Review: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Tawna Fenske

Contemporary Romance

Sourcebooks, March 2012

Premise: Non-believer accountant agrees to run her mother's psychic business while she is in hospital, meets neighbour who runs a bar with male exotic entertainment.

Cover: Title - Belief (what it's based on, how it changes) is the theme for the whole story, so this title makes a lot of sense. Art - Dreadful. Apprentice Writer hoped the cover would change from the Advanced Reader Copy she received, but judging from the Goodread listing it didn't. Blurry background beachy boardwalk has nothing to do with anything, foreground couple look like they spend too much time in a subpar tanning salon, and the tarot card in the woman's hand looks badly photoshopped. AW's unsolicited advice to the author: insist that future covers be done by artist responsible for fellow Sourcebook Author Amy Thomas' debut, which was one of the best ever by this publisher.

What Works: AW liked the premise, which promised much potential in the form of a straight-laced, super pragmatic character who moved across a continent to get away from her new age, paranormal-open upbringing being forced to masquerade as a psychic or risk seeing her mother go bankrupt. Equally promising was the conflict between modern day heroine and hero who makes a living by having men get naked. As novel building goes, the author came up with a great pair of sources for narrative tension.

AW also really liked the hero. Amiable and believable as he strove to build up his business, look out for his naive ex-brother-in-law, and work through some issues leftover from marital breakup. He also got all the best lines:

"You don't understand,"she slurred. "Psychics don't exist."

"Oh. Okay. Well, then, you're a pleasant figment of my imagination."

and:

"Chris is a normal guy. A safe guy. A wholesome, healthy guy," (she said).

"You make him sound like a salad."

What Doesn't: Often in romantic-comedy type stories, the secondary characters are exaggeratedly one-dimensional. This serves a purpose for the sub genre, and AW accepts this. Even so, she had some trouble with how often and persistently both the hero's dates and his exotic dancers were shown as stupid.

She also struggled with some of the heroine's behaviour. AW couldn't quite buy the straight laced accountant heroine drunkenly falling off tables and smacking the dancers on their behinds. Especially when it felt like she was judgemental about the hero's dates having a specific pair of physical assets. It made the former out of character, or the latter hypocritical; either way, it distanced this reader from the protagonist.

What AW Changed her Mind About: AW is not fond of popular culture references in novels. Partly because half of the time she is unfamiliar with it and then spends the rest of the story irked that she's missing something, partly because of how often they make the book seem passé. Her favourite illustration of the latter is a character who wished for a relationship as romantic and committed as Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

So when the many glam rock band names and song titles started and kept on coming, she was not impressed. However she warmed up to them more as it because clear that rather than mood-setting window dressing, they were a integral part of the plot.

One of the criticisms of the romance genre is that it relies too much on stereotypes. There is some truth to this, and fans of the genre will laughingly talk about favourite and least favourite

tropes. AW's view is that she gets impatient with seeing the same situations over and over, but adores it when an author manages to tweak it in a new way. One overused standbys involves the heroine stumbling or starting to fall and the hero saving her. AW is DYING for a heroine to catch a stumbling hero, for once, or for the hero to try and actually miss.

So the Gentle Reader can imagine that when this heroine is - wait for it! - saved from a fall by the hero, it was not a high point. However, when the heroine had been in the same type of situation three times by page 40, AW decided this met the criteria of successful stereotype tweak and it moved from "Doesn't Work" to "Works".

Overall: Breezy and lighthearted, this is an example of the kind of story usually described as "romp" with the term "hijinks ensue" attached. If the reader usually enjoys that type of story, including exaggerated secondary characters and physical comedy, then this is a good choice.

Non-Laughter Review: PILLOW TALK

PILLOWTALK
Freya North
Sourcebooks, July 2011 (reissue)
Women's Fiction

Premise: After a brief period of non-acted upon attraction when they were teens, a London jeweller and rural teacher meet again.

Cover: Title - Relevant on two levels: it signals 'relationships' as theme, and points to the sleepwalking and insomnia that bedevil hero and heroine. Art - colors and cartoonish font and illustration look like classic chicklit, and the story contains several elements that point in that direction (if we all did not know that Chicklit Is Dead. Or so we keep being told). Altogether, the cover gives a good indication of what the reader will find inside.

What Works: It is very easy to like the protagonists. Artist Petra is passionate about her work, good to her friends, and doggedly determined to keep up her relationships with her divorced parents and stepsiblings despite zero energy on their part to make an effort in that direction. Arlo is a former rock singer/songwriter who now teaches music at an uppercrust private school, and seems genuinely fond of his pupils and sincere in carrying out his duties.

Their story is not about tumultuous passion or wild adventure, but rather, the quiet moments and steps that build up on each other to help everyday people decide whether a relationship is worth sticking with or no longer functional. This is pretty much the opposite of what happens in genres like urban fantasy, space opera, or stories that involve, let's say, espionage, so it is a refreshing and thoughtful change from those types of novels.

Apprentice Writer also found it interesting how sleep was used to underscore what is going on. How, where, with whom, how effectively we do it - all become symbolic of trust and affection. AW liked how it was developed beyond the simple euphemism for sex that is often deployed in contemporary fiction.

What Doesn't: The story hinges heavily on the protagonists not knowing how to get in touch with one another. As young(ish), hip(ish), (partial) Londoners, this trampled AW's suspension of belief. Just because the protagonists liked riding bikes does not convince her that they were so retro that don't know how to operate Facebook, Google, or even something so low-tech as a phone directory.

There was also a moment when the Petra thought she was reliving a very negative experience with her former boyfriend all over again with Arlo, and takes certain immediate action without allowing Arlo even a minimum of opportunity to share his point of view. AW supposes that the reader was intended to take this as a sign of the degree of hurt she had experienced. The way it came off, though, was as childish. It felt like one step away from being too immature to be deserving of the genuine adult relationship she had set her sights on.

Overall: A pleasant beach read, especially for those who miss stories in a chicklit direction.

Non-Laughter Reviews: WHISPERS IN THE SAND

WHISPERS IN THE SAND
Barbara Erskine
Paranormal Mystery
Sourcebooks, 2011 (reissue)


Premise: Contemporary divorcee travels to Egypt and finds her life increasingly entwined with that of a Victorian ancestress and a mysterious ancient artefact.

Cover: Title - Creates sense of drama and is relevant to content. Art - Pretty, eyecatching colors and style of hairdo and dress captures the sense of modern with historical. Overall - well done.

What Works: The author clearly has a tremendous love for Egypt and respect for the profoundly deep sweep of its history. This attachment soaks into the story and makes the reader yearn to get on a plane to see the sights and experience that antiquity personally. At the very least, for those lacking time and travel budget (Apprentice Writer, for instance), the novel motivates to search out more historically-based fiction about the kings and queens mentioned.

AW became caught up in the life of the ancestress. A gifted painter and grieving widow, she tries to regain her physical health and emotional equilibrium by sailing along the Nile. Like her granddaughter, she is challenged to understand the secrets of the antique glass bottle in her posession, but she has the added obstacles of racism, sexism, and stifling Victorian morality rules to deal with. Her choices, and how they affect the contemporary protagonist, held AW's interest.

