REVIEW: The Singles

THE SINGLES

by Meredith Goldstein

Mainstream Women's Fiction

April 2012

Premise: A wedding causes five single invitees to evaluate their lives.

Cover: Title - Simple, direct, effective. Art - Very pretty and reflective of content, with the gold metallic lettering cleverly calling to mind the rings (i.e., life partners) that the novel protagonists don't have. The theme of social pressure for people to couple up literally forms the centre of attention.

Overall, well done and attractive.

First Sentence Test: "Twenty-nine-year-old bride-to-be Beth Eleanor Evans, a slender, freckled, strawberry blonde whom people called Bee because of her initials, stood in front of the whiteboard she'd purchased that day at the Target off Route 103."

Did this make AW want to read on? No

What Works: Weddings seem like a hot topic right now, fascinating to far more people than just those intending to tie the knot in the near future if the multitude of wedding reality shows and are any indication. This novel, and the earlier "Girls in White Dresses", seems to ride the wave.

Why? Why are weddings intriguing for people not directly participating? As a person who was, yes, sucked into regular viewing of one or two of those shows, please allow Apprentice Writer to voice her theory: it's the expanding effect weddings have on the psychology of onlookers. No one (at least, not in this novel) remains within their regular emotional parameters prior and during the wedding. Their highs get higher and their lows lower, and it can be tremendously addictive entertainment to have a window on what happens under those circumstances. As such, AW was sold on the premise of this book.

She enjoyed the ensemble approach, with events looked at through the eyes of multiple characters rather than just one point of view. AW also liked how each POV character had clear strengths and weaknesses; there were none who skewed heavily to the "good" or "evil" side. AW would like to think that this realistic and balanced approach has something to do with the author's background as a newspaper etiquette and advice giver, a perspective that would tend to encourage the view that a) we all have our personal issues to work through, and b) one need not ever given up on anyone completely. This is how the characters come across, and AW appreciated it.

What Doesn't: AW received an Advance Readers Copy, and therefore has no way of knowing how much of the manuscript that finally went to print may have changed and improved. That being said, the authorial style and voice didn't always entirely flow for her. Run-on sentences (as from first page, above) were not uncommon, as was a tendency to repetition: "She was blinded just a few seconds later by a vicious, almost blinding fluorescent light."

AW disliked the biological reality descriptions included in some scenes for two reasons; it seemed to her that the point could have been gotten across without going into as much detail, and also, it seemed to underline how the choices of some characters kept them at what seemed like a high school/college level rather than people moving on and establishing themselves in their professional lives. It is true that often, individuals may be moving forward in some parts of their lives while feeling as though they are stuck in others. This is a common and relatable phenomenon for many if not most readers. But characters such as the woman who accepts and swallows an unknown pill from a near stranger and then (against advice) drinks steadily without eating gets no sympathy when things start going wrong.

Overall: A slice-of-life novel about people trying to find their post-college groove and figure out the age old question of how or even whether to find a partner that manages to make the reader, whether single or partnered, feel their status is valid.

Review: PARIS, MY SWEET

PARIS, MY SWEET:

A YEAR IN THE CITY OF LIGHT (AND DARK CHOCOLATE)

Amy Thomas

Travel Memoir

Sourcebooks, February 2012

Premise: Writer lands dream job in Paris and tracks down elite bakers and chocolate artisans in her spare time while musing on mid-thirties single life.

Cover: Title - Apt and amusing, gives a clear idea of what to expect from content. Art - the cartoony graphics of birds-eye-view of a Paris city map is highy appealing in coloration and retroish style that calls to mind the haute wrapping the equally haute edibles get wrapped in. Perhaps the best cover Apprentice Writer has seen from this publisher to date. Well done, Sourcebooks art department!

First Sentence Test: Did "I guess you could say my story began with a bicycle and some bonbons " make this reader want to continue? YES!

What Works: Like many others, advertising writer Amy Thomas was in possession of a full-on Paris crush. Unlike many others, she was handed a fairy-tale opportunity not only to live there for a year, but to work in an elegant flagship store on one of the most upscale streets. The reader immediately engages with her as she leaps at the chanc.e,happily putting herself in the author's shoes and looking forward to exploring the glittering city like no mere tourist can.

Paris has a way of making one's passions rise to the surface. For Carrie Bradshaw, another transplanted New York single girl (referenced in the text), it was designer boutiques for couture clothes. For others, it might be masterpieces in art museums, exquisite restaurant meals produced by a country that raises food preparation to a kind a religion, or city squares and architectural monuments that played a part in history.

For the author, it is all about sweets. Architecture, "regular" food and fashion are all mentioned but only in passing, as a distant backdrop to the real focus. Carrying on a habit developed in New York, she tirelessly seeks out and samples the city's best in baked goods and sweet treats. The pleasure she derives, the care with which she identifies ingredients and painstakingly developed baking techniques, the way she shows how love of exquisitely prepared food translates to the bigger picture of love of life and intensifying relationships with family and friends, all inspired AW to go on a mini sweet neighborhood exploration trip of her own.

There has a storm of recent headlines about a Food Network celebrity whose cooking involves large portions with much fat, salt, and sugar. After being diagnosed with diabetes the celebrity struck a deal to endorse a brand of diabetes medication. This seeming encouragement to eat in an unhealthy way and then profit financially from resulting poor health translated to bad optics for the celebrity.Hence the question:

Is this sweet-obsessed book a wolf in sheeps clothing, luring readers into self-destructive behavior by literally sugarcoating damaging consequences? AW is happy to report a clear "No". Yes, the author is open about her particular tastebud weakness. But throughout her time in Paris, she lives in a sixth floor walkup, travels everywhere by bicycle, and is frequently satisfied with a single, sublime bite (in contrast to the super-size portions on offer in much of North American fast food culture). Choosing tiny portions has at least as much to do astronomical prices in Paris as with self control, but the message is clear and much repeated in the text: if you want to taste all the best that bakers and chocolatiers have to offer, you must be willing to exercise a lot and know when enough is enough.

There comes a point when the honeymoon phase wears off and a some tough realities set in, both in terms of how extraordinarily difficult it is for a foreigner to crack the nut of French aloofness, and for an ongoinginly single career girl to respond sincerely and graciously to friends moving on to milestones of marriage and children. Though the author's thoughts on the impossibility of having it all aren't revolutionary, AW found them refreshing. Both in terms of her honesty, and because of her low tolerance for travel memoirs that make it seem automatic for people to go to another country and before you can say "Sacre bleu!" be surrounded by newfound friends-for-life, eating delicious food one has cooked oneself for the very first time while laughingly having the best time ever, and for good measure, stumbling upon the impossibly good-looking love of one's life (AW is looking at you, Julia Roberts in 'Eat, Pray,Love'). Newsflash: that's NOT how it happens (unless you are a Disney cartoon princess, or Julia Roberts).

What Doesn't: Fact 1: The author's sweet-based writing background (as opposed to her professional writing background) is in the blogosphere, where writing occurs in bite-sized (Ha!), frequent, of-the-minute snippets. Most of the time, blogposts are not really intended to stand the test of time and transcend the actual moment they are written in.

Fact 2: The food services industry is precarious, the restaurant and cafe business even more so. New places open and close all the time, often with a tragically short interval between the two.

