This is going to be a short post, as will many of my posts over the next few weeks.  Today is the official start of my road trip across America.  You can track my progress on my YouTube Vlog (username: immeomy), but I do plan on updating regularly again now that the horrible part of moving (packing/selling stuff) is over.

I bought Impossible a loooong time ago.  When it first came out, actually.  I loved the premise of this story, but for some reason it stayed on my shelf.  The story kept me reading until the end.  I was very interested in seeing how things would turn out.  There were a lot of sweet and touching moments and a few that even made me tear up.  But, this story is incredibly dark (rape, torture, manipulation, etc) and that darkness often felt out of place in the story, because besides these few plot points the story was so... clean (for lack of a better description).  The bad guy was terrible when I thought about what he was doing, but reading about him didn't make me feel anything towards him.

The characters were another reason I just didn't fall in love.  I couldn't relate to any of them.  They were all so... good.  The main character is raped and only a few days later is trying to figure out how to forgive the person who did it.  That is an extreme example, but all of the characters seemed too perfect.  I'm not perfect.  I am pretty much the opposite of perfect and I have a hard time relating to such agreeable people.

Even though I enjoyed the story, it just seemed to lack passion.  I wanted to know what happened, but I wasn't invested.   Someone who shies away from dark stories could really enjoy this book and I would love to hear some other perspectives.  I sooooo wanted to love this book, but I just didn't.  This story is right for someone... just not me.

Visons of Sugar Plums

As is probably obvious, I'm reading through the Stephanie Plum books and loving them.  I realized that I skipped over one of the between-the-number-novella's and skipped back to catch up.  The between-the-numbers novella's are Stephanie Plum books that center around a holiday and take place between the "real" novels, for lack of a better term.  The series is fine without them and they have their own love interest (because Ranger and Morelli weren't enough).  Personally, I really didn't like this first one.

Yes, Stephanie has to track down a bad guy and gets her car blown up.  Usually I love when Stephanie's cars get blown up, but it just felt like the same old same old in this novella.  Also, Stephanie being chased around by Little People just felt exploitative to a group of people instead of funny.

As for the romance, it just didn't work.  Joe and Ranger have a perfect balance.  I love them both and the only reason that love triangle works is because, like Stephanie, I can't choose between them.  Introducing a new love interest makes Stephanie seem like she is using both Joe and Ranger.  And that makes me not like her (especially when she lets Diesel kiss her and then doesn't say anything to Joe who trusts her).

The final reason this book just didn't work for me (at all) is that it added a supernatural element to the stories.  I feel that the world needs to stay consistent even in stories outside of the main series.  The between-the-numbers-novellas use the same characters and settings and formulas.  They should have the same rules for the world as well.

I will read the next between the numbers novella as well as keep reading the series.  Even though my love for these books has been dwindling, I'm hopeful that Evanovich got back on track in later books.  Also, I have to know whether Stephanie chooses Ranger or Morelli and since the series just won't end, Wikipedia doesn't have the answer yet.

Book Blogger Hop: 8/12-8/15

Another week, another blog hop.  This week's question is super fun and I can't wait to read everyone else's answers....

“Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles! If you can’t find any, feel free to find one on the internet!”

Some titles just draw me in.  Off the top of my head I can think of two series that have amazingly fun titles that were the reason I picked the books up in the first place.

The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson books have fun titles (and fun covers).  Everything from Startled By His Furry Shorts to Stop In the Name of Pants!  They capture Georgia's strange sense of humor and the ridiculous situations that she gets herself into.

The Gallagher Girl's Books also have fun titles.  Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy?  Yes please!  I'm not sure I even need to elaborate on how awesome that title is.  And the entire series follows that same pattern.

  

Red Glove

After listening to the audio of White Cat, I remembered just how good this book was.  Obviously, I immediately picked up the next book in the series which has been in my TBR pile for way too long.  The series continues to follow Cassell as he navigates a world where the major crime families are organized around the ability to perform outlawed magic.  The world-building is phenomenal (like the plots and subplots, like the characters).

There are spoilers for the first book in this paragraph... In the second installment of Black's series, Cassell (after learning he is one of the most powerful worker's in the world) searches for his brother's murderer while feeling trapped between the FBI and a Crime Boss (who also happens to be the father of the girl he loves).  Meanwhile, he fights feelings for Lilah, because she was cursed to love him and he doesn't want to take advantage of her.  End spoilers.

