City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

If there is one thing the Shadowhunters have always depended on, it was knowing who was the enemy. But as Sebastian Morgenstern wields the infernal cup, swelling his ranks with Endarkened warriors, the Nephilim must face their own in a war that is threatening to drag them under. Darkness is falling and Clary and her friends might have to go to hell and back to make things right. 

City of Heavenly Fire is the sixth and final book in the Mortal Instruments series and the ninth book that takes place in the Shadow world. 

This book was something of a roller-coaster, wrapped in evil, twirled in darkness. I don't think it can be said of any of these books that they were exceptionally light in theme and tone, but I would venture that this is the darkest and possibly the most mature of the books Clare has produced thus far. It can also be agreed that Clare has never been afraid to push the boundaries of the socially acceptable, especially concerning that wonderfully controversial topic of incest. This book takes that idea to a whole new level of creepy. 

I will say that there was still the trademark wit and humor that is usual and expected in Clare's writing. However, there really wasn't a lot to laugh about in this novel. This is a story of a people at war. Not about to go to war, not on the cusp of war, or at the beginning of it. At war. I wouldn't say this is Game of Thrones, with every character in the book being slaughtered left and right, but it was realistic to war. It is a Shadowhunter's life, and if we've gone this far in the series without seeing THAT much death, it's made up for in this last book. 

I gave it as high a rating as I did because I love Clare's writing and I love this series. I read it fast despite it being a honking big book and I liked the way it ended. I really did like this book a lot.

I did not give it a 5/5 because there were a few things that bothered me. 

*SPOILERS AHEAD* *DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ COHF*

The first, and lesser, of these issues was plain and simple "the love scene". I'm sorry, but when I'm quite literally in hell and about to die a probably horribly death at the hands of a psychopathic incest loving demon boy, sex is not the first thing on my mind. However, I can understand the approach. After all it is the age old cry of "we must experience this before we die!". I also get that Jace and Clary couldn't touch for most of this novel because of the heavenly fire, and that when this obstacle was removed there was obviously going to be some hanky panky between the unsupervised teenagers who are on a suicide mission. What I couldn't get over was that damn condom.

There are a few reasons why a detail as harmless and insignificant as a condom has got my panties in a twist, reasons I will probably elaborate far too much on, but here they are nonetheless.

1.     I don't believe that Shadowhunters would be in the know about them enough to have one on them during such a dire circumstance. As has been elaborated throughout this series, Shadowhunters are a rather old race with many archaic politics and practices. They don't have computers, they don't use modern electricity (using witchlight instead), none of them know anything about popular culture, and when we visit Alicante we "go back in time". If Jace doesn't know what facebook is, I have my doubts that he would be totally on board with safe sex practices. However, if it were the case that the Shadowhunters had caught up with the times in this one department, then I bring forward my next point.

2.     How was it that a condom made it onto the list of necessary items to go to the demon realm? I mean how did that go? Gear? Check. Stele? Check. Witchlight? Check. Food? Check. Weapons? Check. Condoms? Check??? NO. Just No. When traveling to dimensions of hell, condoms just aren't going to make the list.(Where would he even put it? Does the gear have pockets? Was it in the packs next to the food?) My fiancé has informed me it's an unwritten guy code to always have some on you. However, other than referring to #1, this brings me to my final point.

3.     When they entered the demon realm, Jace was under the impression he might never be able to fully touch Clary again. Sure, they had the occasional holding of hands or gentle kiss. But much more than that and they would be facing some holy incineration. Jace says straight out that Clary had changed him for the better. She is the girl for him. He isn't looking elsewhere. So reason stands, that if he couldn't have it with Clary, he wouldn't really be preparing for it in any way. It would be a pretty callous thought process anyway, "Hmm, so we're going to hell to save my girlfriend's parents and my parabatai's  love, who have all been kidnapped and might be dead. And in the meantime our world is facing Armageddon. Sounds like a great time to make some moves and do the do with my girl!'......Again, may I say....no...

Now, don't get me wrong. I very much was interested in seeing Jace and Clary complete their love. At this point I had become almost annoyed at Cassy Clare for cockblocking one too many times. I could get where she was coming from. She didn't want to promote teenage sex. But let's be real. Teenagers have sex. Especially if they are head over heels in love. So the fact that the plot literally barred this from happening over and over seemed very much by design. However, it was the setting and timing that just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know if I just dislike Clare's approach to romantic scenes in general, or if it was just in the few books where she has one that bother me. I didn't like how it happened in Clockwork Princess, and I didn't like how it happened in this one. They always seem awkward and ill set, rushed in during times of high danger.

