Monday, April 18, 2011

The Darkest Secret


Title: The Darkest Secret
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: Lords of the Underworld (Book 7)
Genre: Paranormal Romance



Amun is the keeper of Secrets. He doesn't speak because if he opened his mouth the secrets of the world would come streaming out. We do see this happen once to him in the story.

Recently Amun has come back from a trip to Hell (to save Legion) and has managed to somehow take in more minor demons while he was there. They are pretty much driving him insane. So much so, that he is rarely conscious and is trying to kill himself.

Strider catches Baden's killer (a hunter named Haidee/Hadiee) and brings her to the fortress. In his hurry to check on Amun, he puts Haidee in the room next to Amun, just until he can get her to the dungeon.

Haidee hears Amun's voice crying out in her mind and goes to him. It is found that she quiets the demons and makes him relatively normal. The Lords discover this, and decide to keep her around him for the time being.

Amun learns from an Angel that the only way to get the demons out would be to travel back to Hell. He and Haidee make that journey and learn much about one another.

A relatively simple story, although I did enjoy the twist about Haidee at the end. Aside from that, to me Defeat stole most of the story. Strider is somewhat the secondary story. He's being set up for the next novel (which I believe will be his). Something about Defeat and the way he constantly asks, "Win?" just makes me laugh.

Time to wait until September 27th for my favorite Demon.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011


Title: Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Author: Alex Haley
Series: None
Genre: Non-Fiction


Roots is the story of Alex Haley's ancestors starting with Kunte Kinte, "the African" who was brought to America by the slave ships. It goes through 7 (kind of even like 8) generations back. It was made into a television mini series in 1977 and was epic. It rated as the third highest rated television program ever.

I remember seeing the mini series with my Dad when I was younger and it really moved me. I remember it in great detail even though it's probably been at least 15 years since I saw the series. It comes up every so often in conversation between my Dad and I and I have been thinking about getting him the series for Father's Day this year.

Recently, he made a mention about how it was based on a true story. What?! Somehow I had missed that. When I searched for the series on Amazon and then realized it was also a book - I couldn't help be read it immediately.

I know books are always better then movies/series, but I was amazed at the amount of information that is in the book that is not in the series. I also enjoyed the information added by Alex Haley at the end about his research and eventual writing of Roots.

There is some disagreement whether it is believed to be fact or actually fiction and Haley confessed to taking some passages from another book and eventually paid the author for copyright infringement. Either way, I enjoyed this book highly and can't wait for Dad to get his gift and watch it together.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Pleasure for Pleasure


Title: Pleasure for Pleasure
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Essex Sisters (Book 4)
Genre: Historical Romance


Josie has been nicknamed the "Scottish Sausage" by a mean boy of the ton. Her season seems like it is going to be over before it had totally started. Josie knows that no man will want her because she is too heavy.

The Earl of Mayne (jilted one sister, refused to have an affair with another), who is now engaged, decides one evening to show Josie how to walk like a woman and really embrace her curves. He encourages her to get new dresses without crazy slimming contraptions and tries to show her she is beautiful just the way she is.

When Josie gets manhandled by an irate member of the ton, Mayne knows that it is his duty to marry her. Josie is concerned at first, because she wasn't ruined merely scared. She thinks that Mayne will want to get the marriage annulled when he finds out. Luckily that is not the case.

What happens to Mayne's fiance? She gets angry at him for making advances (which we find out why at the end of the book in a very discrete manner) gives him his ring back and it seems that he all of a sudden no longer loves her and realizes his love for Josie.

I seemed to have the biggest issue with Josie herself. Because she was so young when the series started, I had a hard time seeing her as old enough to be going through this. It didn't bother me that Mayne was 16 years older than her. I often has this problem when we watch a character grow up. They don't grow up in my eyes and the book takes on a slightly odd feel to it.