one okay book, two that were so-so

[snugglekitty]

I tried a new space opera series with the book Kris Longknife: Mutineer by Mike Shepherd. I liked it, I thought it was okay. The title was a misnomer - the mutiny only occurs at the very end of the book, for a very few pages. Some of it was a little too obvious, or something, but I enjoyed it. It was also nice to read military sci fi that was written without acronyms and in less than 600 pages. Three stars.

Greywalker, by Kat Richardson, was another in the genre of Anita Blake knockoffs. Harper Blaine is a private investigator who dies for a few minutes while dealing with a domestic abuse case. After coming back to life, she starts seeing strange things. This book was really interesting in the beginning, but I felt it fell flat. The heroine struggles to accept her powers, friendly strangers help her, nasty vampires threaten her, yadda yadda yadda. I didn't think there was anything original in this book. It was engrossing and the prose was well-done, but I won't read anything else in this series. Two stars.

Finally, I read To Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn based on a Novelist recommendation, because I said that I liked Amanda Quick. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It had a typical romance cover, which my sweeties teased me about unmercifully even when I asked them to stop. However, I didn't want to judge it on that basis. I've read at least two books that were classified as romance that turned out to be really quite good. So I went ahead and read it. It passed the fifty page test, because it was funny. However, at the end, there was some... typical romance stuff... that I really didn't like. (I'm not talking about sex! Perverts. I was fine with the sex.) It was the way that the hero essentially forced the heroine to marry him. He would not take no for an answer, even though she had good reason to be angry at him. He just kept asking her until she was worn out, hysterical, and exhausted, and said yes. Never apologized for his cad-like behavior earlier in the book. In addition to that, the book hit my "unfair" button. If I think that a character is being treated unfairly, I just don't enjoy the book (or movie, or whatever). The heroine does everything right and only gets what she wants as an accident (or perhaps a divine reward for her goodness) and I don't think that life works like that.
I'm glad that this heroine wasn't stupid. That's what I hate about most romance novels. But I thought the hero was pretty much a jerk. I could only get through it without being seriously squicked by imagining that this was consensual role-play, which it wasn't. I won't read anything else by Quinn. Two stars again - the book was good up until that point.

Currently reading: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, David and the Phoenix by Edward Ormondroyd and Joan Raysor, and First Truth by Dawn Cook.

Comments

romance

[trouble4hire.livejournal.com]

do you remember the titles or authors of the officially classified romance books that turned out to be quite good? I wish to make up for teasing. or you could assign me something.

Re: romance

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

You're sweet. :) The one I remember being very good when I read it a while back had a title something like Mountain Bride, which had less sex and more substance than one might expect. I don't think it's this one this one - I remember the cover being different, and a plot summary I found elsewhere seems to suggest it's not the one. I'm pretty sure that the main character's name was Cherokee, and the man she was in love with was the son of an industrialist, not a penniless nobleman. The cover showed her lying in the grass by herself, in an intact white dress. She had long curly red hair.

The one that I read recently that was good was Second Sight by Amanda Quick, but it doesn't have an embarassing cover. It would make me feel much better if you read a book with an embarassing cover in public. :)

Re: romance

[trouble4hire.livejournal.com]

well, if you find a title with an embarassing cover, I'll request it from the library. Or you could browse the romance shelves the next time you are in the library, and pick out something for me. Then we can go out for coffee/tea and you can see me read it in public.