The Shape of Desire

by Sharon Shinn

Maria has spent nearly half her life now lying about her lover Dante. She doesn't mention his name to her family or friends. Her coworkers aren't even aware that she's seeing someone. Keeping him hidden is easier than coming up with an excuse for why he's only around for about a week out of every month, and much easier than telling the truth: that he spends the rest of the month in some kind of animal shape, living the life of a wolf or a mountain lion or a bear.  When he is with her, Maria is blazingly happy; when he vanishes again, usually with no more farewell than a terse note ("Had to go"), her heart breaks again. And then she starts seeing news reports from places near her home of people mauled to death by some unidentified creature.

Interesting departure for Sharon Shinn in that it has a contemporary setting; she usually goes for intricately designed secondary worlds. This is a fast moving story with great characters; Dante's siblings (also shapeshifters) and Maria's coworkers are sharply drawn.

Shades of Milk and Honey

Unlike another noted Regency-era father of daughters whose estate is entailed on a cousin, Charles Ellsworth has set aside a yearly sum for the provision of his children, though he worries it won't be enough. He has no fears for his younger daughter, Melody, whose face is her fortune, but he can only hope that Jane's many accomplishments will be enough to recommend her to a suitor--perhaps the Naval captain visiting his aunt, the viscountess.  Jane, for her part, finds her barely-formed hopes of another neighbor shadowed when her beautiful sister sets her sights on the same man.  No one quite knows what to make of the taciturn professional artist creating an elaborate glamour for an upcoming ball.

In this delicately beautiful fantasy of manners, Mary Robinette Kowal's first novel, "glamour," or the magic of illusion, is a recognized art form, commonly used for decorative purposes in country homes, and one of the accomplishments a young lady of quality is expected to dabble in, along with watercolor painting and playing the pianoforte--Jane is noted for her skill at all three.  The novel made me think of the conversation if Jane Austen could have invited Lord Dunsany over for tea, and I found it almost uniformly charming--though maybe because Austen is a favorite author of mine, or because I've read so many lesser Regency romances, the Action Girl scene at the climax was a little jarring. Still, highly recommended!

Morrigan's Cross et al.

Twelfth-century Irish sorcerer Hoyt fails to destroy either the newly-made vampire that used to be his twin brother Cian or the demon queen Lilith who made Cian into what he now is, but is promptly recruited by the Morrigan, goddess of battles, to find five other individuals to join him and form the core of an army to defeat Lilith in the far future.  In the 21st century, family feeling is something Cian hasn't thought about in a long time, and he isn't sure how Hoyt persuades him to help, but he finds himself persuaded nonetheless.

Only Nora Roberts could make me like a series with vampire sex in it.

I cordially dislike paranormal romance, especially the kind with vampires.  I picked this one up on the recommendation of a friend, and was pleased to find that it's really more fantasy than romance--although the romantic subplots in this book and its two sequels, Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence, are quite strong, and the sex scenes can get pretty steamy, as you'd expect from the author.  I've read some of her science fiction/detective/romances too, and the same holds true there.

But what I like about Nora Roberts is that her books (the few I've read, anyway) have good plots.  The sex advances the plot instead of the other way round, as in some other vampire books I could mention.

Originally posted at MySpace 3/9/07