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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?
Well, anyway the novel was nice. I've read a bunch of angry reviews before beginning it, and I don't agree with them at all. Yes, the style is a bit strange - we don't simply see everything from the heroine's POW, we rather read her thoughts on everything happening around her. But it's not really grave and not THAT queer, as I had been told. I keep my own diary in the same manner (when describing the events)!
The characters, the plot, the ending - everything was OK. Not extra amazing - but very nice for an evening read. I appreciate when authors give us a happy-end, rejecting the prejudices that good literature should be a tragedy. The existence of the heroine's four-year-old son and the fact how good a father The Vampire Guy turned out to be - very untypical to both romances and vampire novels - was much to my liking. I appreciated as well her decision to remain human. I know, that's not fashionable nowadays, but I also would like to keep 'my soul' in such a situation.
#3 'Secret Vampire' by Lisa Jane Smith
(read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Тайный вампир" ;-)
Genre: romance, vampires
Rating: 3/10
A complete waste. Well, probably some eight years ago I could like this book, but not now. Not even at the age of the heroine (was it sixteen or seventeen?). Characters, dialogs, the plot are very primitive and lifeless. It should be written on such books 'not for anyone at High School or older'
#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.
This novel is also about a girl (Gillian) studying at school (or should I say high school? I am not much familiar with American system of education). After expiriencing clinical death, she was sent to the Earth by some 'angel' who doesn't leave her afterwards. Instead he keeps talking in her head, telling her what to do and what to say... As the result in a couple of days Gillian, hardly noticed by anyone before, becomes the very queen at her school, to say nothing of the boy of her dreams who became her boyfriend. Surely, several 'cruel and bad girls' are plotting against the blissful couple. Listening to her guardian angel, Gillian discoveres that she is a witch and performs some magic to stop those. That turns to worse when she finds out that magic wasn't innocent at all... She begins to have doubts in her 'angel' and finally she realizes that he wants either to kill her, or to kill her boyfriend and take his body... Don't worry, everything will be all right, even the 'angel' will finally find peace.
So. This book is well-written. The plot doesn't seem such a banality as the one in the previous book. The characters are much more vivid. School life is well-described. And the moral of the story is also nice.
#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?
Yes! That's it! This is the very book I needed when saved that pile to my Walkman. Everything, everything written just for me. 19th century in New Orleans, opera, a shy though strong heroine, a passionate, seductive and powerful French tenor... I needed my piece of fairy-tale and I got it. So I closed my eyes on all the drawbacks. I've read reviews when people tore the book to pieces because 'there is nothing but him trying to seduce her... again and again...' As for me, I like such scenes. I adore psychological duels between two characters, and seduction is one of such, probably my most favourite one.
And I did like the end. *Careful, here's a huge spoiler!* The reunion of Bella with her parents - they didn't die when their car crashed, but travelled in time to become famous singers in 19th century America. And that was what saved their marriage!
#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!
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?
Well, anyway the novel was nice. I've read a bunch of angry reviews before beginning it, and I don't agree with them at all. Yes, the style is a bit strange - we don't simply see everything from the heroine's POW, we rather read her thoughts on everything happening around her. But it's not really grave and not THAT queer, as I had been told. I keep my own diary in the same manner (when describing the events)!
The characters, the plot, the ending - everything was OK. Not extra amazing - but very nice for an evening read. I appreciate when authors give us a happy-end, rejecting the prejudices that good literature should be a tragedy. The existence of the heroine's four-year-old son and the fact how good a father The Vampire Guy turned out to be - very untypical to both romances and vampire novels - was much to my liking. I appreciated as well her decision to remain human. I know, that's not fashionable nowadays, but I also would like to keep 'my soul' in such a situation.
#3 'Secret Vampire' by Lisa Jane Smith
(read actually as Лиза Джейн Смит, "Тайный вампир" ;-)
Genre: romance, vampires
Rating: 3/10
A complete waste. Well, probably some eight years ago I could like this book, but not now. Not even at the age of the heroine (was it sixteen or seventeen?). Characters, dialogs, the plot are very primitive and lifeless. It should be written on such books 'not for anyone at High School or older'
#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.
This novel is also about a girl (Gillian) studying at school (or should I say high school? I am not much familiar with American system of education). After expiriencing clinical death, she was sent to the Earth by some 'angel' who doesn't leave her afterwards. Instead he keeps talking in her head, telling her what to do and what to say... As the result in a couple of days Gillian, hardly noticed by anyone before, becomes the very queen at her school, to say nothing of the boy of her dreams who became her boyfriend. Surely, several 'cruel and bad girls' are plotting against the blissful couple. Listening to her guardian angel, Gillian discoveres that she is a witch and performs some magic to stop those. That turns to worse when she finds out that magic wasn't innocent at all... She begins to have doubts in her 'angel' and finally she realizes that he wants either to kill her, or to kill her boyfriend and take his body... Don't worry, everything will be all right, even the 'angel' will finally find peace.
So. This book is well-written. The plot doesn't seem such a banality as the one in the previous book. The characters are much more vivid. School life is well-described. And the moral of the story is also nice.
#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?
Yes! That's it! This is the very book I needed when saved that pile to my Walkman. Everything, everything written just for me. 19th century in New Orleans, opera, a shy though strong heroine, a passionate, seductive and powerful French tenor... I needed my piece of fairy-tale and I got it. So I closed my eyes on all the drawbacks. I've read reviews when people tore the book to pieces because 'there is nothing but him trying to seduce her... again and again...' As for me, I like such scenes. I adore psychological duels between two characters, and seduction is one of such, probably my most favourite one.
And I did like the end. *Careful, here's a huge spoiler!* The reunion of Bella with her parents - they didn't die when their car crashed, but travelled in time to become famous singers in 19th century America. And that was what saved their marriage!
#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.
