A Few Disappointments

Christmas morning was great... and Christmas dinner turned out better than I could have expected. The food all turned out well, and making the casseroles the day before turned the whole cooking experience into a relaxed sort of dance. I even managed to play a few Christmas carols on the piano at one point. When does THAT happen?

But then the day turned not so wonderful. We went to see Les Miserables, and the hubby and I were both itching to be impressed. The film did not fulfill my expectations. I can't claim to be devastated, but the director was so fixated on facial expression that he filmed nearly everything in tight shots centered on each actor's face--to the detriment of any cinematography that might illuminate gesture, setting, etc. And his methods for filming meant actors could act--though Russell Crowe decided not to--but only a handful of them actually sang well, and I don't count Hugh Jackman among them. His voice was reedy and annoying, and his rendition of "Bring Him Home" made me positively cringe. Anne Hathaway was absolutely brilliant--truly--and many of the young students and both little kids could also sing--but otherwise the music was gritty and unlovely.

That was not the lowest point of the day, though. My little boy writhed through much of the film, complaining of a stomach ache... which wasn't fake, since the hubby ended up running out of the theatre with him so that he could heave up everything he'd eaten that day. I should have taken care of him, too, considering that I wasn't enjoying the film and I think the hubby was far less exacting than I and had been, up to that point, having a fantastic time.

We made a few hurling stops on the way home, and then my son fell asleep, emptied at last. I watched him overnight, to make sure I was there in case any last bit decided to come up on its own. Nothing did, and this morning he seems okay.

I just hope the hubby finds a time to go back to the movie and see it again--without anything to hinder his enjoyment of the film. Including me. Except for my criticisms here, I don't intend to say a single negative thing about the film to him--especially if he loves it. But I do not want to see it again.

Book Reviews for the Week

Finally, a book that makes me forget I'm an editor and lets me just fall into the pages! It's been months since I felt this way, since I was riveted by an adventure enough to stay up late at night reading, forget to do dishes, and lose myself into the adventure that is SNEAK by Evan Angler.

My only regret is that I didn't read the previous book in the series first. This is one of my Booksneeze books, which means I downloaded it for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers, but it doesn't mean I have to say anything nice about it. At first, too, because this is the second book in the series (the first is SWIPE), it took some time to figure out what was going on. This world is a gripping one, where, in the name of "unity," the government places a Mark on its citizens while they are in their teens--refuse the Mark, and you lose all privileges, from home to job to money to, well, really everything. Yet people choose not to be Marked anyway, for all sorts of reasons. Either that or the government decides, based on a mind reading, that a particular person is too dangerous to receive the Mark.

That's what happened to Logan in the first book, and this second in the series records his journey to Beacon (situated where Washington, D.C. is now, I think) to help the Markless gain their freedom, to stop the government's control, and to restore balance to his world. And it's well worth reading. Gripping, dramatic, with good, clear, complex characters. It's better than Hunger Games by a long shot, and all I can do is hope it takes off in the same way. This book deserves to do well, and I am downloading the previous book SNEAK on my own dime today. This may be the best book I've read all year.

I also tackled a book called HALO, a sort of angel version of the TWILIGHT series. It's funny that only two weeks ago I reviewed ANGEL EYES, and the same sort of thing was happening, but this book is better. It's cover alone is magnificent, and I snatched it up based on the cover alone. The premise is good: an angel sent down to do good ends up falling in love with a mortal while she does her mission. Ill-fated love is one of my favorites (don't know why).

My biggest problem with the book is that the main character is supposed to be an angel, and should thus be above the normal humanness of mortals, but besides her being really pretty, I can't find anything about her that is truly angelic. She just seems to be a rather wimpy, whiny teenager, and that gets on my nerves. She lies to her fellow angels, sneaks out to be with a human she falls in love with, and makes all sorts of stupid choices, as if she really isn't an angel at all.

Her two fellow angels, Gabriel and Ivy (yes, Gabriel is THE Angel Gabriel) are a whole lot more likable, but I couldn't get around the main character's lack of judgment. Her love interest Xavier is a sweet boy, but perhaps, like Edward from the TWILIGHT series, he's too perfect. Every big fear she has turns out to be not so bad. We keep expecting him to react to something, but he is unendingly patient, no matter what. That's sort of the way the whole story goes: we're told to fear something (because the main character does), and then her fear turns out unfounded.

Her best friend at the high school is pretty stupid, and not very nice, either. I couldn't figure out why they were friends at all, especially after her friend got her drunk at a party and then left her. Even their talk of prom was gag-worthy, and though I know the book will have a sequel, I definitely won't be reading it, cover or no cover.

That's all the books I've read this week. I now want to tackle SWIPE and another novel on my Kindle... I'll report back once I've finished those.

Have a great week! And, please, share what you've been reading...

Book Reviews for the Week

It seems ironic to me that so many books lately are imbued with elements of the Twilight series. I'm not sure if it's my luck lately, or perhaps I'm imagining things, but Twilight is figuring in the books I've happened upon lately. The first of these is Angel Eyes, by Shannon Dittemore. 

The book, free from my Booksneeze account (which does not require a positive review, I might add) was the first I've read on my new Kindle (hurray!), and it's premise is pretty cool, really--some of us have real guardian angels protecting us, and they fight real demons, and if we get to know our angels well, and have direct contact with their halo, we get some sort of power. Very, very cool. 

One reviewer of the book said she feel kind of uncomfortable, though, because the book felt too much like Twilight, and she thought those books were, well, sinful perhaps? I don't have the same qualms--if I had any in the past, I tossed them all when I fell in love with the Harry Potter novels. The obvious references to Stephenie Meyer's novels made me uncomfortable for a different reason: this book is BETTER. 