These two facts combined to create a weakness: it seemed that the author didn't attempt to amplify her blog style into a more big picture style that would lend itself to longer-lasting impact, such as by emphasizing the occasions when she spoke with the actual bakers about their career and passions, the provenance of the ingredients, the process of recipe invention, etc. Those occasions where among the most enjoyable of the book. But they seemed to take a backseat to emphasizing specific business names and street addresses both in Paris and New York. The inevitable result is that the book would have an unneccesarily shortened shelf life, as the amount of attention paid to helping the reader find specific places means it grows ever more quickly out of date as the business close or move.

Think this is a petty criticism? Consider: between describing chef, bakery name, and street address in the text, plus at each end-of-chapter summary, plus city lists at end of book, some businesses details are mentioned three times. Four, if you count the illustrated maps. This struck AW as overkill.

She was also surprised by the seeming disconnect between the author's admiration for chef talent (e.g. the anecdote about industrial made croissant dough taking half an hour to prepare in contrast to one boulanger's investment of thirty-four hours for a single batch) coupled with the lengths to which she would go to obtain the end products, on the one hand, and the lack of mention of her own baking attempts. Sure, some people are better at tasting and describing than they are at producing themselves. It simply seemed that since it would be natural for someone with such a pronounced passion to give it a whirl themselves, it would be worth a bit of explanation as to why it didn't happen in this case.

Overall: A charming, easy-to-read weekend book jaunt to inspire one's own neighbourhood search for most delectable mouthfuls.

AW notes this is the second enjoyable travel memoir set in France she has reviewed for this publisher; if this is a trend, she welcomes it.

Book Launch: SAINT SANGUINUS

The absotively, posilutely best thing about the interwebs is discovering like-minded friends in far-off places.

Today is launch day for SAINT SANGUINUS,
the debut novel of Apprentice Writer's online amiga Julia Phillips Smith. AW is delighted to introduce this brand-spanking new author, and have the chance to pick her newly professional writerly brain.

Congratulations, Julia! First things first: the cover. Did you have input regarding art or title?

One of the pluses - or minuses depending on your point of view - of self-publishing is the amount of creative control an author has over the finished product. In traditional publishing one can fill out a style sheet and suggest things, but it's really the marketing department that has the final say as to cover art and title of the book. An author has to trust that it's in the best interests of everyone involved to produce the best cover possible, with the catchiest, stop-em-in-their tracks title, ever.

With self-publishing, it's important to pay attention to other covers currently in the marketplace. Does your genre tend to feature a hero brandishing a weapon? Does your genre currently trend toward blue covers, or red, or orange? What do the covers of the top sellers in your genre look like?

Unless you're someone with graphic design skills, I wouldn't recommend designing your own cover. Hiring a professional to do your story justice - a story into which you've likely poured your heart and soul - will result in the wonderful moment when you first gaze upon a dream come true.

As for my title, I followed the time-honored convention of naming a superhero origin story after the title character.

The title certainly is memorable! What comes to you first: hero? Heroine? Ending? One-liners?

For me, stories always come in a vision-like flash. I'll be minding my own business, and then wham! I'm deep in the midst of a dramatic sequence unfolding in my mind's eye, and I haven't the slightest clue what's going on. Who is he? Why are they doing that to him? What's going on here?

Then I have to sort out what's what, almost like stumbling into a playground fight and listening to everyone's 'He started it!'

I can honestly say no character has ever come to me in quite that way. What's your favorite scene in 'Saint Sanguinus'?

My favorite scene comes toward the end, during the big set piece. Hero in jeopardy, deep in the Black Moment - my favorite! If it was a film, it would be the part I obsessively watch over and over again. Not that I'm prone to doing that *cough, cough*

Heh. What's a typical writing day look like for you?
Once upon a time, I didn't have a typical writing day. I wrote in creative bursts.

But over the years I've definitely developed a writing routine. Mon-Fri I work at my day job. So during the week I wait until evening to climb into the creativity cockpit. I'm a night owl by nature, so writing from 8:30-12:30 or sometimes 2:00am works best for me. That's when I'm really on. Even on the weekends, when theoretically I could write at any time, I still do my best writing between 8:00 pm and 2:00 am.

I love the image of climbing into the creativity cockpit. How does your family feel about you being an author?

I come from a creative background, so I've always had 100% support. No need to explain why I need to hibernate and ignore the garden, for example. Even my dog seems to encourage my scheduled time at the computer.

My garden and children don't seem to operate that way. Your best writing habit?

This has evolved directly from participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - taking place right now! www.nanowrimo.org). I followed one character exclusively during the writing marathon, realizing it took too much mental rearranging to go back and forth between points of view. I then followed the heroine's POV exclusively. This helped me to realize that immersing myself wholly into the character is vital, and it's a new way of working that I'm now applying to all my stories.

I've never tried that technique before. Perhaps I should experiment! Worst writing vice?

Trying to tune into the revisions channel in my head. For the longest time, I thought it was a matter of finely tuning the same invisible dial that brought me to the story in the first place. Finally, it dawned on me that there is no revisions channel, at least not like the Generating A New Story channel that runs 24/7 in my mind.

Instead I had to get my own shiny revisions toolkit from the Put On Your Big Girl Panties store and just get on with it.

Social Networking: wolf in sheep's clothing or blessing in disguise?

Social networking is an immense, globally available, free marketing tool no writer should leave out of his or her press kit.

As a longtime blogger, I have online friendships with people all over the world. Think of attempting to spread word-of-mouth promo in countries like Australia, England, Denmark, Israel and all across the US by traditional means. This is already accomplished for me, because I have blog friends in all those places.

Nightstand Inspection! What was the last ____ you read?

Contemporary: The Christmas Baby Bump, by Lynne Marshall
Historical: Heiress in Love, by Christina Brooke
UF/Paranormal/Fantasy: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, by Leanna Renee Hieber
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller: Spring Break, by Kayla Perrin
Memoir/Non-Fiction: The Supernatural Companions, by Nicholas Knight

That's quite the diverse lineup. Who is your writing idol and why?

Jo Beverly. She takes the time to place the reader squarely in the time and place of her historical romances, without ever slowing the pace of her stories. She never lets modern sensibilities intrude upon the historical tale she's telling. She manages to address the unromantic truths of her historic time periods without losing the shine of her happily ever after. Plus, she's a master of dialogue that carries the rhythms of real speakers, while still managing to weave story momentum within it.

Wow. I hope I write stories like Jo Beverly when I grow up. Just, like, in contemporary times and with comedy instead of historical drama and stuff.
Which literary character do you wish you'd thought of first?

Quentin Tarantino's The Bride from the "Kill Bill" series. But I'm glad he did think of such a kick-ass heroine.

You betray your roots by your choice of ultimate character from cinema instead of printed page!
Best piece of advice for aspiring writers?

The biggest thing - when you hit the point when you leave behind the infatuation stage with your own raw talent and now face the cliff-climbing phase of perfecting your craft - once you get to the top of that cliff, you will be like The Bride. You will kick ass yourself. Keep going.

I'm somewhere on that cliff now too.
How much tech know-how should one have to self-publish? Should a person like Apprentice Writer who barely manages to log on to Twitter or Facebook simply exclude that road to publication?

