The Orbs and the Gentleman

by Alison Ver Halen

Galadriel paced back and forth as she watched the sun rise higher in the sky. Where was he? It shouldn't have taken him this long. Her mind raced with all the things that could have gone wrong.

Finally, she heard hoof beats. She dove for cover behind a tree, in case in wasn't him.

The hoof beats got much quieter as they left the gravel road for the muddy earth, made soft by the recent spring rains. Then she heard his voice call out, softly, "Gala!"

She closed her eyes in a brief thanks as she released the breath she had been holding in.

"What took you so long?" she hissed as she emerged from behind her tree. "I've been waiting here since midnight!"

"I know, " he said as he dismounted. 'Forgive me. There was a change in the guards. Edward was not at his usual post and so I had to sneak out without being noticed. It wasn't easy, but I do not think my exit was marked."

He took a black felt bag from his belt and held it out to her. Galadriel snatched it from him then turned her back to him as she checked the bag's contents. Two perfectly spherical orbs looked back at her. They were a dark pink, or perhaps a light red, depending on how the light caught them. They seemed to almost glow from the darkness of the bag's bottom. Perfect.

She tucked the bag into her bodice. "And every thing else is in place?" she asked, scarlet skirts swirling as she turned abruptly back around to face him.

"It is."

"Excellent. Go and tell The Madame that we are ready."

He made a curt bow, remounted his horse, and took the road back south, the way he had come.

Galadriel waited until he was out of sight. The plan was for her to wait a few moments then follow him down the road towards the city.

But she had other plans.

Instead, she headed deeper into the woods. She would use the trees as cover to circle around to the back of the city where no on was expecting her to go. Except for one man. One man who would be very happy to get his orbs back.

Galadriel huffed and puffed her way through the gate. She had run all through the forest to get to The Gentleman as fast as she could. The delay of the orbs would surely reflect on her and, if there was one thing in the world she did not want, it was for The Gentleman to think ill of her.

She passed through the city's back gate with a nod to the guards. She slowed her pace and gave herself a chance to catch her breath as she made her way through the streets to the door she was looking for.

She lifted her hand to knock but the door swung open before she had a chance to make any sound.

"You have the orbs?" said a soft voice from the shadows beyond the door.

"I do."

The door swung wider to give Galadriel room to enter. She stepped in and, the moment she crossed the threshold, the door was closed behind her.

"Let's see them, then."

She pulled the back out of her bodice and held it before her.

He took it from her gently, almost reverently, and slowly opened the top to check its contents. He exhaled slowly, as if he hardly dared to breathe, as he looked into the bag.

"Do you think they'll meet with The Gentleman's approval?" asked Galadriel.

"Oh, yes," The Gentleman breathed, as he rolled the orbs about in his palm. "Yes, I am sure he will be quite pleased with these. Thank you, Gala."

Galadriel was too busy smiling in self-satisfaction to see the knife flash. It was only a moment. Then she was lying on the floor, her life gushing out of the gash in her throat.

Elite

by Anne Michelle

Oh my god, this book. I normally mean that in a good way. This time ... not so much.

Here's the thing: I am going to self-publish my novel and thereby enter the ranks of Indie authors (assuming I ever actually finish said novel but that's another matter entirely). With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to start stalking I mean following Indie authors online. So I downloaded a self-published book that one of my stalkees recommended.

Let me start with what I liked. The story was awesome! It was described as a YA sci-fi thriller, similar to "Ender's Game" but with a romantic element. That's pretty accurate so, in that sense, I was very happy to get exactly what I thought I was going to get. The characters were interesting and the relationships between them well-developed. There were a lot of action scenes and those were really intense and well-written. I loved those scenes! There were also moments that were genuinely heart-wrenching and for that, I applaud the author.

The problem with the book is the problem that so many people have complained of self-published books in general: they are not professional. First of all, the formatting was terrible. I read this on my kindle (which I love, btw) and the indentations at the beginning of paragraphs were sporadic at best and there were sections (most of the book, actually) in which the type was a faded gray rather than black. Other sections had black type. Note to self: do not use Smashwords!

Second of all, I doubt this book even had beta-readers look over it before it was published, much less a professional editor. The book was full of typos. I do mean full. The writing style was extremely amateurish. I felt like I was reading something written by a high-schoole (who knows? maybe I was). She seemed to deliberately avoid using "he said/she said" dialogue tags. I don't think she used it once. She always insisted on using the dreaded adverbs (argued back, asked, commanded, etc.) If she was deliberately avoiding the "he said/she said" dogma just for the sake of being rebellious, I can actually get behind that. I fought it myself for a long time, but I have slowly been coming over to the dark side recently. I think it's actually a testament to how good the author's dialogue is that I really wanted her to use "he said/she said". Every time she explained it to me I was all, "I know. It's obvious. Can we move on already?" Her dialogue spoke for itself (no pun intended) which is not always as easy as it looks.

