Sugar Withdrawal & Mini-Reviews

Remember when Wendy used to blog regularly?  Ah, yes.  The Good Old Days.  To condense this down to a few words without (too much) whining: work = busy, current US political climate = dumpster fire, some of my social media = #willfulignorance + #readabookalready.  Add to this that at the start of 2017 I made a pact with myself to take better care of my health.  This has led to a slew of doctor appointments - the first of which was a physical where my blood work showed I have "borderline" high cholesterol and a Vitamin D deficiency.

So, cholesterol.  Not really surprising since I have the sophisticated palate of a 13-year-old boy.  This means I am seriously watching what I eat.  No fast food (none), exercising a lot more, and trying to curb my refined sugar intake in the hopes of dropping some weight.  This last one has been...hard.  I can't remember the last piece of chocolate I had which should tell you what sort of mood I've been in.  The a-lot-less-sugar thing coupled with current events?  The good news is I haven't seriously hurt anyone.  Yet, anyway.

And how the heck do you live in one of the sunniest areas in the world and have a Vitamin D deficiency?!?!  Oh yeah, go to work in the dark.  Come home in the dark.  The whole see-through Irish complexion and I hear skin cancer sucks thing.  Sigh.  Follow-up appointment with the doc this week.  I'm on Week 2 with zero refined sugar junk food.  He'll be lucky if I don't stab him with a pencil.

+++++

My reading has been almost non-existent but I have finished two books in recent memory.  I finally listened to The Angel's Share by J.R. Ward, the second book in her trashy soap opera Bourbon Kings series.  The (supposed) trilogy follows the trial and tribulations of the Bradford clan, a family dynasty that built their fortune in Kentucky bourbon.  Once I let-go of the fact that the first book didn't work as a romance, the recovering soap opera addict in me loved every naughty minute of it.  

This installment felt very much like a "placeholder" or "set-up" book.  For reader's expecting a lot of Edward in this book (and I was one of them) - don't hold your breath.  He's in here - but it's basically a continuation of Lane, Lizzie, Gin's self-destruction with some of Edward's various secrets tossed in for flavor.  We finally meet the Bradford matriarch in this book, Gin's "secret baby" (OK, teenager) Amelia shows up, and wild child brother Maxwell returns.  The characterizations are still board as heck with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and I could have done without all the Lane/Lizzie kissie-face nonsense (yes, they're a couple now - they're so in lurve - we get it already!)

I've heard this is only supposed to be a trilogy, but there's a lot left to tie up here.  Lane's still got to extricate himself from Wife #1, there's Daddy Bradford's murder, Edward's messed up love life, their drug-addicted mother, the cluster that is Gin's personal life, and Maxwell's mysterious return. There's a lot still hanging up in the air.  I'm enjoying this series, but I'll be honest, if Ward pulls a Karen Marie Moning or Sylvia Day and stretches out this series past the "original plan" of a trilogy? I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about that.

Final Grade = B

+++++

It took me the better part of a month to get through Dark Fissures by Matt Coyle, not because it was bad - but more likely it was my mood.  I thought I was in the mood for "dark," but perhaps not?  Anyway, this is the third book in a series about Rick Cahill, a former cop suspected by nearly everyone of murdering his wife.  Now a private investigator, Rick is barely eking out a living (the bank is thisclose to foreclosing on his house) when Brianne Colton hires him.  The cops say that her estranged husband, a former Navy SEAL turned cop, committed suicide.  Brianne doesn't buy it.  Rick's not sure he does either, but the fact that the dead man worked for the La Jolla Police Department, whose chief is, at best, corrupt and, at worst, gunning for Rick, complicates matters.

This series very much fits the mold of California crime noir.  The archetype of a lone hero (almost anti-hero) fighting a corrupt system has been around forever for a reason.  For the first half of this story I was ready to declare it stood alone from the "series baggage" well - but that ultimately changes.  Events in the preceding book definitely come into play, so starting the series here will put newcomers at a disadvantage.  I liked the suspense angle, but had a harder time with the pacing.  By the time I got to around 80% on my Kindle I was thinking, "Wow, he's going to need to wrap this up quick or else it's Cliffhanger Ahoy!"  I'm happy to report there's no cliffhanger, but the result is a rushed, almost mad-cap ending, and the world's most jarring epilogue.  I felt a bit hungover after it all.  The author wraps up some dangling threads (namely the police chief bent on bringing down Rick) but it's dashed off in a few sentences.  It felt really fast, especially after the deliberate pace set forth during the first 80% of the book.  I enjoyed it, as I do most lone wolf noir novels, but the ending really brought it down a notch.  I've enjoyed this series to date, but this one was weaker than the first two books.

Final Grade = B-