Blue Diablo (A Corine Solomon Novel) by Ann Aguirre
Roc (April 7, 2009)336 pages (I read the Kindle version)
$6.99 paperback
$4.79 Kindle
Characters: 16/20
Writing: 17/20
Setting: 8/10
Plot: 15/20
Passion: 4/10
Cover: 2/5 (bonus pts)
Grade: 80/100 = B-
Originality:
Corine has a special gift of being able to touch objects and "read" them. Some objects hold a charge that Corine can see. This was about the only cool thing in this book.
Characters:
Corine Solomon: special gifted woman, running from ex-boyfriend Chance because they used to work together and she nearly got killed so she blames him. She was living in Mexico City until Chance found her. He needed help. She's a very weak character, literally. Her only good thing is the crack of her tongue and her gift of touching objects. Other than that she's kind of bland.
Chance: He's the hot, dark skinned, asian mixed male character. His "gift" is that he can influence situations with his "Chance" gift. He's totally in love with Corine but he doesn't do much to win her back. I mean come on! If you want a girl you don't let her run away and not track her down after 18 months until you need her "gift". Lame.
Chuch & Eva: Married couple that helps Chance and Corine. He's a super cool dude and his wife is a kick ass woman. They would have made better lead characters.
There are a few other minor characters that were important to the story line but they weren't great characters.
Writing:
This was my first book by Ann Aguirre. I most likely will not read any other books by her. The writing wasn't terrible. I blame the characters. I didn't like the characters. There wasn't much to laugh at, there was little to no passion, and I just didn't click with the story or the characters.
Setting:
Most of the story took place in or incredibly near Mexico. There was a lot of Spanish in the book. Some of it was translated word for word but there were some times that I don't think it was translated word for word and it left me questioning exactly what was said. I think it's okay to use foreign speech in a book but only if it's common knowledge. There were quite a few times I didn't know what the hell was being said and I took three years of high school Spanish! The setting didn't help the story what so ever. If anything, I think it made it worse for me.
Plot:
Now this is probably where it all went wrong for me. The plot centers around the disappearence of Chance's mom Min. They work together to find her. It's not entirely interesting to find out what happened to her. The characters we meet along the way are lacking. The fued between Chance and Corine is just overdone and old by the end of the book that I almost hope they don't get back together.
Passion:
It's there but like so not there. Chance is a hottie that likes a nottie. Corine does not impress me whatsoever and honestly I think I hate her. She's totally screwed up and fighting her own self esteem or selfishness on the whole ordeal with taking back Chance. Blah.
Cover:
And last but not least. The Cover. The Title. WTF? Blue Diablo? I thought the title was cool. I thought that this book was going to be amazing. The title is from Corine's favorite alcoholic beverage. A blue diablo. It has nothing to do with the story. It's like the author or publisher was like, "What do we call it?". It doesn't have anything catching so they called it the drink of choice and gave it the "Corine Solomon Novels" series name. The cover it's self isn't that great but the drink does look kinda cool.
Overall:
Not a fan. I'm really surprised that I even finished it. I guess I was still clinging to a last hope that Corine and Chance would make up but I don't know why I even gave it a second thought. I probably will not read any follow ups because I don't like being pulled around by my heartstrings by characters or authors. Chance deserves better. I know I sound bitter but I can't help it.
Excerpt is available on Ann Aguirre's website.
Did you read this one? Did you enjoy it? How is my review different than yours? Did you love or hate Corine?
I liked the book. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, which actually should be 3.5 out of 5 after having a couple of weeks to think about it. When I finished it, I really liked it but after some time...it's not a memorable story. KWIM?
ReplyDeleteI really didn't want to read this book, I didn't like the Mexico setting(remember my e-mail??) and the story description didn't get me excited. This is not a book I would have spotted on the shelf and bought. I wanted that Ilona Andrews book darn it! I gave it a chance because I won it. I was prepared to hate this story and was surprised to find out that I didn't. I would like to read the next one to see what happens but it's not a book I'll be hunting down on release day.
I am curious about her other book, Grimspace and plan on reading that one day.
I have this on my TBR list so I'll be reading it sometime in the future.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say I really like the new way you're reviewing your books. A very nice break down 8)
Leigh Ann,
ReplyDeleteI too was interested in Grimspace before I read this book. I'll be reading the "sample" on my Kindle before purchasing that book.
Did you like Corine? She's not the typical lead female in any urban fantasy book I've ever read. Again, she was only cool because of her gift.
I feel bad for being so negative and honestly I'm pissed. I wanted to like this book. It was so many things I wasn't expecting. I need to start reading reviews better. I'm always afraid I'm going to be swayed or learn important plot details from reviews that I usually just skim them.
The sad thing is that I won a physical copy of this book too. I haven't received it yet but I'll probably just offer it up for a contest on my blog. Hopefully people will still enter the contest after my review.
I did give it a B-. That's not too terrible. :P
*cringes at the cover*
ReplyDeleteyou have an award! :)
I like the cover and plan to make a blue diablo as soon as possible. *slurp*
ReplyDeleteAguirre mentioned somewhere tho that they sexed up the model far more than the character actually is. That I can agree with.
Bear with me for a sec; I'm a little confused over your grade - do you have a grade explanation somewhere? I looked, but I probably missed it. I still need to write my review and I'm probably going to give it about a B- myself - but for entirely different reasons, more so on the good side. You seemed more unhappy with the book than happy, so I expected when I looked back up at the grade to see something closer to a D.
Anywho, sorry it didn't work for you. Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series is much more snappily paced and very different from this newer series, if that helps at all.
KMont!
ReplyDeleteI don't have an explanation for the grading system. Basically, I take off as many points per subject that I deem warrant. I HATE giving bad grades and whining about why I dislike a book. Again, I really wanted to like this book.
Ultimately, I think I had issues, personally, with this book than I usually do. Not that anything similiar has ever happened to me but emotionally I seemed to have connected with Chance and NOT Corine, which made me actually hate her as a character.
I should probably do a revision to my grade system to make it a bit more simpler. I really liked that the total was out of 100 points though. I'll have to do some research on a book grading system. I saw yours but that doesn't really apply to my blog. :)