I've mentioned before that a story can be both unoriginal and good as long as it's presented well. When I first began The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane b Katherine Howe, I thought it had failed this rule. Fifty pages in, I wondered if I would keep going. Happily, once the story got going, I was proven wrong.

Connie Goodwin is working on her doctoral dissertation from Harvard in 1991 when she is sent by her mother to clean out her long since deceased grandmother's Salem, Mass. house. There, she finds a key bearing the name Deliverance Dane in an old bible. This one clue sets her on the trail of an unheard of primary source: the grimoire of a cunning woman who was an unknown witch hung during the Salem witch trials. It flashes between Connie and the history of the book.

I heard somewhere that the only English work that Pearl S. Buck read as a child was the bible. Her first language was actually Chinese. This is clear when reading The Good Earth. Lyrical and simple, they rise and fall each word strong and clear. So simple, in fact, that I tried to find some pretty quotes from the book and couldn't. Each word serves the story, nothing else.

The book follows Wang Lung as he begins as a poor farmer who eventually founds a wealthy dynasty. You can see why it won the Pulitzer (and Buck the Nobel Prize for Literature). But, maybe it's the times in which I live but I found myself sympathizing more with Wang Lung's first wife O-Lan. Where Wang Lung was rather simple in his decisions and very ordinary, every time O-Lan appeared I couldn't wait to see what she did next and his treatment of her made me so frustrated. I wonder how people saw the characters when it was first published in 1931.

If you've read my post on Garden Spells, also by Sarah Addison Allen, then you'll know how much I love her light and fluffy writing style with a flair for magic in the everyday. I'm pleased to report that The Sugar Queen was no different. Josey Cirinni is the daughter of the man who saved their North Carolina town. She is wealthy and miserable. Cowed by her icy mother, Josey spends her days waiting on her impossible mother and hiding in her closet full of sweets and snacks. When local bad girl Della Lee shows up in said closet, Josey's life finally begins to change.

To show how much I loved this book, please note that I had put the audio book on my zune to listen to in the car. When I was done driving, I'd add headphones and carry it around my apartment. I couldn't put it down! I love Allen's way with words, creating crisp, vivid imagery even while describing the scenery (something that usually bores me). Her writing is beautiful. The plot moves quickly and is, for all it's fantastical elements, very believable.

I can't help but compare it to Garden Spells however and in doing so find that while the plot is more original (if far from surprising), it also doesn't hold quite as much warmth. The end was a bit too rushed for my tastes instead of easing through it, it seemed that Allen had run out of room and so finished everything as quickly as possible.

What attracted me to A Knight Like No Other by Jocelyn Kelley was the cover. I'll admit it. In it, a woman stares fiercely into the distance, bloodied sword in her hand. A chick with a sword. Too tempting. That, coupled with the hilarious back promised a light, entertaining read. And it was.

Lady Avisa de Vere was raised in St. Jude's abbey. Founded by Eleanor of Aquitaine, the girls who grow up behind these walls are trained in the knightly arts, ready should their queen call upon them. Avisa is called to protect the queen's godson, Christian, and keep him from the turmoil at Canterbury as Thomas Becket returns to make trouble for King Henry. High-jinks ensue.

The author's treatment and handling of the battle of sexes that occurred between the protagonists was uneven. As often seems the case, it seems she knew what she wanted to happen, but not how to get them there. Still, the motivations of the characters often surprised me by making startling sense. The plot meandered until the final fifty or so pages. Once Lord de Vere shows up, things get both ridiculous and infinitely entertaining.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde was described to me as "trippy" by a co-worker. A few days later, a copy mysteriously appeared in my cubby. I took it as a sign to start reading and am glad I did. Taking place in an alternate 1985 where faces can literally stop clocks and classical literature is more than a subject, but instead a passion that people base their identity around, Fforde creates a world that is both familiar and completely alien.

Thursday Next is a main character that balances balls with vulnerability. A member of the LiteraTec Special Operations branch, she is part of a team that protects the works of literature. When the third most wanted man in the world begins abducting main characters from classical works, it is Next who must stop him. With a little help from her wacky family and a certain Edward Rochester...

