When Dimple Met Rishi - Sandhya Menon

When Dimple Met Rishi was one of my most-anticipated reads for Fall 2017.  It seemed like it had so many things going for it: main characters who aren't white (diversity matters), a young woman in a STEM field (Dimple has a passion for coding), and a romance plot with an arranged marriage--or rather, a hopefully arranged engagement, since Dimple isn't actually aware of the fact that her parents are trying to hook her up with an Ideal Indian Husband, though she knows her mother wants her to get married.  Unfortunately, I felt like this book ultimately fell short of my expectations.

The story follows the two title characters as they attend Insomnia Con, a six-week app-coding bootcamp, the summer before they enter their freshman years of college.  Dimple dreams of being a coder.  It is her passion, and attending Insomnia Con and winning the app-coding competition for a chance to work with her idol seems like a coup that she won from her reserved parents, especially considering the thousand-dollar fee that she knows is a stretch for her family to afford.  Rishi, on the other hand, is resigned to being an engineer like his CEO father, though his true passion is drawing comic art.  He attends Insomnia Con mainly to get to know Dimple, as his parents and Dimple's parents know each other and think the two would be an ideal match.  Unfortunately, Dimple has not been made aware of this, and their first encounter ends with her throwing an iced coffee at him and fleeing the crazy guy who apparently thinks she's going to marry him.

Unfortunately, this didn't end up being a story of "getting know you while building world-changing app."  Despite their rocky first encounter and Dimple's determination to not get attached to anyone, Dimple and Rishi fall in love with each other pretty much right away, and only the barest minimums of the actual Insomnia Con competition are mentioned.  Instead of working on their app, Dimple and Rishi appear to spend most of their time swanning about San Francisco, eating out (can't blame them on that one) and practicing for a bizarrely-inserted talent show in which they perform a Bollywood dance.  No wonder the competition comes to the end it does--though of course, we're supposed to see that clearly they are the rightful winners!  (Why?)  The two have chemistry, but it was disappointing to have the conception that Dimple basically just ditched her app programming.  I don't think we're supposed to think this, but there's about three sentences of Dimple working on it in the book, so it really doesn't feel like she's as focused as we're supposed to believe she is.  And Rishi doesn't seem to know anything about coding, so it's hard to see how he got into Insomnia Con at all!

Watching the characters struggle against the expectations and preconceptions of their families was interesting, I'm not convinced that it was enough to propel the entirety of the story because ultimately, it doesn't end up being much of a struggle.  The parents cave pretty easily into wanting their children to be happy as soon as the children actually, explicitly push back.  So not much drama there, despite the "big deal" the characters make it out to be.  It ended up being a story that overall lacked dimension, with things seeming to come to the characters very easily on all fronts with only about five minutes of suspense in wondering if things will work out happily.  I think there were a lot of good concepts and themes in here, but none of them were worked to the degree they could have been, and should have been if this was to be a truly great book.

3 stars out of 5; I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not sure I would go for it again.

Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer

Okay, so, I'm gonna confess that I thought this book was about climbing a mountain, primarily because the edition I read had a mountain, or very large mountain-like rock, on the cover, and I interpreted the "heaven" in the title as "the sky."  You know, like the heavens?  No, I was not confusing it with Krakauer's Into Thin Air, which actually is about climbing a mountain, namely Mount Everest.  I've read Into Thin Air, and my enjoyment of it (as well as of Missoula) was why I picked this up in the audiobook format.  Imagine my surprise when it started out by talking about a murder!  Well, that was okay, too, because I love true crime; it's awful, but fascinating at the same time.

Krakauer starts the book by discussing a gristly double murder committed by two brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, with the victims being their sister-in-law Brenda and her daughter Erica.  Though Ron committed suicide in prison after being convicted, Dan maintained that, while he committed the murders, he shouldn't be considered "guilty" of them because he killed his sister-in-law and her daughter under orders from God.  Hm...  Then Krakauer goes into the body of the book, which alternates chunks about the events leading up to the murder, the murder, and what followed it, with historical pieces about the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon church.  Why is the Mormon piece so important?  Because the Lafferty brothers belonged to a fundamentalist splinter group of it which subscribed to tenants that the main Mormon church has pushed to the wayside, such as plural marriage, and one of the reasons they wanted to kill Brenda was because they thought she convinced Ron's wife to leave him after he wanted to take a second wife.  Ah, yes, polygamy--this book has it.

Krakauer blantantly says towards the beginning of the book that the main, modern Mormon church is not a problem, but that the problems he examines stem from fundamentalist groups that stem from it--just as all religions have problematic fundamentalists.  (Yes, all.)  The only times he talks about the main church is in a historical context, when he goes into its foundation, which seems pretty kooky but problems seems so because, as Krakauer points out, it was just founded much more recently than most religions.  And then he goes into the integration of polygamy into the church's practices, which really seems like it happened because the founder, Joseph Smith, wanted to bang a lot of women who weren't his wife and wanted his wife to just shut up and accept it, and a bunch of other guys high up in the church decided they wanted to do that, too.  This was a problem.  Is polyamory a problem?  No, as long as all members are consenting.  But Krakauer digs into how a solid policy of it led to rampant sexual abuse, rape, and incest, which women literally couldn't say no to because the men in charge told them all it was God's will, and they could be excommunicated, losing their families and entire lives, if they refused to go along.  It's this policy and these awful practices which still abound in the splinter fundamentalist groups that Krakauer discusses in the contemporary part of the book.

This is a riveting story on all fronts, and Krakauer is an excellent nonfiction writer to record it.  There is a bit of a structure issue with it, however, because he goes and tells a lot about the murders of Brenda and Erica right in the prologue, which means that for much of the contemporary chunks of the book, I was just waiting for something to happen that I already knew was going to happen.  I think this might have been a bit better if Krakauer had let us know that something had happened, but left the "reveal" for where it fit in the body of the main book, rather than in the prologue.  That would have let us know that it was building up for a purpose, not just rambling, but still had something to "surprise" us with.  He also tries to go into all sorts of terrorism comparisons in the end, which seemed like reaching far.  Does it tie into the topic?  Yes.  However, I don't think it was the right place in this particular story, especially because there's no good answer for the question that Krakauer wants to examine by bringing a terrorism component into play--namely, if someone has religious convictions, can we count them as delusional, and in any case, if they commit a crime based on those convictions, can we hold them guilty?

