Beauty and the Clockwork Beast

 A steampunk  proper romance of Beauty and the Beast. Instead of 3.5 I'd probably give it a 4. It was descent enough but not a favorite. 

Lucy is a botanist of the Botanical Aide Society and is on a little trip to visit her sick cousin, Kate, at the shrouded Blackwell Manor. Kate is married to the Earl's brother and the Earl is mysterious, scary, scarred, and not a people person though he's in high society. There has also been talk of vampire attacks, ghosts, and troublesome automatons sabotaging their wards. Why is Kate sick and is this Earl as scary as rumor has it? 

This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, so we know how it's going to end otherwise the readers would be disappointed. While it is a retelling, it is different enough to enjoy the story and be engaged in the differences and want to know what is going to happen next. The supernatural elements, especially the ghosts that made their presence known, were fun and brought the needed flare for this ever present and popular story. It also gave it that edge at the ending to give the climax a "realistic" feel. 

I do wish that re surrounding cast had more differences so then I could actually tell them apart. This could be do to the fact that I was listening to it while doing other things and some of the people and names got mushed together, but there were a few men in particular that I couldn't keep straight so I kind of gave up. 

It is a proper romance, so it is clean and Propriety was important and not sullying one's reputation is high on the importance scale. However, there were many times when Propriety was not held up (my lit. historian is showing) and sandal should have ensued. So much 'non-walking' time alone and in bedrooms and things. Brings tension, I guess, because they are keeping it clean, but it was kind of odd especially because they did bring up propriety and reputation often. But no one else beside Lucy and Miles brings it up. I do kind of wish there was more conversation between others and the two love interests more than the "Gaston" character. 

It was pretty well written too. I'd probably read through it again eventually and will be listening to the next book. 

A Discovery of Witches

 A Discovery of Witches *sigh, and not in a good way* 

Diana is a witch with a lineage that goes back on both sides to Salam, Mass. c 1600. Matthew is a vamp who has been around for a millennia and a half. She is super powerful though doesn't like to use her powers because she considers it cheating and she wants to get her PHD and other studies the "normal way." He is looking for away to save his kind and stop all these murders that scream vamp all over them. Then there is also the big bad "boss guys" who say they can't get together because... I didn't get that far. 

It... *ugh-sigh* The first reason I gave it a 2 was because it was beyond long winded. Setting and descriptions of everything took forever, and I was reading an audiobook where most of the time that doesn't matter. And I'm all about a beautiful setting and wonderful descriptions, but there was so little poetry behind it all and it took For-E-Ver. The 600-ish pages could have been dropped by at least a quarter if she had been more choosy as to what was needed for the reader to know what was going on. It's a brick and feels as heavy as one. Plus, tea and wine. Tea and wine. Tea and wine. And descriptions on every scent and whiff of tea and wine. O.O UGH! 

My second problem is him. If you go for a "Beauty and the Beast" kinda rage problems but miss the whole story of B&B, you just get a very angry guy who hasn't learned to control his temper in 1500 years. That's a long time. Honestly, if he hasn't learned it by now... If she does anything wrong, especially unknowingly (because "forget everything you thought you knew about vampires"), he practically jumps down her throat. "How dare you do this thing which you didn't think was bad! I'm not going to explain how that was actually kinda rude; I'm just going to yell and pretty much throw a tantrum because I'm only mentally 3." Okay, that was probably a bit mean, but it happened. 

Matthew has this over-protective thing (fidgety feeling) almost out of no where and likes to watch her sleep also and other weird stuff that reminds me heavily of another vamp that sparkles. Many of the characteristics that many people disliked about that vamp is the same thing Matthew has. Red flags of all kinds pop up. Then Diana who is supposed to be this warrior-princess of awesome becomes so passive mess every time he's around it seems. Again, possibly an exaggeration, but I got through about half the book. When he's around, almost all of her brain smarts and goes away. And yes, it's cool that suddenly he became friends with every single person of scientific importance over the last 1500 years, but come on. Let some of her awesomeness shine out. It didn't so much. 

And while I didn't finish it, I did look up the rest of the plot on the interwebs and saw that they made a tv series out of the book and it's two sequels. The big baddies are this counsel who won't let inter-species relations happen. But they really want to, but they can't because laws, but they'll probably do it anyway. There is also supposedly time travel in this book toward the end and it gets to the point where it seems like there is just too much going on. Blood science, problems with reproduction, inter-species relations, "I'm too powerful and don't know how to use it," "Yes we should" "No we shouldn't" dilemma, yoga class gets in there too, history class for the ages, and time travel all with an over abundance of description. 

