Book 69: Darkside Blues

Darkside Blues by Anna Carven is a novella centered on the First Division's female medic, Zyara.  While spending a night in the town with some of the human mates, Zyara sees a girl injured in a fight between rival gangs and jumps in to save her.  She meets Kai, a gangster who control the North side of lawless Darkside; and as thanks for helping the girl he offers her anything she needs, anytime she needs it.  Zyara doesn't expect to require his help; but when two of the children rescued from the lab are in desperate need of a rare medication, Zyara decides to try asking Kai for help.

An excellent albeit short addition to the Dark Warriors series.  4 stars.

Book 68: Strange the Dreamer

Lazlo Strange grew up in as a foundling in a monastery.  His life changed course the first time when he was sent to make a delivery to a library where he stayed to work.  The second change came with the appearance of warriors from a city named Weep.  Lazlo had spent years reading everything in the library related to Weep and even figured out the language on his own.  He manages to get a job as secretary and story teller with the expedition and finally makes the journey to the city he has dreamed of his entire life.

The citizens of Weep had been terrorized by blue beings with magic for over 200 years before they finally managed to slaughter the gods and their children.  The structure in which they lived still hovers over the city blocking our the sunlight, and so the finest minds from all over have been brought together to find a way to get rid of it.  What no one realized is that five children survived and have been hiding all these years.

While the descriptions and characters in Taylor's Strange the Dreamer are excellent and the concept has great potential, I didn't find the plot well executed.  The piece of prologue at the beginning of the story allowed me to guess the ending by the middle of the book making it hard for me to convince myself that I needed to finish reading.  If I hadn't been participating in a read along, I would probably have abandoned the book.  My other problem is the cliffhanger ending.  It was unnecessary and annoying. 3 stars.

Book 67: Switching Hour

Switching Hour by Robyn Peterman is the first book in the Magic and Mayhem series.  Zelda has served nine months in magical jail for running over her cat three times.  Now on probation, she has to use her magic unselfishly to complete a mission by Halloween or risk being turned into a mortal.  Her orders say to go to her now deceased aunt's house in West Virginia, and she'll know what to do.

I downloaded this for free from Amazon.  The premise sounded interesting, but the development of the plot was average.  Zelda was obnoxious and self-centered with an extremely foul mouth to an extent that it detracted from the story.  2 stars.

Book 66: The Complete Guide to Fasting

Jason Fung's The Complete Guide to Fasting picks up where his first book, The Obesity Code, left off with more of a focus on how to fast and types of fasts.  Necessarily there is some repetition of information relating to what fasting is and the benefits of fasting, but the information is well written and makes an excellent quick refresher of the basics.  The how to information was clear and well presented.  I especially liked the time he took to explain simple adjustments that different types of his patients have used to make the different fasting techniques work for them.  The final section includes a small smattering of recipes, a few of which I copied down to try.  4 stars.

Book 65: Green Rider

Green Rider by Kristin Britain is the start of the adventures of Karigan G'ladheon, who finds herself walking alone along the road home after being suspended for standing up against the bullying of a governor's son at school.  She stumbles across a dying green rider whose convinces her to deliver his message to the king.  Little does she realize the danger into which her agreement thrusts her.  Forces allies with the king's exiled brother seek to destroy the message.  A hole in the wall protecting the kingdom from the dark forest has allowed evil creatures long forgotten to prowl the woods along her path.  A mysterious grey rider called the shadow man with magic far beyond her imaginings stalks her as well with plans of his own.  Thrown into events far beyond her understanding, she must survive with her wits and help from the ghost of the dead rider determined to see her finish his mission and the friends she finds along the way.

Green Rider is a brilliantly written book with an intriguing plot, vivid descriptions, and countless well crafted characters.  I will definitely continue with this series.  5 stars.

Book 64: Norse Mythology

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is a retelling of fourteen adventures (or misadventures) of the Norse gods.  The tales are told with the author speaking directly to the reader, so it may be that the audio version would be a better choice for this format reminiscent of the oral storytelling tradition.  While each story is can be read separately as a short story, the tales are also arranged chronologically so that they tell the entire story arc of the gods from creation to the final battle of Ragnarok and the start of a new age.  4 stars.

Book 63: Two for the Dough

Stephanie Plum is at it again in Janet Evanovich's Two for the Dough.  This time the inexperienced bounty hunter is after Kenny Mancuso, arrested for shooting a friend in the knee with a stolen weapon from his former military post. Once again she teams up with Detective Joe Morelli, who is trying to locate the remainder of the missing weapons before they are used in any more murders.  When Stephanie starts looking into Spiro, a high school friend who now works in a funeral home, who better to take along than the foremost expert in funeral homes (at least that Stephanie know), her grandmother.

