole book? *flips pages* Auugh, I hate that.

..........................................

12:15 pm, page 38. Setting: Mostly empty office, remains of Lean Cuisine at elbow. Dialog: with Co-worker (Lit major, fluent in 4 or 5 languages, works as a tester in our lab).

Coworker: Whatcha reading?
Me: A romance.
Coworker: Is it any good?
Me: Not really. Someone sent it to me. I'm going to review it. It's all in present tense, augh, I hate that. But it's a time travel thing, so I guess it kind of makes sense for that. You know. It's the Douglas Adams problem.
Coworker: *Laugh* *wanders off*
Me: *still reading*

...............................................................................................................................

6:00 pm, page 100. Setting: On the bus. Dialog: Internal.

Auuugggh, something horrible is going to happen, I just know it. I need to know what. And when. *turns page*

...............................................................................................................................

7:30 pm, page 186. Setting: My house. Dialog: with my kid.
Kid: Mom?
Me: *still reading* Go away.
Kid: But, mom...!!
Me: *still reading* Seriously. Go ask your father.

...............................................................................................................................

9:30 pm, page 236. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

I'll just read for a half hour or so. *yawn* This time change is killing me, I need to get to bed early.

...............................................................................................................................

11:15 PM, page 304. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

Crap. I have to finish this. *yawn*

...............................................................................................................................

11:50 pm, last page. Setting: On the couch. Dialog: Internal.

Wow. That was incredible. *reads prequel excerpt* I might need to read that. God, I hate that it's in present tense though. Augh. I hate that.

...............................................................................................................................

This book is a really unusual reading experience. It takes place almost entirely within the span of 4 days - two in 2009, and two in 2012. I was tense, anxious, filled with foreboding, and mildly confused for almost the entire stretch, which normally doesn't make me like a book, but in this case, it was very effective at keeping me turning the pages.

I still can't figure out if I liked it or not.

Inspired Analysis - Boneshaker Vs. Brady Bunch

I just might be cut out for this academic literary stuff after all. I was deeply inspired by Carolyn Crane's post today; inspired, and yes, readers, suspicious. Her attempt at mythbusting smacks a bit of protestething too much, don't you think? I was particularly skeptical at the Brady Bunch denial.

Now, I've really just gotten started on the League's February Challenge hosted at Literary Escapism, so I certainly can't speak to 99% of the Leaguer's books, but I have to say that while Boneshaker may not be outright derivative, it certainly shares some Jungian archetypes and literary conventions with the Brady Bunch Goes To Hawaii. It's just undeniable, and the more you look for the commonalities, the more you find. I made some rough notes of my own observations.

Draw your own conclusions.

League of Reluctant Adults Mini Challenge

Reviews for the Challenge

For my League reviews, click on the tag "League of Reluctant Adults" - this will show you everything I've talked about on these authors, whether it's part of Jackie's challenge or not.

Crash Into Me, by Jill Sorenson -- Review

Easily Influenced

OK, I admit it. The fact that Ms. Sorenson stops by here regularly and leaves thoughtful, non-self-promoting comments probably has a lot to do with how her book got onto my radar. I spotted it last week at a favorite bookstore and that recognition undoubtedly made the difference between scooping it up and passing it by.

I've also been focusing on contemps and historicals these last few weeks. I think I'm a little burned out on paranormals and the modern California setting was appealing.

The Heroine
I absolutely adored the heroine of this book, Sonora Vasquez, a/k/a Sonny, alias Summer for this particular assignment. The scene where we are introduced to her is completely fabulous. I don't always go for the device of having a secondary or throw-away character's viewpoint for the intro, but Sorenson makes it work.

...he saw a premonition of his own defeat in those strange, light eyes, and Mitchell didn't have time to blink before Vasquez dropped him, with a blow to the temple so well-placed it was almost a caress.

An excruciating, debilitating caress.

What a great start!

I want to say more about Sonny's character, because it's one of the great strengths of this book. Sorenson builds her character up in complex layers, but in a way that I always feel like I know exactly what Sonny is doing and why. I really *feel* her internal conflict in a way that doesn't always happen when I'm reading. And maybe I'm deluding myself, because I'm never going to drop an FBI agent with an excruciating, debilitating caress, but in some ways I related to Sonny on a personal level-- we both tend to be analytical and deliberate; we make plans that do not account for emotional derailment, but then every now and then we embrace the crash (to belabor a metaphor) and accept the consequences with a certain stoicism.

The Plot
Crash Into Me starts with one count against it for me: it's a serial-killer plot. A creepy, Ted-Bundy-esque serial killer to boot. And there were a few points where I wished it wasn't. But the pacing and plotting didn't allow me time to dwell on it; I was too busy turning pages. And Sorenson manages something tricky: she plants enough information about the murders to built the tension -- we know he's a sick, dangerous, awful man-- and leaves the rest to the imagination -- which I kept a very tight rein on, thank you very much; but I could imagine that a different kind of reader could spiral it into some pretty cold horror.

