Quote of the Day

“Nobody likes a clown at midnight” 
― Stephen King

IT

It is the story of the small town of Derry, Maine and the shape shifting demon that lives under Derry and preys on children. It’s a story of growing up and facing your fears, of bullying and what shapes us as children.

It is the story of seven children, The Loser’s club and their fight in 1958 against the town bully and the town demon and twenty seven years later, struggling to remember their childhood so they can fight the demon when it returns to prey on the town’s children once more.

First things first, I was not scared by It at all. I spent months thinking I wasn’t going to be able to finish this because I would be too scared. I remember reading The Shining in my twenties and being so freaked out I would stop reading in broad daylight so when I talked to family and friends about It, the general impression I got was I was going to be even more scared, not so much though.

What I do love about Stephen King is that he is a storyteller and a great one at that. When I open a King book, I feel like I’m sitting there while he tells me a story, filling in all the details, giving me the visuals I need etc. and I think It is a good story, just not great. I love coming of age books and this has a lot of that.

Who doesn’t get freaked out by clowns? That clown is downright creepy but it’s not just a creepy clown terrorizing the children of Derry but a demon (right word?) that takes the shape of your biggest fear. Adults can’t see It because they no longer believe in such things as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and monsters under your bed, or in this case, in your drain. It preys on the fears of children.

One thing that really bothered me was near the end of the book, when the Loser’s club is in the sewers near the end of the 1958 scenes. There is a pretty disturbing sex scene involving the six boys and one girl. I can’t see any relevance to the story, the motivation offered by Beverly is completely unrealistic to me and it doesn’t enhance the story at all. It should have been cut.

There were parts that were slow and didn’t help move the story along like the Derry Interludes. There were four of them in which about twenty pages are spent in each one recapping past murders and other atrocities in Derry. I think anyone reading It knows Derry is a creepy town where evil breeds.

It is one of Stephen King’s most well-known novels, but for me it wasn’t what I was looking for. 

The Immortal Highlander

Adam Black is a full-blooded faery. Through the thousands of years of his existence, one of his favorite pastimes is spying on humans (and sometimes meddling). He has finally pushed his queen too far and is punished by becoming mortal. Only humans can’t see him and he can’t see faeries. Until he comes across Gabrielle O’Callaghan, a beautiful law student cursed with the gift of being able to see faeries.

Gabrielle was taught from her earliest memories to avoid all contact with faeries, that if they knew she could see them, they would hunt her as they did her ancestors in years long past. Her family has kept tons of volumes on fairy encounters. When she sees breathtakingly gorgeous Adam Black, she knew she made her first mistake when she couldn’t peel her eyes away.

Adam needs Gabby’s help to get the attention of the queen and regain his immortality and his powers. He plans on seducing beautiful Gabby from the first, but he doesn’t count on the human feelings he will experience and the need for her.

Gabby has always been told to avoid faeries but she has always been drawn to their beauty and has harbored a secret fantasy about a faery prince who would fall in love with her. Adam is the epitome of faery with his drop-dead gorgeous looks and bad ass attitude. Can she put her prejudices aside and live in the now?

Adam has appeared in other books in this series, usually in the guise of trying to screw things up for the main characters. My feelings for him before The Immortal Highlander verged on loathe. He was cocky and manipulative, deceptive and cunning and did I mention vain? He was shallow and self-centered, well you get the gist. I didn’t think his good looks could save him from being a jackass but Moning humanized Adam and as the book progressed, Adam started actually being a human and caring about others, especially Gabby, I just had to love him.

Gabby, like all of Moning’s heroine’s, is a tough twenty first century woman with a fiery temperament to match Adam’s cool demeanor. She holds her own even when she fears the outcome. Brave, beautiful and strong, she’s Adam’s match. It was easy to love her from the first page.

Karen Marie Moning has done two outstanding things in this series and primarily this book. First she gives us these incredibly hot Highlander male leads and pairs them with fiercely strong, take no crap female leads and tells us a great love story. Second, she has created a whole new world with her books. A world where Druids and Faeries exist and co-mingle – and it’s a detailed world, with secrets and enchantments, bad guys and your run of the mill, everyday faery politics.

Filled with humor, passion, sexy as hell Highlanders and a compelling story, this may now be my favorite in the series. I haven’t read any other Highlander romance novels so I have nothing to compare this with, but for romance in general, these are great reads. 

Quote of the Day

“Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.” 
― Janet Evanovich

Coffee and Conversation

It's good to be back! My laptop was hijacked for the last few days and I wasn't able to get online. I finally have it back.

I finished IT this week, I'll have the review posted next week but overall I didn't think it was scary. I scared myself more thinking about reading it than it actually was.

I spent a lovely few days in the Highlands courtesy of Karen Marie Moning and her Highlander series, finishing two more books. With only one left in the series, I'm thinking about trying her Fever series. I don't think they are strictly romance, but focus on the Fae world she created in her Highlander series. I am really intrigued by the world of Faery and I'm wondering if anyone has read this series and what they think. All of the books are rated highly on Goodreads. Please share your thoughts if you've read them!

Now to the reviews. I have four reviews to be written, hopefully I can knock out a few today!

Happy Reading!

The Jazz Cage

Prohibition-era mobsters collide with Underground Railroad abolitionists in The Jazz Cage.

It is 1924—sixty years after the South’s victory in the Civil War.

Frank McCluey, bounty hunter for the mob, is sent to help out a wealthy Virginian bootlegger. Frank’s job: track down two female slaves who’ve run away from the millionaire.

But the mob has made a bad choice. Instead of capturing the women, Frank decides to help them escape to Canada, his mission now aided by the pint-sized but steel-willed runaway Della and the outlawed Underground Railroad.

Soon Della and Frank become the target of slave catchers, cops, gangsters, and most chilling of all, a Confederate agent nicknamed the Hound for his ability to always sniff out and kill his prey.

The Jazz Cage is a tale of what ifs. What if the South won the Civil War? What if slavery still existed? What if the Underground Railroad still existed? What if Arnold Rothstein and not his Italian counterparts created the mafia organization known as the syndicate? All of these what ifs are thrown in and mixed together to create an intriguing tale.

It’s a very well-written novel and the pace flows between characters and the tension builds to the expected climax. There are bad guys chasing Frank and the girls at every turn; from the Hound, a crooked, evil agent for the Fugitive Slave Agency to members of Arnold Rothstein’s organization to local  authorities, Frank must stay one step ahead of the bad guys at all times.

Some parts would be hard to swallow, such as Della being an amazing shot but Chen does a good job of showing Della’s and Cece’s desperation - that they are literally fighting for their lives and so the unbelievable becomes believable as the two women, with the help of Frank, make their way north and to freedom with a host of bad guys on their trail.

Chen shifts the point of view from Frank to Delia to the Hound to Cece and they flow one into the other giving the characters more depth and background, each playing a pivotal role in the final showdown. Background stories are not overdone or drawn out, it is just a glimpse to understand the character better. Of course, the Hound is still despicable, just a purely evil person and I couldn’t wait til he got his.

I love reading about the mafia and old time gangsters, particularly Lucky Luciano, so it was really cool seeing figures such as Luciano and Arnold Rothstein in all their bad-ass glory. Although I had a hard time believing Frank could get the best of Lucky, but that is my own personal bias.

I really enjoyed The Jazz Cage. It was a well written, suspenseful and entertaining read. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction and mystery and suspense may find this book as enjoyable as I did. Thank you to Ray Chen Smith for my free copy of your wonderful novel. 

Quote of the Day

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson