Another Author Recommendation - Kelley Armstrong

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Hi All -

I was in desperate need for books the other night and made a hike up to the Borders in Ballwin since I sort of live out in the boonies and that's the nearest bookstore that's open past 6 pm. :p  (I like living out in Washington, MO - it means that I'm just that much further away from the taint that is LKH.  *laugh*) I was hoping to find the latest Sherrilyn Kenyon and JD Robb (Nora Roberts) books.  No Sherry, but got the latest JD Robb hardback. 

So, as I was browsing, looking for more than one book to buy, I stumbled on Kelley Armstrong - she's got a necromancer character named Jaime Vegas (real name is Jaime O'Casey) who's like what Anita should have been.  She's older than Anita, in the beginning stages of a relationship with a werewolf pack Alpha named Jeremy and is a stable personality!  Not the drahma queen bitch that Anita likes to be. 

There are mentions of vampires in the book I picked up - No Humans Involved - but they don't factor into this story.  They seem to be more "rare" and "elusive."  Jaime is supposed to be filming one of those Hollywood seance specials leading up to the raising of Marilyn Monroe's ghost. except it doesn't go that way and she seems to be the only real necromancer/medium of the group and gets involved instead with trying to solve a series of child murders, because the child ghosts are trapped in the garden of the house that they've been filming at. 

There are hints and teases of what might happen between Jaime and Jeremy if/when they finally make it into the sack together.  When they finally do - it's not until like pg 270 and then, it's just a small bit and very well written, unlike the gross-outs that LKH seems to delight in w/ Anita/Merry. 

If you're looking for a good read, I give this book a thumbs up.  I'm going to have to track down her other books now because I'm curious about the folks back in New York that obviously have more of a role in the previous books.  :)

Comments

[pith]

As the person who also runs a Kelley Armstrong fan group here on LJ, I second the nod. I'm not a big fan of her Paige books (Dime Store Magic; Industrial Magic), but I love the ones with the werewolves. And Haunted? The protag is a ghost--of sorts.

Fair warning, though: As you've probably guessed from my above note, the protag changes. NHI is the first book focussing on Jaime. The first two are from Elena's POV (werewolf), the next two are from Paige's (witch), then the ghost book, and then Elena, and then Jaime.

Kelley Armstrong also has a non-Women of the Otherworld book called Exit Strategy about a cop turned hitwoman. Also good. Also a look at a "hard woman" who is what Anita could have been if LKH cared anymore.

I'll stop fangirling now *g*

[cteare.livejournal.com]

I've read all of Armstrong's Otherworld series. I've enjoyed them all. I read an excerpt for her latest series, but I just couldn't seem to get into it. I guess I prefer the paranormal world building.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Ditto. My wife and I love these books.

If you're looking for supernatural reads, I also recommend Charlaine Harris (who's been recced here many times before, I expect) and Carrie Vaughn--her "Kitty" books (Kitty and the Midnight Hour is the first one) about a female werewolf who is instrumental in bringing the existence of werewolves into the public eye are good.

[easol.livejournal.com]

That actually sounds like a good job -- it's tough to keep even a limited series interesting with only one protagonist. Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper and CS Lewis as examples...

I'll have to check this Armstrong lady out. :)

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

The only Armstrong book I've read so far is Bitten, but I loved it. Her heroine is great, not a Mary Sue, not over the top, just right. The story is excellent, I reccommend it!

[lilian413.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be the first one to disagree here. Armstrong has really good ideas, but her execution is sometimes lacking... her heroines are very likable, her plot are interesting, her writing--- sort of meh. It's missing a spark of sorts for me, although I have read most of her books anyway.

The last one she published, 'Exit Strategy', was in a way very annoying to read. I got the feeling that she tried very hard to avoid making her character - an ex-cop turned assassin who runs a winter lodge by day and does her killing by night - a Mary Sue and yet I still could not connect to the character at all. Perhaps it's the first person POV, but all I could think while reading was how patronizing and look-at-me-I'm-an-expert-killer-for-hire-and-I-will-make-sure-you-know-it the narrator voice was.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think that out of the thousands of paranormal-supernatural romances out there, Armstrong is only average at the most.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

It's been a very, very long while since I read "Bitten," but at the time I remember thinking it was the worst thing I had ever read. In retrospect, it either 1. probably wasn't that bad or 2. I am not equipped to handle the gross sexism inherent in most werewolf mythology. I wanted to KILL Elena. She moaned and whined and complained and then had a bunch of sex because she just couldn't help herself (the one romance novel trope I simply cannot stomach. It's worse with werewolves, or at least the way most authors handle them -- "OMG THE PHEROMONES, alpha alpha alpha!!!). Elena -- to me -- was the oxymoron to end all oxymorons -- a weak werewolf.

