Mushy mushy

Bijschrift toevoegen

Yesterday I finished "Tempting fate", the other Nora Roberts novel that was in one binding with "Playing the odds". While reading this second book, I suddenly realized why I disliked "Playing the odds" so much. It is the lack of any story besides the romance. Oh come on, the kidnapping story was nothing but a vehicle to portrait Justin's desire for Serena.
"Tempting fate" suffers – for me – from more or less the same fault. Besides the struggling love story between Caine and Diana, not much happens. And although I sometimes like romances, something has to happen on the side. The love story cannot be the main focus of the novel, but more a side effect. In for instance the books written about Eve Dallas – also by Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb – a lot of things happen. People get murdered (she doesn't work at the homicide police department for nothing), parties are held, witnesses are questioned, quarrels with the butler, things happen! There is more to their lives than just the smoldering love for the other person. Let me demonstrate this with a quote:
"She could have stopped it. As her arms drew him closer, Diana knew she could have pulled away and ordered him from her room. She still had the strength to do it. But his lips were so clever, so tempting. They whispered at hers, nibbling kisses, promises of endless delight as his hands slid beneath her sweater, up the smooth skin of her back." (page 307)
This goes on, and on, and on. The whole book is nothing more than her desire for him and vice versa. Alright, they both work as lawyers, but that is only necessary to keep them out of bed the whole time. A sense of normal life is needed (otherwise it would be p…). And the lawyering part is but a small section of the book. Most pages are dedicated to their quarrels – she wants him, but is too scared to admit she loves him – their lovemaking or his rescuing her. Yes, a boy has to be kept out of jail, but that is only 2 pages in total. Too mushy mush for my taste.

 
No, these two books weren't the best Nora Roberts ever wrote. Next time I will stick to Eve Dalles.

Crush and devour

There are times I like to read something light. A book where I don't have to think too hard to follow the plot, but which is entertaining at the same time. And yes, I have to admit, those are the times I read a romantic book in the category of boy meets girl, they don't like each other, they love each other, they argue/fight/break up, come back together, happy ending. What I absolutely dislike is an author who insults my intelligence. Even in this romantic genre, the book has to have some sort of realistic feel to it. I've just finished "Playing the odds" by Nora Roberts. Usually when I'm in the light mood, I read Nora, because her books are usually funny, intelligent and a generally good read. I apparently made a mistake by choosing this book. The heroine – Serena – is of course a beautiful woman, blond hair, perfect body. Just an everyday woman. The hero – Justin – is your typical alpha male. If he wants something, he gets it. And because it is a romantic novel, he has a fine trimmed body, beautiful hair and deep eyes. Just an everyday man. We would not like our couple to be struggling with money or poverty, so both are rich. Makes things a whole lot easier.

 

All right, the plot thickens. Serena and Justin meet on a cruise. He´s the guest, she works in the casino. And luckily, our Justin is a gambler. He falls for her, and she likes him too. They dance around each other (metaphorically speaking) until Serena discovers that Justin knows her father and that her father set them up. This takes about half of the book. The thing that annoyed me most, is Serena's attitude. She doesn't want to be with Justin, but as soon as he near she completely loses her mind. Come on, she's a modern woman. I can understand that people are mesmerized by each other, but this is too much. Too much wooing, too much 'oh (s)he looks too good', too much of so called romance. It wasn't romantic to me. It was annoying.
The other half of the book takes place in Atlantic City, in Justin's hotel. Serena and Justin became partners. And yes, of course they become a couple. They can't live without each other, they are all over each other, they are so mushy mushy. Almost too mushy mushy. Then comes the 'terrible event': first there is a bomb in Justin's hotel in Las Vegas, then there is a threatening letter and last but definitely not least, Serena is kidnapped! But our little Serena isn't impressed. She cries a little bit, but in the end she hits the kidnapper with a fillet. Justin in the mean time is falling apart. Oh, he's so a though guy, but with such a little little heart. Annoying again. He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep, he's just grrr. Not sexy at all.

 
So, in the end I finished the book. Unfortunately, I don't think this is one of Nora's better novels. The whole book annoyed me too much. With romantic novels you're prepared to bend the rules a little. But this was too much bending.


"Playing the odds" is combined with "Tempting fate" in one combo. I decided to give the MacGregor's one more chance. I'm currently reading about Caine and Diane. So far it's a little better than Serena and Justin. Diane tries to be a tough girl, but inside she's a insecure girl. But luckily, Caine is there to help her. A bit mushy mush again, a bit annoying, but so far bearable.


I think after I finish this book that I have had enough of romance for now. Back to murder and mayhem.