AW is not a huge ghost-story afficionada, but nevertheless became engrossed in the eternal-seeming power struggle between the rival priest spirits who form the mystery element of the story. What do they want from the bearer of the artefact? Are they benevolent or malevolent? Can they be released from their prison? Will they actually speak? AW could never quite figure out which was the good guy and bad guy between them - perhaps intentionally on the part of the author, to represent how no-one is ever completely innocent or guilty? - and read on more to find out what happened to them than to know what happened to the nominal heroine of the story.

What Doesn't: Warning! Mild Spoilers!
AW struggled with the protagonist. Presented as a depressed, trying-too-hard-to-please, somewhat passive character at first, it seemed logical to expect that over the course of the story arc she would grow into an empowered, active, confident character who realizes she is capable of standing on her own two feet. Didn't happen. True, she does try to tell some other characters that she does not appreciate their behavior, and does take some steps towards determining her own romantic future. Altogether, though, by the end she still spent much time being "taken care of" by a male character and AW repeatedly wanted to shake her for not grasping such basic concepts as: just because someone asks you a question doesn't mean you are compelled to provide an answer if you don't want to. And: if someone enters your living area uninvited and takes some of your property, despite your clear demand that they not do so, there are actions that you can take about it.

AW tried to figure out whether the frusrtation she felt for this character would be unique to her personal reader style, or whether it could be more broadly based. Was there truly a lack of character development on the protagonist's part? Or was it more a case of AW being used to the take-charge (sometimes with skillful violence) attitude of female protagonists found in urban fantasy novels, meaning it was unfair to expect similar backbone in characters from other types of fiction?

It was not possible for her to tease out a clear answer, partly because the waters were muddied by another factor: surprise at the multi-level open endings. Questions about the ancestress, the spirits, the hero and heroine all remained. AW tried to take this in a philosophical way, but in all honesty would have been happier to know some things more definitively rather than imagining for herself what could have happened.

She was also left with a headscratcher: at one point in the novel the protagonist learns that by virtue of their gender women have protection from ill effects of the artefact. Yet in other parts of the story, a woman dies prematurely and some families (presumably containing female members) also perish due to proximity. Any explanations the Gentle Reader can share?

Overall: The two biggest predictors for liking this novel are enjoyment of a paranormal element, and tolerance for open endings. Readers who like their fiction realistic and loose endsl tied up may be left unsatisfied. But readers who welcome a sprinkling of ghosts and who can appreciate tantalizingly unanswered questions as a symbol of the endlessness of time (without question, relevant to a place so old as Egypt) or the eternal nature of humans trying to find their true love, may well be entranced by this story.

Laughter Reviews : HOLLY'S INBOX: SCANDAL IN THE CITY

HOLLY'S INBOX: SCANDAL IN THE CITY
Holly Denham
Sourcebooks, August 2010

Premise: After finally getting her man and a chance at a great promotion, London working girl comes close to losing it all due to scheming colleagues, misunderstandings in love, and eccentric family members.

Cover: Title- Corresponds to Book 1's title and is a tongue-in-cheek nod to that chicklit juggernaut on this side of the Atlantic: 'Sex and the City'. Art - in shades of girly purple, with iconic cartoony figures and a cover girl pose that says 'talking to friends while at work', there is no mistaking this as anything other than neo-chicklit. Altogether, this cover gets full marks for accuracy.

What Works: Apprentice Writer enjoyed the original 'Holly's Inbox', the aptly named Bridget Jones for the e-generation, and found to her happy surprise that she enjoyed this one just as much if not more due to Holly's increased level of maturity and take-chargeness.

For those unfamiliar with them, these books are written entirely in epistolatory form similar to the original Bridget Jones, however instead of a diary the medium is email. This is one the one hand brilliant, allowing as it does for the reader to 'see' from multiple viewpoints (the heroine, the love interest, the parents, the colleagues, the rival, the open and secret admirers) rather than just the single one of the diary-owner. It is also, on the other hand, an incredibly risky thing for an author to do. Anyone who has ever surfed the internet and witnessed the almost daily flaming explosions of people becoming vastly offended by something someone else posted and responding in ever-escalating kind knows that it is very, very difficult to consistently get one's true message across in the truncated form so beloved of blog commentators and texters. Without the context of body language, voice tone, volume, and chance to backtrack if it looks like someone misunderstood, as happens in personal conversation and in 'regular' novels, there is a tremendous amount of room for faulty communication - most especially with the rapidfire exchange made possibly by today's technology. It would have been much harder to have a flamewar in previous times, when the hotheaded remarks were tempered to the eternities it took for post to go back and forth.

Yet, in what is no small accomplishment, the author pulls it off. The reader gets a clear sense of the underlying personality and motivations of the characters through the flavor and content of their writing style. And in what may be the most remarkable writerly accomplishment of them all, the writer does so while being male. Holly Denham is the pen name of a man who runs a temp agency (if AW has understood correctly). AW learned this after the fact, and did not suspect while reading Book 1. Well played!

AW was also much entertained by how the author worked a real-life, much publicized public relations snafu into the story. Further details cannot be shared due to spoilery; suffice it to say that it made AW laugh when she heard about it in real life, and it made her laugh again when she recognized it here. What she did not think about at the time of the original incident was how the consequences would play out for the staff involved, and the possibilities of that fallout are explored here.

What Doesn't: The antagonist was a bit over the top for this reader's taste, and resolution to the romantic problems felt a tad rapid (though not entirely implausible in method.) Wanted to see a little more grovelling on the love interest's part after putting Holly through such a horrible emotional wringer. That's about it. Not much to grouch about in a full-length novel, and did not detract from overall enjoyment.

Overall: An entertaining, satisfying romp taken straight from headlines and zeitgeist of the new millenium, well worth the time for any fan of chicklit or romantic comedy, and readers who liked Book 1. Those who may feel faint at the door-stopper size of the volume, take heart: it is a actually a super-fast read due to large amount of whitespace on each page devoted to email formatting.

But does it make you laugh? YES!
Apprentice Writer's expectation of Britlit of any genre is that there will be eccentric secondary (or, for that matter, primary) characters and plenty of them. This novel does not disappoint. Holly is the endearing 'straight man' to many equally endearing oddballs, and she never, ever, makes them feel like embarrasing goofs no matter how questionable their choices may be. We should all embrace the 'Live and let live' philosphy so well, and with such good humor.

/m

Lightning Reviews: MULTI-GENRE CONTEMPORARY

Time for some more lightning reviews, contemporary division!

The Girls, by Lori Lansens
Literary Fiction, 2005 (reprinted 2009)
Cover: Attractive lilac shade, mysterious female face, it is only after reading the blurb and realizing that the story is about conjoined twins, forever bound to each other at the skull, that one realizes how apt the cover is, showing as it does two women attached but looking in opposite directions as do the protagonists (if you look at the front and back covers simultaneously). Simple but brilliant.
Content: Apprentice Writer absolutely loved this novel of conjoined sisters alternately telling the story of their life after learning one has a medical condition which will ultimately kill them both. The sisters' never-ending challenge and paradox is to do everything as one, but still be considered two separate individuals. Their voices are so distinct from one another that AW never mistook whose 'turn' to speak it was, despite annoyingly similar names bestowed upon them. The story explores such obvious themes as identity and definition of normalcy, but also feminitiy, boundaries of romantic and non-romantic love, exploitation, and what happens when biology (as opposed to social circumstance) forces one's sibling to also be take on a parent/child role.
Recommended for: Everyone. No matter how many books AW reads this year, 'The Girls' will be in her top five. She won it from Goodreads First Reads program, and immediately foisted it on her bookclub. It generated a tremendous amount of discussion and lingered long in the club's collective consciousness.