Plotting, pacing, and tension is runaway success for this book (if I could come up with a surfing term that fit, I'd use it, but I grew up land-locked. Best I could do would be "hang ten..."). It's not a cast of thousands, but the secondary characters are vibrant and interesting and the whodunit aspect will have you mulling the possibilities. Sorenson nails the action scenes and furthermore manages them in a way that seems realistic. Sonny's a "kick-ass heroine" without requiring any superpowers and is realistically fallible.

The other kind of tension works really well too. The scenes between Sonny and Ben were excellent, and true to the characters. On the heat scale, whew. The love scenes show up just where they need to, and let's just say, yumm and leave it at that (I refer you to my rule about letting my kids, my mother, and the PTA read here, LOL).

Not Perfect
I did have a couple of minor problems, but nothing close to a dealbreaker. I thought Ben's character was a little flat, and given that he's "the world's most famous surfer," it seemed odd to me that he spent pretty much zero time surfing in the story. Inside his head, there were references to surfing terms, but it seemed a little bit labored to me. If you require an A+ hero to enjoy a romance, I'm not sure you'd find him here.

The story arc for Carly, Ben's daughter was something that worked OK for me while I was turning pages, but when I got to the end and looked back, I felt like it was resolved a little too easily -- we're introduced to her via a suicide attempt, and I'm not sure that was treated as seriously as it should have been. And while I liked the character of her boyfriend, James, and the way he interacted with the adult characters, I was a little put off by the teen romance.

This might be hypocrisy on my part, but I just really didn't want the physical details between them. I want to say "it wasn't necessary for the story," but to be honest that might not be true. I'm trying to imagine the book without those details, but it might be that without them James would not be as a rich a character.

I also found myself questioning some of the procedural stuff - like the fact that Sonny is put on the assignment alone. Don't FBI agents always work in pairs? If that's not true, then the whole universe of buddy movies just got jolted off its axis...

Bottom Line
Even with a little room for improvement, Crash Into Me is a really solid first novel with excellent bones. Sorenson has the chops for great characters, great plotting, and great tension, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Don't Tempt Me, by Loretta Chase - Review

A Little Disappointing
I have never been let down by Loretta Chase before. Even deep in her backlist, where sometimes you find an author's less polished works, I enjoyed every book. Chase has a knack for writing unusual, misfit heroines that succeed against all odds, generally because of their eccentricities, rather than in spite of them.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen for me with Don't Tempt Me. I really did want to love Zoe Octavia, but I felt like I was seeing her through the wrong end of a telescope for most of the book. Very little takes place from within her point of view -- what there is, is intriguing, but there wasn't enough for me.


The Premise
In a nod to the Old Skool harem trope, Zoe is introduced to the reader as the latest ton sensation, the long-lost daughter of a prominent noble, escaped after 12 years in the harem of an impotent <eyeroll> pasha. Her mission: to overcome the scandal and live the life to which she was born.

Lucien, with an abandonment complex the size of the Titanic's nemesis, has just enough power in the fashionable circles to help her out. Considering that Zoe's father is the one person for whom Lucien has respect and affection, he's more than willing.

And then?
Beyond that, the book sort of petered out for me. There was never any major obstacle to the relationship between the hero and the heroine. The plot device was unimaginative and underdeveloped. I could live with that, but what I really wanted was to connect better with Zoe.

I didn't get to, though. Her backstory was told to the reader through a newspaper story, of all things, which Lucien engineered to build some empathy for her plight. Not a bad starting place, but we got very little more. I was left feeling like I knew slightly more about Zoe than any random woman of the times who read the newspaper.

The Bright Spot
Chase has always been good at building characters, and maybe the trouble here is just that it was too subtle for me overall. The stuff I did like was about Zoe's consistency throughout. Certain characteristics pinged back to her and Lucien's shared childhood, showing evolution but not radical change. I liked Zoe's pragmatic approach to fitting back into society, while still using and valuing skills she learned in that alien society. Zoe has composure, strength and self-confidence no matter the situation, and that was very appealing.

Don't get me wrong, this was not a terrible book by any means. But Chase is one of those authors for whom I have very high expectations. Hopefully the next one will be back on track.

Around the Blogosphere (my state of underwhelm is distinctly the minority)
Katibabs at RNTV
Neesah Allora
Janet at Dear Author
Ana at The Book Smugglers
Carolyn Hughes
Esmerelda at Flutter (a spanking new romance blogger, and since she agrees with me, you should all check her out and watch her for great things to come.)