two adult books with YA characters

[snugglekitty]

While away, I read No Score by Lawrence Block and Mage Heart by Jane Routley.



No Score had a misleading cover. It called itself "The First Chip Harrison Mystery." But actually, it wasn't a mystery at all. It is the story of a teenage kid who gets kicked out of prep school and is desperately trying to get laid. I really enjoyed the book, it was fun and light and made me laugh a lot. But I don't think it can be called a mystery. Three stars.

Mage Hearts was a loan from the fabulous starkeymonster. It is the first book in a trilogy about a young female mage. At the start of the book, her foster father has just passed away, and she is offered a position as a magical bodyguard to a courtesan. She has major conflicts about this because of her puritanical upbringing. I found this book engrossing, but also frustrating. The main character is eager to find fault, especially with herself. Whenever anything goes wrong, she's convinced it's because she's a bad person. That got really annoying. The worldbuiling and character development were excellent, though. Three stars for book 73 for the year.



I also got a good start on Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, which I'm really enjoying, but which is so slow to read. I've read two hundred pages and still have six hundred left to go. Yikes!

Comments

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Well, good on you for attempting it at all. I have yet to get through a whole Trollope book. Even when it was assigned. Even in grad school. Interminable!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Huh. It's slow going in some places, but in other places, I find it very funny, or I wouldn't keep making the effort.

Different strokes, I suppose.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

As I said last night, both the plusses and minuses of Mage Hearts do not go away in later books. The author is allegedly writing in response to patriarchy in fantasy novels, but she keeps on bitch slappi9ng her main character with the patriarchy. I read all three to see if the whole "I am so bad for having sexual thoughts, even when someone forces me to ahve them against my will, that i deserve bad things" goes away. It really doesn't. So....hrm. It's a "read with reservations" book. I wish I had remembered that aspect of teh book before giving it to you to read.