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These are books 2, 3, and 4 in the Vampire Academy series. I reviewed the first one here.
I read all these right in a row, so it’s hard for me to differentiate them from each other. And it’s impossible to avoid spoilers. So I’m just mushing them all into one “thoughts” post, to remember what I thought about the series when the next one rolls around. For those who haven’t read them, I’ll just tell you that if you like YA boarding school stories with vampire romance, and don’t mind some diversions outside of the boarding school, this is a good series for you.
  
All of these books are from Rose’s viewpoint, with occasional peeks from her into Lissa’s head. I still liked Rose and I thought her relationship with the older Dimitri was sweet, but I have to admit that I thought her emotions were overwrought at times, especially in the last book, Blood Promise. She has loads of memories that we never saw in the first three books, except for the one time they had sex, and it kind of irritated me that we didn’t experience as much of their love story as I might have liked. If we had, maybe I wouldn’t have felt like she was being constantly dramatic, for all her talent as a master Strigoi killer. Her grief in Frostbite and the beginning of Shadow Kiss was more interesting.
I loved that Rose went to Russia and explored another part of the world that Mead created. I like the world and I felt like it became much more fully fleshed out in these three books. I liked that Rose’s mother showed up, and more than once, so we learn that there’s a reason behind this heroine’s absent-mother syndrome, and that her mother does love her. Rose and Lissa discover more about their shadow-kissed bond, and find other people who have it, too, as well as finding another spirit user. Since that’s been established, the fact that they might need to use spirit, as implied in the cliffhanger, doesn’t feel like a deus ex machina. The roots of all these problems were in the first book. Still, I had cause to wish the plots were tighter, especially in Shadow Kiss and Blood Promise. There is some purposeless rambling, and even more annoying one of the covers has a teaser line that isn’t answered until the last 100 pages of the book. I hate that, but it’s obviously not the author’s fault that the publisher is trying to make the book sound more exciting.
I do have to say that I really enjoyed this series. They were all very fast reads and I generally don’t mind cliffhangers when I have the next book right with me. I’m looking forward to the next one, but I’m not in a rush. I just hope that the series isn’t never-ending and doesn’t get longer and more dramatic with the next installment, but I will be reading it in May when it comes out.
I’m an Amazon Associate, I bought all these books.
 This is a collection of short stories set in Charles de Lint’s urban fantasy city of Newford. This city – I’ve always thought it was in Canada but I don’t recall ever actually reading that – has its fair share of the poor, the needy, and the ones who choose to take advantage of them, but it is also full of magic for those with the ability to embrace it, like artist Sophie who dreams another world into existence. Though these stories have all been published before and can be treated as separate entities, the book also works well as a collection with many of the same characters appearing over and over again.
My previous experience with Charles de Lint has been confined to The Onion Girl, which is set in this same city, and Moonheart, which is set elsewhere but still falls under an urban fantasy heading. I knew that Newford started out with short stories and I always wanted to start from the beginning. The Ivory and the Horn isn’t the beginning, but it was close enough for me when I got tired of waiting to be able to buy the first collection!
This is urban fantasy, but it’s a different kind of urban fantasy than the glut of books about badass heroines falling in love with/killing vampires/werewolves/etc which is currently dominating the market at the moment. Much as I do enjoy those books, I also really enjoy this, because I feel that Newford is very much a real city with a real city’s issues, even if its inhabitants transport themselves to other worlds on occasion. There is poverty here. There is murder that has nothing to do with blood-sucking. To me, this is more like real life with a fantasy edge, not a book that is fantasy with few touches of real life. The fantasy is so subtle in some of the stories that it could be explained away as a dream or delusion, until it’s confirmed by someone else.
De Lint’s fantasy has also always felt very natural to me. It’s bound up in what I imagine are Native American myths. Some of the characters transport themselves to a desert and speak with animal spirits, or perform magic that leaves behind bits of bone and grass. It always feels to me like it touches on what people actually believed was real at one point. It’s difficult to describe the essence of it, but I really like it.
