The Envy Chronicles by Joss Ware - Series Review

Series Review and Post-Apocalyptic Thoughts
Thought #1: "Man, if the grid ever goes down, I'm gonna be food."
Thought #2: "I should get some books on edible native plants... one that includes medicinal properties -- I could be like Claire in Outlander."
Thought #3: "How would you rig a windmill to generate electricity?  I should learn how."
Thought #4: "... I'd better stop right there, or I'm going to end up in a cabin in Montana with a lot of freeze-dried food and guns...."

Generally speaking, I'm not big on science fiction and futuristic settings.  I tend to get bored by the space opera world building and the obsession with technology.  That's what I do for a living (not space travel, but pretty high tech stuff). When I read for fun, I want more character, more emotion in my stories.

But there's something different about the post-apocalyptic subgenre.  It's futuristic, but lower-tech.  In some, maybe most fictional visions, it's pretty much no-tech.  Something about that appeals to us, both to our fears and our desires, I think.  Those of us who are into blogging and reading blogs are a self-selected audience of people comfortable with technology, people who turn to the Internet for fun and entertainment, possibly in addition to using it as an everyday tool for work.  Who among us has not had a fleeting thought that maybe we should be out touching the actual world, and not the internet avatar of the world?  The Information Revolution, and before that, the Industrial Revolution, have done more in the last 200 years to change how people lived than the preceding millenia or two.  Don't you sometimes think that maybe people aren't meant to live this way?  Me too.  (Then I go back to playing "Combine" on Facebook, checking my email, or surfing blog reviews.)

OK, I told you that this stuff gets me going into Deep Thoughts. Which is one reason that I'm so fascinated by Joss Ware's Envy Chronicles.  There aren't too many post-apocalyptic romance series.  (MOAR PLZ).

Series Premise
Something catastrophic-- we're not sure what-- happens to the planet more or less overnight, which caused massive earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes.  Mass destruction.

Geographically, the series, at least so far, unfolds between Arizona and Las Vegas, which is the new west coast.  California has fallen off, it seems, sunk or crumbled into the Pacific.  The Arizona/Nevada desert has transformed into a tropic.  While some generated electricity is around, most people are living in small commune-style farming communities.  Envy, named  for the remnants of the LAS VEGAS, NV sign, is, as far as anyone in this story knows, the largest urban settlement around.

I haven't read a ton of stuff in this genre, but most of it focuses instantly on food production.  If you think about it, if "the grid goes down," the most immediate impact for most people is going to be feeding themselves.  Most of us are so far removed from actual food production that the abrupt rupture of those supply lines would.... well, it wouldn't be pretty.  Ware's universe glosses over this a little bit.  Having fast-forwarded 50 years into the future, after the trigger event, she can kind of zoom out from those details and allow the reader to make the reasonable assumption that enough trade is established that the city can feed itself.  The series arc focuses on figuring out what or who caused the cataclysm, and who the mysterious powerful Strangers are.  It has a WW2 Résistance vibe to it, overlaid with good old Cold War-esque conspiracy theory.

The Heroes
I'm loving the characters, and as Casey over at Literary Escapism recently observed, they are nicely diverse, too. (Nothing like the total destruction of civilization as we know it to get humanity to finally pull together, right?)

This delicious group of alpha men in their prime mysteriously survive the cataclysm, because they were deep in the Sonoma caves at the time, and something about the vortexes or ley lines, or mystic hoo-ha protected them.  Like five Cinderellas, they fell into a deep sleep for 50 years while the world changed around them.  When they emerge (I'm not exactly clear on what woke them up?), they are bemused to discover that they each have a paranormal gift; generally as some sort of extension of their pre-event talent.

Really, this is a great setup. Five men, restless, bored, frustratingly purposeless in our times; they're wealthy, athletic, handsome -- but rudderless and reduced to thrill-seeking. Frozen in time for 50 years, their awakening coincides with a culmination of events that lead to some shocking revelations on the depth of human greed and corruption.  The destruction of their world, and the gifts they are given, turn these dilettantes into warriors -- and that's pretty damn hot.