No, you don't have to exclude it. But you will have to be willing to pay other people to do the various aspects for you.

Self-publishing means wearing many hats, but it doesn't mean you will do every job yourself. I've hired my own little project team to prepare SAINT SANGUINUS for publication, including a graphic designer for the cover, a producer for the book trailer, a copy editor/proofreader for the manuscript and a formatter for the e-book prep.

Each book will require its own creative/technical team. Skimping on these aspects will produce an inferior product going out to readers, and I personally don't want to have my name on that.

A true co-operative effort. Anything else you'd like to share with AW's readers?

There was a time in my life when following my dreams seemed to have turned into a colossal joke. In embracing my artistic aspirations, I had a film degree but no way to pursue that field, because unforeseen health issues made working for free - in order to collect film credits - a complete impossibility.

Obviously, even through truly soul-crushing times, I managed somehow to hold onto my original dreams. Even though I tried to keep them at arms' length, they hid in little places deep inside of me. I kept working at telling stories by learning to write novels instead of making films.

In my personal life, my husband and I managed to climb out of the financial pit in which we'd languished. The health issues continued, but over time we've learned not only how to live with them, but flourish despite them. Suddenly, planets alligned or something, because things started falling into place at a rapid rate this year.

So what I'd like to share with your readers is this. Life really does kick you in the gut sometimes. The dark part of "...it's always darkest before the dawn..." can choke you into unconsciousness. But take it from me.

DON'T give up. NEVER give up.

Thanks Julia, for showing your story so honestly.

Gentle Readers, you can purchase SAINT SANGUINUS from Amazon from 18 November.

Visit Julia at www.juliaphillipssmith.com to learn more.

Review: TOUT SWEET

TOUT SWEET - Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France
Karen Wheeler
Memoir
Sourcebooks, August 2011

Premise: Romantically disappointed journalist moves to rural France.

Cover: Title - Clever wordplay ("tout de suite" = French for "right away"), and the subtitle is a concise summary of content. Art - Very pretty, eyecatching, and reflective of author's description of everyday life in the village. Altogether, well done.

What Works: The cover blurbs repeated the words "honest" and "charming"; Apprentice Writer is pleased to say that she found both to be accurate. The honesty comes in the lack of airbrushing. The author has the courage to include aspects that do not always show her in the most flattering light, which provides the armchair traveller with the opportunity to recall occasions when they might not have shown the best judgement themselves at the same time as they think "I wouldn't have done that!". The charming comes from the manner in which the heroine prevails, the way she does her utmost to learn, and the way she provides the vicarious experience of sitting in a cobbled, whitewashed courtyard looking at potted flowers while enjoying breakfast baguette, and so on.

The writing has some ups and downs. AW has included it in the "What Works" rather than "What Doesn't" section because even though there is a regrettable pattern of word echoes and repetition in some places, there is also just enough French for this high school level speaker to find it flavorful without becoming confusing (something which she has had more than one occasion to bemoan with other British writers and their casual inclusion of Latin all over the place). And as regular readers of this space know, AW is particularly fond of well-done metaphors and similes; in this case, she enjoyed the author's fashion training being aptly applied to description.

It becomes clear to the reader early on that the idealized mental image the author has of Life in Rural France and reality may not match. It is to the author's credit that by the end of the first year which forms the material for the book, her resourcefulness and adaptability have combined to create a lifestyle that she enjoys and plans to maintain - as opposed to the many expats who, for whatever reason, give up and go home. This reader loved it that she did not allow her single status, lack of contacts, and complete absence of handiwork skills to stand the way of her dream of owning and renovating a home in a foreign country. Bravo, Ms. Wheeler, for doing so and for making the reader want to book the next flight to France for the rewards of the countryside rather than the glitz of Paris.

What Doesn't: For this reader's taste, too much space was taken up with the minutiae of fellow ex-pats' dysfunction, whether romantic or alcoholic. Yes, sometimes moving to a new place can exacerbate rather than heal marital friction, and yes, sometimes individuals used to a greater amount and variety of alternate entertainment may turn to booze as a way to fill the time when such entertainment is curtailed. But must we dwell on it? AW thinks not.

Overall: A feel-good story that proves there is (satisfying) life after love, that sometimes running away to reinvent oneself can actually work, and that homeownership is not just for the handy and mechanically-inclined.

Notable Quotes

How to describe a goddess? It would need to be in a way that sets her apart from mortals, of course. Regarding Hera:

"Her hair was the color of blackmail, her spine like a guillotine..."

from "Gods Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips

YA: How Young is Too Young?

In contrast to the dismal news coming out of the publishing industry as a whole these days, young adult fiction seems to buck the trend in a big way. Formerly a type of literature actually intended for the young, it is now being read by vast numbers of people long past their teens. Perhaps because of this dual audience, top-tier YA authors command advances and contracts other authors can only dream of.

Why does Apprentice Writer know this? She attended a seminar conducted by ultra author Kelley Armstrong, whose current paranormal YA series launched her up among that genre stratosphere - a place that should feel comfortable given she landed there before with her adult-oriented paranormal series.

Does this expanding popularity simply mean that stories intended for a youthful audience have wide-ranging appeal?

Could it be that the content of the stories is changing to accommodate more mature readers?

Or is it possible that Apprentice Writer is operating under a wrong assumption of the definition of YA fiction?

AW wants to know because she has started reading novels in which junior apprentice writer #1 is interested so as to have topics of discussion with him. At least, that was the reason to start with. It quickly was joined by another reason, which threatens to overshadow the first. It is called parental policing.

Because sometimes, the content of YA books can be eye-bulging. When she commented on this at the seminar, she learned that

"....A YA book is simply one which features a young protagonist."

Meaning: in terms of content, anything the market will bear goes. Therefore, caveat emptor.

Here's the problem: it is natural for young readers to choose books that feature protagonists who are similar, or slightly older, than themselves in age. But the content of books with a YA label at the library or on YA shelves at the store vary enormously. If it is hard for AW as a adult to figure out if a book may be too mature for a pre-teen or young teen, wouldn't it be hard for the kids to figure out also? Do they really have to get to a part of the book that is too much for them to decide it may not be the best choice (by which time, they may be so invested in the story that they plow on)?

Some examples: MODERATE - MAJOR SPOILERS! BEWARE!

Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George (protagonist: age 13)
This is rightly considered a classic and AW read and enjoyed most of it while at school at a double-digit age. The parts that she didn't enjoy as much - and, more importantly, did not have an adult with whom to talk it through for reasons that are not pertinent to this post - were her first ever exposure to the issues of attempted sexual assault, fetal alcohol syndrome, and domestic violence, which form the catalyst for the protagonist to run away into the wilderness. The bulk of the story has to do with what happens there and how she decides whether to stay 'away' or return to life with people, provides much food for thought, and is in AW's view well worth reading (with her single big criticism being that recovery from sexual attack is depicted way too facile and simplistic a manner). That worthwhile reading, however, should be done by readers old enough to be able to process the stark elements.

She was therefore highly surprised to encounter it on a recommended reading list for junior apprentice #1 in Grade 3 (= age 7-8) . When AW inquired how this title had landed on the recommend list for such young readers without any warning to parents who might not be familiar with the content about the very serious themes, she was informed that it was based purely on evaluation of the difficulty of the vocabulary.


