Liu, Marjorie M. - A Taste of Crimson

In the future (or possibly an alternate world), Los Angeles is populated by humans, vampires and werewolves. The vampires are slightly more accepted, thanks to their romanticized image, and they get to live in luxury. But they're kept in line by the Ventrix, a vampire who executes other vampires. The werewolves, on the other hand, live in poverty in tunnels below the city. To make matters worse, the humans have been growing less and less tolerant of both the vampires and the werewolves, and a series of vampire murders that look like they were done by werewolves isn't helping matters.

Keeli Maddox, granddaughter of the Grand Dame Alpha of the LA werewolves, ends up helping Michael, the vampire Ventrix, investigate the murders. Given that this is a paranormal, they unsurprisingly end up attracted to each other, despite the strong animosity between the vampires and the werewolves. Even so, a lot of plot goes on, as some factions are trying for a vampire-werewolf alliance, foreseeing a human effort to get rid of both of them, while others are vehemently opposed and want to stand back and let the humans get rid of the other side first.

Anyway! As you can tell, there's a lot of plotting, which isn't atypical of a Marjorie Liu novel. But what is atypical is that it all makes sense and comes together! I suspect this is the benefit of writing a one-off; the Dirk and Steele series is getting so convoluted and involves so many different mythologies that it can be very difficult to follow.

Also, I was hesitant to read this at first because I'm so sick of vampires and werewolves, but I really like Liu's take on them. I like that the focus is on vampire-werewolf relationships, not on vampire-human or werewolf-human relationships, and I like that neither the vampires nor the werewolves are romanticized. Instead, there's a little commentary on the human propensity for vampires and the vampire image of wealth and luxury and beauty. And I love that the heroine is a werewolf and that she has problems with anger management and violence.

Michael's attractive like most of Liu's heroes; he's silent and has a lot of angst but attempts to be kind and just instead of wallowing. And as mentioned, I love Keeli and her Grand Dame Alpha grandmother.

In conclusion: despite some misgivings at first, this ended up being one of Liu's books that I really liked. It does have more plot than relationship, but on the plus side, the plot is fun and engaging, and I love having a romance heroine who's violent and powerful and not reined in by the hero.

McKillip, Patricia A. - The Bell at Sealey Head

A mysterious bell rings out at Sealey Head every sunset, but not everyone can hear it, and no one knows where the bell is or why it rings. Meanwhile, scholar Ridley Dow has taken up residence at Judd Cauley's inn, Gwyneth the merchant's daughter is being courted by the titled Raven Sproule, and Lady Eglantyne lies dying at Aislinn House, which seems to contain another world inside.

Like many of McKillip's books, the disparate elements end up coming together by the end of the book. I found myself interested in almost all the threads in this book, which is not always the case, and I very much liked her detail on every day life at Sealey Head and the different points of view we got. The mystery resolution felt a little too fast for me; I wanted more details of the world within Aislinn House and more of the history of how the mystery came to be.

While I liked that both Judd and Gwyneth were bookworms, Gwyneth's writing felt a little too self-insert-y for me, but that may be my own personal predilections speaking, as I tend to be bored by fictional representations of authors. Also, given that we were given snippets of her stories, I wanted them to be in a different style, or to contribute more to the story overall. Maybe some people liked the extrapolations of the story of the bell; I wanted more of the actual story, or more meta-commentary within the stories, or something.

Not my favorite McKillip, but pleasant reading nonetheless.

Links:
- gwyneira's review

Nakahara Aya - Love Com, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

Koizumi Risa is the tallest girl in the class, and Otani Atsushi is the shortest guy. Everyone pairs them up because the contrast is so funny, and the two have now decided to do something about it. They'll quash all "All Hanshin Kyojin" taunts by helping each other find dates. The problem is, the more they try to date other people, the more well suited they seem for each other!

Like so much of shoujo, you know exactly where this is going the second the characters are introduced. But Nakahara does it well, and she had me smiling through much of the volume because of how much I liked Koizumi and Otani. Not only do I like them, but I even think they work together as a couple, which sadly isn't always the case in shoujo. Even their squabbling comes off as good natured. I love the way they always answer questions at the same time with the same words and the way they geek out over a musician they both like. Mostly I just like how the two of them are endlessly enthusiastic and seem to have absolutely no ill will in their bodies.

Koizumi doesn't completely break the mold for shoujo heroines (she reminds me a lot of Haruna from High School Debut), but I like that she's not small and cute and girly, and that she stays up too late at night gaming and stressing about whatever big boss she couldn't kill. Granted, the manga version of "not girly" is still very girly by my standards, but she's still refreshing and fun to read about. I also love that Otani is not at all grumpy or angst or silent; he's cheerful and peppy and happy and smiles a ton. They are just so cute together! They grin all the time when they're not squabbling!

I also lilked what happened with the "find each other dates" plot, which could have dragged on for far too long. Instead, it's fairly neatly resolved, and in a way that may not be fully realistic (I wish I had been that mature in high school!) but makes me love all the characters more. And even the secondary couple in the volume is briefly but nicely characterized in a way that makes them feel like people, not tropes.

Fun and fluffy and happy-making, and I am sad my library only has volume 1.