I'm told that the rest of Armstrong's stuff is at least different (I can't say "better" because the person who told me this liked the first one very much). I keep meaning to check it out. It's hard for me to finish a book, though, when I don't like any of the characters or have someone to empathize with, hang my heart on -- the only author who's managed to hook me like that, in a book fully of utterly unlikable people, is China Mieville in "The Scar." (And even that took several tries over the course of a year.)

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Exactly! That was the awesome thing about it -- I actively disliked Bellis, and continued to dislike her intensely until the very last page, but he still managed to make me care about what happened to her and want things to work out for her. (That and the Possible Sword -- Sword of Possibilities? probabilities? -- made my day.) It took me several tries to get past, say, the third chapter, but after that it flew by. But then, he earned a lot of faith from me with his first two books.

So... am I allowed to keep posting if I really don't read paranormal romance at all ever? ~__^ I could be interrogating the entire genre from the wrong perspective... but I loved the Nightside books (they got a bit repetitive, but maybe it's because I wasn't meant to read them all within a two-week span) and have just started the Dresden files (liking the characters so far), so maybe I'll stick around.

Hey -- does Anita even count as paranormal romance? It's not very romantic (to grossly understate).

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I wasn't so keen on Elena for the same reasons, but I really did like her other characters pretty wel in Dime Store Magic, Et. Al.

She's quite entertaining, in my opinion. Not my favorite, but I do enjoy the books.

Just read something by a brand new author by the name of Ilona Andrews. THAT reminded me of early AB, though the vampires are VERY not sexy, and there's a bit more imagination behind the whole thing. It was short, but not bad for a first novel.

-Dira-

[estllechauvelin.livejournal.com]

I don't like Elena much, mainly for the I'm-cheating-but-I-can't-help-it-or-regret-it thing (what happened, did you trip?), but I like Paige: at least her faults are reasonable ones for a young woman who's suddenly been thrust into a role she's not ready yet to have. I haven't read any of the other narrators yet except in the online fiction. So I'm buying the books with Paige and Lucas (he's one of the narrators for next year's book) and reading the rest from the library, including Elena's books. Maybe I'll buy Eve's and Jaime's for convenient rereads once I see if I like them. But I do think that Armstrong has a pretty impressive ability to distinguish between the different voices of her narrators.

It seems to me that Elena fans/Paige fans seem to be mostly different groups. Elena kicks more butt physically but has her stuff less together mentally, Paige has her head better together but is younger and less experienced.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Hello, spoilers!

Jaime and Jeremy are recurring characters in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and while it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where the plot is going when the characters are introduced in an earlier novel, learning that they consumate their relationship in a brief passage on pg 270 is a bit much.

From the community rules regarding spoilers:

4. Use an LJ-cut when dealing with spoilery material, or anything else that falls under the "What is an LJ-cut and when should I use it?" heading below.

and also

What is an LJ-cut and when should I use it?
This is how to make an LJ-cut. (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75) The following things require an LJ-cut:
- Spoilery material. What denotes "spoilery"? If it's a major (or semi-major) point in a book, big info about a character, etc.; like most other things, if you aren't sure, ask pith. However, please be sure to note what's being spoiled ABOVE AND OUTSIDE of the cut, so people know what's ahead.
- Long entries of any sort. It's just courtesy.
- Images, out of courtesy for those with slow connections.
- Challenge entries, unless otherwise stated.

Mods, if this comment is out of line, I'll be more than happy to yank it.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

I've read all of the Otherworld books, and met the author. She signed my copy of Broken. *fangirls* She pwns.

Jamie and Jeremy show up earlier on in the series. Jeremy's there from the first book, and Jamie pops up in the fourth. Also, this made me wonder- does LKH ever have romantic scenes that aren't about sex? The sex scene in NHI was good, but it was the hangman scene that really made me go "aww!"

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Being a little bit mad at the finale of 'Supernatural" is what made me snag "Moonshine." ^______^ Stabbings! Fraternal stabbings! In the PROLOGUE!! Page 1!! \0/ \0/

NIGHTLIFE was adorable. The thing that makes the book for me, in spite of some of its flaws -- (why does Niko always talk like Shakespeare? Use contractions, dude, you are a badass street rat! And Cal could have said "I am a monster" about fifty percent less and gotten his point across just as well) -- is Cal's voice. I love Cal's voice. The boy is f*cking funny. It's a tricksy book -- goes along being flippant "light reading" and then something utterly horrifying happens. She's very good at describing the horrifying. Brrr.

I am beginning to wonder about her characterization of women, though, although I'll likely wind up buying them all anyway.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Season 2 finale. :-)

I think I preferred NIGHTLIFE just because the plot seemed more unified, but that's a minor quibble. For book 2 -- how can I say this delicately? -- I think someone needs to introduce poor Cal to the concept of hands and condoms. ~__^

Aw. Cal. *pets*

MOONSHINE is also fun because the cover artist for some reason decided that the pair of them look just like Wentworth Miller, for which I am QUITE grateful. And there are biracial characters!

