January In Review

I apologize for the mass reviews today, but I was trying to start February with a clean slate. As a result, I sort of forgot to put the fantasy reviews on Twisted Kingdom. I just got on a roll and it was not until afterwards that I noticed what I did. I'll link them from there and hopefully remember to post in the right place next month!

I am trying to be more organized with my books, so I am doing this month in review posts. I just want to see what my reading styles are like from month to month.

The most interesting thing is that I read 16 books this month, and 15 of them were by female authors. That was unintentional, but a very interesting number.

I finished the From the Stacks Challenge. I learned that I am no good with making lists, so I just read books that met the criteria. The five books are listed below, and if you click on them you can see reviews:
1. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
2. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
3. One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey
4. The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll
5. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland

I read my first "Chunkster" for the year, which, actually, was shorter than a couple of the books I read this month, but I am counting it as my chunkster anyways.
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. (470 pages)

I completed the first book for the O'Canada Challenge. Originally I was going to read The Time in Between by David Bergen, but I found it boring, so I just counted Sandra Gulland's The Last Great Dance on Earth. She lives part-time in Canada, and that trilogy has been waiting a while to be read, so it works for me.

For the fantasy challenge, I counted New Moon by Stephanie Meyer.
For the Back to History challenge it was The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll.

Lastly, I read the first TBR Challenge book, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank.

The only challenge I am crashing and burning at is the Classics Challenge. It is mostly related to reading Renaissance Plays for school and not wanting to read anything else of the "classic" genre afterwards. If February goes the same, I think I will save that challenge for later in the year.

Other than that, I read seven authors that were new to me this month (not counting book two and three of the Josephine B. Trilogy). Twelve of the books I read I bought prior to 2007. A lot of them came out in 2006, though, I would like to try and go even further back in the coming months. Get the piles cleaned out that much more.

The rest of the books I read this month were:
1. The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
2. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
4. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
5. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
6. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland

Books Completed: 16
Completion Date: January 30, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages:
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Three in the Josephine B. Trilogy

The Last Great Dance on Earth is the triumphant final volume of Sandra Gulland's beloved trilogy based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. When the novel opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four tumultuous years. Napoleon is Josephine's great love, and she his. But their passionate union is troubled from within, as Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and from without, as England makes war against France and Napoleon's Corsican clan makes war against his wife. Through Josephine's heartfelt diary entries, we witness the personal betrayals and political intrigues that will finally drive them apart, culminating in Josephine's greatest tragedy: her divorce from Napoleon and his exile to Elba. The Last Great Dance on Earth is historical fiction on a grand scale and the stirring conclusion to an unforgettable love story.

From other people that have read this trilogy, they say that this book is their least favourite of the three. I find myself wondering if that is because of a decrease in writing style, or because this is the book where everything falls apart. It really is a depressing novel, one bad thing seems to happen after another, but that is not Gulland's fault, that is histories fault. It is not like she can suddenly change history in book three to make for a happier story.

When the book opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four years. Josephine is a few years older than her husband, and as I mentioned in the post for the previous book, unable to have children. This is not her fault, it is just the way things are, but it becomes very important in this book. It is strange to see the two of them now. Josephine was unsure if she even wanted to marry Napoleon in the beginning, but yet here they are and she seems quite happy to be with him. She knew him before he was anything, and she loves him even if he has nothing.

There are good moments in this book, though, I might add. The book starts out on a happy note, but Napoleon begins to have affairs with other women that play a more central role in this novel than they did in others. He loves his wife, there is no question there, but it seems that men just had to be unfaithful from time to time back in those days. We will not get into today's culture. Josephine really battles with the whole idea of turning a blind eye to what her husband is doing, but she tries. It is hard when someone you love is cheating on you, and while other women of the time seem easily to turn the other cheek, Josephine worries. I think for her it is more that she is worried he will divorce her than anything else.

It is not hard to tell through the course of this trilogy that Josephine and Napoleon loved each other, I just wish that things could have been different. Napoleon finally has what he set out to have, the life that he has been planning and working for, and his family is pushing him from all sides to divorce Josephine. You can tell that it really is the last thing that he wants to do, that he honestly loves her, but sometimes the good of the country has to come over the good of your heart. It really is a shame that things could not have gone another way, but in this time, men were more interested in having an heir (someone had to carry on the family name), and less about the love of a good woman. It is clear that with or without an heir, Josephine was better for him, but you can decide that on your own should you choose to read this book.

I found this book sad, I will give people that. I really felt for Josephine near the end. Even when you are reading something that you know the outcome, it still is sad to see it all come crashing down. Not to mention, I was sad to see this trilogy end.

4.5/5

Authors Gender:
Female: 15
Male: 1

Everyone knows I have read this author before, to see the other two reviews for the books in this trilogy click here and here.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Books Completed: 15
Completion Date: January 29, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 352
Purchased in 2007

An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in
the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons.

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in
town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree,
Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he
meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to
August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an
elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

Beautifully written, Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible
odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

I wanted to love this book. I actually read it in a day, so you would think that I loved it. I found it a worthwhile read, though. I have never been to a circus before. I do not exactly live in an area of the world where things of this sort even exist, so it is not something I have ever experienced. I know what a circus is, of course, I just have never seen one off of television. Reading this book was a chance to see what it was like to work in a circus, not just to see one.

One of my favourite features of this book were the actual cirucus photos at the beginning of every new chapter. It was interesting to see the faces of the circus performers from backing this time period. Circuses are still around, but they are nothing like what they were back in the time that this book takes place in. It is hard to say if that is a good thing or a bad thing, though, it depends on how you look at it.

First, though, I have to say that the reason I did not love this book was because I did not like the main character. He just annoyed me. I am not even sure why, I just could not grow to like him. He got better by the end, but the way that he does things and the way that he acted during the course of the novel drove me crazy! I was surprised to learn that Marlena was younger than him because she acted a considerable amount older. Here I was reading it as a younger man and older woman, and then you read her background story, and it is not that way at all. Jacob was my annoyance with this book, though. If his character was different, I likely would have loved this book.

