Bookish Outposts in Cyberspace: Part I

Where, the Gentle Reader may wonder, does Apprentice Writer go in the Blogiverse when she isn't here at home?

To various bookish landing spots, some well-known and some deserving a wider audience. In no specific order:

Dear Author - this reader-oriented site (as opposed to author- or publisher-oriented) was begun by Jane Litte, a reader whose training is in law. As a result some of the most interesting discussions at the site involve legal interpretation on developments in the publishing industry or legitimacy of various threats made in the kerfuffle du jour. The site is devoted mostly to genre fiction (heavily of the romance persuasion including any and all subgenres), but from that single blogger beginning it has grown to multiple reviewers of widely differing tastes. Authors comment frequently in the threads, there are many guest posts, and publishers regularly hold impressive giveaways. Jane and Sarah of 'Smart Bitches, Trashy Books' also collaborate on all sorts of bookish ventures - the annual DABWAHA tournament (AW will let you google that on your own), commentary in various conferences and workshop panels, and who knows what else. You never know what you find when you visit Dear Author, but it is interesting enough frequently enough that AW keeps checking in.

S. Krishna's Books - this single reader site records the thoughts of Swapna, reader extraordinaire. Every time AW, who considers herself a fairly heavy reader, visits she is staggered by Swapna's readerly output (or perhaps consumption is the better word), mostly in literary fiction with some memoir, women's fiction, and mystery sprinkled in. This could perhaps be rationalized by supposing that Swapna does nothing else but read, however she is also a student and has a spouse, who presumably needs some attention now and again. As if that weren't enough, she looks stunning. AW has tried to hold all of this against her but fails miserably due to curiosity about thoughts on the titles AW is thinking about checking out, and Swapna's special interest in multicultural authors.

A Life With Books - this single reader site talks about daily life and bookish topics in roughly equal measure. Since both kinds of posts, and the ones that mix it all up, are entertaining and laidback, AW enjoys her visits. Jenners has a laid-back yet thoughtful style, an easy-to-read five point book review system, and has a talent of picking up on fun memes from the blogosphere.

More sites to come.

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.

Laughter Reviews - Keeper: THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE

THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
Alan Bradley
Mystery
Doubleday, 2009

Premise: Upper-class, neglected girl finds a dying man in her garden and takes up the case.

Cover: Title - Perplexing, until full quote is known ("Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie, Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?" from The Art of Cooking) and later when it is quoted to the heroine by the police inspector. Art - Striking but also perplexing, until one encounters the deceased bird with stamp adornment in the pages. Altogether, unusual and intriguing cover.

What Works: The most spectacularly unusual heroine this reader has encountered in a long time, eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce is by turns funny, whipsmart, terrifyingly precocious, and childlike. Over and over, she confounds everyone around her by thinking and performing far beyond any reasonable expectations one might have of a child. Mother deceased while she was an infant, father still immersed in grief such that his three daughters are more or less left entirely to their own devices, Flavia has adjusted to the realization that in her family, people only express affection through doing dreadful things to one another - and by loyally taking the fall for whomever may be threatened by others at any time. This includes the war-traumatized gardener, who 'loses' bits of shortterm memory and has retreated to plants due to ever-decreasing ability to deal with people.

Because of the family's elevated social position in their British village, her own unusualness resulting in lack of friendship opportunities with peers, and relatively large age difference to her older siblings, Flavia is a loner, bored out of her nimble mind and has become a self-taught chemistry prodigy. When she comes across a dying man, she is consequently delighted: Finally, something to do! Her sleuthing process takes many dips and turns, alternating between hilarious and frightening, but is never, ever dull.

Some excerpts that give a flavor of typical Flavia and show the author's flair for similes:

"I still shivered with joy whenever I thought of the rainy day that Chemistry had fallen into my life. I had been scaling the bookcases, pretending I was a noted Alpinist, when my foot slipped and a heavy book was knocked to the floor...within moments it had taught me that the word iodine comes from a word meaning violet, and that the name bromine was derived from a Greek word meaning 'a stench'. These were the sorts of things I needed to know!..When I found that precise instructions were given for formulating (poisons) I was in seventh heaven...I tried to follow instructions to the letter. Not to say that there weren't a few stinks and explosions, but the less said about those the better."

"Whenever I wanted to be alone...I would clamber up into the dim light of the (abandoned Rolls Royce) where I would sit for hours..surrounded by drooping plush upholstery and cracked, nibbled leather (filled with mouse nests)."

