Teaser Tuesdays: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

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!

Elena Michaels seems like the typically strong and sexy modern woman. She lives with her architect boyfriend, writes for a popular newspaper, and works out at the gym. She's also a werewolf. Elena has done all she can to assimilate to the human world, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must reckon with who, and what, she is.




My Teasers: "If you decide to leave, have Clay drive you to Syracuse."

"Yeah right," I said. "I'd be more likely to get to the airport by thumbing a ride with the local psychopath."

-Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, pg 49

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

In comparison with the last book I read, this one flew by. It took me less than 48 hours to finish it. I find that I read books that I enjoy pretty quickly, despite whatever school mess is also due. 

Zoe Ardelay receives astonishing and unwelcome news: she has been chosen to become the king’s fifth wife. Forced to go to the royal city, she manages to slip away and hide on the shores of the mighty river.

It’s there that Zoe realizes she is a coru prime ruled by the elemental sign of water. She must return to the palace, not as an unwilling bride for the king, but a woman with power in her own right. But as Zoe unlocks more of the mysteries of her blood — and the secrets of the royal family — she must decide how to use her great power to rise above the deceptions and intrigue of the royal court.

Before Troubled Waters, I had read all of Sharon Shinn's Samaria books and enjoyed them very much. Again, Shinn creates a world that is very original and complex, just as I found Samaria to be. I found the world to be the most enchanting part of this book, actually.

The magical system is based on the 5 elements, although Shinn combined two different ideas of the elements. Generally, one hears about earth, fire, air, water and aether (soul) as the 5 elements, the Classical elements. The Chinese have another system: earth, water, fire, metal, and wood. It seems that the author combined these two...her elements are earth, fire, air, water, and wood. I found that to be somewhat confusing, merely because I have trouble understanding the Chinese system to begin with.

One of my absolute favorite elements was the quasi-religious system in the novel. At the temples, there are barrels full of coins marked with different blessings. When a baby is born, their parent is to ask 3 random people to pull blessings from the barrels. These will be the child's blessings through their life. Zoe's are Beauty, Love, and Power. There is a great side story in the book where a man asks Zoe for help pulling blessings for surprise twin girls. If you are in need of guidance, you pay a tithe and pull some blessings from the barrels that will give you direction. Certain blessings are tied into the different elements, but anyone can have any blessing, regardless of their affinity.

The book reminded me very much of Maria V Snyder's Poison Study. Both writing styles seem similar, and the depth of the novels are about the same. While Shinn's world is very fleshed out, I found the characters to be less so, and the story to be somewhat simplistic. I stop short of calling them all two dimensional because the supporting characters were all very different and the story certainly kept me reading. However, I found I was able to accurately predict how the story would go most of the time. There were twists, but I could identify when they would occur, and make an approximation of what would happen. 

Zoe has a love interest, and I felt that their love for each other was somewhat out of the blue. There was zero development of a relationship besides a lot of arguing. Zoe is a likable heroine, but a very predictable one I'm sorry to say, and I did not find her to be a very realistic character either. The supporting characters were well developed and interesting, but I got very little feel for Zoe other recklessness and impulsivity with absolutely no regret for any of her actions. Somehow, there are never any repercussions either.

The end was terribly abrupt and seemed thrown together. Huge event happens, but it's in the last 50 pages or so of the book. In the last 3 pages, 90% of the loose ends are tied together in a pretty bow. It was just really strange, because the book spends all this time building up, and the ending was just terribly rushed. It was almost like the author was gearing up for a trilogy or series, but then decided not to write the rest and just cram the next book or two into the last few pages.


That said, I really enjoyed this book. I really didn't mind any of the previously mentioned issues as I was reading. I was aware of them, but they did not impede my enjoyment. I had a really hard time putting it down because it was so exciting and entertaining. It was very refreshing to enjoy a book after the debacle of the last two I tried to read. 

