Personal Demons - Lisa Desrochers

I picked this book up at Borders, and almost didn't buy it (the cover-yuck!). But, I sat down and started reading it for a little while and really got drawn in. The sequel comes out July 2011 - so far!

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia

RRP Au$18.99 - Borders, Angus & Robertson, Dymocks

-->Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl - NOT. She got herself kicked out of Catholic school, and now she’s going to be tagged for hell. But, not because of her bad girl ways. She’s got power, the likes of which has only been seen twice before. 

Luc is the demon from Hell that has been sent to tag her soul. That shouldn’t be too hard, considering he’s flaming hot. Unfortunately for him, his boss has trust issues, and hasn’t told him that Frannie’s soul is extremely valuable. It’s not until Gabriel turns up – yes, that Gabriel – to tag her soul for Heaven that things really start to heat up. Frannie may not be a model Christian, but Heaven ain’t about to let her too easily.

Lisa Desrochers’ debut novel sets a scene in Personal Demons. It’s an infernal fight for the soul of one girl with a powerful talent. The idea in this story is very clever, and it’s complimented by great characters, chemistry and plenty of evil roaming the Earth.

Firstly, the characters in this story all seem to have some real issues. Some would say this was a bad thing, but I think it makes you want to get to know them better. They’re written with a little more intelligence and insight than most teen characters are these days, but Frannie and her human friends have a tolerable amount of annoying in them. Luc (Lucifer – ha!) and Gabe, the main ‘love’ interests in the story, are of course written to be perfect specimens of male  sexuality, but sexy at tow opposite ends of the scale. Luc is tall, shady, green-eyed, brown-haired temptation, and Gabe is blonde, blue-eyed, sweetness all around. Not that I’m complaining.

Carrying on from this, it seems that Frannie wasn’t given the right amount teenage hormones. There may be good teenage chemistry between her and Luc, her and Gabe, but I really question parts of these relationships. If a teenage girl was presented with a guy like Luc, would she be really smart enough to keep her panties to herself? And would an angel really be making out with a human at all? Outside of those relationships, what she has with her friends and other classmates is perfect. Not too much bitching, not too much Jockism. Frannie’s family aren’t mentioned too much, but they are justly, irritatingly conservative and judgemental of Luc. Yes, I know he’s a demon.

There’s a great lot of other demons visiting the upper realm, and going unnoticed. I feel that they’re really just there to make the story go faster. But I found them just a little bit of an inconvenience at first. Admittedly, they do become more important as the story goes on, and fill in the gaps until the real evil arrives. 

To be honest, I had no real issues with this book. It was a gripping and quick read, with a good amount of romance and actions. The ending, in regards to Luc, was a little disappointing. But, I’m sure it will lead on to something good in the sequels.

AH! But, the one things I absolutely HATE about this book is the cover. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Of course, but this cover is awful to the nth degree. The actors who are meant to be Frannie. Luc and Gabe are all about 10 years too old, and it seems to be set in the mid 90s. Who does this stuff? But, book and cover and all that stuff. Ignore the cover or rip it off.

I think this series is going to go far. It’s got some great themes and characters, Lisa’s writing style is very invigorating after some of the childish tosh I’ve read recently. She’s got something really good going on here. I’d recommend it to fans of Michelle Rowen.

Clare de Lune - Christine Johnson (spoilers)

This is a book by an author I've never read before. I picked it up because I do love a good werewolf tale. This is her first novel. Not that that means anything.

 

-->Clare has just found out that her mum is a werewolf. And so is she. And a bunch of other women, including one crazed blood-thirsty were that’s killing off the townsfolk. So when Clare’s mum decides to investigate the single wolf, things start to get a bit nasty, and Clare is forced to involve more people than she thought.

This book had a really promising idea to it. Female main character (not exactly strong, a little bratty), overbearing artist mother (annoyingly strict), the clued in yet clueless bimbo friend, and the gorgeous boyfriend who had no idea what was going on, but was still inadvertently supportive. Wait... there’s the problem. The characters were all a little too...normal? Plain? They had nothing interesting about them, nothing to make me want to know more about them. To add to that, it was obvious from the beginning who the “lone wolf” was. The only thing that might make the reader think otherwise is the hippie au pair that Clare’s mother has babysitting Clare while she’s away on glamorous photography jobs in Dubai.