"I rechristened (the bicycle) Gladys..I found a booklet called Cycling for Women of all Ages, by Prunella Stack, the leader of the Women's League of Health and Beauty...Was there a companion booklet, Cycling for Men of All Ages, I wondered? And, if so, had it been written by the leader of the Men's League of Health and Handsomeness?"

"Ned stuck out his callused fingers...it was like shaking hands with a pineapple."

"It was like a dirigible with the skin off..."

"...her hair looked like a hot air balloon."

"I made the Girl Guide three-eared bunny salute with my fingers. I did not tell him that I was technically no longer a member of that organization, and hadn't been since I was chucked out for manufacturing ferric hydroxide to earn my domestic service badge. No one seemed to care that it was the antidote for arsenic poisoning."

"Feely once gave Daffy and me (a piece of sisterly advice): 'If ever you're accosted by a man, kick him in the Casanovas and run like the blue blazes!' Although it had sounded at the time like a useful bit of intelligence, the only problem was that I didn't know where the Casanovas were located. I'd have to think of something else."

"I found a dead body in the cucumber patch,' I told them. 'How very like you,' Ophelia said, and went on preening her eyebrows."

What Doesn't: Readers who have trouble with claustrophobia, or who are uncomfortable with children in dangerous situations, may want to sidestep this story. In case it makes them feel better, they can take note of the fact that this is the first book in a series; which demonstrates that at the end of this story, things have turned out alright for Flavia.

Overall: A wildly entertaining and unpredictable story; Apprentice Writer is impatiently waiting for her turn with the library's audiobook copy of the second in the series, the equally perplexingly named 'The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag'.

But does it make you laugh? YES!
If the gentle reader has not paid attention, he or she is urged to go look at the excerpts again.

Learn more about the author here.

m.

Laughter Reviews: NO WIND OF BLAME

NO WIND OF BLAME
Georgette Heyer
Classic Mystery
Sourcebooks, 2009


Premise
Host of country house party dies unnaturally; all present have reason to welcome this development.

Cover
Very pretty. Great chartreuse color, not overdone. Don't entirely comprehend the title but it is irrelevant, anyway; it is the famous author readers come for, and her name is understandably more prominent than the title. The cover girl looks like a quintessential flapper with her marcelled hair, sleeveless dress, and smoke-curling cigarette from the days when smoking was still considered sophisticated. The only surprise is that she holds it barehanded rather than in a cigarette holder or with elbow-length gloves.


What Works
This was Apprentice Writer's first Heyer mystery, and what fun it was. The assembled characters and how they bounce off each other were wonderful: Russian prince, disingenuous daughter, belligerent schemer, neglected wife, husband on a tight leash, noble admirer, sensible poor cousin, irate villager who refuses to accept supposed innate superiority of the rich and titled - all encountered by the mystery reader before, but all well done, and all deserving of the question 'Or is he/she?' following description of their surface persona. This means the question "Who had the motive and possibility to do the deed?" transforms into "Who of the plentiful supply of people with motive and possibility was the most likely?"

The country house, the grounds, the dower house tucked away out of sight, the household rituals and pets - all can be easily visualized. But it is the character descriptions and little bits of interaction between them that typify the story most and where it shines:

"Mrs. Carter stretched out a plump arm to the toast rack She was a large woman who had enjoyed, in her youth, the advantages of golden hair and a pink-and-white complexion. Time had committed some ravages with both these adjuncts...Artificial light was kinder to her than the daylight, but she never allowed this tiresome fact to worry her...she never put on her corsets until fortified by breakfast. (Her niece) had never been able to accustom herself to the sight of Ermyntrude's flowing sleeves trailing negligently across the butter dishes and occasionally dipping into her coffee..."

What reader could dislike a character called Ermyntrude? Certainly not this one.

"Vicky came in some little time after the tea table was spread. Mary had little patience for poses, but had too much humor not to appreciate the manner of this entrance. Vicky was sinuous in a teagown that swathed her limbs in folds of chiffon, and trailed behind her over the floor. She came in with her hand resting lightly on the neck of the dog, and paused for a moment, looking round with tragic vagueness. The dog, lacking histrionic talent, escaped from the imperceptible restraint of her hand to investigate the Prince."

Etc. If this type of description appeals to the Gentle Reader, by all means pick up this story. If it makes the Gentle Reader impatient and long to get on with the clues and crime instead of the crumpets, it may be that a different sort of mystery may be better for them. But for Apprentice Writer, the mix was right.

