So it's Thanksgiving this week for the US right? I've been wondering if it was last week or this week :P Does that mean that US folk will have more time to blog or that you'll be too busy? (just curious :P)
All right, so little update on me... The good news: my supervisor finally emailed me back! Youppi! However, he's been having difficulty to adapt and all, so he might not have time to help me for my presentation... too bad. Talking about presentation, I still haven't done anything... 1 week to go, but I'm sure I can do it. There's such a difference between knowing when it's going to happen. remember at the beginning of the month? I was freaking out because I thought there was 2 weeks before the presentation, but I didn't know when exactly the presentation would be. Now, I don't feel nervous about the presentation, so I guess that's good. I have the presentation in my head, the analysis is 95% done... so now, just have to complete the 5% which is like statistic (beurk) and make some slides...
So that's the boring personal stuff in my life. Book-related now. Hmmm, the new Indigo store was a disappointment to me. Yeah, sucks no? Been waiting so long for it and it sucks. The store itself is really nice, but the arrangement of the shelves is no good. The separation between section isn't clear either. The romance section is pitiful... it's about 1/3 or 1/4 of the romance section at the Chapters or Indigo downtown. I guess it's the lack of space... the Indigo and Chapters downtown have 2 floors (Chapters even have 3) while this one only has 1 floor. So they're trying to cram everything together (English + French books) and so, they have to cut some corners... I guess it'll be good for the new releases... but if I want some older books (like 3-4 months old), I'll have to go in downtown still. Anyway, you can guess that I didn't spend the Customer day there... Instead, I drove downtown (hey, it was one day only, had to enjoy it!) and bought a couple of books:
- Conspiracy Game by Christine Feehan (rec. by Kris)
- Good Girls Do by Cathie Linz (Sandie rec. Bad Girls Don't, 2nd book of the series, but it wasn't there)
- His Dark Kiss by Eve Silver (Canadian author, so I wanted to try her out)
- Major Crush by Jennifer Echols (rec. by Dancechica)
- House of Gaian by Anne Bishop (remember, I bought the first 2 books at UBS)
- The Glasswrights' Apprentice by Mindy L. Klasky
and I think that's it... but I can't be sure ^^; You know, been buying a lot of books lately, hard to keep track ^^; Not bad right for a girl who didn't have much a specific book in mind.
While I was at the bookstore, I took a look at Shattered Dance by Caitlin Brennan, which is one of the sequel to Mountain's Call. (it's the third book in the series so far... not sure if they'll be more). I was hesitating whether to continue the series or not and so, I went and read the ending. You know me, if there's no HEA then, it's not worth to read... Spoilers (highlight to see) well, Valeria and Kerrec don't end up together. Kerrec end up marrying someone else and Valeria, for some reason, at the end end of the book, has decided to become the Barbarian Queen. End of Spoilers. So yeah, I'm going to sell Mountain's Call to UBS, unless anyone here wants it... Ames? since you already have the second book...
So what else, what else... Oh yeah! Remember, I was reading London's Perfect Scoundrel by Suzanne Enoch? Well, it might take awhile before I finish that book... I went and skimmed through another of her regency book that I've bought during McGill charity book fair and well, I have a problem with her books. It's the way the brothers treat the heroine... They can't stop giving orders and be-littling (in my opinion) the heroine. That gets annoying. I'm pretty sure that that's what really happened in those time, instead of the heroine being allowed to do mostly what she wants, but in today's time, it's you know, insulting for a woman. I like Suzanne Enoch's contemporary, but I'm not so sure about the historicals... and it seems this happen in every of her historicals... too bad for me I guess.
So well, that's it... Now, i have two reviews! :D so what new books did I read? The lucky winners were Major Crush by Jennifer Echols and Conspiracy Game by Christine Feehan.
Virginia Saunter is 16 years old and the co-drum major of her school marching band. She shares the position of drum major with Drew Morrow, a senior and her crush. Drew was drum major last year and so, Virginia is having difficult to ascertain her authority within the band. It doesn't help that their first show was a complete disaster. Now, Mr. Rush, the new band director, is giving Drew and Virginia the choice: work together or he'll have someone else replace them.
