Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich is the well-known author of the Stephanie Plum series of books, and here she begins another series that edges firmly into the paranormal arena. Elizabeth Tucker lives in Marblehead, just north of Boston, and makes cupcakes for a living while living in the house bequeathed to her by Great Aunt Ophelia. Her life is perfectly pleasant but very ordinary when two men walk into it and proceed to turn it upside down. One is Wulf and he is a Bad Man. The other is Diesel, our Alpha Male, who explains to Liz that she is an Unmentionable and has to help him search out the SALIGIA stones (so named because of taking the first initials for the Latin names of the Seven Deadly Sins). Wulf is also looking for the stones and so Liz is caught in a race against time to discover their whereabouts.

I was really looking forward to Wicked Appetite when I first heard about it – I thought it sounded amusing and exciting. Disappointingly, the reverse is true. It is very often extremely unfunny and there was not a hint of excitement to be found within the pages.

I enjoyed a few things in the book – principle amongst them the description of Liz’s cupcakes, mostly because it made me hungry to eat some of them. Another large benefit was the slightness of Wicked Appetite, which meant I didn’t have to endure it for too long.

There was very little other than that to enjoy. The plot was preposterous; the manner in which it was explained to Liz was paper-thin; the characters were barely two dimensional, let alone three. I couldn’t tell you anything about the motivations of Diesel, Liz, Glo, Wulf and any of the rest of the cast of characters. What’s more, thanks to the frivolous manner of writing, I couldn’t have cared either.

The “humour” was quite often tiresome, rather than funny – I use as an example the monkey Carl. Now, the first time he “gives someone the finger” I did find myself smiling at the idea, but on one page it happened no less than three times. At that point I just wanted to shake said monkey and throw Wicked Appetite across the room.

But I did persevere to the end, although it took all my patience: and I was not rewarded by the climax to this book. It was boring, there was no sense of tension or threat to any of the characters, and I realised (to my horror) that it left a set-up for more novels in this series.

Wicked Appetite can be equated to eating candy floss – seems like a good idea at the time, but leaves you unfulfilled and with a great sense of disappointment.

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Unholy Ghosts is the first book in the Downside Ghosts sequence and introduces us to Chess Putnam. She lives in a world where Church and religion has been pushed aside in favour of the Church of Real Truth, because of an uprising by the undead in the form of ghosts. Chess is in the employ of the new Church, helping to judge whether complaints about haunting are true or not, since it has become lucrative business to try and con the Church. When Chess picks up a new case, she finds much more than she bargained for — especially when she also finds herself dealing with rival drug gangs and her dangerous attraction to her dealer’s ruthless enforcer.

Stacia Kane has written a tautly-paced, gripping and, above all, unique urban fantasy novel. The idea of a new world where ghosts can kill and where having the wrong tattoos brings a death sentence is brought to life with delicate touches in a prose that drives the story along.

Her heroine, Chess, is far from the usual kick-ass know-it-all. She has many foibles, the main one being her drug dependency, which weakens her at key moments and puts her in dangerous situations. It could be all too easy to decry Chess for her stupidity, but instead Kane writes her in such a way that you are able to empathise, if not to understand. In a literary genre that is crowded with supernatural beings and heroines who are joining the monsters, Chess stands out as being all too human.

As noted, the pacing is perfect — the mystery of what is happening with the Chester Airport (where Chess is investigating a possible haunting) slides into place piece by piece. Moments of pulse-pounding terror and excitement are followed up by quieter periods where the characters are built up into living, breathing, three-dimensional entities.

The world-building is also very strong, from the descriptions of the drugs that Chess relies on to the back alleys of Downside to the wonderfully quirky dialect of the Downside residents. By the time you close the last page, Downside feels like a real place — albeit one you definitely wouldn’t choose to visit after dark!

In fact, the only parts of the world building that are a little underdone are the magical rituals and power words that Kane employs, although the use of psychopomps — dogs and birds that escort the souls of ghosts to the City where they are all kept — is especially intriguing.

I’d also like to give praise to the secondary characters in the novel, especially, of course, Terrible and Lex, the two men who Chess is attracted to. Lex suffers from having less screentime and seems a little less interesting than Terrible, but both definitely play their part in making this novel entertaining. Oh, and the moments of intimacy are sexy as opposed to cringeworthy, which is always a bonus with this sort of book!

Stacia Kane has upped the stakes for all those writing in the urban fantasy genre — Unholy Ghosts is gripping and brilliant. I can’t wait to read the next.

