Tag: book reviews

New Year’s Resolutions of the Bookish Kind

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> books

Other people have a TBR pile. Ereaders don’t really lend themselves to that. I suppose you could say I have a TBR bitstream, but it doesn’t really mean the same thing. Or stack the same way.

I really have two TBR lists. Make that three.

There’s the TBR list of stuff I have made a commitment to review. That list actually exists as a list. It’s the “to-do” list on my calendar. I can track that one.

Then there’s the TBR lists in Library Thing and Goodreads. That has some physical components. All the print books that we kept when we moved, that I own but I hadn’t read yet. There are over 200 of those. I’m trying not to make the physical component of that problem any worse, but good books come out all the time. And that’s the third list.

I still see things I want to read. I do mark them as “to-be-read” on Goodreads. And there’s still that “so many books, so little time” problem. When the 2012 Goodreads reading challenge ticks over, I’m going to commit myself (now there’s a double meaning if I ever wrote one) to reading 400 books in 2012. Otherwise it isn’t a challenge.

But about that whole “New Year’s Resolution” thing? In this post I’m going to list all the books on my “to do” list that are past due. These are the ones I’ve already promised to somebody. In other words, this list is the dreadful backlog I keep referring to, and then averting my eyes.

I’m going to see how many of these I can get rid of before my first blogoversary, which is April 4, 2012. Coincidentally, my birthday is April 5. We’ll see how I do.

Author Requests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in my incredibly overwhelming NetGalley queue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle Sagara’s Cast in Ruin should be on here, except, I finished it Thursday night. It was awesome. The whole Elantra series was fan-damn-tastic. And I absolutely can’t wait for Cast in Peril, whenever that comes out. But I will be so glad to knock Cast in Ruin off my NetGalley queue.

Technically, Heir of Novron, Truthseeker and God’s War are not in any queue. But by the time I finish Theft of Swords and Rise of Empire, does anyone really think I’m not going to finish the series. Honestly? I’ll have to just to see how it turns out.

Truthseeker and God’s War are both the second books in their respective series. And I can’t seem to make myself read the second book with reading the first book, well, first. And I have a delicious suspicion that after I’ve read Cut & Run I’m going to be reading the rest of that series, because all of the reviews have been phenomenal. But maybe I’ll be able to resist the impulse until after I’ve caught up a bit.

I can dream, can’t I?

What resolutions have you made for the new year, bookish or otherwise?

 

 

 

 

 

12 for 2012: My most anticipated books in 2012

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> books> ebooks

It’s very difficult to figure out what books I’m looking forward to most in 2012. I mean when I started to look at lists, I realized that most of what I was anticipating were the next books in series, or new books from authors I already knew. But when I looked at the list of my best reads from this past year, most of them turned out to be authors who were new to me. It’s a puzzle, isn’t it?

This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the series books that I read. I certainly did. But it’s the discoveries that turned out to be the most memorable. Maybe that’s because they were such surprises.

Just the same, these are the books I am planning to stalk NetGalley for review copies. And if I can’t get a review copy? Well, then I’ll just have to buy a copy and review it anyway. There’s even a reading challenge about reading one book a month just for fun!

But the books I’m looking for in 2012 are…drumroll, please!

When Maidens Mourn by C.S. Harris will be the next book in her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series. What Angels Fear is the first book, and St. Cyr is a detective of the amateur and aristocratic variety. He should be the hero of a Regency romance, and in other circumstances, he might have been. But his service in Wellington’s army has left him much too tormented for that. His personal life makes him a tragic hero; the demons that drive him make him an ideal detective, if only to keep him from becoming a criminal. March can’t come soon enough on this.

Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb. This is Eve Dallas’ 34th outing. I’ve read all of them. Usually in one sitting. I still can’t figure out how she does it, but Robb/Roberts does it really, really well. This book means there will be one warm night in February.

Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow. I think I will always have a fondness for Alaska stories. Heck, I still tell Alaska stories, and it’s been 6 years now since I left Anchorage. But living in Alaska is something that changed my perspective, probably forever. The situations Dana writes about in her novels are always a tiny bit familiar, even the ones set in the Bush. Because Alaska is possibly the world’s biggest small town, and there weren’t six degrees of separation, there were three at most. Even for cheechakos like us. Dana writes damn good mysteries, but I always read them for a taste of the place we almost called home.

Master and God by Lindsey Davis. I love Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco series. The whole idea of a hard-boiled detective operating in Imperial Rome has always been utterly delicious. And Falco’s wife Helena Justina is made of awesome. Master and God is not a Falco book. It’s historical fiction set in the same time period. Davis wrote one other work of historical fiction set during the Falco period, The Course of Honor. I read it years ago and it was fantastic. If Master and God is half as good, it will be well worth reading. Come to think of it, I hope people re-discover The Course of Honor. It was incredibly good and I don’t think it got half the attention it deserved.

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green. This one has been teasing me every time I look at Amazon. The recommender can figure out I want to read this, so it sorta/kinda looks like it’s available, but it’s not. January 3, 2012. Come on already. For those fans of the Nightside, John Taylor is finally going to marry his long-suffering (in more ways than one) girlfriend, Suzie Shooter. He just has one last job to finish up before he meets her at the altar. But no job in the Nightside is ever easy, especially not for John Taylor.

Redshirts by John Scalzi. This sounds like it’s going to be really cool. And really, really funny. And yes, the redshirts in the title are those redshirts. Like in Star Trek. The ones that always get killed at the beginning of the mission. What happens if a bunch of them figure it out? And decide that they are not going to let it happen to them? This sounds like something only Scalzi could possibly do justice to. In June, we’ll all find out.

An Officer’s Duty by Jean Johnson is the next installment in her series, Theirs Not to Reason Why. I loved the first book, A Soldier’s Duty (reviewed here), and I can’t wait to see where Johnson next leads her time-travelling heroine, Io, in her quest to save the human race from utter extinction. July 31 is way too far away for this one.

Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz. I knew that someday the Krentz was going to link the Victorian era Arcane Society of her Amanda Quick novels to her contemporary Jones & Jones psychic investigations to her futuristic romances under her Jayne Castle pseudonym. I read them all, but the links make for an added twist that I love. In January Copper Beach starts a new subseries, Dark Legacy.

Crystal Gardens is the start of a second subseries, Ladies of Lantern Street, that Krentz is starting in April under her Amanda Quick name. That means it’s a Victorian era story, at least for the first book. All of the Arcane Society books, both contemporary and Victorian, have been excellent romantic suspense.

Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh is the 11th book in her Psy-Changelings series, and the first to be published in hardcover. Although her Archangel series hasn’t wowed me, the psy-changeling books have never failed to please. I only wish that the release date was earlier than May. And I wish the US version had a better cover. The UK cover is awesome. (UK on left, US on right.)

Dragon Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I want to go back to Liaden. I want to catch up on the books in between (there are several) that I haven’t read, and I want to finally find out how things are going. Liaden is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, space opera science fiction romance universes of all time. Dragon Ship is due Labor Day. I think I have enough time to get caught up. It will be so worth it.

This last book is an absolute flyer. It sounds really cool, but who knows.

The Yard by Alex Grecian. What if, after Scotland Yard failed to capture Jack the Ripper, they started a Murder Squad? 12 detectives specifically charged with investigating the thousands of murders in foggy, grimy, crime-filled London. How much luck would they have? When one of their own is murdered, the Yard’s first forensic pathologist is put on the track of the killer. I love historic mysteries, and this sounds very, very cool. In May, I’ll find out.

 

These are the books I’m looking forward to this year. I wonder how many will end up on my “best books of 2012” list.

What are your most anticipated books for 2012?

11 for 2011: Best reads of the year

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | best book lists> book reviews> books> ebooks

2011 is coming to a close. It’s time to pause and reflect on the year that is ending.

