Reading The Queen’s Blade, first in a series by TC Southwell.

It is a historical fantasy/drama/romance/adventure and quite well written especially considering it is a FREE DOWNLOAD on Nook Now!

Get it, xxx c

Just started the 4th in the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning…Dreamfever…a hybrid feary-tale set in Ireland with one hell of a lot of SEX APPEAL…I am in deep with this series and am enjoying the complex character development immensely…not to mention this installment starts of with a BANG!

Excerpts to follow…I need to this book! xxx c

Picked up this 100-pager to read on the short flight from NYC-SC and back again…it really is an excellent read and  I will be reading much more from The Drake Sisters Series.

The novella is a thriller/romance/horror high-bred full of intrigue, great character development and SEX! A perfect mix if I do say so myself, pick it up and enjoy…oh and for all of you Nook readers, it’s available for download at less than $2!

Here is a short excerpt:

Her eyes saw too much, saw into him where he didn’t want to be seen. He wanted to look away but he couldn’t seem to pull his gaze from hers. (Magic in the Wind, Christine Feehan)

Think Party of Five, with a house populated by seven empathic temptresses with brilliance, wit, and supernatural abilities and you have The Drake Sisters.

Sounds great to me!

I cannot wait to read the next one, xxx c

The Logic of ‘Alice’: Our sense of SELF is the TRUE puzzle!

I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle! (Lewis Carrol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865)

If you have read this blog you know that I have an enduring fascination with our ever-dynamic Sense of Self…and have written on it, in relation to Alice In Wonderland (Click HERE for blog entry), previously. Perhaps it is the measure of fantasy in Alice that has always drawn me, or maybe its great potential for both light and dark…simultaneously…or maybe…

It is the story’s depiction of the constant struggle BETWEEN…between good and bad…light and dark…reality and imaginary.

It is the unknown…the unstable…the unarticulated that I am most compelled by…that place of  THE NOW…the present moment…where we must accept what we see, as what we are…not forever…but for NOW.

Just a little “mushroom” for thought on a Monday afternoon, xxx c.

For Those Who Love FEM Fantasy/Horror…P. Briggs just doesn’t sink her teeth in!

In this first of five (soon to be 6) in the Mercy Tompson Series by Patricia Briggs we meet our heroine, the tough and talented Mercy…a shape-shifter with a nose for trouble and a knack for perseverance. She is as hard and nasty as she is loyal and idealistic. She fights for what is right and as a reader, we love it…we love her! The novel is woven in modern times when mythes, monsters and legends (e.g. vampires, werewolves, goblins) roam freely, some “outed” and some not. We, follow Mercy as she negotiates the trials and politics of the wolfpack that raised her. The story is solid, easy to follow. There is a hint of mystery and intrigue…but there is also something missing in this premiere of the series…

BITE!

Briggs stops short of pushing the development between her characters. We enjoy then…we fell for them…but I could never quite get a sense of how they felt for one another.

The novel reads a lot like a wonder menagerie of fantastical figures..waiting to meet one another!

I can only hope…that in the next installment Briggs gives her characters the introduction they so badly deserve!

xxx c.

“Shadow Bound”: A Novel Embracing Transitional Space

This lyrical novel, first in the 2010 two-part Shadow series, by newcomer Erin Kellison is a wonderful example of how the fantasy/horror/romance genre is developing as a complex and unique dynamic literary-style. Pulling on the fantasy world of the Fae, Kellison adopts a poetic manner when writing about the novel’s rather contrary protagonist:

DEATH.

Death resides in shadow…the transitional darkness between life and death: Faery.