The story was decent.  Stephanie's complete lack of skill is annoying, but Grandma Mazur steals the show with her over the top comments and numerous antics.  3 stars.

Book 62: Irresistible

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked by Alter attempts to explain behavioral addictions: what they are, how they form, and methods to deal with them.  I assumed based on the title that the focus of the book would be on technology related behavioral addictions.  Sadly most of his examples involved substance abuse or addictions like gambling with his technology related examples tending to be more anecdotal and quite repetitive.  (I lost track of how many time World of Warcraft was cited.)  While I understand how he was trying to use the first set of examples to explain behavioral addictions, I found the lack of directly related data frustrating although probably understandable since the problem is a relatively new phenomenon.  The book contained some good information, but it seemed to me to be lost amid a lot of extraneous information.  2 stars.

Book 61: The Dark Prophecy

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan is the second installment in the Trials of Apollo series.  Apollo travels to the Midwest with Leo and Calypso astride Festus the bronze dragon searching for the cityscape from his dreams, which turns out to be Indianapolis.  The city is under the control of the second crazy emperor of the triumvirate, aka Commodus son of Marcus Aurelius.  It is also nearby the dark and dangerous cave that houses the oracle Trophonius, one of Apollo's children who naturally hates him.  With a to do list that includes rescuing griffins, infiltrating the emperor's stronghold to free the captives and recover the throne of memory, and surviving a cave that will force him to swallow death and madness, Apollo reunites with Meg to continue his quest to restore prophecy, stop the triumvirate, and hopefully regain his place in Olympus.

Apollo still spends plenty of time thinking of himself and worrying about dying.  Actual I found the rambling a little more annoying than funny this time, but still the plot was face paced and entertaining enough to make up for a spoiled protagonist.  He does finally start to show some character growth towards the end of the novel so I give the book 4 stars.

Book 60: C Is for Corpse

In the third installment of the Kinsey Millhone series, C Is for Corpse, the private investigator is still doing rehab exercises from the bullet wound in book two when she meets Bobby Callahan at the gym doing his own rehab work after barely surviving being forced off the road nine months before.  With his memory in fragments, Bobby doesn't have a lot of information to get Kinsey started: a feeling that someone he knew had been trying to kill him, he had some information that out his life in danger, and the answer might be in a red address book but he couldn't remember to whom he had entrusted it.  A few days after hiring her, Bobby is dead in a car crash, but Kinsey is not about to give up until she finds the answers that he was searching for and the identity of the man who killed her.

Another quick, captivating read in the series that held my interest from start to finish.  4 stars.

Book 59: Hounded

Hounded by Kevin Hearne is the first entry in the Iron Druid Chronicls.  Atticus O'Sullivan is a 2100 year old druid living in a small town in Arizona with his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, and running a shop selling herbs, teas, and books on various pagan cultures.  Atticus' peaceful life quickly descends into chaos when the Morrigan arrives to warn him that the Celtic god, who has hounded him for centuries trying to retrieve a magical sword, has once again learned his location.  After centuries of running, Atticus decides that perhaps it is time to stand and fight, but the battle is far more complicated than he is expecting.  Instead of a simple motivation of revenge and greed, he finds himself a pawn in the middle of a war to usurp power among the fae where the lines between the sides are difficult to discern; but it is clear that Angus is pulling out all the stops with a surprising variety of supernatural assistance to insure his success.

Atticus is not a perfect character.  He has a weakness for beautiful women and a highly developed sense of self-preservation while at the same time being kind and thoughtful (especially to the widow), honorable in adhering to his own code, and stalwart in his determination to protect his friends.  The dog's comments are hilarious.  The references to Star Wars and Shakespeare are numerous, and the plot full of action and tension.  I will definitely be continuing with this series. 5 stars.

Book 58: The Man in the High Castle

Philip Dick's The Man in the High Castle is set in 1962 in an alternate Earth where the Allies lost World War II.  The United States has been divided between Germany and Japan.  Africa has been devastated by the Nazis, and Russia is apparently primitive and remote.  Most of the story occurs in Japanese controlled San Francisco.

While the world building was excellent, none of the characters captured my interest.  The various events seemed random and disconnected, and the plot seemed to amble with no apparent direction.  The alternate book being read by various characters which postulated how the world would be different if the war had been won by the Allies held potential, but it was never really developed.  The ending was simply strange and unsatisfying.  1 star.

Book 57: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun is the first in a series of cozy mysteries.  Jim Qwilleran is a middle aged reporter starting a new position at the Daily Fluxion as an art writer assigned to write stories about the local artists for the newspaper's feature section despite this complete lack of knowledge about art.  As he begins introducing himself around town, the one constant he finds is that everyone hates his newspaper's art critic George Bonifield Mountclemens III.  Then a local art dealer is murdered followed shortly by the homicide of the art critic.