There’s a lovely quote from Garrison Keillor, “A book is a present that you can open again and again.” There’s a corollary in this house about “not if the cat is sitting on it” but the principle still applies. The good stories from this year will still be good next year. Some of them may even have sequels!

These were my favorites of the year. At least when I narrow the list down to 11 and only 11. And even then I fudged a bit. Read on and you’ll see what I mean.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (reviewed 12/1/11). This book had everything it could possibly need. There’s a quest. There’s a love story. It’s a coming-of-age story. It’s an homage to videogaming. There are pop-culture references to every cult classic of science fiction and fantasy literature imaginable. There’s an evil empire to be conquered. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Omnitopia: Dawn by Diane Duane (reviewed 4/22/11). On the surface, Omnitopia and Ready Player One have a lot in common. Thankfully, there is more than meets the eye. Omnitopia takes place in the here and now, or very close to it. The world has not yet gone down the dystopian road that Wade and his friends are looking back at in Ready Player One. On the other hand, any resemblance the reader might see between Worlds of Warcraft mixed with Facebook and Omnitopia, or between Omnitopia Corp and Apple, may not entirely be the reader’s imagination. Howsomever, Omnitopia Dawn also has some very neat things to say about artificial intelligence in science fiction. If you liked Ready Player One, just read Omnitopia: Dawn. Now!

The Iron Knight (reviewed 10/26/11) was the book that Julie Kagawa did not intend to write. She was done with Meghan, her story was over. Meghan is the Iron Queen, but what she has achieved is not a traditional happily-ever-after. Victory came at a price. Real victories always do. Meghan’s acceptance of her responsibility means that she must rule alone. Ash is a Winter Prince, and Meghan’s Iron Realm is fatal to his kind. The Iron Knight is Ash’s journey to become human, or at least to obtain a soul, so that he can join his love in her Iron Realm. It is an amazing journey of mythic proportions.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel (reviewed 10/18/11) is a story that absolutely shouldn’t work. The fact that it not only works, but works incredibly well, still leaves me gasping in delight. Dearly, Departed is the first, best, and so far only YA post-apocalypse steampunk zombie romance I’ve ever read. I never thought a zombie romance could possible work, period. This one not only works, it’s fun. There’s a sequel coming, Dearly, Beloved. I just wish I knew when.

Debris by Jo Anderton (reviewed 09/29/11) is the first book of The Veiled World Trilogy. It’s also Anderton’s first novel, a fact that absolutely amazed me when I read the book. Debris is science fiction with a fantasy “feel” to it, a book where things that are scientifically based seem magical to most of the population. But the story is about one woman’s fall from grace, and her discovery that her new place in society is where she was meant to be all along.

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (reviewed 09/19/11). If you love mysteries, and you are not familiar with Louise Penny’s work, get thee to a bookstore, or download her first Chief Inspector Gamache mystery, Still Life, to your ereader this instant. Louise Penny has been nominated for (and frequently won) just about every mystery award for the books in this series since she started in 2005. Find out why.

I love Sherlock Holmes pastiches. (This is not a digression, I will reach the point). I have read all Laurie R. King’s Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell books, some more than once. I almost listed Pirate King (reviewed 9/9/11), this year’s Holmes/Russell book instead of Trick. But Pirate King was froth, and Penny never is. A regular contributor to Letters of Mary, the mailing list for fans of the Holmes/Russell books, recommended the Louise Penny books. I am forever grateful.

The Elantra Series by Michelle Sagara (review forthcoming). I confess I’m 2/3rds of the way through Cast in Ruin right now. I’ve tried describing this series, and the best I can come up with is an urban fantasy series set in a high fantasy world. I absolutely love it. It’s the characters that make this series. Everyone, absolutely everyone, is clearly drawn and their personality is delineated in a way that makes them interesting. There are people you wouldn’t want to meet, but they definitely are distinctive. It’s also laugh-out-loud funny in spots, even when it’s very much gallows humor. I’m driving my husband crazy because I keep laughing at the dialog, and I can’t explain what’s so funny. I would love to have drinks with Kaylin. I’d even buy. But the Elantra series is not humor. Like most urban fantasy, it’s very snarky. But the stories themselves have a crime, or now, a very big problem that needs solving, and Kaylin is at the center of it. Whether she wants to be or not.

