The nice people over at Exaclair sent me a Quo Vadis Minister to review.
First of all — thank you very much, Karen, for allowing me to check out the planner, even at such short notice.

First impressions:

The diary is about A5 in size (16 x 24cm / 6½ x 9½) and approximately 15mm thick (20mm with the cover).
Mine came in the Soya Cover in Lavender (Blue)
The cover is soft and flexible, not too thick and covers the diary well.
There is no ribbon and no elastic band (which I would personally have liked. Looking at the range, the Habana version is the one I’d go for next time.)
The paper is smooth to the touch and superb quality. Not thin, or flimsy, but rather nicely weighted and solid without feeling like it’s a "fat" page.
There is an address book in the back, slipped into the cover.

The layout is very well done, one week to two pages, with priority spots at the top of the page, a space for phone numbers, Fax/Email, See/Do, Pay/Receive and Note spaces on the side.
Sunday is at the bottom of the pages, across both pages.
You also get:
International Telephone Access Codes
Average Temperatures
Chart of International Holidays
A "Year at a Glance" Planner spanning two pages, with holidays marked. 2009 at the front, 2010 at the back.
Maps
Several pages for receipts and payments
Note pages.
The diary covers December 2008 – January 1st 2010 with a weekly, timed layout, and January 2010 with a daily layout, covering the month.
Corners are perforated for easy marking where you’re at.

10/10 for first impressions, although I really would have liked a moleskine-like elastic band on the cover, like the Habana version, since I cart the diary around with me.

Usability:

Let me just say one thing — The paper in this diary is fantastic.
Quo Vadis use Clairfontaine paper, which is acid free and pH neutral. It’s opaque, doesn’t bleed, feather or smear. And the finish is so smooth to the touch, it’s hard to believe it’s not coated with something. You just want to keep touching that paper when you get your hands on it, it’s so nice to the touch.
I’m a fountain pen user and my Herlitz Tornado glides over it like a dream. There is no bleed through even with my troublesome Noodlers Le Coleur Royale, which tends to dry slowly and soak paper. My Shaeffer Imperial behaves nicely with Diamine Aqua Blue, as does the P51 with Diamine Washable Blue. None of them bleed through, no feathering and all dried quite quickly. The paper isn’t scratchy against the nib and allows the pens to glide smoothly across the page.
Not only that, but the colors come out bright and clean too!

I find the page layout of the Minister slightly on the narrow side, if you use a medium nib size, but I had no problem with my F nib P51. Still, you have room on the side if you need to make additional notes.
The "Year at a Glance" planner is great. I use it for my word count.
The hour type is relatively small, so if you are a bit challenged with reading — you might want to get your glasses out. I had to. I didn’t find it a disadvantage, because you sort of get a feel of where in the day you are, anyway. Plus, I also tend to write the exact time into the meeting/event I put in, anyway.

The corners tear cleanly, and don’t seem to fray.

The address book is useful, if you’re like me, and you tend to forget where the heck you put an address / phone number.

8/10 for usability. Mainly because I found sometimes there wasn’t a lot of room for an appointment note if it only took half an hour.

Overall:

The pricing for this planner is about $23 (£20.50) in Soya or Habana, but you can get it in Nappa Leather as well. You need to pretty much double the price then, from what I saw, but you get a leather cover.
The refill and address book is about  £14.63 (I didn’t see the bundle in US shops), the refill alone is $8 (plain) $16 (Gold Edge) (£12.33), the address book alone was $5 (Plain), $7 (Gold Edge)

Do I think $23 is expensive for this planner?

Absolutely not. I think the paper alone makes this a superb planner, since it won’t give out on you half way into the year. (Most of my diaries gave up by about June and fell apart.) This one will survive a year easily, and if you need to keep it for the record, it’ll last through that as well.

Final Verdict:

If you are looking for a diary that will serve you well throughout the entire year, looks clean and has a no-nonsense layout — then this is the one for you.
If you use a fountain pen… then this is definitely the one for you!
I am going to enjoy using my Minister until next year, when I will most likely replace it with either another Minister, or one of the other Quo Vadis planners. Habana cover that time round, because I like the look of it.
But my 2010 diary is absolutely going to be another Quo Vadis!
Not only that, I will most likely get one of the pocket versions for my other half, who uses and abuses his diaries like you wouldn’t believe. He generally ends up having to replace his diary mid year, because it falls apart. A Quo Vadis might just survive his treatment of it.  

Tags: Diary, Quo Vadis, Review

One Silent Night
(Dark Hunter Series)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
ISBN 978-0312947064

(No, I’m not kidding.)

Blurb:

It’s the Christmas season and all hell’s breaking loose. Literally. While humans shop, an angry demon lord is plotting an all-out onslaught against his enemies, which -unfortunately for us – includes the human race. But as Stryker gathers his forces, he discovers a grown son he never knew existed and an angry ex, Zephyra, who’s as determined to end his existence as he is to end ours. The ultimate predator is about to meet his match as new battle lines are drawn and the Dark-Hunters are rallied for a blood bath on Christmas Eve. The only question is this: can Stryker survive his oldest enemy to fight the ones he really wants to kill ? or will Zephyra finally have her shot at the husband who abandoned her?
 

Review

First of all… I was hoping this one would see Sherrilyn get back to pre-Acheron form.
While I liked the story in Acheron, I thought it deviated too much from the previous ones.
It was not a romance, as far as I’m concerned. At least not until the second half of the book.

