I came across Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series as one of the recommendations for people who liked the Russ Van Alstyne/ Clare Fergusson mystery series. I've read Lehane's Mystic River before (and liked it) and watched the unfortunate Shutter Island, but I never make assumptions of books on their movie adaptations, being well used to Hollywood's disappointments by now so I was all set to give the series a chance.

The first novel in the series didnt impress me much. In A Drink Before the War, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, two private investigators are hired by a politician on what seems to be a simple case of the politician's cleaning service making away with sensitive documents he had hidden in his office. As Patrick and Angie investigate, the case becomes murkier, the stakes are higher and sees them dealing with unsavory criminal elements in Boston.

While I didnt care much for the mystery and gangster-style action elements, it being one of those cases where everything and the kitchen sink is hurled at the protagonists, I liked the style of the novel (the hard-boiled detective elements), the characters of Patrick and Angie who are childhood friends and sometime lovers, and the little coterie of people who help them.

So, I picked up the next one, I usually give the series a chance to develop before giving up on it entirely. And Darkness, take my Hand, the second in the series delivered everything that was promised. The slow buildup to the mystery is very well-plotted and the thriller elements kept me glued to my couch.

In Darkness, psychiatrist Diandra Warren hires the Boston PIs to keep an eye on her son. She thinks that she and her son are under threat after she accepts a patient who turns out to be the girlfriend of an Irish Mafia enforcer, who doesnt want anyone prying into his business. Diandra Warren receives a mysterious photograph of her son which scares her into hiring the team of Kenzie and Gennaro.

Patrick and Angie spend a long time tailing the son Jason, and when they dont find anything threatening, assume that the threat is over. In the meanwhile, a series of gruesome deaths in their old neighborhood have police and the FBI troubled over the absolute brutality of the crimes. In all the cases the MO is the same, the victims were sent photographs weeks before they turn up dead. And so does Jason Warren.

The police think that they have tied the murders with a 20 year old case in the same neighborhood, but the person they arrested for the crimes, Alec Hardiman, is already in prison. The nightmare turns personal when Hardiman asks to speak with Patrick. And suddenly, Patrick finds that all his friends, his lover Grace and her daughter Mae, Angie, everyone he cares for is in danger, by a threat no one understands or is able to comprehend the evil of.

Will keep you turning pages, highly recommended!!

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Series Order

1. A Drink before the War
2. Darkness, Take my Hand
3. Sacred
4. Gone, Baby, Gone
5. Prayers for Rain

I know at least one of my readers is groaning right about now. It seems Jane Austen is mentioned on this blog every couple of months. I cant really help it, Austen's world is like my favorite comfort read/ watch/ food all rolled up into one.

Last month I found myself trolling Netflix for something light to watch when the mini-series 'Lost in Austen' (LiA) popped up in my queue. It was perfect, over 3 hours long I watched it over a period of two weeks, sometimes as little as 10 minutes when I had time to spare. Being familiar with the story did help with not losing continuity but this version does have enough originality to keep the Austen fan involved and satisfied.

Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper), of Hammersmith, London, spends far too much time with her copy of Pride & Prejudice as an escape from her dull job and unromantic boyfriend. Her idea of a perfect night is at home, pouring herself a glass of wine, curling up in her jammies with Darcy's voice and Austen's language running through her head. Her best friend and mom think she's too involved with Darcy, her mom even accusing her of holding all the men she knows to impossible standards.

But, as Amanda explains, she just loves Austen's England so much, the manners, the gentility, the courtship. So, she thinks she's hallucinating when one evening, as she's engaged in her favorite pastime, hearing an intruder in the bathroom, she investigates to find .... Elizabeth Bennett (Gemma Arterton)!

Apparently, Amanda has opened some sort of portal between 21st century England and the Regency period. And the next time Lizzy turns up, it's to push Amanda through the portal, into the attic in Longbourne. The idea being that Lizzy is visiting Amanda's folks in Hammersmith for an extended period while Amanda takes her place in the bosom of the Bennet family.

Amanda's original delight is unbounded. She arrives just as Mrs. Bennet is clamoring away about Netherfield Park being 'let at last' and with drop-jawed awe she exclaims

'We're right at the beginning aren't we??'

Unfortunately, for Miss Price, things arent quite so smooth-sailing after that. The Bennet family, accepts the strangely dressed girl given over to obscure statements 'Jane will marry Bingley, Lizzy will marry Darcy', with, if not enthusiasm, then fondness for Lizzy's sake.

But, as the days go on, Amanda starts forcing events in an effort at keeping things to Austen's timeline, coercing Jane (Morven Christie) into the rain so she can stay over at Netherfield Park, or strong-arming Bingley (Tom Mison) into throwing a ball at his place. But, these people unlike the 2D acquaintances she has lovingly spent countless hours with, have minds of their own and are not so easily maneuvered. And she comes face to face with the most 'disagreeable' form of Darcy (Elliot Cowan) yet, who as Amanda indignantly objects '... is no Colin Firth is he??'

She soon finds that all her well-intentioned meddling is leading to unforeseen consequences and when a disastrous event occurs (Lady Catherine decides to foist a trio of even more objectionable Collins' brothers on the unmarried Bennets for one, and others which I will not spoil) she ceases actively arranging things and decides to just go along for the ride. And funnily enough, things straighten themselves out, if not as Austen intended, then with a guaranteed happy ending for our heroine.

I'm one of those guilty of holding Austen adaptations to high standards. But, in reality, it's not the adaptations that I find outrageous, it's when someone takes liberties with the original itself (*cough* Keira Knightley's P&P). I thought LiA is well-worth the watch for a fantasy adaptation. It is a very romanticized version, not as real as Austen's world, but with that sheen of happy-endings-for-everyone (even poor forgotten Caroline Bingley) that makes up frothy mind-candy. I liked it for that. And all the actors did a great job. The mini-series is also going to be adapted into a movie by 2011.

If I had to find fault with it, I think it's that the film-makers do not push the envelope too much. When Amanda finds herself in the Bennet household, she's dressed in jeans, boots and a leather jacket with her hair untied and in bangs. No one does so much as raise an eyebrow at the unconventional attire or hair style.

Amanda is similarly very ill-prepared for spending time in Regency England for someone who has read about it for so long, she continually finds things surprising or doesn't understand how society behaves.