I even liked the characters. Short stories are often a hard sell for me. I find it really hard to relate to anyone when they’re only around for thirty pages or so, and I don’t think the plot always can develop either. But here, because everyone pops up again and again, and similar issues are dealt with, and the city stays the same, I actually really appreciated the short story format. The stories kept my attention and I could get to know the characters as well as find out a new angle about their lives. It’s about a community.
I’m really anxious to read more Newford stories. I’m still not supposed to be buying books, but we’re halfway through February now and it’s almost March, when I can be a little freer with my purchases. So, recommendations – I fully intend to read Dreams Underfoot, but what else is excellent by de Lint? Let me know!
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book, and I’m sorry I waited so long to read it!
 Laura thought she was destined for spinsterhood until Henry McAllan chose to make her his wife. What she didn’t bargain on was his desire to own land, and their move to a cotton farm a few years later with two small girls. Laura hates the farm, which she and her daughters christen Mudbound, and hates her father-in-law, who has no place to live but with them. When World War II ends, Henry’s brother Jamie comes to stay with the family, and so does Ronsel Jackson, the son of the sharecroppers nearby. Sharing the common bond of fighting men, Ronsel and Jamie become friends of a sort, in a way that no one in the South will tolerate for very long.
It’s hard to say I liked this book, but it was compelling and completely horrifying in parts. This is particularly so because most of the characters in the book are very racist. I know people genuinely thought like this when and where this book is set, but it bothers me and I can’t understand it (which, I suppose, is a good thing). I wanted all the characters to stop being close-minded, to think more like Jamie, who sees Ronsel as a person despite the color of his skin and respects the military achievements that he made.
The book rotates between viewpoints, giving us insight into all of the characters’ heads. We can witness Laura’s unhappiness, Henry’s land-lust, Jamie’s jitters and bad memories. Ronsel’s memories of war in Europe were for me the most affecting. He describes the difference it made in Europe when he was defined as a man, not as a black man; the wonder of having a white woman fall in love with him and everyone make him feel like he was valued. He had to be my favorite character and my heart broke for him over and over again, stuck in a racist town working on a farm where he’d never be appreciated the way he should have been.
Mudbound is a powerful and affecting book, but it won’t leave you happy. It will leave you unsettled and anxious to change the world, correct anyone who might still feel this way. It’s an evocative and moving picture of the American South, but I hope it has changed very much.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Melinda Sordino has a shameful secret that has changed her life. In one stroke, she lost her friends, her interests, and her sense of security. Going back to school after the fateful party when she called the cops is difficult. Melinda hardly speaks to anyone, not even her parents, and everyone in school judges her except a new girl that Melinda doesn’t even like all that much. Telling the truth about that night takes courage, and for that Melinda knows she will eventually have to speak.
This book was so affecting. It’s fairly easy to figure out what happened to Melinda, but that doesn’t make its impact any less heartbreaking. I’m only six years removed from high school and this book brought back just how painfully mean teenagers are to one another. Melinda’s friends disdain her simply because it isn’t cool to be seen with her anymore, not offering even the smallest kindnesses to her as a fellow human being. And her encounters with one person in particular made me very scared for her. Through it all, though, she retains a sardonic humor which made me hope that she would be okay, and see why people were her friends in the first place. I genuinely liked her, so when people reject her over and over I really hurt for her.
Something else I really liked about this YA novel was that Melinda’s parents were present. I didn’t know why they didn’t ask more often about why she didn’t speak to them, but they did at least notice her and had their place in her life. I feel like a lot of YA titles simply skip over parents and it was nice that Melinda’s actually existed.
I also enjoyed Anderson’s writing; I hadn’t read any books by her, but this one has persuaded me that I should get to more of them. The narrative covers an entire school year and since it’s just 200 pages, some time is skipped, but I never felt like I was missing anything. It all flowed naturally. The writing was occasionally choppy but fit well since we were in Melinda’s head.
I thought Speak was a great read. It brings to mind the difficulty many teens – and even older women – have when they are targeted like this. My heart broke for Melinda and I suspect yours will too.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Lady Penelope Staines is the subject of Eloise’s research this time. Penelope and her husband Frederick, unwillingly married due to a compromising situation, head to India where the political situation is very unsteady. On their way to Frederick’s posting, the couple meet Captain Alex Reid, a British man born and raised in India, convinced that these inexperienced aristocrats are going to be ineffectual. In Penelope, however, Alex finds a courageous woman who has been damaged by years of criticism, far from his expectations.
