Review: The Shattered Vine by Laura Anne Gilman

Publication Date: October 18, 2011
by Gallery Books
Genre: Fantasy
Source: review copy from publisher

Jerzy, Vineart apprentice and former slave, was sent by his master to investigate strange happenings—and found himself the target of betrayal. Now he must set out on his own journey, to find the source of the foul taint that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear. By Jerzy’s side are Ao, who lives for commerce and the art of the deal; Mahault, stoic and wise, risking death in flight from her homeland; and Kaïnam, once Named-Heir of an island principality, whose father has fallen into a magic-tangled madness that endangers them all.

These four companions will travel far from the earth and the soul of the vine, sailing along coastlines aflame with fear, confronting sea creatures summoned by darkness, and following winds imbued with malice. Their journey will take them to the very limits of the Sin Washer’s reach . . . and into a battle for the soul of the Lands Vin. For two millennia the Sin Washer’s Commandment has kept these lands in order: Those of magic shall hold no power over men and those princes of power shall hold no magic. Now, that law has given way. And a hidden force seeks the havoc of revenge.

Laura Anne Gilman is a great writer. Unfortunately, her style is really not for me. I prefer a little more quick and dirty style, rather than the thoughtful, more literary style that she writes in.

The story's magic system is where vinearts (the mages) use spellwine to do magic. They also have what is called "quiet magic". Instead of saying, Jerzy used quiet magic to _________, we hear how he gathered saliva in his mouth to do the magic, what he was thinking, what was going on around him, other spellwines he might recently have used, etc. For some, this might make them immersed in the story, and according to the many high reviews on goodreads, I believe this is the case. For me, it just felt tedious. The whole book is like this.

Some books I give lower grades because I believe the writer isn't very talented and it wasn't well written at all. I don't think that's the case with Gilman. I think she is very good at what she does, and has a real talent for writing. There are lots of people who will love her writing and her style, I'm just not one of them.
Grade: C 

Review: Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

Book Details

Title: Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

Author: Max Braillier

Genre: horror

Page Count: 288

Publishing Info: February 8, 2011 by Gallery

My Review

Why I read it: Received review copy

The Plot: Inside these pages lies unspeakable horror. Bloodsplattering, brain-impaling, flesh-devouring horror. You’ve probably read your fair share of zombie stories. But this time it’s different. No longer can you sit idle as a bunch of fools make all the wrong moves. All hell is about to break loose—and YOU have a say in humanity’s survival.  (This book is in the classic "Choose your own adventure" style, which was very fun!)

The Characters: There really are no characters here.  You are the main character, except that you're a young man.  So, if you're a woman like me, it can be a little harder to put yourself in the slot of the main character and play along.

The Setting: I think most of the story takes place in New York, but that doesn't really matter so much.  All you need to know is that there are zombies!

Who Should Read This? Fans of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, fans of zombie books.

Final Thoughts: I had a lot of fun with this one, but the one thing I realized is that you can't read it for any long periods of time.  Even though you can pick different paths and read a different scenario, after awhile I forgot what had happened in my current path and what was from a different one, and it all just blended together.  Not to mention that you kind of get sick of it after too long.  This is a fun one to pick up here and there when you don't have much time to read.

Grade: B

Cover Thoughts: I like the cover.  It's definitely not boring, although one could argue that there's too much there.

 

Georgia's Kitchen

Book Details:
Genre: Chicklit/women's fiction
Page Count: 336
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
Why I read it: received review copy
Grade: B+

Cover thoughts:
Too much red. I would so much rather the red shading be over just the silverware so we could see the beautiful scenery in the background.

About the author:
Jenny Nelson is a former web editor for sites like ivillage, vogue.com, and style.com. Georgia's Kitchen is her first novel.

The plot:
Georgia is the head chef at one of the top restaurants in Manhattan, but a bad review gets her fired. Then her fiance breaks up with her, so needless to say, things aren't going very well for her. So she heads to Italy to work for her former mentor who is opening up another restaurant. She loves it there, but when she is offered a wonderful restaurant job in Italy, she realizes her heart is longing for something more. The plot moves at a great pace until the end, where I feel like it just started to lose steam and drag a bit, which was sad because I otherwise adored the book.

Characters:
Georgia is a wonderful character. She is understandably a bit whiny and down, but I really liked her. She's someone I would be friends with in real life. There are a lot of secondary characters, and for the most part, they're great and likable, but this story mostly focuses on Georgia.

Setting:
We start off in New York, but it's when the story moves to Italy that it gets really enjoyable. The author paints a lively picture of the Italian countryside, and I would LOVE to go there. There's something about these stories where women head off to Europe that I just love. Maybe it's that I can't do it myself, and so have to live vicariously through them.

Notable quotes:
"I'm not telling you this to burden you, but so you can see that you're not the only one with--how do you Americans call it? Issues. You lost your job, your fiance, but here you have another chance. Stop looking for what you don't have, and start seeing what you do."

Read this if you're in the mood for: a story that includes Italy and food. I'll tell you, I don't like to cook at all, but for some reason I like reading about people who cook, especially in this type of story.

Continue or part ways? I will definitely read more by this author. Her writing style is easy to read and very entertaining.