The Kraken King by Meljean Brook

I'm a bit of a Meljean Brook fangirl, let's get that out of the way.  I loved her first Demon (insert word) book but eventually burned out on them a bit.  There are eight books and five (?) novella's in the series and I came to the series late so I didn't take breaks in between the books, etc.  Anyway, for whatever reason I was a little worried when she embarked on the steam punk thing.  Jumping on the bandwagon, latest fad, etc.  Oh, I was soooooooooooooo wrong.  Iron Duke was spectacular.  But I digress (as usual).

The Kraken King was released in serial format which was very interesting (and becoming more common).  I will admit when I saw each of them for $1.99 on my Nook, I was annoyed.  Really, eight parts, $16?  But then I started reading and I just didn't care.  I was lucky, again, that they were all pretty much out so I didn't have to wait for each section to be published (hate that, I'm such a baby).  But after reading the book I did go to her website to see whether she had talked about why she did it this way.

It was very interesting, well, it was at that moment.  Basically what I remember is that there was a long delay between writing a whole novel and then getting it out as a print book.  But she could write it in stages, release it electronically as she wrote (I'm sure she was still ahead of us somewhat, cause if that girl is writing 20,000 words each week I am seriously impressed) and we wouldn't have to wait ten years to have the hot little book in our hands. On top of which she broke out word count and pointed out most mass market romances are 300-350 pages and the final page count was over 675, effectively we got two books for our $16.

Bottom line, I loved this book.  I really enjoyed the Kraken King himself as an a-typical character.  If I had any complaints, the plot was maybe drawn out a bit by the serial process.  And it took a while to consummate the relationship, but that fit with the characters and plot and there was very good sexual tension.

I have to say the world that Ms. Brook has built is really standing the test of time.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every single book she's crafted in the Iron Seas series.

Paranormal Steampunk Alternative History 2014: 4.95 of 5 letters to your brother.    

I Had Such a Hard Day

I am so exhausted.  I had such a rough day.  I had to get up at 7am.  I went to two classes (1.75hrs) I picked up two kids (1.75hrs) and bought three dinners.  Wiped out.  I tell you.

Why can't I live here?

Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase

You know that feeling when your hair gets just long enough to put it back in a ponytail and it feels so nice to get it all off your neck and face so you get all excited.  Then three hours later you catch a glimpse of yourself in a mirror or window and thank your lucky stars you didn't leave the house like that.

Well, no. That doesn't have anything to do with this book. Just digressing, sorry.

Um, let's see.  Young English Miss is kidnapped away from her family while they are traveling in the Mediterranean and is sold into a pasha's harem at the age of 13. Twelve years later she returns to England having escaped from said harem (A VIRGIN!) and her family attempts to launch her back into society.  Her father took a friend's son under his wing when said friend died and the now Duke decides to repay his un-payable debt to the English Miss's father by making sure this actually happens.  That was a complicated sentence, you may want to read it more than once.

This folks is the perfect example of a ridiculous plot and situation put into the hands of a terrific author resulting in an almost astoundingly good book.  Loretta Chase at her best is one of the best romance novelists in existence.  Seriously.  This is not her best, but it is not her worst either.

I really did not think even Ms. Chase could pull off this plot but by 3/4 through we were working on a 4.5 or 5 out of 5.  Unfortunately the above plot premise wasn't quite enough to fill out all requisite 350 pages so some silly evil things get thrown in at the end.  It's still very enjoyable.

Historical Regency Romance 2009: 4 out of 5 membrum viriles.

Pure Heat by M. L. Buchman

Apropos of my last post, here is a military offshoot; wild fire fighters book.  How do you describe fire fighters who fight wild fires?  This is just ripe for misplaced modifiers and I ain't no English teacher.

I like this book.  Carly is third generation forest firefighter and is down right prescient about how a forest fire is going to burn.  Steve was a smoke jumper who got injured and is returning to fire fighting in a new role. They are both amazingly capable and beautiful and they get together, what's not to like.  Also I feel like I am genuinely learning about an job/industry that I don't know a lot about and it's interesting.

Back to the trope discussion.  Normally in my romance I expect some sort of character or relationship arch to be a major part of the book but in this one the relationship arch is minor, (but not too stupid), and is replaced (in my opinion) by cool gadgets, death defying situations and amazingly able (in almost believable ways) characters saving lives.  I'm okay with this.  Which is clearly a bias because in almost any other setting (other than military-like) I wouldn't be.

I routinely dislike FBI/mafia/drug cartel books where the hero and heroine are on the run because the relationship isn't central enough.  Ugh.  What can I say, I guess I'm not a perfect reviewer.

Contemporary Militaryish Romance 2014: 4.5 out of 5 fixed wing spotters.

PS.  I was re-reading a bit of the book and to be fair, yes, I like the trope but this writing is also really good. "What the hell was he doing?  He didn't rescue women, and especially avoided weeping women.  But a rocking motion came from somewhere inside, like the motion of the living trees in a breeze."  

Full Disclosure (Oh, that should totally be a Romance Title)

One of the things I've been pondering lately is the place of tropes in romance novel reviews.  This is part of a larger discussion about how you deal with being an "out" romance novel reader.  Do you grin and act sheepish and go "its my embarrassing pleasure but I know its tripe?"  Are you dismissive, "I just need something completely mindless sometimes?"  Or do you defend the genre and insist that there is merit in good romance novels?  I've always been the defending type and have argued to friends that there are good romances and bad romances like any other genre.

Which is a lot of the reason why I review them.  I do have expectations for decent writing, well characterized protagonists (where do you think the phrase "too stupid to live" comes from), plotting with a good pace and avoidance of too much exposition.  But I've long realized that reviewing romance is not always straight forward because similar to our sex drives, our romance drives do have individual likes and dislikes that are somewhat unique.

This is where tropes come into play for me.  By trope I mean a particular theme or event that drives a book. In the day (can you say Kathleen E. Woodiwiss?) when sex was rarely explicitly consensual and heroines needed to be rescued, I really really liked the "she runs away from him for his own good and has his baby but he never knew until he finds her again and its revealed" trope.  I know, even in the day, that other smart romance readers hated this trope.  HATED IT.  What can I say.

So, I have recently discovered that I really enjoy the military trope.  And if a book has a trope that particularly appeals to me, I do think I am less discerning when reviewing it.

I think as you read reviews of romance novels around the interwebs you need to be aware that yes, there are criteria that separate terrific books from horrible gag inducing tripe.  But part of the review process is biased; is unique to the reviewer. A reviewer who doesn't acknowledge that is claiming an objectivity that is only really possible when giving an opinion on politics.

(Did you see that clever use of sarcasm?  Huh, huh?  See what I did there?)