Review: A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh

THE DEVIL WAS ABOUT TO BE TAMED.
Her name is Hannah Reid. Born a commoner, she has been Duchess of Dunbarton ever since she was nineteen years old, the wife of an elderly duke to whom she has been rumored to be consistently and flagrantly unfaithful. Now the old duke is dead and, more womanly and beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last.

And she knows just what she wants to do with it. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover — and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. Constantine’s illegitimacy has denied him the title of Earl, so now he denies himself nothing . . . or so the ton would have it. Rumored to be living the free and easy life of a sensualist in his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely.

But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn’t so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire — without getting singed. For the duchess and the dark lord each have startling secrets to reveal, and when all is said and done, neither will be able to say which one fell in love first, who tamed whom, and who has emerged from this game of hearts with the stronger hand.

I have to say that I am relieved that Balogh has finished this miniseries. I only really liked one out of the five, At Last Comes Love, the third book. I was curious to see what would happen to Constantine not to mention the explanation of the feud between him and Elliott and why they hated each other. Well, it was pretty much what I figured (the explanation). I liked Hannah though. I liked her determination and spunk and she and Con made a good couple. Balogh gave everyone their happily ever after as expected and all that. Her books are so predictable in that fashion that sometimes I wonder why I still read them. Balogh doesn't have any new series listed in the upcoming section of her website, just several reprints of older books.

Play Ball!

I'm a football fan. I don't usually follow baseball that much but when my husband announced that we would be going to see a Washington Nationals game within the next month it put me in the frame of mind to knock out all the baseball romances I had laying around. I ended up reading six of them in a 2-3 day span and had a lot of fun with them. 

I started with the Richmond Rogues series by Kate Angell. Squeeze Play, Curveball, Strike Zone, and Sliding Home all follow players in the MLB made up team from Richmond. Rogues was the perfect name for these guys - they're cocky and absolutely full of themselves but also totally cute and irresistible. Not to mention hot. As in smokin'. Funny too. My favorite book was Curveball, a book that is split into three stories about the Bat Pack, a trio of guys who got themselves put on suspension for fighting on the field. "Psycho" falls for a woman who appears on the doorstep of his historical landmark house to offer her decorating skills. "Chaser" discovers that he's been in love forever with his best friend, Jen, who is also the girl next door. And "Romeo" finally finds the woman who he can't live without but she also happens to the only one he's never been able to charm. (Psycho was my favorite.) These quick reads are filled with sexual innuendo and are very tongue-in-cheek but still manage to be sweet at the same time.

To contrast, Jill Shalvis's Pacific Heat team is a little more serious but no less enjoyable. Double Play is about the relationship between the Heat's pitcher, Pace Martin, and a reporter who always gets her story, Holly Hutchins. Pace and Holly become wrapped up in a scandal involving steroids and banned substances which doesn't do good things for the budding romance they share. Slow Heat pairs up Samantha McNead, publicist for the Heat, with Wade O'Riley, the Heat's catcher. Samantha's family owns the Heat and pushes her into a fake public relationship with Wade to help diffuse some unflattering attention involving a pregnant stalker. Samantha and Wade have a history and lots of chemistry, which makes for a sticky situation. Both Double Play and Slow Heat are classic Jill Shalvis and I am definitely looking forward to the next book, out probably next year. Kate Angell's next Richmond Rogues book, Sweet Spot, will be out in October 2010.

Best Book of May 2010

This is such a no-brainer it's not even funny but I'm going to hide it behind a jump anyway.

Review: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, officially, as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle - especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshifting community.

When she's called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar on the border between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there's a new player in town. One who's been around for thousands of years - and rode to war at the side of Kate's father.

>This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Beast Lord, to handle. Because this time Kate will be taking on family...

Hot damn! I loved this book! I just finished it so I'm still in that post-awesome book shock mode and all so please forgive all the exclamation points, okay? Bleeds is the best of the four Kate Daniels novels, I do believe, and that's certainly high praise since all four are astoundingly good. Great plot with an even better payoff at the end, Magic Bleeds is urban fantasy at its best.

To finish...The best line in the book comes a little early, page 114:

"Who's diving for clams now, bitch?"

So good.

Review: Something About You by Julie James

FATE HAS THROWN TWO SWORN ENEMIES. . .