The star character in the story is the spoiled Siamese cat owned by Mountclemens, Kai K'o-King or Koko for short.  Qwill meets Koko when he is invited to dinner, and they become better acquired when Qwill cat-sits for a few days.  What is most apparent is that Qwill needs to work on his cat communication skills because Koko is the one who knows what is going on and leads Qwill to the clues.

The mystery was ok, and the cat was magnificent.  4 stars.

Book 56: The Light Fantastic

Book two in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, The Light Fantastic, continues the story of Rincewind the wizard and his current employer Twoflower the tourist.  Luckily for Rincewind, the spell in his head doesn't want him to die and saves him from death by falling over the edge of the world.  Rincewind decides that he is ready to go home, and the two companions start off once again for the city of Ankh-Morpork.  Of course along the way, they continue to stumble from one near disaster to the next, and the red star drawing ever nearer in the sky does not bode well for the future.  Perhaps the time for Rincewind's great spell has almost come.

Another crazy and chaotic albeit funny ride of a story.  4 stars.

Book 55: Bloody Jack

L. A. Meyer's Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy is the beginning of a series of adventures of an orphaned street urchin, who is simply trying to survive.  When the head of her street gang dies, Mary takes his clothing, disguises herself as a boy, and gets accepted on a British ship setting sail to hunt pirates.

Much of the book does a decent job of chronicling the life of a ship's boy.  Frankly I found the main character annoying.  One minutes she was being practical and solving a problem, and the next she was either letting her imagination run away with her or have a near emotional breakdown.  I won't be continuing this series.  2 stars.

Book 54: B Is for Burglar

B Is for Burglar by Sue Grafton is the second installment in the Kinsey Millhone series.  Kinsey is hired by Beverly Danziger to find her sister Elaine Boldt in order to get a signature on some legal documents.  At her local apartment or seems Elaine left in a hurry early in January to stay at her place in Florida.  Her Florida home has a woman subletting who claims that Elaine was there for a couple of days then left for Saratoga, but the neighbors seem certain that she never arrived in Florida.  Slowly and methodically, Kinsey works to solve her case with her usual tenacity.

Another nice installment in the series.  4 stars.

Book 53: Odd and the Frost Giants

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman  tells the story of a young Viking with a crippled foot who decides to leave his step-father's house and travel to a hut that belonged to his deceased father.  A fox approaches him near the cabin and leads him to a bear whose paw is caught by a tree.  Later at the hut, he hears the two animals and the eagle who is with them talking.  That explain that they are the Norse gods Odin, Thor, and Loki; and A share has been taken over by a frost giant who tricked Loki into giving him Thor's hammer.  It's up to Odd to set things right.

I found this to be a delightful and highly entertaining story.  4 stars.

Book 52: The Housewife Assassin's Handbook

Josie Brown's The Housewife Assassin's Handbook is the story of an ordinary housewife who suddenly decides to turn CIA assassin after the murder of her CIA husband.  When the terrorist group responsible for his death starts planning an attack on her town, a new operative named Jack suddenly appears taking the identity of her husband and leading the team tasked with preventing the attack.

I found the premise to be intriguing, but for me the execution falls flat.  What kind of mom lies to her kids about their dad for six years and then agrees to pretend a total stranger is their long lost father knowing that in all likelihood he will walk back out of their lives after the job is finished?  How can she be super organized enough to plan flawless deaths and forget simple tasks like picking up cupcakes?  It just didn't work for me.  2 stars.

Book 51: Electric Heart

Electric Heart by Anna Carven is the seventh book in her Dark Planet Warriors series, but chronologically the events of books 4, 5, and 7 take place before Abbey and Tarek arrive on Earth at the end of book one.  Ariana has been helping Arin Varga find information on the corporation that owned the Fortuna Tau mine, in order to determine who sent the mercenaries to kill them.  Suddenly Ariana's life is in danger, so the Kordolian warrior Kail is dispatched both to protect her and to find and punish those responsible for the mining fiasco.  As they get closer to their quarry, they also get closer to one another.

Another good addition to the series.  4 stars.

Book 50: The Amulet of Samarkand

In Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand, Bartimaeus is a 14th level skinning with millennia of experience, who is shocked and angered to find himself summoned by a mere 12 year old magician apprentice name Nathaniel.  Nathaniel has hatched a partially conceived plan to get vengeance on a powerful magician named Simon Lovelace and orders Bartimaeus to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from his home.  Once the Amulet is acquired, Nathaniel sends the djinni to uncover the history of and information regarding the power of this amulet.  That's when the plan begins to unravel.  The amulet was stolen from a murdered government magician, and Simon is pulling out all the stops to get it back.  He tracks it to the home of Nathaniel's master, and Nathaniel only just survives because of the help of the djinni.  Despite the djinni's protest, Nathaniel is determined to stop whatever plan Simon has underway, and it will take all of Bartumaeus' magic and cunning to give them a chance to survive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  5 stars.