Made to be Broken, by Kelly Armstrong
Thriller, 2009
Cover: Moody red & black colors, graphic look, gun central = gives an accurate picture of what to expect, but not particularly unique or eyecatching. More signficant, perhaps, is the fact that the author's name is not only equal in size to the title but tops it: this author's has had runaway success in the paranormal and YA genres, and now appears to be crossing over into another with this suspenseful tale.
Content: AW wanted to get a taste of this very popular author's style, but could not warm up to her most well-known wolfian shapeshifter story, 'Bitten', praised though it is by many. So she picked up the second book in the Nadia Stafford series, about a female assassin for hire who runs an inn in rural Ontario when she isn't assassinating. And despite some sad-to-the-point-of-disturbing subject matter (murdered mother and stolen baby), the author's style lets the reader fly right along in the story. The protagonist's moral dilemmas and personal choices were convincing, her quandary of choice between two colleagues (and likewise, men) kept AW interested.
Recommended for: Fans of suspense, readers who like the author's work in other genres.

Curse of the Spellmans, by Lisa Lutz
(Spellman Files Book#2) Mystery, 2008
Cover: Indubitably eye-catching (ha!) due to rainbow color scheme, and the optics everywhere do make sense for the story, but the overall effect is muppet-like and could be done better.
Content: AW enjoyed Book#1 in this private investigator family series tremendously, and Book #2 even more so. To call it 'quirky' is like saying FIFA World Cup stadium audience members enjoy soccer - much too pale a word to capture the true essence of what's going on here. Isabelle Spellman's innate personality and unusual upbringing/training in private investigator tactics combine to produce a heroine who is without question odd and even dysfunctional in some ways, yet irrepressible and enormously appealing in her dogged attempts to do the right thing, regardless of whether the person she's doing it for or to wants that. She, her younger sister, and both parents are absolute masters of making the most jaw-dropping actions and statements seem perfectly reasonable.

As to AW's standard question, 'But does it make you laugh?'
Better believe it. Take a look:

A new neighbor has just witnessed Isabel exiting her parents' home from an upper window rather than a door. This does not st0p him from inviting her to breakfast. Bear in mind: the following is supposed to be their first DATE:
"As Subject beat eggs...I explained that I don't quite understand the big deal about doors. I casually mentioned my (window habit) as a throwback to my rebellious youth, but also as a rejection of the absoluteness of doors being the only socially acceptable mode of entry and exit. I'm not sure I convinced Subject to give windows a try himself. He stared at me a second too long and said, 'Well that's another way to look at it.'

Over breakfast Subject and I attempted to get each other's vital statistics.
'So what do you do?' I asked.
'I run a landscaping business.'
'Oh, that explains the gardening.'
'Does gardening need explaining?'
'I think so.'
'And you?'
'I haven't gardened in years. Thirty, to be exact.'
'You should try it sometime. Some people find it relaxing.'
'What kind of people?'
'I'm changing the subject,' Subject said."

'When you witness your mother vandalizing a motorbike for no apparent reason, there aren't a whole lot of people you can discuss it with.'

Someone is copycatting a series of creative vandalistic acts Isabel perpretrated (but never admitted to) as a teenager on a neighbor's outdoor holiday displays. Isabel is hired to solve the current case and begins by interviewing those who knew about it, starting with her dad, a former police officer.
"The transcript reads as follows:
Isabel: 'Do you recall the string of adjustments to Mrs. Chandler's life-size tableaux during the 1992-93 school year?'
Albert: 'Adjustments. Nice word choice.'
I: 'Please answer the question.'
A: 'Yes, I do recall the adjustments.'
I:....'Do you recall telling anyone about them.'
A: 'I do.
I: 'Approximately how many people?'
A: 'Has to be at least forty or fifty.'
I.'Are you out of your mind? Didn't you have anything else to talk about?'
A: 'Excuse me, Isabel, but I was getting tired of listening to my colleagues rave about their daughters' straight A's or swim team victories, science fair ribbons and Ivy League educations. These were the only bragging rights I had on you and I enjoyed it. I didn't relish you being a vandal, but the 'adjustments', as you call them, were downright brilliant. If only you had channelled that energy into something useful.'
I.: 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'
A.: 'Give me a break.'

Isabel's hardworking parents try taking a vacation, and send separate emails home to their daughters:
"Subject: Cruise Ship Dispatch #1
This is like a floating prison. Sometimes I just want to throw myself overboard so I can have some more space. I can't see the appeal. Plus, your mom's sick as a dog, so I have to roam the decks alone. Everyone on board has been drugged with some awful substance that makes them smile constantly. Crew members are always asking me if they can help me with anything. I'm walking down a hallway, and they ask if I need assistance. With what? I hope you both are behaving yourselves. I'll know if you're not. Dad.

Subject: Greetings from Hell
After two days of eating saltines, I finally made it out of the cabin, which is about the size of our Audi. In defense of my cabin, however, no-one inside it wears a thong.'

Recommended for: Fans of unusual, unpredictable heroines, readers who enjoy unique secondary characters and don't need a fulfilled love affair every book, anyone who likes their humor dry and quirky. AW can't wait to see what happens in Book #3, 'The Spellmans Strike Back', and can't decide at this moment if she likes Isabel's tween sister Rae or the superlative Flavia de Luce of 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie'. Tough choice, which calls for immediate reading of next books to decide.

Twin Reviews: ALTERNATE WORLD SLEUTHS

CHANGELESS (Parasol Protectorate Book #2) by Gail Carriger Steampunk Paranormal 2010

A LOCAL HABITATION (October Daye Book #2) by Seanan McGuire Urban Fantasy 2010

Premise
1. In a Victorian Britain where supernaturals are integrated into society and government makes use of superhuman gifts, preternatural Lady Maccon investigates a baffling outbreak of forced mortality among vampires, werewolves, and ghosts.

2. Half human, half fae Toby Daye travels to a politically disputed Fairie duchy and becomes embroiled in serial murder investigation.

Cover
1. Title: perfect twin to Book#1's 'Soulless' and bullseye hit on content. Art: The good - dirigible in stormy weather, blue toned banner script, top hot and 'glassicals' (as eyewear is called). The not quite as good - in contrast to Book#1 where heroine's parasol and pose were jaunty and intriguing, here she looks stiff and unnatural, with odd facial expression and overplucked eyebrows. Hopefully Book#3 will return to an edgy profile. Overall: would make AW stop in a bookstore for a closer look.

2. Title: becomes clear late in the story why this is relevant to content; personally, AW would have preferred another botanical title similar to the unusual and memorable Book#1 title (Rosemary and Rue). Art: menacing figure is 100% false advertising, Toby's grumpy, pinched and hungry looking appearance 100% accurate. Overall: AW would walk right by in a bookstore.