Still, the body of the book, before it dives into trial transcripts and metaphysical ponderings at the end, was excellent.  I really like Krakauer and hope to read his other books as well.

4 stars out of 5.

The Japanese Lover - Isabelle Allende

The Japanese Lover has been on my radar for some time because it was a past Book of the Month option, but it was sold out by the time I joined BotM, so I didn't get a chance to read it.  When it was added to my library's digital book collection, I added myself to the waitlist--only to have about a billion holds all come through at the same time and lead to me scrambling to finish them all!

The story here is on two timelines.  We're first introduced to a contemporary timeline, though it still takes place over the span of a few years.  The main character in this timeline is Irina, a young woman originally from Moldova who begins working at Lark House, an elder care facility in San Francisco.  Through her work, she also ends up being the assistant to Alma Belasco, a still-independent woman who lives at the facility much to the bafflement of her family.  Alma's grandson, Seth, also becomes involved as he falls in love with Irina.  The second timeline involves Alma's past, from her immigration to the United States from Poland in the days leading up to World War II through her later life, and heavily involves both her cousin/eventual husband Nathaniel and Ichimei, the son of the Belasco family gardener to whom Alma becomes close...and who is, it doesn't take a genius to guess, the eponymous "Japanese lover."

Looking at this book now, I realize that it's been translated, and I bet that explains the problems I had with the book.  They are basically the same complaints that I have about every book in translation, which is what leads me to think it's actually the nature of translation rather than some problem intrinsic with the book itself.  The problems are twofold: the prose is very tell-y without a lot of emotional depth, and the conversation is very stilted.  Honestly, considering that I have these issues so often with translated books, I'm not going to dig into them too much and just kind of accept that it's the way they are.  However, I do think that there are a couple of things that are unique to this book that I can go into in a bit more depth. 

The two timelines is an interesting and important component of this book, but they're definitely not equal in quality.  The contemporary timeline is much stronger than the historical one.  Why?  Because it covers less time.  The book is pretty evenly divided between the two timelines, but with the contemporary one covering fewer years, it means that Allende can examine the characters and events with more depth.  In the historical timeline, she tends to glaze over lot of the characters' deeper emotions and motivations, and the writing doesn't end up being as engaging.  Additionally, Irina is given a Tragic Past.  It is tragic indeed, but it is hard to see what purpose it actually gave to the plot other than making her shy away from Seth (who, by the way, will not take "no" for an answer, very creepy and pushy) and honestly, a girl doesn't need a Tragic Past in order to not want to be with a guy, or to be with anyone.  It seemed like Allende was just trying to justify the delay in their relationship, but honestly, you don't need to justify not wanting to be in a relationship with someone.  That grated on my nerves a bit; even if Allende wanted the two of them to end up together, there was no reason that Irina couldn't just decide that her life was in a better place for a relationship later in the book than it was earlier.

Overall, I enjoyed this, but the translation meant that it had rough spots, and some of it wasn't engaging.  This definitely isn't a "rave" review, but I wouldn't discourage you from reading this, either, if the story seems like it would pique your interest.

3 stars out of 5.

Elsker - S. T. Bende (Elsker Saga #1)

Did you like Twilight, but maybe wish that Edward wasn't quite so psycho?  Or did you want writing of an ever-so-slightly higher caliber?  Or a college setting rather than a high school one?  But still with "powerful immortal spends all of his time going to school over and over again and then falls in love with teenage girl"?  Well then do I have the book for you.

I read this for a category in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group, that of a virgin hero, because I already had it on my Kindle and it appeared on a list that fit that category--unfortunately, the matter of either character's virginity never really comes up, though it's kind of implied the heroine is (go figure).  So I'm going to have to ditch it for that and pick another one.  But at least I can take it off my Kindle now!

The plot follows Kristia, an eighteen-year-old college student from Oregon who gets visions, though normally boring ones, and nightmares of Ragnarok that she blames on her grandmother telling her too many stories of Norse mythology when she was younger.  Wanting a change of pace, she applies for a study abroad at Cardiff University in Wales, where she meets Ull, the hottest guy on campus who also happens to be a Norse god in disguise.  Of course it's love at first sight, and Kristia figures out who Ull really is in pretty quick succession because of two conversational slip-ups he makes and her mythology class.  Because, you know, a centuries-old god would totally just let it slip in casual conversation that his stepfather is Thor and he's known his best friend for eight hundred years.  And when hearing that his stepfather's name is Thor, Kristia would totally automatically assume that his family is comprised of gods instead of thinking, you know, maybe they're just really into mythology, hence the reason Ull is studying it.

The romance here is kind of flat, because the two are in love and all gushy over each other pretty much right away.  And because they're in love right away, there's need for another conflict--aka the "We can't be together because of Ragnarok!!!" plotline.  The problem with all of this is that the entire story is full of holes that you could sail the Titanic through.  Let's examine a few, shall we?

For example, why is Ull so concerned about Kristia not getting wrapped up in Ragnarok?  It shouldn't matter; the story of Ragnarok involves the destruction of the human world, as well, with only two people surviving to restart the human race...and if one of those was Kristia, she'd be hooking up with another guy, so I'm not sure that's something he'd be psyched about either.  Ull says that Kristia is in control of her own fate--but also has a Norn that has decided the two of them are supposed to be together, which doesn't seem like Kristia has a lot of say in the matter.  And they're fated to be together, but apparently no one knows if that will actually happen.  And apparently being a seer will allow Kristia to travel through the various worlds without being detected?  What kind of logic is that?

The actual writing here is okay.  It was nice to see some female friendships, and the girls do discuss things other than guys, though Ull is still a central topic of conversation.  Bende seems to have a shaky grasp on how grammar with dialogue works, and she also has a few words that are misused in the place of homophones.  Additionally, the cover is a little weird because it says "You don't win the heart of an immortal assassin without making a few enemies along the way," which has nothing to do with the story, because Ull is not an assassin (he mentions he was a warrior in the past, but not really an assassin) and Kristia doesn't make any enemies except one person in her dreams, who I am betting is Loki because Loki is suspiciously absent here, but that doesn't even really affect the story at all.