White Cat, Holly Black (protagonist: age 16?)
This is a recent, megapopular YA title that came highly recommended to AW from different sources. It fell into that group of books that results in split personality for her. As an aspiring writer she was impressed with the deceptive ease with which the author unfolded the story about the youngest member of a con-artist family in first-person, present tense mode, something which requires enormous skill and resulted in multiple points where the reader thinks, "Wow, I didn't see that coming.".

At the same time, she questioned whether she would directly encourage junior apprentice writer #1, aged 13, to immerse himself in a world where the protagonist supports himself by exploiting the desire of his classmates to gamble. She decided 'No' when she reached the part where the character's two older brothers beat him up on orders of someone else, and he figures out that not only is this is something they've done to him before but that they willfully manipulate his memory, and have been holding someone hostage in a cage for years. Too dark, too casually violent for AW to recommend it to a new teen, as opposed to him choosing it on his own or through peer word-of-mouth. In such a case, she would not try to discourage his reading it, but make sure to talk to him about it during.


Bleeding Violet, Dia Reeves (protagonist: age 16)
This is the title that AW feels most strongly about, perhaps because it had so much going for it at the outset: biracial heroine (as someone of mixed background herself, AW loves these kinds of stories), rejection issues, bipolar disorder (mental health deserves much more media/literary attention), and the big one: some really deft writing.

By the end of the book, AW had no ambivalent feelings (like with 'White Cat)'. She had problems both as a reader and a parent. Unlike others (to judge by GoodReads reactions), it was not the suicide attempt that gave her pause - since it seems to her that in a book where mental health is one of the central features, it can't really be surprising that suicide might come up. Nor the seriously dysfunctional relationship between mother and child. Though AW had a number of issues with the book, the dealbreaker was when the story crossed the line into full-on horror mode.

AW anticipated this book to be a paranormal story about a mid-range teenager dealing with difficult health and childhood issues (all of this info being plainly available in the back cover blurb). She did not anticipate a teenaged character being not only tortured but made to appear ridiculous as it took place due to inclusion of a sexual element while the protagonist looks idly on, nor that same character being killed in horrific fashion that left body parts dumped at the front door of a family, nor a preschool aged character learning of this.

So why did AW finish the book, the Gentle Reader may ask?

Because she hoped that the story resolution would show some parts having been influenced by the protagonist's altered perception of reality, given her bipolar condition.

Didn't happen.

THE BIG PICTURE:

Does AW think young readers shouldn't read stories with mature themes?

On the contrary. She very much thinks they should. Here's the big IF: They should read them when

a) they have the opportunity to discuss those themes with someone trusted and older, who can guide them past potential nightmares, anxiety, and personal triggers (all of which are very real risks as AW is aware through personal experience and observation), and

b) they have reached a minimum level of developmental maturity for how explicitly those themes are handled in the book. This can vary, depending on the individual parent's views (and given the Grade 3 reading list example, she'd rather go with parent views than teacher views) .

AW's rule of thumb is that it is probably good for the reader to be the same, or very close to, the protagonist's age.

Blanket Labelling of all Books featuring young protagonist with generic YA label = Insanity

Bookstore and library books featuring adult protagonists are not all slapped with a generic A label. They are subdivided into historical, fantasy, science fiction, etc. etc.

Why in the world isn't this done with YA books? If 'Bleeding Violet' had had a horror label attached, AW could have simply left it on the shelf for afficionados of that genre, and everyone would have been happy.

Alternatively, if the front cover and back blurb were more careful to include clues as to content, readers would be better able to sort out which are good personal options and which they should steer clear of.

Is that so hard?

'About the Author'

As an occasional book reviewer, Apprentice Writer once participated in a survey that asked, among many other things, whether she read the author information page' never', 'sometimes', 'most of the time', or 'always'.

She wished there had been another category: 'before anything else'.

AW adores the author information section. She believes it gives a tiny but true taste of the author's personality and creativity. If the book is supposed to be funny, for example, but she sees no reflection of that in the author blurb, she develops strong doubts as to the veracity of humor content.

Here some entertaining examples.
Dia Reeves, YA author: "I was born. I did some stuff. I haven't died yet. What do you want from me?" (@ Goodreads)

Gail Carriger, light paranormal author: "Ms. Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag..." (@ Goodreads)

Anna Dean, historical mystery author: "....her interests include...cream teas and canoeing on very flat water." (back cover)

Diana Holquist, contemporary romance author: "I love to write. That’s pretty much all I do. Ask my family about the undone laundry, the un-bought groceries, and the fact that I rarely find time to get dressed in the morning. Actually, if you train your family right, they won’t notice any of these things..." (@ Goodreads)

Laura Kinsale, historical romance author: "...become a romance writer after six years as a geologist--a career which consisted of getting out of bed in the middle of the night and driving hundreds of miles alone across west Texas to sit drilling rigs, wear a hard hat, and attempt to boss around oil-covered males considerably larger than herself. This, she decided, was pushing her luck. So she gave all that up to sit in a chair and stare into space for long periods of time, attempting to figure out What-Happens-Next." (@ Goodreads)

Jill Mansell, contemporary fiction author: "....writes full time. Actually that’s not true; she watches TV, eats fruit gums, admires the rugby players training in the sports field behind her house, and spends hours on the internet marvelling at how many other writers have blogs. Only when she’s completely run out of displacement activities does she write." (@ Goodreads)

Janet Mullany, historical & paranormal author: "Janet Mullany was raised in England by half of an amateur string quartet..." (back cover)

Jasper Fforde, alternate reality author: "Jasper Fforde...is the son of...the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England, whose signature used to appear on sterling banknotes..." (@ Goodreads)

It goes, perhaps, without saying that AW was not disappointed in the entertainment value of these authors' works after the high expectations raised by their self-descriptive snippets.

Triple Review: COMING OF AGE IN AMERICA

Today, a look at three debut novels, all coming-of-age stories in which the protagonists share first-person voice and family dysfunction. Apprentice Writer has no idea why the cover images are such different sizes; this wasn't supposed to be a statement on relative quality.

GODS IN ALABAMA, Joshilyn Jackson Literary Fiction, 2005

SIDEWAYS, Jess Riley Women's Fiction, 2009

APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE, Elizabeth Kelly Literary Fiction, 2009

Premise
1. Alabamian returns home after ten years to confront old ghosts and deal with current family pressures.
2. Middle-American kidney disease survivor goes on a road trip to celebrate life and seek answers to some significant questions.
3. Eldest son of a wildly eccentric/wealthy East Coast family struggles to define himself and build relationships while buffeted from all directions by differing expectations and judgements.

Cover
1. Title - Captures the overarching theme excellently, the small g in'gods' is significant, even though traditional religion with a capital R plays a role as well. Art - eye-catching, dead-on accurate in image of woman traveling, in every sense of the word, in a rural environment.
2. Title - Short and evocative = very good. Art - the rustic track and flipflops (as in opposite of urban background and stilettos), make it very clear this is not chicklit.This is the story of a thoughtful woman, taking her time to wind her way in whaterver direction the route may show. Well-done.
3. Title - Confuzzling until one reads the story and realizes that it is a compulsion the protagonist seems to feel all his life. Art - water and dogs are a constant background presence, so the images are accurate, but they convey the impression that the story is primarily about the relationship between people and dogs. Or dogs and dogs, for that matter, neither of which is accurate. Could have been done better.

