SRSLY?

From the latest Stephanie Laurens, p. 76:

She was far to fly to the nuances of place to let him use the lingering echoes of last night to distract her.

Assuming that should be “too fly to the nuances,” again I ask, SRSLY?

So it seems. A little etymological googling first turned up this, but no date:

fly (flī)
adjective flier fli′er, fliest fli′•est
1. CHIEFLY BRIT., SLANG alert and knowing; sharp; quick
2. SLANG fashionable, stylish, attractive, etc.
Etymology: orig., thieves' slang < ? fly Source

“Thieves’ slang?” Hmm. Adding that to the google mix, I found this:

fly (n.)
O.E. fleoge, from P.Gmc. *fleugjon (cf. O.S. fleiga, O.N. fluga, M.Du. vlieghe, Ger. Fliege "fly); lit. "the flying (insect)" (cf. O.E. fleogende "flying"), from same source as fly (v.1). Originally "any winged insect" (hence butterfly, etc.); long used by farmers and gardeners for any insect parasite. Slang adj. meaning "clever, alert, wide awake" first recorded 18c., perhaps from the notion of the insect being hard to catch (other theories, however, trace it to fledge or flash); 1990s use may be a revival or a reinvention. Fly on the wall "unseen observer" first recorded 1949. An O.E. word for "curtain" was fleonet "fly-net." Fly-swatter first attested 1917. Flypaper attested from 1851, though the item itself is said to have become commonly available in London in 1848.

Source

I wish it gave usage though. I’m just having SUCH a hard time with a regency noblewoman being fly to nuances.

Anyone have more or better sources?

Oh, and here's a bonus:

Flying fuck originally meant "have sex on horseback" and is first attested c.1800 in broadside ballad "New Feats of Horsemanship."

Series Reading Order

It’s been pointed out to me that I generally don’t bother to list the reading order for the various series that I review. I figure that it’s usually pretty easy to ferret out from either Amazon or the author’s website, but I’m all about the feedback, so if that’s a service my readers want, I’m happy to oblige.

So here’s the reading order for a few of the series that I’ve talked about in the past:

Historicals

The Bridgertons, by Julia Quinn

1. The Duke and I


2. The Viscount Who Loved Me


3. An Offer From A Gentleman


4. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton


5. To Sir Phillip, With Love


6. When He Was Wicked


7. It's In His Kiss


8. On The Way to the Wedding

The Cynsters, by Stephanie Laurens

1. Devil’s Bride


2. A Rake’s Vow


3. Scandal’s Bride


4. A Rogue’s Proposal


5. A Secret Love


6. All About Love


7. All About Passion


8. The Promise in a Kiss


9. On a Wild Night


10. On a Wicked Dawn


11. The Perfect Lover


12. The Ideal Bride


13. The Truth About Love


14. What Price Love?


15. The Taste of Innocence (wasn’t crazy about this one)

The Bastion Club, by Stephanie Laurens

1. Captain Jack’s Woman (prequel—meh)


2. The Lady Chosen


3. A Gentleman’s Honor


4. A Lady of His Own


5. A Fine Passion


6. To Distraction


7. Beyond Seduction


8. The Edge of Desire

The Carsington Brothers, by Loretta Chase

1. Miss Wonderful


2. Mr. Impossible


3. Lord Perfect

Contemporaries:
Huh. It looks like most of the contemporaries I’ve talked about are not part of series, but more stand-alones. Leave me a comment if there are series that I’ve missed!

Paranormals:
Ah, paranormals. So many series, so little time. I’m just going to do a few here, or this post will be ridiculously long.