Overall, this was kind of meh, and I don't really see myself reading the future books.  But it wasn't terrible, so I'll give it...

2 stars out of 5.

Into the Bright Unknown - Rae Carson (Gold Seer Trilogy #3)

Hmmm... What to say about this.  The conclusion of Rae Carson's Gold Seer trilogy, I had Into the Bright Unknown pre-ordered pretty much the moment it became available.  I loved Leah and her friends, and was eager to see the conclusion of her story, especially since the evil Uncle Hiram seemed to be out of the picture.

With Hiram being out of the picture, Carson had to make a sort of strange pivot for Leah & Co. in Into the Bright Unknown.  Instead of Leah trying to outwit her uncle and win freedom for herself and her friends in their mining would-be-town of Glory, she now has to face a different villain: the rich Hardwick, who we encountered in Like a River Glorious but who took a backseat in that book to Hiram's villainy.

In pivoting the story, I think Carson tried to hold on to the same "feel," but I'm not sure she succeeded.  What she did succeed in is writing an 1850 gold rush-themed episode of Leverage with Leah and her friends in starring roles.  As they all plot to take down Hardwick for a variety of reasons, each person has a piece they're trying to carry out that's separate from the rest.  Carson does finally introduce another character with "abilities," but despite the big "mystery" surrounding her (I would have loved to see more of her!) I had her pinned pretty much from the start, as well as the "big twist" at the end.  Maybe I've just read too many books by this point, but these plot contrivances were pretty see-through.

Once again in this trilogy, the setting does the heavy lifting.  The story takes place mostly in San Francisco, when the city is busy rebuilding from a devastating fire that destroyed most of the area.  Leah and her friends take up residence in a ship that was run aground and abandoned, which is completely charming.  This is good for the setting, because the characters leave a lot to be desired.  Becky has become spunky between the first book and this one, but still doesn't have much depth, and honestly none of the characters have much.  Leah herself is a bit better, but still not really a character to write home about; her abilities develop, but she never does.

Overall, this was okay; light and enjoyable, but I doubt I'll remember much about it in a few months.  This trilogy was better at the start, and it's been a pretty steady decline since; a disappointment compared to Carson's wonderful Girl of Fire and Thorns and its sequels, which seemed to get better with every sentence.

2 stars out of 5.

An Extraordinary Union - Alyssa Cole (Loyal League #1)

Rushing to finish my reading challenges by the end of the year means more weekend book reviews!  Oh boy.  After several attempts at fulfilling the category for a Civil War or Reconstruction romance for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' challenge, I stumbled upon An Extraordinary Union, which had high reviews, the right setting, and an interracial romance.  I don't end up reading a lot of interracial romances because I heavily favor historical romances, primarily Regency-era ones set in London society, which was not exactly brimming with interracial couples, but I'm not at all opposed to them as a concept, so this was a pleasant discovery.  (I do have to read an interracial romance for another category and have a different book picked out for it; I just had too much trouble finding a good Civil War romance to slot this one into another category.)

The story here follows Elle(n) Burns, a free woman of color who was born a slave before being freed with her family as a child.  Now, Elle has returned to the South to spy for the Loyalty League, a group of blacks working for the North, the Union, and Lincoln.  Her disguise necessitates her posing as a mute slavery and subjecting her to humiliations that she'd thought she'd escaped.  It also puts her in the path of Malcolm McCall, a Pinkerton detective who is also spying on the South, though he has the privilege of being a man and white and so gets to pose as a soldier instead of a slave.  Upon their first encounter, Elle and Malcolm are both attracted to each other--at least after they establish that Malcolm hasn't shown up to rape Elle.  But despite their attraction, Elle is leery of Malcolm for very good reasons.  You know, like the fact that she's black and he's white and there can never be an equal power dynamic between them, society will never accept them, and she's not really sure if he really likes her or if he just wants a taste of something taboo.  So there are a few obstacles in the way of their romance.

Cole does such a great job bringing Elle and Malcolm together.  There's a keen awareness of unequal power dynamics in the very nature of their relationship and Cole (and Malcolm, by extension) does everything possible to even the playing field, making sure that Elle's consent is highly visible at every step of the way and that Malcolm backs off every time she seems like she's about to say no.  After he saves her twice, she makes a request that she save him the next time--and then she does, in spectacular fashion.  And of course, Elle is the one who puts together the pieces to figure out what is going on with a ship that could threaten the the outcome of the blockade and the war itself.  Elle is a strong, remarkable woman even when she's being humiliated and put down, in direct contrast to her "mistress" who is a downright bitch and petty and vindictive even when she already has everything she could ever want.

The writing here is excellent, the pacing is on-spot, and the chemistry between Elle and Malcolm absolutely sizzles.  However, I do have two issues.  My first complaint is that not a lot is done to show Elle and Malcolm's backgrounds; a few things are stated, like the reason for Malcolm's family's immigration to the United States and how Elle came to be free and lost her best friend and former lover, but there's not a lot of insight into how that made them the people that they are.  And second, while I think the individual plots of the spy mission and romance are done well, they're not necessarily woven together well.  I liked how Elle and Malcolm teamed up to pool information and find out about the ship, but the spying aspects and romance aspects seemed to seesaw from one extreme to the other without much in-between.  Still, this was highly enjoyable and I'm definitely interested in reading more books in this series and by this author.

4 stars out of 5.

In Flight - R. K. Lilley (Up In the Air #1)

So, there are a few categories in the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 challenge that I wasn't super-psyched about.  A BDSM romance was one of those categories.  It is sooo not up my alley and I was also leery of falling into the "Fifty Shades" trap where it's actually not a BDSM romance but a story about a horribly abusive relationship.  So I basically had a few requirements for this category.  One, it needed to be an actual book, not a short that consisted entirely of sex--which was a requirement for all of the categories for me.  (I did cheat on the holiday romance one for this, but read 3 novellas to make up for it.)  Two, it couldn't be a Fifty Shades book.  Three, I didn't want it to be downright awful in writing or content.  So of course I headed off to the Goodreads lists.  This was something I knew I was going to have to buy, because the library wouldn't have it and I was skeptical of anything in this category that was for free, and after some perusal I purchased In Flight, which appeared to be both an actual romance novel with BDSM aspects instead of just straight sex and had a very strong reading (4.1/5) on Goodreads.