Religion and war

It always surprises me that people find it important to influence what other peoples believes. Please, don´t bother me with that. I would like to believe what I believe and I won´t bother you with it. So please don´t bother me. There was a time in history when believing the wrong religion could get you killed. If you were a Catholic in Protestant England in the 16^th century, you better be careful. There was a lot of animosity between Catholics and Protestants in that age. After Henry VIII created the Church of England in order to marry Anne Boleyn, a lot of people got killed. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I prosecuted the Catholics and (Bloody) Mary I the Protestants. Following the wrong religion could even be considered treason to the throne. A ghastly death awaited you, after a horrible time of torture and interrogation.

S.J. Parris' "Heresy" is set in these uncertain times. The hero of the book – Bruno – used to be a monk in Italy. Caught on the toilet with a book by Erasmus he escapes the monastery in order to escape the Inquisition ("Nobody escapes the Spanish Inquisition. It weapons are…" – sorry). On the run for the Inquisition he finally makes it to England. Bruno has these strange ideas of the Earth circling the sun. Therefore he's asked to be part of a royal party to Oxford to participate in a dispute at Lincoln College. Secretly he is also asked to investigate a possible Catholic plot to overthrow the Queen. In Oxford, Bruno is accommodated at Lincoln College. The rest of the royal assembly stays in Christchurch. But not before long a horrible murder takes place at Lincoln. And Bruno is in front. The man – a fellow of the College – is torn to pieces by a hunting dog. Bruno does something of an investigation, but both the rector and another fellow are not co-operative. He receives some mysterious letters, encounters the beautiful daughter of the rector and is ridiculed during the dispute. He does realize that the murders resample a book by Foxe, a favorite author of the rector. Foxe's book writes about people who died for their faith. The first murder looks like St. Ignatius (who found his death in the Colloseum); the second death like St. Sebastian (who looked like a porcupine); the third death like another saint. All men died in horrible ways. The hidden Catholic priest of Lincoln College dies the most horrible death on the scaffold at Tyburn, London. It has something to do with hanging, cutting off his privates, cutting out his intestines and at last beheading.

Il Sodoma, "HI. Sebastian und
 Madonna mit Heiligen"  (1525)

In the end Bruno finds the Catholics in Oxford, but he isn't convinced that they pose a threat to the throne. As he was prosecuted and excommunicated for reading the wrong books, he doesn't want to be the cause of their death. His view is actually quite modern. The other characters in the book are more than willing to kill for what they believe is right. Whether this is the Protestant or Catholic faith.

 
So besides a mystery of who murdered three people in Lincoln College, this book is also about religious intolerance. That makes it kind of sad. Bruno is a changed man at the end of the book. He had small hopes of making a academic name for himself in Oxford. He is a philosopher after all. Now he is in service of Elizabeth as a spy. His life will never be the same.

Law and order in LA

When there isn't much on television, I sometimes watch "Law and order". It always amazes me – as non-American – how the American justice system works. Don't take me wrong, it'll probably has it benefits, but it also has many flaws. As with any legal system, the flaws make it interesting. With "Law and order" you get both sides of the system: police and prosecution. Yesterday I finished Michael Connelley's "Echo Park". This book is more about the 'police-side' of the American legal system. It concentrates solely on a case detective Harry Bosch would like to solve after 13 years. The prosecution-side is represented by McShea, the district attorney. It is election time and for him a lot is at stake with a high profile case.


It starts with Harry receiving a phone call to deliver the murder book of a cold case to McShea. Harry is not particularly fond of this request. The cold case is the one of Marie Gesto and he was involved in the original murder investigation. His partner and he never found who did it. They didn't even find Marie's body. In the thirteen years that follows, Harry is obsessed with the case. From time to time he retrieves the dossier from the archives for a fresh look. He is so obsessed that his suspect even fills a constraining order against him. And now he has to hand over the file to McShea. Why? Because recently the police arrested a serial murderer in Echo Park. This man - Raynard Waist – has confessed the murder of nine women, including Marie Gesto.


A uneasy partnership between Harry and McShea begins. It starts to unravel during a field trip to the buried body of Marie. In the woods, Waits escapes. With the help of his FBI-profiler friend Rachel Woods, he hunts for the escaped killer and the killer of Marie. After Waits escapes, Harry becomes more and more convinced that Waits did not kill Marie. Following some clues, Harry first believes it a trick by McShea to win the election. But the clues are multi-interpretable. In the end he does figure it out, but for me it has a stretch too much. First, Harry blames another cop, shot dead by Waits. Later it appears to be his own supervisor, Pratt. He approached Harry's original murder suspect, Garland, with an idea. He would get Harry of his back and in return receive a lot of money. The funny thing is that Harry never had enough evidence against Garland to even get a conviction. But somehow, Pratt can convince Garland and his father. Maybe I missed it, but it seems a bit illogical to me.

