Book 5 Twisted Twenty-Six

Twisted Twenty-Six by Janet Evanovich fulfilled the “Book with the Word ‘Twenty’ in the Title” category for the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge. Yes, this is the twenty-sixth in the series and I have read them all. And all the supplemental Plum stories.

That’s a lot of books.

The main character for all the “numbered” novels is Stephanie Plum, a lingerie salesperson turned bounty hunter. Needless to say, she’s kinda inept at her job and catches many criminals by sheer luck. Which makes the series so much fun to read.

Stephanie’s blundering and failures make her human and funny. We never know who she’ll try to catch next, another killer clown or a naked shoplifter. Ms. Evanovich has given us a wonderful cast of heroes and villains in the series.

Let me just say I love Lula. She’s my favorite. I hear the voice of the audio person whenever I read the stories instead of listening and for weeks after a finish a book, I use the phrase “damn skippy.”

But—and there’s always a but—the books are repetitive. Like Sue Grafton, twenty-plus books with the same main character merge. Each book tells you what Stephanie does and what she looks like. The script is the same: Stephanie has to catch a bad guy out of her league, needs help from the cop boyfriend and sometimes lover, security man. Lula makes everything worse or better. Gramma Mazer shows and adds comic relief (besides the antics already going on).

But Stephanie never gets better at her job. She never chooses one of the men. She always blows up a car and her hamster is still alive after many, many years.

The constant reader knows all this coming in and we still gobble up the next episode. But this time Stephanie comments that her life is not going anywhere! I almost propped the book. It was like in X by Sue Grafton when Kinsey didn’t describe her run for the third time because it was repetitive.

Have these authors realized they are telling the same story over and over? (And they trash romance for doing the same thing…sigh.) Anyway, it was nice to see Stephanie Plum question her choices. And Ms. Evanovich came through with some changes too.

At the end of the book, Stephanie does not wrap up all the ends neatly. She solves the problem with her Grandmother, but the ending is a cliff hanger!

OMG, you could’ve knocked me over.

Ms. Evanovich never does that. She doesn’t have to. Her novels sell no matter what. Perhaps it’s a change in the series or an ending. The books have gone along for so long with the same storyline, perhaps we are in for a revolution in Book Twenty-Seven.

All I can say is I enjoyed the story, loved the author poking fun at herself and dammit, Ranger ate a donut! If you need a quick fun read, this novel is for you.

I give Twisted Twenty-Six Four Boston Creme Donuts.

Book 4 The Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler fulfills the “Book about a Book Club” category of the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. In this novel, the characters explore the works of Jane Austen and only Jane Austen.

The people of the Jane Austen book club comprise a diverse group of women and one man. Though I didn’t know it was diverse until almost the end of the story. Until then the group seemed like a bunch of white women with a guy tagging along, but I digress. They read one Austen work a month starting with Emma. Each section of the book focuses on one character and one novel, trying to parallel them with each other.

I’m an Austen fan. I’ve read all the books but the unfinished ones. I’ve seen a version of most of the movies. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice multiple times and it’s my favorite. Perhaps I didn’t understand this book because I wasn’t deeply versed in the Austen universe enough. I failed to see the parallels between the novels and the chapters. Either that or the author failed me.

I was an English major. I studied Pride and Prejudice in at least two academic settings. My friend and I talk up Austen all the time. (Not that one who hasn’t read P&P yet, but she and I agree to disagree.) In conclusion, I think we both failed.

The best example of the author succeeding in her attempt to follow Austen was the chapters about Prudie and Mansfield Park. Sections in this chapter were headed off by quotes from the book that set the scene. The quoted sections worked wonders to bond the reader with the original book and what Ms. Fowler was trying to compare too with her story. None of the other sections kept this format. And it was the third or fourth part of the book.

The worst example (in my opinion, of course) was the one with Pride and Prejudice and Bernadette. P&P is probably the most beloved of Austen’s books. It’s my fav with Sense and Sensibility not far behind. I found nothing with Bernadette clicked with my favorite book, no quotes, no events, nothing. I was kinda annoyed. With all that material, the author chose the character that had the least in common with the greatest book.

