Smoulder by Laurell K. Hamilton

I am a long time Anita Blake fan. I’ve read all the books to date — most of them at least twice — and even a couple of the graphic novels just for funsies. I devoured Smoulder in three days. Would have been two, but I had to work. Honestly, Smoulder feels super unfinished. I want to say there are two major plot lines introduced in Smoulder that just don’t come to any sort of conclusion and the third, continuing plot line that kind of does. It’s felt very odd when Smoulder just sort of petered off when it did. The book wasn’t bad, but the ending was definitely a… uh… I don’t know how to describe it in a single word. I felt like I had whip-lash from the ending, because I was expecting more.

So, the first story line that I felt should have had an ending was the Sunshine Murder thing. Usually, Anita gets called in to help with a case and that’s the over-arching plot of the book. But not so here. Anita gets called in to consult and then… nothing. Dolph sidelines her from the case and apparently McKinnon’s magic do-hickey means nothing in the long-run of Smoulder. Okay… but fine.

Second story line: the while Deimos thing. Anita and the gang are attacked and barely get out with the power they currently have. We spend much of the rest of the book theorizing on how to take out Deimos. And then… nothing. No second attack, no actually going after Deimos, just prep work. Uh… what? This one feels like it got stopped right in the middle. It’s the story line I’m really annoyed pretty much goes nowhere.

The continuing story line of Anita’s love life keeps getting on. We get Richard back in the mix and Asher’s nonsense continues. Another part of this kind of concludes because of the Deimos story line, but, as usual, there are more issue to work out. I’m happier with this bit, but… ugh. Just… everyone talks like they’ve got a partial psychology degree and they explain things to the point of smacking the reader over the head with them. Also, all this talking really killed the pacing for me. Aaand everyone goes to sleep all of a sudden with no food? That was kind of a large part of the focus that go forgotten, I guess.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from Smoulder but this wasn’t it. I definitely expected more story and it just cut off. Adding a Sneak Peak at Slay didn’t endear the abrupt ending to me either. I didn’t read it, to be totally honest. I really expect more out of the Anita Blake novels.

Favorite Line

"Yeah, existential dread and the search for identity is a bummer." - Anita Blake

Character Spotlight: Rodina

There are spoilers in this section. You've been warned.

I really feel like I should talk some about Rodina because she's a big part of this book. So first, I will probably never get it through my thick skull that she's a wereleopard. With a name like "Rodina" my brain will always think "rat." But that's whatever. Rodina is fairly new to the Anita Blake universe, at least as far as readers are concerned. She's also understandably having an existential crisis during Smoulder on top of grieving for her brother Rodrigo -- she has been ripped from her previous life and it is their birthday. Although I've complained a little about how everyone in this series talks like a therapy ad, I really hope Rodina actually ends up working on herself through the therapy she's agreed to go to with her other brother, Ru. I feel like she'd be a really fun character once her spitefulness is worked out.

Bleame Hair Eraser Review

Product reviews are not my normal thing, but this one's been bugging me, so I'm gonna do it.

I have been using disposable razors for most of my adult life. Not an brand in particular, just anything I can use for a few weeks and then discard when the blades get duller that I liked. I've been toying with the idea of maybe switching to a Billie or something less disposable and I started seeing ads for the Bleame Hair Eraser on Facebook. Pretty much all the reviews on those posts were favorable, which is odd for Facebook ads, and the Hair Erasers last for about a year. So, I caved a bought a pair.

The Bleame Hair Eraser is basically a stone encased in a plastic shell for easy grippage. The stone is almost smooth and the plastic shell is slightly velvety. Also, it's not actually a stone, but glass, apparently. I don't know, it's confusing. Their website calls it both nano-glass and crystal so... yeah. They're basically a very fine grit sandpaper that you use to get rid of hair and exfoliate your skin at the same time.

My personal experience is as follows:

I gave myself road rash using the Hair Eraser the first time. On my legs and the front edge of my arm pits, which was hella painful and right where my bra was sitting. I did not mean to rub there, but it happened and I will not be doing that again. There is a learning curve in how to use this thing. I really don't recommend using it in the shower. There's a certain amount of pressure needed and the added slickness of the water is just not great. Pretty much follow the direction on the box of using it on dry or damp skin. Works much better and helps avoid road rash.