I really enjoy this series and The Betrayal of the Blood Lily was no exception. The series’s change of location, even if temporary, is totally refreshing and brings in a new political atmosphere. I’ve read a few books set in India lately and this was a different time period, so I appreciated more history. I also felt like, even though this one restores the sex scene to the romance, this is more historical fiction than romance. The romance is certainly present, and very sweet, but there is also quite a bit of intrigue in the Indian court as well as Penelope’s painful relationship with her reluctant husband. It takes a little bit to get used to the different setting, but it’s worth it.
As usual, the modern day storyline with Eloise and Colin is somewhat less interesting. Not much happens, except that they’re still together. It’s hard not to feel for Eloise because she’s a charming character, and I too can imagine very little better than having the ability to delve through historical letters and documents for a day. She finds out some disturbing facts about Colin’s family but not much changes in her own personal or academic life.
I’m left wondering when this series is going to end, but as long as Willig keeps producing stories that are alternately fun and emotional, I’m going to keep reading them.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 This gigantic book opens with the wedding of Savita Mehra and Pran Kapoor, uniting their families (and a whole lot of related families) for the rest of the book, though they have barely seen one another before. Part of the book revolves around Lata Mehra’s search for a suitable boy (hence the title), which her mother mainly controls, although Lata appears to be innately drawn towards the unsuitable boys. Another character, Maan, begins the novel as quite a superficial young man, not really interested in his business or his father’s role in government, mostly drawn to women, but he grows to become surprisingly lovable. And there are political forces at work throughout India, which is very newly independent and partitioned from Pakistan; struggles between Hindus and Muslims, between governmental parties, between the city and the countryside. Not only is the book immense, but so are the themes it covers.
This book probably took me the longest of any book I’m going to read this year, but I did it on purpose. It’s almost 1500 pages long (so it might be the actual longest book as well) and I attempted to spread it out over two weeks, although once I got towards the end I just read on to see what happened. I really, really enjoyed it. It’s properly satisfying and immersive as just such a chunkster should be. I did have my favorite parts, mostly to do with Lata and Maan (which is totally why they’re in my summary) and I also really liked the relationship between Pran and Savita, which goes from them barely knowing one another to a very sweet love. The book takes place over about a year’s time in India in the 50’s, so a ton of political action is happening. India is trying to define itself without the British, without part of its territory, and the process is messy.
I will admit that I found most of the political sections boring. I wasn’t really interested in the bills they were passing or all the arguments that went on. I felt like I could get what was happening from the parts that took place in the countryside, which I enjoyed more anyway, and which certainly had more of a human touch to them as we could see what various laws and decisions were taking effect. The actual politics don’t take up much of the book, but I definitely began skimming those parts toward the end to get back to the characters I cared about. I also was occasionally confused by how the characters classified themselves. I didn’t know the difference between people from various regions or castes and there was no way I could tell a Muslim from a Hindu by their names. I knew there was a caste system, but I guess I didn’t realize that it still existed so much fifty years ago, and I wonder how prevalent it is now. I was also really surprised at how much the color of skin was an issue. I was startled each time Mrs Rupa Mehra worried she was going to have a black grandchild and sought out a fair-skinned husband for Lata as a result.
It was wonderful to live in this book for a little while, and I already find that I miss many of the characters and I want to know what happened next. I was somewhat dissatisfied with one aspect of the ending, but that’s not enough to make me dislike the rest of the book. I’m very glad I read it and it had me thinking about India’s independence, a topic I was never really all that interested in before, maybe just because I never had reason to be. But at its core, this is still a novel about people and that’s why I really loved it. The characters are fully fleshed out and experience the full gamut of emotions; almost everything you could imagine happens in this book. I felt like I could have easily lived among them and become friends with them in real life, and Vikram Seth let me for the space of these pages. I’m very glad I have An Equal Music in my TBR piles at home, and I can imagine myself picking it up very soon.
