Is this the most disappointing ending ever?

**WARNING: SPOILERS OF SYLVIA DAY'S CROSSFIRE SERIES**

Right, make yourselves comfortable. This is one of those ranty, unplanned posts which might go on a bit because I am SO ANNOYED!

First things first - I can't go on an erotica rant without briefly mentioning this...

I was a bit late to the party when it came to Fifty Shades of Whatthefuuu so, rather than jump on the bandwagon, I ended up running waaay behind it trailing desperately after all the cool kids and shouting "Heeyyy, waiiit! I've got shit to say about this book too!".

Well, it took me a while to make up my mind about 50 Shades because, having read my fair share of Mills & Boon, I had expected it to be so much worse, and was therefore pleasantly surprised to find some semblance of character development.

I mean, yeah, the inner goddess vs. subconscious waffle was really painful and borderline schizophrenic BUT on the whole, and let's be reasonable here guys...

It. Wasn't. That. Bad.

...Although arguably, the only reason it had any character development was because the characters were based on Bella and Edward (what is it with stupid names? Bella?? Really?) from The Twilight Saga (which I haven't read - disgraceful I know).

...And okay, the repeated vocab was annoying but show me an erotic novel which doesn't repeat itself...at the end of the day - there are only so many words to describe your spam folder!

I mention Fiddy now because, until last night, I thought I'd found a series of erotic fiction that I could hold up to you as an antidote to everything that was wrong with E L James' writing.

The Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day. 

In essence, the story is pretty similar. A pretty-and-successful-but-doesn't-realise-it woman, falls for a ridiculously rich and good-looking man. The books follow their passionate love affair as they fight to overcome their emotional issues in order to stay together yattayattayatta. There's a whole sub/dom element to it but it's not as pronounced as in 50 Shades, which I personally prefer. The plot is more textured, there is more to the characters and it doesn't feel like the author is just using a loose story as an excuse for something to write about when the protagonists aren't banging each other. So far, so good.

I found that I absolutely tore through the first two books because the love story, while completely unbelievable fantasy, was fun and easy to read. The dark side of these books, doesn't necessarily come from the sexual deviance of Eva and Gideon (the main characters, again with the names...), instead, Day uses a sort of crime fiction baseline to give the story drama. Again, I much prefer this type of multi-layered story. I think I would go so far as to say that I really loved the first 2 books. They were welcome, summertime, escapist reads and I think that's why I was so utterly disappointed when I came to the end of the first book last night.

Here's what happened...I was tearing through it, as expected and Day was bringing all sorts of interesting stuff into the plot. The guy that Gideon supposedly killed in the second book was found to be inexplicably linked to the Russian Mafia. This let Gideon off the hook because it raised suspicions that a member of the Mafia killed the guy instead. The police evidence against both possibilities is sketchy but Day brings in bits and pieces of the back story here and there making you wonder exactly how the guy was killed, who was responsible, how that affects Gideon and Eva's relationship etc. etc... and alongside that, we find that Cary has got a girl up the duff!

Alarmingly, we only start to really get into all this when we are like (*looks at Kindle*) 80% of the way through!

Then, all of a sudden, we come to an abrupt end where the Author writes a quick, crappy little note to say that she missed her deadlines so the book is unfinished.

No.

I lie.

She says:

Author's Note

Yes, dear reader, you're right. This can't possibly be the end. 

Gideon and Eva's journey isn't quite finished yet. I look forward to seeing where they'll take us next. 

All my best, 

Sylvia. 

Seriously?

GAAAHGGHGHAAHAHHHHH

Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear your views!

Boo's Reviews| “An explosion in space makes no sound at all.”

[Warning! This review contains spoilers.]

Sisters...sisters...they were never really skinny blisters... (my Dad used to sing this to me and my Sister to the tune of the Irving Berlin song - this is obviously the "not-for-radio" release).