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

. . .INTO EACH OTHER’S ARMS

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

Julie James has once again created a story that is fresh, witty, and totally believable. It’s not often I sit down and read a book in one sitting but I absolutely could not put this book down. Cameron is my type of heroine. She’s smart, sassy, knows when to speak her mind but also knows when to back down. Jack is equally wonderful. How can you not love a tall, dark and glowering hunk of an FBI Agent who loves to read? The verbal sparring had me smiling throughout the story and the sexual tension between them was down right hot! This was Ms. James’ first attempt at a romantic suspense and I thought she did a fantastic job.

Oh and Ms. James, if you happen to read this, I would love to see Agent Wilkins (Jack’s side kick) have his own story someday. I give it an A-.

Review: Waking Nightmare by Kylie Brant

FIRST HE LEARNS YOUR DARKEST FEARS...THEN HE MAKES YOU LIVE THEM.

With a serial rapist loose on the streets of Savannah, hotshot detective Ryne Robel needs all the help he can get for his task force. And he needs it now, before another woman falls victim. But Abbie Phillips isn't what he bargained for. Sent from an exclusive group of the best criminologists in the country, she's smart, fierce...and distracting. She may be a brilliant forensic profiler, but Ryne needs answers, not psychobabble and head games.

However, Abbie convinces him that head games are exactly what this elusive suspect is all about. The seemingly random acts of torture are actually calculated to match each victim's darkest fears. And the stakes are rising. While they study the devious psychopath, he's watching them - the next objects of his horrifying obsession.

Well, hello Kylie Brant! I think we'll be having a long and entertaining relationship :) In case you missed it, Jane recently reviewed the third book in The Mindhunters series, Waking the Dead, and very much enjoyed it. That gave me the incentive to go ahead and try out the first book, Waking Nightmare, and I have to say that I agree with Jane about pretty much everything. Ryne and Abbie were interesting to watch as they worked together on the case but fought their chemistry. The setting was descriptive and realistic and made me decide that I could never ever live in Georgia since I hate to sweat. I didn't pick the right person to be the villain this time so congrats to Ms. Brant for tricking me. What I found most surprising about this book was that while it was a bit formulaic - the sequence of events in this book is quite similar to Waking the Dead - the bad guy wasn't a murderer but a demented rapist who made sure his victims survived their attack. That was something I wasn't sure I had seen before. I was extremely disappointed to discover this morning that my local B&N didn't have a copy of book two, Waking Evil. I hate when that happens.

Look at What Followed Me Home Today From the Library

Continuing the YA parade that's been through here lately we have:

From World Fantasy Award winner Jane Yolen and Mythopoeic Award winner Midori Snyder comes a tale of two worlds, two exiles, two lost souls - and the one destiny that binds them all.

Sisters Serana and Meteora are proud members of the high court of the Fairy Queen - until they discover a secret Her Highness would like to keep hidden. Cast out from court and stripped of their powers, they are banished to the coarse and brutish mortal realm of Earth.

Meteora bonds with the troubled young girl who lives in the apartment below her. But when she sees the ornate tattoo on the girl's neck, Meteora recognizes as a magic symbol that will surely draw evil to them. Serana, meanwhile, takes in a homeless boy whose mind is plagued by dark visions and nightmarish creatures - creatures that Serana recognizes as being from the world of her birth. The sisters know that these signs point to a force whose power is rising - one that threatens both the fairy and human worlds.

Vladimir Tod: Normal Eighth Grade Student? Or Powerful Vampire?

Junior high really sucks for thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a secret: his mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers and no one to teach him, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs. When a strange substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he realizes he has a much bigger problem: he's being hunted by a vampire killer who is closing in...fast!

The first book in this ghoulishly funny series by first-time author Heather Brewer leads readers on a nail-biting adventure that is filled with dark characters and mystical glyphs, secret identities and hidden agendas, unearthly powers and teenage angst.

It starts with a phone call.
"I'm dying," a voice tells Dusty.

Who is he and how did he get her phone number? Dusty wants no part of this strange boy...until he begins saying things that only someone who knows her intimately could say. And saying things that lead her to think he knows the whereabouts of her brother, who disappeared over two years ago. Suddenly drawn in, Dusty very much wants to save this boy. Trouble is, she cannot find him - he won't let himself be found. He is too dangerous, he says. There are mobs of people who agree and who want to see this boy disappear...and who will hurt anyone who stands in their way. 

