Welcome to the first of what we hope is many giveaways! Everyone likes free stuff, right? Whenever we’ve got loot to share, that’s just what we intend to do. Can’t promise it’s always gonna be as fun as this one but, hey, it’ll always be free.

Today’s giveaway is your chance to check it out the first book in Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Series!

I haven’t read any of the books myself but Jody’s a huge fan and I know plenty of others who love it as well. We wanted to give someone else the chance to fall in love with it. As some of you may know, the HBO series, True Blood, is based on the books so we’ve got a little combo gift bag for the TV/Book lovers out there.

It includes:

• TruBlood Bag
• “Real Blood Is For Suckers” T-Shirt (Red, XL)
• True Blood Bookmark
• Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1)

 
To enter use the comments below to recommend one book to us by April 10th.
If you use Twitter and want an extra entry, tweet about the giveaway and include @raelee or @justjody in your tweet so we’ll be able to find it. Example: I’m totally gonna win this Southern Vampire Series bag of goodies from @raelee: http://tinyurl.com/chsrsu

Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3
by Nicholas Knight

Did y’all hear me squeal with delight when Tom from Titan Books contacted me and wondered if I might be interested in reviewing Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3. I’m pretty sure it was loud enough to be heard around the world. Or throughout the Central Florida area at least. I do love my Winchesters and nothing pleases me more than to spend a night getting cozy with them.

But how is the book you ask? Pretty darn awesome.

Granted, it’s definitely for fans of the show but then I don’t know why you’d pick up this book if you weren’t a fan. Perhaps anyone writing a Supernatural spec script would find it helpful since it, like listening to DVD commentaries and reading interviews, gives you a small glimpse at the writing process for the show. I, however, am a fan and this review is going to be from that perspective.

To read more and for your chance to win a copy of Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3, check out my full review over at Ramblings of a TV Whore.

March 2009 Book Club: Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

A thirty-one-year-old woman named Kathy narrates this haunting tale, drawing the reader gradually into her recollections of her life at Hailsham, the idyllic boarding school where she grew up. She and her best friends, Ruth and Tommy, were encouraged by their teachers to create works of art from an early age, to collect cherished objects, and to take good care of their health. There are no parents in their world, only a handful of teachers, some of whom seem to be deeply troubled by their position at the school. Kathy’s friend Ruth is bossy and manipulative, while Kathy herself is gentle and self-contained. Both are drawn to Tommy, a boy given to explosive fits of temper. What is revealed, as Kathy’s reminiscences accumulate, is a life of preparation for a special role in a world that has begun to exploit the medical possibilities of genetic technology.

We thought we’d keep this post itself pretty simple. We’ve got plenty to say about the books but we’d like to keep that in the comments so that we’re all taking part in the discussion together. Instead we’re just going to offer up some possible discussion questions to help get people talking. You don’t have to stick to just these, though, feel free to just share your thoughts and your own questions. We mostly just want to get your brain juices flowing with these!

Contine to the full post for our discussion questions.

An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green

This is the story of Colin Singleton, child prodigy and chronic Dumpee. Colin’s just had his heart broken by Katherine #19 and he and his best friend, Hassan, are embarking on a road trip with hopes to find a cure. Or prove his Underlying Katherine Predictability Theorem which he’ll use to predict the future of any relationship and firmly establish his place in the world. But, as is always the case with road trips, Colin learns a lot more about himself than he expects.

If you’ve checked out my goodreads profile any time in the past few months, you may already know how long it took me to really get into this book. As in I added to my “Currently Reading” shelf at the end of November last year and am just now finishing it four months later. Not that it actually took me four months to read. It took me all of a few hours, once I got past the first 30 pages. And those first 30 pages aren’t bad by any means. Perhaps I was just never in the right mood?