Title: Sister

Genre: Crime Fiction (ish)

Author: Rosamund Lupton

Published: 2012

This book came to me in a little pile that my Mum-out-Law gave me. They were surplus novels from her work's reading shelf (they have a one-shelf limit!!). To be honest, this book went unloved and unnoticed for months because of the company it was keeping (Mills & Boon do not a goodread make!). Anyway, I ran out of books to read a week before payday so I turned to it in desperation fully expecting a sickly, pink-filled, cream puff of yuckiness. 

Oh how very wrong I was...

Sister follows the story of Bee, a busy executive in NY, One morning, she receives a call from her mum in England telling her that her sister is missing. Bee hotfoots it back to Blighty in a complete panic since Tess' disappearance is so out of character and, as we discover, she (Tess) is heavily pregnant.

When Tess' body is found in some park toilets with slit wrists, the Police close the case and treat it as suicide. 

But Bee knows her sister and is adamant that there are other evils at work.

Everything is told from Bee's point of view, with the timeline flitting backwards and forwards between her giving her statement to a Police Officer and writing a letter to Tess, her sister, explaining how she came to discover that her presumed suicide was, in fact, murder.

It is a sort of "whodunnit" really; a pleasant surprise because I really wasn't expecting a murder mystery.

We start with a missing girl, then a body, then a motive, then the struggle of trying to get the police to believe that it is murder not suicide - all the way back to working out who the murderer is and how they did it.

I found the writing style was quite hard to stomach at first. I thought that the flowery vocabulary was complete overkill. I felt a bit like the author was trying to prove that they could write well, or something. However, once you get to know the characters a bit more, you realise that the language is totally suited to the older sister's accidentally condescending personality. In the end, the vernacular chosen by the writer for Bee, the main character, served to enrich my experience of her. Once you are accustomed to the many layers of Bee's character and her gradual blending into Tess', you begin to see just how many dimensions there are to her character. The many layers of emotion that Lupton adds to her protagonist forces you to put yourself in her situation. In this way, you discover how love can control, change, destroy and heal.

Warning: You will probably cry and, if you have a sister it will be almost unbearable (but totally worth it).

All-in-all, "Sister" is an excruciating, tear-jerking, interesting and satisfying read. I would thoroughly recommend it. 

Keep bookwormin'!

Becky

Bookish Favourites of 2012

Late to the party? Moi?? 

These are my favourites from the books I read during 2012. Let me know what you think of my choices in the comments - have you read any of them? What did you think? What would your favourites be?

MY FAVOURITE 2012 ...

Biography

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

  

Maya Angelou takes us through her early years living in a small community in the 1930s. She charts her odd upbringing and underlines the courage of Black Men and Women who have influenced her life. 

I thought this was pretty good. I love Angelou's style and it's a pleasure to read the evocative scenes where you can really imagine the people and places of her childhood. It is an emotional read but very subtle with it, bringing laughter and tears. The only downside was that it didn't hold my attention in places.

Chick Lit/ Romance/ Erotic Fiction

Reflected In You - Sylvia Day

Why on earth did Day's Bared to You trilogy miss out on all the Fifty Shades action? It almost went completely under my radar. If it wasn't for my (frankly a bit pervy) Aunt in publishing (can i get a WoooooOOOooo?)then I probably wouldn't have even picked it up! Stop wetting your pants over Christian and come and meet Giggidy Gideon (what is it with characters in these kinds of books having stupid names?). Anyway, I'm serious. The sex is better (no Tampax ickiness, no cliched Red Room of Pain), the story's better (i.e. it isn't just "padding" between sex scenes) and the writing is better (no "inner goddess" - my Inner Goddess was very relieved!).

Classic

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein

I won't bother summarising this because if you don't already have an inkling as to the plot, there is only 

Yep, I only read this book this year. For shame! 

It is simply everything you could wish for in a Children's Epic.

The blueprint for every fantastical tale I've read since.

Fiction

I am cheating because there are so many good books - I have 2 faves for the Fiction books I read in 2012. I probably could have split them into sub-categories bit oh well...

The Help - Kathyryn Stockett

Truly uplifting. I love the writing style. The dialectal way in which Stockett tells the 2 sides of the story. It is witty, topical and an all round feelgood read. 