From Carnegie Medal-winning author Tim Bowler comes a gripping, hair-raising mystery about a boy not of this world, and girl determined to protect him. 

I also got these two:

I sure hope that Preston & Child don't kill off any other entertaining characters from the Pendergast series. I would find that to be most aggravating and I'm still not over what they did to Bill Smithback. The Christopher Moore looks amusing but I'm worried I won't be able to get through it. Ta!

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

MEGHAN CHASE HAS A SECRET DESTINY - ONE SHE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Bravo to Harlequin Teen for publishing this surprising book. Bravo to them again on the beautiful cover - can you believe how gorgeous this book's cover is? I bought this book back in February when I went to B&N to get the new Deanna Raybourn just because I loved the cover so much. I finally got around to reading it the other day and noticed that it seems as if everyone is also reading (and reviewing) this book lately. 

I recently saw a review for it on Writings Of A Wicked Book Addict (obviously a kindred spirit - click HERE to read her review) and would like to reiterate one of her points: this book would be a wonderful companion for students to read along with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Really, teachers should add it to their booklists as it compliments Dream with a contemporary YA vibe that would appeal to teenagers. I'm certainly no teenager, thank God, and even though Shakespeare makes me cross-eyed I certainly enjoyed The Iron King. It's a modern fairy tale, less urban than Holly Black's fab Faerie trilogy and a little more wholesome but no less compelling. I would like to note that as a fan of Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series, I was delighted to see a less adult version of Robin Goodfellow in this book. Puck goes from being a pervy used car salesman in Nightlife to a smitten high school student/royal bodyguard in The Iron King while not losing the best parts of his personality. Awesome.

It was pretty obvious yet sneaky the way Julie Kagawa manages to fit in a cautionary tale about technology and where it's going in both our world and in Faerie. In the Iron King's lands, acid rain actually will burn holes in you and rats become your best buds. Tech becomes something like what you'd see in The Terminator or The Matrix or (God help me) in Transformers, where ordinary conveniences have been turned into an absolute nightmare. Halting the progress of the Iron King's damage to Faerie has become priority number one to Meghan Chase and her friends and which I assume will continue in The Iron Daughter, Kagawa's second book, out on August 1st.

Review Roundup

While I take a break from laughing at Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready, I thought I'd go ahead and jot down a few things about some of the books I've read lately but haven't reviewed. I'm trying to be a good girl these days. *snort*

Archangel by Sharon Shinn was a provoking read. Definitely a different take on gods and angels and their interactions with humans. It also had one of the most stubborn women I've ever encountered in a book. Not that she didn't have some reasons to be but I thought to myself as I read Archangel that she could give a mule or jackass a run for their money! I do love those novels where the story comes full circle and so I loved the ending. I liked this book, as you can see since I have it an A-, but I'm not sure if I'll read the other two in the trilogy. Reading a blurb inside the front cover that I managed to avoid before I read Archangel, I got the idea that I'll probably not like what happens. As with Outlander, I'm thinking that continuing on with the series will make me like the first book less than I do now. We'll see.

The Poison Eaters by Holly Black is a collection of short stories. Some of them are a decent length seeing how there are twelve stories in a book that is 212 pages long. My main interest lied with anything related to her Modern Faery Tale books and I was curious if she would revisit Kaye and company. She does in "The Land of Heart's Desire," where we get to see the coffee shop that Kaye talks about opening in the end of Ironside. It focuses on Corny and Roiben surprisingly enough, and is good for a snicker or two. I also read "Going Ironside," a four-page ramble of the inner monologue of a faery who is jonesing for her next hit of what sounded like heroin. Cautionary tale perhaps? It didn't make much sense, that much I know for sure. The first story in the book, "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown," is about vampires and is rather sad. Once I read it (I started with it as it starts the book), I decided to skip through to the faery parts. 

Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich was surprising to me because it was a little more serious than her romances tend to be. A single mother's car breaks down one morning while on her way to work and the unsurprisngly handsome man that stops to help her insinuates himself into her life and her heart. However, he is not what he seems and has a lot to answer for. Can she forgive him and hopefully not break any more of his bones? It has the patented Janet Evanovich humor but wasn't as light as her other reprinted romances and not as entertaining either.

