Cath's Book Nook

[cathepsut]

Stolen (#2 of Women of the Otherworld) by Kelley Armstong

From Amazon:
"When two desperate witches lure part-time journalist and full-time werewolf Elena Michaels into a carefully laid trap, she quickly learns that her perceptions about humanity are based on some fundamental flaws. In Kelley Armstrong's supernatural thriller, Stolen, the world is populated with vampires, demons, half-demons, magical shamans and other supernatural races living anonymously among the human population--a concept that Elena has a hard time accepting, just as she struggled with her own lupine identity in Armstrong's remarkable debut, Bitten."

I read Bitten two years ago and have had Stolen on my shelf ever since. I liked bitten, but obviously not enough to immediately read the next one. It's been too long to remember, why I wasn't totally convinced by the story. Something was there in the back of my mind. I did not like Clay and the relationship between him and Elena left me with a lukewarm feeling at best.

When I started Stolen, I was therefore pleasantly surprised, how much I did like it. However, I disliked Paige a lot. Ok, that was probably the point. I don't think the character was supposed to be all that likeable at first. But it put me off a bit. What I also did not like so much was the use of magic towards the end of the book. It's a supernatural novel, so there is bound to be some magical elements. They just did not feel real, if that makes sense. It felt like an easy way to drive the story ahead.

So, it was not bad, but I am not totally convinced either. To put a further damper on things, the third book of the series is told by Paige and presumably features heavily on her brand of magic. I put Dime Store Magic on my BookMooch and BookCrossing wishlists, maybe I will get it at a later time if I should run out of more interesting stuff to read.

Cath's Book Nook

[cathepsut]

A Lick of Frost (#6 of the Meredith Gentry series) by Laurell K Hamilton

From Amazon:
"Princess Meredith NicEssus of the Unseelie Court finally reaches an elusive goal in Hamilton's seductive sixth Meredith Gentry paranormal romance (after 2006's Mistral's Kiss). Half-human, half-faerie, Meredith is a former L.A. PI whose current full-time job is trying to get pregnant—trying at least three times a day, in fact, mainly with her devoted retinue of sex-starved guards—to insure her ascendancy to the Unseelie throne of night. Unfortunately, her bedding schedule has been interrupted by Lady Caitrin of the Seelie Court, who claims she was raped by three of Meredith's guards. Meredith must protect her faithful retinue from the terrible wrath of her uncle, King Taranis of the Seelie Court, and defend herself from the dangerous desire Taranis harbors for her. Hamilton depicts Meredith's erotic adventures in her usual breathless, overheated style, but also reveals a deeper glimpse into Meredith's introspective side as she reflects on her favorite lover, Killing Frost, whose strange fate finds her re-evaluating the costs of being a future queen."

Deeper glimpses? Not sure. I mostly read these books for the sex... ;-)

I am not exactly sure why I keep reading it--besides of the sex I mean. Pure stubbornness, most likely. I just want to see what happens next. The storyline is pretty far fetched, but I still buy into it more than into the magic described in Stolen (see my previous review). Also my imagination gets a great workout, trying to picture the outlandish looks of all of Merry's bed companions. I even pre-ordered the next book, Swallowing Darkness, on Amazon. It's supposed to be available here in November.

Which brings me to another topic. I have been surfing the BC forum a bit and have also scooted around on BookMooch and LibraryThing and noticed--not sure where exactly it was--that quite a few people seems to heavily dislike Amazon. Someone even described them as hell-spawn or something equally demonic. Why is that? Here is a question for my friends:

1) Do you order from Amazon? Why do you or why don't you?

2) Where do you get most of your books?

3) What do you do with your books, when you have finished reading them?

I obviously have thoughts on why Amazon might be perceived as the devil, but I am keeping them to myself for now. I want to see your answers first.