A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

My Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

Amazon Rating: 4.40 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 4.20 / 5.00

Lachlain MacRieve is a Werewolf, leader of the Lykae Clan, and for the last few centuries he has been chained to a rock deep under the city of Paris and repeatedly brought to the point of death by the fires of hell, as a prisoner of the evil Vampires. Then, one day, he catches the scent that he has been searching for during the thousand years of his long life: the scent of the woman destined to be his Mate. Fearing that he will never find her again, he struggles to free himself, eventually tearing off one of his own legs to break free of his chains, so that he can follow her scent and possess her. However, when he finds her she is a Vampire. How can his Mate be one of the very race that has spent so long trying to kill him?

Emmaline Troy is an unusual combination: half Valkyrie and half Vampire. Both her parents are dead and she has been raised by her highly dangerous Valkyrie aunts. Although she needs blood to survive, she has been raised not to kill, but to drink only donated blood from a glass. She is happy with her aunts, however the identity of her father remains a mystery, so she has travelled from the coven’s home in New Orleans to Paris in search of information about him. What she did not expect was to be claimed as Mate by a crazy Werewolf who kidnaps her and then drags her off to his castle in Scotland. As they spend more time together she comes to enjoy his sexual attentions and starts to wonder if she can become the warrior woman that he needs and deserves as his Mate.

It makes a very nice change to read an urban fantasy that does not simply rely upon the same old Vamp-Were clichés. One of the best aspects about the world that Ms Cole creates is her use of the Valkyries. They are wonderfully funny characters, suitably ‘other’, but with an obsession with shiny gifts and a remorseless protectiveness of young Emmaline, who is only seventy years old. It is also good to see some conflict even within the Vampire race itself due to differences in ideology. Although we do not see much of the constant war between the various sworn enemies, there is a lot of potential for the future novels in the series. Plus, we have the arrival of the Ascension, a cyclic event that brings the races together in mass warfare as they struggle for survival every five hundred years or so. As Love Vampires points out, there are plenty of other mythological creatures mentioned, so the possibilities for the later books are almost endless.

The main characters are sympathetic and interesting enough to keep us engaged with them and their journey, although Lachlain’s behavior may be a little difficult for some people. Due to the years of searching for his Mate and then the endless cycle of near death and regeneration he is more than a little tactless in his pursuit of Emmaline. He is so blinded by his own needs that he verges perilously close to rape and sexual assault as his animal urges overwhelm his more reasoning side. This is only compounded by the fact that Emmaline is a very inexperienced virgin, who has been sheltered by aunts that would tear the limbs off any man who looked at her sideways. This makes the ‘seduction’ aspects at the beginning of the book somewhat non-consensual and, therefore, difficult to read. Although, intellectually, I know that Lachlain is not a raping monster, it is still difficult to read Emmaline’s reactions to his actions, and I am always going to struggle with the concept that a woman can be won over by forced sexual attention. Having said that, just like Chelsea at Vampire Book Club, it did not bother me enough that I failed to finish the book, nor will it stop me from reading more in the series.

Thea at The Book Smugglers found the book lacking in most aspects and was especially scathing about the stereotypical possessive male and fluffy damsel in distress, which I think may be oversimplifying the characters. However, I do have to agree with her criticisms of Lachlain’s Scottish accent: I lived in Northern Scotland for twenty years, and the attempts to depict the accent did make me cringe as well. It seems that Ms Cole's earlier novels were in the genre of Historical Romance, which might explain the 'bodice-ripper' overtones seen here, but her paranormal world is more than interesting enough to keep me entertained at the moment.

Read Along of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson: Part 2

The Read Along is being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. 


This week’s questions were supplied by TBM. You can follow the links to everyone else’s answers here.

We read up to the end of Chapter 15.

1.  The nobility, the skaa, and the Lord Ruler have integral roles in the novel and yet we haven’t really interacted with them much.  Do you think there is a reason for this?  Have you formed an opinion about them?