As the first of a series, it's sometimes hard for me to separate the shiny new world building from the plot. In this case, it was practically impossible. This book re-iterated something I'd already heard before. It's not so much the story, but how you tell the story that's important. Fforde uses the common device of bringing the main character home to meet her crazy relatives, but even so but book remains fresh and exciting and the crazy relatives are endearing.

Cross-dressing. It's one thing that I'll admit peaks my interest. Take a cross-dressing girl in post civil war days and have her hell-bent on killing her guardian in New York City and I'm all about it. Susan Elizabeth Phillips's book, Just Imagine begins with this premise and then falls right back into typical historical romance fare. And of course, there is a pregnancy. Don't have much to say except she managed to turn an interesting character into another carbon copy heroine while trying to convince the reader that the male protagonist is a hard, uncaring man. They always try to convince the reader that, or I suppose I should say they pretend to try to convince the reader. All those silly mind games to make the male protagonist more attractive, I suppose.

What can I say? Every so often, I have to scratch the romance itch. Sometimes reading the silly cover is not enough and I have to read the entire silly thing. From the moment I read the back cover which states: "One look at Harry Pye, and Georgina knows she's not just dealing with a servant, but a man." and I was hooked. The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt was everything you'd expect in a regency(ish) romance and actually had some interesting and original characters as well. The fact that this time it was the man who came from the lower class was refreshing. Not only that, but he really was just a servant, not some long lost Duke's son in hiding. One of the few grievances I have with the book (SPOILER) is something that's been starting to bug me with many romances and that is the pregnancy device. Clearly, I am aware that sex can lead to babies, but so often it's not the pregnancy itself that's bothersome, but instead the fact that it ends up being the hook for the hero or heroine to finally commit. See the next review for more of the same.

The main thing I like about Barbara Michaels's work is her strong female protagonists. The gothic atmosphere doesn't hurt either. Unfortunately The Wizard's Daughter had the antithesis of this. In Victorian England, newly orphaned Marianne arrives in London penniless but a kind old duchess takes her in, convinced she is the daughter of a dead, famous psychic. As their seances take a sinister turn, Marianne must navigate the web of lies to find the truth.

The greatest flaw, as mentioned earlier, is the protagonist. For the first hundred pages, as the girl makes just about every stupid mistake possible, Michaels seems to apologize for her creation. "She's only 19 and very very sheltered," she seems to be saying. "Just bear with it." And things to get better. Once they're at the dreary, secluded castle, the story does pick up and get interesting but until then, it was a struggle. So what is more important? Marianne was a convincing teenager. She was spoiled and self-absorbed. Is creating a realistic character more important than one that will connect to the reader? As with any other choice, it's probably a little of both.

Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews is pretty much your typical chick-lit novel. It begins with Gina Foxton having a very bad day: Her cooking show has just been canceled because her boyfriend/boss was caught sleeping with her sponsor's wife. Her only hope is to snag the attention of The Cooking Channel as their new southern cooking show host. "Kill it and grill it" host Tate Moody is her sexy competition and as the kitchen heats up so does their romance.

Light and fluffy, I read this book in a day, which is something I don't seem to do anymore. If only the protagonist were a little more interesting and a little less a ball of nerves. There seemed to be more drama involving her not eating, what she was wearing and how she looked and perhaps more specifically how miserable it was all making her that part of me wanted her to take a big step backwards and realize that maybe losing her job could be a good thing. That said, all in all it was cute even if it left me with no desire to seek out the author's other works.

Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series is so popular the SciFi channel had a brief series of it. The first of this series, Storm Front introduces us to Dresden's world. Harry Dresden is a paranormal investigator, using his abilities to help those in need. When a string of violent, magically induced murders start to happen, he's called to the case. This one may be his last (duh duh DAHHHHHH!!!).

This book did what One for the Money failed to do for me. I think it's pulled me through to the second in the series. This is probably because I like urban fantasy more than regular urban mysteries. The two were very similar in plot. Take one extremely broke protagonist, add in a dangerous way to make money and a pair of allies of the opposite sex and a subplot that joins the main plot 3/4 of the way through and you could have either one of these. It's just one had demons and the other had a psychopathic boxer.

