Dear George R. R. Martin

Dear George R. R. (if that’s even your REAL name),

I yield. I YIELD you bloody bastard! I can’t quit you. You took a while to hook me with A Game of Thrones. Probably because I knew everything that was going to happen, thanks to HBO. But you and A Clash of Kings downright slayed me with your plot and your mud and your swords and your dragons and your evil kings and shadow babies.

Damn you!

Your books are like crack (I assume, having not actually ever tried crack, that this is what it would be like to be addicted). I CAN’T STOP.

The Seven Kingdoms have too many kings and so many characters and how and why and when will Sansa change her name to Alayne because, let’s be real, that’s really what I’m waiting for.

One more question, if I may: did you REALLY have to make A Storm of Swords over 1000 pages long? How will I ever sleep? Or eat? And what happens if I finish this and the others and am then stuck waiting for you to FINISH THE SERIES for the next 12 years???

I resist your temptations and find myself wanting.

Sincerely,
Alayne (The real one)

THE GALVESTON CHRONICLES by Audra Martin D’Aroma

Hi Friends! I know it’s been forever since I last posted something of real bookish value on here, but I assure you my absence has not been wasted. I’m oh-so-thrilled to let you know that Rozlyn Press’s second novel has officially been released!

Buy your copy now at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or request a copy from your local independent bookstore!

 

In the stifling days before the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Isadora Khaled dreams of catfish and murdering her daughter, setting off a chain of events that will not be resolved until Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The descendents of Isadora are defined by and eventually named after the hurricanes that shape their lives: Fatima, who enters into a doomed relationship with a visiting artist in 1961; her drug-numbed daughter Carla, desperate to get home in 1983; and Carla’s daughter Alicia, reunited with her heritage on a modern island embracing disaster culture in 2008.

An epic tale, The Galveston Chronicles holds a mirror to the transformation of an unforgettable island, looking at the Gulf Coast region through the eyes of these women in the days preceding and following Galveston’s major hurricanes.

 

Review: The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry

Book 6 of Steve Berry’s “Cotton Malone” series takes our favorite ex-Magellan Billet agent to China where he must rescue his friend and sometime-lover, Cassiopeia Vitt. Vitt’s gotten herself wrapped up in a web of conspiracy involving the Chinese premier and his top two ministers, some angry Russians, a handful of eunuchs, and Stephanie Nelle, Cotton’s former boss. Everyone’s on the hunt for a long-lost sample of oil which the Chinese need to prove that oil is not actually finite, but rather a replenishing source deep within the earth. Sound a but chaotic? That’s because it is.

Sadly this book failed for me, and this is the first time I’ve said that about any of Berry’s books. I usually love the fast-pace and intrigue, but The Emperor’s Tomb was mired in Chinese history from the very first page. I felt bogged down by the different history lessons, so much so that by the time it got to the real action, I was ready to be done reading. The set-up might have been necessary to give us the appropriate background for the drama between the two Chinese ministers, but I truly lost the message in all the information. “Less is more” is not a method Berry utilized here.

I’ve received an advance copy of The Jefferson Key, Book 7 of the “Cotton Malone” series, and I really hope the next book can redeem Berry in my eyes. The last Berry book I read (The Paris Vendetta) received 3 stars from me, but the one before that (The Charlemagne Pursuit) received 5. I’m giving The Emperor’s Tomb 2 stars. Not a good trend Steve, not a good trend.

2 stars

(I won an advance copy from LibraryThing)

Review: The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman

Carol Goodman always has an unparalleled way of transforming a location in a book into a beautifully haunted atmosphere. Her descriptions jump from the page, and every time she sets her novel in a new location I know it’s going to be lush, gothic, decrepit, and wonderful.

Her location in The Ghost Orchid is no different. Set at the upstate New York sprawling aged and crumbling Bosco Estate, Goodman unites an intriguing cast of characters amid the ivy-covered statues and dry fountains. Novelist Ellis Brooks has hoped her acceptance into Bosco’s notorious writing program would allow her the freedom to pursue her novel in peace. But the past pursues her instead, and she soon finds that the residents of Bosco were not brought together by chance.