I am ashamed of myself for forgetting Robin Goodfellow. Probably the best character in the book. If he doesn't get to make out with Niko at least once I will be sad. He deserves it, no? Even if it's an accident. Heck, he could, like, trip and fall on top of Niko and wiggle a bit, and I would be okay with that. ^__^

All the women seem to be turning into ciphers, though. Either All-Perfect or All-Horrible. I am concerned.

[x--shameless.livejournal.com]

I still need to try her out!

And I -need- the new Dark-Hunter book but now all of the new dark-hunter releases are in hardcover and I can't afford it =[

[x--shameless.livejournal.com]

Oh snap, I'll have to check that out. My bank account is running low and I'm a jobless 17 year old that starting school next week so I honestly cannot afford to pay 20 dollars for a book, but 13 dollars is a steal. I really hate how the Dark-Hunter books are all in hardcover whereas the dream-hunter novels are going to be in paperback, because if the first dream hunter book is anything to go by that series isn't going to be all that great. That book dissapointed me, and I didn't even get emotionally attached to the characters until the very end.

I liked Dark Side of the Moon quite a bit, actually. It was the first one I read in the series, hah. I think my favorite would have to by Kyrian's story.

Thanks for the heads up =]

[x--shameless.livejournal.com]

Haha, will do. I don't have any other books that I -need- to buy until the last Sword of Truth novel and the third Dexter novel comes out so I can spare the cash.

Yeah, I understand, when I'm dropping 20 bucks for a novel I expect it to be a relatively long read.

I can't wait for Ash's book! I hope it lives up to my expectations =]

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to be rude, but it would have been nice if you'd put a cut tag and said spoilers because I haven't read this book yet.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

If I could fix the post, I would.

But, LJ is stupid & won't let me.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's not like it was a Harry Potter spoilers or something (plus I've read that one). *grins*

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

I avoided the HP spoilers & reviews until after I read the book - which was a week later. :-p

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

*nods* I avoided them until I was done. I, honestly, forgot about this book as it was hardback, and while I like Armstrong, I'm not going to pay hardback prices. I must say I've read the LKH spoilers and not been at all upset, which I suppose goes to show how good her writing has been lately.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

I haven't bought anything of hers in like 3 or so years now... I didn't know that Chuck was now one of her groupies. I used to think more of him before I saw him in the picture. :-p

[kimbearlysue.livejournal.com]

You should have the ability to edit your post, and add a cut. I know with posts to your own journal, there is an edit button at the bottom. Is it the same with these?

Spoiler warnings are always a good thing, no matter how minor the spoiler. I haven't read this book either.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

On your own journal you can, but on a com - no. Another LJ quirk to be added to the list....

[pith]

Editing a comm post is possible. Mods can't do it: I can only delete a post. But I've editing posts I've made in communities quite frequently.

[raging-muse.livejournal.com]

Hmm i must check out some of the authors you guys are mentioning, they sound as if they're work a look at.

I like Kenyon as well but her last couple have disappointed me too. I personally love Wren, Talon, Ash and Ash's demon, i too can't wait for Ash's book, it'd be really interesting. I want her to do Santino/Santiago's book as well, there's another character that has interestingly vague origin.

[raging-muse.livejournal.com]

They sound like interesting books and authors, i haven't heard of any of them. They sound like they're worth a read or look at though, so I'll see if the local library has them. I'm a poor university student so i rarely buy my books, i rely on the reliable public library for my books, which rarely fails me.

I do like Kenyon but am disappointed with her recent books. I happen to like smartass characters too, so Jenks, Ash's demon, Zarek are wicked characters to me. I think Wren is a damn cool character too, so's Talon. I'm waiting for Ash and Santino's story, i think both of them have similarly vague origins and promise. We all have a vague idea what Ash is, but I at least haven't a clue what Santino/Santiago is and things like that keep me intrigued.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I'm currently looking for more to read, as well.

I LOVE Jim Butcher, and Kim Harrison.

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed oh jeeze, what's the author's name? She's got Mercy, the Werecoyote, as her main character? Was that Patricia Briggs?

Rachel Caine's weather warden series is pretty promising, and a bit different. Whassername's Signs of the Zodiac series is entertaining.

I really rather liked Ilona Andrews' book. She's only got out one so far, and it's kinda short, but was enjoyable, if not perfect.

I LIKE Kelly Armstrong, and have worked my way through most of hers, though the werewolves annoy me a bit, as does Elena, and frankly, the kid in the other series does, too. The books are entertaining though, and some of what's in some of them is actually a bit on the original side.

-Dira-