(The film is also very good; close to the book and the acting is absolutely on point.)

The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

I loved this. It is an intricate fairy tale retelling, taking in many aspects of traditional (mainly Grimm) fairy tales and transforming them into a complicated, dark and sometimes visceral plot. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of using childhood stories to explore adult themes of loss, grief, envy and love.

I would recommend this if you enjoyed: Any Grimm Fairy Tales, Tender Morsels, Tom's Midnight Garden or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister...

Crime

Echo Park - Michael Connelly

I used to be really in to crime thrillers and murder mysteries when I was a kid. Probably thanks to my diet of Famous Five and Secret Seven books! I then progressed to Nancy Drew when I was a teenager. Since then though, I haven't really read many "crime" novels. I think I sort of thought "been there, done that".


Well, that was until I discovered Michael Connelly. I was a little put off by the fact that he is one of those writers that just seems to bash these things out, which always puts me off because it makes me doubt the quality of the writing. I know it shouldn't do and it's silly - don't worry though. I fully admit that I was wrong. Very wrong.


This book was intriguing because it was about a closed case where the murderer had never been caught. Years later, an absolute nutjob admits to the killing but good ol' Detective Harry Bosh doesn't believe him and sets out to solve the cold case himself. Dun dun dunnnn....

Fantasy

The Wicked Years Quadrilogy - Gregory Maguire

Okay so I'm properly cheating now because this is actually 4 books but I'm counting it as one entry...deal with it!

You may not be famiiar with the story of Wicked but most people will have heard of it by now, thanks to the incredibly popular stage show on Broadway and in The West End.

The books follow the life of the Wicked Witch of the West and her family/ associates.

You will want to invest time in these because they suck you in until before you know it, you have spent a month reading with barely any sleep living a half-life because your mind is constantly in Oz!

In my opinion this is everything fantasy should be. There is comedy, magic, mystery, tragedy and green-people sex - what's not to love!?

Historical Fiction

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

Not for the faint-hearted! This novel is exquisite but long. It is a proper saga. I love the very French feel of Faulks' novels and I love how intimately he knows the people and places in his stories.

Not a traditional love story and definitely no gushing, this is a spectacular tale that you can really believe in.

Make sure you have your Kleenex at the ready - it's a weepy!

Non-Fiction

Do Not Pass Go - Tim Moore

My family used to play Monopoly quite a lot but I wasn't a major fan, mainly because I almost always lost to my much-less-gullible sister! That said, you don't need to be a Monopoly superfan to find this book charming, hilarious and interesting.

I think it was an inspired idea of Tim's to tour London and try and discover why the Monopoly Board streets were chosen. His mission takes him all across London and he makes some interesting and weird discoveries and tells us about them in a very witty way. This book reminds me of Bill Bryson's Notes on a Small Island. Brilliant stuff!

Science Fiction

Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Don't know how I lived so long without ever reading this. It is a must-read for all bookworms. I don't consider myself as a particular sci-fi fan but fear not - this is more of a future dystopia dealy. In a future where books are feared by the government because their influence cannot be controlled; in a society where the government are trying to discourage free-thinking; one man steals a book that he is supposed to have burnt...

I could read this every month and not get bored. This story has so many layers that you uncover something new each time and the state-control aspect of it is muted, rather than over-exaggerated like it is in other dystopia . The scariness is more implied than stated and I think that makes everything even scarier!

Travel

The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow - A J Mackinnon

A J Mackinnon has my total admiration for being a nutter, in a pith helmet, sailing a Mirror Dinghy to Romania...

Anyone who owns or has ever sailed a trusty Mirror, will be able to sympathise completely with the various pains of long-haul sailing and camping in what is effectively a plywood box!

This book is written in a very natural style which is both absorbing and hilarious. I would say that the story loses momentum a little towards the end of the voyage but I enjoyed it all the same and that's all that matters, isn't it?

Young Adult Fiction

Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

I thought this was a very cool YA story. The kind of thing that you don't have to be a teenager to enjoy.

