a Quote along with some Other Things
“She’d called him a coward, running away whenever she pulled him toward something he didn’t like. It was not so much cowardice as ego, and not even so much protecting his ego as safeguarding the supports that kept it intact. Success bolstered his ego. Doing what he was good at and avoiding failure in every possible way. He’d first realized that in high school, when he’d dropped out of geometry, not because he disliked it but because he wasn’t good at it. Algebra came easily. Calculus was also fine. But there was something about geometry that he could not wrap his mind around. So he dropped the course. The moment he discovered he did not have the knack for something, he stopped trying to do it. Empathy, friendship, dating, relationships in general. He embraced a challenge only if he knew he could succeed. The hard truth of the matter was that Gabriel was spoiled. He got what he wanted, and did not want what he could not get. “ Kelley Armstrong Rituals
I am thoroughly enjoying my quest through Cainsville this time around. It never ceases to amaze me that every time I read one of my favorite authors my mind finds little parts of the story to delight over. The plot of each novel, for the most part remains the plot. There are a few slight deviations from that rule where knowing the plot in its entirety changes the substance of the story. This happens with Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series, when the overarching hatred between mages and the Carpathians leads to the discovery that their lack of fertility comes from an evil wizard’s working of a spell. It definitely happens in Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. I think it is beginning to happen in the Anita Blake Series as we see more challenging foes as well as more powerful allies.
Sometimes, I find myself amazed though how much knowing one of the larger series in paranormal romance leads to the calm acceptance (to some extent) of fantastical creatures from myth and lore. One of the things I have greatly enjoyed in the Cainsville series is the interweaving of some pretty obscure Celtic imagery, characters and lore. Would the imagery of the Wild Hunt as a biker gang be so easily accepted had it not sort of appeared that way in the Dresden files? And now, Kelley Armstrong has introduced the slaugh which plays a large role in Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith gentry Series. This Slaugh is a very different incarnation from the one in Merry Gentry’s world, but the idea itself is more easily accepted since it plays such a large role in Merry’s world.
I guess that the point of this general ramble is that everything is connected and , no I am not going into deep philosophical questions of identity or politics. I am just remarking upon the fact that so many have before–everything is possible and yet nothing can ever truly be new. And now I go back to Cainsville a little bit sad because I know the end is near but a little bit happy to as I never know quite what to expect until a story actually reaches its end.
Fiction
Random House Canada
August 15, 2017
496
The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own. When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize. In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.
A Quote to Remind us all of the Power of Words… Especially When it Comes to Those we Love
“What is that old children’s rhyme, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’? Anyone who says that doesn’t understand the power of words. They can cut deeper than any knife, hit harder than any fist, touch parts of you that nothing physical will ever reach, and the wounds that some words leave never heal, because each time the word is thrown at you, labeled on you, you bleed afresh from it. It’s more like a whip that cuts every time, until you feel it must flay the very skin from your bones, and yetoutwardly there is no wound to show the world, so they think you are not hurt, when inside part of you dies every time.”” Laurell K Hamilton, A Shiver of Light Book 9 of the Merry Gentry Series
[Top]Laurell K Hamilton’s clues
My next novel will be out June of 2018. I’ve been posting about the process of writing it, and a lot of you are asking what am I working on? Is it an Anita Blake novel, or a Merry Gentry one? Or something new? The answer to your question is in the picture we’ve just posted, or at least clues to the answer are there. The picture will tell you what series, some of the characters featured, and even some of the important plot points. There’s even a clue in this message. All you have to do is decipher the clues and you’ll have your answer. You’ll get your biggest hint next week, which will end some of the speculation, but not all of it. Shall we play a game?
So, I’m gonna play, how about you?
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Experiencing a dilemma
I’ve never faced before. Frankly I’m tired of love triangles. Mostly because there’s an obvious choice of who the main character’s gonna choose; mostly the reason there’s even a hint of competition is because the girl doesn’t want to hurt the non-chosen guy:
Jace or Simon—duh, Jace wins
Edward or Jacob–duh, Edward wins
Dimitri or Adrian–duh, Dimitri wins
Adam or Samuel–duh, Adam wins
Peeta or Gale–duh, Peeta wins
Barrons or V’laine–duh, Barrons wins
Bones or Tate–duh, Bones wins
Vlad or Maximus–duh, Vlad wins
And countless other I can’t even remember right now. Granted The Infernal Devices took a novel approach and has the main character get to be with both the men she loved (even though it was obvious she really really loved Will–and if forced to choose I think she would have chosen him in the end, but she got both)
My problem is: the Cassandra Palmer series.
One the one hand there’s Mircea who I admitted wasn’t in love with to begin with, but now…after everything I’ve read (including the Dorina Basarab series) I like him. I want him to be happy. I want him to be Cassie because he wants to be with her and she wants to be with him. I like him. Although I’m not too happy about where we were left with him in Tempt the Stars. I hope he’s not going to just abandon her. That doesn’t seem like the kind of man he is.
On the other hand, there’s Pritkin who I’ve kinda adored since book two, Claimed by Shadows. And my adoration for him has only gotten worse as the series has progressed. I absolutely love him. And I do think he’s gonna be the endgame. But I’m not sure.
And I’m torn.
Therein lies the problem.
I’ve never liked both of the guys for a single girl in a series. I may like a guy like say for instance Simon, but I never liked him for Clary. For Izzy, he’ll yeah, but never for Clary.
I want both Mircea and Pritkin for Cassie and I don’t know what to think.
Aaaggghh.
SO, I keep rereading this post. And I get the overall point, even those of us that “like” both the men in Cassie’s life equally have favorites. Sometimes, those favorites change from scene to scene but we have favorites. So, who do we root for? How do we want it to end…Well, I’m just gonna root for Cassie and however messily it ends up, as long as she’s happy I’ll be good…
But for the list at the beginning, I gotta say something. I am very happy for this writer that all choices seem crystal clear. For the rest of us, sometimes we don’t know who we are going to pick until after it has happened. Or, if you are me, it sometimes was one person on one read but the next time its someone else…
So, maybe, its mutable. Maybe, for some like Cat and Bones I didn’t even remember there was someone else. But for each one of those, I have an Anita Blake, or a Merry or a Corinne Carol-Anne Kirkpatrick. And there are messy crazy solutions.
And I don’t see Cassie going the way of the many loved. At least I don’t think so. But I’ll just keep reminding myself that I’m rooting for Cassie…and being mutable
[Top]How to Make Lifelong Readers Out of Your Friends and Neighbors
1. Make a list of everyone in your neighborhood/city/college/elsewhere with a copy of any book in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.
2. Visit each person in turn and give them precisely one (1) copy of Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.
3. ???
4. Love literature…as thou wilt!
Expensive, but most probably worth it.
Just gotta say I really dislike the fact the 50 shades is supposed to represent all edgy romance. It doesn’t even begin to touch the really GREAT books in the world–books that make you question everything and become a warm flame to warm you on the darkest night….Hey I made a Jacqueline Carey reference without meaning to…
I actually have a friend who does this with Laurell K Hamilton books whenever she sees them somewhere cheap. She buys 30 or 40 copies at 1 or 2 dollars a piece and randomly gives them out to people. She says it makes up for the fact she refuses to lend out any of her Laurell K Hamilton books…positive book karma
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