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.