Pestilence by Laura Thalassa (The Four Horsemen Book One)

A book about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  I've seen that before.  A romance book about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Now that's a new one.  To say I'm intrigued is a vast understatement.  How would one even work romance into a story featuring the Four Horsemen?  Love is completely at odds with everything the Four Horsemen represent.

I finished the book with mixed feelings.  First, let me be exceedingly clear on one point:  This book strays so far from the Biblical Four Horseman they are unrecognizable as the entities of Revelation.  The four Horsemen in this book and the Four Horsemen in the Bible share a name.  That's it.  This book is for entertainment only.

Setting that aside, what really troubled me about this book was that Sara seemed to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.  Of course I'm not exactly sure, short of being taken prisoner, how you could write someone willingly into the presence of Pestilence.  And for there to be romance, one does need to spend time in the presence of one's love interest.  So I pushed the Stockholm Syndrome complaint out of my mind and kept reading.

I can say that I did like the characters.  I work with firefighters and some of them are like Sara.  Some really are in this profession because they care about people and want to help.  So the compassionate side of Sara's personality did ring true for me.  As did her toughness.  You can't be a woman in what is still considered a man's profession and not be tough as nails.  Given what the author put Sara through, it certainly was a good choice on her part to give Sara that backstory.  It also made her compassion towards Pestilence a little easier to understand.  Additionally I liked that Sara wasn't a whiner.  She got hurt physically and mentally, but she didn't whine about it.  She acknowledged it, dealt with it and moved on.  Frankly, once I discarded the Stockholm Syndrome argument, her growth as a character was very well written.

Pestilence was also well written.  His changes were of an existential nature and they made sense.  Who wouldn't question their duty to exterminate a "bad" race when several times compassion is offered without expectation of repayment?  And who wouldn't be torn when that same race showed abject hatred and cruelty?  Watching Pestilence wrestle with his changing certainty about his cause actually made me think more than once about my own reactions to some of the things humanity does.  It's easy to have a knee jerk reaction and fall back on habitual thoughts.  But are those thoughts right?

The writing itself was fine.  Points for using a few words not normally used in books targeted for mass market.  However... the language!  In some cases, yes, there was a need because that is exactly how those types speak.  But in general, there was a lot of the use of the F-word and taking the Lord's name in vain that I could have done without.  But it wasn't so bad that I gave up.  I just started skipping those words.  Other than that, I can't really complain about the writing.  Obviously it wasn't horrible; I read the book in two sittings!

The story itself was intriguing.  I found the story to be of a more cerebral nature than of an action nature.  To be sure, there was some action, some of it gruesome, but that action was needed to push the story along.  The heart of the story, the truly important part of this story, is how Sara and Pestilence changed.  Thankfully that part of the story wasn't lost in a quagmire of unnecessary action.

All things considered, I recommend this book for adult readers that can overlook profanity, sex, and some gruesome scenes.  I will say this about the sex:  It is not super graphic nor is it disgustingly or cheaply described.  Sure, I've seen better descriptions but I've also seen a whole lot more offensive descriptions.  As these things go, it's not terrible.  The violence in the book is only what is necessary, however, it isn't pretty.  It is not super graphic, but neither is it easy to read.  I will say if you are easily upset or offended, don't read this book.  Otherwise, enjoy just be forewarned.

Note:  I read this book a year or two ago and wasn't going to post a review until all the books had come out and I had reviewed them all.  I've decided not to wait.

Already Home by Susan Mallery

I am not even going to try to be coy.  I loved this book!  I had never read a Susan Mallery book before this, but if her other books are this good, I will be reading more.  I saw this book at the library and it just intrigued me.  So I looked both ways to be sure nobody saw me take a romance book and then fled to the checkout.  It turns out I liked this book so much I just ordered a copy for my home library and I will read it again the moment I get it.  I'm not too proud to say I'm counting down the six days until it gets here!  I could have had it Monday, but I am just too cheap to pay the extra for two day shipping.  I'm sure that says something about me, but I won't think about that!