The Heroines
The women of this series are all products of their times, but they run the gamut from hard-bitten former POW, to soft-spoken information specialist, to a post-modern Robin Hood, and world-weary healer.  Generally speaking I think this is a series that's more about the men, but the heroines are well-realized and good partners for their heroes. (I have a particular affection for Robin Hood, err, that is, Zöe), and I like that Ware pairs them up in unlikely ways.

The Tech
You know how "they" always say you should write what you know?  I think in some ways, the opposite also applies: you should NOT read what you know.  It's like how lawyers aren't allowed to serve on juries.  Honestly, Ware does an excellent job overall writing with authority on how things might be, on technology that could survive.  One of the series threads is that the group is working to re-establish the Internet, by setting up wireless outposts around Envy, and propagating beyond from there.

To a degree, this is all feasible and believable.  Sage and Theo and others work feverishly in a basement bunker of Envy, downloading and retrieving cached information from salvaged hard drives.  The wireless transmitters are solar-powered.  You can kind of dig it.  Until you realize that she's talking about retrieving data off FIFTY-YEAR-OLD hard drives and flash drives.  Uh, unfortunately I have to call shenanigans on that. Have you ever tried to dig a file off a dead drive? OK, how about fifty year-old drive?? I'm sorry, that's just Not Happening. Heh. You'd think that if I could buy into vampires and zombies, chambermaids that marry earls, and handsome honorable pirate captains with all their teeth, this wouldn't be such a stretch.

General Thoughts
There were times in these books where I found the prose a little bit of a slog; just... not as effortless or smooth as I'd like.  And the weird villainy gets kind of super-weird there in the fourth book.  Sometimes I felt like the paranormal gifts of the heroes, as well as the sub-plot of the zombies, were distractions from the really interesting parts of the series.

The undeniable thing is though, that the series is fascinating, the world-building has me totally hooked, and I love these heroes. So bring on more Night, Ms. Ware, I'm waiting....

Reading Order & Facts & Stuff
1. Beyond the Night (Elliott & Jade)
2. Embrace the Night Eternal (Simon & Sage)
3. Abandon the Night (Quentin & Zöe)
4. Night Betrayed (Theo & Selena)

According to Ware's website, there are two more Envy books contracted, but no word on when or who.  We're still waiting for Wyatt and Fence's stories, and it would be a shame if Lou Waxnicki didn't get some kind of HEA.

Ware is a pen name of Colleen Gleason, who also writes the arguably more successful "Gardella Vampire" and the new "Regency Draculia" series. I haven't read these, and right now I have to say I'm more interested in Envy. I hope the vampires don't get too distracting.

Q&A with Mary Jo Putney

Every now and then, something I read raises a question in my mind that continues to niggle away until I need to find out more about it.  In my review of Nowhere Near Respectable, when speculating on the "believability" (for lack of a better word) of Kiri and Adam's acceptance into the British ton, my first thought was, "that would never really fly," thinking more of 19th century American attitudes toward race.  My second thought was, "well huh, Britain is much less racist than America, so maybe?" thinking of early 20th century examples of famous African Americans like Josephine Baker.  My third thought? "I have no idea whatsoever." Thus, the niggle.

A little superficial googling will bring up articles on immigration and racism in Britain, and Anglo/Indian politics and tensions, but nothing much is readily available about the aristocracy.  So I decided to go to the source, and emailed Mary Jo Putney directly.  I was properly thrilled to receive a gracious, in-depth reply, along with permission to post our conversation.

Nicola: Hi Ms. Putney!  I'm a longstanding fan of yours and recently read and reviewed Nowhere Near Respectable on my blog.  I really enjoyed the story very much (as well as the first Lost Lord book) but I was wondering a little about the biracial heroine, and if you would be interested in a little interview or follow-up on the topic?