What Works
1. As was the case in Book#1, this sequel is rollicking good fun. Stuffy, rigid etiquette coupled with antiquated, persnickety language in absurd contrast with the extraordinary characters, events and at times action-adventure feel make for much entertainment. Language is also noteworthy in other respects; this author rises to the heights of J.K. Rowling in terms of amusing names (servants Floote and Rumpet, business Shersky & Droop) and she has a way with vivid description:

"Lady Maccon declined with horror. Brussels sprouts were nothing more than underdeveloped cabbages."

"The handle (of the parasol) looked like something that might top an ancient Egyptian column, carved with lotus flowers - or a very enthusiastic pineapple."

"...she pulled out a small vial. 'Poison?' 'Certainly not. Something far more important: perfume. We cannot very well have you fighting crime unscented, now, can we?' 'Oh.' Alexia nodded gravely. After all, Madame Lafoux was French. 'Certainly not.' "

"This was the kind of woman who took her tea black, smoked cigars after midnight, played a mean game of cribbage, and kept a bevy of repulsive little dogs. Alexia liked her immediately. The woman shouldered a rifle with consummate skill and pointed it at Lord Macon. Alexia liked her less."

"The color scheme and general appearance (of the bedroom) reminded Lady Maccon of nothing so much as a damp, malcontented squirrel."

In their review of Book#1, Apprentice Writer's esteemed colleagues The Booksmugglers were dismayed on two levels; that one dirigible mention did not a steampunk novel make (if AW understood correctly), and that Alexia and Connall were too close in physical similarity to another literary Victorian couple, Amelia Peabody & Radcliffe Emerson (of Elizabeth Peters' superb Egyptian historical suspense series). As premier reviewers of speculative fiction, the Booksmugglers are much more knowledgable than AW about that oh-so-difficult-to-define beast, 'Steampunk' . Perhaps this was a good thing, as AW had no purist qualms about the novel's classification. But for those who read for the gadgetry, AW is pleased to say that there is much more present, applied, and sometimes copiously explained in 'Changeless'. The gadgets were all very cool and AW loved how Alexia became engrossed in how they all worked.

In terms of Alexia/Connall vs. Amelia/Emerson - if the Smugglers had not pointed it out, AW is not sure she would have spotted the potential for comparison in 'Soulless'. But with introduction of an Egyptological element and Alexia's use of a custom parasol in the way Amelia uses her many-pocketed acrchaeological clothes, it is impossible not to see this supernatural couple as an homage to Peters' iconic sleuths. AW had no problem with it, except for one detail (see below).


2. As in Book#1, the worldbuilding and diversity of fae subcultures and abilities was excellent - highly imaginative and convincing. By far the most compelling characteristic of this series.

The author also has a way with one-liners:

"I was under the impression that things were stable. That could change at any time, of course, and there's always a risk of small-scale civil war in Faerie - it's something to do when you're bored and immortal."

"....'You even scare the landscape.' 'It probably remembers us from yesterday and doesn't want to be enchanted again. The inanimate can have a surprisingly long memory.' "

"...We could probably have done without our (human) disguises...(if) the desk clerk saw us undisguised, he'd think he was looking at a kid playing Star Trek games and a giant Tinkerbell knockoff with PMS."

"...sometimes the best way to deal with the Luidaeg (was to) just keep saying the same thing over and over until she gets fed up and gives you what you want. All preschoolers have an instinctive grasp of this concept , but most don't practice it on immoral water demons. That's probably why there are so few disembowelments in your average preschool."

AW's favorite character from Book#1 - Tybalt, King of the Cats - showed up again to her delight, but not enough to satisfy. Hopefully he'll have more presence in the next installment. AW liked him not only for himself, but because she got a good laugh out of the inversion of the stereotype. One of the most cliche yet ongoingly, frequently used metaphors used in romance novels of all persuasions is to liken the hero's graceful/muscular/silent/deadly/(insert adjective) movement and/or appearance to that of a big cat. It struck AW as funny to have a character flat out be one.

What Doesn't
1. One of AW's most pet of all peeves is for dialogue of characters whose first language is not English to be written 'in accent'. Her reasons:
- puzzling out what they're saying rips her out of the story,
- it is NEVER successful, as AW has never heard French/German/Italian/etc. people speak precisely in the cliched manner accepted for those language groups,
- it is lazy, because a person speaking English as a second language usually doesn't just pronounce words differently but uses different sentence structure and conventions as well, and more often than not this isn't reflected in their literary speech when the 'shortcut' of abysmal accent cliches are applied,
- the ONLY reason that AW can come up with for an author to choose to have a character speak in language accent cliche is to make that character look slightly ridiculous, and/or to have a recurring opportunity to emphasize their 'differentness' from the protagonist. The underlying motivation for both potential reasons have an ugly xenophobic feel to this reader. No matter how good the book, inclusion of accent-speak automatically lowers AW's Goodreads grade by at least half a star, even if the non-accent-speaking characters are, for the purposes of the story, xenophobic.

How to handle a non-native speaker character instead, then, the Gentle Reader may ask?
Simple: The first time the character is introduced, describe him or her as having a (insert language) accent, and then either remark that the character's sentence structure otherwise follows English patterns, or else write the characters subsequent dialogue in the applicable sentence patterns. For an example done well, look at Joanna Bourne's 'The Spymaster's Lady'

//general rant over

It was AW's unpleasure to find accent speak not only for French, but with an occasional dollop of Scottish as well. In the case of the French characters, the icing on the cake was its complete redundancy since almost every (!) mention of the two characters involved included an explicit reference to their nationality. This endless repetition of defining attributes and adjectives occured in matters of dress, personality, and speech patterns as well (i.e. not just the speech pattern in natural dialogue [which is fine] but the protagonist remarking upon the particular speech pattern). It reached the point where this reader seriously asked herself if the author truly felt her audience had memory deficiency problems and needed to be 'helped' along like this. If it weren't or the at times intricate machinery explanations, this style would have felt too close to insulting reader intelligence for comfort.

Finally, there was a disconnect between the secret strategist role assigned to the heroine and her poor performance as a sleuth. Repeated assassination attempts are made with almost no effort made to investigate who would have had the means or motive and who could be excluded from suspicion, and went against the image built up of the heroine being unusually intelligent.

2. Toby, likewise, did not impress this reader with her sleuthing abilities this time around. She enters a closed community, and does not figure out what is going as bodies pile up left and right until there are a total of 3 of the original group left. Apprentice Writer thinks that even with her complete lack of detective ability, she would probably have been able to figure out the culprit once only that few remained. It was not a good reflection on the competence of someone designated a Knight and sent on the mission specifically due to supposed investigative skill.

But this reader believes there an extenuating circumstance, if somewhat dubious. The Gentle Reader who saw AW's review of Book#1 will recall her credulity being strained by Toby performing all kinds of physical feats (including bleeding vast quantities) while eating a total of two marshmallow sandwiches over the course of about three days. Toby's eating disorder appears even more pronounced this time around; though practically every page seems to mention her drinking coffee, her actual ingestion of food was, IIRC, one donut. If AW's total caloric intake over several days consisted of coffee and one donut, she' be grumpy and not her best at making logical deductions either.

Overall
Sequels to highly original debuts both show continued author skill at worldbuilding and deft turns of phrase, while leaving room to hope that protagonist sleuthing skill will rise with experience.


