A slight change

My once-a-week posting schedule is going to be changing, starting this week. I don't know how long it's going to last, but I realized a change was needed when I started trying to push my backlog out faster and ended up with enough finished posts to last me half a year if I only published them once a week.  Anyway, I'll be moving briefly to a twice weekly schedule and then, at some point, to a once-a-day schedule, until everything is slightly more manageable.  This will probably last as least through September.

Just watch - after all this, I'll hit a dry period where I won't be able to force myself to finish writing anything. Then my posting schedule will go down the tubes and I'll wish I had all those finished posts back.  Oh well, too bad.

The Shadow Queen (book) by Anne Bishop

Do you look at this cover art and think, "Wow, she's big-boned, freckly, and not very pretty"? Yeah, neither do I. Well, at least it's eye-catching.

Synopsis:

Two years after Jaenelle loosed her power upon the world of the Blood and wiped out everyone who had been tainted by Dorothea, Dena Nehele is nearly in ruins. The landens hadn't wasted any time attacking the weakened Blood, and it was only at great cost that the Blood in Dena Nehele managed to beat them back. Most darker Jeweled Blood are dead, and there is no one left who could make a suitable Queen. Prince Theran Grayhaven, a descendant (grandson, I think) of Jared (read The Invisible Ring), knows his people have one chance - he must convince Daemon Sadi, one of the most dangerous Blood males alive, to help him find a Queen for Dena Nehele in Kaeleer.

Cassidy, the Queen Daemon and Jaenelle find for Dena Nehele, is not what Theran was looking for. She isn't pretty, she only wears a Rose Jewel, and she seems like bottom-of-the-barrel pickings (her previous court walked out on her - because she wasn't pretty enough and because being part of her court wouldn't lead to bigger and better things). Although Theran doesn't adjust well to Cassidy, those around him do. Eventually. After they're hit over the head by a few details, like the fact that Cassidy is on a first name basis with Jaenelle, who is Witch, and the fact that Cassidy received her "court polish" from none other than Saetan himself. Also, Lia, the former Queen of Dena Nehele, seems to posthumously accept Cassidy. And Theran's cousin, Gray, warms to her almost immediately and soon falls in love with her, even though he had previously been terrified of all Queens after having been tortured by Dorothea's Queens.

Although Theran never quite gets along with Cassidy, she does end up finding her place in Dena Nehele with her new court and with Gray, who by the end of the book is still in the process of transitioning into something more like the man he might have been had he not been tortured.

While all of that is going on, Daemon is falling apart. A witch named Vulchera tries to play a game with him, taking one of his shirts and wearing it, with the intention of sending it back to his household for Jaenelle to see (or maybe she did send it - I wasn't quite clear on that). The idea was that the shirt could be used as blackmail against Daemon. Vulchera had already played this game with quite a few men - all of them were married, and some of them slept with her, which made it easy for her to get one of their shirts, but she found ways to use the same trick even if they didn't sleep with her.

Even on a good day, Daemon isn't a man to mess with. Lately, however, he's been on edge, so badly on edge that he even frightened Jaenelle and thought he might hurt her without realizing it. In the end, though, it's not Daemon who kills Vulchera, it's Saetan. Saetan enters the Twisted Kingdom and kills her, a sort of transferred vengeance, because her actions sometimes had results similar to what Dorothea did to him. In one case, the wife of one of the men Vulchera blackmailed denied him paternity and, because of a carefully timed push on Vulchera's part, the man killed everyone around him, including his wife and beloved child. Saetan can't help but think of Dorothea, and how she denied him paternity at Daemon's Birthright Ceremony, and the thought of what he could have done to Daemon is almost enough to break him. Daemon and Lucivar manage to set things right without bloodshed, though, and all is well.

Commentary:

I read a comment about this book on another blog, something about the Daemon/Jaenelle/Saetan/Lucivar cameos being a bit much. At first, I couldn't see what the problem was. Yes, the back-and-forth thing as characters from Bishop's original Blood trilogy kept checking on Cassidy looked like it might get annoying after a while, but I figured that would let up eventually. Plus, part of me kind of liked it - I do still like most of the characters from the original trilogy, and it was nice to see what they were up to.

Then those characters tried to take over the book. I'm not really sure when it started - maybe when Daemon started having his Vulchera problems, or maybe it didn't really start until Saetan began his multi-stage torture/killing of Vulchera. Anyway, for a little while, I forgot that the book was actually supposed to be about Cassidy and Dena Nehele. The whole thing with Saetan got resolved, and suddenly I remembered that that wasn't really the climax. Or it wasn't supposed to be.

Had Daemon and Saetan's issues not taken up so many pages, there might have been more room for Cassidy and Dena Nehele. Maybe Bishop didn't feel like there was enough story there to fill a whole book, and that's why she allowed her characters from the trilogy to run amok, but I think there was a lot more she could have done with Cassidy's story. For one thing, she could've had Theran get his head out of his butt faster and spent more time showing Cassidy getting others to trust her and believe that she could be a good Queen for Dena Nehele. She could have spent more time showing Cassidy bridging the bloody gap between Dena Nehele's Blood and landen - I'm sorry, but after all the bloodshed the two groups went through only two years prior, one incident in which Cassidy protects a landen girl and justly punishes the Blood males who hurt her isn't enough. Mending the rift should take more work than that - why not show some of that? Why not show Cassidy interacting more with her court and others in the area? She seemed to spend all of her time with Theran, Shira, or Gray.

The cheesy bit (sidestory?) involving the "treasure hunt" at Grayhaven, in which Cassidy keeps finding all the pieces and can't let anyone else know, was just...not worthy of a novel. A short story maybe, but only if there was nothing better to write about. I know, I know, it was supposed to show how Cassidy was being accepted as the Queen of Dena Nehele by a great former Queen's magic, which, I guess, overrides any objections anyone else (like Theran) might have. Whatever. Wasn't there a better way to do that? Something less clunky?

Seriously, once Bishop got past the bit where she set up the basics of Cassidy's part of the book ("Queen who's been emotionally wounded by a court who rejected her for not being pretty, going off to be Queen of a place where, for the most part, she's not wanted because she's not pretty"), it's like the book became two blended short stories - Daemon and Saetan's "two men who still bear the scars of their pasts" story, and Cassidy's "treasure hunt, and do I really belong here?" story. If Bishop wanted to write a couple short stories (or novellas), she should have just written another anthology. I would have preferred that, because at least then it would have been clear what I was getting into. Instead, I expected a book starring new characters, with cameo appearances from old characters. That's sort of what I got, but that's not the spirit of what I got.

I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of "the dark side of the men" stories, so I wasn't as happy about most of the Daemon/Saetan stuff as I could have been. I skipped the Zuulaman story in the anthology Bishop did (Dreams Made Flesh), because I don't like reading about Saetan having crazy person meltdowns. I wasn't entirely happy with Daemon having crazy person meltdowns directed at Jaenelle - I mean, I always thought that Jaenelle would be the one person Daemon would never go all scary with.

Aside from all of that, I think one thing that got to me with this book was that none of it really felt new. Maybe it was all the cameos and references to, well, everything Bishop had ever set in the world of the Blood. Seriously, I think she referenced nearly every book and short story in one way or another - even if I didn't prefer the original trilogy to this book, I still wouldn't recommend this book to a newbie to the series, because of all the references. I do think, though, that, even without all the references and cameos, it still would've felt a bit too familiar. Saetan had his breakdown story already - Zuulaman. Daemon spent, what, a whole book broken? Also, he had a short story where people spread rumors that he was cheating on Jaenelle, kind of like what Vulchera was planning. So, other than Daemon almost/sort of hurting Jaenelle (and I'm not entirely sure that hasn't happened before), nothing new.

It seems like every single one of Bishops good Queens isn't pretty, although Cassidy may be the first one to be stuck on that. Gray's man-boy nature (mentally a boy, with flashes of being mentally the 27-year old man he really is) is also, I think, new for one of Bishop's romantic heroes, although his damaged nature certainly isn't new. Even so, Cassidy's part of the book is still fresher than the parts of Daemon, Saetan, Jaenelle, and Lucivar - it's too bad Bishop couldn't think of anything better than a treasure hunt and allowed cameos to eat valuable story space. I should note, however, that, after I finished the book, the parts I went back and reread were all parts with Cassidy and Gray. Especially Gray - I enjoyed reading about him as he learned about Protocol and fell in love with Cassidy.