Whatever it was, I’m glad I forced myself to pick it back up and actually concentrate on it this weekend. Because I really quite enjoyed the book. John Green has a talent for creating memorable characters who seem three dimensional in a short amount of time. Even his female characters despite the air of mystique they all seem to possess. (Side Note: The air of mystique comes more from us never really seeing the story from the female’s point of view and our lead male character clearly finds the female of the species puzzling. So no matter how much we may learn about the females, they still seem a bit elusive.) He’s also quite deft with the humor and wit. The dialogue is sharp and funny and always ring true to the characters.

The way the story is told is almost as integral to my enjoyment as the story itself. The story is sweet and unexpected and I can’t really go into much of it without giving away things you should figure out for yourself and experience along with Colin. But I also really appreciated how the story is told. The humor in Green’s story telling will keep you just as amused as the humorous events in the story itself. Using footnotes to give your story another dimension is not new in fiction, I had seen it done in the works of at least two other authors before this book. I do, however, like how Green does it here. And, as Colin is working on a mathematical equation, I also liked how the math played a part in the story and how, just as I was getting frustrated by it, the narrator anticipated that response. And, yes, I’m being vague but I don’t want to spoil the moment for you.

In conclusion, despite how long it took me to give this book a chance, it was well worth the read. If the description appeals to you, I highly recommend checking it out. Despite it’s designation as “teen” fiction, it’s a story that many will relate to and enjoy.

by Lilith Saintcrow

When I checked the first book of this series out from the library, they had the others but I had cakes to make and work to do. I figured I was safe just getting the first book and returning for the others once I was sure I liked the series (and had more free time on my hands). Ha. I read the first book, “Working for the Devil,” and raced back to the library the next day hoping that no one else had checked out the other four books. And from there I just devoured them all.

It’s safe to say I loved the series. The later books weren’t as strong as the earlier books and it’s possible I would have been just as satisfied with a four book series rather than the five books we got but I still fell hard for Dante Valentine. So much so that I found myself getting annoyed when I’d read reviews in which people thought she was too cold or too much of a bitch. A sentiment I don’t agree with at all. It’s true that she’s not a touchy feely character and she’s most definitely not girly (a quality I actually like in my female heroines). However, we find out what’s made her the way she is and I think it’s a pretty compelling and convincing argument. There are certainly times you want to shake her and tell her to open herself up a bit but I never doubted why she didn’t or couldn’t. In fact, where others tend to side with Japhrimel (her love interest), I felt like he actually made it worse 95% of the time. Again, he has reasons for what he does too but, if I had to pick one of the two who frustrated me more, i ’twas definitely Japh.

Now, the book’s not perfect in that it took me a long time to even somewhat understand the parts when Dante is accessing the Otherworld and using her necromancing powers. I finally kinda figured out what Saintcrow was doing but it was definitely jarring at first and a little too confusing. There’s a lot less of it as the series goes on but it was definitely the most annoying think about the first book. I probably skimmed well over half of those scenes before I was able to follow along but even then I only went back and reread a few of them. However, the rest of the story is well worth wading your way through those few annoying moments.

The series isn’t for everyone, of course, as it is urban fantasy and doesn’t even take place in the world as we know it. Though the world is close enough to our own (some names are similar to ours and, based on those names, it appears to be laid out somewhat geographically similar to Earth) that it may just be a future version of our world or maybe a parallel universe. Either way, it was never specifically addressed but the world is different enough that people who prefer their stories to take place on Earth in a world that they know will probably find it off putting. That said, if you like urban fantasy and you enjoys strong female protagonists, I think you may very well enjoy the Dante Valentine series.

Sleeping With the Fishes (Fred the Mermaid, Book 1)
by MaryJanice Davidson

I picked up Sleeping With the Fishes because I really enjoy MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead series about Betsy the Vampire, and with so many series about vampires out there, I was excited about a new supernatural series that featured mermaids for a change. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t live up to my expectations. In the author’s defence, she does include an Acknowledgement at the start of the book that states that the writing of the book was plagued with troubles both personal and professional. That being said, perhaps the book should not have come out until these issues could be resolved, because the errors throughout are extremely distracting.