And it seems so weird for the Bennet family to accept that Lizzy has traveled alone to an unknown location or leaving all her clothes behind. Or to accept a stranger with no luggage of her own. Ahh, quibbles!!

Darcy follows Amanda into 21st century London at one point, and I loved the scene where she comes across his starched self, completely anachronistic in brocade waist-coat and top-hat blinking wide-eyed at all the commotion around him. He greets Amanda with relief, being the devil he knows, 'What is this infernal place, Miss Price?'

The best part of this adaptation, and one which in Amanda's words would have Ms. Austen spinning in her grave is Wickham (Tom Riley). The charmer everyone loves to hate has a great character arc here. In fact, I would have been much happier with this version if they had done away with Austen's original hero and come up with another in his place.

Now, I'm not certain if this desire to subvert the original isn't because I hated Darcy's character here (except in the scene mentioned below) and didnt think he was believable and thought Wickham was gorgeous (ladies, cast your eyes to the left), but, I'm sure that the film-makers were not looking to be too radical, they just wanted soft-focus romance which LiA does provide.

In closing, I have to mention LiA's nod to the original wet shirt scene. Made all the more sweet because LiA's Darcy doesnt know what it is Amanda's after, he agrees to dunk himself in cold water because he wants to please her. Awwwww!!

Of course, as hunky as Mr. Cowan is, no Darcy to my mind has ever compared to the '95 BBC adaptation, so I will leave you with the infamous clip (really, I'm surprised it took so long for Colin Firth to be embedded on this blog) ..... so, enjoy!!

(translated by Reg Keeland)

Rating: 4/ 5

Stieg Larsson's posthumously published debut novel is the first in a series of 3 novels in the Millennium series. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been popping up on bestseller lists for a long time now, which is when it went on my TBR list.


In addition to being a mystery, this book is also a broad perspective of Sweden, on the financial journalism, on it's social and welfare programs, on the sexual abuse of women in Sweden (presented as little tid-bits before the start of the various sections in the novel) and a family saga. It also contains technological mumbo-jumbo for a complete package of crime in the twenty-first century. In short, it's one of the most engrossing, multi-layered thrillers I've read in a long time. And it was very interesting to read about another setting, most thrillers I read seem to be located in America.

Easily the best part about this book is in the unique title character of Lisbeth Salander. She's brilliant at computers, but is mostly unemotional and uninvolved in her interactions with people. That this genius comes packaged in a tiny, anorexic-looking punk facade with tattoos and piercings confuses everyone she comes across.

Blomkvist is much less complicated. A possible foil for a lot of the women hating in the novel, he is a man who easily loves and is loved by women (this part really made me scoff). Blomkvist becomes the only person who does not expect or demand something from Salander, eventually they come to trust each other laying the groundwork of a formidable team.

I must mention that I think the title of the translated version is misleading, Blomkvist features more in the book though I agree that Salander is the more interesting character. The book's original title in Sweden was 'Men who hate Women'. And the buzz is that the recently released The Girl Who Played with Fire deals with Salander's back story and has Blomkvist and Salander team up again. Cannot wait to read it!!

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Series Order

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2. The Girl who played with Fire
3. The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest - to be released 2009

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Read the reviews for the first 6 books in the series here. WARNING- this review is for people familiar with the BDB it contains a lot of Ward's terminology and might also contain spoilers wrt previous books.

Among the number of search terms associated with the Black Dagger Brotherhood that lead people to this site every week, the question 'What is a sympath?' inevitably makes an appearance. And I thought JR Ward's Lover Avenged, the 7th novel of the BDB series would answer just that.

The focus of this novel is on Rehvenge, half-sympath, leahdyre of the vampire glymera and a powerful drug lord and pimp in Caldwell, New York. Rehvenge's illegal activities serve to pay his blackmailer for keeping the sympath side of his identity a secret thereby protecting his mother, sister and half-sympath employee Xhex.

According to vampire law any sympaths have to be quarantined in a colony in the remote northern areas of the state. The sympath laws are even clearer, ALL half-breeds must die. To keep his sympath urges at bay Rehvenge relies heavily on drugs, which leave his body numb.

On his routine check ups at Havers' hospital he often comes in contact with nurse Ehlena. Ehlena is a fallen member of the glymera and is sole care-giver to her father who is schizophrenic which leaves her with almost no social life. Rehvenge is drawn to this loneliness of hers, a mirror of his own and the two start to build a tentative relationship together.

In the meanwhile, Wrath has been secretly fighting lessers in his free time, and it's not long before he is found out. This severely tries his relationship not only with Beth, who is sorely hurt by his deceit and lack of trust towards herself, Wrath also has his annoyed Brothers to deal with. In addition headaches which have persisted almost all his life become stronger and he loses what little vision he does have. Trapped in his blindness, not being able to fight, having to depend on other people just to get around and marital problems lead to Wrath being scared, not a good emotion for any Brother to wallow in.

But, things are going to get worse for Wrath. A member of the glymera approaches Rehvenge for assassinating the Blind King and a sympath, even a half-breed canNOT be trusted, can they? Read the book to see how Ward resolves the stories - can Wrath and Beth come to terms, will Rehvenge and Ehlena find true love, where the assassination plot leads and what exactly are Lash and the Lessening Society upto?

Wrt the sympath question posed before, I have to say I'm still clueless. All I gathered from this book was that sympaths fed off emotions preferably the sinful ones (and what? no idea), and they have a decided predilection for scorpions and spiders. But, let's just say for the purposes of this book that sympath = ehvil (heh) and leave it at that.

I really liked all the action in this book, first since it plays catch up with the old stories - Wrath and Beth for example. Wrath suddenly accepting his Kingship had always seemed too good to be true so I loved the continuation of his story arc here.

I liked the real-world conundrum the Lessening Society is facing, apparently being humongously evil AND a son of the Omega is not enough in the material world. Lash has to struggle to make money to supply his people with decent weapons, hideouts, bling and sexy cars. He hits upon the perfect solution, getting into the drug business, but that slowly infringes upon Rehvenge's territory and before he knows it the vampires have been clued to his return.