Overall, though, not Bishop's best effort. I loved the bits with Cassidy and Gray, and the bits where Cassidy tried to become the Queen of a place that couldn't seem to accept her, but I hated the treasure hunt and I hated the dark, show-stealing sidestory involving Saetan, Daemon, and Vulchera. I know there's at least one Blood book after this, and I plan on reading it, but I hope that Bishop gets her act together and writes a book, and not a few blended novellas. Or, hey, I'll take the novellas if they're actually called that. Just be honest about what I'm going to be reading, and I'll be happy.

I'm going to assume that anyone who reads this book and likes it even a little has read at least some of the previous books in the series - I'm not even going to bother to list any of Bishop's books as read-alikes. Of course, that means my list is really short. I had problems coming up with good things to include. On the plus side, at least everything I've listed is something I would consider to be a strong read-alike/watch-alike. On the minus side, neither of these suggestions have much in the way of romance - Chalice, only a little, and The Twelve Kingdoms, nothing at all, unless you count the occasional blush over Keiki or the possibility of friendship with Rakushun blossoming into love.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Chalice (book) by Robin McKinley - Mirasol, a beekeeper, finds herself way, way out of her depth when she is declared to be the new Chalice. The health of a land is determined by its Master, and a Chalice is supposed to keep the Master in line and make sure everything is stable and in balance. Unfortunately, unlike most Chalices, Mirasol has had no apprenticeship and therefore doesn't know how to do her job. In addition, her Circle obviously doesn't want her, and the new Master is barely human. Those who, like me, enjoyed the bits of The Shadow Queen that were about Cassidy may want to try this book - just be warned that, although there is a smidgen of romance, romance is not a big part of the book.
• The Twelve Kingdoms (anime TV series) - This anime is based on a series of books written by Fuyumi Ono, which I highly recommend reading in order, just because the world it's all set in is so complex that it's really just best not to create an additional breeding ground for confusion. I think the anime covers the events of the first three books. The series as a whole is centered upon the world of the Twelve Kingdoms, each kingdom of which is governed by a ruler whose very existence determines the health and prosperity of his or her kingdom. Each ruler is chosen and guided by a kirin. One particular ruler who comes up a lot in the show and the series of books is Yoko, a seemingly ordinary Japanese high school girl who was taken from the world she knew by a strange man named Keiki and plopped in the world of the Twelve Kingdoms. Eventually, Yoko learns that she's the new ruler of Kei and must figure out how to stabilize a place she knows little about, whose people, fearing that she's just like the previous ruler, don't trust her. Again, if you liked Cassidy, you may like this, but don't expect romance just because Keiki is pretty.
  

Eclipse

I just saw Eclipse.  I think I read too many amusing blog posts beforehand, because all I could think about were things like Bella's eyebrows, counting how many times Jacob appeared onscreen with his shirt on, and everyone's wigs.  I also couldn't stop wondering why no one in Forks ever commented on the Cullens' eyes.  Maybe they were distracted by their hair.  This time around, though, I think Bella's hairline stole the hair spotlight - I could not stop staring at it.

A few other things I wondered about:

1. After spending the night shivering (even though her nose didn't turn red or drip), how was Bella able to easily stand outside in the snow without a coat on the next day?  Granted, it didn't appear as though there was any wind, but it should still have been too cold to just stand there.  Of course, Bella's breath wasn't showing either, so there were more problems with that scene than just her lack of a coat.
2. Why do Edward and Jacob love Bella so much?  Four books, three movies, and one graphic novel later, and I still don't get it.  I suppose you could argue that Jacob is young and his hormones are just out of control, but Edward doesn't have that excuse.  Maybe her delicious scent overrode his brain?
3. Why doesn't anyone in the Cullen family go wild for the scent of Bella's blood anymore?  Yes, Edward had that incredibly sappy answer for Bella, but that answer doesn't hold for everyone else in the family.  Bella was able to parade around in front of them after having gashed her arm open, and no one even seemed to notice.
4. Was I the only one who cringed every time Jacob talked about how much he loved Bella and how much Bella loved him?  All I could think about was, "And very soon you will be imprinting upon her infant daughter."  Ew.
5. Were the vampires always made of plaster?  I sure don't remember that being the case in the previous movies, and I don't remember it coming up in the books.  And yet now they shatter.  Wouldn't this sort of thing actually make them more fragile than human beings, rather than less?

For me, the best parts of the movie were:

1. Charlie.  He was awesome, and easily the most natural, grounded character in the whole movie.  I had another one of those "gosh, Bella's relationships are unhealthy" moments (actually, multiple moments), and I felt like cheering every time Charlie told Bella he wanted her to spend more time with people besides Edward.
2. The bit where Jacob explained to Charlie why he and Edward had been fighting.  "I kissed Bella...and then she broke her hand."  On his face.  
3. Seth.  In human form, he's adorable.  In wolf form, if I saw him at the pound, I'd want to adopt him, scratch him behind the ears, and give him a big hug.  Who cares that, even while standing on all fours, he's still taller than I am?

Do I want to own this movie when it comes out on DVD?  No.  Although I might get it one day anyway, just because this would be a wonderful movie to watch with a group - it begs to be made fun of.

The state of things

I'm not all that wild about either of the books I'm reading right now, but I have issues with quitting books after I've started them.  I don't do it often.  I don't know why - the few times I've chosen to just quit reading a book, I haven't regretted it.  I just don't like starting a book and not finishing it.

I'm almost done watching The Twelve Kingdoms all the way through in English (my first viewing was in Japanese with English subtitles).  I prefer it in Japanese, but I've gotten used to the English dub - I no longer cringe when Yoko speaks.  I haven't decided what I'll watch next.  I should watch at least a little of the second season of Rurouni Kenshin, so I can decide whether I need to buy the first and third seasons. I'm not really in the mood to watch the whole season right now, though.  For me, it's currently a toss up between Red Garden and Welcome to the NHK.  However, I might decide to watch Raccoon Princess before I get started with either of those.  Decisions, decisions.

That's just my DVD viewing - online, I'm currently working my way through Naruto Shippuden.  I've got a long, long way to go.  There are 167 episodes on Hulu, and I'm only on episode 16.  I put off watching this show because I was a little burned out on being hooked on really long shows.  I love being able to follow beloved characters for dozens or hundreds of episodes, but I also like owning stuff I enjoy, and loving something this massive is really expensive.  Naruto, the first TV series, gave me an excuse to quit watching it by going on a hundred-episode long filler spree.  Then my dad started giving me Naruto Shippuden spoilers, and I kept seeing AMVs with really great Naruto Shippuden clips, and I ended up caving.

Tomorrow I plan to go see Eclipse, the teenage fangirl magnet.  I hope it's been out long enough that I won't find myself sitting in a crowded theater.

And, last but not least, I'm starting to get sick, which isn't good.  I can feel it in my throat, so I'll need to make sure to drink lots of tea.  Hey, it's an excuse to drink my delicious and expensive throat tea.  I consider it the tastiest tea I own.  The only good thing about having a sore throat is that it gives me an excuse to drink this tea.  Anyway, I'm convinced it's the weather that's making me sick.  We've been having a lot of rain lately, which seems to have no effect on our disgusting heat, other than to turn it into humid heat.  I still walk to and from work almost every work day.  Most days, it rains a lot in the middle of the day and/or in the evening, which means my walk usually isn't too bad.  By the end of the work day on Friday, though, we had a few mid-calf height puddles (which might better be called "mildly flooded streets" and "gutter rivers").  Even before Friday, it's felt like the humidity has been clinging to my lungs - no matter how much I clear my throat, that little tickle always seems to come back.

Twilight: The Graphic Novel (graphic novel, vol. 1) by Stephenie Meyer, art and adaptation by Young Kim

Synopsis:

If you've already read the book, you know what's going to happen in this graphic novel, even though you may not know exactly how it's going to happen or what details might change or get condensed. If you haven't read the book, unless you'd like a Cliff's Notes version of the original story, I suggest you start with that instead.

So, I'll just make this brief. This graphic novel adaptation covers a condensed and sometimes a little altered version of the events of Stephenie Meyer's novel Twilight, up to the point where Edward tells Bella what he is and that she smells fantastically delicious to him. They kiss, and there's the bit where she rides through the forest on his back. Yeehaw.

Commentary:

My initial reaction to this volume, when I flipped through it, was "ooh, pretty artwork." That's one thing this adaptation has over, say, the movie - the Cullens don't look like pale plastic Barbie people, they look like the inhumanly gorgeous creatures they're supposed to be. Unfortunately, the super-gorgeous character designs include Bella, who, rather than looking like an ordinary girl, has a tendency to look like a manga (or is manhwa the better word to use here?) princess - what's going to happen when the story gets to the point where Bella gets turned into a vampire and she's supposed to become inhumanly beautiful? I'm not sure it's possible to draw her more beautiful than this.

