Match Books

Look, I have a post that isn’t about quilts or books I have read or how cold it is (which I have been complaining about a lot lately because, oh my god, I am sick to death of this cold weather. But I am also boring myself with my complaints). Although I do also need to update about my upcoming holiday (Thailand! In two weeks! I will escape this evil freezing country) and my toe operation. There have been a few posts about my poor feet over the last year or so and I am hoping that this will be the last I have to say about it.

But, this is more interesting than all of that! Promise. It is still book related, because I love books. Please let me introduce Match Books. This is a new publishing company I am a part of. It was something I couldn’t say no to given the opportunity to work with awesome people and fiction. I have worked in publishing for around eight years now, but I work in academic publishing. It is very nice to have a break from that and see the other side.

So, if you’d like to, it would be nice if you could go like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. And check out the awesome website and the pretty book covers. Oh, and if you know writers (or you are one) interested in fantasy and romance and a slightly different way of doing things, send them our way. We have two special calls right now, one for an Urban Legends anthology and another for Second Chances (romance).

It’s early days and there’s still lots to do, but I’m really happy to be part of it.

Rebel Heart

I read the first book in this trilogy, Blood Red Road, last year and really enjoyed it, but I’d sort of forgotten about it and didn’t immediately run out and buy this book. I should have, because I enjoyed it immensely (so much so I’ve gone back and read the first one again, which I probably should have done first. Oh well)

In Rebel Heart, Saba is separated from Jack as he goes to tell Molly about Ike. Saba is making her way west with Emmi, Lugh and Tommo when she meets up with Maeve of the Freehawks who has a message from Jack. She returns Saba’s heartstone and says Jack is with the Tonton. Saba does not believe this and deciphers his real message, leaving the others to go off to meet him. After learning that Jack has betrayed her, Saba does something unexpected that will hurt everyone she cares about.

I’m so in love with Saba, and these books. I love the way they are written, so clearly in Saba’s voice, and her dialect, which I thought initially would be hard to get into, is in fact just the opposite. It’s very lyrical, and it gives you such a clear idea of who Saba is.

Lugh drove me mad in this one. I just wanted him to be on Saba’s side for a change. I know she makes mistakes, she’s hot headed and often acts first, and selfishly, rather than thinking things through and doing what’s best for the group. But she’s his sister, she needs his support, and he’s just on at her all the time. And she did spend the entire previous book saving his ass. He could at least be grateful and concede that sometimes she does know what she’s doing.

I liked revisiting the characters we got to know in Blood Red Road and the new ones we met here. Young does a good job of making you wonder if they can be trusted or not. And I have no real clue how to think about DeMalo. He’s clearly doing horrible things, even if has an idea of a noble purpose, but I don’t know if I should hate him or not. Maybe I’m as confused as Saba.

And then there’s Jack. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of him in this book, but I think it served the story better that he wasn’t, and led to more conflict. I cannot wait for the next book to see how the story concludes. And I can’t recommend these enough.

Broken Elements by Mia Marshall

 

Aidan Brook has been hiding from the world for ten years, happily living in the middle of nowhere and not intending to change that any time soon, when her ex best friend, Sera, turns up on her doorstep with bad news. Those murders that happened all those years ago that made you run away? Well, they seem to be happening again. Aidan reluctantly joins Sera and returns to the scene of the murders, hoping to find who is responsible and put a stop to it for good, as she thought they had long ago.

On her side is the fact that Aidan and Sera are Elementals. They can control their own element. Aidan is a water, while Sera is fire, and the elements help shape their personalities. But the powers also come with a catch, since the murderer is killing those who are close to Elementals. Along for the ride are other Elementals, with varying degrees of power, as well as two shifters. As a group they work on finding and stopping the killer.