Thoughts
1. Apprentice Writer kept encountering rabid enthusiasm for this author's work, and decided to give the debut a go. She almost stopped reading relatively early on due to some extreme and puzzling flashback behavior on the part of the heroine, but stuck with it - and was richly rewarded. What a wonderful, complex, sometimes-stark-yet-sometimes-funny story. The heroine, Lena, had a tremendously rough early childhood. Her mother was always on the fragile side emotionally, but when her husband dies of cancer she unravels completely, giving herself over to depression and pill addiction with the consequence of extreme emotional and physical neglect of her daughter. Her Aunt Florence is described as 'roaring' into town to rescue them despite her own recent tragedy of losing a son, and 'roaring' is pretty much how Aunt Florence takes charge of everyone around her from that moment on, her common sense and bossiness literally saving Lena's life as well as her mother many times after. Lena the survivor, Florence the warrior farmwife, and Burr the sharp-witted but sweet-natured lawyer boyfriend were all wonderful, thoughtful, flawed yet appealing characters, slowing dancing closer and closer to the truth of what drove Lena away from her home for ten years. The unraveling secrets twist and turn in a way that made AW read ever faster.
Did this book do its job? HELL YES! Apprentice Writer closed this book with a profound sense of satisfaction at the story's well-roundedness and ending, thought about Lena, Burr and Aunt Florence for days, looks forward to glomming the author's backlist, and, for the first time in her life, longs to visit Alabama.

2. AW loves road trips, whether in real life, books, or movies. Add to that excellent basic device a heroine who has the guts and humor to summarize her situation with "I'm the Beirut of health!" after being nearly killed by kidney disease, and who decides to escape her overprotective older brother to get in her car and go where the whim takes her, and you have the ingredients for a great story. As the trip goes on and she acquires travelmates, the life questions she tries to seek resolution on escalate from near-universal (looking up a former boyfriend to see how he's doing without me and if there's still a spark) to rare and heartbreaking (one last bid to find the mother who abandoned her in childhood). The story is unpredictable and the ending refreshingly non-Hollywood.
Did this book do its job? YES! This was a lovely, thoughtful, appealing story of a young woman who gets a raw deal and responds to all of it with poise, grace, and smarts. AW will eagerly look forward to the author's next title.

3. This book was an impulse choice when AW walked by a display table that proclaimed "The World Needs More Canada!" and offered all Canadian authors. AW could only agree, and the quirkiness of the title and backcover blurb convinced her.
Evaluating the novel itself was a bit perplexing. On the one hand, the author is wickedly good at unique simile and metaphor construction. AW's copy is dogeared with pages she wants to return to for additions to her quote collection. On the other hand, it was often difficult for this reader to understand how different scenes or chapters built on each other. It was also frustraing how the protagonist, and several secondary characters seemed to remain much as they were from the start, with negligible development.
Did this book do its job? Qualified yes. Though AW would have liked more clarity by the end of the story, the author's amazing talent with deft description will make this reader sift future titles for all the shining turns of phrase embedded within.


Soundbites
1.(Lena calls home after a delay on the road: "Hey, Aunt Flo -"
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm-"
"Are you hurt?"
"No, we're fine, but-"
"Hold, please," Aunt Flo said. I heard the clatter of the receiver being dropped on the counter on her end...
"Gladys? It's your daughter. she must be calling you to tell you she is dead and in hell and to ask you to dip your finger in the water and cool her tongue, as she is tormented in flames. Surely she is dead and in hell, because nothing else would explain her not showing up and not even calling you, her own mama, to keep you from pulling out all your hair with worry. I am so sorry she is dead and in hell, but at least they have phones there."


"Married," said Florence in a dire, deep voice."You got married. Well. Thank you so, so much for calling to tell me this...Anything else you want to tell me? Is your new husband that your family has never met an ex-convict, for example? Or are you just knocked up?"
"...I'm not pregnant, and he's not a convict. I told you, he's a lawyer. but I guess I should tell you he's black."
Finally she said, "What do you mean, he's black? You mean he himself is black? A black man?"
"Yes. by black, I mean he is black."
"I am hanging up now Arlene. I will take this up with you and your secret black husband when you arrive."

2. "...the San Rafael Desert..(makes) my soul sit up and rub her eyes: vast, empty plains stretching for miles back to rugged cliffs and brick-colored buttes, sagebrush and grasses eking out a thirsty existence in the ditches, gregarious sky overwhelming in its blue clarity. The road unspools before us, endless white lines running together into an albino snake."

"You know how people always seem to see the Virgin Mary in a burrito, or in a stain on an underpass highway?..Ned and Cassie have collected numerous objects that have a) been spiritually imprinted with a visage from beyond, b) fallen into a puddle, or c) been crushed by a portly ass at some point in history. These curiosities, shelved helter-skelter in the tiny shop, include items like a bath mat with a Joan of Arc-shaped stain and a piece of driftwood allegedly in the shape of Ganesha (if you held it at arms length and squinted while running at high speed)."

"...I wouldn't (do that) even if you paid me with money still warm from George Clooney's front pocket"


3. "(The estate) was famous for its heritage rose gardens...leave it to (my grandfather) to take a thing of beauty and turn it into a military operation. To this day, the rose is my least favorite flower - I think of it as a scented hand grenade..."

"(Your grandmother) was skinny and mad, a veritable vibrating hairpin."

"It was clear to me (my political activist mother's) real purpose in attending (the party) was to meet Robert Redford, which isn't to say that her entrance wasn't any less reminiscent of a Bolshevik charging the palace on foaming horseback...(I watched) in dismay as she chased down a prominent CEO, running him through with her verbal pitchfork. Before the night was over, just about everyone in the place had sprung leaks..."

Recommended for
1. Fans of skilled, multi-layered writing, memorable characters, stories of family and couple dynamics.
2. Fans of road trip stories, friendship and sibling dynamics, non-formulaic endings.
3. Fans of superb characterization, one-liners, readers with a high tolerance for non-linear progression and ambiguous endings.

Learn more
1. Joshilyn Jackson. Also maintains a funny blog. Latest: 'Backseat Saints'
2. Jess Riley. Also maintains an entertaining blog. Next work's title unknown.
3. Elizabeth Kelly - could not locate a website or blog. Next work's title unknown.

/m

Anatomy of DNF, Part II

As a person trying to figure out what works in novel-writing and what doesn't, Apprentice Writer is always especially interested in books unfinished. How does a book make her give up after it has done the heavy lifting of convincing her to bring it home?

The lesson drawn from the most recent DNF episode was:

BEWARE THE DANGER OF OVERWRITING.

Ask any published or aspiring writer what they think of this statement, and the agreement rate would probably be 100%. Where to draw the line on what is reasonable and what is too much, is, of course, the tricky part, and a matter of personal taste. The first pages of the current candidate made clear that AW's threshold is well below that of the author. This is a debut effort; for that reason, title shall remain nameless. AW doesn't need the bad karma of standing in a freshly-hatched author's way.


Where did it all become too much?

1. Driving home points with a sledgehammer:

'He was angry. Horribly angry. Livid. Enraged. Furious.'