I guess it is much easier for us to sympathize with the rebels if we don’t get a real impression of the nobles and the Lord Ruler. The ball scene suggests that not all of the nobles are the vicious, skaa-beating monsters that Kel and the gang suggest they are. I have a sneaking suspicion that Vin is going to find it increasingly difficult to ignore this and that she will continue to question the rebel’s motives. I suspect that the Lord Ruler began the Final Empire with the best of intentions, but as the proverb says  ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ and one thousand years is a long time for that corruption to distort his original intentions.

As for the skaa, we have met quite a few of them so far, but they are very varied, depending upon their role and independence. It strikes me that one possible problem for the rebellion is that it will not benefit all skaa equally. Unless the rebel leaders have a good plan in place, the skaa in the worst situations will simply swap one set of oppressors for another.

2.  Religion plays a vital role in the story.  What is your opinion about the role of religion under the Lord Ruler?  What do you think of Sazed's role as a Keeper.

It is easy to see how a seemingly immortal ruler can be seen as a god and the connection between religion and state has a long history in human culture. Many ancient rulers were viewed as gods and even worshipped, and they weren’t immortal, so I find it totally believable. What I do find strange is that he has tried to destroy all other religions and been remarkably successful at it. I find Sazed and his use as a walking encyclopedia very intriguing and I want to know more about how that works.

3.  Are you for/against/or ambivalent about Kelsier’s plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler?  Do you think his heart is in the right place or is it just revenge? 

The situation of the farm skaa makes me believe that the rebellion is mostly justified. The complaints being made about their laziness seemed very familiar, as the same has been said of slaves throughout history. The ancient Romans had a similar society based upon slave labor, but for them it was a widely held belief that slaves gave better service if treated with respect and some kindness. Indeed, many Roman slaves could expect to be set free if they performed well. As this is not an option for the skaa, it seems that there only chance of freedom is through rebellion.

As for Kel, I am sure that revenge is a major motivator for his determination to destroy the Lord Ruler as an individual. However, I think his desire to overthrow the Final Empire does come from a deeply felt sense of injustice at a system that condemns people based solely on the genetic origins.

4.  Vin and Kelsier are the main characters of the novel, yet there are many characters.  Is there a certain character who intrigues you more than the others?   

I feel like we haven’t really got to know many of the secondary characters yet, which is a shame. I did enjoy the scene where Vin got to see Breeze in action, because it took us beyond his facade and showed us the skilled man at his work. However, the character that intrigues me the most is Sazed. I have so many questions about his history, his abilities and his role as a Keeper. I was amazed when it was revealed that he was the person who rescued Vin. How did he get up on to that spire? How did he follow and track her? What is a metalmind and how does it work? What is a Terrisman? Are they human? Why are they commonly used as stewards? As I said: lots of questions! :D

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

My Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Amazon Rating: 4.20 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 4.24 / 5.00

In the city of Camorr, the plague known as the Black Whisper is a disaster, killing everyone over eleven years old. However, this provides an opportunity for those who like to ‘adopt’ orphans. Slavers take most of them, but those who seem talented are apprenticed to the Thiefmaker and put to profitable work in the streets, markets and houses of the city. One particularly talented apprentice is tiny Locke Lamora, who displays a massive talent for the noble arts of theft and conman-ship. Unfortunately, young Locke doesn’t always foresee the outcomes of his schemes and drives the Thiefmaker to pass him along to Father Chains, a blind priest who spend his days begging outside his temple. I don’t want to provide any more background for the plot because it progresses in two timelines: one follows the training of Locke and the other apprentices that Chains molds into the Gentleman Bastards, while the second follows the adult Bastards as they relieve a nobleman of vast sums of money.

I can hardly express how much I loved this book: we are talking ‘Garden  Spells’ good here. I will be pushing it very hard at the next book group meeting because I enjoyed it so much, so NYOBG members have been warned! I read it as part of a Read Along online, so my review has been influenced by the reactions of the twenty or so other bloggers to the questions we answered each week. 

