Adventures to the bookstore - Iron Hunt

All right, by now, you all know I suffer from the "must-have-NOW" syndrome when it comes to books and particularly new releases. I can't help it...

So the book I've been looking for all week was Iron Hunt by Marjorie Liu. I went to 3 different bookstore this week. On Monday, bookstore no. 1 told me that Iron Hunt was not released yet (it was coming out the next day) and to come back the next day. Hmmm, I doubt. I ask the guy to look for In Bed with the Devil by Lorraine Heath which came out on June 13 and he couldn't find it in the backroom. What were the chances that someone would put the book on the shelves the next day?

On Tuesday, I went to bookstore no. 2. They just didn't have the book at all. Total disappointment... and they couldn't find Bound by Shadow by Anne Windsor, even though they had received it the Friday ago.

After bookstore no. 1 and 2, my only option left were one of the bookstore in downtown. I went to Indigo, just because I like it better than Chapters (the atmosphere) and also, Indigo downtown that's the store I've been complaining that they leave their books around in carts and boxes, so I can at least look for it myself. I knew they had 6 copies. I go to the bookstore and find Bound by Shadow on the new releases table. Good start! Now, where is Iron Hunt?!? Not on the new release table... not shelved with her Dirke and Steele series... I turned towards the carts: 3 of them and all extremely full. Next to them? 6 boxes piled up on top of each other... Hmmm. Let's the search begins!! (I was also on a time limit because I had to pick up a friend...) So I started searching through the carts... Nada. Nothing... and there I am, puffing and getting frustrated. I have to admit, I don't like to look through boxes though. It looks a bit impolite... I mean, books on cart, they're already unpacked... books in boxes? Looks a bit desperate... but there I am, desperate!!! Because this is the third attempt and I am not going back without it!! Oh no, I am not!! So I start look through boxes... the ones on top, so I don't have to move them around. Nope, not in them too.

So there I am, looking at the boxes, increasingly frustrated and still puffing... Should I move the boxes or not? Then I see this girl shyly starting to search through the carts. After a moment of hesitation, I asked her what book she was looking for. She looks up at me really weirdly. Did I mention, weirdly?!? as if it was none of my business. Hey, I'm just being nice here, helping a fellow book lover. So she tells me she's looking for the new Lorraine Heath. Ha, I pluck it out of the cart without hesitation! Isn't she lucky I asked her? Of course, sh wouldn't help me looking for Iron Hunt. So I turned to a clerk. Isn't that usually their job? We check the computers... and now, in my defense, here what I have to say... when I check online, it only tells me how many copies they have... it's only when you check in-store on the computer system that it tells you where you can find it... SCIENCE-FICTION!!!

WTH is it doing in Sci-fi?!?!? and there they were... I knew Iron Hunt was going to be less romance-y, but sci-fi?!? Anyway, I left the store with it... and since it's still the 4 for 3 sale... I got To Wed a Highlander by Michele Sinclair, Bound by Shadow by Anne Windsor and Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione (that one, i found in one of the boxes).

Long day...

Okay, where to start. Wow, my last post was on Monday... it's been like 3 days. So let's start this way:

MONDAY
- bought more books. Was bored and waiting till it was time to go pick up my sis. So went to the new Indigo, cruised around. Was looking for Eye of Heaven by Marjorie Liu, but still didn't find it. In the end I went home with the Dresden Files series... hmmm, so that was like 5 books.

TUESDAY
- went to pick up my sis and then rushed to Best Buy and then Future Shop to buy Pirates of Carrabean II. It was 2$ cheaper at Future Shop and they were giving away this box to contain the DVD, really cool box. So I watched the special features. It's really worth it. It was fun and there was lots of information and stuff.

WEDNESDAY
- So what did I do? Oh yeah, I went to Indigo downtown and bought books. Yeah, I know, I keep doing the same. I went a bit crazy tho and bought like 5-6 tradepaper books. Forget it, there's now a hole in my wallet. THe good news tho is that I finally found Eye of Heaven, which I read till midnight. So what books did I get? I don't even know ^^; Let see, Cast in Courtlight by Michelle Sagara, Curse the Dark and Bring it On by Laura Anne Gilman, some books by Christie Golden. Okay, I'm going to stop here, cos it's getting really scary. I went to the cash and the guy was like: Your X-mas shopping huh? and I'm like: not even ^^; Then I went to the French manga store, cos finally, some of my manga arrived. AFterwards, rushed to the library where I had to look for some CD for my sis. (the library and manga store are close to each other). Then, I had to rush and pick up my sis again.