I don't know why something so menial as one sentence mentioning a condom has my panties in a twist, but there it is. 

The one other part of the book that made me subtract another .1 from my rating was the end of Sebastian. It was just so...happily ever after everyone is good after all!.....I really appreciated the villainy of Sebastian. He was a mentally and emotionally unstable young man who killed without thought or remorse and harbored incestuous fantasies about his sister. He was one sick puppy and he needed to be stopped. To go and make him good, after all that....it didn't make much sense to me and I felt like it cheated his character. I know in real life you have to acknowledge that nothing is black and white. No one is all good or all bad. This is very much addressed in the comments made of Shadowhunter politics. However Sebastian is not fully human. He is demon spawn, literally. I think some things in this world are supposed to represent pure evil and he was one of them. I always admired Cassy Clare with his characterization. She made him unstable, creepy, and downright scary without becoming unrealistic. Possibly I could understand seeing a flash of humanness in his eyes near the end, similar to what we saw from Amatis. But for that whole drawn out episode with him becoming “Jonathan” and apologizing and etc....it just felt empty and weird after everything. I didn’t buy it It really didn't even make sense after everything that was gone over about what demon blood and demonizing does to a person. He was literally infused with demon blood before birth. How could there be any remnant of what should have been, left inside him? If that was the case, why was it that there was no helping the Endarkened? I mean, I guess it could be explained away as another miracle of the heavenly fire, but it didn't really seem right to me. 

And that about sums that up for me. Overall I really liked how the series ended and I would recommend the series to any and everyone. I also very much look forward to reading more about the Shadowhunter world in future books. 

So..Just finished City of Heavenly Fire...

and may I just say

HOT DAMN THAT WAS WILD AND HEARTBREAKING AND JUST ASDFGBHNMFNEKJWJF

A probably very verbose review will follow shortly

Never Trust a Pirate by Anne Stuart

Madeleine Rose Russell has never been one to sit back and let fate do it's work. If her sister Bryony can go undercover as the hired help in order to reveal the person responsible for the fall of House Russel and the murder of their father, then so can Maddie. And anyway, all the help Bryony had been absconding off with one of the suspects on an illicit elopement and leaving behind only a cryptic note not much more informative than their father's own last few words. Maddie can definitely do better than that. So what if her new employer happens to be a devilishly handsome half-gypsy pirate who she can't seem to keep herself away from. It's nothing she can't handle. Or at least that's what she keeps telling herself. 

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD* *DO NOT proceed if you have not read Never Kiss a Rake* 

*Minor spoilers for Never Trust a Pirate* *TRIGGER WARNING: contains discussion of physical abuse, assault, rape, and other sexual themes* 

Never Trust a Pirate is the second book in the Scandal at the House Russell series and sequel to Never Kiss a Rake, a book I enjoyed so thoroughly that my enthusiasm for the next book in the series was very high. However I have to say that overall I was sadly disappointed. This novel, though not necessarily a bad read (I read it very quickly), rubbed me the wrong way.

Firstly, I had a pretty big problem with the repetition of this story. The entire plot was basically a recycled from first book, down to the masquerade as a servant in the house of a domineering, rich, and amazingly beautiful man who is already attached to another woman by rules of society but not by the heart. Of course there were differences in setting, characterization, and plot variations to at least keep some things fresh, but overall it was still a cooky-cutter version of the same story. Another repeat issue was in the dailouge and inner thoughts of the characters. Their thoughts were rehashed over and over, sometime word for word until I was frankly tired of reading the same montage again and again. A little rehash of something is pretty normal throughout a story. It shows characterization and how the mind holds on to certain thoughts, especially when a character is in denial. But when it become noticeably cumbersome, and I as a reader feel like I'm being told something I clearly already know, then there is a problem.

Minorly, I would also like to point out that there was a lot of inconsistency in Luca's character. I thought that Maddie, and her denial, were pulled off very well. I understood the pathways of her back and forth feelings and didn't find them farfetched. With Luca's character however it gave me something like whiplash and didn't seem realistic. One moment he was admitting so much, being so tender, the next he was acting like Maddie was some dockside whore he needed to drop off. It seemed as if Stuart was trying too hard to demonstrate his denial.