John Matthew, Blaylock and Qhuinn have minor roles but we do spend some time with John Matthew and his love for Xhex. I must say, I didnt like JM ever since he was introduced, first he was all angsty and whiny, though I was able to tolerate him in LE mainly because he seemed to have matured a bit. Well, here he slides down that slippery slope into tiresomeness, nohbuddy luuurves me. He does fit right into the Brotherhood (pre-marriage) though.

What I didnt care much for was the Rehvenge-Ehlena track. Rehv in all the previous books was a hard core character, seemingly conscienceless, filled with self-loathing for himself over the blackmailing bit contrasted with being extremely protective towards his family ... let's go for tormented, yup he's a tormented hero - my favorite kind.

With Ehlena he suddenly becomes a total mushy sap all I-love-yous and I-want-to-serve-yous and sentimental phone convos in a matter of minutes. Not that it wasn't sweet, but it took some time for me to reconcile the amethyst-eyed mohawked drug lord who kills people without compunction with the gooey pillow talk. And that Ehlena, that upright figure in the vampire community accepts him warts (hmm maybe I should be saying barb :) and all.

The h/h feeling they're not good enough for each other is my least favorite theme in romance, and Ehlena and Rehv go quite a few times around this particular bush. The other reason is I didnt care much for Ehlena, she felt like an amalgam of all the earlier heroines Beth, Mary except she can handle her way around a gun. Though I did like the way she dealt with her father's illness, at one point she walks him through a new house so that his fears of intruders are minimised once he sees security cameras around.

I think Ward should move out of finding women for her heroes from the social outcasts. Surely, there's scope for someone from the glymera to have an HEA too.

Phury still being Primale stumped me, in LE he refused the joy of being sole sperm donor to the Chosen. Why does he keep the title? Looks to me just like another way to keep poor Phury away from the house (heh, I like how ever since LE he's forever become poor Phury in my mind) ...

And even though I like Xhex's character (being the sole alpha female in the series) I didnt like the kidnap motif being used again. Additionally, is it just me, or does the war between the lessers and the vampires seems like it's on a never-ending track. Not much happens in this book, the vampires basically doing their own thing and Lash his own until they intersect at the climax and I'd like to see more concrete developments happening with this in the next few books.

And of course, new characters are introduced here and I have the sinking feeling that they might have their own books coming out soon.

Will I keep reading? You bet. I'm hooked onto this series and wasn't much bothered with only a sprinkling of romance because of all the other fun stuff. The thing that might prove a problem for me is the suspicion that there is no concrete story arc for the entire series.

I learnt some new slang though - fidiot (Ward's short form for effing idiot), now where shall I use it first? :D

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Series Order

1. Dark Lover
2. Lover Eternal
3. Lover Awakened
4. Lover Revealed
5. Lover Unbound
6. Lover Enshrined
7. Lover Avenged
8. Lover Mine - to be released 2010

Having had ample experience with the preceeding Harry Potter films and my own reactions to them, this time I was completely prepared. Which means that I did not read the book right before I went to watch, doing this always seems to endanger my blood vessels, and so come Wednesday I was all antsy and excited to watch David Yates' latest version of my favorite fantasy series.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (HBP) starts out very strong. In a brilliant sequence, we see that with Lord Voldemort gaining strength and support, the war in the wizarding world has been brought even to the Muggles, innocents dying as the Death Eaters go on a rampage in London after kidnapping the wizard Olivander from Diagon Alley.

Even Hogwarts, with the greatest wizard as Headmaster, is to be affected. For the first time, the students see Dumbledore and their teachers take strong precautions against the Death Eaters. It seems that Lord Voldemort, with the rout at the Ministry fresh in his mind, has decided to lay low until he can get Dumbledore out of the picture. And, Harry is convinced that this part at Hogwarts is to be played by none other than his bete noire Draco Malfoy with the help of Professor Snape.

As Harry protests Draco's complicity to anyone who can listen (but wont), events at Hogwarts go on as usual. There is Ron's budding romance with classmate Lavender, Quidditch matches, Hermione's bubbling anger at Ron and a newly discovered love interest in Ginny. And at Potions, after finding a used text book singed ominously 'the property of the Half-Blood Prince' it seems that Harry turns into Potioner extraordinaire impessing the new Potions teacher Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent, brilliant!).

But, amidst all the confusion of a year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore has not forgotten the war they are fighting and after the lessons learned in the previous year decides to share everything he knows about Voldemort with Harry, ultimately uncovering the secret of how Voldemort was able to survive the curse on that fatal night. Voldemort used a rare magic called a Horcrux to split his soul into 7 parts and spirit them in hidden locations. Dumbledore has been destroying Horcruxes as he finds them - one is the book which Harry destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets and the second is a ring belonging to Voldemort's parents. Dumbledore takes Harry on a mission to unearth a new Horcrux and it is on this night that all the events run together leading to the final showdown at Hogwarts.

HBP is all that the Order of the Phoenix tried to be a year ago and didnt quite come close. It 's dark, grim and much suitable for an older audience than the first few movies targetted. And a very good thing is that the kids have clearly evolved into better actors with age. This movie was the first one where I didnt cringe at the anomaly between the dialogues and the emoting. Even Michael Gambon as Dumbledore getting into the skin of his character this time around and delivering a wonderful performance. And as I swore that this review wouldnt be a litany of -but in the book- I'm quite prepared to ignore all the plot elements missing (though I have to point out the prop FAIL over the ring Horcrux which looked undestroyed) and come out and say that I quite enjoyed it.

If there is any fault it lies in the pacing, the writers and director not quite getting the tension right; Rowling does this so well in her book, we are treated to tantalising glimpses of Voldemort, alongwith the atmosphere of menace at the school with all the attempted assassinations of Dumbledore and Malfoy's creeping all culminating in the final showdown. A showdown which left everyone reading the book stunned and numb and me reading in a haze of tears. Let's just say that the movie doesnt deliver any such climax. Expecting to bawl my eyes out, I was hideously underwhelmed. And I was so irritated with the last scene given to Snape, I wanted Rickman roaring out 'DONT CALL ME A COWARD' to Harry, no such luck (boo, script FAIL?)