THURSDAY
-All right, this is where things get worse and why I'm so exhausted at the moment. So it start with, I had an appointment with the garage for my car... just a check up. Appointment was at 3h30, so I was planning to leave work at 2h30. My mom calls me at 2h15 and told me my debit card got cancelled and I had to go to the bank to get a new one... and also call this 1-800-xxx-xxxx to know what happened. So I call and the guy is very nice... but he has to verify my identity and ask me questions. Seriously, i'm totally ignorant. Do I have any investment at the bank? Well I don't know! my mom takes care of that... How much $ in those investment? How the hell do I know? so well, I flunked the questions and he couldn't get access to my profile. However, he did told me it was security issues so either I lost my card and someone found it or it got cloned and someone else used it.

So okay, was all ready to rush back to the South Shore. Talked to my supervisor a bit to see his opinion on the experiment and he's like: can you read the plates with the other reader. So I did and lost 30 min. So I left work at 3h... no way I was going to make it on time. finally got there at 3h50. so I was late and I kind of lost my priority and so it'd take more time. Anyway, they drove me home. I got into my mom's car and rushed to the bank where I got a new clerk who didn't really know what she was doing. Later, I found out that my card was indeed cloned and someone has taken 1000$ out. Urgh. Ouch, that hurts. The worst is that the lady who usually takes care of situations like this is on vacation. Anyway, got a nice lady and I should get my $$ back within the next 48 hours. (well maybe early next week). BIG SIGH OF RELIEF HERE! Now the problem is... I went to 2 stores yesterday: Indigo and the french manga store... which means that that's where the highest probability my card got cloned. Youppi, those are the two places I spend most $$... Gotta be extra careful now ^^;

After the bank, I rushed to pick up my sis. Got home and my mom was like: Honda called almost as soon as you were out of the door. Your car is ready. So I had to call for the car service and wait for them to pick me up... and finally got my car and went home. So that's pretty much my day, but I'm totally exhausted. And there's this guy in my lab, he makes me feel so incompetent. Every time I ask him a question, he's like: you should know, you're a master student or you should understand this! and blablabla... and he'll never give me a straight answer. anyway...

So what does all this mean? Hmmm, I haven't started my report yet? I know I know, procastination is bad! Especially when I'm not even having fun while procastinating. Also, a random fact: I have 22 books in my bed... I've been sleeping in my single bed with 22 books and cushions on the side so those books wouldn't slide between the cracks and fall down. I can't stand having my books under the bed, I'M like: poor them, so much dust (yes, very dusty under my bed). so every morning, my left side's been pretty sore. The worst is that I didn't read 3/4 of those books in bed... and there's more on my nightstand and on the floor. Sigh... man.

So is this everything I wanted to say? I think so... I talked about my days, my report, books buying... hmmm, yeah. There's only two things left: Contest and reviews.


Pay if Forward Contest

Cool contest, really worth participating and very easy.

Get's all the details about the contest here, at Colleen's webpage.
All you need is to post the icon on your blog/webpage and do a good action.




Review

Eye of Heaven by Marjorie Liu: 4/5

So after many trips to the bookstore, I finally got my hand on the book and it was quite worth it.

Blue is part of the Dirk & Steele agency and is tracking a man named Santoso in Indonesia who is the leader of some human trade business (that incl. prostitution and organ black market and etc.) Near his goal, Blue meets this older woman who almost kills him with a bomb.

So after being saved by Elena, one of the most gifted psychic healer, Blue returns to the USA... what's better excuse then his father's death? Not that Blue and his father was close, actually the man's a real SOB. The ick is that Blue's father is not dead. He only staged his death so his other son, Blue's half-brother Daniel would show up. However, Daniel has disappeared and the father's best shot is asking Blue... or actually blackmailing Blue. So if Blue doesn't agree, the father will reveal all of Dirk & Steele secret to goverment and scientists. Anyway, Blue doesn't have a choice if he wants to protect his real family. He finally finds Daniel in a circus in Las Vegas... but once there, Blue is more interested to Iris, this lady with golden eyes and incredible affinity to BIG cats.

So where to start... Blue's psychic power is electrokinesis as in, he's able to command anything that works with electricity which means the human heart as well. I mean, it's a real interesting power and I think it's the first time I've come across something like this power. However, he doesn't really explain how it works and so on. As most of you could guess, Iris is a shapeshifter, wow big surprise. Now, that's something I'd like Ms Liu to stop... stop adding shapeshifters everywhere. They're supposed to be rare... Yet in every book of the series, you get to meet one or two. So this dragon lady could go a 100 years without seeing anyone of her "kind," but Dirk & Steele just happens to stumble over 2 or 3 ones every months?

Aside from that, I quite liked Blue's character. He's not tortured, but his life wasn't easy, especially with the kind of father he had. However, interestingly, life wasn't easier for Daniel either. Blue and Daniel have never met and very reluctant to trust each other, but that's a given given their father. I wouldn't say Blue's such an alpha either. I guess in this book, focus was more on the plot than characters. I've never felt much affinity to Ms Liu's character. As for Iris, well she's fine. Not too strong, but not whiny or TSTL... A decent heroine. But really, thanx heavens the book was filled with action, because with only those characters... I probably woudn't have continued on.

