( 12 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 9
Honestly – Finished this one a month ago (its 2/28 as I update the blog – date on post is date I finished the book) and I don’t much remember it. I blew through this series like the brain candy it is and, well, yea.
( 11 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 8
Harder to relate to because Hope is a much younger character than me, but interesting. I was curious about life from the perspective of someone who found out the had way that their dad wasn’t human and she answered that to a tee. Karl, well, that’s a mixed bag. I’m all for redemption, and, as bads guy go, he was pretty mild in the first book in this series, but still…
Good read–I like Karl better for his unwillingness to surrender to the animal side of his were nature.
( 10 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 7
I was looking forward to Jaime’s book; she comes across so ditzy as a sideline character, I was looking forward to delving deeper into her nature. I enjoyed that. I also enjoyed seeing Jeremy a little moe human, a little less lionized (can you say that about a werewolf?).
I HATED that this novel involved harm to children. I get it, life sucks, kids get hurt, but I really, really don’t like it in my fiction. All the young children were killed before the story began, so the only narrated death was that of a teen runaway, but still. The same story could have been told w/o involving children, even fictitiously. I flat gave up LKH for a few years after she wrote an Anita Blake that involved a child cult; there are other ways to tell the tale ladies.
*a disappointed fan*
( 09 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 6
Not as strong as the last two, but still a good read. I’m stumped as to the origin of the title, though — the previous books the title was fairly self-explanatory, but I’m not sure where this one came from. I think my problem is that I just don’t enjoy Elena as a main character, something about her doesn’t ring true for me. She makes a great peripheral character in the other stories, but falls flat as the main event. Hopefully the babies will keep her too busy to get her own book (again!) any time soon.
( 08 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 5
Omigosh this was SO much better!
The others in this series have, up til now, been entertaining, fluffy reads. I had to chew on this one a little more–still an easy read, but with more mental power required along the way.
I love the whole new twist on the idea of how moms (and dads, I’m equal opportunity even if the book was not) have to learn to let go as their kids grow up, and how incredibly hard it is to do so. Even if you never read another book in this series–which will make a lot of the subtler elements harder to understand since they assume a basic knowledge of the characters gleaned from previous WotOW titles–read this one.
That means you, too, Candy. Let me know if you want it before someone on PBS requests it 
( 07 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 4
I like the progression. A character gets her own story, then another that is still hers, but introduces us to women who will be featured soon enough. I’ve read the flap copy of several of the later books in this series, so I know we’ll be meeting a number of people introduced in this book again later down the line. That’s the good.
The bad was the sex. The language got cruder, which didn’t feel like Paige to me, and the descriptions more graphic and the sex significantly more frequent than the plot required. I’m probably just all LKH burnt out, but it’d be nice if someone besides Chelsea Quinn Yarbro wrote paranormal fiction that wasn’t even a little pornographic.
( 06 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 3
This book felt truer than the Elena stories–I think Armstrong may have had to stretch a little too far to capture the feeling of woman as wolf, Paige’s story feels real.
( 05 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 2
Better. More diverse set of characters, introduces us to more things that go bump in the night. I love the humor of a werewolf who doesn’t believe in the supernatural…
( 04 ) Women of the OtherWorld, book 1
Not bad… A bit of a slow starter. I read it years ago and don’t think I ever finished it the first time. Not too shabby, nice strong women who aren’t super b*tches all the time and not constantly hopping into the sack ala Anita Blake. The sex in this one seemed to fit the story, and didn’t seem too gratuitous.
A decent enough start to get me reading the rest of them…
( 3 )
The author of this one tracked down one of the women in my book club from her review blog and offered her a dozen copies of his book for her to pimp hand out to friends and family, asking only that we review it on Amazon when we’re done.
I very much wish I had the spare time over the last five days that I’ve spent reading this back to do something else with them–like wash the dishes or catch up on laundry.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a truly bad book. It’s just not a good one, either. I was hanging in there til page 76, when the MC experienced, “grizzly visions.” Seeing as there were no bears involved I found this lapse in copyediting unforgivable, and found myself reading with skepticism for the other 351 pages, waiting for more errors (there were a few, mostly in the early chapters, and none as godawful as the one mentioned above).
Frankly, the book feels arrogant. Even when Douglas is young his voice is old, experienced, and a bit smug. Jack, well, I actually liked Jack. He was like a good ole boy version of Morpheus from the Matrix. Jefferson though? He was high handed and pedantic and not particularly likable. I didn’t go into this book with any expectations. I came away from it feeling as though I’d spent five days being talked down to by a smug little wank.
Several people from my book club have mentioned that they saw the very end bit coming very early on. I didn’t catch it as early as most, but I did catch it. I think maybe I didn’t because this book was such a plodder for me. I got through it, but I am not sad to see the end of it. It could have come a hundred-plus pages sooner and I’d have been far happier.
( 2 ) a Stephanie Plum book
I first read this years ago on the recommendation of my mom and while not in a good head space. I’m glad I read it then and found it entertaining enough to go on the the later books in the series. Re-reading it now, I’m not sure I would do the same again. I love this series, but I think, looking back, that it doesn’t really come into its own for a couple more books. That and my edition (Three Plums in One) was chock full of typos, which just annoys the hell out of me, especially in hardbacks. If you want me to pay $27.95 plus tax for your book, do me the courtesy of spelling the words correctly (heh, this has NOTHING on the one I’m reading now, but let me finish it before I whine).
Overall, I’d say 6.5 outta 10. Better than the apathy of 5, not quite the almost enthusiasm of a 7. But I’ll enjoy talking about it with the girls on Sunday.
( 1 ) Woot! First book of ‘09!
I loved the first Kushiel trilogy, featuring Phedre no Delauney. The 2nd, featuring Imriel, has been a disappointment until now. The first two books in his trilogy were long, and plodding, and a LOT of it just setting the scene for this one. This one was ~good~ lots of action, unexpected twists and turns, and, relatively rare in this series, a minimum of sex. It was a good read, but I’m still not sure it was worth putting up with the previous two Imriel books to get to this point. I’m much more interested in Alais, or Hyacinthe – now there are some stories waiting to be told!