Putting aside the writing issues however, I think one of the biggest problems I had with the story was the nature of the romance within it. I am not going to even pretend that there weren't parts of Never Kiss a Rake that weren't problematic in the consensual romance area. In both books there was a lot of the 'domineering male' bending the will of the woman to meet his needs. I let it go in the first book because 1) It wasn't that pervasive, in that Kilmartyn was a little less pushy and callous, and 2) Bryony was a lot more receptive of it all. Also, neither of them were physically harmful to each other. I really enjoyed the shenanigans of that book, enough to not be bothered by morality quibbles. 

In Never Trust a Pirate though, I kept getting so bombarded with the abusive undertones of the relationship that I could hardly enjoy the romance. Not only does Luca never remotely understand the word "no" and pushes the boundaries of consent constantly, but he takes it a step further in being physically violent for supposedly "good reasons"... Like, in what way is knocking someone out, kidnapping them, and tying them up for hours something protective and romantic? It isn't!! It is creepy and rapey and stalkerish!!!! Also, news flash, if a girl tries to hit, kick, slap, or knee you in the groin, chances are you shouldn't be pushing sex on her because she actually doesn't want it! I know from the narration that Maddie did very much want it. However it was in that exact set up that lies the detrimental message: the girl is saying no, but what she really means is yes. This is exactly the kind of thing that not only encourages young men to think they are entitled to a woman sexually and that the woman should like it, but it shows women that assault is romantic. 

I know the whole point was the idea that the woman is having her sexual awakening and she is afraid of the feelings that are opening up inside her. But I just can't agree with how Luca reacted. In that situation a lover should be patient and caring and give the person time to want what their getting, not forced into sex. 

With Bryony and Kilmartyn, the situation felt so different because she actually wanted to be with him. She didn't care about being "ruined" because she never thought she would get married anyway. And at one point Kilmartyn actually walks away from her because he is unwilling to have sex because she is inebriated (granted they get pretty far before he does stop, but he still does stop). For all the times Luca insists, aloud and in his own mind, that he doesn't rape and that forcing "isn't fun", the novel was fraught with dubious consent and situations bordering on non-con. Though Maddie is portrayed as a fiery spirit and a woman who takes charge of her own life, the fighting that goes on between her and Luca only seems to undermine her agency rather than enforce it. 

In fear of ranting still more, I'm going to stop myself here and end with saying that between the constant bouts of dubious consent and the abusive overtones, I couldn't properly enjoy this story and it even gave me pause in my pleasant memories of the first novel. I would not recommend this book. 

The dreaded lull

So I was plodding along and I realized that I haven't done much in almost a month! Calamity! Haven't read anything besides fanfiction, haven't written anything but more fanfiction and an unfinished beginning of what has promise to be a pretty epic story.

I'm giving myself a pass on responsibility for the moment, due to life being pretty demanding. Newish job ahead (promotion), more hours, more stress. Plus, I FINISHED MY SECOND NOVEL in April and got engaged in May!!! So I think the rest has been pretty deserved.

What's ahead: some pretty fun and terrifying stuff. Myself and a few writing friends from school are embarking on the epic adventure that is the Midwest Writers Conference. There I will be pitching my novel to agents, sitting through a ton of awesome panels with authors and agents alike, and even submitting my novel for a contest. To say that this is a great opportunity to get myself out there is an understatement, and I am both excited and a little cowed by the whole thing. After the conference I plan to start sending my novel out to agents and publishing houses and seeing if I get any bites. Networking as a new author is so important, and the next step for me is going to tell a lot. No pressure or anything....

My sequel sits in my computer unedited for the time being and I fear that's where it will stay for awhile. I think I need some critical distance from it before I can get back into making it something better than it is.

In the fall I plan to participate in my second attempt at NaNoWriMo and start the next book series I've had in my head, planning and re-planning, for the last 10 years. This is a fun one, another YA, that involves different worlds, people with some insane abilities, and of course a whole lot of misadventure. That's all you guys get for now, but I will probably update more in my novel peeks later ;)

Until next time guys.

Never Kiss a Rake by Anne Stuart

Bryony Russel's life has come crashing down around her ears. Her family is disgraced and her father is dead. She and her three sisters have no money and everything looks bleak. That is until Bryony comes across a secret note, written by her father just before he died. Suddenly his accidental death doesn't seem like so much an accident. In light of this new knowledge Byrony is convinced her father was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of and that the man who was, would be behind her father's death. Armed with only her own wits and intelligence Byrony decides to go undercover as a housekeeper in order to infiltrate the house of the man who called himself her father's business partner, Lord Kilmartyn, a devilish Irish-born rake who has been left suspiciously unscathed in her father's financial downfall. She is determined to prove the guilt of Kilmartyn, though whether for her father's murder and her family downfall, or another dark secret entirely, she isn't sure. But something is going on in the Kilmartyn house, and Bryony is determined to find it all out, and soon before the strange emotions that she feels whenever she sees Lord Kilmartyn overwhelm her. 