Had I been a newcomer to this series, I don't know that I would have liked this adaptation all that much. While Bella's narration can get a bit...trying...in the original novel, this graphic novel condensed things almost a little too much. The worst part is, the annoying aspects of Bella's narration are still there, so it's not like that particular weakness is overcome (it's still incredibly dramatic in an unintentionally amusing way, and Bella still doesn't "sound" like a teenage girl to me). Anyway, it's probably a good thing that I didn't read this for the story. I already knew the story, what I wanted was to see the artwork and take a look at the visuals for any scenes I remembered enjoying in either the novel or the movie.

While I, for the most part, enjoyed the artwork, with its gorgeous character designs (although I thought Jasper actually looked better than Edward), dreamy shading, and clever use of color (only a few pages in this volume have any color), there are still things about the look of this volume that I hated. For now, this is only a minor weakness, although it'll become a greater weakness if this graphic novel series ever makes it to the more Jacob-heavy parts of the series: while the first wolf depicted in this volume looked really good, the second one looked off and bothered me. A more generalized problem I had with the artwork involved characters' facial expressions. While some subtle facial expressions were well-done, other times (quite a few times actually) characters' facial expressions were so subtle that they seemed to be non-existent, at least to me. Also, is it too much to ask that not all facial expressions be subtle? It was rare for characters' facial expressions to be more pronounced or to involve their whole face. Maybe they all got Botox treatments?

All those complaints feel kind of nitpicky in comparison with my hatred of the conversation bubbles, lettering, and "trembling" lines used, although at least the "sweat drops" weren't overdone (unlike in In Odd We Trust). The conversation bubbles tended to be large, perfect, translucent things, with a scraggly little line pointing in the direction of whoever was saying the text. The lettering used throughout the entire volume was perfect, the kind of thing you'd see in a Word document. The overall effect, combined with the inhumanly lovely characters and smooth shading, was one of lots and lots of perfection. A little hand-lettering, or at least a font that would give the illusion of hand-lettering, might have broken up that perfection somewhat. The translucent conversation bubbles just annoyed me - they screamed "lookit what we can do with the computer!" more than anything else to me.

The "trembling" lines (such as when Edward is shaking from the effort of being around Bella at the beginning of the volume) had a look that was similar to the weird scraggly lines coming out of the conversation bubbles. The lines were too strong (especially when outlined in white while on a dark background), making them stand out way too much, I hated that the look screamed "we did this on the computer, after everything else had already been drawn" (making the trembling less a part of the artwork and more something like a sound effect), and there was something about them that didn't seem quite right to me. When I first saw the "trembling" lines, I had a second where I couldn't figure out what they were. That shouldn't happen. Things like these lines need to perfectly follow conventions, which will allow them to be interpreted by readers as being certain emotional cues, all without the reader ever necessarily being aware of what's going on. If you're actually seeing the lines, the way I did, and not feeling them as emotional cues, then something's not right.

I already wrote a lot about the original novel in a separate post, so I don't think I need to say too much about what I thought about the story. I still think Bella's a bit too masochistic. I think this adaptation proves that there is no way to do Meyer's "sparkling vampire" look without it seeming stupid - it was stupid in the movie, and, although it's marginally better in this graphic novel (the bit where Edward walks out into the sunlight is absolutely gorgeous and one of several instances of the book's really effective use of limited color), it's still pretty lame. In addition, because of Young Kim's style, I couldn't help but think "shojo sparklies!" when I saw the sparkles shining in Edward's hair.

If I had bought this instead of getting it via ILL, I would probably consider this a keeper for the artwork alone - despite various shortcomings, the artwork is still lovely. As far as its story goes, though, it's pretty meh. If you want the story, I'd recommend the book or even the movie over this graphic novel any day.

My read-alikes list is nearly the same as the one I wrote up for Twilight because, well, I copied and pasted most of it. Yes, I'm lazy. Especially because a complete and updated list of Twilight read-alikes would probably be at least a few dozen pages - dark (or somewhat dark) YA romances featuring supernatural heroes are everywhere you look these days. If you need more suggestions than I've listed below, let me know - I can come up with more, no problem.

Read-alikes:

• The Awakening (book) by L. J. Smith - This is the first book in Smith's Vampire Diaries series. Elena is a beautiful, popular high school girl who is intrigued by Stefan, a brooding and mysterious newcomer who is the only one to ever resist her. Damon is Stefan's sexy and dangerous brother, who, in order to get revenge against Stefan, is willing to take Elena from him by whatever means necessary. What Elena doesn't know at first is that both Stefan and Damon are vampires - by getting closer to them, she's involving herself, her friends, and her family in their dangerous world. Those who'd like another story involving high school romance, vampires, and a vampire character the heroine can't keep her eyes off of might like this book.
• The Initiation (book) by L. J. Smith - This is the first book in Smith's Secret Circle series, although it is no longer available on its own - the link will take you to the Amazon.com page for a volume combining the first book and half the second book (what were they thinking?!). Cassie isn't thrilled to move from sunny California to gloomy New England, but it isn't long before things get interesting for her. Her new school is practically ruled by a group of gorgeous teens who appear to be feared and/or respected by everyone around them. Cassie gradually discovers that, not only do these teens have special powers, so does she. As she gets involved with the group, she begins to fall for one of the girls' boyfriends. Those who'd like another story involving a teenage girl who's recently moved to a new town, dangerous fantasy elements, and romance might like this book.
• Blood and Chocolate (book) by Annette Curtis Klause - Vivian is a werewolf, part of a small community of werewolves living in secret among humans. Vivian's father, the pack leader, was killed when the pack was driven out of its previous home, and all that remains is for a new leader to be chosen before the pack can move to a more permanent home. In the meantime, Vivian doesn't really feel at home with anyone in the pack. She begins dating a human, but how long will their relationship last if she tells him what she is? Even worse, people have been getting killed and Vivian can't be certain she wasn't responsible. Those who'd like another story with supernatural beings, high school-aged characters, and romance might like this book.
• Vampire Kisses (book) by Ellen Schreiber - This is the first book in Schreiber's Vampire Kisses series. Raven, a Goth obsessed with all things dark and creepy, is in oddity in her tiny hometown. One day, a handsome teenage boy moves into town, and Raven is immediately drawn to him - like her, he's pale and dresses in dark clothing. She's sure he's a vampire, just as she's sure she wants to be his girlfriend. Those who'd like another "teen girl and her vampire boyfriend" story might like this book and series, which is aimed at a somewhat younger age group than Meyer's books (the books are much shorter, under 300 pages, and things don't get quite as dark and dangerous). In addition, this series has also been manga-fied - check out Amazon's page for the first volume here.
  
• Vampire Knight (manga) by Matsuri Hino - Yuki's earliest memory is of being attacked by a vampire and then saved by another, the gorgeous and mysterious Kaname. Ten years later, Yuki, now the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, spends her time blushing over Kaname and protecting the Day Class students (all humans, unaware of the vampires around them) from the Night Class (all vampires). She is aided by Zero, a brooding teenager hiding a dark secret. Those who'd like another romance involving teens, vampires, and guys with conflicting desires (should they rip the heroine's throat out or kiss her? hmm...) might like this series.

FUNimation - the second season of Black Butler!

Big news - you can watch the first episode, subbed, of the second season of Black Butler on FUNimation's website!

And I have.  At first, I assumed that the new kid, who needs his butt kicked, was Ciel's replacement and that Claude was maybe Sebastian, back in a new form.  I was wrong!  No real information revealed yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out more...and seeing the new kid's butt get kicked.  I know, he's had some horrible stuff happen to him, and we've probably only been shown a small portion of all the awfulness he has experienced, but still.  He's a disturbing little monster.  Claude's taste in masters sucks.

Fake (anime OVA)

If I ever decide it's time to sell some of my anime collection so that I can afford to buy new stuff, this will probably be on the pile of stuff I'm willing to sell. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, not by a long shot, but it's not great. I have a feeling this was produced primarily for fans of the manga - since I've never read any of the manga, I'm not really part of the intended audience.

Before we go any farther, a quote from the back of the DVD box: "Contains depictions of alternative lifestyles. Viewer discretion is advised." I guess they couldn't say "Warning: nearly every male character in this is gay." Anyway, there are several kissing scenes, with tongue, but otherwise nothing terribly graphic. If you're actually hoping for something (i.e., sex) to happen, even the suggestion of something, you'll be disappointed.

