Heart of the Steal, Avon Gale and Roan Parrish

This is a really cute book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's worth noting, I think, that it's NOT a book about an art thief and an FBI agent who fall in love in spite of their professions; it's mostly about an established relationship that struggles because the two protagonists have different moral compasses. Vaughn isn't an art thief, he's rich, and he's a little spoiled, and he doesn't see why Will, who works for the FBI, doesn't want him to use his clout to get Will everything he's ever wanted. I really like stories about vaguely amoral rich people who want to give their partners everything and destroy their enemies. It just wasn't the story I was expecting.

(Also I think the authors were more interested in one protagonist than the other, which bled through a little bit.)

Grade: C
#57 in 2017

Hello Forever, Sarina Bowen

This is a sweet piece of fluff from Sarina Bowen's back catalog about two guys who met (and kissed) at church camp as teens, then lost touch, and now have reconnected as adults working in the same college town. One is a basketball marketer, and it very much feels like a warm-up version of Him, one of my favorite romance novels ever.

There isn't a ton to this story -- I liked the conflict, because it was rooted in a real reason why one of the heroes couldn't just come out as gay, and why he was a secret virgin. I had a little trouble buying that their names were Cax and Axel, and by the end the drama, and bad guy, had ramped up to a level that wasn't really believable and didn't really make sense. But it was still a sweet story and a fun trope.

Grade: C
#55 in 2017

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book promises classic hollywood gossip (fictionalized) and I recognized some of the people and stories that served as the genesis of some of the anecdotes here. I love classic Hollywood stories. I wish I had liked this more. I didn't like the framing device of the young journalist and her life struggles -- I almost never like a framing device -- and it made it pretty obvious what the twist at the end would be. "Within a week I would hate Evelyn Hugo," says the narrator, so I was looking for a reason, and it was awfully obvious. I did like the reveal of who the true love of Evelyn Hugo's life was, but -- spoilers follow -- I was never really sold on why she and Celia loved each other. They were both pretty rotten people, and the book tells us how much they love each other but doesn't show us why this is a deathless romance. The seven husbands also weren't as juicy and gossipy as I wanted. For a similar story, but juicier and more shocking and enthralling to read, AND non-fiction, read Furious Love about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Grade: C #54 in 2017

Race of Scorpions, Dorothy Dunnett

Gotta say, I did not love this book, and that's unusual for me and Dunnett. She remains my all-time favorite author, but on the whole I'm finding the House of Niccolo books to be really strange when it comes to sex. Every sex scene, or love interest, is completely transactional, and it's a little bit uncomfortable.

Spoilers follow -- I find it really disappointing that Katelina's entire story arc was about Nicholas, whether she wanted desperately to sleep with him, wanted desperately to kill him, or wanted desperately to sleep with him again. She lived her entire life (in these books) revolving around him, which I'm not sure he deserved. And then there's Primaflora, who of course is a high class prostitute, and who of course turns out to be evil and manipulative. Or there is David (in Trebizond) and Jacob (in Cyprus), both of whom want to sleep with Nicholas, and the books treat both of them like monsters for it. It's just uncomfortable to read, and I'm frankly uncomfortable with how often Nicholas sleeps with ladies who then die, or how much his "quest" is driven by needing revenge or sexual relief after yet another lady he slept with dies. It's very Christopher Nolan, and I don't like him, either. 


The plot of this book should have been right up my alley with the plotting and the betrayal and the sieges. But halfway through the book stops to be about how the sugar business runs again, and it's boring. I don't care about Nicholas's trade dealings, or playing the Genoese against the Venetians against the Portuguese. It's too complicated to be interesting, and it's too pedestrian to be the plot of a sprawling novel like this.

I also think this book is entirely too fond of elliptical conversations that imply vaguely about plotting that's going on, and I'm tired of meaningful exchanges and knowing looks that don't actually tell the reader what's going on. I'm going to take reading break before I try the next book, because Right now, despite the beautiful writing, I am not really enjoying this series.

Grade: C
#53 in 2017

Soho Dead, Greg Keen

This is a perfectly nice noir, if that's your thing. I like my noir mysteries to have something original about them, or really evocative language. This did neither. On the other hand it didn't go down endless rabbit holes where I forgot all the characters, either. If you want a classic noir this is certainly one.

