Plan B

Plan B
Author: Jenny O'Connell
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/MTV
Release Date: March, 2006

Vanessa Carlisle is a planner, and the next year of her life has been plotted to the last second. Finish senior year at private high school Cabot Academy. Get acceptance into Yale. Spend the summer traveling around Europe with her best friend, Taylor. Then head to Yale, where she'll join her boyfriend, Patrick, who already attends as a freshman. She's dotted every i and crossed every T.

What Vanessa doesn't plan for, however, is learning that she has a half-brother who not only is coming to live with them and attend Cabot High, but just so happens to be a bad-boy TV star. Reed Vaughn has gotten into trouble one time too many, and his mother sends him to Chicago to gain some new perspective. Which means Vanessa must go from only child to sharing the spotlight with a Hollywood star.

From the outset, Vanessa resents Reed. She doesn't want him to come, she knows she isn't going to like him, and she determines she's not going to let his presence change one thing about her life. However, she soon finds that her carefully laid plans start to unravel.

The premise of this book - finding out you have a brother who happens to be a famous TV star - really drew me in. I couldn't wait to see how Vanessa handled the sudden fame, dealing with starstruck friends, and maybe even learning that Reed was just a normal teenage guy deep down.
However, Reed remained pretty much a background character throughout the entire story. We never get to know much about him or how he feels about moving to Chicago or what he thinks about being a star. In fact, Reed comes across as a pretty decent guy, and I felt rather sorry for him when nearly every guy at Cabot treats him like a threat and the only friend he seems to make is the one girl at school who doesn't own a television.

Too, Vanessa's immediate and inexplicable hatred toward Reed is never fully explained or justified. From the minute she learns about Reed, she determines that he will be nothing but a problem for her. She treats him rudely at best and is outright disloyal and cruel at other times. However, I never found Reed's behaviour towards Vanessa to be anything deserving of such hostility. In truth, she often comes across as a spoiled brat, far more of a diva than Reed. I can't say that I ever liked Vanessa or felt sorry for her situation because I never fully understood her problems to begin with.

A big part of the story focused on Vanessa's attempts to continue her relationship with boyfriend Patrick, who was attending Yale as a freshman. Unfortunately, every twist and turn this storyline followed was completely predictable.

Vanessa's journey throughout the story involves her ability to accept that sometimes things don't always go according to plan, and sometimes that opens doors for things to be better. While learning to live with an unexpected sibling requires Vanessa to adapt, I'm not sure that Reed was the catalyst to her changes. Over the course of the story, she experiences troubles with Patrick that had nothing to do with Reed. Ultimately, Vanessa fights against accepting Reed as a part of her life, and I would argue that she only barely concedes to this situation. She doesn't change because she's learned anything from Reed. She changes because she realizes she has no other choice. Ultimately, her Grand Plan is only affected slightly.

One question I had after reading the story was why O'Connell chose to make Reed a famous TV star rather than just a normal guy who comes to live with Vanessa and her parents. Reed's fame added nothing to the story. Granted, he was immediately accepted at Cabot High because of his status. But because this aspect of Reed was never fully explored - the situation never examined from his point of view - and it never truly affected Vanessa in any direct way, I still don't know why O'Connell chose this particular direction. It left me feeling as if a great opportunity was missed.

This is the second book written by O'Connell that involved Chicago as a setting, with Boston playing a strong secondary role. (The first was The Book of Luke.) I know from the information given about O'Connell that she currently lives in Boston, thus I can see her focus on that area. While the Chicago portions of the book are written as if O'Connell has done thorough research, I do wonder if she's ever actually lived here. Something about her sense of setting is a bit forced, as if she's relying on guidebooks rather than her own experience. I could be wrong about this.

O'Connell's saving grace is her ability to tell a story cleanly. Her voice is easy to read, and while her characters frustrated me, they were well written. The dialogue is natural and the narrative well paced. I only wish she'd do better in executing these wonderful premises that are promised on the back cover copy. With her books, I always feel like I've ordered a hot fudge sundae only to get served a fruit yogurt cup instead.

Rating: Held My Attention
Status of Series: This is a stand-alone title

Adiós to My Old Life

Adiós to My Old Life
Author: Caridad Ferrer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July, 2006

Alegría Montero is a seventeen year old Latin-American girl, the daughter of a widowed music professor who finds herself the next potential super pop star, courtesy of a reality show competition to discover the hottest Latin music talent. Oye Mi Canto is the name of the show, and when Ali auditions, she never really expects to get through to the actual contest. But Ali's talent is unmistakable, and before she knows what's happening, she's caught up in the world of makeup artists, stylists, choreographers, fame, fansites, and career-destroying jealousy. Amidst the whirlwind of sudden fame, Ali meets Jaime, a production assistant intern who is interested in more than just her musical talents.