Instead we are treated to numerous reels of Ron-won's adolescent hormones, Hermione's angst and Ginny and Harry mooning around each other. Maybe it illustrates that these are teenagers but I would have been happier if a lot of the other material relating to Voldemort (a spooky Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and creepy Frank Dillane, both amazing!) or even Draco (a wonderfully tormented Tom Felton) or the criminally underused Professor Snape (the always brilliant Alan Rickman) were included instead of being slashed away. I do not grudge Rupert Grint his few moments on screen, he is pretty hilarious. As for the climactic battle, probably there was no time, but I'm also tempted to think that the director didn't want another wand battle ala Phoenix. After all, there's only so much you can do with fighting by pointing a stick.

But, the movie finally alienated me with it's final lines. As Harry, Hermione and Ron mull over events of the year, and regret that things which didnt make sense at the time should have been better interpreted, Harry should have been filled with despair over the tragic loss that occurs at the end in this movie. Instead we fade out with the three of them laughing over the image of Harry and Ginny snogging in front of older brother Ron. Life does go on, but, amidst the levity it's obvious that the movie versions of these characters are just transparent shadows of their richly characterized and rendered written counterparts.

And that, dear reader, is just another way of saying watch the movie because it is Harry Potter but read the book for the story that people love - that is if you haven't done so already.

All Blair Mallory, survivor of multiple murder attempts, wants is to plan a perfect wedding with cop Wyatt Bloodsworth. Not a big, white wedding because she's already had that version, just a small one with friends and family on the perfect day and date, with the perfect dress, perfect shoes and the perfect cake. Wyatt, tired of her waffling, issues an ultimatum. Organize the wedding in a month or it's off to Vegas to get married. Which in Blair's world is just plain tacky. As she gets into high gear running around to get her shopping done, a near hit and run in a mall alongwith some good old-fashioned stalking cue Blair that she might conceivably have pissed someone else off and things are about to get ugly- dead ugly. And this time Wyatt's not buying it.

First things first, it took me all this time to get around to this book, because I knew it was written in first person and I'm not big on that whole POV. But, what can I say. Ms. Howard's (I should say Blair's) voice had me giggling within minutes of cracking the cover.

Blair is pretty high-maintenace, extremely manipulative and comes across as very shallow. But, she has a great relationship with friends and family and is smart as a businesswoman. And she does need to be a relatively strong personality to deal with Wyatt, an ex-pro-football-player- turned-cop who puts the alpha in alpha male. Her ongoing power struggle in her relationship with Wyatt had me in splits, both fight dirty and fight to win.

If you're lost with the alphaness, here's a scene. Blair is fighting with Wyatt to keep her last name. Obviously he's not backing down. But, a topic that would generally have me spitting mad is defused by Ms. Howard's fabulous brand of crazy; all I did was laugh and keep on laughing.

Not to be towered over, I got to my feet, too, scowling right back at him. Okay, so there's still the ten-inch difference in our heights, but I went on tiptoe and pushed my chin up so we were nose to nose. "Expecting me to change my name while you keep yours is archaic-"

His eyes were narrow, his jaw set, his lips a thin hard line that barely moved as he spit out words as if they were bullets. "In the animal kingdom, the male marks his territory by pissing on it. All I'm asking you to do is change your last name to mine. Take.Your.Pick."

The thing about Ms. Howard's romances are that I've yet to meet one of her cop heroes I didn't like, she writes them all as control freaks, extremely observant, slightly obnoxious, with oodles of sex appeal. Mould meet Wyatt. Cant say much about the good old brain cells though, since it should have been fairly obvious to the highly trained cop that Blair couldn't be lying. Ah well, who cares, I need my share of yumminess in my light reading and Wyatt hit all the required notes.

After the hit and run, the book goes through a slightly dull patch (a couple of pages) where we get to hear every single detail of Blair's day, I wouldnt have been surprised to see her pull out nail clippers at a certain point. But, once the stalker-type is completely established the action picks up pace and remains entertaining ... especially a scene with Blair, a patrol car, overbearing men and handful of notes.

So, finally, the perfect light read and all I can say is that when Ms. Howard is at the top of her game, she's great.

However, the biggest gripe I have is when publishers fail to advertise on their covers that the book is a sequel. I don't think I lost much but to an OC reader like myself, all my enjoyment for this book went out of the window because of the twitch I developed over reading Book 2 first. I overcame it (with difficulty) and do think it's a delightful book but if you are anything like me just get To Die For first.

Updated: Well, I read To Die For and it isnt as good as the sequel. I think Ms. Howard was able to more completely develop Blair's voice and character the second time around making for a funnier, better paced read. It might be a personal preferance too since I like reading about what happens to the characters after much more than I like reading about the courtship leading to the HEA. I'd give TDF 3 points, and I'm pretty sure if I had picked it up first I would never have read DDG.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Black Rose is the second part of Nora Roberts' In the Garden trilogy.

At 45, Rosalind Harper, or Roz, the difficult and hard-headed owner of Harper House has come a long way. As a young widow, she raised 3 sons alone, suffered a traumatic second marriage and successfully started the In the Garden nursery which established her as a serious businesswoman in western Tennessee.

Black Rose starts about half a year after the events of Blue Dahlia. Stella and Logan are gearing up to get married and the summer and fall season have seen the ladies busy and with no time to think about the Harper Bride. Anyway, after the last confrontation where the Bride tells them her name is Amelia she seems to have settled down.

Enter Dr. Mitchell Carnegie who has finally wrapped up all his other work and starts to work full time on the Bride mystery. Mitch starts looking through the considerable history of the Harper family, but that doesnt rock the boat as much as his growing fascination with Roz the gardener, Roz the southern belle, Roz the businesswoman, Roz the maternal caregiver ..... Her family's attempts to pair her up with Mitch, who in Hayley's words is "Hello!! Hot!" doesn't pose much of a hardship for Roz either. And Amelia, of course, knows it. Roz and Mitch feel the brunt of Amelia's rage, now tinged with madness, since Amelia knows that they are trying to solve the mystery just that the answers don't seem to be coming fast enough.

After being so overly enthusiastic about Blue Dahlia, I was quite disappointed to find Black Rose to be a much tamer read. There's entirely too much gardening, and I have to admit I skimmed. But there were a couple of things I liked. First, I haven't read many romances with an older couple and this plot element was handled quite well here. Secondly, Mitch is a great character, very believable, flawed but smart and likable. Also, Roberts trademark, the H/H's interactions with their respective children were fun to read about.

