The Liar

Title: The Liar by Stephen Fry
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5

Adrian Healey is your average public school boy but for one thing, his inability to tell the truth. Over the years his lies land him into trouble, and he finds himself in over his head, tangled in murder and mystery.

The Liar is utterly hilarious and completely brilliant. Anyone who's watched or read Stephen Fry's work can tell you that the man's a genius. Unfortunately, it also means that there were points in the book where I had to go back and reread in order to catch things I'd missed the first time around. Time weaves through The Liar in a very intricate fashion, and something which seems inconsequential at first may later turn out to be rather important.

The protagonist, Adrian, is a fascinating character. It's nearly impossible to pick out the bits of truth from his lies, and everything around him becomes so much more dramatic as a result. At times I started to feel sorry for him, only to have another of his lies revealed. The theme of lies and untruths plays a large part in the book, and not just with Adrian. More and more of the characters seem to be involved in deceptions as the book continues until you're left wondering if anything is true. Shocking, hilarious and absolutely brilliant, The Liar is a must-read for any fan.

Dead Until Dark

Title: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Romance
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Penguin:

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life - and one of her coworkers checks out...

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

I hate to admit it but I put off reading Dead Until Dark and its sequels for a long time because I wasn't a fan of the covers. The artwork just wasn't my style. That was most definitely a mistake. I really enjoyed Dead Until Dark. I truly liked Sookie; she's caring, charming and sentimental. Most importantly, I didn't find her annoying like I have some of the other first-person narrators in vampire and supernatural books.

The book is a real page-turner, following the mystery of the murders and the romance between Sookie and Vampire Bill. There are also several minor plotlines going on throughout involving the secondary characters. As this was the first book in the series, it understandably focused on Sookie and Vampire Bill for the most part. Hopefully the later books in the series will expand on some of the secondary characters. I'd particularly love to see more of Bubba.

I'd definitely recommend Dead Until Dark to any paranormal lover. I've already leant my copy of the book to a friend and mentioned it to several others.

How to Catch and Keep a Vampire

Title: How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful by Diana Laurence
Genre: Entertainment, Humour, How-to, Romance
Rating: 3.5/5

Have you seen every episode of Forever Knight, Blood Ties, Buffy and Angel? Read every book by Stephenie Meyer, Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice? Wanted your own dark and immortal lover to keep you warm at night? Then this book is for you. In How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful, Diana Laurence draws on personal experience to reveal the secrets to finding and keeping your own vampire lover.

This book is a terrific, tongue-in-cheek guide on how to maintain a relationship with a vampire. With chapters on the pros and cons of dating a vampire versus a mortal, how to introduce your new undead boyfriend to your family, and FAQs About the Undead, How to Catch and Keep a Vampire covers everything you'd want to know. Moreover, some of the advice given is also relevant for relationships with mortals; don't let your partner push you around, communicate and compromise with them, and listen to your instincts.

One thing I was disappointed in was that the advice is mostly female-oriented, there is little for the man interested in finding his vampire bride, though there is a case study dealing with Dan, his vampire girlfriend and an encounter with an Anti-Vampire Person. I also felt Laurence pushed her examples a little too far sometimes, as in Case Study 106 when Aidan pulls a fishing pole from a picnic basket. Though, I have to admit I was amused by the imagery of the vampire equivalent of Mary Poppin's magic bag.

I absolutely loved the design of the book, the pages are just beautiful to look at. The paper stock is thick and smooth, and the image of the red satin ribbon repeats intermittently throughout and is reflected in the red text. Overall, I found How to Catch and Keep a Vampire both interesting and humorous. A must read for anyone fascinated with vampires.

For more information check out the book's website or Sellers Publishing.

The Conquest

Title: The Conquest by Jude Deveraux
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Historical
Rating: 1/5

The Peregrines have been at war with the Howards for generations and when a daughter is born, the family will do anything to protect her. So they raise her as a boy, training her to be a soldier, and hiding her true identity from anyone beyond the castle walls. But when the youngest Howard returns, he sees beyond the disguise and campaigns to win her heart.

