Top Picks of 2011

These are books I read in 2011, not books that were released in 2011.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
Petal Storm by Paul Kidd
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Alchemyst's Apprentice by Walter Moers

Not much bark nor bite, but a few laughs.

How to Date a Werewolf by Rose Pressey




This was a fun read. Not especially remarkable and it certainly had a number of flaws, but it was an enjoyable, entertaining tale that was of about the right length to keep the reader amused. Indeed, my only major bugbear is the capabilities of the werewolves when they were in wolf form - how can one hold a gun? And also that the author went a different way with the ending than I had perceived (nothing wrong with that - my ending was perhaps a little too predictable).

Riley is a werewolf and she runs a dating agency for supernaturals, as well as ordinary humans. Alas, for all her efforts to matchmake others, she has had no success finding a mate of her own. This she blames on a family curse - that is until the day Jack moves in next door. Cynical, but living for the moment, Riley is persuaded into several dates. But things go from good to bad when a pair of scruffy werewolf start dogging her trail and someone keeps sending her threatening bullets (although how sending someone a silver bullet is a threat, I do not understand - surely you're actually giving them potential weapons to use against you!). Is it Lily? The discgrunted psycho-bitch whose love match went tail-up? Or is something more sinister afoot?

Alas, for all the possible greater depths, "How to date a werewolf" never gets deeper than the paddling stage, but that does not make it a bad read and it is rather amusing.



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Elves and Humans

Griffin's Daughter by Leslie Ann Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For some reason, this has been labelled "paranormal". It's not - it's fantasy. Set in a medieval style kingdom, where elves and humans share a border and neither thinks too fondly of the other. Jelena is the product of an unlikely allegiance between elf and human - neither one nor the other, she is reviled by the humans and her lowly position eventually forces her to run away and seek her elven heritage.

The elves were not entirely convincing as a species - they felt more like another race of humans, rather than a distinctly different people - their language was relatively coarse and their customs not significantly different from their human neighbours. I feel the author could have accentuated the differences more - even without having her elven folk live in trees or what-not.

However, as far as self-published works go, this one was very well done. The characters were well developed, the plot moved at a steady pace - although there were a few sidetrack plots to tie up loose ends (such as what happened to cousin Magnes). Editting errors and spelling mistakes were minimal and did not detract from the storyline.

It was interesting, and engrossing and definitely deserves the recognition it has received. However, like almost all self-published tales - it ends on a startling revelation to tempt the reader into purchasing the next instalment. As I have read the reviews of the latter instalments, I am not sure that I shall be tempted, but we will see...

Find it on Amazon in Kindle or real book format.
I read the "young adult" edition - not sure what the difference will be.



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