Thursday, April 29, 2021

Rant & Rave- Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw

 Hello everyone! 

You've made your way to my Rant & Rave for Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw.  

Grave Importance is the third book in the Dr. Greta Helsing series. Check out my previous post about the series for information on the first two books, but beware- there's spoilers. Dr. Greta Helsing is a doctor for all manner of supernatural beings- ghouls, vampires, vampyres (there's a difference), demons, mummies, banshees, etc.  In the third installment of her adventures, she is asked to take a temporary medical director position at a luxurious medical spa and resort for mummies. She discovers that something strange has been causing bouts of fatigue and dizziness in her mummy patients.  Needless to say, there's more going on than meets the eye. 

So let's rave:

I loved the way Vivian Shaw weaved multiple plotlines together to provide a seamless story.  Like her second book, I thought this book brought the plotlines together well.  I still prefer the story of the second book, but, in my opinion, this novel does a better job of hinting at relationships between different viewpoints.

I loved the inclusion of some actual medicine and Egyptian culture in this book.  It felt more like a dive into the day-to-day of a supernatural doctor, which is why I chose the series to begin with.  It connected the dots between magic, in this case based on Ancient Egyptian culture, and modern medicine.  This bridged a gap that, until this book, was kind of overlooked.  

And some ranting:

Similar to the first book, I feel like the resolution of the story was a little too "out of nowhere."  It felt almost like Greta got herself into something that was too big for her to solve, so Vivian Shaw wrote a cop out for her to get out of it.  I can't really elaborate on this without major spoilers, but if you read the books, I think you'll agree with this part of my assessment.

I like the voice of this book.  It's rational and evaluative, but snarky, with some humor thrown in.  I know, this isn't ranting, but bear with me.  I've found that this is hit or miss with readers of the series.  Here's the real ranting- I wish that the voice varied a little more between characters.  It felt obvious to me that all the characters were penned by the same person.   

And some final announcements:

My next book will be Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart.  This book comes from my rival-themed Owlcrate box.  These boxes are always an exciting part of my month! There is rarely more than one item in the box that I don't use or enjoy in some way, which was a reservation I had about getting the boxes, and I highly recommend them (and no, they aren't paying me to say that). 

A friend of mine from my time in the Peace Corps, Danielle Timmons, just published a memoir called God, Love and Mototaxis. I've read it and, with the exception of a few grammatical errors, it's a good, fast read.  It's available on Amazon for anyone that's interested in supporting her on her latest venture. 

If you are getting notifications for this blog via email, you will stop receiving email notifications for new content in July.  Since I'm not particularly tech savvy, I can't figure out how to export your email addresses to a list I can use to continue sending emails.  If you'd like to continue receiving emails, please let me know your email address, either in the comments section or in person.  Once your address has been added to the list, I will delete the comment, so don't worry about it being online forever.

Dana

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Rant & Rave- Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley

 Hello, Hello!

It's that time again- when I tell you my (almost) spoiler-free thoughts on Adrienne Tooley's Sweet and Bitter Magic!  I say almost because there is a couple minor spoilers in this one.  Don't worry though, I'll give you plenty of warning so you can skip over it if you don't want any information on the book.  I have to be honest, I absolutely loved this book, so my ranting column is going to be a little thin on this one.  I finished the book in about four days, if that's any indication. 

Sweet and Bitter magic is the story of an unlikely pair- Tamsin the witch and Wren the source.  Tamsin is a witch banished from her homeland and cursed to never feel love.  Tamsin's backstory is complicated (and too much of a spoiler to put in here), but she now resides in a small town, making a living performing feats of magic for the townsfolk in exchange for a taste of their love.  Wren is a source, a person made of magic that witches can draw power from, but who, themselves, cannot use magic.  Sources are rare, and Wren has spent her entire life hiding from the world of magic so she can care for her ailing father, who happens to blame witches and all things magic for her brother's and mother's deaths.  The unlikely duo pair up when Wren's father catches a deadly plague caused by dark magic; their goal- stop the spread of the plague by catching the person responsible. 


Lets get to the raving:

I could not get enough of these characters! Throughout the book Wren grows from naivety and compliance to self-prioritizing and recognition of her own strength.  Tamsin is grouchy, snarky, and, in my opinion, hilarious.  She appears cold and spiteful, but that is sort of to be expected from someone who has spent the last half a decade without being able to enjoy any of the best parts of life.  Both characters are likable and relatable on some level.  The side characters are less well-developed, but the plot centers so heavily on Tamsin and Wren that I don't think it deters from the book much.  

Minor Spoiler #1 (Skip this paragraph if you don't want any spoilers.)- This has an LGBT relationship that is completely accepted by society! The relationship is well-written, and doesn't seem like it was just thrown in to be inclusive, like some I've seen.

I think the writing in this book is excellent.  It has the perfect relationship between being straightforward and flowing well.  The vocabulary is fairly simple, but it never fails to get the point across.  I never felt like the author's voice caused me to need to slow down at all, or ever shattered the illusion of being in a fantasy world.

And now the (admittedly short) ranting:

I felt like the plot of this book, while interesting, was poorly developed.  By this, I mean that most of the book's storyline was told to you by one of the characters before you had a chance to be surprised by discovering it "in action."  I just felt like the author revealed their hand too early.  To be fair, this is pretty common in a debut novel, and it didn't severely impact how interesting the book was, but it was a little disappointing in a book I otherwise really enjoyed. 

The only other thing, and this is more of a suggestion than a criticism, is that I wish the worldbuilding included a little more information, as opposed to only what's strictly necessary to the plot. I know that not everyone will agree with this, but the anthropologist in me always wants more culture. This is especially true in a fairly generic high fantasy world seeking to stand out among great settings like Middle Earth, Sitia and Ixia, Oz, Eruvia, Westeros and Essos, and many others. 


So, a question I sometimes get is "do you want to read a sequel?" With Sweet and Bitter Magic, the answer is a resounding YES.  I want to see Tamsin and Wren again; I want to see Adrienne Tooley's plot development improve; I want to see more of the world Tooley has created.

Minor Spoiler #2 (Skip this paragraph if you don't want any spoilers.)- I'm not usually the type to just hope for a happy ending (in fact, I typically prefer darker endings, or at least a solid middle ground), but I spent this entire book wanting what's best for the characters.  I wanted them to be happy, and I was ecstatic when they finally were in the end.  I can't wait to see them face the world fully united in the next book.  (Fingers crossed that there is one!)

So that is my honest(ly raving) review of Sweet and Bitter Magic, Adrienne Tooley's debut novel! Up next is the third book in Vivian Shaw's Dr. Greta Helsing series, Grave Importance.  For those of you that need some background on the series, I have a previous blog post about the first two books.  That post does have spoilers.  As always, feel free to comment your thought about the book or my review! See you soon!

Dana


Rant & Rave- The Darker the Skies by Bryan Prosek

Hi All! It's been a while since my last post. I've had a busy summer and cheer season, but I'm back with an upcoming release fr...