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oyceterSorry for spamming! And yes, guess who has a paper due tomorrow?
Maggie Shayne, "Animal Magnetism"
I skimmed this. It's about a vet who can read the minds of animals and a cop investigating a serial rapist; they're brought together when he asks her to look at a dog whose owner was raped. I had brief hopes for this when the heroine cuffed the hero to the bed and proceeded to have sex with him, but sadly, she was just fulfilling his favorite sexual fantasy as a way to prove she could really read animals' minds. I am not sure I can even go into how many ways that doesn't make sense. Also, she's supposed to be icy and cold and prickly, and while she is on the surface, all we really see of her is her being sweet to animals. On a side note, I found her powers singularly unconvincing, as all her demonstrations of dog mind reading made them sound human and not at all dog-like. The resolution of the rape storyline is also stupid, and I HATE HATE HATE that so many books about serial rapists are all about random strangers raping women, given the actual statistics.
Marjorie M. Liu, "Hunter's Kiss"
I think Liu's Hunter Kiss series is just not for me, as I skimmed the first chapter of The Iron Hunt and this story and couldn't make headway into either of them. It's the voice. It's too choppy, and it feels like it wants to be hard-boiled and edgy, but it just isn't. Also, like Liu's other books, the heroine and the hero are attracted to each other despite not knowing each other very well. Unlike some of Liu's other books, this totally doesn't work for me here. Also, there's some angst about Maxine being a demon killer and her demon tattoos (I am so sad I am bouncing off this! Demon tattoos!!) that is not very angsty.
Alyssa Day, "Wild Hearts in Atlantis"
And this goes to show why I used to avoid paranormal romance like the plague. So there are these Warriors of Poseidon, who live in Atlantis and have been sworn to protect mankind. Our Warrior of Poseidon hero has been asked to contact a shape shifter to negotiate something or the other. Oh, and another Warrior was the prisoner of some immortal vampire queen.
... yeah.
If this had even felt like comic book crack, like a lot of Marjorie Liu's worldbuilding does (adding Faerie is just too much for me!), I would have kept reading, but instead, we get tall, leggy, and gorgeous shape shifter feeling all down and ugly because she can't shift, and the hero has to tell her how gorgeous she is, and... yeah. Didn't even bother skimming to the end.
Meljean Brook, "Paradise"
I borrowed the book for this short story. Alas, it has most of Brook's flaws and none of the things I like. I was intrigued by the Guardian Selah in Demon Angel; she seems very righteous and an ideal angel, which made it even more interesting when she had her blood sucked by a vampire while handcuffed. She's paired with another vampire here, and again, I appreciate how Brook pairs her women off with younger men (relatively speaking, since her women are centuries old, while her men are mostly decades old). On the other hand, Selah's characterization makes no sense whatsoever. We get told that she finds duty incredibly important, and that's why she forces Lucas the vampire to suck her blood (he's weakening and she needs him strong). But honestly, the scene reads as anything but that—without the explanation, I would have guessed that Selah finds it an incredible turn-on to have her blood sucked and doesn't want to admit that to herself, therefore couching it in term of duty. Alas, I think we're just supposed to buy the duty thing.
Lucas is also boring; he had some angsty thing with a now-dead vampire that I do not remember. Oh well. It still gets points for the hero totally losing control when it comes to biting and/or sex, which results in him basically being pinned down the entire time by the heroine.
Maggie Shayne, "Animal Magnetism"
I skimmed this. It's about a vet who can read the minds of animals and a cop investigating a serial rapist; they're brought together when he asks her to look at a dog whose owner was raped. I had brief hopes for this when the heroine cuffed the hero to the bed and proceeded to have sex with him, but sadly, she was just fulfilling his favorite sexual fantasy as a way to prove she could really read animals' minds. I am not sure I can even go into how many ways that doesn't make sense. Also, she's supposed to be icy and cold and prickly, and while she is on the surface, all we really see of her is her being sweet to animals. On a side note, I found her powers singularly unconvincing, as all her demonstrations of dog mind reading made them sound human and not at all dog-like. The resolution of the rape storyline is also stupid, and I HATE HATE HATE that so many books about serial rapists are all about random strangers raping women, given the actual statistics.
Marjorie M. Liu, "Hunter's Kiss"
I think Liu's Hunter Kiss series is just not for me, as I skimmed the first chapter of The Iron Hunt and this story and couldn't make headway into either of them. It's the voice. It's too choppy, and it feels like it wants to be hard-boiled and edgy, but it just isn't. Also, like Liu's other books, the heroine and the hero are attracted to each other despite not knowing each other very well. Unlike some of Liu's other books, this totally doesn't work for me here. Also, there's some angst about Maxine being a demon killer and her demon tattoos (I am so sad I am bouncing off this! Demon tattoos!!) that is not very angsty.
Alyssa Day, "Wild Hearts in Atlantis"
And this goes to show why I used to avoid paranormal romance like the plague. So there are these Warriors of Poseidon, who live in Atlantis and have been sworn to protect mankind. Our Warrior of Poseidon hero has been asked to contact a shape shifter to negotiate something or the other. Oh, and another Warrior was the prisoner of some immortal vampire queen.
... yeah.
If this had even felt like comic book crack, like a lot of Marjorie Liu's worldbuilding does (adding Faerie is just too much for me!), I would have kept reading, but instead, we get tall, leggy, and gorgeous shape shifter feeling all down and ugly because she can't shift, and the hero has to tell her how gorgeous she is, and... yeah. Didn't even bother skimming to the end.
Meljean Brook, "Paradise"
I borrowed the book for this short story. Alas, it has most of Brook's flaws and none of the things I like. I was intrigued by the Guardian Selah in Demon Angel; she seems very righteous and an ideal angel, which made it even more interesting when she had her blood sucked by a vampire while handcuffed. She's paired with another vampire here, and again, I appreciate how Brook pairs her women off with younger men (relatively speaking, since her women are centuries old, while her men are mostly decades old). On the other hand, Selah's characterization makes no sense whatsoever. We get told that she finds duty incredibly important, and that's why she forces Lucas the vampire to suck her blood (he's weakening and she needs him strong). But honestly, the scene reads as anything but that—without the explanation, I would have guessed that Selah finds it an incredible turn-on to have her blood sucked and doesn't want to admit that to herself, therefore couching it in term of duty. Alas, I think we're just supposed to buy the duty thing.
Lucas is also boring; he had some angsty thing with a now-dead vampire that I do not remember. Oh well. It still gets points for the hero totally losing control when it comes to biting and/or sex, which results in him basically being pinned down the entire time by the heroine.
(no subject)
Fri, Dec. 12th, 2008 07:00 am (UTC)*points to icon*
(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Dec. 12th, 2008 12:58 pm (UTC)WHY DOES AN ANIMAL KNOW HIS FAVORITE SEXUAL FANTASY OMG
(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 12:11 am (UTC)... actually, that may not be much better than what I had previously implied.
I personally feel dogs do not take note of what porn their owners are watching, but hey, what do I know?
(no subject)
Tue, Dec. 16th, 2008 01:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 02:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Dec. 16th, 2008 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Dec. 25th, 2008 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Dec. 12th, 2008 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 12:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Dec. 15th, 2008 01:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Dec. 12th, 2008 07:50 pm (UTC)Good luck with your paper, from a fellow procrastinator. (Hopefully luck can reverberate backwards through time?)
(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 12:12 am (UTC)And thank you! Paper is now done (I was on time, partner was late, though it was ok b/c due date was extended) and turned in, whoo!