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Fake reviews, not real ones.
37. Wild and Steamy - Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, Carolyn Crane (Supernatural) Anthology, purchased both because it was wicked cheap and because I wanted to read the brooks story, which is part of her steampunky Iron Seas series. It was very cute, and though I wanted to occasionally smack the heroine for her xenophobia, it was understandable within the context of her universe. (And really, I was there for Constable Newberry, anyway.) The Jill Myles story was fine, but I'm not really into the whole werewhatever scene, and I got tired of the heroine emphasizing how sexually insatiable her two-naturedness made her. The Carolyn Crane story was really not what I expected. Kind of noir superhero-y, and I definitely visualized it with Dini art. There are bits of her storytelling I think she needs to tighten up on - her names for things are a bit simplistic, frex -but if this is the stuff she's putting out, I'm definitely going to look for a full length novel from her.
38. Unholy Ghosts - Stacia Kane (Supernatural)
39. Unholy Magic - Stacia Kane (Supernatural)
40. City of Ghosts - Stacia Kane (Supernatural) Ongoing series (not a trilogy, thank Cthulhu, I'm so sick of trilogies,) post apocalyptic world which was caused by ghosts (not zombies) rising and killing a purely ridiculous amount of the worlds population. Conventional religion is abandoned, the Church (which preaches Truth) is responsible for keeping the population safe from the undead. Chess Putnam is one of several churchwitches who perform banishments to keep hauntings (real and faked) in check. Chess is also a major junkie, something she's been able to hide from the Church, but has gotten her in hot water with her dealer, who now requires a favor. I don't know that I'd necessarily classify this series as good (she's a little repetitive and I figured out the first two books before we hit the halfway mark,) but it's addictive. I like the world Kane's created, the supporting characters are interesting, (LOVE Terrible,) and she does not shy away from the gruesome. It should be noted that there are major rape triggers for folks, if that's a concern. Chess was not treated well as a foster child and she references it a lot as justification for her drug use. Despite that, I'm actively looking forward to the next book. Yay escapism.
41. A Lady's Lesson in Scandal - Meredith Duran (Romance) Okay, raise your hands if you've ever seen Anastasia. Cut out the Russian Revolution/Grand Duchess aspect out of that and you've basically got the plot. It was fun and Duran has gone with a slightly more cutthroat Eliza Doolittle for a heroine than you usually see in these types of things.
42. Feed - Mira Grant (Zombies) Yeah, I have nothing but love for this one. Post-Zombie world that just starting to get it's act together. Most of the population stays huddled in safe zones, rarely going out and living through on the newsmedia and giving rise to superstar internet personalities: aka bloggers. As the presidential election cycle ramps up, one such brother and sister blogger team have been selected to be part of the entourage for a rising young candidate. It goes about as well as you can imagine. While not nearly as obscenity and crack fueled as Transmetropolitan, I think folks who enjoyed that will like this a lot. Also, if you're a fan of the October O'Daye books (I was not,) it's the same author under a different pseudonym. (I don't hold those books against her.) This is part of a trilogy, unfortunately and I have heard the second book is a bit filler-y, so be aware of that going in. This book does resolve well enough to be considered a standalone if you decide against reading the second.
43. Her Royal Spyness #5: Naughty in Nice - Rhys Bowen (Mystery) Standard Operating Procedure: Georgie's in a bit of a pickle, the Queen comes up with some crackaddled problem for her to solve, Georgie is whisked away to the lap of 30's luxury and gets herself into all kinds of adorable scrapes while managing to ultimately save the day. A little darker than these books usually get towards the end, but is largley eminently suited to a Jeeves and Wooster-esque soundtrack. Features Coco Chanel and some smart alecky remarks from Wallis Simpson.
44. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (Nerdgasm) Reclusive, rich computer genius who created a virtual world that everyone practically lives in these days (more Second Life in structure, less WoW,) dies and leaves an unsolvable Easter Egg hunt for his would-be heir to his fortune and company shares. Which would be everyone in the entire world and an evil ISP that wants to win the race to find the keys and do nefarious, monetizing things to the virtual world. Filled with 80s pop nostalgia and geekery of all stripes. I don't necessarily think it's a badly written book in terms of plotting, pacing and voice, but I really dislike the way the author uses women and minorities in it on the rare occasions they are featured. We've discussed my issues before.
45. Record Collecting for Girls - Courtney E. Smith (Memoir) NOT a guide for collecting records, more of a women's real-life High Fidelity. Smith was a music programmer of sorts for MTV during the early parts of the decade and is ye verily, a major music geek and talks about it in a series of short essays on the subjects of dating, identifying the Next Madonna, and creating one's Top Five list. Smith and I appear to be the same age, have the same musical background, and listen to many of the same bands - at least on a high level. To say I over identified with a lot of the things she talks about in this book would be an understatement.
