The Demoness of Waking Dreams, by Stephanie Chong - Review

Image downloaded from stephaniechong.com

Information: 
Title: The Demoness of Waking Dreams
Author: Stephanie Chong
Publisher: Harlequin
Imprint: Mira
Series Name: Company of Angels
Reviewing: Mass Market Paperback, provided by publicist in return for a fair review

Why I Read It 
I received the book from a publicist that I have an ongoing working relationship with, and was intrigued by the premise.

The Short Answer
Wow, I LOVE this author.  The narrative is flawless; it just flows beautifully and pulls you along, smooth as a Venetian gondolier.  I love the exotic setting of Venice; the elegant, old world facade and the competing undercurrent of decay and vice. 

Series Handicap: 
I give it a two of five.  This is book 2 of the series and there are some references to a backstory between Luciana and the hero of the first book. I haven't read the first one and I thought there was enough information to fully follow the story at hand, but the backstory of some of the other characters is definitely a factor for Luciana. I will be going back and reading book 1 for sure; it sounds delicious. 


The Premise
This is an Angels and Demons mythology, infused with old-world Catholicism.  It reminded me a little bit of Meljean Brook's Demon Angel, since it also featured a female demon and a male angel. While Brook's mythology had some complex series arcs going on, this story seemed very focused on the two protagonists, set into seemingly irreconcilable conflict.

Whenever I read paranormal fiction about immortal characters, I'm always interested to see how the author handles the concepts of danger and harm - it's kind of hard to build suspense if there is no potential for significant physical harm, not to mention that if you eliminate pain, you logically eliminate pleasure too, which can make executing a romance kind of tricky.  Chong's approach, for the angels at least, is that the general rank and file, which our hero belongs to, remain essentially corporeal, needing food, sleep, and at least recuperation time from physical damage.  They also experience pain and pleasure.

Similarly, I love when an author can bring something new to the treatment of the sexual elements in a romance -- and no, I'm not talking about exotic positions or toys or fetishes.  (Though I'm not saying those are bad things...)  Sex is always a part of romantic love, but it may or may not be all that important to a particular story, or character, or plot.

In Demoness, corporeal love plays an important role.  It underpins the entire dialog between good and evil, sin and divinity.  Luciana's fall from grace involved sex and seduction; her ongoing tribute to the Prince of Darkness is accomplished through the seduction of the innocent (or close enough...)

In that moment, he knew the absolute and utter rightness of sexual connection, of the pure and unadulterated pleasure of it, a celebration of the divine. Demoness or not, she was still essentially a part of the divine, irrespective of who or what she thought she was.

"A celebration of the divine."  Yeah.  I love that.  Our culture is too filled with messages about the "sins of the flesh," and sex-positive literature is very often scrupulously separated from any kind of commentary about faith.  This book is the exception, and I find that very refreshing.

I give this new (to me) author a strong recommend.

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

Postscript
As you may have noticed, the blog has been pretty quiet.  I actually received this book quite some time ago, before the release date.  (Sometimes I find it hard to write up a review for a book I really REALLY like, because I have to figure out how to do it justice.  I need to get a little more up close and personal with the Nike motto).

So anyway, to help motivate me to get this post finished, I got my hands on the first book of the series, Where Angels Fear to Tread.  This book introduces Luciana, and to be totally honest, she is much creepier and more horrible in the first book.  I might not have been as willing to see her redeemed in the second book if I had read them in order.  The horror is not terribly graphic, but it's pretty... well... horrible.

I liked the second book better for a couple of reasons: 1) I think a bad-girl/good-boy story is much fresher than the inverse, which has been done SO many times; 2) I found Luciana's voice to be way more interesting than Serena's; and 3) I just like Venice as a setting so much more than Las Vegas.  It may also be a case of a new author hitting her stride with a second book. I didn't have any particular problems with the writing, per se, in WAFTT.  The story overall was just a bit less compelling to me.

