Books 2016: I've forgotten some, I know I have

[hawkwing_lb]

Books 2016: 149-155


149. Heather Rose Jones, Mother of Souls. Bella Books, 2016.

Read for column. Good third book in series, solid, moving further away from anything that looks like romance towards more politics and family-saga style of things.


150. Aya de León, Uptown Thief. Dafina, 2016.

Really interesting Leverage-style feminist thriller with a great cast.


151. Gail Carriger, Romancing the Inventor. E-book, 2016.

Steampunk romance novella about two women, set in Carriger's Parasol Protectorate universe. Read for column. Fun and good.


152. Karin Kallmaker, Christabel. Ebook, originally published 1997 I think.

Really terrible fantasy lesbian romance. I mean, terrible. It makes nearly no sense at all.


153. Alexis Hall, Iron & Velvet. Riptide, 2013 (ebook).

Fun romp about a queer female private investigator in a London with werewolves and vampires and all kinds of other magic. Fast, a bit on the shallow side, and a little rough, but a hell of a lot of fun.


154. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things. Thomas Dunne, 2016.

Read for column. Really excellent vampire novel. Much recommend.


155. Gaie Sebold, Sparrow Falling. Solaris, 2016.

Read for column. Fun, fast, entertaining steampunk.

Comments

[sovay]

Really terrible fantasy lesbian romance. I mean, terrible. It makes nearly no sense at all.

I'm so sorry, may I ask?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Sure, but I'm not sure I can explain? It's so very slushpile that it was structurally broken as well as just... *waves hands about* There is nothing so awful as a really poorly put-together past-present intercutting timelines with extra reincarnation.

There's a magic tree. That much is fairly clear. In just-about-no-longer-Dutch New Amsterdam, a young colonist woman meets a young Native American woman because of the magic tree and they have Doomed Romance, because there is a wicked priest and also maybe a demon? I dunno. That sort of ends badly, with rape for one of the lovers and fiery execution for the other.

Then in mid-1990s New York, there is a high-powered business consultant lady at a fancy investment firm who is consulting on a project for a fashion designer. The fashion designer is a controlling sexist jerkface and has some kind of dark terrible hold over a beautiful fashion model. Fancy Consultant Lady and Beautiful Fashion Model fall in love, but Sexist Controlling Jerkface is Doing Evil Shit.

Also there is a magic tree and some kind of maybe demon and eventually they all get in touch with their past lives and have a magic-fight-mystical-showdown involving Magic Tree Roots in someone's basement?

The end. With sort of questionable representation and extra worldbuilding weirdness.

Does that answer your question at all? *g*

[sovay]

Does that answer your question at all?

Aagh.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Pretty much my reaction.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Reading back over my little summary there, I believe I have made it sound better and more coherent than it is.

(Kallmaker's regular f/f romance is pretty good. This... is not.)

[sovay]

Reading back over my little summary there, I believe I have made it sound better and more coherent than it is.

Very probably: the plot didn't sound good, but I could easily follow it.