At times a romantic mystery, at times a suspenseful thriller, Goodman deftly weaves between an ages old missing child case, and the present day sleuthing Ellis is forced to undertake into the people and places around her. Always intriguing, I never want to finish a Goodman novel. Though the writing in this, her fourth novel, occasions into the trite and predictable, I was still engrossed by the scene set before me.

I had one issue with the end of the novel and a short side-tracked path that Goodman decided to briefly explore, but it was not the focus of the novel so I can set it aside as author-folly. Overall, I still love her novels and find them to be uniquely mysterious and haunting. I haven’t read many other authors that can successfully pull off a mystery while still making it literary. In this day of mass-market quick-publications, I delight in the fact that there are authors like Goodman who take suspense to another level.

4 stars

Review: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

If you looked at the bicycles one way, they looked very solid, like sculpture, with afternoon light glinting cleanly off the chrome handlebars–one, two, three, all in a row. If you looked at them another way, you could see just how thin each kickstand was under the weight of the heavy frame, and how they were poised to fall like dominos or the skeletons of elephants or like love itself.
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain

I didn’t know much about Ernest Hemingway or his wives before I started The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. This is the story of his first wife, Hadley; of how they met, the depth of their love, and how it came to wither away. Set mainly in Paris during prohibition, McLain paints us a picture of two newlyweds on the cusp of greatness. Perched to seize the world by storm, Hadley and Ernest rock on the edge of several lives: that of the happily married couple, that of the poor writer trying to make a living, and that of disaster brought on by depression and angst.

The positive aspect of Paula McLain’s writing is that I forgot this book was about Hemingway’s first wife. Meaning I was able to sink into Hadley’s mind and Ernest’s love and then feel emotional heartbreak as their marriage fell apart. The dialogue for the time period is authentic; quick, sharp, witty and sassy. We are very much inside Hadley’s mind and our emotional connection with her is strong, we feel her passions and pains, her desires and needs. We support her entirely. But I also grew sick of her simpering passiveness, waiting for something to happen as she struggles to find her role in Ernest’s life. Upon discovering this annoyance half-way through the novel, I was pulled out of it entirely. It made me question how much of what I was reading was  actually fact. Was this really how Hem’s first wife felt? Was he really this big of an ass?

Beneath my questions of the authenticity of Hadley is Ernest himself, and his pain and waywardness is what drives the story, as it drove their life together. As much as I grew to dislike him, and even Hadley at times, their story is tragically beautiful; so even though there were moments when I felt a lackluster performance from McLain’s writing, the story of these two lovers carried me through to the end, like a good love story should.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy Hadley’s story, but Hemingway fans will bypass The Paris Wife in favor of his memoir, which I plan to read now that I know a bit more about the tragedy and triumph of this man, and his wife.

3 stars

(I received an advance copy for review)

Review: The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

But if you think you can manage to sleep tonight, then sleep on this: Is the mystery sometimes more pleasurable than the solution?
The Sherlockian – Graham Moore

Graham Moore’s debut novel has all the ingredients to be a delicious mystery. it opens with Arthur Conan Doyle and his dear friend Bram Stoker as Arthur debates the pros and cons of killing off his famed character, Sherlock Holmes. Filled with a bitter hatred for his character because all of London believes Holmes to be real, and Arthur to be his literary agent, he sets about to destroy Sherlock and falls into a real life Holmes mystery along the way when murdered young women start appearing across his path.

In the present, newly inducted Sherlockian Harold White celebrates his membership into the exclusive Holmes fan club, the Baker Street Irregulars. On the morning of the most important Irregular meeting in history, the presentation of the missing diary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Harold is pulled into his own Sherlock novel when the man who found the diary is murdered and the diary goes missing.

Alternating between these two mysteries, The Sherlockian flows along quite nicely in the beginning. The plots are intriguing and, like a good mystery, keep you turning the page. But about a third of the way in a shift in the writing can be felt, a twist in the flow. No longer was I reading a mystery whose words carried the story. Suddenly I could feel the presence of the author, his hand in the way things were turning out, his decisions in making a clue appear here or there. It caused me to step back from the book and view it as a piece of the author’s work, not a natural thing of its own.