 
This book for me is an old fashion detective: it concentrates on doing research and focuses on finding the killer. There isn't much else. No strange phenomenon (like the Charlie Parker-series from John Connolley), no secret ancient organizations (like James Rollins) and no science lessons of any kind (like Dan Brown). No, it's just a detective and his hunt for a killer. Very plain and very simple. It makes a good read, although at times predictable. For instance, Harry gets a call from another cop, stating that Waits called Harry's partner during the investigation in Marie's disappearance. The call was entered in the murder book, but there never was any action following this call. Harry is in shock and can't believe he missed a vital clue thirteen years ago. I immediately knew this call was false and the murder book tempered with. Luckily, our Harry doesn't always follow the rules. He made a copy of the murder book when he resigned earlier. And voila, this copy doesn't state the call. He now knows the entry was false and only has to figure out who did it. Other example: he has to enter a specific building. In this building works, as a kind of manager, works the brother of his former partner. Of course he is more than willing to help. All a bit too coincidental, or just luck? A detective needs some luck, but this is a bit too lucky.
All in all a good read, and I'm going to read more by Michael Connelly 

Deserted island

Sometimes, when I’m sick and tired with my work, I picture myself on a deserted island. Palm trees, white sand, blue water, no sharks and room service. All the time in the world. My kind of unrealistic fantasy. There is just one catch. I can only bring a limited amount of luggage. It’s limited – book wise – to one meter of books. One meter. That’s not much. That’s not much at all. And no, I haven’t made my definite list yet. Limiting my books to one meter is very difficult. Who should I put on the list.

For starters, Tolkien is definitely on the list with “The Lord of the Rings’. It remains one of my favorite books all time. I’ve reread it several times. Although I still have minor problems with “The fellowship of the ring” – of all three books this is the one which takes me the most time to read – the story remains magical.

Okay, so I have Tolkien on my list. Who else. I also love Tad Williams and Robin Hobb. Only problem is that their series contain several books, and therefore use too much space.  From Tad I like above all his series “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn”. A long time ago I found the third book in hard back in Amsterdam and I was ecstatic about it – my friends considered me nuts. It contains everything: tragedy, heroism, strange customs and a devious villain. 

Then Robin Hobb. I met her in a bookstore – also in Amsterdam – many years ago and was struck by her sobriety. She was even surprised so many people showed up to meet her. She signed one of my books and I went home a very happy girl. From her I like both series about Fitz, “The Farseer triology” and “The Tawny Man” and the two books about the dragons – “Dragon haven” and “Dragon keeper”. I absolutely disliked the “Soldier Son trilogy.” Too much politics and Wild West for me. I stick to the Six Duchies, Bingtown and Rain Wilds.

Is it a coincidence that all three - Tolkien, Hobb and Williams – have amazing covers? The art on a cover is important to me. I do my best not to judge a book by his cover. But at least in the case of Hobb, I picked up one of her books – “Assassin’s apprentice” – because of the cover art by John Howe.

The books by Robin Hobb unfortunately swallow a lot of space. Actually, I think with these three authors my meter is so good as filled. Although I do love these books, I would like to have a little bit more to read. The problem is, what else? That is a problem I haven’t figured out yet. At the moment I read a lot of different authors from C.J. Sansom or Michael Jecks (medieval based stories) to James Rollins or Steve Perry (Indiana Jones meets Da Vinci code). Most of these authors write in series. Just taking one book somehow doesn’t seem right. But I think I have a solution (or two): I can always change books for new books if I bent the rules a little bit. After all room service needs supplying… And if that doesn’t work, I just take an e-reader. I’m just not sure whether an electronic device and a beach are a good combination? And there is the plug issue. Mm, I’m not sure. I think I just have to keep on dreaming.

Festival

In Holland, for a great many number of years, and since some time in Belgium as well, several times a year there is a book festival (www.boekenfestijn.nl). Imagine a huge hall filled with tables with only books. Books of every category, for usually cheap prizes. It comes close to heaven.  A friend and I always go to the Festival in Utrecht, which is the oldest. Yesterday, however, dear hubby and I went to the Book Festival in Nieuwegein. Although the books on offer were okay, it was less than the Festival in Utrecht (as always). But I never complain when I can browse books for an hour of two.

And although I discarded most books in the end (I always do – take everything along which you may find interesting and then shift through: buy, discard and maybe), I bought about six books. Even dear hubby bought three books (in Dutch). So all in all not a bad count.

