Review: Unhuman Light

Unhuman Light by Chris Stoneheart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A vegan human who fights demons, defies vampires, god-like beings yet cries after killing the bad guys... how exactly does this work? Quite well! This new series is intriguing and contains all the elements of rich and meaty urban fantasy.

Recommendation

Recommend this urban fantasy to readers who enjoy strong female leads who are not afraid to buck the system. Fans of Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews will enjoy this new series by new author, Ms. Stoneheart.

Characters

The characters in this book are intense and stand out. Each supporting cast to Kaitlin is unique and demands their own attention and adoration. Powerful men working together to teach, protect and support a female is a heady fantasy. When said female can take care of herself and return the favor, it is even better. What is also interesting is that there are other females in this story who are friends of Kaitlin and support her. One of them, Cora is a strong werewolf and her relationship with Kaitlin is of genuine friendship. This is key because so many books have lead female characters who horde all the males and have catty backstabbing frenemies. It is a pleasure to read a book where it flies contrary to the current drivel peddled to women.

Things I liked
✓ Alpha males
✓ Complex lead character
✓ Demons
✓ Shifters
✓ Strong friendship with other women
✓ Strong protagonist
✓ Strong supporting characters
✓ Vampires

World building

Set in the Tennessee, by day, Kaitlin O'Malley is a therapist helping people work through their problems. By night and as a "hobby" she fights demons kidnapping women. She freelances as a demon fighter for her friend Aaron Drake who happens to be a dragon shifter. With her toes dangling into the supernatural waters, it is to be expected the monsters will grab her toes and drag her in their world.

This first book seems to be setting up the world and characters. There are vampires, demons, shifters and other beings. Coming from Kaitlin's point of view, it is a bit overwhelming because she is only human. Well, a human with a little extra kick. This supernatural world is vast with many different alliances that are unknown to Kaitlin. The reader follows along with Kaitlin trying to figure out who is allied with whom and what kind of other supernatural groups exist. It's exciting and daunting at the same time. Seeing a little glimpse of the Fae world promises more fun to come.

Action/Plot

The amount of action and reveals in this book is surprising. Usually, authors give a little taste of their world to hook a read in. The books usually cover only a few days events or less. In this one, it feels like weeks have been condensed into days. And yet years are explained as past history or flash backs to decades or centuries are distilled in just a few pages. It is impressive how fluid the time is in this story and how much group is covered. Just as the reader expects the book to end, it continues on. Then when the book ends, it feels as if the length is not enough. The book concludes well and creates a desire to see what will happen next.

I received this book as an advance read copy

Book lover reboot

It's been so many years since I've touched this blog.  I've decided to start up again as I look towards retirement in about 5 to 7 years.  I will be building up this blog with weekly reviews.  I'm still working out how I want to review my books.  I've seen some cute awards for books.  Other than just sticking to the stars review.  I am thinking of the books I normally read and how I would categorize them.  More to come!

Review: Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug

 

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
My rating: 5 Stars
Personally, I hate the title of this book. It's insulting. When people tell me they don't want to think, I look down upon them. Yes, I'm one of those people. If we don't think, I believe the person should just be turned into an animal. (Yes, my BDSM tendencies are coming through here.) Perhaps the author specifically picked this title to be provocative in order to have people like me read it. While I loathed the title, the information in the book was great.

I am impressed with how it was laid out and even better, the clarity in which he explains each of his ideas was the best. I'm no html programmer. I'm not even a web designer. However, I can appreciate this book quite a bit. It is even tying into my work to my surprise. I will be applying many of these guidelines in a project I'm currently working on. I liked his usability test explanation. I definitely need to have people test the sharepoint site we are building. I also liked his explanation of what each person in the project thinks when they want to have a website created. I've decided, I'm a developer who appreciates the designer.