2. Redundancy:

'May we discuss our private matter privately?'

3. Taking advice to show emotion by describing involuntary physical actions/reactions to the extreme:

During the space of four pages devoted to a conversation with her brother, a minor character:

froze
shot a nervous glance
twisted her hands
coughed and started anew
shivered
blinked and looked away
glanced down both sides of the corridor before turning her nervous glance to his face
stammered
her cheeks leeched of color
her lips trembled
tugged her bare fingers
jumped
her response was a vivid blush and violent shake of the head
slumped against the wainscoting
her shoulders shook
nibbled at her lip
tossed him a nervous glance
clenched her fingers together so tightly the knuckles went white
her pale brow furrowed
her words trailed off as another crimson stain spread up from her throat
started and blanched
her eyes widened
looked away, eyelashes quivering
he could smell the unease in her sweat

Here was the point that AW knew: this was not the book for her.

If this amount of scrutiny is devoted to a minor character, at the beginning of the story, how much jumping and slumping and blanching and quivering were in store for the main character once the plot actually heated up? What in the world was the hero going to smell in her sweat? Apprentice Writer just didn't want to find out.

Gentle Reader: do you appreciate spare writing, or do you prefer lots of descriptives? What makes you stop reading a book?

m.

Multi-Genre Lightning Reviews: HISTORICAL

Soulless, by Gail Carriger
Historical Paranormal Comedy, 2009

One of the most hotly anticipated debuts of last year, 'Soulless' made many a reader's top-10 list but Apprentice Writer would have read it on strength of fantabulous cover alone. Turns out, the story was well worth it, despite a couple of stumbles in the pacing and repetition departments and the headscratcher of a supposedly super-educated heroine not knowing the correct plural of 'octopus'. But no matter: the word best used to sum up here is 'Rollicking!', and AW will definitely continue with the story of Miss Tarabotti, paranormal heroine extraordinaire.



Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls
Fictionalized Biography, 2009

Read for book club, the cover would not have made AW pick this title up in the store but it was perfectly reflective of content. The author tells the story of her maternal grandmother's life in a believable, enthralling first-person voice. Born at a challenging time in an unforgiving environment (to a struggling family in west Texas during the Great Depression), she was astonishing in her determination (and extraordinary success!) at rising up to meet any and every challenge in her path. When she wasn't making AW feel like the wussiest princess ever to walk the earth she was truly inspirational.




Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig
Historical/Contemporary Romantic Suspense, 2005
The first of an extremely popular, light-hearted and botanically-named series, Apprentice Writer spied this gorgeously covered re-release and was inspired to take a look. Alas, though there was a lot she liked, this story suffered from crazy huge anticipation build-up. She kept thinking about how the historical hero didn't seem that competent a spy, how the historical heroine seemed just a little too immature, how the villain kept making very basic mistakes.... Based on what she did like, and in view of the fact that this was the debut effort, AW would take a look at the next in the series but it would need to work hard to make her work her way through what has become a lengthy series (with gorgeous covers, one and all).

What say you, Gentle Reader? Familiar with any of these titles?

Non-Laughter Reviews: Three Days To Dead

THREE DAYS TO DEAD
Kelly Meding
Urban Fantasy, 2009

Premise: Bounty hunter wakes up following her death in the body of a stranger and learns she has three days to solve the triple mysteries of who killed her, who she is now, and who set her up for a crime she did not commit.

Cover: Attractive in a typical UF kind of way. Art gives an accurate idea of contents.

What Works: Apprentice Writer started the story with much anticipation after great buzz for this debut author and how much she enjoyed the 'other' Kelly's UF title released on same day ('Better Part of Darkness'; review here). To AW's delight, the story started off with a bang and just kept going, the three day deadline keeping the tension at a steady simmer.
Evangeline operates in a questionable part of town, where all sorts of alternate life forms have moved in without the knowledge of the human citizens who live in more upmarket neighborhoods. It is neither a happy nor successful form of multiculturalism; there is a lot of political power struggle and things go wrong so often between individual citizens there is a formal force in place to eliminate beings who transgress against those of other species too flagrantly. The force is kept busy, and Evy was recruited into it as a juvenile. Her background lacked any sort of privilege, and her manner throughout the story is convincingly streetsmart and unpolished. The creatures that inhabit the world are fascinating and wonderfully described in appearance and behavior: AW's favorites were the earth guardian and gargoyle. The love interest who eventually appears has some interesting talents and conflicts of his own; there are some poignant scenes when she struggles to figure out which of her former and current beings she truly is, and when he struggles to convince her of the authenticity of his feelings for her even though her outside shell has changed. Provided food for thought about the nature of identity and love.

What Doesn't
Two minor things that AW was willing to go along with:
- a couple of spots where characters get right down to sharing information and trust with complete strangers rather than biding their time; was willing to suspend disbelief because, hello, a whole lot has to happen in the three ticking timeclock days Evy has left on Earth,
- AW wished for Evy to display some capacity to adapt to an elevated environment and figure out that maybe, the equivalent of fae royality should be treated on a different level than her usual brash-to-the-point-of-rudeness manner adopted with scum she's about to blow away or professional rivals. Evy didn't demonstrate such adaptive skill, in this and some other situations, but in all fairness her manner was completely consistent with established personality and backstory.

One minor thing that that placed a bit more strain on suspension of disbelief:
- a late battle scene with goblins. Without getting too spoilerific: considering the role of the main battle opponent, and the number of opponents involved in the skirmish, the way the situation was described did not make sense to AW. Then again, what does she know about goblin battle tactics? Maybe the problem lay with her under par imagination skills.

One non-minor thing that made this reader say WHAAA??? (not really a spoiler since this happens right at the start):
- reference is made multiple times to an incident in the backstory where Evy took cover with a group of shapeshifters after becoming a fugitive due to implication in the murder of her partners. In retribution for taking her in, the building where they live is burned with no survivors reported. AW could have dealt with this if the shapeshifters were landcreatures, or maybe if they lived underground. BUT - they are avian. So, a building full of people with the capacity to form wings and escape via windows and balconies - just somehow didn't? If they'd been described as were-penguins or were-emus, it would still have been OK, but their group name is Owlkins. ???????

Overall: A high-octane debut with more than enough elements in the mix to make this reader mark her calendar for publication date of second in the 'Dreg City' series, "As Lie the Dead".

Learn more about the author here and here.

The Fine Print: AW won this book from the delightful Fiction Vixen.

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Twin Reviews: FOODIE MEMOIR

JULIE & JULIA: MY YEAR OF COOKING DANGEROUSLY

or

JULIE & JULIA: 365 DAYS, 524 RECIPES, 1 TINY APARTMENT KITCHEN

Julie Powell
Memoir
Back Bay Books, 2005


SUCH A PRETTY FAT: ONE NARCISSIST'S QUEST TO DISCOVER IF HER LIFE MAKES HER ASS LOOK BIG; OR, WHY PIE IS NOT THE ANSWER
Jen Lancaster
Memoir
2008

Premise
1. Urbanite finds purpose in goal to recreate every recipe in legendary gourmand's cookbook within a year and blogging about it.

2. Urbanite finds insight in goal to lose weight, gain health, and discover how her own and other people's attitudes towards food and bodies help and hinder.

