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I'm currently trying to bump up the number of books I read. I'm an aspiring author, and knowing what's out there, and most importantly, reading the "greats" is important. So, I picked up The Color of Magic because it's the first of Mr. Pratchett's Discworld novels and many people rave about Discworld.

Hm.

I have to say, as I usually do, that I enjoyed the read. The book is small, so there's not a lot of investment of time if you decide you didn't like the book. It's not an 800-page tome, at least. The characters are interesting -- Rincewind the failed magician, Twoflower the "tourist" and the magical Luggage that is seemingly indestructible -- the world is explained -- though sometimes to excess -- and the series has certainly captured the hearts of a number of readers.

But I'm not sure I get it.

Maybe it's just that I have a hard time wrapping my brain around British humor. Red Dwarf occasionally makes me laugh. I don't worship at the temple of Monty Python, I'm not much fond of Benny Hill, and my favorite show that I can recall was Chef. Does that say anything about me?

The book is a satire. I understand satire. Maybe I don't appreciate it, but I get it. I'm just not sure I want to read an entire series of books written in satirical tone.

Granted, this is the first of the Discworld novels. Maybe they get better. When I've pared down my current stack of to be reads, maybe I'll read another, just to see for myself. Until then, here's my opinion: If you appreciate dry humor, wry commentary and just plain silliness, read this book (and those that follow). If not, there's a world of other books and authors waiting to be read.

Commanche Moon
Anita Mills
381 pages
ISBN: 0-451-40553-6
Penguin Books

So, I'm a bit behind in reading romance novels. Hey, there are so many released a month that a girl can't stay constantly current and read all the great older books she's supposed to read. So I've just recently finished reading Commanche Moon by Anita Mills. The book was published in 1995, but I'm pleased to say that it didn't seem dated in the least.

Quite possibly because it's a Western historical. The heroine this time is Amanda Ross, a Boston socialite who is headed west to Texas, to take up the reins of the ranch she's been left by the death of her mother, Isabella. The daughter of Big John Ross and Isabella Ybarra, she was born in Texas, and moved to Boston when her father died and her mother remarried. It's been a long time since she's been back. Travelling with a cousin named Ramon who seems determined to woo her against her will doesn't make the trip any easier.

Especially not when Clay McAlester arrives. A Texas Ranger who was kidnapped and then raised by the Commanche as a child, he has a reputation that it seems everyone in Texas knows. He's widely reported to have 'killer eyes', cold, emotionless and blue. He's a half-savage with occasionally surprising manners, and Amanda's taken with him despite knowing better.

While in any romance novel, it's inevitable that the hero and heroine fall in love, Ms. Mills makes the journey getting there exceptionally enjoyable. There's time spent among the Comanche people, and not being Comanche, I can only hope her details are correct. I assume they are. Certainly, the people felt real. Her characters, with the exception of Ramon and his father Alessandro, are engaging and likeable, and that's as it should be.

Don't let the '95 date fool you. It may be an "old" book, but it's not lost any shine.

Dark Challenge
Christine Feehan
390 pages
ISBN: 0-505-52409-0
Dorchester Publishing

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All right. So I didn't read the first books in this series. I don't know if the style this book was written in matches the rest of the books. Authors change and their styles do too.

That said, I'm very much in favor of reading series books that don't require having read the other books in the series to know where you are. Christine Feehan has written a book that manages to pull that off. Dark Challenge focuses on Julian, one of a pair of twin Carpathians, her unique race of "vampires". What's the difference between a vampire and a Carpathian? Vampires always kill their prey, Carpathians only feed.

Julian is an extremely powerful, extremely alpha Carpathian male. He's a very ancient, very powerful creature who is walking the knife's edge toward turning, becoming a vampire. Before he does that, he's determined that he will walk into the sun and end his life.

That's before he meets his lifemate in Desari. The long-lost sister of one of the most powerful healers of the Carpathians, she is a popular singer, traveling the world with her brother, Darius, and their family unit. The minute she sings, Julian's emotions are restored to him. He can even see in color.

