WiB 2010: Fall Edition, Week 4

Oh week.  You were so busy.

Another quick one.  I apologize.  (And for the lack of recap too–maybe tomorrow?)

I spent DAYS on Tami Hoag’s Dark Paradise, and I’m a fast reader.  I just couldn’t get into this book until almost the end, which is never a good sign.  The characters were flat, the writing utterly repetitious, and it was certainly showing its age.  My first problem came when I didn’t realize how old the book was–it was written around 1994.  So I kept saying “Why is all this homespun/’regular people’ crap being thrown in my face?”  It was when the female lead makes out with the dude or something and then makes a comment about rape that I realized: early ’90s for sure.

It was a little easier to deal with the book then, but since it was chock full o’flaws and things I don’t like, like head-hopping and smokers (seriously) and a rather unsympathetic male lead, I found the book wearying.  By the time we figured out the “mystery,” I felt it had been almost entirely obvious.

Also, most states allow cousins to marry, so the “scandal” didn’t bother me at all, and masturbation STILL is a weak sign of an evil character.

Next, I read See Jane Run by Joy Fielding, which I THINK was a reread that I had literally blocked from my memory because I felt like it was a domino effect of triggers the whole way through.  Despite my horror–I literally had to be held afterward and had trouble getting to sleep–I blew through this book in, I believe, around two hours.  This story of a woman who finds herself in the streets of Boston with a concept of the city layout but no idea about her own identity is completely compelling.  To give away the triggers, I think, would be to give away all the surprise in the book, but I definitely did not think it was for the weak at heart.

Next I read a book called How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn.  I actually found it quite adorable, funny, and a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other romances I’ve read recently.  It’s a light read but one that romance readers will enjoy.

After that was Prince of Thieves by Melinda McRae, a book that lost a “star” (in Goodreads) the longer I read it.  The book started out good–a young woman saves an infamous thief from the gallows so that she may steal back something that was taken from her–but the longer it went on, the worse it got, until it was an incomprehensible mess.  Also, the author never met a paragraph where she couldn’t tell rather than show.

Then, last night during my fiance’s bachelor party, I raided his friend’s shelves and managed to get in four graphic novels before the party broke up.  First I read the tenth Runaways collection, and I have to say, I am very, very disappointed in Terry Moore.  I have always loved him, but he is a poor fit for Runaways.  Wasn’t fond of the artist either–who, if I remember correctly, I’ve liked in the past as well, but again, just a bad fit for the title.  Cutesy might’ve worked a long time ago for the title but it’s come too far to fall back into that.

Then I read Batwoman: Elegy, which was so beautiful that the overall impression suffered for it.  The stories were good and the artwork beautiful, but together they didn’t quite tell the story I was looking for.  The art is too symbolic and meaningful; it drags down Greg Rucka’s writing, except in Kate’s back story, where we’re getting brush strokes of her life, so the art works with it.  I’ve never been a fan of capital-A Art with action comics; this is no exception.  But otherwise a wonderful, wonderful book.

I wrapped up with the first two Dan Slott She-Hulk trades.  The second was a reread for me, but reading the first did help put things a bit more into perspective.  I wouldn’t have read the second first, since I almost never do that, but it was the only one available.  Slott is hilarious, Jennifer is adorable, and I love this title so far.  I just wish I’d had access to it before.

Next up: MAYBE I’LL ACTUALLY GET TO USE THE KINDLE FOR ONCE.