who says you have to be crowded into the living room, kitchen, and/or dining room to hold a book club? we are ladies of the 21st century. we don’t need no stinkin’ couches. so pull up a blog and join in the conversation.
the members of the BOOK HUNGRY are (alphabetically): patty blount, kelly breakey, karla nellenbach, vanessa noble, alyson peterson, cynthia reese, elizabeth ryann, and myself. here’s the deal. we pick a book to read. we discuss via email. we post a review on our individual blogs on the same day (3rd thursday of the month). we link to each other. done. i know, genius. click on each one of their names (above) and it’ll take you to their review. browse. enjoy.
this month’s BOOK HUNGRY selection is:
KISS OF SNOW by Nalini Singh
what it’s about from amazon: Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.
Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.
Then Sienna changes the rules-and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…
A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home-and the alpha who is its heartbeat.
my opinion: uh, yeah. you can judge this book by its cover. HOT. it’s a shame i was too far down the waiting list at the library and so had to order it on my kindle app on my phone and thus, didn’t get to see the cover. the things i do for BOOK HUNGRY.
anyways, this story was pretty great. i thought singh handled the main relationship with a finesse you don’t see very often, (i say boldly because i’m not widely read in the romance area.) sienna is young in age (and in love), but has lived an extraordinarily difficult life up til now and so is mature beyond her years. when faced with the grand, but sometimes daunting, romance with the leader of the changeling wolf pack, she embraces it, but doesn’t discredit her occasional fear. it rang very true for me that she’d have a bit of hesitation when faced with an all consuming love with a man who is a powerful, dedicated, and busy leader. she took the time to figure out how she’d fit into hist heart and his life. it was a more practical approach than i’d seen before, and i liked it! it was a lot of fun to see their relationship unfold.
in other areas of discussion, this book is a later one is a series, of which i haven’t read any. it made for a great study in sequels because i know it’s always a challenge for an author to decide how much information s/he should incorporate from the previous novels. for dedicated readers of the series, too much information is boring, but there needs to be enough backstory so that readers who are new to the series won’t get lost. as for this specific book? singh did a decent job, but i do think i would have enjoyed the story a bit more had i read and truly understood all of the political undertones, as well as recognized the multitude of characters who appear throughout. there are a lot of characters (!) and while i did get a vivid sense of who they are and how they fit together (tee hee), i probably would have been more thrilled to see them on the page had i met them in earlier books.
and, as for the ending, no no, don’t worry, i’m not going to spoil it, but i do think it tied up a little too neatly AND she left it open for this world to continue on into another novel. she’s got to bring home the bacon somehow.
verdict: this author is well-trained and as Elizabeth said, just because it’s a romance novel doesn’t mean the characters and world building aren’t fascinating, innovative, and well rounded. i’ll definitely be checking out some more of her works, you know, when my current TBR pile diminishes a bit.
join us next month as we tackle THE BEYONDERS by Brandon Mull.
//
Abigail Mumford 
Pardon me while I just stare at the cover for a while….
seriously. me too. having to read this on the kindle, i was deprived of the cover, so i too will continue to stare at it some more here.
Well said. So does this mean you want to read more romance? Never fear…I am here. I will make sure my next pic is in this genre.
I also applaud your willingness to go back and read some of the earlier books. I don’t think it will take away from what you read here, but for me I like to start a series at the beginning. (I am weird that way.)
Can’t wait to get started on next months selection. It is something I would have never picked up in a million years. That is why I love book club.
i’ve always loved the romance novels, but haven’t been reading them much lately. i also must admit that i feel a little awkward checking them out of the library. i’m glad i have you guys to “force” me to read them because sometimes all you need a hot little romance.
and yes, the world building that singh does is so through, i definitely would like to read some more of this series. i too usually like to start at the beginning, but E didn’t pick the first book, so i had to go with her choice. that rascal!
Ok, I have to say — the chesty chest is quite wonderful, but the veiny arms gross me out big time! I wish someone had photoshopped them out :)
*looks at the arms* that’s the first time i did so. i never made it past the chest/abs.
I totally would have picked the first book, except I really desperately wanted to read THIS book. :) And besides, I started the series on the third book, and I have recovered enough to the point that when I met Nalini, I told her I loved her. She, in turn, asked if I was drunk.
DRUNK ON LOVE. You’re welcome. I am still not drunk, not even right now, by the way.
that seems like a bizarre question to a fan saying they love you. she must get that all the time. you must have been really effusive in your adoration. i so wish i had been there!
and, no, i didn’t mind reading NOT the first book first, but that’s not usually how i roll. sometimes it’s good to roll in other directions. and i swear, i’m not drunk either! just not properly caffeinated yet.
Haha, in her defense, she was really nice, and I was super giggly and had just dropped my keys. She was in the room next to mine at the Borders RomCon thing in Denver last summer, and the alcohol was pretty plentiful. It was a good time all around, really. Aided by the fact that I won two free tickets to it from Sue Grimshaw, so all the “free” books really were kinda free.
well, it sounds like you made an impression on her and frankly, that’s more than i’ve been able to do upon meeting a variety of authors. when i met suzanne collins i sort of just stood there and smiled lamely. but really, how do you tell someone “your book changed my life and how i want to write and i also stopped writing for a time immediately after reading it because i felt my own writing could never reach so high a level as yours” without sounding dumb? so instead, i just said, “i really like your books.”
i’d rather collins had asked me if i was drunk. it makes for a better story.