Synopsis:

Dee Laytner of the NYPD and his half-Japanese partner, Randy "Ryo" McLane, are taking a much needed vacation at an out-of-the-way place in England. Originally, they were supposed to be going with a kid named Bikky, but, unbeknownst to Ryo, Dee paid Bikky not to come, because Dee would like some alone time with Ryo. You see, Dee has had the hots Ryo for quite some time, but Ryo hasn't really taken his feelings seriously, and all they've ever done is kiss.

Unfortunately, their happy vacation time is interrupted by the discovery of a dead body. For some unknown reason, this is not a cause for alarm, and Dee, Ryo, and two female guests are allowed to continue staying at the hotel. One of the guests, a Japanese woman, does her best to try to cheer Dee up and encourage Ryo to be more open about his feelings.

Dee and Ryo's alone time is again interrupted, this time by the arrival of both Bikky and Carol, two children they know, and then J.J., a cop from the same precinct as them who happens to have heaping boatloads of unrequited love for Dee - any possibility of Dee and Ryo doing more than kissing has now gone out the window. After talking with a workaholic NYPD cop named Berkeley Rose (seriously, that's his name) who also happens to be on vacation, Dee learns that all the murder victims who have been found near the hotel recently were tourists of Japanese descent and that the hotel owner's daughter had been killed five years ago by some Japanese tourists. Now that the hotel owner knows Ryo is half-Japanese, Ryo is in danger, so Dee rushes back to the hotel.

It's a good thing, too, because the hotel owner and his knife-wielding thug of a cook have decided it's time to slice Ryo up. Dee saves the day when he hits the hotel owner in the chest with a motorcycle. This does not, by the way, kill the guy or even result in his hospitalization. The hotel owner, who just prior to being hit by the motorcycle had seen the ghost of his distraught daughter trying to protect Ryo, realizes the error of his ways and is led off by the (English) cops. The ghost of the hotel owner's daughter is finally put to rest, the two female tourists from earlier are dead but apparently no one cares, and Dee never got to rip Ryo's clothes off.

Lucky Dee and Ryo - when they get back from their vacation, they learn that Berkeley Rose is their new commissioner. Or something. I'm not really sure how this works. It's quite possible that the creators of this series don't either.

Commentary:

This really needs to be watched with your brain turned off. Otherwise, you start to think about things like: How come none of the local police care about all the dead tourists? True, if it's not reported in the local news, that might delay bad publicity, but, if enough people die, word gets out, and wouldn't the lack of an investigation look really bad? Is an investigation really necessary? The guy is hardly even trying to hide that he's behind it, and a child could figure out that "dead Japanese tourists" + "daughter killed by Japanese tourists" = "killer father." Why did it take Dee so long to figure out that Ryo would be a potential target? Why was no one worried about staying at the very isolated hotel when a body was found right nearby? How did the hotel owner get hit by a motorcycle and not get hurt? How do all these cops keep their jobs when they're so awful at them and seem to care more about getting into each other's pants? How did a 13-year-old girl and a boy (maybe girl?) who's probably a bit younger manage to get the money for two tickets to England, and so quickly at that?

So, brain turned off.

You never know what you'll get when you're watching anime (or reading manga) that has gay characters. Will their gayness be considered socially unacceptable by other characters? Will the "but we're both guys" aspect be an obstacle in a romantic relationship? Or will the gayness go without comment? In this anime, it goes without comment - it probably helps that nearly every adult male character in this OVA is gay (judging by the opening animation, Berkeley Rose wouldn't mind getting into Ryo's pants either). The main conflict between Dee and Ryo is not "but we're both guys," but rather "I don't know if you're really serious about me, and I'm also not entirely sure how I feel about you or what I should do about how I feel about you."

The opening animation is part of what makes me think that this OVA is intended mainly for fans of the manga - there's a lot going on there that never comes up in the anime's story, and there are characters that never make an appearance anywhere but in that opening animation. I'm guessing that the manga has a "cheese factor" that is similar to this OVA - if I were generally more in the mood for that sort of thing, I might check out the manga to see if it's any better. As it is, I think I may end my Fake experience here.

Anyway, one thing that took me a bit to get used to was the artwork. Not so much the...interesting...background coloring (lime green walls? really?) as the "droopy eyes" look. Sometimes the droopy eyes were a bit more pronounced than others. I got used to it after a while, but I'm so used to my anime having a certain look, and how I feel about the artwork can sometimes make or break an anime for me.

The story was very, very simple. As a murder mystery, it sucked. There weren't a lot of potential suspects - the cook's thug-like looks immediately put him on the short list of suspects, and the hotel owner's behavior made him look suspicious well before the details of his daughter's death were revealed. The fact that all the victims were of Japanese descent was revealed fairly early, so I can't imagine why Dee and Ryo didn't realize that Ryo was in danger until almost too late. They're just idiots, I guess. Or all the blood that should have been in their heads was spending too much time in their pants.

One thing I did really enjoy about this DVD, though, was the humor. Dee's attempts to finally get Ryo alone and take their relationship to the next step were hilarious. I'm sure that, if J.J. had gotten to be around more, the whole "J.J. loves Dee, who loves Ryo, who possibly loves Dee" thing would have been worth many laughs (and I'm guessing you could add Berkeley Rose being interested in Ryo). I can't imagine any of them actually conducting an investigation, so I'd have problems taking any police-related plots seriously, but I'm sure I'd love further comedic/romantic plots.

I watched this in both Japanese with subtitles and in English dub. The English dub was ok - thankfully, none of the voice actors decided to sound stereotypically gay. However, compared to the Japanese language track, the English acting seemed to be a bit off here and there. The Japanese language track was quite good, although the subtitles seemed a bit stilted.

Extras:

There are none, not even a clean opening and closing. I wasn't bothered by the lack of a clean closing, since the closing is just a bunch of clips from the OVA, but a clean opening would have been nice.

Watch-alikes and Read-alikes:

• Gravitation (manga) by Maki Murakami; Gravitation (anime TV series) - Shuichi Shindo is a singer in a band that he hopes will become famous. One day, he loses a page of unfinished song lyrics. The handsome and caustic man who catches it insults the lyrics and sticks in poor Shuichi's mind. Schuichi later discovers that the man was Eiri Yuki, a famous writer, and seeks him out. The two eventually become lovers, but Yuki's emotional issues and Shuichi's rapidly developing musical career may tear them apart. Gravitation, like Fake, isn't for everyone, since it features romance between two men - although neither the manga nor the anime are explicit, the anime keeps the physical aspects of the romance slightly more "off screen" than the manga. This series may appeal to those who'd like another romance between two guys, combined with humor and a bit of drama.
• Descendants of Darkness (manga) by Yoko Matsushita; Descendants of Darkness (anime TV series) - Even after death, there's paperwork to do and criminals to catch. Tsuzuki Asato is a somewhat goofy (yet powerful) shinigami (god of death) whose job involves ensuring that the dead remain properly dead and out of the lives of the living. Tsuzuki gets a new partner, Hisoka, and the cases they investigate keep bringing them up against Muraki, a serial killer. Muraki seems to know an awful lot about Tsuzuki and Hisoka's darkest secrets. Those who'd like another series that combines brief mysteries with humor and a wee bit of romance between guys might want to try this. Compared to Fake, the mystery aspects are a bit stronger (and darker), the humor is less goofy, and the romance is (usually) more suggested than real.
  
• Weiss Kreuz/Knight Hunters (anime TV series) - There are a few incarnations of this, but the only one I have personal experience with is the first TV series. Four hot guys with dark and/or painful pasts make up a group of secret assassins called "Weiss" - as part of their cover, by day they all work in a flower shop. They kill those the law cannot touch, each with their own reasons for doing so. Those who'd like another anime that tends to fall into the "so bad it's almost good" category might want to try this. I don't remember there being any gay romance in this one, but there's lots of hot guys, melodramatic stories, investigations, and action, and hideously bad animation. I highly recommend watching this one in Japanese - I think this anime was created as a vehicle for its Japanese voice actors, so that's one area where this show excels.
  

Plum Spooky (book) by Janet Evanovich

It's another "between the numbers" Stephanie Plum book, and I actually enjoyed this more than the most recent book in the main series. The villain was pretty forgettable, probably because he wasn't around a whole lot (plus, he was so over-the-top supernatural that he didn't really seem believable in Stephanie's world). That said, the humor was fun. I wouldn't say this book was all that great, but it was still way better than Finger Lickin' Fifteen. Then again, I suppose that's not saying much.

