Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell

I wasn't really sure how I was going to feel about this book. Other reviews I read seemed to be split down the middle, either they loved it or hated it. And the movie probably didn't help any. Julie was portrayed in a less then flattering light in the movie as inconsiderate and annoying. After reading the book I can honestly say that she is actually pretty inconsiderate particularly of her husband and she is also extremely whiney, but somehow I did find it less irritating in print. Although I did wonder if after she saw it in print maybe she started treating Eric a little bit better or at least bought him something nice with her royalties.

However when she talks about the food it's great. Shopping for the food, making the food and eating the food all sound great. She's very descriptive about the whole process and it all sounds great. I just wish there was more of it, and sometimes she will interrupt herself with another story about food or something else and it kind of takes you a minute to get back on track.

Her intermitent vignetes about Julia and Paul were okay. I actually think she may have been better of trying to get excerpts from Julia's biography or someone else's writings because after reading Julia's biography I felt like it didn't ring true.

Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts

Luke is just a kid when he runs away from a home where he is regularly beaten by his stepfather. At a traveling carnival he meets Max a master magician who takes him in and raises him with her daughter, bringing him into all the family businesses (not only are they master magicians, they are also thieves.) Max's daughter Roxy grows up with Luke and over time they fall in love. Then their past catches up with them and they are separated for years.

I liked watching Luke and Roxy grow up, but this is another one that I had a hard time getting into. Nora Roberts books tend to be on the lighter side and sometimes I just feel like I need to be in the mood for them and right now I guess I'm just not.

You get to see Luke and Roxy from the point of view of so many different characters. I really liked the whole family. It was interesting to see how they related magic and thievery and some of this reminded me of a girly Ocean's 11, 12 and 13. Sometimes I wasn't a big fan of Roxy. I understand that she didn't know there were good explanations for things that Luke did but come on, give a guy a chance.

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

At first I couldn't get into this book, I'm not entirely sure why. I think it might be because in the beginning Trella is not the most endearing character. Trella is a scrub, a lower level worker known as "The Queen of the Pipes". She is standoffish and doesn't have many friends (okay she has one friend) because she prefers solitude which is difficult to get among the thousands of Scrubs she is forced to live with in dorms. But once you see Trella really interact with Cog and she accidentally begins the rebellion, she softens a lot and I really started to like her. I also really loved how everyone came together to help her, so often in a book like this I feel like someone always betrays in a mean spirited way. Yes there was some betrayal but most of it was under duress.

There were also a lot of really great surprises in this book that made it an even better read (I'm going to be as general as possible so I don't give anything away). Particularly how Trella met her mother. I always knew that she would eventually meet one of her parents but I wasn't expecting it to come about the way it did. I also really liked getting more specifics about Inside and how it actually worked.

There was so much I going on in this book that we didn't get to know a lot of characters besides Trella, Cog and sort of getting to know Riley. (Although I loved Sheepy and I thought it was a great way of developing Riley and Trella's relationship.) The book was self contained and doesn't need a sequel but since there is one coming out I am hoping we get to know some of the other characters better like Logan and Anne Jade.

It's Monday What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Shiela at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. The point is basically to share what you've reading, what you're reading and what you think you're going to read.

Read This Week:

The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (Review Forthcoming)

Currently Reading:

Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey (on audio book)

To Be Read:

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Out for Blood by Alyxandra Harvey

Outside In by Maria V. Snyder

I'm still trying to read off my book shelf, and I think I did pretty good this week. The first three titles were mine and the second two were library books. Insatiable I had taken out for a friend and when she gave it back she recommended I read it. Inside Out got the e-book copy of the sequel from Netgalley so I wanted to read the first so I wouldn't be confused. What are you reading this week?

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Okay so it wasn't until I was like a quarter of the way through the book that I realized that this is JUST LIKE TRUE BLOOD. Mind reader meets vampire and they fall in love. Well Meena can't read minds, just tell you when you're going to die. She works for a soap opera as a dialogue writer and she's having a very bad week. She was passed over for a promotion and the prince of darkness is in love with her and she with him, wreaking all kinds of havok in her life.

