Mini-Reviews: Light, Dark, and Snark

In between work and RWA shenanigans I'm a bit behind on blogging about recent reads, and the further away I get from these books?  The more my memory is fading.  So on to some mini-reviews!

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare is the second book in her Castles Ever After series and one I should have probably liked more than I did.  Clio Whitmore has become a laughing-stock to the ton, having been kept waiting by her fiance for eight long years while he's on the Continent in service to the Crown.  Well, "Miss Wait-more" has had enough.  She goes to our hero, Rafe Brandon, her fiance's younger brother with dissolution papers.  Rafe is a boxer and a disappointment to his family, but with Piers on the Continent and their father dead, Rafe has been appointed Interim Marquess.  He's not about to sign the dissolution papers because he's loved Clio for years, thinks he's not good enough for her, and to prove to everyone that he's not a screw-up he's going to make sure that everything is ready and waiting for Piers' return...and that includes Clio.

Dare has this uncanny ability to write Cotton Candy Topped With A Glittery Pink Bow while still giving readers some depth.  Here it's in the form of Clio, who struggles with feelings of inadequacy and a desire to have a life that means something outside of "having a man."  Unfortunately, Rafe's way of thinking defies logic most of the time and Clio being a coward, hoping that Rafe will do "the dirty work," rather annoyed me.  Why Clio just doesn't write Piers a letter explaining that she's tired of waiting and perhaps they aren't well-suited is beyond me.  Of course it takes Dare so long to disclose that correspondence ACTUALLY HAPPENED that I spent the first half of this novel thinking "What?! I'm supposed to believe they never write each other?!"  Especially when it's disclosed VERY early on that Clio takes the time to WRITE TO RAFE!!!!!  

Authors: This is the kind of thing I nit-pick to death.  In case you care. Which you probably don't.

Plus, to be frank, I don't "get" weddings.  Oh sure, I've attended them.  I mean, say the words "open bar" to me and I'll show up just about anywhere.  But all the wedding nonsense in this book got real old, real fast.  Some women see weddings as this grand fairy tale and I see them as....a waste of money.  Say yes to the dress?  Yeah....no.  Fans of light historicals will probably love this, but it just seemed to drag on and on and on for me.  I think I'm tapping out on this series.

Final Grade = C

Badlands by Melissa Lenhardt is the final book in the trilogy about the former Dr. Catherine Bennett, now Laura Elliston, on the run after she's accused of killing one of her wealthy patients' husband.  This picks up where Blood Oath left off, and while it ties up the series well (and Laura lives happily-ever-after), I wasn't madly in love with some aspects.

For one thing, Laura starts this series as a strong, independent woman and as events unfold she becomes weaker and more dependent by the day - to the point where she's going through opium withdrawal and wringing her hands over what to do.  Yes, she's currently separated from her love, William Kindle, but get it together cupcake!

The best parts of this entry, for me, revolved around the whore, Rosamunde, who you're not quite sure is friend or foe.  Literally, it could go either way.  Finally, stuff happens, and Laura realizes she has to go back to New York City to clear her name.  This felt somewhat rushed me, after spending the whole trilogy leading up to it, but it resolves itself satisfactorily, and there's even a nice little twist thrown in from keeping the resolution from being totally obvious.

While I would easily classify this trilogy as Historical Fiction with Romantic Elements, the violence has made this a difficult series for me recommend universally.  In the previous two books I cringed at the violence, but I understood (OK, mostly) why it was there.  In this book?  Not so much.

Final Grade = B

What to say about David Spade Is Almost Interesting?  Well, it's a quick listen on audio.  Also, you have to have a tolerance for David Spade.  If you don't like him going into this book, there's nothing here to change your mind.  The parts I liked best?  The details about his career prior to Saturday Night Live, and his time with the show.  Spade knows what he's good at, and what he's not - and his struggles with writing and performing on the show (and the fact that he owns them) were refreshingly frank.

Naturally, he does talk about Chris Farley, although probably not in detail fans will want.  I'm left with the impression that they were genuine friends and cared about each other - but Spade hardly bares his soul.  Farley's excesses, and how Spade felt about all that?  Details on the aftermath?  Yeah, keep moving along. Nothing to see here.

You also have to have a high tolerance for how women are talked about in this book.  How to put this delicately?  Basically imagine eavesdropping on a conversation between stereotypical frat-bros.  A lot of it (OK, most of it) is incredibly cringe-worthy.  At least Spade owns up to when he's a dip-sh*t - but that's not always enough.

