If only it were that simple. 
I blogged on my blockage woes over on Passionate Critters, because it drives me mad when it happens. When everything stops. When the words won’t come and the characters fall silent.
And a hearty thanks to Cathie Linz, who makes me laugh and tells me I’m not crazy — just a writer.
Labyrinth
Kate Mosse
ISBN 0752877321
Blurb:
July 1209: in Carcassonne a young girl is given a mysterious book by her father which he claims contains the secret of the true Grail. Although Alaïs cannot understand the strange words and symbols hidden within, she knows that her destiny lies in protecting it. It will take great sacrifice and faith to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe - a secret that stretches back thousands of years to the deserts of Ancient Egypt . . .
July 2005: Alice Tanner stumbles upon two skeletons during an archaeological dig in the mountains outside Carcassonne. Inside the hidden tomb where the bones lie crumbling, she experiences an overwhelming sense of malevolence, as well as a creeping understanding that, however impossible it seems, she can somehow understand the mysterious ancient words carved into the rock. Too late, Alice realises she’s set in motion a terrifying sequence of events that she cannot control and that her destiny is inextricably tied up with the fate of the Cathars 800 years before.
Review:
I liked it. It’s not a bad book, not a bad story, it kept me reading and I wanted to know who the two skeletons were, but…
There’s always a but, isn’t there?
Frankly, I think about half the book could (and should) have been edited down a bit. Kate Mosse writes very wordy, to say the least. I don’t speak French, so the translations were handy, but it became tiresome.
I liked Alaïs a damned side better than Alice. The former had spunk, the latter just kind of… plodded along. The parallels of the names were too obvious I thought. You knew who was who, and I think it might have been better to not kind of repeat the cast, 800 years on.
However.
Carcassonne… It came alive on the page. Absolutely stunningly alive. I have been there before, so some of the things she describes wake memories inside me of a very enjoyable day spent there. It zinged. Seriously, I don’t know a better word for it.
I won’t spoil the plot if you want to read it, but prepare yourself for a VERY thick book. It’s 697 pages. (I warned you she’s wordy!)
Because of the wordiness, because of the lackluster Alice, I’ll only give it a 3 out of 5, but 2 of those are because Kate Mosse made Carcassonne come alive again for me, and made me want to go back to visit.
I’ve just finished reading The Beast Within by Lisa Renee Jones.
The story isn’t bad, but the writing really grated on me. I don’t mean I hated it, I did finish the book, but I do mean the writing jarred me. A lot. In many places.
Lisa — if you ever trip over this blog post for whatever reason… Please never again use "The fire of desire." in any and all future writing.
It rhymes for Gods sake, at a point where it’s jarring as hell. Those few words ruined the mood for me every time — and you’re so fond of it, I found it three times. Slap your copyeditor for me.
Anyway. It’s one of those things.
Rhyming when your characters are about to jump each others bones… no.
Don’t. PLEASE don’t.
*shudder*
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
Fannie Flagg
ISBN 039456152X
!!!
Ok.
If you are female, and you have not read this book… shame on you. You must have been living under a rock someplace.
Cleo Threadgoode, an octagonarian, tells frustrated, menopausing and terribly terribly tense Evelyn Couch about her life.
Sounds like a right load of drivel, doesn’t it?
In her mind, Cleo escapes back to her home of Whistlestop, Alabama, in the early thirties. She tells the tale of the town, the people, the events… the barbeque, the cafe… and the occasional murder.
It is a riveting tale, interspersed with Evelyn’s own struggle to come to terms with her own life, while she listens to this 80 year old lady, who sort of adopted her.
It’s funny, it’s tragic, it’s macabre… it is full of life.
You will hear about Idgie, about Ruth. You will meet Sipsy and big George. And most of all, you will fall in love with the characters.
I’m tellin ya… The secret’s in the sauce…
I’d give this one a 15 on a 10 scale.
Unforgiven
Lindsay McKenna
ISBN-13: 9780373617487
Seriously.
Oh. My. God.
Ever had a book where you just *knew* you’d read that before?
Unforgiven is the story of a part Apache / part “Jaguar” Sniper who gets put into Ecquador to kill the leader of the locals because he’s terrorizing the mining company.
I read another book with a “Jaguar People” theme, which also had an Apache Military guy after the local troublemaker in South America. I don’t recall the name or who wrote it, but… It was way too similar. But nevermind. I was prepared to give this a shot anyway.
So. I start off and from the get go the hero seems incredibly weak. Too weak to be “the top sniper” in the Marines. He’s in prison because he tried to kill the general who raped and murdered his wife and daughter, but managed to “vanish” the DNA evidence and get Mr. Top Sniper locked up for 20 years. (Uh-huh.)
Then a CIA agent comes and offers to give him his freedom (in Equador) after he kills the guy who is causing mayhem for a mining company there - but he’s never allowed back into the US or he’ll go back to prison. (Right. The US Government asks him to kill someone and then won’t allow him back in the country? I’d question that, but HE doesn’t… nevermind.)
The night before he goes he has a vision of a woman and falls instantly in love. (Book hit the wall at this point.)
I forced myself to pick the book up again, but she’d already lost me. Anyway. He gets there, the local rich nice girl is the perpetrator of the mayhem and she’s also a shapeshifting Jaguar. A lot of explanation of the “Warriors for the Light” at this point and how his parents trained him and whatnot. OK.
SHE already knows not only who he is but also why he is there. (Nowhere is it explained how she would know this.) and she’s wrestling with the fact that she’s attracted to her killer.
He finds and shoots the “elusive” mayhem maker the first night on her tail, when the “agents” who were after her haven’t been able to get a bead on the ghost for 2 years. She wears a vest and shapeshifts (she always ends up dressed as she was, complete with guns and everything after btw) into a jaguar and escapes.
Two weeks later she goes to see him again and finds out he’s been existing on candy bars. She offers food and he spills his guts to her about his past. (Picture the book hitting the wall again kthx)
It gets really convaluted and idiotic after this (yeah like it isn’t already) he goes all emo and cries a lot (He’s a freaking MILITARY SNIPER!!) there are pages (plural!) of explanation of how all the mysticism works and while they compare notes of the stories they were told (”Oooo your story is the same!”) and they recover a magic artifact and there is suddenly a “save the world” myth 
and all kinds of wild setting up sequels going on (oh yah, I am well aware of it kthx)… they fall in lurve (just like the legend says), she goes to convince his enemies by means of a lock of hair, his papers and his sniper rifle that she killed him (Show me the head, then I might believe it) and his saving her and both of them ending up in the shower… ok. Fine.
The second they are done with sex in the shower… she knows she’s pregnant. (More legends incoming!) I’m not kidding, she *knows* instantly. Come ON now… that’s just so 80’s…
Oh and the emerald mine doesn’t belong to the bad guy either, it belongs to a peasant whom they found dead in the jungle after he’s been missing a few years.
Time to finish the book, right?
WRONG.
“Two months later”
You end up enduring no less than 30 pages of a “historian/archeologist” who tells them about some tablets she found in Machu Pichu —- insert regurgitation of *everything* you already read 8 times from several angles about this legend…
MAN… Don’t bother with it.
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:
Anyway, I enjoyed this one, hope you do too, if you read it.