I don’t know how good a synopsis that is, but this book is definitely worth a look if you’re at all interested in urban fantasy, or similar. I really enjoyed it. It’s nice to have a new supernatural world, one that doesn’t rely on vampires and werewolves. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of those things, but it’s refreshing to have a change, and especially one that doesn’t seem to be basing its world on previous myths and legends. While I don’t think the idea of controlling the elements is new, the history of the Elementals and how they came to be is something I haven’t come across before. There’s strong world building, but without too much exposition. A lot of first books in a series get too heavily bogged down with back story, or they can skirt that entirely to keep people guessing for the next book, which is frustrating. I think Broken Elements treads this line carefully, giving you just enough to keep you interested without giving everything away. There’s still a lot to learn about the world and I look forward to seeing where it goes as the series progresses.

One of my favourite things about the book is the friendship between Aidan and Sera. When the story begins they’ve been estranged for years, but they’ve never really lost their connection to each other. I liked seeing them reconnect, and there’s real affection between them. And one of the strongest parts of the book is the humour and excellent dialogue. These conversations felt real. The group of friends as a whole is very well written, and they all get personalities and a voice and back stories, when it could have been easy for them to get lost in the group.

I really liked Aidan as a main character, and the book works especially well when exploring her doubts and insecurities about her powers and heritage and how/where she fits in as a half-elemental. I like that Aidan feels, for want of a better word, human. Real. Even though she has supernatural powers she’s still very relatable, and she does make mistakes. There’s nothing worse than an impossibly perfect heroine.

Along with the mystery of who dunnit, there’s a nice, slow burning romance, just in case anyone was worried that was missing. It’s more hinted at for most of the book, but that’s nice, it is not rushed or forced. As this is a series it can afford to take its time and let us become invested. It makes sense to do that, but not all writers do.

I look forward to the second book in the series, and learning more about Aidan and her world. So roll on 2013, when we get the next installment.

Update, 26 February 2013: I am friends with the author but this is an honest review. I am now working with the author in a publishing company, although I was not at the time of writing this. It does not affect the content of my review.

The Ghost of Lily Painter by Caitlin Davies

Annie Sweet is immediately drawn to 43  Stanley Road and quickly moves in with her family. The house is everything she wanted, but there are odd things about it – their dog barks at thin air, the floor in her office slopes oddly. As her marriage begins to disintegrate, Annie seeks answers to her home’s past. She discovers through the census that a young chorus girl named Lily Painter used to lodge there, and Annie is desperate to discover more about her.

Intertwined with Annie’s story in the present, there are other voices from the past. Inspector William George writes a journal about his cases, one in particular about baby farming which is bothering him. (Baby farming being when unwed mothers with little other choice available to them would pay other women to take their babies off their hands, and then these women would sell them on to those who couldn’t have children. In some cases the babies died in suspicious circumstances.) George received a tip off about two women and is determined to get to the bottom of it. And then there’s Lily’s voice, the ghost of the title. Initially we get to see how she came to live with the Georges and start making a name for herself on the stage, but it isn’t too long before poor Lily ties the threads of the story together.

I wish this book had a different title. It is such an obvious one for a book like this. And to be honest it doesn’t fit the tone of the book at all. Neither does the jacket image. It looks like it should be very creepy, an old fashioned, scary ghost story. And it isn’t that at all, although there are times when the author tries to shoe horn that in. And that’s the problem with this book in a nutshell: it is trying to be far too many things at once, and failing on all counts. It is not a ghost story, nor is it historical fiction, or a relationship drama. It’s all those things stuck together to make a decent book that could have been even better, had it been more focused. Parts of the book are ‘inspired’ by a true story of baby farmers, and the author uses these beginnings to think about a larger ‘what if?’ These parts work really well. I was hooked on the sections that focused on the inspector, and Lily’s earlier days and how she gets involved with the baby farmers. These sections are very well written, and if the book had only been about the past I think it could have been really excellent.

The parts that don’t work all that well are the present day ones, and they felt unnecessary. It seemed like the author wanted to frame the story in this way and so made it happen, even if it didn’t do the book any good, and meant that the ending was far too silly and coincidental for it to have the emotional impact it should have. Annie, I’m afraid to say, is a very dull character, and so spending time with her while she unravels what we already know is not all that interesting. And when she’s not looking into the past she’s despairing over her marriage or taking her daughter to endless auditions, (the daughter wants to be an actress, sort of, but it’s a lame attempt at adding drama. No pun intended there).