Lady of Light and Shadow by C. L. Wilson is the second chapter of her five-part series about the Tairen Soul. Faeries seem to be my thing these days and so I very much enjoyed this one. It takes a while for it to wind up and therefore drags a little for the first half of the book but it's a good continuation with a satisfying ending and so I can forgive the dragging. It ties up a few things and sets up the third chapter. Rain and Ellie finally marry and head back to Faerie for King of Sword and Sky. The last book, Crown of Crystal Flame, comes out October 26.

That's it people! I am now caught up. I will be doing the review for The Iron King by Julie Kagawa in the next few days and am now going to return to Tumbling Through Time. Thanks for reading!

Review: Waking the Dead by Kylie Brant

A KILLER IN THE WILDERNESS

Forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming knows bones. So she is the first one called when seven sets of skeletal remains are found dumped in a makeshift graveyard in the Oregon wilderness. The skeletons bear the same distinctive marks -- and each is missing a skull...

Cait needs outdoor guide Zach Sharper for one reason only -- to help her find her way through the Willamette Forest as she pieces together clues. Despite the attraction that burns between them, Cait will let nothing shake her focus. Until the killer closes in to terminate the search -- and the investigators on the verge of unmasking him...

Oh how I love a good romantic suspense thriller, one that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Waking the Dead did just that. This is an incredibly fast-paced, well-researched story that has plenty of twists and turns. I’ll even admit that I had no clue who the serial killer was until I was almost to the end of the story. Caitlin and Zach are both strong lead characters. In the beginning Zach was a bit prickly towards Cait and she was aloof but that seemed reasonable to me since they both had past issues. They certainly had great chemistry and I like that they tried to ignore it, putting work first. The author did a wonderful job depicting the Oregon wilderness, the town and it’s people, and especially the hot springs. I could have sworn that at times I smelled sulfur in the air! This was a quick, enjoyable read.

Waking the Dead is the 3rd book in the Mindhunters series. I still need to get my hands on the first two books, Waking Nightmare and Waking Evil. Kylie Brant’s website says the Mindhunters series will continue with another trilogy being released soon. Look for Deadly Intent due out Nov 2nd, Deadly Dreams in May 2011, and Deadly Sins in Aug. 2011.

I give it a B+.

Review: Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

When magic strikes and Atlanta goes to pieces, it's a job for Kate Daniels...

Drafted to work for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems these days than she knows what to do with. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that's saying a lot.

But when Kate's werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet. As her investigation leads here to the Midnight Games - an invitation-only, no-holds-barred, ultimate preternatural fighting tournament - she and Curran, the Beast Lord, uncover a dark plot that may forever alter the face of Atlanta's shapeshifting community...

The last time I read an Ilona Andrews book, it was before I started this blog in August of 2008. I had to look it up it had been so long ago. Now I know why I couldn't remember some things. I did, however, read the anthology Must Love Hellhounds in February that had a Kate Daniels-verse story featuring Raphael and Andrea. Here's what I thought:

"Magic Mourns" by Ilona Andrews pairs up Kate's hyena shifter friend Raphael and Andrea, Kate's replacement at work and hyena beastkin, a hyena-human hybrid that is not welcome in most shifter societies. Raphael and Andrea have a connection and while Raphael has been pursuing her without success, Andrea wants him. BAD. This was a great part of this anthology; it had the feel of its series, an interesting storyline, an even more interesting romance, and a giant hellhound. All-in-all, awesome. A

With Magic Bleeds looming on the book horizon for release on May 25, I figured I would catch up on Kate and Curran. I loved it, of course. I should really go back and reread Magic Burns and Magic Bites though. I couldn't remember Roland being that much in the forefront of Kate's mind. In Magic Strikes, she almost obsessive about him and I didn't know why. Ilona and Andrews have set up this whole Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker thing with Kate and it will make for good stuff in Magic Bleeds.