Kicking Off Book Blogger Appreciation Week

Back in June I registered for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and put Floor to Ceiling Books forward for a few of the awards. I wasn't longlisted for any of these, but, regardless, this week is still my opportunity to join in all the festivities that surround BBAW!

On this first day we've been invited to talk about our first treasure i.e. the first book blog that we discovered (if we're new to the blogosphere).

My first book blog, which I return to constantly, is Graeme's Fantasy Book Review. I love Graeme's blog - he is down-to-earth, constantly enthusiastic, slightly flustered now with the recent arrival of his new daughter Hope, and as far from a book snob as you can imagine. As long as the novel features speculative matters, he will read and review it. He is candid about why he doesn't like books, he froths at the mouth for everything zombie, and is generally an all-round nice guy.

Who is your first treasure?

Roald Dahl Day!

Today - 13th September 2010 - is Roald Dahl Day! It is the 5th annual day celebrating one of the world's best loved storytellers. Children and adults alike have read and enjoyed his numerous books; they've been turned into films and TV series; and his novels still crop up on all those lists of 'Best' books.

Click on Roald Dahl's website for a full list of what is going on today, but here are a few teasers:

* Every year, there’s a Roald Dahl City Read at the heart of the Roald Dahl Day celebrations. This year, it’s grown bigger than ever and taken over a whole region to become the Roald Dahl Black Country Creative Challenge. Every man, woman and child in the region will be encouraged to read Roald Dahl’s MATILDA during September 2010.

* The “Everything You Wanted to Know About Roald Dahl” roadshow - staged in association with the award-winning Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre - gives hundreds of schoolchildren in five locations the chance to pose fiendish questions to Roald Dahl experts and surprise VIP guests! This year, the five event locations will be Cheltenham, Dublin, Fife, Stratford (East London) and Wolverhampton.

* Anticipation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new musical version of Roald Dahl’s MATILDA – book by Dennis Kelly, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, directed by Matthew Warchus – which opens at the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on November 9th for a 12-week run. For more information, go to www.matildamusical.com.

* On Sunday September 12th, there will be a Roald Dahl Day event at the RSC as part of the Roald Dahl Black Country Creative Challenge.

* Quentin Blake, former Children’s Laureate and Roald Dahl’s principal illustrator, will appear in a special event at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon on December 4th.

* The third annual Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize, which awards prizes to the funniest children’s books of the year - in two age categories; picture books and books for older children. The award was set up by Michael Rosen in conjunction with Booktrust. Michael will again chair the judging panel – which this year includes comedienne Shappi Khorsandi, author Philip Ardagh (a winner in 2009), illustrator Bruce Ingman (a winner in 2009) and children’s books expert and author Nicolette Jones. The shortlist will be announced on September 17th; the winners on November 17th.

* On Saturday September 11th, there will be a Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize event at the National Theatre, featuring Michael Rosen, Philip Ardagh and other special guests. For more information and to book tickets, please go to http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/platforms.

* Great Missenden, where Roald Dahl lived and wrote, will provide a focus for festivities, with a day of special events on September 12th at the award-winning Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. There’ll be MATILDA themed storytelling, village trails, craft activities, magic, face-painting, behind-the-scenes tours of the Roald Dahl archive AND, courtesy of the RSC, an opportunity to find out more about their forthcoming production of Roald Dahl’s MATILDA.

* On Sunday September 12th, there will also be a special opening of Roald Dahl’s garden at Gipsy House, Great Missenden, in aid of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity (formerly the Roald Dahl Foundation). The garden, which will be open from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, is full of delights including Roald Dahl’s iconic writing hut and Danny’s gipsy caravan. Admission to this event is free, with voluntary donations to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity gratefully received. This event will be attended by several Roald Dahl Nurses – specialist children’s nurses funded by the charity.

* 70 branches of Waterstone’s stores nationwide will be staging Roald Dahl Day events throughout September.

* The Birmingham Stage Company production of Roald Dahl’s classic tale GEORGE’S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE - is on tour throughout 2010 and arrives at Swansea’s Taliesin Arts Centre on September 14th. For more information on the tour, go to www.birminghamstage.com/shows/georges_marvellous_medicine.

* New publishing: STORYTELLER: ROALD DAHL by Donald Sturrock is the first ever authorised biography of Roald Dahl, written with exclusive access to his private papers, manuscripts and hundreds of newly-discovered letters. Published by HarperPress on September 2nd. For further information, please contact Helen Ellis at HarperCollins on (020) 8307 4250.

* New publishing: For the very first time, THE TWITS – Roald Dahl’s most hilarious and anarchic story, is being published with full colour artwork by Quentin Blake. Published by Puffin Books on September 2nd. For further information, please contact Tania Vian-Smith at Puffin Books on (020) 7010 3058.