I understand that he had to be a bit of a goody two shoes, though, in order to offset the horrible life of the men in the cirucs. He had come from a decent background, so he was obviously different from these men. If his parents had not taken out a second mortage to put him through vet school, or if they had never had the accident, he would have never even have found himself living with the circus. He needed to be different, though, to show how horrible people like August, Marlena's husband, were.

It is interesting to note that my favourite character in this entire book was an elephant. That's right, you heard me, an elephant. That elephant was great! I loved how she was written, and I loved her personality. She was great. Even if I hated the rest of the book, she would make it all worthwhile.

While I did not overly like Jacob, I still really liked this book, so even though I do not think I can give it a 5, I can give it a 4.5/5.

Authors Gender:
Female: 14
Male: 1

This is my first time reading this author.

Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland

Books Completed: 14
Completion Date: January 28, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 378
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Two in the Josephine B. Series

Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.

I have to admit that I finished this book and almost immediately started book three, so I might have a hard time remembering what happens in book two and what happened in book one.

In the first book the main character was known as Rose, but now she is the beautiful wife of Napoleon. I really liked this trilogy. Josephine is a very interesting character. Some people are not fond of the diary-style of writing, but I thought it worked well for this trilogy. It feels more personal that way. You cannot help feeling bad for Josephine. She has not had a very easy life, most people in France at this time have not, but her luck does not seem to ever fully recover. As a result of her enprisionment during the Terror, she is unable to have Napoleon's child. They try all these methods, but we know that that the stress of her enprisionment likely resulted in her starting menopause at a young age. She can have children, she has two with her first husband, the timing is just wrong for her to give Napoleon any.

I thought that Napoleon is also an interesting character. You are not really sure if Josephine and Napoleon are going to hit it off at first, if you go into it with an innocent impression of what is going to happen. For those that know what happened in history, though, Gulland does a very good job sticking to the main historical facts. I cannot say that I liked Napoleon, though, he just had his good points. He loved Josephine, I never questioned that. He just tried to do what was best for France, and he had an atrocious family. At the end of the third book it tells what happened to all of them, actually.

Another thing I liked about the books were the footnotes. They explained things that happened in the previous book so you understood references, but they also included letters and things from historical records of Josephine and her family, plus providing references for off-hand remarks that were not explained. To someone living in Josephine's time, they likely made sense, but to people living today, unless you are very up on the time period, you might miss the reference. I have to admit that while I like history, and have taken many history courses in university, I have never had a course that covered the Napoleonic Wars in any great detail. They were mentioned, I know who they were, but even if it is a fiction book, this is the most I have ever read on Napoleon. When I graduate and reading non-fiction history books becomes fun again, this is a subject matter I would like to read more about.

I also have to briefly comment on the medical practices of the time. Normally I might have overlooked them, but I am taking a history of medicine course this year, and we just talked about medicine in about the time that this book covers, so it was interesting to see the methods I learned about in use in this novel. I mean, obviously I have seen it before, but in the past I did not have a medical history course to provide background information.

I wish I had not got sick, I should have wrote this review right after I read the book because now the three books are crowding together in my head.

4.5/5

Just so everyone knows, I really have all the books together in my mind, so I am writing individual reviews, but I am rating the books more as one full novel than three separate ones.

Authors Gender:
Female: 13
Male: 1

I have, obviously, read this author before. You can see my review on The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B. by clicking here.

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

Books Completed: 13
Completion Date: January 21, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 576
Owned Prior to 2007
Book 2 in The Twilight Series





From Amazon:

Legions of readers entranced by Twilight are hungry for more and they won't be disappointed. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.

I have to admit, when this book first came out I heard some iffy reviews about it, and I was slightly worried about how I was going to feel about it. I really liked Twilight, and I was worried I would feel like others, that the start and ending were all that were important. So, I finally decided this month that I was going to give it a try, because I really was curious what was going to happen next in the series.

One of the most important things to remember about this series is that Bella is dating a vampire, a vampire that has tried to change his blood-sucking ways (him and his whole family), and that Bella is very accident prone. This means that since she is not a vampire, she bleeds. This can be potentially bad for a family of vampires when presented with them. So, when the book starts, Bella goes the way of the clumsy, and suddenly she is in the middle of the very situation that Edward has always wanted her to avoid. Fearing for her, and for other reasons, the family moves away and leaves Bella behind. After this point, people began to tell me that the story was pointless. I have to disagree. I admit that Edward and Bella are a great couple, and I know that a lot of people have bookish crushes on our "young" vampire, but it there is one thing that everyone should know about romance, it is that it is not always perfect.

So, needless to say, Edward is not a major character in this novel. This book concentrates more on Bella, suffering through the loss of the love of her life, and Jacob, the young boy that Bella meets in the first book. He has a lot going on his life, too, though. In the beginning, everything between the two of them seems perfect, but pretty soon Jacob gets a bit elusive. I find his storyline interesting. I am not a big Jacob fan, though, I prefer Edward, but that does not mean that I did not enjoy learning more about him.

Bella can annoy me, she is did in Twilight, so I was worried what would happen with her as the central character and no Edward to off-set her. The truth is, I really did not particuarly mind her. I mean, the girl has her moments. She is a typical teenager, though. She has her innocence and she tends to do things in this book that I really question her sanity, but overall, she was not that bad. It is good that she did not annoy me because then I might be worried to read the next book in this series. I read this book in 24 hours, though. I stayed up late, into the witching hour and even beyond, to see how it ended. I admit I was waiting to see what would happen when Edward reappears, but the rest of the book was good. I liked Twilight better, but I cannot wait to read Eclipse when it comes out (hopefully) later this year.

4/5

Authors Gender:
Female: 12
Male: 1

I have previously read this author before, you can read my review of Twilight by clicking here.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet by Ann Brashares

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Completion Date: January 20, 2007
Books Completed: 9

Publication Year: 2006

Pages: 336

Owned Prior to 2007

Book One in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet

From Random House:

Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great; they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything), thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs they decide to form a sisterhood, and take the vow of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye. And now the journey of the pants–and the most memorable summer of their lives–begins.

