Hounded

And then there are the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne. Wow. Harry Dresden done young and Irish and sexy. In Arizona. With a goofy name. Loved it all!

Seriously, I very much enjoyed Hounded, the first of the Iron Druid books. Atticus O'Sullivan is a compelling hero (and kind of a babe). The author's take on the Druid religion and its relationship to the earth was original and interesting. The first book in a series can be a little tricky to plot because you have to do so much world-building, but this one moves right along. And there's a really cool dog, who gets all the best lines. If I have a quibble, it might be that it stretched my imagination a bit when the third (or fourth?) really hot goddess threw herself at Our Hero, but maybe I was just a wee bit jealous. I would definitely recommend this book, and will be checking out the sequel from the library asap.

Last night I read Candace Proctor's Midnight Confessions. Ms. Proctor is also C.S. Harris, and I reviewed her book Where Shadows Dance a couple weeks ago. Midnight Confessions is billed as a romance, but it's also a mystery, and I just love Ms. Proctor's style. She's so smart, and it always feels like she gets the historical details right. I can easily recommend her work no matter what name she's writing under.

Where Shadows Dance

Where Shadows Dance by C. S. Harris is the 6th in a series of mysteries set in Regency England. Her website describes the main character, Sebastian St. Cyr, as a cross between Mr. Darcy and James Bond. I'll buy that. Sebastian is young, smart, and rich enough to stand by his own principles. Ms. Harris is a smart lady and Sebastian is an intriguing character, which makes these books a lot of fun to read.

The thing I've been thinking most about since reading Shadows Dance is how Ms. Harris has kept the series interesting through six (or seven, since she's got the next one nearly done) books. Each book has its mystery, but there are story lines that evolve across books that make the whole series richer. I've read series that get tired after this many books, but I don't think that's the case here. Shadows Dance was more romantic that the earlier books in the series, and while that smoothed out some of the more interesting character kinks that I'd gotten used to, it made for a satisfying resolution of one particular story line. While they exist in a very different world, these books remind me of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series, both in the quality of the writing and the author's knowledge of time and place.

Discovery of the week was Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins. This book was published in 2010 and is says right on the cover "First in a new series". Sign me up. I loved the scope of Ms. Collins' imagination. The main character, Tate, is a trust fund baby from New York who wants to be taken seriously as an artist so she moves to Golgotham when she finds a place with cheap rent. Golgotham is the New York neighborhood where magic is the main currency. There are interesting ideas at work here about race and class and finding your place in the world, and if the plot is a little predictable, I was willing to forgive because it was so much fun reading a fresh take on the urban occult genre.

Speak Daggers To Her

So the theme for the week is witches. I've been taking a fabulous workshop titled Witchcraft for the Paranormal Author and run by Deborah Blake (www.deborahblakehps.com), and one of the first lessons gave us a bunch of different books with witch characters. As a result, I ended up with a bunch of witchy books on my hold list at the library.

The first one to come in was Speak Daggers To Her by Rosemary Edghill. It's a murder mystery published in '95. I thought the plot was just okay but the characterizations were very good, and the author's understanding of the occult/pagan/Wiccan community(ies) was incredibly nuanced. She got the politics right, or at least made a very convincing case for how people who call themselves witches operate in the real world. This is the first of three Bast mysteries (named after the main character), and I have one more from the library in the T.B.R. stack.

The other book I read this week that also had a witch as a main character was The Native Star by M.K. Hobson. This did not come off the workshop list, but is a book I picked up on our Portland/Powell's sojourn last month. It's set in a Steampunk alternative Wild West, and the main characters are a witch and a warlock. I thought the mystery was fairly compelling the plot moved along, but the romance was a little light for my tastes (Wow! They kissed! Twice!) and the whole thing was undercut by a final chapter where two of the minor characters sit down over tea and have a conversation that implies that the main characters are little cogs in a much bigger machine. Okay, I get that you want to set it up for a sequel, but don't disparage the satisfying conclusion you just reached. I guess if fate plops the sequel in my lap, I'll read it, but I don't know that I'll go out looking for it.