The next two times I've used the Hair Eraser have been dry. You can see where you've used it because of the exfoliated skin that's left behind. You can also definitely feel it as the Bleame Hair Eraser really works. The hair is essentially sanded away painlessly once you figure out the amount of pressure you need to apply. HOWEVER, I found that it really only works very well on the lower leg and probably the arms, but I don't feel the need to shave my arms so I don't actually know that last bit.

The Bleame Hair Eraser does need a certain amount of applied pressure to work well. This creates a problem when your flesh has a tendency to move, like on the thighs. In order to make the Hair Eraser work on my thighs, I literally have to pull and hold my skin with one hand while rubbing the Hair Eraser along with my other hand. It's not the best. Also, getting into more contoured places in a hassle. The Bleame Hair Eraser fits into my adult palm quite comfortably and it does have some slight points on either end that I assume are to help get into those contoured parts of your body. I have yet to be able to make this work. Getting the sides of my knees and ankles is just a pain... probably literally if I tried more aggressively. And forget the bikini area. I'm not even gonna try unless or until Bleame comes out with something smaller, maybe on a stick.

There were several reviews on Bleame's Facebook posts that had customers talking about how their hair grew back slower and less coarse. Of the three times I've used my Bleame Hair Eraser, this has been the case once. I used to shave three times a week because I wear shorts to bed and I absolutely hate the feel of the stubble. Due to Bleame's exfoliating thing, I've used it every three to four days instead. The second time I used it, the hair did grow back slower, but the first time and this third time, nope. I'm kind of frustrated by this, but I also know everyone's body and hair growth and all that are different so I'm not gonna blame Bleame for that. Just saying: take those kinds of reviews with a grain of salt because everyone's a snowflake in that department.

So, overall, I'm fairly happy with my Bleame Hair Eraser. And I know, I've typed those three words often enough in this review... this is why I don't do product reviews. But anyway, this product hasn't completely erased my need for razors. I still need to use them on my arm pits, bikini area, and those pesky spots the Hair Eraser won't fit. It's not the worst thing on the planet, and if you don't feel the need to shave you thighs or remove stubble as often as me, it's probably a better idea than razors.

Addendums

The comments in this portion were written several minutes apart, just FYI.

Welp, I just glanced at Bleame's FAQ while trying to find a picture to go with the review and apparently you shouldn't use the Hair Eraser more than once every two weeks. Greeeaaaaat. I wonder if they exfoliate more than using a razor does, though... apparently I'm doing it all wrong right out of the gate. 😬

Just read the Safety Precautions portion of Bleam's website and apparently bikini area's out anyway. Go figure. Could have sworn they listed it as safe somewhere else on the website. 😕

So anyway: maybe don't be dumb like me and read the entire website before trying this thing out. Like I said, it does work well on legs once you get the hang of it.

Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Magic’s Promise is largely about Vanyel dealing with his grief and coming to terms with his childhood. He is able to quell his childhood demons through Tashir and Medren by dealing with Withen and Jervis as an adult rather than the surly teen he was. The grief part is dealt with throughout the book, because lord knows Van didn’t actually deal with it in Magic’s Pawn or the intervening 12 years. The mystery I’m about to talk about is really secondary and gives an actual plot to the book.

Van’s investigative technique leaves much to be desired. From the moment he set a shield over his crime scene, I was expecting him to get back asap. Guess I’ve been watching too much CSI and reading too many mystery novels, because he didn’t actually go back for OVER a damn fortnight. Too damn long. He’s lucky the evidence he ACTUALLY needed kept until he got back there. Didn’t stop me from being frustrated the entire time though.

I was pleased Van’s family has largely accepted him for who he is now. Not sure if it’s the Herald thing, time, or even separation, but it delighted me. Lady Treesa, though, needs to get over herself. I really liked Medren. He was a nice addition to Van’s life.

Jervis turned out to be a pleasant surprise as well. He was painted in such broad strokes as a curmudgeon in Magic’s Pawn and by Van here. To get the more rounded picture of him was good.

