More of the DNF category

Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith

From Amazon: With a wink and a nod to Bram Stoker, New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith unites the casts of Tantalize and Eternal in a delicious dark fantasy her fans will devour. Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateuse and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life -- or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature -- and a flaming sword -- and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before its too late. Even if they save the world, will there be time left to salvage Quincie’s soul?

From Me: I’m a little over teen paranormal but this one is fresher than most. Not quite enough to keep me reading at the busy end of the year but I flicked thru it to the end. The Light wins because the heroine keeps faith (which was a hard thing to get my head around, given she’s a vamp) and true love conquers all. Three stars for the bits I did read.

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

Embargoed until May 2011 but from the back of the book: Christine wakes in a strange bed beside a man she does not recognise. In the bathroom she finds a photograph of him taped to the mirror, and beneath it the words “Your husband.” Each day, Christine wakes knowing nothing of her life. Each night, her mind erases the day. But before she goes to sleep, she will recover fragments from her past, flashbacks to the accident that damaged her, and then – mercifully – she will forget. Chilling, exquisitely crafted and compulsively readable, S. J. Watson’s debut novel Before I Go To Sleep is a psychological thriller of the highest order. It asks primary questions. Are there things best not remembered? Who are we if we do not know our own history? How do we love without memory?

From Me: It’s unfortunate but right from the start this reminded me of the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore movie 50 First Dates. And as this debut novel takes itself very seriously indeed this probably won’t be the author’s favourite comparison. However Rowan Jaffe is to adapt it into a screenplay and I think it would be better on the big screen. It’s not often I say that but this should translate well to a two hour thriller. If you want to see a cover there are a couple of versions floating around the net - I prefer Text's australian cover to the English version (was the designer channelling Meyer's Host?) but this far out from publication neither may be final.