I know a good book because the writing works for itself, the characters carry me along, not the author. When I can sense an author at work, I am removed and the book feels clumsy and even contrived. Sadly, The Sherlockian became that for me. The writing was still decent, but Harold became an annoying, weak character instead of a charming Holmes enthusiast, and Arthur Conan Doyle became a silly, bumbling detective instead of the writer of great mysteries.

Overall I became underwhelmed by The Sherlockian about half-way through. I persisted out of curiosity to see how Moore would solve the mystery of the diary, but in hindsight, I’ve already forgotten what kept me turning the page, and I only finished reading last night.

3 stars

(I received an advance copy from the publisher for review)

Review: The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Seledreorig…. The word came into my head like a whisper.
Sadness for the lack of a hall.
The Distant Hours – Kate Morton

This is the first book by Kate Morton that I’ve had the pleasure of reading, and I wasn’t disappointed. A thick literary mystery with layers of intrigue and clues to be discovered.

Edie Burchill, a present day publisher, stumbles across a decades old mystery surrounding the decrepit and ancient Milderhurst Castle in the English countryside. Little does she know that the aged Blythe sisters who live there, twins Percey and Saffy, and their younger sister Juniper, are each hiding secrets from themselves and the village. When Edie discovers that her own mother spent some time at Milderhurst during the evacuation of children from London in World War II, she’s bound by a sense of duty as well as her own curiosity to visit Milderhurst and learn more about the women who live there, and their father who wrote a famous children’s story which Edie herself once adored.

The Distant Hours is a good mystery, page after page pulls you in, and Morton deftly layers plot on plot, tying all the strings together at the end. There’s more to the scene than just Milderhurst and the women who live there. There’s the mystery of the two wives of their father, and how they each died. What happened to the man who was supposed to visit Juniper? Why won’t Edie’s mother talk about her time at the castle? Morton is a master at the multi-plot book. She leaves no loose ends.

At times the plot lines did become predictable and plodding, however I still found myself pushing onward enjoying the heft and length of the book in hand. A satisfactory read, enjoyable; charmingly odd, like the Blythe sisters and their secrets.

4 starts

(I received and advance copy for review)

Review: The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer

“You live your life with the hope of becoming someone’s memory,” Herr Pick says with a snickering sullenness. “Then it turns out you will have to keep theirs.”
The Marriage Artist – Andrew Winer

The narrative of Andrew Winer’s The Marriage Artist is akin to two train tracks heading toward each other and meeting at a final destination. Imagine watching these trains from the sky, see them converge, but sit back and enjoy the view. Look at the landscape, watch the passing trees, and eavesdrop on fellow travelers’ conversations and stories which only make sense once both trains have pulled into the station.

Track one is the story of art critic Daniel Lichtmann, whose wife Aleksandra plunged to her death alongside Benjamin Wind, one of Daniel’s favorite artists. Whether his wife and the artist were lovers is unknown. What she was doing on the roof of his building, and whether the two jumped to their deaths by choice or force, also remains a mystery. Daniel searches for answers and receives unexpected information in the form of an elderly wheelchair-bound man who attends both funerals.

Track two starts in 1928 Vienna when young Josef Pick discovers his artistic talent and trains with his grandfather to paint Jewish marriage contracts called ketubah. This track follows young Josef through his teenage and early adult years, during the tumultuous start of World War II and the purging of Jewish citizens from Vienna, until it meets with Daniel Lichtmann’s story in the present day.

At times both sweeping and engaging, here is an author who knows his tools and how to use them. Winer’s prose ranges from lilting and poetic to stream-of-consciousness. Emotional and poignant, The Marriage Artist is a vast and tremendous dramatic novel of history and heartache. Of the bonds that bring people together and the devices that tear us apart.