Final Grade = C

Review: Blood Oath

Blood Oath by Melissa Lenhardt was originally supposed to come out last August, and yes I'm still bitter about it.  After reading and loving Sawbones last year, I thought I only had a few short months to wait for the second book in the trilogy.  Instead Blood Oath got pushed back until May 2017.  I'm not usually one to whine over having to wait on books (I've got more than enough in my TBR to entertain me during such a wait), but when this book got pushed back, I damn near burst into frustrated tears. Then it showed up on NetGalley (finally!) and Hachette took like 2 weeks to approve my request.  So after all this, what did I think of the book?  Well, it's a classic book two in a trilogy, and just like Sawbones, it's problematic as heck and I can't figure out who to recommend this too.  So looks like I may be writing this blog post for myself.

Events from Sawbones see our heroine, Laura Elliston (the former Catherine Bennett) on the run with her lover, Captain William Kindle.  A doctor by trade, she fled New York City when she was accused of murdering the husband of one of her patients.  A female doctor is sensational enough, but one believed to have murdered someone?  It's not terribly shocking that the story has continued to dog Laura.  She escapes with Kindle and now they're on the run from bounty hunters.  As if that weren't enough, the "Indian problem" in the West is hitting a fever pitch and circumstances from the previous book have left Laura with a heaping helping of post-traumatic stress.

I don't care what genre we're talking about, when you have a trilogy that follows the lives of one set of characters they all read the same.  Book One = OMG, this is great!  I want more!  Give me more!  Book Three = OMG, this is a great!  What an exciting conclusion!  So action-packed!  Which leaves us with Book Two.  What is Book Two?  Book Two = The Bridge.  It's the carry over book.  It's the occasionally ho-hum middle book that you have to read because it wraps up some stuff from Book One and carries you over into the exciting conclusion of Book Three.  I don't care who the author is writing it, when you have a connected trilogy like this no reader anywhere ever says that Book Two is the best one in the series.

Just as in Sawbones, this is historical fiction with some suspense and some romance - although the romance isn't quite as satisfying here.  Namely because Kindle and Laura are past the courtship phase and have begun to realize that 1) they don't know everything about each other and 2) they're both very difference people.  Kindle may love Laura but that doesn't mean he's always accepting of her independent, feminist ideas.  Laura loves Kindle, but she's no Suzy Homemaker and she's beginning to realize that she doesn't know everything about his past.

Just like the first book, this one has problematic elements (really ugly history) and is violent.  Frankly there's a rape scene in this book that was A Bridge Too Far For Me - and that's saying something.  I have a strong constitution when it comes to violence in fiction.  I was the teenager reading Patricia Cornwell, not Georgette Heyer.  Blood guts, violence against women - I'm not saying it doesn't bother me, but I can generally handle it in fiction.  I was a suspense fan long before I discovered romance.  So if something violent in a book bothers ME?!  Just saying.

The story itself is good, but I didn't love it as much as book one.  My biggest quibble with it is how Laura's PTSD is handled.  It's not surprising how screwed up she is at the start of this story. Sawbones was epic and violent and OMG, a gut punch.  But then she has an experience that leads to her working through some of this traumatic past and....I'm sorry, I'm not entirely buying it.  I mean, does PTSD ever "go away?"  I don't think so.  It features prominently in the first half of the book and then kind of drops off the map.  Who knows, it may all come back into play in the third book.  Only time will tell.

If you read and liked Sawbones, this one is a must read.  It sets everything up for the final book in the trilogy, Badlands, which is due out in June.  I've really enjoyed this series so far, even when I've been questioning whether I should or not.  But it has the kind of epic scope and drama that is hooking me at a time when finding books that truly engage me is getting to be a tall order.  This certainly won't be for everybody.  But, so far, they've been for me.

Final Grade = B

Review: Sawbones

I have Molly O'Keefe to thank for making me read Sawbones by Melissa Lenhardt.  Having recently discovered the Timothy Wilde books by Lyndsay Faye, and knowing my squee-worthy love for them, she asked me if I'd read Sawbones, a fairly recent release from late March.  I hadn't even heard of it, but it looked really interesting and voila!  Work had it.  So I put myself on the holds list and it landed on my Kindle in time for work-related travel.  I didn't read this book, I inhaled it.

