Of Swords and Parasols

Second Sight by Amanda Quick-Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle really only writes a couple of books these days, but she writes it well.  Her current kick is psychic powers, both in her JAK contemporaries and her AQ historicals (probably in the JC futuristics, too, I just haven’t read the last couple of those yet.)  This one is set in the late Victorian period and is about a photographer who sees “auras” who takes the man of a man she had an affair with after he’s declared dead in a fire so that can set herself up as a widow of independent means and open a gallery.   He of course, is not dead, and as soon as he learns she’s using his name he rushes to London, worried she may be pregnant.  The book was fun, but reads like most of her more recent book: alpha yet patient and tolerant (at least in terms of the heroine and her family) male and intelligent heroine who wants an independent life who sees herself as being practical and pragmatic, but is really a hopeless romantic.  As is usual for her, the history is only slightly above window dressing, but it works.

Hot Dish by Connie Brockway- And yet another historical romance author jumps over to contemporaries.  Fortunately I’ve been having mostly-good results with them.  I wasn’t overly sure about this one the first couple chapters, but once it switched to the main story, I pretty much didn’t put it down.  Jenny Hallesby’s parents lost their fortune and all but one of their properties when she was 16, so they relocated to Fawn Creek, Minnesota, to live on their one remaining property-a lodge. A year and a half later, Jenny has realized that her parents aren’t going to  be leaving Fawn Creek anytime soon and enters a beauty pageant, hoping it’s her way out.  It would have been if the local girls she beat hadn’t sabotaged her chances of winning.  After her crushing defeat, all the contestants have to have butter sculptures made of their heads.  Posing for her sculpture, she meets Steve Jaxx, a rising star in the art world who’s on the lam from his supermodel wife, trying to hide a famous sculpture he made of her so she can’t get it in the divorce settlement.  When a bounty hunter catches up with him, he hides the key to the crypt it’s hidden in in the butter sculpture.  Twenty years later, Steve has become one of the biggest stars in the art world but is starting to be washed up, and Jenny has changed her name to Jenn Lind and is on the verge of becoming the next Martha Stewart and escaping Fawn Creek forever, when the butterhead, long believed melted down to be used for corn on the cob (resulting in Steve thinking the key was lost forever) is found in the freezer in her parents’ barn, and Jenn and Steve are asked to be the cohosts of a Fawn creek festival.  Except then the butterhead is kidnapped and held for ransom.  Yes, the whole book is about everyone-including Steve’s ex-cellmate, who Steve told about the key when he thought it was lost forever and the Guiness Book of World Records-trying to get their hands on a hundred pounds of rancid, 20-year-old butter.  It would have been easy for Jenn to come off as unappreciative or misguided, but they DID screw her over when she was young, and her general attitude towards the town comes across mostly as someone who really doesn’t like going to family reunions.  Steve may be a washed up, out-partied artist, but he managed to be like a wide-eyed kid in a candy store throughout the book, and is hopelessly incapable of lying or keeping anything secret, and was just absurdly cute.

Megatokyo Vol 5 by Fred Gallagher- Megatokyo, for those who don’t know, is a webcomic about two Americans, Piro and Largo, who go to Japan on a whim and then end up broke and stranded and staying with Tsubasa, an internet friend of Piro’s.  After about a month of their mooching, Tsubasa leaves for America to find his long lost first love and Piro and Largo, faced with homelessness, wire two friends for money so they get home, then see a videogame store and spend all their money on videogames.  Soon, though, Piro gets hired by a former voice actress named Erica to work in a manga store, and Largo is recruited by a ninja, Junpei(who needed to be in this volume more, esp. since he was on the cover) to be a teacher.  The entire thing is a cracky parody and loving homage of all things anime, manga and video games.  Largo, for example, is referred to as “Great Teacher Largo” by his students, one supporting character is a “retired” magical girl married to a cop with many, many mecha toys, and Piro and Largo have taken in Ping, an android girl who tends to burst into tears, freak out at the sight of male chests and has a rapidly increasing bust size.  This volume, like every other, pretty much had me in stitches throughout.  I think my favorite part was when Largo drove his motorcycle into the manga store when it was flooded was Erica’s fans, old her he could clear out the entire store in 3 minutes 20 seconds and, after VERY careful consideration, she told him just to not kill anyone, so he chases the customers through the aisles on his motorcycle (if they have kids, the world is doomed)  Then the next day, Largo has to fill in at the store and he turns the entire place into a video game-esque obstacle course.  Ok, I just like Largo…

Negima Vol 14 by Ken Akamatsu- The problem with books with huge casts is that every once in a while, no matter how good the book is, there will come a time when the characters you like best are nowhere to be found, and the only characters around(or in this case, the ones most of the focus is on) are the ones you aren’t as interested in.  Since most of my favorites either weren’t in this book or were barely in this book, while good, it was mostly fun for me for the peanut gallery, where the ones I really like were regulated.  I’d actually have more to say about this one, but my fingers are getting tired since they’ve also been playing Zelda (you SHALL be conquered, level 6!)

Also, I’ve slowly but surely been working my way through the Tomb Raider Compedium(you know, those lethal weapons Top Cow put out last year that collect 50 issues each on heavy stock paper) and since I’m not about to haul it back and forth every day, I’ve been leaving it here in a drawer(the drawer locks)  I pulled it out yesterday and it was the first time any of the boys had seen it and they just stared at it and Jason(the only one who’s recognize it for what it is) went “that is one huge comic.”

*back to Zelda*

*3 hours later, level 6 has been conquered but level 7 remains frustratingly elusive*