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Book Review: The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis
When a woman who doesn’t believe in aliens comes to Roswell for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding, she’s shocked to find herself abducted by an alien and driving all over the southwest at his tentacled bidding.
Summary:
When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.
Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.
But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.
Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?
Review:
Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my favorite scifi/romance/comedy reads of all time (review). I’m also a huge fan of the American Southwest, so when I heard about this book, it went on my wishlist immediately. (Shout-out to my siblings-in-law for the birthday present). This was definitely a rollicking, feel-good read, which was just what I needed.
Francie is a fun main character. Jumping right into her being at the airport on her way to a wedding she wants to help her old college roommate see is probably a bad idea builds up the identification and empathy right away. Who among us hasn’t had a friend in a questionable relationship? She doesn’t believe the alien stuff of everyone else at Roswell, but she’s kind about it. (She doesn’t go around calling them names in her head).
When she is abducted by an alien who looks like a tumbleweed who can’t speak but can only force her to drive with his tentacles and gesturing seriously in the direction he wants to go, I was hooting. What a fun idea for an alien species Indy is! I also like how the crux of the issue between humans and Indy is the difficulty in communication. Unlike a lot of scifi, he doesn’t just show up with a translator. Communication is a big problem and leads to a lot of comedic situations (including the, ahem, abduction). I was particularly fond of how Indy keeps semi-accidentally adding more people to his collection of abductees due to miscommunication.
The American Southwest is lovingly depicted from the glorious sunsets to the shocking vast emptiness, not to mention the overwhelming situation that is Las Vegas (right on down to an Elvis impersonator). Dusted on top of these depictions are quotes from various westerns (including a lot from one of my favorites, Support Your Local Sheriff). Movie westerns and how they reflect (accurately and inaccurately) the American Southwest are cleverly added via a character who is obsessed with them.
So I loved the setting, the plot, Francie, and Indy. The humor wasn’t quite working for me in the way it has in other books of hers, though. It didn’t ever bother me it just didn’t tickle my funny bone. That didn’t matter, because the book was still feel-good for me. But it did keep it from rocketing up to new favorite territory. There is also one infuriating scene where Francie is trying to get in touch with other people without Indy hearing and she, bafflingly, calls and leaves voicemails rather than texting. I just cannot think of a single person Francie’s age I know who would ever default to calling and not texting in a regular situation, let alone one where you want to not be overheard. (I mean, you can even text 911 these days….) I understand for the point of the plot that calling needed to happen but then we needed a reason for it. Maybe Francie’s texts wouldn’t go through. Maybe she lost her smartphone in the airport and had to borrow her friend’s old flip-phone. Something. This is a minor quibble though in a book that was generally a delight.
Overall, this a feel-good scifi read with a dash of romance and a very lovable alien. Perfect for scifi lovers wanting an escapist read or romance readers wanting a no spice read with a dash of something different.
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4 out of 5 stars
Length: 405 pages – average but on the longer side
Source: Gift
Buy It (Amazon or Bookshop.org)
Book Review: Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon
A laugh out loud thriller about women out-smarting a serial killer.
Summary:
Amber Jamison cannot believe she’s about to become the latest victim of a serial killer-she’s savvy and street smart, so when she gets pushed into, of all things, a white windowless van, she’s more angry than afraid. Things get even weirder when she’s miraculously saved by a mysterious woman…who promptly disappears. Who was she? And why is she hunting serial killers?
Review:
When I saw this on NetGalley, I was intrigued by the Final Girls-esque vibe – the women who would be the killer’s victims turning on him. I was skeptical I would find it humorous because, honestly, my funny bone is a little particular. But I actually found myself chortling on page one.
If you’re the type of person with an internal dialogue of self-deprecating humor about bizarre situations you find yourself in, then you’ll probably enjoy the sense of humor in this book. Regardless, you’ll be able to tell quickly if it’s for you or not, because the humor comes so quickly in the book, and that style is what’s present throughout the rest.
This is primarily told in the first person from Amber’s perspective, and she’s dry, acerbic, self-deprecating, but also whip-smart. (There are a few third person chapters that let us see things Amber doesn’t know about.) Amber is simultaneously problematic (she’s a con artist) and easy to root for. She’s richly three-dimensional. The main secondary characters are also rich and well-imagined. It would have been so easy to see a caricature of a sex worker, seedy motel owner, an Evangelical roommate, etc… yet they all are allowed to be more than what they might seem to be at first.
