March 4, 2012

Born of Ice – League Novel #3

Filed under: Science Fiction — Tags: , , , , — susan @ 10:25 pm

Born of Ice – Sherrilyn Kenyon
This book drives me crazy, because I love Sherrilyn Kenyon.
I liked the previous League Novels, and I wanted to like this book.
But it just wasn’t a good read.

The plot and characters were there, but the writing was horrible and the story read like a cartoon.
As I struggled to finish it, the story got a bit better towards the end, but I would not recommend this book to anyone. Even as a “light read” or “pool-side romance” that basically just need to be sexy and fun, this book was still lacking.
I had to double-check that this was not a YA juvenile book, because the writing was so horrible and simplistic.

(more…)

February 19, 2009

Pride and Prejudice…21st Century Style!

Filed under: Book News,Horror,Paranormal Romance,Romance — Tags: , , , , — david @ 1:26 am

There is something strange afoot in the Jane Austen section of your local library. The links below describe two remakes of the classic Pride and Prejudice that utilize more modern characters to spice up the narrative for today’s discerning readers. Specifically, aliens and zombies. That’s right…here come Pride and Predator and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (You think I’m making this up…but look at the link to Amazon!)

Clearly, it must be April Fool’s day and I’m just not aware of it. But these stories are from Australia and the UK (respectively)…and I’m pretty sure they don’t both celebrate April Fool’s day on the same date in February.

Anyway…I was never a big fan of Jane Austen in school. So once I got out of school and was no longer obliged to read her work, I didn’t. However, now that some of the “chick lit-ness” (as my wife would say) has been removed and replaced with both brain eating and bad ass aliens with dreadlocks…I might just have to give ol’ Jane another chance. In fact, the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies claims to have reused about 85% of the story’s original text. Now I know why I never liked her work…it’s not that it’s slow and overly mushy…it’s that it’s missing the 15% about the brain eating zombies!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25025871-5012749,00.html

Pride and Predator: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/17/pride-and-predator-to-give-jane-austen-extreme-makeover

NOTE: There is a book titled Pride and Predator by Sally Wright that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jane Austen or the Predator.

February 10, 2009

Turbulent Sea by Christine Feehan

Filed under: Paranormal Romance,Romance — Tags: , , , , — susan @ 5:20 pm

Book: Turbulent Sea
Author: Christine Feehan.
Blog: Susan Burgett, Book Fiend

I have to start by saying I am a big Christine Feehan fan and have read all her novels and series. After hearing that the latest Drake legacy book had been released, I was very excited to read this book and it jumped to the top of my pile. Maybe because of that I was a little disappointed in this one. Even though it was a good book on its own, it lacked the originality and character of the five previous books on the other Drake sisters. I was surprised there was so little in this book about the other sisters and their magical relationship after so much in the other books. But who can resist a paranormal romance with some action, suspense, magic, and rock n’ roll thrown in.

As a stand alone book, it had a great plot and kept me interested and reading. It was a good romance, with a bit of excitement and action thrown in which is my favorite. You’ve got to love some action and danger to really tie a couple together! The characters were real and had great consistency. I thought it was a very interesting twist that both of the characters have magic and aren’t afraid to use it! The magic is such a part of their personality. It was a great read and very entertaining all the way to the exciting end, with enough to keep me interested and up late at night reading. ;-)

*Spoilers*

Part of my disappointment was that Feehan had built up this relationship with Joley and Ilya in the previous Drake books, so I had very high expectations. There is plenty of magic in this story, but not in the same way as the other Drake books. A huge build up of Ilya and his role and his magic wasn’t really followed through on in the end. It was like this book started in the middle of the story and ended with a few chapters missing. How did Joley discover her magic talents? What kinds of adventures had she had? They talk about the band and their “wild” troubles, but no real examples. What about Ilya and the development of his talents, some stories at least instead of just one picture of a boy under a table.