West of Mars\' Rocks \'n Reads

I was one of the lucky people who got a look at Kenya Wright’s Fire Baptized before it was published. On the surface, it may seem distasteful: the Supernaturals have been exiled to a ghetto built out of a literal cage near Miami, Florida. This ghetto, though, is reminiscent of a shetl of Eastern European past: some districts are quite lush and lavish, while others live up to the ghetto name. It’s its own contained community, and it lives and breathes in ways some real cities never do in fiction.

It is one of these poor, gritty districts that Lanore Vesta lives with her childhood friend and protector, MeShack Hooshmand. MeShack is a Were-cheetah, while Lanore is one of the loathed: a Mixie. In La La’s case, she bears both Demon and Fairy blood.

When she witnesses a murder, Lanore is hot on the trail, playing amateur sleuth to uncover the killer. Along the way, she’s got to contend with the possessive posturing going on between MeShack and fellow Mixie Zulu. Lanore adores them both, it’s obvious, and this is a love triangle as complicated as any other – and better than most. It’s Lanore’s heart that’s going to decide this matter, although the men may never stop bristling when they are around each other.

Some of the tension between the men goes beyond the romantic. Zulu’s the dreamer, the revolutionary working to achieve his goals of Supernatural equality and maybe a life among the Humans. MeShack’s more retiring, happy with his life: women, a band, Lanore. He represents the status quo. Part of Lanore’s personal conflict, beyond trying to stay alive, is choosing between change and stasis. This opens the door to personal growth for our heroine, and growth happens even as she seems to be mixed up in something that’s bigger than she is.

All this sets up a story that’s hard to put down, but it’s the Santeria Supernatural Habitat and the people who inhabit it that steal the show. This world is ugly, gritty, brutal. The characters who populate it are survivors. They’re also unforgettable.

It’s always nice to revisit old friends and Jennifer Estep’s e-story, A Karma Girl Christmas, is no exception.
Part of Estep’s Bigtime series, this short takes place after the final book in the trilogy, Jinx, and features all our favorite characters — and some new ubervillains.
Befitting a story, the conflict is simple: Karma Girl is sent to guard Bigtime’s version of Toys for Tots. It’s the night before the big party for the kids in need, and no one’s taking any chances. Sure enough, mayhem breaks out on Karma Girl’s watch and the rest of the Fearless Five need to come to her rescue.
There could be more at stake, but it comes up strong in the area of fun and feel-good. Newcomers might be a bit lost, but for us former residents of Bigtime, for 99c, it’s a steal.

(The link is to Smashwords, where I’m an affiliate. Use it! I need those few pennies it’ll send my way.)

It was my mother, of all people, who told me to take Meg Cabot’s Size 12 Is Not Fat out of my TBR mountains and read it. The lead character, Heather Wells, is a former pop star turned amateur sleuth. Doesn’t that qualify for Rock Fiction?

Well, yes and no. Cabot’s former pop star is trying to go incognito, shrinking and demurring when people think they recognize her. There’s music in these pages, mostly in the form of ex-fiance Jordan Cartwright and Tania Trace, but the music doesn’t come alive and breathe the way the best Rock Fiction does. We’ll have to call this one a glancing blow.

The most striking part of Size 12 is how closely it resembles a Chick Lit novel. Heather’s not very worldly, for all that she’s been around the world and lived in an environment that probably deserves its own episode of Shark Week. She’s not very confident, for all that she stood in a spotlight and sang in front of (presumably) thousands (but possibly only hundreds; it’s not clear) of teenyboppers. With a background like this, she’s lacking in a lot of areas I wouldn’t expect her to be lacking in — like self-confidence in front of others. Oh, and for someone who’s 28, she sure acts like she’s 18 a lot of the time…

Overall, this is a cute book about a woman trying to figure out where she fits in the world. She’s working in a residence hall, hoping to make it to the six-month point at which she can enroll in classes, seeking some sort of degree that she hasn’t figured out yet. She’s living with her ex’s brother, who she’s got a massive crush on but can’t bring herself to do anything about. And then a girl goes and falls off an elevator, spinning this story into a cozy mystery.

Truly, Cabot bends genre here. Rock Fiction, chick lit, cozy mystery. She does it well, and the mystery unfolds with a sort of ramshackle grace that fits the genre-bending. The prose is fun. Heather, despite her many flaws, is a welcome character to spend time with. I hope as the series develops, so does Heather. Watching her grow from an ugly duckling into a swan will be quite the treat — if Cabot can keep Heather from following in the usual Chick Lit style to make it happen. I don’t want to see Heather lose weight and become a size eight again. I want to see her stay a 12, to be comfortable within herself, and even to embrace her music and find her power as a songwriter. I suspect it’s there, lurking, and once she and Cabot find it, this will, indeed, be Rock Fiction.