Lady Fiasco - Kathleen Baldwin

Lady Fiasco by Kathleen Baldwin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I normally read series in order, but this time I went off reviews and started with a later book - I found that good advice. I liked this one much less than the other I've read so far.

Aunt Honore is more than just notorious here - she's scandalous. Her soiree was just a bit too much for me. In the later book, she's feisty and unconventional, but not crude. I found myself really being turned off by several episodes. I would not classify this as a 'clean' romance because of them, even though it had nothing to do with the actual couple's interactions.

The romance was also just all right. If the couple didn't have a history of knowing each other since childhood, it would have been a terrible case of instalove. There wasn't really any development of their feelings for each other. It was just an on switch and then a lot of running away and denial in between kisses. I didn't find their relationship very satisfying, especially when the main character was being a jerk whenever he wasn't kissing the girl.

Off to Be the Wizard - Scott Meyer

Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Off to Be the Wizard has an interesting concept that I really liked. The world is a huge computer program (no one knows it), and Martin discovers a file that controls the world that he can hack and give himself all kinds of money and powers. That was really cool.

He does start out making a fool of himself over it at first, but I liked it a lot more once Martin met a few other people and started training on how to manipulate reality properly. There are a couple of side characters that I really liked, and eventually there's a bad guy situation that needs to be sorted out, which steps the last half of the book up a bit. And I was even entertained by the humor, some of the time. So generally, I liked it. It was fun.

But a couple of books I've read lately have led me to the realization that straight humor and I don't have a very good relationship. I get tired. I get bored. I want some depth and seriousness so that the humor catches me off guard and lightens the whole mood. I prefer irony to poop falling out of the sky onto a statue (nope, no laughs from me on the toilet humor, sorry).

I've discovered that I like a side dish of humor, but get sick of it when it's a three course meal. So I wished there was something more to this, and there really wasn't. But if you enjoy this kind of comedy, you might really like it.

Grey Mask: A Miss Silver Mystery - Patricia Wentworth

Grey Mask: A Miss Silver Mystery by Patricia Wentworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grey Mask is the first in one of the classic Golden Age detective mystery series, one that seems to have been largely forgotten. I really enjoyed it, apart from some excessive use of the word "frightfully" and one character who was unbelievably silly.

This is my first author from the era, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but Miss Silver (the detective) is just a minor side character. Her clients are the main characters here, and she pops up to help along the way. I don't even know enough about her to know whether I like her or not. I'm curious to see whether this pattern continues in the series.

As far as the mystery goes, it wasn't one that I really tried to figure out. I just went a long for the ride, learning things as the characters did, often being told them by Miss Silver or someone else. So it wasn't the puzzle kind of mystery for me. Still entertaining though.

I definitely plan to read on, but I also need to read some of the more well-known Golden Age authors for comparison. For now, this is 4 stars for entertainment value.

The Rabbi - Noah Gordon

The Rabbi by Noah Gordon
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I've enjoyed Noah Gordon's style in his Historical Fiction books. There's an earthiness to his writing that makes the past feel immediate and his characters real.

Unfortunately, I like those qualities much less in a contemporary setting. Even though The Rabbi focuses on a way of life that is less familiar to me, that earthiness becomes too realistic and depressing - and even boring - in a setting that is too close to current day for my comfort. Contemporary here is the 1960s, but it feels very much like the type of contemporary that I read in school and ran away from as fast as I could once reading it was no longer required.

I will continue to pursue Gordon's other historical work, but I'll be steering clear of anything set in the 20th Century or later.

Hunter's Trail - Melissa F. Olson

Hunter's Trail by Melissa F. Olson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series grew on me. It started out fine, but nothing special. Just one of those that I liked but didn't love. Mainly that's because of the whole love triangle thing. I'm happy with how that went, and that it didn't consume the entire book/series, although it had moments. It wasn't how I thought it was going to go either, so bonus points for that.

The Old World happenings were interesting, too. I do like the world and the concept of nulls, and I ended up really liking this last book. It may have convinced me to give the new spin-off series a try.

Enchantress - James Maxwell

Enchantress by James Maxwell
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

My experience with this book:

✔ Cool cover.
✔ Prologue is intriguing.
✗ Nope, prologue is a lie - it's not even about that character, and we don't get to know them at all. Clue number one about the rest of the book.
✗ Amateurish writing.
✔ Light fantasy tone with cozy, comfy clichés, which are good sometimes.
✔ Girl who's going to study to be an enchantress.
✔ Brother who's learning the sword.
✗ Except we don't get to see any of the actual learning.
✔ Until we do!
✗ Except it's just so that we can have a reason to witness...
✗ Sudden, gratuitous death (murder!) of an innocent, stray animal.
✗ Followed shortly by sudden, gratuitous death of characters that you just barely start to know, let alone like. What?

Now it's just going downhill fast.
✗ The random-seeming gruesomeness of the deaths seems out of place with the tone of the rest of it.
✗ Who to be invested in?? What's the point of anyone??
✗ World-building all over the place, too many names and places that mean nothing.
✗ Starting not even to care about the main characters because of the choppiness.
✗ Where is this even going, and what's the point of anything?
✗ Now we're going to war and don't understand the world we're at war with because the world-building is so bad, and death is sure to follow, and sure to be meaningless.
✗ The knowledge that more random gruesomeness is to come. More characters that you glimpse and start to like will inevitably die just because you thought you might like them. You don't even have time to care.