And then there was the crying. Oh, good Lord, the crying! The main character is a seventeen-year-old boy and I am somehow supposed to believe that he is openly crying in front of his friends and brothers and not getting made fun of? Nope. Sorry. I do not believe that. Not for one second. A few tears when you think your brother is dead/dying is one thing. But sobbing (she used that word) in front of your friends just because you didn't get your way is another matter entirely. Even the girl cries too much. Overall, there was just way too much crying in this book. I know they're teenagers with raging hormones but seriously, get ahold of yourself.

Despite the above-mentioned drawbacks, I finished reading the book. Granted, it only took me three days but still, that's three days I could have spent reading a professionally edited book. It shows just how much I liked the story that I was willing to put up with all the bad writing to see how it ended. And yes, I was satisfied with the ending and, ultimately, glad that I read the book. If the author could just clean up her writing, I think she could produce some really stellar work. Best-seller quality. No joke.

Fingersmith

by Sarah Waters

I don't really know what to say about this book. I liked it. I definitely think I liked it. I'm just having a hard time processing it because it didn't turn out to be what I expected it to be.

The book is about a girl in mid-nineteenth century London who is recruited by a friend/thief to help him seduce and then rob an heiress. The plan is to lock the poor heiress up in a mental institution once they are married and the main character will then get a cut of the money. But things go horribly, horribly wrong and that's really all I can tell you. That's all I knew before going in and, should any of you choose to read the book, the last thing I would want to do is spoil it for you. That first major twist was such a huge "Oh, no you DIDN'T!" kind of moment that I wouldn't want to spoil it.

After that the book is full of twists and turns. No one is who you think they are. Everyone's motivations are different and mysterious and hidden. It's almost 550 pages and I read it in about a week because I couldn't put it down. I would definitely recommend it. The book is very well-written and brings nineteenth-century England to life without bogging the reader down with unnecessary details. The writing is just impeccable.

For what it's worth, I was very satisfied with the ending. That's really saying something because, for awhile, I wasn't sure the book could possibly come up with an ending that I would be satisfied with. But then Waters pleasantly surprised me and I was all "Yep, that's exactly where I wanted those characters to end up." *contented sigh*

Ask The Passengers

by A. S. King

Love love LOVE this book! I picked it up from the library after having seen it on BookRiot's list of best books they had read for the month (awesome blog, by the way. You all should check it out. www.bookriot.com). It's about a high school girl in small town America realizing that she is gay.

I love the way this book handles the confusion that the main character experiences as she comes to this realization. She spends most of the book putting off telling anyone that she's gay, less out of fear and more out of a desire not to be boxed into any one category. When her parents ask her point-blank if she's gay, she doesn't deny it, but she doesn't affirm it either. She recognizes that identifying as either gay or straight would result in everyone around her boxing her into a particular category and she doesn't want that. I had never thought of it from that viewpoint before. This book goes beyond the issue of gay pride or shame and deals with the fact that, however we identify ourselves, the people around us will box us in and make assumptions about us accordingly. And that's not always a good thing.

I also think this book did a brilliant job of handling small town high school gossip. The main character knows everything that is being said about her and her family because, somehow, it always makes its way around back to her, as gossip in the real world tends to do. When she talks about a rumor she says, "They say: blah blah blah"  which, to me, seems pretty much exactly how gossip works. She doesn't seem to let it get to her too much though, and I have an enormous amount of respect for her for that.

I also deeply respect her habit of sending out love to perfect strangers. Hence the title. She likes to lay on her back and watch the planes fly overhead and, when she sees one, she sends up her love to all of the passengers on the plane. Every second or third chapter has a short vignette with a passenger on a plane who seems to feel the love that has been sent to them. It's adorable but (IMO) not overly mushy. The end of the book I found particularly delightful. I won't ruin it for you here. Just read the book.

OH MY GOD MY BLOG IS BACK!!! Part II

The Last Colony

By John Scalzi

"You're humanity's only hope." Those words sound so cheesy and yet, somehow Scalzi manages take the cheesiness out of them. Part of how he does that is through his sense of humor. Always good for breaking the ice in tense situations and Scalzi does so numerous times throughout this book.

Also at play is his fantastic character development. The thing that impressed me the most about his first two books were moments when characters did something I hadn't been expecting, but still made sense. Although that never happened here, what did happen was that Scalzi gave me great understanding of characters and their relationships through simple interactions. No inner monologue rambling on for pages and pages. Just simple, straight-forward dialogue and body language which managed to speak volumes, not only about his characters, but about their relationships with each other without the narrator needing to spell it out for me. It was awe-inspiring.

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the last book of the series and I can't wait to read more Scalzi!

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

This is one of those books that I picked up on a whim. While I have nothing against reading YA as an adult, I was a little put-off when I realized that the main character here is twelve. So the target audience is slightly younger than YA. At which point I thought "Oh, whatever. I'll breeze through it in a few days. What there's a sequel? Yeah, well, I don't have to read that."