A Suitable Boy is a huge, fantastic read with, to me, both a foreign and a very familiar focus. It was well worth the time I spent reading it and it’s a great start to my ongoing attempt to read outside of my comfort zone.
 To my surprise, my copy of 84 Charing Cross Road included The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street as well, so I figured I’d review them both together, as they sort of go together anyway.
In a search for rare books, writer Helene Hanff pens a letter to Marks & Co. booksellers in London, hoping that they’ll have what she so desires. Her initial letter sparks two decades of communication between her and the employees of the bookstore, particularly Frank Doel, who answers that letter and becomes a dear penpal to her. In The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Hanff finally makes a trip to London to promote the newly published 84 Charing Cross Road, visiting all the sights which had become familiar to her through the letters and through films.
It was almost inevitable that this book would let me down. My expectations were so, so high, given that this is a book for book lovers and countless people assured me that if I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I would love this too. And I did, but not as much, which was in itself disappointing. Yes, it is a totally charming and endearing story. I loved when Hanff grew so fond of the London employees that she sent them packages of hard-to-get items just after World War II when everything was still rationed. The time period felt real to me through these people that had lived through it. And of course this is certainly a book for book lovers, as Hanff’s passion for them especially shines through and definitely makes me feel like I should be reading all the books she’d read.
Unfortunately, though, I found Hanff slightly abrasive. She had a strange habit of suddenly writing in lower case, which I just didn’t understand, and she seemed to me very much like a loud American stereotype, particularly in comparison to the more somber British writers. I think I would have preferred more letters, too. There were gaps of years between some of the letters, and clearly there had been some correspondence over those years because they’d reply to one another. I kept feeling like I was missing something, and the book was so short that more letters could have been included easily.
I feel like there’s something wrong with me because I didn’t love this as much as everyone else does. All those five star reviews, everyone saying that book lovers can’t not love this book – well, clearly I should have waited and let my expectations die down a bit! There’s also the fact that the ending was spoiled for me by the back cover, which I almost never read but in this case did. That certainly hurt the book as it robbed me of the true emotional impact it could have had.
It was with a little bit of surprise that I then found myself loving the second book, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. I’d hardly heard of this one, as everyone focuses on the first. But here, Hanff actually travels to London, even though she’s just had a hysterectomy and is in considerable pain. Watching her discover London – and England – was like doing it for myself all over again. And if you don’t think I got as excited and moved as she did, just ask my husband, who was there (and confused by me) for most of it!
Is it strange that I related far more to her passion for British history than I did to her passion for books? Because I certainly did. She’s a very different reader than me, and I’m sure that has something to do with it. In any case, there is something magical about a place you’ve read about in history books coming to life, and I could palpably feel her excitement. I know what it’s like to walk along paths I’d previously only dreamed of walking on, places where history that I love happened, where writers that I love wrote, where generations of other people have sat and dreamed and thought and changed the world. It’s awe-inspiring, and that’s what I loved about this book. I can still remember that thrilling first vision of green that was England from my plane window and there Hanff and I turned out to have quite a bit in common after all. And I found her visit to Marks & Co extremely moving – it closes down by the time she finally gets to see it – and her visits with her correspondents were touching and sweet. I liked her a lot better in this second book and I wonder now if I should reread the first with this new perspective.
Both of these books are worth your time. Don’t let expectations get to you and take it as it comes – and DON’T read the back cover!
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased these books.
I like the mini review format so much that I’m going to use it for a lot of my romance reading. In general, I don’t have enough to say about these books to generate a full review, and I like to clear out my review backlog, so I’ll be posting a set of four mini reviews every time I’ve finished four books!
 To Wed a Wicked Prince, Jane Feather
Prince Alex Prokov is an intriguing, compelling man and captivates Lady Livia Lacey from their very first meeting. What she doesn’t realize is that he is foremost intending to inspect her house, legally his because the eccentric woman who left it to Livia was his mother, and claim it if necessary. He finds Livia interesting enough to marry her instead, but their relationship is a minefield of secrets and half-truths. Will their love sustain them through Alex’s lies?