The book is written in first-person from the perspective of the heroine, Bianca, who works as a first-class flight attendant on an unnamed airline and encounters a hot young billionaire with a taste for BDSM.  (Okay, so maybe there are a few Fifty Shades similarities here, but I'm willing to let that go.)  She and James, said billionaire, are immediately attracted to each other and James outwardly states his intentions to get Bianca so sleep with him, though he doesn't want the relationship to be public.  Though she initially is reluctant, she finally caves, because she's young and hot and is still, of course, a virgin--though James didn't know that initially so at least he's not coveting her for it, though he admits it's a perk.  Bianca is also the least-connected woman on the face of the planet--no TV, no internet, no social media... Basically all she does is work and paint.  That said, none of this actually hit me until later in the book, when I started to go, "Wait a minute..."

There's definitely some wonky language in here that was funny more than sexy, and could put an instant damper on the mood.  The writing was average--not good, not bad.  There's some annoying slut-shaming, because clearly every other girl who has ever been interested in James is a dirty whore where Bianca is pure as the driven snow, though she has a Dark Past and can orgasm on command.  *eyeroll*  But what I will give this book credit for is that, as far as I can tell, it's an okay portrayal of a BDSM relationship that isn't actually abusive, which is how these things apparently tend to go in books--not that I am an experienced enough reader in this subgenre to make a firm call of my own.  They discuss a safe word, James provides aftercare and time for Bianca to rest even when neither of them particularly wants to take a break.  But he seems to flipflop between personalities and not just when they're getting freaky, and that put me off a bit from him--he's warm and welcoming and cuddly one minute, and absolutely frigid the next for little to no reason.

I think this was a decent book for what it is, and the writing is certainly better than Fifty Shades (no "inner goddess"es here).  The actual BDSM is pretty light (good for me!) though it seems like it might head into slightly heavier territory in future books.  Also, as this is a proper series and not a string of connected books with different main characters like most romance series are, there is no Happily Ever After ending here--that's left for the future.  But still decent, and I didn't hate every second of it like I expected to for this category, though I'm not sure if I'll take on the other two books or not.

3 stars out of 5.

Beard Science - Penny Reid (Winston Brothers #3)

In the midst of scrambling to finish my two reading challenges for the year, I needed something else.  So I reached for Beard Science, which I'd been hanging onto for a rainy day, because I wanted to read Cletus' story!  While one of my reading challenges is a romance one, this book doesn't fit any of my remaining categories in it, and so it was still a separate treat from scrambling to finish the challenge books.

This was the book I was most looking forward to in the Winston Brothers series (though, to be fair, the series hasn't been completed yet).  Cletus was clearly the oddball in the first few books (including Beauty and the Mustache) and I thought he would be a very intriguing hero.  Additionally, I was looking for the hidden depths that there must be to Jennifer, the heroine, aka the Banana Cake Queen.  Ultimately, I got what I wanted on one front but not on the other.

The plot kicks off when Jennifer's parents, who dominate her entire life despite her being a grown woman, inform her that they have people coming down to talk to her about a cooking show and promotion opportunities with Chiquita, which Jennifer definitely doesn't want.  She's been forced into a mold her entire life because she doesn't want to displease her mother, but what she really wants is to be her own person.  So when she accidentally catches Cletus on film in the act of stealing evidence from the police department, she decides to blackmail him into helping her find a guy to marry so she can have an easy way to leave her parents.  Why does she pick Cletus for this?  Because Jennifer is an observant person, partially because people don't think she has a single brain cell and say things in front of her they probably wouldn't in front of other people, and she knows that Cletus gets up to all kinds of mischief.  Why this makes a good husband hunter, I'm not sure I know, but hey, it's the plot.  Of course, over the course of the hunt, the two grow closer...

Jennifer did end up having hidden depths, and a backbone that she just didn't know how to show before.  I liked her; she proceeded with things in a logical manner, didn't get into trouble trying to do things the hard way, and was open about what she wanted.  Cletus, on the other hand, was somewhat of a disappointment.  Being inside his head wasn't nearly as interesting as I thought it would be; it seems like, when Reid elevated Cletus from supporting character to hero, he lost a lot of the zaniness that made him special in the process.  We can still see that he has some schemes, but none of them seem as kooky or complicated as they did when viewed by the characters in previous books; some are just downright pranks instead of any sort of actual scheming like we've been told again and again Cletus is prone to.  Seeing more of Billy, a character who hasn't been on the page much in the past few books, was also nice, setting him up for his own book in the near future.  (Though we have to get through Duane first.)

The writing overall was pretty good; I think Reid writes really good chemistry, and that wasn't any different here.  But she does tend to lose track of minor threads and details throughout the course of the book; for example, one of the guys visiting from New York to check out Jennifer for a cooking show has his name changed from Allen to Alan and back again, twice, within the span of three pages.  The plot with the Iron Wraiths is also starting to get pretty far-fetched and overdrawn, and I wish Reid had wrapped it up already; I don't see how she can possibly drag this on for three more books!

Overall, a good read, and one that I would definitely read again, as with most of Reid's books.  However, it wasn't what I was hoping for, falling more in line with the previous books instead of blowing them out of the water.

4 stars out of 5.

Mutiny on the Bounty - Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall (Bounty Trilogy #1)

Continuing on with my reading challenge (I'm nearing the end!) I chose Mutiny on the Bounty for the category of a "A book with multiple authors."  It also had the added benefit of allowing me to cross off a book from the list I have pinned up by my desk of every book Rory Gilmore reads, mentions, etc. during the duration of Gilmore Girls. 

What's important to remember about Mutiny on the Bounty is that is a fictionalized account of the (in)famous mutiny; my edition has a foreword from the authors that goes into their sources, some of the changes they made, etc., but I think it would be easy to think that this was actually a personal account because of the way in which it is written.