I enjoyed the author's writing style.  Of course, you never know what you're going to get when you pick up a romance.  Sometimes the writing is subpar and other times it's just ok-ish.  This author's writing style is simple yet not boring nor too elementary.  It certainly is not challenging, but neither did I feel the need to take out my red pen and mark all the mistakes.  Perhaps I didn't mind the simple writing style because I loved the plot.

As for the plot:  Already Home certainly held no surprises.  I figured out everything pretty quickly and knew exactly where we were headed.  Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.  It was akin to going on a road trip.  I know exactly where I'm going, but I enjoy the drive to my destination nevertheless.  Susan Mallery made the trip to the end of this book just amazing.  I can't say what exactly it was that made me love it so, but I can't deny I truly did enjoy it.  I believe it was the author's ability to handle even very tough subject matter with kindness and avoid the pitfall of over sentiment.  I feel Ms. Mallery did a very good job of adequately addressing some incredibly tough subjects without being preachy, condescending or crass.  And trust me, those things could have easily happened. 

I also truly enjoyed the characters themselves.  Each character was pleasingly unique and wonderfully kind in his or her own fashion.  Ms. Mallery did a fantastic job of creating complex, yet easy to understand characters, and that made it so easy to appreciate each character's growth throughout the story.  I also was extremely happy that each character was well rounded and grew with the story.  Even the minor characters had a bit of growth.  However, the main characters especially grew within the story with grace, kindness and love.

What truly impressed me about this book however was the depth of the story.  Yes, it was a romance and there was certainly that aspect.  But the other issues explored throughout the story were deep and resonant.  None of them were easy issues.  And I would venture to say that most readers will have experienced at least some of these issues in their own lives.  The writer never made the story apologize for these issues.  Instead she wrote wonderful, strong characters that met their challenges and grew from them.  I absolutely loved the story's exploration of the most human of relationships -- the family. 

All things considered, I would highly recommend this book.  I would strongly encourage you to move it to the top of your reading list.  That being said, I will say the book deals with some very intense issues and some people may have a very hard time with that subject matter.  The author does not go into gross and gory detail, nor does she belabor the point.  However, if you are easily triggered, you may not want to read this book.  I will admit this book brought me to tears several times as most of the things dealt with in this book have been a part of my life.  However, don't let this scare you away.  I would say that anyone who reads this book will enjoy it and will be better for having read it.   

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

I saw a picture of this book on Tumblr and the caption mentioned that the book would be released on November 10th.  That intrigued me, so I decided to find out what November 9 was about.  The description of the book intrigued me even more, so I bought the book as soon as I could get out to the bookstore.  I am very glad I did.  Having never read a book by Colleen Hoover, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  In all honesty, I had never heard of this author up until I saw the picture of November 9.  However, I do believe I will be reading more Colleen Hoover books now.

Overall Ms. Hoover's writing style is pleasing.  She uses a good mix of varied sentence structure and complexity to keep the reader from becoming bored and her vocabulary is satisfactory.  I found her writing easy to follow but thankfully not simplistic.  The only thing that I had to get used to was the story switching from one narrator to the other.  Thankfully it was easy enough to follow as each chapter had its own narrator and did not switch between narrators in the middle of a chapter.

I enjoyed the characters in this book.  They were well written and easy to identify with.  Even when I really wanted to dislike a character, in the end, I couldn't.  The characters were real.  In each character the reader can find a bit of themselves.  Even the most unlikeable character, Fallon's father, I ended up at least understanding and being able to peacefully coexist with. 

As far as the story goes... Wow.  That's really all I can say.  Just...wow!  The story explores so much and the characters grow so much!  This book beautifully illustrates the complex dynamics between individuals and family members.  Ms. Hoover does a great job of giving the characters a story that allows them to develop and learn about themselves.  And the plot?  Let's just say I never saw it coming.  I suppose perhaps I should have, but I didn't, and that made the end of the book have so much impact.