As these are rereads for me, and been reviewed all over the place, I am just going to rate the first three books and concentrate on the fourth one, as it was new to me.

This one was actually my least favourite, coming in with a 3/5

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Books Completed: 10
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 416
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Two in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet

From Random House:

With a bit of last summer's sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.

Bridget: Impulsively sets off for Alabama, wanting to both confront her demons about her family and avoid them all at once.

Lena: Spends a blissful week with Kostos, making the unexplainable silence that follows his visit even more painful.

Carmen: Is concerned that her mother is making a fool of herself over a man. When she discovers that her mother borrowed the Pants to wear on a date, she's certain of it.

Tibby: Not about to spend another summer working at Wallman's, she takes a film course only to find it's what happens off-camera that teaches her the most.

I find that the writing style improved a bit with this one, but not a lot, so I give it a 3/5 as well.


Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Books Completed: 11
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 368
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Three in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet

From Random House:

The Pants first came to us at the perfect moment. That is, when we were splitting up for the first time. It was two summers ago when they first worked their magic, and last summer when they shook up our lives once again. You see, we don’t wear the Pants year-round. We let them rest so they are extra powerful when summer comes. (There was the time this spring when Carmen wore them to her mom’s wedding, but that was a special case.)Now we’re facing our last summer together. In September we go to college. And it’s not like one of those TV shows where all of us magically turn up at the same college. We’re going to four different colleges in four different cities (but all within four hours of one another—that was our one rule). We’re headed off to start our real lives. Tomorrow night at Gilda’s we’ll launch the Pants on their third summer voyage. Tomorrow begins the time of our lives. It’s when we’ll need our Pants the most.

This book is why I was actually looking forward to reading book four. The first time I read these books I read all three of them at the same time, just like I did this month. A friend had lent them to me, and I felt compelled to read all three. I give this one a 4/5

Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood
Books Completed: 12
Publication Year: 2007
Pages: 400
Received from Random House in 2007
Book Four in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet

From Random House:

With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer.

Lena: Immerses herself in her painting and an intoxicating summer fling, fearing that the moment she forgets about Kostos will be the moment she sees him again.

Carmen: Falls under the spell of a sophisticated college friend for whom a theatrical role means everything and the heritage of the Pants means nothing.

Bridget: Joins a dig for an ancient city on the coast of Turkey and discovers that her archaeology professor is available in every way except one.

Tibby: Leaves behind someone she loves, wrongly believing he will stay where she has left him.

Join Ann Brashares's beloved sisterhood once again in a dazzling, fearless novel. It's a summer that will forever change the lives of Lena, Carmen, Bee, and Tibby, here and now, past and future, together and apart.

Okay, I do not know if it is blogger or this computer, but nothing has gone right with this post so far. This post might suffer as a result, because I would like to catch up on my reviews, but I cannot help being annoyed. I seem to have lost the picture of book three. I am going to add it back in later because adding pictures tonight is doing weird things to the formating and I do not want to lose everything as a result. I will delete this after I have everything straightened out, just venting right now.

On with the review:

As I said above, the third Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book was my favourite. The first two are good, do not get me wrong, I like the whole series, but I just found the writing style for book three more to my liking. I would say it is likely because the girls are older, so I expected book four to be even better. In any case, I still would have looked forward to book four, and if there ever comes a point where there is a book five, I will read it. I just was not blown away by book four.

My favourite parts of the book were honestly Bridget. She was on this really cool dig that I enjoyed experiencing. I have always had a fondness for archaeology, so I thought reading about the dig was interesting. Bridget, as always, puts her whole soul into it. She grows up in this book, though. She comes to terms with who she is, and tries to make her life better instead of sleeping all the time like she did before. There is of course the forbidden romance angle, but I will leave that to you readers to learn all about.

Lena grows up in this book, too. She starts to be a bit more forceful, and does some very shocking things for Lena. She just goes to show that there is a bit of wildness in everyone. I think in the course of this book she finally has it figured out. The thing that she has been looking for. She likely will still have her shy moments, but she let it all out in this book.

Tibby is relatable. She does something that she has never done before and the one thing that she was worried would happen, almost did. I will let you experience that with her, but I find it very teen. She might have gone a bit far with how she reacted, but that's Tibby for you. She never really seems to know what to do with her emotions. She has already gone through her rough patches, losing Bailey in the earlier books, but in this book she seems to come to understand what is important to her.

Then, there is Carmen. Carmen has had her ups and downs, but she seems to have come to terms with many things. She is just finding life after high school rough. She is not sure where she belongs in things anymore, and is constantly putting herself in the role of the outsider instead of the star. In this book she really lets her inner star out, though, and she shines.

I guess you can say that all the girls grow up in this book, which is especially shown in the end. They have all four of them been through a lot, but they have remained friends and that does not seem to be something that is going to change soon. They know that they were always together, but the pants just brought them closer together. That is something that cannot easily be taken away.

I thought this book was overall pretty good. I really expected it to be better than the other three, but book three was better for me. I do not even know why. It just was.

I give this book a 3.5/5

I will now take this time to thank Random House for sending me these four books. I will fix the awkwardness with the formating when I get home.

Authors Gender:
Female: 11
Male: 1

I have previously read this author before this blog was available.

I Won a Book!

Well, I won the book a while ago, but for some reason I was not receiving emails from the person I won it from, so it has been a while from then to now, when I actually have said book in my hands. Anyways, I won the book from Dovegrey from Dovegrey Scribbles. She did it the most interesting way. She wrote all the names on post-it notes and made her cat walk around through them, and the one that stuck was the winner! And that winner was me! So, all the way from the other side of the sea, I received The Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin. I have never heard of this book before, but that's good, I wanted a book I had never heard of before. Something different. Well, actually, I was just looking for the book description to share, and this book is not even out in Canada yet. Even better! It is like an advanced reading copy.