Okay, I've succumbed to peer pressure. What can I say, working at a library it's hard to ignore the enthusiasm people have for best sellers and with Finger Licking Fifteen recently out I've decided to give the first of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series a try. One for the Money begins the chronicles of newbie bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. She's just been fired and is hawking the contents of her Trenton, NJ apartment just to stay afloat. Then, she takes a job with her cousin's bond office and her first assignment? Track down sexy cop Joe Morelli who's disappeared after being arrested for murder. High-jinks ensue.

Evanovich has given Stephanie Plum the sort of voice that many emulators have been trying to perfect. She's tough, stubborn and makes a bunch of hilarious mistakes. Often times, this voice seems to ring flat for me, as though the writers are trying too hard. Evanovich pulls it off. The plot was well paced even if some of the character's motivations seemed a little strained. The big reveal at the end, the who-dunnit if you will, wasn't all that surprising but at the same time left me feeling somewhat disappointed. Why is it whenever there's two interesting subplots at the beginning, the author always tries to combine them into one big comspiracy at the end that's somehow weaker than the parts? I don't know, just a trend I picked up on. While I enjoyed this book, it hasn't pulled me through to the next in the series. Probably more because they aren't my sort of style and I didn't get emotionally invested enough to try Two for the Dough.

Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour is an exercise in narration. The narrator is a writer struggling to practice his craft under the restrictions of censorship. He has decided to write a love story, which is particularly difficult because of Mr. Petrovich, who will bar the publication of his book for even the slightest mention of anything that can somehow be twisted into something sexual or considered improper. As the reader, we are watching over the narrator's shoulder as he writes the story, considering some scenes, crossing out others because he knows they will never be published.

Considering the recent upheaval in Iran, this book provided a backdrop and perspective to a world that operates entirely differently from our own. Where censorship is not just in books, but in every part of life, but Mandanipour also shows us that everybody experiences censorship in some way or form. My personal favorite is the amount of censorship that often goes into explaining that age old question of "where to babies come from?" The most interesting, and at times confusing, part of the book, however is the way Mandanipour breaks that fourth wall. The narrator at times finds himself influencing the story physically as well as through his writing. He will unlock trunks and scratch cars and a snowball he's thrown will hit a character at an opportune time.

Mandanipour's love story is sweet, if typical but even as Dara and Sara (our protagonists) go through the motions of secret meetings and wealthy suitors they are also three dimensional. All in all a completely different sort of read.

Usually I like trying to keep books in a series in their own separate post, but this time I'll make an exception. The Fables graphic novel series by Bill Willingham etc. takes the heroes, heroines and villains we all remember from classic literature, fairy tales and nursery rhymes and sets them in the middle of New York City. Our main characters are Snow White and a reformed Big Bad Wolf (Bigby Wolf). Together they try to keep the peace and obscurity of Fable Town.

This series, I think, is my new favorite right now. What can I say, I do love a good retelling and I can't wait to see who else the writers will introduce. Whether it's a gun-totting Goldilocks or Prince Charming (And his three ex-wives: Snow White, Cinderella and Briar Rose) or Jack Horner they're all presented with a great sense of fun and humor. The art work is pretty standard comic book fare, lacking the lush brushwork of 1001 Days of Snowfall but sets the tone of the book appropriately.

So, what have I learned from these books? How about always look at the "same old" with a new eye?

Another helping of Shirley Damsgaard psycic witch detectives! More of the same plus a nice little cult to go with.

The second in the Abby and Ophelia mystery series, Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard solves the five year old murder of Ophelia's best friend. When another of Ophelia's friends is found murdered, Ophelia must confront her past to not only bring the killer to justice, but also to survive. The book was much the same as the first while introducing another possible love interest. That's really all I have to say about this.

Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard is the first in the Abbey and Ophelia Mysteries series. In a way, it reminds me a little of the Calamity Jayne mystery series by Kathleen Bacus. I read those a year or so back and ended up skimming the final three because the character development had become pretty much non-existent (the first two were a blast though). I've only read the first book of the Abbey and Ophelia mysteries, but I do have the next two and am looking forward to finishing them as well. Ophelia is a small-town librarian with a secret. Both she and her grandmother, Abbey are witches and posses some degree of psychic powers(Abbey likes them, Ophelia does not). Local thefts, murder and a handsome new stranger, however, all mean that Ophelia and Abbey are going to need every scrap of wit and magick to not only solve the mystery, but also survive.

