880 and counting …

• Posted in Books I've Read

Finished Playing Easy to Get, an anthology featuring novellas by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jaid Black, and Kresley Cole. I won this one a few weeks ago during a contest over at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread.

Kenyon’s story is about Allison, who wins a book contest and gets whisked away to an island where she gets to pretend to be her favorite romance heroine for a week. Also on the island is Vince, an ex-Mob hitman. But when Vince’s employers track him down, Allison finds herself on the run with the sexy Vince.

Black’s story features Sofia, who travels to Alaska to bury her brother. Sofia gets kidnapped and taken to a lost Viking world underground, where she’s sold as a bride to a warrior named Johen. Cole’s tale is the first in her Immortals After Dark series. This one features the Valkyrie Myst and the vampire Wroth who fight, feud, and eventually fall in love.

I entered the contest because I wanted to try Cole’s Immortals series. I’ve heard lots of folks in blogland raving about her books and wanted to see what the fuss was about. I found her mix of Valkyries, vampires, fey, and more really interesting. Myst was a strong character, along with her sisters, which I appreciated. I also liked the fact they could be transfixed by shiny objects. Something I can relate to. 😎

I liked Wroth okay, until he used a magical chain to control Myst. “Taming someone” is not my favorite story device, especially when Wroth thought about commanding Myst to never go into battle again and forget all about her sisters. Not cool. But he had his reasons, and he eventually came around and redeemed himself. And Cole hooked me with her world, so I’ll be reading the next book in the series.

You can always count on Kenyon for a fun, action-packed read, and she delivers another one in this anthology. I liked the fact Allison kept her head and was really cool when facing down the Mob guys at the end of the story.

Then, there’s Black’s story. Oh my. I did not like this one at all. The writing was fine, but I could not get past the plot. Maybe it’s me. I don’t like stories where women are completely, utterly powerless, and Sofia was exactly that in this story.

Basically, because of their gods’ decree, the Vikings believe women aboveground will eventually die out one day, so they kidnap them, take them underground, and sell them off naked to the highest bidder to strengthen their race against the coming blight. The women are flatly told they can never home and that there’s no chance of escape. That’s bad enough.

But the Vikings claim to love women, to prize and cherish them above everything else. If they respected/loved women so much, why would they kidnap them in the first place and take them away from everything and everyone they love? That didn’t make sense to me. Also, another woman slips Sofia an aphrodisiac before she goes on the auction block to make her more receptive to Johen’s, ahem, advances. To break Sofia into her new life, as it were. Ugh. Other folks out there might like this novella, but it was not a good story for me. I think I was just the wrong reader for it because of the powerless angle. That’s something that really bugs me as a reader.

But then again, I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who are bugged by superheroes and the campy books I write. So live and let live.

I’m splitting my decision for this book. Thumbs up to Kenyon and Cole; thumbs down to Black.

Up next: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas.

Books in my TBR pile: 17.

6 Responses to “880 and counting …”

  1. Chasity says:

    Sugar Daddy is an interesting book. I enjoyed it for the most part. We’ll discuss that after you read it though 🙂

    I’m not much into anthologies. I can’t seem to be able to get into short stories. They are just too short for me to enjoy much, and the character development isn’t usually as good as it should be. Although, I will admit to reading all of Kelley Armstrong’s stories on her website. Those were awesome for me.

    I’ve read Dionne Galace’s novellas and enjoyed them quite a bit.

  2. Jennifer Estep says:

    I’ve been wanting to read SDaddy since it came out in hardcover last year. And voila! There is was in paperback at RT. First book I picked up. :bubbles:

    I like anthologies when I’m writing my own stuff or in the mood for a quick read. That way, I don’t get so involved in the story that I’d rather be reading than writing. And I can take a break if I need to between stories.

  3. Brian says:

    I’ve grown to like short stories. For a long time I was let down by their length, it seemed just as I was getting into it was over. But as I’ve read more and more short stories, I find that because they are shorter doesn’t mean their quailty is any less. In fact I have read two short stories by Annie Proulx in the last few weeks and really enjoyed them both. Really sad stories, but I was pulling for the characters just as much as if I had spent 300 pages with them.

    Also — If you haven’t got the new Bond book, Vanity Fair has excerpt this month. It is on their web site.

    Finally — Are you going to get the new Chuck comic that came out this week? I think it is going to be a six issue run.

  4. Jennifer Estep says:

    Brian — Neil Gaiman has a collection of short stories called Fragile Things you might enjoy, if you haven’t read them already.

    I generally like novels better because you get to spend more time with the characters. But short stories are a nice change of pace every once in a while. I can’t write them though. Not enough words for me.

    Don’t have the new Bond book yet, but I may break down and buy it this weekend. Thanks for the tip about VFair. They also reviewed the Bond book in EWeekly last week. 😎

    I saw some info on the Chuck comic at TV Guide. Looks really cool. I’m planning on picking it up if my local comics store has it. I also need to go and pick up the latest Buffys and Angels …

  5. Brian says:

    I checked out Fragile Things not long after it came out at the library. I remember it having a cool Sherlock Holmes story — I really enjoy reading Holmes stories. Holmes is a great character that is timeless.

    I’m an issue behind on Buffy — My comic book shop didn’t get the issues they ordered. So I’m hopeful it will be their when I go by to pick my books up this week.

    I read that Galaxy Quest is coming out with a comic book series in August. It is being published by IDW. I must say I don’t like the way they publish books. The Angel comics they publish cost a dollar more and are printed in Korea. Why not print them in US or Canada and charge a dollar less?

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