Love in Books

I have now spent multiple years gushing about Emily Henry’s book-themed romances, Beach Read and Book Lovers. I love books, and I’ve also discovered that I like well-written romances. I mean, sometimes I read schlock, but that’s mostly to scratch an itch, and it often doesn’t leave a mark.

So when one of Thriftbooks’ daily emails was touting a list of book-themed romances, I absolutely had to check it out. And promptly added several of them to my wishlist. Then, some time later, my mom told me that relatives were wondering what non-gift card items they could get me for the holidays. Honestly, these were the books I was expecting to receive, not Fantastic anthologies. Not that I’m complaining. A mix of both is good.

So we’ve got Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Our leads are both authors. He writes the Great American novel, she writes erotica. But this isn’t Beach Read all over again. First and foremost, as the cover indicates, these authors are Black. That’s not to say that this is an exclusively Black story or that it’s Beach Read but Black. Simply that it’s part of the characters’ identities, and that in places dominated by white people, like New York City, they can’t help being aware of it. I compare it to my own experience being Jewish in a predominantly Christian country. I know they’re not the same, but it’s the closest comparison I regularly experience. Anyway, I’m not going to bring up race again unless it’s relevant to plot or character, but I feel it’s important to shine a light on Black literature in general.

Especially because, spoilers, this book is great.

Eva is a single mother with chronic illness struggling to write the next book in her series. She became a bestselling author at nineteen with the first book in what would become her Cursed series. It is paranormal romance erotica, starring a vampire and a witch. And every time they have sex they end up on opposite sides of the planet. Why? Because he’s cursed. Look, I’m sure the details are very important to her dedicated fanbase. They’re irrelevant to the book I read.

Shane is a single guy who is two years sober and in trouble. Because he’s never written a single line sober. So he’s mostly been getting work as a special “famous teacher” for a semester or year here and there. He’s lived all over, tries to mentor troubled kids, etc. And he’s never forgotten Eva.

He originally went to New York to talk to his (and Eva’s) editor CeCe, wanting to get Eva’s contact information so he could talk to her. They meet for the first time in fifteen years when she’s on a panel, he’s in the audience, and is invited to join the group.

And that’s when we learn that the two of them have been writing each other into their books for the past fifteen years.

Of course, nothing’s that simple. They can’t just meet and dive back into what they once had, when they spent Seven Days in June together in 2004. They’re adults, they have baggage, and people in general are messy. But there’s definitely still a spark.

There’s also an aspect of heritage, specifically for Eva. Not necessarily as a Black woman, but as a woman from a family of strong, and strange, women. We see her teenaged relationship with her mother, and we also see how she cleans up tales of that same mother for her own daughter. Not out of embarrassment, but to protect the girl.

Like I said earlier, this was a great book. I found myself caught up in the excitement and swept away into the leads’ lives. I appreciate that it does feel very 2019 (when the book was set, though it came out in 2021) although there was one element I questioned. Frankly, that was when Shane described seeing a couple jogging together while sharing EarPods. The wired headphones Apple would include with all its devices. I’m pretty sure they were already switched over to AirPods by then. I mean sure, the wired ones would’ve been cheaper and most people might still have a pair around, but hey, I’ve been using Apple products for decades and have yet to declare their emails as junk. So it might just be my perception that’s off.

One thing I did want to discuss is Eva’s chronic illness. There’s no name that’s ever given to it – I’m not even sure the doctors ever identified it – but that’s besides the point. We’re told what sort of conditions can aggravate it (precipitation, sugar, alcohol, etc.) and how Eva deals with it on a daily basis. And all of this feels very real and genuine, at least from an outsider’s perspective. I don’t have a chronic illness.

But it did make me think. It seems that chronic illness is a trend in books in recent years. The female lead of Get a Life, Chloe Brown also had chronic illness as I recall. And one of the Psy-Changeling novellas had a woman who didn’t have an illness, but did have a childhood injury that still pained her and caused issues as an adult.

Many of these portrayals feel like people pushing for representation. That is to say “why don’t we see people with chronic illness in mainstream media?” Rather than “you want your diversity to include chronic illness? fine!” The former is people wanting to say “these people exist and they have every right to be shown as full and genuine people.” The latter are those who don’t understand, don’t want to understand, and just want people to shut up and give their money.

I feel like chronic illness as a character trait is easy to abuse and as the general public becomes more aware of it, we will see it used as an archetype; the 2020s version of the kid in the wheelchair. But for now, I think most of the portrayals I’ve seen are genuinely there to help, and not for tokenism.

If you’re looking for a romance about two people who met as messed up kids and are now wondering about reconnecting as mostly-functioning adults, Seven Days in June is a great one to pick up.

Schlock

It’s time for another edition of “you’ll never guess what else I found in Florida” because of course it is. As stated previously, I brought home about thirty books between the used bookstore and holiday presents. And I have no regrets about it whatsoever.

But one of the bookstore acquisitions completed a set. Awkwardly too. Because of course the one book in the original quartet that I hadn’t read was Immortals: The Calling by Jennifer Ashley. The first book of the lot.

Having now read it I can say with authority that if I’d tried to read them in order, I wouldn’t have gotten past the first. And now that I think about it, I wasn’t much a fan of Immortals: The Gathering, the climax of these four, either. It is also by Jennifer Ashley.

So I can safely conclude that I’m just not a fan of Ashley’s writing.

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about the story. Thousands of years ago the Goddess, in a few different pantheon forms, chose to bring Immortal children into the world. Filled with life magic and unable to be killed, they existed to fight demons and vampires, creatures of death magic, and safeguard humans. In all, there were five brothers, each the child of a different goddess and a human.