Around the Blogosphere
Rabid Reads (oo, new-to-me blog!)
Book Chick City (she makes a good point about the way the book ends which I have not addressed here)
Dear Author
Heroes and Heartbreakers

Crave, by JR Ward -- Deep Thoughts

Not a Review
I'm working back up to doing actual reviews.  For now, I really just have a topic I want to muse on, which is this:

I think JR Ward is a hellluva storyteller in the paranormal space.

However, I do NOT like her writing about the metaphysical.

Too Deep For Me
I'll credit one particular element of Crave for making that distinction gel for me -- and it applies to the Black Dagger Brotherhood books as well as the Fallen Angels.

The wings, like him and Eddie and Adrian, were neither there nor not there, real nor unreal, tangible nor intangible.

They just were.

Honestly? That's just weak. I have the same issues in the BDB books with the Omega's tampering with time and with Darius's reincarnation into a being that had to have been born before Darius died. 

Furthermore, a fair amount of Jim's character development and scene-setting for future series story arcs are predicated on the corporeal nature of these immortals, including the arch-angels:

Nigel, as with the others, neither lived nor breathed; he simply was. And the food was the same, neither necessary nor extant-- as was the landscape and all that the four of them did to pass their eternity. But the trappings of a gracious life were of value. Indeed, the quarters that he shared with Colin were well kitted-out and the sojourns they took therein were not for any sleep necessity but for recharging of a different kind.

War was exhausting, its burdens ne'er-ending, and at times, one needed physical succor.

Now, the WARDen can build her world any way she wants to, but the thing is, I'm just not feelin' it, to use the vernacular. You can't say in one sentence that the  physical doesn't matter and then in the next say, oh well, but it helps.  I don't get it.  Why would one need "physical succor" if one doesn't need oxygen or food or, hey, the laws of physics?

And the coyness of the reference to Colin and Nigel's relationship really turned me off.  If you're gonna go there, let's just spit it out, shall we?

OH! and can I just say: the fake what-what-old-chap dialog/narration around the archangels SUCKETH MIGHTILY, YEA VERILY HUZZAH. (of course I can.  See? I just did.)

OK, I Guess It Actually Is a Review
Ward's writing and pacing and male characters keep me turning pages, they honestly do.  And Jim is promising, aside from the metaphysical problem.  I liked his engagement with Devina's victim and in general I'm liking his character development.

As for the romance, it's vintage Ward, in both good and bad ways.  Grier and Isaac had good chemistry and an interesting non-supernatural storyline.  But I pretty much felt like the characters were a rehash: poor sad little blond princess, who is so so very good and smart and pretty and good all the way to her patrician blue-blooded bones finds such unexpected, unseemly happiness with the earthy passionate badass damaged Taurus desperately seeking redemption.

All up?  Not that great.

Blood of the Demon, by Diana Rowland - Review

Short Answer: Liked it a lot, will continue reading the series.

The Choice
Jackie is quite the taskmaster. I'm glad for the February challenge though; it helped me get back to more discipline about getting my reviews onto the blog. I've been a little lazy lately and hesitant to "make" myself blog -- once this starts feeling like a chore for me, I'm afraid that will be the end of Alpha Heroes, and nobody wants that!

So anyway, I have my eye on a certain ARC or two being offered in the prize package for this challenge, so I'm motivated. I hit Borders yesterday morning, looking for the first book in the Anton Strout series. However, they didn't have it. Diana Rowland's latest release caught my eye, but it's not the first in its series, so I went looking for Mark of the Demon. Which they didn't have either. This all made me a little grumpy, as I like to start at the beginning. Without Jackie's contest, I'd've just waited until I came across the first one for either series.

Stuff I Loved
So I read the first few pages of both books, standing in front of the shelves, and it turned out that I was more in the mood for this one:

The demon was little more than a mist of fog and teeth, barely visible to normal sight. It coiled in slow undulations in the backseat of my Taurus as I drove through the night, the tires of the car humming on the asphalt in low rhythmic counterpoint to the movement of the demon.