Cover
1. The current edition sacrificed the subtitle in favor of showing the actors portraying the characters in the movie, and is done in attractive green and gold tones. The cover that Apprentice Writer prefers is the original teal background with bowl of either whipped cream or egg white and a little egg beater lying down in exhaustion from the endurance sport that is whipping by hand. She also prefers the mathematical subtitle which captured the essential content of the book.

2. This is the author's third book, and the cover follows the precedent set by the first two of a cartoon-like color-blocked icon from the story on white background, with the title in what looks like hand-written cursive script. The pattern has become an eye-catching trademark for the author, as have the multiple subtitles.

What Works
1. The author was one of the first bloggers to get a book deal (followed by a movie deal). That is an accomplishment, but it was built on a bigger one - achieving the goal of recreating every dish in Julia Child's legendary cookbook. AW is a basic-to-lower-end-of-middling cook, able to mash potatoes from scratch, bake using live yeast and rolling pins, and invent her own soup recipes. But the sheer amount of technique, muscle power, and gross tonnage of plain old dishwashing this project involved was staggering. Also, bravery: though AW often felt hungry reading the book, some dishes - the lamb deliberately left to decay for a specified amount of time, for example, or anything involving aspic - called for just as much intrepid explorer sense as slashing through a jungle per machete. The author brought it all skillfully to life, weaving together a tale that was equal parts culinary feat of strength, reflection on the nature of marriage and friendship, and personal diary. Her timeline was interspersed with anecdotes from the life of her idol, a nice touch, and AW enjoyed many of the descriptions such as Julia Child being like '....an ebullient golden retriever'.


2. In contrast to Julie Powell, Jen Lancaster's story never once made AW feel hungry. This makes sense, given that the author's goal was to make food less alluring, more managable. She writes in a very easy to read, conversational style, detailing the environmental, philosophical, and psychological pitfalls a person trying to lose weight battles with. Her observations are by turns thoughtful, funny, exasperated, aware of the odd logic dieters may employ, and (for the purposes of the story) trapped in the odd logic dieters may employ. She tries and rejects a series of diets and weight-loss methods on the search of the one that will work for her, showing how different each dieter can be from another. The part that AW liked best was the author's decisive rejection of pressure on plus-sized women to feel badly about themselves due to weight, and her refusal to let her self-esteem sag because of her pounds. You go, girl. AW also liked the fact that loss motivation was health-driven rather than guilt- or appearance-driven. The author recognized that her 'healthy self esteem' might be contributing to ill health, and decided to do something about it. More power to her. Because thin does not automatically equate with healthy. No matter our weight, we can all do something to work towards a more healthy personal future.

The multiple titles hint at a stylistic idiosyncracy; current 'Rules of Writing' fashion dictates that parentheses are out, out, out, and that if something is not important enough to be included in the main body of the sentence, it is not important enough to be included at all. The author seems to have taken a tongue-in-cheek literal application of this 'rule', and spun it. She eschews parentheses - but it is a rare page that doesn't have a footnote or two. After AW got used to it, it became kind of entertaining.

What Doesn't
Writing a memoir is a brave thing to do. The writer is essentially allowing flocks of strangers to look into his or her mind, emotions, motivations, actions, choices, mistakes, etc. etc. and leaving him or herself wide open to after-the-fact backseat driving. So kudos to memoir-writers for their inherent courage.

Having said that - a person who chooses not only to lay their life open to public scrutiny, but wants other to pay for the priviledge of reading about it, should not be surprised if readers indulge in after-the-fact backseat driving of those lives.

1. At various points in the story, Ms. Powell describes herself as emotional, neurotic, weepy, and with the mouth of a sailor. At various points of the story, events support those descriptors. All of which served to throw the author's husband in high relief, as a person who seemed extraordinarily supportive and praiseworthy. In terms of 'mouth of a sailor' - cursing is something AW is not especially fond of, in real life or her reading material. She tolerates it in books on the basis of 'to each his own', and in recognition that it can genuinely contribute to characterization and mood setting. However, she didn't get why it wouldn't be obvious that speaking about literal and figurative excrement in the same context or sentence as FOOD is distasteful. Killed the nicely building appetite factor mentioned above in a right hurry.

2. The novel subtitle refers to 'narcissist', Ms. Lancaster signs email 'judgmentally yours', and refers to herself taking a long time to grow up. Again, events at various points of the story support these descriptors. Given the author's own upfront acknowledgment the reader can't be surprised they are there, nor fail to give the author credit for self-knowledge.

But the aspect that struck AW as bizarre was the oft-repeated refusal, with much hyperbolic and condescending variation, to consider moving out of the city and into the suburbs. AW has lived in a world-class city and understood the author's love of urban opportunities. But taking advantage of museums, art galleries, architecture, theatre, opera etc. is not how the author spent her time. Shopping at big-box stores, eating at fast-food outlets and coffee chains, watching cable television, surfing online, and going to the gym was. Does she truly believe these things can't be accomplished in the suburbs?

It is a rule of general social etiquette that new parents should stop themselves from discussing their babies' digestive process, since NO ONE else is interested. In AW's opinion, this is a good rule. In AW's further opinion, it applies JUST AS MUCH to pet owners. There is no reason on earth to inflict graphic information about pet digestive maladies on hapless readers. And in AW's strongest opinion yet, authors who talk about their own and sibling's penchant during adulthood for urinating in their parents' pool due to not being bothered enough to get out all day, every Fourth of July, should not be surprised when readers are disinclined to read futher titles.



But does the book make you laugh? YES and YES

Both authors have a keen sense of the absurd in everyday life, and are skilled in conveying their observations in a way that lets the reader share that appreciation. 'Julie and Julia' and 'Such a Pretty Fat' are entertaining looks at a part of life no one can escape.


Learn more about Jen Lancaster here . The fact that the website is titled 'Jennsylvania: Land of the Free, Home of the Bitter' gives a taste of what to expect.

AW could not locate a website for author Julie Powell, and the blog maintained for the duration of the Julie/Julia Project seems to be inactive. Learn more about her second book, 'Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession' here.

The Fine Print: AW checked one book out of the library, and won the other from a blogsite.

m.

Twin Reviews: DEBUT URBAN FANTASY

ROSEMARY AND RUE
Seanan McGuire
Urban Fantasy
Daw, 2009


THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS
Kelly Gay
Urban Fantasy
Pocket, 2009



Premise:
1. Half human, half fae private investigator overcoming personal loss is forced to sleuth a magical murder among the fairy races living hidden in plain sight with people.

2. Human cop partnered with siren cop investigates magical narcotics among otherworldly races living openly with people.

Cover:
1. Standard UF blue tones and leather, but in a twist on the usual the leather is a jacket instead of pants, and the heroine looks remarkably covered, untatooed, and visible-weaponless. Even so, uncertain this would have caught Apprentice Writer's eye in the store on its own. Unusual and intriguing title, though, which is not explained until almost the very end. Too bad the next titles in the series don't follow botanical precedent.

2. Blue tones again, with cover girl back to regular UF uniform and pose. Pretty enough overall look, not quite memorable title. The aspect of the cover that stands out the most to AW is hard to see in this small image; the light-and-shadow background suddenly snapped into focus like one of those optical illusions where you first see one image and it suddenly switches around to something else. Whenever AW looks, she now sees the head and shoulders of a samurai type figure in the upper right corner, staring down the heroine's cleavage. Kind of funny, and maybe not a smart thing to do to a girl with a gun in her hand.

