Review: Virtual Evil (Time Rovers, #2)

Virtual Evil by Jana Oliver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



In Virtual Evil, the story picks up a few weeks after the end of the first book. Jack the Ripper is still at large, but has stopped killing for now. The anarchists' plot was interrupted, but their threat is more real than ever, and not as simple as it seems. John Keats is badly injured and now an anarchist target. Alastair is grumpy, over-protective and having career troubles, and Cynda is still at the heart of dangerous events, unable to return to her time before the mess of 1888 is fixed. In this state of affairs, it takes a while for the new plot to get moving, but once it does it's hard to stop reading.

The mess in 1888 only gets worse. Cynda thinks she has solved part of the mystery surrounding another Rover's death, but now the mystery only gets deeper and deeper, and those who have helped her find themselves in serious trouble. Everything that happens adds to the chaos, and the question hovers over it all - why is this time period being tampered with and by whom?

This is quite a long novel with lots of new questions and new dangers, but very few answers. It's almost boring at first, but all the questions just keep building until you realize there's no way that you're going to get answers at the end of the book and it's hard to hold them all in your head.

This time by the end, Cynda's blind bumbling around turns to disaster since she simply doesn't have the pieces necessary to make headway against enemy unknown, and we are left with cliffhangers - plural. There are no resolutions, no discoveries that solve this cross-time puzzle. The tension that builds in the last 100 pages or so begs for relief that can only be found in the third book that it was all leading up to. This is more than just someone being left hanging in a bad situation that you have to read on to see what happens. This is a huge, unresolved tangle that will take another 450 pages to solve. I have to say I'm eager to discover what comes of it all and I can't seem to stop trying to sort it out in my head.



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Review: Finnikin of the Rock

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Finnikin of the Rock is a book that I really hoped I would love. I did like it, but it wasn't love. It took a while to get into, and it was difficult to get attached to any of the characters. It's one of those books that I feel was a good story but it didn't really grab me on an emotional level even though there were plenty of emotional events that I should have been feeling strongly about. I can't really say why, but it remained remote to me much of the time. I've struggled to know how to rate it, but I think I'm going to stick with 3 stars.

Even though I wasn't really emotionally involved, this takes place in quite a depressing world. It's about a people scattered in exile since their home was cursed 10 years ago and they are physically/magically prevented from returning to it. The exiles have been persecuted and slaughtered, subjected to refugee camps full of illness and starvation. It's bleak, and Finnikin's outlook is often pessimistic and discouraged.

Once I got to the moment when they face the curse, I found it kind of anticlimactic because I didn't really understand what happened. There was almost too much mysteriousness about it. I ended up with merely a fuzzy understanding of how the magic worked, the basis of the curse, how it could be broken, and how it tied into various previously unexplained abilities of some of the characters. I've read a lot - a lot! - of Fantasy. I didn't feel that this system was as well done as it could have been.

I haven't decided if I'm going to read the next book in the series or not. There was enough to the world that I'm sort of interested in reading more about it even though it didn't get my highest rating. Not everything I read has to be an absolute favorite. So maybe one day I'll feel like returning to it. But I also feel a bit ambivalent. I feel like the story is concluded enough as it is. The next book jumps to one of the minor characters, so that I don't really need to read the next one. Time will tell.



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Review: Fortune's Son

Fortune's Son by Emery Lee

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Fortune's Son ended up being quite different from the first novel, Highest Stakes. It had really been too long since I'd read the first book, and at first I thought it didn't matter. But the last third of the book takes place after the events of the previous one - and there are no recaps or reminders of what happened then, so I was really struggling to make all the connections. It didn't give the alternate point of view, which is what you'd normally expect, but just skipped over that time period as if it was too redundant to repeat any of it.

If I'd read it immediately after the first book, this might have worked ok, although it would have been interesting to see the same events from a different angle. As it was, I felt like I was missing a huge piece of the story.

Aside from plot amnesia, Fortune's Son is also much more adult than the previous book, in which the romance was very sweet and mild. Not so with this one, so beware if that is something that you try to avoid.

This really felt more like a romance novel than historical fiction, with the focus on a gambler and a widow and the edges of society rather than on horses and racing. I found the plot to be less complex, even if it was appropriate to the subject matter. I suppose it just really wasn't my cuppa tea. The cover should have tipped me off. I'm starting to think I need to be less OCD about finishing series if I'm not totally in love with them.



