Tagged: maya

Operation Owl by Tara Quan

Operation Owl by Tara Quan(Cover picture courtesy of Elle Rush’s blog.)

A Beyond Fairytales Adaptation of Grimm’s The Owl

Five years ago, Maya Jain kissed her best friend only to have him run out of her dorm room and leave the state. When he shows up in Washington, D.C., a wanted fugitive sought after by every branch of the US government, she can’t bring herself to ignore his plight. As their physical relationship picks up where it left off, she decides it’s time to make him see her as more than the bespectacled, bookish girl he once called “Owl.”

After being accused of espionage and treason, Zack Strong needs a forensic accountant to help clear his name. Not knowing who he can trust, this white-hat hacker has no choice but to ask his former best friend and math tutor for help. Together they unravel a cyber conspiracy at the Barn, an NSA facility tasked to intercept electronic communications. But as they traverse the nation’s capital to avoid capture, Maya insists on letting their simmering sexual tension take its natural course. Even though he’s never been able to shake the memory of their one kiss, he refuses to let her give up her life for a man with no future.

 

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]

Operation Owl was a solid ‘meh’ for me personally.  Yes, I went into this expecting for there to be lots of romance (which was fine) but I also expected a little bit more action.  I’ll explain.

Essentially, the big conspiracy plot that’s the reason why Zack is running plays second fiddle to the interpersonal conflict between him and Maya.  That’s just fine by me in theory, except that in practice, the actual huge conspiracy probably made up less than 25% of the book whereas the rest was about their friendship.  With a conspiracy that big, I would have preferred a little more action because it’s pretty important.  So even though Operation Owl does have an interesting plot on the blurb, it’s actually very much the ‘romantic comedy’ it’s labelled as.  (Though lacking on the comedy part.)

Despite my misgivings about the plot, I did enjoy the characters.  Maya and Zack have had a complicated relationship, to say the least.  We learn about the events of five years ago that led to Maya kissing Zack and how that in turn led to them not seeing each other in person for all that time.  When they finally meet again, having Zack being chased by the government’s hired mercenaries doesn’t exactly make for the best circumstances.  Still, they make it work and their bond re-forms.  I liked seeing from each of their viewpoints how they learned to let go of the past and just focus on the present.  This is definitely one of the better romances I’ve read.

Tara Quan’s writing style is actually very good.  It’s well-suited to the contemporary feel of her novel and while it is pared-down, I was never confused about the setting or which character was speaking (as sometimes happens when authors try to cut too much description).  She does an excellent job with the sexual tension of both characters and by a certain point in the book you’re just ready to scream at them to go and have sex already.  Which is sort of the purpose of that unresolved sexual tension, I suppose.

So character-wise and writing-wise, I really have no complaints.  I would have liked for there to have been more focus on the conspiracy, but that’s just me.  At least the conflict was resolved nicely (but not necessarily neatly) at the very end and it would almost be believable were I not such a cynic about politics.  Again, that’s just me; it’s actually quite a satisfying ending from a reader’s standpoint.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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Lady of Palenque: Flower of Bacal by Anna Kirwan

Lady of Palenque by Anna Kirwan(Cover picture courtesy of Examiner.com.)

9.15.18.2.11 9 Chuen 14 Mol (July 7)

Lakamha, Bacal Highland

I thought, now that I leave Lakamha, I may never return.  I may never see my family again.  Well, perhaps I will see some of them.  But I will be like the water that comes down from a spring deep in the heart of a mountain cavern.  It can flow and seep and pool and cascade all the way down to the water lily fields, all the way down to the big river, all the way to the marshes and the great salt sea….

But it can never flow back uphill to its home.

I will never forget Lakamha, even if Lakamha forgets me.

All I really have to say is meh.  Lady of Palenque was a book that had so much potential that was unrealized; I should have loved it.  I have visited 3 different Mayan cities, two of which are mentioned in the book and was fascinated by even the little bit of history I learned while there.  So when I saw that Lady of Palenque was written in the point of view of a Mayan princess, I practically jumped with joy.  Here was a great opportunity to learn more about the Classical Mayan Period and their culture!

Um, not really.  Sure, I learned a few things, but Anna Kirwan didn’t really seem to know how to explain all of the exotic customs and items from daily life to readers.  It seems like she just assumed readers would know about these things.  Well, no.  Despite the Mayan Doomsday scare of 2012 perpetuated by an idiotic media, not much is actually known about the Mayan culture in the mainstream.  Even someone like me who has visited multiple Mayan sites really has next to no background in their history in the relative scheme of things.  So I didn’t really learn as much as I did from other books in The Royal Diaries.

Part of the problem was the names.  Oh my word, the names!  When the main character introduces herself as ShahnaK’in Yaxchel Pacal, Princess Green Jay on the Wall, you know things are going to be complicated.  And that really isn’t the Lady of Palenque’s name because Anna Kirwan had to make up her personal name.  Her real name was “Chac Nik Ye, Yax Ahau Xoc”.  Now, I’m a huge advocate for being as realistic as possible in historical fiction, but with all of the insanely long, complicated names (to a Westerner with a frankly pathetic background in language) I had a hard time following the story itself.  As far as I can tell, it mostly features the thirteen-year-old Lady travelling to her husband-to-be in Xukpi.

There has to be a better way to keep the names straight without completely dumbing down the book, right?  Right?!

I give this book 2/5 stars.

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*Only available as a used book.