I really can't say enough good things about this book.  If you read no other book in the coming year, you must read this book.  My only caution is that this book does have certain topics that are not suitable for younger readers.  Nothing that is terrible or over the top, but nevertheless, I would not recommend this book for anyone under the age of a mature mid-teen reader.  But don't let this scare you off!  This book is amazing and should be one of the first books you read in 2016.  I enjoyed the book so much, I will likely read November 9 again in the new year.

Trading Christmas by Debbie Macomber

'Tis the season!  Well the season for reading Christmas books, that is.  And believe me, I have plenty in my stack to read!  Because I like Hallmark Christmas movies so much, I decided to start with a sappy sweet Hallmark-esque book.  As Trading Christmas had been made into a Hallmark movie, I figured this was a good one to start with.  Let me just say, the book and the movie only share very loose similarities.  Very loose similarities!

Overall the book was fine.  It really is only a short story, not even a full length novel.  The author's ability to write clear, concise sentences with acceptable vocabulary was about what I would have expected from a bestselling author in this genre.  Certainly, the writing isn't scholarly, but I don't expect scholarly from romance.  In fact, from a purely technical aspect, I find Debbie Macomber to be one of the better romance writers.  Her style isn't complex, but it is sound and enjoyable. 

Likewise, I found the characters in this book appealing.  Although this wasn't a full length novel, I had no problem enjoying the characters.  I found the characters to be real and easy to identify with.  The only character that wasn't as well developed was Heather, Emily's daughter.  Of course, she was a supporting character, but she was still flat and, frankly, not very likable at all.  I truly enjoyed the character of Bernice Brewster.  Although another supporting character, she was quite enjoyable and entertaining.  Flamboyant and dramatic, she was still lovable and made me smile every time she showed up in the story.  As Charles and Ray's mother, she brought fun and humor to a story that would otherwise have suffered from being too serious.

The story itself was also easy to identify with, in as much as, it is a story about the changes a family faces as a child grows up and Christmas traditions are turned upside down.  Now perhaps few people would have dealt with these changes quite on the level of trading residences, but that doesn't matter.  It does happen in "real life" so at least it is still believable.  And honestly, I enjoyed this perhaps unorthodox way of dealing with change.  It opened up a lot of avenues for the story to develop that otherwise simply wouldn't have been there.

Perhaps my only real complaint is that the story felt rushed.  I attribute this to the fact that this isn't a full length novel.  However, that does detract some from my enjoyment of the story.  I do believe the story would have been better served had it been written as a full length novel. 

All things considered, I do recommend this book as an enjoyable Christmas read.  Due to its abbreviated nature, it would be very easy to cozy up in a blanket and read this story in one sitting.  There really isn't anything objectionable in this book so I can safely say anybody could read Trading Christmas with no worries whatsoever.  However, that being said, I do believe this book will appeal mostly to the mid-30s and beyond set.

Fifty Shades Darker by E L James

I actually liked the first book in this series. (Review here: http://thewellreadfloridian.blogspot.com/2012/10/fifty-shades-of-grey-by-e-l-james.html ) I wish I could say the same for this second book. In James’ first book she had at least a passable vocabulary. In this book, I did not see the same. At least there were still a few complex sentences scattered about the book. Despite that, it seemed the overall writing went downhill. I also noticed more repetition in this book. If I read the phrase “inner goddess” one more time I swear I will gouge my eyeballs out with a spoon!

Further, the book simply did not hold my attention. It took me weeks to read this book. That is uncommon. I simply could not get into this book. Frankly I found it boring. The author in no way caught my attention in this second book as she did in the first. In fact, I only finished the book out of pure stubbornness. I paid good money for this book, so by God I’m gonna finish it!

Now I will say that the characters did show a bit of development in this installment of the Fifty Shades series. I can’t say that they developed in any surprising way. As with the first books the characters and the character development was clichéd and very predictable.

