Dearest
soldaja, don't read this! The major part of this entry doesn't do me any credit! I don't want you to regard me as a reader of 'женские романы'
This week I was not supposed to read fiction at all - that's the end of the term at my university. I mean Mssrs Pathoanatomy, Pharmacology with a number of junior partners were trying hard to suck life out of me. I was supposed to be buried under textbooks and prints. But the decision was to rebel and to read something not very intelligent, nice and making me relax. By chance I found several 'romantic' e-books and a program to convert them into java. So...
#2 Максимилиана Моррель "Код любви"
(supposedly Maximilienne (or Maximiliana, can't found the Latin variant of her name) Morrel 'The Love code'
Genre: romance (with vampires)
Rating: 7/10
I read this one, as well as the others, in Russian translation. But I couldn't find any trace of this one in the English-language net. However, the book was doubtlessly originally written in English and by an American. I know that the editors often strikingly change the titles when a translation of mediocre romance is published, probably they also change the author's name?
( My thoughts with possible spoilers )
#3 'Secret Vampire' by Lisa Jane Smith
(read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Тайный вампир" ;-)
Genre: romance, vampires
Rating: 3/10
( My angry thoughts )
#4 'Dark Angel' by Lisa Jane Smith
(again read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Темный ангел";)
Genre: romance, supernatural
Rating: 7/10
Yes, I am really happy that after being that disappointed by the previous one, I still took another from Night World series.
( My thoughts with as few spoilers as I tried )
#5 'Phantom in Time' by Eugenia Riley
(or Юджиния Райли, "Позови меня, любовь" - 'Call me, my Love', if we translate it back;)
Genre: romance, historical romance
Rating: 9/10
Annotation at the author's site:
He is the ghostly tenor who haunts an old opera house. She is a modern soprano who hears his glorious voice. His passion draws her back in time to meet him as a real man. But will she be able to share his love and save him from a murderer? Or will he forever become her phantom in time?
( My enthusiastic thoughts and several spoilers )
#6 'Mistress of Mellyn' by Victoria Holt
(or Виктория Холт, "Госпожа замка Меллин")
Genre: historical romance
Rating: 8/10
Plot summaries (spoilerless) from http://www.allreaders.com:
"Martha Leigh falls on hard times and is forced to get a job. She gets a position as a governess for the spoiled daughter of Connan TreMellyn. She hears all sorts of gossip about the family and determines to discover whether or not it's true. A very intriguing story."
Laura J. Miller, Resident Scholar
"A young Victorian woman in England finds a job as a governess for a young girl in Cornwall, England. She enters service in a castle near the sea and within those walls, she finds mysteries she ends up solving and finds love at the end, too!"
Debbie, Resident Scholar
What do I think myself? Really nice. A good example of contemporary historical romance. I can advise it.
#7 Надежда Первухина, "Имя для ведьмы"
(Nadezhda Pervukhina, 'A Name for a Witch')
Genre: urban fantasy, humorous fantasy
Rating: 7/10
I picked this book at my favourite library (the one offering the largest collection of newest published popular books, as well as the old ones, surely) quite recently and read it in one sitting. A bit too 'witchy' for the Christian in me, but written nicely and with a great sense of humour (for example, the heroine's lover is a parody of a well-known Russian author of humorous fantasy... And her mother, possessing not a drop of magic, has much power against the bad guys because she is a lieutenant colonel in tax police). If you read in Russian, this e-book can be got in the net. Still, if you read in Russian, there many other books I'd advise you.
#8 Сергей и Марина Дяченко, "Алена и Аспирин"
(Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, 'Alena and Aspirin')
Genre: urban fantasy, supernatural
Rating: 8/10
I fortunately discovered a wiki article about this couple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_and_Sergey_Dyachenko ). That made me very glad: I don't need to write this myself! So I'd just say a couple of words. They are spouses and the story of their life (up to today) could make a romance novel. They are among my favourite authors. Their books aren't primitive fantasy, but are deeply symbolic, make the reader think a lot. There are also very touching romances in their books (however, not in all of them, and not in this one).
As for the book itself... Not their best one, I think. I've described it's genre it as urban fantasy, but it's rather psychological - and magical realism. Anyway, I liked 'The Ritual', 'Witch's Age', 'The Cave' and 'Magicians can do anything' MUCH more.