/m

Review & Giveaway: RUMOR HAS IT

RUMOR HAS IT
by Jill Mansell
Humorous Women's Fiction
Sourcebooks, 2010 In Stores Now

Premise: Newly single young Londoner starts fresh in a small town where she soon learns that practically everyone is either subject or instigator of some form of rumor, forcing her (and all others) to choose whether to believe, refute, ignore, or repeat the pseudo-information.

Cover: Title - short and snappy, captures content. Art - bright, breezy, breath of fresh air all leap to mind. Though Apprentice Writer does not recall a single butterfly in the narrative, much less a herd of them, the feeling they and the nicely shod feet represent is accurate: upbeat tale of someone generally confident and young-at-heart. Altogether, an attractive, well-done cover.

What Works: In case AW has not mentioned it before - she is a bit of an armchairAnglophile. She adores her mental picture of picturesque villages, ancient buildings, overflowing flowerboxes, shopping in quaint little shops rather than big-box department stores, and ultra dry-witted joie de vivre (all gained from books and movies) so much she is actually a little afraid of making a real-life trip to the UK in case her preconceived notion is shattered.

AW is not proud of this head in the sand mentality, but it does explain how pleased she was to find this story reinforced her fantasy. It was her first Mansell novel. AW has no clue how this came to be given the entertainment value and long string of previous novels but now that she knows she intends to do something about that backlist.

She liked how the heroine responded to discovering that her live-in boyfriend had decided to dump her by moving out without a single word of warning. Instead of moping, she spontaneously decides to take a job as 'Girl Friday' in a small town where a friend lives. She moves in with single dad Max and his tween daughter Lou, to keep the house and Lou running on time while Max tends to his interior design business. This leads to occasional contact with the hero, a contractor, who responded to the accidental death of his fiance by becoming the town's much sought after Bachelor #1. Everyone, it seems, either warns the heroine off of him or sees her as a rival for his attention, causing a long-drawn-out process of her fighting her attraction to him which forms the main plot of the story.

But it was the subplots of the story that AW found most interesting (perhaps, because it was not possible to tell how they would end up). The shopowner harrassed by the ex-wife of her new romantic interest, the father shocked to realize that even though he is comfortable with the consequences of coming out of the closet, his child may not be, the actress buffeted by bad publicity. Max was AW's favorite character, for the way he interacted with everyone, and for the most poignant scene in the story; he figures out precisely what someone in a very difficult situation most needs to hear, and says it, regardless of how someone else thinks it is inappropriate.

What Doesn't: It is not hard to figure out why the heroine is attracted to the hero: good-looking, charming, successfully running his own business, kind to his still-grieving former in-laws, and the clincher: willing to put himself out for an animal that is neither attractive nor his. What's not to like? What wasn't so clear was what drew him to the heroine. They spend little time alone together and so don't have a chance to get to know and appreciate one another in a natural or relaxed way. Due to caution at first and misunderstanding later on, the heroine is goes from being standoffish to judgemental, unappreciative, and at times downright rude. His tolerance of all this was most puzzling, given that he had next to no fond memories of good times together between them to fall back on.

The resolution of the burned-by-false-publicity actress subplot also felt AW feeling ambivalent. On the one hand, the character is a sympathetic one and so the reader is pleased when she ends on a positive note in her personal life. But since this is a contemporary story rather than a historical one, AW very much wished...

MILD SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....that the decision she made regarding her professional life could somehow have felt more like a contemporary solution rather than the more traditional "I'll let my man worry about making the money" view.

END SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Overall: The current crop of online reviews for this title contain intriguing fodder for the question 'What is chicklit, and is it dead?', with opinions ranging from RHI being a classic example of the best the subgenre has to offer, to reviewers liking RHI 'despite' it being chicklit, to referring to it as romantic comedy because calling it chicklit would be 'almost insulting'. The Gentle Reader will not be surprised that AW has an opinion. Or four.

1. 'Rumor Has It' does fall under the chicklit umbrella.
Ticks on the checklist include:
stylish shoes on cover (with all that implies),
cartoon-drawing cover (ditto),
young, single, urban, female protagonist (who we know will NOT be single by 'The End')
multiple mentions of fashion brand names,
protagonist is very tight with friend(s) and distant with family,
there is a booze-influenced plot development.

2. Falling under the chicklit umbrella is not a negative thing.
Apprentice Writer is extremely fond of well-done chicklit. It was a Brit invention, and therefore no big surprise that the Brits, in her humble opinion, still do it best. The problem is that this subgenre, perhaps more so than others, has unfortunately come to be associated not so much with the examples of the well-executed variety, but with the flood of bandwagon-jumper-oners that seemed to be all pink covers and dim, materialistic stereotypes, so that its fans (much like romance aficionados) seem compelled to offer excuses to avoid negative judgment from readers who think of themselves as somehow loftier. Having said that,

3. Classic chicklit is an increasingly rare beast in the current publishing climate.
Hence AW's description of RHI at the top of the post as 'humorous women's fiction'. Hence also AW's kudos to Sourcebooks for continuing to provide these kinds of titles for the public when, for example, behemoth Harlequin discontinued its Red Dress Ink line.

4. RHI also falls under the women's fiction umbrella.
Ticks on the checklist include:
third- rather than first-person voice,
ensemble cast,
exploration of some decidedly non-shallow topics, including serious illness and homophobia. This story is not all lipstick and cocktails.




But does it make you laugh? YES
In a wry, 'I know people just like that!' recognition kind of way.

Learn more about the author here.

GIVEAWAY!
Publisher Soucebooks has generously offered two copies for Apprentice Writer's readers. To win, comment on the review or answer the question:

"Have you ever been the subject of a rumor, and what did you do about it?"

The Fine Print:
1. U.S. and Canadian addresses only please, no P.O. boxes.
2. If your profile does not lead back to an active blog, please leave a non-spammable way to get in touch.
3. Bonus entry for recommending another Jill Mansell novel for AW's TBR pile and explaining why you chose that one.
4. Bonus entry for following, either here here on on Twitter (MayaWriter) and then telling me about it.
5. Contest closes 30 May 2010.

Good luck!

Page 1: Rumor Has It

"How weird that you could push open your front door and know in an instant that something was wrong."



Come back tomorrow for Apprentice Writer's review & giveaway!

Laughter Reviews & Giveaway: BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
by Wendy Holden
Humorous Women's Fiction
Sourcebooks, April 2010 - IN STORES NOW


Premise: A 'serious' British actress getting her first big commercial break, a papparazzi-loving American actress looking to find her way back into the limelight, and a down-to-earth British nanny wrestle with the question of what makes someone attractive.

Cover: Eye-catching, saturated color, classic chicklit stiletto icon, title that can be interpreted on more than one level = great cover.

What Works: Apprentice Writer doesn't recall how she first came across this author's work several years ago, but she has been an admirer of the over-the-top Britlit style ever since. The daily life dilemmas of the protagonists are so easily relatable the reader can't help but sympathize, the self-centred misbehavior of the antagonists so overblown that the reader often develops perverse affection for their delusions of grandeur. Ms. Holden's novels are great fun, and this one is no exception. She takes such glee in skewering stereotypes that one can't help but go along with it and speculate about what composite of celebrities may have inspired various novel characters. It is not a simple 'let's laugh at the out-of-touch-with-reality celebrities' story, though; by taking certain behaviors or character traits of more ordinary folks to the extreme to make a point, this is also a cautionary tale about the risks that can go along with blind deference to fame or social status.