With the very first sentences, Rowland makes me smile at the thought of a demon in a Taurus, at the same time that she sets an vividly atmospheric scene. I love the juxtaposition of the familiar and the otherworldly.

I should probably get less anal about reading series in order; I think most authors work pretty hard to make the books stand alone. I could tell there was a backstory between Kara and Rhyzkahl, enough to make me want to go back and read the first book, but never felt lost and had everything I needed to stay with this story. One of the things I really noticed about Rowland's writing is her deftness in seeding the information I needed along the way, intriguing me and playing me like a fish on a line. Unfortunately I was reading too fast to flag many of the perfect little bits, but whatever the opposite of info-dumping is, Blood of the Demon could be a tutorial.

This is a good skill for any author, but especially important when you're building an alternate world. I really, really like Rowland's world of the arcane and the alternate planes. We as readers, like Kara, may not understand very much about that world, but there's a very solid feeling that there ARE absolute rules that govern the alternate world, like gravity and conservation of matter govern rules in our world. An example:

The creatures I summoned had been named thousands of years ago, long before any of the world's religions had designated "demons" as agents of evil and residents of hell.

Now, this tidbit is given to us as a caution not to think of the demons as inherently evil, but we also can infer 1) that the "naming" is significant -- she didn't say they were created or born, but that they had been named. Which is consistent with the common (ie, not specific to Rowland's world) notion about demons which is that knowing their names grants power. We also get a sense of how old these creatures are-- all in one short sentence. Rowland reinforces these "facts" or rules about her universe in tiny ways: "He looked down at me, deep and ancient eyes searching." These are the kind of things that put the "reality" into an author's alternate reality-- when the the alien-ness is simply a part of the fabric of the storytelling.

The mystery plot here is complicated and tight; fans of police procedural mysteries will enjoy the unfolding network of politics, social connections, and scandal. Rowland weaves in Kara's unfolding knowledge of the arcane as a seamless extra element to the mystery as well as a hook for future books.

Stuff That I Didn't Love
I have to say that there's plot point I really didn't get, and I hope this doesn't qualify as a plot spoiler. Let's just say that:

1. you are recovering from a horrible incident involving powerful, amoral demons
2. you are able to summon these demons but don't know a whole lot about them
3. you inherited this ability from your beloved aunt, who right now lies in a coma caused by something arcane.

OK? Now, you need some information and your aunt can't provide it because of her coma. You want access to her library, but you discover that it is locked up so tight you can't get anywhere near it. Do you

a) Give up? (OK, not likely for an UF heroine)
b) Assume your aunt had a good reason for putting up Fort Knox security and find someone who can advise on either your original question or perhaps help you investigate what's behind the locks?
c) Hey, just tear it all down. What could happen?

I was a little annoyed that Kara just broke through all the wards and "locks" without ever thinking that um? there might be a REASON for it to be locked up. So the arcane portion of the mystery wasn't all that surprising to me.

Overall I'd say that the characters themselves are not the strongest part of the book, although I wouldn't call them weak. This is one point that I might have a different opinion about if I'd read the first book first. Kara's backstory includes traumatic violence and somehow dying and coming back to life -- I'll need to read the first book. In this book, she's a gumshoe with human insecurities, integrity, and arcane abilities to summon demons. As a heroine, I felt like she was likeable and adequate, but she didn't pop off the page for me like some of my favorites do.

The Wrap
Pah, I never know whether to lead or end with the things I like the least, either way seems to emphasize them too much. These last two bits are just the least good things, not awful or dealbreakers in any way.

Bottom line is, I really liked the story; tight plotting and pacing; interesting world-building; and I didn't touch on it much here, but the sexual tension with Rhyzkahl and the romantic tension and building mystery about Ryan are more than enough to draw me into the next release. Put it on your TBR list, if it isn't already!

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.

Covet, by JR Ward - Review

Finally.
I know, I know. Inertia has its claws in me. I'm reading a ton, honest, but finding it real work to sit down and do the reviews. So Covet has been out for almost two weeks; I finished it over a week ago. Yeah, finally.

