On Basilisk Station is the first book in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. It's available for free at the Baen webshop.

There is a plot in there somewhere... something about a young captain being screwed over by a military lousy with aristocratic nepotism, being sent to a neglected station, actually doing the navy's job, and uncovering some kind of plot... but I found it hard to follow.

The two main problems I had were the infodumps and the viewpoint changes.

The long and sometimes awkwardly placed infodumps about technology and history seemed to go into way, way more detail than was required for the story, leaving me with the impression that David Weber rather wanted to write something like an RPG sourcebook. (For example during a spaceship "chase" not only explaining the neccessary information about their FTL travel, but the complete history of its development.)

I did not keep count of viewpoint characters, but wouldn't be surprised if it had been over a dozen. The really confusing part was that often a change of viewpoint and location would not be signalled in any way; one paragraph from the viewpoint of Our Hero on her ship might be followed by one from the viewpoint of an antagonist on a different ship, which would only become clear a line or two after it happened, things like that. (I can't tell if that's just a problem with the ebook edition, or if it was really written that way.)

I appreciate that there is a female protagonist, and that she isn't the only one in the military (competent women being treated as miraculous because women aren't expected to be competent is really tiresome), but had trouble connecting with her.

I guess to enjoy this you need a higher interest in weapons and spaceship specs, military hierarchy, and worldbuilding details even when they interrupt scenes than I have.

I bought Soulless after coming across recommendations on a comment thread on Ursula Vernon's Livejournal. Probably I should have paid more attention, but, oh, well. Let's look at the blurb:

Alexia Tarabotti is labouring under a great many social tribulations.
First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.
Where to go from there? From bad to worse, apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.
With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia is responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's High Society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

That blurb made me expect a mystery with a bit of romance thrown in. However, it's at least half romance, including sex, and the mystery bits didn't seem handled very well.

I get the kind of mystery where the reader is supposed to know more than the protagonists trying to figure things out, because some scenes are not from the protagonists' perspective, and I get the kind of mystery where vague hints are dropped that the reader might figure out things faster than the protagonists.
In this book, there was a hint early on not only dropped, but highlighted with red flashing lights and a klaxon, so I was left with the impression that the supposed investigators were remarkably dense never considering something in that direction.

That leads to my main beef with the book: The plot is utterly predictable. The only suprises are of the kind "man with a gun enters the room", metaphorically speaking; nobody turns out to be anything other than they seem.

What I like best about this book is the worldbuilding. It's an alternative history in which the Renaissance was triggered by immortals (vampires, werewolves and ghosts) giving up their "masquerade", and by the time of the book they are accepted sub-societies that people who survive the initiating bite get congratulated on joining, at least in Britain.

Another interesting bit were the mindgames Alexia was playing with herself at some point regarding her relationship (or not) with Lord Maccon.

As to the writing style, I think the author was mostly going for an amusing tone. There were a handful of places where the words themselves threw me right out of the story (most bizarre example: referring to penis-in-vagina intercourse as "he impaled himself").

There were at least that many lines that struck me as particularly funny and/or clever, though, so over all not too bad.

For me it was OK to read fluff, but nothing that makes me want to buy following books. I suspect someone who has more interest in romance and sex might get more out of it than I did.

Yes, after all I am one of the people who added to the visitor-count for that movie.

The hype seems weird, but over all it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, after some things I'd heard.

Some spoilers following, in case you're even more slow finding your way to the cinema.

The Stepsister Scheme is a novel based on fairy tales.

Shortly after her honeymoon, Danielle - also known as Cinderella - is attacked by one of her stepsisters, who tells her that her Prince Charming is gone. She insist on accompanying Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow (White) to find and rescue him from his kidnappers.

Jim Hines draws on not-Disneyfied versions of the tales, adding his own ideas on top of it. Talia received among other things the fairy gift of grace and dance - and considers fighting a dance. She also is well-informed about goings on in the kingdom, and has more than a bit of criminal energy. Snow is a sorceress adept in mirror magic. Danielle's main contribution to the team seems to be a certain knack for finding ways to twist fairy "contracts", though the whole talking-to-animals bit doesn't hurt, either.

There are only three things that bothered me a bit, but they were rather minor. First, a trend of repeating some words too often in short intervals. Second, the "we don't care about you, we just want the child you're pregnant with" stuff - but then, Danielle didn't exactly play the part of incubator on legs, when she could help it. Third, the strong plot hook left for the sequel - not a real cliffhanger (though I guess it could be if you care more about children than I do), but it's a practise I dislike.

On the plus side we have a nice adventure plot with mystery elements, friendship in a group of women (rather than the usual "dudes plus one token female/love interest"). I particularly likes easygoing, enthusiastic Snow.
The world as such also feels alive, with Snow and Talia's background from different countries, and the politics between the (human) kingdom of Lorindar and the fairies.

It's fun to read and will end up on my bookshelf, and I will probably get the sequel eventually.

Judging by a recent post in Jim Hines' Livejournal, the announced trilogy (second part to be published this year) has already grown to a tetralogy.

---

"Sleeping Beauty's" background is based on Sun, Moon, and Talia, a pretty disgusting tale with an even more disgusting Aesop tacked on.

I can't think of many other fantasy/adventure books focusing on a group of women, in fact, only the Discworld book featuring the Witches. Anyone got any recommendations?