A girl gets turned into an old woman by a particularly nasty witch. She seeks refuge in an old, magical, moving castle which is home to a grumpy wizard who is renowned for kidnapping girls. 

There is nothing too taxing/tragic/emotionally demanding in there, just humour, magic and mystery.

So there you have it - those are my 2012 picks - what would yours be and why?

'Til next time!

Becky

Boo's Reviews| "For in every adult there dwells the child that was..."

"...and in every child there lies the adult that will be."

Afternoon my fellow Geekoids!

This book was so delicious that I actually want to talk about it properly with possible spoilers so if you haven't read it... GO. Now. Come back when you're done and we can have a lovely time exploring the intricacies of a book that was so epic, it feels like I just watched the Imax film.

Title: The Book of Lost Things
Author: John Connolly
Published: 2006

This is a book for book lovers. Set during WWII, the basic premise is that a young boy starts to hear books talking to him after he suffers the tragic loss of his mother, due to illness.

These voices lead him to the discovery of a different world in his back garden where fairy tales are true. He is advised to visit the elusive King, keeper of "The Book of Lost Things", to see if his book holds any clue as to how he can get back home.

David, the protagonist, is a boy who has lost his mother. The writer makes it obvious, from the outset, that David has a few deep-seated issues. Namely OCD, post-traumatic stress and jealousy. The OCD is brought on by the belief that certain ways of doing things will bring him "good luck" and save his mother from her illness. When this doesn't work, David appears to suffer a sort of post-traumatic stress (in a time where such "sensitivities" were seldom understood). It is around this time that he starts to hear his books talking to him.

When his father, who is apparently away a lot working for GCHQ (to crack the Enigma maybe?), moves them into his girlfriend's house and has a new baby with her, David starts to feel jealous of the newborn.

After what seems like quite a lot of build-up, David discovers a certain place in the garden which allows him to enter into another land Narnia-stylee. Fom here on it all gets very fantastical and scary and weird.

He finds himself in a wood. Nothing too scary about woods right? Only slightly alarming thing at this point is that he doesn't appear to be able to turn around and get back out the way he came in. Obviusly us reader's saw this coming, and that is why we are never so foolish as to wander into other worlds without first checking that we can get in and out. Foolish child! Anyway, not to worry because he meets a wood cutter who acts all gruff and makes him run with him out of the forest (yeah that's right sorry, it's not a wood, it's a forest - fairy tales have forests not woods. We can blame the Brothers Grimm for that). The reason they are running, w discover is because the forest is full of scary things, Including horrible werewoleves, women hunters that butcher children, trolls and the seriously creepy "Crooked Man".

Portrayal of The Crooked Man from The Book of Lost Things by erinevenight on deviantart.com http://erinevenight.deviantart.com

The Wood Cutter tells him a story and then agrees to help him find his way out of the forest. He does as promised but doesn't manage to take David any further than the canyon at the edge of the forest. David crosses over the canyon via a suitably perilous bridge all by himself. He tries to follow a road that he thinks will take him to see the king. He gets lost and nearly killed a few more times on the way until he eventually meets a knight in shining armour.

The knight is on a mission, of course, to rescue or else find what became of a fellow knight and "dear friend" (nudge, wink) who went to kill a witch or something. He promises to help David - if David will first accompany him on his mission. David agrees and the mission turns out to be far more complicated and deadly than either of them had anticipated.

Eventually, after defeating a dreadful monster and breaking into a well defended, moving, castle, the Knight and Boy err...part ways. Leaving David and, handily, the Knight's horse to complete their journey to the King alone *sob*.

Now I'm not gonna lie, this summary is pretty bloody long and, as you can imagine, so is the book. It is by no means a light read. However, the reason that I found it so fantastic was the sheer detail in the fairy tale crossovers. It truly felt like I was living a half-life while I read this. I barely ate or slept. I felt like I was on David's journey with him and oh how I cried. It's not exactly full of belly laughs but there are a few feel good moments and the ending is really bittersweet.