Adiós to My Old Life is a Young Adult title, told from Ali's perspective. It is well written, and the behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it might be like to be a contestant on an American Idol-like TV show is very compelling. Ferrer was extremely wise to use an ethnic culture to draw a parallel to the hugely successful talent show. While it would have been hard for me to buy into Ali's journey had Ferrer placed the story in the real AI world, I certainly could believe Ali's involvement on a smaller-scaled Latin version of such a show.
Ali was a very likable protagonist. She was savvy enough not to be a Pollyanna, yet she retained enough niaveté that I really felt sorry for her as the consequences of being on the show began to become problematic. When Ali becomes victim to the show's other female contender, Fabiana, a fame-whore type who will stop at nothing to win the game, I felt so sorry for her. Yet Ali was quite capable of standing up for herself.

If I have any complaints about Ali it is that she is perhaps a bit too perfect as a character. Through the course of the story, Ali turns out to be the most talented singer, the most talented musician, the most adored by her fans, the most professional performer, the most self-confident (despite being the youngest contestant), the best friend to other contestants, etc. She handles all of the obstacles thrown at her with a maturity that most adults would envy. Even at the end, when a terrible revelation is made, Ali's reaction is much less extreme than I would have expected. I wish that Ali had shown a bit more self-doubt about her abilities. Then again, as she is presented, she had no reason to doubt herself because Ali was the most talented.

Too, Ali tended to lapse into teen-speak clichés that got tiresome after awhile. For example, she referred to songs as "charts" and the large mansion where the contestants lived as a "barn". Her guitar was her "ax". Rather than giving Ali a distinct voice, I just found use of such slang in such a repetitive way to be an affectation.

What did work was the way that Ferrer sprinkled Spanish words into the dialog and narrative. I speak no Spanish yet was able to glean the meaning of the words via the context, and the use of Spanish kept me firmly rooted in the culture of the story. Never for one minute did Ali sacrifice who she was.

I was a bit disappointed at the predictable send-up of the show's fashion coordinator being a gay man. Too, a subplot involving Ali's chaperone Elaine, a long time family friend who harbored hidden feelings for Ali's father, left me kind of cold. The end to this subplot was a foregone conclusion so the whole thing seemed a little pointless.

What wasn't as predictable was how the competition played out. Needless to say, Ferrer didn't let Ali come to a happy ending by the normal route, although I did find things wrapped up a little too neatly as far as Ali's future relationship with Jaime went.

I did enjoy this book. I would recommend it for older teens rather than younger ones as Ali and Jaime do become somewhat physically involved. But anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming a reality TV superstar would appreciate Ali's story.

Rating: Held My Attention
Status of Series: This is a stand-alone title.

Dark of Night

Dark of Night
Author: Suzanne Brockmann
Publisher: Random House Publishing
Release Date: January, 2009

Series: Troubleshooters
Position in Series: 14 out of 14
Main Characters: Lawrence Decker, Tracy Shapiro, Sophia Ghaffari, Dave Malkoff, James Nash, Tess Bailey
Returning Characters: Jules Cassidy, Robyn Chadwick, Sam and Alyssa Starrett, Ken Karmody
Sequel Bait: Jay Lopez
Bad Guys: a shadowy government black ops group gone bad

This book was quite possibly the most polarizing series entry that I've ever encountered as far as its reception by the fans. There was no middle ground on this one - you loved it or you hated it. But more on that in a minute.

A handful of years ago, Lawrence Decker met Sophia Ghaffari under some horrific circumstances. They had a sexual encounter that left both of them emotionally scarred, and Decker has never forgiven himself for what he did. Sophia, however, has harbored feelings for Decker that she finally realizes he will never be able to return. Ready to move on with her life, she turns her attentions towards her best friend, Dave Malkoff, a man who has been quietly waiting in the wings and will take Sophia in any way he can, even if he feels as if he's her second choice.

Meanwhile, Decker has thrown himself into his latest mission, trying to discover who it is exactly who has been trying to kill fellow Troubleshooters operative James Nash. Decker's investigation throws him together with the group's receptionist, Tracy Shapiro, and no one is more surprised than Decker when sparks start to fly between himself and the fiesty girl.

