beginning the cycle, and a new anthology

[snugglekitty]

After reading The Pinhoe Egg, I decided to re-read the entire Chrestomanci series up to that point. I started with Charmed Life, although I'm not sure why that is meant to precede Lives of Christopher Chant, since the latter happens twenty-five years before the story in the series timeline. I enjoyed it.

I am a known user (and abuser) of the library hold system. I complained to the head librarian at the Somerville Library when they said that henceforth you could only reserve twenty books at once, not thirty. She said that the folks who ever had more than twenty holds were responsible for more than 90% of the usage of the library transfer and hold system and cost a huge amount of money. Well, as mrpet pointed out, reducing the length of the list doesn't make usage of the system go down. You just keep your list full all the time. Certainly that's true for me - since the switch, I pretty much always have more than 15 books on hold. Most of the time, they're books that are very popular, with long waiting lists, so they just sit on the list, not doing anything. But I do try to read and return those books quickly when I get them. Skylight Confessions fell into that category. Over the Moon did too.

I had been eagerly anticipating this book - a new anthology of four novellas, most of which are about werewolves, all of which were modern supernatural romances. The contributing authors were Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson (of Undead fame), Virginia Kantra, and Sunny. I enjoyed the first three novellas - they were all good and either sexy or funny - but the third left me cold. Reviewers of Sunny say that fans of Anne Bishop and Laurell K. Hamilton will like her. What this seems to mean is that she cribs from them for her own work. If you crossed Dark Jewels books with the Merry Gentry series, and removed all originality and character, this is what you would have. Moles like pearls that heal? Warrior Lords instead of Warlord Princes? And, oh, another main character who heals people by having sex with them, making everyone involved glow. Bitches, please!
If you like supernatural romance, this anthology is a good way to get introduced to some new names, but it definitely didn't change my life. A good book for a rainy day or a long train ride. Three stars.

Comments

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to suggest a book for you. I recently read Doppelganger by Marie Brennan. It concerns the price that witches must pay for power, and I won't say anything more than that, lest I give the good stuff away. I think you'll probably like it. DO NOT READ THE COVER.

If you like that one, there's a sequel.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was already on my hold list. :) I had seen the sequel in Pandemonium, and thought it looked neat. So, stuff had already been given away. I started it yesterday and so far I really like it.