Like I said, the world-building is phenomenal.  I can't say it enough.  There are whole histories that make the world seem even more plausable than our own.  I also enjoy that the fight for Worker's Rights comes through even though Cassell does his best to ignore it.  It was perfect for creating a full and complex world in this book and added some amazing set up for what I expect to be an equally awesome final book.

I loved the plot.  Yes, it was a "middle book", in that much of what happens is bridging the story for the final showdown, BUT I though Cassell's investigation tied the second book together extremely well.  The pieces of the series plot seemed totally natural and enhanced the second book even while I knew they were setting up the third.  In the first book Cassell had to investigate and react.  In Red Glove, he has had time to process his thoughts and he needs to make real decisions, complicated by the fact that there are so many people trying to control him.

But the world and the plot could call apart if it weren't for the characters.  I love them.  They are all so real, they are all so developed.  They have their own things going on, they have their own problems.  There was so much tension between Cassell and Lilah--it was a special kind of angst, my favorite kind.  As with the first book, I loved that many of the characters were bad people and even though Cassell wanted to do the right thing, he also wanted to protect them.  Cassell's relationship with himself is probably one of my all-time favorites.  He sees himself as a terrible person, he loathes himself, and yet he still has hope that he can be a better person.  He wants to be a good person.

And, oh god... the end!  It felt unexpected, but totally the only thing that could have happened.  I am now dying for the next book and I can't even find it for pre-order on Amazon yet.  I can not wait to read it.  There is so much set up in both Cassel's life and the world at large, problems he has been trying to ignore for the better part of the first two books.  And isn't Black Heart a perfect title?

An Announcement

Some of you already know this, but in a few weeks I'm moving from Los Angeles to Virginia.  It's scary and awesome and fun and totally the right move for me.  I am planning to continue blogging, but if I disappear for two or three weeks, it's because I am driving cross country.  But I'm bringing my kindle and hopefully buying a chromebook so the expectation is that I will still be updating regularly.

In the mean time, I have started vlogging.  Subscribing to my channel will make me happy!  The first video is below.

Bumped

Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series were some of my FAVORITE BOOKS (Marcus Flutie made me ask Edward who?), so I was ecstatic to hear about Bumped.  It takes place in a future where humans are unable to have children after the age of 18 and having teens carry babies is big business!

Bumped follows twin sisters who were separated at birth.  Melody is a pro (paid to preg).  She hasn't "bumped" yet, but she has a major contract to fulfill as soon as the couple finds a suitable male.  Harmony was raised by The Church--a strict religious settlement that marries girls off at 13 to start families.  When Harmony arrives at Melody's door, both girls start down separate paths that will make them realize that neither one of them believes in the upbringings they are clinging to.  Add in a boy too short to bump with (but who Melody is probably in love with), a scared church boy trying to bring Harmony home, and a hot superstar with the fastest sperm in the world... and catastrophes are bound to happen in the classic McCafferty style.

First, Bumped jumps right in.  It took me about four chapters to catch up, but I trusted McCafferty, and I'm glad I did.  The world is a hilarious version of our own that shows how perverse our society can be.  Advertisements screaming that your extra sixty is sexy were funny and I laughed out loud when I found out that condoms were illegal.  Selling fake pregnancy bellies to pre-teens was a little gross, but believable within the world and I found that it mirrored our own.  Have you seen some of the latest fashion ads?  Hailee Steinfeld and Elle Fanning, 13 year old girls, are selling fashion to grown woman.  And that spread of sexy six year olds in French Vogue a few months ago?  As funny as this book is... it is also alarming in how well it mirrors the real world.

Melody's parents are the ones who pushed her to go pro.  They made me sick, but I've met my share of real life stage parents and I can tell you that they absolutely are not the worst out there.  As for the other characters... I loved them all.  Something I love about McCafferty's writing is how she can make these beautiful and complicated relationships.  I find I'm never rooting for a relationship from the beginning, because it is impossible to tell who the characters really are.  Are they good, are they bad?  Are they using the main character?  I find myself secretly hoping they are good so that the characters can fall in love and at the end, the big reveal is always a more emotional moment for me than any kiss I've been anticipating from the beginning of the book.

Overall, I think McCafferty does a wonderful job of dealing with delicate issues, like sex and religion.  I love how different the sisters are, but how alike they find themselves to be as well.  Both girls journeys were unique and honest.  They each do an incredible amount of changing over the course of this story and it sets them up for having to confront things they've been trying to avoid most of their lives.  AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK TWO.  I almost wish I hadn't read this so soon, because waiting for McCafferty's next book is harder than Harmony trying not to bump with Jondoe.