MJP: I'm happy to discuss this topic because it interests me.  I've had a number of mixed race protagonists.  Partly that is because it's easier to have such a character in a Regency historical if one of the parents is English and well-born.  Partly it's because the world's great diversity fascinates me.  Lastly, being caught between two worlds is a good metaphor for the feeling of not belonging that most of us experience as some times in our lives. (Especially but not exclusively in adolescence.)

Nicola: I'm convinced that the not-belongingness is the root of the paranormal popularity, especially the typical arc where the main character, like Harry Potter, spends a good chunk of their life not belonging, and then experiences the joy of realizing that no, it's not their imagination, they really ARE different, and furthermore, finding their "tribe" where they DO belong.  It's a pet theory of mine. :-)

MJP: VERY interesting, Nicola! I hadn't thought of it, but I'm sure you're right, especially with the many YA paranormals.

That said, Lady Kiri was confident as a golden retriever. She was raised with wealth, position, and a loving family, and had no self esteem issues to speak of.  That was a deliberate contrast with her brother Adam, hero of Loving a Lost Lord, who was raised in very different circumstances and felt the need to bury the non-English side of his nature.  (Much of his character arc in that book is accepting that side of him.)

Nicola: I loved that about Kiri!  no victim-ness or self-pity about her.

Nicola: First I want to say that I don't mean to put you on the spot or try to play "spot the historical error" - I am no historian at all and if the answer to all the questions is "I made it up because it makes a great story," I think that's fantastic!

MJP: I'm capable of shameless invention {g}, but I try to work from facts where I can, and invent within a plausible framework.

Nicola: Mainly, I am curious to know whether there is historical precedent for bi-racial persons being accepted into the British ton, and if you had any interesting anecdotes that you might have come across in your research.

MJP: The best example I can think of is Lord Liverpool, who was Prime Minister of Britain in the tumultuous period from the late Napoleon wars up until 1827. He was part Indian, though I'm not sure the percentage.  A quarter, I think, but I won't swear to it.  He was the most powerful man in Britain for 14 years and while there might have been some racial sneers behind his back, it certainly didn't dent his career.

In the earlier days of the British occupation of England, there were very few English women, so it was common for Britons to take Indian wives.  Naturally, the result was Anglo-Indian children.  This shifted during the Victorian period when transportation improved dramatically and the "memsahibs" came out to India.  With them came racism, unfortunately.  To quote from the introduction to my Indian set historical, Veils of Silk (advert: now available in e-book form {g} ):

A paradigm of the racial situation was the elite Indian Army cavalry unit known as Skinner’s Horse. It was founded by James Skinner, the son of a British officer and his Rajput wife. By the end of the nineteenth century, James Skinner’s mixed blood would have prevented him from serving in the regiment he had founded.

Nicola: I remember Veils of Silk and the other Silk books, featuring the Khyber pass -- I often think of that when the extreme geography of Afghanistan is referred to in respect to the current war.  One thing I miss about older romances -- say, 20th century publications {g} -- is characters who travel.

MJP: A friend of mine calls them the "globe trotting books" because she misses them, too.  So do I, but page counts have dropped drastically over the years, and there isn't as much room for plot or exotic setting since first and foremost, the story has to be a romance.  I think this is one reason why e-pubbed versions of backlist historicals are selling well.  Some readers really miss them.

[Back to real-life examples...] Field Marshall Lord Roberts is another mixed race historical figure.  He was a great Victorian military hero who was born in India and had Indian blood.  (Again, I'm not sure how much.)

Nicola: It certainly seems inevitable that there would be a couple of generations of Indian/British offspring of all classes; but I have to admit I really had no idea how much acceptance they would have had in society and whether the laws of primogeniture applied.  I thought it was believable in Adam's story, which then logically meant Kiri's acceptance had to be believable too, because it wouldn't do to snub the sister of a duke {g}. 

MJP: Plus, she's a gurrrl, and hence less threatening to the status quo.  Aristocratic men were always willing to bed exotic sexy females, and occasionally even marry them (though preferably as a second wife.)  An actual peer like Adam, a duke, is much more threatening and unnerving.  Hence his belief as a boy that he had to be as English as possible, or else.

