Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan (GUEST REVIEW)

Thanks to NaNoWriMo, please be advised that Book Brats might have a few more guest reviews than normal. Please welcome back UK Correspondent Rebecca (follower on Twitter @mephster) and check out her review of JL Bryan's JENNY POX, book one in the Jenny Pox series!

Jenny's touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague. She can't control her power, so she devotes her life to avoiding contact with other people in her small Southern town. Her senior year of high school, she meets the one boy she can touch...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the "Jenny pox" inside her to survive his devious, manipulative girlfriend, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

JENNY POX by JL Bryan

Published July 24th, 2009 by CreateSpace

292 Pages

Jenny Pox is another one of those novels I downloaded to my kindle because it was free, which I am fully happy to admit. The blurb really didn’t inspire too much hope in me, but I picked it for something to read in the afternoon with a nice cuppa and possibly replace with another after the first few pages because I can’t stand the writing. For once, I am glad to have been proven wrong. Perhaps the old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ should begin to be adapted to ‘don’t judge a book by its badly written description’. 

At first, I was convinced that Jenny Pox would be another one of those novels jumping on the bandwagon of ‘Rogue-esque’ powers, wherein they are unable to touch anybody. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very dark novel, with well-developed and believable characters with all the flaws and back handed arseyness of real teenagers. The plot itself isn’t the strongest and is in fact a bit clichéd (girl has problem, girl meets unattainable boy with a bitch/popular girlfriend, bitch/popular girlfriend attempts vengeance, girl kills everything in her path…mostly cliché, then) but it’s a very easy read and the violence isn’t as overwhelming as might be expected. 

I felt the religious slant of the antagonistic Ashleigh was a little heavy handed but I’m really putting that down to my contact with religion being limited to being stopped in the street and told I’m going to burn in hell for my lack of belief…but in a polite way. I’d normally give the writer the benefit of the doubt, seeing as the character in question (to my eyes at least) was using the religion bent for the power and little else. At least to me, the angle works. It gives what would otherwise be a run of the mill YA novel standard bitch archetype a more sinister edge. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into it, but hey, it added something and I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

All in all, I’d give Jenny Pox 4*. It’s not perfect, but few novels are. The characters are flawed and human, with complexities that are rarely found in YA fiction. 

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS

Sex and the Kitty by Nancy the Cat (REVIEW)

Cats, cats, and more cats! If you have ever wanted to read a memoir penned by a feline, SEX AND THE KITTY is probably the funniest chance you'll ever get.

Reviewed by Special Correspondent for Feline Fiction, Sir Wilson Snufflepuff
Sex and the Kitty: A Celebrity Meowmoir by Nancy the Cat
208 Pages
Published August 30th 2011 by Plume
Courtesy of Plume / Goodreads First Reads

A hilarious "first-feline" memoir charting Nancy's transformation from small-town kitty into celebrity glamour-puss.

Even as a kitten, Nancy knew she was different. Unlike her peers, who were content to hunt mice and sunbathe all day, Nancy was born with a thirst for adventure.

She first tastes local fame after hitching rides in strangers' cars and visiting neighborhood pubs, but soon the fearless feline has started a blog, become a Facebook sensation, and dipped her paw in the world of show business. With the help of an agent, she moves to London and meets Baron Romeo III, the country's #1 cat actor. Will they be the Brad and Angelina of the cat world?

A purr-fect gift for the legions who adore LOLCats, and for anyone who ever dreamed of being famous and meeting Mr. Right, Sex and the Kitty is an irresistibly catty mélange of silliness, wit, and feline charm.

*clean clean clean*

Let me start this review by saying I am a cultured kitty and I do not read books at random. Most of the stuff my caretaker Megan reads just does not interest me in the least, although I did find ANIMAL FARM to be most intriguing. Megan asked me to read SEX AND THE KITTY by Nancy the Cat as a favor. I owe her a few favors after the money she spends on me so of course I said yes, after several hours of relenting and ignoring her offerings of kitty treats. I was just hungry and milking her for all she was worth.