I found the overall plot to be fine – someone is polluting the harbour waters, and Fred (the mermaid) and her friends team up to find out who’s behind it. Not completely original, but acceptable. The characters are likeable enough and they do have personalities, but there’s little else going on with any of them. Fred the mermaid who is the protagonist of the story, comes across as bitter and fairly depressing. When you take an average plot and add average characters, you’d better hope for some snappy dialogue to keep people reading, and that’s where Sleeping With the Fishes is really lacking. The dialogue doesn’t flow naturally, and some portions had to be re-read in order to figure out who’s saying what. But my biggest issue with Sleeping With the Fishes is that there are some GLARING continuity errors. For example: why on earth does Fred have to call and ask a friend to find out the name of someone she once dated? (She being Fred, not the friend!) As if continuity errors aren’t bad enough, the book also contradicts itself more than once. While the ending of the book, which sets up a future love-triangle almost intrigued me enough to give Swimming Without A Net, the 2^nd novel in the series a try, the lazy writing will keep me away.

Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, Book 1)
by Kelley Armstrong

I just loved Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong. As a big fan of supernatural series, I’m always on the lookout for a new series with well-developed characters and interesting plots, and Bitten did not disappoint! Based on a young woman who has been turned into a werewolf, but really just wants to live a normal life, Bitten has all the components necessary for a solid start to an exciting series. As an added bonus, the author is Canadian and parts of the story are set in my home province, so I liked being able to visualize places described in the book.

The story starts out slowly as we get to know Elena, who has a pretty good life even if it may be lacking in excitement, but things pick up when she is summoned back ‘home’ to help with a family crisis. From there the story quickly builds, while alternating seamlessly between scenes of action and suspense and those of character development. The author is diligent about making her Stonehaven werewolves live realistically within the rules of our human society, and doesn’t ignore the fact that any odd behavior would raise questions among those outside the werewolf community, ensuring that the story is very believable even though it’s set in an unrealistic world.

Even though it’s a fairly long novel (at 555 pgs), Bitten is not weighed down by excruciatingly detailed battle scenes, or minutely described surroundings as is sometimes the case with fantasy novels, but is instead comprised of ample back-story and character development. The heroine Elena is a well-rounded character who has flaws and weaknesses, as well as strength and heart. There are really no other female characters in Bitten save a few brief appearances at the beginning of the novel, but I didn’t feel that it hurt the story at all. Elena and the other members of the Pack are interesting enough that her world did not suffer for lack of female companionship. And since this is the first book in a series called Women of the Otherworld, I know there are stories about other women to come, so I was happy to take this opportunity to focus on getting to know Elena and her ‘boys’.

After finishing Bitten, I’m eagerly looking forward to getting to know more about Elena and her world in Stolen, the second book in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series. Check back for more reviews as I work my way through this fantastic series!

*This book was provided for review by Random House Canada via Library Thing.

The Witches of Eastwick
by John Updike

I picked up The Witches of Eastwick because I was lucky enough to receive an Early Reviewer copy of The Widows of Eastwick, and I always enjoy a sequel so much more if I am familiar with the original story in the series.

I’m probably going to be in the minority on this, but I did not enjoy this book. I found it a definite struggle to get through, and it took me so much longer than it normally does to read a book of this length. The story itself is good – it follows the lives of three divorcées in a small town through three different chapters in their lives and their relationship with each other. Considering that I’ve seen the movie and loved it, I knew going in that the story would be good, and that’s likely the contributing factor that kept me fighting my way through this novel. Because while the story was good, it also could have been told in about 100 pages as opposed to the 307 that the book actually takes. The extra 200 pages are spent inside the wildly rambling minds of the various characters, and none (or very little) of this actually adds to the story in any way. Once I realized this, I could thankfully skip whole pages of these pointless ramblings in order to get through the book. That said, the characters are all well developed, and if it weren’t for the pages and pages of rambling thoughts, I probably would have enjoyed getting to know each of them. Here’s hoping the sequel is a more enjoyable read.