Synopsis:

It's been a while since I read this book. A long while. I've put off writing the synopsis for so long that I had to leaf through the book just to remind myself what happened. So this isn't going to be a detailed synopsis - my main goal is to finish this post and finally get the book out of my apartment.

Stephanie opens her door one day to discover that she's going to be watching out for a monkey named Carl for an indefinite amount of time (Carl's owner: Susan Stitch - who the heck is that??). Not long after being saddled with Carl, Stephanie is visited by Diesel, the mysterious and probably supernatural guy who turns up in all the Between-the-Numbers books and who never even crosses Stephanie's mind in the regular books. Morelli never sees Diesel, because Morelli is too busy dealing with his deadbeat brother, who was recently thrown out by his fed-up wife.

Anyway, Diesel is looking for some supernatural Big Bad name Wulf (Big Bad Wolf, har har), who has a habit of killing people and leaving burns in the shape of his hands on their necks. Wulf is teamed up with a socially-inept genius named Munch who missed his court date and stole some science-y stuff with names I can't remember. Stephanie needs to catch Munch, and Diesel needs to stop Wulf from doing whatever it is he's trying to do. They team up, because Stephanie's still too inept to catch the tough ones on her own (especially not when Lula keeps tagging along - Lula may have been useful when she first appeared in the series, but she gets in the way more often than not now). Diesel claims that his being around Stephanie will make it hard for Wulf to find him. Whatever.

There's some stuff after that that I don't remember so well. Stephanie looking for other skips and generally not doing so well - she gets pelted by vegetables at least once. There's a guy dressed like the Easter Bunny, a guy who can fart fire, and a whole bunch of monkeys wearing little metal helmets. At some point, Stephanie gets caught by Wulf and Munch, and Wulf gives her to Munch as his sex slave. Up to that point, you might think Munch is an adorable-looking (he looks about 12, even though he's an adult) pathetic hanger-on who could really use some help learning how to properly interact with people. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that Munch fully intends to rape Stephanie if he has to - he just wants to have sex with a woman, he doesn't care if she's willing.

Of course, Stephanie doesn't get raped, but it's still an overall freaky experience for her. She learns that Munch and Wulf had planned to build a device that could control the weather and then use that device to blackmail cities. If I remember right, the monkeys with little helmets are somehow part of the plan. Stephanie and Diesel (probably mostly Diesel) stop Wulf and Munch and save a lady the two had been holding hostage. Ranger makes an appearance. Diesel leaves. Carl goes back to Susan.

Oh yeah, you know how Lula and Tank's relationship just seemed to disappear after Fearless Fourteen? Well, it turns out that's explained in this book: Lula is allergic to cats, and Tank loves them in an "I'm secretly a little old crazy cat lady" kind of way. Tank would rather give up Lula than the cats, so Lula decides it's over between them.

Commentary:

Evanovich boxed herself in a bit, by going with a holiday theme for the Between-the-Numbers books - with a character named "Wulf," I kept expecting "werewolf" and then nothing ever happened. All I can think is that maybe Evanovich thought that just having a dangerous villain with supernatural powers counted as "spooky."

Looking over my synopsis, it really reflects badly on Finger Lickin' Fifteen that I think this book is better than that one. I mean, the story's not terribly interesting, the best Evanovich can come up with in the way of kooky is monkeys, and the villains may have their creepy/icky aspects (Munch the would-be rapist, ew), but then Evanovich drops in the whole "they plan to control the weather to make lots of money and take over the world" thing. That last bit is like something out of Pinky and the Brain. I loved that show, but trying to combine a Brain-style plan with villains supposedly capable of making Stephanie feel shaky and pale with fear didn't really work out so well. One diminishes the other.

If I'm remembering the other Between-the-Numbers books right, this one is a bit darker and heavier than the other ones - I wonder if Evanovich plans to continue with that in the next one? I hope not. For one thing, "dark and heavy" needs to be able to have an effect on characters. To my mind, the Between-the-Numbers books are supposed to be short, light adventures that take place outside the normal storyline. Although the books apparently take place in the same world as the regular Stephanie Plum books, readers are expected to accept and get over the fact that, in the regular books, Stephanie never even thinks about Diesel or the hints of magic that turn up in By-the-Numbers books. Not only that, none of the other characters think about Diesel or magic, either. I kind of got the feeling that Evanovich wrote the By-the-Numbers books to alleviate some boredom she might have been feeling with the regular Stephanie Plum books - this was a way for her to relieve that boredom without having the "recreate the wheel" and come up with a whole new series, new cast of characters, and new world. Either that, or Evanovich and/or her publisher wanted her to cash in on the popularity of paranormal romance in some way.

Whatever, moving on. Anyway, my point is, the Between-the-Numbers books sort of depend upon nothing happening in them that has any lasting effect. Otherwise, the suspension of disbelief that's necessary to deal with the whole "no one thinks about Diesel or magic" thing gets even harder. And Evanovich messed up on that in two ways in this book.

One, she got a bit dark in this book, and had a villain freak Stephanie out by basically telling her he planned to rape her. This isn't a huge mess-up, though, because lots of people in the regular books have threatened Stephanie, tried to kill her, etc. - so it's maybe easier for readers to talk themselves into believing that Stephanie doesn't think about the events of this book at all in the next regular book because this kind of stuff happens to her all the time.

However, two, Evanovich had Tank and Lula officially break up in this book. The explanation for their break up is in this book. I remembering thinking it was kind of strange that Lula never even gave Tank much thought in Finger Lickin' Fifteen, and now I know why - Evanovich put information that applies to characters from her regular books in a not-supposed-to-affect-the-main-storyline book. True, Tank and Lula aren't main characters, but I still think this is a slip-up. If readers are supposed to accept that all the magic and supernatural strangeness of the Between-the-Numbers doesn't cross over into the regular books, then Evanovich needs to do a better job of keeping the regular books from sliding into the Between-the-numbers books. Having the explanation for Lula and Tank's break-up in this book was sloppy.

I haven't read a Stephanie Plum book in a long time that made me want to actually buy it, even used. With all the complaints I keep having about the newer books, I really should just quit reading the series. But it's hard to quit - I started this series because I needed something I could turn to for a good, quick, fun, and funny read. For a long time, this series was my reading equivalent of a slice of cake or a bowl of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. I'm having problems accepting that all of that may be over. Maybe it's time to look for a new literary junk food equivalent.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Cowboy Bebop (anime TV series) - Spike Spiegel is a bounty hunter with a laid-back attitude, amazing fighting skills, and a dark past. He's partners with Jet Black, a former cop, and, as the series progresses, his group grows to include Faye Valentine (a sexy, tricky gambler who can't really remember her past) and Ed (a weird and cheerful young hacker). A lot of the episodes, especially the earlier ones, are mostly humorous and include a lot of fast, madcap action - those who liked the action and humorous aspects of this book might like this series.
• Undead and Unwed (book) by MaryJanice Davidson - Undead and Unwed is the first book in a series about Betsy Taylor, a fashion- and shoe-obsessed woman who unexpectedly becomes a vampire. Not just any vampire, either - she's the queen of the vampires. She's got to deal with a sexy vampire named Eric Sinclair, a very evil vampire named Nostro, and new abilities she doesn't know anything about. Those who'd like another humorous series with a dose of romance might want to try this, which should be particularly appealing to those who also like the supernatural aspects of the Between-the-Numbers books. Just be warned, this series gets darker after a while.
• You Slay Me (book) by Katie MacAlister - This is the first book in MacAlister's Aisling Grey series. All Aisling wants to do is deliver an old, gold dragon statue to her uncle's client in Paris. Instead, she comes across a dead woman and a mysterious and sexy man. The man (who is also a dragon), named Drake, disappears, along with the statue. Aisling has to prove she didn't kill the woman and recover the statue, all while dealing with the revelation that she is a Guardian (basically, the Keeper of the Gates to Hell). Yet another series that combines action, humor (a Newfie demon is about as quirky as it gets, though), fantasy, and a bit of romance. Be warned, this series gets a bit darker as it progresses.

There's some Gist going around

Oh, what timing! Last weekend's post was about Deeanne Gist's The Measure of a Lady, and the current post over at The Misadventures of Super Librarian is about Maid to Match. Since I read The Measure of a Lady because I wanted to get a feel for Gist's writing and Maid to Match wasn't out yet at the time, Wendy's post has me all aflutter. It's a great post - unlike almost all of mine, not spoiler-y, so don't be afraid to go take a look. I can't wait to read that book!