As his friends work desperately to keep him safe, James Nash grinds his teeth with frustration. Recovering from a near fatal gunshot wound, he's forced to remain behind at the safe house while his fiance, Tess, puts herself in danger in order to clear his name once and for all. Too, he's beginning to realize that if he ever hopes to have a future with Tess, he's going to have to reveal his darkest secrets to her, admit his worst sins, and hope that she'll accept him as he is.

The action in Dark of Night is certainly fast-paced. The story takes place over the span of only a few days, and the characters are always on the move. While this action keeps the story moving, it did create a little bit of confusion for the reader. Several times I had to rethink who was doing what where and why. And because more of the characters found themselves in mortal danger as the story progressed, you began to wonder how the problems would ever be solved to satisfaction.
I mentioned above the kerfuffle this book caused with fans when it came out. Thing is, over the past few books in the series, Brockmann has been dropping hints and clues that the predestined couple would be Decker and Sophia. It is no spoiler to reveal that in this installment, Decker finds romance with Tracy Shapiro and Sophia is perfectly happy to spend the rest of her life with Dave. Many long time fans of this series felt betrayed by this turn of events - so betrayed they are planning to boycott any further books in the series.

I did not harbor any major disappointment with the pairings that resulted in this book. My only issues came from other problems I had with the Tracy/Decker romance.

First of all, Tracy and Decker move from some previous minor flirting in one other book to a full-on love for all time romance in the course of only a few days. I always have a problem with books that throw a man and a woman together and have them fall deeply in love in such a short time. I can buy lust and infatuation and even the sparks of something they both know is going to develop into something big and great and longlasting. But this courtship-on-speed makes me doubtful for the couple's longevity.

Too, for many books we have been shown that Decker's sexual encounter with Sophie has left him wracked with guilt. He believes he took advantage of a desperate woman, and his self-loathing is so great he can't manage to overcome the guilt to see that he made a human mistake. This is why he can't allow himself to reciprocate Sophia's love.

But when Decker manages to open up with Tracy and reveal the real truth behind why he has such baggage over that one episode, the reasons completely blindsided me. This is a bit of a spoiler, so you may want to stop reading. Come to find out, Decker actually got a special little thrill out of the danger inherent in his encounter with Sophia. He's horrified that he was sexually aroused by being dominated (and very nearly killed) by Sophia. In short, he feels like a dirty boy for finding pleasure in a non-traditional sexual situation.

I had a bit of a WTF? reaction to this revelation. The whole reason he can't let himself love Sophia is because she turned him on in a way he felt was wrong? I guess I was expecting something much more debilitating than this bit of Freudian upset.

As for the Sophia/Dave pairing, the main conflict rests on Dave's fears - and rightly so - that Sophia has settled for him since Decker won't have her. She struggles to convince him - and herself - that this is not the case, and over the course of the story she does come to realize that the love she feels for him is as real and pure as anything she'd ever felt for Decker.

Dave as a character completely baffles me. Brockmann describes him as schlubby and very un-CIA stereotypical. In my mind I imagine a balding man with a bit of a gut, not very handsome or physically fit. Yet when Dave is put into a life or death situation, he becomes a Power Ranger extraordinaire. This creates a disconnect for me that I can't quite overcome. It's as if Brockmann is unable to let any of her heroes be anything less than super macho warriors. Perhaps Dave's challenge shouldn't have been so much physical as intellectual. Let him be smart and sexy instead of requiring him to be smart and super powered to be sexy.

The other couple featured heavily in this story is James Nash and Tess Bailey. This is another pairing that doesn't quite work for me. In "their" story (that is, the story when Nash and Tess supposedly had their HEA, which turned out to be not so much "ever after"), Nash was portrayed as a black ops assassin-type who barely walked on this side of good. Tess was a sweet, freckle-faced girl next door. I couldn't quite understand the attraction between them. In this story, my reaction to their continuing saga was lukewarm. I didn't really much care. I'm not sure what this means.

I have one other minor complaint. As much as I love Sam Starrett, he's beginning to turn into Dr. Phil. He offers relationship advice to pretty much every guy he encounters, and I'm wondering when he became such an expert. I liked Sam much better when he wasn't so well adjusted.

Despite these problems, I enjoyed this book. It kept me turning the pages pretty steadily. I won't say it was my favorite in the series, but I certainly did not have the negative reaction that so many others did.