The description opening the book is downright lovely, and except for a few scenic problems when the author seems to forget it's pouring down rain in a scene, only to remember a page later, the dialogue and character interactions make a whole lot more sense. It's a good read, but I expect it's only one of a series to come. Is that a problem for me? Nope. I'll be checking out the next one, most definitely.

The other Twilight-ish books I've encountered are by Angie Frazier, books one and two in the "Everlasting" series. Yes, another series. That seems to be the MO of publishing today. 

These books are quite well written, even if at times the characters change their emotional mood and inner minds too quickly for my taste. I like the search the books are dealing with--the quest--even though this format is so overused it's starting to make me jaded against reading. 

But then Twilight rears its ugly head, and the part of Meyer's series I have always disliked comes back to haunt me. I've never been a fan of the whole Jacob vs. Edward controversy. Ack! Gag! As far as I'm concerned, if a girl isn't sure which guy she loves more, she doesn't really love either of them. I have little sympathy for a woman who is trying to figure out which guy she likes best. I'm lucky I had one guy to fall in love with, and I certainly don't find more guys to be more entertaining. 

Perhaps I am in the minority. Perhaps there are all sorts of girls out there gasping at the chance to have "two knights tilt" for them, or other such male macho crap. Then again, if a guy I liked made it clear he wasn't sure if he liked me or some other girl better, I'd be outta there, without a backward glance. I just don't get it. 

Unfortunately, even though the situations are really interesting, and all the ship sailing/ocean/storm/travel stuff is good, too, the love triangle thing is not nearly so fascinating. It's the reason I almost didn't read the last book in the Twilight series, for book three nearly turned me off the story completely (and still does). And these books could do without it, too. All they do is make the heroine Camille seem like a creep.

So, what have we learned from all of this? That Shakespeare likes originality, but is a prude when it comes to love relationships. That sometimes referring to a popular piece of literature is silly, especially when one's own work is better. What does all this make me want to do? Open my novels up and revise them, making sure to cut out all this quest stuff and any hint at a romantic rivalry. So I'll keep revising, and reading. How about you?

The Modern Milton--A Book Review of SPIRIT FIGHTER

It seems like a good idea on the outside, in the same way it did to John Milton about 500 years ago: Epics are cool--especially Greek epics--so why not write something just as dramatic as The Iliad or The Odyssey, only make it better because it's about "real" magic--God.

Milton did an okay job of it, too. Though his Paradise Lost isn't nearly as good as Homer's two epics, it's still pretty dramatic and well done... and even if his Paradise Regained was pretty awful, he managed to make one good epic out of his idea...

Jerel Law has set out to do something similar. No doubt spurred on to write the "Son of Angels" series because of the popularity of magic series like J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter and Rick Riordan's Olympians, Law has begun a series of magical beings, only instead of good and bad witches or the traditional Greek gods and demigods, he's created an epic battle between good and evil by using God's angels and Satan's minions, centering the action around two siblings who are both descendants of fallen angels. SPIRIT FIGHTER is the first of this series, and I had the opportunity to review a copy direct from Thomas Nelson publishers.

The action is certainly dramatic, and the tone of the book resembles Riordan's series quite closely. Honestly, though, that may be the book's biggest flaw. Just as Riordan can construct a world with a ton of action, lots of suspense, and practically no characterization, Law's characters manage to perform some pretty amazing things--yet at the end I know no more about them than I did in the beginning. The only characteristic separating Jonah and Eliza throughout is their ability, since he has superhuman strength and she's able to create a protective shield. Except for the reminders that she's the studious one of them, I found nothing to really tell them apart.

A further problem developed because of the use of Christianity. In Riordan's series, the gods are all silly and selfish and capricious, just as they are in the traditional myths. In Law's series, though, the poor mortal kids are often running around without direction--yet they are constantly being reminded that God knows all, that he's in control of everything--but that is troubling, for if He does, He isn't letting anybody know, and such a situation makes him seem almost as capricious as the pagan gods of Riordan's series. If this is meant as a justification and reinforcement of Christian thought, I'm not sure it's doing enough to deal with these problems, and my queasiness with these ideas increased as the stakes rose in the book itself.

Still, it's a fun read. And if you like Riordan, you'll probably like this series, too.




If you are more into mermaids, though, you might consider FORBIDDEN SEA. I'm reading all the mermaid stuff I can get my hands on, and this is by far one of the best books I've read lately. GREAT characters, dramatic action, and more--emotional stakes that are rare in a lot of the books I've read lately. I became very attached to the main character very quickly, and her relationships with others on the tiny island were compelling all the way through. Only the undersea world was a bit of a disappointment, for it was made into some sort of utopia, yet its realities seemed less than desirable to me. Besides, I don't believe in utopias. I won't tell the ending, but I admit it made me happy, open-ended as it was. I can't wait to find more by Sheila A. Nielson. Her writing is refreshingly meaningful.


So, read any good books lately? Once I'm done with the annotated Grimm's Fairy Tales I'm reading, I'll be ready to tackle something new.

A Great Review for Our Anthology

Hurray! Yesterday was the first day of our blog tour for the newly released Death by Chocolate anthology, and we've already received a VERY positive review! Gothic Angel Book Reviews blog even reviewed each story one by one, and she liked them all. Pretty sweet.

And here's another review, posted by Jo Cattell this morning on Dreams are What Make Writing Happen.

We're touring through a whole bunch of blogs over the next few weeks. Here's the schedule if you'd like to tour along with us. The book is now available all over, including right HERE.

Now that this is under way, I need to get working on my novel revision!