I'm over at AAR today with

2 audiobooks reviews in the Speaking of Audiobooks column.   There's plenty other stuff in the column from Lea and other reviewers too.  Come say hi :)

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Why I read it:  I received a review copy from the publisher.  I *may* have done a happy dance when I opened the package.

What it's about:  (from Goodreads)  Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson's life is calming down, at least enough that she can focus on mundane matters like Black Friday sales. But on her return, Mercy is unable to contact her mate, Alpha Adam Hauptman, or the other members of their pack. All she knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam's disappearance may be related - and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from the most unlikely of allies: the vampire seethe.

What worked for me (and what didn't): Patricia Briggs delivers again.  How does she do it?   With every book I get a bit scared that it's not going to live up to expectations.  And then she blows me away. Again.

The intricate plot went unexpected places (why does this surprise me?) and challenged me just enough that I had to concentrate in places but not enough for me to get lost.  Someone kidnaps the wolves (How you ask? Well, there is an explanation and Adam won't let it happen again, you can be sure of that.) and Mercy is left scrambling to protect those of/associated with the Pack left behind (namely Kyle, Ben, Jesse, Gabriel and his family) and try and locate Adam and the other wolves without creating an interspecies incident which could lead to problems for the Pack.

"Tranq. Arse."  that one wasn't as clear, but I could understand him and assumed the last word was a location and not and epithet. Though with Ben it was a risky call.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner

Why I listened to it:  I've had this on my TBL for a while and I was in the mood for a fantasy (although in this case, it's really more sci-fi) romance from a reliably good author and I had it on good authority that the narrator was awesome too.

What it's about:  (from Goodreads)  Cordelia Naismith, Betan Survey Captain, was expecting the unexpected: hexapods, floating creatures, odd parasites... She was not, however, expecting to find hostile humans on an uninhabited planet. And she wasn't really expecting to fall in love with a 40-plus barbarian known to cosmopolitan galactics as the Butcher of Komarr. Will Mother ever understand? And can such an odd beast as love survive an interplanetary war?

What worked for me (and what didn't): Quite a few of my reader friends have recommended the Vorkosigan saga books to me.  This book had been sitting on my TBL for quite a while and I finally found the space to listen.

The story is told in Cordelia's third person POV and I was a little disappointed when at the beginning of the listen it became apparent that she was going to be stuck with a very deep male voice for the whole book.  Grover Gardner has a low baritone and he doesn't even attempt a female voice.  While I appreciated there was no drag-y falsetto, it took some getting used to to "hear" Cordelia in that deep rumble.  But, my friend Brenda told me that the narrator was awesome and the book was as good so I bore down and kept going.  I'm so glad I did.  After a while, the deep voice stopped bothering me because Gardner conveyed the character so well in other ways.  Even though there was little difference between Vorkosigan's voice and Cordelia's, their characters were so different and distinct, that I had littel difficulty in identifying who was talking.  I realised that my friend was right. Gardner is an awesome narrator.

February Round Up

on Paper/eBook

Rule of Three by Kelly Jamieson - B  Very good m/m/f menage story where the characters actually talk about their relationship, their plans and (begin to) address potential traps which may arise.  Most of the book is spent developing the relationship and changing it from an m/f/m to an m/m/f.  As unrealistic as I gather they are (I understand from Twitter - my source of all the important information - that polyamory is mostly a couple who each (or maybe just one) have separate relationships with others - a triad is apparently kind of unusual), m/m/f are my favourite type of menage stories.  I felt there is more "equality" to the relationship where all three feel love and sexual desire for the other rather than the concept of the 2 guys "sharing" the woman.   The most unfortunately named Dag* is Chris' best friend from college.  He has been out of town, having left after realising his unrequited love for Chris would remain so.  He believes Chris is relentlessly straight.  Even though they have shared a lot of women together, there has never been any touching of man bits.  Chris and Kassidy have been dating about a year and have just moved in together.  They are very much in love.  Kassidy develops feelings for Dag, he develops feelings for her and Chris eventually recognises his feelings for Dag.  Lordly it is a sexy book.  I devoured it in virtually one sitting.  The writing was good; Ms. Jamieson has a very entertaining style.  I would have liked more about their life together as a triad, a bit more about some of the practical difficulties and how they would deal together - this stuff was only just brought up at the very end and, while there were discussions, I wasn't sure how it would work in practice and I wasn't sure if Chris would actually talk more about his feelings (something he struggled with the whole book).  How would Kassidy's parents react?  What would happen if there was some jealousy which arose?  Are interactions between 2 of the 3 okay or do all 3 have to be there?  To be fair, this was the getting together book, not the how it works book, but I can't say I wasn't curious.  Anyways, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

*I don't know if it means the same thing here as in the US, but a "dag" is a bit of sheep's dung caught up in the wool around their rear end and it's NOT what I want to be thinking of in a sexy book. Especially a sexy book where there's backdoor activity, if you know what I'm saying.

Hotel Pens by Geoffrey Knight - B  Very good m/m short about travel writer, Joe Jordan, who broke up with his lover some time ago and has been lonely ever since.  Because of his job, he's always in hotels and he's a keen collector of their pens.  While in New York for work, he meets Claude, a French ex-pat who is living at the Beacon Hotel and translating m/m romance books into French. Claude courts Joe and teaches him a thing or two about love, himself and New York by writing various messages in pen on Joe's body in a kind of scavenger hunt.  I found the writing overall to be engaging and sensitive and I liked how as Joe rediscovered New York, he rediscovered himself also.  I was also happy that Joe had things to offer Claude and it wasn't all one-sided.  The story was very short (56 pages) and ends in a HFN ending.  I wondered what would happen to the couple after - Joe is still a travel writer after all, but maybe there will be further stories for these two?  The author is Australian but I think he's definitely been to New York, there is a great sense of place in the book.

I'm over at AudioGals today...

with a review of Naked Edge by Pamela Clare and narrated by Kaleo Griffith.  Feel free stop by and say hello.