He is unearthly, chilling, and frighteningly compassionate…and he has a daughter. A daughter whom we join in her painful journey toward self-discovery during an impending war between humans and the undead…a war that only she can conquer. She is intelligent and analytical…if stubborn and idealistic…she is the perfect embodiment of life and death…of SHADOW…born of a human mother who’s suffering Death fell unwittingly in-love with…her conception was a twisting of pleasure and grief and indeed her life reflects that dialectic: A life that is truly Shadow Bound by death:

The dark didn’t hide anything from her. It never had. Shadows only deepened color, and textures took on added dimension. Total darkness revealed a realm of sensation as seductive and terrifying as any fertile imagination could conjure. (pg. 29)

This is an imaginative and beautifully constructed piece…that read as much like poetry as it does fiction…and I highly recommend Shadow Bound to anyone seeking something slightly more uncommon…something to really sink your teeth into!

xxx c

Snippet From “Shadowfever” (Karen Marie Moning): Latest Book Review!

rottencandy:

““You killed my sister!” The dark lake in my head begins to boil. I hear rustles behind me, leathery wet sounds and I whirl. The freaks that killed my sister are taking advantage of the distraction and trying to leave. Not a chance in hell. This is what I’ve been living for. This moment. My revenge. First the ones that killed her. Then the one who delivered her to them. I lunge for them, screaming my sister’s name. I slice and rip and tear. I begin with my spear and end with my bare hands. I fall on them like the beast-form of Barrons. My sister died in an alley with these monsters working on her and now I know it wasn’t fast. I can see her, white-lipped with pain, knowing she’s going to die, scratching a clue into the pavement. Hoping I’ll come, afraid I’ll come. Believing I could succeed where she failed. God, I miss her! Hatred consumes me. I devolve into vengeance, I embrace it, I become it. When I finish there are no pieces larger than my fist. I’m shaking, gasping, covered with bits of flesh and gray matter from smashing their skulls. I double over and hit the pavement, puking. I puke until I dry-heave then I dry-heave until my ears ring and my eyes are stinging. I don’t have to look behind me to know the street is empty. My sister’s murderer is gone. I finally got what I came to Dublin for. I know who killed my sister. I curl in a tight ball on the cold pavement and cry.”

—

Mac from Shadowfever

In stores everywhere on January 18th.

*AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE!

True Blood Isn’t Exactly…TRUE!

Now calm down all of you BLOODies…I am not referring to REAL life…of course vampires are real and the sexy Eric Northman runs our neighborhood vamp bar while shifters run rampant and werewolves are as hot as Alcide!

NO NO NO! I mean that True Blood doesn’t follow Charlaine Harris’, Sookie Stackhouse Book Series…True-ly.

Because this is a blog about BOOKS and not CABLE SERIES I am going to be brief about the inconsistencies…which are numerous and small in some cases while gross in others…and whose presence forces me wonder how/if the cable-series holds-up without the books’ storyline.

For example:

*Certain characters’ roles have either been expanded or diminished or completely altered. 

Sookie’s intimate friendship with Tara in the show is much expanded although I understand that as a way to resolve the problem of a first-person novel; we have a external source of the internal thoughts we READ in the book. 

Whereas, the character of Jason (her brother) in the novels is a conflicted and often malicious degenerate who…in the show is our cute, loveable dummy!

And Lafayette, who has now become my favorite “quoteable” diva in the series’ third-season is actually killed off in the first book.

*Character inconsistencies aside…there are also some serious plot changes:

The Maenad…epic in the show…NEVER existed in the books, meanwhile it extended and comprised the majority of the second season. 

Not to mention…Maryanne is…sexy…beautiful…in the books she is…A BEAST!

And yet…I enjoyed this addition, after my initial rage at the plot diversion and while I kind of enjoyed the book’s version of Maryanne as a dirt mud covered rutting witch…Maryanne of the show is…well drop dead SEX!

*Okay well now we have resolved the above inconsistencies…I have one more. The 1 st season of True Blood I HATED.

I thought the acting was ridiculous, the characters weak and superficial, and that Anna Paquin was…simply one step above the talents of my Chatty-Cathy doll (you know the type where you pull the string and blah-blah-blah…giggle giggle ensues). 

And then I read the books. ALL of them. And I loved them…and I GOT IT.

The characters were meant to be a bit farcical, stereotypes of personalities…feelings really…hence their simplicity…their purity.

And then I watched the show again…and…I LOVED IT.

I see as I write that I am answering my own quandary…and in all honesty it seems that the fact that certain inconsistencies between the novels and the cable series are sometimes necessary and at other times a welcome indulgence. 

The show is great…it’s not the books…but, I don’t think it needs to be…they each stand on their own and offer much to our imaginations…one purely audio/visual, the other through the written word…and BOTH TRUE-LY about BLOOD…and

SEX…not a bad combination!