This novel can be considered a historical romance as well as wickedly fun and entertaining. When I first read the title I was definitely intrigued. There's nothing I like better than a good romp with the old-school bad-boy trope of the rake. And let me just say, I was not disappointed. This story had all the makings of what pluck a romance out of the myriad of typical, overdone, and cliched bad writing and sets it apart as something truly worth reading. 

Romance so often has a bad rap for not being quality writing; the indulgence of desperate housewives and sexually frustrated virgins. And it's true, there are many a romance that live up to that expectation with bad plot and even worse writing style. I think so much of the problem comes with the idea that a good story can't have some good sex and romance thrown in without the quality dropping. Good stories, like life, absolutely can and will contain some sexy bits which add rather than detract, in my opinion. My cardinal rule of good romantical (yes, this is a word...I just made it up) story telling is: if you can remove the sex and some of the romance and still have a working plot and story then you are doing something right. If I'm searching for the plot while wading through badly written sex scenes and dubiously corny romantic love then chances are I'm going to say a romance isn't up to snuff as a good story. Perhaps my expectations are high, but it is what it is. The story, first and foremost, is what is important to me.

That being said, Never Kiss a Rake was a good story AND it contained a good romance. 

Don't get me wrong. I still caught a few mistakes here and there and some of the romance parts were played up a little bit more than I think the character's initial feelings would have warranted. However it was something I could overlook, especially considering my interest in the suspenseful mystery plot that kept me going as well as the delicious encounters between the main character and the rake himself. Another part of the story that totally made up for any misgivings I might have had was the narration hopping to Kilmartyn occasionally and a few other characters. It made things really interesting and I very much enjoyed seeing and hearing the different point's of view. 

All in all, if you're looking to have a little fun and relax with a book that doesn't take a lot of effort but still delivers the goods, this is the story for you. I thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish and despite all stereotypes reading romance comes with, still give it a high recommend. 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Lincoln hates his job. Working nights at the newspaper as "internet security" isn't a hard job, and it pays very well. But the principle of the thing doesn't change. Lincoln is paid to snoop. He is the one that must read flagged intra-office emails to find the offenders who email things not appropriate and not pertaining to work. Some people might like going through other people's things, but it leaves Lincoln feeling off. He should quit this job, find a job in the sunlight, working with other people, instead of reading their emails. But then Beth and Jennifer get flagged, again, and again. Lincoln has never met them, never seen them, or heard them actually speak, but he can't help but feel like he knows them through their tell all narrations. They either can't take the policy seriously or don't care, and Lincoln should really send them a warning, get them to stop. But how could he give up Beth's wit or Jennifer's quips and stories? By the time he understands how deep in he is it's got to be too late to do anything about it. How can you become friends with someone when you've already read all of their very private emails?

In this funny and heartwarming story the reader follows around Lincoln O'Neill as he desperately toes the line between curiosity and the socially unacceptable. I absolutely loved this book. It was fun and interesting, and though it isn't a book filled with action it still manages to keep the reader sucked in page to page until it's done. 

I very much admired the way Rowell went about telling this story. All things accounted for, it was a delicate endeavor to tell a story about someone reading other people's emails and not make it creepy. But I have to say I didn't find Lincoln creepy at all. I actually kind of identified with him. He's just trying his best, and he doesn't mean to get as far as he goes. But do any of us really? I found it very realistic at how easily it is for him to get caught up in the web he finds himself. One thing leads to another until your standing at a chasm you didn't know you were toeing. But that's life. 

Another thing about Lincoln and his story that just really appealed to me was his age group and the place that he was stuck. He is firmly wedged in that area of time that no one wants to talk about: the "graduated but not left the house" person, who doesn't really have the job they want and just doesn't know how to get unstuck from the life they are now leading. I've heard the high school stories, the college stories, the midlife stories and beyond. But no one likes to talk about that transition period in between college and finding the life you want. I know not everyone finds themselves in it, but it is a very real and growing phenomena today and it was refreshing to find a story that addresses it without become slow and boring. 

I have found in reading Rowell (my first experiencing of her writing being with the YA novel Fangirl) is that she excels in writing about what no one wants to talk about. She takes these topics that everyone marks off either because they want to ignore them or everyone deems them too boring to support an actual novel, and she turns them into very real and wonderful stories. her books are all rather long, but they read like they short. you start them and before you know it you're done.

