West of Mars\' Rocks \'n Reads

Since I was at the Pennwriters Conference, I haven’t had time to report in about the books that have arrived here. (Although you can read about my conference adventures here and here).

I actually had four books to report on the week of the conference.

I got two Random Act of BookCrossing Kindnesses (RABCK), each with two books inside. Four books!

First was Towelhead, by Alicia Erian
Next in the package was Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, by Judy Fong Bates

Pretty good. I love getting wishlist books. It barely makes a dent in the list, but every last bit helps, ya know? Sort of like pennies.

The second package was equally as awesome:
God’s Mountain, written by Erri De Luca
The White Russian, written by Tom Bradby

Both of these weren’t only wishlist books, but they’d been on my list FOREVER. I’m talking 2005 and 2006 forever.

Yeah, okay, that’s not so long. But in book terms? You’d better believe it’s long, cookie!

Since then, a very recent book showed up. Luanne from A Bookworm’s World was kind enough to send me an extra copy of Mary Sharratt’s new book, Daughters of the Witching Hill. She’s seen me rave over at Win a Book about the Sharratt book I’d read recently, so she did me this kindness.

Lots of kindnesses to report on. You guys are awesome. Thank you.

(Remember to stop in at The Story Siren and The Printed Page for the various mail reports. These are always fun to check out.)

I was shocked — but not more than a little bit pleased — when best-selling author CJ Lyons dropped me an e-mail. We’d recently been at a conference together and while we hadn’t spent time hanging and chatting, we’d connected enough that CJ felt she could ask me a pressing question.

It seems some of her books are getting pounded by Amazon reviewers, and she was wondering if I’d take a look at her books and see what was going on. She was kind enough to send me some coupon codes so I could download the books from Smashwords, and I was off and reading.

I started with Chasing Shadows: Shadow Ops Book 1. I loved this book; it’s a totally fun read from start to finish. Yes, the Amazon reviewers are right in that the plot does follow a formula. They don’t think it’s okay.

I’d like to disagree. What makes Chasing Shadows such a strong read is the way CJ takes the formula and bends it to the story she’s telling. For instance, usually when I read thrillers of this sort, the cast of characters is so large, I can’t keep them all straight. I confuse the bad guys, the good guys, the guys in the shadows… everyone but our main hero — and even then, I sometimes still have problems, especially if the guy’s name is similar to someone else’s.

CJ introduced her cast slowly. I never got lost or confused, even as loyalties are revealed and shades of grey within the characters and the situation are revealed. This one’s running guns. This one controls the small town. This one is the middle guy but hey, look, he’s also one of the good guys, trying to take down the one but not the other, and that’s fine because here’s our other hero, trying to take down the other but not the one…

Trust me. It makes WAY more sense in CJ’s hands.

The woman knows how to plot. That’s all there is to it. Chasing Shadows never bogs down in too much backstory, too much exposition, or even too much in the way of characterizations. This is a story that’s destined for the big screen, and in a big way. Lethal Weapon, look out.

But maybe that’s the problem these reviewers had. There’s no deep message here, no subtext. Yes, it’s true the characters aren’t terribly fully developed, but so what? While we’re with them, they’re alive and vibrant, KC in particular. It’s been awhile since I put down a book and wondered what the characters were up to while I wasn’t reading. It’s been even longer since I wished for more from them.

In other words, there’s something more going on than first meets the eye. Add in the skill with the plot, the way the tension keeps increasing, making me slide to the edge of my seat and lick my lips (once even spattering the screen of my e-reader. Oops), and the utter fun of this book, and really.

CJ, don’t let a few sentences at one book vendor trip you up. You’re on to something with this book. I’m now eager to read Nerves of Steel and you bet I’ll be picking up Lost in Shadows, the Special Ops #2 featuring Lucky, the dude who takes a big one for the team in Chasing Shadows.

I walked into this a fan who wondered how an MD could take herself out of the hospital setting she’s known for. I closed the back cover convinced that CJ Lyons is much, much more than simply a writer of hospital books. If it’s got CJ’s name on it, I’ll be first in line from now on.

If I’m going to count Jacqueline Luckett’s Waiting for Tina Turner on the rock book list, I suppose I ought to include Laura Lippman’s In Big Trouble, too.

This was my first book written by Ms. Lippman. I have to say, I don’t think I’ll be revisiting this series.

Our series heroine, Tess, had a certain blandness to her. I don’t know… she just lacked zing. So did our bass player, the mysterious Crow. Or Ed. Or Eddie. He went by all three in the book, although to Ms. Lippman’s credit, it never got confusing.

Tess takes off in search of Crow. She winds up in Texas, where Crow — now Eddie — has gotten involved with a mysterious woman who may or may not be up to anything good. He’s also gotten involved with this woman’s band.