The Radleys

(SPOILER ALERT)

So I skipped a week, because I was traumatized by the newest Charlaine Harris book, Dead Reckoning. I LOVE Ms Charlaine, I LOVE Sookie Stackhouse, and I LOVE the first seven or eight books in the series. This one is book 11. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it exactly, but I did think that Ms Charlaine might be watching a bit too much True Blood. I liked Eric better when he was a flirtatious asshole. Now he's just an asshole. And I did hate the scene where Alcide turned up in Sookie's bed. I simply didn't believe that the character Ms Charlaine created in the earlier books would do that. Sorry. It also bugged me that never once did a shifter shift into their animal form, and never once did a vampire bite anyone. The fairies got a little busy, but other than that it was the most normal paranormal fiction that I could imagine. It wasn't a bad book, but I didn't love it.

I did, however, love The Radleys by Matt Haig. In this book a family of four, parents married 17 years with two teenage kids, have something cataclysmic happen. The book explores how they each deal with it, how they are changed by it, and how they come to grips with their new reality. It's a delicate character study, with a truth that resonated for me. I found the wife, Helen, especially heartbreaking as she and her husband cope with the distance that's grown between them. Oh, and they're all vampires. 'Nuff said. It's a quick read, a fun read, a must-read.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

So my first thought when I finished Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride was, "Oh, what a sweet book." Which was an interesting reaction, because the Big Bad character is SO evil. He's so powerful and sadistic that there were parts that I found hard to read. Now, anyone who likes Anita Blake as much as I do must have a stomach for twisted stuff, but the main characters were young, in their late teens, and that made it harder for me. In the end, though, the likability factor outweighed my squeamishness. The title kills me and the main character's voice is fresh and clear and entertaining. The dialogue is hilarious and I loved that it was set in my own neighborhood in northeast Seattle. I didn't expect that. I chose the book because it was recommended by one of the employees at Powells and had it on hold at the libarary forever, but now I'm going to buy a copy so my kids can read it if they want to.

Mercy Burns.....or the night my life was saved by Keri Arthur and St. James

Any time you gather a group of humans, politics will break out. Last week was an especially bad example of that. There was an implosion of sorts at St. Rhododendron's, where my daughter goes to school. At the same time, a set of circumstances evolved at Holy Holy Holy Church, where I'm part of the music program. It was no one's fault, but my feelings got hurt. The two situations were completely unrelated, but together it was enough to make me question some fundamental things, like, do I really believe in God? Remember that last week was Holy Week, which for a church choir geek like me meant that I was scheduled to spend quite a bit of time singing my praises to Him (or Her). Problem.

I was committed to singing at St James Cathedral for the Good Friday service, but before that I had to go to St. Rhododendron's for the live-action Stations of the Cross, because my daughter was going to be one of the crowd mocking Jesus and she wanted me there to see it. I really didn't want to go sit there and pretend I wasn't pissed off at half the people in the pews. I made it, though, and the 7th graders did a nice job of the Stations. Afterwards we ran down to the QFC to get some sushi for lunch (no meat on Good Friday, right?). While we were there, I cruised the paperback shelf and found a new one by Keri Arthur. It was called Mercy Burns, and it's a one-off romance that doesn't look like it's part of any of her series.