What follows are pages and pages of descriptions about how perfect Desari is for Julian. How he never expected to find her. And they have mind-blowing, amazing sex. Repeatedly. Desari is a strong-willed woman and doesn't much like the idea of having a lifemate who issues commands and expects unwavering obedience. They argue about this extensively as well.

The point I'm trying to make is that there's a little plot and a lot of repetition. The arguments don't change, not between Darius and Desari, and not between Julian and Desari. The sex doesn't change much. The fights aren't particularly engaging. In short, the book could probably have been two hundred pages shorter and covered the same amount of information.

I admit to being curious as to what happens in the book(s) that follow, but I'm not certain that's enough to make me rush out and buy it.

Everyday, Average Jones (TDD #4)
Suzanne Brockmann
251 pages
ISBN: 0373078722
Silhouette Intimate Moments

1998

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Everything But A Husband
Karen Templeton
250 pages
ISBN: 0373271204
Silhouette Intimate Moments #1050

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Expose
Laura Van Wormer
465 pages
ISBN: 1551665816
Mira Books
1999

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Yet again, I prove that first person books, written well, are actually palatable. Maybe I've just gotten hold of a lot of bad first person books, which seems likely.

Expose is a book about, well, an expose. Several actually. It's written in the point of view of Ms. Van Wormer's character, Sally Harrington. Working for the local newspaper in her hometown of Castleford, Connecticut, Sally stumbles across, quite literally, a couple having a medical emergency. Through her cool and calm, she manages to save the day and impress the Verity Rhodes, who is a big name, big shot publishing executive.

Verity, taken with Sally, invites her first to dinner, and then invites her to do a story on a big television executive in New York. And things rapidly get out of hand. Sally stumbles, again, over a dead body, thanks to a tip from Crazy Pete, the local conspiracy theory guy. She meets a book publisher with a somewhat sordid past, and finds out more than she wanted to about the target of her expose, Cassy Cochran.

Ms. Van Wormer has apparently used Sally before, and has another book after this one using the character. Despite that, I didn't feel lost at all. It's very easy to pick up any one of these books and dive right in without having read the others. Granted, this isn't a lightweight one-night reading type of book, but it's worth it from start to finish.

The Firebrand
Susan Wiggs
400 pages
ISBN: 1551668017
Mira Books

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The Irish Devil
Donna Fletcher
329 pages
ISBN: 0515127493
Jove Books: Irish Eyes
February 2000

When this book first hit the pages of my favorite romance review site, Laurie Likes Books, it was given, I think, a B-. I only pick up books with a B or higher from that list, just because as stated elsewhere on this page, there are a ton of new romance novels out all the time. I already had this book in my possession, however, mostly because of the Irish theme.

The Irish Devil was the first of Jove's Irish Eyes series, and for all that it has some weaknesses, I think it's not a bad place to start. The story is about Faith Donnegan, the outcast and unwanted daughter of a minor Irish lord, and Eric, the devil of the title. Eric has a reputation for his temper, and for being nearly immortal, and certainly unstoppable. He's a huge man with an army of loyal followers, and more stories than the book can possibly relate.

Faith is given to him, by means of a rather nasty little plot by her wicked stepmother, in marriage, and she's hauled off to become the devil's bride. She has a secret that she hides from him as well. She was attacked and nearly raped some years before. She bears a scar and she's considered a shamed woman, and that's why she's been cast out.

This is a romance between a truly alpha hero and a very strong-willed survivor of a heroine. They really do make a good match. Much as I don't usually like overly alpha men in my reading, (see Prince of Wolves), Eric's actually a human character, and he has his good sides.

Faith also has a lovable mongrel of a dog named Rook who will appeal to animal lovers, and both have several fantastic characters who are secondary in the book. Bridget, Faith's maidservant; Borg, Eric's half-brother and best friend, and Colin, a charmingly roguish sort.

This book isn't bogged down with historical detail, so it's suitable for a light read. It also isn't all fluff, rainbows and sunshine, so if you want something a little darker in your reading, give this one a try.

The Mistress
Susan Wiggs
400 pages
ISBN: 1-55166-610-3
Mira Books
September 2000

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Readers and fans of particular series often clamor for books to be written about secondary characters. It's usually a brother or sister or child, however, who gets a follow-up book. I, for one, am thrilled that Susan Wiggs chose to give Kathleen O'Leary the second book in the series.