What Works
1. So much, starting with the name of the heroine (October Daye) and continuing on to the heroine herself, a so-called Changeling (as opposed to Pureblood Fae) who has suffered multiple losses and is engaging and wry, choosing to tough it out rather than feel sorry for herself. An excerpt that typifies Toby's persona, spoken after finding a mysterious object:

"Pandora was an idiot. I dropped (it), shuddering from cold as much as from temptation; as soon as (it) left my fingers, the burning died. Whatever it was selling, I wasn't in the market. I had enough to deal with without being pushed around by magical items that shouldn't exist."

Pluses continue with the rich worldbuilding. Apprentice Writer was fascinated with the complex descriptions of the various fae races, their kingdoms and territories, and most of all, with the concept of how they adapted to live invisibly to humans in tiny pockets of nature in the urban environement. AW's familiarity with fae elements to this point was extremely narrow, and limited mostly to Tinkerbell type images or possibly Elvish ones a la 'Lord of the Rings'. Very soon into the story, she realized that the fae inhabiting Toby's world are no laughing, benevolent forest creatures flitting happily about in the sunlight. They are stark, demanding, frequently tyrannical beings with very little tolerance for weakness or departure from their customs and expectations, beautiful and terrifying at once. Each inhabitant of this fae world has certain special gifts and the varying intensity of ability to perform magic; Toby is constantly challenged by the fact that she is relatively weak in magical ability, and so must compensate in smarts and sheer personality when dealing with those who hold stronger hierarchical and/or magical power. The combination of heroine, world, and utter originality (how many stories has the Gentle Reader read lately with the protagonist being turned into a fish for fourteen years?) won AW over, and she impatiently waits for the day the second novel in the series will be released.

A common development in UF stories is for the female protagonist to encounter a male character who antagonizes her yet with whom she must co-operate to resolve the external conflict, and in the process sparks fly between them. Another plus of this story is that something else happened with Toby instead. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next book in this regard.


2. Again, so much.
Kickass female cops abound in urban fantasy land, but Charlie Madigan is the first AW encountered who is also a parent. Not to mention, recently returned from the dead. Throw in a partner who is a siren (he wears a gadget on his throat to prevent people from hearing his real voice, which would make them powerless to resist him if left unmodified), plus various characters representing the races found in alternate levels of the universe (both Heaven- and Hell-like, if AW understood correctly) and we are back at the combination of heroine, world, and originality that AW loves so well.

And in terms of heroine love interest - again, this story didn't follow the usual formula. There were at least three characters who looked like they might be setting up for that role, but in each case matters went down a different road than expected. AW was happily surprised.

What Doesn't
1. AW has often mentioned her love of secondary characters and complex, layered stories. This story delivered in droves. Perhaps - a little too much. There were so many different types of creatures, each with their own appearance, culture, hiearchy, and individual behaviour, it was hard to keep track of. Some of those mentioned only briefly created frustration for those of us who would have liked to find out more about them (e.g. the alluring water horse, the troll). Similarly, the protagonist's backstory is complicated, to say the least; there were many points where AW became confused about what had happened when and why as Toby remembered bits and pieces. A little more clarity would have been desirable for this reader (though it is possible that readers who have more knowledge of the type of folklore involved may have had no problems).

That being said, this was the first in a series so it was to be expected that world building would be extensive, and it's possible to hope for more explanantion in volumes to come.

In the suspension of disbelief department, a couple of recurring and related themes grated: the heroine is repeatedly wounded (par for the course in UF) and keeps bleeding. And bleeding. And bleeding to the point of ludicrosity (yes, that's a word. AW just invented it). Which was made worse by the fact that through the whole book, which covers a period of three or four days minus the prologue, if AW recalls correctly, she eats a total of two sandwiches. At one sitting. Containing marshmallow fluff. There is mention of a lot of coffee, and two instances of magical healing potions, but please: if an author wants AW to believe her heroine can run, jump, sleuth, take a beating and bleed vast quantities, she/he better be providing more fuel than marshmallows or else explicitly writing in that changelings only require a tiny fraction of the calories an active human needs per day.

There were some other 'Why are you doing this the hard way, i.e. alone?' questions, but AW was willing to let these ride in the hope that they might sort themselves out in volume two.

2. Like October's world, Charlie's is highly complex. Which was all to the good, right up until AW became befuddled. This could still have been taken in stride, but was saddled with the fact that Charlie seems to have a heavily conflicted relationship with everyone around her. It became a bit much for her to reflect on problems relating to her ex-husband, partner, daughter, sister, parents of daughter's schoolmates, individuals involved in her medical history....to the point that AW wished for a single calm, angst-free relationship, even if it was with a pet or gargoyle. Her difficulty with people in general reached the point of ludicrosity (hey, if a word is newly invented, it should be used at every opportunity) in her relationship with her partner. Repeatedly, she neglected to speak to him about concerns and events, and took independent action instead of waiting for or informing him- which made no sense. When you are puzzled about behavior and meaning of otherwordly races and events, why in the world WOULDN'T you make use of the tremendous resource at your disposal that is an otheworldly being who knows about those others and is positively inclined towards you? In this blind and self-injurious insistance on going it alone, Charlie made AW equally as crazy as October did.

In minor but jarring 'What??' instances, there is Charlie's description of how the otherworldly beings chose to immigrate to Earth and mingle with humans in the major cities. So far so good. But then she specifies which ones - and they are all in the United States. Meaning what - that, say, Singapore, Mexico City, Paris, Tokyo, Bombay, Shanghai, Rome have all vanished? Or perhaps otherworldly beings for some obscure reason prefer English speaking environments? But then, why no Toronto, London, Sydney?

To go from a larger-than-planetary perspective, with beings from realms beyond Earth, down to such a localized one, was inexplicable and threw this reader out of the story. The inexplicability continued in a later scene when Charlie describes a nightlife happening street where music of all sorts beckons humans and other alike. Again, so far so good. But when she specifies the various music styles on offer, they are one and all currently existing human ones. No mention of a style brought to Earth by the newcomers, or of human music influenced by off-planet styles. AW wasn't sure if this was supposed to demonstrate that Charlie has a narrow perspective, or maybe if she is not as open to other beings as she believes. Perhaps the second volume will clear this up.


Overall
Are Seanan McGuire and Kelly Gay twins separated at birth? Although these stories were very different from one another, there were nevertheless similarities in feel, pluses, and question marks in their debut works.

AW sought these titles out due to mega buzz.

She now agrees that these two authors are destined for a whole lot of well-deserved attention as rising stars on the UF horizon. AW was completely sucked into their worlds, and will most definitely read the next books in each series.

Also: she can't wait to get hold of the third debut author buzzing in what she thinks of as the New Wave in Urban Fantasy. Hooray -Kelly Meding's 'Three Days Till Dead' is winging its way to her as she cyberspeaks. These are happy times for fans of debut authors and creative new twists on the genre.

Learn more about the authors here:

http://www.kellygay.net Next up: Book 2, 'The Darkest Edge of Dawn'

http://seananmcguire.com/toby.php Next up: Book 2, 'A Local Habitation'


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