I like Keri Arthur a lot, having read almost all of the books in her Riley Jensen series. She's from Melbourne, Australia, which makes her books feel a little different. She creates entertaining characters, her plots move right along, and the Australian background is a lot of fun. Mercy Burns is set in San Francisco, which to me was its only weakness. It felt like she'd gone to California for a vacation, knew enough to get the place names right, but didn't have an adequate feel for the place to make it real. The rest of the book was good, though. The characters were clever and the plot was well-constructed. And honestly, reading a romance on Good Friday afternoon might not work for everyone, but it helped me re-set my internal state so that when I got to St James for the evening service, I was in a much better frame of mind than I otherwise would have been. Sitting in the Cathedral, among a huge crowd of believers, with the early evening light drifting down through the oculus, it took about three minutes for me to figure out that, in fact, I do believe in God. His imperfect human followers, not so much. I walked out of there feeling healed, and that energy carried me through the rest of the weekend. It might not have been everyone's path to peace, but it worked for me.

Blessedly, the day after Easter, the family and I made a road trip to Portland. With kids in different school systems, their vacations rarely line up, so it was a short trip and meant one kid missed school while the other was on Spring Break. Our hotel was two blocks from Powell's Books - okay, that was a deliberate choice - and I thought I showed admirable restraint in only bringing home nine books. Could have been worse. While we were there I read The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston. It's a historical occult fantasy, and while those elements are usually a win for me, it took me a while to get into this book. In fact, I almost gave up somewhere between pages 48 and 50. She also broke my cardinal rule in killing off characters that I cared about, but the deaths were entirely necessary for the plot and done in such a way as to minimize the drama, so I could handle it. In fact, those events were what drew me deeper into the story and kept me reading.

She tells the story of Elizabeth in flashbacks. Elizabeth is a witch who has spent 400 years dodging the evil warlock who made her. The author had a good command of each period in history that the story visited and she also integrated Wiccan lore throughout the story. I was actually less sold on the Wiccan elements than the historical details; they felt learned and taught rather than an organic part of the story. Overall, though, it was a good read, and I'm glad I stuck with it.

The big win for the week was the first of my Powell's pick-ups. I started reading it in our hotel room, read it all afternoon after getting back from Portland, read it at the bar in a (very!) fancy east-side restaurant while waiting for my friend to meet me for dinner, then stayed up till 2am to finish it. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook just plain rocked the socks off me. It's a steampunk fantasy with really interesting things to say about genetic engineering and a woman's place in society. Oh, and a really compelling romance. It was one of those books that I started re-reading as soon as I was done with the last page. I re-read the last chapter, then opened it about 3/4 of the way from the end and re-read 10 or 15 pages, then said Screw It and started again from the beginning. I could pick apart the plot a little, if you made me, but overall the world she creates is so absorbing, the characters are so fascinating, and the ideas she's playing with are so intriguing that any little quibbles fade away. There's already a line forming to borrow it....

Bloodsucking Fiends

I read for entertainment. Just wanted to make that clear, in case you were still uncertain about my motivation. If I want spiritual enlightenment, I'll go to church. If I want heartrending drama, I'll go to work. Books are the place I go to have fun, to laugh, to get turned on, you know, to go on little mini-vacations that are cheap and don't require packing.

All of that is to justify why I read about vampires. Nothing makes me happier than finding a good vampire book by an author that's new to me. This week I came across one of those finds. The book is Bloodsucking Fiends, and the author is Christopher Moore. Mr. Moore has written a number of books about vampires and other demons. He has a sort of wry, 'in on the joke' voice that reminded me of A. Lee Martinez. I don't remember much about the story; a San Francisco office worker and "serial monogamist" runs across an ancient vamp who deals with boredom by randomly turning people into vampires then watching his fledglings flounder until he kills them. The action centers on her survival and her love life. It also involves turkey bowling. How can you not love a book that has turkey bowling? I liked this book a lot and would definitely look for other books by this author.

Then, for some twisted vampire action, I re-read Narcissus in Chains, an Anita Blake novel by Laurell K. Hamilton. Oh Anita, you have so far to go. 'Nuff said.

I ventured into cozy-ville with Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart. I was in junior high when I first read Ms. Stewart. I loved The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills and in my mind they're still the definitive versions of the Arthurian myth. I haven't really kept up with her since then, however. Rose Cottage reads like it was written a long time ago, though in fact the publication date was 1997. It's set in England in the year immediately following WWII. I could more-or-less figure out the plot early on, but the period detail made the book a fascinating read. It was worth the night I spent on it.