If you are keeping score somewhere, or just want the reading order, it’s Cast in Moonlight (part of Harvest Moon), Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight, Cast in Secret, Cast in Fury, Cast in Silence, Cast in Chaos, and Cast in Ruin.

The Ancient Blades Trilogy by David Chandler consists of Den of Thieves (reviewed 7/27/11), A Thief in the Night (reviewed 10/7/11) and Honor Among Thieves (reviewed 12/21/11). This was good, old-fashioned sword and sorcery. Which means the so-called hero is the thief and not the knight-errant. And every character you meet has a hidden agenda and that no one, absolutely no one, is any better than they ought to be. But the ending, oh the ending will absolutely leave you stunned.

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (reviewed 7/29/11) is 2011’s entry in one of my absolute all time favorite series, The Dresden Files. And I saw Jim Butcher in person at one of the Atlanta Barnes & Noble stores. Ghost Story represents a very big change in the Dresden Files universe, where Harry Dresden starts growing into those extremely large boots he’s been stomping around in all these years. If you love urban fantasy, read Dresden.

Turn It Up by Inez Kelley (reviewed 8/10/11 and listed here) is one of the best takes on the “friends into lovers” trope that I have ever read. Period. Also, I’m an absolute sucker for smart people and witty dialogue, and this book is a gem. “Dr. Hot and the Honeypot” pretty much talk each other into a relationship, and into bed, while they give out sassy advice over the airwaves on their very suggestive and extremely successful sexual advice radio show.

My last book is a two-fer. Break Out (reviewed 8/4/11) and Deadly Pursuit (reviewed 12/6/11) by Nina Croft are the first two books in her Blood Hunter series, and I sincerely hope there are more. This is paranormal science fiction romance. Like Dearly, Departed, this concept should not work. But it absolutely does. And it gets better the longer it goes on. If you have an urban fantasy world in the 20th century, what would happen if that alternate history continued into space? Where do the vamps and the werewolves go? They go into space with everyone else, of course. And you end up with Ms. Croft’s Blood Hunter universe, which I loved. But you have to read both books. The first book just isn’t long enough for the world building. The second one rocks.

I stopped at 11 (well 11-ish) because this is the 2011 list. I could have gone on. And on. And on. My best ebook romances list was published on Library Journal earlier in the month. LJ has a ton of other “best” lists for your reading pleasure. Or for the detriment of your TBR pile.

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? Christmas 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

It’s Christmas. We just demolished a turkey boob. There’s just the two of us humans plus the cats, so we only get a turkey breast. A whole turkey would be too much. Somewhere along the way, I started calling it a turkey boob, and the name stuck. The poor turkey is way past being offended.

The cats definitely wanted in on the act. The gravy packet we took out of the turkey? We had to hide it in the microwave until it was time to cook it. Erasmus wanted that gravy packet so bad…

But we’re here to talk about books, not turkeys. Well, so far I haven’t reviewed any turkeys. There’s always next year.

I’m stalling. I just realized that. I looked at last week’s list and next week’s list and the boxes in my office and tried not to scream. We moved last weekend. So I’m a little behind. Just an itty-bitty bit. Moving right along. (Sounds like the Muppets, doesn’t it?)

Next week’s list is as big as this week’s list. I knew I was slightly over-committed.

Midnight Reckoning by Kendra Leigh Castle is the second book in her Dark Dynasties series. I reviewed the first book, Dark Awakening, back in August, and I enjoyed it much more than enough to make me snap this up from NetGalley when I saw it.