The one thing I was very thankful for was that this book was not quite as “educational” as the last. Admittedly it was still quite sexually explicit, but to my relief, it didn’t embarrass me this time. Perhaps because the sex was more vanilla in this book?

I still would not recommend this book or this series for the younger reader or the timid reader. Neither would I recommend these books for the easily offended. And, if you’re open minded and don’t mind graphic sex, I’d only recommend this book if you’re truly interested in reading the whole series. Frankly, I fear this series will go the way of the Twilight series it was based on -- steadily downhill with each installment.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

Frankly I'm embarrassed to admit I read this book and mortified to admit that I liked it! I almost didn't write a review. The temptation was great to just let this be my dirty little secret. And dirty it is indeed!

I originally picked this book up for the same reason I read the Twilight series: I never tear apart a book unless I've read it. I refuse to parrot what others are saying. So, off I went to Barnes and Noble. I should have gone where they don't know me. The girl that always helps me was shocked I would read this. I was simply humiliated. Nevertheless, I bought the book.

Given what I knew of the book going into this, I knew I would be judging it on the same scale as all other mind candy. Well, to my great surprise, I actually began to enjoy the book. Certainly I am not saying this book possessed some great hidden literary gem, but despite myself, I still started to enjoy it. Maybe what helped was that I was super excited to see fanfic go mainstream.

That said, kudos to E L James for possessing at least a passable vocabulary and the ability to use complex sentences once in a while. The writing style wasn't scholarly, but it was better than your average romance. I will say that some phrases were a bit overused, but nobody's perfect and this isn't a classic, so it's forgivable.

The story itself was pretty much what I expected. It was cliched and certainly some parts were obviously borrowed from Twilight, but that's to be expected when this is a Twilight fanfic. I can't say the story really broke any new ground, other than the obvious. (More on that later.)

The characters were fine. Again, cliched, but this is romance. You won't find many characters that aren't cliche in romance. Face it, if you read romance this type of character must have some draw for you. I admit the tortured, battered male soul is my undoing. Frankly it is one of the biggest draws for me when reading romance. And Christian Grey has it in spades.

Now for the elephant in the room: This book was practically pornographic! And the subject matter was a bit shocking. About the only word I can use to describe this aspect of the book is "educational". I had no idea...

Obviously I would not recommend this book for the young, those who are offended by explicit sexual content, and those who are not open to alternative lifestyles. If you fall into any of these segments of the population, do yourself a favor and read something else. For the more adventurous, go ahead, give it a try. Just remember, it's romance not classic literature.

Lone Star Marine by Cathie Linz

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I always judge mind candy (aka: romance) on a much more forgiving scale than I judge other books. I especially go easy on the Silhouette/Harlequin books. Even so, this book came up short. Very short.

I don’t know about you, but when I pick up a book of this type I am looking for entertaining, easy reading that doesn’t require much of me. At least on one count (doesn’t require much of me) this book succeeded. I certainly didn’t have to use my brain to follow this book. However, the author felt it was necessary to preach and that pretty much killed the entertaining criteria. I get that bullying is bad, terrible in fact, and I in no way condone such behavior. Despite that, I do not need to be lectured, in the guise of a character’s conversation, with the statistics of bullying and how bad it is. I already know this. Furthermore, I did not pick this book up to be educated. If the author felt the need to educate the general reading public about bullying, I would suggest that it might be more productive to tackle the subject head on as opposed to trying to address the topic in a romance novel of all things.

Other than the aforementioned issue, the book was OK. The story wasn’t especially inventive nor were the characters especially original, but I wasn’t really expecting either attribute in a Silhouette/Harlequin book so I wasn’t exactly disappointed. As we all know, I have a soft spot for Marines, especially injured ones, so I was able to enjoy Tom’s character and that helped a little.

I suppose if you can get past being preached at throughout a book that should be light and entertaining, you’ll enjoy this book. It’s fine for a weekend read if you really don’t want to invest much into it. However, if you’re looking for something with a little more quality, I’d suggest another book.