Grade: C

#50 in 2017

An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League #1), Alyssa Cole

This is a great book. I didn't enjoy it as much as I think other people will because a couple of things about it bugged me, but it was truly enjoyable and wonderful to read a book about a topic I never thought would pop up in a romance novel, and to have it be historical and believable. This is the story of Elle, a free Black woman, who has agreed to go undercover as a slave during the Civil War to get information to help the Union and end the war. She meets Malcolm, who is a Pinkerton detective also undercover, on the same kind of mission. Oh, and importantly -- Malcolm is white. 

It's a fascinating story with no easy resolution. Elle is brilliant and beautiful and Malcolm loves her and respects her and treats her like a human being (whenever he can -- really only when they're alone). Elle loves him but she knows all the problems their relationship would face, even in the North. 

I was frustrated that Elle goes back and forth with Malcolm so many times. She has very, very good reasons not to trust him or want to be with him, and once she does, she seems to immediately change her mind, over and over. They also each get a turn being jealous over situations they know mean nothing to the other person. I was also a little frustrated that Malcolm is incredibly perfect from the very beginning. I can definitely see why the hero of this kind of book needs to be a man who is better than almost every other man; it's the only way it's justifiable that Elle will love him when there is so much to go against their union. But I have realized that as a reader, I always prefer selfish scoundrels or lying assholes who are reformed by love, to men who are fundamentally good and true from the beginning. It's just less interesting to me that way.

Grade: C
#46 in 2017

A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourne

I couldn't decide how many stars to give this. It's not actively bad, offensive, or upsetting, but unless you love -- LOVE -- this narrator and her narrative voice, there's nothing in this book. I've read plenty of books about sassy Victorian spinsters and the mysterious dukes and adventures they have, but this also included a weird few chapters of interlude at the circus that go nowhere, and no sex. I just wasn't delighted enough with the main character (or intrigued enough by the mystery), and the mysterious angry-but-sad-inside duke was so cliche.  I read it, and to be honest I'd probably read the sequels if they fell into my lap. But the whole time I was reading it I was like "....sure? Fine? I GUESS????" Grade: C #41 in 2017

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere), Lisa Cron

I think that ridiculous title is pretty indicative of how I felt about this book. There is good, solid advice in here, and a lot of the writing advice is very helpful. I've been plotting out a novel (because I can't watch the news or I'll lose my mind) and this was a good way to organize it and think about it. But the tone of the book was nails on a chalkboard for me. Other people may enjoy it. It's certainly upbeat and supportive. But it also felt like a manic pixie dream girl was trying to explain to me how how dreams are made, and I didn't find a lot of the sample writing sections very helpful. I didn't need most of the beginning to tell me that human brains like stories or why. I ended up skimming a lot of the end, rolling my eyes and sighing loudly.

Grade: usefulness is a B, tone is a D, let's even it out at a C
#40 in 2017

Dangerous Ground (#1-6), Josh Lanyon

These books are aggressively fine. I couldn't keep straight which of the two heroes was which, except one of them kept getting shot and nearly murdered and the other one was mad about it. And one of them went to France and the other was mad about it. I liked them -- I mean, I read all six. But I would be lying if I said I remembered the plots very well. There's a pregnant woman they arrest, there's a bomb in catacombs in Paris, there's a bottle of alcohol with a snake in it... Anyway, I liked them, but they're all super short, and none of them really stuck with me.

Grade: Eh. B to C depending on the book.
#28-33 in 2017

The Road to Silver Plume, Tamara Allen

I was super excited about another government official and con man romance. It's one of my favorite tropes. But the book ended up being mostly about the history of the silver standard in America and why it was important to some people to keep silver circulating, while others didn't want it. Way more history and discussion of monetary policy than romance. It's strange, because usually I wish romance novels had more plot, but this one needed more romance and less history.

