Wednesday Reads: A Hunger Like No Other

Every Wednesday (or most Wednesdays, or some Wednesdays) will bring you book reviews. Of a special variety. Yes, I am telling you which books are awesome and totally worth reading. But the point of my reviews is to hopefully make you conscious of the market and why this particular book was published: quality of writing, character and plot development, unique quirks of writing, characters, and plot that make it stand out. Take my tips to your own reading and writing, and through Constant Vigilance, will you succeed as a writer.

A Hunger Like No Other is the first installment of Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series. (Some lists will list it as the second installment, but the first is a novella, and Hunger stands well on its own as the first--plus, I didn't read it as I am, in fact, listening to the series, and the novella's readers did not receive good reviews).

Synopsis: From the synopsis of any book you read, you can teach yourself how to write a query letter. This section will both tell you about the book, and what you should learn from the back cover blurb.
 
This is my favorite structure for romance, first one of the lovers (male or female) then the second, and if you need a third paragraph, it sums it all up so nicely. Note here, how you get a sense of the world without a dedicated sentence to world building. Yet you still know what and where and especially the who. Romance lovers are immediately sold on the why we care.

A mythic warrior who'll stop at nothing to possess her…

After enduring years of torture from the vampire Horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy...

Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents--until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae--and their notorious dark desire--ebb as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.

An all consuming desire...

Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be...?

Brownie Points: I feel there is a stereotype developing about Paranormal Romance, especially with the upsurge of YA ParaRom and it's this: Mortal girl meets immortal male, he possesses her, her life changes to accommodate his. And what I love about Kresley Cole is that most of her novels take place solidly in The Lore (we are aware of the humans, but we are very much in the paranormal world with the paranormal creatures). So there's that Brownie Point. Another is Emmaline, a beautiful example of a Weak Female Lead who becomes sure of herself in the end, learning how to accept herself and trust in her own strength. But never at any point during her WFL moments is she a weak character--we know her quirks, her unique voice, everything that has made her who she is and will become.

Beefs: Honestly, none come to mind.

The Narrator's Performance: I give the narrator of the audio book, Robert Petkoff, a 9 out of ten. I became engaged in his story telling, his accents were spot-on, he didn't read too slow or too fast, inflections and pauses were great. The only thing keeping his performance from a 10 is he is male and I remembered it every time he read the woman's voice (very few readers, male or female, can get a 10 out of 10 for this reason).

Who should read it: Anyone who loves ParaRom, obviously. I was recommended this book after I'd complained I had read all of JR Ward's novels. KC is a true contender for the top spot on my "Favorite ParaRom Authors." High praise if you know my love of Ward. So if you compare your writing to Ward, you have to read KC (among others of course).

Happy reading!

Why I Love JR Ward

JR Ward and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, are on my favorite author list for much the same reason (please note that SEP is adult contemporary romance, which I do not represent). They have what I call "The Psychological Screw You" factor. Not so much "screw you" as in the reader, but in terms of character development and plot. If you've ever read a SEP novel, while laughing out loud every other scene, you'll realize that she's great at creating this amazing characters then throwing them down a cliff. The joy of reading about these characters comes when you watch them try to climb back up the cliff. She throws everything into it, too: family drama, past loves, financial ruin, reputation, jobs. Throughout the journey, you become close with the characters. Plus there is a lot of tension and frustration (and the sex scenes aren't there for the sake of being there; they are a result of the characters--not plot devices).

Now, JR Ward does similar things to her characters as well. Each character is so psychologically twisted that they have a hard time being in civilized company. Part of this is a result from the character's self--by that I mean a product of them being vampire (or a mix: vampire/celestial offspring, vampire/demon sucker, vampire/beast). All of them are dealing with scars from their past. Again, as I mentioned above with SEP's novels, the sex in Ward's novels are not plot devices or included for the sake of inclusion. Each scene is a product of the characters and sometimes act as a therapy tool.

(One of the main reasons I mention sex, is that it's one of the biggest mistakes a new writer can make in their ms, and one of the biggest reasons I'll reject a paranormal romance. If I see anything throbbing in the first two pages, it's usually a red flag. It must be done well and, as I said above, as a result of character development.)

