Templeton, NY
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff was actually quite wonderful, I just honestly could not relate to or even like the protagonist, Wilhelmina Upton, or Willie for short. She’s a snob intellectually with a disdain for anyone who still lives in her small town of Templeton, NY, an atheist to the extreme, and still has a lot of growing up to do by the end of the book. The only thing I could relate to with her was her vanity at inappropriate times.
With Willie’s quest to find her father, her only clue that he was somehow also a descendant from the town’s founder Marmaduke Temple, the reader is transported through time to point of view of historical figures that made up the town of Templeton at its founding. Some is discovered from Willie’s research the rest from the point of view of some the characters, like Remarkable Prettybones, Richard Temple, Noname and her grandfather, Noname’s husband, Elizabeth Temple, and Hetty the house slave and the ghost that haunts Averell Cottage.
I loved the selected letters of Cinnamon and Charlotte, cousins, best friends and then bitter enemies. Richard’s story was short but fascinating. He was unique unto himself sharing little in common with his mother or father and very little with his younger brother, the favorite.
Visit Lauren Groff’s website for more info.
I would recommend this one. A well written novel all the way around, with believable characters will believable problems.
Victory Nelson
Well, it looks like my theory regarding the Universal movie monsters is correct. Blood Pact features in a roundabout way a Frankenstein monster. Ms. Huff has brilliantly given a fresh modern twist to the classic monsters like Dracula, Mummy, Wolf Man, and now Frankenstein’s monster. From the first book, we are introduced to Henry the vampire who in the second book becomes Vicki’s lover and introduces her to his werewolf friends, to the third book where Vicki and Mike fight a mummy to save the world, and now to the fourth installment where the trio, Henry, Mike, and Vicki, must put an end to experiments on reanimating corpses.
After Vicki loses her mother to what everyone believes a terrible heart condition, her mother’s body is stolen from the funeral home by a grad student, Donald, working with another grad student, Catherine, using bacteria to reanimate the dead. All is accomplished under the supervision and support of the head administrator who is also Vicki’s mother’s boss. The body is stolen to continue a series of experiments in which Marjory Nelson is specimen number ten. None of this is really a spoiler, the reader discovers most of this within the first few chapters. Here’s the spoiler part: <<SPOILER ALERT!!>> Marjory was actually murdered in order to ensure a series of events in which Donald would have access to Marjory’s body. After a battle between the crazed Catherine, specimen number nine, Henry, Mike, Vicki, Vicki is injured and is bleeding to death. In Mike’s mind there’s no other choice. He asks Henry to convert Vicki, and he does.
Henry has set up the belief that after about a year, vampires and their sires cannot coexist. Vampires are too territorial to allow it. I don’t happen to believe this myself. Perhaps Henry’s maker only wished to depart. It’s not like Henry ever asked another vampire for confirmation. According to Henry, he’s never sought out another vampire in his 450 years of existence. I am taking a break from this series at the moment, so it will be a bit before I find out.
Next installment: The Monster of Templeton by Lauren Groff.
Vicki Nelson
I sense a theme here with the Victoria Nelson series by Tanya Huff. We start off book one in the series, Blood Price with a vampire and a demon, then book two, Blood Trail werewolves, now in the middle of book three, Blood Lines, we have a mummy. Anyone else feel like Huff is leading her readers through the Universal Movie monsters? If the next book, Blood Pact is about the Creature from the Black Lagoon or a Frankenstein monster it’ll cinch it!
Blood Price held me to the end. Huff paints a very realistic picture with her characters and surrounds them with the supernatural elegantly. The love triangle developing here is fascinating and quite modern.
By book two, Celluci is brought in completely to the knowledge and acceptance of the supernatural. He’s brought in on Vicki’s case of werewolves being picked off by long range sniper fire. They obviously can’t go to the police for fear of discovery, so they hire Vicki to help. Won’t give away the whodunit, but you’ll find out half way through the book anyway.
Book three review forthcoming.
I recommend this series whole-heartedly.
Tanya Huff
I have fallen in love with a new author, Tanya Huff. I downloaded the first book in her Victoria Nelson series, Blood Price, about a week ago. I had seen her name and been curious, but had not actually picked up anything by her before. I’m only about a quarter a the way into the book, but so far I’m riveted. Victoria Nelson is a great character to follow. It is refreshing to read about vampires and such from a wholly human perspective. As far as I’ve read, Victoria has no supernatural abilities, she is just simply an talented police detective who has quit the force after learning of a condition that will slowly destroy her vision, has already made her completely night blind, and that may have other disfiguring symptoms. She is now a private detective and is the first on site of gruesome murder. A string of related murders ensue and she and her ex-partner are in the search to find the killer.
In the meantime, a centuries old vampire is slowly losing his control to keep the civilized veneer firmly in place upon learning of the murders. He is convinced the murders are being committed by a newly made vampire and sets out to track the child and the parent vampire and destroy them both. He cannot risk exposure for their kind. However, there seems to be more going on when he visits the site of the latest murder, he discovers a smell that reminds him of a brief encounter with Christopher Marlowe, the playwright of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Could the serial killer be something other than a vampire? A demon perhaps? I don’t know! But I mean to find out.
I will report here once I have read more.
Undomestic Goddess
I am noticing a trend in Sophie Kinsella’s books. Undomestic Goddess is the second by Kinsella that I’ve read. Both deal with starting a new life after some kind of fugue state, the first amnesia, the second a panic attack. I related a great deal more to Samantha in Undomestic. She’s driven and worked herself to the bone after 7 years in corporate law one mistake sends her into a tailspin. She loses her job, her self respect and for a moment her mind. Through a convoluted series of misunderstandings she ends up a housekeeper to the nouveau riche couple the Geigers. I don’t think I could ever accidentally end up working as a housekeeper, but I know what’s like to hate making mistakes. I know how panic and irrationality can take over a person. Ultimately she learns that there are no “life ruining” mistakes, (paraphrasing here) “life is pretty versatile.” Something I need to take into account more often. Just because something goes wrong or I make a mistake, its the end of the world! Anyway, I enjoyed this one a great deal more, mostly because Samantha doesn’t seem as vapid as Lexi.
A definite recommendation to anyone who feels trapped by their situation and enjoy a well written romance.