46. Unclaimed - Courtney Milan (Romance) Turner Series, brother #2. Mark's written a book on Male Chastity. Queen Vicky loves it, it's become a runaway success, there are idiots running around with blue cockades in their hats who have formed a Male Chastity Brigade (or somat) and Mark just needs to get the hell away from it all. So he runs away to the small village he grew up in and is promptly set upon by a desperate courtesan who is trying to despoil him to make a fast buck off one of his enemies so she can retire to her happily ever after. And wouldn't you know it? Those two crazy kids fall in Love. Both Jessica and Mark have some youthful damage they need to work though, and Jessica's reputation is a major barrier, but in the end true love prevails and they get their happily ever after. Cute, still liked the previous one better. Mark's a bit of a goody-goody.
47. Night Hunter Series #1: Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost (Supernatural with vampires) It was two dollars. Both Smart Bitches and Dear Author seemed to like it. DUDE, WHY DID THEY NOT TELL ME THE HERO WAS A SPIKE RIPOFF? I mean seriously. Peroxided blond Englishman, roughish accent, two hundred years old and change, the heroine buys him a black leather trench for Christmas. Aie. Half-vampire Catherine is out seeking revenge on the vampire who raped and knocked up her mother by killing all of the bloodsuckers she comes across, until she tangles with one who gets the better of her. Bones, (which immediately called up images of Boreanez, let me tell you what,) the hottie vampire in question agrees to let her live if she helps him hunt down a vampire he's looking to take out. As bait, basically. They fall in love. Or rather he does, she stomps around ranting about how tortured she is like book five Harry Potter. It ain't all caps, but it's close. And then she snaps out of it (sorta) and falls in love and they try to take out the big bad together and then it gets really spoilery, but I think telling you that the next book opens with a four year gap between this one and that one may give you a clue to the Happily Ever Afterness of the ending. I...am not entirely certain why I'm reading the second book, to be quite honest. But I am. Because I am a glutton for punishment.
I may be getting a little punchy.
So that's where we're at. I'm hoping to hit 60 by the end of the year. I just got addicted to Breaking Bad, (hate Walter. Hate Walter SO MUCH) however, so I'm not promising anything.
37. Wild and Steamy - Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, Carolyn Crane (Supernatural) Anthology, purchased both because it was wicked cheap and because I wanted to read the brooks story, which is part of her steampunky Iron Seas series. It was very cute, and though I wanted to occasionally smack the heroine for her xenophobia, it was understandable within the context of her universe. (And really, I was there for Constable Newberry, anyway.) The Jill Myles story was fine, but I'm not really into the whole werewhatever scene, and I got tired of the heroine emphasizing how sexually insatiable her two-naturedness made her. The Carolyn Crane story was really not what I expected. Kind of noir superhero-y, and I definitely visualized it with Dini art. There are bits of her storytelling I think she needs to tighten up on - her names for things are a bit simplistic, frex -but if this is the stuff she's putting out, I'm definitely going to look for a full length novel from her.
38. Unholy Ghosts - Stacia Kane (Supernatural)
39. Unholy Magic - Stacia Kane (Supernatural)
40. City of Ghosts - Stacia Kane (Supernatural) Ongoing series (not a trilogy, thank Cthulhu, I'm so sick of trilogies,) post apocalyptic world which was caused by ghosts (not zombies) rising and killing a purely ridiculous amount of the worlds population. Conventional religion is abandoned, the Church (which preaches Truth) is responsible for keeping the population safe from the undead. Chess Putnam is one of several churchwitches who perform banishments to keep hauntings (real and faked) in check. Chess is also a major junkie, something she's been able to hide from the Church, but has gotten her in hot water with her dealer, who now requires a favor. I don't know that I'd necessarily classify this series as good (she's a little repetitive and I figured out the first two books before we hit the halfway mark,) but it's addictive. I like the world Kane's created, the supporting characters are interesting, (LOVE Terrible,) and she does not shy away from the gruesome. It should be noted that there are major rape triggers for folks, if that's a concern. Chess was not treated well as a foster child and she references it a lot as justification for her drug use. Despite that, I'm actively looking forward to the next book. Yay escapism.
41. A Lady's Lesson in Scandal - Meredith Duran (Romance) Okay, raise your hands if you've ever seen Anastasia. Cut out the Russian Revolution/Grand Duchess aspect out of that and you've basically got the plot. It was fun and Duran has gone with a slightly more cutthroat Eliza Doolittle for a heroine than you usually see in these types of things.
