Member Since: June 21, 2011

Canary


Biography

We're the canaries. We read and rate books so you might not have to.

Where to find Canary online

Website: http://thecanaryreview.wordpress.com/
Twitter: smallchirps

Books

This member has not published any books.

Smashwords book reviews by Canary

  • The River Within on June 26, 2011
    star star star star
    The story: Greer Madison, Foreign Correspondent, has breathed war for the last thirty years. She's the best there is. But when a colleague dies trying to reach her, something inside her breaks. Greer finds herself back in the States, nursing her injuries at the house of her long-time friend, Darlene. Darlene too is a casualty of war. After the death of her son, Chris, the last thing she needs is her perceptive friend rattling her carefully-crafted mask of normalcy and the lies she's built to protect her family from the truth of Chris' death. Kate, Darlene's daughter, is a young woman with the perfect fiancé, the perfect wedding, and the perfect job. But somewhere in the year or so after Chris' death, she's misplaced her life and she doesn't know where to look for it--or even if she should. It's a life she glimpses when she meets Greer, drawn to the battered reporter as if to flame. Each woman lives in her own pain-numbed world, and each knows her balancing act cannot last. When the truths come out, will there be anything left of them? My impressions: That question and the Message (capital M) of searching and redemption underlies the many narrative threads in the book; the characters do not simply tell their stories, they tell the entirety of their stories, in casual but unbroken dialogue paragraphs of poignant descriptions and turns of phrase. The characters are alive, each in their own excruciating human realities, and the story shows its strength in small ways that they slip up. The life is in the details, and not only in the details of foreign wars and bereavement. Kate's dilemma is a great counterweight to the emotional agony Darlene and Greer face; The River Within is about facing tragedies, large or small, heartbreaking or mundane. The piece relies on breadth rather than depth. The brilliantly crafted flashbacks take the reader across Russia, into the deserts, mountains, and valleys of the Middle-East, then to the cities again, spiraling over the places and events Greer had experienced over her thirty years reporting, pulling out the most vivid and socking moments and catching them as if in freeze frame. In a sense, the book is told in a series of recounted vignettes embedded within the overarching character interactions. As a story about the collateral damage of war, the destructive consequences of hubris, and the human need to reach out, it is well wrought and engaging. The reasons my rating dropped a point and then another lies in between all the things that impressed me as a reader. Yes, the characters retell their stories--but entirely too eloquently! This is a book I would have to hear to fully believe, with an actor or reader to re-interpreting the lines to give them a spoken sound. The descriptions were lovely, yet I found some part of me counting repetitions or thinking, "I'm only halfway through? How can that be?" The characters were breathtakingly human, yes--but only most of the time. Sometimes, they turned into opaque mouthpieces for the stories they told. In the pacing, I felt the story skimped where it should have slowed, and slowed where it should have skimped. Were the brief sex scenes always relevant? Maybe. What about Aeron? Maybe. Could the ending have been cut by two chapters? Maybe. Mileage may vary. And I will add this: If you start reading and you have any trouble with the opening, just skip the prologue. I had nearly stopped there, and, having finished the book, I know I'd have missed out. A solid three-point-five rounded up. Originally posted on tCR.
  • Falling (Fallen Idols #1 - paranormal chick lit romance novella) on July 24, 2011
    star star star star
    This was a wonderful weekend read--fun, light, with one of the strongest first-person narrators I've read in the romance genre in a long, long time. Our main character, Alexis, isn't afraid to climb mountains to get what she wants--literally. Labeled The World's Bravest Woman, she rappels down buildings and rafts rapids. But when her fiancé dumps her for a busty Italian model, she'd rather hide under a blanket on her sisters couch. Her sister has other ideas, and Alexis finds herself being dragged into the latest all-exclusive club for some post-break-up therapy. Enter one plotting goddess, a coven of witches, and one immortal Greek warrior with an 184-year-old curse hanging over his head. It's a night on the town in downtown San Francisco. The story is told from Alexis point of view, and she is an engaging, intelligent narrator who has no problem realizing that instant attraction isn't exactly real love, and that erratic behavior on the guy's part calls for the psychiatric ward, not an elopement. I do love me a sane heroine. At this point, I didn't even mind Alexis' hang-ups over her own appearance or the turbo-charged attraction--unavoidable when the plot demands true luv in ten thousand words or less. It was a solid five-star romance right until the main action hit the metaphysical fan. Too fast; slow down, story! The book is one hundred pages. This makes it a quick and enjoyable popcorn read--but it also means there is almost no space for developing characters outside of the heroine and their reactions to having their entire worldview turned upside down. Indeed, they seem to take everything almost impossibly in stride! In the end, I was left feeling that the characters had been all been jipped out of their full potential. Let that hair out a bit more, I wanted to tell the story, give me some breathing room and the characters some elbow space. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gray will write the sequel to Falling as a full novel; her writing style is strong enough to pull it off and leave the reader wanting more.
  • Fate's Mirror on Sep. 01, 2011
    star star star star star
    Morris is a hacker virtuoso whose panic attacks make it impossible for him to leave his home. That’s all fine and dandy as far as he’s concerned...right up 'til someone goes and blows up his house. Morris discovers that someone really is out to get him as he tries to figure out what happened, who’s behind it, and whether it has anything to do with his ex’s job in the government–and her sudden and brutal death. Turns out, Fate’s Mirror is science fiction fun on a stick. It’s a Robert Ludlum meets Neuromancer in a future near enough to be recognizable, but far enough that the writing team that is M.H. Mead has its hands full creating a high tech world in all its three-d glory. Once I got past the first few pages (slightly rough, ignore that), it was a fast-paced ride. The authors aren’t afraid to change setting and direction by taking out characters and keeping me guessing. Written in third person limited, we also gain glimpses into the minds of most of the actors, seeing the characters from a delightful range of perspectives. The narrative itself is one part cyberpunk fun, one (small) part romance, and one part myths-meet-virtual-naval-battles. To that effect, the story uses the possibilities of virtual reality to open the doorway to more fantastical world-building (think Tad Williams and his Otherland series). It's a lot of fun. Read it, I say. “Morris Payne just might save the world. If only he can gather the courage to leave his house.”
  • Slippery Souls on March 18, 2012
    star star star star
    This book was delightful, in the full meaning of the word. It takes on a vivid, irreverent style (think Terry Pratchett) and melds it with some dark(ish) fantasy. One moment, Libby is marching out of the grocery store, jug of milk in hand, set on breaking up with her slob of a boyfriend-soon-to-be-ex. The next, she is killed by a hit-and-run. When she wakes up, she’s in a beach house at Sunray Bay, a kind of afterlife, she assumes, since her also-dead-dog Rufus can now talk. But not all is as it seems at the sunny beach town, and it certainly isn’t Heaven. Within an hour of her arrival, Libby finds herself chased by the head of the local monster slayers, helping a rogue ex-operative, and on the top of the Mayor’s Most Wanted list. Libby’s adventures are part humor, part mystery thrill, and part romantic subplot. Author Rachael Dixon takes the oldest fantasy trope in the book (bringing Libby over to a new world and dumping her there to flounder) and gives it her own, delectable spin. All in all, I fell in love with the use of non-linear narrative at the opening, and (of course and absolutely) the writing style. Memorable characters, deft narrative decisions, and a take-no-nonsense protagonist makes for a line of gold stars.