I will say, it was a little annoying but probably a sign of the times in which Magic’s Promise was written in that Van had to have a discussion about the difference between shaych and pedophilia with three different people. I know this was largely due to Father Leren’s influence over Withen, but it was just… ugh. I doubt this would have had to be reiterated so many times in a more modern text.

The story itself was honestly more drawn out that I think it really needed to be. Again, I think that’s down to Van’s investigating skills being sub-par. Like, yeah, the entire mystery surrounding Tashir got a bit deeper because Van spent more time not going straight back to the palace. It really gave Vedric more time to wine and dine the Lineans “off screen.” None of this is bad overall, just drew out the story. After all, the mystery surrounding Tashir was really secondary to Van’s personal issues.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The Second-to-Last Point Is a Spoiler

Originally Posted to GoodReads: 3-12-17

Okay so... new concepts, new characters, and a fairly mediocre villain, truth be told. I'm really not entirely sure how I feel about the book as a whole, but it didn't leave me with many solid impressions so... I have this feeling like it's mediocre at best.

Impressions I'm Left With:

• Addison seemed alright, if somewhat holier-than-thou in some instances.
• The exploration of Jacob's power seemed like one of those "let's save it til the end of the season because it's cool" things.
• The majority of the book spent it's time in the "we have 22 episodes to fill but not enough actual things to create episodes for" land.
• I cannot for the life of me keep Millard and Hugh straight in my head. They seem to have blended into one character... except when Hugh saved the day that one time.
• There were just too many characters to keep track of at any given time.
• Miss Peregrine's brother is too chatty for his own good and it took them entirely too long to decide to get him some clothes. That whole scene was just... not very good and too banter-y[- Miss Peregrine's brother is too chatty for his own good and it took them entirely too long to decide to get him some clothes. That whole scene was just... not very good and too banter-y. (hide spoiler)]
• Harry Potter did the road-trip/camping book a lot better.

And those are my thoughts on Hollow City.

Remembering Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey

Okay, so I actually started writing this post on my phone a few days ago, right before I started reading Magic's Promise. I have basically come to the conclusion that I remember next to nothing about this book... and I've read it twice. That said, I do want to share what I do remember, so here we go.

Magic's Promise was my introduction to The Heralds of Valdemar. So weird, I know. It's the second book in The Last Herald Mage trilogy and the (at the time) fifth book in the chronological run... but yeah, it was weird. I remember the cover super vividly from when I pulled it off my dad's shelf, a magical shelf of nonsense, that shelf.

See, my dad is a sci-fi fantasy nerd and I largely get my love of the fantasy genre from him. However, my dad's bookshelf left much to be desired if you were looking for a series to start. I don't remember many full series runs or even starts to series on that shelf. I know he had Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the first Anita Blake omnibus, but most of that bookshelf was random pick-and-mix. Magic's Promise was part of that and I think I largely picked it up because of the horse *cough*Companion*cough* on the front cover.

Looking back on Magic's Promise now, what I remember about the plot is... nonexistent. I remember little bits. Like Jervis wanting to learn Van's fighting style through sparing bouts and that there's a mystery involving Van interviewing some old woman with a brooch... I think. Also, I think Stefan is introduced somewhere in this book, but I can't be sure. I swear, I've read Magic's Promise twice! Once in my pre-teens/teens and once in college. None of it stuck, though!

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to reminisce about my dad's old bookshelf for a hot second. He sadly lost a good chunk of those books to mold... which is another story altogether.

On a slightly separate note: I'm a little over halfway through Magic's Promise at this point and Van remembered that you have to keep the evidence from being disturbed while investigating and so set up this mage-shield thing to keep his evidence from being disturbed. However, he's now spending DAYS away from his crime-scene. Like, Van, sir, I understand you needed to leave quickly and your magic reserves are dead and you were passed out for three days, but your evidence is now literally rotting while you deal with your personal shit! No one ever said Van was good at investigating, but this is breaking my SOD a little.

Lazy March Update

I feel like it's time for a little update, for those interested. Just a little check-in to let ya'll know what I'm doing outside of this blog and such.