* New publishing: Puffin Books is also publishing WILLY WONKA’S WHIPPLESCRUMPTIOUS ANNUAL – the first EVER Roald Dahl Annual, bursting with story extracts, games, puzzles, a guide to Gobblefunk and ideas to make and do. Published by Puffin Books on August 5th. For further information, please contact Tania Vian-Smith at Puffin Books on (020) 7010 3058.

* New publishing: For the first time for many years, the COMPLETE collection of Roald Dahl’s works for children will be available in beautiful new hardback editions. Published by Puffin Books and Random House Children’s Books on September 2nd. For further information, please contact Tania Vian-Smith at Puffin Books on (020) 7010 3058 or Kelly Tapper at RHCB on (020) 8231 6648.

* New publishing: As part of its 70th anniversary celebrations, Puffin is releasing a “Designer Puffin” edition of Roald Dahl’s classic JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, designed by British sculptor Anthony Gormley. A limited numbered edition of 1000 are being published on September 2nd, priced at £100 each.

* Roald Dahl in Welsh: 2010 marks the publication of the 10th Roald Dahl book, in Welsh. Y Twits will be launched on Monday 13th September, Roald Dahl Day 2010 and will form part of the Welsh Roald Dahl Day celebrations centred in Cardiff Bay. For more on the Welsh versions of Roald Dahl’s books, visit www.rily.co.uk or visit www.gwales.com

How do you plan on celebrating Roald Dahl? Will you be re-reading any of his classic novels? Which is your favourite?

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn

Orphaned by Rome's savage legions, Thea, a slave girl from Judaea, has learned what it takes to survive. She knows only violence until a chance meeting with gladiator Arius offers a shred of tenderness. But their bond is severed when Thea is sold again, condemned to rot in squalor.

Years later, a singer known as Athena betrays no hint of her troubled past. Catching the eye of the Emperor himself, she is swept into a world of decadence and depravity. But althought Domitian fears betrayal from every side, he is unaware that the greatest threat lies next to him - a slave girl who has come to be called the Mistress of Rome...

It's hard to know how to review Mistress of Rome. On the one hand, I swept through it in one day, finding the prose to be simple yet effective and the historical details vivid. On the other hand, I felt that it came across much as a soap opera programme or chick lit novel would - light, easy-to-read, with larger than life characters and ultimately forgettable. Although I enjoyed the novel, I don't honestly see it staying with me for very long.

One factor that struck me while reading Mistress of Rome is how fantastical it seemed - when I thought on this, I believe it might be because of how long ago the time period being represented was. We know sweeping details of the Roman Empire - who ruled when, military campaigns, political machinations - but the real nitty gritty details and the secondary historical figures (those that didn't impact on history) have been lost, and hence the novelist needs to flesh out the missing elements.

The fantastical side to Mistress of Rome was not helped by Quinn including a character who could supposedly see the future.

However, my knowledge of ancient Rome and the period of Domitian is confined to historical fiction rather than solid research of my own, so I am definitely not an authority on whether Quinn's novel is historically accurate or not.

I did love the character of Thea/Athena - she was strong, righteous and very readable. Equally I detested the character of Lepida (Thea's mistress when we are first introduced to the slave, and her ongoing nemesis) - Quinn's writing here was extremely effective, since we are supposed to despise the decadent and spiteful woman. In fact, all of the characters leapt off of the page, and were a massive strength in Quinn's debut novel. She wrote them with great assurance, and, if some of them were a little too black and white at times, they were never less than entertaining.

I marvelled at the attitudes and actions of Emperor Domitian - he was marvellously complex: dignified and despicable by turn. If Quinn's tale truly revealed any part of the truth of his life, then he was a man to be feared by those close to him.

The representation of the gladiatorial games was rich with detail and very enjoyable to read. These were my favourite parts of the novel - well, that and the fabulous descriptions of Lepida's wardrobe!

Mistress of Rome is gossipy, with scandal, glamour and plenty of action. At its heart is a love story with depth and passion. As you can see, it is a mixed up novel that I genuinely enjoyed it and would recommend the novel to others - but only as a fun read, as opposed to something that will stay with you past the last page.

On Matters of Tie-In Fiction and Audiobooks

Subtitled: Gav Thorpe beats Dan Brown!

As stated by Civilian Reader this isn't an actual fight between the Black Library author and the multi-million-book-selling author (although a smackdown between them could be entertaining - I think Gav would fight sneaky!)