So, from the UK amazon, this is what the book is about:

Annie Colville works the only customer service desk for the dead. Alternately wearied and amused by the petty trivialities of heirlooms and everlasting arguments, she tries to live a real life through her job at the University. There, picking over skeletons in the archaeology labs, she finds she's only too ready to fall in love with the enigmatic Evan Bees. But when Evan vanishes, Annie finds there is no one to help her walk the line between the living and the dead. As the messages become darker, so Annie begins to become a ghost at the edges of her own life. Until the night, the Dead mention the name 'Arthur' and the frayed edges of the past begin to knit themselves into the future.

I personally really like the title. Thanks Dovegrey! I look forward to reading this book in February.

Cheating at Updating

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

So, I am making an appearance, but not an actual update. I felt worse today that all other days. I haven't even been reading, just watching mindless television and making a puzzle. Mostly because the cold is keeping me up at night. I hope to do some reading tomorrow, so hopefully there will be things going on! I hope everyone else is having a good weekend. I got this quiz from Bookie, and I am too lazy to link right now because the medicine I took to help me sleep (a big thing because I rarely ever resort to medicine) is starting to kick in. Hope other people are having a good weekend! I am linking to her now, Bookie

I Got Sick!

I have posts waiting to be written, but I am sick with the worst sore throat. I always get them really bad and spend the day waiting to see if it will go away and take my voice with it or if it will be nice and let it remain. All I want to do is crawl back in bed and sleep the day away, but I have to go to classes. I have two essays due. I had been doing so good on the whole not getting sick thing, it's the first time I have had a cold in at least a year. I just got overtired between my crappy job and my exchange student waking me up at weird hours.

Hopefully if I take it easy today and tomorrow I will be up to posting on Saturday. I might even have read some more books by then. I only have to work on Sunday, so I was looking forward to a nice weekend, and here I am sick. Better this weekend than next, though, next weekend I have the whole thing off!

Until my throat and other ailments that will occur as a result of the throat (or with it), I hope everyone else has a better weekend! In the meantime, me and Atra will be getting some quality reading done. Take care!

The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll

Books Completed: 8
Completion Date: January 20, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 515
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Three in Cheney Sisters Trilogy

From Brittany's fog-shrouded forests to the elegant dark heart of Paris's royal court, one woman must challenge a country's destiny-and her own dangerous fate.

France, 1585. She is the youngest and most powerful of the "Sisters of Faire Isle," women known far and wide for their extraordinary mystical abilities. Skilled in healing and able to forecast the future of those around her, Miri Cheney has returned to her ancestral home to take refuge from a land devastated by civil war-and to grieve for her family, driven to exile. But she cannot hide from the formidable new power threatening to seize control of France from the dread "Dark Queen," Catherine de Medici-a diabolical woman known only as the Silver Rose. Miri has no choice but to turn to the one man she distrusts as much as she desires: Simon Aristide, the charismatic witch-finder who is now himself the hunted, and who has reluctantly made an unholy pact with Catherine. Miri must defy throne and family to save all that she loves most-and command a future greater than she could ever imagine.

Vibrant with stunning historical detail, alive with characters as richly passionate as they are compelling, The Silver Rose is a sweeping, exquisitely wrought tale from a mesmerizing storyteller.

I was supposed to read this book back in October of last year, and as you can see, I am a bit late, but since I was supposed to buddy review it with Marg, I resurrected her old post and I am going to add my thoughts to it. I am in blue, with her comments in black.

When the legendary witch hunter Simon Aristide, is becoming the hunted rather than the hunter, he turns to the one person who he would prefer not to - Miri Cheney. Miri was just a young girl living on the Faire Isle when he first met her, but he betrayed her and nearly caused her to be tried as a witch. Some years later he met her as a young lady in Paris, but he was well and truly entrenched in his role as witch hunter, and she was once again betrayed. It is hard to believe sometimes how these two find themselves coming together. Simon is like two different people, one moment he is nice, while other times you cannot seem to find a nice trait in him. The events in this latest book in the trilogy take place ten years after The Courtesan, so Miri and Simon are both older and wiser (we think) than they were in the previous books.

After many years of living in exile, Miri has returned to live on the Faire Isle, looking to recapture her lost happiness. For Miri, Simon was a young boy that she first came to love during an idyllic summer that nearly ended in tragedy. When he reappears asking for her assistance Miri is reluctant, especially once she understood that he was asking for her assistance in tracking down a witch. Miri is still the same character that we have watched grow up in the two previous novels about her sisters. She is a lover of animals, understanding them better than people. She looks for the good in people at great cost, and she never seems to know what she risks by refusing to see the negative in people. It does not seem to matter how many times Simon betrayed her, she is still totally on his side and believes that there is a good person in him. At the beginning of the novel, though, when he reappears, she finds that she attempts to look at him as others have.

Miri has always thought of herself, and others like her, as a wise woman, as opposed to a witch, and getting Simon to understand the difference was a big part of their journey, but in a way another part was having Simon find the man behind the witch hunter. The young boy with a happy family life, who survived in the face of tragedy, and who was taken in and taught to hate and fear. Ah...Simon. He would have to be right up there with the most tortured heroes every written..surely. Not only is the man terribly scarred, and missing an eye, but he really is a good man as well struggling to live with the way he had previously lived his life and the actual and emotional consequences of that life. One of the things I enjoyed about this book was how Miri seemed to bring out Simon's past. We know the three Cheney sisters, and have seen what they have gone through in the course of their life. Simon's past has been hinted about in the two previous novels, but in this one he really goes back and enlightens Miri on who he is (or was) and how he became to be the person that we see in the course of the book. I really was looking forward to seeing how Simon would play a part in this book. I wanted to know if Miri ever found the good in him, and what would happen if she did.

Miri was practically engaged to Wolf, a man who had been her loyal friend, for many years, but she had always held back from committing to him, and from allowing any kind of hanky panky. In a way I felt sorry for Wolf even though he was a bit of a womaniser. I liked him from the time we first met him in the second book in the trilogy, and I was really scared that something horrible was going to happen to him. It was certainly an interesting twist in the story for him during this book. The other really interesting twist was the identity of The Silver Rose! I really was curious which man that Miri would choose. It really could have been either of them, and I was waiting to see if it would be predictable or if it would surprise me. As the novel went along, though, and I started to understand the outside characters, I found that Carroll wrote the best ending possible for the trilogy. I feel bad for Wolf, he loved a girl that was not sure what she wanted, and he tried so hard. When the identity of the Silver Rose was revealed, it made sense to me, and yet did not.

