The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig

Inevitably in any popular series, sooner or later the writing gets stale- character arcs become unbelievable, plots are rehashed, or the reader can simply feel the writer's own weariness for the once beloved story lines. Not so for Lauren Willig! If anything, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine is the strongest book in the Pink Carnation series so far.

Framed once again by the research and relationship trials of graduate student Eloise Kelly, Night Jasmine opens after Eloise and her new beau Colin have been together for three months. A week long romantic getaway to Colin's home in Surrey (not to mention his library's inexhaustible cache of historical archives) leads Eloise to a new discovery in her study of the aristocratic spy, the Pink Carnation- a plot involving French spies (naturally), the betrayal of a king, and thee infamous Hellfire club.

Enter lady Charlotte Landsdowne and Robert, the Duke of Dovedale, the real stars of this carnation installment. Robert, newly home from a decade long stint in India, is on the trail of his mentor's murderer, but is unprepared for both the attraction he feels for the bookish Charlotte (a very, very distant cousin) and the very real forces at work in his friend's death.

Like the other Pink Carnation books, the mystery here is well plotted out and the excitement level high enough to keep the pages flying well into the night. The true strength lies within the romance of Robert and Charlotte, however. Both characters show very strong growth over the course of the book: Charlotte must deal with the realization that life is not quite like it is in books (which can be a good thing), and Robert has to grapple with not only his own dubious past, but that of his father. As you would expect, a happy ending lies in wait for these two, but not without a few bumps along the way. Even more so than past books, the reader will truly find themselves rooting for these two.

So, the verdict- if you loved the previous Pink Carnation books, definitely pick up The Temptation of the Night Jasmine! You will not regret it. If you're new to the series, I recommend starting at the beginning (with The Secret History of the Pink Carnation) so you'll be fully in the loop when secondary characters appear as well as up to speed on the framing romance of Colin and Eloise.

Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist

It has been said that 'there are no more original ideas being formulated in the world,' and I feel this in a sense may be true. It is easy to see the unorginality in the film industry with companies continually 'remaking' or 'remastering' old classic movies. BUT, I do not believe this applies to Fiest's books.

David Gemmell, in an author's interview, once stated that he felt his fans deserved something more than the traditional elves and goblins. While I make no attempt to disparage Gemmell's work, occasionally one feels the need for such stories. Indeed, many authors seem to think as Gemmell does, that elves and goblins are the rule and books of the more realistic type are the exception. In trying to prevent a stereotype of fantasy work, these authors have overcompensated, leaving genuine, simple, Tolkeinesque fantasy in a minority. The key to Feist's success is that he manages to create a realistic world in the style of this stereotype. As he says himself in the Foreward to the revised edition, all he set out to do with Magician: Apprentice was to create a 'ripping good yarn,' and this he does.

The story itself is both simple and complex. On one level the town of Crydee, on the edge of the kingdom of isles, is deemed an ideal spot for invasion by aliens who can move from planet to planet by virtue of magical rifts. Because this is a frontier town it is near settlements of elves and dwarves, thus bringing those into the fray. However, this book, as indeed the entire series, seems to pan out like a soap opera, as we become familiar with the lives of a whole range of minor and major characters. Like a good soap opera (if that's not a dichotomy), Feist is not afraid to kill off major characters, no matter how popular. Like The Godfather, the pace of Magician: Apprentice is "legato rather than staccato," and this gives Feist the luxury of demonstrating his characters rather than having to explain them. Indeed, many fantasy novels become so obsessed with a 'higher purpose' that often they lose a sense of the personalities involved, whereas Feist gives views ranging from the lowliest peasant to the king.

In many ways this novel is microcosm of the series that was to follow it. The convuluted plot, the importance attached to characters, even if they are engaged elsewhere away from the main plotline.

But the novel is not perfect. Feist can be heavy handed, making explicit that which should be implicit. For instance, characters frequently call on 'Ruthia,' and on each occasion Feist feels the need to identify her as the goddess of luck, when this is quite clear from thecontext.

Nonetheless, this is without doubt on excellent book, and one which I would highly recommend.

Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich

Bringing Down the House by Ben mezrich is just one of those books; when you read the first few pages, you get hooked. It starts with Kevin, the main character, in a casino playing blackjack. He looks for his spotter and catches a signal. The spotter puts her hand through her hair, and this means one thing: get out of the casino, and fast. The book soon slows down, and starts at the beginning. After he gives all the background knowledge, Mezrich gets into all kinds of different plots and subplots. The main plot is obviously, how long they can last in Vegas without being caught, but a very intriguing subplot is the constant brewing of anger among kevin against Fisher and Martinez. Mezrich smoothly transfers his writing from an exciting win of $10,000, to a club at the Palms. It's this smooth writing style that makes the book seem so life-like. Mezrich portrays himself in the book and one of Kevin's friends and just wanting to get information to write this book. As he pops in every few chapters, all the people he interviewed thought his research was to write another card-counting book. It was, but not as they expected. I believe this part of the book is important because it shows how Mezrich tried to create a different book. He not only made the book entertaining, but he showed the reality of it. He showed that you should never dig yourself too deep, and that even the best get taken down. There was a slight weakness to the book. The book is repetitive. Usually a little repetitiveness is good; this just had a little too much. Overall it was a brilliantly written, twisty plotted book.

P.S., I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

This debut novel by Cecelia Ahern has won the hearts of thousands across the world and has earned this young author a few awards and a lot of recognition. It has been turned into a film and to be perfectly honest, this is one of the only books I have read where I prefer the film, having read the book once, watched the film...well, never mind how many times! Now I am going to compare the book and the movie to get my point across with this review as I seem to be one of the only people to loathe this book with a passion, and I want to give valid reasons rather just state and not elaborate.

After watching this film, I eagerly purchased the book, excited beyond belief that I would get more time with some beautiful people that had such an impact on my emotional state, and shocked that I had not found these friends earlier...man was I wrong. P.S., I Love You follows the story of Gerry and Holly...well, actually just Holly. Supposedly soul mates, it follows Holly in the aftermath of Gerry's sudden and shocking death and how he tries to help her through her grief by sending her letters, and how she attempts to rebuild her life and move on. The only reason I finished this book was because I wanted to see Gerry and thought that he would be the redeeming feature and sadly he makes an appearance only twice in this book. You do feel the impact of his sad death throughout, but actual evidence of the love story is lacking. You are just expected to believe that they were madly in love without any real proof that they were. The more I read, the more whiny Holly became and to be perfectly honest by the end of the book, I was so angry and disappointed with her that I felt it was no wonder Gerry died- I could hardly stand her and I at least got to get away from her when I wanted to. Horrible to say, but it's the truth.

Having said all that, the writing was good, but not great, and you can tell that this is the author's first novel. Some plot lines I felt were not necessary and detracted from the main point she was trying to make. Like I said, Holly whined for most of the book and didn't seem to want to try and help herself. Some of the events did not make sense to me, some of the plots were irrelevant, and most of the characters were annoying. The only character I found myself liking was Holly's elder brother (who we are not really supposed to like 'til the end) and the only time the book grabbed my attention and seemed to improve was two-thirds of the way through and was a minor storyline which only lasted for a few pages. With the exception of Holly's brothers, the characters all felt two dimensional and lacked depth and definition. Disappointing.

In the movie, you get to see before and after life with Gerry and life without, and it is linked in such a way that you are left wanting more. The movie as they go through the trials and tribulations of life. The script writers got rid of a lot of stuff that didn't help the story and edited where necessary (i.e. Holly's million siblings in the book were narrowed down to one) and the movie actually made sense of her thoughts and actions (i.e. in the book, Holly's parents are together but in the movie her insecurities are answered because her father had run off). To me, this made perfect sense. I also really loved Gerry. He is dead from the first few minutes but you can clearly see why they got together and their love is obvious. You can see how she progresses emotionally as Gerry's anniversary approaches and it is done in such a light and comical way that as much as I wanted to cry throughout most of the movie, I found myself laughing at their antics and rejoicing in their love. I also felt that the author could not have liked Holly very much, and by that I mean that an awful lot of bad stuff happened to the poor kid just when life for her was starting to improve and then we would be thrust back into the doom and gloom.

In summary, I found the book to be dull and lifeless in comparison with the movie which struck a chord with me and clearly displayed the emotions that the book should have evoked. The story had so much promise and such potential that i was more than disappointed with it, and actually found myself editing and changing aspects of the book that I did not like in my head whilst I trudged through. I get that her husband just died, I get that she is in a lot of pain and I felt sorry for her, I really did--what an awful situation and one I hope never to go through, but really, why would I want to read an entire book about this with no hope of a happy ending? It's just miserable, really.

I am surprised I finished it, and surprised that she found a publisher. I think she should fire her editors personally because they did her no favors allowing her to publish what feel like a first draft. Having said that, I do wonder if getting published was really because of her talent or in fact because her dad was/is the Irish Prime Minister, and if her success is because she genuinely deserves it or she is riding on her father's coat-tails. Whatever the reason, I don't think I will be reading her books again.

Do yourself a favor, watch the movie. Or if you must read the book, read it and don't watch the movie. Guaranteed, you will only like one and not the other. I have not heard of anyone who liked both. At least the movie can be watched and finished within two hours.