What Doesn't
The copyright of this book was registered in 1939, and reflects a bygone social system and language. Some readers may need more time than others to become accustomed to dialogue saturated with class consciousness and putdowns of varying subtlety aimed by almost everyone at almost everyone else, linked to focus on appearance, lack of it, wealth, lack of it, intelligence, lack of it, social ambition, lack of it, conformity to gender stereotypes, lack of it.... The Gentle Reader gets the picture.

Taken literally, it presents a picture of a world the modern reader (or perhaps, simply the non-British one) would find difficult to relate to. It is AW's understanding, however, that the author is known for her satirical skill; viewed in that light, the characters' relentless snippy comments towards others coupled with utter certainty of their own superiority becomes a very telling criticism of such attitudes, and thus in reality, a strength of the novel.

Overall
A most entertaining story for a rainy afternoon with a pot of tea. Great for fans of British house parties, Oscar Wile's zingers, and the era of Hercule Poirot.

Non-Laughter Reviews: VICTORIAN MYSTERY

SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY
(Book 2, Lady Julia Grey series)
by Deanna Raybourn
Historical Mystery


Premise
Christmas house party is interrupted by murder; guests all seem to have secrets of their own.

Cover
Very pretty - mysterious, retro, and upper-class invoking, in blue tones to contast the previous volume's red.

What Works
How Apprentice Writer loves this series. Book 2 picks up where Book 1 (Silent in the Grave) left off, with the widowed and recently-almost-murdered heroine Lady Julia Grey recuperating with a long visit to Italy to spend time with two of her many brothers. The author's debut novel is widely quoted when the topic of excellent first lines come up, and the one here is no slouch either:

"Well, I suppose that settles it. Either we all go home to England for Christmas or we hurl ourselves into Lake Como to atone for our sins."

Back to England they go, taking the whirlwind-courtshipped Italian bride of one brother, an Italian count harboring feelings for Julia, and a high maintenance Italian hound for good measure (Julia has a talent for acquiring stray animals by accident) along and picking up a flamboyant sister on the way. Returned to the ancestral home - an enormous, ancient, deconsecrated abbey - they find a large and diverse party already gathered, including their imperious father the Earl, two impoverished distant cousins, a nouveau-riche manufacturer and his servant, a man of the church, an elderly aunt, and, certainly not least in Julia's eyes - the enigmatic and magnetically attractive Nicholas Brisbane, special inquiry agent. Who has brought his new fiancee.

Julia is shocked, both by the change in his status and choice of intended, a woman she repeatedly describes as unintelligent and uninteresting. In the vastly entertaining (to the reader) custom of British house parties, murder most foul soon rears its ugly head, and Julia and Brisbane are off once again - alternately sleuthing together, trying to outsmart one another, and sharing the occasional kiss, all while observing the customs and conventions of an aristocratic Victorian setting in which they are, of course, snowed in. A disappearance, spectacular jewel theft, and not one but two hauntings are thrown in for good measure. All tremendous fun, and the return of a Gypsy presence adds an extra layer deftly serving multiple purposes. The Roma characters, together with memorable servant characters, family members, and animal characters which are unique yet whose every mention serves a purpose beyond endless gushing pet love (AW is looking at you, Kristan Higgins) all seem to be Raybourn trademarks, and AW enjoyed it all immensely.

What Doesn't
AW had to think a little on this one. Finally, she came up with the following:
Julia has a TSTL moment straight from a teenage horror movie of doing the silliest possible thing when she suddenly realizes an identity - and goes, in the middle of the night, alone, and without telling anyone her suspicion - straight to the possible villain's room. Since she is roundly chastised by her father, Brisbane, and most of all herself, though, AW was able to live with this.

Then again, there was the moment AW questioned Brisbane and Julia's sleuthing procedure. Murder is committed (most foully! *heh*) but in response, bedrooms are only searched, and that even secretly. Except for questioning the person who partially confessed and whose story has huge holes, there is no one-by-one interview of all present to recount movements and alibis. And, shades of the wonderful movie 'Gosford Park', it doesn't occur to anyone even for a moment that any of the servants might be involved, either directly or as an accomplice. On both counts, Hercule Poirot would roll in his grave.

AW will admit the possibility that she has been unduly influened by previous Brit murder mysteries seen or read, and that despite absence of both noted points, the story unrolled well.