This third book is definitely one that you will appreciate more if you have read the two books proceeding it in the series. I am not sure if there is going to be more books related to this one, but there certainly seems to be scope for it particularly in relation to Wolf who you may notice I have a certain tenderness for! I for one would certainly read any future books. I know that this is supposed to be a trilogy, but I would love to see spin off books. This really was one of the better trilogies I have read, overall. I am very sad to see it end, and I think that is partly why it took me so long to read this book. I did not want to see it end! Sometimes with trilogies, the first book is very strong and the rest fades in comparision. I believe that all three of these books are well-written and they stand up well.

One small note to the author though...please, please get a website so that your fans have some idea about what is coming up next! Having read and enjoyed this trilogy, I will definitely be trying to find whatever books I can of Susan Carroll's backlist. Anyone have any idea what she is working on now?

Marg's Rating 4.5/5
Kailana's Rating 4.5/5

I also need to take the oppurtunity to thank Random House for this book! Everyone should read this trilogy, and all three books are available through them, although I owned the other two from other sources.

Author Genders:
Female: 7
Male: 1

I have previously read this author before. You can see my reviews of the two previous books in this trilogy by clicking here and here.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

Quote of the Day:
"The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you work for someone else.
- Unknown

Book Completed: 7
Completion Date: January 19, 2007
Publication Year: 1999
Pages: 274
Owned Prior to 2007


From Amazon.ca:

Hailed by critics as the debut of a major literary, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing has dazzled and delighted readers and topped bestseller lists nationwide. Generous-hearted and wickedly insightful, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing maps the progress of Jane Rosenal as she sets out on a personal and spirited expedition through the perilous terrain of sex, love, and relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. With an unforgettable comic spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it's like to be a young woman coming of age in America today.

I had heard lots about this book before buying it one day at a second hand store. Since I bought it, I totally forgot what it was about, but I knew that it had been on the to be read pile for quite some time. I remember buying it, I just don't remember what year it was in.

I think this book was appropriate after completing Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, because both novels are a collection of interconnected short stories. In the process of this book, Jane Rosenal goes from a child to an adult, but not in a coherant story pattern. Sometimes the next short story happens before the one before it, one time the story is told by Jane's neighbour, but it is not confusing to follow.

The novel is really a coming of age book. This is not a book that I would have seen in a store and picked up, as it is not something I necessarily drawn to. It is the sort of book I read more because of reputation. I do not read very many short story collections, either, so it was a branch off in a different direction that way as well. I think the reason I did not mind this book is because Jane is relatable. She is not a character that I cannot see at least a little bit of myself in. She is struggling to figure out who she is, trying out different avenues in the hopes that it will lead her where she wants to be, and falling in and out of love.

My favourite story in this one was the last one, "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing". At the end of the book, Jane has lost hope with all the methods that she has tried before, and decides that she needs to read a survival guide on relationships to get what she wants. It is a comical story, and actually, I find most of the book funny. It is not a serious read, by any stretch of the imagination, but serious things do happen in it.

I enjoyed this book.

3.5/5

Author Gender:
Female: 6
Male: 1

This author was new to me.

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

Books Completed: 6
Completion Date: January 16, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 470
Owned Prior to 2007
Shortlisted for Man Booker and The Orange Prize

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller.

This is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching . . . Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret . . . Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover . . . Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances . . .

Tender, tragic and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. The Night Watch is thrilling. A towering achievement.

This book was one of my Christmas presents to myself this past Christmas. I enjoy books that are set during the World Wars, so when I started to hear good things about this book, I knew that I was going to have to read it. I am very glad I did. The first book for the Chunkster Challenge, which means I have completed one of my goals for the month of January.

I am going to have to say, this is one of the more original books set during the Second World War that I have ever read. For starters, the majority of the characters in the book, both major and minor, are women. Many of the popular World War literature focuses on the men's side of things, so it was interesting to see women as main characters. Having never read Sarah Waters before, I think this book was a very good introduction to her. I did not really know what to expect, so the fact that the main characters were almost all women was something I expected, the fact that several of the characters are gay surprised me. I did not know that this was a staple of Sarah Waters writing because I had never read her before, but it was not a bad thing. I do not really mind the sexuality of the characters that I read, but I can see this book being not for everyone.

I am not sure who out of the main characters was my favourite. The four main characters are Kay, Helen, Viv, and Duncan. They all have a past in this novel, and with the writing style starting at the end and working backwards, you find yourself curious about how things turned out the way that they did. Kay is an interesting character. As is said several times through the book, she is looking for a wife, but luck does not appear to be on her side. She really is sweet, but she never seems to end up with what she is looking for. She also often gets mistaken for a boy because of her short hair and boyish style of dressing. She was the one that I looked forward to learning more about because when you meet her, she is nothing like she was earlier in the war. Helen surprised me, but annoyed me at the same time. She never seems to know what she is doing, and seems to be influenced a lot by the people around her. Then there is Viv, she is involved a situation common to the last century, but you cannot help feeling both bad for her and want to tell her to smarted up at the same time.

Then, there is Duncan. He is quite an interesting character to read about, especially as you read more about him the earlier years. He is at battle with his demons, and I am not sure that his story is ever clearly revealed, it is more something that you assume from the information that is presented. All the characters are interesting to read about, as well as the other characters that show up in the story because of the main characters. It really is a very enjoyable read, and a very good book to start the New Year out on. Worth every page.

4.5/5

Author Gender:
Male: 1
Female: 5

This was a new to me author.

One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey

Books Completed: 5
Completion Date: January 15, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 393
Owned Prior to 2007

From Amazon.ca:

When a dragon storms the castle, what should a (virgin) princess do?

Why, turn to her studies, of course! But nothing practical-minded Princess Andromeda of Acadia finds gives a definitive solution. The only Traditional answer, though, is soothing the marauding dragon by a virgin sacrifice. Things are going fairly smoothly with the lottery--except for the women chosen, of course--until Princess Andromeda herself is picked!