Reading-wise, I'm on the fourth Dorina Basarab book and in the middle of a bunch of short stories related to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. That is to say, according to the chronological list of Valdemar books I'm going off of, I'm in a small stretch of short stories that take place between Magic's Pawn and Magic's Promise. I'm not, like, in the middle of a bunch of short stories like I am in the middle of a bunch of books... which I am also that. I'm about to finish off my most recent Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets reread. Catching up on that while I'm listening to Mugglecast's reread. Stay tuned for my review.

By a happy coincidence, I've finished the first of two Companion projects on OviPets! I didn't plan to be in the middle of rereading Valdemar when I started this project in January of last year. I'm actually kind of bad at breeding projects quickly as OviPets is more of a relaxing thing for me and breeding projects quickly takes more brain-space than I have at any given moment. OviPets might live rent free in my head, but it's in a corner over there, rounding out my days.

On another gaming note, I am still playing Pokemon Scarlet. I'm currently about to collect/destroy the last batch of glowing stakes to get the last of the Paldean Legendaries. I did catch my Walking Wake while it was available. Oh! In Pokemon Go, I finished catching every version of Vivillon! Well, every Scatterbug that'll evolve into Vivillon. I had a couple of very helpful players in Finland and Armenia send me the last couple of postcards I needed from the Icy Snow and Sandstorm regions.

I am also in the middle of rewatching a bunch of random things with my boyfriend. The man refuses to binge things properly, so we're watching several shows at once. Those shows being: Community, Lost, Fringe, Supernatural, The Last of Us, The Mandelorian, and The Walking Dead. I most likely won't be reviewing any of these, but this is what I'm currently watching, so yeah.

Cassandra Palmer Series Overview

Cassie Palmer by Karen Chance

Contains Spoilers for the Series

So, I haven't actually read this entire series. I got up to book 8 (Ride the Storm) before I decided to stop. I'd been getting frustrated with the series during the last few books and Ride the Storm had me at a stand-still. I really think the whole Pritkin storyline killed the series for me. That aside, I thought the Cassie Palmer series was fairly good to start with.

So, Cassie Palmer is this girl with clairvoyant powers who gets thrust into a job policing the timeline, known as Pythia. Her powers are basically gifted to her via the Greek and Roman god Apollo... who turns out to not be one of the good guys. Cassie has no idea how to use her new powers and basically has to figure this all out on her own. And there's vampires and stuff involved, so that's fun. Also mages and a scattering of witches, none of whom can actually help her figure out her powers. She still hasn't quite figured them out by book 8, but she does get more competent with them and I'm sure will eventually figure all of that shit out.

In addition to the "not knowing how to use her powers effectively" thing, Cassie has to deal with a really gross curse binding her to vampire Mircea Basarab and her bestie, Pritkin, getting himself cursed/dead in such a way as to, by my understanding, hurt Cassie's present. I really was having fun with this, I swear, until the second book of Pritkin needing to be saved ended with him still not being saved... and then Ride the Storm just frustrated the hell out of me.

But anyway, that gross curse binding Cassie to Mircea is called a geis. It's all explained really reasonably that the geis basically makes sure that the cursed woman (because it's usually a woman) will always end up attracted to the person (usually a dude) who set the curse until such time as a marriage is consummated, because of course that's the only way we get to have sex at the time this geis was created. Oh, and the dude that set the curse can designate someone other than himself to consummate the marriage. Add to that Pythian time-travel powers and a couple of vampires and you've got yourself a gross love triangle and and even worse main couple for the series. Yes, it gets worse. Cassie ends up "vampire married" to Mircea. Mircea, it turns out, put the curse on her so she'd be more likely to say yes to bringing his dead wife out of the timeline and into the present. So... yeah... that's great. I was so done at that point. Really seemed like Cassie was, too, but I'm not entirely sure so... yeah...

Moving on to Pritkin's whole deal... I like Pritkin as a character. He's the no-nonsense protector/magic man with a surprise dark past. And, ya know, British and blond and always wearing that big ol' leather coat. Until he gets cursed to death and then we get to go back in time and deal with pre-Pritkin Emrys/Myrridan/Merlin for entirely way too long, in my opinion. He's finally uncursed at the end of Ride the Storm in a fashion that had me wanting to throw the book across the room... Rosier literally hands him the counterspell that I, and Cassie by the way, was previously under the impression had to be counterspelled onto Pritkin by Rosier. But no, could have given him the counterspell at any time previously and skipped the hanging out with Myrridan thing. Like... yes, there's some other stuff happening being that far back in time, but the whole Pritkin plot could have been resolved by giving him the counterspell and getting out of dodge?! Just... ugh!!!