Short chapters usually mean that pacing will be quick but honestly this book just felt like it dragged a little bit. I may have liked it better if it had been a little bit pared down. It felt like it took way too long for Meena and Lucien to meet and then it took way too long for them to find out each others secrets.

The characters were mostly all likable (except for Meena's brother Jon he was kind of a pain in the butt and I frequently found myself wanting to strangle him.) There were also some minor characters I would have liked to have gotten to know a little bit better. But it was mostly fun and I laughed a lot because of how over the top things got (Is everyone I know a vampire?) I also really like Lucien and Meena. Meena isn't passive about her powers, she makes it a point to try and help people once she has seen their future, even if (Although sometimes Meena spent a little too much time going on about things...this would have been a good thing to pare down, I'm just sayin'.) Alaric Wulf was sometimes likable and other times I just loathed him. He ran the gamut from complete jerk to kind. I find myself wondering if there is going to be sequel because it was left very open, particularly in the love triangle department.

There was one thing I was a little bit confused about(I'm going to try and be vauge cause I don't want to cause a spoiler). Knowing who Lucien is descended from and due to several brief mentions of a great grandmother named Wilhemina Harker I find myself wondering if all of these characters are supposed to be direct descendents of the characters from their Dracula counterparts or if the writer was just doing an homage.

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to start reading this book and it's a good thing I couldn't sleep because I didn't want to put it down. This book is actually a modern day continuation of the Snow White tale that takes place many generations after the original. I never would have figured out based on the description although after the fact I do see some hints on the cover.

Megan has had a difficult life, when she was 8 she was in a car accident with her twin sister Remy and her father. Remy died and her father is in a coma and ten years later Megan is still seeing Remy's ghost, and lately she's getting more and more violent and Remy's visits are getting harder and harder to stop/ignore. To add to Megan's issues she also gets a job at The Land of Enchantment, a local fairy tale themed amusement park to keep an eye on her boyfriend Ryan and his best friend (who has professed her undying love to him) Sammy. Megan's first day at the park she meets Luke, who can also see Remy and hopefully help Megan help Remy to move on.

There is a lot going on in this book and the frenetic pace can make it difficult to keep up at times (especially at the end) but it is well worth the read. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened next. I really liked how the author wove the different elements of Snow White into the story. The description of the book sounds so much like a paranormal romance love triangle type thing, but really it's more of a murder mystery and I think that is what really keeps the plot going. Now I'm kind of torn because I want to go further into why I like the book but I don't want to give anything away.

The Mermaid's Madness (Princess Novels # 2) by Jim C. Hines

I realized yesterday that somehow I forgot to post this to the blog so I thought I should get it up here quickly since I love this series and am hoping that it doesn't end with just the three books that are out now.
Lirea the undine (mermaid) princess has gone mad. She is attacking everyone, undine and human alike and breaking treaties that have stood for years. At an annual ceremony she attacks Queen Beatrice and traps her soul in a knife. The Princesses (Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty) go on a high seas adventure to try and get the knife, save Beatrice and help the undine princess.

This was just as good if not better then the previous Princess book. Through out the book we once again get details regarding the "real stories" of the lives of all of the princesses and get to meet some new, interesting characters.This book is delves more deeply into the feelings and pasts of each of the princesses, especially Snow White's relationship with her mother and Talia's coming to the castle and feelings regarding Snow White.

The Mermaid's story is made darker as well with evil witch being her grandmother who is pursuing a very different agenda reminiscent of a mad scientists experiments reminiscint of Josef Mengala's. The book is fun but maintains an aura of darkness that keeps it from getting to silly. This is a great book about a sisterhood of women who are tough and smart. Hopefully the series maintains its drive.

Also I love the covers for these. The girls look the way they are described and you can figure out who is who which I really appreciate, and you can clearly see their personalities in the way they are drawn which I think is awesome. When I read the first one I had a lot of fun figuring out who was who.