But facing down the dragon doesn't go quite as planned, and now, with the help of her Champion, Sir George, Andromeda searches for the dragon's lair. But even--especially--in the Five Hundred Kingdoms, bucking Tradition isn't easy. It takes the strongest of wills, knowledge, quick wits and a refusal to give up, no matter what happens along the way…

Head on over to Twisted Kingdom to see my review of this book.

Author Gender:
Male: 1
Female: 4

I have read this author before.

Just a few things....

I have two reviews to do. I finished One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey for the From the Stacks Challenge, and I finished The Night Watch by Sarah Waters for the Chunkster Challenge. I am currently reading my other challenges, but I do not know how I will make out. I decided that instead of reading Zadie Smith's White Teeth, I am going to read The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. I started it today. The only challenge that I have not started a book for is the classics challenge. I am hoping that I can read the shorter ones I have planned this month, and read the rest next month. But first, I have to finish the rest of the books I am reading. I am also trying to read more books from Random House because it seems, really by accident, that I have been reading more non-Random House books than Random House ones. I have a lot of good reads from them, too, so I need to get cracking. Today I picked out the books that I am going to concentrate on for next months challenges, I will post the list eventually. I have decided that what I need to do is read the challenge books, and then read the new releases. I have the new Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book here, as well as The Boelyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory. They are my treat books if I finish all my challenge goals for the month.

So, hopefully I will have at least one review up later today. The Melissa Bank book is relatively short, as well as the David Bergen book I chose for the O'Canada Challenge, so I should finish both of those either tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned!

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A memoir, a history - Lewis Buzbee

Books Completed:4
Completion Date: January 15, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 216
Owned Prior to 2007

From the flap:

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore—the smell and touch of books, the joy of getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through the Weekly Reader in grade school. Woven throughout is a fascinating historical account of the bookseller trade—from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach’s famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., that led to the extraordinary effort to publish and sell James Joyce’s Ulysses. Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.

I actually started this book last year, but it vanished and I just found it again, so I am happy to finally complete it. It was never a book I meant to not complete, anyways.

During my original reading of this book, I posted this, where I asked what that early book was that you read, loved the author, and read all that there was to read by that author. Other thoughts have presented themselves to me as I have read this book. My biggest question came to me as I was reading the last few pages. Can anyone ever see a world where e-books would be preferred over the actual feeling of a book in your hands? I can understand that there are situations where having this option open would be a good thing, but I cannot imagine not having books in my house, not holding the book in my hand and flipping the pages. What about everyone else?

While reading this book I thought about how I have become cheap. I love browsing bookstores, but if I go into an independant store where the books are regularly priced, I find myself finding a few books and buying them later on amazon or another chain store. I think a lot of that is the prices that books are nowadays. Today I bought two novels for school. They are in essence trade paperbacks. I get up to the cash and she asks me for sixty dollars. I said "what?". I couldn't believe the price, I thought I must have heard her wrong. I had to have the books, so I did not even pay attention to the price, but that just blew me away. If I had known that, if I had planned a bit ahead, I likely would have searched for those books online and found them cheaper. For someone that reads about 150 books a year, and has a very bad library, I need to be able to get books at a price that it is not going to break my bank account.

This book was very informative about the book-selling industry. I have to admit, I wish that it was Canadian, because it gave info that was very Americanized and I was not really sure if it even applied in Canada, but in essence, it was a very interesting read. I like to read books about books. I think it was a very interesting read.

4/5

Author Gender:
Female: 3
Male: 1

This was a new to me author.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Books Completed: 3
Completion Date: January 14, 2007
Publication Year: 2007
Pages: 400
Acquired from Random House in 2007

From Random House:

High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm.

But their peace is shattered when Father falls ill and must go to the southern parts to recover, for that is when cousin Cezar arrives. Though he's there to help the girls survive the brutal winter, Jena suspects he has darker motives in store. Meanwhile, Jena's sister has fallen in love with a dangerous creature of the Other Kingdom--an impossible union it's up to Jena to stop.

When Cezar's grip of power begins to tighten, at stake is everything Jena loves: her home, her family, and the Other Kingdom she has come to cherish. To save her world, Jena will be tested in ways she can't imagine--tests of trust, strength, and true love.

I have to apologize. This review is going to suffer because I read the book earlier this month, and then I got sick, and now I am not sure what I wanted to say anymore. I meant to review it right on the 23rd, and then I would have been good, but things did not work out that way.

First up, I have always wanted to read this author. She is an author that people I know that read fantasy talk about a lot, but she writes trilogies with thick books and some people like her, while others do not. When I saw this book I thought it was a good oppurtunity to see what I thought of her before reading some of her other books. It was a worthwhile read! A lot of people have been reading Stephanie Meyer and Holly Black in the young adult fantasy genre, and I think that Juliet Marillier is just as good. She reminds me a bit more of Holly Black or O.R. Melling, but she fits in well with the young adult novels that have been making the blog rounds.

In this book, though, it takes place in the past. It is not a modern novel with supernatural creatures like the other popular books. This is about a family of girls, five of them to be exact, who are making their way for a winter while their father is recuperating at another place from a disease of presumably the lungs. It is a time when women are not expected to be in roles of importance, so, their cousin Cezar steps in a great deal over the course of the novel to make the correct choices for his innocent cousins. He's a brute, truthfully, and you can say that without even going into the other aspects of his character that will be revealed when you read the book.

The majority of the book is told through the eyes of Jena. She is an unconventional girl for her times, but she finds that she is having a hard time being herself now that Cezar has taken over the reigns. There is also the fact that she has a pet frog, which is very unheard of for young ladies to have with them at all times. She makes her own rules, and learns that she does in fact have a voice through the course of this book.

I also really liked the fact that this was a fairy tale retelling. I think people have noticed that I am a big fan of that, and retellings of the Arthurian and Troy legends. If a book has that as its background, I am more apt to read it.

Overall, I thought this was a good young adult paranormal-type novel. I look forward to reading more Juliet Marillier's novels and I recommend this one.