Rather it pertains to this nice little chart:



The audiobook of Gav Thorpe's Raven's Flight (an release *only* in audiobook format) has beat off competition from many best-selling authors to become the biggest-selling audiobook of 2010 so far. And not by an insignificant amount either! Take that, Dan Brown!

I find this interesting on a few counts:

1) This is tie-in fiction! Something that many readers look down on and seem to despise. Clearly there is a great demand for this style of fiction, as demonstrated by the sales of the audiobook.

2) Black Library are being talked up as bringing out some excellent audiobook titles, with quality production values. Music, sound effects, decent narration - all contributes to a decent listening experience. This is reflected by the fact people have gone out to purchase the Black Library audiobook titles, and they have been receiving some sterling reviews.

3) In the case of Raven's Flight, it is a story that fits into the ongoing Horus Heresy series but is ONLY available in the audiobook format. It has not been brought out in a print run as well, which I think has helped to drive sales.

Interesting, non?

What are your opinions on audiobooks in general? Do you like them? And has anyone listened to Raven's Flight? Does it deserve the number 1 spot?

Kiss Heaven Goodbye by Tasmina Perry

Alex Doyle, Miles and Grace Ashford and Sasha Sinclair are toasting the end of their exams with a decadent vacation on the private island of Angel Cay. The whole world is at their feet when a horrible tragedy threatens to ruins their lives. Kiss Heaven Goodbye explores the repercussions of that fateful night as the four go on to glittering careers - will their dark secret ever come to light?

Kiss Heaven Goodbye is the perfect beach read - five hundred odd pages whip past before you know it as you're sucked into the lives of the four privileged students and watch how they become successful. Perry uses an excellent format - showing us first that twenty years down the line the secret is about to be uncovered, then taking us back to that night and introducing us to Miles, Grace, Sasha and Alex. The rest of the book uses dates as chapter headings to show time unfolding, which meant reading compulsively in the knowledge that, however right their lives might be, everything is about to come crashing down.

My main complaint with this manner of dipping in and out of the characters' lives over twenty years is that often key events would be skipped over and we'd simply be shown the aftermath. I think at times Perry used this technique almost lazily so that she wouldn't have to write difficult scenes - much easier to show a fait accompli.

I also found it far too cutesy that in the book a film being premiered was called "By Midnight", the novel that Perry has released under the nom de plume Mia James. We also visited Highgate Cemetary in this novel, which features prominantly in By Midnight. To most of Perry's regular readers, this won't have any impact at all so it is far from a negative point but it jumped out at me.

Kiss Heaven Goodbye is as predictable as you would expect, although Perry threw up a successful curveball at the end which, I have to confess, I didn't see coming and that I enjoyed immensely. It's always nice to be surprised by this sort of novel!

All in all, Kiss Heaven Goodbye was a blistering read - fast, sexy and glamourous with larger than life characters. If you're heading on holiday, you can't go far wrong packing this novel. Perry knows how to write the perfect beach read.

Feeling Challengy?

I always like book challenges - usually they help to expand my reading material and I have discovered some new authors. I am currently embroiled in the Bravest Challenge courtesy of one Sam Sykes, but that did not stop me picking up another gauntlet!

Here is the challenge:

So, we're trying to find those "diamonds in the rough". And while we know this won't work out best for everyone, as a collective, maybe we can find some really good stuff that no one has read.

Consider yourself challenged.

If you have a blog, let us know and we'll link to you when you get a review up of your challenge book. If not, give us a comment or an email and we'll post about it.

Sounds good, non? Find full details of the challenge and information about other books here.

For my challenge I have picked the following book:



Here is the blurb:

The god Orok gave to his five children crystals of surpassing beauty, to be embedded in The Orokon to ensure the harmony of life - until the dark god Koros stole his crystal and plunged the world into chaos and despair. In the village of Irion the crippled boy Jemany Vexing, bastard son of the beautiful but frail Lady Elabeth, lives in the dilapidated castle with his dying mother and his fanatical Aunt Umbecca. Ela, seduced, it is believed, by a common soldier, is a social outcast, while her dashing brother Tor is a traitor, wanted for crimes against the false king. Unable to walk, Jem is condemned to a wretched half-life, until he meets a mysterious dwarf ...and with his new strength comes a new friendship, with the wild girl Catayane; their love holds the secret to incredible magical powers. As the horrors of the Bluejacket regime begin, so Jem becomes aware of his greater destiny, for his is the quest to find and reunite the five crystals of The Orokon. But he is not the only seeker: the evil sorcerer Toth-Vexrah has his own plans and will let no one stand in his way.