I love, Love, LOVE the characters. Connolly proves himself to be well versed in fairy tales and the intangible magical nature of them. He uses his knowledge to create characters that are recognisable to all of us as, for example: the woodcutter, the big bad wolf, Rumplestiltskin, the Knight in Shining Armour, etc. etc. Yet, Connolly makes these incarnations completely his own with the twisting of small details and the development of richer personalities from those well-known stereotypes.

One of the main themes is that books are alive; that they want, and are intended to, be read by someone. This book is exactly that, a magical story that wants to be read.

Stylistically perfect and literally fantastic.

'Til next time Bookwormies...

Becky

Boo's Reviews| Quite Interesting Creatures

What do you think when you see something described as "Remarkable"? I think it is an understated, Victorian gentleman way of saying "OMGz0rs - you HAVE to see THIS!". No? Just me then...

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier is not the kind of book I usually like to read. It is a historical novel but does not, like the other historical novels I have read, involve war, romance or passion of any kind. Oh no, this book is much more high brow.

I didn't look up anything about this novel before I strated to read it and it was only when I Wikipedia'd it at about Chapter 6 that I discovered that it's (loosely) based on a true story. The plot is a sort of "before they were famous" story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpott. (Who?). Only two of the greatest fossilists of all time! (Yup - fossilists...*wince*).

I sense I might be losing you slightly at this juncture so let me just give you a quick whizz through the main plot points.

Mary Anning is a poor, uneducated girl from Lyme Regis and Elizabth Philpott is an upper-class London spinster fallen on slightly hard times; forcing her to move to the same town. Mary collects "curies" (short for "curiosities" or fossils) from the beaches at Lyme and sells them to tourists without fully understanding what they are. Elizabeth becomes interested in fossil collecting and, with her education, begins to analyse the specimens they find and raise questions as to the kind of creatures they belonged to. Then (what feels like a gazillion years later) Mary finds a complete monster, digs it up, sells it to a rich man. He puts it in a museum, loads of important scientists (all men) study it and start to ask the same questions as Elizabeth. Thus begins a lot of hoo-hah between creationists and scientists (this is before Darwin). The rest of the novel is about Elizabeth struggling to help Mary get the recognition she deserves from the science world.

Bored? I told you it was high-brow!

You need to persevere until Mary finds the monster. Then things start to get more interesting. I have to say, I started to engage with the story a lot more once I realised it was based in truth BUT it was still a chore. I won't lie.

Well, that's about all of the negative out of the way. It probably says more about me than anything else; I found it dull because it dealt with issues such as progress, scientific understanding, the "limiting" nature of religion, feminism, creationism, other -isms... It lacked the visceral, vital, soulful qualities that usually excite me (sex, violence, rock & roll \m/).

The positives - What IS remarkable is Chevalier's writing. She must have had to do so much research to pack as much into this novel as she does. It's not a particularly hefty book! Her attention to detail really made the scenery come alive and that was what kept my attention. She does have the enviable ability to immerse her readers in the history and she really makes it easy to imagine yourself there with the characters that she describes so well. Chevalier's character portraits were so rich in detail that they were almost dickensian! The only problem was that I found it so hard to relate to them, Again, that might just be my problem and nothing to do with the way it was written. I felt like I - to use a geeky Harry Potter reference - had fallen into Dumbledore's Pensieve and was watching Elizabeth and Mary's actual memories being replayed. A compliment attesting to the rich imagery Chevalier evokes but a criticism also - due to the feeling that I was watching from a distance, and never truly felt any empathy for the characters, nor any familiarity.

On a scale of not-at-all-interesting to remarkable, I would say that this novel achieves QI status. It is quite interesting but not so much so that I would read it again in a hurry. I will definitely be sampling some more of Tracy's work though because I think it was definitely the subject matter that was the turn-off and I was blown away by her writing style. Your recommendations for Chevalier novels would be most welcome - leave me a comment if you've got a good'un!

Read this if you love: Ross Gellar from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Paleontology, philosophical discussions on religion and science???