In the book, Nordhoff and Norman Hall remove one of the midshipmen from the Bounty and replace him with their narrator, Roger Byam, basing him upon the original sailor but deviating in some respects.  Byam tells the story of how he was invited to join the Bounty's crew for a bit of adventure by its captain, William Bligh, on a journey to Tahiti to gather breadfruit trees for transportation to the Indies, during which he will compile a dictionary and grammar of the Tahitian language for use by others journeying there.  After a paradisaical stay in Tahiti, while en route to the Indies, Bligh's temper seems to get worse and worse and feuds he started with the crew before Tahiti are refueled and exacerbated, culminating in the mutiny, led by the first mate, Fletcher Christian.  Byam is not involved in the mutiny, but is forced to stay aboard the Bounty because there's not enough room for all those loyal to Bligh in the launch he and some of his supporters are forced into.  The rest of the book deals with the aftermath of the mutiny for Byam, and includes two "splits" that break off into the other two books in the trilogy--one book deals with Bligh and the men in the launch, and the other with Christian and some of the mutineers going to the Pitcairn Islands.

This is a classic seafaring story.  Byam is the perfect choice for a narrator because his position allows us to sympathize both with Bligh and the loyalists as well as with the mutineers.  It is, however, a story that is definitely not plot-driven as there is no plot, rather just a tale of how the mutiny came to be and what happened to Byam and the others after.  Not everyone lives; a good number of the crew meet their demise in various ways.  The story seems to proceed in spurts, with Byam sometimes relating every day, sometimes skipping over weeks or months at a time.  He's also not the greatest, abandoning his wife and child in Tahiti in favor of the hope of naval glory back in England--something that was probably a common thought process and motivation for his time and place, but a shitty action nonetheless.  And because the story is based in fact though not entirely factual, the "villain" of the piece, Bligh, never gets his comeuppance.  And because this is a "classic," aka it was written in an earlier time (originally published in 1932) it has that old-timey feeling to it, and the writing can sometimes be dry and seem rambling.  Still, this was an overall enjoyable read and one of the foundation books of its genre.

4 stars out of 5.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This was a charming book.  I read it for the Popsugar 2017 Reading Challenge, for the category of "A book of letters."  I originally meant to read The Color Purple for this category, but couldn't quite figure out if it was mostly letters or included other items in an epistolary style, such as news articles, and I wanted something that really stuck to the category.  I do still plan to read TCP, just not for this!

Taking place just after World War II, the story that of Juliet, an author who wrote comedic articles during the war that have just been released as a book.  While she's on a book tour, she receives a letter from Dawsey, a man who lives on Guernsey in the Channel Isles, asking about a used book of hers which has come into his possession.  The article sparks a stream of correspondence between Juliet, Dawsey, and many of the other inhabitants of Guernsey, as well as Juliet's friend/editor and the friend/editor's sister, also her friend, and her touring agent.

While Juliet is charming in her own writing, the strength here is really in the setting of Guernsey.  I'd never even heard of the Channel Islands before reading this--I have an American education to thank for that--or known that this British territory had been occupied by Germany during World War II.  As Juliet decides to make Guernsey and the titular Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the focus of her next book, more and more information about the Isles during that time comes to light, as do stories about the characters directly involved in the story.  It's a war story, but one that has plenty of levity along with sobriety, and a little bit of a romance running along underneath the surface--though definitely not a significant part of the main plot.

Now, some of the letters aren't exactly the most sensible, relating information that the recipient should already know as if it is brand-new.  I actually didn't even realize this until another reviewer pointed it out--the information was new to me, after all, and its importance to the reader is clearly why it's included, but it is a bit of a hole in the actual construction of the novel.  Also, Juliet, while charming, can sometimes be so to the point that I found myself grinding my teeth at her, because even when she's angry or frustrated or not at her best, she still manages to be irritatingly perfect, if that makes sense.  Everyone loves her on sight, or on receipt of a letter, or on reading her works, and that was just...ugh.  No one is that likable! 

Still, this was a fun, short book.  For some reason I thought there were two timelines here, a post-WWII one and a modern one, but that's not the case--it's all post-WWII, which is a time that I think is somewhat underutilized, so I was glad to see it, even if it dips back into the war itself in the characters' recollections.  It's somewhat lacking in depth, but the fun characters and charming setting helped to make up for that, and I enjoyed reading it.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Artemis - Andy Weir

Another hotly-anticipated book this season, Artemis is Andy Weir's follow-up (though not a sequel, not even related) to his smash hit The Martian.  This is still a sci-fi, with the setting being the town of Artemis on the moon, made up of a series of domes and some subterranean levels.  The main character is Jazz, a woman who was born in Saudi Arabia but emigrated to Artemis with her father when she was six and so considers herself a true Artemisian, especially because people can't actually have children on Artemis and have to go to earth to do it because of how the lunar gravity can affect gestation.  Jazz works as a porter, delivering packages, and also as a smuggler--also delivering packages.  And when one of her clients offers her a million dollars (essentially; that's not the currency used, but it's the gist) to destroy some machinery used by a smelting company, Jazz sees her chance to claw her way up out of poverty and into the good life.  Unfortunately, it goes wrong, and she quickly finds herself running for her life and entangled in a plot that could lead to Artemis' downfall.

I don't think this was as strong a book as The Martian was.  First, I'm not convinced that Weir can write a female main character, at least not from a first-person perspective.  Have you ever read or watched something and had a definitive moment where you went, "This was written by a man?"  I had one of those moments here, just a few pages in, when Jazz/Weir describes Artemis as looking not like a group of domes, but a group of boobs.  This is not the type of thing that I have ever encountered in a woman's writing, though it seems to abound in men's writing for some reason.  In fact, with the fact that Jazz does not have a scientific background and Mark Watney of The Martian does, they are essentially the same person.  Their speech is the same, their humor is the same, I basically could not tell the difference between them.  Weir also seems to use Jazz's non-scientific background as an excuse to skimp on some logic in the book; there's still a demonstration of research into various things like welding, smelting, chemical reactions, etc. but he breezes right by some of the things that really would have been built into an enclosed community literally connected to a smelting facility via air tubes.  Let me put it this way: when you have a character spout off all the things that should have been included at the end of the book to foil your big plot, then you probably should have thought the plot out a bit more carefully.

Artemis was a promising setting for a story like this, and I was also psyched to meet Jazz's Kenyan pen pal, Kelvin, who is featured in letters from Jazz's childhood up through the present that appear between some chapters of the book.  But we never actually meet Kelvin, Jazz continues to be annoying, and all of the supporting characters are completely one-dimensional.  There's a romance that's absolutely forced in between Jazz and a supporting character, but while I think we're supposed to get the vibe that "OMG I've loved him all along and I've just realized it!!!" it really just feels like she decides to hook up with this guy because he has a nice bed and a shower and she wants that life.