8 / 100 books. 8% done!
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This week I was not supposed to read fiction at all - that's the end of the term at my university. I mean Mssrs Pathoanatomy, Pharmacology with a number of junior partners were trying hard to suck life out of me. I was supposed to be buried under textbooks and prints. But the decision was to rebel and to read something not very intelligent, nice and making me relax. By chance I found several 'romantic' e-books and a program to convert them into java. So...
#2 Максимилиана Моррель "Код любви"
(supposedly Maximilienne (or Maximiliana, can't found the Latin variant of her name) Morrel 'The Love code'
Genre: romance (with vampires)
Rating: 7/10
I read this one, as well as the others, in Russian translation. But I couldn't find any trace of this one in the English-language net. However, the book was doubtlessly originally written in English and by an American. I know that the editors often strikingly change the titles when a translation of mediocre romance is published, probably they also change the author's name?
( My thoughts with possible spoilers )
#3 'Secret Vampire' by Lisa Jane Smith
(read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Тайный вампир" ;-)
Genre: romance, vampires
Rating: 3/10
( My angry thoughts )
#4 'Dark Angel' by Lisa Jane Smith
(again read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Темный ангел";)
Genre: romance, supernatural
Rating: 7/10
Yes, I am really happy that after being that disappointed by the previous one, I still took another from Night World series.
( My thoughts with as few spoilers as I tried )
#5 'Phantom in Time' by Eugenia Riley
(or Юджиния Райли, "Позови меня, любовь" - 'Call me, my Love', if we translate it back;)
Genre: romance, historical romance
Rating: 9/10
Annotation at the author's site:
He is the ghostly tenor who haunts an old opera house. She is a modern soprano who hears his glorious voice. His passion draws her back in time to meet him as a real man. But will she be able to share his love and save him from a murderer? Or will he forever become her phantom in time?
( My enthusiastic thoughts and several spoilers )
#6 'Mistress of Mellyn' by Victoria Holt
(or Виктория Холт, "Госпожа замка Меллин")
Genre: historical romance
Rating: 8/10
Plot summaries (spoilerless) from http://www.allreaders.com:
"Martha Leigh falls on hard times and is forced to get a job. She gets a position as a governess for the spoiled daughter of Connan TreMellyn. She hears all sorts of gossip about the family and determines to discover whether or not it's true. A very intriguing story."
Laura J. Miller, Resident Scholar
"A young Victorian woman in England finds a job as a governess for a young girl in Cornwall, England. She enters service in a castle near the sea and within those walls, she finds mysteries she ends up solving and finds love at the end, too!"
Debbie, Resident Scholar
What do I think myself? Really nice. A good example of contemporary historical romance. I can advise it.
#7 Надежда Первухина, "Имя для ведьмы"
(Nadezhda Pervukhina, 'A Name for a Witch')
Genre: urban fantasy, humorous fantasy
Rating: 7/10
I picked this book at my favourite library (the one offering the largest collection of newest published popular books, as well as the old ones, surely) quite recently and read it in one sitting. A bit too 'witchy' for the Christian in me, but written nicely and with a great sense of humour (for example, the heroine's lover is a parody of a well-known Russian author of humorous fantasy... And her mother, possessing not a drop of magic, has much power against the bad guys because she is a lieutenant colonel in tax police). If you read in Russian, this e-book can be got in the net. Still, if you read in Russian, there many other books I'd advise you.
#8 Сергей и Марина Дяченко, "Алена и Аспирин"
(Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, 'Alena and Aspirin')
Genre: urban fantasy, supernatural
Rating: 8/10
I fortunately discovered a wiki article about this couple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_and_Sergey_Dyachenko ). That made me very glad: I don't need to write this myself! So I'd just say a couple of words. They are spouses and the story of their life (up to today) could make a romance novel. They are among my favourite authors. Their books aren't primitive fantasy, but are deeply symbolic, make the reader think a lot. There are also very touching romances in their books (however, not in all of them, and not in this one).
As for the book itself... Not their best one, I think. I've described it's genre it as urban fantasy, but it's rather psychological - and magical realism. Anyway, I liked 'The Ritual', 'Witch's Age', 'The Cave' and 'Magicians can do anything' MUCH more.