42. Feed - Mira Grant (Zombies) Yeah, I have nothing but love for this one. Post-Zombie world that just starting to get it's act together. Most of the population stays huddled in safe zones, rarely going out and living through on the newsmedia and giving rise to superstar internet personalities: aka bloggers. As the presidential election cycle ramps up, one such brother and sister blogger team have been selected to be part of the entourage for a rising young candidate. It goes about as well as you can imagine. While not nearly as obscenity and crack fueled as Transmetropolitan, I think folks who enjoyed that will like this a lot. Also, if you're a fan of the October O'Daye books (I was not,) it's the same author under a different pseudonym. (I don't hold those books against her.) This is part of a trilogy, unfortunately and I have heard the second book is a bit filler-y, so be aware of that going in. This book does resolve well enough to be considered a standalone if you decide against reading the second.
43. Her Royal Spyness #5: Naughty in Nice - Rhys Bowen (Mystery) Standard Operating Procedure: Georgie's in a bit of a pickle, the Queen comes up with some crackaddled problem for her to solve, Georgie is whisked away to the lap of 30's luxury and gets herself into all kinds of adorable scrapes while managing to ultimately save the day. A little darker than these books usually get towards the end, but is largley eminently suited to a Jeeves and Wooster-esque soundtrack. Features Coco Chanel and some smart alecky remarks from Wallis Simpson.
44. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (Nerdgasm) Reclusive, rich computer genius who created a virtual world that everyone practically lives in these days (more Second Life in structure, less WoW,) dies and leaves an unsolvable Easter Egg hunt for his would-be heir to his fortune and company shares. Which would be everyone in the entire world and an evil ISP that wants to win the race to find the keys and do nefarious, monetizing things to the virtual world. Filled with 80s pop nostalgia and geekery of all stripes. I don't necessarily think it's a badly written book in terms of plotting, pacing and voice, but I really dislike the way the author uses women and minorities in it on the rare occasions they are featured. We've discussed my issues before.
45. Record Collecting for Girls - Courtney E. Smith (Memoir) NOT a guide for collecting records, more of a women's real-life High Fidelity. Smith was a music programmer of sorts for MTV during the early parts of the decade and is ye verily, a major music geek and talks about it in a series of short essays on the subjects of dating, identifying the Next Madonna, and creating one's Top Five list. Smith and I appear to be the same age, have the same musical background, and listen to many of the same bands - at least on a high level. To say I over identified with a lot of the things she talks about in this book would be an understatement.
46. Unclaimed - Courtney Milan (Romance) Turner Series, brother #2. Mark's written a book on Male Chastity. Queen Vicky loves it, it's become a runaway success, there are idiots running around with blue cockades in their hats who have formed a Male Chastity Brigade (or somat) and Mark just needs to get the hell away from it all. So he runs away to the small village he grew up in and is promptly set upon by a desperate courtesan who is trying to despoil him to make a fast buck off one of his enemies so she can retire to her happily ever after. And wouldn't you know it? Those two crazy kids fall in Love. Both Jessica and Mark have some youthful damage they need to work though, and Jessica's reputation is a major barrier, but in the end true love prevails and they get their happily ever after. Cute, still liked the previous one better. Mark's a bit of a goody-goody.
47. Night Hunter Series #1: Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost (Supernatural with vampires) It was two dollars. Both Smart Bitches and Dear Author seemed to like it. DUDE, WHY DID THEY NOT TELL ME THE HERO WAS A SPIKE RIPOFF? I mean seriously. Peroxided blond Englishman, roughish accent, two hundred years old and change, the heroine buys him a black leather trench for Christmas. Aie. Half-vampire Catherine is out seeking revenge on the vampire who raped and knocked up her mother by killing all of the bloodsuckers she comes across, until she tangles with one who gets the better of her. Bones, (which immediately called up images of Boreanez, let me tell you what,) the hottie vampire in question agrees to let her live if she helps him hunt down a vampire he's looking to take out. As bait, basically. They fall in love. Or rather he does, she stomps around ranting about how tortured she is like book five Harry Potter. It ain't all caps, but it's close. And then she snaps out of it (sorta) and falls in love and they try to take out the big bad together and then it gets really spoilery, but I think telling you that the next book opens with a four year gap between this one and that one may give you a clue to the Happily Ever Afterness of the ending. I...am not entirely certain why I'm reading the second book, to be quite honest. But I am. Because I am a glutton for punishment.
I may be getting a little punchy.
So that's where we're at. I'm hoping to hit 60 by the end of the year. I just got addicted to Breaking Bad, (hate Walter. Hate Walter SO MUCH) however, so I'm not promising anything.