Overall, super disappointed in this.  1.5 stars out of 5, a huge comedown from The Martian.

The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux

Trying to scramble through the remains of my reading challenges, I needed a horror romance, and thought the classic The Phantom of the Opera would suit it perfectly.  It's not gory horror; instead, it's very Gothic in feel, with an unseen menace lurking in the shadows and a twisted love propelling a plot that keeps apart two more suitable protagonists.

Written as a relating of the tale behind "true" events (and apparently inspired by some actual true events, though I couldn't find to what degree) the story follows several people in a Paris opera house haunted by a "ghost."  Two new managers have recently taken over the opera and think they're being pranked by their predecessors, while overlooked singer Christine sees the ghost as the Angel of Music who brings her talent to new heights, and the young viscount Raoul views the ghost as a sort of demon leeching away Christine's life and keeping she and Raoul apart.  There are really two love stories here: the one between Raoul and Christine, which started when they were children and is now foundering in the face of the ghost's obsession with Christine; and that between Christine and the ghost, aka Eric, which is sort of love and sort of obsession and sort of sick fascination, all rolled into one.

The writing here is definitely in a "classic" style, which means that it can seem a bit distant and clinical at first, but it gets very engaging as you get used to the style and become immersed in the world of the opera.  And the opera itself is almost a character in and of herself; the opera house is huge, fantastical in ways that I doubt a real opera house could be.  With a lake built under it, floors beyond imagining, and a cast of minor characters that seem as much a part of the building as a limb does part of a body.  Even Eric and the Persian seem like their true purposes are more to be entities of the opera house than to be their own people--their backgrounds never being as fully or satisfactorily explained as Raoul or Christine's own backstories.  It's a very atmospheric feel, with almost the entirety of the story taking place in the opera house and the characters as extensions of it.

One thing to note is that I feel like Leroux read Dracula and was really pulling in inspiration from it at parts--like, you know, Eric sleeping in a coffin, or not being able to go into daylight (except he can???) and so on.  A lot of it had a very vampire-like feel to it, though I never got the sense that Eric was actually supposed to be a vampire.  Just a crazy guy who stalked a woman to the point of no return.  Cool.  Remind me why people root for Christine to end up with this psychopath, by the way?  He's a genius in his own way, to be sure...but you know, a murderer, torturer, and all around madman.  So, not exactly prime romantic material.

Anyway, this was a suitably creepy read to be going through around Halloween, and a good choice for my horror romance category.  I enjoyed it even though some parts weren't as thought-out or fleshed-out as they probably could have been.

4 stars out of 5.

Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology is what I ended up reading for my reading challenge category of "A book based on mythology," after switching out Olympos.  Olympos is the sequel to Illium, and while I still want to read it, I read Illium so long ago that I think I need to re-read it before taking on Olympos.

I think it's important to note that this is not, actually, a book of Norse mythology.  Rather, it is a book of Gaiman's own retellings of various Norse myths, blending parts of other versions together and only really including his favorite stories.  It's not comprehensive, and it's not a textbook.  It also forms somewhat of an overall story arc, which actual "nonfiction" mythology books typically don't.  While Gaiman uses a writing style that is austere and fits with a classical myth-telling style, you can see his touches in different parts of characterization--Thor is basically a dumb jock, and Loki is one of those people who is both clever but also pitiful, the geeky kid who's picked on by the others and uses his intelligence to get back at them.  Did they deserve it?  Yes.  But did he also deserve their retaliation most of the time?  Yes.  Also, the dialogue shows Gaiman's wry style at different points--for example, I can't imagine an "original" telling of a myth blatantly featuring the words, "Thor, shut up."

The book is overall a story of Odin, Thor, and Loki, though plenty of other characters also feature.  The arc that Gaiman has embedded--possibly unintentionally, given his remarks in the foreword--features the back-and-forth between Loki and the other gods, leading up to Loki's imprisonment, freedom, and ultimately Ragnarok and what comes beyond.  Ragnarok and the death of the gods is a fascinating concept, and I think Gaiman does it justice.  The stories are in turns funny, gross, and eye-roll-worthy, and also have the features of classic myths such as explanations for natural phenomena, such as Thor causing tides by drinking from a horn connected to the deepest part of the ocean.

This is a quick read, and also one that is easy to pick up and put down; even though the book forms an overall narrative, each chapter or story also stands on its own.  You can read this in one sitting, or you can read a story at a time before putting it aside and coming back to it later.  Doing the latter might mean that the arc is less apparent, because I think some of the connections between the stories are more evident if you read them in quick succession, but it's still completely doable.

So, how does it compare to Gaiman's other works?  Well... I haven't read everything he's written, but I don't like this as much as I like his traditional novels.  Neverwhere, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, American Gods, and so on are works of art.  His original short stories are also excellent.  I would rank Norse Mythology somewhere between his short stories and his poetry, which I'm really not much of a fan of.  I hope we see Gaiman make a return to traditional novels soon, because he's been working on other projects for a while, and I miss those beautiful jewels of books showing up on the shelves.  This is good, but it's just not as enveloping, breathtaking, or wonderful as those others are.

3 stars out of 5.

In Bed with a Highlander - Maya Banks (McCabe Trilogy #1)

I'm not a huge "highlander" romance fan, but I've read a few of them this year in hopes of fulfilling this category for the Unapologetic Romance Readers 2017 Reading Challenge.  Unfortunately for me, every time I read one, it seemed to fit another category better, and so I had to keep searching.  I'm finally calling it off with this one!

The story is about Mairin Stuart, who is apparently a bastard princess whose heir will inherit huge, wealthy holdings in Scotland.  Consequently, everyone wants to marry her.  She's been hiding out in a convent for ten years, but the book starts with her being discovered by the men of one Duncan Cameron, who intends to force her to marry him.  When she refuses, she's badly beaten, but manages to escape his clutches with the help of a maid and a boy she saves from being killed by Cameron's men. The boy, of course, ends up being the heir of another clan, who gets his father to promise to protect Mairin--and then promptly marries her.  The two scream and fight and Mairin tries to run away before they get married, but as soon as the vows are said, they're pretty much gaga over each other and spend most of the book having sex while Mairin makes charming mistakes in being the lady of a highland clan.  There's a flimsy subplot going on here with Duncan Cameron trying to get Mairin back, and someone trying to kill one of the couple, but it's mostly shoe-horned into the end of the book.  There's also a lot of Scottish history (I think) that's required to understand it, so if you're not familiar with Scottish royal genealogy in the early twelfth century, it's all a bit murky.

