How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back, by Sophie Barnes - Review

Flip-Flopper
I can't make up my mind about the clever takes on movie titles for books.  I kind of love them on Kim Harrison's whole Clint Eastwood riff.  But there are so many now, as a general rule they just seem kind of lazy.  Somehow though, this one really made me smile and caught my attention.  Stylistic contrast, I guess.

I'd heard some buzz, so this title was on my mind a little bit even before I got my goodie box from the Avon Addicts program, and there it was just waiting for me.  So I was looking forward to sampling this new-to-me author.  I believe How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back is Barnes' debut romance.

Austenish
I'm not going to debate whether Pride and Prejudice is the greatest romance of all time.  I can't, really, because I couldn't get through it.  I tried.  I've owned the book for years and years.  I just... can't get through it.

Many comparisons are being drawn around the web between Sophie Barnes and Jane Austen, and I have to agree.  Unfortunately for me, it's just a style that doesn't appeal to me.  On top of that, I found some of the word choices to be jarring for the style and period (makeup instead of paint or rouge, and awkard phrases like "so help him God") and it quickly added up to a book that wasn't working for me.

So at least I'm consistent.  I really wanted to like Miss Rutherford, but it just isn't for me.  On the other hand, if you enjoy Austen's style, you may find it exactly to your taste.

Around the Blogosphere
Fellow Addict Amy Valenti at Unwrapping Romance
Fellow Addict Savannah at Simply Me
Paperback Dolls
Reading Romances
The Season Blog

As always, if you have reviewed this book and would like to be linked, just leave me the URL in comments or by email, and I will edit it in.

Tsunami Blue, by Gayle Williams - Review

Ripped from the Headlines
I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "tsunami," my head goes to one place immediately-- the devastating southeast Asian tsunami that hit Indonesia the day after Christmas of 2004.

(The second place my head goes is to that surfer-dude episode of Gilligan's Island, which is, I think, where I first encountered the word... what can I say, I'm a child of the 70's).

The plot of Tsunami Blue is reminiscent of Kevin Costner's cinematic flop Waterworld from 1995: the sealevel has risen so that coastal cities are submerged, governments are in chaos, and marauding pirate gangs rule the waters.

Good Stuff
I quite liked Blue's character. Her wistfulness and loneliness come through sharply and the author does a good job of making us understand the level of danger she lives with. It's scary stuff. I also liked the "Tokyo Rose" inspiration, and the idea that Blue is a voice out in the world, bouncing off the moon.

Unlike lots of current popular fiction, the narration in this story is very consistently from Blue's point of view, which leads to uncertainty around the hero's actions and motivations. I think this worked very well for this story-- it really served to keep the reader's emotions and reactions aligned with Blue's. The voicing is strong, steady and appealing-- a big asset for the story.

World-building-- a bit uneven
Generally I like the premise, but the details don't always hold up (as Ciara astutely points out). As a Midwesterner (albeit transplanted) I couldn't help but wonder what was going on further inland. I'm no meteorologist, but as far as I know, tsunamis wouldn't cause a permanent change in the sea level (although of course they can certainly wreck coastal areas), nor would they cause much commotion for say, Iowa or Nevada. Washington DC and NYC might be wiped out but it seems to me that there would be enough government and naval remnants in the world to prevent the wholesale chaos that Williams portrays.

Now, that might be different if, as it says on the blurb (but not, I don't think, in the book) that the world has been transformed to a series of islands. But Williams doesn't give me enough of an event to really believe that. It may be that the details were in there and I skimmed over them, but I spent probably 3/4s of the book assuming that the continental interiors should be mostly intact. I'm still not really sure why they wouldn't be.

The Romance

Here again, I'm going to use the word "uneven." I think all the right ingredients are here, but it didn't quite gel for me. Blue is portrayed as both naive (from her isolation) and street-tough (from her time with her uncle) and somehow they both worked against her feelings for the hero. She distrusts him, but not quite enough... and then when she falls for him, it's also not quite enough-- for me, anyway.

One Other Completely Random Point
Blue is a pretty young character. And the cover model looks very young. My ten-year-old was dying to read it based on the pretty cover and the blurb. In some ways this book seemed like it was struggling to be a YA romance --if it weren't for the graphicness of the violent bits I would've been pretty much OK with handing it over to her.

Reena, linked below, had a similar comment:

Right off the back, I loved the voice—slightly insane, but fully aware. I’m not surprised Dorchester scooped Ms. Williams up. It was also youthful, repetitious at times (you know how young folks are), but done in a way which added flavor to Blue.

Bottom Line
Despite some technical flaws, the storytelling is excellent--I think Gayle Ann Williams is an author to watch. There will be a second book in the "Blue" world, with different characters, due in March of 2011, and I will be checking it out.