What to say? This is a young adult novel, which explains why the H/H are 17 and 16 y.o. However, it is still a very cutsy story :D I did enjoy it, with all the drama and stuff... however, probably not as much as DC did. See, there's a lot of thing I didn't know and so I can't relate to... My school didn't have a marching band and actually, I don't think that many school in Quebec province has one... it's just not popular here. Also, we don't have the SAT exam here, so that's also something I cannot relate to. It's nice though that teenagers can find love... I've always liked the high school sweetheart romance :D
The only major problem I had with this book is that, well it's a young adult novel... these characters have their whole life in front of them. Sure, the ending of the BOOK is HEA, but for how long? Are they going to be together still in 20 years? Well, yeah, I'll never get the answer. I hope so too, but might not happen right? Anyway, good story. I'm wondering if the other from the series are as good... For a better review, you should go to DC's blog.
Jack Norton is a GhostWalker, i.e. that he's been enhanced physically and psychically. He leads a mission to Congo, to go rescue his twin brother Ken, whose been captured on a mission. Ken is saved, but it is now Jack who's been captured. Jack successfully escaped, but is severely injured. Luckily for him, he runs into Briony Jenkins... a woman who has also been enhanced physically and psychically.
Briony Jenkins is a very strong empath and being in large crowds hurt her... but that doesn't stop her from being part of the Flying Five and performing their flying act, because above all, Briony loves her adopted family. For some reason, the Flying Five (Briony and her 4 brothers) have been paid a huge amount of money to perform at the Music Festival in Congo. There, Briony runs into Jack and saves his life. Attraction sizzles between Briony and Jack; however, for Jack, ppl he loves and cares for are a liability and so, Jack leaves... hoping it'd be better that way for Briony... That is, until Briony is pregnant and someone is after her, but more importantly, after her baby. Having no choice, not wanting to endanger her brothers and also wanting to learn some skills to be able to protect her baby in the future, Briony turns to Jack.
As a rule, I'm not a big fan of Christine Feehan... Never got into her Dark Series and the only books that I've really read were Shadow Game and Mind Game, the 2 first book of the well, Game Series. I've actually given up on the Game series... Basically, what you need to know about the Game series is that you had a mad scientist, Dr. Peter Whitney, with a lot money experimenting on humans to give them or enhance their natural psychic powers. He did many experiments, but 2 stood out. His first experiment was on very young girls whom he got from orphanage in Europe. Because he couldn't keep all the girls at one point, he adopted them out, but kept one, Lily. Then, he started experimenting on soldiers (SEALS and another group)... so basically, what's been happening is: soldier meet orphan girl in dangerous situation and fall in love. It's basically the same thing happening over and again and that's why I decided to save some money. However, Kris said this one was good and I should give it a try and so I did and bought it during the week-end. She was right, this one is indeed pretty good.
So, I did really enjoy the book. I guess I liked the characters, Briony and Jack as well as Ken. I thought Briony's brothers were jerks at first, but then, they redeemed themselves a lot. I'm happy that we didn't get to see too many characters from previous books, but then at the same time, their little appearance was a bit too short.... so it makes the book unbalanced I think. Anyway, Briony is not your usual heroine... She's tough, but always afraid... what's make her stand out is that she learnt how to deal with her fear. She's strong and she's trained, but she's never been in a situation where she needed to use her training. In short, a nice heroine... not a TSTL and not a too tough character either. As for Jack, well he's tough and very controlling. He also has a dark monster in his past. He's the type of alpha that you usually like.
The plot was a good one, the way it was told was enjoyable as well. If I had a problem tho is that it seems the novel is not complete. Briony came to Jack's house for protection. They're safe for awhile, but then, gets attacked. The trio runs away and manage to escape, kill the most threatening man and then, that's the end of the book. Okay... There's just a lot of thing unanswered. Of course, you do get the answer in the next book which is Deadly Game and features Ken as the hero, but still. So that's the only major complain I have... Now, I'm still not decided though if reading Deadly Game is going to be good... seems like it's going to be a repeat of Conspiracy Game...
oh well, that's enough for today :D Have a nice day everyone!
