Review: Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King

Another home run from Laurie King! I love this series so much, and am always so glad to read another installment. This copy I purchased, probably at Barnes and Noble, although possibly from Amazon.

This book continues Holmes' and Russell's adventures, following closely on the heels of their time in India, which was explored in the last book, The Game. Once they concluded their business in that novel, Holmes and Russell headed towards America, specifically San Francisco, so that Russell can prepare to divest herself of the last of her family's holdings there. On the boat as they travel from one side of the world to the other, Russell has three disturbing dreams: one of various items flying about the room, one of a faceless man, and one where she is consistently walking past a locked room, to which she has the key, safely hidden in her pocket. While trying to puzzle out the reason for these dreams, she and Holmes arrive in San Fran. Ultimately, Russell realizes that the dreams are her subconscious trying to tell her something. What that is leads her and Holmes on a quest through San Francisco, through Chinatown, down the coast to Mary's parents' summer house, and into her parents' haunted past.

This was a (I should say ANOTHER) well-paced, taut, exciting ride with Holmes and Russell, full of interesting puzzles. We learn quite a bit more about Mary's past and some troubling facts related in previous novels are laid to rest. This novel is different from the others, as it is told from both Mary's first-person point of view, as well as a third-person omniscient point of view, which allows the reader to follow both Holmes and Russell when they are investigating Mary's past each on their own.

As I always do, I loved it. What can I say? Holmes and Russell are two of my very favorite characters in all of literature, and I can only hope that Laurie King continues to give us new installments of their adventures for years to come! Five out of five Whatevers. Read this if you are a lover of Holmes, a lover of this series, or if you want a taste of San Francisco during the Roaring Twenties (the descriptions of the scenery, the dress, and the lingo of the time are wonderful).

2012-17

Review: Absolutely, Positively by Heather Webber

Okay, I am totally addicted to this series by Heather Webber. These books are so cute! They are a contemporary mix of paranormal, light mystery and romance, and I cannot get enough. I love the main character, Lucy, and her friends. I love her grandmother, Dovie, and all the rest of the kooky characters that populate her world. I'm so hooked that I can read these in a day, but then I'm totally jonesing for more!

I started this one Tuesday, before I left Ohio, but my Kindle battery died on the plane, so I couldn't read the rest of it until Wednesday, after I recharged. In this installment, Lucy is hired through Lost Loves to find the high school sweetheart of a girl who hasn't seen him since they were foster children together. Lucy's investigation reveals some unsavory details about the boyfriend, and she has to decide whether or not to stay on the case, despite her misgivings. She is also aiding the State Police as they look into the disappearance of a dying billionaire, whose family don't seem to care that he's gone. And her frenemy Preston, the newspaper reporter, drags Lucy along while she is chasing the Lone Ranger, a mysterious man who appears out of nowhere, throwing money to the masses. Of course there are other complications: Lucy's parents appear to be getting back together, but will it last? And how serious is she willing to get with Sean Donohue?

These books are like junk food to me. Love them, but a steady diet would be too much. However, that didn't stop me from ordering the next in the series on my Kindle as soon as I'd finished this one. Every once in a while, you need to read something that brings you pure joy and for me, these books do. Five out of five Whatevers. I can fly through these, so they definitely rate that high. Recommended for anyone who is already a fan of the series, for anyone looking for a light read (I think of these as refreshers between headier reading material), or for anyone who likes any of the following: animals, romance novels, cozies, and ESP/clairvoyance-type paranormal stories.

2012-16

Review: The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel

I finished this book, the next in my reading of the Earth's Children series, while on vacation. I'd read about 200 or so pages before I left, but the book is over 800 pages long, so I knew I'd have plenty to keep me busy while visiting my family up North. It was good, a necessary installment to keep the story of Ayla and Jondalar going, but not the best in the series by any means.

In this book, our heroes, Ayla of the Mamutoi and Jondalar of the Zelandonii, have left the Mamutoi camp that had adopted Ayla and struck out across the Eurasian land mass during the Ice Age, trying to reach Jondalar's people in the West. This book details all that befalls them as they travel: they meet several different bands of people, even some Clan members (what we know as cavemen), rescue any number of folks, including a band of people where men were enslaved and women ruled under a cruel mistress, fought the land and its flora and fauna for survival, and tracked the Great Mother River from her beginnings in the Beran (Bering?) Sea (remember, this is before the great land mass separated into Eurasia and North America), to where she petered out in the West (somewhere in what is now France).

