Title: Midsummer Night's Steam: Temperature's Rising
Author: Ally Blue/Jade Buchanan/K. A. Mitchell
Genre: Gay romance/erotica
Synopsis: Anthology of three male/male romance stories.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Midsummer Night's Steam: Temperature's Rising )

Title: Serving Love
Author: Annmarie McKenna/Mary Winter/K A Mitchell
Genre: Gay romance/erotica.
Synopsis: Three short stories involving male/male relationships.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Serving Love )

Title: Sebastion
Author: Anne Bishop
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Synopsis: The land of Ephemera is threatened by the Eater of the World. Sebastian, a lonely-in-his-heart half demon, and his cousins Glorianna - and to a lesser degree Lee - must save Ephemera.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Sebastian )

Title: Shadow of the Queen
Author: Anne Bishop
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Synopsis: The Seventh in the Black Jewel trilogy, this book deals with, for the most part, new characters. It’s hard to summarize without going into any of the six previous novels; needless to say, I really wouldn’t recommend starting the series with this one. I’m not a fantasy freak, and normally don’t stick around fantasy for seven novels, but I am eagerly awaiting the eighth which will be a sequel to this novel.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Shadow of the Queen )

Title: Pay the Piper
Author: Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
Genre: Teen/fantasy
Synopsis: The Pied Piper is real - and he leads a rock band in modern day America. Sweet, right? Well, sweet until you realize he's an exiled fairy prince who has to keep giving the fairy world children so he can keep up payment on the curse that’s been put on him for killing his brother.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Pay the Piper )

Title: Rumblefish
Author: S.E Hinton
Genre: Teens/fiction
Synopsis: Another of Hinton’s teen characters lives in the bad part of the neighborhood and has to deal with urban issues. (Just like in her more well known The Outsiders.) That having been said, it’s slightly different problems and the same amazing writing - I just kind of wish she’d pick up another subject matter, or I could easily typecast her as the ‘poor boys living in the hood’ writer. And I’d hate to do that.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Rumblefish )

Title: The Book of the Unknown
Author: Jonathan Keats
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: A modern retelling of the Lamedh-Vov, which is a Jewish belief that there are thirty-six anonymous people who are pure and righteous; these thirty-six justify humanity's existence, and they must remain unaware of who they are. If one dies, or becomes aware of who they are, another takes their place. The theory behind the anonymity is that everyone must strive to live be that pure and righteous just in case they are one of the Lamedh-Vov and by acting incorrectly, they put the world and humanity at risk.

The Book of the Unknown turns this concept on his head perfectly. Liars, thieves, murderers and whores are a few of the Lamedh-Vov who Keat’s has called upon to fuel these gritty anti-fairy tales.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( The Book of the Unknown )

I'm sick, so review dump since I've written them all today.

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Young adult/fantasy
Premise: A young boy whose parents are killed is raised by ghosts in the nearby graveyard.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( The Graveyard Book )

Title: Untamed Heart
Author: Ally Blue
Genre: Gay Erotica
Synopsis: Leon's sent to a remote 'rehab house' in Alaska. The clincher is that he's sent by his employer's - only known as the organization - after Leon has a minor breakdown. Understandable since he finds his lover slaughtered, takes vengeance and finds that it only leaves him emptier. His subsequent alcoholism is the reason for his unwanted leave of absence.

Attacked by a bear, Leon is saved by a young man named Grim. As Grim cares for him, the hardened Leon senses something wrong - and becomes determined to figure out what. During this time, he also find that he comes to care for Grim.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Untamed Heart )

A list of Books I don't recommend, and brief descriptions of why not. All books that I've read in '09.

( Not Recommended/'09 )

This is the list of books I've read this year. I'll strike them out if I've reviewed them, or added them to the list of books that I don't recommend this year. I'll just keep track here.

( Books in '09 )

Title: Mr. Monk Goes to Outer Space
Author: Lee Goldberg
Genre: Mystery/media tie-in
Synopsis: Adrian Monk and his assistant, Natalie Teeger investigate three deaths - all of which seem unrelated. Brandon Lorber is the CEO of Burgerville until he's killed in his office, Conrad Stipe is the creator of Beyond Earth - a show that's eerily similar to Star Trek, and the death of a cabbie named Phil Bisson.

