Cause He's Not Just One Of The Crowd

I've found Zoe Archer's Blades Of The Rose series to be marvelously consistent, but this third book, Rebel, may just be my favorite so far. Longtime readers of this blog might speculate that it's because with a Vancouver setting, that the frontier western-ish setting is what flipped my switch. And certainly, that's part of it. However the bulk of the credit goes to the heroine, who is by far and away the star of this series (so far!) for me.

While on a mission for the Blades, Astrid Bramfield's husband was killed by the treacherous Heirs of Albion. Holding him as he dies in her arms, something breaks inside Astrid. She returns to England, only to turn around and leave again. Living a life in exile in frontier Vancouver, she's completely shut herself off from the world - to the point where she doesn't correspond with fellow Blade, and friend, Catullus Graves, or her own father.

Nathan Lesperance is Native, having been taken from his home as a child and dumped in a white run Indian school. Nathan took his rage and despair, channeled it, and is now an attorney. Which makes him the ultimate outsider. Not welcome in the white world, or his tribe. It's while at a remote outpost on business that he meets Astrid, and sparks immediately fly. It also unleashes something in Nathan. A power he did not know he possessed. And when the Heirs come a callin' in Vancouver, it doesn't take them long to set their sights on Nathan.

What follows is Nathan coming to terms with his magical abilities, and Astrid rejoining the land of the living, along with the Blades. It's classic road romance with a heavy dollop of adventure mixed in on the side, as the couple tries to find answers, and the Sources, before the Heirs do.

The author changes things up a bit with this third book by giving one of her main characters (in this case, the hero) some magical abilities. It adds some punch to the story, especially given that Nathan must wrestle with what he truly is, and come to terms with his past. Astrid is where this book really works for me though. I have a weakness for damaged and wounded heroines, and Astrid is pitch perfect. She's damaged in a believable way. It's not 1970s historical romance melodrama where the author makes her heroine run the gauntlet. And while Astrid's choices can be construed as selfish, one understands her motivations and her pain. I also deeply appreciated that she truly loved her husband, and the author allows this to be OK. No backhanded shots taken at his character later on in order to make her falling for Nathan "acceptable."

All this being said, I do strongly feel that this book is where the series stops standing alone. The first two books (in my opinion) can easily be read out of order, but this story really relies somewhat on the reader's knowledge of the world-building. I've also found that the final climatic fight scenes between the Heirs and Blades are beginning to run their course. They're starting to bleed together for me. That said, the final chapters here do agreeably set up the final book of the series, which will be Catullus' story, and it would seem that readers haven't seen the last of Astrid and Nathan.

While Rebel delivers more of what readers have come to expect from this series, the author veers off the track ever so slightly to infuse some "different" in this particular tale. I do think this has been the strongest installment so far, and the edition of a supernaturally gifted hero was a nice touch. If you've enjoyed the first two books in this series, this one is a must to hunt down.

Final Grade = B

The Librarian And The Palindromic Orange

Like a bad penny that keeps turning up, or that pesky case of athlete's foot that just won't go away.....I'm baaaaack! Oh Internet, how I missed you. Let us never be apart for a whole week ever again.

So where was I? I was in central New York. Now I'm sure one of you will pipe up that central New York does have Internet. And yeah, they do. But my in-laws? They do not. No computer. At all. Not even dial-up for heaven's sake. No Starbucks. No library around the corner. Just farm land. And lakes. And they don't even have cable TV.

Seriously, it's amazing I was able to hang on to my last shred of sanity. Oh Internet, my electronic wubby, let us never be apart for a whole week ever again.

Did I already say that?

Ahem, anywho.

In between a family funeral and Thanksgiving, we did hit a Syracuse basketball game. Hence me making a dip out of myself (situation = normal) posing with their mascot, Otto the Orange. Yes, an orange. And before you accuse Syracuse of having the dopiest mascot known to college sports, I'll see you one orange and raise you the Standford Tree. My Man also bought me my very own stuffed Otto to commemorate the occasion. Oh, and to give me something else to proudly display in my office cubicle. Seriously, everyone will be sooooo jealous.

Back to work tomorrow, and hopefully back into the normal swing of things. A couple of book reviews in the works as well - one for the Bat Cave, and one for TGTBTU.

Media Blackout

The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us here in the States and I'm going to spend the next week in the middle of frickin' nowhere. How middle of nowhere you ask? How about this.....

No Internet access. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

No Twitter. No blogging. I might sneak looking at e-mails on my phone, but yeah - nothing.

I hope the shakes don't get too bad.

After some minor dithering, I've decided it will be for the best for me to hang up the Gone Fishin' sign on the blog for the next week. I don't "do" guest posts (it's my blog and yes I am that narcissistic), and honestly? I'm in the middle of a blogging slump. Which some of you have probably noticed. Which is shocking since I can babble nonsense with the best of 'em. Yeah, I think I just need a break. Get some reading done. Eat some turkey and punkin' pie. Recharge the ol' batteries. I figure after almost 8 years of blogging excellence (hardy har har), declaring a media blackout for the next 7-odd days won't be the end of the world.

