Book View Café Releases ALTHEA by Madeleine Robins!

Well, I'm a big Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer fan, so I'm looking forward to this one!

ALTHEA (Historical Romance) $3.99 ebook
Madeleine Robins
April 19, 2011
ISBN: 978 1 61138 050 7

The dazzling whirl of London society delighted Althea Ervine. Having spent all her young life in the country, she was more than ready for the excitement of the city—and for the ardent attention of Edward Pendarly. Why did Sir Tracy Calendar hint that there was something wrong? Then she learned the shocking truth about Edward—and something more shocking about Sir Tracy....

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Althea-by-Madeleine-E.-Robins

A lifelong and passionate fan of cities and all things urban, Madeleine Robins now lives in San Francisco with her family, dog, and one hegemonic lemon tree. Her work includes the New York Times Notable Book The Stone War; Point of Honour and Petty Treason, the first in the Sarah Tolerance mysteries; Daredevil: The Cutting Edge; and five historical romances set in the English Regency.

Madeleine Robins is one of the funniest and most interesting people I've met through Book View Cafe, so this is definitely on my list! There's a sample of the book at that link -- you can also check out her blog, or the BVC blog, for some of her interesting and often humorous observations about life.

Reviewing on GoodReads again....

A new urban fantasy by suricattus requires dropping everything else, once I get my hands on it. And joy, it was worth the wait!

Pack of Lies by Laura Anne Gilman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Pack of Lies is the second of the Paranormal Scene Investigations, as the publisher calls the urban fantasies about Bonita Torres, Talent (that’s a human magic-user to you) and now a PUPI, a Private Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigator. That unaffiliated part is important, because Bonnie, her team mates and two bosses are trying to create something that has never existed before – people who evaluate the Facts of a magic crime, taking no side.

Eight months into this grand experiment, there are a few people who grudgingly admit their skills might be useful, people (and I use the word loosely) who are deeply suspicious of the idea, and people who bitterly appose their venture and are doing everything they can to undermine it.

In this novel, what appears to be an open and shut case of an attack upon a fatae (non-human, thinking, magical creature) and his human, Talented companion is not only not simple, it may be related to a slow simmer of bigotry bubbling up in the stew of magic-users. The human Council (heavy hitters who follow certain laws and regs) distrusts the lonejacks (the independent magic-users,) the purebloods are suspicious of the part-bloods and mixed-bloods, and the fatae suspect the humans are out to exterminate them – and a few probably are. Gilman does an excellent job of introducing all these concepts, never interrupting the flow of the story.

This is not a shoot-em-up fantasy racing along at a breakneck pace. Gilman uses multiple POVs, some only to introduce new, key players in the game. There is a lot of introspection and stream-of-consciousness – possibly too much for people who want the plot to move, who want to know where the potential romances are going, who expect to rip through a book a day in their quest for Another Good Story. You’re going to get a very good story here, but although it does not lag at all, it is, well, thick in spots. Characterization is intricate, and on one level the reader will realize what is going on before the characters do. Old tropes are used in new ways, with new intensity or with a light touch that makes this New York City a unique place on the fantasy scene.

This book is not as violent as the Retriever books tended to be, although it is as dark in its own way. Bonnie and her cohorts are all twenty-somethings, and the things they learn about magic, and about human nature, hit with force because the first lessons are often the hardest.

If you enjoy the CSI style of story, if you like urban fantasy, if you like strong characterization, chances are you’ll like this book. Don’t read it as a straight romance (although a strong attraction is being fought in here) and don’t expect the crime to be tied up in a bow. Nothing is that simple in a Gilman novel, and her fans wouldn’t have it any other way.




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Hyperbole and a Half Strikes Again -- Simple Dog Goes Joyriding!

Warning -- there are several honest-to-god spit-take moments in this cartoon. Allie (the artist, not my Allie) has a delightfully warped way of looking at the universe, and the patience of a saint with her dogs, especially Simple Dog. I think I'd lose my mind with this animal, but I laugh out loud at her adventures.