The Las Vegas setting rang very true to me. It depicted both the tourist bits and the seedier local areas quite well. I especially loved the run-down yet beloved film noir stylized motel as compared to the one recently made over to appeal to Gen Z and Millennials. That had me chortling.
I also really appreciated that this is a book whose main character is a lesbian but the plot has absolutely nothing to do with her being a lesbian. You could have almost the exact same book with a heterosexual main character. It’s just Amber so happens to like women. I like having this type of representation. It doesn’t always have to be about the difficulties of coming out or a romance to feature queer people.
The mystery itself was decent. The plot was certainly unique compared to other thrillers I’ve read, and I did not guess the ending. There was one twist that annoyed me only because it was solely a twist because Amber held something back from the reader. But I was willing to forgive it because she sort of breaks the fourth wall and acknowledges that she did it…which was funny.
I hope there’s a sequel, because I think there’s a lot left to explore with Amber, and she has a very interesting set-up at the end of the book.
Overall, I really recommend this to thriller lovers looking for something different. The humor and the plot really deliver.
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4 out of 5 stars
Length: 336 pages – average but on the longer side
Source: NetGalley
Buy It (Amazon or Bookshop.org)
Book Review: In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
A science fantasy reimagining of Pinocchio where Pinocchio is a “real boy” surrounded by robots (puppets) with a m/m (or, rather, male, male robot) romance added in.
Summary:
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots–fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Review:
This is a loving and detailed send-up to Pinocchio. I hadn’t seen the movie in years, and it still stirred up memories for me. When I went to look up the original book version’s plot to compare to this retelling, I found even more details I hadn’t realized or remembered. It’s obvious the author loves Pinocchio, and if you do too, I’m expecting you’ll likely love this retelling. For me, the problem is, I was so excited about a new T.J. Klune book that I sort of…forgot I don’t like Pinocchio. (“Don’t like” is a gentle remembrance. In fact, the movie absolutely terrified me as a child.) Even so, I found myself able to appreciate this loving rendition of the story.
I absolutely adored the character of Rambo – the tiny robot vacuum who’s clearly supposed to be a later generation of roombas. As always, I liked the narrative style the author uses – it reads as sing-songy in my head and feels like someone telling me a fairy tale, which is perfect for this book. I liked the wide variety of robots inhabiting the world, and I really enjoyed the robot substitute for the traveling circus character. I also appreciated that this isn’t an exact retelling of Pinocchio. The story is sometimes restrained, with simple allusions to the original. For example, Victor is never turned into a donkey, but he does stay the night in a hotel like room that is decorated with donkeys at about the right point in the story.
I appreciated the flipping of Pinocchio (Victor in this telling) as being human with his father being a “puppet” (a robot). But I felt like the ending really lets that inversion down, not taking it to its full and complete conclusion. I think there’s supposed to be humor in this book, but it wasn’t funny to me. You will know within the first few chapters if it’s tickling your funny bone or not.
I also found myself unable to root for anyone in this book, save for the small, innocent Rambo. Everyone else has something so wrong with them that it soured me to like them. The one I can talk about without spoilers, as the episode happens in the first chapter, is Nurse Ratched. She is a robot companion of Victor’s who was designed to nurse humans. She’s described as sociopathic, in a way that I think is supposed to read as comedic. As in, she acts like she enjoys inflicting pain but doesn’t really. Yet in the first chapter she chases down a squirrel (off-screen) and kills it by rolling over it again and again. I almost stopped reading the book, I was so horrified. But it was an advanced copy, so I decided to give it another chance. She never does anything like this ever again, but it is actually not uncommon for characters in this book to have something they have done in the past that is truly horrific that is brushed off as their programming. I’m all for plots where characters have to overcome their own tendency toward being bad, and redemption and forgiveness are both very important. But I need for that not to be the plot for almost every single character. It, at the very least, is distressing to read about.
The romance did not move me, which was surprising given what strong feelings I had for the couple in The House in the Cerulean Sea! I also have complicated feelings about how the book depicts what freedom means, how robots pursue freedom, the offerings of the “freedom fighter” character, etc… This, in fact, is a reflection of how I feel the overarching messages tended to get muddled. The only message that I felt was clear and consistent was “be brave!” but no clear reason as to why was ever given. To borrow from an American fairy tale – the overarching story needed a heart. I think, perhaps, the romance was supposed to be the heart, but it didn’t work as one for me.
