Book: The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough

I received a digital copy of this book, to review for Addicted to Books.

I think this is a YA book, and it’s a pretty good example of why I don’t read much in this genre: it’s by turns simplistic and overly expositional, written for younger teens and tweens, without much appeal to an older audience.  There is some attempt to counteract that with a B story about an MI-6 agent and aliens, and those chapters are markedly different in writing style and tone than the ones that focus on the main plot.  I'm not sure how the disparate stories are intended to connect with each other.

I had trouble making myself read this one - there are too many “main” characters and the story itself wasn’t very compelling to me.  I found myself skimming paragraphs, trying to find a more interesting piece of the puzzle.

In addition, it ends at a very odd place, not right in the middle of a scene, but close to it.  Obviously, the author plans to release a sequel or sequels; I am not interested enough to read more.

Book: Diary of a One Night Stand

Reviewed for Addicted to Books

In Diary of a One Night Stand, Weis employs one of my least favorite romantic tropes: cheating spouse.  As I began the book, I thought it was somewhat refreshing that the heroine was a woman of a "certain age" and that she was taking her happiness into her own hands.  Then, turn the page, not only does she have a daughter, but also a husband, with whom she climbs into bed when she gets home.  At that point, she instantly became less attractive as a heroine, in my eyes.  While I could empathize with her feelings and her dilemma, I couldn't really condone the circumstances of her extracurricular activities.

Kara's husband, Cal, was a lawyer, and worked too many hours, even while he was recovering from heart surgery.  He started the book as something less than a villain, but more than the stereotypical clueless husband.  Kara was a lawyer with a different firm, and also worked a lot of hours.  She met Scott at some sort of business function, and he pursued her for a week before she gave in and met him for a tryst.  Their "relationship" progressed unreasonably quickly from there.

I found Scott to be extremely overbearing - making decisions for Kara and for Kara's daughter, Simone, without regard to Kara's wishes or stated desires.  Whatever the physical package, and as written he was both handsome and fit, he would have turned me off pretty quickly had I met him in real life.  He was the kind of guy who thinks that his money can buy him anyone's affections, and Kara was not strong enough to set some boundaries for him; she just let him steamroll right over her.

New Orleans is a fascinating city and I generally enjoy almost any fiction set there, but there was little in this book to identify the setting as NOLA beyond the frequent use of the city's name.

By far the best part of the book was Simone, a ten year old, horse-loving girly-girl, who sometimes possessed a wisdom beyond her years.  Her childlike, uninhibited joy in things was a bright spot in an otherwise mostly dreary romance.

The end was abrupt and much too simplistic, and the epilogue made me wonder a little about Kara's sanity.  Really.

Obviously, your mileage may vary.