The Calling’s male lead is Adrian, the eldest brother and son of Isis. His particular weapon is Ferrin, a cobra who transforms into a sword when needed. His special magic is mind control. We’ll come back to that. His goal is to find his youngest brother Tain, who disappeared seven hundred years ago. He feels guilty, that it’s his fault Tain vanished, and has been relentlessly searching for all these centuries.

Our female lead is Amber, a witch who is trying to figure out why a demon killed her sister a month ago. When she goes to the scene of the crime to figure things out, a demon attacks. And Adrian appears out of nowhere and saves her. It’s lust at first sight, of course. Plus Adrian immediately tries to use his mind control first to get her to trust him and then to pump her for information that might lead to Tain.

Yeah, Adrian has no qualms about using mind control on a woman whom he finds attractive. Not even when it comes to getting her to trust him or let him into her bed. It’s okay, he’ll just be Superman at the end and take away her memory of him. I shit you not, this is something he considers, and it’s clearly an option he’s exercised previously.

Fortunately, Amber is resistant to the mind control. But “resistant” is not “immune” and it definitely does affect her against her will multiple times throughout the book. Not to mention that once Adrian decides he likes her, he immediately becomes overly protective and exceedingly possessive of her. I’m sorry, I do not care if you’re an immortal warrior with the body of a literal demigod. There are so many lines being crossed that shouldn’t it’s almost more distracting than the actual plot.

And the plot is…not actually that exciting. The demon attacks, they go back to Amber’s house to regroup and figure out what’s going on. It attacks again, so they go to Adrian’s house for the same. Then they get a lead on what turns out to be a wild goose chase. Adrian is captured, Amber has to rescue him, and then we can get to the actual titular plot: the Calling. The demon’s an Old One and it’ll take all the Immortals to destroy it, so the brothers are necessary. But they’re ancient and magic and haven’t actually spoken to or seen each other in seven hundred years, so there’s only one way to contact them. That would be the spell known as the Calling. It’s the triggering action in the other three books because it’s the first the other three know of the dire need.

Seriously, it’s not actually worth reading this book. If one was curious about the series, I’d say books two and three, The Darkening and The Awakening, are the best written. But the series as whole is schlock with a fantasy coating, paranormal romance that’s much heavier on the romance side to my mind. Which is to say that I don’t find the actual story as engaging as a number of other series I’ve read in recent years.

I hung onto the Immortals books I’d previously acquired, but there’s just no space on my shelves for below average fantasy romance at this point. I will have to do another big purge at some point, but I simply don’t have time to do more than create spaces where I need them.

Ah well. At least I’ve now read the entire quartet. Out of order. Oops?

A Different View

It’s amazing how being social cuts into one’s reading time. And then helping the friend shovel out their car because we got another four inches of snow yesterday left me too tired to finish the book last night even though there was time.

I have been having the hardest time finding books to read because my mind’s been stuck on Psy-Changeling and Hell Bent. Yes, still. Or, just maybe, the books I’ve been reading since haven’t been very good and therefore I keep flashing back to better books. This is a theory that is harder to prove, however, given how difficult it can be to gauge a book’s quality and my Pile is full of anthologies and authors I’m unfamiliar with or generally lukewarm on.

I should probably purge a few more books out of the Pile, but no reason to do so now given that a. I’m going to be adding to it soon and b. I won’t have time to actually sell books for some weeks. So I might as well focus on making space for the new volumes, whatever they may be.

That brings me to Harrowing the Dragon by Patricia McKillip. And if you’ve been reading this blog a while and thought “gee, that sounds like that one short story” you’re absolutely correct. The first story in here, “The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath” was so good in contrast to the rest of The Throme of the Errem of Sherril that I needed a copy. And one that wasn’t in a book so cheaply made it was falling apart in my hands. I turned up this anthology, containing that plus a number of other stories, ordered it, and have been waiting for a good time to read it ever since.

So like I said, this starts with “The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath”. Hoarsbreath is a village on a mountain island where it’s winter twelve of the thirteen months in a year. The adults send their children to the mainland for an education, and only some choose to return. We’ve a study in contrasts here: one who came home and runs a tavern, another who came home determined to harrow the dragon he claims is responsible for the nearly year-round winter. It’s still really good.

After that is “A Matter of Music”. We’ve got a Bard born and raised who is sent off to a distant but important court. And then things get really muddled in a typical McKillip way and it’s not the worst but it’s also not the clearest either.

“A Troll and Two Roses” has some very interesting ideas. Our protagonist is a troll who likes to take pretty things to admire. And when his old treasure has gotten stale, he’s on the lookout for something new. And a rose catches his eye. Of course, there’s a great deal he doesn’t know about the rose, but he’ll soon learn. Still, he’s an oddly innocent creature, and I kind of appreciate that.

Hey we’ve got some Eastern European/Russian mythology with “Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer’s Son”. The great witch is not having a good day; she’s in the Underground and her house is misbehaving. And then…the titular sorcerer’s son falls from the sky. Not the longest or most humorous story, but definitely more comedic than most McKillip tales.

It’s probably inevitable given what’s now twenty years old, but when I see a title like “The Fellowship of the Dragon”, my mind immediately jumps to Lord of the Rings. With a smattering of Smaug because he is the only dragon on film in Middle Earth. Tolkien has very little to do with the story though…outside of the advice that as long as the [remainder] of the Fellowship stays true to each other, they’ll succeed. In the end.

When I turned the page to see the next tale, I grinned. Because I do love “Lady of the Skulls”. This particular printing is my third copy of the story and I’m not at all upset about that. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: good stories are republished. Sometimes quite often. And it’s worth noting that none of my copies of this story are where it was originally published. Plus there’s every reason for it to turn up again in the future.