This is also an incredibly sad book. It’s not uplifting in the slightest. There’s nothing wrong with sad books, but it is a departure from the author’s other books, and so I think the warning is warranted.
Overall, this is an imaginative and loving retelling of Pinocchio that should appeal to fans of that fairy tale. Readers should be aware that the darkness of the original story remains in this retelling.
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3 out of 5 stars
Length: 432 pages – average but on the longer side
Source: NetGalley
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Book Review: Polly’s Wild Dance: A Life Serialized in Sporadic Spurts by Sydnee Elliot
Summary:
Now that Polly’s daughter has left home, she finally decides to follow her long-time dream of living on the Greek islands and moves there. But she finds even moving to another country can’t help her escape the memories of her ex-lovers (or, in the case of her daughter’s father, their actual presence). As she ruminates on her life and deals with the difficulties of aging, she wonders if her life has brought her the fulfillment she was after.
Review:
I picked this up during one of Smashwords’ annual summer/winter sales because the premise vaguely reminded me of Under the Tuscan Sun, a movie I’ve always enjoyed. What I got was an older heroine with a more honest mouth and a dirtier past. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and I wouldn’t choose to live my life the way the main character lived hers, but I certainly enjoyed it.
The author clearly has either lived in Boston or has done a lot of research. Polly grows up in New England and then lives in either Cambridge or Boston for the early parts of her life. Everything written about Cambridge/Boston is quite accurate, although definitely not always flattering. Since this is the case for the setting of Cambridge/Boston, I came to trust the narrator regarding her experiences in California, Las Vegas, and finally the Greek islands.
Polly is unapologetically crass. Given that this is a fiction book written in the style of an older person’s memoir, I can see how this may be jarring to some readers anticipating a more…grandmotherly style story. Personally, I enjoy the brutal honesty Polly brings to everything. She paints neither herself nor her family nor her lovers in a positive light. She verges on the side of pessimism. But there’s something I like about that level of honesty.
The edge of his tallis, the prayer shawl worn by Jewish men [Polly is Jewish and raised in a religious home], was folded back over his shoulder, so it wouldn’t touch me. Women aren’t allowed to touch this sacred garment because we’re considered unclean. The folded eight inches of fabric reminded me of one of the reasons why I couldn’t believe in this religion, or any religion. I wanted to crush the tallis with my hands, rub it over my face, arms, along my naked body and against my genitals. (loc 970)
If that passage offends you, the book will most likely offend you. If you enjoy the visceral passion Polly shows in rejecting the religion of her childhood, you will most likely enjoy the book.
The plot mainly revolves around Polly adapting to life in Greece and being haunted by visions of her ex-lovers. Basically, she will think she sees one of her ex-lovers and then tell the story of her time with him. The overarching plot is she is wondering if seeing these hauntings means her life is almost over. Also scattered throughout this plot is Polly coming to terms with being older, her body failing her, the fact that she doesn’t have a constant true love, and accepting that she is nearing the end of her life. Polly has many lovers throughout her life, and it’s clear that sometimes she was seeking one out to use him. Similarly, she is the other woman at least once and not in an accidental way. In a I hope you’ll leave your wife for me way. Polly admits she was bad at love but is also unapologetic about it. She seems lost as to how she could have done better, even right up to choosing her most recent lover.
I wanted to love Andreas. I needed to love him; I needed to love someone, anyone, and he happened to be available. (loc 5985)
While I appreciated Polly’s voice and passion, I also felt extremely sad for her. She never seems to have figured out how to be both passionate about her beliefs and also willing to listen to others. She never seems to have grown beyond the first rebellion stage into self-actualization. In a way, then, while the book has amusing scenes, overall, I found it to be a sad, cautionary tale about how failing to work on yourself, simply letting yourself muddle along, can lead to a wasted life.
Overall, this is an interesting book that features a plot I haven’t seen before. Readers interested in reading something featuring an older person who failed to actualize or even really realize their mistakes late in life should definitely pick this up. It is well-done.
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4 out of 5 stars
Length: 334 pages – average but on the longer side
Source: Smashwords
Book Review: Succubus Revealed by Richelle Mead (Series, #6) (Audiobook narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers)
Summary:
Seattle’s succubus, Georgina Kincaid, is incredibly happy to be back together with her previously ex boyfriend, Seth Mortensen. But getting back together with him came at the price of hurting his once-fiancee and having to leave her previously loved position managing the bookstore. It’s all worth it to be with Seth, though. But then a transfer notice comes in, sending her to her dream job in Las Vegas. It’d be a dream come true, except Seth can’t come with her because his sister-in-law has cancer. Georgina starts to wonder just why so many elements seem to keep coming together to try to drive her and Seth apart.