There were a lot of scenes in here that at first seemed unnecessary, but in hindsight, they were meant to build understanding of relationships. These mostly consisted of Clare on the phone to her chit-chatting best friend, Clare back-talking to her military mum, Clare being shy with her hot boyfriend. Not very drawing. The only scenes that really caught my interest were the descriptions of Clare and her pack morphing into wolves and fighting as wolves. However, this doesn’t make up for the juvenile writing style on either side of the ‘morphing’ passages. It really needed something more than a few good fight scenes.

I was really disappointed with this one, and what’s worse is that I was really looking forward to reading it. Still, a book about werewolves it is. I recommend it for fans of Alyxandra Harvey.

Fledgling - Mari Miniatt

This is another indie author, who has realease her first novel, an adult vampire story that goes backt o basics. Mari Miniatt's story is definitely not for kids!

-->Beka just got bitten. Not by your average vampire though. This guy’s real - seven feet tall, fierce and Slavic. The way they should be. Now Beka’s one of them. She has to learn to accept the changes, and the consequences. There are always consequences. Her first problem is a power-hungry runt, who will do anything to get what he wants. But, what exactly is that? Once they find out what this guy wants, things get complicated...and stay that way.

Independent author Mari Miniatt has gone back to fantasy basics with this little gem. The vampires aren’t sweet, and they certainly don’t glitter. The main character in this book is not your average skinny girl, and she’s more than willing to get her hands dirty. She’s different, clever and much more realistic. And she’s definitely not throwing herself at the first sucker she sees. In fact, she’s terrified by the idea of vampirism– like a normal person would be! Her first reaction is exactly how people should be reacting, which is what makes her lovable from the beginning. 

Another great thing about this book is the different take on other fantastical creatures. One such example is of a berserk (don’t ask, just read the book) that gets involved in a lovely little fight scene (my favourite scene). The fight scenes: beautifully original, and just enough that they don’t get boring.

One thing that I was a little disappointed with was the lack of characterisation. I didn’t get a good understanding of the characters until quite late in the book. It would’ve been nice to know more about the characters earlier on, to make it easier to get attached to the characters and genuinely want to know about their adventures. This is one thing that may make it difficult to get into the book, but that’s probably different for each person. Another small thing is that the characters only ever ‘say’ things. There wasn’t much yelling or any other kind of emotion in the speech. But again, that could be easier on the imagination, because it doesn’t restrict how a character says something.

With this criticism, I think this book is very original, in comparison with some of the drivel that gets published these days. While the author’s writing style may not be for everyone, the story is a definite recommendation for vampire lovers.You'll like this if you're into old skool vampire lore.

Hush Money - Susan Bischoff

This, my first review as Madam Reads-Alot, was originally posted on Goodreads (will link to my Goodreads profile soon).
A bit about Susan: she's an indie author who specialises in superpowers. Hush Money is her first novel, hopefully to be followed by second soon. I quite liked this one.

-->Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone. Kids with psychic abilities tend to mysteriously disappear when they get noticed. Joss has spent years trying to hide. Now she has an unasked-for best friend, who is the victim of an extortion plot by the school bully, who used to like Joss, who is best friends with her long-time crush, who is actually talking to her. Life just got more complicated.

In her first novel, Susan Bischoff brings us this original beauty about common kids with terrifying Talents, and what becomes of them when they get caught out. She’s managed to write a used idea in a way that could quickly make superpowers the new vampirism. 

While there are typical teenage girls and boys written into the story, the main characters have qualities which many teens (and older) can associate with. Realistic attitude, not too attractive and awkward teenage emotions carry the relationships into a zone that’s easily understandable and a little bittersweet, given the circumstances. The dialogue has a nice zing to it, with the perfect amount of young sarcasm and nerve. The narration of more than one character allows a better insight to the complications of supernatural teenage love. It’s a great way to watch the relationship between characters develop throughout the story.

One thing that bugged me was the focus on a fellow student as the main antagonist. Of course, there was the government agency that was threatening the lives of all those with Talents, but there wasn’t enough focus on that. Instead, we see quite a bit of Marco, the blackmailing, abusive jock, menacing people into getting his way. This kind of character may seem like a huge problem in a teenage world, but I think that the higher power of the government should’ve had a more dominant and foreboding role in the story.

Having said this, Hush Money is an excellent and easy read. The writing was clear and in no way convoluted. I’d recommend this to fans of Cassandra Clare and Claudia Gray. Hot stuff!