Yet all is relayed in a light tone.

Incongruous and jarring...

DNF.

The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was needing a really good mystery where the murder actually gets investigated methodically and the picture is gradually revealed through interviews and evidence gathering. I know that might sound boring, but it's totally not! I've had my eye on The Cuckoo's Calling for a long time and finally decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did because it was completely satisfying as a mystery. It kept me on the case while I wasn't reading it, trying to put the clues together.

I had a couple of decent theories, but I was nowhere close to being right. I love a mystery that gives me enough to chew on but still surprises me in the end. Especially when the answer fits all the pieces together instead of adding something new - of course I can't figure it out if I don't have all the information. But that was not a problem here, so the 'clicking into place' was very satisfying.

The characters are really well done. Even more than the mystery, they are what kept me up late reading. Cormoran is such a great character, full of tension. He's real and deep, and I loved seeing his progression throughout the book. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops in the sequels. The story really is about him, not just about a murder that happens to need a detective as a byproduct.

I also really loved Robin, his temp secretary. She's enthusiastic, smart, enterprising, and empathetic. She provides a good balance for Cormoran's older, broken-down, gritty brilliance. They both feel like real people with more than enough depth to sustain a series.

Add to this a vivid setting with a real sense of current day London and interesting details about the lives of the rich and famous (it's not all roses), and you have a truly rich novel, not generic in any way.

The book lingered with me after I finished it, and is still vivid in my mind a few days later. It's safe to say I loved it. If I hesitate to give it 5 stars, it's only because of how realistic it was - something that I appreciate but don't always enjoy when it comes to the darker, seedier side of life. But, although it was dark at points, it wasn't bleak, and I can deal with that. I'm even getting better at enjoying that (gasp!).

Aside: If I hadn't already known J.K. Rowling wrote this, I wouldn't have had a clue. She uses a completely different voice, style, and genre - hence the pseudonym. In my mind, the high quality and maturity of this book proves her versatility and growth as a writer. I'm thrilled that she's found a new creative direction that I can enjoy based on its own merits. Keep 'em coming!

The Infinity Concerto - Greg Bear

The Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I quit at 29%. If this wasn't a book club read, I would have stopped a lot sooner. It's too dark for me. The main character is too isolated, the world too hostile. It's all grayscale in my mind. Faerie shouldn't be ugly and colorless and full of death and despair, even when dangerous to humans. There should at least be an alien beauty to it. But this was all ugliness and hardship.

I was forcing myself to continue reading (because - book club), but I was getting depressed even when I wasn't reading it (NOT good, and completely against all the reasons why I read), so I moved onto something else and really haven't looked back since.

Not for me.

The Curse of the Pharaohs - Elizabeth Peters

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this less than the first book in the series, partly because a lot of it was so similar to that book. An archaeological dig is in peril due to local superstitions about a curse, exacerbated by disappearances, ghostly sightings and deaths. If I hadn't just read the first book last month, I might have liked it better.

I also missed some of the cast from the first book. Walter and Evelyn were absent, and there were no new characters who balanced the intensity of Amelia and Emerson (which is needed, I think) or that I really cared about. There was lots of shouting and arguing, all very humorously, but I wished there was more about the excavation and less of the people. I was actually thankful when Amelia used her parasol on one of the characters!

Now to the mystery. Amelia is sure she knows who is behind all the dead bodies, but we don't get many clues along the way, and don't know what she's thinking until all is revealed. There were enough possible culprits that I really had no idea who it was until the end, but I didn't feel like I had enough information to figure it out, so the mystery was a bit lacking. It was more like a suspense novel with an abundance of 'calm in the face of calamity' and witty conversation along the way.

All that said, I still found Amelia and Emerson entertaining, even if they are a bit over the top. And the 19th Century Egyptian archaeology setting is fun. I think I just need to wait longer between installments so that I don't mind the recycled elements. That, and expect the mystery to be solved for me by mysterious logic and intuition behind the scenes because it's more about Amelia being right than the mystery itself.

The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set in contemporary Venice (around the time of both answering machines and cell phones), this is not exactly what I expected, which was a historical fantasy with lighthearted, adventurous thieving in it. What I got was a more realistic tale of runaways and orphans trying to make it in a contemporary city. Still, bonus points for Venice!

There was a little bit of thieving, but it was more desperate, the group of kids scraping by while living in an abandoned movie theater. It was sad, but heartwarming as well because of the friendships that they found. It honestly took me a while to warm up to it, until the second half when the focus shifted away from their sparse lives and into more of an adventure - what I'd been expecting in the first place.

There's a little bit of magic to it towards the end, enough to shake things up. There's payback that doesn't end up being malicious, and wishes coming true that end up not being quite what was hoped for. That made a bittersweet ending for some of the characters, and an arguably happy one for others, whether they deserved it or not. I like how it wasn't all black and white.

One drawback for me is that it was told in a very juvenile tone - it's definitely for middle grade readers. That, and some of the word choices in the translation didn't fit and were distracting (for example, "darn it" was used a lot). I'd probably give it 2 stars, given how much I don't usually enjoy contemporary, realistic stories. But it was good for its target age group, and I probably would have loved it when I was younger, so I'm bumping it up a star.