Not knowing where the plot is taking us, the reader has no choice but to read onward, trusting in the author to reveal his secrets. And reveal he does. Winer selectively shares bits of historical ingredients to define the puzzle of present day, piecing each corner edge to its partner. Only when the whole puzzle is complete can we truly see and appreciate the splendor of the picture. Beautifully wrought and imagined, The Marriage Artist is remarkably unlike anything I’ve read in quite some time.

5 stars

(I received an advance copy from the publisher)

Review: Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

I’ve always enjoyed novels set in Russia. Something about the tragic mystery of the Romanov’s, the colorful spiraling St. Basil Cathedral towers, and the romance of softly falling snow and fur muffs. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay is all those beautiful sensations rolled into one, with the fabulous addition of ballerinas and antique jewels.

Alternating between present day Boston and 1950s Russia, Russian Winter is the story of once famous ballerina, Nina Revskaya, and the trials she endured while a young woman in a cold country who wants nothing more than to dance. Now old and alone, Nina has decided to auction off her famous jewels to benefit the Boston Ballet Foundation. The provenance of a particular set of amber jewelry, and the mysterious donator who contributes a matching amber necklace, set the scene for a literary mystery going back to the turmoil of Stalinist Russia, a time of intense speculation and fear.

Daphne Kalotay submerges the reader in the beauty of the ballet, the mystery of Russia, and the pain and trials of an aging woman with a heartbreaking tale to tell. Nina is cold and distant in her old age, but she wasn’t always that way and Kalotay shows us her younger years by beautifully transitioning back in time. Russian Winter is much like the ballerinas in the story; enigmatic and alluring. Perfect for the coming cool weather, it’s deliciously long and will catch you from the start with a hint of mystery, a hint of romance, and a determined and easily flowing plot.

4 stars

(I received an advance copy for review)

Review: Burning Silk by Destiny Kinal

There is an art to writing a novel; an arc of movement, a thread of thought, an inner fire stoked by imagination and all the writers come before. A writer can be a person who strings words together in an endless river; or a writer can be an artist. Taking paper, ink, and words; creating something otherworldly, something elsewhere. Destiny Kinal’s novel Burning Silk, the first in the Textile Trilogy, is the product of this type of writer.

Set in and around the 1840s, Burning Silk begins the story of the Duladier family. With a rich history of silk spinning to their name, the Duladier’s have a long family tree of maitresses extended down the female line, women who nurture and develop the moth cocon to bring about its silk. Catherine, as the youngest and newest maitresse, takes us from 1839 Grasse France, where she experiences her first painful introduction into the role of a Duladier woman; to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a decade later as wife and mother, to launch the American-based Duladier silk enterprise. She may be on another continent, but Catherine has never escaped the inner torment of her earlier years, and she is forever anguished by the experiences of her youth. Her fear, her pain, sets about a series of events from which the Duladiers may never recover.

To say this novel is about silk spinners in the nineteenth century is a trite understatement. Silk as a fabric is sensual by definition, and though Burning Silk is marketed as ”erotic fiction,” don’t confuse it with an easy paperback romance. It is an epic work of fiction, doused in rich historical language and time, exploring the role of woman as mother, daughter, sister, lover, and self. A complex, multilayered book, Burning Silk tells a story with power and identity, letting the characters develop into themselves. It exposes given certainties and changes them; a child becoming a woman, the first experience of sexuality, confronting ones innermost desires, the voices used to speak to ourselves and others. It is truly unlike any book I’ve ever read.

Look past the editorial distractions of first and third person point of view shifts, for they are not perfectly constructed. Continue past the beginning plot, Catherine’s ordeal is glaring and painful and difficult. Read on because you will be rewarded with a lush and luxurious story, developed and fruitful, deep and melancholically beautiful.

I received this book from Destiny herself, and wasn’t sure how I would feel about the novel when I first started. As a book reviewer, however, I am pledged to objectivity and I was rewarded for persisting past the parts that would normally turn me away. The words, the characters, the immense story, won me over. I could hardly set it aside at the end. Like a true artist, Destiny Kinal amazed me with her raw talent. I eagerly await the next installment of the Duladier’s story in the Textile Trilogy.

5 stars

(I received this book from the author for a fair and objective review)