Rating: Held My Attention
Status of Series: Has reached a love it/hate it point, where many readers have grown weary of the same characters and situations, while others who love returning to this world are happy to have more. The writing is still top-notch.

Lover Revealed

Lover Revealed
Author: J.R. Ward
Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Release Date: March, 2007

Series: the Black Dagger Brotherhood series
Position in Series: Book 4 of 4 to date
Main Characters: Butch, Marissa
Sequel Bait: Vishous, Rehvenge, John
New Characters: Blaylock, Qhuinn, Xhex
Brief Appearance: Beth, Wrath, Havers
Back Burnered: Phury, Rhage, Mary

J.R. Ward continues to delve into the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, vampire warriors charged with saving their species from extinction. Book 4 - Lover Revealed - picks up a short while after the ending of the previous title, Lover Awakened.

In Dark Lover, Butch O’Neal gained a place of particular importance as the first human ever granted admission into the Black Dagger Brotherhood inner circle. An ex-homicide detective who abandoned his human life completely, Butch is privy to their secrets, shares the same enemies, and counts the brothers even as his own family. However, their reluctance to let him fight side by side with them frustrates him endlessly. Too, his unrequited love for female vampire Marissa is a constant source of pain, leaving him to take solace in bottomless glasses of scotch. The eternal outsider looking in, he’s self-destructing at an alarming rate.

Marissa has spent her entire life feeling rejected. Her first husband, the Vampire King Wrath, cast her aside for his mate, Beth, without having ever truly made her his wife in the physical sense. The vampire aristocracy of which Marissa is a member wants nothing to do with her. And Butch, the human male who seemed so interested in her only months before, turned down her request to come calling on her. Marissa sees her life as meaningless, she fits in nowhere and has no hope for things to change in the future.

One night, Butch finally gets his wish. He finds himself face to face with a band of lessers in process of attacking a vampire civilian. Before reinforcements can arrive, Butch is taken by the lessers and tortured to within an inch of his life. As additional insult, the lesser leader the Omega infects Butch with an unspeakable evil. While Marissa manages to give him reason to live and pulls him through his near-death experience, Butch is left uncertain as to what he has now become: an enemy of his friends in the BDB or an instrument they can use in their fight against the lessers.

As Butch struggles with the changes in his life and navigating his growing romance with Marissa, Vishous is fighting his own demons. Devastated over what has been done to Butch, Vishous tries to understand why the visions that had always haunted him have gone dry. Too, as Butch grows closer to Marissa, Vishous feels that he is losing his best friend. He can’t understand why everyone around him has managed to find a connection that seems to elude him entirely.

The fourth entry in the BDB continues to pull you into the world of these vampire warriors. However, LR focuses less on the BDB as a unit and more on the relationships between a couple of key characters. While they all appear in some brief form or another, the group dynamic from the previous books is missing in LR. Perhaps this is the inevitable result of other characters having found mates and having less time to spend with the guys, but I find it kind of sad. Rhage takes a pretty hefty backseat, as did Mary and Zsadist. Phury was barely mentioned at all. I found that a surprise given how low Phury had sunk by the end of Lover Awakened.
John continues to deal with the murder of Wellsie and the disappearance of Tohrment, trying to channel his grief and rage into his growing skills as a warrior. He watches as his friend (newcomer Blaylock) survives his transition and wonders desperately when he will finally become a true warrior. Lash continues to torment John, and despite warnings from instructor Zsadist to avoid retaliation, John finds it harder and harder to hold back his growing fury. As a concession to the loss of the BDB male-only society as the warriors find mates, John’s new friendships with Blaylock and Qhuinn seem a set-up for a new order of warriors to fill the gap.

In Dark Lover, Marissa is presented as not much more than a cardboard waif, a beautiful yet helpless victim of Wrath’s indifference. Through the next two titles – Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened – she didn’t grow much beyond that image of a virginal princess not sturdy enough to survive a strong gust of wind. I was anxious going into LR that Marissa would remain that way, and I wasn’t sure I could like her. In fact, I blame this wariness about Marissa as a heroine for my lack of excitement about Lover Revealed. I was going to need a lot of convincing to believe that a man as great as Butch would ever love someone as weak-kneed as Marissa.