Nancy the Cat starts her story with her birth and how she came to be taken in by her family. I could not really identify with this, mostly because my mother was feral and lived in the basement of a condemned house in Newark, New Jersey. She kicked me out of the nest and when I was four months old I wound up in the right driveway at the right time. I’ve since moved to North Carolina and turned into a classy cultured southern kitty. I sleep with a picture of Zachary Quinto and have a closet full of clothing. I spend my days lounging around my house and playing with my best friend New Kitty (yes, such an unfortunate name). Sadly, in North Carolina, I do not have many friends.

Nancy’s story is one that humored me for three days of fun. Her shenanigans were very much unlike mine, but her story is one I wish I could live. My owner went to London in January and brought me back English cat treats and they were most tempting. I wish I could be a cat model and act and meet more cats than my two stepsiblings and that cat that sent me to the vet when he attacked me. I did nothing to him! Honestly!

While the story appears inane, it’s actually quite fun. *clean clean clean yawn* I stayed up late and kept reading when I should have gone to bed. I read when the power went out thanks to Irene since Megan wouldn’t let me go outside. I even read after my bath even though I wanted to yowl and get a warm blow dry. Nancy’s story is fun and adventurous, even though it’s outlandish. She is so right about birds and dogs and chickens. I’ve killed a large number of fowl in my life, and don’t get me started on dogs.

*clean clean clean*

Anyway, for my feline friends and the human readers of this blog, SEX AND THE KITTY might be up your alley if you are a fan of Sex and the City. Lolcats? No. I don’t see that at all. Besides, Lolcats aren’t even funny.

MEGAN’S VERDICT: Although the story is farfetched and for humor, Nancy’s story is entertaining and cute. For cat-lovers who enjoyed Sex in the City, it is a great book and makes you think about what your cats are up to a lot more closely.

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS

About Wilson:

Sir Wilson Snufflepuff is a 2-year old orange tabby rescued by Book Brats owner Megan from a Newark, New Jersey sidewalk in September 2009. This is his first and probably last review.

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

This week's waiting on Wednesday comes from our UK Correspondent Rebecca as she fights of rioters and brings to you something new that I've never heard of. Maybe that's a good thing.

Guess I’m moving a little more away from the YA and lady-fiction theme here at Book Brats. It’s a talent of mine.

Anybody who knows my reading habits will tell you I adore anything that takes a popular genre and tips it on its head, especially when it’s with the classics (or fairy tales, but that is a story for another blog). Which is why I’m waiting on Professor Moriaty: Hound of the D’ubervilles. The plot looks like it’s not going to disappoint and is that another plot hint I see there? And with the delightfully sinister cover, Oh yes, I want this.

I’m a little ahead of the game here, as Moriaty doesn’t come out until the 23^rd September (in the UK, I couldn’t say for the US) from Titan books.

Imagine the twisted evil twins of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson and you have the dangerous duo of Professor James Moriarty - wily, snake-like, fiercely intelligent, terrifyingly unpredictable - and Colonel Sebastian Basher Moran - violent, politically incorrect, debauched. Together they run London crime, owning police and criminals alike. When a certain Irene Adler turns up on their doorstep with a proposition, neither man is able to resist. An entertaining and wickedly humorous crime adventure from the bestselling writer of Anno Dracula.

So what are you waiting on? Better not be entering in the Book Brats 100 Followers Contest! Click on the sidebar button to enter!

Book Brats Guest Review - Katie's Hellion by Lizzy Ford

Book Brats would like everyone to welcome our UK Correspondent Rebecca to the family! Rebecca will be guest blogging some of her finds from across the pond and giving her opinion about books and reading. She's a great addition to the Book Brats family, so make sure to welcome her!