So for those of you in the States - have a great holiday, and I hope you all survive the forced family togetherness. I'll be back into the swing of things sometime around the 29th!

On The Road, National Book Awards, And James Bond Playing Cowboy

First up, it's my turn in the rotation over at Access Romance Readers Gab. Today's topic du jour is glomming. Nom, nom, nom!

+++++

The National Book Award winners were announced last night. I tend to stay away from award discussions online, because on one hand we have the high-falutins' dissecting the navel-gazing, and on the other you have people saying, "Who?!?!"

My employer gives me a pay check every two weeks to pretty much know all there is to know about adult fiction. So it's rare when something gets nominated that I've never heard of. People, do you know how many book reviews I read? A lot. Do you know how much promo I look at? A lot. And while most of the time I think the NBA pretty much sticks to what you think they're going to stick with - every so often they go completely off the reservation. Which they did last night by giving the award to Lord Of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon.

Yeah, when that nomination was initially announced Wendy was the one going "Who?!?!" And last night the dark horse won. The dark horse from a small publisher whose initial print run was the size of a postage stamp. That alone is pretty cool, but the kicker? Gordon teaches in my hometown back in Michigan. At the college where My Man got his business degree. So....that's pretty awesome. Go Kalamazoo Go!

+++++

In the I Have No Idea What To Make Of This department, I give you the trailer for Cowboys & Aliens. Based on a graphic novel, it's exactly what you think it is. The aspect of this that has me totally flummoxed is the casting. Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. Really? Han Solo and James Bond in a movie called Cowboys & Aliens? And this isn't a comedy? They're playing this material straight? Ohhhhhkay then.



On the upside, we have Daniel Craig dressed in cowboy clothes. Gotta say, I'm not seeing a whole lot wrong with that scenario.

TBR Challenge 2010: To Find You Again

The Book: To Find You Again by Maureen McKade

The Particulars: Historical western, Berkley, 2004, Out of Print

Why Was It In The Bat Cave TBR?: You have to ask? Historical western. Plus I tend to like McKade's westerns.

The Review: Seven years ago Emma Hartwell was captured by the Lakota Sioux and adopted into the tribe. She had well moved past the idea of returning to her white family when the cavalry attacks her village. She's severely wounded, but is saved when a solider stops long enough to notice that she's a white girl. Now she's back in her hometown, living with her parents and younger sister. But the reunion hasn't been all that smooth. She's now well and truly "ruined," and her parents have no idea what to do with her. They propose to send her to live with a spinster aunt in Minneapolis, which sends Emma into a panic. When she was rescued, she left behind her son. Now, fully healed from her injuries, and the threat of Minneapolis looming, she takes off to find him.

Emma's daddy would rather spit at Ridge Madoc than look at him, but the man is a former army scout. If anyone can find Emma and bring her home, it's Ridge. Desperate to get back the land that Hartwell swindled out from under his useless, drunken stepfather, Ridge agrees to bring Emma home. What he doesn't know, what nobody knows, is that Emma isn't going anywhere until she finds her boy.

McKade wrote some nice westerns for Avon, but when she moved to Berkley her stories took on a heavier, emotional component. This book follows that pattern. What we have here is a road romance with a heroine caught between two worlds, and not really "belonging" in either. Ridge is your classic outsider, who knows what it's like to be unloved, unwanted, and looked down upon. These two are made for each other, and really make the perfect couple. As the reader you get the impression that not only do these two belong together, but that they'll go a long way in healing each others' emotional wounds.

However, this read wasn't entirely smooth. Emma's Daddy hatin' on Ridge was painted with a thin brush, and I didn't really "get it" other than Daddy wanted the land. Frankly, I need more reason than that for the serious amount of hatin' going on. Also, for all Emma had been through, she struck me as pretty dense at times. If not for her past, I would have chalked it up to naivete', but given how poorly she was treated in town after her rescue, the fact that she would think for one single solitary moment that things would be fine for her "half-breed" son given enough time? Yeah, that's just flat-out dense. She's a straight-forward, practical character. Frankly, she should have been a whole helluva lot smarter in that regard.

Plot lines of this nature, featuring Army and Native characters can be tricky - but I think McKade navigated it well. The Natives aren't all Goody-Goody Goodness and the Army isn't all Evil Evil Evil. Some are evil. Some aren't. Some are good. Some are bad. This worked for me. I also appreciated that the author does a nice job with Emma's family - both biological and adopted.

This one won't be landing in the Bat Cave Keeper Stash, but it was still a nice read. Pretty consistent for what I "expect" out of a McKade western. If you've read and enjoyed other books by her, this one is definitely worth hunting up. Says me.

Final Grade = B

Robbing Austin, SoCalBloggers, Cleaning House And Audible Sex

It's time for another round-up, mostly because I don't think I can stretch any of this stuff into a full-fledged blog post. Aren't you all the lucky ducks?

First up, Major League Baseball announced their Rookies Of The Year, and my boy, Austin Jackson got hosed. The worst part about it is that My Man was right. He said because Jackson didn't finish the year hitting .300 he didn't stand a chance. But bitter girl that I am, I threw back that if Jackson had stayed a precious, precious Yankee - the media would have been touting him as the second coming of Mickey Mantle and there wouldn't have been a question. He would have had RotY, MVP and New York probably would have made up some more awards to bestow on him.