My thoughts, it was a decent story, not great and lacking the romance aspect slightly. And some of the dialogue got a bit heavy handed and repetitive.

But, Amelia the ghost has started to anticipate some sort of closure for herself. Now, let's hope Book 3 delivers ....

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Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

So much for the anti-vampire rant. After the last post I had vampires on the brain, was browsing for something new to read, laid my hand on Lover Revealed, a novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by author J.R. Ward and proved myself a liar.

I consider the BDB to be a guilty pleasure. I cannot tell you how many times I groaned at the stuff coming out of the character's mouths (You feel me, my brother?) or how I laughed myself silly at the characters' names when they were introduced (Wrath, Tohrment, Rhage, Vishous) ... you see the cringe-factor here??

But, I still kept reading, because the vampires were intriguing, the romance was hot and Ward's fictional world in Caldwell, NY entirely too much fun!! After LR, I immediately got the first book in the series and I havnt stopped yet. Apparently the initial idea was to have a 10 book series, book 7 will release in 2009, however the genre of the novels have changed. Book 7 has been acknowledged by the author to be urban fantasy (??) rather than paranormal romance. Here's the synopsis:

In Caldwell, NY, vampires exist along with humans who are unaware of their existence. Vampires are a species created by their goddess the Scribe Virgin (oy this obsession with virgins as deities), they are born and cannot be made from humans. The Scribe Virgin's opposite is the Omega, created to bring a balance to the world and he leads vampire slayers called the lessers, human undead who have given up their souls devoted to killing the vampires.

For survival, the vampires started selectively breeding until a sub-species of the strongest vampires was formed, called the Black Dagger Brotherhood, who have the responsibility of protecting the civilian vampires from the Lessening Society. The vampires and lessers have only one point they agree upon, their existence MUST be kept a secret from the humans around them.

Vampires cannot survive on human blood which is too weak, they need the blood of another vampire to sustain them. Here's where it gets murky for me, apparently the blood has to be from a member of the opposite sex? Something like that. The vampires, civilian or brother, in the pretrans state (until the age of 25) are lesser bait - short, scrawny, weak, asexual. When the transition hits them their bones break at the joints and elongate, they become huge, muscled, self-healing monsters capable of annihilating lesser butt. This is for the males, I have no idea with the female transitions.

The BDB currently contains 6 brothers, all of them leather wearing, substance-abusing, gangster talking, rap-listening, tattoed and scarred - emotionally and physically, highly trained, fast healing killing machines. I know, I know, but stick with me here, I promise you'll have fun. The first 6 books are their stories.

The Bad: Ward is heavily obsessed with namedropping (Grey Goose, McD's, BMWs), designer wear (Hermes, Gucci) and every single character spouts slang. I have to say the slang irritates me (shitkickers, thank fuck????) as does the author's pretension that adding an 'h' in italics creates a completely different language (sehclusion, cohntest). Ms. Ward, I love your books, I really do but the verbal distractions are killing me!!

The lessers as the source of conflict are dull dull dull. I dont think there's a way to make clumsy undead who smell of baby powder interesting and Ward doesn't try since she gives us an interchangeable cast of lessers over the course of the first 5 books. Additionally, Ward's complex characterisations end with the brothers, most of her heroines are ill-developed and unidimensional. Including the Scribe Virgin who has to be the most inconsistent, demanding, anti-feministic, unlikeable deity ever! And the world building isnt consistent, plot holes abound. I realise that the number of factors I have against these books are huge, but I AM addicted. Now that that's off my chest, let's just move on, shall we ....

Dark Lover Rating: 5 / 5
Wrath, the last of the purebred vampires, vampire king and hater of humans is approached by one of his Brothers, Darius to help his half-breed daughter Beth Randall make her transition. Darius dies soon after making the request, and Wrath after initially refusing, is forced into making contact. Beth a journalist, is good friends with most of Caldwell's PD esp. homicide detective Butch O'Neal.

When the cops start to investigate the bomb that killed her father they eye with suspicion the overloaded-with-weapons-gangster-type hanging around Beth and the plethora of murders which seem to follow him around. With the cops looking for him, a new fore-lesser recouping his forces to go on another offensive against the Brotherhood, his jilted ex-wife Marissa's brother Havers who is determined to avenge his sister and the Scribe Virgin who wishes Wrath to assume the role of the King, Wrath must find a way to protect Beth, help her be born again as a vampire, acknowledge the intense attraction that lies between them and wrap his mind around the ascension to the throne and possibly a new Queen.

Until I tried to condense the story, I didnt realise how many plot elements there actually are here. It's also the main reasons why I like these books, because Ward develops all her characters so well, the plot is involving and there's so many POVs. We're never stuck with just the romance bit of the story, which moves at a fast pace btw.

Wrath has an adequate amount of trauma for being a centuries old vampire, he has problems with trust and emotional attachment which he has to work around to finally acknowledge his love for Beth while Beth has her own dealing to do with the sudden appearance of a father she never knew existed, the knowledge that she is half vampire and the fact that she could die with her transition. The rest of the brothers, Marissa and Butch are also given some time here as setups for the rest of the books. All in all, a fast-paced enjoyable read.

Lover Eternal Rating: 3.5 / 5
Rhage, the strongest and most dangerous of all the warriors, is drop dead gorgeous but underneath the superficiality which attracts scores of women to him and has made him vampire legend, lies a lonely man looking for love and bearing a burden only the rest of the Brothers know about. For Rhage is part man and part beast. Cursed by the Scribe Virgin he is doomed to turn into a monster whenever his emotions become unstable, a beast capable of harming both friend and foe.

Mary Luce is a survivor, she tended her mother through a debilitating illness, works with autistic children and has recently been informed that the cancer she spent battling has returned. Mary's work at a suicide prevention hotline brings her in contact with an angelic young man, John Matthew, a mute, traumatised orphan who seems too fragile to be alone in the world. John Matthew visits Mary at home where he is seen by her vampire neighbor Bella who immediately realises what the young man is. When Mary's services are needed as translator for John she finds herself in the BDB's mansion and suddenly being the target of attention of the most attractive man she has ever laid eyes on, for plain and outspoken Mary is the only one able to tame Rhage's monster.

