Mini-Reviews: TWILIGHT GN Vol. 2, THE SLEIGHT OF HEART, and IN A DARK WOOD

TWILIGHT: The Graphic Novel, Volume 2, by Young Kim and Stephenie Meyer

I remember kind of liking volume one of Twilight: The Graphic Novel (review here), mainly because of the gorgeous art, so I was excited to read volume two. However, I had a really hard time getting into this one. Maybe it had do with being dropped into the middle of the story after a two year-ish break from volume one, but there were also a lot of stylistic things that bothered me.

For one, the pacing was really draggy. And for another, the dialog. Uhg. For some reason... the characters kept... talking with a lot of... dots in their sentences. Why? Are they breathing heavily? Cursing? (Actually, it might be fun to insert curse words into all the dot-dot-dot parts--too bad my copy comes from the library.) There was also a lot of shouting and exclamation marks! It seriously got on my nerves.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably reread volume one and then start volume two immediately after.



THE SLEIGHT OF HEART by Benjamin Parsons

I got this novella for free on Smashwords. It's a folk tale-esque story about how a rock formation shaped like a woman wound up on a cliff, and involves love and murder. I really liked the writing style, but the way the story was told didn't flow well at all. The paranormal elements felt tacked on, and there wasn't a single character to root for in the entire book. Plus, it's incorrectly categorized--this is NOT a romance, Gothic or otherwise, and I'm a little offended any person would think it was. Still, it wasn't too bad. If I wasn't expecting a love story out of it I probably would have been more satisfied with it.



In a Dark Wood by Josh Lanyon

This is an unusual story from Lanyon--usually his mysteries are quirky and fun, but this one was downright creepy. Tim is a NYC travel writer who meets Luke, a detective, at a party. At the urging of a friend, Tim tells a story from when he was thirteen and stumbled upon a ramshackle house in the woods with human bones buried in the yard. At the urging of Luke, he and Tim return to the house to investigate.

Not only is the house freaking scary in this story, but there are other dark themes as well. Tim has spent his entire adulthood blaming himself for not telling anyone about what he found, and as a result he's a moody bastard and a serious alcoholic. Overall I found In a Dark Wood to be well-paced, atmospheric, and worth the read, especially if you like spooky stories.

Book Review and Discussion: MUMMY DEAREST by Josh Lanyon

Drew's boyfriend/boss (awwwkward) tells him he needs to publish more if he wants to get tenure, which is how Drew finds himself in Walsh, Wyoming, trying to inspect the mummy of Princess Merneith on the same day Frasier Fortune, host of the TV show, The Mysterious, is filming a segment about the mummy's supposed curse. Sparks fly between Frasier and Drew on their first meeting--the sparks of annoyance and dislike, since Frasier is refusing to let Drew inspect the mummy. But after the two compromise, Frasier changes his mind about Drew and vice versa, and then they solve the mystery of the walking mummy.

This is a fun book, although I would have liked a little more from it. It's unclear exactly what Drew teaches (what is with Lanyon and academic characters recently, anyway?), and I felt certain elements of the plot--well, really all of the plot--were not fleshed out. But whatever weaknesses the novel might have, this was a sure bet for me from the start because:

1. There's a mummy--I love mummies! There needs to be more mummies in fiction.
2. The Mysterious is like those shows on the Discovery Channel--Destination Truth or Legend Quest--which I'm a total sucker for.
3. There are a lot of old movie references.

After starting this novella, I realized it was something Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads would really enjoy, so I loaned it to her. It was her first m/m romance! (I may not have initially disclosed this.) Below is our discussion about the book:

What did you think of your first m/m romance?

Colette: I was pleasantly surprised by my first m/m. I don't know what I was expecting, because this was just like a normal romance novella-except the romance was between two guys. I will definitely be reading more from this genre.

How does this book compare with a traditional romance?