I was left with the best feeling of contentment when I finished this book, and the first words that left my mouth as I closed it at the end was, "That was beautiful". If you like something fun and quirky with just a little bit of divine intervention thrown in, you will love this novel. 

Control by Lydia Kang

All her life Zel has let her father make decisions for her. It's been easy that way and anyway, he's always known her better than she knew herself. But when a horrible accident rips her life apart and throws her into a world she doesn't know or understand, Zel comes to see how much her father wasn't telling and that she must either take the reigns on her own life or lose what she most holds dear. Suddenly she is living in a world where her sister is illegal, Zel herself is stuck in a house/ freak-show, and there's absolutely no one she can trust. Zel must choose between love and sacrifice, all the while hoping that it's worth it in the end.  

Taking place in the intense futuristic world of 2150, Control is the first book in what looks to be a YA series by Kang, the second book due out winter 2015. This is a fast paced thrilling science fiction adventure that will keep the reader on their toes. It also doesn't hurt that it's got just enough romantic intrigue to flavor the story without over sweetening. I was completely taken with this novel. The characters were interesting and many faceted, the setting was richly described and almost entrancing without becoming over-complicated, and the plot has a way of taking hold of your eyes and dragging them along for the ride. In a word, the book was a great balance of all things that make a great story and I loved it.

Another part of the story that I got the biggest kick out of was the numerous nods to Pride and Prejudice (as well as a few other Austen and other classic novels, in my opinion). It was lovely and refreshing to wade through the story picking out the little references. And the best part about it was that Control was running it's own show completely separate from the classic novel. Don't get me wrong, I love a good P&P reinterpretation or re-vamp story. They are great fun and have their own place in Austen's world. Control however wasn't really that. It was it's own animal with a little bit of a P&P treasure hunt tossed in. I'm not going to give away any more clues about what the references were, but for any P&P or Austen fan, it should be obvious right away. 

All in all this was a really great story and I recommend this to any and all readers. I don't think someone has to just like sci-fi to read this book. 

*WARNING* *SPOILERS AHEAD* *PROCEED WITH CAUTION*

A note on the ending

I was very tempted to give the book a 4/5 because of the ending. I love love loved the book, but I wasn't a huge fan of how it came to a finish. Initially I wanted to be annoyed that our love birds were torn apart. However, from a storytelling point of view, there would have to be a remaining conflict if the series was to progress, otherwise there wouldn't be any more story. Happily ever after is nice, but it is also synonymous with 'the end'. So yeah, I get that they had to be torn asunder to feed the flames for more story to come. However, I didn't like how easy it was for Zel to come to peace with Cy's sacrifice. I really loved Zel's character. She was a lot of fun to read and even though she was super into science (a subject I have little interest in unless I'm dealing with fictional stories), Kang did an amazing job making her identifiable. As readers we get to watch Zel grow into a new person. I love watching character development in stories because it makes the characters so much more real. In life people change. When crazy/ amazing/ horrific/ heartbreaking things happen to people, they can't stay the same as they were before it happened. So Zel forming into the badass rebellion lover that she becomes is really fun to watch. This new self she finds to be lying dormant inside her all along is forced out when she must save her sister. This is what builds the story, Zel's commitment and love for her sister Dyl. The whole book she agonizes about all the horrible things that are happening to her sister, unsure of the exact truth of the matter but terrified all the more because of this. I know that the bond between siblings can be a strong one, but romantic love can be just as strong if not more at times, especially in it's first bloom. I guess for me it was hard to understand how Zel could just let him go with so little fight. I know it was his choice to make the sacrifice, and that he is a strong man who can take care of himself in comparison to the delicate Dyl. But Zel cuts her losses so easily and just let's him go. I think it had to end the way it did, but I think she could have at least tried a little harder near the end. It all made things feel a bit rushed. Also, in the epilogue, everyone seems to forget about Cy too and just bask in general happiness. Eventually it's hinted at through her conversation with Marka that things are bothering both of them. This is followed by Zel professing that she will never give up and she will find Cy. However it is all done with this general air of calm. I guess I just expected a lot more feeling to be running through her, a lot more angst. It was still a good book, and still a good ending, but I wish there had been more pain to the separation. Otherwise it just makes it seem like she doesn't really care as much, slightly cheapening the effect of their love presented earlier in the story. It isn't a big bone, but I guess in the face of how good everything else was it just bothered me a bit.