Ambrose, Adrian's brother, is a fanatic Beyond Earth fan, so much so that he's written books on the show, including one that informs one how to speak Dratch mirroring the real life Klingon dictionary. While he takes Adrian in (his carpet is being replaced due to an almost microscopic coffee stain), Ambrose insists on helping investigate Stipe's death.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Mr. Monk Goes to Outer Space )

Not my usual genre - paranormal romance. Honestly, I only bought this one because a friend who is also a writer suggested it, and right after, they had a special on amazon - one dollar download to get you into the series, and boy, did it work. (I bought the other two that are out so far in paperback since the mass markets are, ironically, less expensive with my Barnes and Noble employee discount than the regular priced amazon e-books are.)

Highly recommended.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( Pleasure Unbound )

Enterprise: By the Book by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch


An easy read, but very worthwhile.

Warning - the review under the cut may contain spoilers.

( By the Book )

The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes

The Domino Men is a good old English-humor/Lovecraftian sci-fi/mystery mix. Sounds weird? It is. And brilliant. I couldn't put this one down; it's got a very British sense of humor, as well as being incredibly easy to read.

Highly recommended. And despite having a Lovecraftian bent, it's not horror-y, at least not in a way that would put off most readers. The hero is, well, normal. Bumbling at times. Completely in love with a woman who doesn't give him a second look. He's very endearing, actually. Just normal enough to feel like you really connect with him, you really feel him, but not so sad that he's truly pathetic - and sometimes that's a fine line to walk. Given his dead-end job, and his unrequited love, he redeems himself by taking action into his own hands later on, which saves him from being a complete loser.

Usually I'm not crazy about anything with mystery components; this had enough of the other genres going on to keep me interested. And other than the amazing writing, I think the brilliance of this novel is that is has enough genres to keep most readers not only interested but delighted. While this mish-mash could be overwhelming, there really only are hints of everything. I do think that science fiction/horror readers are more likely to pick this up - and possibly more likely to love this as much as I do.

And it's not only the main character who is multi-layered. All the characters are as complex as the mix of genres that are used in this novel. I read an advanced reader copy that I passed on to a friend, but am going to replace it at some point.

Let the Right One In, John Avidje Lindqvist.

Let the Right One In is a contemporary Swedish vampire novel; the author is amazing, and the translator is just as talented. I’ve seen references to this as an adult Twilight as far as the development between the two main characters go, although this is not suitable for children. As for teens - well, the parents will have to decide. I want to make it clear that it’s violence, not sex that makes this scream ‘wary around teens, no children, please’. This is, in my opinion, a must read for horror fans; only one out of the three friends and co-workers I’ve suggested this book to have not loved it. (And two out of three ain‘t bad.)

I had to force myself to read the prologue and a couple pages past, and then suddenly I couldn’t put it down and was fifty pages in.

This is a vampire love story; the human is twelve, and the vampire says they have been, “twelve for a very long time.” Oskar is bullied, unhappy, a boy who finds happiness in chocolate and clipping out newspaper articles about killers for his scrapbook.

Things change when a girl moves in next door to him, although not right away.

Spoilers in the longer review.

( Let the Right One In )

Wolverine Weapon X by Marc Ceranisi

I'm not going to do a detailed review of this book. It was a light book, a fun read, but nothing intellectual - so it gets the short stick. Still, for a media-based novel, this one was fun. And it fleshed out Wolvie's origins, giving the characters in the Weapon X graphic novel more of a voice.

Worth reading once; wouldn't pick it up as a reread, however.

I finished up some of the oils this morning. *must focus on something that dries quickly for the rest of the afternoon, evening.* Probably after a nap. My stomach's been hurting after I eat, which is possibly an ulcer. But if I don't eat, I get hungry.

Also, room=cold because I aired it out 'cause of the oils. -_- If this ever gets popular enough, and I get requests, I may do some icons of my art, too. Maybe I will for myself, but right now, I'm focusing on a CD of my best stuff to send to galleries.

2 1/2x3 1/2, watercolor and ink on 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper.

( 11-23-2008 )

Just a couple updates. I've done a lot of oils today, although they won't be dry for a while, heh. I'm going to focus on conte crayons tomorrow, most likely. Also, I tried doing these smaller, but quite frankly, like them bigger. So, pretty much behind LJ cuts. I like the first ones up front, and will most likely do my first of the months not under a cut.

I also figure that if I post about my updates here, it will focus me, make me try to do something each day. Cause I'd feel like a slacker if for a week, I went, eh, shrugs, didn't do anything.


( 11-22-2008 )

~Shoshana