More vignettes

Explosive Eighteen, by Evanovich, is actually one of the least explosive novels in the series, aside from Lula and Stephanie setting off a warehouse fire with a grenade launcher. Stephanie continues to date both Morelli and Ranger, with predictable fireworks on that front. She shows a bit more mettle here than in most stories, managing to fight off a stalker several times on her own. Another bit of mind candy for these cold winter evenings.

Crimson Death, most recent in the Anita Blake novels (though it took me a long time to get it from the hold list at the library, so for all I know there may be another one written by now), actually manages to get nearly halfway through its 700 pages before the first graphic sex scene, so that was refreshing. What was not refreshing was the relationship discussions that have now replaced bloody action sequences. Anita gets recruited to solve a vampire problem in Ireland, helping out her old friend, Edward, and there really isn't any violence to speak of until after they arrive there. I think the best part of the book is actually the last 100 pages. Anita's powers continue to grow, and I think she and Jean Claude are finally going to get very political. I can't recall if she's used the powers she gained back in Obsidian Butterfly before, but they came into play here, which was pretty cool, and she seems to be slowly learning to deal with what she gained from the Mother of All Darkness bit by bit. Also some new powers gained by her secondary triumvirate with Damian and Nathaniel. The boys are growing up at last.

The Shape of Desire by Sharon Shinn

I have pretty much loved everything I've ever read by Sharon Shinn, from her Twelve Houses fantasies to the Angel series, as well as a couple of stand alone novels, but I guess it was only a matter of time before she disappointed me. The Shape of Desire turns out to be a very thinly paranormal paranormal romance. And you know how much I despise romance novels.

Maria Devane has been involved with a man named Dante since she was in college. Dante is a shape-shifter, whose shifting is not really under his control, so he turns into a random animal of his approximate body weight at irregular intervals, which are gradually growing longer and more frequent, so that, fifteen years later, he is only human for three or four days at a time, and then gone for several weeks, as he roams the wilds in his animal shape.

Maria has never told anyone about Dante and her love affair, not even her family or coworkers. When one of her coworkers is being victimized by her abusive husband, Ritchie, and there is a confrontation between he and Dante, and then Ritchie turns up dead, later, mauled by some unidentified wild animal, Maria fears that her lover is to blame. A very mild tension builds in this book over whether he will be found out, and what will happen to the two of them.

Mostly, the whole story reads like an cross between Sex and the City and The Office, without the humor, and the final "reveal" of the killer is pretty anticlimactic. I certainly hope Shinn returns to her strengths, soon!