Love At First Flight, by Marie Force - Review

Here's a solid contemporary with a lot to love. An airport, if you think about it, is a place of infinite possibilities, of thousands of stories beginning and ending every day. Two strangers, both engaged, cross paths in an airport on their way to their "other half." The trip doesn't work out so well for either engagement, and when Julianna and Michael arrive back in DC, a friendship begins that quickly turns into more.

What I really liked about these two characters is the way they take care of each other. There is an art to that, to doing small things for each other without thinking, with pleasure even, because you know the other will appreciate it. Julianna is a nurturing person, with everyone around her, and that's just what Michael needs. For his part, Michael offers Julianna a helping hand when she needs it, and some space to be an adult, even when he would prefer to get closer.

Something that's a little different about this romance is that the characters expend a fair amount of page count disentangling themselves from previous relationships. I think this worked OK here, and is probably a better reflection of 21st century dating than the mafia-trial side plot which, while well-executed, was a little bit canned. Viewers of any given daytime soap in the last 30 years will no doubt recognize it and perhaps find themselves skimming a bit.

On the downside, there were a few places where word choice struck a tinny note. Attention authors: your hero should never whine. No matter what. In one word, Michael's attractiveness dropped a measurable notch for me. Overall, while Michael is everything a modern girl might want-- successful, charming, & handsome-- he's a little bit passive for my tastes (maybe I'm just be too used to vampires these days, I dunno). Then Julianna makes a decision that's just so screamingly wrong, the book *almost* hit the wall.

Of course, all is redeemed in the end. Love at First Flight is sweet, tender, modern romance, with likeable, real characters that might have you looking at your next airline ticket with a new sparkle in your eye.

Lazy Post

I recently installed a google alert for the phrase "alpha heroes," and I'm really enjoying finding new blogs and articles around the blogosphere. Here is a GREAT POST on some of literature's most famous Alpha Heroes:

Heroes 101 by Gwylyn MacKenzie

Naamah's Kiss Winners!

OK, the moment you've all been waiting for is here.....

The FIVE winners of Naamah's Kiss are:

Leslie
LacyinTX
I Heart Book Gossip
Belinda M
Alex

You all need to send me your snail-mail addresses (no PO boxes) ASAP. The sooner I get them, the sooner the books will start winging their way to your mailbox!




photo by poppalina

It's Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day

Alpha Heroes is a blog dedicated to romantic fiction -- the genre, the writers, the heroes, the heroines, and above all, the stories. There's just something about these books that I find really satisfying.

But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Occasionally I get a little burned out on romance, even given the wide variety between vampires, werewolves, rakes, pirates and moguls.

When that happens, I turn to my back-up plan, which almost always turns out to be something from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.

They're not so different. I don't claim to be a literary expert, but it seems pretty obvious that they come from the same root, the chivalric tales that were popularized in Eleanor of Aquitaine's court. Not surprisingly, I love medieval romances and I love the swords-and-sorcery flavor of high fantasy. You nearly always find similar themes of good vs. evil, honor vs. villainy, and sometimes you even get a love story.

The main difference is generally that the relationship and love story, if there is one, is not the main focus of the book -- instead there are battles and politics and double-crosses; romances might be more of a plot element than the main point. And you aren't by any means guaranteed a happily ever after.

What I love about good fantasy is the way it exercises my imagination. Alternate histories like Jacqueline Carey's* or Guy Gavriel Kay's; worlds that are basically familiar but with brilliant twists, like Melanie Rawn's Sunrunners, or CL Wilson's Fading Lands -- they get me daydreaming about... I don't know, possibilities. Or impossibilities, perhaps, but nevertheless, they take me out of the everyday in a way that romance usually does not. (Note: links go the first book of a series, or in Kay's case, just one of my favorites).

Good sci-fi/fantasy is more than escapism. If I had to reduce it to a soundbyte, I'd say that really good sci-fi/fantasy poses questions about human nature: what if our environment was wildly different from what we know? What are the constants of society, of the individual, of morality? and what would flow and change? How would YOU be different? What if we had powers that we only dream of? What role does technology play?

Some of my favorite fantasy authors are listed above. Additionally, I have enjoyed Robert Silverberg, Sara Douglass (wow, isn't that some gorgeous artwork on her landing page??), Katheryn Kurtz's Deryni books, Roger Zelazny, and Juliet Marillier. Lately I've been reading a lot of SM Stirling-- watch for a review before too long on his Emberverse I trilogy.

Who are your favorite science fiction and fantasy authors?

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*And speaking of Carey, don't forget, today is your last day to sign up for the giveaway!

Sunnyside Blues, by Mary Carter - Review

The Facts:

Title: Sunnyside Blues
Author: Mary Carter
Pub Date: June 30, 2009

Publisher's Blurb:

Twenty-five-year-old Andes Lane has spent nine years moving restlessly from place to place as she searches for somewhere that feels right. In the little blue houseboat bobbing on a Seattle lake, she thinks she’s found it. But Andes has barely had a chance to settle in before her new life is upended by her landlord, Jay, and his ten-year-old son, Chase.