First up, of course, is JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood:

1. Dark Lover


2. Lover Eternal


3. Lover Awakened


4. Lover Revealed


5. Lover Unbound


6. Lover Enshrined


7. The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide (coming in October 2008)


8. Dead After Dark* (coming in December 2008)


9. Lover Avenged (coming in May 2009)

Meljean Brook’s Guardian Series:

1. Hot Spell*


2. Demon Angel


3. Wild Thing*


4. Demon Moon


5. Demon Night


6. First Blood*


7. Demon Bound (coming in November 2008)

Nalini Singh's Shifter/Psy series:

1. An Enchanted Season*


2. Slave to Sensation


3. Visions of Heat


4. Caressed by Ice


5. The Magical Christmas Cat* (coming October 2008)


6. Mine to Possess


7. Hostage to Pleasure


8. Branded by Fire (not yet released, but the exerpt is page-meltingly hot)

Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series:

1. Playing Easy to Get*


2. A Hunger Like No Other


3. No Rest for the Wicked


4. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night


5. Dark Needs at Night’s Edge


6. Dark Desires After Dusk


7. Kiss of a Demon King (coming in Feb 2009)


8. Not That Innocent* (coming in May 2009)

Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn Series

1. If Angels Burn


2. Dark Need


3. Private Demon


4. Night Lost


5. Evermore


6. Twilight Fall


7. Stay The Night (coming in Jan 2009)

*Titles with an asterisk are anthologies which contain a novella or short story within the same universe as the series.

That help, Erin? I hereby promise to include the reading order for any series I review in the future. :-)

Is It Me? I Don't Think It's Me.

I said in my intro that I might be soft on my favorite authors. But then again, maybe not. Because when they disappoint me, I get *really* disappointed.

Take for example Cross My Heart, from Carly Phillips. Now, I really liked her first few stand-alones (a mis-nomer, since they were trilogies). The Hot Zone trio and the Chandler Brothers delivered the pacing, personality and humor that made her hugely successful, with a little boost from Kelly Ripa's short-lived reading club. But this latest one? The only way I can explain it is if Phillips found it in the bottom of a box of notebooks from her high school sophomore year handwritten on spiral paper with all of the i's dotted with little hearts, and her publisher was holding her dog hostage for a finished manuscript. Seriously, it's pretty bad; like a case study on the old creative writing saw "show, don't tell." These characters are flat and boring; they passively await the plot to happen around them while everything you ever wanted to know about them (and much, much more) is explicated in narrative like this:

Ty was as complex as the things surrounding him were simple. He was a deep man who kept his feelings inside but who gave of himself just by being there. He seemed to sense and show up when she needed him, and he knew when to give her space. Ten years apart and he knew her better than she even knew herself.

And there is more of the same before and after. Blah, blah cliche´ blah cliche´ blah blah.

Then there's the latest from Stephanie Laurens, whom I usually love. I mean, she is absolutely A-list in my book. But A Taste of Innocence really disappointed me. The hero, Charlie, is just too dumb to live: his father had gambled away the family fortune trying to support them, out of his crazy love for his wife. Therefore, Charlie decides to avoid true love at all costs because love=reckless + bad judgement. Yeah, too dumb to live. Meanwhile, the heroine had decided that she would only marry for love. Because that makes tons of sense for the era.

For some reason I also found the rhythm of the prose to be really repetitive, particularly in the love scenes: "paragraph paragraph subject verb supporting clause. Very repeat supporting clause. Supporting clause some more, paragraph paragraph paragraph." Over and over. I'm honestly not one to harp on things like sentence fragments but this happened so many times it was really noticeable and distracting.

I suspect that part of the problem is that the Cynster franchise is just getting old. In the last several books, I had a lot of trouble remembering the Malcom Sinclair thread from book to book, especially since Laurens was alternating Cynsters and Bastion Club books, which never seemed all that distinct from each other anyway, other than the shadowy spymaster of the Bastion books. However, I will say that the big redeemer for this book was in fact, the Malcom Sinclair twist at the end, which I won't spoil but I liked very much.

Lastly, a word about Mary Jo Putney's Marriage Spell. What the heck happened here? It was like Harry Potter meets Lifetime Television For Women. I like paranormals just fine, but I have to believe it just isn't MJP's forte. The magic element was forced and unimaginative, and the heroine was about as exciting as magical oatmeal. The only hook was with the hero's internal struggle-- Putney's signature theme and done far better in the Fallen Angels books.

I'm not giving up on any of these authors, because I know they can write great books. I just hope they get back to it. Soon.