"Changeless" by Gail Carriger

Changeless by Gail Carriger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: romance, steampunk, supernatural

On my TBR list?: Yes, as of Mar 2011

Book 2 in an ongoing series

Summary, from Goodreads:

Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

This second book in the Parasol Protectorate series is just as delectable as the first. The snappy rejoinders mixed in with the supernatural and romantic elements make this an exciting novel to read. Alexia's sister Felicity is even more wicked with the barbs and her best friend Ivy is still amusingly clueless. For you romantics, Conall is also taking every opportunity to feel up his wife!

I appreciated reading a story where the "will they or won't they?" part of the romance has already been taken care of. Having a couple get on with the business of life while obviously still loving each other is refreshing.

Carriger is a skilled writer who manages to remind the reader of events from the first novel without making it feel like she is writing a recap. Her characters are ones that you want to spend more time with. That is why it was a bit frustrating that, unlike the first book, this one ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. If you are the impatient type, you may want to have the third book on hand before you start reading this one.

View all my reviews

"A Heart for Home" by Lauraine Snelling

A Heart for Home by Lauraine Snelling

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Christian, prairie romance
On my TBR list?: yes, since March 2011

Book 3 of 3 in the Home to Blessing series, 16th book set in the universe

Summary, from Goodreads:

Astrid Bjorklund is on the Red Bud Indian Reservation in South Dakota trying to stop the horrific epidemic that is ravaging the tribe. The elders are suspicious of her, but when they see some of their people beginning to recover, they allow Astrid to continue caring for the sick and to train others to help. She is overwhelmed by this need so close to home and wonders if this is the mission field God has planned for her.

Joshua Landsverk wants to repair his broken relationship with Astrid, but he is opposed to her present work and refuses to tell her why. When he encounters unexpected adversity, a surprising act of kindness brings healing to the grievous wrong inflicted years ago. Will it be enough to bring Joshua and Astrid together again?

If you've read all the other books in the series, then reading this one is like visiting your hometown and catching up on all the news. Snelling manages to work in most of the characters that fans met in previous books without it feeling like an obligatory roll call. There was nothing shocking in the plot, but it was comforting to spend some time in that city again.

A Heart for Home is the 16th book about the good people of Blessing, ND, and possibly the last. If so, I think that Lauraine Snelling ended on a good note. She left room for more characters to be added to this universe and more stories to be told, but the stories of all the existing characters are at a good stopping point. I don't have the desire to go read another prairie romance as a replacement for the fact that there are no more Blessing books, which is an indication that she did a good job wrapping things up.


View all my reviews

"Soulless" by Gail Carriger

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Genre: romance, light steampunk, fantasy
On my TBR list?: Yes, since Nov 2009

Book #1 of The Parasol Protectorate, 3 books published so far

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Summary, from Goodreads:

Without a morsel of exaggeration, its publisher describes this debut novel as "a comedy of manners set in Victorian London full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking." At the center of Soulless's "parasol protectorate" is Miss Alexia Tarabotti, a young woman who lacks not only a suitor but also a soul. And those are not her only problems: When she accidentally kills a vampire, it begins a series of events that she must set out to resolve without the help of any proper authorities.

It has been quite a while since a book grabbed my attention from the very first page, but Soulless managed to do exactly that. It is a charming mix of 19th-century romance and the supernatural, with just enough steampunk thrown in to spice up the story without boring less science-inclined readers like me. This sense of balance is exhibited in several ways throughout the book.

The first example of Carriger's balanced writing style is our heroine, Alexia Tarabotti. She is feisty enough to appeal to a modern reader, yet none of her behavior steps so far outside the parameters of her 19th-century setting as to be unbelievable. Carriger also did an excellent job of writing the lovemaking scenes in a manner that does not jolt the reader out of the story. I've read more than one book that goes "literature, literature, literature, PORN, literature, literature"; the sex scenes were so shocking that they seemed to have been lifted from a different manuscript. In the case of Soulless, the author manages to construct the amorous passages in the same lilting style of the rest of the story, with a well-placed nudge and a wink.

All in all, I would say that this is a first-rate showing, especially for a debut novel. If you follow me on Goodreads, then you know that my 18-year old is already clamoring to read it. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone younger than that because the love scenes, while tastefully written, are still explicit enough that I would feel uncomfortable handing the book to my 14-year-old daughters. This book may be a tad too romantic for the hardcore steampunk or supernatural fans, but I think it could appeal to the readers who don't mind a touch of those fantastical elements in their romance stories.





View all my reviews

Sunday Salon: I Heart Jennifer Schuessler

One of the podcasts that I listen to regularly is the NY Times Book Review. Most of the time it is a bit too high-brow for me; as soon as someone mentions Nietzsche, I'm lost. However, I keep the show on my playlist because of a short segment they do during the last few minutes called Bestseller News. Jennifer Schuessler, the presenter, is warm and engaging. I can always hear the smile or smirk in her voice. Even when she is talking about a book I would never read, she draws me in. I would love to hear Schuessler on one of the pop-culture podcasts I listen to, like Slate's Culture Gabfest or NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Q: Do any of you listen to book review podcasts? Do you have a favorite presenter?

TBR LIST: Time to check the status of my TBR list! Yes, I know everyone else did it in their first post of the year, but I'm always late :-).

I currently have 227 titles on my TBR list. Only three of the titles are ones I added in 2008, so I guess I did OK in my effort to either read or purge the oldest books from my list. There are still 50-odd titles left that were added to the list in 2009, but I don't think I will be addressing that right away. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've developed a desire to read more current books. If you know me, this isn't exactly out of character. My tastes are decidedly retro, but every few months I dip my foot into the pop culture pool to gauge the temperature. Once I've familiarized myself with the current Top 40 charts and the latest TV shows and movies, I crawl back into my cave. I'm actually a little surprised that it took me this long to do the same with books.

ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Besides the new Keith Richard memoir, I have a couple books by Larry Winget, People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It! and Your Kids Are Your Own Fault. I read one of his books on finance a while back and while I didn't think anything he wrote applied to me, I found his writing good for a laugh.

UPCOMING: We are approaching February and I've already gotten my first seed catalog. This means that most of the books I'll be checking out for the next few months will be about gardening and home improvement. My husband got me a sewing machine for Christmas, so there will be a lot of sewing books in my stack, as well. If I do reviews of any of those books, I will probably post them on my personal blog which is more about my home life. Of course, I'll put up links to those posts here just in case anyone is interested.