A Demon Inside by Rick R. Reed

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Hunter Beaumont doesn't understand hi grandmother's deathbed wish: "Destroy Beaumont House."  He'd never even heard of the place.  But after his grandmother passes and his first love betrays him, the family house in the Wisconsin woods looks like a tempting refuge.  Going against his grandmother's will, Hunter flees to Beaumont House.

But will the house be the sanctuary he had hoped for?  Soon after moving in, Hunter realizes he man not be alone.  And with whom - or what - he shares the house may plunge him into a nightmare from which he many never escape.  sparks fly when he meets his handsome neighbor, a caretaker for the estate next door, but is the man salvation... or is he the source of Hunter's terror?

I've been a sucker for haunted house stories my entire life, I can never get enough of them.  The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite are two of my all time favorite books, and while A Demon Inside may not be comparable to the first, it definitely fits in with the second book.  Both books take a young gay man and force him to deal with family secrets in such a way that they put their lives in jeopardy.  The difference though is that while Trevor in Drawing Blood knows what he is getting himself into, Hunter doesn't, which makes the story even more compelling.

Hunter is a shy, naive young man who was raised by his grandmother after his parents were brutally murdered, an event that Hunter was present for.  He grows up sheltered and hidden away from most of the world, a move that his grandmother took to try and protect him, but left him a little vulnerable and easily influenced.

Once his grandmother passes and asks him to destroy Beaumont House, that vulnerability and naiveness gets quickly tested.  His first love affair ends horribly but it was one that if Hunter had been less trusting and more socially developed, he could have avoided it all together.  This is what send him packing to Beaumont House despite the misgivings he felt the first time he was there.

This is where the book really takes off and the action starts.  I won't go into too much detail of what Hunter has to deal with while living in the house, though I will say if I woke up the first morning in a new house and had the same experience Hunter did, I wouldn't bother packing, I would walk right out the front door and never look back.

The author does a wonderful job of setting the right notes of fear and stubbornness that Hunter feels throughout the book.  There aren't a lot of authors who can write a convincingly haunted house story without coming across as cheesy or trying to hard.  This author has it nailed down.  The atmosphere he invokes works perfectly with the storyline and never gets in the way of the plot.  He methodically creates the perfect sense of terror that leads to a wonderful thought out climax that left me wishing there was more to the story.

The other aspect I loved was the lack of sex, though there was a strong desire for it, between Hunter and his quite attractive neighbor.  The author lets their friendship and trust build first and it's only towards the end that you realize they may have something real they can fall back on once the horror of the house is finally over.

This was my second book from this author and I'm falling more in love with his writing style.  I can't wait to read the next one.

This will qualify for the GLBT Reading Challenge 2010.

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Meet Princess Cimorene - a princess who refuses to be proper.  She is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart...

And bored.

So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon.  And not just any dragon, but Kazul - one of the most powerful and dangerous dragons around.  Of course, Cimorene has a way of hooking up with dangerous characters, and soon she's coping with a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird, a stone prince, and some very oily wizards. 

If this princess ran away to find some excitement, it looks like she's found plenty.

Dealing with Dragons is the first book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles and before Celia of Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia made it part of a giveaway, I had never heard of it before. So needless to say I was super excited to win the giveaway and get a chance to read something she obviously cares so much about.

I'm not sure what I expected or thought I would get from this book, I think I went into it with a pretty open mind actually, but I can honestly say I wasn't expecting the wit and humor that is found throughout the book.  Cimorene is a princess who knows her own mind and rebels against what is normal for princesses to do.  She would rather learn how to fence or magic than sewing and dancing.  She would rather use her brains then bat her lashes to get what she wants.

I had a blast with this book and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series to see how the author expands the world that she created in this book.  It's a world full of kingdoms, dragons, magic, and rigid social structures that are just begging to be broken.  It's a world that I'm looking forward to visiting again in the near future.

Mailbox Monday for 8/30/10

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at The Printed Page and is being hosted by Shanyn of Chick Loves Lit for the entire month of August.

I didn't have anything come in the mail this week but I did end up buying 6 books, 3 DVDs, and 2 CDs.  All of it for around $22.

As I do every week I stopped by the Friends of the Library Bookstore and ended up walking out with some books.  Six of them actually, 2 in hardcover and 4 in paperback.  The hardcovers were The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Wicked Flea by Susan Conant, both of which were $1 a piece.  The four paperbacks were only $.50 a piece and they were, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, Games Killers Play edited by Alfred Hitchcock, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, and V: Death Tide by A.C. Crispin and Deborah A. Marshall.

On my trip to Wal-Mart I found two Disney movies for $6 a piece so I picked up The Black Hole and The Love Bug.

My last stop of my shopping spree was Buy Back Entertainment and there I bought two CDs and one DVD for $1.99 a piece.  I picked up Bare and Medusa from Annie Lennox and the DVD of Christmas With The Kranks.

The Really Old Classics Challenge

Well it's that time of year again, the Really Old Classics Challenge is getting ready to start (in 4 days) and I couldn't be more excited about it.  Now you may want to know what a really old classic is, so I'll tell you.  A really old classic, at least for this challenge, is anything written prior to 1600 AD.  I'm going to be honest with you, I haven't really read a lot from that time period, but what I have read I've liked and I'm thrilled to discover even more works of literature that weren't on my radar before.