Tasha: Well, first of all, I'm not sure this is a "romance" in the traditional sense because there's no HEA. It's more of a hook-up. But one of the things I liked, especially after reading Instant Attraction, was that there wasn't any of this bullshit pretending-we're-not-attracted-to-someone-for-no-good-reason crap that I hate. Apparently male characters are allowed to act logically and hook-up with people if they feel like it and women aren't.

Colette: I would say this was a like a traditional romance because all though there wasn't the pretending not to like you part, Drew did fight his feelings for Noah-he just didn't fight them as long as they do in traditional romances. It's also similar because there was one character who thought the other was better then they were and that's why they weren't getting together. But again, unlike in traditional romances, that was wrapped up much faster then it would have been otherwise.

Tasha: Well, Drew did resist hooking up with Frasier because he was already in a relationship, which is reasonable. But almost as soon as he broke up with Noah he got together with Frasier! Like literally three minutes afterward.

What did you think of Frasier Fortune?

Tasha: He was fun! Like a leprechaun.

Colette: I liked him a lot! He made me laugh out loud, and reminded me a lot of Josh Gates, my favorite reality tv boyfriend who chases myths like Frasier does.

Was there anything that surprised you about the novel?

Tasha: There were a lot of and-the-plot-thickens! moments, but I felt like they didn't pay off in the end because the story wasn't long enough. I liked how olde timey movies were integrated into the story and really wanted to read more about that. I also thought the thing about Princess Merneith and homosexuality in Ancient Egypt was really interesting. I'm surprised there isn't more information about that!

Colette: I really liked the twists and turns it took to get to the end, and I also liked learning about stuff about Ancient Egypt that I didn't know. I thought the ending was a little abrupt, and would have like more conclusion with Drew and Frasier, but I'm hoping this means that we'll see more of these two in the future.

How would you characterize this book as far as tone, theme, etc.?

Tasha: This is definitely a light and fun novel. As for theme I think Drew definitely goes through a journey where he has to decide whether what he perceives is authentic and what's "real." Like with the fight with Noah, for example.

Colette: I would characterize the tone of Mummy Dearest as humorous, and the basic theme was mystery, with Drew trying to figure out just who he was.

Was there anything that bothered or annoyed you?

Tasha: You know there's usually some detail that bugs me. In this one I was really bothered that they called Walsh "Matthew Shepard territory." That seemed like a rather broad generalization. It also bothered me that Noah wasn't attached to his phone. I know he's an old fuddy-duddy, but every single department chair I know is glued to their smartphone.

Colette: I think what annoyed me the most didn't have to do with the actual story, but that 20% of the book was for promoting his other books. I can understand doing that for the last 2-3% of the book, but a whole 20%? I always feel a bit cheated with ebooks when that happens.

Tasha: That annoyed me, as well. I thought I had way more in the book to read and then all of a sudden it just ended! Maybe that's why I keep harping about the length with this one...

How does this compare to other books Josh Lanyon has written?

Tasha: As far as his shorter, lighter mysteries are concerned, this was pretty comparable. I remember liking the characters better in The Dickens With Love, but it's quite similar to that. I think his longer, more serious novels, like Fair Game and Snowball In Hell, are better just because there's more character and plot development. I'll say this for Lanyon, though, he always writes very unique characters.

If you want quick, fun, Halloween-related read this week, I'd definitely recommend this novella. And to get you in the right frame of mind, here's the trailer of the The Mummy with Boris Karloff:

Book Review: FAIR GAME by Josh Lanyon

As a former FBI agent turned professor, Elliot is in a unique position to liaise with the authorities after a student is kidnapped from his university campus near Seattle. The only problem is, Elliot's former lover, Tucker, is in charge of the investigation. Awkwardness!

While writing my fan letter to John Lanyon, I started buying up a bunch of his novels in the course of "research." This is another fast-paced and entertaining read by him. There's lots of sexual tension between Elliot and Tucker that is very skillfully drawn-out over the course of the novel. The mystery is also well-plotted: I didn't figure out who the kidnapper was until Elliot did, mainly because of some convincing red herrings.