After that comes “The Snow Queen”, a retelling of the eponymous fairy tale. This one takes place in more modern times and our leads are grown and married. This doesn’t stop Gerda from being innocent and naive, of course. It just means that Kay meets the Snow Queen in a different setting and the story takes slightly different paths. And some weird ones. Why does she like aliens so? This was originally published in one of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s fairy tale anthologies, so this is my second copy.

We follow that up with “Ash, Wood, Fire”. This appears to be a retelling of Cinderella. Our protagonist is a nearly mute kitchen slave whose job is to stoke the fires. The rest of the kitchen staff muses about her…when they think to notice her, which isn’t often. It’s a little weird and disjointed, but that’s not unusual for McKillip.

“The Stranger” is a tale of a remote island through the eyes of a simple weaver. She spots the titular stranger one day, and shortly after the village is attacked, someone’s home and livelihood burned by what might be a dragon of air and fire. Our protagonist knows the two events are related, of course.

“Transmutations” dips into the science of alchemy as practiced by learned men of earlier centuries. We have a professor, only somewhat absent-minded, his apprentice who seems to not have a care in the world, and a young woman who wishes she could apprentice but instead works for the professor as a way to be close and study.

The story “The Lion and the Lark” starts off as Beauty and the Beast with a touch of Greek mythology (sorry I forget the specific names but is it really that important when it’s just an element borrowed?) but then it veers off into something wholly original. Still, it’s a solid fairy tale and well-crafted.

Another I’ve read before is “The Witches of Junket”. And it’s another weird one. An old woman is warned that something bad will happen. Her advice? Bring her grandchildren in. And if anything, her grandchildren are the strangest characters in this story.

There are so many stories revisited time and time again. Fairy tales, Arthurian lore…even Shakespeare. That’s where “Star-Crossed” comes in. And yeah, if you’re thinking Romeo and Juliet you’re absolutely right. Our narrator is Stefano, the Prince’s man, and it’s his job to figure out how the hell these people ended up dead in a tomb. Because, after all, he’s not in the audience. He’s part of the story, and has no idea that Romeo and Juliet fell deeply in love. It’s a very interesting concept.

I feel like “Voyage into the Heart” should have been in Immortal Unicorn. Because it is about a unicorn, or at least catching one for its horn so that the prince needn’t worry about his daughter being poisoned. Not a very long story, but surprisingly powerful.

Finally, the book ends on “Toad”, another I’ve read before. This is another fairy tale that I believe comes from Russia or Eastern Europe. A girl loses her golden ball in the well and begs for help getting it back. The frog (or toad) agrees, but she has to carry it around, let it eat from her plate, drink from her cup, etc. And I think she kisses it and it turns into a prince in most versions. This is another weirdish one and not what I would’ve ended the book on.

Actually, looking at the story order, these appear to be included by publication date, which is not the norm for anthologies. I mean, obviously it wouldn’t work for first printing anthologies, where none of the stories have been previously published. But in showcase anthologies, generally the editor considers very carefully how the book will flow from one tale to the next. The only time I can imagine going in publication date is when that’s a significant element of the anthology; looking at something over the course of years or decades. I think Sisters of Tomorrow made that choice, which was utterly reasonable given the book.

Now, I don’t know offhand how many short stories McKillip published in any year from 1982 to 1999. There are a couple years with multiple tales featured here, but I’m not looking up the exact month and date to confirm if she fudged the order or not. However, given how prolific some short story authors can be, it wouldn’t surprise me if McKillip had had choices for most or all of these dates, and selected not just the strongest tales but also the ones that would work best with the preceding and succeeding stories. Either way, it’s impressive how well this has worked out.

I don’t know that I consider Harrowing the Dragon to be a full overview of McKillip’s work. There’s no stories based on or around paintings, which is one of the recurring themes I strongly recall. Outside of that, yes. If you want to know what McKillip’s work is like, this book will give you a decent overview.

Mixed Day

I’m having some issues getting past Nalini Singh. I have to keep reminding myself that while I’m busy having no time to read next weekend, it’s entirely possible I might find a copy of the next book to take home. And there may have been a preorder for a mass market paperback too. And because this is still cluttering up my brainspace, I’m sure it impacted yesterday’s book.

So since Nalini Singh is not an option for the moment (unless I wanted to read the angel novels which I absolutely do not), I decided to go for something in that vein. A paranormal romance showcase, since I have been picking them up as I see them. And there’s still some in the Pile.

Today’s is No Rest for the Witches, which I picked up down in Florida last month. (Seriously, there’s a lot of books I can say that of. I bought twenty-seven: one of which was a gift, one of which I’d read before, and a whole bunch of assorted randomness.) It’s a cute title at least.

The book opens with “The Majicka” by MaryJanice Davidson. This seems to be the story immediately preceding one I’d read before, where the lead is a female fairy and a male half-giant. In this world, the Majicka is the Protector of Magick and thus supernatural beings are drawn to her. So, our Majicka, Ireland Shea, basically has a bunch of magical freeloading roommates. Including the cursed car.

In this episode story, we meet Micah, The Tutor. His purpose in life is to train Majicka. Plural, because he’s been doing this a few centuries. Oh, and is that a zombie in the graveyard?

I feel like the story started out strong, but then Davidson added too many extraneous elements and shenanigans and it ended with everyone and everything tangled up and no space to breathe. It’s a very messy, rushed way to end a story.

Then Lori Handeland’s story “Voodoo Moon” comes along and my first question is…I feel like it’s supposed to be “vodoun”? I’m no expert though. And I suspect neither is Handeland.

Anyway, our protagonist is an FBI agent called to a small town in Louisiana called Devil’s Fork. Always an omen in a fantasy story. There’ve been six murders in mere months and it seems like a serial killer except every killing has been different. Although, once she arrives and speaks to the local sheriff, she learns that every body was accompanied by a voodoo doll, one with injuries matching the wounds.