Traditional epic fantasy at its best!

So, I will be working away at this book behind the scenes to tell you whether it is, in fact, a diamond in the rough. Wish me luck!

Welcome Back To Me!

You might not even have noticed my absence!

However, for the last week, I have been here:



Drinking these:



And reading lots and lots of books. Well, five, to be exact. You will see reviews of those shortly.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am now conducting theme months. The theme for September is Historical Fiction! You will see reviews of some other books during September, since I have a few scheduled to go from before I decided to move to theming my reading, but the majority of books featured on Floor to Ceiling Books in September will be of a historical bent, starting with Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.

So! Welcome back to me! Hope you all missed me loads - I certainly missed you :-)

Guest Post: Third Book Ennui

While I am away on vacation I am pleased to welcome Andrew Reid to my humble blog! I hope he looks after it in my absence *grin*. Andrew has a blog My God, It's Raining and can be found loitering on Twitter as @mygoditsraining.

Hello all!

Just to warn you right off the bat, this post isn’t going to be a book review. Instead, I thought it’d be interesting to bring up something I’ve started noticing in my reading habits: something I’ve noticed, and have been wondering if it happens to anyone else.

I’d like to call it Third Book Ennui.

People have a thing for threes, especially when it comes to stories. The three-act structure of narrative (setup, confrontation, denouement) intuitively makes sense to us, and is easy to express and understand. Likewise the format of a trilogy – in fantasy literature a triumvirate of books is a fairly commonplace phenomenon. I’ll not say it’s the template; there are many excellent standalone fantasy books out there as well as series that run beyond even the author’s original expectations. Nevertheless, there are a lot of trilogies.

What I’ve discovered over the past year or so of reading is that more and more often I’m just not motivated to finish reading them. I pick up the first volume in a set of three, read it, enjoy it immensely and then either rush out to buy the second or check to see when the release date is. Then, when I read the second book, something odd happens; I lose interest. The motivations and goals of the main characters seem to sag, to lose momentum, and with that my investment in them fades. I no longer want to know what happens at the end because I no longer care about what’s happening to them right there and then.

Now that would be fine if it was with just one series. If that was the case I could blame the author and claim that their skills were not worthy, or myself for being incapable of seeing into the heart of the text. Unfortunately it seems to be happening more often than not.



To give an example; while reading the Engineer Trilogy by KJ Parker, I could put my finger straightaway on the problem that, for me, killed the second book for. The titular engineer of the series, Vaatzes, is a man with a plan – a plan that requires a lot of people to die for the sake of his revenge. Now that’s fine in the first book, because he makes a plausible offer to the people he will use as pawns in his machinations, and they, quite reasonably in the circumstances, take him up on it. In the second book, though, everyone has reason to be wary of him, primarily because he’s just got a lot of people killed (albeit indirectly). Even the author knows this, and hangs a terrific lampshade off the fact by having characters muse in dialogue to one another and him that wow, this sure is a great opportunity to orchestrate events and the doom of a whole country to satisfy his own ends. Instead of yanking his intestines out with a hook, the supporting cast plod along like simpletons, happy to feed themselves into the wood chipper of his destiny.

Just looking quickly at the incomplete trilogies on my bookshelves, I have the following: two books of The Quickening Trilogy by Fiona McIntosh, two books of the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks, two books of the Dark Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan...I was going to say two books of the Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd but a quick check on Amazon tells me it’s now four books.

I won’t go into the particulars of each case, because this isn’t intended as a review of them; it’s just an observation of my reading habits and a growing sense that the trilogy seems to be failing me as a reader. What is it about them that means I can’t bring myself to finish?

Perhaps it’s just me being fickle and over-analytical. Long gone are the days when I could read Polgara the Sorceress and actually enjoy the story as opposed to sitting grinding my teeth at how mind-buggeringly smug the eponymous enchantress is. That said, I still endure the Lord of the Rings trilogy every year or so with nary a grumbled word about the time Sam and Frodo spend plodding past pools of polluted water on their way to Mount Doom – although I do skip the songs.

Thankfully, though, it’s not as bad as it could be. Fantasy trilogies have yet to go the way of Hollywood, where a successful standalone title results in a trilogy spawning out to “satisfy demand” – although whether satisfaction is intended for the fans or the investors is hard to define. There are a couple of examples of this in speculative fiction (*cough* Ender’s Game *cough*) but they are sufficiently few and far between for me to rest easy about it.

For the moment, at least.

Enormous thanks for that Andrew! Please give Andrew lots of lovely comments - do you agree? Disagree? Which trilogies have you not managed to finish thanks to general apathy?