I am more for function versus feature. But if the website is god awful ugly, I'd avoid it too. What Mr. Krug explains is a lot of common sense. It strikes me as sad that we now need books and lessons on common sense. I find that his book on websites can be applicable to more than just website. It works for software design too. Basically, anything that is GUI should follow many of his concepts he touches upon.

I have a blog which I did not design. I'm fortunate enough that the design I picked follows all his guidelines, more or less. There are a couple of items I can do to adjust my website to be more user friendly. I just have to figure out how to add a search box. My recent attempts had all failed. I recommend this book for everyone to read. This book does deserve a 5 star from me because it changed the way I think and see web designs, hopefully for the better.

Anne McCaffrey is Dead

This is not what I wanted to read.  I cherished Ms. McCaffrey's books.  I still do.  I loved her Dragonrider series as most beloved series.  I did read her very first book - Restoree.  I remember thinking, wow!  I didn't realize it was published in 1967.  I read it when I was in my late teens. 

I first learned of Ms. McCaffrey's books through her dragon singer trilogy when I was in junior high.  7th grade to be exact...my school librarian, Mrs. Jeffries pointed me in that direction and I never looked back.  She was my favourite librarian who could recommend the best books for me.  It was a lovely new world I could escape into, away from my life.

Soon I read the Crystal Singer series in college and loved them.  They made me ache so badly.  I loved her flawed heroines who still strived to do the best the could do.  I loved pretty much every series I read of hers and could tell you what the book was about.  That is how memorable her books are to me.  For a person like me who has read a few thousands books, that is pretty impressive of her story lines.

While Ms. McCaffrey has passed away at the age of 85 on Nov. 21st, 2011, she leaves behind a legacy for future generations to enjoy.  I will miss new books from the talented Ms. McCaffrey.

Archangel's Blade

Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is my favourite book in the series.  While I enjoyed Raphael and Elena's mating dance, Dmitri's chasing after Honor did it for me.  This book is appropriately named.  Dmitri is Raphael's blade, as his second command.  This story almost feels like a spin off.  There was less Angel politics which was nice.  The Angel's ennui and their evolution has been a bit of a drag.  I'm guessing the next book will deal with that conflict again.  I'm glad for the break.

In this book, Honor is pulling herself together after her two month torture at the hands of vampires.  Due to my reading selections, it is a guilty pleasure for me to read about the torture.  I admire Honor and I think she's the perfect "damaged" person.  She's strong and intelligent, but not flawless.  This is appealing to me in a heroine.  The twist in her was not unanticipated yet it was unfolded in a poignant manner which made my heart bleed a bit for her. 

What it really did was generate sorrow for Dmitri.  I've not really liked Dmitri, thinking him as a hard, calloused asshole.  This story is really all about him, not Honor.  We get to see what made him the way he is today.  And let me tell you, it isn't pretty.  It's brutal and heartbreaking.  The actual plot of what happened to him has been done before in other books by other authors.  What is different is Ms. Singh adds nuances which made it more personal for me.  I felt pulled in, really seeing from Dmitri's perspective.  Her way of describing scenes are in a way that makes it crystal clear for me to picture.  My favourite scene she painted was Ash, Elena and Honor sitting together on the edge.  I could see it so clearly in my mind.  I hope someone with artist ability decides to draw this scene and give to Ms. Singh to share.

This was more than just a paranormal romance with hot sex.  There were two other threads going on with Sorrow and hunting down Honor's torturers.  It was woven together to make a complete picture.  There were no tangents that fizzed anticlimactic or stopped in a dead end.  Instead, every piece of information pulled together in the end for a very satisfying ending.  I recommend this story to my paranormal friends who are hopeless romantics and love the bad boys.  Because Dmitri is definitely naughty.

Butterfly

Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this book after my first boyfriend and I ended our relationship.  While I've seen others write that this book is not really erotica or that it's about a poor making it rich story, I'm not really interested in classifying it as either.  I flagged this as erotica only because of the women being satisfied by a club catering to their sexual tastes.