Throw in a hot suspect and it’s only at the end of the story that we learn this is from her Hunter-Searchers series. I’ve read one or two of them before and…they’re fine. Nothing exceptional or noteworthy. But I think I liked this story better because I didn’t know it was in the series until the end.

I’m pretty sure I’ve ready another story in the same world as “Breath of Magic” by Cheyenne McCray. I can’t be completely certain though because a lot of mediocre stuff just blends together in my mind. This one appears to draw heavily on Celtic mythology, but for some reason in modern San Francisco. I really didn’t quite understand how the magical and human worlds interact in this one, but I suspect I’m better off not wasting the brainpower on it.

Finally we end with Christine Warren’s “Any Witch Way She Can”, about a commitment-starved woman looking for her other half. I’m reasonably certain this too is from a series, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t read one of these before.

Our female lead is human and ordinary. Which is only a little awkward in a half-Other family. But it does mean she grew up knowing about magic and wasn’t just learning about it when Others revealed themselves to the world as a whole. Still, she’s just a plain old human, agreeing to watch her magical cousin’s apartment while she, her husband, and their twins head off to hang with his family for a while.

Then she gets the idea to look through their books and cast a love spell. Not a compulsion of lust, but a spell that will allow her to meet the man of her dreams and her future.

If she wasn’t alone in the apartment, I’m quite certain someone or three would’ve told her what a terrible idea that is. But it’s a fantasy in general and a paranormal romance in particular, so obviously it’ll end up well. But good gods do I absolutely despise time travel.

Overall this book was…okay. I have no reason to ever reread it, no interest in keeping it. None of these series are ones I have any real interest or investment in, even if I am somewhat familiar with more than one. Reading this book was like…eating food you don’t care for or about simply because you’ve got to eat something. Maybe it appealed to you at the moment you picked it up, but that’s just because it was a decent option of a poor spread. Or it looked better than it actually was. Either way, not something to revisit.

Since that was so disappointing, I decided I might as well deal with the comic pile. Not completely, but things have been piling up as I focused on other reading material. And since I wanted something truly good to wash the taste out of my mouth, I chose to start with Demon Wars: Shield of Justice by Peach Momoko.

If you’d forgotten, Peach Momoko is an amazing Japanese artist and she’s been writing and illustrating her own series reimagining the Marvel universe through her own cultural lens. Some Marvel characters are immediately recognizable, others much less so. And there’s original creations as well, such as protagonist Mariko.

In this issue she starts off in the human world, but she’s soon drawn back into the yokai world. Yamato, our Captain America equivalent, would like Mariko to die. With Bake-Yoroi on the other side, we’ve definitely got some Civil War elements in play.

Really, Momoko’s art is just so beautiful that I will happily wait for the issues, however infrequently they come out (I’m sure the art takes a while), and let the story unfold as it will.

Then there’s Fire Power #24, the end of an arc. Owen is at the end of his rope. There’s an evil dragon. It’s wrecked a lot of destruction, as well as its ally Master Shaw. So many people are dead, and it’s all he can do to stand up and continue to fight.

This is the end of an arc and the start of a hiatus. The series is set to return sometime this year (I’ve been sitting on this comic since October), but I completely understand if they’re waiting to get more drawn first. And then we can deal with that cliffhanger.

I had also decided, on a whim, to give into my childhood cartoons once again and pick up Gargoyles #1. Because seriously, Gargoyles was pretty damned awesome. I keep meaning to watch the entire thing since it’s on Disney+, but I keep getting distracted.

This may have been a mistake because it seems like where Beast Wars was retelling the series I knew, Gargoyles is probably a sequel to the series I saw parts of. So, when we bring in girlfriends, children, cyborgs, robots, mutates, clones, and more…I’m a little lost. But the cover has the gargoyle dog and two friends chasing some cats and pigeons so that’s adorable.

Obviously, I need to figure out what I’m reading next. And I need to start planning my reading given that I will be quite busy this time next week. But I have some time. A little. I’ll figure something out.

Written in the Stars

Today’s book is something that can definitely be considered “an old standby” for all I’d never read it before. I haven’t even had it that long – a mere month. It was delightful though; I made my wishlist on a website public and then my relatives who insisted on getting me holiday gifts that weren’t gift cards ordered items directly off the list. So even though they know nothing of science fiction or fantasy, I got several of the books I wanted.

This included Zodiac Fantastic, one of Greenberg’s anthologies in that series. This particular volume’s coeditor was A.R. Morlan.

I’ll say it right off: we’re talking about the Greco-Roman zodiac. Aries, Taurus, etc. Kind of hilarious given that that day I met a friend of my aunt who insisted on discussing a bunch of people’s astrological sign. Then she looked at me and challenged me to guess hers. It was easy. That forceful personality had to be an Aries. Of course, I think she was too bullheaded to notice that I did not care one whit.

Anyway, there are other zodiacs out there, but you won’t find them in this volume. I kind of wish there’d been some clarification to that, but it wouldn’t be as simple a book title then. And the cover art and introduction does make it obvious, as well as the titles list.

It’s also worth noting that there are fourteen stories inside and few are focused on a single sign. Some look at multiple or even all signs. Others are more about the zodiac and astrology in general. Which is better than I’d feared. I guess it could be kind of restrictive to have to write a story focused around a single zodiac sign.

Jody Lynn Nye opens the book on a comedic note with “The Billion-Year Boys’ Club”. Although the signs seem to be evenly split between male and female, but the sentiment remains. After all, the twelve of them seem to have formed their own private club. And when other constellations show interest the twelve close ranks against them. But that’s never the end of the story.

If I’m reading “Making the World Live Again” by Kate Elliott right, this would take place thousands of years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamia and the like. This story has little to do with the actual signs and is instead a coming of age tale for the protagonist.