So this book is full of action and it gets quite complicated. There might have been a bit too much coincidences, but I guess, there were necessary. What I actually like about this book is that altho it's part of a series, the book was focused on our two main characters. Ms Liu wasn't trying to set-up her next book. Another interesting thing is that you usually don't see the other from previous books. I think that we saw quite a few of the previous characters and I was quite happy. I like to have updates on characters I liked. So story is more action-filled and there's plenty of conspiracy again. As for the love story, a bit bland. Too quick attraction between Iris and Blue and I thought there wasn't much chemistry between them. Oh and Elena's twist was quite interesting.

Finally, I think there was something else, but I can't remember... it's 11pm. and my breain just shut down. So the book was quite interesting and much better than the last. Still a bit confusing, I think Ms Liu should make her "master-plan behind the scene" a bit less complicated. If you're a fan of this series, you'll really want to read it.


Last thing... I read Kay Hooper's short story in Guardian Angel's anthology. It was really the only one I was interested in. So it's mostly romance with a touch of paranormal: Alex is an earl who's been working as a spy. He crosses to France and come back with critical information. However, during once of his voyage, it doesn't go well when smugglers confuse him for someone else and shoot him. Luckily, this woman appears in front of him and saves his life. She'll appear a couple of more time, everytime when he was in danger... and he'll reach a point where he puts himself in danger just to meet her. Anyway, cute story, you can see Kay Hooper's soft style... I wonder where the Romance Kay Hooper went and left for Psychic Kay Hooper. Anyway, the problem with the anthologies is always the same: way too short.

Recent reads

I really should be typing my progress report, but I don't know what to write... so let's write this instead :D I don't know if it's been my mood lately, but I can't seem to find a book entertaining from beginning to end and I've been picking up little things that annoy me and usually wouldn't... Perhaps I should stop reading endings first. Anyway, I've been reading a lot of average books and am wondering if the grade wouldn't change if I was in a better mood.


Southern Comforts by JoAnn Ross: 3/5

I usually enjoy JoAnn Ross' books and this one wasn't bad; however, it wasn't the best. The intrigue was so-so as well. On the first page of the book, you had a list of characters and a little description and their motives, but once you start reading the book, it's easy to eliminate more than half...

Cash and Chelsea used to be lovers during college and then, Cash left. However, don't worry, Chelsea wasn't heart-broken as Cash was only her boy-toy. Ever since she was young, Chelsea expected to marry Nelson, a snob, at the age of 30. Why 30? Because only then, would she inherit 2 millions $ from her great-grandmother. Before 30 y.o and bye bye the money. So obviously, she's not in love with Nelson, even Cash who wasn't ready to commit could tell. Then, of course, Nelson is cheating on her and she has no idea until she walks on him. I'm sorry, but this is just a bit too cliche for me. Then, she falls into Cash's arms and that's it. So not much romantic development really, not much tension either. You go to point A to B in a straight line. As a result, this book still gets a 3 from me because it's well-written and you can still enjoy it, even if the characters and the story are cliche and forgettable.

The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie Liu: 3/5
*is Book #3 of the Dirk & Steele series

Genre: paranormal (psychic powers)

I first discovered Marjorie Liu through the live journal romance community where lots of ppl were praising her work. So I went out and bought the first 2 books of the series. Personally, I find the books - this one included - okay reads only. I think it's the intrigue, because aside from the romance story, you have an intrigue and it's always so... big, like a conspiracy.

So, The Red Heart of Jade is the story of Dean from the Dirk & Steele agency where all agents have psychic powers... Here, ick no. 1 - I don't think it was ever explain what Dean's psychic powers are exactly. It seems he can see everyone's energy and follow its trail in addition to having visions... but I don't think he's precog. Anyway, Dean, along with his parter Koni - a shapeshifter- is investigating a series of murders in Taipei involving a pyromaniac. Well inspecting the apartment of the last victim, he finds the picture of a woman - Mirabella Lee... the one and only one woman Dean has ever loved and who he taught was dead for the last 2 decades. Turns out that Mirabella is in danger and Dean involves himself, that everything is connected to the series of murders he was investigating and that actually, he's part of it too.

I'll skip the details, because it's way too complicated to summarize and that's the ick no. 2 - too complicated, too confusing for me. I had difficulty to keep up with the story. Too much details, too much characters that have no development. By the way, why doesn't Mirabella freaks out? She's not psychic and has never witnessed these things... so why? Just a little panic would have seemed normal to me... I guess she didn't have time.

Anyway, this book had good main characters - I liked Dean and Mirabella... by the way, Dean is so different than in Book #1 and I guess that's the true him, but it's the story that failed and lots of things left unexplained.