Divided Loyalty
First off, if you don't like the direction Ward has been going with the BDB series, I'd recommend you skip it.

However, if you're good with a somewhat divided focus for the sake of the ongoing series arc, I think it's good news. The new premise feels fresh--don't know about you but I was getting kind of tired of the lessers. Ward's whys and wherefores of demon possession have an original spin while borrowing perhaps more heavily from traditional medieval Catholic lore than some of the current trendy demon-based UF.

I'm trying to think of another series that has a strong romantic focus on individual couples (as romance does) while also keeping a constant, catalyst character in the forefront (as UF does), and not coming up with anything comparable. The closest I can think of is Meljean Brook's Michael, but he's not directly involved in the protagonists' relationships the way Ward's character is. I'm guessing that Kenyon's Acheron might be similar, but I'm only going on buzz -- haven't read them myself.

Anyway, I'm finding it promising how deliberately the structure has been created-- I think it's a bit harder to take when that third-party role evolves through the series and risks feeling like shark-jumping. And it's a risk, because it breaks form-- some readers have complained that the focus is too divided, which I can understand. I'm reserving judgment about that because I did find both stories interesting with satisfying arcs, and the teaser for Jim's continuing story is compelling. Though some of the information about Jim's former life skirts the line between teasing and frustrating.

The new series is also set in Caldwell, NY, which I enjoy. I like having "insider" info, and find the cameos from Trez, Detective de la Cruz and Phury entertaining BUT if you haven't read the BDB first and don't want to, you won't lose any comprehension.

It's the End of the World As We Know It
I think Ward is taking herself-- or this series-- a little less seriously than the BDB, and it's good. She's always been able to write humor and absurdity into her books, especially in dialog, but I think a lot of what happens to Jim is pretty tongue-in-cheek. It might even tempt you into eye-roll territory (cricket-playing angels? a fortress castle = heaven? divine assistance via television messaging?) but it worked OK for me and was effective, if slightly silly, imagery.

Wardisms, and The Very Long Book
You'll find the voicing familiar, as both Jim and Vin sound very much like any given Black Dagger Brother, perhaps V, if I had to pick one. (Vin also gets premonitions about people's deaths, and he is NEVER WRONG-- coincidence?) The weird tendency to add an "ie" to the end of words like "freshie" for a "fresh drink" is still in here but toned down a bit (thankfullie) and O'Donovan? just for you? not a "shitkicker" boot in sight. (I was watching.)

It's no secret that I'm a fan of The Very Long Book. This is probably a requirement for a reader to enjoy this book-- if you merely tolerate long books only when the complex plot and characterization absolutely require it, you might pass this by. If this were Ward's first book, I would dare to say an editor might have been a bit more, um, editorial on this page count. As Mandi* astutely points out in her review, there are a couple of subplots that are not especially pertinent or, um, logical. At least one of them might become clearer as we get to know Jim's sidekicks in future books though, so I'm looking forward to that.

Bottom Line
I think just overall I have lowered expectations from JR Ward these days. I'm happy to see the last two Ward books rise above the barrel-bottom-scraping of Lover Enshrined, but I've stopped expecting to get that heart-stopping OH MY GOD reaction I got with the first few BDB books. Maybe it was the novelty of the formula, and it just only works so many times. If it happens again, that'll just be a fabulous bonus.

In the meantime, I'm still a loyal reader. If I gave ratings, it would probably be something like a B+ for Covet-- good solid read, but not knock-your-socks-off, and I'll be reading the next one. Rumored title is Crave.

Honestly though? I don't think Ward is going to remain a Hardback Author for me. I might be hitting the library or waiting for Lover Mine to come out in paperback.

Around the Web:
*Smexy Books
Smokin' Hot Books
Darque Reviews
Dear Author (Brrr. Cold.)
Bibliophilic
I Heart Book Gossip
... and as always, if you've reviewed Covet and I've missed it, please feel free to leave your link in comments!

Disclosure: Purchased.