The First Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay is billed as the first book in the Tenzing Norbu mystery series. Tenzing Norbu is an ex-monk from a Tibetan Monastery who joined the LAPD. At the beginning of the book, he hangs out his shingle as a private detective. Whether this concept works or not, remains to be seen. It definitely sounds interesting.

The Price of Temptation by Lecia Cornwall was described as the story of a tortured Regency Robin Hood meeting his not so proper Marian. It was a description I couldn’t resist. We’ll see if the book lives up to the description.

A Demon Does it Better by Linda Wisdom is the story of a witch with a job at a paranormal hospital where patients have been disappearing. She encounters a sexy demon on a mission who gets her into a world of trouble.

Stellarnet Rebel by J.L. Hilton is my hit of science fiction romance for the week. A deep-space colony, obsessive online gamers, aliens, terrorists and reporters. There’s even a blogger involved. I hope they’re the hero and not the villain…

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is Cinderella’s story if Cinderella were a cyborg. And I think if she rescues herself, but I’ll have to read it and see. This is one YA book that there is a lot of buzz about, and I know I’m going to be sure to read this one. It’s the first in a series, The Lunar Chronicles, which makes it even more tempting.

About last week’s recap…well, I’m in chaos. I really am. I’m reading Cast in Chaos, by Michelle Sagara. One of the books in my backlog is Cast in Ruin, and I needed to read all the Elantra books to catch up. Chaos is the last book before Ruin. It seems completely apropos at the moment.

Two more books from the long backlog are also gone. Tricks of the Trade by Laura Anne Gilman and Honor Among Thieves by David Chandler both went to a highly recommended “bye-bye”. Terrific books in their genres.

I also finished the mind candy of the week, so Lady Seductress’s Ball and One Perfect Night are done as well. Rachael Johns’ One Perfect Night turned out to have more story to it than just mind candy and was very nicely done.

I read a couple of things just for fun. Beauty Dates the Beast by Jessica Sims and No Proper Lady by Isabel Cooper had been recommended to me oodles of times. No Proper Lady was on a ton of “best of 2011” lists. And now I can add my voice to the throng. They are both terrific books. Totally different from each other, but terrific. Complete reviews are, of course, forthcoming.

And I didn’t get anywhere with the rest of the books I was supposed to read. Which is a serious problem. My egalley of The Demi-Monde: Winter is supposed to time-bomb off my iPad on 12/27. I have a print galley in a box. I think it’s in one of the 19 book boxes in my office. If not, there are about as many book boxes in my husband’s office next door. Then there are the boxes in the hall…It must be here someplace. Mustn’t it?

Don’t forget, tomorrow is still Monday, even if it is a holiday weekend. And that means it’s time for another edition of Ebook Review Central. This Monday it’s time to take a look Dreamspinner Press’ November titles.

And we’ll be back next Sunday for another look at the perils of Marlene’s iPad. Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

Ebook Review Central for Carina Press for November 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

It’s time to take a look at the Carina Press titles from November 2011. When Carina Press posted their November catalog on NetGalley, the whole list looked fairly yummy, and the reviews bear that out. Every title has at least four reviews. This is amazing! Carina published 18 titles in November, and Carina always has the shortest time from the end of the month for reviews to be generated. Clearly, I was not the only reviewer who thought their November list looked really, really good.

And as always, the September and October lists have been updated to include recently published reviews. So keep ’em coming.

This month’s featured books were easy to choose. Any time review numbers start going into double-digits, I sit up and take notice. That means a title has got lots of people not just talking, but reading.

So what were the big three titles in November?

Shona Husk’s Dark Vow was definitely a wow. Eleven reviews, including a TOP PICK! review from RT Book Reviews is enough to make anyone take a second look. For anyone who likes stories with a western flavor, or steampunk, or strong female leads, this book is a winner. There is a hint of science fiction/fantasy, but it’s more of a tease than hard core. It made a lot of reviewers think of the TV series Firefly, and that is not a bad thing by any means. RT Book Reviews made a comparison to True Grit. The blend works incredibly well. Shona Husk’s paranormal series starting with The Goblin King is very popular; this will be too.