Bonus Material
The author has this to say in an article about what inspires her:

On Christmas night, in 2004 I boarded a plane out of Seattle and flew right into the Southeast Asian Tsunami. In the air when the deadly wave hit, I knew that if I had arrived earlier, I might have been a statistic. As I traveled around the region, I listened and observed, hugged and cried, and all along, the writer in me asked, what if?

As I continued to travel in the region over the next few months, I encountered a great deal of sadness. But also, something else. The resilience of the human spirit surfaced and with it, hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better future. I did not know this at the time, but this experience, this life changing adventure, would become the foundation for TSUNAMI BLUE.

Author website: Gayle Ann Williams

Around the Blogosphere
Check out Caffey's Giveaway
Tez Says
Bitten By Books
Katiebabs
Smexy Books
Reena's Blog

There are lots more, because I am super-late in posting this review. Pub date was ages ago-- April, I think. But... better late than never.

Mind Games, by Carolyn Crane - Review

Not Your Average Heroine
OMG, how much do I love Justine? She could not be more different from the popular crop of UF heroines. She is not outwardly confident and poised while nursing deeply-hidden insecurities. No, she's outwardly a mess, with a neurosis bordering on mental illness, and the book starts her down the path of discovering her deeply-hidden strengths.

Bottom Line
Despite a couple minor nitpicks, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend that fans of UF and psychological thrillers give it a try.

The Deets
I suppose this is the point where I should give you the summary or a blurb or something, but since I'm the last person in RomLand to review this, I'll just link to it. Mind Games Blurb.

Justine's EveryWoman qualities make it easy to connect with her. I enjoyed her preoccupation with fashion, understood her longing for a "normal" life -- though I have to say that when the significant other is named "Cubby," I know instantly that there isn't a chance in hell he's going to work out long term. One thing that I enjoy about UF versus genre romance is that the relationships are more ambiguous and uncertain, just like real life, even if hardly anything else in the story is like real life.

Justine is not super-woman, she doesn't carry a katana* or a stiletto in a spring-loaded forearm holster; she's not a black belt in anything. She's not going to be literally kicking any asses any time soon. Rather, she plays on the bad guys' emotional and intellectual weaknesses, and when it comes to the battle of wits, she's definitely a superhero.

Here, she's in as much physical danger as it gets -- she's tied to the bed of a serial-killer whose turn-ons include 1950s card games, custom hypodermic cocktails and dress up games (it occurs to me that You Suck at Craigslist might be an excellent source of inspiration for non-sympathetic characters...). There's really no chance that she can manage any kind of getaway in a physical confrontation, but she keeps her cool and talks the guy into a fit of paranoia, playing him like a violin. She needs to touch his body, anywhere, preferably with her hand to hit him with a psychic "zing." Here's how she manages it:

"I would have you lie down and relax your muscles, and I'd need one hand free to poke specific reflex points on the balls of your feet."

"You just want me to untie you."

I look at him like he's crazy-- a look I perfected in high school.

Can't you just see that? I used that look a lot too. I love that she's talking to this psycho killer like he's that annoying pimply kid who hangs around you in that one class, never actually asking you out or anything, just hanging around with that slightly pathetic hopefulness...

"One hand. What do you think I'd do? Honestly, one hand? I can barely focus thanks to your drugs, and you have the knife. But fine. Why should I give a crap? I'm sure you'll get your diagnosis soon enough."

Minutes later he's lying in bed next to me, the opposite way, angled so his head is at the far corner and his feet are near my shoulders. Three of my limbs are still attached to the bed frme, but I have a hand, and that's all I need.

The other big thing to love about Mind Games is that the plotting is twisted and tight; no one is exactly who they seem to be; and there are no loose ends disguised as sequel-baiting -- there is a sequel, but the reason you want to read it is because this book ends with the "end of an era," and poised on the brink of a new one. (Can't wait to see how the new partnership works out!). It's a rare author that can combine kooky and funny with dark psychological thrills, but that's exactly what you get with Mind Games.

I will say that there were a couple things that didn't work perfectly for me. Justine is infatuated with the character of the police chief, and... I wasn't. I don't know if this is just a case of chemistry between me and a character (ie, none) or if the author just didn't adequately convince me of his allure. If this had been a romance, I think it would've been a disaster for my enjoyment, but fortunately I was able to roll with it, the way you do when your best friend or sister falls head over heels with a nitwit.

The other bit I struggled with a little is the world-building. The "high-caps" - folks with over-developed, relatively familiar psychic abilities like telekinesis - was believable enough. However, the really interesting premise of Crane's trilogy is the idea that the disillusionists can "zing" their negative mental energy/anxiety into other people. I struggled with that a little bit more. Although the narrative mentioned months of training, the way Packard taught her how to "zing" seemed a bit too easy to me. And Packard's claim that only he could tell the disillusionists (the hit squad that he has trained) who is safe to "zing," was too readily accepted.