Next Up From JR Ward:

Lover Mine, John Matthew's story

Angels and Demons

Ciara thinks the next big thing in romance is steampunk.

I'm a little less cutting edge than that. My predictive powers are weak at best--witness my manufacturing degree, ca 1988 (should've minored in Chinese), and my MBA, ca 1993 -- talk about trend busters! But I think I may have identified a mini-trend already in progress. I'm clearly way better at that.

So while vampires and shifters have been the big story for the last few years, I'm thinking that demons and angels are the next--OK, current-- big wave in paranormal fiction, whether romance, UF, or horror.

Kim Harrison's Hollows series kicked off in April 2004 with some scary-ass demons. I'm only on book 2 so I can't say if they end up being a love interest/hero but at the moment? not. But it could go that way.

While I was a little lukewarm on Jenna Black's vampire world, I really like her Morgan Kingsley series, kicking off with Devil Inside back in November of 2007. Her demon is both sexy and seriously scary. I think she will somehow end up with him romantically (maybe she already has; I'm not caught up yet even though the latest is waiting in my TBR pile!) So, he's kind of a hero, but like Facebook says, It's Complicated.

So romances, with demons as the hero, I didn't start noticing until more recently. The first one I saw was Christine Warren's The Demon You Know, from May of 2007, and Rule is seriously yummy. But demons are only one of a whole pantheon of paranormals in Warren's world, and not the most prevalent.

Then I found Meljean Brook, whose Guardian series features angels most prominently, and a demon as the series' first heroine. Though Brook is kicking off a new steampunk series shortly, the Guardians are continuing-- hot off the presses is the cover for Demon Forged, tentatively due out in October of this year. We haven't gotten a demon hero yet; they're almost by definition bad/evil, but I have to admit I'm intrigued by the demon who plagues Charlie Newcomb and her sister in Demon Night. Since Charlie's sister opts to keep Sammael around, I have to wonder why... coughcoughnovella!cough maybe?

About the same time, I was burning through Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark, and let me just say that Cade Woede can eat crackers in my bed any ol' time.

Larissa Ione debuted her popular "Demonica" series last June with demon heroes. She has a big following but I have to admit I'm not that into them, so no telling if angels will make an appearance. If they do, you won't hear it here first, but you can keep an eye on Literary Escapism -- Jackie always has the scoop.

But wait, there's more.

Nalini Singh, author of the Psy/Changeling series, launches her new Guild Hunter series on March 3 with Angels' Blood. For a sneak peek, an e-novella called "Angels' Pawn" set in the same world will be available tomorrow (check Nalini's site for the right link). Isn't that a gorgeous cover? I love the platinum-blond hair.

And finally (that I know of), last Halloween, J.R. Ward somewhat unofficially announced (read down in the comments) her new series starting off this October, which she describes thusly:

COVET: A Novel of the Fallen Angels is the first of the books and let’s just say it’s all about angels and Harleys and evil and redemption. The tag line’s Destiny’s a witch and then you die… but love always brings you back.

She goes on: So far as I’m aware, the hero of the whole series is a guy named Jim Crane who’s a carpenter and it’s all about him going up against the devil (who’s a very hot brunette, btw) with the help of his two partners, a scruffy dog and his bad attitude. There are other heros who come in along the way and there is a love story in every book. Things may change as I get into the writing, but the bare bones are set and I can’t wait to get started!

Now, I confess, this description kind of gives me bad flashbacks to studying The Red Badge of Courage in sophomore English class with Mrs. Harris in her fluorescent blue eyeshadow, bludgeoning us all about the heads and shoulders with the allegory: "Notice his initials are Jayyyyyy.... Ceeeeeeee...and he sacrifices himself.... What other important historical figure do we know with the initials Jayyyyyy.... Ceeeeeee... ?"