DL I inhaled in one go, LE for me was a lukewarm book which moved along a tad sluggishly. Mary and Rhage didnt feel like fully developed individuals, both being defined by their respective curses. Rhage was sweet in the beginning, roaming around with a silly grin on his face just because Mary lets him in her house and their love story has a particular poignancy with Mary having a very limited time left to her. But, ultimately all the wallowing in self-pity from both parties lost any empathy I had developed. And I hate couples who cannot communicate.

But I wasnt bored and I wasnt indignant. Alongwith the main romance, the lessers ran around being ineptly murderous and the John Matthew track was interesting, John gets adopted by the Brother Tohr and his wife Wellsie. And, the book had a fabulous buildup for the next one in the series with Bella and Zsadist - I'm SUCH a sucker for Beauty and the Beast stories.

Lover Awakened Rating 4 / 5
Zsadist, the most terrifying of the brothers has an awful reputation. He massacres lessers, kills humans for feeding and can only be with a woman if she is terrified of him. All his emotions and his feelings have been ripped out of him in the century he spent being a blood slave, from which he was ultimately rescued by his twin Phury. Phury, who lives only for Zsadist, had spent his entire life looking for his lost brother, took a vow of celibacy and shot his leg off for Z.

Bella encounters Zsadist in the Brotherhood's mansion and is instantly mesmerised. After she approaches him, Zsadist rejects her even extracting a promise that she wont approach him anymore. But, Bella is then captured by the lessers and Zsadist finds himself almost driven mad by the compulsion he has to find her and punish the lessers who dared lay their hands on her.

LA is a good story of Z's awakening to first trust then intimacy to the two people he loves but hasn't been able to express his love to - Phury and Bella. The lessers have a new strategy for finding out about the Brotherhood, they capture civilians and torture them for information. With the capture of Bella though, a lesser becomes obsessed with her and wants her for his wife. Once she is rescued the war takes a new turn as he tries every means possible to get her back.

So, LA was a great read since having the lesser with some solid motivation introduced a good source of conflict. Also, Phury, John Matthew, Rehvenge Bella's half-breed vampire and sympath brother now have their own stories building up here. While Z's story arc leading to intimacy was believable, I didnt feel the romance so much. Which is the reason for the missing point.

Lover Revealed Rating: 3 / 5
Butch O'Neal, homicide detective for Caldwell PD has been living an empty life until he hooks up with the Brotherhood. Estranged from family and friends, the hard-drinking and hard-living have taken a toll on him. As has the unrequited love he feels for a female vampire.

Marissa is everything he has ever dreamed of, she's vampire aristocracy, rich, beautiful and delicate, completely out of his league. When Butch while trying to rescue a civilian from the lessers is captured, tortured and left for dead, Marissa and his roomate Vishous are the only people who can save him. Marissa with her love and V who is the yin to his yang, the light to his dark.

I didnt enjoy LR as much as the other books, the sole problem being the lead pair. Butch is a stereotypical cop but that didnt bother me until he took up with Vanilla Marissa. Ever since her intro in Dark Lover and the whole virginal act she put up there she seemed one of the TSTL heroines. Plus, the pages with Butch and V fairly sizzle their chemistry is so hot, Marissa seems like an audience-appeasing third wheel here. Whine. But we get to know V better which ups the rating in my book.

Lover Unbound Rating: 2.5 / 5
Vishous, resident clairvoyant and computer genius, is having a meltdown after Butch hooks up with Marissa. Consumed by jealousy and abandonment and a nagging worry that his visions of the future have dried up V takes his aggressions out with a lot of hard sex and hard fighting. He gets shot and lands in Dr. Jane Whitcomb's operating theatre. V instantly feels a connection with Jane while she is fascinated by her new patient - with the 6-chambered heart, fanged mouth and healing powers beyond the ordinary.

But, V has to be able to lay his murky past with a violent, abusive father at rest as well as the demands of the Scribe Virgin that he be the Primale (wed ~40 of the SV's followers, or Chosen) before he and Jane have a shot at being together.

I have to say I didnt like this book. V was my favorite among the brothers (probably because I came in with LR) and I was so angry that he never got a chance at a HEA. He and Jane had a great story arc going, Jane is aggressive from being a trauma surgeon and capable of handling the intensity that is V and both prepared to deal with the fact that Jane would grow old and die and I thought it was realistic and very well portrayed.

Instead, as with all the other books with human love interests, Ward introduces a twist, which I hated .... I'm a traditional kind of gal, this is why I stick to the historicals!!!! I think I would have been much happier if V and Butch ended up together. Much. And I havnt even started on the doormats-as-Chosen track or the angsty, boring John Matthew and friends track.

Lover Enshrined Rating: 3 / 5
Phury who sacrificed himself in LU to become the Primale of the species has brought the Chosen Cormia over to the other side so he can get to know her better. But, with Phury's spiraling descent into addiction and the new turn that the war against the lessers takes with the birth of the vampire son of the Omega it looks as if there will never be a chance to be together. And there's also the problem of the 40 additional mates. With the Lessening Society engaging in an all-out offensive against the vampires and as widespread destruction and horror ensues, Phury comes to realise that it is only Cormia who can silence the demons in his head.

So, poor, noble Phury gets cheated out of a romance even worse than V but honestly both Phury and Cormia are so boring together and apart that I couldnt care. What did sustain my interest is all the other action that is here - Rehvenge is being blackmailed by a sympath Princess, the teenage vampires John Matthew, Blaylock and Quinn surprisingly become strong allies in the war, John Matthew and Xhex (another sympath) have an attraction going on, the Omega's son and a dreary little fore-lesser are running around mucking things up on a much larger scale than before, the Scribe Virgin and her daughter and her Chosen are more fully dealt with, Tohr comes back with a fallen angel ... Ward's paranormal world just gets more crowhded. Heh.

As a transition book from the romance to the UF realm this worked for me, though Ward has now created such a huge cast of characters it remains to be seen if she can do justice to all in the following books. I certainly missed all my old favorites Wrath, Beth, V etc in this one. And I did miss the romance a teeny, tiny bit...

So, while I didnt care for Phury's addiction theme (author's please note - A Drug Addict Does Not A Romance Hero Make), the further development of Ward's world is what made this a good read for me. I know I'll definitely read the next one in the series to see where the author is going to take this series.

Lover Avenged - Rehvenge's story - reviewed here.