The plot moved quickly and the book was blessed with a short length. Really, I think these sort of books benefit from a smaller word count. It makes the reading short and sweet. And this book was a sweet read. My favorite character would be Darci. Gotta love the big breasted, tight sweater wearing librarian who's more than she seems!

I'd heard of the Fables graphic novel series and have always wanted to read them, but my library doesn't have them and I haven't gotten around to ILLing them. Imagine my surprise to find this little treasure mis-shelved in the 300's. 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham and Charles Vess is sort of like a short story that contains about ten other short stories inside it. Snow White is a diplomat sent to a Middle Eastern sort of kingdom to convince the sultan to join her side in a brewing war against an evil known only as the Adversary. She finds out that the sultan hates women and so he marries a girl at night and in the morning cuts off her head (how he intended to produce an heir, I don't know). To dodge her fate, Snow tells him a few stories. Does this sound familiar? Actually, all of the stories are at least a little familiar. By far, my favorite is the first in which a princess gets her prince to teach her fencing...

I've got to say I loved the twists in the stories and the artwork was wonderful in contrast to the stories. How jarring it was to see people tortured and killed in sumptuous water color. By the way, did I mention the violence puts even the original works of Grimm to shame?

All in all, good times and now cannot wait to try the actual series.

Enthralling. That's what I'd describe Elizabeth C. Bunce's debut novel A Curse Dark as Gold. It is both a fairy tale retelling and it has a strong female protagonist. Bunce takes a look at Rumpelstiltskin and adds depth to all of the characters. The miller's daughter is now a miller in her own right. The handsome (but greedy) prince is now a kind banker and Rumpelstiltskin becomes Jack Spinner a fairy-type character who has his own reasons for wanting their baby. Throughout the entire book, I knew what to expect (though Bunce adds a twist to these as well) and yet every time Charlotte has to make a deal with Jack Spinner, I was filled with dread and every time something threatened to take her mill, I too was outraged. I don't think I've been quite so caught up since I read Garden Spells.

As wonderful a story as it was, I did pick up on a few quirks that struck an off chord. The main one was Charlotte's waffling concerning her acceptance of the supernatural. On one hand, she's summoning Jack Spinner to make a deal on the other, she's scoffing at the local traditions that are trying to protect her. This, however, was so slight that I forgave her ;-).

Joanne Harris wrote Chocolat and another book that I enjoyed but cannot remember the name of it. In fact, I didn't know she was the author until after I was fifty pages into Runemarks. Needless to day, this book is entirely different. Harris takes Norse mythology and turns it on its ear. After the end of the world, the gods are either dead, or depleted and replaced by the Nameless one god. Then, Odin meets Maddy, a plucky girl with a runemark in her hand. Runemarks are a source of power in this world but Maddy is instrumental in one final fight between the old gods and the Nameless.

The first 150 pages are more telling than showing and getting through all of the back story (and not all of it seemed relevant) was arduous. I don't want to feel like I need to do homework to enjoy a good book. But, once the main characters went into the underworld, the plot finally started moving and the book got interesting.

As mentioned earlier (probably), I love fairy tale retellings especially when they provide some sort of twist. The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines does just that. Princess Danielle Whiteshore (Cinderella) has just returned from her honeymoon to find that her stepsisters are now powerful witches, they've stolen her husband and she is pregnant. She teams up with a bitter, martial artist Sleeping Beauty and a flirtatious, magic wielding Snow White to track them down and do a little rescuing of her own.

The book had a rough start for me partially because I had to work to get Shrek the Third out of my mind and partially because the three characters were stereotypical. I think I've been watching anime too long because I immediately recognized Talia (Sleeping Beauty) as the bitter warrior who doesn't trust anybody, Snow White as the slutty one and Danielle as the fish-out-of-water/innocent one who encourages the other two to trust each other. What I loved about the book, however, was the world building. Hines's description of the towns and just how these characters lived breathed new life into the story and kept me going when the characters annoyed me. By the time I was half-way through the book, I was out of danger of putting the book down and walking away and was actually invested in the story.

This is the first in the series and I think this one has pulled me into the next, which comes out in the fall.