Kathleen is the lady maid of Deborah Sinclair, the heroine of the first book in the trilogy, The Hostage. Kathleen is also the eldest daughter of Mrs. O'Leary, the woman blamed for having a cow that started the great Chicago fire of 1871. Susan doesn't tell us whether the fire was actually started by the cow or not, but that's not really important to the story.

What's important is the game. Kathleen, on the night of the fire, has been dressed up in a dress and taken to a society party as part of a bet between two other young ladies from Miss Boylan's finishing school. She's stunning and a convincing actress, and it's at this party that she meets Dylan Francis Kennedy, one of the most eligible young men in Chicago.

Or is he?

As the fire rages through the city, Dylan and Kathleen find themselves trapped in a church facing certain doom. Sure that they won't survive the night, and surrounded by a few city dignitaries, they take their vows and wed one another. They, of course, survive the night, and then, the truth must out.

I won't spoil what the truth is, but it's not hard to piece together. It also wasn't, in my opinion, particularly well handled. I loved Kathleen, and I admire her strength of will. Dylan was charming at times, but not particularly likeable, in my opinion, and his change of heart/character seemed forced for the sake of the ending, rather than natural.

Then again, I like darker endings.

That said, this is still a good book, and if you're looking for a heroine with spunk, Kathleen's got it in bushels full. It's not necessary to read the first book, as relationships are explained expertly and there's no sense of feeling left out. I wish it had matched The Hostage for story-telling punch, but it was still worth the read.

A Passionate Affair
Flora Speer
362 pages
ISBN: 0505524392
LoveSpell
May 2001

You can read this review at http://www.epinions.com/content_33719422596/tk_~CB005.1.3. Check out my profile page at http://www.epinions.com/user-spalmero?show=View_Profile.

I am not above reading paranormal or fantasy or magic-using romance. Far from it. I even dabble with writing the stuff. Occasionally, you come across some excellent examples of how to do it. See Susan Krinard or Nora Roberts.

And sometimes, you find examples of how not to do it. A Passionate Magic is one such example.

The book tells the story of Dain of Penruan, a baron with a wicked mother. Not stepmother, just his mother. Lady Richenda, his father's second wife, is a religious fanatic. She's really a harping, nagging, nasty woman whose only redeeming quality -- being the second wife and feeling like she lived in a shadow -- doesn't do anything for her. I just didn't care.

Dain himself, having grown up with this woman harping at him all his life about a feud begun by his grandfather and the father of a rival baron, is not a particularly charming fellow when we meet him.

He's certainly less likeable than Emma, the daughter of Gavin of Wroxley, Dain's enemy. Emma is a witch, for want of a better word. She's very skilled with healing people, she's loved by everyone, and she has an uncanny ability to make people like her. Hm. Doesn't sound very magical. Oh! She can find her way through heavy fog by using magic. And she can bind them so they can't move. Okay, the latter's sort of impressive. The former -- again, who cares?

Emma is, of course, clever and bright and charming, and Dain suspects that she's out to plot against him as soon as she arrives in Penruan. A good portion of the book actually deals with this. Too much of the book deals with this. Oh yes, eventually they consummate their marriage -- aided by a potion from another witch -- and he feels he's been betrayed. Shake. Stir. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Part of the problem with this book is that there's just too much going on! There's Dain and Emma. There's the fact that Emma's not really Gavin's daughter. There is the mysterious 'Hermit' character. There is Agatha, who is not the simple, elderly healer that she seems. There's Richenda, of course, and her creepy servant Wade. There's a mysterious lady in white. Oh, and there's a cave where it's rumoured that Merlin's being held.

And that's not all!

Ms. Speer simply tried to do too much, and managed to do none of it well. The characters speak a slightly elevated English -- few contractions, etc. Usually, they don't sound like they live in the modern world. But then, often enough to be annoying, they break the fourth wall, and we're listening to people debate over coffee at Starbucks. Not literally, but it's nearly that jarring.

There are charming moments in the book. Blake, Emma's page, is fairly cute and well-written. The bad, however, far outweighs the good. To tell the truth, it's not that it's bad. It's annoying, and that's worse.

