Random Book Review

And here's a random book review to tide you over til next we meet.



At first you think to yourself....she's a hitman. How can I possibly enjoy a book about a woman who's career is very bad? How can I sympathize with her? How can I possibly care about anything she does?

You do.

You get past.

You move on.

You fall in love with Nadia Stafford's immense sense of right and wrong, her internal struggle with what she does and what she used to be.

It's like a less complicated Le Femme Nikita (the original movie or the tv show, not that horrible Fonda movie) however, Nadia has made this choice - it hasn't been thrust upon her.

You identify with Nadia on a level that you didn't think you can as a law abiding citizen. She's a few steps away from being a vigilante, a few steps above cold-blooded killer. She's a woman and she has problems.

She also has Jack, her mentor.

The relationship between the two of them leaves you wanting them to get it on. He is a man of short sentences and few words. He works with gestures. A man of action. Nadia leans on him like no other and their connection keeps her sane.

I'll let you read the book to find out what happens

Insert something catchy here.

So, I don't really have anything particular to say. This is more of a note to let anyone who ever stumbles upon this godforsaken piece of internet rambling that I am in fact alive, doing fairly well and am breathing the same air as most of you (except for thos in China and LA and for that, I must say, I'm grateful).

I suppose the one thing that I would like to get off my chest is the fact that I have been working hard on a manuscript for many years now and I had successfully started to rewrite it April of last year. I got up to Chapter 14 and then got married. I suppose what I'm trying to say is, I had a huge mental block for many months whilst trying to plan those nuptials and after the marriage I realized that I had been going about the manuscript the wrong way.

I had started the story idea in high school. Finished it, hated it, started again in 2007 and 2008. It's 2009 and I can't live in the past.

The story is a decent one but I think I'm really in love with the characters and if that is the case then a new plot, a new background for the main and a brand new eye is called for.

I also have another story I've been thinking about. A zombie story. Yeah, I know. It's being done as we speak. I can't guarantee that it is going to be completely original but I will be telling it, so it will be original enough. It's also going to be slightly romantic...because that is my favorite subplot and I think that love plays a very big part in people's everyday lives. Usually it's the absence of or the dwindling of...and that's reality but you can't hate something without loving and respecting it once.

Speaking of. If you want to read a book that is very close to reality though it resides in the realm of fantasy, you should pick up Alisa Sheckley's Abra Barrow series. The first book is "The Better to Hold You". Apparently Ms. SHeckley has been writing under Alisa Kwitney and she has done a few Sandman comics for Neil Gaiman..which raised her in my esteem to begin with and one of the major reasons I picked up the first book.

Her writing is fluid, engaging and real. There is no tenderfoot reactions to cheating, sex or the not knowing of relationships. The book is about a woman, Dr. Abra Barrow, who is infected with lyncanthropy after her cheating husband gives it to her. She doesn't realize she's infected until the former vegetarian begins to crave meat, her senses are more acute and she begins to undergo some changes. Her marriage is crumbling so she moves upstate with her writer husband and finds out things about the town, her husband but most of all about herself that allow her to break the bondage of her marriage and some of her hangups. In the process she creates a relationship with a man who is equal and her complement. Unfortunately, once bitten...twice shy. She doesn't realize his worth until she begins to see her own.

The end of this book is a satisfying one and leaves room for a sequel, which I'm currently reading called "Moonburn" and all in all...it's a good read. I reccomend.

And on that note......