Teaser Tuesdays: Blameless by Gail Carriger

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers:

Mr Lange-Wilsdorf apparently did not notice the racket. Alexia resigned herself to the fact that it was the creature's normal mode of operation - when its eyes were open, so, too, was its mouth. - pg 152 of Blameless by Gail Carriger

(Note: This is the third in a series. The first is Soulless.)

Cover Her Face by PD James - RIP V Review I

My very first RIP V challenge review! Woot!

This novel is not what I generally read. I'm a fantasy/scifi girl to the core. Back cover description:

Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill.

 I am a sucker for Masterpiece Mystery!, the BBC show that comes on every Sunday on the educational television channel. As I was reading this, I was reminded of those little stories I watch every week and tried to imagine what it would be like acted out. When I later discussed the book with my parents (who both love PD James), I realized that my gripes really don't have anything to do with the book itself, but rather mostly the genre. I'm just not a mystery reader. I like watching them, I even like listening to them on podcast or CD, but I'm just not crazy about reading them.

I got a bit lost in her descriptions sometimes. I noted that sentences could be as long as a paragraph in some places. Along the same lines, I felt like there was a lot of extraneous information. I would have thought that the story would follow Dalgliesh closer, but he doesn't even show up until the middle of the book (understandable) and even then there are some scenes that he is not even present in which seemed unimportant anyway (less understandable). I will say that the characters were diverse and well fleshed-out. I could picture these people, and their mannerisms were consistent and varied.

All in all, I struggled with this book a bit, and was glad it was only 250 pages. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd gotten it on tape/CD/podcast. It wasn't a bad book, just not my taste. I will still try Death in Holy Orders by PD James, but it probably won't be the next book I read.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Try
More? 1 of 14 about Adam Dalgliesh

Content

Plot: 3 / 5 (solid, but not exciting)
Setting: 2 / 5 

Characters: 3.5 / 5

Style 
Pace: Slow to Middlin' 
Descriptiveness: Poetry 
Fantasy factor: Not fantasy

Amazon.com Link

Book Blog Hop

Question: Do you judge a book by its cover?

Answer: Absolutely. That doesn't mean I'll put down a not-so-attractively covered book, but the cover and title are what attracts me to it in the first place. A lot of times the cover tells you a lot about what is actually in the book. I always put covers with my book reviews for that reason :)

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril V Challenge

So I think I may take part in my very first reading challenge. I heard about the Readers Imbibing Peril (V) Challenge from That's What She Read, and it's hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.

"It is time to celebrate things that go bump in the night; that favorite detective that always gets his man, or woman, in the end; that delicious chill of a creak on the stairs, of the rogue waiting in the dark, of the full moon and the flit of bats wings."

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

I just got done wandering around the house trying to find some mystery/horror/scary books, and I've got quite the pile. Basically, you pick scary books (scary is subjective) and read them between September 1 and October 31. There are several different levels, from 1 book to 4, and then a category for short story readers and scary movie buffs as well.

I think I will be shooting for the highest level, since I've got a fairly extensive list of books that I can read. I don't imagine I'll get through all of them, but I certainly have choices.

1. Cover Her Face by PD James (review)
   
2. Bitten by Kelly Armstrong
3. Death in Holy Orders by PD James
4. Changeless by Gail Carriger (review)
   
5. Blameless by Gail Carriger (review)
6. The Darkness That Comes Before by R Scott Bakker
7. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
8. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
9. The Red Tree by Caitlin R Kiernan (review)
10. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (review)

The best part about all of these is they are all books I own! I've been saying that I wanted to make a dent in all the books I've bought and haven't read yet but this time I might actually do it. Here's a link to the challenge page where you can post your link and reading list if you want.

What books are on your list?

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

I have to say, I just love Sarah Addison Allen's books. I think it's safe to say I'm a fan now. I will be picking up her latest book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon and then The Peach Keeper which is going to be released March 22, 2011. But first thing's first, my review of Garden Spells. This is part of the book flap description:

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.…

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

As I mentioned in my review of The Sugar Queen, I picked this up in the Barnes and Noble online bargain bin. It caught my eye because of the cover, and then I kept researching it because it was a southern fiction novel. Sarah Addison Allen has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and one that I'd actually keep track of new book releases.

I love the way she writes her characters. Sometimes I can't picture a character, can't fathom their motivation. Her characters are diverse and fleshed out. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for the abilities she gives them too. In this one, passion causes one character's skin to burn things she touches. In one family, the women are amazing at sex and never have trouble holding onto a man. An older lady is seized with a compulsion to give people items that they always end up needing later. A hairstylist can cut hair to give people confidence and other qualities. It's truly amazing and original. As a chronic fantasy reader, it is very rare that I find any kind of original magic.

I don't really have anything negative to say about this book except I didn't enjoy the story in this one as much as I enjoyed The Sugar Queen. I really couldn't tell you why. I don't think I could relate to the characters as much, and the author really honed her style in The Sugar Queen. Other than that it was very enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to tackling the next two.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5 

Buy or Try? Buy
More? Stand-alone

Content

Plot: 3.5 / 5
Setting: 4.5 / 5 

Characters: 4 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin' to Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link