Reading back, my analysis seems pretty critical, but I would highly recommend picking this book up. I'm sad there's not more than one book in this world. If you're looking for something deep, insightful or dark and realistic, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fun, light, absorbing read, Troubled Waters is a great place to start.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy (I would read this again for sure)
More? Standalone

Content

Plot: 3 / 5

Setting: 5 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5 (for all the varied characters)

Style 
Pace: Middlin' to Fast 
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Amazon.com link

Angelslayer: The Winnowing War by K Michael Wright

The problem with obscure books is it's next to impossible to find a decent cover image. Nonetheless, I found one. I find the cover to be a little over the top, but I'd never heard of this author before and that doesn't happen very often with fantasy novels.

Set amidst an eerie and distant future, this novel tells the story of Etlantis-the mother city built in the shadows of Mt. Arom-and the possible end of the world. Believing in their right to rule the planet, the people of Etlantis sent ships to hunt the Western Seas. In them were the Nephilim-sons of Angels who had become addicted to human flesh and blood through the curse of Enoch. In the wake of their terror, the earth's human population has neared extinction. Unless the survivors can band together to destroy the monsters that ravaged their home, the end is all but certain. Featuring an imaginative range of characters and concepts, this is a harrowing vision of the line between heaven and earth.

I don't know about you, but I still don't get it the gist of the story from that description. Not to mention in my copy, it's partially covered up by a label. Still, everywhere I turned, it seemed like there was a positive review of Angelslayer, so I gave it a go.

I'm sure you noticed my last review was a full month ago. I've renewed this book 3 times, and I incurred a 20 cent fine. But I was determined not to put two books in the "could not finish" pile in a row...regardless of how slowly it dragged and how very much I wanted to read something else. Needless to say, this will be a short review because I spent way too much time trying to read this book already.


The writing style is very flowery. The scenes are gory. The cruelty and mutilation exhibited by the bad guys is...nauseating. Truly nauseating. And I'm a nurse. There are people who are drawn and quartered (and still alive and talking), nearly decapitated, drained of blood so it can be made into fine wine, stripped of all organs, bones etc and still alive, dead but kept alive by demons for organs...it's a horror book, really. Pure and simple. The story was confusing at best, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out who was fighting for whom and why they were fighting in the first place. I skimmed the last 200 pages or so, at least.


I think people who like Guy Gavriel Kay a lot might like this book. Also, people who like really gory horror or long drawn out battle scenes. I just did not enjoy it.

Bottom Line

(I am trying hard not to get wrapped up in the frustration of it taking so long to read and be objective)

Overall Rating: 1.5 / 5 

Buy or Try? Try
More? 1 / ? It's supposed to be a series. We'll see.

Content

Plot: 1 / 5 (lul whut?)

Setting: 2 / 5 (again, whut?)

Characters: 2 / 5 (Some weren't so bad I suppose.)

Style 
Pace: Slooooow.
Descriptiveness: Poetry
Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Happy Halloween!

I'm sure you can all tell that I am back in hardcore school. I have a test every week and every day is full to the brim with classes/clinical. With that and trying to get things straight for the wedding next year, my reviews have suffered. I am still working on Angelslayer, it's just going slower than anticipated. Much slower.

That's the thing about school. You never really have any free time because there's always something you should be doing. Also hanging over my head, in addition to the tests, is a 20-30 page paper.

The good news is my venue is booked for my wedding, I got through the first clinical and will be done with the serious clinical paperwork this week, and I've gotten all my information together to write that horrid paper.

Today is also the last day of the RIP V Challenge. I met my goal, Peril the First, but I didn't complete my entire list unfortunately. Whenever I have a chance, I plan on visiting more of my fellow participants.

Either way, Happy Halloween, Happy Samhain, Happy All Hallow's Eve. Hope yours is more exciting than mine :)

Teaser Tuesdays: Angelslayer by K Michael Wright

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: When the bolt discharged from the tip of Uriel's blade, it was like a sky storm rippling over the waters; it spread outward, separating into lightning-like serpents searching in a dozen or more directions, all at once, simultaneously, they struck every target. heads exploded with whips and pops, some with cracks of thunder, explosions blew sprays of sea and blood into the air.

-Angelslayer: The Winnowing War by K Michael Wright, pg 316

I couldn't find a big enough cover image, but if you look at my sidebar, there is a librarything widget which has this book on it.