4/5


Author Genders
Female: 3
Male: 0

This was a new to me author.

Wahoo!

I finally was allowed to switch to the new blogger today! I see myself playing with labels, too bad it won't be tonight, as I have to work.

So, I have big news, my profile is not updated, I am actually in my last year of university and I was approved to graduate today. I am both excited and nervous, but it looks like I will be done in May. I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate. Everyone just assumes that I either will be, or want to be, a teacher. I don't, so, in any case, graduating is both a good thing and a bad thing.

In other news, I started off well with reading, but then I got really busy. Chris, the button guy, came to visit me and Tom for 4 days, so I was out a lot when he was here, and then school started back up. I had a presentation, a group one no less, on the Thursday we were back, so that was fun to try and get ready for. We made it, though, and I do not think I crashed and burned too badly. Then, I had money and other fun things to worry about. I was supposed to go get my textbooks today, but the week was not fun, and standing in a line up did not appeal to me today. I have been reading instead. What have I been reading? I will share!

I am reading Juliet Marillier's new young adult novel. I was reading one of my required reading books, you know for my challenges, but I went upstairs and the package was waiting from Random House, I just had to read it. I am only a hundred pages in, but I hope to have some more reading time tonight. Anyways, the book is called Wildwood Dancing, and it will be out officially, from Random House, on January 23. I think a few people that read my blog might be interested, though, so here is a blurb and a picture of the very pretty cover. It was the covers fault that I started it, actually.


From Random House:

High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm.

But their peace is shattered when Father falls ill and must go to the southern parts to recover, for that is when cousin Cezar arrives. Though he's there to help the girls survive the brutal winter, Jena suspects he has darker motives in store. Meanwhile, Jena's sister has fallen in love with a dangerous creature of the Other Kingdom--an impossible union it's up to Jena to stop.

When Cezar's grip of power begins to tighten, at stake is everything Jena loves: her home, her family, and the Other Kingdom she has come to cherish. To save her world, Jena will be tested in ways she can't imagine--tests of trust, strength, and true love.

I thought it sounded interesting, in the same vein of some of the other books that have been making the rounds lately. I will be back on the 23rd or so to post my thoughts on it!

The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland (Book 1 of the Josephine Series)

Books Completed: 2
Completion Date: January 4, 2007
Publication Year: (3-in-1 edtion) 2006
Pages: 429
Owned Prior to 2007

From the back of the book:

Sandra Gulland's irresistible epic draws the reader into the passionate relationship between Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte. Comprising three acclaimed bestsellers, this omnibus traces Josephine's transformation from an impressionable young girl to the empress of France and one of the most sophisticated, powerful women in history.

I have the three-in-one edition of this book, so you will find that the back will be the same for each review. I hope to read the whole trilogy this month, and include them all in the From the Stacks challenge, but we will have to see how that goes.

I have had this book since March of last year. I bought it when it first came out as a 3-in-1 book, and it is has been on my to be read pile since. I have no idea why, but I was on my way out the door the other night to work, and while I had a book picked out to read, I came back downstairs and selected this one off my shelf. It was really random and a spur of the moment thought, but I am glad that I read it!

I have a strong liking for historical fiction novels, so when I heard about this trilogy I knew I had to eventually buy it. Other than Naomi Novik's historical fantasy series about the Napoleonic wars, this is the first time that I can remember reading a book about this particular period in time. It was not an intentional thing, but for whatever reason, this is the first time I got around to reading about this time period.

I really liked this book. Let me point out that I am totally clueless. I was reading the book, and the main character in the novel is named Rose. It never even came to mind that it should be Josephine. I really wonder about myself sometimes, as it was clear that she was going to be the main character in all three books. It was not until she met Napoleon that her name became Josephine. I am still kicking myself for being so totally unobservant!

It is amazing what Josephine becomes in this novel. She begins the book living with her family, having never even been to France before, but one of her aunts sends a letter looking for one of her nieces to marry a young man that her aunt knows, Alexandre. For a large period of the novel, he is an important person in France's history. This naive young girl comes to France, and winds up married to a very important man. Too bad that he is not a very nice husband, and treats her more like a friend than anything else. He does give her two wonderful children, that present themselves and their personalities several times during the course of the book. It is hard to believe that the woman that marries Alexandre becomes Empress of France, because she can be quite naive. She is brave, but she holds onto romantic notions that make you wonder how she ever gets ahead. She grows up, though.

During the course of just this first book you see her go from this naive little girl to this very important woman in France. She may not have a lot of money, but she is very brave and puts her fellow man ahead of herself more times than I can count. She does not seem to care what happens to herself, she is more interested in helping others. She makes wonderful connections in doing so, though, that help her out in the end. I have to say, I know who Napoleon is, of course, but he was never given a lot of study in the history courses that I took. As far as I can tell, Sandra Gulland put a lot of time into making this diary-format book as close to accurate as possible. I learned a lot, and plan to track down a non-fiction book in the future to get a clearer idea of the validity of this historical fiction novel.

I give this first installment a 4.5/5.

I am going to start adding a few stats as I go along to the end of my reviews. Just things that I found myself wishing I had kept track of last year.

Authors gender:
Female: 2
Male: 0

This author was new to me.

I also received one of the books I ordered with my Christmas gift certificates in the mail today: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I really stretched out my gift certificates this year. If I remember I will post a complete list of what I got when the rest of my order arrives next week.

Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb (Left over review from 2006)

This book was supposed to be my last G.I.F.T. post and my TBR challenge post, but I am a little late for both. Another joint review with Marg. I am in blue and Marg is in black.

No one likes to be alone during the holidays. For New York's most posh dating service, Personally Yours, it is the season to bring lonely hearts together. But Lt. Eve Dallas, on the trail of a ritualistic serial killer, has made a disturbing discovery: all of the victims have been traced to Personally Yours. Eve soon enters an elite world of people searching for their one true love - and one killer searching for his next victim. A world where the power of love leads men and women into the ultimate act of betrayal...