What I'm really excited about is that I'm one of the co-hosts for this challenge and since this is my first time hosting one, I'm looking forward to interacting with everyone who participates and seeing what it is they choose to read.  My two co-hosts are Heather J of Age 30+ ...A Lifetime of books and Michelle of Literarily Speaking.  A few months ago, early Spring I think, Heather had asked on Twitter if anyone was interested in helping her out with it this year and I jumped at the chance.  So I would like to thank her for the opportunity.

The best part of this challenge is you only have to read 1 qualifying work between Sept. 1st through Dec. 31st.  How easy is that!  Now there are other options as well as extra credit that I know all of you will do.  So go on over to the sign up page and join us on our journey into Really Old Classics.

20 Questions Over at Lost In Books

I just wanted to let everyone know that Rebecca at Lost In Books asked me to participate in her 20 Questions meme and she has it posted today.  Please stop by and let me know what you think of my oh so provocative answers.

Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

Magic's Price is the third and final volume in The Last Herald Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, and it's the one that breaks my heart every time I read it.  This one will be a bit rambling and maybe even have a few spoilers in it so I apologize before hand.

The story takes place a few years after the events in Magic's Promise and Kind Randale is dying a horrible death that nobody is able to cure or even relief the pain he lives in every day of his life.  Every day for him is a struggle and with no hope in site is wearing everyone around him down.  When Medren, Vanyel's Bardic gifted nephew, brings an idea to him about easing the pain the King is suffering, Vanyel is a little more than dubious.  When that idea proves to be another young bardic trainee who can sing pain away, it seems to be a blessing in a time of great sorrow.

Nobody know how or why Stefan has this gift but the crown is quick to jump on it as it allows the King to function for periods of time.  The fact that the same young bard is gay and that Medren has been trying to figure out a way to get his Uncle and his roommate together, doesn't hurt either.

This is where the love story takes over and one that is sweet to read about.  Vanyel still feels a lot of guilt and remorse about what happened to Tylendel when they were together and he feels that he is betraying that memory if he allows anything else to come close to that relationship.  The fact that Stefan is quite a bit younger than him doesn't help either.  Of course what Vanyel doesn't know is that Stef is way more experienced then him and isn't in a state of hero worship that Vanyel suspects.  Their relationship starts of slowly, building a wonderful friendship, one of mutual respect and admiration.  The fact that they are both frustrated because they each want it to go further but both are too scared, for different reasons, to do anything about it, is wonderfully written and fully believable.

Thankfully for us (the readers) and them (the characters), Vanyel's parents invite them both to come home for a visit and actually put them in the same room.  This is the catalyst that finally puts them right where they need to be, which is a good thing because for the rest of the book they will need each other in ways they never imagined.  I do want to make a quick comment about something before I continue with the story.  The way the author explores Vanyel's relationship with his parents and the circumstances of how they finally are able to heal the hurts that have been between them, move me every time.  It's wonderfully done and from personal experience, very believable.

The rest of the story is fast paced thrill ride that will test the strength and courage of almost every single character and will push Vanyel, Stef, and Yfandes to their limits.  This is the book that takes all the foreshadowing, including some horrific dreams Vanyel had in the first one, and brings the story to it's logical conclusion.  This is where we find out how and why Vanyel becomes the last Herald Mage and what it takes in courage and sacrifice to protect the Kingdom he serves and the people he loves.  The journey the three of them take and the climax of the story will leave you feeling so many emotions you won't know what to think by the time it's all over.  What you will know is what a brilliant author Mercedes Lackey is and how wonderful Vanyel is as a character.

I want to leave you with a song that Bard Stefan wrote a year after the climax of the story.  It's called "Magic's Price" and I think it sums up the emotions and the story in a way I could never duplicate.



This will qualify for the GLBT Reading Challenge 2010.

Favorite Fictional Character --- The Rowan

Born Angharad Gwyn, The Rowan was the only survivor of a horrendous mud slide that destroyed the Rowan Mining Camp on Altair.  She had been in a hopper and the mudslide buried her for days.  Even as a young toddler, The Rowan was a powerful telepath and her cries for help could be heard by every sensitive on the planet.  It took days for them to find her and once they did, she was in training to become a T1 Prime, one of the most powerful psionics in the universe.

Her childhood as an orphan is a lonely one.  She is thrust into the care of Sligen, the current Prime on Altair, who doesn't have a motherly bone in her body.  Sligen is agoraphobic and pushes that onto all she trains.  Even after she is befriended by a psychiatrist and her family Rowan still feels alone.

It's not until she's an adult, running her own station that Rowan finally meets someone who will break her out of her shell and make her feel again.

The Rowan is a 3 dimensional character that I fell in love with the first time I met her.  Even emotionally damaged as she is, she comes across as someone who wants to love and be loved, but doesn't know what to trust.  As I read about her growing up amongst the personalities and tragedies she had to face, I felt for her, I wanted to be her friend and let her know that everything happens for a reason.  I was able to get a sense of the strong woman she would grow into. 

One she meets Jeff Raven, I was able to tell that finally she met the man who would make her whole and love.  With Jeff she has a family and builds a life around them and the company they all work for.  They repel alien invaders (through several books actually) and set the foundations of the family Rowan had stolen from her at such a young age.

I love strong female characters, and The Rowan definitely fits that mold.  She grows and matures throughout the book and the series but she never really loses that vulnerability that she had as a child.  Part of her is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she is strong enough to not let that stop her.  If I ever had a daughter, telepathic or not, I would want her to have the strength that The Rowan shows throughout her life.