“Ram in Wolf’s Clothing” comes from Jayge Carr and it’s…a little awkward. Like, that is rape, dude. I don’t care that you have a humorous ending. This story is full of rape.

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s story “April in Aries” is much better. A general is ansty because it’s April, the time of war, and the king has yet to offer any marching orders. When she’s called before him at last, it’s not at all what she expects and even less what she wants. But hey, that horoscope was accurate. Seriously though, this is a good tale.

In the world of “Cezanne Was a Capricorn”, Karen Haber imagines that people are ruled by their astrology signs. So much so that it’s a problem for the female lead’s Capricorn family that she desperately wants to marry a Gemini. The only way to make him acceptable is to basically do an operation to change his sign. Ah, what people do for love.

There are things you do and don’t expect from a given anthology. I did not expect Diana Paxson to present the Arthurian tale “Lion at the Gate”. But sure. We can have a young man who seems to be Gawain in his dreams. Why not?

I kind of want to hurt the narrator of “I Told You So” by Darrell Schweitzer. She is definitely an abuse victim, even though she views her husband through rose-tinted lenses. And her father told her not to marry him, but she’s far too flighty and self-centered to listen. In fact, when her father lectures her, she specifically says she looks up to watch paint dry. I just…girl. Girl, you have issues.

Bryan Lindenberger’s story “Open Eyes” is an odd take. It’s another one where the actual signs aren’t important. In fact, I don’t know that the stars are significant in this tale outside of what may or may not be a dream. I’m not even sure what to think of it.

“Sagittarius Rising” is another more humorous tale by Mike Resnick and Ann Marston. A young woman’s roommate is very New Age and into astrology, and read an interesting horoscope for our protagonist. When she goes to sulk after dumping her boyfriend, she ends up blaming the roommate for what happens next.

Mickey Zucker Reichert’s story “Capricorn Blues” is worrisome. On the one hand, we’ve got someone who thinks horoscopes are mumbo-jumbo, playing a prank on his girlfriend by having her horoscope in the daily paper changed. On the other hand, this girl lives and breathes her horoscope and will not believe anything but what those black and white words say. I have serious concerns about her.

“In Zodiac We Trust” by Laura Resnick acknowledges that many leaders have and choose to make decisions based on astrology readings. In this case, a tiny nation of ten thousand people suddenly becomes a world power because of their devotion to astrology. It’s told entirely through letters and emails, which I enjoyed.

I actually didn’t realize Michelle Sagara West was in this book until I came to “By the Work, One Knows”. This is a much more somber take on astrology charts. In this work, astrology is religion and law. And when a child is born with a supremely bad chart…well. It’s not easy for anyone.

Then there’s “Wild Hope” by Josepha Sherman. Wild Hope is a racehorse. Or he would be. And his preferred stable hand is definitely an undocumented immigrant. But that’s just where the story starts.

Finally we end with Rosemary Edghill and “Not In Our Stars”. This one is interesting. It’s divided into twelve sections (of course), but it’s also almost a dialogue. There are two narrators, delineated by two different font styles (kudos on that). And we slowly come to understand the two of them, and what their intentions are towards each other. A good, slow burn of a story.

Overall, I won’t say Zodiac Fantastic was the strongest entry in the series. I think the authors did find a lot to do with the stars and astrology, but I can’t help thinking how much more varied things would have been if we included say, the Chinese zodiac. Or any others that exist. It’s kind of like when I read mythology-based anthologies and get very sick of the Greco-Roman takes very quickly. Is different so much to ask?

Still, there were some good stories. And of course I’m keeping it with the other Fantastic anthologies.

I’m not sure what to read next. I can tell that my brain would much prefer more like Nalini Singh still, so maybe I’ll use that as a guide when picking from the Pile. For some reason, paranormal romance tends to slide through relatively fast. Good paranormal romance seems to be a lot like popcorn; easily digested and leaving you wanting more as long as that scent is in the air.

There’s a Wolf

Nobody could possibly be surprised to learn that today is yet another Psy-Changeling Trinity book by Nalini Singh. But this will be it for the time being. Yes, there’s two more books currently available, one of which will be in mass market paperback next month. But I haven’t picked up either of them yet (one for obvious reasons) and that’s okay. It will happen, possibly sooner rather than later, but I’m not making any promises beyond the fact that I will get and read them.

I can go back to reading other things after this. And there’s a bunch of those. But that’s for the future.

Today’s novel is Alpha Night and once again we return to Moscow. Because there are three “alphas” in the area. The first is Kaleb Krychek, the ridiculously powerful Psy who is treated as an alpha by any changeling (un)fortunate enough to be near him. The second was Valentin Nikoalev of the StoneWater bears. The last is Selenka Durev, alpha of the BlackEdge wolf pack.

It is a nice change of pace to deal with a changeling female lead and a female alpha. Of course that means she requires a singularly badass mate. So enter Ethan Night, one of the most broken Arrows in the squad. I mean…he’s functional. But he’s definitely not doing well. His world is described as “gray”, at least until Selenka comes along.

A lot of the romances in this series are “love at first sight” things, even if the two leads don’t necessarily recognize that love for what it is. But they do see or sense something, and feel a need to know more.

But their world isn’t ours. Which means they have their own romance trope. It’s “mating at first sight”. Utterly unrealistic, Selenka thinks, until it happens to her. With Ethan. So, suddenly the destabilizing Arrow and tough-as-nails alpha are mated. In the middle of an international empath symposium. That just had a terrorist attack.

I’m serious. Page 32, a mere ten percent into the novel, is where the mating bond strikes. So our leads are forced to deal with the fact that they, as strangers who’ve exchanged perhaps forty lines of dialogue between the two of them, are now lifelong mates.

