Erda Baykara Baykara itibaren Банката, Джаркханд 828207, Индия itibaren Банката, Джаркханд 828207, Индия

Coming from someone who loves "comedic hormance" (a funny little term I read in the acknowledgments of Tempest Rising), I absolutely adored this novel! It was filled with just the right amounts of sarcasm, laughs, the supernatural, sex, and action. I am thrilled to fall in love with another series and heroine! Jane True, a 26 year-old bookstore clerk and town-outcast, is thrust into the world of the supernatural when she finds out her true heritage (pun intended :D). Still recovering from the loss of the love of her life, Jane finds a dead body during her nightly swim in the seemingly freezing ocean. Who would of thought finding a dead person would bring a kelpie, gnome, and giant dog into your neck of the woods to tell you your only half human? Add a sexy vampire to the mix, and the life Jane thought she had will forever be altered.

I felt like I should I have read this around the time I read The Da Vinci Code, but I didn't. I saw it on the shelf and picked it up, not realizing the movie comes out next month. Just like The Da Vinci Code, this was a non-stop thriller that I tore through. I thought the mystery of the churches in Rome and the four elements murders were so clever. I didn't get too involved in the religious aspect of the story, just enjoyed it as a good mystery. The fact that I was in Rome this past summer and visited many of these places in person, including the Vatican, made it even more appealing to me.

Several people told me that they loved the beginning of this book but lost interest somewhere in the middle; for me, it was the opposite. I hit the halfway point, wearied of the pretentious writing and, I felt, unfocused and often unfair characterization of Briony, and was ready to finish the book out of a sense of obligation only, and then the second half redeemed it for me. I was far more satisfied with adult Briony than child Briony, and not just because the character herself had matured and grown more aware. I found McEwan's treatment of the young Briony patronizing and fundamentally unsympathetic, which made the early plot points which pivoted around her unbearable to slog through. The war section helped focus the narrative and pull it in from the floaty, long-winded, multi-perspective-d beginning, and I found the epilogue affecting, though admittedly a bit contrived. My one other complaint is that Cecilia never came together as a character for me. I'm glad I stuck with the book, though, and glad that a novel made good on its promise and improved as it went on.