Death Most Definite

I always have a huge TBR pile, books I pick up that look interesting that live in a stack by my bed or in the living room until I get around to reading them. And I turn 49 in a few days. Don't have all the time in the world anymore, so if a book doesn't reel me in quickly me, I throw it back.

This week I've had two false starts, books I started to read but couldn't feel the groove. Both, fortunately, are library books, so I'm not out any money. I try to buy used books, since I read so fast, so it wouldn't be a big deal even if I'd paid for them. It's the principle of the thing. The first of the false starts was The Necromancer by Michael Scott. This is the 5th book in a young adult series. I've read the first four, admittedly with dwindling interest. The only reason I reserved this book was because, well, I'd read the first four. I made it to page 75, then went and checked the last couple pages and yes, there'll be a book six. I threw in the towel. I think there's not enough sense of resolution to make any of the books really satisfying, and at this point I just don't care. The author seems to think that it's enough to have the characters survive each book. I like them to be happy about it, too.

The second false start was a bigger disappointment. I put An Object Of Beauty, the new book by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) on hold a while ago. The blurb made the premise sound interesting - a young girl rockets across the New York art scene and then the world - but when I finally got ahold of it, I just couldn't feel it. The narrator, Daniel, is a self-described hip-nerd who writes about the art world and has known Lacey Yeager since college. He tells the story of her early years working for Sotheby's in New York and, well, that's when I quit reading. Both of them annoyed me so thoroughly I couldn't keep going. I found Lacey tiresome rather than fascinating, a completely self-absorbed and unlikeable character. Maybe that marks me as a totally backwater, uncouth bumpkin. So be it.

I had better luck with a couple of genre books. I read Nalini Singh's Bonds of Justice and liked it. I also read The Surrender Of A Lady by Tiffany Clare. Both are romances. Apparently I have no shame, though I thought about putting book covers on both of them. I enjoyed both of them. Sigh. I've read that romances are gaining in popularity because with Kindle, anyone can read one without the whole world seeing the tattooed torso or ripping bodice they always have on the cover. You can get away with reading something that is a very short number of steps from what used to be in Penthouse's Forum and no one will know. It also has something to do with how grim things are in the real world right now. People want a good escapist read that has a happy ending.

If that's what you're looking for, I would recommend either of those two books. Nalini Singh writes paranormal romance. I've heard good things about her and have wanted to check her out. Bonds Of Justice was a pretty fun read. The author lived up to her billing and I will keep an eye out for her at Half Price Books. The Tiffany Clare book was also fun. An English lady of the Victorian era gets sold into a Middle-Eastern slave market to pay her husband's gambling debts. He ends up dead and she ends up in a harem. Hello harem! Okay, as long as I don't think too hard about the underlying political implications of the story, I can say I enjoyed the read.

My discovery of the week has to be Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson. Again with the genre fiction, but so so good. It's the first in a series set in Brisbane, Australia. I loved the novel place names and the petrol and the kilometers and all the colorful language. It was well plotted, got a little excessive towards the climax, but ended well. The main character comes off as a young Harry Dresden with more of the kinks to work out. I think I have a crush on him. Powells is sending me a copy of this one and the sequel so I can lend it to friends. Get in line!

All these books, and I barely made a dent in the stack.....

Mink River

It's not all about vampires, folks. Or witches, although you might not guess that from what I've been reading recently. This week I picked something completely different, Mink River by Brian Doyle. It's a book that I saw on a list of top reads for 2010 that the fine people at Powells Books sent out around Christmas time. My family thinks going to Portland without stopping at Powells is a wasted trip, so you can imagine I gave their list careful consideration. I picked half a dozen books off it and reserved them at the library. Not all of them worked for me (think C by Tom McCarthy, which I still haven't been able to finish....more on that later), but Mink River was so good that it made the whole project worthwhile.

