Neptune's Tears (Timedance #1) by Susan Waggoner

“London, 2218 A.D. Seventeen-year-old Zee is an intern empath. She’s focused on her job, poised for a great career—until one day an attractive patient undoes her hard-earned calm. As an empath, she cannot afford such distractions, but neither can she stay away from David, even when she discovers he’s one of a mysterious alien race. As London comes under attack by anarchist bombings, and as Zee struggles to get a handle on her unusually strong psychic abilities, David starts pulling away. Although Zee’s sure he’s attracted to her, David has secrets he cannot share. But it’s too late for Zee. She’s losing her heart to the gray-eyed alien boy, and she’s determined to follow him—no matter how far it may take her.”

I was entranced by the cover and I'd had it on my to-reads list for a few months..but then….I passed it several times at the Macmillan booth at ALA in Chicago (2013 for future readers reference.) I actually waited an hour in line, at the crazy bull run/zoo on Monday at 12 (where magically, everyone pops up from their crevices and they run down everyone they can to get to the booths that sell their books at noon.)
I waited for an hour, and once I was let in to the booth area, I picked this last beautiful display copy up and went to get a second before checking out. The process sounded peaceful, but what actually happened, was that about 30 people rushed me, crushed me into the booth and left with their precious books without paying for them.
I and three other dignified souls stuck around to express thanks with green paper of monetary value. I’d had my eye on this book for the whole weekend, knowing they only had that display copy. I was overjoyed when I was third in line!
So I made sure that I stuck this one in my plane backpack (which much to my chagrin, I had to take with me every day of ALA to keep track of my medicine and etc.)
The next day, exhausted, I sat on the plane and took this puppy out. I read…and read…and read.
Then I read the rest of it on the drive back home from LAX.
I finished it before we ‘got down the hill’ (it’s what we call the mountain pass that separates LA from my home town.) and I was sorely disappointed.
Yeah, it had lots of precise medical terminology…. But it had no character attachment (oh look, someone died and I don’t care.)
The other thing that drove me crazy? You know the saying “Show, don’t tell”? This book was ALL TELL and no show. Also, the time jumps drove me crazy. You’d go to the next chapter and all of the sudden, it was a month later….What happened in those months and those weeks? Surely she wasn’t put in to a chamber that paused her every thought and emotional turmoil? Yet she was in the same mental state she was before the skip… This definitely contributed to the character detachment.
I just keep waiting for it to get better and it never did. I’m usually such a sci-fi chick! This book held loads of promise, but the way it was written totally put me off. No matter how many unanswered questions there are, I will not be picking up the sequel. Shame. Perhaps it might have been saved if it had a really good (read: ruthless, dictatoresque) content editor.
Don’t pick this book up. There are plenty of others with the same premises that you will enjoy much, much, much better.

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.
Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

I really didn’t like this book. I don’t really have much to say about the composition itself… I felt like it had true potential when I received it (BEA 2012!) but the more I read, the more it let me down. It lacked a certain…direction. I mean, they each had a goal, but it just seemed like it was filling this hole. Like it was a little lost and so it just decided to say ‘How about this general direction?’

I was willing to give it a chance but what really ticked me off was smack in the middle of the action, Raffe just decides to blurt out ‘Oh, no, I’m agnostic.’

Listen, I know agnostics aren’t atheists. Agnostics don’t confirm or deny God’s existence. I just couldn’t take it seriously after that. He’s a freaking angel who’s not sure of God’s existence. Seriously? I don’t mind when the angels are Fallen, or something similar…but an angel that’s just not sure?!  I finished the book quickly after that. There are loads of other Angel/Fallen Angel stories out there, just don’t get this one…its just sort of…lukewarm.  I have other issues with some of the…..implied things about God/angels/human kind. But It’s far too detailed to go through here. Perhaps on my blog page I roll out my arsenal.  ;)

8/22/12