And of course, there are other issues. There’s still the Consortium, the businesspeople who want to destroy the Trinity for their own personal gain. There’s the Scarab Syndrome; Psy whose abilities were suppressed by Silence and find themselves not only with more power, but no way to control it. In the original experiments eighty years prior, most of the test subjects ended up suiciding to protect others from their danger.

New to this book, Selenka’s dealing with rogue wolves. One of them has set up a literal cult and that cannot possibly end well. And Ethan, well, he’s got issues. There’s a rogue power inside of him. Seems a clear case of Scarab Syndrome, and he’s terrified of letting that power free. Of course, as I mentioned above, one of the best ways to deal with Scarabs is death. But a certain wolf is not going to allow it.

The problem is, Ethan’s got a lot on his plate suddenly. Selenka’s got responsibilities, and he’s an Arrow who has to respond to the increasing pace of emergencies on the PsyNet. When could he possibly schedule time for a medical psychic examination that might save his life?

That really is the primary conflict of the novel. Everything else is important, sure, but the tension comes from Ethan having to deal with his own rogue power. The other power, the one that makes him an Arrow, that he’s got complete control over. I’d say it makes him almost like a DC Lantern, except that he doesn’t make hard light constructs even when he wields light as a weapon. It’s kind of fascinating.

Overall, it does make for a bit of a different book when compared to the rest of the series. There’s a bit of mystery, Ethan’s probably death sentence, and however that can possibly be resolved. Because, as stated previously, there’s not a huge amount of tension in these romances. You can’t tell me that the leads won’t survive and live happily ever after. That’s just now how these books work.

Although it would be interesting if Singh chose to go down that path. It would certainly add some pathos and genuine tension in all future installments.

I’m not saying she should turn around and become George R.R. Martin. Just that there’s a happy balance between everyone dying and everyone living happily ever after. That way we can still enjoy the uncertainty of who will live and who will die, but still have some kind of happy ending.

It does make me wonder though, if the books I don’t yet have deviate from the standard in other ways. I’ll definitely be interested in finding out. But, as previously stated, that’s for another day. For now, this is me wrapping up the Psy-Changeling Trinity series. Until I get the next one.

More and Thoughts

You know, I thought Silver Silence was a pretty damned obvious title for one of Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling Trinity novels. After all, Silver was an established character, and Psy, so Silence was a given. But today’s book is called Wolf Rain and it starts off with…a wolf. In the rain.

I mean, it’s Alexei, one of the SnowDancer lieutenants, and he’s doing a patrol as per norms in the pack. But still. A wolf in the rain. You can’t get more obvious than that.

Everything changes, of course, when he suddenly finds himself on the receiving end of an empathetic blast. He’s familiar with E-Psy of course, even if the only one in SnowDancer is only a 3.8 Gradient or so. I should probably mention that Psy power levels are measured on a Gradient scale ranging from 0 to 9.9. Ten and over are the cardinals, whose power can’t actually be measured. I’ll come back to that.

Anyway, Alexei understands an empath’s power when he feels it, and it’s SnowDancer territory. He has to investigate. What he finds is…disturbing on so many levels. A hidden prison in a mountain, accessible mainly by teleportation, where a woman has apparently been living for years. Her emotive bursts are grief for her cat, which had died of old age. All Alexei knows is that she’s a prisoner and he’s damned well going to free her.

Needless to say, she’s a little feral and untrusting. She’s had access to the outside world in some ways, but only to download, not to upload or send out. And she’s not about to be imprisoned again.

Naturally she’s a Psy with an unusual and barely heard of ability. But she’ll have to learn how to use it to deal with her own demons…and more.

Anyway, back to the Gradient. It seems like most of the Psy protagonists in this series are quite powerful. Generally 9 and higher on the scale, assuming they don’t have cardinal powers. Of course, that could be seen as the mental equivalent of the physical power and presence dominant changelings have. Or just physical power, in the case of at least one submissive.

I guess you could say that Singh’s romances feature big strong males and women who refuse to let them have their way all of the time. Even if the men aren’t always physically powerful, although generally speaking, all of them do seem to be notable physical specimens. I guess if you’re going to write a fantasy romance you might as well include all of the fantasies.

Although that’s kind of harmful too. The more we idealize certain bodies, the more we cement the image of the idealized body and it becomes a near-endless cycle. In and of itself, appreciating an attractive body type is not a bad thing. But subtly intimating by your emphasis on this body type that others are lesser and unwanted in comparison? That’s a problem. And I’m not saying that Singh is responsible for the problem. It’s a societal and cultural issue at this point. Singh’s characters are just a symptom.

To go on a different tangent, I was thinking today about the “destined” element of these books. When Singh introduces the male and female leads, the reader knows they are the leads and therefore will be a couple at the end of the novel. But in many cases, one or both of the leads have had romantic relationships before. Which makes me wonder how things feel to them, on the inside. They can’t know that this other is most definitely their mate. So how is the relationship different? What separates the “one true love” from the rest? I’m not expecting an answer, it’s just something I was thinking about.

And, to backtrack to an earlier post, I forgot to mention something very important about Silver Silence. In it, for the first time, Singh has a homosexual relationship. It’s not overt, is just in the earliest stages, and always off to the side of the main romance/plot. But it’s there. And I’m glad there’s something to offset the stolid heterosexuality of the main romances. I just wish there was more focus on nonheteronormative relationships. I wouldn’t mind if one of the novels had one for the leads. I don’t expect that would happen – these books are formulaic after all – but it would be nice.

And since I’ve got the time and inclination, I’ll also mention that I’m close to caught up with the series as a whole. Singh is still writing Psy-Changeling Trinity novels and Wolf Rain is not even four years old. The newest paperback in the series is due out next month, and the next hardcover will be released later this year. I am definitely intending to be ready for that last and I’m sure the library will be happy to find me a copy.

So I’ll have to make sure I get the last of the current releases. But I’m not done yet. Not at all.