To her credit, Marissa did grow a backbone. When confronted with choosing between the man that she loved and her brother’s insistence that she was far too good for the mere human Butch, Marissa stood her ground. Her rebelliousness cost her the only home and security she had ever known, but she did not lay down and give up. Rather, she identified her strengths and used them to help other vampires that she recognized were in far worse shape than she herself. Although, I never got the impression that Butch’s obsession with Marissa was based on anything more substantial than her exceptional beauty, purity and ability to deliver a killer kiss. At least she stepped up to equal previous heroines Beth, Mary and Bella as far as compelling females go. I’ve determined that Ward’s strength will always be in her heroes – which are, indeed, to die for – and her weakness in heroines.

A pattern is emerging from all of the romantic relationships presented in the BDB series: it seems that the attraction a male feels for his future mate is based almost entirely on an intangible, soul-mate like instinct he feels upon first meeting her. It’s not that any particular heroine does something worthy of earning the love of one of the warriors. It’s more that he feels an immediate and inexplicable attraction to a particular female as soon as he lays eyes on her and only later begins to learn of her redeeming qualities. The selection of a mate and the subsequent urge to bond seems based on something akin to pheromones rather than personality or deeds. This reinforces the vampire species as more animalistic than human aspect of Ward’s particular type of vampire. However, as a human female, it leaves me a bit frustrated. Because Ward’s heroes are so over the top desirable, I feel they deserve equally fabulous females that must prove their worth before inspiring the men to give themselves so completely, body, heart and soul.

My main issue with Lover Revealed is how the relationship between, oddly enough, Vishous and Butch is handled. By the end of the book, I felt somewhat betrayed because, frankly, the wrong couple got the happily ever after.

The sorrow and despair Vishous feels as he watches his best friend develop a romantic relationship with Marissa is palpable. My heart broke along with Vishous’s, and I would argue that the unexplored romance between Vishous and Butch was far better rendered than the actual one that existed between Marissa and Butch. I felt as if in Ward’s heart, she truly believed that Vishous and Butch belonged together, but her head argued that readers would never buy a homosexual relationship, either within the constructs of the manly-man world of the BDB or even in the bigger picture romance genre as a whole. It’s as if a mandate had been established that all members of the BDB will find love in the form of a female, regardless of how their natures or desires truly lie. Therefore, Vishous’s love for Butch will be left both unexplored and unrequited, explained away as something deeper than friendship but purely asexual. Ward has even gone so far as to offer a mystical connection between the two – a way that one is necessary to the other to become a complete fighting unit – in order to keep them closer than most of the other members of the brotherhood who are not related yet still avoid labeling such a relationship as romantic.

I find this incredibly sad because it is so infrequent that I come across two male characters who can so completely sell me on a romantic relationship between them. I don’t read romance specifically designated as homosexual, but I have no problems at all when same sex relationships develop organically because of the natures of the characters in the story. For example, I find Suzanne Brockmann’s Jules Cassidy a most intriguing character, his sexual orientation secondary to everything else interesting about him. Vishous and Butch are very masculine, tough, kick-ass warriors. Allowing them a relationship with each other would not change that image for me. Their friendship has been shown in such a way that an attraction between them is not only natural, but completely keeping in character. Forcing Butch into a relationship with Marissa that doesn’t move me simply because a homosexual relationship with Vishous is taboo by romance novel standards is tragic because it goes against what I’ve come to believe so far about these two men and what they mean to each other.

I have no idea what Ward’s intentions for these characters really were, or if I’m reading more into the relationship between Butch and Vishous than she ever meant to convey. I’m not sure if it’s a compliment to her writing or a criticism that my take on the feelings Vishous has for Butch are far more than fraternal, but that’s where I land. I can’t quite be happy for Butch and Marissa because I will always feel that he’s with the wrong person.

That being said, the teaser excerpt for Vishous’s story, Lover Unbound, that appears in the back of LR has me quite excited to see what happens to him, and I fully admit that I might change my mind after reading LU.

Ward continues to offer one of the best series out there. I literally mark my calendar in anticipation for the next book, and I’m glad to read that she has no intention of stopping any time soon.

I will add one bit of advice for Ward, if she cares to hear it. Please - please - enough with the label name dropping. I found it pertinent to world building in the first book, slightly annoying in the second and third, and downright irritating in LR. I get the picture - that some of the characters dress well - and I have no idea what the various name brands mean, so they are meaningless to me. All they do is bring me out of the story when I'm reading. Too, I would imagine that such specifics will date these books fairly quickly, which would be a great shame.

Rating: Held My Attention
Series Status: Still strong, hoping for better heroines and a new plot structure