As for Kate and Curran, I'm not sure what to say about them. On one hand, I want to tell Kate to s**t or get off the pot already! She wants him, worries about him, trusts him. He's strong enough to handle what she is and can do and vice versa. On the other hand, if I was her, I might run. She would be the mate of the BEAST LORD. Talk about a headache, having to be the female alpha. As you can see, I'm undecided - but I'm leaning toward to the first scenario :) That's been the whole point of these books, right? Kate and Curran have been doing this little dance of theirs for three books and with all the bad stuff coming up in Magic Bleeds, they'll both need each other. It's going to be time for them to put up or shut up. I'm definitely not going to wait before I read it either.

Review: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire

October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of blood.

Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, most changelings are second-class children of Faerie spending their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills.

Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning - otherwise known as Fremont, CA - to make sure that all is well with his niece, Countess January O'Leary, whom he has not been able to contact. It seems like a simple enough assignment - but when dealing with the realm of Faerie nothing is ever as simple as it seems. January runs a company that produces computer fantasy games, and her domain is a buffer between Sylvester's realm and a rival duchy whose ruler is looking for an opportunity to seize control. And that is the least of January's problems. For Tamed Lightning has somehow been cut off from the other domains, and now someone has begun to murder January's key people. If Toby can't find and stop the killer soon, she may well become the next victim...

Seanan McGuire launched herself into the spotlight last year with her book Rosemary and Rue. What a wonderful book that was -  I even picked it for my best book of September 2009. I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to repeat the magic for A Local Habitation; Rosemary and Rue was so original and astonishing that surely she would have used up all her brainpower on the first try. Shows how much I know - A Local Habitation may be even better than Rosemary and Rue. Yes, it's that good.

You've got to love Toby. She's still trying to figure herself out and is working to be a human again: she's got her PI credentials back, she's socializing and is going out with friends on Girls Night Out. No particular prospects are looking up in her love life as long as she pretends there's nothing between her and Tybalt. Ah, Tybalt. Look at who Heather from Darkly Reading picked as her Tybalt. I think I said Holy Cow! when I saw those pics :) Hollered it, more like. You'd think that the Cat King wouldn't be so appealing but the way McGuire writes him is pitch perfect. It looks as if he'll be in An Artificial Night quite a bit, out in September. Goody.

I loved pretty much everything about this book. It had another freaky mystery for Toby to solve. We get to see even more Fae (I wish I could get Elliot to make a bi-weekly visit to my house). We get more of Toby's wonderful sense of humor, especially when she interacts with Quentin, her knight-in-training assistant Boy Wonder. I was surprised and yet not that there's little to no mention of her estranged family, her child and spouse/boyfriend. I guess it's a little too soon for that. Maybe in book three? C'mon September! And October :)

Review: Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

A Fae War has left the supernatural community of Bon Temps, Louisiana, in chaos - and waitress Sookie Stackhouse mentally and physically drained. And still, the peace and quiet she so desperately craves is hard to come by...

Even with the blood of two vampires in her system, Sookie is having trouble healing from the terrible torture she endured at the hands of her great-grandfather's enemies during the brief but deadly Fae War. Worse are the emotional wounds - especially over the loss of her own personal fairy godmother and the near death of her first love.

Sookie is hurt and she's mad. Just about the only bright spot in her life - besides the fact that she is, after all, still alive - is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman, who is under scrutiny by the new vampire king because of their relationship.

As the political implications of the shifters' coming-out are beginning to be felt, Sookie's connection to one particular Were draws her into the dangerous debate. And, unknown to her, though the doors to Faery have been closed, there are still some fae on the human side - and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry.

First, I would like to say that I didn't mean to read this book today. I wrote last night that I couldn't dump Magic Strikes for a Holly Black book and what do I do the first chance I get: read Dead in the Family as soon as I got it in my hands. I apologize to Ms. Black and to Ilona Andrews. I didn't mean to do it. The devil made me do it. No, the devil didn't really make me do it and I will be returning to Magic Strikes ASAP. OK.

I picked up DitF to read the inside flap of the dust jacket and before I knew it, I was on page ten. Then I figured, What the hell, and read the rest of it after dinner :) DitF is the tenth volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series and boy has her life become complicated since Dead Until Dark. I was surprised at how much Charlaine Harris crammed in this book and I had to really think about it because once I finished it, I had a thought that not much happened in this one. Certainly not like Dead and Gone. I was wrong and lots of things happen.