The music never pulsates off the page, though. Whereas the spirit of Tina Turner permeated the pages of Ms. Luckett’s book, it’s lacking here. Now, one could argue that since this music setting is a mere part of a bigger series, there’s no need for the pages to vibrate. I’d buy that.

But I still missed it. And as a result, as a rock and roll novel, this failed for me. As part of a series, I thought it was okay but lacked any real distinction or any compelling reason to keep reading. Maybe you guys can convince me otherwise; it won’t be the first series that I put down after the first encounter and said, “Meh,” to. I’ve kept going with plenty other series. So go on. Convert me.

I was very jazzed when I came across Olivia Brynn‘s Falling Star. I was even more jazzed when Olivia contacted me and offered to send me one of the few existing print copies of the book.

I read it with no small amount of relish. It’s a fun book. I’d recommend it, absolutely. But, of course, as with the majority of what I read, there are some issues. Nothing fatal, I’m pleased to say.

Well, okay. There was one almost-fatal problem, but we can’t blame it on the author. It’s the editing, specifically the copy editing. I’m terribly sorry, but “Come here babe” just isn’t grammatically correct. There needs to be a comma between the words here and babe. This was enough of a consistent problem, there was no way it can be excused as a fluke. Someone doesn’t know how to do their job. Period.

Let’s focus on the things that are what we’re really here to talk about, which is the story. It’s not a fresh one: rock star needs to clean up his act, walks incognito into a florist, and falls in love with an ordinary girl who has no idea who he is, even though she loves his music.

Does some of this sound familiar? A bit? It’s a similar premise of the recent book from Karina Bliss, What the Librarian Did.

I feel like lately, every review winds up as a comparison — with the more recently reviewed book falling short. In some ways, Falling Star does just that. But because it lacks the more serious subplot found in Librarian, this is a stronger beach read.

That’s a compliment. I love a good beach read.

Unfortunately, our rocker, Adam, is a bit bland. He’s fine. He’s likeable. But he lacks that zing we saw in Bliss’ Devin, that raw sexuality and charisma. Likewise, Adam is also lacking the real bad boy persona — and details — that is causing his star to fall. We’re told he’s heading for problems, but all we get to see is a nice guy. His excesses are glossed over, and that gloss hurts my rock and roll rating.

Flower shop owner Jade is a character with a lot of potential. Sure, she’s got the gay best friend thing going, but she’s also confident without being too strong. There’s nothing wussy about this girl. Even when she chooses to sleep on the couch, it fits her character. Again, though, I don’t feel like I’ve gotten to know her deeply enough.

This is a problem, especially as we have many of the properly cliched scenes. The woman who doesn’t recognize the star. Getting up in the middle of the night to find Adam working on a song. The boats, the homes.

Since this is an erotic romance, I am compelled to mention the sex. Hot. Steamy. Possibly the best part of the book, and I’ve already said this is a good read. But there was a problem, here, too.

In one scene, Adam changes and becomes very dominant. This was a jarring change and it bothered me. We see him so consistently as a good guy, a gentle man. And then he’s growling and he’s almost forcing Jade up against a wall and … yeah. It was too rough. Too out of character. For me, it crossed the line into assault, simply because it was so out of character.

In other words: dominant males are fine. A Jekyll and Hide switch from gentle to dominant isn’t.

I suppose that leads us to the final assessment: as a rock and roll novel, how is it? Only fair, I’m afraid. There are almost too many clichés. If that doesn’t bother you — or you’re one of those folk who lap it up, especially in an erotic romance or a good beach read — you’ll be quite happy.

I do look forward to more from Olivia Brynn. Even if she’s not kind enough to send me a freebie each time.

Before we get to the Booking Through Thursday fun, let me congratulate Lori London and Dawn M for winning copies of David Grant’s Rock Stars. I didn’t have a huge number of entries, which is sad. Where are all my hair band lovers? Or are you guys waiting for The Novel (Yeah, that’d be MY novel. The one about Trevor. That you’ll have soon.)

Okay, now onto the BTT fun. I’m going to paraphrase the question by saying it asked if we’d chuck a book halfway through, even after we’d invested all that time into it. I mean, halfway on some books is 500 pages. On others, it’s 75.

I had a professor in college who said life was too short to read bad books. (I had a friend in grad school who said it was rude to teach a bad course. As far as I’m concerned, this is the same thing.) No matter where you are when it goes sour, if you don’t want to keep reading, don’t.

If you could see my TBR mountain range in here, with its three different faces, you’d probably agree. If I struggle through every clunker, I’ll never get this puppy under control. Not to mention the negative impact bad writing has on my own work.

So… yeah. Chuck it. Fast. And don’t look back.