Review:
A breathtaking conclusion to the series that reveals not just Georgina’s entire life story but also that the series itself is more than originally meets the eye.
It was obvious in the prior book that a much larger overarching plot was going to be revealed in the final entry in the series. Mead reveals this plot through an artful combination of the characters investigating, flashbacks, and a court case. Normally, I’m not a fan of courtroom drama, but Mead pulls it off beautifully, really playing up the supernatural elements and keeping it moving along at a rapid pace. While I had pretty much already figured out what the big reveal would be, how it was revealed and how the characters reacted was unexpected and complex.
A running theme in the series has been that the characters are not perfect and life doesn’t hand out easy answers or resolutions. The resolutions to the various problems and questions in the plot and in Georgina’s life follow these guidelines as well. It is not a simple reveal that places perfection into Georgina’s life. She has to address her issues, how she has dealt with herself and other people, and she must face the supernatural community as well. It was refreshing to see characters in an urban fantasy have to work toward resolution instead of having it handed to them by virtue of just being lucky or having the right powers.
The romance is in full-swing in this book. Georgina is much more focused on her love life than on being on a succubus. Thus, most of the sex scenes we get are hot in an entirely romantic way. Once again, though, I was more focused on the quality of the plot and characters than on the quality of the sex scenes. The story of Georgina overpowered the juicy bits, and that’s a sign of a great urban fantasy.
The book brings to light the questions of good versus evil, love and what it takes to make a relationship work, soul mates, and the qualities of humanity. And it does it with humor, brightly written characters, sexy sex scenes, and creative settings. An ending to the series as satisfying as a rich dessert that will leave the reader wanting to re-read the series as soon as possible.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audible
Previous Books in Series:
Succubus Blues
Succubus On Top
Succubus Dreams
Succubus Heat
Succubus Shadows
Book Review: Alien in the Family by Gini Koch (Series, #3)
Summary:
Kitty loves being engaged to Martini, her super-sexy alien fiancee from Alpha Centaurion. But she’s not super into the whole wedding planning thing. The issue gets pushed to the forefront, though, when Martini’s estranged extended family on AC announces their intent to visit and determine the worthiness of the marriage. It seems Martini is actually royalty. Meanwhile, some new aliens crop up, and they just so happen to be Amazonian terrorists. It’s an awful lot for the Super-Being Exterminator team to handle.
Review:
This is a hard review to write, because I *loved* the first two books in the series but this one left such a sour taste in my mouth, I won’t be continuing on.
The overarching plot is good. Yes, it’s a bit ridiculous that Martini is royalty, but anyone who’s read the first two books in the series should expect and embrace the ridiculousness at this point. The added twists from the AC homeworld make the wedding plot more interesting and unique. Every wedding is unique in its own way, but this gives Kitty and Martini’s wedding a decidedly paranormal romance flair. I didn’t find the Amazonian terrorist plot particularly necessary but it was well-done and kept the action moving.
The writing continues to be tongue-in-cheek dirty wit.
I hated having to be someplace on time, it took away so many potential orgasms. (page 40)
But the relationship between Martini and Kitty gave me reason to pause this time around. They continue to have excellent chemistry, which is fun to see. But there are two glaring issues in the relationship. Martini is overly jealous, in a cartoonish, immature way. He doesn’t get jealous in a way that is sexy. For instance, he doesn’t see men looking at Kitty and hold her hand to show they’re together. He actually growls. And yells. And clearly doesn’t trust Kitty. Of course, that lack of trust could be justified since Kitty repeatedly wonders if she’s choosing to marry the right man. Not just that, she thinks about whether she should marry any myriad of her guy friends and ex-lovers. Plus, she continues to flirt with just about anyone, in spite of Martini telling her it makes him uncomfortable. These are issues that should have been worked out prior to an engagement, and they don’t bode well for a future marriage. I wouldn’t mind the issues, but the couple are presented as the ideal couple. They aren’t presented as a couple who has some issues to add some realistic drama to the story. This is paranormal romance. The main romantic couple *should* be a bit idealized, but they aren’t.