One thing I did enjoy was the setting, which is Holloway. I live in North London so it was nice to see places I am familiar with popping up in a book. And while I can’t give this a rave review, it was entertaining for the most part. I just think it could have been a lot better.

Switched

Switched is the first book in the Trylle Trilogy from self-publishing ‘sensation’ Amanda Hocking. Hocking sold millions of ebooks before securing a publishing deal, and the paperback is the version I read. While I think what she has achieved is amazing, I also think she’s a good example of why traditional publishing, and especially a good editor, are still valuable. I don’t know how much has been changed from her original version and the one in book form, but I would guess not much, and this hurts it. While there’s a reasonably enjoyable book here, it needs a lot of work to make it truly good.

Wendy Everly has never felt like she really fits in. When she was six years old her mother tried to kill her, claiming Wendy wasn’t her daughter, and she’s been in an institution since. Wendy was raised by her aunt Maggie and older brother Matt in a loving home, but she didn’t feel like she belonged. Then a mysterious boy appears at her new school and tells her she is different; in fact, she’s a troll. She has the ability of persuasion and so can make people do what she wants them to, and she’s a changeling – she was switched at birth, meaning the woman she believed was her mother was right all along. Wendy follows Finn back to Forening, where the trolls (Trylle) live, and meets her real mother, as well as unexpected duties.

As I said, I found this to be fairly enjoyable. It is a quick and easy read, fast-paced and Wendy is a likable character. If you’re looking for something to just pass the time then this may be a perfect fit. But there’s also a lot that works against it, including that fast pace, since it seems to rush through so many things when it should take its time a little more.

And I did have problems with the writing. It is very ‘tell not show’. As an example:

“Telling Maggie about the dance may have been the worst idea I’ve ever had, and my life is made up almost entirely of bad ideas. I hadn’t wanted to go, but as soon as she’d heard about it, she decided it would be the most fantastic thing ever. I’d never gone to a dance before, but she was so excited about it, I let her have this small victory.”

Couldn’t we have had this conversation fleshed out, so we could have been a part of it? We could have seen how excited Maggie was, rather than just been told. It’s very difficult to get a feel for other characters when things are written in this way. Given that the book is told from Wendy’s point of view we have limited access to other people’s thoughts and feelings. Conversations give us this access, so when they’re described as above we’re short changed. There’s too much of this in the book, and after a while it becomes frustrating.

Then there’s the world building aspect. We’re given trolls as the supernatural being of a story. These are something I haven’t really come across, aside from in fairy tales, so I’d expect a rich history and back story. Instead we’re given a world that is basically ours with some minor tweaks and a people with a bit of magic who aren’t that dissimilar to you and me. Their main traits seem to be having unruly hair, liking to be barefoot and being picky eaters. Also they have anger issues, but this mainly comes across as being bratty. Even the changeling aspect of it is under written, the reason is sort of pointless and very human-like: financial gain. Where’s the mystery? Where’s the magic? It seemed like Hocking wanted to use paranormal aspects but keep the characters pretty. That’s fine, but also extremely dull.

As with all books of this genre there is a romance, and a romance with obstacles. Finn is the love in question, and he’s very dreamy (sorry, ‘foxy’ in this world, and boy did that description drive me mad) and protective but that’s about all you get from him. Part of the problem with believability is how Wendy acts around Finn. It seems she is willing to follow him back to Forening merely because he is hot and lurks around on her window ledge (don’t they always?). She doesn’t ask any questions about where she’s going, and even when she gets there and everyone is expecting her to act in a certain way, she still doesn’t ask questions. At one point Finn says to her ‘Do you realize what you’re giving up?’ No! Because you haven’t told her!

In the end I found the writing too frustrating to truly enjoy the book. I think it’s a shame, because there is enough here to make a decent story, it’s just not executed well. The whole thing feels incredibly rushed, and like a first draft that’s been thrown out there with no revision. It speeds along and everything happens very easily, even the ending feels rushed and wrapped up in a couple of pages, while of course setting the scene for the next book. I won’t be reading the next one based on this, I’m just not intrigued enough. But then what do I know? The woman has sold millions, she must be doing something right.