Smart, secretive, and precocious, Chase touches a chord with Andes even as he plays on her last nerve. When Jay needs someone to take care of Chase temporarily, Andes agrees to accompany the boy to Sunnyside, Queens, on a quest she’s sure will prove fruitless. But in this new, strange, unexpectedly welcoming city, Andes will confront the secrets she tried to leave behind and the lies that have kept her running. And against all odds, she’ll discover a place, a man, and a newfound peace of mind that feel very much like home…

(I tend to think that the blurb emphasizes all the wrong things, but I can't argue that they were all in there). I had some trouble with this book at first. The main character... well, let me put it this way: You know our blogger friend Jen The Ginger Kid? In her "about me" blurb, she says, "I'm addicted to the internet, I'm great at wasting time, and I have the attention span of a toy poodle on speed." In Jen's case, I'm pretty sure it's an exaggeration, but I wasn't so sure about Andes. The "toy poodle on speed" phrase kept haunting me as I tried to connect with this character. In the first couple of chapters, I found her to be shallow, spazzy, kind of slutty, and well, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I was ready to write back to the author suggesting that maybe we pass on the review. Then I got to this:

Emily Tomlin wasn't afraid when he first lowered her into the well. Her behind fit snugly into the horse harness as if it were a sling, and because her mother had threatened bodily violence if she got her new pink dress dirty, he lowered her until she dangled just a foot from the muddy bottom.*

Whoa. What is going on here? From there on, I was hooked, dangling from the line just like Emily.

The following story has an element of morbid fascination, tracing the journey of that little girl growing up in a fundamentalist, snake-handling Appalachian religious sect. Her sometimes-unreliable narration of events gives an overall compelling character study. A childhood history of traumatic events, a nomadic young-adulthood, and a self-told backstory of dubious truth chipped away at my initial impression of this character. Though "shallow, spazzy, kind of slutty, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer" turns out to be not precisely untrue, the story reveals the complexities and, I might say, neuroses that combine to give that impression.

The unsubtly-named Chase and his search for his father force Andes into a psychological confrontation with her own daddy issues. To be honest, I wasn't that interested in Chase as a character, but he provides a decent foil for Andes to play out her drama against and a plot engine that keeps the pages turning. Without him and the two mystery subplots (his parentage, and who is setting the fires that follow him around) the novel would be in danger of devolving into uninterrupted navel-gazery.

There's a third character here, one who inadvertently plays a part in Emily's estrangement from her roots, and the way that affects him in the years after--and the way that effect sort of accelerates and culminates in the now of the book was really well done. The storyline ups the tension and helps draw Emily/Andes into the final confrontation, but the author uses a deft restraint to keep his [potentially fascinating] situation from overwhelming the rest of the story. Just the right amount of salt.

There's a fair bit of melodrama, hyperbolic narrative and improbable coincidence at work in the story, and perhaps the least palatable bits were the occasions when Andes broke down into... well, fits? psychotic breaks? She would have these uncontrollable crying jags that she didn't seem to realize were happening until she "came to," though she didn't actually seem to lose consciousness. Since the scenes were written from her point of view, it was fairly jarring to piece together what was happening. Perhaps a good old-fashioned swoon would've worked better.

Despite all that though, I have to say I enjoyed the ride. Perhaps it's the same ignoble instinct that makes me want to gawk at traffic accidents, but I found the descriptions of the revival meetings truly fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Offbeat, engaging, a little bit horrific, touching.

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*quote is from uncorrected proof copy, so it may not appear exactly as shown in the published version.

This Just In - Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers Day June 23rd

Author Sharon Lee has nominated June 23rd to be set aside as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day: "A day of celebration and wonder! A day for all of us readers of science fiction and fantasy to reach out and say thank you to our favorite writers. A day, perhaps, to blog about our favorite sf/f writers. A day to reflect upon how written science fiction and fantasy has changed your life."

June 23rd is apparently the day that Cyrano de Bergerac made the first successful (fictional) flight to the moon.

There's a facebook page, and a bit of a buzz, if you look for it. I think I can manage a post on something from the sci-fi/fantasy genre -- how about you?

June 23rd is also the last day to enter the Naamah's Kiss giveaway... which is a fantasy novel, after all. Funny how things work out sometimes.

Bloggiesta: Finish Line

Well, here's how it all turned out:

• Hours spent: ~8
  
• Book reviews completed and scheduled: 2
• Favicon created and installed [mini-challenge]
• Blog directories: joined several tho I'm not sure they all went through [mini-challenge].
  
• Google alerts set for blog key words [mini-challenge].
  
• Thursday Thirteens: I looked over the ones I had started but still couldn't get them into publishable shape. I need to brainstorm some new ideas, I think.
  

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Officially, that's it. I am going to keep working today though and hope to get as far as:

• Third review completed and scheduled
• Sidebar cleaned up
• F3 button made

If all that gets done (plus laundry, plus cleaning the bathroom, plus some pre-cooking for the week, plus fathers' day festivities, plus taking the children to the park to cure the cabin fever of yesterday), I'll start on an additional review and/or the first F3 post.

Thanks, Natasha, for the inspiration -- and it was a ton of fun.