In much of DitF, Sookie goes Dark. Dark Sookie. That was a little disconcerting even though I liked Dark Sookie because I have always appreciated Sookie's character and how moral she is, or at least how she always tries to follow her moral compass to stay as close to the straight and narrow as possible. That's not to say she's a goody-goody but more like that she's just a good person that tries to do the right things for the right reasons. I love how she uses her grandma as her yardstick (the marks on that are getting blurry though). Here, she's finding that the effects of what happened in Dead and Gone are not just physical, like the flap says and I have a feeling that Sookie is heading for some kind of serious sea change, a radical shift in her associations. There's only so much that one person can take before they snap. I just keep wondering when she'll dump Eric for Sam. I keep hoping for that in each new book. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. Uh, nope. Harris certainly loves to keep Sookie's options open and there are appearances by Eric (duh), Bill, Sam, and even Alcide. Maybe she should just set everyone up like on Love Connection and pick one that way. 

I liked Dead in the Family but I love everything Charlaine Harris writes. I also love her blog. Check it out HERE. She's been busy lately and hasn't written for several weeks but usually has insightful remarks to make about whatever she's reading. Only another year to go before the next new Sookie book...

New to Me author: Holly Black

Most people have heard of The Spiderwick Chronicles I'm sure since they're making it into a movie but I wasn't familiar with Holly Black's work at all until I picked up Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale from the library a few weeks ago. I have since devoured Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, and Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale and today, after visiting the library again, I brought home with me White Cat and The Poison Eaters, both brand spankin' new books from Ms. Black. I am very excited to have them in my grubby little hands. I would drop the book I'm currently reading to start these babies but I can't do that to Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. That would just be so wrong.

Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms — a struggle that could very well mean her death.

When seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.
But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. Impulsive Lolli talks of monsters in the subway tunnels they call home and shoots up a shimmery amber-colored powder that makes the shadows around her dance. Severe Luis claims he can make deals with creatures that no one else can see. And then there's Luis's brother, timid and sensitive Dave, who makes the mistake of letting Val tag along as he makes a delivery to a woman who turns out to have goat hooves instead of feet.
When a bewildered Val allows Lolli to talk her into tracking down the hidden lair of the creature for whom Luis and Dave have been dealing, Val finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus. He is as hideous as he is honorable. And as Val grows to know him, she finds herself torn between her affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.
Bestselling author Holly Black follows her breakout debut, Tithe, with a rich, harrowing, and compulsively readable parable of betrayal, abuse, friendship, and love.

in the realm of faerie...
...the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing—her love for Roiben. But when Kaye drunkenly declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest to find a faerie who can tell a lie.
Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth—that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But when Kaye returns to the faerie courts, a battle of wits and weapons is being waged over Roiben's throne, and she soon finds herself at the center of it all.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers—people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn’t got magic, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail—he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
           
Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts to crumble when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.

From the dust jacket:

In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to her Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Ironside, and Valiant) in two darkly exquisite new tales, "Going Ironside" and "The Land of Heart's Desire." In the first story, "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown," a girl is drunk on the street - but for a reason you'd never guess. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market, introduces a girl poisonous to the touch, and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match.

These twelve stories, two of which are published here for the first time and each of which is illustrated by Theo Black, have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and have been reprinted in many "Best of" anthologies. 

The Poison Eaters is Holly Black's much-anticipated first collection of stories, and her ability to stare into the void - and to find humanity and humor there - will speak to young adult and adult readers alike.

See? Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside were all good enough for me to stay up and finish them before I would put them down. Granted, these YA novels only take me a few hours apiece to read but I liked all three nonetheless. All three books about not-so-nice faeries, I enjoyed Tithe and Ironside the best as they both focused on the same set of characters. Fans of the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr would probably enjoy this interpretation of modern faeries. The heroine, Kaye, proves that green chicks are cool. Just ask Captain Kirk :)

Review: The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce

The Darkangel

The servant girl Aeriel must choose between destroying her vampire master for his evil deeds or saving him for the sake of his beauty and the spark of goodness she has seen in him.

A Gathering of Gargoyles

Painfully aware that her husband Irrylath is still not free of the White Witch's spell, Aeriel sets out on a dangerous quest to gather the winged steeds that Irrylath and his brothers need to do battle against the powerful witch.

The Pearl of the Soul of the World

With the aid of a shimmering pearl, Aeriel battles the White Witch to free her husband Irrylath and discovers her own true destiny.