  

So, why do I love this book so much? Is it the characters? The plot? The setting? The dialogue? The writing style? I have to answer “YES!” to all of these. It is rare that I read a book that I do not want to change in any way, but this is one of them. OK, I realize I am gushing a bit here, but as Readhead says at the Little Red Reviewer: “Scott Lynch turns me into a blabbering fan girl.” Trying to restrain myself a little, I will try to provide a more reasoned set of arguments for why you have to read this book.

  

This is Scott Lynch’s debut novel, but you would never know that from his skill with dialogue and descriptive writing. His voice is very engaging and witty, giving us memorable quotes and laugh-out-loud descriptions of events. His characters are well drawn and fully realized. Indeed, we come to love some of them very quickly: there are few ‘throw away’ place fillers in evidence. The setting is expertly drawn and we are given enough detail to leave us wanting more: it is similar to Elizabethan Europe, but different enough to tick all the required Fantasy boxes. The plot has enough originality to keep us off balance and surprised, with bold moves that will have you shouting angrily at the author because you do not want him to do THAT to the characters.

Locke and the other Bastards are all engaging characters even though they are thieves. Their choice to rob from the rich makes their profession a little easier to accept, though they don’t seem to do much wealth distribution, so we know that they are not all that noble. As Kristen at Fantasy Cafe notes: it is very nice to have characters that are slightly less than the usual perfectly good heroes that litter Fantasy novels. Although Locke is the brains of the outfit, he is dependent upon his support crew, especially Jean Tannen. Jean is the gentle giant type who has his special hatchets, ‘The Wicked Sisters’, but who wears glasses and reads Romance novels. He and Locke are supported by the Sanza twins, when they can be kept away from gambling and wenching, and Bug, the latest apprentice to join the team. As Grace says at Books Without Any Pictures, one of the appealing things about Locke is that he really needs his crew: he is hopeless at fighting for a start! The secondary cast is also well crafted. Father Chains deserves several books all to himself, because I want to read his entire life story. The nobles ensnared in the Bastards’ trap are not your usual idiot nobility, but more than capable of some plotting of their own. One particularly wonderful character is Dona Vorchenza, an incredibly elderly noble who has an entirely unexpected role in the story: the consensus of opinion was that Dame Maggie Smith was born to play her, if that helps to convince you. The antagonist of the piece, The Gray King, is a suitably shadowy figure for most of the book, but his history and motivations are unusual and logical, if a little extreme.

The world that Mr Lynch creates is full of wonderful touches and hints. Shara at Calico Reaction picks out his use of alchemy in everyday life as the detail that really placed this into a true fantasy setting. Unlike many Fantasy writers, who bury you in a massive pile of details and histories, he keeps to the bare minimum. As Logan says at Rememorandom, this is frustrating in some ways, but it does stop the exposition from getting in the way of the story and it is a testament to Mr Lynch that I left the book wanting more. He uses an interesting technique of interweaving the main plot with Interludes from the past, which either add color to the characters or explain or support aspects of the story or world. Some people found this irritating during certain sections of the book, but I found that it provided quiet moments to breathe in some of the most frantic action sequences and also gave more context to the world and its inhabitants. Sarah at Bookworm Blues notes that it also allows us to miss out on a prolonged introduction to the Bastards. I could go on at length describing the many unusual aspects of this world, but I would rather leave them for you to discover on your own.

The plot is like one of the great caper movies mixed with a dash of Mafia politics: think Oceans Eleven meets The Sopranos with more grime and some magic thrown in for good measure. There are bluffs within bluffs, political maneuvering and random violence at every turn, but our heroes are destined to rise above it all with their mythical hero aura, right? Nope, this is a cruel, brutal world, so nothing is certain. Our heroes get beaten, stabbed, drowned, poisoned, bitten and they bleed real blood: when they finish a fight you would have trouble finding bits that aren’t black, blue or red. There is a real sense of danger, which ratchets up the tension for most of the second half of the book as our heroes stagger from one danger to the next. Rose at Rosesthingamajig describes it as a ‘twisty and turny novel’, but I agree with her that Mr Lynch manages all these unexpected moves beautifully, making sure that everyone behaves in ways that fit their characters. There was some criticism about a lack of female characters, but the city of Camorr seems to be very politically correct, with no obvious division of professions along gender lines and the females we do meet are all strong and feisty. 