I'd classify Sawbones as historical fiction with romantic elements. The publisher calls it "Outlander meets post-Civil War unrest..." which just makes me want to find the publicist responsible for that and punch them in the throat.  This is a book that will not be for everyone, but dagnabit if I didn't fall into this story fast and hard.  I was so immersed in the setting, so invested in the characters, I'm starting to think I need to spend more time reading historical fiction.

Catherine Bennett is a doctor in New York City and has been framed for murder.  She really has no other choice than to run.  The dead man is the husband of one of the society wives' she treats and her alibi is a resurrectionist.  Being a woman and a doctor is enough for most people to think the worst of her, so with the help of a childhood friend and a local madam (Catherine treats whores as well) she heads west with the vague notion of settling in California.  Taking the assumed name of Laura Elliston, she and her maid find themselves on a wagon train heading to Colorado.  However the story of a female doctor turned murderess in New York City is hot gossip, even out in the frontier, and Laura finds that she can only hide for so long - even as she finds herself filling in as a temporary doctor in a remote Army outpost.

This is a hard review to write because 1) I loved this story and 2) Darn near everything I want to say about it is a spoiler.  So I'll try my best.  This is very much a History Is Ugly book.  There's a lot here that I think many of my regular blog readers will have a hard time with.  First, this is a violent story.  People die, and in brutal ways.  Bad things happen to Laura (boy howdy do they...).  Secondary characters that we actually spend a decent amount of time with end up dead. Women are raped.  And while I wouldn't say these moments are the most graphic I've ever read, they're plenty graphic.

I also suspect that some readers will take issue with how Native Americans are portrayed in this story.  The book is set in 1871, so right at the peak of the Indian Wars that found General Sherman (yes, the scorched Earth let's burn down Atlanta during the Civil War Sherman...) working to quash Indian raids.  Most of the characters in this book (including the heroine) have strong, non-PC, opinions on the raiding Indians and an Indian raid is one of the more brutally violent chapters in this book.  There's also the belief that eradicating the buffalo would be a more "humane" way of dealing with the "Indian problem" than warfare - a view that the hero (more on him in a bit) thinks is a grand idea. There is a moment, later on, where a conversation takes place that maybe the Indians are raiding because they've been corralled on to reservations, their women and children are starving to death, and the US is, once again, not honoring signed treaties.  But for the vast majority of the story Indians are raiding, killing, raping and taking captives.  The other side of that coin, the "why," is only given that brief moment of lip service.

I belong to the Ugly History Happened and We Shouldn't Try to Rewrite It Camp.  So while all of the above did make me squirm in my seat a bit?  I appreciated that the author didn't try to whitewash over some of the more unsavory elements of American History.  But I can appreciate that not every reader is going to want to submerse themselves in this dark, violent, and oftentimes unpleasant world.

The romantic elements come into play about halfway through when Laura finds herself falling in love with an Army Captain whose life she saves.  By that point she's living in the remote Army fort, still concealing her identity, and finding that her past is quickly catching up with her.  For his part, Captain William Kindle also has his own dark secrets and pretty soon all those secrets come home to roost.  The romance is extremely well done in this story.  It's a slow, gradual build and by the time Laura admits her feelings for Captain Kindle I firmly believed that yes, these are two people who genuinely care about each other.  It's one of the better drawn romantic storylines I've read in a while and it's....not found in a romance novel.

There is also some mystery to this story but to be blatantly honest - it was the least well-done aspect of this otherwise enjoyable story.  It's all fairly obvious and about as subtle as a sledgehammer.  The author is basically laying down loaves for the reader as opposed to bread crumbs.  But by this point I was so well immersed in the characters, so riveted by the saga of the story, that the obvious mystery elements didn't bother me all that much.

Given the saga-like pace of the book the ending did feel a bit rushed to me, but it does end on a somewhat positive note, although there's still obvious challenges ahead for Laura and Captain Kindle.  It doesn't end on a cliffhanger so much as it ends in a way that as the reader you know the story isn't over yet.  Blood Oath comes out in August and frankly that cannot get here soon enough for me.

I recognize this isn't a story I can universally recommend to every reader I know, but my reaction to this story, how dire my reading mojo has been for the past year, and the fact that I was riveted so completely by this tale means I'm not going to apologize for loving it as much as I did.  I had originally thought I'd rate this a B+ because as much as I loved it, it's not like there aren't flaws here.  But damn, I want to go back and fall into this world all over again.  A B+ just won't cut it.

Final Grade = A-