A much, MUCH bigger issue to me though is how rape is handled in the book. This comes up in two different scenes. There is a scene where Kitty is fighting some bad guys and accidentally ends up in a room with a football team visiting Vegas. Half of the team makes a very overt attempt to gang rape her, but the other half of the team (plus an alien pet Kitty picks up early in the book) puts a stop to it. Then later the leader of the rapey half of the team comes to help fight the bad guys and apologizes, and Kitty recommends that they be added to the secret forces. She shrugs off the rape attempt as everyone makes mistakes and they apologized and essentially recommends they get hired to her company. I’m ok with a heroine narrowly escaping a rape attempt, as that could happen. I’m not ok with the heroine then shrugging it off, accepting an apology, basically saying that a rape attempt is just a mistake, and trying to help the career of the attempted rapist. What. The. Hell?!
In the second scene, Kitty is hanging out with her friend, Chuckie. Chuckie is, at this point in time, her boss. He’s also her almost life-long friend, she’s had sex with him in the past, he’s asked her to marry him before, and she’s periodically wondered throughout this book if maybe she should be marrying him instead of Martini. At the end of their conversation, they’re getting ready to go, and this happens:
He [Chuckie] took my [Kitty’s] shoulders and turned me around. “God, it’s as bad from the back. Really, go put on some clothes.”
“I don’t have a wrap, okay?”
“Find one. Before I rape you.” He gave me a gentle push toward the bedroom.
“Fine, fine.” (page 434)
So, Kitty’s friend: A) judges her clothing and deems it immodest B) orders her to change her outfit C) casually jokes about raping her D) victim blames rape victims with his comment implying clothing causes rape. And of course Kitty just takes this all in stride and doesn’t see anything at all inappropriate about what Chuckie says.
There is just far too much casual boys-will-be-boys acceptance of rape and rape culture in this book that supposedly features a strong female lead and *romance*. And a wedding! Paranormal romance fans deserve better. Men deserve to be treated as not mindless animals who will tackle anything in a sexy dress. Women deserve better than to be blamed for rapists’ behavior. Toss in the relationship issues between Martini and Kitty, while the relationship is treated by the book an ideal one, and no amount of sexy humor, wedding dresses, and aliens could save it for me. I’m very disappointed in the turn this series took. If you’re interested in the series, I would recommend reading the first two and stopping there.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
Touched by an Alien
Alien Tango
Book Review: A Tale of Two Demon Slayers by Angie Fox (Series, #3)
Summary:
Lizzie is ready for a vacation what with having spent the last month first saving her grandmother from the second level of hell and then saving Las Vegas from a hoard of succubi. Plus lying around on the beach in Greece with her hunky Griffin boyfriend, Dimitri, sounds like quite the treat. Of course, nothing in Lizzie’s new life ever goes as smoothly as planned. Their arrival in Greece leads to the discovery that someone has stolen something from Dimitri. Something intertwined with Lizzie and that has put the whole Helios Griffin clan in danger.
Review:
Due to the title and the various repercussions so far to Lizzie sharing her demon slayer nature with Dimitri, I expected this book to deal with that. Actually, the story it told was far more engaging and interesting. Can Dimitri with his classical European family of tradition work in a relationship with Lizzie and her globe-trotting work and crazy motorcycle gang witch family?
Although the situations surrounding this romance are highly paranormal, the relationship itself is very normal. Lizzie struggles to trust in Dimitri’s love for her, let alone allow him to love her. Dimitri struggles to find balance between his life and family and Lizzie. It gives a heart to the overall action and story that was missing in the other volumes.
The paranormal aspects are stronger this time around too. The paranormal world seems to mesh together in a better way. The addition of more animals besides Pirate make for a more entertaining menagerie. Dimitri in particular is more fleshed out now that we see his family and where he comes from. New characters too are well-drawn, particularly Lizzie’s new teacher.
Fox manages to avoid common paranormal romance cliches this time around, although at first the reader thinks she is falling into them. This combined with drastically improved sex scenes, the better characterization, and the addition of a real world heart to the story makes for a far better tale overall. I’m glad the humor in the previous two books kept me around for this one.
Overall, this is an excellent example of everything paranormal romance should be–colorful characters, believable paranormal circumstances, the heart of the story relatable to real world circumstances, good sex scenes, and plot twists that manage to avoid cliches. It is thoroughly entertaining, and I highly recommend it to all paranormal romance lovers.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
The Accidental Demon Slayer, review
The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers, review
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Opinions of a Wolf 