Vampire Psychology: Love With A BITE

I have ALWAYS been fascinated by VAMPIRES.

Always.

I can recall seeing my first vampire movie as a young child, Love at First Bite (starring the deliciously cheesy George Hamilton & Lauren Hutton as the main vampires)

and being completely transfixed. Aroused. Frightened…and more than anything envious.

I wanted to be a vampire.

From that night on, I lay quiet in bed praying that the “Vampire-George” would come with stealth through my window, bite me, and welcome me into what promised to be a life of desire…and REALLY living…through death.

It may seem extreme and even macabre for a young girl to think in this manner and aside from my own personal issues (my father dying around that time)…when we consider the tremendous popularity of genre entertainment like Twilight, True Blood, Anne Rice…we cannot deny that we are in a moment of collective consciousness…glimpsing art imitating life…zeitgeist…whatever…there is a deep psychological need that vampiric-identity calls-to in many of us.

A review of the literature reveals “narcissistic rage” at the root of such id-like “evil”…

what the hell does that mean? Well in a word: selfishness (yes I am oversimplifying, but trust me this is the crux)…basically, the desire to be powerful, immortal, sensual, and yet a completely un-empathic (sociopathic) killing-machine is supposed to reflect our need to both possess and destroy love, the other…and ultimately the self…and I can buy that…but it’s just part of the story, as I see it…

The rest is the passion…the desire…the conflict…the pain…that I think many of these more modern-day vampire-tales relate; emotional experiences that most of us can understand…these are our own life-struggles, with a twist…

Death: whether it is the real death that necessitates the human-vampire transformation or the experienced loss of our sense of self…we all know what it feels like to become lost…empty…heartbroken…

Blood: The overwhelming desire that unleashes all of the vampire’s instincts, forcing behavior beyond his or her control…or rather the desire to share the life-force…with another. As a therapist, a friend…a person…I believe that true healing of the heart, the soul, can only occur when we reach out, accept and share our pain with another…when we offer our blood and accept theirs…it’s not pretty, it’s messy and hurts…but this transfusion seems a necessary part to being healthy…and even human.

Power: Every vampire possesses it to differing degrees…they are strong, they are nearly immortal, they can influence humans with a glance…they are like gods…and yet too dark and shadowy to be anything other than the incarnate of earthbound evil. This is the ultimate illustration of the downfall of power…its limits, its boundaries actually become its own destruction…one only has to look to religion for parallels…world history…even our own relationships…possession is not equal to satisfaction…our conquests won through power are as fleetingly satisfying as the vampire’s…drink fast…the hunger for more power will only rage on…what a beautifully frightening metaphor for life.

Sex: The vampire…such an interesting dicotomy…sex is danger…sex means death of the desired other…and for some sex is not even possible…yet, these iconic creatures are the epitome of a sex symbol…They are SEX! What does this say about us? Well physically, that today we live in an age of dangerous sex, of AIDS and HPV…STIs abound, essentially, sex (can) = DEATH (physically). Psychologically, this creates another type of struggle…sex is our life-force, it is part of our main drive and is intimately bound to our will to survive…as a species this is a deep, animalistic need…so what happens when you mix that evolutionary necessity with death? You act out…extreme and what might be considered deviant sexual practices become more acceptable…no one can deny that threesomes, bi-sexuality, homosexuality, BDSM…(things once considered “mental illnesses”)…are now present and even acceptable for a growing number of (mainstream) people today…perhaps it’s our battle-cry…our ferocious attempt to overcome these fears of sex=death through an extreme expression of living, really living…owning and trying to master that which threatens us. There can be no doubt that sexuality in general has become the marker of our popular culture…turn on the tv, read a book, go on the internet…we are a sex obsessed people. Is that wrong? No…absoultely not…I just think that it’s important to understand why…and how it effects us.

Like the VAMPIRE…I think you and I are set in a conflict…between good and bad…desire and loss…power and boundaries…life and death and SEX.

AND like the VAMPIRE…our road to resolution is unpromised…however we can always fantasize…(but that is for the NEXT blog…part II coming this week! xx c)