Changelings of All Kinds

Yes, I’m still reading Psy-Changeling Trinity. But, as has been my wont recently, I failed to finish a book yesterday due to the playing of board games. Because of course. That’s going to be happening a lot for the next month or so.

Anyway, the first book once Nalini Singh officially changed to Psy-Changeling Trinity is Silver Silence. And if you’ve been reading the novels, by this point it would be obvious who one of the leads is. Silver Mercant is Psy, of course. That’s why she’s Kaleb Krychek’s personal assistant. She’s also, just as obviously, a member of the Mercant family. These Psy are a shadow power. They may not have a given piece of information, but they damn well can find it.

They’re also notorious as a family for being close-knit. Not as loving and open as a human or changeling family, but they value their ties to each other in a way many Psy didn’t under Silence. And their loyalty to their family is tantamount. They will act for the good of the family, and their loyalty is unshakable. Kaleb managed to earn that loyalty and for his sins along with his blessings, he is considered to be a member. And that was before he put Silver in charge of EmNet, the Emergency Response Network. Think an organization similar to the Red Cross, although this one crosses all race lines, working simply to help those in need. Flood, earthquake, mass shooting, EmNet is there.

Because she works for Kaleb directly (although she may have to give that up and focus on EmNet), Silver is based in Moscow. And that’s where Valentin Nikolaev met her. And is trying to court her. But this changeling is nowhere near as subtle as Lucas Hunter, nor as willing to ignore as Hawke Snow. No, this is a bullheaded bear who will continue unsubtly attracting Silver’s attention.

The running joke of this book, by the way, is bears. Because they are the most curious, most stubborn, most unselfconsciously themselves of all changelings.

Of course, things are not easy. Silver’s a well put-together Psy, not at all impressed by the bear wearing ripped jeans and a paint-stained shirt. Nor by the gifts with notes which, when translated from Russian to English, are signed “Mr. I. M. A. Teddy Bear”.

No, we’re talking difficulties such as the assassination attempt on Silver when she’s trying to figure out why (and how) Valentin got to her apartment door at seven in the morning. Or Silver’s special Psy ability that might just kill her.

And Valentin’s got some difficulties too, as we can soon pick up. Although he’s not about to share them with anyone outside StoneWater pack. Not even with the woman he’s courting…at least not until he feels she’s his, since he already knows he’s hers.

Really though, all I can do is imagine Boris, the bird from Balto, saying: “bears.”

It seems only fair that, since I didn’t have enough time to finish a book yesterday, I got through two today. The second Psy-Changeling Trinity novel is Ocean Light, and it’s one I’m quite sure readers were thrilled to see. After all, with a title like that, one of the romantic leads has to be BlackSea.

I think I’ve mentioned them before, but BlackSea is the water changeling pack. Really more of a coalition, because many of the aquatic species tend to be loners, comfortable seeing others only so often. They banded together not too long back because someone was smart enough to realize that, separate as they had been, they were prime victims.

To be fair, we’ve seen a lot of sea changeling victims in recent volumes, thanks to the Consortium. And not all the missing have been accounted for yet. But, as part of BlackSea, they’re now known to be missing and in need of rescuing. Well, in most cases. Because the sealings live such isolated lives at times, their locations are hard to determine. Which means that many of the missing could only have been taken with inside information. A traitor.

But BlackSea is the most notoriously closemouthed group of changelings the world over. It took several volumes just to learn for a fact that some of them are water snakes. People are pretty sure dolphin changelings exist, just because they’ve helped with water rescues, and there’s rumors of sharks and whales, but no sealing seems to ever want to admit what they are in their other form. At least, not to anyone outside of BlackSea. So I’m sure that any other reader as deep into this series as I am would be thrilled by the chance to find out some of the various changeling races in BlackSea.

But a romance has to have two leads. And I kind of felt like this one worked but didn’t in terms of tension. Because our male lead here is Bowen Knight.

I haven’t mentioned him before, but he’s the leader of the Human Alliance, on par in the Trinity with Lucas Hunter, Hawke Snow, and the Psy Ruling Coalition of Kaleb, Anthony from PsyClan Nightstar, and Nikita Duncan. Basically, the most important human around.

It’s a spoiler for two reasons. One, Bowen and his top people received chip implants some books ago to protect their minds from Psy intrusion. The chips work, but they’ve started to degrade and Bowen was already past the point of a safe removal when it was discovered. And when the chip goes, it’ll leave him a vegetable. Alive, but nobody home. Needless to say, he’s only got so much longer to live.

Which says nothing of what happened previously. That is to say, a sniper went to take a shot at Bowen’s little sister, and he noticed in time to get in the way. That bullet should have killed him. It didn’t, but he was in a coma.

Obviously he wakes near the beginning of Ocean Light so that we can have a story. But because this is a romance and that means a happy ending, it definitely erases all the tension related to the chip. Which is probably why Singh also throws in mysteries, a traitor, and some phobias to be dealt with.

Really, outside of knowing that things will turn out okay because of the nature of romances, this was a good book. I really did appreciate a chance to get a look into BlackSea in a way Singh had actively avoided until this point. I also note that she’s failed to reveal everyone’s other form, but as the series seems to be ongoing, I can deal with that for now.

It’s hard to say which of today’s books is better. I think Silver’s romance with the bear felt a little out of nowhere and moved a bit too fast, but it’s really hard to hate on the bears. They’re just…bears. Being bears. On the other hand, I really didn’t care for the lack of any tension in the ticking clock because Bowen is a Title Credits Character and therefore has to survive.

Either way, I’m still enjoying myself with the series. I continue to appreciate that, while the romances can be formulaic, the political situation of the Psy-Changeling Trinity’s world is continually changing and evolving, giving rise to new obstacles as the characters defeat old ones.