Wrist troubles

A week ago, I did way too much catalog maintenance (aka mouse-heavy work). Although I knew I hurt my wrist then, I continued to overdo it, practicing using GIMP for a presentation I was going to be doing (which is now over, yipee!). Now, just a few minutes of using a mouse causes me pain.

So, until I heal up, it'll be as little mouse usage as possible for me. Computer junkie me is not pleased. None of this should interfere with my current posting schedule, though, because I had a few posts scheduled before I hurt myself. Now I'm going to go to bed with my nice new wrist brace. Btw, if this is how I'm supposed to hold my wrist, I've apparently been using a computer wrong for years.

The Measure of a Lady (book) by Deeanne Gist

(Isn't that a gorgeous cover? From what I've seen, all of Gist's books are lovely and guaranteed not to embarrass you if you're caught reading them in public.)

I read this to get a taste of Gist's reading, in preparation for the release of Gist's Maid to Match. I haven't read much Christian fiction of any sort, and I'm leery of both the "fire and brimstone for the unbelievers" writers and the "good, clean Christian world of the '50s-that-never-was" writers. I haven't been to church since I was a child - organized religion has never really appealed to me, and I've never felt that "letting God into my life" would necessarily help me be a better person. I'm a very secular kind of girl and have never felt the lack of religion in my life, beyond the social aspects of it.

So, I'm more than likely not Gist's target audience. While Gist's characters occasionally thought about and did things that I couldn't really relate to, for the most part even I enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading Maid to Match. Actually, I think I might try out the rest of Gist's stuff, too. She has a nice sense of humor, and I liked that the Christian aspects of her book weren't black-and-white - in fact, one of the main conflicts of the book involved the main character trying to reconcile her black-and-white view of what is Christian and moral with the gray area that is the life she has found herself in.

Synopsis:

Rachel Van Buren, her fifteen-year-old sister Lissa, and her fourteen-year-old brother Michael arrive in San Francisco, newly orphaned and nearly penniless, shocked to find that the bright, gold-filled future their father expected them to find doesn't exist, at least not without many months of desperate, back-breaking work. Nineteenth-century San Francisco is a decadent and lawless place, where everyone has gold fever and it's not uncommon for those who've found gold to gamble it away on the chance that they might get even richer. Nineteenth-century San Francisco is also a hideously expensive place. However, Rachel manages to arrange a place for her and her brother and sister to stay - it's either that, or marry someone. Although any number of men in San Francisco would be happy to marry a "sunbonnet woman" (a respectable woman), Rachel would rather not have to marry someone just so that she and her family can have a place to stay.

The place they end up staying at is a tiny, barely adequate shack owned by Johnnie Parker, the owner of the City Hotel, a saloon/hotel. Eventually, Rachel also becomes Johnnie's cook and takes charge of cleaning the City Hotel - however, while she does these things, she doesn't want to be around prostitutes (which, to her mind, also includes former prostitutes) and gambling. Rachel's high and mighty behavior annoys Johnnie a bit. It also annoys her sister Lissa, who blossoms like crazy under the admiring eyes of the town's men. In Lissa's view, Rachel is being hypocritical: even as Rachel rails against Lissa's decision to make money by singing for the men and giving them shaves (a big no-no for a young, unmarried woman), Rachel works for a man who owns a saloon and even begins to fall for him.

For Rachel, it's an uphill battle, keeping her siblings on the straight and narrow. Both Michael and Lissa go to wild parties, at which no respectable person should ever be seen. Lissa can't stand the thought of doing the back-breaking work that's required in order to live the kind of life Rachel feels is right and moral. Lissa's shocking shaving business eventually leads her to fall in love with Mr. Sumner, a womanizing snake of a man. Rachel doesn't handle things well, and Lissa ends up willingly losing her virginity to Sumner, happily accepting his promise that they will someday be married, maybe. Neither Rachel nor Johnnie believes a word Sumner says, and Rachel, brought to her breaking point, even threatens Sumner with a gun. None of it does any good, however, and Lissa continues to live in sin with Sumner, cutting her ties with Rachel.

By now, Rachel has sunk a lot of her money into opening a new restaurant business, in an attempt to live a life that doesn't depend upon money and living quarters provided by a saloon owner. Rachel and Johnnie have grown much closer, making Rachel feel even more guilty - although Lissa incorrectly believes that her relationship with Sumner is the same as Rachel's relationship with Johnnie (Lissa and Sumner have had sex with only a vague promise of marriage, while Rachel and Johnnie have only kissed), Rachel is worried that, if she isn't careful, things will go farther with Johnnie than she wishes them to. Rachel, an avid insect collector with a fondness for trees, still takes cares of the trees and the place Johnnie hopes one day to turn into a pleasure garden. For a time, she had the possibility of choosing a young naturalist over Johnnie. She chose to reject the naturalist, but she doesn't want to be Johnnie's wife unless he quits being a saloon owner or profiting from saloons in any way.

Rachel's own restaurant is a morally black-and-white place, as well. A sign at her door states flatly that she refuses to serve prostitutes, or even have prostitutes at her establishment. This causes Rachel some doubt when she realizes that Lissa has decided that this means she can't visit Rachel's restaurant, either. When a woman arrives in town who reveals herself to be Sumner's wife, Lissa breaks down even further and tries to kill herself. She hates Rachel's "no prostitutes" rule, and she refuses to stay with Rachel, even though the situation with Sumner has become so difficult.

Rachel sees less and less of Johnnie, Michael, and Lissa, because of her insistence at living by the black-and-white rules of behavior instilled in her by her mother when she was a child. Michael begins renting a table at Johnnie's saloon, making a lot of money. Lissa lives like a proud, wild thing, staying with Sumner even though she knows he's already married. Johnnie refuses to sell his saloon, because that is what he's sunk most of his money into. Even the nice little life Rachel has made at her restaurant seems to fall apart at the seams when Lissa tells Rachel what everyone in town has always known, that one of her employees used to be a prostitute.

Rachel doesn't have much time to consider this new information before San Francisco is turned into a bonfire. Some people help each other, because it's the right thing to do, while other people have the gall to charge money or gold for their assistance. Rachel finds herself having to bend her rigid standards when Lissa offers her and Sumner's home as a place for all those who are badly wounded to recover. She has to bend those standards even further when she must work side by side with Lissa's prostitute friends, helping the wounded. Now that Rachel finally talks to these women, she learns that none of them turned to prostitution willingly - they had come west trying to find better lives and had no other way to earn money.

Prior to the fire, Johnnie had begun to rethink being a saloon owner. It wasn't just that he wanted to marry Rachel - it was also getting to the point that he couldn't condone what he could see his business was doing to people, a feeling that came to a head when a man shot himself after losing everything he had gambling. When Johnnie proposes to her, Rachel finally agrees to marry him - Johnnie hasn't told her all the conclusions he's come to, it's just that Rachel decides to simply trust that he will do what's right when he decides who to lease his property to. What he decides is right may not be what she thinks is right, but Rachel decides that's ok. One thing she does want, however, is for Johnnie to rebuild her restaurant, so that there's a safe place for her wards to work - she wants to open a House of Refuge, where girls who don't want to be prostitutes anymore can live while they try to rebuild their lives. Johnnie and Rachel marry, a mostly happy affair (Lissa doesn't show up).

A year later, Rachel occasionally sees Lissa and makes it clear that there's a place for her to come home to if she ever wants to leave Sumner. Rachel puts up with Sumner, who still doesn't seem to care what he's doing to both Lissa and his wife. When a lost-looking and penniless Miss Eldridge arrives, escorted by Michael (who seems to be a bit smitten by her), she finds support in the House of Refuge.

Commentary:

Most of the time, I liked Rachel, but her black-and-white view of the world drove me batty. You either were a prostitute for life, or you were lily white, nothing in between.

I could understand why Lissa saw her as a hypocrite. At every new development, Rachel seemed to be redefining the way things worked in order to suit her. If she lived purely by the standards she set for herself, there would not have been a single job she could have taken when they first arrived in San Francisco. She justified cleaning and cooking in Johnnie's saloon by defining the saloon only as a hotel during her working hours, and by saying that she refused to be around Carmelita, a former prostitute who still dressed provocatively in order to distract gamblers into losing more money. Technically, the only thing she did during those early days that truly fit her high standards was the work she did caring for Johnnie's trees. Had she really wanted to live a perfectly moral life, she would have married the naturalist.