AW's favorite scene was right at the end, when an Italian character confesses his deepest sin. In a story dotted with shortcomings of various intensities and unpleasantness, the secret revealed as most shameful was so true to character and believable it provided the perfect comedic endnote.

What Doesn't: Apprentice Writer has observed that often, a person's greatest strength can also be their weakness. She has long admired this author's skill at with multiple point-of-view characters, the a heroine/villainess juxtaposition often being the most enjoyable aspect of the story. In this case, the reader entered the thoughts of a rather staggering number of characters - male and female, mature and teenaged, financially advantaged and financially exploited, talented and wannabe, shifting across three countries - such that this reader suffered occasional moments of head-hopper exhaustion which led at times to lack of connection with the character de page. Reflecting on this narrative choice, it occured to Apprentice Writer that it may have been intended as a statement on the fleeting nature of fame and how one barely comes to recognize a new star before his/her face is swept away on the tide of new up-and-comers. So, she will give benefit of the doubt and call this a clever nod to the reality of all the 'beautiful people' out there struggling to make their living from their appearance.

The second thing that made AW say 'Huh?' was the opening point-of-view. None of the three primary characters, nor even one of the 'main' (if that's the correct word) secondary characters, but a minor (AW is going to call it tertiary) character who then disappears for a long stretch. This confused her, used as she is to the current fictional convention of opening with either the protagonist or antagonist, and therefore feeling in a holding pattern of anticipation that that tertiary character would enter the scene again at any moment. It took quite some time to clue in that that wasn't going to happen. Again, once she thought about it, AW could appreciate that the scene was actually a bullseye choice for a story about, duh, beautiful people: a top executive for a modelling agency who is eternally on the lookout for the next 'It' face spots one in the wild (i.e. on a London street). AW will further admit that she really enjoyed the funny twist, wherein the executive is stunned when the boy to whom the traffic-stopping face belongs is indifferent to being discovered, and runs away. It was like the fish story of talent scouts. AW slotted it in under 'Who says the rule of opening with a main character can't be broken?'


But does it make you laugh? YES
This is a classic Holden tale, with eccentric ensemble cast and lots of changes of scenery. Another novel perfectly suited to the beach bag or airplane carry-on from the queen of contemporary social satire.


GIVEAWAY!
Who's your favorite 'beautiful person' and why?

Comment for a chance to win 1 of 2 copies of 'Beautiful People', then come back tomorrow for Q&A with the author to double your chances!

The Fine Print:
1. U.S. and Canadian addresses only, no P.O. Boxes please.
2. Leave a non-spammable way to get in touch if your profile doesn't lead back to an active blog.
3. For bonus entry, follow here or on Twitter (MayaWriter) and let me know.
4. Contest closes on 7 May 2010.

Good luck!

/m

Author Guest Post & Giveaway: LIBBY MALIN

Today, Apprentice Writer welcomes the lovely Libby Malin, author of humorous women's fiction, chatting on the topic of




SOAP OPERA IN A TWITTER WORLD

I've watched Days of Our Lives for many years and before that, Another World.I liked to ponder the challenges of a soap writer - juggling actor vacations and contract changes, sweeps week stories - things outside of the writer's control, for the most part. Oh, and soap genealogy - I think more than one soap has shifted a story line after it was apparent that the family linkage between a guy and a gal was a little too close for comfort. Family trees get awfully twisted on soaps. That should be a college major - Daytime Drama Character Lineage! LOL!

Anyway, I found myself thinking about how writers dealt with these various challenges, and noticing how skillful the writers were, for the most part, in constructing story arcs. It fascinated me, especially since the storylines are usually so outlandish - swapped babies, evil twins, people 'coming back from the dead' (usually with amnesia). And yet, if the writers do a good job, you're riveted. You absolutely must be there when the Big Scene occurs - when the villains misdeeds are revealed, when the villainess gets her comeuppance. You drool for those moments!

Another thing I love about soaps is how the characters say outrageous things to one another that you'd never say in real life, no matter how much you loathed someone. Yet on a soap opera, it's not unusual to see various characters talking trash right in the face of someone they can't stand. It's marvellously satisfying.

So all of those things combined together created the germs of a story idea about a soap opera head writer. I started thinking: wouldn't it be neat to a soap opera writer and use all those in-your-face scenes to work out your own "issues" with people in real life? And what if real life started to blend into the soap life? That's how the idea of a real jewel thief imitating the one on the show popped into My Own Personal Soap Opera.

Another think I particularly admired about the soal Another World was how they stayed true to one story arc they used over and over - that is, haves-vs.-have-nots. The theme ran through all their plots. It also runs through My Own Personal Soap Opera. Frankie, the head writer, comes from 'the wrong side of the tracks', while Victor, the marketing guru who comes in to help raise the soap's ratings, comes from a moneyed background.

Since I am not, nor have I ever been, involved in the production of a soap opera, I had to do a bunch of research. I read some fiction set in the soap world as well as a number of autobiographies of soap stars. I also consulted with a number of people who do or did work on soaps, including the head writer of As the World Turns, who was so gracious and patient with my questions. I took what I learned and used it as a springboard for my fictional tale. Therefore, I did stretch reality to suit my particular story - just as soap opera writers do!

Thanks for having me as a guest. I'd be happy to answer any questions about writing as best I can.

Thanks, Libby, for dropping by!


GIVEAWAY!

Ask a question or make a comment and you can win a copy of My Own Personal Soap Opera, generously provided by Sourcebooks!

Double your chances by commenting on Apprentice Writer's review, posted yesterday!


The Fine Print:
1. U.S. and Canadian addresses only, no P.O. Boxes.
2. Leave a non-spammable way to reach you if your profile does not lead back to an active blog.
3. Bonus entries by following here or on Twitter (MayaWriter), please let Apprentice Writer know if you do.
4. Contest closes 27 April 2010.


Learn more about the author here.

Good luck!

Laughter Reviews & Giveaway: MY OWN PERSONAL SOAP OPERA

MY OWN PERSONAL SOAP OPERA: Looking for Reality in All the Wrong Places
by Libby Malin
Humorous Women's Fiction
Sourcebooks, April 2010


Premise: Personal and professional life starts to merge for newly promoted head script writer of longlived but threatened-with-cancellation soap opera.

Cover: Title - Perfectly captures content, subtitle a nice (and accurate) touch. Art - Delightful. The white-on-blue bubble background, redhead in a tub foreground, mix of block and cursive text set great anticipatory tone. Anyone looking at this knows they are in for a light, fun, happily-ever-after-in-some-way-or-other story.

What Works: Apprentice Writer is not of an overly patient nature. Perhaps for this reason she never got into soaps. If she is impatient with a two-hour movie that takes too long to resolve whodunit, how can she tolerate waiting months upon months to find out who tampered with the mail that fell into the evil twin's hands who blackmailed the prince-in-disguise who offered marriage by proxy to the amnesiac seretary?