Nicola: I've seen a few critiques of your use of the word "Hindu" to represent race rather than religion -- I assumed that it was a contextual usage? any comment?

MJP: You're correct.  I'll do my best to avoid offensive language that will jerk readers out of stories, but I prefer not to use terminology that is correct now but wouldn't necessarily have been used in the historical period the story is in.  So I'll often use the historical term if it's clear in context what it means even if it's different from current usage. (Actually, in the Regency, Hindoo was a common spelling, but I avoided that here except for the epilogue.

[Nicola's edit: to clarify, the wikipedia article on the word "Hindu" states: "Originally, "Hindu" was a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent (or "Hindustan") irrespective of their religious affiliation." ]

Nicola: Finally, since Kiri's mixed heritage is such a key element of the character and story, a reader might have expected to see a darker-complected model on the cover.  Cover "whitewashing" is becoming a bit of pet cause on romance blogs, so I was wondering if you might have any comments on that?

MJP: Sigh.  I could point out that her Indian relatives are from North India, which tends to be lighter complected than South Indians, but it has more to do with the fact that authors have limited control over covers.  Kiri is a shade or two darker than the heroine on the previous book, for what it's worth.  But after all my years in the business, I'm happy when a cover is pretty and eye catching.  (A purist would point out that the gowns on my last two historicals are a lot fuller than typical Regency wear.  But as I said, I'm a pragmatist.)

Nicola: To be honest, covers so rarely have any relation at all to the characters inside, I barely notice them.  I know most authors don't get much say in their covers but I thought with your position you might be an exception.  I assume that the more selling-power the author has, the more say-so they get.  Every now and then one catches my eye enough to give it a look, and once in a while they are so bad that I am repelled {g}, but mostly I look for author names that I know or have been recommended.  I do think that diversity in cover models is becoming -- ever so slowly-- less of an anathema to publishers.

MJP: I hope you're right!  My publisher does listen some about covers, but that doesn't give an author leave to mess around too much.  One must pick one's battles.

Nicola: Thank you so much for your time and thoughtful responses!

MJP: As I said, the topic is one that interests me and that I've returned to again and again in my books. And it's always much more fun to chat then to keep hammering away on my overdue book.

-------------------

Seriously, this kind of interaction is one of the best things about the internet, in my opinion.  Mary Jo Putney has been publishing wonderful romances since 1987.  I discovered her Fallen Angels series in the late 90s and she has been a total favorite of mine ever since.  If you have never read her books and you love historicals, you are really missing out. 

Nowhere Near Respectable, by Mary Jo Putney - Review

I am such a fan of Mary Jo Putney.  While I didn't like her foray into historical paranormal, her non-paranormals are almost always among my favorites.

Nowhere Near Respectable is no exception -- another winner in Putney's impressive catalog.  I think my favorite thing about this story is that it has so many of the things I love about "old skool" romance-- the things that made me fall in love with the genre-- AND all the best elements of "modern-day" historicals.

Old-Skool: exotic traditions, royalty, bi-racial heroine, brutal bad guys, split-second heart-pounding rescues, manacles, smugglers, high stakes adventure, heroine in detective mode side-by-side with the hero.

New-Skool: mutual seduction, inverted power imbalance (she is well-born but he is not), cleaner pacing, no "victims" in the relationship.

If you love historical romance with a bit of smuggling, Napoleonic intrigue, assassination plots, and class commentary, this is one you should pick up.  Some of Putney's books have less of a center-stage plot, and I love those too, those quieter, character-focused stories, but this one has a non-stop page-turning mystery plot speeding along next to the characters falling in love.

When the story opens, Kiri makes a classic old-skool impetuous hair-tossing mistake.  Grievously insulted by any standard, she rides out on her own on a too-far, too-late journey and falls victim to the afore-mentioned brutal bad guys.  In the process, she becomes entangled in a far-reaching plot of kings and traitors.

