Every Breath and Every Word, by Ellie Marney

The titles are rather generic, but Every Breath and Every Word are really good. I mean Really. Really. Good. As in, I closed the cover of the first one (a library copy) and immediately went to my Kindle to download the second because there was no way I was waiting until my library got it. Ellie Marney is a fantastic writer. (What is it with those Australians: something in the soil there grows fabulously talented people!)

I'm sorry, Benedict*, but Mycroft has just supplanted you as my favourite Sherlock Holmes interpretation. James Mycroft and Rachel Watts: two teenagers in Melbourne, Australia, neighbours, friends; both smart, observant, good at deductive reasoning. Mycroft is intense, brilliant, damaged, audacious, troubled, but kind. And seriously hot. I mean, wowza. He's got a traumatic past and a broken present and he acts out unpredictably; he leaps off the page like a train wreck.

Rachel Watts is more grounded but she's got her own issues. She's strong—physically and mentally—, stubborn, brave and practical, with the hands-on knowledge and experience of a sheep farmer. I loved all the specific details of life on the farm that she remembers with grief because her family had to leave and come to the city. She feels so out of place in the city; she and Mycroft are two misfits drawn together by their intelligence and by their compassionate observation of the world around them.

Awesome characters! So real, so deep, so rounded; definitely teens, definitely Australian—and at the same time both such great versions of Holmes and Watson. **Very slight spoiler alert, highlight to read: And the chemistry between them? I thought the pages were going to catch fire! 

(Not that romance is the main focus of these books; the best thing about them is the true friendship—and partnership—between Mycroft and Watts. But there's this simmering sexual tension going through the whole thing, and, gotta say, some of the best kissing scenes I've ever read.)

The writing is superb. Vivid, in-your-face, muscular prose. Visceral. I felt as though I were inhabiting Rachel's skin. Her emotions, her reactions all felt completely authentic and dragged me along with her through the story. There is violence and death—it is a murder mystery, after all—and Marney doesn't pull her punches in describing it. But nothing gratuitous or glorified; rather, the investigation of death is a celebration of our fragile humanity. Life matters.

I loved the unapologetic Aussie-ness of the setting and the language. There were words and phrases I had no idea what they meant but it didn't matter; they just added so much color.

There were the odd moments when my suspension of disbelief stuttered—Mycroft and Watts get themselves into some situations that aren't entirely plausible, particularly for teens—but it was always so exciting that I didn't care, and their reactions to said situations were completely believable. The second book is tighter than the first book; I feel as though Marney is just hitting her stride as a writer and I can't wait for the next installment!

I think I have to go with BBQ for my food analogy here (pretty sure that's an Australian thing): meaty, tender, falling-off-the bone ribs with a smoky-sweet-spicy sauce. Lick your fingers and you still want more.

* Cumberbatch. Of the BBC series Sherlock. Which if you haven't seen stop reading this blog and go to Netflix now!

Touchstone Trilogy, by Andrea K. Höst

Did you know it's Science Fiction Month? At least, it is according to the bookish folk over at Oh, The Books and Rinn Reads. They're hosting a month full of blogs and events that sounds like a sci-fastic idea, and I would definitely sign myself up to participate if I wasn't going to Morocco for three weeks.

But in the spirit of celebrating Science Fiction in all its mutations, I offer you this awesome alternate world science fantasy trilogy which you should definitely read this month, if not sooner.

Stray, Lab Rat One, and Caszandra are the diary of Cassandra Devlin, Australian girl who accidentally ends up on another planet and has to deal with what she finds there. There's lots of cool plot and setting details, but the strength of these novels is Cassandra's voice and character. Normal, practical, stoic but not immune to panic and despair, with a great self-deprecating sense of humour—it's the way she deals with everything the plot and setting throws at her that riveted me to the page.

I debated whether to say anything about the plot in this review. I read it without really knowing what I was in store for, so I got the fun of discovering all the surprising things that happen right along with Cassandra, and I really enjoyed that experience. So if you don't want any spoilers at all, then stop reading this blog, take my word for it that you'll like these books (and if you don't believe me, believe Sherwood Smith and Rachel Neumeier), and go start reading Stray.




Okay, you still need a little more convincing?

Stray begins with Cassandra walking home from school in Australia and accidentally walking out of the world.* I think we all (all of us who read Narnia, anyway) secretly wish that would happen to us, but  Höst takes that trope and gives it the realistic treatment it deserves: how would an average Australian girl figure out how not to die on a strange, unpopulated planet with only the supplies in her school knapsack? I was completely sucked into the story and probably would have kept reading even if the whole story was just Cassandra alone vs planet.

(If it's sounding good to you then stop reading now!)

But then she gets picked up by some patrollers and taken to the safe planet where people actually live, and injected with a nanotech interface in her brain so she can learn the language and figure out how to live in this completely alien (but human) society. And that was pretty cool, and I would have kept reading even if it was all just adapt-to-new-technology-and-social-norms-and-make-friends-and-come-to-terms-with-never-going-home-again.

(Last chance. Don't make me tell you what happens next. Just go get the book now!)

But it turns out that a lot of people here have various crazy psychic powers, and Cassandra discovers that she enhances people's powers when they touch her. So off she gets whisked to the psychic ninja warrior training facility, because this planet is constantly fighting off monsters from non-real planes of existence, and someone who enhances psychic powers would come in really handy.

That is definitely all I'm going to tell you. No mention of really hot warrior guys in way cool form-fitting nanotech suits will cross my lips.

These books were a lot of fun, and they made more than five hours of travel time fly by. They also had so much substance, all kinds of interesting ideas, such fascinating world-building—that I know I'll be rereading them.

Something chocolate and chewy . . . oh! the dessert we shared when I took my daughter out for dinner in Ottawa: chocolate brownie tart with peanut butter mousse. Mmmmm. Yes.



*That sentence suddenly reminded me of a book I remember loving when I was young: A Walk Out of the World by Ruth Nichols. I don't remember anything about the plot, but just seeing the cover again when I googled it brought back intense happy feelings. This book obviously impacted me greatly; I should try to get my hands on a copy and reread it.