While I enjoyed the furtherance of the storyline that I've been following over the last several books, this was not my favorite. I'm not sure why, but the infodumping was much more noticeable to me in this book than in the others. I'd be reading about a hunt or some other high-action scene, and then all of a sudden I'm getting a geological lesson in the formation of glaciers or a sociological lesson in the making of ancient tools. I recognize that Auel did some major research in order to make the details of the book realistic, but I don't know that it was necessary to give us EVERY detail of EVERY topic she researched. It made the book drag in spots. And the other flaw I would note is...there is a lot of sex. Like a LOT. Now, I am no prude, and I have not minded the sex in the previous books, but it seemed multiplied and kind of gratuitous in this installment. It got to the point where I could see it coming and inwardly groaned. And it really didn't move the plot forward in most cases. Yes, Ayla and Jondalar are young and in love. I. Get. It.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, and it was important to tell the next bit of their story, but I hope the next book moves a bit away from the infodump and the sex and includes more action! Recommended for fans of the series, anyone who likes their stories hot and heavy, or anyone who wants a deeply detailed look into life in the Ice Age. Three and a half out of five Whatevers. Avoid this one if you don't like the sexy times.

2012-15

Review: Best American Short Stories 2010 ed. by Richard Russo

I'm a little behind on my Best American reading. I request these books every year for Christmas (I used to buy them for myself, but it's gotten a bit expensive...but they make great Christmas gifts!), and I received this one for Christmas in 2010. I have 2010 and 2011 sitting on the TBR shelves. I've FINALLY cracked open the first of three 2010 volumes (I also collect the Mystery Stories and Non-Required Reading books). I finished this one last night, and, as usual, it was fantastic!

There were only a couple of stories in this volume that I felt would not have been MY picks for "best" short stories of the year. Jim Shepard's "The Netherlands Lives with Water" and Charles Baxter's "The Cousins" didn't capture me. I think Jim Shepard is much, much smarter than I am, because I didn't understand much of his story. Of course, it was set 25 years in the future, and dealt with the rising sea levels that were threatening to overwhelm the Netherlands, but I felt like I was missing something reading this one. And that I find unfortunate, because I have Shepard's Like You'd Understand, Anyway sitting on the TBR shelves.

If you can only catch a couple of these stories, however, or if you are looking for something to dip your toes into for Short Story Monday, I HIGHLY recommend Jennifer Egan's "Safari" (the hype about Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad seems justified, if this story is anything to go by). Also, I really loved Tea' Obreht's "The Laugh" and Wells Tower's "Raw Water." In fact, if you read only one story in the collection, let it be "Raw Water." Both "The Laugh" and "Raw Water" shared an ominous sense of foreboding, foreshadowing of the best (or worst) kind. I love it when I can tell from the beginning of the story that something terrible is going to happen. In "The Laugh," that terrible thing is tangible, explored, overt. In "Raw Water," Tower dances around the terrible thing, and that makes it all the more horrifying. Gave me chills, honestly.

The rest of the stories were perfectly serviceable, but nothing to write home about. Usually, I give this collection a five, but I'm giving this incarnation four out of five Whatevers. Maybe it was me (I read quite a few of the stories while I was sick, and am having trouble recalling the details of many of them), maybe the collection is suffering from the demise of the printed word, with print magazines falling by the wayside in swaths, or maybe I don't recognize great literature when it smacks me in the face. But this collection was more uneven than I remember others being. Still highly recommended as my favorite source of short stories, but with a slight reservation this year.

2012-14

Review: The Game by Laurie R. King

I Mooched this book a few years ago. It's the next in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series that I've been making my way through for the last few months. And it was a doozy.