Grade: C
#27 in 2017

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

This book is lovely, and wonderful for really feeeling like you're living through the changing history in Russia after the Revolution. For me, though, its light and lovely tone got tiresome after a while, and I wish it had been about 2/3 as long as it was. Grade: C #27 in 2017

Baked Fresh (Portland Heat #2), Annabeth Albert

I can read each of these books in about an hour, which isn't a complaint, but I'm not sure it's a compliment either. This is a cute book, but Vic and Robin are both so messed up, and the book needed to be about twice as long to deal with them. Vic's cousin and both recently died of heart attacks, so he got gastric bypass surgery and hasn't been with anyone since losing weight. He feels unlovable and awkward in his own body. Robin was out on the streets for a while after his family didn't take him coming out well, and he can't enjoy sex since it brings up bad memories of what he had to do to survive. They meet while both volunteering at a shelter, and when one of the kids overdoses, Robin takes it really personally. The book is a light and fluffy romance that really only hints at them dealing with all of these layers and layers of trauma and sadness.

Oh, and Robin says he doesn't want a boyfriend, which Vic takes as a challenge to try and get him to be his boyfriend, which is kind of weird to me.

Grade: C
#11 in 2017

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

I was psyched to read this book, and so disappointed by the end. Maybe if I had realized it was a book that didn't have a plot I'd have looked at it differently from the beginning, but the first chapter teases a tense space escape story about a mysterious woman who has changed her identity and fled to the far reaches of space, and then the book is.... just a picaresque series of scenes on various planets, learning about various alien species and cultures. And that's it.

I just... I needed something to happen, or for actions to have some consequences, or for the exposition to stop. It reminded me a lot of reading Rosemary and Rue, where every chapter seemed to introduce a new type of faerie. Every couple of chapters goes deep into some alien civilization, all the way to the end of the book. But unless it's setting up a bigger plot, I find myself skimming and uninterested.

And there was no larger plot or conflict. They land on a planet; they meet people; they leave. Any time there's something that seems like it might be bad or tense, it's immediately resolved. They land on a planet that has periodic swarms of giant bugs; they are all safely inside when it happens. One of their crew is arrested for being a clone; they find a legal loophole to save him. A ship full of land mines docks up with them; they find the mines and diffuse them. And this all happens quickly, just like that.

It's not the book's fault that I also happen to really dislike the archetype of the wacky, adorable female engineer who's so CRAZY and ADORABLE and scatter-brained, but it drives me nuts, and I don't find it charming.

For space adventures that are exciting, feature lots of weird aliens, are creepily atmospheric, and compulsively readable, I HIGHLY recommend the Paradox books by Rachel Bach. Read that, not this.

Grade: C
#10 in 2017

Served Hot (Portland Heat #1)

Books from 1st person POV aren't always my favorite. This book felt very short and very light; Robby is an adorable guy who serves coffee from a cart, and his favorite customer, David, is his big crush. David has a pretty traumatic backstory, where his long-time partner never acknowledged him or wanted to come out, and then died, which is how everyone in his small town found out. So David doesn't really know how to be in a relationship, and Robby is willing to wait, but they never talk about it, which makes them both feel bad, and then they work it out and it's fine. The book needed to be way longer or deal with the issues it raised more, or something.

Grade: C
#9 in 2017

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley

I liked so much of this book so much. I loved the setting and the writing and Thaniel and Mori, and I loved the vaguely steampunk sci-fi premise (which I won't spoil). Until about 80% in I thought this was going to be one of my favorite books of the year, maybe ever, rivaling my love of Cloud Atlas. (Big portions of this read like a much more accessible Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.) It's wonderful.

But god I hated that the only major female character a) hates other women for not being as smart and scientific as she is and b) mainly exists to try and ruin the men's lives and be wrong about things. It's an old plot trope, the jealous woman trying to destroy the romance, and it really spoiled the book for me. I can't recommend a book where the only woman is a plot device and a monster.