Rosier starts out as a villain and basically ends this run of the series as a formless bunch of smoke, I think. He's kind of alright once we get to know him outside of the villain context. I think mostly because, at that point, he has zero powers and is just tromping around after Cassie and Pritkin at that point. All the menace has gone out of him.

Other characters of note here are Jonas, the dude Pritkin and Cassie ended up helping get back in charge of the Mages. He's kind of fun for the first book he's in and then he just becomes useless and annoying. He basically tries to teach Cassie one Pythian trick and then buggers off to deal with Ares research... meantime keeping Cassie's court from her and giving Cassie zero information about anything. Then there's Cassanova, who is a mostly cranky vampire manager of the hotel Cassie's living in. Augustine, a part-fey mage designer who's fun to read about. At least, his designs are. Rhea, who, it turns out was Agnes and Jonas' daughter. I like her. She actually gives Cassie info Cassie needs. Agnes herself, the previous Pythia. She's around, kinda. Cassie's dead parents put in a couple of appearances. I kind of like her dad. Her mom's Artemis, the former goddess, who we learn decimated the Demon Lords previously.

The Cassie Palmer series does this thing with Greek and Roman mythologies that I think we all tend to do when initially getting into it: mixing them together like they're one in the same. While they are very similar, the Romans did co-opt the Greek mythology so there's overlap, but they're really not the same. There's also some mixing in of other mythologies -- Norse and Egyptian, if I'm remembering correctly -- that happens when Jonas is attempting to explain the gods attempts to return to Cassie. It's, uh, not entirely great. Each of these mythologies is their own thing and, while other cultures may have borrowed pieces of other mythologies from time to time, equating the Greek gods with the Norse ones is not okay. I get it, it's a fantasy book and Karen Chance can technically play around with this stuff as she sees fit, but it does not sit right with me.

That said, I did enjoy the mythology Karen Chance spun into the story. I liked the way the different "worlds" were explained. Heaven and Hell dimensions exist and there's a particular way they and their creatures can interact with each other and different energies existing in different worlds and all that. That I liked. It made sense.

What did not make sense was how the Pythias from across time tended to deal with each other. I went on a bit of a rant about this in my Ride the Storm review, but I'm going to reiterate it here. The Pythias pretty much chose a no-contact policy unless someone was apparently messing up the timeline. No contact. No questioning. No agreeing to maybe help train a Pythia they didn't have time to while they were alive... No "Oh hey, this girl seems to keep popping back to a particular time even though we've sent her home four times already, perhaps we should find out why?" Until... Gertie apparently enlisted the help of several to apprehend Cassie and one of Agnes' former acolytes and then they barely ask questions until Cassie and said acolyte basically made them listen. Oh, and then, in order to later stop Ares from popping into the Human World, we suddenly have a ton more Pythias popping into help send him back where he belongs. This is just one of the reasons I decided to drop the series. Annoyance at Pythias.

Speaking of the end of Ride the Storm, Ride the Storm had a take on Arthurian legend that I was kind of into. It mainly centered around the family actually being Fey starting with Nimue... who is apparently Arthur and Morgaine's grandmother in this version of the tale. It was alright. Would probably have been more interesting if it hadn't been a lore-dump by Rosier three books into trying to save Pritkin's life, or had actually more to do with the plot but... yeah. That was a thing I actually kind of enjoyed from Ride the Storm.

Yeah so, the Cassie Palmer series is a lot. It's not altogether bad, it's just that the continuing storyline was bugging me to no end. I haven't even mentioned the war that Cassie barely takes part in... because that's mostly in the background and too complicated to explain here. I'm really not sure where I stand on the recommendation status of the Cassie Palmer series. It does start off well and the fight scenes are relatively easy to follow and the time-travel is largely pretty good. It was great while my patience with it lasted.