Mink River reads like a 300 page poem. It's a mosaic that manages a coherent narrative structure. Each piece, whether it's a 300 word paragraph last lists every kind of bird that ever flew through the skies of Neawanaka or a page of dialogue where 4 word phrases get snapped back and forth, works together to tell the story of a small town on the Oregon coast. I felt submerged in the world that the author created, a world of The People and loggers and fishermen and Gaelic-speaking Irishmen, a world of appalling material poverty and incredible spiritual richness. A world of storytellers whose voices joined to create a final chorus of hope.

It's the underlying optimism that made this book work for me. I struggle with literary books, especially if I'm not familiar with the author, because I'm afraid they're going to hurt me. I can't stand it when an author kills off a character that I've grown attached to, regardless of the reason (see T. McCarthy). If I want to have to cope with the arbitrary cruelty that life can dish out, I'll go to work, thanks very much. That's why I stick with genre fiction, because there's a level of predictability that makes it safe.

Mink River teased me with disaster, but never crossed the line. Early on one of the characters suffers a horrific bicycle accident. "OMG," I thought, "the kid's going to be dead. I'm going to HATE this book." In fact, the kid doesn't die, although he is badly injured, and the story of his recovery is one of the threads that the author weaves through the rest of the book. A couple of the characters die, but the author frames their deaths in the context of the life of the town, not as independent engines of drama. It's not death and pain and loss that drive the story, but resilience and recovery and life.

Once I realized I could trust him, I was able to relax even further into the flow of his words. I could tell that the author loves words, but even more, he loves details. I could feel his love as he made minute observations of every single thing in the story. Then he put it all on the page. This style might make a reader impatient, especially someone who was accustomed to reading more graphic, streamlined work, but I thought it was luxurious. It wasn't the rococo excess of, say, Ann Rice, where the details spill all over themselves, each one grander than the last. This was an effort to really see, to know and to tell, everything. It was awesome in its scope and precise in its execution.

Part of the challenge with the "Powells Project" was to push myself beyond my comfort zone, to actually read something outside the urban occult/fantasy genre. Okay, so Hold Me Closer, Necromancer made my Powells list, but let's just say I'm reviewing it for the kids. Mink River made me glad I'd pushed myself. It made me glad I live in this world where such beautiful things are created.

A Nameless Witch

Time for my book report. Read two books last week. One I consider something of a discovery. The other, while it was fun, ended up being too much of a tease.

The first book, A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez, is notable for many things. To start with, the 5th sentence on page 56 is "The troll walked away." I know this because my sister's Facebook profile said it was National Book Week and that we should all post the 5th sentence on page 56 of whatever book was nearest to us. (In case you're confused, my sister lives in Australia. National book week in the US isn't till April.) Anyway, it's just a great sentence. It's a short story in and of itself. The whole book is filled with moments like that. It's warm and lighthearted and doesn't take itself too seriously.

It's also pretty romantic, without being sweet about it. I had to wonder whether A. Lee is a man or a woman. The book jacket refers to "him" and "he", but the touch is female. I had a similar feeling reading the first Cal & Niko book, Nightlife by Rob Thurman. I assumed "Rob" was male, but as I read the book I thought that, for a guy, he had a pretty feminine approach to relationships. Then I checked out Rob's blog and learned she picked a masculine-sounding pen name because her books are so dark and she didn't think she'd be taken seriously if she used her own name. I don't mean to be gender-centric; clearly men can write romance and women can be dark. The feel of Nameless Witch just made me wonder what the author's gender really was. I went to A. Lee's blog, but other than the fact that it had so much going on it overwhelmed the capabilities of the computer system at the University of Washington Medical Center (in the middle of the night when very few other people were on it) I didn't learn much. He blogs a lot. Some day I'll try again from a different computer.