I also kind of loved the university setting. Elliot got his PhD in history before becoming an FBI agent, which is a reeeally drastic change in career goals to say the least, and it's clear he's gained no love for academia in the interim. The professors--most of whom teach art studio or art history, strangely enough--are portrayed as navel-gazing egomaniacs, not that students necessarily fair much better. I really wanted to find out more about Elliot's backstory in this respect and why he decided to go into the FBI after doing all the work it takes to gain a PhD, but perhaps this is implied in the conservative ideology in this book--Elliot's dad is a retro hippie liberal (as are most of his colleagues at the university) who thinks the FBI is part of the Evol Empire and trying to impose a fascist regime. Elliot is never overt about his political leanings, but he clearly situates himself on the other side of the political spectrum, as does Tucker.

All that aside, however, the main draw of the novel is Tucker and Elliot's relationship. Where did it all go wrong--isn't that the question in every failed relationship? It's one Elliot thinks he has figured out, until he and Tucker are forced to work together again. I didn't get as much insight into Tucker's character as I would have liked--he's basically man-candy, let's face it--but I did think his and Elliot's interactions felt authentic and that there was a lot of chemistry between them. Plus, it's in the nature of a novel like this to only know the other characters from a single character's perspective, and watching Tucker progress from a royal bastard to, like, greatest guy ever! was kind of fun.

Definitely another solid mystery from Lanyon that's worth checking out.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Author Fan Letter: JOSH LANYON

A draft of a letter found in the recently renamed law offices of English, Sheridan, and Doyle:

Dear Mr. Josh Lanyon,

We here at English, Sheridan, and Doyle have recently become aware of your numerous novels, novellas, and short stories; and the preponderance of characters therein named after ourselves and our associates, such as Devlin, Marlowe, and Crisparkle.

Given our litigious careers, you may be expecting this to be a cease-and-desist notice--and we were seriously considering it--but after reading your books, we have reconsidered. Instead, we have become what the intrawebz refers to as "fanboyz" and would like to offer you representation, pro bono publico. See the following for our reasons:

• Variety Although most well-known for your contemporary mystery series (the Adrien English series in particular, which our own senior partner, Mr. English, particularly enjoys), you write in a wide variety of genres such as fantasy, paranormal, romance, adventure, and even non-fiction. Furthermore, your novels are set in many different locations and time periods: WWII Los Angeles, contemporary Los Angeles, a fantastical city that resembles Los Angeles... all right, so maybe the settings don't have THAT much variety. The point is, there's something in your books for everyone!
  
• Smart As Mae West once said, "It isn't what I do, but how I do it." All the settings in the world wouldn't matter if your books weren't smart, full of witty dialog and intelligent characters. But they are, and we like this.
  
• Bibliophilic In almost every story you write, there is a writer or reader who loves books. Nuff said.
  
• Characterful In addition to being smart, your characters are multifaceted. They seem like real people. People we like! People we want to be friends with! People that we root for and characters that carry us through to the end of the story.
  
• Entertaining Regardless of whether your stories are comedic or have a more serious tone, they're distractingly entertaining and enjoyable to read.
  

Because of the above, we are willing to read over all your future manuscripts with an eye towards avoiding legal infractions. Before we begin what is sure to be a fruitful partnership, however, we would like to raise one issue that's bothering us: you have many cop and PI characters, but why so few lawyers? We are very literary and intelligent, and are a vast source of entertaining storylines, as proved by The Practice, Suits, and John Grisham. Think about it.

Sincerely,

The partners of English, Sheridan, and Doyle

The Author Fan Letter Blog Crawl is hosted by Kassa at three am and celebrates authors every day in June. To read yesterday's letter, visit Babbling About Books, and More! Tomorrow, make sure to check out I Love Books.