Overall
A delicious installment of the story begun in Book 1, with Julia's first person voice fitting the tale very well, her increasing determination to be her own person and achieve productive rather than merely decorative ends (as was the typical lot of an upper-class woman of the period) a joy to behold, and the very slowly developing relationship with Brisbane as delicious as ever. Bring on Book 3 (Silent on the Moor)!

The Fine Print
AW read this as part of the Reader In Peril Reading Challenge. She availed herself of a library copy.

Learn about the author here

R.I.P. Challenge

"....It was a desire to celebrate and share that love of the elements of gothic fiction that inspired me to create the first R.I.P. Challenge, four years ago.

Readers Imbibing Peril, that is what it is all about. I hope you’ll consider joining us on this more eerie road less traveled.

Walk this way.

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

The desire for the thrill that comes with this kind of reading drifts in on the autumn winds. You breathe it in and it takes hold of you, tempting you to late nights, book-in-hand, turning pages and starting at every unknown noise. Something wicked this way comes…"

So reads 'Stainless Steel Droppings' invitation to join in on this challenge. For the full description, go here.

As per suggestion, Apprentice Writer will share her 'reading pool':

GOTHIC: 'Seduced by a Stranger', by Eve Silver

Why This One? Fills criterion of '...can cut the atmosphere with a knife' in spades. Consider the first sentence:

"At the age of eleven, Catherine Weston was buried alive in a shallow, wet grave."

Status: Just started. Review to follow.

SUPERNATURAL: 'Trouble in Mudbug' by Jana DeLeon

Why This One? A ghost appears on the first page and stays till the last. Not a very scary one, true, but we'll still count this for the sake of ticking the genre box.

Status: Reviewed.

DARK FANTASY: Book 4, 'Corambis', Doctrine of Labyrinths series by Sarah Monette

Why This One? Because the subterranean water creature, the psychiatric hospital, and all the labyrinth scenes from Book 1 on gave Apprentice Writer the serious willies (in the non-British sense) and Book 4 will not be any different.

Status: Three books down (Melusine, The Virtu, The Mirador) , one to go.

HORROR: Apprentice Writer doesn't usually venture into this genre, due to being highly impressionable while also wimpy. She will therefore stretch definitions to include

'Demon Bound' by Meljean Brook (Book 7 in the 'Guardian' series if you count all the novellas), because some of the characters from Book 2, 'Demon Angel' (which AW liked very much) reside in hell, and repeatedly go through the tortures of the damned (in a minimally graphic way, thank the gods of fiction for small mercies), and if that's not horrifying AW doesn't know what is.

Status: Four previous installments in the series read, selected title to go.

MYSTERY: 'No Wind of Blame' by Georgette Heyer

Why This One? Because AW received it in the mail today and it looks really good. Since it is not remotely eerie, she will bend the definition again, and say the horror of this story lies in the views of many characters on the appalling manners of other characters rather than actual gruesomeness. How eerie can things get over an ever-present pot of tea? But this is the mystery AW has at hand, and since it's her blog, she's going to do what she wants.

Status: Twenty delicious pages in. Review forthcoming.

SUSPENSE/THRILLER: No idea what to insert here. Suggestions?

ETA: Gentle Reader and Debut Author Thomma Lynn Grindstaff has suggested

'Haunting Beauty' by Erin Quinn to fill this slot.

There we go. All boxes checked. Now AW just has to collect the actual volumes and commence.

Twin Reviews: Mystery on the Light Side

TROUBLE IN MUDBUG
Jana DeLeon
Paranormal Mystery


&


ANCHORS AWEIGH!
Kathleeen Bacus
Comedic Mystery


Premise:
1. Louisiana scientist helps newly-deceased and non-lamented ghost mother-in-law identify her murderer while trying to divorce her husband and remain unattracted to a colleague.

2. Iowa cowgirl/investigative reporter overhears plot to kill a spouse and spends her weight-watching cruise trying to foil it while choosing between two men pursuing her.

Cover:
1. Vintage truck hovering in the air like the American cousin of Harry Potter's flying car, a title that points to quirky small town, wibbly wobbly font - for this reader's money, a fantastic cover.

2. Bikini top tossed (presumably) overboard by a female hand for seagull audience. Relevant in the sense that there is a bikini top scene included, though not in the 'naturist' lifestyle way the cover implies.


