Sunday, February 26, 2012

Dark Secrets 2: No Time to Die, The Deep End of Fear, by Elizabeth Chandler

In general I am not a fan of ghost stories. For some reason they give me the chills when vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other mythological monsters don't. The only ghost stories I enjoy are Elizabeth Chandler's and so I was very excited to read Dark Secrets 2.

As much as I enjoy Chandler's books one inevitable thing that happens around 2 days after I finish one is that it all gets blended into a mush with her other stories. Don't get me wrong: each story is unique and enjoyable in its own way, just for some reason (possibly the ambiguous and almost identical ominous titles) they get thrown into the Elizabeth Chandler junk drawer in my imagination. Therefore, I must write about the stories in Dark Secrets 2 before I forget them.

No Time to Die follows Jenny who is determined to find her sister's killer. Jenny comes from a theatrical family where she is the only one not interested in performing. After her sister is killed by a serial killer while in drama camp Jenny is convinced that the police are wrong and that the murderer was someone her sister knew. So she goes and meets a bunch of messed up drama types, many of whom fall in love with her. There's Brian, the older guy who works at the camp, Mike who was Liza's secret boyfriend, and Paul, Liza's stalker. (I was going to use the word "creepy" before "stalker" but then I realized that there are no other types of stalkers.)

The Deep End of Fear had that unfortunate quality of feeling like it was never ending. Sometimes that lengthens a book's awesomeness but when it's a mystery which you know is going to get solved in the last chapter (like this one) you kind of want it to end soon.

The Deep End is about Kate who returns to this manor where her parents worked when she was a kid. Her family left suddenly shortly after Kate's best friend, Ashley, died in what was supposedly an accident. Now, Kate is working there as a nanny and trying to solve the mysteries surrounding Ashley's death while keeping her charge, Patrick, safe from his many relatives who are out to get him. There's also a hot hockey player wandering around but my theory is that he's only there as a love interest and not to have any other contribution to the plot.

All of Elizabeth Chandler's books have spooky semi-ambiguous titles that in my head make them nearly indistinguishable. However, while reading these two, I realized the titles are actually puns. I'm very proud of myself because my ditzy side actually lost for once! No Time To Die refers to the face of Liza's watch being broken when they found her body because that was the serial killer's signature, and The Deep End of Fear has to do with Ashley dying by falling into a not so frozen pond. So now you know that the titles aren't completely random phrases taken out of a ghost-story-writer thesaurus.

4.3 stars. I have a thing against mysteries which doesn't let me go higher. There's also the fact that these two seemed almost identical to each other and almost all of Elizabeth Chandler's other books.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews

I would describe "Magic Bites" as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Similarities include a tough female main character who solves mysteries involving men/magical creature thingies that torture and murder women. Although I liked Kate better than I liked Lizbeth. I'm trying to figure out how to phrase why, so you'll just have to be content with that.

The world where Magic Bites takes place is ours (Atlanta, actually), just a few hundred years in the future. Instead of our society being destroyed by our love of pollution (for some reason we always destroy the world) it was torn apart by waves of magic which knock out all electricity and technology. In Kate's world there are "magic waves" and "tech waves". Since the world has been like this for a while, Kate and everyone else are accustomed to it.

In this future magic world there are two major factions: the shapeshifters and the necromancers. Shapeshifters are exactly what they sound like, and the necromancers create vampires which they send off to do their dirty work. These vampires are actual vampires though, not sparkly marble statues that fall in love with humans. These vampires are practically animals. Thank you, Ilona Andrews! I have waited a long time to read a book where the vampires aren't wusses. Kate is looking for her guardian's murderer and is trying to figure out all what all the fishy details surrounding his grisly death mean. What annoyed me were the cryptic lines about Kate's dad and her background and what he really knew. JUST TELL ME ALREADY!!!!

I don't usually like mysteries but this one had me hooked. I tried to put it down but the writing was so graphic and real that I was able to picture it all in my head. And I was never even in Atlanta.

I'm going off to read the sequel now.

4.6 stars. Something in me doesn't let me rate a mystery with 5 stars.

The lion is the shapeshifter who I know she will end up with at the end through my psychic powers. When I do get up to that point, I will look back and say "Ha! Told you so!"