Review: How To Marry A Werewolf

How To Marry A Werewolf by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Carriger's introduction of novellas that give a little bit more backstory on some of the side characters found in her main novels has been a really interesting approach at giving the reader more of the characters. Sadly, the length of the novellas inherently limit that 'more' quite a bit. We don't get the full build-up and nuance of rumor and romance that is common in her longer novels.
I always find myself wishing for a little more, which I guess is both a good thing and a bad thing.

'How to Marry' gives us the backstory of Major Channing, but not until almost the very end of the story. His love interest Faith turns out to be a much more interesting character. An American geology fancier with a questionable reputation and thoroughly terrible parents. I would have really liked a longer novel about her, something that explains how is has been able to stay a kind, thoughtful person with her background. She has hints of a cunning nature that with a little bit more cynicism would make her a very formidable force. I am hoping that we'll see that part of her bloom in later books.

Biffy and Lyall do show up at one point and are awesome (I don't think that they could be anything else) and we get a few more hints of the personalities of the other pack members and possible characters that might show up in future books, but the story is mainly about Faith hunting Channing and Channing not quite getting it and FEELINGS. I was a little surprised how dim he was honesty when it sounded like he has spent the last 100 years meditating on his own emotional being in the hopes of suppressing it.

Faith's cousin is a darling character who I hopes shows up again, but we only get a few lines about the pack's babies. Basically, they are fine.

Fast read, a nice little snack for the Carriger fan who wants a bit of romance and high emotions.

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Review: Lady of Devices

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first in a YA Steampunk series, Lady of Devices suffers from both uneven world building and character development. It's hard to take a character seriously as an accomplished chemist when we are introduced to her by having her blow something up due to 'wanting to see what would happen' when she added somethings together against the instruction of her professor. I'm not sure if the unevenness of Lady Clair's character was the author's attempt to show us that she is a sheltered teen or just shaky writing of a first book.

Both Lady Clair and the author seem to get a grip as the story progresses, and by the time she takes her new charges in hand has a clearer idea of the character and story. However, one can't get around the fact that this book is mostly a set-up for the rest of the series so most of it is introductions.
Sadly most of the characters that you know will show up in later books have the same shaky sketch of their characters that Lady Clair has at the end of the book. The idea that Lord James, someone the reader can only suppose is in his mid-twenties and well-versed in society at this point would take such offence at a school girl's inability to pick-up on his interest in her that he holds it against her to such an extent makes one wonder.

The world building is fairly minimal, leaning heavily on basic steampunk tropes, but it does help to keep the plot moving, not getting weighted down by explanation. The overall pacing, once I got into it, goes quite fast. I was easily able to read the book in one day and is a perfectly fine YA book.

After a bit of a bumpy start I only hope that the series smooths out as I enjoyed the concept.

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Review: Romancing the Werewolf

Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You can read this novella if you haven't read any of the Parasol books, however, you won't get most of the jokes, you'll have very little idea what's going on, and the bit about the Wicker Chicken will fly over your head. But you know, it is possible to read it much like it's possible to wear a hat made entirely of cheese and assorted baked good. You do you.

That being said, this book is the long awaited reunion of Buffy and Lyall, a couple I am highly invested in. which, might be one of the reasons that I found this book good, but not fainting couch good. The length of a novella might not have been the best place to delve into the relationship of these two. I'm hoping that there will be a bit more fleshing out of Lyall's time away from pack with the 3rd Custard Protocol book that will fill in some of the holes and emotional aspect.

However, it is a fun little holiday story that introduces a character of two that I am hoping to see later on *CoughRobinCough* even though it doesn't have quite the emotional payoff one had hoped for the reunion. It also lays out some of the difficulties that Buffy is facing with the pack, which hopefully we will be able to see more of later on.

Fast read, took me less than three hours, and has some great call-backs for those who are well antiquated with the rest of the series. Looking forward to the novella for Channing, the guy is a bastard, but a big old softy...a crusty marshmallow if you will.

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Review: Third Daughter

Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This story was sort of all over the place.

First off, although it bills itself as a romance...eh I would say that that part of the story line was tenuous at best. It sort of felt a bit tagged on just to give easy reasons for some of the character's actions. The author could have easily just said that Aniri was 17 and not really into the idea of getting married, instead wanting to travel and track down her father's killers and that reasoning would have worked just as well as a motivator.

I also had to keep reminding myself that Aniri was 17 and thus prone to making bad choices, although I found it hard to believe that she had never bothered to learn anything about the politics of her court or the surrounding lands at any point. You would have thought that someone who seemed so interested in traveling would have bother to sit down one afternoon and read a bit about the places she was interested in.

And perhaps that's the biggest weak spot in the book, everything seems to have been cobbled together with a basic idea without much in the way of addressing some of the deeper issues of world and character building. At no point was I clear on if the story was happening on earth in some sort of steampunk version of India or if it was happening on another planet. I mean, great we aren't in Victorian England for once, but where the heck are we? I found myself constantly second guessing the world building and technology due to uncertain geography and thus never quite getting into the flow of the story.

That said, some of the settings and tech was interesting, the story perfectly serviceable, although Anrir got pretty irritating and some of the other side characters had me rising my eyebrows. There was a lot of repetition in the last bit of the book like the author realized that she needed to finish the book and wasn't quite sure how to get there in a timely manner.

Overall, if there had been a bit clearer idea just where the world was it would have improved the story as a whole.

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Review: The Magpie Lord

The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was somewhat wary about reading this as I have read some of Charles' most recent books and loved them and was a bit worried about how strong her earlier works might be (Prachett I'm looking at you).

Fear Not!
The Magpie Lord is right up there with her more current works, and dare I say, much more amusing.

In creating a believable magical system that the characters then explain without the reader getting bored of would be an accomplishment in and of itself. However, taking the already overdone setting of a magical Victorian England and making the idea feel new and different really takes the cake, and not a hard-yet-soggy fruitcake either, a proper cake.

I adored Crane and Day, and spent most of the books wishing that Crane would just throw Day over his shoulder and the two of them run off to China together to live in snarky magical love together. However, the mystery as to who or what was trying to kill Crane was much too interesting to wish for the character's total abandonment of the plot to hard.

The only thing missing to make the story really luridly Gothic was a painting hidden under a vale in the attic and some deranged monks. It was wonderful.

I am fully on board for further Magpie books, although not in the first-class cabins as I've heard what people get up to in them.

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