I honestly wasn't a fan of the writing, either; there's a lot of "aye"-ing being done, and I didn't feel that Mairin and Ewan had any chemistry at all.  Honestly, his brothers were more interesting characters, but I didn't like this book enough to pursue the other two with them as heroes, because the writing is just...flat.  The sex scenes aren't sexy, the bickering doesn't have any tension in it, and then there's the lackluster plot that's supposedly propping the whole book up.  Overall, it's just "meh," and I don't see myself reaching for this author again in the future.

2 stars out of 5.

The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly (The Tea Rose #1)

This book came to me by way of a Little Free Library in our neighborhood; I will be keeping it, so I returned on a later day and put a couple of other good books in it in return!  Two main components attracted me to the book: first, its sheer length, and second its theme of a strong female character fleeing a killer and rising to the top of her field in the process.

Heroine Fiona Finnegan grew up in Whitechapel, her father working in the docks and Fiona packing tea in a factory, her younger teenaged brother also picking up work and her mother doing laundry.  They work hard and they are not rich, but they are relatively secure and happy as long as they can keep on keepin' on.  Fiona and her sweetheart, Joe, hope to save up enough money to open a shop one day, and everything actually seems pretty hunky-dory.  Except Jack the Ripper is killing women in Whitechapel, the unionizing dockworkers are headed for ruin at the hands of the head of Burton's Tea Company, and another girl has her eye on Joe and is willing to use his own ambition to get him.  After Fiona loses absolutely everything in quick succession, she's forced to flee to her uncle in New York, where she vows to start again and reestablish herself as a strong independent woman who don't need no man and who can be her very own business woman and tea mogul.  And of course, the story also wends its way to Joe and Fiona eventually, 500-and-some pages later, getting their happy ending.

This is one of those historic family saga novels, and luckily for me, it was much better than the other one I was reading at the time, Crescent City.  The writing was much more engaging and Fiona was a main character who actually did things instead of just sitting around and sighing at her lot in life.  Fiona has ambition, and she has wits.  Of course, Donnelly takes this too far a few times--Fiona pretty much single-handedly invents the assembly line, the tea bag, the advertising campaign...you know, the whole shebang.  Honestly, Fiona's character was strong enough to stand up without these things, but fiction often has this weird thing where a female character has to be the absolute best at everything she does or she's not considered strong, which is ridiculous but apparently unavoidable in books, because this is definitely not the only place this is true.

Integrating the mystery of Jack the Ripper here was an interesting aspect--we always know who's behind the murders, but the characters do not, which helps to build tension at the points that the subplot gets woven in.  There is, of course, also a subplot involving Joe, but I didn't like that one as much, nor did I like that Donnelly was so obviously pushing Fiona and Joe back together.  Fiona forgave Joe for his actions earlier in the book, but I never did and that kind of put a bit of a damper on their "happily ever after."  I really thought Fiona would have been better off with Will, but apparently I don't get to make those sorts of demands.  Sigh.  Nick, on the other hand, was a lovely supporting character; Donnelly somewhat fell into the "bury your gays" trope here, but not as badly as some other books I've read recently and Nick did get somewhat of a reprieve.

There was also a weird time jump; the first two parts of the book continue on in an orderly fashion, but when the third starts we're given a "ten years later" treatment, which was a break in the pacing and lent a strange feel to the final third.  We didn't get to see the characters grow or evolve during those ten years, and I'm not entirely sure why Donnelly went with this instead of maybe just doing a few smaller ones spread throughout the final part, which could have really accomplished the same thing but structured it differently.

Still, I quite liked this book, and already picked up the two sequels which deal with other characters introduced here, The Winter Rose and The Wild Rose. 

3.5 stars out of 5.

Crescent City - Belva Plain

I picked up this book in hopes that it would fulfill the "Civil War romance" category in the Unapologetic Romance Readers 2017 challenge.  When it quickly became evident that it would not, I should have just let it go.  But I didn't.  I was also reading another of those family-centered sagas, The Tea Rose, and quite enjoying it, so I kept hoping I'd hit a point in Crescent City where it would have the same impact.  Unfortunately, it never did, and it became a slog just to get through it.

Basically, this book wants to be Gone With the Wind.  Not in location or characters or even plot (well, somewhat plot) but in structure and feel.  Ultimately, however, it doesn't capture the sweeping scope or any of the emotion that GWTW, problematic as it is at points, displays with such beauty.

The main character here is Miriam, whose Jewish family hails from Germany.  Her father left Miriam and her older brother with their maternal grandfather after the death of their mother, and the book begins with him returning to take them to New Orleans, where he's built a new prosperous life.  Some of the book attempts to deal with faith and maintaining it in times of hardship and in the face of adversity, and some of it tries to deal with matters like the immorality of slavery but also wanting to support your family who support slavery--but none of this is handled very well, and the main character who actually has these struggles, Miriam's brother, is kind of written off in the end as a "social justice warrior" of the 1800s, with an attitude of "Oh, he picks up whatever cause comes his way, none of them are really meant or important," which really irked me.

Most of the book is really about Miriam's life in an unhappy marriage, one she's basically forced into before she's ready to a man she despises.  With twin children and a large extended family to care for, Miriam struggles with keeping her life together during the Civil War, including engaging in an illicit romance outside of her marriage and another interested party who she loves but in a brotherly way--awkward.  While all of this seems like it would be ripe for a story full of emotion, Plain's writing manages to be flat and boring, making every chapter seem interminable and the entire book feel like a slog towards some unknown goal that never truly felt reached.  The setting in both place and time held so much promise, but aside from a few atmospheric happenings, they weren't leveraged to the story's benefit.  Having a Jewish main character in this time and place was interesting, but it only occasionally played into the story and didn't really lead to much conflict other than a few spats between Miriam and one of her stepsisters (I think; the relations here were a bit complicated).  At a few points, Plain also falls into the bad habit of using lengthy journal or letter entries to convey the characters' emotions, because she's not really adept at working them into the narrative itself.