The next installment in the In Death series after Vengeance in Death finds Eve just returning to work after recovering from injuries sustained in the line of duty just in time for the holidays. The thing preying on her mind most though is what to get all of her friends for Christmas, especially Roarke in their first Christmas together. It is rather funny, everytime she runs into people she knows, she has to ask them if she should buy them a Christmas present. Christmas is a new thing for her, she has never had people to buy for before, so it is an experience reading her thoughts on the holiday gift giving.

Before she can even think about that, she has to deal with a serial killer who has decided to visit his victim dressed up as Santa Claus and who is planning to make each of his victims have some connection to the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. This means that before he is done, there will be twelve victims, one for each day of the song. The killer leaves behind his trademark on each victim, a holiday ornament pertaining to the days of Christmas.

Soon the connection between the victims becomes clear - they have all been clients of an exclusive dating agency. Now it is a case of trying to infiltrate the agency and work out who the perpetrator might be as well as who his next victim will be - even if that means putting one of their own on the line. This book has Peabody's first undercover mission, which is interesting to watch. She does not appear to do blind dates very often, because she leaves one guy out of the runnings for quite some time. Have to read the book to see exactly what happened, though, of course.

I really enjoyed the way that the author managed to infuse some humour into this book. The scenes where Eve had banned Peabody from going shopping and yet kept on finding things to buy for herself were laugh out loud funny. It certainly helped balance out what could have been a very dark book indeed. This book did have more humour than the others, and I also enjoyed reading it. Robb seems to be adding more comical characters at this point in the series, anyways, which is making for interesting reading.

For me, this was the best book in the series so far. Same here! I really enjoyed this installment. I think that Robb has gotten more confident in the series at this point. I also read the other holiday story, Midnight in Death, which carries on the interest. I think I will enjoy the series even more if all the future ones are like this one.

Marg's Rating 4.5/5
Kailana's Rating 4/5

From the Stacks Challenge

Looks like I will be doing this entire challenge in January. That will not be so bad because any of the books that I have planned to read this month will count, as they have all been on my tbr pile for a while. I did relatively good on the not buying books thing. I just used gift certificates from Christmas, but other than that, have not hardly spent any of my own money on books. When I did it was to off set going over the amount of the gift card a bit.

I need to stop making lists. I look at those thirty books that I originally posted, and while they look good, none of them are calling out to me right now. The first review of a From the Stacks book will be up in a bit, as I FINALLY read The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B by Sandra Gulland. According to my librarything, that book has been on my tbr pile since last March.

Challenge Organization

As I posted in December, it is my goal to try and read more books that have been sitting on my to be read pile, so I divided all my books up. Today I chose what I would like to read off those piles for January. These are not set in stone, because I am bad about not reading what I am supposed to read, but here are my proposed books:

For the Classics Challenge, the five books I would like to read in January and February are:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton or Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (meant to read them last year, but did not, so they are not on my original list.)

TBR Challenge
White Teeth by Zadie Smith

12 Months of Fantasy Challenge
The Grand Ellipse by Paula Volsky

O'Canada Challenge
The Time in Between by David Bergen

Back to History Challenge
The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Chunkster Challenge
I have three chunksters that I started, so I suppose it could be one of the three, or in a dream world, all three of them:
Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

Then, I want to read a teen novel. I am reading Inkheart right now, but it did not come off my to be read pile. I have too many good ones to pick from, but I will read something! I also want to read a Jean Plaidy novel, the next Robb.... and about 500 other books!

The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason (Book one of The Gardella Vampire Chronicles)

Books Completed: 1
Completion Date: January 3, 2007
Publication Year: 2007
Pages: 347
Acquired in 2007

From the back of the book:

Beneath the glitter of dazzling nineteenth-century London Society lurks a bloodthirsty evil...

Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long ago taken over the world.

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardlla Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But, as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her duty. And when she comes face-to-face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make a choice between obligation and love.....

What a wonderful way to begin the New Year. This book was very captivating! I bought it online, but then my order did not arrive yesterday, so I am giving that copy to a friend and I bought another copy yesterday. I am glad I did. The last few days have been stressful, as I think I have made clear, so I needed a nice distraction. I have been pointing out on other blogs that I do not normally visit the romance section. Even my breakthrough read last year, J.D. Robb is housed in the mystery section at the bookstore I buy her from, so this would likely be the first time I have ever bought a book from the romance section. If it wasn't for the publicity that other bloggers have been showing, I likely would never have read it because I do not generally browse the romance section.

Anyways, I read the majority of this book last night in one sitting. I read a lot of historical fiction, so the time period was appealing. Adding in the vampires made for an interesting read. We have these prim and proper ladies of society, and this girl in a ball gown kicking vampire butt. I know a lot of people are reading this book, so I am going to be careful and not give anything away. The main character, Victoria, can be a bit naive, but she living in two worlds. She goes to fancy parties and dances with young men, and then she feels a cold draft on her neck and totally switches roles to nineteenth-century vampire slayer. It is an interesting contrast. Venators can be male or female, but females are rare. Victoria has to prove herself to be worthy of the role, and not just another society girl.

The characters in this book are interesting, though. We have Victoria, who if she lived in the twenty-first century would annoy me, but looking at her from a nineteenth-century perspective she is quite exceptional for her times. Then there is her aunt, Eustacia, who used to be a Venator, but arthritis caused her to stop. Her family thinks she is crazy, but she is a compelling character. As to the men, there are three main ones: Max, the skeptical Venator whose past makes him hard put to accept the future; Phillip, a man straight out of Victoria's past; and Sebastian, the man that keeps things interesting.

I started this review this morning, but then my net decided that it was going to stop working. It was all fresh in my head when I started, now, I am trying to find my place. I could say a lot more about this book, but I do not want to give too much away. I will just tell everyone that it was worth a visit to the romance section. Gleason has written a first book that has the potential to be a very interesting series. I cannot wait until the next book comes out in June! In the meantime, everyone should check out this book. It might not be everyones cup of tea, but it is very well-written.

I give this book a 4.5/5. It has been a few weeks since I read a book practically in one sitting, so you know that this book is a good one!

Author Gender:
Female: 1
Male: 0

This author was a new to me author.