These books really surprised me. I borrowed them from the library without much prior knowledge of what they were about but since I've been on a YA kick lately, I thought I would give another YA series about a vampire a try. Imagine my puzzlement when I started The Darkangel and was introduced to Aerial, a slave girl who gets kidnapped by a "vampyre". "Vampyres" in this series appear as a cross between vampire and angel, black and sinister and horrible. Aerial's vampyre isn't quite there yet as he hasn't yet fulfilled the requirements needed to gain complete vampyre existence and she starts falling for him just a little bit at first sight. Aerial's quest begins several months after she's kidnapped and sets out on a journey across her world, meeting fantastical creatures much like those in the Narnia books. 

Aerial's quest continues throughout the first two books and into the third where she finds out her destiny. Here's where the books lost me somewhat though: Aerial fights and fights to save her husband, Irrylath, and the rest of the world and then yank! There goes the rug, right out from under me. These books combined are a true fairy tale in that the reader may not get their expected happy ending and I do love a good happily ever after ending. That aside, the Darkangel trilogy was exquisitely written, never losing the fairy tale feeling that is so enjoyable. They also hold up well having been published in the late '80s and I love the covers that are on the reissued copies. I hope soon to have time to continue with Meredith Ann Pierce's Firebringer trilogy since I very much enjoyed this one.

Review: Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a pulse-pounding thriller that goes behind the doors of an exclusive academy with a terrifying secret...

Ever since her father was stabbed to death in a home invasion, Julia "Jules" Farentino has been plagued by nightmares. Her half-sister, Shaylee, now seventeen, has had her own difficulties since the tragedy, earning a rap sheet for drug use, theft, and vandalism. Still, when Jules learns of her mother's decision to send Shay to an elite boarding school in Oregon, she's skeptical. The Academy has a reputation for turning wayward kids around -- but one of its students went missing six months ago and her body has never been found. There are rumors she may have died during one of the school's questionable treatments. Once enrolled, Shay grows fearful, convinced her every move is being watched. And the deeper Jules digs, the more concerned she becomes.

On impulse, Jules applies for a teaching job at the Academy. Though the facility boasts state-of-the-art equipment and a breathtaking campus, Jules senses cracks in the director's do-good demeanor. Shortly before Jules arrived, a student was found hanged, and a hysterical Shay believes it was murder. Staff members are wary and unwelcoming -- all except Cooper Trent, another recent hire who has his own suspicions, and his own secrets.

Then another girl goes missing, and yet another is found dead. There's no doubt something sinister is at hand -- but Jules may be too late to stop it. Behind the Academy's idyllic veneer lurks an evil force on a brutal and terrifying mission. And Jules has become the next target of a bloodthirsty killer without limits, without remorse, without mercy...

Lisa Jackson has written some very good romantic suspense in the past. She's pretty formulaic; in many of her books, there is a hot guy from the western US, most likely the Pacific Northwest, and a woman with whom he has some history. She may be a member of a prominent family who thinks that she's slumming when it comes to him. Somebody will be angry, murderously so, said woman will be thrust into her former lover's arms, and naughty parts ensue. The hot guy will save the day and everybody, save the murderer, will live happily ever after. I've enjoyed many of these reads so if I spy with my little eye a new Lisa Jackson laying around at the local library, I'm gonna pick it up. I was looking forward to one of those good romantic suspense novels but unfortunately, Without Mercy is not one of them.

I thought that this book was boring. The only reason that I finished the book was to find out the identity of the killer. (Yes, I could have peeked but it's against my programming. As is dog-earing pages.) I do okay with predicting the killer in this genre but Jackson always tricks me and yet again, I was surprised, but not in a good way. Everybody who reads murder mysteries knows there’s no such thing as an unneeded character; each character has a purpose, even if it’s just to be part of the background and more often than not, it’s someone the author introduces and then excludes from the majority of the plot. This time when I got to the less than fantastic reveal, I thought Really? That guy? He wasn't even on my radar and it did not make sense to me why she chose them. I did like the extra twist though. THAT was interesting. Much like the end of a horror movie when you think the baddie is dead, something even worse pops up. Jackson left it open too – I wonder if she’s planning to revisit this set of characters. Ugh. I'm not sure if I'm going to want to read more about these bugass crazy people.