SNOWBALL IN HELL by Josh Lanyon

Detective Matthew Spain is a widower and former Marine in 1943 Los Angeles when he comes across the strangest murder he's ever seen: a body dumped in the La Brea Tar Pits. Fortunately, Nathan Doyle, a war reporter recently injured and relocated stateside, is on hand and immediately starts acting suspicious. It turns out he knew the victim and was possibly the last one to see him alive. Not only that, he's clearly hiding something. Is Matthew's attraction blinding him to the fact that Nathan's the killer???

This is a re-release by Lanyon in anticipation of what is apparently going to be a new series. It doesn't have the hip edginess of The Dickens with Love or the sharp wit of the Adrien English novels, all of which are set in the modern-day and told in the first person. That being said, I did really enjoy Snowball in Hell, and it's entirely due to the characters. I absolutely love Matt and Nathan, and even Matt's partner, Jonesey.

The protagonist of the story is definitely Matt, who has sort of an everyman vibe. He was married to a woman he fell in love with high school, but has always been attracted to men. This isn't something he acted on, however, until meeting the suicidal Nathan, who is obviously the "snowball" in this scenario. I'm not sure Matt could have chosen a worse boyfriend, in all honesty, and am still not entirely certain what the attraction is on Matt's part, but whatever. Even though Nathan is unstable, the story needs his manic always-on-the-edge-of-death-ness to balance Matt out.

The setting is interesting. It's not palpably 1940's Hollywood--it's not a literary version of film noir--but Lanyon does use plenty of old timey words and lingo I had to look up, and the time period and place is integral to the story line. I can definitely picture this as a black-and-white movie in my head.

The conclusion left me unsatisfied. I wanted to see Matt chew Jonesey out for dropping the ball on the investigation! I wanted Nathan to have an internal realization that yes, life is worth living. But most of all I wanted some sort of conclusion to Matt and Nathan's affair. Can these two crazy kids continue their relationship? At the novel's end, I had my doubts, but I'm more than willing to root them on.

Snowball in Hell does have problems with pacing and the mystery isn't that mysterious, but overall it was an entertaining read with characters I want to know more about. I can't wait to spend more time with Matt, Nathan, and hopefully Jonesey in the next book.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

The first book in Lanyon's Adrien English Mystery Series does a good job of establishing the main characters, and I definitely want to read the second book.  The mystery was a little thin, though, and the book could have used more sleuthing and less set-up.

Adrien (with an e) English is a L. A. bookseller specializing in gay mysteries.  When his only employee and old friend, Rob, is found murdered, Adrien is the primary suspect.  This throws him into the path of homophobic police detectives Riordan and Chan, as well as journalist Bruce.

Although this book wasn't quite as good as The Dickens With Love (I liked the main characters in that book more, and it was more tightly plotted), Lanyon impressed me again with Fatal Shadows.  This novel is smart and funny, but isn't a light fluff read by any means.  The characters deal with serious issues in a realistic and believable way.  For example, one of my favorite lines is, "People don't see you.  They see their perception of you.  They see what they want to see."  People's perception of Adrien as a homosexual man definitely defines his relationships with those around him--Rob's wife can barely look him in the eye, and to his writer friends he's, "The Gay Friend."  But this definitely doesn't make Adrien an object of pity or pathos--instead, his life is treated with a dark, sharp wit that carried me through most of the book.

Unfortunately, I don't think these insights into Adrien, his character, and his relationships was successfully integrated into the mystery.  There's also a bunch of random, literary-sounding quotes (one of which is the source of the title) which are never really explained.  Although Adrien does do some sleuthing, he's not particularly good at it, and the murderer literally pins him down before he's identified. 

But as this is the first book in the series, I'm going to give Adrien a pass on his lame detecting skillz and hope that they improve in the future.  Fatal Shadows was, for the most part, definitely a book worth checking out.

Other opinions:
Smexy Books (really a review of The Dark Tide, the last book in the series)
Dear Author

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Dickens With Love

The Dickens With Love by Josh Lanyon

This was the perfect book to start off my m/m reading month--it was a light, fun, enjoyable read.  But it wasn't so great that another book this month won't possibly be able to top it.