AW did have a university roommate, though, who followed four or so soaps devotedly and a few others peripherally, much to the detriment of the roomate's grades and satisfaction of her need for emotional stories grafted onto goodlooking actors. Her devotion was such that AW suspected she was missing something, and chose a soap to follow according to the following criteria: 1. Not in roommate's stable (one must have some originality, after all) and 2. Airing before she left for the day's classes. Whether due to destiny or inferior selection criteria, that soap soon bit the dust. AW took it as a sign that she was not meant to be a soap viewer.

Imagine her surprise, therefore, when she took to this story and most especially it's heroine, Frankie, from page 1. Was it because it was in written rather than visual form? Was it because of the sometimes very funny situations and purple prose in the soap scenes studded throughout? Was it because of recognition of the incredible liberation posed by characters in the stories delivering the perfect comebacks and setdowns at exactly the right time, a luxury very few of us enjoy (unless AW is in the minority when she swallows her feelings or thinks of a great retort only when the opportunity is long gone)?

Whatever the reason - she was swept up into the story of Frankie's battle to stay on top of the heaving creative ship, protect the citizens of her town, keep to the high road post-divorce with her ex, chart a course in confusing love life, and grow her career amid a sea of colleagues with various intensities of secrets and ambitions for the next It showbiz thing.

One doesn't have to live or work in Hollywood to develop fellow feeling for a young woman who is smart but needs to prove it, creative but derided for her choice of artistic outlet, yearning for love but hesitant to accept it when it appears to come along. Welcome to the new milenium, when it seems we are constantly called upon to make a rapid, far-reaching choice among multiple shifting possibilities.

What Doesn't: There was one off note. Since it is mildly spoilerish AW will only say that it was a staff management decision that made no sense to her given employee behavior up to that point coupled with Frankie's relentless desire to be seen as worthy of her executive position. The choice made was in conflict with both those elements, and consequently seemed to fit in less with natural character behavior and more with authorly plot purposes.

This was however quickly forgiven when AW realized that the second aspect that at first made her say 'Oh no!' was actually the cleverest joke of them all: she reached 'The End' and sputtered "But...but...it can't be the end yet! I have to know what happened to X's relationship! And Y's career! And Z's health crisis! And..."

This was when it struck her - Duh! THIS is why soap viewers keep coming back. That masterful tease, that expertly measured portion of clue which is just enough to tantalize them with the promise that return will be worthwhile and not enough that they will guess what happens or else whom it happens to. Non-soap watcher though she may be, AW engaged with Frankie and her crew enough to cherish the hope that there may be a follow-up story to quench her burning desire to know what exactly happened to that relationship, and that career, and health crisis, and...

Overall: If the test of a book is whether it makes the reader want to search out the author's backlist as well as read future titles, MOPSO is a success. The perfect light-hearted novel to buy now for immediate enjoyment of rainy spring evenings, or delayed gratification of sunny beach days.

But does it make you laugh? YES
'Zany', 'fast-moving' and 'multi-layered' are not rhetoric when applied to the 'Lust for Life' crowd. This is not a book readers would accuse of dragging middle - or beginning, or end.

GIVEAWAY!
The publisher, Sourcebooks, has generously provided two copies of MOPSO for AW's readers For a chance to win, share your thoughts on the question:

What soap opera plot development would you most like to see?

The come back tomorrow to double your chances by commenting on the author's GUEST POST.


The Fine Print:
1. U.S. and Canadian addresses only, please. No P.O. Boxes.
2. Follow Apprentice Writer here or on Twitter (MayaWriter) and let her know, for up to 2 bonus entries.
3. Please leave a non-spammable way to get in touch in case your profile doesn't lead back to an active blog.
4. Contest ends 27 April 2010.

Good luck!

/m.

Review: THE NEXT BEST THING

THE NEXT BEST THING
Kristan Higgins
Contemporary Romance
HQN, 2010


Premise: Young widow seeks to put the past (in the form of her husband) and the present (in the form of a friend with benefits) behind her and find a new spouse.

Cover: This author's covers have become instantly recognizable, as much a part of her brand as her writing style. For the first time, the iconic headless couple are joined by a non-canine - a nice touch, that combines with the red accents to make for a contents-accurate and attractive cover (much, much better than the one for 'Catch of the Day', whose central-puppy-in-basket seemed to signal it was aimed at the tween set rather than an adult demographic). Now that a feline has broken through the doggie barrier, Apprentice Writer is burning with curiosity to see what kind of fauna will feature next - rodent? Reptile? Something with wings?

What Works: By making the heroine a widow, the author has done something courageous. "But Apprentice Writer," the gentle reader may say, "widows abound in Romancelandia. That's nothing new." True - but the literary widows AW encountered to date had either healed from their grief, never loved their husband to begin with (due to forced unions, decrepitude, or general incompatibility), or were married in name only. Lucy, by contrast, was madly in love with her husband, he with her, and continues to grieve though several years have passed since his death. She still blames herself for his fatal car accident, still watches her wedding video to feel him looking at her again, can't bring herself to visit the graveyard where he is buried, creates luscious professional-level desserts which she can't bring herself to eat, has a closet full of luxurious, stylish clothes which she can't bring herself to wear.

Moving a character from such an intense spot to a believable happy end with a new love interest in the space of one slim volume is an ambitious task. Help (of a sometimes questionable nature) along the way is provided by the secondary characters readers have come to love and expect from a Higgins story: a beloved pet (for the first time, a cat, and in a welcome development the heroine maintains affection within non-fanatical bounds), a helpful but very different-from-heroine friend, relatives who keep their eccentricity either up their sleeve or displayed for all to see, and the sights, sounds, and rituals of a small New England town.

In this story, it is the relatives who are most compelling; Lucy's mother and two aunts were likewise widowed young, and have all chosen to maintain that status. They also all work together, creating both a supportive atmosphere but also a lot of pressure to maintain the status quo - both personally, and business-wise. Lucy feels loved but stifled, and needs to find a way out. Or does she? The conversations where Lucy explores why the women wouldn't want to date again, and whether they ever learned secrets they didn't know about their hubands during their lifetimes, were perhaps the most interesting parts of the whole book. From the way parents sometimes treat their chidren, and the way people sometimes treat their sweethearts, Lucy learns two harsh facts: Sometimes love is not enough. And sometimes, love doesn't lead a person to put their own wishes aside, and do the upright thing. Disillusioning, perhaps, but realistic, and worth bearing in mind when one is tempted to spout platitudes about parents always loving all their children equally or love inevitably leading to a noble character. It doesn't always work that way.

Finally, it would not be a Higgins book without exploration of adult sibling dynamics. In this instance, Lucy's sister chooses to respond to premature death of her father, uncles, and brother-in-law by becoming an out-of-control safety freak with respect to her husband and newborn daughter. It was a massive relief when she finally got a (figurative) smack upside the head, from the correct person, alerting her to the very real possibility that her constant haranguing could cost her her marriage. Lucy's (figurative) smack upside the head was longer in coming, but also satisfying and delivered by the correct person. AW was also happy that the disconnect of one son of an Italian family being named Giacomo and the other Ethan was not only explained, but a part of the story.