For Toni Anderson’s Edge of Survival, thirteen turned out to be the lucky number of reviews this month. Even better, one of those thirteen was a feature review on USA Today‘s Happy Ever After blog. Edge of Survival is a romantic suspense story about damaged people in an unforgiving wilderness, trying to find ways to be strong past the broken places. It is an extremely good book, one that keeps the reader guessing until the end. The heroine of this tale is diabetic, and the author is donating 15% of her royalties to diabetes research. Readers of Nora Roberts suspense titles will love this one.

The third featured title is the second novella in Christine d’Abo’s Long Shots series. A Shot in the Dark was the third book this month to break that magic 10+ review number in November. A Shot in the Dark is an erotic novella with much more than a hint of BDSM. The Long Shots series features the Long siblings and their erotic adventures at an upscale local sex club, Maverick’s. Double Shot, the first book, was sister Sadie’s story. A Shot in the Dark leads sister Paige to her happy ever after. According to the reviewers, these stories are steaming hot, even hotter than the coffee served at the Long Family’s coffee shop. If you are looking for erotic stories that lead to a happily ever after, Christine d’Abo’s trilogy may be just the shot of espresso you are looking for. Pulled Long, the third book in the trilogy, just came out in December.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be back on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) with the Dreamspinner Press November titles.

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 12-17-11

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

Your eyes do not deceive you. This virtual nightstand post is indeed coming to you on a Saturday. Why, you ask?

Because Sunday, December 18 Reading Reality is the host of the Unacceptable Risk blog tour. So it will be my pleasure to have a guest post from Jeanette Grey, the author of Unacceptable Risk, as well as a review of her excellent science fiction romance and a giveaway of one copy of the book.

And we’re still in the middle of moving. So the actual nightstand just got stripped to its essentials today. The virtual one is getting something of a workout. It’s hard to concentrate amid piles of boxes. My office has developed an echo. All the books that formerly lined my walls clearly had a major sound-dampening effect. The boxes, not so much.

I looked ahead to what reviews I have due the week of December 26 and nearly had a seizure. What was I thinking? Was I thinking?

I have five reviews slotted for books with publication dates of December 27. Merry Christmas!

Forever and a Day by Delilah Marvelle is the first book in her new Rumor series. I read and enjoyed her Scandal series, so I decided to give this one a try when I saw it on NetGalley.

Like a lot of readers, I’ve never forgotten the thrill of Maria V. Snyder’s first novel, Poison Study. It was marvelous. It was an utterly amazing fantasy romance, and then to find out that it was her first book, I was absolutely floored. But the sequels never quite recaptured that magic. But I keep hoping. Maybe Touch of Power will be the one. I got it from NetGalley in hopes that it will be.

Demon Lover by Juliet Dark sounded like an interesting “story within a story” when I saw it on NetGalley. A female professor at a remote upstate New York college is writing a book titled “The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers.” She thinks it’s folklore, but finds out it’s biography. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

I found Robin D. Owens’ Enchanted Again irresistible when I spotted in on NetGalley. I love the Celta books. I also enjoyed her Summoning series. Enchanted Again is the second book in her Mystic Circle series, after Enchanted No More, which was fun, but no Celta. We’ll see how this one goes.

I picked up The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees because of all the buzz about it. And when I say picked up, I mean that literally, I have a print galley from the publisher. I also have a egalley from NetGalley. Does the “so many books, so little time” cliché apply to multiple copies of the same book? It looks like a hybrid of virtual-reality, alternate history, steampunk and cyberpunk. I hope it’s half as wild and cool as the descriptions make it out to be.

From last week’s perils of Marlene, the question is, did I finish anything at all in the middle of packing and moving? The answer is a yes, but not a whole lot.

Unacceptable Risk, absolutely, positively yes. The review will be part of the blog tour post. Not finishing would have been unspeakably rude.