There are a couple of things that I do want to mention though. Firstly, this is not necessarily a book for the weak stomached. There are some scenes of unpleasant violence that might be difficult for some people to read, though there is surprisingly little description of what is really happening. Secondly, there is quite a lot of profanity in the dialogue. If you look at Amazon or Goodreads, you will see plenty of one star reviews that are due to this. I do not want to debate the suitability of giving a low star rating to a book because of its choice of language, but I do think that the language is suited to the environment being described in this case. It is not used inappropriately and is not there for shock value: it is simply an accurate reflection of how I would expect criminals to speak.

One thing that impressed me during the Read Along was the number of people who had already read the book several times, but were still happy to read it again. Elfy at Travels Through Iest claims that she reread it straight after reading it the first time. As you can see from the number of reviews I have mentioned, this is a well-loved book, and I will always be grateful that someone reTweeted Readhead's invitation to join the group.

I have counted this book as my Fantasy choice for the Once Upon A Time VI Challenge. You can see other people's choices here.

A Challenge of Ice and Fire: Week 2

A Game of Thrones: Sansa I to the end of Jon IV (p. 271)


My first post is here.

15. Sansa I

Here we get our first look inside Sansa's head and explore the relationship between the two Stark sisters. They are opposites in almost all ways, and have a love / hate relationship that I can relate to very well: I have only one sibling, a younger sister. Both sisters are very strong characters, although Sansa's obedience can make her seem weak at times. She notes that the kennel master thinks that dogs become like their masters, and we can definitely see this with the girls' two wolves. It is unfortunate that she is infatuated with Joffrey, who shows his true colors in the incident with Arya and the butcher's boy, Mycah. A pity that Nymeria didn't bite him more seriously! One does have to ask how Joffrey can be so awful with a sword that Arya disarms him??? I would sack his weapons trainer! 

16. Eddard III

The aftermath of Joffrey's injury is cruel and brutal. It seems that the Queen takes delight in exerting power, especially when it is not what Robert wants to do and he lets himself be manipulated. I don't understand why she has such a hatred for the wolves, though I suppose it could simply be one way to show Ned that she has more power than he does. This seems to mark the point at which Ned loses all respect for Robert and finally sees what a total mess he is stepping into.  

17. Bran III

We begin by sharing Bran's dream of falling while a crow tells him to "Fly!". He seems to have visions of the real events happening to his family, but there are mystical elements as well, such as a shadowy giant looming over the Hound and Jaime Lannister. He looks to the far North and sees what is coming: the three-eyed crow says that this is why he must live, and then he is flying up, but the crow begins to pick at his forehead and  he wakes up. This is the first real indication that there is something 'different' about the Stark children. The bird seems to be pecking at Bran's third eye, perhaps to open it and allow him to use his psychic abilities, whatever they are.

18. Catelyn IV

So, we meet two of the most intriguing characters in King's Landing: Littlefinger and Varys. I can't help thinking that neither of them is entirely trustworthy, and I really did want Catelyn to be less trusting and far more circumspect with them. Littlefinger, especially, seems very slippery and I don't trust him as far as I could spit him: he has risen surprisingly high for a man of fairly lowly birth. Plus he tries to blame Tyrion for the attempt on Bran's life! This is a very ham-fisted attempt to frame Tyrion, who would never be stupid enough to give some thug such a distinctive dagger to do the deed even if he had ordered the killing. Unfortunately, Catelyn is not proving to be too good at looking at the person behind the name: Tyrion may be a Lannister, but he is straightforward and mostly honest, whereas Littlefinger is a conniving little snot that she rejected when they were children. Notice that there is no mention that he has married? This is highly significant I think.

