Review: Nice Girls Don’t Sign a Lease Without a Wedding Ring (Jane Jameson, #3.5) by Molly Harper

Nice Girls Don’t Sign a Lease Without a Wedding Ring by Molly Harper

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a quick little online story available for free for free from the author online. Definitely fun for fans of the series, it would probably also be a good intro to the author's style and the characters for people who haven't tried the books yet. But of course I'd always recommend going back to the beginning and trying the first book, if you haven't read any of them yet. I love Jane's voice in this series, she's definitely one that a lot of women will really love, as the small town (former) librarian who's super witty but not too snarky. The story is very short, so I wouldn't worry about even bothering to download it to your kindle or nook or whatever. I read it easily on my browser on my phone. And if you don't get a chance to catch it, don't worry, it's fun, but the events are summarized in the early chapters of the fourth book. You won't miss anything but a few chuckles.

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Review: The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor

The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The premise if this book is fun: what if Bella from Twilight wasn't really a shy, awkward kid, but was actually a manipulative, psychotic murderer and all of her shy, bumbling ways were planned behaviors to mask her real intentions? The book very closely mirrors Twilight, very much like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and that style of parody. If you like that kind of thing you'll likely get a chuckle out of this. I enjoyed the first hundred pages or so a lot. I thought that it wouldn't be as funny if I hadn't (a) read Twilight, (b) liked it, and (c) had a sense of humor about it. Diehard fans definitely won't appreciate it because it's obviously making fun of the book, although really it doesn't ridicule it that much at all, just presents a different angle and pokes gentle fun at it. But you know diehard fans won't be happy with any poking fun at their beloved characters or books. And people who hate the whole idea of Twilight will probably be annoyed by the it because it really closely matches the book. Too much, as it turns out.

By the middle of the book it got boring, it was just too close to Twilight. It wasn't quirky enough, there wasn't enough action or snark, and  there definitely was not enough Lake Woebegotten. It was just too much a scene-for-scene retelling of Twilight with a few semi-snarky comments from Bonnie and changing of the pertinent names and such to make it a parody. So they didn't play baseball, they played hockey, that is hardly interesting. 

As a fan of The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten, what would have really spiced it up was more interaction with the characters from the town. There were a few scenes throughout the book dealing with people from town, clearly leading up to something, but they really weren't utilized extensively until the end. It was also confusing as to whether this was a prequel or what. It turns out that it's really an alternate history, kind of like James Lovegrove with his Greek, Egyptian, Norse and now Astec versions of Earth. There are several people who die in both Woebegotten books, people who have different jobs, and a lot of fun parallels as well, so there are things that will satisfy fans of Zombies. But not as much as I'd hoped for, and not as much as the book needed to make it more interesting and original. By page 200 things finally picked up again, but it was quite a dry spell in between.

Overall, Zombies was just wittier. It kept me constantly amused. Maybe because I hadn't read the book it was based on? Was Zombies as faithful to the book it was based on as this one was? I have no way to compare at this point. This book just wasn't as biting and clever as I wanted it to be, but it's a fun idea pretty-well executed.

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Review: A Devil in the Details by K.A. Stewart

A Devil in the Details by K.A. Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this one a lot. It felt like a very well-established world that we were just invited into, it just had a different tone than a lot of urban fantasy books. Part of that is because it was set in the real world, in Kansas City, Missouri, the Show Me State. It also came from the author's choices in establishing Jesse as a somewhat more mature man, not a young kid just starting out. He's around thirty, married and madly in love with his wife, Mira, a powerful magic user as well, and they have an adorable five year-old daughter, Annabelle. Yet he's also a cool young guy, kind of a hippie in appearance with a proclivity for tee-shirts with inappropriate sayings,  but really a modern Samurai in spirit and actions.  He's in the prime of his career as a Champion, helping people who've sold their souls to devils, reclaiming them by literally fighting for them. 

The author does a great job of establishing this really normal world of suburban life juxtaposed with the jeopardy of someone needing to fight against the evil the devils are committing and showing how Jesse and his wife, Mira,  are willing to be the ones take the risks involved in doing what's right despite the mortal jeopardy it puts him in every time. I likes the story and the twists, I liked all of the supporting characters, including Jesse's mentor, Ivan, a tough former probably-Soviet or Eastern Block agent of some sort, and Mira's best friend and Jesse's ex, Dr. Bridget. It was a little too convenient that Jesse's old neighbor and best buddy, Marty, was a welder with a passion to be a blacksmith, but it did explain how he took care of his swords and armor. And most intriguing of all was the demon, Axel, who was either trying to steal Jesse's soul or trying to help him by telling him that something sinister was going on beyond the normal contract he expected. Or both. It was a good set up for the next book. 

And again, with all of these characters and situations there were so many touches that made it feel real and down to earth, such as the mention of how bad the padding in the armor smelled of sweat and blood, that no matter what he did he could never get it clean. It was just another thing made it feel really real. There was a lot in this book that felt more mature than I expected from a new author. It wasn't perfect, there were some pacing issues, but overall I really like Jesse and this situation the author has established and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. 

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