Grade: C
#4 in 2017

The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer, Skip Hollandsworth

This book is fine, but it reads like it wants badly to be The Devil in the White City. It's never gripping enough, the murders are never horrifying enough, and the fact that no one was ever caught or even really suspected leads the author to speculate wildly with no conclusions. The writing is a little bit weak. The sheriff realizes his deputy is "about as deep as one of those tacks on the board," -- no, he didn't. It's not as bad as the thing I hate most in historical non-fiction; made up conversations between characters. But man, it's not great, either. The author wants so badly for this to be fascinating and keeps dragging Jack the Ripper into the story for comparison (he was only a couple of years later) but frankly, I wasn't convinced by the evidence presented that the "Midnight Assassin" killings were all done by the same person, let alone by a serial killer, and certainly not by Jack the Ripper. Just go read The Devil in the White City (and then try to sleep, ever again). Grade: C #3 in 2017

The Summer Palace, C.S. Pacat

This was... not what I was hoping for. The Captive Prince series ends abruptly, with lots of loose ends; I was hoping for a happy, loving coda where they do at least a little bit of explaining how the hell they plan to change the culture of both countries they rule and combine their rule and there is almost none of that. And the dynamic between Damen and Laurent, the very best part of the series (which occasionally makes no sense, but I let it go because Damen! and Laurent!! are in love!!) doesn't feel right. Laurent is too toothless, too sweet and syrupy and tenderly helpless, Damen enjoys Laurent being sweet too much. The whole series is based around the idea that Damen loves Laurent for his sharp angles, his ruthless plotting, his cunning brain. Giving us an epilogue where Laurent is none of those things and Damen thinks it's really sexy is weird for both of them. Gotta be honest -- there's post-series fic I think is much better.

Grade: C
#2 in 2017

Night Witch (Rivers of London graphic novel), Ben Aaronovitch

I'm giving this a C, because it was confusing, but take that with a grain of salt; I am notoriously bad at understanding visual media. I honestly reread a bunch of pages over and over because I wasn't sure which Russian was doing what. There's a lot of double-crossing and Russian here, and not much magic. I liked the parts with Molly, and Peter, and Beverly, but the rest of it was a little muddled to me.

Grade: C
#95 in 2016

If Death Ever Slept, Rex Stout

I swear this book is a repeat of an earlier book in the series, but then again, WHO KNOWS. This is the 29th Nero Wolfe book, and a lot of those are three-story collections, so I've lost track. Anyway, I'd swear there's another book where Wolfe and Archie are in a shitty mood (this time it's over Lily Rowan, my favorite socialite) and so someone comes in with an absurd job and they both sort of dare each other into taking it, and Archie ends up going undercover to pose as someone's secretary to collect information. I think the other one was in Westchester, though (it's the book where Archie gets roofied), and this one is set in a duplex on Fifth Avenue.

I liked this one; there's lots of sassy dialogue, lots of Archie flirting and going to the Flamingo Club and being a pain to the police, and lots of suspects. On the other hand, it felt like a retread of an earlier book, and when the murderer was revealed it was pretty ".... eh. Okay, sure. Fine. Why?"

Grade: C
#76 in 2016

The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel, Melanie Benjamin

I really liked this book, until I got to the end, and then I spent a few days struggling with why I was so disappointed. This book is a wonderfully written, juicy romp through the New York City of the post-war years, featuring Truman Capote and all the incredibly rich socialites he made his social circle. In particular, Babe Paley (wife of Bill Paley, head of CBS, whom I recognized from the Paley Center name). There is a lot of great gossip, a lot of scandal, some betrayal, some dark secrets, and the inevitable moment (foreshadowed in the opening) when Truman turns all of this into a book, and his "swans" turn on him.

I really struggled to articulate why I was frustrated that at the end, the author discusses how, while the events are real, all the conversations are fictional. I love historical fiction; my favorite author, Dorothy Dunnett, fictionalizes all the people in the Lymond Chronicles and makes up conversations between them, and I don't feel let down like this. I thought for a while it was because of the weirdness of making up thoughts and feelings for people who were alive in the 70s, but I don't think that's it, either.

I think my frustration with the book comes from the fact that while the events are real (the black and white ball, Babe's will, Ann's death) those aren't the plot of the book. The imagined conversations between Babe and Truman, their emotional connection, their trust in each other, are the main plot of the book, and that's the part that's made up. Everything that makes the characters interesting, unless you have a previous interest in Truman Capote (and I realized that David Sedaris was narrating his parts in my head), is made up. I'm sure it's well-researched, but I came out of it wishing it had just been a non-fiction book. Yes, it's my fault for missing "a novel" in the title. But I would much rather read a super juicy non-fiction version of this story without all the imagined deep dark secrets.

Grade: C
#72 in 2016