19. Jon III

This was one section that didn't translate very well to the TV screen. By aging the characters a few years it seemed a bit strange to see Jon behaving like a dumb kid, but when we remember he is supposed to be thirteen it seems more appropriate. Just like Arya, he can't help himself and speaks out when he should keep quiet, making a dangerous enemy in Alliser Thorne. However, he seems to have made a friend in Tyrion, who has more potential for power as an ally. I too would like to see Ser Alliser train Ghost to juggle! :D

20. Eddard IV

So, Renly looks just like Robert: does this emphasize Joffrey's non-Baratheon looks or what? I was appalled to find out how totally useless Robert has been as a king. However, his ability to run up debts must have been facilitated by the Small Council, especially Littlefinger: and it does call into question the great Jon Arryn's usefulness as Hand. This set whole churches full of alarm bells ringing for me when I read it. Yet again, Littlefinger sets off my suspicion radar: he is just so sneaky and has that smug 'I know something you don't know' thing going on. I am not sure how Ned stopped himself from punching him in his irritating little mouth with its little pointy beard. Finally, Ned notices that he has allowed both his daughters to lose their protective wolves and that they are defenseless in the viper's nest that is King's Landing.

21. Tyrion III

The mighty Tyrion calls out Alliser Thorne as a miserable bastard, which could just be his good character judgment or could be influenced by Thorne's dislike for Jon. I am not sure which it is, but it is certainly funny. Maester Aeon makes the amazing statement that Tyrion is 'a giant come among us'. I do hope that foreshadows Tyrion's greatness-to-come, especially as he and Jon are now officially friends. I found The Old Bear's plea for help for the Night's watch very sad, as I am pretty sure that it will be ignored by everyone while they squabble over the Iron Throne like pigeons fighting over grain while a huge truck is bearing down on them. Hopefully, Tyrion will be able to do something to help, but I am not holding my breath on that one.

22. Arya II

All is not well in the Hand's household. Sansa and Arya are still bickering and Ned is struggling to cope. However, it was good to see that Ned's idea of ruling was so totally different from Robert's. It seems that Arya has inherited this concern for the common people from her father, unlike Sansa. We also see Ned as a father as he comforts Arya and makes her understand their situation. I note that he compares her to Lyanna, who was also wild and willful, and is willing to let her express her true nature, even if it is not what is expected of a lady. 

23. Daenerys III

Daenerys is really becoming her own woman and leaving Viserys behind: oh dear, what a shame! While he is all bluster and petulance, she is becoming more at ease with the power she now wields. He seems to be totally oblivious to the real world going on outside of his head, and is so full of himself that he really should burst. Yet again he grabs her breast to hurt her: so the whip around the neck was really welcome. I also liked how Jorah Mormont dropped him like a hot brick: team Daenerys is definitely the place to be.

24. Bran IV

Old Nan's stories about the deep Winter and the Others go a long way towards explaining the Stark's seriousness about their words: 'Winter is Coming'. The Others sound like everyone's worst nightmare, and I wish we could have heard the end of the story about how the Children of the Forest defeated them. Tyrion's plan for a saddle for Bran rules him out as a suspect in the whole stabbing debacle as far as I can see: I have to assume that Summer doesn't like him because he smells similar to his siblings, and Summer knows that they hurt Bran because he is a super-intelligent dire wolf who smelt them in the tower.

25. Eddard V

Am I the only one who thinks that Maester Pycelle is as dodgy as Littlefinger and Varys? I find it odd that he has jewels in his maester's chain: does this indicate vanity or the bribes he has accepted? It is not at all suspicious that Jon Arryn died after Pycelle took over his care: not at all! He does seem to point the finger at Varys though: everyone hates the poor eunuch.   I hate that Arya has to conform with being a lady, though the gods help whomever she marries!

26. Jon IV

I think this chapter shows a lot of maturity from Jon. We meet Sam Tarly, who I have to admit I like a lot: I have a sneaking suspicion that he will become something totally amazing in the future. I liked how Jon has progressed from his earlier chapter this week and can now lead the recruits in a way that saves everyone's hides, while hopefully training everyone. Sam's life story is so sad, and I wanted to kick his father in the dangly bits for his treatment of the lad, that I automatically want him to succeed. Jon is quite right that it takes courage to admit to being a coward. I know that Sam's other talents will be recognized and utilized by the Brothers, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he will be Jon's uber sidekick: he is called SAM, after all! :)

Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel

My Rating: 2.5 / 5.0

Amazon Rating: 3.80 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 3.63 / 5.00

Before I start my review I need to post a disclaimer: the author sent me a free Kindle copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Lily Wellstone is a single woman in Regency England, living in Exeter. She decides to travel to Bitterward Estate, near Sheffield, to be with her friend Eugenia, who is recently widowed and terribly depressed. We discover that Lily was once passionately in love, but that her lover was killed in battle. On the way to Bitterward she encounters a gypsy who gives her a medallion that will allegedly cause her to find her heart’s desire. At Bitterward she encounters the Duke of Mountjoy and they soon find a burning attraction to each other. However, she never wants to fall in love again and he is almost engaged to one of his neighbors.

I have to admit that I am not a great fan of regular Romance, but I enjoyed Mary Balogh’s ‘A Summer to Remember’ so much that I decided to give this book a chance. This brought two things into sharp focus: firstly, I don’t think I am the target audience for this type of generic Romance; and, secondly, Mary Balogh is obviously one of the better writers in this genre and it is unfortunate that Ms Jewel’s book does not stand up to the comparisons that I naturally I drew between them. This is not a bad book, but neither is it very good, which is a shame because I could tell that the author has a real love of this period and of England in general. However, her research was not as thorough as it could have been and, because I am English, there were several huge mistakes that leapt off the pages at me.

My sense of misgiving began with the very first page: the story is set in ‘Sheffieldshire’. Now, I have no problem with books set in imagined places or areas of the UK, but this seemed like a totally unnecessary fabrication since Yorkshire is such a famous and old county. The first chapter confirmed my sinking feelings by showing the author’s lack of understanding of several aspects of life in Regency England. First, Miss Wellstone has travelled the several hundred miles from Exeter unescorted. Jane Austen’s Mrs Bennet would have had a fainting fit at the very thought of a young single woman travelling that distance alone. Then she is escorted up to her bedroom by the Duke, not a servant, which is just laughable: I know that we are told that the Duke was a humble farmer before he inherited his title, but he should have been killed in the rush of staff trying to prevent such a massive faux pas. Ms Jewel goes to great lengths to describe the gothic architecture of the house, which I assume that she has studied in depth, but I find it beyond belief that such a house has a main staircase that is not wide enough for two people to walk abreast: this would have been modified to present a grand entrance hall, just as we are told some of the other rooms have been updated.

These and other mistakes litter the book. For example, there is little feeling that there are servants present. This would have been a great way for the family’s newfound status to be shown, as they would have been uncomfortable to be waited upon and not used to treating the staff as part of the furniture. Lily ‘serves’ tea to the family in several scenes: as the aristocracy did virtually nothing for themselves, why would they be presented with a buffet style meal? Any food would have been finger food, and a guest would certainly not make up plates for everyone else. But then, our characters don’t really behave as if they belong in the Regency period. There is none of the dance of manners and formality that we see in Ms Balogh’s work: again, I could accept that the Duke and his family might not have excellent manners, but Miss Wellstone most certainly should have. Indeed, the family should have been struggling with their instinctive deference to a true lady in their midst and being overly polite and proper. Instead, we have joking and fooling about from the moment she meets them: again, I can hear Mrs Bennet feeling light-headed. I could go on, talking about the inappropriateness of a French chef and serving brie a mere year after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, and, yes, I know that I call a BandAid a ‘plaster’, but they were not in use in 1816 . . . but I feel that I have given you a feel for how difficult it was for me to look beyond these faults and examine the underlying book.

The very fact that Lily and Mountjoy meet in the first scene and that she is immediately pinned to the floor by his presence, made me sigh with disappointment. From then on the plot progresses in a very predictable way as they fight with and then give in to their obsession for one another. The obstruction to their ‘happy ever after’ is of their own construction: much as we find in ‘A Summer to Remember”. However, these objections do not really feel in character and are overcome far too easily for them to be all that interesting. The principal characters themselves are moderately interesting, but do not really progress, unless you count buying more fashionable waistcoats as progress. We do not have the massive development that Ms Balogh’s protagonists are led through, which makes them too two dimensional for me to really care too much about them. In fact, the only character that shows any development is poor bereaved Eugenia. However, she is a very minor character who is simply there to move the story along, unlike the wonderfully detailed Lady Freja. This paucity of character development led the ‘surprise’ ending to Mountjoy’s intended engagement to be eye-rollingly predictable from the first time the two individuals involved were shown together. 