OK, maybe not Mickey Mantle. I don't see Jackson ever having those kind of power numbers.

But still....

++++++

The SoCalBloggers have gotten together two weeks in a row thanks to visiting dignitaries. A couple of weeks ago it was Kris, and last Saturday it was SonomaLass. We met up in Pasadena and had a grand time. This time of year is always slightly nuts for everybody, so I imagine that will be the last organized gathering until after the new year.

On the book shopping front (because, you know - there's always book shopping at these things), I picked up The Lovers by Eden Bradley and A Christmas Waltz by Jane Goodger. The Bradley because she's a SoCal'er, Jill Sorenson liked it, and because I'll admit to enjoying the rare bird that is the F/F/M pairing in erotic women's fiction (romance or otherwise). The Goodger got bought because it's a western (although the heroine is English) and a little birdie told me that the hero is....wait for it....gasp...a virgin!

+++++

I weeded the TBR Mountain Range several months back. Some books got sent off to new owners thanks to Paperback Swap. The SoCalBloggers took a few off my hands. But I still had a ton sitting in my home office and I'm at the point where I just want them gone. Where are they now? Well about 40 of them are sitting on my desk at work where I'll farm them out to poor unsuspecting branch libraries. Hey, it's all fairly new stuff and this is me we're talking about - so the books are in disturbingly pristine condition.

+++++

I've got two audio books going right now. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich and The Search by Nora Roberts. The Evanovich is a lather, rinse, repeat, and honestly I have no idea why I'm still keeping up with this series via audio. Oh wait, yes I do. It's because they're undemanding listens. The turn-your-brain-off kind of listens. Sometimes I just need that.

The Search was chosen because the ARC of the book sat on my desk for months, unread. Generally speaking, I cannot listen to romance on audio. Having someone read me sex scenes tends to squirk me out seven ways 'til Sunday. And while this particular book isn't doing a whole lot of me (It's OK. A little of the "dog stuff" went a long for me, and I've found the pacing slow in spots) - I think I'll be able to listen to Nora's single titles on audio. Why? The way she's written the sex....at least in this book. It's pretty straight-forward with not a bunch of flowery goo-ga mucking up the narrative. Also, the hero pretty much acts like a guy. No poetry spouting Care Bear. Thank the good Lord. So while, so far, The Search, hasn't lit my world on fire, it's been a nice, pleasant listen and glory, glory - I think I've found at least one romance author I can listen to on audio.

YeeHaw!

Random Romance Sunday: Wendy Cleans Off Her Desk

The Book: Joe's Girl by Margaret St. George

The Particulars: Harlequin American #710, 1998, Out of Print

The Blurb:

Follow Your Dream

Joe Townsend had fallen in love with Moly Stevens in Mrs. Paulson's eighth grade English class when she was the most beautiful girl in the school. Over the last fifteen years he'd watched her -- in magazines and on TV -- become the most beautiful woman in the world. Molly had always been a part of his fantasies -- but now she was back...

Joe had watched Molly live the high life -- until her career went bust. She'd been 'American's sweetheart,' but now all he wanted her to be was 'Joe's girl.' But what would happen when she tired of pot luck suppers and mountain nights under the stars...and the big city lights beckoned?

How wrong could a fortune cookie be?

Is It In Wendy's TBR?: Um, yeah. See title of blog post.

Any Reviews?: No. Not even Amazon customer reviews...which strikes me as odd since Margaret St. George was the category nom de plume for Maggie Osborne AKA Bat Cave Favorite AKA She Who Wrote Awesome Historical Western Romances Before She Selfishly Retired And Abandoned Me Lovers Of The Sub Genre.

But I kid.

Sort of.

::sob::

Why Maggie? WHHHHHYYYYYY?!?!?!

Anything Else?: I have a tendency to let newly acquired books pile up on my home office desk where they sit for.....months. Eventually I get tired of looking at them, or My Man gently nudges me ("Ya gonna do something with these?"), I catalog them in my LibraryThing account, and I move them to the depths of the Bat Cave TBR Mountain Range, that can currently be seen from space.

As much as I love category romance, as much as I love Maggie Osborne, it's a little shocking that I haven't read any of the Margaret St. George books. But thanks to the joy that is Paperback Swap, I now have this one and Love Bites.

I'll admit, something about this back cover blurb mildly creeps me out, but I'm still intrigued. I also was intrigued enough by this Fortune Cookie series to look it up and discovered something really interesting. This was a four book, multi-author continuity in the late 1990s that crossed four different Harlequin lines. Usually these continuities stay in specific lines. Not this one. It had installments in SuperRomance, Temptation, and Intrigue.

Neato. Although one wonders how sales were as a whole since readers are nothing if not loyal to specific lines. Had I been reading romance back then, I would have followed the series across the lines....but then, I suspect I'm a bit of a Harlequin Reading Freak, so maybe you can't go by me?