eBook Review: Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt

Sharp Turn is the second book in Marianne Delacourt's crime series featuring protagonist Tara Sharp. It's a departure from my usual reading, I am not a huge fan of the crime/romance/paranormal genre.  Indeed mention of the characters ability to read aura's had me rolling my eyes - it's a credit to Delacourt's skill and craft that I kept reading.


The Story
Our Protagonist Tara Sharp is an Amateur Private Investigator with a special talent(she can see Aura's).  In this outing she's hired by a Race Team owner to investigate who is tampering with his bikes and preventing the team from taking out the championship. She also gets to see more of the underside of Perth when she's called in to help investigate trouble at an upmarket brothel. 

What I liked
Delacourt's writing is polished, the story light with a hint of romance, a lot of action and bearable amount of that eye rolling aura stuff.  It's a quick read and despite it not being my usual fair I found myself quiclky turning the pages at the end to find out what happened.


What I didn't
The aura stuff - I don't know why this affected me so much.  I am perfectly okay with magic in a fantasy or urban fantasy setting, so I can't understand why I baulked at this.  Perhaps because I know people who believe this stuff seriously?


The Martial Arts - I found Tara's level of skill after one self defense class too unbelievable, especially considering her opponent. 


Credit to Delacourt though, her writing got me over these two roadblocks in my suspension of disbelief


Final Thoughts
If you like paranormal adventure fiction with a female protagonist, this one's for you.  It's a light refreshing read with a nice twist at the end.  

Book Review: Managing Death by Trent Jamieson

Managing Death is the second book in Trent Jamieson's Death Works Series, I reviewed the first, Death Most Definite here.


The Story
We pick up the story from the end of the first novel.  Steven de Selby is the newly appointed (if that's the right word) Death for the Australian region.  


He's put off a regional apocalypse but  Mortmax Australia is in a bit of a shambles, and so is de Selby.  The Stirrer god is coming, Steve is hitting the bottle, testing the strength of his relationship with his newly resurrected girlfriend and despite having the powers of a Regional Manager someone is still trying to kill him.


Not to mention he's trying to organise a Death Moot.

What I liked
This book is perfectly paced and as good an execution of a second book as as your likely to find.  You could read this book without having read  Death most Definite, or indeed if you can't quite remember what happened(I read them within a week of each other).  It can become tiresome when an author has to recount the story of the first or preceding book, but Jamieson manages well the weaving of major action and plot points of the first novel into the telling of this tale.


Managing Death also gives us more information of the workings of the Orcus and the Mechanics of the Underworld. Jameison's vision is distinctly refreshing while having solid ties to the familiar cultural mythology  surrounding Death and the Underworld.


There is a lot more action in Managing Death and it slips further away from black humor and urban fantasy and into horror. I think by the final book it will be mayhem and death with a capital D.


What I didn't 
Nothing to dislike about this book.  An excellent execution of a second book in a trilogy.


Final thoughts
If you liked or enjoyed Death most Definite, I think you would be doing yourself a disserice not to read Managing Death.  The humor is diminished and we can begin to feel the ominous approach of a climactic battle in the final book but it's still the reluctant hero de Selby, handling things in a uniquely Australian fashion.


This book was supplied at no cost to myself by Orbit  Australia.

eBook Review: Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Once upon a time Faerie Tales & Folk Tales were for adults.  Tender Morsels fits nicely into that category of tale.  It's a retelling of  Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot or Snow White and Rose Red.

I came to this book with the knowledge than it had been promoted as YA  in some markets(I found it in the Teen section of an Angus & Robertson) and that in my experience Margo Lanagan has a penchant for slightly dark, slightly quirky but emotionally confronting and challenging stories.


I was not let down with this book. The tale is enchanting in the truest sense of the word - it had me spell bound within the first few pages.  The prose is skillfully crafted, rich in imagery and emotion, the characters despite the fantastical nature of the story, are 'real' - indeed it has been a long time since I have developed such deep emotional attachment to a character in a book.  


The Story?
I am not going to tell you any more than I have alluded to above, it's a refashioning of a folktale.  I believe that you will  derive the most benefit from knowing the least about it. Be forewarned though there are confronting encounters in the book, though masterfully and tastefully handled. Lanagan's weaving of  magic,  custom, and legend create a world that is so strikingly familiar that you could swear it was real at least once upon a time.


Final thoughts
If you are a parent that sees the YA or Teen label as a endorsement for buying books for your twelve year old, I'd suggest that you read it first.  This book is probably more suitable for the 14+ category. 


If you are an adult that doesn't like reading YA, I personally wouldn't call it a Young Adult novel- it's appropriate for the above age group, but in reality this is a tale for all ages.