The plot was either predictable or strangely contrived: there is a whole section where Miss Wellstone is ‘outrageously independent’ and insists on getting some of the footmen to dig up part of the grounds. At first, I thought this would lead to some accident or mysterious happening that would allow character development, but, no, nothing as exciting as that: they dig stuff up, Lily gets heat stroke, Mountjoy looks worried in a manly way, the stuff is mostly forgotten about and has no significance. There is simply no subtlety or nuance here: we are told, rather than shown and this does not make an interesting read in my opinion. I am told that Romance readers like to know what to expect, but that is no excuse for making the books dull. We all know that Kit and Lauren will finally end up together, but the great enjoyment of that book comes from the wonderful depiction of Regency life and language that Ms Balogh lays before us, plus the amazing characters and significant events that influence them so that they are changed forever.

In short, this was a reminder of why I struggle with the Romance genre in most cases. I have found reviews of some of Ms Jewel's other works on my friends' blogs, and they have really enjoyed them, so I am happy to accept that this may be more of a problem with me than with her writing.

Ana at The Book Smugglers on 'Scandal'
Anime June at Gossamer Obsessions on 'Scandal' and 'Indiscreet'
Jessica at Read React Review on 'Scandal'

Read Along of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson: Part 1

The Read Along is being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. You can read find his answer to this week's questions here.


We read up to the end of Chapter 6.

1.  This first hundred or so pages was packed!  What things are standing out for you in the story thus far?

For the first twenty pages or so I found the rush of new concepts a little overwhelming, but once we arrived in the city the pace became more manageable. At this stage I am awash with questions. How is the Lord Ruler immortal and how does he gift the nobles with the magical abilities? Why is there ash falling all the time? What caused the skaa to be enslaved and are they a different species, or just a different caste / class? What / who are the kollossi? How are the Inquisitors alive, let alone super-efficient killing machines? Is there really something dangerous in the mist?

But, despite all of these questions, the thing that has stood out the most is the system of magic that has been revealed: I don’t think I’ve ever read anything even vaguely similar.

2.  What are your thoughts on the magic system that Sanderson is unveiling in this novel?

The allomancy is an amazing creation. I particularly liked the idea that Vin, and other allomancers, could derive enough metal from their food and water to be functional. Of course, it doesn’t sit well with my chemistry training: I can see how the elemental metals could be absorbed in this way, but not the alloys. Anyway, this is fantasy, so I’m trying not to think about these things too closely.

Kelsier’s use of magic to infiltrate the nobleman’s keep was jaw dropping in its intricate description of his skills. Wow!

3.  Kelsier and Vin have held most of the spotlight in these first 6 chapters.  As you compare/contrast the two characters, how do you feel about them? Likes? Dislikes?

At the moment Kelsier seems to be the typical fantasy hero: lowly beginnings, murdered wife, superhuman powers, Robin Hood complex, amazingly nice, etc. Although I like him, I am hoping that he gets a bit more three-dimensional. Vin is a little more rounded at the moment, and I am really pleased that she hasn’t spontaneously started trusting people: I hate it when authors make characters drop sensible personality traits as soon as they meet the hero.

4.  Finally, how would you assess Sanderson's storytelling abilities to this point?

This is a difficult question to answer. As I said above, I felt really swamped at first. For some reason I began to lose track of the characters and their names, which is not something I usually have trouble with. There were too many new concepts introduced too quickly and it took me a while to adjust. I am also not a fan of introducing a POV character in the Prologue only to murder them a few pages earlier. Finally, I am not sure why we began by following Kelsier, as he is obviously not the main protagonist: from the cover, I have to assume that it is Vin.