Review: Untouched by Anna Campbell

Last weekend's romance novel was by new author Anna Campbell. She made quite a splash with the controversial Claiming the Courtesan. That one did not appeal but her second book sounded right up my alley.



Matthew Sheene, a marquis, has been held captive by his greedy uncle so that he, the uncle, can control the family fortune. Matthew suffered a fit of some sort when he was 14, and that is the basis for his uncles charges of insanity. Matthew himself is not sure of his sanity and, locked away on a small estate as he is, he has little to compare himself with and almost no human interaction. To make his captivity more palatable the uncle brings Matthew a woman to entertain him. Unfortunately for Grace, he kidnaps her, a widow, rather than a prostitute. At first Grace is very frightened of her situation, then begins to care for Matthew.

Unfortunately this book didn't work for me. I enjoyed it at first and was willing to suspend disbelief enough to accept the rather preposterous set up. I liked the characters, especially Matthew, and I think the author did very good job of making Matthew, who is powerless and a victim, hero material. Things went south for me about half way through the book in the third redundant sex scene. The author spends much more time on sex than on a developing relationship or the emotions of the charcters. Also the writing is overblown. I think this author was shooting for epic but ended up with melodramatic.

I think the seed of a good book is buried under all the wordy, overwrought prose. If the author could tone down the exaggeration, and aim for subtlety, her writing would greatly improve and her story could blossom. Bad metaphor, I know.

My Grade: C

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

This was a very frustrating read for me. I've seen good reviews of this book and while the premise was really interesting, the execution left a lot to be desired.

Mary lives in a community dominated by the Sisterhood, a group of women who are the religious leaders of the community, and who keep everyone safe from the Unconsecrated. The village lives in fear of the Unconsecrated, the zombies, who roam the Forest of Hands and Teeth. They hunger for living human flesh and one bite can turn anyone into the undead. Mary comes to live with the Sisterhood and begins to realize that the Sisterhood has knowledge and secrets that it will not share. When the zombies breach the fence protecting the village, Mary and a group of others must leave and hope to find other humans beyond the Forest.

This book has a winning story. The idea of an isolated village fighting against an unimaginable evil is compelling. The monsters were truly scary and I love a survival story. I became frustrated with the heroine, Mary, the narrator of the story. She comes across as selfish and immature. She is obsessed with the idea of the ocean beyond the Forest and is willing to endanger herself and others of her party to find it.

I was also frustrated by how the author wrote some parts of the story. This group of people are in a survival situation yet they don't seem to have a plan; they react rather than act. At one point they are in a safe location that will eventually be breached by the zombies, yet they don't develop an escape plan or a way to kill the zombies. There is also little dialogue, so the story is mostly told through Mary's inner thoughts and concerns.

I think that if the author had approached the book a differently this could have been fabulous.

Grade C