However, that doesn't mean Lissa's behavior didn't drive me crazy, too. What Lissa didn't seem to realize was that the only thing that saved her and Rachel from being treated like common prostitutes was their status as "sunbonnet women." Being a sunbonnet woman meant that some things would be more difficult - she and Rachel would have had to work much harder to earn a living. However, by choosing not to act like a sunbonnet woman, she was opening herself up to a life where, if Sumner chose to, he could have basically acted as her pimp, sharing her with anyone willing to pay. The thing that made him despicable was the joking he did shortly after he and Lissa first slept together, telling Johnnie that he might share her with him if he wished. Gist later tries to make it seem that Sumner may actually be in love with Lissa, but I doubt it. Lissa was an idiot, a fifteen-year-old idiot who had a temper tantrum, smacking Rachel when she had the gall to remind her that Sumner hadn't kept the marriage vows he made to his wife, so how could he be expected to keep any promises to Lissa?

In the end, what it came down to was Rachel remembering that Jesus consorted with and forgave lots of prostitutes, and her realization that it's not her job to set the moral standards for everyone - all of that's between individuals and God. All that mortals like her can do is try to give people who want to turn their lives around a place they can go to and people who will help and support them. I can accept that.

The historical aspects of this book were very interesting - this is not a period of time I've read a lot about. I knew a bit about the gold rush, but I didn't know about the specifics or what life was like - Gist made that seem very real.

As far as the humor goes, that starts at the very beginning, with the first line: "This street is impassable, not even jackassable," which was apparently a real street sign. I'm sure Gist's research was fascinating. There was less and less humor as the book went on and people's lives started to fall apart, but I did like those early humorous bits.

Overall, I liked this book enough that I'd read something else by Gist, and I certainly plan on reading Maid to Match.

As I said earlier in this post, I don't read a lot of Christian fiction, period, so this read-alike list was really had for me to put together. Those who do read a lot of Christian fiction, feel free to add to this list. Those just looking for read-alikes for this book, take this list with a grain of salt. That said, although coming up with this list was hard (only 3 recommendations, and one of them isn't even Christian fiction!), I think I may be adding Karen Witemeyer's book to my TBR list - it sounds kind of fun.

Read-alikes:

• The Fire Rose (book) by Mercedes Lackey - This is NOT Christian fiction, but the historical and romantic aspects may appeal to those who liked Gist's book - if I remember correctly, the two main characters never do more than kiss, although one of the book's villains is a vicious man who breaks girls sold into prostitution. So, warning given, on to the brief description. After her father dies, Rose Hawkins, a young scholar, finds herself in dire financial straits. When she is offered a position as a governess for the children of Jason Cameron, a wealthy rail baron in San Francisco, she feels she has little choice but to accept. However, Cameron has no children and doesn't need a governess. He's actually an Elemental Master whose specialty is Fire. He needs Rose's help to undo a spell that transformed his appearance and forced him to become a recluse. With an old enemy looking for any exploitable weakness, Cameron must work quickly.
  
• Bamboo and Lace (book) by Lori Wick - This is a Christian romance, just not a historical Christian romance. Raised in a remote Asian village by her missionary father, 24-year-old Lily is amazed by Hawaii when she goes there to visit her brother. When her brother is called away on urgent business, Lily is left in the care of his best friend Gabe and Gabe's family. When Lily begins to fall in love with Gabe, she finds herself faced with a choice between true love and the promise she made not to shame her father. This might be a good one for those who liked reading about Rachel's inner turmoil over her growing love for Johnnie and everything she'd been taught about the proper way a lady should behave.
• A Tailor-Made Bride (book) by Karen Witemeyer - This is another Christian romance (or maybe just fiction, but I'm guessing it's romance). Hannah Richards opens up her dress shop in 1881 Coventry, Texas, hoping to help women add beauty to their lives. Livery owner Jericho Tucker takes one look at her place and is convinced that all she's doing is leading women astray by appealing to their vanity. Despite their clashes over the fine line between beauty and vanity, Hannah and J.T. are both basically good people. As they find themselves growing closer, can the two figure out how to overcome their differences? J.T. and Hannah remind me a bit of Rachel and Johnnie. Those who'd like another Christian historical romance might want to try this.
  

The new computer is all hooked up!

Hooking the new computer up went mostly ok - actually, the part that caused me the most grief was physically setting up my monitor (moving the neck and base into place). After some frustrated tears and a while of receiving simultaneous help from both HP customer service (via the Internet) and my dad (via a phone), I finally figured out that I just wasn't putting enough muscle into moving the neck of the monitor.

So it's all set up now, and the only website I've been to that doesn't look totally dwarfed by my monitor is my own blog - again, big round of applause for widths determined by percentages.

Next on my list of stuff to get is a new computer desk. My current desk has always had serious design issues, and it certainly wasn't intended to be used with a monitor this size. Still, I'm not wild about putting a desk together, so I may live with the one I've got for a while.

Make Me a Match (book) by Diana Holquist

Synopsis:

Cecelia is horrified when her sister, dressed in a gypsy outfit and stuffing everything not nailed down into her purse, shows up at her engagement party and tells her she needs to call off her wedding. Cecelia's sister, Amy, can hear the name of a person's One True Love when she touches them, and she says that Cecelia's One True Love is not Jack, the handsome and successful lawyer Cecelia is engaged to, but rather someone named Finn Concord, who, according to Amy, is dying. Cecelia, who has always believed that Amy's ability ruined her life, refuses to listen to her, but Amy eventually wears her down. Cecelia decides to find any guy named Finn Concord in town and tell him, in a letter, that he should go get a check up because he might be dying. Things don't go quite like how she hoped they would, and Cecelia ends up accidentally meeting, talking to, being attracted to, and really liking one of the Finns she finds, a widower who's recently come to town with his young daughter to meet her "rent-a-Granny."

The two have a bit of an uphill battle. Finn doesn't know at first that Cecelia is engaged. He also doesn't like that Cecelia, a doctor, works in a practice that will only treat those with good private health insurance - his wife died because they didn't have the right connections and couldn't get her the treatment that could've saved her life. Cecelia is determined to stay with Jack, but that has its problems as well - she hasn't told Jack that she and her sister Amy used to steal things and run cons when they were younger. Eventually, more and more lies get unraveled. Amy hasn't told Cecelia everything, Finn's young daughter is hiding things and is beginning to make a pretty good con artist herself, and the "rent-a-Granny" is also involved. Although Amy has said that she's just trying to make sure that Cecelia ends up with the right guy, she really wants to make sure that Cecelia is so grateful to her that she decides to let Amy stay with her - Amy has realized that her powers are fading and are only strong when she's around Cecelia. With Finn's daughter's help, she hatches a plan to get Cecelia and Finn together, but the two aren't very cooperative. Will everything work out? Will Cecelia want Amy to stay, despite all the lies? Is Finn really going to die?

Commentary:

I expected this to be a story about a straight-laced doctor who is horrified when her kooky but lovable family butt into her life and unravel all the perfection. Although her fiance wouldn't love her family, Finn would. However, that wasn't the case - Cecelia's family is eccentric, but a good chunk of it's not really lovable. Amy is horrible, and we never actually get to meet her mom and dad. Her other sister will turn up in another book - which I bought, because the sneak peek at the end of this book indicated that her story would be the kind of thing I usually enjoy (awkward heroine who inexplicably ends up with famous/rich guy - it's embarrassing that I love these kinds of stories, but I do).

It's been way, way too long since I read this book, so it's kind of hard to write this commentary - I need to get a lot better about writing these right after I finish the books. Anyway, I remember disliking Amy (a lot - I can't imagine enjoying whatever book she gets, and I don't plan on buying it, since I'm not a fan of characters who will use their own family members). The rent-a-Granny was a bit...quirky and unfortunately turned out to be part of Amy's scheming. Again, a reason to dislike Amy.

As far as I can remember, I liked Cecelia and Finn well enough, but the thing I remember the most was that, once I finished this book, I really wanted to read the book starring Cecelia's other sister. On the one hand, it's good that Holquist's writing appealed to me enough that I wanted to read another book by her. On the other hand, it's not so good that a book of hers I hadn't even read at the time made more of an impression on me than the book I did read. You have to admit, though, the cover is fun-looking. I think it's why I picked this book up. That, and I found this on the $1 clearance pile.

Well, that's it then. I know, I know, not the best commentary. What can I say, it's been a whole year since I last read this book (yeah, that long - I'm sooo behind on finishing posts). If I ever read it again, I'll try to remember to write another commentary and just skip the synopsis part.

I honestly don't know how good my read-alikes list is, but I did my best. I know I've read more romance novels with fortune-telling in them, but I can't for the life of me remember them.

