Review: Princeps' Fury

Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Concession Stand: Soda

I can only hear these books on audiobook now since Kate Redding's voice is irrevocably attached to the characters in my psyche. There were some lovely twists and turns in this book, even if it did feel like the majority of it was exposition for the next novel in the series. The development of the characters is one of Butcher's strong points and the fact that you desperately want the characters to succeed makes the entire story richer than would otherwise be the case.

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Review: Queen of the Darkness

Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Concession Stand: Soft Pretzel

The end of this trilogy finally started to pick up a bit, but the ending still felt very abrupt. The author did a good enough job of making me like the characters so that at the end of the book there were a few heartstrings being pulled. Yet I still wish that the writing could have supported the concept more fully.

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Book Ratings and Concession Stand Food

I have been posting quite a few book reviews up here lately and - although they have this nifty little star rating system and my incessant babbling all contained in the post - I still find myself falling back on my old stand-by rating system for books.This system is based on concession stand food.

Don't ask me why.  It was unintentional, but once I started using the term "popcorn books", the rest just seemed to follow suit.  So, here's the Concession Stand Book Rating System, broken down.  I'll be using it in my book reviews from now on (and will go back and re-rate the ones that are already in the blog to reflect their status on the scale).

Review: Heir to the Shadows

Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Concession Stand: Soft Pretzel
The disjointed storytelling techniques that Anne Bishop employs are overshadowed by the way she makes you truly feel for her characters. The story seems to jerk forward in leaps and bounds and there are long stretches that feel unaccounted for as they thrust a girl-child into womanhood before the reader is ready for that progression. The detailing of one character's madness is intriguing and yet at the same time you almost wish that she would move that particular character forward as they seem stuck in this endless loop - not growing, not changing, just a static placeholder while the other characters catch up.

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Review: Torn

Torn by Julie Kenner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Concession Stand: Popcorn

I'm still not sure how I feel about these books. The writing is sub-par, but the concepts are fascinating to me. I'll go ahead and read the third book (since I have it) but I still am stuck firmly on the fence.

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Review: Tainted

Tainted by Julie Kenner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Concession Stand: Popcorn

This is the second book I've read by this author and I'm glad that I have at least a slightly better review this time. Again, the concepts that Ms. Kenner comes up with are intriguing and engaging but their execution falls a bit flat. At least this time I didn't have to slog through a product placement every five seconds.

Her characters are not believable and their reactions are nonsensical. Her settings are stale and flat. Her romance is all "forbidden heat" and no actual romance. Luckily for Ms. Kenner, she can apparently come up with a concept decent enough to forgive all of that... up to a point.

I plan to read the rest of the series to see where the stories goes, but I may end up having to put it down if there isn't some decent writing to bolster and support the amazing concepts.

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