It's too much. 

I don't really want to read a fanfic written by a Twihard mom who, though clean (I will say that, so far as I read though the series trailer will dispute that), wants a Twilight fix. ((Not to blow up on Twilight or hate on Stephenie Meyer, I just don't think her books were written as well as they could have been, and I wish she'd step away from it instead of writing another Twilight novel "but this time from Edward's point of view" (There I said it). Maybe I'm just upset because she didn't choose Jacob in the end? Who knows?)) Twihard mom's might like it, I do not. 

Moving on to the next book. 

Chibi Vampire AKA: Karin

Chibi Vampire other wise known as Karin is the story of an un-vampire.

Karin is a strange young girl not only in the human world where she has the occasional nosebleed and is considered sickly at times; but also in the vampire world where she doesn't bite people to suck their blood, instead she bites people and gives blood. She can also walk around in sunlight, doesn't have the heightened senses a normal vampire does, and can't wipe people's memories as needed after biting someone. All in all, she is strange.

Things seem to run smoothly in the Marker household with Karin going to school and the rest of her family staying up all night, until a transfer student enters the class. Karin finds that her blood level increases quickly and nosebleeds happen more often when ever she is around Kenta Usui. In him she's found her bloods affinity, the type of emotion her body yearns to bite. When they bite a person normal vampires suck that emotion out. So if a person is super stressed and a vampire bit that person they would become stress free for a short period of time. This could be considered helpful and kind of a cool take on vampires. It is a 14 volume series so after she finds out how to cope with Usui, her grandma wakes up, and a new girl comes into town looking for the Markers and a specific vampire in their family.

I think it is a very well thought out and well done story. The overarching plot was interesting and cute, engaging and hysterical at times. I love the family dynamic throughout the series and the ending kind of had me angry. I really liked the epilogue episodes. They satisfied me enough to accept the decision that the writers made. The Marker family was full of fun, intersting characters with their own personality that rounded the family.

If you have enjoyed the anime before you read the manga, that's great. But know that the manga and anime are vastly different. The anime derails from the manga after only a few episodes. Sadly Winner St. Clair makes no appearance in the manga. This fact made me very sad. But the manga is really good and I do recommend it. An oldie but a goodie.

The Historian

The Historian dives into the world of the most well known vampire: Vlad Dracula.

In the story, many people have died when they've started to research the true Dracula (Vlad Tepes) and his actual resting place. "A young woman"/"the narrator" finds a mysterious book in her father's library with an ornate wood carving in the center of the book. What is this book, why is Drakuya written it it. Every question she has more mysterious things happen, even the death of her cat as a warning to stop looking. Mysterious figures and strange stories from her father keep her investigating even though her cat isn't the only one killed.

Kostova did a great job in researching the affairs that correlate here. Knowing a lot about Vlad Dracula and Bram Stoker as well as the places "the narrator" visits wither her father. Way to do your research!

However, I didn't finish the book. It was sooooo slow. Her father is so scared of his shadow and can only tell his story behind the book that it takes the girl months go get anything. They travel all around Europe and only get snippets of the story. It is so stock full of description and travel (unless they are eating) that it is hard to get to the actual context of the book. It also jumps from letters, to her father's stories, to her own "adventures" that it is hard to follow in parts. There were parts were she met with another girl who was reading Bram Stokers Dracula, the chapter jumps to letters and what I thought was her own adventures, but then it jumped back to her sitting at the charol in the library across from the girl again. I was so confused. It jumped so badly and went so slowly...

Also, why doesn't she have a name? It's not that hard to give characters names and use them.

It is a large book with nearly 700 pages but I could only get through 115 or so (with Hadi Girl somewhere in the middle). It was kind of depressing and dark (large portions of the story taking place at night, in dark libraries, etc. as well as people getting killed mysteriously) and I've sooo not been in the mood for that. It seemed to actually make my mood worse. So I'm stopping and probably won't pick it up again.

If it was written differently, more engaging, less jumpy, I probably would read on because the idea was interesting, but I don't want to read a 700 page book on how to research the undead and the murder warnings that happen.

If you don't mind slow reading or are super into descriptions, this book is for you. Not for me. Good luck.