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Review: A Study in Ashes

A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The Baskerville Affair Trilogy was one of my reading highlights in 2013. I discovered it through NetGalley, and was lucky to receive all three books as arcs. I would have gladly paid for them, and will end up buying my own copies so I can re-read at some point and support the author. But without the arcs, I would have had to wait much longer to finish the series (3 months!). I couldn't wait even that long. I love that the three books were released so close together so that I didn't forget why I cared while waiting for the sequels. A Study in Ashes will be released on December 31, 2013 and I've been saving up my full review for the release.

The series is probably not for everyone, but for me it had the perfect blend of genres and elements that I can't resist - a Victorian historical setting, fantasy, mystery, politics, and a romance that doesn't overwhelm the plot. I didn't really have an opinion on Steampunk before reading this trilogy, but I enjoyed the mix of Steam and Magic in this world as well.

Although the middle book was actually a bit too dark for my tastes, A Study in Ashes rises out of that darkness. There's a better balance of despair and hope, and it moves a lot quicker. It doesn't all take place in one small area, and while the characters are on the move, they are also with each other much more than in the previous book.

So much happened in this book that it felt like it ended up in a completely different world, one that is detailed and complex and full of promise. It never got bogged down or slowed. I was completely satisfied with how it all wrapped up. A Study of Ashes was a wonderful read far surpassing the potential I saw at the beginning of the trilogy.

Action abounds in A Study of Ashes. It's not really in the historical mystery category anymore, even with the references to the Hound of Baskerville and cameo appearances by Sherlock Holmes. It has solidly moved into historical fantasy / steampunk adventure, with rebellion, an entire social order collapsing, and magic either clashing or combining with Steam. Yet with all this social upheaval, every character has their moment and their own personal struggle or challenge so that it never feels too big or remote. There are lots of threads, but each is given the right amount of attention.

I love a story that's complex enough for the multiple threads to combine seamlessly into a unified whole. This ranks in that category easily. I was happy with every bit of it (how often can you say that?). It looks like there's room for more to be written in this world although this is definitely an ending to the Baskerville Affair. I'll be snatching it up when that happens.

**Received free arc for review

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Oct 30, 2013:

Fresh from finishing, I can't think of anything I would change about this book. Full review to come once it's soaked in for a while.



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Review: Silent Night: A Lady Julia Christmas Novella

Silent Night: A Lady Julia Christmas Novella by Deanna Raybourn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This novella was a nice tidbit about Lady Julia and Brisbane celebrating Christmas at her childhood home and running into a tiny bit of a mystery with jewelry going missing. There were no murders to keep it a bit lighter, and I had to laugh when I got to the solution. It was just too short. Novellas are such teasers. I really wish there was a full-length novel to look forward to. Please, please write another one!



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Review: A Bucket of Ashes

A Bucket of Ashes by P.B. Ryan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



It was ok... but not quite what I was hoping for in the finale of this series. The mystery was lackluster, with more focus on Nell than the mystery for much of it. Then Nell and Will's relationship took the contrived sort of turns that I dislike in a romance and didn't have as many of the more subtle interactions that I enjoyed in previous books. Until now, their relationship didn't have that 'romance' quality. So unfortunately I find myself disappointed in the resolution of 5 books of build-up. I really wish it wasn't true, but I feel let down.

Just another note of caution - as another reviewer noted, there are about 50 pages at the end of the ebook edition that are an excerpt from the first book in the series, just in case you hadn't read it I suppose. Luckily I was aware of this and didn't get the cheated feeling of reaching the end 50 pages too early.



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Review: The Mislaid Magician: or Ten Years After

The Mislaid Magician: or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Done! After plenty of skimming through accounts of children's encounters with snakes and frogs, tossed in with some mild magical mystery not nearly captivating enough (although occasionally slightly amusing), I'm just happy to mark this as finished and select the next book to read. Out of the trilogy, the first book was really the only one I would recommend to others.



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The Crown of Embers - Rae Carson

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Crown of Embers was infinitely better than the first book - everything I wished that one was even though I really liked it. Sometimes I find it difficult to review books that I really loved. How do you explain why the experience of reading left your imagination alive and kept you breathless? How do you account for the complete absorption in a world and the life of characters when you step back and try to analyze the plot? Sometimes I just want to love a book for the experience without analyzing why.

Still, I'm going to try. Maybe. Later.

Review: The Bitter Kingdom

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This might not have been as good as some of my other favorites, but I still loved just about every minute of it. There were some good surprises and lots of adventure, but not as much intrigue or romance as the second book. I'm glad the story isn't going to drag out, but I do wish there was more. It's that combination of relief that it was good and sadness that it's over. Maybe there will be more in this world one day with different characters - hopefully!



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