As you can guess, I didn’t care for the book. This is my third reading of an “Austen Inspired” novel and the third I didn’t like. I read Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope last year. It failed to hit all the big notes of the original. And I read Bridget Jones Diary, the best one so far. But also, the one I thought failed so badly that I wrote an Austen Inspired book myself, kinda, about a writer coming home to a high school reunion. Maybe someday, I’ll publish it.

I had Reading Lolita in Tehran as another option for this category. I might go read it in the hopes it’s a better story.

     I give The Jane Austen Book Club Three Austen books—Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Lady Susan. (Def, not Pride and Prejudice.)

Book 3 The Song of the Quarkbeast

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde fulfills the category “Book I grabbed off the shelf without looking” for the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge. Actually, I listened on audio. I spun the album titles on my Windows Media Player (yes, I’m still using that program. It works…for now.) The Song of the Quarkbeast showed up along with Sleeping Beauties and Six of Crows. It was a tough decision. I might have to read the other two on principle.

The Song of the Quarkbeast is the second in The Last Dragon Slayer trilogy by Mr. Fforde. I very much enjoy his books. This novel did not disappoint. I’ve read most of his novels. I devoured the Thursday Next series after being recommended them by author K.A. Mitchell (who writes very different stories compared to Mr. Fforde. Just FYI, she pens erotic male/male romance.)

Jasper Fforde is a master world builder. If you’ve read even one of his books, you can see the attention he gives to detail and how rich an environment he creates becomes. Each series (Nursery Crimes and Thursday Next) puts you into a quirky semi-realistic world, but the added aspects are amazing. In the Last Dragon Slayer series, he builds a sophisticated magic system with rules and consequences.

Perfect. Orson Scott Card would applaud.

He also reimagines Europe and Britain with new borders, systems, and even money (moolah, snort). In doing so, he sets up a complete government that plays into the story.

His writing style includes the “all is lost” element at Dresden-Files-level dire straits. (The Dresden Files, another urban fantasy/magical realism series, always has the “Ohmygod, Harry is going to die” trope. I love it.) Mr. Fforde like Jim Butcher never uses a problem solver or truth-teller to solve the issue for the hero/heroine. I love that Jennifer Strange can hold her own in this mixed-up crazy world. And the fact that she’s only sixteen and is killing it makes it even better.

Mr. Fforde deepened his magical universe in the second book, adding more rules and limitations. But I’m cool with that. The first novel doesn’t focus on magic. It’s more about the political problem with the dragons and Jennifer’s problems with the agency. The small tweaks he makes in Book 2 might not jive with the first novel, but given the whimsical nature of the stories, it’s easily forgiven.

The story focuses on quarkbeasts, mythical creatures who cannot be in close proximity to each other. There’s definitely some physics going on here. And I only know that because when the Once Magnificent Boo named the types of quarkbeasts—up, down, charmed, strange, top, bottom—I remembered those terms from the movie Roxanne. Yes, I’m that old. Jennifer not only has to save her agency from being taken over, stop a ruthless and sorcerer from ruining her life, she has to stop quarkbeasts from blowing up the kingdom and if she does it right, she gets her quarkbeast back.

     A fun story for a cold wintery afternoon, for sure.
     I give The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde Five Index fingers up. (Instead of thumbs, get it?)

Book 2 Beating About The Bush

Beating About the Bush by MC Beaton fulfills the “Book from a Series with more than Twenty Books” category of the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. It is the thirtieth novel in the Agatha Raisin series. It is also probably the last one we will get from MC Beaton. She passed away on December 30, 2019.

I cried.

A lot.

I started reading the Agatha Raisin series a very long time ago. I like a cozy mystery and funny is always game in my universe. I’d been working my way through Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series at the time. And it’s also when I fell in love with audiobooks.

I grabbed Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death for two reasons. That title alone is enough to sell the book, but it was also short only about five or six cassette tapes. (You heard me right, cassette tapes that I played in my 1996 Tercel. So yeah, I’m old.)

I could not read them fast enough. Then I discovered she had another series set in the Scottish Highlands. And there were dozens of them. I read ’em all only to find out she had other mysteries and FIFTEEN series of historical romances. I fell in love with MC Beaton and I hope to never finish all her books.

Back to Agatha. She is every woman. Well, every woman over forty. She’s crass and a wanna-be, but she has a huge heart. And she doesn’t stumble into every solution. The latest novel is no different.

Agatha, with the tenacity of a terrier, knows her new client is lying and covering up a murder. No one at the police forces believes Agatha that Miss Dinwiddy’s death is no accident. The poor donkey accused of the murder, Wizz-Wazz, becomes Agatha’s newest bestie. How can you not love a book with an ornery donkey fighting for its freedom?

Okay, not that dramatic. But the story has all the quirky Agatha things, weird PR stories, a wonky mystery, problems with Toni, Charles and whoever else shows up. The donkey in this book was hilarious. Leave it to MC Beaton to get us to fall in love with a cranky ass because Agatha loves the beast.

The mystery in the story was more solid than her previous few books. The plot was short but full and followed through to the end of the book. No spoilers but seeing as it is the last of the series, I liked where she ended Agatha and Toni. And Agatha’s love life…well, I don’t want to spoil too much.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I’m sad it’s over. And I’m off to rent the DVDs of the TV show to get another fix.

I give Beating About the Bush by MC Beaton five solid donkey hooves and a tearful good-bye to one of my favorite authors.

Book 1 The Bronze Key

The Bronze Key by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare fulfills the category “Book with Gold, Silver or Bronze in the Title” for the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge.

Since this is my first blog of the year, I went big. When you basically have Harry Potter fanfic by two amazing authors, you end up reading the entire Magisterium series. I read all five which included The Iron Trial, The Copper Gauntlet, The Silver Mask, and The Golden Tower. They were short, fun, and why not do all of ’em? Plus, I filled the category three times over. 

I have read many books by both these authors and can recommend their other novels. I loved Holly Black’s Spiderwick Chronicles and of Ms. Clare’s stories, my favorites were The Infernal Devices—a steampunk twist on the series. Based on my brief research, I discovered that Ms. Clare used to write Harry Potter fanfiction. I don’t know if Ms. Black did. I mention it because The Magisterium series starts off like Harry Potter, version two.

The series begins with a twelve-year-old boy heading off to magic school. He doesn’t want to go because his dad hates the magical world. So not too much like HP until he gets to the Magisterium, a hidden school underground. As Callum Hunt navigates his Iron year there, he finds out more and more about his world, the price of magic, and the death of his mother. He discovers he might have a piece of The Enemy of Death’s soul inside him. (The Enemy of Death being the big bad of the series who killed Callum’s mom.) 

Huh, soul exchanges, that sounds familiar. Being told in the first book was refreshing. We got to the meat of the story faster.

The books use the themes of HP and rewrite them for a new story. The first three books skirt the lines of fanfic. Not that I’m saying that’s bad. I just don’t want JK Rowling to sue them because they have a wizard school, soul exchange, and a trio of kids solving all the big magic world problems (two boys and a girl again). 

The authors created a similar world, but it has its own rules, monsters, and consequences. By The Bronze Key, the story has taken a very sharp turn from its similarities to the HP world. Namely, necromancy plays a big hand in these books. Not for the lightweights! 

The novels are rich, heart-wrenching, and allow for some silly teenage behavior. I like a hero-coming-of-age story that remembers the boy is fifteen once in a while. Some of the novels are driven by the kid’s lack of experience and understanding consequences. Some of the tales unfold because the adults are selfish and stupid. But the adventure is real.

I would highly recommend the series to any Harry Potter fans. In fact, I already have. 

I give The Bronze Key, The Silver Mask, and The Golden Tower five chaos-ridden wolf puppies (because puppies are cuter).