One of the key plot points here is Kiri's nose.  Although I'm sure it's a very pretty nose, since Kiri is beautiful in the way of romance heroines, I'm referring to a talent rather than appearance.  Like musicians with perfect pitch, there is similar olfactory talent, which makes that person a nose or a perfumer.  Kiri is able to isolate specific notes of scent and can even identify individuals once she's given them a good sniff.

Did that make you snicker?  I have to admit, I didn't find that premise to be all that believable, but hey, it certainly makes for a bit of a change of pace in the usual "find the spy" plot.  I know, actually, that this is a real "thing," that there are famous noses who are in great demand in the fragrance business.  I've even seen them once or twice in romance before (I want to say Judith Ivory had one?).  Using the talent to sniff out (heh) a criminal is a bit over the top, but hey, if you can't be over the top in a romance, when can you?

Like the first Lost Lord book, NNR features a bi-racial protagonist -- this time it's the heroine rather than the hero.  My first reaction is that it's pretty unrealistic to have these characters accepted by the ton, but then I remember that England was more liberal about race than the US.  To be honest, I don't really know.  Surely with all the military and economic activity of the British in India this sort of thing must have happened sometimes, so I decided to just go with it.  I would be very interested to see an article about historical examples of English/Indian mixed-race individuals in the aristocracy.

I have to say, I'm a sucker for a couple who knows/believes that they cannot make a marriage but decides to go for it anyway (maybe my hedonist roots are showing).  I've run into this sort of thing a couple of times lately, where one or the other or both of the couple explicitly thinks or says, "even if I can't have this forever, I will seize this day, this moment."  And that just appeals to me.


Around the Blogosphere
Love Letters to a Library
Fiction Vixen
My Book Addiction
In the Hammock

As always, if you've reviewed this book and would like a link, just let me know by email or comments and I'll edit it in!

The Penis Mightier, for 200, Alex

(Title Reference-- My point -- The Penis sells page views.  Did it bring you here?)

It's always fun to rip on the romance genre -- it has everything! Sex, morality, paternalism, and, um, sex!  As a result, there is always someone doing it. (Er, ripping, that is.)  So by now most of us have seen Susan Quilliam's article about how Romance Ruins Lives and have dismissed it for the unsupported nonsense that it is and are well on our way to forgetting all about it.  I rather wish I had done the same.

I was contacted by a journalist, Katie Drummond, and asked to comment because of my "expertise."   I really did not want to participate in yet another throw-away article that implies that romance readers are idiots of one shade or another, but when I reviewed her past work, it seemed like she typically shows both sides of a question, even if she's leaning a bit to a certain conclusion.  And, I'll admit it, I hoped that maybe it would drive a little traffic here, so I agreed to the interview.

Unfortunately, after a good 15-minutes or so of discussion about the genre, what constitutes fact versus opinion, and expectations (eg: no one expects mystery fans to endanger themselves by interfering in police business) Ms. Drummond quoted me thusly:

“My husband isn’t somebody you’d call an alpha hero. Let’s just say he’s very in touch with his emotions,” Nicola Onychuk, whose blog, Alpha Heroes, covers the romance genre. “But we’re very happy. I can distinguish between fiction and reality.”

Which was pretty much a sidenote in the conversation that I thought we were having, not to mention much, much oversimplified.

But, I guess now that my name is attached to this, I need to make my opinion clear (as if there were any doubt).

FIFTEEN MINUTES: WIN! Congrats on your 15 minutes, Ms. Q. They say no publicity is bad publicity.

RESEARCH: FAIL  Quilliam has an opinion about romance and how it affects her patients.  Fine.  Interestingly, when she attempts to back up her opinions with facts, she uses one reference regarding condom usage which Linda Holmes at NPR.org thoroughly debunked, starting with the fact that it's 11 years old (thanks Laura, for pointing me to that one).  The second study actually refuted her findings but she cites it anyway, saying

And yet … and yet... I would argue that a huge number of the issues that we see in our clinics and therapy rooms are influenced by romantic fiction.