Later on her forum, Ward says that the name Crane was an error and the name is actually Jim Heron. I don't know if she changed her mind or if "Crane" came out instead of Heron because Stephen Crane's analogies got beaten into her by an English teacher with fluorescent blue eyeshadow too or what... but in any event, "Heron" just strikes me as a little weird. Is it an homage to Stephen Crane? It probably wouldn't bug me if I hadn't seen Crane first, but now it's just going to be "Jim Long-Legged-Bird; Heron/Crane/Flamingo etc" in my mind and will probably distract me every time I see it.

Not that I overthink things or anything.

But Ward has me by the short little fan-girl hairs so I will certainly read the first one, and assuming it's better than Phury's book, probably the second one as well. As always, you can keep an eye on my sidebar for the countdown to the next JR Ward book.

Did I miss any good angel/devil series? Chime in!
___________________
angel/devil image used with permission, courtesy of Mark Stivers.

Meljean Brook – Two Novellas – Review

Wild Thing and Hot Spell both contain novellas in Brook’s Guardian universe. I had to double-check the page count on both of them, because in each case there was absolutely a whole story packed into barely 100 pages. Vivid characters, compelling plot, and just enough of her amazing world to tide over the fans between releases.

Compared to a full length book, novellas usually lack something; I mean, there’s a reason for those other two or three hundred pages – character development, intricate plotting— something has to give. Not these. Sure, the plots don’t have quite as many twists and turns, but they’ll still engage you and they don’t have that wrapped-up-pat, oh-crap-I’m-out-of-page-count feel of a lot of novellas. The other signature move of Brook’s that is left out of the novellas is the way each full-length book adds new branches of the mythology in her world-building—which is perfectly appropriate for a short.

I honestly can’t speak to whether these shorts stand alone if you aren’t already reading the series. But does that matter? Are there really paranormal romance fans out there who haven’t fallen in love with the Guardians? If there are, I can only imagine that either of these two novellas would prompt such an under-rock dweller to run out and acquire by hook, crook, or library card the rest of the series. I will say, though, that being late to the party with Falling For Anthony did leave me slightly lost in parts of Colin’s story, Demon Moon; and Demon Bound contains references to events in Paradise. So fans should consider the novellas required reading, not extra credit.

Although Falling For Anthony (Hot Spell) contains references to how Colin was changed, it is the story of his sister and the Guardian she falls for, and explains Colin's connection to the Ramsdell family. I was actually kind of perplexed by the weird sex scene in the beginning of the story. I didn’t understand Emily’s motivations and I’m not sure I ever really did get a grip on them. The first couple chapters read a little bit like a full length novel that had been stripped down hard. I confess I didn’t start to love the story until after Anthony’s transformation.

Now, Paradise… Brook totally has her novella groove on here. Lucas, a self-sacrificing carpenter who bleeds to save humanity – no wait, that’s not quite right… but yes, Lucas is a bit of a Christ figure in this story. Fortunately, he gets a much happier ending with an angel for a consort-- which seems appropriate somehow; that is, if it’s not too weird and blasphemous to find a Christ figure extremely sexy and heroic. I really enjoyed the build-up of tension between these two characters: Lucas’ reluctance to take help from anyone; Selah’s internal struggle with her resentment of the Guardians who ascended, leaving Earth vulnerable and the remaining Guardians with a monumental task – there’s a lot going on here but it never feels rushed or confused. Once again, Brook plays with the notion of free will on multiple levels, adding hope to her dark world of demons and nosferatu, and substance to a genre that is too often dismissed as fluff.

One last note – Brook has a third novella in the collection “First Blood,” released this past August, which I somehow missed. Following my own advice, I’m going to need to pick this up one way or another.

Coming up next: Brook has a short in the upcoming Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, due out in April of 2009, and the next Guardian book is tentatively titled Demon Forged, featuring Elena, the foul-tempered Guardian with a talent for metal-working. Hopefully we’ll see than in 2009 as well, but I’m not seeing a scheduled release date as yet. Also, if you’re like me and reluctant to shell out $14 for your reading fix, there is more good news: Wild Thing is being re-released in mass-market format next month. Between the double-whammy of Paradise and Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss, this was perhaps my favorite anthology of the whole bunch.