I still have a lot of questions about how they have stations and cities on the ocean floor though. Ah well, a question for another day.

Apotheosis of Series

You know, I thought about waiting longer. I really did. But I just couldn’t put off more of Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling books any longer. So, here we are.

I guess Allegiance of Honor is technically part of Psy-Changeling instead of Psy-Changeling Trinity based on isfdb.org. However, when I group it with the latter, that’s because I’ve been looking at it on the shelf next to other books in the same world. And the branding on Allegiance of Honor is in line with Psy-Changeling Trinity, not the first part of the series.

Speaking of branding, for some reason my eye caught on the cover subtext for this one. “A Psy-Changeling Novel” it reads, which is true of most, if not all, of the series. But I got a feeling about this one, especially when I flipped to the back.

Allegiance of Honor is literally a novel. It is not a romance. That doesn’t mean there aren’t romantic elements in it – the entire series is paranormal romance and therefore you can’t avoid it. But this book does not have any leads. Rather it is a later version of Heart of Obsidian, bringing in every single lead, so many side characters, and more, from all the previous tales.

Plotwise, the book straddles the divide between Psy-Changeling and Psy-Changeling Trinity. The Trinity has come into existence, yes, but it’s early days yet and there are kinks to be worked out, rules to be laid down, etc. The Trinity could well end up being a governing body for the entire world, all three races. But there’s a lot of work to be done.

And, of course, there’s still the Consortium, hiding in the shadows. They’ll have an opinion, and actions to take.

It’s been three and a half in-world years since the start of Slave to Sensation and so much has changed. Enemies are allies. Friends are lovers. Silence has fallen. In many ways, Allegiance of Honor is a celebration of all that’s come before, all that Singh has accomplished. It’s the fifteenth book in a series that is still going to this day, even if under a slightly different name for the current set.

Maybe fifteen is a small number in some ways. There’s series that authors churn out, especially romances and mysteries, and it’s not easy to know how many volumes exist up front. Hell, look at some of the kids’ mysteries, like Babysitters’ Club and Boxcar Children. Both of those had over a hundred books apiece, and the former has a bunch of spinoffs.

Compare that to other series I have with one or two books, whose authors haven’t been able to put out more for various reasons. Contracts, time, inclination, etc. They’re all important. So it’s significant when an author can keep writing, and keep selling.

I’m glad Psy-Changeling exists. I’m glad I found it, even if the way was a little roundabout. And I’m going to continue reading it until I run out of books, and then until I catch up to present. No, I don’t have every Psy-Changeling Trinity novel at this time. But I do have a number of them and the will to get through them all.

Oh, and if you’re curious, I’m still thinking about Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo’s book from yesterday. It’s a damned shame that none of my other friends have read it yet, because I want to talk Serious Spoilers with them. But I’ll wait. Eventually I’ll have my chance.

But for now, the Trinity is calling.

Hellishly Engrossing

As mentioned yesterday, I waited three years for Leigh Bardugo’s Hell Bent to be released. Ever since I finished Ninth House I’ve wanted to read the sequel. And so I’m going to warn all readers right now, there will be spoilers for the first book. If you haven’t read Ninth House and want a dark and magical mystery set at Yale, don’t read this post yet.

THE REST OF THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR NINTH HOUSE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
Now, Ninth House ended with the realization that Darlington, the golden boy of Lethe, Alex’s mentor and Dawes’ friend, was still alive. In Hell, or beyond the Veil or whatever you want to call the place where the dead and demons dwell. And our stubborn protagonist Alex decided that she was going to bring him back.

Of course, there’s some fallout. First and foremost, Sandow, the Dean, was Praetor, a Lethe role that hadn’t been previously mentioned. Basically, the Praetor is the overseer, the intercessor with the board, etc. They don’t get their hands dirty, but they get the reports. And with Sandlow gone, a new one is needed.

There are pros and cons to this new Praetor. On the one hand, he’s a chauvinist who believes women should never have been admitted to Yale. On the other hand…if Alex plays her cards right, he won’t question her at all and she’s free to sneak around as necessary to continue planning Darlington’s rescue.

And, worse, Alex’s old life in Los Angeles has come calling over the summer. She thought she was well rid of her past, thanks to the power of money, but sadly, some people don’t need it and have good memories. So now that’s a problem.

But hey, all you need is a few good friends and a descent into Hell to make it right, right?

The phrase “hell bent” often means that someone is determined on a single course of action and is completely unwilling to compromise. Which is…a fair description of Alex Stern. But of course, there’s other ways to define it, and some of those may come into play.

I’m really trying hard to avoid spoiling Hell Bent because this book is worth reading. It’s just that there’s so much that happens, an entirely new set of mysteries and problems to solve, that I have to make a conscious decision to stop summarizing.

I’ll say this though. Yes, Hell Bent was worth the three year wait. And I suspect that this will end up being a trilogy. It definitely sounds like the roles of Dante and Virgil are filled in three year terms, and once again Bardugo has made it clear there’s more to the story. Trilogies are staples for a reason, just as triangles are inherently stable creations.

I’m not sure what to hope for with the next installment. If Bardugo takes another three years to carefully research her setting and craft her mystery, maybe Book of the Month will offer that volume too. But if she gets it out sooner, then I won’t have to wait as long. There’s positives on both sides.

I know, I can’t rely on Book of the Month given that series are generally not their preference. They do best when introducing readers to new books, new authors, new worlds. You can always find the stereotypical “book club books” in their choices, sprinkled with other popular genres for variety. This is, again, why I was so surprised to see Hell Bent as an option at all.

But hey. If it happened once, it might just happen again.

As for me, I have ideas about what to read tomorrow. I haven’t made any final decisions yet, but we’ll see how long that lasts. After all, there’s always more in the Pile.