Warning! ~ this is where it gets personal
The reason why I rated this book with 5 stars is because even after close to 20 years, I still remember this book and it had a profound impact in my life.  At just past 16 I experience my first bad break up in a relationships.  As a teen, everything feels more intense.  I was pretty messed up over it and my self esteem had taken a terrible trampling.  While I wasn't exactly suicidal, I was homicidal at times.  I was so angry and I couldn't get out of the cycle.

By chance, I found this book at a used bookstore.  The women being pleased was what caught my eye.  It opened up a new world for me.  It let me know that there were other females out there who have felt as I did.  Even better, they did something about it.  They never let it set them back.  They didn't use it as an excuse to become a shadow of what they could become or settle for something less.  Butterfly relayed to me, that a woman could make stupid mistakes but still overcome them.  With enough hard work and applying herself and forgiving herself, she can ultimate earn what she wants.  While I understand this is a work of fiction, I internalized it.  It helped me pull myself out of a funk and roughly 2 decades later, I assess where I am compared to my bruised 16 year old self.  I'm successful and happy.  Who knows where that asshole ex-bf is?  And now, who cares?  HAH.

For me, this book was a life changing event and a defining moment in my life.  For me, it was personal and touched me.  I recommend this book to other women who have experienced unfortunate circumstances and think it will never get better.  I'm here to tell you, yes it will.  Don't let those bastards win!  Your success and overcoming them makes them lose.

Hour of the Lion

Hour of the Lion by Cherise Sinclair

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoy a good paranormal book.  I'm a bit jaded by the plethora of shifter books lately.  Some of the authors throw in a couple of wolves and recycle the common "understood" of how werewolves and shifters came to be.  I've read Ms. Sinclair's books before and generally found them to be well written with great characters that I like and a story line I can follow.  In addition, she creates conflicts which I can believe and follows each developed thread to a conclusion.  It may not be a happy conclusion, but it's a conclusion.



When I heard she moved to the paranormal genre with shifters, I was nervous.  Would it turn out okay?  Is she just jumping on the band wagon?  With great reluctance, I finally forced myself to read the book.  The first thing I can say after reading the first few pages is, "WHY ON EARTH DID I WAIT SO LONG?"



The first chapter BLEW me away.  We went from zero to sixty in less than a second.  I LOVE IT.  I was captivated from the very first moment when Vic was tied up and under threat of rape and torture.  This world Ms. Sinclair created for the shifters is fabulous.  She's used some of the existing accepted mythology and added her unique twist.  Her book leaves a wide open world for more than just shifters.  She has so many interesting characters I hope she writes several books and this becomes a series.



The erotic categorization of this book for me was the sensual and sexy heat between the three main characters, Vic, Calum and Alec.  The menage was a nice treat.  There was nothing out of this world about the sex, but it was nice each time.  Each sex scene had purpose to enhance the story.  It wasn't a gratuitous sex just for the sake of checking off a list of required sex scenes.



I liked Vic - she's the type of woman I admire.  Smart, loyal and strong cognitive skills and the ability to make a decision and stick to it.  She isn't w/o her flaws.  It's rather sad her flaws and I admit to shedding a tear at her heartache.  Alec and Calum, what can be said about them?  H.A.W.T, sexy, alpha and okay a bit paranoid.  But seriously, is it really paranoid if people are really out to get you?  I wouldn't mind being the meat in that man sandwich. 



The axillary characters were just as charming.  There was a reason for each person's madness.  There was no "just because" explanations.  Did people do bad things?  Yes.  Were they completely bad people?  No.  Each person's motivation was true to that character and help generate believable conflict.  This is what I admire about Ms. Sinclair's storytelling technique. 



I recommend this to all my friends, even those who don't really like paranormal, this is still a well written story.  I'd read it over and over and over and over again.  At this point, Ms. Sinclair should just be an auto-buy for me.