Originally published at Fluttering Butterflies

Weird Day

On Sunday I went to the filming of a Pet Shop Boys video, which London Rollergirls were starring in. They needed people to be in the crowd while they shot bout scenes. If there are any crowd shots in the video I should definitely be in them as there were only about a dozen of us. We kept having to move around the hall so it looked like there were more people. I’m dressed exactly the same for all shots so I dunno how much we’re going to fool people. I do a very lame cheer, over and over. It got a bit boring after a bit. Sitting with us was a middle aged woman who had come along because she’s a PSB fan (they weren’t on set), so we had to explain derby to her. It was all very surreal.

The video is for ‘Winner’ and features a man dressing up as a woman to play roller derby. I don’t know much else about the ‘story line’, other than at one point his girlfriend was played by one of the rollergirls. Anyway, he couldn’t skate. At all. I’m guessing it’s one of those ‘can you do this?’ moments actors have and they say yes to anything. There were many moments I had to hide my eyes because I was expecting the worst, as one hit would have broken him, but he seemed to come through unscathed.

It was good fun to watch anyway. And then I came home, getting drenched on the way, expecting to eat pizza with Max and watch bad Sunday telly. Instead, a photographer showed up to take pictures of Max for a magazine*. ‘I told you about that,’ Max says. No, you told me they’d asked you to wear chinos and have your photo taken, not that it was happening today. I’d have cleaned up! It took about an hour or so, with furniture moved and 200+ shots taken of him sitting on the sofa and then on the bed. I made a cup of tea (in a very flowery mug, ha) for a prop (Max doesn’t drink tea, the weirdo) and there were discussions about wardrobe and poses. Did I want to be in the shot, even just in the background? No I bloody did not, thank you.

So yeah, very unusual Sunday for me. We’re such a fame hungry couple, clearly.

 

*He’s in an article about Fifty Shades of Grey, the magazine wanted a man’s perspective. I haven’t read the book, other than the first few pages to see how dreadful the writing was, and don’t intend to.

Too Many Books

This is my current To Read pile. From the bottom up we have:

Charlaine Harris, Deadlocked

Bought by me because I love the Sookie Stackhouse books, although I must admit that the latest ones are not as good as the earlier ones. I’ve started this one, and I’m afraid it’s pretty weak so far. There’s too much repetition and too much detail about Sookie’s (frankly rather mundane) life. I miss plots.

Alonso Cueto, The Blue Hour

This, the Mavis Cheek and the Caitlin Davies were sent to me by Random House. I think I said ok to the Davies, and then the other two followed. I am not sure when or if I will get round to reading them, but I’ll try and give them a go at least.

Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

For me to review for Fluttering Butterflies. This is a very strange looking book and I’m a bit worried I might have nightmares from reading it, but I’m very intrigued.

Martyn Bedford, Flip

Another for Fluttering Butterflies.

Caitlin Davies, The Ghost of Lily Painter

Mavis Cheek, The Lovers of Pound Hill

Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap

I got this through Read It, Swap It, an online book swapping site.

Veronica Roth, Insurgent (not pictured: Divergent, which I will read again before starting this one). Bought by me.

C.J. Skuse, Pretty Bad Things

Joe Schreiber, Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

These last two are for Fluttering Butterflies as well. I couldn’t resist the Schreiber title.

I love having lots of books to read, but it does mean I wish I could take a month off and just sit somewhere quietly and read them. Now I get the tube to work and I’m not sitting on a bus for 40 minutes I’ve lost some of my reading time. I’ve also lost the ability to read on a bus without feeling sick. Not helpful.