Within the first few pages of The Dickens With Love, we know several important pieces of information--it's Christmas time in LA; the narrator, James Winter, has been hired by the sketchy Mr. Stephanopoulos to acquire a unique edition of Dickens for him; and James Winter is a snarky, sharp bibliophile.  Oh, and he's gay (that's page four).

James is really the best thing about this novel (which is a good thing, since it's told entirely from his point of view).  He's intelligent, witty, and seems to spend most of his time swilling brandy.  And, despite the fact that I sort of whined about every main character being a reader in a post a few weeks ago, I loved how James was completely addicted to books.  "Books are what I know.  Books are all I know," he says at one point; and that is definitely appropriate to the plot of the story, which involves a one-of-kind edition of a Dickens' Christmas story.  James is a down-on-his-luck book appraiser who used to be all that, but now works 20 hours a week at Barnes and Noble and hates it.  He needs the commission from Stephanopolous in order to pay his rent, but an affair with the owner of the book, Professor Sedgwick Crisparkle, gets in the way of all his plans.

Unfortunately, the weak point of The Dickens With Love was the romance.  Granted, I've never been a fan of the they-have-sex-and-then-they-fall-in-love plotline; but Sedgwick seemed totally boring and lacking in personality.  I can see what Sedg sees in James, but why James was going gaga over Professor Fizzlewizzle was something of a mystery to me.  Plus, there were a lot of holes in the plot--and since there isn't much in the way of plot in this story, the holes were hard to ignore.  The biggest one that still gets me is why Sedgwick is spending Christmas in Los Angeles if he's English and his entire family--whom he's supposedly very close to--is in England?  I've been overseas without my family during major holidays, and trust me, it's tough.  Sedg couldn't wait until the week after Christmas to sell his book?  Or the week before?  It simply makes no sense.

Despite all its flaws, though, The Dickens With Love is a truly fun, enjoyable read.  It actually reminded me a lot of the Vicky Bliss mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, which I was addicted to when I was a teenager; it has the same level of smartness and humor, and to be honest I kept expecting it to turn into a mystery (didn't happen).  Lanyon is definitely a skilled author, and I do plan on reading his backlist.



Going into this book, I had two questions:  one, would I enjoy reading it on an e-reader; and two, would there be any noticable difference between m/m romance and traditional m/f romance?

The answer to the latter question is not really, although I did find it refreshing to finally read about a main character that doesn't subliminate or deflect the attraction s/he feels for someone else.  When James first meets Crisparkle, he's friendly and chatty, displaying "uncharacteristic cordiality."  In other words he actually flirts with someone he finds attractive.  What a concept!  Most female characters in that situation would have either ignored their attraction for no reason, or ignored it because they thought the hero was a jerk.  I just find it interesting that apparently males are still allowed to be more sexually agressive than females, even when said male is the "submissive" in the relationship.

As for reading on an e-reader--maybe I was just really excited to be using my new toy, but I found it a lot easier to use the e-reader instead of an actual book.  It seemed like I read faster on it.  And it was much easier to read at the table because I didn't have to find a way to keep my book open (always important).

So far I'm feeling pretty positive about my new e-reader and the theme for this month.  I think if the rest of the books I've downloaded are up to the standard Lanyon's set, I'll be in very good shape.

Other opinions:
Smexy Books

Powered by ScribeFire.

New Year's Readathon Wrap-Up

The New Year Readathon hosted by Kristen from Bookworming isn't over yet, and I still plan to read for it, but I decided to do the wrap-up now. 

My total reading hours will probably end up being around 10 hours.  I made an itty-bitty dent in Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James before I decided I might as well move on to The Dickens With Love by Josh Lanyon, which I actually managed to finish.  Hooray!  Of course, it was pretty short.  And I'm going to finish up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight.  So I don't think I did too shabby, all things considered.

I'm really looking forward to writing reviews for The Dickens With Love and Goblet, and I enjoyed starting 2010 by reading a fun novel.  Hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of the year! 

Happy New Year everyone!

Powered by ScribeFire.