Book 49: Forged in Shadow

Forged in Shadow by Anna Carven is the fifth book in her mature paranormal series entitled Dark Warriors.  The story picks up with the Hendrix II in orbit around Earth with the survivors of Fortuna Tau essentially hostages as the Kordolians wait for permission to land on Earth to eradicate the Xargek.  Peacekeeper Arin Varga travels to Earth to try to convince the Federation that the Kordolian warriors are the only ones with the strength, speed, skill, experience, and capability to take down a mature Xargek.  As the politicians dither, she returns to space just as a Xargek invasion begins on the freighter.  Varga has nothing to worry about since Rykal, one of the Kordolian warriors, is determined to protect her and win her trust.  With help from her mother who is a Federation general, the humans are evacuated.  Rykal and Varga manage to reach an escape pod, but are picked up by a cloaked ship belonging to the Federation's nonhuman division.  To have a future together they must first survive.

An excellent continuation of the series.  4 stars.

Book 48: Out of Darkness

Book 4 in Anna Carven's Dark Warriors series, Out of Darkness, takes a step back in time and location to the mining colony of Fortuna Tau and the invasion of Xargek and Kordolian soldiers.  Jia Morgan is one of the mechanics tasked with repairing the Kordolian vessel.  She quickly catches the eye of Kalan, second in command of the Kordolian first division, when she fearlessly walks over and asks for a drill bit capable of piercing the callidum metal of the ship in order to attach the patches.  After the ship is repaired and the general leaves, the problems multiply as more adult Xargek are found and mercenaries sneak in to blow up the colony.  Luckily for Jia, Kalan has decided he will win her trust and protect her at all costs.

Another enjoyable addition to this mature paranormal series.  4 stars.

Book 47: Into the Light

Into the Light, book three in Anna Carven's Dark Planet Warriors sci-fi adult romance series, shifts focus back to General Akkadian and his now very pregnant wife Abbey. After several months going back and forth to space for various military tasks, Akkadian has finally turned over enough duties to spend the remaining months of pregnancy with his mate.  Abbey is tired of the diplomatic zone, so they fly to what was once Australia to visit her aunt.  Despite all of the general's precautions, an alien force attacks the Kordolians and their human allies abduct Abbey using the skirmish as a distraction.  They fail to understand that her mate will do whatever is necessary to protect her and their unborn child, and the entire first division of elite warriors is en route to rescue them.

Another entertaining read.  4 stars.

Book 46: Dark Planet Falling

In Dark Planet Falling, Prince Xalikian Kazharan has the unenviable task of convincing a planet full of humans that he and the Kordolians with him have no plans to invade Earth or harm the humans who live there.  Sera Aquinas is a skeptical reporter, who is reckless enough to knock on his door requesting an interview.  Suddenly an imperial Kordolian battleship appears in Earth's orbit.  Xalikian demands that Sera accompany him to the general's ship to observe and record the interactions between the two vessels.  To save Earth they hatch a risky plan to draw the enemy craft away and if they survive give them a chance to have a life together.

A nice follow-up to the first book in the series and a fun read.  I'm looking forward to returning to Tarek and Abbey in book 3.  4 stars.

Book 45: Dark Planet Warriors

Anne Carven's Dark Planet Warriors is the first in a series of mature paranormal romance books relating the first interactions between humans in a futuristic setting and an aggressive race of aliens known as the Kordolians.  The Kordolians are silver with eye colors ranging from yellow to red, pointed ears, fangs, superior speed and strength, and of course a severe lack of available females.

General Tarek and his squad of elite warriors arrive on the mining station of Fortuna Tau after accidentally passing through an unstable wormhole. His ship has been damaged in a battle against another race called the Xargek, and he demands the humans quickly repair his ship.  When the Kordolians realize that one of the Xargek came with them, everyone is ordered to their quarters.  Bioscientist Abbey Kendricks ignores the order and continues cleaning the oxygen filters that are essential to the functioning of the station.  When the Xargek finds her she is forced to jump for her life and is severely injured.  Tarek decides that fixing her is his responsibility since it is his fault the Xargek arrived and takes her back to the Kordolian home world for a nanograph to repair the shattered bones.  Slowly the general realizes that this human female may be the key to stopping his mating fever, and Abbey realizes that she needs his help to survive and return safely home.

I found this book on Amazon in the Prime Library and found it to be quite entertaining.  I am looking forward to reading other books in the series and have purchased the first three.  4 stars.