Formulaic romances aside, I find that Lisa Jackson’s writing style is usually agreeable. She’s not afraid to pull out the bad words when needed but she’s not profane and she may not use language that regular people would generally use but this time I thought she was being overly fancy in her prose. From page 360:

“Was it possible? Had he been covering for them? Or had they given him the slip earlier to do their horrific deed?”

Horrific deed? Who talks or thinks that way that isn’t in a Jane Austen novel?

I also was disappointed in the romance between our fearless heroine, Jules, and her ex-boyfriend who is also the hero, Connor Trent. It was as shallow, flat, and boring as the plot. It didn’t help that I found Jules to be irritating on her own. She's a shrink's dream come true and Connor should have ran the other way as soon as he could after seeing her for the first time since she dumped him five years before.

So, to sum up, Without Mercy is a somewhat interesting yet lackluster murder mystery with some romance, suspense, and an irritating heroine. It did, however, have an interesting twist at the end which was good. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than the most devout Lisa Jackson lovers. 

Review: Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS COMPLICATED

Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch—in court ordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject. As the book opens, Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a “friend” looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. She assures herself that the case—a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed—will be short and sweet, and will involve nothing more than the most boring of PI rituals: surveillance. But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence.

Meanwhile, Spellmania continues. Izzy’s brother, David, the family’s most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkempt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy. And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication. The only unsurprising behavior comes from her parents, whose visits to Milo’s bar amount to thinly veiled surveillance and artful attempts (read: blackmail) at getting Izzy to return to the Spellman Inc. fold.

As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy’s personal life—and mental health— seem to be disintegrating. Facing a housing crisis, she can’t sleep, she can’t remember where she parked her car, and, despite her shrinks’ persistence, she can’t seem to break through in her appointments. She certainly can’t explain why she forgets dates with her lawyer’s grandson, or fails to interpret the come-ons issued in an Irish brogue by Milo’s new bartender. Nor can she explain exactly how she feels about Detective Henry Stone and his plans to move in with his new Assistant DA girlfriend . . .

Filled with the signature side-splitting Spellmanantics, Revenge of the Spellmans is an ingenious, hilarious, and disarmingly tender installment in the Spellman series.

Revenge of the Spellmans is the 3rd book in the Izzy Spellman mystery series. This story has everything; zany characters, humor, suspense, and even some heartfelt moments. Izzy, who has worked for her parent’s PI firm since the age of 12, decides to take some time off from the family business to decide what she wants to do with her life. She moves into her brother’s guest apartment without his knowledge. So worried that her brother will find out, she ends up with a bad case of insomnia. Her car is never where she last parked it but that’s ok because she found out that she could get a good nap in while riding the bus. And that’s just the beginning of Izzy’s wild and crazy escapades. The only issue I had with this story was with Izzy’s younger sister Rae. At 14, her recalcitrant behavior was cute, at 16, not so much. But even with that minor irritation I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the 4th installment in this series, The Spellmans Strike Again.

If you enjoyed Stephanie Plum’s antics you might just want to give this series a try. A word of warning though, be prepared to giggle and snort. In fact, you might not want to read this in public for fear of people looking at you strangely when you fall on the floor laughing. Just thought I’d warn you. I do recommend reading The Spellman Files and Curse of the Spellmans prior to this one so that you can enjoy the wonderful character development.

I give it a B+.

Review: Shelter Me by Juliette Fay

Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.

As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, over-manicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.

As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

I have to admit that I bought this book because of the cover. I love this cover! Every time I saw it at our local Target store I would look at it longingly. I finally decided to buy it and I am so glad that I did.

This is a heart warming story about Janie’s journey during her first year of widowhood. Her husband died in an accident and she finds herself struggling to get through each day. In steps her family and friends, all wonderfully quirky characters, to help her out. Janie’s wit, sarcasm, and honesty had me laughing out loud so many times. I felt her grief and anger and yes, even shed a few tears for (with?) her. This story made me stop and think about how life can change in an instant and how help often comes from unexpected places. Haven’t we all wondered what we would do if we lost someone near and dear to us? Juliette Fay has filled this story with so much love, humor and compassion. There is even a love story with a happy ending for those romance lovers out there.

This is truly a wonderful first novel by this author. I give it an A.