I was less than enchanted with this book. I liked the atmosphere, but Alex’s lies drove me up the wall. I could see that if he’d only told Livia the truth, practically all the bad things that happen to them in the novel would have been solved. I could see why he’d kept secrets about his activities, but about his mother’s identity? Not so much. Furthermore, he is very domineering, even wishing to get rid of Livia’s faithful servants despite the fact that they were first his mother’s. He’s just so hard to relate to and in the end I couldn’t figure out why Livia loved him. I did like her character, though, as I really like the more independent heroines as non-historical as they may be. Overall, this book was “eh” for me. Not a compelling plot, some irritating characters, and not enough genuine historical detail or good writing to override its faults.
 Compromised, Kate Noble
I’ve been looking forward to Kate Noble’s books for a good long time, ever since I heard about her on The Book Smugglers. In this, her debut, the Alton sisters have just returned from the Continent, new stepmother in tow, and it’s time for their first Season. Bookish Gail has no interest in a Season, however, and as an attempt to placate her, her father gives her a horse. That horse leads her to a gentleman, Maximillian, Viscount Fontaine, with whom she ends up in a lake, and who absolutely infuriates her. Things don’t get much better when that man is found in a compromising position with her sister – and they get worse when Gail starts to fall in love with him and vice versa.
I definitely had fun with this book. Gail’s interactions with Max sparkle and I could totally believe that they loved one another by the end. And I felt like they really knew each other before they hopped into bed, which is pretty much the standard by which I judge romances, especially historical ones. I like to read about love, not just lust. Anyway, probably the only thing that irritated me here was that Gail is quite a stereotype. There are so many books with the bookish heroine who shuns society, who doesn’t think she’s pretty, blah blah. She does get along with people eventually because she has issues, she’s not shy, but I don’t understand why a heroine can’t be bookish and still like to spend time with people occasionally right off the bat. I will also confess that I was largely drawn to this book by the cover, which is refreshingly not sexual and has the prettiest yellow dress on it. I’m not shallow at all, no.
 Crazy for You, Jennifer Crusie
When Quinn McKenzie meets a little dog she names Katie, she decides her life has to change. She’s gone along with everything her too nice boyfriend wants, with what her parents want, and has generally been the fixer of the family. She’s bored of her life and she’s had enough. When her boyfriend sends the puppy to the pound, she decides to leave him, and begins encouraging everyone to make little changes to make their lives better. She has no idea what she’s about to inflict on her family and friends.
I suspect all of Crusie’s novels are this delightful. While this has a similar premise to Welcome to Temptation, the other book by her that I read, it’s still totally charming. I loved Quinn and I was 100% behind her. Any guy who takes a puppy to be killed when his girlfriend has fallen in love with it probably deserves to be dumped. And after that boyfriend’s further behavior, I completely sympathized with her. I really enjoyed the love story and all the little tangents that followed, too. I can’t wait to read more of Crusie’s books. I hope they’re all this fun.
 Miss Wonderful, Loretta Chase
Alistair Carsington took great pleasure in falling love with women before he was involved in the Battle of Waterloo, where he nearly lost his life. Since his return, he has become obsessed with clothes to the detriment of everything else. Seeking activity and income, Alistair joins his friend’s scheme to build a canal through Derbyshire, and heads there to persuade the locals of the brilliance of his plan. Miss Mirabel Oldridge, practically on the shelf, is fiercely resistant of a canal cutting its way through her land, but soon she and Alistair realize they’re not particularly good at resisting each other.
This book wasn’t very memorable – I read it yesterday and I’ve already forgotten most of it. It struck me as a fairly typical romance. I liked that Mirabel was older and independent and had had a past with another man. I’d call it an enjoyable read but not much else.
As I just skimmed this post (which I put together over maybe a month), I realized that none of the covers are your typical half-naked embrace. I know British covers are way, way more conservative in this regard, but it doesn’t explain the two American ones. I am really, really tired of the endless parade of half-naked men and women on romance covers, and apparently I am showing my resistance by choosing books that don’t have it.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased these books or borrowed them from my local library.
 Or, the problem with older romance novels.