In this installment, Holmes and Russell are asked to investigate the disappearance of a British border spy in India named Kimball O'Hara - the basis for Kipling's novel Kim. O'Hara hasn't been heard from in quite some time, which is not unusual for a spy in the wilds of India, but some other events have come about which have given the British government (and hence Mycroft) pause. Holmes and Russell head off to British-occupied India to see if they can uncover a trace of O'Hara's whereabouts. On the way, they meet some interesting Americans, who might also be Communist spies. Once in India, Holmes and Russell split up, with Russell visiting a maharaja in a northern Indian state, trying to pick up some word of Kimball O'Hara. But the maharaja seems a bit...unbalanced. Will Russell escape with her life? Will the two find Kimball O'Hara? What is the maharaja up to, anyway?

I really enjoyed this one. I've been craving some fiction set during the British colonial period in India. For some reason, I find this particular time and place in history extremely romantic (think A Little Princess). This story takes place a bit late in the colonial period (1924 - India achieved independence in 1947, I believe), but it still had that flavor that I was looking for. As usual, Russell and Holmes get into and out of some sticky situations, are chased by bad guys, and get their man in the end. Five out of five Whatevers. Love this series!

2012-13

Review: Deeply, Desperately by Heather Webber

I've spent years compiling a reading list composed of all kinds of things: classics that I feel I should read because they're classics; more intellectual, literary reads; all kinds of books recommended by magazines, other bloggers, websites, etc. But when it comes down to it, those more serious or intellectual or literary reads don't really do it for me. I like the junk food, the quick, light reads that don't take too much brain power: cozy mysteries, romances, lighter YA. Sure, sometimes I like my mysteries on the more challenging side (like the Mary Russell series by Laurie King), and I do like reading classics, too, and, yes, sometimes I'm even in the mood for a more serious work of modern LITERATURE. But for pure escapist, enjoyable reading? Give me a potboiler every time.

And that's why I love Heather Webber's Lucy Valentine series. It's not what you would call intellectually challenging, but it is a hell of a lot of fun. I'm on my second book in the series, and it was much like the first: a little bit of romance, a little bit of cozy mystery, a little bit of the supernatural, and a really fast read for me. I read this second book in a day, much like the first one. That NEVER happens for me.

In this book, Lucy Valentine, a woman with a gift for finding lost objects which she has parlayed into a job reuniting lost loves for her family's matchmaking business, is settling into her slot in the family business. Her relationship with Sean Donahue is progressing slowly, but that's Lucy's fault. She's worried that the family love curse will destroy any relationship with Sean that she is able to build. But she wants to move faster. Meanwhile, she and best friend Marisol are trying to figure out if their other best friend, Em, has a cheating fiance', Lucy is tracking the whereabouts of a long lost love for a work assignment, and tracking a missing mother of two in order to help out the police.

It's another fast-moving episode in the life of Lucy Valentine and I couldn't read it fast enough. Five out of five Whatevers for what it is: an easy read that is hard to put down. Recommended for folks who enjoyed the first novel, fans of cozy mysteries, and romance with a tinge of the supernatural. This isn't a novel that will win any literary awards, but it took my mind off of life and made me happy for a day, and that's really all I ask out of my reading choices.

2012-12

The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel

I Mooched this copy of the book, several years ago. It's the third in the Earth's Children series. And it was another winner.

In this installment, Ayla and Jondalar travel the land searching for the Others, specifcally the Mamutoi, or Mammoth Hunters. They eventually come upon an encampment, the Lion Camp. The Others live in an earthlodge, which helps them weather the harsh winters, close to the glacier. Eventually, the Mamutoi decide to adopt Ayla. Jondalar refuses to be adopted, but remains in the earthlodge to be close to Ayla. There, Ayla meets a dark man, Ranec, and is forced to choose between him and Jondalar. Whom will she choose? Will Jondalar stay with the Mamutoi, or return to his family? Will Ayla charm her way into the hearts of all the Mamutoi, or will the Others force her out?

This was another stellar episode of Ayla's saga. I couldn't put the book down, reading it at every opportunity. I spent much of the July 4th holiday with my nose buried in the book, and I finally got a chance to finish it last night. Four and a half out of five Whatevers. The historic details are so interesting, and it seems like Auel has really done a lot of research. Recommended for those who like historic fiction, as well as for those who are already in the midst of the series (like myself).

2012-11