Lover Mine - John Matthew and Xhex's story - reviewed here.

The Earth Children series by Jean M. Auel is historical fiction set in the period of the Great Ice Age around 35000 years ago. Originally intended to be a set of 6 books, then later expanded to include 7, the series was first published in 1980, enjoyed unprecedented success with the first novel and led to a dedicated fan following for Auel. So much so, that in the 1980's there were an unprecedented number of female babies named Ayla (Ey-LAH) in the US after Ms. Auels' protagonist.

As a writer Ms. Auel isnt remarkably innovative, where the writing gains momentum is in things that interest her - the botany, geography, arcaehology of the paleolithic period. As an amateur anthropologist, Ms. Auel takes liberties with her subject material, doing an incredible amount of research but advancing theories which are not 'established' in the literature.

So, Ms. Auel's world contains two species of humans - the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons referred throughout as the Clan (from the Clan of the Cave Bear) and the Others. In her fictional world, the Cro-magnons communicate with a fully fledged language, the Neanderthals, due to the physiogonomy of her jaws have a (as richly developed) sign language and guttural sounds. While the brains of the Others are more receptive to new ideas, the brains of the Clan depend on ancestral 'memories', locked in their brains over generations, only needing reminding to awaken a memory but not very capable of new learning.

The series is bound together by a Cro-Magnon character called Ayla. While making her character the original feminist, Auel tries too hard to gain reader sympathy, the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Ayla is reviled as ugly by the Clan, is discriminated against but has many progressive ideas and comes up with the theory of reproduction all by herself. Since Ayla can be a little trying to read about, over the series she evolves into Superwoman with her very own blonde, blue-eyed, a little-less-than-Superman-ish consort, it becomes obvious that character development isnt really Auel's forte. What is, is her ability to construct and describe for the readers paleolithic civilization, the culture, the dwellings, the flora and fauna, the weapon making techniques, hunting strategies, spiritual beliefs, all these and more are amply described over the course of the books. So, if you are looking for a series with incredible historical detail the first three are for you. Reading the rest should depend on how involved you get and how patient you are with all the pontification.

Auel tries to deal with a number of issues in her books, equality between the sexes, prejudice and discrimination, culture, religion, medical knowledge, alcoholism and drug use, superstition and sex. While some issues like the religion and medical knowledge are judiciously presented, her world view of some topics is through rosy-tinted feminist glasses. So, an incredible amount of writing is devoted to the sexual liberation of women and matriarchal societies, which while not necessarily a bad thing, deviates from the hunter-gatherer norm of the period. Auel's writing on sex is clinical at best, touch on a required number of points/positions and move on, but that doesnt stop her from adding it in spades to every book in the series. I just mention it so that those who are contemplating reading are forewarned!

A break-down of the books is as below:

Clan of the Cave Bear: Inarguably the best of the lot, the story starts with the Cro-Magnon baby Ayla, being adopted by the Clan after an earthquake kills all the members of her tribe. Describing Ayla's trying childhood, from her love for her adoptive parents - the medicine woman Iza and the spiritual leader or Mog-ur of the tribe, Creb - to her fighting the jealousy and hatred of a Clan member Broud, her education in medicine and her rebellion towards the restrictions imposed by the Clan members on themselves and the woman, this is a quick and very engaging read.

Valley of Horses: The end of book 1 sees Ayla banished from her tribe and looking for the Others. While she doesnt find them, she finds herself in a valley where she takes refuge against the coming winter and remains for 3 years. In her solitariness she tames a horse Whinney and a lion, Baby for company. A parallel storyline follows the Cro-Magnon men (tall, blonde, blue-eyed, of course) Jondalar and Thonolan of the Zelandoni as they leave their tribe for a sort of Europe tour, until they end up in Ayla's valley. Jondalar and Ayla fall in love at the end of this book.

The Mammoth Hunters: Ayla and Jondalar come across the Mamutoi or the Mammoth Hunters and decide to spend a winter with them. Here she finds the companionship she has longed for and even an admirer in the tall, dark, brown-eyed (about time, you say?) sculptor Ranec. Ayla's many talents, make her beloved among the Mamutoi and she is adopted by them into their tribe testing the strength of her love and attachment to Jondalar. At the end, Jondalar who is longing for his home sets out to return to the Zelandoni, taking Ayla with him.

Plains of Passage: This is where the reader's commitment to the series is tested. As pages after pages of descriptive writing on vegetation, topology or the mating habits of mammoths go by one can see that the story has taken a backseat to the research. Which isnt terribly interesting either. Ayla's and Jondalar's reverse European tour, sees them meeting many tribes, some welcoming and innovative, some dysfunctional, others distrustful, combating prejudice or ignorance along the way, always with Super-Ayla making new discoveries. Jondalar is even given one discovery to make all by himself but it's Ayla's show all the way .... The end of this book takes Ayla and Jondalar on a death-defying trek over a glacier and puts them within reach of the Zelandoni camp.

Shelters of Stone: Released in 2002, this book took 12 years to write and has a significant amount of Auel's research into the French region where the large Zelandoni tribe lives. Apparently, the length of time between books also altered Ms. Auel's memories of her plot. Much had been made in the previous books about how the Zelandoni would not accept Ayla, pejudiced since she was raised by the Clan, but that premise fizzles out here. Also, after the Clan and the Mamutoi where Auel established certain character types living in a tightly-knit community, she takes the easy way out and rehashes them all here, just on a larger scale. Jondalar and Ayla finally get married and have a baby Jonayla, thus following the established romance novel precepts and the rest of the book sees them making efforts to settle down domestically.

While the scope of the rest of the series remain unclear, I think Auel will set the stage for the extinction of the Clan, as much has been hinted at in a recurring thread through the series. With no new book in sight, it seems unlikely that Auel will be able to accomplish completing her story. While I'd recommend the first 3 (and the rating is based on these), my interest has been tapering off in intervening years, so I might just take the time to see where Ayla and Jondalar end up. Then again, I might not.

Jack Carstares, the Earl of Wyncham has had to leave England because he was wrongfully accused of cheating at a card game. In an age where honor and courage was prevalent, this is the ultimate sin for a ’gentleman’ to commit. Forced to earn his living, he becomes a higwayman.