I have a second book by A. Lee, Monster, and can't wait to read it. He reminds me a little of Neil Gaimon, who I'm still in love with. Or at least I'm in love with his language. Will probably post on Monster when I get it read.

The second book I read was India Black: A Madam of Espionage Mystery by Carol K. Carr. The basic premise of this book is that India is a Madame, running a whorehouse in late 19th century London. A client dies during a assignation, and India gets pulled into this spy vs spy game between England and Russia. I thought the mystery itself was clever, though it felt like it ended, then ended again, then dragged on a bit and ended again. The thing that bugged me about this book was that, while they talk a lot about whores and bints and the men who love them, there is virtually NO sex in this book. It made me think of the girl in highschool who told me, "Those who talk about it don't do it."

It also bothered me that, since the book is written from the perspective of the madame, she spends a lot of time complaining about the girls she has working for her. They eat too much and don't charge their favorites enough, they steal from the johns and they disappear without warning. The author creates a realistic view of the underclass, but doesn't treat the girls in India's house the same way. They come off as kind of an underdressed sorority, similar to the Bunny Ranch on the HBO series. In both cases the girls are just happy happy happy to be there spreading their legs for whoever will pay them. Both cases feel exploitive. I've never been a prostitute, but I'm guessing that the process of becoming one is fairly complex. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing one does on a lark. I see the truth in the way the character India treated the girls who worked for her, but I guess I'm enough a child of the '70's women's movement to be bothered by the exploitation of characters who were created just to tease.

This book is clearly set up to be the start of a series. India's romantic interest warmed up all the way from frozen turd to barely-scoopable icecream, which suggests that it's going to take at least three more books to get past the teasing stage. If they fall into my lap I might read them, but it's unlikely I'll go out looking for them.

What Alice Knew

I didn't get much reading done last week. There's quite a TBR stack by my bed, but life got in the way. I borrowed a copy of "Bullet", an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel by Laurel K. Hamilton, from the SPL. It's the 19th book in the series and I've read them all. The language is awkward at times (did you really want to use the word "mostly" three times in that paragraph?) but after 19 books, I'm pretty invested in the ongoing adventures of Anita and her harem (man-harem? marem?). There was LKHs usual mix of porn and gore, although this book had a better balance than some, and I liked the fact that Asher, Damien, Truth and Wicked all got some screen time, and that Richard seemed to have found a clue. Not everyone has enough time in their lives to waste on these books, but if you've read enough of them that the names I mentioned sound familiar, this is one of the better in the series. Don't start with it, though.

On Thursdays the kids have choir practice at St James Cathedral. I pick Ruby up from school at 3pm and we drive up to Capital Hill to pick Matti up at 3:30. There's an hour before choir, and the last few weeks we've been spending the time at the Elliot Bay Bookstore on 10th and Pine St. We hit the cafe have 20 minutes or so to cruise the shelves before it's time to head over to the cathedral. Two weeks ago, I saw a book that looked interesting. I put a hold request in at the SPL and they were kind enough to get me a copy.

The book was "What Alice Knew" by Paula Marantz Cohen. The subtitle is "A Most Curious Tale of Henry James & Jack the Ripper". A murder mystery, it's main conceit is that the writer Henry James and his siblings Alice and William are in London at the time of the Ripper murders, and get involved in trying solve the case. William is a professor at Harvard and an expert in the new field of psychology who is asked by Scotland Yard to come to London to look into the murders. Alice is a "professional invalid", which was the way this very intelligent and well-off woman avoided the whole marriage and family drudgery. William has access to the police evidence, and Henry has access to the broader London social scene. Alice stays in bed reviewing what they find and coming up with theories.