What Doesn't: By nature of the content, this story doesn't have quite the same ebb and flow of humorous vs. serious moments as previous Higgins stories. Consequently, the pacing felt different than what this reader had come to expect. If she had approached this story as, say, a women's fiction novel, it would have felt completely right. As it was, it took a bit of reflection after the book was done to understand that the steady, consistent tone throughout was appropriate to the subject matter, and that the pacing for a romantic comedy would not have worked.

That being conceded - Lucy cries a lot. This makes sense, it being a story of a grieving widow and all, but that was something this reader had to actively remind herself of at times when her kneejerk reaction to more tears was 'Again?' Lucy also says 'Sorry' a lot. It reminded AW of recurring phrases or scenarios which prompt some reviewers to create drinking games. Since her beverage-while-reading choice is black tea, THE END arrived on a strongly caffeinated wave.

Overall: A thoughtful, emotion-laden entry into the author's canon delivering the trademark small-town atmosphere, close-knit but idiosyncratic family members, and love interest who is present all along but whom the heroine needs to see with new eyes.

Learn more about the author here.

m.

New Release: JULIE JAMES

Got a case of the winter blahs? Grey skies making you blue?

Apprentice Writer recommends: self-medicating with a funny story. One candidate is Julie James latest, with a blah-busting hit of unabashed magenta. Pretty spring-like, you'll probably agree.

Release date is 2 March, and AW is curious to see if she will enjoy it like the author's previous two titles.

Learn more about the author here.

Twin Reviews: THE GLARING ABSENCE

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Julie James
Contemporary Comedy
2009

NOT QUITE A HUSBAND
Sherry Thomas
Historical Romance
2009

Premise
1. Colleagues vie with one another for a single partnership position in their law firm.

2. Estranged spouses making their way from India to England are caught in the midst of a bloody uprising.

Cover
1. Very nice. Playful, colorful, the protagonists shown a equals and clothing giving the sense the story will involve the workplace. Alliterative title does the same. Well done.

2. Meh. Seen this type of thing countless times before. The title works, though.

What Works
1. Apprentice Writer came into this story with high expectations after enjoying the author's debut effort a lot. She was not disappointed. The story of how the perfectly matched protagonists (who, of course, see each other as perfectly matched antagonists) play a game of legal tennis with ever rising stakes that was very entertaining. The reader has no doubt how the story will end - it's the way it gets there that captures one's interest.

2. This author has a gift of creating unusual characters who are drawn to each other precisely because they stand out from their peers, but who are kept apart for large and convincing reasons. No misunderstanding an eavesdropped conversation between the second under-butler and the disgraced scullery maid who is really a duchess spy, no attempt to sacrifice one's own happiness because one is not Good Enough to be the partner of the eighth-in-line-around-three-corners heir of Bottomsup-Hippowich-Lowerrubberboot. The issues the protagonists have are squarely with one another, and resolving the problems in an authentic way, for the story and for the contemporary reader temporarily sent back through time, is an art at which this author excells. The reader suffers emotionally along with the characters in the most wrenching and enjoyable way.

At a talk AW was fortunate enough to attend, 'Desperate Duchesses' author Eloisa James spoke about her fascination with what happens after the wedding, and writing about marriages in trouble. AW agrees. Vast quantities of novels follow the couple on the way to the wedding, and end the story when vows are spoken. Those kinds of stories can certainly be entertaining and fulfilling, but so can stories about how the couple goes about keeping the love alive year after year, or fighting their way back to it after it has suffered a devastating blow. This seems to be developing into a theme for Ms. Thomas. None of the three couples in her published work to date stayed together after first getting together. It is a topic on which she writes tremendously well.

What Doesn't
And here we arrive at the reason for this post's title.

WARNING! MODERATELY SPOILERIFIC!

The Gentle Reader will have gathered that Apprentice Writer is a huge fan of both these authors. Here's the "but":

When you love, love, love an author, it hurts much more to find a flaw than would be the case with an author you merely like.

There is an early scene in PMP where the hero tries to gain an advantage by excluding the heroine from a meeting with a star client. He does this by holding the meeting at a golf course which bars female members. AW thought this foreshadowed a later plot development where the hero and heroine would join forces to take legal action against the misogynistic dinosaur.

NEVER HAPPENED.

What kind of a 21st century hero belongs to a gender-exclusive golf club? What kind of 21st century heroine - specializing in gender discrimination cases, no less - doesn't have a problem with this? For that matter, how did the senior partners at the law firm, who make their money on reputation for handling gender discrimination cases, not have a problem with this?

The disconnect between the hero's action and facing no consequences colors the way AW looks back on the whole story.

In NQAH, hero and heroine are enroute from a remote location in the Indian highlands as the attention of local people grows increasingly hostile, until the point they are forced on a panicked horseback dash through a gathering army to make it inside the gates of a British fortress. They then spend the next few days in fear for their lives, the wounded hero acting as sharpshooter while the surgeon heroine patches patients up round the clock. As regular readers of this space know, AW is sensitive about various pitfalls related to India as a setting; while there is no significant individual character of Indian descent in the story, thankfully, the protagonists don't act or speak in a patronizing way towards the local people, and the heroine makes no class- or ethnic- distinctions in the manner or promptness with which she treats her patients. So that was all good. Here's the 'but':

Neither during the long siege, nor after, does either character spend even a moment thinking about the motivation for the attack and whether it was justified.

AW is not asking for a complete analysis of all the economic, political, social, and cultural antecedents. She also recalls the hero pointing out to his politician brother that he himself is not cut out for politicking. Fine. But, come on - not even the tiniest little observation or question? "There are hundreds of people outside these walls dedicated to ending my life to prove their unhappiness. I wonder what made them so angry, and if I would be as passionate in their place?"

But nothing, neither from him nor the heroine, who are both supposed to be extraordinarily intelligent, educated, thoughtful people. It reached the point, when the heroine resolves to be less of an emotional automaton, to engage more and be interested in others, that AW found herself talking to the character (never a good sign), as in "You missed the boat, baby! Had the most perfect opportunity, and walked right by!"

Perhaps the Gentle Reader thinks this concern is exaggerated. Try this: separate the word 'Indian' from 'Highlands' and insert 'Scottish' instead. Can anyone imagine a novel with Scottish protagonists and British army forces in which the Scottish quest for independence and freedom isn't depicted as tragic, noble, justified? In which these sentiments aren't even mentioned? Could a novel be set in Revolutionary America with opposing British forces where the sentiments of the subjugated people aren't mentioned? AW doesn't think so.

END SPOILER WARNING

Overall
Will AW continue to read books from these authors?
Of course. It's Julie James and Sherry Thomas. Who not only possess compelling novel voices, but great blog voices as well. See Ms. Thomas' thoughtful piece on the state of the publishing industry here, further to AW's earlier posts on Drama, Freshly Squeezed.


But does it make you laugh?
1. Yes! The reader can rely on this author for laughs.

2. Question needs to be rephrased as: But does it keep you entertained?
Yes! Apprentice Writer usually reads half a dozen books at a time. She abandoned all others without a second thought when she began NQAH, and powered through till the end, transported by this author's reliably gorgeous prose and bullseye skill at touching the heart.

Learn more about Julie James and her upcoming title 'Something About You' here.

Learn more about Sherry Thomas and her upcoming title 'His At Night' here.


m.