So yeah, my hopes were high that she’d got it all out of her system.
Epic Fail, darling.

For starters — the blub is shoddy, really shoddy, but not Sherrilyn’s fault. That one is down to copy editors, editors, marketing people and whatnot at St. Martin’s Press.

That blurb…
The angry Ex who wants to kill him is there, yes.
Everything else in the blurb is wrong.

1. There is no angry demon lord, but a demon/ex god type creature Stryker sets loose.
2. War is not going after humans, he’s going after Ash and Nick, at Stryker’s request.
3. Stryker doesn’t discover a SON he never knew existed — but a daughter. (who the hell didn’t spot THAT one??)
4. The Dark-Hunters barely get a mention, let alone join the fight.
5. It has nothing to do with Christmas, other than the culmination on Christmas Eve.

The entire book feels backstory and setup for future books, basically.
She’s written herself into a corner with Ash out of the picture now, the big enemy Artemis is relegated to the sidelines — she needed new big guys, bigger than she had before. (That’s where Savitar and Jared came in a few books ago, it started back then, so I knew this was coming.) Suddenly Nick turns into some ultimate being. There is all manner of setup of the new world as it is forming (with the new powers and stuff, and an explanation thereof) and in the middle of all that you have a lackluster love story which isn’t really a love story at all.
This is not a romance. It’s nothing like previous books, except that you get tons of past — and not enough present. She keeps touting Stryker as the ultimate lover — well. SHOW would have been better than TELL. Wow. I would have seriously handed this book back and told her to make me love the characters. I didn’t see Stryker come across as a likeable guy. Yeah, he has faults, yeah, he has to overcome them — but it happens way too fast, way too easy.
Stryker suddenly has a heart. I suspected he did, but he deserved so much better than this book. He deserved better than Zephyra, too. It didn’t make me perceive him as the strong, unshakable heroes I’m used to from Sherri. Instead my sense of strength that I got from him in previous books, evil and malicious as it may have been, transformed into a sense of "What kind of spineless weak git is this?". We keep being reminded what he’s capable of — but it felt more like "Remember, he’s really evil".
I didn’t like Zephyra. (to the point  have to double check how to spell her, and I can’t remember what she looked like — and I finished the book an hour ago…) It was bland and boring, because the "I hate you, you left me" "I had to or daddy woulda killed you" got old real quick.
I mean pa-lu-heeze. Get over it already!
The story lacks the passion of previous books. The characters lack depth and purpose. They came across whiney, spoiled and irritating. As well as too powerful. Too much "I hate you" followed by "I’m sorry" to really have a conflict. Yeah, I like a heroine who can kick the hero’s behind, but I don’t like all powerful. It made me dislike her.
There is way too much backstory and setup to get any sense of the people whose story this is supposed to be. And they deserved better than being thrown into this hodgepodge of storylines.
There’s too much Ash, Savitar, Nick, Jared, Artemis and whatnot involved, along with a whole slew of new and old gods.
Too many things smack of deus ex machina, or at least a serious cop out.
Too much tell instead of show.
Too much explanation where I could have done without, not enough where I needed to know.
And throughout — there is a lack of the tension that made the previous books keepers.
When I’m more interested in the gay bodyguard than in the hero… that’s not good!
First time I give Sherri a lackluster two stars. The reason for the pervious ones being keepers is because they were about the people in the story, not about the world around them. This time it’s more about the world and the powers in them and who does what — with a bit of gratuitous sex thrown in — than about the people.

All in all, I’ll only recommend it to keep on track with the series, but other than that… I kept getting bored.
I was more interested in reading about Davyn than Stryker, more intrigued by Medea than Zephyra — and that’s bad, when it’s not their story.
I know I’m a harsh, brutal, critic, but I also know Sherri can do better than this.
I’ll still get the next one, in the hope we return to previous keeper books, but chances are slowly running out. Stop worldbuilding and start writing about people again.

Man I hate slam-dunking Sherri, but this one doesn’t deserve to stand next to the others.

Tags: Dark Hunter, Kenyon, Review

Dangerous Temptation
Kathleen Korbel
ISBN-13: 9780373617494

This is kind of a quirky book. I like the premise, though I have to say, from the back blurb I expected something slightly different.
Not to worry, I enjoyed reading about fairies and elves and leprechauns… and finally I understand about that pot of gold!
Let me just say… they have *nothing* in common with Tinkerbell.

The hero thinks he is dreaming for quite some time – understandable since he just fell off a Cairn. Nuala is very likable, so is Zeke. I like how Ms. Korbel didn’t try to make him a die hard skeptic who couldn’t believe what’s in front of him. He’s open, puzzled and unsure, but open to the possibility that it might just not be a dream, that he really is in the land of the fairies and that the woman he is falling in love with is really the daughter of the fairy queen.
Never mind that it means he can’t have her. He can’t stay, either. Trouble is, Mommy dear – the Queen – has slightly different ideas about how this is all going to end. I did outguess the tests – but it was ok. It didn’t spoil things.
Since I don’t want to spoil the book for people, I’ll only say these things:

• I want to read any other books she might write about this "universe".
• I want Liam’s story. (One line and I want to read about him – well done!)

Anyway, I enjoyed this one, hope you do too, if you read it.

Tags: Korbel, Nocturne, Review