Chaos Walking Trilogy

I don’t think I can do a proper review of these books. a) I’ve left it too late since I read them and b) I just enjoyed them so much, I’d rather not dissect them. I don’t think they are perfect, but they are very good. Mostly I wanted to post about them so I’d remember, and to encourage everyone else to pick them up. The books are set on another planet, where all men can hear each others’ ‘Noise’, or thoughts. Women can hear thoughts, but don’t project them, and even animals ‘speak’, though with limited vocabulary.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Todd Hewitt is about to become a man. He’s the last boy in Prentisstown, a place with no women as they were all killed, so Todd has been told, by a war with the indigenous species, The Spackle. One day Todd comes across a hole in the Noise that doesn’t make sense, and he is forced to flee Prentisstown, followed by the Mayor and a growing army. The strange hole in the noise turns out to be Viola Eade, a young girl who has crash landed on the planet in a scout ship, and more settlers are coming. Todd and Viola team up in the hopes of getting to the town of Haven, to warn them of the coming army, and to contact Viola’s ships.

This book is told solely from Todd’s point of view. Some of my favourite bits of the story involve Manchee, Todd’s dog, who irritates Todd no end, but who is a wonderful source of humour.

The Ask and the Answer

Todd and Viola are separated, and the Mayor has named himself President of New World. Todd is forced to work among the Spackle, as their jailer, while Viola recuperates in a house of healing, under the watch of Mistress Coyle. As the Mayor takes over, he separates the women and keeps them locked up, and the town doesn’t fight back. The women, led by Mistress Coyle, escape, with Viola among them, and begin a bombing campaign against the town. Todd grows closer to the Mayor, and begins learning to control his own Noise, and use it as a weapon. In the end, it’s not just the Mayor they have to worry about, as an entire Spackle army is on approach.

I enjoyed this even more than the first one, although it is especially harrowing at times. My heart was breaking. I just loved Todd and Viola, even though they weren’t together very much. The only problem I had with this one, and the books in general, is the Mayor. Why is he like he is? Is he just insane and power mad? Does he just want war? I don’t really get his motives other than there needs to be a bad guy. Also, how many times did I want them to just shoot him? They have so many opportunities but end up just standing around arguing. It felt a little long in that regard, like they were having the same conversation over and over. But, that’s my only issue. It’s an extremely fast, enjoyable read. This one is written from the point of view of both Todd and Viola, and I loved being able to get inside her head as well.

Monsters of Men

Todd and Viola are separated again as they prepare for battle on three fronts. There’s the Mayor who wants complete control, the Answer who want to defeat the Mayor (and both want to be in control when the settlers arrive), and the Spackle. Todd and Viola are in the middle, especially Viola, who wants to stop Mistress Coyle from ruining any chance of peace with the Spackle, but who also has Todd’s welfare to think of. And there’s Todd, who is changing by being around the Mayor…

Those are just snapshots of the main plots of the books, there’s so much more going on. The series has some heavy themes, and there’s loss and redemption, the cost of war – on both a personal and global level – and of course there is love. Todd and Viola’s love for each other is what keeps them going, even when apart for long stretches, and the belief they have in each other, of their inherent goodness. It is this that will lead to a change on New World.

Bloodtide

 

Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess bases its story on that of the Icelandic Volsunga Saga. Set in a London of the future that has been ravaged by gang warfare and abandoned to those seeking power, it focuses mainly on one of the warring families, the Volsons. The key characters are twins Signy and Siggy. At the beginning of the book their father Val is working on a treaty with Conor, the rival gang lord, hoping it will lead to them working together to leave London and take over the rest of the country. London has been walled off, and beyond the wall is the half-man lands, filled with creatures created in artificial wombs, mixtures of human, machine and animal. Val wants to destroy the half-men and move on through the land, and to rule it. But he needs Conor and a united London to do so.

Part of the treaty involves betrothing his daughter Signy to Conor and uniting the families. Signy is of course initially outraged by this, rightly saying that her brothers would never be expected to do something similar. She wants to be treated as their equal, she wants to fight, but her wants are dismissed. The wedding goes ahead and Signy has to leave the comforts of her home and her brother Siggy and travel to Conor’s territory. Things don’t quite go as Val planned and the Volsons’ power crumbles. Signy and Siggy are separated for many years as they both fight their own battles, one for power, one for freedom.