Sullivan's Last Stand
Harper Allen
251 pages
ISBN: 0373226322
Harlequin Intrigue #632

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I got this book as a result of a club I belong to. Discounted price, so hey, if you don't like the book, you're really not out that much cash. Not as much as you could be, anyway.

After receiving the book, I looked it up on a review site I frequent, and was disappointed to see that their reviewers gave it a D+. Now, I was expecting to get two-thirds into the book and throw it across the room.

That never happened.

Storm Warning begins with introducing us to a school in upstate New York, where seven little girls are a part of a new gifted and talented program. Once a week, they're taken into a classroom, and the lessons commence. During a particularly bad storm, however, lightning strikes, and the school burns down, taking all the records with it.

This is important later.

Flash forward to the present, and a series of vignettes that go by much too quickly, about five of the seven little girls. Each one of the women gets a phone call in which she hears thunder and chimes. She then falls into a sort of trance, and kills herself. Personally, I wish we'd seen a little more about these women, or the series of deaths wasn't piled, quite literally, on top of one another, page after page. I understand that they're supposed to happen quickly, but this was a little tiring.

When we get to number six, however, we actually get to know the character. Georgia, who has become a nun, is one of the girls we meet at the beginning of the book. Georgia, and her frightened friend Virginia. Georgia, coming back from a vacation in Rome, receives news that five of her friends from that school have died, all under similar circumstances, and she begins to piece things together. Specifically that answering the phone is bad. She gathers as much evidence as she can, sends it to Virginia and a friend of hers in the FBI, Sullivan Dean, and hopes for the best.

It doesn't, of course, save her life.

Enter Ginny (Virginia) and Sully (Mr. Dean) as the hero and heroine of the book. What they have to do is clear: figure out who's behind all of this and keep him from doing it to Ginny as well.

As my husband pointed out, there's an old movie that makes use of this story, and so it doesn't seem particularly original. The characters, however, are, and they're characters I actually cared about.

There is a dinner time scene where Ginny has cut ham and cheese sandwiches into rabbit shapes with cookie cutters that had me stifling laughter while I read and my husband slept.

There are other nice touches. Franklin Chee, a Navajo member of the FBI is a wonderful, if not extensively developed character. Ginny's susceptibility to the sound of thunder all throughout the book is also nice.

The ending comes about a bit too tidily. It leaves questions as to just how and why things happened the way they did, and it doesn't really answer them. It seemed too easy, after the build-up of the 370 pages that came before.

So my vote? C+. A D implies unacceptable, to me, and this book just wasn't that bad.

Sweet Annie
Cheryl St. John
296 pages
ISBN: 0373291485
Harlequin Historicals

I admit it. I'm a goob. Books that I have read in recent times have occasionally made me laugh. None of them have made me cry. The end of Sweet Annie made me cry. I freely admit it. Little weepy tears, not body-wracking sobs. Let's not get carried away.

Annie Sweetwater is a girl who was born with a malformed hip. She limps, as a result, and lives with a family who keep her mostly wheelchair bound and dressed like a china doll. They want to protect her, and who can really blame them? This story is a western, and we all know that the western life could be harsh.

At Annie's tenth birthday party, she's taken on a forbidden ride with a boy named Luke Carpenter. Her family is, of course, horrified. Annie's older brother, Burdell, gives Luke a sound thrashing. But Annie never forgets the boy or the ride, and Luke never forgets her.

Ten years later, Annie is an elegant, if still chair-bound woman, and Luke begins to pay her more attention. He befriends her cousin, Charmaine, and her aunt and uncle. Eventually, predictably, Luke gets permission to court and wed Annie, making them both happy. Things are not all rosy with Annie's family, but if they were, that would make for a boring book.

My one complaint is that there's so much time spent focusing on Luke and Annie's budding feelings, on convincing Annie to leave her chair behind, that the latter bits of the book feel a bit rushed. There are unhappy moments that almost speed by. They're not glossed over, they just feel a bit fast. Still and all, it's a good book. I've been disappointed by Harlequin's historicals in the past. I'm glad I wasn't this time.

The Widow
Anne Stuart
378 pages
ISBN: 1551668130
Mira Books

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