This is one of those books where the exploration of ideas trumps almost everything else. The narrative comments on the importance of art, the way the English class system compared with American democracy, the growing understanding of the working of the human mind and the appropriate way to treat mental illness, and the place of women in society, even as it tells the story of the James's investigations. That said, the plot is well-constructed and logical. It wasn't a brain-burning page-turner, but it got the job done. The real interest for me was in being taken to such a different place and time. The book read like a 19th century novel, seamlessly integrating consistently elegant language and ideas to create a completely self-contained world.

The author is a professor of English in Philadelphia, which set up an interesting compare-and-contrast with the last big book I read, "A Discovery of Witches" because the author of that book is a professor of history. "What Alice Knew" was very different in tone and subject matter, but was similarly impressive in the scope of knowledge its author possesses. While it didn't make me as passionately excited as Witches did, it's still a very good book.

A Discovery of Witches

I read a lot. My good friends know that they can ask me for a recommendation any time, and I'll always have a couple of suggestions for books I've read that I think they'll like. It's hard for me to commit to anything as structured as a book club (see "about me" on the sidebar to the right) , so I thought I'd try a blog format. I will post semi-regular book reviews that I hope will inspire you to read, to make comments on my reviews, and also to make suggestions for other books I might like. Cheers!

Amy

Last week was a big week in the world of Amy's Books. I read a little vampire romance, "Zen and the Art of Vampires" by Katie MacAlister and it's sequel, "Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang". They were both a lot of fun, though more like one book in two covers than two separate books. I would totally recommend them if you need something light but well-written and entertaining.


I also started the book "C" by Tom McCarthy. It's going to take me a while to read this, because at times I feel like I'm drowning in words and have to stop. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and just renewed it from the library so I can give it some space. Then over the weekend I read "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaimon. I love his prose, his use of language. I want to have sex with it and have its babies. But that's another story. If you haven't read any of his work, I would strongly recommend this one or "Neverwhere" (aimed at young readers), or, for grown-ups, "American Gods".


The big event of the week was reading "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. I read a review of this book in Entertainment Magazine in February and really wanted to love it. Really. But did I end up loving it? I read all 579 pages in one day, so that tells you it's compelling. Ok, I also had a slow night at work which gave me more time to read that I might otherwise have had, but it was still a page-turner.

The first half was a fabulous mash-up of A.S. Byatt's "Possession" and "Twilight". (Say what you want about the "Twilight" series, you can't deny that those books addictive reads.) It left me in awe of the author's knowledge of history, poetry, literature, and, well, life. The two main characters, Diana Bishop, a witch, and Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, are crisp and contemporary and very well drawn. I loved Diana's intellectual discipline and physical strength, and thought the way the author developed Matthew's internal conflict over his growing attachment to Diana was well done. Every vampire has internal conflicts, but Ms. Harkness made Matthew feel fresh and interesting.

I hung in there through the middle section where Matthew takes Diana to his family home in France, but then things went sideways for the last 200 pages or so. Despite the use of a first-person narrator in Diana, I felt like the personality traits I liked so well got lost in the shuffle of new characters and plot twists. It felt like Diana spent a lot of the time injured and helpless, with Matthew operating at various levels of protection and rescue, which got annoying. More importantly (and this veers into spoiler territory so watch out) she gave Diana a magical power near the end of the book that ends up saving her, which felt a little convenient. I could see the logic of it, but I didn't like it. Also, NONE of the major conflicts were resolved by the end of the book. There MUST be a sequel, although there's no mention of it in the author's notes or on her blog. It's one thing to read a vampire romance in 2 hours and figure out you need to get the next one to really know the whole story, but a 600 page novel? That ends with a complete cliffhanger? Seriously?

That said, the characters were compelling, as were her descriptions of wine and food. She made a book that's a total sensory experience, and it's worth reading just for that. Ms Harkness is incredibly knowledgeable and it was a pleasure to read something that felt so contemporary even as it was solidly grounded in history. I look forward to reading the sequel that she's probably working on RIGHT NOW. Did I love it? Not as much as I wanted to, but it's still a very good read.