Interwoven amongst all this are the gods, specifically Odin and mentions of Loki. Odin steps in early on at a banquet, stabbing his knife into stone and saying whoever can remove it is its rightful owner. Everyone can sense the power of the knife, and Conor especially desires it, but it is not for him. The gods meddle every now and then, though I didn’t quite get the motivation for it, other than that, I assume, they are in the original stories, and it helped move the plot along.

I’m afraid I’d never heard of the Volsunga Saga or its characters so I couldn’t see what the author had used as his inspiration and where he’d taken more poetic licence. I’m aware of Odin and the knife/hammer (depending on whether you’re watching Thor or not), and Loki, but that’s about it, so I didn’t have much idea where it was going.

It’s hard to describe how I felt about this book. I didn’t enjoy it. It is brutal and hard to read at times, and it’s very difficult to like or really care about anyone in it. But I was definitely hooked by it and I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. I was continually shocked by the tone of it, and how explicit it is, with death and sex, given its intended audience. But I think that’s a good thing, at no point does it talk down to anyone or sugar coat anything. These people do bad things and have bad things done to them, they are selfish and vindictive and happily play with other people’s lives. I wasn’t that keen on the ending, it seemed to fade out rather than go with a bang, but the majority of the book was a gripping read. Having said that, I’m in no hurry to pick up the second book. I guess the easiest way to describe it is conflicted, which is better
than bored or unmoved.

Glow

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan is definitely a page-turner. Set in the future aboard a space ship, it follows Waverly Marshall and Kieran Alden as they travel to New Earth. Their families left Earth years before in search of a new home, and both teenagers were born aboard the Empyrean. Being amongst the oldest of the ship’s children, it is natural for Waverly and Kieran to start a relationship, and they fall in love. Their lives are interrupted when a sister ship, The New Horizon, suddenly makes contact, and their worlds are torn apart. Can Kieran and Waverly find their way back to each other and, if they do, will they ever be the same again?

I really enjoyed this book. The action starts almost immediately and it doesn’t let up until the end, when I was very invested in the world Ryan had created and am now fairly desperate to read the next installment. It is not a perfect book by any means. I struggled with the beginning, and especially the main characters and how they were depicted. Kieran is a bit of a cardboard cut out at first, he’s a basic idea of what the perfect boy would be if you were trapped in space and your choices were limited. He’s a good boy, he’s smart, he’s a bit of a suck up, and he’s not used to people not liking him. Thankfully once the story gets going he becomes a bit more fleshed out, and I found him much more relatable. The way he is forced to change and how that will impact on his relationship with Waverly are some of the most heartbreaking parts of the book.

The two main characters are separated early on, and the author uses this as a device to tell each of their stories and see through their eyes. We get a much better sense of each character this way. It also becomes much less of a love story and more two separate stories of survival. I enjoyed this, it felt a bit fresher than the usual teen romances. Yes, there is the possibility of a love triangle, which comes in the form of Seth, but all the romance is on the periphery, as survival is much more the focus. They think of each other and miss each other, but it’s not constant, there is too much else at stake.

The book turned out to be a lot darker than I was expecting. It has similar themes to The Handmaid’s Tale, a book I’ve always found disturbing. It is not on the same literary level, but it draws on similar religious themes and makes the reader continually question who is right and who is wrong. And it is surprising. Characters I thought were one-note would do something I never would have expected, usually making my stomach churn. Waverly’s story is the stronger of the two, and I connected to her more. I didn’t really buy Kieran’s storyline and his conflict with Seth for much of the time, as it felt a bit heavy handed. There were certain bits where the religious parts made me uncomfortable and, again, I lost my ability to suspend disbelief. But, having said that, Ryan did manage to bring me back, mostly because I think the way she uses the religious aspects is very clever. It raises a lot of questions and I love it when books do that. As you might be able to tell, this one has stayed with me in the couple of days since I’ve finished it, and I think it’s a mark of a very good book that I’m still thinking about it.

I don’t know when the next book is coming out, but I want it now.