I’m about halfway through One Perfect Night. And it is perfectly the level of mind candy my brain can process in the middle of this moving mess. I expect to finish it and Lady Seductress’ Ball in time to review them early next week.

And speaking of a brain not properly processing, while the boxes have been flying, one of the things that has been randomly firing the synapses is reading challenges. I know, total non sequitur. Nevertheless, I’ll start posting my reading challenge entry posts this week in between everything else. I know I’m going to read the books anyway, so I might as well enter a few challenges for fun.

And I finally finished David Chandler’s Honor Among Thieves. That was so good. It does not have a happy ending. It has the ending it needs to have, but it is not happy. Bittersweet, definitely, but not happy. But excellent. I sat there stunned for several minutes after the last page, just taking it all in.

I just gacked. I have 8 more books scheduled for the week of January 1. And we have to unpack. Does anyone have a second brain I can attach?

Don’t forget to tune in on Sunday, December 18 for the Unacceptable Risk blog tour and giveaway!

And Monday, yes, Monday we’ll be back with another edition of Ebook Review Central featuring the Carina Press titles from November 2011.

 

December is NetGalley Month Too!

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> NetGalley

Unofficially, every month is NetGalley month at Reading Reality. Seriously, I’ve read five NetGalley books so far this month, and the month isn’t half over yet.

Officially, Vicky @ Books, Biscuits and Tea has declared December to be NetGalley Month. Fine by me. Emily @ Red House Books hosted NetGalley Month in April, July and October this year. It’s terrific to see another blogger show more NetGalley love.

Me, I’m still trying to figure out whether NetGalley is my supplier or my enabler, but that’s a whole other story. I just added four more books to my NetGalley queue this afternoon, and I only took one off. This is not good.

But it does mean I’ll have plenty left for the next NetGalley month, which is coming up in January 2012 at Red House Books. So no matter how many I read this month, I’m good to go for next month!

So many egalleys, so little time.

Selecting the best romance ebooks of 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | best book lists

Last week I volunteered to select the best romance ebooks of 2011 for Library Journal. The article that resulted from the endeavor was posted at LJ this morning under the title: Librarian’s Best Books of 2011: Ebook Romance, with my picture and everything. Yes, I’m rather chuffed about the whole thing, as the Brits would say.

How did this come about? I review ebook romances for Library Journal. I am a librarian, and I asked to be a reviewer when they started their ebook romance review program this summer. LJ has, like every book review source, been posting their “best of 2011” lists this month. They’ve also been posting “Librarian’s best” guest posts. Since they have only been reviewing ebooks since August, they didn’t have a full year of ebook romance reviewing to work with. When I volunteered to write one for them, they were happy.

But about the books, and the selecting of them. They had to be ebooks, they had to be romances, and I could only pick five. And they had to be 2011 books. I stretched a couple of those definitions just a tad. There was no requirement that they be books reviewed in LJ. Actually, that was the point. LJ wanted me to go through my archives and find stuff I knew about that they didn’t, because I cover more of the ebook “waterfront” with Ebook Review Central, and I’ve been reviewing ebooks longer.

I chose the books in order by time, earliest to latest, plus the one I snuck in and hoped it would stick, which it did. It’s not generally thought of as a romance, but well, some of us think it is.

1. Goddess with a Blade by Lauren Dane, published by Carina Press. Reviewed on June 20, 2011. Urban Fantasy. Escape Rating A.

Goddess was one of the first books I reviewed for NetGalley. And I remembered it in detail six months later.  Every time my editor at LJ asked me if there would ever be a starred review of an ebook (before Serenity Woods’ White-Hot Christmas finally got one) Goddess with a Blade was always my example. Absolutely terrific kick-ass heroine, and great urban fantasy world-building. I hope there are more.

2. Turn it Up by Inez Kelley, also published by Carina Press. Reviewed on August 10, 2011. Contemporary Romance. Escape Rating A.