OMG you guys, I totally want to read the sequel! This book was so much fun! It was fast-paced, action-packed, and, well, Greek gods. Who doesn't love to see Greek Gods in the middle of New York city every now and then? I particularly loved the portrayal of Ares. It seemed pretty much exactly like how I think he would dress and act if he existed in the modern day.

I must admit to being a little rusty on my Greek mythology so I can't say how accurate the book was in that department. I can say that I did not entirely buy the explanation for Percy's dyslexia. The ADD explanation, I can sort of get on board with, but the dyslexia not so much.

I also loved Percy and his friends, and, given that the book ended on an excellent cliff-hanger, I definitely want to read the sequel to find out what happens next!

Beautiful Darkness

by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Not much to say about this book. I did enjoy it and, like the first book of this series, it sucked me in. Once I started reading it was all I wanted to do until I reached the end.

I give this book major props for making me question the relationship between the two main characters. I'm so used to knowing that so-and-so is clearly meant to be with so-and-so and, as a result, no matter what happens, I am never really in fear for their relationship. This book had me wondering though ... Not only if their relationship would survive this, but if it should survive. Or maybe that's just the cynic in me, who knows? In any case, I definitely recommend this book and I cannot wait until I have a chance to get to the sequel.

I just hope it gets made into a movie. I really enjoyed the first movie and was super sad that it crashed in the box office because I really want to see the rest of the series get made into movies. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!

OH MY GOD MY BLOG IS BACK!!!

So, for the past few weeks, I've had this error message pop up every time I tried to write a new blog post. I tried to access Google "help" and they were super helpful (that's sarcasm, btw). I had all but given hope that I would never again be able to update my blog and had begun thinking of going to WordPress when BAM! I can write new posts again! Huzzah! Okay, so I'm not moving to WordPress ... yet ...

So! Here's all the books I've been reading that I haven't been able to write about. I'm going to break this up into 2 posts so it doesn't get too long.

Good Calories, Bad Calories

by Gary Taubs

This book will change everything you ever thought you knew about food and nutrition. It goes against everything we have been told about dietary fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, and even salt. While I already knew much of this going into the book, I still learned quite a lot and I will never look at my food the same way again. I will certainly never look at nutritional "studies" the same way again.

This book does not focus exclusively on what studies do and do not find (which is all you'll ever find in a newspaper). It looks at how those studies were conducted, who conducted them (who paid for them) and what they actually found. The terrifying thing is the discovery that many studies, which are used as cornerstones for certain dietary mantras, have actually been misinterpreted in order to fit the dogma of the time.

Honestly, this book scared the bejesus out of me. Like I said, I'll never look at my food the same way again.

Kushiel's Justice

by Jacqueline Carey

Carey is back! I'm so glad! As I said in my post about "Kushiel's Scion", I was really disappointed by that book. I had been expecting so much more from Carey. Here, she delivered! Although, this book still was not the fast-paced, page-turner that her first three books were, at least it kept moving. I was never left wondering why I was reading this and it contained one whole, cohesive plot.

It's also a plot that I quite enjoyed. I don't know why Carey is so good at doing tortured lovers but she is. I was totally rooting for the two love-birds throughout the book and I can't wait to see how they face their challenges in the next book. Well done, Carey!

My only complaint is the poor editing. You can always tell when an author has started to make some real money because the editors suddenly just stop caring. There were a lot of typos and stupid grammatical mistakes in this book and that's really disappointing. Come on people, how much you do your job should not be inversely proportionate to how much money you make!

The Bonesetter's Daughter

by Amy Tan

Oh my god, this book! It has officially gotten me onto the Amy Tan bandwagon. I know everyone raves about "The Joy Luck Club" but, honestly, it didn't do much for me. Maybe I just wasn't old enough to get it. Or maybe it was the fact that Tan tried to develop several characters and relationships in the space of a fairly small book. By the time I got invested in one character, she'd switch to another.

Then I read "Saving Fish From Drowning" in a fit of determination to understand the genius of Amy Tan. It was an odd book, but I liked it better than "The Joy Luck Club".

"The Bonesetter's Daughter" is about another mother-daughter relationship but it focuses on just one relationship. That's why I think, for me at least, it works better than "The Joy Luck Club". Because it was devoted to one relationship, the book had time to thoroughly explore that relationship. It delved into a huge chunk of the mother's history, enough to explain her quite damaging behavior towards her daughter. It also devoted a sufficient number of pages to the daughter's POV so we could understand her feelings and motivations. By the end of the book, the reader doesn't blame either the mother or the daughter for the terrible pain they have wreaked on each other. And the characters understand that there is no one to blame. It is sad, but there is still love and time to heal.

It's a beautiful story and I highly recommend it.