Passionately Ever After by Metsy Hingle

Passionately Ever After by Metsy Hingle is one of twelve books in the Dynasties: The Barones series published for Silhouette's Desire line. I picked this book up because I was in the mood for mind candy. I wanted a story with a happy ending I could count on. Years ago I'd read some of the other books in this series so when I saw this I went ahead and picked it up.

The story was fine for what it was. It's romance. Silhouette Desire romance to be exact. You simply can't expect any great literary works in the Silhouette line of books. But that's OK. That isn't what I wanted. I wanted easy and fast to read with no thinking required of me. I got what I wanted. The story was OK. No surprises or twists and turns. A pretty straight forward romance storyline. The plot, as with most romances, got all tied up in a nice neat little package by the end. Probably not the most believable of endings, but it wasn't exactly the most believable of storylines either.

The writing itself was at least understandable, though not complex. I can't say that the writing was overly simplistic, but neither could I say the writing was quality writing.

The characters were OK. A lot of cliches and really very little development, but what can you really expect from romance? I can't say that any one character appealed to me more than others, but neither did any character completely disgust me.

Bottom line: If you've got an hour or two to kill and you don't want to have to put a lot of effort into what you're reading, go ahead and pick up this book.

A Soldier For Christmas by Jillian Hart

OK, I have to admit: I was bad and I tried again to get my Christmas mind candy fix. This effort met with slightly more acceptable results than my first effort.

A Soldier For Christmas by Jillian Hart is Christian fiction. I enjoyed that aspect of the story because reading about meaningless, gratuitous sex just doesn't do it for me. Often it is used as a means of avoiding decent plot and character development.

Although A Soldier For Christmas didn't take place only during the Christmas season, that didn't bother me. I liked the sweet tenor of the story. Plotwise, the story was a little different from other romances I've read. Instead of the main characters being thrown together in questionable circumstances and suddenly falling in love, these characters had known each other in high school. So when Mitch, the male lead, walks into the Christian book store where Kelly, the female lead, works in his hometown, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility. It isn't implausable that he is there looking for a gift for his mother since he is visiting his parents.

Kelly, is dealing with issues of trust and worthiness brought on by events in her childhood. Thankfully those events had to do with being bounced from one foster home to another and having an alcoholic mother that dropped in and out of her life instead of the more heart wrenching variety of causes. She is also dealing with having lost her fiance. Thus, when Kelly is leery of a relationship, the reader isn't left scratching her head wondering why.

Mitch, comes from your "typical" family. It's his job that has kept him from seeking a wife. Again, a believable circumstance since he is a Force Recon Marine. His methodical approach to winning Kelly is also believable since I've yet to meet a Recon Marine that wasn't methodical in everything he did.

Having a military background I was a bit wary of how well the author would be able to portray a Force Recon Marine. I was pleasantly surprised. The author doesn't go into a lot of detail, which is probably a good thing since the author has no real experience with Force Recon. However, don't let that fool you. She uses enough detail to tell the story.

The end felt a bit rushed, but let's face it: This is a romance; you know they're going to get together. So, perhaps it is rushed, but who cares? I was reading this for fun and because it had my favorite branch of service in it.

All in all, I'd give this 4 out of 5 stars. But I'm biased. The fact that a Marine featured in the leading male role assured this book of a good review. However, the author's careful handling of Kelly's issues helped a lot, too. And portraying Mitch as something other than a gung-ho womanizer certainly scored points for the book.

So, if you're looking for a good weekend read, read this book. If you're looking for something more substantial, consider the book I'm reading now: My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story as told to Nathaniel R. Helms. Whether you agree with the current military action in Iraq or not, you can't deny that our men and women of the armed forces give up a lot for us to sit here and debate the ethics of this war; some even pay the ultimate price. Reading Mr. Kasal's first hand account of the fight for Fullujah and his fight for his life afterward certainly puts it in perspective.