I saw the book cover on the left, for Words Get in the Way by Nan Rossiter, and it immediately made me think of this book cover, for Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. I guess that rainboots aren’t the most unique things ever, but still, you’d think that, only four years after Belong to Me was such a successful novel, the marketing people behind Rossiter’s book would have gone for something else. Unless they’re trying to draw a parallel without being too obvious? The descriptions don’t sound similar, so maybe not? Still, a curious choice of cover art.
Familiar book covers
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I recently read two contemporary romance novels in which the main dudes (must I really call them “heroes”?) were recently released prisoners. Innnteresting. America has a huge prison epidemic on our hands, and yet I don’t really see this reflected in what I read.
Of course, neither of the guys in these books did anything really awful. In fact, one hadn’t done the thing for which he’d been imprisoned. How noble. The other guy was undoubtedly guilty, but his crime was too stupid to take seriously (he DOS-ed Twitter). I’d never really had occasion to think about what it would be like to date/marry somebody with a prison record. That’s something that must be disclosed on employment applications; you can’t vote for a certain amount of time; you face a certain amount of societal prejudice.
It’s not that I read novels expecting to find realism, but I was fascinated how a genre that is commonly held to be completely frivolous could handle such a sensitive topic in completely different ways.
FYI, the books were Julie James’ A Lot Like Love and Kristan Higgins’ Too Good to be True. Of the two, I preferred the latter, although both books were enjoyable.
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
| Title: | Nightshade | |
|---|---|---|
| Author: | Andrea Cremer | |
| Publication Date: | June 2011 | |
| Publisher's Description | Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she’ll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters’ laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything - including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice? | |
| My rating: | **** | |
Warning, this review is mildly spoileriffic.
This book was certainly an interesting take on werewolves and witches. I wasn’t too sure about this world when I first started reading, but it quickly grew on me. My hesitation was due to the fact that I may have werewolf fatigue (I just finished a review copy of Raven Calls, that review will come out closer to the book’s publication date), and also because the publisher’s description sounds far more insipid than I found this book to be.
There were things about this book that didn’t thrill me. I thought that the Keepers’ rules regarding the purity of female alphas was just to the left of the Taliban’s, and this more than anything helped me get on Team Anybody Else. I’m already against any culture that slut-shames a girl for a kiss but feels that it’s perfectly okay for a boy to sleep his way around the high school. Hey, Keepers, the 50s called, and they want their gender roles back. I also didn’t get why the kids at the school were so afraid of the Guardians. I believe that the explanation provided about how this world works is that the humans did not know what was different about the Guardian kids. Why, then, were they afraid of them? Why were the teachers? What did everybody else think it was that set these people apart? I may reread the early pages of this book and see if I overlooked something.
On a more positive note, I felt that some of the choices the characters in this book made washed away some of the Twilight sludge that has stubbornly stuck to my brain jelly for the last several years. Things that in that series would have necessitated 1) an interspecies altercation or 2) a marriage licence happened here in a nicely understated way. I appreciated how Ms. Cremer gave her characters layers, and even the personalities of the less prominent pack members shone through. My only regret is that my public library’s ebook site is down right now, because I really need to check out the second book in this series!
I’m a joiner
I am going to read at least 12 short stories in 2012. Whee!
Why? Because I joined the 2012 Short Story Challenge! I’m not quite sure why, but things like this (and like handmade item exchanges and knit/crochet alongs) really interest me.
I’ll try to keep up with posting my progress!
Slacker!
Where have I been? Certainly not posting reviews, right?
I learned how to sew, which, honestly, only took up about a month or so of my time. Then I was moping due to the general suckiness of my offline life, but I’m not really a moper by nature, so that didn’t last long, either. I have been reading, but mostly audio books that I play as I knit/crochet. I’ve finished a lot of projects in the last few months.
I did write some reviews of the books that I read during my hiatus, so I’ll get a few from Goodreads and repost them here.