Why, oh why, the present tense? I get it for a time travel book; but I didn't see a reason that this story needed to be in present tense. Normally I find this VERY distracting and aggravating. However, the chatty, intimate voicing made the whole book seem like something your best girlfriend might relate to you over a pitcher of margaritas and it ended up being OK. I tend to think it would've worked just as well in a traditional past tense, but I guess an author has to roll with how it sounds in her head.

I think my favorite bit is near the end, and I can't give you the full context without it being spoilery, but in essence, Justine starts apologizing for [stuff that led to the story's showdown] and [characterx] tells her, "It's so amusing ... [snip] ...How little you see of your own integrity..."

And that's really what makes Justine a heroine rather than a pawn between the other players in this game.

_______________
Edited to add: OOPS, I knew that was a good line. I sort of accidentally stole it. Dirty Sexy Books review.

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.

What A Scoundrel Wants – Review

This is a TKO of debut novel – it will take your breath away. I was up until 2:00 am the other night finishing it. Hell, Phury only kept me up ‘til 1:30.

Why am I using boxing metaphors? I hate boxing, I don’t even know anything about it. But phrases like “sucker punch” keep coming to mind as I try to find a way to describe the book.

I have never ever met a heroine like Meg. She’s a blind, slightly pyromaniacal alchemist with a sensual streak, making a living from fertilizer and fake emeralds. Her relationships are a mess of love and hate, pride and pity, dependence and defiance. She walks a fine line, using her potions to intimidate those around her just enough to leave her alone, but always risking the label of witch. Inevitably, she’ll remind you a little bit of Joanne Bourne’s Annique, both being blind ass-kicking women, but their personalities are just completely different. Annique is quiet, stealthy, a chameleon, while Meg is completely in-your-face; Meg navigates pretty well and takes occasional advantage of her facility in the dark, but she’s not nearly so ninja-like as Annique.

She might also make you think of Meriel, from Mary Jo Putney’s Wild Child, in that her disability threatens to condemn her as mad, with all the forboding consequences that implies. But Meriel is gentry, and for all her eccentric habits, lives a protected life at least from a material standpoint. Combined with the differences between Regency and Medieval eras, there’s no confusion there either.

Mad Meg really is a little bit crazy. Not especially noble or pure. But as she takes blow after blow in this story and comes back from each one, a little more battered but still screaming “Bring it ON!” to fate and her enemies, you can’t help but fall in love with her. Plus, I’m kind of a sucker for a non-virgin historical heroine; I love women who really know what they want.

Then there’s Will Scarlett. The book opens with a moment of clarity on Will’s part: he’s fighting for the bad guys; they've set him up, specifically, for a fall; and he’s about to be hung out to dry-- more or less literally. (Kinda puts the Monday office blahs in perspective, eh?)

A good part of the book is an extended medieval chase scene, with narrow escapes, bloody battles, and double-crosses. Possibly triple-crosses, I think I lost track a couple of times. In terms of an action/adventure story, I could easily see this book adapted for the big screen and it has a modern feel to fight scenes: gritty and realistic. Poor Will really takes a beating, sacrificing his body over and over to protect Meg. Offhand I can’t think of another story where the hero is so physically wounded and just. keeps. coming. (Maybe that part in the first Die Hard where the terrorist dude is hanging from the chains but isn’t really dead? Except of course you WANT him to be dead. Erm. But I digress. Sorry. Although I suspect that John McClane and Will Scarlett would SO be drinking buddies. Sorry again.)

The one thing I disliked about the story is that the author does that keeping-a-secret-from-the-reader thing that you all know I hate. Something not-so-good is up between Robin and Will and we don’t know what it is. For a long time. Set several years after the return of Good King Richard puts an end to the merry band of outlaws and their forest-dwelling adventures, I couldn’t tell if the author was presuming a cultural knowledge of Will Scarlett’s role or not. Now, I’m certainly no expert, but I have read more than a couple versions of the Robin Hood legend:

(those are just the ones I've kept...) and I couldn’t put my finger on anything that could be considered “general knowledge.” Eventually, all is revealed and it’s just one of those plot devices, or maybe “tension devices” would be a better term, that I particularly don’t like. Lofty’s research notes at the end reinforce what I thought: the Will Scarlett character plays many different roles depending on which telling of the tale is underway.

But this secret definitely keeps you wondering about Will and what he might do next. Is he really a good guy? Well, you can make certain assumptions, because it IS a genre romance. But you’ll definitely see some surprising twists and turns as his character develops.

They’re an odd couple, to be sure. Occasionally I doubted the chemistry between them. By the end though, I was convinced. Each brings out the best AND the worst of the other-- they force each other to grow, to confront the fears that hold them back. Each of them has good reason to be stingy with their trust, both in general and specifically with each other, but bit by bit, as they are forced into one extreme situation after another with no one to rely on but each other, trust grows, maturity grows, and love grows.

It's a great adventure and a great romance. Read it.

Some other reviews:

Jackie's Review
Christine's Review (with additional links)
Carrie Lofty Does DIK

Did you review WaSW? Feel free to leave a link in comments!