Even though I was looking for books by Michael Jecks (I bought some of his books at the last Festival, but not all), I bought some books by – surprise surprise – Michael Connelly! If I hadn’t made the stupid mistake last week, I never had considered buying any of his books. And for €1,95, they were cheap as well. I hesitated over two books by Matthew Reilly (“The seven ancient wonders” and “The six sacred stones”). Earlier experiences with one of his books ( “Temple”, see an earlier blog) made me decide against him. The read was hilarious, but not repeatable. I just think his books are very much the same. This is based on a hunch, so I’m sorry Matthew. I also discarded the “Lord of the Ring”-trilogy. They had beautiful covers, I thought by John Howe. In the end I had to decided that two or three copies of the same book are enough. And yes, I bought the whole trilogy earlier, just because I liked the covers. Strange girl.

So, which books did I end up buying? Here are my six books:

1.  Michael Connelly, “Overlook”
2.  Michael Connelly, “Lost light”
3.  Michael Connelly, “Angels flight”
4. Nora Roberts, “McGregors – Serena & Caine”
5. Nora Roberts, “Stars”
6. National Geographic Traveler Guide “Australië”

Of these the Guide was the most expensive (€4,50), “Angels flight” was in the mid section (€2,50) and the rest was €1,95. Total €14,80. Not bad for six books.

Godless world

I just finished Brian Ruckley's 'Bloodheir', part two of his series 'The godless world'. And the funny thing with this book is that I can't remember whether or not I read the first book. I can only remember one earlier occasion, where I was reading a book and halfway through the book I noticed I read it before. This was Tessa de Loo's 'The twins' (the scene with the duchess and the dog – I suddenly remembered). I'm not sure whether it is my aging brain or that I really did not read the first book. On the other hand, I'm not particularly eager to find out, and probably waste time on a book I already read. Because, for me to reread a book, it really has to be good (like Tolkien) or I need some low intelligence book (the 'look at infinity and brain to zero'-kind of books, which are a perfect read when you're tired).

 
Well, back to 'Bloodheir'. As always with a fantasy book in the epic genre, there are two opposing sides: the good ones, the True Blood and the bad ones, the Black Road. And as always, there are good people on the bad side, and bad people on the good side. And always there are those stuck in the middle. But this time, the one stuck in the middle, Aeglyss – not completely human and being I think tortured would be the right word in book one – is on a sort of collision course. His aim is to raise a new world. Wanting this, he first throws the current one into chaos. He sides with the Black Road. They're not entirely happy with him, because they can't control him. Aeglyss does what he wants. He attracts a lot of followers, so he is a force to be reckoned with. I do not find him a very sympathetic creature. He nags about his poor life and how everybody deserts or tries to kill him. He acts like a five year old, who takes what he wants and yet is never satisfied. Pretty annoying.
On the good side we have Orisian, lord of the ruined Lannis Blood. His lands were among the first to be invaded. As the High Lord is more interested in political games, Orisian chooses his own path. This brings him into conflict with the High Lord's heir. But as Orisian is no longer around, his sister Anyara has to bear the heat for that. Orisian is on the hunt for some not-human woman. Why, only because Aeglyss wants her. This hunts leads him to a forest, where creatures live, who once, a long time ago were created a one of the goddesses. These creatures are not sympathetic to any of the sort lived races. So the woods have a kind of negative atmosphere. Mm, sounds really like Fangorn Forest to me. Of course our hero comes out alive, but not without some loss. It is not really clear to me if he gained any profit from this at all.

 
In book one the Black Road invades the lands of the True Blood. In book two the invasion continues. It is a kind of medieval world, so all the fighting is being done by sword. As a result of the invasion, several battle are fought. A lot of people die in horrendous ways, through treason, in battle or out of negligence. Friends help each other and some die in the process. The whole world is indeed in chaos. At the end of book, the Black Road has invaded the True Blood lands even further. The True Blood is in kind of chaos: the Heir has lost the battle and is running back to daddy; one of their Lords is treacherously murdered; Orisian is somewhere lost in the mountains and everybody caught in between dies. But the Black Road isn't doing any better. They have won the battle, but internal strife is tearing them apart as well. Several sections of the army (or their society – depends on which way you look at it) don't go along with other sections. And there is Aeglyss, stirring up emotions as well.

 
All in all it's a good read. The book is exciting enough to keep you reading. The politics and the warfare have a real zing to it. Some of the good guys die, they suffer and are not always easy victorious. Some of the bad guys have emotions (like Lord Kanin who wants to take revenge after Aeglyss murders his sister) and some are a little more black and white (this is the way we always done it, no change necessary). But I'm really curious on how Ruckley is going to end this all in book three. I haven't bought that one yet. So for now I can't tell you. And to be honest, it's not very high on my list at the moment. I still have a lot of other books to read. So much to read, so little time…