The Widows of Eastwick
by John Updike

While I’m still not a big fan of John Updike’s writing, I definitely enjoyed The Widows of Eastwick much more than I did The Witches of Eastwick. I’m glad I took the time to get through Witches though, because I do think it made a huge difference in how much I enjoyed Widows.

The Widows of Eastwick picks up 30 years after Witches left off, with Jane, Alexandra and Sukie each having lost their second husbands, and attempting to make new lives for themselves on their own. After leaving Eastwick and going their separate ways, the ladies have lost touch over the years, but they reconnect when – in an attempt to add some adventure to their solitary lives, they decide to travel together.

I found the book very slow to get going, as it starts off following just Alexandra, the eldest of the three witches who embarks on a journey to the Canadian Rockies. With really only one character in this portion of the story, we spend most of the time inside Alexandra’s head, and the long-winded rambling thoughts are what I don’t enjoy about Updike’s stories. Once Jane, the ‘bitter pill’ of the trio joins Alexandra for an excursion to Egypt, the story begins to pick up pace. But it’s not until they are finally joined by Sukie, their younger and more optimistic sister witch, that The Widows of Eastwick really becomes interesting. After a fun filled adventure in China, the three women eventually return to their old home of Eastwick for a summer, in order to get back to their roots and potentially try and right old wrongs. This is where the bulk of the story takes place, and many things that happened in the first book are addressed, which I’m sure increased my enjoyment of the second novel.

While I don’t care for his wordy writing style, John Updike creates extremely layered characters, and with less time spent on the rambling musings of the various individuals, I found Widows mostly engaging and thought provoking. We are offered a peek into what seems to be a realistic portrayal of coming to terms with aging and the possibility of your own demise, as well as a frank opinion on family relationships. Not to say I still didn’t find myself skimming some portions of this book, but the conclusion to these three widows stories was definitely a more enjoyable and engaging venture than I expected.

*This book was provided for review by Random House Canada via Library Thing.

Jody and I love to read, as I’m sure you can tell. Alas, we live just a little too far apart to have regular book club gatherings. Which is why we’re excited to try our hands at a virtual book club instead. And since you’re all too far away to meet up with us as well, we’re hoping you’ll join us each month as we pick a new book to read and discuss! (And we’ll be looking for new books to discuss in the future so, if you’ve got a good book club suggestion, be sure to leave that in the comments below.)

This month’s selection is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book got a lot of attention when it first came out but it wasn’t until Joss Whedon mentioned it in an iGN interview about Dollhouse that I decided to check it out. He said, “The beautiful sadness of that novel so suffuses what we’re trying to do…” I figured reading the book might better my understanding Dollhouse and seeing as Jody was just as excited about the show I knew she’d eat it up too.

We hope you’re interested in reading and discussing the book with us, so check it out and join us back here the week of March 23rd when we get the discussion started!

Nothing to Fear but Ferrets (Petsitter Mysteries, No. 2)
by Linda O. Johnston

I forgot to review Sit, Stay, Slay back in January but I enjoyed it. Kendra, a lawyer who was framed and has lost her job, has a natural talent for petsitting and she takes on several jobs to make some extra money. That is, until one of her clients ends up dead and she’s a suspect. This first mystery actually has ties to Kendra’s past and that helped draw me into the story.

The second book in this series was less satisfying. In fact, I have to admit I’m now happy that my bookstore didn’t have the third book in this series after I read that first one. I fully intended to buy all of the series and, while I would have read them had I done that, I’m happier stopping after this one.

Like I said, that first book had a little more to it and that may be why I wasn’t as impressed with the second book. The mystery in Nothing to Fear but Ferrets is still personal to Kendra but it wasn’t nearly as interesting to me. I figured out who did it pretty early in the book and yet the explanation for it was less than satisfying. At the end of the book, I realized I was ok with not finding out what mystery Kendra would have to solve next. The book’s not bad but it’s not great either. So, if I return to this series, it won’t be until I run out of other options.