I reviewed a similar book for LJ, but Turn it Up was just so much better that I cited Turn it Up in my review as the one people should read instead! This was a marvelous “friends-into-lovers” story. And very, very funny.

3. Queenie’s Brigade by Heather Massey, published by Red Sage Publishing. Reviewed on October 10, 2011. Science Fiction Romance. Escape Rating A.

Queenie’s Brigade is terrific science fiction romance. When I wrote my review, I got sucked into reading it a second time, and I’d just finished it! The last rebel spaceship escapes to the last prison planet to try to turn convicts into soldiers. Sort of like the Dirty Dozen in space. Except nowhere near that easy. If you like science fiction romance, get this book.

4. Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run book 4) by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban, published by Dreamspinner Press. M/M Romance, Mystery/Suspense. Featured on Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner October Books, November 28, 2011. Ratings from 4/5 to 5/5 at 8 reviewers.

I crowdsourced this selection to Ebook Review Central. The reviews weren’t just positive, they were glowing. And not just for this book, but for the whole series. It made me put the first book in the series, Cut & Run, on my TBR list. There are paperbacks available for this series, so I was stretching the ebook-only definition just a bit, but no one minded.

5. Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie R. King, published by Bantam. Mystery. Discussed in the post The Beekeeper and his Apprentice on July 6, 2011.

This was the one that was the sneak. Technically, this isn’t a romance. But the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell concept definitely is. And anyone who can read what he did for her and say he hadn’t already started to love her, even if he didn’t know it himself, doesn’t have a romantic bone in their body.

I loved creating this list for LJ, but because they had to be all ebooks, there were lots of things that I read and loved this year that were ineligible. Why?  Because they were really “p as in print” books. Or they were older books I finally got around to this year (hello, Elantra!) So later this month I’ll do a personal “best of 2011” list.

Ebook Review Central Samhain Publishing October 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

It’s time for Ebook Review Central to return to Samhain Publishing to look at their October 2011 titles.

And there are some hellish surprises in store, but they are all the good kind. Contradictory? Not really when you look at this month’s featured titles.

Samhain Publishing released 30 ebooks in October, including the start of their new Samhain Horror line which launched in October 2011. But the hottest books this month all featured some link with the “fires down below” and I’m not necessarily referring to sex.

The first featured title is Alisha Rai’s Hot as Hades, and it’s a re-telling of the Persephone myth. So the Hades in the title is exactly who it refers to, the Greek deity himself, Hades. This re-imagining of the classic tale has Hades as the ultimate ‘bad boy’ and Persephone turning to him to protect her from something even worse. This book was reviewed pretty much everywhere, and the reviews were not just positive, but they all agreed that the book was just plain “fun”. This one sounds like a winner.

Mummy Dearest by Josh Lanyon is the second featured title for this month. Yes, I typed ‘Mummy’, this is a paranormal, and it takes place at an Egyptian mummy exhibit in a very small museum.  This is  a Halloween romp where a low-budget cable TV show meets an Egyptology professor at a low-budget museum and tries to get the professor involved in saying there’s a curse on the mummy. Instead, the two men get involved with each other. All of the reviewers, including USA Today and Library Journal, had a terrific time with this one, the start of the XOXO Series. The tag line for this new series, “The truth is out there, Way, way, way out there!”

And last, one of Samhain’s new horror line generated a ton of reviews. Dead of Winter by Brian Moreland is a mixture of horror and western, using Native American myths and folklore to generate its chills. One reviewer said it would be hard to beat as “one of the best books of the year”. Another reviewer compared the work to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. Certainly Samhain’s Horror publishing has brought them a whole new audience and this work in particular was reviewed by a large and completely different audience than their previous output. If you’re interested in trying one of their horror books, this definitely looks like the one to pick!

And that chillingly concludes the Samhain Publishing feature for this month. We’ll be back next week with Amber Quill Press, Astraea Press and Liquid Silver Books.