Belliane, better known as Lianna, is a Frenchwoman determined to keep her castle in Normandy at all costs. But Henry V is invading, and he wants to marry her to Enguerrand of England, both to promote his friend and make life easier for himself. In protest, Lianna marries a Frenchman, but meets Rand not knowing who he is. Lianna and Rand both lie to one another and begin to fall in love – until Lianna’s husband dies and marriage goes on as planned. Both betrayed in the midst of battle, Lianna and Rand must decide what really matters to them, love or country.
I almost gave up this book on every other page. I don’t honestly know why I kept going. It has all my least favorite aspects of a romance novel. These two lust after one another and suddenly decide it’s love. Their lies are the foundation for almost everything bad that happens to them, and they don’t forgive one another even though of course they have to sleep with each other all the time. Because when you’re furious with someone, you really want to have sex with them. Yep. And Lianna is almost too unconventional to be true; how many noble ladies went around in the smocks of poor women with their hair down and learned to shoot newfangled guns? Sure, it’s a war, but I just found it very hard to believe. Besides that, she’s too stupid to live. She doesn’t realize the French guy she’s marrying is a slimeball, she walks straight into at least two traps, and she leaves her baby in the care of the wife of slimeball’s son. She’s basically the cause of ALL the relationship problems as Rand is completely lovesick.
The love story was the most disappointing one I’ve read in a long time, and the characters had dialogue I couldn’t imagine anyone saying. It’s too corny, too impassioned, too ridiculous. Very few romances are historically accurate in this respect, but I have to at least believe in the chemistry to put all that aside. And here I did not. Reading this book helped me realize how people could easily disdain the genre.
I do have to give the author a little respect, though, because her history is largely accurate. All the hallmarks of Henry V’s campaign and Agincourt are here, and all in all once Lianna and Rand are married and stop stripping every five seconds the book doesn’t suffer quite so much. The only part that annoyed me with the history was the constant mentions of chivalry, and it’s clear that the author doesn’t quite understand that chivalry == war for medieval knights. It’s not the Victorian always-be-nice-to-ladies idea. That’s only a tiny part of it. Being violent is being chivalric. That’s the point. All medieval romances aren’t this bad; I just read Scoundrel’s Kiss and enjoyed it a lot. The Lily and the Leopard just reinforces all the stereotypes. When you seriously hope there isn’t going to be a happy ending because you hate the characters, you know you have a problem. Yuck.
No Amazon link; the book is out of print. And that’s a good thing. I bought this one so you don’t have to.
 In this sequel to Inda, Sherwood Smith follows her young hero through some seaside adventures as he grows up learning to fight against pirates after his exile from his childhood home. Inda’s complex plans and capers form the basis for most of the storyline, but exciting events are also afoot in Iasca Leror, Inda’s birthplace. When his brother is killed, Inda becomes the heir to Choraed Elgar, his family’s realm, and they launch a search to find him. Treachery strikes the royal court and if Inda ever goes home, he will find a completely different place than he expects.
While I really enjoyed Inda and found it was a great fantasy to lose myself in, The Fox suffered from second book syndrome. A lot happens, but it’s spread out over the 750+ pages, and as a result the book feels fairly slow even though there is actually plenty of action. Not much at all is resolved, but progress is generally made across the plotlines as the characters that were introduced as children in the first book grow up.
I will admit freely that part of the problem I had with this book is that so much of it took place on a ship. I’m one of those strange people that really prefers fantasy books in particular settings, and aboard ship has just never been one of them. The only exception to this rule so far has been Robin Hobb. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been on a ship, but I just found it really hard to continue paying attention during the sea battles, and given that 2/3 of the book takes place there, this was a problem. I always enjoyed it when the narrative returned to Inda’s family and friends on dry land in Choraed Elgar because I vastly prefer kingdom politics to piracy politics. Luckily, this one seems to indicate that more of book three will be spent on land, so my enthusiasm for the series is not as diminished as it could have been.
Regardless of my criticisms, I really enjoyed how the characters developed and I found myself caring a lot about them. I’m interested to see where the story is going and that is really what matters here. It’s still a fairly solid continuation to a promising epic fantasy saga, and I think approached in that way would be a very enjoyable read for anyone who likes that kind of book.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
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