I picked up The Conquest because I thought it had a fun plot and because I've enjoyed Jude Deveraux's work in the past. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst books I've read by her. The characters feel like stock characters and are difficult to empathize with. Both of the main characters are childish and Zared Peregrine has a lot of difficulty overcoming her early prejudices and beliefs. Moreover, the plot feels very choppy with a lot of time and detail being paid to some parts and very little being paid to others. And the side story of Severn and Anne, which plays an important part in the first half of the book, is essentially forgotten in the second half and remains incomplete by the end of the book. My biggest complaint has to do with the last chapter and I think the book could have been improved by ending the story before that point. It's not all bad; the book is a nice and easy read for those who want to relax and there's a lot of angst to the relationship between Zared and Tearle for those that appreciate angst. However, The Conquest is not a book that I would recommend to any but the most devoted Jude Deveraux fans.

My Sister's Keeper

Title: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5/5

All her life Anna Fitzgerald has undergone countless surgeries and transfusions so that her older sister, Kate, can fight her leukemia. Now a teenager, she's starting to question who she is and what she wants for her future. Tired of having no say in her own well-being, Anna decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.

My Sister's Keeper is one of the best books I've read in a while. The plot is well-written, emotionally moving and all around riveting. I was hooked from the first line. The characters were realistic and kept me interested in their problems throughout. Even Jesse, who had a lesser role in the drama, seemed to emphasize the Fitzgeralds struggle to balance the regular problems a family has to deal with and the problems that arise from Kate's leukemia.

The chapters switch points of view from one character to another as the book progresses, and I was genuinely surprised by how well this worked as it's not a technique I generally like. Each part provided a little more background and gave a look into the inner workings of the characters. They also introduced new twists to keep the reader hooked. And I think it is interesting that the chapters from Sara's POV are all set in the past until more than halfway through the book, unlike the other characters.

My Sister's Keeper deals with some big questions, including whether it is morally correct to infringe on the rights of one child in order to save the life of another. It wrenched at my heartstrings and made me think. It's definitely a book I'd suggest to all the women in my life.

Moonlight in Odessa

Title: Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Rating: 4/5

Moonlight in Odessa is a humorous and delightful book featuring a strong, street-smart protagonist. After months of unemployment, Daria finds work as the secretary for a foreign company. Plagued by an amorous boss, crooked officials and a mobster who she has feeling for, she begins to moonlight as an interpreter for a "matchmaking" agency that deals in mail-order brides, where she finds an American who wants to marry her. But will life in America prove to be what's she's always dreamed it would be?

I really enjoyed Moonlight in Odessa and I quickly fell for Daria as a character. Despite her desire for a better life, she truly seems to care for Odessa and constantly praises the city, telling anyone who will listen such factoids as Odessa's opera house is "the third most beautiful in the world." Although she doesn't always make the right decisions, she tries to do what's best for her friends and family, particularly by taking care of the grandmother who raised her. I loved following her relationships with the other characters, particularly David, and seeing how she'd react to their actions.

The plot kept me captivated for the most part, and although I wasn't entirely happy with the direction it took towards the end, I found that it left me contemplating what had occurred and wanting more. I particularly enjoyed the way Charles used Daria's lessons on English verbs to emphasize events and Daria's emotions throughout the book. I also found all the factoids about Odessa that Daria recites extremely interesting.

Overall I was definitely entertained by the book and have already started recommending it to others. And with the holiday season approaching I think Moonlight in Odessa would be a great present, what with its red and white cover featuring the image of a snow globe.

For more information on Moonlight in Odessa check out Bloomsbury's website.

The Historian

Title: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Genre: Fiction, Horror
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Little, Brown: Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history. The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known - and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out.

The Historian is a very interesting take on the Dracula sequel. Unlike most, it is set in the twentieth century and doesn't deal with the characters from Dracula. Well, except for the man himself. Instead it recognizes Dracula as a fictional work and focuses more on the facts and fictions of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, aka Vlad the Impaler. I studied Dracula a couple of years back for one of my University courses but had forgotten a lot of the background my professor covered. By working the information into letters and character retellings, Kostova made it enjoyable to relearn.

Moreover, she made me interested in the characters. The plot focuses mainly on the narrator and her father and their separate yet symmetrical quests for the truth. Though they occur decades apart, both involve the sinister figure of Dracula, a little bit of romance and the search for a missing individual. As the father reveals his story to his daughter in fits and starts, you come to care for them and begin to root for them to succeed. Overall, I found that The Historian was a really good read. Its biggest appeals were the historical aspect and its suspenseful twists and turns. I was always trying to guess what would happen next. And though I wouldn't say I couldn't put it down, I can say that I never wanted to put it down for long. I'd like to try some of Kostova's other works and I've already started reccing this one to my friends.

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