Fiction

American Ghost

TW raved about American Ghost and I kind of rolled my eyes at her assuming her rave review was based only on the setting of the book. (North/Central Florida.) (And I can understand why that kind of thing can cause one to have an over-inflated love of a book. Happens to me quite often, too.)

But, turns out, the book is just pretty darn good all around. Good characters. Good story. It keeps a nice pace, all the way through — never too fast or too slow. I wasn’t sure when we got to the part that brought the Frazier brothers to Florida but I loved both of those guys. Loved the way they came into town and how they interacted with the community while looking for the “fangers”.

I never thought I’d say I’d love a book about exhibition lynchings. But I did.

PS. Nothing good can come of going to a fish camp. Or a hunting camp. Do not go. I’ve been saying this for years. Can’t say it enough. Do. Not. Go.

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The Teahouse Fire

After reading The Last Nude and loving it, I was surprised to see that TW only gave The Teahouse Fire three stars on GoodReads. Now that I’ve finally made my way through it, I understand.

There were a lot of problems with this one — it’s really long, the storyline is less than plausible, the ending was a lot far-fetched (and even worse, unnecessary.) I wanted to really love it, and I did love parts of it. Cut 100 pages or even 50 pages and change the epilogue drastically and this would have been a great book.

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Collateral

Ah, Ellen Hopkins and her novels in prose. Love/hate, love/hate. About Collateral, love/hate, as well.

Realistic but not realistic. The ending, not quite right. The book leads the reader to attribute Cole’s “problems” to his military service when, in my opinion, he had some of those tendencies prior to his trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was raised to be more conservative than Ashley was. They were never going to be a good match, military service or not.

Love/hate. Love/hate.

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The Secret of the Fortune Wookie

Hard to believe but I think The Secret of the Fortune Wookie ended up being my favorite in the series, so far.  I wasn’t sure that was going to be the case since Dwight wasn’t in much of the book – but nope, I loved it. I really did. I am appalled by the “Fundamental” program starting at their school in the next quarter but confident that THE FORCE will be with them. 

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Princess Elizabeth’s Spy

I think I liked Princess Elizabeth’s Spy more than I liked Mr Churchill’s Secretary.  I liked the little princesses. I like Maggie (mostly) without a man – too bad she doesn’t seem to be able to keep from entering relationships with so many of them. Sheesh. The next book is going to be awfully complicated and I’m a little disgruntled about Maggie’s mom… I knew it was coming but still, I’m not loving that. I hope I like it better as it plays out.

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The Last Nude

In my quest to read my lesbian fiction, I sometimes stop and grab recently reviewed or mentioned titles from The Lesbrary feed in my feedreader. The Last Nude is one that I added to my library reserve list after seeing it on that blog. I’m glad I did. It was even better than I expected it to be, part one, in particular. Part two… well, I didn’t hate it but it was somewhat unsatisfying but that’s probably the best way to leave a story about Lempicka’s life.

Tamara de Lempicka was fascinating, in this book and in everything I’ve ever read about her… it would have been fascinating to meet her.  Here’s the page that shows her work, during the primary period of the book. La belle Rafaëla  in red is better than the green.

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Mr. Churchill’s Secretary

The first few pages of Mr. Churchill’s Secretary made me nervous because I wasn’t feeling the instant love. I kept plodding along because EVERYONE I know really liked it. By the time I was 75 pages in, I was hooked  and I must find  out what happens to Maggie Hope next! (I sure wish Aunt Edith wasn’t stuck in the USA, because I’d like more of her. I’m not so taken with Edmund, but maybe he will grow on me?)

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The Salt God’s Daughter

I gave The Salt God’s Daughter four stars on GoodReads, I probably should have given it three… there were some parts that I loved and some that bored me and I felt a little let down by the ending (not because I wanted a different ending but because I don’t think it was as well-told as the majority of the book.

I loved the beginning. I hated the beginning of part 2. Part 3, I enjoyed – until the end.

I’m doing that deep sighing thing right now – yep, I probably should have given it a three.  Three and a half would really be ideal.

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When It Happens to You

I didn’t expect much from Molly Ringwald’s When It Happens to You. Interlinked short stories … that could have meant anything and I was  expected to be all ho hum about it. Turns out, it was pretty darn good.

Each story was linked and the connections were strong enough so that you weren’t jarred (too badly) when moving from one to another. It was a little hard not to feel like this was all about Greta and Phillip – since they (along with Charlotte) featured so prominently in most of the stories. In that way, the stories might have been a little TOO interlinked. But, the writing was good and I liked most of the characters. I’d definitely read another novel by Ringwald.

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The Chaperone

I finally found time to read The Chaperone, FINALLY. It’s been on my TBR list for ages. Sheesh.

I really enjoyed it – the Louise Brooks aspect and the story of Cora. I would have liked it more if there wasn’t quite so much time packed into the book, or if it was another 100 pages. Time passed so quickly without any real character growth once Cora came back to Kansas.

(And now I want to watch some Louise Brooks movies, lol.)

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