What Works
1. Apprentice Writer does not recall reading a story set in Louisiana before, and swampy landscape, flora, fauna and heroine's habit of going everywhere in her boat as naturally as AW would jump into her minivan were very appealing. The heroine is a woman torn in many directions: urgently wishing to divorce her whereabouts-unknown and good-for-nothing husband, irritated beyond belief that being able to see and hear her mother-in-law means being roped in to help her, grieving the loss of her cancer-stricken father, trying to be a supportive friend to the local sham-psychic, and resisting attraction to the zoologist who's commandeered space in her tiny bayou office. It's no easy balancing act and was generally well depicted, with all-too human frustrations and grouchiness sometimes taking their toll. Also nicely done were her gradual realizations that there there was more to her mother-in-law, her spouse, and her zoologist than she first gave credit for. Loved the name 'Mudbug'.

2. AW has never had the good fortune to go on a cruise. Being vicariously on board with the heroine, taking part in wacky holiday life, and going ashore at a beautiful Caribbean destination, were all fun.

What Doesn't
1. This book is the first of a series so not all questions are answered at the end, possibly leaving some readers with a sense of dissatisfaction. In terms of character interaction and motivation, the heroine seemed overly and undeservedly antagonistic to her eventual love interest for this reader, to the point that she questioned why he was so attracted to her. Similarly, she goes on and on (and on) about how worthless her flown husband is - begging the question of why she married him in the first place. There is eventually some degree of explanation, however by the time it rolled around it was too little, too late for this reader. Still, these points were not dealbreakers, and AW was easily able to chalk them up to human flaws of the character.

2. *Sigh* AW wanted to like this book. Travel, zaniness, eccentric primary and secondary characters - should have been right up her alley, right? But then, the puns and popular culture references and spun-out-till-they-were-paperthin similes and metaphors and word associations set in, and never, ever stopped. It is a very specific type of writing style, and one AW found confusing and tiring. Still, this could have been surmounted, if it hadn't been for additional factors such as the characters who always spoke of themselves in the third person (yes, AW is aware of the irony in making this statement! In her defence: a blogpost is not equivalent to a WHOLE BOOK), the tediousness of the heroine running back and forth literally and figuratively between two men for the length of the story, the heroine talking about having a 'blonde moment' (AW has never been naturally blonde or with assistance, but she can't help but think blond people deliberately perpetuating the dim stereotype can't really be a good thing), the weight-watching element never really figuring into the crime as far as this reader could tell and so feeling a bit gimmicky, and, the straw that broke the camel's back: The villain who goes on, paragraph after paragraph, explaining actions and motivations in minute detail to the heroine - rather than the heroine figuring out more of this for herself.

It is possible AW could have lived with all of this better if she had been with the series since the beginning. This story is the sixth, and maybe the heroine would have grown on her more naturally if she was aware of the full story. As things stand, AW is not much tempted to go back and start from the beginning. Gentle Reader - if you have read the first book(s) in this series and think AW should reconsider - please advise.



Overall
Jana Deleon and Kathleen Bacus both blog at 'Killer Fiction', together with fellow 'light mysterians' Christie Craig, Leslie Langtry, and Gemma Halliday. Having visited a number of grogs whose common theme remained a mystery (ha!) to this cyberspace traveller, it is a relief to find one where it's clear why the participants got together. Even if every author's personal style does not fit all readers' tastes, there is certainly enough variety available to find one or more who will entertain. Apprentice Writer will continue working her way through the members, shall look forward to Ms. DeLeon's next title ("Mischief in Mudbug") and peruse what Ms. Bacus' next title to see if it draws her in more.


But does it make you laugh?
Mildly (but that's OK!) & Not Me Personally (YMMV)

1. For AW, the milder funny moments in 'Mudbug' (such as when the heroine has moments of insight at the absurdity of what she's doing in between all the running around) worked better than the ones that seemed to be intended as the 'big' ones (such as the way the mother-in-law's difficulties in learning how to be a ghost manifest themselves), which felt a bit like they were trying too hard. This reader recommends that others approach this book simply as a paranormal mystery, and enjoy the occasional amusing bit, rather than approaching it as a comedy per se.

2. The Calamity Jane series has a style which readers will immediately like or dislike, with no inbetween. AW suspects that those who like it, like it a LOT and would laugh long and often at the situations the heroine gets in. For this reader, it was all a bit too much, but since this is the sixth book in the series it means there are certainly many Calamity Jane afficionados out there. AW recommends the back blurb as a fairly reliable test on whether a reader will like the story or not, as it is quite typical of what's in store.