Based on...what? Gut feel, apparently?  Oh, oh, wait:

It's not all gloom, though. Browse – as I did for this article – the ‘romantic fiction’ section of your local book shop, and {bla bla irrelevant snark about covers}, the sexual content inside can be very healthily presented.

She actually browsed some books on the shelf--browsed, not read-- which... also didn't support her claims. OOO KAAY, lady. Whatever.

CREDENTIAL: FAIL Who exactly is Ms. Q referring to when she mentions "our clinics and therapy rooms"? Is it me or is she implying that she is a practicing therapist? You can find her CV online, and I for one do not see any mention there of her ever actually seeing patients in any capacity.

MATH: FAIL  Quilliam states: some fans read up to 30 titles a month, one book every 2 days. OK, maybe this is just mean, and picking on a typo. But, really? this is a woman who is being cited and rehashed all over the internet (including here, sigh, which makes me part of the problem...) and... and.. .just look at what she writes!  (Hmmm.  Note to self for article idea- don't worry about cites-- "pop-psychology makes you stupid at math...")

I think that takes care of Quilliam.  Now, for young Ms. Drummond.

POP REFERENCE: FAIL Fabio? Really?  You couldn't do any better than the guy who was popular 30 years ago and then had a brief comeback satirizing himself with a fake butter product?  How about Nathan Kamp, Sam Bond, Paul Marron, or Jimmy Thomas?  Using a name that's outdated and a common object of ridicule gives you away as either lazy or biased or both.

FOCUS: FAIL Did you have a point here? Because your article really just rehashes stuff that Quilliam said without bringing anything new to to the table, and ends on just as wishy-washy of a note. I mean, apparently you got her to speak to you and give you some new quotes, but there were no new points, no other cites. I knew that when I responded to you I was running the risk of being made to look insipid or stupid or both, but one reader telling you that "my husband isn't like a romance hero and that's OK" is not much in the way of support for an argument.  Not that you had an argument that I could see.

Your email and your title vaguely indicate that you want to address the age-old (#4) question of whether romance readers have unrealistic expectations about their partners and their relationships.  Again, this was addressed in multiple studies cited by Quilliam which either explicitly conclude, "Nah," or indicate that romance readers skew toward better relationships and more satisfying romantic (yes, that means SEX) lives.

Perhaps what this means is that, if there is any effect at all, romance readers have REALISTICALLY HIGHER expectations of a mate*.  We expect a mate that treasures us, that connects with us emotionally, that will put some effort into overcoming obstacles-- internal or external-- to be with us, and, yes, good sex.  I'm trying to figure out what there is in there that a "relationship psychologist" could possibly object to.

If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.


Other People Who Think Quilliam Is Full of Shit Unconvincing
The Smart Bitches
Barbara Vey
Maya Rodale
Stephen Wenlock
Catherine Bennett (possibly my favorite)
Margery Kempe
KatieBabs, in her inimitable style
Laura Vivanco
Late add: Laura Mensch, who might be my new hero even if she did beat me to the point I wanted to make.


_______________
*if I were the angry militant feminist type**, I would add a comment here about how understandably scary that must be to the oppressive patriarchy.  Which incidentally, would not be incorrect. Or irrelevant.

**What does that even mean? angry militant feminists can make some pretty good points too, fyi.

Defiant, by Kris Kennedy - Review

Best New (to me) Author This Year
It's true, I do adore a good medieval.  I just do, as I have previously documented.  For escapist fantasy, there's nothing quite like the romance of castles and kings, and chivalrous warriors with those long sexy swords.

And the romance shelves these days just don't have enough of them.  Particularly ones where no one turns into a wolf or sprouts fangs.  Not that I don't love my paranormals, but you know.  Sometimes you just need a good Knight.

Defiant is what AAR refers to as a "road romance" - most of the story takes place while the hero and heroine are traveling together. This is a great device for throwing them together in more intimacy than a usual relationship might encounter, and especially in an historical setting, where sleeping and eating and the actual travel are more primitive.