Also, the Kindle edition of this book is very poorly converted from the text version, so readers beware on that.

Ultimately, a cold and boring book that didn't deliver on the promise it held.  If you're looking for something Gone With the Wind-like in scope and feel, read The Thorn Birds or maybe The Tea Rose; Crescent City just can't compare.

1.5 stars out of 5.

Untouched - Anna Campbell

Okay, the romance reading challenge strikes again!  This time, we're examining the "virgin hero" category.  I read a couple of books trying to fulfill this, finding that I had been misled, the issue of the hero's virginity doesn't come up, etc.  So I went to a list!  Unfortunately, most of the books that I was interested in, I had already read, and I really try to read new titles for my reading challenges.  But Untouched was on the list, and the library had it, so it became my choice.

This is an interesting historical romance because it doesn't take place among ton society, or a country manor, or any of the usual settings.  Instead, it takes place in a walled compound with some grounds, a garden, and a small cottage, and remains there for most of the book--there are only a few segments that take place beyond it.  Why is this?  Because the book starts with the heroine, Grace, being kidnapped and delivered to the "mad" Matthew, Lord Sheene, to "entertain" him on orders from his uncle.  But Matthew doesn't want to be "entertained" even though he's been locked up since the age of fourteen, when he was the victim of a bad illness that gave his uncle, Matthew's guardian since the death of his parents, the room needed to make a grab at the family fortune and influence.

It's established pretty quickly that Matthew isn't actually mad, though he's understandably pretty ornery and doesn't want to let his uncle "win" by sleeping with a woman said uncle's goons provided.  Why this would be letting him win, I don't know; you can have sex with someone you're locked up with (as long as they want to have sex with you!) and still want to escape, the two conditions are not mutually exclusive unless, apparently, you're Matthew.  As far as heroes go, Matthew wasn't exactly my favorite.  He's an outright bastard to Grace, flip-flopping between believing her about her origins (or what she shares of them) and accusing her of being the worst sort of whore (which is problematic for other reasons, but now is not the time).  He's nasty and has none of the charm of most historical romance heroes, until they sleep together, at which point he quickly becomes an amazing lover and a very charming individual.  Because Sex Magic, I guess?  And he swears that he loved Grace at the first instant he saw her...despite being downright awful to her for so long, which, really, does not seem to indicate instant love.  He does demonstrate instant lust, but definitely not love.  However, the two seem to be hopelessly confused in this book, which even Grace admits at one point.

As for Grace...she was kind of vanilla.  She had a bit of an interesting background leading up to her kidnapping, but her own actions mostly include being victimized by people, wearing scanty clothing, and pining over a guy she's convinced she can't have even though he only wants to be with her.  She doesn't even want to escape from her confinement unless Matthew comes with her.  I didn't actively dislike Grace, but there was nothing that made me want to really root for her except a general distaste for Matthew's slimy uncle and his goons.

Matthew and Grace undeniably had physical chemistry, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot of development of their relationship; as I mentioned before, Campbell tries to later justify this with a "love at first sight" explanation, but that is not how it reads.  I would have liked to see a little bit more of the "getting to know you" phase of the relationship, some banter, something between them other than lust disguised as love.

Overall, this was an okay book.  It didn't have the same feel to it as most historical romance books, which was interesting--different is always interesting--and I commend Campbell for that, but it also lacked some of the spark that I look for in historical romances.  Would I read Campbell again?  Eh, maybe.  Still undecided on that front!

2 stars out of 5.

Nice Dragons Finish Last - Rachel Aaron (Heartstrikers #1)

I've had this book on my Kindle for ages (and I think I actually have The Legend of Eli Monpress by the same author, as well) and never really reached for it.  I'm not entirely sure why; I got it on a deal, I'm sure, but I have a bad habit of picking up sale books and then never reading them.  However, when I needed a book for my reading challenge that involved a mythical creature, this seemed like an easy one to slot in.

And it was so good!

The story is about Julius, the youngest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, whose territory covers much of the southwestern United States after magic returns to the world.  Julius is kicked out of his home by his mother, the matriarch of the plan, for not being a good dragon--not cruel enough, ambitious enough, etc.  He ends up in the Detroit Free Zone, where dragons are strictly not allowed, with a month to impress his mother before she eats him.  Yikes.  When his brother gives him a job to complete, Julius falls in with Marci, a human mage trying to make her own way after fleeing Las Vegas in the wake of her father's murder, only to find that the murderers have followed her.

I'm not totally sold on the world building here, as I didn't see any explanation of where magic went for thousands of years or why a comet smashing into Canada was what brought it back; this might have been a more convincing world if it had been presented as an alternative universe in which magic had always been there to begin with.  But the Detroit Free Zone was a great setting--one ruled by a vengeful spirit who (for some reason; again, not clear) hates dragons.  This adds an element that was really needed, because otherwise Julius would have had too easy a time of things.  Magical creatures abound, and while we never get to see Julius in full-on dragon form, we do get to see his brother at one point.  Marci, the secondary lead, is great as well.  She's a thaumaturge, a type of mage who uses spell circles for casting--and carries some of them with her in the form of plastic bracelets on her wrists, which I thought was awesome.  She also has a cat death spirit named Ghost.  Other supporting characters present themselves in the form of dragons from a rival clan and some of Julius' siblings, including Jason--who kind of falls into the "dumb jock" archetype--and Chelsie, the family's badass enforcer who I absolutely loved.

The writing is fun and engaging, though the pacing is sometimes a bit uneven.  For example, it felt like the book was going to lead to a climax several times before it actually did, and while rising action is important, this just didn't feel like it fit into a proper story pyramid; rather, it felt more like a serial that had been put together into a book form, with each segment having its own climax and denouement.  But the real climax and conclusion have a suitable impact and also set up future books in the series without leaving readers with a cliffhanger--something that I consider so important when putting out books that belong in a series.

Overall, this was a really fun read.  I already bought the second book, though I had a bunch of other library and challenge books that I need to get through before I can pick it up.  Still, I'm looking forward to continuing with this series.

3.5 stars out of 5.