supercheesegirl

It's generally a bad sign when the author is far more enamored of her heroine than I am. Sara, intrepid book restorer, has a fascination with reclaiming the lost past of Latin America; she is assigned to restore a 16th-century book that's supposedly a novel about an Aztec princess who smuggles herself to Europe as a juggler for the Pope in a mission to assassinate the emperor, but Sara finds herself being drawn into the book and wanting to prove the story is true. I found myself a lot more interested by Helen the Aztec juggler princess than by Sara, and I think the book would have been much stronger if it had been primarily about Helen with Sara's story just the framework. As it is, the book's about Sara, and Helen's story is the catalyst that forces her to change, and I just think it's weak. Sara's a Mary Sue of a character, and she's annoying even if she does restore old books for a living. But hey, the sub-story involved Helen the Aztec princess getting deflowered by a hot Vatican nun, so I'm down. But I've just read a bunch of stupid novels in a row, and now I need to read something with a little more brain.

In other news, I just spent $50 in amazon gift certificates as a housewarming present to myself. I got Harry Potter book 5 (the only one I'm missing), a new Mrs. Pollifax, the official Scrabble dictionary, and Wonderfalls on DVD. I'm pleased.