KATIE'S HELLION by Lizzy Ford
Published May 27th, 2011 by author

Katie’s having the worst day ever: she’s been dragged down to the police station for abandoning her son, a cute kid with big brown eyes. Only Katie doesn’t have a son. She’s never seen the five year old boy in her life, despite the insistence of the police, her doctor, even her own sister. She thinks she’s gone completely crazy until the five year old living in her house tells her his secret: he’s a baby immortal, and his guardians were supposed to wipe her mind so she’d forget he didn’t belong to her and raise him as hers. But Katie is immune to the power of immortals, and they don't react well to this discovery. Katie winds up in Hell, where she meets Rhyn, who recognizes her as an immortal's mate - and his key out of Hell.

Rhyn is a misunderstood immortal, the youngest of the seven Ancients, sentenced to Hell after accidentally almost destroying the world. Katie’s immunity to immortals creates an opportunity for them to escape Hell, so he snatches her and flees. At first, Katie despises the man who treats her like a portable food source, until she finds out he’s the only one willing and able to protect her from the dangers of the immortal world. Rhyn discovers that his little human has heart. With horror, he discovers she’s not destined to be any immortal's mate- she's destined to be his mate. He has no idea how to care for someone else let alone control his power, but he must learn, as his little human is endangered by both good and bad immortals determined to use her to their advantage.

Katie is our 22 year old heroine whose world is changed by the sudden arrival of a five year old who claims to be her son, Toby. Despite being a clearly unfit mother, the ‘authorities’ insist that Katie take the boy home with her. A visit with here psychologist informs her that she was raped five years ago, which caused her amnesia of her son’s existence (a surprisingly well researched account, considering the genre of the book). This is when we discover that Toby is a baby angel, who has been handed through surrogate mothers who have their memories altered for years, while our heroine is apparently immune to the powers of the Ancients. An immunity that, for some reason, makes Katie irresistible to them. The youngest of the Ancients, Rhyn, has been locked up with only Death’s main squeeze to lean on for company and support. The moment he sees Katie, he too lusts for her and decides that she is the mate for him. Yes, it is that kind of book. Throw in a reality/world breaking family feud and some magic and you have the entire plot of Katie’s Hellion.

I’m going to go with eehhh. Let’s be honest here, I got this book for my kindle because it was free. Don’t let that cloud your opinion of it; it’s actually not a bad fantasy novel, so far as self-insert female leads go. I say this, because it is clearly what Katie was written to be, or at least I hope she was; a character that flat can only hope to be a one-size-fits-all girl, especially when coupled with a man for whom she cannot contain her overwhelming lust and vice versa. A staple, so far as I am concerned, in non-Mary Sue popularised fantasy romance novels.

Not that Katie is more of a complex character. I mean, seriously, this chick just stands there and takes everything that is thrown at her and then goes back to the dick that caused it. Fine, go down the Stockholm syndrome explanation if you want to, but Katie’s entire being seems to gravitate around accepting all of the crap the world throws at her while chugging down whiskey, chomping on pills and bitching about it in an inner monologue. Then we come to Rhyn. No, let’s not come to Rhyn. We should focus instead on the side characters, who appear to be more fully developed, despite their relatively short screen time.

Moving away from my severe dislike of the main characters, the dialogue is some places seems forced and I would very much like to know why magical inmates of a multidimensional prison talk like teenagers on an American sitcom where the screenwriters are bouncing off Saved by the Bell. I shall endeavour to ignore them, for the sake of the positives. Lizzy Ford is not an author who wastes description. And I mean that as a compliment; Ford’s descriptions are in fact the saviour of this novel. She deals them out in such Spartan amounts that their appearance is as far from the purple prose that I normally expect to come out of this genre. It is a pleasant surprise.

All in all, I’d giving Katie’s Hellion 3*. It’s not the most well written book out there, but as a bit of escapist fluff, it’s not so bad. While Katie’s Hellion isn’t going to be pushing back any boundaries, you can find much worse in search of a fantasy romance.

VERDICT: A thin plot barely sustains this lackluster addition to the urban fantasy/paranormal genre, especially given the soundly cardboard characters presented.

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Thanks, Rebecca!
Look out for more from Rebecca in coming weeks.