Have you noticed that I haven't really talked about plot? It's all about character development. So whoever says that literary novels are all about character development, and commercial novels are only about plot, are dead wrong.

The point of this post, besides paying homage to two fantastic authors and their creations, is to show what I'm looking for when it comes to Paranormal Romance. If anything is going to be throbbing, there better be a good reason for it.

Happy reading!

Wednesday Reads: Vampires

When do we know when we have gone one vampire too many?  I cannot answer that (not without revealing my bitter and cynical true self), but the last time I was at Barnes and Noble, I took a look.  One vampire, two vampire, three vampire, snore!!!

Today's post is everything VAMPIRE.  Well, at least to the extent of my knowledge, which, thankfully, isn't all that extensive.  Let's start with my favorite vampire novels.  I'll give a brief description and go through the basics: first line, first paragraph, if it reads strong throughout, if it has a satisfying ending, and why I love/hate them.

Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward starts with Dark Lover.  These lean towards the Romantic genre, but are all in all a really good read.  Plus you get some zombie-like creatures that the vampire-assassin group has to kill to protect the rest of their kind.  If you need a book to study on how to create a unique vampire world without getting too crazy, I highly recommend it.  First line: "Darius looked around the club, taking in the teeming, half-naked bodies on the dance floor."  Intriguing, but not to the extent it stands out in a line up of first lines.  It's the second line that really sets the mood and tone of the whole book: "Screamer's was packed tonight, full of women wearing leather and men who looked like they had advance degrees in violent crime."  Each book in the series follows a different "brother", and not one disappoints.  Endings of course are satisfying (they are romance after all).

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, one of my favorite books of all time).  Didn't think you'd see this one on my list?  I do think people have gotten a little overboard with the paranormal-classic twist, but Smith delivers every time he puts pen to page.  Perhaps it isn't the best book in the entire world, but I have a strange fascination with President Lincoln and the idea that he was a Vampire Hunter had me laughing from page one.  Written with conviction, if you aren't careful you could believing that this president actually was a vampire hunter.  First line: "I was still bleeding... my hands shaking."  From axes to Confederates to Edgar Allan Poe, this one is a laugh out loud thrill ride you won't want to put down.

Dead Until Dark, a Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris.  I have not watched True Blood.  That said, I'll concentrate on the first book in the series without outside influence.  First line: "I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar."  Intriguing.  Harris has a funny voice and we learn who the main character is straight off.  She dives right into the story head first.  It was a fun read, but not filling and super satisfying.  Like cotton candy.  The ending is satisfying enough but leaves it open for book two (and three and four).

Twilight by Stephanie Meyers.  Groaning?  Rolling your eyes?  Sorry, I have to.  I'll keep it brief; this topic has been beaten like a dead horse all ready.  At the PNWA conference, Andrea Hurst held a seminar on "Crafting Fiction that Sells in Today's Marketplace."  She read an anonymous first line and nearly every person in the room (over 100) agreed that they would keep reading from that line alone.  First line: "I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."  Well?  Good first line?  I had read the book, professed to hating it, but I didn't recognize the line when Andrea read it, and said I would keep reading.  I groaned aloud.  It is an excellent first line.  And the entire book keeps the tension (sexual tension, life and death tension, new tenuous friendship tension), and is extremely satisfying at the end.  Those elements alone ensure something good.  Meyer also had great timing and a lot of luck.

I'd like to back track for a moment though.  One mortal girl finds herself amidst vampires.  Add in a werewolf and telepathy.  What do you get?  Actually, you get both Harris and Meyer's books.  So what makes them so different?  And why did Meyer's hit off better than Harris's book alone (not counting the TV series), which, in fact, was published many years before Meyer's?

I'd like to know your input on the Vampire phenomenon.  Has it played itself out yet?  How can you, as a writer, capitalize on it?  Is there any way to write another vampire book while keeping it fresh and orignial?  What is going to be the next big fad?

Happy writing (and reading!) everyone.