Read-alikes:

• Night Pleasures (book) by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Want another romance novel starring a straight-laced, practical heroine who just wants a normal life, who just happens to have a not-so-normal sister? Amanda Devereaux is the one normal person in a family of oddballs. After being mistaken for her twin sister, who hunts vampires (which Amanda had never really believed existed), Amanda ends up chained to a guy named Kyrian. Kyrian is a Dark Hunter, an immortal warrior who hunts Daimons (which are a bit like vampires, only they eat souls) for the goddess Artemis. Somewhere along the way, Amanda and Kyrian end up falling in love, but, if they want to have a life together, Amanda will have to figure out how to get Kyrian's soul back from Artemis.
• You Don't Know Jack (book) by Erin McCarthy - Another romance novel with lies that need to be unraveled and a psychic who predicts that the heroine will meet her "one true love." In this case, the heroine is Jamie Peters, a social worker and free spirit who has been burned by love one too many times. A cross-dressing psychic predicts that she'll meet her soul mate - and then she meets Jack, who seems perfect. Unfortunately, "Jack" has a lot of things he hasn't told Jamie. When Jamie finds everything out, will she be able to trust that not everything between them was a lie?
• Fools Rush In (book) by Kristan Higgins - Another romance novel in which the heroine, who has a plan for the way she wants her life to go, remakes herself and then ends up falling for someone who doesn't fit the plan. In high school, Millie Barnes had a huge crush on Joe Carpenter. Back then, she was brainy and plain, but, over a decade later, she's got a hot new look and a good job (plus, a whole decade's worth of experience stalking the guy, figuring out what he likes and doesn't like). She gets the guy, but is he really what she wants, or could Sam, her former brother-in-law, really be the better guy for her?
  

Blogger's Template Designer

I'm not sure when the Template Designer appeared, but it's pretty awesome. I played around with it a bit, and I absolutely LOVE that it's now possible to give your blog a 3-column layout with the click of a button. There aren't a whole lot of themes available, but there are several options for customizing them, depending upon which theme you choose. I think some themes will only allow you to choose between a selection of color schemes, while some will allow you to choose background images. One thing I don't particularly like is that there doesn't seem to be an option for uploading and choosing an image of your own - you have to choose one of the available images. The available images are nice, but an image of your own can really make your blog unique (says the girl who has only done a major edit of her blog layout once in 2+ years, and only to add a third column).

I was tempted to redo the whole look of this blog using the Template Designer, except for one thing - the look I was going to go with only gave me the option of adjusting column widths using number of pixels. I happen to prefer setting up column widths based on percentages. So, if I do switch to something else, I'll still have to look at the CSS and figure out if I can translate all the right bits into percentages. Or, I could bite the bullet and just be ok with pixels. Since I'm going to be moving to a computer with a ginormous monitor (23 inches!!) in a week or so, that might be a good way to go, since it'll get a lot harder to judge how good the percentages probably look on smaller monitors.

Odd Hours (book) by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is back, willing to lay down his life for some strange pregnant lady who refuses to give him a straight answer. Also, he kills several people and is a witness to lots of additional deaths. One of the reasons I enjoyed the first book in this series and continued on from there was because Odd is such a likable character. He's still likable, but now I kind of feel like I don't really know him anymore. Plus, I'm having a hard time understanding why he trusts that pregnant lady so easily - there's something about her that keeps setting off my "She's Secretly Evil" alarm.

By the way, if her refusal to answer any of Odd's questions in ways that actually make sense seems annoying to you, you'll be especially annoyed by the ending, which is one giant "To Be Continued," with, again, absolutely no answers from the Pregnant Lady Who Knows All But Smiles And Says Nothing.

Synopsis:
I don't really feel like doing a super-detailed synopsis for this one. Plus, I kind of waited too long - I've forgotten a lot of the details. Anyway, Odd is now living in a town called Magic Beach, cooking food for an elderly ex-actor. Odd keeps having dreams in which "the tide flows red and the sea throbs with a terrible light" - that doesn't sound good, but, other than that, Odd's life is pretty relaxed.

Until he saves the serene and unhelpful pregnant lady (Annamaria), that is. Then he attracts the attention of some bad people, at least one of which seems faintly non-human in his evilness. Odd realizes that these bad people have something to do with his probably prophetic nightmares. He decides to hide and protect the pregnant lady while he figures out what kind of evilness the bad people are going to be responsible for.

Back at Pico Mundo, he could count on help from the local law enforcement, but that's a problem in Magic Beach. It turns out that Chief Hoss Shackett of the Magic Beach Police plays a big role in the local evilness. Odd can't even necessarily trust people who might normally be trustworthy - there's no way to tell who's on the police chief's side.

So, if the police chief is doing evilness, why are people helping him? Money, of course. The Chief is part of a plan to deliver some nukes to other bad guys - Odd's dream is showing him what will happen if those bad guys get the nukes. Odd, like James Bond, only with less confidence and practice, manages to get on the ship that will be delivering the nukes, stop the people on the ship (killing a few of them - he may not have enjoyed it, but it still happened), and notifies several different authorities about the nukes (so that no one group will have access to them and therefore try to keep them quiet and use them for their own purposes). Odd is upset by the thought of all the people he killed in this book, but Annamaria, the serene pregnant lady, tells him it's ok because he saved whole cities by doing what he did. The book ends with the two of them traveling, and Annamaria displaying an unexplained knowledge of things only Stormy Llewellyn, the deceased love of Odd's life, could have known.

Oh, and, if you remember, Elvis is now gone, but Odd has a new ghostly companion: Frank Sinatra.

Commentary:

Seriously, Annamaria creeped me out. Although I'm guessing that Koontz will probably make her out to be some kind of holy figure, a modern Mary with her immaculately conceived baby, all she does for me is creep me out and annoy me. She won't ever give Odd a straight answer and, instead of getting angry with her for that, he just accepts it as the way things must be. Right.

As far as the bad guys in this book go, I expected something more supernatural. With the connection to Odd's dream, and the one bad guy whose eyes are apparently yellow, a supernatural explanation seemed like a good possibility. When the reality turned out to be greed and corruption that was only unusual because it was so massive and deep, it was kind of a letdown. I still expected there to be some kind of supernatural explanation, because it was too disturbing, thinking that the Chief was only an ordinary guy who was just very corrupt.

Overall, I'm not really sure how I felt about this book. Odd seems to be turning into someone I don't really recognize and am not sure I like anymore. He's still a nice guy, but he killed so many people in this book - an ordinary guy just can't do that kind of stuff. Sure, he breaks down a bit, but still. And I did not like how Annamaria tried to tell him that what he did was ok because he saved cities. If she's all that's good and holy, I wonder, if saving cities could be accomplished by killing one or two innocent people, would she be ok with having Odd dirty his hands with that, too? If there's going to be hard stuff that needs to be done, I personally feel that she or whoever is behind her should be doing it.

Read-alikes:

• The Manhattan Hunt Club (book) by John Saul - After being wrongly convicted of rape and attempted murder, Jeff Converse finds himself on the run, with homicidal maniac Francis Jagger for company. If Jeff and Francis can make it out of Manhattan's underground tunnels and back to the outside world, they'll live. If not, they'll die. It's all part of a game being played by some of the city's most powerful men and women, who have prisoners hunted and stuffed like trophy animals. Those who'd like another suspenseful book with a main character who's on the run and potentially can't trust anyone around him might want to try this.
• Symphony (book) by Charles Grant - This is the first book in a quartet dealing with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Reverend Casey Chisholm lives in the outwardly quiet town of Maple Landing, trying to deal with its problems as best he can. One day, he discovers that he has developed miraculous powers, which include the ability to heal, dispel an angry swarm of bees, and more. While strange things go on in Maple Landing, a malevolent white car slowly makes its way towards Rev. Chisholm, bearing a woman named Susan who brings death wherever she goes. She plans to do battle with the Reverend and is accompanied by an unsettling group of people. Those who'd like something else that features steadily building suspense, even stronger religious aspects (for those, like me, who got a religious vibe from Odd Hours), and a large-scale menace with small-scale focus (one man, who will need to stand between evil and humanity) might want to try this.
  
• Black Hills (book) by Dan Simmons - A young Lakota boy, Paha Sapa, touches the body of dying General Custer at Little Big Horn and ends up with the man's spirit inside him for the next sixty years. Paha Sapa also has the ability to see the past and future of many other people he meets, and one day he has a terrible vision of the future in which his beloved Black Hills are destroyed. In order to prevent this from happening, he tries to blow up Mount Rushmore before it's completed. Those who'd like something else with a sympathetic main character, some supernatural elements, and appearances from real people might want to try this book.