Closely entangled with the cause of Jack's disgrace is the Duke of Andover, Tracy ’Devil’ Belmanoir, a confirmed rake, who has his own reasons for wishing to keep Jack away from the Earldom. Lady Lavinia, Devil’s sister, a thoughtless, spoiled romantic, is married to Jack’s brother, Richard.

Also in the mix is an exotic beauty, Diana Beauleigh, who Andover has designs on. Andover plans to kidnap the lovely Diana, but of course as with all villains in romances, a spanner is thrown into these plans by Jack, but how, why and what happens next is a wonderful, action-packed, humorous ride with Heyer that I promise, you will not regret.

Secondary characters aplenty like the loveable, shatter-brained Andrew, Devil’s brother, the stolid, dependable O’Hara, Jack’s friend, mischievous Lady O’Hara and Jack’s serious and troubled brother Richard Carstares are masterfully woven into the plot.

The Black Moth, a historical romance by Georgette Heyer, was written at the age of 17 and is a wonderful induction into the world of Heyer. Since it was her first novel, it doesnt have quite the polished writing and sentence structure, wit and plot development that the later novels do. More importantly, TBM laid the groundwork for the novel These Old Shades. Almost the same characters from TBM make their appearance in TOS albeit with different names and with more intriguing personas. TOS is the better book by far, however if you wanted a prequel of sorts to the characters in that story (and you will once you read it) TBM comes as close to the real thing (Heyer's vivid world) as possible.

Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine seem impossibly blessed. They have good looks, an immense fortune and forthright manners to recommend them to Polite Society. Headstrong and heedless, they would have been able to enjoy their London debuts thoroughly if they hadnt been forced by their father's will under the guardianship of the Earl of Worth. Worth, handsome, sardonic, cynical and mysterious has given the duo sufficient reasons to dislike him intensely, but he is a conscientious guardian. Or is he?? As the Season progresses and the hapless Perry falls into one dangerous situation after another, an unwelcome suspicion starts to enter and very soon takes strong possession of Judith's mind. When Perry disappears, Judith friendless, alone and desperate, has to make up her mind whether the Earl is all who he seems to be.

Regency Buck, while not my favorite, is another of Heyer's captivating romances. Heyer who established almost all the historical romance formulas that are hashed and re-hashed these days uses the mysterious guardian ploy, here much in the fashion of the celebrated Gothic romances of the time. While the tone of the novel is definitely not Gothic, a few references indicate that Heyer knows what form she was playing with and has a blast gently mocking these very popular novels.

Coming to the novel itself, it's written with Heyer's characteristic wit, has an interesting storyline, brilliant dialogues and endearing secondary characters to while away the time with. Some contemporary Regency characters and refereneces make their appearance here from Beau Brummell and Lord Byron to Jane Austen, always with Heyer's intention of setting the historical period and context for the reader.

As for the principals, Worth is the original alpha male, dominating, powerful and confident. He would have been extremely unpleasant to read about, but Heyer balances this out with a heroine almost as masterful as Worth is himself. Judith is fearless and frequently shocks Society with her unconventional behaviour. Perry is the quintessential younger brother, charming and endearingly youthful. A scene where he wearies Judith out with nautical descriptions had me laughing out loud, so true did it ring.

Heyer's historicals take a little reading to get accustomed to. She uses a lot of contemporary (for the Regency) slang and references and frequently switches POV's between characters all in the same scene and this might take some getting used to for the reader of modern romances. However, she is the unparalleled Queen of the historical romance. Watch the Regency period come to life under Heyer's vivid pen and watch the two principals match wits with each other. I guarantee you a great read!!

I'm a greedy reader. If I love a book, I'm always left wanting more when it ends. So, I was delighted when I stumbled upon Nora Roberts' trilogies. Now, Roberts as a writer is amazingly prolific, ranging across tons of romance novel forms, but I think these trilogies are the best idea she could have ever had.

Basically, the trilogy consists a common storyline with 3 couples, each book being given over to the romance between one of the couples. I love her paranormal romances where across the 3 books, the couples unite to fight paranormal forces. 'Blood Brothers', Book 1 in the Sign of Seven trilogy is one such.

Cal, Fox and Gage share the same birthday, July, 7, 1977 and have been inseparable friends since birth. On their tenth birthday, they escape from parental supervision to the forbidden Pagan Stone in the woods surrounding their home in Hawkins Hollow.

There, an innocent boyish ritual involving an oath and the mixing of their blood unleashes something dark, powerful and evil. Now, every seven years starting on their birthday and continuing 7 days after, the entire town goes mad.

21 years later, Cal with the premonition that this year is going to be the worst, hires a writer Quinn Black to document the history of the town, hoping that a fresh pair of eyes will unearth some of the answers he and his friends have been searching for - what is the nature of the Beast and how can they overpower it?

With Quinn comes her researcher friend Cybil and a stranger Layla and it soon becomes apparent that the 6 of them together share a powerful connection. But, will this connection be enough to help them tame the Demon, read Books 1-3 to find out.


Book 2 in the series is 'The Hollow' and book 3 is 'The Pagan Stone' (due to be released in Dec '08). If I knew that the last one hadnt been printed yet, I wouldnt have picked this up since I like reading these trilogies at a single go.

Anyways, as a romance writer Roberts is always a sure bet. You know you cannot get a lousy read with her books - she is a master at characterisation, pacing, dialogues and family dynamics. I especially like her writing for all the spunky, take-charge heroines she creates. No virginal, hand-wringing, bosom heaving heroines for Roberts. And the heroes are no slouches either.

The paranormal romaces require a leap of faith, she creates alternate universes and uses a lot of magick (that spelling always cracks me up) and spells etc. This book is a PG-13 version of Roberts meets Stephen King. The paranormal never gets scary, these are primarily romance novels with the little fanciful plot elements thrown in.

And while, they are somewhat predictable, like knowing the characters and the couples you can almost predict who'll hook up with whom, Roberts never gets repetitive and I'm sure is the envy of many a romance writer for the snappiest dialogue around. Book 1 isnt the strongest start for a trilogy, but good fun to read! Now, to wait till December :((

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If you want to start off with the trilogies - The Circle Trilogy (vampires), The Three Sisters Island Trilogy (witches), the Key trilogy (mythological) are wonderful reads in that order.