In Defiant, the hero and heroine are both chasing after a priest who has become something of a pawn in the political machinations of King John, who, as we in the 21st century all know, is one of Western history's Ultimate Bad Guys.  The hero's motives appear to be Bad, while the heroine seeks only to protect the priest.

As the story unfolds however, there are generous hints that Jamie Lost's badness is ambiguous, as are his motives.  This is my very favorite kind of hero, I think. (Also, has there been a better hero name, ever?  I think not.)

Narrative Voice
(Wow, that's a terrible subtitle.  But I can't think of what else to put there).  I haven't fallen in love with a narrative voice like this since my first Joanna Bourne experience.  Like Annique, Eva has a French sensibility, political acuity, and is surprisingly good in a fight, although she's not quite the ninja that Annique is.  Near the beginning:

[the priest says:]

"I would not hand you a flower from a garden. I will surely not give you what may be the most powerful bargaining chip in these negotiations. Who knows whom you might sell it to next?"

To his credit, the bishop's shiny face flushed a bright red. "So be it, Peter of London," he snapped. "Ever have you brought these things on yourself."

He reached for the door, but by then, Eva had completed her slow circling of the room and come up behind. She reached out, her blade up, and placed it against the front of his throat.

The bishop froze.

"Now hush," she murmured. "You have brought this on yourself."

Not exactly a Mary Sue!  Another reason I love medievals - they somehow lend themselves better to really intense drama than Regency or Victorian eras.  Life was more brutal, politics more precarious, and while medieval European women may in reality have been just as cloistered and limited as in later centuries, it's somehow more believable when their fictional counterparts throw off convention and really wade into the action.

Things That Blow My Mind
There is an absolutely amazing passage in the book that starts out: "The heart hangs over a pit.  Strung up like a sacrifice, it swings in the winds of the world..." and really, that little piece of prose, about four paragraphs long, almost stopped my own heart. I started to excerpt it here, but for the first time, I've decided not to pull out this choice bit because you, readers, deserve to come upon it in context and  have your own breath knocked out of you. It's not a plot spoiler, but I think it would be an experience spoiler.

That Paralysis Thing Again
I'm still struggling with the paralyzed perfectionism that I wrote about awhile back. Seriously, I started this review more than a month ago.  And I just got stuck, because I didn't want to fail to do it justice.  I don't know how to finish this review; how to put a nice conclusion on it and make the whole thing feel cohesive.  And then I didn't want to post about other books because I really thought I should finish this one first.  Auggh.

So even though this seems unfinished to me, I'm going to post it anyway.

Bottom Line
I loved this book, and I would recommend it to a) everyone; b) everyone, especially medieval fans; c) everyone, especially Joanne Bourne fans.

A Body At Rest

Inertia
Sir Isaac Newton observed that "a body at rest will remain at rest; a body in motion will remain in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force."

More or less.

And while Newton meant this very literally, about physical things and velocity and acceleration, it's also true in other dimensions, including, of course, blogging.

It's so boring to read blog posts about not blogging.  So I'll keep this short.  I just felt weird about starting back in after radio silence for so long.  This is me, attempting to get back in motion!

Second Book Syndrome

I've reached a state of paralysis with the paranormal series.  I'm pretty much caught up with my must-have authors but where to go next?  I've started and enjoyed the first books of these series:


Carolyn Jewel's Immortals
Joss Ware's Envy Chronicles
Laura Wright's Eternal vampires
Erin Kellison's Shadow dark fairy tales

.. and I have the next book or books in all of them just lying in wait for me.  Plus I have a new-to-me series by Robin D. Owens (Heart series) that I picked up for pennies at my local second-hand store,  Pamela Clare's MacKinnon's Rangers trilogy which I totally mistook for a) paranormals and b) Pamela Palmer's Feral Warriors which I didn't really like.  I hate when I do that.

I'm having one of those months (we all have them, right?) when my budget isn't what I need it to be to pick up the latest Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews and Alyssa Day (waiting impatiently for payday, my pretties) but I have so much good stuff on my shelf as it is, I can't really complain.

Help me pick the next series to start or finish from my bookshelf!  What should I read next?